2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Broken Hardys vs. Private Party

16. The Hardys vs. Private Party AEW Dynamite 3/16

ER: I thought this was a blast, a great TV comeback for the Hardys and the kind of high end role-working from Private Party that shows how they've really grown. Private Party knew the right balance of "Younger Version of Hardys" and "Lite Heel Showcasing Legends" and they hit it dead on, and the Hardys worked up to their legendary status. The Hardys are the biggest US wrestling tag team of the last two decades, and I am always a sucker for a wrestling match featuring aging veterans tapping into their spent youth. I thought Matt looked great here. His timing was awesome, and his offense lands heavier than ever. He still might have the best punch in pro wrestling, but every move he did landed hard. His Side Effect looks like a dangerous 90s joshi finisher, his Twist of Fate really yanked Kassidy's neck, and his downward strike elbows to the neck looked Misawa-level. Jeff moves like 48 year old Rusher Kimura now, and doesn't seem to be able to bend over and lift anyone to their feet any longer. But, now he just wrestles like old indy freelance Jimmy Snuka, landing full weight on every splash and elbowdrop, absolutely murdering rib cages with his Swanton. Jeff's Swanton has to feel worse than a Vader Bomb at this point, and Private Party hung in for every single heavy landing. 

Quen and Kassidy wrestled this with a smug confidence and it might have been the most I've ever been into them. Flashy babyface teams are okay, but Kassidy nailing a tope con giro and smiling at the camera comes off way better as a brag. Private Party were great at feeding for both Hardys while peppering in their own highlights, and both knew how to time kickouts for stronger effect. It was no guarantee that the Hardys were going to win this. AEW knows how to showcase veteran acts without crushing upcoming acts, and seems to recognize that some acts develop over longer arcs. When Dynamite debuted, Private Party were a featured tag act, and they weren't quite ready for prime time. Careers don't always arc as planned, and this was a great example of two careers at very different points of their arc, colliding nicely. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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When Shotgun Saturday Night Went to Chattanooga, 2/16/99

On 2/16/99 WWF had what had to have felt like an interminably long taping in Chattanooga, TN, taping 19 matches for airing on Super Astros, Sunday Night Heat, Raw, and Shotgun Saturday night. 19 matches on a Tuesday night! But the three matches from the Shotgun taping stood out more than the rest, because all three matches were WWF wrestlers against local southern indie talent. It's another invasion that was shut down one night in, but this one probably didn't have the same drawing potential. After the ECW invasion, after the NWA invasion, before Invasion. This is the Tennessee Mountain invasion we never talked about!

WWF Shotgun Saturday Night (Broadcast 2/27/99)

HHH vs. Buddy Landel

ER: HHH does his very long ring intro that 17 yr old me thought was cool, and Jim Cornette on commentary says "These people are jacked tonight! They're ready to suck it!" The match started out good and ended quickly in disappointment. Buddy and HHH each have their ponytails and each clearly wear their influences, and Buddy is a little thicker around the middle at this point, but it starts simple and cool. Landel grabs a tight headlock, HHH gets one of his own, both guys get a little time to establish their headlocks, HHH gets a nice go behind and Landel snaps him with a nice back elbow. It's all shaping up very nicely, Landel eats a knee and takes an impressive snap bump...and then HHH calls for the Pedigree and it's over, 1 minute and 40 seconds in. 100 seconds, with the first 80 seconds worked like they were going 8-10. Not only was that pointless, it reeked of wanting to put someone in their place. Is it possible that they were in the middle of a long night of tapings and wanted to speed things up a bit? Sure. But it sure felt disrespectful to someone like Buddy.

The Hardy Boys vs. Frank Parker/Roger Anderson

ER: Hardys come out in their OMEGA shirts (that wasn't a thing they normally did during this era, right?), and this match rules. This is more like it. This is going the way of a Hardys squash, and it's fun seeing their offense from 20 years ago. Matt had a great elbow drop that he doesn't really use anymore, Jeff did his awesome swanton to the floor, Matt hit his nice bulldog, we get a cool double team where Jeff leapfrogs Anderson and he runs right into a Matt swinging neckbreaker (it's a smart way to get someone in position to take a neckbreaker, as they'd be naturally ducking their head down so the don't run face first into a leaping man's crotch) Death & Destruction were taking hip tosses and big backdrops and not gaining any ground. And then Anderson held the top rope down without Jeff seeing it, and while running the ropes Jeff took an absolutely insane, fast bump over the top to the floor, smacking his head off the apron on the way down. Awesome bump that sounded like it surprised Cornette. From there Death & Destruction get a lot of control, and they worked the match from there as if they're an actual signed team. Parker drops a great leg, there's a fun chop exchange in the corner between Matt and Anderson, D&D take over with some kneelifts, it all gave a cool glimpse of a tag scene that might have been, if only WWF wanted a couple other guys who looked like Festus. Imagine three awesome lumpy bald goatee guys in a stable!? Hardys' finisher was really awesome, the legdrop/splash from the top, and this match delivered what I hoped this match would.

Tiger Ali Singh vs. Killer Kyle

ER: This is me, going out of my way to watch a Tiger Ali Singh match. What a weird WWF run he had. I bet most people can hardly remember a thing about the guy, but he showed up on TV for years, then would disappear just as quickly as he came. Who kept wanting Tiger Ali Singh? This was also worked fairly even, and Cornette really didn't talk much about the Smoky Mountain alum Kyle. Each got to hit cool powerslams and Kyle gets to throw a bunch of punches and chops. Singh was pretty bland, hit a needless chinlock and made Kyle look bad when he unexpectedly backed out of a punch that Kyle was clearly throwing to connect, threw off the timing of everything. The finish was cool though as Kyle whiffs on a lariat, and before turning around Singh kicks him in the back of the knee and then hits a neckbreaker.

So instead of trying to make money on a Tennessee invasion, bringing back Smothers and Tony Anthony and the Rock n Rolls, they went and shot this moneymaker in the foot right as it started.

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WWE Great Balls of Fire Live Blog

1. Neville vs. Akira Tozawa

ER: This ended up getting way more time than I was expecting, and ended up being much better than I expected. Tozawa wins me over early with a nice timber sell off a Neville kick from the apron, and later bumps a low kick on his neck. Things ramp up big once Tozawa hits a big tope, then hits another. Corey Graves puts over how Tozawa is using his big head to his advantage. I never thought about Tozawa's head size before. It seems like a pretty normal head. Spot of the match was Neville catching Tozawa on his shoulders, but Tozawa slowly turning a bad situation into a great octopus hold. Awesome pro wrestling spot.  We get a couple nice nearfalls and at a certain point I actually thought Tozawa was going to get the belt. Neville smartly rolls out of the ring after the senton, and I loved Tozawa's face as he scrambled to catch Neville before he rolled away. Titus continues offering nothing to the people he manages, but I'll give him full credit on his great 1994 Golden State Warriors suit/tie/pocket square combo. Another nice pre-show match to start the PPV. These things almost always deliver.

2. Bray Wyatt vs. Seth Rollins

ER: Seth Rollins entrance gear must be modeled after one of the pre-cogs in Minority Report. This is probably the match I'm least excited for, so it's nice of them to get it out of the way first. But a couple minutes in and it's pretty good. I liked the bump Bray took off the apron into the ring steps, and Bray hits the mother of all shoulderblocks to send Rollins into the barricade. Rollins is always vaguely shitty about setting up moves. He always does things to get ready for a spot that are always a little annoying if you notice them, like getting put up on the top buckle and then getting his legs ready for being superplexed without Wyatt touching him. I hate little things like that. Or how Rollins is first to his feet moments after taking a DDT on the apron. Rollins hits his feather soft tope and they're losing me. But Bray's jawbreaker off the top is really great, and catching Rollins with a sly eyepoke over the ref was a great spot, and that Sister Abigail landed hard and fast. Overall an uninteresting but inconsequential match, with a nice finish.

3. Enzo Amore vs. Big Cass

ER: Not a big fan of their tag team, but not really sure what the benefit of them already splitting up. Enzo at maximum was a nice guy to sell for a hot tag. I think both were better together than working singles matches. Cass's big man offense doesn't do a whole lot for me, but I liked his running avalanche and the press slam to the floor looked great. Pretty surprised they didn't even give Enzo any kind of comeback. I don't think he even got a bit of offense. Not that Enzo has good offense, but something? Instead we got 7 minutes of Cass doing some slow Test tribute offense.

4. 30 Minute Iron Man: Hardy Boys vs. Cesaro/Sheamus

ER: A 30 Minute Iron Man seems a bit much. I'm sure by the end of this we'll all agree that 20 would have been fine. But it shouldn't be bad. I do like the heels getting a quick pin and then working a slow pace. It's a smart strategy, and I hope it actually goes somewhere worthwhile. And I loved Sheamus' cover when they went up 2-0, hooking the leg with one arm and counting the 3 with his free hand, big grin the whole time. Sheamus is one of the better guys in the fed at hitting the corner post, his post bumps always look fast and painful. Hot tags are kind of weird when you know how much time is left in a match. Matt's punches still look great in HD, and he takes a nice post bump as well. Iron Man matches always tend to get a really quiet crowd for most of the match, as the crowd doesn't think anything really matters until at least the final third. And sure enough they wake up a bit with 9 minutes left on the clock. Things have been pretty mechanical up until that point, so I can't blame them too much. Great spot with Cesaro going for an uppercut, getting caught by Matt in a backslide, with Jeff tagging in and dropping double legs to get a quick pin. Cesaro save seemed a hair late after the Matt moonsault (has Matt always kept his hands in front of him on moonsaults? Most guys through them back above their head) and as I'm typing that the fans start chanting how the ref sucks. Does WWE still want their refs calling matches "as if they were shoots"? I remember hearing that years ago and it leading to a couple accidental finishes. Fans coming alive at the 2 minute warning, and Jeff flings himself nicely off the top into C&S. Hardys do a clunky dual top rope splash/elbow, and Matt somehow gets busted open from it. I could not tell at all how it happened. He dropped a Bret elbow from the tope (which seems like a good way to jam your wrist or injure your elbow) and came up touching his face, then a second later his face was covered in blood. Did he accidentally headbutt Sheamus? Either way, I kind of liked and kind of hated the Cesaro flash pin on Hardy. In theory it makes sense to surprise Jeff with a pin right after he does the swanton, but Jeff was kicking so much that it looked like his shoulders kept coming up off the mat. Though Cesaro running away afterwards was pretty great. Still, I think this was overall a let down. I seem to be in the minority on that opinion but I'm not sure what I missed that everyone else saw. I thought the Hardys looked kind of sluggish throughout and thought the pacing was off. I liked the match, but was surprised after I looked around and saw a lot of people calling it a classic. It never felt classic to me.

5. Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss

ER: HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT ALEXA'S WEIRD DOUBLE JOINTED ELBOW!? She got whipped nastily into the mat on an arm wringer, and that wonky elbow is such a great trick. After she elbow smashes Sasha she checks her lip for blood while grinning, like some action movie villain. Then these two start targeting each others' kidneys in gross ways: Sasha hits the backcracker into the Banks Statement, Alexa scrambles out to the floor and legsweeps Sasha who falls kidneys first on the apron, then back in Alexa nails her double kneedrop and moonsault kneedrop to the same spot, then whiplashes Sasha backwards into her knee. These two are having a killer little match. I like Sasha waiting until 5 to break the Banks Statement and the cameras really zoom in and that tight grip across Alexa's mouth and nose. Count out finish took the wind out of the sails admittedly. I love Alexa as champ, so I don't hate the end result, but it's a little uninspired. Post match was good though with Sasha hitting her crazy double knees off the ring ramp announce table to the floor, and Alexa catches it great. Both are nuts. We knew this was going to continue, so a finish like this was expected.

6. The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose

ER: I am not very excited for this match, but I'm interested in how Axel and Dallas are dressed. What a strangely dressed stable. Miz and Maryse dress like they're in a Vegas show, Axel dresses like he's an extra in The Untouchables, and Dallas looks like Pigpen from the Grateful Dead. I like Dean's low crossbody, and Miz is fine working over the knee. I'm so conditioned to seeing guys go after the face when hanging an opponent in the tree of woe, that I actively cheered Miz dropkicking Dean in the knee a couple times. Maryse throwing up her arms during the Yes! kicks is great. Dean comes up with a bloody mouth at some point and I again completely missed when it happened. Dean doesn't really care too much about his hurt knee, at least not letting it slow him down when he twice hops over top rope and leaps off it (always selling it once he lands). Interference x3 plays into the finish, and this was what it was, probably a bit better than I expected. Which was not much.

7. Ambulance Match: Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns

ER: Ambulance match is probably better than Stretcher match as far as stips go, but it doesn't usually equate "good match". These two have had plenty of good matches against each other, and all are likely to be better than this. BUT, the stip does at least make sense. All of Braun's early power stuff looks good, but I really get into this once Roman hits the drive-by on Braun's arm, slams the arm into the ringpost a bunch, then bashes it with a chair. Yeah!! Bust up that arm. That's his "throw guys into ambulances arm!!" Strowman starts no selling chairshots like Zeus and all the stuff with them fighting around the stage and ambulance is good. Braun bashes Reigns with a freaking board, Roman gets tossed around on the stage, Braun plows through the LED display and we get all these great LED glitches while Braun lay in the wreckage. Finish makes sense as Roman stupidly runs at Braun and whiffs on the spear, then acts like a sore loser by locking Braun in the ambulance and crashing it. We don't see what happens after as we desperately need to get back to the ring for the important match between......

8. Curt Hawkins vs. Heath Slater

ER: Oh. This match. Wasn't Goldust/Truth supposed to be on this show? This match would feel out of place if it was the main event on Main Event. It must have been a weird conversation with Hawkins when they told him "look, you'll get a PPV payday, and you'll go out there and hold a chinlock for 2 minutes and lose off camera." Oh. Kurt Angle rocking jeans and a blazer like a guy who has done very well for himself and is now just trying to enjoy this wine mixer. We are getting some REAL TIME jaws of life! I was expecting Braun to be gone like Michael Myers, but instead we get valiant babyface Braun refusing the stretcher and walking away with dignity, smearing blood on somebody's slick tour bus. Michael Cole's serious voice, it should be noted, is fucking terrible.

9. Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar

ER: The build for this has been tremendous. Lesnar is an all time great at those sit down promos, and him getting choked purple was an all time wrestling moment, flat out. And this starts great with Joe jumping Brock during Heyman's intro and smashing him through an announce table. Brock always flies through tables with gusto. Guy is a total bump freak, still, somehow. "Brock with vulnerabilities" is one of my favorite wrestling personalities ever. And hot damn this is great, Joe rushes with a back elbow and kick, both men exchange sick knees, Joe throws tons of great mixed jabs in the corner (working the ribs and face), Brock starts throwing mean knees and Joe goes right for the clutch. First german about 90 seconds in, and Joe takes another right on his shoulder. I love when Lesnar uses the suplexes to create space, not to make up the meat of a match. Joe is fighting to win and mulekicks Lesnar's Great Balls while blocking the ref's view, and the fight over the clutch is majestic. Brock's face swells up and changes colors spectacularly in chokes, like Takayama's face after taking a few punches. His face is an incredible pro wrestling tool. Lesnar throws more germans and I urge Joe to stop rolling over, back-to-Lesnar, after each one. Joe grabs the clutch on an F5 attempt, and I love Lesnar trying to shake him off by backing into the corner, but that let's Joe get the hooks on the choke. Lesnar is a freak, and with his air vanishing he manages to pop up, nail the F5, and then lay on the mat catching his breath like a man who almost drowned. I wanted more, but damn was this a great 8 minute fight. They need to run this back.

A very good PPV with a great, unique 8 minute main, really good women and cruiser matches, and nothing outright bad. I live blogged two shows this weekend, and this was the one that didn't feel like anything close to a waste of time. It didn't quite live up to my (admittedly lofty) expectations, and I was excited for a Goldust PPV match (maybe I wrongly assumed it would be on this show?), and I seem to be the odd low vote on the Hardys tag...but this was well worth the time spent.

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WWE Extreme Rules 2017 Live Blog

1. Kalisto vs. Apollo Crews

ER: These pre-show matches almost always deliver, which makes sense as they're a combination of low expectations with guys seemingly trying to get noticed. Kalisto hits an Aerostar-esque 450 from the middle rope to the floor, hopping from inside the ring to the rope on the outside, and crashing senton style into the standing Crews. Awesome. And then he follows it up with another springboard and crashes spectacularly when Crews enziguiris him on the way down. Back in there are a couple of slightly mistimed spots, but all is saved when Crews takes a gorgeous tornado DDT and later hits a huge pop up Samoan drop and a flawless standing shooting star. Kalisto kicking Titus off the apron while hitting the Salida del Sol in one motion was a nice touch to the finish.

2. The Miz vs. Dean Ambrose

ER: First minute or so is total dullsville, and then suddenly something wakes up in Dean and he starts throwing stinging chops on Miz and a huge lariat that sends Miz super fast to the floor. Okay, we're doing this. Miz is great trying to goad Dean into using a chair, and Miz hitting an apron DDT looked real good. Both men tighten things up with Dean actually trying on a couple kicks to the stomach (something he hasn't put effort into in over a year), Miz hits a great dropkick in the corner, Dean levels Miz with his flying elbow to the floor (great timed bump by Miz) and this is definitely better than I was expecting. The fight over the figure 4 is pretty lackluster and I hate that the rebound lariat hits 90% of the time. Finish was logical but couldn't be seen as satisfying to anyone, as ending a match by arguing with the referee for 30 seconds before being hit with a finisher is just unsatisfying. Still, match exceeded expectations.

3. Alicia Fox/Noam Dar vs. Sasha Banks/Rich Swann

ER: Really liked the early Fox/Sasha tangling, Alicia going for a tilt a whirl only for Sasha to reverse to the Banks Statement looked really great. Goddamn do I hate Michael Cole constantly given the directive that black babyfaces "love to have fun!" It's a dumb as hell line that they keep going to, and it never sounds convincing and always sounds insulting. Thankfully the fun hating women get in to break up a pin and yank arms in nasty ways. Sasha hits her pretty spectacular double knees off the top into Dar on the floor and Swann plants the phoenix. This whole thing felt like an inconsequential pre-show match, but was perfectly fine for what it was. Dug Team Swasha's post-match dancing.

ER: I have no clue who Elias Samson is, but shitty guy with an acoustic singing original songs is some pretty immediate heel heat from me. It feels like more of a college heel gimmick but it works as a guy who plays open mics and works 12 hours a week at a coffee shop. Michael Cole almost makes me spit out my coffee after the song, with the hilariously mis-delivered line "That sounds like something that should be on The Ghost of Tom Joad!" Nothing like dropping a reference to Springsteen's worst album, which is also over 20 years old. That's his go-to stark singer songwriter album reference!? Compare Samson to fucking Nebraska or something if you're going old. Shit, do I now have to go back and see if GoTJ has gotten better with age? Whatever, Cole's line could not have sounded less cool. Nobody reacted to it. It was amazing. "That sounds like a cut off of No Jacket Required!!" he says in his voice that sounds like he's recording a video game soundbite. 10 stars.

4. Kendo Stick on a Pole: Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss

ER: Well this couldn't have been more disappointing. Did Miz/Ambrose go way too long and this just had most of the middle cut out? The hype video was longer than the match! I don't tend to use terms like "bury" but damn did this feel like a "Spirit Squad get sent back to OVW" moment for Bayley.

5. Cage Match: Sheamus/Cesaro vs. Hardy Boys

ER: Both teams go for escapes right away which is like the least interesting way to work a team cage match, but Cesaro does look awesome running across the ring, leaping up the ropes and springing to the top of the cage. Jeff hits on of the best lariats of his career on Sheamus. Cesaro does the Scott Hall "Bad Guy" pose. Sheamus is the only one saving this with several painful looking bumps into the cage. he really has no problem flying over the ropes into that cage in violent ways. The escape attempts don't do much for me and I'd much rather see violent asskickings and guys getting thrown into the cage, but they win me over once Jeff is dangling from the side of the cage while Cesaro is holding on to only his arm. That looked great. The psychology of team escape cage matches just never makes sense to me, as it seems like the heel team should just let one of the faces escape, and then just kick the shit out of the remaining face for 10 minutes and walk out the door. If they had let Jeff escape 10 seconds in, this could have just been both of them teeing off on Matt with Jeff unable to save. It all just makes no sense. Jeff coming back in to do a dive off the top makes confuses me even more. So is he back in the match? Is he unescaped? Cole says so, and I actually like that. THAT makes me more interested in this. And that rule totally saved the match. Cesaro and Sheamus giving Matt such a beating that Jeff reenters the match, which leads directly to them losing, is a great finish. Matt dragging Jeff for the door while C&S climb over was really well done.

6. Austin Aries vs. Neville

ER: I hate how high Neville cuts on missed clotheslines. Aries is freaking 5'5", he can duck a normal lariat. This gets good once Neville goes after Aries' left arm. Graves is good putting over how Aries is a southpaw and this is going to take his most important weapons away from him. The kicks to the arm look great and the fight to the ring ropes was quality. They lose the magic pretty kick when Aries grabs a guillotine with that same arm that's been beaten to a pulp. Do you know how hard your arm has to work to hold a guillotine? So I did not like that, but then Aries crashes hard on a missed dive and Neville hits a picture perfect red arrow, so I can't complain too much. Still, other than some Kendrick, it doesn't seem like I'm missing too much by skipping 205 Live.

7. Bray Wyatt vs. Samoa Joe vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. Roman Reigns

ER: I wish they had found a 6th man, odd numbered matches are usually the pits. This is okay I guess. There's a lot of movement, so that's something. Bray is doing a nice job of not ignoring the people just lying around selling, always throwing in a kick or stomp whenever he passes one. This is pretty predictably a mess, but the fans have been engaged the whole time which doesn't always happen in formless multimans. They even counted along to Roman's corner clotheslines which made me smile. Roman/Joe do an absolutely terrible phone booth fighting spot. My god those were ugly punches. Does Rollins aim a couple feet past his opponent on every dive on purpose? All of his dives end up looking like really painless slingblade clotheslines. It has to be intentional. At least Bray throwing Joe into a tope looked nice (even if the tope was ugly). This is apparently "Extreme Rules" but it takes 18 minutes for a chair to get involved. How is that possible? The big moment in a lot of these matches is the go go go spot where one guy hits a finisher, then gets leveled by someone else's finisher, and so on. But since this match was tornado style they had already basically been doing that the whole time, so when they went into that mode it felt pretty anticlimactic. Having Joe against Lesnar is at least a new match, so I'm interested, despite not being very interested in current Samoa Joe.

ER: Overall the PPV over-delivered, though Rachel was most excited for the Bliss/Bayley match and that...was really weird. That's like the match that happens before we find out Bayley got a wellness suspension.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 92

1. Ugly Ducklings (Colby Corino, Lance Lude & Rob Killjoy) vs. White Mike Jordan/Donnie Dollars/Ethan Alexander Sharpe

ER: I really enjoyed this, classic stooge-y, silly trios match. I've liked what I've seen from the heel side, and I hadn't seen two of the Ducklings before but enjoyed them as well. At least I thought I hadn't, as Lance Lude looks ENTIRELY different than the last time I saw him, several years ago in ROH. If this is the same guy, I'd say this is a step up. He came off like unhinged Pequeno Mark Briscoe, would really like to see more of him. I dug his look, dug how he moved, how he took offense (especially a killer spot with White Mike swinging him around in a front headlock). Killjoy had some fun springboard dropkicks, Corino seems to be improving and has put on a little weight; I think I really dig the Ducklings. Sharpe and Jordan are a fun team, real good at stooging (Sharpe with the bumps and Jordan with the faces), but I can see them getting a more sinister side. Dollars had a couple fun moments; tossing all three Ducks was a fun spot on paper, ridiculous in execution, but I like that they went for it.

PAS: Really fun opening trios, I could have done without the Hardy's coming out in the middle and doing their tired shtick, but I was all in on the actual ring work. This makes me want to seek out more Ducklings as they are great as a a trio of big bumping sleazeballs. I hadn't seen Killjoy before as he seemed to come at weird angles almost Fred Yehish. White Mike is a blast, great John Tatumish stooging and had some killer offense too. Fun stuff.

2. Cain Justice vs. Dirty Daddy

ER: I'm surprised to hear them say Justice is a rookie. There's a few holes there but there's a lot of things he does well. I like a lot of his roll ups, his cheating, his attitude; he looks like a redneck MMA Michael Pitt. This match felt a lot shorter than its 7 minute run time, had some nice logical counters (really liked Daddy's simple sunset flip roll up off the backpack piledriver), snug pins, Daddy has some nice punches off his back and a nice side headlock, just a nice simple match between two guys who seem like they know each other.

PAS: I really liked their BattleCade match, and I enjoyed this a bunch too. Cain Justice is already really good, and very fun to watch. I loved the switch of the armbar when Daddy was in the ropes, and his kicking of the tied up arm. We didn't get to see Cain's nasty finish in this match, which may put it a step blow the BattleCade match, although he did have some nice grappling.

3. John Skyler/C.W. Anderson vs. Roy Wilkins/Arik Royal vs. The Hardy Boys

ER: Was really hoping for this one to go about twice as long as it got, but I really enjoyed it for what it was. They easily could have milked this for 18 without it feeling long, but oh well. The crowd was hot for it, I thought CW looked great, and really that's enough for me. I'd love to see any combo of tag team battles between these three teams, hope this isn't the end of it. My favorite stuff was probably CW opposite Royal, loved the bit of character CW put into it. He chopped Royal's chest and then over-cringed when Royal chopped him back, rinse/repeat, then when CW tagged out he postured for a bit...before buckling his knees slightly, squinting and feeling his chest. They say in baseball that you never rub it after getting hit by a pitch, so I love CW putting over Royal's strike power by succumbing to rubbing it. CW also threw easily the best forearms in the match, and still has that left hand, even if Jeff almost flubbed the timing of it. Jeff flubbing timing and spots could have been the story of the match, if the other guys weren't so on point. Jeff botched both Hardy double teams (somersaulting in place on the senton/fistdrop and somehow whiffing on the legdrop to the groin) and stiffed the hell out of CW on the finish swanton (which, at least looked good). Matt looked much better and I'd love a CW/Matt singles match. Loved Skyler's spit take off a Jeff back elbow, loved Wilkins' golf swing uppercut on CW, the trainwreck finisher run from everybody was fun, so overall I liked this. Just really wanted a lot more time. Most importantly, CW Anderson is apparently ageless and still awesome.

PAS: I thought they treated the Hardy's a little too much like the Road Warriors here. They kind of ate both teams up, and I left this wanting to see Extreme Horseman v. All Stars a lot more then either team against the Hardy's. All four of the other guys in the match looked great, busting out nasty offense against each other, and bumping big for the big shotting Hardy Boys. I am seconding the CW Anderson love, he looked great against Converse at BattleCade, and great here. I would be really excited to see him in the mix in CWF-MA, Anderson v. Lee, v. Royal, v. Everett, v. Attitude all would be awesome.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

3. Hardy Boys v. Young Bucks NEW 8/2

ER: Wow, I'm kind of in shock about this match. Like the whole time I was watching it I was in disbelief at how great it was. Not that either team isn't capable, but the whole time it was just feeling TOO good, and it kept getting better, and I kept praying it wasn't going to fall off the rails or have a lame finish. Do you ever do that? You're watching a match and you're rooting to yourself for them to keep it up, to not blow it, wanting them to reach the level of great match that they're promising as they set out. And this match totally delivers in every way possible. The timing is just incredible, all four guys work as if they're intending to have the match of their careers, the pinfall saves are great, the false finishes are great, the ebb and flow of everything is great. This is just great tag wrestling, great pro wrestling. The Young Bucks persona works so wonderfully in front of genuine indy crowds, as opposed to people who are "in on the joke". And the team's personalities collide so well in this. This is clearly the hardest and wildest Jeff Hardy has worked in ages, and Matt looks as good as he did on his WWE TV singles match run in 2009. Bucks tone things down and perfectly use their superkicks only 3 times, both in super important parts of the match, always to cut off potential threat of Hardy offense, always used as not a big move but as a reset, something to turn the tide back to the Bucks.

There were so many great moments where each team would mirror each other, sometimes one upping the other, other times leading to their downfall. Hardys hit their nice fistdrop/rolling senton combo, Bucks later do their springboard moonsault/standing moonsault combo. Jeff catches knees on a swanton, and Nick immediately holds him prone on his knees so Matt J can hit a swanton. Bucks just trying to do little things to update Hardy's signature offense to get under their skin. There were so many great sequences throughout, tons of great saves, tons of stuff where timing is imperative, but there were no moments of somebody waiting for someone to get into position, everything ran like a well oiled machine. At one point Matt J cuts off Matt H with a superkick, hits a Fuerza bump dropkick and as he's skinning the cat he gets clotheslined from the floor by Jeff, which causes him to flip back onto the floor, Jeff goes to the apron to fly but gets leveled by Nick making Jeff trust fall into everybody, and then Nick hits a flip dive on all of them. Everybody was always right on point with pulling the ref out of a count at just the right moment, knocking someone off the top to save their partner, the saves and false finishes were so expertly done that it made a 23 minute match feel like it needed every second of that time. Jeff was a total maniac in this, hitting a huge crossbody off the apron, a couple reckless dives, always doing big splashes to break up pins, I mean I literally don't remember the last Jeff Hardy match where he looked this good. Matt stalked around the ring great, trying to slow the Bucks down, threw some of his perfect right hands (with a flawless fist shake on one) and trying to set up the Bucks for Jeff. Bucks were great too, knowing exactly when to break out the flash, knowing when to let something peak and when to cut it off, and the stuff piledriver finish was nasty and a great false finish. Jeff makes the save and Matt doesn't have to go wild hitting moves after taking the piledriver. He falls off Matt Jackson's shoulders to deliver the twist of fate, and falls on him for the pin after Jeff hits a swanton. This is a flat out excellent match. Literally my favorite match of the year.

PAS: Really great stuff, an out of nowhere classic. I can't believe how good Jeff Hardy was in this, he is a guy who had his moments over his career, but I think the consensus was that he was completely shot by 2014, a casualty of drugs and bumps, but I cannot remember him ever looking this good, not only was he bumping like crazy but all of his offense looked really good. When has Jeff Hardy ever thrown good punches? He was cracking the Bucks here, spin kicks looked great, just a unbelievable performance. I really loved how the Hardy's incorporated all of the Bucks stuff into a traditional hot southern tag. Their taunts came off more like douchey heeling and less like meta wink wrestling. More John Tatum less Chuck Taylor. I was also really impressed how the Hardys were able to keep up with the Bucks fancy shit, there are some elaborate sequences in this match, and they looked great, the speed was still there, but they way it was slotted in, made it look less like a dance routine then if the Bucks ran them with Ohio is for Killers or the Addiction. Eric is going so nuts for this match so I feel like I have to throw a little water on the fire, I did think the Meltzer Driver should end a match full stop, I just don't buy Matt putting on a move 45 seconds after selling it, even if he did a nice job of selling. I also think that the Hardy's are a little short on offense, so they spammed the side effect and twist of fate a bit, I loved Matt's gutwrench suplexes, and I would have rather he used more of them or even just some bodyslams. Still those are very minor complaints on what is otherwise a remarkable match. No one could have predicted this.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matt D: Credible? Untrustworthy? Person With Opinions?

It has recently been brought to our attention on the very electronic pages of this blog, that the credibility of regular contributor Matt D has gone down the "fucking drain". Matt is most certainly a person with opinions. Hopefully, all of us here are do, or else we'd just be soulless recappers. Some people trust our opinions, or at minimum enjoy the way we convey those opinions. But how credible is Matt?

Taken in a completely context free vacuum, Matt stated "I have no desire to see a Young Bucks match ever." That seems unduly harsh. But what is "desire"? Webster's defines it as "a strong feeling of wanting to have something". That's huge. There are few things in life that I feel a strong feeling of want for. I would say 80% of the things I review for this very page are things that I don't have a strong feeling of want for. How many things in life could I really "desire". There are many matches that I do not desire watching that I end up enjoying after watching them. I usually had interest in seeing them, but not necessarily "desire".





This match was a rematch from 10/18/14, and I really dug it. NEW can draw some pretty impressive indy crowds, and the Hardys were way over. Bucks worked like a heel Rock n Roll Express which really worked for me. I thought it was going to be a real challenge for them to come off as credible heels since the Hardys are so much larger than each of them. They're decent at stooging as both of them bump well, but the real fun starts when they take control. Matt Hardy is still a good salesman and the Bucks work him over in convincing ways. Young Bucks are a team with well known superkick humor, but here I loved how the superkicks were used. They were always used as a momentum stopper, a transition back to control. Matt would start to get a leg up, forget about the other Jackson, and turn around into a superkick. Jeff would come in for the save, lambaste one of the Bucks, turn around into a superkick. They weren't used in a cute way, they weren't used as a finish, they were used to slap down opposition, and often to put a coda on that particular section of the match. I liked all their dickish stomps and how they were able to portray hanging on by the skin of their tassels while also looking in control. Jeff gets taken out by a chair and emerges as Willow to make the save before a superkick starts more heat on Matt. Only complaint about the match is the finish didn't build and just ended up involving the Hardys taking Bucks' finishers and then just doing their own. Matt takes an absolutely brutal springboard stuff tombstone from the Bucks, really getting planted. Then the Bucks awesomely, dickishly do a Twist of Fate/Swanton combo to finish it, but Jeff saves. Then Matt just gets up, does a ToF and Jeff hits the Swanton for the win. Real lazy. So Matt basically took two big moves, was saved from the pinfall loss, but then just stands up and goes into finish mode. You wouldn't even have to modify the finish much to make it good, so that ended it sour. Overall though? Hot little match, excellent tag formula wrestling.

ONE SAMPLE MATT D CREDIBILITY:

After sample size of ONE recent Young Bucks match, Matt's credibility is not necessarily circling the fucking drain, but he does seem obstinate and resistant. I think a larger sample is due.

MATT: 0
BUCKS: 1

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Hardy Boys v. Briscoe Brothers OMEGA 4/26

PAS: Man I remember loving going down to North Carolina back in the day with Dean and Rippa and various other buddies, watching this match made me really nostalgic. Hardy's offense looks pretty dated in 2014, but they still have great timing and know how to build a tag match to a crescendo. Briscoes looked totally awesome here, I guess I need to go back and watch some ROH. I haven't seen Mark with hair before and it was really disconcerting, he looked great as a crazy hillbilly flyer, loved his Smothers Dojo karate stuff, and his wild dropkick through the ropes was awesome. Jay looked like a total backwoods psychopath, like he should be on a bridge in Nevada defending Cliven Bundy's sovereign property rights. Super hot OMEGA crowd bought into everything and the near fall section was legitimately thrilling. Such a treat, and it makes me want to search out all four guys.

ER: Really good tag made even better by a hot crowd, bringing a distinct OMEGA feel. And it made me regret not actively seeking out more Briscoes stuff over the last couple years as both guys seemed just as good - if not better - than ever (Shoot, it made me look around for Frank Parker and Roger Anderson stuff, too). Jay always came off really sinister to me, and the beard only adds to that militia vibe. Mark know looks like a hillbilly Dr. Zaius, or Bubba the Cave Duck from DuckTales. I love his use of total goofball antics to disarm an opponent, making it all the more unexpected when he boots you in the mouth. Somebody in the crowd gets it right when I hear him say to his friend "Man the Briscoes are really beating the shit out of the Hardys." It's weird getting excited about cutting off the ring and long heat segments and comebacks timed at just the perfect intervals for things not to drag, but for a classic tag formula it's something I haven't seen much of since the Hardys/MNM Royal Rumble match some 7 years ago. The first part of the match was really good, but then got great on the "reboot", with Matt going through another FIP segment and the Briscoes being total asskickers. I bought all the nearfalls (even the one just 10 minutes in or so), but the ones down the stretch really got me. Briscoes are really smart about saving vs. kicking out so things never get to overkill and neither team looks worse for it. The finish really worked for me as the timing of it was great. Matt gets the victory roll which felt like a) the smartest thing for him to do there, and b) a total Hail Mary desperation shot. You can easily see that not working, and just leading to an extended beat down before he eventually loses. But it works perfectly with the timing, as the big crash and burn off the Doomsday Device gives Matt barely enough time to eek out the three before it gets broken up. The only awkwardness with the match was the guys noticeably starting to fill time waiting for Jeff to get done with his mid-match costume change, but overall this was a classic tag formula that doesn't get done enough, with two teams that felt like a big deal. Awesome stuff.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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