2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Glory Pro 4-Way Tag

57. Boys From Jollyville vs. Besties In The World (Davey Vega/Mat Fitchett) vs. The Pride (Aaron Dzinic/Matt Kenway) vs. Zero Gravity (Brett Gakiya/CJ Esparza) Glory Pro 5/7/17 - GREAT

PAS: Jollyville 4-Ways are always highlights of AIW cards so I was eager to see how the match style traveled, and the answer is: pretty well. I am not sure who The Pride have pride in; Aaron Dzinic's last name suggests maybe they're working a Serbian militia gimmick. They were clearly the greenest of these four teams, but I thought they bumped big and had some nice timing on cut offs. Zero Gravity had some fun highspots, although I want a team with that name to have crazier dives. Besties in the World have a cutesy ring entrance and infuriating name but looked really good here. Fitchett especially was really athletic and explosive, got crazy height on his pele kicks and really flew into all of the opposing teams' offense. He took the T-Money pounce about as well as I have seen it taken. Jollyville played the hits, but they are great hits, love the Russ cannonball and the airplane spin by Money, punch in the head by Russ. I never get tired of watching T-Money barrel through people, and his big dive looked great, especially in comparison to some of the other dives which felt constrained by a close crowd. The match kept it moving and outside of one kind of dumb multiple man DDT spot kept it plausible. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to digging into more Glory Pro Jollyville.

ER: The Fuck-Its are a perfect team to throw into a match like this, because it actually breaks up all the dancey body slap fighting and grounds it into something heavier. But a big multiman tag is also the best place to hide dancey wrestlers, because when the pace is fast enough everyone only has time for one or two sequences at a time. We don't ever get too bogged down with extended rehearsed sequences and instead we get guys getting their sequences interrupted with a nice strike or get tossed into a nasty bump. That's way better than watching Besties vs. Zero Gravity as it keeps things feeling more spontaneous and less locked in, less instances of "I miss you and you missed me back and then we spun into another miss before both hitting!" This was kept to a smart length so that nobody got too exposed, but the quality picked up noticeably whenever Russ or T-Money were involved. Both looked great in every single sequence they were involved in, and this is one of the all time monster T-Money performances. Russ stood out as a guy throwing the nastiest worked strikes in a match with leg slappers, getting in the ring during a flippy sequence and immediately throwing right hands to everyone. Money hit one of the greatest Pounces mine eyes have seen, with Kenway taking a huge bump bouncing into and off of the ropes. Money has such explosive power, always yoinks guys so quick off the mat and launches them into the air, just the perfect Rampage monster in a match like this. The dive train was big and wisely capped off my Money's crowd surf dive, there were several hot double teams (I really loved Esparza hitting a chestbreaker and holding it so Gakiya can hit a wicked double kneedrop off the top), and I'm going to love any match that features a big falling meteor from Russ. This easily could have been a long mess, but they kept it tight and crushed it.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JOLLYVILLE

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Gallagher vs. Dunne

27. Jack Gallagher vs. Pete Dunne PROGRESS Wrestling 12/30

PAS: Really nifty match to close out 2017. I loved the matwork, Gallagher is super slick, he has this takedown and almost MMA mount which he turns into an armbar. Most of the match was a stiff juniors match, and a pretty good one, Gallagher hits a flying crossbody into a bunch of chairs, and some sick uppercuts one of which may have broken Dunne's nose. I also loved Dunne catching Gallagher's dropkick with a huge powerbomb. Finish run was dope with Gallagher borrowing Kendrick's Choke Sleeper and Dunne trying to fight his way out.  I really need to dig into all of the WWE Gallagher because he was dope in this. Dunne was fun too, and this would be a great PPV opener.

ER: Phil wrote this early in 2018 and I totally missed it, but this was great. The opening matwork was my favorite part, which is saying something as there were a ton of great parts to this. But watching several cool transitions, Dunne standing on Gallagher's face while locking in an ankle lock, Gallagher floating out of that into a standing kneebar, it all looked cool but violent (Cool But Violent is a script I'm still working on for late 80s Richard Grieco). But Gallagher was a total savage through this whole thing. Dunne is sold as the more powerful wrestler, so Gallagher dutifully sold all of his strikes 3x as much as Dunne sold his, bumping back fast for elbows in the ring and up on the entrance way, but in between all that he was uppercutting and kicking the piss out of Dunne. Gallagher is real mean in this one and that's the best Gallagher; loved his crossbody that sent both crashing through several rows of chairs, and his low thrust kicks up on the entranceway (and later in the ring) look so simple but so perfect. Dunne has a lot of Rube Goldberg slams and suplexes, moves that involve a lift, a hitch, a flip around, before the slam. Some of it seems superfluous but the moves all hit with huge impact and that's the most important part. Too many cool things to list from the last 5 minutes, but I especially loved Gallagher muscling Dunne over with a tough butterfly suplex that almost lands like a brainbuster; loved Gallagher going for his nasty corner dropkick but getting caught by Dunne in a way I didn't expect; loved Gallagher co-opting Brian Kendrick's Captains Hook finish, and LOVED the actual finish with Dunne yanking Gallagher up into a sick and quick tombstone. All of this was awesome.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Santo vs. Bandido

81. El Hijo Del Santo vs. Bandido York Hall, London 6/24/17

ER: This was one confusing middle section away from easily landing on our 2017 list, and it needs to be said how cool it is that Santo is the guy using his lucha fame to work matches around Europe this past decade. "I'm a famous masked wrestler, I'm going to showcase that in famous museums and boxing gymnasiums" is a weird line to follow, but it's great. This plays like a Santito greatest hits, done as well as you remember them being played, but the best thing about Santo's greatest hits is that they never feel like he's just running through spots. He always puts something behind them, and their still shockingly beautiful. A lot of this is Bandido stooging for Santo, stooging for headscissor variations (I'll never not get excited for the crossed ankle headstand, never showing any light on his grip around Bandido's neck), fighting out of camel clutches, taking nice arm drags, and fighting back with lariats. Bandido eats a great boot in the corner, flying in with a dropkick and getting knocked out of the sky by a Santo foot, and Santo dropkicks him off the top to the floor before hitting a fantastic dive past the ringpost to the front row. This match could be from 2001 the way Santo is moving, and I'd have no idea. Bandido lands a couple corner dropkicks, and Santo (in tree of woe) sits up on the third and Bandido takes a great sliding bump crotch first around the ringpost. Santo hits an incredible crossbody from the top to the floor, landing high on Bandido's chest and making you come to terms with how disappointing the landings are on most flying offense to the floor. With Santo energized we go into the awesome Santo brawling segments, with him kicking Bandido's legs out, hitting high knees, and going for more clutches.

Things get confusing when Santo gets slammed into a turnbuckle while holding a choke and the match just stops for a couple minutes. Both guys are squaring off but nobody is touching each other, and I have no idea what was supposed to be happening. I didn't love the 2 count tradeoff section, felt too modern lucha and while Santo's sunset flip slams always look great I thought an earlier one was worked into the match in a more interesting way (with Santo being pulled out of a grounded headscissors into one) and I just get restless in lucha now when the guys start trading nearfalls for a few minutes. There's impressive stuff within, as both take nice vertical suplexes on a hard mat, we get rana pinfalls and a victory roll, and Santo's rolling sunset flip bomb is truly one of the great marvels of lucha; the way he rolls into and up and over his opponent's body is something that a 53 year old shouldn't be able to do, and Bandido is a great dance partner as he SUWA's himself into the thing. Finish run is fun with Bandido hitting a rolling senton and them committing big to a missed splash off the top, allowing Santo to finally sink the clutch. This match really wasn't missing much; you had that weird couple minutes of standing and squaring off, and the nearfall section could have been ordered a bit more logically, but if this match had somehow been the only match we got from return Santo it would have been proof positive that he hadn't lost any semblance of a step.

PAS: Honestly this could have been Santo in 2007, 1997 or 1987 and you really couldn't tell. He was taking bumps, throwing big shots, hit his awesome tope, and his classic plancha, both of which were beautiful looking and actually looked like they hurt. He looked 100% there, and if he can still deliver at this level, there is no reason he can't have one more big run in him. CMLL is setting up Atlantis vs. Villano IV and Santo looked way less washed then current Atlantis. No one wants to run a Santo match Wrestlemania weekend? NOVA Pro is flying in Session Moth Martina from fucking England, and there isn't one money mark willing to fly in one of the greatest ticket sellers of the 21st century? There were a couple of moments where Bandido looked off on offense, I don't know how much he has worked rudo in his career, and he seems to have lost the thread a bit. Still he is a really athletic guy, and sold most of Santo's stuff really well.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Skyler vs. Hollis Unsanctioned

56. John Skyler vs. Corey Hollis PWX 10/21/17

PAS: I got interested in this feud from reading a great article by Mike Mooneyham in the Post and Courier. This feud is the southern indy version of Gargano vs. Ciampa, long time tag partners have an ugly breakup and a vicious feud. This nicely mixed the more 2000s aspects of brawls (big showy bumps, weapons shots) and some really great 70's and 80's punching and bleeding. They start out by brawling all over the arena, both guys get slammed hard into concrete walls, and Hollis even gets his head stuck in a urinal. Skyler (who is the face in this feud) comes up bleeding badly, at points he even looks like IWA Cactus Jack. Hollis is pretty relentless on the cut, including pounding Skyler with a heavy chain wrapped around his fist. It is hard to do great looking punches with a chain like that, and Hollis really looked like he was waylaying him  Loved the false finish, they set up the table spot really well, with Hollis getting smacked by a ring bell and collapsing on the announcers table, and Skyler diving off the metal post and splashing both guys through the table. They do a whole stoppage with the announcers doing "Owen Voice" and everything. Security starts helping Hollis to the back but Skyler gets a second wind, jumps him, throws him into the ring and starts smashing his head into a chair. Unfortunately the finish brings this down a bit due to the run in by Brady Pierce and Gunner Miller and them triple teaming Skyler until Hollis pins him. I did like the visual of the heels ripping back the padding and exposing the wood beams under the ring although a 3 on 1 beatdown is an unsatisfying finish to a war. This was a balls out killer fight though, and got me excited to check out their I Quit match.

ER: This was definitely Gargano/Ciampa before Gargano/Ciampa, and this had a lot of what I've enjoyed about their big matches only we get blood, a more southern feel (especially during the early crowd brawling), and no Gargano faces! The crowd brawl was really good, making nice use of the venue and the camera was right there with cool shots. Hollis gets thrown far over the guardrail onto concrete, and Skyler climbs the guardrail to leap after him with a clothesline, and we get a cool shot of through Skyler's legs as Hollis climbs to his feet in the background. Both guys lay it in and we don't get any tired "walking and hair holding", just a couple guys kicking asses around an events center, faces slammed on merch table 8x10s as other wrestlers look on, hard strikes thrown, tough whips into brick walls (it's hard to make "getting thrown into a wall" read well, but these looked great), and of course a brawl into the bathroom. The bathroom stuff was great, and I'm happy we didn't get a commentary reproduction of Dusty shrieking about a lady in the men's room (which I'm sure was tempting as they scanned the faces of fans in the bathroom), with Hollis doing the lord's work by flying face first into a couple of toilets, including getting flushed in a urinal. The toilet stuff is disgusting, but I think also weirdly important to establish just how crazy these two are. Once you get thrown face first into a urinal that tells me "well these guys are down for any damn thing in this fight".

And, they really are. Trash cans and ladders and kendo sticks and chairs get involved, but they thankfully shy away from prop set up and instead focus on beating each other with all of those things. Trash can lids can come off flimsy and lame, so the workaround to that is hitting someone with the edge of a lid, slicing open their head in gruesome fashion. Hollis hits a slashing lid blow on Skyler and then works that cut, Skyler's boss Jack Burton tank top getting messed up beyond the damage even Burton himself sustained. They don't linger on these items for too long, there's no Tanaka/Awesome moments, weapons are picked up, used, discarded, but kept around for potential later use. Hollis introduces a chain and I think even the worst chain-wrapped-fist punch would look good, but Hollis hits him with a real blow. I thought the false finish was splendid, Skyler really flew threw that table to crush Hollis, and they just lie in the wreckage for minutes while being tended to. I loved security bringing Hollis to his feet, and really it may have been my favorite part of the match. Hollis' selling was perfection; as he was dragged to his feet and basically carried out, he looked like someone who accidentally took too much Ambien on a flight and had to be carried off by flight attendants and one of the pilots upon arrival. Skyler runs him down, throws him into the ring and goes wild, true babyface comeback. Alas, the finish let the wind out of the sails, even though I fully understand what it was setting up. Once it becomes clear that three guys are just going to beat down one, and nobody is likely coming out to help the one, it becomes more of an exercise in reaching the inevitable win. To get over the desire for a rematch, the 3 on 1 beatdown needs to almost be worse than the match-long beating that preceded it, and I don't think we got there. Country Jacked holding Skyler while Hollis punts Skyler in the balls was a great moment, but to really put it over I was wanting excess. I wanted Hollis to keep punting those balls, build that sympathy back up, make it something that transcends the played out "he hired these goons to help him" No DQ trope. The finish sets up the I Quit, and I'm excited to see the I Quit, but I thought this specific finish could have been worked into the match better.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Thatcher vs. Makabe 1

47. Timothy Thatcher vs. Daniel Makabe 3-2-1 Battle! 7/28

PAS: I saw that 123 Battle was bringing in Negro Navarro to work Makabe in a couple of weeks, and I have to respect any fed and wrestler crazy enough to fly in Navarro. So I figured I would check out the pair of pimped Makabe vs. Thatcher matches to see what to expect. This was really good stuff, reminded me of a Fujiwara vs. young guy match from UWF or PWFG. Thatcher was clearly contemptuous of the dirtbag arena and the goofy nonsense in the promotion, and he clearly figured on an easy night. Match opens up with Makabe landing a great looking Ishikawa style punch to the jaw and getting a near fall. Rest of the match has Thatcher trying to punish Makabe with submissions, and kidney pulverizing body shots. Makabe was pretty great working from below, and clearly is a guy who is inspired by the UWF and its children. I really liked how he did little things like manipulate fingers to set up submissions. Loved the finish with Thatcher trying to rip Makabe's arm off with a Fujiwara, but Makabe slickly rolling through landing a nasty headbutt to the shoulder blades and locking Thatcher in a Muto lock variation which nearly put Thatcher's nose in his own butt. Finish has Thatcher showing Makabe respect and giving him his towel, which was actually a touching moment. Very good match, and Makabe looks like a guy who could do some cool stuff with Navarro.

ER: Really fun match that is a true testament to the still relevant strength of a regional babyface. I was in Seattle just a week ago for Sub Pop's SPF30 festival and had just missed a show by this group by one night. I'd never heard of them before, but they run consistently, every 2 weeks, using a roster of people who I've mostly never heard about. (some names down from ECCW, not many up from Portland, and only occasional fly-ins). The crowd sounds and acts clearly devoted, and they come off like real fans, reacting to something not to be the cool person in the crowd, but reacting because they're driven to react. This was not an ironic inside joke wrestling audience, this was a crowd that really wanted Makabe to pull out a victory, and that was really exciting. Really we've seen this kind of match plenty of times from Thatcher, but the crowd reaction pushed this over the top for me. Thatcher goes all split legged at the bell after missing a kick and eating a punch, almost loses, and then spends the match punishing Makabe. I wouldn't have expected the crowd to be as into the grappling stuff as they were, but I was happy with reactions to small reversals. Thatcher had several, and I especially loved when he just stood up and grabbed an arm while Makabe was trying to lock in an octopus. Makabe never looked out of his element, just a talented guy overwhelmed by a more talented guy. I love Thatcher working with disdain, and we get all the stuff you love about Thatcher: an awesome deadlift throw, forearms grounded into Makabe's jaw on pins, slick armbars, all with that great scowl. When Makabe ran up the ropes and flipped back onto him, I thought that for sure was the finish, as it's a popular one to lift in this kind of match. I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't, as the actual finish was much better. Makabe looks like he practically snaps Thatcher in half with almost a combination Cattle Mutilation/Stump Puller. Watching it applied it's easy to picture how difficult breathing would be. Thatcher handing him his towel was really nice. It wasn't overly emotional, he handed it respectfully and left, but it was Makabe's touched reaction and the crowd's excitement for him - again - that really made that gesture feel huge.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Gallagher vs. Neville

20. Gentleman Jack Gallagher vs. Neville WWE Fastlane 3/5

ER: Awesome stuff, which felt like the match the Cruiserweight division needed. Gallagher is just a total nutter, and these two really delivered on PPV. They both do great at fast exchanges, and Gallagher takes some brutal bumps, starting with him getting his head whipped into the mat off a double leg. We build to an awesome Gallagher dive, with him just flinging his body sideways through the ropes and crashing through Neville, and back in the ring Gallagher goes for a prawn hold and Neville reverses into an INSANE whipping german suplex. Gallagher's landing was like an accidental Great Sasuke bump, just landing right on the side of his head and shoulder. Good lord. Neville's flying is tight and his big moves land with actual force, and Gallagher still gets some hope with his glorious headbutt, and this just felt like the match that needed to happen. Both came out of this looking good.

PAS: I thought this was excellent one of the better PPV crusierwieght matches ever. Gallagher is one of the few British guys who doesn't seem like he is cosplaying Jim Breaks. His WOS stuff felt like organic parts of the match, really slick, but not performative and he isn't afraid to get into the weeds when needed. That dive was superb and really felt like someone throwing caution to the wind. He is one of my favorites, and I really need to deep dive on his whole WWE run. Neville had really come into his own during the final run, he had turned into such a nasty shit, dropping Gallagher right on his neck with that German, Kawada kicking him in the throat. His splashes both look like they landed with a ton of impact, almost like 2 Cold splashes and he sold his ass off to put Gallagher over, I loved his collapse sell on the second big headbutt. Real shame he has been put in deep freeze for the last year and a half, especially with all of the lesser British lights getting such shine.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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BCW/CWF Mid-Atlantic Tap Out Cancer 11/12/17

ER: I saw the full show got posted online (Lee/White Mike, the 4 way, and CW/James aired on CWF TV) and the rest of the card was super intriguing (especially that main event!) that I figured I'd check it all out. This will all surely lead to me doing a NC road trip and doing a road report. I really love the scene they have there and need to start documenting as much of it as is available.

 Chris "TNT" Taylor vs. Beastly Brody

ER: Perfectly acceptable match on a card like this. I've not seen Brody before but he works a little more like Barbaro Cavenario than Bruiser Brody, and an American indy Barbaro would be a welcome thing (although this one has a little more respect for his knees). Taylor is getting there and would probably be better if he dropped some unnecessary flourishes; just focus on throwing a decent lariat or punch, not the 360 spin before the punch or lariat. Both guys do some things I like, Brody commits on a splash and has good energy.

Snooty Foxx vs. Tre G

ER: Pretty simple match with G trying to go toe to toe early, running into a lariat and Snooty's great leaping back elbow, then spending the rest of the match trying to cheat or trying to get Foxx to make a mistake. G is good at stooging into Foxx offense, like jawing with fans leading to him turning around into a side slam. I like how Foxx keeps things simple. There are too many large rookies that get into wrestling now and want to learn a standing moonsault. Foxx is learning more valuable skills like how to be a large guy but still sell convincingly. The end got a little silly with G's second interfering from the floor, leading to a kind of missed ball shot, then some fine fake weapon hiding that Foxx kicks out of. The ending was kind of a mess. But I like Snooty's powerslam finish, and the match was worthwhile.

Ricky Morton vs. Matt Houston

ER: 60 year old Ricky Morton is plump, but still unafraid to wrestle without a shirt, and that still means something in this crazy world. And this was about what my brain pictured a 2017 Ricky Morton match looking like. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, but there were enough moments to make it an enjoyable watch. Houston is a fat cowboy in his 40s, which is a worker I'm going to like, and he's good bumping around for Morton, running into a boot in the corner, nothing flashy but a good opponent for a 60 year old Morton. Ricky still throws a nice overhand punch, nice kneelift, and ended the match with a really great roll up. The match was probably worth watching for the roll-up. It was a gifable roll-up. He stopped his momentum in the corner by sliding down and grabbing the bottom rope, then yanked Houston by the trunks as he as he ran by, and got in tight for a snug roll-up. It was a roll-up that would believably win a match.

Dave & Zane Dawson vs. The Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy)

ER: You knew these teams would match up nicely, so that's not a shocker. These teams have their bit down, and it's always worth checking out. This had a bunch of fun "Killjoy using Lude as projectile" moments, like Lude rolling into a Killjoy-assisted backdrop or getting launched over to the floor (and caught) or soaring off Killjoy's legs to nail Launchpad McQuack. It's a real fun thing they got going. Dawsons really busted butt here, and they're both good at killing the Ducks while also looking vulnerable to guys so much smaller than them, eating a couple big dives from them and takings ranas (Zane flies all the way across the ring off a Lude rana), and doing Phillie Phanatic prat falls for them. I liked when Dawsons would just brute force their way through a Ducks flying spot, like Lude getting punched out of the air or Dave surprising with a dropkick during a rope running spot. It's a great thing they have.

Cain Justice vs. Darius Lockhart vs. Nick Richards

ER: The match goes a shade past 5 minutes, but they manage to get a lot of cool stuff into those 5 minutes. We get a couple great early moments of alliances turning on Justice, with Lockhart sending him running into Richards (who sidesteps him and sends Cain to the floor), and then Cain getting back in and getting punched by both Richards and Lockhart to send him to the floor again. The brawling around the floor was good, with Lockhart hitting a big flip dive as the other two brawled, and then doing some fun disjointed floor fighting. And by that I mean nothing was timed and dodged, nothing looked rehearsed, just a three man tangle with awkward shots like Richards getting elbowed in the back of the head. I thought everybody worked around being the third man well, and I liked the opportunistic finish with Richards hitting the cutter on Lockhart, but Cain hitting Richards in the eyes and stealing the pin. They made the most of their allotted time.

PAS:  Fun short match. Cain is really great at these small show benefit cards. He is such an expressive wrestler that he can really bring a crowd into what is happening. Even in a random three way with no stakes, he can make you want to see him get his ass kicked (apparently this fed ran Cain vs. Trevor Lee in a cage but that show is not on youtube, talk about a holy grail). I like all three of these guys a bunch and they really kept it moving and kept in entertaining. Cain stealing the pin is the perfect finish.

ER: We wrote up the next the matches (Trevor Lee vs. White Mike, CW Anderson vs. Mark James, and Royal vs. Sterling vs. Skyler vs. Tracer X) as part of CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 135. All three are worth watching, especially the singles matches.

Career vs. Career: Damien Wayne vs. Lee Valiant

ER: Real good match, and a perfectly respectable way to end a 10+ year career. Valiant was allegedly a babyface for a big chunk of his career, but I've only seen him as a heel and can't really picture him as anything else. But, against a bruiser like Damien Wayne it showed through. Both guys worked tight (as you'd expect in a big stips match) and both took some nasty spills. Wayne will take your punches, but he'll be right there to fire back with hard shots to the stomach (Wayne may have the best kicks to the stomach in wrestling) and chops that will be harder than most wrestlers you will ever face. Valiant takes a nice beating, including a Lawler level bump into the ringpost on the floor. Wayne goes in big on everything, so that leaves him open to some big misses, like a huge bump over the top to the floor on a missed charge, and those misses lead to a Valiant comeback. Wayne bleeds big on Valiant's comeback, but was a total monster throughout, hitting increasingly bigger and meaner elbowdrops (a big rotating one, a bigger, meaner, and prettier one off the top, and then the match ender off the top with Valiant under a chair), and a big sunset flip powerbomb off the top. Wayne never skimps on pins, using full body weight, making each Lee kickout seem like a big moment. Very good match, and hats off to some tertiary people in the match: I really liked the moment where Wayne was pissed about a two count and shoved the ref over (while the ref was on a knee standing up). The ref jumped up to his feet and got in Wayne's face that it was only a two count. It was done in a way where Wayne didn't act afraid of the fired up ref, and the ref didn't back down, but never looked like he was getting any kind of shine. And post-match, hats off to whomever filmed this video, as I really liked the looks at Valiant hugging friends in and out of the business, and the close-ups on the wrestling boots he left in the ring. Nice work by everyone involved.

PAS: This was really good. I have also only ever seen Vailant as a sleazy heel, but he was really good working under against Wayne. Damien Wayne is one of my long time favorites and he was a beast here, moving forward lacing Valiant with hard chops and all timer punches. I loved how he cut off Valiant's top rope attack with that hanging neckbreaker and hanging legdrop, such a hard combo to pull off without looking contrived and Wayne and Valiant pulled it off. The double juice helped the stakes of the match too, most of my Wayne experience has been from no-blood Virginia, but that was a great grimy blade job. I did think maybe Lee needed one more big near fall, if he was dropping his career, but otherwise this was great stuff, a quality coda to Valiant's career and a reminder of how good Damien Wayne can be.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CAIN JUSTICE

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Cain v. Kincaid

58. Cain Justice vs. Jason Kincaid Modern Vintage Wrestling 9/16

PAS: Cain Justice ventures out of CWF Mid-Atlantic (kind of, this show was at the CWF Sportatorum and had Stuttsy and CL Party on commentary), and has a banger with Jason Kincaid. Kincaid is a guy with fun looking weird offense, that doesn't always put it together in a great match. Justice is very John Tatum in this, getting flustered and irritated with Kincaid's shtick in a really amusing way, being a total dickwad, and breaking out some great offense. I loved all of the armwork, and Kincaid did a really nice job selling it. I loved how they built to the twist ending near fall, and Kincaid's roll up was a cool counter. I also like Kincaid trying to tap Justice, and how the commentators put that over as a big humiliation for Cain. Justice can do no wrong at this point.

ER: It's Easter so might as well review a match with dirty hippie Jesus. Kincaid is a guy I like, a real weirdo, like a wrestling version of when that guy from Korn quit the band to go be hippie metal Jesus and build homes in poor Indian communities. He's like a character in a Street Fighter game, you can even picture him in 16 bit graphics, in a yogi position making praying hands before the graphics morph him into a fireball attack. He has some cool offense, and bumps big, although I agree with Phil that it doesn't always get put together into a good match. It doesn't always depend on the quality of opponent either, sometimes it just doesn't work. Against our souther fried judo stooge, however, it works perfectly. Cain is perfect getting flustered by Kincaid, and Kincaid's dirty zen bounces off Cain perfectly. Even if it wasn't a great wrestling match-up (it is), it would be a good personality match-up. Kincaid is constantly one step ahead of Cain, until Cain catches his arm, and that remains a thorn for Kincaid the rest of the match. Even in the spots where Kincaid controls, he's really great at paying service to his left arm, and I really appreciate some of the showmanship (rubbing it between moves, slamming it into a turnbuckle down the stretch). I hate when Cain matches have a moment where someone lasts way too long in an armbar, and then doesn't even bother to pay it respect by selling it. Here they hit the spot and Kincaid was great at showing that even if he kept his title, Cain almost took his arm. Kincaid takes a couple big spills to the floor, but also a couple big spills into Cain (that cross town dropkick off the middle rope is great). We get an awesome nearfall when Kincaid hits a big stunner variation, and Cain gets his foot on the rope. Cain is really great at dramatic rope breaks, his ring placement is really smart, there have been a few matches where he looked far enough away for a rope break that I wasn't even thinking of it as an option, only to barely get part of a foot on it. Kincaid does have some goofy offense, but man is Cain great at making some goofy offense look great. The match finishing goofball Diamond Dust bulldog thing could have looked like a move that should not have ended a match, but Cain makes it look like it spiked him right through the mat. These two really blended nicely in a quirky way. Wouldn't mind seeing this run back.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Briscoes vs. EYFBO

76. Briscoes vs. EYFBO wXw 10/7

ER: Tons of fun, just go go go go with no stopping for breath, great way to start off night 2 of this tournament. Even though the Briscoes aren't too much bigger than EYFBO, they are able to convey a super overpowering aura in their matches, always coming off faster, stronger, crazier, and I thought EYFBO was good at finding their moments and bumping big for the Briscoes. We start with a kind of lucha style opening, arm drags and rope running and ranas, but once they kick into the next gear and start chaining together big moves and double teams they never look back. Match really got great once Jay got the hot tag and started throwing savage lariats, really throwing from the shoulder with huge follow through. Both teams keep one upping the other, everyone is throwing huge dropkicks in the corner, Draztik hits this crazy swanton into Mark slumped in the corner (vaulting off Ortiz), they set up some loony cutter in the corner with Mark stretched from the turnbuckle to the shoulder of Ortiz, and Draztik runs the length of Mark and flies off with a heavy crossbody on Jay. Mark takes out Ortiz with a cannonball off the ring apron, and Jay crushes Draztik with his best lariat of the match (which is saying something), and they really knock Draztik's block off with the Doomsday Device. This match couldn't have been more than 12 minutes but was a fantastic spotfest, not a second of slow down. I would have been burnt out already had I been there.

PAS: This was the best EYFBO match I have seen, as they have always felt like a team I should love but always fell short for me. This was total go-go stuff, reminded me of the great Garden State Gods JAPW matches in the mid-2000s. I have been watching the Briscoes since their earliest matches, and man have they fully gone in on their scraggly militia look. They look like they should hijacking Federal land for grazing rights. All of their stuff looked great, they have gotten so good at making little things look impactful, big highspots, but also great looking elbows and clotheslines. I haven't watched ROH in years, but I need to check out some more recent Briscoes.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Rottweilers vs. Nationalists

23. Low-Ki/Homicide vs. WALTER/Timothy Thatcher wXw 10/7

ER: I love a good style clash, and they don't get much clashier than two small Puerto Rican lunatics going against two large Euro clubbers. There is no chance Homicide has crossed paths with these two, Ki definitely has never fought Thatcher, and apparently Ki matched up with WALTER a decade ago, but this is about a fresh and weird a match up as you can get. In a fair exchange stand up battle, the Rottweilers don't have much of a chance. Thatcher tosses Homicide around with ease, and Ki matches up against WALTER...and awesomely suckers him into eating a kick on a test of strength. You knew this would roll to the floor early and I love how Thatcher and WALTER had no hesitation playing into the Rotts' game. WALTER especially looked like he would have fit great into JAPW, not hesitating to brawl through the crowd and jump over chairs to grab Homicide in a choke, Homicide's only hope is cheapshots and eyepokes (which I'm fine with). Ki and Homicide are two guys who can keep a match interesting outside of the ring, really felt like we needed a split screen, but I'm glad we caught Ki hitting a mammoth running dropkick on a seated Thatcher. Ki is awesome reversing WALTER power offense, loved him getting press slammed into the ring but landing on his feet to set up his shot out of a cannon dropkick, then he absolutely crushes WALTER's sternum with a crazy double stomp to the narrow rampway (and wrecks his knee in the process). You need something big to conceivably keep WALTER out of a match long enough to isolate Thatcher, and that was it. Ki is insane as even with a torched knee he still opts to lift Thatcher up on his shoulders so Homicide can hit the match finishing cutter. It's a shame the injury robbed us of Rottweilers/Briscoes, but still happy we got this.

PAS: This was a total blast, the kind of dream match you never even thought about until someone booked it. I loved how this went Bayonne, with the crazy crowd brawling, we just needed WALTER to press slam someone into a wall. Thatcher is known for his technical stuff, but he is a great brawler and isn't afraid to wade into a street fight, I loved him uppercutting Homicide mid tope con hilo. Homicide is really spry here, he feels like he has caught a late career second wind. Ki is so great, loved his insane reverse shining wizard and how great he is working David against WALTER. That double stomp on the apron was nuts, and the fact he lifted Thatcher on his shoulders with a blown out knee is totally bonkos. Heck of match to close out a pretty great Ki year.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Gresham v. Yehi 1

49. Jonathan Gresham v. Fred Yehi NOVA Pro 5/19

PAS: Awesome grappling battle between a pair of sawed off Mr. Hughes trained mat killers. Pretty basic grappler story with Yehi working the knee and Gresham attacking the arm. As you might expect in a Yehi match there was some awesome weirdo attacks. At one point he rips Greshman down from mid air while Gresham was attempting a leapfrog, and Yehi uses the counter as a way to put on a leglock. Yehi also has this great yank the arm German suplex which was one of the coolest German set ups I can remember seeing. Gresham is really skilled too, he chains stuff together in a really interesting way, and has some great counters on his own. I didn't love Gresham going for a dive and a shooting star press, felt like it belonged to a different match. Gresham countering the figure four by rolling both guys to the floor was super nasty, just a hell of an unprotected fall by both guys. Finish may have been better in idea then execution, Yehi throwing multiple up kicks until a KO is a cool idea, but they really needed to be nastier for me to buy a knockout finish. I really dug huge parts of this, and can't wait for the rematch to show up on Powerbomb.tv

ER: I really liked how these two matched up, doing mirror sequences without really seeming like mirror sequences, unique counters that didn't feel overly mapped out and never got too cute, innovative but also painful. There were cool variations on spots you've seen, and this was definitely the most I've ever enjoyed Gresham. He was a natural match for Yehi. They manage to do dance-y stuff without making it look dance-y (seriously, it must have been really difficult to get that standing go behind reversal sequence to look cool instead of silly), doing these cool fluid roll throughs or catching an arm, ducking under and using it for leverage to try something else that might get reversed, often ending in an exclamation point stomp to a tender area. There were many sharp and fast stomps and kicks to inner thigh, inner bicep, ball of the ankle, rough stuff. At one point Yehi grapevined Gresham's leg and stomped on the inner thigh of the leg he was grapevining. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Gresham has several great roll up counters, getting really snug cradles and high leverage pins, so that every time Yehi made it out of one of them it felt like a big deal. There was none of that "I pin you but push you away on the two count so we can get into position for our next spot" nonsense that is tough to unsee once you see it. No all of Gresham's cradles looked potentially match ending. I actually really loved the dive, it was out of nowhere, and did feel like it belonged in a different match, but I thought that's why it was so effective. It was perfectly timed and hit flush. Yehi got sidestepped and took a big bump around the ringpost to the floor, and with two seconds Gresham was already flying into him with a fast dive. The shooting star looked effortless and was also done with no time wasted. So I agree that they looked out of place, but I liked how Gresham used them. Plus doing the shooting star left Gresham pinning Yehi in the perfect position for Yehi to pop in the Koji Clutch, which leads to a great Gresham cradle (with Yehi having to break the clutch or else get pinned). I did not like the finish as Yehi's kicks to the chest from his back always look silly to me. It looks just as close to giving your nephew an airplane ride as it does aiming to hurt someone, and it's the weakest part of Yehi's large set of offense. The stoppage makes logical sense as Gresham couldn't defend himself and was getting kicked in the face, but the kicks from that position just don't look like they have much mustard on them. If they DO really hurt, they shouldn't be used any more, because they read like the weakest strikes of the match.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Demus vs. Wotan! Beard vs. Hair!

89. Demus 3:16 vs. Wotan Generation XX1 12/18

PAS: This was a hair v. beard match which adds to Demus's under the radar wrestler of the year candidacy. Wotan is too enamored with goof lightube shit to really be on a list of the greatest wrestlers in the world, but a couple of times a year he puts that to the side and just has these filthy hellacious brawls and they are awesome. We open in the crowd and Wotan is already bloody and Demus is throwing him recklessly into walls and chairs. I love how Demus uses his tiny body, he will just hurl it at whoever he is fighting, at one point they are both on their knees throwing punches and Demus just pounced forward into Wotan with a tiny tackle. I didn't love the finish, lots of setting up a particle board on some chairs and the Demus misses a splash and gets pinned, still there was plenty of this to love, and I am super sad about Demus shaving his awesome beard.

ER: I don't believe I have ever seen a mask vs. beard match, so it was weird seeing "Barba vs. Cabellera" at the top of the screen. It's also weird that a guy with a mask is putting up his hair, and a guy with hair is putting up his beard. Did Albert ever work a back hair match? If Lucha Underground never does a beard vs. beard match with Mrs. Madness and Mrs. Havok's sons then they're idiots. Joey Ryan feels like someone who should have already been touring with a "I shave ALL my body hair if I lose" match. Santino could have worked a unibrow match. Really, now that we know that a beard match is a thing, it just highlights how uncreative every other apuestas match has been, with proper credit given to Bill Dundee putting up his wife's hair.

And aside from an absolutely terrible, woeful ending, this match was awesome. Both guys are big bleeders, and the first shot we get of Wotan is him already covered in that deep, dark cherry blood that luchadors wear so well. We've already seen Wotan in maybe the best brawl of the decade, and sadly for him his best performances seem to come when he's opposite a total powder keg who will bring a beating to him. And Demus is certainly the most powder keg guy around these days. Demus-as-projectile is a guaranteed win, he's like this heavy medicine ball getting thrown at opponents. His cannonball always crushes, he flies into splashes and sentons, and he looks exactly like one of the aliens in Critters (seriously, tell me I'm wrong). Wotan has some nice offense (I really like his ankle roll senton, like Brad Attitude does, but with a little more lucha flair) and is a huge bumper (watch him fully commit to a massive missed dive as Demus sidesteps him). Both guys bleed buckets and throw big bombs into cuts, and really this match could have ended with both men just punching each other out and it would have landed in our top 25. But my heavens this ending was bad. We had an interminable prop set up, with the flimsiest board getting set up limply on 6 chairs, with the REF getting involved to help Wotan set up this spot that was never going to look good. Demus is selling this whole time, finally gets up and punches both men, then Demus takes time to readjust the awful prop, tries to splash Wotan but crashes through it and gets fast counted. What a terrible finish tacked on to a tremendous brawl. We would have been so much better off getting the video cut off and missing the finish. The match would have gone down as this legendarily clipped brawl and "Oh my god if only the match was complete!! Who knows what greatness we missed!?" Sometimes it's just better not to know.


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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 139

Episode 139

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Andrew Everett

ER: Good match, my favorite Laroux performance in CWF, and a damn impressive Everett performance. Everett is like a classic luchador: He started wrestling when he was practically too young to drive, has been doing it for ages even though he's in his mid 20s, has a soft body but pulls off incredibly graceful flying. Here they craft a super fun match around Everett flying around, wrecking his arm and shoulder on a risk, and then commits to selling that damn arm to the bitter end. Everett hits a huge Asai moonsault into the crowd, laying out both of them into chairs, but back in they do an expertly timed springboard spot that sees Laroux knock Everett off balance and crashing shoulder first into the turnbuckle. Laroux is really great condescendingly going after the arm, the best being simple push kicks to a downed Everett, hard enough to really rub it in. Everett straight commits  to letting everyone know his arm is killing him, and I love all that great theatrical wrestling, it's got an  awesome early 2000s indy charm. I remember seeing Mike Modest getting his arm worked over during a match and when he won and the ref raised his bad arm, Modest cringed and made him lift the other arm instead. Love it. Everett does all that great stuff like start to grab the ropes to climb them, then opts to pull himself up with one arm. It felt like Laroux should have really gone after the arm more viciously, but I still really liked what they went for here.

PAS: This was a more vicious Laroux performance away from being a really great match. Loved the bump on the turnbuckles which Everett took to set up the arm work, and Laroux's chicken wing using the ringpost was really nasty looking. Outside of that though, the punches, kicks and stomps by Logan needed more mustard on them to work with Everett's great selling performance. I need him to be more of a mauler, but I never felt the violence. Everett is a hell of a highflyer, he has tremendous explosion on all of his moves, that pele kick was as good as Meiko Satamura, which is high praise, and his SSP is really pretty. I hope him winning the belt means that he shows up more in CWF, I think an Everett v. Cain match could be really special.

Brad Attitude vs. Chet Sterling

ER: Another good one, although with an uncomfortable botch that's tough to ignore, and felt unnecessarily dangerous. Overall the match was a blast, with Sterling stepping up his brawling game and Attitude being the star that he is. All of Attitude's shots look great, and he does little dickish things during a beating like carefully re-smoothing his hair tuft. Sterling has a nice short right hand, good snap, and shakes the fist out nicely after the best ones. Fist shaking after a punch is something that will bump you up a hundred points on the SC500. The crowd brawl was fun, with Brad Attitude falling all over Dylan Hales in the VIP Suite, and Dylan being a good soldier by holding one of Attitude's arms back to make it easier for Sterling to get some chops in. Sterling pays him back by hanging him out to dry on a brutally long high five offering. Match threatens to derail when Attitude goes for an ill-advised splash mountain off the top, and it was supposed to be a Sterling reversal, but somehow both guys get dumped on their heads. It wasn't pretty, but it could have ended up a lot uglier than it really was. Still, Sterling has to sell like he reversed the bomb and didn't also get dumped on his head in nasty fashion, and it's hard to look past not selling what looked like the most insane (accidental) move of the match. But these two match up really well and I thought everything else in the match looked good. Attitude has great follow through on all his stuff, nice low superkick, spine shifting buckle bomb, and we had several convincing nearfalls. Finish was fun Attitude bullshit, with him distracting the ref to mule kick Sterling low, and Sterling catching the kick, leading Attitude to continue grabbing and shaking the ref to get his leg loose and kick Sterling low anyway. Sterling moves up the 500 even more by selling his balls while getting pinned after the match finishing shotgun kick.

PAS: I really liked this, and Sterling continues to have matches I enjoy, it is like he is going to force me to like him, I RESIST! Attitude is such a treat to watch. Honestly he is one of my single favorite guys in wrestling right now. I can't think of a better heel performer, he is such a naturally detestable guy, and is so great at both the little and the big things. He has an awesome spring board senton and flying kick, and a great forearm to the back of the head and flabbergasted sell. I love how he uses the ring apron powerbomb as a momentum changer, and how it sets up all of his future attacks. I didn't mind the botch that much, as it did look like Attitude took the worst of it. Finish was classic horse shit and the perfect finish for Attitudes character.

Cain Justice vs. Nick Richards

ER: I was wondering if Cain would kind of steamroll Richards, to show he was more than ready to step up, but I wasn't sure. We already saw a super quick Mike Mars win over Dirty, didn't think they'd go with another short match. But they did and I think they handled it great. Just like Daddy/Mars it was high energy bell to bell, with neither man holding back for any kind of stretch. They came in throwing, with Richards getting an early advantage and dumping Cain with a nice throw, but Cain catching him with a Crop Cop like high kick, just the heel of Cain's foot to Nick's neck. Cain hits his awesome pump kick, and in a flat out killer reversal Richards goes for the cutter but Cain catches him in a disgusting armbar. Richards' arm really looked hyperextended and I'm surprised he hung on as long as he did. Post match is great with Cain celebrating and Richards pissed, getting helped up.

PAS: This was great, I loved how intense both guys were, they figured if they were going to go three minutes, they were going to press down the pedal. I loved how Richards sold that big high kick, it totally scrambled his brains and he never was able to recover. Finish was my favorite finish of 2018, just a beautiful mid air reversal and Justice just wrenching the armbar, such a cool idea perfectly executed. I love both of these guys and hope we get a longer match down the road, but this was a hell of a three minutes.

C.W. Anderson vs. Ric Converse

ER: Two weeks ago we got the excellent show closing segment with CW cuffing Converse to the ropes but Converse holding the ace of an I Quit threat over CW. This week we get another set of excellent promos where CW talks about how saying "I Quit" 18 years ago has haunted him ever since (goddamn I need to go back and watch that Dreamer/CW I Quit, I haven't seen it since it originally aired) and CW is just SO so great in this promo, really a perfect wrestling promo. If his motivations were different, it could even be read as a babyface promo, confronting demons from his past. CW is the total complete package, one of the best in the world. Converse cut a great promo too, running down his history in wrestling and all of his memories and accomplishments. And you know he's torqued for this fight because he's sporting trunks!!

PAS: That promo was great, I love the idea of I Quit being the ghost that haunts Anderson. CWF does history better then any other fed in the world, and this is such a great setup of a hell of a match.

ER: And this match is awesome. They don't waste any time building to the violence, and within a minute CW is wearing a chair around his neck and getting beat with another chair. The match went quick and the violence ramped nicely. But CW had some nice tricks, including a bucket he brought with some weapons (a chain, barbed wire, a bottle) that would all get involved. CW was awesome as a Finlay type punisher, really feels like he's as good as any wrestler in the world these days. When he was in control he wouldn't let Converse rest for a second, kicking him hard while he was down on his way to get more weapons. CW integrates his wrestling well into a nasty match like this, firing off some perfect left and right hands (arguably best punches in wrestling today), wrenching Converse's arm in awful ways (beating it with a chair, bending and twisting it behind his back), sharp back elbows, his world class spinebuster, all paced perfectly. As often happens, the weapons one brings to a fight can be used against, and CW eats a huge rydeen bomb through a table, gets choked with a chain, Converse really gives as good as he gets. Cecil Scott on commentary was good at pointing out that they were far better off going for pain that a KO blow, how hitting a KO shot could work to your disadvantage in an I Quit match, how causing pain is better. And the finish couldn't have looked more painful, with Converse jamming a roll of barbed wire into Anderson's eye, getting a quick and fully understandable I Quit out of him. I loved this, just a great throwback brawl from a couple Carolina legends.

PAS: Totally great stuff, they come right out wailing, and they do some really violent work with chairs, including CW getting chair shotted while wearing another chair as a neckless. CW does some really painful looking arm work, including an armbar that looked nearly as nasty as Cain's the match before.  This was just two rawbone old pro's throwing bombs, no elaborate prop set ups, just a fist fight with occasional hurled chair or chain shot. I loved the finish with CW violently choking Converse with a chain, only for Converse to pull out a beer bottle from a mail bin like a close up magician and smash CW in the head. The barbed wire to the eye socket is a perfectly reasonable finish to an I Quit match, even one where Anderson vowed never to give up.

ER: Hard to get a better episode of wrestling TV than this. Three of these matches landed on our ongoing 2017 Match of the Year list, pretty neat from one hour of episodic wrestling and not just some "Greatest Hits" show.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Maestros in Monterrey

77. Black Terry/Negro Navarro v. Satanico/Blue Panther ERLL 3/19

PAS: Classic Maestros wrestling with a pair of UWA legends facing off against a pair of CMLL all timers. This goes almost 20 minutes, and is one fall so they really get a chance to stretch out and show their stuff.  We get a great long Terry v. Satanico mat battle, including some cool leg stretch attempts by Satanico. Then we get an even better, even longer Panther v. Navarro section, which is mostly worked on their feet as they exchange cool variations and counters out of standing wrist locks. Finish is the mat equivalent of a highspot train with one guy putting on a submission on his opponent only to be broken up by his partner putting on a submission. Navarro here breaks out a crazy leglock which should have been an all time legendary submission finisher, but he just throws out on a whim. The standup and rope running sections didn't look as smooth (Panther is the baby in this match at 57), but the grappling is still amazing. Really liked the finish too, with Satanico and Terry eliminating themselves on a double pin, we get some more Panther v. Navarro, they actually tease the double pin again (which is the finish for 75% of these Maestro matches) only to have Panther catch Navarro with a Fujiwara armbar.


ER: I remember seeing this match was happening but didn't actually know that it made tape, so that's a nice surprise. It's filmed with a weird lens so it makes it feel like you're watching a bunch of old legends through the peephole of your front door, but I'll deal. This was nice and spirited and better than I was expecting, and I just love watching all these men doing their thing. I absolutely loved Panther in this, and his segments with Navarro were probably my favorite maestro moments of 2017. Their standing exchanges and rolling were really cool and felt fresh, filled with things that should be stolen by guys half their age. I always think their slightly slowed down bodies work better for these kind of moments, that slower, older lucha grace adds a little heft to armdrags and roll throughs. Panther had tons of cool smooth moves, loved when he rolled through a wristlock, then sprang backwards to grab Navarro's wrist and throw him, it looked like a trippy breaking move. Later when Panther is opposite Terry, Terry has a brief timing flub, and instead of awkwardly regrouping Panther just rushes him and starts choking him. Thinking on the fly and covering for your dance partner has to be incredibly difficult to do, and it's a real skill to immediately know what to cover for. Satanico and Terry fighting over ankles was great, Satanico takes a great tumble to the floor late in the match, and once I saw Navarro bridge Panther into a pin I totally bought the false finish. I'm glad we got the definitive Panther tapping him finish instead. Panther deserved the win with such a great performance.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE BLACK TERRY

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Chico Che and Motocross Fight for the Hairs

72. Chico Che v. Motocross AAA Sanchez 9/16

PAS: So glad to see out boy Chico Che showing up again, he pretty much vanished after his last epic IWRG run, but has resurfaced. This is a hair v. hair brawl and is pretty much a one man Che show. Motocross bleeds and throws chairs, but doesn't bring much else to the table. Che is still really agile for such a chub, and his a beautiful elbow suicida to open the match. We also get some great Che thudding headbutts and a great top rope splash. Finish has a bunch of BS which keeps this from being a real top of the list contender, but still a treat to see Chico Che do his thing.

ER: This is a really really great "Oh yeah, THAT Chico Che!" performance, from a guy that I'm not sure I've seen since 2013. That 4 year gap vanishes as Che looks exactly the same and wrestles as great as you remember. Within the first couple seconds he hits a huge tope that crushes Motocross into the barricade, and in the first couple minutes he's already dropped him vertically with a seated double underhook piledriver, punched him across the bridge of the nose, and punted him in the jaw. Chico Che is the fattest Kurisu and it's great. I don't totally understand the finish of the segunda, as Che hits a full force crossbody and rolls away, and then just gets pinned. And that's a continuing theme, as I don't totally get Motocross here, but some fans in the back have a giant sign for him, and he takes some of the nastier chairshots you're going to see in modern wrestling, and lets a fat dude in overalls jump on him a bunch, so there's just a lot I'm not going to understand about Motocross. The violence keeps ramping in the tercera as both brawl around ringside and have a contest to see who can hit each other harder in the face with a chair. Neither win. Che takes some mean shots, but then gives it back to Motocross twofold, at one point wrapping a hard plastic chair around his neck and headbutting him. Both are bleeding, and we get some good nearfalls back inside. Che drops him with a nasty double underhook slam and splats him with a huge splash, but yeah we get some silliness with the finish, and I didn't think Chico Che should have gone down from just a nut shot, but this was a great Chico Che match.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Tigre Rojo v. Barbaro 1 Mascara contra Cabellera

30. Tigre Rojo v. Barbaro 1 ASR 10/15

PAS: Rojo is an old Arena Puebla technico, who is probably in his mid 50s, this is clearly his home arena (a painting of his mask is up on the wall next to Santo), so the crowd is going batshit watching him wager his mask. Barbaro is a Puebla rudo, and instead of working spots in an opening six-man they are spraying blood all over the ring, and doing dangerous dives no one this old and fat should ever try. First two falls are short and good, with both guys bleeding a bunch, but in the third fall it gets truly nuts. Babaro needs the ref's help to get to the top rope, but then he uncorks this crazy flying senton off the top onto Rojo and his seconds. Rojo responds a little later with a flying seated flip senton (imagine Fantastik or Super Astro) to the floor. By the end we get some great near falls, with the crowd going nuts. Some of the execution wasn't the cleanest, but I will forgive wonky execution when it is coated in this much blood

ER: Two fat guys enter wearing mostly blanco, leave almost entirely rojo. This is a mega bloody brawl, with some absolutely spectacular (and entirely unexpected) spots making up an all time great tercera. The primera and the segunda drew blood, big blood, and also set up great false finishes in the tercera. Barbaro crushes Rojo with a falling splash from the top to end the primera, Rojo locks in a Trauma-esque twisting figure 4. Fans are into Rojo and it's weird, I love rudos in my mainstream lucha, but I LOVE regional tecnicos. And this tercera is a real doozy. Both men are absolutely soaked in blood, and we hit an increasing level of highspots that nobody could have expected: Barbaro gets backdropped by the ref into everyone, then hits a fat guy Kamaitachi standing senton off the top to the floor through everybody. But the craziness peaks when Rojo hits a bonkers rolling senton tope to a prostrate Barbaro. Holy cow. This was way more nuts than Super Calo's rolling senton to the floor, as Calo's was done slingshot style. This was a full running tope, through the ropes, and then rolling before hitting Barbaro. If I saw someone super athletic like John Morrison or Ricochet pull of that spot, it would seem crazy. But here's a guy who - at minimum - is in his late 40s, and a chubster at that! Insane spot. We get a couple great nearfalls that were set up early in the match, with Barbaro missing moves off the top on that HARD Coliseo San Ramon mat (that falling splash is brutal hit or miss) that both seem like plausible ways to get yourself pinned. Rojo finally locks on that twisting figure 4 and adds extra leverage to the knee this time, getting the tap. This is the kind of match you dream of getting to witness live in a building like this.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Sabre v. Tanahashi 1

74. Zack Sabre Jr. v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJPW 7/17

ER: This was the opening night of the G1 and these two didn't seem to care at all that their limbs would have to hold up over the following month. Early on Tanahashi goes for his leaping elbowdrop and Sabre shifts to catch him in an armbar. You can ask why Tanahashi - with bicep tendinitis - was even attempting an elbowdrop, but you dance with what brung you and he paid. Tanahashi attacks the arm the whole match, firing kicks, and locking on painful octopus holds to overall weaken Tanahashi and make it easier to get at the arm. Tanahashi finds openings by landing a bunch of nice body shots, hard shots under the ribs, and going after Sabre's long legs. We get some real nasty leg whips and dragon screws, and a tightly locked in cloverleaf. Finish was a nasty bit of business, with Tanahashi going for the high fly flow and eating knees about as painfully as possible, leading to Sabre trapping his good arm and dismantling the bad arm. The crowd gets super loud cheering for Tanahashi, as Sabre removes the bicep pad and starts unraveling Tanahashi's arm tape, yanking and snapping that arm around like a guy trying to rip a branch off a tree. Tanahashi's selling throughout was good, and I especially thought his pained howls were effective. A lot of wrestlers have a weird habit of staying quiet through pain, and Tanahashi's pain was palpable thanks to his screams. Killer, simple match.

PAS: There was some stuff in this match that was pretty bad looking, both guys have some of the cringiest looking stuff for supposedly great wrestlers (Sabre I think is pretty good, Tanahashi I have never gotten). I thought those body shots Eric was praising looked crappy all windup and no impact. There is a section where they both duck their heads and get kicked in the stomach, and both guys do ever step in the processes badly, the head drops for the backdrops look bad, the kicks don't connect, the selling wasn't plausible, I was ready to delete the file and curse Eric for making me watch this, but it got really good by the end. Tanahashi did an awesome job of selling the bad elbow, and I really liked the viciousness of Sabre tearing at the elbow tape and his manipulation of the elbow was grotesque. It is a big deal to make a huge star like Tanahashi tap out, and the violence of Sabre elbow attack made it plausible, it was experimental, he felt like a sadistic toddler trying to find new ways to rip the wings off insects. Hard match for me to rank, as the good stuff was awesome, but the bad was pretty bad.


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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Starr v. WALTER

79. WALTER v. David Starr WXW 3/10

PAS: This is your other big pimped WALTER match from the WXW tourney, and I liked it a fair bit more then the final. We open with both entrances including some WXW fans sieg heiling WALTER incase you thought all of my jokes about WXW fans were unfair. Starr spends the first part of the match cleverly avoiding WALTER and using his aggression against him. Whenever WALTER catches him he really lays into him, every one of his forearms and kicks lands with real force, he is also really great at throws, there is a real explosion when he chucks a guy, and his slap down german is one of my favorite signature spots. Starr has nice offense and his big shots seem plausible, his elbows to the back of the head are super nasty, and he hits a big clothesline. Still Starr is a complete ham, his dramatic acting is cringeworthy it is on a 10 on the Shawn Michaels cry face level and it takes me out of the match, it takes me out of the drama of a match when one guy is going "LOOK HOW DRAMATIC THIS IS." Still there is a lot to like here, and WALTER has really turned into a beast.

ER: I always used to be slightly disappointed in WALTER matches. I always wanted to like him more than I actually ended up liking him. But WALTER has definitely grown into a guy that does not disappoint. Starr wrestles like Drew Gulak, if Gulak kept the strikes but decided to be Johnny Gargano instead of work the mat. He's a good babyface that hits hard, which is great as you need to hit WALTER hard to make things at least somewhat plausible. WALTER swings big and misses early, although the hits hit big. I love his big kicks and I love how Starr flies around for them. I love his throws and I love how Starr flies around for them. Starr wrestles like a guy with bad offense, and every time he goes on offense I expect it to look bad, and it usually looks great. That consecutive topes spot ranges from looking terrible to being a huge moment depending on who uses it: Seth Rollins looks like he's barely nudging a guy, whereas Blue Panther is old and a great babyface and makes it feel triumphant. Starr's topes here were closer to BP than they were to Rollins, and WALTER did a killer job flying around and into chairs. Starr shoving WALTER into the ropes to blast him in the back of the head over and over was one of the nastier moments I've seen in wrestling this year. WALTER was selling it great (although I'm sure a lot of us would sell a shot to the cerebellum pretty believably) and Starr's shots kept looking meaner and meaner. We don't overdo things to build to the ending, with one giant kickout by Starr after a release German and a lariat that upends him. I agree with Phil that I really would have loved Starr to dial things WAY back down the stretch. That wide eyed open mouth scream selling, like you're fucking Andy Dufresne bursting out of a hole outside your prison in the middle of a rainstorm after you kicked out of a headdrop? Stop it. But the good in this was great and I want more WALTER.

2017 Ongoing MOTY List

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 133

Episode 133

1. Jesse Adler vs. Ivan Ali

PAS: Ali is a really big guy, maybe 6'6 or 6'7, and used his size nicely although is clearly really green. I write this every week, but the Adler push continues to befuddle me. He had a nice baseball slide counter to getting whipped into the ropes, but outside of that, it is all bad looking highflying offense which barely connects. That 450 splash gets no height at all, and it looks like he is going to crack his patella one day. There are five or six guys in this RGL tourney, who I would rather see with this belt.

ER: This is my first time seeing Ali and it's pretty clear from just this match that if he wants to make it in  wrestling, he'll make it in wrestling. As Phil noted he's a big guy, tall with some size, and already has a good build. He's already got good offense, with nice long arm chops and tight forearms, delayed spinebuster, great falling clothesline, big fallaway slam, a good base of offense. Adler remains a true mystery. He did a couple things I liked, I thought his inside legs kicks were a smart strategy, and his flip over mule kick after sliding into the corner was timed great and looked smooth. Everything else looked landed somewhere on a sliding scale of "light and soft at best" to "looked terrible" at worst. His strikes all look bad, but there was a particular bad spinning backfist to Ali's stomach that just....wow. The 450 was sloppy, landed short, looked bad, the crossbodies looked like they wouldn't break the run through paper at a pep rally. We do write this stuff about him every week, but we reviewing these shows and he's always on, always earning these criticisms. We aren't really given much of a choice.

2. "The Pitbull" Steven Idol vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: I really liked this, I have never seen Idol before, but he has a nasty hard hitting style, reminded me a lot of a smaller Rodney Mack. Didn't do anything super fancy, but every blow he landed had force behind it. Daddy is great at these short forceful sprints, and these guys really slugged it out. I loved Idol's sell of the brainbuster, really looked like he broke his neck.

ER: This was really great. I'd not seen Pitbull before and came away impressed, and I always come away impressed by Daddy. Pitbull threw nice shots including a great left hand in the corner, and I loved his elbow drop off the middle rope, just a heavy falling elbow that landed precise. Rodney Mack is a good comparison, this guy is like Rodnito Mack. Daddy always shows up and I always come away amazed by the force he gets with his shots. That standing lariat packed an incredible wallop and his running elbows are always well placed. I like the fireman's carry airplane spin into a brainbuster, disorient your opponent and then dump him on his head, mean.

3. Mace Li vs. Metallico

PAS: Good chance to see Li get a showcase match. He has been mostly been used as the comedy jobber of the All-Stars, but he had some fun offense here. There was a point where Metalico went for a tope and Li just wasted him with a jumping kick to the head. I also liked some of his joint manipulation. Metalico had some highspots which he barely pulled off, he might be better off as a tackling dummy for now.

ER: This is the annoying part of the review where Phil watched the show first, and everything that I want to point out about matches he has already pointed out. There's a benefit to being the first to watch something and I am being punished for my feet dragging. All that to just say that I also really liked Li's awesome pop up apron kick to block a Metallico dive. "Block a dive with a strike" is a thing we see in indy wrestling a lot now and it's tough to make it look good. Usually we see a guy noticeably slow down and poke his head through to get hit. The timing has to be precise, so you aren't expecting the spot to happen. You have to believe the dive is going to happen, and it's tough to turn off all your body tells knowing you're going to get kicked in the face. But this looked great. Li popped up and winged a kick at Metallico's head and Metallico did and awesome recoil. I liked Metallico's smooth lucha headscissors and Li's cool work around the elbow, and it was nice seeing Li presented as something other than "weakest member of his team". Satisfying stuff.

4. Mike Mars vs. Kool Jay

PAS: They are building more and more to a Cool J win, as he had his moments in this match, using his speed to squirm away from Mars multiple times. Of course he could only avoid him so long, and ends up getting smushed. Cool J lands so awkwardly on his bumps, it always looks like a car crash.

ER: Awwww yeah, real body Khal Drogo versus my favorite crash test dummy. I now get really excited when I see Kool Jay on the lineup, and I love how we've seen him 4 or 5 times now and each time he lasts a little longer, has gone from getting zero offense to at least throwing some kicks and evading, and continues to die for our pleasure. CL Party even mentions that people on twitter post about him dying and I hope that she was referring to me saying RIP Kool Jay with that gif of Donnie Dollars introducing him to his maker. Jay throws a nice dropkick even though Mars brushes it off, and we knew were this would inevitably end up, but I liked that Mars had to appear a bit frustrated when putting him away. Jay takes some wild bumps, even on something simple like getting swatted away he kind of tumbles onto the side of his head. He makes slams look incredible and yeah this was fun. I am going to cheer so hard when he gets a win. Not many people have successfully pulled off the Mikey Whipwreck storyline but I can see it happening here.

5. Movie Myk vs. Big Time Yah

PAS: This was a match up between two guys who have trained with each other, and that familiarity allowed them to pull off some fun stuff. First real look at Yah, and I really dug him, he worked almost like Chico Che, big tubby guy with shocking agility. he had a great rana and cool flip dive along with some athletic roll ups. Mykk worked over the arm nicely and has a nice gimmick with his entourage running interference. I would have liked to see Yah advance and face Mars rather then have this end in a draw, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of both.

ER: I thought this was awesome, took a cool angle for a 10 minute draw, and I think could be qualified as a breakout performance for both guys. Yah appeared way earlier this year on CWF - and looked good - in a short match, and we've seen Myk a few times but always in a tag or trios. Yah is a big powerful dude, and I thought Myk had no shot, until Yah awesomely lariats a ringpost and we get the real story of the match, Yah mostly unable to do any of his throws or power offense, even though he would attempt. Yah was really great selling his arm (hopefully this doesn't continue our trend of praising Negro Casas for his rib selling and Brian Kendrick for his broken face sell of the G2S. If I find out Yah tore his bicep here I swear...), and has some of the coolest big man offense around. Early in the match he hits an amazing huricanrana, and he's great about coming up with offense around an injury: His flying clothesline was practically finisher worthy. I liked Myk's boys running interference, and his manager (I keep forgetting his name...) is really good. Myk actually worked in a couple good filmmaking puns (a heel telling the audience "Quiet on the set!" as he locks in a chinlock is wonderful), and thought his work looked good. I would have preferred an actual finish as both of these two vs. Mars would be really fun (and I have to think CWF will eventually run Yah/Mars), but this was a great 10 minutes of wrestling.

6. Mace Li vs. Dirty Daddy

PAS: This was surprisingly short for a semi final. There was apparently a big feud between Daddy and Mace Maeda, but this wasn't very competitive. Li got in some cheap shots, but Dirty Daddy rolled through this match, and got a relatively easy win. Really liked the staredown between Daddy and Mars, DD can really bring fire to segments like this.

ER: This was fine, but I didn't like how easily Daddy handled Li, one match removed from Li actually looking valuable (granted he was against a tackling dummy, but the Metallico match was a dominant showcase which saw him take hardly any damage). I also didn't think Li looked really good in this one, you'd think he'd want to make a couple shots count if he knew he was being dispatched so easily. Daddy looked predictably good, he really is a legit contender for best clothesline currently in wrestling. His elbows looked good, Li had a nice nearfall moment (with a so-so savate kick), and I thought Daddy's match winning small package looked good. And damn I thought Mars/Daddy was happening on this show. It makes sense to be on BattleCade, but I was geared up. I thought they were giving Mars the quick path to the title, having Yah/Myk take each other out so Mars goes in fresh. Now I'm really pissed we didn't get Mars/Yah on this episode.

7. Trevor Lee vs. Darius Lockhart

PAS: They fade to black and come back with Lee making an open challenge to Lockhart after just watching the action in the audience. This was another really good Lee match, he has been on a roll. This was worked face v. face at the beginning, with a lot of initial stalemated grappling. Like a classic face v. face match tempers flared, and it got pretty nasty by the end. Finish was pretty great with Lockhart screaming at Lee to bring it to him, and they had a pretty great strike exchange, not you forearm me, I forearm you, but both guys throwing and landing at the same time. Lockhart absolutely decimates Lee with clothesline, and gets a close 2.9. When both guys get to their feet Lee offers his hand, when Lockhart takes it, Lee throws him to the ground and cranks an STF for the win. Surprisingly heel move from Lee, I was a little disappointed that Lockhart took the hug and respect arm raise at the end of the match, instead of punishing Lee for his Yakubian trickery. It was a little more Martin then the Malcolm I was expecting.

ER: I thought this was decent, and I always like the "old gym shorts casual Lee challenge" idea. I thought it went a nearfall or two too long, and thought Lockhart moved back to offense pretty quick at the end, but I liked a lot of how they got to that point. The slow build was real good, and I dug the tentative grappling. I like the idea of Lee offering this guy a chance, and then kind of silently regretting doing so and turning up the heat. Him bending around Lockhart's arm and wrist was rough, thought the work from both around a Lockhart headlock was really good, and I love down the stretch when Lee uses the threat of a finger break to open up Lockhart to eat a low superkick. I wonder if Lee has witnessed how willy nilly and awful Marty Scurll's finger break spots are and actually thought of great ways to use them but not go through with them. His use here (and in the Otto Schwanz title match to prevent him breaking the crossface) were perfect. I thought they built to the big spots nicely, though I did think they took kickouts too far. Ending was really fun and tied back into Lee's pre-match promo talking about how he had been watching the Flair 30 for 30 earlier. By hook or by crook, Lee took the opening to betray Lockhart's trust and get the tap. I do wish Lockhart would have told him to fuck off after the match though.

ER: Sorry I've been slacking on these reviews, but we'll get back into the swing of them. This was a fun episode that for whatever reason took me ages to get through. That's on me. And Yah/Myk was really fun and could have finished well up our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List with a decisive finish, as it stands we're still throwing it on there, towards the bottom.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY LIst: Modern Vintage WARGAMES!!

71. C.W. Anderson/Zane Dawson/Dave Dawson/Arik Royal v. Chet Sterling/Mecha Mercenary/Aaron Biggs/Ric Converse Modern Vintage Wrestling 9/16

PAS: Good to see a real War Games as opposed to an Adam Cole stained NXT spotfest. This had fat dudes and balding dudes and some blood just like War Games are supposed to . Great CW Anderson performance, as he was the first man in and last man out. I liked the opening one on one section with Sterling, and Anderson is especially great at working a cut. Keeping Mecha Mercenary on the floor as the heels triple teamed Sterling was a clever way to work around the middle section of War Games which is usually the weakest. The Squad getting into the ring to clean house was a nice moment. I am not a huge Sterling fan, so a match based around him was always going to be a bit of a letdown for me, I also loved the little bit of Royal, but he felt a bit sidelined. Finish was cool and a nice turnaround from earlier, although we could have used a near fall or two on the faces, it felt like as soon as Converse came in, the heels were done. Still this match, if done correctly, has a pretty high floor and I enjoyed it.

ER: You know when an Anderson starts a WarGames it's going to be a great one. And, sure enough, CW is a total king throughout this whole match. He and Sterling start and he just wrecks Chet, busts him open and jams his face into the cage, takes some nice punches from Sterling and gives back far more brutal ones. CW throws a freaking metal briefcase at the worst angle at Sterling's face, just a super violent shot you'd expect from a Black Terry flea market brawl or a Rush/Park beer bottle brawl. Things really ramp up when Mecha Mercenary comes out to even things up, as Sterling has just taken a beating from CW and Zane Dawson at this point. The camera cuts to the door of the cage as Mecha is entering, and from off camera a CW superkick greets Mecha, then another for good measure to knock him to the floor. I love Mecha, but I love matches constructed to keep him out. He's great at selling longterm damage and he's great at hot tags and comebacks, so him suddenly bursting back into a match is always the best. Royal makes a great entrance by just running in with a chair and blasting the Squad with huge chairshots and leveling Sterling with a great one. Chairshots were something we got so numb to seeing, and now that they aren't all over a wrestling card a real good chairshot finally carries some weight again. Royal is a really great weapons worker as he throws relatively safe shots that always look like KO blows. I've written a few times before he's always great at safely working crowd brawls, and with safe/brutal weapon shots just give him another underappreciated skill and show how great he really is. Plus, his WarGames attire is flawless (really all the heels had great WarGames attire). I loved the Squad going on a tear, with fun stuff like Royal getting avalanched by Biggs into the cage/apron. I didn't love Sterling going off the top of the cage, just because WarGames matches aren't supposed to be about cage flying stunts (I understand it's not easy to make a closed roof cage, but don't call attention to it), but Sterling needed a big moment to make up for that beating he took up front. The finish was a terrific bit of pro wrestling, with a perfectly used celebrity cameo: JJ Dillon (introduced before the match) slams the cage door onto CW's head when he's trying to leave instead of facedown all four babyfaces alone, just a perfect way to use someone like that. CW gets tangled into a submission by Sterling and quits, and in taking his excellent match-long performance beyond the match itself, continues after the match by complaining that he never actually quit. We've spent a year hearing a bald heel deny saying things that everybody heard him say, so it was a great topical heel move. Awesome match.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST
COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WEDNESDAY MORNING WARGAMES

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