Here's a Necro Butcher Match to Watch During the Kid Rock TP USA Half Time Show

Super Dragon/Necro Butcher vs. Kevin Steen/BJ Whitmer CZW 4/15/06 - GREAT

ER: More of a great Super Dragon/Necro match than a great overall match, notable for being one of the two times CZW used Super Dragon/Necro Butcher as a team. Imagine a cooler team in 2006 than Necro Butcher and Super Dragon. Do it, right now. I love them together and loved them in this. I just don't think this era of Steen/Whitmer was able to match their stiffness. Not even close. It was a dominant Team CZW match - which I like - but that made it feel like a missed opportunity for Whitmer and Steen to get real actual heat for repping ROH. Think about Akitoshi Saito showing up in Big Japan. BJ Whitmer could have been a shittier version of that. But is this actually a BJ Whitmer Match? 

Whitmer is good at taking damage, great at bumping for Necro, and this finally got going when Necro threw a chair into BJ's stomach and Dragon bounced a chair off Steen's head. Whitmer was great at taking and selling chairshots all match. Necro and Whitmer's suplex to the floor looked rough (complimentary) and Whitmer honest to god saved one of Necro's lives catching his cannonball over the ringpost. BJ Whitmer stood strong and absorbed all of that maniacal cannonball when nobody else could, and his reward was getting a dozen chairs bounced off his body. 

Maybe it's Kevin Steen and only Kevin Steen who keeps this match from being a classic, even though I liked everything Dragon did TO Steen. Dragon was throwing elbows and kicks that Steen could not credibly respond to. Dragon was generous, I thought, to both ROH reps, more than their offense deserved. Taking a Super Calo bump on the back of his head for a Whitmer clothesline is pretty generous, but he was kind enough to throw his body into bumps for offense that didn't always justify the bump. The violence down the stretch was good; Dragon stomping Whitmer's head on a seated chair, or Necro getting powerbombed onto the backs of two folding chairs. I love them so much, and I love the finish. Dragon drops Steen on his head to the chorus of a loud CZW chant, picks him up at 2...then drops him on his head again with a Psycho Driver while the chants only grow louder. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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Where Did Eddie Get the Money for This, Don't Think Rhyming

Eddie Kingston vs. Justice Pain CZW 11/11/06 - GREAT

PAS: Kingston is a heel defending the CZW title against CZW icon Justice Pain. Pain gets an early advantage with some real crowbar forearms, but is constantly cut off by Blackout interfering on the floor. It was a bit of a slow start, until Pain was able to get the match to the floor. Then they had a fun arena tour with Kingston taking some big bumps, including a ride through dozens of stood up chairs, and getting a chair hurled into the small of the back. We get a hard hitting near fall section at the end of the match, including Pain snatching a really sick looking triangle choke. But that was interspersed with some booking, including a bloody Chris Hero running in to attack Kingston, and Pain grabbing the Blackout's valet and driving her face into Bryce Remsburg's dick (ahh Philly what a land of delicious pork sandwiches and repellent sex perverts). Pain isn't a guy who laid down a ton in CZW, so you have to put him down, and Kingston really did that with a series of big nasty lariats and a sick backfist to get the win.

Eddie Kingston vs. Sami Callihan CZW 10/10/09 - GREAT

PAS: This was Kingston's return match to CZW, and was in the midst of the Callihan vs. Havok feud right after Callihan slit Havoc's wrist. The idea was that Kingston was there to teach Sami a lesson, and their was some really stiff violent wrestling between these two. Splintering chops, thudding lariats to the side of the neck, exactly what you want these guys to do. There was a long Kobashi chop section in the corner which I didn't love, but otherwise this was just strafing. Finish was surprising, with Callihan hitting a low blow and a clothesline to the back of Eddie's head and neck (breaking his nose on the mat) for the win. Eddie's nose is just pulped, and this was clearly setting up a killer rematch that CZW never ran. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Eddie Kingston Rides Around Trunk Full of That Funk Call it That Parliment

Eddie Kingston/Nick Gage/Justice Pain vs. Lufisto/Franky the Mobster/Kevin Steen/El Generico vs. Blackout (Robbie Marino/Sabian/Joker/Ruckus) CZW 8/12/06 - GREAT

PAS: This was a three team cage match (it was in the Cage of Death, but not listed as a Cage of Death match for some reason). I really enjoyed the early chaos, you had all 11 wrestlers recklessly brawling around the ring. We got a bunch of Eddie and Joker hitting each other hard which is always great, and Lufisto is really fun winging unprotected chair shots at peoples' heads. I was shocked at how much I dug Justice Pain in this, he isn't a guy I remember rating particularly high during the time, but he was taking crazy and athletic bumps into the cage and had a fun jacked meathead stand off with Franky the Mobster. The match really got very booking heavy at the end. When we got to the eliminations they came pretty quickly, which is always kind of the problem in elimination matches. There is a big standoff where everyone clears the ring and Pain sends Kingston (who had been turned on by Blackout earlier in the show) to face off with Ruckus to prove himself. Kingston is pretty much the perfect "I've got to prove myself wrestler" and the Ruckus section was good stuff. Steen had been bullying Lufisto, and she wins his Iron Man title by low blowing him and rolling him up (even though they were on the same team), Steen comes back and lays her out with a package piledriver, leaving her to be pinned by the H8 Club and Kingston. That is a really weird way for babyfaces to win a match like this, and H8 Club and Kingston were never in any particular peril, they just kind of ran through everyone. I think this ended up being lesser then the sum of its parts, although it had some really good parts,

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Matches from CZW High Stakes II: Night Show 9/11/04

This show opens with a "Remember the Sacrifices" 9/11 flute instrumental memorial, showing fire fighters and ground zero extraction crews, segueing directly into a warning that CZW contains graphic and violent content because 2000s wrestling and (well, everything, for a few years) 9/11 had a strong bond. CZW even ran two shows on this day, the 3rd anniversary of 9/11, presumably to honor troops and first responders twice as much.


Super Dragon vs. Chris Hero - FUN

ER: For two guys who seem like they would have some real classic against each other, turns out they only had two singles matches. They had some tags opposite each other, but half of those included Davey Richards, so, you know. This one never really came together, and felt more like an assemblage of neat things both men do rather than a cohesive match featuring those things. You get your rolling wristlock exchange opening, your forearm exchange section, your suplex exchange section, and the momentum basically turned whenever either of them felt like turning the momentum. A lot of the greatest hits looked good: I'll always love Dragon's ringpost Cassandro bump, or Hero's running face wash big boot. You get hard Dragon short arm clotheslines, wrenched in cravats from Hero, a great German suplex spot where Dragon throws him after no selling an eyepoke, a Hero capture suplex that really folds Dragon, and a nice Dragon tope con hilo. But some of Hero's elbows actually don't look great, and the whole thing has a kind of exhibition feel throughout. It felt like they were checking off boxes rather than actually putting together a match. Moves got bigger, but since neither guy seemed to have much trouble getting back on offense, the moves never felt significant. Hero maneuvering through Dragon's limbs to get to the deathlock cravat was a slick as hell finish, and the whole thing would certainly make for a great 4 minute highlight video. But this was below what these SC favorites are capable of, and you gotta hold legends like these to a standard.

PAS: I agree that this was less then the sum of its parts. You are going to have some cool shit in a match with two wrestlers with a ton of cool shit, but I never felt it built to anything. I really liked Super Dragon stepping in on a flippy roll from Hero and just pasting him in the chops, and the Super Dragon double stomp to the head is one of wrestling sickest moves. Still that is a move which ended TARO's career and Hero kicks out at two and goes right back on offense. There was a lot of do-si-do reversals for a pair of guys who are normally bangers, and it did just kind of feel like it went till it stopped.

Sexxxy Eddy vs. El Generico vs. Kevin Steen vs. eXceSs 69

ER: I was about to skip this one, as the first several minutes were pretty bad, the kind of 2004 multiman wrestling that doesn't hold up and looks like guys carefully trying new moves and sequences. Eddy throws the absolute worst knee strikes I've seen, with his foot floating up and out behind him every time he did a knee, it looked like some kind of joke offense Rip Rogers would do to get heat (except I'm pretty sure they were just supposed to be actual kneelifts). Then we get one of those dive trains where most of the guys don't seem to know how to catch dives, and it was both a bad moment but also the moment of the match that started winning me over? I mean something about guys just hitting concrete and guardrails has a kind of unifying vibe to it. Generico does a tope con hilo and just lands on his feet without hardly touching anyone, Eddy takes a gnarly flight into the guardrail and crowd on an Asai moonsault, and my brain switched over into "I mean if they're going to kill themselves then let's see it."

And then they killed themselves! Generico was throwing heavy ole kicks in the corner, Steen started crushing people with suplexes, Generico dropped Steen disgustingly on the top buckle with a brainbuster, and then while I was reacting to that he dropped Sexxxy Eddy even more disgustingly with a buckle brainbuster! Steen attempted to cripple eXceSs 69 (presumably and understandably for his name) by throwing him overhead with a cradle suplex that dared Excess to bump on anything other than his neck. And the thing that started really getting me involved with this - other than potential death - is just how strong the crowd gets into Eddy. They really really want to see their guy beat these Canadians (they are all Canadians, but he's THEIR Canadian). You see, before the match, Eddy had done a strip tease for a barely legal girl, aggressively rubbed his dong on her, and then autographed her bare ass, so obviously he's a babyface at the New Alhambra. But the crowd really organically got into an Eddy win as the match went on, and I really like a crowd getting into a wrestler rather than rooting for a MOTY. Steen looked really awesome in this, delivering a ton of dangerous offense (kids never even piledrove their Wrestling Buddies as hard as he delivered a package piledriver in this match) with a smug look and teen acne, he hit a top rope gutbuster that should have shattered his leg, and Eddy kicking out of Steen's great moonsault was a genuine surprise. This was rough and bad, and then won me over. Eddy got the big win, and then everyone stood in the ring for a long time afterward congratulating themselves on what a great job they all did, and it was hilarious watching them all take curtain calls like they were all retiring immediately. 

Eddie Kingston vs. B-Boy - GREAT

ER: This was nothing but action, with both men throwing increasingly heavier and heavier shots, never going into overkill but ramping up the violence consistently. It was a chance for both guys to show off some deep offense wells, while never feeling like either guy was trying to get all their moves in. This was Kingston's first singles match in CZW (and probably the earliest Kingston singles match I've seen, since I haven't dove too far into his Chikara work) and it's so good. He and B-Boy slugged it out and Kingston is a slightly more raw version of his later singles work, but it's surprising (it probably shouldn't be) how confident and mostly formed his style was just 75 matches into his career. Bobby Quance is on this show, and he's a guy whose whole thing was "incredibly quick learner", yet Kingston didn't even have as many matches as Quance at the time of this match. Kingston talked a ton of trash while leaning into some mean B-Boy shots, both men throwing big running kicks to the face, both throwing hard follow through elbow strikes, and the quick pace lead to minimal down time without ever feel like they were rushing to get to another big moment. It looked like it was going to be a real B-Boy steamrolling, loved him kicking King around, bouncing a chair off his head on the floor, and Kingston is great at taking ringside beatings. 

I loved how King would make inroads, especially his blocked shining wizard cradle suplex, or when he caught a kick and used B-Boy's trapped leg to lift him up and plant him with a sitout powerbomb. BLKOUT gets involved, and I'm 95% confident that B-Boy murders Sabian with an electric chair driver. His head gets driven directly into the mat and his body goes stiff (before getting rolled out of the ring and out of our lives). We got a lot of Ultimate Warrior Actually Died rumors in the 90s, but the Second Sabian hasn't gotten nearly as much press. BLK Jeez is not the original Sabian, and you heard it here first. Kingston takes a ton of gross damage, like a brutal death valley driver and a blockbuster through some set up chairs, and the finish is a fantastic visual: B-Boy drops him in the corner with a chair over his face, lays a table over him, and then hits a running kick THROUGH the table into King's face. THAT is a kill shot finish, people. Kingston is a lunatic from taking something so unprotected, and you can even see B-Boy taking extra time in the corner to psyche himself up for putting his damn leg through a table. When the guy about to murder you is having second thoughts about murdering you, that's a weird vibe to bring to a wrestling match. And it ruled.

PAS: This had the awkwardness you might expect from Kingston still being green, but both guys have a ton of charisma and aren't afraid to throw heat. This is a fun role reversal with B-Boy in the later Kingston role of veteran beating on a young stud, and Kingston being an awesome Tre Lamar as the young outgunned cocky kid. Poor Sabian though. That electric chair drive landed on the crown of his head and must have knocked three inches off his height. That finish took a while to set up, but you can't quibble with B-Boy driving his foot through a table and through someone's face.


M-Dogg 20 vs. Bobby Quance

ER: Bobby Quance, as I mentioned before, is famous for being a pro wrestling natural, who moved on quick and left people wanting more. This match was basically the end of his career, with the announcement after the match that he was joining the Navy. And for a guy who never wrestled full time and worked less than 100 matches, he really did have a lot of polish. He looked even more polished wrestling opposite M-Dogg 20. Quance had a lot of cool grappling to start, trying to get wrist control standing, taking M-Dogg down while going for armbars, and M-Dogg actually appeared to be working a funny heel gimmick where he only did disappointing highspots to get under the crowd's skin. M-Dogg hit a springboard tomahawk chop, and kept locking on chinlocks for heat instead of following through on spots (like hitting a snapmare and stopping short from kicking Quance in the back, opting for a chinlock). I was getting plenty of entertainment out of M-Dogg pulling this bullshit - man who is only known for gymnastics refusing to do gymnastics - but the crowd didn't seem to care. And then, M-Dogg stopped caring as well. They went to the finish earlier than expected, felt like they were building to something a bit longer, and the match ended with an M-Dogg shooting star press that landed 2 feet short. That finish felt like somebody shit their pants and they had to immediately go home no matter what. 

Ladder Match: Nate Webb vs. JC Bailey vs. Chris Cash

ER: This had down time, but was much closer in spirit to Crazy Crusher vs. Hell Storm, which is the only logical way to judge a ladder match. That match was focused on impossibly stiff strikes and death wish bumps with no thoughts to safe landings, and that's what this was. It wasn't as pure as that backyard indy dream, but the vibe was there. There are some UGLY bumps in this one, the kind of things that could have easily crippled someone. The grossest moment was Webb dropping Bailey with a back suplex while Bailey had a ladder hung around his neck. The way Bailey gets folded up I honestly don't know how how he didn't break his neck. That's not the first time in the match I thought Bailey broke his neck, as the finish saw him take a burning hammer off the top of a ladder, onto a ladder that was set up between chairs. That's the perfect beauty of Canadian indy backyard spirit. Webb is super talented, a flyer with a crazy ideas, someone who could have been a super successful "straight" worked, but his willingness to do crazy things without thinking too hard about them makes him even more special. I didn't love Cash here, even though he took a similarly gross bump to Bailey's ladder around neck bump, he seemed to be slower on the draw in pulling off the crazy spots. Bailey and Webb were in there to take incredibly stupid bumps onto their heads or into piles of chairs, and Cash was the guy to pick up the scraps. This wasn't a clean match and there were some longer than needed set up times, but the heart and craziness was there and that's far more important.


Necro Butcher vs. Wifebeater

ER: This was a few big gross landings with not a whole lot in between, so it's going to come down to how much you like to see Necro take punishment. I like that quite a lot, so for me there was plenty here to enjoy. The bumps are what you're here for, and there were plenty of crazy bumps. They brawl through the crowd, Necro superplexes Wifebeater off the bleachers through a table, Necro gets powerbombed off different bleachers through a couple set up chairs, Necro eats a powerbomb through the merch table while some poor guy tries fecklessly to move the VHS and DVDs off the table first (he does not, meaning Necro lands right on a ton of VHS, the table eventually gets broken, VHS tapes everywhere). The set ups to a lot of these are kind of ugly. Wifebeater has a really difficult time both lifting Necro for moves, and appears to be deadweight while being lifted. If you're generous, maybe it comes off like they're struggling to prevent a move, like Misawa sandbagging a powerbomb. It isn't that, but if you're generous you could at least make that argument. It would be a good thing for someone to cover it up on commentary. In the ring Wifebeater snacks on sour cream Pringles, shoves thumbtacks down the front of Necro's pants before hitting a fistdrop on his groin, and then a gruesome inverted atomic drop. That kind of stuff is great, but there's a lot of time in between this stuff. Sure, some of that time is spent on punches to the head, but the whole match is pretty disconnected. The finish is a real cluster, with more tacks than I've ever seen on a mat getting poured out but not really used, then a glass pane getting set up between two chairs. Lobo is guest ref and kind of commandeers things, preventing Wifebeater from using a weed whacker, then taking far too long to open up some lighter fluid and light this pane of glass. Necro has to basically stall for 30 seconds and act like he can't lift Wifebeater for a powerbomb, and they stumble a bit when the glass is finally lit, but Wifebeater finally exploding through glass is a great finish. His back covered with rivulets of blood as he walked out looked even cooler. This is the kind of match that would make a killer 3 minute highlight video, and I'm okay with that.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Drew Gulak Can Die on the Floor

Submission Match: Drew Gulak vs. Dustin Lee CZW 4/5/08 - GREAT

ER: A submission match with a lot of tough stuff and a real strong example of the stiff strike indy style that happened during this era. I don't think I've ever seen Lee before, and he came off like a peak era IWA Mid-South guy. He came off like American Kickboxer, and I SWEAR that I only found out after that he was actually trained by Ian and Kickboxer. Lee definitely comes off like the product of his trainers, in the best way. He hits really hard, scrapes his boot on Gulak's face, throws stiff punches off the top and side of Gulak's head, and throws kicks the way someone would if they had been kicked a lot. This guy must have taken some beatings during training, because he passes that on to Gulak like an abusive stepfather. Gulak was the underdog, and Lee treated him like one. Gulak starts the match with a crazy tope con hilo, the kind crazy enough that I can see why he worked a "No Highflying" gimmick for awhile. He nearly handsprings off the shoulders of Lee, crashing mostly into the guardrail and landing on the back of his head. He shakes it off, and Lee makes sure it won't be the last shot he takes to the head. Lee really aims hard elbows right at Gulak's neck, and I love how Gulak didn't allow himself to be bullied, firing back with nice punches of his own. I also loved the time they spent with Lee trying to shake off a Gulak rear naked choke. They spent a solid 2 minutes with Gulak not easing up, and Lee trying to fall on him, hit Gulak's body into hard surfaces, anything to shake him. Lee purposely leaps to the floor and smashes Gulak into the apron on his way down, tries to smack him into the guardrail, and finally loosens him by whipping Gulak's head into the ringpost.

I almost wish this match was KO or Submission, as while the submissions were good (Gulak had a cool trailer hitch, Lee really knows how to lock on a smothering chinlock), they also interrupted a mean asskicking. I dug how Lee spends almost all his time on offense softening up Gulak with thudding strikes, but maybe the biggest strike of the match is Gulak finally snapping and hitting a beast of a lariat in the corner, the kind of lariat you can here anywhere in the building. He follows it up with one to the back of the head that also felt more violent than any of Lee's shots. In 2008 I hadn't heard of either of these guys, which means the wrestling community as a whole failed us, because this would have been nestled safely inside our wheelhouse. Can't wait to see more of this era Gulak, and will definitely be diving into DieHard Dustin Lee.

PAS: Gulak was a super skinny kid at this point of his career, but still willing and able to swing for the fences. I loved the rear naked choke section with Lee hurling him all around the ring and the floor and Gulak hanging on like a mutt on a pork chop. I agree with Eric about this having an IWA-MS feel to the raggedness and violence of the moves, although it never went the full Ian. I though it fell apart a bit in the middle with Scotty Vortekz coming out and them doing a big distract the ref section, felt like neither guy really knew where to go from there. Still I really liked the nastyness of Gulak's figure four finish, really felt like he pushed Lee's shinbone right into his kneecap.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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Drew Gulak is Standing in the Wake of Our Pain

Drew Gulak vs. Zach Sabre Jr. CZW 4/10/11 - FUN

PAS: This was a chance to check out both of these guys in their earliest incarnations, and Sabre looked 14 years old. Sabre was really just a WOS tribute act at this point, but those are fun spots and Gulak was a good foil. This was really hard mat wrestling like later Gulak matches and I had no idea CZW was running this stuff this early. I liked how frustrated Gulak got and how he gritted his teeth and tried to grind Sabre down. This didn't have the polish of the their later matches against each other, but it had the same DNA and I enjoyed checking in.

ER: Phil told me earlier that this looked like high school versions of Sabre and Gulak doing their best Sabre/Gulak match, and I thought "What? It's less than 10 years ago, it's not like they were in their teens." And then I turned this on and it looked like two 15 year old brothers with dorky ass teen sports bowl cuts that just got picked up by their mom from soccer practice. I don't know if this was good - if I saw two different guys have this same exact match in 2020 I probably wouldn't bother to write it up - but it was fun seeing them working out the kind of match they would both be great at just a few years later. Gulak looked a lot better than Sabre. Gulak really didn't wrestle that differently than any other time I've seen him. Sabre really looked like a backyarder who somehow only had access to World of Sport, who was doing his best to mimic what he had seen. Every sequence he did here he can do a lot tighter today, and Gulak did a great job at actually making this stuff look like he couldn't prevent some of this stuff from happening. Some sections of submission set-ups looked good, but full sections didn't. I liked Gulak's palm strikes to Sabre's body, but down the home stretch they did these hand slap headbutt trade off sequence that looked absolutely silly. But it was fun seeing the bones of this style, before it was a style being done great on the indies.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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Eddie Kingston's Crew is From the East, He Leavin' At Least 20 Police Deceased

Eddie Kingston/Joker vs. Super Dragon/Necro Butcher CZW 2/11/06 - GREAT

PAS: It would be nearly impossible for any match to live up to that lineup of insane asskickers. It's like Kurisu and Kurisu vs. Kurisu and Kurisu. Match opens up with Dragon and Kingston exchanging slaps,  which is great, and then into some mat wrestling, which you know, fine and all, but not what I am here for. It picks up quite a bit when they brawl to the floor, the camera focuses on Kingston vs. Necro which rules, but you get little pieces out of the corner of you eye of Super Dragon braining Joker with a chair or curb stomping him on the floor. There is a beatdown section on Kingston which is good, but I kind of wan't a Super Dragon and Necro beatdown on Eddie Kingston to be the best tag beat down ever, and it wasn't that. The Joker hot tag is fun and there is this amazing moment of Necro grabbing Joker by his shirt and punching him fifteen times directly in the jaw. The finish had some moments, but I didn't love the backdrop no-sells, and the Joker roll up is more cutesy then this match deserved. This is well worth watching, the great stuff in it is really great, but this was closer to the 100th best match of 2006, and I wanted it to be closer to the best.

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Eddie Kingston Be Popping Them Uzi's, Copping Them Coogi's

Eddie Kingston vs. Joker CZW 1/14/12 - EPIC

PAS: This was a street fight between ex-tag partners and was a FUTEN level asskicking by both guys. Joker is an all time crowbar, he throws his forearms like he is aiming at a point behind Kingston's head, there were multiple points in this match where I audibly gasped at the force of the shots. Kingston is such a master at these kind of slugfest matches, that you give him a heater like Joker he is going to deliver something great. While Joker is throwing fastballs all match, Kingston modulates his shots, there is a forearm exchange where Kingston throws a couple of weaker shots, before he musters all of his power and just smashes Joker, the weaker shots made the big shot even more impactful. There is a table spot, because it's CZW, but most of this street fight was just guys putting their hands on each other, and holy hell what a finish. Kingston throws one of the hardest backfists I have ever seen right to the point where Joker's spine meets his head, no way Joker didn't at least lose feeling in his extremities briefly.

ER: Phil watched this match last night, and wrote it up in a draft. I woke up this morning, saw there was a new Kingston match draft, opened it up and saw that Phil deemed it EPIC, and read nothing more. I went on IWTV, watched the match immediately, and then later Phil called to tell me about the match only to laugh knowingly when I said I watched it before doing anything else that day. EPIC Kingston matches have that effect on me, as they should, because they consistently warrant that treatment. Kingston gets into fights, and a street fight with a former partner is something that he's not going to drop the ball on. Kingston knows just what kind of intensity to approach that kind of match with. Joker is a guy who is criminally underwatched by me (I was not a CZW guy, meaning it is a fed with 20 years of potential hidden gems for my eyes), as he's got the stiffness and unprofessionalism of Low-Ki, but doesn't have the high profile internet enemies that Ki has. 

And here he acts like a jilted ex-partner and aims to bruise King's whole body. He was throwing shots violent enough to make me get vocal with my computer, and is there anybody better at selling those kind of shots than one Eddie Kingston? Every Kingston match I watch, ever, has him doing some kind of sell that I don't remember, and he had those peppered all through this match. Joker threw a couple of absolutely cruel/unnecessary/illegal capture snap suplexes that dumped Kingston directly onto the back of his head and neck, and after the first one Kingston just sits there on his knees holding one extended vocal note while staring at the mat. It was so perfect, and so perfectly Kingston. He also clonks Joker with a hard as hell headbutt, and immediately drops to his knees and onto his face. The best. Phil makes a great point about King saving his shots, and it really makes a played out tired ass kneeling strike exchange fresh and interesting, with a couple of weak elbows suddenly boiling into him wrecking Joker. He's the only one adding nuance to played out situations. This had some real fun floor brawling (with Joker flying insanely hard into King with a cannonball), a big suplex into a table, and we end with Kingston hitting literally the greatest spinning backfist in history (and yes I know about Aja Kong and Shonie Carter, and also goddamn Chikara book them as Team Backfist for a KoT and I'll give you a bunch of money) right to Joker's cerebellum. It's possible that backfist lead to Joker frequently forgetting whether he was retired or not, a 50 First Dates scenario where he can't remember whether he is a wrestler or not.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Sami v. Speedball

10. Sami Callihan v. Speedball Mike Bailey CZW 2/13

PAS: This is a battle of 2010s best indy style guy with 2015 best indy style guy and it lives up to that billing. Callihan is really great at beating on high flyers and Bailey is awesome at fighting back from a beating and they mesh wonderfully. I can tell this will be a great touring match, the same way Bailey v. Busick was. Loved Callihan's super nasty shoot JYD headbutts, and him dickishly ripping away the ankle pad. Bailey mixed in his kicks nicely and Sami really made them look violent. Normally I hate one count kick outs, but I kind of dug it here, because Bailey didn't jump back on offense and instead just died a little slower.

ER: Fun match, that seems like the framework to something that they're no doubt going to keep building on across the country. They started with some silliness, and Bailey wasn't as on throughout the match as I've seen him, but this settled in rather nicely. I tend to like Callihan most against bigger guys as he can hang and be just as nasty, but it's incredibly fun watching him be a bully. I loved Bailey hitting kind of a soft dive, followed immediately by Sami breaking out a far more devastating dive through the bottom ropes. Bailey works his various machine gun kicks throughout, and I like how it was punctuated by a stiffer Callihan exclamation point kick. I liked Callihan ripping the legpad off and going after Bailey's leg, though seemed a little late in the match to realize Bailey has nasty kicks and it might benefit him to work his leg over. The half nelson suplex was nasty, as was that brutal package tombstone, though I'd rather the indy scene not get in the habit of kicking out of something like that. Still, I liked the punishment sliding elbow after the kickout. I'm really looking forward to what else these guys certainly have in store for 2016.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

54. Biff Busick vs. Speedball Mike Bailey CZW 7/12

PAS: Not a real mat based match like the Thatcher or Gulak series, but more of spotfest indy title match. Really fun example of that match though. Busick does a nice job of mauling Bailey and is a pretty good base for some of Bailey's highspots, and Bailey has really great looking highspots. I liked his spin kicks and his rapid fire switch leg kicks. His big run of offense including catching Busick in mid air and hitting a backflip powerslam, a spinning splash and a top rope shooting star double knee, it is hard to be impressed by spots in 2014, but that was impressive. Cool finish run by Busick too, and that head throw choke by Biff is one of the best finishers in wrestling

ER: The more I see Bailey the more I really dig his kicks, and as much as I love those matches it's awesome to see Busick in against non-Thatcher/Gulak types. The guy really has a nice adaptable arsenal and can hop into any match type. Phil is right that Busick's headlock takeover slam is one of the best things in wrestling today. Every time I see it I keep imagining the guy's head getting popped off like a grape. Busick is a real bully to Bailey and it was a great visual to see him holding one side of Bailey's face while smacking him down with the other. Big, rough 45 degree downward smacks. Phil also mentioned my favorite spot (easily one of the coolest wrestling moments of the last year), when Busick runs full speed at Bailey with that old gigantic Mike Knox crossbody, but comes in too high, and Bailey uses the natural momentum to flip over into a kind of moonsault powerslam for an awesome near fall. I'm really getting used to these "Bailey vs. indy asskicker" matches.


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Eye on the Indies: CZW Déjà Vu 9/27/14

Wanted to see this show for the Busick/Gulak match, figured I would watch the whole thing since I don't know most of the other guys; Get my brain caught up on some current indy guys.

1. Mason Price vs. The Preacher

I kinda dig the Preacher's vibe. He's a small guy with an old face, like an emaciated MC Gainey, with a big scar across the back of his shaved head. Actually he looks like a really skinny Christian, but with mixologist facial hair. Price looks like Jim Norton working an army gimmick, but an army guy who des a lot of thigh slaps. Match itself wasn't bad, but Price was very much not good. He had zero follow through on any of his strikes or moves. He'd throw a back elbow or pump kick and just kind of stop right where the point of contact would have been. It made all his stuff look like guys going over their moves in the ring before a show. He'd even do it on bigger moves like a Blockbuster, just kind of go through the motions of the move. Preacher had a Jimmy Jacobs vibe, some weird strikes, nice bumps (including flying wildly into a release German), good elbow drop. I'd like to see more of him.

2. Alex Colon vs. Latin Dragon

Lousy video game wrestling filled with reversals that weren't and big moves that didn't matter. Colon wanted to have his cake and eat it too, not really deciding on what kind of character he wants to be. He wanted to be eye raking cheap shotting point at my head heel, but also wanted to do some This is Awesome spots. Some of the reversals were mind numbing. Dragon did a tope, and Colon just didn't sell the tope and gave him a suplex on the floor. Dragon did a nasty reverse rana, then turned around and Colon just small packaged him. A lot of those reversals where you go "oh, so that move just had zero impact I guess." That nasty suplex on the floor I mentioned, which also saw Dragon partially getting slammed into a support pole, and the announce crew talking about a possible broken foot….well Dragon was rope running mere moments later. Yuck.

3. Joe Gacy vs. Aaron Williams

This one had me until it totally lost me. The match gets about 15 minutes to do its thing, and the first half was mostly based around headlock exchanges, some strikes, and then Williams working over Gacy's knee in cool ways. I really dug Williams twisting the knee and ankle and dropping knees on Gacy's knee, and also digging into it with his elbow. Gacy was really good about selling it, really showing how it was slowing him down as every time he would try and transition back to offense Williams could see it coming a mile away. And then suddenly a switch got flipped and Gacy just had to do a whole shit ton of moves with most of the knee stuff a distant memory. It was really like two different matches, and once it turned into "workrate sprint" it turned into a much weaker match.

4. Sozio vs. Caleb Konley

I'm…starting to remember why I don't do more reviews of full indy shows, and why I stay unfamiliar with a lot of indy talent. This one had a couple compelling moments, I liked a lot of Sozio's arm work, and Konley did a fine job of selling the arm damage done, but it didn't save me from a really bad elbow exchange showdown with super slow roaring elbows. Sozio was one of those guys who I couldn't tell if he was a comedy guy or if he was super serious. Sometimes he seemed serious, but then would throw these goofy sweeping crescent kicks and wrestled the first exchanges of the match still in his overcoat. His mafia kick that ended the match looked good at least.

5. Kimber Lee vs. Nevaeh

This was fine although a lot of the stuff seemed overly rehearsed, especially the opening "they know each other so well!" stuff. In fact the more I think about it the more I realize this whole match was practically built around "Kimber goes for this move and misses! Nevaeh follows up with this move and that misses!" kinda stuff. You get your German suplex tradeoffs, your forearm exchanges, you know the drill. I liked one of Kimber's submissions here and both girls seemed willing to lean into things. So that counts for something.

I talked with Phil and it came up that I was reviewing a full CZW show. Phil's response: "Yeah that was a weird thing for you to do."

6. 4 Corners of Ultraviolence: Ron Mathis vs. "The Wrench" Conor Claxton

I really dug this. This was a pretty classic brawl that wouldn't look out of place on older IWA-MS shows. I had never heard of either guy before. Mathis just looks like an athletic kick pads guy, Claxton looks like Dean Ambrose, and they both took and dished out some nasty shots in this. This was constructed really nicely as there aren't just weapons shots for the sake of weapons shots, the early non-weapons work was tight, and once we devolved into weapons the order went pretty logically. Mathis controls most of the early stuff, beating Claxton around the ring and then grossly stapling a dollar to his forehead (which awesomely stays on the rest of the match) and eventually Claxton gets ahold of a chair wrapped in barbed wire (which is a pretty good way to get the advantage to swing back to you). The chair shots were really nasty as they weren't held back much and Mathis took a bunch of shots to his back and sides, the first shot off his arm instantly left a dozen cuts. Claxton went for a light tube and aimed to superplex Mathis into it but took too long, allowing Mathis to reverse into a tornado DDT through broken glass. Gross. Eventually we got tacks in the mix too and they did a few fun tacks tease spots with one of them coming close to falling into them, steadying himself, reversing a move out of them, until both of course take the plunge. Also get the excellent spot of Mathis putting tacks into Claxton's mouth and punching him in the face, with Claxton doing a classic Danny Thomas spit take with tons of tacks. I thought this whole thing was awesome. Their work in between weapons shots was snug, weapons stuff built logically and looked great, didn't go into overkill. This is pretty much what you would want out of this kind of match. Very pleasant surprise.

DJ Hyde comes out but gets interrupted by LuFisto beating him with a stick and they brawl around for awhile. Great spot where Hyde catches her off a dive and launches her at a rough angle through a bunch of chairs. And then that spot is immediately ruined by an announcer saying "We have our Ray Rice moment here in CZW." Eventually LuFisto pulls a knife on him which is just…yeah.

7. Shane Strickland vs. Flip Kendrick

Well this was awful. This match was one 15 minute mirror sequence worked in 3/4 time with most shots missing. Oof. Kendrick is a guy I've liked in almost all the stuff I've seen him in. Strickland is a guy I've never seen before. This was the worst Kendrick performance I've seen, and I never want to see Strickland again. Strickland works the same way Chris Hero did when he was doing his 2001 JAPW extra flips gimmick, except Strickland doesn't seem to do it with a wink. At one point he hit a dropkick, but only after doing a 619 to get to the apron, then somersaulting over the ropes back into the ring. Every move he did had an extra spin leading into it, except he moved so cautiously and slow that it looked strange, like he would get dizzy if he spun around too fast, so he would slooooowly rotate and then just hit an enziguiri or something. The match started with both men slowly running through a bad super choreographed mirror exchange, filled with ducked kicks and dropkicks performed at the same time and stereo kip ups. It was done so slowly and poorly that it looked like clever satire of indy wrestling. Kendrick was moving slowly through his stuff the whole match, a lot of his strikes looked bad, and a lot of the move execution was bad or awkward. A Code Red that was supposed to fling Strickland into a turnbuckle ended with both men slowly tumbling into the corner. Match ended with Strickland hitting a double stomp off the rope, in theory. He really just jumped and landed with his feet on either side of Kendrick, with the camera zooming right in on it. It must have looked as bad live because it was pretty silent when it got the 3 count. Not sure if this poor performance is the norm for Strickland, but if this was the only thing I'd seen of Flip I'd assume he was an awful worker. Yuck.

8. Biff Busick vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was the rematch of their CZW title match in May. I haven't really been following the booking but here we have the heel/face dynamic reversed with Gulak coming in as the face and Busick as the bruising heel. This started out with some of the great grappling that these guys bring to the table, with cool armbars and short arm scissors and knuckle locks. Both guys are really great at forceful looking matwork, all of the counters looked like the guy countering was using every ounce of his strength to reverse the hold. Match switches gears when Gulak takes a pair of huge bumps, he gets thrown off the top rope to the floor and cracking the small of his back on the apron (leading to a nasty bruise over his kidneys, he was pissing raspberry tea on the 28th) and getting backdropped into the second row wiping out a fan. Then Busick is controlling, beating on Gulak, with Drew having his moments. This was well on it's way to surpassing their best match up, when sort of out of nowhere Busick counters a suplex into a roll up for a pin. I can't believe I am criticizing a US Indy match up for underkill on its finish run, but I was expecting it to really kick into gear and it just ended. Still much to love and this is a match up that consistently delivers.

ER: Man I love what these guys do, and I love how things have a sense of ending at any time due to both mens' knowledge of reversals and leverage. I agree with Phil that this could leave matches ending without as much drama as they could have built to. But at the same time it keeps me glued to the whole match in the same way I was glued to RINGS matches. Gulak is an ideal wrestler for me. I'm fascinated by all his movements and his combo of skills, maybe the most exciting "new" guy for me this decade. He always breaks out cool unexpected things that make me flip out as a wrestling fan, like his cool roll-up reversal of a Busick leapfrog here. I wasn't even expecting anything to happen there because it just seemed like any other wrestling rope run segment, until Busick leapfrogs and Gulak slides under with the great flash false finish. These two are so good they really make meaningless moments of wrestling mean something. The struggle between them is always so satisfying, I loved moments like Gulak dishing out cupped slaps to Busicks back and head, slowly gaining him access to the arms, moving into a bodylock, into a nasty variation on the Gu-Lock…and I like that he can go through all that but Busick gets a near immediate rope break. Other times they can get a reversal neither were expecting that leaves them in far greater dominant position. I like that ebb and flow of their stuff. The Gulak bumps Phil mentioned were sick and took the match in a welcome and different direction than I expected. Both guys lend an authenticity to their matches; I never feel like they're moving through one spot mechanically to get to the next part of the match. At one point Gulak really wrenches in a hammerlock that is ultimately inconsequential to the larger segment they were working, but that hammerlock looked like a real terror, a real nasty twist, and I could easily see capable but lesser mat workers just going through the motions and not wrenching in a transitional move like that, too busy focusing on what was "supposed to" happen next. These guys might not be for everybody, but for me they're right up their with my favorite all time wrestling. I hope we get to see these guys do their thing for years.

***Note: The Busick/Gulak match was easily good enough for Phil and I to add it to our 2014 Ongoing MOTY list, nestled cozily into spot #37. Instead of doing a whole separate post with my review copied over, I just added Phil's thoughts from the match here. Our full MOTY list linked at the bottom***

9. Ohio is 4 Killers (Jake & Dave Crist) vs. The Juicy Product (JT Dunn & David Starr)

ER: Well, this match was kind of difficult. Stuff I liked, stuff I hated, and then a fair portion of the match completely invisible! Match starts with the Crist brothers diving out of the ring, and they brawl out through the crowd, and outside. The problem is that the crowd was really dark, and the cameras weren't really equipped to follow the action around. What's worse, is when they brawled outside the cameras couldn't follow them. So I just had to fast forward until everybody made it back inside. Jake had a lot of color happening, not sure how it happened. The announcers didn't know either as they stayed at the table and kind of guessed what could possibly be happening outside. I'm sure it was cool for the live crowd, but a weird thing to do on a IPPV where workers should know your filming limitations. Even back inside the building doesn't do much as things are super dark so you can't really see what's happening. Juicy lawn darts Dave Crist into the concession stand. Minutes later Dave appears on top of the concession stand and does a wild Thesz press off the top of it (at least 9-10 feet up). After many, many, many minutes we finally end up in the ring for the match to officially start. There was actually a pretty good FIP story going on with Jake beaten bloody and Dave also gassed from the beatdown, and both Crist guys had some good comebacks and hope spots. But then the match hit the spot where it should have ended, and kept going…and going…and then kept going. They peaked the drama well, and it's just too hard to keep peaking that numerous times in a match. All the guys had some stuff that looked good. There were a couple double team tombstone variations that were nasty, one with Jake hitting a tombstone while Dave hit a double stomp off the top to drive it down. Dave also had an epic double knee drop off the top, and actually threw a really great looking mule kick (it's really hard to throw a nice spinning mule kick). Starr had a couple of neat power spots, and Dunn took some big bumps off clotheslines and other moves. Also, everybody apparently had a bet going to see who could throw more superkicks. At one point we had six consecutive superkicks from everybody. And there were so many more. So yeah, the match had tons of overkill but a lot of the stuff in the overkill looked good. I think the match could have been really great if laid out a little tighter, but as a spot spectacle it was plenty fun.

OVERALL: This was a good enough show, with some nice peaks but also some subterranean lows. The Gulak/Busick match was great, and I also really loved that weapons match. Kendrick/Strickland was one of the absolute worst matches I've seen this decade, but The Preacher was a cool guy I had never heard of that I'd like to see more of, same with Mathis and Claxton. The Crists were also better than I remembered (though had the same faults I remembered).


2014 MASTER MOTY LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Biff Busick v. Drew Gulak CZW 4/27

PAS: Man there is some weird stuff going on in CZW. The land of Wifebeater and Nick Mondo is apparently putting on almost Jack Briscoeish long mat based title matches. These guys hit the mat hard for 10 or so minutes and it is really great. Gulak can make simple things like go behinds and headlocks look really good, and Busick is a strong looking guy who has some nice powering out counters. Gulak has some nice douchey cheapshots too, kicks to the temple, biting the fingers, twisting the ankle and knees. He controls the match, and Busick does a nice job working from underneath, making some big comebacks and near falls, but Gulak always finds away to take over. Happy to see some indy wrestling I can get behind and get excited about.

ER: Wow. Sometimes when you're not paying attention, two guys you've never watched before go and get really damn great. Suddenly CZW has a whole crew of Billy Robinsons, with Timothy Thatcher, Drew Gulak and Biff Busick. This match is 30 minutes of pure greatness. I think the word "solid" gets both overused and misused a lot when talking about wrestlers, in the same way people often use "average" or "mediocre" to mean "awful". But these are two solid motherfuckers right here. Everything they do is snug, and not just mindless stiffness, just tight solid ringwork with no light showing between contact. The shoulderblocks thud, the back elbows land, the kneebars wrench, everything just works and looks great. It's like two Cesaro's spending 30 minutes just wearing the other down. The first 10 minutes of grappling is great, and really the whole thing is a war which had me wondering which guy was gonna break first. Truthfully I tend to get a little distracted during longer matches, but I think that's mostly due to most matches not actually needing to go very long to effectively convey the story they're trying to tell. I think it's a testament to how engaging this long match was that Phil told me it went around 19 minutes, and it really went 30. By the time I realized the match had overshot the 19 minute mark it was almost over. Everything in it is just so damn good. Gulak's middle rope elbow drop, Busick's body shots, Gulak's rolling wristlock, the tangled leg lock they end up in, a couple nasty suplexes, a dangerous top rope tease that ends with Gulak throwing back headbutts and his elbow point to Busick's face. If this is the new direction indy wrestling is trending, sign me the hell up.


2014 MASTER LIST

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PHIL'S UPDATED 2007 MOTY LIST

1. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
2. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
3. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
4. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
5. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
5. Necro Butcher v. Toby Klein CZW 1/13
6. Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16


5. Necro Butcher v. Toby Klein CZW 1/13

This is one of those match ups in wrestling, much like Santo v. Blue Panther, Steamboat v. Flair, Ishikawa v. Ikeda, which is consistently great every time it happens. This is one of the lesser works in their oeuvre. You have the real CZW booking, where CZW Coachman comes out and tells Necro and Klein that Toby has to prove his worth, so this match is worked sort of genially for something this brutal. Now like most Necro matches this had some absolutely insane bumps, Necro eats a powerbomb off a ramp, Klein gets back suplexed on set up chairs, Necro eats a DVD on a chair, but it isn’t the bumps that really make the match. Both guys are really great at filling space between the bumps. Either by recklessly chucking chairs or exchanging haymakers, the middle stuff is better then the crazy shit. Still the amiability of it really hurts the match, I want to see these guys in a blood feud, that is when they will truly break out a transcendent match.

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