Matches from Pizza Party Wrestling 4/3/19

ER: I somehow wound up at this show, the first show of WrestleMania weekend. You know, the Wednesday evening portion of the weekend. This show was nowhere near most actual WM happenings, at least a half hour north of where we were staying in Jersey City. We landed Wednesday evening at Newark, dropped our stuff off at the Air BnB, and immediately Uber'd our way up to Ridgefield Park. The venue was smack dab in the middle of a quiet upper class neighborhood, and the colored lighting inside was soft and warm. They had so-so pizza slices for sale for a good price, and an old American Legion member making cheap cocktails in the back corner near the pizza. It was the kind of place that I would happily go to watch wrestling every couple months, although I can safely say that I will never watch wrestling in this venue ever again (nothing personal, just what are the odds of me winding up in Ridgefield Park again). Makabe vs. Yehi was the match that made this a no brainer show to attend, and it delivered everything I wanted. I was still pretty bleary eyed from travel so don't have a fresh memory of the rest of the card, but let's rewatch to jog that memory!


Tony Deppen vs. "Tyrannosaurus Flex" Ezekiel James

ER: This was a bummer, just because there were at least a dozen people on this show who would have made a much more interesting partner for Deppen than what we wound up with. James is someone who I know nothing about. He flexed his arms, he froze up on more than a couple spots, and they weirdly worked this as if James was a giant. James is bigger than Deppen, but not demonstrably so. The best parts of this were when Deppen would just throw strikes, with the best being a hard right hand to the jaw followed up immediately by a headbutt. James couldn't catch dives in an interesting way, and he wasn't quick so it didn't leave Deppen with much to do. Deppen takes a nice bump on a DDT, James completely whiffs on his pop up uppercut that was supposed to directly set up the finish, and then they just go to the finish anyway. Super disappointing use of Deppen.

Alex Zayne vs. Robbie Eagles

ER: This had moments that hit, and then some of the absolute worst half speed dance fight wrestling I've seen. There were several moments where the missed strikes looked like the two of them going over sequences back stage, like they forgot they were in front of an audience. There was a Zayne missed legsweep that was thrown so light that it wouldn't have swept the leg of a child. There were several moments where Zayne worked like he was concussed, like a hilarious moment where Eagles was on the apron, and Zayne literally walked towards him, with Eagles already waiting in position to hit the enziguiri, and here's Zayne walking right to the spot where the kick was supposed to land. It was such a pathetic disconnect, Zayne not even bothering to make it look like he was attempting to charge in with any kind of move, just walking dully to the position he needed to be in. Eagles had some nice running knees and a couple big power moves, and was at least putting some energy into things. Nearly every single move Zayne hit fully relied on Eagles bumping to make it look good. I've seen Zayne hit a great dragon rana in the corner, here Eagles had to catch Zayne's legs around his armpits and waist and do the rest of the work. I had long checked out by the time we got to a heatless strike exchange, and at least Zayne took a reverse rana with a nice vertical pause and flattened Eagles with the match ending spiral tap. Still this was an awful match from Zayne. He worked it like he was told his father just died right before he went through the curtain.

ER: I would have written up the 4 way Street Fight, but resent that the promotion tricked me into cheering for a pedophile without letting me know he was a pedophile. Now there's video footage of me literally standing next to a pedophile, cheering for him. So long political career.

Oswald Project vs. Ezekiel James

ER: This wasn't a match by any means, but was certainly a weird and memorable moment live. Tyrannosaurus Flex and his manager some back out to remind everyone of that disappointing Tony Deppen match and challenge any newcomers to take a crack at T-Flex. So they brought in a smallish young guy from the crowd with long curly hair, who introduced himself as being raised in a petri dish on some government site as part of The Oswald Project. And then when James tried to attack him, Oswald started bending in all sorts of freaky ways, like he was suffering from that "no bones" disease that so afflicted Richard Dunn. He got hit in the back of the head and scorpioned himself, rolling through it like some bizarre horror creature. It didn't function as a match, but it made for a great unexpected weirdo surprise. I know they've used him on future shows, and I'd certainly check him out in an actual match. Really, he's the only wrestler who could replicate the crab walk scene in Exorcist.

Van Valley vs. Champagne Douglas vs. Everett Cross vs. Matt Vertigo vs. Russell K. Best vs. Zacky Strutts

ER: This wasn't a good match. It was a fairly rushed 6 man with a lot of unknowns, a lot of waiting for dives, a lot of guys not good at occupying themselves, and a lot of head drops. We had a reverse rana within the first 30 seconds or so, and a lot of lying around in wait. But let me tell you the thing I genuinely love about this match: On paper, every single person in this match sounds like someone who is being paid in "exposure" to perform on Cedric the Entertainer's "Cruisin', Schmoozin', Laffs 'n' Gaffes" Caribbean cruise. You can just picture the days' schedule of events, and then twist yourself into knots trying to decide whether to see Champagne Douglas's afternoon set at the Lido Lounge, or go see Zacky Strutts at Guy Fieri's Deckside Burger Bar. Why did they book those sets to overlap!? But it will all be worth it to see the after hours adult sets from Russell K. Best and Vicious Van Valley. Russell K. Best's clean material frankly doesn't hold up as well, but you know his after hours set will slam! I'd have much rather seen a set of Zacky Strutts' catchphrase comedy ("You know Zacky don't run away from that mess...because you KNOW...Zacky Strutts") than this match. Just a bad match filled with guys who have done regional warm up work for Kat Williams. Champagne Douglas alone sounds like a fantastic once a season Martin character. The on paper names in this match probably gave me more joy than anything else before the main event.

18. Fred Yehi vs. Daniel Makabe

ER: This was the match that got me to go to Ridgefield Park, and one of the matches that got me to fly across the country (and since Makabe vs. Arik Royal got scrapped this match had even more pressure to deliver). And after sitting down and re-watching this show nearly a year after the fact, imagine if this match HADN'T been on the card!? This was a card saving match for sure, as I don't think there was anything else I would even casually recommend going out of your way to see before this main event. And luckily, this match delivered on its on paper potential and sent me back to Jersey City a tired and satisfied wrestling fan. I knew the grappling would be great, and I loved how these two moved off each other. Makabe controlled a lot of action with quick go behinds, and a Yehi kept relying on his fantastic single legs to upend Makabe. The first single leg saw Yehi just grabbing Makabe by the heel and completely tossing him skyward, as if Makabe had been standing on a landmine. Yehi would really make Makabe pay for leaving a limb out there, like when Makabe did a quick dropdown that ended quickly after Yehi stomped his hand on the mat. Yehi had some great torture holds, loved him sitting on Makabe's butterflied legs and daring him to do anything about it. Makabe hit him with a slap, but it was a trap, Yehi seemingly knowing that Makabe wouldn't be able to do much damage at such close range, then pays him back with a harder slap. Makabe pays that back eventually with an amazing spot I've never seen, as he snaps the top rope into Yehi's face as he's getting into the ring, feeling like a use-of-ring spot that Fit Finlay would kick himself for not thinking of.

I liked how Makabe kept responding to Yehi's actions by moving the match to a more elevated direction, like how he was the first to throw a punch (and loved his hand sell afterward which set up a different run of Yehi torture) and starts working over Yehi's arm in different ways (throwing sharp knees to his elbow and tricep), and I love how great Makabe is at showing his work as he's going through holds. You really get the strong sense watching him that he's breaking things down in learnable steps, the way he forces Yehi's jaw toward the opposite arm by forcing his forearm down the length of jaw, leaving the arm wide open, the way he holds his weight against Yehi to prevent counters. Yehi pays him back later by trapping Makabe's arm in the top of the ringpost and kicking him off the apron in a real nasty moment. The submission roll throughs were all really engaging, with holds that all looked like finishers. Makabe had this ridiculously slick go behind off the ropes into a cattle mutilation that was so sudden and cool that I thought it was the finish. After Makabe's early match punch Yehi definitely worked in more strikes, big Mongolian chops, a great seated dropkick, big clubbing shots, and some big fists while trapping Makabe in the Koji Clutch. Now, the whole finishing stretch was fantastic, but those punches in the Koji were so beautiful, as they directly lead to Makabe's victory. Had Yehi just locked in the Koji Clutch, Makabe was likely done. But Yehi starts throwing punches, allowing Makabe the opening to catch and hold that fist, breaking the clutch, rolling through with the arm, and setting up the bridging pin. My god. I loved it all.

PAS: This is exactly what you wanted this match to be, two really solid hard charging grapplers, doing cool innovating painful looking shit. I loved Yehi's stuff with the ringposts, he has broken that out sometimes in ACTION and it is just about the coolest bit of signature offense in wrestling. I have no idea how Makabe didn't just tear all of the ligaments in his arm. They were able to do some very nifty different chain wrestling without it every seeming like a dance routine, which is super rare in today's wrestling. I loved the subtle mixing in of harder shots as the match went on. I am so immersed in all of this new French Catch footage I am viewing a lot of things through that lens, but this had that same feel. It started tricky and scientific and escalated into a fight and it is a real credit to the talents of both guys, that they can make both parts of the story look credible and impressive.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from ACTION Wrestling 12/7/18

Michael Marshall vs. Chad Skywalker

ER: I really really dug this. Marshall is super fun and feels like a guy I should seek out more often. His wrestling style feels like Drew Gulak working as The Gambler, and anybody who finds themselves reading this page knows that's a pretty high compliment. I'm watching this in a crowded airport so couldn't hear very well (although I heard Dylan drop a Gus Sonnenberg reference after a nice Marshall shoulderblock) so I'm unsure of the rules, but there appears to be some Watts WCW at play: no top rope offense, over the top is a DQ, no closed fists, and it's a style that was derided at the time but is pretty refreshing now. Marshall hits all the basics really well, and he hits the stooge misses even better. There's a great bit of business where he climbs slowly up the buckles, facing the ring, lingering on the middle rope knowing the top is illegal, and by the time he jumps down to go for an elbowdrop Skywalker moves, then moves again when Marshall goes for a kneedrop. A good missed elbow or knee can be just as important as one that's supposed to hit. Both guys work real well as dance partners. I'd never seen Skywalker before but he added some nice flash within the match rule constraints, still showing off some athleticism without breaking the concept. There's a cool moment where Marshall upends him and Skywalker lands stomach first on the top rope, and later Skywalker goes inside out on a nice diving lariat from Marshall. Marshall moves really quick and hits offense real slick, but as I said it doesn't come off like a rehearsed step routine. It's not easy to hit a uranage backbreaker into a reverse STO, but he makes it come off like a violent act that Skywalker couldn't stop if he tried. The piledriver finish was an excellent exclamation point to end on, and I officially want to get Marshall on a MOTY list.

Fred Yehi vs. Arik Royal

PAS: This is a rematch of an earlier ACTION match, and comes after Royal cost Yehi a spot in the title match. Really fun structure with Yehi coming out really fast and dominating the first 5 or so minutes beating Royal all around the ring, stomps and chops and even chucking him off of the stage. It felt like an old fashioned walking tall babyface getting revenge. When the ref pulled Yehi out of the corner to check on Royal, Arik burst out of the corner with a huge tackle which upended Yehi, and a second low tackle which sent him to the floor. Then Royal dominated the next three or four minutes, with Yehi having a moment or two. Finish was super nasty, with Yehi missing a top and landing chest first right into the lip of the stage. That led to an injury stoppage, and Royal cementing his evilness by attacking the injured Yehi and powerbombing him through a table (a plastic table, which doesn't look great, if you are going to do a table spot, buy a wood table). Another fun match between these guys, who match up great, I imagine a gimmick blow off is coming and it should be killer.

ER: Love how these two match up against each other, and love how different this match felt from their previous ACTION match. Yehi jumps him to start and it’s fun seeing brawling Yehi. We get a lot of technical Yehi to start matches, him grabbing limbs and stomping feet and working waistlocks, here he’s all over Royal and Royal is always great as a guy who is unexpectedly overwhelmed. Yehi works a fast full body attack and tosses Royal with several low Germans. I like that the Germans weren’t high arcing, Royal wasn’t leaping up and back into these; they were a little messy, Yehi looking like he was struggling to get Royal over, as he should have looked. I love when wrestlers find clever ways to work within their surroundings, like when Darby Allin got chucked into the side of a balcony, or at an old Rev Pro show I was at (the SoCal one, not the British one) where Super Dragon would take his bump past the ringpost and fly into the wall right next to the ring. Here we get two fantastic uses of the venue’s stage, the first with Yehi and Royal brawling on it before Royal gets tossed off into the ring apron (and the camera was filming behind him so it looked like he got tossed 10 feet), and a major moment to end the match. Royal taking over is fun, as usually you see Royal still cockily cracking jokes during a beatdown, and here he is just no funny business, punishing Yehi for getting the drop on him. The tackle that allowed him to take over was an all-timer, just totally blindsiding Yehi and sending him flying in a wild direction, like some dumb teens filming themselves jumping over a moving car stunt gone wrong. Yehi looked like a skinny kid getting double jumped by a couple of fat kids on a trampoline. Royal’s diving shoulder tackle a moment later was sweet icing, just unceremoniously shoving Yehi to the floor with a thud. Royal controlled with a bunch of boot chokes, nasty stomps to the jaw, some moments where Yehi looked well rocked. And that finish! If you’re going to do a contour or stoppage finish, do something like this. Yehi starts making his comeback and goes for a dive, only Royal steps aside and Yehi topes chest first right into the stage. I watched this match on a plane on my way to see Yehi/Makabe and some guy sitting next to me (whom I didn’t realize was watching) let out a loud “OH!” I liked the postmatch, didn’t have the same problem with the table that Phil did. I kind of liked the visual of the hard plastic table collapsing under the force of the powerbomb. ACTION could really stretch this feud out over a couple different stip matches, and I’ll be totally cool with it.

Billy Buck vs. Cam Carter

ER: This looked like a match that would deliver on paper, and it totally did. This thing is only 10 minutes but the pace is so constant that they squeezed an absurd amount of action into the run time. There really wasn't much selling to speak of, and it threatened to devolve into move trading but I don'y think it ever got there, instead it just felt like two guys with good chemistry doing cool shit. I wish they had treated some things with a bit more weight (there was a nice running knee to the chin by Buck that everyone immediately moved on from, and an even better running knee from Carter that got moved past pretty quickly), but the action was cool. Carter (with Sky Walker confusingly on his tights, on a show that has a guy named Skywalker) hits a big dive into the crowd and is super quick (in a way that a LOT of these ACTION guys are really quick, they're like Dragons Gate guys but with nice strikes) and a grounded deceptively quick striker like Buck plays off Carter's style really well. I always think of Buck as a hard hitting ground guy, but then he always surprises me with cool agility stuff, like here he had a really slick rana that wasn't *quite* as impressive as that time we all saw Gran Markus Jr. hit a rana, but looked nice nevertheless. In a world where superkicks have been rendered meaningless, Buck knows how to throw a superkick with some punch, and his is good enough that you buy it as a finish (which got us a nice nearfall). Fans flipped out when Buck kicked out of a killer Carter powerbomb, and like I said by the time this was over I couldn't believe only 10 minutes had passed due to how much stuff I had just seen. Total hot sprint, great chemistry.

Slim J vs. Alan Angels vs. AC Mack vs. Ike Cross

PAS: This was a four way elimination match to crown an ACTION champion. It had some of the flaws inherent in four way, lots of guys having to disappear for a while, some contrived spots, but it had a lot of strong moments too. The match had a lot of very cool cut off spots, lots of guys running into huge spots, Angels flies into a Cross spinebuster, Cross cuts several folks off with big spears and there was an awesome spot near the finish where Mack cuts off a spear with a leaping pedigree. Slim J went out first which was a bit of a disappointment, he had some cool moments though including a great Hector Garza style corkscrew plancha. Angels looked good too as a cheapshot artist. The story of the match was Mack vs. Cross, they had a long singles section against each other to end the match, and I think that will be a great rivalry to build the main event around.

ER: I thought this was fantastic, a well oiled modern extension of a classic M-Pro multiman, though I actually liked the multiman portion more than the singles match ending. They were doing this great crazy M-Pro match but with little cool southern wrestling touches, moments like AC Mack yelling from the floor (out of eyesight from Cross) "Don't worry buddy, I got your back!" while Cross is locked in a sub. M-Pro with southern character building is a cool niche to exploit and I was in.to.it. Slim J is an absolute great, he's the greatest successor to Rey Mysterio, but there are times when he seems even better than Mysterio. Here he's whipping off loony flying - that Garza corkscrew plancha had such a straight line and target that looked more like Dhalsim's drill attack than anything a human should be able to do - but also throwing the hardest strikes in the match. Slim was throwing full arm attacks at the head, like a smaller faster Vader bear attack strike, but also throwing these insanely powerful lariats with both arms. He's a total powerhouse who can lift guys and hit hard, all while moving like Baryshnikov. So, yes, the match suffers a bit when Slim is the first guy out. But the energy was there and we got some nice shows of Mack's timing, a little comedy when Cross no sells an Angels lariat (with Cecil Scott breaking out a well placed "Oh baby what is you doing?"), a couple crowd dives from Angels, Cross spearing Angels hard after Mack dodges, and a killer finish of Mack dodging spears from Cross until he perfectly times the combo breaker and hits the Mack 10 off a spear attempt. Mack worked a little more deliberate when it was down to he and Cross, and it felt like a bit too much of a comedown from the pace we'd been at, but the work was real good.

ER: ACTION is a great show every time out, I've never regretted watching a single one. Feds like them and AIW are some of the most exciting wrestling going these days. No shocker, we're throwing Yehi/Royal and the main event on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. This is a great wrestling product, and we'll continue supporting it.

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #1: IWTV Family Reunion

PAS: Segunda Caida rides again, as Eric, Phil and Tomk met up to do all of Wrestlemania weekend in one day. We started out at the White Eagle Hall for Family Reunion

ER: Phil and I had a nice unexpected breakfast of hot dosas, lemon rice, spicy soup, and I had a delicious chicory madras coffee. We hadn't planned on going for dosas, but it was a close walk and the place totally delivered. The ladies and baby broke free for a fun day in the city, while Phil and I had a nice walk over to the White Eagle Hall, where we would be spending the bulk of our day. I love walking around places like this and seeing big brick school buildings and churches, because we can't have brick buildings out on the west coast, with our sick and constant fear of earthquakes. I like seeing the buildings, and graveyards right in the middle of the city, while Phil told me amusing pick-up basketball gym stories (as I realize that 60% of what Phil tells me about are pick-up basketball gym stories...). The White Eagle is a cool spot, nice stained skylights and seeing wrestling with daylight pouring in through doors is a cool vibe. Tom meets us there as we grab a nice spot in the third row, right by the entrance curtain.

TKG: Phil and Eric explain the concept of Family Reunion as this big interpromotional showcase thing and I go “Oh like Breaking the Barrier”. Spend the entire show trying to figure out which match this would have been the functional equivalent on Breaking the Barrier but refuse to use my cell to look up the actual card.

Orange Cassidy vs. Johnathan Gresham

PAS: Not for me. Good for Cassidy for finding a way to get himself over and not killing himself. Colt Cabana had a way longer career then Necro Butcher. Doesn't mean I want to watch one second of it. Gresham not only has to sell all of his yuks, but has to get squashed by his yuks. I dunno, a Kip up with hands in your pockets is athletically impressive I guess.

ER: Not really any of our thing, but it's better to get that kind of match out of the way first. That way we were able to catch-up and go through formalities with Tom without having to remember too much stuff about the match for later. I'm always a fan of people working the system, and Cassidy has tapped into something easy on the body that people clearly want to see. If you have the personality to pull it off, and you aren't dropping yourself on your head? Do it man. Phil, Tom, and I weren't laughing, but we were in the minority. Hands in joggers and sunglasses and pops, can't say he's doing it wrong. We felt bad for Gresham all day. Here he has to open up his day, the start of the biggest indy wrestling showcase of the year, and he has to spend 10 minutes entirely putting over the entire shtick of somebody else, and then lose, twice! Gresham was essentially the theatre hand wearing all black to be hidden from the audience, while busting their ass for an elaborate prop moving moment. All the work, none of the credit. Are their any matches where someone gets to make Cassidy pay for his nonchalance?

TKG: I like Jeff Spicoli, like David Wooderson, enjoy some Owen Wilson. This left me cold. On Breaking the Barrier, Stevie Richards was able to get his comedy gimmick over without making Tom Brandi feel like a prop. Post-match MJF comes out working gimmick of Jersey used car salesman who listens to a lot of MJG. I think that’s the gimmick. Me and Phil argue if he is supposed to be rich and pompous or a guy who aspires to be rich and pompous. He had a poorly tailored suit but a nicely accessorized off the rack scarf.

Shane Sabre/Space Monkey/Brett Michael David vs. Justin Sane/Kobe Durst/Kody Lane

PAS: This match was indy wrestling the names. How is there a match where Shane Sabre isn't the most PWI 500 name in the match? This was a six man tag showcase, with all that implies. Some stuff looked good, I like BMD's clothesline a bunch, some stuff looked OK, and a fair amount looked weak. The kind of match where you would try to find individual moments to enjoy, but the match as a whole wasn't it.

ER: Look at this lineup of names! This match was totally worth it just for the names alone. This felt like the first time I read a PWI 500 and actually thought the process was legitimate. I would love to do an SC 500 but it would weirdly be harder to do now as we have access to far more stuff than we ever did before, and less time than ever to watch it. I had seen a couple of these guys before. Tom had never seen Space Monkey, and by the end of the day he'd have seen Space Monkey more times live than most guys he genuinely liked. In fairness to the monkey, he seemed to get better each match of his we saw over the 14 hour stretch. New outfits each time, too. Had a banana flask this time and hit a big moonsault off the top to the floor at one point. It was at least an honorable mention for best dive of the day. Justin Sane was a guy who seemed better than his name; I joked that it would be funny if an indy guy was name Just Insane, like he thought it sounded cool and didn't understand it was a pun. Brett Michael David felt like the name of a guy working a Rock of Love gimmick, but he was the biggest guy in the match and had a couple nice strikes and nice lariat. I think BMD was the most memorable here.

TKG: I had actually seen Space Monkey before and thought this was the best of his matches. He needs to watch some GG Allin and work for the scat fans who Joey Ryan is unwilling to reach. Him BMD and Justin Zane seemed totally competent.

Red Eagle vs. Ethan Page vs. Ophidian vs. Arik Cannon vs. Mikey vs. Mike Verna

PAS: Weird match where the relative newcomers Mikey, Verna and Eagle looked more polished and professional then the decade plus veterans they were in there with. Page is on a zillion shows this weekend and was on cruise control here. Verna is from IWA Italy (not sure if that fed was part of Ian's early 2000s expansion) and has some cool strength spots. Outside of that this was pretty forgettable.

ER: This was fine, they've done a good job this show and kept all the six man stuff around 10 minutes and moving briskly. I actually like Arik Cannon here, thought he was the most impressive bumper out of the bunch, seems in better shape than over 12 years ago when I saw him more frequently. The other two vets I can do without. Ophidian has been doing the same routine that I wasn't interested in over a decade ago. Ethan Page showed off his comedy chops in this one, and between he and MJF sitting in the crowd mugging and hamming up hack jokes, I had already had enough comedy in wrestling for the day. Lucky for us Page and MJF were also guys we couldn't stay away from all damn day. Shane Sabre was fine and had the most classic name of all, made us all actually giggle every time we mentioned it. Mikey looked like Yahoo Serious and had a dumb fun mustache, and like the better comedy wrestlers he took a couple nice bumps. Yelling "Here's my moment!" right before running into a big bump is a funny spot.

TKG: Of all the comedy guys I saw, Mikey may have had the best comic timing. It never felt like he was just trying to force gags in, all made sense in the context of what was happening. Bet he has an interesting ladder match in him. That fucking simultaneous DDT one guy while suplexing or ace crushering other guy spot was whipped out a bunch over course of day…not sure if it was in this match but felt like every match and there is no reason to do it. Total Elimination was a fucking superkick/Russian leg sweep. You have multiple guys in ring have them do combo moves doing solo combos always looks a little blown.

Bell Pierce/Jack Bonza/Mick Moretti vs. Caveman Ugg/Steph De Lander/Unsocial Jordan

PAS: This was an all Australian trios match which had some moments. I thought Bonza had some fun tricky mat stuff and Ugg was really impressive. He obliterates Pierce with a chop, which felt boundary pushing and was really agile for a big dude. Pierce has a spot which she blows glitter at her opponents, which is a really dick move towards anyone else who has to wrestle on this show.

ER: This was also a perfectly fine 6 man, with the brief section of De Lander vs. Pierce being the only really weak portion. Tom was just happy that Bel Pierce gave us a better pun name than Justin Sane. Moretti is a guy I like and he had a couple big bumps here. This was our collective first time seeing Ugg and we all came away impressed. We thought we were getting the "Cavemen aren't sending their best" version of Cavernario, but Ugg moved quick for a bigger guy and hit hard, showed enough to make me watch Ugg the next time I see he's on a show I'm already watching. Pierce did have a funny moment where she threw glitter everywhere. It meant that every single wrestler that hit the mat the rest of the day in this venue was going to have glitter on their torso for the next week.

TKG: my son really likes Raymond Brigg’s Ug Boy Genius of the Stone Age so I want a little more sadness out of my Caveman Ugg…my desire for hints of suicidal Owen Wilson under the laid back veneer of Orange Cassidy or sadness at Caveman’s inability to improve his quality of life…may be too much to ask for wrestling gimmick. The Lazertron-ish, Unsocial Jordan made sense as a caveman’s tag partner.

Isaias Velazquez/Kylie Rae vs. Robert Anthony/Shotzi Blackheart

ER: Most memorable thing about this was Tom repeatedly asking what Egotistico Fantastico's gimmick was supposed to be now. They were more familiar with him than I was. First look at Kylie Rae and she was fine, though her Bayley gimmick would play better on a local show that would actually be attended by dads with their little daughters, instead of a show filled with weirdos who already had beer sweats at 1:15 PM. It was cool seeing Shotzi getting east coast bookings in person. Rachel and I have been seeing her for years. She was originally eye candy on a local Bay Area Saturday night public domain horror movie show called Creepy KOFY Movie Time, a weekly staple in our house until its demise. When she got into wrestling it made sense, she was always a performer who didn't seem to get nervous. She has good energy and I think eventually her ability will match up to her potential. I thought Frank the Clown was an unexpectedly good second. I had heard the name and heard that people couldn't stand him, but I'd never seen anything he was in. I thought he looked scummier and meaner than anticipated and looked like a guy who got his role. Felt like his routine was actually pretty effective.

PAS: Anthony was a big part of the IWA-MS run with Dingo and the two guys named Jayson having a loser has to change his first name feud. Not the best part of not the best run of IWA-MS but a fine guy. Good idea dumping the racist gimmick, although his new gimmick seems to be guy obsessed with Cactus Jack's weird son-in-law, which doesn't seem to have legs. He seemed like a guy who knew how to get heat, and Frank the Clown is actually an effective second.

TKG: Back when “ha ha Mexicans are funny” racist gimmicks were all the rage on the indies with probably El Generico being most successful, Egotistico Fantastico was one of the more egregious with all of his moves named after Taco Bell items. Does anyone still do that gimmick? Just El Ligero? Anyway, Robert Anthony really impressed in this, easily most polished guy on show thus far and probably top 5 by end of show. All of his stuff looked great and he ate everything well. Lots of times during show, you got the sense that you were watching parejas increibles matches where guys not always on same page as to if they were heels or faces but he was real clear. And he looked like he wanted to beat opponent and didn’t want to be beaten. I thought he also did real nice selling for Rae in believable manner. He is guy I’d watch again.

Fred Yehi vs. AC Mack

PAS: One of the matches I was most looking forward to of the day, and it unfortunately fell a bit short of expectations. Love both guys, love ACTION wrestling, but this never hit the gear it could have, and Mack seemed a bit off. Mack was able to get some real heel heat, and I have no idea why MJF is booked on fifty shows over the weekend, and Yehi is only on two. Yehi seems to be working a Soul Glo gimmick, and we added activator juice to the glitter which was already all over the ring. Guys this talented aren't going to have a dud, but this should have stolen the show and really didn't.

ER: I really did build this one up a lot in my head. This was one that I would have had in my 5 most anticipated matches of the weekend, which was probably setting a high bar in retrospect. AC Mack is a fairly recent discovery for us, when we started getting access to ACTION shows last year, but was an immediate favorite. This was probably the least performance I've seen from him, and I felt kinda bad building him up to Tom so much. I still think the stuff I've seen from him speaks for itself, and this felt like more of an off night than a norm. The match also felt very rushed, and maybe that threw things off a bit. We still got some fine moments - these two have a higher floor than most - but I think I was relatively justified in my high expectations and this didn't approach that. 

TKG: Why wasn’t Yehi being used more? He came out as part of Kelly Klein’s entourage on the ROH show. Mack is working heel and actually got heel heat and I was digging this a bunch and then it just felt like it went home early with low blow finish.

Kris Stadtlander/Solo Darling vs. Jessica Troy/Shazza McKenzie

PAS: Lots of Australians on this show, seems like a long flight for this amount of shine. This match was a casualty of the long day, as I remember very little from it. I think I dug some of Darling and Stadtlander's power stuff, but I am hoping Eric and Tomk can fill in some more.

ER: During the match you groaned and made ugh noises a lot during the Troy/McKenzie control periods, you weren't a fan so I applaud you effectively willing it from your memory. I came into this only familiar with Stadtlander and she's been getting some hype lately. I came away from this with only Solo making a decent impression on me. Darling came off like a little powerhouse, coming off more like a good hand joshi babyface that anyone else we saw. The team that Phil was grumbling about were not good. They did a lot of semi-complicated offense, but they had this awful habit of doing only the first 1/4 of the move, and leaving Stadtlander and Solo on their own to bump it. There were three different moments where McKenzie would start a potentially nice headscissors or rana, and then just fall and immediately after starting the move. It was infuriating.

TKG: I really had high hopes for the Roller Derby revival which was attracting ex-college rugby players, field hockey, ice skaters, gymnasts, and theater nerds into this semi athletic tradition and felt like it would eventually return to being a worked sport. And was watching this thinking, everyone here would be really fun taking bumps on a banked track. Women’s wrestling revolution may have killed the rollerderby one. I thought Solo Darling looked super solid and like she knew where to be at all times.

15. Mr. Brickster/O'Shay Edwards/Cabana Man Dan vs. Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku/Brett Ison

PAS: This was really great stuff, we had a totally over the top ring announcer and a possible group of front row Hales cousins serving as hype-men, so I was ready to be let down, but man all six guys brought it. Brickster was great as a fired up 80s babyface, loved the whole presentation and he brought the heat like Sting taking it to the Dangerous Alliance. Sadkampf were throwing and receiving reckless potatoes (opening up what would truly be a fucking insane day by Garrini), and this was the first time O'Shay Edwards hit as hard as it looks like he should hit. It felt like a raucous southern main event, with the babyfaces walking tall and the heels coming forward. Edwards moonsault felt like a big deal for the finish, and this totally won me over.

TKG: This had a really chaotic feel to it. Like the kind of Briscoes, JAPW chaos that I want out of wrestling but still southern tag as fuck. Brickster is a guy who should get more bookings as he looked like the best of the guys working power offense that I saw that weekend. Just bumped well, wrecked people with clotheslines and made lifts into throws look like lifts. And had the real “I’m guy fired up in a 6 man tag” aura. Garrini is insane and pretty much the star of the whole day. Just runs into taking offense and everything he does looks like he wants to win. We had already seen insane big guy moonsault from BMD but O’Shay’s looked like he actually wanted to flatten opponent.

ER: Tom was really attracted to the chaos of this match. After this match, for the rest of the day, he would frequently lob a "felt like it should have been more chaotic" backhand to matches Phil and I liked, having clearly won over - twice - by Brickster within the first two hours of our day. And it was really really fun, a nice portend to a super fun exhausting day. Brickster had a best-possible-Cheetah Master feel to him, or Dolph Ziggler understanding his flaws, or Matt Taven who wasn't a total embarrassment. Out of all the downright unique wrestling experiences the three of us went through today, we were all talking about Brickster 10 hours later. Hard strikes, great energy, felt like triumphant Stan Lane. O'Shay had his career best performance, a big dude taking some great risks. Later Phil and I saw him hanging out with someone who had to be his uncle, and the uncle was flipping out about his performance. Gotta love a guy putting on a show for family over Mania showcase. Ku smacked Dan hard in the chops and dropped him hard on his knees in a powerbomb, and Dan's flip flop chopping actually made a good slapping whipcrack. We had a total ball during this match with a hard hitting fast paced 10 minutes, and I made Phil laugh as much as he laughed all day, as we were all tickled by the early 2000s hardcore ring intros. Some guy would get kicked in the face or Garrini would throw a double chop to someone's neck, and in the energy I would cookie monster grunt "PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS TOGETHER FOR CABANA MAN FUCKING DAN YOU PIECES OF SHIT!!!! YOU WANNA SEE SOME FLIP FLOP COMEDY SPOTS YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!?!?" Just a bearded guy who looks like me with tattoos.

Gary Jay vs. Jake Parnell

PAS: This was a long running midwest feud given a showcase spot, and both guys really delivered. They chopped the hair off each others chests, took some big hard bumps to the floor and the apron and made the match feel like a feud ender, there were a couple of big dives right into the seats we were sitting in which felt crazy and uncalled for. I thought the end section was a bit construction-y, you really need a manager to set up all of the chairs and tables to fly into, would have rather seen them just beat on each other, rather then set up big garbage bumps, although to be fair, the big garbage bumps were big ass garbage bumps.

TKG: Gary Jay is Gary the Barn Owl who I had seen get booed out of building by idiot provincial Chikara fans who hate tall guys 9 years ago. “Hey this guy is 5 ft 8, I only want my wrestler’s 5 ft 2”. So awesome to see him main eventing this show. The early brawling and dives were crazy, I had less of a problem with how long it took to set up on the big construction garbage spot. As pretty much everything that took a long time to build almost universally gave opponent time to recover from last garbage spot and either reverse or get an escape in. Getting to watch Nick Gage realize they were going to try for a fish hook spot with ring ropes as Jay unhooked them was pretty neat….and well knowing ahead of time that the next show was going to be a no ring rope show added a whole “they are going to take down this whole set” Who burning their guitars feel. I didn’t dig the chair fu at end of match. Walking around with chair on head has a Terry Funk head caught in a ladder joke spot feel. Felt like a joke that you work in early or in middle of match and not at end.

ER: I'm with Tom in that I thought the big stunt spots were paced out nicely, so that the set up time was conceivably possible due to big stunts. I don't love Last Man Standing as a stip, even though it has created some great matches, as it lends itself to a lot of lying around and counting, so there is a constant interruption to the violence. But I really liked this and thought the chaos was worth the price of admission. In my history of going to live pro wrestling, any time I have to run away from the action by escaping over chairs and narrowly ducking dives, always leaves me with a positive memory of the show. These two hit each other with real force, both had red chests, and they sent us scrambling and ducking with some reckless dives. We were sitting in the corner near at the entrance curtain, and dives getting to our seats mean that the action was going a little out of bounds. I loved running over chairs and getting as close to the roving fight, and the violent chop exchange on the apron was one of the top moments of the night. There was no slap on these chops, these were deep bruising shots. We saw violent shots all day, and these held their own. I do agree that the match lost some steam as it went to the finish, but I also think that plays into the psychological structure of the stip, so I probably liked all of this more than Phil and Tom. I thought the KO spots felt worthy of the KO recovery, and while I do think the finish didn't match the violence of the rest of the match, I still thought this lived up to expectations.

ER: Price was right on this one, with me cashing in my free ticket for being a Independent TV subscriber, and the show was a briskly paced start to our terrible idea of a day. The Brickster trios match was the kind of overdelivery that makes this kind of friendship reunion worthwhile, the best kind of surprise addition to our 2019 MOTY List, and a cool "first show the three principle Segunda Caida doofuses ever attended together."

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ACTION Wrestling 10/26/18

Arik Royal vs. Bobby Flaco

PAS: This was Royal kind of working as a one man Da Hit Squad against sort of a southern Elax the Exploited child. Flaco hit some high flying moves, including a couple of running dives off the stage, but much of this was Royal mauling him with power moves, including a big running tackle which sent Flacco through the ropes to the floor and into a wall. The tackle which Royal finished it with was awesome too. I didn't think Flaco hit everything cleanly, but this is match structure I am always going to be into, and Royal is great.

ER: I really liked this one, looked like a Darby Allin match but with new and different participants. We don't get to see a ton of lucha base Arik Royal so it's great seeing him catch dives and takes complicated armdrags as well as he does everything else. I thought Flaco had a nice bag of tricks, thought his two planchas and his cannonball off the stage area looked great, and Royal helped that by really getting absorbed by them. Flaco was good at sticking and moving, and Royal was great at sticking Flaco when he caught him. There was one moment that really showed the match saving professionalism of Royal, they looked to be going for a backdrop but Flaco got a little hung up, so Royal just continued muscling him through and slammed him to the mat. Flaco is really good at getting demolished by Royal's best stuff, and Royal is really good at making his best stuff look great. I love Royal's diving shoulderblock to an opponent on the mat, and Flaco was really good at taking spills to the floor (Dylan saying Flaco was lying "prostate on the floor" is a good example of why I don't try to use the word "prostrate" in conversation), and I love how his big shoulder tackle pounce is used as a killshot against smaller guys. My kind of opener.

AC Mack vs. James Bandy

PAS: Mack has been the discovery of these ACTION shows, he has quickly turned into one of my favorite current wrestlers to watch. Bandy is a WWA4 alum as well, and this was similar to the Austin Theory match, as it was a match between two guys who have trained together. There was some nifty stuff, I liked Bandy's big tope which landed right next to a baby carrier with a sleeping baby (love family wrestling shows), and Mack using a fan to hide behind before landing a cheap shot was a nice bit of heel business. Bandy had some big moves but I think his connective tissue wasn't that strong, and I did think Mack kicked out of some big stuff, only to end the match pretty quickly, but this was pretty enjoyable overall, and Mack is must watch.

ER: This was a hot 7 minute sprint, and Mack is great at moving those types of matches along. He's a guy on constant attack and even when he's kicking out of a move he's already looking to kick at someone's knee or shove them off, get himself into a better offensive position. This whole thing didn't let up much at all over its run time, Bandy starting things off with a great tope into the aisleway, and gets some cool nearfalls on Mack over the brisk runtime. Dylan Hales was good at putting over the excitement of this, sounding like Adam Sandler's "Excited Southerner" when Bandy jumped Mack at the bell. Mack is so smooth and violent, no matter where he's at in the ring he's ready to drop something mean, loved his shot right to Bandy's throat, loved him yanking a woman out of her seat as a shield before tossing her back down when his plan worked, love his targeted body attacks that don't come off as any kind of memorized combo, just him attacking whatever part of Bandy he can reach. That short kick to the knee into his twisted pedigree is a solid finish to a fun match.

O'Shay Edwards/Alan Angels vs. Lynch Mob

PAS: Tag match which had it's moments, but I think overall got a little Young Bucksish for me. O'Shay is a big menacing looking dude and had some nice power stuff although there was a couple of weak spots too (at one point he just didn't go over when getting backdropped). I enjoyed Angels as a pest who spent most of the match laying in cheap shots. Both teams had elaborate double teams, which were about 50 percent cool, 50 percent dumb, lots of complicated ways to put on a neckbreaker. Joey Lynch missed most of his moonsault again, and I think his "King of the Moonsault" gimmick might be a Chikara style comedy gimmick I don't get. I liked Edwards and Angels getting the win and setting up a match against the ref and Bandy for the next show is some classic old school Southern Wrestling stuff.

Kevin Ku vs. Ike Cross

PAS: Stiff sprint in which the energy made up for some of the shambolic execution. Ku comes forward constantly swinging and eating shots, screaming at Cross to hit him, and I dig the pace he sets. This was the most I have enjoyed him and it makes me want to seek out some of his more pimped matches, even if some of his stuff doesn't hit clean or is a little indy. Cross has a boatload of potential, but this is the first time I have seen him against another young guy and you can see the seams a bit more. His big moves are still explosive, but I think he needs a veteran like Hollis or Slim J to fill in the stuff in between. A match that was more about potential greatness then current greatness, but it was still enjoyable to watch.

ER: Agree with all of Phil's assessments here, they both moved fast and went hard, so even when something didn't totally work they were already onto their next bit of business, really showing how far some big energy can go. Cross has absurd speed for a big man, even something like him rolling out of the ring after getting popped looks impressive as hell, and both of them have such quick body movement that it gives them some cover. Ku has no problem flying hard into Cross (loved that diving shoulderblock) and Cross makes moves like avalanches and that spear - moves that a lot of people do soft - look super explosive. Phil told me that Cross is apparently retiring from wrestling, which is a damn shame as he's someone that, once I saw him in SCI, I went out of my way to see any available footage. He was one of the people in wrestling I was most excited to see grow.

Cain Justice vs. Fred Yehi

PAS: This was a rematch from a great match from the first ACTION show, and while this had its moments, it didn't live up to that match. I liked the dueling limb action with Justice working the arm and hand and Yehi working the foot and leg, including pounding Justice with fists right in ankle and upper foot. These are normally really crisp wrestlers though, and things felt a little off. I liked the use of the hooks on the ringpost more in the other Cain matches, although Yehi turning the tables on him was nifty. Match ended with Royal coming in and cheapshotting Yehi, and the whole match kind of felt like they were killing time until a run in.

ER: Yeah something felt a little off here, felt like we had a few moments where one wasn't where the other thought he would be, felt like Cain especially was holding back shots (I don't need guys punching each other in the face, but a lot of things landed uncharacteristically light), and the set ups and transitions weren't quite as neat as these two can make them. I do appreciate them furthering the "Cain uses ring hooks" story, since Cain always wedges those ACTION hooks into his matches, nice to see the tables turned on him but agree with Phil that it didn't really read very well, came off a bit flat. Obviously there were going to be great moments with these two, it would be weird if there somehow weren't; here I especially liked Yehi rushing into the corner with a hard as hell elbow. Too many times guys leap into their corner elbows, like they're doing a Stinger Splash but with an elbow, and I liked Yehi just running in full speed with a short elbow to the jaw. But on paper this is a match that seemed almost guaranteed to land on our MOTY List, and this didn't approach that.

Team TAG vs The Carnies

PAS: The Carnies come in as Matt Griffin's hired guns as part of his feud with Team TAG. Like a lot of Carnies matches this had a bunch of fun spots, and some dumb ones. I liked the Chris Spectra vs Kerry Awful big boy showdown, although I wished they hit a little harder (I think the Big Japan trios match I watched earlier spoiled me), and I dug the Awful spinning clothesline and some of the Carnie shtick. They are a little enamored with complicated double teams, but this was mostly a solid tag with four solid performances.

Slim J vs. Billy Buck

PAS: A match with some really great moments, that was marred by overbooking. J dominates early with Buck doing a bunch of Zbyszko stalling, and J locking on some really cool submissions. We get a Team TAG run in, and much of the rest of the match is the ref being distracted and TAG running in. There are some really cool moments in the end run, Buck has great execution on his moves, he obliterates J with a spinebuster and beheads him with a superkick, and everything Slim does looks great. I loved his combo flipping STO and diving neckbreaker, and he has great execution on his little things. Still I feel like the match was sacrificed to advance the Matt Griffin vs. Team TAG feud, which is kind of a lame thing to do to a main event match. Love both guys, need to dig in the archives and find a better match between the two.

ER: Yeah this kind of outside involvement is not going to get me into a match, especially when it didn't actually seem to affect the outcome too much. Slim didn't seem any more beaten down by the 3 on 1 situation than he does in normal 1 on 1 matches, and by the time the match devolved into the ref pretending he didn't hear a tandem powerbomb happening two feet away from him I had mostly checked out. But these two are great dance partners and we got two separate 5 minute segments where we were given just what we wanted. After the first several minutes of stalling the two of them went on an awesome 5 minute tear, then some BS, and then another hot 5 minutes before the rest of the BS. Those 10 combined minutes had the best stuff on the entire show, you got to see how incredibly these two take offense and dish offense, like Slim hitting a cool ropes assisted headscissors (loved the low angle bump Buck took off it), or Buck hitting one of the finest superkicks you'll ever see. You give me those 10 minutes straight and nothing else and this lands on our List with ease. Whenever it was just the two of them fighting with no distraction, it was everything you'd want out of a wrestling match.

PAS: This was a sort of a disappointing show, first ACTION show without multiple MOTYC list matches, tons of talent on these cards, I loved watching almost everyone, but it felt like everything was a little worse then it should have been

ER: I had a good time with this show, plenty of fun moments and nice performances. But all of the shows preceding this one have been so damn good that a show like this is gonna feel like a major step below. This show would have probably ranked towards the top of live wrestling shows I've seen in my area the last few years, but I can't really compare it to my local scene, I can only compare the show to prior ACTION shows. Still, the fed is clearly filled with a ton of talent, no way we'll be tuning out.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki vs. Yehi

74. Low-Ki vs. Fred Yehi MLW 12/13 

ER: I'm sure we were all hoping for something a bit different when these two squared off for the first time ever. They're the two best workers in the fed and you'd want to see a match between them as high end indy dream supermatch, but this is worked as a match within their respective spots in the MLW Totem, where one of these guys is the current Heavyweight Champ and the other is a guy who was ranked behind Simon Gotch while they were in Team Filthy. But it's these two, so obviously any time we get from them is going to work. We get cool stuff you'd expect like Ki trying to snap Yehi's arm over the ropes, and other great little moments like Ki heading off to the ropes but getting his leg grabbed by Yehi before he can run, and Ki lets him stand up (while Ki himself is on one leg) and peppers Yehi's eye with sharp elbows until he lets go. Ki spider monkeys himself to Yehi's leg and Yehi does these big exaggerated high steps to get out of it, and it all shows just how cool these two move. This gets really great once they start throwing blows, with Ki breaking out of the corner and punching Yehi under the sternum across the ring, then snapping off big kicks, but Yehi caught a kick and foot stomped him and legswept him. Yehi even gets a very believable nearfall off a high cradle, really looked like they would suddenly give him this huge and sudden win and then set up a big challenge with Lawlor and a big re-match with Ki. But that doesn't happen. The actual finish is crazy, with Ki winding up on the top rope, throwing elbows at Yehi's head, and then one MAMMOTH overhand strike down across Yehi's chest. That strike right there looked like a finish. You never seen shots thrown from that angle and this one looked like it hit with tremendous force. The Warriors Way pushes back out the portions of Yehi's sternum that Ki sent inching towards his spine, and Yehi is a sicko and wasn't even on the mat when he took it, just a huge stomp right to the tenderest part of the back. Damn, boys. Cannot WAIT to see these two match-up again, several times.

PAS: Ki wrestles so infrequently these days, that I fear this might be the only time we get to see them match up, awesome as fuck WCW Pro match isn't ideal, but this was an awesome as fuck WCW Pro match. MLW Ki wrestles so differently then other times in his career. He seems to be working as almost a counter puncher, waiting to land one or two big kill shots, waiting for openings, wrestling defensive and viciously landing shots when he can. I loved Yehi pushing Ki into the corner, and Ki unloading with four nasty body shots right to the ribs on the break. We got a couple of great Yehi flurries of offense, and then an absolutely killer finish, with Ki sitting on the tope landing a crossface shot on a standing Yehi across his jaw and onto his chest. Sounded like a baseball bat hitting a mango, and the a grisly double stomp on Yehi's back. Great stuff by both guys, would love someone to book a long rematch somewhere but if this is what we get, it was pretty great.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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ACTION Wrestling 8/17/18

Ike Cross vs. Slim J

ER: Hot opener, tough to start off a crowd with something this dynamic. Everybody else on the show is going to be working from behind. I just saw Cross for the first time while watching the recent SCI, so I saw him there as this great babyface. Here he's a heel and just as fun, and very different than his SCI performances. Slim is a great babyface, really he's AJ Styles without a TV deal. If people out there think AJ Styles is great, there is no reason they wouldn't love Slim. He's strong as hell, gets crazy height on everything, hits hard, and can take a beating. A really great babyface. I think Styles is clearly a great, but right now Slim is better. He and Cross do a really fast rope running bit, Slim has an amazing high dropkick (and later a cool spinning kick of the top), and I love it when AC Mack starts running distraction on the floor. Cross drills Slim with a brutal running elbow to the back of the head, and Cross is really great at finding ways to get the ref's attention while Mack interferes. Cross played powerhouse here, and he pulls out some real stunners: a ridiculous sky high Dr. Bomb, a deadlift tilt a whirl backbreaker, and a uranage type slam where he just yoinks Slim up and plants him face first. It looked like something that should have finished the match. These two matched up really well here, and this kind of had the feeling of a tryout match, with both guys keeping a quick pace and breaking out impressive tricks. I pretty much need to be tracking down every match from both of these guys.

PAS: Fun stuff, interesting to see Cross as a heel, he is a great traditional babyface, but here is a fun trolling heel. Lots of shtick distracting the ref while AC Mack mugs Slim, he also stomps Slim in the corner and pretends his leg is spasming to get in some post ref break shots. Slim has decades of experience getting a crowd behind him, and all of the early stuff really got them into the nearfalls. I loved all of Cross's power moves, working heel we didn't see as much of his vertical leap, but he was beasting Slim, that lawn dart into the turnbuckles looked like Slim was 2 inches shorter post match (inches he can't afford to lose), and that reverse uranage thing was awesome looking. That final bump Cross took on the electric chair headrop was harrowing, that is big dude to be landing on his neck like that. Great stuff and another example of Slim J being this gem hiding in plain sight for years.

Alan Angels vs. James Bandy

ER: First time seeing both guys, and I came away seeing a couple cool things I hadn't seen, and liked this take on the modern indy match. Bandy had a few nice full extension suplexes, Angels was good at taking suplexes, and neither guy held back on strikes and kicks. Bandy had a nice kick to the chest and Angels hit a cool spin kick. We also had Angels working Bandy's arm in some cool ways, whipping his arm into the mat and breaking out the wild Rings of Saturn after rolling through with a Tim Horner style armdrag. I've not seen that attempted before, and I dug it. The arm stuff didn't really go anywhere, but I liked it peaking with that armdrag into the Fujiwara, into Angels throwing elbows to the ribs. When Angels tries it against he gets his momentum reversed and caught with a quick curb stomp. I liked a lot of what I saw here.

Kevin Ku vs. Tommy Maserati vs. Bobby Flaco vs. Dani Jordyn vs. Matt Sells vs. Shawn King vs. Teddy King

ER: I might have a name or two wrong on this one, only seen about half the talent before. And this was a perfectly fine scramble match, although we didn't always have a great use of time, and a LOT of people disappeared too often for it to really have the chaos of the best scramble matches. As it was, we got fun snapshots of what everyone can do and would up with a few memorable moments. Jordyn has a powerlifter build and got to throw a bunch of fun suplexes (and especially launches Flaco who bumps high and hard), and has a cool Jeff Cobb-like momentum reversing slam on Shawn King (?) late in the match that looked cool, and that guy also leaned in . Ku looked like more of a bully than I'd previously seen him, I got a kick watching him run as hard as possible into corner attacks, really pushing the pace faster than anybody else. I don't love his need to get some kind of lungblower into a match, but he was a good dominant mid-match presence. We get a couple of big dives to the floor, a flip dive that takes everyone out (and sends some kid in an orange hoodie running for the hills), and then an awkward set-up/fun result slingblade from Flaco, springing off the ref and delivering it to Ku on the apron while he basically stage dove across the other workers. Weird/cool landing, clunky set up, but these are the moves you need to be breaking out in a scramble match, so it totally works. Maserati is a great bumper, even if I don't like how his kicks land, he at least makes offense look good. I wouldn't mind seeing more from some of them, so as a showcase the scramble did its job.

Cain Justice vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: This is one of my favorite current matchups in wrestling. They had a match last year in CWF which went super high on our 2017 list, the second match was fun although not as mind blowing and this is the rubber match and the first outside of CWF. These guys are both super skilled, super interesting grapplers, and they have a couple of really cool scrambles to open the match, Garinni especially is whipping out really cool stuff, including a couple of super tight chokes with Justice finding cool ways to escape. Garinni has gotten better at landing his shots in the last six months, and he hits some big bombs including a nasty spinning back elbow. Justice is really great at using his environment, the Action ring has these hooks on the outside of the ringposts and Justice has used them in cool ways in all of his matches, here he traps Dom's foot in the hook and torques on the metal. Garrini did a great job of selling a damaged foot on his throws for the rest of the match. My one quibble in this was that Justice was back on offense too quick after the Screwdriver, but I did really like finish run. I am excited to see both of these guys grow up together, and I hope we get to see some more classics. I would rank this a little below their first match, that match coming out of nowhere really made it special, but this was good stuff for sure.

ER: I think this one falls as their third best match together, which isn't really an insult to this match, as I really liked those two matches. This felt a little more disjointed. Their first two matches didn't necessarily establish a match long narrative, but this one stood out because of that weird Screwdriver thrown in there. That move, and Cain getting up from taking that move at almost the same time as Garrini and going right back on offense, really made the match feel like they were just doing stuff until THAT moment. It felt really out of place the way it was used here. I would have loved it if that had finished things, going from grappling and striking to a sudden unexpected exclamation point, Justice beat in an instant because he wasn't expecting something like a Screwdriver. Instead we just kind of get up and do a little reset, Cain working for the Twist Ending and Garrini working for a triangle, gaslighting us into thinking we hadn't just see that big spot. I liked the bulk of this (though I thought the finish felt a little tacked on, even though I liked Cain winning with leverage to reverse a triangle). I really liked the grappling in this match, especially thinking Garrini looked sharp on the mat. He looked like he was calmly setting traps for Cain, dropping down in a certain way to get Cain to go one way, opening up his leg which was Garrini's goal all along. There was stuff that looked fluid yet nasty, and it looked like you got a cool insight into Garrini's crazy muscle memory, knowing what all his options are on the mat at any given moment. I loved Cain using those ringpost hooks, as Dylan Hales pointed out on commentary, he uses those every time he wrestles in this ring, and I love him for that. I liked some of the striking in this, but thought other parts focused to much on making a slap sound. I don't need a slap to know Garrini is hitting a nice kneelift. Now, a silver lining in that Screwdriver spot: They set it up close to the ropes, so Cain got his foot up. I still don't like what came after, but I'll give credit to both for clearly setting up near the ropes to avoid an unnecessary kickout. In retrospect, I think my favorite thing about the match might have been Cain's irritated glances at children while he was on the floor, being booed by kids. Just a bunch of kids booing him, while he shook his head at them, hands on hips.

Kavron Kanyon vs. Fry Daddy

ER: Short and sweet, didn't really get much of an idea what Fry Daddy is about, but I liked our Kanyon squash. Kanyon looks like a smaller Chris Hero, had a big kick combo (I really like a good high roundhouse kick, the type of kick Eric Bischoff would call a "back leg front round kick") and he finished it off with a brutal knee to the face. He had Daddy up for a package piledriver, then tossed him straight out and met him with a knee. It looked brutal enough for a finish, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was the finish.

Arik Royal vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Damn, boys, you go get it. I loved the dichotomy of this, with Royal being bigger, but Yehi hitting harder, and I loved the build. Royal is the king and Yehi basically had the best August of any other wrestler I watched. We get a fantastic lock up to start, both men all in and getting low, and Yehi blew up Royal's spot here, not letting him breathe, and Royal is one of my favorite "falling behind" wrestlers, making great faces and fun wobbly selling when he's getting overwhelmed. Yehi slams Royal into the ring apron and Royal comes up selling as if he were a man stumbling lost out of the desert. Yehi keeps ramping up the vicious, peaking with two spinning back elbows/fists to the back of Royal's head. But the big moments were yet to come, as once Royal uses his size, Yehi flies around like a popped balloon. Royal absolutely upends Yehi with his tackle, getting low and exploding; Yehi looked flew like he was riding a banana boat that got hit by Jaws. Royal throws Yehi back-of-neck first into the bottom rope (feels like a great lost Finlay spot) and in something I don't think I've ever seen, skips Yehi across and out of the ring like he was a damn stone on a pond. Royal had a couple of great biel throws in this, but here he just skipped Yehi across the damn ring. Awesome. We got a couple cool momentum shifts based on failed charges by both men, and Yehi sinks in a crucifix bomb before rocking him with that brutal Koji clutch-with-elbows. What nastiness. I think the match should have ended there, as afterward Yehi got freaking blitzed by another great tackle, sending him soaring, and a hard lefty lariat from Royal. And the finish was a little confusing as Yehi ties him up and a grounded kind of octopus, and the ref counts the pin even though Yehi looks more pinned than Royal, so it was somewhat deflating after all we'd been through. But damn still a total banger.  Post match Royal is the best, always, and he draws out all the sympathy from the crowd, acting despondent from his loss, holds up Yehi's hand to a couple sides of the ring, lets the crowd know Yehi was the better man. And then, as we all wanted, levels Yehi. This was all great.

PAS: I liked how the commentary mentioned that both guys do things a little differently, and this was a traditional big match indy formula just turned 10 degrees to the left, enough variety to really make it interesting. I love how Yehi is always moving forward, his pushing the pace is treated like a real advantage. He wrestles like a pest point guard who picks his opponent up full court, like the Patrick Beverley of wrestling. Royal has some off the charts power moves in this match, the spot Eric mentioned where he skips Yehi across the ring like a ground ball was a spot of the year candidate. Yehi is great at mixing in nifty pieces of offense and bumps into his match, he really reminds me of Finlay in that way. I thought we had some really great nearfalls, with Yehi smashing Royal with backfists and chops and Royal throwing him. I dug the flash pin, and the post match nicely sets up a rematch, which I am excited to check out.

The Lynch Mob vs. Team TAG (Chris Spectra/Kevin Blue)

ER: More of an angle than a match, with TAG jumping the Lynch Mob and eventually ending things prematurely by bringing in a couple chairs for the DQ. We've seen Team TAG work some more violent matches, including that awesome WarGames from last year, and I was less interested in seeing them work their way into Joey Lynch tandem spots. They both have tassels which is a plus, and I like a brash cheapshotting team.

AC Mack vs. Austin Theory

ER: Really fun match, the most I've enjoyed Theory, and further cemented how much I dig Mack. Austin Theory is a smooth athletic move-chaining wrestler, except in other matches there was always some hesitation. Here he and Mack worked together extraordinarily well, as if they had come up together and worked dozens of times. Both guys worked really quick and snaked some cool sequences. They worked fast rope running spots, really on your toes stuff. Theory's offense looked really tightened up, but damn Mack can GO. Mack gets crazy height on spots (what is with Georgia workers getting unreal height on bumps and offense?), and I liked every single thing he did in this match. I loved the smoothness he used to get into position for a low dropkick to a seated Theory (kick looked great too), and there was one spot where he leaped practically halfway across the ring to hit a superkick on a slumped-in-the-corner Theory and I jumped out of my seat. Some of Mack's movements seem so impossible, and then they hit flush and it's just...WOW. We get some fun learned behavior moments, like Theory catching Mack's uppercut on his knee/Dustin uppercut spot, and a couple of very believable nearfalls. Now, what's weird, is mid match we get a Theory knee injury. Theory misses a springboard stomp and begins limping around. Pulls off his next piece of offense, but goes down to the mat yelling about that knee. Great, I'm thinking, now we get a bunch of cool cocky attacks on the knee from Mack. Except that didn't happen. Theory continued barking and screaming and emoting about the knee, all while hitting increasingly bigger moves. Theory hit more moves after the knee injury spot than he did before. It was so weird. He was acknowledging it the entire time...except he was on a dominant run of move after move after move, huge sitout powerbomb, huge (great looking ) running blockbuster, a freaking running buckle bomb, getting Mack onto his shoulders for a fireman's carry, just...none of it made sense. The match did not need this knee injury whatsoever. It got really comical after a few moves. If they had changed nothing about the match, but made no allusions to a knee injury, I think this would have easily been high up on our list. Mack gets this hard low blow for an awesome false finish, and Theory comes up holding his balls...and his damn knee. This match was still very good, but that knee injury was such an unnecessary addition to the match. Mack came out of it with a big unexpected (to me) title win after an awesome hard kick to the knee and then his variation of a pedigree. I loved how the finish happened, with Theory just wanting to throw down fists and Mack laughing and agreeing, tossing off his gloves before just kicking low, what a great dickhead heel move. It really did feel like the preceding low blow would have been more than enough to justify the Theory loss, without needing any kind of knee injury angle. I mean you took a hard shot to the balls, nobody would think you didn't fight hard enough. But working in that knee injury without it every coming into play AT ALL just felt truly bizarre. Still, again, with it, the match was very good, and Mack is a guy I'm going to need to see every time he shows up.

PAS:  These guys are both WW4A trainees, and this match had the feel of a classic post match Ian Rotten speech touring showcase. I haven't had much time for Theory before, and his knee injury after a move/knee is fine during a move, is exactly the kind of dumb Seth Rollinism I can't stand. Still he has some pretty great chemistry with Mack and they pull off some really breathtaking stuff. Mack's vertical leap and speed almost feels like a tape glitch, they have a spot where Theory knocks him off the top rope and Mack hits a spinneroonie into a leaping enzigiri directly into this jumping superkick from three quarters of the way across the ring, it felt like watching Zion Williamson dunk, people aren't suppose to move like that. I agree with Eric that if you edited out Theory's weird unnecessary knee selling this would be a better match, but I did dig how it played into the finish. Mack nut punches Austin for a near fall and Theory gets up holding his balls and limping, he screams at Mack to come and fight, and Mack takes off his gloves, and then sneak kicks Theory in the patella, cross arm pedigrees him and pins him. Such a great bit of heel prickishness, fuck fighting like a man, win a match. Mack is a must see guy, what a star making performance.

ER: This was a tightly run, very fun show, with some genuine bangers, fun matches top to bottom, and even standout performances in the lesser matches. You could tell people were working hard, and that's always going to make me seek out more from a promotion. Can't imagine us being not fully onboard for what ACTION has in store going forward. Indy wrestling shows with diverse, killer action and a sub 2 hour run time? That's the market inefficiency right there baby. We placed a whopping 4 matches from this show on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, and I'm sure we'll have more ACTION matches on that list before it's done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Yehi vs. Lawlor

44. Fred Yehi vs. Tom Lawlor MLW 5/3

ER: This was a match-up I'd never seen before between two favorites, and it delivered in the exact ways I had hoped. We got cool reversals, great strikes, some big throws, some good twists, and the kind of professional execution you'd expect from these two. Yehi is an awesome bear trap, turning things in an instant to his favor, and I like how Lawlor worked to keep up and get ahead. Yehi stomps Lawlor's bionic arm (we've seen 20 years of people working Stone Cold Steve Austin spots into indy shows, Lawlor may be the only one currently working Colonel Steve Austin spots), Lawlor catches another stomp and tries turning it into a kneebar, Yehi almost turns a simple Lawlor pinfall press into the Koji clutch, both guys always a danger to the other. Yehi is a compact Gary Albright, always looking like he can grab and hurl guys at will, breaking out a cool fisherman's suplex and reversing a second Lawlor German into his own snap German (Yehi really throws his German the same fast violent way as Albright, maybe the greatest suplex wrestler ever), with a follow up dragon suplex. He throws a bunch of awesome looking knees while holding Lawlor in a cravate (really throwing so many that they looked nastier than most finishers). He worked the body in cool ways, loved his shots to Lawlor's ribs, and I think Lawlor's punches and strikes were among the best ever that I've seen from him. Lawlor was good at working head and arm chokes, a dragon sleeper, leaping full weight onto Yehi with a guillotine, it came off like he was scrambling, yet calculated. Ending is amusing BS that I might not like from lesser guys, with Lawlor throwing the pad from his bionic forearm as a distraction, and then clocking Yehi with it, and sinking in a choke for show. This made me want to see Yehi gun for a rematch, and I laughed when the ref went to raise Lawlor's arm and Lawlor made him raise his "good" arm. Lawlor shot this great "This idiot" face, pointing at the ref.

PAS: Yehi is one of the least formulaic wrestlers in the world, and I loved how they just opened this match with jujitsu rolling, both guys kept countering the counters and attacking limbs and it was great stuff. Lawlor can sometimes get caught up in shtick (although I liked his shtick here) but when he just hits the mat he is one of the more compelling guys in the world. Yehi looked super comfortable rolling with guy with a black belt in JuJitsu. Liked the finish, with Lawlor striking fast after the distraction and grabbing an awesome choke with a full bodylock to put Yehi to sleep. I loved how Fred sold it, his eyes were open but nothing was on behind them. Fun stuff, would love to see these guys match up again.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLW Worth Watching: Aries! Dirty Blondes! Yehi!

MLW has a nicely resurgent indy run going, and we've reviewed a few matches recently that landed on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. I figured it couldn't hurt to skim through the existing episodes of Fusion while it's still at Episode 25, as it's a smarter plan than still thinking about skimming through episodes when they're at ep 125. It's early enough in the run that I can catch up to live, and write up a few notable matches along the way. Since they're all so short I likely won't be writing up many Barrington Hughes matches, but that's alright because you all know Barrington is worth watching without some goof like me telling you so.


Austin Aries vs. ACH  MLW Fusion #1 2/8 (Aired 4/20/18)

ER: A fine way to reintroduce people to the promotion, with a compelling sell job of the ribs by ACH, and Aries looking precise as ever. ACH comes in with kinesiology tape on the ribs and Aries starts not really focusing his attack on the ribs, but throwing in shots throughout as a means to open ACH for Aries' other offense. It's a cool strategy from Aries and it was nice seeing ACH committing to putting over these attacks. ACH's selling was fun as he never forgot about his ribs, even when it got him into stupid situations (stop going for frog splashes and 450s if your ribs are hurting!), but it gave a little dimension to his selling when he would take a move that didn't focus on his ribs. If you eat a dropkick to the chin, sure your chin will be feeling it, but your core is still screaming as well. Aries is good in control, everything he does always has nice snap, and his normal offense worked even better with ACH's hurt ribs, like Aries' great elbow drop just means more when it's to a guy's injury. Aries is also great at making offense look good. There was a spot where ACH got a boot up in the corner, and Aries flew into that boot like he was actually trying to do offense, not like he was just running into a boot because that's the spot. It looks more violent when you see Aries leaping in for an elbow and you see his trajectory get changed by a kick to the face. Aries is smart about suckering ACH into doing dumb things (those splashes!) and we get a good nearfall when ACH hits knees on a 450, with Aries then immediately rolling him over into the Last Chancery, with ACH getting the ropes. Aries' brainbuster looked like something that should certainly end a match, he really has a great one. There were some exposed wires in this, from little things like Aries putting himself back into a headscissors to complete a sequence or ACH waiting frozen for Aries to run into his kick, to bigger things like a violent death valley driver on the apron that's mostly brushed off 10 seconds later. That driver just felt really unnecessary, but if you're going to use it, treat it like a big deal. Still, this had a hot pace, and was a nice debut feature match.

The Dirty Blondes vs. Jason Cade/Jimmy Yuta  MLW Fusion #2 4/12 (Aired 4/27/18)

ER: I can't really recommend this as a good match because Jimmy Yuta really stinks (his timing is terrible and he runs through one of the more embarrassing hot tags in this match), but it's such a fantastic showcase for the Blondes and especially Leo Brien. Leo Brien is a cool fat Steve Corino and wrestles like the best southern heels. He throws great punches, cuts low and fast on clotheslines, throws great elbows, drops a tremendous kneedrop and elbowdrop, he's a guy who really gets it. Patrick isn't far behind and he won me over for eternity with a really nice fistdrop. Cade isn't bad, I liked him attacking Brien at the bell with a hard dropkick and laid in some elbows, eats offense well, a guy who I would look for more if he had a better partner. So, not really a good match, but the Blondes are legit.

Fred Yehi vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman  MLW Fusion #4 4/12 (Aired 5/11/18)

ER: Yehi is really one of the top 10 workers in the world this year, and this is the first I'm seeing of MJF. MJF is really polished for a guy as young as he is, and he was a fun guy to get beat up by Yehi. Yehi tore it up, and looked like a guy who MJF wouldn't have any kind of answers for Yehi, as Yehi was running this show. He starts with a few hard shoulder blocks, switching up his rope running on one of them by rushing out of the corner followed hotly by MJF, then just cutting 90 degrees and blindsiding him off the ropes. Yehi hits a big back elbow, stomps hands, and hits a really cool German where he delays a little at first and then snaps him over. Schiavone seemed really impressed by that one. Yehi starts selling his left arm, and it comes about in a neat way: Yehi tries to Irish whip MJF, MJF holds onto the ropes tight, and right after Yehi shakes his arm out a bit. That would really be all it takes to tweak a limb, you miscalculate a step and end up taking it weird, suddenly your knee or foot feels funny, so I like that Yehi just built an injury like that from something believable. So that gave MJF a nice target, and believably slowed Yehi down enough, but it certainly didn't slow him down entirely. Yehi was still on the attack, throwing his heavy chops, using his dead arm for a backfist (why is that a theme with matches we review now??), blocking MJF's strikes in really cool ways, laying in that low dropkick (he hits that low dropkick better than almost anyone, and I dug how MJF came up rubbing out his jaw), and dropping a heavy dragon suplex (called as such by Schiavone, who genuinely feels reenergized and excited as an announcer). This was a fairly dominant Yehi performance up to this point, so the ending was both satisfying from a heel standpoint, and disappointing from a match standpoint, as MJF yanks the ref in front of himself as a human shield, then eye pokes Yehi, double stomps him, and rolls him up. The match at least did a decent job of featuring both guys, showing all of Yehi's damn cool offense, and establishing MJF as a decent heel. I wish it wasn't Yehi getting the loss, but hopefully he'll be featured more.

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2018 MOTY List: Bone Collector vs. Yehi

44. Dominic Garrini vs. Fred Yehi EVOLVE 100 2/17

PAS:  Lots of great grappling to start this match as one might expect. Yehi has really strong takedowns and Garrini has fun ways to roll out of them. Watching Garrini over the last year, he has really improved the force on his strikes, he wallops Yehi with a big knee and lays in some slaps. I also really like his waistlock throw into an armbar and thought it was a cool near fall. Finish fell a little flat with me, as Yehi felt like he beat Garrini a little easily and it lacked drama. Felt like the inevitable rematch will be really good, as this had some tastes of greatness.

ER: This was among the most smoking 7 minutes of wrestling action this whole year. It had some cracks, it wasn't seamless; Garrini is still not great at occupying himself while waiting for something that's supposed to happen. He's a little too obvious when he's leaving his leg or neck hanging out there, getting a bit too still. It only really stood out here because the whole thing was worked at such a frenetic pace, that any split second of hesitation was suddenly visible. These two threw out a huge arsenal over 7 minutes, with the first 3 minutes being this awesome, fidgety paranoid grappling where neither guy wants to give an inch so they're pushing off each other but struggling at all points. Yehi had a bunch of cool takedowns in the match, a couple nice dragon screw variations, an awesome takedown where Garrini was going for a German and Yehi reversed momentum and threw him forward. Yehi moved so quick and broke out some cool stuff I've never seen: At one point Yehi head fakes Garrini into dropping down to stuff a takedown attempt, and Yehi immediately leaps through the air like Sakuraba and stomps Garrini right in his shoulder. Garrini threw some pick knees, agree with Phil that they were among the best I've seen him throw, and he has this great freak athlete-but-also-meathead charisma. Things ramped up when the grappling slowed and transitioned into these two trying to throw each other, and Garrini eats a nasty half nelson suplex and eats a dragon suplex that should damn near be illegal. Garrini doesn't take this manhandling lying down through, instead breaking out this crazy throw into an armbar, snatching Yehi out of the air, and leaps at him with a full guillotine choke trying to drag Yehi down. Yehi has come out of nowhere to be my favorite wrestler of the year. He almost always surprises me, and he almost always delivers.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Scenic City Invitational 2018 Night 2 8/4/18

Darius Lockhart vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

PAS: Really glad we got to see Scorp wrestle twice in this tourney, and he and Darius make a fun paring. It must be thrilling for young African American wrestlers like Gray and Darius to work with a total legend. Darius came straight with the stiff shots early including really laying into Scorpio in the ropes with nasty uppercuts. Scorp hit some big time elbows and a nice bodyscissors to take Lockhart to the floor. Finish was cool with Lockhart stopping to jaw with the fans and getting caught with a kappo kick, and then Scorp goes up and lands the diss that don't miss with both legs landing right on Lockhart's chest.

ER: There must be things that I don't know because it's weird to me that Scorpio isn't signed somewhere, either as a worker or as a trainer. He feels like a guy who should have been far more involved in the wrestling business over the last decade. This was really fun, Lockhart showed big stones by bringing the strikes to Scorp, knowing he was going to get leveled in return. Lockhart had some nice uppercuts and a spectacular diving clothesline that really made me sit up. I've seen Lockhart a bunch and don't remember him throwing something like that. Lockhart also impressed the hell out of me with his hammerlock cradle DDT; Scorpio has a lot of size on him and it looked really cool seeing him lift him up and over. Scorp still hits his spinning sidekick with tremendous force, and I've always loved his bodyscissors takedown to the floor. It's a real nice physics move that makes a ton of logical sense, and it's odd we don't see it used more (outside of Mysterio it's not really something I recall people doing). He can also still make skinning the cat look effortless, and Lockhart took a nice sprawling bump to the floor and then ate a nice baseball slide. Scorpio had a bunch of things I liked here, a nice kneedrop, and a mean chinlock where he was digging into Lockhart's face with his elbow. Scorpio's Drop the Bomb is certainly a finisher of all finishers, always getting super height on the moonsault and it looked like he did the most spectacular Bombs Away in history. Scrape Lockhart off the mat, boys.

Nick Gage vs. Corey Hollis

PAS: Gage maybe the most over guy in this whole show. He bumps Hollis all over the arena, including throwing him down the bleacher stairs. Hollis get virtually no offense, until the ref takes a hammer from Gage allowing Hollis to kick him low and roll him up. Fun showcase for Gage's offense and Hollis bumping, but not a particularly competitive match. Something that works better for a live crowd, then on tape.

ER: It didn't really bother me that Hollis had basically no offense in this one. He didn't have much offense in the Cross match either, relying mostly on stomps and some strikes. It kind of gave me a sleazy Stevie Richards vibe, a guy with minimal offense but a lot of energy and personality who will bump like mad. Stevie was able to craft a bunch of really fun 5-7 minute matches around stuff like back rakes and rubbing his boot eyelets across a guy's face. So I can get into a Hollis match where he gets his ass kicked around a high school and then wins with a hard kick to the balls and a snug small package. Hollis takes a bunch of great spills around the gym, flying through tows of chairs, brawling up the tall bleachers and falling down every seat, getting smacked by someone's cane, a fun beating. I thought Hollis made all of this work great, and really liked the finish, and especially him sprinting back through the curtain immediately following the 3 count.

Jake Parnell vs. Gary Jay

PAS: This is a big feud in the St. Louis area and they really went after each other. They really laced into each other with shots and it stood out in a tourney that was already pretty stiff. It had more of a ragged fight feel, then just trading shots and staring at each other in between. I especially enjoyed their open hand Ronnie Garvin chops, a really underused chop overall. I like Parnell's double stomps and how he used them both as offense and as a way to get laid out. That finish was class, with Parnell hitting the huge stomp to the floor, Jay barely beating the count, Parnell going for the finishing blow and getting dropped in midair by the KO elbow. Love how they have set that move up in this tourney, and this was even a cooler use of it, then in the Cain match.

ER: This felt like a much better version of what Stallion/Lynch was going for the night before. Rehearsed segments don't bother me if there's a little rawness to them, and not someone zoning out so he can concentrate on hitting the 3 in the 1 and a 2 and 3. These guys just kept socking each other and refreshingly didn't pause for any fighting spirit silliness or double fist pump yelling when rising from the mat. The big turning point for me was when Jay was laid out in the chairs, and Parnell started clapping and running around the ring. "Here it comes," I thought, "Here's were they get overly cute. I hope Jay just meets him halfway and levels him." Well, what they did was even better, even crazier, and hooked me in for the stretch. Parnell comes running in, all the way around the ring, and Jay gives him a huge backdrop right into the rows of chairs. Take my money, guys. Jay absolutely levels Parnell with a couple elbows in this one, total jawbreaking shots, and I thought all the striking, all the chops, played really well and came off vicious. There was no "catch my leg and spin me so I can hit an enziguiri that bounces you in the ropes so you can hit a rolling elbow and then we breathe heavy while clapping happens", none of that, just two dudes putting a pin on the map. Parnell nicely plants seeds for that double stomp of his early in the match, missing one off the apron, foreshadowing his late match stomps. Shout outs to the camera crew as I really loved the visual of him climbing to the top to hit one more to the floor, as we cut to a great wide shot of the venue and see the crowd start to rise as Parnell climbs up. Jay's KO punch was expertly set up in the night 1 Cain Justice match, but it still surprised me to see him hit it here. I thought he was finished. I like that in two matches they've now established it as a confident KO shot, and as a desperate half court buzzer beater.

AJ Gray vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Another fun match, that although it had a couple indy spots that I didn't like, I absolutely liked how they treated those specific spots within the match. The spots came during the home stretch of the match, and started with Yehi giving Gray a spider German suplex from the top rope, and saw Gray stagger back to his feet. At first I bristled, as you instinctively see a guy just popping up from a German and running back into action. But Gray was flipped over and landed more on his knees than anything, so really took no more of a bump than if he had missed a standing moonsault or something a bit higher, so seeing him stagger to his feet and run back and dropkick Yehi (still hung upside down in the ropes) made sense. I didn't love his RVD/Scoot Andrews-ish dropkick right after, with Yehi doing his best to occupy himself while hung upside down, and the kick didn't land great...but it totally worked for me because Yehi didn't treat the kick as if it landed great either, instead freeing himself and then teeing off on Gray. Both guys had nice moments in this (although Yehi is easily THEE GUY in this tourney so far), with Yehi hitting those bruising chops and sharp dropkicks, Gray taking a huge spill to the floor and throwing several really good punches in a couple different varieties (I like how he throws a Jeff Hardy whip style punch, but keeps a tighter fist during it). The finish was just brutal, with Yehi stomping Gray and locking on the Koji Clutch, losing it, and then taking it right out on Gray, stomping even more viciously, locking the Clutch back in, and beating him across the face with the meanest blows. Good call on ref stoppage, and considering I've seen plenty of bad stoppage finishes in the last 5-10 years of indy wrestling, it says a lot about the wrestlers involved that we got two good ones two nights in a row.

PAS: Yehi is pretty undeniable so far in 2018, it really feels like he was energized by parting ways with EVOLVE and WWN (and boy could they use him back, that roster is slim). I am not sold on Gray yet, he clearly has a lot of athleticism ( I loved him in that AIW 10 man from last year) but he doesn't seem able to full put it together in a singles match yet. I loved Yehi's viciousness, every time this match threatened to get dancey, Yehi would stomp or throw a big right hand and it would turn right back into a fist fight. The finishes in this tourney have been great and Yehi locking in that Koji clutch, landing huge stomps and crossfaces until the pass out was great stuff. What a killer.

Joey Lynch vs. PCO

ER: So they definitely captured the excitement of the room with this one, even if there were parts of it that kept me from wholly digging it. The craziness and the oppressively constant pace of this was definitely its strength as they started at high energy and kept trying to peak things, mostly successfully. My main gripes were that both guys seemed very married to sequences, so if something didn't hit or didn't look great, it was treated exactly the same as something that looked absolutely devastating. There was plenty of devastating stuff in this match, and it sadly felt much less devastating once every move was sold essentially the same. The energy was there in spades, and that goes a long way, and contributed in big ways to the moments that worked. PCO has no problem taking stupid stuff now that he's 50, just taking some of the absolute worst bumps of his career. He comes off a bit like a geek show attraction though, and there's an odd sympathy to seeing him get kicked in the face or take a rough spill on a gym floor. One night after I was throwing out praise for them doing a big tournament without any crazy apron spots, of course we get an apron spot crazy and dumb enough that I wouldn't be shocked if they ripped it from the Hell Storm/Crazy Crusher ladder match, with PCO eating a suplex from the top to the apron. Lynch hits that "run around the ring attack" spot that I loved getting reversed in the Jay/Parnell match, but of course Lynch is going to be the guy who does it. Both guys take bumps through chairs, Lynch took a really hard chokeslam bump through several of them (though it looked a little goofy as he leaped up for the chokeslam way before PCO had begun the move, so it looked like Lynch just leaping backwards into chairs while PCO stood nearby), but they transition from that right into hitting big moves in the ring, and somehow made a lot of big stuff come off same-y. We get a couple of big nearfalls from both men off of moonsaults that didn't connect. PCO overshoots, Lynch overshoots twice, fans are into it and Cecil Scott is selling his freaking ass off, but I thought it looked bad. However, I really really liked the finish. Lynch finds his distance after a couple moonsaults, and then just hits 5 more moonsaults on PCO, all connecting flush. That was a great visual, and there were amusing moments throughout the moonsault run where PCO kept doing Undertaker/Frankenstein's Monster sit-ups (although I wasn't a fan of Lynch's loose thigh slap superkicks to knock him back down), but the consecutive moonsaults as a finish worked for me.

PAS: I thought this was unquestionably great, easily one of the PCO performance on the comeback trail (I would only put the WALTER match above it.) PCO is at his best when he is IWA-Japan Terry Funk, an old lunatic taking crazy bumps, delivering beatings and making weird faces. That apron bump was insane stuff, as was all of Lynch's bumps into chairs. I thought Lynch's tope to open the match set the tone nicely, and actually looked good (there have been some dicey topes in this tourney, I am looking at you Gary Jay) These kind of stunt brawls always work better as crazy sprints, and they kept this one moving, it felt like one of the great Necro Butcher brawls in the mid 2000s, although a step below the truly transcendent ones. I actually liked that PCO's moonsault didn't hit clean, he landed his head right into Lynch's stomach, I don't want Chris Daniels execution from a fifty year old French Canadian cyborg. I thought the multiple moonsaults was a very cool finish, although I do wish the superkicks hit cleaner. I get why this was such a hit live, and although I liked Yehi vs. Warner better, I think this was the match of night 2.

Marko Stunt vs. Shaggy vs. Matt Lynch vs. Ike Cross vs. AC Mack vs. Cyrus the Destroyer

ER: This was about as much fun as you could reasonably expect from a scramble; everybody got to showcase what they could do, and I came away really impressed with Cross, Mack, and Cyrus. Cyrus was the big beast at the center, throwing hard strikes and being involved in a bunch of cool spots. He amusingly no sells a AC Mack dive, takes an unexpected rana from cousin Shaggy (nice rana too) and later catches a second rana and plants him with an apron powerbomb, misses a big boy crossbody, gets plastered by a cool in ring dive from Cross, goes over hard on an assisted German, a real good big-man-in-a-scramble performance. Mack was someone I'd never seen before but now I want to see a lot. A good heel in a match like this always makes these things better, and he knew right when to stooge and right when to be mean, so it was fitting he got the opportunistic win. I really liked how he carried himself, seems like he would play well in singles. Cross impresses again, just like his eye opening performance on night one, here he breaks out more new tricks. I love the way he disposed of Cyrus, this crazy shoulderblock dive that took both men from in ring to wildly tumbling to the floor. The guy is such a freak athlete he even wound up landing on his feet after a tope con hilo. I also thought he was good stalling on the floor while waiting for Marko Stunt's big Cyrus-assisted moonsault. It's pretty easy to see why Stunt broke out this weekend, he's super small, fun-sized, but makes the most of his moments. He hit a cool sunset flip after leaping over a Cross spear, was real good about quickly getting into position for his shots (he had a super fast smooth kip up that looked especially good), hit a nice springboard dropkick to help German suplex Cyrus, and a couple times he rolled guys into cool looking knee lifts. Multimans like this seem impossible to mess up, but they end up working less often than not working. You end up with guys lying around too long, people not knowing how to busy themselves until their turn to hit stuff, guys getting in each other's way, etc. There was none of that here, just good action.

PAS: I could have done without the Marko and Shaggy comedy section and the beyond played out tower of doom spot (although Cyrus turned the power bomb part of that move into an impressive show of strength), but outside of that this was a blast. I thought everyone looked pretty good, with Cyrus especially doing a great job as king kong swatting down planes. Cross impressed me again, his diving tackles into a prone Cyrus would be 15 yards in the NFL and ended up being one of the coolest spots of the entire tourney. If I was running WWN I would sign him and push him to the top of the fed, let him work his way up to the skill level of the other guys like Riddle did. Marko is fun, I am not sure if he is better at what he does then Cool J or Weird Body, but he definitely has a lot of charisma and great timing.

Cain Justice/Mance Warner vs. The Carnies

ER: Pretty disappointing. There were portions of this that felt like the Carnies just working on material at home in front of their friends, and maybe that's what this is. There was an over-reliance on double team cooperative tandem stuff, and a lot of it felt like one of those old ECW Eliminators showcases, where they just kind of moved their opponents into position as if they were lifeless crash test dummies. We went through a few Carnies set pieces, had a couple dumb looking RVD missed chairshot spots, where both Carnies had to slowly miss chairshots and then hold them in front of their face, while Mance stupidly headbutts the chair and Cain kicks a chair with his bare feet. None of it looked good. Then just a few minutes into a short match we get a silly teeth-gritted "We're in a WAR" tandem strike exchange, with both teams running back and forth in stereo. Some of the strikes looked good, but the set ups all looked so phony that it just didn't work. So naturally we end with a needlessly dangerous spot for a rushed match like this, with Warner getting recklessly piledriven off the apron through a table. Totally felt like it happened in a different match, way out of place and unnecessary. Afterward we get one of those bad indy show of respects, with open hand outstretched for a respect handshake while the other hand is holding the body because of the war that just happened. Warner accepted, Cain thankfully said nuts to this and walked away.

PAS: There was some stuff in this I liked, I thought Cain was pretty good, and the stuff with his knee felt like it belonged in a different, better match. Especially nasty was when he got the chair kicked right down into his patella. Mance throwing the chair right at Nick Iggy and Cain spinning right into the crossarmbreaker was a super cool spot too. I agree that the Carnies wanted to show off all of their Nova and Frankie Kazarian tag offense, and a lot of that was really dumb, but I think this had enough cool Cain stuff and Kerry Awful clotheslines for me to mildly recommend it.

Corey Hollis vs. Fred Yehi vs. Joey Lynch vs. Gary Jay

ER: Kind of an end of tournament letdown for me. It felt like something put together and worked like a Joey Lynch match, who obviously went on to win in the match. Lynch was probably my least favorite guy in the tournament, so there were going to be parts of it that didn't work for me. I thought Yehi was the MVP of the tournament, and he was eliminated first here. He wasn't focused on much before elimination anyway, but I really liked his backpack Oklahoma Stampedes, those look vicious as hell and nobody else does them. Hollis stayed out of a lot of this too, which was kind of his shtick, running in to capitalize on the moves of others, running while getting chased, working more comical cocky southern heel. But it basically made this a Gary Jay vs. Joey Lynch match, which would have been my last pick of possible singles pairings out of these possibilities. Their stuff wasn't bad, but some of it wasn't my thing. There was a modern Malenko/Guerrero 2 count sequence that felt so weirdly and annoyingly out of place, but there were some real nice punches from Jay, a mean shot to the back of Lynch's head, a pretty wild spot where Jay only grazes Lynch on a dive, so Lynch grabs him and hits a hard Angle Slam on the floor. But there were some ugly patches, like Lynch hitting a wobbly twisting press to the floor that somehow none of the other three catch. Lynch fell hard and fast, right through everyone. So it was a little disheartening to just see him doing his thing after that. I know, he was going to win, but man it was a bad spill. He also just needs to ditch that moonsault. I don't think the two he used at the end looked good, they were overshot and didn't look nearly as painful as other stuff in the match. Plus, there was some badly thought out spot earlier where he broke up a pin with a moonsault but due to positioning he ended up almost breaking Yehi and Hollis' arms. This guy seems to be doing a 1998 Billy Kidman "bad landing for everyone involved" highflying tribute. I also really didn't need several Canadian Destroyers. Lynch doesn't hit them very well and they just felt really out of place in the tournament to me. I did really like the big Hollis ball kick on Lynch. After it happened I immediately wanted that to become the culmination of the weekend. We've already seen Hollis effectively moving up that ladder by targeting balls, and if the tournament had ended up being a showcase for the virtues of ball kicking. Hollis working his way successfully through a tournament just by kicking balls would have been legendary. They went a different way though, and at the end of the day I just really, really needed more ball selling from Lynch. Man treats getting kicked in the balls with no gravitas? That's not a man I can relate to. I can remember each individual time in my life that I've taken one to the balls. It hasn't happened often, but everyone reading this has a memory of taking an unexpected shot. I wanted more.

PAS: I came away from this match wanting to see a Corey Hollis vs. Fred Yehi singles match, and that was a matchup we hardly saw. I liked Lynch OK in the PCO match, but this was not his best stuff, the Canadian Destroyer into a Moonsault stuff is pretty bad looking, for a guy with King of Moonsault on his trunks, he over shoots it a ton. I actually liked him breaking up the Koji clutch with a moonsault, that looked like it hurt, which I never mind. I get why Lynch won, he is the local guy who finally climbed the mountain, but it wasn't for me.

PAS: I liked Night 2 fine, it didn't have the peaks of night one, but both Jay vs. Parnell and PCO and Lynch make our 2018 Ongoing MOTY list. I do want to give props to the guys who ran these shows, everything moved quickly, nothing wore out its welcome and the finishes were pretty flawless.

ER: Yes, despite not liking Night 2 as much as Night 1, I still love the presentation and timing on these shows. Two nights edited to a tight 4 hours (plus a brisk Futures show that I still plan on writing), with hardly any of the matches feeling "same-y". That's the kind of stuff that will keep me coming back to a fed/group. This tournament made me think that Yehi might be the best in the world, and made me want to seek out any Mack/Cross action I can find. I also don't think we mentioned the commentary crew as much as we should have. I thought Cecil Scott and Dragon Dan Wilson did a fantastic job throughout, truly captured the excitement of the whole weekend. Maybe I'll make my way to TN in one year's time...

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