Big Time Wrestling TV 8/26/16

I like the simple black polo shirts on Dragon Dave and Hank Renner Jr., comes off way less gimmicky than their previous tuxedo/plaid blazer/fedora. Man I hated that hat (and the too large striped shirt under the plaid blazer). The simple black polos with BTW's logo on them are a nice, classic touch.

1. Kikyo Nakamura vs. Dementia D'Rose (7/15/16)

This was from their very recent Dangerous Damsels show, an 8 woman tournament, and I'm really really happy they're showing matches from it. There were several match-ups I was excited to see (sadly I missed last week's TV and I think they showed other first round matches from this show). Good for BTW to be so up to date on their programming. I was excited for this one as I like Kikyo and have never seen D'Rose before, and overall I think this worked. Both are similar size but I was still surprised to see Kikyo work from underneath. I'm used to her being a kind of monster, but I think she works really well as a FIP. It's just not usually appropriate in her matches. She has great underdog babyface facials, and I dug Dementia's bombs away and especially dug her camel clutch; she really wrenched it in and Kikyo sold it great. D'Rose doesn't do Kikyo a ton of favors on her comeback, as she wasn't really expecting what appeared to be a Thesz press, but Kikyo saves it by muscling it into a kind of back leg trip takedown, and followed up with nice mounted punches. D'Rose does lean into Kikyo's yakuza kick, and Kikyo always throws a nice one. I was disappointed with the finish even though it was executed well, with D'Rose biting Kikyo's arm unexpectedly and then rolling her up with a tights grab. Kikyo sold the bite as well as someone reasonably could, and the roll up was a nice high roll up that looked tough to get out of. So it was executed nicely, but I was hoping for a little more throw down for a finish.

2. Brittany Wonder vs. Raze (7/15/16)

Fun match, I like both women and I imagine Raze is a favorite to win this whole tourney. Wonder is really fun and always tries new things. Sometimes those things don't work, but she's ambitious and has a certain charisma. I like all her butt based offense (though a normal butt bump would probably work better than a handspring version), she takes big bumps and works a fun sort of relentless, pesty style. I like Raze as a bully, and how every time she can slow down or catch Wonder then bad things happen. Wonder hits a top rope splash, tope (that Raze kinda saves her on), also throws a nice yakuza kick, bullies Raze into the ring announcer and time keeper, and Raze occasionally launches her with great throws. Raze played her part nicely, giving Wonder plenty of nice moments to shine, taking a big bump over the top to the floor, and Wonder paid her back by getting dumped a couple times on suplexes. The match ending head and arm suplex was a fitting finish, with Raze really snapping her over.

3. The Nasty Boys vs. Dustin Ardine & Vinny Poochanelli (5/21/11)

Amusing Nasty Boys steamroll. I have no clue who Ardine or Poochanelli are, but their job was to run into things the Nasties were doing, and they did that well. Ardine is kind of a loon as he lets Sags give him a powerbomb on the floor, just a straight up powerbomb on concrete. Thankfully the camera picked it up as it was *ahem* nasty. Poochanelli gets bodyslammed by Knobbs on the floor, some chairshots are thrown (at least Sags takes a couple shots), but yeah if you were hoping for any kind of offense from non Nasty Boys, you'd be leaving the match disappointed. The powerbomb was nuts, and there was another super fun spot with Sags dumping Poochanelli into a rolling trash can, and then wheeling him straight into a stiff Knobbs back elbow. I was hoping for some classic Knobbs unprofessionalism, but he seemed totally on the level.


Another fun episode, real tightly run as always. The camera work is something I don't think I've ever complimented them on but their work on their shows is very good. They have a satisfying way of filming matches and changing angles, not just showing stuff from a hard cam. It's an overall good production.

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Phoenix Pro Wrestling 6/7/16

Phoenix Pro Wrestling is a local indy that my pal Tim Livingston and I do commentary for. They've been running shows for over a year now, and sadly THIS show was the first one I had to miss (I was on a cruise to the Caribbean with my family, a trip that combined all of the nightmares of being trapped on a large floating island with Florida strangers, with all of the nightmares of being trapped on a large floating island with your constantly arguing parents; But, also, 24 hour wood fire pizza and a ship full of people whose job it is to essentially be your slave), but they were quick to upload most of the matches, so I took it upon myself to watch those matches (so I won't be completely lost while doing commentary on the next show, and because they all looked like matches I wanted to see). So check them out if they interest you, and enjoy the sometimes-in-the-red commentary stylings of Tim Livingston, sans Eric Ritz.

4. Boyce LeGrande vs. Victor Sterling

Boyce is always one of the guys I look forward to on PPW shows. Boyce was in one of the first matches on the very first indy wrestling show I attended some 17 years ago, so I love seeing still working and still actually having good matches. I love heel champ Boyce, love that he can usually win but doesn't want to risk losing so he has no problem cheating. The good wrestler who also has no problem resorting to cheating is a favorite of mine. Sterling is a guy who always does a thing or two that surprise me in a match, here I really dug his fisherman suplex (with Boyce adding a nice touch by grabbing Sterling's wrist to attempt to stop the suplex) and powerslam, Boyce tossed out a nice northern lights, nice yakuza kicks, and dealt stealthily with a fan who tried to grab his leg while climbing the turnbuckles. These two have worked before and have a nice 10 minutes down. I think they have a really good match in them. Their PPW matches so far have ended non-decisively, but they seem to be progressing well. I do miss seeing Boyce's big lariat, which he uses as his finisher in PPW.

5. Kikyo vs. Brittany Wonder

This ended up being my favorite match on the card, which was not what I was expecting. Not due to lack of talent, but because I liked the look of all 4 matches on paper, and I had never seen Wonder work before. So I was looking forward to it, but wasn't expecting it to be my favorite of the evening. It was tightly paced and both looked real good. Wonder starts with a couple of hug based moves. I guess one cute former Bay Area worker got signed to be a hugger, lightning could strike twice. I loved her hug into a headbutt, where she pounced on Kikyo in a full legs-wrapped-around hug, Kikyo tried to shake her by dropping to her butt, so Wonder leaned in for a peck, and a headbutt. Wonder has a bunch of fun offense, and it's suited nicely to her abilities. She mixed in some fun stuff like a flatliner type moved using Kikyo's own momentum off the ropes. Plus, she has a butt, so might as well do hip and butt attacks and a bombs away! Makes sense to me! Work to your strengths! Kikyo is really great setting up Wonder's offense flourishes, and chooses her own moments wisely. She had a killer lariat, nice STO and a picture perfect yakuza kick right to the side of Wonder's head. We brawl into the crowd and Wonder muscles Kikyo over the guardrail with a clothesline. The Kikyo moonsault is a fitting end, and again this was just a fun, tightly worked 10 minutes. Well worth going out of your way to watch.

6. JR Kratos vs. Sir Samurai

Samurai isn't usually a guy to be put in a position to have a workrate type of long singles match, so he must have been excited to get the opportunity to show off his gas tank. He's got a nice round belly but he certainly doesn't look tired after a 20 minute match. I liked the early one-up stuff leading to Samurai hitting some back elbows, but I really loved things when it spilled to the floor. Kratos hits a nice leaping knee while Samurai is draped over the apron, but soon Samurai ups things with a rolling senton off the apron and into the crowd. The crowd brawl portion was real fun as both guys roll around on the dirty floor, Samurai throws stiff shots, gets a gross in-use trash can dumped on his head (we can get some kind of scuzzy attendees at our shows, so no telling what kind of things could have been in there) leading to Kratos hitting a nice sliding kick to the canned Samurai. Back inside and there's an accidental DQ leading to a fun restart, and Samurai takes all sorts of big slams which...man those did not look fun. Fun match and while crowd brawling can seem like almost a rest spot to extend a match in a lot of cases, here it was my favorite part.

7. Drake Frost vs. Marcus Lewis

Lewis has missed a lot of time with a concussion so it was good to finally see him back (with arguably the furriest ring gear in wrestling), although seeing him bump a huge lariat onto the back of his head really made me cringe. Frost is a guy who has really started to come into his own since the first PPW show. He's got a simple moveset and bumps appropriately for his size, and while there was a couple off moments on dropkicks, but we got plenty of fun stuff for a big title match. Lewis hits a crazy moonsault to the floor on the narrowest side of the ring, and later hits his 450 flush. Frost hits a big fat guy leg drop, huge lariat and finishes it off with a crazy twisting superplex. Good to have Lewis back, excited for more Frost title matches.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 7/8/16

All the matches on this episode are from the BTW Academy, which isn't ideal as the sound is terrible, and the fans are all on one side of the ring (off camera), so wrestlers have to work to one side of the ring, which is the side away from the announcers. So that lead to a couple moments where the announcers were talking about what a wrestler was doing, but you knew they couldn't physically see that from where they sat. So there were problems, the audio especially.

1. Pitbull Wellman vs. Jack Madison

Short match, under 4 minutes. Both guys are fairly green, especially Pitbull. Madison had a nice powerslam and big scoop Michinoku Driver, Pitbull did an amusing pinfall where he pressed across Madison's chest and lifted his leg, but this felt like a 3 minute student match.

2. Shotzi Blackheart vs. Beatrice Domino

Shotzi comes out to talk about the upcoming Dangerous Damsels tournament, and mentions they might as well just give her the belt and save her from having to go through 3 women who are "crap". Beatrice Domino comes out to a huge reaction, and says that they might as well just give her the belt, because she worked hard. It's weird to run this match a week before the Damsels event, since these two are in the tournament and could face off, but as someone who likely can't attend the show, I don't mind a bit. It looks like they got lost down the home stretch as there were some awkward moments and some time stand still moments, but Shotzi is new and they handled things fine enough. I really liked Domino here as she kept things moving, and recovered a couple of the awkward spots. In one Shotzi stood still while Domino came off the ropes, and to cover things up Domino muscled her up with minimal help and delivered a cool rydeen bomb. She also leans into a nice Shotzi high kick. Shotzi throws low on a missed clothesline, which I always like, and leans into Domino's hard clothesline. Shotzi also hits a sweet cannonball and ends the match with a killer senton off the top. I had no idea what she was doing up there, and se looked a little unsure on the top rope, but the senton landed great. I can't wait to see a match between them in a year, as they've both improved every time I've seen them. Also cool job by the promotion filming the senton from a totally different angle, higher up and looking down across the ring. Made the finish look cooler.

3. Kikyo Nakamura vs. Christina Von Eerie (2/19/16)

I don't really think Eerie ever got good, as she seems to be about the same level as the first time I saw her wrestle 6 years ago. But Kikyo is a good match up for what Von Eerie can bring skillwise. Kikyo looked really good throughout, she bumped big for Eerie's stuff, caught her on a dive, hit a great northern lights, went up for a back suplex, nice shoulderblocks, big German. Eerie really didn't look good. Her offense is either to convoluted for her to pull off clean, or she just awkwardly gets up for stuff. But again, really great Kikyo performance. Oh, and at one point in the match the camera panned slowly away from the action and moved to a long crowd shot, before slowly panning back. The whole time Kikyo had a Fujiwara armbar locked on and you could hear Von Eerie's screams. I'm sure they didn't intentionally mean to make me think about Michael Madsen cutting a guy's ear off in Reservoir Dogs, but man was I dying. I mean, Kikyo starts working the arm, we slowly pan away, hear screams, and slowly pan back. They really should have been playing Stealer's Wheel, but oh well.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 12/20/14

The matches from this episode were from the 6/8/14 show in Watsonville, CA which actually looked kind of stacked. Pirata Morgan was in the main event (against Blue Demon) and I'm very interested in seeing 2014 Morgan in a podunk CA town so hopefully that gets aired at some point. Show also had a mask vs. hair match and some other interesting sounding stuff. They've been good about showing new things so hopefully we get to see the complete show over the next few weeks.



1. Timothy Thatcher vs. El Pistolero

Well shoot, I can't complain too much about a fed who's putting a Thatcher match on Saturday morning television for all to see. Maybe it's possible that some young child will be skipping through TV channels, come across Thatcher stomping the life out of someone's arm and think, "Hey, wrestling is cool!" But that won't happen because ugh kids these days am I right? With their tablet devices and Nintendo Power Gloves. This match was mostly a Thatcher showcase, with a short fun comeback burst from Pistolero. So you got to see a bunch of cool Thatcher stuff that you love to watch in Thatcher matches. He doesn't always do things the same way, and he doesn't do things in a similar order, so they're always a treat. You know you're getting some nasty uppercuts, you know you're getting some arm work, and you know you're going to enjoy it. His arm stuff is always cool and I never get tired of seeing him bend somebody's wrist in different directions, hold down somebody's arm with his boot while he twists their ankle, stomp on somebody's hand if they are on the mat for too long. He does some awesome stuff here on the mat that's unique and logical. He crawls all around Pistolero while always keeping some sort of pressure on some tender area. Working on the arm he digs his knees into Pistolero's back as he transitions to another limb. It's stuff I haven't seen somebody else do, and I loved seeing it used here. Pistoleror's comeback is fun as he gets to blast Thatcher with some forearms and a leaping elbow, but Thatcher catches him quickly and puts him down with a Fujiwara. Note: Probably a bad idea to go into a Thatcher match with your arm already wrapped. It's like showing up to an orgy already naked. It's something that's going to happen anyway, but we prefer that it happens organically.

2. Kikyo Nakamura vs. "La Diamante Negra" Kianna Rivera

These were two women I've never seen before, who I'd like to see again some time. Match was short but both showed promise. Nakamura is a large woman who tries to work like Aja Kong, and I will never criticize a gal for that. She doesn't have the stiffness or bulldozer mentality of Aja, but she has size and attitude and is willing to take some shots. She could be one to watch. Rivera had some cool running kicks and was an easy face to get behind, so while this was probably a standard touring match or practice match for them it was still plenty fun for a 5 minute match.

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