No Expectations, Borga Just Drifts and Drifts

Ludvig Borga vs. Gary Jackson  WWF Wrestling Challenge 10/10/93 - FUN

ER: Effective squash with a cool opponent. Gary Jackson worked USWA for a bit as Night Train Jackson, and does great wobbly legs selling for all of Borga's awesome body blows. Borga throws several punches under the ribs and into the kidneys, and Jackson buckles his knees for every one of them. You don't really get to see a ton of personality from 2/3 of the guys doing job work, so a guy who wobbles will stand out every time over the jobbers who just lie there. There are a shocking amount of jobbers who just lie there. Take a move, lie motionless on the mat, and occasionally do one of those full body heave sells. And here's Night Train out there going spaghetti legged on vicious punches. Sometimes Borga works with it, like when he grabs a tight side headlock after a dropped-to-his-knees Jackson is still selling and at perfect head squeezing height. Borga hits a big spinebuster, drops the point of his elbow into Jackson's chest, and finishes with the torture rack after punishing this poor man's midsection. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Tony Roy WWF Superstars 10/16/93 - FUN

ER: Tony Roy never had a chance. Borga shoves him hard into the corner during the introductions and begins a punishing series of body shots (lefts and rights, but mostly rights) and a healthy number of excellent kneelifts. Borga has gotten really good at yelling at fans while dishing out a painful beating. The fans respond to him in ways they don't respond to other heels, because he's good at keeping them engaged and - while he doesn't have a deep moveset - he mixes up his offense between matches enough that he's not just going out there working the same thing in the same order (and this sets him apart from guys like Mr. Perfect or IRS). He throws Roy up with a flapjack and then uppercuts him in the stomach on his way down, and while it doesn't really read as cool as sounds, it's still a cool ass thing to put in a match. His elbowdrop looks great, and I really love how he uses the hard shots to the body to directly set up the torture rack. The fact Borga looks so unpleasant and angry through all of his squashes only makes them better. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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Indie Fat Guy Investigation: Kevin Lee Davidson

Many many months ago on ROH TV there was a pointless squash match with Michael Elgin going over a massive man named Kevin Lee Davidson after just one clothesline. Those kind of squash matches serve no purpose in today's wrestling. Not one person in the crowd was going "Well hey now did you see THAT!? Elgin beat that incredibly large man with just ONE clothesline! Elgin must have super arms of strengthened steel! I like Michael Elgin much more now, because of what I just witnessed and I want to know the answer to whether or not he has steel arms!" The purpose was to make Elgin look unfuckwithable, but really all it did was make me upset that I didn't get some sort of actual match. It made me especially upset, as I wanted to see more of this mystery giant fat guy. Giant fat guys are probably my favorite wrestlers. And here was a new giant fat guy! So really what ROH's incompetence accomplished, is it made me a) roll my eyes at their "plan", and b) go on an internet search for mystery giant fat guy.

1. Kevin Lee Davidson vs. Gary Jackson, MMWA Wrestling 10/10/15

This is just a 7 minute match with an unsatisfying, show-ending finish that saw Davidson just walk to the back to save his title, but this was a fun 7 minutes. Davidson really is massive and has similar movements to Akebono. He's slightly smaller but actually shaped similarly, and while he doesn't have the insane power that Akebono does he clearly has agility in different ways. At times I thought he was almost a bit too giving with Jackson, letting Jackson transition to strikes a little too easily at times. But still this is 80% controlled by Davidson, as it should be for a guy who is both champion, and massive. He throws some big back elbows (I love the ones in the corner), a slick vertical suplex, some nice stomps to the back of the head, nice knee lift, and then really surprises me by hitting a real great spinning heel kick. Jackson for his part throws some decent short right hands and a nice sharp elbowdrop. Davidson generously goes up for a big back suplex bump. I liked this. It had that unsatisfying finish, but made me want to see more Davidson, which was what this investigation was about, so that's a success.


2. Kevin Lee Davidson vs. Chris Lexx, SGWA 4/8/16

SGWA stands for "South's Greatest Wrestling Association", by the way. And I really liked this, though the structure was a little frustrating. Lexx is a weird case of a guy with what seems like real good ability, and real terrible shtick and personality. KLD was already in the ring when the video started, and Lexx came out and as the match started he immediately went into the tired old routine of asking the fans for cheers, then having them boo KLD, doing pose offs, all sorts of played out shtick that's usually done by people who know they don't have actual ability to have a decent match, so they involve the crowd in other ways. Then things finally get going and Lexx has actual good punches and a great back elbow and it's like motherfucker, why didn't you lead with that!? KLD looked pretty awesome here, the guy throws nice punches, throws these huge kicks (his kick to a downed Lexx was brutal), works stiff and works real well as a bully, throws in some shtick (setting up a big splash and then just bending down to spit on Lexx), misses stuff with authority, and has that fucking wild card spinning heel kick that is just one of the most awesome current high spots in wrestling. He's a really big guy, and he just whips right into that kick. Finish is a dud as KLD misses FOUR corner charges and, exhausted, falls over, allowing Lexx to hit the big splash for the win. The corner charges looked silly by the second one. But by the 4th they just had to be looking for laughs from the boys in the back. STILL, I liked both guys, especially KLD. I may have to start regularly seeking him out. Lexx also looked good, especially down the stretch after he cut out the nonsense, so might have to go down a YouTube rabbit hole with him as well.


So this was a pretty successful little search. KLD is a guy I'm gonna look out for, and a guy that others should check out. There may be another post about him, oh that mystery fat guy. EVERYBODY SEND ME MORE MYSTERY FAT GUYS!! I DEMAND THEM!

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