Matches from HOG For the Glory 12/11/21

The Bollywood Boyz (Harv & Gurv Sihra) vs. The Mane Event (Jay Lyon/Midas Black)

ER: The Bollywood Boyz were actually one of my favorite tag teams to watch in the first half of 2021. They were two of the more unheralded guys on the WWE roster but stayed on the roster a really long time. Harv is the better tag worker, Gurv is better in singles and good at peril segments. In 2020 and 2021 they fit in really nicely on 205 Live, putting on several hidden gems and growing into one of my favorite tag acts. Check out their feud vs. Tony Nese/Ariya Daivari from earlier in 2021 to see Harv put on a Bret Hart-like performance, and check out Gurv's match against Alex Zayne. Gurv Sihra and Alex Zayne putting on a 6 minute Worldwide classic on WWE programming. 2021 WWE is just bizarre shit. 

This match was great, The Boyz working a more amped up indy version of their 205 Live style, and Mane Event building to a great Jay Lyon hot tag. Lyon is really fun, a short fat guy who can hit a big tope con giro and muscle around both Boyz with throws and a high slam backbreaker. The Boyz have great teamwork, smart tags and engaging apron work. they're both great smug pricks who will cheapshot you off the apron, and will wreck someone with a Powerplex (polished off with a Gurv top rope elbow instead of a splash). Both Boyz hit great top rope elbows, but my favorite bit of theirs the whole match was Harv laying in wait to waste Midas around the ringpost with a lariat. Mane Event had some cool double teams (including Black rolling off Lyon's back for a smooth reversal) and had great chemistry with the Boyz. I'd love to see Bollywood Boyz in AEW, their tight work would reign in a ton of AEW teams in really fun ways. 

57. Eddie Kingston vs. Low-Ki - GREAT

PAS: Very cool to see these two absolute icons match up 15 years after their only other singles match against each other, and although the match was hijacked by a dumb DQ finish, what we got was really building to something cool. Stiffness and Eddie Kingston selling is a great way to build a match, and this was mostly built around Kingston getting his chest caved in by stiff Ki chops and stomps and fighting his way through a smushed chest. Lots of cool crumpled sells by Eddie, and when he is able to power through the pain and fire back he hit really hard shots himself. It felt like a truncated match, as the Buddy Murphy run in happened before we really got a Kingston comeback, so it wasn't like Murphy ran in at the final moment to cause a DQ. Still I appreciate any chance I get to watch either of these guys, and a surprise match up is a mitzvah. 

ER: This is a real minimalist Ki/King match, 75% of this being mostly about two of the greats hitting each other with chops and then selling the impact of those chops. Kingston is the most compelling salesman in wrestling and I easily could have just watched him sell Low Ki's chops in different ways for 12 minutes, and in some ways I did! These two can make the most forgotten wrestling sequences look engaging, look no further than their opening match knuckle lock. Ki and Kingston are guys that work little stories with each movement, and I dug seeing Kingston fearlessly knuckle lock Ki to power him down, before Ki realized he'd be better off subduing King with strikes. Kingston knows how to make a crumpled sell mean something, and this was filled with moments where Kingston's brain was firing synapses to strike back before the pain caught up to his body. Kingston hits back hard when he can (like that running kitchen sink knee which landed like a cannonball and lead to Kingston briefly selling his own knee), but Ki can be a hard guy to consistently hit, so it turned into a cool battle of Kingston attempting to ground Ki and work body locks before trying to swing on him. I liked how Kingston dodged Ki's delayed kick to the back of the neck. It's Ki's one piece of offense that doesn't consistently read, doesn't have the visual impact of the rest of Ki's offense, so Kingston just takes it out of the equation and uses it to set up something bigger. The run in was poorly done and a major wet blanket, but I did get a kick out of Kingston crumpling Murphy with his backfist and then dragging his body into position for Ki to land a disgusting double stomp. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

205 Live 11/29/16

ER: We get introduced to all the members of the 205 Live roster, all of whom were in the CWC. And then we get a long video package on the Bollywood Boyz, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. This is not a show airing on actual television, and the video package didn't appear to be for the benefit of the live crowd. I can't imagine there are tons of people watching this on the Network who didn't watch any of the CWC, and they told all of the same stories during all of the build up for that. I don't think there are that many people who need to be reintroduced to any of these guys.

1. Bollywood Boyz vs. Drew Gulak/Tony Nese

ER: This was not a great start, and it looks like a real mistake to have this both live and AFTER Smackdown. CWC worked great at the performance center, this seems destined for the same reception as Danzig's famous "headlining openers", which just gives fans a chance to leave after already seeing the perceived main event. I don't see the "live" thing sticking. And rewarding the people who stayed with a Bollywood Boyz match seems a little mean. I thought they were fine in their dark match tag that got taped at the CWC finals, definitely stronger as a team than separate, but I didn't love this. Also didn't love that they appear to be a featured team over a team like Gulak/Nese. I'm not even certain they can dance Bollywood style, which is like the main thing tying them to that gimmick. This had some moments but didn't really work as an intro or as a good match. I liked Gulak's nasty bodyslam into the top rope. That's about it.

PAS: I thought Gulak was good, he is a guy with crisp nasty looking execution on everything he does and while this kind of tag match is kind of a waste of his talent, he looks good doing it . I think they are really making a mistake using Nese this way, he is a very limited guy but he does have some explosive athletic moves, making him a kick, punch, chinlock dude just exposes how bad his kicks, punches and chinlocks are. Bollywood Boyz appear not ready for prime time, I can imagine their shtick working in a Regina Armory, but they are pretty bush league for TV.

ER: Ugh and a Noam Dar video package? They are picking some real duds to feature in long video packages.

2. Ariya Daivari vs. Jack Gallagher

ER: Another Gallagher reintroduction match, excited for more of him so he can cut loose. Crowd is already into him which is a great sign, and his look is unique enough to really set him apart. This whole episode is basically pretending the CWC didn't happen, which is weird. Even in the intro they introduced TJ Perkins as a former cruiserweight champion, but didn't mention the CWC. And Graves kept saying things like "what a debut from...", so it's strange. But we'll get a couple weeks of these guys "debuting" and then hopefully just settling in. As it was, match was fun but worked more as an introduction.

PAS: I loved Gallghers headbutt after the rolling elbow, I really hope we get to see him work a little nasty, in addition to just doing WOS mat wizard spots. He has some Terry Rudge in him in addition to Johnny Saint, and I hope that gets exposed. Daivari didn't do much although I liked his knee drop, Gallagher showcase and his shtick always looks good, still I am hoping for more.

3. Brian Kendrick vs. Rich Swann

ER: Really good match though at the end I was left feeling that Swann got to kick out of too much stuff, while it didn't take a whole lot to put Kendrick down. I'm not sure why there appeared to be a big rush to get the belt off Kendrick, I think he's a more interesting champ for the division with guys like Swann making game challengers. But still this was really good and we had a simple story of Kendrick working over Swann's neck in really, really brutal ways. Kendrick dropped him with a couple nasty low angle backdrop suplexes, snapped his neck over the turnbuckle from the apron (nice call back to the CWC, if they were acknowledging that it happened), locked in the captain's hook and down the stretch even dropped him with a brutal dragon suplex. Okay yeah, lined up like that and it does seem like Swann took way too much big stuff. But I thought Swann handled it all well, sold well and moved nice opposite Kendrick. He was good about suckering Kendrick in for fast kicks, like that big high kick towards the end, and was always good about rubbing out his neck even while preparing to do a big move. I loved the way he sold while in the captain's hook, inching his body towards the closest rope while always grabbing at Kendrick's grip, loosening it from his neck. They started the hook in the middle of the ring and without Swann selling it and trying to loosen the grip it would have looked absurd that he survived it. The ending hook kick worked nicely as a flash pin, which is really the way they had to work it as a long string of moves at this point would have come off silly.

PAS: I am not totally sold on this show, but if we get a long showcase Brian Kendrick match like this I can't complain. Swann looked good, the height he gets on all of his leaps is unreal and he has a connection to the crowd which eludes guys like Tony Nese, still this was the Kendrick show. I loved all of the set up for the turnbuckle bolt neckbreaker, they are fight on the top and Kendrick just slickly removes the padding, very slight of hand close magic of him, then when he hit the move it was just brutal looking. I did think Swann had one kickout too many, they probably didn't need the top rope Sliced Bread #5, I also thought the finish came off a bit flat, still this was a heck of TV main event, and another feather in Kendrick's 2016 cap.

ER: Tricky first episode, reintroducing us to wrestlers who wouldn't be new to anybody who watched the CWC (and really, how many Network viewers are watching this, but skipped all of the CWC), but a damn fine main event. I still think it's better to have a heel champ like Kendrick on top with a longer babyface chase, but hopefully he can do something dastardly to regain. If anything, this show will be a fun way to see some CWC match-ups that the bracketing didn't allow.

PAS: Yeah I get why they wanted a title change on the first show, but Kendrick really should be the Flair of this division. Rich Swann makes a fine Ronnie Garvin, but Kendrick needs the belt back

Read more!

WWE Cruiserweight Classic 8/3/16

1. Jason Lee v. Rich Swann

ER: I suppose WWE must have really wanted one of the Chinese guys to advance to the 2nd round, but after this few minutes I wish we would have gotten another Jason Lee match. Ho Ho Lun was arguably the greenest guy in the tourney, Lee had some presence and personality (loved him telling Swann to bring it while Swann was dicking around), had some real cool kicks (that snapped off mule kick to Swann's temple!) and a weird uppercut, and had no problem running into Swann's kicks. Swann can do some crazy things with his body, and he doesn't have that same problem that afflicts Petey Williams style flippers: His stuff actually hits with impact. His standing splash and *standing* (crazy) 450 hit with a thud (well, as much thud as a 165 pounder can thud...), he doesn't look like he's covered in flubber and just bounce off everything. Ending felt a little sudden, but I liked what we got.

PAS: This was fun stuff, I thought Swann might have been a little overacty with his charisma faces, but overall I liked his shtick, he really has crazy agility that leap into the rana may have been even nuttier then the standing 450. Swann being this crisp and athletic and being this over kind of makes guys like Tony Neese and Lince Dorado kind of obsolete, if Swann can do the same stuff but land with impact and not wrestle like a robot, why do we need those dudes.

2. Noam Dar v. Gurv Sihra

PAS: Not good, both guys seemed like they were on different pages, and while parts looked OK, most of it looked kind of weak sauce. I get why they want to push Dar, but he seems like he needs some more seasoning to get a push on TV, I am assuming he is out next round and should just hang around the training center for a while. Bollywood Boys should use their TV time to get more random indy bookings, but they don't seem ready for prime time.

ER: Yeah, they got lost a couple minutes in and looked like they spent the next 3 recovering. They would just kind of stand there filling time until you'd see a lightbulb go off like "oh right, the spin kick!" I thought Mauro and Bryan covered nicely on a couple of the noticeably clunky spots, and sadly before things stumbled I was enjoying Sihra, especially that nasty back elbow he busted out. Dar is a bit too muggy for me, for what he's trying to do, something I didn't care for in his qualifying match either. Bryan was good at pointing that out, even reasoning that he's so young that he's just excited to be there. This was the first match that the commentary was more interesting to me than the match itself. I was much more interested in hearing about Sihra's proud, blind grandfather listening to the CWC, than I was watching Dar throw another thigh slap dropkick.

3. Jack Gallagher vs. Fabian Aichner

PAS: YEAH!! Segunda Caida favorite Jack Gallagher makes his big show debut. Gallagher has been sporadically available over the last couple of years but every time he showed up he looked awesome. I think Gallagher is the best mat worker in the world right now, incredibly slick at the kind of WOS tribute stuff he does here, as well as really awesome fast and violent shootstyle matwork. It is funny how much better Gallagher is at the counter wrestling British stuff then Sabre Jr., kind of exposes ZSJ the same way Swann exposes dudes like Neese, and man alive was that dropkick finish amazing looking. Aichner was really fun too, his suplex throw into a powerbomb was totally nuts and the double jump moonsault was one of the bigger highspots of the tourney (although it was totally numbnuts to show him practicing that move during the preview video, took a lot of the surprise out the move). Think they should keep him around after this tourney. Gallagher however was at another level and looks like one of the best guys in the world, we have been saying it for a while, glad to see everyone else get a chance to see it too.

ER: This was too much fun and it was amusing hearing Bryan clearly marking out on commentary for every single movement Gallagher made. We all saw that moment in the early 2000s when indy workers started seeing WOS tapes, we all saw moments where guys would awkwardly shoehorn lady in the lake spots into their matches after they saw a Johnny Saint match for the first time, and gradually have seen a lot of WOS elements bleed into indy wrestling. But Gallagher is really the first one to actually feel transported from the early 80s and not just doing a tribute act. He does things so seamlessly and naturally that it feels like he was raised in a box with only WOS tapes to watch, and he just thinks that this is genuinely how people fight. I had never heard of Aichner before and came away impressed. If Swann and others hadn't already exposed Nese then here's a guy with the exact same 200ish lb. muscular build doing the same cool shit as Nese, but throwing in more interesting power spots and also able to hang with cool mat reversals, but also doing basic stuff like locking on a chinlock that actually looks painful. Gentleman Jack has such a wonderful quirky personality, like when Conan O'Brien's "Gentleman Masher" boxing character or Conan playing 1800s throwback baseball. His reversal teases, his astonished facials at Aichner's reversals, the ability to look silly one second while blasting a stiff dropkick the next, all great stuff. Loved Aichner's vertical suplex into a powerbomb, just a real great showoff spot, and Gallagher plants himself brutally on the landing. Gallagher's finishing dropkick seemingly broke physics, as he was able to plant the dropkick and then basically land a cannonball all in one motion. Man, among Kendrick, Gallagher and Gulak I have no idea who I'll be pulling for (but they damn well better make Gulak/Gallagher happen).

4. Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa

PAS: Pretty impressed by this match. I came into this match not liking Gargano and having no real opinion of Ciampa and they really sucked me with the story they were telling. These two were given some advantages that other guys in this tourney didn't have, the emotional background is a gimmick the same way blood or weapons shots are, they also got the kind of big dramatic near falls that the other tourney matches really didn't have. Still they took those advantages and used them well, Ciampa really laid into Gargano including some truly nasty back elbows and huge bombs. Gargano's offense is pretty indy, but he did a good job milking the 2 counts and I did like how he pulled out the win at the end. The finish with Ciampa devastated that he couldn't pull of the victory but still hugging his friend had real pathos. Probably the second best match of the first round and it wasn't a match I was particularly looking forward too.

ER: I'm with Phil on this one, I wasn't coming in expecting much but the simple story worked for me, and both guys familiarity with each other added to this. Ciampa laid it in the whole match and Gargano was right there to take it. That back elbow to kick of the striking was really something, and Gargano had a great spit take and tumble to the floor. And the familiarity was great as it kept revealing itself throughout the match, giving nice built in transitions to both guys. Gargano catches a punch to hit one of the more believable trapped arm superkicks with Ciampa's head against the buckle, later after getting hit with a dive Ciampa catches Gargano with a brutal knee when Johnny was coming in for his slingshot spear. Ciampa's knees looked great throughout which made the kill shot moment of truth have a bit more heft, as he knows his knees have been great and he hesitates before the kill shot. The ending flash roll up sequence was good and a nice surprise, as the match sucked me in enough that I wasn't sure who would win. I figured Gargano was the favorite, but also figured they didn't really have any 1st round upsets, so maybe we were due. I did think Gargano took a bit too much offense without giving back, but I loved the post match hug, with Ciampa plopping down next to his friend. Reminded me of the Baba/Rusher hug in my favorite tag match (them vs. Hansen/Tenryu from '89). Great end to the 1st round.


COMPLETE CWC GUIDE

Read more!