2014 Ongoing MOTY List: Thatcher/Busick in China!

38. Biff Busick vs. Timothy Thatcher WWN Live in China 11/16

PAS: This was the least of their matches against each other this year, although that is a pretty high bar. They were clearly working a little simpler and with more standup, I assume because they were working in a bigger arena in front of an audience unfamiliar with wrestling (for those that don't know, this was worked in Beijing in front of like 8,000 people). This actually felt like what a RAW match between the two guys would look like. Thatcher looked great, with some really nasty arm twisting, and Busick took a big beating, threw some bombs and took a cool looking over the top rope bump. The dive into the uppercut was brutal looking, and seemed to pop the crowd too. So crazy that EVOLVE pulled this tour off, a real a cool bit of history.

ER: I had never seen any footage from the WWN China tour, a genuinely impressive feat for them to pull off and probably a genuine high point for a lot of the wrestlers involved. I thought this was real great, managing to be a broad strokes version of their best material, but worked so stiff that it played all the way to the back row with its realism. Nobody on this card had ever worked a stadium show before, and these two got a large crowd of mostly non-wrestling fans to cheer for matwork and get loud for hard chops and uppercuts. It was great. I'm sure the dark seating and brightly lit ring made it easier on the fans' sightlines, but I would have loved to see shots of the crowd during the match. They clearly got into this and I wish I could have seen those reactions. The match starts with a lot of Thatcher wrecking Busick's arm, cranking different stages of an Americana for the first couple minutes. Busick sells it compellingly for the length of the match, switching up his striking to the other side without being showy about it. They get great reactions off of big loud chops and it really seemed like they fed off those reactions and just kept trying to make louder noise with their bodies. I loved when they had a back and forth battle over ugliest back elbow, the match crescendoing with Thatcher hitting a brick wall of a back elbow leaping into the corner. Busick tumbled off the top rope to the apron and into darkness after getting uppercutted off, and the big suplexes down the stretch played big. Thatcher's delayed gut wrench to set up the finish was so cool, and this all felt like a match that could easily play to any wrestling crowd in history.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: FUNK! BOCK! ALLMARK! GALLAGHER! TANK ABBOTT?!? BOB SAPP?!?

Terry Funk vs. Nick Bockwinkel AJPW 7/12/83

MD: As new footage goes, this isn't as major a discovery as it looks. We had this match pro-shot with commentary, but missing the first few minutes. This gives us a HH version from a different angle with much better crowd noise and a few of those first few minutes of actual action (including a much better listen to Bockwinkel's Bill Murray lounge style Star Wars theme), but then misses a few minutes of great matwork has other, smaller cuts on longer holds throughout.

I still pushed for it for NFF because it's a match I've always loved with two of my favorite wrestlers and because it's a great match to signify that my first post for Segunda Caida was 6 years ago this week. I was really looking for both an outlet then and for a way to keep myself honest and focused on lucha specifically, since I had struggled with working out the ins and outs of the DVDVR set. I couldn't have been happier how that worked out (even if yeah, we're mourning the loss of Cubs' channel this week). In the last few years, starting with the release of the Houston Footage, but then with the weekly WWE Hidden Gems, and Japanese handhelds, big German releases, and now the French Catch collection, it's been just great to scour the net and to unearth and bring this stuff to people's attention. I'm less focused on modern wrestling than Phil and Eric who manage to watch everything that comes their way, but between Tuesday and Friday, I am watching six+ matches a week and having a blast. So thanks to them for letting me be part of this place.

Enough of that; on to the match. I watched this side by side with the pro-shot footage and that's always interesting. This was part of Funk's first retirement run and part of the benefit of the HH is that you see a clear shot of both of them throughout the entire match. While close-ups are good, Funk and Bock stand out compared to almost every other wrestler ever in that you want to see them every moment of a match. They are always acting and reacting. I don't think there's anyone in wrestling history better at portraying his emotions during a moment of advantage than Bockwinkel. A lot of wrestlers barely even try. With Bock, it's the elation and struggle of every single hold. Likewise, no one sells like Funk, especially in this early 80s AJPW setting. That's how he got over there despite being an American in an environment where the foreigners were all heels. He had a willingness, an utter fearlessness, to be vulnerable but resilient. Name another wrestler of this era in this place that would, even in victory, limp his way to the back. Without the announcing, with nothing but raw crowd noise, you can hear the crowd chanting his name, hear them get behind his comebacks. You can feel the energy and the adulation. There are so few matches between these two on tape but in some ways they are the perfect counterparts for one another, two perfectly engaged wrestlers who are able to thereby engage with one another, able to create a sum that is greater than even their incalculably lofty parts.

PAS: 70s and 80s title match wrestling is a style I am pretty much over, it's the reason I have very little interest in revisiting Jumbo matches. These are two guys which can add enough interesting things to a match to get me into a style I am not excited to see. All of the matwork was solid stuff with Bock trying to hold the spastic Funk down, with Terry spinning out and taking different angles then you might expect. Though the knee work was solid stuff which Funk sold great, and the fight on the apron near the end was a real highlight. This was the equivalent of some cool character actor performances in an otherwise standard movie.

ER: Let me say that I could not be happier with what Matt has brought to Segunda Caida over the years, and I can't believe it's been 6 years. I love the match structure analysis that he brings and I'm pretty sure he points something out that I didn't notice in every single post he writes. He's awesome, and this match was awesome. I'm really glad he pushed for it as it's a match up between two legends that I don't think I've ever seen before. I don't think of these two as opponents and I certainly can't recall ever seeing them in a singles match. But I loved it, muga minimalism at its finest, with every headlock and knee attack executed with snug realism. Bockwinkel's knee attacks came off really cruel, and part of that was Funk's less-grandstanding-than-normal selling. Funk still managed to flop around the ring and ringside (throwing himself into the guardrail right in front of the announce table) and continued to prove that it is an impossible feat to throw one individual streamer out of a wrestling ring. I loved how aggressive Funk was with a single leg takedown, and the way Bock punished that knee, dropping his own knee on it hard and peaking at the finish where he was throwing brutal shots that looked like he was trying to dissect Funk's MCL with fists. They did a lot of really cool stuff in the ropes (Funk is always good at flopping around on ropes) and Bockwinkel takes a nice bump to the floor that I assume leads to the Count Out. Again, I'm pretty positive I've never seen these two cross paths, and I absolutely loved it.


Bob Sapp/Stone Mountain vs. Kevin Northcutt/Tank Abbott NWA Wildside 12/14/00

PAS: Man I have no idea how Cornelia feds were always able to find such huge dudes. Both Stone Mountain and Kevin Northcutt looked to be of comparable size to Bob Sapp and Tank actually looked small. This was a tag with two guys who were basically untrained, but Sapp and Tank both had an entertaining awkwardness, shots would either miss or land way too hard. I really liked Tank's body shots, he seemed to really lay those in and that must have really sucked. Northcutt had a nice crescent kick, although other stuff looked odd. Sapp has an undeniable ring presence, and in a different world would have been a huge wrestling star. I can imagine if WCW didn't go out of business Sapp vs. Goldberg would have been a supernova. Nifty look at an all time WAR level weirdo tag and good to see that Bill Beherns is uploading Wildside to youtube again.

MD: This was pretty fascinating, I suppose. You're here to see Abbot and Sapp in the same ring, and you do for a bit, and it's probably the best part of the match, and it's really just Abbot taking a powder on the outside and stalling. It's hard not to like that because the dissonance of toughman Tank Abbot playing Larry Z. Playing against expectations is good heel wrestling. He was playing Harley Race in a tag match in Japan here; whenever he got in, his side lost control. Sapp obviously wasn't there yet but you still couldn't look away from him. The guy was so big and so exuberant that his muscles were somehow able to get in the way of his own clotheslines. I don't know what to say about Northcutt. I liked his energy slamming guys into the corner. Less so his strikes once he got them there. He could do a slingshot flipping senton into the ring. You get the sense that he and Stone Mountain could have an ok singles match, but it's not exactly one I'd go out of my way for.

ER: Man, give me a pro wrestling match like this every week and I will be a happy man. Wildside was such a great indy, something that holds up as still ahead of its time today. But a match like this will draw my full attention no matter where or when it happened. When the amount of mass in a ring is SO RADICAL that TANK ABBOTT comparatively looks like a tiny little junior. Any fed that throws Green Giants in the ring with any number of shoot fighters is a fed that I will support and a match that I will desperately seek out. The best part of shoot fighters in a wrestling match is the shots that land way harder than they should, and Tank threw a couple shots to the back of Stone Mountain's head that didn't look purposely unprofessional, just accidentally unprofessional. And the Accidental Unprofessionalism is the kind of thing that makes a match like this brilliant. It's the same reason someone like Sean McCully is so endlessly watchable in early Zero-1. That combination of "yeah I'm an athlete but I've never done this before but sure I'll try it!" that always leads to someone taking a super dangerous bump to the floor or accidentally punching a guy in the throat.

Kevin Northcutt was a guy who showed up in dying days WCW syndication that I thought had a ton of potential, and even here he threw an awesome kneedrop to Stone Mountain's temple and some great shots to the body throughout. Stone Mountain was clearly the greenest guy in the match, but his leaping elbowdrop looked fantastic, and that's probably because he just leaped up and dropped his full weight behind an elbowdrop. And that's precisely the kind of thing I WANT to see from a match like this, precisely the kind of untrained wildness I want. And then we get it again when Bob Sapp drops his tremendously large dome down in a killer falling headbutt, and snaps off an effortless powerslam. If I had the choice of seeing a match like this or a previously unseen Flair/Steamboat match, I'm going to choose a match like this every single damn time.


87. Jack Gallagher vs. Dean Allmark NGW 9/14/14

PAS: Really nifty juniors match between two of the best 21st century British wrestlers. We start with some WOS matwork, and this is something that these two guys do much better then most of the British indy guys. It doesn't feel like a pair of a guys slowly going through dance choreography but incorporating that stuff in an actual wrestling match. My favorite spot of the whole match was probably Allmark's simple single leg takedown, which he landed with real velocity and force. The finish is a bit wonky with Gallagher arguing with the ref only to get smashed with a superkick. There was some big moves near the end of this match that would have been better finishes. Still this was good stuff.

MD: Fun thematic inversion of the Funk/Bock match as this one has had a handheld out there for a few years but now we get to have a pro shot version. This was a ten minute TV-style match as part of the Davey Boy Smith cup tournament. Very back and forth but everything was good. Gallagher isn't a big guy and doesn't have a huge palette to work with but he's great at changing up his look in interesting and iconic ways. They didn't have a lot of time to tell a story, especially considering how evenly this was worked, so it was down to the counters (and repetition, like how Gallagher went through the legs on an escape once but got caught the second time later; little things like that) and how they engaged the crowd. Allmark was quick to appeal to them or to try to get a clap going while Gallagher was delightfully smarmy, mocking Allmark while shaking his hand, clapping his own hand with Allmark's while he had him in a hold, etc. They tried plenty of tricked out chain wrestling flourishes and a few rope running spots and everything seemed pretty smooth and not too cooperative. They set things up for the finish and had a few good near falls but I would have liked this to have more time so Gallagher could control longer and Allmark's comeback would mean more.

ER: This was about the smartest way to work a quick 50/50 TV match, as both guys got to fit a ton of cool stuff into an short overall runtime, without ever feeling like either guy was shrugging something off to get their own stuff in. Gallagher wasn't on my radar until about a year after this match (even though he'd been a 10 year vet by that point, it's hard to keep tabs on EVERY wrestler) and I fully agree with Phil that these are likely my two favorite modern WOS guys. There's so much flash they do that is much more than merely flash, and even the slickest sequence felt like it had purpose. I loved things like Allmark trapping Gallagher's arms before popping off a straight Rockette kick to the chin, or knocking out Gallagher's legs to plausibly trap him in the ropes long enough to stomp on his neck and snapmare him off the turnbuckles. One of my favorite things about Gallagher is that he's so consistently good about making each individual piece of offense count, so that even though he's working from the same offensive toolbag each match, he's not just going through rote sequences. He mixes his offense differently into matches, so things like his massive corner dropkick always come off as a surprise and keeps it a finisher-level move. The early matwork in this was good enough to write up, but I love how the bumped it up into exciting juniors wrestling, with a big bump to the floor and actual quality nearfalls (at least three things down the stretch could have been finishes). I thought the finish was done well for that finish, as Gallagher wasn't overtly turning his back to Allmark while arguing with the ref, and it just showed that only a couple of seconds was enough for Allmark to take advantage with a nasty superkick.


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New Footage Friday: TEMPERS! PRIMO! CANDIDO! HASH! TAYLOR!!

Shinya Hashimoto/Col. Brody/Wojtek Polanski vs. Franz Schuhmann/Dave Taylor/"Herkules" Greg Boyd  CWA 7/8/89

MD: This was a lot of fun. It felt looser than a normal tag, like how falls come more easily in a Survivor Series match. I've been veering away a bit from Col. Brody in all of the new footage we've gotten and maybe that's been a mistake. He was pretty engaging and dynamic here. This was a relatively unique setting for Taylor and he was more of an energetic babyface than I'm used to, but he played the role well. I loved the hair-pull/mustache-pull spot at the start especially because I thought the latter would come out of the headlock but they delayed it for just an extra moment. Hashimoto was cartoony in the best way. It's a shame we only had a little bit of him vs Taylor but, for the setting, it was just what you'd expect. The shift in wrestling norms because of how much they were trying to fit into a short period of time was a little jarring, but I'd certainly like to see a few more of these.

PAS: Really fun heel team here, Polanski is a guy I hadn't seen before, but was a big mustachoed bruiser with good clubbing forearms, Brody had good shtick too, and Hashimoto is an all time great. He is hamming it up a bit, but we do get an awesome spin kick to the gut and some big chops. Taylor as a big time babyface tag wrestler was nifty, he was a super versatile wrestler who could do a lot of different things. I loved his double monkey flip, an awesome Tommy Rogerish spot. It felt like they packed a lot in 10 minutes, and could have used some time to stretch out, but I really enjoyed it.

ER: This didn't do much for me. All the quick easy pins made it feel like a joyless version of an All Japan battle royal, where if someone fell onto their back they were automatically pinned. In this match it didn't matter what put them on the mat, if anything at all caused them to fall on their back, they were toast. There were small pleasures to be found, sure. I'm not sure I've ever seen Hashimoto work so silly, hitting a great spinkick under Taylor's chin and then giving us some "Look at my Japanese karate" poses after, including a karate crotch chop? Dave Taylor was a fired up babyface and I really wish we could have devoted this time to a Dave Taylor singles match against any one of the heels. Taylor had an awesome moment in the turnbuckles where he tied up Brody with a body vice, Brody breaks it, and Taylor grabs a headscissors and flings Brody over the top to the floor. Brody is a guy I'd like to see more, as he plays - in size and shape - exactly like Col. DeBeers, but without the stooging bumps. He's got a great big mustache and we get a fun bit of Taylor really gripping those handlebars before being scolded by the ref. Wojtek Polanski looked like a gassed Santa and has the most Polish wrestler name possible. Sadly, we don't have much footage of him, as his helicopter crashed when the Polish pilot got hot and decided to turn the fan off.

Eddie Colon vs. Chris Candido WWC 7/03

MD: This was a really good TV match to further the feud and set up Stacy Colon being in Eddie's corner at a bigger show. Despite that and despite the fact that there was a pretty sparse looking crowd which the audio mixing muted even further, they went really big. We're talking early tope, springboard placha, suplex from the apron to the floor that Candido shouldn't have been taking, missed flipping senton off the top big. Big. Primo was 21 and had been wrestling for a couple of years but not everything looked super smooth, but he had the right idea in general. Candido was great, very giving before his cut offs and perfectly sound in weaving in the bigger 2003 spots and stooging just as much as he should against this particular opponent and not a bit more. I love how he worked in a blatant low blow just because he was wrestling in PR and that was the language down there. My favorite spot in this was probably Colon's big moment at the end where he blocked a powerslam off the ropes (which was the move that gave Candido a fairly early advantage) and hit a standing tornado DDT (which is something he got jammed on in the corner earlier) was a nice little callback/payoff. I thought Tammy was excellent here, both in being completely engaged and supportive on the floor and her reaction to finding out Colon's sister was going to be involved in the rematch, but Candido had the best line when he griped that Colon was ruining his "happy, happy home."

PAS: Candido is really the guy you want in 2003 to lead a green highflyer through a match. We get Chris in his Terry Funk pants and he isn't full Funk but does his share of bumbling and bumping. I especially liked the tailbone bump to the floor off the rana, and I imagine much of Primo's big spots would look much worse if there wasn't a consummate pro there to run interference. I think we would have been better off with a little more brawling and shtick and 20% less moves, but 2003 Primo clearly wanted to do ROH.

ER: I love the YouTube thumbnail for this, which looks like someone interrupted Candido and Sunny while they were at lunch. Watching Candido in his final couple years is a real bummer, as he seems kind of on auto pilot but then seeing him in the ring on auto pilot it was clear he had a lot left. He had all of these sequences down pat and clearly lead this from bell to bell. Eddie was really young but had a nice left hand and some fearless lean into spots, and I would have liked to see him utilize that left hand a lot more. Candido bumbling around from that left could fill an entire match, but Candido opted to fill it with a lot of offense. Candido wastes Eddie on an early powerbomb (kinda surprising he'd go to that so early in a match), drops him with a couple Germans, hits a great tope, and Eddie flies into everything. Eddie had some real big misses, including a corkscrew moonsault to nothing and running headlong into a Candido clothesline. Sunny was the one really on fire here, she had every single ringside move nailed, had a perfectly timed spot where she yanked Eddie's legs, jumped into the ring to break up a pin by rubbing the ref's face in her chest (even though it looked like the ref was just expecting her to grab his arm, funny if she opted for face to boobs as an audible), and shrieks advice to Chris. Candido splats nicely on bumps, peaking with a huge bump over the top that lands him right on his ass on the hard ground. This made me curious about what other dad bod era Candido gold might be out there, as I've really only seen him in IWA and TNA, didn't even realize he was working Puerto Rico. Stick around for the Sunny/Chris promo after the match (where that YouTube thumbnail came from) to watch them work an amusing comic heel promo.

Andrew Alexander vs. Shaun Tempers Empire Wrestling 2/10/14

MD: For the most part, this was the sort of chain match that you hope all chain matches are and only about half ever become. There was no corner touching. It was pinfall or submission. The blood came early as Alexander wasn't about to put up with Tempers' antics. The chain was teased with big whips at the start but then used immediately thereafter and used often. They had some clever spots but nothing that took you out of the idea that they were trying to hurt each other, including a chain assisted running plancha which actually made for one of the most believable dives ever, as Tempers had nowhere to go. There couldn't have possibly been a cleaner heel/face divide with both wrestlers acting appropriately, with Tempers getting advantage through a lucky reversal or distraction. Unexpectedly, I didn't love Alexander's punches. They felt pretty out of place in a match where everyone was using the chain as a weapon. Not a big thing in the grand scheme though. The finish was maybe a bit much too, with a ref bump, a couple of phantom pins, and interference that would have made more sense in context, but the chain assisted neckbreaker and Alexander's spastic selling were both picture perfect for the match.

PAS: These GA Indy feds really know how to run gimmick matches, we have reviewed some great War Games from this area and this is an old school dog collar match done right. Alexander takes it to Tempers early and opens him up, with Tempers able to get some advantages through viciousness and dastardliness. They never got too fancy, with a couple of big spots, Alexander doing this great counter of a posting attempt, and the dive Matt mentioned working great. Mostly this was just old fashioned chain assisted violence, and while I agree they probably didn't need the gaga at the finish, that neckbreaker with the chain was a killer finish. At some point I need to just do a giant deep dive into GA indy wrestling.

ER: This was great, and while watching it dawned on me how entirely absent this type of match is from the current wrestling landscape. There is a major absence of matches involving one man hitting another man with fists and choking him with a big chain. We added a great dog collar match to our 2020 MOTY List, but that was very much a blown out 2020 indy epic masquerading as a dog collar match. That match felt more like the multi stipulation Hacksaw/Sawyer match than "merely" just a dog collar match. At the other end of the spectrum we have death match wrestling making a curious head poke into mainstream acceptability, and yet nobody out there is just running a straight up dog collar match. This cuts out all the bullshit, no touching corners, just touching fist to face and wrapping that chain painfully around your opponent. Alexander really felt like a guy working a dog collar match in 1986, as he had great punches (left AND right hands), an awesome kneelift, took a gigantic fast bump over the top (even crazier when compared to Tempers much more sane bump to the apron later), and hits a bonkers no hands dive over the top as a fantastic late match highspot. There were some unnecessary shenanigans at the end, a ref bump and a ball shot and a stopped ref count when he notices Alexander came out of his collar, but the finish itself was excellent. After the ball kick from Tempers, he wraps the chain tight around Alexander's throat, and the panicked selling from Alexander was so good that it made me question just how anybody would have actually known if that chain was too tight or not. Tempers gives him a vicious Rude Awakening, snapping that chain wrapped throat over his shoulder, and Alexander does a great convulsive sell during the pin. This really captured the feeling of classic dog collar matches, the kind of match that looks even better now than when it happened.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINYA HASHIMOTO

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

45. Negro Casas/Shocker v. Rush/La Sombra CMLL 7/18

ER: I was not a fan of their tag title match a few weeks before this, but this I liked. I thought that match lacked intensity and drama. Seeing this match shows everything that previous match lacked. These four were at each other's throats the whole match, and both teams actually felt like teams. A key part of what made this match so great was the team work. Not the double teams, but each person saving their partner at key moments throughout the whole match. Saves are a great way to build drama and cut down on silly kickouts, and I loved all the saves in this. Sombra has really come into his own under his rudo persona. It added an edge his character needed and just didn't have as a faceless flier. Now he's a smug shrugging prick who gets bailed out by his even tougher buddy and opportunistically dishes out violence of his own. His running knees to Shocker were brutal, but he has no problem giving back (watch him fly ass over elbow over the barrier off a clothesline). Shocker breaks out his fat guy tope, and some other cool stuff like his abdominal stretch slam (which sends Sombra right onto his head). Casas looked on fire too, having some fun scrambly matwork with Sombra, locking in one of the snuggest STFs onto Rush that you'll ever see, kicking Sombra's chest in while he's tangled in the ropes. This match builds off stuff from their previous tag match, and I especially loved Casas setting Rush up for the Thesz press and Sombra saving him out of nowhere by clotheslining Casas right in the shins. Awesome, heated match.

PAS: One of my favorite Sombra performances ever. He was working at a faster pace then the other three guys and it really adds something to the match. He and Casas rip off some incredibly fast and intricate mat work, and he is great at throwing in these athletic saves and cheap shots. The out of nowhere chop block to Casas as he was going for his dive was totally awesome. We of course get another great Rush and Casas stomp party, and a great turn back the clock performance from Shocker, who looked like he showed up mostly sober and ready to rumble, loved his tope as is was way less athletic then his heyday, but still super violent.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

49. Rush/La Sombra/La Mascara v. Negro Casas/Mr. Niebla/Volador Jr. CMLL 7/25

ER: Awesome short match, full of guys working stiff and with a hot surprise finish. Rush and Casas beat the holy hell out of each other here. I'm not sure how Casas' throat can stand up to some of the stomps that Rush unleashes on it. Both guys throw some nasty kicks to the other's chest and face, shove each other violently into the ring barricade. At one point Rush charges Casas in the corner, stops short, whips his hair back and slaps Casas right across the ear. Great dickhead spot. Niebla is a guy who can wrestle lazy when he's not feeling things, but then we get *this* Niebla and all is well. He slaps guys the whole match, really laying the shots in to a nasty degree, and at one point even breaks out his great back bump to the floor (Rush front kicks him and he falls through the ropes backwards onto the floor). Volador stayed out of most of this, spending a lot of it getting kicked and stomped by Sombra/Mascara, but does hit a spectacular top rope moonsault to the floor. And obviously he plays into the finish which I really dug. Sombra is kinda manhandling him, but Volador gets the surprise flash pin by reversing a Sombra samoan drop into a brutal Sombra head drop. Flash pins don't feel like they get used in lucha that often, and I really love how the match just ended since Volador pinned the captain. Felt like they finally outsmarted the rudos and the cuts to a surprised Rush on the floor were a nice touch since Rush hasn't shown tons of ass in this feud. This could have been epic with more time, but for a straight falls match I can't imagine it being much better. This was some of the stiffest ring work I saw in lucha that year, and no matter how long it was this was a hot match.

PAS: Man I had forgotten what a great act Rush and his boys were. Sombra is such a dick bag, I loved him lounging on the ring barrier. I agree with the greatness of Niebla here, he really gets his ass kicked and him spitting on the heels while he gets beaten is a fun bit of babyface fire, as was his lighting fast slaps on the outside, with this match and the awesome 2017 Caifan matches I think a Neibla reinvestigation maybe on deck. I liked the use of Volador here too, one cool dive and otherwise getting gang stomped is about the only way I can tolerate that dude, although his finishing move was some goofy Will Osprey looking shit. Rush and Casas are the headliners and they are great as always, just violent asskicker with Rush having Bruno level awesome stomps, and Casas landing his great chops and his all time awesome looking facewash dropkick, I have no idea how that move doesn't put Rush's nose into the third row.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

47. Zack Sabre Jr. v. Timothy Thatcher EVOLVE 34 9/13

PAS: Really great stuff, I think this is my favorite Thatcher match of the year. Sabre is a little faster and flashier then Thatcher, more of a babyface British worker, while Thatcher works more like a bruiser British heel, so this felt kind of like a Robbie Brookside v. Fit Finlay match. As one would expect very heavy mat work early, with both guys working on the arm, Thatcher to set up a Fujiwara, Sabre for a cross arm-breaker. There was also a cool little dynamic with Thatcher using his strength and Sabre countering with his speed. When the match got chippy it really got rolling. The holds really got wrenched, Sabre stomped on his elbow really nastily and started throwing kicks, and Thatcher really unloaded with forearms. Finish submission was awesome with Sabre trying for a cross arm-breaker, floating it into a weird hammerlock wrist twist and added some kicks to the back of the head for the tap. Just great stuff, another feather in Thatcher's cap, and got me really high on Sabre Jr.

ER: I did not see this at the time (Phil did, and wrote it up several months after it actually happened), but I thought it would be fun going back to a time before this kind of style was so much more commonplace on a given indy card. This is just 3 years ago, which doesn't feel like a long time, so it's neat to me to see them working this match 2nd match on the card, when this would go on to be the main event style not long after. Parts of this felt like an evolution of the American Dragon/Low Ki match style. I don't think I thought that just because they did the headstand/leglock spot that I first saw those two do in 2001. It felt like a toned down evolution, taking bits from those matches and updating some of them while bringing their own skills. At its core, it was two nasty fuckers trying to leave the match with an arm that wasn't their own, and that's almost always going to be worth seeing. We don't get a lot of striking (Sabre throws some kicks late in the match, including the vicious shots to end it), we get a couple nasty throws (Thatcher's gutwrench is always cool), but mostly this was violent arm manipulation. Thatcher was kind of a bully and Sabre was more slippery, so you'd get Thatcher committing to a wrenched in Fujiwara, or hyperextending Sabre's arm against his own shoulder, and Sabre would be able to slide into some mean wrist control, wrenching in a hammerlock at one point that felt like it would completely pop Thatcher's shoulder out of socket or pop an elbow. Both guys are tough, and I hate the complaint against Sabre that "his opponents let him apply holds". It's demonstrably false and the way he slides into and out of holds can be hypnotic. But there were moments of him changing strategy mid-move that illustrate how silly the "exhibition submission" tag is, like the first time he goes to stomp Thatcher's elbow only to notice Thatcher move while he's already throwing the kick, so he merely extends his leg more and thrust kicks Thatcher in the head. It looked like he genuinely prepped to stomp elbow and changed the angle of his kick midway. This had many more World of Sports type exchanges than later (current) matches in this style, and it's a nice breath as we get a minor playful vibe occasionally shining through all the ligament tearing. The playfulness has definitely been overshadowed by the current grittiness of the mat style, so I appreciated those moments. The finish sub was something that definitely seemed like the finish, as it easily was the nastiest thing in the match, with Sabre hooking the arms in a painful enough sub to get the tap, but then firing machine gun thrust kicks right to the back of Thatcher's head. Awesome little scrap.


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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

6. Chris Hero v. Eddie Kingston AIW 12/26/14

PAS: This is one of the great indy wrestling feuds of all time, and oddly this was the only time these two matched up during the time in between Hero's WWE stints, you would think this would be a matchup indy feds would be falling over themselves to book. This was worked very similarly to a New Japan style Shibata/Ishii stiff fest, but I enjoyed it so much more those or their US Indy dopplegangers. That was mainly due to how great Kingston is at selling and conveying hate. Early in the match he is getting pounded and responds by being furious at his body for failing him. Hero is beating him to the punch and he is mad at himself, he has some awesome KO sells too, slumping, glass eyed and defeated. Kingston is maybe my favorite ever slugfest seller, too bad he never got to work Hashimoto, Sangre Chicana or Lawler. Hero is great too as an arrogant star who has always hated this guy and desperately wants to put him down. His popping up after the suplexes was less no-selling and more determination to not let this piece of shit beat him. I really loved this, makes we want to seek out all of their earlier matches and makes me bummed that we didn't get another bunch of rounds of this before Hero went back to NXT.

ER: Strike exchanges are the most played out thing in online wrestling fandom, and this match starts with that very thing. And seeing Kingston and Hero actually express interesting character through body language and facials only illustrated how terrible everybody else is at this played out match function. It really doesn't seem that hard to add some personality or character into guys hitting each other, but seeing every single chest puffing time killing exchange would prove otherwise. Here Kingston is able to effectively show within 30 seconds that he may have bitten off more than he could chew, and the fact that it ends with him splayed on the mat after an awesome Hero tornado pump kick would back that up. Hero flat out hits harder than Kingston. That's it. Kingston has plenty of intangibles, but Hero hits harder. It never stops Kingston from hitting Hero, and the results are always great. Kingston's selling really makes this so much more. Watching Hero eat several chops, only to perfectly time a right jab to the jaw as Kingston goes foggy, or seeing Kingston slump into the ropes after Hero throws a right hand to the temple, you just know Kingston is going to keep coming forward, but his selling brings an extra level of "bless his heart" sympathy that most of these slugfests don't have. Kingston really did a great job of using the ropes as a method of support, that pride of having both your feet still planted on the mat, even if it means your butt is resting on the bottom rope. We get a great little moment of strategy with Kingston throwing weaker and weaker shots, Hero smelling blood and ramping up the strikes, so Kingston yanks the ref in the way to momentarily distract Hero, enough to headbutt him in the guy and hit a nasty Saito suplex. That suplex is what leads to the end for Hero, with Kingston landing some big fists, including a nasty backfist to the back of the dome. Great story, great match, these two never disappoint.


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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

85.  Chris Hero v. Colin Delaney 2CW 5/16/14

ER: I really love matches where one guy is clearly over their head. They don't hit as hard, they're smaller, they aren't even always quicker, literally everything about them makes them an underdog. I guess their only possible advantage is the element of surprise, or their better opponent not taking them seriously. But even when that happens it's usually not enough. Underdog matches are usually just squash matches, but can be something special when done right (see the wonderful Liger vs. Yohei Komatsu match from 2015), and I thought this was special. Right away it's pretty clear that Delaney is going to get his clock cleaned, so it becomes a matter of watching to see how he'll survive, how long he'll survive, and how much he'll frustrate Hero in the process. And Delaney really takes a beating here. Hero must have tired out his fists and elbows on Delaney's face by the end, but Delaney kept valiantly/foolishly coming back for more, rarely a step ahead, almost always charging directly into one or three awesome punches. Even when he gets going on a little tear you just have a feeling the next move is going to just get side stepped and then Hero's boot is gonna find his face. I loved all the moments where Delaney thought he had the jump on Hero and Hero would just pop him in the mouth, drop him to the mat. At one point Hero follows Delaney up the turnbuckles and Delaney scrambles up to a pipe hanging above the ring, then scrambles onto some support beams to get away, like he was Harrison Ford getting chased by Rutger Hauer. Eventually he jumps off right into Hero's boot, something maybe everybody but Delaney could have expected. Delaney starts getting under Hero's skin with some roll ups, and the beatings increase, and the shots to the back of the head increase, until you know that a 3 count was a guarantee even a few elbows prior. Another day, another Hero classic.

PAS: I am not sure if I liked this as much as Eric, although it was very fun. Delaney had some fun underdog offense, but you kind of want your Spike Dudley's to take bigger bumps. Delaney is a little physically stiff, doesn't die the same kind of underdog death that your little guys can die,  but this really made we want to see Hero v. Lance Lude or Cheeseburger. I did love Delaney climbing up in the rafters, and the entire knuckle lock section was very cool with Delany showing great neck strength. Hero was great as usual, although he does have a tendency to throw maybe one or two more elbows then necessary, I would have ended this two minutes earlier. Hero is a heck of a touring bruiser, he laid in a great beating, made the local kid look great and then put him down.


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All Time MOTY List HEAD TO HEAD: 2014: Cesaro v. Zayn VS. Shield v. Wyatts

Cesaro v. Sami Zayn NXT Arrival 2/27

ER: Awesome, awesome match. This is not news to most of you. These two match up so well, and this was just a wonderful match to start the big "introduction" event for NXT. There are great matches, and then there are matches that are not only great, but perfectly slot into their time and atmosphere. There were several nice callbacks to their 2/3 falls match from August, starting with Zayn going for his turnbuckle dive DDT and Cesaro lying in wait with a beastly uppercut. Cesaro just manhandles Zayn the entire time using his freak strength. We didn't get anything quite as freakish as the 2/3 falls finish, with Cesaro literally running around the ring holding Zayn above his head and then tossing him even higher, but there were still plenty of awesome freak moments. Everytime Zayn would leave his feet I'd wonder if it would end with Cesaro catching him in mid air and then tossing him painfully, and it often would. Cesaro leveled him a couple of times with uppercuts, the best being a brutal running corner charge. We also get Cesaro working all over Zayn's knee, wrenching it in some cool ways, doing his nasty double stomp to it (later we even get a double stomp literally to Zayn's face), and Zayn gamely plays up the knee injury throughout, showing that some moves take longer to set up because of the knee, and when he follows through with the move anyway it almost always backfires (like Cesaro catching his split legged moonsault and splatting him on the rampway). Zayn's flash roll-ups and pins are all convincing, and Cesaro is great at getting into position and launching himself into Zayn's hope spots (Cesaro taking the sunset flip powerbomb is a thing of perfection). The fans rightly flip out for this one and I was hanging on all of the nearfalls with them. I love that Cesaro never actually went full heel in the match. Crowd was into him and more into Zayn's comebacks, but Cesaro didn't outright cheat or work in an underhanded way, and he didn't need to. This was just a classic match with flawless execution and an awesome, unexpected build. I couldn't see wanting anything more.

PAS: This was a pretty awesome version of a indy juniors style main event. All time great Cesaro performance, which was really a bridge from Claudio to Cesaro. He really broke out a bunch of his great rudo base work which was his signature as CC, as he is just awesome at bumping for high flyers which is something you rarely see him do anymore. He also just chucks Zayn around the ring with crazy power throws, I especially loved his throwing uppercut, and that cut off dive was one of the coolest versions of that spot I have ever seen. I thought Zayn was a little fighting spirity at the end, that kind of "look at my determination" face can get hammy at times and I think it crossed that line. Still minor point, for what was otherwise a great match


VERDICT

PAS: I think this is a pretty convincing win for Wyatts v. Shield. I really dug the Sami v. Cesaro match it was about as good a version of a NXT/PWG juniors main event. Cool execution, impressive near falls, great individual performances, I loved how they did all of the call backs to the 2013 match and the big spots were sufficiently big. Still the Wyatts v. Shield match was the climax of a one year plus story with the emergence of the Shield and the emergence of this new big gang on the block to challenge them. Awesome build, great payoff, the best heel v. heel matchup in wrestling. That kind of thing done well is always going to trump a great juniors match for me.

ER: I love this match, and I think it has a convincing argument as the best singles match of 2014. But those Wyatts/Shield trios and that glorious Hardy Boys/Young Bucks tag (my favorite tag match of the last 5 years, at least) are going to be tough to overcome.

2014 MOTY Master List

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

3. Hardy Boys v. Young Bucks NEW 8/2

ER: Wow, I'm kind of in shock about this match. Like the whole time I was watching it I was in disbelief at how great it was. Not that either team isn't capable, but the whole time it was just feeling TOO good, and it kept getting better, and I kept praying it wasn't going to fall off the rails or have a lame finish. Do you ever do that? You're watching a match and you're rooting to yourself for them to keep it up, to not blow it, wanting them to reach the level of great match that they're promising as they set out. And this match totally delivers in every way possible. The timing is just incredible, all four guys work as if they're intending to have the match of their careers, the pinfall saves are great, the false finishes are great, the ebb and flow of everything is great. This is just great tag wrestling, great pro wrestling. The Young Bucks persona works so wonderfully in front of genuine indy crowds, as opposed to people who are "in on the joke". And the team's personalities collide so well in this. This is clearly the hardest and wildest Jeff Hardy has worked in ages, and Matt looks as good as he did on his WWE TV singles match run in 2009. Bucks tone things down and perfectly use their superkicks only 3 times, both in super important parts of the match, always to cut off potential threat of Hardy offense, always used as not a big move but as a reset, something to turn the tide back to the Bucks.

There were so many great moments where each team would mirror each other, sometimes one upping the other, other times leading to their downfall. Hardys hit their nice fistdrop/rolling senton combo, Bucks later do their springboard moonsault/standing moonsault combo. Jeff catches knees on a swanton, and Nick immediately holds him prone on his knees so Matt J can hit a swanton. Bucks just trying to do little things to update Hardy's signature offense to get under their skin. There were so many great sequences throughout, tons of great saves, tons of stuff where timing is imperative, but there were no moments of somebody waiting for someone to get into position, everything ran like a well oiled machine. At one point Matt J cuts off Matt H with a superkick, hits a Fuerza bump dropkick and as he's skinning the cat he gets clotheslined from the floor by Jeff, which causes him to flip back onto the floor, Jeff goes to the apron to fly but gets leveled by Nick making Jeff trust fall into everybody, and then Nick hits a flip dive on all of them. Everybody was always right on point with pulling the ref out of a count at just the right moment, knocking someone off the top to save their partner, the saves and false finishes were so expertly done that it made a 23 minute match feel like it needed every second of that time. Jeff was a total maniac in this, hitting a huge crossbody off the apron, a couple reckless dives, always doing big splashes to break up pins, I mean I literally don't remember the last Jeff Hardy match where he looked this good. Matt stalked around the ring great, trying to slow the Bucks down, threw some of his perfect right hands (with a flawless fist shake on one) and trying to set up the Bucks for Jeff. Bucks were great too, knowing exactly when to break out the flash, knowing when to let something peak and when to cut it off, and the stuff piledriver finish was nasty and a great false finish. Jeff makes the save and Matt doesn't have to go wild hitting moves after taking the piledriver. He falls off Matt Jackson's shoulders to deliver the twist of fate, and falls on him for the pin after Jeff hits a swanton. This is a flat out excellent match. Literally my favorite match of the year.

PAS: Really great stuff, an out of nowhere classic. I can't believe how good Jeff Hardy was in this, he is a guy who had his moments over his career, but I think the consensus was that he was completely shot by 2014, a casualty of drugs and bumps, but I cannot remember him ever looking this good, not only was he bumping like crazy but all of his offense looked really good. When has Jeff Hardy ever thrown good punches? He was cracking the Bucks here, spin kicks looked great, just a unbelievable performance. I really loved how the Hardy's incorporated all of the Bucks stuff into a traditional hot southern tag. Their taunts came off more like douchey heeling and less like meta wink wrestling. More John Tatum less Chuck Taylor. I was also really impressed how the Hardys were able to keep up with the Bucks fancy shit, there are some elaborate sequences in this match, and they looked great, the speed was still there, but they way it was slotted in, made it look less like a dance routine then if the Bucks ran them with Ohio is for Killers or the Addiction. Eric is going so nuts for this match so I feel like I have to throw a little water on the fire, I did think the Meltzer Driver should end a match full stop, I just don't buy Matt putting on a move 45 seconds after selling it, even if he did a nice job of selling. I also think that the Hardy's are a little short on offense, so they spammed the side effect and twist of fate a bit, I loved Matt's gutwrench suplexes, and I would have rather he used more of them or even just some bodyslams. Still those are very minor complaints on what is otherwise a remarkable match. No one could have predicted this.


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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

89. Negro Navarro/Black Terry v. Trauma 1/Trauma 2 IWRG 12/14

PAS: Really fun if unsubstantial brawl. Really worked like it was setting up next weeks revanche, but it is always weirdly enjoyable to watch Navarro and his sons work out their oedipal issues with each other. Meanwhile Terry is the dirtbag uncle, who is running around with blood dripping down his face and escalates the fight by pulling out a chain. Navarro rarely brawls anymore, but he was a Missionary of Death, so he can still throw a nasty right hand which just thumps. I hope Christmas at the Navarros wasn't too akward

ER: This was not what I expected, but pleasant for what it was. Traumas weren't really much of a factor here, but this was a pretty fun Terry/Navarro show. Navarro doesn't brawl a lot but his brawling here is all really good, but Terry is a vicious little monster. He's punching Traumas the whole time, and his stuff where he breaks out the chain is the best of the match, just lacing into with brutal chain punches from the mount while blood pools around his eye. But there were other neat tricks he had, probably my favorite little brawl trick of his was coming up on Trauma on the floor like he was going to punch, and then just kicking him right in the shin. I can't really picture these teams matching up and not doing something interesting.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

35. Bobby Fish v. TJ Perkins PWG 8/29

PAS: Pretty enjoyable opening match from the BOLA. Standard stuff to start, including sort of a goofy comedy spot, Perkins is so fast and fluid though, that he makes even simple things fun to watch. The match picks up when Fish starts working over the knee, including Fish brutally checking a kick Chris Weidman style. Perkins did a nice job selling danger, and damaged including doing a cool tope from almost a dead stop because he couldn't run. Really liked the finish with Fish trying to twist off the knee until Perkins was able to slip in a bridge and turn a submission into a pin. Fun stuff

ER:  Man I really liked this, and also liked the pre-leg work stuff. I thought all of it worked great (except the comedy spot; that felt really shoehorned in). Reversals and "guys who scouted their opponent's arsenal" stuff can come off way too cute and over-rehearsed. But they broke out some real slick and impressive stuff, stuff I wasn't expecting. Perkins especially can get too cute, as he can try to blend too many styles and occasionally can come off like a Rocky Romero type. Still better than Romero, but you don't ever want to be compared to Rocky Romero. Here all of the potential cute stuff actually fits logically and seamlessly into the match. For example, this may be the only time I've ever seen Perkins' little "Spider-man catching himself in the ropes" spot actually make sense, with Fish throwing him hard and close into the ropes, and Perkins actually looking like he was going to fly out to the floor before catching himself last minute. I was digging the reversals and all the "guys attempt same move at same time" stuff more than I usually dug that stuff, but things jumped to another level once Fish checked that low kick and Perkins sold it 100% perfectly. He went down like he had kicked a ringpost and it looked great. Overall I thought Perkins did an exceptional job selling the knee, doing things like the near stop tope Phil mentioned, and other little details like going for an Irish whip but not being able to plant his leg. Joey Ryan was really good on commentary here as well, putting over what Perkins is going through with his knee, not being able to trust it, how the knee feels hollow, or light. The execution from both guys was great throughout. Fish was vicious finding new ways to attack the knee, and I especially liked the few variations of him kicking Perkins' legs out from under him. The flash bridge finish worked well, and man I just really, really liked this.


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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

24. Timothy Thatcher v. Joe Graves PREMIER 11/29

PAS: Really great end to a stellar year from Thatcher. I hadn't seen or heard of Graves before, but he slotted right into the Thatcher style match great. He had some power moves including a great delayed Karelin throw, and it made it feel a little like a amateur wrestler versus a submission guy. Graves did a lot of controlling the back and getting hooks in too. Thatcher was nasty as usual, snapping fingers, uppercutting to the back of the neck, and even breaking out an Olympic hell, which made the Honda fanboy in me smile. Only real downside was the time limit draw, which kind of came out of nowhere without any real drama.

ER: I thought I had already watched this match, and the joke's on me for not diving onto this right away. This was killer and as I've gotten more familiar with local-ish fed Premier (they typically run 2 hours away from me) I've come to expect some pretty big things for them. They certainly have their own style, much more grappling and strike based than most feds, like Foxcatcher but if it were run by just some guy instead of a billionaire with mommy issues. And what's always exciting when I watch their stuff is how into it the crowd gets. I've been to a 2015 show that also had a Thatcher/Graves match (eventually to be written up for our 2015 MOTY list) and the crowd reacts to stuff like a real fight. There was even a guy behind us yelling out amateur wrestling advice throughout, and I mean actual wrestling coach, shouted advice. "Roll the shoulder! Duck under! Keep your hips in!" It was absurd, and also completely awesome and appropriate. Because these two are so convincing and so legit, my eyes are always glued to every single thing they're doing, and I find myself wanting to yell the same kind of things (no, there's not going to be a twist revealing that the weird guy yelling advice was actually me). The detail work is so damn impressive, the work seems to physically exhausting, and there's constant fear (from me) of ligaments getting torn, shoulders being dislocated, anything. That's how convincing they are. Thatcher fights over the arm like few, and I loved the various twists and horribly cramped positions he would get Graves into. Graves has some impressive strength, but really both men do. The struggle was real as they would fight over throws. At one point Graves reverses out of a hold by walking his feet up the ring ropes and pushing off a turnbuckle. At another point Thatcher locks in a brutal indian deathlock and starts holding down one of Graves' arms with a leg, and then starts bending the other back at an impossible angle. You can practically hear Stu Hart's creepy "heh heh heh" laugh while these two stretch each other. I loved every second of this, genuinely don't believe there was a single misstep in the whole thing. So what is TRAGIC, I mean just absolutely tragic, is the time limit draw. Before that this was well on its way to being a top 5 MOTY for me. But right in the middle of this struggle, right in the middle of seeing which one of these world class guys would break first, the ring bell just rings and some guy plainly says "Time!" Gutted. There was no build to a time limit, not guys scrambling to try and get the win, no mention that I noticed of a time limit (it's very possible it was mentioned in the opening intros, but I didn't notice it). With almost any sort of finish, really anything to actually give us a definitive ending, I think this lands in the top 10. As it is it feels like a friend made you a comp tape and this match was the last match on the tape, and the tape just runs out before the end. So you're just watching this awesome struggle,  and suddenly the tape automatically stops and begins rewinding. That would have been preferable. It is worse to know. As it stands, the work is excellent, and you couldn't even call the finish disgustingly bad. It's not like there was a goofy run-in or belt shot or something. This is more of a passively cruel finish. But, thank goodness it exists at all.


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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

15. Tomoaki Honma v. Katsuyori Shibata NJPW 8/3

ER: So, so, so so great! I loved every second of this one. Honma is just the best and really gets that underdog mentality over to an insane degree. Here he got just as much offense as Shibata, but always came across as the underdog. And it's not like he kept lucking into his offense, he's just really great at conveying his character. Shibata was great here too as a more skilled, cold asskicker who is not necessarily underestimating Honma, but at the same time almost in disbelief that he is having *this* much trouble with him. The crowd is just so into Honma here and it's incredibly infectious. I can't remember an underdog character I get this invested in, get this genuinely excited about the outcomes of his matches. Honma just commits to everything, and it makes all the difference. His shots hit big, and they miss bigger. His headbutt flying straight into Shibata's boots was heartbreaking; his hooked legs and high cradles are the most hope-filled pinfalls possible. Shibata hits tons of nasty shots in this, and his elbows with a dropkick follow up in the corner was just brutal. But it was key that he did not view Honma as a joke, and he most definitely made Honma look like a competitor here. He sold a Honma slap like Kawada taking the nastiest Misawa elbow, actually showed struggle when kicking out of Honma's high cradles. And I could have sworn he hesitated just a moment before nailing Honma with the match-ending Penalty Kick. I really did love every second of this. One of my absolute favorite matches of the year.

PAS: Yeah this was really fun, it is about the best possible version of a New Japan forearm exchange match. Both guys have established characters and hierarchies, so it isn't just two even guys 50/50ing it, it is a sprint so it doesn't out stay it's welcome, there is selling, it is just two guys standing there and making faces and both guys lay it in which distinguishes it from what ever Okada and Tanahashi are trying to do. Homna is awesome here, although he does the same kind of thing in every match which can wear a bit thin, still this is about the best Homna formula match I have seen. Loved his in ring tope to take control, and him trying to go all out for big moves and failing. Meanwhile Shibata was really good as the overdog, kicking his ass convincingly, and still portraying those moments of doubt and fear.


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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

Kana v. Meiko Satomura Kana Produce 2/25

PAS: Super weird setup where the entire match was under a blue light and accompanied by guy performing on a Kokyu (a traditional Japanese string instrument), with Kana in weird face paint.  It had the feel of the kind of thing an Asian art museum would put on. I have a friend who works at Freer Sackler, I should pitch it to her as a traveling exhibit. Match itself was the quality we expect from this matchup. I love Kana as the Mickey Knuckles to Yuki Ishikawa's Ian Rotten, and this was the best BattlArtsy match of the year by far. I loved the nastiness of all the kicks and forearms, and the really cool jujitsu chokes that both girls worked into. The oddness of the presentation added to the feel of it, although it felt more like a cool novelty than an elite match. Still a total blast, and something I am going to really remember fondly at the end of the year.

ER: This was weird in a good, good way. I am a big Ali Farka Toure fan and the Kokyu style of play does not seem too dissimilar to his old African fingerpicking style. But this also wasn't TOO weird for me as sometimes I just don't care about commentary and will put on music as I watch wrestling on mute.   If you already listen to Tinariwen while watching wrestling then listening to a man play a Kokyu while watching wrestling won't seem too out of this world. This also feels like an appropriate match for Phil and I to review as we saw The Mountain Goats do a live score of a silent era Swedish film, we both dug the weird Jeff Jarrett/Dutch Mantel PBS orchestra match from the Memphis set, so watching two assbeaters get the live score treatment seems within our wheelhouse. And I think this totally works as both awesome match, and as weird performance art. As the action heated up as the match wore on, the Kokyu started playing faster and faster, and as I watched I noticed myself actually buying into the tension more because of it, getting more and more into each submission attempt. I wouldn't have even guessed I would actually be affected by a live score, yet there I was, totally buying into it. The match was as good as you would expect given these two, and I really loved Kana here. She had some badass reversals, like catching a Pele kick while falling back into a grapevined ankle lock, and even more killer catching a Meiko kick behind her back, and then ducking under it while still holding it to transition into a German. It looked like the first time you saw World of Sport and were captivated by their foreign movements. They wrench in all their nasty chokes and I loved the struggle for the finishing triangle. I would have dug this whole thing without the Kokyu, but I genuinely got more into it because of that. This was the coolest list fusion of art with asskickery.


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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV Episode 17 Review

1. Tomoaki Honma & Yuji Nagata vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto (6/21/14)

Awesome match, with a truly great Honma performance. This goes 11 minutes and is just wonderful. Honma has been having a quietly great post-deathmatch career. It's kind of surprising how little he gets mentioned because he really gets it. Here he folds a bunch of stories, character, selling and moments into 11 tidy minutes, and it's great. The stuff with he and Shibata is awesome with them stiffing the shit out of each other as they clearly try and knock each other's jaws out of alignment. Both men smack each other with total blinders on, really focused on just hitting the other really hard in the face. There's a great early moment when Honma and Nagata corner Shibata and Nagata is still hitting him in a pro wrestling kind of way, while Honma is clearly sneaking in full punches to Shibata's face, not fucking around with meager forearms. Shibata and Honma have several nice moments in this, one where Shibata punches Honma in the face as Honma just does a slow desperate collapse, and another where Shibata tries choking Honma with his boot and a test of wills begins, with Honma fighting that fucking boot and Shibata wanting nothing more than to dickishly grind that boot into Honma's chest and throat. Honma later hits a neat falling headbutt on him, and then splats temple first off a top rope attempt. Damn that looked bad. I normally do not have much use for Nagata and Goto (and Nagata's chipmunk cheek Undertaker eyeball armbar is still one of the out-and-out dumbest things in pro wrestling history), but Goto joins in the Honma shit kicking, peaking with a nasty spin kick in the corner, while Nagata contributes by hitting a nasty yakuza kick on Shibata over the guardrail. Honma gets an awesome near fall after reversing a Goto brainbuster into a small package, but eventually he is no match for Goto's goofy ass "American indy inverted DVD dropped onto his own knee" finisher. Still, awesome shit, and Honma fucking rules. Get on the bus.

PAS:Honma was awesome in this, I have really liked his new age Kikuchi act, and while there are no Jumbos and Fuchi's around to kill him, he is still really fun. Shibata is fine as a poor mans Usuda, and he lands some really killer shots. I loved the spot where Shibata twisted his wrists apart and landed a killer right hook. Goto and Nagata were very much guys in this match, but Shibata v. Honma is well worth the admission price.

2. Bad Luck Fale vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (6/21/14)

Well this was also surprisingly good. I mean, I'm as big a Nakamura fan as anybody, but Fale is a guy who doesn't ever look good during Bullet Club interference so I wasn't too excited about him in a long singles. But Nakamura was a generous and giving partner here, bumped big all over for Fale, and this worked because of that. Jeez Nakamura even did a stretcher job for him! Which is crazy. We get a pre-match sit down interview with Fale, which is one of the drier things you will ever hear. This guy showed nothing whatsoever. His tone sounded like Jimmy Snuka giving somber, remorseful testimony during his murder trial...but with better English. But damn Nakamura did a good job at wringing some interest out of the match himself. All his knees looked great, he throws my favorite knees to the stomach in wrestling. He flung himself into the Grenade, which is move that doesn't always look very good. Nakamura busts ass to make this work, and it totally did. Leans into the avalanche, gets knocked inside out on lariats, this was way better than it should have been.

After the match Karl Anderson and AJ Styles cut a pair of horrendous promos. They don't know any Japanese so just address the crowd really slowly, the way Americans think if they just talk slow and annunciate then foreigners will understand them, as if they think they were speaking to 2,000 retarded people. Both guys are microphone poison.

**NOTE: The Honma tag was awesome so we added it to our 2014 MOTY List. Link is below.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

66. Rey Hechicero v. Caifan 7/5



PAS: Hechicero is a master, we have gotten to see him work on the big stage in shorter matches, so it is a treat to see him in a garage work a longer crazier match. This was against his long time Monterey opponent and tag partner, and was kind of the equivalent of Dean Ambrose going back and working a crazy match with Sami Callihan in IWA-MS. The mat work here was awesome lots of cool twisty counters and takedowns that had real violence to them, every leg lock looked like it was going to rip out a knee, every takedown looked like it was going tear out a shoulder. The finish run was a little indy, but Hechicero smashing a plastic chair with a powerbomb, and the finishing armbar were pretty spectacular. Great match, so happy this showed up.

ER: This match had a pretty difficult task, which was filling 33 minutes of time with no real rest or breaks, and it did that admirably. 30+ minute, una caida lucha matches are pretty rare. Normally you get the breaks in between falls to kind of reset things, but these guys really just go go go for the duration. It's pretty impressive. At times it did give the match a kind of aimless feel, not quite filling time, but more that there was no real ebb and flow, not always rhyme or reason for the comebacks or dominance transitions. But this was quite a nice little feather for Hechicero. He plays into Caifan perfectly and finds plausible ways to deal with some of his stumbles. Caifan takes far to long to get Hechicero into a pendulum? Hechicero bides his time, waits for it to be locked on, and then immediately grapevines a leg, hooks Caifan's arm and reverses things. Caifan taking a bit too long to do a rope walk rana? Hechicero busies himself with his own hubris. Hechicero's subtle hubris led to some logical Caifan comebacks throughout this, with Hechicero easily having the upper hand, but waving Caifan to keep going, to come at him. I really loved all of the submissions throughout this, especially the first 8 minutes. Hechicero really gets to show off his full arsenal of subs and I get the feeling he could have kept going. Caifan eventually brings strikes, using some Moe Howard type stuff, like grabbing Hechicero's nose and smacking downward. The powerbomb tease was awesome as there was no way I thought Hechicero would take a powerbomb on the floor, and he made the struggle look sooo great, really clutching those ropes and hugging them tight. When Caifan finally broke him free and planted him through a chintzy plastic chair it felt like he had just plain worn him out. Good match that never lagged, impressive with what they had to fill. The referee had the worst pants.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

54. Biff Busick vs. Speedball Mike Bailey CZW 7/12

PAS: Not a real mat based match like the Thatcher or Gulak series, but more of spotfest indy title match. Really fun example of that match though. Busick does a nice job of mauling Bailey and is a pretty good base for some of Bailey's highspots, and Bailey has really great looking highspots. I liked his spin kicks and his rapid fire switch leg kicks. His big run of offense including catching Busick in mid air and hitting a backflip powerslam, a spinning splash and a top rope shooting star double knee, it is hard to be impressed by spots in 2014, but that was impressive. Cool finish run by Busick too, and that head throw choke by Biff is one of the best finishers in wrestling

ER: The more I see Bailey the more I really dig his kicks, and as much as I love those matches it's awesome to see Busick in against non-Thatcher/Gulak types. The guy really has a nice adaptable arsenal and can hop into any match type. Phil is right that Busick's headlock takeover slam is one of the best things in wrestling today. Every time I see it I keep imagining the guy's head getting popped off like a grape. Busick is a real bully to Bailey and it was a great visual to see him holding one side of Bailey's face while smacking him down with the other. Big, rough 45 degree downward smacks. Phil also mentioned my favorite spot (easily one of the coolest wrestling moments of the last year), when Busick runs full speed at Bailey with that old gigantic Mike Knox crossbody, but comes in too high, and Bailey uses the natural momentum to flip over into a kind of moonsault powerslam for an awesome near fall. I'm really getting used to these "Bailey vs. indy asskicker" matches.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

15. Damien Wayne v. Preston Quinn Fusion Wrestling 5/24

PAS: These are the two best Mid-Atlantic Indy wrestlers of the last decade plus, and this is the first really big time main event singles match I have seen between the two, and outside of a bit of crap ending it lives up to all I hoped it would be. Wayne is coming in as the heel and Quinn is coming in as the champ, and early we get a lot of fun face beatdown stuff while Wayne stooges. Quinn has such beautiful punches, it is a pleasure to watch him unload on a guy. There is a great section where Quinn does four different nut shot variations (dick punch, regular atomic drop, inverted atomic drop, kick the ropes into the balls) and Wayne does an 11 on the Rick Rude scale sell.  Lance Erickson unloads some punches on the floor (which also looked great, it's contagious) which gives Wayne and advantage which he does the great switch from stooge to killer. Finish run is awesome with trading punches back and forth, a great Quinn Lawler style hulk up, a crazy missed top rope flip from Wayne, all unfortunately ending in a ref bump and run ins to set up a tag. Still this gets 20 plus minutes of greatness before the finish, and a fun post match brawl after. Well worth the 5 bucks off of Fusion's website, and so happy I finally got to see these guys stretch out and have a classic.

ER: So Phil calls me up the other evening and proceeds to do that endearing/annoying/entirely Phil thing of watching a match that I do not have a way of watching in that moment, and then exclaiming out loud about the match while I attempt to carry on a conversation with him about things that are not that match. So I will be making small talk and Phil will interrupt me, with his interruptions punctuated by "JESUS" or "OH GOD". Taken out of context and Phil may sound like a religious man, not a man watching other men fake fight. He will also mutter things under his breath like "Preston Quinn throws a great fucking punch. Fuck, Damien Wayne throws a great punch." This is all while I am talking, and he is watching images that I cannot see, and he called me. This is a very much Phil thing. So then I just silently root for things to finish so we can talk like human beings. Although this did allow me to witness the oral account of Phil wanting a clean finish, while also not thinking there was any chance of a clean finish. It was a whirlwind conversation. I consoled him after the double DQ finish.

But this match - once I got to see it - was really great. I felt this surge of Don West roaring through me, as there was an overabundance of incredible wrestling punches in this match, and they were flying off the shelves at bargain basement prices. GEM MINT 10 PUNCHES!! Literally every person involved with this match who threw a punch, knew how to throw a really great punch. Wayne and Quinn firing back and forth at each other for 20 minutes transported me back to Dundee/Lawler '83, just when you thought you saw the best punch of the match you would be proven wrong 30 seconds later. Quinn's left hands looked majestic. Every angle, every punch. It is exactly what you imagine the perfect pro wrestling punches looking like. And then Wayne unleashes these straight rights and you go "Wait maybe THAT is what I imagine the perfect pro wrestling punches look like..." Quinn flicks Wayne in the dick while Wayne is hanged in the tree of woe, the way assholes would in high school. Looking back and a good 2+ years of high school was just trying to not get your dick flicked. Maybe it was different for people that didn't play sports. But Quinn clearly knows the motions and Wayne sells it as a man who has just had his genitals flicked. It's the worst pain in the world for 4 seconds. Like stubbing your toe. That kind of stubbed toe pain that makes you blindly and momentarily furious at the inanimate object you just stubbed your toe on. The Rick Rude atomic drop selling from Wayne is spectacular. For such a flawless sell (and I think everybody recognized Rude's atomic drop sell as the greatest from the first moment they saw it) it's kind of wild that nobody else has ever appropriated it. I guess the atomic drop in general is kind of a move on its way out, which is a shame. Anyway, this match was great. 20 minutes of the two greatest modern punchers, punching each other and dropping elbows and knees. You come out of your daze not realizing 20 minutes has passed. It's awesome; the greatest Wayne/Quinn showdown I have witnessed.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

27. Preston Quinn/Pat Cusik v. Damien Wayne/Mike Booth Fusion Wrestling 9/27

PAS: This was a street fight with Wayne having to leave town if he lost. Wayne, Booth and Quinn were an awesome trio team called the Old School Empire for years, in Fusion for the last couple of years Wayne had been feuding with Quinn since turning on him, and Booth was his surprise tag partner, also turning on PQ. This was a great old school southern brawl, Quinn has some of the best punches in wrestling, and the other three aren't far behind, and lots of this match was just toe to toe fist fighting. They build nicely to some big near falls, including Quinn hitting one of the prettiest brainbusters I have seen in years, and planting Wayne with a spinebuster. The finish was pretty cool, with a Booth cheap shot chop block leading to a huge Savage elbow on Cusik. Exactly what you would want from this match on paper, and well worth the $5 I paid for the show. Feels like I am going to pick up all of the Wayne v. PQ stuff, they are both still so good.

ER: What a great little fight this was. Just a rough and tumble tornado rules brawl that never devolves into a mess, just comes off like a chaotic street fight. I think Quinn has unequivocally the best punches in wrestling today, which lends nicely to a street fight. All of his shots built to nice moments in the match. If you thought his short lefts were nasty just wait until you see that hooking left! His punches lend legitimacy to this kind of match, and his brainbuster begins to plaster in that hole that Hashimoto left in your heart. Then he goes and puts a wax seal on the whole thing by breaking out the Anderson spinebuster. Preston Quinn, just going down the list and ticking off the boxes of all the things I love about wrestling. Damien Wayne is also a guy who is just as good as the first time I saw him. His chops are brutal enough that they don't look silly in a street fight. Since this is No DQ and tornado rules we don't get so many pinfall saves and cutting off the ring, as we get kicks to the balls and guys getting chucked into ringposts. That seems like a fine tradeoff to me. I had never seen Cusick before but he filled in fine as a scrappy weakish link on Quinn's team, and Booth is a guy who always looks good when I see him yet remains a guy I forget to look for. Good find Phil, everybody else go toss some dollars towards Fusion to watch a few great wrestlers who more people should talk about.


2014 MASTER LIST

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