TWE The Night Before 8/5/21

Tank vs. Ron Bass Jr.

PAS: This delivered what it promised. Bass is a huge guy with a great looking old school wrestler gut and it is fun to watch Tank have to work from beneath. Bass knocks him down a couple of times with shoulder blocks, Tank responds with a cuff to the ear, and then pulls the rope down when Bass charges him. They brawl on the floor and it is a slugfest from there, not everything lands clean, but that raggedness is what I liked about it. Finish was the kind of thing which put over both guys, Tank gets the win, but it looked like Bass was stunned rather then stopped.

ER: With no hyperbole, this might have been the match I was most looking forward to seeing SCI weekend. Two behemoths colliding is always going to be my favorite thing, and starting a weekend of wrestling with the Reverend shouting at us about Tank is a great start. I love Tank wrestling in his 2017 retirement shirt, feels perfectly professional wrestling. Tank is older and slower, so has to be crafty with the shockingly larger Bass. He can't budge him with his body, shoulderblocks don't make a dent, so he tricks Bass with a low bridge to send him tumbling to the floor. And then the striking starts. Tank throws some blistering right hands, and Bass is great at being the giant man falling all through a small building. Bass is huge so it's great seeing him against parts of the building for size/scale comparisons, and he's a great big man at falling into support poles and walls. Once it's a fight Tank is relentless with chops and punches, loved his combo to the body and face. Bass brings big clubbing and great presence, and while I'm bummed we didn't get a bunch of avalanches or standing splashes, the finish was killer. They have a big punch out, then clonk their melons a few times, then Tank just blasts Bass with a spinning backfist. A Saito suplex doesn't get much air (how could it?) but the backfist to the mouth with the low back suplex is enough to barely keep Bass down for a 3. I love how the finish looked, and loved the psychology of Bass still being in the match if the ref had been a split second later to the count. 

Nick King vs. Erron Wade

PAS: Nick King is a guy we enjoyed in the UWFI Contenders series, and he was a lot of fun here as well. Wade is doing a hyped up Karate guy gimmick with Matt Griffin as his coach, and had some nifty stuff as well. I really liked King's early mat control and his suplexes. Wade had a great spin kick to the head, and his finishing submission was nice stuff. They both got to show out a bit, but it didn't overstay its welcome, just what you want from the second match on the card.

ER: It's kind of hard to judge this as a match, as it was clearly two guys being given 5 minutes to show off some cool shit, and it feels like 5 minutes of guys pulling off some cool shit without actually being structured around much of a match. It's a quick showcase of some of what each guy has to offer, and would have made a cool 30 second highlight reel. King has real explosiveness and I wish we got that in more of a match, but he takes a big bump to the floor and shows off some impressive strength when he pulls Wade into a German suplex (also his safety green boots and trunks looked cool under a black light). Wade looks like he punches a damn hole through King's chest with a shotgun dropkick, and an earlier seated dropkick looked really good too. Wrestling needs more guys with brutal dropkicks. King fired out of the corner with a big lariat after taking that shotgun dropkick, and I wish that dropkick would have had more time to settle in, but that's not what this was supposed to be. Wade's armbar win surprised me, and this match did what it was supposed to do: Show off a couple cool things in the arsenal of two new guys.  

11. Daniel Makabe vs. Damyan Tangra

PAS: Very fun Makabe style match with Tangra hanging with Makabe on the mat, which isn't easy to do. You see a lot of guys with cool mat offense, but I was really into how slick the mat defense was by both guys, with some really sick looking reversals from the bottom by both. Somehow Makabe turned a scissors kick takedown by Tangra into an STF, and Tangra had this counter to an STF counter later in the match where he some how transitioned into a reverse STF which caused me to rewind multiple times to figure it out. I am not a fan of strike standoffs, but I did like how both guys mixed in different stuff instead of just forearming and staring, I am always going to dig going to the body, and there were some nice kidney shots here. Finish was awesome with Makabe eating ground and pound until he slapped on a triangle choke where he jams his fist into Tangra's carotid artery. I mean who even thinks of crazy shit like that, much less pulls it off?

ER: Probably the most technical soccer hooligan fight I've seen. This match was heavy on reversals, and yet it was clearly not one of the awful modern "this match is only planned out reversals". The reversals here all looked great because they looked like actual reversals of offense, not planned reversals. It's an important difference that I feel is getting missed. There were some moments here where it looked like Makabe was baiting Tangra into throwing something out there, and Makabe had so many interesting counters to Tangra that he really came off like an amazing three steps ahead wrestler. Makabe comes off like someone who really analyzes his opponent and works out reversals to match each opponent. Yes, obviously that is how pro wrestling works, but Makabe makes them feel like his wrestling character is a guy who is doing all of this tape watching in advance, and that is another small but very important distinction with him. 

I loved him reversing Tangra's rolling body scissors, knowing immediately which leg of Tangra's to grab and roll into a kneebar to trap the leg before moving into an STF. Both guys know how to work really compelling STFs offensively and defensively: Tangra locks his forearm straight across Makabe's throat and goes for the kill, while Makabe's STF has him hooking his arm around Tangra's throat and it always looks like he's using the STF to set up something as a surprise. But that's kind of the trick with Makabe, as he has so many directions he can go that you never know what the killshot is going to be. I like how Makabe telegraphed a few things, sometimes to sucker in Tangra, other times because he was just telegraphing them. Tangra was smart at picking these up, loved him thrust kicking Makabe's arm on a punch or dodging out of a charge so that Makabe Psychosis's himself in the ropes. 

But Makabe is proud and keeps flexin' his way to that Flexen right hand, also throwing some nasty cupper hands to Tangra's ear/neck/jaw. The finish stretch was incredible as I had no idea who was pulling away with this. When Makabe maneuvered his way out of a sub and somehow worked Tangra into a nasty tombstone, I thought for sure that was it. But the actual finish ruled even more, with Makabe trapping Tangra in a triangle choke. But we've also seen Tangra escape a triangle, a couple STFs, and more, so - ever the showman - Makabe holds the triangle, flips Tangra's hair out of the way so everyone can see what he's about to do, and jams his fist into Tangra's carotid. Right first into the neck, left hand gripping the right wrist for maximum pressure, brilliant. The Carotid Fist feels like an untapped wrestling submission. It feels like a move that would have made Wild Red Riggins a huge 60s territory draw and been on the cover of lurid wrestling magazines.  

Brett Ison vs. Lutha X

PAS: This didn't work for me at all. They started this as almost a kickboxing fight, which is a cool idea, but nothing landed hard enough to make it compelling. There were some stiff shots mixed in by both guys throughout but not consistently. Eventually they gave up the attempts to do something different and just had a US indy match complete with forearm and stare exchanges, and a 1/2 speed All Japan 2.9 count finish. This was a miss. 

ER: This didn't offend me as much as it offended Phil, but I agree wholeheartedly with the lack of consistency being a problem. This felt like several different matches in one, and I think the match would have worked if they had chosen one and stuck to it. The UWFI stuff at the beginning did not look good, coming off like sparring or half speed practice. If those shots were all making solid contact live, it sure wasn't reading that way through the screen. This was at its most interesting as they gradually upped the stiffness, as Lutha X had some excellent selling off some brutal Ison elbows. Ison really rocked Lutha's jaw and Lutha had several different great staggers to get back to his feet, stumble to the ropes for support, fall fist first into Ison's face, and I liked how all of that looked and felt. But the match felt longer than its 15 minutes because it never felt like they were sticking to a thread. It felt like we had unconscious restarts after every couple sequences, and I did not love the pop up suplex finish. Ison falling onto Lutha for the pin looked like some great timing, but great timing after a sequence I grew tired of years ago only goes so far. 

Jaden Newman vs. Kyle Matthews

PAS:  Matthews is a southern wrestling maestro who has been one of the better traditional US mat wrestlers of the 21st century. There were a bunch of nifty moments of mat work which were the highlights of this match. I loved him countering Newman's fancy multiple kip ups by just dropping down with a side headlock, and he also had a really nice surfboard. This got a bit indy wrestling at the end with a bunch of elbow exchanges, superkicks and 2.9 near falls. I did like Matthews sick kick on the ring apron and he took a brutal bump on a springboard stroke to the floor, it looked like he divoted his forehead. Newman was fine, hanging with Matthews on the mat, but I think some of the bad parts of this match might have been his idea. 

ER: Up above I talked about how organic the reversals in Makabe/Tangra happened, and bemoaned our current state of "reversals" wrestling where you can barely tell what is being reversed. You can barely tell what is being reversed because you can see the move was never supposed to hit, the move was only thrown with the intention of it being reversed as part of the "real" spot. A lot of this, was that. I hate the kind of wrestling where someone kicks someone in the face and that kick to the face allows that person to spin around with a backfist, which allows that person to spin into another kick. It makes 80% of the offense look like trash because nothing is being absorbed, everything is just making people spin into their own offense. A lot of offense here looked actually good, some of the strikes looked like they were really rocking each other, but none of it had a chance to settle in. Nothing was treated as damaging, everything was only done in service to the reversal. Newman has a lot of offense that seems to do far more damage to him than his opponent, but since he hardly sells his opponent's offense I guess it doesn't make sense to sell spiking himself on a meteora or whipping his head into the floor going over the top to on a stupid botched apron move. They established pretty early that moves don't matter, only the reversal of the reversal of the spinning reversal of that move, and it only felt more egregious the longer they went on. 

Arik Royal vs. Graham Bell

PAS: Fun heavyweight slugfest which got cut off by an angle setting up a future match. Royal has great looking offense, including a killer looking black hole slam backbreaker which should have been his finisher. Bell looked fine too, I liked his senton to Royal's back. It didn't really have a conclusion which kind of kept this from anything more then fun. 

ER: This did end in a big schmozz angle (which was impossible to see any of because the ringside cameraman filmed it like he was recording a competitive game of ping pong), but we still got a lot of match before it turned into an angle. The best parts of this were the slugfest portions, as Royal has a cool array of chops, body shots, and uppercuts, and it never once turned into boring stand and trade. Bell would throw heavy kicks, Royal would hold his side while throwing a fist. Bell is a big guy but doesn't totally work like a guy with size, and doesn't really have lifting power. But Royal is great at making the best of Bell's offense, including catching a pretty crazy rana to the floor (paid off nicely later on when Royal caught a rana and planted Bell with a powerbomb). Royal's tackles are one of my favorite things in wrestling, here he does a diving tackle to knock Bell to the floor, and later after taking a hard cannonball - and to cutoff a second cannonball - he upends Bell with a nice explosion out of the corner. The big schmozz happens when Bell gets knocked into the referee (I really liked ref Kim's bump into the ropes, looked like her head whipped back into the top rope), but we still got 10 minutes and a lot of cool stuff. This whole thing was worked at a real fast pace, and they got a lot of bang out of their 10 minutes before the angle. 

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ACTION Wrestling Boogie Nights 5/14/21

Wes Barkley vs. Bobby Flaco

ER: Happy to see Maserati Wes in ACTION, but the match itself was a bit of an under-delivery. It really felt like they kept cycling through the same kind of moments, with the match resetting every couple of minutes so Flaco could slowly climb to the top while Barkley killed time, before Flaco was either knocked off the top of missed his flying spot, to then be hit with a nice Barkley driver or something. It built to Flaco hitting a nice crossbody but the build felt a bit stilted. I like both guys, so it's natural that there were things I did like, but it's odd that Barkley came off like the faster guy here. I was expecting Flaco to out quick him, but it felt like Barkley had to keep waiting around for Flaco, and Flaco's offense didn't always look like it would move Barkley the way Barkley moved. Still, I liked Barkley's driver and rolling clothesline, liked Flaco's corner elbows and loved Flaco hitting a double Fuerza dropkick on Barkley and Bishop (with Bishop taking a wonderful bump into the front row fans), and I can see them matching up better next time. 

Robert Martyr vs. Ashton Starr

ER: Super fun match, one that really felt like the match that should open a wrestling show. I think there were a couple too many kickouts, but I liked a lot of their ideas and came away impressed with both (in different ways). Starr is one of the only guys in wrestling to wear a Pimpi/Cassandro singlet, and that will always make me like a guy more. I don't love all of Starr's offense, think his strikes are weak, doesn't really have the strength to pull off some of his more complicated spots (like his pop up German, which, if it can't look good against a 140 lb. guy then maybe you should trim your moveset a bit), but he's great at taking offense and takes steps that a lot of guys don't. Starr is really good at whipping his face into the mat on moves, showing the damaged a move could cause. I loved how he made it look like he took Martyr's drop toehold right on his chin, how he snapped himself over the ropes on a neckbreaker, and it makes sense that his quebradora would look good (as he has the magic of the Pimpi singlet). Martyr has been a standout on Paradigm's UWFI shows, and he carried that over easily on pro style shows. He does little things like plant his knee on Starr's forehead during a pin, was great at taking all of Starr's runs of offense, throws a surprise kick at Starr's chest while Starr was getting to his feet, takes a nice Starr springboard dropkick right under the chin, and breaks out an awesome Tiger Driver that I thought should have ended the match. A bit of editing wouldn't have been a bad thing, but overall we got a good thing. 

Brandon Williams vs. Damyan Tangra

ER: I was excited for this on paper and they gave me exactly what I wanted. It's really easy to picture both of these guys being very good in a year, as both are fairly new but already do so many things that keep their floor very high. Williams had some really sticky grappling and Tangra had no problem being glued to him and waiting for submission openings. Dylan Hales did a really great job of point out small details in both of their games, talking up Tangra's "true double wristlock", explaining different grips and talking about the advantages of those grips. The first few minutes felt like a cool gym exhibition that kept getting a bit more heated, both guys getting nice subs that got quickly broken, getting in each others' head. Williams moves past the grappling with a tornado chop that should have been silly but hit like a firecracker, and when we move into a few throws and suplexes I dug how both stayed glued to their opponent. Williams hit an awesome fisherman's buster and held onto the arm, rolling it into a nice Fujiwara. Tangra had a strike combo that could have been tighter, and he took a bit too long getting Tangra into a rear naked with body vice, but the finish was fun as hell. I loved Tangra fighting for his STF while Williams wanted his ankle lock, and Williams might have the best looking ankle lock since who knows when. That's a move that's been about as dead and buried as you can get - once Angle was letting every referee he locked it on do the exact same forward roll reversal - but Williams' looked like one that should finish a match. Tangra getting him in the STF and then grabbing Williams' arm reaching for the ropes, and using that arm to strangle him, was a great way to finish. Very cool match. 

PAS: This felt a bit like a early version of those Thatcher/Gulak/Busick matches at the beginning of the 2010s, a pair of indy guys who were going to go out there and show what they could do with pure grappling. Williams is a guy I hadn't seen before, but I was impressed with how tight all of his holds looked. I am a guy with a high standard for Fujiwara armbars, and that was a great Fujiwara armbar. I also loved the finish, that was a nice looking STF, and I always love when someone shifts the application of a hold to stave off a rope break. We are in the middle of a grappling renaissance on the indies and I want to see these guys in there with the Makowski's, Garrini's and Makabe's of the world.

Liam Gray vs. King Garuda

ER: One of ACTION's strengths is how their cards are laid out, rarely giving us back to back version of the same kind of match. Two hour shows with good flow? That's why I watch full ACTION shows instead of cherry picking the stuff that sounds good on paper. Garuda is really new, this is his first singles match, and having a fun "rookie keeps a cocky heel off balance" match was a nice change of pace after our grappling and submission based match right before it. Skulk are a great tag act, and I loved Adrian Alanis at ringside interfering and getting into it with fans (like when Gray took his shirt off and threw it at a fan, and Alanis went over and played tug o war with the fan to get it back), and their entrance heat is fantastic. Gimme a heel tag team who can dance while cutting up kids' signs and I'm a happy man. Garuda hits Skulk with a plancha while they're getting into it with fans, and I immediately become a huge Liam Gray fan as he keeps flopping and slipping on the floor when Garuda tries to throw him into the ring. I like the match type where a rookie starts a match getting a near 3 count and then gets punished for it. Garuda didn't really get punished, as the story of the match wound up being "he would have won if not for Alanis at ringside!" but it's still a fun way to start a match. I wasn't expecting Garuda to take so much of the short match, but I liked his pescado, liked his wrist clutch suplex, thought it was great when Gray kicked him low from behind (thanks to Alanis distraction) to hit his cobra clutch backbreaker. 

Merrik Donovan vs. Jack Cujo

ER: I enjoy ACTION's honest approach to getting rookies onto shows. These guys impressed on a tryout show, weren't supposed to be on this show, ACTION realized they had time, so we get a bonus match. There's no phony hype around it, just an honest explanation explaining why these two were here. I'm always down to see rookies get 3:30 to show what they can show. They almost always show a bit too much, but hey, shoot your shot. Cujo has good charisma and a ton of confidence, and that will carry him a long way if he keeps at it. Do we have many indy guys working Second Line Dancer gimmicks? Donovan misses way high on all his missed strikes, but he gets a TON of power behind the strikes that are supposed to hit. He lands an elbow and standing lariat in the corner that looked like it shook Cujo to his core, and he had some ground and pound that he was intentionally throwing high to graze off Cujo's head, but he threw those grounded elbows with impressive force. Some guys have body language on strikes, others do not, and Donovan's body language looked like he was murdering a guy even when he wasn't connecting. I also liked how Donovan sold on his feet, leaving Cujo a lot of openings to hit his flash, staggering and leaning on the ropes. Cujo's missile dropkick landed flush, though some of his offense doesn't seem like the kind of thing that should work against larger opponents. His air raid crash over his own knee finisher feels a bit too 2006 indy wrestling, but I loved how Donovan sold it (even doing a bit of a kickout several seconds after losing).  

Orion Bishop vs. Alex Kane

ER: This was the match I was excited for when I looked at the card, and while it didn't live up to my own expectations it still gave me plenty of moments that got me excited for it in the first place. Kane has been a real standout on the Paradigm UWFI shows, and Bishop looked like a cross between Dr. Death and Donald Gibb and obviously I'm going to be into a guy like that. The match was all about Kane being unable to use his strength on Bishop, with Bishop staying on his feet and refusing to be thrown around. Bishop blocks a belly to belly and hiptoss, then catches a Kane avalanche and tosses him with a fallaway slam. Bishop is good at shutting down Kane, and he hits him with a spear hard enough that I would have bought it as a surprise early finish. Kane has a really cool transition as he grabs an ankle pick while on the ground and it was a cool reminder that Bishop could be caught at any time, even while in control. But Bishop is too much of a wrecking ball and escapes, then hits an exploder and Vader bomb. 

I can't decide how I feel about Kane's big opening in the match, as Gibson runs him across the ring with a buckle bomb, but when he charges back in that's when Kane hits him with a nasty overhead belly to belly into the corner. The suplex looked mean as hell, and Bishop's body got all hung in the ropes in a cool way, and I get that Kane was finally able to suplex him by using Bishop's momentum against him...but it doesn't quite sit right. Bishop was delivering too much of a beating, and Kane was acting too out of it. Kane is a much more compelling offense guy than a selling guy, and that corner suplex basically turned the rest of the match into a Big Moves Exchange. It doesn't go long after that suplex, an F5 from Bishop, Angle Slams from Kane, but it felt weak to have Bishop go down so quickly after all the damage he did. It didn't feel like the finish, build felt off, but the pairing itself was an absolute blast so it's kind of a wash. 

PAS: I liked both guys, liked their performance in the match, but agree that the pacing was a bit off. Kane gets steamrolled for 90% of this match, and two suplexes seem like an insufficient price to pay to win the match. I think we needed a couple of more moments for Kane, maybe a hot start, or one more big hope spot, instead it is all Bishop until he loses. I do love the way Kane pops his hips on suplexes though, really makes every throw look awesome.

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Kevin Ku

ER: This kept building into something I was more and more interested in, peaking with the best combo of their styles and both men crossing each other up and taking sequences in unexpected directions...and then shot past the peak for a few minutes and turned into something I did not like. At minimum, you knew this was going to feature a lot of Ku hitting Laroux in ways that Laroux wasn't going to like, so we had a nice burn with Ku throwing his hard chops, bruising up Laroux's chest, following him out to the floor any time he'd try to get away. We get our compelling Laroux opening when he's able to kick out Ku's legs, and I got really into what they were doing. They started doing some trading, but it was great because they kept switching things up, finishing an exchange with tricks to fake each other out. Ku starts throwing kicks and then fakes a chop, locking in a standing guillotine when Laroux flinches. Laroux lands some kicks and when he sees that Ku is inviting him to kick him in the chest, Laroux fakes the kick and then dives in with an eye rake instead. Laroux baits Ku into lobbing a kick at his chest and snaps off a dragon screw, and I am into this kind of back and forth! They even turn a Laroux trip into a more interesting spot, as Laroux stumbles while locking in a crab, commentary deftly covers by saying Ku scrambled to reverse, Laroux recovers nicely by making it look like a Ku reversal, throws some hammer fists at Ku's leg, and locks on a different submission. 

But before long it turns into one of those "I kick your knee and that makes you spin around and kick me and that makes me walk backwards into the ropes and then spring forward with a clothesline but you ignore that clothesline and then I superplex you but that superplex just makes you roll through and hit a fisherman buster" and I just can't focus on that shit. Nothing takes me out of a match faster. Once they started with all of that, I guaranteed that Ku was going to do some big move on his worked over knee, so when the finish of the match was a backcracker (with Ku shaking his leg out after) they completed my own personal modern indy bingo. 

17. Dominic Garrini vs. Arik Royal 

PAS: Big time main event title match which had some really special moments. Adored all of the early matwork, with Garrini sucking Royal into his world and finding really nifty ways to attack, shifting from kimuras to triangle chokes to some sort of leg stretch. Royal was able to use his size and power to counter out of a lot of it, and had some cool flurries of his own. Royal has such cool unique offense, like a nasty top wrist lock leg sweep, diving tackle to the ribs and some punches to the thighs. He also really unloaded with some cool combos of uppercuts and body shots. I also really liked how nasty he landed on throws. Instead of doing the big man thing of jumping into suplexes, Royal made Garrini lift him, and the landing went poorly in a very cool way. There was a section where they were trading snapmare back kicks which I didn't care for, and I am not sure if the finish really felt like a finish. Still I was really digging the chemistry between these two, and I would love to see Dom get another shot. 

ER: Royal and Garrini are both guys who know how to up the atmosphere for a main event, and that's what they did here. They had a ton of ideas and built to them well, maybe with a few distractions along the way, but a great build nevertheless. I had no idea what direction this was going to go and thought each guy could have taken this at any point of the 15 minute runtime. I wonder wondering if it would mostly stay on the mat, and they were so damn good at the mat grappling that I think it just made me *want* to see them work a full grappling match. Royal is careful but still goes into the lion's den, showing that he isn't a sitting duck on the mat and using his size to force a couple of cool counters. This starts to feel a lot like the incredible match Garrini had with Eddie Kingston a couple weeks prior. 

It doesn't quite reach that point that there were detours with slap exchanges and the snapmare kicks that Phil mentioned (and while I didn't love them I did unexpectedly find myself enjoying how nice both of their snapmares were), but these two were knocking the crap out of each other and that was the primary focus. Royal has some super impact on shoulderblocks, a flying tackle, and an even nastier tackle into the front of Dom's knee. Dom is great at absorbing punches and brutal uppercuts and throwing his own right back (his corner chops/punches looked and sounded devastating) and it was great seeing if he'd be able to catch and tap the Ace. Instead, though, he straight up crunches Royal with a muscle buster, and I loved the callback of Royal using his size to force counters when he dropped back onto Garrini during a rear naked and forced him to break or be pinned. Garrini wanted this on the mat, but Royal was too good there for Dom to stay the whole time, forcing this thing into a strike battle, and the combo of both was awesome. 

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IWTV Worth Watching: Space Pirates! Work Horsemen! Quack! Colony!

Space Pirates (Space Monkey/Shane Sabre) vs. Work Horsemen (JD Drake/Anthony Henry) Freelance Wrestling 6/14/19

ER: Fun tag that didn't get the ending it deserved, but had a real nice extended peril segment from Space Monkey, with some big fireworks happening once we dropped the tag structure. Work Horsemen get rid of Sabre fairly quickly, and I got really into the story of Space Monkey going alone, EXTREMELY disappointed in the commentary crew (one of whom sounded uncannily like me, no joke) not pointing out that - due to his NASA training - he was used to going it alone for long, lonely missions. We had nearly 10 minutes of Sabre being gone, leaving his boy in their alone, and nobody is talking about all the sensory deprivation training Space Monkey had gone through. I thought they did real interesting things with SM getting to the corner and finally noticing Sabre wasn't there, continuing to eat a beating, making it back to the corner, only to find Sabre still not there. Henry mocks Monkey, gets on the apron and reaches in the for tag, and then Space Monkey starts kicking at Henry, knocking him to the floor, then hitting a mean baseball slide. I loved how they handled Space Monkey getting back into the action, not just having him eat a 7-10 minute beating and then make a comeback, but instead finding a couple logical ways to have the action swing (har har) into his favor. Space Monkey is essentially El Generico, only I liked how SM peppered in his comebacks, dug those tornado DDTs that Drake and Henry took on the side of their respective heads. What I didn't love, was Sabre's eventual hot tag. I don't like a lot of his offense, and coming in after a 10 minute layoff and hitting a silly spinning facebuster isn't going to cut it.

But we do build to a nice and hot finish run with some real cool sequences strung together. My favorite was Space Monkey hitting the Molly go Round on Drake only to eat an immediate kick from Henry, who then eats an immediate spear from Sabre. That's a sequence that isn't played, and they executed it great. The nearfalls were good, genuinely thought Space Monkey was going to pull things out, and I liked the way they swung momentum throughout. They were good at not just having someone start hitting their offense until their turn was up, instead turning in situations like Drake catching a Monkey rana and powerbombing him onto Sabre. I really dug where they were taking this and was there for the full ride, but the match ended disappointingly on an unseen count out. Both teams brawled outside and cameras weren't able to follow, so we stare at fans' midsections for a couple minutes until the ref gets in the ring to call it off. Flat. Still, Space Monkey is someone who stood out over our long ass WrestleMania day, and I took a blind stab at this match, left even more impressed and fully into his face in peril tag work. With a proper finish this would have landed on our MOTY list, and he was the chief reason why.

Mike Quackenbush/Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy vs. The Colony (Fire Ant/Green Ant/Thief Ant) Flying V Fights 7/13/19

ER: Quack has been working more in 2019 than he worked the last 6 years combined, heading several trios and atomicos matches. A lot of the earlier sections were Quack working primarily Green Ant, sending him through cool holds and nice mat exchanges. I know people who don't love Quack think his stuff looks too exhibition-y, and I think it looks that way because it looks so odd, as it certainly doesn't look that way because he's having trouble applying moves or requiring a ton of time stand still moments. He has a singularly vision for wrestling and pulls it off. I love the foot stomps he uses to set up spots, and he doesn't skip steps in mat exchanges. I love his maestro style of matwork where you can see each step of the move but can't necessarily prevent it from happening, and some of the leverage spots he pulls guys into come off physically super impressive. I loved him twisting Green Ant's arm one way while maneuvering Ant's legs with his own legs, throwing distraction to one body part while always working towards another. He locks on a weird inverted bow and arrow and lifts GA upside down over his own knee in a way that comes off effortlessly, as if he knows the proper ways to lift someone while exerting the least amount of force.

Match gets derailed for awhile when we work a very long comedy routine with Coach Mikey accidentally catching an Ant, then wanting to get involved, then not being allowed, then pouting, the kind of several minute distraction that you expect to happen in Chikara and Chikara-related matches, but I certainly never look forward to it. The comedy chops improv stretch did at least divide the match into two main segments, before comedy halted everything it had been all mat based, and after the comedy wall was when we went into full spot sprint, which was great. Ducks are both guys with some nice spots, who take big bumps. Killjoy drops a really great sitout powerbomb, Lude comes into the ring with that cool Erin O'Grady rope flip rana and gets dropped with a disgusting neckbreaker/powerbomb combo, Launchpad McQuack hits hard and gets a good nearfall, Quack continues hitting cool little legsweeps and works a slick abdominal stretch/reversal/roll back into the stretch (like the action was rewound but came off perfect), Lude and Killjoy hit a cool moonsault combo, the Ant Hill is a pretty great triple team move, a weird Eiffel tower spot ending in a splash; basically there was lots of great stuff. Fire Ant clearly has the most polish out of the Ants (pretty sure he is an original Ant, so he's been doing this for awhile) and I wish we got a lot more Fire/Quack, but Quack seemed to mostly punish Green. I dig the way Quack sets up these trios matches, and it's a format I dig watching him in. 

Arik Royal vs. Isaiah Frazier CRAB 8/3/19

ER: This was shorter than I wanted, only 5 minutes, but made sense as Frazier had worked earlier in the evening. So considering he had already worked, I like how they approached this even though I was hoping for more of a match. Royal drops him right at the bell with a Face Jam, and I'm a big fan of Royal matches where he's working with an immediate head start. He's great at working as the cocky guy with an advantage, and great at showing ass when he's getting his comeuppance. I love Royal talking smack to ringside fans before turning around and hitting his sliding shoulderblock, and I dug Frazier's two big comeback topes. Royal is super skilled at taking big offense right next to fans, without putting fans in any danger. That's kind of a specific skill, but one of many for him. Royal bookends this nicely with another Face Jam to finish. This was a smart way to work the match to set up future Royal title defenses, so I can't really be critical of the ring work, which was good.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Weaver Cup Semi-Finals and Finals 8/24/19

We haven't been checking in on CWF-Mid Atlantic since they go off of YouTube and Trevor Lee left with the belt. They are finally filling the vacancy so I decided to check out the Semi-Finals and Finals of their tournament on Twitch. They keep the shows up for only a couple of days though, so you have to be quick.

Roy Wilkins vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe

This was heel stable versus heel stable, but Wilkins worked face with lots of interference from Corruption. This was fine, Wilkins had some stuff which landed nicely, but last time I checked on Sharpe he had been working more serious threat and he seemed to be back working as a cowardly heel manager. I do like Wilkins' offense, and he was definitely the right guy to go to the final.

Arik Royal vs. Cain Justice

These are my two favorite guys in CWF and I am pretty sure this was a first time match up. I  enjoyed this, but I wanted it to be better. Lots of cool little touches in the match with Cain giving up referees position, and dropping into guard, Royal had some really cool mat takedowns and riding positions, stuff like that. I also liked some of Cain's arm work, including his flip over Fujiwara and some of the takedowns. Still they had some chop battles which really didn't look good, and some time killing stuff, this felt like it would have been better faster, Cain was killing it in 10 minute RGL title matches, and his longer stuff hasn't connected with me as much. The Ethan Sharpe run in felt unnecessary and took some steam out of the finish. I imagine a title match between these two will be better, but this underwhelmed.

Arik Royal vs. Roy Wilkins

This was tag partner vs. tag partner, and I liked the actually work in the match a fair amount. Pretty simple stuff, but these are two big guys who do slow burn wrestling well. We got a slow burn start but never got any sort of finish run. They do a surprise distraction by Mace Lee and somebody else, and then a swerve as the All Stars turn on Wilkins (after teasing a turn on Royal) and help Royal get a roll up. An angle rather then a match really

Pretty disappointing, felt like all three matches under delivered, and the production of the show with the single streaming camera and new commentary team are subpar. I thought CL Party was fine as a Color commentator with Cecil Scott, but she is miscast as a lead announcer and basically didn't call the action of the match at all. I might check in for a big Cain or Arik Royal match in the future, but this didn't want to make me want to start following the fed regularly again.

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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 10/26/18

Arik Royal vs. Bobby Flaco

PAS: This was Royal kind of working as a one man Da Hit Squad against sort of a southern Elax the Exploited child. Flaco hit some high flying moves, including a couple of running dives off the stage, but much of this was Royal mauling him with power moves, including a big running tackle which sent Flacco through the ropes to the floor and into a wall. The tackle which Royal finished it with was awesome too. I didn't think Flaco hit everything cleanly, but this is match structure I am always going to be into, and Royal is great.

ER: I really liked this one, looked like a Darby Allin match but with new and different participants. We don't get to see a ton of lucha base Arik Royal so it's great seeing him catch dives and takes complicated armdrags as well as he does everything else. I thought Flaco had a nice bag of tricks, thought his two planchas and his cannonball off the stage area looked great, and Royal helped that by really getting absorbed by them. Flaco was good at sticking and moving, and Royal was great at sticking Flaco when he caught him. There was one moment that really showed the match saving professionalism of Royal, they looked to be going for a backdrop but Flaco got a little hung up, so Royal just continued muscling him through and slammed him to the mat. Flaco is really good at getting demolished by Royal's best stuff, and Royal is really good at making his best stuff look great. I love Royal's diving shoulderblock to an opponent on the mat, and Flaco was really good at taking spills to the floor (Dylan saying Flaco was lying "prostate on the floor" is a good example of why I don't try to use the word "prostrate" in conversation), and I love how his big shoulder tackle pounce is used as a killshot against smaller guys. My kind of opener.

AC Mack vs. James Bandy

PAS: Mack has been the discovery of these ACTION shows, he has quickly turned into one of my favorite current wrestlers to watch. Bandy is a WWA4 alum as well, and this was similar to the Austin Theory match, as it was a match between two guys who have trained together. There was some nifty stuff, I liked Bandy's big tope which landed right next to a baby carrier with a sleeping baby (love family wrestling shows), and Mack using a fan to hide behind before landing a cheap shot was a nice bit of heel business. Bandy had some big moves but I think his connective tissue wasn't that strong, and I did think Mack kicked out of some big stuff, only to end the match pretty quickly, but this was pretty enjoyable overall, and Mack is must watch.

ER: This was a hot 7 minute sprint, and Mack is great at moving those types of matches along. He's a guy on constant attack and even when he's kicking out of a move he's already looking to kick at someone's knee or shove them off, get himself into a better offensive position. This whole thing didn't let up much at all over its run time, Bandy starting things off with a great tope into the aisleway, and gets some cool nearfalls on Mack over the brisk runtime. Dylan Hales was good at putting over the excitement of this, sounding like Adam Sandler's "Excited Southerner" when Bandy jumped Mack at the bell. Mack is so smooth and violent, no matter where he's at in the ring he's ready to drop something mean, loved his shot right to Bandy's throat, loved him yanking a woman out of her seat as a shield before tossing her back down when his plan worked, love his targeted body attacks that don't come off as any kind of memorized combo, just him attacking whatever part of Bandy he can reach. That short kick to the knee into his twisted pedigree is a solid finish to a fun match.

O'Shay Edwards/Alan Angels vs. Lynch Mob

PAS: Tag match which had it's moments, but I think overall got a little Young Bucksish for me. O'Shay is a big menacing looking dude and had some nice power stuff although there was a couple of weak spots too (at one point he just didn't go over when getting backdropped). I enjoyed Angels as a pest who spent most of the match laying in cheap shots. Both teams had elaborate double teams, which were about 50 percent cool, 50 percent dumb, lots of complicated ways to put on a neckbreaker. Joey Lynch missed most of his moonsault again, and I think his "King of the Moonsault" gimmick might be a Chikara style comedy gimmick I don't get. I liked Edwards and Angels getting the win and setting up a match against the ref and Bandy for the next show is some classic old school Southern Wrestling stuff.

Kevin Ku vs. Ike Cross

PAS: Stiff sprint in which the energy made up for some of the shambolic execution. Ku comes forward constantly swinging and eating shots, screaming at Cross to hit him, and I dig the pace he sets. This was the most I have enjoyed him and it makes me want to seek out some of his more pimped matches, even if some of his stuff doesn't hit clean or is a little indy. Cross has a boatload of potential, but this is the first time I have seen him against another young guy and you can see the seams a bit more. His big moves are still explosive, but I think he needs a veteran like Hollis or Slim J to fill in the stuff in between. A match that was more about potential greatness then current greatness, but it was still enjoyable to watch.

ER: Agree with all of Phil's assessments here, they both moved fast and went hard, so even when something didn't totally work they were already onto their next bit of business, really showing how far some big energy can go. Cross has absurd speed for a big man, even something like him rolling out of the ring after getting popped looks impressive as hell, and both of them have such quick body movement that it gives them some cover. Ku has no problem flying hard into Cross (loved that diving shoulderblock) and Cross makes moves like avalanches and that spear - moves that a lot of people do soft - look super explosive. Phil told me that Cross is apparently retiring from wrestling, which is a damn shame as he's someone that, once I saw him in SCI, I went out of my way to see any available footage. He was one of the people in wrestling I was most excited to see grow.

Cain Justice vs. Fred Yehi

PAS: This was a rematch from a great match from the first ACTION show, and while this had its moments, it didn't live up to that match. I liked the dueling limb action with Justice working the arm and hand and Yehi working the foot and leg, including pounding Justice with fists right in ankle and upper foot. These are normally really crisp wrestlers though, and things felt a little off. I liked the use of the hooks on the ringpost more in the other Cain matches, although Yehi turning the tables on him was nifty. Match ended with Royal coming in and cheapshotting Yehi, and the whole match kind of felt like they were killing time until a run in.

ER: Yeah something felt a little off here, felt like we had a few moments where one wasn't where the other thought he would be, felt like Cain especially was holding back shots (I don't need guys punching each other in the face, but a lot of things landed uncharacteristically light), and the set ups and transitions weren't quite as neat as these two can make them. I do appreciate them furthering the "Cain uses ring hooks" story, since Cain always wedges those ACTION hooks into his matches, nice to see the tables turned on him but agree with Phil that it didn't really read very well, came off a bit flat. Obviously there were going to be great moments with these two, it would be weird if there somehow weren't; here I especially liked Yehi rushing into the corner with a hard as hell elbow. Too many times guys leap into their corner elbows, like they're doing a Stinger Splash but with an elbow, and I liked Yehi just running in full speed with a short elbow to the jaw. But on paper this is a match that seemed almost guaranteed to land on our MOTY List, and this didn't approach that.

Team TAG vs The Carnies

PAS: The Carnies come in as Matt Griffin's hired guns as part of his feud with Team TAG. Like a lot of Carnies matches this had a bunch of fun spots, and some dumb ones. I liked the Chris Spectra vs Kerry Awful big boy showdown, although I wished they hit a little harder (I think the Big Japan trios match I watched earlier spoiled me), and I dug the Awful spinning clothesline and some of the Carnie shtick. They are a little enamored with complicated double teams, but this was mostly a solid tag with four solid performances.

Slim J vs. Billy Buck

PAS: A match with some really great moments, that was marred by overbooking. J dominates early with Buck doing a bunch of Zbyszko stalling, and J locking on some really cool submissions. We get a Team TAG run in, and much of the rest of the match is the ref being distracted and TAG running in. There are some really cool moments in the end run, Buck has great execution on his moves, he obliterates J with a spinebuster and beheads him with a superkick, and everything Slim does looks great. I loved his combo flipping STO and diving neckbreaker, and he has great execution on his little things. Still I feel like the match was sacrificed to advance the Matt Griffin vs. Team TAG feud, which is kind of a lame thing to do to a main event match. Love both guys, need to dig in the archives and find a better match between the two.

ER: Yeah this kind of outside involvement is not going to get me into a match, especially when it didn't actually seem to affect the outcome too much. Slim didn't seem any more beaten down by the 3 on 1 situation than he does in normal 1 on 1 matches, and by the time the match devolved into the ref pretending he didn't hear a tandem powerbomb happening two feet away from him I had mostly checked out. But these two are great dance partners and we got two separate 5 minute segments where we were given just what we wanted. After the first several minutes of stalling the two of them went on an awesome 5 minute tear, then some BS, and then another hot 5 minutes before the rest of the BS. Those 10 combined minutes had the best stuff on the entire show, you got to see how incredibly these two take offense and dish offense, like Slim hitting a cool ropes assisted headscissors (loved the low angle bump Buck took off it), or Buck hitting one of the finest superkicks you'll ever see. You give me those 10 minutes straight and nothing else and this lands on our List with ease. Whenever it was just the two of them fighting with no distraction, it was everything you'd want out of a wrestling match.

PAS: This was a sort of a disappointing show, first ACTION show without multiple MOTYC list matches, tons of talent on these cards, I loved watching almost everyone, but it felt like everything was a little worse then it should have been

ER: I had a good time with this show, plenty of fun moments and nice performances. But all of the shows preceding this one have been so damn good that a show like this is gonna feel like a major step below. This show would have probably ranked towards the top of live wrestling shows I've seen in my area the last few years, but I can't really compare it to my local scene, I can only compare the show to prior ACTION shows. Still, the fed is clearly filled with a ton of talent, no way we'll be tuning out.

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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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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 152

Episode 152

Tag Team Battle Royal

ER: A lot of good teams in this, teams I really would not mind seeing in actual regular action. I love the idea of an Otto/Dollars team, like Daddy/Kool, Justice/Sharpe, Biggs/Foxx, just a good mess of teams. I love battle royals a lot, and this really had the makings of a great one. We eventually hit that annoying moment where three teams get eliminated at basically the same time, immediately cutting our participants in half, which takes a lot of the wind out of the sails. But even with that, this battle royal is fun as hell. Aaron Epic hasn't been seen in CWF for half a year, and makes a nice return here, really throwing big shots, stooging when needed, and going after Biggs. Biggs also turns in a great performance as the biggest guy in the match, lumbering around chopping people and squishing them into corners, walking Kool Jay to a press slam elimination (so many press slams in battle royals weirdly don't end in eliminations, it's good to see one actually come to its logical conclusion). I loved one moment where Biggs was slumped in the ropes and just reached out and chopped someone who wandered near him. It felt like King Kong swatting away a compy who had come to investigate if he was dead or sleeping. Cain understood proper battle royal behavior, wearing a shirt to the ring specifically so he could choke people with it. Dirty Daddy also made the most of his time, throwing some of the nastiest strikes of the match during his camera time (he had a downward strike elbow to the back of the neck that was absolutely brutal). I even laughed at Schwanz' elimination, as Schwanz keeps barking and saying words that aren't, while Donnie Dollars keeps asking "Are you kidding me!?" I wish it didn't wrap up so suddenly, this was shaping up to be a barnburner.

PAS: Battle Royals are mostly punches and kicks, so you want a match full of good punchers and kickers and CWF is loaded with them. Lots of wandering around and throwing forearms and guys like Otto and Dirty Daddy have awesome forearms. I loved Biggs in this too, and the Biggs vs. McAllister showdown was great with both guys just laying into each other with chops and headbutts, McAllister is really fun and perfect for Battle Royals. Unsurprisingly Kool J takes the sickest bump of the match, getting press slammed to the floor by Biggs (which seems like kind of a dick move for a face to do, no need to kill the kid.)

Aaron Biggs/Snooty Foxx vs. Aaron Epic/Abel

ER: I much prefer this kind of finish to a battle royal, where the two survivors then have an actual match. The match is short, but good, with Abel and Epic keeping Snooty away from Biggs with simple stuff, I liked a basement dropkick from Epic, and I think Foxx is just a super strong babyface. His selling during the beatdown was really good, he's a guy with size who can garner sympathy, and Biggs is great on the apron wanting the tag. I wish we could have gotten more once Foxx tagged out, as we fairly quickly go to the finish with the Biggs press. I'd like to see an actual tag match between these two, not one coming at the end of a battle royal, but a good 12-15 minute tag. I think all would match up really well.

Arik Royal/Mace Li/Rick Roland vs. Chet Sterling/Lucas Calhoun/Proletariat Boar of Muldova

ER: Roland is a big guy who's been around for awhile but I don't believe I've ever seen him, and he's filling in for Roy Wilkins in "the clean up spot". This match gets a lot of time, 17 minutes, and I think it was strong but could have been much stronger. Sterling put in a good babyface performance getting beat down by the All Stars, but I think his babyface work was kind of negated by Calhoun getting the hot tag and immediately working all of his comedy karate spots. It's kind of amazing to me that guys go along with those spots, but it's just not my bag. We do get a real nice second life to the match, as Mace Li of all people comes in to put a stop to Calhoun's five finger death punch nonsense, and Li puts in some of his finest work that I've seen from him. So we get a second nice All Stars control segment, a bunch of silly abdominal stretch heel work, with Li getting leverage from Royal on the apron who gets leverage from Coach who gets...and we get a nice Sterling run where he absolutely dumps Royal with a half nelson German, fun match overall with nice peaks and valleys. I was also really impressed with Rick Roland. I had never seen him before although I'd seen his name and I know he's been around awhile, but never heard much about him. He's big, looks almost the exact same as Parrow, and wrestles like a way better version of Parrow. His power offense lands heavy and he has a couple awesome tricks, like this slingshot rolling senton from the apron that absolutely splats onto Sterling. I'd love to see more of Roland and think he would fit in awesomely at CWF, hope he's not one of those guys who just shows up once a year on CWF shows.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. Hurricane Helms

ER: Cecil Scott goes around ringside and gets a fan to pull Helms' title challenger out of the fishbowl, and the fan sees Sharpe's name and doesn't even want to say it in the mic, just tosses it back at Scott and walks off while rolling his eyes. Awesome. CL Party looks down at Cecil and says "No good?" Funny moment once Sharpe comes out and you realize who the kid was eye rolling about. Helms pins Sharpe quickly, and we go right into a tag match with Helms' mystery partner.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe/Cain Justice vs. Hurricane Helms/Ric Converse

ER: Pretty simple tag that I think needed Sharpe Justice to work a little more stiff to make up the size difference. Without that it felt like Helms and Converse taking 80% of the match while Sharpe and Justice just kind of clubbed away during their control. Helms even dominated the submission parts of the match, locking in his really cool figure 6 submission a couple times, and then reversing a Cain armbar attempt into a cool triangle, hooking his long leg around Cain's jaw. So Hurricane got the big submission moments, Converse got to come in throwing big punches and a big sitout powerbomb, Hurricane got to hit a big trapped arm facebuster on Sharpe, Cain took a big bump off a clothesline, really felt like my boys got a little steamrolled here. Sharpe hit his nice jawbreaker but I needed more out of my guys, and definitely didn't need them easily tapping to a dual submission (Hurricane's figure 6 + Converse's figure 4 = takes us to a figure 10, as called by Smith Garrett). CWF has a ton of guys they use, really think we can do better than just having Cain tap to a figure 4 after not being in the match a ton.

PAS: I thought this was a fun send the crowd home happy big star tag. Helms looked really good, all of his offense popped and the figure 6 is a great looking submission, I also loved the countering of the armbar, I am a big Helms fan from way back, and I never thought of him as a mat guy. I get Eric's beef with the heels getting dominated, and it does seem like they are shifting Cain to more of a stooging tag worker, but he is pretty great as a stooging tag worker, and the Cain/Sharpe team make a fun pair of John Tatums to get bumped around a ring.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CAIN JUSTICE

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ACTION Wrestling 6/29/18

AC Mack/Ike Cross vs. Lynch Mob

ER: I really like the team of Mack and Cross. I like them so much that I'd rather see them not team, as having them in singles matches would mean they'd be spread out across the show more. Burning both of them in one match is too much of a waste! Plus, I'd rather see them against many other people than against the modern indy Nova stylings of the Lynch Mob. Ike Cross is super talented, but I'd rather not see those talents impressively utilized selling doofus "I make you get DDT'd by your partner" double teams. Cross can take a mean DDT bump, and he takes two of them here, under the dumbest of circumstances. Cross and Mack looked great here, both are super smooth and great at feeding lame offense, and I loved how they worked Cross' spear into the match, surprising Joey with Mack leapfrogging Cross right into Lynch. Cross' forearm to the back of the head is genuinely finisher worthy, so it's annoying to see it used and then brushed off. I dunno, I guess the Lynch Mob are a thing, and their finish looked fine, but their hyper-rehearsed superkick style does very little for me.

PAS: I thought the Cross/Mack team was great, really feels like if tag wrestling was a bigger thing, they could be big stars somewhere. Cross continues to blow me away with his potential that inverted standing senton was nuts, and I loved his bump to the floor, and Mack really held things together nicely, I am a big fan of the heel pulls down the guy on the apron to break up the hot tag, and Mack timed it really nicely. I thought some individual stuff the Lynch Mob did looked OK, their finisher combo was nice looking, but they are basically the Cracker Barrel Young Bucks, and that is very much not my thing. Joey Lynch doing two separate versions of the DDT your own partner stuff, the state of the world is traumatic enough, I don't need to see that too.

James Ryan vs. James Bandy

ER: This was fun, two tall guys having their Velocity match, keeping things to 5 minutes or so. Ryan is a great tall and lanky ragdoll, with those long limbs like Alicia Fox that flop all over when he bumps. Bandy has some fun stylish offense, a nice jumping kick, a couple of really cool axe kicks (not quite an axe kick, but more of a yakuza kick with a slightly downward trajectory, if that makes any sense), nice right hand, big sliding kick on the floor diagonally past the ringpost (through the ropes), I liked it all. This felt like more of a Bandy showcase, but Ryan got in a couple nice cut off spots, had a good nearfall, and the whole thing was enough to make me want to see both guys more.

Tragedy Ann vs. Aja Perera

ER: I liked the vibe of both of them, Ann has dead eyed doll makeup and comes out with a strand of doll heads, Perera has a good look and comes out to music that makes me want to break out Zombies Ate My Neighbors! (it's been too long), but a lot of this felt pretty rough. We had a couple odd falls, some moves that didn't really work, nothing quite BAD but nothing really clicking either. We had a couple of moments where I wasn't actually sure what move had been done, and who was supposed to have taken it. There were things I liked, especially Perera's log roll to trip Ann, with a nice follow up low cutter, but overall too much clunk. Still, Perera had a lot of charisma and feels like will get better, and Ann looked pretty new. They kept it short, minimal harm.

Cain Justice vs. Anthony Henry

ER: Nice pairing, with Henry bringing stiff shots and Cain bringing a bunch of good crowd work and stooging. All of their grappling and rolling was really good, really quick, Henry hanging on more than maybe Cain expected, and Cain going for a Twist Ending way too early, leaving him open. Flustered Cain is one of my favorite iterations of Cain. I love him rolling to the floor, his surprised faces when the crowd cheers the other guy more, it's all really fun. Henry brought a bunch of nice overhand chops that gave Cain's chest some good color and looked to be outclassing Cain, even amped things up (too much) by dumping Cain hard with an exploder across the front row of chairs, moving the Hales clan in the process. Back in and Cain blocks a suplex off the top, and - this being an ACTION ring - Cain jams Henry's hand into one of those ring hooks. I thought Henry sold his hand really nicely, and Cain was awesome still opting to sink in a cheap low blow even when he already had the advantage with Henry's bum wing. There was one major part of the match I didn't like, that felt totally different than the rest of the match, and felt really below each guy: Cain shot Henry into the corner and then just ducked down for a backdrop...and there was way too long of a pause before Henry came back out of the corner. So after Cain is just sitting there bent at the waist for a few seconds, Henry sunset flips him and we get a silly seesaw Malenko/Guerrero 2 count sequence that just felt incorrect. Every part of the sequence felt like it belonged in a lesser match, with lesser guys. Oddly distracting. But I liked Cain's low blow to Twist Ending win, and love that he still won't shake a hand after a match.

PAS: I thought this was rolling along to be one of the best matches of Cain's career. I loved the early rolling on the match, the takedowns were super explosive and the reversals looked great. I really would love to see these guys work a straight shootstyle match, I really dug the chops and Cain's stooging later in the match, but it felt like they could really do something special in a more pared down format. I am a fan of a guy getting his chest worked over, and Cain is great at cringing as the blood vessels get popped. As a Finlay superfan, I am always going to love a spot where a guy uses the ring in a cool way, and Cain fucking up Henry's arm in the ring hook was dope. Finish was great too, with Cain escaping the ankle lock by grabbing the ref's shirt and hitting a low blow and the twist ending. I have to agree with Eric about that sunset flip/Malenko Guerrero section, it was a bad idea, badly executed, if I could edit it out Lucha Underground style we would have a real high end MOTY contender. It's list without it, but man was that a stinker.

Michael Spencer/Chance Rizer vs. Team TAG (Chris Spectra/Kevin Blue)

ER: I dug this, and it kinda snuck up on me. It looked like it was going to be an extended TAG squash - and it was, technically, but it had enough extra moments to it that with another save or brief hope spot from Spencer/Rizer would have been enough for me to nominate it for our MOTY list. TAG cut off the ring and kept knocking Spencer off the apron, taking apart Rizer with classic 90s double teams, like a powerbomb/neckbreaker (loved Dylan bringing up Kanyon/Raven breaking Villano IV's neck with that move on Nitro, which is a great reference point. I remember watching that live with my buddy James and we both exclaimed right when it happened), and Spectra bullying him around with avalanches and clubbing shots. The fun comes when Spencer, knocked off the apron one time too many, comes in for a save and hits an awesome knee to Blue's face. Rizer gets a believable visual pin, and Spectra shoves Spencer back over the pin to break it up. The whole thing was a really great sequence. TAG end it shortly after, Rizer took a couple nasty bumps, and even though I was really hoping that last pin would be broken up, one last ray of hope, I still really liked what we got.

Billy Buck vs. Cabana Man Dan

ER: I'd seen Cabana Man Dan's name pop up on indy cards and results for years, but I hadn't actually seen him. I was picturing more of a Colt Cabana goofball crossed with the easy misogyny of Straw Hat Guy. Or a Chris Hero bod with an orange sunset Hawaiian shirt but without much wrestling ability. Or a chubby version of Bill Paxton in Club Dread. Cabana Man Dan is not those things. He is short and packs a nice wallop on kicks. This had some sloppy moments, but they kind of added to things, like Dan trying a Gedo clutch but not really doing it right, so instead repeatedly slamming Buck's face into the mat. I liked a lot of Dan's dropkicks and thought he had good babyface charisma, though flip flop shtick doesn't interest me a lot (and it seems like Dan might come with a fair amount of flip flop attack shtick), but there was enough to like. Buck has one of the best superkicks in the game, a guy like CW Anderson who could believably use his as a finish, and I liked Buck roughing up the smaller Dan.

Slim J vs. Cam Carter

ER: Damn J is some kind of marvel. This is a match style I typically don't love, that big kickout, mirror move, pop up off the mat after a big spot kind of modern indy match, but damn Slim is just so good that I still got sucked right in. Slim throws arguably the best forearms in wrestling today, just snaps them off and really makes exchanges feel life or death. He is super athletic and always does something in a match that I really don't see coming, always dipping into that bad of tricks. This match had a bunch of "athletic guys doing athletic things", but Slim is so great at all of it that it's easy to look past some annoying things. You know, like dueling reverse piledrivers. It's a silly spot, one guy takes one, pops up and delivers his own, but they at least put some style into a burnt spot, with Slim taking his whipped around hard on his belly and Carter taking his more vertically and then sliding on his knees like at the end of a break routine. Slim can go through complicated sequences without ever getting that distant stare in his eyes, never looking like a guy going through mapped sequences, always keeping that unpredictable feel to things. When he catches a wild leaping DDT off the ropes or leaps backwards with a flipping kick or a diving elbow, it feels like he can go anywhere once he leaves his feet. He's also a master of taking offense, making offense look great, getting his body to respond in ways that seem impossible. The match ends with an absolutely vicious cradle brainbuster, and Slim comes crashing down like he was the cartoon on the side of a diving board, warning against diving into an empty pool, and it's more than just his landing, it's how he stiffens his body after, how he keeps his arms believably rigid as if he'd been KO'd. I didn't love the finish, with Slim hitting a big superplex and rolling into a guillotine, and then Carter basically just powering out of the guillotine after a (long) while and hitting the brainbuster. But there was a lot of this match to love, just on execution alone. Slim also leans expertly into a couple Carter spin kicks, and throws the most violent missed clotheslines I've seen. He cuts so low and whips his arm impossibly fast. If I attempted to whip my arm as fast as Slim on a missed clothesline I'd at best end up with a sore triceps for a few days. He throws these great stiff arm ambidextrous lariats, hitting with a thump on Carter's chest, really some of the meanest things tossed out in the match, and it was a match with Slim taking fast suplex bumps high on his shoulders. Carter is really fun, and this is among the very best I've seen him look...and I don't think it's a coincidence that it happened against Slim J.

PAS: I also don't love this match type, but both guys put a ton more violence into their fancy stuff then this kind of match usually has. Carter busts J mouth up with a hook kick, J throws these thumping lariats like he is Stan Hansen's mini, and really adjusts Carter's jaw with elbow smashes. Eric is right about how great J takes moves, he really spikes himself on all of drivers, taking everything like Wiley E. Coyote falling off a cliff. I didn't love the trading poison rana's, and a couple of other things weren't sold as long as they should have been, but man for a juniors match between amazing athletes this was top notch stuff.

Arik Royal vs. Tracy Williams

ER: Big main event that may have went a little long, but I liked all the places they went so I didn't really mind. Williams works this as a tough Nishimura, peppering him with hard elbow strikes and working him over with quiet arm work, a deeply sunk in octopus, heavy flat foot clotheslines, great flat back missile dropkick, and holding on for life to absorb a Royal beating. Royal was great, attacking with shots to the body (I liked an early exchange where Royal swatted a Hot Sauce elbow out of the air, and Sauce immediately got the forearms up on a chop, and from there Royal didn't even bother with chops, just went body), palm strikes to either side. Williams yanked on Royal's arm a bit, and Royal spent the rest of the match shaking that thing out, and didn't really get ahead on Williams until a vicious hotshot, one of those really great hotshots that looks like a guy gets snapped over the top rope and hits every rope on the way down, like a cartoon character falling out of a tree. Royal is mindful of the arm but uses it as he needs, breaking out a few Face Jam variations. Williams is nice and crafty, pulling out neat things like a DDT while placed on the top turnbuckle. It wasn't a flashy DDT, but a whip smart logical one, just dropping straight down and letting gravity and physics work. I think we got maybe a couple too many kickouts on some pretty big moves, like an absolutely disgusting stuff piledriver on Royal, or Royal literally upending Sauce with his chop block (Williams flew like a kid getting bounced off a lake blob). Both of those spots looked so match ending that I wish they didn't have to get kicked out of, maybe take advantage of being close to the ropes in both instances. The match finishing Fujiwara was satisfying, and Royal's consistent selling of it always kept it there as a potential finish, so when he was going up for a dodgy springboard Face Jam it was there in my brain that Williams could catch him. Good overall match, on a good overall show.

PAS: I thought this was amazing, easily my favorite match I have seen from either guy (and these are both guys I like a fair amount), it felt like a big time title match. I didn't think it went too long, because it was worked at a deliberate pace, much more like an NWA title match then a indy overlong kick out fest. Both guys landed huge nasty shot early, everything either guy landed just thudded with impact, not the sharp snap of a thigh slap, but much more bass in every sound. Both guys have some unique blows, body shots, shots to the side of the neck, the shoulder blade, it really felt like both guys were putting damage in the bank saving up for the end. Willams was landing these thudding clotheslines, all impact, no bump. I loved how both guys sold the moves while applying offense, Royal couldn't get Williams all the way up with a press slam so he reckless hurls him into the ropes, Williams bad back didn't allow for a full piledriver lift so he spikes Royal with a short piledriver, their injuries made the moves worse for their opponents. I have seen a bunch of Royal and Williams did an incredible job selling his offense, the Space Jam looked like an Ogawa STO, and the Royal chop block felt like something which would be in the Wide World of Sports agony of defeat montage. I really liked the ref bump, too, the ref Daryl Hall (no relation) didn't lay down forever so we could get a table or have a run in, it just slowed him down enough for Williams to get a desperate kick out, great job of keeping Royal strong.

PAS: Three matches on a MOTY list is pretty class for a start up indy. ACTION has been a hell of start up, and I love their talent pool. Would like to see them really run some angles and build up some feuds.

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