AEW Five Fingers of Death 10/24 - 10/30

AEW Dark Elevation 10/24

Eddie Kingston/Ortiz vs Jollyville Fuck-Its (Russ Meyers/T-Money)

MD: Great use of the time they had here by Nasty Russ and T-Money. The airplane spin/punch combo was instantly memorable and popped Ian and Menard. They were able to hit one or two more things on Ortiz too, and he was good enough to sell it even after he somehow hefted T-Money up for the fisherman's buster for the finish. Otherwise, they got to do the thing that we saw them do so well last time they had an Elevation appearance, feed, Russ flipping for Ortiz's comeback lariat and T-Money running into all of Eddie's shots and being a great giant canvas for the corner chops. But yeah, another ten minutes in some indy would have been nice.

AEW Dynamite 10/26

Bryan Danielson vs Sammy Guevara

MD: There was a moment in January or February where one of my absolute top Danielson AEW matches was Guevara, heel Danielson and face Guevara that was, driven by Guevara's athleticism giving Danielson the ability to push and push and push and the animosity that came from Danielson's sheer disdain for Guevara's claim to fame, the vlog, fueling the violence. I think my perfect wrestling world at that point had Danielson taking the TNT title and facing all sort of oddball challengers on a near weekly basis. No one could have predicted how 2022 turned out though.

This got a long, fairly complete fifteen minutes and had its share of Guevara pushing Danielson in the way he likes to get pushed, but plenty of character and crowd interaction as well. The commercial break fell a little later than usual maybe, allowing for Guevara to dive in right at the start with an immediate attack. The story here, as much as anything else, is that Sammy wouldn't know when to quit, when not to stay on something (be it forearms, or kicks) or would go for that extra flourish and pay for it (his tricked out back flip after a leapfrog or the missed moonsault, into a second, into a standing shooting star press), but then able to get back into things through his athleticism alone. Add in a bit of abuse from Tay and Danielson's comebacks being driven by grit and fury and absorption of blows and this was fairly enjoyable all around. There's a PPV match with no commercial break that these two could have that would really give Danielson his adrenaline-laden dream, and this wasn't that, but it leaned well into the hierarchy and Danielson's cruel mastery of pro wrestling while still highlighting all of those things that make Sammy special and tapering down all of the excesses that sometimes that people out of his matches.

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Paradigm Pro Wrestling Terminal Combat 5/21/21

PAS: I am in the bad for the PPW UWFI series, and they put together a great looking card here. Unfortunately I am really weary of the Frankensteining of the rules for Terminal Combat, with the first five minutes being UWFI rules before it becomes a street fight. Feels like if this was a straight UWFI rules show it would be amazing, we will see how this goes.

Akira vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: This match was kind of what I was worrying about. I really liked the five minute UWFI section. The dueling leglocks were cool, and I liked how aggressively Akira went after the Kimura. It was pretty clever how Dom used the rules shift to break the Kimura attempt with a big low blow. I didn't love the street fight section, it was stiff, but there were these silly Akira spots like putting a pop tart into Garrini's mouth. Really came off discordant. Dom using a bunch of low blows to set up a bulldog choke was cool, but this really was neither fish nor fowl and I would have enjoyed either a UWFI match or a street fight way more.

Dustin Leonard vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: This doesn't go five and thus was just a UWFI rules match. Love Leonard who is a Ju-Jitsu black belt who looks like Don Kernodle. He is one of my favorite guys to watch in this fed, even though he is pretty limited. The stand up parts of this fight didn't look great with Leonard looking a little flinchy and overearly dropping from a Thompson hook. Flash brought his nice movement, but not much else. Finish was bonkers though, with Leonard from his back pressing Thompson off of him with his knees and spinning him into a cross armbreaker. Totally sick shit, and stuff like that will keep me searching out all Dustin Leonard. 

Lord Crewe vs. Derrick Neal

PAS: Crewe has been one of the in-ring standouts of this project, really mastering these kind of swing for the fences brawls and this was another corker of fight. Neal hasn't done anything for me previously, but fit nicely into the Lord Crewe formula. Lots of wild shots some, which land big. Loved the finish, as we are into the count down to switch rules, and Crewe hits a nasty knee right to the chin and a sick sounding diving elbow for the KO. Really popped me by avoiding the awkward switch into street fight. 

Alex Kane vs. Isiah Broner

PAS: This was my most anticipated fight of the show, and it delivered (and thankfully in under five minutes). Both these guys come off like total killers, and it was quick and hard hitting. Broner throws bodyshots to the kidneys and is able to slip and hit a suplelx of his own. Kane fires back with a German chained into a Saito suplex but as he is setting up the Mark of Kane Broner slips out and puts him to sleep with a spinning back elbow. Intense short and violent, exactly what I have loved about this series.

Ron Mathis vs. Josh Crane

PAS: Crane is a Big Japan guy, and although there was an interesting moment or two during the UWFI series - Mathis has some fun takedowns - they were basically killing time until the chairs and doors part of the match. That was OK I guess, it is a style I am pretty much over, there were some nice bumps, but unless these matches have outstanding individual performances or something, they just tend to to blur to me. I thought the finish was clever with Mathis making a Backlund face after getting driven through a door and locking in a choke, but otherwise this wasn't much.

Austin Connelly vs. Brayden Lee

PAS: This was supposed to be Connelly vs. Max the Impaler which I hope we get to see one day. This was a banger though on it's own. Lee was in a singlet and introed with his collegiate wrestling background referenced, and was really great working amateur style stuff into this match. He stuffs Connelly's aggressive attack and hits gator rolls, and is constantly and impressively riding and taking down Connelly,  wet blanketing his intensity. Connelly is able to take control a bit when he lands a bunch of strikes to the temple on a banana split attempt, and is able to ragdoll him with a throw. Finish was really great with Connelly figure fouring Lee's leg while Lee was on his back and then stomping him right on the head. I thought Lee ruled in this, would love to see him back, and Connelly is one of the most entertaining wrestlers in the world right now.

ER: Brayden Lee gets his college credentials listed in his intro but this man looks like someone who walked straight out of a collegiate wrestling program and showed up in Paradigm. Connelly is a crazed Connor O'Malley character who had no real chance of competing with Lee's wrestling skills, but had his own advantage with every part of the striking game. It's impossible to prevent Lee's takedowns, but Lee never expects to be open hand slapped across the ear immediately after a takedown, so it's this cool battle of amateur wrestler brain vs. UWFI brain. Connelly rushes in (as he'll do) and repeatedly gets trapped in front chanceries and constantly has his force deadened by Lee pushing on his shoulders, but again: Lee knows wrestling, Connelly knows how to hit, and Lee does not know how to take someone down while avoiding the hits that come after. I loved when Lee locked on a banana split and you're thinking "well Connelly is toast" before you, too, realize that Connelly can throw hard palm strikes right to Lee's head and neck and suddenly the banana split is neutralized. Connelly's gutwrench powerbomb looked sick, and then he outdoes himself by almost getting a shoot Texas Cloverleaf before deciding it's easier to just stomp Lee in the head and neck a bunch instead of rolling through with the Cloverleaf. We've seen Connelly work great 2 minute, 3 minute, and now 4 minute matches, and this pairing is something I'd love to see several more times with all new stips each time. Connelly is just so good on these shows. 

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Reed Bentley

PAS:  These guys are a brawling tag team, and Murdoch kept bailing out and trying to grab weapons, only to get called back into the ring, at one point he even sat down in the chair to try to run out the clock to Terminal Combat. Still when Murdoch comes back into the ring, Bentley hits him with a nasty barfight headbutt and lands a knee on the ground to KO him before they ever got to the garbage wrestling. I liked the last flurry from Bentley, although this was more of a troll then a match.  

Bradley Prescott IV vs. Jody the Wrestler

PAS: This was one of those meta comedy matches where guys make fun of the idea of pro-wrestling. I pretty much hate those universally, and Jody and Bradley aren't exactly UCB all-stars when it comes to sketch comedy. Keep it moving

Janai Kai vs. Sandra Moore

PAS: This did the best job so far of bridging the two concepts in this match. Kai is a UWFI rules veteran and wrestled Bloodsport, while this was Moore's first UWFI rules match. Kai dominated the first section using TKD and some nice snap takedowns. Moore is bigger and used her size to keep Kai off of her and land some bodyshots. Moore is basically able to survive until Terminal Combat where after Kai works her over a bit with Nunchucks, she is able to land a sick chair shot to the side of Kai's head and take control, finishing her off with a big powerbomb. Liked the story of the brawler surviving the shoot style specialist until it was her turn.

Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ and T-Money) vs. Creature Feature (Adriel Noctis/Lazarus)

PAS: I am not really sure how much of this match was actually shoot style, but it is such a pleasure to see the Fuck-It's back and whooping on some Goths. T-Money was a truck in this match, just tossing the Features with big slams, his opening shot was a spinebuster which looked like it snapped Lazarus's head back and won a UWFI rules match by KO after wasting Noctis with a pounce into the ropes. Russ was a little less showcased, although I loved his big right hand. This was basically a fun tag semi-squash, and there is no one better at violently squashing a tag team then the Fuck-Its.

Chase Holliday vs. Yoya

PAS: This was a nifty short David vs. Goliath shoot match. Yoya starts the match leapfrogging Holliday and dropping him with a big kick, Holliday is able to get up and throw Yoya a couple of times, and hits a couple of big powerbombs out of armbar attempts. Yoya was able to grab another armbard, slither up his body and grab a rear naked choke and put him out. Holliday had been really protected before this, so it was a big upset, and I like Yoya as a dangerous little guy who can absorb big shots but put someone to asleep if given the chance. 

Matt Makowski vs. Matt Justice

PAS: The opening five minutes of this were pretty cool with Justice using his size and strength to counter Makowski and push him into the Terminal Combat section. I enjoy Justice in these shoot matches as a big strong hard hitting guy who can overcome his lack of skill, kind of like a garbage wrestling Crazy Horse Bennett. The transition into Terminal Combat was cool with Makowski having a rear naked choke on and Justice falling backwards over the top rope to start the brawling. The brawling section in the middle was pretty dull though, not a lot of energy by Justice when we was in control, really felt meandering (which they even brought up sort of on commentary) Finish was cool though with Makowski putting on his Gi and using a Gi assisted choke armbar for the tap grabbing Justice after he got put through a table. I really like the MMA guys secret weapon being a Gi, too bad the brawling wasn't better as this had some stuff I liked. 

Hoodfoot vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: They skipped the UWFI rules section of this match and went straight into the brawl, and while it had it's moments, Hoodfoot hit some great headbutts, there were some nice suplexes, it really felt repetitive as most of the match was Hoodfoot getting an advantage and Gregory Iron interfering, rinse repeat. The finish was pretty nasty with Hoodfoot suplexing Beverly hard into a door and Iron and Iron really getting crushed, and Hoodfoot does have great charisma, but this was pretty low on the list of Heavy Hitters defenses, and the entire Hoodfoot to Makowski to Beverly back to Hoodfoot series of quick title changes felt like a waste.

PAS: Overall as an idea this was a failure to me. I am a big fan of this roster, so many matchups I want to see, but everything I liked was just a straight UWFI match, and I am thinking I will stick to that stuff from Paradigm in the future. 

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For The Fuck-Its The Sorrow is Worth The Redemption

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Sean Harddrive/Danny Todd Beyond Wrestling 10/13/12 - EPIC

PAS: This was a carload of Cincinnati guys who drove to Long Island to steal the show. 12 minute spot fest full of crazy moves and really nasty violence. T-Money was just throwing spuds wasting both of his opponents with forearms and kicks to the kidneys. Danny Todd had that power plant agility, jumping from the ring to the top rope and hitting super high super sharp dropkicks to the face. Some really cool combos including Harddrive slamming Russ into the corner at the same second Todd wastes him with a dropkick and a doomsday double knees by the Fuck-Its which looks like it killed everyone involved. Doesn't wear out its welcome and is exciting from bell to bell. Great example of what makes the Fuck-Its so much fun to watch.

ER: This is the youngest and rawest I've seen the Fuck-Its, and I dig it. Everyone here seems raw and I like the risk taking young(er) stupidity on display. You drive 12 hours to make an impression, you make an impression. Everyone had impressive moments here, not an imbalanced match at all, and one that appropriately ramped up the big spots as they went. Fuck-Its are always good at being a part of matches with some insane spots, where none of the spots that come after feel like letdowns. If there is something nasty early in a match, you can bet there will be something to take its place by the end. Harddrive and Todd have some nice flying moves, with Todd doing a couple of no hands springboards (including a nice TAKA style moonsault to the floor), and Harddrive doing a nice imploding corkscrew moonsault to the floor that managed to nail both Fuck-Its while avoiding the guardrail. Money was really throwing mean strikes the whole match, just winging those arms off bodies with punches and clubbing arms, hard lariats, and a cool short spear. Russ was landing full weight on cannonballs: a standing one, and a massive one off the top that leads Chuck Taylor to exclaim "I am never taking that move" on commentary. They worked opposite Chuck Taylor in 2014, wonder if his statement turned out to be true or not? As crushing as Nasty Russ's cannonball was, he takes a wicked flying knee to the face in the corner, and Harddrive also hits a 450 kneedrop that looks like it gave Russ three cracked ribs to think about on the drive back to OH.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JOLLYVILLE FUCK-ITS

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Glory Pro 4-Way Tag

57. Boys From Jollyville vs. Besties In The World (Davey Vega/Mat Fitchett) vs. The Pride (Aaron Dzinic/Matt Kenway) vs. Zero Gravity (Brett Gakiya/CJ Esparza) Glory Pro 5/7/17 - GREAT

PAS: Jollyville 4-Ways are always highlights of AIW cards so I was eager to see how the match style traveled, and the answer is: pretty well. I am not sure who The Pride have pride in; Aaron Dzinic's last name suggests maybe they're working a Serbian militia gimmick. They were clearly the greenest of these four teams, but I thought they bumped big and had some nice timing on cut offs. Zero Gravity had some fun highspots, although I want a team with that name to have crazier dives. Besties in the World have a cutesy ring entrance and infuriating name but looked really good here. Fitchett especially was really athletic and explosive, got crazy height on his pele kicks and really flew into all of the opposing teams' offense. He took the T-Money pounce about as well as I have seen it taken. Jollyville played the hits, but they are great hits, love the Russ cannonball and the airplane spin by Money, punch in the head by Russ. I never get tired of watching T-Money barrel through people, and his big dive looked great, especially in comparison to some of the other dives which felt constrained by a close crowd. The match kept it moving and outside of one kind of dumb multiple man DDT spot kept it plausible. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to digging into more Glory Pro Jollyville.

ER: The Fuck-Its are a perfect team to throw into a match like this, because it actually breaks up all the dancey body slap fighting and grounds it into something heavier. But a big multiman tag is also the best place to hide dancey wrestlers, because when the pace is fast enough everyone only has time for one or two sequences at a time. We don't ever get too bogged down with extended rehearsed sequences and instead we get guys getting their sequences interrupted with a nice strike or get tossed into a nasty bump. That's way better than watching Besties vs. Zero Gravity as it keeps things feeling more spontaneous and less locked in, less instances of "I miss you and you missed me back and then we spun into another miss before both hitting!" This was kept to a smart length so that nobody got too exposed, but the quality picked up noticeably whenever Russ or T-Money were involved. Both looked great in every single sequence they were involved in, and this is one of the all time monster T-Money performances. Russ stood out as a guy throwing the nastiest worked strikes in a match with leg slappers, getting in the ring during a flippy sequence and immediately throwing right hands to everyone. Money hit one of the greatest Pounces mine eyes have seen, with Kenway taking a huge bump bouncing into and off of the ropes. Money has such explosive power, always yoinks guys so quick off the mat and launches them into the air, just the perfect Rampage monster in a match like this. The dive train was big and wisely capped off my Money's crowd surf dive, there were several hot double teams (I really loved Esparza hitting a chestbreaker and holding it so Gakiya can hit a wicked double kneedrop off the top), and I'm going to love any match that features a big falling meteor from Russ. This easily could have been a long mess, but they kept it tight and crushed it.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JOLLYVILLE

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Complete and Accurate Jollyville Fuck-Its

One of our favorite tag teams and probably the most obscure C+A guys yet, but if this blog is good at anything it is finding and celebrating the obscure. T-Money and Nasty Russ are a pair of crazy guys who really know how to work both a regular tag match and wild spotfest. We are going to dig around old Beyond shows, more AIW then you can shake a stick at, and maybe even some Nasty Russ backyard wrestling, and hopefully introduce more people to this great team.


2012

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Danny Todd/Sean Harddrive Beyond Wrestling 10/13/12 - EPIC

2015

Nasty Russ vs. T-Money vs. Jay Donaldson vs. Samson Walker NWF 8/15/15 - GREAT

2016

Nasty Russ vs. T-Money vs. Anthony Bryant vs. Jeremiah vs. The Titan vs. Jay Donaldson vs. Larry D vs. Sean "The Virus" Harddrive NWF 4/23/16 - FUN
Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Cheech/Eric Ryan AIW 8/26/16 - GREAT

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Weird World (Worldwide Alex Kellar/ Weird Body Evan Adams) AIW 11/4/16 - GREAT

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Massage NV (Dorian Graves/VSK) AIW 11/5/16 - GREAT

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. The Headhunters AIW 11/5/16 - FUN 

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Crazy Pain (Gringo Loco/Steve Pain AIW 11/5/16 - FUN

2017

Boys from Jollyville vs. Mat Fitchett/Davey Vega vs. Matt Kenway/Aaron Dzinic vs. CJ Esparza/Brett Gakiya Glory Pro 5/17/17 - GREAT
Jollyville Fuck-Its/Matt Justice/Young Studs (Bobby Beverly & Eric Ryan) vs. No Consequences (Chase Oliver/Garrison King/Joshua Bishop/Tre Lamar/AJ Gray) AIW 7/27/17 - EPIC

2018

Jollyville Fuck-Its/To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)/Josh Prohibition vs. No Consequences (Tre Lamar/Garrison King/Chase Oliver/Joshua Bishop/AJ Gray) AIW 4/20/18 - GREAT

Jollyville Fuck-Its/To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)/Josh Prohibition vs. No Consequences (Tre Lamar/Garrison King/Chase Oliver/Joshua Bishop/AJ Gray) AIW 7/27/18 - GREAT

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Duke Money (Mance Warner/Jock Sampson) vs. The Production (Derek Director/Danhausen) vs. Young Studs (Eric Ryan/Bobby Beverly) AIW 11/23/18 - GREAT

2019

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Sadkampf (Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku) SUP 1/20/19 - EPIC

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney) vs. The Production (Derek Director/Eddy Only) vs. PME (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) AIW 4/14/19 - EPIC

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Youthanazia (Josh Prohibition/Matt Cross) AIW 5/17/19 - FUN

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Wes Barkley/Joshua Bishop AIW 6/15/19 - EPIC
Jollyville Fuck-Its  vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney) vs. The Production (Derek Director/Danhausen) vs. PME (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) AIW 6/15/19 - SKIPPABLE

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Welcome to Jollyville!

Nasty Russ vs. T-Money vs. Anthony Bryant vs. Jeremiah vs. The Titan vs. Jay Donaldson vs. Larry D vs. Sean "The Virus" Hardrive NWF 4/23/16 - FUN

PAS: This was a thunderdome cage match, which had one guy come in at a time War Games style until all 8 were in the ring and then it became an elimination match. There was a lot of individually cool shit in this match. I loved the opening section with Donaldson eating pounce after pounce from T-Money and taking acrobatic bumps into the cage, he just flew face first into the cage over and over. I also really liked Larry D, he is a big barrel chested dude who is good at playing brick wall, there was a fun spot where he had three guys on his shoulders at once. Nasty Russ hit his moonsault off the cage, which I guess is a signature Russ spot, which is psycho for a signature spot. Still this match was 45 minutes plus, which can be a punishing length to watch. There was also a ton of booking which might have worked for an NWF hardcore fan, but jumping in for just this match, it is a ton. We had manager interference, a tag partner running in to turn on his partner, a money in the bank cash in and a heel ref. Cut this 15 minutes and half the booking I could see recommending it stronger, still it had some impressive big moments.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JOLLYVILLE FUCK-ITS

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New Footage Friday: FUCK ITS! SUPER DRAGON! NEGRO CASAS! EL DANDY! SILVER KING! FAMILIA DE TIJUANA! EMILIO CHARLES JR.!

Felino/Emilio Charles Jr./Dr. Wagner Jr./Negro Casas vs. Pantera/Silver King/El Dandy/El Texano CMLL 12/16/95

PAS: This was an elimination 8 man tag with eight all time great wrestlers going out there are just flowing for 30+ minutes. We open with Negro Casas and El Dandy ripping it up on the mat and just go from there. Matches like these are always going to be more about the rhythm then any real story, although I did dig it coming down the Wagner boys. Fun Wagner performance as he was just planting people with powerbombs, and of course Dandy and Casas were both tremendous. As I have said a million times Casas is the master of minutia, little reactions or sells or execution on moves, everything matters and counts, and it is fun to watch him flit in and out of a match with so many other all timers.

MD: It's a 4x4 Cibernetico with some of the best talents of the era. What's not to like? According to the old WON I looked at, this was billed as "for La Copa de altra rendimiento which basically means the Cup of high-class submissions," and Dave was baffled at the pinfall finish. Anyway, it was interesting how this flowed. You didn't get a lot of clear pairings with defined beginnings and endings but instead transitions between one wrestler and the next. Of the pairings we did get, Silver King vs. Negro Casas stood out. I always love the little trip spots they work into their exchanges. Very few dives but lots of great exchanges and big moves. Maybe Casas kicked out of one or two more things than he ought of, especially when there were still enough guys around to allow for interference, but that's a small issue, as was the botch on the Felino elimination. Wagner came out of this looking like a big deal. And yeah, while it's cliché for us to say it, Dandy's punches were sure great.

ER: I love having a collection of these types of matches, the kind of match I can throw on in the background if a friend or two are over and everyone in the room gets their own level of enjoyment out of it based on their individual concentration level. The person concentrating the most gets the benefit of seeing small sequences or individual movements, but someone dicking around on their phone will still look up and see Silver King stomping the hell out of Emilio Charles' knee or Dandy getting Casas out of the way with a breathless magistral. They'll see fast moves done by men they don't know who have large perms. It's worked at such a pace that it's perfectly entertaining for every level of involvement. I thought the major standout here was Texano, looking like the stiffest and most aggressive guy in a match filled with stiff strikes and fast aggressive sequences. Everyone was lighting up everyone, like Emilio Charles throwing skeleton rattling corner clotheslines or Wagner crushing Pantera with a sitout powerbomb. Casas is the perfect kind of glue for a match like this, and Dandy comes off so plucky and punchy. I get why Dandy didn't translate to southern American wrestling crowds, but seeing him in his wheelhouse and basking in his enthusiasm is infectious. He looks like the coolest version of Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born. The first three minutes of this match are just Dandy and Casas tearing through brisk mat sequences and really its all you need. This is the kind of thing you can play through a couple times and notice new stuff each pass.

Super Dragon/Rising Son/Pantera vs. Damian 666/Halloween/Nicho El Millonario Rev Pro 11/30/02 - GREAT

PAS: This was Super Dragon really clearly excited to work a Familia de Tijuana match. Most of Dragon's career was fitting people into his formula, so it was fun to watch him fit into a formula. We get some early lucha comedy, some pratfalls, an awesome somersault rana through the post by Dragon and a killer finish. Really enjoyed Rising Son in this as he was ripping off high difficultly ranas with true pros there available to base for him. The kind of match which must have sent the crowd home on a real lucha high.

MD: Whatever I was doing in the early 00s, it wasn't watching RevPro. I guess I was focused on the East coast scene? I have no idea. That made this pretty fresh for me. The biggest problem was that La Familia de Tijuana was just too over as cool heels, getting more cheers by far, to the point where I was sort of embarrassed for Pantera at one point. They didn't adapt the match for the crowd. That said, everyone seemed to be having fun, especially Damien who was goofing a bit more than usual. They did a lot of groin based offense accordingly. Nicho based beautifully but there's nothing new with that. Super Dragon was in there less than Rising Son but his flipping tope out through the corner to set up the finish was breathtaking. The timing of the dives at the end felt a little off to maximize the moment, but I doubt anyone in that crowd cared.

Nasty Russ vs. T-Money vs. Jay Donaldson vs. Samson Walker NWF 8/15/15

PAS: This was a four-way cage match with our boys the Jollyville Fuck-Its against each other along with two other Kentucky area indy guys. It was a spotfest cage match and the Jollyville boys are guys with huge spots, and Donaldson and Walker were right there. Walker is a big guy, even bigger than T-Money and he does some chucking around including catapulting Donaldson into an ace crusher. We don't get a Nasty Russ cannonball, but we do get a crazy moonsault off the cage into Walker's feet, and several nasty cage bumps including one where he goes forehead first into a steel post. Finish was absolutely psychotic and one of greatest cage finishes I have ever seen. Total blast and a great look at some Segunda Caida favorites earlier in their careers.

MD: If you're going to have four guys in a cage, fatal four-way style, this is a pretty good way to do it. This gave everyone time to shine. When guys had to lay around, it was generally warranted. The characters were well-defined. Walker was comedic yet powerful and explosive. Donaldson had the hype man, the step-up kicks, the attitude, and the opportunism. Russ carried himself like a champ, tenacious, with fighting spirit and an easy charisma, and T-Money was an unquestionable force. The setting felt like an indy lucha match that just happens in a public square, which added to the ambiance. The big spots were sufficiently big (killing your own knees by landing on a moonsault from the top is insane and the finishing stretch worked really well). The gaga at the end (Walker faking an injury in a cage match to get the door open; Donaldson dismantling the ring, a unique use of a wrench to say the least, with the ref going above and beyond to cover for how long it was taking, the friends having victory and the belt between them at the end) was fun, even if you don't usually want gaga in a cage match. You definitely felt the stakes throughout, which is what you want in a match like this.

ER: This was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to watch on my lunch break today. A loose cage with four guys willing to die, with a finish so doomed that if I hadn't seen these guys wrestle at a later date I would have just assumed that this did actually end with two of the guys dying. Russ and T-Money have seen a lot of praise from Segunda Caida. Those Boys from Jollyville are really the two that got us into AIW proper, and they're the team that has probably most often been referenced by us as a dream match tag opponent over the past couple years. I loved seeing the ways they acted as a team here, and even more excited for the gigantic moment where they were not together. I am not familiar with Samson or Donaldson, but came away especially impressed with Samson. As Phil said, he's almost like an even bigger version of T-Money, and had insane pop up strength. He shot Donaldson so far into the air a couple times that his body cleared the top of the cage, once for a super high backdrop and once for a fantastic looking cutter; but he also hoisted T-Money up for a sit up powerbomb like it was absolutely nothing at all, jerking him up sky high before bringing him down. I also loved how Samson basically stopped the match with an injury, waited until everyone was otherwise occupied, then dove for the cage door to attempt escape. That feels like Chris Hamrick Cage Match 101 and I love it. Donaldson had one dodgy strike exchange, but did a lot of things I liked. At one point he broke up a move by hitting an enziguiri right into Samson's armpit (intentionally targeted) and hit another enziguiri that really landed. He also ripped apart the ring ropes and strangled Russ with the rope, beating him with a wrench and buckle. Russ always flew into action with his awesome big punch, everyone took big bumps (Russ moonsault into feet was wild), and the finish was spectacular.

Everything about the finish was great, with T-Money about to escape but getting lured back in when Donaldson threatened to brain Russ with a chair. Money gets back in and just destroys Donaldson with a Pounce, sending him flying sideways into the cage. As Money is about to exit, Russ grabs his ankle, and we get a great bit of friendship when Money looks down and says "come on man". He already saved Russ from getting his face rearranged by a chair, and now the guy won't even let him win? Well, he certainly solves that problem, picking Russ up in a bearhug and running him straight through the cage door, sending both crashing to the grass in brutal fashion. T-Money looked like he went straight down, Russ crashed and burned underneath. Money had to leap, holding Russ, over the top rope and through a cage door, so both of their trajectories were beyond fucked. I can't think of many match finishes more spectacular than this one. I would have lost my mind live, then calmed myself down to make sure I didn't witness a death, then lost my mind again.

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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Missing AIW Match 1/19/18

PAS: While putting together the AIW Complete and Accurate I realized that Eric reviewed every match on the Death Rowe show except for this multi man tag, which is of course our favorite thing in AIW. And guess what? It ruled.

ER: I have no clue why I wouldn't have reviewed this tag match. As Phil said, I reviewed EVERY OTHER MATCH on that show, EXCEPT this one. And that makes no sense, because AIW tag scrambles are one of my absolute favorite match types in wrestling. Usually I just cherry pick 2-3 matches I want to watch on any given indy show, and this would have been one of those 2-3! For some reason I did the opposite and wrote up everything but the match that excites me most on paper. I can only assume there was something wrong with the video and the match was glitchy or missed. I got nothing.


43. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney) vs. Philly Marino Experience (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. Young Studs (Bobby Beverly/Eric Ryan) vs. Excellence Personified (Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Brian Carson)

PAS: AIW has mastered these multi man tag matches, and I really think To Infinity and Beyond are the glue that holds them together. This is really early PME, they have really developed in a great team, but this match was 18 months ago and they are still pretty seamlessly integrated into the match. This is the most I have enjoyed Dr. Dan, as he cuts out the comedy and just takes bumps. I think TIAB are just conducting a complex amount of traffic. Philly Collins's fat boy moonsault to the floor is one of the more impressive highspots around, he gets great height and lands with tubby force. Brian Carson has a crazy bump to the floor where he cracks his head on the top of the metal post, we get a bunch of cool double teams, and some really well timed cut offs. Just such an enjoyable bit of craziness.

ER: Yep, this ruled, easily my favorite match of the show. I'm never going to know/remember why I didn't watch this match with the rest of the show. AIW has my favorite tag scene in wrestling, and they do these wild action multi mans SO much better than anyone else, and Delaney/Cheech really do seem to be the consistent denominator in all of them. But this match was filled with star performances. Yes, Cheech and Delaney are constantly a part of that, and seem to trigger each new momentum change, while looking explosive as hell. Delaney runs into guys faster and with harder elbows than anyone in this thing, he has gotten so good in the past couple years. PME looked great too, with Marino dropping a great underdog babyface performance. Every time he would come in it lead to something exciting. Philly built to his big moments nicely, and that moonsault to the floor was like a strike that sends every single pin exploding backwards. But my favorite thing he did might have been when he got accidentally tied up in the ropes, to set up Delaney's sliding German. I'm a big fan of guys finding cool ways to set up someone else's trademark offense, anything other than just standing there and waiting. Brian Carson takes the bump of the match, missing an avalanche and hitting the ringpost, and then continuing to tumble over the top and off the ring steps to the floor. Young Studs looked good as ever, Beverly delivers his slams super fast and Ryan threw the best punches of the match, and threw them often. This whole thing was 8 guys running hard and running into each other, taking big bumps, finding fun ways to break up pins, just the best, most thoroughly mapped out tag. These matches are the best versions of those Dragons Gate scrambles that got acclaim over a decade ago.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Monday AIW - Against the World 8/26/16

42. Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ/T-Money) vs. Cheech/Eric Ryan

PAS: This was the Fuck-Its' return to the promotion and was kind of a Fuck-Its showcase, which is a hell of a showcase. Colin Delaney couldn't make the show so Ryan replaced him, and Cheech and Ryan are a fun makeshift team. T-Money was especially great in this, his tope looked as good as ever and he was wrecking people with clotheslines and slams. Ryan hits a chop where he runs around the outside before landing it, and when he goes for it a second time, T-Money explodes out of the rail and pounces Ryan into the crowd, it looked like one of those NFL films violent collision videos they stopped doing after CTE became prominent.

ER: Any show that starts with a Jollyville match is gonna go up a grade in my book, and I love a cool WCW style thrown together tag team. WWE always threw together as a lazy way to write in tension. WCW thrown together teams were always born out of a guy suddenly left without a partner and forced to find the best substitute on short notice. It's how we end up with a cool Bobby Eaton/Mike Enos team, or Rick Steiner/Kenny Kaos, or Bobby Eaton/Kenny Kaos! Eric Ryan is an awesome wrestler and Cheech is a great flashy counterpart. Jollyville are just a great team, that honestly also would have fit into WCW. They feel like an awesome SMW team, T-Money hits hard shoulderblocks and clotheslines and punches like the best possible Ice Train. Nasty Russ has the long combed back hair and looks awesome, like a badass estranged brother of Mr. Rosso on Freaks & Geeks. And this whole thing was awesome, just my exact favorite kind of tag match. Jollyville looked great. This is absolutely one of the best Jollyville performances I've seen, and these guys are my team. Russ bumps like crazy but hits hard, and sometimes he hits the mat hard while hitting hard. He takes a clothesline in the corner at one point that knocks him up to the top rope and back down on his shoulders in one quick shot, and it's like a Psicosis bump that never happened before. And the match ends with him hitting one of the most gung ho cannonballs, really throwing himself into it like he was  jumping into a pool and not onto a man. T-Money looked so big league here, Just running into guys like a freight train with hard punches, big ass lariats, and an all time great no hands dive into both Ryan and Cheech, the greatest double clothesline. Money leans into beatings too, and he bravely took his lumps in the corner to eat a mean facewash from Cheech, coast to coast dropkick from Ryan, and that cool 619 around the ringpost from Cheech. Ryan has great snap on everything and is always running fast and crashing hard, and Cheech as I've said a ton just blends so well into a great formula tag match. I loved all the exchanges here, from the big hard hitting flash right down to simple missed exchanges. In fact, my favorite part of the match was T-Money missing clotheslines, just running fast as possible off the ropes and swinging so low and so fast with those meaty arms that any miscommunication would have ended in murder. That kind of stuff is why I love pro wrestling. I love this tag scene.

Shawn Shultz vs Louis Lyndon

PAS: This was a match with some cool individual moments, some nice kicks by Lyndon, a brutal DDT on the floor by Shultz, but it was ultimately kind of a mess. It seemed like they were switching from face to heel every 90 seconds or so, there was some super dancey stuff from Shultz who is supposed to be working as a Southern wrestler, and the aforementioned DDT on the floor was so nasty that it makes no sense for them to work a your turn my turn roll up section a minute later. I have liked both guys in the past, but this was no bueno.

Britt Baker vs Crazy Mary Dobson

PAS: Britt Baker is the big female AIW graduate and definitely got pushed past her ability level. Mary Dobson was throwing bows like someone who was putting over someone she shouldn't. The parts of the match where Mary was kicking her ass was fun stuff. The Baker wrestling sections significantly less so. I have dug Logan in the WWE, is there fun Crazy Mary I should be checking out?

14. Eddie Kingston vs. Shigehiro Irie

PAS: Kingston Road matches are specific subset of his big matches and there have been some awesome ones. I think this might be my favorite. Irie is a sawed off asskicker, who is going to hit hard and take a beating but this was Kingston taking what he can do and crafting a classic around it. Standard hard hit start, until Kingston takes an elbow to the ear and collapses. For much of the rest of the match he does some amazing head trauma selling, constantly shaking off cobwebs, unsteady on his feet, but moving forward and attacking. Irie is a force in this match, he breaks Kingston's hand by ducking his head on the backfist so Kingston hits the top of his skull instead of his jaw. Such a simple counter and so awesome looking. He also shrugs off a big lariat, hard to lariat a guy with no neck.  There was a bunch of tough guy selling in this match, but Kingston especially put enough pain behind his eyes that it wasn't just a cheap stunt. Finish had Kingston dumping Irie on his head and Irie popping up to stumble around, it was a tribute to the Williams vs. Kobashi finish and done about as well.

ER: Goddamn do I love 2004 NOAH Eddie Kingston. He is so damn good at perfecting one of my all time favorite eras of wrestling, with a unique slant, inventive selling, and a ton of personality, he's just going from I guy I've always been into to an all time great. This is everything Kingston does great, distilled into one match. I see this and it makes me angry I never got to see him against every guy who worked NOAH from 2001-2007. His stand and trade tough guy dying on his sword bombfests add so many more interesting dimensions to his style that it feels like it's exposing every single big dumb New Japan wankfest for what they are. This whole thing is just Irie and Kingston hitting each other while Kingston plays out the best vinyl pants Kawada match structure. I loved it, and I loved Kingston's heavy armed chops, backfists to the neck, big damn STO, and his selling while taking a big bodied beating. When he goes to hit Irie and hurts his hand, recoiling and falling down to a knee and then back on his butt, I was gleeful. And by the end of the match where Irie headbutts to counter two spinning backfists, and Kingston is rolling around on the floor holding his hand while the ref tries to get a read on the situation? I was in wrestling heaven. Two incredibly fun personalities, throwing blows, adding their personal color in a wonderful combination, harkening back to a style of puro I greedily consumed (and looking even better coming not several hours after checking in for the umpteenth time on New Japan to the usual disappointment). Another Kingston classic. 

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Wang Yang

PAS: This was Yang's first match in 3 years (he took another 2 off and worked a Tokyo Gurentai match in 2018). It was a lot of shtick to cover up a guy who hadn't worked in forever. They took a plant from the crowd and made her Yang's manager, had lots of stuff with the Duke, etc. Yang had some nice looking flips, but wasn't landing anything with particular force. It was OK, but more of a live crowd match then anything to revisit. 

Alex Daniels vs. Matt Cross vs. Triton vs. Laredo Kid

PAS: Fun spotfest. Triton had a nice double jump dive to the floor, but was a bit slow and a bit leadfooted for some of the stuff he was trying to do. Dainels was surprisingly adept at the armdrag/lucha rope running part of the match, he looked like he had been working in that style for years. Lots of crazy spots, leading to kind of a lame ending with Gregory Iron tossing in a belt for Daniels to graze Cross with for a roll up. Took a bit of the steam out of the match honestly.

Tracy Williams vs. Michael Elgin

PAS: This was a very 2010s wrestling match. With your opening feel out mat sections, exchanging of big bombs, moves on the apron, forearm exchanges and big 2.9 sections at the end. It is expected stuff. This did lack some of the true excesses of the style, there wasn't a bunch of no-sells or a big "fight forever" finisher killer end run, and it had some little moments I really dug. Elgin is a big strong guy, and they did a short arm scissors deadlift spot, which is one of my all time favorites. I also loved how Elgin stepped into William's forearm blunting the impact with his belly. Overall this was a good match in a style I am weary of. Williams had a hell of a singles match run in AIW from around 2016 until he got signed by ROH, and this was a worthy part of that run.

Josh Prohibition vs. Nate Webb

PAS: Prohibition gets on the mic and says that no one paid to see them wrestle a mat classic, so they go relaxed rules. This was a greatest hits Nate Webb show, from the Teenage Dirtbag entrance, to a bunch of dumb bumps, to all of his twisty offense. I am a Nate Webb fan, so I was happy to watch him play his hits (Eddie Kingston even makes that call on commentary). Prohibition got put through a table and thrown around a bit, he was fine Nate Webb dance partner, made him look good.

Teddy Hart vs. Facade

PAS: This was a super Teddy Hart match. Mr. Money comes down with him. They open with some pretty awesome Teddy matwork, including a Fujiwara take down, and an incredible spot where he caught a kick to the chest and turned into a mid air leg lace, it looked like something Tamura might do. Then, of course, Teddy hurts his ankle applying a spinning scorpion. They stop the match, have people come from the back, take his boot off. Teddy limps to the ring gets on the mic and apologizes to the fans and puts over Facade as the future of the business. Facade thanks him, and attacks him giving him a Canadian destroyer. Teddy is able to fight back though and lay Facade out with a Destroyer on a guard rail. It did a nice job turning Facade heel and setting up a blood feud rematch (although Teddy just should have been laid out and not gotten his heat back), but of course since this is Teddy Hart, he never comes back to AIW. Still a cool, if ridiculous bit of business.

ER: Teddy Hart pulls off things that most wrestlers can't, and this is him pulling off a modern era Chris Hamrick performance. Chris Hamrick never had a cat, but you can imagine how successful he would have been with a white cat (obviously) wearing a matching shiny confederate flag vest. I loved those matches where Hamrick would take a grizzly bump and stop everything, bring out a couple guys from the back to check on him, lie motionless talking under his breath in a scared tone about his neck or his knee, get an organic Hamrick chant going, and basically derail everything for 8 minutes just to cheapshot his opponent with a ballshot. Could he have just kicked his opponent in the balls without falling off the top turnbuckle and twisting his knee in the ropes? Well, yeah. And HHH could have just hit Stone Cold with a sledgehammer in the first segment instead of setting up an elaborate series of costumes and double switches before hitting someone with a sledgehammer (except faking a knee injury to kick someone in the balls is infinitely more interesting and HHH didn't understand that). Here Hart punches Facade across the mouth a bunch, drops some cool unexpected transitions, and eventually hurts his ankle and limps back to the ring to put over Facade, AIW, the crowd, the boys in the back, and professional wrestling. And I liked the twist of Facade being the one to lash out with a Canadian Destroyer. I think it would have been a great heel turn...if Teddy Hart didn't immediately get to do a FAR cooler Canadian Destroyer from the apron onto a freaking guardrail that Facade had set up. Oh my god Gordy just slammed the cage door right in Kerry's face! But look at that, here's Kevin, and he slams the cage door right in Flair's face!! Von Erichs win!! And they never fight again.

71. Raymond Rowe vs. Tommy End

PAS: These two looked like a mosh pit fight at a Black Metal concert. I think this could have been an incredible 10 minute sprint. Both guys have super cool ways to throw knees, kicks, forearms and punches. I really like how End throws combos from different places, shooting low kicks to the knee, and punches to the ribs and kicks high. Rowe had some bangers too, although he did do some unnecessary leg slapping. There were some especially gross knees to the back of the head. This did feel a bit bloated, lots of killer shots which should have ended a match, but instead were just kind of there without any context. This was a big main event with Rowe fighting his friend in his home town, so I get why it was worked at the length it was, and it was overall a good match, I just think with some edits it could have been a great one.

ER: I really liked this, but agree it went too long. It's a bummer when I find myself really hooked into a match, and then feel myself mentally checking out through the last few minutes of kickouts and strikes. There were a couple of those "I am definitely checking out now" moments, like nearfalls where the guy doing the pinning is the one who kicks out first, and the peak just felt like it hit, then we shot past it and it's like we don't actually know how to end things but at least we still hit hard. But I really like these two! End is a strike combo guy, but he's one of the few who doesn't actually do the exact same combos in the exact same order every time out. There's a lot of strike combo guys. Every one that I'm thinking of always goes through the same sequences in the same way. End always winds up surprising me with a couple of the ways he sets up a kick. He hits his hooking spin kicks so quickly and accurately that they really do seem to come out of nowhere, and we never wind up with any of those stupid "I kick you and then you bounce off the ropes and hit me and that spins me around into another kick" kind of bullshit, End just comes up with cool ways to land shots without ever swing dancing. I really dug the stuff on the floor, both guys hitting the railing, Rowe setting up knee strikes on the apron, but wherever they were at I was never quite sure what was going to happen next. They always kept me guessing, and I like the strikes and big slams from both (that standing splash mountain from Rowe is damn cool), they manage to avoid the worst parts of this style.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AIW Monday - Absolution 7/27/18

Louis Lyndon vs. Derek Director vs. KTB vs. Space Monkey vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Rex Brody

PAS: One of the better "get everyone on the card" scrambles they have done. Even with Space Monkey and Brody we didn't have anyone grinding the match to a halt with their comedy spots, the action really kept moving. Derek Director had some cool moments, including a nasty running knee to the face and a spot where he monkey flipped Yuta into Brody's crotch. KTB had a couple of amazing moments including a spot where he had two guys fireman carried and caught a third in his arms. Yuta looks like he blew out his knee, but they worked around it OK. Fun all action match,

Mance Warner/Jock Samson/Twan Tucker/Parker Pierce vs. Weird World/Philly Marino Experience

PAS: This started in a very Crockett way, with multiple heels bumping for super over babyfaces. We get a good heel beatdown section on Marino, and a really fun Worldwide hot tag. Finish run is car crash wrestling done well. I really love Philly's fat boy Orihara, and Marino's assisted plancha, just an awesome pair of signature dives. Our boy Weird Body takes sick bumps on a tower of doom superplex, and a Steiner Square Driver from the Duke. Our heroes get screwed out of victory by the dastardly heels, and this was a wholly satisfying bit of business.

48. Young Studs vs. The Production (Danhausen/Eddy Only)

PAS: This was excellent, just awesome stiff 2019 tag wrestling. These are four guys who throw heat and will take huge nasty bumps, and they run a pretty great all action tag with those as a base. Eric Ryan is truly certifiable, he takes 90s Foley bumps in almost every match, here he gets backdropped off the ramp and lands spine first on concrete. These guys were wasting each other in the ring too, Bobby Beverly obliterates Danhausen by intercepting an in-ring plancha with a savate kick, Only threw really nasty elbows and punches, there were some big slams and throws, really a bomb fest. We are Production stans here at Segunda Caida, but this was the best they have looked. Loved this.

ER: Yeah this really delivered. I was excited for it anyway - always gonna be excited for The Production - but The Production jumped the Studs on the entrance ramp and asses got kicked for the next 15 minutes. These guys were all ringing bells, hard elbows all around, nasty throws, nasty bumps, no nonsense just asskicking. AIW always brings asskicking, The Studs always bring asskicking, and it was cool seeing Only and Danhausen ALSO as kickers, not just ass kickees. Everybody in this comes off nuts to a degree, but Ryan is probably the most nuts. He throws such violence behind all of his strikes, and then he's crushing Only and Danhausen into the guardrails over and over with topes through the bottom ropes, and then he's splatting off the entrance ramp with a lunatic backdrop bump. My god man. I think they did a really good job using saves and building the action, as tough strikes eventually turn into amped up risk and fun double teams. I loved all of the quick suplexes from the Studs, they would really snap them over and when they'd be hitting snap verticals and stacking The Production like cordwood. There were a couple hitches when they tried getting a little cute (a DDT your partner spot is much clunkier than it should have been, and an Only cutter to the floor looks like both guys realized what a bad idea it was halfway through), but the answer always came right after those spots when everyone would go back to hitting each other hard. Bless this tag division.

Matthew Justice/Scott Steiner vs. Ethan Page/Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham

PAS: Justice brings out Steiner to even the odds, and it is pretty much just the heels bumping for Steiner and Justice, which is exactly what you want from this match up. Dr. Dan takes a couple of big bumps, and Page eats a big overhead throw from Steiner. Not much to say about this match, it does what it set out to do.

96. No Consequences (Tre Lamar/Garrison King/Chase Oliver/Joshua Bishop/AJ Gray) vs. Josh Prohibition/Jollyville Fuck Its (T-Money/Nasty Russ)/To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: 2017 Absolution No Consequences 10 man tag was one of my favorite matches of the year, this didn't live up to that level but was still a bunch of fun and had some big highlight moments. Both Tre Lamar and Chase Oliver are nutty fliers, Oliver hit an incredible springboard moonsault at the same time Lamar hit a great ringpost Santo style tope. The structure of the previous years match had the Consequences take an extended beating before making a comeback, here the match was worked more even, it makes narrative sense, NC are all a year more experienced, but evenish is a less cool structure. We do get some solid asskicking though, especially by the Fuck-Its including an awesome Pounce by T-Money where he ran all the way down the ramp before sending Lamar into the stratosphere. The story of the match was Joshua Bishop trying to earn the respect of Josh Prohibition, which isn't a matchup I cared a ton about. Still I will pretty much enjoy any combos of these guys.

ER: So no, this is not quite as good as the 2017 10 man, but this ruled pretty hard on its own. Everybody got their moments and there were some good by god moments to get. Jollyville are my faves and lived up to that here. Russ comes off like a total badass WCW undercarder that I always hope is going to come out those fake air-powered doors through the Mothership's fog machine, throwing hard punches and elbowdrops with his own body, and an absolutely crunching cannonball off the top. T-Money pounces Tre Lamar from the entrance ramp into the ring, in a spot that was only slightly less impressive than some of Lamar's by-choice flying. Chase Oliver was a real standout here. He and Lamar work a hyped up indy style that I hate when it's worn by most guys, but they really pull it off. Oliver can land played out indy offense like standing shooting star presses and make them actually land, he and Lamar hit a bonkers tandem dive that looked like two prop planes that missed a fatal collision by mere feet, and then there's crazy stuff like his rope walk rana. I loved it all. There were a couple hinky moments (Lamar does land full weight on Oliver with a mistimed missile dropkick that they pretend didn't land like that, and the Bishop/Prohibition stuff wasn't my favorite), but TIAB were pro as hell throughout, AJ Gray had some nice flying into and out of the ring, the double Drunken Drivers by Prohibition were a definitive finish, and I'm just going to need them to keep running this back every year.

Tim Donst vs. Joey Janela

PAS: These are two guys I am normally a low voter on, but man it is hard to deny their willingness to absolutely crash and burn in hideous ways. This is a ladder match, and has some slow climbing and grasping which is endemic in all ladder matches, but it also has some truly holy fuck moments. They mention Donst recovering from kidney cancer and how his doctor told him to not wrestle in ladder matches, and then later have him fall directly off a ladder onto a pile of chairs with the legs sticking up. Janela gets chucked through a ladder on top of a table and the ladder just explodes with the impact. Totally gross stuff, but hard not to appreciate the hell these guys put their body through.

Dominic Garrini vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was a dog collar match, and definitely very different from the other matches between these two. There was a lot I really loved about this: the stuff with the chain and collar was pretty awesome, Lawlor hit a superman punch with the chain, Garrini used the chain to headbutt Lawlor, there was a bunch of cool uses of the chain to make submissions look nastier. And this included an awesome ending where Garrini used a chain assisted Gargano escape to choke Lawlor out, with Lawlor refusing to tap and flipping off Garrini as we watched his finger fall down into unconsciousness.  I think if this had just been a dog collar match it would have ended up really high on the MOTY list, however, they used a bunch more props, like thumbtack bats and a board with bottle caps and a board with poppers. All of that stuff didn't add to the match. A dog collar is a great gimmick, you don't need more stuff. My wife's best friend will never just make chocolate chip cookies, she has to throw in gummy bears, and Twix pieces and candied almonds, until you are overwhelmed. This was a match with too many ingredients. I still liked it, but it kept me from loving it.

Franky Flynn/Magnum CK vs. Swoggle/PB Smooth

PAS: Swoggle isn't an act I really rate. Having him in a tag title match is bound to turn it into a yuks fest. Magnum CK is awesome at comedic matches, he has great facial expressions and if someone has to sell for Swoggle it might as well be him. He was also pretty great at the actual wrestling stuff, there was a spot where he goes for a blind leapfrog and gets caught in PB's arm, and he had an awesome look of terror before he was thrown. Some fun stuff, but I am glad the tag titles have moved back into actual great wrestling matches.

Tracey Williams vs. Nick Gage

PAS: This was Gage working a stiff title match, without any shortcuts. It was pretty entertaining, Gage works stiff and has some big over moves. He really dominated the match, and did it with wrestling. There was some pop ups which I didn't love, but I also really liked some of the big exchanges. The finish was pretty shocking, can't believe Gage would tap out, seems like something he wouldn't let his character do. Williams had some great matches during his title run, the start wasn't a great match, but it was nice example of what was to come.

ER: Another AIW show, another couple matches added to the ongoing MOTY List. The Young Studs/Production tag and the 10 man were the kind of things that keep these AIW loving hearts beating.

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Monday AIW - Keep Their Heads Ringing 5/17/19

Jollyville Fuck-Its vs. Youthanazia (Josh Prohibition/Matt Cross)

ER: This was a lot shorter than I wanted, and much more of a Youthanazia match than I wanted. Jollyville is probably my favorite team on the indies, and every single second this was a Jollyville match the match was really good; most of the time when it was a Youthanazia match, it wasn't. Jollyville jump them to start and Russ is absolutely a must watch guy for me, he can make an opening match punch exchange feel like a good fight and really spill to the floor fast, and both he and T-Money make somewhat soft looking dives look better than they actually are. There's a lot of Jollyville forced to stand around and wait for Youthanazia to hit their complicated offense, and I'd rather just see them kicking asses than painfully waiting around for things. There was one moment where T-Money had to stay still bent at the waist, and Russ had to stay still up on Cross's shoulders, while Prohibition took ages to get to the top and steady himself to hit a double mushroom stomp. I felt for those dudes forced into a time stand still moment. But I also got to see Russ throwing his hard punches and great knee to the stomach, got to see the airplane spin/punch combo (and I always like how Russ takes incidental damage during that spot), and finish is genuinely good: Russ reverses a powerbomb with a really nice rana, send Prohibition flying into the ropes to knock Cross to the floor, and T-Money hits the Pounce. Simple, effective, and really well executed finish.

PAS: This show was supposed to be headlined by Lucha Brothers vs. Fuck-Its, which would have been a really cool opportunity for the Jollyville Boys to get a showcase. Running the first time battle between Ohio Backyard legends Fuck-Its and Youthanazia was a good booking compromise, but I wish it was longer and better. I agree that it was too much elaborate MDogg and Prohibition offense and not enough ass kicking. That pounce finish was killer though, Josh bumps neck first right into the ropes.

Dominic Garrini vs. Tim Donst

PAS: This was really good, my favorite Donst match since that first Kingston match years ago. Garrini is pretty much a must watch at this point, he has had a hell of a 2019. The whole thing was a super stiff brawl, with Garrini doing some really awesome Ju-Jitsu attacks early, including a jumping triangle, he also just wrecks Donst with a stiff lariat on the outside. The turning point of the match comes when Donst catches Garrini coming into the ring with a nasty forearm which catches his knee in the ropes. Then its Donst wrecking the leg with Garrini selling the damage. There is a great spot where he goes for his big jumping knee and just collapses in pain. I really liked the finish too, with Donst snapping and demolishing Dom's knee and leg with chair shots, finishing with one to the head and then just obnoxiously putting an unconscious Garrini in a rear naked choke. Sets up the big Submit and Surrender match at Absolution really well, and sold me on a match I was agnostic on.

ER: Dang what a fight this was. I didn't think these two would be a good match for each other, honestly. Donst is a guy with cult popularity who usually does a couple things I like in a match, but also can come off sluggish. Nobody really had time to be sluggish here and the sadistic side of Donst really took this to the next level. I would have been pretty happy if the match never even progressed to knee stuff, as the shots into the guardrail were tough and Garrini looked like he was going to attack Donst like a pitbull the whole match. That would have been cool. But Donst elbows Garrini, Garrini gets his leg tied in the ropes as a bonus, and Donst zeroes in. Donst was a real jerk with the leg work, and Garrini sold it great and really worked at 60%. Donst's outright attacks were good (one of the more convincing ankle locks I've seen, usually it just looks like someone standing there holding a foot like a dingus), and his dickish attacks were even better (at one point he comes up and grabs Garrini by the face...and kicks him in the side of his knee). Garrini's selling was choice, not doing any exaggerated limping or back row drama, but getting up slow and doing little things, like trying to hop into throwing a German suplex and having to bail on it almost midway through, not throwing with the same intensity as he typically will. Donst is so ruthless on this finish, the chairshots were all sick, and the choke to an already downed opponent feels like a Kurisu move. This was a killer fight.

CPA vs. Danhausen vs. KTB vs. Louis Lyndon

PAS: This was a fun multiman match, with our boys the Production running a lot of interference for Danhausen. This is the annual no-rules show, so this was basically a six way with Eddy Only and Derek Director. KTB has some fun strength spots and got a chance to toss a bunch of people around. I am not sure what CPA's deal was, he seemed to be workshopping four or five comedy gimmicks at the same time, he is an accountant who loudly yells out early 2000s WWF finishers, while being clumsy, while being a secret Taylor Swift fan? Pick a lane. Production is always worth watching.

AJ Gray/PB Smooth/Tre Lamar vs. Weird World/Kaplan vs. Young Studs/Swoggle

ER: This was a pretty big waste of 9 guys, and felt like we only got 5 minutes of a potentially worthwhile 15 minute tag. Nearly everyone in this was underutilized. Weird Body is probably my favorite cult indy guy (Brickster? Mecha Mercenary?), and I barely saw him in this one (the match was also in the dark a lot, due to entrances, so his dark singlet could have just been shrouded in darkness), didn't see Worldwide, Eric Ryan disappeared after a minute, just what was the point of this? The Young Studs armdrag into the turnbuckles is really great, and the match gets a couple hot little moments (Kaplan belly bumping the bricks off of Swoggle and then taking a Beverly chairshot to the side of the head was nasty), but this was a rushed non-use of some talented guys.

PAS: This is clearly Eric watching this match on his phone on the toilet at work, as Weird World was in the coolest spot of the match where he gets used as Terry Funk's ladder only to take a sick bump when Worldwide was clotheslined. The match starts with Gray, Lamar and PB Smooth forming 40 Acres and a Mule and doing some pretty solid heel mike work about being overlooked and abused. Swoggle and the Young Studs answer the open challenge, and I don't think the best thing for your new heel stable is having them sell big for Swoggle, but I guess I get it. Kaplan and Weird World come out later to Natural Born Killaz doing a Gangstas gimmick, which is a running gag on the no rules shows. It amused me last year and I thought it was fun here. I did think PB Smooth destroying Bobby Beverly with the chokeslam through the carpet tacks was a nice way of getting their heat back after selling for Kaplan and Swoggle, and thought overall this was a decent way to introduce 40 Acres and get in the yearly Weird World Gangstas tribute.

Philly Marino Experience vs. To Infinity and Beyond

PAS: This was really good stuff. TIAB are a really great heel tag team, they honestly remind me of the Midnight Express, they get a little wacky double team heavy, but shit 2019 MX would totally get wacky double team heavy too. PME are a hell of babyface team, great connection with the crowd, big bumps, fired up offense, they really check all the boxes. This was no DQ like the rest of the show and I loved how they still worked a southern tag formula by having Marino eat the guardrail on a missed assisted plancha. So he was down on the outside while Philly gets double teamed. Marino's eventually comeback is worked just like a hot tag. They have some big near falls including Delany pulling the ref out right before the three. The dickishness of the heels landing multiple low blows while staring at the ref was pretty great. Liked this a lot and I imagine their Absolution match is going to be awesome.

ER: I thought this was tremendous, and don't think the modern Midnight Express label is hyperbolic despite clearly seeming hyperbolic. This tag is just the right amount, has bonkers action, a couple of excellently timed saves (love Cheech rolling over the top of everyone at just the right time and yanking the ref out of the ring was just as well done and unexpected), just a scorching tag match. For the first minute I actually thought I was accidentally playing this in 1.5 speed because that opening fist exchange looked like things were landing way to well to be playing in normal speed, and that vibe kept up through much of the match. Seriously watch Delaney and Philly going at it and tell me those madmen are working at normal speed. Everything here is done with some great force, like Philly's avalanches and the way Marino dives face first right into the guardrail. When Infinity has Philly laid out in the corner, they even do all their chain combos real deliberately, leaping in with hard facewash dropkicks, swinging in with a thud on the 619, and Philly is a great FIP for the boys. I love how he took a back suplex, and loved how Infinity kept sinking in the pinfall attempts deep to really force a kickout. The whole match was hot and really one of my favorite tags of the year. It was put together so tight - on a show that practically begged for overkill - and here they were just making the most out of Marino coming back, snug shots, and nearfalls that all worked. This whole thing ruled.

Joshua Bishop vs. Matt Justice

PAS: This was a hell of a brawl before the crazy spot which went viral. Matt Justice is always worth watching, but this was the best actual match I have seen him in (outside of the awesome 10 man a couple years ago, but he was one of ten). A lot of times his matches kind of fall apart as he sets up stunts, and while the stunt at the end of this match did take a bit to set up, the brawling before the stunt was brutal and solid. Bishop is a guy I would buy stock in. He is getting better every time I see him and has real size and portrays that size well. He is a great looking bleeder with his platinum Barry Windham hair, and isn't afraid to both dish out and take a big beating. There was some really nasty looking stuff with guardrails and chairs, and also some great looking straight punches. The finish of course is the craziest spot of the year with Justice hitting a Death Valley Driver off a balcony through four tables, totally bonkers and certainly a moment to remember. Bishop has been in two of the brawls of the year so far, hell of future if he doesn't cripple himself.

ER: I know we always make the point throughout some of these shows that it has to be hard to stand out on shows like this. AIW cards are absolutely stacked and shows like this with no rules are filled even more so with guys dying on bumps or eating awful weapon shots. So hats off to these two for crafting a match that stood out as its own thing. Bishop won the Intense title from Justice on the prior show and here he's hanging by a thread the whole time. He seemingly comes out already bleeding, and forehead blood soaking through a big white bandage is one of our Great Wrestling Visuals. And once the shots start coming, they really start coming. Both guys eat hard chairshots, and they tear up the ringside area moving guardrails around with their bodies. Justice eats a brutal low angle lawn dart into a guardrail and later takes a nasty hotshot on the rail, looked like he was angry with his teeth and wanted to teach the bottom row of them a lesson. Bishop comes off like peak Raven to me, as he throws himself hard into his opponent's brawling, torches himself on rail bumps, even has similar movements. Justice throws himself into attacks, hits a pretty unhinged dive to the floor and a plancha far over the railing into the crowd, and both guys kept landing in ways that hurt my joints, my knees, my face, everything. Also, I had not seen THEE finish. I am inside of a tiny niche pro wrestling bubble, and yet even within that small bubble I seem to remain somehow aloof to things. Going into this match I had no idea there was a notable finish, and my god what a finish. The set up was indeed lengthy (he needs a guy setting up props for him, bring in a rookie who just sets up destruction derby sets) but my god did it payoff. The camera angle and the hang time made it look like Bishop was taking a death valley driver off a 3rd story balcony. What a freaking crash, one of the all time crazy spots/bumps. Some backyarder needs to recreate this off their stepdad's roof NOW. I love Bishop retaining by being having his lifeless corpse placed on top of Justice's similarly lifeless corpse. No clue how they're going to top this, but brothers, elevate this feud!

Eddie Kingston vs. Nick Gage

PAS: This is minor key Eddie Kingston. It is really tough to do a brawl right after the insanity of Justice vs. Bishop, so both guys lean on their charisma. There was some nice looking brawling and I enjoyed how they did a catch as catch can opening as almost a comedy spot. This really didn't need tacks - especially considering how the main event was going to end - but otherwise this was solid, and Kingston's Saito suplex on the chair was super nasty.

MJF vs. Penta el Cero Miedo

PAS: These are two shtick heavy guys, whose shtick I am super tired of. There was a fair amount of Twan Tucker on the outside and he has a really great intensity, him going nose to nose with Penta felt like a bigger deal then any Penta vs. MJF showdown. Basically Pentagon cashing a check and MJF doing his OTT heel stuff.

Mance Warner vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: The brawling stuff is pretty cool, but this was mostly a weapons brawl. Lawlor uses a staple guy on Warner's tongue, they go through a mousetrap table, there is a tack bat, etc. Very IWA-MS main event. It was fine outside of the carny freakshow parts. Got to give credit to my man The Duke who always takes a huge bump or two, here he gets accidentally brained with a super violent chair shot. It is tough to main event these no rules shows. By the time they get to your match the crowd is a bit burned out and even an upped ante can't bring them back.


ER: So AIW could have pretty much put whatever they wanted on this card and it would still be the easiest recommendation because THREE matches made top 30 on our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List, with Infinity & Beyond vs. PME landing in our top 20! That's excellent pro wrestling baby, this is why we've been reviewing all this AIW!

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Monday AIW - Double Dare Tournament Night 2 11/5/16

PAS: So in classic Segunda Caida style, I watched night 1 of this tourney a year and a half ago, watched 80% of Night 2, and then it sat in our drafts forever. As part of Monday AIW I decided to finish off this review, and there is some fun stuff here.

Night 1 Review

Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ/T-Money) vs. Massage NV (Dorian Graves/VSK)

PAS: Massage NV's gimmick is less rapey when it is against guys, although it is still pretty stupid. Once we got through their shtick and got to the Fuck-Its beating their ass it got pretty fun. T-Money was especially laying in the clotheslines. I wasn't really buying the offense of Massage NV when they had control, although their spot where VSK oils himself up and slides on Graves back into a headbutt is amusing. Finish was pretty great as T-Money nearly murders VSK with a pounce, great bump by VSK he honestly looked like he broke his neck.

ER: I dug this the whole way through. The comedy massage stuff was relegated to the beginning, and then we transitioned suddenly into the violent part of the program. I've never seen Massage NV, but I actually thought the massage stuff was pretty amusing. I don't know how much legs it has (probably not a gag I'm going to be chuckling at during my 5th NV tag) but I got a kick out of them working out T-Money's traps and doing some deep tissue work between the shoulderblades. Maybe it's just because my neck could use a good massage, and watching this is like going to Trader Joe's when I'm hungry. It didn't crop up at all when things got serious (outside of some oil), and I don't think it overstayed its welcome. And the actual tag wrestling we got was really good! Jollyville really laced it in when they finally went on the attack, and I thought NV held up their end. Graves did a great classic bulldog, and I loved a spot where Money missed a charge in the corner and Graves shot out of the corner to knock Russ off the apron. It felt like something the Fuck-Its would do and it was cool to see the tables turned on them. But not long after, T-Money was throwing lariats through them and hitting his big spinebuster, Russ hot tags in and is throwing even harder lariats and whipping VSK violently into a cool as hell spinning blue thunder bomb, all great. I was impressed by Graves throughout; his elbows packed a wallop and he threw his whole body into pinfall saves. VSK's oil slide headbutt was freaking great, he really lawndarted himself into Russ (little did I know what was about to happen). The actual finish was spectacular, Russ planting Graves with a tornado DDT to get him out of the ring, and a shocked VSK taking the absolute worst neck crunching bump off a Pounce that you've seen. He really takes it on the back of his neck, and there's no way someone should be kicking out of that.

Headhunters vs. Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Brian Carson

PAS: Short squash as might be expected. You aren't going to have the Headhunters work two long matches on one night. Couple of nasty chairshots and a big second rope splash call it a night. Headhunters v. Fuck-Its is the match I want to see in this tourney.

Team IOU (Nick Iggy/Kerry Awful) vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: This match kept bringing me in, losing me and bringing me in again. All of the opening matwork by Iggy and Delaney was cool, as was IOU's double team beat down on Delaney. I thought Cheech's hot tag kind of sucked and the TIB offensive set was full of improbable double teams where their opponents end up suplexing each other. Lots of set up for not a ton of delivery. We had a pretty hot finishing run with Iggy killing folks, and then IOU ends up winning with a goofy "make a guy Canadian Destroyer his own partner finish. It had more I liked then didn't like, but I really didn't like the parts I didn't like.

Tracy Williams/Matt Riddle vs. Crazy Pain (Steve Pain/Gringo Loco)

PAS: When Riddle quit AIW he shit on this match, claiming the promotion jobbed him to "two luchas who couldn't work," but this was one of my favorite Riddle matches of 2016 and Crazy Pain were awesome in it. The match opens with Riddle hitting a flying armbar, and quickly all four guys throw on cool submissions with Riddle and Williams being more shoot and Crazy Pain being more llave. I also loved the story of Pain being a tough motherfucker and refusing to stand down from Riddle's big shots, and Riddle getting pissed that this guy is stepping to him. At one point Riddle eats a bunch of body kicks and hits this great flurry ending with a springboard rana, which he ripped off like he was Soberano or someone. Finish run is pretty dominant for Crazy Pain with them hitting a bunch of big double teams including this awesome move of Pain putting on a step over toe hold on Riddle, quebradoring Williams and holding him as Loco gives him a Demolition Decapitator, I have no idea how it didn't shred Riddle's achilles.  Match end with a clean win for Crazy Pain with Riddle getting Pain Killered on top of Williams. I was expecting this to be a bit of train wreck, but it was awesome instead.

ER: Yeah this ruled, a style clash that I never thought of but loved that it happened. I never heard the Riddle comments at the time, but I have to assume there were two different luchadors, because this was constant fun. I honestly have no clue what part/s Riddle would even be complaining about. I dug all of this. Williams rolling Loco around in painful crossfaces, Pain throwing strikes at Riddle until it kept inevitably blowing up on him, Pain throwing hard elbows but staggering around great to get caught by BroSauce's shots, throw in all the crazy double teams and this was tag mismatch heaven. Riddle's rope walk rana was impressive as hell (weird how everybody has an impressive landing on their flying when Steve Pain is the one whose feet are on the mat), we get a couple big dives to the floor (love Pain vaulting over the ref with a tope con giro), and Phil is damn right about some of the craziness of these double teams; that sequence ending with Williams getting upended by the Decapitation was flat out crazy, but then moments later Loco is vaulting off the top, onto a prone Riddle on Pain's shoulders, and coming off that with a splash on Williams (that isn't far off from him coming in vertically). This was a wild spotfest, a great clash that never crossed my mind as a possibility, the kind of thing that would have made me flip out the whole time live.

Flip Kendrick vs. Eric Ryan vs. Lucky 13 vs. Facade vs. Angel Ortiz vs. Mike Draztik

PAS: Fun six way scramble with three of the eliminated teams trying to one up each other with crazy moves. Eric Ryan was the highlight, taking way too many bumps and doing way too much for a throw away non-tourney match. He has a spot where he three straight topes on three different guys only to tope the ring rail ribs first with the fourth. He also smushes Flip's face with a huge double stomp and gets bealed over the top rope through a barbed wire board to the floor. Ryan is nuts. Kendrick gets the win with some flippy stuff. Nothing I will remember tomorrow outside of maybe Ryan being a loon, but it was a fine use of 8 minutes

Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ/T-Money) vs. The Headhunters

PAS: I expected this to be a wild brawl, but it was actually a pretty deliberate Southern tag, with the Headhunters dominating Nasty Russ for a large part of the match. One of the Headhunters missed a second rope senton which let Russ tag in T-Money. T-Money gets a little offense including a great over the top rope tope, but then the Hunters took over again with chair shots. and a nasty Michinoku Driver on two folded chairs. Finish comes with one of the Headhunters missing a moonsault onto the chairs (totally nuts that such a fat old guy is still doing moonsaults) and then Russ hits a crossbody which gets caught and T-Money hits another and they get a banana peel win. The work in this was fine, and the Fuck-Its make surprisingly good underdog babyfaces, but I am not sure why you would book your tough guy team to get dominated by semi-retired fly-ins only to win like the 1-2-3 Kid. If the Headhunters wouldn't cooperate, book Horace Hogan and Crash the Terminator or something.

Team IOU (Kerry Awful/Nick Iggy) vs. Crazy Pain (Gringo Loco/Steve Pain)

PAS: This is a match where despite liking all four guys, I thought it fell a little short of my expectations. Crazy Pain were put over huge in this tournament, as they dominated much of this match too (which is a match structure which doesn't maximize what a pair of big bumping rudos do best.) I have mostly seen the Carnies work heel, so it is strange to see them work strict babyface, Awful is a pretty great hot tag, and I loved his Warriors Way style Earthquake drop. Parts of this just looked a bit ragged, although the structure was good, this was the best Loco's platform dive superfly splash has looked, he really lands on Iggy hard. I have a feeling this would be better now, as they would have a chance to iron out some wrinkles.

No Strings Attached (Alex Daniels/Gregory Iron/Marti Belle/Ray Lyn/Veda Scott) vs. Weird Body/Garry Baller/PB Smooth/Dick Justice/Space Monkey

PAS: I want to start with the positivity. Alex Daniels and Weird Body had some really fun exchanges, with Weird Body taking some really sick bumps on slams and a great looking discuss lariat. Outside of that stuff, this was a rough watch. Lots of borderline non-consensual spots with the Twerk Team, including Dick Justice jamming one Twerk Teams face into the crotch of another, gonzo porn isn't what I want in my wrestling, I guess I am getting to be a prude in my old age. Most of the match is guys cycling through all of their comedy spots, and a lot of the actually wrestling looked pretty bad, with some moves really whiffing. Maybe just fast forward to the Weird Body spots.

Shayna Baszler vs. Britt Baker

PAS: Man Baszler was so great so early. Her she is Fuchi mode for most of the match, twisting and pulling at Baker's joints and limbs, super nasty stuff. At one point she throws Baker to the floor, ties her calves up in the ring barrier, places the ring steps on her back and puts on a camel clutch. Baker gets a couple of spring boards, and some tetchy forearms which Baszler sells her ass off for, before falling to a rear naked choke. Baker was game, but I can imagine this match would have even been better with someone with better looking offense.

Crazy Pain (Gringo Loco/Steve Pain) vs. Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ/T-Money)

PAS: This was a lot of fun, but kind of short, and it really makes me want to see a match between these two teams that wasn't a tourney final. First part of the match is all ringside brawling, and these are four pretty great brawlers. Pain and T-Money were especially heavy handed. There was a really cool spot where T-Money goes for his pounce and ends up hanging himself on the second rope, and some really nifty dives by Crazy Pain. It felt a bit abbreviated, as both teams seemed to leave stuff in their bags, but everything we got looked really good.

ER: This did come off short, even though it was 8 solid minutes of action, and I actually liked how fatigued the Fuck-Its came off. They came out selling a tournament's worth of injuries, Russ especially had some great zombie stagger throughout, even while on offense. I thought it played great. The crowd brawl stuff was fine, Russ smacking Loco with his inflatable middle finger before just punching him in the face, people getting tossed through chairs, Loco getting suplexed on the ramp, all done as tired guys who already hurt. Loco and Pain's flip dives were really impressive, super graceful with heavy landings while also looking totally safe. My favorite spot of the match was T-Money missing a Pounce but committing to it, flying hard into the middle ropes and recoiling. It was such a cool moment I wished they had saved it for part of the finish. Crazy Pain brought some mean stuff, like Loco hitting a missile dropkick to start Pain spinning on a blue thunder bomb, or double stomping Russ in the ribs to eat Money's knees on the big splash. Russ breaks out a dragon rana to the floor, which - c'mon, you guys are crazy - and then really gets whipped into the mat on Pain's powerbomb, then rolled directly into the Pain Killer. Russ took the PK better than anyone in the tourney, really getting crazy height and landing flush, looked like something that would finally finish two asskickers.

ER: Another AIW show, another AIW show that lands a couple matches on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List. I think these two shows had the earliest Jollyville matches I saw, and it's fun looking back before they became my favorite team. The Catch Point/Lucha Base tag was fun as hell, AIW is fun as hell.

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Monday AIW - Chandler Biggins Memorial Tag Tournament 6/15/19

The Production (Derek Director/Eddy Only) vs. The Young Studs (Eric Ryan/Bobby Beverly)

PAS: This was very entertaining with only a little awkwardness keeping it from MOTYC list level. Eric Ryan is completely nutso, Young Studs take over early only to leave an opening, when Ryan gets hiptossed off a the ring apron onto a steel chair which Derek Director had just vacated. Ryan is out here taking 1994 Mick Foley bumps in random opening indy tag matches. We get a lot of big nasty bombs from both teams, there were a couple of silly "make one partner suplex the other partner spots" but plenty more sick shots to the side of the skull, and big throws. Studs are probably better in garbage matches, but surprisingly good at working somewhat traditional tag babyfaces.

ER: I really like both of these teams, but this was a little herky jerky, had a bunch of things that just felt a couple inches off. You know, things like Eddy Only not being able to quite make the distance on his 'cross the ring somersault dropkick, or the "DDT my partner" spots not really moving too fluidly, but these teams are good and there's going to be plenty of good stuff. I love Ryan's bloody white jeans, such a scary and badass piece of ring gear, an awesome piece of a guy who will punch you and big crazy. I don't really like it when a match mixes silliness with asskicking, as it can really take away from violence; but the violence here was still on display, and obviously good. Ryan's Japanese armdrag assisted cannonballs, and they played nicely into Ryan getting hiptossed off the apron into a chair. Wild spot. This is more offense than we typically get to see from The Production, and I liked it. A couple things can be tightened up, but I was impressed with them pulling off tandem 'cross the ring buckle bombs on the Studs, and thought Derek had some nice strikes, liked their Derek kneelift/Only yakuza kick combo. I think there's an even better match these two teams will have.

PME (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. Weird World (Weird Body Evan Adams/Worldwide Alex Kellar)

PAS: This was babyface vs. babyface and had a light heartedness to it I enjoyed. Weird Body is such a unique looking wrestler, but has found a way to leverage his crazy looking skeletal frame into plausible wrestling offense. I loved how Eddie Kingston kept putting over the sharpness of his elbows and knees, I would imagine it would suck to get smacked in the face with a bony elbow like that, and Kingston kept yelling every time a PME guy would put Weird Body in a rear waistlock. The Baba chop exchange with Philly and Worldwide was great, they were really laying in the Baba chops. Just a textbook example of doing a babyface vs. babyface match without devolving into dumb shit like dance offs and slow motion spots.

ER: Phil makes a lot of great points about babyface vs. babyface matches here, and it's obnoxiously true that modern indies have turned face vs. face tags into total goofy jack off fests, and it kind of comes off like new teams resent being faces so they just go for easy goof around laughs instead of just being actual good teams. Here are two good teams who don't devolve into playing patty cake stopping the match to talk about their favorite Snick shows, while still coming up with fun spots that add to the match. I loved every part of Weird Body climbing all over Philly, scampering around his body and getting into a wild spot on Philly's shoulders, Philly trying to buck him off, Weird Body eventually getting the victory roll; they looking like a weird human version of on of Bayley's Buddies. They also did a fun chicken fight spot, with Marino and Weird Body getting swung into each other's boots, before Kellar and Philly had a good punch and overhand chop exchange. The finish was real hot too, with the spot of the match being Marino's big ass missile dropkick across most of the damn ring, with Worldwide taking a justifiably big bump to the floor to leave Weird Body alone in the ring.

28. Jollyville Fuck-Its (T-Money/Nasty Russ) vs. Wes Barkley/Joshua Bishop

PAS: I loved this, the Fuck-Its maybe my favorite current act in wrestling today. Just a total asskicking team, who always brings it. The Bishop and Barkley team are fun too, with Barkley cheapshotting and bumping and Bishop being a great heater. T-Money is a big bumper, he takes a high backdrop from Bishop and lands hard on the wood floor, Russ takes an awesome bomb on a set up bed of chairs, while Barkley and Bishop end up taking some really nasty rail rides. Finish was clever with Barkley getting a cheap roll up pin, only to learn that Fuck-It's rules are always 2/3 falls, and they get pounced and cannonballed for two quick falls and the Fuck-It's win.

ER: Hell yeah, this is exactly what I want out of an AIW tag match. Jollyville are untouchable as a team right now, night in night out best tag team in wrestling. They move through matches so assuredly, they move with that Midnight Express confidence where they know the exact right spot they need to be to keep these well oiled machinations moving. Barkley I haven't seen much at all, and he brings a fun goofball charisma to a match like this, and Bishop is really good at bumping generously for a beating while still looking credible. The ringside brawling is all good, and the camera keeps lingering on great action, and will then suddenly cut away into a quick violent spot from T-Money, before going back to Russ throwing hard punches and kicks. Barkley bumps big into the crowd and is great at cockily celebrating early and then getting punched for it. Bishop takes a rail ride like vintage Sandman or Raven, I get the best 1999 vibe from this dude. Jollyville are total beasts. T-Money hits that big spinebuster and I dug all the work around the Pounce (Barkley manages to avoid it and Bishop winds up in the line of fire). At one point we see Russ dragging Barkley around and then we cut to T-Money wrapping the ring skirt around Bishop's head and neck like he was snuffing out an underling. Russ is so awesome at coming up with cool ways to lay a beating. I loved his yakuza kick to Barkley's leg in the corner, and then in a snap he hits this sick double stomp precisely aimed right to the back of a seated Barkley's head, and in the same movement keeps running to hit a fast tope con giro into Bishop on the floor. Russ is like a Midwestern Hijo Del Santo. A Santito who will also take a freaking splash mountain into a bunch of set up chairs. Jesus. Phil went over the finish, and I agree it was great. It was all great.

To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delany) vs. Spirit Squad (Mikey/Kenny)

PAS: This didn't do a ton for me. It was basically a nostalgia match for something I am not nostalgic for at all. 2006 RAW was a sewer for the most part, and the Spirit Squad stunk. I like Infinity and Beyond a bunch, and they were total pros selling for all of the Spirit Squad spots, but I had little interest in watching them run through that. Right team won, and I think AIW is pretty successful using nostalgia acts to draw, it just isn't normally the parts of the show I care about.

8. Manders vs. Big Twan Tucker

PAS: Well fuck me this ruled. This is basically two jacked up rookies refusing to back down and just pummeling each other. Manders is an ex-Iowa linebacker who has some great meathead intensity. Twan is on a role after appearing in an angle in NXT and turning face the night before. This reminded me a lot of the IWA-MS Samoa Joe vs. Hero match, with both guys barreling right ahead and the intensity just building. Pretty crazy that two rookies can build this kind of engagement with the crowd, but they went from buzzing to totally losing it, as both of these guys hammered each other. Kingston was marking out on commentary, as like all of us he can appreciate a fist fight. Manders drops Twan right on his head with a jackknife, it is only a two count, and while Manders is jawing with the ref, Twan crushes him with a tackle. Impossible not to dig the fuck out of this.

ER: One of the great joys of pro wrestling is when a performance goes beyond the abilities of the performers. It can happen to established guys - I think Gargano/Almas from TakeOver Philadelphia obviously lands in the category - or it can happen to newer guys, and here were two newer guys exceeded all expectations in the best way. AIW has a lot of guys who can hit hard, and it can be hard to stand out on some of their shows because guys work so hard up and down the card. The stars aligned for this one and made it something truly special. I had seen Twan a few times on other cards, and had never seen Manders before; consider me now a fan of both. They came in fast and were on a constant collision course, big bodies drawn together by asskicking magnets. This had the feel of a grubby fight, the kind of match where Jim Ross would be talking at length about both men's college, high school, JV, Pop-Warner, and Family Reunion BBQ Flag Football careers. Both guys have no problem running into the other, and the strike exchanges were nice off center, with rhythm replaced by hard landing. I loved how Twan would start a strike in close, more like a short shoulderblock, and then build to a couple hard back elbows, then build to an elbow across the jaw, and Manders was right there with him. The best of these violent spectacles have some things go slightly bad, but to the benefit of the match. It starts with little moments like Twan eating a drop toehold into the ropes and hitting his face on the top rope before getting slumped into the middle rope; Manders crunching him with a cannonball to the back is great insult to injury. But Big Twan's awesome cinderblock head resting on his shoulders helps him withstand some pretty horrifying stuff, eating a man sized German and then just getting slammed right on the top of his damn head on a jackhammer. 2019 has been the year of jackhammers going terribly within matches that are awesome. Twan realizes he just escaped death and decides to just swam Manders with mass, and this all ruled.

Tim Donst/Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Brian Carson/Parker Pierce vs. Eric Taylor/Arthur McArthur/Chuck Stone/Mike Montgomery

PAS: This was a team of veterans against a team of AIW students, which is a match structure I have loved before. This wasn't nearly at the level of the No Consequence multi-man matches, as this group of students seemed mainly focused on getting over their signature comedy spots (a sad part of 2019 wrestling, where you are mainly focused on becoming a meme, everybody is a fucking Tik Tok comedian now.) We did get some really solid rookie beatings though, with Parker Pierce being an especially nasty crowbar, I loved his hook kick and chops. Fun match, but not sure if I know which of those students is going to break out.

PB Smooth vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: I think Smooth has a lot of potential, he is obviously enormous and a good athlete, if I were AEW I would sign him and give him a tag partner (hell they should just sign the entirety of 40 Acres and a Mule). But I am not sure he is ready for a singles match that isn't filled with a bunch of shenanigans. There were some cool individual moments, and I liked how Lawlor pushed the pace and worked stiff, I am not sure this was ever together enough to really fall apart though.

The Production (Derek Director/Danhausen) vs. PME (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. Jollyville Fuck-Its (T-Money/Nasty Russ) vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delany)

PAS: This was really disappointing. I love AIW multi team tag matches, this was a rematch of their match from WrestleMania weekend which is one of my favorite matches of the year, and it just fell flat. To Infinity and Beyond get DQ'ed about a minute in, and the Fuck-It's bow out relatively easily a couple of minutes later. We then get a PME vs. Production match, which was fine, but never really pushed the throttle to a crazy level or anything. There was a moment or two, and PME winning was a nice tribute to Chandler Biggins, but I was really amped for this, and I didn't get what I wanted. These guys were headlining a show, and it was their chance to really deliver something special, and it just missed the mark.

PAS: The first round of the tourney was fun, and Twan vs. Manders was an out of nowhere gem, still can't help being a little down on the show, hopefully night 2 delivers big. However, two matches landing on our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List is never a bad thing.

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