2020 Ongoing MOTY List: To Infinity and Beyond vs. Bear Country

19. To Infinity and Beyond vs. Bear Country ESW 2/22/20

PAS: TIAB is my favorite heel tag team in the world, and it was fun to watch them work babyface again. Most of this match was solid tag stuff, brawl on the outside, working over of Colin Delaney, fun hot tag to Cheech, but they really kicked into gear with the finish run. I am a bit jaded on near fall tag finishing runs, but this one really had some bangers. Bear Country is still a bit iffy on little things, but they know how to do impressive big moves. There is an awesome spot where one Bear Country guy backpacks the other, and do a double cannonball just smushing Cheech. TIAB are so good at stringing things together, and they really build to a hot finish. Bear County's finisher has Boulder put Bronson on his shoulders, and then throw him on a prone opponent; the first time they try it Cheech moves out of the way, the second time Delaney hits a doomsday device, with Bronson taking a nastier bump then the one that broke Henry Godwinn's neck. That pretty much put it over the edge to MOTY list level to me.

ER: Yeah To Infinity is probably my favorite regular tag team in the world (now that Jollyville have been on hiatus), and I agree that it's fun seeing them back working babyface (though I also would have liked to see the dynamic in reverse, because they would have been incredible sniveling heels against the 600+ pound Bear Country). Bear Country are a team that should eventually get good if they keep getting ring time, as they have a lot of cool ideas but aren't very good at doing things like subtly getting into position for offense. Luckily, To Infinity are really good at things like that. I liked Delaney eating a long beating from BC, really made me excited for their eventual comeback (Cheech finally just leaping onto Bronson with a choke turned into a triangle was a smart way to stop getting squished), and the comeback to the finish was when this really got good. We got a couple of big nearfalls, my favorite being this brutal piledriver/powerslam by Boulder than slammed Delaney while smashing Cheech between Delaney and Boulder, and I was pretty shocked when Cheech kicked out of that tandem cannonball (really something that looks that much like a human wrecking ball needs to be protected, couldn't believe they didn't have Delaney break up the pin instead of Cheech kicking out). We got a couple cool uses of dives, as Delaney does a wild plancha leaping up to the top rope to take out Bronson, and later Cheech flies through with a tope on Bronson to leave Delaney free for the pin. The finish run had one of those great stretches where Cheech and Delaney hit shot after shot, in a similar pattern as other matches, but always with a couple things turned and twisted around, with the best one here being a Cheech facewash to Bronson that ended in a dropkick through the ropes to Boulder. The Doomsday Device was one of the crazier and near fatal spots of the year, Bronson dropped STRAIGHT off Boulder's shoulders on to his head, and I can't believe they continued to go through with the finish. Still, pretty impressed how Infinity clearly went as easy as possible on him while making it look as good as possible.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Gains vs. Romero and the Bump of the Decade

32. Ace Romero vs. Anthony Gaines ESW 6/30

PAS: A week after the WALTER vs. Darby Allin classic in EVOLVE, this felt like an indie version of that match, with Romero as a fatter version of WALTER and Gaines as a somehow seedier, somehow crazier version of Allin. Romero beats on Gaines with stiff chops and throws, and Gaines tries to avoid getting smushed and still fire back. They even have the same chop to the ringpost transition as WALTER vs. Allin. There is a really fun spot where Gaines hits a flip dive to the floor and bounces off of Romero like, simile fails me, a little guy trying to flip on a guy three times his size. Romero takes a really crazy bump where he tries to land a leg drop on to Gaines on the ring apron and ends up crashing his tailbone on the apron, totally nuts for a dude this huge. Of course the match builds to Gaines's insane pounce bump, which has justifiably gone viral. Gaines gets pounced over the top rope and thrown half way to the locker room. It was truly shocking and nuts, and the kind of thing that should get both guys more bookings. I am not a fan of how quickly Gaines went back on offense, as that move really should have ended the match, but this was still a pretty great match with some really memorable individual moments.

ER: This match is the very rare instance where my girlfriend hears about a match before I do. We were chatting when we got home from work and she says, "Hey I saw this crazy wrestling bump on Instagram. Some huge guy chucking a tiny blonde guy into the crowd." I immediately assumed that some kind of Darby Allin clip had made the rounds somehow, but lo, we now appear to have Darby acolytes, bred from the finest vintage death bump era Kidman stock. Romero is a giant fat dude, one who I've had a few matches sitting in drafts for a couple years, waiting on me to do a Indie Fat Guy Investigation on him. And he's all I ever could have wanted. He pummels Gaines around the ring with big chops and gives him a nice opening by hitting the post on a missed chop. He appropriately sells Gaines' offense, letting Gaines bounce right off him on a big flip dive, like a bird flying into a window (ehhhhhh, Phil?). Romero is not just a hefty dude, but he's also a lunatic. His missed legdrop off the middle rope to the apron was flat out nuts. It's a crazy spot when Damien Wayne does it, so a dude twice the weight of Wayne bouncing from apron to floor is just flat out unexpected.
And then there's the Bump of the Decade, and it really is pure PCP-fueled crazy. And it opens up an interesting discussion on what really is the official bump of the decade. The first one that came to mind was Brock missing a kneelift and whipping himself ass over elbow from the ring to the floor. That one looked like Brock could have died. Then I thought of Meiko Satomura splashing onto Aja Kong's outstretched feet and bouncing off them full force. The Crazy Crusher/Hellstorm ladder match was LAST decade, so this bump is certainly a top contender, and it would be fun to get any other contenders written up here on the site. I fully agree with Phil that Gaines was back in the game way too early, but to his credit he did take that crazy bump, there was no cheating; he took a Pounce, turned his body into a Hail Mary pass down the length of the entranceway, and lived to tell about it. If you can physically go back on offense after taking a bump that could have left you unresponsive, then I guess just go back on that offense. And throughout the match I did really like Gaines' offense. He has these cool diving punches that I've never seen before, some cool strike and kick variations, all stuff that looked good against a huge guy. Romero hits a fantastic sitout powerbomb, and the kickout is believable as Gaines ended up at such a high angle that he basically rolled through the pin with his body's own momentum. I love these monster vs. insane bumper with no health insurance kind of matches, and this is possibly the only match to make one of our lists and also become a meme.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!