2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Doom Patrol vs. Kingston/Homicide

95. Eddie Kingston/Homicide vs. Chris Dickinson/Jaka Beyond Wrestling 11/25 - GREAT

PAS: Really fun old school vs. new school NYC indie battle. I really liked the trash talking, with Dickinson calling Homicide grampa and daring Kingston to try his bullshit jujitsu. It felt a little good natured at first, but it started to get a little sharper, the way a pick up game can all of a sudden turn into a fist fight. This really did turn into that fist fight with Kingston tagging in and rag dolling Dickinson in a really disrespectful way. Those two especially brought it right to the edge in ways that I always love from both guys: a lot of chops to unsafe parts of the neck and sharp looking kicks. There is a great spot near the end of the match where Kingston is in the corner eating kicks, chops and punches from all angles by both guys while throwing his own shots back. It's one of the cooler strike exchanges I can remember seeing. We get a 2010s tag near fall run, which is what it is, but the big moves were appropriately big and it ended when it should. I am a big fan of all four of these guys and this really delivered. 

ER: I think we've had this sitting in drafts for over a couple years, waiting on me to force myself to watch some of my favorite guys. Obviously it's filled with things I love, and I knew that it would, but wrestling fans are weirdos and we can't always predict which direction our wrestling viewing hours will be spent. The match built well within the framework they established, veering into directions I didn't always like but always kept my interest. It starts with some cool dickhead kneebars from Dickinson with Homicide offering little defense, leading to Dickinson asking for Eddie Kingston's "fake jujitsu ass". Homicide having little ground answer for Dickinson and Dickinson being a loudmouth quickly leads to Homicide going after eyes and fighting the way we love to see Homicide fight. Dickinson and Jaka were great at getting Homicide away from Kingston and it felt like the whole match could have kept that formula, with Dickinson wrapping his arm around Homicide's neck from the apron while Jaka kicked and chopped away, and Eddie's insults grew less eloquent as his anger level rose. 

Jaka got a little too cute on an outside in suplex, choosing to do a ropes balance course with Homicide that is a bit too complicated, but it throws Homicide all the way across the ring, with Kingston tagging in as Homicide rolled to the floor. There was a little undercurrent of Kingston and Homicide disrespecting Jaka, and it was made a bit more obvious by Jaka looking a step behind skill-wise from the others. I was a big Jaka fan (weird to think he's only had like 10 matches since this one) and liked his commitment to using Islander strikes in Catch Point matches. Those strikes throw off the rhythm of this match a bit, with the best moments happening when King and Homicide throw bombs and chops. Jaka's strikes looked a little lighter, so when the OGs would hit him back it read as great old man disrespect. Homicide and Kingston even both SPIT at Jaka! Watching this three years later and that feels even more insulting, now that it's not just the biggest sign of disrespect but also potentially deadly. Kingston's flurries were the best, like dropping Dickinson with a mean Saito suplex and a stiff arm standing lariat. The ending got a bit bombastic and I think every single one of them got their own 1999 Kings Road fighting spirit moment. Pulling from 1999 All Japan is kind of like pulling live material from 1995 Grateful Dead shows, an era with less worthwhile stuff to steal from than the other 25+ years. Kingston takes one of the most scarily accurate backdrop drivers to that 1999 AJ style, and it's mostly glossed over to make way for both members of Doom Patrol to walk through backfists. It was a bit much, but it was in a match that also gave us Dickinson and Jaka teeing the absolute fuck off on Kingston in the corner while Kingston somehow screamed his way through it to chop them both in the neck, and it's the kind of high that many attempt but rarely make look this good. 

2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 4: Fat Frank's Suicidal Games

54. Team Doghouse (Low-Ki/Homicide/Da Hit Squad vs. Team Pazuzu (Chris Dickinson/Jaka/Team EYFBO) JAPW 4/30/16

PAS: This was a War Games style match without a cage and a fans bring the weapons stip (more ECW style weapons like stop signs and ironing boards, then the kind of CZW style barbed wire and glass basement hooker torture devices.) It had the kind of chaotic fun that the best ECW fights had, lots of fun charismatic, talented guys, grabbing everything they can to try to brain each other. Really impressed with Mike Draztik from EYFBO here, he bled the most, took some nutso bumps and hit a crazy tope. Dickinson and Ki had a match in 2015 which I loved, and they had some awesome interactions here, I really wish this was a touring indy matchup. There was some really fun bumps by everyone, Dickinson was delivering cool old school piledrivers, Mack gets blockbustered through an ironing board.

Finish was a little goofy, Mack does a very 80s wrestling "you accidentally hit me, so I am going to turn on you" thing where he pushes Ki off the top rope (Mack turned on Ki on the 2015 show, although they didn't acknowledge it, which is kind of like Terry Taylor joining the York Foundation on every WCW Syndie, he turned on Dustin like three times.) Then instead of that causing Ki to be pinned, Ki ducks the clothesline from Compton and they have a stare off, Joker comes from the back and hits a nasty running knee on Mack, and Mack does a great open eye KO sell, the ref calls the match and awards it to Pazuzu. The knee was awesome, but the whole thing was super confusing, Mack felt like the heel initially, but then came off sympathetic because he was sucker punched and KO'ed, Pazuzu also felt Shelton holed, disappearing completely to set up the big important angle, after how much they killed themselves, they deserved more.

ER: This is 8 guys I really like in an unhinged brawl, so the odds are high I was going to like this one.  This is worked like a WarGames without the cage, with Dickinson and Homicide starting, and one new entrant every couple minutes. Dickinson was awesome throughout the whole match, you want someone working with intensity if they gotta be in there for 30 minutes and Dickinson always brings intensity. Jaka is in next and I love Doom Patrol stuff, the dudes mesh really well together and they were my favorites in this. They were both the glue here and always bring out clever offense in brawls (Jaka had some awesome throws, big capture belly to belly, headbutts, kicks with his heels, Dickinson dropped a huge piledriver, huge running kick at ringside to a seated Homicide, threw sharp chops and was super active the entire match) but they also know how to work through everyone and eat offense to let other team shine, Dickinson especially just eating all of Ki's strikes when Ki came out as the final man. I was also super impressed with EYFBO, especially Draztik. Draztik was a real ham (in good ways), bled way more than anyone, and both EYFBO guys basically got beat around by Hit Squad the whole time, and all built to them hitting a pair of dives down the stretch. The dives were nuts as security was trying to hold the guardrails with their backs to the action, and the dives were coming right at them, would have been real easy for security to get rolled up on. We get fun moments like Mack giving Jaka a cannonball while holding Ortiz on his back, later Mack takes a bump through an ironing board. In fact the true MVP of this match was the camera crew and whomever edited this match together. We jumped around perfectly to all the action happening at ringside and in the ring, never felt like we missed anything, never felt like the cuts were jumping from one to the next too quick, just excellently timed bursts of violence. It helped the chaotic feel of the whole brawl, really seemed to find the best action currently happening. Now the finish sucked a lot of wind out of this, took way too long to set up, and required everybody in the match not directly involved in the finish to just disappear. And it wasn't worth it. Mack turns on Ki for an errant dropkick moments earlier, then stands in the ring forever to set up his big clothesline, which eventually misses. The Joker stuff looked fine but felt so dumb coming as the end of a 30 minute match. Suddenly 75% of the guys in the match are selling damage and not working for the first time all match, and it just ground everything to a halt. The KO knee from Joker looked good, Mack sold it great, but it came off like a super flat and confusing way to end what had been such a wild fun match.


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Matches from EVOLVE 110 8/11/18

JD Drake vs. WALTER

ER: Very underwhelming. You get WALTER versus a fat guy and it's going to have a higher floor than a lot of matches, but I didn't think they went anywhere particularly interesting with this. There was a lot of very lazy set up by both men on the transitions. I counted WALTER set something up by missing a short running clothesline at least 6 times (basically setting up Drake by moving a few feet away and "charging" in with a slow motion running lariat that would get ducked), and Drake was really bad a setting up WALTER offense with big slow motion right hands that would be dodged. Drake is fine, but he's just not a fat guy that's as interesting as he should be. WALTER versus a guy from the Carolinas with Dick Murdoch tribute body would have been much better if it was WALTER vs. Matt Houston. Drake has an elvish face, coming off more like Jake Milliman. It didn't feel like he really started laying it in until later in the match, a lot of the early segments felt like he was being treated as a WALTER equal without his work ever really looking the part. WALTER had some cool stuff, big boots to the guy, a nasty butterfly suplex off the top, and a heavy German suplex (which lead to some stupid fighting spirit). Drake emotes nicely but there was some ugly stuff, a weak super kick, and an enziguiri that was supposed to be caught and turned into a WALTER Boston crab, Drake threw the enziguiri barely over WALTER's waist. The Gojira clutch is the best sub in wrestling now, really comes off like a huge boa constrictor wrapping around its prey. But the set ups were so lazy that they somehow got in the way of big guy ass kicking. It's easy, you're big, just hit each other. Don't get too lost in the exchanges. Just hurl your fat at the other guy. Big guy ass kicking is a seemingly impossible match style to get a bad result from, but man did this underperform.

62. Tracy Williams vs. Jaka

ER: Nice quick grinding match that kept chugging forward and accomplished a lot more in half the time that our prior match. Neither guy let the other rest and it kept things at a nice aggressive pace. Neither guy focused his attack, and these guys don't need limb work to be able to go out and just attack each other. Williams had his eye all bandaged up but didn't let it slow him down, working really hard and mean. He had a couple great lariats that turned Jaka upside down, worked tough on the mat, had a great big splash off the top (a really underused move by "smaller" guys, even though it's still somebody's body crashing onto an opponent. It's basically the most logical move in wrestling, but mainly used by fat guys), and took a nasty bump into the guardrail that just scorches his ribs. Jaka threw out a ton of strikes, I always like his cool non-canon stuff, rarely using rehearsed strike combos and instead coming off like he's always just flinging arms and legs in tough to pick up patterns. Jaka threw some welt raising elbows at Williams' eye, cool body attacks, smacked Williams in the thighs, hammerfisted his back, pushed away at Williams' chin while chopping him in the neck, all great attacks. They did some cool fighting up on the top rope, with Jaka trying to repeatedly block a DDT, and I loved Jaka bending at Williams' arm and wrist. The flashy spots integrated nicely to the brisk ass kicking, that spot where Jaka whipped in with his spinning heel kick only to have Williams time and catch it was awesome, and I love that Jaka finally overtly went after Williams' bandaged eye to lead to the finish. This whole thing was really packed to the brim with cool stuff, no filler.

PAS: When we got the Houston TV for the 80's Mid-South set you would often see feud build up over months of arena shows. This reminded me of the nasty brawl to set up a big stips match, like this was Buzz Sawyer vs. Duggan the week before they ran a dog collar match, violent, nasty fight with a level still to go. Jaka does have a nice variety of shots, and he threw them all out here, I especially love his double chop, and all of the shots to the bandaged eye. For a guy best known for his mat work Williams is good at this kind of simple back and forth brawl, it didn't really give him a chance to fly to close to the sun. Good spirited stuff

Chris Dickinson/Dominic Garrini/Stokely Hathaway vs. The Skulk (Tommy Maserati/Leon Ruff/Adrian Alanis)

ER: This gave me some lesser vibes similar to that great AIW 10 man tag from last year, with The Skulk taking a lot of rough shots but fighting back after taking their lumps. I love the idea of the Skulk. Obviously we love Special K here and while I'm not a big AR Fox guy, I love a stable of nobody henchmen. Plus, I think Ayla Fox adds a lot to the dynamic. Special K were more interesting as a concept (and had better wrestlers), but none of them had the freaking bosses' WIFE out there doing hype. Dickinson and Garrini (and even Stoke) were boss here. Dickinson gets such a gleefully evil smile when he gets to be an asshole to someone in the ring. He looks like a guy who makes good side gig money as a red herring in purse snatching police lineups. He looks like his Halloween costume every day of the year is "Exasperated Sports Talk Radio Caller". And of course you want that guy going after Tommy Maserati. You want Garrini chopping him in the next and Dickinson powerbombing him, and you want Stokely throwing hard punches. Alanis definitely seems like the Skulk to watch. He's the biggest one, apparently has a linebacker background, leans into strikes (including a nasty leaping Garrini knee), charges hard on blocks, and eats a nice German from Garrini. Sadly, the match builds to Leon Ruff being the big hot tag, and looking terrible most of the way through it. He hits a crazy twisting flip into a corner senton that misses almost entirely, bounces on the ropes a bunch while guys pull their puds, can't crack an egg with anything in his arsenal. So naturally he gets the sneaky roll up win on Dickinson when Stokely went to the top. It feels too early to give The Skulk a win like this, but I dug their celebration after the match, and can only hope it leads to a proper destruction at the hands of Catch Point. This delivered in most of the ways I wanted, and gave us a chance to start grading The Skulk, so that's a plus.

10. Darby Allin vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Allin's incredible 2018 run continues, and if this is Riddle's indy swan song, it's a killer one. Riddle was great in this as he came in as the fun loving bro and as the match continued and Allin refused to die, he morphed into the dark side of that character, he was Johnny Lawrence by the end of this match, brutally stomping Darby in the corner while cursing and taunting him, He was brutalizing Allin, and as usual Darby kept coming. Along with the beating he took, Darby took one of the craziest bumps I can remember him taking as he misses a coffin drop from the top right on the apron, ring corner right into his spine. I can't ever remember a small wrestler who is as good at making upsets seem credible, he may be even better at it then Rey Jr., no way he should be able to pin Riddle, but when he does, it makes perfect sense. I loved the finish run, even the one count kick out by Riddle, and then Darby being unfazed and still able to catch him with the Gibson leglock for the pin. Great stuff, Allin is actually doing what Meltzer claims Omega is doing.

ER: Chalk another one up for Darby. But really, keep chalking them up for Riddle. We both got a little burnt on Riddle and kind of backed away a bit once it seemed like he would be a Kurt Angle update, but damn am I back on board the Riddle train (Monbrorail? Brolley?) in 2018. He dished a way too mean beating out on Allin and included several excellent and believable openings. This gravy bowl of a match seems like something that should have been emptied long before now, but every time we see this Allin formula, there is still a comically delicious amount of gravy in that bowl. Riddle threw so damn many axe kicks to Darby's chest and back, each one landing harder, all of them looking like they would alter my heartbeat. Riddle is throwing full weight sentons, big knees, and Allin somehow keeps coming forward. He's a tough guy to slow down and half the damage he does to himself. Allin's missed Coffin Drop to the apron was a nutty as hell spot, but I actually loved a Riddle bump even more: When he charged at Allin on the floor and missed over the guardrail, you could see his foot wedge right through the guardrail on his way over, and it looked like a good way for a guy crazy enough to wrestle barefoot to finally break his foot. I want to know if Riddle is completely crazy and actually tried to pull off a Chris Hamrick intentional injury spot here (like Hamrick getting his knee hung up in the ropes), because it was nuts. Allin hits a great Coffin Drop to the floor, a heavy one into the ring, fights with Riddle up top to hit a crushing crucifix bomb, and somehow holds his own on strikes. There was one moment I thought went too far, with Darby kicking out of a flat out brutal short arm leaping knee -> powerbomb -> knee to the face. If Riddle is going to make all his stuff look so damn knockout-level, then it's just gonna make for some questionable kickouts. But Allin is kind of undeniable at this point, so really they could probably run Tank Abbott vs. Allin and have Tank pull a knife on him and I'd buy a kickout. This train is still rolling, no chance I'm jumping off.

2018 MOTY LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE MATT RIDDLE

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Matches from EVOLVE 106 6/23/18

ER: This show opens with a potentially unintentionally hilarious vignette with Jarek 1:20 outside of the Los Angeles Wahlburgers restaurant, saying he "first discovered" Wahlburgers in Philadelphia, and has since eaten at locations in Detroit, New York, and now LA. This motherfucker DISCOVERED this mom and pop burger joint, I assume in much the same way that I discovered Planet Hollywood in my teens, and then discovered Claim Jumper in my 20s. Keep that information under your hats though, I don't want my discoveries to get too well known. Inside the restaurant he barters with a waiter to give him a free chocolate shake if he successfully pulls off a magic trick and guesses the guy's card. The waiter commits to nothing whatsoever, repeating several times that he'll "see what he can do". Jarek does the trick, the waiter responds with the greatest possible reaction a card trick can get (which is nodding and going "Oh, yeah, that's it."), and then walks off.

Then, in a moment of pure brilliance, Jarek turns to the camera and says "I'm a man who gets what I want."

Holy shit.

Imagine Ric Flair, a man who cut dozens of promos celebrating his wealth and lifestyle, clearly a man getting exactly what he wants. Picture Flair, instead of boasting about bagging ladies on his jet, picture him smugly bragging about boosting a guy out of a $7 chain restaurant milkshake with a completely dead eyed straight face. It's fucking brilliant.

I have seen hardly any Jarek. I don't know if he's a goof or if the wink was implied. I really, really hope the wink here was implied.


Darby Allin vs. WALTER

PAS: This is everything that people were saying the Draganov and David Starr matches were. The pinnacle of WALTER laying in an asskicking to a spunky underdog. Darby is tremendous in this, he takes some uncalled for bumps and gets his chest turned into hamburger, but he also has a real sense of when to mix in comebacks and has really credible offense for such a little guy. The hand work was class stuff Darby hurling WALTER's hand into the ringpost violently was great, as was the ground and pound punches right to the knuckles. I loved how he used it as a last gasp counter and attack, if nothing else was working he could bang at the hand. I thought WALTER's selling was really good here too, his hand was fucked, but he wasn't going to let it stop him from chopping Allin's chest into gazpacho or slapping his eardrum into ribbons. There are some really awesome individual spots here, Darby going for an in ring tope and WALTER shotgun head-butting him out of the air was an awesome King Kong vs. Airplanes spot, I also loved WALTER countering the coffin drop with the Kojira clutch. These are two of my favorite guys to watch, and this felt like both guys apex performances.

ER: What a breathless fight, with Allin taking far more damage that you think would be possible, and WALTER practically getting bored by dishing out a beating. There are only so many ways you can violently throw and strike a body, and around the 10 minute mark WALTER has appeared to have used up all of the ways he knows how to violently throw and strike a body, so just keeps doing the same thing. He chops Allin to the mat a dozen or two times, throws him insanely far with a beal, basically just picks him up a bunch and drops him. Allin's body should crumble, but I love the way he hangs in there and the way he spends the whole match essentially being chased down a hallway and gets his licks by knocking over bookcases and trashcans. WALTER is great at showing all the little ways Allin is a pest to him, all the little moments that leave him briefly unguarded. The stuff on the floor was so great, and Allin exploits every opportunity WALTER leaves him, knowing he'll only be able to attack for a second or two before he's thrown again. Allin attacks him from the apron and pounces on him like Westley jumping on Fezzik, gets splatted on the ground, but then catches a WALTER kick and throws his knee into the post, then with zero hesitation throws WALTER's hand off the post. Allin's zero hesitation was just at its apex here, watch him get rolled out on a kickout and spring immediately into a tornillo crossbody (bouncing off the bottom rope). It was done so fluidly and without missing a single beat, yet looked totally natural. WALTER is fun in how he both takes and blocks Allin's offense, like when he just stays in place for a big Allin crossbody, and Allin just bounces off like he hit the ringpost again. WALTER takes a couple Allin roll-ups really nicely, whips himself over fast on the Santito special, and Allin attacking WALTER's hand was really exciting, just punching away at it and clonking his head off it while WALTER screamed. Something tells me WALTER could get his hand lopped off and he'd probably insist on finishing the match, probably by smacking someone a bunch with his stump. But seeing Allin work that hand gives him a possible finish, and I like how he keeps on it and keeps at EVERYTHING, going with a hanging guillotine and working an armbar, and you get the sense that WALTER just ran out of things to do, got his hand run over, and Allin's tenacity lead to him stealing one. WALTER's big Gojira Clutch always looks like he's really cutting off air, and the Coffin Drop is both a fun move AND a great way for WALTER to reverse, and the roll up from there was a nice payoff. These two absolutely killed it, and there were a dozen cool moments that neither of us mentioned. I keep saying that Allin is one of my absolute favorite guys to watch, and I'm going to enjoy him for as long as I can, which just doesn't seem like it's going to be many more matches. But, I've been thinking that for awhile and somehow, Darby endures.

Timothy Thatcher/Tracy Williams/Anthony Henry vs. Chris Dickinson/Jaka/Dominic Garrini

ER: A good match with good performances from a bunch of guys I obviously really like, that doesn't quite gel into a list worthy match. It's probably better than a few things on our 2018 list, but didn't quite feel list considering who was involved. But it's still well worth seeing if you like these guys anywhere near as much as I do. I love how Catch Point started as a group of fit mat grapplers and has now evolved into a stable of thuggish brutes. They're all meaty guys who complement each other nicely without having the same style, with Dickinson working as a modern crazy-eyed Buzz Sawyer, Jaka as tae-kwon-do Kimala, and Garrini with his growing collection of strikes. This whole thing was a great scrap that went by quick, a lot of quick tags and fast action. We got a great babyface performance from Henry, tons of energy and ran into a lot of nasty shots from Catch Point. Thatcher was a great simmering badass, throwing hard shots and muscling guys down to the mat. I think Garrini is behind Jaka and Dickinson as he still shows moments of hesitation in the ring, but he has a couple of absolutely nasty pinfall breaks here that are awesome, landing a spine altering double stomp on Thatcher's back and coming in with an axe kick later, also love his double handed chop to the neck (feels like a Jaka strike, and I like the idea of teammates lifting from each other). Jaka has a bunch of offense and strike combos, and I like his simple attacks like slapping guys in the back with both hands or big throat thrusts. He doesn't necessarily have KO strikes, but his strikes are pesky and constant. Dickinson has really turned into one of my favorites in the world, just a completely hateable charisma and explosive ringwork; every time he charges into the ring he looks like someone charging out the front door of a douchey club to fight someone on the sidewalk. It's a specific charisma that nobody else has and he's awesome. Love him using a vicious powerbomb to break up a hold, love that heavy enziguiri finisher, just a real great bully. If you like these guys, you will definitely want to watch this match.

Joey Janela vs. Austin Theory

ER: Evolve doesn't run as many shows as they used to, and really the only on paper matches that interested me on the show were the two up above there. But I figure I should at least check out a couple title matches, and I don't remember Janela working Evolve before so that's kinda fun. I don't think the match was great, but the crowd was really hot for it and that made it come off really well. Janela is a fun worker but a little sloppy, and Theory works like a lesser Matt Sydal from 2005. There's a lot of that split second hesitation before Theory does offense, and other stuff that basically requires his opponent to leap at him before doing something. It's like when HHH couldn't do a move without reversing an Irish whip. There were some big things I liked, like Janela's big tope and that nasty Death Valley driver on the apron, but Theory isn't too interesting in the ways he transitions back to offense, as he just takes big moves, kicks out, and then does some improbable offense back. Janela hits a package piledriver for a big nearfall, moments later Theory is giving him a TKO off the top rope that requires Janela to climb up onto his shoulders all by himself. I thought Penelope's involvement was kind of clunky, and Theory going for the belt to have Penelope grab it from him felt like a hack Smackdown finish and not something that should change a title on a guy's debut show. But the crowd was amped and Janela clearly has charisma. I don't have a ton of use for Theory and Priscilla's act, though.

No Rope Breaks: Shane Strickland vs. Matt Riddle

ER: A match where both guys really killed each other with some spots, and were rewarded with a finish that nobody could really like. Strickland has definitely improved over the last year. Just a few years ago I thought he was one of the worst guys getting regular work on the indy scene. His striking has tightened up a bit (there was an honest to god really good punch in this match, popping Riddle's jaw on the floor). But a lot of his big offense really only works against a hyper athlete like Riddle, who is really great at getting into position for complicated stuff. Riddle can move like liquid, and I don't think Strickland could pull off some of the suplexes or transitions without someone like Riddle to pull the weight. There's a Saito suplex that Strickland hits that appears to be almost all Riddle, though Riddle does a great job of making it look plausible. I didn't think Strickland's arm work looked good, but he impressed me in ways that he never has before: he had a nice lariat, a sly catch of Riddle's Pele kick (which I think is a Riddle spot that doesn't always look great, so Strickland catching it was a nice play on that), and most importantly I was impressed with Strickland's snarling intensity. He carries himself very confidently and jawed with fans in a way I haven't seen from him before, and it made him come off far more interesting as a character. The finish set up was too obvious by a mile, as both men clearly adjust positions 90 degrees on a suplex so that Strickland gets tossed towards the ref, who Riddle then accidentally KOs. Eventually they brawl to the back, no cameras though. Strickland gets into it with guys backstage, they all come out, Strickland hits a big dive on everyone that doesn't feel like it fits into this match, and Riddle locks in the Bromission but apparently that KO'd ref was the only ref Evolve has. Nobody is satisfied with this finish, and the overstuffed aspect of all of it took away from the parts of the match where these guys were stiffing the hell out of each other. The No Rope Breaks stip didn't really lead anywhere interesting. There was a lot of good here, and it was harmed by some things that weren't really their fault, which is a shame.

ER: Well, WALTER/Allin is a slam dunk choice for our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, with Phil and I going back and forth on just how high we should place it. What a front to back excellent match that was a real testament to how good those two are right now. It could have easily looked ridiculous, as WALTER is such a Terminator that having him lose to Darby could have easily looked foolish. They crafted an excellent match though, one of the best of the year.

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Wrestlemania Weekend Cherry Picking: WWNLive SuperShow - Mercury Rising 2018

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Munenori Sawa

PAS: Sabre actually worked a FUTEN show in 2015, and seems to be really excited to work a BattlArts guy. He keeps this mostly BattlArts style, with the matwork being pretty shooty, and really dialing down his flourishes (in fact any of the goofy stuff in the match was done by Sawa). There is some really nice grappling early. With Sawa working for leglocks, and Sabre attacking the arm. They exchange some nasty slaps to the ear which is the stiffest I can remember Sabre working, he really laid into Sawa and bloodied his mouth. Finish run was awesome, with Sabre yanking Sawa out of the air on a kick attempt and putting on a nasty STF variation. After Sawa gets to the ropes, they exchange some shots, and Sabre does another cool counter as he ducks the Ohtani punch and drags Sawa down into a sleeper which he quickly transitions into a banana split for the tap. I really liked this, it was one of my favorite Sabre performances, it wasn't his best match, but I thought he maximized the cool shit, and minimized the dumb shit in a really entertaining way.

ER: This was maybe the most savage I've ever seen Sabre work, and it's on the same card that will later see Riddle work like a total lunatic. I had thought of skipping this match as I thought they would bring out bad tendencies in each other, but I was wrong. The rolling is really fun and springy and you get the sense that Sabre can just grab a limb whenever he wants. Really I would have been cool with it staying there, but we forget that Sawa came back after 7 years to get his body and face attacked. Sabre brings his best ever smacks and uppercuts, and before long it looks like Sawa has a port wine stain on his neck and chest. Sabre can come off cocky even when facing guys way larger, so it's fun watching him be so smug and jerky to a guy smaller than him. He was really picking on Sawa, but I loved how he sold for Sawa's stuff, love how he crumpled on the Ohtani punch, loved Sawa yanking and twisting his leg and ankle on the apron. But Sabre was pretty relentless, really seeming like he could bully Sawa around and grab an octopus whenever he wanted, and the banana split finish was a real trip. Sawa looked like he was tied to two trucks driving in the opposite direction, and Sabre soaks up the adulation from fans afterwards. Great performance, a real smug cad, and a fun note to go out on for Sawa (unless this is him back in wrestling?). Killer match.

Dominic Garrini/Tracy Williams vs. Anthony Henry/James Drake vs. Parrow/Odinson

ER: Big old sloppy weapons brawl between teams that I'd rather just see in a straight match. This was fun, except for all of the moments that were dumb. Really the problems all could have been avoided by just having a straight tag match with any combination of the teams. The best moments of the match were always when one team was gone missing for several minutes. The End may have spent more of the match hiding in the entranceway - which is weird for the two hulking gladiators of the match to be doing - or selling injuries on the floor from moves meant to take them out of the match. But they were also the victims of cruelly rigid tables, absolutely refusing to cooperate. Parow gets powerbombed through a table, only to slide off as the unbroken table gets pushed away. Odinson gets double stomped through one, but just eats a double stomp with no breaking table. The dumbest parts were always setting up a 3 way spot, peaking with "stereo" top rope suplex/powerbomb spots that the crowd groaned through. I don't think anyone wants to see tower spots anymore. Tower spots are over. The risk of injury never feels worth the end result. The match did have a bunch of guys throwing hard. Williams was really pasting guys with elbows, so was Henry. And the chair/ladder shots were actually pretty great in a reckless Eddie Kingston way. Drake and Garrini throw ladders hard at Odinson, Parrow eats a couple chairshots to the chest, tough stuff. Garrini was part of a couple great moments, hitting a somersault dive off the top, getting his feet slammed in a ladder and hit with chairs, and getting pounced through a set-up-in-the-corners table by The End. Henry & Drake do a huge extended beatdown of the End before finishing the match, it actually made them come off totally badass. The End never even attempted a comeback, just Henry & Drake beating them with chairs and ladders and a big fat Drake moonsault. Between hiding in the entrance for the first several minutes, and getting a few minute beating to end the match, The End didn't exactly come off like contenders. A gif of this match would be really fun, but there really was a lot I liked about it.

Keith Lee vs. Daisuke Sekimoto

PAS: Pretty much exactly what you want out of this match up, a pair of big corn fed dudes throwing chops and forearms at each others chests.  Sekimoto may make some goofy faces for no good reason, but he is a crowbar. He was throwing really nasty meaty forearms and big chops, and Lee was pounding him back. That double over hand chop spot by Lee is really something to see. I thought this fell off a bit when they started doing top rope moves, but that closing german suplex by Sekimoto was gorgeous.

Timothy Thatcher/WALTER vs. Chris Dickinson/Jaka

ER: A good tag match that felt like it should have been hitting me harder than it actually did hit me. I enjoyed all of it and obviously like both teams, but I kept getting weirdly distracted wondering why it wasn't totally connecting with me. I'm really like Jaka right now so I was into his beatdown building to a big tag out to Dickinson, liked his big kicks and German suplex to Thatcher before Dickinson came in and roughed him up more. Dickinson hot tags are some great pro wrestling, he always comes in fast and swinging. Jaka has a fun twist on Islander striking, and even goes for a Kona Crush head squeeze which...yes I just confirmed, Hawaii is an island. We get consecutive hot tags, as Jaka builds to tagging Dickinson, and they isolate Thatcher which builds to a big WALTER tag. WALTER, you may have noticed, has some great hot tags. WALTER comes in on a chop rampage, and I love when he goes for a double clothesline, only gets Jaka, rebounds off the other side and meets Dickison with a boot. The match peaks with my favorite moment, WALTER getting Dickinson in the Gojira Clutch only for Jaka to save him with a huge full force splash off the top. But I kept wondering why I was never fully hooked, and I think it was just because there weren't really defined face/heel roles, just four good wrestlers who are capable of working both (though I suppose when in doubt, just assume Dickinson is the least likable one), and while they built to tags there was still a lot of this that felt like a Texas Tornado. The work looked great, but it felt cluttered and compressed. I think it needed more of a peaks/valleys set up. At minimum it was four guys I like, working hard in a tag match, and that will have a lot of value.

Will Ospreay vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Riddle continues his incredible Mania weekend with a wild sprint with Osprey. Osprey comes in with his neck taped from a gif worthy blown spot in New Japan, and Riddle just viciously attacks him. He really feels like he wants to knocks his blocky yellowed British teeth down his throat. Osprey gets his neck wrecked with Riddle just crawling all over him and landing sick elbows right to the KT tape on his neck. The spot where Osprey climbs to the top rope with Riddle on his back, only to get murder deathed off the top rope was truly nuts. I honestly would have been fine with the match ending there, it would have established Riddle as a vicious killer, and Osprey as a tough guy with a death wish. The post restart stuff was great though, the crowd gets totally behind Osprey and his comeback and it ends up being really frenzied and great. I wouldn't think these guys would work well together, as Riddle against flyers is often iffy, but this was a hell of war. Loved it.

ER: Man, do I like small occasional doses of Ospreay?? He's got an overly sleek athleticism that annoys me sometimes, but he also is like a super gymnast Chris Hamrick in his dedication to going through painful spots for the sake of a worked injury. That's a pretty big thing. His match with Liger got a little ignored compared to other matches on that card, but his injury in that was super convincing and hooked me in. And here he gets dumped on his neck early with an exploder and is squeezing and rubbing that neck out from there. And Riddle aims to just wreck Ospreay's neck in as many ways as he can think of. Riddle was pretty merciless, really hitting too damn hard with elbows and kicks, and punishing Ospreay's neck. The fans get way behind Ospreay as some of the damage starts to feel almost uncomfortable at a point, due to Riddle relentless attack and Ospreay's selling. Ospreay gets one big run that Riddle treats like a big deal, but before long Riddle is tossing him with rolling gutwrenches, wastes him with a powerbomb that gets followed up with a knee (that really bends Ospreay back over himself in painful fashion), and things peak with Riddle going for a sleeper and then the Bromission, throwing a bunch of elbows at Ospreay's head, and we get this crazy moment of Ospreay climbing the ropes with Riddle holding a sleeper....and Riddle does a Crucifix Driver off the top and several people clearly jump up as if they've just witnessed the death of Will Ospreay. The stoppage was nice as Riddle comes back and destroys Ospreay with knees, rips at his tape, hits a huge senton, plants him with a jumping tombstone, looking completely deranged. We do run a little crazy with all the kickouts down the stretch, but I did really love Ospreay's triangle couter to Riddle;s piledriver. Riddle was great at struggling to escape, rolling around, trying to stand, trying to strike at Ospreay, then gets just totally laid out by an Ospreay lariat and snapped in half by a sitout powerbomb. So the last couple minutes of this were insane, most definitely overkill, but the savagery in Riddle's face woke this crowd up HUGE. If all this came at the end of a 24 minute match, I'd be out, but here I liked how the insanity just kept ramping up. You got the actual sense that the match would continue until one guy was actually injured.


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Wrestlemania Weekend Cherry Picking: EVOLVE 103

Dominic Garrini vs. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: Really nifty grappling match, this wasn't slick like the stuff that Riddle and Sabre were doing the night before, this was gritty, lots of jockeying for position and advantage, rather then putting on of cool submissions. Felt more shootstyle, especially in the beginning, then anything on Bloodsport. Felt like this could have used a bit more time as, right when it got pushed into the next gear, including a bloody Thatcher nose, Thatcher basically finished it. Not normally a complaint I have about indy wrestling, but I needed a couple more near falls.

ER: This was fun, like if these two fought back in the day on Velocity, but it did feel like we were watching a clipped match. I liked everything in it (though Garrini can come up short on strikes, and Thatcher can sometimes freeze waiting for an opponent to act), but the end was pretty sudden. The ground work was fun and Garrini was getting all funky Sakuraba on him, loved him almost crossbodying into side control, and really I could have watched 5-10 more minutes of them on the mat. Thatcher gets a busted lip and we go to finish shortly after, but it didn't feel like that Regal/Storm moment where Storm busted Regal open with a dropkick so Regal wrecked him for 30 seconds, just felt like the actual finish. Fun, but needed more.

Chris Dickinson vs. Mark Haskins

ER: This was a very good sociopath vs. wounded babyface match, as Haskins gets some early flash, so Dickinson decides to take out his arm and his leg. Haskins sees it through, as by the time he's back on offense he's shaking out his arm and hopping all over on his leg, mixing up offense thanks to the damage done by Dickinson. Dickinson will dish some nasty kicks and was twisting Haskins' ankle in gross ways, but I thought Haskins built nicely to his comebacks. My favorite moments was him kicking at Dickinson repeatedly in the corner, pausing...and then punching Dickinson in the jaw with a left hand (his bum wing). Dickinson was like the emotionless Terminator at points, which not everyone can pull off, you just need to have his specific "dead eyes guy who stocked up on tiki torches" charisma. At one point Haskins has him in a dangerous sub and Dickinson panics at first, then collects himself, controls his breath, and calmly shifts his hips to get to the ropes. It looked like a home invasion serial killer who encountered someone fighting back more than usual, so he just calmly dealt with the predicament before murdering them. It probably went a bit too long (sheesh they run all these 5-8 minute matches and expect me to hang on through 16!?) but I linked Haskins dropkick to Dickinson as he was lying on the mat, and Dickinson rolling through a prawn hold into a nasty deathlock was a fine finish. Haskins has been around for a decade, this felt like a good match for him to make his Segunda Caida print debut.

PAS: I am glad to see Dickinson worked straight heel like this. Most of the time in EVOLVE he works as a workrate kicker, he is fine at that, but he has such a great sleazy hateable charisma (sort of a more muscular Christopher Cantwell) , which is muted in EVOLVE. He is really punking Haskins here, laying in nasty kicks, thick stomps, twisting joints. I really liked the finish with Dickinson really working over that deathlock. No reason for this to be so long though, if they had cut five minutes I could easily see it on a list.

Tracy Williams vs. WALTER

PAS: WALTER is one of those guys who is going to deliver a baseline entertaining match. You know he is going to chop unnecessarily hard, get popped back, throw a couple of deadlift german suplexes and put on some chokes. He pretty much comes with a package, and it is often up to the opponent to add some seasoning. Williams does some pretty cool stuff in this match, he is willing to let WALTER break a bunch of blood vessels, but he lands some pretty sharp neck chops, he also does some very cool spider monkeyish chokes, climbing all around WALTER and locking in either a crossface or a rear naked choke. Williams has a pretty high variance as a worker, but this was high end hot sauce.

ER: Phil makes some great points about WALTER. I've watched a lot of WALTER matches the last 6 months, and he is a guy who does not change up his style depending on opponent, and I've gone out of my way to watch WALTER matches, but always because I'm excited about his opponent. Now, this makes it sound like I hate WALTER, which is not true at all. I'd have him very high on a 2018 list, but it's just weird to me that it's what his opponent brings to the table that always interests me. It's never "I can't wait to see WALTER cave in this guy's lungs" it's always "I can't wait to see this guy get his lungs caved in by WALTER". It feels like an important difference, that I don't know what to do with. But anyway, I dug this match. I loved how Williams hung in there and almost tested himself by knowingly working WALTER's match, as if he wanted to see how long he could last. WALTER has the best chops in wrestling right now, and Williams took them and threw cool stiff arm standing lariats and cutting chops to the neck right back at him. He even tries to throw WALTER at one point which is just not going to end well for most guys. I love when guys climb on WALTER to try and catch him in a sub, reminds me of Bugs Bunny cartoons where he takes down a hulking brute with a series of fast scrambly attacks (tying shoelaces together into flower pot on head into tied to lampost with rope). The finish is some prime WALTER as he towers over a seated Sauce and starts yanking that arm up to start the Gojira Clutch, and Williams panics and tries to scramble free, so WALTER just starts raining down clubbing blows to the chest until Sauce can't defend, then  easily locks in the Clutch for a quick pass out. The Gojira Clutch is hands down the best sub in wrestling today (Phil will argue to Twist Ending which is its best contender), it's just so smothering, a dude choked out against his own arm. Cool stuff.

Jaka vs. Munenori Sawa

PAS: Showcase for Sawa's fast hands and potatoes. Jaka is a guy who is always going to slug back. I really enjoyed the section where they were on their knees and Sawa was just straight punching Jaka in the jaw, and some of those quiet the crowd headbutts remind you that Sawa is a Yuki Ishikawa trainee. Would have rather had almost any other BattlArts guy make a comeback US tour (how sick would WALTER vs. Alexander Otsuka be) but Sawa is definitely fun.

ER: I really really like Jaka. He's has a few fun Islander tropes like a concrete block head, but also has the coolest non-canon strikes in wrestling. He throws so many cool strikes that nobody else uses, a top-of-head headbutt to the chest or stomach, palm thrust to the forehead, double palm thrusts to the chest and back, thrust kicks (the superkick has pretty much replaced the thrust kick, which is a shame. There's a looping grace to a superkick tucking in perfectly to that space joining the chin and neck, but there's something about a thrust kick right to the sternum), big flat running knee to the face, hands together chops to the neck and chest, a few spinkick variations, just tons of cool and mean strikes done differently than everyone else. This match had some things that I would really dislike in other matches, but were okay with here. I don't love indy matches where a guy takes a lot of abuse and then just comes back by merely deciding it was his time to come back, no big turn of events that lead to it. And I don't usually like these "on our knees, take turns" strike exchanges. But this one went quick and had Sawa punch Jaka about as hard as possible in the forehead, and I liked the callback as earlier Jaka went into a long series of control after Sawa foolishly tried headbutting him. I like him still trying to find other ways to pierce that armor. The finish was really great and extremely well done, every single second of the octopus hold. There was this great slow struggle from Sawa to get the move locked in, really wrenching Jaka's arm back ever so slowly, then Jaka also slowly muscling his way out, trying to get Sawa's boot off his neck but Sawa subtly tightening his leg grip, before Jaka frantically taps. So I did not totally love the layout, but thought the work within was strong and finished on a major high.

Matt Riddle vs. Daisuke Sekimoto

PAS: I thought Sekimoto was pretty bad the night before, and have been a bit of a 2018 Matt Riddle skeptic, but this was a banger. There are a lot of stocky dudes working chopper gimmicks on these Wrestlemania shows, so you are going to have to bring something more then a stiff chop, and Sekimoto surprisingly does. Loved him challenging Riddle to a Sumo showdown, loved the battle over the deadlift German suplex, with Riddle fighting for an ankle pick to keep from getting thrown. All of the no rope break stuff in this match was great, with Riddle using a hanging triangle while in the ropes to get a nearfall, and Sekimoto needing ways to brute force his way out of submissions while in the ropes. Finish was a little wonky, I don't think Riddle's knee landed hard enough for the KO and while Sekimoto kept his horseshit in check, he was doing a goof face on the sell. Still this was damn good, and Riddle was dropping bangers in New Orleans like mid 2000s Lil' Wayne.

ER: I think the key to getting good Sekimoto must be in him wrestling without boots. He's inflated goof with them and suddenly he takes off his shoes and he's Masa Saito. This had some things that didn't work, a majorly whiffed Pele kick by Riddle that got sold, some very long standing exchanges (that I did like more than most stand and trade sections), but I really did get into this battle. I loved how sometimes Sekimoto would absorb strikes without even moving, just getting kicking in the chest or chopped in the neck like nothing was happening, and the whole thing really peaked for me with Riddle grabbing that triangle in the ropes. I loved the body as jungle gym moments and thought it was awesome when Sekimoto was trying to slam Riddle and he kept gripping Sekimoto's ankle to prevent it, and Sekimoto kept powering through. I thought the finish worked, but especially because Riddle added in the hammerfist strikes after landing that knee. Those hammerfists were nasty and Sekimoto wasn't even moving, just getting a fist whipped into his jaw. The ref stop was really well done. Somebody hide Sekimoto's boots from him!

ER: Fun, shorter than normal show with nothing all time great but a super high floor, really liked all the matches that I watched. The show probably took place at 5 AM so I gotta give credit for these guys working so hard all weekend. We thought Riddle/Sekimoto, WALTER/Hot Sauce, and Jaka/Sawa were cool enough to land on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. And I'm pretty sure Phil and I both separately made Charlottesville jokes about Chris Dickinson. And dammit, that still means something in this world.

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Wrestlemaina Weekend Thursday Cherry Picking: EVOLVE 102

We are going to try to cover much of WrestleMania weekend, but can't watch every second of everything. Here are some cherry picked matches from EVOLVE 102.

EVOLVE 102

Jaka/Chris Dickinson vs. Workhorseman vs. The End vs. Dominic Garrini/Tracy Williams

PAS: This was kind of clusterfuck, but it had some fun individual moments. At one point Dickinson and James Drake just started wailing on each other, and all of a sudden this was fight not just a demonstration of double teams. Some of the double teams were cool though, I like Doom Patrols top rope falcon arrow superfly splash combo, and the Ends powerbomb guys into their partners back. Still lots of this was messy, and this kind of match really works against Garrini's strengths, also since the champs needed to pinned to lose the belt, what is the point of trying to pin anyone else?

Darby Allin vs. Keith Lee

PAS: Really fun match, exactly what you want out of this matchup. Allin spinning and flipping and diving trying to stay out of Lee's hands, and Lee catching him and smashing him into little pieces. Lee is a really fun manhandler, he spins Allin around like a top during a lockup, catches him during a dive like he was catching a frisbee and yanks him into the ring by his jeans. He also catches Allin mid coffin drop with a pounce which I though might send Allin into the lobby. All of Allin's offense looked good too, he is super elusive and I loved how he set up the coffin drop on the small of Lee's back. Finish was fun with Lee bouncing Allin off the mat with a Spirit Bomb and Allin crawling his way up Lee only to get crushed again.

ER: This was really fun, I like how these two match up (and how could you not love a guy with a death wish getting crushed by a monster!?), although this felt like more of a squash than I've seen from them. Darby has some fascinating landings, dude is like a little cat, and I like how his movements seem reckless and controlled (controlled frenzy of Darby Allin!!). He's really clever about coming up with odd ways to set up offense, loved his Coffin Drop to a hunched over Lee, and right after he bounced backwards off the ropes to land on Lee's back for a sunset flip, really outside the box stuff. But you knew this would mostly be about Lee seeing how far he could chuck Allin, and boy did he. He did a beal that was like a Last Ride powerbomb, just launching him with one arm and at Darby's apex Lee actually lifts him higher before letting go. before that he just picks Allin up by the waistband of his shorts, like a mama cat carrying her kitten around by the neck scruff, and just throws him (an announcer compares it to tossing a bale of hay, and that's accurate). His Darby throws in an extra theatrical bounce on a sitout powerbomb, flipping over onto his stomach. I've never seen that and it looked pretty nuts. But overall this felt a little too squashy, felt like another nearfall from Allin would have elevated this, especially if it came off a huge Lee crash and burn (like early in the match when Lee went for a short spear and fell through the ropes). Lee crushing Allin goes on a bit too long, and starts to feel a bit like a geek show. There aren't guys who take a more innovative beating than Allin, but I want a little give and take.

Daisuke Sekimoto/Munenori Sawa vs. WALTER/Timothy Thatcher

PAS: Nifty match which was mainly a showcase for the puro teams offense. Commentary mentions that Thatcher was hugely inspired by BattlArts and Yuki Ishikawa and I am grumbling about how Ishikawa is just hanging out in Canada waiting to be booked. Thatcher vs Sawa sections are really fun, although a little sidelined. Sawa still moves really fast and smooth for a guy who has been retired for 7 years. Main focus on the match was WALTER and Sekimoto chopping the nipples off of each other and WALTER looks like he going to set some sort of record for busting blood vessels over this weekend of shows. Fun finish run too, with some big shots by all of the guys. More of a fun exhibition then a great match, but I enjoyed it

ER: I didn't love this, but thought it was a pretty great Ringkampf performance. Sekimoto is just so hokey, and is so gassed that he just moves sluggishly compared to the other guys in the match. A lot of his bumps were wooden and disconnected from the move he was bumping, just an awkward performance. Sawa would have had more of an excuse, and while I didn't love his slap exchanges, I liked a lot of his stuff, rolling with Thatcher, the appropriately renamed Ohtani Punches (though I thought it would have been cool if he used those earlier, and then down the stretch when things got more desperate just punched Thatcher with no gimmicky wind-up), but really this match was all about Ringkampf. They knew that the fans there wanted to see Sekimoto and Sawa do their thing, and RK was able to take the big moves and still look dominant. WALTER had a killer match, really killing guys with running kicks, and I kept waiting for his chops to pop one of Sekimoto's inflated tits. WALTER really launched guys on Germans, showed Sekimoto how to do a shoulderblock, and I love when he overhand chops a Sekimoto lariat attempt out of the air. Thatcher had some great selling, some great wobble legs, and maybe my favorite moment of the match when he snags a Sawa lariat and violently whips it into a Fujiwara and a crossface. Some of this felt way too silly, like Sawa's double dragon screw, and the double German suplex was really stupid. Sekimoto tosses Sawa who tosses Thatcher, with Sawa getting dumped on his head, and Sekimoto does this horrible Red Shoes back row acting when he "realizes what he's done". I'm not sure what he thought would happen when he dumped his partner on his head. I wanted to like this more, and I loved Ringkampf, but Sekimoto just rarely does it for me.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Great match and fitting swan song for Sabre's EVOLVE title reign (and his run in EVOLVE overall). Match was set up as Riddle's strikes and throws against Sabre's submissions and we got great versions of both. I loved Sabre torturing Riddle's feet and he was just twisting him up in some really inventive pretzels, Riddle's body is taking a beating this weekend, I can't imagine his knee felt good the way Sabre was twisting it. Sabre also took some pretty big shots to the jaw, Riddle's go to sleeps felt especially reckless. Loved the finish with Riddle attempting a twister, Sabre countering it into some sort of calf slicer, and Riddle able to re counter back into an arm trap twister for the tap. So much of the matwork was dominated by Riddle, it was nice to see the Ju Jitsu brown belt break out some tricks.

ER: Loved this. Riddle is doing some pretty unparalleled workrate this weekend, just a gas tank I can not comprehend. His creativity is inspired as well, and that’s a big plus. The higher profile he’s gotten the more tendencies he’s picked up that I don’t like, and those have been almost totally absent this weekend. Sabre has been a great Evolve champ, and it was going to take a great opponent to grab the belt from him, and Riddle was that guy. Riddle played the long game and took a ton of abuse from Sabre, and then just spammed him with big shots down the stretch. Sabre was in full spider monkey mode, tangling Riddle up like a squid drowning a scuba diver. Sabre bent Riddle’s ankle and toes, locked on a nasty octopus hold, fluidly moved through subs, several in a row, to really disorient Riddle. Riddle slowly started anticipating ZSJ’s offense the longer we went, catching a low kick into one of his best Pele kicks (with a great shaky leg drop down sell from Sabre), and really started cranking in shots. People still weirdly complain about Sabre having weak arm strikes, while ignoring that when he breaks down and starts exchanging strikes that usually spells his downfall in a match. Here he slaps Riddle and gets a kind of “oh shit” look on his face, and that leads to him getting elbowed a ton. There were a couple cracks, the Riddle senton into an armbar was telegraphed a mile away; Riddle is always super accurate with his landings and here he leaps 5 feet to the right so he can land for the spot. This is the first time that spot came off overplanned. But that’s really my only complaint about the finish. The stretch really was smoking, with both men emptying their offense closets and trading who had the advantage without it devolving into move trading. Big shot of the home stretch was Riddle hitting a Rainmaker knee strike that was finisher worthy. The finish was sad in a way. We’ve watched Sabre confidently tie so many guys in knots, that look of confidence when he knows he’s got the win in the bag, and here he was finally on the other end of that. He was fighting Riddle all the way but you could see Riddle slowly moving Sabre’s limbs into the Bromission, Sabre able to slow the inevitable but not stop it. Great match.

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Matches from EVOLVE 99 1/14/18

Darby Allin vs. Brody King

ER: Darby is one night removed from getting his tendons and joints rearranged by Zack Sabre, so now he's punishing himself by putting himself in the opener to get the beating that he deserves. That Sabre match was painful as hell, so this guy is really cementing how nuts he is by going out and wrestling just as crazy as he usually does. King is a beefy guy with tons of tattoos, growing out a dye job. He looks like Steve Corino, if Corino was raised in Portland. This goes to a 10 minute draw, which isn't a very exciting finish, but the crazy we got from Allin during those 10 minutes cannot be denied. I love things that he adds to traditional crazy, like he doesn't just hit a screaming tope con hilo through a seated Brody, he does so while also swinging fists; so he crashes through King and then punches him with both hands until he gets to his feet. He hits a Coffin Drop from the buckles into the crowd (through King and some chairs) and also hits one in ring that gets turned into a nasty German by King. Allin takes several rough bumps, getting tossed from the crowd back to ringside (no padding) and also takes a huge clothesline. Allin is nuts and I can't imagine not going out of my way to see this guy.

Timothy Thatcher vs. Fred Yehi

ER: This never really got into gear, which happens with these kinds of matches. Sometimes it only takes a little bit of disconnect to make the whole thing feel like an exhibition, which I think this felt like at several points. Nothing ever felt at stake, the trading never really went anywhere satisfying, and the move escalation had no real drama. Thatcher works to throw Yehi a couple of times with big deadlift suplexes, but Yehi is up suplexing him in no time so why did we go through that pantomime of struggle? I liked how Thatcher went to throwing strikes early while grappling; so many times we get the same "this was a professional grappling exchange until x started losing and went to strikes", so I liked that they were getting those out of the way. But I don't think it really went anywhere worth following.

The End (Odinson/Parrow) vs. Catch Point (Tracy Williams/Dominic Garrini)

ER: This one definitely sounded cooler on paper than it ended up being. It's a tornado tag that ended up being kind of a mess, probably because Odinson and Parrow are not as good as I thought/hoped they would be. Parrow (apparently pronounced like Agatha Christie's Poirot) especially looked lost at a few points, and was constantly bugged by minor hesitations, made it look like he was holding back and wrecked some flow. He would throw a strike and then kind of look around before doing his next move, slam someone and then look around. It didn't read as ruminating monster, it read as confused. I thought he looked really good the night before against Dickinson, but maybe Dickinson is just that damn good at this point. The match still had plenty of cool, by no means a waste of time, I just had (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. Rightly or wrongly this was the on-paper match I was most excited about. Odinson had good fire, loved him obliterating Hot Sauce with a vicious pounce, and it set up the best spot of the match later, when Garrini caught him in a triangle in mid air while he went for another pounce. Odinson charged hard into the ringpost, took a huge German from Garrini, was really ripping around the ring while Parrow was missing a lot of the spark he showed the night before. Really the Garrini triangle should have been the finish, but they got a little cute with having Williams get a triangle on Parrow, and The End powering up and powerbombing them into each other. It looked cool, but I'd rather have Garrini's sub skills treated more seriously. If a black belt in jiu-jitsu can't tap a couple big muscle-y guys, then what really is the point of being a black belt in jiu-jitsu? This was a miss, but I'm still optimistic for future match-ups.

Matt Riddle vs. Jaka

ER: A match with no shortage of really great stuff, and also its fair share of stupid stuff, that overall went a bit too long. It started off with a kind of cool grounded pace, and once we got to the silly suplex trading and on-my-knees bomb throwing I was wishing it stayed there. Riddle throws a bunch of cool kneelifts right to Jaka's face (one of them causing an instant nosebleed) and Jaka has a bunch of fun Kamala-as-taekwondo-student strikes, and they come up with some cool counters around those. I love Jaka's headbutts and standing spinning heel kick, and he really levels Riddle with it at one point (with Riddle doing a fun and goofy wobble leg delayed sell), or when he caught Riddle's Pele kick and just started biting Riddle's heel. Riddle hits these hard to watch heel kicks while Jaka's arms are trapped, just unprotect shots to the face that were nasty enough that we could have gotten a stoppage finish. Earlier in the night Yehi did his silly kicks to Thatcher's chest from his back, and Thatcher sold those as much as these absolutely nasty shots were sold. We get a surprise kickout after Riddle messes up Jaka's face with a knee and hits a tombstone, but the actual finish is great: Jaka goes for that fast spin kick and Riddle catches him and just smothers him with the Bro Lock. Sadly, in the middle of the match we got a super goofus German suplex exchange, with both men taking turns selling the actual throwing of the suplex far more than the actual suplexes they were taking. Riddle suplexes Jaka, slowly gets to his feet with back to Jaka while Jaka stands up and suplexes Riddle, Riddle gets to his feet while Jaka slowly stands to his feet, back to Riddle, etc. It sucks. And the Hack Myers cosplay strike exchange was maybe dumber. So yeah, a lot to love, annoying stuff to hate.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. WALTER

ER: Good match, with Sabre foolishly, pridefully, continually trying to stand with WALTER, and WALTER continually slapping and chopping him down until Sabre could no longer stand. WALTER kept throwing these huge right handed chops all match that wouldn't just knock Sabre down, but also send him flying. Sabre still found ways to tie WALTER up, and that was going to be his only chance to win. Every time he would slap WALTER I would cringe, because I know he was about to get blasted. The grappling was really fun as you'd have Sabre trying to lock on complicated holds and WALTER gracelessly bulldozing his way through them. I loved the knuckelock sequences where Sabre legkicks WALTER to his back and gets into mount while still throwing kicks to WALTER's inner leg, and WALTER powers up on his neck. Then WALTER flattens Sabre but somehow Sabre is able to power up on his neck. Nuts. Sabre was always smartest when sidestepping WALTER's attacks, dodging the dropkick to land the punt, throwing a cool fakeout legsweep that WALTER bit on, leading to a nice rolling ankle pick from Sabre. But every time Sabre would lock something on, that means WALTER was in striking distance, my favorite moment of that being the final stretch where Sabre starts to lock in a triangle, and WALTER just starts hammering down on Sabre's chest with chops. WALTER just starts powerbombing him afterwards and after three Sabre is down. I'd love a rematch where Sabre does a lot more stick and move, puts pride aside and plays to strengths, throws leg kicks, that kind of thing. We got a glimpse of it with that great late stretch of Sabre beating WALTER to the punch, literally. WALTER would throw punches and 2 or 3 in a row Sabre countered them with kicks. I want more of that kind of stuff, and I think there are a few ways to work a cool rematch.

PAS: I thought this had a lot of fun parts to it, although it could have used some editing. I really liked all of WALTER's early contemptuous throws, he really chucked him with disdain. The knuckle lock sequence was great, Sabre getting smushed on his first attempt was almost a comedy spot, and it was a big moment when he was able to then bridge up, crazy neck strength, and really impressive, I think I would have liked them to save the bridge up for closer to the ending of the match, make it an epic moment, as opposed to something in the beginning. I did think the strike exchanges were a bit superflous, I guess the story was Sabre foolishly standing in front of WALTER, but I though it seemed silly anytime WALTER sold anything he did. I loved the WALTER counter of the triangle attempts, and I liked how Sabre just went down after getting smashed with a bunch of powerbombs, I thought we were going to have a bunch of comebacks still and I am happy we didn't. They did build on a bunch of stuff for a rematch.

Keith Lee vs. Chris Dickinson

ER: I really liked how this started, with Dickinson attacking with leg kicks, all building up to him hitting that huge Pazuzu Bomb out of the corner. That's such a big moment, and Dickinson pulled it off with some struggle, like me lugging heavy antique furniture up the stairs at my parent's house. And Dickinson keeps going right after those legs, locking on a nasty cloverleaf variation where you can see him bending one of Lee's calves over the other, and kicking at his legs in various spots to knock that tree down (I especially loved in the corner when he kicked Lee in the front of the thigh, right over the knee). But I don't think it went anywhere really interested, as Lee going on offense felt sluggish, but not in a way related to his legs being worked over. He just seemed kind of sluggish and after seeing a match where Sabre kept trying to stand with WALTER, it was a little same-y to see a match where Lee kept trying to go to the top rope over and over, getting caught almost every time. Lee hits a nice moonsault from the middle rope, but there were too many moments of Lee slowly climbing the ropes only to get caught by Dickinson, and once Lee kicks out of a freaking top rope reverse rana then all bets are off. Literally anything can happen once a 300 lb guy can get dumped on his dome and still be interested in going back to the top. I liked Dickinson reversing the Ground Zero with a smooth roll up, but Lee just didn't do tons for me here. I thought Dickinson was awesome throughout, but Lee came off bored, either he wasn't conveying his selling strongly enough, or he was just tired. He's super talented and Dickinson worked the match around him in a cool way, so it had a real high floor, but after a promising start I don't think it lived up to its promise.

ER: This show underwhelmed compared to the prior night, as this show more had neat individual performances but in flawed matches. Still, we thought Sabre/WALTER was good enough to land on our Ongoing 2018 MOTY List, and it set up some good potential rematches.

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EVOLVE 98 1/13/18

PAS: Really liked the opening with Darby Allin giving a promo at his skate park and getting Champ tattooed on his upper lip. A wrestling version of a Soundcloud rapper is a pretty in culture gimmick, wrestlings Lil Peep is a pretty great gimmick especially for a guy who takes the bumps Darby takes.

Jarek 1:20 v. Snoop Strikes v. Brody King v. Jason Kincaid

PAS: This was a four-way with all of the pluses and minuses of a four way. We got a chance to see all four guys do some impressive stuff (well three guys, I am not riding the Jarek 1:20 train), King had a great dive for such a giant fat guy, Kincaid hit some brutal double stomps including the finishing stomp which nearly caved Strikes chest in, Snoop had some really fast counters and a great missile dropkick. Still there was the downsides which was a lot of complicated four person spots which weren't always pulled off and what ever the fuck Jarek's comedy magic gimmick is. First time I have seen Strikes and King and they are a fine poor mans Cool J and Mike Mars

Dominic Garrini/Tracy Williams v. Timothy Thatcher/WALTER

PAS: Man was this great, Garrini is a guy we love and I am really happy to see him step up in his most high profile match and deliver like this. He was a pitbull, getting his teeth on a scrap of meat and not letting go always pushing pace and attacking, he also laid in his strikes better then I had seen before. Loved the early Thatcher v. Garrini matwork, Thatcher is super comfortable rolling with a Jujitsu black belt, and they do a bunch of cool things based around knee and ankle locks. WALTER is a beast and is a great hot tag, just wrecking everyone with big boots and sack of laundry german suplexes. Williams is a problamatic guy for me, he has a lot of skill, but will occasionally do some comically bad looking stuff, this was mostly the good Tracey (outside of one silly 619) and I really liked how tenaciously he went after the neck near the end. Finish run was dope with Garrini countering a rear naked choke and pulling a triangle  but WALTER hoisting him up and chucking him on Williams. One big WALTER powerbomb later Williams is smushed. So much fun, and I am hoping 2018 has Garrini really mixing it up with the EVOLVE uppercard.

ER: This is probably the best I've seen Garrini look in a match, even better than the Cain Justice match we loved so much. That match felt more like Cain knowing how to use every one of Garrini's strengths to craft the perfect match with him. This felt like him really bringing all his skills into pro wrestling, and knowing just how to work within a nicely built tag structure. The control segment on Thatcher was awesome, and I love how abrupt the finish was. There's a pretty high correlation between a lack of overkill and the guys we love, as I could have easily seen this match going much longer but was very pleased with where and how it ended. Thatcher turned in a great performance and I loved how he matched with Garrini, and really got into the match when Garrini and Williams were keeping him isolated. Williams brought really good energy to everything, and the longer they kept Thatcher isolated the bigger I knew WALTER's hot tag run would be. And before long WALTER is throwing chops and lariats and boots and Garrini and Williams and it's great. Garrini keeps trying to slow him down and smother him, going for triangles and chokes, allowing Williams to target Thatcher. The finish was awesome and sudden, with Williams catching Thatcher in an armbar and Garrini getting a rear naked on WALTER, and I love the camera shot of Williams' armbar in the foreground, and in the background you see WALTER rolling through and deadlifting Garrini, and then WALTER just powerbombs him onto Williams. Awesome moment. And I love how that leads to Williams eating an immediate powerbomb for the sudden win. Very fun tag.

Chris Dickinson v. Parrow

PAS: The End run out, and we get a brawl with Catch Point that lead to this singles No DQ match. Pretty fun ECW brawl. Parrow is a big dude and Dickinson really wails on his back with chair shots. I also like Dickinson going to the back and getting a broom to choke him with, I always like wrestling match with plausible plunder. Finish is Parrow eating a pazuzu bomb on some chairs which is a nasty bump for such a big dude, that is a lot of weight on a fat neck.

ER: I thought this was great! Dickinson looked fully consumed by hate as he went after Parrow, just the worst kind of initiation as Dickinson beats him all around ringside with nasty chairshots with uncomfortable plastic seats, and you can start to see bruises forming on Parrow's back as he falls around. Dickinson ramps it up and unfold a chair over Parrow's neck, and then stands on the chair as Parrow chokes. Nasty spot. Dickinson also makes a wooded broom look like a mean weapon, choking Parrow with it and talking trash before breaking it over Parrow's chest (but not before sweeping some dirt on him). Dickinson was classic dickhead Dickinson here, with his crazy eyes and zebra Zubaz (zebraz?), and it's weird for a giant 300 lb. dude to be the underdog babyface, but Parrow coming back and chucking Dickinson onto the stage with a powerbomb was an awesome moment. The camera angle made it look like Dickinson was swallowed by crowd and chairs, and I love integrating a venue's terrain into a match. Both guys take a couple rough bumps on the stage with Dickinson going through chairs and Parrow threatening to powerslam him OFF the stage before Dickinson - in true asshole fashion - claws at Parrow's balls to get down!! The vertical suplex is already an underrated awesome move, but a 300 lb. guy getting vertical suplexed on a small stage makes it even more awesome. Both guys take nasty bumps, with Dickinson back in getting powerbombed through a chair, and we get a great visual of Parrow - back to camera - asking for chairs and then swatting chairs into the ring as they're tossed. But as goes the rule of spot set up ("He who sets up the gimmick, goes through the gimmick"), Parrow takes too long and eats the insane pazuzu bomb onto a bunch of chairs. The visual was nuts with a huge guy taking that move, and this whole thing was a cool little mean spirited scrap.

AR Fox v. Matt Riddle

PAS: Fox comes out with a whole crew of dudes, and has an amusing back and forth with them. I enjoyed Fox taunting Riddle at the beginning by dropping down into guard and making punching motions. I also liked Riddle being pissed and super aggressive. When Riddle turns it on, he is a really dynamic offensive wrestler. I do think they are forcing the "Riddle hates rope breaks" story a bit, and I do have a hard time buying Fox's offense being strong enough to put him down. I did think this was better then some of Riddle's other matches against flyers as it felt like a clash of styles, rather then Riddle justing trying to work as a workrate junior.

ER: I love a good posse in wrestling, and Fox has a good crew of sycophants around him. It's awesome seeing all the boys overly praising Fox for everything he does, you got fanny pack guy, hair guy, wife in the high heels overselling Riddle's entrance music, etc. You gotta have a good crew. And I thought this was awesome, easily my favorite AR Fox performance ever. In the same way I hated end of career Shawn Michaels, but would have loved his same moveset as a heel, AR Fox is a guy who works much better as a heel for me. I love a cocky highflyer heel, and Fox is so athletic that he can pull off complicated stuff and then smirk like an asshole. It works great. Riddle doesn't fall for his trap and start pulling off a bunch of similar moves just because he's also athletic, instead he waits to sink in violence, like a killer leaping high knee lift to the chin, or a huge tombstone followed up with a powerbomb, that only doesn't get the 3 count because Fox was next to the ropes. Riddle also throws out these dismissive sentons that are heavy and smartly used. Fox's crew at one point gets baited into catching a huge springboard cannonball dive from Fox, again, you gotta have a good crew. Finish is insane and a total kill shot, with Riddle putting Fox up top but Fox hitting a stupid Destroyer off the top, then a Spanish Fly variation off the opposite corner, and then a hard 450 splash, no way anybody would kick out of that. Awesomely build crazily ramped up spotfest, both guys using their athleticism to the match's advantage. My easy favorite AR Fox performance, and my favorite Riddle singles match in awhile.

Austin Theory v. Fred Yehi

PAS: Fred Yehi is always entertaining, but I am not buying any of what Austin Theroy is selling, I am not buying Priscilla Kelly goth temptress, I am not buying the goofus redemption story with Jason Kincaid, his goofy ass NOVA finisher, I am not on board for any of it. Yehi tries, and I do like his stomps and his upkicks, but this was tons of booking and not very interesting booking. Pricilla Kelly has a nice flip dive off the apron though.

Jaka v. Keith Lee

PAS: I enjoy slugfest Lee way more then worlds thickest junior Lee and he and Jaka pound on each other here. Lee has some awesome throws, at one point Jaka tries to grab his arm and he just throws him through the air with his wrist, I also love his overhead belly to belly where he just tosses him with no back bump. Jaka had some cool flurries, I loved his leg sweep and his over hand slaps. Finish was a little goofy with Lee being distracted by AR Fox's posse which allows Jaka to unload on him, only problem was the finish spin kick didn't land with the kind of force you would need to drop a mountain like Lee, really took the steam out of an otherwise enjoyable match.

ER: I think I liked this more than Phil (and it kind of seems like I've enjoyed the show as a whole more than Phil, though I've also skipped a couple matches), but I thought Jaka looked good competing at the WWN champ's level, and didn't think Lee was brought down a lot in losing (though if beating him is to make him seem more vulnerable heading into a match with Fox, it's a lot to ask to believe he'd lose to Jaka and then turn around and lose to Fox). I thought Jaka was great bumping around for Lee, and I liked the varied strikes he tossed out, coming big with chops and leg kicks and working the knee, and I thought a couple of his blocks of Lee strikes were used nicely. Lee is a physical freak and breaks out the big rana (which he shouldn't use often, but as a big surprise moment it looks so cool) and Jaka makes me actually care about a tornado DDT in 2018! It's been such a regularly used, unimportant move to most matches, but somehow seeing Lee whip around and bounce off his head made it huge. Jaka hits some rolling kicks and then bumps awesome into the corner when he misses (and later bumps great into the ropes off a mean Pounce), leading to Lee chucking him with a couple big throws. I didn't hate the distractions from Fox's crew, but maybe it's because I'm really digging Fox's crew, and love how it kept Jaka in the game. Going into the match I thought this was going to be a 6-8 minute destruction of Jaka, so I loved him repeatedly staying in it, and was not expecting him to get the win. I guess the end spin kick could have landed more "KO blow", but it was a heel whipped into a guy's neck and jaw, so who am I to judge? I love Jaka and Dickinson got to both conquer two huge dudes, love them getting some singles match clout.

Zach Sabre Jr. v. Darby Allin

PAS: Tremendous match. Modern day version of Fuchi v. Kikuchi with stellar performances from both guys. Out of this world stuff from Allin, he is a guy who made his rep for taking insane bumps, so it is pretty incredible he could pull off a main event match with basically no bumps at all. Not only did he not take some crazy spill, he basically took two flat back bumps all match. Allin comes out and tries to catch Sabre quickly with some lighting fast roll ups, but Sabre quickly takes control and starts torturing Allin. He was twisting his body in some vicious ways, manipulating elbows and wrist, I mean gross stuff. Allin is super flexible and a really charismatic seller, you totally buy the pain etched on his face, and the stubborn willingness to go farther then anyone should to get a win. I loved Sabre as a technician in this, he had awesome counters for both the coffin drop and last supper (Allin's Gibson leglock rollup), and I loved how that composure slipped as Allin refused to go down. We get a couple of really persuasive Allin near falls, and going into this match not knowing the results, I bit on the code red totally, and then the finish is gruesome with Sabre transitioning from submission hold to submission hold kicking a prone Allin in the head until the ref has to stop it. Great stuff, hell of a match for EVOLVE to start the year on.

ER: Damn damn damn! Sabre is undeniable at this point, and he was a full force asshole to Allin's body in this match, and Allin can convincingly play the stubborn idiot who is too badass AND too dumb to know when to quit. But this was a savage Sabre performance, with him just torturing Allin, bending his limbs, slamming his legs into the mat, kicking at joints, throwing some of his best uppercuts, digging his elbow into meat to get Allin to offer up limbs, throwing the best mocking kicks to a downed Allin, just mean cruel stuff. The stretching and beating and torture would sometimes go so long without being broken that it made Allin's comebacks and surprise offense so much more satisfying. Sabre was just in full jock heel mode, showing the first day of class rookie a lesson, mugging at the crowd with doofy faces, flexing, cockily having the ref count Allin down after strikes while he waited in the corner, just awesome overly confident heel masterclass. Allin has tons of cool offense and Sabre's wide-eyed idiot faces were great when Allin would catch him with a flash roll up or plausibly executed Code Red. Sabre's control of Allin's limbs was a treat to watch, knowing when he had Allin's leg leveraged enough that he could break his grip (supporting the leg with his body) to allow him to shift focus to another part of the body, back to bending elbows or hyperextending arms or wrecking wrist ligaments. Allin was just the perfect amount of nuts in this, still crazy enough to try locking in an awesome guillotine choke, with no regard to what Sabre is going to do to him when he inevitably pops out free. This was really squashy in parts, but with Sabre's movements and cockiness it always felt like he was ripe to be upset, and with Allin's grit he always felt like a guy who could get that upset. He does get two very good nearfalls, close pinning combos that could have easily held Sabre down for an extra split second, and that just made the finish all the more brutal: Allin goes for the Coffin Drop, Sabre catches him in an armbar, and begins just bending both his arms back while digging his boot heel into Allin's face, kicking him in the head, just making you want the match to end. Ref stops it, and we get a truly awesome match very early in 2018.


ER: This was an awesome show, great start to the year, with three matches easily landing on our (very young) 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. A lot of guys are making big strides forward, and it won't be shocking to see a bunch of these guys continue to pop up on our list.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE MATT RIDDLE

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Matches from EVOLVE 95 10/15/17

1. Darby Allin vs. Keith Lee

ER: On paper, I wanted Keith Lee smooshing Allin and throwing him as high and far as he could, and I wanted Allin to recklessly hurl his body at Lee. And guess what we got! Lee is massive so it's always pure joy to watch him catch someone like Allin mid armdrag, and things get to a peak level of joy when Allin goes for a springboard back elbow, and Lee sends his body flying with a pounce. Allin reaches literal new heights taking backdrops from Lee and just getting thrown by him, but eventually comes back with two monster sentons (one vaulting off Lee while Lee was on all fours, another no look senton to an all fours Lee from the top rope), but it is fleeting as Lee continues to crushing. This was what I wanted.

PAS: Totally fun stuff, Allin is great at working powerhouses, he had a great match in 2016 against Brian Cage and Keith Lee is a way better version of Brian Cage. I loved Allin going for his super high springboard arm drag and Lee just stopping him mid move and staring at him with disdain. I also loved all of Allin backdrop takes, Eddie Guerrero/Pat Tanaka level height. I also dig the selling on Lee's punches and headbutts, Allin almost convulses like he is OD'ing. I am buying Allin's offense more too, those sentons and the code red looked like they could plausibly end a match. Lee has a ton of charisma and big time offense and is a great choice to hold a title for EVOLVE going forward. Lee v. Odinson and Allin v. Odinson are going to rule in completely different ways.

2. Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson/Jaka) vs. The Gymnasty Boyz (White Mike Jordan/Timmy Lou Retton) vs. Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy)

ER: Another match delivering what I was hoping it to on paper. It's pretty amusing that White Mike of all people is now technically working in the WWE feeder system. And if Ellsworth can make it then I see no reason why White Mike couldn't be the next Santino. Doom Patrol (ugh has there ever been a good tag team name in the last 15 years of indie tag wrestling?) keep getting better. You squint and they're now like an indy wrestling Arn/Ole, especially Dickinson who I think really resembles Arn and even moves like him (maybe moves even more like Buzz Sawyer). They were a total force in this match, just throwing stiff ugly shots the whole match. Dickinson was super explosive; it felt like the whole match was spent with him running after someone with pure hate in his eyes like Sonny Corleone going after Carlo. So you have Dickinson just stomping and clubbing guys, and Jaka throwing spin kicks, and I think Jaka's kicks actually work because they don't look pretty, so he'll bounce his shin across someone's head and then crash, but it feels more dangerous. And look no further than late in the match when Jaka gets WAY too much speed and does a hard dive all the way over Killjoy, crashing through chairs, and then Dickinson beats the absolute shit out of Killjoy. You can practically hear him shouting "This is for making my boy look bad!" Ducklings are great fun, they make offense look good and they take big risks, and we build to them hitting huge concurrent dives past the ringposts, twice! Retton misses a pretty spectacular shooting star, White Mike's swinging guillotine neckbreaker is always going to look awesome against a Duckling, and now I want more of this Dickinson/Jaka Wrecking Crew.

PAS: Gymnasties and Ducks are pretty regular dance partners (they have a great three way with High Profile on the Chapel Hill CWF show) and have a bunch of fun spots together. Most of the CWF White Mike I have seen is as a comedy wrestler, it is pretty shocking to see him break out such athletic moves here. I would have liked to see a little more White Mikeishness here, let him do some talking or some sleazing. Really loved Catch Point here, I am a Dickinson fan and have been back when it was less popular, but he was at another level in this match. His vicious beating of Killjoy felt like something Tenryu might do, and indy Tenryu is an exciting idea.

3. Fred Yehi vs. Matt Riddle

ER: This had all the elements of a match I would like, and I like the two men involved, but nothing here really grabbed me; the whole thing felt a little hollow. Am I burned out on the Catch Point style? Possibly, though probably not considering we have several Catch Point style matches in the top portion of our MOTY List. This was not a bad match at all, not in the least. Most of the time it felt like a very good match, it just never reached out and grabbed me. It may even be a better match than the two matches reviewed above, but I was fully along for the ride on those. My main gripe on this one was that some of the comebacks didn't feel natural, and it felt like we built to maybe too many peaks. Early grappling was good, especially liked Yehi kneeling on Riddle's thigh and the struggle over a knucklelock. Once we get to our standing chop exchange I liked the twist Yehi added by stomping on Riddle's bare foot, holding him somewhat in place while he both hurts the foot and blisters Riddle's chest. Riddle pays nice salesman service to both the foot and his chest throughout the rest of the match. You never really see a guy sell his chest. The other week I had this random tender spot on my upper chest, below my collarbone. It wasn't a muscle ache, it was clearly some painful to the touch spot on my skin, and I have no clue why it was there, no clue where it went later that day, but I know for a couple hours I made several "I got stung by a bee!!" faces whenever my sweater happened to rub that spot. So I know skin can get weirdly painful, especially when a compact man is throwing nasty chops at it. So I liked that Riddle was manly enough to show that he was not enjoying these chest based attacks. Riddle eventually pays him back with some heavy kicks to the chest, after planting Yehi on the apron. I didn't love the use of suplexes in the match. It never felt like suplex trading, but they also didn't feel very important, especially for how great their suplexes can look. Often we would get a big suplex and it would just lead to one of those moments where both guys stay down. Or they would be too telegraphed, like when Riddle threw a lazy missed clothesline for the intention of getting suplexed into the buckles. I also thought Yehi's Koji clutch applications were a little too spotty, though I liked the finish of Riddle passing out in the clutch. There was plenty to like about the match, both guys clearly worked hard, and there were tons of cool moments (especially loved how high Riddle commits to sentons, so he either misses big or hits big), it just left me a little cold.

PAS: This felt a little like pimped Chris Hero PWG main events of the mid 2000s. There was a lot to like in individual parts of the match, but it felt like it needed the wrestling version of Thelma Schoonmaker to edit it together to a great match, just a bit too long and a bit too shaggy. I really liked a lot of the chops and kicks, loved the finish with the Koji clutch, but they kind of felt like they had a tight 15 stretched into 25. Just too many suplexes which went nowhere and running elbows for no reason. I need to watch their other match this year to see if it came together better.

4. Tracy Williams vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

ER: Killer scrap that mostly played to both guys' strengths, meaning I'm happy they stuck to mostly mat twisting and great reversals and limited the strikes. The two (brief) strike portions were clearly the weakest of the match, with a floppy seated slap fight and a standing exchange that even had a "Shades of Frye/Takayama!" commentary cherry on top. but the ankle twisting and shoulder bending was legit, and they even broke out some tricks I hadn't seen. It's good to keep adding tricks as they've had so many of these matches already the last couple years that it's easy to start feeling "same-y". So when Williams grabs Sabre in a fireman's carry and plants him knee first into the mat, or Sabre brains himself doing a northern lights but feels it worthwhile because it created an opening on Williams' arm, or Sabre going for a trademark seated hammerlock and Williams just yanks his arm out of reach and looks at Sabre like "bitch I've seen you wrestle before", or Williams adding a fun twist to the standing strikes by perfectly timing and swiping Sabre's attacks out of the air; blocking strikes like that can look like the worst kind of pre-planning dancing, but I thought they handled it great. The leg twisting and wrist bending was all really good, and I have no clue how they aren't going to all end up with stiff immobile joints by the time they're 36. I thought things built real nicely, and I liked the almost flash pin ending. Williams had been too slippery to lock anything too convincing on, and Williams was easily beating him almost any time they stood, so Sabre went to one of his underrated strengths: tight cradles on pinfall attempts. Sabre did an immaculate rolling clutch, locking Williams' wrists and adjusting his hips to make Williams' kick out leverage weak, and stole the pin. Very satisfying.

PAS: I am surprised I liked this so much more then Yehi v. Riddle, as I am normally much higher on those two guys. It feels like ZSJ may have absorbed some of Negro Navarro's mat stuff, as I don't remember his twisting looking this damaging. Williams has delivered some of the more cringeworthy moments I have seen in wrestling in the last couple of years, but if you stick him on the mat he can hang, and I liked how his more basic Billy Robinson style mat wrestling meshed with Sabre's flourishes. Eric is forgetting the part where they exchanged pump kicks, which looked awful, I really wish Gabe's memo also forbid strike exchanges. Liked the finish a lot too, and it was a good bit of commentary to treat the pin as almost a cop out, Sabre wanted to tap him, and when he couldn't he had to escape.

ER: We also get a super fun locker room-clearing brawl that peaks with Darby Freaking Allin doing his no look coffin drop not just off a basketball hoop, but off a basketball backboard. I will love watching Allin until his inevitable wrestling-related death at age 28. I'm happy I went out of my way to watch a bunch of this card. All these matches except for Riddle/Yehi are going on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List.

PAS: This was dope, I love Garinni as shoot style Big Bubba, and I liked how he just waded in and attacked, both of the wrestlers in The End are convincing scary white nationalist looking dudes. Allin is a complete nutter, honestly the closest thing we have in indy wrestling to mid 90s Sabu

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