XCW Midwest Legends of the Garden 3/2/10

XCW MIDWEST ON SEGUNDA CAIDA

Knuckles and Knives v. Ted Trailer McNaler/Ricky Morton

TKG: Knucles and Knives come out in late 90s pop punk gear with white belts and black vests and guitars (with guitar straps with names on it). Trailer McNailer brings out Ricky Morton as his surprise partner. I didn’t have anything positive to say about Knuckles and Knives when I last saw them, but enjoyed Punch’s shtick (and he takes a crazy bombs away knee bump to nothing for a match this short) and Switchblade didn’t look as loose as I remembered him being. Morton looked pretty fast working opening section and hot tag. This was a lot of fun but too short to say much about.

PAS: I thought Morton looked like he was in good shape, and his execution looked good. This is a Ricky Morton tag match you wanted it to stretch out a bit, enjoy the journey. It doesn’t work nearly as well when it is cut short like this.

Real Deal Derrick Neal v. Simon Sezz

TKG: Last time we saw Derrick Neal work he was working undercard babyface. He works heel here and makes some really amusing pouting heel faces. Closer to Orndorf level pouting than Tatum pouting. He has some nice looking punches and this was fine outside of him having a bunch of really distractingly bad missed clotheslines for a guy who is using the missed clothesline a lot. I mean it wasn’t like he had just one way to throw a clothesline way over opponents head. He had a variety of ways to throw his arm out and make you go “Was that supposed to be a clothesline?”.

PAS: Yeah one of his missed clotheslines looked less like a clothesline and more like he tried to throw a fastball. Simon Sezz is pretty good at working generic babyface, although we saw less of his 2002 indy highflying and innovative offense then we normally do. I enjoyed Neal loading a boot for a basement dropkick which is an amusing 2010 variation of a old school spot.

Todd Morton v. Road Dogg

PAS: I was pretty excited about this match on paper. I have enjoyed some indy Road Dogg, and Todd Morton is pretty infallible. And for the three minutes we got it was pretty good. Still Road Dogg’s mike work was longer then the match

TKG: Yeah this was super short. Road Dog gets in his signature stuff and Bull Pain walks out to distract Morton for the rollup. This is the first XCW show where the sound is really clear on the DVD’s so we can make out all the mic work. But I’d rather see longer matches.

Dangerous Dougie Gilbert v Headliner Chris Michaels

TKG: This was being run face v face and both guys looked really good while it lasted and this really felt like it was building to go longer (with the announcer counting down time) then Michaels gets an out of nowhere pin.

PAS: Yeah this was also too short. Dougie looked really comfortable in there, and is a guy I would like to see them use more of. Still the finish of this really came out of left field. It felt less like a complete short match, then a long match which ended abruptly.

JD Maverick v Mitch Ryder

TKG: I have really disliked Maverick in the past. Last couple times I saw him I remember him working a real indy Shawn Michaels guy who did lots of elaborate self controlled bumps and flopping when he wasn’t being touched and then had really loose offense. He looked really good here. Mitch Ryder throws a series of nasty punches on Maverick in the corner where Maverick sells them standing and Maverick drops a knee really hard on Ryder and Maverick throws a bunch of mean looking strikes. Super fun fight in and out of ring which ends with Maverick slipping in to escape a ten count. Really satisfying finish that Mitch Ryder uses to set up a lumberjack match.

PAS: Yeah I thought Maverick looked really good here too. Maverick was simultaneously landing nasty punches and kicks and pulling off pussy heel. Ryder is one of the best in the world as these kind of around the arena brawls, and Maverick was right there with them.

Simon Dean v. Bull Pain

TKG: Wow Simon Dean has gotten fat. I mean he looks less like a personal trainer and more like a fat guy in sweats. And he works this entire match like he was a fat Jim Cornette. Chickenshit guy running and hiding from face, eating abuse, begging off and then getting a bunch of cheap shots in. He does one neckbreaker. Not a Novaesque pumphandle inverted neckbreaker. Just a neckbreaker. And this is the most I’ve enjoyed Nova ever. Bull Pain is a guy who is great at beating up a fat Andy Kauffman. The post match booking is reall fun and got me excited to see the follow up.

PAS: I am in shock at how much I enjoyed Simon Dean here. His pre match mike work was great, threatening to win a kids replica belt. Deciding that he wouldn’t have a title match because there was no ref, then punching the ref. He was also shockingly fun as Andy Kaufman, running, crying and cheap shotting. The whole match seemed to be setting up one thing and I liked how they did something else. A lot of time wrestling swerves sacrifice common sense for surprise, we were all expecting Chris Michaels to turn, but when Bull Pain turned instead it made sense. Plus I am amped to see Pain and Morton back together

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XCW Midwest -Christmas Carnage 12/12/09

Tommy “T-Dog” Foreman v. Simon Sezz

TKG: This is really fun. I haven’t seen Simon Sezz work face in ages, but “T Dog” Foreman is kind of amusing heel. He’s pudgy white guy working light heavy boxer; comes to the ring wearing gloves and a boxing ring robe. Both guys have some nice execution and Sezz is surprisingly chipper as fired up babyface.

PAS: Foreman was wearing the exact same boxing trunks and boots that I wore when I boxed. For a guy working a 2003 Phil Schneider gimmick he took more bumps then I would have.

Kris “Sky” Walker v New Age Assassin

TKG: Over the years I have seen lots and lots of guys working indy Assassin gimmicks. It’s a role normally given to greenish young guys or older veterans whose faces are too grizzled to buy as credible without a mask. Normally you can easily tell, “that guy is green” or that “guy is really knowledgeable but can’t bump well anymore”. This was a match built around New Age Assassin working over Walker’s arm. And there was lots of neat arm work in it. At the end I really couldn’t tell if New Age Assassin is a young guy with a real huge upside, or an Crippler Jeff Daniels having an underwhelming outing.

PAS: One of the reasons I have been enjoying reviewing IWRG so much lately is that basic undercard lucha libre is a style that is can be fun no matter the talent level of the guys in it. Undercard XCW is worked for the most part in this basic Southern wrestling style which also can be enjoyable with pretty much anyone competent. I didn’t get a real sense of either guy as a wrestler, but I didn’t need to, to enjoy it.

Knuckles and Knives v. Black Diamonds

PAS: This match was also worked very much formula, all four of these guys looked bad, and when your face team was trying to run complicated sequences, the match kind of stunk. However when it broke down to the heels working over the faces it was kind of OK, when you got the hot tag it fell apart again, but still formula is something that can be done.

TKG: I don’t think the formula was able to save this. Dez Coletrain has some really big ups on his offense and did a fine job as FIP, but the execution of everything else was bad and the heels really couldn’t pull off the finish.

2 Tuff Tony v. J.D. Maverick

PAS: Maverick is a guy working a Shawn Michaels gimmick, both in look and wrestling style. He does this elaborate bumping style which is more about him then about a contest between wrestlers. It isn’t a style I particularly care for, although it works better as a pussy heel then as a babyface. Tony is a guy who has been up and down in his 2009 XCW run, he looked good here, hitting his fat guy highflying well and hitting hard (although he does almost Hayabusa himself on a quebrada). Ending was a little flat, but otherwise a fine match.

TKG: Tony has a fine guy eating stuff trying to get audience to start hand clap section here. And his stuff looked rough enough to deserve pinball bumping. For some reason they tried to do a Jerry Lynn two count roll up section which was both looked really shitty and awkward (with both guys blowing roll ups ) and was totally out of place within the context of the rest of the match. They follow up the roll ups with Too Tough Tony chopping Maverick. Those chops felt like a receipt for proposing the Malenko-Guerero section.

Mitch Ryder v. Todd Morton

PAS: This was a No DQ, Falls count anywhere match which was set up earlier in the show by Morton beating up Gerald Lowe who is the guy who runs the rec center. Their earlier 2009 match had lots of spectacular stalling and stooging by Morton. Here this was a No DQ match so it is a brawl from the bell. The first five minutes of this are as good as any wrestling I have seen this year, just Morton delivering a asskicking with Ryder having some really great babyface comebacks. Then it all goes to hell, we get a ref bump (in a no DQ match mind you) and Gerald Lowe comes in from the back and we get a big horseshit Gerald Lowecentric finish. It was like having a delicious gourmet meal that gives you diarrhea shits.

TKG: I ran a rec center for several years. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to see me as face second in main events. I could see people cheering to see me v Abby. Phil mentions how amazing Morton was in the early parts of this, but Ryder also just was awesome eating punches and splaying this way and that. Morton unleashes some nasty kicks to the Ryder's spine. Ryder tries to will himself up with the help of the crowd and Morton dances along to the crowd clapping while the announcer calls down time (five minutes), and you almost think “these guys are going to beat each other for an hour”. But in the end we don’t even get more than 8 minutes.

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XCW Midwest -November Pain 11/21/09

Mobile Homers v. Knuckles and Knives

PAS: This started as a singles match between Rudy Switchblade and Ted “The Trailer” McNailer and turns into an impromptu tag match which is an XCW booking staple. Match varied from good to bad, these guys are both OVW tag teams and parts of the match felt polished like you would expect a touring match to be, other parts felt way too sloppy for guys who train together. Ted McNailer felt like the keeper in the group as he was really fast in his offense, and stuff landed well.

TKG: I don’t know if the singles into tag is a XCW staple or just a Mobile Homers staple. The quick taggin face part felt really polished. The member of Knucles and Knives who wasn’t Rudy Switchblade seemed like he was a guy who always knew how to be in the right place and work the crowd . I also liked his run in and beat down on Mcnailer.

New Age Assassin v. “Black Diamond’ Kliff Hanger

TKG: I don’t think New Age Assassin is the same New Age Assassin we’ve seen on earlier XCW and XCW ground Xero shows ,nor do I think he is New Age Assassin Tim Renesto. He was kind of stocky and awkward. Kliff Hanger and the Assassin start this match with lots of amusing horseshit. I think they may have overdone the horseshit to the point that it became dull. The point of a cliffhanger is you don’t give away all your stuff at once, you save some of that so you have something new next time. Hanger goes up well for back bodydrops and has some nice jabs but there was a lot of the post comedy stuff which looked ugly.

PAS: For the first part of the match this was a perfectly fine King Cobra v. Dirty Rhodes comedy undercard match. They switched into their “wrestling” section, and it felt unnecessary. I think that is a big problem with current indy wrestling, guys feel like if they have stuff to do, they need to do it in every match.

Todd Morton v. Mitch Ryder

PAS: These guys had one of my favorite matches of 2008, and they bring it back in 2009 and have another super match. Morton spends the first part of the match with some world class stooging, watching Morton avoid locking up is like watching Miles Davis play the trumpet. With all the Memphis wrestling I have watched over the last couple of years, I didn’t think there was new shtick I haven’t seen, but Morton is doing some revolutionary shit. When Ryder finally catches him and unloads with his great looking punch combos it is truly satisfying. Morton transitions into asskicker, and he unloads with super nasty punches and mafia kicks, with Ryder coming right back at him. The finish was fine, with Ryder rolling up Morton after he is distracted by Gerald Lowe. Still epic finishes are what XCW is often missing, it is like watching 1980’s All Japan, matches are great, but then you get the double count out. There are plenty of great finishes in Memphis they could borrow, but they seem to only use the cheap ones.

TKG: You get the sense that Morton has an endless number of lazzi at his disposal, and almost get the impression that he never uses the same one twice. His dodge and move and bullshit at the beginning of this match didn’t feel like time killer so much as stuff that actually built up anticipation. The punch exchanges on the floor right in front of little kids were awesome: “here’s some fucking close up magic, Ricky Jay”” and it’s neat watching them move from the platform to the close up and back. Finish wasn’t epic but it was satisfying.

Flash Flanagan v 2 Tuff Tony

TKG: Too Tough Tony is in as I think a replacement for Bull Pain. There is some odd pacing to this match. Too Tough Tony is a guy who normally works a match built around walking and hitting, while Flash is a guy who does quicker exchanges. And at times it feels like the two guys are having timing issues and at other times the difference in timing feels like a cool feature. Flash starts going all out and Too Tough looks somewhat awkward as guy working at the initial pace. Flash then begins a long run after a leg take down of Tony into turnbuckle. Tony doesn’t do much from below as Flash is constantly moving. The end with the two guys going for moves off the ropes where Flash moves quickly to avoid Tony, while Tony moves more last minute I thought was real neat. And I kind of liked Tony’s soccer bicycle kick which felt plodding guy hitting hard out of nowhere (as well as move that slowed Flash down to Tony’s pace). There were other moments where it just felt awkward.

PAS: I didn’t like this as much as Tom, Flanagan has had a great run in 2009, and this was the least of it. It not only felt like the timing was off on the match, but also their spacing seemed weird, multiple times they felt like they were too close to each other to pull off the moves they were trying. Flanagan had some moments, but this wasn’t any good.

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