Action Wrestling 4/27/18 Cherry Picking

This was the debut of this promotion, they showed it on Powerbomb and it has a couple of on-paper bangers in its two main events

Arik Royal vs. Michael Spencer

ER: This is one of those matches where it isn't really fair to criticize, as Spencer didn't really look like someone who should be in a pro wrestling ring, but he was, and the match happened. I feel for the guy, because there were some early exchanges that he got totally crossed up on, an awkward headlock exchange, a really poor wheelbarrow into an armdrag that threatened to fall apart every single step of the way but was muscled through by Royal, and peaking with the moment where he hits his one highspot of the match...and he just fell off the ropes and missed Royal entirely. I think he was going for a leaping back elbow, but he ended up elbowing the mat. He at least attempted a type of superkick after. It's a relatable bad situation, where you're in front of a crowd and you just fall on your face (literally in this instance). I played trombone in high school and college, and I was good, but never got VERY good. But I was good enough to get solos and some standout melodies. And one day after doing a workshop all day and having to play a concert that night, my lip was completely dead and I tanked it, couldn't hit some of the higher notes, not as crisp of a sound, not my best. It was embarrassing, even if I'm not sure anybody else cared, or possibly even noticed, but it was a humbling moment. This match was probably humbling for Spencer, but he did it. He'll do better. He probably won't do a lot worse. I hope he was able to laugh about it backstage. Arik Royal looked great here, and turned some lemons into lemonade. It felt like a fun 1996 WCW Worldwide squash. Royal threw a punch of palm thrusts to Spencer's body, used the middle rope as a weapon by shoving Spencer kidney's first into it, hit the grounded shoulderblock and the big upending running tackle (Royal's versions are two of my favorite moves in modern wrestling), and you know what? Spencer bumped these two different shoulderblocks really great. They aren't easy moves to bump, and his bumps looked good. I hope he focuses on that.

Ethan Alexander Sharpe vs. James Brady vs. Donnie Dollars vs. Adrian Hawkins

ER: I gotta support my CWF guys, and I thought they were the standouts in this, but this was pretty short for a "first pinfall wins" kind of match. You'd think you could get an easy 12 minutes just from guys making saves, but this was barely 5 minutes. Dollars looked great with some nasty knees to the gut and a big double clothesline, there was amusing spot where the other three pinballed Sharpe around with strikes, Sharpe pulled out a really awesome headbutt on Brady, just grabbing him with both hands and smashing that head downwards, even selling double vision and straightening his nose afterwards, and Brady had a nice flying kick to the back of Sharpe's head. Fun, but inconsequential.

Cain Justice vs. Fred Yehi

PAS: By far the biggest non-CWF match of Cain's career, and 2018 is clearly going to be the year he branches out to other places. Since leaving WWN Yehi has been under the radar (no Wrestlemania weekend bookings was pretty surprising), so I am glad to see him again. This really delivered what I was hoping for, these are two of the more interesting offensive wrestlers around and they mixed well together. Yehi really dominated the opening section of the match, hitting Cain with his weird stomps and low dropkicks, they spill to the floor and Cain accidentally chops a refrigerator and takes a bump over a merch table. Cain is able to get a bit of an advantage and jam Fred's hand into a hook on the ring post and do a unique looking finger break spot. Then we have a cool story with Cain working the hand to get an advantage and Yehi landing big shots with his other hand. We get some cool submission attempts by both guys and cool finish. Great stuff, and I am excited to see Cain work outside of his comfort zone.

ER: I was really excited to see Cain work outside the Sportatorium, outside of NC, and it's clear he's confident enough to work in front of any crowd. He carried himself with the same swagger, and this was a big match. I loved how the first part of the match was Yehi just totally outgunning him, one step ahead, Cain stumbling away from him as Yehi focuses in all his attacks. Cain is really great at selling the Yehi Stomp, and I love that it started when Cain slid back into the ring and Yehi just stomped his hand. Yehi is smart about setting up a piece of bigger offense with a stomp, like stomping on Cain's inner knee before hitting a low dropkick off the ropes, and he's good at making some reversals feel natural, like when he chopped a Cain elbow attempt out of the air. The brawl around the crowd was really fun, with Cain missing a chop and chopping a refrigerator, then getting tossed over tables and into some wrestling mats. Stumbling Cain is really good, he's not someone who will just do a wandering brawl, walking and holding each other by the hair; he'll fall, lash back unexpectedly, leave his opponent openings, really makes a crowd brawl interesting, and he really shows he's great at reading a room. It's an impressive skill to have so early, as plenty of good wrestlers don't ever really have that. Getting your face smacked on the edge of the apron 10 times in a row could come off hokey, but they read the room and the fans are counting along with all of them. There are a ton of CWF guys who are great at a through the crowd brawl, better than any Japanese garbage fed or old ECW guys. I'm pretty tired of finger breaking spots, but those ringposts were so gnarly that they had to be used in SOME way. You know if Finlay were working a card, and the ringpost had hooks sticking out like that, he'd find a way to hurt his opponent with them, so I totally get Cain jamming Yehi's fingers in there and snapping. Yehi for his part actually remembered what had happened (many guys don't) and Cain kept going back to that hand to torture him. Yehi is really quick in grabbing the Koji Clutch, and I liked Cain grabbing him in a triangle but immediately having to let go due to his shoulders being down, and Yehi rolling into the clutch. Excellent opportunity for Cain, and he delivered.

Gunner Miller vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: First time matchup between two up and coming indy stars. Garrini has gotten really good at using his ju-jitsu as a surprise attack, Dylan compares him to Fujiwara on commentary (which is a little like calling Harold Minor Baby Jordan) and there are some similarities to the way Garinni attacks from odd angles, and suckers his opponent in. Miller is a naturally aggressive wrestler and there are a bunch of neat spots where his aggression backfires. He turns a test of strength into a monkey flip crossarmbreaker, goes for a flying armbar, turns a shoulder block in the corner into a guillotine choke. Miller uses force and power to get an advantage, hitting some big shoulder blocks, and powering out of Garrini's submissions, including an awesome jackhammer out of a flying guillotine. Just a great match, and I could see this being a long term feud.

ER: This might have been my favorite overall Garrini performance. Sometimes I think he gets a little too stuck hitting strike combos, and those can come off really robotic and slow, here he was just a sentient bear trap working to snap his jaws on Gunner at every chance. Garrini uses his strength to turn a knucklelock into a triangle, dragging Gunner down by dropping to his back and maneuvering into the choke, knuckles locked the whole time. Later he pops up and I think he's going to hit a rana, and instead he just hangs off Gunner's arm to try to twist it off. Gunner was great at using his power, and I loved how a Garrini reversal was always lurking. The guillotine attempt off shoulders in the corner was really cool, and not something you see a lot. There are a lot of pro wrestling spots that are just done through the motions, and it's great for Garrini to remind people that he's not someone who is always going to sit around through typical spots. Garrini does start doing a slow strike combo, and it has a great twist because Gunner blocks a slow spinning back elbow and hits a huge pounce, with Garrini bumping spectacularly into the ropes. The finish was absolutely fantastic. Gunner hits a big time spinebuster but then lingers, so Garrini springs up and grabs a guillotine. Gunner powers to his feet and grabs for the ropes, Garrini kicks them away from the ropes, holding the guillotine the whole time, and Gunner pauses and then muscles Garrini over for an insane jackhammer. Awesome, awesome moment and a fitting finish. Killer match.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CAIN JUSTICE

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Gladiator v. Gunner

38. Gladiator Jeremiah v. Gunner Miller Anarchy Wrestling 6/10

PAS: This was also very good stuff. This was a Captain's match for the WarGames match, with the winner's team getting the advantage. Jeremiah (aka Slim J) is one of the most underrated great wrestlers of this century. Outside of a brief ROH run, he has worked pretty exclusively in the South and is always well worth watching. He seems to be a bit more ground based with the Jeremiah gimmick, but he has great bumping and a ton of intensity. He takes over early on Miller really pounding on him, until Miller is able to grab a big boot and hyperextend Jeremiah's knee. Then Miller really rips at the knee and the match is built around Jeremiah fighting back with a bad wheel. Finish run was really great with Jeremiah's bumping making Miller's football tackle and diving headbutt spear look brutal. This was the first time these two had wrestled each other in a singles and their chemistry was great, I hope Anarchy runs this match back, and I am suitably pumped for War Games.

ER: Man I really missed out on tons of Slim J. I wrote him off pretty much immediately. I saw him on an early TNA weekly PPV in a throwaway trios where he was pretty much positioned to be the least impressive guy in the match, and sure enough, I wasn't impressed. He was probably a teenager, and I was barely not a teenager. Now 15 years later I think he's consistently the best guy in his matches and I just kinda want to find the point where he got really great. Because he's really great. And it still seems like people are writing him off (his 2.69 rating on Cagematch is a cruel kick to the dick. The fucking Boogeyman is at 4.25!). The guy moves like a star and makes offense look deadly. Right from the start the two of them tease a lock up and after a few moments Jeremiah just cracks Gunner in the jaw in the meanest fashion, and all his shots look great and he comes up with some neat ways of catching Miller off guard (loved his little headscissor feint in the ropes). Miller eventually starts ripping into his knee, including some nasty stuff around a ring post, and all the knee stuff was real good. They kind of abandon it to go into a hot finishing sequence, but the moves in the finishing sequence hit big enough to make me forget a knee ever got worked over. Jeremiah gets a wild tornado DDT, and Miller has a few moves that pretty much involve him flinging his larger body into Jeremiah, and Jeremiah bumps like mad for it. Really both guys just make each other's stuff look like kill shots. Finish is good as Bailey distracts Jeremiah, and shows he's STILL the best sneak shot leg hooker in the game, swiping hard and fast at J's leg, leading to Miller absolutely knocking his block off with a flying forearm. Yeah, these two need to fight again.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: ANARCHY WARGAMES

15. Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azrael) Anarchy Wrestling 6/24

PAS: The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

ER: 10 years on, another great WarGames from Anarchy. They really capture the violence like few can. How many Monsters Ball and other cage matches did TNA run, none of them ever approached the violence here. The opening 5 was great, Jeremiah is a total savage and Buck is a big guy who bumps bigger all around the ring and immediately bleeds; Blue comes in and throws some so-so shots, and Jeremiah absolutely devours him like a Tazmanian Devil cartoon. This guy is great. And then I fall in love with Cyrus the Destroyer, who looks like Buster Bloodvessel at his biggest. He takes an absurd bump into the cage, just getting launched upside down into it and scraping down the side of it. As you'd expect, we get some wild cage bumps, with Gunner upping the ante later by missing a spear into the cage with gusto. Chris Spectra is a guy I've never seen before and he had an awesome entry into the cage, coming in with nunchucks and catching a Jeremiah punch by wrapping it the chain. And as I'm talking about cool entrances we suddenly get druids coming out with very real torches, and Azreal getting lowered from the ceiling on a small plank (and good thing they kept the lights off as it had to be difficult to look cool while balancing on a tiny platform being lowered from the ceiling. Everybody in this tightens up strikes and kicks as if they were being filmed in HD and thought they needed to make it look good, which just adds to the feeling of constant violence. My only complaint is everyone needing to get to kind of the same place damage-wise all at once so Azreal could do his entrance, so you had people who had been in the match for less than 4 minutes selling death the same as the guys who had been in the whole time. But, the entrance was a cool visual so there's at least a decent tradeoff, and the match suitably ends on the nastiest thing in the match, a hacksaw rubbed across Azrael's mouth corners. Yuck. Another great indy cage match, and I'm excited to see more of these guys.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Some of Anarchy Wrestling: Captain O' Captain 6/10/17

PAS: I am eager to get caught up so I can watch and enjoy the big Hostile Environment show, so I thought I would cherry pick the best matches from this show (thanks again to the mysterious backwoods cult leader for letting me know what I should look for)

Billy Buck v. Nightmare Kyle Matthews

PAS: I loved this, I have been talking a lot about how Matthews is working as an 80s babyface, here he meets his 80s heel and they have an awesome 6:05 style match. This is basically Ricky Steamboat v. Arn Anderson. Buck cribs a bunch from Arn, he hits the fake punch into a DDT, great hooking left hand punch and a sweet spinebuster, he also had some other cool moves of his own, I loved the superkick to the ankle into a figure four. Matthews is just great, he gets a little fancier here because it was a big match and throws a tope, but hell Tim Horner had a tope too so I forgive it. Lots of great near falls and a killer finish, exactly what I was hoping this match would deliver.

Gladiator Jeremiah v. Gunner Miller

PAS: This was also very good stuff. This was a Captain's match for the WarGames match, with the winner's team getting the advantage. Jeremiah (aka Slim J) is one of the most underrated great wrestlers of this century. Outside of a brief ROH run, he has worked pretty exclusively in the South and is always well worth watching. He seems to be a bit more ground based with the Jeremiah gimmick, but he has great bumping and a ton of intensity. He takes over early on Miller really pounding on him, until Miller is able to grab a big boot and hyperextend Jeremiah's knee. Then Miller really rips at the knee and the match is built around Jeremiah fighting back with a bad wheel. Finish run was really great with Jeremiah's bumping making Miller's football tackle and diving headbutt spear look brutal. This was the first time these two had wrestled each other in a singles and their chemistry was great, I hope Anarchy runs this match back, and I am suitably pumped for War Games.

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Anarchy Wrestling: End of Days 5/27/17

Cyrus the Destroyer v. Gunner Miller

This match was set up by Gladiator Jerimaih challenging Gunner and Team TAG to a war games match, and announcing Cyrus as his first team member. Cyrus is a big boy, looks like a young King Kong Bundy. Not much of a match, a couple of minutes before a run in, but I did enjoy Miller deadlift German suplexing Cyrus, really felt like a feat of strength. Very excited about War Games of course.

Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Ryan Vega

I really enjoyed this, Matthews breaking out his awesome Steve Armstrong offense, which mixed nicely with Ryan Vega's 2010s indy shtick. Vega breaks out some big spots including a nifty top rope jawbreaker and a nasty death valley driver. Meanwhile Matthews is throwing out pin point dropkicks and indian death locks. Continue to love Matthews finishing folks off with a nasty octopus hold. The Nightmare continues to be a highlight of these shows.

Billy Buck v. Jeremy Foster

Really good old school style match, with Billy Buck being an impressive regional heel. Good spinebuster, nice punch, good bumping, quality stuff. Foster didn't really do anything to make himself stand out but everything he did looked good. I actually think they may have had a bit of overkill in 80s finishes. Foster pushes off a sleeper and rolls up Buck, Bucks partner distracts the ref and Foster gets cheap shotted, they ran through a dozen ways that would finish a Prime Time Wrestling match in 1987 and it almost felt like a PWG match burning through headrop suplex two counts. Still I really enjoyed this and I am all in on Buck

Rave Approved v. The Lynch Mob

This was a pull apart brawl rather then a standard match. It was a pretty energetic pull apart brawl, lots of guys jumping into punches. This set up a taped fist street fight for Hostile Environment which I am excited to see.

Team TAG v. The Beautiful Bald Besties

Team TAG had some amusing heel stooging in this, not exactly Midnight Express, but a fine Southern Rockers. This was a little short to get much of a sense of the Besties. Would be into to seeing this match get a little time

Drew Adler v. Stryknyn

Another match which was more to set up stuff in the future. Stryknyn had some nice energy early, I dig his mosh pit dancing as wrestling offense. Adler had some really nice stomps, but otherwise I didn't get a huge sense of him (saying that a lot on this show), Dany Only drills Adler with a motorcycle helmet for Stryknyn, to get the pin. This leads to Ashworth and Only getting into it to set up a match on the next show.

Devil's Rejects (Tank/Iceberg) v. Devil's Rejects(Seven/Brad Cash)

Really fun big boy brawl for the rights to the name Devil's Rejects. Seven really throws ham hocks and I especially liked him and Iceberg exchanging. We get a double count out, and Dan Wilson (who is no longer Rev. Dan, but is now the match maker) restarts the match with Rejects Rules. There are some nasty chair shots, and Seven takes a huge bump getting back suplexed through two chairs. Finish had Tank pounding Cash on the ground until the ref stopped the match. Some of the shots looked really good, and some didn't, it is a hard finish to pull off, I think they mostly did, but I was expecting something big, and this finish was clearly setting up Tank v. Cash, and the huge violence is clearly being saved for that.

This was paced more like a RAW leading up to a PPV then a big show on its own. Still they totally did their job of selling me on the big show, and Anarchy has a bunch of fun guys that I am eager to keep following

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2017 Anarchy Grab Bag

After digging into some classic NWA Anarchy for the Wednesday Morning Wargames, I got excited to check out some of their more recent stuff . They are releasing shows every couple of weeks over at Powerbomb.tv, I got some recommendations from a backwoods cult leader who shall remain nameless, and cherry picked from the first handful of 2017 shows. I am hoping to review their more current stuff as it gets released.

Hardcore Hell 3/25/17

Hate Junkies v. Tank/Iceberg

This was a four corners of hell match, with bags of weapons in each corner.  This was set up as a battle between dominant teams from different eras in Cornelia history. I really dug this when it was four giant guys having a fist fight, Stryknyn is the least intimidating looking of the four (Danny Only, Iceberg and Tank all look like hillbilly cannibals, Stryknyn looks like a chubby goth) but has great looking punches and kicks and can really bring the intensity. Only look great too he hits a running drive-by style boot with Icebergs head pinned to the ringpost that looks like it might squirt Berg's brains out.  Once the weapons came out I thought it veered into geek show territory, the stuff with skewers and sickle felt too much like a Lollapalooza carnival sideshow and less like a fight. Finish got intense again, Tank double stomped Only which looked like it flattened his intestines, the spear into the thumbtacks was super nasty too.

Team TAG v. Devil's Rejects/Odinson

Really fun example of a sneaky heel team getting thrown around by a team of babyface monsters. Odinson and Seven are especially impressive, both are legit huge (Seven is probably 6'8, Odinson is built like Brian Cage or young Brock) and really agile. Seven hits a standing elbow drop with dunk contest level height, and Odinson hit a drop kick that looked like Jim Brunzell. This was a fans strap match and you had lots of spots that allowed the fans to take shots at the heels. Tank comes out to distract Brad Cash which leads to TAG shooting a confetti cannon into Odinson's eyes for the pin. Not sure about that putting him down, it feels like a confetti cannon would be irritating but you might need a real cannon to knock down that beast.

Jacob Ashworth v. Gunner Miller

This was a classic wrestling story with Ashworth coming from being a fan in the stands, to working on the ring crew to finally getting a title shot against the dominant champion. This was worked very much like a mid 2000s WWE main event, lots of punch exchanges, suplexes and dramatic near falls. They did a nice job of timing the big nearfalls, Miller hits his CTE running headbutt which is his killshot move, but Ashworth bumps to the floor, Ashworth hits his finisher but the ref is down. Nice moment at the end of the match with Ashworth's family and the locker room emptying to celebrate his victory.



Writing on the Wall 5/13/17

The Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Torque

Matthews has taken on the Nightmare gimmick to honor Ted Allen who trained him. I really enjoyed Matthews in this, he basically works like an 80s highflyer, you have to love a guy who wrestles like Tim Horner in 2017. Beautiful dropkick, great looking crossbody, good 80s matwork, and even finishes the match with an octopus hold. I really like how Matthews sold a kick to the ribs, he sold it like Torque had caught him wrong with a simple move and cracked a rib. Torque has a much more 2017 style and it works as a contrast, this may have gotten a bit 2 county at the end, but I enjoyed it. Definitly want to track down more Matthews.


Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Chris Spectra/Billy Buck v. Gladiator Jeremiah/Jacob Ashworth/The Hate Junkies

This is an 8-man tag which is combining a bunch of the big feuds in the fed. Gladiator Jeremiah is the former Slim J and he looks great here, he has put on a fair amount of muscle, and was working more like a Dynamite Kid style hard hitter, while still breaking out some cool highflying. This was the first time Miller and Jeremiah had matched up and it felt like a big deal. I enjoyed Team TAG in this more then I did in the six man, they did a nice job cutting off the ring and they had some cool contributions to the finisher run at the end, I liked Blue's weaponized school boy where he schoolboys someones head into the bottom turnbuckle.

This was a fun mix of what Anarchy is putting out in 2017, it got me very excited to start watching the shows regularly. There are building to WarGames and that should be awesome.

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