2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Two More from AAW Take No Prisoners 5/25/18

24. Darby Allin vs. Brody King

ER: Another great match in that Darby formula, a similar take on his matches with WALTER and Keith Lee and any other guy that much bigger than he (so, every guy). It's a formula I'm not anywhere near getting sick of, especially when watching someone as creative as Allin. Each big man gets his own destruction canvas to paint on, an opportunity to try out their most dangerous big spots on a guy way too willing to take them. King memorably catches a Coffin Drop to the floor and starts brutally swinging Allin's body back and forth across the aisle into the guardrail. But I love the ways Darby gets into control, the slip ups that he never hesitates to pounce headlong into. There's a great spot where King is on the apron and gets kicked to the floor, taking a backwards bump off the apron into the front row. Allin wastes no time in hurling his body out after him into a Coffin Drop. The Coffin Drop is such a great character appropriate finisher for Allin, and I love how quickly and recklessly he breaks it out. It never feels like overkill, because at the heart of it he's always using his body to try to do harm. Sometimes it gets caught, sometimes he dumps himself on the back of his head (like later in this very match!), but it's always him hurling his whole body at his opponent, and that's awesome. The rolling clutch with him getting kicked off and bouncing immediately into a tornillo is such a fun spot, and he makes it look great. We get several fun moments set up earlier in the match and paid off, like King crushing Allin with a cannonball early and then missing a big one late, creating an opening for Allin. The match ending over shoulder piledriver is an awesome exclamation point, and Allin's 2018 continues to be impressive as hell.

PAS: This is the best I have seen King look, beating on Darby Allin is a perfect showcase for what someone can do. Allin has pretty much turned into the worlds greatest Spike Dudley, which is a real compliment. He takes huge violent bumps, times his comebacks perfectly and has really compelling credible offense for someone so much smaller. He also has this grim determination in everything he does, he just soldiers forward through brutal punishment, always looking for an opening, sometimes he finds it and wins, sometimes he gets hit with something so brutal there is no recovery, but he is almost like a Zombie, tear his head from his shoulders or he won't stop coming. This match was full of cool moments, King falling from the apron to the front row, only to get wasted by a coffin drop was awesome looking, as was King catch Allin and hurling his body reckless around the ringside area. There were lots of moments where I thought Allin might pull it out, and that finishing piledriver was a finishing piledriver. Allin feels like the Wrestler of the Year, and he keeps adding to his resume.

Sami Callihan/Jake Crist/Dave Crist vs. Shane Strickland/Dezmond Xavier/Zachary Wentz

29. ER: I was skimming through this show and planned on skipping past this one, but stopped mid match and it looked more heated and IWA Mid-South than I would have expected. So I went back to the beginning and was not let down. The opening mean shoving and jawing between Callihan and Strickland looked like a showdown happening over Donald Trump's Walk of Fame Star. This was a crazy and stiff spotfest, feeling like a wrestling match broke out in the middle of Mortal Kombat. There are a lot of moving parts and constant action, and while I don't always react to Crist matches, they're actually really good at stringing together these kind of fast pace moving parts matches. I don't always like their structure and match length, but they don't get lost and plan unique chain spots. There are a lot of stiff shots in this one and the action really felt similar to that great ROH match with Jack Victory, or some of the best Jersey All Pro brawls. The Crists throw really nice kicks, Callihan seems like a guy with a genuine high pain tolerance, Strickland has actually focused up a nice right hand, and Jake Crist throws better punches than you remember. We get fun trainwreck dive spots into the crowd, a completely stupid tower spot in the corner that - while completely stupid - was also creatively crafted with a nice payoff: an expertly timed seated powerbomb out of a superplex, several guys get suplexed into turnbuckles, an amusing 619 from Xavier, some more shockingly great full leg extension kicks to the head, the Crists leaning face first into a bunch of kicks, the whole thing was like a stiff version of an early 2000s SAT trios. The Crists really seem like guys who like thinking up complicated spots, and they really go all in on these spots, and while they don't always stick the landing, they at minimum miss big. I'm appreciating that the more I see it. We had a nice violent end run, Sami hit a wicked snap piledriver, Crists got misdirected into hard kicks, Jake hit a cutter on Wentz from opposite corners, just some wild stuff. This felt like it hit just the right pace and teetered close to the edge but never toppled into overkill, made use of some good saves, and built great. Very recommended.

PAS: I really wished I like Strickland more, because that Chaka Khan entrance is class stuff. This kept threatening to lose me, there were a lot of missed clotheslines and kip ups, but they kept the pace going and ramped up the violence and got out of there in 13 minutes. That spinning superkick by a Crist (not sure which) always looks like it dislocates someone's jaw, and Dave Crist flying out of the air to catch Wentz's splash with a cutter was really awesome looking. Callihan is great at forcing pace, something like this where he just barrels forward for an entire match can be really compelling (he had an awesome pull apart with Brody King at the end of the show too), I don't think this match redeemed Strickland or the Rascalz for me, but they certainly kept it nuts and Wentz especially died some big deaths. Up there with the AAA undercard match for spotfest of the year.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Killer Cult v. Rottweilers

27. Sami Callihan/Jake Crist/Dave Crist v. Homicide/Eddie Kingston/Low-Ki AAW 11/4

PAS: This was the climax of a long feud between Callihan and Kingston, with Kingston bringing in Homicide and Callihan bringing in the Crists (including pulling Jake out of retirement), This was a six-man with Outlaw Inc. bringing in a surprise partner, and it had to be one of the best actual deliveries of a surprise in wrestling history. Ki comes out in a black suit, looking like video game Hitman and starts fucking dudes up. They have a really fun area tour brawl, throwing each other into the sides of walls, leaping off bars, chucking chairs. Callihan smashes Ki's knee inbetween chairs, and when the match goes into the ring, we have Kingston and Homicide battling the Killer Cult with Ki blitzing in on a bad knee to break up pins. There is a near fall and out of nowhere there is this crazy fuck in a suit leaping in with a double stomp. Ki sitings are so sporadic these days, that every time he shows up it is a treat.

ER: Yeah buddy this was good, and Phil is dead on in proclaiming this one of the greatest surprise deliveries in wrestling. I would have blown my buttons live. And I would have ran around the building following Ki's fight wherever it went. Both times I got to see Necro Butcher live you can see me on tape following wherever he goes, standing as close as possible and squealing with glee whenever he would do Necro Butcher stuff. At last year's WWN WM Supershow I ran all around the building watching Drew Galloway and Gargano hit each other from a few feet away, way harder than my chest or face could take, and later when I watched the show on tape there I was cringing and yelling and jumping around filled with joy. So there is no doubt in my mind that I would have been following Ki everywhere and losing it for every strike. Ki comes out in a suit like a Puerto Rican Jason Statham, and this whole match was a total 5 star Low-Ki performance, but I liked the whole crew here. Dave Crist draws the short straw and gets matched with Ki and does an awesome job getting kicked around the room, peaking when he gets planted head first into a chair and just sticking there vertically. Ki does all these great running dropkicks and both Crists are game to bump like they're getting blown back by an explosion. Also I'm pretty sure neither Crist is retired. Those guys show up in results seemingly more than anybody. Anyway Ki hits a crazy footstomp off the bar, and meanwhile we have Eddie Kingston tossing dudes into support beams and into the crowd. Killer Cult finally mounts some kind of comeback when the sturdy non-folding chairs come into play, smashing Ki's leg and Kingston's arm in mean ways. The Low-Ki nearfall save is a wonderful moment to cap a total blast of a match.

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Eye on the Indies: CZW Déjà Vu 9/27/14

Wanted to see this show for the Busick/Gulak match, figured I would watch the whole thing since I don't know most of the other guys; Get my brain caught up on some current indy guys.

1. Mason Price vs. The Preacher

I kinda dig the Preacher's vibe. He's a small guy with an old face, like an emaciated MC Gainey, with a big scar across the back of his shaved head. Actually he looks like a really skinny Christian, but with mixologist facial hair. Price looks like Jim Norton working an army gimmick, but an army guy who des a lot of thigh slaps. Match itself wasn't bad, but Price was very much not good. He had zero follow through on any of his strikes or moves. He'd throw a back elbow or pump kick and just kind of stop right where the point of contact would have been. It made all his stuff look like guys going over their moves in the ring before a show. He'd even do it on bigger moves like a Blockbuster, just kind of go through the motions of the move. Preacher had a Jimmy Jacobs vibe, some weird strikes, nice bumps (including flying wildly into a release German), good elbow drop. I'd like to see more of him.

2. Alex Colon vs. Latin Dragon

Lousy video game wrestling filled with reversals that weren't and big moves that didn't matter. Colon wanted to have his cake and eat it too, not really deciding on what kind of character he wants to be. He wanted to be eye raking cheap shotting point at my head heel, but also wanted to do some This is Awesome spots. Some of the reversals were mind numbing. Dragon did a tope, and Colon just didn't sell the tope and gave him a suplex on the floor. Dragon did a nasty reverse rana, then turned around and Colon just small packaged him. A lot of those reversals where you go "oh, so that move just had zero impact I guess." That nasty suplex on the floor I mentioned, which also saw Dragon partially getting slammed into a support pole, and the announce crew talking about a possible broken foot….well Dragon was rope running mere moments later. Yuck.

3. Joe Gacy vs. Aaron Williams

This one had me until it totally lost me. The match gets about 15 minutes to do its thing, and the first half was mostly based around headlock exchanges, some strikes, and then Williams working over Gacy's knee in cool ways. I really dug Williams twisting the knee and ankle and dropping knees on Gacy's knee, and also digging into it with his elbow. Gacy was really good about selling it, really showing how it was slowing him down as every time he would try and transition back to offense Williams could see it coming a mile away. And then suddenly a switch got flipped and Gacy just had to do a whole shit ton of moves with most of the knee stuff a distant memory. It was really like two different matches, and once it turned into "workrate sprint" it turned into a much weaker match.

4. Sozio vs. Caleb Konley

I'm…starting to remember why I don't do more reviews of full indy shows, and why I stay unfamiliar with a lot of indy talent. This one had a couple compelling moments, I liked a lot of Sozio's arm work, and Konley did a fine job of selling the arm damage done, but it didn't save me from a really bad elbow exchange showdown with super slow roaring elbows. Sozio was one of those guys who I couldn't tell if he was a comedy guy or if he was super serious. Sometimes he seemed serious, but then would throw these goofy sweeping crescent kicks and wrestled the first exchanges of the match still in his overcoat. His mafia kick that ended the match looked good at least.

5. Kimber Lee vs. Nevaeh

This was fine although a lot of the stuff seemed overly rehearsed, especially the opening "they know each other so well!" stuff. In fact the more I think about it the more I realize this whole match was practically built around "Kimber goes for this move and misses! Nevaeh follows up with this move and that misses!" kinda stuff. You get your German suplex tradeoffs, your forearm exchanges, you know the drill. I liked one of Kimber's submissions here and both girls seemed willing to lean into things. So that counts for something.

I talked with Phil and it came up that I was reviewing a full CZW show. Phil's response: "Yeah that was a weird thing for you to do."

6. 4 Corners of Ultraviolence: Ron Mathis vs. "The Wrench" Conor Claxton

I really dug this. This was a pretty classic brawl that wouldn't look out of place on older IWA-MS shows. I had never heard of either guy before. Mathis just looks like an athletic kick pads guy, Claxton looks like Dean Ambrose, and they both took and dished out some nasty shots in this. This was constructed really nicely as there aren't just weapons shots for the sake of weapons shots, the early non-weapons work was tight, and once we devolved into weapons the order went pretty logically. Mathis controls most of the early stuff, beating Claxton around the ring and then grossly stapling a dollar to his forehead (which awesomely stays on the rest of the match) and eventually Claxton gets ahold of a chair wrapped in barbed wire (which is a pretty good way to get the advantage to swing back to you). The chair shots were really nasty as they weren't held back much and Mathis took a bunch of shots to his back and sides, the first shot off his arm instantly left a dozen cuts. Claxton went for a light tube and aimed to superplex Mathis into it but took too long, allowing Mathis to reverse into a tornado DDT through broken glass. Gross. Eventually we got tacks in the mix too and they did a few fun tacks tease spots with one of them coming close to falling into them, steadying himself, reversing a move out of them, until both of course take the plunge. Also get the excellent spot of Mathis putting tacks into Claxton's mouth and punching him in the face, with Claxton doing a classic Danny Thomas spit take with tons of tacks. I thought this whole thing was awesome. Their work in between weapons shots was snug, weapons stuff built logically and looked great, didn't go into overkill. This is pretty much what you would want out of this kind of match. Very pleasant surprise.

DJ Hyde comes out but gets interrupted by LuFisto beating him with a stick and they brawl around for awhile. Great spot where Hyde catches her off a dive and launches her at a rough angle through a bunch of chairs. And then that spot is immediately ruined by an announcer saying "We have our Ray Rice moment here in CZW." Eventually LuFisto pulls a knife on him which is just…yeah.

7. Shane Strickland vs. Flip Kendrick

Well this was awful. This match was one 15 minute mirror sequence worked in 3/4 time with most shots missing. Oof. Kendrick is a guy I've liked in almost all the stuff I've seen him in. Strickland is a guy I've never seen before. This was the worst Kendrick performance I've seen, and I never want to see Strickland again. Strickland works the same way Chris Hero did when he was doing his 2001 JAPW extra flips gimmick, except Strickland doesn't seem to do it with a wink. At one point he hit a dropkick, but only after doing a 619 to get to the apron, then somersaulting over the ropes back into the ring. Every move he did had an extra spin leading into it, except he moved so cautiously and slow that it looked strange, like he would get dizzy if he spun around too fast, so he would slooooowly rotate and then just hit an enziguiri or something. The match started with both men slowly running through a bad super choreographed mirror exchange, filled with ducked kicks and dropkicks performed at the same time and stereo kip ups. It was done so slowly and poorly that it looked like clever satire of indy wrestling. Kendrick was moving slowly through his stuff the whole match, a lot of his strikes looked bad, and a lot of the move execution was bad or awkward. A Code Red that was supposed to fling Strickland into a turnbuckle ended with both men slowly tumbling into the corner. Match ended with Strickland hitting a double stomp off the rope, in theory. He really just jumped and landed with his feet on either side of Kendrick, with the camera zooming right in on it. It must have looked as bad live because it was pretty silent when it got the 3 count. Not sure if this poor performance is the norm for Strickland, but if this was the only thing I'd seen of Flip I'd assume he was an awful worker. Yuck.

8. Biff Busick vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was the rematch of their CZW title match in May. I haven't really been following the booking but here we have the heel/face dynamic reversed with Gulak coming in as the face and Busick as the bruising heel. This started out with some of the great grappling that these guys bring to the table, with cool armbars and short arm scissors and knuckle locks. Both guys are really great at forceful looking matwork, all of the counters looked like the guy countering was using every ounce of his strength to reverse the hold. Match switches gears when Gulak takes a pair of huge bumps, he gets thrown off the top rope to the floor and cracking the small of his back on the apron (leading to a nasty bruise over his kidneys, he was pissing raspberry tea on the 28th) and getting backdropped into the second row wiping out a fan. Then Busick is controlling, beating on Gulak, with Drew having his moments. This was well on it's way to surpassing their best match up, when sort of out of nowhere Busick counters a suplex into a roll up for a pin. I can't believe I am criticizing a US Indy match up for underkill on its finish run, but I was expecting it to really kick into gear and it just ended. Still much to love and this is a match up that consistently delivers.

ER: Man I love what these guys do, and I love how things have a sense of ending at any time due to both mens' knowledge of reversals and leverage. I agree with Phil that this could leave matches ending without as much drama as they could have built to. But at the same time it keeps me glued to the whole match in the same way I was glued to RINGS matches. Gulak is an ideal wrestler for me. I'm fascinated by all his movements and his combo of skills, maybe the most exciting "new" guy for me this decade. He always breaks out cool unexpected things that make me flip out as a wrestling fan, like his cool roll-up reversal of a Busick leapfrog here. I wasn't even expecting anything to happen there because it just seemed like any other wrestling rope run segment, until Busick leapfrogs and Gulak slides under with the great flash false finish. These two are so good they really make meaningless moments of wrestling mean something. The struggle between them is always so satisfying, I loved moments like Gulak dishing out cupped slaps to Busicks back and head, slowly gaining him access to the arms, moving into a bodylock, into a nasty variation on the Gu-Lock…and I like that he can go through all that but Busick gets a near immediate rope break. Other times they can get a reversal neither were expecting that leaves them in far greater dominant position. I like that ebb and flow of their stuff. The Gulak bumps Phil mentioned were sick and took the match in a welcome and different direction than I expected. Both guys lend an authenticity to their matches; I never feel like they're moving through one spot mechanically to get to the next part of the match. At one point Gulak really wrenches in a hammerlock that is ultimately inconsequential to the larger segment they were working, but that hammerlock looked like a real terror, a real nasty twist, and I could easily see capable but lesser mat workers just going through the motions and not wrenching in a transitional move like that, too busy focusing on what was "supposed to" happen next. These guys might not be for everybody, but for me they're right up their with my favorite all time wrestling. I hope we get to see these guys do their thing for years.

***Note: The Busick/Gulak match was easily good enough for Phil and I to add it to our 2014 Ongoing MOTY list, nestled cozily into spot #37. Instead of doing a whole separate post with my review copied over, I just added Phil's thoughts from the match here. Our full MOTY list linked at the bottom***

9. Ohio is 4 Killers (Jake & Dave Crist) vs. The Juicy Product (JT Dunn & David Starr)

ER: Well, this match was kind of difficult. Stuff I liked, stuff I hated, and then a fair portion of the match completely invisible! Match starts with the Crist brothers diving out of the ring, and they brawl out through the crowd, and outside. The problem is that the crowd was really dark, and the cameras weren't really equipped to follow the action around. What's worse, is when they brawled outside the cameras couldn't follow them. So I just had to fast forward until everybody made it back inside. Jake had a lot of color happening, not sure how it happened. The announcers didn't know either as they stayed at the table and kind of guessed what could possibly be happening outside. I'm sure it was cool for the live crowd, but a weird thing to do on a IPPV where workers should know your filming limitations. Even back inside the building doesn't do much as things are super dark so you can't really see what's happening. Juicy lawn darts Dave Crist into the concession stand. Minutes later Dave appears on top of the concession stand and does a wild Thesz press off the top of it (at least 9-10 feet up). After many, many, many minutes we finally end up in the ring for the match to officially start. There was actually a pretty good FIP story going on with Jake beaten bloody and Dave also gassed from the beatdown, and both Crist guys had some good comebacks and hope spots. But then the match hit the spot where it should have ended, and kept going…and going…and then kept going. They peaked the drama well, and it's just too hard to keep peaking that numerous times in a match. All the guys had some stuff that looked good. There were a couple double team tombstone variations that were nasty, one with Jake hitting a tombstone while Dave hit a double stomp off the top to drive it down. Dave also had an epic double knee drop off the top, and actually threw a really great looking mule kick (it's really hard to throw a nice spinning mule kick). Starr had a couple of neat power spots, and Dunn took some big bumps off clotheslines and other moves. Also, everybody apparently had a bet going to see who could throw more superkicks. At one point we had six consecutive superkicks from everybody. And there were so many more. So yeah, the match had tons of overkill but a lot of the stuff in the overkill looked good. I think the match could have been really great if laid out a little tighter, but as a spot spectacle it was plenty fun.

OVERALL: This was a good enough show, with some nice peaks but also some subterranean lows. The Gulak/Busick match was great, and I also really loved that weapons match. Kendrick/Strickland was one of the absolute worst matches I've seen this decade, but The Preacher was a cool guy I had never heard of that I'd like to see more of, same with Mathis and Claxton. The Crists were also better than I remembered (though had the same faults I remembered).


2014 MASTER MOTY LIST

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HWA Heartland Cup Night 1 4/22/11

It’s an Indy tournament! Back in the early part of the century tournament wrestling was the primary form of anticipated Indy wrestling, the Super 8, TPI, Best of the Best were all calendar highlights. There was a certain style which was developed, ripened and rotted. This HWA tourney seems a bit conceptually passé, but I figured I would check in and see what Indy tourney wrestling looks like in 2011.

Rich Swann v. Jake Crist

Swann is a black highflyer who is part of the Gabe crew of black highflyers (ROH was all Puerto Rican highflyers, EVOLVE all black dudes, there feels like there is a Michael Eric Dyson essay in there somewhere,) Crist is one of the Irish Airborne who hung around ROH undercards a couple of years back, he has put on some weight and looks a lot more ground borne now. Good indy tourney opening round match, each guy got in some of his stuff, but not too much and the finish was clean without diminishing the loser. I enjoyed some of Swann’s shit talking and flips as taunts, he did a pretty cool headstand counter out of an Ace crusher which nicely skirted the line between cool and stupid and I dug his flash KO selling. Crist looked solid too, and his spinning superkick finisher is pretty boss looking. If the rest of the tourney is like this, it will go down nice and easy.

Chrisjen Hayme vs. Gerome Phillips

Gerome Phillips is a big black dude who looks exactly like Big Worm from Friday, he seems to be working a Big Worm gimmick too, lots of loud shit talking and ass kicking. Chrisjen is a guy I mainly know from laughing at the stupid spelling of his name when it shows up on match lists. Pretty close to a Phillips squash, and he is really fun kicking someone’s ass. Really nice clubbing forearms and a sick clothesline. Hayme was questionable on offense, but perfectly fine bumping and taking a stomping. Good stuff and it got me excited to see more Phillips.

Jesse Emerson v. Paul Birchill

Haven’t seen Birchill since he got endeavored and he definitely can’t afford the good Deca-Durbolin anymore. Emerson is a guy I remember from SAW, although he is the 17th most interesting guy in SAW. Some nice stuff, Burchill takes a big bump where he is on the apron, gets dropkicked on the knee and ends up hotshotting himself. Definitely something Finlay should steal. By then end both guys looked a little gassed. I didn’t hate this, but it was the least of the matches so far.

Ron Mathis vs. Necro Butcher

I am a sucker for a Necro Butcher formula match. He is a guy you can put in with any game guy willing to take a beating and it is going to be entertaining. I didn’t get much of a sense besides the fact he was game and willing but that was enough. This had the feel of some of the old IWA-MS Ian v. Simon Sezz or Dysfunction matches, where Necro just pummels this kid and Mathis looks good being willing to just hang and fire back. Necro just blasts him with chops and punches and by the end Mathis is bowed, bloodied and beaten.

Tim Donst vs. Jeremy Madrox

Madrox works a old timey 1890’s carnival boxer gimmick, with Hendricks Gin boxing stance and comedy mustache, Donst is one of the more tolerable Chikara students. Donst is a guy well versed in working around comedy guys, and this never delved into the overly cutesy realm which much Chikara lives in. I liked Donsts arm wringer reversals a bunch which felt more like a Bill Dundee comedy spot then a Chuck Taylor comedy spot. Madrox had great dedication to the gimmick although I couldn’t tell how good he was.

Dustin Rayz vs. Zack Sabre Jr

I haven’t been a fan of Sabre Jr. in the past, he felt to me like the Empire outpost for the Davey Richards school of indy wrestling. This was a much less irritating version of what he does, instead of finisher killing backyarder UWFI, he and Rayz worked 10 minutes or so of “watched a Saint tape” World of Sport. Post Taylor camp indy wrestling beat that style to death, but it has been long enough that I didn’t mind watching it again. I fear for later round Sabre, but this was fine.

Sami Callihan vs. Dave Crist

Much like Necro, Callihan also has a formula style which can be really entertaining with pretty much anyone willing to hang in and bang with him. The Crists have gotten more tattoos and are willing to hang in the pocket and throw blows. This came off a bit like Callihan working a lesser Callihan, still Pentagon v. Octagon is usually an entertaining match. Crist didn’t do anything particularly memorable, although everything landed with a thud, Callihan was bumping great, including taking an awesome flip bump on a otherwise mediocre leg lariat. Finish was great too, with Callihan catching a spin kick and locking on the stretch muffler. Fun stuff and another entry on Callihan’s resume.

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Jacobs

These guys had a one of the great feuds of the decade a couple of years ago, cool angles, classic matches. Whitmer at his worst is excretible, but his best matches are pretty damn good. This wasn’t at the level of their 2006 stuff, it was more a wrestling match then a brawl, and Jacobs was working heel which isn’t his best role in this matchup. Still I always like watching Jacobs, he had some great looking grounded punches and bumped really well, and they still have some charisma together. I also really dig Whitmers crazy choke finisher. Match ended with Phillips coming in to brawl with Whitmer and I could see myself digging that matchup.

Really well done Night 1. Nothing felt overkilly the matches were different enough, and everything except the main event was kept to around 10 minutes. Worth checking out, and I am excited to watch Night 2.

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XCW Midwest 5/5/09

Rob Fury v. Chris Michaels

TKG: I don’t know who Rob Fury is, but I think there is a guy wrestling as “Rob Fury” in every state in the country. Really had he feel of a guy who would be wrestling in ECWA tagged with Inferno Kid. He has good height on his dropkick and is able to do energetic foot stomping to get crowd behind him. But this is the kind of really impressive heel performance where you leave with no impression of the face at all.

PAS: Fury has short hair and blue trunks and really looks like a random John Paul tag partner in late 80’s Memphis. Michaels ruled in this taking a bunch of really great signature bumps, including a backflip over the top and the Waltman corner bump. Finishing super kick was awesome looking too. Fun but ultimately forgettable match.

Sexy Sean Casey v. Mitch Ryder

TKG: Sean Casey is a really generic heel in the same way that Fury was a really generic babyface. They may both be trainees. I don’t know if Ryder was working as guy working opponent below him (in wrestling hierarchy) or if that’s just what it feels like when you match up a good babyface v. generic heel. This felt like inverted version of the heel underestimates opponent type match.

PAS: I have no idea why you bring in Sexy Sean Casey when your show is being semi mained by Sexy Shawn Cook. They either have to feud, or Casey has to change his gimmick. This seemed to set up a Ryder v Michaels match, and in that sense the matches did their job. You watch Ryder work a generic heel and Michaels work a generic face, and you really want to see them against each other

Bull Pain v. Lash Gibson/Convict

TKG: I can’t make out any of the mic work which is a pain considering this is a fed filled with guys who are good on the mic. The impression I get is that Todd Morton is claiming injury so Bull Pain gets these two guys instead. Lash Gibson is a XCW trainee who I’ve seen twice before and liked. This whole show may be XCW regulars v trainees. I need to start watching the all trainee shows. I expected this to be a total disgusting ass beating. Instead it was Bull Pain beating on the trainees, followed by moments of Bull Pain being distracted by Morton or Flash Flannigan and the trainees getting in little bits of stuff. This disappointed as you kind of want it to be either more competitive or more non-competitive. This was in some in-between place and just there.

PAS: I was expecting this to be a brutal Bull Pain beating and there were moments of that, but I wanted more moments.

Shawn Cook/Cody Hawk v Irish Airborne

TKG: This went really long, maybe too long. First ten minutes of this were flashy face stuff and heel stooging, followed by Shawn Cook pulling down the top rope while one of Irish Airborne was running the ropes leading to a big bump and a FIP section. I liked the first FIP section, and then second member of Irish Airborne tagged in and got his stuff stopped for second FIP section. Heels are really good at stopping the faces from getting stuff in and have lots of nasty ways to knock a guy in his head, but second Irish Airborne guy was sloppier as FIP then first one, They go for a really cool variation of the standard Fantastics lose a match finish (Rogers has opponent in roll up and gets hit with clothesline/DDT etc). Here instead Shawn Cook goes for the clothesline only to have it ducked and fly out the ring. A couple neat spots and variations on a basic formula, neat things that I hadn’t seen before…but this got lost a couple times in it’s length.

PAS: I liked some of the flashy Irish Airborne stuff, the springboard headlock takeover was cool and I liked some of the Cook and Hawk stooging, the face catapulting the heels head into his partners nuts. However it didn’t feel like either guy had enough cool stuff for the length of the match. This was a 20+ minute match that would have been a really great 14 minute match.

L.T. Falk v. Flash Flanagan

PAS: This is a whole show kind of based around higher ranked guys wrestling lower ranked guys and this was the best of those matches. Falk is the son of Cowboy Tony Faulk and is better then anyone in Legacy. This had Flanagan rip apart Faulks leg with some really nastily applied basic offense, and Falk firing back with nice enthusiastic babyface offense. I especially liked his punch, chop combo. Falk did a bunch of really cool sells of the leg, including flipping out of a headlock and his leg collapsing under him. Pretty much a touring Ric Flair match done really well, which is always cool to see in the 21st century.

TKG: Yah a lot of this show felt like an 80s WWF Superstars episode. I got the sense that I would enjoy the battle of the underdogs between all the trainees but here for the most part I didn’t by the underdogs as being competitive. Here this really did feel like underdog hugely stepping up and you bought his enthusiasm at having this opportunity. He wasn’t going to let it go to waste. Flannigan’s leg work all looked really good and was paced well. Flannigan’s had a pretty nice year in the ring and always manages to have neat original finishes to his matches.

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XCW Midwest Legends of the Garden Night 1 3/3/09

TKG: Pre-show Bill Dundee comes out to do some mic work only to be interrupted by Todd Morton, Shawn Cook and Cody Hawke. Todd Morton demands respect and Dundee reaches out to turn Morton's backward hat frontward. Dundee goes to walk away and is jumped from behind. Bull Pain comes out for the save. I'm going to start turning guys hats around when collar popped backward capped idiots buck at me at in bars. Unfortunately I like to drink alone and don't expect anyone to come in for the save.

PAS: I really don't get why you would run in to save a guy who cuckolded you, but I am glad that Bull and Bill have put their differences behind them.

Robbie Ellis v. Crippler Jeff Daniels

TKG: Ellis at this point looks like a less athletic Danny Kaye. I'm not sure why Ellis is a legend of the Garden, but I'll go with it. They work a roughneck brawler v highflyer with Ellis as your 64 year old highflyer, Ellis is pretty fun working a bunch of old guy highflying including an insane second rope to the floor plancha and a really nice headscissor take over. Jeff Daniels has a bunch of nasty ways to hit an old man and is damn good at selling in a way to make the highflying credible.

PAS: For worker in his mid 60's Ellis isn't as effortless as Dundee or Saint but he hits his stuff really well. Daniels was really great at credibly being thrown around by a really old guy, which isn't easy to do. Great looking elbow drop which looked rude on your Grandpa. There was one blown backdrop which looked like Daniels was going to die, but otherwise a really fun opener.

Tracy Smothers v. Mitch Ryder

TKG: This is a family show and Smothers is a professional, instead of giving the crowd the finger he keeps on giving them the pinkee. He wields his pinkee with such conviction that it actually comes off really crass. They start with a bunch of Tracy stalls and working of the ref before unleashing the bombs in the corner. Tracy chokes Ryder with wrist tape behind the refs backagain and again and eventually pegs Ryder with the roll of tape.

PAS: When Tracy Smothers does his stalling and heel stuff in other feds it comes off as more crowd pleasing ironic heel. Here it does what it is designed to do, piss off the crowd and get them more behind the babyface. I really liked how Smothers used the tape to set up the next nights taped fist match. The booking of the whole show was like a Clash of Champions to set up the next nights Great American Bash, and they did an awesome job of making me want to buy the Bash.

Bull Pain v. Todd Morton

TKG: So I really enjoyed this matchup on the Rollin Hard tribute show but that was a match for Roland, his family and friends and about Roland's kids. This was just these two going at it. Bull Pain is a guy whose offense looks devastating and Todd Morton is a guy who will eat stuff spectacularly well. But in the midst of the Bull Pain run of offense, Todd Morton is able to pull off a nasty chop block. And DAMN can Todd Morton take apart a guy's leg. They do the spot where Pain's leg is draped over the bottom rope and Todd Morton jumps on it, and I've never seen that spot look as nasty. Todd Morton just wrecks havoc on Pain's leg while Pain does real bad ass job of selling being on one wheel. Pain struggles on the floor to get a chair to protect himself and no one wields a chair like Bull Pain. You knew there would be outside interference, but this was Finlay/Booker/Benoit TV title more "outside distraction" setting up finish than actual "interference". I want to see these two guys wrestle an endless series.

PAS: This was tremendous, Morton is as good at working a leg as anyone you have ever seen, and I am pretty amazed at how good Bull Pain is as a sympathetic babyface. Morton is really great here pulling off the switch from stooge to killer which is the true measure of a great heel, it was something Arn Anderson was masterful at and Morton is as good. As good as this match was though, it still felt like a backdrop setting up Morton v. Dundee. This was the right match to work for that role, but I still need to see these two in a main event match where they can really deliver a Match of the Year. It seems like the XCW booking is building towards it, and I am confident if it happens it will be epic.

Sexy Shawn Cook/Cody Hawk v. Irish Airborne

TKG: I haven't liked the Airborne much in the past but they were fine here. There earl tandem-ish face quick tag stuff worked in the context of guys doing quick tags. This was also helped by Cook and Hawke being guys who do a real nice job with the buffoonish eating of the quick tag stuff. The quick tag face section was longer than it tends to be these days. I don't get the sense that the darker haired guy is that good at working face in peril. But it was a well set up FIP section with big bump and big floor move and the darker hair Airborne guy does a great job of selling a sleeper like a guy about to legit pass out. The lighter haired Airborne isn't very good as a hot tag guy. But these two are guys who normally are really problematic as they tend to try to work scramble tag BS when its out of place. They for the most part avoided giving in to their scramble tag tendencies. The were perfectly fine and I dug this matchup. This was a good show top to bottom. Post match Cook and Hawk attack with Morton and Gibson coming out for the save.

PAS: I didn't go into this w high expectations, but ended up really enjoying it. Irish Airborne had previously struck me as guys from the Fantastics/SAT's school of babyface tag wrestling where the focus would be on the fancy moves and double teams they could pull off. I always preferred the Rock and Roll Express style, where the focus is on fighting back against the heels taking a beating and showing heart. In this match they worked more R+R's then Fantastics and it was by far the most I have enjoyed them (although this match did have the same face rolls up the heel, second heel superkicks the face finish of ever Fantastics match of the 1980s). Cook and Hawk are a solid heel team, the kind of guys who could have made a nice living in the 1980's running through this match against local pretty boys from coast to coast. The quality of this kind of match depends on the blowjob team and Airborne were more Mason Dixon Connection then New Fabs, but that is still plenty good enough for me.

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