AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 11/29-12/5

AEW Dark 11/30 (Taped 10/24)

Infinito vs. Ray Jaz

PAS: I am not sure the point of this Danielson gimmick.  He gets a chance to work some fast exchanges with Jaz - who looked good - and I really liked Jaz's bumps on the monkey flips. The shtick of the match was Infinito winning with the airplane spin, but it wasn't a great looking airplane spin. For an airplane spin to really work they need to be fast, and I thought the Infinito one was pretty slow. Long slow airplane spin isn't going to do much. It's fun that Danielson gets to experiment, but this was a miss for me.

AEW Dynamite 12/1

Bryan Danielson vs. Alan Angels

ER: I like Heel And Loving It Danielson, laughing that he's getting booed against Alan Angels just for showing up, not working disrespectfully but cutting much more to the point. Angels is fired up in front of his home crowd and Danielson works the vibes of a guy who is underestimating his opponent, who isn't actually underestimating his opponent. His smile is infectious as he hits chops and running dropkicks and the crowd boos, and I liked how he responded to a nice Angels backslide with a sick butterfly suplex into an armbar that I thought was going to polish off Angels right there. Angels got to have his fun hometown comeback, hitting a dive and a Spanish Fly, but misses a moonsault. Once that moonsault missed you could tell Bryan was going to shut this thing down, and stomping the guys' face a bunch before just locking in a kneebar is a cool bad guy way to finish a match. 

MD: This never quite boiled over like I thought it might. We've seen Angels really go and I thought this might be an opportunity for Danielson to turn it up a notch. What we got was fine though. Dragon's most interesting right now with his little mannerisms, laughing off the crowd chanting for Angels, pointing to his ear to draw the boos to a couple of different sides of the ring, indicating his knee after grinding it into Angels' face. Angels sold big for Danielson, leaping into the corner after getting chopped. The transitions and cutoffs were ok: Angels using a backslide to get some kicks in, Danielson cutting Angels' strike attempts off by whipping him around to plant him with the double underhook into the cross arm-breaker, the knee counter to a suplex attempt which is 100% the novel zeitgeist AEW spot of 2021. None of it really told a broader story though. And with that broader story absence, I sort of wanted them to just go harder. I don't always want that, but I wanted it here. Good reactions all around though, especially that smile on Angels' face as the crowd greeted him to start the match. He'll have that with him the rest of his life.

CM Punk vs. Lee Moriarty

ER: Well this stunk. I have no idea how Lee Moriarty became a guy people want to see, because I don't see it. I thought Moriarty looked awful here. None of his offense looks good, he sells every move the same  way but doesn't sell actual parts of his body that get worked over, sets up spots incredibly lazy, and has no punch whatsoever behind any of his dreadful chain offense. How is this guy getting 12 TV minutes against CM Punk? The match goes from bad to worse when Moriarty breaks out one of the dumbest wrestling reversals (taking a top rope huricanrana fully and then just rolling into a bad sunset flip) and then straight into a brutally bad Malenko/Guerrero sequence. This was some not ready for primetime shit, and it made Punk look weaker being associated with it. MJF on commentary was even laughing about how Punk couldn't beat this guy, and when the man is right, he's right. 

PAS: This was just an awful matchup for Punk. I am not a Moriarty guy, but his best stuff has been doing that kind of slick reversal match with guys like Alex Shelley and Daniel Makabe, and that is something that Punk has never really been good at and definitely isn't his strength now. Moriarty really hasn't been on TV, and took way too much of this match for the crowd who didn't know or care about him. It made Punk look bad and didn't do much to make Moriarty look good, especially with MJF clowning him on commentary. That rana into the Malenko/Guerrero stuff looked awful, and the final reversal run wasn't much better. The mic work between Punk and MJF basically worked last week, and it really didn't work this week. None of the jokes landed and it felt very WWE Rawish. The first real complete miss of the Punk era and cutting the incredible Kingston feud short to run this seems like a bigger error each week. 

MD: I had a hard time even paying attention to this one because of MJF on commentary. I'm under the belief that there's payoff to all of this, but it's not to be found in this program. Punk beating MJF doesn't change the fact that he's been presented as struggling with guys like QT and Moriarty, to a level that the jeering heel has more than a point. In that case, it makes MJF look worse for not being able to overcome the guy struggling against QT after his faction has been sent away. If MJF beats Punk, he's beaten a Punk that's obviously diminished. There can be a payoff which is Punk finding his fire or going heel or whatever, but I don't think it can happen within this program. Even done open-eyed, it feels like a missed opportunity for the guy who came back with the most buzz in years. It makes people like Darby and Kingston look worse in defeat, since it was this obviously lesser Punk that still managed to defeat them. As for the match, I'm not arguing with Eric or Phil. A lot of this comes down to presentation. They made the point that Punk was working a heavier schedule than MJF but just like they didn't press in hard enough on QT's low blow, I don't think they were able to hone in on Moriarty's specific skills that'd give him an advantage and make him hard to deal with. They called him young and talented but it was hard to talk over MJF's absolutist bluster. I still like Punk using the bodyslams in various ways. The best of the dancey counter stuff was the Pepsi twist. But they're not putting the exacting care they need to in this presentation. This needed to be much clearer and more focused both in-ring and on commentary.

49. Darby Allin/Sting vs. Gunn Club

ER: I really liked the Darby/Billy Gunn match, and the Darby/Billy moments were my favorite parts of this tag. Gunn really plants Darby with a full nelson slam, like he was trying to put him through the ring. We miss some cool things during the commercial break, which is a shame. The picture in picture caught a lot of the Gunn Club cutting Darby off from Sting, but cut to an actual commercial when Gunn was about to hit a big slam, then came back and Darby had a cut on his head. Darby is always cool with blood (I guess that goes for every wrestler though so), and he hits two classic unhinged Darby dives, a great tope into the guardrail on Austin, and a tope con giro that bounces him off Billy Gunn's head. Sting was fun on his hot tag and the Gunn Club is a strong act, but I just love that weirdo Billy/Darby chemistry. 

MD: A lot to like here. They work the first couple of minutes almost like a mixed-tag with Colten feeding for Darby's speed. The transition when Billy tags in works great. Someday I'll revisit his "The One" run because I look at things differently now, but I didn't have a lot of time for it back when it happened. Even then, I loved the One and Only cobra clutch slam and him catching Darby into it was so good. Darby's hope spot where he landed on his feet after the fall away slam right into the crucifix and the subsequent cut off with Billy's slam was all more than solid. I saw a feed with no PiP which helped. Austin would have been preferable to Colten for that slowed down commercial heat since he's just more naturally irritating, whereas his brother needs to work for it. Darby is the world's most sympathetic Sabu. The second we see the top of his head bleeding, he immediately hits a jawbreaker with it. And those pinball dives. Putting over Sting in Atlanta is as good a way to end an undercard streak as anything.

PAS: I thought this was really great, and it is amazing how effective Sting is at this point of his career. He shows up every couple of months or so, and has these great Southern tags. He is a really good in the corner worker, and is a tremendous hot tag. I loved Darby using those insane topes as cut offs, giving Sting the chance to clean house. The flip stunner into the Scorpion drop was awesome, and the Gunn Club were great stooges, even Austin's big punch ruled. What a great bit of business. There are so many match ups I am excited to see the Darby/Sting tag team work, how great would a Darby/Sting vs. Hook/Dante Martin tag be?

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 7/22/20

What Worked

Eddie Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes

ER: I wasn't sure who to expect when it was announced a "top independent star" would be challenging Cody. My first thought was Hero, my second thought was Kingston, my third thought was "someone I don't care about nearly as much as Hero or Kingston". I think we've been just about the loudest Eddie Kingston drum beaters on the internet this past decade, and not only was he our favorite wrestler of 2019, but both Phil and I agreed that he was the #1 wrestler in the world. This is a great get for AEW, and you can bet the beautiful eyes of Eddie Kingston's mother that I am excited. This is Eddie Kingston, in his debut, getting to do every single thing that makes him great against the top guy in the company, and I can't imagine a better debut. Kingston talks a bunch of trash to Arn (actually surprised it didn't lead to any kind of moment where Arn throws a left at him, especially once it became No DQ), incredibly threatening to gouge his eye out if he keeps "throwing Murder Ones his way", and clowns Cody into accepting a No DQ stip.

This match, again, is everything that any Kingston fan could - and any pro wrestling fan - could want out of a match. Kingston is a great foil for Cody, and Cody wasn't afraid to lean right into having an Eddie Kingston match. Cody goes right in on Kingston's head with hard punches, a straight overhand right to the jaw, and some of the best headlock punches I've seen in a year. Kingston lands heavy chops and the best desperation bar fight offense in the game, grabbing at Cody's face, ear, hair, just digging nails in to break holds. Kingston is my favorite injury salesman in the game, bringing that cumulative damage finer than anyone since Kikuchi. It's not in your face, it doesn't guarantee the match will lead to a "work the limb" match, it's just a 38 year old banged up man not sure what part might give out. Kingston and I were born the same year. I went out jogging after work today and sometimes when I jog for too long I get a twinge on the inside of my right shoulder blade. Don't know why it's there, don't know what caused it, but I'm pushing 40 and I have weird aches. Kingston plays those aches better than anyone. His knee injury wasn't always the focus, but it was used to set up cheapshots and smart attacks. Kingston crumpling on an Irish whip is a spot that I love, but a spot that I've seen played way too melodramatically, and Kingston is a guy who knows how to hit just the right notes. I like how he blurs the lines between doing something like that just to land a cheap low blow on Cody, or doing the low blow as a last resort. It's the sign of a smart, confident wrestler that he doesn't need to show his hand, just leaves us speculating.

I cannot believe thumbtacks got involved, and I can't believe Cody was crazy enough to get powerbombed into those tacks. Eddie Kingston debuted on national television, and powerbombed the face of the company into thumbtacks. What?! I would have liked one more beat before Kingston tapped to the figure 4, something like King grabbing a handful of tacks and grinding them into Cody to force a break, but King played such strong attention to the knee that you can't argue with the quick tap. What an incredible segment, the kind of thing that should put Kingston on everyone's radar.

PAS: Pretty much the platonic ideal of What Worked. Eddie is one of all time favorite wrestlers, and while the EVOLVE show on the Network didn't let him do his thing, AEW gave us every bit of peak King. We got a great promo to start it off, establishing him immediately as a long time veteran tough guy who was going to make the most of his last chance. Then he actually integrated that story into the match, constantly ripping at the eyes, tearing at the face, throwing low blows, even breaking out a bag of thumbtacks. We have written a William Vollmann novel amount of text on Kingston's masterful body part selling. It is the thing he does as good as any wrestler ever, and his knee selling in this match was perfect. Him tweaking it early, attempting to walk it off, stomp it out, and how it slowly minute by minute betrayed him, leading to his downfall. Kingston has always been the guy who has fallen a bit short, that has been the story arc of his career. I am not sure if Eddie gets another AEW shot (if they have any sense they bring him back, #SignEddieKingston was even trending on Twitter), but if this is the only chance he gets I can't imagine a more perfect one match story.


-MJF has been one of the best squash match workers in AEW, always bringing the right amount of stiffness and intensity while showing just enough ass to give his opponent a little dignity. MJF showing that Garrison got under his skin with a "you got beat" comment is a strong aspect of his character, just enough of a peak that he's not quite as confident as he plays.

-Ricky Starks blindsiding Darby looked great, really flying down the ramp and smacking him. Cage hitting that big powerbomb into the ring looked great too.

-Bucks/Butcher and Blade brawl wasn't perfect, but it's a cool thing to have on the show as a change of pace. Blade was good at bumping around a kitchen (shame we didn't get a Sudden Death kitchen fight though), loved Matt Jackson's big flip dive out of the semi trailer, dug Nick getting lawn darted right into his own large face on the truck door. The big stunt spots played well, the fun stuff like Blade eating a superkick and falling into an up escalator played well, it was all fun. You don't need a match like this every show, but it's good to have something like this for flavor.

-Who was that ginger who got his head thrown up through a ceiling tile, landed hard, and then got dumped even harder by Archer into a trash can? Because that guy is awesome.

-Main event tag was good, felt like a cool ramped up house show main event, and Jericho is someone who has decades of experience working crowd pleasing house show main events. Jericho uses slightly different versions of his act depending on which Inner Circle member he's teaming with. I can't decide if I like Jericho/Sammy or Jericho/Hager more as a team, they both bring different elements. Sometimes I'm more into a stooging match and sometimes I'm more into a bully match, and  tonight I was into Jericho teaming with and being inspired by a bully. Hager has the dumbest face imaginable, a guy who always has his mouth open, but when he closes it you wish he would open it, but then he hangs it open again and you know he's unbearable when chewing food. But he's been real good in AEW as nothing but a Mongo Smash type dumb jock. He's not clean and not smooth about it, but I like him just taking guys down and lurching after them. Fun tag match to round out a very good night of wrestling.


What Didn't Work

-I've been really impressed with MJF's AEW work, but that's a tough call to have MJF come out to do a "Get in your opponent's face in the ring" promo in the segment directly following an Eddie Kingston segment doing just that. That's sending Kajagoogoo out on the stage after Napalm Death.

-Cool to see Ivelisse back on TV, but the match as a whole didn't work for me. They went out to have one of those compact "We're in a WAR" epics and it would have been more interesting for them to work a match more suited for the time they were given. I just can't get into a short match that needs to include a slow motion Godspell curtain call heavy breathing stand and trade. Both of their "big" high kicks looks like they were thrown at half speed. This had moments, and I'd like to see them both turn up in the Dynamite women's division, but this fell short.

-Page/Angels wasn't helped by mostly taking place during a commercial break (which is an immediate mute from me), but the timed step sequences didn't look great, Angels threw bad mounted punches (Dark Order need to do a Team Building weekend and work on their mounted punches), and a lot of stuff looked like they were focusing too hard on steps instead of where strikes landed. Page's lariat looked good, but a lot of this didn't.


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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 4/22/20

What Worked

-I'm still not certain we've gotten an actual Sammy/Darby classic, and they've matched up several times. It's possibly because their best matches are against monsters and matched up against each other one on one they somewhat negate what the other is best at. They're easily two of my favorite five guys in AEW, but they can both likely have better matches against lesser opponents than against each other. HOWEVER, I liked this a lot, I just have a higher bar set here. It's strong throughout, but weirdly cut apart by commercials, which hurt the flow a bit. I could see the argument that the commercial layout was smart, as it allowed recovery time from some pretty big stuff, but I would have liked to see just how they handled that recovery. Instead we jumped right back into more big moves and it didn't feel right. It starts with Sammy blindsiding Darby with a tope and then hitting a nutso superfly splash to the floor, "putting" Darby through a ladder. Except the ladder doesn't budge and both of these two are going to be dealing with crushing rib pain for the next week. Darby worked on Guevara's foot and even ripped off his boot, that all lead to a cool kneebar that I would have bought as the finish. Both guys take some big spills (not a shock) and I liked Sammy's lunatic dedication to selling a foot by actually trying to do a one foot springboard cutter and a 630 where he was clearly favoring a leg. That's a great way to die, but I think he pulled it off. Love seeing these two do their thing.

-Best Brodie Lee squash so far, but I also think the other ones have been weak. His big windup clothesline looked great, that's really the only kind of stuff he should be doing. Drop the superkicks and somersault sentons.


What Didn't Work

-I was on a long phone call last week with a relative, and missed most of Dynamite. I *did* want to mention that I made it back in time for the Hager/Moxley match, and it was a real clunker. Easily the worst "Bloodsport" style match I've seen over the past few years, compeltely sluggish, both completely over their heads, no idea where to take the match, and it felt endless. In a just world, people would be dumping on that match as much as they dumped on Edge/Orton.

-To add to the discussion of Better Wrestler: Lex Luger or Kenny Omega, I like being able to throw on an old episode of Raw and see Luger take Tony DeVito to the woodshed. Omega always wants to have these extended squash matches, where he runs through a squash and then when the squash match is supposed to end he just stands there for awhile and lets someone do all of their kick combos. Alan Angels is fine I guess, but the Kenny Omega Competitive Squash structure is a real dud. He dominates, then kinda hangs around for awhile until he finishes it. Am I supposed to think Angels is a  future contender? Am I supposed to believe that every person on the roster is one quick pin away from the main event? Just squash a guy.

-"But right now, let's take a special look at Scorpio Sky" sounds like such an unnecessary vignette in 2020. But I look forward to the special looks at Scott Lost, several Gallineros, TARO, Hook Bomberry...

-Jimmy Havoc is bad, but THANK YOU Jimmy Havoc for just trying to have a normal match with Orange Cassidy, thank you for not selling the intentionally silly offense parts instead of doing that thing most opponents do where they bump across the ring for a finger poke. Most of Havoc's stuff doesn't look good (he had a nice punch and a nice forearm, and the former got a quick camera cut away because they knew Jimmy Havoc was about to attempt to punch a person). The Penelope/Kip involvement was really shoehorned in, and most of this didn't work for me. But I am much more interested in seeing someone work an actual match. Sadly, that person was Jimmy Havoc.

-Not buying Wardlow, and I'm about as easy as it gets when it comes to finding things to like about big gassed wrestlers. Lee Johnson has been the bump king of AEW squash matches, but there's only so much he can do.

-Liked the Brodie Lee squash, but that ring gear is B-A-D.

-I actually did not realize just how terrible Kip Sabian was until tonight. I know that I've never enjoyed Kip Sabian before, but I thought his match against Darby was fun (even though that was just a great Darby performance). But this? This was atrocious. Sabian looked like the absolute worst AEW worker on the roster in this match, and this was a match that had a Penelope/Brandi showdown that saw Brandi run straight past Penelope without either of them pretending to duck or act like they were avoiding each other in any way. This was Dustin working a Sabian match, and it was straight torture. Things got momentarily compelling with Dustin working a knee injury after hitting the turnbuckles. But then he had to keep selling for Kip Sabian's offense and that was when this whole thing got impossibly bad. Kip Sabian looked like he was trying out every piece of offense in his repertoire for the very first time, and I wish he was in with someone who isn't as much of a nice guy pro as Dustin. Could you see someone like Finlay bumping for that short arm clothesline? Finlay would have grabbed Sabian by the maxilla and elbowed his nose into oblivion. With no hyperbole, I can honestly say that was the worst short arm clothesline I've seen, completely beyond parody to have Sabian hitting offense lighter than the guy in sunglasses who purposely hits half of his offense lightly. I would have thought it impossible to have a 10+ minute Dustin match wind up on the bottom here, and that tells me everything I need to know about Kip Sabian. I encourage everybody to find and watch this match, just so someone can explain to me their theories on what any of Sabian's offense was supposed to be. Is Sabian's hiring like when Johnny Ace hired the wrong one legged wrestler? Was someone in AEW actually supposed to hire BLK Jeez?

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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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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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