Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series Episode 3

Big Beef vs. Crash Jaxon

PAS: These are a pair of big dudes who both lost their first match, and this was a fun Beef showcase. Jaxon had a moment or two, but mostly was eating big shots including a nasty stunning slap, and a couple of big suplexes including a nasty German, plus a wrenching powerbomb for the KO. Jaxon is a good foil for these matches, his size makes it really impressive when he is dropped. 

ER: Beef comes off like a real bulldozer under these rules, and I love watching it. Jaxon threw some iffy looking kneelifts (the first two he did I had no idea what they were even supposed to be until commentary called them knees, just looked like a silly little leap), but he certainly hung in there to take some gnarly strikes from Gnarls. Beef backed him up with a right hand, and landed some nasty crossfaces on the ground. I dug Jaxon trying to stuff a suplex attempt so it wound up looking like Beef dropped him with a leaping Flatliner. Beef's clubbing forearms to the back really echoed and the shoot powerbomb for the win looked really cool. 

Hardway Heeter vs. Chase Holliday

PAS: Heeter comes in to Waiting Room so the old DC punk in me is on his side. Holliday has a medal which he puts on the line in the match. They tried a bit too much here, seven suplexes in a three minute match is total overkill. I actually liked some of the non-suplex stuff a lot, Heeter had a nice jab to the body and the coolest thing in the match was Holliday's jumping knee, but then they just went back to suplexes (none of which looked great). Finish was pretty bad too, with Holliday trying Goodrich elbows which didn't land well at all.

ER: Before he had his first match, I noticed Heeter standing around me during a SUP show during SCI 2019 weekend. I thought he had a cool look, jacked dude with glasses, strong beard, rocking no shirt under a vintage jean jacket. Coming out to Fugazi just adds to all that cool. I'm with Phil, in that the suplex stuff did not work for me at all. It wasn't even that I thought there were too many (there were), but most of them were set up in the most pro wrestling way. If you're going to set these things up with one strike that almost connected, why not just do other pro wrestling finishers? Let's see a bad stomach kick to set up a twist of fate, or maybe someone can wait around bent at the waist to take an axe kick. I like the parts where they were keeping each other at bay with strikes, like Heeter's great jab to the body, or Holliday's swarm of open hand strikes that allowed him to get in close. But just throwing a strike and then hitting a vertical suplex, with no fight whatsoever? I'm sure I could have been into this more if there was some decent struggle, instead of guys taking wrestling suplexes. I much rather would have seen them work around Holliday's early match grounded front chancery and build to his great running knee as the finish. Instead we got Goodridge elbows that all looked like Holliday was trying to rub off one of Heeter's nipples. 

1. Austin Connelly vs. Lord Crewe

PAS: This was my favorite match of the series so far (it's either this or Hoodfoot vs. Flash from Episode 1). Connelly wrestles this like you might imagine Buzz Sawyer would have worked UWF. He charges Crewe, swarming him with wild shots and a Karelin lift which wasn't hit clean, but in a cool way. Crewe peppers him with kicks and slaps and Connelly just keeps moving forward, landing a big slap to the ear and a second big Karelin lift. They exchange big shots until Connelly gets dropped to his butt, with Crewe following up with a nasty sliding elbow for the KO. Whole thing was super intense scrap with constant forward movement.

ER: This was so great, genuinely in the conversation of greatest under 3 minute matches ever. Connelly is billed as a crazy man, and he ran in with no defense the entire time, scrambling for takedowns like an animal (commentary laughed at him using Groundhog Style, which is great), and Crewe just threw full arm strikes the whole time. Connelly threw him with a Karelin lift that Crewe sandbagged (Connelly still got him over) and later muscled Crewe over with a waterwheel suplex. But Crewe just picked this guy apart, throwing more landed strikes in 2 minutes than we've practically seen in this entire UWFI series so far. He was just smacking Connelly above the ear, in the temple, in the mouth, in the forehead, any direction Connelly turned there was an open hand to greet him. Crewe threw a couple nice high kicks whenever Connelly was stunned, and ran in with a sliding elbow for the finish, and all of it looked great. These guys were total maniacs, really showed what kind of special exchanges are possible in this format. 

YOYA vs. Akira

PAS: I liked this a lot too, YOYA is really tiny and it allows Akira to pull off some pretty cool shit throwing him around the ring. Akira is normally a death match guy, but pulled off some slick shit here, including a monkey flip into a cross arm breaker and Indian death lock choke combo.Akira also landed a sick headbutt to break a leg bar, a crazy running back elbow and a koppo kick. YOYA was really fast and used hand speed and some leaping submission attempts. Finish was sick with Akira doing a lifted keylock suplex into a keylock submission which looked like it ripped out Yoya's shoulder. There was a pretty lame run in post match by DD Trash setting up a future tag match outside of UWFI rules, but the in ring part of this match was cool.

ER: This was a lot of fun, and they had a ton of ideas, although I'm not sure we needed every single one of their ideas. I think my problems were more with layout, as YOYA took a ton of hard shots that each counted as a knockdown, and I just did not buy his big comebacks down the stretch. 125 lb. is really small, making that 65 lb. weight difference far greater. I'm under 160 and the idea of me taking knees in the face and being on "Bambi legs" and taking more of the same for 5 minutes, followed by me getting a couple throws on someone weighing 225 lb. sounds laughably implausible. YOYA had some really cool stuff that really worked, and his sliding rolled through kneebar by far one of the coolest things we've seen on the UWFI shows so far. But Akira unloaded so many tricks on him for so long, and I'm not sure I would have bought those throws at any point of the match anyway. 

There were several different pieces of Akira offense that I thought were the end of the match, like YOYA shooting in for a takedown only to meet a perfectly timed knee to the chin. That happens a minute in, and I can't get too excited for a wicked spinning backfist several minutes later, no matter how great it looked. The finish was at least the most disgusting part of the match, and I was genuinely scared for YOYA's elbow, shoulder, and arm. When Akira yoinked YOYA up into the keylock I thought that was the finishing submission right there. I didn't expect him to THROW him by that same arm and then keep the hold applied! Disgusting finish, though it's kind of wild that the 125 lb. guy absorbed more punishment in this match than anyone in any match so far. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Rules Contenders Series Episode 1

ER: I haven't been enjoying AEW the past few weeks, TNT messed up my area broadcast of AEW tonight anyway, and the first episode of Paradigm Pro's Indiana Inokiism just happened to be tonight. Sounds like some signs pointed to us checking this one out. Big Beef is the only wrestler on this show who I have seen, and I haven't even heard of the rest of them. We're going into this blind.

PAS: This is kind of a silly idea, but silly in an awesome way. Midwest indy guys working empty arena UWFI rules matches is very much our kind of shit. I really liked the opening video graphic illegally mixing in clips of Buster Douglas and UFC fights, just hammy enough.

Big Beef Gnarls Garvin vs. Lord Crewe

PAS: Pair of solid looks on these two, really feels like an unexpected post Hardcore show fist fight at the back bar of the Black Cat. Garvin is a thick guy and despite Crewe being listed as a bare knuckled fighter, Garvin had the advantage throwing shots as he really put his weight behind them. The UWFI rules forbid closed punches to the head and it didn't feel like Crewe fully mastered throwing good looking open hands. I did like his jumping choke finish and he had some nice post match trash talking. 

ER: I think the UWFI rules held back the striking here, as the big swinging arm shots from Beef looked really dangerous for something that would have looked better as a worked punch. Kind of like how Foley said Bob Holly had bad looking punches that actually hurt - the worst combination. Beef is probably killing Crewe with open hands and heavy arms but actual worked punches would probably look better. Beef had a couple great suplexes, including a big German and another that just looked like him throwing a sack of concrete. He's put on big size during the pandemic, but I think it really works for his whole thing. Wrestling needs guys that look like Beef. I was excited to see Crewe after buying into some of the pre-match hype on him, but he didn't show a ton here. Some guys excel in this weird scheme and others don't, I'll see him some day under his own style and I'll make my judgment then. 

Janai Kai vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: Fun style clash with Kai working a Muay Thai gimmick, and Blade being a powerlifter and grappler (with cool nickname the Anklebreaker). Both ladies were DMV based, and I imagine this might be a touring match of a sort. Kai has really fast hands and used the speed to dominate on her feet, Blade took her down and dominated her on the mat before letting her up, dropping to her own back and calling Kai in, only to lock in an ankle lock for the tap. Blade got put over really strong here looked mostly unbothered. Not sure whether this leads to intergender shoot style or if they have a deeper distaff bench, but I was into what I saw. 

ER: I really liked what both these two brought, with Blade being maybe the biggest female fighter I've seen on the indy scene (tale of the tape said gold medal powerlifting background, and a female Mark Henry would be such a cool thing to see), and Kai's Muay Thai looked like a whole complete look. This started with it looking like it was going to be a Kai showcase with all her cool flash, but Blade started powering her down and basically smothering Kai. There was a great moment where the lifter finally got the bumblebee and slammed her down, immediately kneeling into her back and beginning a pounding that doesn't let up until she gets that ankle lock. Very curious to see more. 

Crash Jaxon vs. Isaiah Broner

PAS: Jaxon is a big kid out of Ohio while Broner is a menacing looking black dude from Detroit. This is short and sweet, Jaxon gets a throw but runs right into a spinning back elbow that damn near takes his head off for the fast KO. Broner calls out Hoodfoot after telling JRose the ring announcer to "Social Distance your ass to the back." Impressive way to make someone, and I like how they don't need every match to be 55/45.

ER: I get why they did this but I really wanted to see this one play out. Jaxon had a huge throw before he got put down hard by a Broner back elbow (even nicer than one Big Beef used earlier) and it looked like something that could be a KO. That's the most important thing, that your KO finish look like something that would result in a KO. They could still run this match back and you've got your built in story of Jaxon feeling robbed. 

Lexus Montez vs. Tommy Kyle Dean

PAS: This didn't fully work for me, both guys seemed to have ideas which didn't totally come off. This was one of the longer matches of the night, and despite some attempts at things, nothing really stood out. Montez wins with a spinning back elbow, which was probably a mistake with Broner's looking way better in the previous match. I would be fine seeing either guy again (TKD is an AIW student and while he hasn't done much for me yet in AIW, that school has a great track record), but this show has nicely made stars, and this didn't.

ER: I liked this a little more than Phil, but I get where he's coming from. It's hard on a show like this to not have guys doing similar versions of what others have already done on the same show, some of it is going to look better, some will look worse. I liked the things they went for and liked the messiness of some of the positions they wound up in. I liked when TKD missed a shot and Montez wound up standing over him, lobbing elbows at the back of his head. TKD would throw out a bunch of kicks and at one point looked like he was trying to intentionally miss a high kick to turn it into a kind of leveraged armbar takedown. None of those things worked, but I appreciated the "First 3 UFC events" feel of the approach. I liked the back elbow finish and thought it worked even with a nastier looking back elbow finish the match directly before. It would have made sense to not double up on the same finish back to back, but if it looks good it looks good. 

Hoodfoot Mo Atlas vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: I thought this was pretty rad for a short match. Thompson was listed as the Indiana Golden Gloves champion, and I liked his head movement and body placement, he looked like a fighter. Hoodfoot is a big charismatic guy who feels like a champion, and it was mostly the speed and technique of Thompson against the power of Atlas. We get several go behinds by Atlas, one results in a Thompson ankle lock, and two others are just dismissive throws to the ground by Atlas. Finish exchange is pretty great, both guys have figured out how to throw good looking open hand strikes, with Thompson throwing cool combos including rocking Atlas with a dip uppercut, before running into a monster looking right hook for the KO. The announcers were making Kimbo Slice and Mike Tyson comps, and it only felt a bit like hyperbole. 

ER: I love matches that barely go 3 minutes but manage to pack in a ton of detail work. Most of this match was worked real tight, a lot of need exchanges thrown from the clinch. I like how off speed they worked in the clinch, both throwing at awkward times instead of more measured turns, and I liked the ways each found to outgun the other. The short range striking can be hard to make look right, and they kept it smart by mixing it up with hard knees in between the open hand shots. The rolling ankle lock from an Atlas go behind looked good, loved how Thompson would set it up with a back elbow. As we've established already on Episode 1, back elbows are murder in Paradigm. So Atlas gets sick of taking back elbows whenever he slips into a go behind, and decides the best way to prevent those is to just toss Flash to the mat. The KO looked strong, and I liked all the KOs on this show. Shows running Only KO/Sub stoppages usually end up with a couple duds, a couple fights ending on this that looked like the weakest shot of the fight, but the KOs on this show all looked like the finish. 

PAS: They finish with a pretty heated pull apart with Hoodfoot and Broner, and they sold me a virtual ticket to that fight for sure.  Fun show, want to see more for sure.

ER: This show came at the right time, on a night where the AEW airings got all messed up in my area, coming after me not enjoying Dynamite for the past several episodes. Something totally different - in this case a Wednesday night UWFI rules show - was the right change of pace. I like some things they set up for future shows, and am excited to see what matches break away from the pack and become shootstyle classics.

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