ICW New York No Holds Barred 1/4/20

Tessa Blanchard vs. Nick Gage

ER: This was a brawl sprint, with Gage jumping Blanchard at the bell and her playing catch-up the whole time. I think it would have worked a lot better if Gage had taken time to sell Blanchard's shots better. Gage likes these quick brawls where he's pushing through the crowd, pushing through fans while exchanging big punches. But Gage's thing is also that he's the toughest guy in the room, so he's barely getting moved by Blanchard's strikes, and meanwhile Tessa is whipping around a head full of hair every time Gage throws a fist near her head. I like some of the ways they get from A to B, like Tessa taking the worse of a crowd beatdown only to escape into the ring and hit a dive. It felt like they were playing up Tessa getting the advantage even though taking more damage due to Gage being distracted by his adoring throng of fans (and it's true that Gage has more live show charisma than most people I've seen on indy shows the past decade). I don't know if that's what they were going for, but I went there for them because it made the pacing make more sense. Things felt a little abrupt and it was a pairing that sounded more interesting on paper, and the finish of Tessa throwing a chair at Gage's head and then DDTing him on it had some hinks, and Gage kicking out right after the 3 to manufacture controversy always just makes both sides come off worse.

8. Homicide vs. Casanova Valentine

PAS: This was like a version of those incredible Homicide vs. Teddy Hart matches in JAPW if Hart looked like pre-gastric bypass Kevin Smith.  Cide just massacres him early, stabbing him with the ghetto fork and spraying lemon juice in the cuts, smashing him in the ribs with a bolt cutter. Valentine does hit a nice belly to belly to take some control, and even garden weasels Cide in the nuts. Valentine brings out a dildo with nails through it, and Homicide kicks him in the balls and just starts brutalizing. I loved the idea of Cide totally unwilling to play along with that viral Tik Tok bullshit. Ron Funches isn't going to retweet you, I am just got to beat the living shit out of you. The end comes with Cide waterboarding Valentine with bleach and frenzy stabbing an already unconscious Valentine in the the head. Out of control Homicide is still incredibly compelling.

ER: It might be easier to be compelling as a worker if you have a lunatic like Valentine who is willing to bleed and get repeatedly stabbed. That's a big ask, but it seems to be Valentine's thing. This is my first time seeing Valentine, though I'd heard the "King of the No Ring Death Matches" moniker before (which does seem like kind of a hollow title. This match had a ring, but it could have easily been worked the exact same way without one, and "need a good ring" is not something that comes to mind when I think of successful death matches). With his big bushy beard and long hair he came off more "Piglet Champion" than Kevin Smith (although had he brought out a Fleshlight covered in nails I would have conceded the Smith resemblance). Homicide's mugging of Valentine started the match, and continued long enough that I wondered if this was turning into Ian vs. Peter B. Beautiful. I'd be really curious to know how much art there was behind Abby or Homicide's fork stabs; it's a quick bit of violent magic that sure feels like a shoot stabbing, and this is a match where people wanted to see a shoot stabbing. Valentine is a good bleeder (has there been a fat guy who is a bad bleeder?) and that was the star of the match, with Homicide stabbing, squeezing lemons into cuts, choking Valentine over the chain ropes, enough that I was genuinely rooting for Valentine by the time he made a comeback. Valentine hits a great overhead belly to belly and has really nice clubbing forearms. He had brought a Garden Weasel to the ring, and it doesn't really read when he's rolling it on Homicide's back. The motions just make me think of a toddler with one of those Fisher Price vacuums with the popping balls. Speaking of popping balls, the Weasel reads much better when he's hooking and pressing it into Homicide's genitals. The bleach finish felt excessive (feels more "feud ending" than "finish of the 2nd match on a show") but you know there had to be several fat wrestling fan Ackshually guys in attendance who explained that Homicide didn't use proper waterboarding technique. The visual of Homicide fork stabbing the unconscious Valentine was strong.


Jimmy Lloyd vs. Alex Colon

ER: The big spots in this were pretty great big spots, but I think they could have tied them together better. YMMM death matches are weird, weak transitions, just one guy falling into something sharp, then standing up and making the other guy fall into something sharp. Both guys are good at falling into sharp things, so the falling looks great, I just wish there was a little more build or sense to it all. But, the big moments are cool, and there is some nice nastiness in between. Colon looks like Death Match Jaka, and he seemingly has several pairs of scissors stashed in his cargo shorts. He slices Lloyd open with a pair of them, but not before Lloyd smashes the top of Colon's head with a thumbtack bat. Colon has a shaved head and we get the great visual of a couple dozen thumbtacks sticking out of head for the rest of the match. Lloyd takes shots with the same bat, but Lloyd is wearing more clothing and has a full mane of hair, doesn't read as impressively as a nutbar our hear doing deathmatch wrestling with no shirt. The board covered in cut up soda cans really shook me, like they keep coming up with new shocking death match props and I can't handle it. Anyone who has accidentally cut themselves on the mouth of a soda can only experienced the tip of the iceberg; those things are even sharper than razorblades and here's Colon eating a facebuster and a tiger driver on them. Crazy. Cameras mostly miss Colon hitting what looked like a killer tornado DDT tope, and the Spanish Fly finish through a barbed wire board was pretty spectacular. Maybe I liked this more than I realized? At minimum, this made me want to see more Alex Colon, and that's a good thing.

Eric Ryan vs. John Wayne Murdoch

ER: What a couple of bloodletting savages. This brawl didn't rely on sections of extended cutting, one guy holding still for minutes while the other gouges at his forehead, and was instead driven by both guys just bashing each other in the forehead with fists and weapons. No gouging, but a lot of disgusting. We had a board with bent forks, a board with cut up soda cans, a board with razorblades, but the real blood factory are these gusset plates. Eric Ryan gets busted open good on impact, and it only takes him hammering Murdoch's face a couple times with a gusset to get him going too. Things ramp up when the go to the floor, both fighting themselves off the apron through a door, with Murdoch following with a cannonball off the apron, and Ryan bashing him silly with a door ("That door must weight 100 pounds," says a commentator who must think bank vaults are made of wood), Ryan really blasting Murdoch with shots who leans into them before eventually regretting that. The big spots looked great, like a wild superplex from Murdoch through a table, and there was plenty of Ryan stabbing and scraping Murdoch with bent forks before tossing bloody fork souvenirs to the crowd. I really like how Ryan's use of forks lends itself to a better brawling atmosphere, keeps action flowing from spot to spot and keeps blood fresh.

PAS: This was pretty good, Ryan is my guy for US death match workers, and he really opens himself up here. I loved Ryan really wasting him with right hands, and I think I would have liked this better if it was more of that, and less set up fork boards. It's weird, if this was just a regular brawl where a guy grabbed a soda can ripped it open and gouged a guy with it I would love it, soda cans on a board make the insanity seem very set up and performative. I loved the half crab stomps finish by Ryan, although I wish it wish it wasn't proceeded by a tough guy no-sell. I liked more about this then I disliked about it for sure, but it did have some stuff I disliked.


Killer Kross vs. Tony Deppen

ER: Deppen comes out in street fight gear, wearing cutoff shorts and a CZW is Pussy shirt (feels like someone on Drag Race could easily turn CZW is Pussy into a huge brand catchphrase), and Killer Kross comes out to murder him. The show needed a match like this, no blood or weapons but a big crowd brawl and a violent semi-squash like classic ECW. Deppen brings some big knee strikes (including one that really buckles Kross) and tries the Darby body-as-weapon approach, which occasionally works! Deppen's tope into the crowd looked great (the security guys in all black and ski masks is a fun touch to the atmosphere), and Deppen even flies off the White Eagle bar with a crossbody. But a lot of this is Kross catching and crushing Deppen, launching him into ugly hotshots on the chainlink ropes, and finishing the match with some sick rolling Riki back suplexes. The whole match worked really well as a palate cleanser, the violence all coming from throws and collisions instead of gouging.

Necro Butcher vs. SHLAK

ER: I got unexpectedly emotional during Necro's entrance. I knew what to expect from his physical appearance, I'd already been shocked by the pictures, but I was not prepared for seeing him in motion. I'm sure part of it was my mood at the time, but the Freebird entrance combined with the decomposing visage of a legend really hit me. I'm not sure what Necro has, but it is something, and possibly several things, and it's terrible. He's a big guy, and parts of his body still retain some size; he still has big calves and fists, but everything else has been wasted away. He honestly looks like my grandfather in his last days, especially in the face. My grandfather died at age 90. I was actually dreading the match by the time I actually saw Necro walk out, but honestly? The match kind of ruled. Considering all factors, here's a guy who looks like Death's ghost, and that is about as much built in wrestling sympathy as you can get. It's no secret that Necro Butcher is one of my all time personal wrestling favorites. He's one of the most fearless and captivating performers I've ever seen, and one of those guys who I would love to see against any opponent, just because of what he brought to a match. There aren't many guys like that, for me, that you can take literally any opponent, and the match would be intriguing just because of The Necro Factor. Necro Butcher vs. Davey Richards? Yes sir, I saw that match LIVE, and I can't fathom any other situation where I would be excited for a Davey Richards match.

I wasn't expecting a classic Necro performance here, but I really liked what we did get. For a man who looks as brittle as 1998 Giant Baba, Necro is still out here getting punched in the face, punching SHLAK in the face with heavy hands, getting his head bashed with the edge of a trash can lid, taking a chairshot to his elbow, and bleeding hardway. If you want to remind yourself how crazy pro wrestling is, just know that had I been in the crowd and a man who looked like Necro landed near me, bleeding, I would have shoved every woman and child I could find in front of me to shield me from whatever could be. But here's SHLAK continuing to open him up, like a total lunatic. Necro doesn't have the speed he once had, but he's still out there throwing big fists directly at SHLAK's jaw, and SHLAK landed several shots right to Necro's ear, and you could see that ear getting redder with every shot. The "sit and trade" spot is pretty played out at this point, but when one of the participants looks like he's a nursing home resident fighting for his supper, a new level of intrigue is baked in. The big shot that finally sends Necro crumbling from his chair was a great visual, and SHLAK just standing on Necro's skull while trying to rip his arm off was even better. And then my man kicking out of two sitout powerbombs got a reaction from me bigger than anything on the show so far. Necro's arm shot up off that mat like that arm reaching up from the grave in Creepshow, showing that this corpse ain't dead yet. When he kicked out of that second powerbomb I was howling, and yet I was thankful when he stayed down for the third. Necro Butcher is an absolute wrestling legend, and I loved what he was still capable of giving.

PAS: I can't say this was a good match. Necro looks like MPRO Dynamite Kid, and it is shocking how much worse he looks then he did even at Spring Break less than a year before. There was some real drama here, because SHLAK is so sloppy that it felt like any moment he might kill this very sick person he was in the ring with. Necro still has real instincts about pacing and storytelling in the ring, and the end was really compelling, with those perfectly timed kickouts. I just rewatched Necro vs. Joe for my book, and you could see that there were similar timing and and pacing instincts in this match. GCW or ICW should just hire Necro to agent their matches, shit NXT or AEW should hire Necro to agent their matches, I just really don't want to see him in the ring again.

I do wish, if Necro had wanted to get semi-squashed by a guy to put them over, that it was someone better then SHLAK. SHLAK looked like he could hardly lift a guy (who might be 140 pounds at best) up for those powerbombs. I have no idea how someone who is that jacked has so little upper body strength. Maybe he is just wearing a realistic looking muscle suit, or ICW has a big CGI budget.


Dan Maff vs. Mance Warner

ER: Big chops, big headbutts, biggest bumps. I will never complain about Maff just chopping fools, and Mancer is crazy enough to puff his chest out for all of it. This was a real bring out all the stops in ring brawl, with classic plunder like trash cans and doors and chairs coming into play. The match starts with an immediate chop exchange, and it goes long enough that I got restless and a little glazed, and Maff snaps me immediately awake when Mancer turns his back to prep for another chop and Maff just spears him unexpectedly through a door. Mancer's crumpled sell into that shattered door was perfection. And everything was big after that, with Mancer dropping big DDTs (including an awesome tornado DDT where he vaults off a chair), and Maff is one of the best at taking DDTs, rolling them right off the side of his big dome. Maff crushes Mance with a cannonball while Mance is laid out in a trash can, Maff drops him with a piledriver on that same can, and the kickouts get fun in a "why not this is crazy fun" kind of way. We get a great visual of Maff being run throat first into on of the top rope turnbuckle boards, and it looked nasty enough and Maff's sell was so good that I bought it as the finish. Mance beating down Maff with part of that busted door from earlier, and Maff's head burst through the door crazy eyed like Jack Torrance. And then Maff destroys Mance with a nasty suplex, before getting the confirmed 3 with a Burning Hammer. And part of me actually wanted to see Mance kick out of the Hammer, just so he could take another.

2. Low-Ki vs. Masashi Takeda

PAS: This was an interesting style clash, with Ki wanting to work the match clean, and Takeda losing his cool and trying to brawl. The early sprawls and wrestling exchanges were really fast, and caused Takeda to open up a wound on his ear. Takeda eventually tires of the wrestling and kicks Ki low, but each time he tries to bring in weapons Ki counters: Punching a chair out of his hands, using judo throws to avoid scissors shots, so cool. Finish was the kind of unique bit of violence which Ki has been coming up with lately. Ki ties Takeda's arm's behind his back with the belt Ki was wearing with his Gi. Takeda spits on him, and Ki responds with a spinning kick to Takeda's sternum, and a double stomp from an elevated platform directly onto Takeda's spinal cord for a well deserved ref stoppage. After that Takeda is going to be begging to take some gussets to the face. Really fun style clash and Ki just keeps rolling.

ER: I loved how Ki approached this match, playing it totally straight, and the ground game was good enough for both that I stupidly expected it to stay there. Once Takeda grabbed a cool kneebar that made Ki sit up suddenly, I was getting into a mat based main event on a death match show. But Takeda couldn't help himself and just punts Ki in the balls. I loved Ki still selling the nutshot on the floor with a duckwalk around the ring as Takeda dragged him, love the way Takeda's ear blood splattered across his face (Takeda's body is one giant wound waiting to be opened, so not a shock he was busted open early), and love just how damn HARD Low Ki punched a chair into Takeda's face. Takeda went to swing on the floor and Ki punched that thing so hard I assumed he had broken his hand. The work around Takeda's long cutting shears was awesome, with Ki holding him off from stabbing his eyeball, then working slick throws to toss Takeda without getting sliced. I wish Takeda would have taken Ki's kicks a little more seriously, there was one spot in particular where Takeda flipped Ki off and Ki William Tell'd that finger practically right off his hand and in one motion swept back and kicked him in the jaw. But Takeda sold some of Ki's kicks by just standing up after getting kicked. No fighting spirit, just a guy who was now taking his turn. I hate that shit. Luckily this match had Ki stomping through Takeda's torso bones, and that is something I am okay with. He hits one early leap onto Takeda's chest after leaping off the chain ropes, and the match ends with the most cruel Warriors Way possible: Ki plausibly ties Takeda's hands behind his back using the belt on his gi (love Ki in his 1994 UFC skin), batters the defenseless psycho, and leaps off the top onto a balled up Takeda. The finish either properly reset damage he had taken, or completely destroyed Takeda's back for life. Who can be sure?


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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Eye on the Indies: CZW Déjà Vu 9/27/14

Wanted to see this show for the Busick/Gulak match, figured I would watch the whole thing since I don't know most of the other guys; Get my brain caught up on some current indy guys.

1. Mason Price vs. The Preacher

I kinda dig the Preacher's vibe. He's a small guy with an old face, like an emaciated MC Gainey, with a big scar across the back of his shaved head. Actually he looks like a really skinny Christian, but with mixologist facial hair. Price looks like Jim Norton working an army gimmick, but an army guy who des a lot of thigh slaps. Match itself wasn't bad, but Price was very much not good. He had zero follow through on any of his strikes or moves. He'd throw a back elbow or pump kick and just kind of stop right where the point of contact would have been. It made all his stuff look like guys going over their moves in the ring before a show. He'd even do it on bigger moves like a Blockbuster, just kind of go through the motions of the move. Preacher had a Jimmy Jacobs vibe, some weird strikes, nice bumps (including flying wildly into a release German), good elbow drop. I'd like to see more of him.

2. Alex Colon vs. Latin Dragon

Lousy video game wrestling filled with reversals that weren't and big moves that didn't matter. Colon wanted to have his cake and eat it too, not really deciding on what kind of character he wants to be. He wanted to be eye raking cheap shotting point at my head heel, but also wanted to do some This is Awesome spots. Some of the reversals were mind numbing. Dragon did a tope, and Colon just didn't sell the tope and gave him a suplex on the floor. Dragon did a nasty reverse rana, then turned around and Colon just small packaged him. A lot of those reversals where you go "oh, so that move just had zero impact I guess." That nasty suplex on the floor I mentioned, which also saw Dragon partially getting slammed into a support pole, and the announce crew talking about a possible broken foot….well Dragon was rope running mere moments later. Yuck.

3. Joe Gacy vs. Aaron Williams

This one had me until it totally lost me. The match gets about 15 minutes to do its thing, and the first half was mostly based around headlock exchanges, some strikes, and then Williams working over Gacy's knee in cool ways. I really dug Williams twisting the knee and ankle and dropping knees on Gacy's knee, and also digging into it with his elbow. Gacy was really good about selling it, really showing how it was slowing him down as every time he would try and transition back to offense Williams could see it coming a mile away. And then suddenly a switch got flipped and Gacy just had to do a whole shit ton of moves with most of the knee stuff a distant memory. It was really like two different matches, and once it turned into "workrate sprint" it turned into a much weaker match.

4. Sozio vs. Caleb Konley

I'm…starting to remember why I don't do more reviews of full indy shows, and why I stay unfamiliar with a lot of indy talent. This one had a couple compelling moments, I liked a lot of Sozio's arm work, and Konley did a fine job of selling the arm damage done, but it didn't save me from a really bad elbow exchange showdown with super slow roaring elbows. Sozio was one of those guys who I couldn't tell if he was a comedy guy or if he was super serious. Sometimes he seemed serious, but then would throw these goofy sweeping crescent kicks and wrestled the first exchanges of the match still in his overcoat. His mafia kick that ended the match looked good at least.

5. Kimber Lee vs. Nevaeh

This was fine although a lot of the stuff seemed overly rehearsed, especially the opening "they know each other so well!" stuff. In fact the more I think about it the more I realize this whole match was practically built around "Kimber goes for this move and misses! Nevaeh follows up with this move and that misses!" kinda stuff. You get your German suplex tradeoffs, your forearm exchanges, you know the drill. I liked one of Kimber's submissions here and both girls seemed willing to lean into things. So that counts for something.

I talked with Phil and it came up that I was reviewing a full CZW show. Phil's response: "Yeah that was a weird thing for you to do."

6. 4 Corners of Ultraviolence: Ron Mathis vs. "The Wrench" Conor Claxton

I really dug this. This was a pretty classic brawl that wouldn't look out of place on older IWA-MS shows. I had never heard of either guy before. Mathis just looks like an athletic kick pads guy, Claxton looks like Dean Ambrose, and they both took and dished out some nasty shots in this. This was constructed really nicely as there aren't just weapons shots for the sake of weapons shots, the early non-weapons work was tight, and once we devolved into weapons the order went pretty logically. Mathis controls most of the early stuff, beating Claxton around the ring and then grossly stapling a dollar to his forehead (which awesomely stays on the rest of the match) and eventually Claxton gets ahold of a chair wrapped in barbed wire (which is a pretty good way to get the advantage to swing back to you). The chair shots were really nasty as they weren't held back much and Mathis took a bunch of shots to his back and sides, the first shot off his arm instantly left a dozen cuts. Claxton went for a light tube and aimed to superplex Mathis into it but took too long, allowing Mathis to reverse into a tornado DDT through broken glass. Gross. Eventually we got tacks in the mix too and they did a few fun tacks tease spots with one of them coming close to falling into them, steadying himself, reversing a move out of them, until both of course take the plunge. Also get the excellent spot of Mathis putting tacks into Claxton's mouth and punching him in the face, with Claxton doing a classic Danny Thomas spit take with tons of tacks. I thought this whole thing was awesome. Their work in between weapons shots was snug, weapons stuff built logically and looked great, didn't go into overkill. This is pretty much what you would want out of this kind of match. Very pleasant surprise.

DJ Hyde comes out but gets interrupted by LuFisto beating him with a stick and they brawl around for awhile. Great spot where Hyde catches her off a dive and launches her at a rough angle through a bunch of chairs. And then that spot is immediately ruined by an announcer saying "We have our Ray Rice moment here in CZW." Eventually LuFisto pulls a knife on him which is just…yeah.

7. Shane Strickland vs. Flip Kendrick

Well this was awful. This match was one 15 minute mirror sequence worked in 3/4 time with most shots missing. Oof. Kendrick is a guy I've liked in almost all the stuff I've seen him in. Strickland is a guy I've never seen before. This was the worst Kendrick performance I've seen, and I never want to see Strickland again. Strickland works the same way Chris Hero did when he was doing his 2001 JAPW extra flips gimmick, except Strickland doesn't seem to do it with a wink. At one point he hit a dropkick, but only after doing a 619 to get to the apron, then somersaulting over the ropes back into the ring. Every move he did had an extra spin leading into it, except he moved so cautiously and slow that it looked strange, like he would get dizzy if he spun around too fast, so he would slooooowly rotate and then just hit an enziguiri or something. The match started with both men slowly running through a bad super choreographed mirror exchange, filled with ducked kicks and dropkicks performed at the same time and stereo kip ups. It was done so slowly and poorly that it looked like clever satire of indy wrestling. Kendrick was moving slowly through his stuff the whole match, a lot of his strikes looked bad, and a lot of the move execution was bad or awkward. A Code Red that was supposed to fling Strickland into a turnbuckle ended with both men slowly tumbling into the corner. Match ended with Strickland hitting a double stomp off the rope, in theory. He really just jumped and landed with his feet on either side of Kendrick, with the camera zooming right in on it. It must have looked as bad live because it was pretty silent when it got the 3 count. Not sure if this poor performance is the norm for Strickland, but if this was the only thing I'd seen of Flip I'd assume he was an awful worker. Yuck.

8. Biff Busick vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was the rematch of their CZW title match in May. I haven't really been following the booking but here we have the heel/face dynamic reversed with Gulak coming in as the face and Busick as the bruising heel. This started out with some of the great grappling that these guys bring to the table, with cool armbars and short arm scissors and knuckle locks. Both guys are really great at forceful looking matwork, all of the counters looked like the guy countering was using every ounce of his strength to reverse the hold. Match switches gears when Gulak takes a pair of huge bumps, he gets thrown off the top rope to the floor and cracking the small of his back on the apron (leading to a nasty bruise over his kidneys, he was pissing raspberry tea on the 28th) and getting backdropped into the second row wiping out a fan. Then Busick is controlling, beating on Gulak, with Drew having his moments. This was well on it's way to surpassing their best match up, when sort of out of nowhere Busick counters a suplex into a roll up for a pin. I can't believe I am criticizing a US Indy match up for underkill on its finish run, but I was expecting it to really kick into gear and it just ended. Still much to love and this is a match up that consistently delivers.

ER: Man I love what these guys do, and I love how things have a sense of ending at any time due to both mens' knowledge of reversals and leverage. I agree with Phil that this could leave matches ending without as much drama as they could have built to. But at the same time it keeps me glued to the whole match in the same way I was glued to RINGS matches. Gulak is an ideal wrestler for me. I'm fascinated by all his movements and his combo of skills, maybe the most exciting "new" guy for me this decade. He always breaks out cool unexpected things that make me flip out as a wrestling fan, like his cool roll-up reversal of a Busick leapfrog here. I wasn't even expecting anything to happen there because it just seemed like any other wrestling rope run segment, until Busick leapfrogs and Gulak slides under with the great flash false finish. These two are so good they really make meaningless moments of wrestling mean something. The struggle between them is always so satisfying, I loved moments like Gulak dishing out cupped slaps to Busicks back and head, slowly gaining him access to the arms, moving into a bodylock, into a nasty variation on the Gu-Lock…and I like that he can go through all that but Busick gets a near immediate rope break. Other times they can get a reversal neither were expecting that leaves them in far greater dominant position. I like that ebb and flow of their stuff. The Gulak bumps Phil mentioned were sick and took the match in a welcome and different direction than I expected. Both guys lend an authenticity to their matches; I never feel like they're moving through one spot mechanically to get to the next part of the match. At one point Gulak really wrenches in a hammerlock that is ultimately inconsequential to the larger segment they were working, but that hammerlock looked like a real terror, a real nasty twist, and I could easily see capable but lesser mat workers just going through the motions and not wrenching in a transitional move like that, too busy focusing on what was "supposed to" happen next. These guys might not be for everybody, but for me they're right up their with my favorite all time wrestling. I hope we get to see these guys do their thing for years.

***Note: The Busick/Gulak match was easily good enough for Phil and I to add it to our 2014 Ongoing MOTY list, nestled cozily into spot #37. Instead of doing a whole separate post with my review copied over, I just added Phil's thoughts from the match here. Our full MOTY list linked at the bottom***

9. Ohio is 4 Killers (Jake & Dave Crist) vs. The Juicy Product (JT Dunn & David Starr)

ER: Well, this match was kind of difficult. Stuff I liked, stuff I hated, and then a fair portion of the match completely invisible! Match starts with the Crist brothers diving out of the ring, and they brawl out through the crowd, and outside. The problem is that the crowd was really dark, and the cameras weren't really equipped to follow the action around. What's worse, is when they brawled outside the cameras couldn't follow them. So I just had to fast forward until everybody made it back inside. Jake had a lot of color happening, not sure how it happened. The announcers didn't know either as they stayed at the table and kind of guessed what could possibly be happening outside. I'm sure it was cool for the live crowd, but a weird thing to do on a IPPV where workers should know your filming limitations. Even back inside the building doesn't do much as things are super dark so you can't really see what's happening. Juicy lawn darts Dave Crist into the concession stand. Minutes later Dave appears on top of the concession stand and does a wild Thesz press off the top of it (at least 9-10 feet up). After many, many, many minutes we finally end up in the ring for the match to officially start. There was actually a pretty good FIP story going on with Jake beaten bloody and Dave also gassed from the beatdown, and both Crist guys had some good comebacks and hope spots. But then the match hit the spot where it should have ended, and kept going…and going…and then kept going. They peaked the drama well, and it's just too hard to keep peaking that numerous times in a match. All the guys had some stuff that looked good. There were a couple double team tombstone variations that were nasty, one with Jake hitting a tombstone while Dave hit a double stomp off the top to drive it down. Dave also had an epic double knee drop off the top, and actually threw a really great looking mule kick (it's really hard to throw a nice spinning mule kick). Starr had a couple of neat power spots, and Dunn took some big bumps off clotheslines and other moves. Also, everybody apparently had a bet going to see who could throw more superkicks. At one point we had six consecutive superkicks from everybody. And there were so many more. So yeah, the match had tons of overkill but a lot of the stuff in the overkill looked good. I think the match could have been really great if laid out a little tighter, but as a spot spectacle it was plenty fun.

OVERALL: This was a good enough show, with some nice peaks but also some subterranean lows. The Gulak/Busick match was great, and I also really loved that weapons match. Kendrick/Strickland was one of the absolute worst matches I've seen this decade, but The Preacher was a cool guy I had never heard of that I'd like to see more of, same with Mathis and Claxton. The Crists were also better than I remembered (though had the same faults I remembered).


2014 MASTER MOTY LIST

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