Segunda Caida

Phil Schneider, Eric Ritz, Matt D, Sebastian, and other friends write about pro wrestling. Follow us @segundacaida

Thursday, June 03, 2021

Eddie Kingston Rides Around Trunk Full of That Funk Call it That Parliment

Eddie Kingston/Nick Gage/Justice Pain vs. Lufisto/Franky the Mobster/Kevin Steen/El Generico vs. Blackout (Robbie Marino/Sabian/Joker/Ruckus) CZW 8/12/06 - GREAT

PAS: This was a three team cage match (it was in the Cage of Death, but not listed as a Cage of Death match for some reason). I really enjoyed the early chaos, you had all 11 wrestlers recklessly brawling around the ring. We got a bunch of Eddie and Joker hitting each other hard which is always great, and Lufisto is really fun winging unprotected chair shots at peoples' heads. I was shocked at how much I dug Justice Pain in this, he isn't a guy I remember rating particularly high during the time, but he was taking crazy and athletic bumps into the cage and had a fun jacked meathead stand off with Franky the Mobster. The match really got very booking heavy at the end. When we got to the eliminations they came pretty quickly, which is always kind of the problem in elimination matches. There is a big standoff where everyone clears the ring and Pain sends Kingston (who had been turned on by Blackout earlier in the show) to face off with Ruckus to prove himself. Kingston is pretty much the perfect "I've got to prove myself wrestler" and the Ruckus section was good stuff. Steen had been bullying Lufisto, and she wins his Iron Man title by low blowing him and rolling him up (even though they were on the same team), Steen comes back and lays her out with a package piledriver, leaving her to be pinned by the H8 Club and Kingston. That is a really weird way for babyfaces to win a match like this, and H8 Club and Kingston were never in any particular peril, they just kind of ran through everyone. I think this ended up being lesser then the sum of its parts, although it had some really good parts,

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Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Eddie Kingston's Crew is From the East, He Leavin' At Least 20 Police Deceased

Eddie Kingston/Joker vs. Super Dragon/Necro Butcher CZW 2/11/06 - GREAT

PAS: It would be nearly impossible for any match to live up to that lineup of insane asskickers. It's like Kurisu and Kurisu vs. Kurisu and Kurisu. Match opens up with Dragon and Kingston exchanging slaps,  which is great, and then into some mat wrestling, which you know, fine and all, but not what I am here for. It picks up quite a bit when they brawl to the floor, the camera focuses on Kingston vs. Necro which rules, but you get little pieces out of the corner of you eye of Super Dragon braining Joker with a chair or curb stomping him on the floor. There is a beatdown section on Kingston which is good, but I kind of wan't a Super Dragon and Necro beatdown on Eddie Kingston to be the best tag beat down ever, and it wasn't that. The Joker hot tag is fun and there is this amazing moment of Necro grabbing Joker by his shirt and punching him fifteen times directly in the jaw. The finish had some moments, but I didn't love the backdrop no-sells, and the Joker roll up is more cutesy then this match deserved. This is well worth watching, the great stuff in it is really great, but this was closer to the 100th best match of 2006, and I wanted it to be closer to the best.

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Sunday, September 29, 2019

Eddie Kingston Be Popping Them Uzi's, Copping Them Coogi's

Eddie Kingston vs. Joker CZW 1/14/12 - EPIC

PAS: This was a street fight between ex-tag partners and was a FUTEN level asskicking by both guys. Joker is an all time crowbar, he throws his forearms like he is aiming at a point behind Kingston's head, there were multiple points in this match where I audibly gasped at the force of the shots. Kingston is such a master at these kind of slugfest matches, that you give him a heater like Joker he is going to deliver something great. While Joker is throwing fastballs all match, Kingston modulates his shots, there is a forearm exchange where Kingston throws a couple of weaker shots, before he musters all of his power and just smashes Joker, the weaker shots made the big shot even more impactful. There is a table spot, because it's CZW, but most of this street fight was just guys putting their hands on each other, and holy hell what a finish. Kingston throws one of the hardest backfists I have ever seen right to the point where Joker's spine meets his head, no way Joker didn't at least lose feeling in his extremities briefly.

ER: Phil watched this match last night, and wrote it up in a draft. I woke up this morning, saw there was a new Kingston match draft, opened it up and saw that Phil deemed it EPIC, and read nothing more. I went on IWTV, watched the match immediately, and then later Phil called to tell me about the match only to laugh knowingly when I said I watched it before doing anything else that day. EPIC Kingston matches have that effect on me, as they should, because they consistently warrant that treatment. Kingston gets into fights, and a street fight with a former partner is something that he's not going to drop the ball on. Kingston knows just what kind of intensity to approach that kind of match with. Joker is a guy who is criminally underwatched by me (I was not a CZW guy, meaning it is a fed with 20 years of potential hidden gems for my eyes), as he's got the stiffness and unprofessionalism of Low-Ki, but doesn't have the high profile internet enemies that Ki has. 


And here he acts like a jilted ex-partner and aims to bruise King's whole body. He was throwing shots violent enough to make me get vocal with my computer, and is there anybody better at selling those kind of shots than one Eddie Kingston? Every Kingston match I watch, ever, has him doing some kind of sell that I don't remember, and he had those peppered all through this match. Joker threw a couple of absolutely cruel/unnecessary/illegal capture snap suplexes that dumped Kingston directly onto the back of his head and neck, and after the first one Kingston just sits there on his knees holding one extended vocal note while staring at the mat. It was so perfect, and so perfectly Kingston. He also clonks Joker with a hard as hell headbutt, and immediately drops to his knees and onto his face. The best. Phil makes a great point about King saving his shots, and it really makes a played out tired ass kneeling strike exchange fresh and interesting, with a couple of weak elbows suddenly boiling into him wrecking Joker. He's the only one adding nuance to played out situations. This had some real fun floor brawling (with Joker flying insanely hard into King with a cannonball), a big suplex into a table, and we end with Kingston hitting literally the greatest spinning backfist in history (and yes I know about Aja Kong and Shonie Carter, and also goddamn Chikara book them as Team Backfist for a KoT and I'll give you a bunch of money) right to Joker's cerebellum. It's possible that backfist lead to Joker frequently forgetting whether he was retired or not, a 50 First Dates scenario where he can't remember whether he is a wrestler or not.

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Tuesday, December 04, 2018

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.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Saturday, July 22, 2017

2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki/Cide (and Joker) v. Da Hit Squad in a Cage!

4. Low-Ki/Homicide/Joker v. Da Hit Squad JAPW 11/12

PAS: Wild bloody brawl with the Boricua Four Horsemen trying to murder each other. The match starts with Cide (in old school Natural Born Killaz jumpsuit) and Ki (in his Hitman suit) coming out and getting jumped in the aisle by the Hit Squad. We have a bit of really great crowd brawling, including Homicide busting open Maff with Harley Race style knuckle punches (the camera really focused on Maff and Cide, but in the corner of your eye you could see Ki and Mack brutalizing each other, I really wish I had the alternate view as well). Homicide takes a big bump into the stairs and stays down, while Hit Squad throws Ki into the cage and double teams him. Joker comes out from the back and takes Cide's place in the cage match (not sure if this was an improv, or a planned spot to work around a previous injury). The in the cage parts of the match were really great too, with Ki taking a huge thrown belly to belly bump into the side of the cage and doing some crazy Kung Fu avoidance spots. Finish of this was nutso Maff spears Joker through the cage door nearly killing them both, Cide runs back out to start brawling with Kyle the Beast and they bump the cage causing Ki to crotch himself on the top. Then Maff climbs back into the cage and DHS hits a double splash off the top rope smushing Ki like a wine grape. Best match I have seen these two teams have, and a total under the radar MOTY candidate.

ER: Fully agree with Phil, this is the best match with this combination of guys. This was a full on violence spectacle, and it was glorious. The way it was going, this would have easily made list if they had never made it into the cage, as we get some inspired ringside brawling. Ki immediately gets plastered hard into the barricade, Maff gets busted up, Mack takes a nice running shot into the ringpost, Homicide gets tossed into the barricade, it's all great (and yes, an alternate view would be great in any Low-Ki multiman). Mack tosses Ki into the side of the cage, but since he's basically Spider-Man he just grabs the side of the cage and scrambles up to the top in about 2 seconds. Sometimes Ki moves so freakishly that he feels like an alien in a sci-fi movie trying to blend in with humans. Eventually a detective figures it out, and there's always that scene where they go "There he is! Grab him!" And that's when Low-Ki the alien just leaps up the side of a building leaving all the authorities looking like idiots. After wrestling Low-Ki just needs to start getting motion capture movie gigs that Andy Serkis doesn't have time to do. Ki gets into the cage (again, impossibly quick), but Homicide gets laid out with a nasty bump into the stairs, and DHS get in the ring and corner Ki. But then Ki breaks out some insane moves, including sliding over Maff's back like Luke Duke sliding over the hood of the General Lee (Maff not *quite* the size of the General) to deliver a sliding kick to Mack. The announcers scream that it's like a freaking action movie, and they're not wrong. Joker runs in, and he and Ki have a contest to see who can take nastier in ring bumps, with Ki getting lawn darted into the cage, Joker taking a flipping backpack cannonball into the buckles (!), Ki getting belly to belly suplexed upside down grossly into the cage...and then Joker officially winning their contest by get speared to his certain death out the cage door. Spot of the year? It's up there. The whole thing is chaos. Ki gets crotched on the top of the cage, Mack ends up perched dangerously on the top, Maff climbs over impressively fast, and the double splash from those two is a certain finisher. Crazy, great match from four indy legends.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

2015 En Busca De Idolo Qualifying Cibernetico

Not as excited about this years lineups as I was last year, but I figure I will cover it again, and see if anyone breaks out. Like last year, I am going to rate everything either Must See, Spare Moment and Don't Bother

Blue Panther Jr./Boby Zavala/Canelo Casas/Delta/Disturbio/Esfinge/Flyer/Guerrero Maya Jr. v. Akuma/Cancerbero/Gallo/Joker/Pegasso/Raziel/Sagrado/Stigma-Spare Moment


This was less lunatic then last years qualifier, it had less awkward blown stuff (really the only awful thing was Maya Jr. blowing a dive, which is weird because he is the most experienced guy here), but also less holy shit moments. I liked Joker's brawling, and Cancerbero is always good, they were the two stand outs for the non-qualifiers. Flyer looks like he will take the Star. Jr./Dragon Lee role of young guy embracing hot death, will be interesting to see if he has anymore to show. Casas, Maya and Panther Jr. have the genetics and Maya has been pretty good for a long time, although he did look off here. Hard to get much of a sense of anything in a match like this, but I am going to remain optimistic.

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