Monday AIW - Ain't Nothing But a Gangster Party 4/20/18

43. Eddie Kingston vs. PCO

PAS: Another fun stop on the PCO indy tour. Kingston is a great opponent for PCO because he is going to bring the structure and selling to a match focused around a crazy old man being nuts. Kingston is great at selling frustration early as PCO outfoxes him, and when they start to lay in shots they really lay them in. This is basically like a Big Japan tubby guys slugfest, with Kingston adding in great selling to the fun of watching big guys hit each other. I liked how both guys mixed up their shots, with Kingston laying in the slaps and PCO hitting some nasty thrust punches to the ribs. I loved the PCO moonsault, really pretty and lands with a thud. I liked Kingston sneaking in a couple of big suplexes and a backfist to put him down. The match didn't need a bunch of near falls, and I dug it ending on a kill shot.

ER: I thought this was great, 12 minutes of two big guys pasting each other with nothing but hard shots. I thought this was one of the tightest of the PCO return matches, kept snug and reigned in, focusing way more on beating your opponent down instead of setting up stunt spots. PCO is a tough as nails 90s WWF guy, so Kingston appropriately where a 90s WWF jobber singlet and matches up absolutely perfectly. Every strike exchange worked for me big time, with big chops from both guys, PCO hitting nasty running elbows, Kingston throwing digestion disrupting kneelifts, and a fantastic moment where PCO ran wild on the ropes before hitting the hardest lariat he possibly could. These guys established they were going to kick each other's asses, and this was all ass kicking for the duration. The big moves were all spaced out nicely, and King's suplexes all looked finisher worthy - big heavy back suplexes and a huge German that sends PCO all the way over - while the PCO dives we build to at the end looked huge. PCO sends Kingston into the aisle with a big tope, then flattens him with a big tope con hilo and moonsault. They fit so much into the runtime, and Kingston was fantastic playing off PCO, thought all the stuff around his backfist was awesome, and he would pepper in "non moves" things like throwing a table in frustration early in the match. This looked like a perfect pairing on paper, and delivered in full.

MJF vs. Louis Lyndon

PAS: This was a pretty entertaining short match. The kind of thing which would get a thumbs up if it appeared on an episode of the Pro. MJF toned down his horseshit a bit and actually worked a wrestling match. I liked all of the arm work by both guys, although MJF didn't seem to be able to bump fully for Lyndon's fancy stuff( awkward landing on a reverse rana). I liked the finish with MJF taking advantage of the no rules stip by kicking Lyndon in the nuts and slapping on an armbar.

KTB vs. Tim Donst

PAS: Pretty fun big man match with Donst using the no-DQ rules to do some nasty spots with the ropes. I really liked when he when he tied KTB up into the ropes and bounced off them to spring KTB ribs first onto a chair. He also hit a nasty suplex into the corner and finished by wrapping him up in the ropes to make him tap. It never really kicked into third gear despite the punishment both guys took, which seems to be the pattern with Donst matches, although I did enjoy it.

Space Monkey vs. Gary Jay vs. Danhausen vs. Facade

PAS: As a rule I don't like multi man matches it is hard to hit every complex thing and it is difficult to build a match with lots of guys. They tend to stay at the same level without dips and peaks. I normally DO like AIW multi man matches, as it seems like a fed which frequently can overcome those problems. This one had more of the bad than the good though. Space Monkey comedy spots were probably the highlight of this match, and I really liked the bump Danhausen took on the banana peel. The concept of doing the Jacobs/Whitmer spike battle with a spike and banana is amusing, but still a match with comedy spots as a highlight - if it isn't a Brazos match - is going to be tough sledding for me.

PB Smooth vs. Eddy Only

PAS: This didn't jump out at me on paper, but was really enjoyable. Smooth is legitimately gigantic and has great potential, and having him work basically a handicap match against the entire Production really made him stand out. Only goes above and beyond to make him look great too, he gets posted and bleeds a gusher, takes huge bumps on all of PB's chokeslams and bombs, makes him really look like a force. Loved the spot where Smooth countered a tope by leaping up and catching him mid move and hanging him on the top rope. Frankie Flynn, Danhausen, Derek Director and Magnum CK all come into to get pinballed, and they finish by overwhelming him and smashing him with a ring rope hook. Smooth does get Shelton holed a bit, as Papa Shango comes out to Voodoo curse the production. Magnum CK really goes over the top in an entertaining way selling the black goop, what a pro that guy was.

ER: This one actually DID jump out on paper for me. I like mismatches and this sounded like a good one. When I was a kid and my dad let me rent a wrestling tape when we were at the video store renting Air America or some shit, I would always look for the Coliseum Videos with the weirdest matches. I wasn't angling for who could possibly be a "good" match, because my concept of what made a match good was wildly different at age 10. If I saw something like Doink vs. Giant Gonzalez on a tape, I was definitely getting that tape. And this match felt like a killer Coliseum Video exclusive. I'd get that tape going "There's no way Doink could last 1 minute against Gonzalez!" Well, sure, in a fair fight. This match had the exact kind of bells and whistles and I loved it. Eddy worked overtime here - as did all of the Production, really doing their part to set up cool moments for Smooth - and the match starts with Eddy getting caught on a sneak attack dive, getting lawndarted into the ringpost, and coming up bloody as hell. Hell yeah. Derek Director gets pump kicked in the chest, Magnum CK takes a somersault Arn bump and eats a back elbow, and we get bananas spots like Smooth palming Eddy's bloody head like a basketball and chokeslamming him, or getting him even higher on a traditional chokeslam, or - and this was the best spot of the match - leaping from the floor as Eddy was running towards the ropes, essentially dunking Eddy's neck right over the top rope. When the hell else has anybody done THAT?! Finish is Eddy absolutely crushing Smooth with a ring hook, totally bitchin finish for a No DQ match. Papa Shango's appearance clearly makes the Coliseum Video connection complete! This thing was like 5 minutes and they were the exact 5 minutes I wanted.

Cheech/Colin Delaney/Josh Prohibition/Jollyville Fuck Its vs. No Consequences (AJ Gray/Tre Lamar/Chase Oliver/Gary "The King" Baller/Joshua Bishop)

PAS: No Consequences had one of my favorite matches of 2017 their 10 man against a veteran squad at Absolution, and this is a similar style. This is a no rules show, and it starts with the Fuck It's coming from the back and jumping No Consequences and it is basically a stiff brawl on the outside interspersed with some crazy dives. T-Money who is a big dude opens up the diving with a nutso superman plancha, and it just gets crazier. Cheech flies into the audience, and then gets the back of his head busted open when he misses a ring apron DDT. Chase Oliver hits a couple of crazy dives, Joshua Bishop gets pounced into a contraption of carpet tacks, and the vet team ends up destroying AJ Gray with a money maker on a chair and then a Russ Myer cannonball through a table. Gray did a great convulsion sell during this, which really put over the brutality. This whole show had a very ECW vibe, and this was that kind of craziness at its best.

ER: This doesn't quite reach the heights of their 2017 masterpiece, but there is so much damn greatness throughout that it doesn't matter a bit. This was a wild 10 man brawl, with insane dives happening every minute, hard punches, mean double teams, the kind of insanity you'd want from these nuts. Literally everything with Jollyville was perfection. Russ is a guy who may presently be my favorite wrestler to watch. He commits to everything, makes every punch count, doesn't skimp on kicks, and when the finish calls for an elbowdrop through a table this man is going to to fly in with that elbow like a satellite crashing to earth. T-Money is built solidly as hell, and hits like a freight train. His dive here is incredible, as he clears the top rope no hands style but stays horizontal. That's dangerous as hell as your body naturally wants to just torpedo you face first into the ground, but he keeps it level and crashes through everyone. They're my team, ride or die. There's some danger on some of the dives: Baller hangs on too long on a flip dive and almost brains himself on the apron, AJ Gray does an amazing tornillo but the catchers aren't quite there, but dives ARE dangerous so there's gonna be some danger! Oliver hits a bonkers moonsault to the floor and crushes Russ's esophagus with a cool chest breaker that saw him vault off the bottom rope, Delaney plants Lamar with a sick DDT on the apron (Cheech does the same and ends up getting a nasty cut on his head), Lamar hits an evil baseball slide dropkick through the ropes, Gray gets an awesome fired up babyface moment before his doom and throws a ton of great rapid fire punches to everyone that looked like he was trying to punch through their forehead. This one was a little more disjointed than their classic, a little messy, but these guys wear messy really well.

Mathew Justice vs. Ethan Page

PAS: This was sort of the Tommy Dreamer match for this ECW show. Lots of brawling in the crowd, and shots with water bottles and beer cans. Justice and Page both throw their bodies around a bunch in this match, landing weird on chairs and the floor, but I am not sure what it all means at the end. The match starts with Page insulting a fan on the mic and ends with a Dr. Dan run in, and this match is one of my only problems with AIW which is the punishment that guys take in matches that don't mean much. Really violent show, but too many matches built around punishing bumps minimizes each bump.

Weird World vs. Philly Marino Experience vs. Young Studs vs. #Duke Money

PAS: This was a comedy garbage match with some guys bleeding like pigs and taking huge bumps for what was basically for yuks. It's starts out with PME and Duke Money having a tag match, but a couple of minutes in the Studs come from the back and start brawling, and then a couple minutes after that Natural Born Killaz starts playing and Weird World comes out dressed like the Gangstas with a shopping cart full of weapons. It is pretty crazy throughout, with Eric Ryan legdropping a shopping cart, guys getting mauled with cheese graters and thumbtacks. It certainly had energy, and the spectacle of it made it memorable, but one after another with big violent spectacles, tends to burn me out.

Tracy Williams/Dominic Garrini vs. Nick Gage/Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was worked as a No DQ brawl like the rest of the show, but they distinguished themselves by really laying it in. Lawlor especially was just pasting people, huge superman punches, big kicks, as he was trying to take out Garrini who broke his arm earlier in the year. The coolest stuff in the match was when they mixed some shootstyle into the brawling, including Williams sinking in a tight choke, Garrini countering a Lawlor superman punch with a flying triangle, and Lawlor removing his armpad and beating Garrini bloody with his cast (Garrini did a pretty obvious blade job, which was a problem in his awesome Mania weekend match too, big Garrini fan but he has to work on his close up magic.) Gage hung well in that atmosphere, as he came off as a Tank Abbot style MMA brawler. I thought the stuff with the thumbtacks and tables was unnecessary, in a vacuum it was fine but on a show where nearly every match had props, they would have been better off just having a wild stiff Murakami brawl. Still dug this a bunch. 


ER: Another AIW show, another Kingston match on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, and it genuinely feels like every single AIW show is treated like a big deal. They're the best.

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Monday AIW - Gauntlet for the Gold 4/26/19

I had so much fun at the AIW live show Mania weekend, I decided to go ahead and buy their shows going forward, it is a fed which deserves my cash. With all of the AIW shows available on IndependentWrestling.tv, I am going to try to do a new show every Monday. Eric will be jumping in when something intrigues him.

Facade vs. Lee Moriarty vs. Louis Lyndon vs. Tre Lamar vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Zach Thomas

PAS: This was a spotty six way, pretty much what you would expect from that match. AIW does really good spotfests, although it is their tag spotfests which really stand out. I hadn't seen much of Thomas before, and I liked some of his power stuff. Lamar had the best dive hitting a top con hilo with great height. There was kind of a scary moment when Facade tried for Teddy Hart's top rope doomsday destroyer, but slipped and ended up spiking Lamar awkwardly on his head, degree of difficulty of the stuff which inexperienced guys try (Facade has been around forever, but Thomas and Lamar are basically rookies) is always nerve racking.

MJF vs. Shane Douglas (w/ Francine)

PAS: This is as advertised. MJF talks some shit on the mic, Douglas curses out Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels and steals some of Tommy Dreamers ECW nostalgia act lines (I imagine those guys have the same booker, and if Dreamer is busy you can get Shane for 80 cents on the dollar). Francine looks way healthier now then when she was in her prime, together they look like a successful speedboat salesman and his wife who has really got into Yoga since her kids went to college. Francine may have had the best punches in the match, MJF knows how to bump around and stooge for an old guy, and the fans got to chant along post match to Douglas introing Bam Bam and Candido in heaven. Not my thing really, and doesn't translate to video particularly well, but for what it was designed to do it did it well.

ER: I'm not planning on watching this match, but I can attest to how nicely Francine has aged. I remember seeing her at a con several years ago and actually wound up standing next to her at one point, and had a brief, nice chat. She was very pretty and kind, in a way I was NOT expecting after seeing her in 1998. She aged much closer to an east coast Andrea Savage than a Jersey mob goomah. She seems like a really well adjusted woman for someone who got some insanely disgusting things screamed and chanted at her regularly when she was 25. I like nice wrestling stories.

La Familia de Tijuana (Bestia 666/Damian 666) vs. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: It is pretty cool that Damian 666 has become an AIW regular, what an awesome dude to be showing up as indy fed regular in 2019. I loved the LFT brawl at the Wrestlemania weekend show, but this was much more of a straight tag, which doesn't really work within Bestia or Damian's strengths, best part of the match was probably Damian breaking out the leather belt and starting strapping. I do think To Infinity and Beyond have fun double teams, but this was more a cool idea then a great match.

ER: I really liked this. 2I&B is one of my favorite current tag teams, two guys I've liked for quite some time who have been really clicking, and I like them running wild on FdT due to FdT being forced to work normal. If they had come out stabbing Delaney in the face with forks that would be one thing, but I like them working straight. It never crossed my mind that Delaney would ever somehow get BACK into WWE, considering the weird circumstances that lead to him being there for 7 months over a decade ago. He's still among the very weirdest guys to get an official WWE action figure, and watching him now he's clearly good enough to be in NXT, which is the best. He's really good at working with FdT, setting up fun moments for Damian to attack him from the apron, and I really like Infinity's double teams, especially Cheech's facewash leading into an outside to inside 619 (it's easy to make something seemingly cutesy work when the end result is kicking someone across the face). FdT working straight and getting kind of dominated was great, because then it lead to a great reaction when Damian finally got a belt BY TAKING THE REF'S so he could start whipping ass and strangling dudes. Damian even wraps the belt around Delaney's throat and beals him across the ring, and I thought they set up the comedy tree of woe/69 spot really well. If FdT are going to be regulars (and I hope so because I like how they slot into AIW) then it makes sense to give us some straight matches with them, and this was just the amount of fun I wanted from the tag.

Deranged vs. DJ Z vs. Flip Kendrick vs. Gringo Loco

PAS: This is DJ Z's final indy match, and is a pretty great balls to the wall spotfest. Deranged comes out of deep freeze and looks awesome, he takes the biggest bump of the match, when he gets pushed off the top rope and flies rib first into the ring ramp, and was part of the craziest highspot a double moonsault by Deranged and DJZ. Pretty much everyone looked great though, Loco was right there to base for all of the crazy highspot stuff and everyone in this had great charisma with everyone else. Lots of high degree of difficulty spots all pulled off really well, and some great athletes doing athletic things.

ER: Hell yeah. I don't always love the idea of "dream match" booking, but I really like the idea of someone hand picking their opponent/s for their "retirement" match. DJ Z is going to NXT and we get AIW legend Gringo Loco back, and freaking DERANGED gets on another 2019 indy card! This was exciting as hell and an excellent charcuterie plate showcasing each person's talents. We get big bumps, dangerous flying, nasty car crashes, everything you'd want really. Loco takes a nasty snap suplex on the entrance ramp that lands hard, and minutes later Deranged gets shoved off the top rope and takes a bellyflop right onto the ramp, nasty as hell. Kendrick flies into everyone with a corkscrew moonsault to the floor, his own body whipping across the guardrail. DJ Z shows off some of his pretty lucha sequences he learned from Skayde, we get a couple of tower spots that are actually worthy of the set up (one seeing Kendrick getting lawndarted off the top by Z and Deranged into a Loco cutter, and later a surprise Spanish Fly onto the others on the floor), and everybody fits nicely into the hybrid lucha setting. Deranged drops crazy stuff that still looks good today, and he has that Jack Evans flying ability where he makes complicated spots look like violent breakdancing moves, putting his own twists on flying double knees off the top or a caught standing spinkick. But I like every individual in this one, and especially like how the match really felt like each of the 4 bringing an equal part of their style to it.

Matthew Justice vs. Joshua Bishop

PAS: Fun big boy punch out which really falls apart at the finish. Couple of really fun spots including Bishop catching a Justice dive and powerslamming him into the metal barricades. I also really liked Justice's chops, really lacing into Bishop's chest. Finish had Justice redoing his death valley driver off the ramp because the table didn't break and we got an elongated ref bump/Wes Barkley inference section. If that is going to be the finish, just do it. Here it just dragged on and killed the momentum of the match. Still excited about the rematch next show, though.

26. Eddie Kingston vs. Mance Warner

PAS: I thought this was great. Basically a WAR match, totally built around two relatively big guys punching and headbutting each other really hard and selling that exertion (neither guy is Ashura Hara, but neither guy is Ultimo Dragon sized either). I write this every time I review an Eddie Kingston match, but he is really amazing at all of the little things which make an all-time great wrestler. His reactions after getting hit with Warner's big headbutts were so good, first he wants to shit talk, and it is almost this delayed reaction where the brain trauma hits him a moment later. There is also some great knee selling later in the match, when Warner can't stand in front of Kingston anymore and has to clip his leg. I loved the finish, with Kingston going to the top, getting distracted briefly by the Duke and diving right into a Warner headbutt, which clipped him right on the jaw. It didn't take Kingston down immediately, but it was the beginning of the end. If Kingston is really retiring at the end of the year, he is going out with a huge run. It reminds me of Dick Togo's pre-retirement match streak, and hopefully Eddie will also just travel in South America, read leftist literature and return in a couple of years.

ER: This would have been more shocking if it didn't deliver on its on paper promise, and while I don't think it was quite up to the high standards Retirement Tour Kingston has provided us, there was zero chance I wasn't going to love this. Eddie adds so much to these ringside tour/in ring slugfest brawls, so much added personality, even just getting verbal in so many ways that a ton of indy guys are afraid to get. Seriously, look at how many times an indy guy pumps his fists and opens his mouth for a triumphant scream, only to be totally silent. Once you notice it you'll hate me for pointing it out. Kingston beats Mance with chops, nice overhand shots that always land, and he mixes them up by occasionally smacking Mance right on top of his shaved head. He's really good at making ringside brawls engaging, falling into rails, smacking into a ringpost, getting everyone a good look. But everyone knows and everyone loves when Kingston integrates an unexpected injury into a match, and it's a more unique formula than "guy works my arm, my arm is sore". Kingston always just pulls an injury doing something he regularly does, which is ULTRA relatable to me, person who is the same age as Eddie Kingston. King is great at working those "I slept for 8 hours but woke up with a neck kink" injuries, and here he came off the top rope with a knee across Warner's jaw but then sold landing rough on his knee for the rest of the match. I am someone who will do a goofy dance at work for a quick laugh on office birthday cake day, and then feel a tug in my ribcage for a week after. King knows how to create and sell injuries like this, and knows how to keep working a competent match through that type of injury. He hits an absolutely scorching powerbomb on Warner and is feeling out his knee afterward, and it's those little details that always make King matches mean so much more. His shit talking is always welcome and I love how he uses shit talking in the same way Lawler takes down the strap. It never comes at the same time, doesn't always set up a comeback, but always signifies a sea change in the match. He can use them to taunt his opponent into doing something stupid, he can use it when he's clearly behind and doesn't sense a comeback, he can do it just because he's upset his opponent is making him go through some shit, but it always feels placed with intention. These two don't aim to break noses or concuss, and I'm glad because they have the personality to work a match like this without hurting each other.

Josh Prohibition vs. M-Dogg Matt Cross

PAS: This was sort of a nostalgia match for something I am really not nostalgic for, but I kind of love that these guys are going out there and killing each other 20 years after those backyard wrestling videos. I really dug the story of the match which was put over on commentary, two kids who started together, Cross goes on to tour around the world, while Prohibition gets married and has kids, and Josh always wonders if he could have been the guy on TV. These guys have been doing this for so long, and are still in such good shape that they pull off complex stuff effortlessly. I really loved Prohibitions running tope over the guardrail, and Cross is still an explosive high flyer. It got a bit OTT at the end, although the 20 anniversary match of backyard legends should be a bit OTT. Prohibition gives almost a wedding toast speech at the end, and the whole thing is pretty endearing.

Gauntlet For The Gold

PAS: This was a royal rumble, which isn't really my thing, but I am going to love a Royal Rumble when everyone who comes out is a cool AIW guy. It is just going to be more exciting when music hits and it's T-Money or Weird Body then when its Dolph Ziggler or Baron Corbin. This match had some fun eliminations,  I loved Marion Fontaine grabbing Dr. Dan's tie, and when Dan lets go of the rope to block his face, Fontaine just lets go of the tie so he falls to the floor. There was a lot of Joey Janela in this match, like he runs through about a dozen separate comedy spots, and by the end I just wanted Sandman Sims to tap dance into the ring and eliminate him with a hook. I also am not familiar enough with AIW minutia to understand the meaning of the surprise entrances. Kingston winning is great, although I probably would have had him come in earlier. Kingston vs. Lawlor as a big time main event is really intriguing, and should be a great capper to Kingston's AIW career if he is indeed retiring.


ER: Throw another Kingston match onto our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List. At this point it feels like it's guaranteed every time he shows up.

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