2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Muertes v. Crane

11. Jeremiah Crane vs. Mil Muertes Lucha Underground 5/15 (Aired 8/9/17)

ER: YES! This was the match I was waiting for. After hearing all season from people who attended the tapings that "this season was the craziest yet" I have now spent 29 episodes being mostly disappointed. And it wasn't due to high expectations, the action just seems nowhere near as good as the first season. This match felt like the closest we've come to the best brawls of the series. I just love Mil in these crowd brawls. He's bigger than the guys we typically see moving through the crowds, so these shots from above feel more like helicopter shots of Godzilla wrecking everything in his path. The match starts at the top of the temple steps and there might not be anybody better than Crane at violently flying through rubble. He can bring violence, but he's best at inviting violence onto his own person. Muertes throws him through the bleachers, brutally through the chairs, in a fun moment he flapjacks Crane on the stairs' handrail and Crane slides all the way down to the floor bent at the waist. Muertes is a beast, and as he beat Crane with meaty fists I actually liked Stryker pointing out "this is why middleweights typically don't fight heavyweights". Crane goes for his bottom ropes tope and Muertes literally doesn't budge, Crane just bounces off of him. We get a bunch of chairs involved including hard shots to the side of the head and nasty spills into them. In an absolutely nuts spot Crane sets up a table on the floor and takes too long leering at Catrina, allowing Mil to come crashing to the floor with a spear. And the spear doesn't actually break the table! Crane goes flying and Muertes just bulls grossly into the table, later slamming Crane through the bent up table. Crane doesn't go down easy and I wouldn't expect him to and didn't want him to, and we get an appropriate amount of violence. This was everything I wanted out of it.

PAS: This was great stuff, Crane is so good at pushing pace, he is like Thomas Hearns, he absorbs punishment and keeps moving forward. I agree with Eric he is great at flying through stuff, just seems to have no regard for landing safely, and it looks awesome. Muertes is the best monster in wrestling, he knows how to lay in huge shots, menace just with movement and bump and sell just enough to seem like he might lose. That table spot was gross, what a loon Callihan is.


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Lucha Underground Season 3 Episode 20: All Night Long...Again

1. The Mack vs. Johnny Mundo

ER: This match was recorded on 4/24/16 and didn't air until over a year later on 5/31/17. It's a true crime that something this wonderful was sat on for over a year. How many bad episodes of Airwolf (though I do love Michael Coldsmith Briggs III) or repeat airings of The Class of 1999 II: The Substitute did they air while this match collected dust?? This is Johnny Mundo painting his masterpiece. This was him using all his physical attributes to do some crazy things, while tightening up his strikes (and not just tightening up, but laying in shots), landing his flying moves that he typically overshoots, and came up with an impressive structure to a damn long match. The interference came at perfect times, both men hit their comebacks at great times, and little things like expensive studio production only enhanced this whole thing (this may have been their best use of sound sweetening yet). It was all a tremendous spectacle, and I cannot remember a match where Mundo looked better. Fairly early you can see him actually landing on mounted punches, throwing hard kicks, and then he hits a sliding knee that looked fatal and, taunts Mack by latching onto the ringpost out of reach, and actually whips his whole body into his twisting press. He looked like he was trying to damage his opponent, not make the arc of his body look the prettiest. Mundo is going for cheap advantages like feet on the ropes, and the whole match felt like he kept falling near the ropes, either to grab them to escape pin, or use them to aid in his pins.  Mundo keeps taking little advantages and builds up a 2-0 lead, and Mack flips out and nails Mundo with a big dive.

From there we go into a pretty big moves sequence, which felt like it was certainly peaking things early, but I did not know about the eventual knee injury. Mack catches Mundo on a springboard and turns it into a big powerbomb. We get a nice fight up top and Mundo continues going cheap and eye rakes Mack. Mundo hits a huge crossbody and comes up limping. We go into a full match stop, trainers come out with a stretcher. Mundo fully milks it, and this may have actually been Striker's best moment as I thought he was really good putting over what terrible luck this is for Mack, how injuries are unpredictable and it was a shame it came down to this, but what can you do? Mack is pissed but still awesomely comes over to shake Mundo's hand, being an awesome sport all things considered. And beautifully, once Mack walks away Mundo does a kip up and kicks Mack right in the taint, then drops him with a savage DDT. Mack looked like he compressed all of the vertebrae on that one. Mundo proceeds to some glorious taunting, jumping jacks, high knees, running in place, really dancing all around the ring. With a sizable lead he opts to run, takes that stretcher with him...but Mack gets him, ties him to that stretcher and then in some inspired lunacy sends him sliding down the stairs, likely giving Mundo the worst ever wedgie upon reaching bottom. Then Mack picks up that stretcher and throws it up and over, face down, with Mundo only able to watch the ground approach his face, rapidly.

From here we get PJ Black appearing as a Mundo doppelganger, with both picking apart Mack and Mack leaning face first into kendo stick shots. Son of Havoc comes out to even the score but it's not enough, and before long Mundo is playing along with the band and mocking Mack. And then in maybe the best ever use of Sexy Star, she - disguised as a band member - literally drops onto Mundo from off the stage, and she and Havoc beat up PJ to leave things back at Mundo/Mack and a ridiculous piledriver off the apron through a table to even things at 3-3. The final minutes are crazy. A ladder gets involved, Mundo does a weird Jackie Chan moves into and around the ladder, eventually lays himself out by doing his twisting press and eating ladder, and then we get the EPIC journey to Mack frog splashing from off the VERY tall ladder. He is slowed, but he is focused, and with 20 seconds left he hits one of the more epic splashes in wrestling history. But it was too late, and the match ends on count 2 of a sure 3 count. Dario announces the match will continue next week...and for the first time in Lucha Underground history, I immediately start the next episode, eager to find out how this whole thing ends. But that's for another review...

I thought this whole show worked tremendously well, as a wrestling match and as an episode of television. I think all the interference played well and the match did a great job of integrating everybody involved with the story. They took their time to get the crowd into it, but the story they told had me hooked, and I loved being along for the ride.

PAS: Eric brought me out of LU retirement to watch this match, and despite my skepticism of an hour long Johnny Mundo match, this was really good stuff. Mundo was always a really good athlete with some interesting ideas on how to use that athleticism, but his basics never looked great, nice looking parkour style escape from a Royal Rumble, shitty looking kick to the stomach. Here he seemed to bring it all together. The really great bit of avoidance hanging on the ringpost, and a nasty forearm to the back, an insane sled ride bump down the stairs and great ground and pound right hands. I enjoyed Mack in this, he has a lot of charisma and some big moves, but this felt like Mundo as Flair, which is a shocking thing for me to say.

I liked the mishigas at the end of the match less the Eric did, individually the interference spots were clever, but one after another it felt a little ECW overbooked, as did all of the table spots. It reminded me of  the old Coco Chanel maxim about fashion "Before a lady leaves the house she should look in the mirror and take one accessory off", it felt like Chavo or whoever road agented this match should have looked in the mirror and taken one booking gimmick away.

Still no reason that a match this long, with these guys in should have been as good as it was, good stuff.

ER: I'm happy Phil took a shot on this one, and it's an easy land on our 2016 MOTY list. Even though the match technically finished on the next episode, it was taped on a different date so didn't feel right to include it.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Cuerno v. Muertes Death Match

King Cuerno v. Mil Muertes Lucha Underground 1/30 (Aired 7/13/16)

ER: Yeah this was awesome. As it started I actually thought it was going to be Mil just steamrolling Cuerno, and that would kind of make sense considering how Cuerno has been treated this season. He really hasn't been booked as a guy who should be able to hang with Muertes. All season he's been booked as the least important man in 6 man tags, and losing almost all of his singles matches. So when Muertes came out and just plowed through him the first few minutes I thought "yep this seems right" and figured I would just sit back and enjoy Cuerno getting knocked upside down by lariats and tossed through stacks of chairs. But then Cuerno hits his awesome tope and a big crossbody off the railing and suddenly Cuerno is punching Muertes in the face all the way up the Temple steps, and Muertes goes face first through a window. Cuerno tumbles all the way back down the Temple steps and man we've got a fight. I loved Cuerno shoving Catrina outs of the way, which sets off a wild mama bear instinct in Muertes, with him violently plastering Cuerno through all of the tables that had been set up earlier. Out of control brawls seem to be LU's specialty, and this was a good one.

PAS: I thought this was a step below the all time Muerte street fight classics, but was still good violent fun. Muertes dominates most of this with big shots, he has some of the better meaty punches in wrestling history, reminds me of peak Jim Duggan. I liked all of the big Cuerno spots, awesome tope and the wall walk DDT was fun too. The crowbar shots at the end of the match felt like watching a murder, and that martinete was crushing. I would have liked to see the smashes through the windows mean a little more, but I still enjoyed this a lot. Big match Muertes is one of the best guys in the world.


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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Janela v. Speedball v. 2 COLD!!

41. Joey Janela v. Speedball Mike Bailey v. 2 Cold Scorpio C4 5/27/16

PAS: Powerbomb.TV delivers with this barrel of fun 3 way dance. Janela gets a great heel reaction from me by turning a singles match into a 3-way, always my least favorite booking move, but bumps his way into my heart, with a missed top rope senton on the ring apron which looked chiropractic. The low celling was clearly fucking up his flying, but outside of that 2 Cold looked awesome, he is wrestling like an athletic Gypsy Joe at this point, as he mixes in shoot punches and chops with great looking flip kicks right into faces. I really enjoyed all of the karate sparring face offs with Bailey early, and Scorp isn't afraid to take a shooting star kneedrop right to his kidneys. This had some of the 3-way awkwardness, but man alive did I love watching it.

ER: What a ridiculous match, that I very much loved. Janela is an actual weirdo, and I like weirdos, and while I hate 3 ways, I like weirdos getting jammed into 3 ways. And 3 ways with 3 lunatics are probably the best kind of 3 ways. So we get three loons doing loony stuff and it's pretty wonderful. This is one of my absolute favorite Bailey performances, just goofy and nasty all at once, with moonsault kneedrops and dropkicks running from outside the building and on point spinkicks and kicks and kicks and kicks. Scorp had a minor flub that really didn't matter to the overall match quality, and was also wearing some absurdly aggressive dick pants. They may as well have had arrows on the front of them. He's in his 50s now and still really good, and gets tremendous power behind his chops and strikes. I loved all his kicks, his vaulting legdrop out of the corner, and his willingness to lean into both guys' attacks (jeez that shooting star kneedrop to his kidneys!!). Janela worked this smart in terms of the match structure, bringing big bumps and some nice saves instead of jamming himself into convoluted 3 way spots. That somersault senton off the top to the apron was just stupid times ten, and I loved seeing his arm get redder and redder as Bailey kept kicking it. This is a weird instance of the 3 way being possibly better than any combo of singles match between these guys. I'm sure all the possible singles matches would have been awesome, but I don't know if they would have upped the crazy to these levels. Hopefully they test this theory in 2017, because I'd still watch it.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Orihara Goes for GUTS

64. Masao Orihara v. Daisuke GUTS World 2/23/16

PAS: It feels like we need a deep dive into recent Orihara. Here he is going after the GUTS world title against genial Misawa cosplayer Daisuke and it is pretty boss. Orihara looks like he hasn't lost a step since his scumbag peak in the early 2000s. He still looks like a guy who runs one of those weird Tokyo bars where girls dressed like Teddy Bears jam their toes into businessmen's mouths, and he still has some super crisp and brutal offense, great looking punches, and elbows, awesome piledriver. Meanwhile Daisuke is pretty much all rolling elbows, but they look pretty good, and he has a great Sliding D. match was pretty great from jump street, and built to an exciting finish.  Orihara is a secret 2016 Puro superworker.

ER: It's weird that almost 30 years into his career, this is my favorite Orihara. It was fun seeing him die on bumps and crash and burn on missed flying moves, but now he's full on Yakuza button man Fit Finlay and it's the best. His style is relentless as he uses his whole body to constantly attack the mononymous Daisuke. Daisuke could never catch his breath as Orihara was always there with a punch, kick, elbow, boot toe, fat flipping senton, knee, or hip attack. He would start an attack standing, and keep attacking all the way down: punch Daisuke to his knees, knee him in the side of his head while he's on his knees, kick him in the head while he's on the mat. A wrinkle I loved about the match was Orihara being tempted to go back to his flyer roots, and that being the thing allowing Daisuke to make his way back. Orihara misses two big moonsaults at two different times of the match, and Daisuke is right there to hit his aforementioned Misawa elbows, and they were very nice elbows. At no point did Daisuke look on the level or Orihara, so I appreciated the ways they had Daisuke get back into things. But yeah, Orihara, man who has seen some shit I would not believe, has unexpectedly become one of my favorite workers in the world.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Attitude v. Lee

29. Brad Attitude v. Trevor Lee CWF-Mid Atlantic 12/30

PAS: This was the apex of a months long feud between the two that started with Attitude turning on Lee and braining him with a beer bottle, and then taunting him at shows that Lee wasn't booked at. Finally to get his hands on Attitude, Lee agreed to a match with a 30 minute time limit, where if he didn't beat Attitude he would lose the belt, also if he got DQed he would lose the belt, but Attitude could wrestle the match no DQ. It is a nifty piece of wrestling bullshit which feels like something The Bullet would have to do to get his hands on Jimmy Golden.

Attitude is awesome in the build up to this and in the match. He is working a failed prospect gimmick, a guy who had his shot at the big leagues (he was on a bunch of early EVOLVE shows and was a WWE developmental guy) but washed out and is now bitter. Now this kid he helped train is the new hot shit indy star working PWG and TNA and he can't take it, this was like if David Carr broke a beer bottle over Derek's head.

Early in the match Attitude dickishly taunts Lee, stalling and killing time, trying to get Lee intentionally DQ'ed, however by the end of the match, all of that is out of the window and he is clearly trying to prove he is better and pin the champ. You don't usually see that kind of character arc in a wrestling match. Lee is fine in this, although it really feels like Attitudes match, I did his firery die on the sword attitude, and he did a nice job of conveying his fury at Brad, but stopping short of losing his cool and his belt. He also took a nasty side of the head chair shot, which either busted him open legit or was a nice excuse for a blade job.

Finish is something I am a little torn on, during Attitude's rampage he had cut the ponytail of one of the refs. After a couple of other refs are laid out  that ref come out slow counts for Attitude and looks the other way as Lee smashes Brad in the head with the bottle. I get that it makes narrative sense, but it feels like a cop out, the better story was either the valiant babyface overcoming impossible odds and prevailing anyway, or the dastardly heel stacking the deck too high. Having Lee win by out cheating Attitude is kind of weak sauce.

ER: Tough match for me to review, as I thought the ending betrayed a lot of what Lee was fighting for all match, and doesn't really solve anything. A struggling marathon runner doesn't run 26 miles and then get a piggyback ride for the final 300 yards. This feud can still take some more turns, and in the moment Lee smashing a bottle over Attitude's head could have felt satisfying, so some of this may make a lot more sense in a couple months. But that's a tough way to look at something as it happens. "This could get better!" There was so damn much that this match did well, but I weirdly felt let down by Lee using the bottle. The tangled stip worked within the match, and the commentary crew did a great job of getting it over. Even when Lee kind of slipped up and used a kendo stick to choke Attitude, they did a great job of covering for everybody and explaining why the ref might not have gone for an immediate DQ. I liked both men in this, but this did feel like Attitude's stage. His stips, his stage, makes sense. Overall I thought things went too long, but there was a lot to like here. I thought the timing on the first ref bump was masterful, with the ref getting backed into the corner behind both men, Lee throwing a high kick and Brad ducking at the last minute. The beating Lee took was pretty wild, that chairshot on the apron with the side of the chair was sick. Announce crew did a great job of putting over how Attitude was going above and beyond to beat the champ, even pointing out after his moonsault into the crowd that he used to fly, but never did any longer after an ACL/MCL injury. Phil is right, Attitude's arc within one 30 minute match was impressive. That ending, though...even though while well executed, it just doesn't set right with me. This is a very polarizing match within my own brain.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Royal v. Everett

41. Arik Royal v. Andrew Everett CWF Mid-Atlantic 12/30

PAS: CWF-MA has been hyped a bunch by people I semi-trust, so I thought I would check this match out, and I am sold. First I have seen Arik Royal and he is pretty great, works really stiff, has cool power moves and is an awesome dickish shit talker. There is a point near the end of the match where he has Everett tied up in the ropes and he yells at Everett's niece in the audiance "Andrew isn't coming home tonight" before nuking him with a running uppercut. I have seen Everett work in super indies, but this was by far my favorite match of his, he comes into the match with an awesome blitz, flying recklessly into Royal, including hitting three crazy dives in a row, I really liked the story of coming out 100 miles an hour and trying to catch Royal off guard. He is also a really reckless in ring bumper, landing super fast and super awkward into the turnbuckles and ring ropes. Match might have gone a bit too long, but they did build to a pretty cracking finish. Consider me sold on CWF-MA!

ER: Just like Phil I've seen Everett a lot, on super indies and TNA, and he's been fine; but I've never enjoyed him more than I enjoyed him here. Starting the match with the dives was awesome, and those dives were loony as hell. The ringside chairs were close to the ring, the floor didn't look like there were mats, the chairs weren't folding chairs, just a crazy guy doing crazy moonsaults and flips dives, sending Royal and himself farther back into the rows of people. Everett also threw these really nice overhand punch/chops to Royal's neck, really liked the look of those. But all of his bumping is what made me swoon. Royal was tossing him into the turnbuckles and ropes, and he would fly into them upside down, sideways, crooked, any way that made it look like he wasn't controlling his landing. It was awesome. I had never seen Royal and he came off like a pre-goofy Big E, just as athletic but using his moveset differently. The springboard lariat was a killer, dug his low angle shoulderblocks to a seated or lying down opponent, and his power offense and bumping in general was really nice. I appreciated the way he took a rana onto the side of his head instead of voluntarily leaping up to take a flipping back bump. Finish is absolutely gonzo, with Everett doing a springboard and grabbing onto a I-beam, then immediately realizing he messed up. Royal snatches him out of the ceiling and just plants him, then hits one of his big shoulder tackles that turns Everett inside out. Yeah I think I'm gonna be watching some more CWF.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Hero v. Keith Lee

34. Chris Hero v. Keith Lee Beyond Wrestling 12/29

PAS: This was a more athletic version of those Takeshi v. Takeshi matches in early 2000s NOAH. Two big thick neck dudes pounding on each other with total disregard, but with some really nuttily athletic moves thrown in. Hero at one point counters a powerbomb with a snap hurricanrana, and Keith Lee missed a second rope moonsault, both spots were totally jaw dropping from guys this big. Keith Lee is still in the process of putting it together, but he is a crazy athlete, ex-college football player about 340, and has super explosive fast twitch muscle movement. I loved how both guys would get an advantage, get cocky, and get caught. Lots of shit talking being met with nasty right hands and big elbows. Lee was really great at selling headshots, all of that Football experience really allowed him to sell a concussion protocol. Hero was so great in this, he can put together great matches in so many different settings, and was willing to take a big beating to make Lee look great.

ER: Keith Lee is a beast. The way he moves is unreal. He looks like a poorly drawn Rob Leifeld superhero with an inhuman torso. He is 4x4, or Swoll, only with freaky athletic ability. Keith Lee: The Athletic No Limit Soldier wouldn't be a very relevant gimmick today, but man would he be my favorite WCW Saturday Night worker. And Hero is really great at crafting a match around any speed or size. Hero I think could craft a pretty neat match around 4x4, and that guy could barely move. So 4x4 who can do leapfrogs and a 2nd rope moonsault?? Yes please. We start with a bunch of great challenge spots, including Lee hitting Hero flush with a shoulderblock. Hero goes to do one of his own and instead lobs a no look jab at Lee's face...only to find his entire arm lost at sea because Lee saw it coming a mile away. Great spot...But not as great as Hero firing off an elbow only for Lee to catch it with his hand and flip Hero with a killer fireman's carry powerslam. Hero hits a brutal snap piledriver, Lee plants him with a huge powerbomb (earlier Hero had reversed a powerbomb with a slick big man rana), and while Lee has crazy size and impressive speed, Hero is crafty and picks some great spots to too his awesome kicks. I really loved the finishing run of elbows knocking Lee out standing. Phil is right that Lee really knows how to sell concussed, and Hero elbowing Lee in the brain stem to get him in position for the Gotch piledriver was a great finish.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki v. Galloway

47. Low-Ki v. Drew Galloway HOG 8/19

PAS: Ki debuted his 2016, world greatest Luchadore Sopressa gimmick here in House of Glory replacing Chris Dickinson (I liked Dickinson, but that is a huuuge upgrade) coming out in the Hitman suit and having a corker of a match with Galloway. Galloway is really great at using the ring and ringside and Ki takes some nasty bumps including getting flung ribs first into the ringpost. Match was fun with Ki sticking and moving and Galloway catching him with big throws. I especially liked Drew countering the Warriors Way by grabbing Ki by the suit lapels and overhead throwing him off the top. Loved the finish as Ki hogties Galloway with his tie and kicks him in the face and double stomps him in the small of the back. Really fun stiff battle, and I imagine how much fun it would have been to be in the crowd.

ER: Ki shows up so sparsely these days that it's always a treat when he does, and these two have styles that clash and mesh nicely. Galloway had probably the most notable match against Ki during the latter's Kaval run, and it's cool they keep matching up and adding twists to their stuff. Galloway thinks of some neat counters for Ki classics, and Ki flies around dangerously for some cool throws. Galloway works like a total monster here and Ki always lays out great on slams, especially loved the snap sit out powerbomb. The Warriors Way spot was especially cool, my favorite of the match, as Ki always makes sure to do little things so his opponent isn't just hanging out to dry like a nincompoop. The twist I like here is Ki is holding Drew down, and stomps right on his patella, but that causes Drew to lurch upwards in pain, and while up there he flings Ki ass over crown by the suit lapels. It was such a smart spot, and ended like someone getting their gi used against them in MMA. The hogtie spot also could have come across very cooperative, but Ki smartly grabs an arm in a sub while also burying a knee into Drew's back; any struggle from Galloway would have gotten his arm yanked more. The last bit of Galloway fighting with no hands was inspired, throwing headbutts but inevitably eating kicks to put him down for the most vicious double stomp.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Ishii v. Shibata

75. Tomohiro Ishii v. Katsuyori Shibata NJPW 2/11/16

ER: I don't typically go out for Ishii stuff, but this one kind of ended up entrancing me. It was this weirdly worked, cooperative match, professional match...but with both guys agreeing to do every "worked" move as hard as they possibly could. So the match started almost immediately with the two just standing in front of each other, taking turns elbowing each other. It's stupid at first, but then it keeps going, and it keeps going, and it seems stuck on an endless loop of shots that keep getting harder and more ill-intentioned. Ishii is taking shots to the throat, Shibata is taking shots in the neck and trap. The shots look crippling. And they keep happening. And the whole match is essentially move trading, and dick swinging...and it kind of takes you over. It's like Bad Lieutenant: Harvey Keitel's cop starts the movie at rock bottom. And new, rockier rock bottoms keep presenting themselves. This match starts with men hitting each other as hard as they can, and moves into clotheslining each other as hard as possible, kicking each other as hard as possible. The shots to the neck and throat keep happening, every Ishii clothesline looks like it should cave in Shibata's chest. Even the missed moves missed with meanness. A Shibata soccer kick, a low cutting Ishii lariat, these moves are dodged and ducked, but if they somehow weren't they would have been devastating. So the whole match has this vibe of one-upsmanship and "I'm tougher than you", except it's never unprofessional. It's an almost surreal vibe, and I dug it. Maybe the first "Ishii stiff fest" I've enjoyed.

PAS: I though the first part of this match was pretty terrible. Both guys hitting each other and making goofy faces, the worst of this kind of lame-o New Japan dick swinging. Lots of the shots weren't even that nasty, some of the shots to the throat were, but the elbows weren't that nasty, and the chops weren't Tenryu or Wahoo level or anything. The spot where each guy invites the other dude to suplex him was some dump ass Chikara shit, I almost excpected Ishii to hypnotize Shibabta or throw an invisible grenade. The second part of the match was an actually wrestling match with selling and transitions and everything and was pretty good. I liked Shibata going for the triangle choke and how he kept adjusting it, and the Ishii lariats were super nasty and were actually sold. I also loved the headbutts, it got a little Futenish near the end which I am into. I do think the PK is a weak finisher especially compared to some of the stuff which didn't finish the match from both guys. Liked the end enough to stick this on the bottom of the list, but it isn't going any higher.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Casas/Ultimo/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente

63. Negro Casas/Ultimo Guerrero/Euforia v. Atlantis/Mistico/Valiente CMLL 5/20

ER: Really fun Arena Mexico semi main, with Mistico getting to shine more than ever, Ultimo and Euforia putting on a catching clinic, and Casas showing off more of that criminally underseen matwork that we saw in the Hechicero match. I loved Casas and Atlantis rolling in the primera, with Negro showing off a couple variations on that neat pop up spin ankle pick that he used on Hechicero, here he keeps getting pushed off of Atlantis and every time Atlantis uses his legs to push him off Casas hangs on to an ankle. It's fun seeing a couple old dogs fighting and still coming up with new tricks. Segunda starts with some rudo bragging as they bend Valiente into a pyramid photo up, and as Euforia is standing on his back flexing Mistico springs in with a big rana. The rest of the match is a blur of wild Mistico spots with Ultimo and Euforia catching crazier spot after crazier spot: a springboard rana to the rampway, a HUGE leaping rana from the top to the floor (he really leapt crazy far too), a major flip dive that Euforia totally absorbed; none of them were easy catches and these two made them look flawless. Mistico doesn't get to have all the fun though as Valiente plasters Negro with a huge dive as well, and this was just a fun, consequences-free trios.

PAS: I enjoyed this as well. Nueva Mistico isn't a guy I have seen a ton of, and is clearly the least of his brothers, but I thought he was pretty great here, hitting nutty dive after nutty dive with some very impressive height on all of them. I especially loved his springboard rana counter to the pyramid spot, really flew out of nowhere to take Euforia down. Casas is really fun to watch even in small roles like this, he is amazing as both a star and a character actor, and this was the equivalent of Dennis Hopper coming in to True Romance for two scenes and stealing the movie.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park v. Rush in TJ

22. LA Park v. Rush Tijuana 6/3

PAS: Match was a little clipped up, but what we had was a bloody violent treat. LA Park hurls steel chairs recklessly, and Rush throws some nasty hands. Park was totally awesome in this, he would throw little heabutts and punches every time he goes for a cover, he also totally wipes out Rush with a killer fat dude tope. They also do some nasty spots with a huge plastic beer cooler, including a gross powerbomb right on the edge. Really wish I had this without clips and a better finish but this was boss.

ER: This was the first singles match between these two, all due to Cibernetico not showing up. Seriously, this would have been a three way with terrible ass Cibernetico. That's some extra item falling in the vending machine luck right there. And while this is clipped I'm still so happy that it exists this complete, and really we've seen enough of both men to know we probably didn't miss tons. We can fill in the blanks and don't need to see the walking and set up. What's nuts is just how much STUFF there is, even though the match is just 9 minutes of clips. These two do more "stuff" in this match than any of their others, really breaking out some big spots and bigger bumps. The crowd brawling is super stiff with Rush really kicking his ass, and with this kind of fancam-ish footage you can really see how hard his punches and kicks land. He rips at Park's mask, busts him open, smacks him into the post, great stuff. But once Park takes over it's just nuts. It blows my mind every time to see how much Park "gets up" for these matches, at his age and size. This wasn't a match that was gonna air in full on any TV, and he does more here than in any of his TV matches, which is just crazy.  You know 1998 Charles Barkley wasn't lighting it up in scrimmage games. But a headline gig is a headline gig, and Park shows up. All his stuff looks so good here, not just his spectacular stuff but his high kicks were all impressive. He splats Rush with a vicious powerbomb on the edge of the now famous beer cart, and then tops the bump by taking a wild backdrop into it. His dive was super fast and hit flush, and he also takes a crazy Cassandro bump around the ringpost. All his moves hit with purpose, and he keeps a super impressive pace throughout. Park even did a version of the slingblade that actually looked like it took Rush's head off. Park just made the slingblade look like an actual finisher! Ending is full of expected shenanigans. Ref Edgar "El Guero" takes a great chairshot, top rope elbow from Rush, and post match takes a great bump from the ring to the rampway off a dickhead Rush dropkick. Both men bash the other in the balls like we knew they would, and this match was just the best.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Reigns v. Styles I

6. Roman Reigns v. AJ Styles WWE Payback 5/1

Me, watching live on 5/1:

ER: Man AJ's haircut is bad. Bad length, bad style, it even has that annoying crimp at the end so you know he's been wearing it in a ponytail all day. Yuck. Roman is clearly working heel and I like it. I dig everything I've seen so far, like the Calf Crusher, Roman's big ass delayed sit out powerbomb, and then hot damn that flying forearm through the table was vicious. And hahahahaha we get a count out finish. Oh, but Shane McMahon is out because remember he's the guy who puts on a good show!! Not like all these dogshit terrible shows that have been put on by people with the goal of putting on dogshit terrible shows the last several years. Why didn't he come out and reverse the Montreal finish? Was he in the restroom when it happened? Or does his magic GM powers only exist for main events and men matches? But now there's a low blow that didn't look like a low blow so Steph can come out and flex HER GM POWERS. This is so fucking brainlessly terrible. Roman took that clothesline over the barricade like a man. Too bad about all the horseshit in this match because both guys have looked really good. So the stoppages completely cut the dick off this thing, and they were STILL able to craft an exciting match. They work Gallows/Anderson's interference nicely into the whole mess, craft a couple good nearfalls (the one where Reigns got his foot on the ropes legit made me think Styles was winning), cool moment with Reigns pushing Styles off the top into the throng of interferers, and yeah both guys worked a real nice match. Shame, then, that they were not the true stars of the match. So fucking sick of the hack McMahon children.

Me, watching the match far removed from live:

ER: This was really great, truly one of the best big fed main events of the modern era. At the time I was clearly way, WAY burned out on MacMahons as watching it again they literally took up just 2 minutes of a 24 minute match. At the time it annoyed the hell out of me, now I can just 30 second skip past all of it. I had already sat through the unbearable Wrestlemania show the month before which featured well over an hour of MacMahon spotlight hogging, and I was clearly feeling PTSD during this show. They made all of WM into their moment, and when they started coming out during this match it felt like the same desperate attention craving. I hated it, and hated how it was distracting me from a match that I was loving. But I'm over it, the match is great. Bell to bell this was total class, from AJ buckling Roman's knee with early kicks, to the devastating spear finish, and everything in between. The way the match progressed was masterful, both guys making the other's offense look super explosive. Styles was great outpacing Roman to start, and it made Roman finally connecting with a shoulderblock (sending AJ flying to the floor) that much more satisfying. There were also some twists on some old spots we've seen these guys work against others, my favorite being Styles going for a springboard forearm and Roman grabbing him off the ropes on his shoulders. I had seen the Styles spot many times where he gets forearmed off the apron mid-springboard, had never seen him physically grabbed by his opponent from there before. They really worked this match like it was going to be the match of their lives, missing bigger than normal, taking stuff more spectacularly. Watch Reigns getting clotheslined over the barricade and bouncing sickly off the announce table on his way over; watch Styles get punched out of the sky by the greatest Superman punch performed. Those kind of things made this leap out as special. The build was impeccable, allowing them to pace themselves without resorting to cheap kickouts. I actually really like the first match restart, especially how Styles handled the situation. Shane making the announcement still felt like a glory hog moment but Styles handled it like an ace. It's a fun situation to build a match to, the champion is zonked on the floor, Styles can't get him into the ring in time, so his choices are either double count out, or count out win. Frustrating situation and the restart was great. I loved him rolling Roman back in and going up top for the kill, and Roman wisely crawling farther away from Styles. Roman's body language during his crawl was perfect. The stretch was hot fire, the whole match was an expertly crafted main event. Excellent.

PAS: I didn't watch this live and on it's own I thought it was completely awesome. Loved the early part of this match with Styles peppering Reigns with shots and Reigns getting more and more frustrated. His shit talk after the big shoulder block was great, and I loved how he would blast Styles every time he took charge. That flying forearm through the table was one of the best individual  spots in WWE history, Styles had such insane height, the impact was crazy and the table collapsing was organic and not set up looking at all. I can't remember a table spot I liked more. Shane and Stephanie coming in was dumb, but pretty minor in the overall structure of the match. As much as I loved that table spot, post restart there were two spots which were almost as cool. Reigns superman punching Styles in midair was nutso, the timing was perfect and it really looked like he beheaded him. I also loved Reigns dive into the pile and how Styles followed that up by sneaking into the crowd and knocking him off. Loved all of the near falls here, as I totally bought into a couple of them, Reigns is great at knowing right when to kick out. Styles was awesome in this, but fuck Roman Reigns is great, he really felt like he let Styles wrestle his match.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Park v. Escorpion

40. LA Park v. Rey Escorpion Liga Elite 11/4

PAS: Really great LA Park style arena brawl with Escorpion predictably fitting in great. Both guys really pound the crap out of each other, chucking chairs and cases of beer at heads and faces. Escorpion has some of the best punches in the world and he really cracks PARK. I loved Rey battling over the snack tray with the vendor, total asshole heel move to steal a guys popcorn just to whack PARK. Also really liked both of PARK's fatboy dives, he is approaching early 90's Super Porky level and is totally smushing people when he lands. Finish was kind of dumb,  but perfectly within the kind of thing you get in your PARK brawls.

ER: These two are a pretty natural match, and even though Rey doesn't stiff Park quite as badly as we've seen him stiff others, this was still plenty fun. Park keeps getting bigger and bigger and I honestly have no clue how he keeps up this pace. He works a lot, and works hard, takes big spills on joints that have to be barking extra loud at this point. But he chose this style and damn if he doesn't excel at it. He and Rey brawl through the crowd to the shock of nobody, hitting each other with beer boxes, beer bottles, beer buckets, beer coolers and aisle end ashtrays. Park is great at finding loose garbage and equipment and incorporating it on the fly, and here he grabs a large plastic beverage tub and clonks Rey with it a bunch on the way back to the ring, and in a crazy spot that could have ended absolutely terribly for all, he powerbombs Rey onto this bin from the apron, and Rey just splats onto it and settles in. Park lobs off a tubby senton from the apron for good measure. Rey was more about facilitating Park in this one, but he was able to sneak back with cheapshots and violent mask rips, yanking Park's cool reptilian mask fully off at a couple points, and even Baby Richard Jr. gets into the fun with a big bump to the floor. Match peaks with Park just absolutely leveling Rey with a mammoth dive off the top to the floor, and you almost expect them to go crashing through the floor like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Ending is total silliness with low blows and ref bumps aplenty, but you don't really expect finishes in Park matches anymore. I've made the fat Elvis comparison with Park before, and it never stops being relevant (even though Park has shot past the king by a decade at this point): sometimes the wandering gets long, sometimes he introduces the band a third time to catch his breath, but he's a guy who is still captivating even during his performance lows. You can look past the occasional long or lazy move set up as his floor as a performer is just so much higher than most, and the peaks make it all worth it.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: New Day's Last Obstacle

31. Big E/Xavier Woods v. Seth Rollins/Roman Reigns v. Chris Jericho/Kevin Owens WWE Raw 12/12/16

ER: For the last several months Michael Cole has been ham fistedly yelling at me about just how close New Day were to making tag team history, always yelling out the exact length of their title run, and talking about Demolition's old record (for a team talked about on TV for months, it is ridiculous how they never showed one clip of Demolition, so people could glimpse the previous record holders). Cole tried so desperately to make it seem like this was IMPORTANT HISTORY that I turned long ago on their record chase. And then somehow all the annoying things about how they've pushed the chase, came together and made me really enjoy their final obstacle in setting the record. They won a match earlier in the night and Cole kept weirdly saying that "at midnight tonight" they'll set the record, which really made it obvious they would have to defend one. more. time. And suddenly I found myself unexpectedly excited by the chase. And then they went out and worked a sometimes surreal 2002 Divine Storm match, except with a bunch of guys who have been WWE World Champ.

The match had several sloppy moments and I thought the big tower of doom spot was embarrassing. But I loved everything after that spot. This was Rollins' best showing in who knows how long, and I really loved him bringing back the babyface triple dive spot, with him making saves and keeping guys at bay just by doing unexpected topes. Reigns and Big E always feel like a big deal when they lock up, and I loved how fluid him going for his apron spear lead to Reigns kneeing him right in the face to block it. E seemed like he was fully committed to that spear so the knee looked devastating. Once we go full on into WWEDG style I really started flipping for all the nearfalls. I thought Owens effectively used his Barry Darsow trash talking (extra important since it felt like Demolition Smash defending his record), loved the flipping legdrop and the big senton attempts. Jericho put in one of his better in ring efforts lately as well. He's a step slower but there were logic moments, like him just stopping Roman's spear by kicking him as he charged in. Felt like Little Mac timing the Bald Bull charge perfectly. All the nearfalls were legit, that big Reigns powerbomb, Woods almost tapping to the walls, the Rollins pedigree, all good. Then things really peaked with that wild JeriKO alley oop codebreaker. I thought that was it for sure, and then Rollins had a great logic moment while Owens tried to prevent him from breaking up the pin: knowing he couldn't break up the pin himself in time, he shoved KO backwards and into the pin. Awesome spot. Fans were really going nuts for the whole last 10 minutes, and I was right there with them.

PAS: For a match of guys I really don't care about I got pretty into this. Rollins as PWG Epic style main event worker is the pits, but as a guy in a tag match throwing topes out of nowhere he was pretty great, this kind of workrate match works ways better in a tag or three way tag because we don't have to see either a bunch of no-selling or a bunch of lying around, instead we just go on to the next guy. Really dug Xavier in this, you bought the record being a big deal, and he was great as the tough little guy surviving against all odds. Owens is also way better at these kind of matches too, he hits his big moves in weird places and is great at arriving at the last minute. Clearly the solution to lame WWE matches is turning it back into a trios territory.

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205 Live 12/6/16

1. Noam Dar vs. Cedric Alexander

ER: Killer little match and probably the best Dar performance we've seen on WWE TV. He was pretty vicious in this one and I'd much rather see this side of Dar than the goof from the CWC who couldn't keep his fingers out of his ears. Here he went after Cedric's arm and stuck to the gameplan, and it made for a pretty exciting 10 minutes. Cedric was real nice with the comebacks, and both guys laid into each other pretty hard with some nasty elbow strikes (although Cedric's booming back elbow wins ALL). We do get a little of sillypants Dar, like when he hid from a tope, but I like the big rolling bump he took on the resulting kick, so call it a draw. I liked the ways Dar would cut Cedric off, with the best being Cedric admiring a mule kick for a bit too long, leading Dar to kick the snot out of him mid handspring. Killer moment. The match had a nice pace and the fans were into it too, and I kept waiting for the eventual Cedric victory as Dar kept being a german shepherd (Scottish shepherd?), just not wanting to let go of that arm. The win was a fun surprise moment, although maybe it will lead to a nice subtly racist angle where Cedric is a black man just too distracted by the ladies to fully concentrate on wrestling. Yay?

PAS: Dar isn't great, but I enjoy him as the poor man's 205 Live version of Terry Rudge, I can imagine he will eventually have a nifty match with Gallagher's rich man's Johnny Saint. His arm work was fun stuff, loved the knuckles into the elbow joint and the hammerfists to set up the Fujiwara. Cedric has really explosive offense, and is at his best when he is put in a match with some structure like this, where he can mix in cool spots. Didn't love the finish, as the whole match was about the arm, and having Dar win with a not great looking jump kick was odd. Still this got me more excited about Dar, who is a guy coming into this match I was completely indifferent to.

2. Ariya Daivari vs. Jack Gallagher

ER: So uhhhh...there are other guys on the rosters...right? I've now seen this match up 3 times in 8 days, and they're just trading wins while only advancing a "Jack's knee is getting progressively more hurt" story. This was probably the most interesting of their three matches, with Daivari going after the knee and posting it, and ripping bandages off is always a good visual. A lot of the knee work was good, especially liked a running pump kick to the back of Jack's knee. Gallagher broke out some cool stuff like a mat escape where he just kept widening Daivari's stance until he could wriggle out. Gallagher has super snug roll ups, his knee selling is really good throughout, and when he hit the headbutt I thought it was over. The Gallagher headbutt should be a Fatality, a total KO no comeback move, so I was bummed to see it not end the match. But this was a nice showing for both guys. Still I think Gallagher should be treated like a brand superstar. Daivari looks a lot better than he's getting credit for though.

PAS: Two rematches from the first show is weird booking, they could have had this same story by just having Jack beat Daivari on RAW and then have Daivari go after the knee. I liked this though, Ariya is pretty basic, but his basic stuff looks good, and the viciousness added something to the usual Gallagher showcase. The natural feud is Daivari v. Mustapha Ali in a Suni v. Shia sectarian battle, maybe an Aleppo death match, but this is a good use of Daivari until they pull the trigger on that.

3. Brian Kendrick vs. Rich Swann

ER: Another day, another high end Kendrick performance. He owned this whole match bell to bell, and then continued owning after the bell. Swann is fine but Kendrick straight ran this game. He's really become a master of body movement and relating it to the match. It's practically become an event whenever he possums a stumble to lure someone into a face kicking, or when he first gets into danger and rolls into the floor and tosses his hair back annoyed. But the guys is just awesome. He always makes it look like he's actively looking for openings and any little advantage he can get. He makes offense look real good, even though Swann's kicks were a bit off, and he's always making new things look good. Every match there's something he does that I don't remember him doing before. Here I really dug his missed knee drop. I've not seen him do a knee drop before, but he committed on the miss and it makes sense in a kayfabe sense, and also just makes a match tighter when the missed shit looks like they were actually trying to connect. All the stuff around the captains hook looked great, Swann hits a cool flipping moonsault off the buckles, Kendrick came up with a quirky roll up to counter Swann's standing 450 (still don't understand why he needs to drag them to the corner to do the 450. It's a standing move, isn't the benefit that he can do it at any time!?), and Kendrick's simple stuff like elbows and straight kicks always look good. They found the best way to integrate TJP into the match, although a brief TJP distraction being the downfall of Kendrick doesn't make Swann look great. We all know this is Kendrick's belt and Swann is just keeping that shit warm anyway.

PAS: Swann had a nice dive in this match, and I enjoy his drool selling but man is Kendrick so clearly the class of this show. That whole Captains Hook section was awesome and it really should have finished the match. I love how Kendrick throws in a nifty use his environment spot in every match, here the chuck of Swann headfirst into the ring post holder looked great, as did his sliced bread off of the barrier. Swann really needs to hit that kick harder if he is going to use it as his finisher though.

ER: I thought Kendrick's performance in the main was so great, one of my favorites of the year. Because of that the match landed on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Styles vs. Ziggler

28. AJ Styles v. Dolph Ziggler WWE Smackdown 8/23

ER: Well I'm not sure what I expected, but I really wasn't expecting to like this. Ziggler was a guy I used to enjoy but I can't think of many people I've soured more on over the last two years. But I've really liked AJ's WWE run so thought I would check this out, and came away quite impressed. This was a sadistic Styles performance, and a match where Ziggler's bumps actually came off appropriate instead of just athletic. And while Styles was dishing out some nasty stuff, he was very giving in making some of Ziggler's less than nasty stuff appear nasty. But damn I love Styles the asskicker, and there was extra mustard on all his shots, all his front and back elbows, dropkicks, and most importantly the way he carried himself. Styles really acted like, and came off like, "The Man". Ziggler did his thing, took a crazy chest first bump into the buckles, picked some nice times to make comebacks, and this thing built into a satisfying The Man performance. I loved the surprise dropkick on Styles, loved him booting his way out of the first Clash attempt with his heel to Styles dome, loved the way both men actually made the Zig Zag look like a devastating move that could end a match, loved the way Styles whipped his head into the mat taking the famouser. But Styles as asskicker, it's really something I never thought I would see in WWE. I always thought he would just become Dolph Ziggler 2.0, but here he really looked the part of ace.

PAS: I also really dig Styles as a guy slowing down a match, rather then a guy speeding it up. Dolph has some nice amateur scrambling, and I loved him coming out and taking Styles down, and Styles responding by popping him in the mouth. Ziggler had some rough moments, his punch flurry looked pretty stinky, but mainly was fine, and I did love his Zig Zag and his athletic bumping. Styles has such good looking offense, he spends some time working an overhand wristlock and I thought "man what a nasty overhand wristlock, he should use that as a finisher." Styles as Johnny Valentine is way better then Styles working "this is awesome" matches with Cena.


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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Charlotte v. Sasha in a CELL

48. Charlotte v. Sasha Banks WWE Hell in a Cell 10/30

ER: Well hot damn I loved this. This felt epic, this had some gravitas. Charlotte jumping her before the bell was awesome, and both of them beat the hell out of each other around ringside. Sasha showed real fire when prepping the table, and you knew something bad was happening. But I somehow didn't guess powerbomb. Sasha got planted with that powerbomb, sprawled across the collapsing table fantastically. I loved the lonnnnnnng stretcher set up. It was taking forever, but I loved it. Every minute that went by made it look like Sasha had more and more of a chance to recover. That powerbomb was nasty but juuuuuust maybe...so when she gets off the stretcher and slaps the hell out of an EMT, I was way into it. And they had a real assbeating fight. Sasha flew into her with knees, Charlotte landed kicks, they laced right into each other. There was a certain sloppiness that actually added to the gritty fight feel, totally made the match. I had no idea who would win, no clue where it would go, was constantly waiting for a swerve of some kind. But the table coming in, Sasha getting tossed all over it, ragdolling into and off of it, felt like a really violent human breaking move. The whole match felt like a big deal (which is annoying to type after how much I know they're going to pat themselves on the back because HISTORY), and they shocked the hell out of me. I thought they would work stupid to justify their spot in the main event, but I thought they were smart in this - even with a couple crazy spots. Awesome match.

PAS: I didn't like this as much as Eric. I thought they were pretty ambitious which I appreciate, and I did like the violence, but it is pretty hard to work a 25 minute match that starts with a stretcher spot. I really liked everything leading up to the stretcher spot, the cheap shot, the brawling into the crowd, the powerbomb and the selling, but WWE match psychology demands a long near fall section and Sasha is throwing suplexes 15 minutes after having her spine destroyed. After the first five minutes, this was pretty much worked 50/50. But I did like the violence, and individually there were a lot of cool things. If this had an editor it could be a real classic match, unedited this match fell short of that level.


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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Killshot v. Matanza

44. Killshot v. Matanza Lucha Underground 3/26 (Aired 10/19)

ER: I think this has to be the best possible Killshot match we can hope for. He's stumbly and doesn't really get nuanced selling, but his comebacks were built nicely into the match, and Matanza crushed him when he needed to. Matanza started by just steamrolling him, as he should, and I loved Killshot escaping a possible suplex by grabbing onto Matanza's fingers and bending them back. That makes a helluva lot of sense. He gets too cute and tries headbutting the monster, and that awesomely leads to Cobb throwing his great thrust headbutt, and then his awesome deadlift ragdoll suplex. I wish Killshot didn't almost immediately come back after taking those two moves, but it least he came back by Matanza running headlong into Killshot's boots in the corner. It wasn't like Killshot just got up and went on offense. The top rope teases were all good, with Matanza catching him up top, and teasing a freaking tombstone off the middle rope, and I loved how Matanza got kicked into and trapped into the ropes, and that DDT he took was sick. The whole sequence looked really good. But Matanza is too much for Killshot, blasts him with an awesome running uppercut and splats him into the mat off his powerslam. Match went the perfect amount of time, and I really loved how it was structured.

PAS: Pretty surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did. This felt like the perfect amount of selling for Matanza to do, other points of his LU run he has either sold too little or too much, but this was the Goldilocks middle bear performance. I thought the squash parts of this match were pretty violent, and the nature of the match kept Killshot from doing too much dumb shit. His two moments of offense were pretty fun, loved the finger break counter of the suplex and the rope trap was a little convoluted, but ended great.  He got a moment or two, and then got smashed.


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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Matt Hardy v. EC3

44. Matt Hardy v. EC3 TNA Impact 7/13 (Aired 7/28/16)

ER: Several years ago Matt Hardy was king of the 8-12 minute TV match, able to craft little stories in a short amount of time. Things happened, life happened, and then for several years he wasn't. But for whatever reason he has been back and creatively rejuvenated, and finally got a chance to show he can still craft a great 10 minute match. They fit a lot into the time and really go go go. Story is tight with Matt unhinged and bite-y but still plenty crafty, and Carter fighting through a leg injury. They fought close almost the entire match, not quite phone booth style but both guys were on each other practically the whole time. All the strikes looked good, Matt still knows how to throw a great punch and really nice elbows, and I loved the various times he would stop a Carter strike with biting. Carter lands funny on a missile dropkick and Matt goes after the leg, and Carter is shockingly adept at selling that leg. His limping and buckling was top notch, and even after hitting a plancha (after an awesome Hardy bump to the floor after Carter kicks him off) he pushes up on the leg and I LOVED the way he stumbled back and lost his balance afterward. Reby Sky gets in the action too with interference, then takes a great bump to the floor (being sure to make it look like she smacks her head on the apron on the way down). This was the most I've ever liked Carter, his selling was the best, his corner lariats looked real good, chops and strikes real nice. A nice tight 8 minute TV match is one of my favorite kinds of match,  and Matt Hardy is basically the modern Bill Dundee when it comes to crafting them. TNA needs to be having him work these every week with every member of the roster.

PAS: I was pretty skeptical when Eric told me to watch this, but it was fun stuff. Hardy is really great at adding a couple of interesting notes to otherwise basic TV matches like this. I loved all of the targeting of the ankle, with Hardy ripping off the boot and biting his instep. I haven't seen much Carter and what I have seen I didn't care for. This however was a nifty performance from him, he has a very 2000s WCWSN offense, but he seemed like a perfectly fine Johnny the Bull here. I enjoyed his clotheslines, punches and did a nice job selling the bad ankle. When Matt Hardy is having wrestling matches rather then outsider cinema he is still pretty great.


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