The Parable of the Warrior and the Mountain

Chris Hero vs. Senka WCPW 4/16/26 

Far away, across the sea, there lives a warrior in red. She is small of stature, young in the ways of battle. Yet in such a short time, she has made a fledgling name for herself. While yes, she is known for her great strength, it is not strength of body, but instead strength of will. She is the tip of the spear, a stalwart soul, stubborn, confident, determined, one that refuses to quit even in the face of good sense, of inevitability, of a doom far larger than her compact frame.

She is the student of a legend, and whether she knows it or not, possesses within her the spirit of devil and jaguar both, of the lost generation just before her mentor’s days of glory, when warriors would refuse to let their shoulders sit upon the ground for even a single moment. Likewise, she, knowing or not, channels the memory of the great cowboy, a mighty power focused into a body that can barely contain it: the rising tide of inevitable motion, the personification of striking again and again, pressing ever forward, refusing to be denied. 

One year ago, she traveled across that sea to present herself and prove her merit to the world at a tournament in a battleground full of them, a celebratory time when all of the great and meager warriors gather together. Fearlessly, she faced off against the greatest force of multiple generations, and not only lived to the tell the tale, but, through her refusal to quit, to stop, to stay down, showed all that witnessed it something they had not seen in many a year, something undeniably tangible, visceral, gripping, something real. 

In the year that followed she faced new challenges, grew in her strength and presence, became a champion, and even stared down quite possibly the greatest of her own age, the young warrior stymying and frustrating this great power through her pluck, her daring, her simple refusal to give up and give in. Another battle survived, and is that not the way of this warrior? Every battle survived, victory or vanquish, continues her journey, spurs her growth, makes her stronger. 

So here it was that she traveled once again to the gathering of the combatants, to where all the world’s warriors flock to prove their merit. Through fate and luck, she was to have a worthy foe before her, one that could meet her intensity, iron clashing with iron, strengthening them both. She would go to the mountain, would face a new rival, would grow stronger through combat. This was her path. 

Sometimes life decrees a different path. The rival could not compete. The warrior in red would face a mystery opponent instead. The opponent did not matter, however. The battle was everything.

She entered the arena to a hero’s welcome, one that must have surprised her, even with what she had endured in the last year. This was a foreign land, full of strangers, but they welcomed her back, chanted her name. She stood in the center, her color burning bright, ready for whatever life would throw her way. 

However, as music burst through the air, a tune familiar to the onlookers yet now rarely heard, a stark realization came over her. They had given her a hero’s welcome, but now they stood ready to welcome the Hero. She had not come to the mountain to battle. She had come to battle the mountain. 

The warrior may have been a powerful force contained in a small frame, but the mountain itself was a great force contained in a great frame. While it had been years since it battled regularly, it was still spoken of in whispers, still known to have an eye upon the world, a finger upon the pulse. It was said that one thunderous strike from it, stone crashing across bone, could shatter the resolve of even the strongest fighter. 

Like all young warriors worth witnessing, she ventured into the dark forest to become an adult, as she had many times before. This time, however, she found before her the tallest tree with the deepest roots, even if they had become gnarled with time.

The crowd broke into shocked cheering, surprised chanting, but the warrior stayed resolute. If the mountain had come to her, if she stood before the tallest tree, the two being the same great presence that would now be her opponent, she would climb it nonetheless, would reach its pinnacle and stomp it to dust. Or she would die trying. For who was she if not that?. 

Agitated, eager, chomping at the bits, she remained undaunted. An exhibition. Five minutes simply to survive; five minutes, perhaps, to triumph and bring honor to her name.

With the tolling of the bell, she rushed right in. The unassailable mountain, the tallest foreboding tree, was waiting. Its branches snatched at her wrist, grasped at her arm, twisting as if in a torrential wind. Once, twice, three, four times. Yet the warrior had just begun. She rolled and turned the grasp back upon itself. She reached up and over, wrapping her arm around it, encompassing the great force before her, trying to contain it beside her. With mirth, it hefted her up, placed her in the corner, punctuated the overwhelming show of power with a simple, demeaning pat upon the head. There, there, little warrior. 

Her response? With scream and focused fury, she charged headlong, slamming the full weight of her frame against it. It held still, mocked her. It brushed itself off, showing the crowd that there was no reason to worry, barely any reason to notice. Still the warrior came, crashing in again and again. She would not stop. It was not her way. For the first time, the mountain allowed a crack to form in its visage: annoyance, irritation, disbelief. 

Shoulder tackles turned to forearms. Somehow she moved it, a creaking, strained effort, but one that left a mark on the world nonetheless. And for her trouble? Now truly awoken, the tallest of trees (perhaps a sleeping dragon too?) allowed one root to rise high into the air. The warrior crashed into it, crumbling to the ground. Thus is the fate of all who show insolence. It lifted her up and chopped her down. It hammered down upon her back. The warrior recoiled, rolled, writhed. 

A chop, a hammer? These were not enough. The warrior was daring. The warrior had dared. Yet the only thought the mountain had was this: How dare she? There was no recourse but destruction, to crush down upon her with all of its weight. 

The warrior’s response should not have been possible. It defied physics, defied the natural rules of this world, but then there is one unnatural rule that conquers all others: with enough heart, anything is possible. The warrior channeled her great heart into her knees, putting them up to stave off the crushing force of the mountain. The impossible was made possible. Another crack formed, even at the cost of great damage to her own body.

The mountain staggered back. The warrior, once again, as she is, as she must be, charged forth, forcing herself onward despite the agony obvious in her movements, for what is pain in the face of growth and glory? She crashed into the shaken monolith three times, wielding naught but the weapon that is her own arm. To the witnesses, it felt like the tides of fate were turning just a bit more with every crash.

But there would not be a fourth time. The tallest of trees had staggered backwards. Now it staggered forward once more, branch extended so as to wrap around the warrior’s throat. Without mercy or remorse, it lifted her up, slammed her down. Nature was taking its course. Creaking bark gave way to solid, unyielding stone as tree became mountain and dropped all of its weight upon the warrior. This time, there would be no knees to save her. This time there would be nothing to save her. The impact was such that the mountain shook itself apart in its rage; it needed a moment to put itself back together. 

A moment was all the warrior required, though no one bearing witness could possibly yet know or understand. Just as the warrior’s breath had been squashed out of her, the crowd’s collective breath had been taken as well. A chilled silence had overtaken it. Little did those watching realize that their faith was about to be renewed. The mountain pressed down upon the warrior. The judge began to count. Three seconds was the difference between victory and defeat. Most escapes happened with just one second to go, desperate, fevered survival.

Instead, the warrior forced the mountain off of her after one paltry second. A grave, defiant insult. The crowd erupted in admiration of her strength, her will, her brazenness. Mainly however, it just erupted, feeling, not thinking, living in the moment through the warrior and her accomplishment. A pure and good thing in an age where such things are so very hard to come by.

The mountain, no longer just annoyed but now truly angered, fumed and seethed. With the explosive force of a volcano (erupting in its own way), it heaved her up and crushed her down upon the ground. And yet, once again, she refused to stay down for even one second. Finding new resolve in such defiance, she slapped downwards, rallying her strength. The witnesses chanted her name creating a self-perpetuating circuit of valorous energy. She threw powerful, unrestrained blows, not just stopping the mountain’s eruption, but somehow forcing it back again. Seeing new cracks, smelling blood drawn from stone, she charged forth, ever her way. But she ran into the storm itself. She ran into that fabled thunderclap, into the hardest of rock, and she crumbled once more. 

The true story of humanity is this: our efforts change the world around us. Trying matters. Caring matters. Persisting matters. The warrior’s efforts had changed the world, had chipped away at the impenetrable. The mountain, weakened, manifested once more as that tallest of trees. It wrapped its branches around her, meaning to toss her aside, to throw her into oblivion, into the forgotten annals of history. Its roots were strong, planted. Her heart was stronger. She rooted her own feet to the ground and buoyed by the witnesses, she channeled inner strength enough to reverse the effort, to uproot the tree itself, to create her own miracle and send it overhead and down to the ground. She uprooted the seated masses as well, their hands rising into the air in exultation as she attempted to pin her lofty opponent to the ground. 

With great effort, and not at all a sure thing, it shoved her off. A voice rang from the heavens. 30 seconds remained. The warrior attempted to press her assault, but lightning struck once more, and as the bell tolled again, a weakened warrior found herself driven head first into the ground, seemingly destroyed, yet somehow, still not defeated. The exhibition would instead end without a winner, a draw.

This satisfied no one. The mountain moved to slunk away from the battlefield, exuding unmistakable frustration at the warrior’s defiance, the onlookers’ adulation, and most of all, the simple fact that it had not been able to clearly win the day. The warrior dragged herself front and center in the middle of the battlefield and dropped to a bow, holding within it both respect and a demand. The onlookers? Those who bore witness let their thoughts be heard. They shared in the warrior’s demand. Five more minutes.

With pride bruised, a crowd to silence, and heavenly punishment still to mete out, the mountain agreed. Five more minutes. 

Given a second chance, the warrior, as is, was, and will ever be her want, rushed right in. She crashed hard into the mountain, fell, rose, and kept coming. She staggered it once more, loading that arm as the cowboy once did, a deadly weapon that no one and nothing can withstand. One that could topple even the mightiest tree. That did not mean she could hold it down, however.

She meant to toss it overhead once more, but her moment of advantage had passed. The roots were too strong, even for her heart. It wrenched her up and over instead. This did not mean something was not now and forever different in the world, however. Something had changed through her efforts. The cracks had shown and she had, perhaps, learned from the uprooting. 

The mountain went to drop her on her head once more, but she channeled all of her heart’s resolve into defying physics once more. Now, instead of moving the mountain, she made herself unmovable to it. It took all of its great strength and all of its learned technique to heft her up and plant her down. And then? After all that work? She would again not allow her shoulders to stay down for even one second.

Two familiar eruptions occurred in unison. The witnesses rose to their feet and the mountain spewed its lava, made all the worse by the onlookers’ deafening chants claiming it could not defeat her. Showing petulance beneath its stature, it pushed her to the ground, berated her, demanded to know who she thought she was, and even slapped at her face when she rose. But rise she did nonetheless. 

The warrior rose. She had withstood stone, wood, and thunder. Now she joined with the wind itself. She pulled inwards and exhaled outwards, letting loose a cry. It was heard not just by the onlookers and witnesses, not just by the mountain, not just by the gathering of warriors. The wind spread it to the four corners of this world. She shouted her name and it was heard by all, but the mountain heard it most of all.

SENKA

Thus named and thus known, the warrior continued to press forward, continued to strike, continued to channel the fire inside of her into external force, continued to defy all the natural laws of this world, continued to move the mountain. She could do nothing else but to be who and what she was, no matter the cost and no matter the consequence.

Tragically, she charged forth this last time only for the full brunt of that nature she fought so hard to defy to crash down upon her once and for all: one last rolling clasp of thunder, a lightning strike that would destroy any lesser warrior. And yet, despite that, as the mountain tried to lift her, to end this, to destroy her with finality, it found the task too monumental, the weight of her heart too massive to lift. It took two tries to accomplish it, but once accomplished, she moved no more. There were limitations to the human body, even when the human heart is boundless. The warrior defied nature and nature struck her down.

But even that was not the end of it, not in the face of the warrior’s great heart. She was one to squeeze victory out of every defeat. That was her way. That was, perhaps, her greatest strength. In the striving, in the questing, through the battle, she grew. And she gained. Confidence. Wisdom. Understanding. And perhaps, most of all, respect. 

The mountain raised her up, and then when the onlookers feared that it might strike her down anew, it instead shocked them all by looking eye to eye and sinking down to her level, beneath it, a bow of its own. The very landscape itself had shifted in regard for her bravery, her stubbornness, her resolve, her strength. She dropped down to meet it and the two figures took quiet, celebratory communion together in acknowledgement of the battle they had waged. For she may not have conquered the mountain, but she had done something just as meaningful; she had thawed its icy heart.

Emboldened by the battle, her journey would continue, perhaps an even greater victory just on the horizon. And as for the mountain? It would allow the sun to set upon it once again, waiting, just out of the reach of imagination, for the next challenger to dare attempt an ascent. 

But it would remember her name.

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Matches from PWG All Star Weekend Night 1 1/5/08

Low-Ki vs. Bryan Danielson - EPIC

PAS: This was their first match against each other in four years, and their last ever indy match (they had a couple of FCW matches during their time in WWE Developmental). This was the matchup that launched modern indy wrestling, but this is one of their least hyped matches (PWG footage used to take so long to show up, that sometimes their stuff would fall a bit through the cracks). This was really great, as good if not better then their matches earlier in the decade. This was structured a bit differently, as these weren't young guys trying to prove themselves, but established stars. Danielson worked this as a heel, really trying to torture Ki by ripping up his arm in gross ways, he also had mixed in a fair amount of MMA spots in his arsenal, and there was a couple of really slick moves in and out of the guard, I especially dug him working an armbar, jumping into guard to throw down elbows, and slipping right back into the arm bar. Danielson also kept attacking with Goodrich elbows, setting up the finish nicely. Ki breaks out a bunch sick kicks to the chest and face, including catching a Bryan tope with a head kick. The finish run was awesome stuff, as they are fighting on the top rope, Ki actually bites Bryan getting him in position for the Warriors Way, Ki then hits the Ki Krusher, and spins it into the Ki clutch where he pays Bryan back with Goodrich elbows of his own. This is a undercover classic, I think it had too much matwork for the people who were really pushing PWG in 2008, but I am always going to love these guys banging the mat. 

Jack Evans vs. Roderick Strong

PAS: This was a fun match, although fell a little short of what these guys can do at their peak. Evans, at this point especially, was completely rubber-spined, and Strong found a bunch of ways to twist him into pain pretzels, at one point he had him wrapped up the ropes and nearly touched his ankles to the back of his head. Strong also unloaded some blistering chops, and Evans took a gross bump to the floor when he missed a dive and nuked his ankle. Evans always had a bit of an offense problem, he is kind of the Lugentz Dort of indy wrestling, he ends up going over in this match, and I just had a hard time buying the stuff he threw putting Strong down, although the 450 always looks great.

Eddie Kingston/Claudio Castagnoli/Human Tornado vs. Necro Butcher/Chris Hero/Candice LeRae -EPIC

PAS: This was a total blast, a wild brawl which ebbed and flowed had great pacing and told a bunch of little awesome mini stories. All six hit the ring fast and start brawling, and they eventually spill into the parking lot. Necro starts throwing rocks at the heel team, I mean big stones tossed hard, the kind of reckless insanity which made Necro special. This was a Necro masterpiece, he wilds out smashing the shit out Tornado and Kingston with crazed punches, at one point he comes in as a hot tag a just throws these totally gross JYD no hands headbutts. Tornado is a great gross cheapshotting prick, he absolutely obliterates LeRae with a superkick to the throat which puts her on the shelf for most of the match. Every time Kingston and Hero matched up it was as borderline unprofessional as you want from those two, and the finish was great with LeRae getting back into the match only for Eddie with a full wifebeater smirk, line her up for a backfist, with Hero diving in front of the bullet only to lose the match. On paper this looks awesome and in ring it delivered on it's promise.

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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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New Footage Friday: PSICOSIS!! FINLAY! HERO! CLAUDIO! ST. CLAIR!

Fit Finlay vs. Tony St. Clair CWA 11/22/94

PAS: Midcard Piratenkampf match which would have been better as a main event, still its 1996 Finlay. It is really fun to watch Finlay break out his signature spots and adding a chain to them. He lays St. Claire chest over the ring apron to slam it, but adds a chain wrapped around St. Claire's neck. He throws his amazing forearms and adds a chain to the thud. This also has a bunch of fun leverage spots with the chain, with both guys taking nice yanked bumps off the top rope. The finish is kind of a dud with a run in and interference finish which feels like a cop out. Just have someone grab the bag.

MD: We've seen our share of these matches by now and the very best of them are the ones that get mean and bloody with a big beatdown and a big comeback. In this regard, it's not that different from a bullrope match. Sometimes, you're going to get matches where the guys actually try to win instead of kill each other, and this one was more like the latter than the former. That said, if you're going to have the latter, this was a pretty good way to do it. Finlay and especially St. Clair kept going for the pole and the flag. That created an opening and the opening led to comeuppance. Finlay was the meaner of the two, choking and laying in nasty shots with chairs and on tables, but he ate some pretty brutal receipts on the floor late in the match. The one good thing about them going for the win repeatedly was that the finish was fairly exciting because of the frequent attempts.

ER: I thought this was great, acknowledging that it could have been a violent bloody war, but loving that instead we got a kind of exercise in Finlay minimalism. It felt like Finlay was trying to craft the most interesting match possible while spending most of the match acting like 75% of the ring didn't even exist. Finlay seems to create those kind of interesting problems or challenges in his matches, and for a match based 80% around climbing up one corner of the ring I don't know how much more interesting he could have made this. I like fluffy Garry Shandling hair babyface Tony St. Clair, and loved the big tumbles he would take as Finlay would yank him away from grabbing a...pouch? Grabbing a pouch of something that I assume is worth winning? Finlay is awesome at working tug of war moments, the kind where he plants his feet and really makes it look like he's pulling with all his might to desperately prevent St. Clair's climbing. It's weird seeing a chain match where the chain is around the wrist instead of attached to a dog collar, but I like how Finlay still wraps it around St. Clair's throat, and bumps to the floor with a chain attached to your wrist are still impressive as hell. All of the floor brawling looked really great, especially Finlay battering St. Clair with a molded plastic chair. Finlay even does an early version of hitting the ringpost when your opponent moves, hitting the post with the chain. St. Clair's fired up shots looked great, and really it was all betrayed by a needlessly stupid ending. You can't have a clean-ish finish in a "grab the bag off a pole" match? Just let one of the guys take the coin purse after the other gets yanked off the ropes. Silly finish, but the rest was great.


Ultimo Dragon vs. Psicosis AAA 6/2/96

PAS: This is a matchup we saw a bunch of on WCW syndie shows and twice on PPV, so it was cool to see them in a singles match in Mexico. I don't really think this worked though. There were individual cool moments: I loved Psicosis's baseball slide bump, and there was some very fast rollups and exchanges. However, I think the heavy ref stuff and random interference didn't work at all, and really kept the match from having much momentum. Their Bash match is still a way better example of what they can do against each other.

MD: This was a glorious little piece of lucha indy bullshit. Psicosis, to me, was hugely underrated at the time. Hugely. He was so good at stooging, at working to the crowd, at being an absolute jerk while on offense. He might be the best base there ever was (up there with Fuerza, who does so much of the same stuff well, just from a slightly different angle), because everything he does adds to the match and about two-thirds of it is wholly selfless in setting up stuff for his opponent. It's more than just catching someone. It's acting as contrast, acting so that your opponent can hit all of his stuff as a reaction and this match is full of that. My favorite bit in this was probably a sequence with Dragon on the inside and Psicosis on the outside, where he basically bumped himself three times to set up Dragon's plancha. In this match, he was also getting the ref over as big as anyone, which tells you the other half of what you need to know about this one. Still, super fun.

ER: I liked this a lot more than Phil too, as it played like an awesome Psicosis broomstick match. I don't think Ultimo brought anything to this, as every single Psicosis bump I could have easily pictured him doing in a ring with nobody else in it. The ref stuff was entirely stupid, as at this point we've all seen the exact same rudo ref shtick for as long as we've been watching lucha (I have seen this same shtick live in 2019, there aren't going to be new jokes or scenarios added and it's not going to get more entertaining), but that was just another burdensome load for Psic to carry here, only adding to his legend. This whole thing was filled with Psicosis missing Ultimo by *this* much, splatting face first into turnbuckles, the ring apron, the ringpost, everywhere. This had every wild Psicosis you've seen plus a couple more, with him taking one of the highest hang time Jerry bumps I've ever seen early in the primera, throws himself onto his head at least three times, just crazy how on this guy was every single show. He mixes that in with playing off comedy with the ref, while Ultimo basically stands in place half the time and lets Psicosis work around him. Seriously, so much of this match is Dragon basically getting moved around like a child while Psicosis tumbles and splats around him. Legendary Psicosis performance, while everybody involved was working against that happening.


Chris Hero vs. Claudio Castagnoli Toryumon Mexico 3/4/06

PAS: You could tell that Hero and Claudio were super amped to be wrestling in Arena Naucalpan. This was basically Hero showing off all of the fancy armdrags and headscissors which Skayde taught him, and Claudio showing off what a world class base he was. I especially liked Hero's front flip rana to the floor, and tope rope cartwheel armdrag. Hero wasn't as heavyweight as he would get, but it is still crazy to see a guy that big rip off Mascarita Sagrada spots. Really joyful match to watch, thrilled wrestlers, amped up crowd, awesome stuff.

MD: Very interesting match. It made me wish, more than anything else, that these two had a chance to work a few months together in Mexico in this style, because the end result of that would have been amazing. Even here, with a bit more of a draft version, there was a lot to like. I could be wrong, but you have to figure the crowd wasn't super familiar with either of them. Claudio was constantly working to the crowd, making sure to engage them in between almost every move and ensuring a connection. Hero especially was working big, throwing out the most complex armdrag variations they could manage, shooting for the high "difficulty" score from the judges. Put those together and Hero's flip dive into a frankensteiner on the floor drew an honest and earnest chant from the crowd. One other thing I really liked was how, during his come back, he used the springboard armdrag not just for the sake of doing a big spot, but to create distance so he could hit the boot, which was really the move that got him all the way back into it. A lot of the lucha we see is with guys who run the same spots again and again in front of crowds week in and week out, and they didn't have that luxury here. With that in mind, this was a hell of an effort.

ER: I knew there was one short Hero in Mexico stint out there but I'd never seen any of it until now, and I love it. I love that to the Coliseo fans they just looked like two young Skayde students going through and working a Skayde match, and who could want anything more? Hero is so good at that style and can throw out mirror perfect versions of classic Skayde sequences all while peppering in his own charms. I'm not sure what the crowd was expecting when they saw a couple of tall white boys get in the ring, but you can tell by the third gorgeous pendulum armdrag they were fully onboard. The early applause honestly felt like "okay they get what we're into seeing". Claudio is one of the greatest flyer bases of our time, the guy with freak strength who came up with a ton of tiny flippers, and Hero is one of the greatest style chameleons of all time. The whole match really played like a fun greatest hits showcase of what they could do for fun. These two probably at least a couple dozen singles matches and I've seen many of them, and this is easily the shortest and most worked like a cool showoff exhibition. And a cool exhibition between two guys with cool bags of tricks is precisely what I wanted. This was all joy, all the hits, in front of a crowd that wanted to see that. Hero's armdrags were perfect, but him breaking out the handspring dragon rana is just a whole different level. Claudio was there to base and that alone was impressive, but there was joy to be had in both small things he did (his excellent cravate snapmare) and big things (his running diving uppercut to Hero's back), all while holding firm for every flip Hero tossed his way. Love these two, glad I finally got to see them in Coliseo, although I wish we had any footage against any era luchadors.

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Two MOTY Additions from Progress Wrestling 12/15/19

91. Meiko Satomura vs. Jinny

PAS: I clearly need to do a deep dive on 2019 Meiko, as she still looks completely incredible here. Early in the match Jinny looked like she didn't belong in the ring with Meiko, but she kept scrapping and by the end this was a pretty great underdog match. Loved Jinny trying a drop toe hold take down at half speed, only for Meiko to do the same move with incredible speed and precision. I was ready to give up on Jinny at that point, but then she started throwing sharp elbows and actually standing toe to toe with Meiko Satomura. I loved how she flipped off Meiko, only for Meiko to kick her head off. I also liked how it played into the finish with Meiko pulling up at two, only to get pinned on a flash roll up when she was too nonchalant. If you have to take the belt off of Meiko this is a pretty good way to do it.

ER: I like Jinny a lot. She's one of a handful of people I actually go out of my way to see on NXT UK, and I love how her sharp features give her the most natural ice queen vibe, coming off like the Persian Tessa Blanchard. So it's even more fun seeing her pull off the underdog babyface role in her home fed, getting pummeled by one of the best wrestlers in the world. It's hard to work a match like this, where the champ takes 95% of the match without the match feeling like a total steamrolling, but I think they pulled it off. The mat scrambling was cool, with Meiko showing off her supreme talents with sick rolling takedowns, floating effortlessly in every pass she wanted to make through Jinny's body. Meiko showed she could hop from the legs to the arms to the neck essentially whenever she wanted, and every time they stood up I thought Jinny was great at showing she barely escaped with her arm or leg. Jinny is not a tall woman, but she reads like a tall woman. She has long legs and arms, and I like the way those come into play in her matches. They always seem to play into her rope break game, and here Meiko sank in a nasty hold only to see Jinny's long leg reach the ropes, big toe barely making it. When Jinny finally managed to get her head above water, she used those long limbs to throw sharp elbows, and soon she's hammerfisting Satomura's back to lock her arms and pendulum slam Meiko's chest repeatedly into the mat, and hitting a big dive into Satomura and a couple security guards. But I knew Meiko would go into killer mode, and when she does it's the very best, and I thought the big kickouts were very well done. They hadn't spammed any big moves early in the match, so by the time Jinny ate that decapitating cartwheel knee it was still feasible that she had some gas left in the tank. The end stretch felt like Liger/Sasuke to me, with a vet getting too cocky when met with insolence (middle finger fighting spirit spots have been used in some lame ways in the past 15 years, so I like that Jinny got her finger moment in and then got smashed), absolutely folding her with a death valley driver...but picking her up for 2? I loved Meiko's reactions to the crowd after breaking up her own pin, as the crowd really isn't into it, so Meiko feels the need to justify her decision, allowing Jinny to get a flash roll up crucifix pin. I really liked this, but it made me even more excited to see a rematch, curious how the dynamics would change with Meiko as the fired up challenger and Jinny the champ.

15. Timothy Thatcher vs. Kassius Ohno

PAS: This was tremendous violent wrestling. Ohno was in full brutalizer mode just beating Thatcher horribly, with Thatcher toughing it out and firing back with some really big shots of his own. Loved the transition with Ohno catching Thatcher's leg and kicking him right in the patella. Ohno then gets straight down to torture, just mauling with nasty submission holds and brutal stomps and elbows. At one point he ties up the legs in a modified Indian death lock opening up Thatcher's head for ugly forearms. Really liked Thatcher's knee selling, at one point he tries to plant and loses his balance briefly which was enough time to get kicked in the head. Finish was Fujiwarian, with Thatcher countering a rolling elbow with a headbutt right in the elbow, and snapped on a Fujiwara for the tap. Great stuff, didn't outstay its welcome, and every bit of it was violent and nasty.

ER: These two separately are always must see, but these two together? I don't know how much more must see you can get. I was there live for their first ever match in 2015 and it was one of my favorite live wrestling experiences of my life. They match up all through 2015 and have barely fought since, so you knew this was going to be a treat. And this was a quieter match than their prior bouts and I liked that. This really wasn't focused on bomb throwing or big spots, and as Phil pointed out it feels more like a classic Fujiwara match, with Thatcher being tortured and overwhelmed while always being fully in the match and pulling out a last second magic trick. Ohno keeps powering Thatcher down to the mat, and every time he has him there he unleashes something mean, primarily focusing on Thatcher's ankle. Ohno found all sorts of ways to step on, stomp on, and twist Thatcher's ankle: stomping it over the bottom rope, cruelly stepping on the ball of his ankle while getting to a standing position, wrenching and twisting it, doing clever leverage spots, even things like pressing his forehead into Thatcher's arch while cranking the ankle. The hard strikes and big spots we do get are used sparingly and came off effective as hell: Thatcher's stuffed piledriver sell was an all-timer, his arms stiffening and his back rounding into a C. I loved the moment where Thatcher went to put weight on his ankle and buckled under the weight, looking up in time to see a boot land flush in his eye. The finish was that sudden Fujiwara blast, Ohno setting up KO blow only to have Thatcher headbutt his ulna, sending a lightning bolt up Ohno's arm, allowing Thatcher to sink the armbar. Let's make sure these two don't go another 3+ years without crossing paths.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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In the News! Arik Cannon

The end of last weeks AEW Dynamite show had a mass attack by masked Dark Order members beating up the entire roster. A clip of one of those masked guys throwing embarrassing mounted phantom punches on Dustin Rhodes made its rounds on the internet, with Randy Orton (who isn't exactly Dick Murdoch) taunting the masked guy about his inability to perform something you should learn the first week of wrestling school. The big M. Night Shyamalan twist was that this masked Dark Order member wasn't some green rookie, but Arik Cannon, a guy who has been wrestling since 2001, and actually runs his own promotion, and is the head trainer of a wrestling school. There is a lot of Cannon I didn't like, but I do remember really digging an IWA-MS I Quit match against Chris Hero, so I decided to revisit it, and maybe give Cannon some propers.


Arik Cannon vs. Chris Hero IWA-MS 9/9/05

This was pretty long (40+ minutes), which isn't something I am looking for in a match at this point in my life, but they kept it moving and had plenty of cool moments and an appropriate ending for an I Quit match. The first section of this match is both guys throwing really nasty potato shots at each other, including some really sick sounding headbuts, thudding forehead to forehead blows, forehead to cheek bone, and forehead to jaw. Cannon had a nice looping Billy Joe Travis hook, which he landed a bunch of times with some real sound on the jaw. Hero posts Cannon's knee and really works that over for the bulk of the match with some big thumps on the kneecap and side of the knee, and really fun twisty submission holds, at one point he rolls him into a reverse Indian deathlock and does pushups. Cannon fires back with some big throws, including a super nasty Saito suplex and tries to lock on a hangman's clutch of his own (the feud apparently started, because Cannon kept using Hero's moves on other wrestlers to taunt him). The most memorable moment of the match was Cannon using athletic tape on his own mouth so he couldn't talk and say I Quit. It is kind of an OTT idea, but I did like how he had to remove it himself to breath, and almost ended up puking. Fun backfire spot which actually made a bunch of sense. Hero eventually got on his own Hangman's clutch after stomping brutally on Cannon's knee. I Quit matches are traditionally bloody brawls, but I liked how this was based more on torturing submission holds, and while Hero was the standout, Cannon was more then just a passenger.


Not sure how a guy in a match this good, can do something as bad as Wednesday's beat down, with fifteen years more ring experience. At one point in this match he even does a series of mounted punches, and while he isn't Mark Coleman he does make decent looking contact. It will remain a mystery, but I am happy I rewatched this 15 years later.

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Ian Rotten Came Knocking At The Door, I Let Him In for A While

Ian Rotten vs. Chris Hero IWA-MS 5/4/02 -EPIC

JR: Late last year, Phil Schneider approached me about working together to write up all the Ian Rotten matwork matches, known colloquially as “methlab battlearts”. I jumped at the opportunity, for Phil remains an inspiration of mine. My wrestling writing, and truthfully, the entire way I watch wrestling, would be very different without him. It was a task that got pushed back, as we both have our own things, and life sometimes gets in the way. But tonight it starts! This is the first write up in what will surely be a long project, spanning many, many matches. I have no idea when it will end. Off the top of my head, I can think of about 6 or 7 matches I would safely categorize as MLBA, I’m sure there are more, but that will require us both sifting through a few years worth of Ian Rotten matches. I don’t really look forward to this. That’s a lie. I do look forward to it, just not to the time it will take.

But that is a problem for future JR. And future Phil S. Tonight, our problem is watching Ian Rotten fight Chris Hero in 2002 in Dayton, OH.

There are 37 people at this match. I know this because I watched a match from a few months later that had 24 people in the audience and they commented on the crowd size of the two shows. The matches starts with a clean break and some solid tie up work. Hero is game, and this is before he became obsessed with World of Sport, or at the very least before he let that obsession work its way into his matches. But at the very least, Hero is someone who has a pretty innate understanding of leverage and is someone who doesn’t shy away from contact, which makes him a great opponent here.

I have no idea if Rotten has ever watched WoS, but more so than any BattleArts wrestler, his performance in the early portion of this match reminds me of Jim Breaks. Not in the world necessarily, but in how vocal he is. Ian has an understanding of his audience, what their expectations are and how well they can follow a narrative. By having a match that is so out of the ordinary for both participants, he knows and understands that he has to guide them a bit more, and he does this but yelling and whining and cursing and hollering any time there is a level change or a moment of resolution in the work. It creates clear rhythm that the audience can follow and enjoy, like how the audience knows and understands when a jazz solo ends.

The other major strength of Ian’s work in this match is the sheer weight of everything he does. Not in a metaphorical sense, I mean that every hold that he has Hero in he makes look as though he is truly pressing upon him. There is a wariness to participating in constant contact with someone, and Ian understands that. He may move slower than some others, or have to visibly think through the steps to do something in a way that other, more technically adept wrestlers do not, but he makes an effort to always be touching and pressing and falling and laying on Hero. He forces the issue in ways that other performers do not. Often, technical wrestling can almost come across as no different than a high flying match in structure; fast paced reversals followed by a break as the two competitors circle around and pace, waiting for their polite applause. Here, Ian and Hero are always forcing the other to confront them and their actual, physical forms.

All of that is a somewhat overly confusing way of saying that this match just features Rotten and Hero hitting each other very hard. They exchange headbutts that knock the every present bandage from Rotten’s forehead. Ian hits an uppercut and later a crossface that both land with a thud that is harrowing, like watching someone on a bike collide with a mailbox. Hero’s strikes are equally hard, but are almost all in retaliation. There is a natural quality to them, kicking and screaming and flailing while on his back, desperate to avoid Ian grabbing his knee and ankle and just mangling them over and over.

It’s interesting to see how Ian’s understanding of the layout and rhythm of deathmatches infers how he works here, specifically in regards to the use of props, for lack of a better term. While there are no weapons or elaborate death match machine set ups or anything of the like, Ian manages to get huge amounts of mileage out of small and simple things that act almost as act breaks. The end of the first portion of the match is symbolized by Ian's forehead bandage coming off, whereas the finishing stretch is marked by Hero having to tape his knee while a tired and desperate Ian lunges for it over and over, eventually leaving himself open for a counter attack. One could watch this and see these transitions and moments being instead barbed wire bats or panes of glass, and the match makes roughly the same amount of sense. While I tend to think this word is meaningless, there is a universality to the structure here that allows Ian to consistently remain in control and never find himself out of book in any meaningful way.

This match is wonderful. One of my favorite matches ever is the Satanico/Sangre Chicana match from 89, and the work in the second half of this almost is a matwork equivalent, where everything looks desperate and wild and subsequently more real. Watching this match is watching two people struggle in the mud, concussed and angry, hoping that by some stroke of luck the next thing they try will land true.

PAS: This project is going to be a challenge for me, because JR is such a talented, thorough writer, I am going to get his reviews, and struggle try to find something interesting to say which isn’t just going over points that he made better.

JR talked a lot about the vocalization in this match, and it is really powerful and makes the whole thing almost uncomfortable to watch. There are 37 people in the audience, so you aren’t going to hear traditional crowd reactions, instead you hear people just expressing shock, “Fucking Christ”, “Shit”. It really adds to force of headbutt or forearm when some guy in the audience seems disgusted by the whole thing. This is a death match promotion, Ian Rotten is normally going through panes of glass, but the crowd seems way more appalled by a hammer fist to a knee then anything with barbed wire or lightubes (and it is a great fucking Hammer fist, these guys were throwing heaters).

Both wrestlers were really vocal too, cursing at each other, shrieking in pain, mumbling under their breath. There is a lot of over the top vocal selling in wrestling these days, but in a performative way, nothing felt performative here. At one-point Hero’s shriek gets really high pitched, it is the kind of shriek I made when I dislocated my kneecap playing Rugby, or you will hear on the pickup court when someone shreds an Achilles, it didn’t feel like selling, it felt like two guys taking it much too far. I loved how fast Ian tapped out too, it felt like both guys tendons were slowly ripping througout the entire match, if you tore a tendon in your knee, you wouldn’t gut it out and make tough guy faces, you would scream, tap and go to the hospital. The lack of traditional wrestling selling in this match really made it special, it unnerved me, it isn’t the way a wrestling match is supposed to work, it isn’t how wrestlers are supposed to react to holds and it makes the whole thing seem wrong. It has been a while since I watched any of this stuff, and even with grappling being a much more prevalent thing in independent wrestling these days (They weren’t running Bloodsport and Ambition shows in 2002), this felt wholly alien, a completely separate bit of horror.

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2013 Match of the Year

William Regal vs. Kassius Ohno NXT 3/21/13

ER: Regal was only a handful of matches away from retiring with this absolute banger as his final match ever. But, we understandably had to get that overseas house show Michael McGillicutty feud rolling. So while this wasn't Regal's literal wrestling swan song, it's awesome the level he was still competing at when he decided to hang them up. This has everything: cool grappling, stiff work, nice counters, logical build, and two of my favorite wrestlers of all time. I loved all the collar and elbow lock-ups, trying to shake the other, both hanging on without it ever getting gimmicky. Regal has no problem at all working as beloved jerk veteran villain, mulekicking Ohno in the corner...and then throwing a few more in for good measure. It's not like he's giving up any size to Ohno, Regal is just great at being a jerk and shows that even more when he starts going after Ohno's fingers. We get a lot of finger break spots now, but this was used great, presented as Regal taking a mean shortcut to get to where he wanted. Ohno brings it right back and hits a great series of high kicks in the corner, full boot to face, hits a cool Fuerza bump dropkick to the floor, and kicks Regal's head right into the ringpost from the floor. Ohno also does some fun camera selling of his hand, popping his knuckle to make it look like he was popping his finger back in place. Both guys throw hard, heavy suplexes, and I loved Ohno going for several cravat variations, working a few angles and shifting position to make up for his hand. Some nice nearfalls, Ohno elbowing his way out of a Regal Stretch attempt, and the ever opportunistic Regal catching Ohno mid-rolling elbow is all we need. I loved Ohno getting sent cross-legged by that elbow, and his crumple from the death blow was perfect.

PAS: What an absolute master class Regal performed. This is one of the greatest matches of his career right at the very end. A slim trim Ohno was pretty awesome in this, but almost anyone would have been overshadowed by William Regal this night. I loved all the early lockups and the story of Ohno as a skilled knowledgeable competitor who was always a step behind a wily veteran, this was the most Fujiwaraish match I have seen with Regal. He never really had a chance to have a long run as a maestro, really just the trio of NXT matches (this one, Ambrose and Cesaro), as he was still mostly a comedy worker during his last WWE run. Here he knows every dirty trick to keep Ohno off balance, including the greatest finger breaking spot in wrestling history,  until Ohno starts going to the head. We get a series of huge kicks to the temple and Regal does this amazing job of concussion selling, glassy eyes, stumbling, red face, incredible performance. Everything he did from that point was on instinct and Ohno kept pounding away at his temple and skull. With the combo of the headshots and the finger breaking, this has to be one of the most viscerally violent matches in WWE history. Loved Regal's desperation elbow and knee strike and by the end of this match it felt like round 15 in Manila. What a treat, it was too bad Regal's injuries got so bad, because I would have loved to see him gatekeep all the big NXT stars. What a legend.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE REGAL

ALL TIME MOTY LIST

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 23: PWG Legends 4 Way

Low-Ki vs. Necro Butcher vs. Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston PWG 8/3/08 - EPIC

PAS: This is a four way made up of incredible match ups. Kingston vs. Hero and Ki vs. Necro are all time feuds and every other combo of these guys have had amazing singles matchups against each other. This took a minute to get going, there was some early Necro and Kingston comedy which didn't do much for me, but man when it got rolling it was as violent as promised. These are four guys who throw with abandon, and there were parts of this match that was uncomfortable, Ki hit a koppo kick on Hero that looked like it sliced his skull like a meat cleaver, and then hit a koppo on Necro that looked like it broke his wrist. Necro was throwing huge potato right hands on everyone, Kingston was throwing big chops, talking shit, and Aja level backfists. We get a nice Ki vs. Necro section, no one takes full force kicks to the face like Necro, and if he is going to kicked in the temple he is going to try to clean Ki's teeth with his fist.  Match finished with Hero KOing Kingston with a big elbow while Ki was trying to tap Necro. Hero grabs the mic after the match, and calls Kingston a piece of shit and they have an awesome violent pull apart. The internet thinks it might have been a shoot, (Kingston hasn't been back to PWG since) and there are definitely stuff in it that don't feel like wrestling, Hero throws a slap right to Kingston's ear, and Kingston tries to choke him and Hero violent throws the back of his head into Kingston's face, I love this feud so much. Real treat which delivers all of violence you want.

ER: I had never seen this before, and it's just about the most indy wrestling dream match you can get in the Segunda Caida universe. I've never gotten the chance to see Kingston live (he really didn't make it out to CA a ton), but the others I've seen live several times and it was always super memorable. The two Necro matches I've seen live were such fun experiences, me running around a venue following all the action. I saw him in an SF club working King Dabada, a big fat guy, and they brawled all over a small club and fell onto Rachel's sister and her girlfriend. Just a big sweaty fat guy and a hillbilly brawler falling onto their laps. All these guys are among my all time favorites so this was exciting just knowing this match existed. But that it also wound up totally delivering on its on-paper potential, just made this kick extra ass. It felt set-up for disappointment due to high hopes, but over-delivered. The early comedy was a fun twist from the violence that was to follow, and limiting it to the very beginning was fine. Because I wasn't thinking about Kingston running away when every body in the match was throwing fists and boots and kicks and elbows at each other. There's a fantastic  sequence where Hero grabs Ki in this nasty cravate while Ki is flopping about, and Kingston breaks it up with a nasty spinning backfist on Hero, and immediately pins Ki which narrowly gets broken up by Necro. Ki hits his nastiest ever koppo kick into the middle of Hero's forehead and then turns around and throws his nastiest ever koppo kick to Necro's swinging arm. Necro's arm selling looked great, probably because the man just took an insane kick to the arm. Necro punched a lot of face (loved another Ki crumbling sell), Ki bounced off Necro's spine with a Warriors Way while Necro was draped in the ropes, and the end is sudden and violent, Hero finally dropping Kingston with one of several elbows. This match delivers everything you could ever want it to, jumping a high bar.

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2007 Match of the Year

Eddie Kingston v. Chris Hero IWA-MS 9/29/07

PAS: This is one of my all time favorite wrestling feuds, they ran it in multiple federations, with big violent gimmick matches, CZW, ROH, IWA-MS. This wasn't building on any big feud in IWA-MS, they were just booked on the same card, so they decided to try to kill each other. This might be the apex of indy wrestling weapons brawls. It had all of the huge violent spots you want to watch in slow motion along with an almost Funk v. Lawler or Magnum v. Tully level of close fight brawling. Both guys kept ripping at each others eyes, not an a wrestling eye rake way, but in a blind a guy in a barfight way. Both guys recklessly chuck weapons at each other, not really concerned with how they land, Hero just hurls a chair from the floor into the ring and it hits Eddie right in the back of the head. At some point Kingston gets his nose broken awkwardly and is leaking blood, not a clean break either, but the kind of break which will disturb his sleep for life. There is just a total disregard for the guy they are in the ring with, the constant cursing and shit talking makes this seem like a fight to the death, Kingston is yelling "You better kill me motherfucker", while Hero is calling Kingston a punk bitch and piece of shit. I have said it before, and I am sure I will say it again, Kingston is one of the great brawling sellers in wrestling history, you really feel like he is guy in an alley trying to escape with his life, and he can get up after huge spots because of how good he is at conveying their effect on him. After fighting through some really hellacious blows, Kingston is able to hit a backfist and wastes Hero with three backdrop drivers, including on the guard rail, for a match with some huge and violent spots, this felt like a finish. Great stuff, career match for Kingston and possibly Hero's best as well.

ER: These two are crazy. Crazy in that "the payoff certainly couldn't have been worth THIS" kind of way. The punishment they each go through seems like they'll be dealing with nagging injuries for life.  It's a rainy day and Kingston's hand is locking up, "Oh yeah, Hero pounded the shit out of this hand a decade ago." Hero looks over his shoulder while merging lanes, a lightning bolt shoots down his neck, "Oh yeah, Kingston dropped me on a guardrail a decade ago." There's no introductions, they literally brawl out from the back and don't let up for 20+ minutes. The shots ramp up as the match goes on, but they're never nice. Phil is right about the recklessness of some weapon shots, things like Kingston getting a table violently shoved into his balls or getting his fingers jammed by a flying guardrail. You'd think the most violent stuff would happen outside the ring, on concrete, but the in-ring is just brutal. The strikes are sick, some of Kingston's best backfists, and one of the most brutal moments I can recall, with Hero holding Kingston in a cravate while rapidly kneeing him; Hero threw 10-15 super fast knees while wrenching Kingston's neck, just looked disgusting. Kingston's selling was supreme throughout. I really can't think of many in wrestling history who are better at pulling themselves to their feet after a beating, and that kind of thing is paramount in a Last Man Standing match. We get some great spots, I was really amused and impressed by Hero locking a cloverleaf on while also grabbing a chair and sitting on the chair, on Kingston, without Kingston ever looking like he was just waiting around for Hero to complete the spot. The cravate suplex off the top while Kingston was wearing a chair necktie is a gif I could see someone having as a message board signature, and I would get hung up watching it repeat a dozen times every time I would scroll past their posts. None of this ever felt overkill to me, due to the aura of both men; the more stuff they would do, the tougher they would seem. Two crazy guys, and I couldn't be happier that they're still going at it.


ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

6. Chris Hero v. Eddie Kingston AIW 12/26/14

PAS: This is one of the great indy wrestling feuds of all time, and oddly this was the only time these two matched up during the time in between Hero's WWE stints, you would think this would be a matchup indy feds would be falling over themselves to book. This was worked very similarly to a New Japan style Shibata/Ishii stiff fest, but I enjoyed it so much more those or their US Indy dopplegangers. That was mainly due to how great Kingston is at selling and conveying hate. Early in the match he is getting pounded and responds by being furious at his body for failing him. Hero is beating him to the punch and he is mad at himself, he has some awesome KO sells too, slumping, glass eyed and defeated. Kingston is maybe my favorite ever slugfest seller, too bad he never got to work Hashimoto, Sangre Chicana or Lawler. Hero is great too as an arrogant star who has always hated this guy and desperately wants to put him down. His popping up after the suplexes was less no-selling and more determination to not let this piece of shit beat him. I really loved this, makes we want to seek out all of their earlier matches and makes me bummed that we didn't get another bunch of rounds of this before Hero went back to NXT.

ER: Strike exchanges are the most played out thing in online wrestling fandom, and this match starts with that very thing. And seeing Kingston and Hero actually express interesting character through body language and facials only illustrated how terrible everybody else is at this played out match function. It really doesn't seem that hard to add some personality or character into guys hitting each other, but seeing every single chest puffing time killing exchange would prove otherwise. Here Kingston is able to effectively show within 30 seconds that he may have bitten off more than he could chew, and the fact that it ends with him splayed on the mat after an awesome Hero tornado pump kick would back that up. Hero flat out hits harder than Kingston. That's it. Kingston has plenty of intangibles, but Hero hits harder. It never stops Kingston from hitting Hero, and the results are always great. Kingston's selling really makes this so much more. Watching Hero eat several chops, only to perfectly time a right jab to the jaw as Kingston goes foggy, or seeing Kingston slump into the ropes after Hero throws a right hand to the temple, you just know Kingston is going to keep coming forward, but his selling brings an extra level of "bless his heart" sympathy that most of these slugfests don't have. Kingston really did a great job of using the ropes as a method of support, that pride of having both your feet still planted on the mat, even if it means your butt is resting on the bottom rope. We get a great little moment of strategy with Kingston throwing weaker and weaker shots, Hero smelling blood and ramping up the strikes, so Kingston yanks the ref in the way to momentarily distract Hero, enough to headbutt him in the guy and hit a nasty Saito suplex. That suplex is what leads to the end for Hero, with Kingston landing some big fists, including a nasty backfist to the back of the dome. Great story, great match, these two never disappoint.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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All Time MOTY Head to Head + Wednesday Morning Wargames : ROH: Team ROH v. Team CZW Cage of Death

Team ROH (Samoa Joe/BJ Whitmer/Bryan Danielson/Adam Pearce/Ace Steel/Homicide) vs. Team CZW (Claudio Castagnoli/Chris Hero/Nate Webb/Necro Butcher/Eddie Kingston) ROH Death Before Dishonor IV 7/15/06

ER: This was sooooo good. The very first 90 seconds kind of annoyed me as Claudio/Joe worked a standard rehearsed indy sequence, and then with no warning Joe punted a trash can into Claudio's head and they never looked back for 40 minutes. There was a lot of this that I had totally forgot, and it was stuff that had I been told, really wouldn't have sounded good: "Danielson turns on Joe, ROH gets to use an extra man because I guess we feel bad that one of their men turned, BJ Whitmer is in it..." It has tons of stories happening all at once and could have been a complete mess, but all the bullshit of the match works really great, and a lot of guys have arguable career performances.

Potential career performances include: Chris Hero, Nate Webb, Homicide, Ace Steel, and Adam Pearce. Chris Hero was such a perfect smug jerk, setting up potentially violent moves only to end them with uncomfortable cravates (jumping off the middle rope with two of his men holding someone, setting one up on top of a chair), disappearing when things would get messy, but really the whole match - which had already been violent as hell - kicked into an entirely new gear when Hero got on the mic to start the CZW chant, and really inciting a lot of hate. "It's going to take a lot more than that to take out Chris Fucking Hero!!" is a great thing to scream maniacally at a ROH show, and the shots of he and his invaders ruling the ROH ring as trash gets thrown in is a pretty unique indy wrestling visual. They really did seem like conquering kings in that moment and without Hero I don't know that they get that.

Nate Webb is a total bump freak and he broke out some of his all time craziest stuff here. He and Kingston were the guys who truly felt like outsiders here, and Webb looked like a dirty, unhinged version of clean cut ROH fliers. Webb takes a disgusting Pearce press slam from the ring through a table, hits an absurd coast to coast moonsault mule kick into a trashcan, and he's right there at the end battling with Homicide, taking a horrific cop killa on a bunch of barbed wire. Necro brings all his great Necro attributes to this, never really standing out as the main guy, but always around to get wrapped in wire, take a shot to the ear, literally RUN through thumbtacks barefoot (in an all time great Necro psychology moment), just doing all of the things you would hope he'd do in a match like this. Pearce comes out dressed like a man who belongs in a match like this, and does his big part by brawling and bleeding all over the place, hitting a big piledriver on the floor and that press slam on Spider. Ace Steel had a real superstar performance, really feeling like a "big stage" performer the whole time. The cowbell he brought out was a great prop, but his facials and movement came off big league and he had a grounded performance that the match needed. Homicide enters because of a strange rule and the crowd is going crazy, while he immediately pulls out forks and spikes and a freaking boxcutter, and in that movie the ringside area resembled the orgy of violence in Event Horizon.

There's tons of violence and tons of crazy spots (Claudio's Russian leg sweep off the cage through a table!?), JJ Dillon hams it up extraordinarily at ringside, the crowd is riled up the entire time, everybody bleeds all over the place, and this is just the best wrestling.

PAS: This felt like a super violent version of one of those Pat Patterson produced WWF Attitude brawls. They build so many different story lines in this match, the Danielson and Joe confrontation, the Homicide surprise, the Eddie Kingston v. Chris Hero feud, the beginning of the Homicide v. Cornette fued, and even little things like J.J. Dillion being the master of the coin toss or the Necro thumbtalk run, I have pretty mixed feelings about Gabe as a booker, but if he put this together this was his peak. The ROH team minus Homicide ended up being kind of a scrub squad, but this was pretty much peak Steele, Pearce and Whitmer, I loved Steele coming out with the cowbell and waylaying everyone, Pearce achieved the Arn Anderson he had been shooting for his whole career, and Whitmer took some horrid bumps. Nate Webb was an underground favorite of mine from his IWA-MS days, so it was cool that he got a semi-big stage showcase, and man alive does his kill himself with insane bumps. Hero was such a great prick too, I loved him getting smacked in the head in the middle of his speech, jumping up stomping fools and yelling "It will fucking take more than that to stop me." I did think this went a little long in the Match Beyond section, Homicide's entry was such a huge moment, and I think they should have rid that wave into the finish quicker (also no way should a Wargames end on a pin.) I would have also liked to see Nick Gage or even Zandig in this match, a real CZW original would have made it even hotter. Great match though, one that I remember loving in 2006 and loving again on rewatch.

Verdict:

ER: That NWA Anarchy WarGames is a real revelation, a true classic that deserves praise and a bigger viewing audience. Cage of Death edges it out though. It sustained the fever pitch violence almost twice as long, everybody contributed in big ways, you had tons of storylines and successfully converging (which almost never works in wrestling), and front to back you're left with an all time classic hour of pro wrestling.

PAS: This is a style preference thing the ROH v. CZW match is an slickly produced studio album, and the NWA Anarchy match is more of a gritty live recording. I am a guy who will always prefer the rougher version, so I am sticking with the champ.

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Wednesday Morning War Games: IWA-MS- Team IWA-MS v. Team Fanin v. Team NWA

Team IWA-MS (Ian Rotten/Chris Hero/Axl Rotten/Corporal Robinson/Bull Pain) v. Team NWA (Tank/Eric Priest/Chandler McClure/Sal Thomaselli/Vito Thomaselli) v. Fanin Family (Eddie Kingston/BJ Whitmer/JC Bailey/Mark Wolf/Steve Stone) IWA-MS 7/2/05

This was a three team, two ring War Games with ownership of IWA-MS at stake. While it was a little overstuffed (Team NWA seemed superfluous, and were the first team eliminated), this really shows the value of having great brawlers and letting them brawl. War Games are always going to have section where lots of guys are just wandering around kicking and punching, Corp, Ian, Eddie Kingston, Bull Pain, Tank, these are all time great punchers and kickers. Watching Corporal Robinson hurl those half punch/half forearms is just pleasurable. We also had the Chris Hero v. Eddie Kingston feud weaving through this, which is one of my all time favorite indy feuds, there is a great moment near the end where Hero just unloads with crazed elbows. Steve Stone was my favorite under the radar guy in the match, his brawling looked on the level of the legends, he bled a ton and he took some nasty bumps. I didn't love either finish, Tank seemed like he went down a little early, and having JC Bailey turn on Fanin seems like a weird finish for a face team to win. Still this is a violent bloody brawl which was very entertaining and worth tracking down.

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EVOLVE 76 Live Blog

Wife and baby are asleep, so I figured I would check this out

Jaka v. Peter Kassa

I like Jaka a fair amount, although not enough to enjoy a longish Peter Kassa singles match. Jaka has some nice headbuts and works a grinding style which I enjoy, everything he does has some sting to it. Kassa has some nice athleticism, but his simple stuff looks bad (although that has gotten Okada pretty far). Match falls apart at the end when Kassa tries a second rope moonsault and the ring breaks dumping him on his head. Jaka finishes it quick and we have a delay as they try to fix it. Might be a short live blog.

Chris Dickinson v. Darby Allin

Fun match, this is the Dickinson I really dig, less of a fighting spirit babyface, more like a dipship meathead bully. Allin is a great underdog, he doesn't take as many insane bumps in this match, but does die on some in ring bumps. I especially loved Dickinsons dead lift German suplexes where he would snatch him right from the ground and dead lift. Allin kept avoiding the lawn dart, including countering it into a armdrag, and Allin gets the with with a roll up. Really fun compact match, with both guys performing their roles well.

DUSTIN v. Jason Kincaid

I really enjoyed Kincaid's hillbilly WOS of sport stuff, he wrestles like Checkmake Tony Charles impregnated an Arkansas ring rat during a WCCW tour. Early part of this match was fun with DUSTIN getting aggravated by Kincaids shtick, and say what you will about DUSTIN, he does a punchable douche face. This goes a bit long, although Kincaid has enough fun stuff to keep me engaged. Right guy went over, although it felt like DUSTIN needing to get a bunch of stuff in if he was laying down.

Zach Sabre Jr. v. Ethan Page

This is a grudge match, with ZSJ trying to get revenge on Page for convincing Gabe to put him over Sabre last year. I liked parts of this, as ZSJ torturing Page with submission holds was good fun, I especially liked the finish as ZSJ was DQ'ed for not releasing a triangle choke. Still grudge match means lots of strike exchanges and these are two guys you don't want to see exchange shots with each other.

ACH v. Matt Riddle

I liked this a fair amount, ACH is debuting and this was worked very much like an indy dream match. In many ways I am liking Riddle less as he gets more experience, early in his career he had this unique style, sort of crowbarish, kind of awesomely awkward, as he gets more polished he tends to work in more a indy workrate style, which isn't my thing. Still there was a lot to like here, especially when Riddle broke from modern wrestling convention. There was this point where ACH was running through all of these fancy counters and Riddle just upkicks him in the mouth and knees him in the jaw. I also loved him overwhelming ACH at the end, as a back and forth strike exchange turned into Riddle swamping him and KOing him. I didn't get a huge sense of what ACH brings to the table, but Riddle was well worth watching

Jeff Cobb/Timothy Thatcher v. Fred Yehi/Tracey Williams

This was a bunch of fun. Cobb and Thatcher remind me a lot of the Miracle Violence Connection, a little grinding, a little deliberate, but super powerful and violent. Yehi is one of the most fun guys in the world to watch wrestle, he comes at such odd angles and weird speeds, and I really like watching him counter Thatchers slow down style with bursts of energy. Cobb was great too wandering in and wrecking people with huge throws and big shots. Finish was pretty great with Yehi getting the surprise win over the champ, I really hope we get a big Yehi v. Thatcher title match if Cobb doesn't win tomorrow night.

Chris Hero v. Keith Lee

PAS: About two minutes into this match my stream dies, making that two straight EVOLVE shows I have tried to stream that have conked out during the main event. Totally lame, and it makes me regret the money I spent on this service. Totally bush league. Hopefully they put this up quick and I can watch this match this weekend.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Hero v. Keith Lee

34. Chris Hero v. Keith Lee Beyond Wrestling 12/29

PAS: This was a more athletic version of those Takeshi v. Takeshi matches in early 2000s NOAH. Two big thick neck dudes pounding on each other with total disregard, but with some really nuttily athletic moves thrown in. Hero at one point counters a powerbomb with a snap hurricanrana, and Keith Lee missed a second rope moonsault, both spots were totally jaw dropping from guys this big. Keith Lee is still in the process of putting it together, but he is a crazy athlete, ex-college football player about 340, and has super explosive fast twitch muscle movement. I loved how both guys would get an advantage, get cocky, and get caught. Lots of shit talking being met with nasty right hands and big elbows. Lee was really great at selling headshots, all of that Football experience really allowed him to sell a concussion protocol. Hero was so great in this, he can put together great matches in so many different settings, and was willing to take a big beating to make Lee look great.

ER: Keith Lee is a beast. The way he moves is unreal. He looks like a poorly drawn Rob Leifeld superhero with an inhuman torso. He is 4x4, or Swoll, only with freaky athletic ability. Keith Lee: The Athletic No Limit Soldier wouldn't be a very relevant gimmick today, but man would he be my favorite WCW Saturday Night worker. And Hero is really great at crafting a match around any speed or size. Hero I think could craft a pretty neat match around 4x4, and that guy could barely move. So 4x4 who can do leapfrogs and a 2nd rope moonsault?? Yes please. We start with a bunch of great challenge spots, including Lee hitting Hero flush with a shoulderblock. Hero goes to do one of his own and instead lobs a no look jab at Lee's face...only to find his entire arm lost at sea because Lee saw it coming a mile away. Great spot...But not as great as Hero firing off an elbow only for Lee to catch it with his hand and flip Hero with a killer fireman's carry powerslam. Hero hits a brutal snap piledriver, Lee plants him with a huge powerbomb (earlier Hero had reversed a powerbomb with a slick big man rana), and while Lee has crazy size and impressive speed, Hero is crafty and picks some great spots to too his awesome kicks. I really loved the finishing run of elbows knocking Lee out standing. Phil is right that Lee really knows how to sell concussed, and Hero elbowing Lee in the brain stem to get him in position for the Gotch piledriver was a great finish.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from EVOLVE 59 4/2/16

1. Drew Galloway/Johnny Gargano vs. Drew Gulak/Tracy Williams

ER: This started out more mundane than I was hoping for, but the second half was killer. Williams at this point seems like a guy with some high peak performances, whose floor usually falls somewhere in the bland territory. I did enjoy some of his rolling with Gargano, even if a lot of it looked a little too smooth and floaty. Galloway takes a nice post bump to the floor, but the first half of this really did drag. BUT the first half does set up some neat stuff that gets cashed in during the second half. Reversals, payoffs, longer term stuff. So you can't say the first half was a waste, at all. Gargano's hot tag run was fun, and when he hit the superman spear I was already thinking it seemed like something that shouldn't work. So when Williams caught it late in the match and planted him with a brainbuster, I was a satisfied customer. I also really liked Gulak and Gargano's strike exchange, Gulak especially. It started out with normal open strikes and then Gulak ramped up faster and suddenly he was blocked and going to the body and it looked awesome. Made it seem so much more special than a typical exchange. Gulak and Williams had some fun double teams, especially loved when Gargano was trying to lock the chickenwing onto Gulak, and Gulak made a blind tag and whipped Gargano off him and right into a nasty Williams lariat. Timing was impeccable on it. We get a nice run of well timed "I hit this guy, someone hits me, someone hits him" offense that can come off like something they rehearsed in slo mo in the back, but here came off much more like familiarity with opponents. Probably went too long, but also possible the first half made it seem longer than it really was. Still a quality tag.

2. Chris Hero vs. Fred Yehi

PAS: Really great bully performance by Hero he is totally contemptuous of Yehi making fun of his height, smacking him around really being an asshole. Yehi fights back with his nasty offense including stomping on his instep and ankle. Hero gets more and more frustrated and more and more violent. Hero is just unloading on Yehi landing some disgusting shots to the back of Fred's head. Meanwhile Yehi is doing an awesome job of dying on his shield. Overmatched but game youngster versus vicious veteran is a classic wrestling trope and both guys do it great. Wouldn't think that superman shirt IWA-MS Chris Hero would turn into Tenryu, but he is a great Tenryu.

ER: Phil knows how much I love the overmatched youngster against cranky veteran, so I was pretty amped for this one, and I gotta say it delivered. Dismissive Hero is a wonderful thing and while dismissive Hero never really gets total comeuppance, it's always a treat to see guys try. Yehi has a bunch of great little things to annoy opponents with, stomps to annoying places, strikes you don't expect, and annoyed Hero is fun for the viewer and rarely fun for the opponent. The mat stuff was cool and weirdly unexpected, as Yehi matches tend to be sub 10 and I didn't expect them to run with a bunch of cool reversals to start. But they work several cool things around arms, and my favorite early moment was when Yehi was up on the middle buckle and Hero was antagonizing him, and Yehi jumped off at him to grab a headlock in mid air. It looked like when one housecat is sitting on the back of the couch, and the other housecat is being an asshole and not letting him jump down, so he just wiggles his butt and jumps right down onto that asshole cat. And Hero was being a real asshole bully housecat here. Hero would do some signature offense, but in more aggravating ways, namely when he roughly grabbed his cravate. There was no finesse to it, he just kind of grabbed Yehi's head in his hands and wrestled them into cravate position and kind of yanked him down to the mat. It felt like he really wanted to show Yehi how domineering he was. Loved when Yehi did a Flair roll up the buckles and Hero was way ahead of him and met him with a pump kick, sending Yehi off the apron. They got crossed up during a couple strike exchanges, but it kind of made it look like both guys trying to fake the other out, trying to get the other to take the bait. All the shots to the back of Yehi's head looked pretty gross, and you assumed Yehi didn't have a chance, but both men are so damn good at their roles that they just take you along.

3. Matt Riddle vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

PAS: Very cool clash of mat styles, I really loved the way Riddle would counter out of a wacky Sabre british hold with an armbar or ankle lock, and Sabre would flip out of a choke into a goofy wrist lock. It reminded me a bit of the early UWF matches when some one like Marty Jones would come in and work Maeda or Kido. Both guys are little rougher around the edges then true masters of their style, but I appreciate ambition in mat wrestling, and there was ambition in spades. Some of the stand up was a bit wonky, ZSJ needs to take that crappy looking penalty kick and bury it deep in the ground, and Riddle will still pull some stuff a bit when he should just lay out, still you watch this match for the grappling and that was a blast. Always loved the Twister in MMA, and it is a nifty move to bring into pro-wrestling.

ER: I also liked this, and Phil's "Marty Jones coming to UWF" was an apt comparison. This had plenty of cool escapes and subs which was exactly what I was hoping for. Sabre twists Riddle up a bunch, and does a bunch of neat little things like grabbing the opposite leg on a drop toe hold or all the ways he would try bending Riddle's arm. Riddle grabbing the Muto lock was probably my favorite moment, as Sabre was making faces as if he were actually being choked. It looked painful as hell, and Sabre grabbing Riddle's hand and bending it back to get him to break was worked as more of a desperation escape than normal. Usually the hand bending is more sadistic or show-offy, so I liked it as a last gasp. Riddle's throws were really impressive and Sabre always folds in fun ways when tossed. 10 minutes was the perfect length as we didn't devolve into silly strike exchanges and instead mostly went from mat stuff to throws to finish.

ER: I skimmed or skipped over the rest of the show, cherry picking the stuff that really interested me. And my instincts were pretty good as Yehi/Hero and Riddle/Sabre both landed on our 2016 ONGOING MOTY MASTER LIST, and that's always a good thing.

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Select Matches from EVOLVE 75 12/11/16

1. Jeff Cobb vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Love these two and they worked a real fun 10 minute match, but it never really felt like there were any consequences. It was felt a little too rehearsed and set in stone. Everything in it looked good (although Yehi was too clappy on his dropkicks). The grappling was predictably cool, with Cobb reversing a go behind by grabbing a cravate, and Yehi going for a backpack choke which Cobb escapes by bending Yehi's wrist. There were a couple of really cool moments of Cobb catching a limb to block something, one where he blocked a Yehi forearm, and another late in the match where he blocked an octopus choke by grabbing Yehi's leg before it crossed his throat. Real cool visuals. Both men snapped off some impressive throws (shock!), with Cobb launching him on a pumphandle and Yehi snapping two low angle Germans. Match was quick and to the point and didn't doddle, but again it felt a little more like an exhibition than a dramatic 10 minute match. But I like the shit these two exhibit so NBD.

2. Chris Dickinson/Jaka vs. Darby Allin/Peter Kaasa

ER: A kind of messy but fun tag match. Props to Kaasa for rocking the 1993 Scott Steiner mullet. I don't love his feathery-soft-but-athetically-gifted offense, but I could see him getting better. Allin is a guy I've really started to love, feels like an early 2000s indy guy like Dixie, a dude with good selling and some quirky offense who will absolutely die on bumps. Phil is a big fan of creep mode Dickinson, and I still can't totally get a feel for Jaka but he and Dickinson make sense as a team. This had some cool stuff but also had some clunky "take a move and then plan my bump" kind of delays. Allin's standing-on-opponent senton is sick and I loved the ending of him doing his tope en reversa with Dickinson catching him. With more focus (they kept getting stuck with wanting a spotfest vs. wanting Jaka/Chris working an Andersons cut off the ring match) this could have been more, but as is it was decent.

3. Dick Togo vs. Ethan Page

PAS: Togo has wrestled random Italian crusierweights, DDT comedy scrubs,  and untrained Bolivians, but his greatest challenge might have been to get a match this solid out of the "Inexplicable" Ethan Page. Togo had the crowd behind him, as they seemed to be as irritated with this match being booked as I was. Dick was kind of a fun disrespectful babyface, he no sold one of Page's crappy punches, flipped him off, spit in his face. I did like how both guys did some cool counter wrestling, Togo caught Page's RKO attempt with an RKO of his own, and Ethan kept evading Togo's senton. Pretty entertaining match with Togo looking great. Didn't love the finish with Page hitting his rock bottom and pinning Togo clean, continuing the Ethan Page super push. Did Gabe see Owens with the WWE belt and decide to overpush his own Tubby Canadian with crap facial hair? Is this like when Russo tried to make Booker T the Rock? I did like how the Gatekeeper took the pedigree and senton, it felt like Togo v. Gatekeeper would have been the better match.

ER: "Inexplicable" Ethan Page is the perfect nickname, and would actually make him FAR more interesting as a worker. Just give him a self-aware "overpushed" gimmick. To me it feels more like Heyman pushing Justin Credible. Gabe's even celebrating the 20th anniversary of Credible beating Sasuke twice by bringing in another M-Pro legend to put over his own version. But this was good! Ethan can look fairly unathletic at times but sometimes it benefits the match, like when he sandbagged Togo on a backdrop to the floor, it instead made it look like Togo was really muscling him over, and then Page clunked nastily on the apron and into the railing. Page can throw some decent haymakers, and also some clunkers, and Togo was wise about picking and choosing which punches to treat like a big deal, and I liked the way they kept avoiding each other's finish. Togo hits a crazy delayed slingshot senton and splats Page with a tornado DDT on the floor, and I really liked a couple of Page's slams. Smart layout, still inexplicable why it was booked.

4. Chris Hero vs. DUSTIN

ER: A look into a text conversation between me and Phil:

Phil: Did you finish watching EVOLVE 75?
Eric: Need to watch Riddle match and curious what Hero can do with DUSTIN
Eric: I'm not going to watch the near 40 minute Gulak/Williams match though
Eric: If people were talking it up maybe, but I've seen them work enough good 15 minute matches
Phil: You are going to watch a DUSTIN match, and not a Gulak match
Phil: ?
Eric: Dustin match 11 minutes, Gulak match 36 minutes
Eric: And the match has Hero
Phil: Dustin match has Dustin
Phil: That match is Gulak's EVOLVE swan song, the climax of the Catch Point movement, the passing of the torch
Eric: Oh you watched it?
Phil: Fuck no, it's 36 minutes long

I love Phil, you guys. But yeah, it's true that Dustin was in this match. I don't care how much Dustin tries to look like Buster Posey, he still wrestles like serious Chuck Taylor. The problem with this match was that they worked things on equal terms, as if Dustin's strikes were just as powerful as Hero's. Hero sold the same for Dustin as Dustin sold for Hero. That's silly. We've seen a couple dozen Hero matches this year alone where he beats the shit out of someone who actually returns the stiff strikes. And now I have to believe that Dustin's strikes are hurting him? Dustin's clubbing shots to the back are some of the worst I've seen. I could just never by Hero being damaged by any of the strikes. But there were fun moments, because Hero got to find fun ways to hit Dustin. Hero threw a couple killer right hands, some great kicks, and awesome short knee, that nasty snap piledriver; it's Hero, the strikes will look good. Spot of the match: Hero gets a boot up in the corner and Dustin stops himself from running into it. Dustin laughs and makes a "that's your big plan?" gesture at Hero, and Hero immediately punches him. Match went the right length, just can't buy Dustin as any kind of threat to Hero. The moments that worked were Dustin trying to cheat to win, and really if this had been worked more like Akiyama/Inoue I could have seen myself loving it. Dustin is not Masao Inoue though.

5. Matt Riddle vs. Ricochet

PAS: I was looking forward to this on paper, but it didn't really deliver. This felt like Ricochet dragging Riddle into a Ricochet match, instead of Riddle getting Ricochet to work a Riddle match. There was enough cool stuff in there to make it worth watching, I really liked Riddle catching Ricochet's moonsault in a triangle choke, and the finish was neat. Unfortunately, most of this felt like dosey-do dance wrestling, with Ricochet sort of mailing it in. Disappointing.

ER: Yeah this really wasn't the match I wanted. This was sexy dance fighting. Both guys are good sexy dance fighters, and the way Ricochet strings together some sequences is really impressive, but sexy dance fighting isn't going to be the best use of either man's talents. The moonsault into the triangle was really cool, but that sequence in the middle where they were essentially running in circles taking turns kicking each other in different ways? You could hear the crowd get silent in the middle of it. My least favorite Riddle match :(

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