2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

15. Damien Wayne v. Preston Quinn Fusion Wrestling 5/24

PAS: These are the two best Mid-Atlantic Indy wrestlers of the last decade plus, and this is the first really big time main event singles match I have seen between the two, and outside of a bit of crap ending it lives up to all I hoped it would be. Wayne is coming in as the heel and Quinn is coming in as the champ, and early we get a lot of fun face beatdown stuff while Wayne stooges. Quinn has such beautiful punches, it is a pleasure to watch him unload on a guy. There is a great section where Quinn does four different nut shot variations (dick punch, regular atomic drop, inverted atomic drop, kick the ropes into the balls) and Wayne does an 11 on the Rick Rude scale sell.  Lance Erickson unloads some punches on the floor (which also looked great, it's contagious) which gives Wayne and advantage which he does the great switch from stooge to killer. Finish run is awesome with trading punches back and forth, a great Quinn Lawler style hulk up, a crazy missed top rope flip from Wayne, all unfortunately ending in a ref bump and run ins to set up a tag. Still this gets 20 plus minutes of greatness before the finish, and a fun post match brawl after. Well worth the 5 bucks off of Fusion's website, and so happy I finally got to see these guys stretch out and have a classic.

ER: So Phil calls me up the other evening and proceeds to do that endearing/annoying/entirely Phil thing of watching a match that I do not have a way of watching in that moment, and then exclaiming out loud about the match while I attempt to carry on a conversation with him about things that are not that match. So I will be making small talk and Phil will interrupt me, with his interruptions punctuated by "JESUS" or "OH GOD". Taken out of context and Phil may sound like a religious man, not a man watching other men fake fight. He will also mutter things under his breath like "Preston Quinn throws a great fucking punch. Fuck, Damien Wayne throws a great punch." This is all while I am talking, and he is watching images that I cannot see, and he called me. This is a very much Phil thing. So then I just silently root for things to finish so we can talk like human beings. Although this did allow me to witness the oral account of Phil wanting a clean finish, while also not thinking there was any chance of a clean finish. It was a whirlwind conversation. I consoled him after the double DQ finish.

But this match - once I got to see it - was really great. I felt this surge of Don West roaring through me, as there was an overabundance of incredible wrestling punches in this match, and they were flying off the shelves at bargain basement prices. GEM MINT 10 PUNCHES!! Literally every person involved with this match who threw a punch, knew how to throw a really great punch. Wayne and Quinn firing back and forth at each other for 20 minutes transported me back to Dundee/Lawler '83, just when you thought you saw the best punch of the match you would be proven wrong 30 seconds later. Quinn's left hands looked majestic. Every angle, every punch. It is exactly what you imagine the perfect pro wrestling punches looking like. And then Wayne unleashes these straight rights and you go "Wait maybe THAT is what I imagine the perfect pro wrestling punches look like..." Quinn flicks Wayne in the dick while Wayne is hanged in the tree of woe, the way assholes would in high school. Looking back and a good 2+ years of high school was just trying to not get your dick flicked. Maybe it was different for people that didn't play sports. But Quinn clearly knows the motions and Wayne sells it as a man who has just had his genitals flicked. It's the worst pain in the world for 4 seconds. Like stubbing your toe. That kind of stubbed toe pain that makes you blindly and momentarily furious at the inanimate object you just stubbed your toe on. The Rick Rude atomic drop selling from Wayne is spectacular. For such a flawless sell (and I think everybody recognized Rude's atomic drop sell as the greatest from the first moment they saw it) it's kind of wild that nobody else has ever appropriated it. I guess the atomic drop in general is kind of a move on its way out, which is a shame. Anyway, this match was great. 20 minutes of the two greatest modern punchers, punching each other and dropping elbows and knees. You come out of your daze not realizing 20 minutes has passed. It's awesome; the greatest Wayne/Quinn showdown I have witnessed.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

27. Preston Quinn/Pat Cusik v. Damien Wayne/Mike Booth Fusion Wrestling 9/27

PAS: This was a street fight with Wayne having to leave town if he lost. Wayne, Booth and Quinn were an awesome trio team called the Old School Empire for years, in Fusion for the last couple of years Wayne had been feuding with Quinn since turning on him, and Booth was his surprise tag partner, also turning on PQ. This was a great old school southern brawl, Quinn has some of the best punches in wrestling, and the other three aren't far behind, and lots of this match was just toe to toe fist fighting. They build nicely to some big near falls, including Quinn hitting one of the prettiest brainbusters I have seen in years, and planting Wayne with a spinebuster. The finish was pretty cool, with a Booth cheap shot chop block leading to a huge Savage elbow on Cusik. Exactly what you would want from this match on paper, and well worth the $5 I paid for the show. Feels like I am going to pick up all of the Wayne v. PQ stuff, they are both still so good.

ER: What a great little fight this was. Just a rough and tumble tornado rules brawl that never devolves into a mess, just comes off like a chaotic street fight. I think Quinn has unequivocally the best punches in wrestling today, which lends nicely to a street fight. All of his shots built to nice moments in the match. If you thought his short lefts were nasty just wait until you see that hooking left! His punches lend legitimacy to this kind of match, and his brainbuster begins to plaster in that hole that Hashimoto left in your heart. Then he goes and puts a wax seal on the whole thing by breaking out the Anderson spinebuster. Preston Quinn, just going down the list and ticking off the boxes of all the things I love about wrestling. Damien Wayne is also a guy who is just as good as the first time I saw him. His chops are brutal enough that they don't look silly in a street fight. Since this is No DQ and tornado rules we don't get so many pinfall saves and cutting off the ring, as we get kicks to the balls and guys getting chucked into ringposts. That seems like a fine tradeoff to me. I had never seen Cusick before but he filled in fine as a scrappy weakish link on Quinn's team, and Booth is a guy who always looks good when I see him yet remains a guy I forget to look for. Good find Phil, everybody else go toss some dollars towards Fusion to watch a few great wrestlers who more people should talk about.


2014 MASTER LIST

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