Here's a Necro Butcher Match to Watch During the Kid Rock TP USA Half Time Show

Super Dragon/Necro Butcher vs. Kevin Steen/BJ Whitmer CZW 4/15/06 - GREAT

ER: More of a great Super Dragon/Necro match than a great overall match, notable for being one of the two times CZW used Super Dragon/Necro Butcher as a team. Imagine a cooler team in 2006 than Necro Butcher and Super Dragon. Do it, right now. I love them together and loved them in this. I just don't think this era of Steen/Whitmer was able to match their stiffness. Not even close. It was a dominant Team CZW match - which I like - but that made it feel like a missed opportunity for Whitmer and Steen to get real actual heat for repping ROH. Think about Akitoshi Saito showing up in Big Japan. BJ Whitmer could have been a shittier version of that. But is this actually a BJ Whitmer Match? 

Whitmer is good at taking damage, great at bumping for Necro, and this finally got going when Necro threw a chair into BJ's stomach and Dragon bounced a chair off Steen's head. Whitmer was great at taking and selling chairshots all match. Necro and Whitmer's suplex to the floor looked rough (complimentary) and Whitmer honest to god saved one of Necro's lives catching his cannonball over the ringpost. BJ Whitmer stood strong and absorbed all of that maniacal cannonball when nobody else could, and his reward was getting a dozen chairs bounced off his body. 

Maybe it's Kevin Steen and only Kevin Steen who keeps this match from being a classic, even though I liked everything Dragon did TO Steen. Dragon was throwing elbows and kicks that Steen could not credibly respond to. Dragon was generous, I thought, to both ROH reps, more than their offense deserved. Taking a Super Calo bump on the back of his head for a Whitmer clothesline is pretty generous, but he was kind enough to throw his body into bumps for offense that didn't always justify the bump. The violence down the stretch was good; Dragon stomping Whitmer's head on a seated chair, or Necro getting powerbombed onto the backs of two folding chairs. I love them so much, and I love the finish. Dragon drops Steen on his head to the chorus of a loud CZW chant, picks him up at 2...then drops him on his head again with a Psycho Driver while the chants only grow louder. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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Found Footage Friday: IWA MID-SOUTH IN THE YEAR 2000~!

IWA Mid-South A King Is Crowned 7/15/00 

Jayden Draigo vs. BJ Whitmer

MD: Draigo was billed from being from the Michaels academy (and I think he actually was but that would have been a great heel indy gimmick back in 2000). Whitmer is Whitmer, and was billed as being trained by Thatcher. He had pleather pants. Draigo was all but falling out of his. And this was a pretty ok opening match for this sort of thing honestly. Technical to start. Whitmer got the advantage. Draigo took over by kicking the rope after he ran around the ring and got chanted at and chased. A lot of his offense was approprtiate to his size and he didn't overreach. They didn't let a Whitmer hope spot (German out of the corner, bridging) sink in enough, but the comeback was just blocked punches and firing up. Whitmer missed a top rope splash and Draigo got him with the Superkick (see, it would have worked if it didn't piss off actual people in the industry) for maybe the surprising win. 

ER: Draigo is from the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy. A girl in the crowd tells him He Sucks Shawn Michaels dick and that He Goes to Shawn Michaels Dick Sucking Academy. By the midway point of the match she convinces the entire crowd that he definitely learned to suck dick at Shawn Michaels' Academy. She knew she was right and convinced an entire small town. BJ Whitmer had okay punches when he had sideburns. Nice backbreaker too, fast snap suplex, and I liked his big missed diving headbutt. 

Nathan Future vs. Prophet Daniel Quinn

MD: We've moved on to the cargo pants portion of the show. This was kind of effective for what they were trying to do and I'm not sure I've ever exactly seen this done like this? Future came out first and Quinn just rushed in out of nowhere and hit a spin wheel kick and kept on him like it was a sprint. He hit a dive, then triple suplexes (last one a Fisherman) and went up top. Harry Palmer, who would have a 2/3 falls match later in the night ran out to get the match thrown out. He powerbombed Quinn and they looked a bit too hard for a chair, finding one and shattering the arm with it before people came out to run them off. It theoretically got some more heat on Palmer for later in the show while having Quinn look like a worldbeater in the span of a minute or so.  

ER: Daniel Quinn looks like a malnourished kid in Gummo with knee pads too big for his 135 pound frame and has clearly watched a lot of Benoit footage. I'd say half a dozen people on this card want to be Benoit and that is the most 2000 thing about indy wrestling (outside of the entrance music). Quinn looked straight out the Yard and that's how these openers should be, and I was genuinely impressed by the local following he had attained. People were really getting behind him like a small regional babyface despite (because?) being a teenager who came straight from school and wore someone else's kneepads. Future took a nice bumped getting shoved into the ringpost and Harry Palmer came off very unlikeable in his interference. 

IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Title: The Suicide Kid (c) vs. Paul E. Smooth w/ Dave Prazak 

MD: Smooth and Prazak did some pre-match talking. Smooth was doing the timely Britney's boyfriend gimmick with a bathrobe and her on his shirt. It's not as fun as the contemporaneous Aron Stevens gimmick in New England where he'd come out with a stand up of Britney, but it drew the sort of chants they were looking for. Kid slapped hands on the way in, big smile on his face, and he was over.

I would have really enjoyed this in 2000 but I was 15 years younger. Kid was confident in what he was doing, had a pretty measured way of doing things. They wore their influences on their sleeves (like a Stan Lane Crane Kick shove over). Smooth got an early advantage but Kid came back with the back handspring elbow. He controlled (with the triple suplexes, last one a fisherman's so no agenting here of course!) until Prazak got involved. Smooth controlled for a bit. Kid came back with so, so many moves, some ridiculous, some sublime (someone should steal his bit where he runs at a seated opponent in the corner, presses off with his feet on their chest and hits a headbutt to the groin). Prazak got involved again as some other guys ran out, Kid finally got him but got killed by the interference and lost the belt (Smooth made sure to lay his head on the groin for the pin for maximum homophobic 2000 heat). Anyway, Kid was very good at what he did even if what he did only made sense in a specific time and place.

ER: This ruled. Smooth talks about Britney Spears' titties and says someone here has an even better pair, calling out some poor kid who was nowhere near the fattest kid there but had no doubt called him a Hard F a couple dozen times. Smooth says he doesn't suck dick but would suck on that kid's big titties because this was 2000 Indiana and there are entire other worlds out there north of Kentucky. Suicide Kid comes out to Bawitaba which brings us to the edge of midwest indy nirvana after already hearing Closer and Dragula. When we inevitably get Last Resort we will have reached nirvana. 

Richard X and Hy-Zaya w/ Uncle Honkey vs. Kid Trailer Park and Colt Cabana

MD: What to say about this one. Well, hopefully Eric is in with me on this because he can write about Uncle Honkey better than I can. There was probably money in that gimmick in some place at some time even if it wasn't necessarily this place and time. I'll leave it at that. There were a lot of big ideas on offense, especially from Hy-Zaya and Richard X. I wouldn't say a single one of them hit clean but that was a quarter of the charm.

The flip side of that was that Colt looked great. Just poised and professional in contrast. He was obviously watching a bunch of tape and did a number of things but they were just a little more grounded than everyone else and even the chain wrestling looked very good. He looked like a real ringer in the midst of all of this, even if he lost it due to Honkey distracting the ref and interference dragging him down. 

Adam Gooch vs. American Kickboxer

MD: Hey, it's DVDVR favorite American Kickboxer. This had a fun little quirk where Hy-Zaya and Richard ran out after the first or second exchange, only to get run off. Then they came back when both guys were in bad shape and took out Kickboxer while Gooch was on the outside. That led Gooch to winning. Post match they made up only for Uncle Honkey to smash Kickboxer for a stretcher job. All of this set up future shows. 

The match itself was best when they were doing the stand up striking and Kickboxer was driving things. Gooch had some perfectly fine offense of the time but it felt novel and different and stood out on the card when they were throwing shots and they did a decent enough job at it. It was the same with some of the wrestling and precision stuff Colt had been doing, just in how it stood out. At one point Kickboxer did a flippy groin kick in the corner that didn't fit the match and wasn't really sold well but it was over. They did a good job clapping the crowd up and keeping them engaged too. I did think the heels running back out a second time was a clever bit, done once at least. 

Best 2-Out-Of-3 Falls: Harry Palmer w/ Nathan Future vs. Cash Flo

MD: I got a kick out of this. Cash Flo is on Tulsa King now. Good for him. This was pretty minimalist, not necessarily in what they did but in how much they did and while I have no idea why it had to be 2/3 falls, as the first two were short and the last one ended in bullshit before long, it was still fun. Palmer stalled to start, and then stalled some more, and then got beat on and ran off, so this was all working for me. He came back with sunflower seeds or something and did a bit of spitting them into Flo's face, incensing him and leading to him getting caught and hit with a blockbuster. That was the first fall.

Flo came right back and brought a couple of chairs in. Palmer ambushed him and took over and set them up and I swear he was going to do a standing 'rana onto them which is such a ridiculous notion, but obviously Flo power bombed him onto the chairs. That was the second fall. Then the third fall had the ref knocked out and Palmer use a weapon and really there's been a lot of BS in this show but it's a sign of the times. Anyway Quinn from earlier in the night ran out (at least I think it was him) and they presumably they set up a tag for the future or something. 

IWA-MS Heavyweight Title: Fans Bring The Weapons Death Match: Rollin' Hard (c) vs. Corporal Robinson 

MD: The biggest takeaway I had from this was how organic and alive it felt just because it was unpredictable. Some of that was how both wrestlers weren't supposed to wrestle each other but other people but it worked out this way, but it's mostly the gimmick. You can't prepare for whatever people in the crowd bring so you have to think on the fly and it's incredibly refreshing in a world of carefully planned spots. 

 

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Eddie Kingston Has Whips on His Fist, Houses on His Wrists

Team AIW (Eddie Kingston/BJ Whitmer/Tim Donst/Chris Dickinson) vs. #NIXON (Ricky Shane Page/Bobby Beverly/Eric Ryan/Necro Butcher) AIW 11/23/12 - EPIC

PAS: This was a mystery partner tag brawl with #NIXON bringing in the Necro Butcher and AIW bringing in Chris Dickinson, both guys who had been banned from AIW in the past. This match had lots of booking in it, which was a little hard to parse dropping in the middle of it, but the action was pretty awesome. The whole match was brawling in the crowd, and these are a batch of crazy fucks. This might be one of the last incredible Necro performances, as he was bleeding buckets, punching and headbutting people right in the face and bumping around. I loved the moments where he and Kingston start clawing at each others eyes, and he and Dickinson really test the boundaries of acceptable stiffness, Necro just blasts Chris in the jaw, and Dickinson spin kicks Necro right in the temple. Match doesn't really have a finish with Dickinson turning on his team and dropping Whitmer on his head, and Gargano coming out to even the odds only to get DQed by a #NIXON heel ref. Really overbooked finish which almost keeps it from EPIC status, but the work was killer and this was a hidden gem for sure.

ER: I thought this kicked huge amounts of ass. The overbooked finish was a couple minutes out of 20, with the other 18 minutes filled with blood, stiff strikes, and some insanely painful landings. Beverly and Ryan are total maniacs. Several people were having a "who can hit the guardrail more painfully" contest, and Beverly probably won it when he leaped off the apron chest first into the rail, looking nastier than that time Bret Hart broke his sternum. Ryan bleeds buckets and I had no idea him bleeding profusely was something he's been doing for years now. Both future Studs take hellish bumps, Ryan getting vertical suplexed on the floor by Dickinson, Beverly flying across the floor while weapons fly at him magnetically. Kingston throws a heavy trash can off the side of Beverly's head, Page is gushing blood while sporting a 5 years in the future Tim Donst look, Donst also crashes and burns hard on the floor a few times, everybody throws great punches and kicks, Necro practically KOs Dickinson with a punch, the hardwood floor is so covered in everyone's blood that Kingston slips in it while throwing a punch, the whole thing was sheer brilliant street fight chaos. Fans gathering around the action are standing still with their mouths open, like they're witnessing a street crime. This was how you do a crowd brawl. This whole thing felt dangerous as hell and had I been in attendance I would have been losing my mind the entire time.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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All Time MOTY Head to Head + Wednesday Morning Wargames : ROH: Team ROH v. Team CZW Cage of Death

Team ROH (Samoa Joe/BJ Whitmer/Bryan Danielson/Adam Pearce/Ace Steel/Homicide) vs. Team CZW (Claudio Castagnoli/Chris Hero/Nate Webb/Necro Butcher/Eddie Kingston) ROH Death Before Dishonor IV 7/15/06

ER: This was sooooo good. The very first 90 seconds kind of annoyed me as Claudio/Joe worked a standard rehearsed indy sequence, and then with no warning Joe punted a trash can into Claudio's head and they never looked back for 40 minutes. There was a lot of this that I had totally forgot, and it was stuff that had I been told, really wouldn't have sounded good: "Danielson turns on Joe, ROH gets to use an extra man because I guess we feel bad that one of their men turned, BJ Whitmer is in it..." It has tons of stories happening all at once and could have been a complete mess, but all the bullshit of the match works really great, and a lot of guys have arguable career performances.

Potential career performances include: Chris Hero, Nate Webb, Homicide, Ace Steel, and Adam Pearce. Chris Hero was such a perfect smug jerk, setting up potentially violent moves only to end them with uncomfortable cravates (jumping off the middle rope with two of his men holding someone, setting one up on top of a chair), disappearing when things would get messy, but really the whole match - which had already been violent as hell - kicked into an entirely new gear when Hero got on the mic to start the CZW chant, and really inciting a lot of hate. "It's going to take a lot more than that to take out Chris Fucking Hero!!" is a great thing to scream maniacally at a ROH show, and the shots of he and his invaders ruling the ROH ring as trash gets thrown in is a pretty unique indy wrestling visual. They really did seem like conquering kings in that moment and without Hero I don't know that they get that.

Nate Webb is a total bump freak and he broke out some of his all time craziest stuff here. He and Kingston were the guys who truly felt like outsiders here, and Webb looked like a dirty, unhinged version of clean cut ROH fliers. Webb takes a disgusting Pearce press slam from the ring through a table, hits an absurd coast to coast moonsault mule kick into a trashcan, and he's right there at the end battling with Homicide, taking a horrific cop killa on a bunch of barbed wire. Necro brings all his great Necro attributes to this, never really standing out as the main guy, but always around to get wrapped in wire, take a shot to the ear, literally RUN through thumbtacks barefoot (in an all time great Necro psychology moment), just doing all of the things you would hope he'd do in a match like this. Pearce comes out dressed like a man who belongs in a match like this, and does his big part by brawling and bleeding all over the place, hitting a big piledriver on the floor and that press slam on Spider. Ace Steel had a real superstar performance, really feeling like a "big stage" performer the whole time. The cowbell he brought out was a great prop, but his facials and movement came off big league and he had a grounded performance that the match needed. Homicide enters because of a strange rule and the crowd is going crazy, while he immediately pulls out forks and spikes and a freaking boxcutter, and in that movie the ringside area resembled the orgy of violence in Event Horizon.

There's tons of violence and tons of crazy spots (Claudio's Russian leg sweep off the cage through a table!?), JJ Dillon hams it up extraordinarily at ringside, the crowd is riled up the entire time, everybody bleeds all over the place, and this is just the best wrestling.

PAS: This felt like a super violent version of one of those Pat Patterson produced WWF Attitude brawls. They build so many different story lines in this match, the Danielson and Joe confrontation, the Homicide surprise, the Eddie Kingston v. Chris Hero feud, the beginning of the Homicide v. Cornette fued, and even little things like J.J. Dillion being the master of the coin toss or the Necro thumbtalk run, I have pretty mixed feelings about Gabe as a booker, but if he put this together this was his peak. The ROH team minus Homicide ended up being kind of a scrub squad, but this was pretty much peak Steele, Pearce and Whitmer, I loved Steele coming out with the cowbell and waylaying everyone, Pearce achieved the Arn Anderson he had been shooting for his whole career, and Whitmer took some horrid bumps. Nate Webb was an underground favorite of mine from his IWA-MS days, so it was cool that he got a semi-big stage showcase, and man alive does his kill himself with insane bumps. Hero was such a great prick too, I loved him getting smacked in the head in the middle of his speech, jumping up stomping fools and yelling "It will fucking take more than that to stop me." I did think this went a little long in the Match Beyond section, Homicide's entry was such a huge moment, and I think they should have rid that wave into the finish quicker (also no way should a Wargames end on a pin.) I would have also liked to see Nick Gage or even Zandig in this match, a real CZW original would have made it even hotter. Great match though, one that I remember loving in 2006 and loving again on rewatch.

Verdict:

ER: That NWA Anarchy WarGames is a real revelation, a true classic that deserves praise and a bigger viewing audience. Cage of Death edges it out though. It sustained the fever pitch violence almost twice as long, everybody contributed in big ways, you had tons of storylines and successfully converging (which almost never works in wrestling), and front to back you're left with an all time classic hour of pro wrestling.

PAS: This is a style preference thing the ROH v. CZW match is an slickly produced studio album, and the NWA Anarchy match is more of a gritty live recording. I am a guy who will always prefer the rougher version, so I am sticking with the champ.

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IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches, #7: Jimmy Jacobs v. BJ Whitmer No Rope Barbed Wire 4/12/08

Jimmy Jacobs v. BJ Whitmer No Rope Barbed Wire 4/12/08

ER: Well, this was a total geek show. A long geek show. Too long. Not very enjoyable. I love a stiff brawl. Love a wild fight. Love some blood in a wild fight. But 33 minutes of guys cutting each other in different ways is just too damn much. This felt like something that hurt and maimed the two guys in the ring far more than it entertained anybody watching. It was filled with those kinds of spots that don't look very good, but you know had to take a couple months off their respective lives. Jacobs/Whitmer had some of my favorite brawls of 2007. Jacobs was one of my absolute favorite guys around that time. And here there are sparks of good, but it just goes so damn long. Compare to the insanely violent Necro/Klein match that goes about 7 minutes and is just the craziest violent spectacle possible. Here we get 33 minutes of geek show spot set up with some okay payoffs. The thing is, when you go into a geek tent, the atrocities are all ready for you. You pass through, you get grossed out, you walk out the other side changed for the worse. Here you have to stand there silently while the geek spots are set up, and it's grosser and less fun. The opening moments are probably the best as they brawl to the floor, and Jacobs is a guy who is great at brawling around buildings, like a tinier, better Eddie Gilbert. Jimmy is chucking chairs and missing dropkicks and hitting elbow drops off chairs and the stage, screaming about his leg after nasty falls, and the whole time I'm loving it, but also knowing at some point we have to go back and roll around in barbed wire.

And once we do, things get way less fun. Getting cut in a bunch of tiny places hurts like hell, but doesn't always "show up". So you fly into wire and you get a bunch of tiny cuts that nobody can actually see, and they're killing you, but they don't read. It's like Jacobs recognizes the wire isn't reading and hits a gusher. Jacobs' blade jobs were the actual best in wrestling and he really starts bleeding some deep red blood, going nuts, wiping blood from his eyes, and it gets momentarily awesome. But once we get into BJ's endless spot set up my interest waned. You get wire cutters and cut some wire, you bring in tables, you kick out of some absurd stuff (a piledriver from the apron through a barbed wire table on the floor!?), both guys wear wire halos, the spikes come into play, BJ drives Jimmy through a table on a kamikaze mission after Jimmy traps him in a guillotine...but the move set up was just too much. This whole thing needed an unemotional editor. At one point a kid literally screams "Just quit, you emo!" and, I got where he was coming from. They put themselves through some ungodly punishment, and that takes a weird kind of human. But I've also seen several way better matches between these two where their bodies probably felt much better the next day. Even the "This is awesome" is the most bored, forced sounding "This is awesome" chant I've ever heard. I burst out laughing when I heard it. It sounded like a deadbeat dad was forcing his kids to chant it from the back seat as he drove to see his buddy at the model train store. "This is the only weekend I get to see you kids. We're gonna have FUN!!! Okay??"

PAS: I liked this a fair bit more then Eric. I agree that it went too long, especially for a show which already had gone 4 hours (those IWA shows could be Baatan Death Marches for the audience.)  Still I thought there was enough good stuff in this that it outweighed the bloat. My major problem with most IWA death matches is that they feel like exhibitions. Like a pair of good natured goofs doing especially nasty versions of frat hazing. This felt like a fight between two guys who hated each other, loved all of the out of the ring brawling, thought the guillotine counter into the barbed wire board was clever and really nasty as was the hockey fight with spikes. Could have used some trimming, but overall I thought this was a pretty good match, makes me want to rewatch their better ones against each other.

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HWA Heartland Cup Night 1 4/22/11

It’s an Indy tournament! Back in the early part of the century tournament wrestling was the primary form of anticipated Indy wrestling, the Super 8, TPI, Best of the Best were all calendar highlights. There was a certain style which was developed, ripened and rotted. This HWA tourney seems a bit conceptually passé, but I figured I would check in and see what Indy tourney wrestling looks like in 2011.

Rich Swann v. Jake Crist

Swann is a black highflyer who is part of the Gabe crew of black highflyers (ROH was all Puerto Rican highflyers, EVOLVE all black dudes, there feels like there is a Michael Eric Dyson essay in there somewhere,) Crist is one of the Irish Airborne who hung around ROH undercards a couple of years back, he has put on some weight and looks a lot more ground borne now. Good indy tourney opening round match, each guy got in some of his stuff, but not too much and the finish was clean without diminishing the loser. I enjoyed some of Swann’s shit talking and flips as taunts, he did a pretty cool headstand counter out of an Ace crusher which nicely skirted the line between cool and stupid and I dug his flash KO selling. Crist looked solid too, and his spinning superkick finisher is pretty boss looking. If the rest of the tourney is like this, it will go down nice and easy.

Chrisjen Hayme vs. Gerome Phillips

Gerome Phillips is a big black dude who looks exactly like Big Worm from Friday, he seems to be working a Big Worm gimmick too, lots of loud shit talking and ass kicking. Chrisjen is a guy I mainly know from laughing at the stupid spelling of his name when it shows up on match lists. Pretty close to a Phillips squash, and he is really fun kicking someone’s ass. Really nice clubbing forearms and a sick clothesline. Hayme was questionable on offense, but perfectly fine bumping and taking a stomping. Good stuff and it got me excited to see more Phillips.

Jesse Emerson v. Paul Birchill

Haven’t seen Birchill since he got endeavored and he definitely can’t afford the good Deca-Durbolin anymore. Emerson is a guy I remember from SAW, although he is the 17th most interesting guy in SAW. Some nice stuff, Burchill takes a big bump where he is on the apron, gets dropkicked on the knee and ends up hotshotting himself. Definitely something Finlay should steal. By then end both guys looked a little gassed. I didn’t hate this, but it was the least of the matches so far.

Ron Mathis vs. Necro Butcher

I am a sucker for a Necro Butcher formula match. He is a guy you can put in with any game guy willing to take a beating and it is going to be entertaining. I didn’t get much of a sense besides the fact he was game and willing but that was enough. This had the feel of some of the old IWA-MS Ian v. Simon Sezz or Dysfunction matches, where Necro just pummels this kid and Mathis looks good being willing to just hang and fire back. Necro just blasts him with chops and punches and by the end Mathis is bowed, bloodied and beaten.

Tim Donst vs. Jeremy Madrox

Madrox works a old timey 1890’s carnival boxer gimmick, with Hendricks Gin boxing stance and comedy mustache, Donst is one of the more tolerable Chikara students. Donst is a guy well versed in working around comedy guys, and this never delved into the overly cutesy realm which much Chikara lives in. I liked Donsts arm wringer reversals a bunch which felt more like a Bill Dundee comedy spot then a Chuck Taylor comedy spot. Madrox had great dedication to the gimmick although I couldn’t tell how good he was.

Dustin Rayz vs. Zack Sabre Jr

I haven’t been a fan of Sabre Jr. in the past, he felt to me like the Empire outpost for the Davey Richards school of indy wrestling. This was a much less irritating version of what he does, instead of finisher killing backyarder UWFI, he and Rayz worked 10 minutes or so of “watched a Saint tape” World of Sport. Post Taylor camp indy wrestling beat that style to death, but it has been long enough that I didn’t mind watching it again. I fear for later round Sabre, but this was fine.

Sami Callihan vs. Dave Crist

Much like Necro, Callihan also has a formula style which can be really entertaining with pretty much anyone willing to hang in and bang with him. The Crists have gotten more tattoos and are willing to hang in the pocket and throw blows. This came off a bit like Callihan working a lesser Callihan, still Pentagon v. Octagon is usually an entertaining match. Crist didn’t do anything particularly memorable, although everything landed with a thud, Callihan was bumping great, including taking an awesome flip bump on a otherwise mediocre leg lariat. Finish was great too, with Callihan catching a spin kick and locking on the stretch muffler. Fun stuff and another entry on Callihan’s resume.

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs

These guys had a one of the great feuds of the decade a couple of years ago, cool angles, classic matches. Whitmer at his worst is excretible, but his best matches are pretty damn good. This wasn’t at the level of their 2006 stuff, it was more a wrestling match then a brawl, and Jacobs was working heel which isn’t his best role in this matchup. Still I always like watching Jacobs, he had some great looking grounded punches and bumped really well, and they still have some charisma together. I also really dig Whitmers crazy choke finisher. Match ended with Phillips coming in to brawl with Whitmer and I could see myself digging that matchup.

Really well done Night 1. Nothing felt overkilly the matches were different enough, and everything except the main event was kept to around 10 minutes. Worth checking out, and I am excited to watch Night 2.

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The Quest for the Whitest Match in History: Day 4

BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Roderick Strong & Jack Evans
ROH - 5/7/2005
ROH Tag Team Titles Match

I don't know if there's anyone in recent memory who's done a better job of parlaying their whiteness into great wrestling than Jimmy Jacobs. This is a guy who first got noticed in IWA Mid-South doing a series of 80's nostalgia-based gimmicks, went to ROH, where he eventually became an emo/screamo dude, and now finds himself the leader of a stable of WTO protester types who spouts off half-baked, Chuck Pahalunik-inspired philosophy like Curtis Iaukea used to holler about bathing in the River Ganges while analyzing chicken bones. That's a trio of really white gimmicks, and he made all of them work really well. This is from the first of those gimmicks, wherein the big joke is that he's a tiny dude who thinks he's John Nord. He's one-half of the tag champs with Whitmer, who selected him as his partner to replace alleged kid-toucher Dan Maff, resulting in your classic zany mis-matched tag partners situation. This is their first defense, with the basic story being the newly formed team that may have fluked their way into becoming champs are taking on the more well-established duo of Strong & Evans, who are presented as being maybe the best team in the world at this point.

On the other side of the ring, we have another team of a charismatic little white guy and a vanilla bruiser. Jack Evans' over-enthusiastic, Jamie Kennedy-esque wiggerdom makes me think he could have gotten over huge as a heel in another promotion. Then it occurs to me that no one with a wigger gimmick has ever been successfully booked long term as a heel. They either get turned face by the fans like Evans or Too Cool, or their street thug-antics get played straight like PG-13 or Public Enemy. Public Enemy might as well have been my two lumpiest male relatives, they really wouldn't have been any less credible as hip street toughs. What does this say about wrestling fandom that you can't book a wigger as a long-term heel without playing it straight? I mean, aside from the obvious. Wonder how Jack Evans would have fared in the Urban Wrestling Alliance?

Match was really, really good. This is from Manhattan Mayhem, which was one of the better wrestling shows of the last decade. Awesome Samoa Joe/Jay Lethal Pure Title match, really good Aries/Shelley ROH Title match, crazy CM Punk/Jimmy Rave dog collar match, an elusive good Rocky Romero singles match as Black Tiger against Jamie Noble, and this, probably my favorite ROH Tag Team Titles match ever. I really liked the Jacobs/Whitmer team. They had a really good, classic tag team dynamic, where Jacobs could carry the body of the match with his selling, and BJ could come in, get the hot tag, stiff somes dudes, drop them on their heads, and not have to over-extend his fairly limited skill set. Also, the stoicism that just comes off as boring on his own becomes charming when presented as a contrast to the oddball antics of Jacobs. There was an odd couple charm there, and I was always a little disappointed that that never factored into their later break-up and feud, although I can understand why. Whitmer really lacks the dramatic chops to pull off unemotional guy remorseful that his once easy-going pal has lost his light-hearted nature, so what can you do. Anyway, they made for a really interesting team, and since then, I haven't really been grabbed in the same way by Aries & Strong or the Briscoes. Jacobs plays Ricky Morton and gets to eat all sorts of crazy double teams from the challengers, including the truly insane assisted moonsault double stomp onto Jacobs while he's draped on the ropes and Strong lifting Evans into a vertical suplex that he releases and becomes an Evans 450 splash. Evans takes too long jawing with the ref to hit a Doomsday something, and Jacobs is able to escape and tag out. BJ stiffs dudes and drops them on their heads, leading up to the combo powerbomb/Contra Code for the win. Good stuff.

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ROH Driven PPV review

Resilience v No Remorse Corps:

TKG: I dug this a bunch I'm always a fan of the spotfest as opener format. This was filled with guys who I actively don't like and for some reason they kept on matching up Romero and Cross which didn't help to hide either of their flaws. But the advantage of this type of quick multiperson spotfest was it got guys in and out quickly. Guys hit their spots and then get out of the way, guys who are tempted to work, everything is even, matches are forced to work man down and sell for the two on ones,etc. Davey Richards was perfectly fine in this and both Delirious and Erick Stevens delivered. Roderick Strong who is normally the best guy on his team looked really really off for large chunks of this. But even with the an off Strong and the pairing of Romero/Cross this was a format that meant none of that really hurt the match. Post match-Austin Aries does some babyface mic work and they need to get a real sound-man for these shows.

PAS: Yeah Strong looked actively terrible here, which is kind of weird. He blew a missed clothesline by actually clotheslining the guy, which is actually kind of unique. I liked this way more then I thought I would considering how much I dislike most of the guys in it. Stevens especially looked really good, in a type of match that isn't really his thing. I think they should have shaved off a minute or two at the end, as they had a two count or two too many.

Claudio Castagnoli v Matt Sydal

TKG: This had some spectacular spots, Castagnoli takes the Chris Hamerick/Fuerza bump, and Sydal eats a giant swing better than I've ever seen anyone eat a giant swing as his face goes through multiple guy trying to hold down his lunch on a roller coaster variations. But this was disappointing. Both guys are guys who can work multiple speeds. Guys who can move from fast to slow to concentrated fast to medium, etc. Both guys can do and sell for nice mat work, both guys know how to do and sell for good brawling strike sections. Both are guys who can work face and heel and here instead they worked just super match up and those are completely forgettable outside the spots. Part of the format of starting show with fast 6 man spotfest is that you slowly move away from that opening speed. Second match at same speed as first means they start to run together.

PAS: I had similar problems with this as Tom. This really could have used some face/heel structure, so it would be something besides just spot after spot. Still I guess for the post match angle to work, this needs to be worked as a scientific face v. face match. I would rather see Bret Hart as a face working Buzz Sawyer as a heel, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them exchanging gut wrench takedowns in their Georgia match. I guess intricate headscissors are the 2007 version of gut wrench takedowns.

TKG: Post match Larry Sweeney does mic work to sign Sydal up for a contract and I really liked the almost parallelism of Austin Aries signing contract to Ring of Honor-this place that values and respects the wrestlers and the fans, while heel Sydal signs contract with Sweeney who represents lack of respect and sportsmanship. Larry Sweeney has never facially looked or sounded as much like Christopher Love.

Naomichi Marifuji v BJ Whitmer-

TKG: Lenny Leonard tells me all about the backstory of Marifuji and how he has held every title in NOAH including the "prestigious" GHC belt and he tells me Whitmer's backstory and then he announces "this will be a very even matchup". Really? They are going to run an even match-up between the guy they are putting over as a GHC title holder and the guy who is working a PPV loosing streak leading to joining an Adam Pierce stable.??? I guess working 50/50 opposite former GHC title holder is better than last PPV where Whitmer took 60 against current ROH title holder. Still this was shitty and the half that Whitmer was in control for was ugly and the half where Whitmer was eating stuff wasn't a ton better. This was worked really even and started fine but quickly went to shit. They did lots of bad looking strike exchanges which only reminded me of how much the last match could have used some strike exchanges.

PAS: I didn't hate this as much as I hated either guys previous PPV match, but that is damning with pretty faint praise. Whitmer is a guy who is clearly someone who started tape trading about 1998, I bet I sold him a Schneider Comp at some point. He jumps between 1998 Big Japan bumps, and 1998 All Japan suplex exchanges. He doesn't do either particularly well, but his channeling of a 1998 Kobashi v. Akyama match is the shittier of the two. Marifuji was probably a ring boy at that point so he can run through a shitty approximation of one of those matches. Also Marifuhji has some goofy fucking offense, less like he is channelling Misawa and more like channeling Cheech and or Cloudy. There is a point where Whitmer crotches himself on the top rope, where he actually crotched himself before Marifuji made contact with the ropes. One of the problems with both PPV's so far has been that all the matches are too similar, they don't break up the high impact stuff with mat based matches or comedy matches. I guess your poorly executed Whitmer match is in the spot on the card where Colt Cabana v. Kikutaro used to go.

Pelle Primau v. Brent Albright

PAS: I like the idea of introducing someone new by having them brutal squash a jobber, it is basically how they introduced Steen and Generico on the last PPV, and it works well here too. Albright is a shitty guy to showcase, as he looks like Joey Fatone with an HGH belly, but this is a fine way to showcase him.

TKG: Yeah this was fine. Primau eats stuff well and Albright hit his stuff well. They should have worked the Whitmer v Morishima match more like this. This was also helped by just being the only uneven match on the show thus far and just being paced differently from everything else on the show.

Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico

PAS: I liked this better then the Briscoes match on the last PPV, as Kevin Steen is really good at working heel, and you do want to see him get his pasty face kicked in. The match meandered a bit in the beginning, as Generico worked face in peril, which he isn't very good at, and he wasn't a face. Still when they got kicking with their Briscoes finish it was something to see. Jay's Cactus clothesline was awesome, and the beel into the chairs was a great street fight execution of a signature spot. Jay should really stop using the press slam DVD as a set up move, but I liked this a bunch and it makes me want to see all of their garbage match rematches.

TKG: Yeah this was the best thing on the show thus far. It had the face/heel dynamic that was missing from the last PPV tag match. Had less Marc insanity though. Being paced like everything else made it not stand out as much as it should have but it was fun crazy tag with nice hateful crowd brawling. Generico as faceish member of his tag team working heel in peril didn't work to well for me either but Generico looked pretty great in everything else he did. It really feels like he needs to go the Jimmy Jacobs route and move on in terms of gimmick. This type of match can feel like it has excessive near falls or goes, this didn't. Outside of the press slam DVD for two that set up the finisher, this really felt like it ended right where it should end.

TKG: I liked both the backstage Sweeney and Adam Pearce promos, both a lot better than their promos from last PPV.

PAS: Adam Pearce's Kevin Sullivan stuff doesn't work with his black button up shirt and blue jeans. He needs a robe or something. It doesn't work with a guy dressed like a middle manager at a sports bar.

Takeshi Morishima v. Jimmy Rave

PAS: I don't like the Morishima 3 minute squash, where opponent still gets all of his signature offense in, match formula at all. Still Rave takes crazy bumps on the clothesline and backdrop so this was better then the Whitmer match. Still it is a dumb formula.

TKG: It should also be said that Rave's spear and other offense looks alot nastier than Whitmer's offense. Bad formula, but like the Albright squash, this still felt different enough to other matches that it was satisfying.

Bryan Danielson v. Nigel McGuiness

PAS: Man alive, this is how you end a PPV. These guys have a real formula worked out with each other, and it is really great to see how they adjust that formula in their different matches. I loved all of the opening matwork, all of the stuff with Nigel in the guard, and Danielson digging his knuckles into the temple was spectacular, I loved how they did the MMA spots, but made them pro-wrestlingy. I thought the selling in this match was actually pretty top shelf. Nigel often works restarts into his big matches, but here he kind of did mini-restarts throughout the match, toughing his way through moves he normally does easier. The fighting into the Tower of London was especially awesome. This match really felt like it was the stylistic offspring of all of those Regal v. Benoit matches, like this was the main event match those two never got to have with each other. Of course it is hard to watch both of these guys slam their heads into each other until they bleed without thinking about ghosts. Still great art is often tinged with tragedy, and this is the best piece of wrestling art this year.

TKG: Yeah this was pretty spectacular. And this is what you watch ROH for. So I complained earlier about everything on this PPV being worked at same pace. Instead of starting with a hot multiperson spotfest opener, slowing down to a technical match, then doing a brawl followed by a comedy match, followed by your big hard hitting main event...they instead ran with lots of even stuff, worked all at the same breakneck level and a couple squashes. And I could see there being a market of people who were upset that TNA didn't just build around the X-division but that market isn't me. This is what I want to see and I imagine that people who enjoy the other stuff on the show should enjoy this too. There were parts of the main which were really Regal v Benoitish and parts which were really about All Japan cumulative selling. For a match to determine who gets to challenge for the title it really was worked like a title match. The previous two Nigel v Danielson matches were worked essentially with Danielson as the man and Nigel as challenger to the man. Danielson had the title then. Here Danielson doesn't have the title and its not quite that you feel like he's the guy challenging, but the dynamic is completely changed. Here he isn't guy fighting to protect and hold onto his title, instead he is guy who has to take the title shot away from Nigel. The match moves really nicely from mat section to hard hitting section to throw section to dives into brawling section to your post-back dropped on guard rail back selling stretch to final strikes finish. The match never really feels broken up as you don't have a sense that you are in one section as it just it all flows from one to the other as both guys sell the cumulative punishment as they try to win. Great main event and it feels like this PPV top to bottom is probably a much better advertisement for ROH than the last one. I think even if your only exposure to Morishima was from these PPVs, you'd leave this one excited about Morishima v Danielson. So not only a good advertisement for their other product but also good advertisement for next PPV.

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Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY List

1. Nigel McGuinness v. Samoa Joe ROH 3/3
2. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
3. Nigel McGuinness v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 4/14
4. Chris Harris v. James Storm TNA 5/13
5. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/4
6. Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 2/16
7. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23
8. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/31
9. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
10. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
11. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
12. John Cena v. Great Khali 5/20
13. Finlay v. Undertaker 3/6 WWE
14. Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH 4/14
15. Colt Cabana v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 2/24
16. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
17. John Cena v. Shawn Michaels WWE 4/1
18. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
19. Matt Sydal v. The Man Gravity Forgo PAC ROH 3/4
20. Davey Richards/Roderick Strong v. Jack Evans/Delirious ROH 4/14
21. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Takuma Sano NOAH 4/28
22. Chris Benoit v. MVP 4/10
23. Nigel McGuiness v. Jimmy Rave ROH 3/4
24. Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13
25. Matt Hardy v. Ken Kennedy WWE 3/13


Previously on the list

Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16
BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
Samoa Joe v. Eddie Kingston FSM 3/17
Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio NOAH 4/1
Undertaker v. Batista WWE 4/1

4. Chris Harris v. James Storm TNA 5/13

I have been watching TNA off and on from the beginning of the promotion and for the most part it has been a steaming cauldron of liquid shit. AMW have been some of the only exceptions, they are a pair of guys who started in a Prentice fed so they had plenty of opportunities to wrestle Well Dunn and Wolfie D and learn how to work. They were really great as a babyface tag team, although they weren't as good in Orlando as they were in Nashville, I had mixed feelings going into this match. I had some confidence in both guys, but it is Russo TNA, plus tag team explodes matches usually are disappointing. I liked Gibson v. Morton okay, but I can't really think of any matches that were great. Here is the exception that proved the rule, as this was spectacular. Sometimes Texas Death matches can be hurt by having too many falls, but here every fall felt like it should end the match. Plus unlike a lot of current feud brawls, this really felt like a fight, this was the best I have ever seen Harris's punches look for example. The catapult into the bottom of the table was crazy and the pools of blood were sick. I also really loved the finish with both guys throwing bottle shots at the same time and Harris hitting first. The quicker and straighter shots will land first, and getting hit while you are throwing a punch is exactly how you get KO'ed, plus the bottle and all.

8. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/31

I was anticipating this match as much as any match I can remember, so I was bound to be a little disappointed. Jacobs was spectacular as usual, as he is really the only guy fucking with Cena for the first part of 2007. Much like the Cabana match this started out amazing, but seemed to fall a little flat. The Frye/Takayama spot with the spikes was one of my favorite spots in the history the promotion, just so awesome and violent. Jacobs creepy blood fetish stuff was super too, licking Whitmer's face, combing his hair with the barbed wire bat, stabbing himself with the spike, just gruesome. Plus those fucking tights with one crying eye and one bleeding eye were just off the chain, if it wouldn't effect my burial, I would get that as a tattoo. The senton from the top of the cage is a hell of a way to finish the feud and both guys looked completely destroyed. Still this match had some problems. Having Nick Diaz come from the back with weapons to slide into the cage was terrible. Both guys have seconds, they could certainly grab things from the bottom of the ring. You would think if Diaz was going to bring them anything it would be a one hitter so they wouldn't feel pain. This was also the first match of the series where Whitmer was all Whitmerish. He busted out his shitty suplex combinations, and there were parts of the match where it felt like they were doing a "hot indy wrestling 2.9 section," which is exactly the wrong thing for a match like this. Still in a year with a bunch of spectacular brawls this was right up there with them.

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Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY List

1. Nigel McGuinness v. Samoa Joe ROH 3/3
2. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
3. Nigel McGuinness v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 4/14
4. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/4
5. Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 2/16
6. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23
7. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
8. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
9. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
10. Finlay v. Undertaker 3/6 WWE
11. Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH 4/14
12. Colt Cabana v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 2/24
13. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
14. John Cena v. Shawn Michaels WWE 4/1
15. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
16. Matt Sydal v. The Man Gravity Forgo PAC ROH 3/4
17. Davey Richards/Roderick Strong v. Jack Evans/Delirious ROH 4/14
18. Chris Benoit v. MVP 4/10
19. Nigel McGuiness v. Jimmy Rave ROH 3/4
20. Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13
21. Matt Hardy v. Ken Kennedy WWE 3/13
22. Samoa Joe v. Eddie Kingston FSM 3/17
23. Undertaker v. Batista WWE 4/1
24. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
25 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio NOAH 4/1


Previously on the list

Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16

4. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/4

The first third of the year was Jimmy Jacobs time. They had been building his feuds with Whitmer and Cabana for months, and he had been the best character in wrestling for most of 2006. Then they wrap it all up in the first part of 2007 and he gets to absolutely rule it in the ring. I haven't watched the cage match yet, but this was the best of the Jacobs brawls so far. This was a falls count anywhere match, and Jacobs gets thrown through everything in the arena. He goes through chairs, down the bar knocking over drinks, head over heels down stairs. He pretty much touches every part of the arena with his head. Jimmy also does a crazy looking plancha off the balcony. When they get into the ring, they have the great Shiek sections of ever Jacobs brawl, where he stabs Whitmer in the head, and then wipes his face in Whitmers blood, and lays underneath Whitmers bleeding head and yells "BLEED ON ME BJ". It feels less like a move to gross out the fans, then something a legit depressed cutter emo kid would do in a fight. Whitmer was along for the ride, but much like their January match did nothing to irritate me. I would love to see Jacobs in a feud with a top notch brawler like Necro or Homicide, but BJ at least didn't fuck it up. Your finish run was nasty enough to buy it ending the match, but not so nasty that it felt like a feud ender. Man I can't wait to watch that cage match.

15. Matt Sydal v. The Man Gravity Forgot PAC ROH 3/4

Matt Sydal maybe the best underdog babyface in wrestling, this match however he was playing arrogant heel champion, which I figure wouldn't work. Man was I wrong, as he was completely awesome. He took all of The Man Gravity Forgo PAC's rana's and headscissors great, caught all of his big dives well, and had a bunch of signature bumps which would work with anyone. I especially loved his attempted top rope rana, which he missed and crotched himself. For a guy who works so well from the bottom, he is also really great working from the top and controlling, you rarely see someone who can do both equally as good. I would love to see him take the Open The Brave Gate title around the horn and work as touring heel champ against other green local juniors. The Man Gravity Forgo PAC had some nice spots but you get the sense Sydal could have the same match with "The Ethereal" Sean Alty in North Carolina, Kid Mikaze in Boston, Ricochet in Chicago or Mistico in DF.

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Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY List

1. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
2. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
3. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
4. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
5. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
6. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
7. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
8. Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
9. Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16

2. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10

God bless the internet, because in previous years all of these spot show matches with old fat luchadores ruling it on the mat were lost forever. Now they are starting to seep out and end up on the computer where I can watch them. This isn't as great as last years "let's show these punks how lucha libre is supposed to be" match (Villanos/Negro Navarro v. Heavy Metal/Dos Caras Jr./Solar) but was still pretty brilliant. The match starts out matching Solar and Navarro, and we know what those two bring to the table, suprisingly their first caida matwork is out shined by Black Terry and Mano Negra ruling it.

I knew all of the other guys could still go, but I had no idea Mano Negra still could work at this level, he had this awesome poofy hair that made him look like the corporate villain in an 80's sex comedy ("This is the only mountain that will let us snowboard, and they want to shut it down), and he and Terry do some awesome leverage standing stuff, and some great matwork counters. The second caidia mixes up the pairings and again both matchups are great. Black Terry is amazing, he is 54 years old, but in great shape and moves and bumps like he is 30 years younger. I think you could throw a mask on him and stick him Guerreros Del Inferno and people would think he was some hot shot young indy guy CMLL repackaged. The third fall, they match Navarro and Solar up again and they do a fast roll up section which was incredible, slick, quick and amazing. I also liked how they ran a draw finish with two double eliminations, rather then a time limit or a double DQ. At one point Coloso Colesetti on commentary yells out "They wanted the lucha, here is the lucha." Can't say it any better then that


7. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27

I think there is an argument to be made, that, for basically the same guy, current Jimmy Jacobs is better then Eddie Gilbert ever was. Tiny guy with great wrestling mind who was best in crazy brawls. The entire Jimmy loves Lacey angle was truly brilliant, I can't think of a better angle in the last ten years, and it was pretty much all Jacobs. This was part of that saga, as Jacobs tries to get revenge on Whitmer who he blames for disfiguring his love, turning him from Emo to Screamo. Even without the backstory this was a great brawl. Building from chairshots and spikings to insane spears into guardrails and Jacobs flying headfirst into chairs. Both guys spray blood out of their heads, and land wrong on their necks. Weirdest thing about the match is BJ Whitmer doesn't actually do anything that bothers me. Even the BJ Whitmer matches I have liked, there are moments where I go "Fuck this guy." Here he was completely inoffensive and bled and bumped enough not to drag down the Jacobs show. The ending was pretty ass, as that fake Benoit guy from Smackdown with a muscle queen back tattoo comes in and Exploders Whitmer through a table. I forgive it, because this wasn't the end of a feud so you need a reason for these two to keep killing each other, but it dropped the match below your other high end 2007 garbage.

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Phil's UPDATED 2006 MOTY LIST

PHIL SCHNEIDER'S ON-GOING TOP 20 of 2006

Here is the current list, reviews for the older matches are in previous DVDVR's

1. Chris Benoit v. Finlay WWE 5/21
2. Jun Akiyama vs Masao Inoue NOAH 4/23
3. Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton WWE 4/4
4. Chris Benoit v. Finlay WWE 5/3
5. Finlay v. Rey Mysterio WWE 3/20
6. Chris Benoit v. JBL WWE 4/11
7. Homicide v. Necro Butcher 5/13
8. Chris Benoit v. William Regal WWE 5/8
9. American Dragon Brian Danielson v. Samoa Joe ROH 8/6
10. Chris Hero/Necro Butcher/Super Dragon v. Samoa Joe/B.J. Whitmer/Adam Pearce ROH 4/22
11. La Mascara/El Hijo Del Santo v. Blue Panther/Tarzan Boy CMLL GDL 1/1
12. Rey Mysterio v. Mark Henry WWE 1/15
13. Damien Wayne v. Sean Denny NWA-VA 5/6
14. L.A. Park/Marco Corleone/Johnny Stamboli v. Dr. Wagner Jr./Dos Caras Jr./Lizmark Jr. CMLL 5/19
15. Yuki Ishikawa v. Hiroyuki Ito Big Mouth Loud 5/4
16. Low-Ki v. Necro Butcher IWA-MS 4/1
17. Rey Mysterio/Bobby Lashley/Chris Benoit v. JBL/Finlay/Randy Orton WWE 2/23
18. Samoa Joe v. Necro Butcher IWA-MS 1/12
19. Minoru Suzuki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara Big Mouth Loud 3/22
20. Juventud v. Kid Kash WWE 1/3


Previously on the list

- A.J. Styles v. Matt Sydal ROH 1/14
- Samoa Joe v. BJ Whitmer ROH 1/14
- Chris Benoit v. Randy Orton WWE 1/24
- Shadow WX/Mammoth Sasaki v. Abdullah Kobyashi/Daisuke Sekimoto BJW 1/27/06
- Finlay v. Chris Benoit WWE 1/30
- HHH v. Big Show WWE 2/13
--Finlay/JBL v. Lashley/Chris Benoit WWE 2/16
-KENTA/Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v.Kenta Kobashi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tamon Honda NOAH 2/17
- Undertaker v. Kurt Angle WWE 2/19
-KUDO & MIKAMI v. Yoshiaki Yago & MIYAWAKI Chikara 2/24
- Milano Collection AT/Skyde v. Claudio Castagnoli/ Chris Hero Chikara 2/26
-Finlay v. Bobby Lashley WWE 5/8


1. Chris Benoit v. Finlay WWE 5/21
This list looks like it is going to end up the top 20 Finlay matches of 2006. 20+ minutes on PPV between Benoit and Finlay and of course it was amazing. I loved the early build of this match, their Smackdown match had a lot of matwork at the start, but this was built more like a Memphis main event. They start with a really tight collar and elbow, which they roll to the outside while holding on to, then they face off and talk trash, with Benoit grabbing a super quick double leg and an amazing fight for a sharpshooter. Sharpshooter is a protected move in the context of the WWE, but I have never seen it sold like death like it was here. Finlay was struggling like his life depended on it. Then they go back to their feet and Finlay does a really great fake of a thumb to the eye. If the match ended with the ref DQing Benoit for poking Finlay in the eye, it would have probably been 17 or 18 on my list, instead they go another 20 minutes.

There were so many little pieces of Finlay greatness in this match, Finlay grabbing his own ankle to block the sharpshooter, shooting the half by the ropes, the constant shots to the back of the head, the hammer lock Dragon sleeper, eating the German suplex on the floor. This may be the first Chris Benoit match I can remember where he was clearly the second best guy in the match. Benoit ruled here, but this was Finlay's show, 49 years old and the best wrestler in the world. Who would have thought it.

2. Jun Akiyama v. Masao Inoue NOAH 4/23
My favorite thing about NOAH isn't really your big matches between big stars, it is when they elevate random undercard guys into a big run or two. They do a great job of making the crowd believe and even guys who have underperformed for years really step it up. Ogawa's GHC title run, Kikuchi battling the New Japan Juniors, Tamon Honda challenging for the GHC title and winning the tag belts, IZU battling for respect. Masao Inoue's big run is one of the strangest and probably the coolest, I think he had long been considered one of the worst big league wrestlers in Japan. In the last year or so, he has found a way to harness that shittiness into a formula that delivers great matches. The Dark Agents tag title challenge was one of my favorite matches of 2005, and his GHC title challenge is one of my favorite matches of 2006.

Inoue is perfect as the lovable heel loser getting his improbable big match. It starts with Inoue (who has visable indentations from his reading glasses) jumping Akiyama at the bell and hitting a big suplex and a roll up. Akiyama is established as a guy who can get upset quickly and the crowd buys the near fall. Akiyama locks on the choke, and you also buy Inoue going down quickly. Inoue then spends the next couple of minutes with some awesome stalling, and then some really great eye rakes. When Akiyama responds to the eye rakes with rakes of his own, the crowd starts booing him unmercifully. Akiyama is great as a guy who can't deal with the crowd booing him. There is a point where he just decides "fuck it, you want to boo, boo this" and just murders Inoue, including a calf branding into the steel barricade. Inoue is working as a guy with a limited number of options, he can't go toe to toe with Akyama, and he can't out quick him, out wrestle him, or out power him. He needs to either catch Akyama in a mistake or outsmart him. The rolls ups, and the stalling fit into that, and he keeps getting near falls by tricking Akiyama into almost getting counted out. Near the end Akiyama is just killing Inoue, but Masao won't go down. It isn't no-selling because he is so tough, it is more like he knows this is his only shot and despite all of his flaws wants to die on his sword. Not a ton of cool moves or fancy sequences, but still one of the best matches of the year.

7. Homicide v. Necro Butcher 5/13
Alot of people still dog ROH as a promotion full of indy dream matches, but this was a match built around booking more then dream matchiness, and was pretty awesome. It starts with about eight minutes of Necro v. Joe which is always great. Joe gets jumped by Hero and Claudio and sent back, and Whitmer and Pearce come out and we have a two on three brawl for a bit. This was the weakest part of the match, but was still pretty fun. Pearce's piledriver on the floor was really nasty looking, and really should have taken out Claudio for longer. The heels take over leading to Homicide's music coming on to the crowd going nuts. The long term booking of this feud led perfectly to this point.

The Necro v. Homicide sections of this match were great, just craziness. The crowd char toss ended up being a really cool visual, and both guys took nutso bumps on the ring of chairs. My favorite thing about both wrestlers is the tightness of their brawling. Most of the shots from both guys land solid, yet it has the ragged feel of a real fight, when stuff misses, it misses in the way punches in a real fight would miss. I don't know if Necro would work as an every show guy, he would be kind of worthless in your throw away Chris Daniels 4-way dance, but it would be really stupid for ROH not to bring him back as a special attraction. He is one of the few guys you could bring in every couple of months, and stick right in the main event.

9. American Dragon Brian Danielson v. Samoa Joe ROH 8/6

You can't really go wrong with the two best wrestlers in your promotion wrestling in a main event for a title. I really enjoyed this match, I haven't seen a ton of 2006 ROH so this was my first chance to watch heel champion Brian Danielson, and he was a blast. The opening had Joe just dominating and Dragon kept bailing out to regroup. His regrouping stalls were really great, as he would do deep knee bends or slap himself in the face. He eventually takes over on Joe, by smacking his knee with a chair and working over that knee. This may have been the one part of the match that dragged a bit, you are going to have down spots in a 60 minute match, and I did enjoy Dragon's shit talking, him starting the "boring" chant was pretty inspired. Still it was obvious from the start time of the match, that it was going 60, and this part felt a little like a time killer.

Last 20 or so was pretty spectacular. Joe's tope was as good as I have ever seen it, it was almost Popetekisish like some one dropped a couch out of a four story walk up. Dragon's springboard into the crowd is the craziest highspot on a show with Jack Evans on it. The near fall section was great, I especially loved the head and arm amateur takeovers by Dragon into the cattle mutilation. Joe powering out of the Big Daddy elbows, into landing his KO knees was sweet as well. Final spot of match was great too, as Danielsons goes for a roll up off the ropes which Joe counters right before three right into the choke. Just great timing on the spot, and made the crowd go ballistic. This was probably the best 60 minute draw ROH has run, but I do think that these two have a better 25 minute match in them. Still it had three separate "This is Awesome" chants, so Meltzer really should drop the 5 on it.

10. Chris Hero/Necro Butcher/Super Dragon v. Samoa Joe/B.J. Whitmer/Adam Pearce ROH 4/22

This was the first match in the CZW v. ROH feud and was a totally fun all out brawl. Pearce and Whitmer are a pair of guys I don't really care for, but they both brought it pretty hard in this match. Pearce gets his head split open early and wrestles the match with a bloody vagina opened up on the side of his head, and Whitmer takes huge bumps including getting his head double stomped in a chair and getting Psycho Drivered off the apron to the floor. Super Dragon was fun in this too, although allot of the interactions with the fans I read about didn't make the DVD. If I got to see him monkeyflip a dipshit fan, or beel a bisexual, I imagine this match would have ended up higher on the list. The stars of this match were Chris Hero, Samoa Joe and Necro. Hero was such a great pussy heel in this, knowing exactly when to hit a cheap shot, run away or cockishly slap on a cravate. Necro was Necro, he took lunatic bumps, bled alot and threw really nice combos. Joe was a total maniac here, just killing everyone he gets his hands on. The Joe v. Necro showdowns were awesome, and I hope we get another real singles between the two at some point. My favorite spot of the whole match was when Necro sets up two chairs with the seats touching to suplex Joe through, Joe counters that, knocks Necro down, and switches the chairs so the backs are touching, before powerbombing Necro through the backs. Just the look on his face and the timing of the switch was awesome. I liked the Claudio turn, and the CZW boys really needed to go over initially.

14. L.A. Park/Marco Corleone/Johnny Stamboli v. Dr. Wagner Jr./Dos Caras Jr./Lizmark Jr. CMLL 5/19

Man alive is primed up L.A. Park just about the best thing you are ever going to see. This was an absolutely insane brawl with Parka flying across ring and just beating the holy shit out of Wagner for the first couple of falls. Really reckless stuff, Parka would just fly through the air and it really looked like he had no idea what he would do when he landed. He ties tape around his face and hands. One of the recent additions to Arena Mexico is Tony the caracturist, he draws little pictures of Mistico and Dr. Wagner, so Parka just beals Dr. Wagner Jr. right into Tony, grabs his easels and just smacks Wagner with it. After getting pounded for a two caidias , the technicos take over when Corleone hits his partners with a running dive from the ramp to the ring. Wagner comes back and just starts wailing away on Parka. Including ripping off his mask and apparently breaking his nose with a narsty enzigiri to the face. The third fall briefly turns into a match with Lizmark and Stamboli actually doing some nice exchanges, before going right back into Wagner and Parka killing each other. After this match both Parka and the two refs got suspended by the commission. There were parts of this that were really awkward looking, but it really just contributed to the insanity of the whole thing.

15. Yuki Ishikawa v. Hiroyuki Ito Big Mouth Loud 5/4

These are my two favorite wrestlers in Japan, working my favorite Japanese wrestling style. It probably should have ended up higher on this list. This was a lot of fun, but was really hurt by my expectations of it. Ito works a really agressive style, where he will either knock you out or make a mistake. Teddy Atlas would call him a TV friendly fighter. Ishikawa is the crafty veteran here who counters Ito's agression and tears him up on the mat. Some nasty shots by both guys, and some great tricky mat counters by Ishikawa. Ito gets two knockdowns and looks like he has the match won with a choke, but you don't want to take Ishikawa to the mat, as he outmaneuvers Ito and gets a sweet ankle lock out of knowhere. Great match, although I really think these two guys have a classic in them. This is a second match on a card, and the guys work it like a second match on the card. Ishikawa v. Otsuka from the first BML show was a semi-main event, Ito v. Tamura was the main event of the show it was on, and thus both matches should have been as good as they were. This wasn't set up to be that and it wasn't, although fans of both guys would still really dig this.

16. Low-Ki vs Necro Butcher-IWA-MS 4/1

I am loving all of these Necro indy dream matches. I usually hate dream match wrestling, but Necro is a guy who brings his own thing to every match he is in, in a way that you get to see a bunch of random guys work a Necro match, rather then just watching two athletes have a contest. Low-Ki is a guy who will beat the shit out of you, and Necro will take a huge beating so that is what we got to see. I was live for Ki knocking out Dan Maff, and some of the shots on Necro looked worse then what he hit Maff with. Necro was able to land some of his big shots too, and his punches looked totally awesome here. Still Necro really works better in 10-15 minute matches, and this lasted too long. Matches this brutal tend to get a little repetitive. If someone is taking a KO level beating 5 minutes in, and is taking a KO level beating 17 minutes in, it kind of makes the guy giving the beating look like shit. It was always my problem with the Momoe Nakanishi v. Kumiko Maeakawa matches, and this wasn't as egregious as that, it was still bad. Still this match had alot of goodness in it. The double stomp through the table was the spot of the year so far, and this had a ton of holy shit moments in it.

19. Minoru Suzuki vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara- Big Mouth Loud 3/22

These guys have a couple of matches on the upcoming 80's Other Japan set, this may have been as good of either of those, and Fujiwara is nearly 60. He also neither looks or wrestles particularly different then he did 17 years ago. Fujiwara is a guy who looked 57 when he was 27 and now still looks 57. He is some weird Dorian Grey thing, where he aged all he was going to age immediately and will stay that way forever. The matchh had some awesome mat counters, inlcuding the first move of the match which had Fujiwara counter a Suzuki shoot into a Fujiwara armbar. Fujiwara also had some sweet counters for Suzuki's sleeper suplex and piledriver.The speed that Fujiwara moves is shocking at his age, I mean he is as quick as tiny effeminate Ultimo students in their early twenties. Suzuki tones down his dickishness working his trainer, but still was enough of a cock for a Minoru Suzuki match.

Hidden Gems

One of the things I enjoyed about the early part of doing my 2006 MOTY blog was writing up some matches that might be under the radar. Now that I have watched more wrestling I have less room for those hidden gem type matches. So I am going to do an addendum for stuff that might fall under the radar of your average fan (i.e. no big show NOAH, WWE, TNA or ROH)

Katsushi Takemura vs Virus- AJPW 6/25

Virus is one of those hidden wrestling geniuses, guys like Yuki Ishikawa, Hiroyuki Ito, Preston Quinn, Negro Navarro and Solar, who are doing brilliant stuff below the radar of even obsessive wrestling nerds like us. So anytime any of those guys show up anywhere you could watch, you jump on it. Here Virus carries mediocre MUGAist Katsushi Takemura to probably the best match of his career. Virus is just ridiculously fast, and has some crazy offense, including some nutty hammerlock front facelock neckbreaker. Outside of one armdrag to the floor where he got caught on the guardrail (no guardrails in Mexico or Big Japan) he hit his stuff perfectly. He really made Takemura look great too, eating his tope nicely, and making Takemuras U.S. Indy offense look nasty. Takemura wins with a F5 which Virus eats better then a Hardy.

Pequeno Halloween/Pequeno Damien 666 vs Ultimo Dragoncito/Pequeno Olimpico- CMLL- 6/30
Really fun mini’s match from Guerreros Del Ring. Mini Mexicos Most Wanted are fucking insane. I mean they are out bumping actual Mexicos Most Wanted. They also have a ton of fun nasty double teams and take all of Pequeno Olimpicos fancy armdrags really well. Pequeno Olimpico needs to switch gimmicks, his fancy armdrag stuff would work fine as a Pequeno for 2002 Olimpico, but current Olimpico really needs an Shane Twin to work as his mini.

This was an especially impressive match because Ultimo Dragoncito keeps hurting himself, in the first fall alone he messes up his neck on a simple snap mare, and then after hitting a gorgeous Asai Moonsault cracks his face on a front row chair. The match builds real well with each fall ending on something crazy. For the third fall Pequeno Halloween takes a reverse suplex on the floor which is Necro Butcher crazy, and was probably the fourth insane bump he took in the match.

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