AEW Five Fingers of Death 11/17 - 11/23

AEW Full Gear 2025 11/22/25

Darby Allin vs PAC

MD: There were people that questioned why this needed to be on the PPV when it was announced. On paper, maybe it was just a good match for the sake of being a good match, the sort of thing that has been used for years now to fill out AEW PPVs and tilt those Observer Thumbs Up and Cagematch ratings. And maybe that would have been enough. But there was more at play here.

Darby came in literally hot, having been burned by PAC (or more accurately put through a burning table by him, with Gabe Kidd's help) at Blood & Guts. But this is a Darby that had come down from Everest, one that's at peace with himself. He came in hot but he used that heat to fuel a wrestling machine. He didn't fly in with strikes but instead with headlock takeovers. The purpose of this was twofold. First, PAC had come in saying that they were going to wrestle a clean match and the better man would win. By outwrestling him early, Darby would hurt PAC more than any single punch to the face. More than that though, Darby was bandaged up. He had to wrestle conservatively, even if aggressively. While he had the luxury, he wouldn't use his own body as a weapon.

That luxury wouldn't last long. After barely escaping a makeshift Scorpion Deathlock attempt, PAC was able to catch him on the apron and press slam him to the floor. What followed was a brutal heat section where they did a great job mixing up big bumps/moves (that press slam, though that was a transition, Darby's absolutely brutal bump past the corner to the floor, even the neck-first catapult into the bottom rope) with PAC being a malicious maniac, tearing off the bandages and giving Darby an Indian burn. Everything came together for the latter: Darby's distorted skin, the way the bandage flew through the air, the look of exultation on PAC's face and agony on Darby's, how shocked and horrified the commentators were. It got as big a reaction from the crowd as both of Darby's huge bumps. 

Anything in pro wrestling can matter so long as it's presented correctly and much, much more effort should be made in making small things like this matter as much as possible. Not only is it safer and more varied than big bump after big bump, but it also allows those bumps, if framed correctly, to mean even more through escalation. The proof is in the audience reaction here (and yes, they did go up even higher as Darby crashed through the corner).

Darby mounted a comeback by catching PAC in the apron (and the sense of struggle here was great; PAC was desperate to get out in a way that others in that rare spot often aren't), setting him up for a dive and then a gnarly dropkick from the top to PAC seated on the floor in a chair. 

Darby was obviously hurting and PAC presents himself successfully as one of the best in the world, so they would go back and forth from there. PAC was able to catch Darby off the ropes turning a Coffin Splash into a suplex. He was unable to put him away with the Brutalizer though. Darby was able to get out of the way of a Black Arrow and it looked like he was going to put PAC away with the Scorpion Deathlock.

But there was a plan for this. The Death Riders have quit a little too much lately (even if it's almost all been on the head of their leader). PAC had vowed that this would be a fair fight, that the best man would win. So in some ways, he'd already lost when Wheeler Yuta rushed up to the apron to distract Darby and the ref, and doubly so, when he used the bat to knock Darby out. But moral victories don't exist in the record books, only wins and losses. 

And later on when Moxley faced O'Reilly there was a plan as well. Once it was clear that O'Reilly had an answer for every bit of wrestling Moxley could throw at him, Marina handed Mox the fork and he used it to take over. The plan worked for PAC. The plan only failed in the Casino Gauntlet because Matt Menard chose to punish Garcia and run him off instead of trying to win the National Title. The Plan here worked right up until the point it didn't, until the point where Moxley, having broken Kyle's arm, still managed to tap out to a chain reinforced ankle lock. Maybe he went back and finished the job after the match but even if he won the war, he lost the battle, and in this case, the battle was more important than the war. 

So yes, Darby vs PAC was great, but it wasn't just a great match for the sake of having great matches. There was a grudge coming in and it was worked to that. More importantly, it set the stage, through a begrudging plan of the Death Riders coming to fruition, for Mox vs O'Reilly where a similar plan, unveiled far sooner and far more desperately, nonetheless failed. That contrast hangs over Moxley like his own personal Sword of Damocles, just waiting to fall.

AEW Full Gear 2025 Collision Tailgate Brawl 11/22/25

Eddie Kingston/Hook vs Workhorsemen

MD: It's amazing what you can do in two minutes. Look, I'm not going to say anyone should or shouldn't have done whatever they did or didn't do. We never have the full story and it's always complicated and we do far too much speaking up on matters that we're just blind men touching elephants on.

What I can speak on, however, is this match. They had two minutes, less than two minutes according to cagematch (just 1:48). But the Workhorsemen punched in and showed what they could do. They ambushed Hook and Eddie on the way down. Drake took Eddie out, and that's the way things have been for Kingston as he builds up his fighting strength from match to match. That meant they had Hook isolated and though he tried to fire back off the ropes or out of the corner, they went to work. 

That meant hitting their signature flurry of a Drake apron clothesline, the Henry headtwist, and Drake flying in with a slingshot somersault senton. Hook was finally able to get out of the way causing a bit of miscommunication and then launching Henry. By then Eddie was recovered and he did the same to Drake setting the stage to hit a quick DDT out of nowhere and scoring the win. 

But in two minutes the Workhorsemen, professional as can be, got a spotlight to show that they could take the initiative, knock Hook around the ring, and hit some polished, brutal offense on the guy who was going to be the hingepoint of the PPV's main event. No small thing even for two men who are very, very good at what they do.

ROH TV 11/20/25

Athena vs Harley Cameron (Ported: https://x.com/MattD_SC/status/1991866317486555505)

Throughout the years, we've created a critical system of reviewing and ranking matches that's based on things like action, execution, big spots, and exciting finishing stretches.

It often leaves more performative elements behind. These would include facial reactions, body language, character driven creative choices, and yeah, even selling. 

In fact, over the years, matches that lean too hard on some of these elements tend to be judged by some as unfortunate because they can "negatively impact the action" and make it so a match isn't considered as conventionally great as it might have been if the wrestlers had just been allowed to go hard and lean into workrate instead.

A recent review I saw of Demolition vs Brainbusters from SNME 21, a match that trades workrate for a clever and consistent story of Demolition getting increasingly frustrated leading to a DQ, comes to mind.

Along these lines, some of Jon Moxley's recent performances where he's been leaning hard into the role of a mad king who saw his pro wrestling kingdom crumbling, a man who claimed to stand for things but was slowly being revealed as an emperor with no clothes, an animal with his back against the wall desperate for victory, for revenge, but forced to look himself in the mirror and see a coward, quitter, and hypocrite, have been excellent.

But there are different lanes for different sorts of performances, and I think there's no one as good in the world right now at letting her character drive her physicality and matches as Athena. 

That was evident in her 11/20 ROH TV title match against Harley Cameron. 

Despite being champion for over 1000 days, she came in on her back foot, having been pinned by Harley in the tag tournament (albeit after eating Willow's doctor bomb).

That was maddening for Athena (the character) for multiple reasons. First, she and Mercedes were a sort of super team and they were defeated in the first round. Second, she's been pinned only a handful of times in the last few years. Third, there's a massive difference in hierarchy and experience between Athena and Harley. Harley's treated as plucky and determined, hard-working and fiery, but also as an upstart underdog and often as a comedy act.

That gave Athena a ton to work with but it meant shaping the match and her performance around this mentality as opposed to shooting to have the most exciting, spot filled match possible.

She came out to the ring without her usual celebratory fanfare, scowling instead. She offered a normal handshake instead of her usual left handed princess dangle. Then she ran right in, impatient and irritated, charging into Harley's armdrags. That Harley's execution wasn't perfect only added fuel to the fire here.

When Athena took over, she was constantly distracted. At times, after her running punch in the corner or when putting on a hold, she'd start to unveil her usual grin only for reality to hit and the scowl to return. Just when she started to relax and enjoy herself, the fans began clapping up Harley and she became irate. She jawed back with them, delusionally claiming that they were taunting Harley and not her. 

The match was built around Athena's character-driven mistakes (rushing in, losing her cool, being distracted by the crowd, trying to use Harley's own finisher) creating openings for Harley in order to counteract the hierarchal differences. It demanded absolute consistency from Athena in both what she did and in how she did it. It demanded selling that's far more complex and nuanced than remembering to limp now and again, a selling of the soul. 

These performances tend not to earn stars, but they move hearts and minds. And in 2025, Athena is as good at them as anyone.

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DEAN~!!! 2 Day 3: JD Drake vs. Josh Woods

DEAN~!!! 2 5/24/25

JD Drake (w/Anthony Henry) vs. Josh Woods (w/Tom Lawlor)

MD: The chaotic and mutable spirit of indie wrestling lives here as this was initially supposed to be Woods vs Lawlor, but ended up with Lawlor seconding Woods. Thankfully, this time around (as opposed to DEAN~!!! 1) Filthy Tom had time to carefully prepare his sartorial style and he came in looking like the caddie-ist of corner men. It actually matched Woods' turquoise wave gear well. Henry, on the other hand, has been training hard in his absence and felt it important to let everyone know that by coming down to second JD without a shirt.

I missed the Workhorsemen and this was a great venue to see them both back together again (even if it wasn't a tag, though I'd like to see this tag, but that's beside the point). They're the ultimate utility players. You can plug them in to any role and they'll get the job done. You could debut them as Ricochet's new crew next week (as opposed to CRU or whoever) and people would gawk (not a bad thing given they're trying to get heat and dissonance drives heat) but they'd be in the right place at the right time doing the right thing the right way every single time that they'd need to be and it would work. You could have them call out FTR and do a short program, could have them try to survive the Hurt Syndicate for ten minutes on TV, could have them challenge Dustin and Sammy on ROH, could have them menace Top Flight (not sure anyone works better with Dante than Drake), and they'd get the job done. Drake's instantly credible between his size, how he moves, how he carries himself and Henry has that snap precision execution and throws himself into everything he does. 

Woods, given his background, is instantly credible, and he definitely threw himself into everything here. This was just his second match this year (with a VIP match earlier in May). He got the better of Drake early on with takeovers, holds, and some nasty knee strikes on the floor. You don't want to be on the floor with JD Drake though because he's got the best transition move in all of wrestling, his press up against the ropes into a big meaty shot. I liked Dylan's call explaining that you're hurt not just by the strike but by the pressure of the ropes going the wrong way at the wrong angle or what not. After that, Henry made his presence felt and it made sense that he'd be a little more impactful than Lawlor out there (a perfectly fine encouraging cheerleader, mind you), given the tag team stylings of Henry and Drake. That included a beautiful neck twist on the apron with big follow through as Drake was distracting the ref. 

Woods came back with quicker, more high-impact, high-motion offense than you might expect and they rolled into a stretch where Drake hit his cannonball but missed the moonsault allowing Woods to hit a pretty impressive corner twisting suplex. Just good wrestling executed well. I don't think it chipped into the same sort of unique space that Woods vs Lawlor might have but it helped ground and round out the card.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 10/28 - 11/3

AEW Rampage 11/1/24

RUSH/Dralistico/Mortos vs BEEF/JD Drake/Butcher

MD: Really enjoyed Rampage this week overall. Very "Fastest Hour of TV" vibes. They started in the ring for this one, cut to Stokely after, did the Vendetta squash, paid off the Stokely bit and did something out of normal format with Taya, then went straight into the three Top Flight matches, one after the other, all linked with the entrances, and with the undertone of Moxley-influenced aggression in the air more so than usual on AEW TV (that doesn't involve Moxley directly) right now. Very much a "Restore the Feeling" sort of show for me, but then my feeling and other people's feelings tend to be different. I'll miss it if and when it's gone just like I miss Dark and Elevation.

And obviously, this was a great way to start. Look, I like the Outrunners, but I do think there's a ceiling to them and that the act will only have legs for so long. I see a higher ceiling for BEEF. Yes, he's over the top, but he's over the top in a believable way. The Outrunners are characters. They're very fun characters who are enjoyable to watch, but BEEF comes off as more human. You might know a guy like BEEF. You might tell yourself and everyone else that you wished you didn't, but then so do JD Drake and Anthony Henry, right? Deep down, though, having someone so earnest and enthusiastic in your life just makes it better. Do I think he can be world champion? No, but I think he can be a challenger for the TNT or Continental Title that fans might really get behind on a chase.

The most interesting guy in this one was Drake though. Arn Anderson is on record that he thinks he (being Arn) was a terrible babyface, that he didn't have the "skills," which in this case more or less means deep armdrags and dropkicks. I'm not sure if he really believes that of if he's being self-effacing but in saying it, he shortchanges just how good a babyface he was and what makes a good babyface in the first place. It's not "skills", it's emotional connection. I imagine Drake might say the same thing Arn did, but he was really good here being shoehorned into that role. He engaged with everyone around him, hitting the tranquilo pose early, played face-in-peril sympathetically but with fire, downright seething when RUSH stopped the run across the ring to kick him in the face, and then fired back for the hot tag, standing toe to toe with RUSH before making that final, pained turn to tag BEEF in.

Butcher fit right in too. Obviously you want him slugging it out with RUSH. You want everyone slugging it out with RUSH. There was a bit early on too where Dralistico really played up that little dog/big dog dynamic with his brother which I find effective. This was good all around. Only thing I missed here was one of those Jake pre-tapes to set the stage. BEEF has this sort of transformative element to him that makes everyone into Giant Machine or Piper Machine like in 85. Someday we'll get BEEF/Mark Briscoe interaction and the skies will part and the angels will sing.

ROH TV 10/31/24

Athena vs Abadon

MD: Abadon's an interesting case. If you go back to the territories, they'd move around like Kamala or other monsters, never staying in one place for too long. Here, they're one of the only honest attractions (in as they're used like one) that AEW/ROH have. They're gone more than than they're here and they're instantly credible and dangerous when they arrive, generally able to challenge a champion only to come short. Then they're away again long enough to make you forget about the loss so that they have an impact when they come back. I know in the margins they're working indies and training but the lack of ringtime is probably not ideal. 19 matches in 2024 with a third of those being squashes on ROH TV coming in at less than 2:30. 2023 was much the same. It's a tricky balance.

Part of me wonders if we're reaching the end of Athena in ROH. It looks like Billie's story is cresting again and Final Battle is around the corner. Plenty of people who don't actually watch ROH have been clamoring for it. Everyone who does likely wants her to stay. I do understand that what ROH is might change in the future (and it might not) but it gives her the freedom to stretch. This went almost 20 minutes, more with the pre and the post-match. It had all the room in the world to breathe. I love AEW commercial breaks in some ways, but Athena doesn't need them like others do. She is fully formed, self-actualized, able to structure her matches in the ideal manner and make the most out of every second. This sort of match would have been very hard to pull off in this exact way getting this amount of time on Dynamite or Rampage. I think in historical terms and the comp we'll have some day of Athena's Proving Ground matches and big defenses will shine, just like she does as the biggest fish in AEW's smallest pond. If she does get moved up at some point, then she should be featured on the same level as Mercedes, getting her own segment each week. On paper, maybe that's a bold risk. In actuality, it's an investment that would pay off in time.

But there's a match here and like I said, it went almost twenty. It was wild, with a slew of big spots that went like they should have or that were all the more impressive for maybe not. Some of the latter was simple physics. A lot of it was Athena's reactions in the moment. There were plenty of moving parts here and it was very much on her to make this feel organic. Remember, Abadon's had something like 120 matches and a big chunk of those are squashes. They did a good job sticking to character and keeping things moving, being where they needed to be when they needed to be, and this was their career match, from what I've seen, but it's a little different than Athena's 17 year career.

Athena reacted to everything, from planned spots, to mishaps like the chain falling off her band, to the crowd chanting this is awesome. She reacted from Abadon absorbing the magic forearm at the start all the way to the relief of hitting the crazy O-Face into the chairs and escaping with the belt(s). You couldn't see the strings because she managed to be on so thoroughly throughout, whether it was following some sort of plan or a temporary deviation from it. I can't stress how important that is, how rare that is in 2024, and how it turns a match from a garbage spotfest into an immersive, horrific experience.

Athena went from fear to seething frustration to seething rage to seething agony. There was a lot of seething in this one. Abadon's reaction to the blood from the skewers was spot on as well, and even better was Abadon's frustration after being unable to finish Athena off on the floor. That was the moment that the match shifted inexorably in Athena's favor, the moment where her persistence and determination and madwoman drive broke Abadon's will. For the first time all match, maybe even since their debut, Abadon showed cracks, and Athena drove a wedge through them before shattering her with the O-Face. That this went so long, had certain things that didn't work as planned, and still turned out to be compelling and cohesive is a testament to one of the best wrestlers in the world and a very game opponent and one more reason that we should cherish this ROH while we can. 

BONUS: AEW Collision 11/2/24 - Kyle Fletcher

I had tossed this in a tweet (https://x.com/MattD_SC/status/1853065072689496430) I'm doing a lot of these short form things over there, so do follow and follow along) but wanted to put it here as well. 

It's no big secret what I wanted MJF to do at Wembley. Channel Larry Zybzsko and stall. The stalling wasn't the point though. It was the means. The heat that it would have gotten him wasn't even the point. That was the means too. At the end of the day, heat generally is. It's a means to fuel the potential energy behind a comeback. The comeback is the thing. When you have a face and a heel and a crowd that cares about the difference, it's everything.

The traditional goal of pro wrestling has always been to figure out what a crowd wants and deny them it and deny them it and deny them it so that when they get it, it's the greatest feeling imaginable. For decades, what they wanted was to see the babyface win and the heel get comeuppance. That's not nearly as true in 2024. Right now, much of the audience wants to be part of an experience, want to have bragging rights for being live for a great match, to chant "This is Awesome" or "Fight Forever." And no one enables them to do that more than Will Ospreay. He's the poster boy for it. He gives the fans what they want. So if MJF was going to be the greatest villain of his age, how could he really get under the crowd's skin? By denying them that as much as possible in the grandest venue possible. Then, in the last third of the match when Ospreay became unchained and hit spot after spot perfectly and brilliantly, it would have felt like the greatest relief (and release) in the world. 

Max went a different way with it. That's fine. People still liked the match. We're not here to talk about that. We move on. We look to the future. Let's talk about Kyle Fletcher. I love AEW's commercial breaks. You learn so much about wrestlers by seeing how they fill time during it. This is where AEW generally sticks the heat (of shine/heat/comeback since I'm using phrases haphazardly) in its matches. That's the most important part of the match! I'm not entirely sure it would even exist for most AEW matches without the breaks because the tendency to go 50/50, your move/my move and get all the cool stuff in might be too strong.

People have been hot and cold on Fletcher the last couple of years, but I've been watching him during those breaks and I have to admit, I like what I see. He's been precociously good at interacting with the crowd, his opponent, the ref, at letting things breathe, at showing himself as a fully fleshed out character with emotions and opinions and able to emote and present all of this to the crowd. He's not just hitting stuff. He's not just sleepwalking through it until it's time for the big back-from-break spot. He's alive. It's just for a lot of the rest of the match, you didn't see it nearly as much. Great (surprising!) instincts, just maybe a career of hanging with a certain sort of crowd who had learned to get over in a certain sort of way, right?

So now he's turned on Ospreay, has cut his hair to differentiate him, and as seen on Collision's Komander match, has done something even more striking. He's managed to start moving differently. That Fletcher who we'd seen peek out during the breaks is starting to show himself from bell to bell. He used his robe as a feint to cheapshot Komander to start and then moved slowly, methodologically, with purpose. He grinded him down, played to the crowd, menaced Abrahantes. When I tried to explain what made Mark Henry so special during his Hall of Pain run, the best I could come up with was the notion of "negative space", what you did between the moves and the spots. Giving life to those in-between moments turns a match from a series of things that happened to a consistent, engaging, immersive reality of its own. Fletcher was absolutely nailing that here.

And then, in the back third (after the break and after he finally nailed Abrahantes), he let Komander off the chain and they hit bombs and fireworks on the way to the finish. The crowd responded, for the most part, as they ideally are supposed to, chanting Komander's name and getting behind him. Sometimes you find a spark of hope in the most unlikely places, right?  

That brings us to Full Gear and Ospreay. I don't want him to stall. That made sense for Max. It made sense for the cowardly heel champ full of bluster. Fletcher's wrestling like someone with something to prove and he has more to prove against Ospreay than anyone. What he has to prove, however, is that he's his own man. If he comes out and wrestles Ospreay's match to prove that he can hang, that he's just as good as him (exactly what Max did!), that doesn't prove to anyone that he's his own man. It just proves that maybe he's as good an Ospreay as Ospreay.

Fletcher seems to get this, right? He seemed to get it in the Komander match, way more than I would have expected him to. How does he prove it then? He goes low early and then grinds Ospreay down the whole match. He makes sure Ospreay doesn't hit his usual first-few-minutes dive. He evades and avoids hope spots so that Ospreay doesn't even get to hit them. He denies Ospreay his offense. He denies the fans the chance to see Ospreay do his thing. They get absolutely nothing for the first two thirds (but the joy of booing), not because Fletcher is a coward but because he's an absolute bastard. Then? That last third? They get everything. Maybe it scores a half star less on the following Friday morning, but if Fletcher can pull it off, it would be an experience the crowd would never forget. It would define who and what he could be moving forward. It would give AEW another piece they badly need. I guess we'll know soon enough.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/27 - 6/2

ROH TV 5/23/24

Workhorsemen vs Angelico/Serpentico

MD: We've got no Fingers of Death active this week and it's going to be a little bleak for a while with Kingston out. The fifth one is eternally floating and there are various people that will get rotated in there like Christian and Rush and Athena, but today, we're playing moneyball with the Workhorsemen and friends.

Anthony Henry is right off of an ill-timed jaw injury and a sort of a strange journey of being gone and being back and you can tell that he was rearing to get back in the game. JD Drake is the very definition of a DVDVR/Segunda Caida guy and I'm happy for whatever focus he gets. These ROH matches really do buck a lot of the current AEW criticism. They're closer to ten minutes than twenty, not stretched out by a commercial break, and very often, you don't know coming in who's going to win. There was just as much chance that Angelico and Serpentico took this as the Workhorsemen. And given that Workhorsemen won this, just as much chance that they were going to win as Top Flight in the match covered next.  

While the comeback was a lot of fun, my favorite part here was the opening exchanges. Where the Workhorsemen excel most is enabling their opponents to really be the best versions of themselves possible. They're versatile, contrasting in size and shape and style. Drake's excellent at knowing when to give and when not to give. Here he was matched up with Angelico and combined one or two slick and smooth little counters with jamming Angelico on a trip, only to miss a senton a moment later to put himself off balance for Angelico to actually hit. He was able to be there for Angelico so he could hit some of his more tricked out stuff but not make it look overly collaborative either. Then Henry and Serpentico did an extended tit-for-tat exchange that veered just far enough away from looking choreographed to work even though it was all done at high speed with everything hitting. Then, as the crowd was cheering, Henry nailed a cheapshot to take over and start the heat. Maybe it's because he appreciates the roar of the crowd and the thirll of the action more than ever post-injury but he was really living in the moment in these matches, pumped up and gloating during the spaces in-between. He's always a "hit it clean" guy but he was projecting for the last row in the best way in these. They made it seem like Angelico and Serpentico were going to take this before Maria's guys came out for the distraction, but that's part of the Workhorsemen's strength as well, making it all believable not matter what 'it' needs to be.

ROH TV 5/30/24

Workhorsemen vs Top Flight

MD: More of them enabling their opponents to be their absolute best. That meant that Dante was bounding off of Drake's back or leaping over and under and in between the ropes with Henry on a hook for a big move. It meant that Darius was able to storm in after the hot tag as scrappy and gritty and fiery as can be, with big and broad canvases to attack. Darius has pretty snappy punches in a world where no one's doing punches anymore and he stands out even next to his own brother because of it; that said, you couldn't overly fault Dante's rapid-fire forearms right into Henry's recently injured jaw.

And in between those moments, when it was time to grind down on Dante, the Workhorsemen kept things moving while being oppressive and interesting at the same time. Drake's took full advantage of Dante's jumping ability in the transition to heat as he pressed him up against the ropes and smashed him on the outside. It's a move that always looks great and effective, that was especially so here, and that is used at varying times in the match by Drake, but I'm actively glad it didn't show up in the Angelico/Serpentico match because while it can be a 75% of the time move, it really shouldn't be an every match one. It's too unique and conditional for that. This had just the right balance for a competitive mid-card TV match that could have gone either way, the sort of thing people occasionally lament is missing these days.

AEW Collision 6/1/24

Workhorsemen vs Daniel Garcia/Katsuyori Shibata

MD: Got to admit that it seemed like a nice neat way to do it this week. Three Workhorsemen matches over two weeks. Three very different sets of opponents. I didn't know that JD's leg was going to go out here putting a bit of a damper on all of this.

That said, it makes for a completely different sort of watching experience, right? It's 2024. When you peel back why we watch wrestling, old wrestling, new wrestling, it doesn't matter, it's not the same as why and how someone might have been watching it in 64 or 84. A lot of the time when I watch matches, I already know who goes over, right? I want to see the journey. I want to see it play out. I want to see the creative choices and how they're executed. I want to see if they zig in the way I want them to zig or zag in a way that I'd never seen before. I want to see them take the old structures and overlay new bits of execution. I want to see them tug at those most human emotions like only wrestling can do in ways both classic and novel.

Rarely do you really, truly connect with who you're watching though. When you do, it's special. It's like watching a perfect game in baseball a little bit, right? That butterfly in your stomach feeling where you don't want to jinx it. You want them to hit the landing. You think to yourself "man, if this thing just has the right finish and they make it the rest of the way..." I'll admit to watching some 2023-2024 Danielson matches and thinking to myself "I hope he's ok," but then he's been a jerk like that (and has landed on his head errantly a few times too).

Where I'm going here is that shortly into this one, JD Drake messed up his leg or his foot. They could have went home. They persisted. He could have stayed on the apron and had Anthony Henry work the lion's share of it. That would have been a pretty tough sell overall though. For a minute, it seemed like they might go that route, that we might have actually gotten something of a heel-in-peril structure for good or ill. Truth be told, they needed JD in there to shut Garcia down, to turn the tide, to justify a team of two killers like Shibata and Garcia getting dragged under.

Shibata and Garcia are like a modern day Raging and Ravishing, except for Shibata is more cold steel than hot fire and Garcia has a ton of steak to go along with the sizzle. When it happened and they were checking on Drake, Shibata dropped down into his pose and after a moment, Garcia did the same. Then we got that extra bit with Garcia and Henry, with Garcia hitting his new triple twisting neckbreakers (with a Henry heelbutt in the middle to keep it interesting), before Drake came in and asserted himself. The guy could barely walk but he is such a presence and an imposing figure that he could control the center of the ring with sheer gravitational force. Garcia created motion and movement by coming towards him and he powered through and did the rest.

There were moments in the back half where you maybe looked twice or wondered at something feeling just a bit off. Shibata has a great way of making his violence look natural, of just walking over and getting a shot in as opposed to setting up a complex spot (the world's big enough for both approaches), but some of those Tenryu tribute shots looked a bit hesitant which might have had to do to filling in necessary gaps. But like I said, they didn't just go home with it even though no one would have blamed them for that. They kept going. Shibata and Garcia needed a win that meant something, one that had heft and weight to it. Shibata and Garcia didn't need to just win; they needed to overcome. That meant when Drake finally did make it up and hit his moonsault, the fans knew full well what they were witnessing, the effort at play, the gutsiness in front of them, and they popped big accordingly. And when Shibata interjected to set up a win for his side, it meant something. It meant everything that it needed to mean, really a hell of an accomplishment, all things considered.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 1/1 - 1/7

AEW Collision 1/6/23

Darby Allin/Sting vs. Workhorsemen

MD: I was going to start this one with "Everything has to matter." I'm not quite sure I can get away with that though. I mean, I probably can. If you're reading this, you know what you're in for. I'm already sparing you guys another dissertation on how the commercial break saved Darby vs. Takeshita from itself (you're welcome). I just think sometimes it's worth spelling this stuff out lest it get overlooked in the sea of sensation and innovation, right? 

This was a short match full of things mattering. Let's lead with purpose. Why does this match exist? They wanted to get Sting in front of the Charlotte crowd one last time. They wanted to heat things up a bit for the Takeshita/Hobbs match. Maybe it was a bit of an achievement award for the Workhorsemen too, to be in their home base and up against a lifelong hero. It was there to start the show off hot, maybe even to help with the first quarter rating? In and out in ten minutes with Flair and Sting/Darby's entrance, outroing to a video package for Wednesday's tag, with their promo coming later in the show. So you can't just have Sting and Darby run over the Workhorsemen, but you couldn't have the Workhorsemen take too much of it either. You needed a wedge, a point a reason. You needed Stan Hansen smashing his arm into the post on the outside and then having his arm worked over by someone who needed a wedge to get the advantage and stay in it. 

It all has to matter. Hierarchy has to matter. An ambush before the match has to matter. Henry's slick skill and Drake's size and timing have to matter. Sting's preternatural ability to stand up to a chair without flinching and Darby's preternatural ability to take endless amounts of punishment have to matter. Darby fighting from underneath has to matter. Henry's ability to cut him off has to matter. The potential of a guy Drake's size flipping feet over head and landing with all of his weight from the top rope has to matter. The impact of that missing has to matter. Darby's dive from the top to the floor has to matter, and Sting being able to destroy someone twice his size with the Stinger Splash and Scorpion Death Drop, well, it has to matter.

And they nailed it. The ambush created the wedge but not without having to overcome Sting being Sting (which allowed for a tremendously short shine on the outside given the overall length of the match). That wedge, combined with Henry's skill, was just enough to sweep Darby out on the apron and take out Sting's leg. Darby immediately fought back but was cut off in the ring. It built to Drake going for and missing the moonsault, and then Sting taking care of business on Drake while Darby hit the coffin drop to the floor on Henry, taking him out of the match. The Workhorsemen are great. This match could have been greater with another five or ten minutes. It wasn't supposed to be a "great match," though. That wasn't its purpose. For one thing, they couldn't overshadow the main event. This was to be a celebratory moment of Sting (and Flair) in Charlotte, with just enough friction and tension to make it feel earned and worthwhile for the crowd that got to enjoy it. They don't give out stars for that, but everyone in this one absolutely shined for what they were set out to accomplish.

Eddie Kingston vs. Trent Barretta

MD: As I've written about (at length, it feels like), we've generally seen Eddie Kingston as ROH champ ace, primarily in Proving Ground matches against younger competitors. We've seen him grow into the next evolution of that role during the Continental Classic, getting torn down so he could build himself back up. In this, his first defense of the newly formed Crown, he came in poised and centered and up against, interestingly enough, someone who had his own chip on his own shoulder. 

Eddie has a few years on Trent, but you can argue, quite easily I'd add, that Trent had outpaced Eddie throughout much of his career. He made it into WWE developmental, and even won titles there. He made it onto the main roster, even if without a big splash. He was a champion in New Japan. He was a debut AEW talent. Yet here, after Eddie's ascendant year, Trent failed to capitalize big opportunity after big opportunity after big opportunity. 

So he came in swinging against Eddie, who held back, game and ready. He got a few shots in early, but in a lot of ways, it felt like Trent was wrestling as Eddie had in the past. He was wrestling to prove his toughness, to prove that he fit in, to prove that he deserved to be there. He wasn't wrestling to win. Suddenly, Eddie wasn't just a guy carrying a brand or a roster or a show up on his shoulders. He was the bar. Somewhere along the line over the last tumultuous, hard-fought months, Eddie had taken that "Proving Ground" moniker and made it something real. He was the paragon, the iron that honed iron, the symbol of excellence for professional wrestling.

And Trent needed to throw everything he had at him in order to show the world (and his mom) that he belonged. Unfortunately, that didn't mean wrestling a perfect match but instead a chippy, aggressive one. It meant that Trent always had a show to fire back with, even maybe when he shouldn't. As Eddie was blasting him in the corner with the rapid fire chops, Trent was able to get a shot in. Eddie, almost reflexively, chopped him right between the eyes and opened him up. That took the tone of the first few minutes of the match and led them to doubling down on it. Trent wrestled Eddie's match, comported himself well along those lines, proved his toughness, proved that he belonged, proved that he could stand and fight with the best of them, and absolutely, unquestionable, undoubtedly lost, his nose busted open by the bar that he couldn't make it past, Eddie's chopping hand. One wonders if after the match Eddie might have looked in the mirror and saw in Trent who he had himself so recently been, but the answer is probably no. Eddie's the ace now. He can't look back, only forward, to Wednesday because he wants to keep the defenses coming.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 10/30 - 11/5

AEW Collision 11/4/23

Darby Allin vs Lance Archer

MD: As monsters in AEW go, Archer's up there. When I was first getting into the promotion in late 2021, his act on Elevation (dragging his opponent out as part of the entrance, mocking the fans by teasing chops or a dive, scaring kids) worked for me. He's capable of a couple of more agile spots without doing ridiculous or terrible looking things for the sake of getting a pop. He's experienced enough to take his time and let the beating resonate. He might have gotten the best, most productive singles match out of Hangman Page by short circuiting all of his poor match layout judgment. Plus he never wears out his welcome. You're always left wanting more. 

Darby is, of course, a natural opponent, and someone that never takes a single moment of a match for granted. He came in with a gameplan to chip away at Archer, only to get ragdolled about as you'd expect. He'd try to sneak in comebacks only to have Archer escalate the violence (most memorably the chokeslam over the top rope to the apron) in response. Having it be so one-sided protected Archer and made it more momentous when Darby beat him, and not just with a fluke roll up either, but with a high impact reversal to avert an almost assured flattening. The Jake stuff was a bit odd. He obviously got tossed so he'd have time to walk to the back (which takes time) to bring the Righteous out post-match. The announcers covered for it in fairly unsatisfying and contradictory ways. Part of me wonders if this isn't to set up a Copeland/Sting/Darby trios in advance of the PPV and with Danielson's injury they feel like they have to rely more on Copeland for Collision for a bit, but that's me laying down too many words on a booking decision we'll know about in a week. I will say that Copeland vs Archer is a weirder and more interesting idea than Copeland vs Luchasaurus was.  (EDIT: They just announced it, actually. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing I'm vibing so heavily with TK's booing).

Mark Briscoe/Keith Lee/Dustin Rhodes vs Kip Sabian/Workhorsemen

MD:  This was structured for the time it had. The early bit where a proper Briscoe shine was replaced by him out-maneuvering a series of the Workhorsemen's best attempts at clever double-teaming worked for me because it highlighted just how good of a tag wrestler Briscoe is in a kayfabe sense. Also, while they were stretching the count as far as it could go on the inside, the actual moment of transition happened once JD had made it to the floor. Once Mark got the hot tag, that was pretty much it for the match, as he hit his dive and Dustin and Lee did their thing. The heat is the emotional core of a tag like this. It's the substance. It's the story. It's the second act. It's the drama. There's a little bit of intrigue over the heels getting outwrestled or outsmarted early and the question of how they're going to get ahead, but what carries the weight is the babyface eating a beatdown, having hope spots, getting cutoff, with the built-in pressure ratcheting up and up and up until things come to a head with the hot tag. The shine was practically nonexistent here. The comeback was lightning quick. The match still worked overall because it leaned in hard on the part that matters the most.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death (and Friends): Week of 7/11 - 7/17

AEW Dark Elevation 7/11

JD Drake vs. Dante Martin

MD: Once Phil realized I was watching AEW fairly regularly, he looped me in that we'd be doing the FFOD. I'm not sure if these would be the exact five I'd pick or not. The blog's always been high on Darby but he ends up in a lot of matches I only half want to see on paper, for instance. He always makes them good and it's good for me, but I'd probably have dropped a guy like Drake or Serpentico in there. Past catching Rampage Saturday morning like it's the Power Hour, the webshows are the most enjoyable AEW experience. There are no commercial breaks to drive the layout of the match (which helps as much as it hurts, but still...). Elevation has a generally hot crowd since they're the opening matches. Dark has a studio audience which hits a nostalgia sweet spot and allows for different interactions, and lets Taz and Excalibur goof off on commentary. We went decades without a lot of things, but one of those things was enhancement matches/squashes, which, for a lot of us, was such a part of our youth. There's nothing more limiting than to watch pro wrestling only by seeking out the very best stuff in the most conventional sense. If you're always chasing five star matches, you miss out on so much. Watching Emi Sakura drag and position a young wrestler around a ring or watching House of Black just maul some guys has its own level of enjoyment. 

And the same's true with mid-card matches where either guy could win, where the stakes are fairly low, where it's wrestling to cover TV time and build up rankings and to put something extra in front of the crowd and to keep reps going. It's the WCW Prime Moo Match of the week or a Worldwide Main Event or Lord Alfred and Sean Mooney talking us through a Prime Time match with Heenan and Monsoon bridging things through the commercial break. Yeah, it gets a little much to see endless permeations of the Wingmen or the Factory vs the Dark Order or Best Friends, but it's all good stuff and no one's making you watch it. Do it at your convenience. 

A match like this, with Dante and Drake just hits that sweet spot. Dante's endlessly talented, endlessly innovative, surprisingly good at selling and reacting for his age, and he'll always bring something interesting to an enhancement match. Put him in there against another flyer and you'll get something spectacular. Put him in there against one of the best bases in the company like Drake and you'll get something borderline great. The opening exchange had Drake shrug off Dante's attempts and Dante have to escalate, to go higher, faster, more offbeat to chip away at him. When he finally nailed the backflip off of Drake's shoulder to hit the springboard arm drag and get Drake down, it felt like a big earned moment. They would hit spots rapid fire but then do something to slow things down and let it sink in, like when Drake walked away to cut off the dive and draw boos. The big transition to Drake taking over wasn't just his big lift up whack to the apron, but a very clever duck as Dante was sliding out to put him out of position so he could capitalize. 

Drake is a guy who can do a ton of things contrary to his size and look but knows how to highlight his opponent by doing just as much as he should do but no more. Here, a lot of that was being in the right place at the right time for Dante, being able to turn it up when the match called for it, and being able to hit something impressive out of nowhere, like his lightning-fast dropkick cut off, to shut Dante down when he was picking up speed. Most of his heat segment was just him leaning on Dante with stomps and shots in the corner. He'd give Dante some quick shots back or a chance at rope running, but then would just crush him with a suplex or that aforementioned dropkick. Dante, to his credit, would go flying in response and then give the camera a great shot of him draped over the rope and on dream street. At times, things may have seemed just a little collaborative, like when they were working for the Superplex position in the corner, but it was really Dante setting things up so he could get in a counter. He wasn't helping; he was working for his next chance. Meanwhile, because of the size differential, he had to work three times harder to get an opening, low kicks, a flip from one side of the apron to the other, a kick up, a bounding leap off the ropes; Dante may have had to work three times harder but he's capable of working even two times harder than that. Primarily, he had to survive, had to keep moving, and had to draw Drake in for mistakes. All it took was one or two and Dante was able to soar high and capitalize. It was nice to see Drake and Henry get to go up against Mox and Danielson a few months ago as JTTS, but it's even better still to see him get ten minutes in a match like this against a talent like Dante where they can highlight each other even if it's on a much smaller stage. When you have a good flyer vs a good big man, often times both can stretch to do more complex and advanced things than they normally might be able to, while still having the underlying story and pacing to keep things ground and not making it feel like it's flown off into a world of excess.

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How's the King of New York Rockin' Sandals with Jeans?

Eddie Kingston/Darby Allin/Jon Moxley vs. JD Drake/Ryan Nemeth/Cezar Bononi AEW Dynamite 8/25/21 - GREAT

ER: This was like one of those fun weekend WCW shows where the 4 Horsemen would take on Men at Work and Joey Maggs. A match where the result is never in doubt doesn't have to be obvious about it, and there are still a million fun paths to take while still presenting a strong team. I liked the losing team here. At this point AEW has a roster that's probably larger than the most bloated WCW roster, so JD Drake showing up like Big Bubba (great look for him honestly), Nemeth working as a stooge with just bumps and no offense, and Bononi as the big man is a fun weird trios. I'm already a Wingmen fan and I really loved every time Nemeth got in the ring. Nemeth is a great stooge, excitedly getting in the ring opposite Kingston only for Kingston to completely no sell his one knife edge and give Nemeth one of his own, and Nemeth bumps it like a huge lariat and immediately tags out. I love that shit and it's something that we don't get much of anymore. Eddie and Cezar are a fun pairing too, with both slamming into each other, and it's always a great look when Eddie is throwing hard chops at a larger opponent. 

The bullshit on the floor is always fun, with Sting running off all the flunkies like Peter Avalon. Drake had some nice stuff throughout, great at making all three of the stars look great. His run with Eddie was all action (interrupted amusingly by Nemeth running in and immediately getting punched by Eddie), and Drake is a big guy so it looks even better when he's being tossed by suplexes and a uranage. Drake/Darby is another great pairing, as we move from Drake chucking Darby around at the beginning of the match, to Drake taking a cool Code Red off the ropes and then getting just crushed by the Coffin drop. Darby landed flush on Drake's big belly, the way I used to land on my dad's stomach when I would Superfly Splash him off the back of the couch. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 3/7-3/13

AEW Dynamite 3/8

Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley vs. Workhorsemen (JD Drake/Anthony Henry)

MD: There's something to say about just about any match but I don't have a whole lot to talk about here. The choice to use Henry/Drake instead of Drake with Bononi, Avalon, or Nemeth was interesting. Drake, in and of himself, is (of course) not necessarily a comedy figure, but if you put him with another Wingman, he automatically becomes one. In general, he was one of the people on the AEW roster I most wanted to see against Danielson, up there with Serpentico and Bear Country, but he was mostly matched up here with Mox. In general, Danielson and Moxley were dominant but they had individual exchanges, Mox with Drake, and Danielson with Henry where they were able to trade strikes. I have no idea what Henry was doing on Moxley's dive but it definitely wasn't catching him; to be fair, he might have gotten caught in the ropes a bit and spun nearer to the ring than intended. Because of the size differential, it meant more for Drake to eat the stomps and the LeBell lock than someone of similar hierarchy but less mass. While I would have liked to see something more competitive, this needed to be a 90%/10% showing where the Workhorsemen got in just enough to make it mean a tiny bit more than they got crushed. That's what we got. Sometimes what you need isn't what you want.

ER: This is the Great Match Enthusiast in me speaking, but I really wanted an actual match here. I understand this was the match needed to show Danielson and Moxley as unrelenting ass kickers (and boy was that accomplished with this mauling), but as Matt pointed out, they easily could have just used other members of the Wingmen here and not the two I specifically wanted to see have an 8 minute tag. Should AEW book directly to me? Absolutely not, it would tank them in weeks. Maybe I'm just rooting for Anthony Henry to finally get a break. I think Henry was the most under-appreciated part of the 2021 WWE roster, even more than guys like Lorcan and Gulak. Henry was there for maybe three months (as Asher Hale) and it clearly didn't matter how well he wrestled, he was always going to be immediately cut. His brief run on 205 Live was excellent. Go watch these matches to see what he was doing in WWE while nobody watched: Hale vs. Tony Nese (5/28 205), Hale vs. Grayson Waller (6/18 205), and Hale vs. Guru Raaj (7/16 205) and tell me he wasn't one of the five best wrestlers on the 2021 WWE roster. 

And so I want more for him in AEW than getting pummeled in the face by Moxley, but I do really enjoy Moxley bluntly elbowing someone in the face and making them attempt to catch his dives (even when he has no clue where he's going). Danielson's kicks to Drake had to leave Drake with several different welts, and I let out an audible oooooooo after Drake grabbed Moxley by the chin and slapped him HARD...and Mox didn't flinch an inch. When Mox returned fire you could see every synapse in Drake's body firing to get him to Matrix out of that slap. I wanted more, but that's not what this was. AEW is good about giving the people what they want, so maybe we can get back to this someday. 

AEW Rampage 3/11 (Taped 3/9)

Marq Quen vs. Darby Allin

MD: There's a decent amount to unpack here, but I liked, as much as anything else, how they timed the commercial on this one. After some engaging headlock work (including one great escape counter by Darby) they set up the narrative of the match: Darby crashing into the stairs due to a Kassidy misdirect, and then Quen taking over on the torso, both front and back. With Darby, it's never the shortest path between two points but a fakeout or two before the impact. It keeps you guessing though sometimes it's a little much. That was true in his hope spots and cutoffs later on as well. Anyway, instead of going right to commercial on the heat and dumping a brunt of the slower, more methodological (but meaningful!) work there, they let Quen work him over during the main telecast and only went to the break after a hope spot got cut off. That meant we even got to see an abdominal stretch. It's really good to break formula sometimes in that way since it keeps the viewers from getting too complacent. If you can predict both when the commercial break will happen and what will happen during it, especially if what happens during it only ever happens during a commercial break, that's problematic.

The match continued on, with Quen staying in it by focusing his attack, all building to the crazy 450 to the floor. Darby's someone who throws himself into his offense and throws himself into every bit of his opponent's offense. What makes him so interesting is that he marries that and the high-risks with a lot of attention to detail. Basically, he could get by without it and still be very over, but we probably wouldn't be reviewing his matches here. Anyway, this ended with another big dive attempt by Quen right into a Fujiwara armbar. It felt like the sort of spot that would be shown in opening packages for months fifteen years ago and that was just another Friday night here in AEW. Pretty good showing by Quen over all, even if he should have left that backflip DDT thing on the drawing board.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death Week of 12/6-12/12

AEW Elevation 12/6 (Taped 12/1)

Dustin Rhodes/Brock Anderson/Lee Johnson vs Cesear Bononi/Peter Avalon/J.D. Drake 

MD: Not a ton of Dustin here, but that was okay. He played his role, which was to back Nesmeth off when he was intervening on the floor and to let the kids get ring time while waiting for the hot tag. Once he got it, he cut through everyone like butter, including going astoundingly deep on the power slam on Drake. It's criminal we never got a Dustin vs post-turn Big Bubba in 95 WCW. That would have been a perfect feud if Dustin was around a few more months more. The rest of the match worked for me. Avalon fed well for Johnson at the start. Wingmen kept solid control on Brock, including the combo of Bononi's suplex, Drake's cannonball, and Avalon's splash. On the one hand, it's a little too early for Brock to be doing the punch fake DDT, but I guess you can cover it with the fact he's been naturally studying his dad. I like the Wingmen as an absolute bottom of the barrel heel enhancement team (well, right above Chaos Project). We're not in a world where people settle on getting a C house show main event with one of these guys against Koko B Ware or Hillbilly Jim or whatever, but people won't feel robbed if they get to see a middle of the card star showcase with someone like Darby getting put over by them. You need wrestlers like the Desperados and State Patrol on a roster.

PAS: This was a perfectly executed version of what it was. I haven't watched a ton of Elevation and Dark but the Wingmen are a hell of an enhancement team, solid workers, a lot of personality, can compete but not win. Brock being in the match a lot makes sense for his development, although he was clearly the greenest guy in this match, still you cant go wrong building to a Dustin hot tag, man he is great at getting in there and firing off offense. Drake is a guy I have liked in bigger roles, and he feels like someone who could work at a Garcia, Moriarity level as well. 

AEW Dynamite 12/8

Bryan Danielson vs. John Silver

ER: I was excited for them to get to this match, as Silver is clearly a Danielson acolyte (which really could be said about a 15 year swath of guys who got into wrestling) and at times works like a Little Buff Boy Danielson. The match delivered what I was hoping for, although I wish Danielson had treated Silver a little more seriously. It's not that he didn't respect him as an opponent, it just felt like nothing Silver did to Danielson actually got sold by Danielson (sometimes just not for very long, other times not really at all) even though Silver was throwing some of the best strikes I've seen from him. I don't need Danielson to give Silver 80% of the match the way Punk bizarrely let Lee NRFPT Moriarty do, but Danielson at times looked like he was just in a rush to get back to his part of the match. Both threw super hard kicks, and Danielson looked like he was going to go full Finlay when he yanked Silver over the apron and blasted him with an uppercut. I would have liked to hear what kind of heat Danielson was drawing, but the heat segment was (as usual) during the picture in picture break. We got some nice visuals of Danielson's infectious smile as he milked the (I assume) boos from the crowd, cranking a cravat and throwing a pointed knee at Silver's head, then throwing some sick grounded knees to the back of Silver's head and neck while holding him in place with a Chauvin kneel. Danielson kept going for missile dropkicks, making nice contact and sending Silver pinballing, before Silver absolutely plants him with a sitout powerbomb while catching a third dropkick. Silver's comeback looked good and it felt like he was working up to Danielson's speed and stiffness, making his 1-2-3 kick combo to a kneeling Danielson look tops. I don't think the match thread was as strong as other AEW Danielson matches have been, instead making this play like a match with great pacing where everything looked great. Great pacing and flawless execution gives a match a very very high floor, but I was left thinking Silver's big moments should have had more lasting consequences. 

MD: I'm going to start with the transition to comeback. As someone who rarely watches matches with the Elite, my least favorite spot in AEW is Silver's powerbomb counter. He uses it in almost every single match to start his comeback/enter into the finishing stretch and it's almost always done off the ropes where he catches a heel who doesn't ever do a Frankensteiner jumping up to do one. We're talking guys like JD Drake. It's the old "don't power bomb Kidman" thing, but even worse because at least Kidman was a small guy who was eminently power bombable. You were doing something to him, as opposed to doing something that's more on you that's totally out of character just to set another guy's move. Here, though, it was perfect since it came out of Danielson casually hitting second rope missile dropkicks around the ring on Silver. I'm going to have to give the credit to Danielson there (which is funny since he is a guy who could well hit a Frankensteiner anyway). Rest of the match was good. I liked the opening showcase of strength spots with Danielson doing well then showing ass. All of the strikes were great, both the back and forth and when each guy had an advantage. I had a lot of time for Danielson's take over on offense which was that thing we see a ton in French Catch from guys like Guy Robin or Pierre Bernaert where they're taking shots and just stay down so they can get a leg pick out of nowhere. The counters were fun and I liked the way they got into Silver's kick in the ropes/German combo which is probably my favorite spot of his when some thought is put into it. Most of all, I liked how Danielson interacted with Silver and the crowd. During the break, Taz said that he was feeling disrespected by them, but his disdain was more that his idea of wrestling, or at least the idea that he claims to have, is inherently disrespected by Silver (and the Dark Order in general) having all of this talent but wanting to have fun and goof around instead of being the best. That disdain came through so clearly in his wrestling and it made the match.

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The Judge Said is Kingston the Thug From the Kit Kat Club?

Eddie Kingston vs. PAC AEW Dynamite 1/13/21 - GREAT

ER: I thought this was a mostly boring, rote PAC performance, in a match that was only saved by some tremendous Kingston selling and big King bumping. PAC weirdly worked this match like he was 50 lb. bigger than Kingston, relying on Kingston bumping around for all of his strikes and throws, while he himself put in bare minimum effort getting into position for all of King's offense. It was really bizarre. PAC jumped Kingston and Kingston pinballed around the ring and floor from dropkicks, bounced across the ring on a great German suplex bump, and makes every single thing PAC does really mean something, selling more and more injuries as the match goes on. PAC returns absolutely none of these favors. He's obviously super athletic, but PAC looked completely uninspiring here. Any of the care Kingston took to selling offense and setting up offense was the opposite of what PAC did. 

Whenever PAC went back on offense, it was just him getting up from moves and going back on offense, and he kept making Kingston look like a doofus by standing still in his position waiting for a move, not bothering to occupy himself in any way. At one point he runs into Kingston's boots in the corner, and then just bends at the waist and waits perfectly still for Kingston to come off the middle buckle with a knee. He takes a Saito suplex well, but Kingston is out here selling every individual move PAC did the entire match, and PAC just shrugs the suplex off. Kingston does one of the finest superplex sells I've ever seen, first trying to block it with nice body shots the split second before going over (and before that PAC was taking forever without making it look like he was fighting Kingston in any way), then upon impact had his arms straight at his side like his neck and lower back went right out. Down the stretch he's selling all this nerve damage in his neck, trying to quickly do chiropractic exercises like applying pressure to the soft area under the collarbones, selling the pain down his arm, all of it actually giving some meaning to PAC's offense. Kingston worked this match like he was an AEW Dark scrub putting over Cage or Wardlow, but PAC held up none of his end. This felt like that HHH match where he just tried to sandbag Eddie the entire time.   

PAS: I didn't have the same problems with this that Eric did. I liked the idea of PAC coming out after a long layoff firing on all cylinders, like you might see a basketball team who was embarrassed in a playoff series dominate the first quarter when they played them next season. Kingston taking over with a Bunny eyepoke and a exploder on the floor worked for me, and Kingston laid it in on offense. I don't think PAC is a particularly smart wrestler, but Kingston's selling was incredible in this and I thought really elevated your normal meathead workrate PAC match. That superplex was honestly a spot of the year candidate, and while I want Eddie to win every match, I had no beef with how this turned out.

Eddie Kingston vs. Aaron Solow AEW Dark 2/4 (Aired 2/16/21) - FUN

ER: Kingston against smaller wrestlers is almost always good, because he is really good at appropriately selling strikes and offense. It's a difficult thing to do, and only the best can do it, as it's really easy to settle into selling all punches as punches, all elbows as elbows, all kicks as kicks, no matter the size of who is delivering them or how well they connect. It's difficult to sell these appropriately, because you don't know how well a strike will land before it's thrown, but this match had several moments of King selling exactly the right amount for what he was given. There was a kick to the stomach that didn't connect, so King laughed it off and told Solow to hit him harder, leaving him wide open for a punch to the hard that stunned him, allowing Solow to add some more strikes. Kingston sold Solow's so-so elbow strikes as if he had eye strain from staring at a computer screen for too long. The stuff that looked good, King treated respectfully, like the early match headscissors that sent Kingston scrambling for the ropes, or a spinkick that caught him behind the ear and sent him spiraling into the mat. There was a good nearfall off a nice Solow double stomp off the top, and I am happy we have been getting these glimpses of how Kingston would have worked on WCW Worldwide. 

PAS: Kingston has to be the best opponent in wrestling, he is going to just make you look great, whether he wins or loses. Solow didn't show much, but Kingston made everything he did look great. He sold that spinkick like he was beaned with a baseball. I do love the WCW syndie vibe of this show, and Kingston would have been amazing in 1997 WCW syndies. Imagine a WCW Pro match against Juvi or a 10 minute WCWSN match against Finlay.

Eddie Kingston vs. JD Drake AEW 2/17 (Aired 2/23/21) - GREAT

PAS: I really think Kingston should work a 7 minute match with a US Indy crowbar every AEW Dark show. Get Manders, Big Twan, AJ Gray, whomever, and just have a punch out. Kingston felt like he was trying to get Drake a job here, as he really showcased him. Both guys laced each other with chops before Kingston went to the body and up top with a slap. Highlight of the match was Drake catching Kingston coming off the top rope with a straight right hand, which Eddie sold like it gave him nerve damage in his arm. Drake got a big run of offense including his great looking cannonball in the corner, before missing a moonsault and getting obliterated with a backfist for the pin. Eddie as WCWSN Finlay is a pretty great use of him, especially if he is a bit sidedrained on the main show. 

ER: This feels like a base level Kingston match, filled with the type of things that he brings to every match, elevated by what his opponent is able to contribute. There have been several examples of Kingston doing his cool thing on AEW over the last year, but I'd really love to see him officially take the Cody-but-better role on Dark, crafting digestible matches with unsigned indy guys that aren't outright squashes, and showing just enough ass. This was a Cliffs Notes version of their two Evolve matches from a couple years ago, with the kind of stand and trade I really love in wrestling matches, because it never devolved to them just standing in front of each other like idiots. Kingston is someone who adds dips and knee wobbles and off timing to strike trading, but here he is far more dominant and focused on cutting off any of Drake's momentum. He throws combos (loved the quick left to the body, right slap to the face, headbutt combo), and whenever Drake threatens to string anything together King just changes the rules. Drake has a chest that always reddens nicely, and I like the way he sells Kingston's strikes as if he's staring into the sun. King is always great at placing breadcrumbs in his matches, hitting a nice shoulder tackle off the middle buckle early, only for Drake to punch him out of the air when he tries it later. Drake's run of offense looked good, and his cannonball might be the best of all the fat guy cannonballs that are used in modern wrestling. The finish is simple, and while I wish we got a little more time, these two always pair nicely. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Paradigm Pro Wrestling Fighting Spirit Heavyweight Grand Prix 11/15/19

One of the odder phenomenons in indy wrestling in the last couple of years in the proliferation of shootstyle tournaments. First Ambition, then Bloodsport, and now we have a random fed in Indiana running a UWFI rules tournament in a garage. The quality is going to vary, but I am all for it.


Lexus Montez vs. Myron Reed

PAS: This was a non style match with guys working a 2.9 juniors counter wrestling style. The opening counter exchange was done a beat too slow and felt like guys working through their stuff before the show. I am so tired of this kind of match, that they are going to have to do something really special to break me out of the fog, and there wasn't anything special here. Reed has a nice 450 I guess, and Ford's heel hook was a cool near fall, but this wasn't what I clicked on the link to see.

ER: Yeah this really shouldn't have been on the show. Montez looks really really new and Phil nailed it, everything was a beat slow and Montez was a beat behind. Reed kept getting to his mark early because Montez was moving too carefully, so it resulted in Reed's bumps looking too disconnected from whatever it was Montez was doing. I like Reed, but this match style is very much not my favorite style, and for it to work you need two guys on the same page, a strong layout, a couple of twists, and some sense. This had none of those things. I liked the Montez bump down the aisle for a Reed tope, but big parts of this felt not ready for primetime. A match worked in a different style than the rest of the card could stand out and benefit from that, but not when the rest of the card is actually worked in an intriguing style and your match looks like amateur night at the flip flop house. Also, a doing a long "ref misses the tap" spot in the first match of a card filled with UWFI style fights is just tremendously dumb.


Erick Stevens vs. Derek Neal

PAS: I appreciated how both guys really tried to stick to the style, we didn't see any elbow exchanges or chops (which was a problem in Ambition), and we would get ten count attempts on Neal's suplexes. This was Neal using his strength and Stevens using his submission attempts, and it was going to be a question whether Stevens could tap Neal before getting flattened. Loved the finish with Steven's eating three rolling german suplexes, but loosening the grip on the third and floating over into a beautiful chicken wing for the tap. The match was a bit disjointed before that, but that was a Fujiwara level finish, which is the highest compliment you can give in this style.

ER: This was a good start to things as right out of the gate it felt like UWFI rules. Neal came off like a big Gary Albright type while Stevens was slicker on the mat and had quicker knee strikes. I thought the made good dramatic use of the rope breaks, especially when Stevens sank an armbar that I thought was surely the end. Neal was the one bringing big KO shots, with the surprise elbow strike a fun knockdown and the back suplex looking match finishing when Stevens went vertical. The finish was a good one, loved how Stevens knew he wasn't going to be able to stop the Germans from happening by going deadweight, so stopped Neal in his tracks using his brain. That chickenwing looked sick and I dug how Neal tapped quick.


JD Drake vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: This was more of a style clash with Drake getting schooled on the mat by Garrini and responding with hard chops. I don't like chops in UWFI matches in theory, but if you are going to throw them you might has well try to slice someone's skin off, and Drake was absolutely pasting him. Garrini is so skilled at jiu-jitsu and it's fun to watch him switch back and forth from attack to attack. Finish was a great looking flip into a cross armbreaker. Fun short match.

ER: On paper I do not like the sound of a UWFI match filled with a ton of chops, but in execution I was way into Drake making horrible music on Garrini's chest. Those chops looked so violent that I totally got into them as actual knockdown shots. I always love the visual of big fat guys on the mat in shootstyle as it looks so incorrect and almost offensive. Drake does his best to squash Garrini when he quickly realizes that Garrini is going to school him. We get a killer early match callback and UWFI throwback when Drake clotheslines Garrini out of the air on a charge. Garrini hit a flying knee to start the match and got caught when he tried it again, but intentional or not I thought Drake threw his clothesline just like one of Vader's old bear attacks (I wrote up all of Vader's UWFI matches BY the way). I thought Drake's Saito suplex could have easily been the finish, just a mean throw, but Garrini's finish was so smart. He tosses Drake up for a German but knows before he throws the German that he's not actually going for that move. Drake instinctively blocks the German and realizes then that Garrini had laid that trap and had merely tossed him into an armbar. The spot looked great and Drake played it like he didn't see it coming.


123. Calvin Tankman vs. Lee Moriarty

PAS: I am a Moriarty skeptic, but I thought this was unabashedly great. Tankman is enormous, basically looks like Emmanuel Yarbrough, and this was a really cool speed versus size battle. Moriarty tried to use kickboxing to keep Tankman off of him, but when he got caught he would just get ragdolled. Tankman murders him with a german suplex and then catches a body kick and tosses him in a fisherman's buster on the top of his head. Moriarty is able to recover and catch him with a high kick and grounded axe kick for a flash KO.

ER: Tankman is definitely someone with that Segunda Caida bod, and here he comes off like Shoot Cheex. I didn't fully buy into the axe kick that ended the match, as I think you really need to nail that KO blow when it's the finish AND there's a size difference like this, but I loved every other part of this. Tankman's two throws were real all timers, 1.0 on the Albright scale. Moriarty gets TOSSED with a German and bounces around in the ropes like a guy failing hard at a team building ropes course. The fisherman's bomb was a real beauty, with Moriarty landing at an unsightly angle. Tankman's selling on that front kick to the jaw was so strong. Indy wrestling is filled to the brim with people who have no idea how to sell on their feet, and here's Tankman actually understanding that it's more than just doing Mortal Kombat Fatality selling, he does small foot movements and small cobweb shaking mannerisms. Selling on your feet is much more like a drunk person stopping their walk to try to refocus before walking again, and his was great. He occupied the time really well until Moriarty's second kick. I wish they would have just called it after the second kick, since UWFI rules don't allow strikes to a downed and prone opponent anyway.


Brett Ison vs. Anthony Henry

PAS: Ison looked the most lost with these rules, but I still dug this. Henry just chops at Ison's legs with sharp nasty looking low kicks, he would throw a couple of body shots and slice Ison's thighs and calves. Ison hit one nice suplex, but was mostly throwing not great forearm smashes and ineffective bull rushes. Henry really looked like an assassin though and I really dig a match finishing on a low kick KO.

ER: I thought this was cool, and thought Ison's inexperience with the style played well into the match. Anthony Henry came off cooler here than in any of his faux shootstyle Evolve matches. He looked cool advancing on Ison with the size difference, and he kept throwing hard kicks right into Ison's shins and patella. I thought those looked real gross and I thought they were a great way to plant the seeds for the finish. Henry was good at stuttering his timing on muay thai knees or low-high kicks. Ison lumbered and barged his way through things and grabbed him with a big suplex, and I liked a lumbering big man taking hits. But I hated his rolling elbow in response to getting kicked in the knee. The elbow didn't work as a reaction shot, came off real phony in the middle of what had been a cool messy fight. Also, the referee counted extremely slow in this match, kind of robbing some of the drama by having Henry stalking around for too long waiting for Ison to recover. I still thought the overall match was strong because it did feel like UWFI, with Ison the large gaijin but sitting duck for a young cool guy.


Bobby Beverly vs. AJ Gray

PAS: I dug this a ton in conception, not sure the execution was up to par. Much of the match was built around UWFI style slap exchanges, and they just didn't look good. I imagine it is really hard to throw palm strikes that look credible and don't injure the guy you are landing them on, and these looked too pulled. Outside of that the match was pretty cool. Gray, who was the PPW champion, dominated landing two nasty suplexes and a high kick. Beverly on his way out landed the best palm strike of the match and a guillotine for the win. It did a nice job of establishing that wins can come out of nowhere. So far this show has had awesome finishes and that goes a long way in shootstyle.

ER: I thought this was really good. I watched it through with sound and I watched it on mute, and I thought the slaps looked better muted. Both guys looked like they were swinging really stiff arms and reddening up each other's necks and ears. Gray and Beverly both have heavy arms so you could tell that weight was hitting neck. Gray wrecks Beverly with a couple suplexes, with a brutal German that folds him, and a big Saito suplex across the whole damn ring. Beverly was real good at getting to his feet, and I loved how he was selling that struggle. When he stood up at 6 it looked like he was getting to his feet way too quick and he really looked like a guy 3 seconds and one shot from the end. But Beverly is a guy who obviously has no problem throwing hands, and he hits this nice thrust palm strike to the button on Gray's jawline. And it stalled Gray for just amount, allowing Beverly to leap onto him with a guillotine that he is able to roll over, and the whole thing looked like a real lights out attack. Loved it.


Bradley Prescott IV vs. Blake Christian

PAS: Prescott comes in working a guy who loves Natural Light, and they worked a match built around somersaults and cutters. Both guys had some big spots which looked good and some set ups and small things that didn't. I really liked how they kept all of the tournament matches short. But they made the two non UWFI style matches longer, and I really didn't need that.

ER: Thanks Phil!


50. Dominic Garrini vs. Erick Stevens

PAS: This was pretty great, both guys aggressively rolling and attacking limbs and necks. Stevens looked very comfortable working in this style, Garrini brought most of the flourishes, but Stevens didn't look uncomfortable and I loved his quick and aggressive rear naked choke that he grabbed. Garrini did an awesome half monkey flip into a tight head and arm choke, and slid so quickly into a nasty triangle with elbow for the tap. Garrini is mainly a brawler now, but when he works the mat like this you can really see what a skilled grappler he is.

ER: This was strong, our first real long war of the tournament. Phil is right about Garrini. I've gotten so used to him as a brawler with some nice takedowns that my brain doesn't think of him as the Catch Point grappler, and he's such a boa constrictor here that I hope we get more of these shows to see more of this Dom again. Stevens was real good here. He reminded me - in looks and ability - like reclusive great worker Joe Graves. Six years ago I thought he was going to take indy wrestling by storm, especially while several other Graves-adjacent guys got good work. Stevens could be a premier indy Joe Graves and that's a cool thing. Garrini trapped him and locked him into things, but Stevens was game to get into sticky situations and he looked legit. He locked in a pair of very adept triangles and a pair of nice, heavy suplexes. Hard knee strikes from both guys, Garrini throwing a couple of slick traps (love his pop up triangle), and a damn good fought for finish that really looked like the kind of struggle that should finish a fight. Great stretched out version of the show's formula.


Anthony Henry vs. Lee Moriarty

PAS: I enjoyed this a bunch too. This was primarily a kick boxing match, which was a nice contrast with the previous match. Both guys landed their kicks really well, and mixed it up with sweeps, leg kicks, and high kicks. Moriarty landed a really cool spinning kick to the neck, and Henry hit a multi shot punch and kick combo before rolling into a knee bar and ankle lock for the tap. Short, stiff and energetic, great stuff.

ER: This was our "smallest" pairing of the tournament so I like that they went with something different, more of a kicker's sprint than anything else we'd seen. Henry looked like he was going to pace himself for a longer fight and then suddenly he got backed up and popped by a big spinning kick. From there he was going for broke and looking vicious doing it. Again I've watched several of his more shootstyle Evolve matches and even in the shorter ones he's never come off as vicious as he does here. He goes hard after Moriarty with low kicks and is really taking him apart, and when Moriarty finally catches one Henry uses his expert Minoru Tanaka muscle memory and rolls right through into a beautiful heel hook. This was quick explosive fun.


28. Matthew Justice vs. Stephan Bonnar

PAS: This was totally awesome, one of my favorite sprints of the year. Bonnar feels like a guy that should be booked everywhere. He has a real New Japan Don Frye feel to him, really great at being above everything and also really great at having the seriousness of the fight dawn on him. We are long removed from Ultimate Fighter 1, but Bonnar still presents himself like a big deal. Bonnar was no selling some of Justice's stuff early, but as the fight went on he really sold big for Justice's spears and knees to the head. I liked how this felt like a real different style fight. Justice wasn't pretending to be a shooter, he was just a tough pro wrestler who was going to try to turn this into a fight. I loved how he bailed to the floor on the Bonnar rear naked choke and landed some spears which felt like he was cracking ribs. Bonnar hit big suplexes too, and really kicked Justice's head off. This felt like an indy version of a high end Brock Lesnar match, and was the perfect super fight for this show.

ER: Yeah this ruled. Bonnar comes in with that McCully brothers energy, that meathead jock energy that is too good for pro wrestling. He's the guy who already knows he's ahead on points before any points have come off the board, the guy who knows he has wiggle room to goof around in this "exhibition". I love how Justice didn't act like he was overmatched, and he didn't play around at something he isn't. He went into a Super Fight and worked it like Matt Justice, and Bonnar went into a Super Fight knowing he wasn't against a fighter but "just" a tough guy. Bonnar would land early and easily, then pose to rub it in, or get cocky and throw a Karate Kid crane kick. Even when he would take a shot after goofing around, he would easily get licks in on Justice. He was the teenager playing against small kids on a 7' hoop, and he was due to get knocked down a peg. Justice is outgunned but not outcrazied, and I love him spilling to the floor with Bonnar and hitting a pescado, with Bonnar bringing that "I don't know how to bump" messiness to every fall and landing. Justice has a couple of great spears that seem less like pro wrestling spears and more like Bonnar was the guy getting under Justice's skin at the bar all night and Justice finally flies at his guy with a tackle. Bonnar eats a back suplex, but the best part about Bonnar is his fighter's survival instinct, when you can see his survivor muscle memory spring into action. Every time he would go down it's like his eyes would glaze over and his body would take over, slip Justice's grip, grab a waistlock, and throw him. Bonnar hits a couple nice Germans and a big gutwrench, and they all come after him going into muscle memory fighter mode. It rules. Justice walks right into a Cro Cop head kick for the finish, and I loved how all of Bonnar's earlier strikes were more "haha we're doing some fake pro wrestling right?" stuff, even his big spin kick was something he was only trying just because he could afford the miss. This head kick was putting someone down, and man did it ever.


37. Anthony Henry vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: Great final and a real continuation of the narrative set up through the tourney. Henry had established himself as a violent striker who was especially damaging with leg kicks, and Garrini had established himself as a dangerous defensive grappler who could turn the tide any moment. Henry really pummels him on the feet, with brutal leg kicks and slaps, and is even competitive on the mat (although Dom always has an answer). It only takes one mistake though, and I loved Dom taking the ground and pound just to snatch the opening he needed for the tap. Cool match, with both guys coming out looking better than when they came in. Henry in normal matches gets a little too near fall indy guy style for me, but man he looks great when he does this.

ER: Very worthy final of a very cool tournament. Anthony Henry came out of this thing looking like a real badass and I liked how this match felt like a manifestation of the tournament that came before it. Henry's strike game looked great this show, with everyone across from him taking those great sweeping leg kicks. Dom took these great spills onto his tailbone from big meaty kicks to his hamstrings, and I was real impressed with how Henry was kind of muscling him around and advancing. Henry had strong balance and it came off like he kept surprising Dom. Garrini's tricks were scouted this time and he was going to need something unexpected to put away Henry, and Henry was looking skilled on the ground. And the finish was cool and it WAS Dom pulling out something different, with Henry throwing from mount and Garrini looking near toast, before shifting his hips to cause a Henry slap to go wide, with Garrini capitalizing with a choke. Awesome.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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IWTV Worth Watching: Space Pirates! Work Horsemen! Quack! Colony!

Space Pirates (Space Monkey/Shane Sabre) vs. Work Horsemen (JD Drake/Anthony Henry) Freelance Wrestling 6/14/19

ER: Fun tag that didn't get the ending it deserved, but had a real nice extended peril segment from Space Monkey, with some big fireworks happening once we dropped the tag structure. Work Horsemen get rid of Sabre fairly quickly, and I got really into the story of Space Monkey going alone, EXTREMELY disappointed in the commentary crew (one of whom sounded uncannily like me, no joke) not pointing out that - due to his NASA training - he was used to going it alone for long, lonely missions. We had nearly 10 minutes of Sabre being gone, leaving his boy in their alone, and nobody is talking about all the sensory deprivation training Space Monkey had gone through. I thought they did real interesting things with SM getting to the corner and finally noticing Sabre wasn't there, continuing to eat a beating, making it back to the corner, only to find Sabre still not there. Henry mocks Monkey, gets on the apron and reaches in the for tag, and then Space Monkey starts kicking at Henry, knocking him to the floor, then hitting a mean baseball slide. I loved how they handled Space Monkey getting back into the action, not just having him eat a 7-10 minute beating and then make a comeback, but instead finding a couple logical ways to have the action swing (har har) into his favor. Space Monkey is essentially El Generico, only I liked how SM peppered in his comebacks, dug those tornado DDTs that Drake and Henry took on the side of their respective heads. What I didn't love, was Sabre's eventual hot tag. I don't like a lot of his offense, and coming in after a 10 minute layoff and hitting a silly spinning facebuster isn't going to cut it.

But we do build to a nice and hot finish run with some real cool sequences strung together. My favorite was Space Monkey hitting the Molly go Round on Drake only to eat an immediate kick from Henry, who then eats an immediate spear from Sabre. That's a sequence that isn't played, and they executed it great. The nearfalls were good, genuinely thought Space Monkey was going to pull things out, and I liked the way they swung momentum throughout. They were good at not just having someone start hitting their offense until their turn was up, instead turning in situations like Drake catching a Monkey rana and powerbombing him onto Sabre. I really dug where they were taking this and was there for the full ride, but the match ended disappointingly on an unseen count out. Both teams brawled outside and cameras weren't able to follow, so we stare at fans' midsections for a couple minutes until the ref gets in the ring to call it off. Flat. Still, Space Monkey is someone who stood out over our long ass WrestleMania day, and I took a blind stab at this match, left even more impressed and fully into his face in peril tag work. With a proper finish this would have landed on our MOTY list, and he was the chief reason why.

Mike Quackenbush/Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy vs. The Colony (Fire Ant/Green Ant/Thief Ant) Flying V Fights 7/13/19

ER: Quack has been working more in 2019 than he worked the last 6 years combined, heading several trios and atomicos matches. A lot of the earlier sections were Quack working primarily Green Ant, sending him through cool holds and nice mat exchanges. I know people who don't love Quack think his stuff looks too exhibition-y, and I think it looks that way because it looks so odd, as it certainly doesn't look that way because he's having trouble applying moves or requiring a ton of time stand still moments. He has a singularly vision for wrestling and pulls it off. I love the foot stomps he uses to set up spots, and he doesn't skip steps in mat exchanges. I love his maestro style of matwork where you can see each step of the move but can't necessarily prevent it from happening, and some of the leverage spots he pulls guys into come off physically super impressive. I loved him twisting Green Ant's arm one way while maneuvering Ant's legs with his own legs, throwing distraction to one body part while always working towards another. He locks on a weird inverted bow and arrow and lifts GA upside down over his own knee in a way that comes off effortlessly, as if he knows the proper ways to lift someone while exerting the least amount of force.

Match gets derailed for awhile when we work a very long comedy routine with Coach Mikey accidentally catching an Ant, then wanting to get involved, then not being allowed, then pouting, the kind of several minute distraction that you expect to happen in Chikara and Chikara-related matches, but I certainly never look forward to it. The comedy chops improv stretch did at least divide the match into two main segments, before comedy halted everything it had been all mat based, and after the comedy wall was when we went into full spot sprint, which was great. Ducks are both guys with some nice spots, who take big bumps. Killjoy drops a really great sitout powerbomb, Lude comes into the ring with that cool Erin O'Grady rope flip rana and gets dropped with a disgusting neckbreaker/powerbomb combo, Launchpad McQuack hits hard and gets a good nearfall, Quack continues hitting cool little legsweeps and works a slick abdominal stretch/reversal/roll back into the stretch (like the action was rewound but came off perfect), Lude and Killjoy hit a cool moonsault combo, the Ant Hill is a pretty great triple team move, a weird Eiffel tower spot ending in a splash; basically there was lots of great stuff. Fire Ant clearly has the most polish out of the Ants (pretty sure he is an original Ant, so he's been doing this for awhile) and I wish we got a lot more Fire/Quack, but Quack seemed to mostly punish Green. I dig the way Quack sets up these trios matches, and it's a format I dig watching him in. 

Arik Royal vs. Isaiah Frazier CRAB 8/3/19

ER: This was shorter than I wanted, only 5 minutes, but made sense as Frazier had worked earlier in the evening. So considering he had already worked, I like how they approached this even though I was hoping for more of a match. Royal drops him right at the bell with a Face Jam, and I'm a big fan of Royal matches where he's working with an immediate head start. He's great at working as the cocky guy with an advantage, and great at showing ass when he's getting his comeuppance. I love Royal talking smack to ringside fans before turning around and hitting his sliding shoulderblock, and I dug Frazier's two big comeback topes. Royal is super skilled at taking big offense right next to fans, without putting fans in any danger. That's kind of a specific skill, but one of many for him. Royal bookends this nicely with another Face Jam to finish. This was a smart way to work the match to set up future Royal title defenses, so I can't really be critical of the ring work, which was good.

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Kingston vs. Drake

9. Eddie Kingston vs. JD Drake EVOLVE 1/18

PAS: This was a no DQ match for the WWN Title, but it wasn't a plunder brawl, instead it was worked more like a dirty bar fight. Kingston is almost like a legendary lucha rudo at this point like Negro Casas or Blue Panther, his greatness has basically turned him technico everywhere. However this was a throwback heel performance by Kingston as he is pretty vicious, going after Drake's eyes and biting at his ear. Drake has a tendency to get a bit cutesy for me, here he is pretty much focused on throwing hard shots, wrestling like a fat guy, not a fat guy showing off his juniors offense. We get some classic Kingston selling, as he dings his hand early throwing a punch, and it gets worse and worse as the match goes on, including a point where Kingston has to try to unjam his fingers. I thought the finish was a slightly flat, but most of the time this was a great thumping fight and another entry in Kingston's WOTY resume.

ER: Kingston is so good that when Phil sent me the link to a weird Chinese site to watch this match, I asked no questions and clicked the link. I literally took a 2 hour office computer security training less than two days ago, with full immersive section on not clicking any kind of links you don't recognize, but I hear "Eddie Kingston No DQ Match" and all my new training went right out the window. And it was so so so worth it. This was my favorite King performance of the year, and King is easily the #1 wrestler in the worth this year. This was a No DQ match, but zero time was wasted on props, no table set up, no messing around with chairs, no geek show nonsense, they just spent that stip getting unprofessional as hell with strikes. The first half of this was filled with some unbelievably nasty shots, my favorite being these two nuts throwing full arm open handed chops right to each other's neck tendons. God, man. 

Kingston shakes his fist out early on a punch, and that hand gets gloriously worse as the match goes on. He initially tries punching with it, but it slows him down more every time he tries, so soon switches to full open handed strikes: big chops and hard palm strikes to every part of Drake's torso. At one point Drake rolled back in the ring and on his way under the ropes Kingston shot putted a palm right into his kidney. Drake wisely changes paths to power offense, taking advantage of openings Kingston leaves him (Anthony Henry running interference on the floor doesn't hurt) and that allows Drake to land some shots of his own, the best being when he dishes a couple of kicks to King's back and then stomps right on that bad hand. King gets a uranage, Drake gets a couple big slams and a lariat, and King has one of my all time favorite strike combos I've ever seen him throw: Abandoning his bad right hand, he throws to hard closed fist lefty punches to stitch up Drake's side, and when Drake's head dips in recoil and Kingston anticipates it flawlessly, meeting Drake's face with an enziguiri. There was no overkill in sight, no shocked expressions after 2 counts, just deserving nearfalls and Drake hitting his moonsault that always makes me suck in my breath, his low angle whipping his body harder into his opponent while always looking like he's 2 inches from breaking his damn neck. This was an absolute classic, and my favorite Kingston performance in a year with almost too many favorite Kingston performances to count. This is a real legendary year for him.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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