AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/26 - 1/1

AEW Dynamite 12/28

Bryan Danielson vs Ethan Page

MD: Very complete match. It was 18 or so and felt even longer than that. It had the AEW house style fakeout, at least for Danielson matches (Punk matches were often structured this way as well), where they go through a pretty full match in 5 minutes, the sort of match you'd often get across the way, then have a fakeout on the finish and go into the actual stretch of heat. This one went further. The first bit came with Danielson avoiding comeuppance from Stokely's interference but then falling to it on the outside. In general, I enjoyed Stokely being out there as we haven't had a lot of Danielson vs a Heenan type manager over the last ten years or so. The second bit came from Stoke moving Page out of the way much deeper into the match. That's when things seemed to really open up. That's not to say everything before it wasn't good. It was solid, with the fans into Danielson punishing Page in the corner and, later on, dropping a 70/30 Danielson/Page dueling chants. Page leaned into his size and was fairly methodological, but it was a more interesting match after that second transition to Page on offense. His little pull up into a powerslam gave them a lot of mileage to work with, with Page going for it again out of the BCC stomps, only for Danielson to cleverly cut things off. That all built to the huge powerslam of the top, which drew the This is Awesome chants. It's telling that those came so late into the match. They built and built and built and then finally paid off and the fans, carrying the emotional weight of fifteen minutes of back and forth pro wrestling gave warranted appreciation to the payoff. I could have maybe used one more bit of cleverness on the finish, given how long they went, but Danielson slipping out of something, dodging something, hitting the knee, the stomps, the Regal Stretch (not even acknowledged on commentary), is a perfectly acceptable way to end any match. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 12/19 - 12/25

AEW Dark Elevation 12/19

MD: Got some sickness in the house (yeah, that sort) right now, and right at XMas too. I had initially thought about doing the whole show as it had a lot of things to like (Shafir hitting people at weird angles; Athena being Athena, the best act in AEW right now; Workhorsemen vs BCC; Emi and Bunny doing their thing) but that's out. There was a Kingston/Ortiz tag, but I don't have a ton to say about it. If I was going to do a Shinno match from this week I'd do the Omega one from Dark that I didn't like one bit, but no one wants to hear me talk about that, so instead, let's go with our honorary Finger Slim...

Ethan Page/Matt Hardy/Isiah Kassidy/Top Flight/Konosuke Takeshita vs. Trustbusters (Sonny Kiss/Slim J/Jeeves Kay)/Wingmen (Peter Avalon/Cesar Bononi/Ryan Nemeth)

MD: The AEW webshows reward and punish those that watch them all. I've seen some griping about the Hardy Party/Ethan Page story popping up here and there and it's a shame as I think Page has done a great job with it. I get people being frustrated by the idea of yet another contract storyline (Khan writes what he knows), but the backstage stuff has been a lot of fun. Page is walking this obtuse line between being malicious and so egotistical (naturally) that he actually gets into the moment at times. He really leans hard into the fabricated enthusiasm that you get the sense that the character is sort of losing himself to the moment at times, but in a way that somehow makes the humiliation worse and not better for Hardy and Private Party. I'm not sure it's entirely coherent, but it's actually pretty compelling.

Here, he burst through the pair as their music hit and did the big hardy gun hang signal only to cut the music when he didn't get a big pop. He had a mic and it was a fun little gimmick but I don't think he leaned into it enough. Past one moment where he freaked out that Takeshita was ending the dive train, he only said anything when it was a plot beat. He should have been commenting on a lot more, like the Trustbusters triple combo sliced bread. That was my big gripe there. It seemed a little too in your face because of it, even if his facial reactions and faux babyface cheering on was actually pretty engaging throughout.

You watch a big twelve man match like this looking for a few things: the rapid fire spots, interesting match-ups of opponents, and interaction between guys who wouldn't normally interact. I don't think we really got that last one. It was nice to see Page pat Darius on the shoulder pre-match as an extension of the above gimmick, but in general the Trustbusters (still working out their act) and the Wingmen kept to themselves and didn't work together much. We did get some fresh match-ups though. Kassidy and Kiss come to mind, and as Darius been on the shelf for so long, even the Wingmen and Top Flight working against one another seemed pretty fresh. So in that regard, this was a hit for me. They especially used Takeshita well here, as a big clean-up hitter. I would have liked Bononi teased a bit more (or even get to lean on Kassidy a bit) before the big showdown with Takeshita though. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing one of these on Elevation with various guys on the massive roster once a month.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/7 - 11/13

AEW Dynamite 11/9

Eddie Kingston vs Ethan Page

MD: Page is the guy getting the push, though I could have sworn they were going to have Eddie lose his cool and get DQ'ed. In fact, with the Akiyama tag (and maybe singles?) coming, I'm not quite sure what the endgame for the current anger management storyline is. It gave them a clear out here and they didn't take it, instead going with the classic 1988 WWF Manager-On-Apron-During-Submission (or, you now, after Tito hit the flying forearm) distraction finish, with the modern AEW twist of a struggle-laden top rope Splash Mountain instead of a roll up or whatever else. You do have to figure that Kingston was ok putting Page over given their background, a series of matches from years ago that were really all about Page becoming a man. Now Eddie was there to take him to the next level on his way to (presumably) being in the tournament finals.   

The match itself worked for me, as Page's mannerisms, actions, reactions, all oozed with familiarity. He took the fight to Kingston because he knew that if he didn't, he'd get dragged under. That meant throwing his own body at Eddie repeatedly, inside and outside the ring, and it meant trying to lean on him whenever he could. Even that wasn't going to be enough. Page wasn't going to win strike exchanges with Eddie and those suplexes were always waiting under the surface ready to emerge at a moment's opportunity. Eddie would catch him with a butterfly suplex on the way back in the ring or, in what should have ended it all, on the second attempt of an exploder. But Stoke was there, proving his worth at ringside for the first real time for one of his charges; Eddie gets the phantom win behind the ref's back, Page scores the real win and moves on, and Eddie gets his reward in his dream match next Friday. I don't know if they wanted to avoid the predictability of the anger management angle or what but that did feel left on the table here. Sometimes the shortest path between two dots is the best, though. If you've got an out due to an ongoing story, it's almost always best to take it.

Bryan Danielson vs Sammy Guevara 2/3 Falls

MD: In a lot of ways, Sammy really feels like the perfect 2022 Danielson opponent. Or, let me put it this way, the perfect opponent for what Danielson wants to do. There may be a couple of other guys on the roster, like Pac for instance, that might be just a bit closer to the ideal, but Sammy's extremely close. Danielson wants to go as hard and as fast as humanly possible. He wants to leave it all out there. He wants to bleed and sweat and grind and scrap. He wants to feel as alive as humanly possible, as alive as pro wrestling can make someone feel. I'm not making this up. He's on record. When Danielson came back in 2015, he didn't adapt in the least. When he came back in 2018, he barely adapted (flipped out on the corner dropkicks instead of landing on his skull). Danielson is skilled enough and good enough to wrestle like Jerry Lawler. He could be a modern day Jose Lothario and control the center of the ring. He could let his opponents create motion and still find ways to have compelling, brilliant matches. He likes challenges and no question, he'd rise to that one. That's not what he wants though. That's not why he's here. That's not what he wants to do with the years he has left in the ring.

So we end up with matches like this, and while it may not be exactly what I'd want to see from Danielson, it's a hell of a thing and as good as almost anything else out of AEW this year. This one had two special advantages: the time and possibilities inherent in a 2/3 fall match and the ability to build off of their previous match. Last time, Sammy ambushed Danielson. This time, Danielson is right there to meet him, and they trade early advantages as Sammy's able to force Danielson out, but then gets jammed on the dive. That leads to Tay, absolutely relishing the role, getting in between them and the brutal chair toss for the DQ. I'm going to guess that this was a Khan request, having lived through the Rude/Steamboat Ironman match with that endlessly clever moment than no kid into WCW during the Dangerous Alliance era would ever forget. It set the tone for the match, though, with Danielson bleeding and reeling and Sammy pushing forth. It let Sammy go back to the eye, jamming his finger into the wound, for cutoffs. It introduced blood early, blood that was doubled down upon later on as Danielson ended up bleeding from the nose as well, giving additional weight and drama to Sammy's crossface. Danielson's comebacks were as high impact and high octane as they'd come. Sammy can take all of his stuff, including the reverse 'rana that no one else is taking (and likewise, Danielson was there, picture perfect, to base for the Halloween Havoc 97 DDT). He'll lean in extra hard on the knee off the apron and then hit his own later on. Both of them are physically adept enough to move into each other's submission counters. The limit was their imagination and the confines of what was reasonable and believable (because, as AEW goes, and as potential Sammy opponents go, Danielson's one of the better possible editors). In the end, the Danielson/Garcia 2-3 falls match was probably more of my sort of match, but I have a hard time not admitting that this one was probably better. No matter what I feel or think I know, whenever you give Bryan Danielson exactly what he wants, you end up with something absolutely spectacular.

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2021 Ongoing MOTY List: Coffin Match

6. Darby Allin vs. Ethan Page AEW Dynamite 7/14

PAS: These two had a series in EVOLVE I had a lot of time for. It was what really made Darby into a name guy, mainly because of the shellacking he would take. This was as good as those matches, although worked a bit differently because of Allin being a bigger star than Page at this point. It is pretty hard to show me new things in a street fight at this point, but this had a bunch of pretty cool unique spots. Loved Darby coming in with the metal back brace to make his senton's nastier. I thought the Scorpio Sky and Sting section worked well, Sky popping out from the casket was fun and Sting showed some real verve cleaning house. Page using the ring post hook to yank off Allin's chain was really nasty looking, as was the revenge Darby fishooking. Your pair of monster Darby bumps, a couple on the floor and the Splash mountain on the stairs were appropriately huge Darby bumps and the post match Coffin drop through the coffin was nuts both for Darby doing it and Page taking it, and feels like the kind of iconic thing which will be part of video packages for years.  I imagine it is unavoidable at this point, but having Darby take such big bumps in picture in picture during commercials kind of sucks. I hope eventually AEW has some sort of network where we can watch these matches in full. I also would have liked to see Page bleed more. Either blade big or don't, but Darby's Pirata blood mist would have been way cooler if he had been able to get more of a mouthful. Still those are minor quibbles for an otherwise excellent match, one of my favorite AEW bouts to date. 

ER: This was tremendous, the perfect amount of chaos and escalating violence. I really can't believe Darby Allin is still in tact enough as a human to be giving us matches like this. I keep waiting for him to be sidelined with a broken torso but at this point he just feels like the kind of guy who tries to jump off the roof into a swimming pool at a party, lands fully on concrete, doesn't remember even jumping, and is totally fine. Page is a true goofus, does dumb stuff like talking to weapons, but will always be reliable for being in the ring while Darby Allin murders himself to a great match. Darby wearing the metal body brace is the most Fury Road he's ever been, and it made his corner body attacks look even more painful. But nothing is ever going to look more painful than 5 of the bumps Darby takes in this match. His tope is probably the best in wrestling because it is the most "body as weapon" dive we have, where the wrestler doing the dive clearly doesn't care about the damage done to his body as long as he's damaging his opponent. 

I really liked the Scorpio Sky/Sting involvement, as it came very early in the match and the surprise of Sky in the coffin was handled well. Sting was really landing hard stomach kicks to buckle Sky (there are literally over 150 people on this roster who should be asking Sting how to throw a kick to the stomach) and the crowd brawl building to Sky getting crotched on the barricade was great. A Darby plancha off the second level gets caught by Page, and Darby gets swung violently into railings and walls. And, the best Darby matches will always see him swung violently into railings and walls. Allin's bumps have such thud and snap to them, he really sends himself to the mat quicker and harder than anyone. His splash mountain bump on the stairs was disgusting, and the way he whipped the back of his head into the mat when Page hooked and snapped his chains looked neckbreaking. 

The most incredible thing about Darby's bumps might not be how eagerly and painfully he takes them, but how unexpected he makes them look. There is no person better in wrestling at making a planned crash landing look like a man who was not expected to crash. Chris Hamrick took body breaking bumps and you knew he was going to take them, but he *always* looked like a man who expected to hit a move, not a man planning how best to take this dangerous fall. When Page yanked Darby to the mat by his necklace it looked like Darby had no idea the spot was coming. Nobody makes his dangerous bumps look as unanticipated as Darby, and the number of wrestlers in history who you can say that about is less than 10. Darby landing an ollie off the top rope off of Page's back is such a sick way to lay a guy out. A full skate deck with trucks is deceptively heavy, and the spot itself looked like a graphic the evening news would show during a Dangers of Backyard Wrestling piece. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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IWTV Worth Watching: Alpha-1 Wrestling!

Manders vs. Steve Brown Alpha-1 3/10/19

ER: I threw this on because I was looking for Manders gems that hadn’t been unearthed yet, and I stumble upon a big ol Indy Akebono in Steve Brown!? Steve Brown, whose name would never stand out and make me seek him out, is a big fat guy with an awesome territory fat guy body. I’ve probably watched shows that had Steve Brown in a 6 man with other dudes I wouldn’t want to watch in a 6 man, and probably never even noticed the name Steve Brown listed. It is the least noticeable name. And yet STEVE BROWN is very much noticeable, and he does great fat guy offense and bumps for big Manders offense. Now, this entire match is 2.5 minutes long. It’s slight. But it’s a fun as hell Viscera vs. Bradshaw Attitude era short Raw match. Both guys run into each other, Manders has a big shoulder tackle off the middle rope, Brown has some big fat guy slams and a wonderful spinning heel kick (delivered just like Viscera used to deliver them, rest in power). Steve Brown feels like the guy I on sight excitedly wanted Barrington Hughes to be, but turns out Hughes can’t be trusted in a ring for more than a minute at a time. Brown is a guy I will be seeking out. I mean this is a dude who chokeslammed Manders to hell!!


Manders vs. Kody Lane Alpha-1Wrestling 6/23/19

ER: I saw Manders live 4 (5?) times in a weekend at SCI, and I saw a guy who was clearly putting in time and working as many dates as possible. This was several weeks earlier and you could see how much he learned just leading up to SCI. Even as a guy with just raw power, leaning into strikes and offense, he's a bunch of fun. Kody Lane is a lanky guy who maybe tries to do too much, could benefit with his moveset being tightened up a bit, maybe lose some things with tougher execution. The stuff that hit straight, hit well. Lane had a big running boot scrape style kick through the ropes to the floor, hits a cool tornillo plancha into close quarters (fans were seated fairly close to the ring in a small rec church rec room), really landed hard on a senton, and did things like block a Manders lariat by kicking his arm; Manders hit a big powerslam (lifting Lane over the ropes from the apron), big wind up elbow to Lane's cerebellum, and did some cool little things like laying extra heavy on a schoolboy. I bet this match would be good in 2020.


Philly Marino Experience vs. Ethan Page/Josh Alexander Alpha-1 Wrestling 6/23/19

ER: A nice, efficient tag match. Page and Alexander cut Marino off from Philly, wreck him with backbreakers and gourdbusters, and Marino gets to take a good beating and then fire back with harder shots than Page or Alexander were throwing. Marino is a great 2019 Ricky Morton, as his comebacks are fiery and stiff, but he takes a painful beating. Ethan Page had a couple devastating backbreakers, really using his size advantage to lift Marino up and spin him hard, theatrically onto his knee. He and Alexander had some double teams that worked due to their big size over Marino, like holding him upside down like they were giving him a swirly, before throwing him down on his stomach. The double teams Philly was a part of were kind of silly, a lot of help from Page and Alexander, but Marino's comeback was really exciting, nicely laced in chops and punches.

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AIW Absolution 7/21/17

Dominic Garrini v. The Duke

PAS: This was kind of an odd match. Duke is a heel manager who looks like a Illinois High School Defensive Line coach. You would think Garrinni would just squash him, but it was a really competitive match with Duke kicking out of a piledriver, throwing back suplexes, escaping submissions ect. Duke is a big dude, but it is weird to have a manager take 60% of a match with suplexes and not eye pokes. If you were watching the match in a vacuum the work was pretty good, and Garrinni is always worth checking out, still the booking was goofus.

Frankie Flynn v. PB Smooth

PAS: I had seen both of these guys in CWF before but they both looked better here, working with people you are familiar with can be really helpful. Smooth is listed at 7 feet tall and is probably legit 6'9 or so. He had really nice power moves including some nice bodyslams and a great chokeslam. Flynn works over the knee and does a nice job working it over, and Smooth does a nice consistent job selling it. Finish has the ref distracted while Flynn's crew attacks Smooth, while everyone is confused Flynn clips Smooth's knee with the rookie trophy and puts his feet on the ropes for the win. I enjoyed this, basic match, but well done and I would enjoy seeing either guy against Cain Justice in CWF-MA for the RGL belt.

Britt Baker v. Swoggle

PAS: This was a comedy fans bring the weapons match between a midget and a woman with a lot of mishigas, lots of run ins including Dick Justice doing a flip flop and fly and Space Monkey doing a Orihara moonsault. Swoggle took some semi-nasty garbage bumps including going but first into carpet tacks and getting barbed wire up his nose. I was semi amused by Swoggle taking a bump into Lucky Charms like they were thumbtacks. The finish had Adam Cole run in under a mask and clean out the heels so Baker could get the win. I am not a Cole guy, but he seems like a pretty big star to book for a surprise run in on a comedy match.

Eddie Kingston v. Tom Lawlor

PAS: I am always very happy to see a big time Eddie Kingston singles match. Kingston isn't going to grapple with you, so this had less jujitsu rolling then the other Lawlor matches I have watched, but they replaced with grappling with Kingston chops and backfist to the face. This was these guys doing an All Japan main event and Kingston's selling put it at a higher level then most matches of this style.  Every shot was impactful and every suplex was compressing. Lawlor has really good looking suplexes and is willing to take an asskicking. Lawlor does his neck snap move and Kingston sells it like it gave him nerve damage. Even the suplex no sell section had Kingston fighting through adrenaline and both guys collapse on their face. Finish was pretty great with Lawlor turning a Tazmission into a nasty ground and pound into a guillotine. Loved Kingston fighting from the ground until he ate one too many elbows and slumped unconscious.

ER: These two matched up great, and I think they used the right percentage of each man's strength. Kingston is a furious striker who often gets into fights with better strikers, and still brings it even as you can see his life meter draining the whole match. Lawlor comes out looking like Chuck Liddell and messes around by immediately flopping to his back. Kingston is game and I loved this front to back. Kingston tries his luck with some go behinds, lands some shots, and the longer the match goes - as Phil says - Kingston makes this mean so much more with his elite selling. Watching him go for a strike and become aware of numbness in his arm, or watching him take a strap down only to stumble down to a knee, things like that are part of what I love about pro wrestling. Suplex trading is almost always an instant fart noise in a match for me these days, but I love how these two handled it. Lawlor's first two Germans were absolute beasts. I don't know if he was planning this but I love that he played to the camera side with them, showing us the full side angle of the suplex. It really allowed us to see every step of it. Kingston is not a small guy and seeing the lift and the the throw and the landing was awesome.  Both guys throw full strength and I thought it was a big moment once Kingston got up and threw Lawlor. None of this felt like fighting spirit, it felt like typical Kingston not knowing when to quit. Kingston is a guy who quits when his body quits. He's still able to fire off some backfists, and that fist is always his ace in the hole, but you can't hit that backfist when you're on your back getting elbowed in the face. Lawlor locks in a tight standing guillotine and you can see Kingston fighting forward, trying to back Lawlor up, but smartly tapping. Awesome performance from both, killer style clash.

Ethan Page v. Shawn Schultz

PAS: This was a bullrope match, and a pretty well done one. Shultz is a southern guy who I remember enjoying in SAW. He has really nice downward punches, and for a guy billed as the master of the eye rake, he has a great eye rake. This could have used some blood, there were multiple times I assumed Page was about to blade, but he didn't, still Shultz had some really nasty choking with the rope. I also really enjoyed the crowd brawling, mostly fighting through the crowd rather then hair pulling and walking. Finish was slightly anti-climactic as Page just hit three uranages and dragged Shultz around to the corner, although overall the match exceeded expectations.

Chase Oliver/Garrison King/Joshua Bishop/Tre Lamar/AJ Gray  vs. Jollyville Fuck-Its (Russ Myers & T-Money)/Matt Justice/Young Studs (Bobby Beverly & Eric Ryan)

PAS: Man did I love this match. The concept is a group of AIW students challenged team of old school AIW guys. The first section of this match has the Old AIW laying a 75% Kurisu level beating on the rookies. Matt Justice nearly beheads Tre Lamar with a leg lariat, the Jollyville Fuck Its (who are a team I love and I need to seek out more of) have this great spot where T-Money puts Lamar in an airplane spin and Russ just punches him in the face on every spin. Garrison King has light up shoes an awesome secondary nickname (Garry "The King" Baller) and takes an absolute shellacking. After a really long one sided beating the rookies get a bit of an advantage with AJ Gray (who is sort of a ringer) and that leads into this awesome dive train, with Chase Oliver doing a Taka moonsault to the floor, Lamar hitting an insane looking Fosbury flop, Gray hitting a skytwister off the top and Justice Davey Boy Smith style powerslamming King off the top rope into a crowd on the floor. Finish run is pretty bonkers with everyone hitting big moves until the rookies get the big upset win. Batshit spotfest, with the old school team beatdown leading to a real structure that most of these kind of matches lack.

ER: This was the best. I had seen only a few of the guys in this match before, and a couple only because of one-off CWF appearances. The match is like a wrestling school horror story mixed with a prison drama, where 5 guys pay off the guards to look the other way while they lay a beating on the fresh fish. King draws the short straw and gets wasted by all of Old AIW. It never feels as unprofessional as Kurisu shoot KOing a rookie, but we get all sorts of slams and chops, the kind of slams that you know left some tingling fingers, and the kind of chops where they were being held prone and unable to defend. Matt Justice is a guy I'd never seen and came off as badass as Drew Galloway, just a big dude who can move as fast as anyone in the ring, and probably hit harder. His shotgun kick really was decapitating, and his chops to the chest and back played as the best chops in a match filled with sick chops, and his knee drop ranks among the best in wrestling. JFI are a killer team and their tag ins and doubles teams always brought the violence. T-Money came off like Sweet Brown Sugar in some of those violent 80s squashes, using impressive agility and stiff work. I can't believe the top rope didn't snap when he leapt over Myers and crashed full weight onto his opponent, and I loved him catching a Chase Oliver rana and powerbombing him into the buckles. Myers threw a bunch of nice punches, and that airplane spin with Myers throwing a punch to the ear every rotation was a riot! And for good measure he went and punched the rest of the New AIW in the head on the apron. Old AIW was clearly filled with glee at the beating they were delivering.

But the strength of the match was how genuinely and appropriately they sold New AIW's offense. This wasn't some Japanese match where the veterans puff out their chests and no sell every shot from the rookies, not even close. When Bobby Beverly got hit with a huge pop up double stomp to the chest it felt like a huge moment. And as Beverly lay on the mat we got a great shot of the beaten and tired New AIW standing on the apron, rooting him on, with King pulling himself up from the floor and slowly up each rope to root on his team. The dives really were a spectacular bunch of dives, with Lamar's super high leap Fosbury Flop being a standout, but that powerslam winning on craziness. Each dive was reckless and felt big, like New AIW had just taken their beating like men, and here we are STILL doing crazy shit. The spots in this were great, but there was real meat on these bones, the story an old and simple one, but one that almost always delivers. Every bit of this ruled.

Mia Yim vs. Shayna Baszler

PAS: These ladies had a very good match in the Mae Young Classic, that was more of a sprint, this was more a slow building title match, I am a bit torn to which I liked more. Shayna was great here, taking apart Yim's leg, low kicks to the thigh, nasty ankle joint manipulations, methodical and nasty, like if Ole studied ju-jitsu. Loved how the legwork came into play in the finish with Yim unable to fully lift Shayna for the package piledriver (which had beaten Shayna in their previous AIW matchup) she only got a close two count. When she goes for a second piledriver, Baszler slinks out hits an awesome gutwrench, and transitions into a brutal looking ankle lock for the tap. I am not sold on Yim's offense, but she did a great job selling and this was a really nifty match.

ER: I like how these two match up so it wasn't much of a shock that I enjoyed this. I loved Baszler going after Yim's leg the whole match, and thought Yim sold it nicely. After Yim misses an axe kick Baszler takes her down by grabbing her plant leg and we don't really look back. Baszler starts twisting at Yim's leg, kneeling on the inside of her knee, standing on her knee, stomping at her ankle, and I loved Yim trying to butt scoot away. Things peak when Yim attempts a cannonball in the corner, and Baszler leaps out of the corner with a knee. The knee looked flat out devastating, timed perfectly. It looked so damn good it was almost a shame that they had more match in them. But we still got cool moments the rest of the way, and I dug the shifting momentum gutwrench, thought Yim had a nice high knee of her own, always like that short clutch piledriver, super fun match.

Alex Daniels v. Joey Janela

PAS: Pretty fun Absolute title defense. Shortish spotfest sprint which is what Daniels does best. I haven't been following this fed, but out of context Gregory Iron as a heel is really weird. It just doesn't feel right to be cheering Janela beating the shit out of a guy with Cerebral Palsy. Iron takes a whooping too, big bumps and some nasty kicks to the face. I don't get why Daniels uses that brutal looking brainbuster throw into the corner as a set up move, but at least it lead right into a second slam and a two count here. Liked the finish, earlier in the match Iron rang the bell when Janela had Daniels in the crossface, here Janela puts the crossface on both of them until Daniels passes out. Nifty match which didn't wear out it's welcome.

Crazy Pain (Gringo Loko/Steve Pain) v. DJ Z/Laredo Kid v. NES (Facade/Flip Kendrick) vs. To Infinity and  Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: This reminded me of one of those IWRG school v. school ciberneticos, bunch of nuts just trying every insane move they can dream up. Delany does a baseball slide to the floor while german suplexing the guy in the ring, Facade does a rope walk Canadian destroyer, Flip hits a Code red into the turnbuckles, and on and on. Love Steve Pain, he is one of the best rudo bases in the world and he just flies with every rana and armdrag. Match really falls apart unfortunately as Flip does a 630 to the floor and cracks his skull either on the ringapron or floor. Everyone understandably freezes and they never really get their rhythm back. Finish has Loko faking another heart attack, and it is tough to do a worked injury angle moments after a real injury. This was apparently a rematch of an earlier match, and it did really make me want to check that one out.

Josh Prohibition v. Louis Lyndon v. Tim Donst v. Tracy Williams

PAS: I really enjoyed the opening sections of this match, which were mostly spirited crowd brawling. Lyndon was nuts, armdragging Williams into a row of chairs and hitting a rana off the merch table. I also enjoyed the Prohibition v. Donst brawling with Prohibition dumping an entire garbage can full of wet garbage on Donst's head, there was a moment where the moist garbage water cascades down his legs that was a disturbing as any death match bump. The match unfortunately really falls apart when everyone gets back into the ring Donst brings in a bunch of plunder and just kind of stands around for a bit until he is attack. Prohibition handcuffs him and they do this bad section where everyone is about to hit him but gets cut off (this included Williams preparing to chair shot Donst and then for some reason placing the chair against his own cheek to get dropkicked, painfully bad looking). There is then a long set up of chairs and fight on the top rope between Prohibition and Donst while I assume Lyndon and Williams went and got dinner or something. Just a mess. Post match Nick Gage comes out as a surprise to challenge Donst, and Nick Gage is always an awesome surprise.

PAS: Overall this was a really great show, three matches that make our MOTY list, two really high, and only the main event was actively bad. I wish AIW was a little easier to get, but I think I will be sending some more dough to SMV.

ER: Any time a show lands 3 matches on our Ongoing MOTY List, you know it's quality. I came away really impressed by some people I had never watched before, and that's always quality wrestle watching.

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Black Label Pro: The Darkest Timeline Tournament Phase 1 9/23/17

B-Boy v. Kevin Lee Davidson v. Simon Grimm v. Space Monkey

PAS: This was a basic four way, Grimm is the ex-Simon Gotch from the Vaudvillians and ended up getting the win and moving on. I enjoyed KLD, he was a big fat dude and hit pretty hard, although he wasn't in the match a ton. Highlight was B-Boy and Davidson pounding on each other. Space Monkey is a Chikara guy with comedy shtick, and would hijack parts of the match to getting in his horseshit. 

Dasher Hatfield v. Joe Gacy v. Mordecai

PAS: This is part of the booking strategy of this fed which is bringing in old names to end up with wacky WAR style match ups, I think they got a little cute with this match. I am not sure if Mordecai has been wrestling anywhere in the last 15 years, but he looked fine. Match was mostly Gacy and Mordecai teaming up on Hatfield, until the expected falling out. It was humming along at an average rate, until Hatfield and Gacy go one on one and it is a totally mess, they blow three spots in a row until Gacy hits a lethal injection of all fucking things. Finish has Hatfield rolling Gacy up after Gacy broke up a pin, and the rollup was sort of a mess too. 

Keith Lee v. Sammy Guevara

PAS: I really liked the first 10 minutes or so of this. Basic story with Lee as a the Grizzly bear tossing around and mauling the high flyer. Guevara took some big shots, and was hurled all over the ring. Guevara had some fun flippy counters and realistic bits of offense, he had a really pretty dive to the floor. Match falls apart, with Guevara kicking out of a big powerslam which should have ended it, and then the momentum dipped with a dumb ref bump, a low blow, a couple of long visual falls and a silly finish where the ref DQ's Lee off of an obvious accidental ref bump. Really dumb way to put Guevara over which makes everyone look worse. 

4. Ernest "The Cat" Miller vs. Ethan Page

PAS: Long mike work by the Cat where he calls everyone in the crowd ugly and fat. Not sure the point of bringing in Miller if you are going to have him work this kind of heel. Isn't the point of a nostalgia act that people are nostalgic for them? Page comes out and runs off Miller and cuts a Tommy Dreamer style "all the guys in the back are busting their ass." I am not a Page guy, but he does a nice hateble heel, recasting him as a rah rah babyface seems weird.

Matt Riddle vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was pretty great stuff. I have been wavering on Riddle a bit this year, but putting him in with another MMA guy minimizes some of his more questionable attributes. The opening mat section between the two was pretty great, both guys were just rolling, looking for submissions grabbing advantages, high level stuff which is always good to watch. Riddle is a super impressive athlete and will often do something jaw dropping, after the matwork they exchange tough guy chops, elbows and kicks, and Riddle ends it with a pele kick which looked like it was in fast forward. Lawlor has a fun dick head charisma, shit talking, claiming Dana White sent him to take Riddle out, he is a natural heel and I dug him. His counter of the senton with a rear naked choke was especially cool. Finish was really awesome with Riddle throwing on a super fast triangle choke, and Lawlor trying to slam his way out of hit, only to turn it into a pinfall right before he went out.

ER: I thought this was awesome, loved Lawlor's bruiser heel charisma against Riddle's freak athleticism. The opening rolling was easily some of my favorite mat stuff of the year. I easily could have just watched 15 minutes of that. Lawlor holding Riddle in a facelock, trapping his leg with his own to pull it closer, and then maneuvering into a half crab may be my favorite mat trick of the year. But we got several cool slippery moments, like Riddle hopping into a rear naked only to get immediately shaken off onto his head by Lawlor ducking forward. I didn't think the chop exchange was great, much would have rather seen more mat game, but once they go to blows Lawlor throws some fast and sharp elbows right to the chin. We get several great catches and reversals, which I felt were the best moments of the standing portion: Riddle catching a leg and quickly sneaking in a Pele kick (one of his most seamless Pele kick transitions I've seen, and Lawlor's stumble sell was awesome), or Lawlor shifting to catch a Riddle senton in a rear naked choke. Lawlor does tons of things I love - that most guys don't do - little things like cutting low on clotheslines. It makes the clothesline that eventually hits look so much better when the misses all would have taken a head off too. Loved the Lawlor rear naked choke, the suplexes by both were nuts (Riddle crumbles better than most lunatics on Germans), and the finish was bomb: Lawlor deadlift powerbombing Riddle to escape a triangle, keeps getting triangle locked on after slam, so Lawlor rolls forward with it for the pin.

Dominic Garrini vs. Donovan Danhausen vs. GPA vs. Leva Bates vs. Rory Gulak

PAS: This was short, not very good and sort of a waste of Garrini. I had never seen Garrini work heel before, and I did enjoy him as a smirking meathead prick when he "accidentally" hit Bates. No one else did much for me, and at least the right guy went over.

Darby Allin vs. Super Crazy

PAS: Super Crazy is a guy who has worked rudo against high flyers with nice armdrags for 20 years, so he was right at home eating all of Allin's springboards, armdrags and headscissors. Really pretty stuff, including Allin transition into a somersault dive as smoothly as I have ever seen it. I am use to seeing Allin as an insane bump machine, and it was fun to watch him work as Rey Cometa. Finish was a little abrupt, with Allin countering into a Code Red, getting a two, putting on a Fuller leglock and getting the pin. Seemed like a possible ref flub, otherwise this was a blast.

ER: Phil nails it with the Rey Cometa comparison, but I liked Darby here more than anything I've seen from Cometa this year. He's smooth as silk in his transitions and he shifts into position for things quicker than anybody. He never makes his opponents look like doofuses waiting around to be hit with a move, he's just too damn quick. A lot of his movements remind me of the slickest Freelance spots. Allin needs to go on a sojourn to Mexico as Dark Freelance. Crazy is great as tubby asskicker, though I like him much more cracking Allin in the jaw than doing 1999 Tajiri ECW spots. I know there was nostalgia on this show, but Crazy is a guy with enough tools to still work without relying on nostalgia. That somersault dive of Allin's was flat out gorgeous, and this whole thing was really fun despite the weird and unexpected ending.

Everett Connors vs. The Sandman

PAS: Connors is working a Justin Beiber superfan gimmick, and this was basically Sandman coming out, doing his whole entrance (minus cigarette) and squashing the kid. This was the right way to use a nostalgia act, that is what people wanted to see the Sandman do, so he did it.

Darby Allin v. Dominic Garrini v Sammy Guevara v. Dasher Hatfield v. Simon Grimm v. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was a six way match with the winners from the early matches to see who advances to the final title match later in the year. Both Guevara and Allin are eliminated almost immediately, which was strange, because both guys are good for at least a crazy spot or bump, multi man matches always need sizzle and dumping your sizzle dudes doesn't make sense. It comes down to Lawlor v. Garrinni v. Hatfield. We never really get a Lawlor v. Garrinni show down (I guess I am going to have to buy the AIW show with their singles) instead it is all Hatfield working both. I did love the finish with Lawlor turning a jackhammer into a nasty rear naked choke and refusing to release it. The show really made Lawlor, and I will be totally into a fed with him as the top guy.

PAS: Lots of this show didn't connect with me, but I did really like Lawlor v. Riddle which was got me to open my wallet (and is an easy choice for our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List), and there are enough fun looking things on the next show I will keep watching.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Allin v. Page

4. Ethan Page v. Darby Allin EVOLVE 79 2/25

PAS: Great match, easily the best I have seen from either guy. Allin is truly insane, he gets presslamed from the stage into a post, and then gets his hands handcuffed behind and takes multiple bumps on his handcuffed wrists. Page has been trying to do Franchise Shane Douglas and this is the first time I thought he got there (not that I love Shane Douglas, but Shane was way more effective at his stuff then Page has been so far). He came off as such as a hatable prick and laid in the kind of beating you need to get this match over. Allin's comeback was insane, he is hitting rana's and dropkicks with his hands cuffed one of the craziest wrestling moments I can remember, like something out of a Jackie Chan movie.

ER: What a dangerous and unique and unbelievably fun match. I've been wanting to get an Allin match on our MOTY list for awhile now, he's so damn nuts but the work didn't always add up to a great match. Now THIS match is like nothing I've ever seen before. Page attacks to start but before long Allin is doing his great cannonball into Page and his Gatekeepers, but Page drags him up on the stage and literally press slam throws him perpendicularly into one of the ringposts. My god. It was almost like Bigelow press slamming Spike into the crowd, but if he had done it into a ringpost instead. Totally nuts. And if that wasn't crazy enough, things get crazier. Page handcuffs Allin's hands behind his back, and launches Allin upside down into the buckles. Seeing him bump without being able to use his arms and hands to break his fall was kind of sick, and completely insane. They work a lot of impossibly cool visual spots, like Page missing a charge because Allin did a flip off the middle ropes, or Page hitting a pump kick and Allin having no way to protect himself. The Allin comeback is glorious as he hits a gorgeous swinging rana and hits all these great JYD headbutts, and as the Gatekeepers get up on the apron Allin flies feet first into both of them. This is insane. He even grabs the ropes with his teeth to pull himself up! It's like watching a Zach Gowen match, except, you know...no arms. But from there Page just destroys him. He hits this vicious powerslam off the top rope and...I mean, I have no clue how Allin's arms just didn't snap. They're bent back behind him and he's just getting slammed right on them, and again as he eats a powerbomb. Completely crazy spectacle, again like nothing you've seen.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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EVOLVE 78 Road Report + EVOLVE 79 Live Blog

I went to EVOLVE in Joppa last night with Childs in the new weird thing where I had a baby and am now going to live wrestling a lot.

Matt Riddle v. Anthony Henry

I didn't really care for this. It had it's moments, Riddle is always going to do some cool stuff, I liked the early amateur takedowns, and the finish combo of fisherman's buster into tombstone into twister was very cool. Most of this though I didn't like, I thought Henry was pretty good in the Style Battle Yehi match, but he was working as a Dixie Davey Richards in this, lots of stiff kicks to the chest and grimacing. There wasn't much selling, a terrible looking New Japan forearm and stare exchange (which has infected the indies like Noro virus). Riddle is getting less interesting to me as he gets more experience, he has sanded away a bunch of the rough edges which made him interesting, and is working more like an indy workrate dude, I am concerned his is developing Kurt Angleitis.

Austin Theory v. Darby Allin

Crossfit has really ruined wrestling, now even your guy working a Kidman in the flock junky gimmick has super well developed abs. Allin's crazy face tattoo is a nice step, but he needs to stop with the wall jumps if he really wants to live the gimmick. This match was pretty great, Allin is a nutso bumper, but here he was mostly doing cool springboard rana's and armdrags, Allin basically works like a US version of Freelance or Dinamic Black. Theroy has a dumb name, and goofy gear (he has Unproven on his tights, works as a 19 year old, but he is going to have to buy new tights in a year or so, can't really push a guy who's tights say Unproven) but I really dug him as a base for Allin's fun flips. Theory also does a nutso top rope moonsault to the floor where he nukes his ribs on the guardrail, I was really worried because Allin seems like a guy unwilling to be outbumped but he kept it in his pants. Really liked the finish, with Allin flubbing a springboard briefly, but enough to get caught.

Ethan Page v. Jason Kincaid

Ethan Page matches are always a chore, but I minded this less then usual. Page is as his best as kind of a put upon stooge and he was amusing being flummoxed by Kincaid's goofus shtick. I like Kincaid 's spots but he doesn't always land his offense cleanly and there was things from both guys which didn't look good, especially when Page started taking more of the match. Still this was basically fine which is all I can hope for with a Page match.

Chris Dickinson/Jaka v. The Gatekeepers

It is odd that Jaka is working a tiny ethnic guy who yells things in a weird voice on the same show where Yehi is fighting for the title. B. Brian Blair wasn't cupping his ear and dropping a leg on MSG undercards. Match had its moments, Dickinson and Jaka really laid it in especially on the bigger of the Gatekeepers (who is legit big and muscular, he would have had a career in a different age).

ACH v. Tracey Williams

I had pretty low expectations for this coming in, but it ended up maybe my MOTN. Both guys really laced into each other, in a fed and a show where you have a lot of stiff workers this felt a step above. Williams especially was landing these really nasty elbows and chops to the sides of ACH's neck and his throat he also landed a really uncalled for lariat. ACH got in some of his trademark spots, but mostly went at Williams too. Not sure if this will come off on tape as good as it came off live, but live, it made us both wince multiple times.

Drew Galloway v. Jeff Cobb

You don't usually see this kind of heavyweight scrap on Indy shows. Cobb's strength stuff is alway impressive and it is even more impressive to watch him throw around a beast like Galloway. I also loved Galloway doing a slingshot beneath the ring, catching Cobb's neck on a metal poll, I remember Drew McIntyre doing a bunch of Finlayesque use of the ring spots during his WWE run, so I am glad he still has that arrow. Loved the finish with Cobb powering out of a backslide which I have never seen before, only to have Galloway flip over him and hit his DDT, really cool stuff. Still waiting for Cobb to have a real classic, but he is a pretty low floor guy, he is always at a minimum worth watching.

Keith Lee v. Zach Sabre Jr.

Lee is huge live, so crazy that out of these two the skinny british guy doing Johnny Saint spots was the one with a big WWE push. Worked exactly how it should have been with Lee throwing around ZSJ using his strength, and Sabre trying to catch him in submissions. Sabre also used Lee's size as an excuse to unload on him, his Penalty kick usually looks kind of shitty, but he booted the fuck out of Lee, I also liked that he used him as a jungle gym, climbing all around him and putting on weird abdominal stretch variations. Lee as a indy Mark Henry is great, surprising bursts of agility along with big throws and good shit talking.

Timothy Thatcher v. Fred Yehi

So am I the only guy who has noticed that Thatcher seems to be working a subtle Alt-Right gimmick? I made a joke to Childs about his new Richard Spenser haircut, but then I notice he has Ring Kampf written on his jacket and shorts, and the ring jacket is lined with plaid just like every Skinhead punk I punched in college. Also going to study in the Snake Pit with Billy Robinson and adhering to a technical European style of wrestling seems like exactly how a white nationalist indy wrestler would behave. I am not sure why Gabe put him with a Black manager, but it would be just like a Jew promoter to promote @White Genocide.

Although it was hard to unnotice that, the match itself was pretty damn great. At this point Thatcher isn't going to deviate from his style, he is going to work a Thatcher match even if that isn't what the crowd wants. I admire that, fuck pandering to the jerks who populate indy wrestling shows, do your thing. This was a really good example of a Thatcher match, Yehi is very capable of working that style and looking good doing it, and he will also deliver a lot of the flash needed. Thatcher's shots don't sound sharp but they thud, and they were thudding. I loved Yehi's ground and pound, and Thatchers choke throw is a hell of a finish. Could have maybe used one Yehi rope break at the end, but otherwise no complaints.

Overall a really good show that delivered four great matches to close out

EVOLVE 79 Live Blog

I am home with Baby Zach so I figured I would check this out

ACH v. Jason Kincaid

I enjoyed some of Kincaid's stuff again, especially his leaping off the stage to dropkick ACH in the ring, he definitely brings a different vibe to these shows. After loving the ACH match the night before, this was a little more generically juniorish. Fine stuff, enjoyed it fine, but relatively forgettable.

Chris Dickinson v. Fred Yehi v. Austin Theory v. Anthony Henry

This was pretty good when the catch point boys were involved a little less so with the pretty boys. Dickinson especially was fired up, throwing big kicks and throws. Kept moving at a nice pace, and I liked the finish with Dickinson stealing the win by getting a pin before Fred could get the tap out. I think the Catch Point explodes tag will be really good.

Jaka v. Jeff Cobb

I was excited to see these guys face off last night, and this was a great little scrap. A pair of Islanders pounding on each other (Jaka is Samoan? Puerto Rican? Dominican? I am guessing he is from some island). There was one German suplex no sell section which I didn't love, but everything else was awesome. Jaka was throwing shots, and Cobb was snatching him out of the air with some huge throws including the best tour of the islands I have seen. Wouldn't mind seeing them run this back.

Ethan Page v. Darby Allin

Great match, easily the best I have seen from either guy. Allin is truly insane, he gets presslamed from the stage into a post, and then gets his hands handcuffed behind and takes multiple bumps on his handcuffed wrists. Page has been trying to do Franchise Shane Douglas and this is the first time I though he got there (not that I love Shane Douglas, but Shane was way more effective at his stuff then Page has been so far), he came off as such as a hatable prick and laid in the kind of beating you need to get this match over. Allin's comeback was insane, he is hitting rana's and dropkicks with his hands cuffed one of the craziest wrestling moments I can remember, like something out of a Jackie Chan movie.

Keith Lee v. Tracy Williams

Another good Keith Lee match, unlike Sabre last night, Williams tried to stand toe to toe with Lee hitting him with hard shots, but standing in front of a bigger puncher is never a good idea, and he gets smashed. Williams really bounced on Lee powermoves, huge powerbomb and got smashed with the firemans carry jackhammer. Lee is not working as a heavyweight with highspots in EVOLVE, he is working as a smashing machine and that works better.

Matt Riddle v. Drew Galloway

I thought this had some good ideas, but never really got out of second gear, the blows were solid, but I felt it was a bit repetitive, and needed to be more violent. I liked the finish, although a ref stop on body blows is a little weird, Galloway should have at least sold broken ribs or something

Timothy Thatcher v. Zach Sabre Jr.

Really great match with Sabre trying to finally be the guy to solve Thatcher, and a rabid crowd wanting Thatcher to go down. Really great early grappling leading to a super hot finish, with Thatcher pulling out counters to counters, before finally falling to a crazy abdominal stretch version. The announcer mentioned Thatcher watching Johnny Valentine, and I see his title reign almost like Johnny Valentine as he trained the crowd to respect and loathe his style, Thatcher had more real heel heat then anyone I can remember seeing in EVOLVE, and he did it all with a sneer and an armbar. Really exiting match, that I especially loved watching live not knowing about the title change.

(Thatcher Pepe watch: Lenny Leanord mentions that he is spending all of his free time in Germany, and makes a weird sarcastic reference about him partying with Jill Scott, also post match ZSJ gives a speech about accepting all people as equal, and loving everyone which I am reading as a subtweet)

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EVOLVE 76 Live Blog

Wife and baby are asleep, so I figured I would check this out

Jaka v. Peter Kassa

I like Jaka a fair amount, although not enough to enjoy a longish Peter Kassa singles match. Jaka has some nice headbuts and works a grinding style which I enjoy, everything he does has some sting to it. Kassa has some nice athleticism, but his simple stuff looks bad (although that has gotten Okada pretty far). Match falls apart at the end when Kassa tries a second rope moonsault and the ring breaks dumping him on his head. Jaka finishes it quick and we have a delay as they try to fix it. Might be a short live blog.

Chris Dickinson v. Darby Allin

Fun match, this is the Dickinson I really dig, less of a fighting spirit babyface, more like a dipship meathead bully. Allin is a great underdog, he doesn't take as many insane bumps in this match, but does die on some in ring bumps. I especially loved Dickinsons dead lift German suplexes where he would snatch him right from the ground and dead lift. Allin kept avoiding the lawn dart, including countering it into a armdrag, and Allin gets the with with a roll up. Really fun compact match, with both guys performing their roles well.

DUSTIN v. Jason Kincaid

I really enjoyed Kincaid's hillbilly WOS of sport stuff, he wrestles like Checkmake Tony Charles impregnated an Arkansas ring rat during a WCCW tour. Early part of this match was fun with DUSTIN getting aggravated by Kincaids shtick, and say what you will about DUSTIN, he does a punchable douche face. This goes a bit long, although Kincaid has enough fun stuff to keep me engaged. Right guy went over, although it felt like DUSTIN needing to get a bunch of stuff in if he was laying down.

Zach Sabre Jr. v. Ethan Page

This is a grudge match, with ZSJ trying to get revenge on Page for convincing Gabe to put him over Sabre last year. I liked parts of this, as ZSJ torturing Page with submission holds was good fun, I especially liked the finish as ZSJ was DQ'ed for not releasing a triangle choke. Still grudge match means lots of strike exchanges and these are two guys you don't want to see exchange shots with each other.

ACH v. Matt Riddle

I liked this a fair amount, ACH is debuting and this was worked very much like an indy dream match. In many ways I am liking Riddle less as he gets more experience, early in his career he had this unique style, sort of crowbarish, kind of awesomely awkward, as he gets more polished he tends to work in more a indy workrate style, which isn't my thing. Still there was a lot to like here, especially when Riddle broke from modern wrestling convention. There was this point where ACH was running through all of these fancy counters and Riddle just upkicks him in the mouth and knees him in the jaw. I also loved him overwhelming ACH at the end, as a back and forth strike exchange turned into Riddle swamping him and KOing him. I didn't get a huge sense of what ACH brings to the table, but Riddle was well worth watching

Jeff Cobb/Timothy Thatcher v. Fred Yehi/Tracey Williams

This was a bunch of fun. Cobb and Thatcher remind me a lot of the Miracle Violence Connection, a little grinding, a little deliberate, but super powerful and violent. Yehi is one of the most fun guys in the world to watch wrestle, he comes at such odd angles and weird speeds, and I really like watching him counter Thatchers slow down style with bursts of energy. Cobb was great too wandering in and wrecking people with huge throws and big shots. Finish was pretty great with Yehi getting the surprise win over the champ, I really hope we get a big Yehi v. Thatcher title match if Cobb doesn't win tomorrow night.

Chris Hero v. Keith Lee

PAS: About two minutes into this match my stream dies, making that two straight EVOLVE shows I have tried to stream that have conked out during the main event. Totally lame, and it makes me regret the money I spent on this service. Totally bush league. Hopefully they put this up quick and I can watch this match this weekend.

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Select Matches from EVOLVE 75 12/11/16

1. Jeff Cobb vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Love these two and they worked a real fun 10 minute match, but it never really felt like there were any consequences. It was felt a little too rehearsed and set in stone. Everything in it looked good (although Yehi was too clappy on his dropkicks). The grappling was predictably cool, with Cobb reversing a go behind by grabbing a cravate, and Yehi going for a backpack choke which Cobb escapes by bending Yehi's wrist. There were a couple of really cool moments of Cobb catching a limb to block something, one where he blocked a Yehi forearm, and another late in the match where he blocked an octopus choke by grabbing Yehi's leg before it crossed his throat. Real cool visuals. Both men snapped off some impressive throws (shock!), with Cobb launching him on a pumphandle and Yehi snapping two low angle Germans. Match was quick and to the point and didn't doddle, but again it felt a little more like an exhibition than a dramatic 10 minute match. But I like the shit these two exhibit so NBD.

2. Chris Dickinson/Jaka vs. Darby Allin/Peter Kaasa

ER: A kind of messy but fun tag match. Props to Kaasa for rocking the 1993 Scott Steiner mullet. I don't love his feathery-soft-but-athetically-gifted offense, but I could see him getting better. Allin is a guy I've really started to love, feels like an early 2000s indy guy like Dixie, a dude with good selling and some quirky offense who will absolutely die on bumps. Phil is a big fan of creep mode Dickinson, and I still can't totally get a feel for Jaka but he and Dickinson make sense as a team. This had some cool stuff but also had some clunky "take a move and then plan my bump" kind of delays. Allin's standing-on-opponent senton is sick and I loved the ending of him doing his tope en reversa with Dickinson catching him. With more focus (they kept getting stuck with wanting a spotfest vs. wanting Jaka/Chris working an Andersons cut off the ring match) this could have been more, but as is it was decent.

3. Dick Togo vs. Ethan Page

PAS: Togo has wrestled random Italian crusierweights, DDT comedy scrubs,  and untrained Bolivians, but his greatest challenge might have been to get a match this solid out of the "Inexplicable" Ethan Page. Togo had the crowd behind him, as they seemed to be as irritated with this match being booked as I was. Dick was kind of a fun disrespectful babyface, he no sold one of Page's crappy punches, flipped him off, spit in his face. I did like how both guys did some cool counter wrestling, Togo caught Page's RKO attempt with an RKO of his own, and Ethan kept evading Togo's senton. Pretty entertaining match with Togo looking great. Didn't love the finish with Page hitting his rock bottom and pinning Togo clean, continuing the Ethan Page super push. Did Gabe see Owens with the WWE belt and decide to overpush his own Tubby Canadian with crap facial hair? Is this like when Russo tried to make Booker T the Rock? I did like how the Gatekeeper took the pedigree and senton, it felt like Togo v. Gatekeeper would have been the better match.

ER: "Inexplicable" Ethan Page is the perfect nickname, and would actually make him FAR more interesting as a worker. Just give him a self-aware "overpushed" gimmick. To me it feels more like Heyman pushing Justin Credible. Gabe's even celebrating the 20th anniversary of Credible beating Sasuke twice by bringing in another M-Pro legend to put over his own version. But this was good! Ethan can look fairly unathletic at times but sometimes it benefits the match, like when he sandbagged Togo on a backdrop to the floor, it instead made it look like Togo was really muscling him over, and then Page clunked nastily on the apron and into the railing. Page can throw some decent haymakers, and also some clunkers, and Togo was wise about picking and choosing which punches to treat like a big deal, and I liked the way they kept avoiding each other's finish. Togo hits a crazy delayed slingshot senton and splats Page with a tornado DDT on the floor, and I really liked a couple of Page's slams. Smart layout, still inexplicable why it was booked.

4. Chris Hero vs. DUSTIN

ER: A look into a text conversation between me and Phil:

Phil: Did you finish watching EVOLVE 75?
Eric: Need to watch Riddle match and curious what Hero can do with DUSTIN
Eric: I'm not going to watch the near 40 minute Gulak/Williams match though
Eric: If people were talking it up maybe, but I've seen them work enough good 15 minute matches
Phil: You are going to watch a DUSTIN match, and not a Gulak match
Phil: ?
Eric: Dustin match 11 minutes, Gulak match 36 minutes
Eric: And the match has Hero
Phil: Dustin match has Dustin
Phil: That match is Gulak's EVOLVE swan song, the climax of the Catch Point movement, the passing of the torch
Eric: Oh you watched it?
Phil: Fuck no, it's 36 minutes long

I love Phil, you guys. But yeah, it's true that Dustin was in this match. I don't care how much Dustin tries to look like Buster Posey, he still wrestles like serious Chuck Taylor. The problem with this match was that they worked things on equal terms, as if Dustin's strikes were just as powerful as Hero's. Hero sold the same for Dustin as Dustin sold for Hero. That's silly. We've seen a couple dozen Hero matches this year alone where he beats the shit out of someone who actually returns the stiff strikes. And now I have to believe that Dustin's strikes are hurting him? Dustin's clubbing shots to the back are some of the worst I've seen. I could just never by Hero being damaged by any of the strikes. But there were fun moments, because Hero got to find fun ways to hit Dustin. Hero threw a couple killer right hands, some great kicks, and awesome short knee, that nasty snap piledriver; it's Hero, the strikes will look good. Spot of the match: Hero gets a boot up in the corner and Dustin stops himself from running into it. Dustin laughs and makes a "that's your big plan?" gesture at Hero, and Hero immediately punches him. Match went the right length, just can't buy Dustin as any kind of threat to Hero. The moments that worked were Dustin trying to cheat to win, and really if this had been worked more like Akiyama/Inoue I could have seen myself loving it. Dustin is not Masao Inoue though.

5. Matt Riddle vs. Ricochet

PAS: I was looking forward to this on paper, but it didn't really deliver. This felt like Ricochet dragging Riddle into a Ricochet match, instead of Riddle getting Ricochet to work a Riddle match. There was enough cool stuff in there to make it worth watching, I really liked Riddle catching Ricochet's moonsault in a triangle choke, and the finish was neat. Unfortunately, most of this felt like dosey-do dance wrestling, with Ricochet sort of mailing it in. Disappointing.

ER: Yeah this really wasn't the match I wanted. This was sexy dance fighting. Both guys are good sexy dance fighters, and the way Ricochet strings together some sequences is really impressive, but sexy dance fighting isn't going to be the best use of either man's talents. The moonsault into the triangle was really cool, but that sequence in the middle where they were essentially running in circles taking turns kicking each other in different ways? You could hear the crowd get silent in the middle of it. My least favorite Riddle match :(

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EVOLVE 74 Live Blog

I figured the return of Segunda Caida legend Dick Togo is enough for me to give FloSlam a shot and live blog EVOLVE 74. Hoping for the best!!

Jaka v. Drew Gulak

Really good opener, way more competitive then I was expecting. Gulak is on his way out and he really tried to make Jaka. Really violent shots by both guys, Jaka is at his best as an indy Haku, and parts of this felt like a nifty Haku v. Benoit Thunder match. I also thought Jaka looked pretty solid on the mat, never looked out of place rolling, and when they stood up he was really laying in the head butts and chops. Really liked this finish too, Gulak is really good at snatching his Dragon sleeper out of nowhere, and while Jaka escaped it once, he wasn't going to escape it twice.

Larry Dallas who was a mediocre manager for this fed a while back, returns as a truth telling interviewer and they do a back and forth with Tracy Williams and Gulak. Excited about this as a match, but they aren't going to talk anyone into the building.

DUSTIN v. Chris Dickinson

Weird match, they keep booking Dickenson, who is a great loathsome heel, as a plucky babyface. Here he beats the shit out of DUSTIN, nasty chops, kicks, suplexes, with DUSTIN throwing in a bit of his weak looking shit, I have no idea why you would throw such pillows if Dickenson is throwing heat. This was basically poor man's Low-Ki v. poor man's Elax the Exploited child, with Elax working heel and going over.

Darby Allin v. Brian Cage

This was pretty much perfectly worked, Cage has a tendency in Lucha Underground to work 50/50 with littler dudes, but here he was just brutalizing Allin. Allin jumps him in the aisle with two cool dives and then he just gets smashed. Huge powerboms, suplexes and a awesome finish where Cage hurls Allin from the ring to the stage, totally holy fuck bump. I was excited about this match on paper, and it totally delivered.

Cody Rhodes v. Ethan Page

Jesus this Ethan Page push is killing me. Again he gets all of the shortcuts, ref bumps, interference, a long visual pin over the high dollar ex-WWE import. Every show feels like Page is a Make-a-Wish kid working a match at a fundraiser for him. There was an amusing spot where Page gets a portly Page fan to hold Rhodes for a chop and then gives him the finger instead of a high five, enraging the husky gentleman. Most of the rest was lots of terrible looking Page elbows and Rhodes kind of mailing it in. Not good. Poor Dick Togo has his work cut out for him.

Jeff Cobb v. Matt Riddle

Really fun match, I don't think either of their singles matches against each other have been the classics they have in them, but I really enjoyed this. They feel like a big deal whenever they get into the ring it feels like two big stars are locking up.  The match made a lot of sense Riddle was hitting Cobb with strikes and Cobb getting close and throwing him. I really loved Cobb having too thick of a neck to put on the Twister, and the catch into the tour of the islands was awesome. With Cobb going over, I figure this will get run back, and I am excited to watch it.

Fred Yehi/Tracey Williams v. Ricochet/Peter Kaasa

This was your big workrate tag, and it didn't do a ton for me. The Ricochet and Yehi have some really awesome fast exchanges, almost Red v. Ki speed, but outside of that this wasn't good. Kassa looks totally lost much of the time, he has some cool spots but he is basically indy Tom Magee, Williams is on a run of not doing much for me, he looked lost a couple of times, and some of his stuff looked weak. Would love to see Yehi v. Ricochet in a singles though, I wonder if Mr. Hughes ran that in his fed at one point.

Dick Togo v. Chris Hero

My stream died in the middle of this for a bit, so I am going to have to rewatch it, on first glance, I liked parts of this, but thought Hero was spamming piledrivers a bit, and it felt a little like they working an indy dream match, rather then a match with a real story. Might feel different on a rewatch without the stream death, but initially it was a bit disappointing. I did love Togo faking out Hero's mind games early and some of the big right hands by Hero.

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EVOLVE 63 6/11/16

1. Cedric Alexander vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Some good stuff here although with some almost expected cracks. Cedric is not a guy who does a lot of the fast Catch Point stuff, but does his own brand of fast indy work, so the speed gels well but the styles don't always. There were some moments of one guy arriving at his mark slightly ahead of the other. Cedric in his matches - every one of them so far - always finds a way to pleasantly surprise me, and another way to kind of make me curl my lip in mild annoyance. But I love Yehi as the underdog who gives every guy he faces their toughest win. If there is another CWC I have to imagine Yehi is a lock for the final 4. Some of the build to his stomps came off a little silly, and I'd rather he keep the limb stomps to a brutal part of his game. Here he missed several stops that then signaled a stop to the match, while he grinned at Cedric. It came off almost like Kamala slapping his belly. Although now thinking about it, Yehi in a racist savage gimmick with crazed stomps would probably be something that I love. Yehi going for the Koji clutch always leads to wonderful twisty moments, and here it lead to an early bit of fun slippery mat exchanges, and later Cedric using his strength to lift out of the clutch into a backcracker. Both guys land elbows with a thud, all strikes in general looked good, and Yehi matches always seem to end at the right point. Nice start to the evening.

2. Jason Cade & Darby Allin vs. The Bravado Brothers

ER: This probably would have been more effective as an extended squash for the Bravados, but it's nice they gave the local boys some time. Bravados have certainly improved some since their goofy early ROH days, they've beefed up a bit and hit harder, but still have some pacing issues. Cade and Allin looked impressive at times and too light other times. Allin broke out a pretty nice headbutt a couple times, but then had real light dropkicks. Cade's stuff was hit and miss but the hits were fun, most notably his insane leap from the ring apron to a basketball hoop into a rana on Harlem. Evolve filmed it really well, so you could really see that it wasn't just a simple hop from the apron to the hoop, it was a real leap. Awesome spot. Bravados need to stick to more simple elbows and beatdown offense, more ring cut off less feeding cute spots. But still this as a whole wasn't bad.

3. Trevor Lee vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Really fun Riddle match which was built around him taking big bumps. Lee is at his best when he is super aggressive and he is constantly coming forward in this match. Riddle eats a couple of rail rides really nastily on his ribs and goes really high and lands really hard on a beal throw. Lee also grabs and snaps Riddle's toes which is a really nasty variation of the finger break spot which we are seeing a bunch of. Riddle working from the bottom isn't something he has done a ton of, and it really makes for an interesting contrast to his other stuff. I really loved the nasty stomp which Lee uses to take over on offense, just brutal looking as was his signature double stomp. Finish was great with Lee fighting his way into a Twister in a really cool way. Great match, and a great performance by both guys. Lee is a bit of a conundrum, I have seen some stuff I have loved, and other stuff which left me flat, feels like a guy I need to dig into a bit.

ER: I loved this, might actually be my favorite performance from each guy, which is exciting. There was really only one moment that I disliked, which was Lee having to run all the way across the apron just to get kicked/kneed by Riddle. Seemed a little silly compared to the rest of the stuff they broke out, but my god the rest of the stuff. Riddle was like a spider monkey in there, just pouncing and hanging on to Lee, and Lee was great tossing him around and beating him down. Riddle is an insane bumper (and wearing no shoes makes it even more insane, keep waiting for a toe to get caught or an ankle to roll), just insane. He gets launched practically out of the ring on a beal, takes out half the guardrails in the building in some of the most brutal rail rides I've seen, leans hard into all of Lee's kicks and punches, and is so great at return spots. I love the way Riddle sells, love the way he staggers after being walloped, love his best ever Pele kick, and loved the way he kept feeding into Lee. Both guys looked so great here. I loved that beal throw so much, and when Lee went for another one and Riddle turned it into a  backpack choke? I flipped out. Such a great spot. I actually would have loved the match had it ended right there, thought the ending would have been perfect. But I also love that we got gifted another 5 minutes of awesome.

4. Tracy Williams vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: This was odd as the ring work was excellent, but the layout and build was lacking and disjointed. It's a tough kind of criticism, where both guys look great doing the stuff they do, and you wonder why you're not quite digging it as much as the work makes you think you should. God that was a mouthful. I just thought the build was sometimes nonexistent and it felt like it went too long. Evolve has manufactured its own brand of overkill by having so many effective 10 minute matches. They've kind of perfected the full story 8-10 minute match in the last year especially. So now two guys going out and having the same match, but for 17 minutes, almost feels ridiculous. We've seen all of these guys be put away by all of the same things, in 10 minutes, but now we're supposed to think they can each take an additional 7 minutes of it? It's a psychology that hinges on flipping a "toughness" switch for "big" matches. Turning it on for a "big" match. But the problem is they treat EVERY match like a big match. They're almost TOO good at bringing up each wrestler's history. So even a non-title match is "an important match, both men are coming off losses and each desperately needs a win to get back into contention". A non-title match with men fighting for relevance is treated as much of a worthy endeavor as a man actually fighting for the title. So since they're ALL big matches you start wondering WHY they're now suddenly able to somehow withstand twice as much punishment.

So I thought both guys looked awesome, especially Thatcher. Thatcher has been a long favorite of mine and broke out huge in 2015. For some reason he feels like almost a back step in 2016. The matches just haven't been there. His work in this one felt like a strong mini-return. Him kicking away at Williams' arm was brutal, his rolling Karelin lifts were amazing, and all the grappling and sub stuff looked killer. I really loved the first 3 minutes of grappling especially. It was a little choppy, a little uneven, lock ups weren't square, it put off a dangerous vibe from the bell. That's the disappointing finality of the match, though. Everything looked great. The order and memory was off, but everything looked great. There was just a lot of it, and the whole match kind of felt lost in itself. It's a very tough match to rank. I could see my opinion shifting on it with every viewing. So it feels polarizing, but still feels good. I think I'm thumbs up...for now.

PAS: I enjoyed this, I admit we are getting a little filled up from this kind of match. I would have freaked out if this match had happened in 2014, but it got a little lost in the shuffle in 2016. I loved Williams in this, he had some very cool counters to counters. Thatcher would try an escape and Williams was really cool at blocking his first attempt. That is a sign of a really nifty mat wrestler. This did feel like it should have been Williams' match, it built to a big win for him, so it was a bit deflating to have Thatcher go over. Still I really dug this.

5. Anthony Nese vs. TJ Perkins vs. Lince Dorado vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was kind of a mess. All of the faults of four and five ways, lots of cutesy double teams and goofy I hit you so you suplex him spots. Not sure if anyone came out of this looking good. Lince Dorado had some nice dives but outside of that, not sure if there is anything to recommend. Neese qualified for the CWC tournament by winning this, but I didn't want to see more of him. He had some especially bad punches, and his long singles section with TJP was a PWG wankathon at its worst.

ER: I think Phil is being a little harsh on this, even if it wasn't overall that good. For example I only counted one "cutesy double team" spot, and it wasn't until 12 minutes into an 18 minute match (there were 2 if you count Dorado's armdrag/headscissor combo, but that's a pretty common lucha spot). Phil IS right about nobody coming out of this looking very good though. We're used to seeing these guys in actual matches, so it always rings hollow when 4 guys get separately eliminated over 18 minutes. Serious question: Is the "Johnny Wrestling" chant meant to mock Gargano? Is the wink implied? Because it would always start immediately after he would do something really terrible. We know fans chant "you can't wrestle" at Roman Reigns because they're ashamed of their penises, but why do they chant "Johnny Wrestling" after Gargano raises his hand hiiiiiiigh about his head to bring it down into a thigh slap (you've never seen thigh slaps with less misdirection), or after he overshoots and whiffs on a somersault senton? What joke am I not a part of? I thought individual guys looked good in individual moments of this, depending on their dance partner. Dorado doesn't do much for me with his imitation lucha spots, TJP easily gets a bit too vacant in the eyes thinking about what spot to do next in matches like these, Gulak is one of my 3 favorite guys in the world but I actually really dislike him in these multi man matches. I'd just rather see him in a singles. Gargano had a terrible showing. He's not a favorite of mine but he usually looks better than this. And Nese, the man meant to be featured, had some really nice left hands, great chops, great short left forearms, but would get too in the "strike combo" zone where guys would have to stand still while he went through his rehearsed strike dance. 1-2-knee 3-4 legsweep 5-6 soccer kick. The final 6 minutes where Gulak and TJP essentially had to work a handicap match, setting up a Nese offense exhibition? Brutal. The layout of this match blew. But I actually enjoyed most of it up until the EC3 interruption/restart. I thought Gulak worked around Gargano's signature offense nicely, thought TJP came up with some nice offense teases to set up others' offense, thought Nese looked fine until he became the featured "fighting for his dream" worker of the match. But yeah, you've seen all these guys in better stuff - WAY better in some cases - than this.

6. Anything Goes: Ethan Page vs. Drew Galloway

ER: Another Evolve show, another long ass Ethan Page match. And this was okay, even if I thought there were way too many "why'd the girl run upstairs!?" horror movie spots. Page would climb a ladder to get powerbombed off it, he'd climb up stairs to tease getting thrown down them, he'd sprint headlong at Drew to get alleyooped into an Exit sign. There was wandering, but bumps on a gym floor are hard as hell and both guys took their share, so no doubt there was pain involved. We get some pretty rough chair spots, with Galloway taking a Russian leg sweep with one held under his chin, Page getting tossed throw one after a blocked cutter, Drew taking a backdrop across set up chairs, and some fun teases around Galloway piledriving him through a set up chair. So, overall it was good enough. It had moments.

7. Last Man Standing: ECIII vs. Johnny Gargano

ER: This was another one of those Gargano matches that seemed like it may have worked for the live crowd, but didn't interest me a whole lot. EC3 heels it up by going for a bunch of WWE spots, hits an Angle Slam, goes for a Pedigree (even though those are moves also done by indy favorites at one point, so....) and they try to do these weird comedy type spots while also trying to work a violent last man standing match. Gargano makes a Brother Nero joke but then also takes a pretty violent bump through a guardrail. But even the violent stuff didn't add up right. Gargano hits Carter with a bunch of chairshots but not until the ref is down, even though it's a Last Man Standing match and that shouldn't matter. And Carter doesn't ever bother to sell the chairshots anyway, so who knows. We get a series of run ins, a referee hits a stunner, so yeah. This is the way they wanted to work it, the fans seemed into it, nothing for me to see here.

Kind of a low end Evolve show based on all of the ones I've watched, but at the same time one that I didn't walk away bummed out from watching. Riddle/Lee was pretty classic, and nothing was flat out bad, so I overall had a good time. Riddle/Lee ended up landing at #16 on our 2016 MOTY List, linked below.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising 4/2/16

PAS: My buddy Dylan Waco called this show the best show he has ever seen live, so I figured I would check it out. Lots of awesome on paper stuff here, hopefully it lives up to the hype.

ER: Last year's Evolve/WWN Mania weekend shows were far and away my favorite live wrestling experience of the year, and right up there with all time for me. Great atmosphere, great wrestling, tons of my buddies with me. Can't really go wrong. Watching these VOD might not feel as special, but I love a lot of the talent, and the venue itself has a killer vibe. All the faux storefronts and strung up hanging lights make for a cool visual as guys spill to the floor. I'm in.

1. Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

PAS: Man Chris Hero's throwback Golden State Warriors gear makes him my new favorite wrestler, that is so dope. Hero was awesome in this match, I think it is his best performance in year. He totally brutalizes ZSJ while delivering some sweet smack talk, at one point he calls Sabre sweetheart while begging him to hit him. I loved how Hero used typical indy counter stuff as a shit talking move, he would counter Sabre's stuff and use it to taunt him, nice use of something which can come off like applause pandering under other circumstances. Sabre is still a little unnatural to me, his KO selling and fired up faces seem pretty performative, it isn't nearly as bad as Davey Richards, but it is in that same phylum. This also goes a bit too long, no opener, no matter the back story or talent involved should go 30 minutes. Still I did love the finish run, with Hero getting more and more vicious and Sabre trying to pull out a flash submission, or roll up and just getting overwhelmed until he gets put to sleep. Great stuff, and I like ZSJ consistently falling short to Hero, it is going to make his big win really big.

ER: Hero's too-tight Golden State tank top and trunks make him look like he's wearing half of a kid's jammie set. Or like Hank Venture wearing his Aquaman PJs. Hero is one of my favorite guys in wrestling, one of those guys who I would go out of my way to watch wrestle anybody. And I loved his act here. He really had this cocky thing going, but not in a way that was brushing off Sabre, but more like a guy confident in his abilities who went out partying the night before. So he was out having a good time, and throwing some elbows and kicks on his way there. And I loved how this match progressed, with Sabre easily outpacing him to start, kicking him all around the ring, catching and blocking all of Hero's chops and elbows, and eventually Hero has enough of that and just straight punches him in the face. And from there the match settles into Hero kicking some ass, with Sabre being so damn squirmy and smart that he occasionally finds ways to reverse Hero, or make Hero's body or attitude work against him. Sabre always pulls out quirky reversals and here I flipped out when Hero went for a senton and Sabre kicked his legs up so Hero landed on the back of Sabre's thighs, right into an armbar. THAT was awesome. But Hero is too damn strong and while Sabre is good at blocking or catching some elbows, he can't catch them all, and those elbows that land, land HARD. And Hero starts punishing Sabre for his earlier reversals, planting him with a couple of authoritative sentons. Hero has arguably my favorite moveset in wrestling, and I love it against Sabre. Also love that Sabre hung in there the whole time, always looking for an opening. At one point Hero opens his arms for crowd adulation, and Sabre rushed into frame to grab Hero's outstretched arm. There was some punishing stuff throughout this one, all of that ankle/wrist/finger/elbow joint manipulation always makes me cringe, and I love Hero getting occasionally frustrated (him flipping out when Sabre wraps a chair around his arm, but then accidentally swinging his trapped arm into a ringpost was a great little moment) but never completely losing sight of beating down Sabre. It did go a little long, but I've seen tons of shorter indy matches that felt much longer. These two know how to fill time. This felt like maybe the greatest ever Hero performance, a perfect convergence of his ringwork and character.

2. Fred Yehi vs. Drew Gulak

ER: A year ago I thought Gulak was a step behind the best of the grappling sub guys, and at this point he may be my favorite of them. But then you have Yehi who at this point is must see against anybody. Guy is legit. And these two tear down for 9 hot minutes and it's great every step of the way. Both guys are constantly working to be one step ahead of the other, and you always end up seeing a reversal or transition that is totally new and totally fresh. I don't know how these two maintain their bearings with how fast they move in their scrambles. I imagine it would be like not knowing which direction is up while underwater, but they always look totally locked in. Too many cool things in this one to list them all, but I especially loved Gulak locking on a side headlock and running circles around Yehi, like he wanted to twist that head right off. I've seen Yehi sell a knee like he did here before, and it's an impressively real touch to this kind of grappling. Sweet Dee on Always Sunny does a real great fake gagging face, and I imagine doing a convincing knee buckle is as impressive a personal niche to a wrestler as a fake gag is to a physical comedienne. It lead to some real exciting momentum shifts as Yehi would come up swinging and plant on that leg, once sending him falling to his face, another time making him wobble hard. Both times Gulak smelled blood in the water and pounced. I like how the knee played into the finish, but not in a traditional "work the leg" kind of way. Instead it just slowed Yehi down and left openings for Gulak, which allowed him to roll through with his dragon sleeper choke, a chance he might not have gotten otherwise. I pretty much want to see every match these two have, against anyone.

PAS: I loved this, Yehi is one of my favorite new guys in wrestling and it is really fun to watch him match up with a true pro like Gulak. His offense always looks a little different then regular wrestling offense. The angles he throws suplexes, the parts of the body he stomps it is just a bit off. Gulak has a much more traditional wrestling base, but knows how to work interesting struggles around Yehi's weird stuff. I agree with Eric about Yehi's leg selling it was awesome , and I loved how aggressive Gulak was when he saw it, they way a great counter puncher will parry until he sees any opening.

3. Tracy Williams vs. Matt Riddle

ER: Team Catch Point explodes! Is Matt Riddle the most obvious wrestling Rookie of the Year since Akiyama? Sure feels like it. He's shown so much intuition in his first year that I have no idea what he can do to improve past his current level. But if he keep cranking out matches like this then I'll continue to be along for the ride. Williams is a guy I like but also a guy with a lot of ideas, and a need to squeeze all of those ideas into his matches. Riddle is a guy who can dish it and take it so match him with Williams and you're going to see Riddle taking some damage, maybe too much. There were some real oh shit moments here, with Riddle bouncing right on the top of his head on a vicious lariat, and later on off a top rope DDT leading to an immediate tap out finish. Williams has some harsh offense to unload on Riddle. His upkicks were gross, and his power offense is done sparsely enough that it really impacts when he breaks it out. Riddle is so much fun during these matches, suckering Hot Sauce into a ropes assisted arm bar, taking a wild bump over the top to the floor (no shoes!!! People who wrestle with no shoes are certifiable), hitting a couple of cool flying knee variations, breaking out the neat Alabama Slam/heel hook combo, and bumping like wild. I liked the story of two teammates pushing each other further in competition, as opposed to one of them just suddenly acting like a heel and everything being cool afterwards. I may need a Team Catch Point t-shirt...

PAS: Yeah this was a total blast, I think I liked their match earlier in the year a bit better, but these two just click. I am also totally all in on Matt Riddle. His jumping knee strikes to the torso are totally nasty here he looks like he is going blast Williams kidneys out the other side of his ribs. Riddle also takes some truly sick bumps, like Eric mentioned that top rope brainbuster/DDT bump looked totally neck fracturing. Williams is a really solid guy in this style, he doesn't have the flash of Yehi or Riddle, but he is a great workmanlike member of this stable.

4. Anything Goes: Ethan Page vs. Anthony Nese

PAS: This was a fine WWE style garbage match, with both guys finding lots of different ways to land nastily on chairs. I especially liked Neese smushing Page's head into a chair with an Asai moonsault. I haven't really cared for either guy previously but this was fine violent stuff, and was a nice balance for the rest of the show. Still both guys really killed each other in a midcard match with a lukewarm reaction, felt like that punishment should have meant more.

ER: Fun match, felt like the kind of thing that would be regarded as a classic if it had happened in ECW. And I really liked Nese in this, really using all of his athleticism to take lunatic damage. And I kinda liked Page here more than I have before. This match was kind of the perfect use of his bloaty detached douche character. There was some pretty brutal stuff in this and I assumed it would go way into overkill, and it never did. That quebrada onto Nese's head on a chair is an all time brutal spot. Rewound that one a couple times. And Nese was great at sending his forehead into ladder shots, then getting turned inside out on a vicious tornado ladder shot from Page. Good grief. I thought things really built nicely and the powerbomb onto chairs with a nice piledriver after was a great way to finish things. For a match I went in with pretty low hopes for, this far exceeded them. Good stuff all around and made me want to revisit Nese.

5. Taylor Made vs. Nicole Matthews

PAS: Not a great idea on a weekend which had so much pushed high end women's wrestling to put on a dud like this. There was a mix of potato shots with some offense that looked really weak. I liked some of the stiffness, but both ladies were pretty awkward. The gimmick of these Wrestlemania weekend indy shows is that the ring work is going to be better then the big shows, this wasn't as good as the Divas 10 man, and was way lesser quality then either the NXT or Wrestlemania ladies matches.

ER: I'd not seen either gal before, and this match certainly isn't going to send me scrambling to find more Shimmer or Shine shows. I thought Taylor was clearly the better of the two, and Matthews looked real bad at times. I liked some of Taylor's stomps and boot scrapes, but this was mostly formless as sloppy, with some shots landing hard and then a moment later the worst clothesline you remember seeing. Sometimes sloppiness can get harnessed into an overall positive, depending on the workers, but this was just aimless and bland. My favorite parts of the match were Andrea's two running kicks, and it's usually not a great sign when the best parts of a match are a couple moves done by a second.

6. Jason Cade vs. Gary Jay vs. Maxwell Chicago vs. Caleb Konley

ER: I had mixed feelings about this one. There were plenty of amusing moments in it. Maxwell Chicago is a comedy guy I haven't seen before and a lot of guys have funny schtick the first time you see it. At the same time it's a title match, so the FIP title looks a little silly getting its showcase in a match that had to completely stop multiple times for comedy. Cade is definitely a guy who seems like an Evolve undercarder: small, does flying moves, easily confused with a few other guys like this on the American indy scene. Jay was really fun and I'd like to see more of him. He seemed like a goofball but also backed that up with some stiff strikes. I'd like to see him in a short violent singles. This is probably the best I've seen Konley look, and he was smart to mostly stay out of the way of Chicago's comedy. Maxwell clearly stole the match and basically steamrolled everybody else. Even during other guys' big moments he would still be stooging and carrying on with an extended bump from a move that had happened well before. Konley played along on a couple of the spots but mostly let the other guys get steamrolled, putting himself in the position of the serious asskicker who keeps setting the match back on track. Konley down the home stretch was awesome, pretty much right from the moment he obliterates someone with a backfist. Match was fun and didn't overstay its welcome, and this is the kind of thing that definitely would play even better on a live show, especially coming out of a long intermission and a dull women's match.

PAS: I liked this less the Eric, I couldn't get passed all of Chicago's Chikarisms. It is fine to do shtick in a match, when it makes everyone stop wrestling and point out how fake everything is, I am out. His wacky "I am afraid of heights dive" made the three other guys wait for him for way too long and then sell the dive as brutal. Thought the other three guys were fine, although nothing outside of Konley's backfist made any impression on me.

7. Sami Callihan vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: I felt bad for these two here, as at this point it had to have been a looooooong day of wrestling for fans and wrestlers alike, and it's almost like the previous match took the last bit of energy the crowd had. There were some strangely silent moments here that can only be explained by people being exhausted, considering the great reactions Evolve crowds usually have for everything. It made certain things come off a little flat in the match, things that usually sound killer, and then it made some of the legit violence come off across as in a vacuum, two sadists killing each other in silence. Things came off a little disjointed, with Thatcher doing a super convincing job selling his elbow the entire match, very much seeming like a legit injury, but with Callihan mostly staying away from the elbow. It's odd to see Callihan hit a stiff powerbomb on Thatcher, and then see Thatcher sell the elbow and none of the powerbomb, but Callihan then still going for KO blows instead of just ripping apart the elbow. That DOES come eventually, and it looked brutal, with Callihan locking on a top wristlock that I actually think should have gotten an immediate tap. Thatcher had been selling that thing before any actual lock up took place, and sold it as being in barely manageable pain the whole match, but then having that nasty wristlock locked on dead center of the ring didn't appear to make the elbow any worse. I don't think it's possible for these two to have a match I don't like, and I know I'm dumping on major parts of the match, but these guys have a much higher floor than most wrestlers. So while I think it was below what they're capable of, below average Thatcher/Callihan is still good eats.

PAS: I liked this more then Eric, these guys have this weird rhythm which I really dig but I could see how people could think was disjointed. Kind of feels like a boxing match with two power hitters pot shotting each other but not throwing combos. Loved the violence of each big shot, Callihan has some nasty stomps and kicks. I agree the arm stuff was a little weird, although that top wrist lock was a big near fall. My only real problem with the match is that the Thatcher headbutt KO didn't look great and certainly should have been way bigger to get a knockout. There were so many nasty shots in that match that you really need to kill a guy to get a KO.

8. Tommy End, Marty Scurll & Will Ospreay vs. TJP, Johnny Gargano & Kota Ibushi

ER: Man, this was not good. For a match clearly presented as "breathless weekend-closing epic" there sure was a lot of time where guys were awkwardly standing around waiting to be superkicked for the 8th time. Ospreay is a guy with a lot of kicks, and none of them look good. Scurll is a VILLAIN but doesn't do anything villainous.  Everybody here completely forgot how to naturally get into position to take moves, sometimes at several points of the match. There were many moments of guys politely waiting around to be Irish whipped. The way they all end up in the crowd at the end is absurd, all waiting around to be gently tossed one at a time over the barrier, before Ospreay does a dive that overshoots everyone. At one point all six men squared off in the ring over an embarrassingly choreographed bit of rope running and bad stomach kicks. For something so clearly choreographed, you'd think it would at least threaten to get good at some point. Everybody looked far too cautious about getting in somebody's way, and you always had guys checking to make sure somebody else was hitting their mark so they could begin their dance steps. Gargano and End probably looked the best of anybody here, but nobody was utilized very well. This was a pretty downer way to close out a very good show. The new trend in indie shows appears to be frontloading cards, as I've been on a run of really digging the first half of shows and then just waiting for the rest of the card to finish.

PAS: People really liked this match, including some people who's opinions I trust, and man I am saying no go. There were a handful of cool spots, I really liked the double military press ace crusher, and a nice dive or two, but mostly this was just a bunch of guys doing stuff. Stopping the match multiple times to watch Osprey and Ibushi lightly massage each others faces with forearms wasn't a great idea. The face off triple team stomach kicks was one of the worst spots I have seen in years. Six man indy spotfests are not my bag as a style, but come on yall you have seen MPRO, youv'e seen Nitro lucha, shit you have seen SAT's v. Divine Storm, this was not that.

ER: Overall this was a really good show, primarily for the first half. The first half stands up with some of the greatest pro wrestling of all time. THREE different matches from the show ended up landing on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List, with Hero/Sabre and Gulak/Yehi landing the top two spots so far. Other matches weren't far off from being listworthy. This show would be well worth the time and people should go out of their way to see most of it.

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