2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Doom Patrol vs. Kingston/Homicide

95. Eddie Kingston/Homicide vs. Chris Dickinson/Jaka Beyond Wrestling 11/25 - GREAT

PAS: Really fun old school vs. new school NYC indie battle. I really liked the trash talking, with Dickinson calling Homicide grampa and daring Kingston to try his bullshit jujitsu. It felt a little good natured at first, but it started to get a little sharper, the way a pick up game can all of a sudden turn into a fist fight. This really did turn into that fist fight with Kingston tagging in and rag dolling Dickinson in a really disrespectful way. Those two especially brought it right to the edge in ways that I always love from both guys: a lot of chops to unsafe parts of the neck and sharp looking kicks. There is a great spot near the end of the match where Kingston is in the corner eating kicks, chops and punches from all angles by both guys while throwing his own shots back. It's one of the cooler strike exchanges I can remember seeing. We get a 2010s tag near fall run, which is what it is, but the big moves were appropriately big and it ended when it should. I am a big fan of all four of these guys and this really delivered. 

ER: I think we've had this sitting in drafts for over a couple years, waiting on me to force myself to watch some of my favorite guys. Obviously it's filled with things I love, and I knew that it would, but wrestling fans are weirdos and we can't always predict which direction our wrestling viewing hours will be spent. The match built well within the framework they established, veering into directions I didn't always like but always kept my interest. It starts with some cool dickhead kneebars from Dickinson with Homicide offering little defense, leading to Dickinson asking for Eddie Kingston's "fake jujitsu ass". Homicide having little ground answer for Dickinson and Dickinson being a loudmouth quickly leads to Homicide going after eyes and fighting the way we love to see Homicide fight. Dickinson and Jaka were great at getting Homicide away from Kingston and it felt like the whole match could have kept that formula, with Dickinson wrapping his arm around Homicide's neck from the apron while Jaka kicked and chopped away, and Eddie's insults grew less eloquent as his anger level rose. 

Jaka got a little too cute on an outside in suplex, choosing to do a ropes balance course with Homicide that is a bit too complicated, but it throws Homicide all the way across the ring, with Kingston tagging in as Homicide rolled to the floor. There was a little undercurrent of Kingston and Homicide disrespecting Jaka, and it was made a bit more obvious by Jaka looking a step behind skill-wise from the others. I was a big Jaka fan (weird to think he's only had like 10 matches since this one) and liked his commitment to using Islander strikes in Catch Point matches. Those strikes throw off the rhythm of this match a bit, with the best moments happening when King and Homicide throw bombs and chops. Jaka's strikes looked a little lighter, so when the OGs would hit him back it read as great old man disrespect. Homicide and Kingston even both SPIT at Jaka! Watching this three years later and that feels even more insulting, now that it's not just the biggest sign of disrespect but also potentially deadly. Kingston's flurries were the best, like dropping Dickinson with a mean Saito suplex and a stiff arm standing lariat. The ending got a bit bombastic and I think every single one of them got their own 1999 Kings Road fighting spirit moment. Pulling from 1999 All Japan is kind of like pulling live material from 1995 Grateful Dead shows, an era with less worthwhile stuff to steal from than the other 25+ years. Kingston takes one of the most scarily accurate backdrop drivers to that 1999 AJ style, and it's mostly glossed over to make way for both members of Doom Patrol to walk through backfists. It was a bit much, but it was in a match that also gave us Dickinson and Jaka teeing the absolute fuck off on Kingston in the corner while Kingston somehow screamed his way through it to chop them both in the neck, and it's the kind of high that many attempt but rarely make look this good. 

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Matches from Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory 35 10/28/21

Megasus Megan Bayne vs. Little Mean Kathleen 

ER: There is no other wrestler on the Indies who is as fully formed as Megan Bayne. She is the total package and feels like she could walk into AEW or WWE right now and immediately look like a bigger star than all but a few of the other women. It's honestly crazy she's not there right now. If I'm just now talking about her then that means companies who actually sell professional wrestling to the public should have been already aware of her, but if they're aware of her then why is she doing this act in brightly lit Vets Buildings instead of arenas? Even here she's just working a pre-show match, but is there a reason why she isn't being more prominently featured? Is it a thing where everyone knows she's going to be called up any week now so why bother putting her in main events? Whatever the reason, she clearly has it, and the act would play tomorrow on TV. Little Mean Kathleen is an undersized babyface who is good at playing that, good at getting steamrolled by the Megasus, and good at making the most of her brief time on top (I liked her running on Bayne's collarbones after Meg missed a corner charge). Megasus has strong offense, not just empty muscle. She has a great delayed vertical suplex, her powerslams land, her sideslam lands, and her timing is really good. AEW is filled with people with awful timing, she feels like someone who could actually anchor a messy AEW scramble. Megasus is as can't miss as anyone I've seen on the Indies since maybe Matt Riddle. Hopefully Bayne will be luckier than Riddle and can avoid becoming the worst character on wrestling TV, because right now that feels impossible. 

42. Matt Makowski vs. Ryan Galeone

PAS: Ryan Galeone is a total stud. He's 6'7, 260 lb, great at looking big and mean, and can pull off some breathtakingly agile stuff which actually looks violent. He does this really cool outside-in, inbetween the ropes dropkick and a crazy double jump flipping senton, but he also hits a nasty powerbomb and counters a Makowski armbar by just throwing Makowski across the ring. Makowski really gets into wrestling a big guy. He can hit hard and unloads some stiff kicks, elbows and slaps, and he really thudded an ax kick right into Galeone's shoulder blades, leaving a big bruise. Makowski comes off as always dangerous, able to grab an arm or leg at any minute, and he is able to survive Galeone by grabbing an armbar when Galeone stacks him up for a pin. Both of these guys seem like they are destined for bigger stages. AEW really doesn't have anyone like either of them and should grab and push both. 

ER: This is the kind of style clash I love to see Makowski involved in. Galeone is a real mountain, a huge guy with genuine power who lands with enough consistent thud that he overcomes some of his Dijak tendencies. Makowski is great at countering those tendencies, and his counters always play as a cool cheat code. We see that early when Galeone goes for a really high chokeslam and Makowski uses the upward chokeslam momentum to throw his legs up for a cross-armbreaker, which Galeone gets out of by swinging Makowski around and just letting him go. Later he sends Makowski sliding across the floor into the building wall with a super athletic slingshot dropkick through the ropes. Makowski had a ton of great stuff too, like his awesome top rope Falcon Arrow and his Best In Wrestling axe kick. Axe kicks don't always read even if they land, but Makowski's always looks like it's going to leave a bootprint. I liked Makowski's big run of picking apart the big man, with Galeone absorbing kicks and elbows and a punch to the base of the neck, and the momentum change was awesome when Galeone charged out of the corner with one of the greatest Big Man dropkicks of the year. Honestly, I would have loved if that dropkick was the finish. A lot of things here could have worked as the finish, and I bought that Makowski had some big stuff while Makowski still always had a way out. 

Joe Keys/Dante Caballero vs. Waves and Curls (Jaylen Brandyn/Traevon Jordan)

ER: This was my first look and Joe Keys and I really liked what I saw. He and Caballero are recent ROH Academy guys who worked elsewhere before ROH, and Keys really moves and works like a good version of 2005 BJ Whitmer. Keys has some explosive speed and thinks really quick on his feet, and has good impact on his offense. There's a great spot that could have immediately derailed this match fast, when Brandyn catches his feet on the middle rope and belly flops hard on the floor on a tope, and without missing a beat Keys just picks him up and rolls him back into the ring. He went through the ropes to the floor with a super fast Fuerza bump and that obviously makes him even cool. He takes a mean flapjack bump, hits a killer chop block, and I love this guy. Brandyn hits that tope in the penultimate moment of the match and knocks it out of the park, and I was impressed with him turning around and crushing it on a tope after diving into an empty pool just a couple minutes prior. 

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Matches from Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory 36 11/4/21

Masha Slamovich vs. Davienne

ER: This was a 6 minute pre-show showcase match, and it worked as advertised. I'm not sure I've ever watched a Masha Slamovich match before, and I'm sure that I've skipped past her matches on shows before. I assume I wrote her off due to her name sounding too Chikara Gimmick and never thought about it again. Now that I've seen her in a showcase match, I would like to seek out potential great matches, because I thought she came off great. This was 6 minutes, and this was a fairly breathless 6 minutes. Neither took a single breather and this was just wave after wave of some stiff shots and big kicks and a go go go pace. Davienne has nice selling, can get some nice force behind her clubbing shots, and went back to a flat boot yakuza kick that I liked. But Slamovich worked with a ton of intensity and really went for the kill on strikes. She had a solebutt that was like a young Naoki Sano, a couple of spinning heel kicks where she really used her heel as the blunt object and not just the side of her leg, and a lariat so much stronger than you'd expect from her frame. She packs a wallop and it made me want more Masha. Luckily she's wrestled practically as much as any human on the planet in 2021 so I have some options. 

37. Slade vs. Alec Price

PAS: Slade is pretty much a must watch wrestler for me at this point. I am not sure why he isn't booked in GCW or ICW-NHB as he is the most compelling guy to be doing that kind of new age ECW brawling. I hadn't heard of Price before, but thought he was great too. He has a real Harmony Korine vibe to him, a real scuzz who is great at making the crowd want to see him murdered. He takes a Wrestling Slade level beating, but actually is super vicious on offense too. Price gets mauled for a bit including getting lawn darted into the ringpost, but takes over by driving the top of a steel chair right into the top of Slade's kneecap and unleashes some sick looking leg work including one of the cooler dragon screws I have seen. The knee gives him an opening not to get steamrolled by Slade, and Price actually goes over by kneeing Slade hard in the balls and rolling him up in the ropes using the no DQ stip to steal one. Feels like a big rematch is coming, and Price is a new guy I am into.

ER: I agree, Slade is can't miss right now. He's the most NWA-Wildside vibe we've gotten out of a new wrestler in ages, a guy who feels more like a cult MMA star from UFC3 than a pro wrestler. It's testament to how good Alec Price was here that he managed to outshine Slade at times and come off credible against a guy I thought was going to tear him apart. Price looks like Jardi Frantz but wrestles more like Jimmy Jacobs or Brian Kendrick, which is a style I love. His pre-match mic work showed impressive timing and confidence, the kind of thing MJF wants to do every week but goes so long that it loses all momentum. Price made me a fan in just one minute, snatching the mic to say that this is his fed and he doesn't need to wrestle anyone in a No DQ match, delivering his demands with the right amount of venom and indignance. By the time Price clonked Slade with the mic I was sold, and when his strikes landed just as hard as Slade's I was through the roof. 

This looked like a bratty college Freshman somehow holding his own against a hardened convict and that's a vibe we don't get enough in wrestling. He stood up to a Slade beating and fought back by crossing Slade up, throwing hard stomach kicks and insanely taking a fight to a very dangerous man. His leg work was really vicious, dropping Slade patella first on a chair and throwing a Maeda-level dragon screw. The chose their chair spots really well, making them stand out as uniquely violent. Slade getting dropped on his knee looked even more painful than Price taking a disgusting snap suplex across two chairs on the floor, and that's because they went out of their way to make everything look vicious. Price pulling out the win felt like a huge shock, and he's so great at being able to fully piss off every person he wrestles. The Slade/Dickinson/Price 3 way feud could yield some memorable beatings, and this just made me want more.  

Matt Makowski vs. Tracy Williams

PAS: Williams had been in ROH for the last couple of years and off my radar, but it was good to see him back and working a very Catch Point style match against Makowski, who may be the best of that next generation of Catch Point inspired guys. Lots of very cool grappling, as you would expect. Williams put on an Octopus hold and when Makowski got the break he rolled it into a Fuller leglock. There was also some nice violent arm work from Makowski. Really appreciated how Williams would adjust his body in submission holds to lessen their effect, for example Makowski put on a cloverleaf and Williams rolled onto his side so he couldn't fully crank the back. Finish had a slap fight which I thought didn't look great, although I liked Makowski sneaking in a thumb to the eye to stun Williams enough for Makowski to sink in a sick looking choke and give him a nap. 

ER: I really like these two and like a lot of what they did to each other, but a lot of it felt a but more time-filling than match-building to me. There was some strong shootstyle wrestling, with some cool grappling fakeouts and mistimed striking, and all of it looked good but never felt like it built to what it could have. Still, there was a lot to like about this, because a lot of it was them doing their very cool thing. Makowski has some of the best strike exchanges in modern wrestling, sneaking in kicks in cool ways and excelling at catching strikes. Williams is able to work a strong mirror to Makowski's heavier onslaught, and I even thought the slap fight worked really well. I thought it looked like some of the better UWFI standing battles and not something that kept to a turn based system. This was two guys throwing open hands to face and body and I thought looked good, with the Makowski thumb a great climax to it. The submission work looked good, the striking looked good, it just felt less than the execution.  

Trish Adora vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: This is a pair of the DMV's finest fighting for Adora's Pan Afrikan World Diaspora Championship. This is my first time seeing Adora, but I have been a fan of Blade from her PPW UWFI rules stuff. I really liked how this started, with hard aggressive simple mat wrestling. Blade is a powerlifting champion and does a really great job at making her grappling feel weighty. Adora is able to whip down Blade's arm and then really goes to work on that, forcing Blade to do some throws with only one arm which was super impressive. Sadly I think they lost the thread a bit near the second half of the match. It got very Garganoish, lots of faces of despair on two counts and talking to hands, and the finish run was a lot of 2 count nearfall stuff. Adora has a signature "Lariat Tubman", and she did a short arm version of it for the win, and it didn't land the way I want a finishing lariat to land. Still there were lots of this match I liked and both wrestlers feel like they have a lot of promise. 

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Thanksgiving Slade!

Slade vs. Atticus Cogar Beyond Wrestling 7/21/21

PAS: So is Slade the new Necro? It is a slightly different vibe, but he has that wild brawling sense of real menace and willingness to take uncalled for bumps in weird ways. Atticus Cogar is pretty much a create a wrestler goth death match guy, but he is there willing to take a beating and do gross stuff. Slade throws some of his crowbar elbows, drives Cogar spine first into the legs of a chair and gets an air raid crash off of a stage through the bottom of a stood up metal garbage can, which was literally shocking. I liked how the Beyond announcers just stopped talking mid match because of what they were witnessing. I think Slade's best matches are still to come, but he is a really compelling guy to watch.

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Beyond Wrestling Greatest Rivals Round Robin Pt. 2

Matt Makowski vs. Tony Deppen 3/11/21

ER: I liked a lot of the submission grappling here, as Makowski is someone I'll happily watch work weird figure fours around any limb (or head), and he always surprises in ways he gets someone to the mat for one of those submissions. He's as likely to do a simple armbar takedown as he is to pop a beautiful high arc butterfly suplex. Deppen works some nice stuff too, and I really liked all the work he showed while getting Makowski into an abdominal stretch. You could see every step of him working to get Makowski into the hold, and that will always make a submission mean much more. He also hits this great sliding knee into the back of Makowski's headMakowski is such a beast, and easily my favorite part of the match was when he drags Deppen into this nasty, tangled trailer hitch deathlock that made somebody right next to the camera ask "What the hell is that??" Some things didn't quite work, and not long after Makowski's wicked deathlock variation, Deppen takes too long to set up an Indian deathlock pin that falls apart, then gets to his feet and follows it up with a slap that whiffs so high that the commentary has to immediately say that no part of the slap landed. They get things back on track, and we get another great Makowski finish as he throws Deppen into a kneebar with a crucifix bomb. Shoot that between my toes.

Chris Dickinson vs. Wheeler Yuta 3/18/21

ER: Yuta really feels like the odd man out in this series, and this was my least favorite match of the series so far. There's always a hesitation or a stumble with almost every piece of offense he tries, and I can never get any sense of who he actually is as a wrestler. He's one of those new breeds of pro wrestler who works every style, and works them below average. There's a reason why 4 pitch pitchers who can't locate any of them never land in the majors. Yuta is like an update on Rocky Romero's brand of never meeting a move he didn't like, except Romero's execution was better. I really don't buy him in this kind of stiff submission atmosphere, as all of his shots look lighter than Dickinson's but they worked the match as mostly equals. But Dickinson had a ton of stuff I loved, starting with an awesome Boston crab that he somehow rolled through while pulling guard. Yuta was probably most interesting working ground and pound and tying Dickinson's arm in the ropes, but I thought his stand-up was ugly and too planned. The finish was a real pair of exclamation points, with Dickinson sticking Yuta into the mat with a Death Valley driver, then trying to shorten his spine with a brainbuster. This did get me more excited to see Dickinson/Makowski, so in that, it did its job. 

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Matches from Beyond Wrestling Project Dolphin 6/3/21

Matt Makowski vs. Logan Easton LaRoux

PAS: LaRoux is a guy I saw live a couple of times in DC back in the day, and is really good at being hateable but is also a slick wrestler. He does the 2021 version of Mocking Karate by dickishly dropping into guard, only to have Makowski do a somersault into mount and reverse monkey flip him into an armbar. LaRoux was able to attack the knee with some low dropkicks and a knee bar, and the match became LaRoux attempting to tear the knee up before Makowski could catch him in a crazy submission. Great selling by Makowski and really nasty limb work by LaRoux, until Makowski catches him in a Razor's Edge throw into an armbar for a tap. Great little match, and Makowski keeps coming up with holy shit spots.

ER: This was a really cool style clash, with Makowski getting his knee worked over while still finding cool ways to roll LaRoux into submissions. The beginning action was a real trip, with Makowski hitting a standing moonsault into guard and then monkey flipping him straight into the air while catching an armbar on the way down. Makowski has really fast strikes, maybe the quickest and most impactful leg kicks in pro wrestling, and LaRoux had the exact right amount of leaning into some of the kicks and narrowly leaning out of a couple deadly high kicks. I liked his work on Makowski's knee (I think I'll always love anyone who does a single leg DDT) and Makowski had some really impressive selling. He was good at subtly paying service to the leg work, shaking out his leg and not putting weight on it during exchanges, realistic stuff that he kept up through the finish, wobbling out of the corner while carrying LaRoux in a Razor's Edge. There were several cool sequences (loved a Makowski O'Connor roll that LaRoux reversed by kicking out Makowski's knee) and the finishing leglock (thrown into it by the Razor's Edge) was disgusting. 

Slade vs. Max Caster

ER: Here's a really odd Submission Match that really caught my attention and mostly kept it. Slade is a very new guy who is already very over with the live crowd, and of course I was going to watch him because they are billing him as a Riker's Island convict who is not trained to wrestle. He looks like a cross between 70s Sid Haig and Paul Ellering and wrestles like a guy who is not very trained. And that stands out as pretty interesting right now. He doesn't seem to know how to bump but he has a crazy eyed charisma that obviously connects with people. Caster is an AEW TV regular who is basically Xavier (not early 2000s Xavier, but NEW Xavier when he worked much slower and didn't take crazy bumps), and he is tasked with working a submission match against a guy who is either not very trained or is very good at playing into the Not Trained part of his gimmick (I like it either way). It's a great premise, and their only misstep is that they insanely work a 15 minute match. SHANK isn't going out there working 15 minute matches man. You get an untrained convict from Riker's, who has an incredible farmer's tan and a good presence, you do NOT need to be the 2nd longest match on the show. 

This could have been great with 1/3 of the time cut, this could have been great with *2/3* of the time cut, but I'm still way down with Slade. He wrestles like early Taz, complete with walking around in between throws to effectively cover when he's not sure what move to do next. Slade has nasty body shots and made his worked strikes look really good. They brawl on the floor and Slade takes forever setting up a door spot but the payoff is great, with Slade getting shoved off by Caster's boy (who we could have done without the rest of the match but get a lot more interference) and taking a bump off the stage through a table like someone who has no idea how to bump through a table. He goes through knee, wrist, and shoulder first and it looked sick. That actually leads to the few submissions of the match as Caster goes after Slade's knee and Slade keeps fighting him off like a threatened cobra. Slade comes off like a real threat and I loved him fighting back. Still, inexplicable to go 15 minutes in this situation, and even with that padded time this was a cool match. 

PAS: I agree with this going a bit long and I don't think a submission match really works into Slade's strengths, but man he has some strengths. He has these incredibly sharp elbows that really look like he is taking someones head off, like I am not sure if that first back elbow was a work or he just loosened Caster's teeth for real, but my goodness. He hit a totally gross elbow to the back of the head as well.  Caster was OK, he did a nice job of looking terrified of Slade which is what you need in this match. Not a MOTY list match, but I have a new guy, and it is always fun to have a new guy.

Chris Dickinson vs. Brogan Finlay

PAS: Finlay is the 18 year old son of Fit Finlay and this was his 8th match. He was clearly still getting his sea legs, but had some nice moments. I especially liked him splaying Dickinson's fingers and jamming them into the top rope, and he also hit a nice Finlay roll. Dickinson is a guy who is great, but I don't really think he figured out this match. You really should work it like Tenryu, but he seemed to go back and forth between killing the kid and pulling his stuff. There was an especially long and bad New Japan elbow section which really took me out of it all. The finish seemed completely blown, with Dickinson hitting a Death Valley driver and the ref signaling that Finlay kicked out when he clearly didn't. Dickinson then DVD's the ref and counts his own pin on Finlay who is still lying there. I am not sure if he was supposed to kick out and got knocked silly or they ran an angle which didn't make sense, but it went over like a burp in a synagogue. If they ran this back in six months, with some more seasoning for Brogan, I imagine it will be good. 

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Beyond Wrestling Greatest Rivals Round Robin Pt. 1

4. Chris Dickinson vs. Tony Deppen 2/25/21

PAS: This is a new mini Greatest Rivals round robin tournament, which I imagine will place a bunch of matches on our MOTY list. Dickinson is really peaking over the last year, and I think he has an argument for top 10 in the world at this point. He is really great at making wresting look violent, the veins in his bald head pulsate really evocatively when he is put in holds and when he applies moves the muscles in his forearms really look like they are straining. Deppen is good as the faster leaner guy, pushing pace, being slick and trying to get the lactic acid chewing up Dickison's muscles. The early section of the match has both guys with some slick grappling, with Deppen able to take the advantage when he quickly scrambles out of an exchange and drops a knee hard on Chris's arm. We get some vicious Deppen arm work, headbutts to the bursa sac, uppercuts to the humerus, nasty stuff. Dickinson does a sick looking dragon screw and works a figure four before we get to our bomb throwing finish, which included a gross brainbuster. Very good hard hitting pro-wrestling and a great start to a mini tournament which is pretty exciting. 

ER: 15 minutes doesn't seem like a lot of time, but there are plenty of wrestling matches that don't need 15 minutes to be good. And a lot of wrestlers don't have 15 minutes of material to work with, but that's not a problem for Dickinson and Deppen. There aren't many indy workers left who I like more than Chris Dickinson. His brand of big match feels like it could eventually get as good as Eddie Kingston's big match. Dickinson and Kingston both have that quality where they are still themselves while working in any style match. Plus, he gives commentary guys good things to say about him, like how he's described as having "the best second wind in wrestling". That's the kind of way I like a wrestler to be hyped. Deppen is a guy  I like, who has a couple qualities I don't like. He wrestles a bit like if MJF was trained by Drew Gulak. He's got a lot going on with his face, probably a bit too much bared teeth, and some of his holds really have a "Dickinson needs to hold still for a bit" feel to them. But he also aims to kick a dent in Dickinson's arm, and that I love. All the kicks looked real hard, and he also stomps it, digs his knuckles into it, knee drops it, really uses and blunt part of his body on that arm. Dickinson is good at working through it. Dickinson comes back by catching Deppen in two whipcrack dragon screws, the kind of thing that would have shredded Deppen's ACL and MCL if they had miscommunicated. Dickinson's kicks are thrown to land, he gets to take some revenge on Deppen's knee as payback for the arm, and his brainbuster is the best. Good start to a promising tournament. 

Matt Makowski vs. Wheeler Yuta 3/4/21

PAS: Makowski is one of the most fun guys to watch in wrestling right now. You are almost guaranteed two or three completely new cool things a match, and his grappling fundamentals are really solid. Yuta seems like the odd man out in this series and he was a bit hit and miss here. He looked very good when they were on the mat, but he had some really puzzling decisions when it was time for offense. At one point he does this leap into weak looking ground and pound and then follows it up with a CM Punk level top rope elbow. I did really like him trying to put on a surfboard and grinding his foot into Makowski's head, little touches like that can really make a match that is mostly babyface versus babyface grappling. Makowski as expected did some bad ass stuff, including actually finding a new way to do Malenko vs. Guerrero rollups, and an awesome second rope straitjacket torture rack flipped into an armbar.  

ER: Makowski is a real compelling wrestler, easily one of my favorite new guys of the past few years. So far he's been worth watching in every match of his I've seen, a guy who brings a unique set of skills to make any opponent a little more interesting. Wheeler Yuta is a guy I don't really like, and here he's the guy in the tournament whose name stood out as not like the others. He wrestles like Humberto Carrillo, only without the timing or pretty execution. His armdrags are a touch slow, he always makes opponents wait on his dropkicks, his elbow drop looks like an 11 year old kid jumping into a pool. But he's a fun opponent for Makowski, who spins around Yuta's body and attacks limbs. Makowski can get into zones where it looks like stopping him is not possible, has some impressively quick ways to grab an arm or slip on a choke. He hits like hell, and my favorite part of the match may have been when he just unloaded with one big Cro Cop kick across Yuta's chest, which Yuta sells by quickly rolling through the floor and lying on the ground like someone who legitimately had the wind knocked out of him. Makowski of course breaks out some cool tricks, like slingshotting through the ropes into a rear naked choke, and finishing things by flinging Yuta out of a torture rack from the middle buckle directly into an armbar. Makowski's inclusion was the main thing that got me interested in this tournament, and he hasn't disappointed me yet. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from Beyond Wrestling 9/20/20

To Infinity and Beyond vs. Mike Verna/Rex Lawless

PAS: Verna and Lawless are two jacked up Jersey looking guys, with fun power offense. TIAB are one of the best tag teams in the world, although this was much more of a move, move, move match then the traditional tag structure they excel at. The moves were pretty fun, although not hit perfectly. Verna gets one guy in a powerslam position and the other in a powerbomb position and Lawless Hart Attacks the guy in the powerbomb position. TIAB also chain stuff together really well and make SAT double teams look plausible. There was some timing issues which kept this from a real high level, but Cheech and Delaney are always worth watching.

ER: To Infinity are my favorite tag team going, and I have a feeling this would have been a real mess without them in there. Lawless is like a green Brody King and Verna is a guy working a Brian Cage power gimmick while being roughly the same size as Chris Candido. Almost all of his power spots come off terribly, a power guy who relies on his opponent to make him look powerful. He did a slingshot suplex spot (and it's a spot he does regularly) where he walked Cheech around each side of the ring and bounced him off the top rope, only he was just walking Cheech close enough for Cheech to lower his own legs to touch the ropes. To do a slingshot suplex you have to be able to lower your opponent on your own power, and Verna's whole thing is basically making other guys provide the illusion of power. This doesn't really have the build or nuance of the best Infinity tags, had more the feeling of "guys doing things" which isn't what makes Infinity matches great. They're good at setting up timing spots, but the timing has to at least somewhat be there from the other team, and here it was not. 

9. Matt Makowski vs. Chris Dickinson

PAS: About the most fun I have had watching pandemic era wrestling. Feels very much in the spirit of the BattlArts and FUTEN I have been binging lately, clearly pro-wrestling with rope running and pinfalls, but shot through with shoot holds and stiff violence. Dickinson is such a horse, everything he does has a thud and an oomph to it, meanwhile Makowski matches him shot for shot and throws in some really inventive shoot innovations. They start out with some tough simple grappling, hard takedowns and escapes, mixed in with thudding kicks and elbows, moving into some big submission near falls, and really great moves. Makowski does a cutthroat torture rack spin into a cross armbreaker which is indescribably cool, and Dickinson counters into a deadlift spinning German from the ground which is Tamon Hondaish in its beauty and force, one of the niftiest two move exchanges I can remember seeing. I also loved the later battle out of the cross armbreaker, where Dickinson does one of the coolest Hughes lift counters I can remember. I want to see this run back again, and want to see both of these guys against nearly anyone.

ER: I've watched plenty of pandemic wrestling that I loved, but this stood out as unique among the stuff I loved. Makowski brings Z-1 shoot gaijin feel to these kinds of matches, and Dickinson is the kind of pro who is great enough at shoot elements that he can take a guy like that and do something special. Not everything hits clean, but this isn't the kind of match where clean matters as much. The grappling is strong and comes off like both men are fighting for dominant position at all times, focusing on the actual struggle rather than pulling off a cool reversal. But there are cool reversals! Once they start bringing hard kicks and elbows, I completely wasn't expecting Makowski to catch a Dickinson kick and spin counter to a Judas elbow, and I love how Makowski couldn't capitalize right away and throws his own kick, only for Dickinson to rearrange his patella placement with a dragon screw. Makowski was going after Dickinson's arm and Dickinson managed to tie up Makowski's way in cool ways, and both sent the other scrambling for the ropes in meaningful ways. It took a little effort to prep, but Makowski lifting Dickinson into a fireman's carry and violently unrolling him into an armbar is an incredibly cool move that somebody incredibly less cool will probably steal, but Dickinson had a bunch of less flashy but no less nasty tricks. I loved Dickinson locking in a trailer hitch and then roughly rolling Makowski over with it, and the fights out of barred legs were all nasty. Makowski hasn't been at this very long, but has a cool tool bag to pull from, and Dickinson is someone who will gamely hang in and throw leather with that kind of guy. It's no wonder this came off as awesome as it did. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Pandemic Era IWTV Cherry Picking

I have really been slacking on watching new wrestling since COVID, but there has been some cool looking matchups on IWTV so I figured I would cherry pick a couple

Matthew Justice/Manders/Mance Warner vs. Chris Dickinson/Nick Gage/Tony Deppen Beyond Wrestling 7/27/20

PAS: Really great looking on paper match, which got really derailed by Gage blowing out his knee or ankle. There were some fun Dickinson vs. Manders exchanges (I need to track down their singles match), but Gage gets hurt, and there is an awkward heat segment on him where he clearly can't stand. The finish run had a ton of steam taken out of it because of that. Bummer that it didn't live up to its potential, but perfectly understandable.

Violence is Forever (Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku) vs. Rip City Shooters (Joshua Bishop/Wes Barkley) BLP 8/24/20

PAS: These are a pair of teams I have a fair amount of time for, but this felt pretty minor. Weirdly they barely match up Bishop and Dom at all, which you would figure they would focus on. They had one of the greatest indy grudge matches of the decade a year ago, and their isn't any sense that they even know each other. When Piper and Valentine matched up at the Royal Rumble they tried to kill each other even though their feud was in a fed that the WWF didn't acknowledge. I did really like Bishop in this. He has some huge power moves, and has gotten really good at wrestling big. I especially loved him just chucking Ku into the air with a side suplex throw. Ku and Dom have some fun double teams that are always really violent looking, but the presentation of this show is really bad. The ring announcer is wearing basketball shorts, the woman doing commentary spends the entire match trying out her wacky podcast comedy, I mean...if you want me to think your show is important, treat it like it is important. Treat it like a joke, I am not going care.

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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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Matches from Beyond All Hands on Deck 9/22/19

KTB vs. Erick Stevens

ER: Real nice 7 minute sprint, both guys felt like they were really pushing pace. It's like when a starting pitcher throws one inning in the All Star game, and suddenly he's added 4 MPH to his fastball because he knows he's not going to be throwing 110 pitches. This was a great showing for KTB, with Stevens taking plenty of tough bumps of his own, but really shining a light on KTB. I didn't realize this would be worked so quickly, but they started fast with hard shoulderblocks and never really slowed down. KTB had a couple of big slams but also wound up in the sand, and Stevens took zero seconds of hesitation to nail him with a great bullet tope. I'm sure the guys and gals on this show will be finding sand in their gear for the next several gigs, but I bet doing a crazy tope is made that much easier knowing that sand is there to catch you if your opponent doesn't. We even get some sand thrown in the eyes, which feels like something Finlay would have done had he worked any of the early Bash at the Beach shows. And one of the commentators makes me laugh with an Actual Good "shades of", as he drops a "Shades of Paul Orndorff vs. The Renegade from Bash at the Beach '95. I was there, you were there," to which the other commentator replies, "...I wasn't there." Loved it. KTB hits a picture perfect Asai moonsault, Stevens hits a German when KTB goes up top for another (I like when guys establish offense early, leading to openings for their opponents later when they go back to the well), and I kept digging all of KTB's running attacks. It felt like he would run into the ropes and feel like he wouldn't necessarily know what he was going to do when he hit Stevens, but in a good way. I loved the way he caught Stevens on the top rope, hit a running elbow into him, and then just shrugged him over his shoulders. Stevens' comeback was fiery, really I dug all of this.

Team Tremendous (Dan Barry/Bill Carr) vs. Bear Country (Bear Bronson/Bear Beefcake)

ER: This show appears to be full of hot sprints, and I am always going to be cool with that. This is tornado rules, so the ring was constantly filled with big dudes crashing into each other. I really like Dan Barry, he's the smallest guy here but hits harder than the others, his offense always focuses on results rather than style (look at his nice impactful dropkick through the ropes), and he's the guy who typically ties things like this together. This had a ton of fun action, with Bronson hitting a tope early and Barry following that up with a slingshot senton to the sand. We get plenty of lariats and avalanches from the real big men, Carr and Beefcake, nice big boy sentons, big ass Bossman Slam from Carr, and cool power spots like Barry getting powerbombed into Carr (with Beefcake impressively deadlifting Barry off the mat), or Bear Country setting up a tandem electric chair spot only for Barry to do a simple inside cradle and topple their bear stack. It would have been easy to see everyone getting in each other's way due to the tornado format, but they did a great job at looking reckless while nicely building things. I'm not sure why I slept so long on Team Tremendous. They have several years of stuff that I skipped past on Evolve shows (I think the whole cop thing came off too Chikara for me and I never gave it a full chance) but I have dug Barry in everything I've seen him in the past couple years. I ain't missing any more.

Chris Dickinson vs. Kenn Doane

ER: Dickinson is an established property at this point, and it's cool seeing a former WWE come in and not be treated as a holy entity because they were on TV a decade prior. So many times a former TV guy will be brought in as a special attraction on indies, and the local guy he's fighting will treat it like the fight of his life and it plays as a showcase to the former TV guy with the local guy narrowly getting a win. Now, Doane is obviously different from someone like D'Lo Brown, he's still a premier athlete and can provide something other than nostalgia, but it's cool that he would come in and work a show like this and Dickinson is the one rightly booked to look like the big deal. Doane is good at wrestling, but also doesn't seem to want to do it full time, and he's a cool opponent for Dickinson. We also get the addition of Christian Casanova and Cam Zagani running interference for Doane, so Dickinson is in there against essentially three guys and comes off even cooler for it. Doane has some nice athletic stuff, real nice dropkick and crazy vertical leap on his flying back elbow, but also throws a mean right hand, and I love his cocky athletic guy persona. If he wants it, he feels like someone who could be a major name on the indies. And it was great that he came in knowing that the best thing for him to do would be to highlight Dickinson's star. And Dickinson looked great. He hit hard and missed big, everything he did looked like he was 100% committed to wrecking Doane. But he really came off like a big deal when he was finally wrecking Doane's lackeys. Hitting a running Pazuzu bomb on Zagani to the floor is a great holy shit spot, as it's not a move that's easy to hit clean, plenty of bad landings possible. But the visual of Dickinson running across the ring with him, wearing the captains hat, tossing him to the masses, was awesome. I loved how Doane put over the finishing leg lock, really reaching desperately for the ropes, getting pulled deeper into the ring with each desperate grasp, before finally tapping. I'm curious to see more of Doane outside of Beyond, and Dickinson just looks like a star at this point.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Dickinson vs. Thatcher

51. Chris Dickinson vs. Timothy Thatcher Beyond Wrestling 7/24

PAS: Beyond has been running a Dickinson challenge series leading up to his match against Sekimoto at the end of the month.  They bring in Thatcher and they have exactly the match that is promised on paper. Really minimalist thudding professional wrestling. Lots of nasty slaps and hard forearms, uppercuts and kicks. I really liked all of the work in Thatcher's leg lock, the leg lock can be a time killer hold, but Thatcher kept adjusting and twisting the ankle and Dickinson turned red with pain and constantly made little attacks to reverse or escape. The announcers kept talking up Dickinson's second wind, and he took a pretty big beating, before firing back and winning with a nasty piledriver and Pazuzu bomb. I liked the idea of Dickinson being a hard enough hitter that he can win a match even if he is down on the cards.

ER: This was a nice, boiled down, compact version of what these two can do, and it's pretty clear that we like what these guys do. Both guys are so good at conveying struggle and at making time killer seem important, that I like a shorter match length on them as it just adds more weight to everything they do. We don't need Dickinson dropping several nasty death valley drivers, just one in the right sequence can be enough. Both guys work hard on the mat so that it always feels like things are advancing, and I dug a couple of Dickinson's reversals; it's like the sweatier he got the more dangerous he got, as there were at least two times Thatcher had him in something potentially dangerous and Dickinson expertly slipped out and locked on something nastier. Dickinson grabs an armbar at one point that I thought looked finisher-worthy, and early on he rolls through into an awesome kneebar. It really felt like he knew where to keep his limbs farthest from Thatcher while still working for his reversal, loved that moment where Thatcher was blindly reaching for Dickinson's free arm and Dickinson kept it away long enough that he was able to reverse due to Thatcher's tunnel vision. Both guys lay in uppercuts and kicks, thought Thatcher's uppercuts looked especially jarring and I loved Dickinson's whipping kick to a kneeling Thatcher. Dickinson's straight drop death valley driver (almost like a northern lights bomb), and the piledriver rolled into the Pazuzu Bomb was a great exclamation point finish. And what put it all over for me was that awesome high leverage pin by Dickinson, with him bringing backslide energy to a straight pin, sliding down Thatcher and putting all his weight on Thatcher's legs.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory 5/8/19

Chris Dickinson vs. Josh Briggs

ER: This was a really fun Power Plant style match. It's probably the best possible version of Hardcore Holly vs. Test, and that's something I'd want to see the best version of. Dickinson really feels like the indy wrestler with the best chance at taking over Eddie Kingston's mantle. His personality has the potential, his execution is excellent, intensity is strong, and he makes offense look good. Kingston is a legend, but Dickinson certainly has a Kingston ceiling. And even if this is the best he gets, he's a guy that I seek out, and these days I don't have the time to seek out the number of guys I used to so that means something. There's a lot of simple stuff in this that looks good, with Briggs throwing out several nice big boot variations (nice forceful one out of the corner, nice surprisingly fast one during a strike exchange, nice traditional one after an Irish whip) and a couple late 90s big guys slams. Dickinson works this like the great aggressive asskicker he is, hitting hard shoulderblocks (and eating a nice one from Briggs), really hard clotheslines, quick elbows, tough kicks, shoves Briggs violently off the ropes, and beats at his leg. We get a couple really good rope breaks, with Dickinson locking in his cool trailer hitch reverse figure four in a couple really convincing ways, and earlier Briggs scrambling and reaching for the ropes in a Boston crab variation. I try not to use the expression "hard fought" as much as others use it, as it feels like a too frequent touchstone, but this was a hard fought match that didn't skimp on the basics, and felt like fun throwback to/improvement on a match style from a popular era.

Chase Burnett/Jefferson Saint/Zane Silver vs. Eric Corvis/Johnny Cockstrong/Nicholas Kaye

ER: Phil wrote this one up already and was having a fun time on the phone with me talking about how Beyond has somehow been around long enough to now have its own old man Baba tags. And I'm someone who really unironically loves old man Baba tags. So we get a fun 6 man with older versions of guys I've liked, many of whom had been completely retired several years from wrestling before this match. They almost all have real life/age appropriate bodies and paleness and hairlines, and it's great! Kaye is in probably the best current ring shape, but everyone has some stuff that looks good. Burnett hit a cool sunset flip bomb off the top and then smacked Corvis hard with a moonsault kneedrop to the back of the head, Kaye had some nasty shots including a really mean apron splash to Burnett, Silver hit this gross senton that landed on the back of the neck to a seated opponent, everybody hit relatively hard and the comedy was kept surprisingly low. As much as I love old men Kings Road matches, guys aren't typically getting roughed up and taking nasty bumps in them. I fully expected this to be a "Jefferson Saint is Eigen, Kaye is Momota, Corvis is Mighty Inoue, Burnett is Rusher", etc. I would have totally understood and honestly even expected these guys to work a jovial match with mostly comedy and maybe a few big moments. Instead everyone took the time to show that they didn't forget what made them entertaining and really killed themselves in the best way possible.

Jordynne Grace vs. Orange Cassidy

ER: This was recommended to me - as someone who isn't a real big Orange Cassidy fan - as a match where someone turns his comedy on him and makes him pay. The reason I don't seek out Cassidy matches are that I really don't enjoy comedy wrestlers whose comedy comes entirely at the expense of the match and their opponent. The best in-ring comedians (think Buddy Rose or John Tatum) were great at making themselves the butt of the joke while still being effective and dangerous wrestlers. Cassidy's brand of comedy is completely selfish and relies on his opponent to essentially stand still and look like a doof while he works through all his bits. An in ring comedian who can work in comedy while not damaging the structural integrity of a match is a special thing, but he's a guy who writes 100% of the jokes for himself while his opponents have to act like a perplexed high school principal whose car got filled with inflated balloons by those damn seniors AGAIN. So I'm all for somebody making him eat his own jokes, which does happen here...occasionally. Overall the match still had way too much of him working his routine and bits, which may not have been bad if his wrestling looked good once it got to that point. But a lot of it doesn't. Cassidy has a few "missed shots" that wouldn't have come close to landing, a back elbow that soars two feet over Grace's head, a missed lariat thrown from an overhand arm slot, as if he was throwing out a first pitch, and hit a tope so soft that the announce crew had to drop the dreaded "well I don't think he got all of that one, but...". He feels like a guy who started focusing a ton on his comedy because he knew his wrestling looked bad. And I appreciate that hustle! Recognizing strengths and working towards those is a goal we should all strive for, so I fully get it. I wanted Grace to eat his lunch a bit more, and wanted him to actually show ass for once. If you're dishing shots to a guy with his hands in his pockets, you should be stiffing the hell out of him for making you look like a clown, and he should eventually be selling that he fucked up by keeping his hands in those pockets for too long. Neither happened. We get a comedy spot with him bodyslamming some white guy with dreads, who later slams Cassidy onto Grace. I couldn't imagine voluntarily let a scuzzy white dreads guy grip my taint for a comedy spot, although I did willingly let a white security guy with dreads did check my body for drug paraphernalia before entering an Umphrey's McGee, so maybe we're not all that different after all. When somebody actually forces Cassidy into having their match instead of going all in on his match, I might be interested. Until then I'll be just skipping right past his matches with my hands in my pockets

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Hit Squad v. H8 Club

23. Da Hit Squad (Mafia/Monsta Mack) v. The H8 Club (Nick Gage/Nate Hatred) Beyond Wrestling 10/28

PAS: This was a 2000s Jersey dirtbag indy dream match that never happened, and it was as uncouth and violent as you would have hoped for. Potatoes being tossed out left and right, unprotected chair shots, slaps right in the mouth, just a pleasure to watch. I always thought Hatred was kind of big goof, which is still sort of true, but he took a beating and looked the part of a Golem Nick Gage drew from clay. Gage is amazing, he has an unhinged aura, like a modern Bruiser Brody if Brody was the stabber rather then the stabbie, he is also at his prime as a wrestler. He was great here, taking insane bumps (he flies over the top of the rinngpost to the floor, gets presslammed head first into a wall) and dishing out big receipts. We even got a cool bit of selling, Monsta and Gage are exchanging big tooth loosening foreamrs and Gage just collapses like he was in concussion protocol, this allowed Monsta to stand over a dazed and glassy eyed King and talk spicy, it also led to a great finish as Monsta got too confident and got caught with a piledriver. Rare dream match which totally delivered.

ER: Yeah this delivered everything you'd want from four bald and burly thugs punching mouths for 14 minutes. This was a wild brawl that never settled into a traditional tag-in match structure, but still benefitted from some traditional tag saves...but nobody wants traditional tag wrestling from this match, we wanted meaty shots to cheekbones and edges of chairs hitting ulna bones and huge men hitting concrete in awful ways. I was impressed with everybody here, even Hatred, who as Phil correctly points out has always been a big goof. His lummox tendencies played nicely off of Gage, who works like the Energizer bunny with a rap sheet. I love Gage's selling in this so much as it's much closer to Eddie Kingston, with a big great theatrical moment (him trading forearms and then just falling over before a sure deathblow from a running Mack could land) and other moments of him not staying down for long, but holding at aches and pains while being hit. He moves quick and lands hard, takes an insane bump over the ringpost on a backdrop, gets thrown full bore through some doors to the outside (which was a truly great visual in the match, as the building was dark and outside was bright, so you get Gage crashing violently from blackness into bright light and disappearing, as if he broke the space time continuum. You could almost hear Gage saying "Oh my god, it's full of stars!" Maff and Mack somehow haven't lost a step, Mafia especially is shockingly agile this many years on. I flipped out for his tope but he had several other moments of quickness, like that fast low spear off the ropes (actually the best spear I've seen hit in wrestling this year). I really loved this, as it brought plenty of crazy spots, plenty of mean shots, plenty of stiff arm lariats, a crazy caffeinated (or other) performance from Gage, really great brawl.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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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.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matt Riddle Wakes Up Late for School Man He Don't Wanna Go

Matt Riddle v. Chuck O'Neil Beyond Wrestling 1/31/16 - FUN

PAS: Chuck O'Neil is also an ex-Ultimate Fighter contestant so this was these guys doing a US Indy version of a worked shoot. This had a bunch of fun ideas, which looked really cool when they pulled them off. The strikes in this felt a little pulled, inconsistent shots is still a problem that Riddle can have and O'Neil's shots didn't look great either. The grappling was dope though, O'Neil putting on an omaplata and then getting spun countered was really cool, as was Riddle holding the guillotine choke through a suplex. I am excited to see how these two grow with each other, and am looking forward to checking out their June rematch.


ER: O'Neil was on the last season of TUF that I watched though I would be lying if I said I remembered much about him. This was a short fun match, but it ran a little too close to "fake MMA", as opposed to just a cool looking worked fight feel. The rolling was fun, O'Neil tosses Riddle with a couple nice suplexes (straight over the top belly to belly and a German where Riddle's body went stiff and bounced another few feet after landing). As Phil said the strikes weren't very tight, which held this back from being a really wild sub-5 minute affair, with the standing kicks to the chest especially disappointing. But the finish was awesome with Riddle leaping into a guillotine and O'Neil trying to suplex out of it, but Riddle holding on and rolling through with it. Bonus points for Gulak sporting a 0.7 on the "HBK Officiating a Best Golden Girls Quote Contest at Pride Weekend" on the ref attire scale.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE MATT RIDDLE

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

25. Da Hit Squad v. Low-Ki/Homicide Beyond Wrestling 12/27

PAS: Tom and I drove way too long to watch this matchup live back in 2001 (Road Report Here), and it is a trip that this is still so good 15 years later. The 2001 match had DHS working as stooging heels, and this was closer to the potato fest we were hoping for a decade and a half ago. Ki and Monsta especially unload on each other, including some very heavy Jerry Blackwellish forearms by Mack. Ki continues his awesome 2015 where he had an almost Volk Hanish schedule, show up 5 or 6 times and have all of them be awesome, he works really hard here including getting thrown into the fourth row. I am not sure if Maff and Homicide have been in a ring together since the weird Maff blackballing, but they had some nice exchanges. Kind of a BS finish with Pinkie Sanchez running out and then getting smashed by all four, who do kind of a Puerto Rican clique salute in the middle of the ring. Would have like to see this have a proper finish, but as an exhibition of classic JAPW it was pretty great. RIP Fat Frank.

ER: Now these are 4 guys I like, and they all match up nicely. I also like the vibe of the building with fans right up next to the apron. I do not like Rob Naylor on commentary. But mute buttons exist and it somehow makes the shots being dished out look even more stiff. Low-Ki has been kind of under my radar the last several years, whether he was working promotions I don't much care about, or just plain not working much, but damn if he isn't just as good as he was when I first saw him. Feels like I potentially have several years of really fun Ki matches that I may have missed. DHS really feel like guys who still shouldn't be this much fun. Normally heavyset guys don't age well over a 15 year period, but Maff looks to be in shape and both have no problems leaning into all sorts of strikes, and Ki and Homicide have no problem dishing strikes. A lot of this is nice and sloppy, but I don't want precision when I watch Hit Squad matches, I want sloppy brawls and stiff shots thrown at unsafe parts of the face and body. DHS always throw really great shoulderblocks and body work, but they did little things that surprised me like when Maff pulls out a single leg on Ki, drops a bunch of elbows and then grabs a body vice. Ki is great throughout at sticking and moving, and while some of DHS double teams are a little rusty the stiff shots by everybody more than made up for it. Run-In Finish stinks as things looked to be moving into an insane peak, with DHS lawn darting Ki into an empty swimming pool and Homicide hitting an insanely fast flip dive through the ropes. So crummy finish aside, how could you not have fun watching these guys crash into each other?


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Beyond Wrestling Americanrana ‘14 Review

Tag Team Battle Royal

This was a tag team battle royal, so like you would expect we have lots of guys with pun tag team names throwing clubbing forearms. There was some Johnny Cockstrong comedy spots, although not as funny as it has been in the past. Really hard to get much of a sense of anyone in a cluster like this.  They kept it moving at least so I wasn’t bored.

Pinkie Sanchez/Sugar D (Sex and Candy) v. Dave Cole/Aaron Epic (Fear in Loathing in New England)

This was based apparently on a breakup of a Sanchez/D/Epic stable, so was a little more heated then a lot of Beyond I have seen. I was happy to see that, but I didn’t love this match. Cole and Epic seemed like pretty generic tights and boots indy guys, lots of double stomp double teams and yakuza kicks. I did like Sugar D’s fired up Mr. Wrestling 2 babyface act, but I think Sanchez hurt himself and the finish was a bit wonky.

Nicholas Kaye v. Anthony Stone

This was a loser must retire throw in the towel match. This is a long running feud I am unfamiliar with, I have probably seen both guys before but they didn’t make much of an impression on me. The match started out like a pretty fun garbage brawl stunt show, Kaye catches the side of a chair in the face early and gushes blood which always adds to this kind of match. I also had no problem with the interference which had Kaye’s second Myke Quest (who looks like a sleazier Dean Ambrose, which I was surprised was possible) and Stone’s sister Natalya brawling on the floor. I was all set to recommend this, but the ending was super dumb, Stone handcuffs Kaye to the ring and goes and gets a chainsaw which causes Kaye to throw in the towel. Really silly, and anti climactic,  it almost felt like a comedy spot, he might as well have gotten a bazooka or a bayonet. It felt like they were building to something pretty cool, but the finish took it out of me.

Bryan Myers v. Ryan Rush

Myers is the former Curt Hawkins who is a WWE guy I know existed, but remember very little about. This was student v. teacher and worked as kind of an IWA Mid-South touring exhibition match. I thought Rush had some pretty nice athleticism, he had big time hops on his dropkick for a solidly build dude. Myers was clearly professional an well trained, although a little bland. There was a fun spot where Myers took a bump into the crowd an laid out four fans, that might work better on a show where everyone watching is a wrestler.

Team Tremendous (Dan Barry/Bill Carr) v. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor/Trent Baretta)

I think I have made my feeling about Chuck Taylor wink and smirk wrestling pretty clear, Baretta I remember being a generic Velocity junior in the WWE, but he is in Taylor land now. I have liked Barry in the past but he is along for the yucks here. Finish is clearly improvised as Baretta blew out his knee on a dive. Very much not my thing, although I suppose if you like Taylor’s horseshit, you might enjoy this.

Eric Corvis v. Jimmy Jacobs

This was a first blood match and was one of the two matches which caused me to buy this show, I haven’t seen a ton of Jacobs recently, but he has always been a guy I liked a lot, and someone who is really great at working a gimmicked brawl, Corvis is one of my favorite Beyond guys, I am not a usually a fan of guys working innovator of offense gimmicks, but he does pull out some cool moves and is also a pretty good brawler. This was good stuff for the lions share of the match, I liked all of the teasing  of spikes and there were some nasty looking stuff with chairs including Corvis hitting a spring board moonsault Van Damninator. Then unfortunately the booking kicks in as the TJ Marconi and Darius Carter heel invasion stable comes out and cuts a promo in the middle of the match, as Dany Only in an V for Vendetta mask comes out and stabs Corvis in the throat with a corkscrew, the carving up of Corvis was pretty nasty, but Jacobs totally got black holed as he had to stand around when they ran their angle. Nothing wrong with setting up something for the next show, but it sucks that they didn’t let the Corvis v. Jacobs feud work itself out.

Drew Gulak v. Tommaso Ciampa

This was a European Rules match, and was kind of a mix of a Gulak style match and an ROH indy match, Ciampa was fine on the mat, and the early parts of the match had some very cool matwork, including a bunch of really nifty spots built around knuckle locks. At one point it kind of flipped to a bunch of elbow exchanges and suplexes into turnbuckles and that stuff was a lot less compelling. I liked the end run OK as they did a bunch stuff working around the specific rules, each exchanging low blows to get an advantage, and Ciampa staying down during the 10 count and taunting Gulak. Good match, and a fun Gulak performance, although not at the level of the best stuff he has done this year.

Kimber Lee v. Silver Ant

I am not sure what the point of working intergender matches completely equal, it feels like less of a big deal when the woman pulls an upset. Silver Ant was pretty good, I liked the counter mat wrestling he was doing and kept himself looking strong while putting over a tiny girl.

Juicy Product v. Young Bucks

This was similar in a way, to the main event with the Beyond guys working a match in the style of their opponents. I liked this a little more, as I have more tolerance for Young Bucks Spotfests then Elgin matches, although neither are my thing.  Lots of crazy spots one after another with minimal selling or little downtime. I thought the Juicy Product seemed very comfortable doing this style which has a high degree of difficulty, this isn’t what I look for in wrestling, but I enjoyed it OK

Chris Dickinson v. Michael Elgin

I couldn’t get into this. Really was clear that Dickinson wanted to a work an ROH main event style Elgin match and that is something it is going to be very hard for me to get into. Lots of fighting spirit stuff, diffident selling, very much not my thing. I can see fans of this style liking it, Dickenson looks credible throwing blows with a big dude like Elgin. Lots of interference which didn’t help.

Not my favorite Beyond show, had a handful of matches I was enjoying ruined by booking, and some stuff that was not up my alley. Gulak v. Ciampa might be worth the individual match price though as Gulak is having himself a year

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

13. Biff Busick v. Timothy Thatcher Beyond Wrestling "Secret Show" 4/13

PAS: These are two of the three (along with Drew Gulak) of the most exciting new group of guys in Indy wrestling. They are working Euro style matches, although Euro style that owes more to Billy Robinson and Terry Rudge then Johnny Saint and Mark Rocco. Tight agressive mat wrestling and nasty uppercuts and punches. Nothing fancy just hard hitting and rough.  The big highspot was an uppercut that knocked Busick into the wall, and came off as a bigger deal then any of the crazy shit in earlier matches. I loved Busick finish here too, great sensible counter to lock in the choke nastier and looked really tight, I bought Thatcher going out. I could watch these guys work each other a ton of times.

ER: We've talked before about what an exciting trend this is in indy wrestling, and it really was something that was mostly lacking in modern pro wrestling for a long time. I remember having to seek out random 2000s Osamu Nishimura matches if I wanted to see a guy lock on a slick side headlock on the ground while pushing off the mat with his legs to get extra leverage on said side headlock. Now with plenty of Thatcher, Gulak and Busick matches floating around and these guys going all over to pick up dates, I assume it's just a matter of time before this style gets more widespread. These guys all look and work like they learned grappling and physical fitness exclusively from Farmer Burns' Guide to Young Men's Good Health. I dug Busick finally being the first one to go to blows, and this throwing Thatcher to a degree and kind of sending him scrambling to mentally regroup while figuring out what kind of fight it's become. My favorite stuff here was Thatcher bending around Busick's wrist and posting his elbow, really wrenching on stuff and making my joints scream just watching. These matches all breeze by really quick, as they're persistently competitive with minimal breathing room. The matches are a constant struggle for the two guys involved which always seems to glue my eyes to what's happening. I'm always watching for little momentum shifts or tiny openings. It's been some fascinating and exciting stuff (that will be impossible to rank by year's end).


2014 MASTER LIST

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Beyond Wrestling Secret Show 4/13

I heard some good things about this show, and I always like Beyond Wrestling more then I should, so I threw down $5 and checked it out

Connor Claxton v. Frankie Pickard

Both of these guys are CZW trainees, and this was a hell of a four minutes. Really aggressive amateur wrestling by both guys. Reminded me of the Steiners v. Gordy and Williams matches in WCW, like UWFI with a colligate wrestling base, instead of a Martial arts base. We had one strike, a great headbutt by Claxton, and one suplex an overhead by Pickard. The rest was just grappling. I am not sure if they have a longer match in them, but they are on my radar.

Supercop Dick Justice v. Leon St. Giovanni

Justice looks like a young Ron Jeremy and is working a 80's patriotic babyface gimmick. Giovanni hams it up as a heel. A couple of clever spots, but the whole thing was turned up to 11, and I didn't find it nearly as amusing as the participants did.

DJ Hyde v. AR Fox

Really surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Fox was working heel, as was fun as a cocky asshole who would flip around and taunt Hyde. Meanwhile Hyde was working as kind of a poor man's Ian Rotten, as he was countering the flippy taunts with some nasty potato shots. I really liked him countering Fox's lucha armdrag by just chucking him face first into the mat, and he threw a elbow that knocked Fox across the ring. Finish was cool as Hyde survived a couple of cool in ring dives before obliterating Fox with a lariat.

Darius Carter/TJ Marconi v. Det Dan Berry/Monsta Mack v. Kevin Graham/Punisher Van Slyke v. Thomas Dubois/Mathieu St. Jacques

I like that they have been keeping these matches pretty short, without the bloat which can effect indy wrestling. This gave everyone a chance to hit some big impressive stuff, get in and get out. Mack is the vet here and he looked the best, he took a bunch of big bumps, hit a diving rana off the top, and a superfly splash. The Dubois/ St. Jacques team looked like the French Canadian mafia guys that killed Dino Bravo and I wouldn't mind seeing more of them.

Jay Freddie v. Eric Corvis

I have always dug Corvis, he was a JAPW guy back in the day, and is a Beyond guy I look out for. He kind of reminds me of Sami Callihan. He has an innovator gimmick, but usually has pretty cool sensible innovations. Here he seemed to be less about innovation, and more about Tenryuish stiff shots from odd angles. He had this great spot, where he placed his foot on Freddie's knee and smacked him with a jab. Freddie is a little bland, but isn't afraid to deliver some shots of his own. Fun stuff and Corvis is as nifty as I remember him.

Brandon Watts/Randy Summers v. Sugar Dunkington/Pinkie Sanchez

Didn't love this. Lots of dancing and gay shtick with out much substance. There was a nice running boot by Watts, but not much else of note. Smirky Beyond Wrestling is not my bag, it comes off like a a bunch of Vine making hipsters winking at their inside jokes.

"Dirty" Buxx Belmar v. "Speedball" Mike Bailey

I like Bailey, he is a spot guy with some fun variations on spots, kind of like Matt Sydal back in the ROH days. Belmar is working a dirty guy gimmick, and this match was a victim of him needing to get in all of his "I don't take a shower" spots. We only get glimpses of what Bailey can do, fun glimpses and I want to see more, but this was a waste.

Nicholas Kaye v. Benny Martinez v. Ryan Rush v. Shyron

Spotfest with four dudes doing some stuff. Not as many big spots as the tag spotfest, but everything was executed fine. This kind of match has diminishing returns this late on the show, probably would have been better off as an opener.

JT Dunn/David Starr v. Jaka/Chris Dickinson

This was set up earlier in the show with an angle and was a big workrate tag. Workrate tag wrestling is not my cup of tea in 2014, but I enjoyed this. Dickinson, Starr and Dunn are basic indy American Wolvesalikes, but Jaka is working as indy Haku, and indy Haku makes the rest of guys more tolerable, Dickinson has gotten a lot better too, his stuff is really solid looking, stiff kicks and nice amateur take downs. Dunn and Starr didn't make a huge impression on me, but this built to an exciting finish and didn't have an overdose of near falls.

Biff Busick v. Timothy Thatcher

These are two of the three (along with Drew Gulak) of the most exciting new group of guys in Indy wrestling. They are working Euro style matches, although Euro style that owes more to Billy Robinson and Terry Rudge then Johnny Saint and Mark Rocco. Tight agressive mat wrestling and nasty uppercuts and punches. Nothing fancy just hard hitting and rough.  The big highspot was an uppercut that knocked Busick into the wall, and came off as a bigger deal then any of the crazy shit in earlier matches. I loved Busick finish here too, great sensible counter to lock in the choke nastier and looked really tight, I bought Thatcher going out. I could watch these guys work each other a ton of times.

This show was really good, 5 matches which I enjoyed and nothing I hated. Worth your $5, throw them some cash.

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