AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 12/20-12/26

AEW Dark 12/21 (Taped 12/3)

Eddie Kingston vs. Colin Delaney

PAS: Delaney and Cheech have been one of the best tag teams in the world in To Infinity and Beyond for the last several years, and would be perfect regulars on Dark and Elevation at a minimum. I can imagine their young guys like Private Party and Brock Anderson would improve by leaps and bounds if they got a chance to regularly work TIAB, and Delaney would be a great utility player on his own as well. This was a fun short match which let Delaney get in a bit of offense before going down. His springboard stunner is a nifty move and he certainly takes a nice beating from Eddie. The Delaney fan in me would have liked this to go another 2 minutes or so, but this was still solid stuff.

MD: You got the sense Kingston respected what Delaney could do. That bled through in the ringwork itself. I could have used a few more minutes on this but again, hierarchy says probably not and Kingston understands hierarchy as well as anyone on the roster, even as he peppers in opportunities around it. There are too many cutters in AEW but there's probably room for Delaney's springboard stunner. It's always fun when Kingston just starts to unload with the suplexes and I liked the little wrinkle on the finish. This ended up a bit like a Tenryu vs Teranishi type match. Tenryu (or in this case Kingston) was going to give him everything he deserved based on who he was, but not a lick more than he should have based on his role in life and on the card.

AEW Dynamite 12/22

Darby Allin/CM Punk/Sting vs. The Pinnacle (Dax Hardwood/Cash Wheeler/MJF) 

ER: This was a long match paced out over three different hot tags for our heroes. It sometimes felt a bit long, and not every sequence worked, so it basically came down to a series of whose hot tags worked and whose heat segments were the best. Darby always has the best of both, and Sting continues to do the best work of his last 20 years on hot tags, while the Punk stretches all felt like they underdelivered. Darby can make anything come alive, so while the focus for awhile was on MJF running from Punk (even going so far as getting Punk to blow himself up chasing up and down the concourse stairs of the Greensboro Coliseum), Darby is doing small things like aiming for Cash's eye socket with a back elbow and wrenching him around by the neck on snapmares and cravats, but then takes the Punk/MJF chase up a huge notch. Darby - as he does - hits one of the hardest topes possible into The Pinnacle while they're starting to approach a heaving abdomen Punk. Darby's topes are almost always the best reason to rewind a wrestling show, and this one looked like a helmetless tackle. He twisted his body at the moment of impact and it made him crash perfectly through all three of them. 

Sting has been so fun in ring, and I loved how he took fight to Cash as well. That legsweep kick to set up the Scorpion Deathlock is a cool thing I don't remember 1998 Sting doing, and his tug of war with MJF avoiding Punk was paid off nicely with a stiff short arm clothesline. Sting really seemed like he had it out for Cash here, boxing his ears and raking his back, then bringing him into the ring with a hard landing vertical suplex. Sting somehow throws a vertical suplex like a 30 year old, honestly a crazy spot for a 62 year old to be doing (and this was before he did something much crazier). Darby making his transitions back to opponents' control as entertaining as his own time on offense is something Darby does best, getting stuck in enemy territory and thrown recklessly by Cash hard and fast over the top rope (bouncing off the edge of the apron on his way down) and FTR shine when they're hitting combos on him. I thought things dipped a bit with Sting's ring time going on a bit too long and Punk's long portion not fully clicking, but an awesome FTR power plex on Punk and an unhinged Darby crossbody that took him and Cash to the floor kept this constantly threatening to be spectacle. Sting and MJF had a couple of chippy moments (loved how Sting took a bulldog to break a Scorpion Deathlock) but things peak incredibly when Sting hits an insane hiptoss that throws MJF headfirst to the floor into FTR, the guardrail, and the floor, and then unleashes one of the oldest man planchas to the floor. Insane. The match might not have needed the full 24 minutes, but they still kept managing to keep upping the ante and making this a big main event. 

MD: As celebratory attraction matches go, this was up there. It felt like bringing Andre or Dusty in for Xmas to team with Watts and JYD, but in some ways, it was even more effective than that because it furthered storylines better and paid off other things. One advantage of the AEW style of not doing a lot of rematches is that the Punk interaction with Darby and Sting still feels fresh and unresolved. They had one match. Punk won it. Maybe a year from now, Darby beats Punk. Maybe not. But here they could team and all all honor one another and feel like a unit with a connection because of that one prior match. The Pinnacle doesn't always seem the most unified stable, but here it all came together with the matching yellow trunks and MJF really taking the fair weather camaraderie to extremes, celebrating FTR at every opportunity. He took everything to extremes, coming in off of the big win against Dante and the big workrate performance against Darby, and felt the freedom to go full chickenshit heel, teasing a lock up with Punk before tagging out, hitting Sting before immediately begging off, letting Punk chase him around the arena, and later on doing things like teasing a punch on a held Sting only to tweak his face instead. Like everything else in the match, it paid off, though not with Punk getting his hands on him, which will come later, but instead with Darby's dive from off camera or Sting lawn darting him out of the ring.

The structure of this worked pretty well. They had all of the feeling out process (with a new match up in FTR vs Punk, which played out both early and late) and antics, with the actual shine on Cash during the first commercial break, taken nice and slow with things like Punk's ten punch in the corner and cutting off the ring. When they came back that transitioned to heat on Darby after he got taken out with the top rope, the first hot tag to Sting and then the second heat on him during the second commercial break. Then they went into the big comeback, first with Punk vs FTR (including the Powerplex which Excalibur was really happy to call) and then with the MJF lawn dart and Sting dive, before Dax took the bullet for MJF and ate everyone's finish.

Everyone got their moments, even if MJF's were mostly underhanded and they missed Darby taking him out through the timekeeper's table. Punk seemed a little bit off with his timing and execution now and again, more so than in a lot of recent matches I've seen of his; maybe half a step behind at times and it added up, just not enough to really detract from the match as there was so much else going on. In general, both sides worked together well. I loved all the bodyslams. It's like Punk's infected everyone around him with them, but they were all used in important ways, setting up BOTH hot tags for instance. For something that is organic and accidental, it's striking to me how much FTR are like Les Blousons Noirs, with Cash as dangerous Gessat and Dax as Manneveau. Dax stooged all over the place in this one and Cash was pretty slick, including one little moment where he won a wristlock by slipping a knee in that was right out of 60s French Catch. So good big moments. Good little moments. Nice commercial management. Solid structure, though maybe it went a half segment too long. The good guys win. The fans are sent home happy (well, they would be if not for the Rampage taping that followed). And the bad guy gets to escape and to live another day and bluster on the way out. Nice piece of business that knew exactly what it was trying to accomplish and pretty much nailed it.

PAS: I think this would have been a strong MOTY level match at 15 or so, but felt a little draggy at 23. Still excellent, big star, super entertaining stuff. The Greensboro Coliseum saw a ton of these kind of matches over the years, whether it was Dusty, Steamboat and Dick Slater vs. Tully, Black Bart and Ron Bass 12/29/84, Dusty and the Rock and Rolls vs. Arn, Tully and Flair (4/20/86) or even Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, Eddie Edwards, El Generico vs. Roderick Strong, The Briscoes and Michael Elgin (12/4/11) (actually that match went an hour and twenty minutes?!? What the fuck was going on in 2011 ROH?). This delivered all of the big beats of a great big star six man main event, and even some shit like the Sting plancha which we had no reason to expect. MJF was fun as Jimmy Hart (which is actually a pretty good role for him), and FTR are way better in this kind of cut the ring off stuff than when they try to do PWG shit with the Young Bucks or the Lucha Bros. Also, what a treasure this AEW Sting run has been. I have loved every single second of it, and Sting in tag matches with workhorse partners seems like it could go on forever. 

Read more!

SUP Swing of the Axe 10/9/20

25. To Infinity and Beyond vs. Violence is Forever

PAS: This was totally killer, TIAB ramped up the violence to meet the potatoes that Ku and Garrini were throwing. Delaney was skin singeing in a chop battle with Ku and Cheech landed some nasty back elbows to Garrini's jaw and the back of his head. Infinity are the best team at the world at cutting off the ring and other old school tricks and I loved how they kept cutting off VIF''s double teams by pulling them out of the ring. They also did a great job of working over Dom leading to a wild Ku hot tag. Great traditional tag structure with moments of gross violence mixed in. Infinity crunched Garrini's neck with a Kudo Driver combo, and VIF obliterated Colin with a Total Elimination. They kept a crazy pace, but nothing felt overdone. Really good stuff, would love to see this be a series. 

ER: When this started out I thought it was going to be one of those inside joke matches, where we were going to get some gags based on something that happened the night before at whatever hotel conference room everyone was hanging out at. And while there is some comedy and Delaney wears a Buzz Lightyear backpack for a bit, once this starts with Cheech rolling with Garrini, Garrini dragging him down into an ankle lock and then each rolling through a series of cool wrenched in armbars, I knew we were running. I love the way To Infinity lays these matches out, and as long as opponents match the pace then the formula is lights out. Their best matches are filled with quick tags and quick set-up, and this had all sorts of complicated double teams and timing spots that never seem to lag or hitch with To Infinity. 

Ku seems like a guy who likes working quick and is a perfect opponent, as he's always running hard into people and sending his legs even harder. He had a sliding knee on the apron that looked an hair away from a broken jaw, and I like that he doesn't always go for style on strikes. He misses some but they always look like they're thrown to land. He takes offense well, will splat head first on a rope hang DDT, and had a couple of late saves that saved Garrini. The double team vertebreaker was disgusting, and it's a frequent reminder of how talented Dom is, while also knowing there will almost always be something this nuts taken in a Dom match. There were a few misses here, didn't love Ku's standing chops to hold of Infinity, and the big head kick as part of the finish looked like it completely whiffed (it's always unfortunate when the finish doesn't look nearly as cool as the rest of the match) but when you go this hard you're going to miss a couple things. 

29. AJ Gray vs. Nolan Edward

PAS: I am fully aboard Gray just becoming Black Stan Hansen (which feels like a secondary nickname for a Griselda crew hanger on, Daringer should totally start calling himself Black Stan Hansen in drops). The story of this match was plucky youngster Nolan Edward proving himself against a veteran, and Gray delivered the asswhipping that match structure needs. He jumps Edwards at the bell and just plasters him with reckless forearms and punishing chops. There was no carefully timed shots in between stares, just blows thrown with no real concern for where they land. Edwards fired back with some stiff shots too, just to let you know he was there, and got a couple of well timed kick outs, but Gray was a Mack Truck and Edwards was the possum who crawled onto the road. 

ER: You're going to do an under 5 minute match, this is how you do it. This is the kind of AJ Gray match that people will talk about when they talk about Gray becoming their favorite wrestler. He doesn't give Nolan Edward time to breathe for the first 2 minutes, fast walking from the back straight into the beginning of his ass kicking. He's throwing full arm shots, just pummeling Edward's body, hard forearms to the jaw, and I swear at one point picks Edward up just to send a forearm straight into his teeth. Edward weathered the storm and managed to send Gray off balance with a high dropkick, then flew into him as hard as he could on a tope (and what a great tope catch by Gray). Edward's missile dropkick believably sends Gray flying across the ring into the corner, and Edward hits a wild spinning heel kick that almost sends him flying to the floor in an unprotected tope con hilo. If that had happened, Edward may have delivered a meaner spinning heel kick to his own head than the one Gray almost decapitated him with earlier. When Gray finally catches him it is a no more fucking around situation, as he lays Edward out with three increasingly brutal clotheslines. That finishing shot has to have the claim for lariat of the year. Nolan Edward came out of this looking like a man for withstanding way more of a beating than most of us could imagine, and Gray came out of this looking like a superstar. 

Allie Kat vs. Davienne

PAS: US Indy women's wrestling is something I am a real low voter on, however I would much rather watch B- Aja Kong vs. Bull Nakano matches then B- Stardom matches, and that is what we got here. Two thick girls beating on each other until one of them drops. Allie Kat didn't do any of her cringey "I am a human cat" spots, and instead just threw forearms, jabs and sentons. Davienne knows how to use her size well and threw herself into everything. Didn't wear out it's welcome, kept it moving and had some oomph, this gets a thumbs up for me. 

ER: This was good enough for me, and a thing I really like about Allie Cat is her willingness to take a shot. Unfamiliar with Davienne, but liked her willingness to also hang in and let Allie's limbs and body land on her face. I did not like the moments of unnatural set up, like Davienne missing hooks by 3 feet just to set up Allie jabs. There's just got to be a way to make those look like they were actual misses. But there are a lot of hard landings and snug pinfall attempts, and I liked how Davienne really scooped Cat's legs every time she tried to cover. Allie Cat's best offense is when she just runs in and flings herself at her opponent, and she really crushes Davienne in the corner with a hip attack and cannonball. My favorite things in the match were when they twisted a sequence just slightly, like when I thought they were going to do a played out "I hit you in the corner and then you chase me to the other corner" spot, and Allie just drops to all fours and sends Davienne faceplanting over her. Things like Allie sliding on her knees face first into the buckles was cool, and I think plenty here looked cool. 

34. Daniel Makabe vs. Lee Moriarty

PAS: Reversal heavy matches are normally not my thing, but I have to give a lot of credit to all of the cool shit both guys did in this match. Makabe especially looked awesome, although I wish there had been a beat or two more in between spots and reversals. Makabe hits this incredibly awesome La Magistral cradle into a rear naked choke, but Moriarty is on to the reversal before it even gets locked fully in. Give me a beat, let me soak in that move a bit before you move on. The finish was a much better example of what works better: Moriarty puts the Makabe lock on Makabe, and we watch Makabe move Moriarty's legs into position before spinning him into a sort of a reverse Cattle Mutilation for the pin.  There were also some cool big impact moves, Makabe's top rope rana looked moments away from killing both guys )which made it great), and there was a couple of nasty suplexes too. This is Makabe's only pandemic match, and he made it count. 

ER: I thought this was great, while also thinking that Moriarty was kind of playing the Angle to Makabe's Eddy. Moriarty is very smooth and has some slick maneuverings, but there were several things I wish he let breathe. What's perhaps most impressive is that while a lot of things were moved into and out of very smoothly, this never had a big cooperative feel to it, and it's hard to get to this level of smooth without feeling and looking entirely mapped out. I think there were a couple times where Moriarty kind of left Makabe hanging on a couple spots, requiring him to sell in place while Lee set up the next bit of offense, but mostly this was seamless. And while I also wish there were a couple beats and I was allowed more time to ruminate on certain things, I was at all times impressed by the pace. This whole show has felt like a real "pace" show, and these two filled the most time of anyone, and it's not easy to make an 18 minute match feel like a 9 minute blur. 

The match felt like one cool reversal after another, far too many (and far too pointless) to list here, but they all looked great and only a couple times did it look like Makabe was intentionally leaving a limb out for Moriarty (there were also clearly Makabe playing possum sells, so they all easily could be chalked up to that). Moriarty targeted Makabe's left arm, and I like how Makabe had this desire to land his big right hand, and the more it appeared Moriarty had scouted it the more it made Makabe want to land it. Makabe's roll through reversals are one of my absolute favorite things in wrestling, the way he springs his legs back over his head to wind up in a position nobody was expecting to grab a limb or snag a pinfall that nobody was expecting, it's insane to me he manages to do it around his opponent. It never once feels like his opponent is adjusting their momentum or trajectory just to make his slick rolling reversal work, and that's wild to me. He has a great sense of where he needs to be to make a spot or submission work, and I dig the way he gets to that spot. Reversing direction on a magistral to drop into a rear naked choke would be a contender for spot of the year, and I hate that Moriarty basically slipped right out of it into something new. There's value to adding rope struggle or positional struggle to things, but this felt like the most interesting match that could happen while showing both guys almost exclusively neutralizing each other.

Makabe finally catches the Big Unit punch (if we're naming it after guys who have had at least one good season as a Mariner, I think that punch should now be called the Doug Fister) while Moriarty was up top, and eventually hit a crazy LATE rotation rana that I was not expecting at all. The trap leg bridged suplex looked outstanding, and I dug how commentary pointed out how high end Makabe's bridge work is. It's an important thing to note, as he has several different important spots where the leverage is made all the more painful with his bridging. Moriarty was eel slick getting into and out of everything, and that really did make me appreciate the home stretch where Makabe kept getting better and better at trapping him, before finally trapping him. 

O'Shay Edwards vs. Jake Something

PAS: I like that indy wrestling has gotten more legit big dudes lately who wrestle like big dudes and just hit each other. This wasn't a Lee vs. Dijak rana fest, this was all forearms and clotheslines and big slams. I especially liked the early section where Something taunted Edwards into going for a running shoulderblock, and as he turned his back cracked him in the back of the neck with a forearm. I do wish Edwards was like 15% stiffer for what he is trying to achieve. On this card you have guys like Gray, Ku, Garrini and Manders and Henry absolutely obliterating people with strikes and there are some forearms in this match that look pulled. Structure was cool, but I wanted it cranked up a bit.

ER: I thought this was cool, and keeping with the theme of the night of people running into each other as hard as possible. Jake Something really laid into O'Shay with everything he threw, including three different brutal shots to the back of the head. He nailed him once early in the match after a missed shoulderblock, then late in the match ducked a clothesline to nail his own to the back of Edwards' neck, then ran off the ropes to lay him out with the hardest lariat of the match to that same spot on the back of O'Shay's neck. I'm pretty tired of standing elbow exchanges, but loved how much of their body they were putting into these shots. You could see both of them following all the way through with their weight, and they looked like the kind of shots that at best would break my jaw and send me flying 8 feet backward. They didn't linger on them (always weird to me when people put long strike exchange spots in their matches, effectively making none of their strikes mean anything) and moved quickly into standing lariats, and there haven't been many times in pro wrestling this year where full arms landed hard on chests. 

We quickly went into a home stretch of big moves, like that diving lariat of Something's I mentioned, a Thesz press/Vader bear attack from Something, or O'Shay hitting a sick over the shoulder piledriver, and we wrapped up with another economical ass kicking. Although, at this point it's obvious that this match would have stood out so much more on a show that had a lot more variety. Given the choice, I'd rather see a show like this with a ton of matches filled with stiff beatings - a style I love - rather than a few bad cooperative flipper matches leading to a match like this. But having 6 different "people laying in the shots" matches is going to mean some excellent things blend into the background. 

52. Anthony Henry vs. Jaden Newman

PAS: This was our second young guy gets beaten by a veteran match, and Henry lays in an appropriate beating. I liked the early section with Newman using his speed to frustrate and taunt Henry. When Henry takes over he really laces into the kid, including some whip kicks to the torso which were Akitoshi Saito level nasty. Newman got a couple of nice comebacks before being put away with an absolutely vicious looking trapped arm dragon sleeper, one of the cooler new submissions I can remember seeing. 

ER: This one really didn't land as with me as some of the other big bangers, even though I liked just about every single thing Henry did. This is another example of a match that probably would have stood out on a bunch of other shows, but not really on this one. I've been to plenty of indy shows in my life where this match would have easily been the best on the card, but it has some stiff competition just 90 minutes into this show. I also think that you can't really go 12 minutes doing an underdog match on the same show where you had an amazing underdog match that didn't even go 5 minutes, and I didn't really think some of Newman's comeback offense fit into what they were going for. 

Henry can be really nasty and that's where this match was at its best, and you knock half the time off the match I think you end up with something far more memorable. The opening exchanges were really good, as Newman stayed a half step ahead of Henry while everyone knew it would last, leading to Henry dishing some good punishment. Henry gets a ton of force on his kicks, and at one point is just standing and walking on Newman's face in the corner, later he somehow pulls off a double dragon screw without making it look the least bit implausible. Henry is great at taking Newman's offense, landing on the top of his head to sell a rolling cravat snapmare, has no problem banging his chin on the mat taking an F5. The finish run was really cool, loved how Henry anticipated Newman lunging at him from behind and ducked, Newman going sprawling, and Henry going after his arm to go after his leg to trap both arm and leg while throwing a capture German. The ending of match trap arm dragon sleeper was sick, made me need to see Makabe vs. Henry in a battle of that dragon sleeper and Makabe's magistral RNC. I think I'm actually really liking this match a lot more, the more I think about it. 

Brett Ison vs. Erick Stevens

PAS: This didn't do a ton for me. I think this card really needed another tag or trios match, outside of Makabe vs. Moriarty every match on this card was some variation of a stiff slugfest. This was worked very similar to the rest of the card, but was the least of those matches. I have the same issues with Ison I have with O'Shay except even more, they announcers kept selling those forearms as monster shots, when we just watched Henry in the previous match. This wasn't an actively bad match, but I can't recommend it. 

ER: This was pretty easily the weakest match on the card, not just because of the same-y feel it had, but there seemed to be no real strong rhyme or reason to kickout vs. power up, and Ison's offense seemed to get weaker as the match went on (and the match was only 6 minutes). I liked Stevens trying to tie Ison up with subs, and some of the early stuff looked really good. That Ison face wash is a killer, even though it always looks like he half asses the lead up back elbow to focus on the face wash. He leans a bit far out of the double underhook piledriver, and the arm unroll backfist did not work as a finisher for me, especially on a show that's been filled with a couple dozen gnarlier strikes. Stevens came off much more impressive, and either Ison comes off smaller than he really is or Stevens works bigger than he really is, because Stevens worked this as if he was Ison's strength equal and pulled it off. This also would have played better on a different show, but the flaws here were more real. 

48. Manders vs. AC Mack

PAS: This was a really fun main event, with Mack playing the role of the sneaky heel champ faced with a powerhouse babyface. Manders hits a ton of big time offense, big lariat, Iowa Stampede, Doctor Bomb, second rope powerslam. Mack found a bunch of different ways to weasel his way out of loss, and give a big Un Foul to get the pin after escaping Manders. I would have rather seen Mack hit the Mack 10 after the low blow, as it felt like one low blow was a little weak to put down Manders, but this was classic Flair stuff, Nikita does everything but win the title, and you sell the ticket for the rematch. 

ER: Manders came off of this one like an out and out badass, maybe the guy I would least want to be hit by, on a card populated by nothing but people who I wouldn't want to be hit by. Manders got that heavy low end that grounds all his big strikes, makes every charge explode. Really the only problem with the match was I don't think a lot of Mack's stuff looked like it should fell Manders. There were two different kicks that were supposed to be big exclamation points to completely stop the beast, but both were grazing shots at best, coming right after Manders did nothing but waste Mack. It kind of felt like a babyface Shawn Michaels or Macho Man performance during some portions, the kind where they would eat a tough beating and then the heel would have to sell a Michaels bodyslam while he took forever to climb to the top rope. It threw the dynamic off when the babyface was just destroying Mack and half of Mack's entries into the match looked like shots that shouldn't have been sold. 

Manders has some of my favorite offense in modern wrestling, those running shoulderblocks and avalanches are full bore, his lariats and chops hit super hard (love how he throws missed clotheslines with the same ferocity), got a great powerslam, great Iowa Stampede, great Doctor Bomb, really I'm not sure he has any offense I even remotely dislike. He even makes things that could look silly - like his 3 point stance running chop - look devastating. I've seen several people try to pull off the running chop, and it never works. It goes against your bodies own momentum, you have to throw across yourself while also running, just doesn't work. And here Manders makes everyone else who's ever tried it look like a real dummy. Mack did have some great stuff, so it wasn't completely one sided. His Liger bomb out of the corner was a great surprise, he throws a couple of punches throughout the match that appear to target Manders' ear, neck, and jaw, and he hits a yakuza kick that really mashes the sole of his boot into Manders' teeth. I also wasn't a fan of the finish, even though I LOVED Mack grapevining the bottom rope to prevent the kickout. It made me want to see Manders wreck Mack for the title. 

Which, well, considering AJ Gray comes out after the match, eats a kick to the balls and just wastes Mack with a lariat for the title anyway, I am not sure when we're actually going to get that title match. Curious to see how they book the Bonestorm title going forward, but AJ Gray's lariat going up against Manders' um...everything? Also, Gray/Manders is a match that's happened a few times, and I need to seek those matches out pronto. 

ER: There are still some Collective shows I need to see, but it's going to be tough to beat this show. It's not often the weakest match on your show still stands out as a fun match, and this show landed a ton of matches on our 2020 Ongoing MOTY List. This made me want to see more of just about every single person on the card, and there aren't many better ways to leave a show than that. 

Read more!

Matches from Beyond Wrestling 9/20/20

To Infinity and Beyond vs. Mike Verna/Rex Lawless

PAS: Verna and Lawless are two jacked up Jersey looking guys, with fun power offense. TIAB are one of the best tag teams in the world, although this was much more of a move, move, move match then the traditional tag structure they excel at. The moves were pretty fun, although not hit perfectly. Verna gets one guy in a powerslam position and the other in a powerbomb position and Lawless Hart Attacks the guy in the powerbomb position. TIAB also chain stuff together really well and make SAT double teams look plausible. There was some timing issues which kept this from a real high level, but Cheech and Delaney are always worth watching.

ER: To Infinity are my favorite tag team going, and I have a feeling this would have been a real mess without them in there. Lawless is like a green Brody King and Verna is a guy working a Brian Cage power gimmick while being roughly the same size as Chris Candido. Almost all of his power spots come off terribly, a power guy who relies on his opponent to make him look powerful. He did a slingshot suplex spot (and it's a spot he does regularly) where he walked Cheech around each side of the ring and bounced him off the top rope, only he was just walking Cheech close enough for Cheech to lower his own legs to touch the ropes. To do a slingshot suplex you have to be able to lower your opponent on your own power, and Verna's whole thing is basically making other guys provide the illusion of power. This doesn't really have the build or nuance of the best Infinity tags, had more the feeling of "guys doing things" which isn't what makes Infinity matches great. They're good at setting up timing spots, but the timing has to at least somewhat be there from the other team, and here it was not. 

9. Matt Makowski vs. Chris Dickinson

PAS: About the most fun I have had watching pandemic era wrestling. Feels very much in the spirit of the BattlArts and FUTEN I have been binging lately, clearly pro-wrestling with rope running and pinfalls, but shot through with shoot holds and stiff violence. Dickinson is such a horse, everything he does has a thud and an oomph to it, meanwhile Makowski matches him shot for shot and throws in some really inventive shoot innovations. They start out with some tough simple grappling, hard takedowns and escapes, mixed in with thudding kicks and elbows, moving into some big submission near falls, and really great moves. Makowski does a cutthroat torture rack spin into a cross armbreaker which is indescribably cool, and Dickinson counters into a deadlift spinning German from the ground which is Tamon Hondaish in its beauty and force, one of the niftiest two move exchanges I can remember seeing. I also loved the later battle out of the cross armbreaker, where Dickinson does one of the coolest Hughes lift counters I can remember. I want to see this run back again, and want to see both of these guys against nearly anyone.

ER: I've watched plenty of pandemic wrestling that I loved, but this stood out as unique among the stuff I loved. Makowski brings Z-1 shoot gaijin feel to these kinds of matches, and Dickinson is the kind of pro who is great enough at shoot elements that he can take a guy like that and do something special. Not everything hits clean, but this isn't the kind of match where clean matters as much. The grappling is strong and comes off like both men are fighting for dominant position at all times, focusing on the actual struggle rather than pulling off a cool reversal. But there are cool reversals! Once they start bringing hard kicks and elbows, I completely wasn't expecting Makowski to catch a Dickinson kick and spin counter to a Judas elbow, and I love how Makowski couldn't capitalize right away and throws his own kick, only for Dickinson to rearrange his patella placement with a dragon screw. Makowski was going after Dickinson's arm and Dickinson managed to tie up Makowski's way in cool ways, and both sent the other scrambling for the ropes in meaningful ways. It took a little effort to prep, but Makowski lifting Dickinson into a fireman's carry and violently unrolling him into an armbar is an incredibly cool move that somebody incredibly less cool will probably steal, but Dickinson had a bunch of less flashy but no less nasty tricks. I loved Dickinson locking in a trailer hitch and then roughly rolling Makowski over with it, and the fights out of barred legs were all nasty. Makowski hasn't been at this very long, but has a cool tool bag to pull from, and Dickinson is someone who will gamely hang in and throw leather with that kind of guy. It's no wonder this came off as awesome as it did. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2020 Ongoing MOTY List: To Infinity and Beyond vs. Bear Country

19. To Infinity and Beyond vs. Bear Country ESW 2/22/20

PAS: TIAB is my favorite heel tag team in the world, and it was fun to watch them work babyface again. Most of this match was solid tag stuff, brawl on the outside, working over of Colin Delaney, fun hot tag to Cheech, but they really kicked into gear with the finish run. I am a bit jaded on near fall tag finishing runs, but this one really had some bangers. Bear Country is still a bit iffy on little things, but they know how to do impressive big moves. There is an awesome spot where one Bear Country guy backpacks the other, and do a double cannonball just smushing Cheech. TIAB are so good at stringing things together, and they really build to a hot finish. Bear County's finisher has Boulder put Bronson on his shoulders, and then throw him on a prone opponent; the first time they try it Cheech moves out of the way, the second time Delaney hits a doomsday device, with Bronson taking a nastier bump then the one that broke Henry Godwinn's neck. That pretty much put it over the edge to MOTY list level to me.

ER: Yeah To Infinity is probably my favorite regular tag team in the world (now that Jollyville have been on hiatus), and I agree that it's fun seeing them back working babyface (though I also would have liked to see the dynamic in reverse, because they would have been incredible sniveling heels against the 600+ pound Bear Country). Bear Country are a team that should eventually get good if they keep getting ring time, as they have a lot of cool ideas but aren't very good at doing things like subtly getting into position for offense. Luckily, To Infinity are really good at things like that. I liked Delaney eating a long beating from BC, really made me excited for their eventual comeback (Cheech finally just leaping onto Bronson with a choke turned into a triangle was a smart way to stop getting squished), and the comeback to the finish was when this really got good. We got a couple of big nearfalls, my favorite being this brutal piledriver/powerslam by Boulder than slammed Delaney while smashing Cheech between Delaney and Boulder, and I was pretty shocked when Cheech kicked out of that tandem cannonball (really something that looks that much like a human wrecking ball needs to be protected, couldn't believe they didn't have Delaney break up the pin instead of Cheech kicking out). We got a couple cool uses of dives, as Delaney does a wild plancha leaping up to the top rope to take out Bronson, and later Cheech flies through with a tope on Bronson to leave Delaney free for the pin. The finish run had one of those great stretches where Cheech and Delaney hit shot after shot, in a similar pattern as other matches, but always with a couple things turned and twisted around, with the best one here being a Cheech facewash to Bronson that ended in a dropkick through the ropes to Boulder. The Doomsday Device was one of the crazier and near fatal spots of the year, Bronson dropped STRAIGHT off Boulder's shoulders on to his head, and I can't believe they continued to go through with the finish. Still, pretty impressed how Infinity clearly went as easy as possible on him while making it look as good as possible.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Monday AIW: Matches from AIW Bobblehead Night 9/20/19

ER: Phil wrote this show up several months ago, so I figured I would swoop in and watch the matches I wanted to watch from it, and add any worthy matches to our 2019 MOTY List!


Bitcoin Boys (Mikey Montgomery/Eric Taylor) vs. Aeroform (Louis Lyndon/Flip Kendrick) vs. The Production (Danhausen/Derek Director) vs. 40 Acres (AJ Gray/Tre Lamar)

PAS: AIW four team scrambles are maybe my favorite thing in current wrestling. This match was missing some of the regular standouts (WHERE ARE THE FUCK-ITS?!?!), but was still a blast. This match was really high flyer heavy and we got some really nifty dives by the Bitcoin Boys, Aeroform and Tre Lamar. There was also some nasty double teams, including a spot where Derek Director takes Tre Lamar on his back and smushes a Bitcoin Boy with a cannonball in the corner. The Bitcoin Boys had some moments of questionable offense, but took huge uncalled for beatings in this match, and that is always fun to watch. I didn't love the finish, and this wasn't at the level of the best AIW 4 way tags, but that is a super high bar to clear.

ER: This one didn't hit me the same as the best AIW multi man tags, but as Phil mentioned they have established a high bar for these types of matches. I think the only real dips in action centered around Danhausen working as Danhausen, and everyone kind of needing to hit pause while he Danhausens. I've really been digging the Bitcoin Boyz on these shows, they're real brats who have no problem leaning into enziguiris and getting tossed around, and I love how they'll also cheapshot and jump Aeroform and continually write checks they can't cash. The dives were fun, with Aeroform hitting stereo Asai moonsaults to the floor and Eric Taylor hitting a tope con giro through Mikey's legs. AJ Gray was wrecking people left and right, loved his big lariat. Derek Director was a big standout for me, and the backpack cannonball is a fantastic move. The saves kept things moving nicely, and I was left wanting more (in good ways and bad ways!) after a surprise Bitcoin roll up. I liked this and these AIW matches always scratch an itch, sometimes the scratch is more satisfying and lasting.


41. Philly Marino Experience (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: Another absolute banger from these two teams, I can't remember the last time a tag rivalry has been this consistently excellent (maybe Usos vs. New Day although that got worn out after a while.) The storytelling of this match was a bit different, your previous matches have been all about PME trying to climb the mountain and unseat the champs, here they have knocked TIAB off that mountain and are trying to keep them down. Cheech and Colin are a bit less sure of themselves, a little more desperate and PME are on a roll. Philly takes a huge backdrop onto the ramp and sells a bad back for the finishing run really well, that little bit of tentativeness costs him a couple of times. We get good heat sections on both PMErs and a cool hot run, with Infinity trying all of their dirty tricks. I loved the couple of big near falls after the hot tag, and the super Sunset Dreams is a great escalation finish.  I also appreciate how both team work towards real heel and face reactions, there is no "Fight Forever" or "Both These Guys" chants in their matches, just beloved babyfaces fighting against dastardly heels.

ER: This was great, and I too appreciate the different structures that their tag matches have taken on. I never feel like I'm watching the same things done somewhat differently, as they really feel like they try to bring a different approach to each match. I like how they've matched up (at least) half a dozen times and don't necessarily do callbacks to prior matches, but their motivations change match to match. That's a fun, sustainable way to have a bunch of matches with the same guys and have it still feel fresh. It also helps when both teams are really great, which is what this is. These teams know each other and that history is implied throughout. Marino had a great undersized babyface performance here, loved that moment where Cheech is blocking him from breaking up a pin, so Marino just flies in with a springboard blockbuster, sacrificing his body to send everyone into a dogpile; later he punts Cheech from the apron, get his second attempt caught by Delaney, handsprings off the apron and superkicks Cheech past Delaney's ear, and then gets lit by a Delaney roaring elbow. There are always so many moving parts to these matches, and they're always new, never revealing where they're going until we get there. I really liked Philly's back selling, from taking a gnarly hip toss from the ring to the entrance ramp. Phil was right, he's not out here hamming it up, but it did slow him down and did cost him; rubbing out his hip while getting Irish whipped felt like he took something great out of Eddie Kingston's notebook. I love the efficiency of these tags, as we don't ever get bogged down in shock faced kickouts and chant milking. Here, when PME unexpectedly kicked out of a potential finish, Delaney just sat on the mat shaking his head laughing, like "These guys are gonna make me hurt them" before getting right back to just that. Marino and Delaney both take great bumps off DDTs, and I loved the early fun of "cutting Marino off, then cutting off Philly's cut off, oh and now Delaney is gonna hit a quick tope on Marino to cut him off again." These teams are just great at telling a new story in several interesting ways.


103. Tom Lawlor vs. KTB

PAS: This was good stuff, one of the better Lawlor title defense for sure. KTB brings this fun sprint intensity to all of his matches, and these guys go right at each other reckless from the start. They wing punches and chops and don't pause to stare and make faces at each other. KTB has really fun power spots, including just powering Lawlor over the top rope when Lawlor was stomping on his chest, and Lawlor does some cool MMA counters, like catching KTB mid spear in a guillotine choke, and snatching him out of the air into triangle chokes. Never lets up and ends cool and clean. Really a house show title match, and the post match Bishop angle sets up the next big title defense perfectly.

ER: This went a little long for me, but it's the first time they've met up in a singles and it's a big main event title match, and I dug how they had a straight match without weapons. Now a straight match for these two still means some bodies were going to crash hard, but an AIW main event without weapons or plunder feels novel. AIW guys are really good at working and appealing to the crowd in ways that don't detract from the match, as Phil points out you don't need to make silly faces and jackoff hand gestures to get people excited about two guys exchanging strikes. Just hit each other and people will cheer! That's how it starts, and it keeps up a damn impressive pace for the duration. I expected this to be more power vs. striking, but Lawlor is crazy so he throws in just as much power game as KTB. There's a great spot where KTB leaps in with an avalanche, Lawlor sidesteps and catches him off the ground, and Lawlor walks him toward the center of the ring in a go behind before dumping him with a suplex. KTB hit a nice spear early which set up a great moment down the home stretch where Lawlor grabs a guillotine off the spear. KTB is a fearless flyer for a guy his size, and his dives land well without putting his opponent in a dangerous position. I've never seen him just barrel through a guy, he just manages to wrestle heavy while landing light (sometimes I can do with a little more heavy, but safety first kids). The finish is inventive and mostly works, with KTB flying off the top for a diving headbutt but getting caught in a triangle (I think Lawlor was good at waiting to the last minute to shift his hips into it) and we get great moments of KTB powering Lawlor up but falling back to his knees, before powering him up again to finish off the powerbomb and break the triangle. The initial struggle before collapsing back to his knees was a strong visual, really put over just how difficult that would be this deep in a match. KTB immediately goes for a Beast-sault and immediately  lands right back in the triangle. They started at a quick pace that made it feel like this was going under 10, and the fact they kept it up well past that mark felt big.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Monday AIW: Hell on Earth 15 11/29/19

40 Acres vs. Aeroform/Wheeler YUTA

PAS: 40 Acres are a really fun stable, three guys who wrestle pretty differently and meld it well together. Aeroform and YUTA are perfectly fine dance partners, but this was an Acres match. I really liked his Kingston match but Tre Lamar is perfect in this kind of match, he had some really good looking spots and great cocky taunts, and he can sprinkle them in amongst PB Smooth's power stuff and AJ Gray's potatoes. I also am really enjoying slightly past his prime Flip Kendrick, he still has great athleticism, but he always has a bit of a grimace on his face, like he is pissed he is still here after all these years.

Allie Cat vs. Veda Scott

PAS: This had a bunch of dipshitty "I'm a cat" comedy spots at the beginning, but that was better then their epic indy wrestling run at the end. Veda Scott has a lot of ideas, a very 2006 IWA-MS moveset, but all of it is executed at half speed and half impact. There was some timing issues with Allie Cat's offense, but at least it was really violent when it landed. I watched this so you don't have to.

Erick Stevens vs. Alex Shelley

PAS: This is exactly what it looks like on paper. These two guys doing a 2005 Indy nostalgia match. There is even a pre-match promo from both guys where they nostalgically look back and compliment each other, including Shelley talking about Stevens working town while being married with kids, Stevens responding "Well you know" and Shelley wistful saying "I'm divorced" (Shelley's current workrate run has a a very divorced energy).  This is a nostalgia match for a time I am not particularly nostalgic for, but I will admit this was better then I expected to be. Stevens has good intensity and there are moments where he is throwing really reckless violent moves, which is welcome in a match style that is often overly smooth. I especially loved him just throwing Shelley over his head into a powerbomb into the corner, it really looked like Stevens had no idea where Shelley was going to land, and didn't really give a fuck where he landed. Felt like Stevens should have won and the finish run by Shelley was a bit mechanical, but I enjoyed this and wasn't expecting to.

Big Twan Tucker vs. Dominic Garrini vs. VSK vs. CPA

PAS: Much like one would guess, the Twan and Dom parts of this match were great, and CPA and VSK were TFS (Total Fucking Shit). CPA actually looked like he might have been concussed as he didn't seem able to pull off any of his spots and seems confused. VSK isn't doing his lotion stuff anymore which I am happy about, but is a super boring workrate guy without it. He threw one of the daintiest topes I can remember seeing. Twan and Dom are great though, and there sections against each other ruled, Twan threw two incredible looking spears including smashing CPA into the guardrail. I would love to see a Dom vs. Twan singles match, they have really good chemistry (although maybe what we need is Dom/Twan vs. Fuck Its, a Twan Spear vs. T Money Pounce battle would be incredible)

To Infinity and Beyond vs. The Production (Derek Director/Eddy Only)

PAS: Sometimes when I am reviewing AIW tag I fell like one of those insane New Japan fanboys who rate Okada matches seven stars. I mean it seems insane to call TIAB the 21st century MX or Philly Marino the R+Rs, but it really feels true. Both Production guys are still really new to the business, but TIAB made them look amazing. Colin Delaney especially is just a master at heel tag wrestling. I loved the opening sections with Infinity being a little ahead of the game in the chain wrestling only to get their taunts cut off with big chops. Delaney doing assholish kip ups only to get ripped up and do a little pain dance was just perfect wrestling. We have some great clever and violent heat on Only, a big hot tag and a super fun finish run. This was great and it so cool they have so many fun teams to work different tag match variations.

ER: AIW tags just do it for me, and To Infinity is my favorite tag team in wrestling (Jollyville has a shot at regaining that crown once they come back and wreck things again). They are so good at setting up improbable moments and spots and double teams that should come off convoluted and rehearsed, but instead come off like they have a bottomless back of tricks at their wrestling disposal. They set up long chains of offense without getting crossed off, and seem to work in spots that play to their opponents' strengths, mixing the routine up from tag to tag without forcing guys through all of their regular moments. My favorite spots are their little moments of meanness, like Delaney kicking Only in the head and stomach after tagging out, or Cheech stomping on Only's head while turning him in a crab. Derek Director has added some pounds and lost none of the things that make him fun, throwing cool director's clapboard hand thrusts to the throat, and trying wild things like a guillotine legdrop off the apron, and I loved the dance that sets up him eventually sending the back of Delaney's head into the turnbuckle with a sunset flip. Only hits a great blindside tope through the bottom rope and takes some good punishment, and I thought he was really going to be crazy enough to go for a coast to coast dropkick ACROSS the ring (he later hit one down the length of the ring). To Infinity and Beyond are about as sure thing as it gets on AIW cards, I can't imagine there being a match I wouldn't want to see them in.

Eddie Kingston vs. KTB

PAS: This was slugfest Eddie, it doesn't really have the sort of layered selling and drama of his best matches, just two guys throwing bombs. KTB is a fine opponent for bomb throwing Eddie as he can both dish out and take a big beating. I love how Eddie winces his way through a fight, even when he is dishing out stuff it takes a toll on him too, a chop is going to hurt your hand, applying a suplex is still a concussive impact on your body. I do hate to criticize a US Indy match for not having a big ending, but Kingston winning on a side suplex did feel a little abrupt. I figure these two have a great match against each other in them, this was more of a tease then anything else.

ER: I liked this more than Phil, but he has a pretty high standard for Kingston matches, and that's a fair standard. If you don't hold the very best to a standard, then who will you hold? I liked the bomb throwing sprint approach, a tight 9 minute blast that had Kingston throwing some of the hardest shots I saw him throw last year. His chops where hitting with his full weight behind them, and no matter where it comes in a match I'll always be fine with two nasty backfists setting up a suplex finishing things. The announcers make me laugh talking about how this isn't shirt and shorts Kingston, this is *gear* Kingston. We get some little things, like the way Kingston kind of desperately gets some of his hands up during a KTB flurry, hoping to take the damage from 100 down to maybe 85. And we get big things, like KTB hitting a tope after smashing Kingston in the face on his attempt, and a top rope damn superplex from King. Top rope superplexes are special flowers. That's when you see guys out beyond, legs shaking in microburst. Kingston hits a top rope superplex and, as Phil mentioned, shows off how important it is to have a guy who can sell moves that he gives. I think Lawler and Finlay have the best understanding of how to sell specific moves, how to take specific moves, and Kingston isn't a far shout behind. Kingston's sell of performing and delivering the superplex is as satisfying as the classic move itself, another example of the kind of thorough performance he gives even in sprints.

Nick Gage vs. Mance Warner

PAS: I enjoyed the early part of this match with both guys brawling through the crowd and winging beer cans off each others heads. When it gets back into the ring we get a bunch of construction projects with chairs and tables, and I really start to lose interest. The Gage/Bishop/Warner sections of these AIW shows are tough hangs for me, all of those guys are better then Tommy Dreamer, but I am pretty tired of Tommy Dreamer style matches in 2020. This is a style that appeals to some people, and this was fine version of it, it wasn't my thing.

80. Zach Thomas vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: This was a similar style to the match right before it (they really need to spreads these weapon shot matches out a bit), but I enjoyed it a bunch more. Had a lot of energy, and Thomas is a really dynamic offensive wrestler. I thought the spirit bomb on the stood up garbage can was a nasty a bump as you are going to see in this kind of match. Fonzie really adds to Justice's shtick, it really helps having someone at ringside to do the prop set up, so the match can keep moving. The finish was pretty fun with Fonzie putting on a Myles Garrett jersey and breaking out a Steelers helmet for Justice to brain Thomas with. A babyface Myles Garrett spot really works in a garbage wrestling match in Cleveland.

ER: I thought this was great, and have a feeling that Phil may have been too numbed by Gage/Mancer  (I skipped that one and went straight here after the Kingston match). On a show and in a fed filled with guys who hit hard, I thought these two beat the shit out of each other. I don't know what the Intense Title is supposed to be, but I thought this stood out as a big asskicking from a fed where I already expect asskicking to be taking place. Thomas has really great meathead energy and Justice really projects as a champ to me. Justice always comes off with the relatability and confidence that Seth Rollins should have. I love the way he connects to the crowd, and the punishment he puts himself and opponent through really does make him feel like the highest ceiling Tommy Dreamer, as a good thing. His right elbows hit hard enough that it looked like they moved Thomas's whole body, and Justice threw a shoulderblock while Thomas leaned into that shoulderblock like neither wanted to have shoulders any longer. Everything they threw at each other lead to hard landings and tough meetings. I love how hard their stomach kicks or dropkicks land, or moments like Justice sitting on the top turnbuckle throwing a hard punch to the charging Thomas's head with the side of his fist. There were parts where I thought I accidentally had it on 1.5 speed, and something about hitting hard at high speeds can really put a match over the top for me.

Fonzie is a real nice story, a guy still putting in actual great manager work in his early 60s. So many ECW guys are gone, and who would have predicted Fonzie being one of the few still finding ways to contribute quality to matches this much later? The energy he brings to a match like this is big, and we get little moments like when he casually grabbed at Thomas's trunks on an Irish whip. I thought the weapon stuff was set up and pulled off impressively quick, Thomas wasting no time at grabbing doors to set up; and the props stuff came off violent and painful, not gimmicky. Justice flew off the top and just landed his weight through Thomas to put him through a door. No silly moment of Thomas getting into position and waiting, only Justice knowing that his weight would send him through. The powerbomb that Thomas gives Justice, on the bottom edge of a stood on end trash can, is one of the most brutal spots I saw in 2019. Justice's body goes through so much, and his selling gives you the sense he's going to be feeling that in his left hip and back of ribs for the next two weeks. I loved the human moment we got, and part of that connection I can feel between Justice and his crowd, when he couldn't put Thomas away and the fans all start pointing up to the very high second story of the venue, while Justice shakes them off with his hands. "No no, fans, no life shortening balcony spill from me tonight. I'm just going to brain him with a football helmet."

86. Bitcoin Boyz vs. PME

PAS: We have seen so many great PME vs. To Infinity and Beyond tags, I was looking forward to see how they matched up against a different tag team, and this was really impressive. Bitcoin Boyz are basically six months into their careers at this point, and this was a hell of a tag match. BB are a really fun cheapshot shtick heel tag team, kind of like a 2020s PG-13.  They built a couple of fun heat sections, one on Marino and one on Philly, and when it came time for the comebacks they bumped like maniacs. There is a point where Marino powerbombs Taylor right on the top of his head, it really felt like he wasn't going to make it to the one year mark of his career. Duke is fun as usual and eats a tope with the back of his head banging against the guardrail. PME has such a great total act, I just love watching them from Susudio to their great finish, just makes me smile.

ER: Also place me firmly into the PME fan club. They're a really great babyface act, a really fun regional act to root for. They feel like the kind of 80s territory team that had a specific connection to their town. Bitcoin Boyz are still really new but already showing a polished goofball banana heel act. There are a lot of slapstick moments here, but both teams have the confidence to do slapstick and not feel the need to wink into the camera. There are a lot of "Aren't I funny?" teams on the indies, and I hate the majority of them. But Bitcoin Boyz sometimes tap into that John Tatum level of flounce, and it slays me. Mikey Montgomery and Eric Taylor have good timing with cutoff spots (there was a superkick that was used to effectively as a mood changer to show an overused move can still be a highlight), and are good at things you wouldn't necessarily expect them to be good at, like stomps to the chest. PME are a nicely complementary team: Marino is small but comes off tough and unafraid, the small mouthy guy who can back it up, and Philly has charisma for days and knows how to use his size well. Taylor eats a crazy beating, and one match after Justice takes the craziest powerbomb of the year onto the edge of a trashcan, here's Eric Taylor taking the craziest powerbomb of the year getting dumped on his ear by a Philly Doctor Bomb. Mikey Montgomery has some good physical comedy instincts and I get the feeling that once he starts hitting harder he's going to get really good. He's already good enough to be one of the few guys who can actually do a funny and seamless version of the "bounce chair off ropes and back into my own face" spot. The Duke is the best, a total loud mouth pee wee league coach, and he always takes at least one Too Big bump in any match he's managing. Here he takes a cool dad spill off the apron and then eats an awesome dive from Marino. Great pairing, can't wait to see it more.

Joshua Bishop vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: I really liked the first 3/4 of this match, great hard hitting heavyweight wrestling. I love Lawlor's jab and low kick combo, and Bishop throws good looking winding Windham like right hands. There was a couple of great big move near falls, including Lawlor dumping Bishop on his head with a Michinoku Driver type tombstone, and Bishop having to roll to the floor. If this match ended when Bishop reversed the knee strike into an awesome spinning sidewalk slam, this would have been really high on our MOTY list. They add a bunch of superfluous stuff after that with chairs and handcuffs and ref bumps and we just didn't need any of it. I also hate the Money in the Bank stip, and if they were going to run Bishop vs. Justice as the main event title match of the Mania show anyway, there was no reason to have a cheap title switch here.

ER: This one really didn't connect with me as a war in the same way that other matches on this show did, and I actually resented them going too far with gimmicks when they should know to just rely on their own violence by now. Both guys were showing wear and still slugging it out, still landing hard shots, that all the handcuff and distraction BS really took away from things for me. And the post match title match cash in from Justice is not how I view the Justice character, and seemed like a huge waste of what should have been a way bigger moment. I liked a lot of the Bishop/Lawlor exchanges, like the way these two fight, and it felt like we were really about to get to the good parts of that when we got waylaid by an entirely different match. Lawlor was throwing some really great clinch knees, and the throws from both were landing hard. A sensible ending with a 12 minute runtime would have been justified, as both men were working hard and sweating from go. Throwing in the extra gimmicks just undersold how hard hitting the first part of the match was.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

Read more!

Monday AIW: 200th Show 11/2/19

CPA vs. Wes Barkley

PAS: Not sure what the point of CPA is. He doesn't seem to be doing the clip-on tie gimmick anymore, and now his gimmick seems to be middler at a local comedy club. There was some OK stuff with a knee injury, and I like Wes, but undercard singles match isn't what he does well. CPA goes over with a facebreaker on his bad knee, and I am perplexed.

Danhausen vs. VSK

PAS: What is it with crappy three initial wrestlers going over cool AIW regulars on this show. Danhausen is a great tag guy, but as a singles wrestler he is a little too concerned with trying to get over his memes. Still his actual work was pretty good, while VSK seemed to over enunciate every action, and his offense seemed to be all complicated ways to drop a guy on his own knee. They do some thing at the end where Danhausen drinks a White Claw, and spits at Derek Director, and yadda yadda. Tik Tok wrestling stinks.

Zach Thomas vs. Wheeler YUTA

PAS: Thomas is pretty fun to watch, he is a big kid who bangs away. YUTA is pretty dancy and the dancy YUTA parts of this match aren't great, although Thomas looks pretty good throwing fast armdrags. When the match settles down to Thomas throwing bombs and YUTA avoiding him and using his speed it gets fun. I really liked the couple of times Thomas just hurls his body into Yuta like a fullback trying to open up a hole.

Lee Moriarty vs. Alex Shelley

PAS: I was absolutely dreading this when I saw it on the match list. Moriarty is a guy with a tendency towards swing dancery and Shelley is the all time maestro of that style. While this match certainly had more than it's fair share of somersaults and dipsy dos, it had some other stuff which made it watchable. Shelley actually worked pretty stiff, and did a nice job as a pissed off veteran against a young guy, and Moriarty did some nice arm work leading to some big Fujiwara near falls after some pretty La Mistica's. I still don't think I would recommend this match, but I liked it way more then I thought I would, and it is Shelley's best match since coming back to AIW.

65. Bitcoin Boyz vs. Bear Country vs. To Infinity and Beyond vs. 40 Acres

PAS: This is what I came here for. The AIW four way tag match is pretty much a guaranteed blast every time. This is almost all new teams for this format, so it cements my belief that To Infinity and Beyond are the glue of this match structure. Fun structure here with two teams of beasts (Bear Country and 40 Acres) and two bumping heel teams (TIAB and Bitcoin). There is a fun spot early where Colin Delaney stumbles in between a face off between Bear Country and 40 Acres and ends up getting smashed by all four dudes. AJ Gray has really leaned into fucking people up and I am here for it, when I first watched him he was more of a thick highflyer and now he wrestles more like shorter Stan Hansen. Bear Country are a fun indy version of the War Raiders, perfect for this kind of match as they can hit their big dude spots and not have to put a full match together. Bitcoin Boys are neat, two tiny opportunistic little jerks who absolutely get obliterated.

ER: Love this. At this point I'm going to be shocked whenever AIW runs a 4 way tag match that doesn't wind up on our MOTY list. And this one has Eddie Kingston on commentary, which is such a beautiful combination of the very best things that it would be like In N Out also becoming a dispensary. Kingston talks about how he thinks Cheech is an ugly dude, compares him to Giant Baba, drops gems like "What is Delaney gonna get powerbombed for the fifth time?" or "He probably learned that from Quackenbush. So did I. Doesn't mean I use it though." Kingston loves this kind of chaos and the glee in his voice while the chaos is happening just makes me enjoy my favorite match structure even more. We get some great sequences and set ups all throughout, too many to mention. Bitcoin Boyz are super new, and they fit in nicely by bumping big (Taylor takes maybe the bump of the match when he gets tossed over the top, tries to hang on, and basically falls down the ring steps and winds up 15 feet away from the ring; at the same time Mikey was taking a cutter from Delaney into a Cheech German suplex that landed him on his neck and shoulders), Delaney and Cheech continue to run everything - my favorite team in 2019 - and here's Delaney getting crushed by everyone bigger than him, then coming back and working nutty spots on Cheech's shoulders (ducking  a Smooth clothesline that sends Smooth to the floor on a low bridge), then flipping over (baaaaarely) when Mikey hits a crossbody off the top while he is still on Cheech's shoulders. AJ Gray was out here murdering folks with lariats, PB punched Boulder right in the face, Boulder hits his cool powerslam/powerbomb combo on TIAB, the dive train lands big, it all rules. And The Duke is out there, you know he's gotta take a shot that allows him to sell better than anyone else in the match. He eats a punch on the floor and then sprawls perfectly into the guardrail to hold himself up. After the match he even gets into it with Ted Dibiase, and AARP Dibiase throws a great punch and then a shockingly gorgeous Russian legsweep while holding Duke in the million dollar dream. Another AIW show, another great 4 way tag.

49. Manders vs. Big Twan Tucker

PAS: This was the rubber match of my favorite indy series of the year. The first match is still the best, as it was totally out of nowhere, but this ruled too and these guys have some real chemistry. Tucker has an awesome intensity which is hard to teach, when he comes out it feels like some shit is about to pop the fuck off, and Manders is a perfect foil for that as he is unwilling to do anything but charge into the abyss.  Both guys only have one speed. There is a hilarious moment on commentary when Eddie Kingston mentions that Twan was trained by Johnny Gargano and Manders was trained by Tyler Black and I just imagine how horrible that battle of the trainers would be. Loved Manders breaking out Twan's elbow combos early, only for Twan to fire back and smash him right back. There is another great moment where Tucker has Manders in the corner and he unloads with a 10 punch combo to the body, working his kidneys like a heavy bag. Twan also has some awesome strength spots,  including snatching Manders mid air during a three point stance clothesline spot attempt. I did think Twan's rana out of the corner may have been a bit too cute for this match, but it was a big pop.  I think this may have gone a couple minutes long, as it is hard not to get a bit gassed working their pace. Still what an awesome collision, I love both of these guys unconditionally.

ER: Yeah these are two guys I seek out at this point, but I've yet to see them look quite as good against others as they do against each other. They have real chemistry and really bring out that something from beyond. Manders throws the Twan elbows and that is a mistake as Twan lays them right back in, then tenderized his torso with a punch of great corner punches all fired at the body. The chops land hard, shoulderblocks look like they would put most cars up on two wheels at least for a bit, Twan hits a boss Thesz press, there are a few huge slams and suplexes, and I actually like the Twan rana. These two were both just eating every nasty slam and strike and then getting up for more, and I liked how the rana shifted things from just another big slam into something that distracted and sort of threw off Manders. The Twan spear is iconic, and these two really can't do wrong against each other.

PME vs. Dr. Dan/Parker Pierce

PAS: PME has really mastered the art of the old school southern tag, and while Dr. Dan and Parker Pierce aren't close to the top heel team in AIW (no diss as AIW has an amazing tag division), but this is great stuff. Really reminds me of a Rock and Rolls tag against a fun random heel team like Jake Roberts and the Barbarian. You can just plug and play. Pierce is a blast in this, some real hard shots, a great spinebuster and even a hook kick. Dr. Dan has some fun stooging and takes his one horrific bump per match (dropping off the top rope through a table). PME had some fun wrinkles in their formula including some nifty stuff with the legal man and how that effected their near falls. I hope PME keeps these titles for a long time because there is a seemingly endless batch of fun teams to match them up with.

Erick Stevens vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: Meathead ECW brawl which is something Justice is adept at. Goes way into overkill as you would expect, but we do have some big stunts, including a spear through a door, an avalanche death valley driver through a table, tons of head drop suplexes and a spot where Fonzie lays a half a dozen chairs and pieces of doors in front of Stevens face for a coast to coast dropkick. There were 10+ times this match probably should have ended, and it eventually lost me a bit. Still a fun spectacle, and Stevens gets to cross this kind of match off his bucket list.

58. Eddie Kingston vs. Tre Lamar

PAS: This is Eddie as old man Tenryu which is a really great Eddie look. He works over Lamar and makes the kid earn his stripes. He does all of the parts of the Tenryu shtick well, the contempt, the grudging respect, the panic when things aren't working out, and finally the determination to finish the kid off. I liked Lamar in this a bunch too, he hit and run well, and really timed the big moves well. I especially loved the double stomp near falls, with Kingston rolling around the ring in pain and Lamar shocked in disbelief.

ER: This feels like the kind of tough match that Kingston can have in his sleep at this point. I love domineering Kingston, because few guys are better at being domineering in a ring in 2019, and I don't know if anyone is as good as Kingston at being the domineering guy who starts to lose control. I love him stalking the ring, knowing Lamar's moves before Lamar is throwing them, always there waiting with a big chop. And I love once Lamar starts getting a couple over on him that Kingston's big mouth keeps getting him in trouble, like when Lamar comes up a little light on a running knee and Kingston calls him out on it, only to then eat a much harder running knee. Kingston sells that kind of stuff like a god, going loopy and grabbing a muscle memory double leg from the ground, even selling a nerve twitch in his neck from yelling. I did think Lamar came up a little tentative in spots, unnecessarily physically moving a standing Kingston into a spot to take something from the apron, and he was a beat behind hitting the enziguiri after a Kingston backfist (I was already not going to like him hitting immediate offense after taking a backfist, so it really should have looked devastating). But Kingston must have sensed my dismay as he decided to just throw backfists until Lamar stays down, and I am fine with that.

Nick Gage vs. Joshua Bishop

PAS: I thought this was a fun performance by everyone in this match although the match itself was a little disappointing. I don't think Gage is a great wrestler, but he really has a presence and means something in way few wrestlers in the the world mean something. Bishop getting the win over Gage feels like big moment in his career. It is tough to work a big stunt show like this after Stevens and Justice pushed it to 11; no chair shot or table bump is going to mean much after that explosion. Wes Barkley was great on the outside, he took the two biggest bumps in the match, and was Jimmy Hart level annoying.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Missing AIW Match 1/19/18

PAS: While putting together the AIW Complete and Accurate I realized that Eric reviewed every match on the Death Rowe show except for this multi man tag, which is of course our favorite thing in AIW. And guess what? It ruled.

ER: I have no clue why I wouldn't have reviewed this tag match. As Phil said, I reviewed EVERY OTHER MATCH on that show, EXCEPT this one. And that makes no sense, because AIW tag scrambles are one of my absolute favorite match types in wrestling. Usually I just cherry pick 2-3 matches I want to watch on any given indy show, and this would have been one of those 2-3! For some reason I did the opposite and wrote up everything but the match that excites me most on paper. I can only assume there was something wrong with the video and the match was glitchy or missed. I got nothing.


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

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

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


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Monday AIW - Bobblehead Night 9/20/19

Bitcoin Boys (Mikey Montgomery/Eric Taylor) vs. Aeroform (Louis Lyndon/Flip Kendrick) vs. The Production (Danhausen/Derek Director) vs. 40 Acres (AJ Gray/Tre Lamar)

PAS: AIW four team scrambles are maybe my favorite thing in current wrestling. This match was missing some of the regular standouts (WHERE ARE THE FUCK-ITS?!?!), but was still a blast. This match was really high flyer heavy and we got some really nifty dives by the Bitcoin Boys, Aeroform and Tre Lamar. There was also some nasty double teams, including a spot where Derek Director takes Tre Lamar on his back and smushes a Bitcoin Boy with a cannonball in the corner. The Bitcoin Boys had some moments of questionable offense, but took huge uncalled for beatings in this match, and that is always fun to watch. I didn't love the finish, and this wasn't at the level of the best AIW 4 way tags, but that is a super high bar to clear.

Dominic Garrini vs. Alex Shelley

PAS: There were moments in this I liked, but overall came away disappointed. Dom looked great, and the opening sections where you had Shelley doing his flashy matwork, only to be countered by cool Ju-Jitsu flourishes was a lot of fun. Outside of that though, I thought this was way too much of Garrini being a dance partner to Shelley's do-si-doing. It looked like a dance routine, and Garrini went down way too easily for such a top guy in this promotion. I can't remember the last time I saw Shelley, and I want to forget this time.

D'Lo Brown/Twan Tucker vs. Parker Pierce/Dr. Dan Montgomery

PAS: AIW does a nice job of delivering on their nostalgia acts. D'Lo hit all of his big spots, albeit quite a bit slower then in the 90s (no Low Down, but he did miss a second rope moonsault). Dr. Dan is a nice foil for whoever they bring in, and took an insane Powerbomb neck first on the guardrail from Twan which was uncalled for. Twan brought the intensity to what was otherwise basically a comedy match, and the Parker Pierce feud is fun, if not a bit of a side drain to a guy who was building big momentum. I am ready for Twan to move on to bigger and better things, or at a minimum getting a Manders rematch.

Erick Stevens vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Lee Moriarty vs. Zach 

PAS: This had some moments I liked, and some moments I didn't care for. I enjoyed watching Thomas and Stevens hit each other, and didn't love watching Yuta and Moriarty find athletic ways to miss each other. Thomas is a big boy and wrestles like it. He had some fun power spots and he and Stevens would lace into each other whenever possible. Moriarty is seemingly on every AIW show in a four way and I still don't get it, he and Yuta really feel like they are counting dance steps in their head. I gripe about the guys AIW isn't booking, but there is no reason for Young Studs, Fuck It's and Weird World to be on the sidelines and have a match with these guys spinning each other around like they are on America's Next Great Dance Crew.

Mercedes Martinez vs. Dr. Britt Baker

PAS: This is Baker's swan song in AIW before going to AEW, and it really makes you wonder why she is the one of these two ladies who is signed. Martinez had one of the best matches of last year with Meiko Satomura, and looks like a killer in this match. Baker looks tentative and her stuff looks weak. She does slingblades and slowly rolls Mercedes into submissions, and I just don't see it. I give Baker credit for taking the beating she took, but come on, someone pay Mercedes.

Nick Gage vs. Wes Barkley

PAS: This opens with Josh Bishop clanking Gage with a Kendo stick from the audience, and Barkley and Bishop double team Gage for a bit, busting him open and Wes slams him on thumbtacks and Legos. After that bit of offense, its the violent squash you would expect with Barkley getting tossed around the ring into things and bleeding badly (he tries the mid air Michaels blade job, but does it really obviously, someone needs to do an AIW school seminar on blading secretly). Finish has Gage spearing Bishop through a table, and giving Barkley a chokebreaker on the top of a chair. Props to Wes for taking a pounding, this was basically the worlds most violent Ultimate Warrior vs. Bobby Heenan.

Philly Marino Experience (Philly C/Marino T) vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: Another absolute banger from these two teams, I can't remember the last time a tag rivalry has been this consistently excellent (maybe Usos vs. New Day although that got worn out after a while.) The storytelling of this match was a bit different, your previous matches have been all about PME trying to climb the mountain and unseat the champs, here they have knocked TIAB off that mountain and are trying to keep them down. Cheech and Colin are a bit less sure of themselves, a little more desperate and PME are on a roll. Philly takes a huge backdrop onto the ramp and sells a bad back for the finishing run really well, that little bit of tentativeness costs him a couple of times. We get good heat sections on both PMErs and a cool hot run, with Infinity trying all of their dirty tricks. I loved the couple of big near falls after the hot tag, and the super Sunset Dreams is a great escalation finish.  I also appreciate how both team work towards real heel and face reactions, there is no "Fight Forever" or "Both These Guys" chants in their matches, just beloved babyfaces fighting against dastardly heels.

Matthew Justice vs. Mance Warner

PAS: This was a fun ECW nostalgia brawl, lots of unprotected chairs right to the top of the head, and long construction projects leading to hard painful falls. I really like Mancer's facial expression when he gets hit hard in the head, he is one of the better looking bloody faces in wrestling. If Wrestling Eye was still a thing he would make a great cover model. I enjoyed this, even though it was pretty dumb. Justice kicks out of a top rope piledriver through two tables for fucks sake. Sort of a stepson of Sabu versus third cousin of Terry Funk and it is hard not to at least be glad you watched it.

Tom Lawlor vs. KTB

PAS: This was good stuff, one of the better Lawlor title defense for sure. KTB brings this fun sprint intensity to all of his matches, and these guys go right at each other reckless from the start. They wing punches and chops and don't pause to stare and make faces at each other. KTB has really fun power spots, including just powering Lawlor over the top rope when Lawlor was stomping on his chest, and Lawlor does some cool MMA counters, like catching KTB mid spear in a guillotine choke, and snatching him out of the air into triangle chokes. Never lets up and ends cool and clean. Really a house show title match, and the post match Bishop angle sets up the next big title defense perfectly.

Read more!

Monday AIW - Escape From Cleveland 9/14/18

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

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

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

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

Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham vs. Joshua Bishop

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

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

Ultimo Dragon vs. Louis Lyndon

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

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

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

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

Tim Donst vs. Colt Cabana

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

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

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

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

94. Tracy Williams vs. Dominic Garrini

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

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

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

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


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!