ICW No Holds Barred Vol 3 - Deathmatch Drive-In 7/4/20

Big Twan Tucker vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: These two were scheduled to match up on AIW show Mania weekend and was one of my most anticipated matches. I believe these two have a great match in them, although this wasn't it. Being in an opener deathmatch in front of an unfamiliar crowd hurt this match a bit. We had some great moments, Twan is awesome at hot brawling openings to matches and they just went after each other to start with Dom killing him with Kawada kicks to the face. The first big lighttube shot was great with Garrini charging in only to get wasted by a lighttube. The match was hurt with a long set up section where Twan just kind of wandered around setting up tubes and boards while Garrini laid there, these matches really need corner men to do all of the construction. They never really brought the match back under control after that, and it was a lot of big spots with long set ups, so this ended up being a bit of a disappointment with some great individual pieces. 

ER: I actually thought this was pretty great. This had great 90s backyard aesthetics, and Dom had the perfect look of a midwest backyard meathead. He's the friend who works overly stiff and wears shorts to school during cold weather months. Dom kicks the hell out of Twan, really hard kicks to the hamstrings and body, and both guys collect sick downward chops to the side of the neck. Twan took a bunch of real painful big man bumps, like crashing through a table with a sick flapjack, or getting tossed with a couple of strong Dom suplexes. The lighttube shots came off cool and gritty to me, adding that grit for the home stretch and elevating the match for me. Garrini ran headlong into a hard swung lighttube, just one of SO MANY examples we've seen of Garrini being a fearless talented meathead jock; the heavy boy's Darby Allin. The lighttube fight added to the grit and gave Garrini the aura of a cool Canon Group action star. Dom headbutting a lighttube into Twan's head is one of those great deathmatch comp moments. Garrini knows how to come off like a true backyard legend, as you suddenly get no sense whatsoever of his grappling accomplishments. Suddenly Garrini is a Cactus Jack acolyte and you see that in his cocked head as he's taking strikes, or Twan flattening him through a door with Dom as a backpack. It was under 10 minutes and always felt like a kickass yard fight. 

56. Eddie Kingston vs. Bret Ison

PAS: This was Eddie's only pandemic indy match, and was an absolute masterclass at what makes him so special. His pandemic hair and beard looked totally badass and this was a standard match, no chairs or tubes just knuckles and knees. I loved the start of this as they began to exchange shots but Kingston gets popped with an elbow and before he could fire back just crumples to the ground, and the match went like that. Kingston was trying to use his hand speed and guile to stay in the pocket with a heavy hitter, landing these peppering palm strike combos to the head and body,  but he kept getting caught with powerful one shot elbows and punches. Kingston is one of the great strikers in wrestling, but is even better at selling strikes and he does a great job making Ison look like he is beating Eddie to death. I wish Ison was 20% better in this match, he is pretty hit and miss with the force on his shots, sometimes he really nails Kingston, and sometimes the forearms come with a big foot stomp and not much force, also don't think the spinning backfist landed as cleanly as it needed to for it to be the finish. Still this was a heck of Kingston performance, glad to see he has got

ER: Quarantine Kingston with shaggy hair and bed beard is fantastic, the Unabomber Kingston era staggering his way into a fight. How did none of us realize that Kingston would make the greatest Bruiser Brody? Are we so visual that we need to see that shag? Kingston looks like a Puerto Rican Tex Cobb and it's tough to go back to smooth line Kingston after seeing this. It added a mountain man side to his character that has been absent before, made him come off like even more of a regional folk hero. Ison is a big goony Baron Corbin, and he's the kind of guy Kingston can make look like a threat just by selling his chops. Kingston's strike game was so great throughout, pivoting through different muscle memories and strategies, never looking out of his element or desperate, just someone looking to advance any way he can. He makes Ison's strikes look like they matter and lays in his rolling elbow. Kingston leaned into everything and made this feel like a genuine war, and while I wish Ison used his size much more than he does, he's someone that has no problem bashing limbs with wild men like Kingston. It's a pairing with a high floor, with a fired up Kingston performance keeping that floor high as hell. He even works blue afterwards in his folksy Lenny Bruce fireside 4th of July chat. 

Eddy Only vs. Tim Donst

ER: I really liked how this started, with Only cementing himself as the heel by running the crowd down hard, and then getting wrecked by Donst, to the point where I was feeling sympathy for Only and the beating he was taking. Donst didn't really hold back on anything, and there was this stunned look on Only's face when Donst hit him as hard as he could with a plastic fat bat covered in tacks. Getting hit in the side of the head with one of those bats at full strength would hurt enough, but when it leaves dozens of tacks stuck into your head? Only looks at Donst like he can't believe Donst hit him as hard as he possibly could have, and then Donst does it again. Only is getting really battered, suplexed onto the grass, and it's this cool heel in peril with a cold babyface just punishing him. But at some point I am reminded why whatever Tim Donst is supposed to be doing does not work for me. He is so emotionless in the ring that he takes things beyond no selling, as not selling offense tends to at least bring some kind of character. He just acts like a man who is numb to all kind of pain, which could be cool...but if I was every other dude on a deathmatch card with him it would sure as hell he annoying to watch a guy get suplexed multiple times into tacks, crawl hands and knees through tacks, take a back bump off the apron through a board with cut up beer cans, get lighttubes kicked into his face, and sell it all by making a frowny face as if he were being admonished by his parents for missing curfew. I liked what Only brought to this, came off like a guy who was in actual pain while taking some gnarly shots, including getting a barbed wire board avalanched into him. I liked Donst's willingness to be crazy, loved his wild tope, but you have to make these weapons mean something. He is adamantly trying to make them mean less than anyone. 

Eric Ryan vs. Alex Ocean

ER: I'll always go out of my way to watch Eric Ryan matches. He's one of my favorite brawlers and he's one of the greatest bleeders in wrestling history, no hyperbole. This match did not work for me at all, went way too long, and was pretty artless about how they got from A to B to C. However, Ryan bled great. He bled immediately, and it was some great blood. He headbutted a couple of lighttubes into Ocean's head, got color on his own head, and somehow wound up immediately cutting open his entire back. He had this gorgeous collection of streams running down his back that made him look like he was a see through human body vein diagram. There are a lot of painful moments here, but they all run together pretty quickly. It's crazy to me when someone is dragged across the mat through a bunch of broken glass, but there's such a weird focus on selling every single thing the same in a deathmatch. There really needs to be some expressive selling to get across some of this damage. Give me a guy screaming as he's being dragged across broken glass man. The kind of stuff that is more interesting to me is Ryan starting the match with a fork and quickly stabbing Ocean's arm when Ocean goes for a lock up. Ocean snatched the fork away, and Ryan simply grabbed another one out of his pocket. That moment had so much more creativity than just setting up props. The finish of the match sees Ryan attempt to mule kick a couple lighttubes over Ocean's face while holding a single crab, but he keeps missing and just heel kicking Ocean in the face. And guess what? Ocean getting kicked in the face looked more violent than any of the weapon shots. A death match with the brawling as the focus is just going to be better, and this felt like 18 minutes of them picking up and just moving onto the next prop. 

Matthew Justice vs. Casanova Valentine

ER: I dug this match on paper and liked a lot of what they did, I just wish they didn't take 20 minutes to do it. Valentine has maybe my favorite look in deathmatch wrestling, like a gastric bypass Pig Champion, and I love blown out Justice epics. I thought they did a good job at working the deathmatch elements and not just arbitrarily rolling around in wire and glass. There was some build to this, and I liked how Justice hit Casanova's garden weasel out of his hands with a chair to start, instead of jumping right into some weaseling. They took those steps to ramp up their damage and make the eventual weaseling mean a bit more. If you start with Valentine breaking lighttubes over Justice's balls, then where can you go from there? The match is plagued by length and some unnecessary overbooking, with things like Riley Madison and Manders interference not really leading to anything that we couldn't have done without. People want to see Justice jump off high places, and he does that, and it rules. He hits a wild superfly splash off an SUV through a table, and we get to see Valentine really smoosh Justice later with his own big splash. A lot of the weapon stuff comes off kinda weak, as they were following a match that saw every possible weapon and attack you could need from a match, and this was just going to be repeating that. And it didn't help that the finish was a verrrry long time stand still moment of Mancer trying to light some fireworks that were attached to skewers, and the fireworks would not light. So you had poor Valentine kneeling there holding skewers into his own head, eyes fixed on Manders the entire time trying to light the damn things, Justice standing around waiting, and finally Justice calls an audible and just hits Valentine with a chair. I think they could have done what they did in half the time, and a 20 minute match ending with the flattest finish possible is always going to seem more disappointing. 

Matt Tremont vs. Akira

ER: I really didn't like the start of this, as they sat down in chairs right at the bell and did the "barroom punch" spot and threw worked punches at each other. The crowd was the quietest during this than they were all night, so I can't say that it was working for them either. I don't like that spot anyway (although Akira and Mickie Knuckles made it obsolete with their take on it earlier this year), but starting off a match with it, with no build and nowhere to go, makes no sense to me. Tremont throws nice worked punches, but this crowd has seen some uggggly shots on this show, and they are not going to be moved by worked punches. And when Akira puts his hands behind his back and demands Tremont hit him, there isn't any drama in that either, as Tremont had already punched him 10 times without Akira bothering to defend. Some things work, and "some things work" is probably the thing I will find myself writing the most whenever I watch deathmatches. Akira gets that same cool blood streaming down his back that Eric Ryan got earlier, there's a cool battle over Akira trying to get Tremont up for a death valley driver, and Tremont really brains Akira with lighttubes when Akira was attempting a plancha. Akira gets a fairly deep slice under his breastbone from it, could have been a cool thing to build off. But, as with a lot of this, the build just seems scattered at best. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Jeff King

ER: I thought this was a fantastic Jeff King performance, one of my favorite individual performances on the show. I am always going to love any wrestler who is referred to as an old timer (unless it's some cutesy fake old man gimmick) and King has had an interesting career. I knew him as a guy who would show up on IWA-MS shows in the 2000s, and then he disappeared for several years, coming back earlier this decade and slowly working himself into the deathmatch scene. He's probably younger than I am, but I love an old timer who is perhaps a fish out of water. Here he takes a furious beating from Murdoch, and every second of the match King felt like a man trying to prove himself to a scene. And at minimum, he certainly proved himself to me. He took a lot of punishment, and I think what makes a deathmatch worker appeal most to me is what their foundation is. I relate far more to the IWA-MS deathmatches because the core IWA style was rooted in southern wrestling. East coast DM style is much more big prop spots with less glue to get to those big moments, but King is a guy who feels more like a Memphis guy and that really works within a deathmatch. He takes big bumps and fills in downtime with nice punches, so there is less building structures and seeking weapons and more of a southern structure in its place. He gets really scared up here and I bought into his horror at the violence, like getting a gusset plate smashed onto his arm and punched into his head. He does a wild tope con giro through a table (Murdoch moved) and there were several moments of him taking an insane bump on missed offense. He hits a disgusting senton through several set up chairs, crushes Murdoch through barbed wire table with a backpack cannonball, and gets dropped through a chair by a Murdoch brainbuster. The finish is basically a botch but far more insane for it, as it's supposed to be a Murdoch superplex through a tubes covered table, but they set the table up WAY too close to the buckles. So, the superplex happens, but King flies PAST the table and Murdoch takes a back bump onto the table and spills off, both guys ending up worse off than if they had both gone through the table. Ugly fight, awesome King performance, and that's exciting for me as I hadn't seen the guy work in probably well over a decade. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Nick Gage

ER: It's cool Gage made it out as a way to cap off the show, but I think his power is minimized a lot by showing up at the end of a show where every single match had one of the guys essentially "doing" Nick Gage. These are all going to be bloody fights, and by the time we get to the main event of these shows we have seen EVERYTHING. So even though Gage and Murdoch have the best "sitting in chairs while punching face" sequence on the show, it is also the third time we have seen that routine. Gage has charisma that brings a higher floor into his matches, and the energy he brings to a crowd is undeniable. He and Murdoch punch each other in the face, and I loved how Gage geared up, took a lot of shots, kicked his chair away and flew into Murdoch with a diving elbow. Both guys took some disgusting shots, like Gage getting thrown through a sliced cans board, and plenty of ugly bumps through chairs. Murdoch wins with a brainbuster on a bent to hell chair, which was sick and looked like something that should definitely finish a match. And, it did finish a match, literally right before this match. And that's kind the problem with shows like this. Even with an appropriate number of matches, it is incredibly hard to still WOW a viewer at the end of a show like this. We all learned that a long time ago, the best matches of a deathmatch tournament are almost always 1st round matches, and on a show like this where everyone is using mostly the same props you're going to see even more of the ideas being used up halfway through. A match like this would have played far better as the main event of a normal wrestling show, but this is the kind of match that drew a nice crowd so more power to these lunatics. 

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AIW Is This Something You Might Be Interested in? 4/30/21

Kaplan vs. Levi Everett

ER: This was fine, a little wandering for a 6 minute opener, but not bad. Neither guy has a ton of finesse or accuracy behind their strikes, but they throw them with intent and that is more important. I'm always partial to a hairline struggle brawl, makes things hit a little better. Everett has a great "Buffalo Bill on a bad day" faded glory, and Kaplan sports a "Me in a few years", and I dig Kaplan grabbing Everett by the hair to smack him around a bit. Commentary does a cool job of putting Kaplan over as a blue collar brawler, a guy who had a war with Matthew Justice the night before, woke up at 5 AM for his contractor gig, then came to this show to brawl with a butter churner. Kaplan takes an awesome bump off the top to the floor, hitting the wooden stage stairs on the way down, and later misses a huge cannonball into the guardrail. I like a match structured around a fat guy missing his offense, although Everett comes off a bit too big to be working as much like Spike Dudley as he was. Still, I liked Everett's flying back elbow, and him dodging Kaplan offense was cool. Kaplan was really swinging on clotheslines, and you knew if one of them hit that it was going to hit hard. And what do you know? Everett does a kind of pointless arm break spot (can we start shifting away from breaking arms and fingers in matches? It kind of makes any long term storytelling a bit tough), but Kaplan saves it by jamming his shoulder back into the socket before laying Everett the hell out with a standing lariat. 

Louis Lyndon/Jack Verville vs. Chuck Stone/Arthur McArthur

ER: This felt more like Chikara than AIW, and the moments wasted on horseshit weren't that interesting, but once they built to the finishing stretch things picked up nicely. Lyndon and Verville are working as "9 to 5", like the old Mr. Zero gimmick but really half-assed, just wearing generic lucha masks and button downs and only occasionally integrating the gimmick. If you're going to make rolled up dress shirts and neckties your gimmick, I'm going to need something more interesting than necktie chokes. The sentiment of "This business has kicked us around for over a decade and we haven't made it anywhere in it, so we are just getting normal jobs" is a good one, but the ring work never really matched up to the sentiment. If they snipped out the early match comedy and picked things up on McArthur hitting a wild dive, we would have had something. That was the real turning point, and once Chuck Stone tagged in we kept up a nice pace to the finish. Stone is a beefy guy who comes in with some nice avalanches, big black hole slam, takes a cool double dropkick from 9 to 5, and we build to a nutso iron claw powerbomb where McArthur palms one of 9 to 5 from the top rope into a powerbomb over Stone's knee. Still, overall not a great use of time and a debuting gimmick should have more oomph. 

Allysin Kay vs. Joseline Navarro

ER: This match really surprised me with how physical it was. A lot of modern women's wrestling is really heavily structured around rehearsed sequences, and this had much more of a fight feel with minimal rehearsed bits, no shocked face kickouts, and a lot of good thuds. I think Allysin Kay is the actual wrestler that people say Kris Statlander is. Kay is super confident in the ring and comes off very comfortable pacing a match, and it wouldn't be shocking to see her become a kind of Chris Hero type ring general in the next 5-10 years. Kay has been wrestling a long time and Hero has nearly 5x the matches as she does, so it's not like becoming a Chris Hero type is a quick journey. But she has that confidence and ring presence, and Joseline (first time seeing her) was a good opponent for her style. Kay works over her shoulder and chokes Joseline with her own arms, and Joseline takes a couple of hard bumps into the guardrail and got dragged and smacked around ringside. I loved her dragging Kay to the floor by the legs, but Kay pump kicking her backwards into the rail. Joseline took the bump really fast, the way the best lucha bases can also expertly fling themselves into the barricade after a nice catch. Kay's bullying was really great, go so far as to rip off one of Joseline's fake eyelashes, which is an fantastic spot. Joseline hits a sick low crossbody while Kay is slumped in the corner, but I think it would have been a bit better had Kay kind of punched through a win instead of wearing her down a bit. It felt a little long down the very home stretch even though it was under 10 minutes, but I still think it built to a good finish. Impressed with both here, love it when a match sneaks up and kicks my ass. 

Tommy Rich/Mance Warner/Philly Marino Experience vs. Bitcoin Boyz/The Duke/Ethan Wright

ER: This starts as a fun Wildfire vs. Mance singles before the Bitcoin Boyz and Ethan Wright run in and beat them both down, with The Duke working some fun "explaining the beatdown" mic work, stretching reallllll far to start a fight by reasoning that Wright was trained by Harley Race, and Rich beat Race for the title, so Wright is working a "Getting Revenge for My Sensei" angle which is a hilarious and great way to get us into an 8 man brawl. Tommy Rich is 64 years old and it is insane that he is one of the ECW guys who are still occasionally working. He works this the way Satanico would have been working matches had he gained 80 pounds. The match absolutely nails the best vibe for the first 2/3 of this but then falls apart once they get to the prop portion of the match, but the highs are awesome. The first 6 minutes are the kind of thing AIW does best, 8 guys brawling around with all of them doing compelling stuff, fighting for your own attention, and somehow not getting in each other's way. Every time I see PME I'm immediately reminded why I love PME so much. Marino and Philly rescue Tommy and Mancer and both hit planchas onto the heels, and both throw blows that really land. Mancer kicked a whole lotta ass in the early portions of this, just nukes Ethan Wright with a running knee, and the Bitcoin Boyz always impress me with their willingness to lean into hard strikes and JAPW student bumps. Things begin to drag a bit when my boy Duke takes a bit long setting up a couple spots before taking his big bump through a table. He's at his best when he comes in, hits a great big boot, then takes an unexpectedly hard bump. But I liked his "high school coach doing a Vader bomb on the charity show" and the Bitcoin Boyz also took gnarly bumps through tables. Overall this kicked ass, but the best stuff came in the first two acts. 

Big Twan Tucker vs. Derek Dillinger vs. Brayden Lee vs. Casey Carrington vs. Riley Rose vs. TKD

ER: AIW multi-mans are always good at filling 6-7 minutes because they seem to have a bottomless roster filled with guys who can go in a match like this. Derek Dillinger (formerly Director but still carrying his clapboard) and Big Twan were the best guys in the match, but Dillinger's second Ziggy Haim was the real standout star. She's the second gal on this show I hadn't see before, and then wanted to see more. She exists in this match to get kicked, get absolutely lawn darted into a sea of people by Dillinger, and then get human shielded into a huge Twan spear. Dillinger is good at hitting hard and setting up cool spots, and he makes things like bodyslamming someone onto someone else look really violent. Brayden Lee took too long to make his entrance (indy wrestling is all about choosing entrance songs with way too long intros and then bursting through the curtain when the beat changes) and so I wanted to see him pummeled, but he had some real nice flying offense like a big Fosbury Flop to the floor and a crazy springboard 360 kneedrop to break up a pin. Twan knocks Carrington into the crowd with a running ringside Pounce and I liked Dillinger getting the win. 

40 Acres (PB Smooth/Tre Lamar) vs. The Mane Event (Duke Davis/Ganon Jones Jr.)

ER: A match with a lot of potential that didn't quite click. Mane Event are working a college football athlete gimmick, which I love. Both had a couple cool things but didn't seem like they really gelled as a team, didn't have a ton of flow to their runs of offense. But they had a cool, cocky vibe and Duke threw a Lamar-folding Saito suplex. Plus, their names are fantastic. What a great set of names. Duke Davis and Ganon Jones Jr.? Sounds like a best buddies who happen to be a star tight end and a quick pivot running back, respectively. Smooth hits a great big lariat to build to a Lamar hot tag, and they consistently did things I liked, but parts dragged. It felt like a tag that would be a lot better next year, after Mane Event syncs more up with AIW tag style. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: Eddie Kingston is a fucking psycho, he was doing an unadvertised drop in on an old indy promotion of his, on a day off of his contracted wrestling job. He could have come in, did a little shtick, worked the mic a bit, took a couple of easy bumps, give a post-match speech and everyone would have been happy. Instead, this may be the stiffest match of his entire career. He and Garrini brutalized each other, hard shot after hard shot, it reminded me of the Ki vs. Samoa Joe Fight Without Honor which help make both of those guys.  It all started with some pretty slick grappling. Kingston is a guy who trains BJJ and he clearly wanted to spar a bit with Garrini on the mat to open up, but soon it goes to the floor where it really unloads. 

Garrini does this great thing where he underhooks an arm before throwing Kingston ribs first into the guardrail so he couldn't block the impact, and cracks Eddie with some big forearms, chops, and a face wash into the guardrail. Kingston does this great sell a couple of times in the match, where a hard shot will almost energize him. He gets hit with a shot to the ear on the floor and he bums rushes Garrini and wails on him, like he didn't sign up for how hard he got hit.  He repeats it at the end of the match when Garrini hits a thunderclap of a slap to the side of his head and Eddie rushes him a second time to get him out of there with a half and half and three backfists. In between those two moments we had brutal violent shots by both guys, full of great fatigue and stunned selling by both guys. Meat and Potatoes wrestling (pun intended) and they couldn't have delivered more. 

ER: I, too, am stunned at how stiff Kingston decided to work this, as Phil explained on his off day from his main wrestling gig. Jerry Lawler wasn't typically taking time off from WWE to get punched and chopped in the eye. This is stiffer than any of Kingston's AEW matches, and you'd think if you're willing to get beaten up like this you'd want the most people possible to see it. Kingston has that same kind of vibe as Cactus Jack taking ugly bumps on every high school gym floor in the country. The crowd reaction is great for Kingston's return and it's like it inspires him to really amp things up. I loved the progression of it all, and the early matwork was really cool. Kingston is a fun guy to watch unfold a match, not really a guy with a well worn style. He's capable of taking so many different directions in a match that I just as easily could have seen this staying mat based the entire time. Kingston had cool ways of keeping distance while getting into knucklelocks, throws a kick to the inside of Dom's leg, scrambles out of an ankle pick and armbar, it all felt like they easily could have stretched it into a match. 

But things go to the floor and with no warning whatsoever the go to the floor and start wasting each other. This match was filled with brutal chops and they all started in this close up display, where it's like they were showing all the fans up close how stiff this was going to be. Dom hits some running kicks to Kingston's face and body, Kingston gets furious at the gall Dom has by hitting him so hard and just laces in with mean chops. And that's how all of this goes. I do think some parts went on a bit long, didn't need a long extended kneel and chop section and some of the stand and trade lingers, but they hit each other so hard through it that even those sections take on a sicko charm. Kingston also really makes sure to check off 3 of the 4 pillars too, as he and Dom trade brutal Kawada short kicks and knees to the face (Kingston's whole face looked like it was being rearranged on these Dom kicks), both throwing tons of fast Kobashi chops, and Kingston dropping Dom with a classic Misawa combo in the corner. Kingston makes long standing exchanges more interesting than anybody else in wrestling, and he finishes this with more of that attitude that he is just fed up with how hard he's being hit. He gets nailed and then just angrily throws Dom with a half nelson suplex, then just starts hitting backfists until it's over. Brutal, can't believe they went nearly 20 at this kind of pace. 

Matthew Justice vs. Joshua Bishop

ER: This feels like it's been the primary feud the entire time I've been watching AIW, but it's a feud I enjoy. I've really enjoyed Bishop's evolution into the heavyweight champ, and I am always entertained by Justice's specific title challenger main event charisma. And this was definitely a Matthew Justice/Joshua Bishop match. They do the best job of anyone on the Indies at working ECW/XPW dream matches, with the exact same nostalgia scratch, but with a real death wish thrill. These two are crazy, and they bring out the craziest parts in each other. Justice starts by jumping off the top onto Bishop and Barkley on the ramp, and Bishop comes back and brains Justice with a chair, and that's how this whole things goes. Bishop bleeds a ton, an excellent mask that runs into his hair, and there are some insanely reckless spills into unkillable furniture. Fonzie gets very involved, and they get just as crazy as the men they're protecting. Barkley throws Fonzie into the second row, and Fonzie comes back and Shane McMahon's Barkley over and over into a table that refuses to break, even dropping Barkley onto his head with a Death Valley driver. Bishop wrecks a door over Justice's body, Justice flings himself over the guardrail into Bishop, and we build to a huge Justice splash off the top rope through Bishop and two tables. Bishop's splash mountain looks like it should wreck Justice, and I have no idea how Justice works as often as he does. The finish is some great violent improv over that same fucking unkillable table, with Justice taking a tombstone on it, then a splash mountain, then Bishop sets it up in the corner and runs Justice into it as hard as possible, then just beats Justice with it. The table stays standing, but Justice finally goes down. Some of the prop and table set up took far too long, but the hits paid off big for me, and these two are two of the only guys that make me think they genuinely want to injure the other whenever they fight. It's like the nuttiest backyard feud ever and I love it. 

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Matches from Southern Underground Pro 12/21/19

Kevin Ku/Dominic Garrini vs. Warhorse/Graham Bell

PAS: I liked parts of this a bunch, Ku and Garrini are guys who come up with fun ways to really hurt people, and Bell and Warhorse also hit really hard, I especially liked the parts where Garinni would hold up Bell and Ku would kick him or stomp him in the back of the head. Still this had a bunch of winky shit at the beginning, Ku wearing a Christmas sweater to block chops,  Ku and Garrini bringing in crowbars and begging the ref not to DQ them,  Bell doing a dive that required both opponents to stand their agape waiting for him. Liked the finish run enough to recommend it, but disliked the bad comedy enough to keep it off a MOTY list.

Brett Ison vs. Zach Cooper

ER: I was really excited for this one when I saw the card. Cooper is a really young guy who hit the ground running in 2019, and feels like a real quick learner. I got to see him at SCI this year and at the end of my weekend his match vs. Manders and Big Beef wound up being my second favorite match of the weekend. It put all three of them on the map for me as guys I would be actively seeking out. Sadly the next night I was enjoying Cooper vs. Garrini, but Cooper got injured mid match and the match got stopped. Ison was a guy I saw in the main event of the same show. Ison won the main event, Cooper left the opener injured.  My eyes saw that story play out, and I wanted to see this progression. And it was fun! It wasn't quite the type of big hoss battle I like, but that's fine. This was more of the modern If RVD Was 60 lb. Heavier matches and while big guy handstand spots aren't really my thing, there are still going to be heavy guys slamming into each other. And if there are going to be cartwheels in a match, they may as well be Cooper getting his arm knocked out from under him on the apron. And there are some RVD spots that are much better as big guy spots, like their big corner dropkicks. Coast to coast dropkicks are going to look cooler from a 260 lb. guy. I thought things built well and had a nicely ramped finish, and both guys are going to keep getting better.

Big Beef vs. Adam Priest

ER: Oh yeah, this is a peak Worldwide match. Beef looks like if Chris Sabin was never able to control his munchies, almost to the point where it's a shame Beef isn't coming out wearing a Guatemalan sweatshirt. In another life Beef was the guy selling poorly made grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot of Dead shows, trying to bum a way in. This whole thing is 3 1/2 minutes, and it all rules. I don't think I've ever seen Priest before, but he makes a nice impression by cheapshotting Beef and hitting a big dive before a bell has even rung, and from there they work a quick sprint filled with hard shots and nasty spills. Beef struggling to recover from the cheapshot gives Priest believable openings, including a couple of believably thrown and nasty suplexes. Beef has a lot of size on Priest, so it would look silly if he was lifting him easily, so instead he hits a low angle fast German that is more of a leverage throw than a strength throw (bouncing Beef right off his shoulder), and later barely gets him up for a back suplex (which makes the landing look harder). Priest threw nice chops and was always smart about burying a knee into Beef's stomach before going for Irish whips, but Beef is what was for damn dinner tonight. He can really move and really lands with a thud; he hits an awesome crossbody while Priest is draped over the middle rope, just flying right through Priest to the floor, and he wins the match with an ungodly top rope splash that made me respect Priest more for not immediately puking his guts out. This feels like it would have been a legendary Worldwide match.

PAS: Really fun sprint. Both guys get a big to shine, and the highs were really high. I liked Priest coming out fast and fierce early, and getting some moments of real near falls, only to fall to that three move combo from Beef. His nasty powerbomb, into a smushy bodypress against the ropes, into a final top rope splash is about as cool a jab-right cross-left hook combo as you are going to see in wrestling.

Big Twan Tucker vs. Jaden Newman

PAS: Big Twan is a total stud and so much fun to watch. He would have these monster burst of offense, where he just slammed Newman through the mat, there was a tremendous spot where he caught Newman in mid air and just flung him like a bag of flour into a sidewalk slam. He also countered a dive by splitting Newman in half with a spear. Then Newman would fire back with some super weak looking shit, and make faces. Newman wins the match with a terrible looking flippy elbow to the back of Twan's head which he has to sell like he got hit with a lead pipe. Just a chasm between the credibility of both guys stuff, one of the most BS finishes of the year. Twan can take the beating that Manders gives him, and beat guys on TV like MJF and Ethan Page and he goes down to that?

AC Mack vs. Mr. Brickster

PAS: Man I loved parts of this a lot and absolutely hated a big chunk. Brickster is a super likable babyface, while Mack is a great asshole heel and this was a really classic pro-wrestling set up. Mack had put Brickster on the shelf for 8 months with a knee injury and Brickster was going for revenge and to take the title. It goes great for a while with Mack working over the bad knee and Brickster firing back. Then they do this long section where Brickster takes a dick pillow with Mack's face and has a bunch of people in the crowd hit him with it. This was the big babyface comeback to get revenge for a knee injury, having a bunch of hipsters hit him with a pillow. Just awful stuff, which ground the match to a halt. They then try to have have a bunch of dramatic near falls after we just saw the top heel sell a pillow fight like a chair shot. The finish with the GA vs. TN civil war stuff was cool, and it was smart to keep Mack on top and push off his eventual revenge, but I am losing faith in this fed's ability to keep their winking TikTok wrestling out of their main event angles.

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Monday AIW: 200th Show 11/2/19

CPA vs. Wes Barkley

PAS: Not sure what the point of CPA is. He doesn't seem to be doing the clip-on tie gimmick anymore, and now his gimmick seems to be middler at a local comedy club. There was some OK stuff with a knee injury, and I like Wes, but undercard singles match isn't what he does well. CPA goes over with a facebreaker on his bad knee, and I am perplexed.

Danhausen vs. VSK

PAS: What is it with crappy three initial wrestlers going over cool AIW regulars on this show. Danhausen is a great tag guy, but as a singles wrestler he is a little too concerned with trying to get over his memes. Still his actual work was pretty good, while VSK seemed to over enunciate every action, and his offense seemed to be all complicated ways to drop a guy on his own knee. They do some thing at the end where Danhausen drinks a White Claw, and spits at Derek Director, and yadda yadda. Tik Tok wrestling stinks.

Zach Thomas vs. Wheeler YUTA

PAS: Thomas is pretty fun to watch, he is a big kid who bangs away. YUTA is pretty dancy and the dancy YUTA parts of this match aren't great, although Thomas looks pretty good throwing fast armdrags. When the match settles down to Thomas throwing bombs and YUTA avoiding him and using his speed it gets fun. I really liked the couple of times Thomas just hurls his body into Yuta like a fullback trying to open up a hole.

Lee Moriarty vs. Alex Shelley

PAS: I was absolutely dreading this when I saw it on the match list. Moriarty is a guy with a tendency towards swing dancery and Shelley is the all time maestro of that style. While this match certainly had more than it's fair share of somersaults and dipsy dos, it had some other stuff which made it watchable. Shelley actually worked pretty stiff, and did a nice job as a pissed off veteran against a young guy, and Moriarty did some nice arm work leading to some big Fujiwara near falls after some pretty La Mistica's. I still don't think I would recommend this match, but I liked it way more then I thought I would, and it is Shelley's best match since coming back to AIW.

65. Bitcoin Boyz vs. Bear Country vs. To Infinity and Beyond vs. 40 Acres

PAS: This is what I came here for. The AIW four way tag match is pretty much a guaranteed blast every time. This is almost all new teams for this format, so it cements my belief that To Infinity and Beyond are the glue of this match structure. Fun structure here with two teams of beasts (Bear Country and 40 Acres) and two bumping heel teams (TIAB and Bitcoin). There is a fun spot early where Colin Delaney stumbles in between a face off between Bear Country and 40 Acres and ends up getting smashed by all four dudes. AJ Gray has really leaned into fucking people up and I am here for it, when I first watched him he was more of a thick highflyer and now he wrestles more like shorter Stan Hansen. Bear Country are a fun indy version of the War Raiders, perfect for this kind of match as they can hit their big dude spots and not have to put a full match together. Bitcoin Boys are neat, two tiny opportunistic little jerks who absolutely get obliterated.

ER: Love this. At this point I'm going to be shocked whenever AIW runs a 4 way tag match that doesn't wind up on our MOTY list. And this one has Eddie Kingston on commentary, which is such a beautiful combination of the very best things that it would be like In N Out also becoming a dispensary. Kingston talks about how he thinks Cheech is an ugly dude, compares him to Giant Baba, drops gems like "What is Delaney gonna get powerbombed for the fifth time?" or "He probably learned that from Quackenbush. So did I. Doesn't mean I use it though." Kingston loves this kind of chaos and the glee in his voice while the chaos is happening just makes me enjoy my favorite match structure even more. We get some great sequences and set ups all throughout, too many to mention. Bitcoin Boyz are super new, and they fit in nicely by bumping big (Taylor takes maybe the bump of the match when he gets tossed over the top, tries to hang on, and basically falls down the ring steps and winds up 15 feet away from the ring; at the same time Mikey was taking a cutter from Delaney into a Cheech German suplex that landed him on his neck and shoulders), Delaney and Cheech continue to run everything - my favorite team in 2019 - and here's Delaney getting crushed by everyone bigger than him, then coming back and working nutty spots on Cheech's shoulders (ducking  a Smooth clothesline that sends Smooth to the floor on a low bridge), then flipping over (baaaaarely) when Mikey hits a crossbody off the top while he is still on Cheech's shoulders. AJ Gray was out here murdering folks with lariats, PB punched Boulder right in the face, Boulder hits his cool powerslam/powerbomb combo on TIAB, the dive train lands big, it all rules. And The Duke is out there, you know he's gotta take a shot that allows him to sell better than anyone else in the match. He eats a punch on the floor and then sprawls perfectly into the guardrail to hold himself up. After the match he even gets into it with Ted Dibiase, and AARP Dibiase throws a great punch and then a shockingly gorgeous Russian legsweep while holding Duke in the million dollar dream. Another AIW show, another great 4 way tag.

49. Manders vs. Big Twan Tucker

PAS: This was the rubber match of my favorite indy series of the year. The first match is still the best, as it was totally out of nowhere, but this ruled too and these guys have some real chemistry. Tucker has an awesome intensity which is hard to teach, when he comes out it feels like some shit is about to pop the fuck off, and Manders is a perfect foil for that as he is unwilling to do anything but charge into the abyss.  Both guys only have one speed. There is a hilarious moment on commentary when Eddie Kingston mentions that Twan was trained by Johnny Gargano and Manders was trained by Tyler Black and I just imagine how horrible that battle of the trainers would be. Loved Manders breaking out Twan's elbow combos early, only for Twan to fire back and smash him right back. There is another great moment where Tucker has Manders in the corner and he unloads with a 10 punch combo to the body, working his kidneys like a heavy bag. Twan also has some awesome strength spots,  including snatching Manders mid air during a three point stance clothesline spot attempt. I did think Twan's rana out of the corner may have been a bit too cute for this match, but it was a big pop.  I think this may have gone a couple minutes long, as it is hard not to get a bit gassed working their pace. Still what an awesome collision, I love both of these guys unconditionally.

ER: Yeah these are two guys I seek out at this point, but I've yet to see them look quite as good against others as they do against each other. They have real chemistry and really bring out that something from beyond. Manders throws the Twan elbows and that is a mistake as Twan lays them right back in, then tenderized his torso with a punch of great corner punches all fired at the body. The chops land hard, shoulderblocks look like they would put most cars up on two wheels at least for a bit, Twan hits a boss Thesz press, there are a few huge slams and suplexes, and I actually like the Twan rana. These two were both just eating every nasty slam and strike and then getting up for more, and I liked how the rana shifted things from just another big slam into something that distracted and sort of threw off Manders. The Twan spear is iconic, and these two really can't do wrong against each other.

PME vs. Dr. Dan/Parker Pierce

PAS: PME has really mastered the art of the old school southern tag, and while Dr. Dan and Parker Pierce aren't close to the top heel team in AIW (no diss as AIW has an amazing tag division), but this is great stuff. Really reminds me of a Rock and Rolls tag against a fun random heel team like Jake Roberts and the Barbarian. You can just plug and play. Pierce is a blast in this, some real hard shots, a great spinebuster and even a hook kick. Dr. Dan has some fun stooging and takes his one horrific bump per match (dropping off the top rope through a table). PME had some fun wrinkles in their formula including some nifty stuff with the legal man and how that effected their near falls. I hope PME keeps these titles for a long time because there is a seemingly endless batch of fun teams to match them up with.

Erick Stevens vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: Meathead ECW brawl which is something Justice is adept at. Goes way into overkill as you would expect, but we do have some big stunts, including a spear through a door, an avalanche death valley driver through a table, tons of head drop suplexes and a spot where Fonzie lays a half a dozen chairs and pieces of doors in front of Stevens face for a coast to coast dropkick. There were 10+ times this match probably should have ended, and it eventually lost me a bit. Still a fun spectacle, and Stevens gets to cross this kind of match off his bucket list.

58. Eddie Kingston vs. Tre Lamar

PAS: This is Eddie as old man Tenryu which is a really great Eddie look. He works over Lamar and makes the kid earn his stripes. He does all of the parts of the Tenryu shtick well, the contempt, the grudging respect, the panic when things aren't working out, and finally the determination to finish the kid off. I liked Lamar in this a bunch too, he hit and run well, and really timed the big moves well. I especially loved the double stomp near falls, with Kingston rolling around the ring in pain and Lamar shocked in disbelief.

ER: This feels like the kind of tough match that Kingston can have in his sleep at this point. I love domineering Kingston, because few guys are better at being domineering in a ring in 2019, and I don't know if anyone is as good as Kingston at being the domineering guy who starts to lose control. I love him stalking the ring, knowing Lamar's moves before Lamar is throwing them, always there waiting with a big chop. And I love once Lamar starts getting a couple over on him that Kingston's big mouth keeps getting him in trouble, like when Lamar comes up a little light on a running knee and Kingston calls him out on it, only to then eat a much harder running knee. Kingston sells that kind of stuff like a god, going loopy and grabbing a muscle memory double leg from the ground, even selling a nerve twitch in his neck from yelling. I did think Lamar came up a little tentative in spots, unnecessarily physically moving a standing Kingston into a spot to take something from the apron, and he was a beat behind hitting the enziguiri after a Kingston backfist (I was already not going to like him hitting immediate offense after taking a backfist, so it really should have looked devastating). But Kingston must have sensed my dismay as he decided to just throw backfists until Lamar stays down, and I am fine with that.

Nick Gage vs. Joshua Bishop

PAS: I thought this was a fun performance by everyone in this match although the match itself was a little disappointing. I don't think Gage is a great wrestler, but he really has a presence and means something in way few wrestlers in the the world mean something. Bishop getting the win over Gage feels like big moment in his career. It is tough to work a big stunt show like this after Stevens and Justice pushed it to 11; no chair shot or table bump is going to mean much after that explosion. Wes Barkley was great on the outside, he took the two biggest bumps in the match, and was Jimmy Hart level annoying.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Thursday AIW: Bad Boy For Life Live Blog!!

PAS: AIW is my favorite promotion in the world, and while I really don't care about Janela vs. Alex Shelly, the idea of an AIW show with a surprise card intrigues me, so I figured I would check it out live.

Tre Lamar vs. Lee Moriarty

PAS: Fun start with both guys throwing bombs from the start. Moriarty didn't really do any of his goofy WOS I don't care for, and hit coolest spot of the match wasting Lamar with a tope into the guardrail that looked like it broke his back. Lamar is really good at using his leaping and flipping into stuff that looks really painful, his Pele kick is really high and fast and he rolls into nasty suplexes. Not a ton of selling, and Lamar just goes back on offense after getting smashed with nasty kicks for near falls. Still cool opener and this show is 1 for 1.

Zach Thomas vs. KTB

PAS: This is another bit of good match making, the local corn fed powerhouse, against the imported monster. Really fun slugfest, both guys have really fun powerhouse offense. I love Thomas's spinebuster, and he lands some big chops and forearms and a great jumping kick. KTB even breaks out the Mr. Fuji diving headbutt which is a great spot to steal. There is a one count spot which is a little played out, otherwise this was exactly what you want it to be. Old school UWF style slugfest heavyweight wrestling.

Weird World vs. Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Parker Pierce

PAS: Weird World matches have a super high floor, you know at a minimum you are going to get some cool Baba chops, and some sick Weird Body bumps, I have never seen a Weird World match I haven't at least enjoyed. This was on the higher end of Weird World stuff, Weird Body really takes a beating from Pierce who is a fun crowbar,  I like how the announcers put over his baseball background as an advantage for his chops and clotheslines. Dr. Dan stretches out Weird Body with a cool torture rack variation too. Then we get a huge Dr. Dan bump, as Weird Body climbs everyone in the match to give Dr. Dan a sunset flip powerbomb right on the stage, totally uncalled for and totally gross.

Joey Janela vs. Alex Shelley

PAS I really didn't like Alex Shelley versus Dom from last week, as it felt like Shelley just ran through his stuff without too much concern for what his opponent was doing. Here Shelley wasn't in exhibition mode, he was in super indy "Fight Forever" mode, which is a little better, but still basically tiring. Janela hung with Shelley's mat stuff early, and I enjoyed Shelley's heel stuff including just grinding his boot into Janela's balls. This had some big stuff, but eventually just turned into a 2019 2.9 near fall match, which I am pretty much done with. I think this is what Janela was hoping to do, and he showed he can hang in this type of PWG match, not my thing though

Danhausen vs. PB Smooth

PAS: I really liked this match with the face and heel orientations reversed, and it was even better with Danhausen as a plucky creeper underdog. Loved how Danhausen used his speed to stick and move and let PB Smooth beat himself, including Smooth chopping the top of the guardrail. When Smooth catches him, he just chucks him around the ring like he was throwing bags of wheat. With Danhausen getting in shots here and there. The spot where Danhausen puts spare teeth in someone's mouth is pretty creepy but for a signature comedy spot (horror spot?) it is pretty rad. Love every version of the 40 Acres vs. Production feud and want it to go on forever

The Duke/Bitcoin Boys vs. PME/Allie Cat

PAS: Starts out with some comedy wrestling varying from pretty funny (Marino stealing Mikey Montgomery's phone) to pretty stupid (Eric Taylor being allergic to cats). It breaks down into a pretty fun tag team, not a big Allie Cat fan,  but she will stiff a Bitcoin Boy, and PME are pretty unassailable at this point. Duke is in a weird position, as he is way bigger and more violent then either of the guys he is managing, pretty weird to do a six man tag match where the manager is the heater. Dug the finish run and the double Sunset Dreams is a cool finish

Manders vs. Big Twan Tucker

PAS: Their first match was one of my favorite matches of the year, just an insane intense fist fight from two giant psychos. This wasn't at that level, but it was still great and had moments which rivaled the best of that match. I think this went a bit longer and they stretched out and did some things that weren't just distilled face punching. The distilled face punching was there though and there was some moments where they were just flinging stiff slaps and forearms right into each others jaws that it jumped up a level, this may have had the only good looking hockey fight spot I can remember seeing in wrestling. I loved how they were slapping the teeth out of each others mouths all match, but they even ramped it up another level for the final exchange. They are 1 and 1 now, so we have to get a rubber match, and I am amped.

Dominic Garrini vs. Joshua Bishop

PAS: We get back to back rematches of my two favorite AIW matches of the year. These guys had a truly harrowing brawl WrestleMania weekend, and they get right back after it. Dom opens up with a tope and they just rip after each other. There are some real old school brain damaging chair shots in this match, some big moves through doors and Bishop getting skewers jammed into his heart. At one point Dom gives Bishop an F5 chest first on a barbed wire law chair. Wes Barkley comes in with a neck brace and I hope he isn't really hurt, because he gets mangled in this match, jerked about by his neck and F5ed on the Necro tops of the chairs. It didn't have the insane ending of the I Quit match, but man this had almost the level of violence, these two boys are crazy.

Eric Ryan vs. Matthew Justice

PAS Man they don't give you a break. AIW follows the crazy violence of the Dom vs. Bishop match, with these two nuts. They open the match with a barfight, with Ryan having his fist wrapped in a chain of forks, and Justice wrapping his fist in bullets. They must have dumped five coffee cups full of thumbtacks on the mat and took some gross bumps into the tack (at one point Ryan just throws a handful of tacks into Fonzie's face and Fonzie seems to be pulling one out of his eye, gross) We get guys tossed through fork doors, and finally Justice giving Ryan a Vertebreaker through a huge light tube bundle. Totally extra, in every way, two of the nuttier death matches guys around doing a nutty deathmatch

PAS: Killer show, this is a roster I love to see mix and matched like this and I enjoyed every match, with a couple of rematches which totally banged.

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Monday AIW (Sort Of) - UXWA 25/8 1/12/19

UXWA is another Cleveland fed which uses a bunch of our AIW favorites and puts up matches on Youtube. Their January show is online and has a bunch of fun matches, so this is sort of AIW Monday digression.

PME vs. Weird World vs. Razor City Shooters

PAS: Oddball set up for this match, with Weird World apparently being heels in this fed, and Bishop and Barkley coming in as babyfaces. It is just odd to watch Wes Barkley doing babyface mirror sections with Mario T. Weird World are fun heels, good at taunting the crowd and turning their babyface spots into asshole heel spots, but this was overall a little disappointing. The timing seemed off in spots, and it is hard to work two babyfaces versus one heel team psychology. There were a couple of spots which were flat out missed, and these are guys who usually having their steps down pat. Shooters turn heel post match setting up a more sensible heel Shooters vs. face PME match at the next show.

Culmination vs. Production

PAS: This was a battle of Industrial kids verses Theatre Goths. Culmination didn't do much for me, very superkicky. This Production line up was Danhausen and Frankie Flynn, and they had some fun combos, and I liked Danhausen's reckless topes. Still, sort of a forgettable tag.

Zach Thomas vs. Brian Carson

PAS: I have enjoyed Carson as sort of a lower card crowbar in the past, but this was more weak sister New Japan then crowbar. Lots of not great elbow exchanges. Also, Carson wrestled the entire match with plumber's butt. I do like Thomas's cannonball in the corner, and he put some steam on his stuff later in the match. Thomas had a great match with Eddie Kingston in AIW later in the year and has a lot of promise. This wasn't much though.

PB Smooth vs. Big Twan Tucker

PAS: The parts of this that were big dudes pounding on each other was pretty good. I especially liked all of the early shoulder blocks and shit talking. They lose a little momentum when they set up a spot which involved running all around the arena to shoulder block each other. At one point Twan gets stuck behind a guardrail and has to extricate himself to keep running. For a match built on intensity it really gets hurt by killing intensity like that. They pick it up some at the end and Big Twan is able to hit his huge spear to win. Overall fun stuff, and I imagine this match-up will be great with a bit more seasoning from both.

ER: I am...kinda surprised at how little I cared for this. This match on paper was the first to really jump out at me when I scanned the card, but a lot of this just landed flat for me. The running was silly, and they really didn't do a ton with it. I assume they were trying to add some flavor to "tired" shoulderblock exchanges, but I hate when guys try to fix something that worked perfectly fine. Back in the ring things felt real sluggish. Obviously, I'm not talking about the speed the guys move - they're big boys - the whole thing just had a tired 75% feel to it. Even PB's big boots were missing past Twan the whole time. There were elements I liked, the energy at the very beginning, the spear finish, but this one really let me down.

Tre Lamar vs. Chase Winters vs. TKD vs. Paul Pierce vs. Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham

PAS: This was really not good, lots of do-si-do arm whips and complex attempts that didn't land. TKD had some amusing martial arts spots, and I liked Lamar's dives, but most of this match was a real mess. I think these kinds of matches need a veteran to work out the kinks and direct traffic. Louis Lyndon might have been able to salvage it, but he wasn't there.

Ryder Reid vs. Derek Director

PAS: This was an entertaining indy wrestling match. Director is a bunch of fun in this, adding a bunch of seasoning to the indy move exchanges. I really liked how he manipulated Reid's fingers so he would flip off a little kid in the crowd. He really came off hateable in this. Move of the match was probably Director fireman's carry flipping Reid over the top rope. Director also missed a leg drop and landed right on his tailbone. Nothing I'll remember at the end of the year, but the best match on the show so far.

Chase Oliver vs. Dominic Garrini 

PAS: This was the best match on the show, and a really fun bully Garrini performance. I liked him using big takedowns early to control Oliver, and he wasn't afraid to lay in some big shots, including some nice knees to the midsection. Oliver is a hell of an athlete (his kip up is one of the most explosive this side of Ricochet) , and while he is certainly built for crazy AIW multiman matches, I thought he was fun here. Liked his pair of topes, and the running death valley bomb in the corner was nasty. I thought the shooting star press which Garrini catches in a triangle was a really cool spot and probably should have been the finish, although the piledriver Dom hits is pretty nasty too.

ER: Oliver is a guy I have loved in AIW multimans, but if this match was my first shot of him I don't think I would ever go out of my way for more. He's always looked like a generic kickpads indy guy, but in unhinged AIW tags he would always stand out as a guy with expert timing and cool offense, here he looks exactly as uninteresting as every other generic indy kickpads guy. He had a match long run checking many of my "least favorite things in indy wrestling" boxes. We had an overshot moonsault, a half speed legsweep that looked like it wouldn't knock anyone off their feet, a Spanish Fly variation where you couldn't tell who took the move or why it caused them to bump, a crucifix bomb that saw Dom land on him full weight so it looked like he was pinning Dom after getting crushed by him (amusingly Dom did a senton not long after this - a good one - and didn't appear to land as hard on Oliver as he did on this move Oliver was supposedly doing), timed offense that felt out of time (including three straight awkward armdrags), lazy looking kick from the apron, just a real treasure trove of things that make me skip matches. His two topes looked nice, and the shooting star press into a triangle looked incredible and really should have been the finish. The landing was hard and his face looked like he had KO'd himself, was genuinely surprised when he got up out of it so quickly. And then that annoyed me, because the best part of the match was immediately moved on from. I did like Dom here, thought he was overly generous and a real pro, and if that triangle wasn't going to finish then that short piledriver is a suitable replacement. This might be my first Chase singles match, and he was like a night and day guy from his AIW multiman work I've seen. Watching one of those No Consequences matches right before this one would be like running a Coppola double feature of The Conversation and Jack.


PAS: I was hoping to discover some under the radar gems from AIW dudes on this show. It didn't deliver that, but I dug the main event, and everything was kept at around 10 minutes. Makes it a pretty easy watch, and at some point I will check out the other 2019 show they have on youtube (also they ran Manders vs Big Twan 2, and they need to let me watch it)

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Monday AIW - Sekimoto Takes Cleveland 7/25/19

Parker Pierce vs. CPA

PAS: CPA is one of the AIW acts that just doesn't connect with me. I appreciate his semitic chest hair, but I am not sure what his gimmick is, or what the point of his whole act is. He keeps throwing dropkicks, but he barely gets above Pierce's waist. I don't think the dropkicks are supposed to comedy spots but that is what they end up being. Pierce is a crowbar, so I enjoyed watching him potato CPA. He chops the hair off of his chest, mule kicks him in the mouth and nearly beheads him with a back lariat. I enjoy Pierce, would have rather seen him beat on a Bitcoin boy or someone else who can bump bigger.

Allie Kat vs. Super Oprah 

PAS: Super Oprah has some pretty questionable comedy spots, lots of forcing people to touch their tits and jamming faces into their crotch, but this was pretty stiff. Oprah was cracking Allie Kat with stiff butt shots and clotheslines, and Kat fought back. If you are going to have a creepy comedy match, it might as well have potatoes. I do kind of want to check out Super Oprah's Nigerian Nightmare style gimmick Papa Dingo.

40 Acres (PB Smooth/Tre Lamar) vs. Weird World 

PAS: These are a pair of super enjoyable wrestlers to watch, and they had a super enjoyable match. I loved Weird Body's offensive rush at the beginning, hitting Lamar with his bony fists and elbows, confusing him with fake dives and the Weird Ball, just being a puzzle that is hard to solve. Weird Body also took a huge thumping in this match, his odd frame makes ever bump he takes look especially violent, and I loved 40 Acres figuring out a counter for the "Terry Funk Ladder spot" by just superkicking Weird Body in the head. Worldwide came in with an injury, so he didn't do much, although I am a fan of the Baba Chop heavy hot tag.

Big Twan Tucker vs. Ethan Page

PAS: Twan Tucker continues to be one of the more entertaining guys on a roster full of super entertaining guys. He is really great at building to big moments, him getting hyped up when Page is punching him only to grab Page's fist and blitz on him was pretty great stuff. He also hit an awesome twisting side slam, and his somersault into a spear was a holy fuck finish. With the indies full of guys wanting to be Chuck Taylor or Davey Richards, I appreciate a guy trying to be Mark Henry. The meat of the match was a little weaker. There was a whole section where Page was trying to place Twan for a superplex and they couldn't really get it together, and Page was slapping his thigh like an especially enthusiastic square dancer. Still this was fun shit, and between the Manders match, MJF match and this one, Twan is on a roll. 

Mikey Montgomery vs. Eric Ryan vs. Eric Taylor vs. Lee Moriarty 

PAS: This was a four way which they have on every card pretty much, and was about in the middle. Your proto-Bitcoin Boys tried a bunch of stuff, some of which hit cool, and some which missed a bit. There were lots of spots where one Bitcoin Boy got thrown on the other which was cool. Moriarity is a guy they clearly are high on, who isn't really my cup of tea. Lots of really intricate "kick one guy so he suplexes a second guy" spots, and I feel like I can still see him working through the dance moves in his head. This is the first Ryan match I can remember seeing where he doesn't take some career shortening bump, he still hits hard and has fun intensity, so I was glad to see him give his body the night off.

Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham vs. Kikutaro 

PAS: I am well into my third decade of being unamused by Kikutaro matches. Comedy in wrestling is fine when it obeys the narrative rules of wrestling. Kikutaro and Dr. Dan exchanging soft chops as some sort of improv game showing how wrestling is stupid, sucks. I don't want to wade into Twitter wrestling drama, but when you take away emotional investment from wrestling it basically doesn't work. Wrestling as a wry wink is doomed.

Youthanazia vs. PME 

PAS: This was face vs face which is always going to be a bit wonkier then a traditional tag, especially because PME's traditional babyface tag team wrestling is their strength, you aren't really going to have a Ricky Morton section in a match with four Ricky Mortons. Still PME are just monumentally entertaining, and I am going to enjoy almost anything they do. Josh Prohibition is a fun pissed off old guy and I dug him getting flustered. A couple of the finishing spots didn't hit cleanly, but I liked the tricky almost heelish finish PME used, not sure if they work as a heel team if the eventually turn, but I am intrigued.

53. KTB vs. Daisuke Sekimoto

PAS: This is a match which totally delivered on what it promised. It is touring Godzilla vs. Backwoods Mothra (Methra?). I haven't always loved Sekimoto, but he has toned down his goofy no-selling and just leaned into being a ball of muscle who clocks people. I haven't seen a load of KTB singles, but he holds his own fine, trying to throw heat as hot as what is flying at him. There was one big German suplex no-sell which we didn't need, but otherwise it was pretty perfect for this kind of match. I loved the absolute violence which Sekimoto unloaded in the final run, nasty headbutt and a  back fist which was no spin all impact and I wouldn't have been shocked if KTB lost a couple of his less solid teeth

ER: I was into this, and then some time around the 8 minute mark it jumped up a level of intensity and never looked back. Once Sekimoto started really swinging for the fences and cutting low on every damn lariat, I was hooked. Every big thing looked big and landed hard. Sekimoto hits a backbreaker that looked like it should have broken either KTB or Sekimoto's own femur. We get big suplexes from both guys, a cool sequence ending in a nice KTB powerbomb, a killer nearfall off a KTB Asai moonsault, awesome KTB crossbody, all of it was great. The home stretch just kept getting hotter and I thought peaked all the way to the finish, even the German that KTB popped up from got paid off shortly after with Sekimoto hitting a delayed German that KTB was not going to get up from.  Sekimoto was a real bruiser here, all those chops and right hands to the forehead and of course those full damn force lariats, my god. This delivered on the on paper promise, and then some.

Rip City Shooters/Tim Donst vs. Matthew Justice/Dominic Garrini/Nick Gage

PAS: I really like this kind of six man tag where you bring a bunch of feuds together and let them battle it out. We get some really stiff in ring work to start this match before they spill to the outside and let loose with the chairs and doors. Loved Masarati Wes in this, total sneaky prick, who when he gets his comeuppance, really gets blasted. Reminds me of AWA Heenan. Lots of really sick chair shots and throws through doors, Garrini's short piledriver through the door to the floor was especially grody. Loved the Justice/Dom/Gage team breaking out Kaientai DX combos. Didn't think we needed a run in finish, although it heated up Gage vs. Zach Thomas and let Barkley steal a win. Good stuff, like a fun ECW main event.

ER: I liked this, felt like a hybrid ECW/NWA Wildside brawl, and it had several moments flirting with greatness while settling in as a fun brawl. Maserati Wes especially feels like a guy who would be a cult legend with a serious pain pill problem had he been an ECW original. I love the vibe he brings to these matches as (Phil said) a scuzzy Heenan, either working great from the floor as a second or throwing in tons of glue moments as an actual match participant. We kept getting background glimpses of Wes vs. Garrini - particularly one shot where Garrini just pops him in the mouth with a right - and the teases were good enough that I just wanted to see that singles match. We got some big dives to the floor and into the crowd, some of them from unexpected sources: You know Justice is going to do a big dive, but Garrini flies in with his "held onto the ropes too long" heavy flip dive that I dig, and Gage hits an awesome Necro style cannonball off the top into the crowd. We get a lot of chairshots (an absurd amount really, for a thing that people had basically been guilted into getting over well on a decade ago, it's an odd thing to nostalgically bring back), and Garrini takes a couple of harsh bumps because that's what he does. Bishop goes for a uranage slam through a chair but misses the chair entirely, which is fine because the slam itself looks painful enough on the mat...but then he picks Garrini right back up and sends him through that set up chair on attempt #2. I dug the Wes/Gage showdown, although with so many other guys in the match I wish they would have had someone standing by so Wes didn't kick out of a nasty snap dragon suplex and spine shortening DDT. I don't love the "we're sitting in chairs punching each other" stuff, and it didn't help that the strikes while sitting in chairs were the weakest strikes of the match. Some of the chair spots also got a little repetitive. I'd much rather have these guys beating each other with fists than a bunch of chairs. Still, I love the personalities involved here, and the night vision on the dives and some of the roving handheld camera really made this come off like a quality Fancam main event.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Monday AIW - Chandler Biggins Memorial Tag Tournament 6/15/19

The Production (Derek Director/Eddy Only) vs. The Young Studs (Eric Ryan/Bobby Beverly)

PAS: This was very entertaining with only a little awkwardness keeping it from MOTYC list level. Eric Ryan is completely nutso, Young Studs take over early only to leave an opening, when Ryan gets hiptossed off a the ring apron onto a steel chair which Derek Director had just vacated. Ryan is out here taking 1994 Mick Foley bumps in random opening indy tag matches. We get a lot of big nasty bombs from both teams, there were a couple of silly "make one partner suplex the other partner spots" but plenty more sick shots to the side of the skull, and big throws. Studs are probably better in garbage matches, but surprisingly good at working somewhat traditional tag babyfaces.

ER: I really like both of these teams, but this was a little herky jerky, had a bunch of things that just felt a couple inches off. You know, things like Eddy Only not being able to quite make the distance on his 'cross the ring somersault dropkick, or the "DDT my partner" spots not really moving too fluidly, but these teams are good and there's going to be plenty of good stuff. I love Ryan's bloody white jeans, such a scary and badass piece of ring gear, an awesome piece of a guy who will punch you and big crazy. I don't really like it when a match mixes silliness with asskicking, as it can really take away from violence; but the violence here was still on display, and obviously good. Ryan's Japanese armdrag assisted cannonballs, and they played nicely into Ryan getting hiptossed off the apron into a chair. Wild spot. This is more offense than we typically get to see from The Production, and I liked it. A couple things can be tightened up, but I was impressed with them pulling off tandem 'cross the ring buckle bombs on the Studs, and thought Derek had some nice strikes, liked their Derek kneelift/Only yakuza kick combo. I think there's an even better match these two teams will have.

PME (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. Weird World (Weird Body Evan Adams/Worldwide Alex Kellar)

PAS: This was babyface vs. babyface and had a light heartedness to it I enjoyed. Weird Body is such a unique looking wrestler, but has found a way to leverage his crazy looking skeletal frame into plausible wrestling offense. I loved how Eddie Kingston kept putting over the sharpness of his elbows and knees, I would imagine it would suck to get smacked in the face with a bony elbow like that, and Kingston kept yelling every time a PME guy would put Weird Body in a rear waistlock. The Baba chop exchange with Philly and Worldwide was great, they were really laying in the Baba chops. Just a textbook example of doing a babyface vs. babyface match without devolving into dumb shit like dance offs and slow motion spots.

ER: Phil makes a lot of great points about babyface vs. babyface matches here, and it's obnoxiously true that modern indies have turned face vs. face tags into total goofy jack off fests, and it kind of comes off like new teams resent being faces so they just go for easy goof around laughs instead of just being actual good teams. Here are two good teams who don't devolve into playing patty cake stopping the match to talk about their favorite Snick shows, while still coming up with fun spots that add to the match. I loved every part of Weird Body climbing all over Philly, scampering around his body and getting into a wild spot on Philly's shoulders, Philly trying to buck him off, Weird Body eventually getting the victory roll; they looking like a weird human version of on of Bayley's Buddies. They also did a fun chicken fight spot, with Marino and Weird Body getting swung into each other's boots, before Kellar and Philly had a good punch and overhand chop exchange. The finish was real hot too, with the spot of the match being Marino's big ass missile dropkick across most of the damn ring, with Worldwide taking a justifiably big bump to the floor to leave Weird Body alone in the ring.

28. Jollyville Fuck-Its (T-Money/Nasty Russ) vs. Wes Barkley/Joshua Bishop

PAS: I loved this, the Fuck-Its maybe my favorite current act in wrestling today. Just a total asskicking team, who always brings it. The Bishop and Barkley team are fun too, with Barkley cheapshotting and bumping and Bishop being a great heater. T-Money is a big bumper, he takes a high backdrop from Bishop and lands hard on the wood floor, Russ takes an awesome bomb on a set up bed of chairs, while Barkley and Bishop end up taking some really nasty rail rides. Finish was clever with Barkley getting a cheap roll up pin, only to learn that Fuck-It's rules are always 2/3 falls, and they get pounced and cannonballed for two quick falls and the Fuck-It's win.

ER: Hell yeah, this is exactly what I want out of an AIW tag match. Jollyville are untouchable as a team right now, night in night out best tag team in wrestling. They move through matches so assuredly, they move with that Midnight Express confidence where they know the exact right spot they need to be to keep these well oiled machinations moving. Barkley I haven't seen much at all, and he brings a fun goofball charisma to a match like this, and Bishop is really good at bumping generously for a beating while still looking credible. The ringside brawling is all good, and the camera keeps lingering on great action, and will then suddenly cut away into a quick violent spot from T-Money, before going back to Russ throwing hard punches and kicks. Barkley bumps big into the crowd and is great at cockily celebrating early and then getting punched for it. Bishop takes a rail ride like vintage Sandman or Raven, I get the best 1999 vibe from this dude. Jollyville are total beasts. T-Money hits that big spinebuster and I dug all the work around the Pounce (Barkley manages to avoid it and Bishop winds up in the line of fire). At one point we see Russ dragging Barkley around and then we cut to T-Money wrapping the ring skirt around Bishop's head and neck like he was snuffing out an underling. Russ is so awesome at coming up with cool ways to lay a beating. I loved his yakuza kick to Barkley's leg in the corner, and then in a snap he hits this sick double stomp precisely aimed right to the back of a seated Barkley's head, and in the same movement keeps running to hit a fast tope con giro into Bishop on the floor. Russ is like a Midwestern Hijo Del Santo. A Santito who will also take a freaking splash mountain into a bunch of set up chairs. Jesus. Phil went over the finish, and I agree it was great. It was all great.

To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delany) vs. Spirit Squad (Mikey/Kenny)

PAS: This didn't do a ton for me. It was basically a nostalgia match for something I am not nostalgic for at all. 2006 RAW was a sewer for the most part, and the Spirit Squad stunk. I like Infinity and Beyond a bunch, and they were total pros selling for all of the Spirit Squad spots, but I had little interest in watching them run through that. Right team won, and I think AIW is pretty successful using nostalgia acts to draw, it just isn't normally the parts of the show I care about.

8. Manders vs. Big Twan Tucker

PAS: Well fuck me this ruled. This is basically two jacked up rookies refusing to back down and just pummeling each other. Manders is an ex-Iowa linebacker who has some great meathead intensity. Twan is on a role after appearing in an angle in NXT and turning face the night before. This reminded me a lot of the IWA-MS Samoa Joe vs. Hero match, with both guys barreling right ahead and the intensity just building. Pretty crazy that two rookies can build this kind of engagement with the crowd, but they went from buzzing to totally losing it, as both of these guys hammered each other. Kingston was marking out on commentary, as like all of us he can appreciate a fist fight. Manders drops Twan right on his head with a jackknife, it is only a two count, and while Manders is jawing with the ref, Twan crushes him with a tackle. Impossible not to dig the fuck out of this.

ER: One of the great joys of pro wrestling is when a performance goes beyond the abilities of the performers. It can happen to established guys - I think Gargano/Almas from TakeOver Philadelphia obviously lands in the category - or it can happen to newer guys, and here were two newer guys exceeded all expectations in the best way. AIW has a lot of guys who can hit hard, and it can be hard to stand out on some of their shows because guys work so hard up and down the card. The stars aligned for this one and made it something truly special. I had seen Twan a few times on other cards, and had never seen Manders before; consider me now a fan of both. They came in fast and were on a constant collision course, big bodies drawn together by asskicking magnets. This had the feel of a grubby fight, the kind of match where Jim Ross would be talking at length about both men's college, high school, JV, Pop-Warner, and Family Reunion BBQ Flag Football careers. Both guys have no problem running into the other, and the strike exchanges were nice off center, with rhythm replaced by hard landing. I loved how Twan would start a strike in close, more like a short shoulderblock, and then build to a couple hard back elbows, then build to an elbow across the jaw, and Manders was right there with him. The best of these violent spectacles have some things go slightly bad, but to the benefit of the match. It starts with little moments like Twan eating a drop toehold into the ropes and hitting his face on the top rope before getting slumped into the middle rope; Manders crunching him with a cannonball to the back is great insult to injury. But Big Twan's awesome cinderblock head resting on his shoulders helps him withstand some pretty horrifying stuff, eating a man sized German and then just getting slammed right on the top of his damn head on a jackhammer. 2019 has been the year of jackhammers going terribly within matches that are awesome. Twan realizes he just escaped death and decides to just swam Manders with mass, and this all ruled.

Tim Donst/Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Brian Carson/Parker Pierce vs. Eric Taylor/Arthur McArthur/Chuck Stone/Mike Montgomery

PAS: This was a team of veterans against a team of AIW students, which is a match structure I have loved before. This wasn't nearly at the level of the No Consequence multi-man matches, as this group of students seemed mainly focused on getting over their signature comedy spots (a sad part of 2019 wrestling, where you are mainly focused on becoming a meme, everybody is a fucking Tik Tok comedian now.) We did get some really solid rookie beatings though, with Parker Pierce being an especially nasty crowbar, I loved his hook kick and chops. Fun match, but not sure if I know which of those students is going to break out.

PB Smooth vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: I think Smooth has a lot of potential, he is obviously enormous and a good athlete, if I were AEW I would sign him and give him a tag partner (hell they should just sign the entirety of 40 Acres and a Mule). But I am not sure he is ready for a singles match that isn't filled with a bunch of shenanigans. There were some cool individual moments, and I liked how Lawlor pushed the pace and worked stiff, I am not sure this was ever together enough to really fall apart though.

The Production (Derek Director/Danhausen) vs. PME (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. Jollyville Fuck-Its (T-Money/Nasty Russ) vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delany)

PAS: This was really disappointing. I love AIW multi team tag matches, this was a rematch of their match from WrestleMania weekend which is one of my favorite matches of the year, and it just fell flat. To Infinity and Beyond get DQ'ed about a minute in, and the Fuck-It's bow out relatively easily a couple of minutes later. We then get a PME vs. Production match, which was fine, but never really pushed the throttle to a crazy level or anything. There was a moment or two, and PME winning was a nice tribute to Chandler Biggins, but I was really amped for this, and I didn't get what I wanted. These guys were headlining a show, and it was their chance to really deliver something special, and it just missed the mark.

PAS: The first round of the tourney was fun, and Twan vs. Manders was an out of nowhere gem, still can't help being a little down on the show, hopefully night 2 delivers big. However, two matches landing on our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List is never a bad thing.

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