Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 4! 2/13/21

Diego Perez vs. Gil Guardado

PAS: These guys are both MMA fighters apparently without any pro-wrestling experience, so this was basically an MMA sparring session. In shootstyle you are going to be better off with MMA guys with no pro-wrestling experience than the other way around, and there were some exciting moments of ground work, although neither guy seemed fully able to pull strikes and make them look good. The rolling guillotine choke Perez used to finish the fight was really cool.

ER: This mainly looked like the kind of karate or MMA sparring you'd see open a late 80s FMW show or two UWF young boys wearing black trunks and tights and having something called a Fight Exhibition. These two even had the black trunks and tights, but it almost always looked like a pretty friendly MMA exhibition. I liked how Guardado worked inside and outside leg kicks, and at one point it looked like Perez got annoyed and threw a straight kick at the kneecap of Guardado's lead leg. Could have used more stuff like that. I think MMA Guy New to Wrestling pairs nicely with Wrestling Guy New to MMA as a match, so I could see either having a fun match with a midwest indy worker in 2021. 

Royce Isaacs vs. Calder McColl

PAS: This was flashier stuff with both guys having MMA and wrestling experience. Issacs had some really cool takedowns and throws, including a cool gutwrench, but would often get caught by McColl working off his back. There was an especially cool McCall trip takedown from behind. McColl reverses an anconda vice into an armbar and then into a triangle choke for the finish. This was a really good ground battle, with both guys showing some skill. 

ER: This felt a bit too long for what we got, but I liked Isaacs working somehow tentatively, not wanting to rush into something stupid, while also pushing pace and making it almost a sure thing he gets caught in something. Aggression is more interesting in Bloodsport than who eventually gets the triangle, and I liked his short takedowns, liked that he went for stuff like low angle German suplexes even though they almost surely took more energy than they were worth. We have a match long story of McColl's triangle attempts, and Isaacs escaping until he can't. At one point Isaacs did a cool hip pop to break out of a triangle, I really dug that. McColl was a little dull but obviously had some skill, thought it was cool how he set up a slow rolling armbar finish almost as a decoy, giving him a third and final chance to lock in the triangle. 

Bad Dude Tito vs. Super Beast

PAS: This started out pretty awesome with Super Beast with some monstrous throws and huge clubbing forearms, a totally jacked dude who wrestled like it. Tito had some fun brawling strikes early and a couple of nifty holds from the bottom, but this got derailed a bit by a New Japan forearm exchange which should be banned by penalty of death from shootstyle matches. And while the Super Beast keylock throw to finish it was pretty rad, this never got back to the awesome start. 

ER: Yeah, this started cool and then went into a beyond bad strike exchange. Tito from his back going for armbars? Awesome. Tito throwing really bad solebutts, yakuza kicks, and spin kicks? Terrible. The striking wasn't even a New Japan kind of exchange, it was just the exact same kind of exchange you see several times on any indy show, and it has no place whatsoever on a show like Bloodsport. Super Beast's suplexes have a place for sure, and that super fast Saito suplex seemed to make Barnett mark out on commentary. Gimme a guy trying to ripe a jacked masked MMA monster's arm off while that monster is trying to club and throw him, and you get a match on our list. But trying to take down a monster by making him sell a bad spin kick? No sir. 

JR Kratos vs. Alex Coughlin

PAS: Coughlin is a New Japan dojo guy who came in with a lot of energy, although he mostly got thrown around. There was an awesome spot where Coughlin does a deadlift suplex on big ass Kratos where he powers him up with a deadlift. Kratos landed some big throws of his own, and dropped Coughlin for good with a knee to the head for the first KO of the show. 

ER: This didn't totally work for me, felt like it was worked a little at 80% speed. Kratos had a real size advantage and I liked how Coughlin tried to head that off by being a little unpredictable. I wasn't expecting the deadlift, and those are the kind of moments that make Bloodsport something worth seeking out. But I don't think we built to much of actual substance, even with some things I liked. One of the strengths of these matches is that even a match that doesn't grab me can still end strong and leave on a high note, and Kratos squaring up and throwing a knee felt nice and decisive. 

Kal Jak vs. Nolan Edward

PAS: KAL JAK IS BACK! This delivered everything you would want it to. Edward is a fun underdog wrestler who works in the IWTV feds, and he has a moment or two in between getting sent into the heavens by Jak. I really liked his jumping headbutt strike, which looked like a UWF Fujiwara strike. This was mostly Jak throwing huge suplexes, which is the best. He really has that Gary Albright vibe which is something missing from pro-wrestling in the 2020s. He throws this sick gutwrench into a knee strike, which might look silly if thrown by a little guy but looked brutal by a giant unkempt dude. He finishes the match by fireman's carry throwing Edward into a brick wall, which might not technically be a Tamura finish, but still utterly ruled.

ER: Kal Jak is such a good fit on these shows, and they really feel like they're helping him open up in ways that weren't happening when he was working strictly pro style. I was waiting for him to destroy Edward the entire time, and I loved how we kept inching to that point, winding up beyond where I thought we'd wind up. Edward never looked like someone who was going to hang with Jak, and that's fine, because he kept going for single legs and didn't back down when overmatched. Kal Jak broke out some cool tricks, like a full tilt-a-whirl into a great German suplex, and later using that same tilt-a-whirl to land a disgusting knee. If you had described a move as a tilt-a-whirl into knee to me, it would sound gimmicky as hell and filled with unnecessary movement. But seeing Kal Jak execute it looked like a damn killshot finisher. Little did I know that the actual finish was Kal Jak hoisting Edward up into a fireman's carry and just throwing him as far out of the ring, aiming for a brick wall way too far away from the ring. Hard landing for Edward, unexpected as an actual finish, and I'm absolutely loving this side of Jak. 

Simon Grimm vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: MLW brings a feud to Bloodsport, and this was really tremendous stuff. This was probably the most grappling heavy Bloodsport match, worked almost entirely on the mat with both guys constantly attacking different limbs, going for chokes and shifting positions. Grimm nicely shifted from a front choke to an armbar into a knee to the head, Lawlor was able to grab the back. The grappling was very balanced, with Lawlor taking an advantage in the match by targeting the liver with knees, open hand slaps and kicks. Eventually all of the body shots took their toll and he was able to get a KO with a running knee to the body. 

ER: I really like how Grimm uses his legs in his shootstyle work. He's not tall, but he has limber and muscular legs and is really great at using body vices. He uses them in active and passive ways, sometimes working towards something bigger and other times using it to tie up and annoy Lawlor. It looked like Grimm came close to finishing things with a guillotine choke, starting with a leaping body vice and dead weighting Lawlor to the mat. Lawlor was smart about working the body, and I loved Grimm's selling as the targeted body shots started to add up, leaving Lawlor openings to strike. And those openings all lead to something nasty, with that running knee to the body really looking like a finish, even if it hadn't been followed up with mean hammer fists to the button. 

Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Calvin Tankman

PAS: I think I am going to end up being a low voter on this match. Smith just hasn't fully connected with me on these shows. Much of the early part of the match was Greco struggle and mat work, which wasn't particularly dynamic, though I did like Smith solving a problem by shoving Tankman out of the ring. Once Tankman gets back in, they go to the dreaded forearm exchange, before Smith was able to get a side suplex and a crossface tap. I didn't love any of the strikes and thought this was overall just kind of there. Although the cool thing about these shows, that if a match doesn't connect it is at least over quick.

ER: I didn't have the same level of problems that Phil had with this, though it did have some of the striking I don't love seeing in these matches. Outside of one section though I thought this was cool struggle between the two biggest guys on the show. Tankman worked a cool rear waistlock and looked to really be grinding Davey Boy down, except it's easy to burn out your arms working a waistlock on a strong guy. Tankman pays it off with a big follow through German suplex that folds Smith in a cool way. Tankman spends some energy and after awhile Davey Boy kind of has to treat Tankman like dead weight, which makes some of Smith's stuff against the big man look more impressive. There was way too much delay during their strike exchange, and these strike exchanges are a tough needle to thread during these matches. To make them look good, you can't just stand still waiting for the other guy to take his turn, because that looks dumb. It's also a risk to both throw at the same time as each other, because that's how you wind up with Lisa Simpson windmill arms fighting. Both look bad, and you start wondering if maybe it would just be easier to not feel the need to do those? I hated how both guys stood there waiting for each other to take their turn, did not like the way it looked at all, and it didn't help that a lot of the strikes just didn't look good. I did like Smith's strikes to set up the finish, thought it was his strongest set he threw: two quick sharp forearms that lead right into two hard knees, nice throw into a cool crossface. There's a good match in this pairing, and I wouldn't hate seeing it again. 

3. Jeff Cobb vs. Chris Dickinson

PAS: Pretty interesting match, not worked the way I expected it all. This was almost entirely grappling with Dickinson trying to outwrestle the Olympian. Dickinson was the stronger submission grappler, with Cobb using his strength and amateur wrestling style to escape when Dickinson would try an armbar or ankle lock. Eventually Cobb is able to muscle Dickinson up and bring him down hard with a couple of big german suplexes. I expected to see Dickinson throw more strikes, but it is cool to watch how his mat wrestling has evolved. 

ER: I thought this was super impressive, and came away with even more respect for both guys' abilities. I thought Dickinson looked awesome on the mat, and kept finding ways to really spread his weight out to do damage and stay in control. Cobb looks powerful as hell on the mat, and at times is able to make it look like he's just effortlessly moving Dickinson exactly where he wants him to go. And that's what made Dickinson look so good, the way he was able to control as much as he did. He has a really good base and the more he flattened Cobb the more you could see actual frustration brewing on Cobb's face. Dickinson had several convincing submissions, and Cobb would punish him with strikes after narrowly escaping them. I loved Dickinson's two ankle locks here. Seeing his application and Cobb selling the danger of it made me think Dickinson could get that move over as a finish on a big level. 

The ankle lock is a move that Kurt Angle spent a decade plus letting every single opponent easily reverse his way out of it, and Dickinson made me buy that he was going to take an Olympian's achilles with it. Cobb had a couple of downward elbows into Dickinson's kidneys after escaping the first one, that I was kind of surprised he had the balls to go back to it. This was a real punishing, exhausting 11 minutes, and I love when Cobb finally decided to shut the door. His suplexes are really incredible. Seeing Cobb live in 2013 when I'd never heard of him before - and then seeing him throw those suplexes - is one of those wrestling live memories I still think about. He starts lifting up Dickinson in ways that few in wrestling could, and his scoop German is a real beaut. I dug how Dickinson reacted to it in frustration more than pain, with Cobb coming right in and finishing him off with another. It was a cool visual sell from Dickinson that showed he knew how close he was to finishing Cobb, but he knew his fate. Great finish to the show. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Tuesday Shoot Indies - GCW Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 2 9/14/19

PAS: I am starting to build a backlog of Shoot Indies which I am always into so I decided for a bit to alternate AIW Monday with Shoot Indy Monday, also this lets me jump right on Bloodsport after loving their Mania Weekend show so much.

ER: Being there second row with Phil and Tom for Barnett's first Bloodsport is going to be one of my great live wrestling experiences when my time is up, and there's still something I think Phil isn't telling me about how he got tickets. Day before the show it was sold out, next morning I wake up to Phil joyously saying "I got three tickets to Bloodsport! You know, three tickets, together, that ticket quantity that is super common for somebody to be selling. Oh, and they're great seats. Oh, and they were below list price." He refused to answer other questions. I don't know what Phil had to do to get us Bloodsport tickets, but he did something that we will never speak about, and I'm fine with that.

20. Matt Makowski vs. Rory Gulak

PAS: I thought this was great. Makowski is an ex-Bellator guy who is apparently working in Chikara now, I assume he is an old timey Gold Prospector or a sentient bag of pork rinds there, but working shootstyle he owns. Gulak comes in repping Catch Point, I assume he inherited the left over merch when his brother went big time. Gulak is really aggressive with his takedowns including a nasty Judo throw, and is always looking to advance his position on the mat. Makowski had a bunch of really cool stuff, climaxing with the O'Connor Roll into the cross armbreak which was incredible looking, the low kick/head kick combo which finished the match was nifty too. Totally delivered.

ER: Fucking Drew WHO? This was awesome, among my favorite 6 minutes of wrestling this year. This is the Rory I knew was there and I have seen hints of, and now I only want this uncut pitbull energy from him. No backsies. Makowski is fun as hell in a 2003 Z-1 kind of way, and his striking and arm twisting made for an awesome counter to Rory's wrestling. Gulak was really vicious on the attack, and the rolling was all awesome, peppered with bigger moments like Gulak's short belly to belly and big ass German, but with a bunch of tiny movements that all felt like they meant something. A match like this is just as fun for something like Gulak shifting his calf positioning to gain leverage than it is for the big throws. I dug Makowski landing a big hook kick to Gulak's jaw, dug how it felt like he was throwing it out as a lark and didn't realize it would land, and it served as a cool wake up for Rory rather than an instant KO. Makowski even had some stuff Sakuraba would have tried to steal, like a moonsault to pass guard (that could have looked stupid but I loved it). The armbar battles were all legit, Rory looked like he was clasping his hands for dear life while deftly maneuvering his hips, and that chaos theory armbar transition was just bananas. Rory shot straight up into the air like the skinniest kid getting bounced off the blob by the fattest kid at Camp Hope, I mean just a fantastic spot. Rory flew spectacularly into the air with Makowski grabbing that arm on the way down, absolutely one of the spots of the year. Kick feint finish was a good one, and this is the kind of killer match that makes a concept show like this such a bottomless well.

Sumie Sakai vs. Lindsay Snow

PAS: This was a bunch of fun too. Snow was listed as having a Gracie Ju-Jitsu background and lots of this match was Ju-Jitsu sparring on the ground. Sakai was really great with both her Ju-Jitsu and her Judo, landing a bunch of cool throws, and constantly looking to adjust and look for attacks on the mat. Snow was a bit more rudimentary on the mat, but used her size well. I loved the finish with Sakai countering each counter attempt and locking in the arm bar for the tap. Sakai has been around forever, but man did she look skilled here.

ER: I've seen Sakai work pro style a bunch (she's been working in the states for 15 years at this point) but not nearly enough of her like this. She was giving up about 30 lb. to Snow but was the clear aggressor here, to the benefit of the match. She didn't necessarily play it like she was more skilled than Snow, but would shoot in quick and bail early if things weren't going her way. This wasn't as explosive as our first match, but the finish run was cool as hell, loved all the counters and the quick tap when Snow knew she was caught.

70. Zachary Wentz vs. Anthony Henry

PAS: This was worked as a crazy sprint, like a worked version of those WEC Bantamweight fights early in the decade. It was a nice contrast to the pace most of these matches were worked at. I really liked how both guys kept frantically attacking limbs during all of the submission attempts. Henry would put on a kneebar and Wentz would bang away with hammerfists and try to escape. Wentz had two really cool choke attempts, one where he pressed Henry his body and flipped him into a choke, and one where he leaped into a guillotine. Finish was very cool with Wentz getting a knockdown and going for a diving punch, but landing right into a tight guillotine for the tap.

ER: This exceeded my expectations as I didn't know if either of them had any kind of fight sports background, so I was just going into this familiar with their indy wrestling. Wentz is a guy who has stood out to me as a big bumper, and Henry has been in matches I've liked, but I wouldn't have tagged them for something like this and came away pleasantly surprised. Phil hit the nail with his WEC Bantamweight descriptor, and it's hard to do that kind of style without it coming off like flash exhibition. A couple of the missed strikes might have, but those were small pieces of a fun sprint. I loved all the action getting into chokes, dug the Wentz missed punch into a side triangle, and thought the finish was fantastic: when Henry went down from a kick I clearly thought that was going to be it, but Wentz leaping in with a Superman punch (a callback to the Bloodsport show we attended where Kratos absolutely wrecked Grimm with that diving punch as the deserved finish) and I didn't anticipate Henry's triangle. Henry made it even more badass by rolling it over and twisting the trapped arm. This show has slayed so far.

JR Kratos vs. Erik Hammer

PAS: This was a pretty mixed bag, it had some stuff I really dug, and some stuff I really hated. Hammer is a shoot wrestler who worked some IGF and really has Zero-One energy, like a lost jacked up McCully. All of the mat stuff was pretty cool, with a pair of big dudes really struggling over holds. I thought the stand up, New Japan style chop, forearm and grimace stuff sucked, it was a bad version of a tired spot that was really inappropriate for this style. There was some good stuff later in the match, but they really lost me and never got me back.

ER: I saw people calling this the fight of the night, and I am not seeing that. There was a lot to like, and I would have loved it had they stuck to the intense grappling that much of the match was based around. I'm not opposed to strikes in these things, obviously, but the stand and trade forearms and chops building to a phone booth fight was so damn out of place. That kind of stuff is in several matches on every single wrestling card in 2019, Bloodsport is supposed to be presenting something different. And I don't think it was particularly good stand and trade, either, which is an additional problem. I really liked Kratos kicking a downed Hammer in the chest, feinting another one, and then punching him in the jaw. BUT, then it lead directly to some old bullshit. But everything on the ground was intense and that struggle was real. I honestly thought we were going to get a fairly early tap when Hammer was hyperextending Kratos' leg on a hell hook, and I loved late in the match how hard Hammer was going for that armbar, and how hard Kratos was trying to keep those hands together to block it, and I got fully wrapped up in the crazy struggle that was happening. Something like that is way more meaningful than some bad overhand chops and screaming.

Nicole Savoy vs. Allysin Kay

PAS: I like how the women on this show have hued strictly to shootstyle, this was almost all grappling and palm strikes, really no pro flash at all. Kay constantly was going for cool mat attacks, Imanari Rolls, Twisters,  which Savoy would either escape or counter. I loved how Kay went for the Imanari Roll one too many times and got blasted with hammer fists. Finish was really cool with Savoy going for an Omaplata and Kay rolling through into a crucifix and raining down elbows for the tap. Neither lady had the polish of an elite grappler, but they were trying cool shit and pulling it off and I am going to appreciate that, even if it was a bit slower and more awkward then Volk Han.

ER: I liked this even though, yeah, the skill level for this thing was quite there. This lead to a couple exhibition-y moments, but this style leads itself open to things like that. I'll always appreciate two wrestlers going for things that are maybe beyond them, rather then settling into the same old comfort zones. I dug both of them rolling through armbars and heel hooks, and really liked Savoy punishing Kay with mounted punches and hammerfists throughout, and I thought they made good frustrated use out of accidentally falling to the floor. The twister set-up was cool and looked like it could've popped one of Savoy's ribs had it been held longer. I really like what these two went for.

Anthony Carelli vs. Simon Grimm

PAS: Holy hell did Carelli look great here, talk about a guy who could have had a totally different career. He looked like a guy who deserved to run a BattlArts school. Super stiff strikes, just bounces Grimm's head off the mat with forearms, great looking judo takedowns, and some cool submissions. Grimm had his moments, and he really got some heel heat on a show without it normally, but this was a Carelli show and a great one.

ER: Calling Carelli a revelation here would not be an overstatement, because we have hundreds of his matches on tape and outside of occasional judo takedowns we saw none of this guy. I know he had early career Batt matches (that I've never seen) and has been running a Canadian Batt Academy (where I don't think he's wrestled), and here he comes out raining down some of the nastiest grounded strikes of the year while trying to leave with any one of Grimm's limbs. He was a genuinely gifted comedy wrestler who could still be making a killing working indy shows, taking no bumps, kids screaming for the cobra, powerwalking the ropes, easy; instead he goes down to Vegas and reigns supreme! I thought Grimm brought more to this than Phil did, even though this clearly felt laid out to show Carelli's (unseen?) abilities. I loved Carelli's downward elbow strikes to Grimm's chest, loved the hard shots to Grimm's body, and loved the fight over kneebars and armbars, and I dug how things ramped up. Grimm started besting Carelli and that's when Carelli hauls off and starts throwing open hand strikes to escape. And my favorite part of the match was probably Carelli locking in a great dragon sleeper, real mean, and Grimm having to get out of it by throwing a knee up over his head. the knee looked vicious and Carelli sold it appropriately. I wouldn't have guessed Grimm would be such a solid addition to these shows, but I like what he brings and hope we get to see more of Carelli.

Timothy Thatcher vs. Ikuhisa Minowa

PAS: I thought this was good but never broke into the great level. Thatcher doesn't really do worked shoot style on these shows, he really works more of a MUGA style heavy on hard forearms and more traditional wrestling submission holds. That worked well as a style break against Hideki Suzuki on the last show, a guy who is the best in the world at that style. Minowa is an MMA fighter who has done a handful of works, he is technically skilled, but he wasn't bringing a ton of flash to the match. I liked Thatcher grinding out submissions, including the finish where he pounded on Minowa's back until he gave up his neck. I also liked how Thatcher would spin out of one submission to another. This ended up being cool but dry, I think Minowa would have probably been better served against more of a shoot guy.

ER: I was left a little cold by this one, even though I liked a lot of what they did, but it did feel like a styles clash that was sound, but not as interesting as it should have been. On paper it seemed like it would be dynamite but it wound up more perfunctory than I was expecting, and I think a lot of that was Minowa. Necro Butcher vs. Minowman is a styles clash classic, but here he showed no charisma and felt much more like a generic karate fighter a fed would add as a special attraction to a 70s card. Except on this card that wasn't any kind of special attraction, it was expected. I thought Thatcher looked awesome working in and around him, and was laying in some pretty mean shots on the mat that felt like they could have been sold better. Minowa would have an occasional nice moment, I liked him spinning out to grab a heel hook, but I think he would have been better off against another MMA guy or even better, someone like Nick Gage. I agree with Phil about how awesome Thatcher looked down the finish stretch, felt like he was grinding Minowa down and by the time he pummeled his way into that nasty neck and crossface choke it felt like a fine finish.

59. Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: I really enjoyed this. Smith is great in this format because of the heaviness he gets across. When he is on the mat he is a this dense ball of tendon strength you have to try to move off. When he lands shots, they feel and look like he is laying cinderblocks upside the head of his opponent. Lawlor was really good at fighting off the back foot, I loved how he threw peppery jabs only to land big leg kicks, and he had some slick counters off of his back. Smith kept rolling though and by the end he felt inevitable.

ER: Damn I just want Davey Boy Smith to work exclusively this style, it's far and away the most I've ever enjoyed him and it's a style he really excels at. He has big strength and hits hard, and really knows how to project his weight. Every one of his elbow shots looks like it should send Lawlor to spaghetti legs, and Lawlor pretty much behaves like that's where he's at. DBS would hit a couple big elbows and Lawlor would throw shorter rabbit punches to set up his only real shot, taking out DBS' leg. But I just loved the power DBS showed, in "smaller" things like a couple back elbows he lands to Lawlor's mouth while in guard (I put smaller in quotes because any one of those shots would have leveled me), to bigger things like when he took Lawlor down with basically a keylock suplex, to fitting more traditional wrestling offense into the match without it seeming out of place. Lawlor attempts a backpack choke and DBS grabs him into a powerslam, DBS hits a powerbomb that fit perfectly fine into a shootstyle atmosphere because it looked like there was nothing Lawlor could do to stop it, DBS dumps Lawlor with a flat out rude backdrop driver, and Lawlor himself even hits an awesome sliding lariat that throws both to the floor. Other Bloodsport stuff that tried to incorporate pro wrestling came off looking phony, but these guys had a great sense of what would work (other than maybe that Sharpshooter attempt, but I appreciate the cockiness to even attempt it).

Killer Kross vs. Nick Gage

PAS: Fun little sprint which delivered what you want out of this match up. Gage is a fun Tank Abbott style brawler on these shows. I loved Kross dominating him with technical striking only to fall victim to a bar fight headbutt, and a soccer kick to the mouth. Kross getting him down and choking him out felt inevitable, but Gage throwing up his set as he passed out was a great bit of theatre. I assume Kross is only making the Batista shoutout because they have that match signed, if they do it is a great bit of business.

ER: This match ruled, the perfect quick and dirty fight to have on a card like this. This is the shortest match on the card but was memorable as hell. Gage has a connection to the crowd that few indy guys today could ever dream of having, and that always adds to his matches. In a setting like this it adds even more, and Kross is a cool opponent for him. Kross goes after Gage's ankle, kicking at it and making it seem like legwork was going to be the story of the match, until Gage completely rewrites the story by hitting a tremendous headbutt to KK's face. He sandbags a Kross backdrop driver and I dug the messiness of the ground grappling, dug how they reacted to hitting each other, and thought Gage going down to a nasty choke while throwing double middles was about as fitting as a finish could be.

10. Josh Barnett vs. Chris Dickinson

PAS: Really excellent stuff. All of the cool shit in the Barnett vs. Suzuki without any of the New Japanish shit. I loved the pace of this match with Barnett using his strength and technique to dominate, only to have Dickinson catch him with semi cheap shots to the back of the head or to the ear. Barnett wasn't fully prepared for shots that were legal in Bloodsport but would be illegal in MMA and Dickinson was able to make hay from that. I also loved Dickinson sneaking in a cross armbreaker after fighting for the leg. Finish was totally awesome, they both stand up after some grappling and Barnett tosses off his wrist tape in a very cool drop the strap way, they stand and throw and Dickinson lands first clipping Barnett in the ear and stunning him, Dickinson lands a nasty deadlift German, and some soccer kicks, Barnett is stunned swinging wildly and catches Dickinson in the temple, drops him with a powerbomb and a KO kick to the jaw. The match was slow paced before that and built to this great wild crescendo. Contender for a career match for both guys, and these are guys with great careers.

ER: What a showing from these two, and I'm especially blown away by Dickinson. He's become one of my very favorites over the past couple years, but this match was going to take something special. To look credible in a shootstyle atmosphere against a guy not only larger than him, but a former UFC heavyweight champ who has beaten a who's who list of heavyweight fighters. And he totally did. Barnett looked like Barnett, and Dickinson fought like a guy with nothing to lose, attacking Barnett with downright cruel closed fists to the body and face. Barnett was working him over with early MMA holds, lots of heel hooks, a can opener, and I loved how he would work an armbar and then catch a push off kick from Dickinson and then just twist his arm AND his leg. But Dickinson was aggressive as hell and the violent pace they kept up for 17 minutes was insane. Barnett was being a good guy and throwing open hands, working holds, and Dickinson was throwing big damn fists and trying to bull his way through, and it was working! Dickinson came off like such a major badass, really hanging with an MMA legend, actually flustering Barnett at points by sneaking in kicks. And the match long struggle built to an absolute explosion with the kind of stand and trade this show really needed. There was a killer moment earlier where Dickinson landed a shot to the back of the head and Barnett did this great lights out recovery, and now he was going to pay him back, peeling off and throwing down his wrist tape in an awesome visual. But Dickinson hits this wild German and just starts kicking the hell out of Barnett, sending Barnett into muscle memory winged shots, and we get a completely plausible epic gutwrench powerbomb with some mean follow up knees to Dickinson's face. The bell to bell action was the best, a major accomplishment and some of the best shootstyle fighting we've seen. A real gem, and a real reason to keep excitement levels high for these shows.

ER: Four matches land on our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List, and others weren't far off. This feels like a format that has a lot of legs as long as the shows are spaced, but then again I'm someone who would get excited at school every Monday of 1998, hoping there would be a Brawl For All segment that night.

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #3: MLW Rise of the Renegades

TKG: Bloodsport ends and we head into town for MLW. Originally this was scheduled to be LA Park v Rush and the thing I was most excited for. That wasn't happening. This was a long TV taping and had the real rhythm of a TV taping (angle followed by long showcase match, angle followed by long showcase match, angle followed by long showcase match ) and that rhythm eventually kills you. 

PAS: Hindsight is 20/20, but we probably should have just gotten a good dinner somewhere, rather then two long, expensive Uber rides into the city for this show. When we got these tickets we thought we were out of luck for Bloodsport and didn't want to fly to NYC for two shows, once we got Bloodsport tickets this became a mistake

ER: This show sounded like an excellent idea at the time. We had a gigantic gap in our schedule due to Bloodsport selling out sooner than we anticipated, and wanted to fill it with wrestling. WWN tickets at the same time were like $80, MLW tickets were $20. Easy choice was easy. In hindsight though we should have just had dinner and then rolled the dice on whatever was playing at White Eagle. Getting to Queens and back was a nightmare, and MLW didn't really book any interesting on paper match-ups. MLW has a several guys I really like, and they were all matched up against guys I don't care about. So we drive into the city and it's weird because in California the uber drivers never shut up. You go to the airport and you know you're going to be talking about the new elimination diet your food-allergic driver is starting for the duration of the fare. In NY they're nearly completely silent, so this driver had to listen to us talk about the tremendous hit our music collection will take if we were to cancel 60s rockers the way we easily cancel guys like Ryan Adams today when we find out what scummy dudes they are. Wrestling too. Tom talks about how many different musicians beat up Tammi Terrell. And soon, the talk turned to Ferriday, Louisiana and Jerry Lee Lewis. Phil talks about how Jerry Lee essentially killed two wives, with a "Ferriday's Most Famous Son" police report saying the women died from falling down and hitting their head too many times. Then Tom tells an incredible story about early 90s Jerry Lee tax troubles, and how he had a 900 number grift that Tom actually called, and to milk the time of the call Jerry Lee had *known stutterer* Mel Tillis doing the call intros!! Our driver sat in silence as Tom went into an extended "Now if-a you'd like to he-he-he-hea-hear Jerry Lee tell a story about E-e-e-el-ell-elvis then press 1, and uh if-a you'd..." I was in stitches. Phil tipped the driver handsomely.

Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman

TKG: Maxwell Jacob Friedman? Not Maxwell Jacob Goldstein? It was MJF and not MJG? We must have watched 30 matches of his and no one corrected me all the times I yelled “Don’t want drama, don’t want none” and “Hey 8ball says your mouth says no but your body says stick me”?

PAS: We came in during this match and headed to the bathroom and got situated, so weren't fully settled and focused on this. Both guys are fine, but this was mostly a set up for the six man later in the show. Pillman does look exactly like his father and I am happy to have a Pillman back in my life.

ER: We got there a little late and missed an Ariel Dominguez match which is a drag. He's a fun tiny babyface underdog in a gi. And like Dominguez, Pillman is a guy I like, who I haven't actually seen in a match I really like. This seemed to have a nice pace but as Phil said, we showed up as it was starting, used the restroom, found a place to stand (and I went over and pet Mr. Velvet in between peeing and finding a spot), so I only caught glances until the finish.

Jacob Fatu vs. Barrington Hughes

TKG: Fatu, Samuel, and Simon Grimm are working some kind of paper bag passing international brown solidarity heel team gimmick. MLW likes to use vintage managers and semi disappointed that Armand Hussein isn’t out explaining this. Is Armand Hussein still alive? 2019 Arman Hussein would be awesome ridiculous move. Fatu squashes the huge Barrington Hughes and the heel team bury him under either a balaclava or their team flag. Hughes is super obese guy from Florida so him getting knocked down is always scary.

PAS: Fatu is really explosive and fun to watch. No idea why they would fly in Hughes from Florida just to get squashed a couple of times, that guy is two airplane seats minimum, you might need to buy him a whole row. They are really burning through that venture capital cash in dumb ways.

ER: I got excited for Fatu's music as he's a Bay Area guy who had big early impact and clearly looked like a guy who would get national opportunities. He also had a great match against Boyce Legrande which was arguably my favorite match for Phoenix Pro Wrestling, the local group Tim Livingston and I do commentary for. And then the Caramel Colossus comes out and I'm stoked for a BIG big boy battle. But since it's a Hughes match, it only goes 1 minute. Hughes has really only worked 1 minute matches for MLW (other than their bad WarGames match) so I knew it would be too flukey that I would be there live for his first actual match. Jesus, give me 4 minutes of this dude working a tubby match and I'll get it on our list. Little did I know that we'd be seeing like 7 segments of Hughes getting jumped by Fatu's stable throughout the night. Phil and I were dying the next day talking about MLW buying 3 airplane tickets to fly Hughes up to just get jumped by Fatu's gang. I mean Hughes is gigantic, gigantic enough that you not only have to buy him 3 tickets, but they have to be tickets in an extra leg room seat, which can cost considerably more than other tickets. Just a wild use of $$ there. We saw so many obese dudes get jumped by Fatu's gang by the end of our time at MLW. It got absurd. I would have cried laughing if Hughes had shown up at the late night AIW show just to get jumped and rolled over slowly with kicks. Would have made me even more of a fan.

Rey Horus vs. Ace Austin

TKG: This was a long long showcase match. I think Ace Austin is working a “close up magic” gimmick and does lots of stuff built out of headstands. First juniors exchanges were fine and felt like they could have had a fun lightning match but then they try to a strike exchange section, and a throws section and a mask removal section and a finisher exchange section. This felt like had way more sections than needed and no one had any idea of how to move from one to the next.

PAS: This was a long singles match from two guys who clearly can't put together a long singles match. Maybe if either guy was with a veteran who could control the match and work around their spots it might have been OK, but we didn't have that guy and it suffered.

ER: This match felt so long. Starting from the time we walked to breakfast, we'd already been up and about for 9+ hours, and this thing was long enough that I assumed they were going to Mordor. Horus is good with a base like Steve Pain or flying in for trios spots, but god I did not need to see 20 minutes of him working on material. Austin is a guy I haven't seen much of, and then oddly saw the next day on the subway taking up a seat while women were standing, and he had some fun material and some unique body movement, but his shtick didn't work in an epic singles. The match already felt long when Phil managed to have enough time to get in four different and spaced out "How long IS this match?" riffs. The best was "How is Rey Horus vs. Ace Austin going to be the longest match we see this weekend!?"

Low Ki/Ricky Martinez vs. Mr Grim/Hollywood ?

TKG: I think this was Ki and Martinez v Grim and maybe Hollywood Shuffle. Guy had Hollywood on his pants and he was beaten into realizing that there is always work at the post office. I was pretty sure his name was Hollywood Shuffle but also thought MJF was MJG. Of the squashes on the show this was best as Ki squashes are always going to be nasty. They do a post match angle with the Fatu, Samuel Simon team burying Ki under cloth.

PAS: I think this might have been Ki turning face, as he was arguing with Salena De La Renta coming down the aisle and it looked like Ricky Martinez abandoned him before the Contra beatdown. Hard to turn someone face after this brutal of a beatdown. Ki ko's Grim with the first blow and ends up opening up Hollywood's jaw so he could break it with a punch. It seems like Ki's MLW run is based around his unprofessional rep, and he KO's Grim like he was Mace Mendoza or Elax. This was fun, but man what a waste of Ki, I kept hoping they would announce a cool Ki match, and when they didn't I was hoping for a surprise Ki match, and instead we just got a fun squash.

ER: Love Tom going for a "There's always work at the post office" joke. He didn't do that while we were watching the show. He sat on that one so as not to risk either of us stealing his Hollywood Shuffle joke even though Phil and I are going to be the two people who would have laughed at a Hollywood Shuffle joke. And I knew they were going to screw us like this. Segunda Caida might be the collective biggest Low-Ki fans in the world. We've probably brought more attention to the Low-Ki/Rey Mysterio match than JAPW brought to the Low-Ki/Rey Mysterio match. But the whole time leading up to the event, matches with everyone else kept being announced, and Low-Ki kept being announced as merely "appearing". We all knew that meant we'd get a 3 minute Low-Ki squash and not a Low-Ki match for our list. We can't have nice things from MLW. Luckily Low-Ki is a great guy to beat up a couple no names in a squash, you know he's not going to finish the match without at least a couple noteworthy moments. Here his double stomp landed so hard my stomach hurt (although my stomach also had two IPAs and a heavy mac and cheese still hanging out in it so...). Bummed we only got like 2 minutes of Salina De La Renta, too. She's my favorite manager in wrestling today, and I was excited to see how she works the crowd live when the cameras aren't on her. Sadly I saw barely any of her.

Myron Reed/Rich Swann vs. Jimmy Yuta/Lance Anoa'i

TKG: I don’t think I’ve ever seen Reed before but really liked him as cocky guy who wants to hit his stuff on opponents and runs away from getting hit.

PAS: This was pretty good. Reed and Swann seem to be work a heel Black Lives Matter gimmick which is problematic, but they were a fun heel team, cutting off both faces and feeding their comebacks well. Anoa'i seems kind of superfluous in a fed pushing Jacob Fatu so hard if they aren't going to be teaming or feuding.

ER: I've really liked all of the Reed matches that have been on MLW. He brings a lot to job work, getting the best matches in MLW out of guys like DJZ and Kotto Brazil. Swann kind of has a natural smugness to him, can't really put my finger on it, but always felt he would work much better as a heel (and he does), so this is a heel team with a ton of potential. Here he's an overlooked heel who now uses what had been used as flashy babyface comeback offense (like all of his awesome cutter variations that he would hit as a dramatic "3 point tying shot") as awesome sneak attack cheap shot flashy offense. He literally ran in at one point with a match turning cutter from the entrance ramp, and it looked even more spectacular as we were standing in the corner to the side of the ramp, so we couldn't see his starting point. We just saw Reed suddenly bursting into frame with a great cutter. I agree with Phil that it's weird having Anoa'i as a semi featured role while Fatu is getting a major heel role. It's like they purposely wanted to avoid teaming up the Samoan guys but really Anoa'i would be more effective as a monster Samoan in that angle than teaming with a dud like Yuta.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Daga

TKG: This was my favorite match on the show. These are two guys who know how to put together a complete singles lucharesu match, know how to put the lucha in the puroresu, know how to put the puroresu in the lucha, understood lucha in a real traditional sense, and understood the puroresu style before all of the Choshu and ”shoot” Inokiism was stripped from it. Really felt like a complete match where transitions between the mat work, strikes, and dives and back all made sense, didn’t feel like they were just done to check off boxes. And everything done on high, high level. Felt like it needed some type of stakes instead of just being two guys thrown together to give it some sort of added meaning. Like a championship, or if this was part of the MSG G1 show (people would have praised this highly if it were on MSG show). Best match on show but still thought it was weird match to throw money at….I don’t know. Also possibility that overrating it as response to Rey v Austin match.

PAS: I thought this was good, although I think I liked it less then Tom. Daga is a guy who is inspired by people inspired by Minoru Tanaka so there was nice synergy in the match up. Tanaka is pretty low on the list of BattlArts alumni I would be excited to see live, but he still can throw out some tricked out counters and submission attempts. This was also pretty stiff, although with added leg slaps. I agree it felt a little exhibition-y, but its shining competence was really needed at this point of the show. 

ER: Tom's enthusiasm helped me get into this one more. I think he was so insulted by the Avengers length Austin/Horus match, really Daga is a not as good Minoru Tanaka, and on the car ride back to White Eagle we talked about BattlArts alumni we'd want to see live less than Tanaka. Came up with junji.com, probably Mohammed Yone, consider Viktor Krueger but decide it would be cool to say you saw Viktor Krueger live, and maybe Tsubo Genjin. But Tanaka was a major part of my 2000-2001 wrestling fandom, a guy I actively sought out and remember being super excited for his first CMLL tour as Heat (which was disappointing and in retrospect the beginning of me drifting away from him as a worker), and that still means something to me. He was a real pro here and it was cool to see how hard even the lesser BattlArts guys hit in a live setting. You see guys like Rey Horus or MJF and then you see Tanaka throw a sidekick to Daga's chest and you're like "oh right, the BattlArts." This was a really fun match and felt like it was at a good spot on the taping, which I can't say for a lot of other things. Daga hit a great dive at one point and Tanaka really hurled himself into the railing off it, probably the best dive we saw at this show. Some of this really isn't my style of choice anymore, but it was a nicely done version of that match.

Dynasty (Alexander Hammerstone/Maxwell Jacob Friedman/Richard Holliday) vs. The Hart Foundation (Brian Pillman Jr./Davey Boy Smith Jr./Teddy Hart)

TKG: Is this the first time I’ve seen Teddy Hart live? This can’t be the first time I’ve seen Teddy Hart live? He comes across as a giant fucking bigger than life character in person wearing insane sparkles carrying his Persian aloft. A star from a different universe than our world cotidiano. Pre-match me and Phil bet on how many moonsaults he will do and when in match he would fake a knee injury. He only did two moonsaults but both done in the thrown out way only he does them, and he tweaks his arm near the end and angrily works at restoring feeling in hand, popping arm back into place. Anyways, superstar. Pillman had an injury angle early in the show and so match started 2 on 3 with Pillman eventually running in to make injured guy comeback save. This was at its best when Hart Foundation were kind of working as walking tall babyfaces in a tables match. Hammerstone I thought was amusing as heel powerhouse who just isn't as strong as face powerhouse. Him being challenged into dueling delayed vertical suplexes with Davey Boy Smith really got that whole thing over.

PAS: This was my favorite match of the show. Hart and Davey Boy work the first part of the match like Teddy Hart vs. Homicide with Teddy in the role of Homicide. They bumped all three heels around the ring with super stiff shots and for a while it looked like a fun squash match. The Dynasty got some big comebacks and Teddy took some big bumps. The spot where Hart hit a Doomsday Destroyer while leaping off the back of Hammerstone was maybe the craziest spot we saw all day, and we saw some crazy shit. Enjoyed this thoroughly, and Teddy is pretty much a must see guy at this point, really wish he worked Bloodsport.

ER: This was definitely my favorite match of the show. We were all pretty much in awe of Teddy Hart. The guy is a total megastar. He looks like if Colin Farrell had a hip hop producer role in Spring Breakers, coming out in a spectacular turquoise and purple glittery sequined jogging suit with matching tank, leaving him and the ring covered in glitter (which has been a theme of our day that Bloodsport sadly didn't honor). He was carrying Mr. Velvet - which is weird to see live and comes off borderline cruel - but we did get to see him placed on the turnbuckle and I'm sorry but that's cute. This was a really action packed garbage brawl with Teddy throwing the best punches in wrestling today, fans making fun of Hammerstone for looking like Jericho (although at least looking better than current Jericho), Davey Boy looked like a great powerhouse opposite him, we got a cool Pillman triumphant run-in, MJF did an actual funny spot when Holliday called for a tandem suplex and MJF had a great facial reaction that said "Man I'd rather not, my neck is still dead from an earlier bump" and the delay caused him to get suplexed. The ringside brawling was really intense, and Teddy did a bunch of great "popping my arm back into the socket" material right in front of us, into the barricade. The match was a tables match that didn't waste a bunch of time on table set up and didn't waste time teasing a bunch of table spots. They set up one table, and had a cool finish through it. Excited to see how this plays on TV.

Josef Samael vs. Ace Romero

TKG: I looked it up and sadly Armand Hussein has passed. I kind of liked Allen Martin as a manager. Is Allen Martin still alive? 2019 Allen Martin managed Contra would be an awesome ridiculous move. Samuel has heel Persian boots with exaggerated hooks on toe making him kicking an obese man low seem like he might get under the pannus to do some real damage.

PAS: Barrington ambled out to make the save and got beaten down for a second time, and this Contra war on the obese continued, really felt like they should have booked Simon Grimm vs. Fallah Bah or Big Slam Vader for continuities sake.

ER: We were trying to come up with more obese guys they can bring in, which highlighted the dearth of big fat guys on the indies right now. I like Romero a lot but this was more fat guys getting rolled over slowly with group kicks. I did enjoy my conversation with Tom about how a kick to Romero's groin would have no effect due to how his belly hung low enough to cover his genitals. Tom - without missing a beat - explained the physics of Samael's effective hooked boots ball kicking.

Gringo Loco vs. Puma King

TKG: This was true lucha and I will always take lucha over lucharesu. But this was lightning match lucha…and I could’ve watched it go on for another ten minutes happily. Gringo Loco’s hair was the most spectacular hair on a weekend of spectacular hair.

PAS: This had a couple of moments of real transcendence,  Loco is a elite level Lucha base, and they had some really great fast exchanges. When it got away from that into more extended runs of offense for either guy it got less special, still it had those moments. Loco is a long time favorite of mine and I was excited to see him live.

ER: Glad I finally got to see Gringo live. He's a favorite of the blog and a real artist, reminds me of watching Skayde matches for the first time. He'll throw in some World of Sport style handsprings but break out one of a few different headscissor variations, a cool cross ring cutter, can do great dives and catch dives great, and yes Tom is correct that his Mania week hair was spectacular. Crowd was a little tired so Puma's shtick didn't work as well as it typically does, but I thought this match was a nice pace and should also play well on TV.

Mance Warner vs. Sami Callihan 

TKG: These two work a two disgusting guys brawling indifferent to ref who DQs them early. Lots of spitting and snot rockets early. Kind of like imagine a Joel Goodhart booked Henry O Godwin v. Bastion Booger brawl. Holy fuck how awesome would Mark Cantebury v. Mike Shaw for Goodhart have been? Aww fuck. Back to actual match in front of us. Warner and Callihan beat each other around ring. Pretty early in the match they do the wearing chairs like necklace spots that I thought dragged down the Jay v Parnell match. After bitching about those spots earlier, those spots worked surprisingly well for me here, some of that is when in match they were used and some of it is these guys are playing such cartoonish caricatures that them obliviously not taking chairs off their necks works. Would Bastion Booger or Henry O Godwin prioritize taking a chair off their neck? No, of course not. Why would they? Two guys who wanted to beat each other up.

PAS: This was a day in which we watched a lot of brawling, this was solid violent stuff, but was overshadowed in my mind by the violence proceeding it, and the horrific stuff still to come. Callihan and Warner both bring a bunch of energy to what they do, and the execution was fun. Finish with the Hijo de La Park and Martinez run in, and crazy guy team up, served its purpose, but the whole match felt a little like they were working towards a run in.

ER: This was the kind of match that played great live and up close. They guys spent most of the match on the floor and when these two are on the floor somebody is going to get hit hard. They brawled over near us a bunch and the shots look so much meaner 7 feet away that through a TV screen. Seeing hard chops to the throat live is just cooler, and we got the added bonus of them trying to wrap beer cans around each other's head. The spitting stuff is gross, but damn hitting a guy in the side of the head with the EDGE of a beer can looks like it would instantly bust someone open. These guys really hit heard and Mancer is a cool MLW addition. The stuff around a chair was really nasty, and we get a ridiculous moment of a tombstone piledriver through a chair that had been set up. It got a 2 count, and this marks the first - but not last - time of the day we would see a piledriver through a chair get only a 2 count. Still, match was a fine asskicking.

TKG: Airwolf v Rey Fenix starts and we decide that we don't want to miss the AIW opener, so we pour one out for Jan Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine and leave.

ER: I make a "manager as Alex Cord with an eyepatch" joke but it gets minimal reaction. I silently assure myself that nobody heard it and that's why it got no reaction.

PAS: This show ran really long which was kind of a bummer, we came to see LA Park, and didn't get that chance, but I didn't want to miss any of the AIW show and we really made the right choice.

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #2: Josh Barnett's Bloodsport

PAS: We really blew it by not pre-buying tickets early, Bloodsport sold out before we could buy some tickets and I assumed we were out of luck,  but the wrestling gods smiled on us and I was able to grab three seats on StubHub for half the face value.

ER: We got to go to lunch after Family Reunion and before Bloodsport, plenty of intriguing options within pleasant walking distance. We landed on a burger place that started playing Hootie upon us being seated, and Tom told a great story about an unearthed Pete Buttigieg "Dave Matthews Band in a Post 9/11 World" college op-ed that is either impossible to believe or a bit with real legs. On the walk back we pass Mr. Brickster on his way to the PATH and he's wearing a full Pac-Man screen suit with a LEGO bowtie, and our day of gushing about Brickster gains strength upon refueling. A line was already 25 deep for Bloodsport when we left, and we come back to a sardine packed White Eagle. Thank god for these assigned seats. It would have been a real shame if we had missed this. We'd never done a Mania week before (I went to some WWN shows when they played San Jose in 2015 but the week wasn't as crazy filled with events then), and had no idea some things sold out so much earlier. Phil casually mentioned as we were walking to breakfast that he had found 3 seats to Bloodsport, and from the second we were seated at our 2nd row seat I was so glad we were there live.

TKG: After Family Reunion we go get food and I see some tall guy on the opposite corner walking from PATH in pleather wrestling gear but without a roller bag, and loudly start with, “Look at that greasy haired fat faced wrestling fan, spent his money on his cosplay leather” or something like that. Eric goes “yeah that’s Davey Boy Smith Jr.”

 

Dominic Garrini vs. Phil Baroni

PAS: Baroni is pretty great at getting heat from the crowd, he was always a hatable sleaze as an MMA fighter and that translates really well to riling up an indy wrestling crowd. I liked this a bunch with Garrini having some nice sprawls to try to get Baroni on the mat, and a brutal finish with Baroni full force punching Garrini in the face. Dom was really going to prove his insanity later in the evening, but letting a MMA fighter with 11 KO wins, punch you full force in the jaw may even be nuttier then some of the bumps he took in the I Quit match.

TKG: Baroni poses and yells at audience “Yeah this is steroids” and neat as I expected Barnett’s vision to be RINGS but instead it was PRIDE. Was trying to explain Baroni to Eric, and couldn’t remember if he was a teen tanning or teen bodybuilding champion or both but the point is he is guy who totally embraces being a Long Island Teen Tanning n. Bodybuilding star, this match was all him doing the same “I’m better than this” shtick that he does in his actual MMA matches and potatoing Garinni. Garinni impressively built a match around that while eating potatoes. If Bloodsport can get some Tony Khan money Baroni/Malignaggi v Berto Bros in Tampa could be super amusing.

ER: I obviously knew Baroni from early PRIDE and UFC shows, and his name on the card excited me for the exact reasons we got here, and I didn't even know about the teenage tan 'n' bodybuilding stuff. He comes out, grinds on a woman, flexes, talks about his steroid bod, and then punches someone. Later, he came out as a second and yelled out tips while eating a PowerBar. Felt like we also could have used Matt Serra yelling tips to Pete Drago Sell. I like gi Garrini, it's a look he should pull more often. This was a quick taste but it delivered and set the tone for the show, really made me happy to be there live and so close to the action. I would have loved to see Garrini control more, threaten another tap (and he did get a cool armbar reversal), but the finish was the kind of fireworks people wanted: Baroni decked Garrini with a right hand for the near KO and then went for a mocking pinfall, then planted him with another to stop the match (after getting a nice dramatic 9 count as Garrini struggled to his feet). Baroni certainly didn't look like someone who was holding back on his KO punch, and agree with Phil that in retrospect taking to straight shots to the jaw may have been Garrini's craziest move of a day with several contenders.

JR Kratos vs. Simon Grimm

PAS: Kratos is a Nor-Cal guy who worked a couple of matches in this style in the late lamented PREMIER fed, but I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was. It was basically Grimm using his technique to try to minimize Kratos power advantage, there were some especially nasty elbows to the back of the head and ear, and some big slaps. The final mat scramble was pretty great with Grimm lifting up in Kratos's guard and raining down elbows, and Kratos transitioning into a head and arm choke. Loved the finish with Grimm using a schoolboy to grab an armbar, Kratos doing a Hughes lift for a powerbomb and wasting him with a brutal jumping forearm smash. I think this was better then any of the matches on last years show and it was only the second match.

TKG: This came out of nowhere and fuck that finish was beautiful. Kratos does the thing you want in pro/shoot hybrid match where he makes the pro-wrestling spots look as nasty as the legit spots.

ER: Kratos is primarily a Bay Area guy and is pretty popular around here, so no matter what kind of match we got I knew Phil would be touting him as my boy. Technically I was there for some *really* early Psycho Seth stuff, too, possibly even his debut way back in 2002, so this was a Bay Area represent match. Once Tom realizes both are APW guys he excitedly wonders if we might have gotten a triple threat with Moondog Moretti at one point. Seth could have crossed paths with Moretti but I think Kratos started too late. And this is weirdly seeming like Kratos' best wrestling style, as I loved his stuff in Premier and his performance in this match more than any pro style match I've ever seen from him. I thought this was great. It was a match that on paper was maybe the least match on the card, and it wound up being my 2nd favorite match of the show. I thought all the working parts were cool, dug how Grimm controlled the stand up striking (at one point he hits an open handed chop to the neck that made me scoot my chair back) with Kratos controlling more of the ground striking. Kratos had some cool takedowns including a couple where he yanked Grimm's arm through his legs and flipped him. Kratos did a good job minimizing Grimm's ground striking, maneuvering to spots where Grimm had no power, and both had some slick armbar attempts. I particularly liked Kratos pushing at Grimm's locked hands with his free boot. The jumping forearm finish was arguably the nastiest finish we saw all day, in a day filled with some nasty finishes. I've seen Kratos matches that were supposed to end in a KO stoppage that didn't really work. This worked so well it looked like Grimm would need to be helped out, and Kratos lifting up Grimm's lifeless body in case another move was needed for a stoppage was a sick touch.

Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Killer Kross

PAS: Another pretty great match which I didn't have big expectations for. They opened up with some kick boxing with Smith throwing some pretty heavy leg kicks. Kross would throw heat and did a nice job of scrambling into positions, much more competent at this then I would expect from TNA fake Batista. This is right in Davey's wheelhouse and he had some really slick takedowns and his final deadlift suplex looked great. Heck of a big boy punch out, and this show just delivered up and down the card.

TKG: DBS comes out in the shorts he wore underneath the tear away pleather pants. I remember DBS in some twitter thread agreeing with Kim Duk about an older credible style that NJ doesn’t do anymore. And thinking “hmm I wish DBS actually worked that style”. And here he is doing it and it is so much more impressive than anything else ever seen of him. This really felt like what he should be doing.

ER: Amazing that we saw DBS in the wild wearing a completely different set of ring gear while out and about. You see a guy walking the streets and taking the train wearing giant baggy pristine white vinyl pants with dog bones all over them, you assume that he's just wearing his gear and didn't feel like taking a roller bag. Then he comes out in trunks and you realize he just has custom walking around dog bone vinyls. But damn would I be so much more excited for DBS matches if he just wrestled like this guy every show. Tom turned to me right after the finish and asks "What other Davey Boy do I need to seek out?" And I responded with a non-word like "Ehhhhhhhhhhh". DBS looked like an absolutely fantastic roller and grappler for the duration of this, and the way he muscled Kross around the mat was really impressive. He really looked like he was moving a human sack of concrete at times, both guys really working the struggle. DBS even tried locking on a shoot Sharpshooter out of a scramble which was a great moment. Both guys threw nice leg kicks, Kross had a couple great Saito suplexes and DBS set up the finish with a bomb hardway backdrop suplex, drags Kross' body to the center and got the tap on a crossface. I thought some of the standing slap exchanges went too long, even though they all paid off nicely, and the throws and rolling totally overdelivered.

Masashi Takeda vs. Jonathan Gresham

PAS: Takeda is a guy who started out in Style E, BattlArts, FUTEN and U-Style before he decided to grotesquely scar himself in death matches, so he was very comfortable doing worked shoots. This was a middleweight fight and worked at a much faster pace then the rest of the show. Gresham is really skilled on the mat, and he kept moving to improve his position, while Takeda would have these almost acrobatic leaps into submission attempts. The match changes dramatically when they both spill to the floor, which opens up Takeda (honestly a sneeze might open up Takeda at this point), we get some very aggressive stand up with Gresham aiming hammer fists and slaps to the open wound and Takeda moving forward, finish was great with Takeda landing a flash knee KO. Really energetic stuff and a nice contrast with the previous match.

TKG: I've watched enough Fedor to know if a guy is made of scar tissue you should try to open that up immediately to get the stoppage. They tease a fall to floor once or twice before actually doing it and not sure how I felt about it. I liked the first match having a DQ for touching ref, Promotion establishing its own unique rules....maintain them. But once got back in the ring it got right back.

ER: I actually didn't remember Takeda as a Tamura guy. He's been a grimy death guy for so long. Is Jun Kasai an Anjo trainee? Takeda comes out and Tom asks "So this guy is a death match guy?" Takeda takes off his shirt. "Yep, that's a death match guy." Gresham's performance in this match really highlighted what a colossal disappointment that Orange Cassidy match that started our day was. There was Gresham generously letting a guy take 100% of a match with his shtick, totally thankless work, here he gets to work several cool can openers and throws down with Takeda and looks like a total badass. They made really good use of rolling to the floor (guys had been broken up while getting to the edge of the ring before this, but nobody had rolled out mid-move) and they really hit the ground hard when both took a tumble. Gresham looked really talented on the mat and I'd love to see that pop up more in his matches, and at one point he was throwing trapped hammer fists to the side of Takeda's head that were among the nastier shots of the show. The finish is the real nasty business with Takeda stunning with a strike, then rushing in with a brutal knee for the instant stoppage. That knee, man. Show was absolutely bananas at this point. We were literally sitting in our seats giggling.

Chris Dickinson vs. Andy Williams

PAS: Williams looks like a Peaky Blinders extra, and Dickinson comes right out into him and they wildly throw for a minute which really fired the crowd up. Williams gasses right after that and they move pretty quickly to the finish with Dickinson getting a choke. Short match, but the first minute was really electric.

TKG: Two guys volume punching with no defense till they couldn’t volume punch anymore is always going to be a winning formula. Two heavyweights doing it always is going to get a crowd riled up.

ER: I flew out here from California, but it's pretty cool they flew Williams in from Branson. And I somehow only found out after this weekend that Williams has been a guitarist in Every Time I Die for over 20 years, which is information that would have been much cooler to me in the early 2000s. And I think Phil and Tom are underselling this one as I thought the coolest stuff in the match came after the big throwdown opening. The throwdown is obviously cool and something we hadn't seen yet, but then you got Williams muscling up Dickinson for a powerbomb, and later a sic gutwrench that looked like it was going to be a ganso bomb, plus Dickinson throwing disgusting shots to Williams' ear and back of his head, and the finish was another classic: Dickinson works his way into a backpack choke with Williams gamely gets to his feet with Dickinson locking in the choke further. Williams knows it's locked in and does a forward roll as a desperation escape, but it doesn't work and just opens him up the rest of the way for Dickinson to lock in the choke. The final choke was a great visual as Williams spits out his mouthguard a bit before tapping, felt like the guy in Casino whose eye starts to pop out when his head is put in a vice.

Frank Mir vs. Dan Severn

PAS: Short exhibition, with Mir grabbing an arm pretty quickly for a the tap. Mir didn't show much in his pro wrestling debut, would like to see if he could provide a bit more spark with an opponent not in his sixties. Severn still looks awesome though, someone should sign him as a troubleshooting ref or something.

TKG: Not at all sure what happened here. This was weakest match on show where never made it to the next gear. Post match Mir says he’s getting into wrestling to take out Lesnar and turn Lesnar into the first pro-wrestling in ring death.

ER: I really liked what we got here, but wanted at least a couple more minutes. The finish felt a little sudden, but the work within was good. Severn is 60 and looks the same as he's looked for the last decade plus, body still looks exactly the same, and it looked cool when he dragged Mir down into a north south choke and gator rolled him. I really liked the maneuvering from both guys while Mir is trying to lock on an armbar or triangle, Mir trying to shift his hips and Severn trying to power up with his legs and advance. The heel hook finish looked really good and the application felt natural, I just wanted more stuff before we got there. At minimum, I thought it was awesome being this close to Severn.

Hideki Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: This was much closer to a MUGA match then a shootstyle match, which works perfectly to both guys strengths. Suzuki is so great at switching speeds, he will deliberately shift into position, only to snap a limb or flip into a submission.  Just everything in this match was applied so tight and twisty and every shot was thudding, Suzuki stomped Thatcher in the head and it looked like he was smashing a grape to make wine. The backbreaker/double underhook suplex finish by Suzuki was just super impactful. Between this and the Ishikawa match, Thatcher is having a monster 2019.

TKG: This wasn’t shoot style at all, this was just super tight mat wrestling and was my favorite match on the show. There was a couple enziguiri, a spinning toe hold, a bow and arrow, a desnucadora, etc...but all of them were sold meaningful. Thatcher's sell of the early toe hold and just his selling throughout left a real impression. We get so used to reversal of reversal wrestling that we forget how exciting changes of momentum can be in match where both guys are actually fighting for control, fighting to apply moves. Just lots of dramatic changes in momentum that crowd almost treated like finishes and two guys who looked completely committed to what they were doing.

ER: On paper this was the match I was most excited for this weekend, and it totally delivered everything I could have wanted it to. It would have been cool just seeing Suzuki's first and only match in the states, but having it actually live up to being the banger we all wanted was extra special. This was the most airtight match of the show, and one of the meanest MUGA matches we've seen. The headlocks and grappling alone would have made for a great match, seriously Suzuki's headlocks look like something that would pop a head right off a pair of shoulders, and it was fascinating being up close and seeing him work exchanges. Phil mentioned how Suzuki will deliberately shift into a position or move a limb to set up something different, and there are a bunch of cool examples of that here, like Suzuki trapped in a sub but moving Thatcher's calf higher up on his own thigh, which then provides him space to turn, which shifts pressure. We get moments where he digs in an elbow before passing, or applies pressure with his palm to Thatcher's knee, or smacks Thatcher in the shin. By the time Suzuki threw a stomp to the back of Thatcher's head, kicked him in the jaw, and hit a Rockette kick to the chest, they could do no wrong. Thatcher gets a nice gutwrench (love how Suzuki sold it with his arms out, like he was getting nerve pain shooting down his fingers), and when Thatcher locked in a side headlock to hit a Saito suplex I said "Uh Ohhhhh" aloud. Sure enough, Suzuki hammers down with his elbow and drops Thatcher with a backbreaker. Suzuki has done more for legitimizing the backbreaker than any wrestler I've seen. His looks like a genuine finisher and the move is actually treated as seriously as the name sounds. Great match, whole card would have been completely worth it if this were the only watchable thing we got. Instead the match had to set itself apart from a totally great show, and it easily did.

Josh Barnett vs. Minoru Suzuki

PAS: This was a match that felt like a main event. Barnett is such a hard man, and everything he did had some real force to it. First fifteen or so of this were pretty perfect as Barnett brought Suzuki back to PWFG as they were really twisting and pulling at limbs and landing big time knees, forearms and slaps. There is a little nonsense with a ref and a chair on the outside, which really felt like Suzuki taking unnecessary match short cuts. I really liked the finish of the match before the restart, and I thought it built nicely to the five more minutes, but you really need to do a finish if you are going to do a five more minutes. Going to another draw really took some steam out the match. Excellent main event for an all time great US Indy show, but I dug other stuff a bit more.

TKG: Barnett’s current look is ridiculously cool. He looks like Kurt Russell’s bad ass cousin and this match felt like main event wrestling. Everything the two did together was as good as you wanted and all the shoot near fallsish stuff, teased submission, teased going to close to the edge etc were as dramatic as anything you were going to see in wrestling. And the eventual escapes had folks on the edge.The show was excellent top to bottom but the semi and the main were the matches that really got you caught up in the drama of false finishes and changes in momentum, the pop of “is this gonna end it?”….being able to feel that drama again. Years of the goofy cliché 2.9, “one, two, nooooo” followed by three minutes of bug eyed Shawn Michaels faces "How did that not do it?, what will it take to put him away? Where in my reserves will I find what it takes?" almost killed the idea that false finish can have any emotional value. At this point I just treat it as a stock lazzo bit to fill time. Was great to experience drama of false finishes again. They work to a 20 minute draw and the crowd was excited as ending with two guys just swinging for fences while crowd counted down. I watched UWF and PWFG and have no problem with a draw finish. They did the five more minutes and it all fell apart, as they went into octopus and fighting spirit shtick. Either do the draw or do the Fujiwara guy taking a hellacious beating slips in a sub for the win. But going into horseshity overtime, hurt the match. Still this was an amazing show top to bottom and left me on a real high.

ER: This one had a real special atmosphere, with Barnett looking like the flat out coolest version of Jaime Lannister, and Suzuki bringing an impossible amount of charisma to a small room. Barnett looked leaner, more intense, and in better shape than any year during his long MMA run, and it was awesome seeing Suzuki immediately snap back into limb twisting savage. Barnett is even wearing his Inoki Genome pads, so we got a decades in the making interpromotional shootstyle war here! And there's not an easy move made in the match, everything is a fight, and by the end they both looked to have lost about 5 lb. of sweat. This was all ankle snapping heel hooks, sunk in headscissors, elbows yanked up to ears, knees driven into chests, twisted bodies trying to scramble out of chokes, and rained down palm strikes and elbows. At one point Suzuki had one of Barnett's legs grapevined, was controlling his wrist, and was shoving Barnett's free leg up towards his shoulder. Suzuki looked like he was a one man drawn & quartered machine, and it made me literally jump out of my chair and look around to make sure everybody else was seeing what I was seeing (which is in full view of the camera, my expression looking like a rube shocked by a magic trick). Honestly the match could have ended on that sub and it probably would have been stronger for it. Obviously we go past that, and get rewarded with more nasty shots and yanked limbs, but also lose some of the steam and magic that had been created. When we went to a bomb throwing countdown, I was fine with them ending on a draw (even though I was hoping Suzuki would feint his way out of the throwdown and get a last second tap with a heel hook). And the draw did lead to an undeniably great moment, as the crowd is chanting for 5 more minutes, and Suzuki looks like he's having none of it, rolling his eyes he quiets the crowd...and then calls for 5 more minutes. It was a great moment. But not really as great if we knew that it was just going to lead to another draw. The New Japan-ness of the restart didn't help, but it also didn't negate the genuinely great majority of the match. Flat finish or no, this was a tremendous live experience. It flashed in my head at one point that Suzuki might take the night off a bit, but this was among the hardest worked matches I've seen from him all decade.

ER: This should go down as a top show of the year contender, an absolutely thrilling 2 hours of pro wrestling. We put FIVE of the matches on our 2019 Ongoing Match of the Year list, and that seems like a near impossible mark to beat.

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MLW Worth Watching: Hart Foundation! Lucha Bros! Ki! Lawlor! Reed!

Teddy Hart/Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Rey Fenix/Pentagon Jr. MLW 2/2

ER: For a modern spotfest tag match, this had a lot more in common with an early 2000s JAPW spotfest with stiff vaguely uncooperative work, increasingly dangerous spots, and of course MLW/JAPW Original: Teddy Hart. This doesn't waste any time like other Pentagon matches, these guys get right down to it, and I loved Lucha Bros. controlling and double teaming Davey Boy for the first several minutes. I thought it was cool because it kind of flipped what I expected the layout to be (Smith dominates early, Hart eventually gets worked over to build back to Smith hot tag), and instead Smith gets swarmed for several minutes, unable to get out from the middle of it, Lucha Bros. working together more like hyenas than ninjas, one of them distracting while one attacks a leg or kicks him in the back of the head. At one point Davey Boy fought back with hard slaps and a big knee, but was quickly picked off again and I was impressed that Lucha Bros. really looked like they were picking apart the big man. I loved things like Davey picking up Fenix for a powerslam only to get kicked right in the patella by Pentagon. When Teddy comes in you know the laser light show is really going to start, that's when we get to the stiff "top that" stretch of those JAPW matches, with Hart throwing mean as hell right hands, sharp knees, breaking out moonsaults off of everything, his awesome moonsault elbowdrop that I've seen him nail the landing every single time but once, and some ridiculously escalating flipping piledrivers (obviously we were getting a crazy one on the apron, but I had no idea how far they would go until the finish). Finish is crazy with Fenix bursting into frame and hitting a bananas Jean-Claude Van Damme spinkick off the apron to KO Pillman, and then the Hart Foundation hitting what should be immediately inducted into the Indy Wrestling HOF: A flipping piledriver Doomsday Device. And you know everybody was at least partially expecting a kickout.

Low-Ki vs. Tom Lawlor MLW 2/2

ER: This is kinda weird as they spent literal months building to a match between these two, but after all that build they worked a short, brisk 5 minute match with a kind of sudden finish. Ki is really great at fitting a bunch of cool things into 5 minutes though, so that works for me (even though just like with the Yehi match I really wished we could have gotten twice as much). It's really weird because right before this was a Ricky Martinez match that was at least twice as long as this one, so was there some kind of weird timing issue with the live show? Did they go too long earlier and then suddenly had to end this match way short? Maybe Ki and Lawlor knew this, which was why they went out and had the awesome scrap they did. If this came from Worldwide it would certainly be legendary, as they really don't waste any time beating each other senseless. Lawlor even knocks Ki to the mat with an early left right to the ear, and Lawlor was throwing hard ground and pound, working for a choke, and from that knockdown Ki was really trying to tangle him up. Lawlor muscles Ki over with a cool suplex, nothing really coming easy in this match, Ki kicks out Lawlor's knee and boots him right in the chest. A freaking door gets involved, and we get a cool visual of Ki missing an attack and punching right through the door (particle board everywhere!!). Striker points out some cool Ki psychology when Lawlor tries to lift Ki and Ki is making himself as tough to lift as possible, scrambling his legs to the ropes so he can get leverage on Lawlor. I dig the shots these two were throwing on the top rope, nice body shots and some genuine struggle around a superplex attempt, and Ki ends up stomping Lawlor's kneecaps before hitting a big double stomp. Things after this feel like they got cut way too short, as Ki grabs the dragon sleeper but Lawlor somewhat easily (for someone who just got his sternum crunched) grabs a rear naked choke. I wanted more from this, but the 5 minutes we got was dynamite.

PAS: I really liked this, but it was really weirdly paced. I dug how they went right at each other, and the standing 8 count on the punch behind the ear was a really nice touch. I have seen Ki get hit with hellacious shots before, and would have liked Lawlor to lean into some of the body shots especially, still it was a neat and different start to a match. Ki was really good at countering Lawlor's straight ahead attack. I thought the door was a misstep, Ki punching it to shreds was a neat visual, and I liked how the hand injury tied into the finish, but it was really outside of what they were doing in the rest of the match, and for such a tightly paced match, we didn't need Ki wandering around outside like Sabu. Finish was pretty cool with Lawlor rolling through and using technique to lock in the choke. Fun stuff, although everything felt chopped.

Myron Reed vs. DJ Z  MLW Fusion #44 2/2 (Aired 2/8/19)

ER: I really like Reed, a flyer who still has some improvements to make but already has a handle on basic stuff that a lot of flyers jump right past. We have no shortage these days of ultra athletic flippers and floppers who can intersperse cutter variations with flipping piledrivers and pinball around a ring. Reed has the grace an easy movement to stand with any of them, but here you can see him actually aiming for where DJ Z's throat would have been on missed clotheslines, locking in a nice looking headlock (especially liked when he flattened out on it), and hooking deep leg during pins. I mean sure we get a cool dive past the ringpost from DJ Z and a nice dive from Reed, and a big somersault senton from Reed turned into a sitout powerbomb from Z, and while there were certainly some dance-y moments I really like what Reed brings to these matches. He's super young but works a ton, and he's already got a higher floor than most within his style.

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MLW Worth Watching: Yehi! Holliday! Hart Foundation! Stud Stable! PCO! King!

Fred Yehi vs. Richard Holliday  MLW Fusion #21 7/19 (Aired 9/7/18)

ER: This works as both a cool showcase for Yehi, and a nice introduction to Holliday, of whom I know nothing about. Yehi doesn't squash him but never feels in trouble, and Holliday has a nice undeserved smugness to him, like a guy who would make sense teaming with MJF but taking all the pinfalls; a good entitled stooge. Yehi blocks a lot of his shots in fun ways, hits a hard shoulderblock, stomps his hand, does a couple leg sweeps that nobody else does, the kind of stuff you want to see Yehi doing. Holliday bumped around and acted perplexed by all of it, but still nicely worked in a couple pieces of offense; I really liked Yehi grabbing him with the trapped arm kicks to the chest and pushing him off, put Holliday blazing back off the ropes with an elbow. Holliday showed his egotistical charisma while clearly on the losing end, and I love a big mouthed jobber. Yehi grabs that Koji Clutch and Holliday starts tapping the second Yehi starts throwing shots. Nice touch.

The New Hart Foundation vs. The Stud Stable  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: I would have liked to see this twice as long, but what we got was as good as I hoped it would be. Teddy Hart has been so great everywhere he's turned up this year, that right hand is just lighting everyone up. Pillman is green as hell but a good lackey for Davey Boy and Teddy, and I dug them basically using him as a way to distract Parrow, basically throwing him to the wolves so they can get in their licks. Parrow took a nice Nestea plunge bump off the apron into the Blondes and Hart hit a huge moonsault off the top onto all of them on the floor. Both Blondes take big suplexes well for big dudes (and Patrick takes a brutal Saito suplex from Davey) and they both throw out some nice offense. I'll pretty much be completely in the boat (is that a phrase? I don't know what the fuck I'm doing) for any tag team that does a tandem elbow drop, that kind where both guys are dropping elbows one after the other. It always looks great, and it looks ever greater when it's two guys (like the Blondes) with great elbow drops. We get a kind of goofus finish with Parrow wanting the pinfall all for himself, but Pillman breaks it up and Parrow gets pinned like right after. Blondes were each up on the top rope when Parrow opted to go for the pin, and I really wanted to see what the heck they were going to do. But afterwards they give Parrow a beatdown, and I kinda just want them to start getting actual tag matches. We've already wasted time feuding them with the already broken up Team TBD, now they're starting up something with Parrow, but they still don't feel established. Just give these guys a run already.

PCO vs. Brody King  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: Phil pointed out that one of the keys to successful PCO matches is to keep the pace fast, and the more we see of him we realize another key is keeping things short. There's a set amount of material, and that material is fantastic at 10 minutes or under. Brody King is kind of similar, so you give these two 5 minutes to lace into each other and pull out some crazy nonsense? Then that's absolutely going to be something worth taking time out of your day to see. These are two big dudes who have no problem sending shivers to the jaw, and taking man size spills that aren't typical of guys their size. The whole match was filled with hard elbows, big clotheslines, headbutts, and hard knees. That alone would have been enough to make this good, but PCO breaks out a huge and impressive dive early, King drops him with a brainbuster, launches him into the buckles with a backdrop, misses a rolling senton that lands him on his head, PCO hits a big powerbomb and running knee; the match is just packed with cool stuff and hard shots. King pie faces the ref when he gets in the way of two adults beating each other's ass, and we get an awesome postmatch melee with other officials running out to separate, and PCO hits a flat out GREAT moonsault off the top to the floor, crashing through everybody. This is exactly what this match should have been.

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MLW Worth Watching: TEDDY HART!!!

Teddy Hart vs. John Hennigan  MLW Fusion #17 7/12 (Aired 8/10/18)

ER: So I'm not sure I could call this a really good match, but teddy Hart is eminently watchable and Hennigan is a guy with freaky athletics who you know can be coaxed along into a bonkers Teddy Hart match. And both guys bring exactly what I was hoping they'd bring. Hart is a fun highflier and I love his aloof faces, a guy whose gimmick is that he wants to put on a great show for everyone and doesn't care if he comes out a winner or loser. That type of thing can easily be turned a bit and become the traits of a really annoying wrestler, but Hart works with such a shrug that he never comes off overly serious, which is what plagues most of those "putting on a MOTY for the fans" types. Plus Hart brings stiff strikes and a general unpredictability, and those are key to him standing above the rest. Here he brings out the crazier side in Hennigan as I hoped, and they went through some sequences you won't see from most. I dug the opening counter stuff, all weird flips and angles, vaguely lucha, vaguely parkour, vaguely silly, but then Hart will throw a hard right hand and snap everyone awake. Both guys hit big moonsaults into the fans, crashing through the front rows (Hennigan not even both to tell people to move, just crashing through fans). We get a bunch of big moves, Hart breaking out a bunch of cool and weird piledriver variations, leaping off the top and catching Hennigan standing before flipping into a piledriver, and a great leverage piledriver when Hennigan is getting back into the ring and Hart grabs his head in his knees and sits back with it. That's a variation I don't really see a lot, and as indy as it seems I think it actually makes a ton of sense. Your opponent is climbing back through the middle ropes anyway, meaning his head is right where it needs to be for a piledriver. We've seen several DDT variations from that spot, but not really a piledriver, even though they make equal sense. Hart always makes me laugh when he climbs up to hit a crazy move, as it's almost always accompanied by him making Fericito Ay Dios Mio faces before plunging to failure or success. So sometimes he'll make the face and get planted with a Spanish Fly, other times he'll make the face and hit a couple of gorgeous late rotation twisting springboard sentons. The finish of a match between these two is almost never going to be very satisfying, as they do so many big moves throughout that whatever wins is going to seem like any old move. Hart hits a nutty powerbomb onto his knees and a harsh hammerlock DDT, but I don't dislike Hennigan winning by blocking a sunset flip and leaning forward with his own pin. Something has to end a match like this, and the journey getting there was exactly what I wanted.

Teddy Hart/Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Rich Swann/ACH  MLW Fusion #18 7/19 (Aired 8/17/18)

ER: This got a little messy at the end, which is a shame as it started out like it was going to be easily the best tag match of the resurgent MLW. Smith is a guy billed as a catch as catch can master but who wrestles like Test, and Hart is really great at utilizing Test into a tag setting. Hart is so adept at all the grappling we start with that I really want to see him against any of the Catch Point alumni, he works real snug with Swann, fast armdrag while bullying him into a Rings of Saturn, great right hands, big snap powerslam; Hart would really be a fun third man in a Dickinson/Jaka stable. Hart is dominating Swann, hits his cool surfing Code Red out of the corner, and we get great involvement from ACH as Hart has him locked up and ACH's leg comes in out of nowhere with a great superkick to Hart's jaw. Smith follows suit with a nice running big boot to save his boy, and we get some cool stuff like Smith tossing ACH from the ring to the floor with a bodyslam, onto Swann. Pillman Jr. starts getting involved, and Smith has some simple, nice ref distraction as Swann goes up top and Smith gently shifts the referees positioning so he can't see Pillman smashing Swann's groin with his cane. This felt like they were well on their way to a great tag match, but kind of went into the finishing stretch too quickly, which is a common quibble with MLW TV. A lot of the matches seem to have a pretty firm 10 minute time limit, but a lot of the matches I've liked would have benefitted from a few more minutes. Still, this made me want to see a lot more of the New Hart Foundation.

Teddy Hart vs. Vandal Ortagun  MLW Fusion #20 7/12 (Aired 8/31/18)

ER: This post didn't set out to be a post highlighting all of the Teddy Hart, he just happens to be bringing it every damn time he shows up on MLW. The first two matches here are full matches, and this one is a squash...but mah god what a squash! The opening of the match is almost uncomfortable as Hart unloads some hard punches right at Ortagun's forehead, each one looking like a KO blow. Hart is a legit tough SOB but after the second punch you can really see Ortagun's head start to turn bright red from the shots, and as I'm waiting for Ortagun to go limp Hart starts putting a hole through his chest with stomps. But don't worry as Hart goes back to working over the face by trying to smash his skull with a curb stomp. Jesus, Teddy. Ortagun gets a one count schoolboy and Hart rolls right through it into a sick Rings of Saturn/crossface, yanking Ortagun's arm while meanly tugging at his beard and mouth. A couple of Hart's crazy lungblower variations end it pretty easy (electric chair into knees always looks like such a tough landing) and Hart as violent badass is awesome. I'm unsure what Ortagun did, but I can only assume that he definitely deserved it. Later in the episode he, Smith Jr., and Pillman Jr. got into it with Kevin Sullivan backstage. It got a bit too shooty, but it was a pretty intense segment with all of them eventually jumping Sullivan and Sullivan blading. Not sure where it's going, but they did it well.

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New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV 7/31/15 Review

1. Bad Luck Fale vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (8/8/14)

I liked Nakamura in this, though the match was kinda junk. We had lazy move set ups like Fale going up top for the sole purpose of setting up a Nak superplex. But Nakamura took Fale's Grenade nicely, and dished out a bunch of big knees, scrambling knees to the ribs, wild running knees to the face, big kicks to cut down Fale. But the laziness in the transitions pretty much killed this one for me.

2. AJ Styles vs. Togi Makabe (8/8/14)

Fun match (though the version shown on TV was clipped down to nothing), which I wasn't really expecting as Makabe doesn't do much for me. Styles really uses that Styles Clash top rope set up a lot, where he Pele kicks his opponent up top then lifts him down into the Clash. I don't really know that I would have noticed it if they hadn't been showing weekly Styles matches. But I liked a lot of his other stuff here and the G1 was quite a nice little tear for him. Really liked his forearm into the crowd.

3. Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (8/8/14)

Mauro says that DBS is as agile as a cruiserweight but man this guy always seems like a really uncoordinated lummox to me. I genuinely can't think of any moments of him moving around like a lithe little cruiser. He just looks like a slightly more in shape version of Alison Hendrix's husband on Orphan Black. In showing a lot of G1 matches, they did a strange thing, in that they showed every major upset during the whole tournament. But since there is only so much TV time, 1-2 matches a week were "monumental upsets", so you constantly had Mauro screaming about how this is one of the biggest upsets he's ever seen and the biggest win of so and so's career, and it just starts to lose something week after week and becomes more of a "Greatest Night in the History of our Sport" kind of thing. Tanahashi didn't look very good in this one, his stuff was reallll loose, and you know that's saying something if Tanahashi's stuff looks notably looser than normal. Smith has some nice power offense, a good powerslam and great capture suplex, but he's a guy I'm entirely uninterested in so this win didn't matter a whole lot to me.

4. Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuchika Okada (8/8/14)

Okada's pre-match promos are one of the better utilized things about this program, as he regularly does some high end kayfabe sit downs about why his opponent is going to be tough, why the match is important, and does so much better than Mauro has ever been able to get across during his actual matches. Here he says that Suzuki is a difficult opponent because he always ends up being tricked into playing Suzuki's game, tricked into working at Suzuki's pace instead of his own pace. I liked that little touch a lot and is really something an announcer should pick up on (especially recording these things long after they happen). This was a good match although some segments could have been reordered to more success. At one point Okada hit a big clutch piledriver after working over Suzuki's neck, but due to the structure Suzuki had to basically get up right after taking it because the match called for him reversing Okada's next run of offense. Poor placement. Suzuki's neck selling was really great (except for the unfortunate piledriver placement), throwing in nice details he doesn't always bother with, sometimes with a neat twist on his own style. At one point he gets tossed into the ropes, and Suzuki is a guy who always no sells rope running, usually by just holding onto the ropes. Here he crumbles before reaching the ropes, holding onto the back of his neck and just falling into the ropes. At times he was really vicious with Okada. His knees right to Okada's jaw after a blocked Gotch piledriver was tooth rattling, and his running dropkick put every Okada dropkick I've ever seen to absolute shame. And damn did he put over the Rainmaker huge, landing in an impossibly painful position right on his head; but his neck didn't really bend so it looked like a grotesque drawing they used to have on the side of diving boards, with a cartoon diving into an empty pool. So yeah, some problematic placement of some big spots, but all in all a good performance by both.

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