CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 139

Episode 139

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Andrew Everett

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

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

Brad Attitude vs. Chet Sterling

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

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

Cain Justice vs. Nick Richards

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

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

C.W. Anderson vs. Ric Converse

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

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

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

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

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

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Low-KI Kicked the Bitch Out the Room and Gave Her No Breakfast

Low-Ki vs. Andrew Everett Impact Wrestling 4/23/17 - GREAT

ER: I am a-okay with TNA continuing to exist as long as we get bi-monthly Low-Ki showcase matches. Here's another winner, as Low-Ki continues snapping off cool moves and big bumps while wearing a tight suit, and Everett tries his best to outbump him. Ki makes the simplest things look like bomb blasts, spots that a lot of guys just sleepwalk their way through. He takes dropkicks explosively, he delivers dropkicks explosively, he flies into the corner with an elbow like he's on a rooftop chase with a cop and leaping across buildings, he hammers down elbows in the corner like the most violent Whack-a-Mole game and Everett responds by getting bopped down each turnbuckle. Even something like getting a boot up on a charging opponent in the corner is given a violent twist as he vaults up and mulekicks Everett across the ring (and Everett is a guy who always looks pretty great violently bouncing across a ring). How many times have you seen a guy gingerly yank someone off the turnbuckles? Well, Ki yanks Everett off the ropes like he wants to rip his leg off his body. Everett gets a little comeback, but this seemed like a show off arm wrestler letting a guy gain some ground before slamming his arm to the table. Before long, Everett catches knees in a gross way on a shooting star press, and Ki stomps him into the mat, and into our hearts.

PAS: This was basically a Low-Ki semi-squash. Ki is a hell of guy squashing someone, and Everett is a hell of a guy getting squashed.The match is a little dry before the commercial break, but really kicks into gear after. Ki still has so much speed and explosion and Everett flies off him like he is on kung fu movie wires. The finish was especially nasty as Ki hits his John Woo kick and Everett flies head and neck first into the turnbuckle, then Ki goes up to the top and double stomps him full speed into his liver. I am likely never to watch another Impact match, but I am watching all Low-Ki what a treat he is. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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Low-Ki Has Been Controllin the Street, Holdin the Heat

Low-Ki v. Trevor Lee v. Suicide v. Sonjay Dutt v. Andrew Everett v. Dezmond Xavier Impact Wrestling 4/20/17 - FUN

ER: At times messy, almost always fun scramble with Ki looking like a megastar and Lee not looking too far behind. We got a lot of dorkiness with six guys either trying to not get in the way, or trying to sync things while other pairings are syncing things, with the match reaching peak fart sound when all six tried to dropkick each other at once. Things got better after that. Ki looked like a total beast here, every move he did look vicious and every move he took made someone else look vicious. His baseball slide dropkick to the floor (to two guys!) looked the best. Lee adds a bunch of little things that these matches don't always get (like leaping to grab for Dutt's leg as Dutt is going for a trainwreck dive), and the best flying was probably done by Suicide. Caleb Konley is under the hood now and he had a nice little match, his stuff looked real crisp and his fast segments came off most fluid (an important skill to bring to one of these clusters). We get dives, we get some stupid and nasty reverse ranas from Everett (hated his slo mo handspring by the way), Dutt worked the match with basically one eye (which is nuts), and this was good. Gimme Ki v. Lee eventually (lotta fucking hard E sounds in that last sentence).

PAS: Too many guys, too much nonsense to be a really good match, but this was certainly fun stuff. Ki looked like a kingpin his moves have such impact, and this match was full of young guys excited to bump like nutsos on Low-Ki spots. Everett especially takes every in ring bump like he is try to shatter his own spine. Xavier seemed to be mostly backflips, but he does get cracked. That double stomp by Ki onto the small of Lee's spine felt like it would either cause permanent back problems, or solve them. Lee v. Ki will hopefully get some really time to shine when it finally happens as those guys could put on a killer.  (lets run in CWF-MA actually.)

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Ultimate X, Still a Thing

6. Low-Ki vs. Trevor Lee vs. Andrew Everett Impact Wrestling 4/23/17 (Aired 5/18/17)

ER: It's 2017 and one of the stupider match gimmicks is still being done by the stupidest wrestling company. But goddamn was Low-Ki so freaking good in this match that I got sucked right in to enjoying this pile of stupid. Low-Ki making a ropes course interesting is tantamount to Bill Dundee adding more drama to a scaffold match than anyone in history. Swinging and climbing for the belt is dumb, but these guys are all nutty, and their chaos saves the stip. Ki pulls everything off with such snap, his body movements don't always seem human. He's able to do crazy fast offense and crazy fast bumps while seeming totally in control. Watch him crash into the guardrail from the apron, take a couple bumps off the ropes to the apron to the floor to perfectly set up Lee's punt, hangs off of scaffolding in great ways, just owned that whole silly American Gladiators set. In fact, it made me pissed that I never got to see Ki competing on American Gladiators. I want to see him running for cover while Blaze or Lazer shoot dodgeballs at him. All three guys get moments in this (watch Ki punch a fucking CHAIR seemingly as hard as he can, and props to Pope for talking about how that would affect his climbing ability), even Helms comes in to help Lee and shows he can still bump big. The finish was pretty inspired for this convoluted concept, with all 3 men arriving at the belt at the same time, with Ki scrambling up all of the scaffolding and dropping down onto them from above, stomping them of the team building exercise to their doom. Much better than it could have and probably should have been.

PAS: Ki does feel like the master of this kind of match, like Rey in the Elimination Chamber. He takes a bunch of crazy bumps using the scaffolding, including hanging off the metal with his feet, really made the whole dumb gimmick plausible and cool. This really made me want to see Ki work non gimmicked singles with either Everett or Lee. Loved the missed Ki double stomp into Lee's own version of the move, kind of the student outdoing the master. It is also nice to be reminded of what a nut Everett is, his signature bump into the turnbuckles is crazy and that top rope springboard shooting star press is really breathtaking. I loved the finish with Ki having the damaged hand, so he couldn't scale the rope, so he climbs the scaffold and drops on both Tar Heels from above, really cool creative use of the gimmick, and an awesome Ki performance, really makes we want to track down all of his Ultimate X matches.

Complete and Accurate Low-Ki

2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Royal v. Everett

41. Arik Royal v. Andrew Everett CWF Mid-Atlantic 12/30

PAS: CWF-MA has been hyped a bunch by people I semi-trust, so I thought I would check this match out, and I am sold. First I have seen Arik Royal and he is pretty great, works really stiff, has cool power moves and is an awesome dickish shit talker. There is a point near the end of the match where he has Everett tied up in the ropes and he yells at Everett's niece in the audiance "Andrew isn't coming home tonight" before nuking him with a running uppercut. I have seen Everett work in super indies, but this was by far my favorite match of his, he comes into the match with an awesome blitz, flying recklessly into Royal, including hitting three crazy dives in a row, I really liked the story of coming out 100 miles an hour and trying to catch Royal off guard. He is also a really reckless in ring bumper, landing super fast and super awkward into the turnbuckles and ring ropes. Match might have gone a bit too long, but they did build to a pretty cracking finish. Consider me sold on CWF-MA!

ER: Just like Phil I've seen Everett a lot, on super indies and TNA, and he's been fine; but I've never enjoyed him more than I enjoyed him here. Starting the match with the dives was awesome, and those dives were loony as hell. The ringside chairs were close to the ring, the floor didn't look like there were mats, the chairs weren't folding chairs, just a crazy guy doing crazy moonsaults and flips dives, sending Royal and himself farther back into the rows of people. Everett also threw these really nice overhand punch/chops to Royal's neck, really liked the look of those. But all of his bumping is what made me swoon. Royal was tossing him into the turnbuckles and ropes, and he would fly into them upside down, sideways, crooked, any way that made it look like he wasn't controlling his landing. It was awesome. I had never seen Royal and he came off like a pre-goofy Big E, just as athletic but using his moveset differently. The springboard lariat was a killer, dug his low angle shoulderblocks to a seated or lying down opponent, and his power offense and bumping in general was really nice. I appreciated the way he took a rana onto the side of his head instead of voluntarily leaping up to take a flipping back bump. Finish is absolutely gonzo, with Everett doing a springboard and grabbing onto a I-beam, then immediately realizing he messed up. Royal snatches him out of the ceiling and just plants him, then hits one of his big shoulder tackles that turns Everett inside out. Yeah I think I'm gonna be watching some more CWF.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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CWF Mid Atlantic Battle Cade 12/30/16

PAS: CWF-MA has been hyped a bunch by people I semi-trust, so I thought I would check out their big Supercard show, and I am sold.

Cain Justice v. Dirty Daddy

PAS: Cain Justice is doing a strip mall black belt gimmick, and comes out with his Judo sensei and sparring partners like a meth lab Aoyagi. Dirty Daddy is a guy doing a Human Tornado style funky black dude deal. Really fun rookie match which delivers some big moves and nice bumping by both guys. I did think that Justice probably should have avoided the Pentagon bomb if that wasn't going to be the finish, especially in a fed which bans piledrivers, I did really like Justice's arm submission though, really nasty looking and something which would differentiate him from most guys in this fed.

Zane and Dave Dawson v. Devin Dalton/Walter Eaton

PAS: The Dawsons have a great wrestling look, big, fat long greasy beards, wrestling never has enough fat biker tag teams. Dalton and Eaton were guys who had held tag team titles with different partners and came out to respond to an open challenge. Stiff energetic tag match which doesn't wear out it's welcome. Four guys smacked each other for five minutes or so and then one fat guy hits a big clothesline and gets a pin. Really like how these undercard matches tell a story, have some nice work and keep it rolling.

Smith Garrett v. Aric Andrews

PAS: This is for the TV title, Garrett gets jumped by Xsiris coming to the ring and gets dropped on his head, he gets helped to the back and Andrews calls for a count. Garrett crawls back just beating the count and we get a nice bit of classic wrestling business. Garrett gets a couple of kick outs, a bit of hope and then gets beat. We leave this wanting Garrett to get his hands on Xsiris, and  get a rematch against Andrews. Again I really like the simplicity of the storytelling.

Aaron Biggs/Mecha Mercenary v. The Storm of Entrails

PAS: I really love how CWF-MA have embraced the giant fat dude in wrestling. EVOLVE could really use some more big fat guys. Biggs and Mercenary are the Sandwich squad and are probably 380 each. The Storm of Entrails are CZW trainees and have the stage crew at a metal fest look that CZW cultivates, Shlak especially is built like a brick shithouse and covered head to toe in creepy tattoos, if a guy will do that to his face, what will he do to yours. This was another fun tag match, with all four guys landing meat hooks, I really like the CZW teams double top rope elbow, and the Sandwich squad has a lot of cool double teams which take advantage of their flab. Another compact entertaining match.

Lee Valiant v. Chet Sterling

PAS: This is for the Ultra J title and is no-DQ piledrivers legal match. This is worked as a juniors sprint with both guys throwing out some pretty big moves quickly. Sterling looked a little off in some of his stuff, but I really liked Valiant, nasty punches and his offense looked really crisp. Sterling has been injured by a piledriver earlier in the year, so he gets his revenge with an avalanche tombstone, which gets the three count and I assume a vacation for Valiant. I do like how in this fed a death move mean death.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe/Him/Sis/Kabuki Ni/Otto Schwanz/The Number Boy v. Donnie Dollars/Matty De Nero/Mitch Conner/Snooty Fox/Rob McBride/Qefka the Quiet

PAS: This was kind of a fill out the card 12 man tag with a bunch of wacky gimmicks. I liked parts of this, Otto Schwanz is a old OMEGA dude and it was fun to see him wreck fools, and I have always enjoyed Boogie Woogie Man Rob McBride and there was a nifty spot where he blocked Kabuki's mist with a pair of workmans googles. Still I really hate Qefka the Quiet and Sharpe working invisible lasso spots in the beginning of the match. One of the cool things about CWF Mid-Atlantic is its sincerity, so stupid winky Chikara shit like that is really out of place.

CW Anderson v. Ric Converse

PAS: I really enjoyed this, Anderson and Converse are a pair of old school dudes who have been wrestling since the 90s and wrestle like they are from the 70s. Lots of big right hands and nice clotheslines. Anderson looks and wrestles like he has been frozen in amber since 2002. Still has that great right hand, and nasty spinebuster. I really liked the finish of this with Anderson hitting a superkick to the back of the head and slapping on the crossface causing Converse to pass out. Loved the idea of a kick to the back of the head be a KO, especially one as nasty looking as Anderson's superkick

Nick Richards v. Roy Wilkins

PAS: Roy Wilkins is working sort of a Zybyzko style technical heel. Lots of counter wrestling along with cheap shotting and stalling (although having a cheapshotting Black heel named after the head of the NAACP during the civil rights movement is a weird bit of retrograde booking by a Southern fed). The story the announcers were putting out was that Wilkins was a technician while Richards was a brawler. The match was worked well around that story including Richards getting the upset by beating the wrestler with a wrestling move. Unfortunately I thought Richards look pretty bad here, and didn't have the execution to pull off the story being told, his brawling looked off and there were moments where he didn't seem to be on the same page with his opponent. I left this wanting to see more Wilkins, but not particularly happy that Richards seems to be getting a big push.

Arik Royal v. Andrew Everett

PAS: First I have seen Arik Royal and he is pretty great, works really stiff, has cool power moves and is an awesome dickish shit talker. There is a point near the end of the match where he has Everett tied up in the ropes and he yells at Everett's niece in the audiance "Andrew isn't coming home tonight" before nuking him with a running uppercut. I have seen Everett work in super indies, but this was by far my favorite match of his, he is comes into the match with an awesome blitz, flying recklessly into Royal, including hitting three crazy dives in a row, I really liked the story of coming out 100 miles an hour and trying to catch Royal off guard, he is also a really reckless in ring bumper, landing super fast and super awkward into the turnbuckles and ring ropes. Match might have gone a bit too long, but they did build to a pretty cracking finish.

Brad Attitude v. Trevor Lee

PAS: This was the apex of a months long feud between the two that started with Attitude turning on Lee and braining him with a beer bottle, and then taunting him at shows that Lee wasn't booked at. Finally to get his hands on Attitude, Lee agreed to a match with a 30 minute time limit, where if he didn't beat Attitude he would lose the belt, also if he got DQed he would lose the belt, but Attitude could wrestle the match no DQ. It is a nifty piece of wrestling bullshit which feels like something The Bullet would have to do to get his hands on Jimmy Golden.

Attitude is awesome in the build up to this and in the match. He is working a failed prospect gimmick, a guy who had his shot at the big leagues (he was on a bunch of early EVOLVE shows and was a WWE developmental guy) but washed out and is now bitter. Now this kid he helped train is the new hot shit indy star working PWG and TNA and he can't take it, this was like if David Carr broke a beer bottle over Derek's head.

Early in the match Attitude dickishly taunts Lee, stalling and killing time, trying to get Lee intentionally DQ'ed, however by the end of the match, all of that is out of the window and he is clearly trying to prove he is better and pin the champ. You don't usually see that kind of character arc in a wrestling match. Lee is fine in this, although it really feels like Attitudes match, I did his firery die on the sword attitude, and he did a nice job of conveying his fury at Brad, but stopping short of losing his cool and his belt. He also took a nasty side of the head chair shot, which either busted him open legit or was a nice excuse for a blade job.

Finish is something I am a little torn on, during Attitude's rampage he had cut the ponytail of one of the refs. After a couple of other refs are laid out  that ref come out slow counts for Attitude and looks the other way as Lee smashes Brad in the head with the bottle. I get that it makes narrative sense, but it feels like a cop out, the better story was either the valiant babyface overcoming impossible odds and prevailing anyway, or the dastardly heel stacking the deck too high. Having Lee win by out cheating Attitude is kind of weak sauce.

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PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2

Marty Scrull v. Rich Swann

This was fine indy juniors wrestling. Scrull had a lot of shtick which I began to tire of, I liked the finger breaking spots, but it didn’t really lead anywhere. Still this was short enough and didn’t have a ton of things I hated. Would get the full Worldwide point

Angelico v. Jack Evans

Well if you are going to do a goofy indy comedy match, I much prefer this kind of thing to stupid shit like slow motion or hypnotizing. Jack Evans is talking shit to the audience and goes to grab a beer, he drinks it and breaks out Drunken Kung Fu, which he was totally awesome at, so much fun to watch him and Angelico do Jackie Chan spots. The rest of the match was fine, but they probably should have made that the apex of the match.

Chris Hero v. Timothy Thatcher.

This was really great, and the kind of change of pace night one really needed. Less grappling then EVOLVE Thatcher matches, as this was more of a FUTENish slugfest. Hero was absolutely blitzing Thatcher with kicks and elbows, which Thatcher would do a great stunned sell of. Thatcher meanwhile would fire back with uppercuts and grabbing ankle picks, including one in the ropes which looked like it might shred Hero’s achilles. Lots of great violence here, including a Hero short snap piledriver which Thatcher sold like it paralyzed his arm, and a headbutt counter by Thatcher which looked like it dislocated Hero’s jaw. I didn’t love the finish, which had Hero hit a sick tombstone, and have Thatcher grab a Fujiwara  but get countered to a Hero’s welcome for the pin. Hero’s welcome is a real Novaish finisher to end a slugfest like this, should have just had Hero get the pin after the tombstone. Still this was a blast.

Fenix/Aeorstar v Drago/Pentagon Jr.

Hyped up version of a Nitro Lucha tag. None of these guys are prime Juventud Guerrera, but this was a blast. Fenix especially looked good, hitting a really insane dive really fast. I thought Aerostar was a bit botchy, but outside of him everything was hit cleanly and Pentagon continues to look like a total badass.

Drew Gulak v. Tommy End

I enjoyed this, it was worked as sort of a bankrupt man’s Ikeda v. Ishikawa. Gulak would control with takedowns and grappling, while End would spring out and land a big punch or kick.  I liked End’s spin kick a lot, which is a great looking strike which Gulak sold great. There was a silly spot with End selling a knee by falling down hokeyly and getting clotheslined, and I thought the finish was a good idea that wasn’t executed properly. Still this was mostly pretty good, and I like how this show is mixing up the styles of matches, much better then night one which was very samey.

Speedball Mike Bailey v. Drew Galloway

Bailey has gotten to be a master at this kind of workrate indy match. Galloway is just a monster compared to most indy wrestlers and this was almost Rey v. Big Show.  Really liked how nasty all of Galloway’s simple stuff looked, he had really nasty stomps including some right on Bailey’s insteps. Galloway set up some very realistic near falls, and made Bailey look overmatched but credible. Felt this went a little long, and would have been better if they cut a near fall or two.

Zach Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet

Pretty entertaining stuff, with Ricochet looking perfectly comfortable working Sabre’s WOS tribute act stuff. Ricochet even breaks out the Cerebro special which will endear me to you. Sabre has a bunch of fun ways to snatch someone out of midair. This seemed like it was raring up to go long, but I actually liked the point it ended at. Good stuff.

Mt.. Rushmore 2.0 (Super Dragon/Young Bucks) v. Andrew Everett/Trevor Lee/Biff Busick

Super Dragon returns after a four year absence, which was preceded by a three year absence, so it has been seven years or so since he has been a regular active wrestler and he comes in killing people like he hasn’t missed a beat. He takes an Alabama Slam on a ladder, does a flip dive and takes a bunch of chair shots to the head. Busick and he just rip into each other all match. Busick feels like a guy who grew up watching Super Dragon and was super amped to have a chance to have one of these crazy brawls. Bucks are fine in this kind of nutjob brawl (my favorite Bucks match ever is their Guerrila warfare match against Dragon and Steen), they aren’t afraid to take big bumps and they make you want to see them suffer.  Everett has had a great tourney so far, his big fake out dive was one of my spots of the year, and his lunatic springboard shooting  press was incredible. Did care about the stuff with the ref, and the thumbtack shoes were cooler in theory then in execution, but this was the most lunatic match of the year, and I loved it.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

18. Biff Busick v. Andrew Everett PWG 8/28

PAS: I really enjoyed this. Busick is great as a bully against highflyers, he has had a series of good matches against Mike Bailey and this was in that style, Everett would hit some big time highspots inbetween Busick muderizing him with suplexes, clotheslines and uppercuts. There were point where it felt a little formless, but the big stuff was big. At one point Everett went back on offense with this leaping one motion backwards rana which was one of the prettiest highspots I have seen in a while, really shouldn’t have been thrown out in the middle of the match. Finish run of Busick offense looked awesome as Everett takes stuff so crazy that all of Busicks moves look deadly.

ER: Busick is so awesome. He's the perfect foil for flippers, especially fearless ones like Everett who have no problem getting obliterated by strikes. And Busick threw out some brutal strikes here, including the best clothesline I've seen in ages. I want someone to gif it so I can just watch it on a loop several dozen times in a row, like Buster Posey's grand slam off Mat Latos in the 2012 NLDS. Busick charges an unsuspecting Everett who turns right around into a nasty yet gorgeous falling lariat. Everett gets turned inside out and everything about it was perfect. Busick controlled much of this with nasty strikes and his great headlock choke (my favorite finisher of the year). I love the Busick headlock choke takeover. Everett would pepper in comebacks (including a real great Pele kick) but would always bite off more than he could chew, like a nutty Phoenix Splash that turned into a weird Phoenix elbow drop. Like the moment of Everett thinking he can go strike for strike with Busick, throwing nice right hands with Busick getting hands up, but it was always inevitable Busick would grab ahold of him, toss him with some nasty suplexes, and then peaking with him nailing an uppercut off a shooting star. I cannot even imagine the trust that goes into pulling something like that off. Good lord, guys.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night One

PWG BOLA has gotten some great reviews, and I figured I would check it out, let see if I can get through a whole show.

Brian Cage v. Aerostar

One of my fears about this tourney was the dreaded PWG bloat, this is a fed in the past that has had 14 minutes matches drag to 25, so I was happy this was a compact 9 minutes. Both guys had some cool ideas, that they only hit sometimes,  I liked Cage doing curls with Aerostar's body, and that finish hanging Steiner screwdriver was uncalled for. Cage is good in Lucha Underground 4-Ways, and this felt like it could have used two more guys to do some stuff in between their big spots. If they had included Big Ryck and Drago this might have been something great.

Biff Busick v. Andrew Everett

I really enjoyed this. Busick is great as a bully against highflyers, he has had a series of good matches against Mike Bailey and this was in that style, Everett would hit some big time highspots inbetween Busick muderizing him with suplexes, clotheslines and uppercuts. There were point where it felt a little formless, but the big stuff was big. At one point Everett went back on offense with this leaping one motion backwards rana which was one of the prettiest highspots I have seen in a while, really shouldn’t have been thrown out in the middle of the match. Finish run of Busick offense looked awesome as Everett takes stuff so crazy that all of Busicks moves look deadly.

Will Ospreay v. Mark Andrews

This first round placed guys together who had worked each before or worked similar styles. It hurt a little on the dream match aspect of a tourney like this, but it did allow new guys to avoid awkwardness and show their stuff. This was a total blast, both guys are hitting very high difficulty flips and arm drags, I know my man Robert Bihari must have been losing his shit live, Andrews especially was just contorting his body in mid air with a variety of crazy takedowns, reminded of a taller Mascarita 2000, including one of the prettiest springboard ranas I have ever seen. Osprey was also really fast, and got crazy height on everything he did, his twirling kick looked like something out of a wire kung fu movie. Exactly the kind of opening round tourney debut showcase match you want to see.

Jack Evans/Angelico v. Rich Swann/Ricochet

Took a while to get going, as they did a lot of dance contest horseshit which didn’t do much for me. Had a fun finishing run, including a great dive by Angelico, but the problem with tourneys like this is, is that you get inured to all of the high spots, there has been a reverse rana in every match so far, so when Rich Swann does one, it is hard to care, same with 450s and 630s, just the same kind of spots over and over again. I liked this fine, but I could see having a problem watching all three nights of this tournament.

Trent ? v. Trevor Lee

Trent ? is the former Trent Barretta and an ex Chuck Taylor partner, and he has the same junior college improv troupe approach to wrestling. After his early shenanigans he tries to have a serious indy wrestling match, and he isn’t particularly good at that either. We get the 43rd reverse rana of the tourney, and some german suplexes and shit. Lee is a guy I have liked in other matches (He had an awesome sprint with Bailey in PWG earlier this year) but he couldn’t do much here

Pentagon Jr. v. Drago

This was a bummer, I like both guys a lot and you figure they would have lots of experience working each other, but lots of this felt off, and even the big spots weren’t as big or interesting as stuff that was hit earlier in the tourney. Pentagon Jr. has a lot of charisma but this wasn’t good.

Matt Sydal v. Fenix

This was pretty much a popcorn match, with both guys breaking out all of their spots until there was a finish. For that type of match it was pretty good, although nothing I will remember later (unlike the British match earlier which was a similar style but with more pizzaz) . I liked how Fenix brought a little extra to all of his kicks and chops, there was one point where he toed Sydal in the eye, which was brutal looking.  Sydal is good at playing the outclass veteran who used to be able to jump as high as these kids, but now is a step slow, kind of like a Grizzlies era Vince Carter. Still the match ending on a reverse rana,, into a SSP after every nearly every other match on the show through out a reverse rana as a nothing mid-match move, really hurt the finish, this show really needed someone backstage producing this tourney.

Mt. Rushmore 2.0 (Roderick Strong/Young Bucks) v. Marty Scrull/Zach Sabre Jr./Tommy End

This was the most PWGish match on the show. Mt. Rushmore 2.0 has some fun triple teams, and I loved ZSJ using a Breaks special as a hot tag move, but this match just went forever. It felt like it had two or three crescendos, and then the match would slow down with the Bucks doing shtick. It this had seven minutes or so cut, it might have been pretty good, but I just lost interest as it just kept going. I did think this set up Sabre Jr. v. Strong pretty well, and made Rushmore look badass going into the next two days.

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