On Brand Segunda Caida: Jimmy Jacobs I Quit Matches

I just recorded a Way of the Blade Pod with Jimmy Jacobs talking about his great I Quit Match with BJ Whitmer. I dug up a couple of his lesser seen I Quit matches on Highspots and figured I would review them.

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Ryan Boz AAW 3/28/09

PAS: Boz was a midwest guy with some indy size and some solid violent looking offense. I really enjoyed the pre blood part of this match with Jacobs hurling himself at Boz, including a great looking Macho Man double ax handle and a running dive off of a stage. Boz is able to take control and carve Jimmy up with a fork, cheese grater (including chewing a bit of Jimmy's left over skin, which, ewwwwww) and staple gun, while taping Jimmy's hands together. Jimmy was able to break free with a nut shot, hit two big elbows to the floor with Boz on a table, and eventually tape him to the turnbuckle and jam a spike into his balls. Not as violent as stabbing someone in the dick, but still a correct way to finish the match. 

Jimmy Jacobs vs. Arik Cannon AAW 11/26/11

PAS: This had some really gross bleeding by both guys, which is what you want in this kind of match. Cannon breaks a bottle and cuts Jimmy up, and Jimmy does what he does. Cannon had some really great punches on the cut too. Cannon gets cut up by the Spike and there is some sick dripping. I also really liked the duct tape spot, which is a Jacobs I Quit speciality. Jimmy gets carved, but is able to nut shot Cannon, get the spike and use it to cut himself out. Still, I Quit matches live and die on the finish, and I didn't care for the finish here. Jacobs hits a Panama Sunrise, which is a dumb move and not for this match, and his guillotine choke really works more as a submissions match finish, then an I Quit match finish. Stuff to like, but I think overall a miss.

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In the News! Arik Cannon

The end of last weeks AEW Dynamite show had a mass attack by masked Dark Order members beating up the entire roster. A clip of one of those masked guys throwing embarrassing mounted phantom punches on Dustin Rhodes made its rounds on the internet, with Randy Orton (who isn't exactly Dick Murdoch) taunting the masked guy about his inability to perform something you should learn the first week of wrestling school. The big M. Night Shyamalan twist was that this masked Dark Order member wasn't some green rookie, but Arik Cannon, a guy who has been wrestling since 2001, and actually runs his own promotion, and is the head trainer of a wrestling school. There is a lot of Cannon I didn't like, but I do remember really digging an IWA-MS I Quit match against Chris Hero, so I decided to revisit it, and maybe give Cannon some propers.


Arik Cannon vs. Chris Hero IWA-MS 9/9/05

This was pretty long (40+ minutes), which isn't something I am looking for in a match at this point in my life, but they kept it moving and had plenty of cool moments and an appropriate ending for an I Quit match. The first section of this match is both guys throwing really nasty potato shots at each other, including some really sick sounding headbuts, thudding forehead to forehead blows, forehead to cheek bone, and forehead to jaw. Cannon had a nice looping Billy Joe Travis hook, which he landed a bunch of times with some real sound on the jaw. Hero posts Cannon's knee and really works that over for the bulk of the match with some big thumps on the kneecap and side of the knee, and really fun twisty submission holds, at one point he rolls him into a reverse Indian deathlock and does pushups. Cannon fires back with some big throws, including a super nasty Saito suplex and tries to lock on a hangman's clutch of his own (the feud apparently started, because Cannon kept using Hero's moves on other wrestlers to taunt him). The most memorable moment of the match was Cannon using athletic tape on his own mouth so he couldn't talk and say I Quit. It is kind of an OTT idea, but I did like how he had to remove it himself to breath, and almost ended up puking. Fun backfire spot which actually made a bunch of sense. Hero eventually got on his own Hangman's clutch after stomping brutally on Cannon's knee. I Quit matches are traditionally bloody brawls, but I liked how this was based more on torturing submission holds, and while Hero was the standout, Cannon was more then just a passenger.


Not sure how a guy in a match this good, can do something as bad as Wednesday's beat down, with fifteen years more ring experience. At one point in this match he even does a series of mounted punches, and while he isn't Mark Coleman he does make decent looking contact. It will remain a mystery, but I am happy I rewatched this 15 years later.

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Dick Togo is Rondo on The Bongos When Give You His Convos

Dick Togo/Sho Funaki/Men's Teioh vs. TAKA Michinoku/Bradshaw WWF Over the Edge 5/31/98 - FUN 

PAS: All of the TAKA vs. Kaientai stuff was really good, especially any time Togo and TAKA matched up. Togo unloaded probably the fastest and most awesome powerslam in his long storied career of fast and awesome powerslams, and he just launched himself with the senton bomb. Bradshaw sold nothing and just ragdolled Kaientai like midget jobbers, and it wasn't even that nasty of a beating. It was a big mistake to have Kaientai wear street clothes, Togo looks fine in his Mikey Whipwreck shirt and jorts, but both Funaki and Teioh look like middle school kids in their hoodies and jeans. Togo and TAKA were cooking though, too bad they never really got a chance to have a long singles during this period. 

Dick Togo vs. HARASHIMA DDT 2/27/11 - GREAT 

PAS: Another off the charts Togo singles match, he is really on a hell of run having great and varied singles match, all with pretty limited guys. HARASHIMA is sort of a Chris Dickinson to Marifuji's Davey Richards, basically a slightly more tolerable tribute act to the intolerable original. Early part of the match is Togo working as Ric Flair. HARASHIMA misses a kick into the ringpost and Togo does a nice job working it over, including a fun Nature Boy style battle around a figure four. After that section we have a juniors near fall run, which normally isn't my thing. Togo however totally makes this with his facial selling and charisma. The look on his face when HARASHIMA kicks out of the pedigree/senton combo was great, and when HARASHIMA hits the KO kick, you buy that Dick got his lights snuffed. I loved the very end with Togo snatching HARASHIMA out of mid air with a crossface and battling to hold on to it, including when HARASHIMA breaks it whipping out a satellite headscissors right back into the crossface, and then shifting it into a choke with HARASHIMA's own arm, awesome ending, great carry job, don't go Dick Togo, don't go. 

Dick Togo/Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Arik Cannon/1-2-3 Kid/Darin Corbin CHIKARA 4/15/11 - SKIPPABLE 

PAS: Terrible match. There was a couple of entertaining Waltman vs. Shinzaki moments, Togo hit two nice sentons, and Sasuke did a flip dive onto concrete, but everything else stunk. The slow motion wrestling spot Corbin does is one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen in a wrestling match, and pretty much everything I hate about winking US indy comedy wrestling. Even worse is he breaks it out a second time in the middle of the end run of the match, killing any momentum they were trying to build. Cannon looked like refried shit in the match too, timing was off, moves looked bad, just completely lost. There was one moment where Sasuke hits a spin kick, where Cannon turns around, looks outside, and just jumps to the floor. It looked bad enough that I thought for a second it was his signature comedy bump. Corbin wrestles in slow motion, maybe Cannon awkwardly pauses before all of his bumps. Complete waste of the MPRO team and Waltman, and a huge disappointment. Really glad I didn't drive to Philly.

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