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

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

PME vs. Weird World vs. Razor City Shooters

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

Culmination vs. Production

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

Zach Thomas vs. Brian Carson

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

PB Smooth vs. Big Twan Tucker

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

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

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

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

Ryder Reid vs. Derek Director

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

Chase Oliver vs. Dominic Garrini 

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

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


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

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Monday AIW - Escape From Cleveland 9/14/18

The Production (Frankie Flynn/Magnum CK) vs. Twins (PB Smooth/Swoggle)

PAS: One of the downsides of deciding to review entire AIW shows is that I am watching a lot of Swoggle matches. I can totally see how one might appreciate his shtick in a live setting, and he does vary his material some, but you watch a dozen Swoggle matches and you can approach saturation. But Magnum CK is such a glorious ham that he can make Swoggle's stuff seem fresh and hilarious. CK is like watching Christopher Walken chew up scenery in a hacky Tarantino rip off, the material is still the material but you have to appreciate the craft. PB Smooth and the Production were married for two years (still are except with the face/heel alignment flipped), so they work well with each other. Worth watching for CK for sure, I just love that dude.

Flip Kendrick vs. Facade vs. AJ Gray vs. Space Monkey vs. Wheeler YUTA vs. Matt Cross

PAS: A lot of times these scramble matches are focused on guys hitting complicated head drops and combo moves, here this was all high flyers so most of the big spots were crazy dives which I am always going to prefer. No idea why Flip Kendrick got passed over during the big wave of ROH/AEW/205 Live highflyer signings. His in-ring and out of ring dives are always crazy impressive, and he is a better in ring wrestler then most of the guys who have his role in bigger feds. He hits like a standing 720 senton in this match! Facade and AJ Gray are also landing crazy looking stuff, Facade does an out of nowhere dive from the ramp to clear everyone out, and AJ Gray's Alabama Jam finish was really nasty. He is a thick dude and got crazy high before landing that tree trunk leg across Yuta's chest and throat. Fun match.

Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham vs. Joshua Bishop

PAS: This was a Bishop showcase with Dr. Dan replacing Ethan Page and Bishop pounding him out pretty quickly. I did really like Dr. Dan counter a bossman slam into an ab stretch, and there was a great spot where Bishop kept pulling Dr. Dan up by his tie only to forearm him back down. Tidy match which achieved its goal.

ER: Full damn Worldwide point for this one, the best thing I've seen involving Dr. Dan and a cool throwback 4 minute non-squash that we rarely get on the indies. Bishop jumped him and Dr. Dan never responded with silliness, instead responding as a guy fighting hard to get out of the red, and occasionally finding himself in the black because of it. I found myself actually excited for Dr. Dan when he ran off the ropes with a great back elbow and then starts his first of several pushing, mocking little push kicks to Bishop's face. Dr. Dan had 1998 Chris Jericho's attitude with 2019 Chris Jericho's body. I really dug the aggression and fight from Dr. Dan, but also loved how Bishop didn't revert to stooging "I fucked up" heel mode when Dan fought back maybe more than expected. He jumped him, then when it turned on him he just kept up his same aggression. I liked Dan reversing the Bossman Slam into the abdominal stretch, loved how they worked strike exchanges with Dan throwing his whole body into landing one big shot while Bishop would overwhelm him. This was simple, hard fought, competitive wrestling that made Dr. Dan look like more of a threat than ever in only 4 minutes, while also showing Bishop as an efficient asskicker. Loved this. 

Ultimo Dragon vs. Louis Lyndon

PAS: Clearly a thrill for Lyndon and he does a great job working a longish WCW Thunder match with Dragon. Dragon looked pretty great, outside of one slightly blown spot he hit all of his complicated stuff well, and had an awesome looking hammerlock takedown and spinning Indian deathlock. Lyndon toned down some of the more elaborate stuff which can irritate me, and was there to make Ultimo shine, which he did.

50. The Production (Derek Director/Eddy Only) vs. To Infinity And Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney) vs. No Consequences (Chase Oliver/Tre Lamar) vs. The Philly Marino Experience (Marino Tenaglia/Philly Collins)

PAS: There are few things in wrestling as guaranteed as a an AIW four way tag. This was great as one might expect. No Consequences were a fun addition to this match formula, both Oliver and Lamar are great athletes and they get crazy bounce on all of their highflying spots. TIAB are masters of this kind of match and seem to be conducting, I loved Colin Delany intercepting Marino mid air during PME's springboard dive attempt. Production were total offense machines, their big run of combos near the end of the match (sunset bombing one Consequencer into another, running corner knees by Director, and a coast to coast flip dropkick) was insane and had the crowd standing. PME getting the win works great, they are one of my favorite babyface tag teams in years, they pretty much have it all.

ER: Big shock, another tremendous AIW tag scramble. This is a big No Consequences nostalgia fest for us, Chase Oliver needs to know we are dying for him to come back. But I love everyone here, every team brought something great to this match, 10 minutes of condensed gold. I could make a case for every tag team in this one being clearly the best in the match. Derek Director and Eddy Only had a couple of incredible runs, starting with Only knocking Delaney out of camera sight down the ramp, then hitting a way above his weight Philly with a lariat that crushes him fast over the top. Later they sunset flip bomb Oliver's head into Lamar's balls in a way that felt like Buster Keaton doing pro wrestling, and follow it up with a great Director cannonball and Only post to post flipping dropkick. Delaney and Cheech are just masters of this style, probably my favorite non-Jollyville team in modern wrestling. They orchestrate some really complicated Rube Goldberg spots and always throw in some unexpected twists. But again, everyone shone. Lamar hits a fantastic tope, we get guys chucked from the ring into the others, No Consequences pull off some perfect timing on some double teams, syncing up so well on strikes and big flying displays. One of my absolute favorite moments of the match is No Consequences sandwiching Delaney's head in between perfectly timed elbows, then setting up something assuredly worse before being interrupted, and a dropped to his knees Delaney taking the opportunity to roll to the floor. PME have a great babyface vibe, and I love how they're a new Rock n Roll Express for Phil to get excited for. There are too many cool moves and great double teams and innovative twists to mention, but this is just more evidence that the AIW tag scene is one of the very best guarantees in pro wrestling today.

Tim Donst vs. Colt Cabana

PAS: This was a Colt Cabana special, no real bumps, all shtick. Lots of comedy spots around Donst fucking with Cabana's merch. I admire Cabana being able to make a living without damaging his body, but I don't think he is particularly funny, so a long match with his jolly stuff isn't going to do it for me.

123. KTB vs. Nick Gage vs. Tom Lawlor vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: Big boy wrestling done really well. All bombs, with guys rolling to the floor after getting rocked. Gage takes some big bumps including getting backdropped into hard plastic chairs and gets piledriven on the apron. Pretty much everyone in this match is nuts, Justice flies through the ropes with little regard for himself or who he was landing on. I loved the finish with KTB going for an Asai moonsault and lands right into a Lawlor triangle choke. KTB does the Matt Hughes lift right into a flying knee by Justice who gets the pin.

ER: This was awesome, these guys are all lunatics and this was a pretty breathless run through some big boy bumps and a lot of body damage. I'm really starting to look forward to Matt Justice matches; you know there will always be a crazy dive that either hits into the 2nd row or misses entirely and crashes him to the floor, uses his body as a weapon, dies on at least one bump per match, and I love that big leaping knee. KTB is another guy who takes risks, throws boots to faces, will take a big bump to the floor, and break out a heavy flying move. Now, taking bumps to the floor is a good skill to have, and this match was filled with guys taking bigger and bigger bumps to the hard floor, sometimes while doing offense and sometimes while just crashing to the floor. Nick Gage gets thrown into a crowd of hard ass empty chairs and eats a sick apron piledriver, but also crashes to the floor with a prison fight tope con giro and rakes his boot across faces. Lawlor brings a cool vibe to things, does crazy dives with the crazy divers, hits hard with the hard hitters, and brings a great finish to a big time match: KTB goes for a big man Asai moonsault and Lawlor catches him lengthwise in a triangle in a very nicely prepped for trap, KTB lifts him up and out of it, and then gets pasted by that Justice flying knee. Another big AIW match stuffed with action and cool moments. 

94. Tracy Williams vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: I have talked a lot about how under the radar great Williams AIW Title/Powerbomb Title run was and this was another banger. Really felt like a Catch Point EVOLVE match, built mainly around grappling and limb control. Garrini was really jujitsu in the first part of this match, and the more jujitsu Garrini is the more I dig him. Lots of very cool lifts and hard throws to the mat. They do the triangle choke counter to a dive which they did in the previous match, and probably should have had an agent tell someone to excise it out. Otherwise this was pretty flawless, Williams does slightly flub the counter finish, but makes up for it with two disgusting stuffed piledrivers for the win. I like having the tile matches on AIW show be these more slow burn grappling matches, it contrasts nicely with the wild brawling on much of the rest of the card.

ER: Tracy Williams is one of those guys I really like, who I also consistently underrate. It's like I forget how much I like him every time, and he's never a guy I bring up when talking about current wrestlers I dig. He occupies that same brain space as Roderick Strong, who I think has been consistently great for at least a decade now, yet I still find myself saying "Man Roderick Strong is good." Maybe's it's just lean turkey eating white guys with short cropped Affleck hair. But of course I'm going to like Garrini vs. Hot Sauce, I'm a complete sucker for these years removed from the story and fed "Catch Point Explodes" matches. I love the way these two crack jaws, a full arm behind it forearm shiver from Garrini, a boot in the corner with extra pump from Williams, these guys go hard with every strike and really punish each other...in  away that seems all in good spirits. The early grappling was tough and snug, and then they kept building to kicking each other, or Williams locking on a nasty guillotine, or Garrini going after Williams' taped up arm, and this thing just kept burning more intensely. The ending was violent, but I think a bit much: Garrini hits an incredible spinning tombstone, something that really really looked like a damn finisher. But Williams stumbles on the reversal after the kickout, and it kind of just comes off like he ignored the nastiest move of the match to hit two piledrivers of his own. The piledrivers looked great, but the order of events seemed off. That said, this is the kind of back and forth that does it for me. How about this Tracy Williams guy? 

La Familia de Tijuana (Bestia 666/Damian 666) vs. The Young Studs (Bobby Beverly/Eric Ryan)

PAS: This was Eric Ryan's dream match, and FDT kind of just stayed out of the way as that lunatic flung himself through things. Ryan takes two crazy bumps through pains of glass and gets tied up in barbed wire. They kept talking about his "Ready to Die" tour and he was living up to that designation. I thought the rematch of this Wrestlemania weekend was had more stuff from all four guys, this was pretty much all Ryan dying, and while that was fun, it was less of a full match.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AIW Monday - Absolution 7/27/18

Louis Lyndon vs. Derek Director vs. KTB vs. Space Monkey vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Rex Brody

PAS: One of the better "get everyone on the card" scrambles they have done. Even with Space Monkey and Brody we didn't have anyone grinding the match to a halt with their comedy spots, the action really kept moving. Derek Director had some cool moments, including a nasty running knee to the face and a spot where he monkey flipped Yuta into Brody's crotch. KTB had a couple of amazing moments including a spot where he had two guys fireman carried and caught a third in his arms. Yuta looks like he blew out his knee, but they worked around it OK. Fun all action match,

Mance Warner/Jock Samson/Twan Tucker/Parker Pierce vs. Weird World/Philly Marino Experience

PAS: This started in a very Crockett way, with multiple heels bumping for super over babyfaces. We get a good heel beatdown section on Marino, and a really fun Worldwide hot tag. Finish run is car crash wrestling done well. I really love Philly's fat boy Orihara, and Marino's assisted plancha, just an awesome pair of signature dives. Our boy Weird Body takes sick bumps on a tower of doom superplex, and a Steiner Square Driver from the Duke. Our heroes get screwed out of victory by the dastardly heels, and this was a wholly satisfying bit of business.

48. Young Studs vs. The Production (Danhausen/Eddy Only)

PAS: This was excellent, just awesome stiff 2019 tag wrestling. These are four guys who throw heat and will take huge nasty bumps, and they run a pretty great all action tag with those as a base. Eric Ryan is truly certifiable, he takes 90s Foley bumps in almost every match, here he gets backdropped off the ramp and lands spine first on concrete. These guys were wasting each other in the ring too, Bobby Beverly obliterates Danhausen by intercepting an in-ring plancha with a savate kick, Only threw really nasty elbows and punches, there were some big slams and throws, really a bomb fest. We are Production stans here at Segunda Caida, but this was the best they have looked. Loved this.

ER: Yeah this really delivered. I was excited for it anyway - always gonna be excited for The Production - but The Production jumped the Studs on the entrance ramp and asses got kicked for the next 15 minutes. These guys were all ringing bells, hard elbows all around, nasty throws, nasty bumps, no nonsense just asskicking. AIW always brings asskicking, The Studs always bring asskicking, and it was cool seeing Only and Danhausen ALSO as kickers, not just ass kickees. Everybody in this comes off nuts to a degree, but Ryan is probably the most nuts. He throws such violence behind all of his strikes, and then he's crushing Only and Danhausen into the guardrails over and over with topes through the bottom ropes, and then he's splatting off the entrance ramp with a lunatic backdrop bump. My god man. I think they did a really good job using saves and building the action, as tough strikes eventually turn into amped up risk and fun double teams. I loved all of the quick suplexes from the Studs, they would really snap them over and when they'd be hitting snap verticals and stacking The Production like cordwood. There were a couple hitches when they tried getting a little cute (a DDT your partner spot is much clunkier than it should have been, and an Only cutter to the floor looks like both guys realized what a bad idea it was halfway through), but the answer always came right after those spots when everyone would go back to hitting each other hard. Bless this tag division.

Matthew Justice/Scott Steiner vs. Ethan Page/Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham

PAS: Justice brings out Steiner to even the odds, and it is pretty much just the heels bumping for Steiner and Justice, which is exactly what you want from this match up. Dr. Dan takes a couple of big bumps, and Page eats a big overhead throw from Steiner. Not much to say about this match, it does what it set out to do.

96. No Consequences (Tre Lamar/Garrison King/Chase Oliver/Joshua Bishop/AJ Gray) vs. Josh Prohibition/Jollyville Fuck Its (T-Money/Nasty Russ)/To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: 2017 Absolution No Consequences 10 man tag was one of my favorite matches of the year, this didn't live up to that level but was still a bunch of fun and had some big highlight moments. Both Tre Lamar and Chase Oliver are nutty fliers, Oliver hit an incredible springboard moonsault at the same time Lamar hit a great ringpost Santo style tope. The structure of the previous years match had the Consequences take an extended beating before making a comeback, here the match was worked more even, it makes narrative sense, NC are all a year more experienced, but evenish is a less cool structure. We do get some solid asskicking though, especially by the Fuck-Its including an awesome Pounce by T-Money where he ran all the way down the ramp before sending Lamar into the stratosphere. The story of the match was Joshua Bishop trying to earn the respect of Josh Prohibition, which isn't a matchup I cared a ton about. Still I will pretty much enjoy any combos of these guys.

ER: So no, this is not quite as good as the 2017 10 man, but this ruled pretty hard on its own. Everybody got their moments and there were some good by god moments to get. Jollyville are my faves and lived up to that here. Russ comes off like a total badass WCW undercarder that I always hope is going to come out those fake air-powered doors through the Mothership's fog machine, throwing hard punches and elbowdrops with his own body, and an absolutely crunching cannonball off the top. T-Money pounces Tre Lamar from the entrance ramp into the ring, in a spot that was only slightly less impressive than some of Lamar's by-choice flying. Chase Oliver was a real standout here. He and Lamar work a hyped up indy style that I hate when it's worn by most guys, but they really pull it off. Oliver can land played out indy offense like standing shooting star presses and make them actually land, he and Lamar hit a bonkers tandem dive that looked like two prop planes that missed a fatal collision by mere feet, and then there's crazy stuff like his rope walk rana. I loved it all. There were a couple hinky moments (Lamar does land full weight on Oliver with a mistimed missile dropkick that they pretend didn't land like that, and the Bishop/Prohibition stuff wasn't my favorite), but TIAB were pro as hell throughout, AJ Gray had some nice flying into and out of the ring, the double Drunken Drivers by Prohibition were a definitive finish, and I'm just going to need them to keep running this back every year.

Tim Donst vs. Joey Janela

PAS: These are two guys I am normally a low voter on, but man it is hard to deny their willingness to absolutely crash and burn in hideous ways. This is a ladder match, and has some slow climbing and grasping which is endemic in all ladder matches, but it also has some truly holy fuck moments. They mention Donst recovering from kidney cancer and how his doctor told him to not wrestle in ladder matches, and then later have him fall directly off a ladder onto a pile of chairs with the legs sticking up. Janela gets chucked through a ladder on top of a table and the ladder just explodes with the impact. Totally gross stuff, but hard not to appreciate the hell these guys put their body through.

Dominic Garrini vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was a dog collar match, and definitely very different from the other matches between these two. There was a lot I really loved about this: the stuff with the chain and collar was pretty awesome, Lawlor hit a superman punch with the chain, Garrini used the chain to headbutt Lawlor, there was a bunch of cool uses of the chain to make submissions look nastier. And this included an awesome ending where Garrini used a chain assisted Gargano escape to choke Lawlor out, with Lawlor refusing to tap and flipping off Garrini as we watched his finger fall down into unconsciousness.  I think if this had just been a dog collar match it would have ended up really high on the MOTY list, however, they used a bunch more props, like thumbtack bats and a board with bottle caps and a board with poppers. All of that stuff didn't add to the match. A dog collar is a great gimmick, you don't need more stuff. My wife's best friend will never just make chocolate chip cookies, she has to throw in gummy bears, and Twix pieces and candied almonds, until you are overwhelmed. This was a match with too many ingredients. I still liked it, but it kept me from loving it.

Franky Flynn/Magnum CK vs. Swoggle/PB Smooth

PAS: Swoggle isn't an act I really rate. Having him in a tag title match is bound to turn it into a yuks fest. Magnum CK is awesome at comedic matches, he has great facial expressions and if someone has to sell for Swoggle it might as well be him. He was also pretty great at the actual wrestling stuff, there was a spot where he goes for a blind leapfrog and gets caught in PB's arm, and he had an awesome look of terror before he was thrown. Some fun stuff, but I am glad the tag titles have moved back into actual great wrestling matches.

Tracey Williams vs. Nick Gage

PAS: This was Gage working a stiff title match, without any shortcuts. It was pretty entertaining, Gage works stiff and has some big over moves. He really dominated the match, and did it with wrestling. There was some pop ups which I didn't love, but I also really liked some of the big exchanges. The finish was pretty shocking, can't believe Gage would tap out, seems like something he wouldn't let his character do. Williams had some great matches during his title run, the start wasn't a great match, but it was nice example of what was to come.

ER: Another AIW show, another couple matches added to the ongoing MOTY List. The Young Studs/Production tag and the 10 man were the kind of things that keep these AIW loving hearts beating.

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Monday AIW - Ain't Nothing But a Gangster Party 4/20/18

43. Eddie Kingston vs. PCO

PAS: Another fun stop on the PCO indy tour. Kingston is a great opponent for PCO because he is going to bring the structure and selling to a match focused around a crazy old man being nuts. Kingston is great at selling frustration early as PCO outfoxes him, and when they start to lay in shots they really lay them in. This is basically like a Big Japan tubby guys slugfest, with Kingston adding in great selling to the fun of watching big guys hit each other. I liked how both guys mixed up their shots, with Kingston laying in the slaps and PCO hitting some nasty thrust punches to the ribs. I loved the PCO moonsault, really pretty and lands with a thud. I liked Kingston sneaking in a couple of big suplexes and a backfist to put him down. The match didn't need a bunch of near falls, and I dug it ending on a kill shot.

ER: I thought this was great, 12 minutes of two big guys pasting each other with nothing but hard shots. I thought this was one of the tightest of the PCO return matches, kept snug and reigned in, focusing way more on beating your opponent down instead of setting up stunt spots. PCO is a tough as nails 90s WWF guy, so Kingston appropriately where a 90s WWF jobber singlet and matches up absolutely perfectly. Every strike exchange worked for me big time, with big chops from both guys, PCO hitting nasty running elbows, Kingston throwing digestion disrupting kneelifts, and a fantastic moment where PCO ran wild on the ropes before hitting the hardest lariat he possibly could. These guys established they were going to kick each other's asses, and this was all ass kicking for the duration. The big moves were all spaced out nicely, and King's suplexes all looked finisher worthy - big heavy back suplexes and a huge German that sends PCO all the way over - while the PCO dives we build to at the end looked huge. PCO sends Kingston into the aisle with a big tope, then flattens him with a big tope con hilo and moonsault. They fit so much into the runtime, and Kingston was fantastic playing off PCO, thought all the stuff around his backfist was awesome, and he would pepper in "non moves" things like throwing a table in frustration early in the match. This looked like a perfect pairing on paper, and delivered in full.

MJF vs. Louis Lyndon

PAS: This was a pretty entertaining short match. The kind of thing which would get a thumbs up if it appeared on an episode of the Pro. MJF toned down his horseshit a bit and actually worked a wrestling match. I liked all of the arm work by both guys, although MJF didn't seem to be able to bump fully for Lyndon's fancy stuff( awkward landing on a reverse rana). I liked the finish with MJF taking advantage of the no rules stip by kicking Lyndon in the nuts and slapping on an armbar.

KTB vs. Tim Donst

PAS: Pretty fun big man match with Donst using the no-DQ rules to do some nasty spots with the ropes. I really liked when he when he tied KTB up into the ropes and bounced off them to spring KTB ribs first onto a chair. He also hit a nasty suplex into the corner and finished by wrapping him up in the ropes to make him tap. It never really kicked into third gear despite the punishment both guys took, which seems to be the pattern with Donst matches, although I did enjoy it.

Space Monkey vs. Gary Jay vs. Danhausen vs. Facade

PAS: As a rule I don't like multi man matches it is hard to hit every complex thing and it is difficult to build a match with lots of guys. They tend to stay at the same level without dips and peaks. I normally DO like AIW multi man matches, as it seems like a fed which frequently can overcome those problems. This one had more of the bad than the good though. Space Monkey comedy spots were probably the highlight of this match, and I really liked the bump Danhausen took on the banana peel. The concept of doing the Jacobs/Whitmer spike battle with a spike and banana is amusing, but still a match with comedy spots as a highlight - if it isn't a Brazos match - is going to be tough sledding for me.

PB Smooth vs. Eddy Only

PAS: This didn't jump out at me on paper, but was really enjoyable. Smooth is legitimately gigantic and has great potential, and having him work basically a handicap match against the entire Production really made him stand out. Only goes above and beyond to make him look great too, he gets posted and bleeds a gusher, takes huge bumps on all of PB's chokeslams and bombs, makes him really look like a force. Loved the spot where Smooth countered a tope by leaping up and catching him mid move and hanging him on the top rope. Frankie Flynn, Danhausen, Derek Director and Magnum CK all come into to get pinballed, and they finish by overwhelming him and smashing him with a ring rope hook. Smooth does get Shelton holed a bit, as Papa Shango comes out to Voodoo curse the production. Magnum CK really goes over the top in an entertaining way selling the black goop, what a pro that guy was.

ER: This one actually DID jump out on paper for me. I like mismatches and this sounded like a good one. When I was a kid and my dad let me rent a wrestling tape when we were at the video store renting Air America or some shit, I would always look for the Coliseum Videos with the weirdest matches. I wasn't angling for who could possibly be a "good" match, because my concept of what made a match good was wildly different at age 10. If I saw something like Doink vs. Giant Gonzalez on a tape, I was definitely getting that tape. And this match felt like a killer Coliseum Video exclusive. I'd get that tape going "There's no way Doink could last 1 minute against Gonzalez!" Well, sure, in a fair fight. This match had the exact kind of bells and whistles and I loved it. Eddy worked overtime here - as did all of the Production, really doing their part to set up cool moments for Smooth - and the match starts with Eddy getting caught on a sneak attack dive, getting lawndarted into the ringpost, and coming up bloody as hell. Hell yeah. Derek Director gets pump kicked in the chest, Magnum CK takes a somersault Arn bump and eats a back elbow, and we get bananas spots like Smooth palming Eddy's bloody head like a basketball and chokeslamming him, or getting him even higher on a traditional chokeslam, or - and this was the best spot of the match - leaping from the floor as Eddy was running towards the ropes, essentially dunking Eddy's neck right over the top rope. When the hell else has anybody done THAT?! Finish is Eddy absolutely crushing Smooth with a ring hook, totally bitchin finish for a No DQ match. Papa Shango's appearance clearly makes the Coliseum Video connection complete! This thing was like 5 minutes and they were the exact 5 minutes I wanted.

Cheech/Colin Delaney/Josh Prohibition/Jollyville Fuck Its vs. No Consequences (AJ Gray/Tre Lamar/Chase Oliver/Gary "The King" Baller/Joshua Bishop)

PAS: No Consequences had one of my favorite matches of 2017 their 10 man against a veteran squad at Absolution, and this is a similar style. This is a no rules show, and it starts with the Fuck It's coming from the back and jumping No Consequences and it is basically a stiff brawl on the outside interspersed with some crazy dives. T-Money who is a big dude opens up the diving with a nutso superman plancha, and it just gets crazier. Cheech flies into the audience, and then gets the back of his head busted open when he misses a ring apron DDT. Chase Oliver hits a couple of crazy dives, Joshua Bishop gets pounced into a contraption of carpet tacks, and the vet team ends up destroying AJ Gray with a money maker on a chair and then a Russ Myer cannonball through a table. Gray did a great convulsion sell during this, which really put over the brutality. This whole show had a very ECW vibe, and this was that kind of craziness at its best.

ER: This doesn't quite reach the heights of their 2017 masterpiece, but there is so much damn greatness throughout that it doesn't matter a bit. This was a wild 10 man brawl, with insane dives happening every minute, hard punches, mean double teams, the kind of insanity you'd want from these nuts. Literally everything with Jollyville was perfection. Russ is a guy who may presently be my favorite wrestler to watch. He commits to everything, makes every punch count, doesn't skimp on kicks, and when the finish calls for an elbowdrop through a table this man is going to to fly in with that elbow like a satellite crashing to earth. T-Money is built solidly as hell, and hits like a freight train. His dive here is incredible, as he clears the top rope no hands style but stays horizontal. That's dangerous as hell as your body naturally wants to just torpedo you face first into the ground, but he keeps it level and crashes through everyone. They're my team, ride or die. There's some danger on some of the dives: Baller hangs on too long on a flip dive and almost brains himself on the apron, AJ Gray does an amazing tornillo but the catchers aren't quite there, but dives ARE dangerous so there's gonna be some danger! Oliver hits a bonkers moonsault to the floor and crushes Russ's esophagus with a cool chest breaker that saw him vault off the bottom rope, Delaney plants Lamar with a sick DDT on the apron (Cheech does the same and ends up getting a nasty cut on his head), Lamar hits an evil baseball slide dropkick through the ropes, Gray gets an awesome fired up babyface moment before his doom and throws a ton of great rapid fire punches to everyone that looked like he was trying to punch through their forehead. This one was a little more disjointed than their classic, a little messy, but these guys wear messy really well.

Mathew Justice vs. Ethan Page

PAS: This was sort of the Tommy Dreamer match for this ECW show. Lots of brawling in the crowd, and shots with water bottles and beer cans. Justice and Page both throw their bodies around a bunch in this match, landing weird on chairs and the floor, but I am not sure what it all means at the end. The match starts with Page insulting a fan on the mic and ends with a Dr. Dan run in, and this match is one of my only problems with AIW which is the punishment that guys take in matches that don't mean much. Really violent show, but too many matches built around punishing bumps minimizes each bump.

Weird World vs. Philly Marino Experience vs. Young Studs vs. #Duke Money

PAS: This was a comedy garbage match with some guys bleeding like pigs and taking huge bumps for what was basically for yuks. It's starts out with PME and Duke Money having a tag match, but a couple of minutes in the Studs come from the back and start brawling, and then a couple minutes after that Natural Born Killaz starts playing and Weird World comes out dressed like the Gangstas with a shopping cart full of weapons. It is pretty crazy throughout, with Eric Ryan legdropping a shopping cart, guys getting mauled with cheese graters and thumbtacks. It certainly had energy, and the spectacle of it made it memorable, but one after another with big violent spectacles, tends to burn me out.

Tracy Williams/Dominic Garrini vs. Nick Gage/Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was worked as a No DQ brawl like the rest of the show, but they distinguished themselves by really laying it in. Lawlor especially was just pasting people, huge superman punches, big kicks, as he was trying to take out Garrini who broke his arm earlier in the year. The coolest stuff in the match was when they mixed some shootstyle into the brawling, including Williams sinking in a tight choke, Garrini countering a Lawlor superman punch with a flying triangle, and Lawlor removing his armpad and beating Garrini bloody with his cast (Garrini did a pretty obvious blade job, which was a problem in his awesome Mania weekend match too, big Garrini fan but he has to work on his close up magic.) Gage hung well in that atmosphere, as he came off as a Tank Abbot style MMA brawler. I thought the stuff with the thumbtacks and tables was unnecessary, in a vacuum it was fine but on a show where nearly every match had props, they would have been better off just having a wild stiff Murakami brawl. Still dug this a bunch. 


ER: Another AIW show, another Kingston match on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, and it genuinely feels like every single AIW show is treated like a big deal. They're the best.

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AIW Death Rowe 1/19/18

Shane Mercer vs. Matt Justice

ER: Mercer is like if Sheamus mated with Petey Williams, and Justice is like if Drew Galloway mated with Baron Corbin. And both of those things have their benefits. There are a couple drawbacks of the Sheamus/Petey Williams mixture. If your water has over 10 Petey Williams parts per billion, your wrestling DNA is going to be at least somewhat tainted. But he's a compact guy with genuine power, but also gets a bit too married to a sequence. He hit an awesome press slam spot that saw him holding Justice up with one arm, but there was also a clunky planned sequence where he got suplexed into the ropes upside down, and was supposed to hold on, but he didn't catch the turnbuckles properly. So then he stayed "stuck" in the turnbuckles as he scrambled to go through with the planned spot while people groaned. But he's pale so his chest turned bright red on chops, and Justice throws a lot of chops (and some great headbutts). Justice hits a nice shotgun kick and the finish looks big time, with Justice hitting a flying kneedrop to the back of Mercer's head while Mercer is bent at the waist. It was like a modern indy version of a Cattle Branding, looked cool.

Parker Pierce/Big Twan Tucker vs. Weird World (Alex Kellar/"Weird Body" Evan Adams)

ER: Weird Body is probably my favorite wrestler who isn't actually very good, but I'll always watch him! Match was okay and had some surprises. Kellar has gotten better and while he isn't as funny as White Mike, he hits harder. Late in the match he hits a tope that's ugly when compared to the oldest luchador tope, but points for hurling your belly and dirty tights through the ropes onto another human. Pierce and Tucker work a frat gimmick, and Pierce has a good potentially hateable charisma, like a Chris Dickinson ceiling. He's not there, but his potential for improvement is big, and he did things I liked: drops a big leg (in tandem with a Big Twan splash to Weird Body), bullied Adams around, dropped him with some indy "I drop your face on my knee", and as Adams is sitting upright and stunned Pierce shoves him over to pin. The shove was a nice, Finlay-esque move, those kind of things are good signs. Weird Body beatdowns aren't ever really as good in practice as they seem like they would be on paper. He does get tossed with a fallaway slam and eats a splash/legdrop, but you almost expect the beating on him to be more violent and it usually isn't. He has no meat on his bones to absorb bumps, I wouldn't want to get tossed around much either.

Frankie Flynn/Magnum CK vs. Chase Oliver/Tre Lamar

ER: Good match, I liked what all four guys brought. Flynn is a good Jimmy Jacobs lite, sells really well, took a kneeling rana really cool and made it look like he lawndarted himself into the mat, a guy worth going out of your way to watch. Magnum CK is this big oaf-y Davey Boy Smith Jr./Matthew Rhys on the Americans looking guy, who apparently had been out of wrestling for 8 years (his comeback promo made it sound like he was dealing with alcoholism?), and has an all time great ring entrance: He comes out in his show cape, arms extended, and he proceeds to walk all around ringside with arms fully extended, which means his outer hand is just lightly slapping and pie-facing everybody in the front row. He wrestles like Bret Hart with a dash of John Tatum, so he'll hit a nice diving elbow off the middle rope and hit a legsweep, but he'll also pinball between punches and flop face first hard to the mat. Oliver and Lamar are a cut above your typical timed sexy dance fighters, they throw decent punches and have cool tandem offense (loved Lamar armdragging Oliver into a a slumped-in-the-corner Flynn), and they peak with each hitting tandem dives, Oliver moonsaulting to the floor while Lamar crosses paths with him diving diagonally past the ringpost. I mean holy crap, crossing paths on a dive is just flat out crazy. They weren't operating with a ton of space, like the fucking Blue Angels of wrestling. Everyone added to this, went a nice length, real satisfying tag.

Johnathan Wolf vs. Malcolm Monroe III

ER: My, this went on for quite awhile, didn't it? Both guys have some ideas, and both guys want to use every single one of their ideas smack dab in the middle of an 8 match card. I thought Wolf had some neat things, especially liked his aloof dickhead habit of tying his hair back in a loose bun whenever he had some down time, including kicking and stomping at Monroe while doing so. Monroe slips up on a couple of the dancier spots, but breaks out some crazy ideas, even hits a big moonsault off the top into the crowd and takes a huge running powerbomb into the guardrail. But he relies on Wolf's recklessness, and seeming willingness to get dumped on his head by stupid flipping piledrivers. We had a lot of piledrivers in this match that didn't mean a whole lot. Monroe did a lot of annoying death sell, only to be up hopping around moments later. We had an amusing moment of both landing kicks and strikes at the same time and both falling on their face. And we also had a freaking flip piledriver off the top, that then left Wolf standing on his feet swaying back and forth, waiting to take another flip piledriver variation, like he's waiting to take a Fatality in Mortal Kombat. They both had good ideas, they both had bad tendencies. I'd like to see them reigned in.

Colby Redd/Derek Director/Eddy Only vs. Garrison King/AJ Gray/Joshua Bishop

ER: AIW seems to be able to just throw guys together in a multiman and have it deliver, and this delivered. The former team is the rest of The Production, and the latter team we saw in the great 2017 AIW 10 man. A trios like this can play to everyone's strengths, and I thought this mostly did. Director was maybe exposed too much, but his good stuff was good. Eddy Only has a great dirtbag look, he could be the roadie for Ugly Ducklings (if the Ugly Ducklings were a Banana Splits style band and went out on tour). He looks like someone in an action movie, where our hero gets into a big fight with a bunch of truckers at the bar, and Only is a tiny scrappy trucker who our hero laughs off before realizing Only is the crazy trucker who overindulges on speed cut with bleach. He bumps big and moves quick, and I like how people somewhat used him as a weapon, like Bishop powerbombing him to the floor onto everyone. King also bumps big and moves quick, loved how he took a Colby Redd suplex, loved the section with The Production beating him down. AJ Gray is a Wee Willie Mack and hits a big tope at one point, a crazy tornillo to the floor. Throwing together a roster for a fun 15 minute 6 man is one of my favorite things in wrestling; I love 2000-2007 NOAH trios, obviously WAR trios, it's just a cool easy always fun match if you have the depth. And AIW has rarely disappointed me in that department.

Dominic Garrini vs. Juice Robinson

PAS: New Japan and NXT are two of my biggest wrestling blindspots, so I had seen hardly any Juice Robinson, but I will watch pretty much any Garrini match, and this was a ton of fun. Robinson comes in crowbarishly and it forces Garrini to throw big shots too. I liked the story of this match with Garrini scouting the bigger star and having counters, while Juice doesn't know anything about Dominic. It felt like Garrini had answers to all of Robinson big moves, he countered his big senton to a cross armbreaker, avoided his kicks and countered the Pulp Friction into a wastelock throw and nasty armbar for the tap. Robinson really hit hard here, big chops, and a couple of huge clotheslines, basically working this like a dominant guy, that dominance really made the upset victory work. Dom has started out 2018 on fire, and I imagine he is going to have a big year.

ER: I'm a big Juice fan. Juice is a guy I really liked in NXT. Easily one of the best workers there, and he really made his condescending dirty hippie heel character work, and I’ve always like his wrestling style. He doesn’t skimp on little things like stomach kicks, he throws a variety of nice punches, he hits way harder than you might guess by looking at him, has some weird offense that he makes look better than others (his standing spin kick doesn’t seem like it should land effectively, but he always makes it look like a kill shot), he’s just a quality guy. Garrini is someone who I think will be good, and has obviously been a major contributor to some great stuff already. I do think he has a tendency to look a little robotic during strike exchanges, and some of his set ups feel like something I would be more critical of if they were done by someone I didn’t like. But I like Garrini, and I like the skillset he brings to a match, and I think these two are good dance partners who I had never actually pictured dancing together. Juice has kind of a cocky style without always being overtly cocky, which is the perfect kind of guy to go up against someone with legit submission skills. Every time Juice would leave a limb out there or go into guard for a pinfall I kept waiting for Garrini to snap the bear trap. Juice bumps big on lariats but dishes nice jabs, that big spin kick, a nice powerbomb out of the corner, and they work some cool stuff like Garrini locking on a standing guillotine but eventually getting slammed by Juice. I love those moments in Riddle or Garrini matches, where their opponent leaps into something only to get caught in a sub, and they’re even better when they actually incorporate the opponent’s regular offense. I rarely see them used as “trying to sunset flip Rikishi” or “trying to powerbomb Kidman”, they’re usually pretty smart. Juice has a nice senton so it makes sense when Garrini gets his knees up and locks in an armbar. The finish is the same and it’s satisfying, Juice getting caught in another armbar and immediately tapping. Fun match that solidified what I like about both guys.

43. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney) vs. Philly Marino Experience (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. Young Studs (Bobby Beverly/Eric Ryan) vs. Excellence Personified (Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Brian Carson)

PAS: AIW has mastered these multi man tag matches, and I really think To Infinity and Beyond are the glue that holds them together. This is really early PME, they have really developed in a great team, but this match was 18 months ago and they are still pretty seamlessly integrated into the match. This is the most I have enjoyed Dr. Dan, as he cuts out the comedy and just takes bumps. I think TIAB are just conducting a complex amount of traffic. Philly Collins's fat boy moonsault to the floor is one of the more impressive highspots around, he gets great height and lands with tubby force. Brian Carson has a crazy bump to the floor where he cracks his head on the top of the metal post, we get a bunch of cool double teams, and some really well timed cut offs. Just such an enjoyable bit of craziness.

ER: Yep, this ruled, easily my favorite match of the show. I'm never going to know/remember why I didn't watch this match with the rest of the show. AIW has my favorite tag scene in wrestling, and they do these wild action multi mans SO much better than anyone else, and Delaney/Cheech really do seem to be the consistent denominator in all of them. But this match was filled with star performances. Yes, Cheech and Delaney are constantly a part of that, and seem to trigger each new momentum change, while looking explosive as hell. Delaney runs into guys faster and with harder elbows than anyone in this thing, he has gotten so good in the past couple years. PME looked great too, with Marino dropping a great underdog babyface performance. Every time he would come in it lead to something exciting. Philly built to his big moments nicely, and that moonsault to the floor was like a strike that sends every single pin exploding backwards. But my favorite thing he did might have been when he got accidentally tied up in the ropes, to set up Delaney's sliding German. I'm a big fan of guys finding cool ways to set up someone else's trademark offense, anything other than just standing there and waiting. Brian Carson takes the bump of the match, missing an avalanche and hitting the ringpost, and then continuing to tumble over the top and off the ring steps to the floor. Young Studs looked good as ever, Beverly delivers his slams super fast and Ryan threw the best punches of the match, and threw them often. This whole thing was 8 guys running hard and running into each other, taking big bumps, finding fun ways to break up pins, just the best, most thoroughly mapped out tag. These matches are the best versions of those Dragons Gate scrambles that got acclaim over a decade ago.

Keith Lee vs. Raymond Rowe

ER: This was Rowe's final indy match before going to NXT, so I figured I should check it out as I like him and obviously like Lee, and they went for an epic, and several big parts of the epic worked, but it also dragged something fierce. The match was a little over 25 minutes and felt about 45. To somebody who has somehow not seen either of these guys work before, both move like you would not expect them to move. They both have explosive speed and both hit hard, so you get this neat mix of quick bursts ending in meaty thumps. This takes awhile to get going, as they really milked the opening, milked the first lockup, milked all of it. By the time Rowe went for a handshake and decked Lee (which Lee sold in the ropes with a nice amusing cross-eyed sell) and they started trading their big moves, every move was a peak, and the wait time until the next move was a big valley. I don't want to sound like I expect go go go highspots in every match, but these two both have impressive gas tanks for their size and probably could have crushed a 13 minute sprint, but we ended up with a lot of lying around and a lot of shocked reactions at the referee when a move did not get the 3 count.

But I like how both guys move so there's a lot of pleasure just seeing them interact, seeing a big Lee leapfrog/dropdown/dropkick, seeing Rowe superman punch Lee around ringside, seeing these giant dudes throw each other. We got tons of elbows and knees, and some cool blocking of those moves: Rowe starts blocking Lee elbows with his head and then clunks him in the chest with a headbutt, Lee starts blocking Rowe's knees with his forearms and sinks a few nasty knees to the gut himself. Rowe hits Lee with a mammoth uranage, and I liked Lee screaming on the way down. Rowe starts dishing huge running knee's to Lee's face, almost winding up like he's hitting a short arm clothesline, but nailing a kneeling Lee in the jaw. We even get Rowe hitting a flipping piledriver on Lee for a 2 count, which looked spectacular and really should have ended the match. But we kind of drag out the nearfalls and the finish is a kinda fun twist, as Rowe hits the Death Rowe knee to the back of Lee's head and hits a tornado elbow...only to have Lee timberrrrrrr down on top of him for the 3 count. I like the use of "man trying to reach for one last free snack from the vending machine, ending with the vending machine crushing him" parable. The match had some weird moments, like Lee stopping the match to tell the ringside fans to feast their eyes on the specimen of Keith Lee, and Rowe stopping the match to tell the crowd "Let me feed off your energy". And the proceedings just dragged on too long, though I understand them wanting to go big on Rowe's last show. An enjoyable match, but not as big as I hoped.


ER: Really fun show. The AIW roster is really awesome, cool mix of guys, definitely a crew I'm going to keep seeking out. Even when the matches aren't "MOTY" level, they still deliver. There's a bunch of match-ups I want to see with these guys. Juice/Garrini is an easy choice for our 2018 MOTY list though, totally delivering on a match that I hadn't thought of as happening. You will certainly see more AIW stuff written up here, that's for sure.

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