Scenic City Invitational 2018 Night 2 8/4/18

Darius Lockhart vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

PAS: Really glad we got to see Scorp wrestle twice in this tourney, and he and Darius make a fun paring. It must be thrilling for young African American wrestlers like Gray and Darius to work with a total legend. Darius came straight with the stiff shots early including really laying into Scorpio in the ropes with nasty uppercuts. Scorp hit some big time elbows and a nice bodyscissors to take Lockhart to the floor. Finish was cool with Lockhart stopping to jaw with the fans and getting caught with a kappo kick, and then Scorp goes up and lands the diss that don't miss with both legs landing right on Lockhart's chest.

ER: There must be things that I don't know because it's weird to me that Scorpio isn't signed somewhere, either as a worker or as a trainer. He feels like a guy who should have been far more involved in the wrestling business over the last decade. This was really fun, Lockhart showed big stones by bringing the strikes to Scorp, knowing he was going to get leveled in return. Lockhart had some nice uppercuts and a spectacular diving clothesline that really made me sit up. I've seen Lockhart a bunch and don't remember him throwing something like that. Lockhart also impressed the hell out of me with his hammerlock cradle DDT; Scorpio has a lot of size on him and it looked really cool seeing him lift him up and over. Scorp still hits his spinning sidekick with tremendous force, and I've always loved his bodyscissors takedown to the floor. It's a real nice physics move that makes a ton of logical sense, and it's odd we don't see it used more (outside of Mysterio it's not really something I recall people doing). He can also still make skinning the cat look effortless, and Lockhart took a nice sprawling bump to the floor and then ate a nice baseball slide. Scorpio had a bunch of things I liked here, a nice kneedrop, and a mean chinlock where he was digging into Lockhart's face with his elbow. Scorpio's Drop the Bomb is certainly a finisher of all finishers, always getting super height on the moonsault and it looked like he did the most spectacular Bombs Away in history. Scrape Lockhart off the mat, boys.

Nick Gage vs. Corey Hollis

PAS: Gage maybe the most over guy in this whole show. He bumps Hollis all over the arena, including throwing him down the bleacher stairs. Hollis get virtually no offense, until the ref takes a hammer from Gage allowing Hollis to kick him low and roll him up. Fun showcase for Gage's offense and Hollis bumping, but not a particularly competitive match. Something that works better for a live crowd, then on tape.

ER: It didn't really bother me that Hollis had basically no offense in this one. He didn't have much offense in the Cross match either, relying mostly on stomps and some strikes. It kind of gave me a sleazy Stevie Richards vibe, a guy with minimal offense but a lot of energy and personality who will bump like mad. Stevie was able to craft a bunch of really fun 5-7 minute matches around stuff like back rakes and rubbing his boot eyelets across a guy's face. So I can get into a Hollis match where he gets his ass kicked around a high school and then wins with a hard kick to the balls and a snug small package. Hollis takes a bunch of great spills around the gym, flying through tows of chairs, brawling up the tall bleachers and falling down every seat, getting smacked by someone's cane, a fun beating. I thought Hollis made all of this work great, and really liked the finish, and especially him sprinting back through the curtain immediately following the 3 count.

Jake Parnell vs. Gary Jay

PAS: This is a big feud in the St. Louis area and they really went after each other. They really laced into each other with shots and it stood out in a tourney that was already pretty stiff. It had more of a ragged fight feel, then just trading shots and staring at each other in between. I especially enjoyed their open hand Ronnie Garvin chops, a really underused chop overall. I like Parnell's double stomps and how he used them both as offense and as a way to get laid out. That finish was class, with Parnell hitting the huge stomp to the floor, Jay barely beating the count, Parnell going for the finishing blow and getting dropped in midair by the KO elbow. Love how they have set that move up in this tourney, and this was even a cooler use of it, then in the Cain match.

ER: This felt like a much better version of what Stallion/Lynch was going for the night before. Rehearsed segments don't bother me if there's a little rawness to them, and not someone zoning out so he can concentrate on hitting the 3 in the 1 and a 2 and 3. These guys just kept socking each other and refreshingly didn't pause for any fighting spirit silliness or double fist pump yelling when rising from the mat. The big turning point for me was when Jay was laid out in the chairs, and Parnell started clapping and running around the ring. "Here it comes," I thought, "Here's were they get overly cute. I hope Jay just meets him halfway and levels him." Well, what they did was even better, even crazier, and hooked me in for the stretch. Parnell comes running in, all the way around the ring, and Jay gives him a huge backdrop right into the rows of chairs. Take my money, guys. Jay absolutely levels Parnell with a couple elbows in this one, total jawbreaking shots, and I thought all the striking, all the chops, played really well and came off vicious. There was no "catch my leg and spin me so I can hit an enziguiri that bounces you in the ropes so you can hit a rolling elbow and then we breathe heavy while clapping happens", none of that, just two dudes putting a pin on the map. Parnell nicely plants seeds for that double stomp of his early in the match, missing one off the apron, foreshadowing his late match stomps. Shout outs to the camera crew as I really loved the visual of him climbing to the top to hit one more to the floor, as we cut to a great wide shot of the venue and see the crowd start to rise as Parnell climbs up. Jay's KO punch was expertly set up in the night 1 Cain Justice match, but it still surprised me to see him hit it here. I thought he was finished. I like that in two matches they've now established it as a confident KO shot, and as a desperate half court buzzer beater.

AJ Gray vs. Fred Yehi

ER: Another fun match, that although it had a couple indy spots that I didn't like, I absolutely liked how they treated those specific spots within the match. The spots came during the home stretch of the match, and started with Yehi giving Gray a spider German suplex from the top rope, and saw Gray stagger back to his feet. At first I bristled, as you instinctively see a guy just popping up from a German and running back into action. But Gray was flipped over and landed more on his knees than anything, so really took no more of a bump than if he had missed a standing moonsault or something a bit higher, so seeing him stagger to his feet and run back and dropkick Yehi (still hung upside down in the ropes) made sense. I didn't love his RVD/Scoot Andrews-ish dropkick right after, with Yehi doing his best to occupy himself while hung upside down, and the kick didn't land great...but it totally worked for me because Yehi didn't treat the kick as if it landed great either, instead freeing himself and then teeing off on Gray. Both guys had nice moments in this (although Yehi is easily THEE GUY in this tourney so far), with Yehi hitting those bruising chops and sharp dropkicks, Gray taking a huge spill to the floor and throwing several really good punches in a couple different varieties (I like how he throws a Jeff Hardy whip style punch, but keeps a tighter fist during it). The finish was just brutal, with Yehi stomping Gray and locking on the Koji Clutch, losing it, and then taking it right out on Gray, stomping even more viciously, locking the Clutch back in, and beating him across the face with the meanest blows. Good call on ref stoppage, and considering I've seen plenty of bad stoppage finishes in the last 5-10 years of indy wrestling, it says a lot about the wrestlers involved that we got two good ones two nights in a row.

PAS: Yehi is pretty undeniable so far in 2018, it really feels like he was energized by parting ways with EVOLVE and WWN (and boy could they use him back, that roster is slim). I am not sold on Gray yet, he clearly has a lot of athleticism ( I loved him in that AIW 10 man from last year) but he doesn't seem able to full put it together in a singles match yet. I loved Yehi's viciousness, every time this match threatened to get dancey, Yehi would stomp or throw a big right hand and it would turn right back into a fist fight. The finishes in this tourney have been great and Yehi locking in that Koji clutch, landing huge stomps and crossfaces until the pass out was great stuff. What a killer.

Joey Lynch vs. PCO

ER: So they definitely captured the excitement of the room with this one, even if there were parts of it that kept me from wholly digging it. The craziness and the oppressively constant pace of this was definitely its strength as they started at high energy and kept trying to peak things, mostly successfully. My main gripes were that both guys seemed very married to sequences, so if something didn't hit or didn't look great, it was treated exactly the same as something that looked absolutely devastating. There was plenty of devastating stuff in this match, and it sadly felt much less devastating once every move was sold essentially the same. The energy was there in spades, and that goes a long way, and contributed in big ways to the moments that worked. PCO has no problem taking stupid stuff now that he's 50, just taking some of the absolute worst bumps of his career. He comes off a bit like a geek show attraction though, and there's an odd sympathy to seeing him get kicked in the face or take a rough spill on a gym floor. One night after I was throwing out praise for them doing a big tournament without any crazy apron spots, of course we get an apron spot crazy and dumb enough that I wouldn't be shocked if they ripped it from the Hell Storm/Crazy Crusher ladder match, with PCO eating a suplex from the top to the apron. Lynch hits that "run around the ring attack" spot that I loved getting reversed in the Jay/Parnell match, but of course Lynch is going to be the guy who does it. Both guys take bumps through chairs, Lynch took a really hard chokeslam bump through several of them (though it looked a little goofy as he leaped up for the chokeslam way before PCO had begun the move, so it looked like Lynch just leaping backwards into chairs while PCO stood nearby), but they transition from that right into hitting big moves in the ring, and somehow made a lot of big stuff come off same-y. We get a couple of big nearfalls from both men off of moonsaults that didn't connect. PCO overshoots, Lynch overshoots twice, fans are into it and Cecil Scott is selling his freaking ass off, but I thought it looked bad. However, I really really liked the finish. Lynch finds his distance after a couple moonsaults, and then just hits 5 more moonsaults on PCO, all connecting flush. That was a great visual, and there were amusing moments throughout the moonsault run where PCO kept doing Undertaker/Frankenstein's Monster sit-ups (although I wasn't a fan of Lynch's loose thigh slap superkicks to knock him back down), but the consecutive moonsaults as a finish worked for me.

PAS: I thought this was unquestionably great, easily one of the PCO performance on the comeback trail (I would only put the WALTER match above it.) PCO is at his best when he is IWA-Japan Terry Funk, an old lunatic taking crazy bumps, delivering beatings and making weird faces. That apron bump was insane stuff, as was all of Lynch's bumps into chairs. I thought Lynch's tope to open the match set the tone nicely, and actually looked good (there have been some dicey topes in this tourney, I am looking at you Gary Jay) These kind of stunt brawls always work better as crazy sprints, and they kept this one moving, it felt like one of the great Necro Butcher brawls in the mid 2000s, although a step below the truly transcendent ones. I actually liked that PCO's moonsault didn't hit clean, he landed his head right into Lynch's stomach, I don't want Chris Daniels execution from a fifty year old French Canadian cyborg. I thought the multiple moonsaults was a very cool finish, although I do wish the superkicks hit cleaner. I get why this was such a hit live, and although I liked Yehi vs. Warner better, I think this was the match of night 2.

Marko Stunt vs. Shaggy vs. Matt Lynch vs. Ike Cross vs. AC Mack vs. Cyrus the Destroyer

ER: This was about as much fun as you could reasonably expect from a scramble; everybody got to showcase what they could do, and I came away really impressed with Cross, Mack, and Cyrus. Cyrus was the big beast at the center, throwing hard strikes and being involved in a bunch of cool spots. He amusingly no sells a AC Mack dive, takes an unexpected rana from cousin Shaggy (nice rana too) and later catches a second rana and plants him with an apron powerbomb, misses a big boy crossbody, gets plastered by a cool in ring dive from Cross, goes over hard on an assisted German, a real good big-man-in-a-scramble performance. Mack was someone I'd never seen before but now I want to see a lot. A good heel in a match like this always makes these things better, and he knew right when to stooge and right when to be mean, so it was fitting he got the opportunistic win. I really liked how he carried himself, seems like he would play well in singles. Cross impresses again, just like his eye opening performance on night one, here he breaks out more new tricks. I love the way he disposed of Cyrus, this crazy shoulderblock dive that took both men from in ring to wildly tumbling to the floor. The guy is such a freak athlete he even wound up landing on his feet after a tope con hilo. I also thought he was good stalling on the floor while waiting for Marko Stunt's big Cyrus-assisted moonsault. It's pretty easy to see why Stunt broke out this weekend, he's super small, fun-sized, but makes the most of his moments. He hit a cool sunset flip after leaping over a Cross spear, was real good about quickly getting into position for his shots (he had a super fast smooth kip up that looked especially good), hit a nice springboard dropkick to help German suplex Cyrus, and a couple times he rolled guys into cool looking knee lifts. Multimans like this seem impossible to mess up, but they end up working less often than not working. You end up with guys lying around too long, people not knowing how to busy themselves until their turn to hit stuff, guys getting in each other's way, etc. There was none of that here, just good action.

PAS: I could have done without the Marko and Shaggy comedy section and the beyond played out tower of doom spot (although Cyrus turned the power bomb part of that move into an impressive show of strength), but outside of that this was a blast. I thought everyone looked pretty good, with Cyrus especially doing a great job as king kong swatting down planes. Cross impressed me again, his diving tackles into a prone Cyrus would be 15 yards in the NFL and ended up being one of the coolest spots of the entire tourney. If I was running WWN I would sign him and push him to the top of the fed, let him work his way up to the skill level of the other guys like Riddle did. Marko is fun, I am not sure if he is better at what he does then Cool J or Weird Body, but he definitely has a lot of charisma and great timing.

Cain Justice/Mance Warner vs. The Carnies

ER: Pretty disappointing. There were portions of this that felt like the Carnies just working on material at home in front of their friends, and maybe that's what this is. There was an over-reliance on double team cooperative tandem stuff, and a lot of it felt like one of those old ECW Eliminators showcases, where they just kind of moved their opponents into position as if they were lifeless crash test dummies. We went through a few Carnies set pieces, had a couple dumb looking RVD missed chairshot spots, where both Carnies had to slowly miss chairshots and then hold them in front of their face, while Mance stupidly headbutts the chair and Cain kicks a chair with his bare feet. None of it looked good. Then just a few minutes into a short match we get a silly teeth-gritted "We're in a WAR" tandem strike exchange, with both teams running back and forth in stereo. Some of the strikes looked good, but the set ups all looked so phony that it just didn't work. So naturally we end with a needlessly dangerous spot for a rushed match like this, with Warner getting recklessly piledriven off the apron through a table. Totally felt like it happened in a different match, way out of place and unnecessary. Afterward we get one of those bad indy show of respects, with open hand outstretched for a respect handshake while the other hand is holding the body because of the war that just happened. Warner accepted, Cain thankfully said nuts to this and walked away.

PAS: There was some stuff in this I liked, I thought Cain was pretty good, and the stuff with his knee felt like it belonged in a different, better match. Especially nasty was when he got the chair kicked right down into his patella. Mance throwing the chair right at Nick Iggy and Cain spinning right into the crossarmbreaker was a super cool spot too. I agree that the Carnies wanted to show off all of their Nova and Frankie Kazarian tag offense, and a lot of that was really dumb, but I think this had enough cool Cain stuff and Kerry Awful clotheslines for me to mildly recommend it.

Corey Hollis vs. Fred Yehi vs. Joey Lynch vs. Gary Jay

ER: Kind of an end of tournament letdown for me. It felt like something put together and worked like a Joey Lynch match, who obviously went on to win in the match. Lynch was probably my least favorite guy in the tournament, so there were going to be parts of it that didn't work for me. I thought Yehi was the MVP of the tournament, and he was eliminated first here. He wasn't focused on much before elimination anyway, but I really liked his backpack Oklahoma Stampedes, those look vicious as hell and nobody else does them. Hollis stayed out of a lot of this too, which was kind of his shtick, running in to capitalize on the moves of others, running while getting chased, working more comical cocky southern heel. But it basically made this a Gary Jay vs. Joey Lynch match, which would have been my last pick of possible singles pairings out of these possibilities. Their stuff wasn't bad, but some of it wasn't my thing. There was a modern Malenko/Guerrero 2 count sequence that felt so weirdly and annoyingly out of place, but there were some real nice punches from Jay, a mean shot to the back of Lynch's head, a pretty wild spot where Jay only grazes Lynch on a dive, so Lynch grabs him and hits a hard Angle Slam on the floor. But there were some ugly patches, like Lynch hitting a wobbly twisting press to the floor that somehow none of the other three catch. Lynch fell hard and fast, right through everyone. So it was a little disheartening to just see him doing his thing after that. I know, he was going to win, but man it was a bad spill. He also just needs to ditch that moonsault. I don't think the two he used at the end looked good, they were overshot and didn't look nearly as painful as other stuff in the match. Plus, there was some badly thought out spot earlier where he broke up a pin with a moonsault but due to positioning he ended up almost breaking Yehi and Hollis' arms. This guy seems to be doing a 1998 Billy Kidman "bad landing for everyone involved" highflying tribute. I also really didn't need several Canadian Destroyers. Lynch doesn't hit them very well and they just felt really out of place in the tournament to me. I did really like the big Hollis ball kick on Lynch. After it happened I immediately wanted that to become the culmination of the weekend. We've already seen Hollis effectively moving up that ladder by targeting balls, and if the tournament had ended up being a showcase for the virtues of ball kicking. Hollis working his way successfully through a tournament just by kicking balls would have been legendary. They went a different way though, and at the end of the day I just really, really needed more ball selling from Lynch. Man treats getting kicked in the balls with no gravitas? That's not a man I can relate to. I can remember each individual time in my life that I've taken one to the balls. It hasn't happened often, but everyone reading this has a memory of taking an unexpected shot. I wanted more.

PAS: I came away from this match wanting to see a Corey Hollis vs. Fred Yehi singles match, and that was a matchup we hardly saw. I liked Lynch OK in the PCO match, but this was not his best stuff, the Canadian Destroyer into a Moonsault stuff is pretty bad looking, for a guy with King of Moonsault on his trunks, he over shoots it a ton. I actually liked him breaking up the Koji clutch with a moonsault, that looked like it hurt, which I never mind. I get why Lynch won, he is the local guy who finally climbed the mountain, but it wasn't for me.

PAS: I liked Night 2 fine, it didn't have the peaks of night one, but both Jay vs. Parnell and PCO and Lynch make our 2018 Ongoing MOTY list. I do want to give props to the guys who ran these shows, everything moved quickly, nothing wore out its welcome and the finishes were pretty flawless.

ER: Yes, despite not liking Night 2 as much as Night 1, I still love the presentation and timing on these shows. Two nights edited to a tight 4 hours (plus a brisk Futures show that I still plan on writing), with hardly any of the matches feeling "same-y". That's the kind of stuff that will keep me coming back to a fed/group. This tournament made me think that Yehi might be the best in the world, and made me want to seek out any Mack/Cross action I can find. I also don't think we mentioned the commentary crew as much as we should have. I thought Cecil Scott and Dragon Dan Wilson did a fantastic job throughout, truly captured the excitement of the whole weekend. Maybe I'll make my way to TN in one year's time...

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Scenic City Invitational 2018 Night 1 8/3/18

Curt Stallion vs. Joey Lynch

PAS: These are two of signature SCI guys, who haven't done a ton for me when I have seen them before. This was a solid US indy near fall, highspot match. Not a style I love, but it is a good type of match to start a show off with. I liked Stallion's in ring tope, stomps and top rope german suplex (although that move was so nasty that it was silly for Lynch to get the roll up after it hit. There were also too many variations of stuff for my taste, every regular move had a spin or ended on a knee. It had a nice pace though, and I never got bored, I imagine I will like other stuff much better.

ER: Yeah not my thing. That kind of get your shit in, GIF wrestling with improbable momentum shifts and a bad finish, with both men holding each other up with an embrace after it's all over. The more I see Lynch the more my thoughts are confirmed that he will have one match, exactly one match, and he will hit all of the dance step timing spots that he knows in that match. I liked a lot of Curt Stallion in this, thought he had some cool offense (that flying headbutt tope in the ring is a great spot) and is super smooth through potentially complicated sequences. But Lynch does little for me. Stallion felt like a guy with good ideas, stuck in a match with southern indy Kurt Angle. It's not like his stuff looks bad (although that thigh slap kneelift never gets quite high enough, and he overshot a moonsault that was supposed to be a dramatic moment of the match, and the fans kind of gave him credit for hitting it flush anyway), it's just that he has his stuff he's going to hit and he usually just opts to go to it. So Stallion will hit a nice DDT or big vertical suplex for a 2 count, and Lynch will just decide that he also wants to do a couple suplexes, so then stands up and does that. The Kurt Angle "my opponent is taking too much time selling" was strong. He also had that Kurt Angle "half ass the first part of this sequence to get to the good part", like when Angle would barely throw a clothesline that was supposed to miss because he was thinking about getting into position for the throw coming right after. Lynch does that a lot, barely hit one kick because he needs to be in position to spin around with another kick. He did hit a nice superkick down the stretch, and I loved how Stallion leaned cheek first into it, but man did I hate that finish. Stallion hits a big suplex off the top, Lynch takes it flush...then just rolls Stallion up with a crucifix. Man that's dumb. Stallion thought he had a good plan by hitting the biggest move of the match, but what he didn't realize is that big moves don't damage Lynch at all. Stallion should have scouted that.

Jake Parnell vs. Darius Lockhart

PAS: Darius is a guy I have liked a lot in CWF, and this is the first time I have seen Parnell. This was another solid opening round match. Lockhart opened the match flummoxing Parnell with WOS spots, including rolling Parnell up into a ball, and doing multiple somersaults to escape. Parnell took over with a double stomp off the apron to Lockhart's back and it proceeded into more of an indy juniors match. There were a couple of big shots I really liked, Parnell hit a really stiff crawling JYD headbutt and Darius landed a big straight right to Parnell's jaw, some of the other stuff didn't hit as cleanly. I liked some of Darius's wobbly leg selling too, especially right before the finish. Nice showing for both.

ER: I think this was a better version of the match before it, with really the only difference being the order of moves. I thought this one built much better and had a better finish (although that wouldn't have been difficult, just have the hurtiest looking move finish the match). I'd never seen Parnell and came away overall impressed. I liked this silly stooge elements like whiffing and hitting the match while trying to catch up to a somersaulting Lockhart, and liked his use of non-canon offense for a guy his size. He hits several hard splashes in a row, which isn't a move used a lot by non-fat guys (Cecil Scott says Parnell goes 195), but a splash in theory would hurt no matter the size of the guy doing it. It's still a body crashing onto a body. So I dug Parnell's aggressive falling splashes with a senton chaser. He also had a nice northern lights suplex, took a nasty hammerlock DDT, threw a great shotgun kick that ended with him kind of tied up in the ropes, went amusingly wobbly on a big stiff arm right cross from Lockhart, all nice stuff. Finish was indy fun and looked like a finish, with Lockhart getting absolutely dumped by a half nelson suplex (and then making the best of the planned spot, which needed him on his feet, and I thought Lockhart handled getting loopily to his feet well) and blitzed by an awesome burning lariat, finished off with a double stomp. This felt the right time, right pace, good match.

Corey Hollis vs. Ike Cross

PAS: This was really great. Hollis is a great sleazy veteran heel, kind of like a 2000s Tony Anthony, perfect guy to guide a green kid through a match Cross is a phenom, he is 6'3 or so, built like a NFL Free Safety, cut, and agile as shit. Match starts with a Cross explosion, he has this massive takedown, a great tope, and a crazy springboard spinning headbutt, he just launches off a springboard. Hollis takes over when he hurls Cross to the turrnbuckle and Cross flies out and lands on his head. We get some Hollis shit talking, and control, until Cross obliterates him with a spear. Cross misses a Superfly splash where he got more height then prime Snuka, and Hollis sneaks a low blow in for the win. Cross will be a big star somewhere, he seems about as can't miss an prospect as I can remember seeing. It almost felt like watching Sting for the first time.

ER: I was super excited to see Cross for the first time, and man oh man did he deliver. I don't ever remember being this excited by Sting. Phenom really does appear to be the best word to describe Cross, and I agree that he's as close to a can't miss wrestling prospect as you can get. Hollis was the absolute perfect opponent for him, the kind of guy who can stall and create space between all of Cross' best stuff, so the moves don't get all stacked up on themselves. Cross launches Hollis with one of the highest backdrops I've seen (really reaching that rarified Rick Rude/Todd Morton air), hits a super fast dive, hits a double leg that looked so strong that he probably could have ran around the building with him a couple times before slamming him, hits a springboard elbow that gets such height that it looked like he could have leapt across the entire ring. Hollis is great at slowing things down and expertly tosses Cross into the ringpost, and Cross takes an awesome painful bump into the post and then down to the floor, really made it look dangerous. Hollis knew how to play the match, focused on setting up big Cross spots, and made his own little things look good, like his pinpoint stomps. A dirtbag like him needs good looking stomps, those kind where he's holding the top rope while lacing into a guy's sternum. Finish was perfect for this match, as how do you stop a runaway train? You distract the ref and punch that train in the balls. Loved this.

Cyrus the Destroyer vs. PCO

PAS: Fun big boy battle, full of thumps and some pretty impressive agility by both guys. Cyrus's Eddie Guerrero flip senton which was totally nuts for a guy 400+ pounds, and PCO's moonsault looked awesome. I think the secret to an entertaining PCO match is the pace. If he works really slow you can see the seams, but if the pace is pushed it can be really entertaining. This was a quicker pace and was just as focused on big bombs as it was on highspots. Really what you wanted this match to be when it was signed.

ER: Not bad, but it kind of bums me out that I've been low vote on PCO since his comeback. I fully respect how he's reinvented himself and created this buzz, but I never seem to end up enjoying the matches as everyone else. This was fine, but if you had told the match was "big fat guy vs. old tough guy" without telling me the names, I'd be starting a 5 stars before the first guy made his entrance. Fat guys and old tough guys are my bread and butter, and I liked this, but didn't love it. PCO is kind of a stiff, doesn't always get into position for things very cleanly, sometimes just stands there with bulging eyes, but he also works plenty stiff and takes/does some crazy offense, so I clearly understand what the appeal is. I really liked Cyrus in last year's Anarchy WarGames, a big guy who has no problem taking a crazy bump, and I liked him here. And Phil is right about the pacing being important in a PCO match, he's someone who actually benefits from a go go go match, just keep moving him to the next set piece or explosion, and that's what they do here. I weirdly think the PCO thing I liked the most here was a kick he threw to a bent over Cyrus. Cyrus was in position to give a backdrop and PCO hit a great extra point kick right across Cyrus' chest and stomach, a really nice kick. I mean, a 50 year old cannonball and moonsault are obviously going to always look impressive, but there's something to be said about a kick that many wrestlers don't go all in on. Cyrus hit a bananas slingshot senton, and it sucks that with his size and that move, 20 years ago it probably would have at minimum got him Roadblock's spot on the WCW roster. Cyrus gets great welts and bruises on his forehead (from his nice headbutts? From stiff PCO shots?) and commits to missing a big IZU falling meteorite off the middle rope, all things I'm into. There were some things I thought didn't quite work, the two PCO chokeslam spots came off a little flat, but overall this was fine. PCO is seeming like someone who would come off better live than on tape. I'm optimistic though.

AJ Gray vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

PAS: Scorpio is basically wrestling's John Witherspoon at this point I expected him to ball up his fists and tell AJ Gray that "These is all you need to be a man.. You win some, you lose some... But you live to fight another day" I loved his Uncle at the cookout dance moves, and his real willingness to lay in bruising shots. He hit Gray with a jump kick that put a cleft in his chin. Gray seemed to hold back a bit at the beginning, but once he knew who he was in with, he let them go. There was some awkwardness in this match which kept it from being a real MOTY list contender, but it really felt like a battle and Scorpio still has a gorgeous moonsault and some real pepper in his blows.

ER: I laughed at Phil's uncle at a cookout line, because I was watching Scorp dance and immediately thought of Sam doing the Detroit Hustle on Detroiters. This match had some problems, but they were mostly cosmetic. Gray doesn't really get up to deliver a rana, they flub a powerbomb reversal spot (but recover well enough), Scorp damn near Picasso's Gray with a Tumbleweed that falls short, Gray kind of awkwardly hold up on a frog splash, things like that. They were all over the match, but it's one of those things where if you had them go out another night and work the exact same match, all that stuff likely hits fine. So I don't get too hung up on cosmetic stuff like that, because I really dug the actual bones of the match. They worked a slower pace strikes match, with flying peppered in, which is a nice combo that most guys couldn't pull off. You need some heft to pull it off, and these two have heft. I love all of Scorpio's kicks (especially those no nonsense yakuza kicks), and this was a rare instance of me not shutting my brain off during a standing exchange. This captured the vibe of what I imagine most wrestlers are trying to capture when doing stand and trade, and the key to it is simple but difficult, because it just has to naturally happen. One guy drills another guy and it's probably the hardest shot of the match up to that point, and the other guy gets that "oh that's where this is, huh?" and drills him back. The back and forth has some meaning, some heft. The elbow strikes landed hard, the kicks and misses were great, and I thought for sure Scorp's moonsault was it (how far across the ring did he opt to set that up!?). Gray had an awesome sell on that short Tumbleweed, but, there's a great chance he was just feeling that numb heat that happens when someone flips halfway across the ring and nearly lops your ear off. Obviously I'm pissed we got robbed of Scorp vs. Cain (or Scorp vs. basically anybody), but wouldn't mind these two running it back.

Cain Justice vs. Gary Jay

PAS: This was a short sprint with a great flash KO finish, that still left me a little bummed. Jay is a guy who works a hard hitter gimmick, with some really stiff chops and Justice is a CWF boss and my favorite young wrestler in the world. Match starts fast with Cain Jumping Jay at the bell, and never lets up. Jay hits a trio of tope's in a row, before torching his chop hand on the ringpost, we have some arm and hand work by Justice interspersed with some shots by Jay. Match comes to an abrupt end when Cain goes for a move off the ropes and gets caught with a driving right hand to jaw, which led to a quick ref stoppage. It was a cool finish and I liked a tourney match having that kind of unpredictable finish, but I can't help but being disappointed that Cain was out of the tourney in four minutes. He was the guy I was looking forward to the most, and hoped he would get a mini run in the tourney, or at least a showcase match.

ER: Well color me a tad disappointed. Let me say that I really, really, really liked the finish. Also, I really, really, really didn't want to see this finish in this match, when it happened. That's tough to reconcile. I think the ending might have been the best part of the match, and yet I also didn't want it to happen. It wasn't the best I've seen either guy: Jay had a few of those thigh slap moments where the shot doesn't actually land, so you end up with a thigh slap on a high lariat or a missed big boot, and while Cain bumped great for both (big flip bump on the lariat and a great staggering slow drop on the boot), it felt a little bit too much behind the curtain. I also thought Cain went to the "take a move, bob back up with glazed eyes sell" wayyyyy to often. He was doing that after almost every move which started to come off more comical than "I just took a big move". Cain jumping him to start was great, I thought Cain was throwing some of his best shots, and I loved Jay hitting the post leading to Cain doing some hand work. Finish was great, but yeah, too many guys I wanted to see opposite Cain, when I'm not sure there would be other opportunities for those match-ups.

Mance Warner vs. Fred Yehi

PAS: Yehi has had a hell of a year, leaving WWN, where he was getting a bit stale, and having cool matches with a different variety of folks. Warner is a fun brawler, kind of works a little like a more athletic Roughhouse Fargo. He has some really fun expressive punches and takes big bumps. Yehi is one of the most innovative wrestlers in the world, in a really cool way, and there is this awesome spot where he jams Warner's arm into the hollow top of the ringpost and mangles it with punches and yanking it back and forth. Totally something I have never seen before and a contender for spot of the year. Whole match had a great energy to it, and I really enjoyed the finish run with Warner faking an eyepoke and hitting a DDT, and Yehi hitting a great folding powerbomb. My favorite match of night one.

ER: I think this is the best Yehi has looked in 2018, and Yehi is a guy who looks great almost every time I see him. He was ruthless here, finding all sorts of cool ways to torture clear local favorite Warner. Everything Yehi threw out looked fantastic, and I fully agree that him shoving Warner's arm into the ringpost to tee off on the arm was amazing. The shots to the arm would have looked vicious without the help from the ringpost, but the post really added something special to the visual. Yehi's low dropkicks hit with a ton of force, his chops looked among best of the night, he had this nasty diagonal strike to Warner's neck, all brutal stuff. Warner has a nice way of tapping into the energy of the crowd, he gets a good local reaction the same way Chet Sterling does. I actually liked how he still used the hand and arm a few times, and Cecil Scott was excellent at pointing out that he's still using it by instinct, but it's not as effective. And Yehi was always there with a stomp to remind him, and he does all these great mean things like stopping short on a snapmare so it's just him yanking Warner's neck forward. Maybe the best thing about the SCI tournament up to this point has been the finishes. We have gotten a night of logical finishes without anybody taking anything stupid on an apron, everyone avoiding excess while treating appropriately big moves as big moves. Yehi running him into the turnbuckles, then hitting a folding powerbomb is a great example of this. He didn't need to spike Warner into the mat, he hit a hard snap powerbomb and then expertly folded the legs over to make it near impossible to kick out of. Simple, effective. There were finishes that could have come off cheap in the wrong hands (Hollis winning with a low blow, Jay winning with a punch) but these finishes have all felt nicely tailored to the wrestlers advancing.

Kerry Awful vs. Nick Gage

PAS: This was built up as a legendary brawler from outside coming in and taking on the craziest guy in the local town. I liked big parts of this, with Awful taking some big bumps, including a suplex on the bleachers and it had some real energy with the crowd brawling. I liked Awful just putting Gage's arm on a chair and stomping on it. I do wish the shots had landed with some more steam. Necro Butcher brawls always had hard punches in between the bumps and stunts, I though Awful's shots had a lot of windup and not much follow though.

ER: The things we've both said about PCO probably being a guy who plays much better live can likely be said even more about Nick Gage. I match up pretty exactly with Phil on this one, as we get several great moments and a nice concise finish, but some of the meat and potatoes of the brawl portion felt lacking. He's totally right about Awful having great body movement and windup, but were lacking that weight, never feeling like they were landing with the expected thud that the delivery promised. He's kind of like an inverted Dirty Daddy. Daddy shots always look and sound like he's killing a guy, he has these great chops and elbows, but he doesn't have a lot of flash before the landing. Awful has all the movement down, but falls short on the landing. I'm someone who has watched more Jerry Lawler than I can remember, and while I'm still regularly amazed at how great he can make every punch look, after getting used to how precise the landing is on the punches you start noticing all the other things he's doing with his body to give his punches style. You could practice for a year to get your worked punches to come in fast and land soft, but there's so many other working parts: you need to figure out what your non-punching arm is doing, you need to figure out your footwork, you need to get your head movement down, you need to properly recoil your body after a punch lands, etc. Awful has all of the other things, but doesn't really have the connection of the strike. It's kind of like how hard Lance Storm tried to work his chairshots in ECW. He was a guy who never wanted to stiff someone and certainly didn't want to brain someone with a chair, so he worked on the windup and actual physical delivery of the chairshot, and then would hold up on the landing. It would get roundly booed by the deviants who wanted nothing more than full force shots to the frontal lobe, but I always saw and liked what he was going for. Awful takes a few really great bumps here, getting backdropped into the bleachers and eating a suplex through a couple of chairs, Gage gets run into the ringpost with a chair around his neck, gets his arm jammed into a chair and stomped on, all that stuff worked great. The brawling really didn't work for me. The finish was a heck of an exclamation point, with Gage just drilling him with a stuffed piledriver to put an instant end to things.

PAS: Fun first night, nothing mindblowing, but I liked how this show had a real variety of wrestlers, old crazy guys, monsters, mat workers. A lot of indy tournaments just have a list of pimped indy workers all doing 2.9 wrestling, this had a real appetizer sampler feel which I enjoyed.


ER: I had a great time with Night 1. They kept things simple and quick, and each of the guys involved stood out in their own way. That's pretty special. We've all sat through enough marathon 4 hour indy shows, and I think it's incredibly refreshing to see that both nights of SCI total 4 hours. It keeps things fresh and moving, keeps the crowd alert, and shows that guys can still do some absolutely crazy things without doing absolutely stupid things. A nice, welcoming and fun night of wrestling, with Cross/Hollis and Yehi/Warner being quality additions to our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. Night 2 review coming soon.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 137

Episode 137

Aric Andrews vs. Mace Li

PAS: Li comes out to interrupt Andrews and they appear to have turned Andrews face, which is a move I can't support. You can't turn the most hateable guy in your fed babyface, it is just a waste of that scuzzy hair and punchable face. This match took a couple of minutes to get going, but I ended up enjoying it. Loved Andrews using his long legs to push Li off and hit a big boot, and the finishing roll up was neat.

ER: Maybe this is just one of those Arena Mexico "rudo against other Mexicans, tecnico against an invader" type deals? Like people will still hate Andrews but just hate Mace Li more? I do love the reaction Li gets in the Sportatorium. It's beyond heel heat, but it's not indifference either; people just seem really, really annoyed by him. The match and moment did feel like it was intended to turn Andrews face, and I think that would be a damn shame. I feel like a long tag run with Lee Valiant would be far more productive, but I will say I'm happy that it appears he's growing back some facial hair. Not a fan of beardless Andrews. The match was fine but didn't have much to it. Li has never looked bad to me, but he also hasn't done a lot to make his matches stick out much in my mind right after watching them. Maybe it's me.

Cain Justice vs. Joey Lynch

ER: I realize one of my favorite things about Cain Justice is that his matches are tight, focused, and have a nice narrative thread. And I didn't really think about it too much until this match. A lot of stuff in this looked good, but I had to keep asking myself why I wasn't getting into it at all. It was overly long, unfocused, and the only narrative seemed to be "Lynch is going to use every piece of offense and every thigh slap he knows, and everyone is going to forget about every move immediately after it happens". This could have really killed if it was maybe 9 minutes instead of 16. I liked all of Cain's attacks on the arm, bending it around the corner buckle and kicking at it, a nice Pele kick that I didn't see coming (with Cain holding Lynch's arm and essentially pulling the arm into a falling kick), but Lynch doesn't pay it much attention. I mean, after the match he hilariously acts like he needs to desperately hold his arm or risk losing it, but during the match he seemed more focused on stringing together his next indy combo. Potentially cool moments like Cain dropping in with an armbar were immediately ignored, and it made it seem like Lynch hitting all his offense was the most important thing to him in the match. I don't like how it makes the guys in other Justice singles matches look, either. All those prior matches showed that Justice is prone to cockiness and rookie mistakes, but his subs and strikes are lethal, here Lynch treated every strike the same, treated an armbar like no big deal, it was just annoying. I liked some of Lynch's work, particularly his bridges, like when he bridged out of the armbar and almost got a flash pin, but he was too go go go when the match would have been more interesting with him throwing out half as much offense. It's a specific style of indy work that I don't care for, right down to waiting in the ring for the post-match 'We Had a War' 'Please Come Back' applause.

PAS: I did think Cain had a fun performance, but I agree with Eric that this match was completely overstuffed. Lynch felt like a guy who was going to have one wrestling match ever, and wanted to get in every bit of cool offense he ever saw or thought up. Some of the stuff did look pretty cool, Lynch has a nasty german suplex, and I liked his clothesline into the ropes, but there was just so much stuff I had a hard time caring about it. Felt like Lynch took control of the match and it ended up being Cain working a Lynch match, rather then Joey working a Cain match. I did think Cain had a bunch of cool ideas, and I love how deadly the twist ending is, but this was real bloaty

ER: Arik Royal gets drawn to face Jesse Adler at BattleCade and...I just cannot see any kind of plausible way that Adler does not get absolutely demolished by Royal. Adler is so much smaller and has not looked the least bit credible in any of his wins against similarly sized guys. On paper this just looks like Royal should completely run over Adler. In singles matches alone this year Royal has beaten Chet Sterling, Snooty Foxx, Dirty Daddy, took Trevor Lee over a half hour, and none of those guys should have trouble beating Jesse Adler. This should lead to Royal holding the TV title, which would be an awesome and welcome addition to my weekly CWF viewing. I really love Royal and seeing him defending a belt against randomly drawn challengers sounds amazing.

Arik Royal/Roy Wilkins vs. Chet Sterling/Ric Converse

ER: Good long tag match with nice performances for all involved. Converse and Sterling are a good babyface tag team and seeing how much I like Converse right now makes me really want to go back and check out all the "peak" Converse that I've never actually seen. He sells damage well for a bigger guy, always surprised me with stuff (like his heavy crossbody early in the match) and always brings nice punches. Sterling is good in a tag setting like this, and he ramps up the crazy here with a huge flip dive way past the ringpost into the All-Stars. Wilkins was good at bumping for Sterling's hot comeback offense, and Royal is the total king, knowing when to bail to the floor and when to toss in great dick moves (like stepping onto Sterling's back instead of just over him to get where he needed to be). The match never settled down, and the restlessness was part of the fun. You got the sense the match could end soon, or go another 20 minutes. and I love the All-Stars go to knux shot, such a great ace constantly looming up the sleeve of all their matches. Royal always makes the knux shots counts and Sterling really took a spill off the top from it.

PAS: I loved Royal in this, great shit talking, cool bodypunches in the corner, great cutting off of both guys. All-Stars are a great old school heel team, and this was a good fired up babyface performance by Sterling and Converse. Sterling is at his his best when he is selling, so a long tag match like this works to his strengths. Also he can just tag out rather then have to do a forced hulk up which always mars his long singles. I loved the knux shot as a body shot instead of to the head, Sterling really sold it like he cracked a rib.

ER: The show closing angle between CW and Converse was a great one. After costing Converse the match CW handcuffs Converse to the ropes and lays out the ref with an all time spinebuster and then pulls up a seat to have a chat with Converse. The build throughout the promo was great, with Anderson playing condescending and dominant champ, wanting that title vs. career match, and Converse - still cuffed to the ropes - able to able to finally get under CW's skin by agreeing to the match...as long as it's I Quit. CW showing vulnerability to that was great, even though his opponent was cuffed to the ropes he was visibly rattled, and the fans were trying to get to him the whole time as well. Awesome segment leading into what looks to be an absolutely stacked BattleCade.

PAS: Yeah it was really great, I loved how Converse pulled out the I Quit match as CW's achilles, mentioning the ECW Tommy Dreamer I Quit he lost. I loved Converse getting the upper hand even though he was cuffed to the top rope.

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CWF Mid-Atlantic Worldwide Episode 98

Episode 98

1. The Dirty Blondes (Mike Patrick/Leo Brien) vs. Sandwich Squad (Aaron Biggs/Mecha Mercenary)

ER: I dig the Sandwich Squad, but then suddenly CWF presents me with a couple of new chubsters and I'm like a raccoon with a shiny object when it comes to new fat guys in wrestling. So they present me with two new chubs, with a great team name, and expect me to not root for them!? So I was rooting for an upset, but this was mostly an extended Sandwich Squash. The Blondes got one little run in the middle, and I really like Brien definitely bringing the Dusty vibes and he threw a great overhand right (that kind of right hand that has a downward trajectory on it, like he's punching down across the nose bridge). But the Squad is too tough, loved the drop down to trip Brien followed by the Mercenary splash. Ending had a couple hitches but this was fun.

PAS: Dirty Blonders were a bunch of fun, tubby, bleach blond hair, big bumps, multiple Dusty elbow combos, just a blast to watch. Would like to see them in a long competitive grudge match. This was a squash, which is literal when you are talking about the Sandwich Squad. Love all the different ways the Squad has to land their flab on someone.

2. HIM/SIS vs. Ethan Alexander Sharpe/"White" Mike Jordan

ER: I didn't care for any of the "Sharpe wants to bang SIS" part of this, as I think it took away from a lot of the cool stuff SIS did, and it's a shame as I liked her more than anyone else in the match. Her low crossbody in the ropes was awesome (and look how expertly she rolls out of the way), she had a cool fast standing splash, and I always love her headbutts. Now the HIM/SIS gimmick is incredibly goofy, but it's tough when they have a goofy gimmick AND their opponents treat them like jokes. White Mike gets to run the home stretch, and he whiffs on a double neckbreaker, then does a can opener neckbreaker finish that just looks like he DDTs himself.

PAS: I liked this a lot more then Eric did, I think both HIM and SIS have really nasty offense, and considering how bad they stiffed Jordan and Sharpe I don't think they were treated like jokes. I also think White Mike's finish looks awesome, and it is impressive he pulled it off on a chunky dude like HIM.

3. The Lynch Mob (Joey & Matt Lynch) vs. The Carnies (Nick Iggy/Kerry Awful)

ER: This was fine, though the Lynch Mob didn't do much for me. It felt like for every one nice thing they would do, you'd get something meh a moment later. Carnies don't totally feel authentic to their gimmick, but I liked them in-ring. So I didn't care much for the early parts with Lynch Mob controlling, but once Awful cheapshotted and Iggy followed it up with an awesome dropkick on the mat I was into it. Iggy hits a sick full weight senton, and the finishing stretch was particularly brutal: Iggy disposes one of the Mob to the floor in nasty fashion, Awful hits kind of a sloppy powerbomb on the other and locks in a Boston crab, as Iggy hits a killer kneepad-down kneedrop off the middle buckle to the back of the head. That's a good finisher.

PAS: Lynch Mob felt a little PWGish for me, but I thought the Carnies were killer in this. Awful is a pretty great fat dude and has a bunch of fun ways to throw his flab into people, Iggy is really vicious and I like how he ties in his crazy gimmick with some really violent assaults. The ending was really nasty with Iggy driving his full weight with a knee drop into the back of a Lynch's head and then follows it up with really nasty ground and pound forearms for a stoppage. I want to check out the three way now, as adding Iceberg and Tank can only be an improvement.

4. Lee Valiant/Aric Andrews vs. The Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy)

ER: This had a lot of moving parts, and I think it didn't work because of that. It felt like the whole match was one guy running at another guy, that guy dodging, and then doing a kind of clunky move in response, and then a new guy running at them. It came off too busy, without much substance happening. I liked the last Ducklings appearance, as unhinged big bumping loons. This didn't have as much of that, Lude came off crazier in his last appearance. Killjoy took a big bump off a lariat, and both did dives (into the Hales contingent), but this was all worked pretty even. There was a lot of hinky move set-up by the Ducks, and I just don't think much of it worked this time. Andrews threw a great cut off punch down the stretch, and Valiant always comes out with a great aggressive attitude, but this landed short.

PAS: I liked all the cutting off of the ring that Valient and Andrews did, and if the end run was a bit shorter and polished I would have really dug this. The Ducklings monkey flip senton thing is really cool, as is Valient and Andrews Doomsday device backcracker, this just felt like it kept going though with the cooler stuff more in the middle then the end, it built to a creshendo and then kept going past its natural end point.

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