2018 Ongoing MOTY List: WALTER and Low-Ki Invade Ireland

28. Low-Ki/WALTER vs. Jordan Devlin/David Starr OTT 6/2

PAS: Devlin is a Finn Balor trainee who is the top star in OTT and works an import killer gimmick. He has a big plate of asskicking to work his way through, Ki and WALTER are a pretty intimidating tag team and lay the kind of beating you want those two to lay in. This match was focused on WALTER beating on Devlin and Starr and Ki was more of a secondary attraction. He did have a great scramble in the early part of the match with Devlin that ended up with him grabbing a leg. The double John Woo dropkick by Ki and WALTER was awesome too. WALTER was a force in this, I loved how he would walk through the chops of Starr and Devlin only to obliterate them with a chop of his own. This match would have been really good with a better face team, Devlin was really over, but outside of a fun knuckle sequence with Ki and a great headbutt, his offense was pretty weak sauce, Starr hit some fun crowbarry lariats, but otherwise brought little to the table. The structure was cool enough that even a poor mans Fantastics were going to look good.

ER: I thought this was awesome. WALTER and Ki are an awesome team, like a small version of Andre/Haku. I've not seen Devlin before but he has that same dead eyes FAS look of Balor and some similarly sketchy offense, but he's a guy I like seeing getting beaten down by Ki and WALTER. Starr is a guy we seem to be a lower vote on, but I really liked him in this match. He was a really good face in peril and his offense felt like 90% stiff arm lariats, and those lariats looked neck breaking for the receiver, and shoulder/elbow breaking for Starr. He should talk to Nigel McGuiness to see how his joints are doing these days. But myself, I enjoyed seeing him throw his straight arm as hard as he could at the side of WALTER's neck. Starr took a big beating from Low-Ki, and man Ki just has some of the best looking offense and craziest body movement in pro wrestling. I loved his arm bar/knee bar battle with Devlin, thought the double stomp to both men looked cool, threw some brutal stomps in the corner that looked like they would make someone puke their guts out, and was able to look both above Starr/Devlin, and beatable. WALTER sold their offense appropriately, and we got a couple real quality saves down the stretch, the match believably running 20 minutes without it ever seem like Starr or Devlin should have been dead before then. WALTER's match finishing Gojira clutch is the best submission in wrestling, just absolutely looks like he's smothering dudes while dislocating their shoulder.  I'd love to see this combo kill more guys in more countries, a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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Wrestlemania Weekend Cherry Picking Friday: Joey Janela's Spring Break 2

ER: 100+ hours of wrestling happened in one city over 3 days, so we've been trying to go through and watch the stuff that appealed to us. Here's a couple matches from Spring Break 2 that looked fun.


PCO vs. WALTER

PAS: Man this was awesome, it was basically like if Randy the Ram vs Necro Butcher was an actual match. PCO is certifiable, WALTER chop his chest so hard that it turned eggplant purple, he got powerbombed through a table, ate shit on a moonsault to the floor, and just kept going. WALTER was great as a violent bully who got more and more flustered as this insane old person kept standing in front of him and firing back. The chop exchange in this match worked so much better then the elbow exchange in Cobb vs Ishii the day before, because they built to it, it was PCO absorbing a beating and refusing to back down and firing back, instead of just two guys exchanging to exchange. Loved PCO's tope and top rope rana too, what a certifiable nutcase. Great match, will probably end up the most memorable indy match of the weekend.

ER: This was really fun, total PCO showcase with WALTER giving him a venue to try all of his new offense. Ouellet is basically working as "middle aged and crazy Terry Funk", and it's crazy to note that PCO here is literally just a few years younger than that era Funk. He looks crazy, like a sadistic gym teacher burn victim, and wrestles as if he has a bucket list of moves he'd like to attempt before he's done with wrestling. This all builds to nuttier and nuttier PCO moments, from a moonsault off the top to the floor (that looked downright Funk-y, all crooked and landing more on floor than men), and WALTER was awesome at being kind of perplexed by it all. WALTER mostly just threw chops, and PCO's chest had turned black halfway through the match, looking like he was getting some cool new Uso ink. PCO hits a dive, a great Finlay roll, tries a split legged moonsault because why the hell not, gets German suplexed onto his stomach, hits a huge top rope rana, and flattens WALTER with the cannonball. Fully agree with Phil about the chop exchange, this wasn't throwing blows back and forth to a clap along rhythm, this was a crazy old guy refusing to accept that he couldn't stand up to this giant of a man (seriously some of the camera work in this match made WALTER look Great Khali size), really added emotional heft to the match. PCO's execution wasn't always there, but the crazier the attempts made by a wild Canadian pirate, the more leash is given on how pretty something needs to be. Truly a weird and unexpected display, and impressive because he easily could have gotten away with doing far less and still gotten praised for it.

Mike Quackenbush vs. David Starr

ER: This was tons of fun. Quackenbush works a couple times a year and looks just as great as he ever has. I'm positive he and Starr have never matched up before and it's an immediately great pairing, with Starr getting tangled up in all of Quack's cool movement. Quack is probably my favorite hybrid wrestler of all time, with the biggest and weirdest bag of tricks in wrestling. The announcers point out that he has such a deep pool of offense that you never know what he'll dust off, and Starr has no problem meeting that head on. We get some cool twisty armdrag exchanges, and a great moment where Quack gets Starr into a snug abdominal stretch, Starr shakes him loose, but Quack springs back right into the stretch. It's like that scene in Young Frankenstein where the monster catapults a girl on a see saw and she lands perfectly tucked into her bed. I'm always surprised by big Quack bumps in his "comeback" matches, as for a retired injured guy he sure doesn't hold back. One moment Quack will be doing something super smooth and graceful, like his note perfect Hijo del Santo style rolling senton, and the next moment Starr lariats him off the apron and instead of bumping on the apron he does this great dropdown back bump splat on the floor, and later Starr chucks him a couple times into the turnbuckles with nasty death valley drivers. Starr has some cool counters of his own, really liked a small package reversal, and he really starts crushing Quack with some suplexes and running knees. We hit a crazy peak down the stretch where Quack plasters Starr into the guardrail with a dive, instantly slides back in the ring to follow up as the camera follows his movements, and as it pans back we see Starr waiting at the same time Quack sees him, and catches Quack with a brutal DDT into the apron. Starr was smart to work heel here (though heel Quack would have been fun, nobody would have wanted to boo him), and I liked the finish of Quack trying to work this nasty double arm submission, really looking to rip both arms off, and Starr finally breaks free and hits a big lariat. This was a great mix of stiff work and artistry, a match style not a lot of guys can pull off.

PAS: I thought Quack was really fun here, he has a weird unique style and really knows how to integrate his weird stuff into a compelling match. The spot where he bounces back into the abdominal stretch was really cool. I did like the story of Starr getting frustrated and taking cheap shots, although I thought the Beyond guy on commentary was a little OTT in his Starr bashing (Starr just left/got fired from Beyond). I wasn't totally buying Starr in this (I am not buying Starr at all really) , I thought when he tried to go hold for hold with Quack it got a little dancey, and his frustration faces were on 11. Always fun to see Quack, and he works well as a special attraction.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Starr v. WALTER

79. WALTER v. David Starr WXW 3/10

PAS: This is your other big pimped WALTER match from the WXW tourney, and I liked it a fair bit more then the final. We open with both entrances including some WXW fans sieg heiling WALTER incase you thought all of my jokes about WXW fans were unfair. Starr spends the first part of the match cleverly avoiding WALTER and using his aggression against him. Whenever WALTER catches him he really lays into him, every one of his forearms and kicks lands with real force, he is also really great at throws, there is a real explosion when he chucks a guy, and his slap down german is one of my favorite signature spots. Starr has nice offense and his big shots seem plausible, his elbows to the back of the head are super nasty, and he hits a big clothesline. Still Starr is a complete ham, his dramatic acting is cringeworthy it is on a 10 on the Shawn Michaels cry face level and it takes me out of the match, it takes me out of the drama of a match when one guy is going "LOOK HOW DRAMATIC THIS IS." Still there is a lot to like here, and WALTER has really turned into a beast.

ER: I always used to be slightly disappointed in WALTER matches. I always wanted to like him more than I actually ended up liking him. But WALTER has definitely grown into a guy that does not disappoint. Starr wrestles like Drew Gulak, if Gulak kept the strikes but decided to be Johnny Gargano instead of work the mat. He's a good babyface that hits hard, which is great as you need to hit WALTER hard to make things at least somewhat plausible. WALTER swings big and misses early, although the hits hit big. I love his big kicks and I love how Starr flies around for them. I love his throws and I love how Starr flies around for them. Starr wrestles like a guy with bad offense, and every time he goes on offense I expect it to look bad, and it usually looks great. That consecutive topes spot ranges from looking terrible to being a huge moment depending on who uses it: Seth Rollins looks like he's barely nudging a guy, whereas Blue Panther is old and a great babyface and makes it feel triumphant. Starr's topes here were closer to BP than they were to Rollins, and WALTER did a killer job flying around and into chairs. Starr shoving WALTER into the ropes to blast him in the back of the head over and over was one of the nastier moments I've seen in wrestling this year. WALTER was selling it great (although I'm sure a lot of us would sell a shot to the cerebellum pretty believably) and Starr's shots kept looking meaner and meaner. We don't overdo things to build to the ending, with one giant kickout by Starr after a release German and a lariat that upends him. I agree with Phil that I really would have loved Starr to dial things WAY back down the stretch. That wide eyed open mouth scream selling, like you're fucking Andy Dufresne bursting out of a hole outside your prison in the middle of a rainstorm after you kicked out of a headdrop? Stop it. But the good in this was great and I want more WALTER.

2017 Ongoing MOTY List

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WXW Tag League Weekend Cherry Picking 10/15/17

WXW is a promotion I have always been a bit hit or miss on, but their tag league weekend had some SC favorites on it (Timothy Thatcher, Low-Ki, Briscoes) and some intriguing match-ups so I decided to cherry pick some reviews

10/5/17

Timothy Thatcher v. WALTER

PAS: This is an AMBITION style match, which is the yearly shootstyle tournament that WXW runs (and always places some stuff on our year end lists). This is very similar to the Thatcher matches which we loved a couple of years ago. WALTER is a fun opponent for Thatcher, he isn't as skilled on the mat (although he had some nice chicken wing work), but he is a big bear of a dude and throws some meaty slaps and throws. This got really fun when tempers flared, and the finish was neat, with Thatcher taking an 8 count on a powerbomb and countering a slap combo with a Fujiwara for a flash win. Not as a good as the absolute top tier AMBITION stuff, but a nifty scrap.

Homicide v. David Starr

PAS: This show was in the WXW gym and had the feel of those early Beyond show. I haven't seen Homicide in a longish singles match in a while, and looked really sharp. Started with some solid back and forth matwork, moved into some brawling on the floor, including a tope con hilo into the tiny crowd by Cide. Finish run was good stuff, with Starr trying multiple times for his arm capture German suplex, Cide fighting it off and Starr finally squirting out of the Cop Killer and hitting for the win. Starr is kind of a hit or miss guy for me, but he felt like a guy who grew up on JAPW Modtrom tapes excited to work a Homicide singles match

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Most of EVOLVE 83 4/23/17

1. Tracy Williams vs. Chris Dickinson

ER: This was no good, real disappointing. These two looked half asleep out there, had no plan, did some stuff, much of it poorly applied. Half nelson suplex forgotten a moment later? Check. Obligatory apron fight? Check. Having an epic war elbow exchange? Check (with bonus "forehead resting on opponent's chin because we're dead on our feet from warring"). The build was non-existent, the light behind the eyes was turned off, their focus seemed elsewhere. Perhaps, they were accomplishing something deeper. Perhaps, both realized that Catch Point was nearing a conclusion. Perhaps this was two partners, nearing the end of their relationship. The good times had been great. Later, long after both of you had moved on - willingly or unwillingly - you'd find an old archived email, with the two of you expressing written, verbal, courtship-like impossible love and devotion the likes of which you didn't ever remember happening. The desire to make small-but-necessary changes to appease the other, those changes both important to the longterm standing of your love and maybe also early unacknowledged cracks in the foundation of your at-the-time genuine love. Those words you were now reading seemed to be from another lifetime. The feelings were too much, making your body temp rise that you actually moved someone to feel this way about YOU, while a pit formed reminding you of all the bad times that came after. The fights were sometimes easier to remember than the beautiful, shields-down adoration the two of you had for each other. Both painful to think too long about. This match, these two partners, having this by the books argument, the kind of argument we've all had, the perfect microcosm of a failed relationship. Two people so beyond saving that they can't even get it up for their arguments any longer. Their words are meant, but the teeth are removed. Nothing can hurt them now, because - perhaps without even realizing it and DEFINITELY not ready to admit it out loud - there are no longer any stakes, and they've both begun the process of moving on.  These two have done this before, and they've done it better, and they both know they've done it better. But the listless, failed relationship ennui that they captured was breathtaking. This, the gorgeous sadness of still caring enough about someone to just be willing to go through the fucking motions with them. If they didn't care, they just wouldn't do it. But both have been hurt, and both are still hurt by the idea of hurting the other, even as they're hurting the other. Love is rare. It shouldn't be a surprise that true love ever dies, but it does. And we should celebrate that love, no matter how brief. We should celebrate that we've ever had someone that loved us enough to go through the motions with us. 10 stars.

2. Keith Lee vs. David Starr

ER: YES! This was what I wanted. Lee acted cocky without really acting too cocky, and Starr went right at him like Lee wasn't 120 lb. bigger than him. There were nice little things by both guys, and I really liked how they accurately sold shots: If a shot was supposed to hit the face but landed shoulder,  each guy sold neck and shoulder. It brought an honesty to things that helped things as it escalated. Starr hits Lee hard, throwing nasty chops and elbows, dodging a couple Lee punches and then surprising the big guy with a slap. The two lariats that follow are brutal, crashing into the side of Lee's neck. That neck takes a major beating as Lee eats a backdrop into the buckles (crazy bump) and then gets planted in gross fashion with an apron DDT. It looked like his head disappeared into mat. And after that DDT Starr just runs through Lee with another lariat, finally taking him down. But Lee is mammoth and he does not quit, and before long he remembers his size advantage, running through another lariat attempt as if he was trying to rip Starr's arm off his body, pulling off an awesome/silly/surprising/probably ill-advised rana, and flat out crushing Starr with a couple of impressive slams. Starr impressed the hell out of me here, tons of guts, real fearless, and Lee is just a physical freak. Great stuff all around.

PAS: This was pretty nifty stuff, I think Starr is kind of a goof, but facing a guy this big keeps him from falling into too much indy move trading. I could live with out ever seeing his elbow smash/chop combo again though. Both apron moves were huge and nasty, Lee absolutely murders Starr with a powerbomb on the apron, which led to Lee in control for a long time, and the apron DDT by Starr gave him a plausible run on top as well. If you are going to do crazy stuff like that it should matter. Lee is really good at selling for such a big guy, and he really makes me buy a little guy like Starr could hurt him, if only briefly.

3. Fred Yehi vs. Kyle O'Reilly

ER: This was a good showing from both, with O'Reilly attacking Yehi's arm and Yehi going after O'Reilly's knee. The knee stuff was the most compelling work in the match, some of those early knots Yehi was tying were pretty sick, really looked like a guy with dozens of ways to take apart a knee. I don't love O'Reilly doing the Catch Point grappling, as there are always too many cracks, too many moments where Yehi has to hold still waiting for O'Reilly to get to where he's supposed to be. O'Reilly makes up for some grappling clunkiness by throwing some really nasty shots, raining down on Yehi from mount, and starts trying to yank that arm off. They lose me once they start going into some strike exchange stuff, the exchange came off a little too silly for what they were going for, and for how hard they were hitting each other. We hit bottom once we got to a Scooby Doo spot where both men backed into each other, startling each other, and turned to slap the other. The spots seemed really contrived. O''Reilly also isn't good at selling nuance. Working an early bum knee was probably a mistake. He does overall much better than I expected, but when he does something like trying to run and just faceplanting because "his knee gave out", it just comes off too ham. But they win me back with some pretty nasty shots, really liked O'Reilly stubbornly holding an armbar while Yehi is realigning his jaw with knees, dug O'Reilly choking him to his knees with a standing front choke, liked the finish with a brainbuster into some nasty arm twisting. Overall I liked the match, just wish they had dropped a couple things.

4. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Lio Rush

PAS: I really like 8/10ths of this, it was worked kind of like a 2010s version of Mysterio v. Malenko, with Sabre grounding and torturing Rush. Rush is really flexible and gets twisted into some nasty violence pretzels, he does some especially nasty things to Rush's ankles, violently wrenching them and stomping on them in weird nasty ways. Sabre was a real nasty prick in this match, which he is actually pretty good at, his contemptuous sneer is much better then his goofy babyface faces and torturing a tiny guy is a pretty mean thing to do. Finish run lost me a bit, no reason for this match to have a tough guy elbow exchange, I hate the fact that is in every indy match, and it is especially dumb here. Rush had some cool flying spots, but he could have been more explosive, I did like Sabre escaping with a roll up pin and cutting off Rush's big offensive run.

ER: I really loved Sabre in this. I didn't have a whole lot of use for Rush's offense, so I was a-ok watching Sabre bend him around in all sorts of evil ways. Rush was pretty great at getting 4 limbs pulled in different directions at once, and for that I thank him. Sabre breaks out some of his best stuff here, the octopus hold was ridiculous, the drop toe hold on left leg/ankle lock on right leg/crossface choke was sick, plenty of nasty wrist manipulation, always digging elbow points into tender muscles while locking in holds, all really great stuff. I thought the set ups for everything were really well played, a lot of stuff that could have flopped came off organic, like catching an ankle lock when Rush tried a Pele kick. I've never seen that spot (I'm sure it's happened somewhere), and it came off unexpectedly and well timed. The fighting spirit strike exchange was silly (even though I liked Sabre's shoulder shrug uppercuts) and felt just totally out of place, but the finish was killer with Sabre just locking on a tight roll up and holding the pin several seconds after the bell. Loved that.

5. I Quit: Drew Galloway vs. Matt Riddle

ER: Quite a violent spectacle, that kinda comes undone in the final few minutes. I think the match would have greatly benefitted from being a No DQ or Texas Death Match, as Drew Galloway's strategy didn't make a whole lot of sense with the I Quit stipulation. He kept going for KO offense and then making the same shocked face when Riddle would just gurgle into the mic. At one point he hits three future shock DDTs and then a 4th on a chair, and then just lies there while Riddle gurgles. You'd think with Riddle selling being barely conscious that Galloway could have just kneeled on his balls or something to get the quick "I Quit". The violence is at least big up until that point, with both guys throwing super nasty shots all match, Drew taking a suplex on the floor, Riddle getting bounced off the mat with a gorgeous snap piledriver...but then we hit a kind of goofy patch. We have a too long "Drew tying Riddle to the ropes" moment, with Riddle apparently being so beaten down that he couldn't struggle, and then Drew delivers tons of great punches to a tied up Riddle (the headlock short punches were so great they would make people forget about Nolan Ryan/Robin Venture). But then...Drew for some reason sells more than Riddle, apparently tired from beating his fists against Riddle's skull. Riddle gets untied by the ref and goes on a rampage, despite being so beaten down that he couldn't struggle against getting tied up moments earlier, and took nothing but damage since then. Drew is tired from dishing a beating, and Riddle is moving with more energy than he has all match. It all felt very dumb. Galloway ramps up the dumb by pulling out a sledgehammer (We know what that means!!!), hits Riddle in the balls with the handle, but Riddle's balls recover and he makes Drew quit with the bromission. I dunno. The violence was real and I liked the first 75% of the match (despite, again, thinking things would have been so much better with a simple No DQ stip), but they lost me pretty good by the end.

PAS: I agree that the stip hurt this match, way too much stuff with the ref holding microphones in peoples faces, it made it very hard for the match to have any pace or structure. There were some individually cool moves, I loved the snap piledriver, and the DDT's looked good, but all of it was followed by Riddle lying there while Galloway yells at the ref. The sledgehammer was too clever by half, although I really liked the final finish with the twister being so violent that it can force a submission from any point.

ER: Decent show with a couple standout matches. Lee/Starr and Sabre/Rush were good enough to land on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List. I had higher hopes for Galloway/Riddle. The action was there, but the stip was a flop.

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wXw Ambition 8 3/11/17 Review

PAS: Ambition is the yearly shootstyle tourney which WXW runs in the middle of the their 16 Carat tourney. I have enjoyed some of these I have seen in the past (Bryan Danielson ran shit in the first one) and this has a bunch of guys I like in it, matches in this tourney tend to be short, so I thought I would give it a shot

WXW Ambition 8

Bobby Gunns v. David Starr

PAS: Starr is a guy I have semi-liked before, he was a state amateur champion and a good grappler although in his indy matches he tends to get a little go-go spotfesty. Here he pretty much just showed off his big throws and fast takedowns. Didn't get much of a sense of Gunns, although I liked how he used digit manipulation to break Starr's grip and get the armbar.

Jeff Cobb v. WALTER

PAS: This was really short, two minutes or so, and was basically two big spots, Cobb giving WALTER (who is a legit 320) an overhead belly to belly suplex, and Cobb powering out of a triangle choke with a big powerbomb. Liked both spots a lot, would have liked this going 5 minutes instead of 2.

Marius Al-Ani v. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: I enjoyed this, Al-Ani was game, and while he wasn't in Thatcher's class on this mat, he did enough interesting things to prove he belonged. Finish was pretty cool with Al-Ani hitting a high kick, but leaving himself open for a standing choke by Thatcher.

Matt Riddle v. Mike Bailey

PAS: This was the best first round match, pretty classic striker v. grappler match with Bailey using his fast feet to get an advantage standing, while Riddle beasted him on the ground. I really dug Bailey's near KO on a high kick, and the finish was great with Riddle using an ankle pick while trapped in a rear naked choke.

ER: Fun hot and quick action from two guys I really like. Bailey's kicks looked incredible here, even moreso than usual, like that early lightning fast spinkick that almost disconnected Riddle's hand from his arm. Bailey is good at keeping Riddle at bay with kicks, and I loved the near KO when Riddle tried to close the distance. Finish is cool with Bailey thinking he has his choke sunk in but Riddle pulling out the buzzer beater counter. Love these guys.

Bobby Gunns v. Matt Riddle

PAS: Gunns slaps Riddle a couple of times, and Riddle hits two nasty open hand body shots, takes him down and taps him with a modified twister in about 45 seconds. Unlike Cobb v. WALTER which felt way too short, this was about the right amount of time and made Riddle look like a beast.

ER: Only a minute long, but a really awesome minute. Gunns was immediately over his head but scrambled admirably, but you could see Riddle two steps ahead of Gunns' couple reversal attempts, but he still looked like he was supposed to be there. Riddle just floated around him on the mat and tapped him, and it all looked great.

Jeff Cobb v. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: These guys have matched up a bunch, but I haven't seen the classic they have in them (although I need to watch their EVOLVE match), they weren't trying for a classic here, but this was pretty great. This was a short grappling heavy exhibition with Cobb beasting Thatcher on the mat, he did this nasty shoot small package where he bent Thather like a collapsable sofa bed. Really liked Thatcher pulling out an armbar from the ground for the quick tap. Fun match which really delivered a great match in the style of this fed.

ER: Jeez Louise would you look at Cobb? He's like a man cosplaying as a cinder block. As Phil said, this wasn't worked with the goal of having a "great match", but it was great within the style of the tourney, and a great showcase for what these two can do. The grappling is great, with Thatcher throwing short knees to Cobb's breadbox and going for all sorts of painful crossfaces. He was really great at trying to throw Cobb off his grip by jamming a palm into his jaw, rubbing a forearm across his teeth, and it looks like it makes Cobb angry. You won't like Cobb angry. The build to Cobb finally unleashing an awesome gutwrench was the best, and he follows it with a tough German. BUT, Thatcher shifts and lands flat instead of more painfully on his shoulders, and yanks that arm off. Awesome display here.

Timothy Thatcher v. Matt Riddle

PAS: These guys had my favorite non Black Terry match of 2016, and had another killer match here. Thatcher will do Thatcher no matter what, so which keeps Riddle away from some of his more irritating Super Indy tendencies. Riddle was a monster here, just incredibly fast go-behinds and scrambles, some of the more impressive amateur grappling I have seen, I loved him maniacally flipping away to try to escape the wrist lock. Thatcher couldn't keep up with Riddle athletically, but he is great at finding an opening or two to twist and rip at an arm or foot. I really liked Riddle's aggressive knees on the ground, although the final finish knee was kind of lame. Great stuff overall though, and it really delivered on the promise of this tournament.

ER: Agreed, their August Evolve match was the only match that my heart even considered putting over Terry/Wotan. And this is also really awesome (until a fart sound ending). The scrambling in this was off the charts and I loved the frustration building up in Thatcher. Both guys struggle wildly when one of them grabs a limb, with Thatcher bending Riddle's ankle until Riddle gets leverage on Thatcher's ankle, Thatcher trying to rip an arm off and Riddle whipping around like an animal caught by the tail. Riddle won his second round match in a minute and Thatcher drew Cobb AND had minimal rest in between each fight, so I love how he was the first to really go for almost untoward strikes, landing brutal downward striking elbows to Riddle's jaw. Those things landed so violently that I thought they were going for a KO finish. I loved how Riddle barely beat the 10 count, walking himself up the turnbuckles and slumping into them to buy a couple seconds. Riddle responds with nasty knees to the side, and ends up draping Thatcher over the bottom rope. This was ramping up pretty crazily, but sadly it all falls apart right at the end. I didn't love Thatcher's face first fall leading to the 8 count, felt like a really manufactured bump in something like this, but I then immediately wished it was the finish as Riddle whiffs on a KO kick that "knocks out" Thatcher. What a bummer of a finish, and it's hard not to have the previous 10 minutes spoiled by it. I can't believe they didn't call an audible.


ER: Fun show, and the final two matches were good enough to land on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List. No telling how high that final could have gone with a better finish. As Phil told me, 2017 so far is the year of great matches with poop finishes.

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Matt Riddle's Voice Was Hoarse, His Throat Was Dry

Matt Riddle v. David Starr Legacy Wrestling 12/5/15 - GREAT

PAS: Really a tale of two matches. Starr was a collegiate wrestler and the parts of the match where he and Riddle roll are really great. Riddle has some big takedowns and Starr does a nice job sitting out and countering. Some of the cooler worked amateur scrambles I have seen. There are parts of the match where Starr needs to get in his goofy 2010's indy shit and when he does that the match falls apart a bit. Finish run I didn't care for. Still there was enough cool stuff that I ended up really enjoying the match as a whole.

ER: This match had me, and lost me for a bit, then pulled me back in. I liked parts of this that Phil didn't, and felt that "goofy indy shit" wasn't totally fair as the only thing Starr did that I really disliked was his little springboard clothesline while Riddle was on the apron. Everything setting up the apron spots felt forced. His dive looked pretty ugly too. Ugly enough that when Phil said he was a collegiate wrestler I assumed he was a guy new to pro wrestling, like Riddle, and that sloppy dive was more like a "Sean McCully tries a dive in Z-1 because whythefucknot and half his body hits the apron on the way down". But then I looked and Starr has been wrestling for several years, so that theory went out the window. I liked all the fractured grappling in the beginning, a nice break from tests of strength or collar and elbows as a feeling out process. Couple of guys rolling, getting takedowns, and then breaking before diving in for something more serious. It felt right in terms of a feeling out. I loved all of Riddle's big takedowns that he would bail on, fit nicely into his cocky persona, just tossing Starr into the air and walking away, big double leg and walking away, yanking a kimura and just breaking. It made Starr's Germans at the end more satisfying, seeing Riddle toss him around early and not even attempt to capitalize. I loved how Riddle's ambitions got the best of him in the end, as he hits his killer springboard spinning front kick, but then goes for it a bit later, misses and throws himself off balance, allowing Starr to blast him in the back of the head with a rolling elbow and a trapped arm German. I'm surprised Phil didn't like the finish as he tends to dig shots to the back of the head leading to a finish.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE MATT RIDDLE

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

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

1. Mason Price vs. The Preacher

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

2. Alex Colon vs. Latin Dragon

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

3. Joe Gacy vs. Aaron Williams

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

4. Sozio vs. Caleb Konley

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

5. Kimber Lee vs. Nevaeh

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

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

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

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

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

7. Shane Strickland vs. Flip Kendrick

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

8. Biff Busick vs. Drew Gulak

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

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

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

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

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

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


2014 MASTER MOTY LIST

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