Matches from AIW Bloodsport 9/9/16

1. Shawn Schultz vs. Tim Donst vs. Eric Ryan vs. Facade

ER: I haven't seen three of these guys before, and it's obviously been several years since I've seen Donst. Donst used to have his amateur wrestling body and gimmick, but now he's been clearly inspired by Kevin Owens' WWE success and Ethan Page's continuing Evolve push, so has modeled his look more after them. I came away from this really impressed by Eric Ryan, and also Facade. Facade looked like a guy playing a club promoter in the movie Strange Days. But he ties togther his indy offense nicely and adds nice thump to his transition strikes, feels much more like a late 90s OMEGA guy like Shannon Moore, than your current breed of similar indy workers who have flash but all their tie-together stuff looks garbage. Ryan was killer, moved really fast and took big bumps, hit some nice power offense. Best spot was him going for a suicide dive early, and his opponent just moves, and Ryan literally just does a suicide dive into the guardrail. Whole match was built around Donst in the crowd not wanting to wrestle, so you knew he was going to come in and win. But this was worth it just for the Ryan/Facade parts.

2. Eddie Kingston vs. Dan Severn

ER: Neat little 4 minute match, cool enough that had it happened on a 1998 episode of Shotgun would still be talked up today as a syndicated gem. Dan Severn is almost 60 and has hardly aged in 18 years, so it may as well have happened on Shotgun. They do a bit of tough matwork, Severn getting a double while Kingston works underneath for a kimura. Next time Severn shoots in for a double Kingston is waiting with a low knee, and Kingston acts surprised that it actually worked! Severn goes down from the knee and Kingston punces with muay thai knees, Severn blocks a backfist in a cool way, and that puts him in grappling range and Severn tosses Kingston a couple times with some cool unorthodox throws, then chokes him out. This came off like a cool Dave Taylor/Jerry Flynn WCWSN match, which makes it a win in my book.

3. Colin Delaney/Cheech vs. Russ Myers/T-Money vs. Steve Pain/Gringo Loco

ER: AIW is really good at throwing together these multi man spot tags, but it helps when you have someone like Steve Pain in there running things. This probably would have been better if we dropped Myers/Money from the equation, but there were enough moments that they added to that their inclusion was fine. Steve Pain, though - especially in matches like this - is just a bank full of money. He has all sorts of awesome convoluted offense, big slams and trippy powerbomb combinations, he's good at hand holding through other guy's cool spots, bumps big on a hiptoss to the floor, and will run face first into a back elbow. Loco has slowed down a little since his IWRG peak but he brings professionalism to a spotfest like this, so while maybe he should cut down on the complicated dives that have barely been clearing the apron, he's still an excellent hand in there to tie things together. Cheech and Delaney are fun together, dug their stereo dives and their silly Rube Goldberg style assisted rana. For their part Myers brought some amusing comedy, I did laugh at his terrible kip up spots, and his wild moonsault off of Pain's shoulders threatened to kill everyone. Money brought a slick dive over the top rope and a big pounce. Really love these kind of matches and I really need to start seeking out all Steve Pain matches.

4. Louis Lyndon vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Louis Lyndon is an original Beyond Wrestling dude who I always enjoy, he used to do a Bruce Leroy gimmick and now seems to be doing some sort of Captain Mike Rotundo shtick. I really liked the start of this with Lyndon throwing cool lucha armdrags and Riddle countering them with armbar attempts, it was a very cool mix of styles and got me amped for the match. Unfortunately it didn't really live up to its early promise, as Riddle did a lot of hack cheap shotting and they were off on a couple of spots. Finish was a ref distraction and a low blow. Wouldn't mind seeing them match up again, but this wasn't much.

ER: I thought this maintained more than Phil did, as the early awesome spots ran longer than the couple troublesome spots down the stretch. But I liked Lyndon more than I liked Riddle in this one, which surprised me. Riddle definitely facilitated some of Lyndon's more complicated things and went over easy on germans, but Riddle also has begun doing tons of complicated build up to weak looking finishes. There was a moment where he was doing some slick standing floatovers and I thought he was going to spin into an old Minoru Tanaka armbar but instead he ends with a stupid looking Pele kick that just rarely reads well. It's like the more confident he gets in a wrestling ring, the more stupid stuff he tries, and the more he gets further away from his actual cool MMA integration. I didn't really need to see him ever try his hand at KENTA style kick combos, but we're starting to get more of that and less of the wild bumps and less of that Fujiwara/Ishikawa "always dangerous" spirit lurking underneath. Phil is right that Lyndon started this out hot, and some of those armdrags made me flip. That one where he grabs Riddle's wrist and does a snap bridge, tossing Riddle over? Nuts. Lyndon had a bunch of cool stuff here, and although they got crossed up a couple times down the stretch I thought the cool outweighed the overly cooperative. I actually liked the finish with Lyndon pulling the ref in front of him to stop Riddle's attack, then punting him low. So overall I liked this more than Phil, but it's starting to look like the bloom is coming off the Riddle rose a bit, but hopefully it's just a case of the guy working more and more, therefore more less than stellar performances emerging with the larger sample.

5. Shayna Baszler vs. Heidi Lovelace

PAS: This was the main event of an MMA tinged show, and by far the best I have seen Baszler look in her short pro-wrestling career. She comes off a little like a female Don Frye, cocky asshole, sort of likable, but a total killer. She has this great taunt early in the match where she chains into submissions while counting them out, I could have tapped you with this, or this, or this. Her cockiness leads to a great near fall where she flips off Lovelace only to get her head kicked in. Heidi brought it, working super stiff, and finding cool ways to use ranas as piledrivers. Bayzler still will occasionally pull a shot too much, but she is developing a better sense of when to lay it in, and has great charisma. Finish was cool with Heidi going for a senton, which lands her right into Baszler's rear naked choke. Post match Jessyman Duke and Rhonda Rousey come out to help her celebrate, which was pretty neat.

ER: I really liked this and was really impressed with Lovelace. Baszler was impressive as well, especially for someone who's probably just 25 matches into her career; but Heidi had this all mapped out, paced things really great, fed some great spots to Shayna, and really knew how to build this. The counting off submissions spots was such a great dickhead spot, "Here's an armbar, here's a wristlock, kneebar, heel hook, now I'll let you up." Phil pointed out how she can still pull too many shots, and there were a couple that came off bad, but that's where I thought Heidi really excelled, as when Shayna would pull one Heidi would respond with one of her stiffer shots, almost waking up Shayna to a "oh yeah, I can hit harder!" and her response blows would always be bigger. Loved Heidi's headscissor that smashed Shayna's face into the guardrail, and that kneeling rana that did the same, into the mat. Also dug Baszler shit talking a skater kid in the front row, who looked like a tiny male Heidi, with a starter mustache. There were a couple times where they went out to fight right in front of him, and they would lay it in for a little close up magic. Heidi knocked the finish out of the park with her "getting choked out" facials. Her face was looking pale and her lips even looked blue, made me think Shayna was actually murdering her. Really cool match, and I really hope they match up again somewhere down the line.

ER: Really fun show (especially when you skip matches with Ethan Page, Michael Elgin and BJ Whitmer!), and Baszler/Lovelace was good enough that it landed on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List. But I dug all the matches I watched.

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AAW 1/15/16: The Chaos Theory Review

1. Drew Gulak vs. Louis Lyndon

ER: Lyndon felt a tad off in this one but is still a fun match for Gulak. There was some awkwardness like Lyndon hitting a flip dive into the crowd that I assumed ended with Gulak catching him and powerbombing him...except Lyndon sold that he hit the move totally fine so....guess he didn't just land back first on the concrete. But even if Lyndon's offense seemed a step off (though I did love his step up rana, and Gulak gamely throws himself into a dragon suplex), he fed Gulak's offense real nicely. Gulak plasters him at one point with a brutal rolling lariat, yanks at Lyndon's limbs a bunch in that way I absolutely love, kicks and elbows Lyndon around the ring, takes a big bump into the crowd. This could have been more, but I liked what it was.

2. Kongo Kong vs. Dan O'Hare & Wheeler Utah

ER: Damn, just a brutal 3 minute squash for Kong, like the best Umaga squashes multiplied by the best WWECW Viscera squashes. He hits a killer clothesline over the top to the floor on O'Hare, levels Utah with an avalanche, hits a crazy twisty sideslam, last ride powerbomb, a wild cannonball senton with both in the corner (one flopped in front of the other with in a tree of woe) and ends things with a full on unprotected top rope splash. Just a massacre. The whole thing plays as an awesome extended gif.

3. Heidi Lovelace & Kimber Lee vs. Allysin Kay & Brittany Blake

ER: I'm unfamiliar with the heel team, but liked them fine here. They wisely kept things to a manageable length here, just around 9 minutes, with Kay and Blake working over Lovelace. Kay at one point locked on a nasty cravate and says she's going to wist Heidi's ugly head right off, which is a level of heeling I can get behind. She's like Barry Darsow but with a nasty cravate. Blake is tiny but plays up that tiny little chickenshit role nicely, scratching at Heidi's eyes, hitting a neat rana on Lee that saw he vault off a kneeling Kay, and then right before Heidi's hot tag to Lee getting dumped with a rough backdrop driver. Lee looked good here, getting folded up on a Kay pump kick to the chest, and later hitting a low lift German on Kay to return the favor. Favorite spot of the match was Heidi aiming to hit the Heidicanrana (rana to a kneeling opponent) on Kay only to get caught, and Kay stands up from kneeling position to powerbomb her. It looked awesome and also worked as a nice foreshadowing of Heidi snapping it off for the pin moments later. This match had plenty of stuff that worked, although Lovelace looked more perturbed during her FIP segment than like someone who was actually getting roughed up by the heels. But at the same time it felt like the proper reaction for the offense she was taking.

4. Zero Gravity (Brett Gakiya & CJ Esparza) vs. The Hooligans (Devin Cutter & Mason Cutter)

ER: Well this was a hot little 10 minutes! I was unfamiliar with both teams going into this. Zero Gravity appear to be about 5'3" and skinny, Hooligans appear to be about 5'6" and fat. Hooligans are at war with their inner selves as they look like mini Moondogs with great bushy beards and fluffy hair, and cut off overall shorts...but their overalls are covered in punk rock patches. So...they're modern day Moondogs, who work at the mall, get a nice discount to Hot Topic and finally pulled the trigger on that 10"x10" Rancid patch for their wrasslin overalls. This whole thing had tons of hot sequences, some of which were tied together nicely, others which felt a little too rehearsed. You likely didn't come into this one hoping for things like nice stomach kicks or well thought out transitions, but the good stuff was enough to overshadow that other stuff. I really liked the Hooligans and would certainly seek them out. They're short, they're fat, and they got some cool double teams. Mason hits a neat fat guy standing moonsault, and later hits a variation where Devin boosts Mason's foot and allows him to hit an even higher one, ending with a kind of senton twist. They also had a brutal guillotine legdrop with one of Zero Gravity being held over a knee. ZG are small so some of their flying offense lands too lightly, but Gakiya had some cool kick combos (especially liked his hard jawjacker into a fast spin kick right across the mouth), and at one point they set up an awesome double team where they give Mason a chestbreaker out of the corner, Gakiya holds him over his knees, and Esparza hits a double knee drop off the top onto Mason's back. Nasty stuff (even if Mason sold it in that annoying way where you're falling, but have to fall into position for the next move, so you're kinda walking fast on your knees to get away from the ropes while still pretending you're selling the move). Hooligans were always there with nice lariats and serviceable punches, ZG were good to take big flipping bumps off of lariats, and they really did have some stretches where everything was strung together in tremendously satisfying ways. Fun stuff.

5. Chris Hero v. Sami Callihan AAW 1/15/16

PAS: This was kind of the US Indy version of Shibata v. Ishii from the dome show. Two big hitters just unloading on each other. Hero and Callihan are much more varied and expressive performers though and that is why I liked it better. Callihan has a very Terry Funkish selling thing going on, he is always checking his jaw for broken teeth, drooling grossly after a big shot, stumbling around, he also really knows how to unload, I loved him recklessly chucking a chair at Hero's ankles. This did have some of the same flaws as the Dome show match, as it did get a little repetitive, still I am really happy to see Callihan back and pounding on people, and Hero is always worth watching.

ER: Damn, you guys. If you're ever sitting around thinking "I wish I could watch Hero and Callihan kick each other in the face about 30 times" then your wish has been granted. That *is* something that I've wished for, so color me happy. And I don't think it had those Dome show flaws that Phil brings up, as the repetition is there, but there's an actual build and meaning behind what these guys are doing. Watch Hero come out of the gates strong, get immediately slowed down by that chair to the ankle, keep going back to the well even though it gets less effective each time, attempt to change his gameplan too late, and eventually succumb. This isn't just brainless elbow exchanges where the 14th one happens to get a 2 count but the previous 13 just get jack off fists and screaming. The first three minutes of this are just the most fast paced ass beating minutes around. Hero's pump kick, specifically his tornado pump kick, is my favorite strike in wrestling. I don't understand the physics of it, but damn do I love watching him spin as that leg lashes out into teeth. Hero kicks Callihan all around, follows him to the floor with a Fuerza bump kick through the ropes, and here's where we get our turn of Sami winging a chair right at Hero's legs. Hero limps in and is noticeably slowed, still going for kicks but yelping and limping after, allowing Sami to jump in with more of his attacks. Hero still is able to catch him a bunch, but the shots get less and less. Beautiful moment where Hero goes to fire off an elbow, plants on his bum leg and barely grazes Sami with the shot, ending up leaning into and on Sami as the damage has caught up to him. Hero still gets a last gasp with his awesome snap piledriver, but at a certain point it becomes more of the Sami show, with Sami teeing off with kick after kick after kick, basically setting up that leg injury early, and knowing he can outlast Hero from there. Awesome stuff. Hero stays great no matter how much cottage cheese, and Sami is having a wonderful return to form.

6. Shane Hollister, Mat Fitchett & Markus Crane vs. Connor Braxton, Buck Nasty & Eddie Machete

ER: Man why do the comedy matches always end up going longer than any other matches on the show. This was what it was. You either like the comedy or you don't, and you either care if half the moves whiff and most of the flying spots overshoot or you don't. I care, so I watched this x2 and was probably better for it. Hollister is in the awkward position of trying to work somewhat serious here, Fitchett is one of those smooth graceful flyers who gets great height on a standing moonsault but manages to whiff on three different Pele kick variations, Crane is working a crazy guy comedy gimmick, like Mark Briscoe without actual stiff strikes. Braxton has size and did get a laugh out of me coming out to Ridin' Dirty while slowly rolling on a hoverboard (admittedly for a comedy spot, his Big Swing while riding a hoverboard is about as top fucking notch as you can get in a modern comedy spot), Buck Nasty was managing the Hooligans earlier and I'm not really sure what he's going for as he tries to combine comedy with standard issue indy big strikes and spots, but isn't really good at any of it (he did take a nice bump into the ropes off a comedy moonsault spot with Crane), and Machete I really didn't get a feel for at all. It had some nice enough moments, liked Braxton's bump from the ring to the stage, followed by Hollister launching Fitchett into him. Overall, again, it was what it was.

7. Ryan Boz vs. Abyss

ER: It would appear we are definitely into the x2 portion of the show. Boz used to look like CM Punk and now he looks all old and dried out, like Sheriff Eli Thompson during the last season of Boardwalk Empire. You may be surprised to know, but Abyss is still incredibly bad at pro wrestling. Truly one of the worst workers to ever get an extended television run. His set up time on spots is extraordinary. It just takes him forever to do anything. I had this on x2 through most of it, and it was still stunning how long it would take him to search for weapons, get into position, move the match along; him holding Boz by the head and walking around during the crowd brawl portion played like it was in real speed, and then him struggling to kneel down while searching under the ring for plunder played like I had somehow accidentally played it in slo mo. It's clear his knees are shot as it was painful watching him just try to stand up after rolling into the ring, but for a big "monster" man does he wimp out on every piece of offense he throws. He actually puts his hands out in front of him to stop his momentum on shoulderblocks!! I can't believe it. It's hysterical. "I want to make sure I don't actually hit you, I better put my arms out to slow down my charge." He looked flat out embarrassing throughout the duration of this. Boz, however - maybe just in comparison to Abyss, who knows - was a pleasant surprise. I liked his short uppercuts during the crowd brawl, he took a huge bump into chairs off an Irish whip, nice bump in the rail. Shoot at least he *tried* to make a terrible wrestler look devastating. He had great facial expressions and really came across like an unpleasant scum, which will get you somewhere in my book. He made the best of a terrible situation.

8. AR Fox vs. Davey Vega

ER: Yuck. I'm probably not the best guy to be reviewing a match like this as this indy workrate this is awesome type stuff usually leaves me blowing in the wind. This one certainly did. For every little thing I like there are usually a few things I hate. AR Fox hit plenty of his signature offense where he hits a flip dive or senton at an invisible opponent who is just beyond his actual opponent. Both guys do some dangerous shit here, like plenty of stupid stuff, but what you're left feeling is how meaningless it is when they're up bouncing around seconds later. Fox at one point takes a Falcon Arrow on the apron, which would be crazy even if his legs hadn't hit the top rope, sending him quickly neck first into the apron and down to the floor. But moments later he's back inside setting up all his offense for the finishing run. Fox threw nice elbows on the apron, I liked Vega blocking one and hitting a superkick, dug Vega getting the knees up on a 450, but this was all fancy packaging, empty calorie bullshit that you don't even enjoy eating.

9. Eddie Kingston vs. Trevor Lee

ER: Well at least we're through the other side of our x2 portion of the evening. And this was predictably good, even though Lee seemed off a step in spots. He jumps all over Kingston's arm to start and we get a bunch of great limb attacks. I'm a big fan of stuff like taking a limb and slamming it into things, and here Kingston's left arm gets bounced off guardrails, ring posts, and in the spot of the match his shoulder gets corkscrewed brutally into the mat. Lee kept going right after that arm and I like how it slowed the rest of Kingston's game, leading to a big spinning backfist (with his right) attempt that Lee caught, rolled through and locked on a rough armbar on that weakened left arm, and thankfully Kingston was close to the ropes. I have seen Lee look better than he did in this match, and a lot of his kicks to Kingston's arm and chest looked a little limp and wet noodle-y. I did like his superkick to a seated Kingston though, and the way Kingston slumped to the mat afterward. Kingston took a lot of damage in this one, so it was surprising when he caught Lee with a backfist, hit a half German and then polished things off with another backfist. I like that they keep the backfist deservedly strong, but Lee took a whole lot of this match and really came off like he was dishing everything he had at Kingston, and then Kingston just kinda takes it all and dispatches him with a couple backfists (which as much as I love the backfist, it's tough seeing two of those putting a guy down after watching what Hero and Callihan unleashed on each other. These brutal shots to the head are a slippery slope). It kinda made Lee come off like a guy clearly below Kingston, which has not been the case on previous AAW show. Still, I overall dug the match, really thought Kingston came off great. His selling was top notch, not just the way he put over his bum wing, but the way he took Lee's other attacks, the way he would get to ropes, just a fine performance.

ER: After the show we get promos from several of of the wrestlers, including a classic Kingston promo where he calls out the fans who says he sucks, and how he knows Trevor Lee does not suck, but Lee still lost. "He might've dislocated my shoulder, still didn't stop me, still lost." Kingston is really easy to buy into.


ER: Fun overall show with several matches I liked, one legit MOTYC, a fun squash, and about an hour of easily skippable nothingness. Hero/Callihan was great and is an easy choice for our MOTY list (linked below), but I also loved seeing The Hooligans for the first time, witnessing my first hoverboard assisted Big Swing, and this is an easy show to recommend.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches, #18: Heidi Lovelace v. Jordynne Grace 2/8/14

IWA-Mid South Segunda Caida's favorite scumbag indy is putting up their top 18 matches on youtube. I figure I would review them and see how my ranking fits with there rankings.

18. Heidi Lovelace v. Jordynne Grace 2/8/14



PAS: I enjoyed this really felt like something filmed on someones phone and uploaded on Baller Alert or Worldstar, especially when the wandered out and started brawling in the snow. Felt like a Moondog brawl if the Moondogs were strippers with needle marks between their toes. There was a crazed tope by Lovelace, Grace smashes a tool box into Lovelaces head, their is a spinebuster into the snow, smashing each other into trucks and it ends with both girls getting smushed by Kongo Kong. There have been a metric ton of great matches in IWA and I don't think this was top 20 or anything, but it was pretty fun in a very IWA kind of way.

ER: Man this was killer. After this and the six man I'm really loving Jordynne Grace. These girls really take some nasty falls and spills. The stuff in the snow was the worst just because the conditions making everything worse than it normally would have been. You get a single arm DDT in the show, a freaking uranage on a picnic table, I mean good lord. But Grace has real nice strikes, some of the best shoulderblocks of anybody male or female. All of her shoulders to Lovelace's stomach throughout the match had a sick thud to them, whether they were also slamming Lovelace into the apron or outside ramming her into some fat guy's 4 Runner. Grace's tope was so awesome, just full impact crushing Lovelace. And I just love both of their commitment to taking seemingly normal stuff on painful surfaces. Even something like a snapmare is more brutal when taken on a gymnasium floor and these two clearly went all in. Big fan.

PAS: We are also putting this at 27 on our 2014 MOTY list. IWA-MS lives!!!


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

20. Corporal Robinson/Heidi Lovelace/Mickie Knuckles v. Kongo Kong/Randi West/Jordynne Grace IWA-MS 3/9

PAS: The grimy, scuzzy, dirtbag awesomeness that IWA-MS does so well. This is a mixed tag stretcher match and looks like a street fight in the parking lot of a Kentucky Arby's. If there was a methed out white trash version of Worldstar hip hop, this would be front page. Kongo Kong is a giant dude working a Kamala gimmick and he and Robinson brawl around the arena, smashing each other. Mickie has put on some padding and works even stiffer and the other girls are right there killing each other with shots. There is some kind of angle which takes Robinson out of the match a bit, which kind of sucks, but man alive is the finish brutal, Kong 747's Heidi Lovelace through a table and just leaves a flattened pile of menthol cigarettes, track marks and tattoos. Welcome back IWA-MS may you live a thousand lives.

ER: Fun match that really only IWA-MS can do. No other promotion has the right combo of dangerously stiff and dangerously unsanitary. I'm a big fan of fatties and Kongo Kong is gigantic and has a super sloppy fat guy body, made to look even sloppier by preposterously fitting trunks. He looks completely unathletic, but then shows me by taking a crazy bump to the floor off a Corp. Robinson clothesline. Kong also has that cool Andre "pulling" strength, as he launches all the girls into towards Robinson, who had been wedged into the corner with a chair. Corp and Mickie have clearly been hitting the gym since I last saw them, and by hitting the gym I mean eating tons of fried food while selling pills at a street fair. But both of them can throw a mean forearm and nasty headbutt, so they're still alright in my book. I was impressed with all the girls here, all of them worked reckless enough that they fit right into a wild crowd brawl. Also, shout out to the moral compass in the crowd, a man yelling out to Kong "Hey why don't you try picking on a man!" Of course seeing this crowd, he was likely just using that as a clever alibi, like acting sick at work the day before you plan on calling in sick. The bodies are buried at that guy's house.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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