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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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Violence is Forever vs. Cornfed Beef

10. Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku/Dominic Garrini) vs. Cornfed Beef (Manders/Gnarls Garvin) BLP 1/18

PAS: This delivered exactly what you wanted out of this on paper. Four guys just wailing on each other with really violent shots. VIF has a dumb name, but man they lay it in, and they are perfect for these kind of sprint brawls (some one book me a Fuck-Its rematch already). Manders and Garvin jump them at the bell and give an old fashion Hit Squad wall ride to Ku, and it pretty much goes from there. So many punch and elbow exchanges in wrestling are cringe comedy, and these guys actually make violent contact with their shots. Manders especially is throwing spuds, and Ku threw this back fist/club combo which looked like it wobbled Garvin. It ended when it should have ended, and every bit of it was a blast to watch.

ER: Agree, you see this match on paper and this is the match you hope for. It's a tight 10 minutes that never settles down into tags, just all four throwing constant shots from the floor into the ring. They hooked me early when Cornfed Beef launched Ku into the wall, not even lawn darting him but instead press slamming him right into a wall and letting him drop. Oh, you guys are doing that? I see. I'm happy this never settled into a traditional tag, as much of the value was in who was going to get blindsided next. Manders and Garvin are a natural pairing, and Ku/Garrini are so tough that the format of everyone just throwing elbows and chops and kicks is just what the doctor ordered. You need a tough team to go up against a team like Manders/Garvin, to make it believable that they can stand up to being pinballed between the two. Garvin is great at using his body as a weapon, always looking to flatten guys. I like a guy who misses as big as he hits, and we get a great spot where Garvin splashes Ku as Ku is draped over the middle rope, and Garvin throws himself into it so hard that he winds up crashing to the floor; later, he flies off the top for a splash on Garrini and splats himself right into a triangle (which Manders breaks up by slamming Ku onto Garrini). Manders had several great shoulderblock variation, a guy who gets that all his non-strike offense should just be throwing his body into his opponent, but will also get dumped with a dragon suplex. This match had one of the only instances I've seen of a 4 way stand and trade actually working, because all four guys were absolutely lighting each other up with shots. We got some jaw rattling elbows and open hand chops and slaps right to the chest and neck, and after 10 minutes of action it was the kind of match that only made both teams look great.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from Black Label Pro 2/2/19

Daniel Makabe vs. Rory Gulak

ER: Fun on paper match that totally ruled, real tight 11 minutes of cool grappling and almost lucha maestro submissions, with some nice strikes and a boss suplex peppering the action. Makabe is getting gigs all over the place now, so I didn't used to even think about "dream matches" as I felt lucky enough we got to see guys like Thatcher and Navarro work the PNW (and shoot, on this card I'd love to see him against Bateman), but even then I don't think I would have thought about Gulak as a "dream" match-up. But they're super complementary and Gulak gets hyper focused when in with a guy like Makabe. There's a lot of comedy Gulak out there, but he can be a real pitbull and I'm glad that's who we got. The minimal comedy we did get (Gulak being squirrely during a knucklelock) was put over nicely by Makabe, who then punished him for wasting his time. The ground game was really fun from both guys, especially liked Gulak tying up Makabe's arm and leg, and another time touching both his arms behind his back while wrenching his neck. That looked like a finisher sub right there. Makabe has a nice STF and a good brain that's always looking for a limb or neck to crank, always working to set up one sub only to pivot to grab the sub he actually wants. These two make something fairly innocuous - like a series of waistlock reversals - feel really exciting, simple single leg takedowns become highspots, and Makabe doesn't cheap out on things like snapmares, always throwing them tightly. The strikes were laid in tightly throughout, short elbows from mount, a nice brief stand and trade capped with the Big Unit punch, and my favorite quick sequence where Rory brags to the crowd and gets snapped over into a nice German. Makabe's corner dropkick lands hard and I liked his surprise Teddy Hart leg sell after that lead to Gulak locking in an absolutely vicious kneebar that looked like it was going to touch Makabe's sole to his head. This was super brisk and always violent, always cool. One of my favorite show openers of the year.

25. Sadkampf (Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku) vs. WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry/James Drake)

PAS: After Garrini's weekend stealing performance in NYC, I am tracking down all of the Sadkampf. This was a total blast, just four guys teeing off on each other. We get an opening mat section with Garrini and Henry and it really makes me want to see them match up in Bloodsport 2020, fast takedowns, cool reversals. Henry mostly is a workrate junior, but can really roll if he wants to. Everyone goes to the floor, and we get a great arena tour brawl, which ends with Garrini smushing Drake with a running knee into the wall. It is two on one for a while, until Drake comes crawling back for the tag. I think they went a bit long after the dramatic hot tag, and the finish run wasn't as good as the body of the match, but man these are four guys who will unload.

ER: I might have liked this even more than Phil. The only portion of the match I didn't really like was a middle section that saw Garrini and Ku kind of just standing around waiting to be hit several times. That slowed down the pace of what was - before and after - a smoking match. When a match is built around 100% asskicking and not cool moves, it's going to have a really high floor. And these guys can all hit. I was really impressed with Garrini's strike selling in this match, a feature of his I've never really noticed before. Henry has a lot of kick combos (and a lot of cool kick combos!) and I loved the way he attacked Garrini with leg kicks and a big variety of spin kicks and high kicks. Garrini sold them in a fun off balance way while finding many different ways to fall down. I especially liked him getting knocked off balance, teetering on one leg, before face planting. The crowd brawl was fun and peaked with Drake missing his cannonball into a wall and eating a nasty knee from Garrini. Sadkampf can throw some vicious knees and chops (Garrini's palms together chop to Drake's neck is just unfair) and we got those in spades. It can be hard to keep building up fans to a finish when you have multiple "all four men knocked down" moments, but I thought the pace did a good job of escalating and deescalating fans. I really liked the finishing stretch and felt it build like some of the hotter Kings Road tags, really liked the focus on painful partner saves (Henry doing a double stomp from the top to break up a pin, Garrini hitting a heavy senton), and it was cool seeing what both teams could string together for painful match finishing combos. This was an awesome tag.

Tyler Bateman vs. Gary Jay

ER: Two guys I like, having a match that I didn't really like! Opening up a match with a lonnnnng chop battle isn't going to do much to win me over, no matter how beet red both guys get from them. We already had a zillion nasty chops and red chests during the tag match, stacking a card with a bunch of white guys getting their chests beaten red feels like BLP is catering more to a fetish market. And you have to make money where you make money, so if it helps the merch tables I don't really care. This match had a lot of good ideas but they weren't really integrated well into an overall match. There was a little bit too much of a disconnect to the bigger spots, Bateman obviously landing his head a foot away from the apron on the big DDT, an obviously thigh slapped headbutt on the finish, and honestly that's fine. I'd rather these two not brain themselves into CTE, but the close up magic has to look better. I still like both guys and both guys have cool moments here, a nice lariat from Bateman results in Jay getting absolutely upended, and both guys hit plenty hard, just not as often during the moments that were supposed to be KO shots.


ER: This show had some cool looking fat guys stuck in multimans that I didn't really want to watch, so I'll keep coming back to BLP. It's easy when there always seems to be a match as good as that tag, a real brawl with awesome build, an easy add to our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List. I was also a big fan of Makabe/Gulak, with Makabe really crafting a fun 11 minute match. I like these guys.

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Matches from Black Label Pro 8/18/18

C.W. Anderson vs. Filthy Tom Lawlor

PAS: Always excited to see CW, he really should be the next old guy to get the PCO indies push, he is still excellent and doesn't seem to have lost a step at all.  I really liked the opening mat exchanges in this, it wasn't shootstyle at all, but Lawlor is also really good at basic hammerlock, drop toe hold headlock US territories matwork. There is some great punches, a cool guillotine choke counter of a spinebuster and Lawlor doing a go-to-sleep into a sleeper and putting someone to sleep. You would expect this to be a styles clash and it wasn't at all.

ER: I wanted more out of this one, but I like these guys, and overall I liked this. C.W. really is ageless (not only in the way he moves, but facially he still looks really young for being late 40s) and I fully back him getting a big tour of the indies. Really I have no clue how he hasn't been brought in as a veteran presence in NXT. I liked how the two kind of met their two styles in the middle, with Lawlor working more wrestling holds and throwing a heavy, non-stylish German suplex, and C.W. throwing more elbow strikes than normal but not attempting some silly MMA crossover. I love the way Anderson moves in the ring and I loved the build to that big left hand (coming not long after a new thrust headbutt that he's been integrating), and Lawlor grabbing a guillotine choke to block the famous spinebuster was a really great spot.

PCO vs. Darby Allin

PAS: This is an on paper banger, which doesn't fully live up to it's promise. Allin is my WOTY so far, and PCO has become a super hot act. This never fully kicked in though PCO has kind of morphed into almost an Undertaker like monster character, I love the videos, but I think it is a weaker in ring act. The WALTER match worked because it was kind of a wild sprint. This match was kind of ponderous, and even killer Darby spots didn't get as big a reaction. I did love his tope with PCO draped over the guardrail, and his big senton looks great. Destro coming out with the car battery is kind of goofy, and really ground the match to a halt. Some fun stuff, but ultimately disappointing.

ER: Same. I think the PCO hype train is a little off the rails at this point, and really I'd just want to see Quebecer instead of this quirky Frankenhooker character we got now. He moves a little stiffly and slowly, and is also now doing Undertaker no-selling, and it's kinda hard to tell sometimes which he is doing because his staggering sell looks nearly identical to his Undertaker no-sell. He bumps big but there can be a delay to his bumping, so sometimes there was awkwardness waiting to see if he was just going to no sell Darby and let him bounce right off...or let him bounce right off but then also bump. But once this gets going it was good. The very beginning is fun, with Darby hitting a hard dropkick that believably knocks PCO through the ropes, then gets caught on a dive, and Darby blocks a chokeslam by landing feet first on the apron. Coo, sequence. PCO takes a plausible Code Red and we also get some neat stuff with big splats: PCO catching Allin and slamming him into guardrails before powerbombing him into the rail, and then a sick powerbomb across a few chairs. But I love how Darby is a guy you just can't take your eyes off. Once PCO heads back to the ring Allin is leaping over him, catching him on the railing, and then hitting a bonkers tope to PCO while he's draped over the railing. Absolutely crazy spot (I wrote "absolutely crazy spot" before I watched the match, with Allin it's just a matter of where I put it in the review of any of his matches, not if I'll need to). Allin also hits one of his all time great cannonball sentons off the top (shame we didn't actually get a battle of the cannonballs here, mais ce sont les pauses), but here's where Destro comes out to freaking Andrew Lloyd Webber like he's a Wednesday night dinner theater magician, then puts us through an act more interminable than the magician who was working the Wednesday day shift. PCO and Allin - who have kicked the shit out of each other the whole match, are now just forced to lie motionless in the ring, selling more damage than any one of them has ever sold. We've seen Allin get concussed and break his elbow, pretty sure he sold doing his own senton more than he sold any of those actual injuries. And then PCO sees if that's still the case and drops Allin on the back of his head with a package piledriver. There were flaws before Destro did his routine, but that just left my sails totally windless.

D-Lo Brown vs. Joey Janela

ER: This is of interest because we've all seen Janela attempt to break his neck doing crazy things in a wrestling ring, but now he's in the ring with an actual certified neck breaker. But this match was fine. D-Lo is bigger (I appreciated Dave Prazak's speculation that the added size might be because D-Lo was wearing his chest protector underneath his t-shirt), but not crazier like PCO. Still, this was a perfectly fine older star/younger indie guy match. D-Lo had loud chops, dropped a great elbow, took a low and fast dive from Janela (that sent D-Lo sprawling down the entrance). There was nothing spectacular, but nothing bad. They didn't bog it down with comedy, kept the shtick to the opening sequence, D-Lo hit signature spots and took a big bump off the top when Janela tossed him while attempting the Lo Down, and it went the right time. Expectations, met.

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Black Label Pro: The Darkest Timeline Tournament Phase 1 9/23/17

B-Boy v. Kevin Lee Davidson v. Simon Grimm v. Space Monkey

PAS: This was a basic four way, Grimm is the ex-Simon Gotch from the Vaudvillians and ended up getting the win and moving on. I enjoyed KLD, he was a big fat dude and hit pretty hard, although he wasn't in the match a ton. Highlight was B-Boy and Davidson pounding on each other. Space Monkey is a Chikara guy with comedy shtick, and would hijack parts of the match to getting in his horseshit. 

Dasher Hatfield v. Joe Gacy v. Mordecai

PAS: This is part of the booking strategy of this fed which is bringing in old names to end up with wacky WAR style match ups, I think they got a little cute with this match. I am not sure if Mordecai has been wrestling anywhere in the last 15 years, but he looked fine. Match was mostly Gacy and Mordecai teaming up on Hatfield, until the expected falling out. It was humming along at an average rate, until Hatfield and Gacy go one on one and it is a totally mess, they blow three spots in a row until Gacy hits a lethal injection of all fucking things. Finish has Hatfield rolling Gacy up after Gacy broke up a pin, and the rollup was sort of a mess too. 

Keith Lee v. Sammy Guevara

PAS: I really liked the first 10 minutes or so of this. Basic story with Lee as a the Grizzly bear tossing around and mauling the high flyer. Guevara took some big shots, and was hurled all over the ring. Guevara had some fun flippy counters and realistic bits of offense, he had a really pretty dive to the floor. Match falls apart, with Guevara kicking out of a big powerslam which should have ended it, and then the momentum dipped with a dumb ref bump, a low blow, a couple of long visual falls and a silly finish where the ref DQ's Lee off of an obvious accidental ref bump. Really dumb way to put Guevara over which makes everyone look worse. 

4. Ernest "The Cat" Miller vs. Ethan Page

PAS: Long mike work by the Cat where he calls everyone in the crowd ugly and fat. Not sure the point of bringing in Miller if you are going to have him work this kind of heel. Isn't the point of a nostalgia act that people are nostalgic for them? Page comes out and runs off Miller and cuts a Tommy Dreamer style "all the guys in the back are busting their ass." I am not a Page guy, but he does a nice hateble heel, recasting him as a rah rah babyface seems weird.

Matt Riddle vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was pretty great stuff. I have been wavering on Riddle a bit this year, but putting him in with another MMA guy minimizes some of his more questionable attributes. The opening mat section between the two was pretty great, both guys were just rolling, looking for submissions grabbing advantages, high level stuff which is always good to watch. Riddle is a super impressive athlete and will often do something jaw dropping, after the matwork they exchange tough guy chops, elbows and kicks, and Riddle ends it with a pele kick which looked like it was in fast forward. Lawlor has a fun dick head charisma, shit talking, claiming Dana White sent him to take Riddle out, he is a natural heel and I dug him. His counter of the senton with a rear naked choke was especially cool. Finish was really awesome with Riddle throwing on a super fast triangle choke, and Lawlor trying to slam his way out of hit, only to turn it into a pinfall right before he went out.

ER: I thought this was awesome, loved Lawlor's bruiser heel charisma against Riddle's freak athleticism. The opening rolling was easily some of my favorite mat stuff of the year. I easily could have just watched 15 minutes of that. Lawlor holding Riddle in a facelock, trapping his leg with his own to pull it closer, and then maneuvering into a half crab may be my favorite mat trick of the year. But we got several cool slippery moments, like Riddle hopping into a rear naked only to get immediately shaken off onto his head by Lawlor ducking forward. I didn't think the chop exchange was great, much would have rather seen more mat game, but once they go to blows Lawlor throws some fast and sharp elbows right to the chin. We get several great catches and reversals, which I felt were the best moments of the standing portion: Riddle catching a leg and quickly sneaking in a Pele kick (one of his most seamless Pele kick transitions I've seen, and Lawlor's stumble sell was awesome), or Lawlor shifting to catch a Riddle senton in a rear naked choke. Lawlor does tons of things I love - that most guys don't do - little things like cutting low on clotheslines. It makes the clothesline that eventually hits look so much better when the misses all would have taken a head off too. Loved the Lawlor rear naked choke, the suplexes by both were nuts (Riddle crumbles better than most lunatics on Germans), and the finish was bomb: Lawlor deadlift powerbombing Riddle to escape a triangle, keeps getting triangle locked on after slam, so Lawlor rolls forward with it for the pin.

Dominic Garrini vs. Donovan Danhausen vs. GPA vs. Leva Bates vs. Rory Gulak

PAS: This was short, not very good and sort of a waste of Garrini. I had never seen Garrini work heel before, and I did enjoy him as a smirking meathead prick when he "accidentally" hit Bates. No one else did much for me, and at least the right guy went over.

Darby Allin vs. Super Crazy

PAS: Super Crazy is a guy who has worked rudo against high flyers with nice armdrags for 20 years, so he was right at home eating all of Allin's springboards, armdrags and headscissors. Really pretty stuff, including Allin transition into a somersault dive as smoothly as I have ever seen it. I am use to seeing Allin as an insane bump machine, and it was fun to watch him work as Rey Cometa. Finish was a little abrupt, with Allin countering into a Code Red, getting a two, putting on a Fuller leglock and getting the pin. Seemed like a possible ref flub, otherwise this was a blast.

ER: Phil nails it with the Rey Cometa comparison, but I liked Darby here more than anything I've seen from Cometa this year. He's smooth as silk in his transitions and he shifts into position for things quicker than anybody. He never makes his opponents look like doofuses waiting around to be hit with a move, he's just too damn quick. A lot of his movements remind me of the slickest Freelance spots. Allin needs to go on a sojourn to Mexico as Dark Freelance. Crazy is great as tubby asskicker, though I like him much more cracking Allin in the jaw than doing 1999 Tajiri ECW spots. I know there was nostalgia on this show, but Crazy is a guy with enough tools to still work without relying on nostalgia. That somersault dive of Allin's was flat out gorgeous, and this whole thing was really fun despite the weird and unexpected ending.

Everett Connors vs. The Sandman

PAS: Connors is working a Justin Beiber superfan gimmick, and this was basically Sandman coming out, doing his whole entrance (minus cigarette) and squashing the kid. This was the right way to use a nostalgia act, that is what people wanted to see the Sandman do, so he did it.

Darby Allin v. Dominic Garrini v Sammy Guevara v. Dasher Hatfield v. Simon Grimm v. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was a six way match with the winners from the early matches to see who advances to the final title match later in the year. Both Guevara and Allin are eliminated almost immediately, which was strange, because both guys are good for at least a crazy spot or bump, multi man matches always need sizzle and dumping your sizzle dudes doesn't make sense. It comes down to Lawlor v. Garrinni v. Hatfield. We never really get a Lawlor v. Garrinni show down (I guess I am going to have to buy the AIW show with their singles) instead it is all Hatfield working both. I did love the finish with Lawlor turning a jackhammer into a nasty rear naked choke and refusing to release it. The show really made Lawlor, and I will be totally into a fed with him as the top guy.

PAS: Lots of this show didn't connect with me, but I did really like Lawlor v. Riddle which was got me to open my wallet (and is an easy choice for our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List), and there are enough fun looking things on the next show I will keep watching.

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