SUP Swing of the Axe 10/9/20

25. To Infinity and Beyond vs. Violence is Forever

PAS: This was totally killer, TIAB ramped up the violence to meet the potatoes that Ku and Garrini were throwing. Delaney was skin singeing in a chop battle with Ku and Cheech landed some nasty back elbows to Garrini's jaw and the back of his head. Infinity are the best team at the world at cutting off the ring and other old school tricks and I loved how they kept cutting off VIF''s double teams by pulling them out of the ring. They also did a great job of working over Dom leading to a wild Ku hot tag. Great traditional tag structure with moments of gross violence mixed in. Infinity crunched Garrini's neck with a Kudo Driver combo, and VIF obliterated Colin with a Total Elimination. They kept a crazy pace, but nothing felt overdone. Really good stuff, would love to see this be a series. 

ER: When this started out I thought it was going to be one of those inside joke matches, where we were going to get some gags based on something that happened the night before at whatever hotel conference room everyone was hanging out at. And while there is some comedy and Delaney wears a Buzz Lightyear backpack for a bit, once this starts with Cheech rolling with Garrini, Garrini dragging him down into an ankle lock and then each rolling through a series of cool wrenched in armbars, I knew we were running. I love the way To Infinity lays these matches out, and as long as opponents match the pace then the formula is lights out. Their best matches are filled with quick tags and quick set-up, and this had all sorts of complicated double teams and timing spots that never seem to lag or hitch with To Infinity. 

Ku seems like a guy who likes working quick and is a perfect opponent, as he's always running hard into people and sending his legs even harder. He had a sliding knee on the apron that looked an hair away from a broken jaw, and I like that he doesn't always go for style on strikes. He misses some but they always look like they're thrown to land. He takes offense well, will splat head first on a rope hang DDT, and had a couple of late saves that saved Garrini. The double team vertebreaker was disgusting, and it's a frequent reminder of how talented Dom is, while also knowing there will almost always be something this nuts taken in a Dom match. There were a few misses here, didn't love Ku's standing chops to hold of Infinity, and the big head kick as part of the finish looked like it completely whiffed (it's always unfortunate when the finish doesn't look nearly as cool as the rest of the match) but when you go this hard you're going to miss a couple things. 

29. AJ Gray vs. Nolan Edward

PAS: I am fully aboard Gray just becoming Black Stan Hansen (which feels like a secondary nickname for a Griselda crew hanger on, Daringer should totally start calling himself Black Stan Hansen in drops). The story of this match was plucky youngster Nolan Edward proving himself against a veteran, and Gray delivered the asswhipping that match structure needs. He jumps Edwards at the bell and just plasters him with reckless forearms and punishing chops. There was no carefully timed shots in between stares, just blows thrown with no real concern for where they land. Edwards fired back with some stiff shots too, just to let you know he was there, and got a couple of well timed kick outs, but Gray was a Mack Truck and Edwards was the possum who crawled onto the road. 

ER: You're going to do an under 5 minute match, this is how you do it. This is the kind of AJ Gray match that people will talk about when they talk about Gray becoming their favorite wrestler. He doesn't give Nolan Edward time to breathe for the first 2 minutes, fast walking from the back straight into the beginning of his ass kicking. He's throwing full arm shots, just pummeling Edward's body, hard forearms to the jaw, and I swear at one point picks Edward up just to send a forearm straight into his teeth. Edward weathered the storm and managed to send Gray off balance with a high dropkick, then flew into him as hard as he could on a tope (and what a great tope catch by Gray). Edward's missile dropkick believably sends Gray flying across the ring into the corner, and Edward hits a wild spinning heel kick that almost sends him flying to the floor in an unprotected tope con hilo. If that had happened, Edward may have delivered a meaner spinning heel kick to his own head than the one Gray almost decapitated him with earlier. When Gray finally catches him it is a no more fucking around situation, as he lays Edward out with three increasingly brutal clotheslines. That finishing shot has to have the claim for lariat of the year. Nolan Edward came out of this looking like a man for withstanding way more of a beating than most of us could imagine, and Gray came out of this looking like a superstar. 

Allie Kat vs. Davienne

PAS: US Indy women's wrestling is something I am a real low voter on, however I would much rather watch B- Aja Kong vs. Bull Nakano matches then B- Stardom matches, and that is what we got here. Two thick girls beating on each other until one of them drops. Allie Kat didn't do any of her cringey "I am a human cat" spots, and instead just threw forearms, jabs and sentons. Davienne knows how to use her size well and threw herself into everything. Didn't wear out it's welcome, kept it moving and had some oomph, this gets a thumbs up for me. 

ER: This was good enough for me, and a thing I really like about Allie Cat is her willingness to take a shot. Unfamiliar with Davienne, but liked her willingness to also hang in and let Allie's limbs and body land on her face. I did not like the moments of unnatural set up, like Davienne missing hooks by 3 feet just to set up Allie jabs. There's just got to be a way to make those look like they were actual misses. But there are a lot of hard landings and snug pinfall attempts, and I liked how Davienne really scooped Cat's legs every time she tried to cover. Allie Cat's best offense is when she just runs in and flings herself at her opponent, and she really crushes Davienne in the corner with a hip attack and cannonball. My favorite things in the match were when they twisted a sequence just slightly, like when I thought they were going to do a played out "I hit you in the corner and then you chase me to the other corner" spot, and Allie just drops to all fours and sends Davienne faceplanting over her. Things like Allie sliding on her knees face first into the buckles was cool, and I think plenty here looked cool. 

34. Daniel Makabe vs. Lee Moriarty

PAS: Reversal heavy matches are normally not my thing, but I have to give a lot of credit to all of the cool shit both guys did in this match. Makabe especially looked awesome, although I wish there had been a beat or two more in between spots and reversals. Makabe hits this incredibly awesome La Magistral cradle into a rear naked choke, but Moriarty is on to the reversal before it even gets locked fully in. Give me a beat, let me soak in that move a bit before you move on. The finish was a much better example of what works better: Moriarty puts the Makabe lock on Makabe, and we watch Makabe move Moriarty's legs into position before spinning him into a sort of a reverse Cattle Mutilation for the pin.  There were also some cool big impact moves, Makabe's top rope rana looked moments away from killing both guys )which made it great), and there was a couple of nasty suplexes too. This is Makabe's only pandemic match, and he made it count. 

ER: I thought this was great, while also thinking that Moriarty was kind of playing the Angle to Makabe's Eddy. Moriarty is very smooth and has some slick maneuverings, but there were several things I wish he let breathe. What's perhaps most impressive is that while a lot of things were moved into and out of very smoothly, this never had a big cooperative feel to it, and it's hard to get to this level of smooth without feeling and looking entirely mapped out. I think there were a couple times where Moriarty kind of left Makabe hanging on a couple spots, requiring him to sell in place while Lee set up the next bit of offense, but mostly this was seamless. And while I also wish there were a couple beats and I was allowed more time to ruminate on certain things, I was at all times impressed by the pace. This whole show has felt like a real "pace" show, and these two filled the most time of anyone, and it's not easy to make an 18 minute match feel like a 9 minute blur. 

The match felt like one cool reversal after another, far too many (and far too pointless) to list here, but they all looked great and only a couple times did it look like Makabe was intentionally leaving a limb out for Moriarty (there were also clearly Makabe playing possum sells, so they all easily could be chalked up to that). Moriarty targeted Makabe's left arm, and I like how Makabe had this desire to land his big right hand, and the more it appeared Moriarty had scouted it the more it made Makabe want to land it. Makabe's roll through reversals are one of my absolute favorite things in wrestling, the way he springs his legs back over his head to wind up in a position nobody was expecting to grab a limb or snag a pinfall that nobody was expecting, it's insane to me he manages to do it around his opponent. It never once feels like his opponent is adjusting their momentum or trajectory just to make his slick rolling reversal work, and that's wild to me. He has a great sense of where he needs to be to make a spot or submission work, and I dig the way he gets to that spot. Reversing direction on a magistral to drop into a rear naked choke would be a contender for spot of the year, and I hate that Moriarty basically slipped right out of it into something new. There's value to adding rope struggle or positional struggle to things, but this felt like the most interesting match that could happen while showing both guys almost exclusively neutralizing each other.

Makabe finally catches the Big Unit punch (if we're naming it after guys who have had at least one good season as a Mariner, I think that punch should now be called the Doug Fister) while Moriarty was up top, and eventually hit a crazy LATE rotation rana that I was not expecting at all. The trap leg bridged suplex looked outstanding, and I dug how commentary pointed out how high end Makabe's bridge work is. It's an important thing to note, as he has several different important spots where the leverage is made all the more painful with his bridging. Moriarty was eel slick getting into and out of everything, and that really did make me appreciate the home stretch where Makabe kept getting better and better at trapping him, before finally trapping him. 

O'Shay Edwards vs. Jake Something

PAS: I like that indy wrestling has gotten more legit big dudes lately who wrestle like big dudes and just hit each other. This wasn't a Lee vs. Dijak rana fest, this was all forearms and clotheslines and big slams. I especially liked the early section where Something taunted Edwards into going for a running shoulderblock, and as he turned his back cracked him in the back of the neck with a forearm. I do wish Edwards was like 15% stiffer for what he is trying to achieve. On this card you have guys like Gray, Ku, Garrini and Manders and Henry absolutely obliterating people with strikes and there are some forearms in this match that look pulled. Structure was cool, but I wanted it cranked up a bit.

ER: I thought this was cool, and keeping with the theme of the night of people running into each other as hard as possible. Jake Something really laid into O'Shay with everything he threw, including three different brutal shots to the back of the head. He nailed him once early in the match after a missed shoulderblock, then late in the match ducked a clothesline to nail his own to the back of Edwards' neck, then ran off the ropes to lay him out with the hardest lariat of the match to that same spot on the back of O'Shay's neck. I'm pretty tired of standing elbow exchanges, but loved how much of their body they were putting into these shots. You could see both of them following all the way through with their weight, and they looked like the kind of shots that at best would break my jaw and send me flying 8 feet backward. They didn't linger on them (always weird to me when people put long strike exchange spots in their matches, effectively making none of their strikes mean anything) and moved quickly into standing lariats, and there haven't been many times in pro wrestling this year where full arms landed hard on chests. 

We quickly went into a home stretch of big moves, like that diving lariat of Something's I mentioned, a Thesz press/Vader bear attack from Something, or O'Shay hitting a sick over the shoulder piledriver, and we wrapped up with another economical ass kicking. Although, at this point it's obvious that this match would have stood out so much more on a show that had a lot more variety. Given the choice, I'd rather see a show like this with a ton of matches filled with stiff beatings - a style I love - rather than a few bad cooperative flipper matches leading to a match like this. But having 6 different "people laying in the shots" matches is going to mean some excellent things blend into the background. 

52. Anthony Henry vs. Jaden Newman

PAS: This was our second young guy gets beaten by a veteran match, and Henry lays in an appropriate beating. I liked the early section with Newman using his speed to frustrate and taunt Henry. When Henry takes over he really laces into the kid, including some whip kicks to the torso which were Akitoshi Saito level nasty. Newman got a couple of nice comebacks before being put away with an absolutely vicious looking trapped arm dragon sleeper, one of the cooler new submissions I can remember seeing. 

ER: This one really didn't land as with me as some of the other big bangers, even though I liked just about every single thing Henry did. This is another example of a match that probably would have stood out on a bunch of other shows, but not really on this one. I've been to plenty of indy shows in my life where this match would have easily been the best on the card, but it has some stiff competition just 90 minutes into this show. I also think that you can't really go 12 minutes doing an underdog match on the same show where you had an amazing underdog match that didn't even go 5 minutes, and I didn't really think some of Newman's comeback offense fit into what they were going for. 

Henry can be really nasty and that's where this match was at its best, and you knock half the time off the match I think you end up with something far more memorable. The opening exchanges were really good, as Newman stayed a half step ahead of Henry while everyone knew it would last, leading to Henry dishing some good punishment. Henry gets a ton of force on his kicks, and at one point is just standing and walking on Newman's face in the corner, later he somehow pulls off a double dragon screw without making it look the least bit implausible. Henry is great at taking Newman's offense, landing on the top of his head to sell a rolling cravat snapmare, has no problem banging his chin on the mat taking an F5. The finish run was really cool, loved how Henry anticipated Newman lunging at him from behind and ducked, Newman going sprawling, and Henry going after his arm to go after his leg to trap both arm and leg while throwing a capture German. The ending of match trap arm dragon sleeper was sick, made me need to see Makabe vs. Henry in a battle of that dragon sleeper and Makabe's magistral RNC. I think I'm actually really liking this match a lot more, the more I think about it. 

Brett Ison vs. Erick Stevens

PAS: This didn't do a ton for me. I think this card really needed another tag or trios match, outside of Makabe vs. Moriarty every match on this card was some variation of a stiff slugfest. This was worked very similar to the rest of the card, but was the least of those matches. I have the same issues with Ison I have with O'Shay except even more, they announcers kept selling those forearms as monster shots, when we just watched Henry in the previous match. This wasn't an actively bad match, but I can't recommend it. 

ER: This was pretty easily the weakest match on the card, not just because of the same-y feel it had, but there seemed to be no real strong rhyme or reason to kickout vs. power up, and Ison's offense seemed to get weaker as the match went on (and the match was only 6 minutes). I liked Stevens trying to tie Ison up with subs, and some of the early stuff looked really good. That Ison face wash is a killer, even though it always looks like he half asses the lead up back elbow to focus on the face wash. He leans a bit far out of the double underhook piledriver, and the arm unroll backfist did not work as a finisher for me, especially on a show that's been filled with a couple dozen gnarlier strikes. Stevens came off much more impressive, and either Ison comes off smaller than he really is or Stevens works bigger than he really is, because Stevens worked this as if he was Ison's strength equal and pulled it off. This also would have played better on a different show, but the flaws here were more real. 

48. Manders vs. AC Mack

PAS: This was a really fun main event, with Mack playing the role of the sneaky heel champ faced with a powerhouse babyface. Manders hits a ton of big time offense, big lariat, Iowa Stampede, Doctor Bomb, second rope powerslam. Mack found a bunch of different ways to weasel his way out of loss, and give a big Un Foul to get the pin after escaping Manders. I would have rather seen Mack hit the Mack 10 after the low blow, as it felt like one low blow was a little weak to put down Manders, but this was classic Flair stuff, Nikita does everything but win the title, and you sell the ticket for the rematch. 

ER: Manders came off of this one like an out and out badass, maybe the guy I would least want to be hit by, on a card populated by nothing but people who I wouldn't want to be hit by. Manders got that heavy low end that grounds all his big strikes, makes every charge explode. Really the only problem with the match was I don't think a lot of Mack's stuff looked like it should fell Manders. There were two different kicks that were supposed to be big exclamation points to completely stop the beast, but both were grazing shots at best, coming right after Manders did nothing but waste Mack. It kind of felt like a babyface Shawn Michaels or Macho Man performance during some portions, the kind where they would eat a tough beating and then the heel would have to sell a Michaels bodyslam while he took forever to climb to the top rope. It threw the dynamic off when the babyface was just destroying Mack and half of Mack's entries into the match looked like shots that shouldn't have been sold. 

Manders has some of my favorite offense in modern wrestling, those running shoulderblocks and avalanches are full bore, his lariats and chops hit super hard (love how he throws missed clotheslines with the same ferocity), got a great powerslam, great Iowa Stampede, great Doctor Bomb, really I'm not sure he has any offense I even remotely dislike. He even makes things that could look silly - like his 3 point stance running chop - look devastating. I've seen several people try to pull off the running chop, and it never works. It goes against your bodies own momentum, you have to throw across yourself while also running, just doesn't work. And here Manders makes everyone else who's ever tried it look like a real dummy. Mack did have some great stuff, so it wasn't completely one sided. His Liger bomb out of the corner was a great surprise, he throws a couple of punches throughout the match that appear to target Manders' ear, neck, and jaw, and he hits a yakuza kick that really mashes the sole of his boot into Manders' teeth. I also wasn't a fan of the finish, even though I LOVED Mack grapevining the bottom rope to prevent the kickout. It made me want to see Manders wreck Mack for the title. 

Which, well, considering AJ Gray comes out after the match, eats a kick to the balls and just wastes Mack with a lariat for the title anyway, I am not sure when we're actually going to get that title match. Curious to see how they book the Bonestorm title going forward, but AJ Gray's lariat going up against Manders' um...everything? Also, Gray/Manders is a match that's happened a few times, and I need to seek those matches out pronto. 

ER: There are still some Collective shows I need to see, but it's going to be tough to beat this show. It's not often the weakest match on your show still stands out as a fun match, and this show landed a ton of matches on our 2020 Ongoing MOTY List. This made me want to see more of just about every single person on the card, and there aren't many better ways to leave a show than that. 

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Matches from Southern Underground Pro 12/21/19

Kevin Ku/Dominic Garrini vs. Warhorse/Graham Bell

PAS: I liked parts of this a bunch, Ku and Garrini are guys who come up with fun ways to really hurt people, and Bell and Warhorse also hit really hard, I especially liked the parts where Garinni would hold up Bell and Ku would kick him or stomp him in the back of the head. Still this had a bunch of winky shit at the beginning, Ku wearing a Christmas sweater to block chops,  Ku and Garrini bringing in crowbars and begging the ref not to DQ them,  Bell doing a dive that required both opponents to stand their agape waiting for him. Liked the finish run enough to recommend it, but disliked the bad comedy enough to keep it off a MOTY list.

Brett Ison vs. Zach Cooper

ER: I was really excited for this one when I saw the card. Cooper is a really young guy who hit the ground running in 2019, and feels like a real quick learner. I got to see him at SCI this year and at the end of my weekend his match vs. Manders and Big Beef wound up being my second favorite match of the weekend. It put all three of them on the map for me as guys I would be actively seeking out. Sadly the next night I was enjoying Cooper vs. Garrini, but Cooper got injured mid match and the match got stopped. Ison was a guy I saw in the main event of the same show. Ison won the main event, Cooper left the opener injured.  My eyes saw that story play out, and I wanted to see this progression. And it was fun! It wasn't quite the type of big hoss battle I like, but that's fine. This was more of the modern If RVD Was 60 lb. Heavier matches and while big guy handstand spots aren't really my thing, there are still going to be heavy guys slamming into each other. And if there are going to be cartwheels in a match, they may as well be Cooper getting his arm knocked out from under him on the apron. And there are some RVD spots that are much better as big guy spots, like their big corner dropkicks. Coast to coast dropkicks are going to look cooler from a 260 lb. guy. I thought things built well and had a nicely ramped finish, and both guys are going to keep getting better.

Big Beef vs. Adam Priest

ER: Oh yeah, this is a peak Worldwide match. Beef looks like if Chris Sabin was never able to control his munchies, almost to the point where it's a shame Beef isn't coming out wearing a Guatemalan sweatshirt. In another life Beef was the guy selling poorly made grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot of Dead shows, trying to bum a way in. This whole thing is 3 1/2 minutes, and it all rules. I don't think I've ever seen Priest before, but he makes a nice impression by cheapshotting Beef and hitting a big dive before a bell has even rung, and from there they work a quick sprint filled with hard shots and nasty spills. Beef struggling to recover from the cheapshot gives Priest believable openings, including a couple of believably thrown and nasty suplexes. Beef has a lot of size on Priest, so it would look silly if he was lifting him easily, so instead he hits a low angle fast German that is more of a leverage throw than a strength throw (bouncing Beef right off his shoulder), and later barely gets him up for a back suplex (which makes the landing look harder). Priest threw nice chops and was always smart about burying a knee into Beef's stomach before going for Irish whips, but Beef is what was for damn dinner tonight. He can really move and really lands with a thud; he hits an awesome crossbody while Priest is draped over the middle rope, just flying right through Priest to the floor, and he wins the match with an ungodly top rope splash that made me respect Priest more for not immediately puking his guts out. This feels like it would have been a legendary Worldwide match.

PAS: Really fun sprint. Both guys get a big to shine, and the highs were really high. I liked Priest coming out fast and fierce early, and getting some moments of real near falls, only to fall to that three move combo from Beef. His nasty powerbomb, into a smushy bodypress against the ropes, into a final top rope splash is about as cool a jab-right cross-left hook combo as you are going to see in wrestling.

Big Twan Tucker vs. Jaden Newman

PAS: Big Twan is a total stud and so much fun to watch. He would have these monster burst of offense, where he just slammed Newman through the mat, there was a tremendous spot where he caught Newman in mid air and just flung him like a bag of flour into a sidewalk slam. He also countered a dive by splitting Newman in half with a spear. Then Newman would fire back with some super weak looking shit, and make faces. Newman wins the match with a terrible looking flippy elbow to the back of Twan's head which he has to sell like he got hit with a lead pipe. Just a chasm between the credibility of both guys stuff, one of the most BS finishes of the year. Twan can take the beating that Manders gives him, and beat guys on TV like MJF and Ethan Page and he goes down to that?

AC Mack vs. Mr. Brickster

PAS: Man I loved parts of this a lot and absolutely hated a big chunk. Brickster is a super likable babyface, while Mack is a great asshole heel and this was a really classic pro-wrestling set up. Mack had put Brickster on the shelf for 8 months with a knee injury and Brickster was going for revenge and to take the title. It goes great for a while with Mack working over the bad knee and Brickster firing back. Then they do this long section where Brickster takes a dick pillow with Mack's face and has a bunch of people in the crowd hit him with it. This was the big babyface comeback to get revenge for a knee injury, having a bunch of hipsters hit him with a pillow. Just awful stuff, which ground the match to a halt. They then try to have have a bunch of dramatic near falls after we just saw the top heel sell a pillow fight like a chair shot. The finish with the GA vs. TN civil war stuff was cool, and it was smart to keep Mack on top and push off his eventual revenge, but I am losing faith in this fed's ability to keep their winking TikTok wrestling out of their main event angles.

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Matches from ACTION Wrestling 12/7/18

Michael Marshall vs. Chad Skywalker

ER: I really really dug this. Marshall is super fun and feels like a guy I should seek out more often. His wrestling style feels like Drew Gulak working as The Gambler, and anybody who finds themselves reading this page knows that's a pretty high compliment. I'm watching this in a crowded airport so couldn't hear very well (although I heard Dylan drop a Gus Sonnenberg reference after a nice Marshall shoulderblock) so I'm unsure of the rules, but there appears to be some Watts WCW at play: no top rope offense, over the top is a DQ, no closed fists, and it's a style that was derided at the time but is pretty refreshing now. Marshall hits all the basics really well, and he hits the stooge misses even better. There's a great bit of business where he climbs slowly up the buckles, facing the ring, lingering on the middle rope knowing the top is illegal, and by the time he jumps down to go for an elbowdrop Skywalker moves, then moves again when Marshall goes for a kneedrop. A good missed elbow or knee can be just as important as one that's supposed to hit. Both guys work real well as dance partners. I'd never seen Skywalker before but he added some nice flash within the match rule constraints, still showing off some athleticism without breaking the concept. There's a cool moment where Marshall upends him and Skywalker lands stomach first on the top rope, and later Skywalker goes inside out on a nice diving lariat from Marshall. Marshall moves really quick and hits offense real slick, but as I said it doesn't come off like a rehearsed step routine. It's not easy to hit a uranage backbreaker into a reverse STO, but he makes it come off like a violent act that Skywalker couldn't stop if he tried. The piledriver finish was an excellent exclamation point to end on, and I officially want to get Marshall on a MOTY list.

Fred Yehi vs. Arik Royal

PAS: This is a rematch of an earlier ACTION match, and comes after Royal cost Yehi a spot in the title match. Really fun structure with Yehi coming out really fast and dominating the first 5 or so minutes beating Royal all around the ring, stomps and chops and even chucking him off of the stage. It felt like an old fashioned walking tall babyface getting revenge. When the ref pulled Yehi out of the corner to check on Royal, Arik burst out of the corner with a huge tackle which upended Yehi, and a second low tackle which sent him to the floor. Then Royal dominated the next three or four minutes, with Yehi having a moment or two. Finish was super nasty, with Yehi missing a top and landing chest first right into the lip of the stage. That led to an injury stoppage, and Royal cementing his evilness by attacking the injured Yehi and powerbombing him through a table (a plastic table, which doesn't look great, if you are going to do a table spot, buy a wood table). Another fun match between these guys, who match up great, I imagine a gimmick blow off is coming and it should be killer.

ER: Love how these two match up against each other, and love how different this match felt from their previous ACTION match. Yehi jumps him to start and it’s fun seeing brawling Yehi. We get a lot of technical Yehi to start matches, him grabbing limbs and stomping feet and working waistlocks, here he’s all over Royal and Royal is always great as a guy who is unexpectedly overwhelmed. Yehi works a fast full body attack and tosses Royal with several low Germans. I like that the Germans weren’t high arcing, Royal wasn’t leaping up and back into these; they were a little messy, Yehi looking like he was struggling to get Royal over, as he should have looked. I love when wrestlers find clever ways to work within their surroundings, like when Darby Allin got chucked into the side of a balcony, or at an old Rev Pro show I was at (the SoCal one, not the British one) where Super Dragon would take his bump past the ringpost and fly into the wall right next to the ring. Here we get two fantastic uses of the venue’s stage, the first with Yehi and Royal brawling on it before Royal gets tossed off into the ring apron (and the camera was filming behind him so it looked like he got tossed 10 feet), and a major moment to end the match. Royal taking over is fun, as usually you see Royal still cockily cracking jokes during a beatdown, and here he is just no funny business, punishing Yehi for getting the drop on him. The tackle that allowed him to take over was an all-timer, just totally blindsiding Yehi and sending him flying in a wild direction, like some dumb teens filming themselves jumping over a moving car stunt gone wrong. Yehi looked like a skinny kid getting double jumped by a couple of fat kids on a trampoline. Royal’s diving shoulder tackle a moment later was sweet icing, just unceremoniously shoving Yehi to the floor with a thud. Royal controlled with a bunch of boot chokes, nasty stomps to the jaw, some moments where Yehi looked well rocked. And that finish! If you’re going to do a contour or stoppage finish, do something like this. Yehi starts making his comeback and goes for a dive, only Royal steps aside and Yehi topes chest first right into the stage. I watched this match on a plane on my way to see Yehi/Makabe and some guy sitting next to me (whom I didn’t realize was watching) let out a loud “OH!” I liked the postmatch, didn’t have the same problem with the table that Phil did. I kind of liked the visual of the hard plastic table collapsing under the force of the powerbomb. ACTION could really stretch this feud out over a couple different stip matches, and I’ll be totally cool with it.

Billy Buck vs. Cam Carter

ER: This looked like a match that would deliver on paper, and it totally did. This thing is only 10 minutes but the pace is so constant that they squeezed an absurd amount of action into the run time. There really wasn't much selling to speak of, and it threatened to devolve into move trading but I don'y think it ever got there, instead it just felt like two guys with good chemistry doing cool shit. I wish they had treated some things with a bit more weight (there was a nice running knee to the chin by Buck that everyone immediately moved on from, and an even better running knee from Carter that got moved past pretty quickly), but the action was cool. Carter (with Sky Walker confusingly on his tights, on a show that has a guy named Skywalker) hits a big dive into the crowd and is super quick (in a way that a LOT of these ACTION guys are really quick, they're like Dragons Gate guys but with nice strikes) and a grounded deceptively quick striker like Buck plays off Carter's style really well. I always think of Buck as a hard hitting ground guy, but then he always surprises me with cool agility stuff, like here he had a really slick rana that wasn't *quite* as impressive as that time we all saw Gran Markus Jr. hit a rana, but looked nice nevertheless. In a world where superkicks have been rendered meaningless, Buck knows how to throw a superkick with some punch, and his is good enough that you buy it as a finish (which got us a nice nearfall). Fans flipped out when Buck kicked out of a killer Carter powerbomb, and like I said by the time this was over I couldn't believe only 10 minutes had passed due to how much stuff I had just seen. Total hot sprint, great chemistry.

Slim J vs. Alan Angels vs. AC Mack vs. Ike Cross

PAS: This was a four way elimination match to crown an ACTION champion. It had some of the flaws inherent in four way, lots of guys having to disappear for a while, some contrived spots, but it had a lot of strong moments too. The match had a lot of very cool cut off spots, lots of guys running into huge spots, Angels flies into a Cross spinebuster, Cross cuts several folks off with big spears and there was an awesome spot near the finish where Mack cuts off a spear with a leaping pedigree. Slim J went out first which was a bit of a disappointment, he had some cool moments though including a great Hector Garza style corkscrew plancha. Angels looked good too as a cheapshot artist. The story of the match was Mack vs. Cross, they had a long singles section against each other to end the match, and I think that will be a great rivalry to build the main event around.

ER: I thought this was fantastic, a well oiled modern extension of a classic M-Pro multiman, though I actually liked the multiman portion more than the singles match ending. They were doing this great crazy M-Pro match but with little cool southern wrestling touches, moments like AC Mack yelling from the floor (out of eyesight from Cross) "Don't worry buddy, I got your back!" while Cross is locked in a sub. M-Pro with southern character building is a cool niche to exploit and I was in.to.it. Slim J is an absolute great, he's the greatest successor to Rey Mysterio, but there are times when he seems even better than Mysterio. Here he's whipping off loony flying - that Garza corkscrew plancha had such a straight line and target that looked more like Dhalsim's drill attack than anything a human should be able to do - but also throwing the hardest strikes in the match. Slim was throwing full arm attacks at the head, like a smaller faster Vader bear attack strike, but also throwing these insanely powerful lariats with both arms. He's a total powerhouse who can lift guys and hit hard, all while moving like Baryshnikov. So, yes, the match suffers a bit when Slim is the first guy out. But the energy was there and we got some nice shows of Mack's timing, a little comedy when Cross no sells an Angels lariat (with Cecil Scott breaking out a well placed "Oh baby what is you doing?"), a couple crowd dives from Angels, Cross spearing Angels hard after Mack dodges, and a killer finish of Mack dodging spears from Cross until he perfectly times the combo breaker and hits the Mack 10 off a spear attempt. Mack worked a little more deliberate when it was down to he and Cross, and it felt like a bit too much of a comedown from the pace we'd been at, but the work was real good.

ER: ACTION is a great show every time out, I've never regretted watching a single one. Feds like them and AIW are some of the most exciting wrestling going these days. No shocker, we're throwing Yehi/Royal and the main event on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. This is a great wrestling product, and we'll continue supporting it.

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #1: IWTV Family Reunion

PAS: Segunda Caida rides again, as Eric, Phil and Tomk met up to do all of Wrestlemania weekend in one day. We started out at the White Eagle Hall for Family Reunion

ER: Phil and I had a nice unexpected breakfast of hot dosas, lemon rice, spicy soup, and I had a delicious chicory madras coffee. We hadn't planned on going for dosas, but it was a close walk and the place totally delivered. The ladies and baby broke free for a fun day in the city, while Phil and I had a nice walk over to the White Eagle Hall, where we would be spending the bulk of our day. I love walking around places like this and seeing big brick school buildings and churches, because we can't have brick buildings out on the west coast, with our sick and constant fear of earthquakes. I like seeing the buildings, and graveyards right in the middle of the city, while Phil told me amusing pick-up basketball gym stories (as I realize that 60% of what Phil tells me about are pick-up basketball gym stories...). The White Eagle is a cool spot, nice stained skylights and seeing wrestling with daylight pouring in through doors is a cool vibe. Tom meets us there as we grab a nice spot in the third row, right by the entrance curtain.

TKG: Phil and Eric explain the concept of Family Reunion as this big interpromotional showcase thing and I go “Oh like Breaking the Barrier”. Spend the entire show trying to figure out which match this would have been the functional equivalent on Breaking the Barrier but refuse to use my cell to look up the actual card.

Orange Cassidy vs. Johnathan Gresham

PAS: Not for me. Good for Cassidy for finding a way to get himself over and not killing himself. Colt Cabana had a way longer career then Necro Butcher. Doesn't mean I want to watch one second of it. Gresham not only has to sell all of his yuks, but has to get squashed by his yuks. I dunno, a Kip up with hands in your pockets is athletically impressive I guess.

ER: Not really any of our thing, but it's better to get that kind of match out of the way first. That way we were able to catch-up and go through formalities with Tom without having to remember too much stuff about the match for later. I'm always a fan of people working the system, and Cassidy has tapped into something easy on the body that people clearly want to see. If you have the personality to pull it off, and you aren't dropping yourself on your head? Do it man. Phil, Tom, and I weren't laughing, but we were in the minority. Hands in joggers and sunglasses and pops, can't say he's doing it wrong. We felt bad for Gresham all day. Here he has to open up his day, the start of the biggest indy wrestling showcase of the year, and he has to spend 10 minutes entirely putting over the entire shtick of somebody else, and then lose, twice! Gresham was essentially the theatre hand wearing all black to be hidden from the audience, while busting their ass for an elaborate prop moving moment. All the work, none of the credit. Are their any matches where someone gets to make Cassidy pay for his nonchalance?

TKG: I like Jeff Spicoli, like David Wooderson, enjoy some Owen Wilson. This left me cold. On Breaking the Barrier, Stevie Richards was able to get his comedy gimmick over without making Tom Brandi feel like a prop. Post-match MJF comes out working gimmick of Jersey used car salesman who listens to a lot of MJG. I think that’s the gimmick. Me and Phil argue if he is supposed to be rich and pompous or a guy who aspires to be rich and pompous. He had a poorly tailored suit but a nicely accessorized off the rack scarf.

Shane Sabre/Space Monkey/Brett Michael David vs. Justin Sane/Kobe Durst/Kody Lane

PAS: This match was indy wrestling the names. How is there a match where Shane Sabre isn't the most PWI 500 name in the match? This was a six man tag showcase, with all that implies. Some stuff looked good, I like BMD's clothesline a bunch, some stuff looked OK, and a fair amount looked weak. The kind of match where you would try to find individual moments to enjoy, but the match as a whole wasn't it.

ER: Look at this lineup of names! This match was totally worth it just for the names alone. This felt like the first time I read a PWI 500 and actually thought the process was legitimate. I would love to do an SC 500 but it would weirdly be harder to do now as we have access to far more stuff than we ever did before, and less time than ever to watch it. I had seen a couple of these guys before. Tom had never seen Space Monkey, and by the end of the day he'd have seen Space Monkey more times live than most guys he genuinely liked. In fairness to the monkey, he seemed to get better each match of his we saw over the 14 hour stretch. New outfits each time, too. Had a banana flask this time and hit a big moonsault off the top to the floor at one point. It was at least an honorable mention for best dive of the day. Justin Sane was a guy who seemed better than his name; I joked that it would be funny if an indy guy was name Just Insane, like he thought it sounded cool and didn't understand it was a pun. Brett Michael David felt like the name of a guy working a Rock of Love gimmick, but he was the biggest guy in the match and had a couple nice strikes and nice lariat. I think BMD was the most memorable here.

TKG: I had actually seen Space Monkey before and thought this was the best of his matches. He needs to watch some GG Allin and work for the scat fans who Joey Ryan is unwilling to reach. Him BMD and Justin Zane seemed totally competent.

Red Eagle vs. Ethan Page vs. Ophidian vs. Arik Cannon vs. Mikey vs. Mike Verna

PAS: Weird match where the relative newcomers Mikey, Verna and Eagle looked more polished and professional then the decade plus veterans they were in there with. Page is on a zillion shows this weekend and was on cruise control here. Verna is from IWA Italy (not sure if that fed was part of Ian's early 2000s expansion) and has some cool strength spots. Outside of that this was pretty forgettable.

ER: This was fine, they've done a good job this show and kept all the six man stuff around 10 minutes and moving briskly. I actually like Arik Cannon here, thought he was the most impressive bumper out of the bunch, seems in better shape than over 12 years ago when I saw him more frequently. The other two vets I can do without. Ophidian has been doing the same routine that I wasn't interested in over a decade ago. Ethan Page showed off his comedy chops in this one, and between he and MJF sitting in the crowd mugging and hamming up hack jokes, I had already had enough comedy in wrestling for the day. Lucky for us Page and MJF were also guys we couldn't stay away from all damn day. Shane Sabre was fine and had the most classic name of all, made us all actually giggle every time we mentioned it. Mikey looked like Yahoo Serious and had a dumb fun mustache, and like the better comedy wrestlers he took a couple nice bumps. Yelling "Here's my moment!" right before running into a big bump is a funny spot.

TKG: Of all the comedy guys I saw, Mikey may have had the best comic timing. It never felt like he was just trying to force gags in, all made sense in the context of what was happening. Bet he has an interesting ladder match in him. That fucking simultaneous DDT one guy while suplexing or ace crushering other guy spot was whipped out a bunch over course of day…not sure if it was in this match but felt like every match and there is no reason to do it. Total Elimination was a fucking superkick/Russian leg sweep. You have multiple guys in ring have them do combo moves doing solo combos always looks a little blown.

Bell Pierce/Jack Bonza/Mick Moretti vs. Caveman Ugg/Steph De Lander/Unsocial Jordan

PAS: This was an all Australian trios match which had some moments. I thought Bonza had some fun tricky mat stuff and Ugg was really impressive. He obliterates Pierce with a chop, which felt boundary pushing and was really agile for a big dude. Pierce has a spot which she blows glitter at her opponents, which is a really dick move towards anyone else who has to wrestle on this show.

ER: This was also a perfectly fine 6 man, with the brief section of De Lander vs. Pierce being the only really weak portion. Tom was just happy that Bel Pierce gave us a better pun name than Justin Sane. Moretti is a guy I like and he had a couple big bumps here. This was our collective first time seeing Ugg and we all came away impressed. We thought we were getting the "Cavemen aren't sending their best" version of Cavernario, but Ugg moved quick for a bigger guy and hit hard, showed enough to make me watch Ugg the next time I see he's on a show I'm already watching. Pierce did have a funny moment where she threw glitter everywhere. It meant that every single wrestler that hit the mat the rest of the day in this venue was going to have glitter on their torso for the next week.

TKG: my son really likes Raymond Brigg’s Ug Boy Genius of the Stone Age so I want a little more sadness out of my Caveman Ugg…my desire for hints of suicidal Owen Wilson under the laid back veneer of Orange Cassidy or sadness at Caveman’s inability to improve his quality of life…may be too much to ask for wrestling gimmick. The Lazertron-ish, Unsocial Jordan made sense as a caveman’s tag partner.

Isaias Velazquez/Kylie Rae vs. Robert Anthony/Shotzi Blackheart

ER: Most memorable thing about this was Tom repeatedly asking what Egotistico Fantastico's gimmick was supposed to be now. They were more familiar with him than I was. First look at Kylie Rae and she was fine, though her Bayley gimmick would play better on a local show that would actually be attended by dads with their little daughters, instead of a show filled with weirdos who already had beer sweats at 1:15 PM. It was cool seeing Shotzi getting east coast bookings in person. Rachel and I have been seeing her for years. She was originally eye candy on a local Bay Area Saturday night public domain horror movie show called Creepy KOFY Movie Time, a weekly staple in our house until its demise. When she got into wrestling it made sense, she was always a performer who didn't seem to get nervous. She has good energy and I think eventually her ability will match up to her potential. I thought Frank the Clown was an unexpectedly good second. I had heard the name and heard that people couldn't stand him, but I'd never seen anything he was in. I thought he looked scummier and meaner than anticipated and looked like a guy who got his role. Felt like his routine was actually pretty effective.

PAS: Anthony was a big part of the IWA-MS run with Dingo and the two guys named Jayson having a loser has to change his first name feud. Not the best part of not the best run of IWA-MS but a fine guy. Good idea dumping the racist gimmick, although his new gimmick seems to be guy obsessed with Cactus Jack's weird son-in-law, which doesn't seem to have legs. He seemed like a guy who knew how to get heat, and Frank the Clown is actually an effective second.

TKG: Back when “ha ha Mexicans are funny” racist gimmicks were all the rage on the indies with probably El Generico being most successful, Egotistico Fantastico was one of the more egregious with all of his moves named after Taco Bell items. Does anyone still do that gimmick? Just El Ligero? Anyway, Robert Anthony really impressed in this, easily most polished guy on show thus far and probably top 5 by end of show. All of his stuff looked great and he ate everything well. Lots of times during show, you got the sense that you were watching parejas increibles matches where guys not always on same page as to if they were heels or faces but he was real clear. And he looked like he wanted to beat opponent and didn’t want to be beaten. I thought he also did real nice selling for Rae in believable manner. He is guy I’d watch again.

Fred Yehi vs. AC Mack

PAS: One of the matches I was most looking forward to of the day, and it unfortunately fell a bit short of expectations. Love both guys, love ACTION wrestling, but this never hit the gear it could have, and Mack seemed a bit off. Mack was able to get some real heel heat, and I have no idea why MJF is booked on fifty shows over the weekend, and Yehi is only on two. Yehi seems to be working a Soul Glo gimmick, and we added activator juice to the glitter which was already all over the ring. Guys this talented aren't going to have a dud, but this should have stolen the show and really didn't.

ER: I really did build this one up a lot in my head. This was one that I would have had in my 5 most anticipated matches of the weekend, which was probably setting a high bar in retrospect. AC Mack is a fairly recent discovery for us, when we started getting access to ACTION shows last year, but was an immediate favorite. This was probably the least performance I've seen from him, and I felt kinda bad building him up to Tom so much. I still think the stuff I've seen from him speaks for itself, and this felt like more of an off night than a norm. The match also felt very rushed, and maybe that threw things off a bit. We still got some fine moments - these two have a higher floor than most - but I think I was relatively justified in my high expectations and this didn't approach that. 

TKG: Why wasn’t Yehi being used more? He came out as part of Kelly Klein’s entourage on the ROH show. Mack is working heel and actually got heel heat and I was digging this a bunch and then it just felt like it went home early with low blow finish.

Kris Stadtlander/Solo Darling vs. Jessica Troy/Shazza McKenzie

PAS: Lots of Australians on this show, seems like a long flight for this amount of shine. This match was a casualty of the long day, as I remember very little from it. I think I dug some of Darling and Stadtlander's power stuff, but I am hoping Eric and Tomk can fill in some more.

ER: During the match you groaned and made ugh noises a lot during the Troy/McKenzie control periods, you weren't a fan so I applaud you effectively willing it from your memory. I came into this only familiar with Stadtlander and she's been getting some hype lately. I came away from this with only Solo making a decent impression on me. Darling came off like a little powerhouse, coming off more like a good hand joshi babyface that anyone else we saw. The team that Phil was grumbling about were not good. They did a lot of semi-complicated offense, but they had this awful habit of doing only the first 1/4 of the move, and leaving Stadtlander and Solo on their own to bump it. There were three different moments where McKenzie would start a potentially nice headscissors or rana, and then just fall and immediately after starting the move. It was infuriating.

TKG: I really had high hopes for the Roller Derby revival which was attracting ex-college rugby players, field hockey, ice skaters, gymnasts, and theater nerds into this semi athletic tradition and felt like it would eventually return to being a worked sport. And was watching this thinking, everyone here would be really fun taking bumps on a banked track. Women’s wrestling revolution may have killed the rollerderby one. I thought Solo Darling looked super solid and like she knew where to be at all times.

15. Mr. Brickster/O'Shay Edwards/Cabana Man Dan vs. Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku/Brett Ison

PAS: This was really great stuff, we had a totally over the top ring announcer and a possible group of front row Hales cousins serving as hype-men, so I was ready to be let down, but man all six guys brought it. Brickster was great as a fired up 80s babyface, loved the whole presentation and he brought the heat like Sting taking it to the Dangerous Alliance. Sadkampf were throwing and receiving reckless potatoes (opening up what would truly be a fucking insane day by Garrini), and this was the first time O'Shay Edwards hit as hard as it looks like he should hit. It felt like a raucous southern main event, with the babyfaces walking tall and the heels coming forward. Edwards moonsault felt like a big deal for the finish, and this totally won me over.

TKG: This had a really chaotic feel to it. Like the kind of Briscoes, JAPW chaos that I want out of wrestling but still southern tag as fuck. Brickster is a guy who should get more bookings as he looked like the best of the guys working power offense that I saw that weekend. Just bumped well, wrecked people with clotheslines and made lifts into throws look like lifts. And had the real “I’m guy fired up in a 6 man tag” aura. Garrini is insane and pretty much the star of the whole day. Just runs into taking offense and everything he does looks like he wants to win. We had already seen insane big guy moonsault from BMD but O’Shay’s looked like he actually wanted to flatten opponent.

ER: Tom was really attracted to the chaos of this match. After this match, for the rest of the day, he would frequently lob a "felt like it should have been more chaotic" backhand to matches Phil and I liked, having clearly won over - twice - by Brickster within the first two hours of our day. And it was really really fun, a nice portend to a super fun exhausting day. Brickster had a best-possible-Cheetah Master feel to him, or Dolph Ziggler understanding his flaws, or Matt Taven who wasn't a total embarrassment. Out of all the downright unique wrestling experiences the three of us went through today, we were all talking about Brickster 10 hours later. Hard strikes, great energy, felt like triumphant Stan Lane. O'Shay had his career best performance, a big dude taking some great risks. Later Phil and I saw him hanging out with someone who had to be his uncle, and the uncle was flipping out about his performance. Gotta love a guy putting on a show for family over Mania showcase. Ku smacked Dan hard in the chops and dropped him hard on his knees in a powerbomb, and Dan's flip flop chopping actually made a good slapping whipcrack. We had a total ball during this match with a hard hitting fast paced 10 minutes, and I made Phil laugh as much as he laughed all day, as we were all tickled by the early 2000s hardcore ring intros. Some guy would get kicked in the face or Garrini would throw a double chop to someone's neck, and in the energy I would cookie monster grunt "PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS TOGETHER FOR CABANA MAN FUCKING DAN YOU PIECES OF SHIT!!!! YOU WANNA SEE SOME FLIP FLOP COMEDY SPOTS YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!?!?" Just a bearded guy who looks like me with tattoos.

Gary Jay vs. Jake Parnell

PAS: This was a long running midwest feud given a showcase spot, and both guys really delivered. They chopped the hair off each others chests, took some big hard bumps to the floor and the apron and made the match feel like a feud ender, there were a couple of big dives right into the seats we were sitting in which felt crazy and uncalled for. I thought the end section was a bit construction-y, you really need a manager to set up all of the chairs and tables to fly into, would have rather seen them just beat on each other, rather then set up big garbage bumps, although to be fair, the big garbage bumps were big ass garbage bumps.

TKG: Gary Jay is Gary the Barn Owl who I had seen get booed out of building by idiot provincial Chikara fans who hate tall guys 9 years ago. “Hey this guy is 5 ft 8, I only want my wrestler’s 5 ft 2”. So awesome to see him main eventing this show. The early brawling and dives were crazy, I had less of a problem with how long it took to set up on the big construction garbage spot. As pretty much everything that took a long time to build almost universally gave opponent time to recover from last garbage spot and either reverse or get an escape in. Getting to watch Nick Gage realize they were going to try for a fish hook spot with ring ropes as Jay unhooked them was pretty neat….and well knowing ahead of time that the next show was going to be a no ring rope show added a whole “they are going to take down this whole set” Who burning their guitars feel. I didn’t dig the chair fu at end of match. Walking around with chair on head has a Terry Funk head caught in a ladder joke spot feel. Felt like a joke that you work in early or in middle of match and not at end.

ER: I'm with Tom in that I thought the big stunt spots were paced out nicely, so that the set up time was conceivably possible due to big stunts. I don't love Last Man Standing as a stip, even though it has created some great matches, as it lends itself to a lot of lying around and counting, so there is a constant interruption to the violence. But I really liked this and thought the chaos was worth the price of admission. In my history of going to live pro wrestling, any time I have to run away from the action by escaping over chairs and narrowly ducking dives, always leaves me with a positive memory of the show. These two hit each other with real force, both had red chests, and they sent us scrambling and ducking with some reckless dives. We were sitting in the corner near at the entrance curtain, and dives getting to our seats mean that the action was going a little out of bounds. I loved running over chairs and getting as close to the roving fight, and the violent chop exchange on the apron was one of the top moments of the night. There was no slap on these chops, these were deep bruising shots. We saw violent shots all day, and these held their own. I do agree that the match lost some steam as it went to the finish, but I also think that plays into the psychological structure of the stip, so I probably liked all of this more than Phil and Tom. I thought the KO spots felt worthy of the KO recovery, and while I do think the finish didn't match the violence of the rest of the match, I still thought this lived up to expectations.

ER: Price was right on this one, with me cashing in my free ticket for being a Independent TV subscriber, and the show was a briskly paced start to our terrible idea of a day. The Brickster trios match was the kind of overdelivery that makes this kind of friendship reunion worthwhile, the best kind of surprise addition to our 2019 MOTY List, and a cool "first show the three principle Segunda Caida doofuses ever attended together."

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ACTION Wrestling 10/26/18

Arik Royal vs. Bobby Flaco

PAS: This was Royal kind of working as a one man Da Hit Squad against sort of a southern Elax the Exploited child. Flaco hit some high flying moves, including a couple of running dives off the stage, but much of this was Royal mauling him with power moves, including a big running tackle which sent Flacco through the ropes to the floor and into a wall. The tackle which Royal finished it with was awesome too. I didn't think Flaco hit everything cleanly, but this is match structure I am always going to be into, and Royal is great.

ER: I really liked this one, looked like a Darby Allin match but with new and different participants. We don't get to see a ton of lucha base Arik Royal so it's great seeing him catch dives and takes complicated armdrags as well as he does everything else. I thought Flaco had a nice bag of tricks, thought his two planchas and his cannonball off the stage area looked great, and Royal helped that by really getting absorbed by them. Flaco was good at sticking and moving, and Royal was great at sticking Flaco when he caught him. There was one moment that really showed the match saving professionalism of Royal, they looked to be going for a backdrop but Flaco got a little hung up, so Royal just continued muscling him through and slammed him to the mat. Flaco is really good at getting demolished by Royal's best stuff, and Royal is really good at making his best stuff look great. I love Royal's diving shoulderblock to an opponent on the mat, and Flaco was really good at taking spills to the floor (Dylan saying Flaco was lying "prostate on the floor" is a good example of why I don't try to use the word "prostrate" in conversation), and I love how his big shoulder tackle pounce is used as a killshot against smaller guys. My kind of opener.

AC Mack vs. James Bandy

PAS: Mack has been the discovery of these ACTION shows, he has quickly turned into one of my favorite current wrestlers to watch. Bandy is a WWA4 alum as well, and this was similar to the Austin Theory match, as it was a match between two guys who have trained together. There was some nifty stuff, I liked Bandy's big tope which landed right next to a baby carrier with a sleeping baby (love family wrestling shows), and Mack using a fan to hide behind before landing a cheap shot was a nice bit of heel business. Bandy had some big moves but I think his connective tissue wasn't that strong, and I did think Mack kicked out of some big stuff, only to end the match pretty quickly, but this was pretty enjoyable overall, and Mack is must watch.

ER: This was a hot 7 minute sprint, and Mack is great at moving those types of matches along. He's a guy on constant attack and even when he's kicking out of a move he's already looking to kick at someone's knee or shove them off, get himself into a better offensive position. This whole thing didn't let up much at all over its run time, Bandy starting things off with a great tope into the aisleway, and gets some cool nearfalls on Mack over the brisk runtime. Dylan Hales was good at putting over the excitement of this, sounding like Adam Sandler's "Excited Southerner" when Bandy jumped Mack at the bell. Mack is so smooth and violent, no matter where he's at in the ring he's ready to drop something mean, loved his shot right to Bandy's throat, loved him yanking a woman out of her seat as a shield before tossing her back down when his plan worked, love his targeted body attacks that don't come off as any kind of memorized combo, just him attacking whatever part of Bandy he can reach. That short kick to the knee into his twisted pedigree is a solid finish to a fun match.

O'Shay Edwards/Alan Angels vs. Lynch Mob

PAS: Tag match which had it's moments, but I think overall got a little Young Bucksish for me. O'Shay is a big menacing looking dude and had some nice power stuff although there was a couple of weak spots too (at one point he just didn't go over when getting backdropped). I enjoyed Angels as a pest who spent most of the match laying in cheap shots. Both teams had elaborate double teams, which were about 50 percent cool, 50 percent dumb, lots of complicated ways to put on a neckbreaker. Joey Lynch missed most of his moonsault again, and I think his "King of the Moonsault" gimmick might be a Chikara style comedy gimmick I don't get. I liked Edwards and Angels getting the win and setting up a match against the ref and Bandy for the next show is some classic old school Southern Wrestling stuff.

Kevin Ku vs. Ike Cross

PAS: Stiff sprint in which the energy made up for some of the shambolic execution. Ku comes forward constantly swinging and eating shots, screaming at Cross to hit him, and I dig the pace he sets. This was the most I have enjoyed him and it makes me want to seek out some of his more pimped matches, even if some of his stuff doesn't hit clean or is a little indy. Cross has a boatload of potential, but this is the first time I have seen him against another young guy and you can see the seams a bit more. His big moves are still explosive, but I think he needs a veteran like Hollis or Slim J to fill in the stuff in between. A match that was more about potential greatness then current greatness, but it was still enjoyable to watch.

ER: Agree with all of Phil's assessments here, they both moved fast and went hard, so even when something didn't totally work they were already onto their next bit of business, really showing how far some big energy can go. Cross has absurd speed for a big man, even something like him rolling out of the ring after getting popped looks impressive as hell, and both of them have such quick body movement that it gives them some cover. Ku has no problem flying hard into Cross (loved that diving shoulderblock) and Cross makes moves like avalanches and that spear - moves that a lot of people do soft - look super explosive. Phil told me that Cross is apparently retiring from wrestling, which is a damn shame as he's someone that, once I saw him in SCI, I went out of my way to see any available footage. He was one of the people in wrestling I was most excited to see grow.

Cain Justice vs. Fred Yehi

PAS: This was a rematch from a great match from the first ACTION show, and while this had its moments, it didn't live up to that match. I liked the dueling limb action with Justice working the arm and hand and Yehi working the foot and leg, including pounding Justice with fists right in ankle and upper foot. These are normally really crisp wrestlers though, and things felt a little off. I liked the use of the hooks on the ringpost more in the other Cain matches, although Yehi turning the tables on him was nifty. Match ended with Royal coming in and cheapshotting Yehi, and the whole match kind of felt like they were killing time until a run in.

ER: Yeah something felt a little off here, felt like we had a few moments where one wasn't where the other thought he would be, felt like Cain especially was holding back shots (I don't need guys punching each other in the face, but a lot of things landed uncharacteristically light), and the set ups and transitions weren't quite as neat as these two can make them. I do appreciate them furthering the "Cain uses ring hooks" story, since Cain always wedges those ACTION hooks into his matches, nice to see the tables turned on him but agree with Phil that it didn't really read very well, came off a bit flat. Obviously there were going to be great moments with these two, it would be weird if there somehow weren't; here I especially liked Yehi rushing into the corner with a hard as hell elbow. Too many times guys leap into their corner elbows, like they're doing a Stinger Splash but with an elbow, and I liked Yehi just running in full speed with a short elbow to the jaw. But on paper this is a match that seemed almost guaranteed to land on our MOTY List, and this didn't approach that.

Team TAG vs The Carnies

PAS: The Carnies come in as Matt Griffin's hired guns as part of his feud with Team TAG. Like a lot of Carnies matches this had a bunch of fun spots, and some dumb ones. I liked the Chris Spectra vs Kerry Awful big boy showdown, although I wished they hit a little harder (I think the Big Japan trios match I watched earlier spoiled me), and I dug the Awful spinning clothesline and some of the Carnie shtick. They are a little enamored with complicated double teams, but this was mostly a solid tag with four solid performances.

Slim J vs. Billy Buck

PAS: A match with some really great moments, that was marred by overbooking. J dominates early with Buck doing a bunch of Zbyszko stalling, and J locking on some really cool submissions. We get a Team TAG run in, and much of the rest of the match is the ref being distracted and TAG running in. There are some really cool moments in the end run, Buck has great execution on his moves, he obliterates J with a spinebuster and beheads him with a superkick, and everything Slim does looks great. I loved his combo flipping STO and diving neckbreaker, and he has great execution on his little things. Still I feel like the match was sacrificed to advance the Matt Griffin vs. Team TAG feud, which is kind of a lame thing to do to a main event match. Love both guys, need to dig in the archives and find a better match between the two.

ER: Yeah this kind of outside involvement is not going to get me into a match, especially when it didn't actually seem to affect the outcome too much. Slim didn't seem any more beaten down by the 3 on 1 situation than he does in normal 1 on 1 matches, and by the time the match devolved into the ref pretending he didn't hear a tandem powerbomb happening two feet away from him I had mostly checked out. But these two are great dance partners and we got two separate 5 minute segments where we were given just what we wanted. After the first several minutes of stalling the two of them went on an awesome 5 minute tear, then some BS, and then another hot 5 minutes before the rest of the BS. Those 10 combined minutes had the best stuff on the entire show, you got to see how incredibly these two take offense and dish offense, like Slim hitting a cool ropes assisted headscissors (loved the low angle bump Buck took off it), or Buck hitting one of the finest superkicks you'll ever see. You give me those 10 minutes straight and nothing else and this lands on our List with ease. Whenever it was just the two of them fighting with no distraction, it was everything you'd want out of a wrestling match.

PAS: This was a sort of a disappointing show, first ACTION show without multiple MOTYC list matches, tons of talent on these cards, I loved watching almost everyone, but it felt like everything was a little worse then it should have been

ER: I had a good time with this show, plenty of fun moments and nice performances. But all of the shows preceding this one have been so damn good that a show like this is gonna feel like a major step below. This show would have probably ranked towards the top of live wrestling shows I've seen in my area the last few years, but I can't really compare it to my local scene, I can only compare the show to prior ACTION shows. Still, the fed is clearly filled with a ton of talent, no way we'll be tuning out.

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ACTION Wrestling 8/17/18

Ike Cross vs. Slim J

ER: Hot opener, tough to start off a crowd with something this dynamic. Everybody else on the show is going to be working from behind. I just saw Cross for the first time while watching the recent SCI, so I saw him there as this great babyface. Here he's a heel and just as fun, and very different than his SCI performances. Slim is a great babyface, really he's AJ Styles without a TV deal. If people out there think AJ Styles is great, there is no reason they wouldn't love Slim. He's strong as hell, gets crazy height on everything, hits hard, and can take a beating. A really great babyface. I think Styles is clearly a great, but right now Slim is better. He and Cross do a really fast rope running bit, Slim has an amazing high dropkick (and later a cool spinning kick of the top), and I love it when AC Mack starts running distraction on the floor. Cross drills Slim with a brutal running elbow to the back of the head, and Cross is really great at finding ways to get the ref's attention while Mack interferes. Cross played powerhouse here, and he pulls out some real stunners: a ridiculous sky high Dr. Bomb, a deadlift tilt a whirl backbreaker, and a uranage type slam where he just yoinks Slim up and plants him face first. It looked like something that should have finished the match. These two matched up really well here, and this kind of had the feeling of a tryout match, with both guys keeping a quick pace and breaking out impressive tricks. I pretty much need to be tracking down every match from both of these guys.

PAS: Fun stuff, interesting to see Cross as a heel, he is a great traditional babyface, but here is a fun trolling heel. Lots of shtick distracting the ref while AC Mack mugs Slim, he also stomps Slim in the corner and pretends his leg is spasming to get in some post ref break shots. Slim has decades of experience getting a crowd behind him, and all of the early stuff really got them into the nearfalls. I loved all of Cross's power moves, working heel we didn't see as much of his vertical leap, but he was beasting Slim, that lawn dart into the turnbuckles looked like Slim was 2 inches shorter post match (inches he can't afford to lose), and that reverse uranage thing was awesome looking. That final bump Cross took on the electric chair headrop was harrowing, that is big dude to be landing on his neck like that. Great stuff and another example of Slim J being this gem hiding in plain sight for years.

Alan Angels vs. James Bandy

ER: First time seeing both guys, and I came away seeing a couple cool things I hadn't seen, and liked this take on the modern indy match. Bandy had a few nice full extension suplexes, Angels was good at taking suplexes, and neither guy held back on strikes and kicks. Bandy had a nice kick to the chest and Angels hit a cool spin kick. We also had Angels working Bandy's arm in some cool ways, whipping his arm into the mat and breaking out the wild Rings of Saturn after rolling through with a Tim Horner style armdrag. I've not seen that attempted before, and I dug it. The arm stuff didn't really go anywhere, but I liked it peaking with that armdrag into the Fujiwara, into Angels throwing elbows to the ribs. When Angels tries it against he gets his momentum reversed and caught with a quick curb stomp. I liked a lot of what I saw here.

Kevin Ku vs. Tommy Maserati vs. Bobby Flaco vs. Dani Jordyn vs. Matt Sells vs. Shawn King vs. Teddy King

ER: I might have a name or two wrong on this one, only seen about half the talent before. And this was a perfectly fine scramble match, although we didn't always have a great use of time, and a LOT of people disappeared too often for it to really have the chaos of the best scramble matches. As it was, we got fun snapshots of what everyone can do and would up with a few memorable moments. Jordyn has a powerlifter build and got to throw a bunch of fun suplexes (and especially launches Flaco who bumps high and hard), and has a cool Jeff Cobb-like momentum reversing slam on Shawn King (?) late in the match that looked cool, and that guy also leaned in . Ku looked like more of a bully than I'd previously seen him, I got a kick watching him run as hard as possible into corner attacks, really pushing the pace faster than anybody else. I don't love his need to get some kind of lungblower into a match, but he was a good dominant mid-match presence. We get a couple of big dives to the floor, a flip dive that takes everyone out (and sends some kid in an orange hoodie running for the hills), and then an awkward set-up/fun result slingblade from Flaco, springing off the ref and delivering it to Ku on the apron while he basically stage dove across the other workers. Weird/cool landing, clunky set up, but these are the moves you need to be breaking out in a scramble match, so it totally works. Maserati is a great bumper, even if I don't like how his kicks land, he at least makes offense look good. I wouldn't mind seeing more from some of them, so as a showcase the scramble did its job.

Cain Justice vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: This is one of my favorite current matchups in wrestling. They had a match last year in CWF which went super high on our 2017 list, the second match was fun although not as mind blowing and this is the rubber match and the first outside of CWF. These guys are both super skilled, super interesting grapplers, and they have a couple of really cool scrambles to open the match, Garinni especially is whipping out really cool stuff, including a couple of super tight chokes with Justice finding cool ways to escape. Garinni has gotten better at landing his shots in the last six months, and he hits some big bombs including a nasty spinning back elbow. Justice is really great at using his environment, the Action ring has these hooks on the outside of the ringposts and Justice has used them in cool ways in all of his matches, here he traps Dom's foot in the hook and torques on the metal. Garrini did a great job of selling a damaged foot on his throws for the rest of the match. My one quibble in this was that Justice was back on offense too quick after the Screwdriver, but I did really like finish run. I am excited to see both of these guys grow up together, and I hope we get to see some more classics. I would rank this a little below their first match, that match coming out of nowhere really made it special, but this was good stuff for sure.

ER: I think this one falls as their third best match together, which isn't really an insult to this match, as I really liked those two matches. This felt a little more disjointed. Their first two matches didn't necessarily establish a match long narrative, but this one stood out because of that weird Screwdriver thrown in there. That move, and Cain getting up from taking that move at almost the same time as Garrini and going right back on offense, really made the match feel like they were just doing stuff until THAT moment. It felt really out of place the way it was used here. I would have loved it if that had finished things, going from grappling and striking to a sudden unexpected exclamation point, Justice beat in an instant because he wasn't expecting something like a Screwdriver. Instead we just kind of get up and do a little reset, Cain working for the Twist Ending and Garrini working for a triangle, gaslighting us into thinking we hadn't just see that big spot. I liked the bulk of this (though I thought the finish felt a little tacked on, even though I liked Cain winning with leverage to reverse a triangle). I really liked the grappling in this match, especially thinking Garrini looked sharp on the mat. He looked like he was calmly setting traps for Cain, dropping down in a certain way to get Cain to go one way, opening up his leg which was Garrini's goal all along. There was stuff that looked fluid yet nasty, and it looked like you got a cool insight into Garrini's crazy muscle memory, knowing what all his options are on the mat at any given moment. I loved Cain using those ringpost hooks, as Dylan Hales pointed out on commentary, he uses those every time he wrestles in this ring, and I love him for that. I liked some of the striking in this, but thought other parts focused to much on making a slap sound. I don't need a slap to know Garrini is hitting a nice kneelift. Now, a silver lining in that Screwdriver spot: They set it up close to the ropes, so Cain got his foot up. I still don't like what came after, but I'll give credit to both for clearly setting up near the ropes to avoid an unnecessary kickout. In retrospect, I think my favorite thing about the match might have been Cain's irritated glances at children while he was on the floor, being booed by kids. Just a bunch of kids booing him, while he shook his head at them, hands on hips.

Kavron Kanyon vs. Fry Daddy

ER: Short and sweet, didn't really get much of an idea what Fry Daddy is about, but I liked our Kanyon squash. Kanyon looks like a smaller Chris Hero, had a big kick combo (I really like a good high roundhouse kick, the type of kick Eric Bischoff would call a "back leg front round kick") and he finished it off with a brutal knee to the face. He had Daddy up for a package piledriver, then tossed him straight out and met him with a knee. It looked brutal enough for a finish, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was the finish.

Arik Royal vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Damn, boys, you go get it. I loved the dichotomy of this, with Royal being bigger, but Yehi hitting harder, and I loved the build. Royal is the king and Yehi basically had the best August of any other wrestler I watched. We get a fantastic lock up to start, both men all in and getting low, and Yehi blew up Royal's spot here, not letting him breathe, and Royal is one of my favorite "falling behind" wrestlers, making great faces and fun wobbly selling when he's getting overwhelmed. Yehi slams Royal into the ring apron and Royal comes up selling as if he were a man stumbling lost out of the desert. Yehi keeps ramping up the vicious, peaking with two spinning back elbows/fists to the back of Royal's head. But the big moments were yet to come, as once Royal uses his size, Yehi flies around like a popped balloon. Royal absolutely upends Yehi with his tackle, getting low and exploding; Yehi looked flew like he was riding a banana boat that got hit by Jaws. Royal throws Yehi back-of-neck first into the bottom rope (feels like a great lost Finlay spot) and in something I don't think I've ever seen, skips Yehi across and out of the ring like he was a damn stone on a pond. Royal had a couple of great biel throws in this, but here he just skipped Yehi across the damn ring. Awesome. We got a couple cool momentum shifts based on failed charges by both men, and Yehi sinks in a crucifix bomb before rocking him with that brutal Koji clutch-with-elbows. What nastiness. I think the match should have ended there, as afterward Yehi got freaking blitzed by another great tackle, sending him soaring, and a hard lefty lariat from Royal. And the finish was a little confusing as Yehi ties him up and a grounded kind of octopus, and the ref counts the pin even though Yehi looks more pinned than Royal, so it was somewhat deflating after all we'd been through. But damn still a total banger.  Post match Royal is the best, always, and he draws out all the sympathy from the crowd, acting despondent from his loss, holds up Yehi's hand to a couple sides of the ring, lets the crowd know Yehi was the better man. And then, as we all wanted, levels Yehi. This was all great.

PAS: I liked how the commentary mentioned that both guys do things a little differently, and this was a traditional big match indy formula just turned 10 degrees to the left, enough variety to really make it interesting. I love how Yehi is always moving forward, his pushing the pace is treated like a real advantage. He wrestles like a pest point guard who picks his opponent up full court, like the Patrick Beverley of wrestling. Royal has some off the charts power moves in this match, the spot Eric mentioned where he skips Yehi across the ring like a ground ball was a spot of the year candidate. Yehi is great at mixing in nifty pieces of offense and bumps into his match, he really reminds me of Finlay in that way. I thought we had some really great nearfalls, with Yehi smashing Royal with backfists and chops and Royal throwing him. I dug the flash pin, and the post match nicely sets up a rematch, which I am excited to check out.

The Lynch Mob vs. Team TAG (Chris Spectra/Kevin Blue)

ER: More of an angle than a match, with TAG jumping the Lynch Mob and eventually ending things prematurely by bringing in a couple chairs for the DQ. We've seen Team TAG work some more violent matches, including that awesome WarGames from last year, and I was less interested in seeing them work their way into Joey Lynch tandem spots. They both have tassels which is a plus, and I like a brash cheapshotting team.

AC Mack vs. Austin Theory

ER: Really fun match, the most I've enjoyed Theory, and further cemented how much I dig Mack. Austin Theory is a smooth athletic move-chaining wrestler, except in other matches there was always some hesitation. Here he and Mack worked together extraordinarily well, as if they had come up together and worked dozens of times. Both guys worked really quick and snaked some cool sequences. They worked fast rope running spots, really on your toes stuff. Theory's offense looked really tightened up, but damn Mack can GO. Mack gets crazy height on spots (what is with Georgia workers getting unreal height on bumps and offense?), and I liked every single thing he did in this match. I loved the smoothness he used to get into position for a low dropkick to a seated Theory (kick looked great too), and there was one spot where he leaped practically halfway across the ring to hit a superkick on a slumped-in-the-corner Theory and I jumped out of my seat. Some of Mack's movements seem so impossible, and then they hit flush and it's just...WOW. We get some fun learned behavior moments, like Theory catching Mack's uppercut on his knee/Dustin uppercut spot, and a couple of very believable nearfalls. Now, what's weird, is mid match we get a Theory knee injury. Theory misses a springboard stomp and begins limping around. Pulls off his next piece of offense, but goes down to the mat yelling about that knee. Great, I'm thinking, now we get a bunch of cool cocky attacks on the knee from Mack. Except that didn't happen. Theory continued barking and screaming and emoting about the knee, all while hitting increasingly bigger moves. Theory hit more moves after the knee injury spot than he did before. It was so weird. He was acknowledging it the entire time...except he was on a dominant run of move after move after move, huge sitout powerbomb, huge (great looking ) running blockbuster, a freaking running buckle bomb, getting Mack onto his shoulders for a fireman's carry, just...none of it made sense. The match did not need this knee injury whatsoever. It got really comical after a few moves. If they had changed nothing about the match, but made no allusions to a knee injury, I think this would have easily been high up on our list. Mack gets this hard low blow for an awesome false finish, and Theory comes up holding his balls...and his damn knee. This match was still very good, but that knee injury was such an unnecessary addition to the match. Mack came out of it with a big unexpected (to me) title win after an awesome hard kick to the knee and then his variation of a pedigree. I loved how the finish happened, with Theory just wanting to throw down fists and Mack laughing and agreeing, tossing off his gloves before just kicking low, what a great dickhead heel move. It really did feel like the preceding low blow would have been more than enough to justify the Theory loss, without needing any kind of knee injury angle. I mean you took a hard shot to the balls, nobody would think you didn't fight hard enough. But working in that knee injury without it every coming into play AT ALL just felt truly bizarre. Still, again, with it, the match was very good, and Mack is a guy I'm going to need to see every time he shows up.

PAS:  These guys are both WW4A trainees, and this match had the feel of a classic post match Ian Rotten speech touring showcase. I haven't had much time for Theory before, and his knee injury after a move/knee is fine during a move, is exactly the kind of dumb Seth Rollinism I can't stand. Still he has some pretty great chemistry with Mack and they pull off some really breathtaking stuff. Mack's vertical leap and speed almost feels like a tape glitch, they have a spot where Theory knocks him off the top rope and Mack hits a spinneroonie into a leaping enzigiri directly into this jumping superkick from three quarters of the way across the ring, it felt like watching Zion Williamson dunk, people aren't suppose to move like that. I agree with Eric that if you edited out Theory's weird unnecessary knee selling this would be a better match, but I did dig how it played into the finish. Mack nut punches Austin for a near fall and Theory gets up holding his balls and limping, he screams at Mack to come and fight, and Mack takes off his gloves, and then sneak kicks Theory in the patella, cross arm pedigrees him and pins him. Such a great bit of heel prickishness, fuck fighting like a man, win a match. Mack is a must see guy, what a star making performance.

ER: This was a tightly run, very fun show, with some genuine bangers, fun matches top to bottom, and even standout performances in the lesser matches. You could tell people were working hard, and that's always going to make me seek out more from a promotion. Can't imagine us being not fully onboard for what ACTION has in store going forward. Indy wrestling shows with diverse, killer action and a sub 2 hour run time? That's the market inefficiency right there baby. We placed a whopping 4 matches from this show on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, and I'm sure we'll have more ACTION matches on that list before it's done.

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Wednesday War Games: Anarchy Wrestling Hostile Enviornment 7/28/18

Anarchy Wrestling has moved off of Powerbomb and on to Fite.tv which makes it harder to watch, but for their annual WarGames show I had to find a way.

Team TAG vs. Seth Delay/Marcus Cross

PAS: Team TAG are the Anarchy tag champions and a pretty solid heel team, Kevin Blue especially has really nice snap on his stuff. Delay goes all the way back to the Wildside days, and is a really solid veteran, he had some fun takedowns early and was in the right place for everything. Cross is pretty new and was the weak link in the match, the crowd was into the story of the kid going for his first title, but he seemed tentative and didn't hit a lot of his stuff cleanly. Still this is a basic tag match done well with a crowd pleasing finish. Not memorable in the long run, but eminently served its purpose.

AC Mack vs. Xander Ramon

PAS: Ramon is big burly guy, who is green but promising. Mack is a guy we have seen a bunch in ACTION and is really good, charismatic and a solid heel wrestler. This is a pretty basic match structure, much like the previous match. Ramon is throwing big bombs, while Mack attacks a bum knee. Really solid way to work a smaller heel against a bigger face and they do a nice job here. Mack has some nice chop blocks, and Ramon's selling was solid if a bit broad. Ramon maybe sometime away, but Mack is their now.

Billy Buck vs. Ike Cross

PAS: This was a 2/3 falls match which was squeezed into about 10 minutes, and suffered a bit for that compression. However there was a lot to like, Billy Buck is a old school territorial heel, nice punches, good superkick, slick spinebuster, kind of B+ CW Anderson. Cross is an athletic marvel, and seems like he is going to be a big star sooner then later. He has a great looking tope, a couple of nice spears and a leap onto the top rope into a superplex, all from a guy who is 6'4. Both early falls ended quick, and they go right into a near fall run, with some good ones including some great sneak superkicks by Buck. I liked the idea of Cross winning with Kyle Matthews octopus (Matthews was seconding him after blowing out a knee and retiring), but Cross didn't really pull off the move. Good stuff and I would like to see a longer match between the two.

Geter vs. Mikal Judas

PAS This was a battle of the giants with Judas returning to Anarchy. This was a quick punch out into a double countout to set up a future match. Geter is a legit 400 pound dude and hits pretty hard. Judas has a cool entrance, but didn't show me a ton post entrance. Still I wouldn't mind seeing some big guys hit each other in the future.

38. Slim J vs. Corey Hollis

PAS: This is coming off their awesome dog collar match earlier in the year. This was a Yard Call match, which is a fight in a storage room in a separate building. It had concrete walls, chicken wire door and a ceramic toilet in the side like a holding cell. Slim J comes in with hands cuffed behind his back and gets uncuffed before the fight. This was a total blast, just a grimy fight. Slim J swings a toilet tank lid at Hollis's head and it shatters on the wall, Hollis then uses ceramic shards to cut up J. Both guys get choked with a chain, and J even pulls out a shank. Slim J is a guy best known as a highflyer, but he is a hell of brawler, the best parts of this feel like a Demus lucha brawl or something Tarzan Goto might do in Shin FMW. Both guys are taking bumps on concrete, bleeding in dirt, wailing on each other with fist and chairs. Finish had J winning with a standing choke which was cool looking, but I was expecting something more horrific. Still a great unique match which totally lived up to its cool on paper promise.

ER: This is one of the better combinations of "unique setting" & "willing to be violent enough to make it work" for a street fight that we've seen, up there with the Finlay/Regal parking lot brawl. It's a weird room with chicken wire and chains and a toilet and a freaking shank and a stripped gurney and it looks like a snuff location in Manhunt. Slim J is definitely a fantastic flyer, but the man hits harder like a sack of doorknobs and you don't usually get his level of violent work with agility. The missed weapon shots are as cool as the hits, with J swinging a heavy ass toilet lid at Hollis' head and shattering it on the wall, and Hollis one-upping him by throwing the whole damn toilet at his head. There's a dog collar/chain hanging from the wall and that collar gets slipped around J's neck, and Hollis holds J by both arms and yanks him forward halfway across the room, chain pulling taut while choking him, J barely escaping by kicking off Hollis. We get some nasty spills, J getting pulled painfully onto the tipped over gurney, both men getting tossed into hard walls and rubbed into wire, Hollis comes thisclose to jumping on a chair wrapped around J's neck, J's bloody face gets smooshed into chicken wire a foot away from a bunch of kids, all of it looked great. I did want a bit more from the finish, as it looked like J was setting up this standing grapevine choke near the shattered porcelain throne, I thought he was going to smash Hollis' face down into the shards, but I like what they did anyway. Cool, super unique brawl, Slim J should be a megastar.

Cult of Cash (Brad Cash/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Chop Top) vs. Jacob Ashworth/Logan Creed/Bobby Moore/Stryknyn

PAS: This was annual Landmark Arena Wargames, and was slotted in the middle of the ones I have seen. Landmark based feds have always been able to find legit heavyweights, and there was some big dudes in this match. We get a Logan Creed versus Se7en face off and both guys are 6'7 legit (listed 6'9), Chop Top looked kind of methy and skinny, but everyone else was a legit heavy, so there was a lot of force in all of the moves. Cyrus is 400 pounds and there was a couple of spots where he looked like he was going to bring down the cage. The Ashworth and Cash first section was good, with Cash cutting upon Ashworth with a sickle, and pretty intense brawling. The middle section had its moments, including a crazy top rope rana by Creed, but it was a little meandering. Stryknyn was the surprise partner, and had some big spots, including his fireball. They had a kind of dumb spot with Creed faking being mesmerized by Cash, until he sneaks in a gogoplata. It never got to that upper level of violence you see in the best WarGames, and was kind of overshadowed by the Yard Call right before it.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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ACTION Wrestling 6/29/18

AC Mack/Ike Cross vs. Lynch Mob

ER: I really like the team of Mack and Cross. I like them so much that I'd rather see them not team, as having them in singles matches would mean they'd be spread out across the show more. Burning both of them in one match is too much of a waste! Plus, I'd rather see them against many other people than against the modern indy Nova stylings of the Lynch Mob. Ike Cross is super talented, but I'd rather not see those talents impressively utilized selling doofus "I make you get DDT'd by your partner" double teams. Cross can take a mean DDT bump, and he takes two of them here, under the dumbest of circumstances. Cross and Mack looked great here, both are super smooth and great at feeding lame offense, and I loved how they worked Cross' spear into the match, surprising Joey with Mack leapfrogging Cross right into Lynch. Cross' forearm to the back of the head is genuinely finisher worthy, so it's annoying to see it used and then brushed off. I dunno, I guess the Lynch Mob are a thing, and their finish looked fine, but their hyper-rehearsed superkick style does very little for me.

PAS: I thought the Cross/Mack team was great, really feels like if tag wrestling was a bigger thing, they could be big stars somewhere. Cross continues to blow me away with his potential that inverted standing senton was nuts, and I loved his bump to the floor, and Mack really held things together nicely, I am a big fan of the heel pulls down the guy on the apron to break up the hot tag, and Mack timed it really nicely. I thought some individual stuff the Lynch Mob did looked OK, their finisher combo was nice looking, but they are basically the Cracker Barrel Young Bucks, and that is very much not my thing. Joey Lynch doing two separate versions of the DDT your own partner stuff, the state of the world is traumatic enough, I don't need to see that too.

James Ryan vs. James Bandy

ER: This was fun, two tall guys having their Velocity match, keeping things to 5 minutes or so. Ryan is a great tall and lanky ragdoll, with those long limbs like Alicia Fox that flop all over when he bumps. Bandy has some fun stylish offense, a nice jumping kick, a couple of really cool axe kicks (not quite an axe kick, but more of a yakuza kick with a slightly downward trajectory, if that makes any sense), nice right hand, big sliding kick on the floor diagonally past the ringpost (through the ropes), I liked it all. This felt like more of a Bandy showcase, but Ryan got in a couple nice cut off spots, had a good nearfall, and the whole thing was enough to make me want to see both guys more.

Tragedy Ann vs. Aja Perera

ER: I liked the vibe of both of them, Ann has dead eyed doll makeup and comes out with a strand of doll heads, Perera has a good look and comes out to music that makes me want to break out Zombies Ate My Neighbors! (it's been too long), but a lot of this felt pretty rough. We had a couple odd falls, some moves that didn't really work, nothing quite BAD but nothing really clicking either. We had a couple of moments where I wasn't actually sure what move had been done, and who was supposed to have taken it. There were things I liked, especially Perera's log roll to trip Ann, with a nice follow up low cutter, but overall too much clunk. Still, Perera had a lot of charisma and feels like will get better, and Ann looked pretty new. They kept it short, minimal harm.

Cain Justice vs. Anthony Henry

ER: Nice pairing, with Henry bringing stiff shots and Cain bringing a bunch of good crowd work and stooging. All of their grappling and rolling was really good, really quick, Henry hanging on more than maybe Cain expected, and Cain going for a Twist Ending way too early, leaving him open. Flustered Cain is one of my favorite iterations of Cain. I love him rolling to the floor, his surprised faces when the crowd cheers the other guy more, it's all really fun. Henry brought a bunch of nice overhand chops that gave Cain's chest some good color and looked to be outclassing Cain, even amped things up (too much) by dumping Cain hard with an exploder across the front row of chairs, moving the Hales clan in the process. Back in and Cain blocks a suplex off the top, and - this being an ACTION ring - Cain jams Henry's hand into one of those ring hooks. I thought Henry sold his hand really nicely, and Cain was awesome still opting to sink in a cheap low blow even when he already had the advantage with Henry's bum wing. There was one major part of the match I didn't like, that felt totally different than the rest of the match, and felt really below each guy: Cain shot Henry into the corner and then just ducked down for a backdrop...and there was way too long of a pause before Henry came back out of the corner. So after Cain is just sitting there bent at the waist for a few seconds, Henry sunset flips him and we get a silly seesaw Malenko/Guerrero 2 count sequence that just felt incorrect. Every part of the sequence felt like it belonged in a lesser match, with lesser guys. Oddly distracting. But I liked Cain's low blow to Twist Ending win, and love that he still won't shake a hand after a match.

PAS: I thought this was rolling along to be one of the best matches of Cain's career. I loved the early rolling on the match, the takedowns were super explosive and the reversals looked great. I really would love to see these guys work a straight shootstyle match, I really dug the chops and Cain's stooging later in the match, but it felt like they could really do something special in a more pared down format. I am a fan of a guy getting his chest worked over, and Cain is great at cringing as the blood vessels get popped. As a Finlay superfan, I am always going to love a spot where a guy uses the ring in a cool way, and Cain fucking up Henry's arm in the ring hook was dope. Finish was great too, with Cain escaping the ankle lock by grabbing the ref's shirt and hitting a low blow and the twist ending. I have to agree with Eric about that sunset flip/Malenko Guerrero section, it was a bad idea, badly executed, if I could edit it out Lucha Underground style we would have a real high end MOTY contender. It's list without it, but man was that a stinker.

Michael Spencer/Chance Rizer vs. Team TAG (Chris Spectra/Kevin Blue)

ER: I dug this, and it kinda snuck up on me. It looked like it was going to be an extended TAG squash - and it was, technically, but it had enough extra moments to it that with another save or brief hope spot from Spencer/Rizer would have been enough for me to nominate it for our MOTY list. TAG cut off the ring and kept knocking Spencer off the apron, taking apart Rizer with classic 90s double teams, like a powerbomb/neckbreaker (loved Dylan bringing up Kanyon/Raven breaking Villano IV's neck with that move on Nitro, which is a great reference point. I remember watching that live with my buddy James and we both exclaimed right when it happened), and Spectra bullying him around with avalanches and clubbing shots. The fun comes when Spencer, knocked off the apron one time too many, comes in for a save and hits an awesome knee to Blue's face. Rizer gets a believable visual pin, and Spectra shoves Spencer back over the pin to break it up. The whole thing was a really great sequence. TAG end it shortly after, Rizer took a couple nasty bumps, and even though I was really hoping that last pin would be broken up, one last ray of hope, I still really liked what we got.

Billy Buck vs. Cabana Man Dan

ER: I'd seen Cabana Man Dan's name pop up on indy cards and results for years, but I hadn't actually seen him. I was picturing more of a Colt Cabana goofball crossed with the easy misogyny of Straw Hat Guy. Or a Chris Hero bod with an orange sunset Hawaiian shirt but without much wrestling ability. Or a chubby version of Bill Paxton in Club Dread. Cabana Man Dan is not those things. He is short and packs a nice wallop on kicks. This had some sloppy moments, but they kind of added to things, like Dan trying a Gedo clutch but not really doing it right, so instead repeatedly slamming Buck's face into the mat. I liked a lot of Dan's dropkicks and thought he had good babyface charisma, though flip flop shtick doesn't interest me a lot (and it seems like Dan might come with a fair amount of flip flop attack shtick), but there was enough to like. Buck has one of the best superkicks in the game, a guy like CW Anderson who could believably use his as a finish, and I liked Buck roughing up the smaller Dan.

Slim J vs. Cam Carter

ER: Damn J is some kind of marvel. This is a match style I typically don't love, that big kickout, mirror move, pop up off the mat after a big spot kind of modern indy match, but damn Slim is just so good that I still got sucked right in. Slim throws arguably the best forearms in wrestling today, just snaps them off and really makes exchanges feel life or death. He is super athletic and always does something in a match that I really don't see coming, always dipping into that bad of tricks. This match had a bunch of "athletic guys doing athletic things", but Slim is so great at all of it that it's easy to look past some annoying things. You know, like dueling reverse piledrivers. It's a silly spot, one guy takes one, pops up and delivers his own, but they at least put some style into a burnt spot, with Slim taking his whipped around hard on his belly and Carter taking his more vertically and then sliding on his knees like at the end of a break routine. Slim can go through complicated sequences without ever getting that distant stare in his eyes, never looking like a guy going through mapped sequences, always keeping that unpredictable feel to things. When he catches a wild leaping DDT off the ropes or leaps backwards with a flipping kick or a diving elbow, it feels like he can go anywhere once he leaves his feet. He's also a master of taking offense, making offense look great, getting his body to respond in ways that seem impossible. The match ends with an absolutely vicious cradle brainbuster, and Slim comes crashing down like he was the cartoon on the side of a diving board, warning against diving into an empty pool, and it's more than just his landing, it's how he stiffens his body after, how he keeps his arms believably rigid as if he'd been KO'd. I didn't love the finish, with Slim hitting a big superplex and rolling into a guillotine, and then Carter basically just powering out of the guillotine after a (long) while and hitting the brainbuster. But there was a lot of this match to love, just on execution alone. Slim also leans expertly into a couple Carter spin kicks, and throws the most violent missed clotheslines I've seen. He cuts so low and whips his arm impossibly fast. If I attempted to whip my arm as fast as Slim on a missed clothesline I'd at best end up with a sore triceps for a few days. He throws these great stiff arm ambidextrous lariats, hitting with a thump on Carter's chest, really some of the meanest things tossed out in the match, and it was a match with Slim taking fast suplex bumps high on his shoulders. Carter is really fun, and this is among the very best I've seen him look...and I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened against Slim J.

PAS: I also don't love this match type, but both guys put a ton more violence into their fancy stuff then this kind of match usually has. Carter busts J mouth up with a hook kick, J throws these thumping lariats like he is Stan Hansen's mini, and really adjusts Carter's jaw with elbow smashes. Eric is right about how great J takes moves, he really spikes himself on all of drivers, taking everything like Wiley E. Coyote falling off a cliff. I didn't love the trading poison rana's, and a couple of other things weren't sold as long as they should have been, but man for a juniors match between amazing athletes this was top notch stuff.

Arik Royal vs. Tracy Williams

ER: Big main event that may have went a little long, but I liked all the places they went so I didn't really mind. Williams works this as a tough Nishimura, peppering him with hard elbow strikes and working him over with quiet arm work, a deeply sunk in octopus, heavy flat foot clotheslines, great flat back missile dropkick, and holding on for life to absorb a Royal beating. Royal was great, attacking with shots to the body (I liked an early exchange where Royal swatted a Hot Sauce elbow out of the air, and Sauce immediately got the forearms up on a chop, and from there Royal didn't even bother with chops, just went body), palm strikes to either side. Williams yanked on Royal's arm a bit, and Royal spent the rest of the match shaking that thing out, and didn't really get ahead on Williams until a vicious hotshot, one of those really great hotshots that looks like a guy gets snapped over the top rope and hits every rope on the way down, like a cartoon character falling out of a tree. Royal is mindful of the arm but uses it as he needs, breaking out a few Face Jam variations. Williams is nice and crafty, pulling out neat things like a DDT while placed on the top turnbuckle. It wasn't a flashy DDT, but a whip smart logical one, just dropping straight down and letting gravity and physics work. I think we got maybe a couple too many kickouts on some pretty big moves, like an absolutely disgusting stuff piledriver on Royal, or Royal literally upending Sauce with his chop block (Williams flew like a kid getting bounced off a lake blob). Both of those spots looked so match ending that I wish they didn't have to get kicked out of, maybe take advantage of being close to the ropes in both instances. The match finishing Fujiwara was satisfying, and Royal's consistent selling of it always kept it there as a potential finish, so when he was going up for a dodgy springboard Face Jam it was there in my brain that Williams could catch him. Good overall match, on a good overall show.

PAS: I thought this was amazing, easily my favorite match I have seen from either guy (and these are both guys I like a fair amount), it felt like a big time title match. I didn't think it went too long, because it was worked at a deliberate pace, much more like an NWA title match then a indy overlong kick out fest. Both guys landed huge nasty shot early, everything either guy landed just thudded with impact, not the sharp snap of a thigh slap, but much more bass in every sound. Both guys have some unique blows, body shots, shots to the side of the neck, the shoulder blade, it really felt like both guys were putting damage in the bank saving up for the end. Willams was landing these thudding clotheslines, all impact, no bump. I loved how both guys sold the moves while applying offense, Royal couldn't get Williams all the way up with a press slam so he reckless hurls him into the ropes, Williams bad back didn't allow for a full piledriver lift so he spikes Royal with a short piledriver, their injuries made the moves worse for their opponents. I have seen a bunch of Royal and Williams did an incredible job selling his offense, the Space Jam looked like an Ogawa STO, and the Royal chop block felt like something which would be in the Wide World of Sports agony of defeat montage. I really liked the ref bump, too, the ref Daryl Hall (no relation) didn't lay down forever so we could get a table or have a run in, it just slowed him down enough for Williams to get a desperate kick out, great job of keeping Royal strong.

PAS: Three matches on a MOTY list is pretty class for a start up indy. ACTION has been a hell of start up, and I love their talent pool. Would like to see them really run some angles and build up some feuds.

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