Monday Wargames: -PWX- Team Revolt vs. Team Xperience

Team Revolt (Harlem Bravado/Lancelot Bravado/Zane Riley/Jake Manning/Caleb Konley) vs. Team Xperience (CW Anderson/John Skyler/Gunner/Corey Hollis/Adam Page) PWX 3/13/16 - GREAT

PAS: PWX really set out to run an old school War Games match. They got the double rings, cut down on the highspots and had a bunch of good brawlers brawl. CW Anderson opening a War Games is what you want, and he and Manning threw some pretty thudding punches. Skyler was the star here, taking the biggest bumps, bleeding the most (not enough blood was my main complaint in this match, just a bit from Manning and a lot from Skyler at the end). They do a little booking at the end with Corino (managing the Xperience) jumping a Bravado and stopping him from joining as the 10th man, only for Corino to get run off by Ethan Case. I thought Zane Riley was a bit loosey goosey for the supposed hard hitter, but I dug Gunner as the heel powerhouse. There was a bit of a muddled focus at the end, which is to be expected with this many guys, but the actual finish of Skyler getting jabbed in the eye with a screwdriver was a War Games finish.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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EVOLVE 63 6/11/16

1. Cedric Alexander vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Some good stuff here although with some almost expected cracks. Cedric is not a guy who does a lot of the fast Catch Point stuff, but does his own brand of fast indy work, so the speed gels well but the styles don't always. There were some moments of one guy arriving at his mark slightly ahead of the other. Cedric in his matches - every one of them so far - always finds a way to pleasantly surprise me, and another way to kind of make me curl my lip in mild annoyance. But I love Yehi as the underdog who gives every guy he faces their toughest win. If there is another CWC I have to imagine Yehi is a lock for the final 4. Some of the build to his stomps came off a little silly, and I'd rather he keep the limb stomps to a brutal part of his game. Here he missed several stops that then signaled a stop to the match, while he grinned at Cedric. It came off almost like Kamala slapping his belly. Although now thinking about it, Yehi in a racist savage gimmick with crazed stomps would probably be something that I love. Yehi going for the Koji clutch always leads to wonderful twisty moments, and here it lead to an early bit of fun slippery mat exchanges, and later Cedric using his strength to lift out of the clutch into a backcracker. Both guys land elbows with a thud, all strikes in general looked good, and Yehi matches always seem to end at the right point. Nice start to the evening.

2. Jason Cade & Darby Allin vs. The Bravado Brothers

ER: This probably would have been more effective as an extended squash for the Bravados, but it's nice they gave the local boys some time. Bravados have certainly improved some since their goofy early ROH days, they've beefed up a bit and hit harder, but still have some pacing issues. Cade and Allin looked impressive at times and too light other times. Allin broke out a pretty nice headbutt a couple times, but then had real light dropkicks. Cade's stuff was hit and miss but the hits were fun, most notably his insane leap from the ring apron to a basketball hoop into a rana on Harlem. Evolve filmed it really well, so you could really see that it wasn't just a simple hop from the apron to the hoop, it was a real leap. Awesome spot. Bravados need to stick to more simple elbows and beatdown offense, more ring cut off less feeding cute spots. But still this as a whole wasn't bad.

3. Trevor Lee vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Really fun Riddle match which was built around him taking big bumps. Lee is at his best when he is super aggressive and he is constantly coming forward in this match. Riddle eats a couple of rail rides really nastily on his ribs and goes really high and lands really hard on a beal throw. Lee also grabs and snaps Riddle's toes which is a really nasty variation of the finger break spot which we are seeing a bunch of. Riddle working from the bottom isn't something he has done a ton of, and it really makes for an interesting contrast to his other stuff. I really loved the nasty stomp which Lee uses to take over on offense, just brutal looking as was his signature double stomp. Finish was great with Lee fighting his way into a Twister in a really cool way. Great match, and a great performance by both guys. Lee is a bit of a conundrum, I have seen some stuff I have loved, and other stuff which left me flat, feels like a guy I need to dig into a bit.

ER: I loved this, might actually be my favorite performance from each guy, which is exciting. There was really only one moment that I disliked, which was Lee having to run all the way across the apron just to get kicked/kneed by Riddle. Seemed a little silly compared to the rest of the stuff they broke out, but my god the rest of the stuff. Riddle was like a spider monkey in there, just pouncing and hanging on to Lee, and Lee was great tossing him around and beating him down. Riddle is an insane bumper (and wearing no shoes makes it even more insane, keep waiting for a toe to get caught or an ankle to roll), just insane. He gets launched practically out of the ring on a beal, takes out half the guardrails in the building in some of the most brutal rail rides I've seen, leans hard into all of Lee's kicks and punches, and is so great at return spots. I love the way Riddle sells, love the way he staggers after being walloped, love his best ever Pele kick, and loved the way he kept feeding into Lee. Both guys looked so great here. I loved that beal throw so much, and when Lee went for another one and Riddle turned it into a  backpack choke? I flipped out. Such a great spot. I actually would have loved the match had it ended right there, thought the ending would have been perfect. But I also love that we got gifted another 5 minutes of awesome.

4. Tracy Williams vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: This was odd as the ring work was excellent, but the layout and build was lacking and disjointed. It's a tough kind of criticism, where both guys look great doing the stuff they do, and you wonder why you're not quite digging it as much as the work makes you think you should. God that was a mouthful. I just thought the build was sometimes nonexistent and it felt like it went too long. Evolve has manufactured its own brand of overkill by having so many effective 10 minute matches. They've kind of perfected the full story 8-10 minute match in the last year especially. So now two guys going out and having the same match, but for 17 minutes, almost feels ridiculous. We've seen all of these guys be put away by all of the same things, in 10 minutes, but now we're supposed to think they can each take an additional 7 minutes of it? It's a psychology that hinges on flipping a "toughness" switch for "big" matches. Turning it on for a "big" match. But the problem is they treat EVERY match like a big match. They're almost TOO good at bringing up each wrestler's history. So even a non-title match is "an important match, both men are coming off losses and each desperately needs a win to get back into contention". A non-title match with men fighting for relevance is treated as much of a worthy endeavor as a man actually fighting for the title. So since they're ALL big matches you start wondering WHY they're now suddenly able to somehow withstand twice as much punishment.

So I thought both guys looked awesome, especially Thatcher. Thatcher has been a long favorite of mine and broke out huge in 2015. For some reason he feels like almost a back step in 2016. The matches just haven't been there. His work in this one felt like a strong mini-return. Him kicking away at Williams' arm was brutal, his rolling Karelin lifts were amazing, and all the grappling and sub stuff looked killer. I really loved the first 3 minutes of grappling especially. It was a little choppy, a little uneven, lock ups weren't square, it put off a dangerous vibe from the bell. That's the disappointing finality of the match, though. Everything looked great. The order and memory was off, but everything looked great. There was just a lot of it, and the whole match kind of felt lost in itself. It's a very tough match to rank. I could see my opinion shifting on it with every viewing. So it feels polarizing, but still feels good. I think I'm thumbs up...for now.

PAS: I enjoyed this, I admit we are getting a little filled up from this kind of match. I would have freaked out if this match had happened in 2014, but it got a little lost in the shuffle in 2016. I loved Williams in this, he had some very cool counters to counters. Thatcher would try an escape and Williams was really cool at blocking his first attempt. That is a sign of a really nifty mat wrestler. This did feel like it should have been Williams' match, it built to a big win for him, so it was a bit deflating to have Thatcher go over. Still I really dug this.

5. Anthony Nese vs. TJ Perkins vs. Lince Dorado vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was kind of a mess. All of the faults of four and five ways, lots of cutesy double teams and goofy I hit you so you suplex him spots. Not sure if anyone came out of this looking good. Lince Dorado had some nice dives but outside of that, not sure if there is anything to recommend. Neese qualified for the CWC tournament by winning this, but I didn't want to see more of him. He had some especially bad punches, and his long singles section with TJP was a PWG wankathon at its worst.

ER: I think Phil is being a little harsh on this, even if it wasn't overall that good. For example I only counted one "cutesy double team" spot, and it wasn't until 12 minutes into an 18 minute match (there were 2 if you count Dorado's armdrag/headscissor combo, but that's a pretty common lucha spot). Phil IS right about nobody coming out of this looking very good though. We're used to seeing these guys in actual matches, so it always rings hollow when 4 guys get separately eliminated over 18 minutes. Serious question: Is the "Johnny Wrestling" chant meant to mock Gargano? Is the wink implied? Because it would always start immediately after he would do something really terrible. We know fans chant "you can't wrestle" at Roman Reigns because they're ashamed of their penises, but why do they chant "Johnny Wrestling" after Gargano raises his hand hiiiiiiigh about his head to bring it down into a thigh slap (you've never seen thigh slaps with less misdirection), or after he overshoots and whiffs on a somersault senton? What joke am I not a part of? I thought individual guys looked good in individual moments of this, depending on their dance partner. Dorado doesn't do much for me with his imitation lucha spots, TJP easily gets a bit too vacant in the eyes thinking about what spot to do next in matches like these, Gulak is one of my 3 favorite guys in the world but I actually really dislike him in these multi man matches. I'd just rather see him in a singles. Gargano had a terrible showing. He's not a favorite of mine but he usually looks better than this. And Nese, the man meant to be featured, had some really nice left hands, great chops, great short left forearms, but would get too in the "strike combo" zone where guys would have to stand still while he went through his rehearsed strike dance. 1-2-knee 3-4 legsweep 5-6 soccer kick. The final 6 minutes where Gulak and TJP essentially had to work a handicap match, setting up a Nese offense exhibition? Brutal. The layout of this match blew. But I actually enjoyed most of it up until the EC3 interruption/restart. I thought Gulak worked around Gargano's signature offense nicely, thought TJP came up with some nice offense teases to set up others' offense, thought Nese looked fine until he became the featured "fighting for his dream" worker of the match. But yeah, you've seen all these guys in better stuff - WAY better in some cases - than this.

6. Anything Goes: Ethan Page vs. Drew Galloway

ER: Another Evolve show, another long ass Ethan Page match. And this was okay, even if I thought there were way too many "why'd the girl run upstairs!?" horror movie spots. Page would climb a ladder to get powerbombed off it, he'd climb up stairs to tease getting thrown down them, he'd sprint headlong at Drew to get alleyooped into an Exit sign. There was wandering, but bumps on a gym floor are hard as hell and both guys took their share, so no doubt there was pain involved. We get some pretty rough chair spots, with Galloway taking a Russian leg sweep with one held under his chin, Page getting tossed throw one after a blocked cutter, Drew taking a backdrop across set up chairs, and some fun teases around Galloway piledriving him through a set up chair. So, overall it was good enough. It had moments.

7. Last Man Standing: ECIII vs. Johnny Gargano

ER: This was another one of those Gargano matches that seemed like it may have worked for the live crowd, but didn't interest me a whole lot. EC3 heels it up by going for a bunch of WWE spots, hits an Angle Slam, goes for a Pedigree (even though those are moves also done by indy favorites at one point, so....) and they try to do these weird comedy type spots while also trying to work a violent last man standing match. Gargano makes a Brother Nero joke but then also takes a pretty violent bump through a guardrail. But even the violent stuff didn't add up right. Gargano hits Carter with a bunch of chairshots but not until the ref is down, even though it's a Last Man Standing match and that shouldn't matter. And Carter doesn't ever bother to sell the chairshots anyway, so who knows. We get a series of run ins, a referee hits a stunner, so yeah. This is the way they wanted to work it, the fans seemed into it, nothing for me to see here.

Kind of a low end Evolve show based on all of the ones I've watched, but at the same time one that I didn't walk away bummed out from watching. Riddle/Lee was pretty classic, and nothing was flat out bad, so I overall had a good time. Riddle/Lee ended up landing at #16 on our 2016 MOTY List, linked below.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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JAPW Awaken 3/21/2015

JAPW has been around in some form for 15 years or so, and has been one of the great under the radar indies. They seem to run really sporadically, and I was really excited to see a new show pop up in the dark corners of the internet. I am watching this without a match list so I am pretty excited to see who pops up.

Opened with a 10 bell salute to Perro Aguayo, which Chris Dickenson comes out to interrupt. Dickenson is a really hit or miss guy, but he is apparently working Low-Ki in a grudge match, and he seems like a guy who will have a fun unprofessional grudge match with Low-Ki. Low-Ki is with MVP and Samoa Joe as part of their TNA stable, and I see Teddy Hart and Necro Butcher ringside, that is a bunch of guys I like (and MVP).

Silver Ant v. JT Dunn

Silver Ant used to be Green Ant and JT Dunn I have seen before as a member of indy workrate tag team Juicy Product. This was a Beyond Wrestling showcase, and very much felt like a indy wrestling showcase match. Lots of counters and dramatic two counts, and blah blah blah. JT Dunn is very much an indy wrestler, and he does lots of convoluted ways to hit cutters and faceplants. Nice tope by Dunn, but otherwise very forgettable

Steve "Monsta" Mack v. Jaka

On paper very exciting stuff, I am long time Monsta Mack fan, saw the Hit Squad live a bunch of times always enjoyed them, there is an awesome early Low-Ki singles where he works like Vader, loved the Hard Hitters team with a big white guy whose name escapes me. Jaka is Chris Dickonson's tag partner who kind of works an indy Haku gimmick. So this should have ruled. Unfortunately it starts with both guys no-selling german suplexes, and Mack badly blowing a jumping rana, and then right into a bad forearm exchange. One of the worst opening couple of minutes I have seen in a while. It gets a little better at the end as Mack just kills Jaka with some huge throws and clotheslines before pinning him with an awkward nasty powerbomb, still they couldn't dig themselves out of that early hole. Still love Monsta though.

Archadia v. Bandido Jr. v. Smiley v. Joey Janela v. Kimber Lee

Juniors five way with all the flaws that style promises. There were a couple of cool highspots from Bandido Jr. who is a undercard JAPW guy I have always liked, he did a crazy springboard rana, and a cool dive. Otherwise this was kind of mess. Finish was especially stupid, Joey Janela just randomly climbs to the top of a really high pillar, Smiley follows him up for some reason, and the throw some bad punches, and Joey Janela does a flip onto a bunch of security guys, I guess it was supposed to be a bump off the pillar, but it really looked like that what was he was trying to do, looked super fake and dangerous for no reason. Then when those two get back to the ring, everyone else is gone and Janela hits a suplex and pins him. Total mess.

Christopher Daniels + Frankie Kazarian v. Bravado Brothers

Indy wrestling workrate tag, which is a style I just can't get into. Everything was executed slickly (it is a Chris Daniels match) but it didn't add up to a ton. Kazarian does have some cool springboards, and the Bravados have some double teams which look good, but I forgot everything about this a minute after it was done.

Necro Butcher + The Hooligans v. The Viking War Party

The wild Necro brawls around the Rahway Rec center were my favorite thing about the latter day JAPW, this was in that spirit, but was surprisingly subdued. Necro actually spends a fair amount of the match in the ring, instead of reckless fling chairs in the crowd. There was some good craziness including the fat Viking getting smushed through a guardrail, and the Littlest Viking eating a running powerbomb in the rail. This kind of thing is always fun to watch, but this wasn't close to  the level of the great Necro/Brodie Lee matches from a couple of years ago.

Azrieal v. Black Jeez

Surprisingly solid juniors match. Haven't seen a Black Jeez match in years and while he was pretty terrible in CZW back in the day, he was OK here, definitely should have put him on the list of black guys LU should have brought in instead of Killshot. He works pretty stiff here, and applies his stuff well. Azrieal was one of the solid JAPW juniors back in the day, he was no Dixie or Insane Dragon but probably a bit better then Elax the exploited child, he had a nice tope and some solid mid range juniors offense, still nothing about this leaped out at me and didn't stick out in my brain 10 minutes later.

Teddy Hart/Chris Hero v. Samoa Joe/MVP

There are tons of indy wrestlers in the world doing "crazy guy" gimmicks, but how many of those guys spend time training their cats. Teddy Hart is such a legit lunatic that he is compelling to watch. Teddy's valet comes down with a fluffy Persian who seconds him and Hero during that match. Joe and MVP are working their TNA gimmick with Homicide at ringside, pretty fun match. MVP keeps refusing to take any of Teddy Harts moonsaults including moving so he smashes some fans on a dive, it almost felt like a weird inter promotional Puro match where guys are not cooperating. The match was mostly shtick, although Teddy had some nice brawling with Joe. There was also a great moment where Homicide just decides to break a chair over Teddy's head for the hell of it, I love that feud, and hope JAPW runs some more of it. Postmatch had Hart making a lot of jokes about his Pussy and thanking Jesus, what a kook.

Low-Ki v. Chris Dickinson

PAS: I was pretty low on Dickinson in the past, I described him as a fake Davey Richards which is about the worst way you can damn somebody. He has removed a lot of the extraneous bullshit, and is now mostly working on stiffness and his despicable charisma. He has to be one of the most hatable wrestlers I can remember, he feels like the kind of high school linebacker who would organize a gay bashing or gang rape, and add in the crew of creeps he runs with and you get a really compelling act. Low-Ki, especially in JAPW is a guy you want to see beat the shit out of someone, and man does he beat the shit out Dickinson, although Chris dishes it out too. Match starts out with some karate sparing, which is an interesting way to open a match, and then some decent takedowns and mat wrestling before the asskicking starts, Ki would blister Dickinson and he would fire back with some big shots, and also some fun cheap shots, Dickinson has a great looking eye poke. One point Dickinson kicks Ki really hard in the back and Ki fires back with this awesome four punch combo which they replayed from five different angles, so awesome, and really fit the somewhat ragged and uncooperative feel of the match. This match also had one of the cool superplexes I can remember seeing as Dickinson through Ki almost to the other side of the ring.

ER: Really cool match with some inventive asskicking and painful stretching. We get some nice early mat stuff with Dickinson controlling Ki and Ki almost going for broke early with a couple of double foot stomps. This was a nice change-up as Ki doesn't normally go for those so early so it was a neat indication that he thought he was in trouble, outmatched. Dickinson counters Ki's early attempts to finish with nice little cheats, a low blow here and an eye poke there. Dickinson keeps trapping Ki in this nasty submission with Ki's arms hooked behind his back and Dickinson's feet pushing against Ki's neck. At one point Ki does a great job of getting to the ropes, but facially expressing that it's hurting him WAY more to get to the ropes than was maybe worth it. Dickinson ups the stiffness by booting Ki in the back, and Ki puts it over great by slowly standing up back turned to Dickinson, clearly in pain but not wanting to show it. And then he punches Dickinson a bunch in the face and chest and everything is great. There was some good struggle throughout, especially loved Ki desperately grabbing behind Dickinson's knees to block a powerbomb. Later Ki went for a vertical suplex but Dickinson tried to sandbag him, which backfired and ended with him taking a sort of brainbuster DDT that looked vicious. There were a lot of nice little things like that, and those little things elevate a match. Even the finish had one of those moments with Dickinson hung in the tree of woe and Ki going for the Warriors Way. Now usually guys have to just kind of hang there like dinguses and then find a way to look up before getting their chests stomped in, but here Ki stands on Dickinson's knees causing him to sit up in pain, and then Ki hits the Warriors Way. Nice.


Post match was fun with Dickinson's crew brawling to the back with Joe, MVP and Homicide and Monsta Mack saving Ki from a sneak attack, only to do a big turn on him. Could really dig heel Monsta Mack against Ki and Homicide, and I hope JAPW runs again soon.

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Evolve 37 1/10/15 Review

1. Shane Strickland vs. Anthony Nese

ER: So earlier in the week I watched a CZW show from late last year which had a Strickland match (vs. Flip Kendrick) that is one of the worst matches I've seen this decade, just a sloppy, poorly laid out mess. Both guys looked awful. Now Flip Kendrick is a guy I've always enjoyed, and had that been the first match I'd seen him in I would not be excited to see him again. So he had an off night. Maybe Strickland also had an off night and is usually somewhat better? Well, he's still not very good, but he didn't look nearly as bad as in that CZW match. He didn't look great, but better. He basically works like the worst version of CMLL wrestler Titan. Does a few of his spots, but worse. His front flip rana to the floor is impressive in theory, but it's set up a mile away and goes really slow. Some of his stuff can look good, but he's really really bad at going through planned sequences. He cannot make them look more rehearsed. His face just goes completely blank and you can practically see him mouthing the steps. None of the stuff comes off looking natural in the least. Nese is a guy with some polish and some good execution. The match didn't really go in a direction that interested me, but Nese has been around long enough that I can see him having good matches with better opponents.

2. Timothy Thatcher vs. Roderick Strong

PAS: Really enjoyed this, as this was a grittier more violent match then Thatcher often is involved in. The matwork was less trading holds and more really aggressive amateur rolling. They roll to the ground and Strong firemans carries Thatcher and smashes his head into the post. Then you have Strong throwing big bombs and Thatcher, glassy eyed trying to grab holds while he still had his wits about him. It actually felt a little like a Fujiwara performance, down to the cool flash finish.

ER: Really loved this match up. Strong is a guy who I like, who does a lot of stuff that I don't like, a guy who has always done good stuff, in between the stuff I hate. But this right here seems like the best possible version of Strong. He was a real ass kicker in this and I love that it brought out aggression in Thatcher. And as Phil said this was less about transitions and holds and reversals, this was two guys not wanting to let up position on the ground, like a spar that turned real nasty. At one point Strong as a can opener locked on while Thatcher is just forcing his elbow into Strong's jaw. Not elbowing him, put holding one side of Strong's head with his left hand, so he can dig into that jaw with his right elbow. And the whole time Strong kept yanking Thatcher's head more and more forward. Awesome spot. Strong had a few nice knee strikes that Thatcher leaned into, and I'm loving more and more the sudden finishes that can happen with Thatcher, Gulak and Busick. Here Thatcher grabs a sweet arm bar that I didn't see coming for the finish. Excited to see more 2015 Strong.

3. AR Fox vs. Trevor Lee

ER: This finished after just a few minutes because Trevor punts Fox right in the eyeball and legit KOs him, or at minimum concussed him. I was starting to think that Fox was just a real good salesman. Match before that was kind of dorky, but kind of amusing. Both guys do really questionable rope running/reversal/one step ahead of your opponent type of stuff, and sometimes that looks good and other times it looks ridiculous and mapped out for miles. I liked all of their cool early armdrag reversals, with a couple blocked armdrags (which is a spot I love) and some real neat variations. But with those cool spots come a lot of needless flips. One spot saw Fox go for a dive, Lee backflip off the apron while Fox does a Misawa feint to the apron, then Fox backflipping off the ring post to the floor which led to him getting his eye socket punted in by Lee. We also get plenty of ambitious strikes that whiff, and would probably look better if they didn't add a spin to everything. Announcers pushed real hard how Trevor Lee is real "over" in PWG but the fans haven't quite taken to him the same way here, saying they aren't sure what to make of how he acts and how he dresses. Wellllll….color me confused as I have never seen Lee before but he acts totally normal and he was wearing black trunks with black boots/kickpads. It's not like he was wearing crotchless chaps and wrestling on his hands or anything. Until they started babbling about how he looked I never would have thought he looked odd. Am I missing something?

4. Biff Busick vs. Uhaa Nation

ER: Well Uhaa has the best theme song in wrestling. And I loved the announcers going the full Kal Rudman while talking about him. "Just eat a cheeseburger why don't you, get up to 1% body fat. Muscle on top of muscle. Jacked." I love that they're just going for it, looking at Uhaa and getting choked up like John Boehner talking about America. Overall I liked this match, really liked Busick in this and Uhaa had some moments. Uhaa's problem seems to be that he really focuses on the "athletic" portion of his offense, even if the follow through of said offense suffers. You can't go 30 seconds in this match without hearing the dual Rudmanning of Uhaa's athleticism. Every time he left his feet was met with orgasmic moans, followed by more fawning over his abdominal muscles. But he seems way too inside of his athletic self. He'll leap up real high for an elbow drop, but the elbow drop doesn't look very good. He'll get an insane leap on a flying clothesline, but the clothesline itself won't look great. So it's obvious he has impressive leaping ability and looks very light on his feet in general, but when you look at his offense from the angle of what is actually being done to his opponent it does not seem as impressive. But it's very easy to get blinded with the athletic portion of the move and the actual impact portion gets kind of swept under as you're still reacting to "athleticism". I liked how the story began, with Busick working over his ribs, tossing out some of the nastiest knees you've seen (which led to a nice reversal by Uhaa when he did a forward roll over a knee for a roll up) and a nice abdominal stretch, followed by a cool half nelson suplex reversal (which Uhaa popped up for to hit a clothesline, blecch). Busick looked great throughout, always seems to have a good match planned for his opponent. I think he fed into Uhaa nicely, bumping big on suplexes and clotheslines, large bumps but appropriate for what was being done. I love his headlock takeover into a choke submission finisher, and while there were faults to the match this was plenty good.

5. Drew Galloway vs. Ricochet

PAS: Great match, the best I have seen from either guy. Galloway has grabbed the early pole position for wrestler of the year. We start out with some outside of the ring brawling which delivered a couple of crazy athletic spots by Ricochet, he gets thrown in the air, grabs a basketball hoop and twists his way into a rana, it is something Gerald Green and Juventud Guerrera should steal for the dunk contest. Ricochet then tries a wall walk moonsault, gets caught and thrown brutally into a concrete wall. When the match gets back into the ring, Ricochet goes after the finger Galloway injured in his Strong street fight, and Ricochet makes a surprisingly effective Fuchi. Finish was great, Galloways splint comes off and catches Ricochet in the eye, and after waiting a split second Galloway jumps him and hits a couple of big moves for the finish, fun subtle heel turn in the spirit of Tommy Rich v. Bill Dundee in early 80's Memphis.

ER: Well this match was great. I loved loved loved all of this. The early spots that Phil mentioned were insane. Ricochet getting tossed into the hoop and then fluidly swinging back with a rana is something that could easily come off like an overused winking Human Tornado kind of spot, but here it almost comes off organic, as if Galloway tossed him into a wall not knowing there was a hoop there and Ricochet pulled off the ultimate ad lib. It's like when a guy goes through a table that wasn't actually set up by his opponent, just so much more satisfying when you don't see the spot coming. The run-up-the-wall moonsault, caught by Galloway and ending with Galloway chucking him into the wall was flat out brutal, Ricochet's body splayed out in a fantastic thud. Back in and Ricochet gets all Finlay on us by ripping off Galloway's finger splint and ripping apart at his fingers. He even does amusing indy spots like a standing moonsault onto the bad hand. Ricochet bumps like wild on Drew's comebacks, not just that earlier spot getting tossed into a wall. He gets suplexed into the corner, leans into strikes, and then the spot of the match with Drew obliterating Rico with literally the greatest top top clothesline in the history of this great sport. I've wracked my brain trying to think of a better one. I remember Ikeda hitting a great one off the top in NOAH. But this one. This was the best. Drew's follow through was immaculate and the way Ricochet imploded was perfection. Wrestling spot of the year? Most possibly. They really could have done anything after that spot and I would have given it 8 stars, but the rest of the match is perfectly fine, and the finish is great as Drew accidentally catches Rico in the eye with his splint, and looks genuinely apologetic with the apologies. I bought them. Then sprints out of the corner to blast him with a kick for the pin. Awesome. Great match-up.

6. Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann & Chuck Taylor vs. The Bravado Brothers & Moose

ER: Well, this was...okay? But not really my cup of tea. One of those matches where for every thing I like about it, there's something that takes me out of it. None of these 6 are guys who I will actively seek out, or get excited about if they're an opponent of somebody I like. But 6 mans can be a kind of magic for average wrestlers, where they can hide all their flaws and come out the other end with a nice tidy 15 minutes of pro wrestling. And this wasn't not that...on a base level the match was fine. No silly overkill and plenty of fun moments. By the end it just didn't add up to much. It's the kind of match that seems fine if you're watching it with buddies, half paying attention to the match and half focusing on chatting about movies you've seen recently or how you can't believe you love Bates Motel as much as you do. But actually watching the match, you see cracks. Dives that whiff, eyeballs trying to remember sequences instead of looking natural, people timing out their steps tap dance style. Gargano is a guy who is pushed hard by Evolve, and even the announcers put over as "the face of Evolve", which just seems wild to me as there are few guys on the Evolve roster who I usually remember less about than Gargano. He's a guy I've rarely been offended by, and has rarely impressed me. Swann I probably like the most of these 6, he adds the most little details to his flash. He can throw in little struggles like he and Harlem fighting over a suplex that he ends up eventually reversing to a small package, and comes off the most natural in rope running exchanges. The Bravados have improved in the last few years and look good when working team spots, less so separately. Lance seems like the clear better one to me. I actually liked some of his punches during brawling portions, and Bravados were never guys I thought "nice punches!" about. Moose is your large Kofi Kingston, doing athletically impressive spots that don't really hit very well, or is dependent on big bumpers. His standing clothesline looked good, or was it Swann leaning into it? His duel fallaway slam/samoan drop looked impressive, but it also required Swann to find a plausible way to set it up. But none of this overstayed its welcome and that counts for a lot, finding the right time to end things is a big deal that a lot of indy wrestling doesn't understand. This match was all perfectly acceptable wrestling, just as equally as it was perfectly forgettable wrestling.


Overall this was a real good card. Two MOTYC on one card will do that. Outside of the excellent Drew/Ricochet and Thatcher/Strong, I dug the Busick match and nothing else was offensive. Definitely going to be doing more Evolve reviews. Linked below is our 2015 MOTY list, since both the Galloway and Thatcher matches were easy inclusions to that:


2015 MASTER LIST

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ROH TV Workrate Report: 3/14/11

So this might be it. I went to DVR next week's ROH TV and it was not scheduled. Maybe it's taking a short break for March Madness? Maybe this is done. I'll write this report as if it were the last time I was watching ROH on my TV.

Bravado Brothers promo to start!! Oh...it's the same promo from like 2 months ago.

1. Bravado Brothers vs. Grizzly Redwood/Bobby Dempsey to start! We don't get to see these guys that often, so I'd rather have this on my TV than one last Chris Daniels match. Dempsey has the most unfortunate fat face. He looks like a bad present-day Artie Lange. Dempsey hits a great headbutt and tags in Grizzly. I'm not sure which Bravado is which. I think Harlem has the straight hair, and Lance has the curly hair. Grizzly gets thrown around really nicely, and Lance has a nice forearm shot. Harlem works a bearhug on Grizzly, and it's a little disappointing that Grizzly doesn't have a bearhug in his arsenal. Call it the Haggerty Hold. I dig Dempsey's one-armed singlet. His hair is a disappointment to fatties everywhere. It would work if he was a heel. Bravados pull out their San Diego Chicken offense and do a crossbody to Dempsey while the other is on all fours behind him, sending Bobby tumbling to defeat. Well that was fun and at 5 minutes didn't have time to lag. I'm gonna miss you guys.

TPT Finals tonight!

2. Pancration Rules Match! KO, subs only, no closed fists to the head, no hitting the back of the head, no knees on the ground, ropes in play.....Davey Richards vs. Tony Kozina! OK, for someone who has not liked a Davey match in 3+ years, this match sounds kinda cool on paper. I dig Kozina, and the confined rules might keep Davey from getting too shitty. It starts with them circling each other like RINGS fighters, open hand slaps and leg kicks. Davey knocks Tony down with a high kick and maneuvers into a guillotine, but Tony rolls out and both get back to their feet. Tony takes 2 kicks to the elbow and sells it real nice. Both throw knees from the clinch and the struggle within the clinch looks good. Tony gets leverage and dumps Davey on his head. Davey up and goes for a desperation takedown, and runs right into a knee from Tony. Davey turtles up and Tony blasts him with strikes on the ground before getting a rear naked choke. Davey fights up and reverses into mount and then foolishly goes for an ankle lock. What is this Davey, 1992? Tony gets the ropes and Davey kicks him in the same elbow again, then kicks him in the face. Kozina gets hit with a running knee and after some palm strikes on the ground, the ref calls it off. Best Davey match you will see. It was 5 minutes, cool action, and it took away all his stupid handsprings and fighting spirit. Davey doing faux-MMA is so much better than Davey doing pro wrestling.

Embassy is out, with no Necro. He has Princess Mia, Ernesto Osiris, and a guy in a green blazer/turtleneck combo (like Carl Sagan!!). I always like Nana on the stick. Nana introduces the newest Embassy member and it is......

Tomasso Ciampa? Cannot say I'm familiar. He is ambiguously brown and has a mohawk.

3. Tomasso Ciampa vs. Mike Sydal. Sydal you know because he has maybe the worst tattoos in wrestling, and you know the ground that covers? Mia gets shots in on Sydal and throws a nice superkick, especially for someone wearing a dress. Sydal has really lousy kicks and elbows. They are so light and fluffy and painless. Ciampa agrees as he is not hurt and blasts Sydal with a clothesline. Then does a completely preposterous but fun powerbomb into backcracker. You can't do it on an opponent over 130 lb., but it looks cool so who cares.

4. And now we got the finals of the TPT'11, Kyle O'Reilly vs. Mike Bennett. Crowd is amped for Kyle. They SMELL the upset. I am nervous as there are still 25 minutes left in the episode and that seems like a looooong time for them. We start the match as 80% of ROH matches start: headlock takeovers, rope running, some shoulderblocks...then we cut to Corino impressed with the match, talking to nobody in particular. "Yeah. Good, good. Wow, that was nice." Bennett gets knocked to the floor and then gets thrown into the rail. He plows into that rail as if he were applying for a gig in NOAH. O'Reilly again does his awesome dropkick from the apron through his opponent, and it looks even more impressive here as the guardrail comes unlatched and it looks like he kicked Bennett so hard that he flew into the rail and broke the rail apart. Stuff happens as I type that, and Bennett gains control with a DDT on the entrance ramp, which O'Reilly takes at a real awkward angle. Kyle gets back into the ring at the 19 count, doing an admirable stumble sell to make it back in. Bennett, instead of capitalizing on his stumbling opponent, goes for a resthold, which O'Reilly eventually backdrops out of. Bennett is selling major fatigue for some reason. I predict Kyle will take the next 6 minutes, and Bennett will hit his finisher to win. Nevermind, Bennett hits a decent spinebuster. O'Reilly gets some kicks, and a missle dropkick gets two. Ewwwwww then we go into a real ugly "MMA" sequence where O'Reilly takes a month and fumbles around before getting Bennett into a sloppy triangle that would impress NO one. O'Reilly transitions into a guillotine and Bennett powers up and hits his finisher. Well this match peaked during the big dropkick and DDT on the floor. O'Reilly did a real good stumble back to the ring and acted concussed, but back in the ring it was business as usual and it didn't have too much heat from there.

Bennett has words with Corino afterwards, making fun of all his crummy advice he gave to the losers of the tournament. It takes approximately 30 slow minutes to build to Bennett punching Corino, and when it finally happens it's just not worth it at all. Murdoch punching Dibiase this was not.

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