2020 Ongoing MOTY List: To Infinity and Beyond vs. Bear Country

19. To Infinity and Beyond vs. Bear Country ESW 2/22/20

PAS: TIAB is my favorite heel tag team in the world, and it was fun to watch them work babyface again. Most of this match was solid tag stuff, brawl on the outside, working over of Colin Delaney, fun hot tag to Cheech, but they really kicked into gear with the finish run. I am a bit jaded on near fall tag finishing runs, but this one really had some bangers. Bear Country is still a bit iffy on little things, but they know how to do impressive big moves. There is an awesome spot where one Bear Country guy backpacks the other, and do a double cannonball just smushing Cheech. TIAB are so good at stringing things together, and they really build to a hot finish. Bear County's finisher has Boulder put Bronson on his shoulders, and then throw him on a prone opponent; the first time they try it Cheech moves out of the way, the second time Delaney hits a doomsday device, with Bronson taking a nastier bump then the one that broke Henry Godwinn's neck. That pretty much put it over the edge to MOTY list level to me.

ER: Yeah To Infinity is probably my favorite regular tag team in the world (now that Jollyville have been on hiatus), and I agree that it's fun seeing them back working babyface (though I also would have liked to see the dynamic in reverse, because they would have been incredible sniveling heels against the 600+ pound Bear Country). Bear Country are a team that should eventually get good if they keep getting ring time, as they have a lot of cool ideas but aren't very good at doing things like subtly getting into position for offense. Luckily, To Infinity are really good at things like that. I liked Delaney eating a long beating from BC, really made me excited for their eventual comeback (Cheech finally just leaping onto Bronson with a choke turned into a triangle was a smart way to stop getting squished), and the comeback to the finish was when this really got good. We got a couple of big nearfalls, my favorite being this brutal piledriver/powerslam by Boulder than slammed Delaney while smashing Cheech between Delaney and Boulder, and I was pretty shocked when Cheech kicked out of that tandem cannonball (really something that looks that much like a human wrecking ball needs to be protected, couldn't believe they didn't have Delaney break up the pin instead of Cheech kicking out). We got a couple cool uses of dives, as Delaney does a wild plancha leaping up to the top rope to take out Bronson, and later Cheech flies through with a tope on Bronson to leave Delaney free for the pin. The finish run had one of those great stretches where Cheech and Delaney hit shot after shot, in a similar pattern as other matches, but always with a couple things turned and twisted around, with the best one here being a Cheech facewash to Bronson that ended in a dropkick through the ropes to Boulder. The Doomsday Device was one of the crazier and near fatal spots of the year, Bronson dropped STRAIGHT off Boulder's shoulders on to his head, and I can't believe they continued to go through with the finish. Still, pretty impressed how Infinity clearly went as easy as possible on him while making it look as good as possible.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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IWTV Worth Watching: IWTV All Stars vs. Team Beyond! Dickinson vs. Homicide!

Chris Dickinson vs. Homicide Squared Circle Project 9/21/19

ER: This got plenty of time but never really jumped up to that next gear. The parts I enjoyed the most were the opening minutes, where we got to see them trading holds, doing some grappling and doing some tiring submission work. That wasn't what I was expecting and I found myself pleasantly surprised. And so by the time they worked up to the brawling portions of the match I was less interested, and the brawling also felt sluggish in spots. All of the brawling felt very 70%, like they were going through the motions of a Homicide/Dickinson match, including throwing in stuff like a ringpost chop and multiple chairshots that felt half-done and immediately forgotten. There was some inspired stuff like Homicide tying up Dickinson in the ringside barrier tape, and these are two guys who can still throw some nice strikes. They had a couple punch exchanges that looked really good - including Homicide punching Dickinson right in the throat - or Homicide going back to the mat and Dickinson biting him in the head to get him to break a kneebar. There was also a bit of weirdness, like Homicide maybe sandbagging a powerbomb leading to Dickinson just kind of sitting back into a piledriver, or a stand and trade section towards the end where Homicide keeps doing weird stuff like rubbing his hands through Dickinson's chest hair, yanking chest hair out (which Dickinson does not react to), or rubbing Dickinson's bald head mockingly (which is a weird flex for a bald dude to pull on a bald dude). This just felt a bit too meandering without much payoff.

IWTV All Stars (Manders/Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku/Matthew Justice/Warhorse) vs. Team Beyond (Nick Gage/Kris Statlander/Thomas Santell/Bear Bronson/Bear Boulder) Beyond Wrestling 11/28/19

ER: I love team challenge matches, and this was even more on paper exciting to me because it's elimination. On paper this had the chance to capture the vibe of a good NOAH Captain's Fall match from the mid 2000s. It has a good collection of sizes and styles, and it wouldn't have shocked me if this wound up being something special. I do think it underdelivered, had a couple minor messy moments, but far more big spots and to it's credit, felt like a big main event. There was a wild dive sequence where Ku hit a fast tope while Warhorse hit a big tope con giro, Garrini hit a freaking Asai moonsault into everyone which just upped the energy level (is there anything Garrini won't try?), and then Matt Justice reminds everyone that he's Matt Justice and leaps off a 20+ foot ladder. Boulder is a huge guy and a nice presence to have in a match like this, especially when he's hitting double cannonballs and double powerslams like he's in an arcade beat 'em up. We get a lot of stiff strikes, Ku and a Bear really going at it, Statlander hits a totally nuts 450 splash while Ku and Garrini are stacked, and Manders kept showing why he's a cool guy to have on a show. Manders squaring off against Boulder was what I wanted, and we got a great taste. Those two slammed into each other as hard as I was hoping for, and Boulder leveled him with a lariat. This was a nicely assembled group of talent, and it kept a nice pace for the duration; a long match that stayed fresh is a solid rec.

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