MLW Worth Watching: TEDDY HART!!!

Teddy Hart vs. John Hennigan  MLW Fusion #17 7/12 (Aired 8/10/18)

ER: So I'm not sure I could call this a really good match, but teddy Hart is eminently watchable and Hennigan is a guy with freaky athletics who you know can be coaxed along into a bonkers Teddy Hart match. And both guys bring exactly what I was hoping they'd bring. Hart is a fun highflier and I love his aloof faces, a guy whose gimmick is that he wants to put on a great show for everyone and doesn't care if he comes out a winner or loser. That type of thing can easily be turned a bit and become the traits of a really annoying wrestler, but Hart works with such a shrug that he never comes off overly serious, which is what plagues most of those "putting on a MOTY for the fans" types. Plus Hart brings stiff strikes and a general unpredictability, and those are key to him standing above the rest. Here he brings out the crazier side in Hennigan as I hoped, and they went through some sequences you won't see from most. I dug the opening counter stuff, all weird flips and angles, vaguely lucha, vaguely parkour, vaguely silly, but then Hart will throw a hard right hand and snap everyone awake. Both guys hit big moonsaults into the fans, crashing through the front rows (Hennigan not even both to tell people to move, just crashing through fans). We get a bunch of big moves, Hart breaking out a bunch of cool and weird piledriver variations, leaping off the top and catching Hennigan standing before flipping into a piledriver, and a great leverage piledriver when Hennigan is getting back into the ring and Hart grabs his head in his knees and sits back with it. That's a variation I don't really see a lot, and as indy as it seems I think it actually makes a ton of sense. Your opponent is climbing back through the middle ropes anyway, meaning his head is right where it needs to be for a piledriver. We've seen several DDT variations from that spot, but not really a piledriver, even though they make equal sense. Hart always makes me laugh when he climbs up to hit a crazy move, as it's almost always accompanied by him making Fericito Ay Dios Mio faces before plunging to failure or success. So sometimes he'll make the face and get planted with a Spanish Fly, other times he'll make the face and hit a couple of gorgeous late rotation twisting springboard sentons. The finish of a match between these two is almost never going to be very satisfying, as they do so many big moves throughout that whatever wins is going to seem like any old move. Hart hits a nutty powerbomb onto his knees and a harsh hammerlock DDT, but I don't dislike Hennigan winning by blocking a sunset flip and leaning forward with his own pin. Something has to end a match like this, and the journey getting there was exactly what I wanted.

Teddy Hart/Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Rich Swann/ACH  MLW Fusion #18 7/19 (Aired 8/17/18)

ER: This got a little messy at the end, which is a shame as it started out like it was going to be easily the best tag match of the resurgent MLW. Smith is a guy billed as a catch as catch can master but who wrestles like Test, and Hart is really great at utilizing Test into a tag setting. Hart is so adept at all the grappling we start with that I really want to see him against any of the Catch Point alumni, he works real snug with Swann, fast armdrag while bullying him into a Rings of Saturn, great right hands, big snap powerslam; Hart would really be a fun third man in a Dickinson/Jaka stable. Hart is dominating Swann, hits his cool surfing Code Red out of the corner, and we get great involvement from ACH as Hart has him locked up and ACH's leg comes in out of nowhere with a great superkick to Hart's jaw. Smith follows suit with a nice running big boot to save his boy, and we get some cool stuff like Smith tossing ACH from the ring to the floor with a bodyslam, onto Swann. Pillman Jr. starts getting involved, and Smith has some simple, nice ref distraction as Swann goes up top and Smith gently shifts the referees positioning so he can't see Pillman smashing Swann's groin with his cane. This felt like they were well on their way to a great tag match, but kind of went into the finishing stretch too quickly, which is a common quibble with MLW TV. A lot of the matches seem to have a pretty firm 10 minute time limit, but a lot of the matches I've liked would have benefitted from a few more minutes. Still, this made me want to see a lot more of the New Hart Foundation.

Teddy Hart vs. Vandal Ortagun  MLW Fusion #20 7/12 (Aired 8/31/18)

ER: This post didn't set out to be a post highlighting all of the Teddy Hart, he just happens to be bringing it every damn time he shows up on MLW. The first two matches here are full matches, and this one is a squash...but mah god what a squash! The opening of the match is almost uncomfortable as Hart unloads some hard punches right at Ortagun's forehead, each one looking like a KO blow. Hart is a legit tough SOB but after the second punch you can really see Ortagun's head start to turn bright red from the shots, and as I'm waiting for Ortagun to go limp Hart starts putting a hole through his chest with stomps. But don't worry as Hart goes back to working over the face by trying to smash his skull with a curb stomp. Jesus, Teddy. Ortagun gets a one count schoolboy and Hart rolls right through it into a sick Rings of Saturn/crossface, yanking Ortagun's arm while meanly tugging at his beard and mouth. A couple of Hart's crazy lungblower variations end it pretty easy (electric chair into knees always looks like such a tough landing) and Hart as violent badass is awesome. I'm unsure what Ortagun did, but I can only assume that he definitely deserved it. Later in the episode he, Smith Jr., and Pillman Jr. got into it with Kevin Sullivan backstage. It got a bit too shooty, but it was a pretty intense segment with all of them eventually jumping Sullivan and Sullivan blading. Not sure where it's going, but they did it well.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki vs. Johnny Major League

Low-Ki vs. John Hennigan MLW 7/19 (Aired 8/17/18)

PAS: These two had a under the radar classic in Impact Wrestling last year, which was a showcase for their freaky athleticism and body control. This was a different sort of match, as a heel champ Ki is working a much more deliberate pace. Hennigan comes in with taped ribs and Ki works him over with nasty kicks, a seated bearhug and some big double stomps. Hennigan does some nifty parkour avoidance, and takes a crazy bump bouncing his torso on the corner and flying over the top rope. I dig Ki working almost like Fuchi, dissecting his opponent. I don't think the switchblade kick is a great finisher though, Ki is a guy with a bunch of awesome finishers and a kick to the back doesn't resonate with me.

ER: This was strong, less of a trippy showcase than their great Impact match, and more Ki dominating Hennigan by targeting taped ribs and using those taped ribs to break him down and attack the rest of the body. We get some drawn out knuckle locks, which is all Ki manipulating Hennigan into a slower pace with Ki always the first to explode, first grabbing his arm and deadweighting himself over the top rope, wrapping up Hennigan in the ropes, establishing that Hennigan was going to be having trouble the whole match. So we get a cool Ki control match, with Hennigan's offense mostly limited to his big comeback, which is a cool way of using Hennigan's bursts, almost like a Jeff Hardy hot tag. Ki knocks Hennigan off the ropes after some cool rope dodging (these two move in and out and around the ropes more fluidly than anyone, definitely two guys you lobby to have on your side on a corporate retreat) and Hennigan takes this great bouncing bump onto a few of the ropes, really crashing and burning. Ki on the attack is always fun, and he just punches a hole through Hennigan's gut with a double stomp, works a hanging dragon sleeper, abdominal stretch to continue working those ribs, and Ki methodically dissecting Hennigan made Hennigan's comeback really pop. What also helped was Hennigan really laying in shots; Hennigan throwing punches and elbows in the corner were some of the best strikes I've seen him throw, looking like he was just rocking Ki. The finish was flat out bizarre though: Hennigan misses Starship Pain, and Ki absolutely obliterates him with the Warriors Way, just a human man leaping into the air and landing heels on collarbone, and it gets a near fall. Fine. That's fine. But then Hennigan carefully gets into position on hands and knees, and Ki hits that little delayed snap kick that usually lands on the back of his opponents' head/neck, and here it lands around Hennigan's shoulder blades. And that's it! It's like that Dynamite Kid/Bret Hart match where Dynamite hits the greatest leaping kneedrop in wrestling history, jumping halfway across the ring and landing safely yet devastatingly on the side of Hart's head with that perfect knee...and the match ends a little later with a small package. Ki just caves in a guy's esophagus for a nearfall, and then not long after it's like they get a call saying "I don't care what it is, but this match needs to end on whatever move just happened". Just a weird, sudden end to a match that had been taking its time, and appeared to really be opening up.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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