2023 Ongoing MOTY List: MLW War Chamber!

 

AKIRA/Rickey Shane Page/Dr. Cornwallis/Delirious vs. Matthew Justice/Manders/Mance Warner/Alexander Hammerstone MLW 4/6/23 (Aired 4/18/23)

ER: MLW's Reelz run was short and fairly inconsequential in the pantheon of 20 episode wrestling television runs of our lifetime, but I will always love when pro wrestling is on television, especially when it's on a channel that runs no other pro wrestling programming of any kind. Somebody somewhere fell asleep during their daily COPS marathon and maybe they woke up during a cool Lio Rush match, saw Alex Kane suplex somebody on their head, or saw a match like this featuring several tough guys getting the edges of chairs thrown at their heads and faces while bleeding out, then falling asleep again and waking up during a daily marathon of JAIL. The War Chamber is basically just an open cage War Games with one ring, and it's an overall satisfying 30 minutes of fighting because it never forgets that the fighting and punching and bleeding is the most important part of a match like this. The worst of the indulgent NXT WarGames are a nightmare of time spent lying around or reacting to Big Moments. War Chamber has flaws and had some drag, but it knows exactly what it is and delivers more of a classic War Games feel than WWE has been giving us. 

If you thought wrote out a list of the 10 modern guys you think would be great in a classic WarGames, three of them are in this match: AKIRA, Matt Justice, and Rickey Shane Page. AKIRA spends the entire match kicking people hard in the face and chest, and then getting hit with chairs. Justice is a great guy to enter a WarGames early, and he's the one who brings in and starts throwing chairs, takes a great cage beating, and uses his body as a weapon (like letting Manders powerslam into RSP and AKIRA). Page is the guy they had start this thing, the first guy bleeding, the guy taking the disgusting suplex through chairs on a table, and the guy who had to have taken the most head trauma, while also being the guy stabbing people in the mouth and head with a fork. 

Beyond blood and punching, you know it's a good WarGames when a the most muscled up guy in the match gets a legit leg injury, and there's a big fat freak in a mask and bloody apron. I have no clue who Dr. Cornwallis is, but he looks more like Leatherface than Corporal Kirchner did, is fatter, and would have been incredible in W*ing. Kirchner could have kept Leatherface and just teamed with this guy's Buddy Bacon from Slaughterhouse. He moves well for a fat guy, and he fits well in the middle of all the chair throwing. Goons in cloaks and gas masks introducing a table into the ring feels like something you'd see in NWA Anarchy, a fed who knew how to do the best WarGames, and the big bumps and splashes that happened back to back to back at the finish was a great sudden escalation. Blood, fat guys, more thrown chairs than a Necro Butcher comp tape. Also, the team with the obese butcher is another Raven vague and undefined religious cult thing, so Raven stands at the top of the ramp the entire time looking like an old bloated Malcolm McDowell and their intro video heavily features that one photo of the Heaven's Gate cult leader, and I love that Raven's cult references are just so firmly rooted in 1997. 

This was MLW's crowning achievement on Reelz, the best thing they put on television over 20 episodes, and it looked like a promotion that belonged on television. 

 

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ICW No Holds Barred Vol 3 - Deathmatch Drive-In 7/4/20

Big Twan Tucker vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: These two were scheduled to match up on AIW show Mania weekend and was one of my most anticipated matches. I believe these two have a great match in them, although this wasn't it. Being in an opener deathmatch in front of an unfamiliar crowd hurt this match a bit. We had some great moments, Twan is awesome at hot brawling openings to matches and they just went after each other to start with Dom killing him with Kawada kicks to the face. The first big lighttube shot was great with Garrini charging in only to get wasted by a lighttube. The match was hurt with a long set up section where Twan just kind of wandered around setting up tubes and boards while Garrini laid there, these matches really need corner men to do all of the construction. They never really brought the match back under control after that, and it was a lot of big spots with long set ups, so this ended up being a bit of a disappointment with some great individual pieces. 

ER: I actually thought this was pretty great. This had great 90s backyard aesthetics, and Dom had the perfect look of a midwest backyard meathead. He's the friend who works overly stiff and wears shorts to school during cold weather months. Dom kicks the hell out of Twan, really hard kicks to the hamstrings and body, and both guys collect sick downward chops to the side of the neck. Twan took a bunch of real painful big man bumps, like crashing through a table with a sick flapjack, or getting tossed with a couple of strong Dom suplexes. The lighttube shots came off cool and gritty to me, adding that grit for the home stretch and elevating the match for me. Garrini ran headlong into a hard swung lighttube, just one of SO MANY examples we've seen of Garrini being a fearless talented meathead jock; the heavy boy's Darby Allin. The lighttube fight added to the grit and gave Garrini the aura of a cool Canon Group action star. Dom headbutting a lighttube into Twan's head is one of those great deathmatch comp moments. Garrini knows how to come off like a true backyard legend, as you suddenly get no sense whatsoever of his grappling accomplishments. Suddenly Garrini is a Cactus Jack acolyte and you see that in his cocked head as he's taking strikes, or Twan flattening him through a door with Dom as a backpack. It was under 10 minutes and always felt like a kickass yard fight. 

56. Eddie Kingston vs. Bret Ison

PAS: This was Eddie's only pandemic indy match, and was an absolute masterclass at what makes him so special. His pandemic hair and beard looked totally badass and this was a standard match, no chairs or tubes just knuckles and knees. I loved the start of this as they began to exchange shots but Kingston gets popped with an elbow and before he could fire back just crumples to the ground, and the match went like that. Kingston was trying to use his hand speed and guile to stay in the pocket with a heavy hitter, landing these peppering palm strike combos to the head and body,  but he kept getting caught with powerful one shot elbows and punches. Kingston is one of the great strikers in wrestling, but is even better at selling strikes and he does a great job making Ison look like he is beating Eddie to death. I wish Ison was 20% better in this match, he is pretty hit and miss with the force on his shots, sometimes he really nails Kingston, and sometimes the forearms come with a big foot stomp and not much force, also don't think the spinning backfist landed as cleanly as it needed to for it to be the finish. Still this was a heck of Kingston performance, glad to see he has got

ER: Quarantine Kingston with shaggy hair and bed beard is fantastic, the Unabomber Kingston era staggering his way into a fight. How did none of us realize that Kingston would make the greatest Bruiser Brody? Are we so visual that we need to see that shag? Kingston looks like a Puerto Rican Tex Cobb and it's tough to go back to smooth line Kingston after seeing this. It added a mountain man side to his character that has been absent before, made him come off like even more of a regional folk hero. Ison is a big goony Baron Corbin, and he's the kind of guy Kingston can make look like a threat just by selling his chops. Kingston's strike game was so great throughout, pivoting through different muscle memories and strategies, never looking out of his element or desperate, just someone looking to advance any way he can. He makes Ison's strikes look like they matter and lays in his rolling elbow. Kingston leaned into everything and made this feel like a genuine war, and while I wish Ison used his size much more than he does, he's someone that has no problem bashing limbs with wild men like Kingston. It's a pairing with a high floor, with a fired up Kingston performance keeping that floor high as hell. He even works blue afterwards in his folksy Lenny Bruce fireside 4th of July chat. 

Eddy Only vs. Tim Donst

ER: I really liked how this started, with Only cementing himself as the heel by running the crowd down hard, and then getting wrecked by Donst, to the point where I was feeling sympathy for Only and the beating he was taking. Donst didn't really hold back on anything, and there was this stunned look on Only's face when Donst hit him as hard as he could with a plastic fat bat covered in tacks. Getting hit in the side of the head with one of those bats at full strength would hurt enough, but when it leaves dozens of tacks stuck into your head? Only looks at Donst like he can't believe Donst hit him as hard as he possibly could have, and then Donst does it again. Only is getting really battered, suplexed onto the grass, and it's this cool heel in peril with a cold babyface just punishing him. But at some point I am reminded why whatever Tim Donst is supposed to be doing does not work for me. He is so emotionless in the ring that he takes things beyond no selling, as not selling offense tends to at least bring some kind of character. He just acts like a man who is numb to all kind of pain, which could be cool...but if I was every other dude on a deathmatch card with him it would sure as hell he annoying to watch a guy get suplexed multiple times into tacks, crawl hands and knees through tacks, take a back bump off the apron through a board with cut up beer cans, get lighttubes kicked into his face, and sell it all by making a frowny face as if he were being admonished by his parents for missing curfew. I liked what Only brought to this, came off like a guy who was in actual pain while taking some gnarly shots, including getting a barbed wire board avalanched into him. I liked Donst's willingness to be crazy, loved his wild tope, but you have to make these weapons mean something. He is adamantly trying to make them mean less than anyone. 

Eric Ryan vs. Alex Ocean

ER: I'll always go out of my way to watch Eric Ryan matches. He's one of my favorite brawlers and he's one of the greatest bleeders in wrestling history, no hyperbole. This match did not work for me at all, went way too long, and was pretty artless about how they got from A to B to C. However, Ryan bled great. He bled immediately, and it was some great blood. He headbutted a couple of lighttubes into Ocean's head, got color on his own head, and somehow wound up immediately cutting open his entire back. He had this gorgeous collection of streams running down his back that made him look like he was a see through human body vein diagram. There are a lot of painful moments here, but they all run together pretty quickly. It's crazy to me when someone is dragged across the mat through a bunch of broken glass, but there's such a weird focus on selling every single thing the same in a deathmatch. There really needs to be some expressive selling to get across some of this damage. Give me a guy screaming as he's being dragged across broken glass man. The kind of stuff that is more interesting to me is Ryan starting the match with a fork and quickly stabbing Ocean's arm when Ocean goes for a lock up. Ocean snatched the fork away, and Ryan simply grabbed another one out of his pocket. That moment had so much more creativity than just setting up props. The finish of the match sees Ryan attempt to mule kick a couple lighttubes over Ocean's face while holding a single crab, but he keeps missing and just heel kicking Ocean in the face. And guess what? Ocean getting kicked in the face looked more violent than any of the weapon shots. A death match with the brawling as the focus is just going to be better, and this felt like 18 minutes of them picking up and just moving onto the next prop. 

Matthew Justice vs. Casanova Valentine

ER: I dug this match on paper and liked a lot of what they did, I just wish they didn't take 20 minutes to do it. Valentine has maybe my favorite look in deathmatch wrestling, like a gastric bypass Pig Champion, and I love blown out Justice epics. I thought they did a good job at working the deathmatch elements and not just arbitrarily rolling around in wire and glass. There was some build to this, and I liked how Justice hit Casanova's garden weasel out of his hands with a chair to start, instead of jumping right into some weaseling. They took those steps to ramp up their damage and make the eventual weaseling mean a bit more. If you start with Valentine breaking lighttubes over Justice's balls, then where can you go from there? The match is plagued by length and some unnecessary overbooking, with things like Riley Madison and Manders interference not really leading to anything that we couldn't have done without. People want to see Justice jump off high places, and he does that, and it rules. He hits a wild superfly splash off an SUV through a table, and we get to see Valentine really smoosh Justice later with his own big splash. A lot of the weapon stuff comes off kinda weak, as they were following a match that saw every possible weapon and attack you could need from a match, and this was just going to be repeating that. And it didn't help that the finish was a verrrry long time stand still moment of Mancer trying to light some fireworks that were attached to skewers, and the fireworks would not light. So you had poor Valentine kneeling there holding skewers into his own head, eyes fixed on Manders the entire time trying to light the damn things, Justice standing around waiting, and finally Justice calls an audible and just hits Valentine with a chair. I think they could have done what they did in half the time, and a 20 minute match ending with the flattest finish possible is always going to seem more disappointing. 

Matt Tremont vs. Akira

ER: I really didn't like the start of this, as they sat down in chairs right at the bell and did the "barroom punch" spot and threw worked punches at each other. The crowd was the quietest during this than they were all night, so I can't say that it was working for them either. I don't like that spot anyway (although Akira and Mickie Knuckles made it obsolete with their take on it earlier this year), but starting off a match with it, with no build and nowhere to go, makes no sense to me. Tremont throws nice worked punches, but this crowd has seen some uggggly shots on this show, and they are not going to be moved by worked punches. And when Akira puts his hands behind his back and demands Tremont hit him, there isn't any drama in that either, as Tremont had already punched him 10 times without Akira bothering to defend. Some things work, and "some things work" is probably the thing I will find myself writing the most whenever I watch deathmatches. Akira gets that same cool blood streaming down his back that Eric Ryan got earlier, there's a cool battle over Akira trying to get Tremont up for a death valley driver, and Tremont really brains Akira with lighttubes when Akira was attempting a plancha. Akira gets a fairly deep slice under his breastbone from it, could have been a cool thing to build off. But, as with a lot of this, the build just seems scattered at best. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Jeff King

ER: I thought this was a fantastic Jeff King performance, one of my favorite individual performances on the show. I am always going to love any wrestler who is referred to as an old timer (unless it's some cutesy fake old man gimmick) and King has had an interesting career. I knew him as a guy who would show up on IWA-MS shows in the 2000s, and then he disappeared for several years, coming back earlier this decade and slowly working himself into the deathmatch scene. He's probably younger than I am, but I love an old timer who is perhaps a fish out of water. Here he takes a furious beating from Murdoch, and every second of the match King felt like a man trying to prove himself to a scene. And at minimum, he certainly proved himself to me. He took a lot of punishment, and I think what makes a deathmatch worker appeal most to me is what their foundation is. I relate far more to the IWA-MS deathmatches because the core IWA style was rooted in southern wrestling. East coast DM style is much more big prop spots with less glue to get to those big moments, but King is a guy who feels more like a Memphis guy and that really works within a deathmatch. He takes big bumps and fills in downtime with nice punches, so there is less building structures and seeking weapons and more of a southern structure in its place. He gets really scared up here and I bought into his horror at the violence, like getting a gusset plate smashed onto his arm and punched into his head. He does a wild tope con giro through a table (Murdoch moved) and there were several moments of him taking an insane bump on missed offense. He hits a disgusting senton through several set up chairs, crushes Murdoch through barbed wire table with a backpack cannonball, and gets dropped through a chair by a Murdoch brainbuster. The finish is basically a botch but far more insane for it, as it's supposed to be a Murdoch superplex through a tubes covered table, but they set the table up WAY too close to the buckles. So, the superplex happens, but King flies PAST the table and Murdoch takes a back bump onto the table and spills off, both guys ending up worse off than if they had both gone through the table. Ugly fight, awesome King performance, and that's exciting for me as I hadn't seen the guy work in probably well over a decade. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Nick Gage

ER: It's cool Gage made it out as a way to cap off the show, but I think his power is minimized a lot by showing up at the end of a show where every single match had one of the guys essentially "doing" Nick Gage. These are all going to be bloody fights, and by the time we get to the main event of these shows we have seen EVERYTHING. So even though Gage and Murdoch have the best "sitting in chairs while punching face" sequence on the show, it is also the third time we have seen that routine. Gage has charisma that brings a higher floor into his matches, and the energy he brings to a crowd is undeniable. He and Murdoch punch each other in the face, and I loved how Gage geared up, took a lot of shots, kicked his chair away and flew into Murdoch with a diving elbow. Both guys took some disgusting shots, like Gage getting thrown through a sliced cans board, and plenty of ugly bumps through chairs. Murdoch wins with a brainbuster on a bent to hell chair, which was sick and looked like something that should definitely finish a match. And, it did finish a match, literally right before this match. And that's kind the problem with shows like this. Even with an appropriate number of matches, it is incredibly hard to still WOW a viewer at the end of a show like this. We all learned that a long time ago, the best matches of a deathmatch tournament are almost always 1st round matches, and on a show like this where everyone is using mostly the same props you're going to see even more of the ideas being used up halfway through. A match like this would have played far better as the main event of a normal wrestling show, but this is the kind of match that drew a nice crowd so more power to these lunatics. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from Asylum Wrestling Revolution Mercyful Fate 2 3/28/21

Justin Kyle vs. Madman Fulton

ER: Kyle is a new 2021 fun discovery for me, a working man's Goldberg in the best ways. He's raw as hell and a real bruiser. He has relatability and you can see the potential in him having a successful indy career as a late to the game older guy putting in his best work ever, if things break right. Fulton, on the other hand, is a tall guy who spent a LONG time in the WWE system - as in significant parts of 6 years, on TV in tag teams with guys like Angelo Dawkins - and he has way less polish than Kyle. Fulton is more Lance Hoyt or Big Cass than Kevin Nash, but that's enough for Kyle to work with. It goes too long, honestly would have benefitted from being cut in half, but Kyle has big charisma and already almost enough shtick to carry off a long Dundee/Lawler style battle. That's what they try to do here, and Kyle is a compelling title match worker. He hits hard and never skimps on clotheslines and shoulderblocks, some cool tough guy offense like a great jackhammer, or him flying full speed into a lariat that takes him and Fulton to the floor. He takes big bumps off chokeslams and through tables and doors, and they beat each other with hard plastic school chairs. The chairshots all look painful, bouncing awkwardly off their heads and even an ankle. I really enjoyed the build to Kyle removing his back brace, feels like something not far off from being a Lawler strap takedown for him. I could see these two having a good Loser Leaves Town match with blood. 

3. Mickie Knuckles vs. Akira

JR: When I suggested we write up the Mickie/Sara Dox match, Eric came up with the Mickie as Niebla analogy, which is quite perfect. Here she seems to have an extra gear that makes me rethink the comparison. I tend to love wrestlers who can appear fast in a small amount of space. That trait really adds to the opening portions of this match, and truthfully, Mickie relies on it throughout as it makes the later transitions credible, as she establishes early that she only needs a split second to go back on offense.

Mickie has a strong performance throughout, but Akira brings a dynamic that Mickie is really able to play off. Realistically, this is a prop based death match. It is Chekhov’s gun as designed by Xzibit. Despite this, Akira manages to really find unique ways to use the props once they come into play. Small things, like Knuckles trying to pry the broken water jug off her head before the spot is complete really give the whole thing an air of violence that can sometimes feel lacking.

Mickie, of course, makes sure everything looks incredible, mostly because she wrestles as though there still isn’t evidence that brain injuries have long term effects on a person’s well-being. She takes a big screen TV to the back of the head in a sort of maximalized homage to Necro/Toby. As always, her offense is crisp. She makes sequences that have been used ad nauseam (like the boxing spot) look compelling.

This match flows so well in comparison to a lot of death matches, and I think it is in part because they never overstay their welcome with any one weapon or stay in any one location. They don’t walk and brawl so much as they find places to fight and move on, almost before the viewer really has a chance to process it. The pace is frenetic, to put it mildly, and the work seems to build and reach a fever pitch even without much escalation in the middle portion of the match.

The third act, which I would consider to be essentially everything after they come back inside, almost feels like the third fall of a big apuestas match at times in terms of pacing. Almost every single move was a believable near fall, something that could have ended a match. Roll ups and weapon shots took on equal importance, and the reversal and rollup attempts earlier tie directly to the finish itself. I don’t know if I’ll be the high man on this match, but for me, this is one of the most compelling and well laid out matches I’ve seen this year.

PAS: I am not a 21st century death match guy, but I am a Mickie guy and I thought this had more of a Black Terry brawl vibe than a geek show. Mickie is ferocious, never a moment when the gender disparity hurts the match, as she makes every punch and headbutt feel like something that should knock someone silly. She's maybe the only non-Necro wrestler ever to make a bar fight look good, all of her punches were vicious and she just unloads with a series of gross headbutts at the end to clean it all up. I thought the brawling into the street was very cool. That was a dicey looking neighborhood, and I almost expected one of them to pick up a used syringe from the gutter. I could have done without the lighttubes, the shots with the TV were so much crazier if you wanted to use glass, and these things always work better with less set up props. It also went a bit long, could have used a couple of minutes sliced at the beginning. The finishing series of mat reversals with the battle axe sounds idiotic on paper, but some how worked in execution. I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this, but Mickie is back and better than ever.

ER: Mickie Knuckles has become almost a Paula Pell wrestling character, and it's great. She's like a super dangerous aunt, showing up to an event pounding mini bottles of rum. There's the Mickie James party aunt vibe, and then there's the Mickie Knuckles party aunt vibe. But this match is a real fight, and has the same intensity over long portions as the infamous Black Terry/Wotan match. This is one of the few matches to really capture the vibe of that classic. As Phil mentioned this is an intergender match, but there's no point where that matters, no point where anything feels dumbed down because Mickie hits as hard as any wrestler going. She takes an incredible beating and gives as good as she gets, and the beating is just constant over the course of a long death match. This is the kind of fight that leaves both fighters with some lasting damage, long and short term. Mickie takes two incredibly hard shots with a 5 gallon water jug taped to a stick, a real ungiving, uncaring shot, no protection. But this isn't a geek show, there always feels like there's excellent build and artistry from Mickie and Akira. 

Akira bruises up Mickie with kicks, Mickie fires back with the most savage headbutts, they fight into the street, and the kind of spots I've seen dozens of times they are suddenly making look fresh and violent in new ways. I couldn't believe some of the punch exchanges, not just that I was seeing these painful close up shots, but that either of them stayed conscious through them. Their stand and trade looked better than any stand up I've seen this year, and we've been watching shows specifically targeting the kind of matches where that can take place. Their movement and the way the shots hit was super visceral, very shocking, and kept ramping up in violence over a very long time. There were some incredible moments, and I think my favorite was them making "sit in chairs and punch" interesting again, capped off with Akira flying into Mickie with an uppercut. Mickie takes the shot, takes a beat to figure out how bad she is hurt, then locks in a sick triangle while still seated in her chair. I honestly thought that was going to be the finish (didn't realize the match was like only halfway over) and Akira has this amazing frantic realization that this could be the finish, and only breaks it by tipping Mickie over in her chair and knocking her into a bridged pin. 

The run to the finish is long, but builds well, so even though I wish it were shorter I liked all the things they were doing and managed to continually be shocked by what they kept doing. Mickie's whole right butt cheek gets shredded by gusset plates, she takes a couple nasty spills through tubes, both have bruising and swelling and bleeding from many areas, and we get an insane battle over an actual axe, and they somehow manage to avoid any corny "axe handle" jokes and craft plausible nearfalls out of some things that should seem ridiculous. This was a real, honest to god war, featuring the best fighting I've seen all year, and incredible bout for both. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 3

Akira vs. Hardway Heeter

PAS: I am a big No on this. Akira does a lot of things in his UWFI matches, and it is usually a question of ratio of cool things to not so cool things, and the ratio was way off here. I hated the suplex no-sell and the hands behind my back "let you forearm me" spot so much. The announcers were even saying stuff like "Don't forget this is a UWFI rules match" and well they seemed to forget. There was a couple of nice kicks, and a super nasty Kimura finish, but otherwise, no bueno.

ER: This one kept losing the score the longer it went. Heeter was kind of used as a submission dummy, and Heeter is more interesting when he's stiffing someone. He is not nearly as good at being in position for complicated submissions, and the submissions kept getting more complicated and looking more clunky the more they tried. I thought this actually was ending early with Akira getting his great armbar (with Heeter getting his leg over the rope), but I really did love Akira rolling Heeter into a guillotine with a leg lace. But I don't think you need to hands behind back thing in every match (although I would have loved it being used as a way for Heeter to get a surprise knockdown), and by the end you had stuff like Hardway flipping himself into a kimura, and was all a bit much.  

Sidney Von Engeland vs. Dustin Leonard

PAS: This was awesome. Leonard is a ju-jitsu black belt who is built like Don Bass, who had a cool grappling match with Garrini in their last tourney. Engeland is either British or working a British gimmick. Leonard dominates with simple powerful grappling, overwhelming Engeland with skill and size, including really rocking him with knees. Engeland is forced into rope breaks until he uses a fishhook to break a submission and hits a couple of Exploders, including one which dumps Leonard right on the top of his head. A stunned Leonard rushes him and hits a kneebar out of a Gotch lift which was just awesome. Super cool short match which really gets my hyped for more Dustin Leonard.

ER: Great to see Leonard back on my screen. I love gi wrestlers, and you usually don't see gi wrestlers with Leonard's body type. He's a southern wrestling/MMA guy who looks like a shorter RINGS guy. I think he's from Oklahoma, but I bet at least a couple RINGS guys were from Georgia. I really like when Leonard gets to the gi removal moment of a match, and he really needs to stick with it. It could easily be his own Lawler strap spot if he keeps this up. A ju-jitsu guy with a boiler tossing his gi down and coming back in for a takedown is just always going to be cool. Engeland's exploders looked real tough, and Leonard's selling was great, really made it look like he got his bell rung on the second one (he did kind of take it on the back of his head), and the finish was tremendous. Leonard looks like he's going for a Gotch piledriver and flips Engeland out of it into a perfect kneebar, the kind of thing that was and should be a quick tap. Leonard's post-fight promo only made me more of a fan, as he talks up real - and not bullshit - ju-jitsu as the best style, and I just want him to claim more ACLs. 

Alex Kane vs. Phoenix Kidd

PAS: Kidd is a black guy in a mask with a cool leather jacket, who they say was a submission grappler trained in Alaska. Kane is 2021 Taz, which is a really cool thing to be. Kidd shows some skill early blocking a couple of Kane's throws by using leverage and grabbing limbs. He is able to hit a German of his own (somewhat improbably) only to get Pablo Marquezed with a couple of gross suplexes, including the Mark of Kane which lays him out stiff. I like Kane running through lower level guys early. There are legitimately a dozen guys in this promotion I am excited to see him against, they have really built a roster full of awesome matchups.

ER: This was great, with Kidd going into this knowing what was likely to happen, and finding some pretty good ways to stave off the inevitable. Kidd was really smart about tying up Kane's limbs on suplex attempts, just suctioning himself to the nearest limb to prevent getting tossed. That makes it sound more desperate than it looked, as it was a very smart and well executed strategy, and things didn't go upside down for him until he abandoned it. He blocks an exploder by grabbing Kane's wrist, and he stops what surely what have been a horrible landing by wrapping himself around Kane's leg while upside down. I liked his own German, as it really felt like something he put everything into and still barely got Kane over, didn't look like Kane leapt into it at all. I also like Kidd's chippiness by flipping Kane off after immediately taking a far worse German, that last little gasp of getting in an insult before you lose a fight. Kane hits him with hard kneelifts and then destroys him with the Mark of Kane, and love how they are treating that as a killshot. 

Appollo Starr vs. Chase Holliday

PAS:  Holliday has never fully connected with me. He isn't bad, but I want things to land a little cleaner and harder. I do like how he uses his size to control on the mat. Starr is an old school midwest legend, and is a bunch of fun in this. I really liked how he used a jab early, nice wrist lock takedown, and he also showed some really solid amateur wrestling. I would have like the finish more if both KO blows landed better. I mean people are murking each other in this show, that backfist has to be more Aja for it to work as a KO blow.

ER: I thought this was plenty fun, thought they kept active in interesting ways, and was a really great performance from the commentary team pointing out some small details. Bringing in old midwest indy guys like Starr will only make these Paradigm shows more interesting. I mean now I definitely need to see a Soul Shooters Explode match on a future episode. Starr had a really cool knucklelock takedown, snapping back on Holliday's wrist so he had no choice but to go to his back, and commentary was great at describing how much power Holliday has in his strikes, getting Starr to break the hold even though Holliday was only throwing straight clubbing shots from his back. They also notice when Holliday briefly shakes out his hand, wondering whether that wristlock might have something to do with it. I thought the finish looked decent, and liked how they got there. 

Bobby Beverly vs. Lexus Montez

PAS: This match had a lot of booking setting up a Beverly squash. Not sure what the point of Beverly getting the #1 contender match was. I guess a Beverly vs. Hoodfoot match makes sense, but heel versus heel against Makowski really doesn't. I am a Young Studs fan from way back, but not really sure what role Beverly has in this version of Paradigm.

ER: This was the rematch that was set up by the early stoppage finish we didn't like from the season 1 finale. That might have been the worst stoppage in this series' history, as Montez's strikes really looked like he was shadow boxing or lightly smacking a sibling without hurting them. I think the angle was supposed to be that it was a bad stoppage, but you can still do a bad stoppage angle without the thing stopping the fight looking bad. So the rematch has more of that bad Montez striking, then Beverly throws some back suplexes, they do a kind of silly Beverly superkick/Montez pop up knee, and then Beverly finishes him with another back suplex. I'm with Phil, love Beverly, not really sure what his longterm role is going to be in this Paradigm series. These angles haven't worked for me and the layout of this match didn't work for me, but it's Bobby Beverly so I can only assume it will eventually produce a match we love? 

Hoodfoot vs. Matt Makowski

PAS: Loved the idea of Elite XC veteran Makowski defending the legacy of Kimbo Slice. This was a big main event, and felt like it. Makowski was playing the role of the more skilled fighter who was going to pick apart Hoodfoot, while Hoodfoot was trying to land that KO blow. We get a couple of really heavy suplexes by Hoodfoot, and Makowski strafing his body with body shots and liver kicks. I thought they may have gone one suplex too many, but Makowski hitting his chaos theory into a armbreaker was a holy shit move and a great way to switch a title. Team Filthy invading PPW and cleaning house is a great and Makowski has a lot of fun matchups with the belt. Still kind of sad to see Hoodfoot drop it, he really brought something unique to that title.

ER: Give me an "I knew Kimbo Slice, and you sir are no Kimbo Slice" angle I never realized I wanted. These two are a perfect pairing, and this is the Paradigm match we were most excited to see the moment we found out Makowski was joining. Atlas is an excellent seller, sells strikes more honestly and poetically than anyone this side of Eddie Kingston, so seeing Makowski - man who can throw several nice strikes - tee off on Atlas is wrestling joy. Atlas sells strikes so passionately, really makes me belief in the power of a leg kick or a shot to the ribs, makes me fully buy into his arm getting knotted up from taking a couple of strong kicks. Makowski suplexing Hoodfoot was a big moment, love how Hoodfoot falls and folds over, and you know he was excited to toss Makowski as payback. Makowski's spin kick doesn't quite land, but it works well to set up Chaos Theory into the excellent match finisher cross armbreaker, a fantastic spot to win a title with. I am sad that Hoodfoot isn't the champ, as he's a GREAT fighting champ, but Makowski is someone strong to have on top. Plus, I think there are a ton of fascinating Hoodfoot matches we haven't gotten yet, and I like how the dynamic changes with him no longer champ and instead fighting to get his belt back. This match should splinter off into several subsequent great matches, and I can't wait. 

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 1

8. Hoodfoot Mo Atlas vs. Akira

PAS: One of the longer Hoodfoot UWFI matches I have seen and one where he sold a lot. Akira took most of the match, including landing a couple of big knockdowns, one with a stiff liver kick and one with a flurry ending in a running knee. Akira is good at bringing an appropriate amount of stiffness to his shots, and I bought him taking a lot of this match even though he was smaller. Finish was a classic Hoodfoot finish, with Akira rushing in and getting obliterated with that looping right hand. It felt like King Kong swatting a plane out of the sky.

ER: I expected this to be a kind of Hoodfoot steamrolling, but what we got was much more special than that likely would have been. Atlas is great at steamrolling guys, but he's perhaps even better at showing believable vulnerability. The mat scrambling looked really good, and Atlas is strong at little mat details the whole match, like grabbing Akira by the meat of the calf on the ground, or holding down Akira's elbow late in the match while in a triangle. Akira's striking looked like it was legitimately taking Atlas apart, and I exclaimed out loud to nobody when the liver kick knockdown happened. I went from expecting Hoodfoot in a walk, to not expecting Hoodfoot to get up from that kick. Akira rocks Atlas with a back elbow, goes back to that kick in the corner (Atlas is so good at using the ropes to save him from a knockdown, I've seen him rely on them in cool ways a few different times now, great way of integrating the ring into his matches), and drops him again with an awesome running knee. You knew Atlas was going to throw big hands, and all of them looked predictably great, loved him going for heavy kneelifts, and I can't believe Akira got up after that right hand sandwiched between two Saito suplexes. I'm glad he did, and I love how the wrapped it up instead. Great stuff through and through, so much better than the match I thought I wanted.

Robert Martyr vs. Nick King

PAS: I though this was good stuff. King is listed as having a folkstyle and judo background and there was a lot of mat scrambling at the start including King throwing a really seamless fireman's carry, and a nice snap german. Martyr actually uses the ref to block King's view, stomps down on the ankle and hits a big german of his own, before he gets a chicken wing for the tap. Lots of energy in the early mat work, and I would be into seeing King again.

ER: Great bang for your buck, under 3 minutes and all of it great. This was my first time seeing King, and Paradigm is really making me think they have a bottomless supply of interesting new guys at their disposal. King was really gluey on the mat, looked like he hardly let go of Martyr's left ankle and kept rolling and pivoting into new holds from that ankle control. His fireman's carry alone was great enough that I think I was counting myself a Nick King Fan one minute in. Martyr stomping King's ankle while the ref was clearly obstructing King's view is a real dickhead twerp move, and commentary was super sharp to point out how Martyr would likely get a point docked for that but gained a point and damage from following it up with a German. The chickenwing was a surprise quick finish, but a good one, and King was great at looking like a guy who got caught in a chickenwing. 

Isiah Broner vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: Felt like they were writing Flash out of the territory here. Both these guys have boxing backgrounds, so I enjoyed the timing and movement. Broner is able to shoot in and grab a quick double leg and clean out Thompson quick with ground and pound. They do a post match angle with Bobby Beverly turning extra heel by turning on his heel group and joining another heel group. I like this sub-promotion a lot, but all of the angles that aren't just one guy calling out another have been misses. 

ER: This was mostly angle, which is fine, but the execution was muddy and the implications were unclear. I'm not bothered by the 1 minute fight, even if the stand-up slapping thrills me less than any other options open to guys under these rules. But I did like Flash's selling on the shot that made his legs wobble, and thought Broner dragging Flash to the mat with a papoose takedown kicked ass. But you have Broner getting a stoppage in a minute, then Flash beating Broner down after, then Beverly cheapshotting Flash, which leaves Broner slumped there waiting for an angle to play out, his quick finish already in the rearview. I think filming something separately with Beverly and Flash could have played better, as a big Broner win should have been played up as a bigger thing than a Bobby Beverly stable change. 

Austin Connelly vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: I have compared Connelly to a shoot style Buzz Sawyer before, and he has really leaned into it with a chain and barking, which is great. Like always, Connelly is a missile aimed right at his opponent, constantly moving forward throwing reckless forearms. He run rights into a forearm by Blade which busts his mouth, and they are moving with such speed and wildness that it doesn't seem possible to control the force of blows. Blade grabs the ankle and really cranks it until the ref has to stop the fight. I am into both of these fighters, Connelly especially is one of my favorite wrestlers in the world to watch right now.

ER: My god Austin Connelly rules. There have been a ton of standout moments and standout wrestlers on these Paradigm UWFI shows, so it's high praise to say he might be my favorite. I like Phil's Shootstyle Buzz Sawyer description, and while I harp on other guys not really adhering to UWFI style, I hypocritically love how UWFI rules cannot contain Connelly as he rushes headlong into kill or be killed. These two were throwing elbows straight at mouths and not pulling things, and we got a great visual of Connelly yelling through a mouth filled with blood while trying to break an ankle lock. Blade hung in with the mad man and weathered the storm, fighting for that ankle lock even while Connelly was pounding on her knee to get her to break. I would have liked another minute or two of this, but also love experiencing the joy of Connelly in these starbursts. 

PAS: Filthy Tom Lawlor comes out and introduces Matt Makowski as the newest member of Team Filthy, which is awesome. Love Makowski, and I am excited to see what he does in this format. They do another angle that sets up Makowski vs. Hoodfoot which is of course great, but there is some stuff with Bobby Beverly and Lexus Montez which wasn't great and ended up with some shoving, and the angles continue to leave me cold. Makowski vs. Hoodfoot should rule though.

ER: Getting more guys than necessary out there to do some shoving was really not necessary, as the purpose of the Lawlor segment should have only been to build excitement for Makowski/Hoodfoot. That match is something to be excited about, and I left the segment excited for it, but everything else distracted from that excitement. 

Derek Neal vs. Gary Jay

PAS: This didn't work for me, the striking had a real Lisa Simpson windmill feeling, and there were some New Japan forearms and even a knife edge chop. It had some nice energy and Neal threw a good clothesline, but it felt out of the style and too many thing didn't land but got sold anyway.

ER: This didn't bother me as badly as it did Phil, but you know when Phil breaks out the Lisa Simpson reference that he is getting ready to really hate something. I don't know what part of the match those punches are referring to, as it's a tough criticism to levy towards a match with no closed fists allowed. When you're only allowed slaps (technically), you are going to be walking that fine line between hard strikes and "kids having a slap fight with 90% of them missing". And from the looks of this match, they landed in that unfortunate valley of strikes that likely really hurt, without actually looking good. That's a shame, because you could see how hard Neal was laying things in with his clubbing shots to Jay's back, and I liked the big powerbomb Neal used to start the match. He has 60 pounds on Jay, hell yes he should Sapp him up into a powerbomb. That kind of stuff worked for me, and I also liked how Neal kept getting solid knockdowns for the first minute: That powerbomb, a kind of waterwheel suplex, a couple of strikes, good way to keep Jay down early. But by the time they started in with bad looking chops and some real bad looking Jay roaring elbows, I was ready for it to be over. I'm sure it's possible to hit a cool roaring elbow that would fit right into the vibe of a Paradigm match, but these elbows wouldn't have looked good in any setting. 

Dominic Garrini vs. Matt Justice

PAS: This was really cool, and a great main event for a season premier. Garrini had only lost once in this style, to Hoodfoot, and Justice had been a guy working primarily superfights against UFC guys. Garrini controlled early with grappling, although Justice showed some skill there including a great gator roll and some really nasty elbows to the side of the head. We get a camera close up of the shots and they were brutal. They get back to their feet and Garrini shoots right into a KO knee. Felt like it was building to something bigger before being suddenly finished, and I liked how it really felt out of nowhere.

ER: Really impressed with both guys here, but it's hard to not be more impressed with Justice. Justice went for a single leg to start and really took a grappling match right to Dom, an ambitious strategy against a world class grappler with a notable gas tank. Dom is really good at being calm and cool on the mat, using his low gravity to put a lot of weight on Justice, to tire Justice out. Justice decides to break this by throwing two brutal back elbows at Garrini's head and face, another that scraped hard across Dom's face, and then rained down with a few more after shifting positions. On a weekly show filled with stiff strikes, these elbows were among the heaviest blows we've seen. The finish was so so, as Dom gets his hands way out in front of the knee that leads right to the finish. I obviously can't really blame anyone for not diving face first into a KO knee, but still a match finishing knee needs to look like a knee that will lead to a finish. Still, I love these guys, and would love to see this run back. 

ER: You could make the case that this episode was the best episode of the UWFI rules series so far, with nearly all of the matches delivering at minimum something memorable. We added Hoodfoot/Akira to our 2021 Ongoing MOTY List. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series Episode 5 Finale

Ron Mathis vs. Akira

PAS: This wasn't really a UWFI match, more of a highspot sprint. It had some nice stuff in it, like Akira landing a gross Low-Ki double stomp and some big high kicks. He is a fun Minoru Tanaka style shoot junior in this garage BattlArts. Mathis had some fun throws, but was almost doing comedy spots at the beginning.  For what this was it was fine, it was pretty out of style though. 

ER: Yeah the Mathis comedy at the beginning really threw me, come off like something we didn't need worked into this series. Felt like the wrong vibe to bring, maybe would have played better in front of a crowd. But every minute of the match was stronger than the minute that preceded it, so it's hard to dislike a match that keeps getting better and ends with the best stuff. There were a bunch of exploder variations, and one of the commentary guys called one of them "a real sack of shit toss" which made me spit coffee out a bit. The throws got pretty big by the end, and I liked Mathis leaping onto Akira with a guillotine. I thought Akira's bridging reversal of the guillotine was fantastic, and his leaping double stomp into Mathis's chin was disgusting, one of the great spots of the season. 

Big Beef vs. Austin Connelly

PAS: I am into Connelly. He does relentless really well, and comes right at Big Beef, only to get rudely and violently rebuked. Some of those forearms that Beef threw were Vader on Cactus level of concussive. For a second I didn't buy Connelly getting off a suplex, until I saw the size of his thighs. He looks like he could squat a mobile home. Quick and violent seems to be a Connelly special, and he is a guy I want to see more of. Beef hits appropriately hard, and I think him versus Hoodfoot could be great.

ER: I couldn't wait for this one after Connelly's last fight and Beef's performance all season, and this delivered. Connelly is a nut, and I buy into the way he keeps popping up and charging in until he can't. I'm not sure how sustainable it is for his career, but I love it! He rushes Beef and runs right into a boot and a powerbomb, and that kind of thing keeps happening. His throw was really impressive, and his ability to eat shots is even more impressive. Beef cracks him across the face and jaw with some vicious forearms, There's also some awesome post match body wrecking, with Connelly running down Beef and laying in full arm forearm shots just as hard as he took, and then Beef powers Connelly up and runs him back to the ring to dump him disgustingly with a powerbomb on the floor. Another season 1 highlight from these two. 

Lexus Montez vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: More of an angle then a match, Beverly does a Fuerza handshake gimmick at the beginning and catches Montez with a couple of his Saito suplexes. Montez is able to bully him into the ropes and hit some shots and the ref does an quick stoppage. There ends up being a locker room brawl setting up Hoodfoot vs. Beverly in Terminal Combat which is five minutes of UWFI rules and then a hardcore match, which on paper seems kind of silly. I needed Montez to land harder stuff for me to buy the stoppage even if it was supposed to be fast.

ER: Yeah none of this worked for me. The referee is wearing a mask so I can only assume it's Steve Mazzagatti under there, because this stoppage was bad, and looked bad. I get the angle, but you need to actually play up to the angle and "bad stoppage" is just about one of the least interesting angles around. Nothing Montez did looked like it warranted a stoppage, his Superman punch just looked like a bad avalanche, and his match stopping slaps were arguably the worst strikes we've seen during this 5 episode UWFI rules run. If not worst overall strikes, then definitely the worst strikes used as justification to stop a match. My grandma really hated my beard, and would always tug on it and give my face these little slaps when she saw it, and those slaps looked harder than the slaps that stopped this match. If a match is going to be used to further an angle, you have to actually a) sell the angle convincingly, and b) make the angle interesting. The match this leads to sounds cumbersome at best, but the execution that got us there was even worse. 

Chase Holliday vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: This was pretty good stuff, with Blade showing their skill on the mat, including pulling guard with a jumping kimura, only to be caught with some big shots when they stood up. There was a nasty short hook which dropped her, and a big spinning back elbow for the KO (better then Holliday's first spinning back elbow, still not as good as Akira's or Broner's). I liked Blade a lot, and this was a better Holliday performance, excited to see more from both. 

ER: I thought this was a nice little snack. I really liked Blade's tie up matwork, her guard seemed really difficult to pass and she had really dangerous upkicks, and strong use of her legs in general. It looked like she had a good plan and I really liked her heavy knees to the ribs while standing. Holliday's worked back elbow finish looked good, and I dug how Blade sold it. 

Aaron Williams vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: I like Justice's fish out of water gimmick in these shows. It was cool how this match kept threatening to spin out, before being brought back in. Williams was fun shit talking on the mat, as he was clearly the more skilled grappler, and I loved his body shot/hook combo which sent Justice to the floor. I thought the buckle bomb and death valley driver were a step too far away from the style for me, but those finishing KO grounded knees were nasty looking. Post match Justice calls out Josh Barnett, which would be a big deal if they could actually deliver. 

ER: This landed a bit short for me. Justice is a "main event" worker I really like, but this didn't have the main event season ending heft that a lot of Justice matches come with. I do like Justice as fish out of water, challenging any Pride or UFC vets in an open challenge (how much could it cost to bring in Gerard Gordeau or Zuluzhino?), but I wanted more out of the last fight of the season. There were several individual things I liked, like Justice breaking a guillotine by trying to drop Williams back of neck first over the middle rope, and those nasty match ending knees from Justice. I also liked Williams talking trash ("I'm gonna get my shit in too!") and his triangle attempt. I thought the dvd was worked in as well as you can work something like that into a shootstyle match, but yeah I'd rather not see it. 

PAS: This is the end of season one, and I think overall this was a successful experiment. Not everything worked on every show, but everything was kept short, and I can digest a four minute failure pretty easily. This introduced me to a bunch of wrestlers I want to see more. Isaiah Broner, Hoodfoot, Austin Connelly, and Jordan Blade being people I hadn't heard of and have left big fans, and there is a whole second tier that I am excited to see more. We are in, and will cover Season 2 for sure.

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series Episode 3

Big Beef vs. Crash Jaxon

PAS: These are a pair of big dudes who both lost their first match, and this was a fun Beef showcase. Jaxon had a moment or two, but mostly was eating big shots including a nasty stunning slap, and a couple of big suplexes including a nasty German, plus a wrenching powerbomb for the KO. Jaxon is a good foil for these matches, his size makes it really impressive when he is dropped. 

ER: Beef comes off like a real bulldozer under these rules, and I love watching it. Jaxon threw some iffy looking kneelifts (the first two he did I had no idea what they were even supposed to be until commentary called them knees, just looked like a silly little leap), but he certainly hung in there to take some gnarly strikes from Gnarls. Beef backed him up with a right hand, and landed some nasty crossfaces on the ground. I dug Jaxon trying to stuff a suplex attempt so it wound up looking like Beef dropped him with a leaping Flatliner. Beef's clubbing forearms to the back really echoed and the shoot powerbomb for the win looked really cool. 

Hardway Heeter vs. Chase Holliday

PAS: Heeter comes in to Waiting Room so the old DC punk in me is on his side. Holliday has a medal which he puts on the line in the match. They tried a bit too much here, seven suplexes in a three minute match is total overkill. I actually liked some of the non-suplex stuff a lot, Heeter had a nice jab to the body and the coolest thing in the match was Holliday's jumping knee, but then they just went back to suplexes (none of which looked great). Finish was pretty bad too, with Holliday trying Goodrich elbows which didn't land well at all.

ER: Before he had his first match, I noticed Heeter standing around me during a SUP show during SCI 2019 weekend. I thought he had a cool look, jacked dude with glasses, strong beard, rocking no shirt under a vintage jean jacket. Coming out to Fugazi just adds to all that cool. I'm with Phil, in that the suplex stuff did not work for me at all. It wasn't even that I thought there were too many (there were), but most of them were set up in the most pro wrestling way. If you're going to set these things up with one strike that almost connected, why not just do other pro wrestling finishers? Let's see a bad stomach kick to set up a twist of fate, or maybe someone can wait around bent at the waist to take an axe kick. I like the parts where they were keeping each other at bay with strikes, like Heeter's great jab to the body, or Holliday's swarm of open hand strikes that allowed him to get in close. But just throwing a strike and then hitting a vertical suplex, with no fight whatsoever? I'm sure I could have been into this more if there was some decent struggle, instead of guys taking wrestling suplexes. I much rather would have seen them work around Holliday's early match grounded front chancery and build to his great running knee as the finish. Instead we got Goodridge elbows that all looked like Holliday was trying to rub off one of Heeter's nipples. 

1. Austin Connelly vs. Lord Crewe

PAS: This was my favorite match of the series so far (it's either this or Hoodfoot vs. Flash from Episode 1). Connelly wrestles this like you might imagine Buzz Sawyer would have worked UWF. He charges Crewe, swarming him with wild shots and a Karelin lift which wasn't hit clean, but in a cool way. Crewe peppers him with kicks and slaps and Connelly just keeps moving forward, landing a big slap to the ear and a second big Karelin lift. They exchange big shots until Connelly gets dropped to his butt, with Crewe following up with a nasty sliding elbow for the KO. Whole thing was super intense scrap with constant forward movement.

ER: This was so great, genuinely in the conversation of greatest under 3 minute matches ever. Connelly is billed as a crazy man, and he ran in with no defense the entire time, scrambling for takedowns like an animal (commentary laughed at him using Groundhog Style, which is great), and Crewe just threw full arm strikes the whole time. Connelly threw him with a Karelin lift that Crewe sandbagged (Connelly still got him over) and later muscled Crewe over with a waterwheel suplex. But Crewe just picked this guy apart, throwing more landed strikes in 2 minutes than we've practically seen in this entire UWFI series so far. He was just smacking Connelly above the ear, in the temple, in the mouth, in the forehead, any direction Connelly turned there was an open hand to greet him. Crewe threw a couple nice high kicks whenever Connelly was stunned, and ran in with a sliding elbow for the finish, and all of it looked great. These guys were total maniacs, really showed what kind of special exchanges are possible in this format. 

YOYA vs. Akira

PAS: I liked this a lot too, YOYA is really tiny and it allows Akira to pull off some pretty cool shit throwing him around the ring. Akira is normally a death match guy, but pulled off some slick shit here, including a monkey flip into a cross arm breaker and Indian death lock choke combo.Akira also landed a sick headbutt to break a leg bar, a crazy running back elbow and a koppo kick. YOYA was really fast and used hand speed and some leaping submission attempts. Finish was sick with Akira doing a lifted keylock suplex into a keylock submission which looked like it ripped out Yoya's shoulder. There was a pretty lame run in post match by DD Trash setting up a future tag match outside of UWFI rules, but the in ring part of this match was cool.

ER: This was a lot of fun, and they had a ton of ideas, although I'm not sure we needed every single one of their ideas. I think my problems were more with layout, as YOYA took a ton of hard shots that each counted as a knockdown, and I just did not buy his big comebacks down the stretch. 125 lb. is really small, making that 65 lb. weight difference far greater. I'm under 160 and the idea of me taking knees in the face and being on "Bambi legs" and taking more of the same for 5 minutes, followed by me getting a couple throws on someone weighing 225 lb. sounds laughably implausible. YOYA had some really cool stuff that really worked, and his sliding rolled through kneebar by far one of the coolest things we've seen on the UWFI shows so far. But Akira unloaded so many tricks on him for so long, and I'm not sure I would have bought those throws at any point of the match anyway. 

There were several different pieces of Akira offense that I thought were the end of the match, like YOYA shooting in for a takedown only to meet a perfectly timed knee to the chin. That happens a minute in, and I can't get too excited for a wicked spinning backfist several minutes later, no matter how great it looked. The finish was at least the most disgusting part of the match, and I was genuinely scared for YOYA's elbow, shoulder, and arm. When Akira yoinked YOYA up into the keylock I thought that was the finishing submission right there. I didn't expect him to THROW him by that same arm and then keep the hold applied! Disgusting finish, though it's kind of wild that the 125 lb. guy absorbed more punishment in this match than anyone in any match so far. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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