AEW Five Fingers of Death 4/7 - 4/13

ROH 4/10/25

Dustin Rhodes/Ross Von Erich/Marshall von Erich vs Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku/Dominic Garrini)/Davey Bang

MD: This was sub-five minutes but there's absolutely something to be said about the value of skill and polish in an enhancement match like this. It's great that ROH gives younger talent a chance to get some reps and a little spotlight and a chance of being on "TV." I know who Sid Ellington is now because I saw him fly around for Satnam a month or two ago. That said, that's not the only purpose of ROH TV. Because of a Von Erich injury, we just haven't seen these guys in forever, and they are building to a trios match next week. I'm not saying it's going to make or break the ROH streaming service if Dustin and the Von Erichs aren't reestablished as meaningful six-man champs, but I am a firm believe that doing things well and properly does matter. Booking matters. Matches matter. If you're going to do something (even pro wrestling tv for the sake of pro wrestling tv) then do it well. And in that case, the six-man champs needed to be reestablished, and these were ideal opponents to do so with this setting. 

That meant that Ku was in the right place at the right time with the right attitude, throwing not just his body but his presence into all of Dustin's signature stuff. It meant that when Garrini got in there, he stuffed a Von Erich with the most credible, sudden, impactful knee to the gut you'll ever see. They were going to get swept under, but with just a few moves, they made it seem like Dustin and the Von Erichs had to work (even in dominance) for a win that mattered. And some how, Ku and Garrini managed to crash into one another three times in a five minute match with each time seeming organic. And then Bang made the finishing Claw pendulum slam look great too. 

ViF could contribute in any number of ways up and down the card. AEW's a promotion that lives and dies on great wrestling matches, and you could stick them on Collision and they'd heft up the number of great matches for the year week in and week out, but if they're going to be used in a spot like this, they're going to get the job done, and they absolutely did here.

Collision 4/12/25

Athena vs Harley Cameron

MD: I'm still struggling with babyface Cameron. She's obviously a hard worker. She definitely wants to be there. She's incredibly talented. But one issue with babyface turns since the beginning of time is that some of what made the wrestler over in the first place ends up watered down in the process. For Harley, it was that wild spontaneity that she might do anything at any moment. She's kept that to some degree backstage with the puppets and guitar and what have you, but it's not in the ring as much. I'm not sure if that's just part and parcel with the turn, where she has a more choreographed entrance and makes sure to work in the catch phrase in more of a rote way, or if it's just not having Saraya with her anymore to bounce off of. 

The match with Mone, for instance, was fine, but it had a sort of carefully practiced feel to it that you often don't get from a lot of the rest of the roster. Which again is fine to some degree! Harley does not have a lot of matches under her belt. The problem is that she's pushed at a fairly high level and put in a position to be a little overexposed. She's learning as she's going and I'm sure she'd rather be out there in the spotlight, but it's all a high ask for her. On some level, everything that will best ensure that she looks competent and acceptable as a talent at this level clashes with the sort of zany unpredictability that got her over in the first place.

Enter: Athena. I've noted before that there are diminishing returns about me writing up Athena matches as you'll hear the same things over and over again: She's in the moment. She's reacting to everything. She's alive in there. She's intense. She's believably explosive both in her offense and in her personality. You don't want to look away because you might miss a little glance or look to the camera or interaction with her opponent and the ref. There's no hesitation. There are no strings. It's not performative. She's living and breathing pro wrestling. There are only so many times you can say that.

This match brought something else into focus, or at least lets me refine all the above. So long as she is all that and does all that, she's able to make anyone in the ring with her not just better, but also clearer. I was struggling with exactly who babyface Harley was even after the Mone match. But here? In this one? It was absolutely obvious. Case in point: Harley just trying to grab the early headlocks to show that she belonged in there, that she could stand up to a bully, that everyone was worthy of a chance so long as they worked hard and tried their best, no matter how zany or different they were. She had a whole program with Mone and I saw that all the more clearly with just one headlock with Athena. It's wild. It's Stan Hansen-ian in how a wrestler can show her mettle against her. And it kept this match shining as Harley had to work from underneath against Athena and Athena got frustrated every time this affectated upstart was able to escape something or even get one in on her. 

There are limits to this, of course. It works well in a controlled start of a match when everything's being established. It works well during the heat when the heel can really drive things and there's a clear story engine. Down the stretch as things break down, more specific athleticism is asked for from both wrestlers. There were clearly moments where Harley was physically anticipating the next move. Again, she'll get more fluid at that in time and with reps and practice. I have total faith in that. The trickier part will be to lean hard into that character (through the physicality but even above and beyond it since it's far more important than any single spot) even when she doesn't have someone like Athena to push off against.

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DEAN~!!!

ACTION presents DEAN~!!! 4/4/24

MD: A year ago today, we lost DEAN. Eleven months later Phil, Eric, and Matt Griffin (being Jacey North Matt, not me Matt) did something amazing. In true DVDVR fashion, Eric has a road report in the works. Were I to give you a report, it would be why I wasn't there and would involve in-law family wedding drama, conciliatory water parks with the kids, and a bunch of other excuses. I missed being there, being part of that atmosphere, meeting a bunch of people who I respect and admire (and Johnny Sorrow too; I would have liked to meet Johnny). That said, it means I can come in with a slightly different perspective here, and hey, there's also this: DEAN the human was so important to me in expanding how someone could think about wrestling and Phil and Eric are my "people" in everything we do creatively, but because I watched from home (in part in the DVDVR discord, yes, but a lot on my own), I got to watch it with Dylan Hales in my ear, and there was no one I conspired with more closely between 2010 and 2015 about wrestling than Dylan, so while I couldn't be there with you guys, you were all with me as I watched.    

Alex Kane vs Colby Corino

MD: When I say "my people", I do mean a lot of this crowd too and that made it the perfect crowd for this specific match, one that knew how to act, how to buy in, how to give in, how to be wry but not ironic, clever but still earnest, just like the match itself. The wrestlers committed. The crowd committed. The match committed. It's probably sacrilege on a card with the back half that this one has to even consider this as potentially my favorite match of the night, but maybe it was!

Colby came in exhausted (six matches in six days). He had a size disadvantage. The match was always one suplex away from being over. So he embraced the headlock. It was a way to control distance, to control leverage, to frustrate Kane, to make Kane exert himself because Colby couldn't. It was wry, like I said, but it also made sense within the context of the match. Even at the beginning, there were multiple differentials for Colby to overcome and the headlock was a means for him to chip away at them. That's important. The headlock was never an end unto itself. It was the means to even the odds.

As the match went on, it went from being a way to contain Kane to a way to open him up for escalating offense. It went from being a survival mechanism to the entry point for all of Colby's title hopes and dreams. It opened up the bulldog, or an air raid crash, or the front DDT that he was likely going for to maybe finish things off. The problem with such a close contact strategy, however, is that all it took was one mistake, one wrong breath, one chance for Kane to plant his feet, and it was up and over, metaphorically and literally. Colby did valiantly for a man at the end of his rope, but that rope was just long enough for him to hang himself. Honestly in contention for my favorite match of the night (It's up there with Slim J vs Adam Priest as the most "Matt D" match on the card), as wild as that sounds.

O’Shay Edwards/Amboss (Laurance Roman/Robert Dreissker) vs The Good Hand (Kevin Ryan/Suge D/Tyler Stevens)

MD: I think that in some ways this match had the most to work against on the card. For the traveling crowd, there was probably less familiarity with the wrestlers here. It had a sort of similar theme to the "flippy guys vs strong guys" six-man later on the card but couldn't lean too hard into that without taking away from the match higher on the card. What it did have going for it was the ability to lean into the set units here to play with all of the tools you'd get in a southern or mPro style tag.

The Good Hand played their part perfectly, just annoying, arrogant, scuzzy heels, but maybe not carrying with them the sort of madcap delusion that the Sucklings were about to bring to the ring in the next match. These were three guys who were more than the sum of their parts both in style and in substance. They controlled the ring, cut off Roman, threw out a bunch of quick offense and double and triple teams. And then, when it was time, they got their comeuppance, only to take back over with something slick or underhanded or opportunistic. Basically, they used all the tricks of the trade, both in how they presented themselves and in how a match like this could be structured, to overcome some of the disadvantages they were facing. And the babyfaces were the straight men, constantly trying to work their way back into the match and then, when it came time, raining down justice and punishment. Like I said on the night, if you embrace wrestling, it will embrace you, and that's exactly what they did here.

Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku/Dominic Garrini) vs The Ugly Sucklings (Rob Killjoy/White Mike)

MD: I loved how tight and compact this was. That allowed for the Sucklings to do their pre-match promo, which made a lot of sense actually It was driven not just by ego and mania (though there was that as well) but by the relatable idea that if they had a good showing against a top team, they'd get more bookings and put food on the table. Scuzzy but relatable, a fine line to walk. Then, they went right into heat. That worked because ViF even just coming out as the surprise team with the Road Warriors pop... that was the shine. There was a sense of glorious inevitability here in the best way. The Sucklings were organized and effective and persistent but doom was heading their way from the moment Zombie hit, maybe even from the moment they signed an open challenge.

So this went right to the ambush-dirven heat then into the comeback and the finishing stretch and it was all just a wonderful celebratory bonus from guys with big presence. For people not at all familiar with the indy scene, obviously guys like Priest and Connolly stood out but I heard from a few people who only had a working knowledge that they immediately wanted to track down more Sucklings footage, so the mission from the pre-match promo was accomplished. Overall, this match set up a sort of party atmosphere to prepare people's appetites for the chaos and violence to come.   

Gypsy Joe Rules Match: Coven of the Goat (Jaden Newman/Tank) vs 1 Called Manders/"Filthy" Tom Lawlor

MD: This was the match where, on live viewing, I realized I couldn't just turn a write-up out for the show and that I needed some time to process. I'm still struggling a bit with this one. One thing will stick with me, and I mean forever stick with me, like Owen kicking Bret's leg out of his leg or whatever other super iconic wrestling moment is seared into my brain: That's the sequence of Lawlor getting Newman onto a chair and running around the entire ringside area to attack him while Tank and Manders were simultaneously sharing a beer right by the DEAN chair. The contrast was just this serene moment of pro wrestling wonder. It devolved quickly into Tank spraying Manders and Lawlor smashing Tank and Manders getting the revenge spray and of course then revisited it a few minutes later with the headbutt war. What am I going to say critically about this? It was madness and chaos and action with some stuff that was smartly put together but that didn't feel put together at all, that just felt wild and spontaneous and that, along with, you know, punches (and this had a few good ones) is what I could use so much more of in wrestling today. You weren't going to see the strings here, just the flailing limbs and crazy abandon. (EDIT one year later: I was later informed that nothing was put together and it all felt wild and insane because it was wild and insane; any coherency was my pro wrestling watching addled brain magic eying and the natural logic of pressing iron up against iron and watching the sparks fly).

3 Flippy Guys (Bobby Flaco/Brayden Toon/Rico Gonzalez) vs 3 Strong Motherf*ckers (Danny Demanto/Hoodfoot/Isaiah Broner)

MD: Hey, the WAR six man. This was fun. You didn't really get to see Rico do too much. In fact, most of the match was everyone just beating on Flaco, which is kind of what you want in a match like this really, just flipping guys bumping big and getting crushed. Brayden didn't do a ton (really this was mainly Bob getting destroyed) but everything he did looked great. Finish worked ok because the Strong folk were obviously goofing around and taking their opponents lightly; sometimes you live by the door, sometimes you die by it. This was a nice mix of levity and roadkill to give everyone a breather given what was to come.

Dr. Cerebro vs Gringo Loco

MD: This could have absolutely just been a "traveling match" sort of exhibition and it wasn't at all. It was a weird and surreal inversion full of a sort of emotion that isn't neat or clean or crisp. This match wasn't a straight line. It felt a little like a therapy session unveiling in real time through the back drop of gritty, gripping, beautiful lucha libre. It just wasn't a redo of 2010. Gringo Loco has evolved and in some ways, in this match, Cerebro devolved. He sure as hell wasn't wearing his mask against the Gringos VIP. Moreover, even though Gringo worked rudo, he was a pretty clear babyface for a lot of this. That happens! Usually it happens with a guy like Casas or Satanico up against an unfortunately reviled tecnico or an even more deplorable rudo, but it happens. Here it was because Gringo had something of the homefield advantage and because both of them had a chip on their shoulder.

While I loved some of the early matwork (Cerebro scooting around into an amazing contorting bit of torture was likely the hold of the night), and of course the Cerebro dive that almost took out Marty's wife in the third row was electric, it was that underlying snag of emotion that really put this over the top. Gringo's paid his dues, has traveled the world, has been on TV in big arenas and has wrestled in the dingiest, dirtiest venues imaginable; he's grown into a true base god, and yet Cerebro, maybe empowered in all the wrong ways by the mask he was donning once again, refused to forgive the sins of the past. When Gringo wanted a shake, Cerebro made like a matador. When Gringo escalated things, Cerebro was all to happy to call and raise. He raised all the way to bringing in a chair and tearing apart Gringo's shoulder. Watching it, you can't help but wonder if it was because instead of finding a 25 year old that would likely bend under the pressure, he found a man pushing forty who had no give in him at all. Maybe it was because even though he had traveled north and presented himself in all of his glory, the crowd still leaned towards Gringo instead.

Regardless, he crossed a line that both men had crossed many times years before. It wasn't the end, however. The match restarted. Despite the damage to the shoulder, Gringo fought his way back. When the opportunity arose to cross that line himself, he took it. He couldn't transcend past it. Cerebro wouldn't be the bigger man but Gringo couldn't either, not after what had transpired. Cerebro ducked the chair, kicked it into Gringo's face, and honed in on the damaged shoulder for a submission. They wrestled a gripping match, one with a resolution in the record books, but you couldn't help feeling like nothing was truly resolved.

Krule vs “Warhorse” Jake Parnell

MD: On some level, on top of being a tribute to DEAN and on top of being something cooked up by the mad geniuses I write with here on Segunda Caida and powered by the ACTION engines, this whole show was a tribute to the Indies in general, to all eras and all regions. As such, this felt like it could have been the main event of a NWA New Jersey Coralluzzo show from the late 90s or an early 00s ECW successor promotion and I liked it along those lines. They worked hard. They hit hard. They flew hard. It had all the overworked bs you'd expect for the finish. As such, I almost think they did too much; maybe Parnell shouldn't have flipped out of a chokeslam attempt, maybe that dive shouldn't have been a flip, maybe some of the more complex Krule offense should have been straighter and to the point. They did a pretty good job keeping up with parts of the rest of the show but maybe they didn't need to. Maybe they should have leaned harder into the contrast instead. That's a lot to ask of them though, especially with the title on the line, and they did an admirable enough job all things considered.

Matt Makowski vs Arez

MD: I was going to call this a sprint and explain how instead of just spots it was layered with all that and more, but that's not what it actually is. It's a lucha lightning match and it's one of the best I've ever seen. It's cheating a little because it has the patina of a "different styles" fight but it's close enough to a lightning match in my eyes. A lot of it also speaks for itself, with Arez bounding around, hitting from every angle, and Makowski keeping up while trying to ground and stop him. For them to go that fast it for everything, no matter how unlikely, to still come off as plausible in this strange shared reality where Manders and Tank can sit in chairs headbutting each other as hard as possible takes incredible talent and commitment. I loved the transition where Makowski was able to jam the Casita and snap the arm. Arez wasn't exactly selling down the stretch but Makowski was so single minded in getting the cross arm-breaker in that you knew he felt like he was on to something and if he felt that way, you, as the audience, felt that way as well, even if Arez wasn't exactly putting out signals. Then it was all about working three moves ahead while dealing with the world's most unpredictable wrestler, to plant him in the center with the chaos theory cross-armbreaker. Thrilling stuff and a testament to knowing that they'd pack so much coolness into every second that they could let this go relatively short for the sake of the overall card but still feel fulfilling. Trust was the name of the game here, trust in the wrestlers, trust in the fans, trust in the mission

Slim J vs Adam Priest

MD: Yeah, ok, sorry to the first match, which I did thoroughly enjoy, but this is definitely my favorite match on the card. It couldn't be more down my alley. Two guys so good at doing the small things well hitting the fundamentals of what makes pro wrestling work perfectly and then adding just that added bit of creativity to put it over the top. Slim J's been positioned as a heel on TV for the last year or two but he's one of the best babyfaces of the 21st century and it was so great to see him on this stage, in front of this crowd, against this opponent, in this role. Talk about trust. They let this simmer and build so that when they hit bombs down the stretch they meant as much as possible.

Priest came in early with the trash talk and the early posturing and it was all about who would get the first shot in, and even more than that, who would be able to position the referee best to their advantage. Priest got Slim J into the corner behind him but couldn't follow up. Slim J, maybe a babyface here but a guy who knew every trick in the book and invented a good few of them, managed to snatch the ref's hand and use it (with just enough plausible deniability, of course) to smack Priest. Priest stalled just enough to rile the crowd without losing momentum. When he took over it wasn't just catching Slim on the way in with a knee, but then turning it into a neckbreaker over the second rope. It was never the easiest path but always a direct one with the extra little bit generally something additive that didn't distract from the key message.

Slim was always scrappy, always trying to fight back and his hope spots started small and close, an armbar or a chop back, but Priest cut him off definitely and then really added insult to injury as he grinded Slim down. It all built to the escape from the abdominal stretch where it seemed that Slim had come back, but Priest cut him off with a killer pile driver. That, in and of itself, set up the actual comeback as Slim reversed the second attempt at it on the apron. Even then, because the fans had just been fooled on a hope spot attempt, and because Slim was so good at staggering about in the ring selling his neck, the clotheslines he hit to really get back into it and launch the finishing stretch felt all the more striking and miraculous. Just amazing babyface work here.

That finishing stretch was the first time that they really launched bombs. Because they showed the restraint through the match, the big headdrops, which would have meant something just by their innate nature, ended up meaning all the more. Discipline creates opportunity, allows for the ability to build potential energy that can be turned kinetic. Then they paid it off with a finish that people probably didn't expect but that made the crowd happy. Just two architects building a castle of pro wrestling here.

Wasted Youth (Austin Luke/Marcus Mathers) vs Sinner & Saint (Judas Icarus/Travis Williams)

MD: This was as sprinty a juniors tag as you could get. Not entirely my thing but it had a place on a card that celebrated both the indies and DEAN. The first thing that comes to mind is hanging out on the DVDVR board the day that someone posted Brian XL/Divine Storm vs Red/SATs, probably in real media format, tiny file size, tiny video, and how all of us, the big guy included, reacted, like a whole new world opening up. Twenty+ years later, that wave has swept over all of wrestling a couple of times over, and it's led to a match like this. Icarus and Williams carried a lot of the middle of this with their more experienced and superior teamwork. They had a lot of clever tandem spots and sequences. I probably liked the Gory Running Punches the best though I would have liked to see a little more consequence to them. Mathers' connection to the crowd stood out more than anything else on the other side. This was breathless stuff. At times, the camera barely knew which way to focus next because things were going to come so quickly and explosively. This was candy before the steak to come but it was the expensive stuff and not some cheap knock off brand.

Dog Collar Match: Mad Dog Connelly vs Demus

MD: What am I am even going to say about this? How do you write about this? I thought about taking the coward's way out and just writing a paragraph about how Mad Dog Connelly has maybe the most amazing eyes that I've ever seen in pro wrestling, how you can track the entire match just focusing on them and in doing so, it's something different than you've ever experienced, how I'd never even thought about watching a wrestler's eyes a way to track emotion in this way because either the video quality isn't good enough or the quick cuts are too prevalent or whatever you're watching just doesn't rise to that level. How Connelly breaks a mold that you never even had reason to give a thought to before. I could go on about that but while totally accurate, it'd be both pretty weird and also a dodge. But seriously, rewatch this and just watch the guy's eyes. If you even can, because...

So let's try this instead. This match was a roller coaster ride. I hear you groaning. How dare I reduce this thing to some bullshit out of the can nonsense phrase. Just stop, ok? Stop and think. It wasn't like a roller coaster because it had ups and downs and it went fast. Nothing like that. Imagine actually being in a roller coaster. Imagine the first time maybe, when you were a kid, when you strained your neck to just be tall enough to hit the height marker and be allowed on. Imagine that it was one of those old wooden coasters, big and rickety, creaking, without some of the whirls and turns and technology and gimmicks of the last twenty years, just a looming monstrosity that might collapse at any moment because of one loose eighty year old screw. It's not the falling that gets you when you're on a coaster like that. It's not the speed. It's not even the anticipation as you're slowly going up. It's the fact that you're strapped in, you're helpless. If the thing fell apart, there'd be nothing you can do, nothing anyone could do to save you. You can't stop midway. You can't get off. No power in the world can stop it once it gets going. You're trapped.

That's what it feels like to watch this match. The second you hit play, it's like you're watching one of those videos from a Japanese horror movie. You're trapped. You can't shut it off. You can't look away. You can't even breathe. You can't even stop to think. You just have to watch one act of brutality seamlessly flow into the next. It's a river made of blood and you're adrift on it. I can't talk about specific moments of this. I can't break apart some sort of structure or go on about transitions. I've seen this two, three times. I remember the chain whip by Connelly to start. I remember people going into chairs. I remember biting and the smearing of blood. I remember the attempt at a hangman's choke and Dylan proclaiming it was that selfsame blood making things too slippery to hold it. Maybe there was a flying body press of some sort? Connelly choked him out to win. That's what I remember. I literally just watched this. Five minutes ago! It's all a violent blur. It's not a match. It's an experience. It's a sensation. You stare at the screen and your heart tries to leave your chest as you're buffeted by the violent, visceral gale. And like a roller coaster, the second you get off, you just want to get back on and go again. Look, I got nothing. Just strap back in and watch the thing again, ok?

Daniel Makabe vs Timothy Thatcher

MD: Full disclosure. This is an important match to cover well and I think I know what I want to say, even if it opens me up to be a little vulnerable. It's sort of the absolute worst time to highlight personal inadequcies, but here we are. Be kind. Maybe in part because I've got that most recent viewing of Connelly/Demus rattling around in my head, I don't know exactly how to start it. Let's go with this. Late in the match, Dylan likens this to Battlarts, and of course part of the inspiration here was Ishikawa vs Ikeda; Makabe wore his heart on his sleeve there if you get what I mean. So while this had its hybrid elements, much like Battlarts did, I think you could fairly safely classify this as shoot style. Shoot style, to me, is impenetrable in a good way, because I don't entirely get how they do it (Here's the vulnerable part). I watch so much wrestling. I write about so much wrestling. I think so hard (too hard, I know) about structure and narratives and patterns and comparative mythology and symbolism and whatever else is at play. And shoot style done well takes me back to being ten years old in the Boston Garden watching Bret Hart wrestle the Barbarian and just trying to wrap my head around how they could possibly know what to do next. And I've never gone out of my way to change that. I get so much enjoyment out of wrestling in so many ways, but only with shoot style is there still that hint of magic and wonder.

As I understand it, shoot style is a game of opportunities and openings, of mastering technique so well that all the physical possibilities to counter and progress the match are open to you in any moment. A little bit of give leads to a lot of take and the process repeats itself. Whether you're watching Fujiwara and Super Tiger or Volk Han, a lot of the storytelling is entirely implicit, driven by physical advantages and chance and consequence in the moment and over time. The drive for realism leaves certain basic, contrived narrative possibilities out of reach, but when done as well as it can be done, it can pull you in as much as any other form of pro wrestling. That was absolutely at play here, with every touch representing struggle and every contortion, simple or outlandish, feeling earned instead of given. What took this to another level was the genius at play. Yes, the storytelling was by necessity implicit, but underpinning and giving it color it was the weight of all of their previous encounters, the impending Sword of Damocles that hangs over Makabe's head, the expectation of what this match could be and what we all knew it was not (that being Ishikawa vs Ikeda), the well of emotion of the night and what people had just witnessed. 

Genius really is the only word for the alchemy of all of these things coming together, in small ways and in big. That could be Thatcher refusing the initial handshake or his look of glee as he was bending Makabe's wrist. It could be Makabe making the first inroads on the taped-up knee and Thatcher escalating to strikes out of desperation in response and then Makabe working at the upper body in order to open up the lower body to stay on it. Or it could have just been both of them stomping out each other's arm in frustration at the European Uppercuts they were throwing at each other. History creates the personality. The personality defines the character. The character decides how opportunities are capitalized on, and somehow, out of all of it, you end up with the richest, most compelling wrestling match imaginable. When it came to wrestling (and music, and a few other things), DEAN was like a cool older cousin to me, half a generation older, having gotten there first but selflessly willing to share. To him, everything was about sensation in the moment. To me, it's about thought after the fact. A match like this lets me meet the memory of my friend midway, and I'm very grateful for that.

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Scenic City Invitational 2022 Night 1 8/5/22

Adam Priest vs. Cole Radrick

ER: This is probably worth seeing just for the woman in the front row who lunges hard at Priest as he casually walks to the ring, and Priest acts like he doesn't even see her, two feet in front of him, as she's being hauled away in a rear waistlock. Stunt Granny? Perhaps. I really liked Priest here. He acts like an asshole, and works like a modern Jamie Noble. He's really explosive when the move calls for it, putting a lot of snap on everything. I dug how he snuck in attacks around the ref's blindspot, sneaking in a punch past the ref's shoulder and a back elbow over his back, and I liked how he did bratty little things like lightly kicking a rolling trash can towards a kid after rolling to the floor. All of Priest's strikes looked good, he missed offense with intent, took all of Radrick's offense well, and made everyman moves like the DDT look like actual finishers. Radrick is a mix of some things that work and some that don't. I thought he had some really nice fired up babyface punches (with Priest doing an excellent job feeding into them), like  Robert Gibson coming in on a hot tag. He had a nice diving elbow to the back of Priest's head, and hit a cool Hitman elbow off the top rope. He really didn't do anything at all with the "bad knee" part of the match, but Dylan Hales on commentary did a good job covering for that, adding to an awkward botched cutter by pointing out the bad knee couldn't adjust to the loose bottom rope. 

Hoodfoot vs. Orion Bishop 

ER: I'm kind of surprised by how much I disliked this. Scanning the card, this was one of the SCI matches I was most excited for, but hardly anything about this worked. They started with some unnecessary quick rope running stuff and then both seemed to hit a gas tank wall 10 seconds in. Hoodfoot looked like he was on tranquilizers through a lot of it, like he could barely lift his arm to throw strikes. Now, I love in a hermetically sealed bubble and miss a ton of what is happening in pro wrestling, but I did hear that Hoodfoot lost an absurd amount of blood in a deathmatch against Slade. There's a chance he isn't fully recovered, and if that's the case then I'm impressed by the grind. Also, if that's the case, I would rather him fully recover. His missed standing swings to set up Bishop's offense were some of the most quarter assed swings I've seen, and every shot of his that landed was telegraphed a mile away and thrown at half speed. At one point they both trudged passed each other and ducked offense that neither man threw. Hoodfoot took a nasty suplex bump and hit a nice cannonball in the corner, but this felt like a match where no exchange came off properly. Even the finish looked bad, as Bishop hit a spear ("hit" doing a lot of work there) and Hoodfoot flinched on the 3 count, making it look like he was supposed to kick out but couldn't lift his limbs. The ref made the bizarre choice to not verbalize a single thing, merely holding up two fingers and a thumb that didn't clear anything up. Instead of just saying "ring the bell", she kept alternating between holding up an index finger those other three digits. Shockingly little about this worked. Did both guys put in a couple hours on the bike before this match? 

Myron Reed vs. Eli Knight

ER: Now this, I liked, even though it had a finish that I sincerely did not understand. The ideas and some of the execution dipped in the latter half, but there was more than enough to make this a really good 8 minute match. I'm not super familiar with Eli Knight but came away a fan. The man has springs in his legs and has amazing form on his moonsault, and I loved how he jumped Reed before the bell with a super high and impactful running dropkick and then a gorgeous moonsault press to the floor. Reed is a clever wrestler who is good at setting up some complicated sequences, and Knight is a guy who can execute some complicated stuff and make it look effortless. Knight had a really cool dropkick from the top rope to the apron, and then kipped up on the apron and grinned right into the hard cam. Both guys hit strikes with some nice jolt, and on the couple occasions where something didn't quite work they just quickly moved along into something more spectacular. Reed had a big flip dive over the ringpost, and I liked how Knight was able to use his moonsault as both a feint and as a strong nearfall. The finish might have sounded better on paper, but I don't think it worked in reality at all. Knight hit a moonsault, but Reed slightly lifted his head and neck off the mat as it hit, and apparently this meant that Reed hit a kind of grounded cutter on Knight? It just looked like Reed was sitting up to take some of the impact and I don't think anyone would have thought it was supposed to be Reed catching Knight with a reversal. Nonetheless, even with the dodgy finish this was probably my favorite match of the first three. 

11. Daniel Makabe vs. Damyan Tangra 

MD: I've bumped my head against this review a couple of times, but it was my favorite match from SCI this year and it's worth writing about so I'm going to power through. Phil talked about the great Makabe vs Garrini matched from Night 2 on the Ringer, but this was pure, unbridled move chaining and gamesmanship, build and payoff, total engagement.

How about some examples? Makabe previously beat Tangra with a seated triangle. One of Tangra's big moves is a swing into a gutbuster from a Saito Suplex position. Early on, Tangra went for it, Makabe turned it into the triangle, Tangra had an answer and could escape. When Tangra finally hit it, it was out of Makabe escaping a Fujiwara Armbar, which Tangra had put on through cleverly countering something else. The match had high points that were built to like that, that were teased earlier, countered, worked for later, but they're more a microcosm of the endless struggle. Makabe laid traps, Tangra was ready for them, and it became about which wrestler could take advantage of where they ended up after the counter to the counter.

It should have been exhausting, a endless cacophony of noise and counters of counters of counters of counters, of limbs provided and capitalizing technique, but it wasn't. These weren't two wrestling robots, two drilled out shooters driving forward at each other. They are human beings, characters, wrestlers, entities with emotional stakes written on their sleeves (or in Makabe's case, underneath his wrapped up fist). When Tangra got an especially impressive counter, you could see it on Makabe's face. Not overwrought, not over the top, but human and appreciative and consummate to the moment. Tangra, sympathetic, with an ever-growing connection to the crowd, expressed a real sense of desperation in escaping Makabe's holds, escaping late hammer and anvil shots, in avoiding Makabe's punch at all costs (right up until the point he couldn't, of course). When the wrestlers care, when they let things sink in, when they let them matter, those things matter to everyone watching as well.

The turning point of the match was Tangra making the most of a cleverly captured leglock, both legs viced together in a way that wasn't sustainable, that wouldn't draw a submission, that led to a quick ropebreak, but that did lasting damage to one knee. By no means was this the singular story of the match. It gave it color, like any of the other elements. It enhanced instead of dominating. In key moments, Makabe couldn't capitalize due to the leg. In key moments, it provided Tangra a target. It gave him an edge, but against Makabe, you need dozens of them. On this night, he had just enough to survive and to score a believable, well-deserved, still shocking upset.

In watching this on Night 1, we (or at least I) didn't know what we'd learn about Makabe's physical condition on Night 2, that there's a possibility that his in-ring career is winding down. Looking back, that makes this feel like a potential changing of the guard, one that embraced and highlighted so much of what makes Makabe special and unforgettable, while letting Tangra not just hang with the master (no small thing), but also show his own worth and uniqueness and reinforcing the notion that he might carry the torch forward in years to come.

ER: This was so good, easily the match of Night 1. Matt covered this about as thoroughly as I've come to expect from Matt, so I'm not sure how much I have to add. I dug how this was a real Makabe showcase in the front half until he got slowed by his leg, and then those same tangled holds he was breaking out in the first half were given a sense of desperation down the back half. Makabe is so good at taking a sequence that you think you've seen before, and then suddenly taking it in a direction you've never seen. Early on they went into a series of inside cradle reversals that ends with Makabe reversing into a nasty head and arm choke. I swear, there are always at least three moments in a Makabe match that look like something that could plausibly finish the match, and this would have been a cool way to do a sudden surprise finish. This wasn't the venue for that, but the point stands. Dan really glued himself to Tangra like a spider monkey here, keeping himself close for several minutes, constantly tying Tangra up, climbing around his body before rolling into one of the cleanest triangles I've seen. I thought Tangra's body scissors takedown into a heel hook was a really cool way to counteract Makabe's clinginess. 

Makabe getting his leg worked over changed the pace and the strategy, and I really liked how Tangra threw kicks at every angle to Makabe's knee. Some guys get locked into throwing the exact same kind of leg kicks, but Tangra was kicking it from the inside, outside, upper patella, lower hamstring, just throwing them all over the target. Makabe is one of the best at selling a limb, dragging himself up by the ropes while favoring his good leg, trying to hold a bridge with one leg and then getting instantly reversed when he flattens the bum wheel, slowing his reaction time during standing exchanges. He still had several answers to whatever Tangra tried throwing, and I especially liked him wriggling out of a fireman's carry by quickly getting a crucifix on Tangra's arm. Once Tangra made this into more of a strike battle, Makabe kept trying to unload that Logan Gilbert right hand, mostly getting countered due to his slowed down wind up. Makabe getting slowed face Tangra openings to show off on the mat, and he had an awesome STF where he choked Makabe out with his own arm, while also hammer fisting his bandaged hand. That didn't finish things, but it could have, and having multiple ways to finish and be finished is one of the things that makes this pairing so engaging. 

Dominic Garrini vs. Kevin Ku

ER: I didn't really like this. I don't think I really like them against each other. This started at one level, and basically stayed at that level nearly the entire match, and never really let the crowd in on where they were going. They came out and took turns throwing chops, then took turns throwing kicks, and I'm not sure they even looked beyond the ring during any of it. These matches feel like they're done for the weird enjoyment of the two guys in the ring, as I never got the sense they would have done anything differently regardless of the crowd reaction. Obviously this crowd did not hate the match, and I was amused by a couple of girls chirping in reaction to several of the chops, but I think this needed just an ounce of direction or purpose. I think I would have liked it more had Dom's scoop spinning tombstone ended things. Up until then it had been mostly perfunctory strike exchanges with neither really acknowledging that they had been struck, but that tombstone was nasty and would have made a fun "fuck it I'm tried of being hit" finish. Not for me, but no problem if it works for thee. 

Jaden Newman vs. Ashton Starr

ER: This kind of odd pantomime wrestling just does not appeal to me. Why are some guys so silent in the ring? It always comes off so bizarre. The Soddy-Daisy fans have a real connection to every wrestler on these SCI cards. It's a good crowd to work in front of, positive and eager to support. But this silent play acting wrestling just doesn't connect. At one point Newman hit a complicated but slick swinging DDT from the apron for a two count, and just sat there doing silent mouthing and hand signing. Every time either man appealed to the crowd it was done silently, going out of their way to not use any kind of words. This is a crowd where you can hear individual reactions of everyone in the crowd, so it plays even weirder when both guys are trying to stay so silent. It was so jarring when Jaden let out a grunt after being hit, as I had assumed neither could make sounds, but it's possible they just can't turn those sounds into words. I liked Starr's high extension kick while Newman was on the top rope, and liked how Starr whipped his head into the mat on Newman's swinging DDT, but mute reaction wrestling is so weird. 

17. Manders vs. Masha Slamovich

ER: Manders was the replacement for Trish Adora, which is a cool swap. I thought this was really good, playing to both strengths. Masha often goes really big in her matches, starting them with some big spots that can leave the endings of those matches underwhelming. Here, that made a lot more sense, as she actually felt like the underdog against Manders. Manders can absorb a lot of punishment and wasn't going to work this 50-50, so Masha breaking out all her big stunts felt like the only way she was going to pull off a win. She's such a fighter, but I liked how Manders overwhelmed her at times, starting the match by wasting her with a clothesline, throwing her through chairs, throwing hard targeted headlock punches. Her openings are all from fighting dirty, and I love it, like how she went after his nose and eyes to break out of a headlock. Her strikes all looked good, and Manders didn't sell them 1:1, instead he treated them more 3:1, making her land several hard elbows or a couple kicks before being moved. Once she started stacking strikes, it gave her more openings to hit big stunts. 

She dropped Manders with some big things, like an electric chair that bounced him off a couple of chairs, and it turned into Manders having to brute force his way out of things. He was taking real damage from Masha, but was always able smash when things got bad. I dug Masha throwing several elbows and kicking him across the chin, and it wasn't like he wasn't selling them, they just needed to come in bunches to keep him down. He was still able to dump her with a big powerbomb or flatten her with a lariat, but they were smart about adding that extra time or breath so this never felt equal. Manders really hammered her with a lariat that looked like it would be the finish, but had such a head of steam that he went right through the ropes to the floor. He still almost got the win (with a great pin leaning his weight way back over her shoulders) but that extra time gave Masha the breathing room she needed. The finish looked botched but in a way that I think benefitted the match. Masha piledriving Manders off the turnbuckles into a pair of set up chairs was pretty crazy, with both landing hard, and Masha basically just landed on Manders for the three. Whatever the spot was supposed to look like, I don't know. I didn't look totally clean, but I came away thinking that whomever was lucky enough to end up on top after the crash landing was the one who was going to win. A crash landing doesn't have to look clean, it's supposed to look like an ugly pile-up, so Masha being the one who got lucky on the landing works well as a finish for me. 

Robert Martyr vs. Billie Starkz

ER: I really liked a lot of this, but the Starkz win really didn't work for me. Maybe there was a way to set it up that would have worked, but I don't think this was it. Pretty much everything up until the finish worked. I loved how they started things, with Martyr being a little prick and then getting his circuits scrambled with a hook kick, actually doing one of the only good "stiffened legs while my lights went out" sells that I've seen in wrestling (I always hold up Jimmy Yang's silly "4 limbs in the air" off a Tank Abbott punch as the worst example of this). Starkz getting a flash KO pin would have been awesome, but as I said earlier in this review, this wasn't the venue for that. But I dug Billie getting that quick advantage and then having it erased when Martyr blocked a tope and ran her into the post, then hit a gross powerbomb on the apron. Martyr seethes into the camera "I'm gonna kill this girl!" and he kinda backs that up. He had some really disrespectful boot scrapes, punishing corner lariats, and a big layout powerbomb. All of his stuff looked pretty killer. 

I didn't love the forearm exchange, but only because Starkz has bad looking forearms that wouldn't look like they'd move even a small guy like Martyr. However, everyone probably knows the moment this match was building towards, and that was one of the greatest splats I have ever seen in wrestling. Billie splats across the floor of Soddy-Daisy with an insane swanton off the top, Martyr slipping out of his seat at the last second, chair absorbing none of Billie's weight. The chair might have slightly slowed her down but not much. This girl just leapt off a one story building to her concrete death. As everyone checks on her, Martyr is the one in the ring yelling at the ref to get the hell in and start counting her out, and I love that look on him. When she barely beats the count and crawls right into a brainbuster, I thought that was it. If that was it, this match would be going on the list. But the finish didn't work for me. I thought the electric chair set up was frankly stupid for someone who was holding the back of her hand to her lower back ever since the apron powerbomb, and I just didn't buy the set up or the win, no matter how sick a Rubik's Cube can look. Criticism of the finish aside, this was still probably my third favorite match of Night 1.

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro Wrestling Terminal Combat 5/21/21

PAS: I am in the bad for the PPW UWFI series, and they put together a great looking card here. Unfortunately I am really weary of the Frankensteining of the rules for Terminal Combat, with the first five minutes being UWFI rules before it becomes a street fight. Feels like if this was a straight UWFI rules show it would be amazing, we will see how this goes.

Akira vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: This match was kind of what I was worrying about. I really liked the five minute UWFI section. The dueling leglocks were cool, and I liked how aggressively Akira went after the Kimura. It was pretty clever how Dom used the rules shift to break the Kimura attempt with a big low blow. I didn't love the street fight section, it was stiff, but there were these silly Akira spots like putting a pop tart into Garrini's mouth. Really came off discordant. Dom using a bunch of low blows to set up a bulldog choke was cool, but this really was neither fish nor fowl and I would have enjoyed either a UWFI match or a street fight way more.

Dustin Leonard vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: This doesn't go five and thus was just a UWFI rules match. Love Leonard who is a Ju-Jitsu black belt who looks like Don Kernodle. He is one of my favorite guys to watch in this fed, even though he is pretty limited. The stand up parts of this fight didn't look great with Leonard looking a little flinchy and overearly dropping from a Thompson hook. Flash brought his nice movement, but not much else. Finish was bonkers though, with Leonard from his back pressing Thompson off of him with his knees and spinning him into a cross armbreaker. Totally sick shit, and stuff like that will keep me searching out all Dustin Leonard. 

Lord Crewe vs. Derrick Neal

PAS: Crewe has been one of the in-ring standouts of this project, really mastering these kind of swing for the fences brawls and this was another corker of fight. Neal hasn't done anything for me previously, but fit nicely into the Lord Crewe formula. Lots of wild shots some, which land big. Loved the finish, as we are into the count down to switch rules, and Crewe hits a nasty knee right to the chin and a sick sounding diving elbow for the KO. Really popped me by avoiding the awkward switch into street fight. 

Alex Kane vs. Isiah Broner

PAS: This was my most anticipated fight of the show, and it delivered (and thankfully in under five minutes). Both these guys come off like total killers, and it was quick and hard hitting. Broner throws bodyshots to the kidneys and is able to slip and hit a suplelx of his own. Kane fires back with a German chained into a Saito suplex but as he is setting up the Mark of Kane Broner slips out and puts him to sleep with a spinning back elbow. Intense short and violent, exactly what I have loved about this series.

Ron Mathis vs. Josh Crane

PAS: Crane is a Big Japan guy, and although there was an interesting moment or two during the UWFI series - Mathis has some fun takedowns - they were basically killing time until the chairs and doors part of the match. That was OK I guess, it is a style I am pretty much over, there were some nice bumps, but unless these matches have outstanding individual performances or something, they just tend to to blur to me. I thought the finish was clever with Mathis making a Backlund face after getting driven through a door and locking in a choke, but otherwise this wasn't much.

Austin Connelly vs. Brayden Lee

PAS: This was supposed to be Connelly vs. Max the Impaler which I hope we get to see one day. This was a banger though on it's own. Lee was in a singlet and introed with his collegiate wrestling background referenced, and was really great working amateur style stuff into this match. He stuffs Connelly's aggressive attack and hits gator rolls, and is constantly and impressively riding and taking down Connelly,  wet blanketing his intensity. Connelly is able to take control a bit when he lands a bunch of strikes to the temple on a banana split attempt, and is able to ragdoll him with a throw. Finish was really great with Connelly figure fouring Lee's leg while Lee was on his back and then stomping him right on the head. I thought Lee ruled in this, would love to see him back, and Connelly is one of the most entertaining wrestlers in the world right now.

ER: Brayden Lee gets his college credentials listed in his intro but this man looks like someone who walked straight out of a collegiate wrestling program and showed up in Paradigm. Connelly is a crazed Connor O'Malley character who had no real chance of competing with Lee's wrestling skills, but had his own advantage with every part of the striking game. It's impossible to prevent Lee's takedowns, but Lee never expects to be open hand slapped across the ear immediately after a takedown, so it's this cool battle of amateur wrestler brain vs. UWFI brain. Connelly rushes in (as he'll do) and repeatedly gets trapped in front chanceries and constantly has his force deadened by Lee pushing on his shoulders, but again: Lee knows wrestling, Connelly knows how to hit, and Lee does not know how to take someone down while avoiding the hits that come after. I loved when Lee locked on a banana split and you're thinking "well Connelly is toast" before you, too, realize that Connelly can throw hard palm strikes right to Lee's head and neck and suddenly the banana split is neutralized. Connelly's gutwrench powerbomb looked sick, and then he outdoes himself by almost getting a shoot Texas Cloverleaf before deciding it's easier to just stomp Lee in the head and neck a bunch instead of rolling through with the Cloverleaf. We've seen Connelly work great 2 minute, 3 minute, and now 4 minute matches, and this pairing is something I'd love to see several more times with all new stips each time. Connelly is just so good on these shows. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Reed Bentley

PAS:  These guys are a brawling tag team, and Murdoch kept bailing out and trying to grab weapons, only to get called back into the ring, at one point he even sat down in the chair to try to run out the clock to Terminal Combat. Still when Murdoch comes back into the ring, Bentley hits him with a nasty barfight headbutt and lands a knee on the ground to KO him before they ever got to the garbage wrestling. I liked the last flurry from Bentley, although this was more of a troll then a match.  

Bradley Prescott IV vs. Jody the Wrestler

PAS: This was one of those meta comedy matches where guys make fun of the idea of pro-wrestling. I pretty much hate those universally, and Jody and Bradley aren't exactly UCB all-stars when it comes to sketch comedy. Keep it moving

Janai Kai vs. Sandra Moore

PAS: This did the best job so far of bridging the two concepts in this match. Kai is a UWFI rules veteran and wrestled Bloodsport, while this was Moore's first UWFI rules match. Kai dominated the first section using TKD and some nice snap takedowns. Moore is bigger and used her size to keep Kai off of her and land some bodyshots. Moore is basically able to survive until Terminal Combat where after Kai works her over a bit with Nunchucks, she is able to land a sick chair shot to the side of Kai's head and take control, finishing her off with a big powerbomb. Liked the story of the brawler surviving the shoot style specialist until it was her turn.

Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ and T-Money) vs. Creature Feature (Adriel Noctis/Lazarus)

PAS: I am not really sure how much of this match was actually shoot style, but it is such a pleasure to see the Fuck-It's back and whooping on some Goths. T-Money was a truck in this match, just tossing the Features with big slams, his opening shot was a spinebuster which looked like it snapped Lazarus's head back and won a UWFI rules match by KO after wasting Noctis with a pounce into the ropes. Russ was a little less showcased, although I loved his big right hand. This was basically a fun tag semi-squash, and there is no one better at violently squashing a tag team then the Fuck-Its.

Chase Holliday vs. Yoya

PAS: This was a nifty short David vs. Goliath shoot match. Yoya starts the match leapfrogging Holliday and dropping him with a big kick, Holliday is able to get up and throw Yoya a couple of times, and hits a couple of big powerbombs out of armbar attempts. Yoya was able to grab another armbard, slither up his body and grab a rear naked choke and put him out. Holliday had been really protected before this, so it was a big upset, and I like Yoya as a dangerous little guy who can absorb big shots but put someone to asleep if given the chance. 

Matt Makowski vs. Matt Justice

PAS: The opening five minutes of this were pretty cool with Justice using his size and strength to counter Makowski and push him into the Terminal Combat section. I enjoy Justice in these shoot matches as a big strong hard hitting guy who can overcome his lack of skill, kind of like a garbage wrestling Crazy Horse Bennett. The transition into Terminal Combat was cool with Makowski having a rear naked choke on and Justice falling backwards over the top rope to start the brawling. The brawling section in the middle was pretty dull though, not a lot of energy by Justice when we was in control, really felt meandering (which they even brought up sort of on commentary) Finish was cool though with Makowski putting on his Gi and using a Gi assisted choke armbar for the tap grabbing Justice after he got put through a table. I really like the MMA guys secret weapon being a Gi, too bad the brawling wasn't better as this had some stuff I liked. 

Hoodfoot vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: They skipped the UWFI rules section of this match and went straight into the brawl, and while it had it's moments, Hoodfoot hit some great headbutts, there were some nice suplexes, it really felt repetitive as most of the match was Hoodfoot getting an advantage and Gregory Iron interfering, rinse repeat. The finish was pretty nasty with Hoodfoot suplexing Beverly hard into a door and Iron and Iron really getting crushed, and Hoodfoot does have great charisma, but this was pretty low on the list of Heavy Hitters defenses, and the entire Hoodfoot to Makowski to Beverly back to Hoodfoot series of quick title changes felt like a waste.

PAS: Overall as an idea this was a failure to me. I am a big fan of this roster, so many matchups I want to see, but everything I liked was just a straight UWFI match, and I am thinking I will stick to that stuff from Paradigm in the future. 

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ACTION Wrestling Boogie Nights 5/14/21

Wes Barkley vs. Bobby Flaco

ER: Happy to see Maserati Wes in ACTION, but the match itself was a bit of an under-delivery. It really felt like they kept cycling through the same kind of moments, with the match resetting every couple of minutes so Flaco could slowly climb to the top while Barkley killed time, before Flaco was either knocked off the top of missed his flying spot, to then be hit with a nice Barkley driver or something. It built to Flaco hitting a nice crossbody but the build felt a bit stilted. I like both guys, so it's natural that there were things I did like, but it's odd that Barkley came off like the faster guy here. I was expecting Flaco to out quick him, but it felt like Barkley had to keep waiting around for Flaco, and Flaco's offense didn't always look like it would move Barkley the way Barkley moved. Still, I liked Barkley's driver and rolling clothesline, liked Flaco's corner elbows and loved Flaco hitting a double Fuerza dropkick on Barkley and Bishop (with Bishop taking a wonderful bump into the front row fans), and I can see them matching up better next time. 

Robert Martyr vs. Ashton Starr

ER: Super fun match, one that really felt like the match that should open a wrestling show. I think there were a couple too many kickouts, but I liked a lot of their ideas and came away impressed with both (in different ways). Starr is one of the only guys in wrestling to wear a Pimpi/Cassandro singlet, and that will always make me like a guy more. I don't love all of Starr's offense, think his strikes are weak, doesn't really have the strength to pull off some of his more complicated spots (like his pop up German, which, if it can't look good against a 140 lb. guy then maybe you should trim your moveset a bit), but he's great at taking offense and takes steps that a lot of guys don't. Starr is really good at whipping his face into the mat on moves, showing the damaged a move could cause. I loved how he made it look like he took Martyr's drop toehold right on his chin, how he snapped himself over the ropes on a neckbreaker, and it makes sense that his quebradora would look good (as he has the magic of the Pimpi singlet). Martyr has been a standout on Paradigm's UWFI shows, and he carried that over easily on pro style shows. He does little things like plant his knee on Starr's forehead during a pin, was great at taking all of Starr's runs of offense, throws a surprise kick at Starr's chest while Starr was getting to his feet, takes a nice Starr springboard dropkick right under the chin, and breaks out an awesome Tiger Driver that I thought should have ended the match. A bit of editing wouldn't have been a bad thing, but overall we got a good thing. 

Brandon Williams vs. Damyan Tangra

ER: I was excited for this on paper and they gave me exactly what I wanted. It's really easy to picture both of these guys being very good in a year, as both are fairly new but already do so many things that keep their floor very high. Williams had some really sticky grappling and Tangra had no problem being glued to him and waiting for submission openings. Dylan Hales did a really great job of point out small details in both of their games, talking up Tangra's "true double wristlock", explaining different grips and talking about the advantages of those grips. The first few minutes felt like a cool gym exhibition that kept getting a bit more heated, both guys getting nice subs that got quickly broken, getting in each others' head. Williams moves past the grappling with a tornado chop that should have been silly but hit like a firecracker, and when we move into a few throws and suplexes I dug how both stayed glued to their opponent. Williams hit an awesome fisherman's buster and held onto the arm, rolling it into a nice Fujiwara. Tangra had a strike combo that could have been tighter, and he took a bit too long getting Tangra into a rear naked with body vice, but the finish was fun as hell. I loved Tangra fighting for his STF while Williams wanted his ankle lock, and Williams might have the best looking ankle lock since who knows when. That's a move that's been about as dead and buried as you can get - once Angle was letting every referee he locked it on do the exact same forward roll reversal - but Williams' looked like one that should finish a match. Tangra getting him in the STF and then grabbing Williams' arm reaching for the ropes, and using that arm to strangle him, was a great way to finish. Very cool match. 

PAS: This felt a bit like a early version of those Thatcher/Gulak/Busick matches at the beginning of the 2010s, a pair of indy guys who were going to go out there and show what they could do with pure grappling. Williams is a guy I hadn't seen before, but I was impressed with how tight all of his holds looked. I am a guy with a high standard for Fujiwara armbars, and that was a great Fujiwara armbar. I also loved the finish, that was a nice looking STF, and I always love when someone shifts the application of a hold to stave off a rope break. We are in the middle of a grappling renaissance on the indies and I want to see these guys in there with the Makowski's, Garrini's and Makabe's of the world.

Liam Gray vs. King Garuda

ER: One of ACTION's strengths is how their cards are laid out, rarely giving us back to back version of the same kind of match. Two hour shows with good flow? That's why I watch full ACTION shows instead of cherry picking the stuff that sounds good on paper. Garuda is really new, this is his first singles match, and having a fun "rookie keeps a cocky heel off balance" match was a nice change of pace after our grappling and submission based match right before it. Skulk are a great tag act, and I loved Adrian Alanis at ringside interfering and getting into it with fans (like when Gray took his shirt off and threw it at a fan, and Alanis went over and played tug o war with the fan to get it back), and their entrance heat is fantastic. Gimme a heel tag team who can dance while cutting up kids' signs and I'm a happy man. Garuda hits Skulk with a plancha while they're getting into it with fans, and I immediately become a huge Liam Gray fan as he keeps flopping and slipping on the floor when Garuda tries to throw him into the ring. I like the match type where a rookie starts a match getting a near 3 count and then gets punished for it. Garuda didn't really get punished, as the story of the match wound up being "he would have won if not for Alanis at ringside!" but it's still a fun way to start a match. I wasn't expecting Garuda to take so much of the short match, but I liked his pescado, liked his wrist clutch suplex, thought it was great when Gray kicked him low from behind (thanks to Alanis distraction) to hit his cobra clutch backbreaker. 

Merrik Donovan vs. Jack Cujo

ER: I enjoy ACTION's honest approach to getting rookies onto shows. These guys impressed on a tryout show, weren't supposed to be on this show, ACTION realized they had time, so we get a bonus match. There's no phony hype around it, just an honest explanation explaining why these two were here. I'm always down to see rookies get 3:30 to show what they can show. They almost always show a bit too much, but hey, shoot your shot. Cujo has good charisma and a ton of confidence, and that will carry him a long way if he keeps at it. Do we have many indy guys working Second Line Dancer gimmicks? Donovan misses way high on all his missed strikes, but he gets a TON of power behind the strikes that are supposed to hit. He lands an elbow and standing lariat in the corner that looked like it shook Cujo to his core, and he had some ground and pound that he was intentionally throwing high to graze off Cujo's head, but he threw those grounded elbows with impressive force. Some guys have body language on strikes, others do not, and Donovan's body language looked like he was murdering a guy even when he wasn't connecting. I also liked how Donovan sold on his feet, leaving Cujo a lot of openings to hit his flash, staggering and leaning on the ropes. Cujo's missile dropkick landed flush, though some of his offense doesn't seem like the kind of thing that should work against larger opponents. His air raid crash over his own knee finisher feels a bit too 2006 indy wrestling, but I loved how Donovan sold it (even doing a bit of a kickout several seconds after losing).  

Orion Bishop vs. Alex Kane

ER: This was the match I was excited for when I looked at the card, and while it didn't live up to my own expectations it still gave me plenty of moments that got me excited for it in the first place. Kane has been a real standout on the Paradigm UWFI shows, and Bishop looked like a cross between Dr. Death and Donald Gibb and obviously I'm going to be into a guy like that. The match was all about Kane being unable to use his strength on Bishop, with Bishop staying on his feet and refusing to be thrown around. Bishop blocks a belly to belly and hiptoss, then catches a Kane avalanche and tosses him with a fallaway slam. Bishop is good at shutting down Kane, and he hits him with a spear hard enough that I would have bought it as a surprise early finish. Kane has a really cool transition as he grabs an ankle pick while on the ground and it was a cool reminder that Bishop could be caught at any time, even while in control. But Bishop is too much of a wrecking ball and escapes, then hits an exploder and Vader bomb. 

I can't decide how I feel about Kane's big opening in the match, as Gibson runs him across the ring with a buckle bomb, but when he charges back in that's when Kane hits him with a nasty overhead belly to belly into the corner. The suplex looked mean as hell, and Bishop's body got all hung in the ropes in a cool way, and I get that Kane was finally able to suplex him by using Bishop's momentum against him...but it doesn't quite sit right. Bishop was delivering too much of a beating, and Kane was acting too out of it. Kane is a much more compelling offense guy than a selling guy, and that corner suplex basically turned the rest of the match into a Big Moves Exchange. It doesn't go long after that suplex, an F5 from Bishop, Angle Slams from Kane, but it felt weak to have Bishop go down so quickly after all the damage he did. It didn't feel like the finish, build felt off, but the pairing itself was an absolute blast so it's kind of a wash. 

PAS: I liked both guys, liked their performance in the match, but agree that the pacing was a bit off. Kane gets steamrolled for 90% of this match, and two suplexes seem like an insufficient price to pay to win the match. I think we needed a couple of more moments for Kane, maybe a hot start, or one more big hope spot, instead it is all Bishop until he loses. I do love the way Kane pops his hips on suplexes though, really makes every throw look awesome.

Logan Easton Laroux vs. Kevin Ku

ER: This kept building into something I was more and more interested in, peaking with the best combo of their styles and both men crossing each other up and taking sequences in unexpected directions...and then shot past the peak for a few minutes and turned into something I did not like. At minimum, you knew this was going to feature a lot of Ku hitting Laroux in ways that Laroux wasn't going to like, so we had a nice burn with Ku throwing his hard chops, bruising up Laroux's chest, following him out to the floor any time he'd try to get away. We get our compelling Laroux opening when he's able to kick out Ku's legs, and I got really into what they were doing. They started doing some trading, but it was great because they kept switching things up, finishing an exchange with tricks to fake each other out. Ku starts throwing kicks and then fakes a chop, locking in a standing guillotine when Laroux flinches. Laroux lands some kicks and when he sees that Ku is inviting him to kick him in the chest, Laroux fakes the kick and then dives in with an eye rake instead. Laroux baits Ku into lobbing a kick at his chest and snaps off a dragon screw, and I am into this kind of back and forth! They even turn a Laroux trip into a more interesting spot, as Laroux stumbles while locking in a crab, commentary deftly covers by saying Ku scrambled to reverse, Laroux recovers nicely by making it look like a Ku reversal, throws some hammer fists at Ku's leg, and locks on a different submission. 

But before long it turns into one of those "I kick your knee and that makes you spin around and kick me and that makes me walk backwards into the ropes and then spring forward with a clothesline but you ignore that clothesline and then I superplex you but that superplex just makes you roll through and hit a fisherman buster" and I just can't focus on that shit. Nothing takes me out of a match faster. Once they started with all of that, I guaranteed that Ku was going to do some big move on his worked over knee, so when the finish of the match was a backcracker (with Ku shaking his leg out after) they completed my own personal modern indy bingo. 

17. Dominic Garrini vs. Arik Royal 

PAS: Big time main event title match which had some really special moments. Adored all of the early matwork, with Garrini sucking Royal into his world and finding really nifty ways to attack, shifting from kimuras to triangle chokes to some sort of leg stretch. Royal was able to use his size and power to counter out of a lot of it, and had some cool flurries of his own. Royal has such cool unique offense, like a nasty top wrist lock leg sweep, diving tackle to the ribs and some punches to the thighs. He also really unloaded with some cool combos of uppercuts and body shots. I also really liked how nasty he landed on throws. Instead of doing the big man thing of jumping into suplexes, Royal made Garrini lift him, and the landing went poorly in a very cool way. There was a section where they were trading snapmare back kicks which I didn't care for, and I am not sure if the finish really felt like a finish. Still I was really digging the chemistry between these two, and I would love to see Dom get another shot. 

ER: Royal and Garrini are both guys who know how to up the atmosphere for a main event, and that's what they did here. They had a ton of ideas and built to them well, maybe with a few distractions along the way, but a great build nevertheless. I had no idea what direction this was going to go and thought each guy could have taken this at any point of the 15 minute runtime. I wonder wondering if it would mostly stay on the mat, and they were so damn good at the mat grappling that I think it just made me *want* to see them work a full grappling match. Royal is careful but still goes into the lion's den, showing that he isn't a sitting duck on the mat and using his size to force a couple of cool counters. This starts to feel a lot like the incredible match Garrini had with Eddie Kingston a couple weeks prior. 

It doesn't quite reach that point that there were detours with slap exchanges and the snapmare kicks that Phil mentioned (and while I didn't love them I did unexpectedly find myself enjoying how nice both of their snapmares were), but these two were knocking the crap out of each other and that was the primary focus. Royal has some super impact on shoulderblocks, a flying tackle, and an even nastier tackle into the front of Dom's knee. Dom is great at absorbing punches and brutal uppercuts and throwing his own right back (his corner chops/punches looked and sounded devastating) and it was great seeing if he'd be able to catch and tap the Ace. Instead, though, he straight up crunches Royal with a muscle buster, and I loved the callback of Royal using his size to force counters when he dropped back onto Garrini during a rear naked and forced him to break or be pinned. Garrini wanted this on the mat, but Royal was too good there for Dom to stay the whole time, forcing this thing into a strike battle, and the combo of both was awesome. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST 

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ICW No Holds Barred Vol 3 - Deathmatch Drive-In 7/4/20

Big Twan Tucker vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: These two were scheduled to match up on AIW show Mania weekend and was one of my most anticipated matches. I believe these two have a great match in them, although this wasn't it. Being in an opener deathmatch in front of an unfamiliar crowd hurt this match a bit. We had some great moments, Twan is awesome at hot brawling openings to matches and they just went after each other to start with Dom killing him with Kawada kicks to the face. The first big lighttube shot was great with Garrini charging in only to get wasted by a lighttube. The match was hurt with a long set up section where Twan just kind of wandered around setting up tubes and boards while Garrini laid there, these matches really need corner men to do all of the construction. They never really brought the match back under control after that, and it was a lot of big spots with long set ups, so this ended up being a bit of a disappointment with some great individual pieces. 

ER: I actually thought this was pretty great. This had great 90s backyard aesthetics, and Dom had the perfect look of a midwest backyard meathead. He's the friend who works overly stiff and wears shorts to school during cold weather months. Dom kicks the hell out of Twan, really hard kicks to the hamstrings and body, and both guys collect sick downward chops to the side of the neck. Twan took a bunch of real painful big man bumps, like crashing through a table with a sick flapjack, or getting tossed with a couple of strong Dom suplexes. The lighttube shots came off cool and gritty to me, adding that grit for the home stretch and elevating the match for me. Garrini ran headlong into a hard swung lighttube, just one of SO MANY examples we've seen of Garrini being a fearless talented meathead jock; the heavy boy's Darby Allin. The lighttube fight added to the grit and gave Garrini the aura of a cool Canon Group action star. Dom headbutting a lighttube into Twan's head is one of those great deathmatch comp moments. Garrini knows how to come off like a true backyard legend, as you suddenly get no sense whatsoever of his grappling accomplishments. Suddenly Garrini is a Cactus Jack acolyte and you see that in his cocked head as he's taking strikes, or Twan flattening him through a door with Dom as a backpack. It was under 10 minutes and always felt like a kickass yard fight. 

56. Eddie Kingston vs. Bret Ison

PAS: This was Eddie's only pandemic indy match, and was an absolute masterclass at what makes him so special. His pandemic hair and beard looked totally badass and this was a standard match, no chairs or tubes just knuckles and knees. I loved the start of this as they began to exchange shots but Kingston gets popped with an elbow and before he could fire back just crumples to the ground, and the match went like that. Kingston was trying to use his hand speed and guile to stay in the pocket with a heavy hitter, landing these peppering palm strike combos to the head and body,  but he kept getting caught with powerful one shot elbows and punches. Kingston is one of the great strikers in wrestling, but is even better at selling strikes and he does a great job making Ison look like he is beating Eddie to death. I wish Ison was 20% better in this match, he is pretty hit and miss with the force on his shots, sometimes he really nails Kingston, and sometimes the forearms come with a big foot stomp and not much force, also don't think the spinning backfist landed as cleanly as it needed to for it to be the finish. Still this was a heck of Kingston performance, glad to see he has got

ER: Quarantine Kingston with shaggy hair and bed beard is fantastic, the Unabomber Kingston era staggering his way into a fight. How did none of us realize that Kingston would make the greatest Bruiser Brody? Are we so visual that we need to see that shag? Kingston looks like a Puerto Rican Tex Cobb and it's tough to go back to smooth line Kingston after seeing this. It added a mountain man side to his character that has been absent before, made him come off like even more of a regional folk hero. Ison is a big goony Baron Corbin, and he's the kind of guy Kingston can make look like a threat just by selling his chops. Kingston's strike game was so great throughout, pivoting through different muscle memories and strategies, never looking out of his element or desperate, just someone looking to advance any way he can. He makes Ison's strikes look like they matter and lays in his rolling elbow. Kingston leaned into everything and made this feel like a genuine war, and while I wish Ison used his size much more than he does, he's someone that has no problem bashing limbs with wild men like Kingston. It's a pairing with a high floor, with a fired up Kingston performance keeping that floor high as hell. He even works blue afterwards in his folksy Lenny Bruce fireside 4th of July chat. 

Eddy Only vs. Tim Donst

ER: I really liked how this started, with Only cementing himself as the heel by running the crowd down hard, and then getting wrecked by Donst, to the point where I was feeling sympathy for Only and the beating he was taking. Donst didn't really hold back on anything, and there was this stunned look on Only's face when Donst hit him as hard as he could with a plastic fat bat covered in tacks. Getting hit in the side of the head with one of those bats at full strength would hurt enough, but when it leaves dozens of tacks stuck into your head? Only looks at Donst like he can't believe Donst hit him as hard as he possibly could have, and then Donst does it again. Only is getting really battered, suplexed onto the grass, and it's this cool heel in peril with a cold babyface just punishing him. But at some point I am reminded why whatever Tim Donst is supposed to be doing does not work for me. He is so emotionless in the ring that he takes things beyond no selling, as not selling offense tends to at least bring some kind of character. He just acts like a man who is numb to all kind of pain, which could be cool...but if I was every other dude on a deathmatch card with him it would sure as hell he annoying to watch a guy get suplexed multiple times into tacks, crawl hands and knees through tacks, take a back bump off the apron through a board with cut up beer cans, get lighttubes kicked into his face, and sell it all by making a frowny face as if he were being admonished by his parents for missing curfew. I liked what Only brought to this, came off like a guy who was in actual pain while taking some gnarly shots, including getting a barbed wire board avalanched into him. I liked Donst's willingness to be crazy, loved his wild tope, but you have to make these weapons mean something. He is adamantly trying to make them mean less than anyone. 

Eric Ryan vs. Alex Ocean

ER: I'll always go out of my way to watch Eric Ryan matches. He's one of my favorite brawlers and he's one of the greatest bleeders in wrestling history, no hyperbole. This match did not work for me at all, went way too long, and was pretty artless about how they got from A to B to C. However, Ryan bled great. He bled immediately, and it was some great blood. He headbutted a couple of lighttubes into Ocean's head, got color on his own head, and somehow wound up immediately cutting open his entire back. He had this gorgeous collection of streams running down his back that made him look like he was a see through human body vein diagram. There are a lot of painful moments here, but they all run together pretty quickly. It's crazy to me when someone is dragged across the mat through a bunch of broken glass, but there's such a weird focus on selling every single thing the same in a deathmatch. There really needs to be some expressive selling to get across some of this damage. Give me a guy screaming as he's being dragged across broken glass man. The kind of stuff that is more interesting to me is Ryan starting the match with a fork and quickly stabbing Ocean's arm when Ocean goes for a lock up. Ocean snatched the fork away, and Ryan simply grabbed another one out of his pocket. That moment had so much more creativity than just setting up props. The finish of the match sees Ryan attempt to mule kick a couple lighttubes over Ocean's face while holding a single crab, but he keeps missing and just heel kicking Ocean in the face. And guess what? Ocean getting kicked in the face looked more violent than any of the weapon shots. A death match with the brawling as the focus is just going to be better, and this felt like 18 minutes of them picking up and just moving onto the next prop. 

Matthew Justice vs. Casanova Valentine

ER: I dug this match on paper and liked a lot of what they did, I just wish they didn't take 20 minutes to do it. Valentine has maybe my favorite look in deathmatch wrestling, like a gastric bypass Pig Champion, and I love blown out Justice epics. I thought they did a good job at working the deathmatch elements and not just arbitrarily rolling around in wire and glass. There was some build to this, and I liked how Justice hit Casanova's garden weasel out of his hands with a chair to start, instead of jumping right into some weaseling. They took those steps to ramp up their damage and make the eventual weaseling mean a bit more. If you start with Valentine breaking lighttubes over Justice's balls, then where can you go from there? The match is plagued by length and some unnecessary overbooking, with things like Riley Madison and Manders interference not really leading to anything that we couldn't have done without. People want to see Justice jump off high places, and he does that, and it rules. He hits a wild superfly splash off an SUV through a table, and we get to see Valentine really smoosh Justice later with his own big splash. A lot of the weapon stuff comes off kinda weak, as they were following a match that saw every possible weapon and attack you could need from a match, and this was just going to be repeating that. And it didn't help that the finish was a verrrry long time stand still moment of Mancer trying to light some fireworks that were attached to skewers, and the fireworks would not light. So you had poor Valentine kneeling there holding skewers into his own head, eyes fixed on Manders the entire time trying to light the damn things, Justice standing around waiting, and finally Justice calls an audible and just hits Valentine with a chair. I think they could have done what they did in half the time, and a 20 minute match ending with the flattest finish possible is always going to seem more disappointing. 

Matt Tremont vs. Akira

ER: I really didn't like the start of this, as they sat down in chairs right at the bell and did the "barroom punch" spot and threw worked punches at each other. The crowd was the quietest during this than they were all night, so I can't say that it was working for them either. I don't like that spot anyway (although Akira and Mickie Knuckles made it obsolete with their take on it earlier this year), but starting off a match with it, with no build and nowhere to go, makes no sense to me. Tremont throws nice worked punches, but this crowd has seen some uggggly shots on this show, and they are not going to be moved by worked punches. And when Akira puts his hands behind his back and demands Tremont hit him, there isn't any drama in that either, as Tremont had already punched him 10 times without Akira bothering to defend. Some things work, and "some things work" is probably the thing I will find myself writing the most whenever I watch deathmatches. Akira gets that same cool blood streaming down his back that Eric Ryan got earlier, there's a cool battle over Akira trying to get Tremont up for a death valley driver, and Tremont really brains Akira with lighttubes when Akira was attempting a plancha. Akira gets a fairly deep slice under his breastbone from it, could have been a cool thing to build off. But, as with a lot of this, the build just seems scattered at best. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Jeff King

ER: I thought this was a fantastic Jeff King performance, one of my favorite individual performances on the show. I am always going to love any wrestler who is referred to as an old timer (unless it's some cutesy fake old man gimmick) and King has had an interesting career. I knew him as a guy who would show up on IWA-MS shows in the 2000s, and then he disappeared for several years, coming back earlier this decade and slowly working himself into the deathmatch scene. He's probably younger than I am, but I love an old timer who is perhaps a fish out of water. Here he takes a furious beating from Murdoch, and every second of the match King felt like a man trying to prove himself to a scene. And at minimum, he certainly proved himself to me. He took a lot of punishment, and I think what makes a deathmatch worker appeal most to me is what their foundation is. I relate far more to the IWA-MS deathmatches because the core IWA style was rooted in southern wrestling. East coast DM style is much more big prop spots with less glue to get to those big moments, but King is a guy who feels more like a Memphis guy and that really works within a deathmatch. He takes big bumps and fills in downtime with nice punches, so there is less building structures and seeking weapons and more of a southern structure in its place. He gets really scared up here and I bought into his horror at the violence, like getting a gusset plate smashed onto his arm and punched into his head. He does a wild tope con giro through a table (Murdoch moved) and there were several moments of him taking an insane bump on missed offense. He hits a disgusting senton through several set up chairs, crushes Murdoch through barbed wire table with a backpack cannonball, and gets dropped through a chair by a Murdoch brainbuster. The finish is basically a botch but far more insane for it, as it's supposed to be a Murdoch superplex through a tubes covered table, but they set the table up WAY too close to the buckles. So, the superplex happens, but King flies PAST the table and Murdoch takes a back bump onto the table and spills off, both guys ending up worse off than if they had both gone through the table. Ugly fight, awesome King performance, and that's exciting for me as I hadn't seen the guy work in probably well over a decade. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Nick Gage

ER: It's cool Gage made it out as a way to cap off the show, but I think his power is minimized a lot by showing up at the end of a show where every single match had one of the guys essentially "doing" Nick Gage. These are all going to be bloody fights, and by the time we get to the main event of these shows we have seen EVERYTHING. So even though Gage and Murdoch have the best "sitting in chairs while punching face" sequence on the show, it is also the third time we have seen that routine. Gage has charisma that brings a higher floor into his matches, and the energy he brings to a crowd is undeniable. He and Murdoch punch each other in the face, and I loved how Gage geared up, took a lot of shots, kicked his chair away and flew into Murdoch with a diving elbow. Both guys took some disgusting shots, like Gage getting thrown through a sliced cans board, and plenty of ugly bumps through chairs. Murdoch wins with a brainbuster on a bent to hell chair, which was sick and looked like something that should definitely finish a match. And, it did finish a match, literally right before this match. And that's kind the problem with shows like this. Even with an appropriate number of matches, it is incredibly hard to still WOW a viewer at the end of a show like this. We all learned that a long time ago, the best matches of a deathmatch tournament are almost always 1st round matches, and on a show like this where everyone is using mostly the same props you're going to see even more of the ideas being used up halfway through. A match like this would have played far better as the main event of a normal wrestling show, but this is the kind of match that drew a nice crowd so more power to these lunatics. 

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AIW Is This Something You Might Be Interested in? 4/30/21

Kaplan vs. Levi Everett

ER: This was fine, a little wandering for a 6 minute opener, but not bad. Neither guy has a ton of finesse or accuracy behind their strikes, but they throw them with intent and that is more important. I'm always partial to a hairline struggle brawl, makes things hit a little better. Everett has a great "Buffalo Bill on a bad day" faded glory, and Kaplan sports a "Me in a few years", and I dig Kaplan grabbing Everett by the hair to smack him around a bit. Commentary does a cool job of putting Kaplan over as a blue collar brawler, a guy who had a war with Matthew Justice the night before, woke up at 5 AM for his contractor gig, then came to this show to brawl with a butter churner. Kaplan takes an awesome bump off the top to the floor, hitting the wooden stage stairs on the way down, and later misses a huge cannonball into the guardrail. I like a match structured around a fat guy missing his offense, although Everett comes off a bit too big to be working as much like Spike Dudley as he was. Still, I liked Everett's flying back elbow, and him dodging Kaplan offense was cool. Kaplan was really swinging on clotheslines, and you knew if one of them hit that it was going to hit hard. And what do you know? Everett does a kind of pointless arm break spot (can we start shifting away from breaking arms and fingers in matches? It kind of makes any long term storytelling a bit tough), but Kaplan saves it by jamming his shoulder back into the socket before laying Everett the hell out with a standing lariat. 

Louis Lyndon/Jack Verville vs. Chuck Stone/Arthur McArthur

ER: This felt more like Chikara than AIW, and the moments wasted on horseshit weren't that interesting, but once they built to the finishing stretch things picked up nicely. Lyndon and Verville are working as "9 to 5", like the old Mr. Zero gimmick but really half-assed, just wearing generic lucha masks and button downs and only occasionally integrating the gimmick. If you're going to make rolled up dress shirts and neckties your gimmick, I'm going to need something more interesting than necktie chokes. The sentiment of "This business has kicked us around for over a decade and we haven't made it anywhere in it, so we are just getting normal jobs" is a good one, but the ring work never really matched up to the sentiment. If they snipped out the early match comedy and picked things up on McArthur hitting a wild dive, we would have had something. That was the real turning point, and once Chuck Stone tagged in we kept up a nice pace to the finish. Stone is a beefy guy who comes in with some nice avalanches, big black hole slam, takes a cool double dropkick from 9 to 5, and we build to a nutso iron claw powerbomb where McArthur palms one of 9 to 5 from the top rope into a powerbomb over Stone's knee. Still, overall not a great use of time and a debuting gimmick should have more oomph. 

Allysin Kay vs. Joseline Navarro

ER: This match really surprised me with how physical it was. A lot of modern women's wrestling is really heavily structured around rehearsed sequences, and this had much more of a fight feel with minimal rehearsed bits, no shocked face kickouts, and a lot of good thuds. I think Allysin Kay is the actual wrestler that people say Kris Statlander is. Kay is super confident in the ring and comes off very comfortable pacing a match, and it wouldn't be shocking to see her become a kind of Chris Hero type ring general in the next 5-10 years. Kay has been wrestling a long time and Hero has nearly 5x the matches as she does, so it's not like becoming a Chris Hero type is a quick journey. But she has that confidence and ring presence, and Joseline (first time seeing her) was a good opponent for her style. Kay works over her shoulder and chokes Joseline with her own arms, and Joseline takes a couple of hard bumps into the guardrail and got dragged and smacked around ringside. I loved her dragging Kay to the floor by the legs, but Kay pump kicking her backwards into the rail. Joseline took the bump really fast, the way the best lucha bases can also expertly fling themselves into the barricade after a nice catch. Kay's bullying was really great, go so far as to rip off one of Joseline's fake eyelashes, which is an fantastic spot. Joseline hits a sick low crossbody while Kay is slumped in the corner, but I think it would have been a bit better had Kay kind of punched through a win instead of wearing her down a bit. It felt a little long down the very home stretch even though it was under 10 minutes, but I still think it built to a good finish. Impressed with both here, love it when a match sneaks up and kicks my ass. 

Tommy Rich/Mance Warner/Philly Marino Experience vs. Bitcoin Boyz/The Duke/Ethan Wright

ER: This starts as a fun Wildfire vs. Mance singles before the Bitcoin Boyz and Ethan Wright run in and beat them both down, with The Duke working some fun "explaining the beatdown" mic work, stretching reallllll far to start a fight by reasoning that Wright was trained by Harley Race, and Rich beat Race for the title, so Wright is working a "Getting Revenge for My Sensei" angle which is a hilarious and great way to get us into an 8 man brawl. Tommy Rich is 64 years old and it is insane that he is one of the ECW guys who are still occasionally working. He works this the way Satanico would have been working matches had he gained 80 pounds. The match absolutely nails the best vibe for the first 2/3 of this but then falls apart once they get to the prop portion of the match, but the highs are awesome. The first 6 minutes are the kind of thing AIW does best, 8 guys brawling around with all of them doing compelling stuff, fighting for your own attention, and somehow not getting in each other's way. Every time I see PME I'm immediately reminded why I love PME so much. Marino and Philly rescue Tommy and Mancer and both hit planchas onto the heels, and both throw blows that really land. Mancer kicked a whole lotta ass in the early portions of this, just nukes Ethan Wright with a running knee, and the Bitcoin Boyz always impress me with their willingness to lean into hard strikes and JAPW student bumps. Things begin to drag a bit when my boy Duke takes a bit long setting up a couple spots before taking his big bump through a table. He's at his best when he comes in, hits a great big boot, then takes an unexpectedly hard bump. But I liked his "high school coach doing a Vader bomb on the charity show" and the Bitcoin Boyz also took gnarly bumps through tables. Overall this kicked ass, but the best stuff came in the first two acts. 

Big Twan Tucker vs. Derek Dillinger vs. Brayden Lee vs. Casey Carrington vs. Riley Rose vs. TKD

ER: AIW multi-mans are always good at filling 6-7 minutes because they seem to have a bottomless roster filled with guys who can go in a match like this. Derek Dillinger (formerly Director but still carrying his clapboard) and Big Twan were the best guys in the match, but Dillinger's second Ziggy Haim was the real standout star. She's the second gal on this show I hadn't see before, and then wanted to see more. She exists in this match to get kicked, get absolutely lawn darted into a sea of people by Dillinger, and then get human shielded into a huge Twan spear. Dillinger is good at hitting hard and setting up cool spots, and he makes things like bodyslamming someone onto someone else look really violent. Brayden Lee took too long to make his entrance (indy wrestling is all about choosing entrance songs with way too long intros and then bursting through the curtain when the beat changes) and so I wanted to see him pummeled, but he had some real nice flying offense like a big Fosbury Flop to the floor and a crazy springboard 360 kneedrop to break up a pin. Twan knocks Carrington into the crowd with a running ringside Pounce and I liked Dillinger getting the win. 

40 Acres (PB Smooth/Tre Lamar) vs. The Mane Event (Duke Davis/Ganon Jones Jr.)

ER: A match with a lot of potential that didn't quite click. Mane Event are working a college football athlete gimmick, which I love. Both had a couple cool things but didn't seem like they really gelled as a team, didn't have a ton of flow to their runs of offense. But they had a cool, cocky vibe and Duke threw a Lamar-folding Saito suplex. Plus, their names are fantastic. What a great set of names. Duke Davis and Ganon Jones Jr.? Sounds like a best buddies who happen to be a star tight end and a quick pivot running back, respectively. Smooth hits a great big lariat to build to a Lamar hot tag, and they consistently did things I liked, but parts dragged. It felt like a tag that would be a lot better next year, after Mane Event syncs more up with AIW tag style. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: Eddie Kingston is a fucking psycho, he was doing an unadvertised drop in on an old indy promotion of his, on a day off of his contracted wrestling job. He could have come in, did a little shtick, worked the mic a bit, took a couple of easy bumps, give a post-match speech and everyone would have been happy. Instead, this may be the stiffest match of his entire career. He and Garrini brutalized each other, hard shot after hard shot, it reminded me of the Ki vs. Samoa Joe Fight Without Honor which help make both of those guys.  It all started with some pretty slick grappling. Kingston is a guy who trains BJJ and he clearly wanted to spar a bit with Garrini on the mat to open up, but soon it goes to the floor where it really unloads. 

Garrini does this great thing where he underhooks an arm before throwing Kingston ribs first into the guardrail so he couldn't block the impact, and cracks Eddie with some big forearms, chops, and a face wash into the guardrail. Kingston does this great sell a couple of times in the match, where a hard shot will almost energize him. He gets hit with a shot to the ear on the floor and he bums rushes Garrini and wails on him, like he didn't sign up for how hard he got hit.  He repeats it at the end of the match when Garrini hits a thunderclap of a slap to the side of his head and Eddie rushes him a second time to get him out of there with a half and half and three backfists. In between those two moments we had brutal violent shots by both guys, full of great fatigue and stunned selling by both guys. Meat and Potatoes wrestling (pun intended) and they couldn't have delivered more. 

ER: I, too, am stunned at how stiff Kingston decided to work this, as Phil explained on his off day from his main wrestling gig. Jerry Lawler wasn't typically taking time off from WWE to get punched and chopped in the eye. This is stiffer than any of Kingston's AEW matches, and you'd think if you're willing to get beaten up like this you'd want the most people possible to see it. Kingston has that same kind of vibe as Cactus Jack taking ugly bumps on every high school gym floor in the country. The crowd reaction is great for Kingston's return and it's like it inspires him to really amp things up. I loved the progression of it all, and the early matwork was really cool. Kingston is a fun guy to watch unfold a match, not really a guy with a well worn style. He's capable of taking so many different directions in a match that I just as easily could have seen this staying mat based the entire time. Kingston had cool ways of keeping distance while getting into knucklelocks, throws a kick to the inside of Dom's leg, scrambles out of an ankle pick and armbar, it all felt like they easily could have stretched it into a match. 

But things go to the floor and with no warning whatsoever the go to the floor and start wasting each other. This match was filled with brutal chops and they all started in this close up display, where it's like they were showing all the fans up close how stiff this was going to be. Dom hits some running kicks to Kingston's face and body, Kingston gets furious at the gall Dom has by hitting him so hard and just laces in with mean chops. And that's how all of this goes. I do think some parts went on a bit long, didn't need a long extended kneel and chop section and some of the stand and trade lingers, but they hit each other so hard through it that even those sections take on a sicko charm. Kingston also really makes sure to check off 3 of the 4 pillars too, as he and Dom trade brutal Kawada short kicks and knees to the face (Kingston's whole face looked like it was being rearranged on these Dom kicks), both throwing tons of fast Kobashi chops, and Kingston dropping Dom with a classic Misawa combo in the corner. Kingston makes long standing exchanges more interesting than anybody else in wrestling, and he finishes this with more of that attitude that he is just fed up with how hard he's being hit. He gets nailed and then just angrily throws Dom with a half nelson suplex, then just starts hitting backfists until it's over. Brutal, can't believe they went nearly 20 at this kind of pace. 

Matthew Justice vs. Joshua Bishop

ER: This feels like it's been the primary feud the entire time I've been watching AIW, but it's a feud I enjoy. I've really enjoyed Bishop's evolution into the heavyweight champ, and I am always entertained by Justice's specific title challenger main event charisma. And this was definitely a Matthew Justice/Joshua Bishop match. They do the best job of anyone on the Indies at working ECW/XPW dream matches, with the exact same nostalgia scratch, but with a real death wish thrill. These two are crazy, and they bring out the craziest parts in each other. Justice starts by jumping off the top onto Bishop and Barkley on the ramp, and Bishop comes back and brains Justice with a chair, and that's how this whole things goes. Bishop bleeds a ton, an excellent mask that runs into his hair, and there are some insanely reckless spills into unkillable furniture. Fonzie gets very involved, and they get just as crazy as the men they're protecting. Barkley throws Fonzie into the second row, and Fonzie comes back and Shane McMahon's Barkley over and over into a table that refuses to break, even dropping Barkley onto his head with a Death Valley driver. Bishop wrecks a door over Justice's body, Justice flings himself over the guardrail into Bishop, and we build to a huge Justice splash off the top rope through Bishop and two tables. Bishop's splash mountain looks like it should wreck Justice, and I have no idea how Justice works as often as he does. The finish is some great violent improv over that same fucking unkillable table, with Justice taking a tombstone on it, then a splash mountain, then Bishop sets it up in the corner and runs Justice into it as hard as possible, then just beats Justice with it. The table stays standing, but Justice finally goes down. Some of the prop and table set up took far too long, but the hits paid off big for me, and these two are two of the only guys that make me think they genuinely want to injure the other whenever they fight. It's like the nuttiest backyard feud ever and I love it. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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