Found Footage Friday: IWA MID-SOUTH IN THE YEAR 2000~!

IWA Mid-South A King Is Crowned 7/15/00 

Jayden Draigo vs. BJ Whitmer

MD: Draigo was billed from being from the Michaels academy (and I think he actually was but that would have been a great heel indy gimmick back in 2000). Whitmer is Whitmer, and was billed as being trained by Thatcher. He had pleather pants. Draigo was all but falling out of his. And this was a pretty ok opening match for this sort of thing honestly. Technical to start. Whitmer got the advantage. Draigo took over by kicking the rope after he ran around the ring and got chanted at and chased. A lot of his offense was approprtiate to his size and he didn't overreach. They didn't let a Whitmer hope spot (German out of the corner, bridging) sink in enough, but the comeback was just blocked punches and firing up. Whitmer missed a top rope splash and Draigo got him with the Superkick (see, it would have worked if it didn't piss off actual people in the industry) for maybe the surprising win. 

ER: Draigo is from the Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy. A girl in the crowd tells him He Sucks Shawn Michaels dick and that He Goes to Shawn Michaels Dick Sucking Academy. By the midway point of the match she convinces the entire crowd that he definitely learned to suck dick at Shawn Michaels' Academy. She knew she was right and convinced an entire small town. BJ Whitmer had okay punches when he had sideburns. Nice backbreaker too, fast snap suplex, and I liked his big missed diving headbutt. 

Nathan Future vs. Prophet Daniel Quinn

MD: We've moved on to the cargo pants portion of the show. This was kind of effective for what they were trying to do and I'm not sure I've ever exactly seen this done like this? Future came out first and Quinn just rushed in out of nowhere and hit a spin wheel kick and kept on him like it was a sprint. He hit a dive, then triple suplexes (last one a Fisherman) and went up top. Harry Palmer, who would have a 2/3 falls match later in the night ran out to get the match thrown out. He powerbombed Quinn and they looked a bit too hard for a chair, finding one and shattering the arm with it before people came out to run them off. It theoretically got some more heat on Palmer for later in the show while having Quinn look like a worldbeater in the span of a minute or so.  

ER: Daniel Quinn looks like a malnourished kid in Gummo with knee pads too big for his 135 pound frame and has clearly watched a lot of Benoit footage. I'd say half a dozen people on this card want to be Benoit and that is the most 2000 thing about indy wrestling (outside of the entrance music). Quinn looked straight out the Yard and that's how these openers should be, and I was genuinely impressed by the local following he had attained. People were really getting behind him like a small regional babyface despite (because?) being a teenager who came straight from school and wore someone else's kneepads. Future took a nice bumped getting shoved into the ringpost and Harry Palmer came off very unlikeable in his interference. 

IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Title: The Suicide Kid (c) vs. Paul E. Smooth w/ Dave Prazak 

MD: Smooth and Prazak did some pre-match talking. Smooth was doing the timely Britney's boyfriend gimmick with a bathrobe and her on his shirt. It's not as fun as the contemporaneous Aron Stevens gimmick in New England where he'd come out with a stand up of Britney, but it drew the sort of chants they were looking for. Kid slapped hands on the way in, big smile on his face, and he was over.

I would have really enjoyed this in 2000 but I was 15 years younger. Kid was confident in what he was doing, had a pretty measured way of doing things. They wore their influences on their sleeves (like a Stan Lane Crane Kick shove over). Smooth got an early advantage but Kid came back with the back handspring elbow. He controlled (with the triple suplexes, last one a fisherman's so no agenting here of course!) until Prazak got involved. Smooth controlled for a bit. Kid came back with so, so many moves, some ridiculous, some sublime (someone should steal his bit where he runs at a seated opponent in the corner, presses off with his feet on their chest and hits a headbutt to the groin). Prazak got involved again as some other guys ran out, Kid finally got him but got killed by the interference and lost the belt (Smooth made sure to lay his head on the groin for the pin for maximum homophobic 2000 heat). Anyway, Kid was very good at what he did even if what he did only made sense in a specific time and place.

ER: This ruled. Smooth talks about Britney Spears' titties and says someone here has an even better pair, calling out some poor kid who was nowhere near the fattest kid there but had no doubt called him a Hard F a couple dozen times. Smooth says he doesn't suck dick but would suck on that kid's big titties because this was 2000 Indiana and there are entire other worlds out there north of Kentucky. Suicide Kid comes out to Bawitaba which brings us to the edge of midwest indy nirvana after already hearing Closer and Dragula. When we inevitably get Last Resort we will have reached nirvana. 

Richard X and Hy-Zaya w/ Uncle Honkey vs. Kid Trailer Park and Colt Cabana

MD: What to say about this one. Well, hopefully Eric is in with me on this because he can write about Uncle Honkey better than I can. There was probably money in that gimmick in some place at some time even if it wasn't necessarily this place and time. I'll leave it at that. There were a lot of big ideas on offense, especially from Hy-Zaya and Richard X. I wouldn't say a single one of them hit clean but that was a quarter of the charm.

The flip side of that was that Colt looked great. Just poised and professional in contrast. He was obviously watching a bunch of tape and did a number of things but they were just a little more grounded than everyone else and even the chain wrestling looked very good. He looked like a real ringer in the midst of all of this, even if he lost it due to Honkey distracting the ref and interference dragging him down. 

Adam Gooch vs. American Kickboxer

MD: Hey, it's DVDVR favorite American Kickboxer. This had a fun little quirk where Hy-Zaya and Richard ran out after the first or second exchange, only to get run off. Then they came back when both guys were in bad shape and took out Kickboxer while Gooch was on the outside. That led Gooch to winning. Post match they made up only for Uncle Honkey to smash Kickboxer for a stretcher job. All of this set up future shows. 

The match itself was best when they were doing the stand up striking and Kickboxer was driving things. Gooch had some perfectly fine offense of the time but it felt novel and different and stood out on the card when they were throwing shots and they did a decent enough job at it. It was the same with some of the wrestling and precision stuff Colt had been doing, just in how it stood out. At one point Kickboxer did a flippy groin kick in the corner that didn't fit the match and wasn't really sold well but it was over. They did a good job clapping the crowd up and keeping them engaged too. I did think the heels running back out a second time was a clever bit, done once at least. 

Best 2-Out-Of-3 Falls: Harry Palmer w/ Nathan Future vs. Cash Flo

MD: I got a kick out of this. Cash Flo is on Tulsa King now. Good for him. This was pretty minimalist, not necessarily in what they did but in how much they did and while I have no idea why it had to be 2/3 falls, as the first two were short and the last one ended in bullshit before long, it was still fun. Palmer stalled to start, and then stalled some more, and then got beat on and ran off, so this was all working for me. He came back with sunflower seeds or something and did a bit of spitting them into Flo's face, incensing him and leading to him getting caught and hit with a blockbuster. That was the first fall.

Flo came right back and brought a couple of chairs in. Palmer ambushed him and took over and set them up and I swear he was going to do a standing 'rana onto them which is such a ridiculous notion, but obviously Flo power bombed him onto the chairs. That was the second fall. Then the third fall had the ref knocked out and Palmer use a weapon and really there's been a lot of BS in this show but it's a sign of the times. Anyway Quinn from earlier in the night ran out (at least I think it was him) and they presumably they set up a tag for the future or something. 

IWA-MS Heavyweight Title: Fans Bring The Weapons Death Match: Rollin' Hard (c) vs. Corporal Robinson 

MD: The biggest takeaway I had from this was how organic and alive it felt just because it was unpredictable. Some of that was how both wrestlers weren't supposed to wrestle each other but other people but it worked out this way, but it's mostly the gimmick. You can't prepare for whatever people in the crowd bring so you have to think on the fly and it's incredibly refreshing in a world of carefully planned spots. 

 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 11/22-11/28

AEW Dynamite 11/24

CM Punk vs. QT Marshall

MD: Not a ton to say here. It went too long obviously, but it only felt too long because they had the Factory kicked out early and the commercial break, maybe due to the long opening promo, dragged the thing down like an anchor. They seem to be telling the story that Punk's having too much trouble with guys he shouldn't be having so much trouble with, but even so, QT's so far down the card and in that player/coach role that it would have worked out better if interference caused Punk's issues. Also, the announcers (JR specifically as Excalibur tried) didn't give proper credit to QT's low blow during the commercial break (something the PiP wasn't going to let you pick up on so easily) didn't help. What I did love here was the opening bit with Punk leaning hard into his reclamation of the bodyslam and QT selling them like death. Honestly, Punk's shine here was the most I've ever seen QT work towards the "wrestle like a manager, manage like a wrestler" mindset, which is, again, how I think he has the most value in-ring to the company. He should just lean all the way into it and wear the one-shoulder Heenan singlet. So this was worked ok but had some production/creative/layout issues.

Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana

MD: Solid TV match highlighting Danielson's new attitude. I would have liked to see their familiarity play out a little more. You got it a bit in the early chain wrestling, a bit more in some of the dodges, and then with a tiny bit of hesitation at the end, but it played out more on commentary than in the match. I'd argue that the hesitation at the end, when Danielson had Colt's hands and was about to stomp, made the match though. There were other similar milked moments, points where everything stopped and took a dramatic beat, like when they were up on the top, but the pre-stomp one felt electric. It was probably the only thing in the match that did, though. Uno made more of his opportunity the week before. Danielson continued to showcase his aggression and uncaring drive, moving quickly to strikes even when he could have tested himself on the mat with Colt. He worked in the pose before the Lebell lock and brandished the tooth about after the match. In the grand scheme of things, highlighting Danielson's aggression was the most important thing, but it's not like these AEW matches don't often manage a number of different objectives at once and I'm not sure this one did.

PAS: I thought this was better then the Uno match the week before, as Cabana matched the hard hitting nature of Danielson more, I especially liked his short elbows. I am not sure about Cabana, who as at this point an undercarder,  doing a flip flop and fly in a promotion with both of Dusty's son's, feels like something a road agent should have nixed. The match had a lot of energy from Cabana being in Chicago, and Danielson showing no mercy on his friend with the stomps to the head was pretty sick stuff, especially with Dragon parading around with the tooth like a trophy. I am not sure what an Alan Angel's match next week really achieves, at this point I think they should get Danielson some partners and run some trios matches if you want to drag out the feud a bit more (Garcia and Moriarty? Call up Biff Busick?). 

AEW Rampage 11/26 (Taped 11/24)

20. Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Garcia

PAS: I thought this was really excellent, a master class by Kingston who is on an all time great in-ring run right now.  He established hierarchy early, stuffing Garcia's shot attempts and stonewalling him on strikes. It felt like a grumpy Jumbo Tsuruta performance refusing to play along with what Garcia was attempting. When Garcia gets the advantage after the tweaked knee, he really presses it well, and we get two great Kingston sells: bad knee and damaged ear. Garcia's strength as a wrestler is his persistence,  and the whole match is Kingston repelling that. Kingston is still a bigger guy, and I loved he powered through the knee injury to hit that huge lifting powerbomb, and the pair of sick suplexes with the Exploder and backdrop driver. I also dug him using the missed first backfist to set up the second one where he almost beheaded Garcia. Kingston is a 90s All Japan superfan and it was fun to watch him do Jumbo vs. Kikuchi instead of Misawa vs. Kawada.

ER: This was cool, in that it starts like a Kingston squash and keeps building into something bigger. It's really easy to see Kingston running over Garcia while also constantly clowning 2.0 on the floor, and the first parts of this are just Kingston refusing to play along. Garcia would throw uppercuts or chops and whenever Kingston wanted to take back over he would just throw an eye poke or refuse to be Irish whipped, even biting at Garcia's ear. Kingston is one of the few guys in wrestling who can pull off Face Biting as a babyface move and it fully fits him. A weird thing happens when we move into the break, as Garcia suddenly becomes a monster in Picture-in-Picture, booting Kingston in the face multiple times and working over the knee Kingston tweaked while doing a kneedrop to Garcia. Injuring yourself doing something that benefits you is a thing most 40 year olds who still try to keep in shape experience, and nobody works a self-injury into a match better than Kingston. Garcia's fireman's carry roll into a heel hook looked good, and really made Kingston scramble to break. The knee is clearly Garcia's ticket, and Eddie is the best at continuing a plan regardless, so even with the bad knee he still struggles through delivering a big exploder and essentially a one-legged powerbomb. I kept thinking this was about to finish and they kept managing to kick each others' asses back into a match, with Kingston literally fighting from underneath and punching up at Garcia to break holds, then hitting a double backfist for the finish (well the first one missed but he had a second ready to fire just in case). I don't really need Jericho involved in this feud as Kingston really doesn't need Popular Loud Mic Guy around him, but they're nailing this so far so who am I to say. 

MD: Just a really interesting, hard hitting, multifaceted match that went a number of different places. I'd say it was one of the more ambitious AEW matches I've seen this year. I loved the Punk vs Garcia match, for instance, but that was very much just one thing (Garcia dismantling the leg). This was a whole lot more and wholly driven by the personalities involved and the situation of Eddie coming in banged up. One of my favorite things about Garcia is how he enters every match with a gameplan or a strategy. You rarely see him just locking up with someone. Here, he immediately went for explosive takedowns but Kingston was able to use his size advantage to goozle him. That's how most of the first third here went. Garcia would try something direct and Kingston would just shut him down. That might be wrestling; it might be strikes; it might be slowing things down; it might be using 2.0 as a distraction. None of it would work because of Kingston's size advantage, savvy (the eyepoke), and overall toughness. It (and it was Garcia's persistence and smaller, younger dog attitude) all slowly got under his skin though, to the point where he went up for that knee off the ropes when he didn't have to.

The second third was about the opportunities Kingston's hurt knee provided Garcia. Unlike the Punk match, he didn't go right after it. Instead, he stubbornly wanted to prove himself and his striking game, and started targeting the ear. The knee slow down Kingston's offense and unlocked the ear for Garcia, and maybe the ear would have unlocked more, if Kingston didn't cut him off by outright biting him. Which led to the last third, where the knee gave out again and Garcia honed in on it. Even then, as Kingston kept getting the ropes, Garcia would lose his cool and go back to striking. Kingston would lean on the savvy here, playing possum to lure Garcia in for an exploder, drawing him into strike exchanges when he should have stayed focus on the hurt body part. Garcia was out there to prove himself as much as win though, and you prove yourself against Kingston by meeting him head-on. Kingston leaned into this, squeezing out opportunity after opportunity until he finally managed a killshot. What made all of this work was Garcia's desire and penchant to drive forward with every opening and Kingston's top notch defensive wrestling and selling, the most sympathetic, down on his luck, affectionately miserable guy in the world. In the end, both of these characters care so much, even if Garcia can't help himself and Kingston cares despite himself and that made for such a meaningful, resonant clash.

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 10/21/20

 What Worked

-Wardlow/Jungle Boy was a decent enough muscle head vs. flyer match, maybe a 0.3 on the 2002 Brock scale. Wardlow is missing something with his offense that I can't quite put my finger on. He's a bit too polished, so doesn't have the joyful carelessness of a jacked up Power Plant guy, and he's missing aggression. Walking around and breathing heavily after hitting F5 variations doesn't quite do it for me. So this match hinged on Jungle Boy's comeback sequence, and that I liked. His forearms hit at least as hard as Wardlow (which really says more about Wardlow than JB), but the dropkick to the back looked good and the tope to the back looked even better. That tope is probably what got this up top. 

-With more practice, Kenny Omega's dancers could be almost as good as the fine Minnesotan dancers of Let's Bowl. 

-I could not be happier that AEW seems to have realized how fantastic Eddie Kington's weekly TV presence is and let him just scream into several microphones. The guy is great and you can tell anyone seeing or hearing him for the first time thinks he comes off like a major star. I am so excited at just the sheer potential of what they can do and how far they can do it with him. If you didn't watch Fenix/Pentagon and only listened to Kingston on commentary, you'd think it was an actual great match. 

-I watched a lot of bad dance routines masquerading as wrestling in the first 80 minutes of this episode, so I appreciated that Jericho and MJF at least did a bad dance routine masquerading as a bad dance routine. They obviously didn't have the chops of Bing Crosby/Donald O'Connor, but they knew the proper way to look into the camera while delivering a song's punchline and that goes a long way. The porterhouse ordering open felt far too similar to the Key & Peele Soul Food sketch for me to give it much credit, but I actually loved the bookended payoff of Jericho saying "we're going to have to send these back" after bluffing themselves into ordering rarer and rarer steaks. 

-Britt Baker's match lost the thread a little bit at times (a kick that was supposed to be caught wasn't, Britt's sling blade does not look great), but was more competitive than I was expecting and didn't overextend itself. KiLynn King bumped big for Britt's offense and got her face punched nicely into the mat on a curb stomp. A lot of AEW squash matches give their opponent way too much, or do something similar to Omega/Kiss where it's over in two moves. The finish of this was never in doubt but I liked the few openings that King got, and liked what she did with them. 

What Didn't Work

-Kenny Omega is an indisputable dweeb. Can't decide if commissioning someone to say "Broke the Meltzer 5 star scale" is worse than those Kurt Angle promos where he would talk about putting on a match of the year. 

-Thank god Eddie Kingston was on commentary during Fenix/Pentagon, because he was the only thing that could have made that pile worthwhile. You'd think Pentagon would be a little more inspired working opposite his flashier, more entertaining brother, but you would be wrong! I'm not certain I saw a single Pentagon kick that didn't show light, and the entire match was a full reset after every single move and kickout. The opening "I know my opponent" dance party looked lazy, like two people looking ahead to dance step 3 before they had completed step 2, so you had things like those garbage pinball attempts where the person pinning is already rolling themselves off before the person being pinned has even moved. Midway through Fenix appeared to brain himself doing a reverse rana off the top, just crunching straight down on his neck and head. It looked really really bad so things naturally got more disjointed after as it appeared they were stalling for time. Pentagon did a derpy rolling DDT that either shouldn't have been attempted or should have only been attempted if his brother could move, and so instead just looked like three separate blown spots. The home stretch was trash, just Fenix doing a big move for a nearfall, then rest, then both standing up, then Pentagon doing a big move for a nearfall. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, no consequences, no transitions, no interest whatsoever. Fenix hit a great tornillo, Kingston saved what he could. 

-I was not buying the "gritty fight feel" of Cabana/Page. This whole thing just felt all over the map. Both guys had moments of standing up from a strike with gritted teeth, you know, real cowboy shit, and a few seconds later Page would be hitting a standing shooting star or Cabana would be hitting a headscissors. They wanted to have a juniors match, then they'd want to have a war, then they'd want to do some nearfall kickouts, it all felt like pieces were pulled from different matches. The beginning had some "fast exchanges" that weren't fast, leading commentary to cover by calling Cabana "deceptionably" fast, which is not a word just as Cabana is not deceptively fast. I liked Page catching Cabana's stupid slow crawl through the legs spot and turning it into a pin, and Page's back bump to the apron was nuts (and completely wasted and unnecessary in a match like this, but I did like Cabana's follow up splash off the apron). Page's match finishing lariat looked like a finish, but man the flip portion of it is never going to be not dumb. 

-Tag scramble had some moments but was overall a big ol' mess. I am not sure if Marq Quen is a constant victim of bad catching or if he's just a man who is very good at diving one foot to the side of his opponent. I'm not sure if he's been doing super high tope con hilos onto concrete intentionally, or if I've been reading the move wrong and it's actually a flipping clothesline and I've just incorrectly been focusing on the future arthritis gifting flat back bumps on the floor. His shooting star press that always falls a foot and a half short falls a foot and a half short a bit later, so that might contain the answer. Things got really uncomfortable when Isiah Kassidy hits a guillotine legdrop that almost disconnects Alex Reynolds' head from his body. You can see his jaw snap over and his body goes stiff. Blade figures this out when he picks up his arm and realizes he's dragging a dead body. He drags Reynolds corpse into the corner and - a real pro - uses Reynolds' hand to tag in. But it looked like  nobody else in the ring knew Reynolds was out cold. He was motionless towards the corner with his legs crossed, people crashing into him on landings. Reynolds is a total nutbar, so the second he barely comes to he immediately goes into a sequence with Nick Jackson, which was really insane because the guy looked like he had no idea where he was. It was weird watching him move by pure in ring muscle memory and still manage to be a part of a three person sequence. You can't grade his execution but he hit his marks and that impressed the hell out of me. It was clear that he wouldn't have even been able to tie his shoes in his condition, and here he was taking a high knee in the corner and a bulldog. Silver and Reynolds were the saving grace here, and Butcher/Blade had some nice moments (I do like that suplex into knees), but the match got uncomfortable when nobody in ring or on commentary was acknowledging Reynolds was a dead body. Bad night for that to happen, after Fenix's near broken neck. 

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 6/24/20

What Worked

-AEW realized that nobody in the fed knows how to catch a dive, so I appreciate they made a match into a lumberjack just so 18 guys would be standing close together to catch someone. The set up was clumsy as hell, but it's smart to recognize your weaknesses.

-Super smart usage of Shida, just a quick running high knee and nice falcon arrow and then leaping aggressively into the crowd to smack Penelope around. Shida is someone who fucks up everyone's timing in every AEW match I've seen her in, so quick squashes to build to bigger matches is brilliant.

-Lee/Cabana vs. Janela/Kiss was certainly a pleasant surprise. They kept a hot pace for 8 minutes, and I cannot believe that this is the first actual non-battle royal that Kiss has been in over the entire Dynamite run. He came off like a real star in this one, if not a main eventer than someone who should clearly be a featured attraction every couple of weeks. He and Janela had a lot of chemistry as a team and I liked their quick tandem flying and the way they would run into big Brodie boots or screens. There was really only one hinky spot (where Cabana held up on a roaring elbow and Kiss bumped a little early for it), but most of this was fun fun fun.

-FTR/SCU was a hot tag that started falling apart a bit down the stretch, but I think they mostly did a good job at going home when things started slipping. I think this got good during the picture in picture break right after they did the tandem suplexes over the top to the floor, and thought Hardwood was especially strong with his cutoff punches. I think SCU's double team work was surprisingly more  solid, but I don't really care about FTR as a "double team" kind of tag team, I prefer them more as a cutoff tag team. So it was a complementary pairing with a strong progression. I dug SCU coming back with Daniels' slingshot elbow and Kazarian's big legdrop, and how it lead to FTR taking over later when Kazarian missed with an even bigger legdrop. Even a couple things that missed (like a Daniels flying knee that missed the mark) looked good after Wheeler took a nasty bump ricocheting off the ropes. Don't love FTR cutting gassed post-match in ring promos, but it's at least unique to them and so for now I'll appreciate it as a feature.

-Nice Cage squash. Jon Cruz is the right kind of ragdoll bumper that makes someone like Cage shine, getting insane height on a flapjack and crumpling nicely on everything. I dig Cage's bicep curl spot, feels like something an awesome juiced bodybuilder should be doing. Press slams and bicep curls, fuck yeah. There just needs to be a bodybuilder wrestler who bases every piece of offense on his regular gym set.

-Hardy/Santana was a good pairing and I liked seeing all the cool ways Santana would bump wildly for Hardy. In the opening couple minutes alone he was flying to the floor, all around ringside, and into the barricade. His cutoff work was simple and I liked how he would mix quick reversals in with just choking and stomping away at Hardy in the corner. The flip reversal out of the Side Effect was something I hadn't seen, and I like that it didn't come off fluidly; it came off like Hardy was going through with the move as planned and was genuinely surprised at Santana's reversal. After seeing the abomination that was Wardlow/Luchasaurus and how they kept anticipating every single move a split second (or more) too early, this kind of surprise struggle was awesome to see. I'm into 45 year old Hardy busting ass and keeping up with quick guys like Santana, and dig that he's pulling it off.

-Fine segment to close out the show, really loved how they kept building to the moment where it looked like Jericho was going to pop Cassidy. The through the crowd brawl was real good (also why the fuck are there so many people there in the crowd?? Who are they??), loved the hotshot Jericho took on a railing and especially loved how cool Orange Cassidy looks while bleeding all over himself out of the ear. It's almost like blood automatically makes nearly every wrestling situation better? Jericho's bump was cool, still no clue why so many people were there, but this was a good way to close out the show.


What Didn't Work

-Wardlow/Luchasaurus was a shitty version of a shitty Keith Lee/Dijakovic match, the kind of match that could have been good had they just done shoulderblocks and clotheslines, and instead derailed in hilarious fashion once they decided to pepper in a ton of slo mo dancing. The strike exchanges were all terrible, with Wardlow throwing slow punches from a mile away and both doing pillow soft slo mo Frye/Takayama strikes. Luchasaurus kept showing too much of his hand on bumps, clearly prepping for bumps that never quite matched up to the move Wardlow was delivering. And by the time the match devolved into Luchasaurus doing his embarrassing DDR exchanges it become one of the saddest matches I've seen on Dynamite. Literally every one of Luchasaurus dance exchanges looked like he was throwing them for the first time, without practicing, and without making sure that he could make any of it look good. And none of it looked good. It arguably peaked with him hitting the slowest legsweep I've ever seen, with Wardlow then taking a flat back bump after getting slowly legswept in the shins. Incredible. Luchasaurus whiffed on every strike that was supposed to be caught, thigh slapped when kicks didn't connect, and made sure every single kick he threw looked like a giant pile of triceratops shit. The flying off the stage was a minor bright spot, full props for Marko getting launched like that, but the set up for all of the big spots was so clunky and unnatural  and not a good enough reason to work an entire lumberjack match just to use them as a base. This was a real sad way to start a show.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 6/10/20

What Worked

-Good debut for FTR, which my reptile brain just realized probably stands for Formerly the Revival. They could gain some notoriety if they cut a promo saying it stood for Fuck the Racists. I would like it to be Friendship to Remember, and in WWE it probably would have stood for Foreign to Raw. Also, I genuinely had no idea that their WWE names were like Fire Pro versions of their actual names. And really, their actual names sound like the Fire Pro versions. But this was a good tag that didn't go above and beyond, played as a decent showcase without being any kind of walk in the park. This was the Just a Taste and that's fine for a debut, although after complaining about not being able to let loose in tags it was a little odd seeing them have a tag that wouldn't have been in the top half of their WWE syndicated matches. I liked Blade's extra kickout on the Cash elbowdrop, liked that we got a little late match twist.  

-Feels good putting the women's tag up here, and it's crazy to think that it lands up here because of Penelope Ford. This was easily her best AEW performance, and the best performance I've seen from her period. I thought the layout was a little wonky, and Shida is still a problem, but a good Ford performance really elevated some of Shida's offense. It also helped that they didn't throw out another 4 way. Tag matches are just going to be more satisfying that a messy 4 way. Ford really started opening my eyes when she pinballed off a Shida missile dropkick (with Ford stumbling around decently before the bump, as Shida naturally made her wait way too long before hitting the dropkick), but she made every piece of offense look good here, and played a late match nearfall for max effectiveness. Statlander probably also had her best AEW showing, with only weak elbows to break a Nyla fireman's carry the only thing that looked off. The timing on her late match tope to Kip Sabian was strong. I thought the set up on Nyla's double knee was preposterous, and as much as I think Shida stinks, I'm not sure a wrestler in history could have stood on the bottom rope waiting to be hit as long as she did and still make it work. Nyla hung her on those ropes for an eternity and I think only Terry Funk would have had a chance of not looking like a complete idiot standing on that rope for so long. Terry's rope flopping game is strong, he has the best chance. Curious how Finlay would have handled it. However, the payoff looked great, Shida and Statlander flipping and crashing in unison off the big kneedrop. Of course, Shida is up and running around moments after selling this devastating move, so guess it wasn't that painful after all and definitely not worth the wait. But overall? A strong Penelope Ford performance got us up top.

-Ortiz and Santana go up here, most of the rest of the trios is down below. Santana and Ortiz had a real nice standout tag team match in the middle of several middling or non-existent performances. Ortiz stomping the hell out of Taylor in the corner really made this feel more violent than it had up to that point, they really played into Cassidy's big run, their beatdowns looked really good, and Ortiz's cannonball down the stretch looked super high impact. These two looked like the best team in AEW here, and just give me 15 minutes of them vs. Free the Raccoons.

-Guevara/Colt goes up here, even though it wasn't really bad or good. It had more things that I liked than disliked. I mostly liked Guevara's cool as hell wild dive, and the fact that he saves all of his bullshit for the picture in picture. Doing a bunch of rope running and Fargo strutting and chinlocks while most of my screen is showing cat food commercials? That's great. Plenty of this didn't really move the needle, but Sammy entertains me. 

What Didn't Work

-The second AEW started, a smoke detector started beeping in my house. You know, that kind of beeping that you can't actually locate and sounds the exact same volume no matter where you're standing in the house. I'm not saying that is the fault of AEW Dynamite, but I know for a fact that it didn't beep this entire week *until* AEW Dynamite. It's a small sample, but it's a sample that doesn't favor Dynamite. 

-Young Bucks came off like real dweebs after the FTR match, and a feud started over a "you didn't introduce yourself" angle plays real lame in 2020. If they want YB to be the heels of the feud, couldn't they have just come out and kicked their ass or something?

-Several guys held back that trios match. Trent looked real bad, his timing off the entire match. Hager looked like a stumbly dork, even though I liked a couple of his slams. Cassidy looked fine but I have a feeling he would have looked much less so without Santana and Ortiz bumping and getting perfectly into position with everything he did. Still, his dive was good and his part of the match was exactly what it should have been. Plus, he got beat with a sack of oranges and that should be enough to put his performance topside.

-Could not get into the long Marq Quen singles match. Private Party don't really do it for me in general, and Cody main events against guys who shouldn't be having 8+ minute singles matches are just going to need Cody blood. I liked how Cody paid off the knee work well enough, but this could have been snipped in half.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 6/3/20

What Worked

-Taz is a good choice as Cage's manager, as there's a constant cool visual reminder that they might have disjoined at some point. They're the only two guys left with structured and groomed Year 2000 sideburns (Jungle Boy gets a pass, his sideburns are grandfathered in), and Cage's HGH belly rivals Taz's pasta belly. It's too unlikely that they found each other, far more likely that one disjoined from the other.

-I really liked Jericho/Cabana as a 6 minute 2nd hour of Nitro match. Cabana hits a nice Asai moonsault (and then does an even crazier thing by slapping hi fives with several people and then immediately touching his mouth), and I loved his big bump over the ringpost after getting shoved by Hager. The layout was smart and kept things brisk, obvious that Jericho is so much better than Omega at pacing a match like this. Cabana got a couple decent nearfalls even though the finish wasn't in doubt, and the finish was perfect: Jericho crumpling Cabana with the Judas Effect as Cabana is bunny hopping off the middle buckle. And I'm not sure why, but I laughed hard at the specific way Jericho called Mike Tyson a piece of shit after the match. Man's delivery is still strong.

-Britt Baker with the segment of the week again, every second of it was so good. Locking the wheelchair in place to work the ropes, dragging that 2 lb. weight, the slo mo looks at the camera while being pushed across the field, all of it so great. Did I really sleep on Baker, or has she gotten really great in the past couple months?

-I liked Cody/Jungle Boy but something bigger was missing. I can't put my finger on it, so I'll just say that I much prefer Cody's style of working opponents into a match to any of the other AEW figureheads. Cody doesn't just step out of the way and allow someone to have a run in the middle, he makes space for convincing comebacks that works to an opponents' style. I liked how Jungle Boy's strikes got harder as the match went on, and how he went after Cody's cut. I was impressed with their fighting on the top rope, a moment that is hard to pull off without looking like two guys trying to cooperate to maintain balance, but I think Jungle Boy's best strike of the match was when he smacked Cody in the ribs up top, and I loved how Cody popped him right after. The table spot looked good, although I wish it was used as more than just a match reset. It didn't really play into the match and it's weird to use the most violent spot of the match as essentially a rest period. Still, strong match and I'll be totally fine with Proud Defending Champ Cody bleeding on TV in 10 minute matches every week.


What Didn't Work

-I'm happy that AEW sees black people as equal, at least enough to put a written statement at the beginning of Dynamite and making the brave decision to ban Linda Hogan from live events but how many cool black wrestlers could be on TV instead of these brutal weekly Kip Sabian matches. If AEW announced they were giving Kip Sabian's contract to literally any black wrestler anywhere, I would believe them. Making that statement at the top of your show and then cutting right to Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc in the first match fells like talking about how you support black artists while buying Nickelback tickets. I mean Omega/Page vs. Sabian/Havoc is literally the whitest possible match they could have booked. And yet, for all the deserved grief I give Sabian and Havoc, Omega was clearly the worst guy in this specific match. He hung both guys out to dry with improbably long wait times. Poor Sabian was sitting on the turnbuckles, plopped there like someone sitting backwards on a toilet, just waiting ages to take a backcracker. Omega's selling was laughably bad, with the biggest laugh coming when he took a Sabian springboard dropkick and did this amazing Little Tramp walk into the ropes while waiting for his cue to waddled backwards into a poison rana. And that rana magically allowed him to hit suplexes seconds later! Omega managed to look like more of a clown than Sabian and Havoc, and that's an impressive dedication to putting over your opponents.

-So Fyter Fest is an indisputably bad name, right?

-Nyla Rose took a nice big bump over the top and off the apron, and had a couple of really nice kickouts (well timed in accordance with the move she had taken), but I couldn't quite figure out if the layout of this was really dumb, or lazy, or just bad. It was a worse version of the mid 90s babyface Randy Savage formula where Swole took the entire match and then Rose just hit a rydeen bomb and called it a night. Swole gets hung up sometimes on timing and her strikes always look better when they aren't part of a combo (loved her backhand slaps here), but she came off weaker to me with how quickly she was dispatched, no matter that she got half a dozen nearfalls before that. Also, I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and assume JR's use of the word "manhandling" during Nyla's matches is just because he only knows so many words.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 3/4/20

What Worked

-AEW should utilize the 8 man format more, because the opening match was a very fun use of several guys I don't really love. Colt Cabana was given the spotlight in his debut, getting the opening run, playing hammy apron guy, and then getting the finish run hot tag. But everyone else really held this together and made good use of the 10 minute runtime. Evil Uno is a goof but his plays to his role well, and Dark Order feel appropriately represented with him directing traffic. Their group beatdowns and orchestrated attacks are good enough, and they all bump well. Cabana at least had a nice pair of back elbows and nice headscissors, but SCU had a really polished performance. Kazarian was the standout with a great fiery hot tag (probably my favorite section of the match) with him running in hard on everything, hitting an especially impressive straight arm lariat and a great flying forearm. There was a cool stacked attack with Daniels hitting a slingshot elbow, Kazarian hitting a slingshot legdrop, and Scorpio hitting a slingshot splash, cool old man Kaientai stuff. There was weirdness, like SCU's Lambda Lambda Lambda rap entrance, or John Silver/Alex Reynolds being under masks for some reason but still referred to as John Silver and Alex Reynolds. But who cares because Stu Grayson looked like he crushed his shoulder taking a Cassandro bump straight into the ringpost. Well timed, nicely paced multiman.

-Big Swole squash was what it should have been, and the wind up punch finish should be played in every single hype package and commercial.

-Great Hager squash, started easy with a couple nice slams from Hager, but jumped up a level with a nice QT comeback before getting put down. QT is a fun job match babyface in the same vein as Bob Cook, where he'll throw a couple nice worked punches in before getting absolutely worked over. That's a good guy to have on a roster. Post match big brawl was good too, and while Hangman's drinking gimmick is as dumb, and his clothes scream "Guy who hangs around rodeos but can't ride a horse", he at least hit Hager with a big clothesline and Hager bumped it on the leg of a chair.

-Main event was a great segment, and another superstar performance from Darby Allin. Moxley got taken out and strangled in the concession area, so Darby was left to defend himself in a handicap match against Jericho and Guevara. The latter are great at stalling and delaying a beating, allowing openings for comebacks by cockiness, and Darby is obviously someone who is going to be great at quick comebacks. Guevara bumps all over for the cause, Darby hits the Coffin Drop onto all of the Inner Circle, really flattens Guevara with a senton, and topes right into a Judas Effect. You knew he'd be great at being outnumbered, and he didn't disappoint.


What Didn't Work

-Opening segment felt like an absolute eternity to me. The scars looks like cool Jack Pierce monster makeup, but this felt way more like a dragged out Raw opening segment than the typically more efficient AEW promo segments.

-That was too much of a Chuck Taylor match and somehow not much of a PAC match. PAC just went 32 minutes with Omega, he did not need to give a big rub to Chuck Taylor the next week with several close nearfalls.

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SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES IWA MID-SOUTH!! A Shot of Southern Comfort 5/29/04, Part 1

ER: IWA Mid-South is probably my favorite indy ever, and I have spindles filled with dvds of it. It seems crazy to not occasionally indulge in this product, which once ran so improbably frequently that there are tons of gaps in my viewing. Let's watch some of the best of the carniest. AND, I think - as always - the best way to watch, is by closing my eyes and pulling a dvd randomly out of the stack. That brings us to this show, which had some deliciously classic early-mid 2000s indy bloat: 13 matches over the course of the night, utilizing  32 DIFFERENT WRESTLERS!! 32!!! WWE barely uses more than 32 guys during the Royal Rumble PPV, but here's IWA bringing 32 different guys to some random Saturday night card in a smallish Indiana town. It's the best.

1. Danny Daniels vs. Eddie Edwards

ER: Oh jeez, Edwards has giant silver pants and his hair done in short braids, looking like the worst ever version of Roger from Sister, Sister. Go home, Eddie. But really this wasn't a bad opener. It was kept to 5 minutes and Edwards wasn't having 2.9 kickout wars at this point in his career. He hit a nice spinkick and took a nasty cross arm German suplex, Daniels stuck him with a nice piledriver that did not get kicked out of, surprising me. We did get a standing elbow exchange, how far we've come in 13 years.

2. Rain vs. Sumie Sakai

ER: This built to a pretty nice finish. Rain wasn't really that good here, but Sakai was a pro and kept the floor somewhat higher than it would have been. Rain was really poor at obviously getting into position for the next move, really making everything looked rehearsed, running into position early and just standing there motionless waiting to be attacked. Sakai takes a big sprawling bump through all the chairs, packs a huge wallop with two missile dropkicks, drops Rain with a nice hotshot,  hits one of those fast low-arcing moonsaults, throws fast suplexes, all nice stuff. It's awesome that she's still working the states.

3. Southern Comfort (Chris Hamrick/Tracy Smothers) vs. The Wild Cards (Eddie Kingston/Jack Marciano)

ER: Kingston and Marciano look like they're in a weird religious cult, their heads are shaved bald and they're wearing matching big baggy white pants, white boots and white sleeveless shirts. They look like the Yonkers chapter of the Guilty Remnant. The match was a pretty quick sprint, just 7 minutes, and really a showcase for Southern Comfort. Kingston wasn't really an established guy and was really young at this point,  and Marciano never really got established before getting retired. So we get a showcase for SC's offense, and that's a fun thing. Smothers is a great bully, and he breaks out all his leaping kicks, big chops and overhand rights, gets fired up and does a couple spears, makes great faces when Kingston spits in his face, stuff you'd expect from Smothers. Hamrick is a huge favorite of mine, I love his style, love his dangerous bumps and offense, love that he looks like the most violent Johnny Winter ever. Hamrick gets crazy height on offense and on bumps. At one point he does a missile dropkick that seems like he dropped in from the ceiling, and the end of the match is him hitting a Carolina jam onto Marciano...OFF of Kingston's shoulders (who was seated on the top rope). It was a gorgeous legdrop, dropping insanely in from 10 feet. In between all that he hits a couple big kicks, and takes a flying bump through the ropes to the floor FAR more dangerously/painfully than most people would have taken it. I would have liked current Kingston in there against 2004 Southern Comfort, but this was fun.

4. Nigel McGuiness/Chad Collyer vs. The Second City Saints (CM Punk/Colt Cabana)

ER: A good enough match, though nothing much of note happened. We get a lot of comedy matwork from Nigel and Colt, but it's not bad. I am not completely stone, so I can laugh at Colt rolling through back and forth to try to shake a wristlock. Nigel's Johnny Saint spots come off pretty clunky, but the stuff with them working a wristlock was engaging. Collyer had some fun stuff, had a nice combo with a knee drop followed by a quick elbow drop followed by a quick somersault senton. Late in the match he hits a cool dragon screw on Cabana. Best part of the match was Nigel rushing across the ring and just leveling Punk with an elbow to break up interference, and Punk went flying through the ropes to the floor (taking an even better floor bump than Hamrick the match before!). Punk whiffs on a shining wizard to end the match.

5. Havana Pitbulls (TJ Perkins/Ricky Reyes) vs. Brad Bradley/Ryan Boz

ER: This was pretty easily the best match of the card so far, to my surprise. Both Pitbulls looked good here, especially TJ (and has anyone dropped their 2017 stock more than Perkins? Still, 2004 Perkins is a welcome Rocky Romero replacement). I really liked the Boz/Perkins segments as Boz was kind of blocking Perkins' mat stuff which made all of it look more painful. Perkins grabbed him in a cravate and tried a snapmare, but Boz went straight down on his face. Perkins kept it locked on, eventually got the snapmare, all of it looked nasty. I also thought Perkins was throwing nice strikes against Bradley, but soon we move into Boz and Bradley cutting off the ring to work over TJ. It's all really satisfying, Boz comes off as a god sleaze and Bradley was kind of a green lummox at this point, a good combo. Reyes gets a quick pin as TJ planchas to the floor, and this certainly exceeded any expectations.

6. M-Dogg 20/Josh Prohibition vs. Homicide/B-Boy

ER: Hey, this was mostly really good, because Homicide and B-Boy were really great in 2004. And most of the match is an awesome mugging of M-Dogg who played an admirable FIP. We start with some flash from Prohibition and M-Dogg, including a pretty crazy springboard somersault senton from 20 that he almost lawndarts himself on (yet the late rotation seemed planned). The spot portion was fine but once we settled into the FIP portion it got real good. Homicide and B-Boy were lean and mean in 2004, no signs of those bellies that would pop up later, and they laced into 20. At one point the two of them were taking turns just running and striking him, Homicide would run in with an elbow, get out of the way, B-Boy would run in with a knee, get out of the way, Homicide runs in with a yakuza kick, etc. He gets facewashed, he gets beaten down, it's awesome. When Prohibition tags in we get a crazy train crash run with everyone hitting increasingly bigger spots (the move escalation was handled really nicely). We also learn that Prohibition was flat out terrible at getting into position for moves. He would stand there swaying and jerking around like Johnny Cage waiting to get his spine ripped out by Sub-Zero. He would rush into place early...and then stand there and sway while waiting for the move. We get a couple nasty headdrops at the very end, finishing on Prohibition getting planted vertically with the Cop Killa. Absolutely gross landing. I think he got legit knocked out, as even B-Boy was in the ring checking on him after, and his selling was...well, it was too good to be actual selling by Josh Prohibition. Homicide briefly checks on him, laughs and says "You're fine" and makes gang signs to the back.

7. Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries vs. Petey Williams vs. Delirious vs. Nate Webb vs. Jimmy Jacobs

ER: This is an elimination match, and if you look at that list of 7 names and picked the guy you would want to see least...you know that was the guy who advanced the whole way through. Yep, we get alllll of the Petey Williams and he clearly looked like the worst guy in the match. I had completely blocked out just how much IWA Mid-South used Petey Williams in 2004, and how strongly pushed he was. It's like they used him before he was in TNA, so once he was on TNA they just pushed him as the top guy in the company. It looks completely absurd now, even moreso than it probably looked then. Because it sure doesn't look great now. And the thing is, everybody else in this match looked decent-to-great, with Petey looking outright bad. So let's not even waste time on Petey's stomach kicks that don't even attempt to look like a man kicking a stomach, or him needing to be lifted up two different times by the guy who was supposed to be taking a move from him, or his really bad athletic bumping that just makes it look like bumps don't hurt at all. No, no need to waste time on THAT. Let's focus on the good, because there was plenty of good here, namely Roderick Strong. This was a big time spotfest that Petey Williams occasionally slowed down, but there was way too much good for him to ruin all of it. Delirious takes the nastiest facebuster ever to get eliminated, we get a wild divetrain that peaks with Strong press slamming Jacobs from the ring and throwing him into everybody like Bigelow throwing Spike. Strong looks is all babyface and babyfat, but he's the most vicious guy in the match and looks great. Jacobs was super tiny and wasn't quite the crazy brawler he'd become, still doing some of the Brody shtick, and doing more indy goofus "I DDT this guy while bulldogging that guy!" stuff. But he bumps big and leans into stuff, and we all know how good he got not long after this. Aries flew into everything and came across like a big deal, and goth goofball Nate Webb works like Aerostar, if Aerostar had just taken a couple of mystery pills he found in his old vinyl pants. That's a good thing. This whole thing was mostly fun, would have made a great 6 way.


8. Petey Williams vs. BJ Whitmer


ER: There must be someone special out there, lookin' out for me. The winner of that 7 way got an immediate title shot against BJ Whitmer, and my dvd stuttered and labored and sputtered and skipped and sadly, right before Petey won the prior match, it just couldn't take any more, and jumped back to the menu screen. I tried - actually tried! - to get back to where I left off, but the dvd wouldn't even make it past the intros to the 7 way. It just wouldn't let me. I actually went back to see a Petey Williams match, and my dvd was all "Look man, just gimme your keys, alright? Look, I know, you're fine, just gimme your keys. Buddy, I know. No, I know. *wrests keys away, dvd forcibly rejects itself* I was going to watch Petey Williams win the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight title, but fate intervened. A regret understood by no one.

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ROH TV Workrate Report: 12/6/10

1. We start with Colt Cabana vs. Eddie Edwards and they take it to the mat and it's goofy but fun. Colt has some silly reversals that make me smile and Eddie does a real nice transition into a kneebar. Cabana reverses into a wristlock and really BENDS that hand back and it looks real painful. We're up and Edwards hits a dragon screw that Colt makes look GREAT by planting his knee directly into the mat and rolls to the floor. Eddie hits a big tope and this is pretty damn good. Cabana nails a clothesline to the back of Eddie's head lands some nice jabs and absolutely obliterates Edwards with his butt. Full on butt-butt right to the chest, just awesome. I can't decide whose jumping flying butt-butt I like more: Cabana's or Goldust's. It's like the difference between a lariat and a clothesline. Cabana runs at his opponent and leaps at them butt first, but Goldust throws his opponent in the ropes and lets their own momentum work against them by leaping up and making them run right into his butt. Ahhh I can't choose. We can just agree that butt offense is great.

Cabana goes for a butt-butt in the corner and Edwards hits a big flying knee and we go into a kinda sucky chop exchange but it doesn't matter because this is still good. Colt nails the corner butt and hits a really great moonsault. Match starts to go a little too long before Edwards' comeback and I think it's gonna go time limit but they SWERVE me and go to the finish. Plenty of stuff to like here, Colt looked really good throughout.

Christopher Daniels' eyeliner makes him look cross-eyed and he's still overshooting that moonsault. For a guy who was one of my favorites to see live in 1999, I sure don't want Daniels on my TV in 2010.

Corino and Steen are in the ring and Corino is in a SUIT and looks great. Steen is Henchman 21 pre-badass transformation and I'm still not loving his "I will destroy" promos about Generico.

Haze and Sara Del Ray have a backstage sit down interview and ROH does a good job of putting them in attractive lighting and they're fighting soon in a tag and Del Ray is cocky but realistic and Haze is likeable and affable and sick of Del Ray not giving her respect. Both gals did their thing and I want to see them fight. It's that easy.

2. Generico is out and DARK and BROODING and is a man on the edge. Bobby Shields looks like young Jerry Lynn and throws shitty elbows like present Jerry Lynn and then Generico throws two really lame yakuza kicks that graze Shields' shoulder and then gets the pin with the brainbuster. This wasn't much. Steen and Generico aren't convincing me with their spittle-beard promos and angry eyes.

3. KOW with Shane Hagadorn are in the ring and Shane is wearing basketball shorts and Claudio is wearing AWESOME dickish white slacks and suede slip-on loafers and a perfectly too-tight ref's shirt while drinking a latte. They do a public workout and bring in a short juiced up orange-tanned guy name Blaine Rage (wow) and Prazak is fucking terrible parroting every fucking thing Hero yells over the mic. Rage has the shittiest "intense guy about to snap" face you've ever seen and he SNAPS due to all the unfair cheating going on and that lasts about 1 second before he takes the KRS-1 and Hagadorn does a great shuffle with a little elbow drop for the pin.

4. And now the main event, Davey Richards vs. Erick Stevens. We start with some waistlock reversals and Davey does a cartwheel out of an exchange then waits in the middle of the ring goofily just so Stevens can run at him and get armdragged. Listless slap exchange follows and Davey at least brings some stiffness with kicks. Stevens misses a charge to the floor, Davey misses a baseball slide dropkick and Stevens slams him into the guardrail back first, looked really rough.

Back in and Stevens keeps working over the stomach and back with some convincing shoulderblocks in the corner and some decent knees. His knees in the clinch looked really good and Richards sold them nicely, really looking like the wind got knocked out of him. Stevens has gotten kinda skinny and it's done weird things to his face as he's all crazy eyes and jawbone. Stevens goes to the top and of course it wouldn't be a Davey match without a strike exchange. Davey does 8 or 10 really awkward headbutts as they battle up top, just kinda headbutting his own hand over and over. Maybe a better camera angle could have saved those.

We head into an extended run of Richards offense, with him hitting a nice running elbow to the corner, a silly handspring knee, and a diving headbutt. We go into a moves trade off for a bit with Stevens hitting a Dr. Bomb, Richards getting a big kick, Stevens hitting a release German suplex, then Davey turning a caught kick into an ankle lock (which Kurt Angle has flat out killed at this point. Once every single one of your opponents reverses your finisher numerous times per match, it's time to move on), Stevens fights for the ropes with his crazy eyes and what seems like a lot of teeth, and they kinda futz around for a bit until Richards locks on a totally bad ass Cloverleaf/Ankle Lock combo (starts out as a Texas Cloverleaf and then sits down with it, still grapevining the legs while grabbing and twisting the ankle. Really cool and painful looking) for the instant tap out.

Match wasn't bad but wasn't good either and seemed really really planned out. I have no ill will against guys planning out their matches to a tee (in fact I really loved a whole bunch of DDP matches) but I really think Davey could benefit from having a little more organic feel to his matches. Too many times during this match he had a blank expression (like Tom Hanks' Polar Express eyes) as if he was concentrating too much on the reversal sequences. Instead of missing a kick and then wisely countering with an enziguiri, it came off like he already knew he was missing that initial kick and following up with the enziguiri.

It has to be very tough to work a sequence when you know how you planned it out, and still make it feel like you don't know what's coming next. When a guy knows he's missing a splash off the top, it's hard to do the splash as if you're hitting it. You know it's a planned spot to miss the splash, so you naturally brace yourself and do the move slightly different.

A big key to why so many of Necro Butcher's matches work is because even though he has spots he regularly hits, all his matches have the feel that they can careen out of control at any minute. Nothing looks rehearsed, and Necro rarely awkwardly shuffles into position for something because he was out of place for a rehearsed sequence. He always seems like he's flying by the seat of his pants, and Davey could really benefit from a little of that spontaneity. He really comes off like a robot that's been programmed to approximate wrestling.

I'm not saying I want Davey to wrestle the same style as Necro, I just really wish he wasn't so rigid and set in his sequences.

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Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY LIST

1. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
2. Nigel McGuinness v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 4/14
3. Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 2/16
4. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23
5. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
6. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
7. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
8. Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH 4/14
9. Colt Cabana v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 2/24
10. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
11. John Cena v. Shawn Michaels WWE 4/1
12. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
13. Davey Richards/Roderick Strong v. Jack Evans/Delirious ROH 4/14
14. Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13
15. Samoa Joe v. Eddie Kingston FSM 3/17
16. Undertaker v. Batista WWE 4/1
17. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
18 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio NOAH 4/1
19. Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
20. Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16

2. Nigel McGuinness v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 4/14

I had been down on Morishima a bit as I really hated both his KENTA and his Homicide matches. Working juniors you almost got the sense he almost works as a tall fat junior, and he is a shitty giant Super Astro. Here though he was in there with another heavyweight so you actually bought him eating offense, and he wasn't doing mirror sections with guys half his size. He was also great using his weight, as he had nifty variations of fat guy sit downs. Him crushing Nigel on the apron was amazing and it really looked like Nigel was going to allow himself to be paralyzed to add drama to his title match. I love how McGuinness has simplified his stuff, and his lariat variation were spectacular. They had really established the rebound clothesline as a killer, and I loved how it kept getting cut off, until he finally hit it. I knew that they wouldn't give Nigel the belt yet, but I believed that was the finish. This had a little bit of NOAHing up, but I kind of mind it less when it is a monster like Morishima, he really should be booked as larger then life, so when he shrugs off something, it makes it mean more when he finally sells.


3. Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 2/16

This was much more of WAR style heavyweight slugfest then the epic title match style of the McGuiness match. A pair of big dudes pounding on each other. In some ways this was a really good way to introduce Morishima. He doesn't work well with juniors at all, but has always been good at this kind of nose to nose asskicking match. I remember loving a Takeshi v. Takeshi match from four years ago. Joe hasn't had a ton of matches like this, but he was great here, and I got the sense that he would have had a great match against Tenryu if TNA didn't fuck it up. Joe is also really good at working the role of top guy, as Morishima has to come in and make his bones against the toughest they have. Still I did think Joe was a little too dominant, which is why this is a bit lower on the list. Morishima never really got the big near falls, you never got the sense that Joe was close to loosing. He worked this more like he worked Kingston or Necro, where Morishima comes off tough for being able to hang with Joe, but clearly a notch below him. That really isn't the way you want him to look right before his run as dominant champion.

4. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23

I was shocked at the greatness of the Wrestlemania match, which I figured would be a clusterfuck, and I also figured the ubiquitous "Michaels gets his pin back on TV" match would be even worse. Instead the Wrestlemania match was great, and the TV rematch was even better. Shawn was the real surprise here. The opening chain wrestling section was embarrassing, and I don't know how a guy who has been wrestling for 20+ years can't execute a fireman's carry, and there was a section where they were going toe to toe with strikes which is a terrible idea made worse with Shawn's awful knife edge chops. However outside of those two things he was basically inoffensive. After all of the back work and bumps near the end of the match, I kept waiting for the heat killing Resurrection (you think the Romans could have drawn money after Calvary?) and his long offensive run. It never really happened, instead of dominating, you got the sense the match ending superkick was a last gasp effort, he is guy who has the equalizer in his feet and is never out of a match. It almost felt like Diego Corrales's big comeback in the first Castillo fight, a guy who looks dead landing that one big flurry. I also really loved his crawl for the ropes in the STFU, one of the first times his desperation selling didn't come off as cartoonish.

Okay enough of that shit, because this match was still 1000% John Cena. Starting with his awesome reversal of a go behind, his crazy Dustin bump to the floor, selling the hell out of the arm, talking shit to the ref, ropes course crawling after the first chin music and right up to his KO selling for a 1/8 Chris Adams superkick, he owned it here. The catching the plancha spot is pretty standard, but Cena made it look like he was Charles Atlas. He also really came off like the top guy, like he was the man that needed to be dethroned, while Michaels was the underdog trying to dig deep for one more unlikely win. It was subtlety heelish, but if they keep it subtle it will continue work. I they need to finish with Micheals and put him in a feud with Mark Henry or Orton, someone he can really be a total face against again, but I like how he can play both roles so well.

6. Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH 4/14

I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this. I haven't had much to say about the IWS guys before, and I have actively hated Steen, but he seems to have ditched most of his crap and just become a fat asskicker. With his bad skin and flabby body he does look like every single guy in the audiance though, I am guessing ROH books him for the same reason you book Pedro Morales in NYC, he is the regional babyface for fat wrestling dorks. With that I think this match was hurt a little by him working heel, you don't book Putski as a heel in Pittsburgh. The opening was great as Jay and Steen cheap shotting each other ruled, and Stevens was a total monster. The NO REMORE CORE beating up Stevens was fine, and the Rock and Rolls hurt partner comes out, is a great match layout. They did have the two on one go way too long, and really wasn't the beating it needed to be for Mark to risk his health. Jay has to be beaten to death, instead the match was 60/40, doesn't work if your brother defies doctors orders to turn 60/40 into 50/50. Still that was the only flaw as the end section was nuts, and Mark took the kind of sick bumps you need to get this over. Steen was great as a total fucker too, I think I am 180ing on that dude.

7. Colt Cabana v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 2/24

This is one of the two blowoffs for the best angle in wrestling in the last decade, one could make an argument for Rey v. Eddie feud, but this was an amazing story executed amazing, while that was kind of stupid story executed amazingly. Cabana does an amazing opening promo which was like a serious Ric Flair promo mixed with a Hyman Roth speech. Jacobs and Lacey are then interviewed by ex Jacobs girlfriend Becky Bayless which added a little creepiness to it. As an aside, what happened to Becky Bayless? She was able to survive being an ECW rat and still have some youthfulness and prettiness in her, but apparently a semester abroad took it all out her, what happened to her in Paris? Did Chiwetel Ejifor cut out a kidney or something?

Match just starts amazing with both guys going after each other. Cabana busts open Jacobs with a dusty elbow and he reveals scissors in the elbow pad. They then really have the worlds greatest Tiger Jeet Singh match as they stab the shit out of each other with bunches of cool shit in cool ways. Jacobs breaks Cabana's Chicago flag over his back and stabs him in the face with the jagged wood and then wipes the blood off his face with the flag, which is a great "disrespect your local scene" spot. Also earlier in the match Cabana misses Jacobs and stabs the scissors into the turnbuckle getting them stuck, then about ten minutes later he gets whipped into the corner and is able to pull the scissors out and uses them again, to counter a Jacobs attack it was a really nice piece of match layout.

While we were watching this, I said "This is going to be my number one, unless they have Brent Albright run in or something." Moments later in comes shitty HGH belly, tribal tattoo Albright to stink up the match. Whitmer runs in too, and we have shit city briefly, as Whitmer throws Lisa Simpson windmill punches on Albright. The match never really regained its momentum after that, as they moved from a Sheik match to a Sabu match, while the big table senton off a ladder was crazy, it took too long to set up, and didn't have the intensity of the parts that involved stabbing.

10. Davey Richards/Roderick Strong v. Jack Evans/Delirious ROH 4/14

Both Delirious and Evans are really great at simple face in peril tag wrestling, both in the ring taking beating, on the apron firing up their partner and coming into the match as a house of fire. I also love Evans street fight highflying, it wouldn't make any sense for him to be throwing blows so he comes right out to try to kill the guy with dives. I have to give NO REMORE CORE credit, as they were the only heels all night who didn't get face pops. Roderick especially is really great as PROVEN INNOCENT lacrosse date rapist. Davey still looks like he is performing pro-wrestling, rather then pro-wrestling. Still his "look at me I am a heel" stuff is less aggravating then his "look at me I am PURO JUNIOR SUPERSTAR" stuff. Built to some big near falls and I really bought that the underdogs were going to take the win.

12. Samoa Joe v. Eddie Kingston FSM 3/17

This match was built around Eddie Kingston proving his toughness, and man alive does Joe make him prove it. Kingston is able to get off some surprise suplexes and hang for a bit throwing hands with Joe, but eventually he is just mauled, Kawada kicked brutally in the eye, socked square in the face, dumped directly on his head. Joe is really great at being a bad ass, and Kingston does soulful guy dying on his shield about as well as anyone in wrestling. I don't think this is as good as either of these guys first singles matches against Necro Butcher, but if you liked those, you will like this a ton too.

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