Found Footage Friday: DEAN~! 2 Special!!

In honor of DEAN 2~! tonight. Here are some found footage gems from DEAN 2~! stalwarts

Torneo Cibernetico: Felino/Mega/Rambo/Super Mega/Ultimo Vampiro vs. Blue Panther/Bombero Infernal/Dr. Cerebro/Negro Navarro/Scorpio Jr. (Torneo Cibernetico) IWRG 2/15/01

MD: Once this got going it was a lot of fun. You never expect too much out of the battle royale seeding part at the start and there wasn't a lot to see here either, save for everyone piling on Ultimo Vampiro in the corner at the end. The sheer talent in the match was such that once you got into the pairings, there was always someone amazing in the ring. Even though they were eliminated relatively early, Navarro and Cerebro got to stand out during those first few minutes, Navarro with his tricked out holds and understanding of how to project himself as a star and Cerebro by creating a lot of motion, taking a lot of stuff and contorting at least one person in unholy ways. Unfortunately, we only had one brief moment of Panther and Cerebro going at it, with Cerebro sitting up out of a Panther Tapatia.

They teased Mega vs Super Mega which the crowd wanted to see but if it happened, we didn't get to see it. There was a general excitement for rudo vs rudo pairings though. In general, I could have used a little more of both Dandy and Panther, but they both looked good in what they did do. Rambo got to shine with two rapid fire eliminations, first with this great double top arm wrench that someone should really steal and then with a seated campana. He fell almost immediately thereafter to a clever enough Scorpio foul only to get revenge at the end by sneaking one on him from the apron to let Panther win it. So fun stuff all around even if we only got the tiniest appetizer of Cerebro vs Panther.

PAS: This was fun rather then truly exceptional. We have some all timers on both sides, and we get glimpses of what made them great. A taste of Navarro, an appetizer of Cerebro, a sip of Dandy. Panther and Cerebro are the reasons we wrote up this match, and I did dig the little bit we got from them, 24 years later I am expecting more of a dish tonight. I really need to dig into this 01 IWRG Bihari is putting up, because I suspect their are some really hidden bangers (Panther vs. Felino on this show is closer to what we want) This wasn't one of them, but still well worth checking out.  

ER: Rob Bihari uploaded this lost gem not long after we announced the DEAN~! 2 Cibernetico, when I publicly said that we have no actual footage of Dr. Cerebro mixing it up with Blue Panther. The opportunity to prove me wrong led to us finally getting this Cibernetico out there for public consumption. When we found out who CMLL was letting us use for DEAN~! 2 we all immediately salivated at the idea of Cerebro getting minutes with Blue Panther and Virus, two compatriots that Cerebro hardly has any (taped) ring time against. There's an incredibly fun Cerebro/Virus singles from a decade ago (that Matt wrote up when he was just getting into lucha, which is funny to think in retrospect that it's only been a decade since Matt dove into lucha libre) and this Cibernetico that featured both Cerebro and Panther that was not in circulation. Once I publicly proclaimed that we had never seen Cerebro and Panther in the ring together, Rob swooped in minutes later proclaiming that we actually DO have that match in circulation now. Ask and ye shall receive, and we received a real gift. 

The DEAN~! 2 Cibernetico was one of the best Ciberneticos I have seen, and when I watched this match the morning of DEAN~! 2 my mind was in another place. I was somewhere else and watching this in a hotel room and pacing around my room until we left to go see the event space that morning and meet the crew. This match was on, and I was in theory watching it, but I knew I wanted to see it again. In the heat of the insanity that was the DEAN~! 2 live experience, every person backstage was buzzing during and after the Cibernetico. Blue Panther - at 64 - had one of the great performances of his life, young upstart Virus looked as good as ever, and really all 10 guys overdelivered in ways I don't think anyone expected. The DEAN~! 2 Cibernetico was, for me, the best case scenario for a match that looked like dynamite on paper. We got several to book several names that we never dreamed we'd have access to a year ago, and put them in a match with pairings we were dying to see. Then, it actually happened, and I was moved by how hard these men worked at our weird, exciting, outdoor Arizona mall show near a fountain display, lit by the neon signs of Universal Citywalk chain and axe throwing barcades. Nothing is going to compare to my memory of seeing this Cibernetico. Losing my mind with Phil, my good friend Will who I was meeting in person for the first time, wrestlers from DEAN~! and wrestlers who weren't on the show at all, is never going to be beat. Bryan Danielson coming out after your Cibernetico to give one of the greatest promos of his life, somehow convincing hundreds of people in the life affirming power of pro wrestling. 

I stated to at least a dozen people (probably more) over the rest of the night/weekend/next week, that I had watched a newly unearthed early 2000s IWRG Cibernetico and OUR Cibernetico, the one we all got to share, was better. I remember El Dandy suddenly being a top 25 guy on a DVDVR 500 and it made me want to get as much IWRG as possible. Trading for Negro Navarro matches, buying the Dr. Cerebro/El Hijo del Santo mask vs. mask match - and so many other shows - for $5 at Franks and Son Collectibles in some City of Industry warehouse whenever my friends and I would drive down to see wrestling. A 21 year old who now had opinions on Bombero Infernal and Rambo. Had this Cibernetico been available on VHS on any of the trips we made to Franks and Son lucha shows, I obviously would have bought it. Blue Panther, Cerebro, Dandy, Navarro, Felino, all guys I was buying tapes specifically to see. But I had never seen this match until Rob uploaded it, and it had the misfortune of being watched on the same day I witnessed live the most special Cibernetico of my life. 

So the competition was going to be stiff. The mindset was different, my brain was operating on other matters, I am no longer in a hotel room after binging on a breakfast buffet with the DEAN~! crew since we wouldn't be eating again for another 12-16 hours. Now, we're a couple weeks removed from DEAN~! 2, I've finally floated back to earth, I was finally ready, I can finally admit...this is a really great Cibernetico. I still don't think it's better than the one on DEAN~! but I don't think that matters because as with all Ciberneticos, this had things that no other one had. Maybe the only knock against this one is that it never felt like it built to a fever pitch and didn't have as much ongoing story threads, but at the same time it's filled with guys who I could watch wrestle in 2nd gear for hours. That is not to say that anyone dogged it, it just never built to any big bumps and dives, and I think that's incredibly cool in a different way. 

Also, all of these legendary names enter the ring collectively to Survivor's Burning Heart, which feels more like something you'd see at the beginning of a 90s Germany catch tournament show when everyone on that card has to come out and stand in the ring like an idiot. I don't think these Cibernetico teams were chosen based on their allegiances to Communism or Capitalism, but maybe this match is aligned deeper than I realized. 

I think everyone here had some legit moments. My favorites? Cerebro, Panther, Navarro, Bombero Infernal, Rambo. Maybe Rambo. I love Rambo. I love luchadors who move like Rambo. He looks like a poor kid in faded camouflage pajamas, just looking like total shit in there, but then he and Dandy are rolling and he dives into Dandy's leg with a takedown and Dandy is selling for him with that spirited 2001 energy he had and it's everything I want in lucha. Rambo's huracanrana roll up on Navarro is such a great surprise, smoother than even Dr. Cerebro's. Nobody bumps to the floor over the bottom rope like Rambo anymore. The old man luchador style of getting to the floor has been phasing out for a long time, and Rambo's exits are smooth and graceful and faster than you'd expect. "Faster than you'd expect" is one of the joys of older lucha statesmen. He hits two great butt butts into Dandy and the man shouldn't be this damn good with gear that bad. He's 15 years past losing his mask here and he's hitting his double wristlock and butt attacks like a 30 year old. 

The guys I fully expected to be standouts - Cerebro, Navarro, Panther, Dandy - were, and had a half dozen sequences each that any fan of theirs would want to see. Negro Navarro started the whole thing super hot with Super Mega, with the kind of llave and rolling I could watch for an entire match. Navarro had this drop toehold that seemed to work in reverse, body going one way, legs tripping Mega the other way, bending space and time for what could have been a simple single leg trip. Navarro has a snapmare strong enough that it could have been a piece of actual offense, and he kept gravitating to teaming with Panther to target Dandy in cool ways. Cerebro was incredibly vicious, a totally different approach than he's worked the last 15-20 years. He was real aggressive and rudo stiff. In the battle royal he was always running into frame swinging hard horizontal rights. He had great shtick to accompany mat bumps that were harder than everyone else's. His short run against Blue Panther was great fun, with a Cerebro huracanrana roll up and excellent Panther surfboard with awesome power. He also got all his limbs tied up by Bombero, who was holding the ropes so blatantly while laughing like a supervillain that nobody got in his way. Panther's crucifix on Dandy was maybe the most vicious submission of the entire affair, with Panther bending him back forceful, not smoothly, while Dandy screamed and crab walked slowly to a bottom rope.

Watch this Cibernetico. It's great. It's got as many special moments as the best Ciberneticos. They're all unique snowflakes. Can any nation truly stand alone? Maybe we'll answer David Bickler's question on DEAN~! 3. 

Rhyno vs. Low-Ki PWS 6/7/14 - GREAT

PAS: This was kind of a compact TV match, about seven minutes, pretty stiff, just a nice piece of business. Ki hits a couple of nasty kicks on Rhino a guy that square must seem like a perfect heavy bag for him. They each get a kick out of their big move, Ki liquifies his insides with a Warrior's Way for a two, and Ki gets a kick out of the Gore. Match ended with a bit of an awkward roll up, which kind of felt like two guys who couldn't agree on a finish. Give it another big move or two and it would really sing. 

JR: I'll always have a soft spot for Rhyno. I remember being right at the age where I could read magazines when he was coming up in ECW and finding out he had done time and being both mystified and terrified. I remember going to those Hardcore Homecoming shows less than 10 years later, and him working heel, cutting promos about how he was slumming it for a night before going back to TNA, and the guy behind me trying to get a "Bound for Glory" chant going.

What can be said about Low Ki that hasn't already been said? A captivating worker, an inscrutable person. If you hate Low Ki, you are anti-labor.

I had no idea what to make of most of this. I thought it funny that Rhyno is always notable for making his stuff look great while working pretty light, while Low Ki is notable for...the opposite of that. Here, I think they kind of don't know what to do with one another. In someways, it's a match between two guys who are good at working from underneath but primarily want to find ways to control pace, and I don't think either of them really found a way to get in a groove. I thought at the beginning, Rhyno was going to work kind of like a Stan Hansen brawl on the outside with Ki doing a Tommy Rich impression, and then when they didn't do that, I thought Ki would find a way to stick and move around the bigger man, but neither thing happens. Instead, we kind of get a house show match with a finish that feels like more generous on behalf of Rhyno, which I suppose is to be expected.

MD: I loved the look of this one, shot from underneath with those big windows up top. The crowd was more behind Rhino though he tried to turn them. Ki didn't care about them one way or the other. He just did his thing, full steam ahead. Rhino treated him like an absolute equal, like they were the exact same size. There was a small feeling early on that if Rhino just caught him that'd be enough, but it didn't last. He recoiled from Ki's chops. He focused on the back because size alone wouldn't cut it; it would open the door but it wouldn't even contain Ki, let alone defeat him. That led to a fairly long bearhug in a fairly short match but you didn't mind it much. I didn't mind the finish either, where Rhino kicked out of Warrior's Way and Ki kicked out of the Gore before Rhino got rolled up with a lumpy sunset flip as he went for the second one. I would have just liked those kickouts to register a little more emotionally. No one was expecting Ki to kick out but once he did, life just moved on. It's less the shocked face I'm looking for so much as the resolve that one gore simply wasn't enough and he had no choice but to charge back in, even though he was unknowingly charging towards defeat. I never got that feeling and to me that would have put the match just enough over the top.

ER: It looks like I'm the unexpected high voter on this match. It was everything I wanted out of a Ki/Rhino match and more. This was in the back half of a *13 Match Show*, some kind of damned spiritual successor to vintage post-midnight USA Pro shows of a decade prior, and it gets harder to harder to stand out in any way on a show like that. Well these too stood out. Low Ki hit Rhino hard enough multiple times to actually move him. I bet Rhino hasn't felt many chops harder than Ki's, and I know he felt that kick to the thigh later. I have now stood next to Rhino and realize that he is the same height as me, while being probably twice my width. He is a large freezer garage filled with 36 count packs of soft drinks but Low Ki's palm thrusts to the chest looked like something that actually would have tipped that fridge over. 

Rhino is one of out more uniquely shaped men and I love him working a bearhug down to one knee after press slamming Ki onto the buckles. Low Ki has excellent selling and this unmatched ability to recoil on bumps like no other wrestler has (maybe Lio Rush?), selling something huge like a bump to the apron or something less like a headbutt to the stomach or creating activity in a bear hugs. It makes him an ideal opponent for a man of any size, but a big couch of a man like Rhino can make him pinball and rebound in the best ways. And, as Rhino is the size of a couch, Low Ki treats him like me doing Macho Man elbowdrops onto my parent's couch, fucking up that couch with a Warriors Way, just messing up this living room set of a man.

Ki took the Gore so well that it makes the move feel new all over again. It was a great Gore anyway, and would have been great no matter who was taking it. What I loved most about it was how Rhino did not do his typical set up out of the corner but instead used it as a much cooler 180 surprise. He shot past Low Ki with a clothesline and turned on a dime to stop him cold as Ki was rebounding off the ropes. It looked fucking awesome and I don't remember seeing him use it as a momentum stopper. Rhino is always the one supplying the momentum behind it. I wasn't expecting Low Ki to kick out of that surprise Gore and I wasn't expecting Rhino to kick out of the Warriors Way so both popped me good. And I loved the finish, with Ki leaping over a  Gore that Rhino had set up at a charging distance, showing that Rhino should have kept trying to surprise the ninja and not give him any of time to quick react counter. When Low Ki is given actual time to react to an attack, he has too many ways to use that time against his opponent, and Rhino paid for that error. 

Mad Dog Connelly vs. Jordan Blade PPW 9/25/22

PAS: This was Connelly's first dog collar match, and outside of the Demus match I think it is my favorite. These were two staples of the PPW UWFI rules division, and this had the pace of a one round MMA brawl with a chain. All gas, no breaks stuff with both wrestlers trying to decapitate each other with huge chain shots from the break. I loved how nasty all of the wrestling moves felt with the chain in the mix, everything felt like it could go wrong and someone could land temple first on steel. The whole thing felt like a finishing run, sometimes you want to sip, sometimes you want to shoot straight whiskey. 

MD: There's such a Hansen-ian bent to Connelly and especially his chain matches. It's all implicit storytelling, the path of least resistance. They're not building a castle in the sky. They're not loading Chekhov's Gun. They're hitting you with a shotgun blast to the face. There's a cold hard logic to eternal forward motion. The train's coming. Either you can stop it or not.

And at times, Blade could. Connelly went for a choke with it almost from the get go and that put him at a disadvantage that allowed for a German Suplex. Less could be done when he hit the floor and simply pulled. That said, it wasn't until the chain came loose and the ref halted proceedings that he was finally able to start choking Blade with it, striking mercilessly by surprise. That was the opening for the gutwrenches, three in a row, with the chain dangerously dangling between them enhancing the image of each impact.

Blade was skilled, strong, and tenacious though and had an honest shot at it, but wrapping the chain around Connelly's face to further mangle him wasn't the way to go. Thus equipped, loaded, primed, he burst forth, that aforementioned shotgun blast in the form of a headbutt (because I can load Chekhov's Gun in this review, even if he won't). Maybe one last hopeful Blade Rear Naked Choke followed, but it was too little too late, for Connelly was able to roll through and end it with the selfsame sense of brutality that he tried to begin it with. There's no out-hating the Mad Dog in a dog collar match. The chain knows who it serves.

ER: I'm not sure this even goes 5 minutes and it clearly didn't need to go longer than that. I saw this match for the first time in 2024. Phil showed it to me in our motel room the night before the first DEAN~! show. I was sitting up in the bed that we would be sharing - there was some mistake because the in-over-his-head motel manager messed something up with our reservations, giving us a small room with one bed and Tom K the literal largest hotel room I have ever been in - and Phil was seated at the motel desk, laptop on desk. We were both exhausted after a very long travel day. I had a red eye flight and had hung out with friends in Philly all day, so I had not actually slept in over 36 hours. But we were both excited about the show the next day, and Phil asked if I had ever seen Mad Dog vs. Jordan Blade. I had not. 

Now we are in a post-DEAN~! 2 world and I saw more than one person disappointed that Mad Dog vs. Adam Priest "only" went 7 minutes, but I am of the mindset that Mad Dog Collar matches don't need to go that long at all. This is a wild man, unleashed, and most humans aren't going to be able to take a "normal" main event's worth of time enduring a chain beating and chain choking. This match against Blade is a complete match in its 5 minutes. There's no way to stop Mad Dog, only briefly slow him down, and I thought it was great how Blade didn't wrestle a bad match, she just got overwhelmed and couldn't find a way back in. It doesn't diminish her, doesn't mean her strategy was bad, she just got beat by a maniac. She tried to stop the boulder from rolling down the hill but those arms get tired real quick and before long you realize you can't even step aside, that boulder is going straight over the top of you. 

Hard to believe this was Mad Dog's first collar match and he already had full mastery of the chain. I lost my mind when Blade wrapped the chain all around his face and it only made Mad Dog want to use his face as a weapon. It was a good idea but she couldn't have predicted how Mad Dog would have reacted to having a face full of chain. If you've already taken balled up chained up fists to the head and barely weathered those, you just can't prepare for a chain wrapped maniac's face. I love how Mad Dog's violence does not just revolve around the chain. The chain is a weapon he will use but also a tool he will use to facilitate violence, in the same way the Gracie's used their gi to advance to the real violence. He knows how to use the chain to cut angles and change distance, but it is not his only method to bring violence. One of the more violent things in a match made of violence happened on the floor, when Mad Dog just charged into Blade's face with a back elbow. No chain needed, while the threat of the chain loomed always.

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory 36 11/4/21

Masha Slamovich vs. Davienne

ER: This was a 6 minute pre-show showcase match, and it worked as advertised. I'm not sure I've ever watched a Masha Slamovich match before, and I'm sure that I've skipped past her matches on shows before. I assume I wrote her off due to her name sounding too Chikara Gimmick and never thought about it again. Now that I've seen her in a showcase match, I would like to seek out potential great matches, because I thought she came off great. This was 6 minutes, and this was a fairly breathless 6 minutes. Neither took a single breather and this was just wave after wave of some stiff shots and big kicks and a go go go pace. Davienne has nice selling, can get some nice force behind her clubbing shots, and went back to a flat boot yakuza kick that I liked. But Slamovich worked with a ton of intensity and really went for the kill on strikes. She had a solebutt that was like a young Naoki Sano, a couple of spinning heel kicks where she really used her heel as the blunt object and not just the side of her leg, and a lariat so much stronger than you'd expect from her frame. She packs a wallop and it made me want more Masha. Luckily she's wrestled practically as much as any human on the planet in 2021 so I have some options. 

37. Slade vs. Alec Price

PAS: Slade is pretty much a must watch wrestler for me at this point. I am not sure why he isn't booked in GCW or ICW-NHB as he is the most compelling guy to be doing that kind of new age ECW brawling. I hadn't heard of Price before, but thought he was great too. He has a real Harmony Korine vibe to him, a real scuzz who is great at making the crowd want to see him murdered. He takes a Wrestling Slade level beating, but actually is super vicious on offense too. Price gets mauled for a bit including getting lawn darted into the ringpost, but takes over by driving the top of a steel chair right into the top of Slade's kneecap and unleashes some sick looking leg work including one of the cooler dragon screws I have seen. The knee gives him an opening not to get steamrolled by Slade, and Price actually goes over by kneeing Slade hard in the balls and rolling him up in the ropes using the no DQ stip to steal one. Feels like a big rematch is coming, and Price is a new guy I am into.

ER: I agree, Slade is can't miss right now. He's the most NWA-Wildside vibe we've gotten out of a new wrestler in ages, a guy who feels more like a cult MMA star from UFC3 than a pro wrestler. It's testament to how good Alec Price was here that he managed to outshine Slade at times and come off credible against a guy I thought was going to tear him apart. Price looks like Jardi Frantz but wrestles more like Jimmy Jacobs or Brian Kendrick, which is a style I love. His pre-match mic work showed impressive timing and confidence, the kind of thing MJF wants to do every week but goes so long that it loses all momentum. Price made me a fan in just one minute, snatching the mic to say that this is his fed and he doesn't need to wrestle anyone in a No DQ match, delivering his demands with the right amount of venom and indignance. By the time Price clonked Slade with the mic I was sold, and when his strikes landed just as hard as Slade's I was through the roof. 

This looked like a bratty college Freshman somehow holding his own against a hardened convict and that's a vibe we don't get enough in wrestling. He stood up to a Slade beating and fought back by crossing Slade up, throwing hard stomach kicks and insanely taking a fight to a very dangerous man. His leg work was really vicious, dropping Slade patella first on a chair and throwing a Maeda-level dragon screw. The chose their chair spots really well, making them stand out as uniquely violent. Slade getting dropped on his knee looked even more painful than Price taking a disgusting snap suplex across two chairs on the floor, and that's because they went out of their way to make everything look vicious. Price pulling out the win felt like a huge shock, and he's so great at being able to fully piss off every person he wrestles. The Slade/Dickinson/Price 3 way feud could yield some memorable beatings, and this just made me want more.  

Matt Makowski vs. Tracy Williams

PAS: Williams had been in ROH for the last couple of years and off my radar, but it was good to see him back and working a very Catch Point style match against Makowski, who may be the best of that next generation of Catch Point inspired guys. Lots of very cool grappling, as you would expect. Williams put on an Octopus hold and when Makowski got the break he rolled it into a Fuller leglock. There was also some nice violent arm work from Makowski. Really appreciated how Williams would adjust his body in submission holds to lessen their effect, for example Makowski put on a cloverleaf and Williams rolled onto his side so he couldn't fully crank the back. Finish had a slap fight which I thought didn't look great, although I liked Makowski sneaking in a thumb to the eye to stun Williams enough for Makowski to sink in a sick looking choke and give him a nap. 

ER: I really like these two and like a lot of what they did to each other, but a lot of it felt a but more time-filling than match-building to me. There was some strong shootstyle wrestling, with some cool grappling fakeouts and mistimed striking, and all of it looked good but never felt like it built to what it could have. Still, there was a lot to like about this, because a lot of it was them doing their very cool thing. Makowski has some of the best strike exchanges in modern wrestling, sneaking in kicks in cool ways and excelling at catching strikes. Williams is able to work a strong mirror to Makowski's heavier onslaught, and I even thought the slap fight worked really well. I thought it looked like some of the better UWFI standing battles and not something that kept to a turn based system. This was two guys throwing open hands to face and body and I thought looked good, with the Makowski thumb a great climax to it. The submission work looked good, the striking looked good, it just felt less than the execution.  

Trish Adora vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: This is a pair of the DMV's finest fighting for Adora's Pan Afrikan World Diaspora Championship. This is my first time seeing Adora, but I have been a fan of Blade from her PPW UWFI rules stuff. I really liked how this started, with hard aggressive simple mat wrestling. Blade is a powerlifting champion and does a really great job at making her grappling feel weighty. Adora is able to whip down Blade's arm and then really goes to work on that, forcing Blade to do some throws with only one arm which was super impressive. Sadly I think they lost the thread a bit near the second half of the match. It got very Garganoish, lots of faces of despair on two counts and talking to hands, and the finish run was a lot of 2 count nearfall stuff. Adora has a signature "Lariat Tubman", and she did a short arm version of it for the win, and it didn't land the way I want a finishing lariat to land. Still there were lots of this match I liked and both wrestlers feel like they have a lot of promise. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 4

Hardway Heeter vs. Austin Connelly

PAS: Wild 90 second match, as we have come to expect from Connelly. He rushes Heeter and they exchange hard winging shots, until Connelly hits a nasty elbow and a gutwrench suplex leaving Heeter laying. They did a post match angle with Kerry Awful berating Heeter and calling him a pussy and a loser, which took a bit of the shine off of Connelly's first win, but I am happy to see him get the duke and hopefully move on to bigger and better things.

ER: This really kicked ass, and felt like it had some solid turns for only 90 seconds. People are already timing Connelly's match starting charge, and I like how Heeter caught him with a knee, but they both kind of responded like they were both surprised by it. It's like Connelly has at least 5 seconds of Tasmanian Devil where he is just going to be invincible, and I love it. Even when he wrestles Heeter to the ground, Heeter is landing hard shots to Connelly's back that Connelly doesn't seem to even notice as he's elbowing Heeter in the face. Connelly throws three slaps in the corner that lead to a plausible standing break, and we get an actual well done elbow exchange. Heeter throw nice, sharp, lunging lefty elbows with a good amount of force behind them, and then gets leveled by one of Connelly's. Connelly bounced Hardway off his head with a gutwrench suplex, looked like the kind of whiplash that should end things. Great scrap. 

Yoya vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: This was my favorite Thompson match so far. He was really fun as a smirking prick bully, using his size to manhandle Yoya until he got too cocky.  I really liked him shit talking as he stuffed Yoya's shoot, and he broke an armbar attempt with some really sick stomps to Yoya's temple. Finishing minute was very cool with Yoya hitting a nasty jumping knee, stunning Thompson. Flash fired back with a palm strike (which looked like a KO shot), but Yoya survived and jumped onto Flash's back, and with the help of some strikes to the temple locked in a choke. Very cool stuff.

ER: I came into this anticipating the upset, just because I don't think I've ever seen them give such huge odds for/against any of the fighters until now, with Thompson coming in as something like a -450 favorite. Yoya is the smallest competitor in this, they set deep odds, I think we know how this pro wrestling thing works. This was a great showing for dickhead heel Flash, a really disrespectful performance with amusing cheapshots and eventually comeuppance. He is A Guy Asking For It throughout, throws an elbow to the back of Yoya's head while they were on the mat, tosses Yoya like a bag of laundry, kicks at his head while breaking a hold. I dug how he started unnecessarily throwing bigger shots, which gave Yoya the chance to actually dodge. When Flash was just throwing leg kicks and working smart, he was on pace to finish in two minutes. But when you commit to a haymaker you leave yourself open if it misses, and Yoya hits a boss leaping knee under the chin for a nice knockdown. He misses another wide swing and Yoya pounces on his back for the tap, and in true dickhead fashion, Flash denies tapping afterward. I'm not sure I totally bought Yoya pulling off this upset, and would have liked it even more if Flash *almost* got caught, but didn't, and didn't learn his lesson. That would have set up a more interesting match down the line. Still, I liked the actual work in this a lot. 

Damyan Tangra vs. Isaiah Broner

PAS: Love Broner, he is one of my favorite guys in this promotion. He comes off like such a dangerous badass, like French Montana's bodyguard who has a bunch of felonies. Tangra is WW4A guy who has a mat wrestler gimmick. Fun structure here, with Tangra trying lots of takedown attempts and Broner using his core strength and base to shrug them off. Broner also drops Tangra with a nasty body shot. Tangra is able to stun Broner with some head kicks, but makes the mistake of going for a German. He gets shrugged off and wasted with a spinning back elbow. Would be into seeing more Tangra, and Broner vs. Dustin Leonard next week should be fucking killer. 

ER: I really liked how annoying Tangra was here, just gluing himself to Broner and tangling him up in annoying ways. I'm not sure I've seen something quite like this, as Broner was on his feet the whole time but because of Tangra's annoyingness he kept having to buckle and reach like someone was trying to trip him up during a game of Twister. Broner has hands, so Tangra just hugs his way in close and takes away that reach. It might not be super effective as a long term strategy, but it's annoying, and when you annoy someone it can force them to make mistakes. And once there is a bit of distance, that's when Broner lands a hard right to Tangra's spleen to put him down. I liked Broner's selling when Tangra lands some kicks, how he doesn't go down for a grazing high kick but leans forward as if he's trying to maintain his center of gravity. Broner sold the kicks like someone who has been having drinks with friends, and realized just how much he had when he tried standing up from the table. The back elbow finish was sick, love a great back elbow. 

Dominic Garrini vs. Ron Mathis

PAS: This was the chickens of Mathis's Shooter Ronnie gimmick coming home to roost.  Garrini tooled him on the mat in a fun way, intentional giving him openings and then countering him. Mathis was able to muck it up a bit, but this was mostly Garrini showing off. Loved the finish with Garrini taking the back and - as Mathis countered - suckering him right into a triangle choke which put Mathis to sleep. Garrini does a lot of different things as a wrestler, a lot of which I like, some I don't. I think he has really found himself in this context. Indy wrestling has plenty of W*ING Kanemuras, they need more Katsumi Usudas. 

ER: I appreciate Mathis committing to the bit and still trying to goof off against someone like Garrini (also, I like how in Mathis's tale of the tape bio it says he "really likes PPW UWFI Rules matches"), even pointing out that Garrini didn't get him with a strike and only grazed his mohawk. Garrini toying with people is a great look for him. I think there is pressure on guys with non "pro wrestling" skills to learn those and better blend in with pro wrestling, but I think there is more value in incorporating your unique skillsets into a pro wrestling frame work. Dom is at his best when he shoehorns his legit skills into a match, and it will always be better than him doing pro wrestling sequences. 

Derek Neal vs. Ron Bass Jr.

PAS: First time I have seen Bass, and I was into him. He is a big fat guy with short arms, and seems really into hitting hard. He had some nasty clubbing clotheslines and used his fat well, which is welcome. I need to track down some non UWFI stuff for sure, feels like he would make an awesome Blackjacks tag team with Manders. I didn't like Neal in his Gary Jay match, and wasn't into him here. I thought the finish looked especially weak. You don't want the guy clearly throwing softer stuff to get the knockdown, and he broke out his windmill arms for the ground and pound. Want to see more Bass, have seen enough of Neal.

ER: Certain things in wrestling excite me more on paper than they should, and "oh hey so Outlaw Ron Bass's actual son is wrestling now and he's a big fat guy" is all the information I would need to know to make me seek out some Ron Bassito. And, I loved him. He's shaped more like a small Akebono or a large Jake Milliman than Ron Bass, with his big broad back and egg torso, and he absolutely lays it in. He threw a couple of lariats with almost no runway, and they were great enough that they would look like a finish if he dropped an elbow right after. I think his bumping reminded me of Milliman too, the way he took a thrust kick to the stomach by almost rolling off his feet. I am with Phil on the finish, didn't think any of Neal's stuff looked like it should fell Bass, and the match stopping slaps were just hitting forearms. Bass looked like he was just dealing with them, not being damaged by them, and that's precisely how they should have been sold. 

Jordan Blade vs. Max the Impaler

PAS: Battle of the non-binary beasts! I thought this was pretty awesome. Max really projects menace well, coming off like a total monster, and they made Blade (who is really strong) look small. Blade would constantly work for submissions and Max would just power their way out of. The question was whether Blade could sink in something before they got got. Max's Hughes slam out of the triangle attempt was nastier than Matt Hughes' original, and the final KO knee did the job for sure. Blade was pretty slick with their submissions and I really bought that they were going to pull off the win, until I didn't buy it. Post match they set up Max vs. Alex Kane which was a match I had no idea I wanted to see, until I really wanted to see it.

ER: This is how you do a satisfying ground and pound stoppage! Blade was really good at staying in things and tying up Max, throwing constant open hand slaps at Max's head while working for any submission she could get. Max seemed to working this like a horror movie villain, where she welcomes any attack Blade can muster, knowing she can finish at any time. It's a risky strategy, but it gave us a cool chance to see a bunch of Blade's cool tricks. I liked how active Blade was during submissions, quick to throw in strikes, and it was fun seeing how Max would break them. I don't know if I can say the Hughes Slam was nastier than the original - I mean, Matt Hughes ran that man across the entire damn octagon - but I love seeing a cool powerbomb out of a triangle attempt. Blade's hanging armbar looked great, and Max's knee strike to flatten Blade was excellent. Sign me up for Max vs. Kane. 

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 1

8. Hoodfoot Mo Atlas vs. Akira

PAS: One of the longer Hoodfoot UWFI matches I have seen and one where he sold a lot. Akira took most of the match, including landing a couple of big knockdowns, one with a stiff liver kick and one with a flurry ending in a running knee. Akira is good at bringing an appropriate amount of stiffness to his shots, and I bought him taking a lot of this match even though he was smaller. Finish was a classic Hoodfoot finish, with Akira rushing in and getting obliterated with that looping right hand. It felt like King Kong swatting a plane out of the sky.

ER: I expected this to be a kind of Hoodfoot steamrolling, but what we got was much more special than that likely would have been. Atlas is great at steamrolling guys, but he's perhaps even better at showing believable vulnerability. The mat scrambling looked really good, and Atlas is strong at little mat details the whole match, like grabbing Akira by the meat of the calf on the ground, or holding down Akira's elbow late in the match while in a triangle. Akira's striking looked like it was legitimately taking Atlas apart, and I exclaimed out loud to nobody when the liver kick knockdown happened. I went from expecting Hoodfoot in a walk, to not expecting Hoodfoot to get up from that kick. Akira rocks Atlas with a back elbow, goes back to that kick in the corner (Atlas is so good at using the ropes to save him from a knockdown, I've seen him rely on them in cool ways a few different times now, great way of integrating the ring into his matches), and drops him again with an awesome running knee. You knew Atlas was going to throw big hands, and all of them looked predictably great, loved him going for heavy kneelifts, and I can't believe Akira got up after that right hand sandwiched between two Saito suplexes. I'm glad he did, and I love how the wrapped it up instead. Great stuff through and through, so much better than the match I thought I wanted.

Robert Martyr vs. Nick King

PAS: I though this was good stuff. King is listed as having a folkstyle and judo background and there was a lot of mat scrambling at the start including King throwing a really seamless fireman's carry, and a nice snap german. Martyr actually uses the ref to block King's view, stomps down on the ankle and hits a big german of his own, before he gets a chicken wing for the tap. Lots of energy in the early mat work, and I would be into seeing King again.

ER: Great bang for your buck, under 3 minutes and all of it great. This was my first time seeing King, and Paradigm is really making me think they have a bottomless supply of interesting new guys at their disposal. King was really gluey on the mat, looked like he hardly let go of Martyr's left ankle and kept rolling and pivoting into new holds from that ankle control. His fireman's carry alone was great enough that I think I was counting myself a Nick King Fan one minute in. Martyr stomping King's ankle while the ref was clearly obstructing King's view is a real dickhead twerp move, and commentary was super sharp to point out how Martyr would likely get a point docked for that but gained a point and damage from following it up with a German. The chickenwing was a surprise quick finish, but a good one, and King was great at looking like a guy who got caught in a chickenwing. 

Isiah Broner vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: Felt like they were writing Flash out of the territory here. Both these guys have boxing backgrounds, so I enjoyed the timing and movement. Broner is able to shoot in and grab a quick double leg and clean out Thompson quick with ground and pound. They do a post match angle with Bobby Beverly turning extra heel by turning on his heel group and joining another heel group. I like this sub-promotion a lot, but all of the angles that aren't just one guy calling out another have been misses. 

ER: This was mostly angle, which is fine, but the execution was muddy and the implications were unclear. I'm not bothered by the 1 minute fight, even if the stand-up slapping thrills me less than any other options open to guys under these rules. But I did like Flash's selling on the shot that made his legs wobble, and thought Broner dragging Flash to the mat with a papoose takedown kicked ass. But you have Broner getting a stoppage in a minute, then Flash beating Broner down after, then Beverly cheapshotting Flash, which leaves Broner slumped there waiting for an angle to play out, his quick finish already in the rearview. I think filming something separately with Beverly and Flash could have played better, as a big Broner win should have been played up as a bigger thing than a Bobby Beverly stable change. 

Austin Connelly vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: I have compared Connelly to a shoot style Buzz Sawyer before, and he has really leaned into it with a chain and barking, which is great. Like always, Connelly is a missile aimed right at his opponent, constantly moving forward throwing reckless forearms. He run rights into a forearm by Blade which busts his mouth, and they are moving with such speed and wildness that it doesn't seem possible to control the force of blows. Blade grabs the ankle and really cranks it until the ref has to stop the fight. I am into both of these fighters, Connelly especially is one of my favorite wrestlers in the world to watch right now.

ER: My god Austin Connelly rules. There have been a ton of standout moments and standout wrestlers on these Paradigm UWFI shows, so it's high praise to say he might be my favorite. I like Phil's Shootstyle Buzz Sawyer description, and while I harp on other guys not really adhering to UWFI style, I hypocritically love how UWFI rules cannot contain Connelly as he rushes headlong into kill or be killed. These two were throwing elbows straight at mouths and not pulling things, and we got a great visual of Connelly yelling through a mouth filled with blood while trying to break an ankle lock. Blade hung in with the mad man and weathered the storm, fighting for that ankle lock even while Connelly was pounding on her knee to get her to break. I would have liked another minute or two of this, but also love experiencing the joy of Connelly in these starbursts. 

PAS: Filthy Tom Lawlor comes out and introduces Matt Makowski as the newest member of Team Filthy, which is awesome. Love Makowski, and I am excited to see what he does in this format. They do another angle that sets up Makowski vs. Hoodfoot which is of course great, but there is some stuff with Bobby Beverly and Lexus Montez which wasn't great and ended up with some shoving, and the angles continue to leave me cold. Makowski vs. Hoodfoot should rule though.

ER: Getting more guys than necessary out there to do some shoving was really not necessary, as the purpose of the Lawlor segment should have only been to build excitement for Makowski/Hoodfoot. That match is something to be excited about, and I left the segment excited for it, but everything else distracted from that excitement. 

Derek Neal vs. Gary Jay

PAS: This didn't work for me, the striking had a real Lisa Simpson windmill feeling, and there were some New Japan forearms and even a knife edge chop. It had some nice energy and Neal threw a good clothesline, but it felt out of the style and too many thing didn't land but got sold anyway.

ER: This didn't bother me as badly as it did Phil, but you know when Phil breaks out the Lisa Simpson reference that he is getting ready to really hate something. I don't know what part of the match those punches are referring to, as it's a tough criticism to levy towards a match with no closed fists allowed. When you're only allowed slaps (technically), you are going to be walking that fine line between hard strikes and "kids having a slap fight with 90% of them missing". And from the looks of this match, they landed in that unfortunate valley of strikes that likely really hurt, without actually looking good. That's a shame, because you could see how hard Neal was laying things in with his clubbing shots to Jay's back, and I liked the big powerbomb Neal used to start the match. He has 60 pounds on Jay, hell yes he should Sapp him up into a powerbomb. That kind of stuff worked for me, and I also liked how Neal kept getting solid knockdowns for the first minute: That powerbomb, a kind of waterwheel suplex, a couple of strikes, good way to keep Jay down early. But by the time they started in with bad looking chops and some real bad looking Jay roaring elbows, I was ready for it to be over. I'm sure it's possible to hit a cool roaring elbow that would fit right into the vibe of a Paradigm match, but these elbows wouldn't have looked good in any setting. 

Dominic Garrini vs. Matt Justice

PAS: This was really cool, and a great main event for a season premier. Garrini had only lost once in this style, to Hoodfoot, and Justice had been a guy working primarily superfights against UFC guys. Garrini controlled early with grappling, although Justice showed some skill there including a great gator roll and some really nasty elbows to the side of the head. We get a camera close up of the shots and they were brutal. They get back to their feet and Garrini shoots right into a KO knee. Felt like it was building to something bigger before being suddenly finished, and I liked how it really felt out of nowhere.

ER: Really impressed with both guys here, but it's hard to not be more impressed with Justice. Justice went for a single leg to start and really took a grappling match right to Dom, an ambitious strategy against a world class grappler with a notable gas tank. Dom is really good at being calm and cool on the mat, using his low gravity to put a lot of weight on Justice, to tire Justice out. Justice decides to break this by throwing two brutal back elbows at Garrini's head and face, another that scraped hard across Dom's face, and then rained down with a few more after shifting positions. On a weekly show filled with stiff strikes, these elbows were among the heaviest blows we've seen. The finish was so so, as Dom gets his hands way out in front of the knee that leads right to the finish. I obviously can't really blame anyone for not diving face first into a KO knee, but still a match finishing knee needs to look like a knee that will lead to a finish. Still, I love these guys, and would love to see this run back. 

ER: You could make the case that this episode was the best episode of the UWFI rules series so far, with nearly all of the matches delivering at minimum something memorable. We added Hoodfoot/Akira to our 2021 Ongoing MOTY List. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series Episode 5 Finale

Ron Mathis vs. Akira

PAS: This wasn't really a UWFI match, more of a highspot sprint. It had some nice stuff in it, like Akira landing a gross Low-Ki double stomp and some big high kicks. He is a fun Minoru Tanaka style shoot junior in this garage BattlArts. Mathis had some fun throws, but was almost doing comedy spots at the beginning.  For what this was it was fine, it was pretty out of style though. 

ER: Yeah the Mathis comedy at the beginning really threw me, come off like something we didn't need worked into this series. Felt like the wrong vibe to bring, maybe would have played better in front of a crowd. But every minute of the match was stronger than the minute that preceded it, so it's hard to dislike a match that keeps getting better and ends with the best stuff. There were a bunch of exploder variations, and one of the commentary guys called one of them "a real sack of shit toss" which made me spit coffee out a bit. The throws got pretty big by the end, and I liked Mathis leaping onto Akira with a guillotine. I thought Akira's bridging reversal of the guillotine was fantastic, and his leaping double stomp into Mathis's chin was disgusting, one of the great spots of the season. 

Big Beef vs. Austin Connelly

PAS: I am into Connelly. He does relentless really well, and comes right at Big Beef, only to get rudely and violently rebuked. Some of those forearms that Beef threw were Vader on Cactus level of concussive. For a second I didn't buy Connelly getting off a suplex, until I saw the size of his thighs. He looks like he could squat a mobile home. Quick and violent seems to be a Connelly special, and he is a guy I want to see more of. Beef hits appropriately hard, and I think him versus Hoodfoot could be great.

ER: I couldn't wait for this one after Connelly's last fight and Beef's performance all season, and this delivered. Connelly is a nut, and I buy into the way he keeps popping up and charging in until he can't. I'm not sure how sustainable it is for his career, but I love it! He rushes Beef and runs right into a boot and a powerbomb, and that kind of thing keeps happening. His throw was really impressive, and his ability to eat shots is even more impressive. Beef cracks him across the face and jaw with some vicious forearms, There's also some awesome post match body wrecking, with Connelly running down Beef and laying in full arm forearm shots just as hard as he took, and then Beef powers Connelly up and runs him back to the ring to dump him disgustingly with a powerbomb on the floor. Another season 1 highlight from these two. 

Lexus Montez vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: More of an angle then a match, Beverly does a Fuerza handshake gimmick at the beginning and catches Montez with a couple of his Saito suplexes. Montez is able to bully him into the ropes and hit some shots and the ref does an quick stoppage. There ends up being a locker room brawl setting up Hoodfoot vs. Beverly in Terminal Combat which is five minutes of UWFI rules and then a hardcore match, which on paper seems kind of silly. I needed Montez to land harder stuff for me to buy the stoppage even if it was supposed to be fast.

ER: Yeah none of this worked for me. The referee is wearing a mask so I can only assume it's Steve Mazzagatti under there, because this stoppage was bad, and looked bad. I get the angle, but you need to actually play up to the angle and "bad stoppage" is just about one of the least interesting angles around. Nothing Montez did looked like it warranted a stoppage, his Superman punch just looked like a bad avalanche, and his match stopping slaps were arguably the worst strikes we've seen during this 5 episode UWFI rules run. If not worst overall strikes, then definitely the worst strikes used as justification to stop a match. My grandma really hated my beard, and would always tug on it and give my face these little slaps when she saw it, and those slaps looked harder than the slaps that stopped this match. If a match is going to be used to further an angle, you have to actually a) sell the angle convincingly, and b) make the angle interesting. The match this leads to sounds cumbersome at best, but the execution that got us there was even worse. 

Chase Holliday vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: This was pretty good stuff, with Blade showing their skill on the mat, including pulling guard with a jumping kimura, only to be caught with some big shots when they stood up. There was a nasty short hook which dropped her, and a big spinning back elbow for the KO (better then Holliday's first spinning back elbow, still not as good as Akira's or Broner's). I liked Blade a lot, and this was a better Holliday performance, excited to see more from both. 

ER: I thought this was a nice little snack. I really liked Blade's tie up matwork, her guard seemed really difficult to pass and she had really dangerous upkicks, and strong use of her legs in general. It looked like she had a good plan and I really liked her heavy knees to the ribs while standing. Holliday's worked back elbow finish looked good, and I dug how Blade sold it. 

Aaron Williams vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: I like Justice's fish out of water gimmick in these shows. It was cool how this match kept threatening to spin out, before being brought back in. Williams was fun shit talking on the mat, as he was clearly the more skilled grappler, and I loved his body shot/hook combo which sent Justice to the floor. I thought the buckle bomb and death valley driver were a step too far away from the style for me, but those finishing KO grounded knees were nasty looking. Post match Justice calls out Josh Barnett, which would be a big deal if they could actually deliver. 

ER: This landed a bit short for me. Justice is a "main event" worker I really like, but this didn't have the main event season ending heft that a lot of Justice matches come with. I do like Justice as fish out of water, challenging any Pride or UFC vets in an open challenge (how much could it cost to bring in Gerard Gordeau or Zuluzhino?), but I wanted more out of the last fight of the season. There were several individual things I liked, like Justice breaking a guillotine by trying to drop Williams back of neck first over the middle rope, and those nasty match ending knees from Justice. I also liked Williams talking trash ("I'm gonna get my shit in too!") and his triangle attempt. I thought the dvd was worked in as well as you can work something like that into a shootstyle match, but yeah I'd rather not see it. 

PAS: This is the end of season one, and I think overall this was a successful experiment. Not everything worked on every show, but everything was kept short, and I can digest a four minute failure pretty easily. This introduced me to a bunch of wrestlers I want to see more. Isaiah Broner, Hoodfoot, Austin Connelly, and Jordan Blade being people I hadn't heard of and have left big fans, and there is a whole second tier that I am excited to see more. We are in, and will cover Season 2 for sure.

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Rules Contenders Series Episode 1

ER: I haven't been enjoying AEW the past few weeks, TNT messed up my area broadcast of AEW tonight anyway, and the first episode of Paradigm Pro's Indiana Inokiism just happened to be tonight. Sounds like some signs pointed to us checking this one out. Big Beef is the only wrestler on this show who I have seen, and I haven't even heard of the rest of them. We're going into this blind.

PAS: This is kind of a silly idea, but silly in an awesome way. Midwest indy guys working empty arena UWFI rules matches is very much our kind of shit. I really liked the opening video graphic illegally mixing in clips of Buster Douglas and UFC fights, just hammy enough.

Big Beef Gnarls Garvin vs. Lord Crewe

PAS: Pair of solid looks on these two, really feels like an unexpected post Hardcore show fist fight at the back bar of the Black Cat. Garvin is a thick guy and despite Crewe being listed as a bare knuckled fighter, Garvin had the advantage throwing shots as he really put his weight behind them. The UWFI rules forbid closed punches to the head and it didn't feel like Crewe fully mastered throwing good looking open hands. I did like his jumping choke finish and he had some nice post match trash talking. 

ER: I think the UWFI rules held back the striking here, as the big swinging arm shots from Beef looked really dangerous for something that would have looked better as a worked punch. Kind of like how Foley said Bob Holly had bad looking punches that actually hurt - the worst combination. Beef is probably killing Crewe with open hands and heavy arms but actual worked punches would probably look better. Beef had a couple great suplexes, including a big German and another that just looked like him throwing a sack of concrete. He's put on big size during the pandemic, but I think it really works for his whole thing. Wrestling needs guys that look like Beef. I was excited to see Crewe after buying into some of the pre-match hype on him, but he didn't show a ton here. Some guys excel in this weird scheme and others don't, I'll see him some day under his own style and I'll make my judgment then. 

Janai Kai vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: Fun style clash with Kai working a Muay Thai gimmick, and Blade being a powerlifter and grappler (with cool nickname the Anklebreaker). Both ladies were DMV based, and I imagine this might be a touring match of a sort. Kai has really fast hands and used the speed to dominate on her feet, Blade took her down and dominated her on the mat before letting her up, dropping to her own back and calling Kai in, only to lock in an ankle lock for the tap. Blade got put over really strong here looked mostly unbothered. Not sure whether this leads to intergender shoot style or if they have a deeper distaff bench, but I was into what I saw. 

ER: I really liked what both these two brought, with Blade being maybe the biggest female fighter I've seen on the indy scene (tale of the tape said gold medal powerlifting background, and a female Mark Henry would be such a cool thing to see), and Kai's Muay Thai looked like a whole complete look. This started with it looking like it was going to be a Kai showcase with all her cool flash, but Blade started powering her down and basically smothering Kai. There was a great moment where the lifter finally got the bumblebee and slammed her down, immediately kneeling into her back and beginning a pounding that doesn't let up until she gets that ankle lock. Very curious to see more. 

Crash Jaxon vs. Isaiah Broner

PAS: Jaxon is a big kid out of Ohio while Broner is a menacing looking black dude from Detroit. This is short and sweet, Jaxon gets a throw but runs right into a spinning back elbow that damn near takes his head off for the fast KO. Broner calls out Hoodfoot after telling JRose the ring announcer to "Social Distance your ass to the back." Impressive way to make someone, and I like how they don't need every match to be 55/45.

ER: I get why they did this but I really wanted to see this one play out. Jaxon had a huge throw before he got put down hard by a Broner back elbow (even nicer than one Big Beef used earlier) and it looked like something that could be a KO. That's the most important thing, that your KO finish look like something that would result in a KO. They could still run this match back and you've got your built in story of Jaxon feeling robbed. 

Lexus Montez vs. Tommy Kyle Dean

PAS: This didn't fully work for me, both guys seemed to have ideas which didn't totally come off. This was one of the longer matches of the night, and despite some attempts at things, nothing really stood out. Montez wins with a spinning back elbow, which was probably a mistake with Broner's looking way better in the previous match. I would be fine seeing either guy again (TKD is an AIW student and while he hasn't done much for me yet in AIW, that school has a great track record), but this show has nicely made stars, and this didn't.

ER: I liked this a little more than Phil, but I get where he's coming from. It's hard on a show like this to not have guys doing similar versions of what others have already done on the same show, some of it is going to look better, some will look worse. I liked the things they went for and liked the messiness of some of the positions they wound up in. I liked when TKD missed a shot and Montez wound up standing over him, lobbing elbows at the back of his head. TKD would throw out a bunch of kicks and at one point looked like he was trying to intentionally miss a high kick to turn it into a kind of leveraged armbar takedown. None of those things worked, but I appreciated the "First 3 UFC events" feel of the approach. I liked the back elbow finish and thought it worked even with a nastier looking back elbow finish the match directly before. It would have made sense to not double up on the same finish back to back, but if it looks good it looks good. 

Hoodfoot Mo Atlas vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: I thought this was pretty rad for a short match. Thompson was listed as the Indiana Golden Gloves champion, and I liked his head movement and body placement, he looked like a fighter. Hoodfoot is a big charismatic guy who feels like a champion, and it was mostly the speed and technique of Thompson against the power of Atlas. We get several go behinds by Atlas, one results in a Thompson ankle lock, and two others are just dismissive throws to the ground by Atlas. Finish exchange is pretty great, both guys have figured out how to throw good looking open hand strikes, with Thompson throwing cool combos including rocking Atlas with a dip uppercut, before running into a monster looking right hook for the KO. The announcers were making Kimbo Slice and Mike Tyson comps, and it only felt a bit like hyperbole. 

ER: I love matches that barely go 3 minutes but manage to pack in a ton of detail work. Most of this match was worked real tight, a lot of need exchanges thrown from the clinch. I like how off speed they worked in the clinch, both throwing at awkward times instead of more measured turns, and I liked the ways each found to outgun the other. The short range striking can be hard to make look right, and they kept it smart by mixing it up with hard knees in between the open hand shots. The rolling ankle lock from an Atlas go behind looked good, loved how Thompson would set it up with a back elbow. As we've established already on Episode 1, back elbows are murder in Paradigm. So Atlas gets sick of taking back elbows whenever he slips into a go behind, and decides the best way to prevent those is to just toss Flash to the mat. The KO looked strong, and I liked all the KOs on this show. Shows running Only KO/Sub stoppages usually end up with a couple duds, a couple fights ending on this that looked like the weakest shot of the fight, but the KOs on this show all looked like the finish. 

PAS: They finish with a pretty heated pull apart with Hoodfoot and Broner, and they sold me a virtual ticket to that fight for sure.  Fun show, want to see more for sure.

ER: This show came at the right time, on a night where the AEW airings got all messed up in my area, coming after me not enjoying Dynamite for the past several episodes. Something totally different - in this case a Wednesday night UWFI rules show - was the right change of pace. I like some things they set up for future shows, and am excited to see what matches break away from the pack and become shootstyle classics.

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