2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Makabe vs. Spencer

17. Daniel Makabe vs. Artemis Spencer 365 Pro Wrestling 9/18

PAS: This was another Makabe grappling speciality with nearly all of it being grabbing limbs and necks and hard grappling. The only other Spencer match I have seen was an earlier Makabe match and they are fun dance partners. Spencer added This was a some very cool flourishes of his own, including a straight kick to Makabe's knee from his back which dropped Makabe into a triangle, and an especially nasty version of Danielson's head stomps which started with a foot rake. I love all the different ways Makabe can maneuver onto Spencer's back, including catching a skytwister press. I could have done without the NXT style hesitation by Spencer on the forearm - this is violent stuff from the start, hesitating on a forearm seems pretty hack. Otherwise I dug this from bell to bell, felt like the kind of layered thing that you would pick up new cool moments each time you watch it. 

ER: A great match that actually fills its 15 minutes instead of seeming like a match that was trying to fill 15 minutes. There are a lot of guys who think they can work a tight 15 and it almost always feels like it would have been a more worthwhile 9. This is match is a great use of time with a few different cool stories running throughout. These two are frequent opponents who always deliver on their ideas (check out their cool 2019 match to see how their ideas and strategies have changed in two years). I liked Spencer's strategy of targeting Makabe's arms. Makabe has long arms that play visually well, bending in satisfying ways and looking believably hyperextended on Spencer's multiple armbar attempts. Spencer has a lot of quick armdrags and Makabe is really great at whipping around on armdrags. That's a skill of his I don't think I really noticed until this match. Armdrags usually lead to match resets, cooling things down and spacing out sequences. But Makabe turned them into real offense the way he sold them, really putting over the torque a tightly turned armdrag would put on the shoulder joint. For a move that's been so ubiquitous to pro wrestling for long before I ever began watching, you rarely see someone put over the fundamentals of an armdrag's purpose and damage. 

There are plenty of great moments to work around that arm damage, some of it some high concept stuff. Early on Makabe dodges out of the way of a corner yakuza kick, but instead of getting his leg draped over the top rope Spencer leaps to the top rope with no hands (unnoticed by Makabe) and flies off the top with a whipping armdrag. Makabe yelps when Spencer yanks his arm to force a knucklelock, and it's another thing that makes you realize how seldom effort gets put into selling an armdrag. A knucklelock with a hyperextended elbow would hurt enough to make you yelp, and I love a match that will mix innovative sequences with close attention to small basics. Chris Hamrick working fake blown spots into his matches made him one of my all time favorite guys to seek out, and Makabe has done similar stuff. Spencer goes for a handholding armdrag bouncing off the top rope but slips, leaving an opening for Makabe to grab a waistlock takedown off that top rope. Makabe effectively ties up Spencer's legs on the mat like an passive aggressive Twister champion, and Spencer was good at getting frustrated as he got blocked and pretzeled at every submission turn. 

There are so many ideas on display here, but the match never devolves into a presentation of ideas. Makabe has a great Saito suplex, and he had a cool way of trapping Spencer in one when he throws his weight into the ropes to bounce Spencer and create space, then grabbing the waistlock for the suplex. There's great use of actual logic to reverse spots, as instead of complicated reversals of reversals we got gold like Makabe dodging the third in a series of Spencer armdrags by throwing his arms up and sucking in his stomach. Spencer locks in an awesome triangle when he pulls guard and kicks an approaching Makabe's knee out from his back with a straight kick, faceplanting him right into the triangle. I liked more of Spencer's elbows than I disliked, and there was one in particular in the corner really stung, and his leg kicks looked really punishing. But, my favorite strike of the match was the excellently placed Logan Gilbert right hand by Makabe, sidestepping a Spencer rope run and leveling him with a cross to the jaw (selling the shockwave in his hand after, naturally). This was a great match, with fun pacing and strong twists, and I can't wait what ideas they pull off in their 2022 List match. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Makabe vs. Spencer

47. Daniel Makabe vs. Artemis Spencer 3-2-1 Battle! 3/9

ER: This whole match was worked as a really frenetic sprint, and it had this unfocused quality that added to the match. Sometimes I say a match is unfocused if it feels like the guys in there had no actual real plan of how to work things out, so they just try a hodgepodge of indy matches and squish them all together. But for this match I think unfocused is a compliment, as it felt like both guys were working for a finish from the opening bell (opening chant?) and kept that vibe up through the finish. The strategies and attacks were manic so you didn't get either of them going for one specific finish, so the unfocused nature benefitted the match as it felt like the whole thing could end at any time. They made good use of rope breaks so neither guy was hanging out in a submission for too long, and they did a great job of constantly butting up against each other to try to cancel each other out during the grappling. They end up in a bunch of cool tangles, like Spencer locking in a kneebar and then locking up Makabe's free leg, or the few cool scraps that resulted from blocked roll-ups (like a triangle out of a Makabe sunset flip) or knucklelocks, Makabe getting a hold loosened by digging his elbow into Spencer's thigh, Makabe always grinding his forearm on Spencer's chin during pinfalls. Makabe gets his arm worked over with some Fujiwaras (liked Spencer getting big leverage on it, bridging up his legs), and I loved how Makabe kept selling his arm throughout, loved how he still used his punch and great elbow as a blunt object with the hurt arm. The finish with a bunch of flipping knucklelock trickery ending with Makabe suckering him into an STF was killer. This match was super fun, almost like a scrambly version of a Hideki Suzuki match.

PAS: I thought this was really good, with Spencer looking like he was on Makabe's level in this weird garage rock bassist Battlarts that Makabe has going on up in Seattle. I loved how both guys kept going for prawn holds that would get countered: Makabe went for one that Spencer flipped into a triangle, and later countered a Makabe prawn into a sleeper. They went back to it for the finish with Spencer trying a prawn hold and getting caught in a nasty STF. Not many strikes, but they all looked good. Makabe has such boney elbows that they really look painful when they land. I love a mat scramble and this whole match was a long mat scramble with both guys doing cool memorable stuff.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Daniel Makabe 2018 Dive

I've been meaning to watch a bunch more Daniel Makabe, dig through more of his available 2018 work, and since I'm seeing him this weekend I figure now is as good a time as any to do that. I've not seen many of his opponents, know nothing about the Seattle indy scene, so let's dive in.

Daniel Makabe vs. "Big Cat" Scott Henson 3-2-1 Battle! 1/12/18

ER: Henson is a man who wears tiger tights, tiger singlet, tiger tail, wears fur on his arms and neck, and seems like I guy I would not like. I liked Jun Kasai, he wore a tail; I liked Felino, he dressed like a furry cat; I liked Monkey Magic Wakita, he didn't wear anything like that but you would assume he did based on his name. And this whole match felt like something really impressive that Makabe can hang his hat on. Even though this is my first time seeing Henson I can't actually see him having a better match with another area indy worker. These two have been matched up a bunch over the last half decade, and Makabe was great at feeding his offense and providing openings, and they worked a fairly long match (nearly 20 minutes) without it wearing out its welcome. Makabe controlled a lot with cool mat stuff, which adds up as I am an owner of a chubby cat, and I can totally push him around when he's lying around. My cat son has little mat game and panics when he's on his back. Makabe is really great at moving in and out of roll-ups (great victory roll) and submissions (dig that octopus he effortlessly applied in the ropes), always showing his work and not just heatlessly running through rehearsed sections, and it becomes kind of sick fun watching him take apart this man dressed as Rum Tum Tugger.

Makabe throws these great worked punches, awesome windup shots that are faultlessly worked and land in a sweet spot on the lower jaw, they have a cool battle over a snap stuffed piledriver with Makabe purposely letting Henson think he reversed out of it by slipping his arms free only to realize that was exactly what Makabe wanted him to do, or how Makabe purposely lets him slide out of a high backslide to get him into position for something worse; Makabe also plants him with a nice bridged German after a fight in the ropes, and we build to Henson's nice comeback. Henson has some decent offense: obviously you're going to get claw rakes (disappointing he doesn't do rabbit kicks as my cat son loves grabbing a toy in his paws and kicking it with his long feet), but he also throws some nice knees in the corner (with Makabe draped over the top rope), hits a big sitout powerbomb, an unexpected La Mistica, nice half nelson suplex (loved Makabe drunkenly reaching for the ropes after rolling through to his feet before finding he was just a bit too far away), and the crowd really gets into Henson. The end run had some awesome moments, my favorite being Henson unsheathing one of his arms from it's fur covering in a kind of Lawler strap down moment, only to take too long doing it; Makabe catches his chop, slams his arm to the mat and stomps it. After Makabe is mocking Henson's hurt arm to the crowd and to Henson himself, allowing Henson to grab Makabe's arm and hit a great single arm lariat. That was just one moment that made me appreciate Makabe finding cool ways to set up Henson for a big moment, there were plenty of other big bumps (backdrop to the floor leading to a near count out, big bump on the apron, missed upside down bump into the turnbuckles) that all logically lead to big Henson moments, just a really nicely laid out match. I don't know how many other Henson matches I'll be checking out, but this was a really nice pairing with some really clever moments all throughout, easily worthy of your 20 minutes.

Daniel Makabe vs. Artemis Spencer 3-2-1 Battle! 3/9/18

ER: This whole match was worked as a really frenetic sprint, and it had this unfocused quality that added to the match. Sometimes I say a match is unfocused if it feels like the guys in there had no actual real plan of how to work things out, so they just try a hodgepodge of indy matches and squish them all together. But for this match I think unfocused is a compliment, as it felt like both guys were working for a finish from the opening bell (opening chant?) and kept that up through the finish; the strategies and attacks were manic so you didn't get either of them going for one specific finish, so the unfocused nature benefitted the match as it felt like the whole thing could end at any time. They made good use of rope breaks so neither guy was hanging out in a submission for too long, and they did a great job of constantly butting up against each other to try to cancel each other out during the grappling. They end up in a bunch of cool tangles, like Spencer locking in a kneebar and then locking up Makabe's free leg, or the few cool scraps that resulted from blocked roll-ups (like a triangle out of a Makabe sunset flip) or knucklelocks, Makabe getting a hold loosened by digging his elbow into Spencer's thigh, Makabe always grinding his forearm on Spencer's chin during pinfalls. Makabe gets his arm worked over with some Fujiwaras (liked Spencer getting big leverage on it, bridging up his legs), and I loved how Makabe kept selling his arm throughout, loved how he still used his punch and great elbow as a blunt object with the hurt arm. The finish with a bunch of flipping knucklelock trickery ending with Makabe suckering him into an STF was killer. This match was super fun, almost like a scrambly version of a Hideki Suzuki match.

Read more!