Mae Young Classic Episode1

PAS: After really enjoying the CWC, we figured we would check out the distaff version of the tournament.

ER: I don't tend to go out of my way to watch a lot of modern women's wrestling, but I like the concept of the tournament and am excited to see some people I haven't seen before. Also gotta support SC fave Baszler getting TV time, and gotta support Bay Area gal Nicole Savoy. I think my lack of knowledge (and avoidance of spoilers) about current women's wrestling will be to my advantage, as I won't totally have a preconceived idea on who will advance in many of the matches. It will be like when you would get a El Dandy vs. Damien match on WCW Worldwide. How the hell do you know which one of them is higher on the totem pole?

1. Katie Lee Ray vs. Princess Sugehit

PAS: Solid opener which did a nice job showcasing both ladies. I think Sugehit has pretty much exclusively worked CMLL, but she did a nice job working a more US style match. Sugehit's kicks to the head were pretty weak looking, and probably a mistake in a tourney where I am sure big shots are going to be thrown by other competitors. Ray had some cool moments, I liked her koji clutch submission, and the missed dive into the finish worked well.

ER: Sugehit is rocking the braces and I hope that somehow gets worked into a match. It feels like something Finlay would work into a match. I want someone to punch her mouth and come away holding their hand. Or maybe she can bite through a ring rope like Jaws biting through that gondola cable in Moonraker. Sugehit has ventured into the states before, as I actually remember seeing her in APW oddly enough BEFORE she was in CMLL. This was well over a decade ago though. I liked how both of these two worked together, thought Ray was really smooth on her couple submission applications and sunset flips, she's someone I'd like to see more from. Sugehit is one of my favorite CMLL workers, and I liked how she immediately played rudo by nudging her head into Ray's chin. There was a little hesitation in some moments but overall I dug her.

2. Serena Deeb vs. Vanessa Borne

PAS: Deeb is in the Brian Kendrick role of returning veteran. Watching her videos reminded of how dope the Straight Edge Society was. This was a pretty basic match as Borne is a rookie and Deeb was always pretty punch and kick. Borne did hit a couple of really nice looking headbutts, and I dug Deeb's missed spear bump into the turnbuckle, it really looked like she cracked her sternum. Nothing I'll remember tomorrow, but a fine 6 minutes of wrestling

ER: Borne is the more traditional WWE female, someone with a prior career as an NBA dancer. Layla was probably my favorite WWE female worker of the last decade and she was an NBA dancer with a head of curly hair too, so Borne is my new dark horse favorite! I second Phil that I really dug the SxS and was sad to see it so short-lived. I must be in a good mood as I liked this a bunch too. Borne is clearly green but I liked all the stuff she went for and thought she was good at taking offense. Deeb had a nasty gutbuster, nice left jab and decent spear. Borne had good body charisma, a cool sliding headbutt, dug her cocky pinfalls, although she probably had too much bod for her outfit. Her movements were clearly heel, but that outfit was threatening to turn babyface. I was surprised how much I dug this, but the basics were sound. Good start to the tourney so far.

3. Shayna Baszler vs. Zeda

PAS: Perfect first match for Baszler, Zeda apparently has some MMA training, so she is willing to take an asskicking, which is what Shayna dished out. It was striking how much better her shots looked then the brief flashes of Zeda offense, and Shayna has a great contemptuous smirking heel charisma, I can imagine how great her beating the shit out of Bayley will be. That finishing suplex into a choke is awesome looking, I have seen it before, but here it almost looked like a jackhammer before the choke. Very excited to watch Shayna in this.

ER: So awesome to see Baszler make it this far after probably less than 2 years in wrestling. She's obviously been an extremely quick learner and had great instincts from her first match. And I agree with Phil, it was a good debut look at Baszler. Zeda wasn't really designed to do much here, but I liked a couple little things she snuck in, like diving in with a downward strike elbow before a pinfall attempt. Baszler's cocky heel who can basically tap you at any time is always cool, and I can see it being just slightly tweaked into a badass babyface persona. That finisher is flat out sick, it feels reckless but you see how smoothly she locks in that choke and you know she dropped her exactly how she wanted. Really getting into this tourney.

4. Abbey Laith vs. Jazzy Gabert

PAS: This was a pretty great match where it was clear the wrong lady went over. Jazzy comes in looking like if Brigitte Nielsen in Rocky IV had Dolph Lundgren's physique. She was totally awesome and scary and had the violent offense to live up to the appearances. I loved her blocking the armdrag, and her fast combo in the corner, as well as that brutal forearm (which Laith sold great.) I never really bought any of Laith's kicks, and think she should have stuck with stick and move attacks (also she needed to clean off some of her clown makeup, she looked like she was doing a Raggedy Ann gimmick). I liked the finish, and that kind of roll up was a reasonable way for Laith to go over. Still Gabert came off like a super star and really should have been at least in the final four.

ER: Phil and I are really synced up on this one so far (though it's not exactly a reach that both of us immediately thought of Brigitte Nielsen upon seeing Gabert). I think it took until the 2nd episode of CWC for us to have differing opinions. I've seen Kimber Lee a bunch and like her, never seen Gabert before, and the opening of this is a blast. Abbey gets the crowd immediately frothed by taking the fight right at the monster, and the forced splits reversal spot looked awesome. Gabert's kneeling strikes to the chest and back of the neck looked nasty, and that cobra clutch can opener made me pray for a Bazler/Gabert showdown at some point. The added body scissors made it look twice as brutal. Gabert's shoulderblocks in the corner were big league too, aiming right into Laith's ribs and sternum instead of the stomach which is more typical. Gabert spinning Laith by the arm into a nasty elbow looked better and more plausible than any Rainmaker I've ever seen Okada hit. I agree that Abbey's kicks to the chest could have used some extra mustard, but thought her step up enziguiri looked class, and her pump kicks looked good. I was shocked when that wicked lariat and mounted punches didn't end the match, couldn't believe it when she stood up in the middle of the punches. I agree that Gabert looked like the one who should advance, but I thought the finish worked great: Gabert had gone for that Gory bomb type move a couple times in the match and Laith kept reversing it, this time she locked in the alligator clutch for the pin, the move that she put over pre-match as being used by Mae Young, and passed down to Laith's trainers, and taught to her. So I think it was satisfying within the tournament, even if it deprives me of more Gabert.

ER: Really fun first episode and made me more excited for the rest of this. Now there are always gonna be matches in these things where you want both people to advance, and I'm sure we're going to get a couple other matches where we want neither person to advance. Here I'm bummed I won't get to see more Borne or Gabert, as I'm sure one of the other episodes will have a Ho Ho Lun type that inexplicably advances. Still, first ep was an easy win.

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AAW 1/15/16: The Chaos Theory Review

1. Drew Gulak vs. Louis Lyndon

ER: Lyndon felt a tad off in this one but is still a fun match for Gulak. There was some awkwardness like Lyndon hitting a flip dive into the crowd that I assumed ended with Gulak catching him and powerbombing him...except Lyndon sold that he hit the move totally fine so....guess he didn't just land back first on the concrete. But even if Lyndon's offense seemed a step off (though I did love his step up rana, and Gulak gamely throws himself into a dragon suplex), he fed Gulak's offense real nicely. Gulak plasters him at one point with a brutal rolling lariat, yanks at Lyndon's limbs a bunch in that way I absolutely love, kicks and elbows Lyndon around the ring, takes a big bump into the crowd. This could have been more, but I liked what it was.

2. Kongo Kong vs. Dan O'Hare & Wheeler Utah

ER: Damn, just a brutal 3 minute squash for Kong, like the best Umaga squashes multiplied by the best WWECW Viscera squashes. He hits a killer clothesline over the top to the floor on O'Hare, levels Utah with an avalanche, hits a crazy twisty sideslam, last ride powerbomb, a wild cannonball senton with both in the corner (one flopped in front of the other with in a tree of woe) and ends things with a full on unprotected top rope splash. Just a massacre. The whole thing plays as an awesome extended gif.

3. Heidi Lovelace & Kimber Lee vs. Allysin Kay & Brittany Blake

ER: I'm unfamiliar with the heel team, but liked them fine here. They wisely kept things to a manageable length here, just around 9 minutes, with Kay and Blake working over Lovelace. Kay at one point locked on a nasty cravate and says she's going to wist Heidi's ugly head right off, which is a level of heeling I can get behind. She's like Barry Darsow but with a nasty cravate. Blake is tiny but plays up that tiny little chickenshit role nicely, scratching at Heidi's eyes, hitting a neat rana on Lee that saw he vault off a kneeling Kay, and then right before Heidi's hot tag to Lee getting dumped with a rough backdrop driver. Lee looked good here, getting folded up on a Kay pump kick to the chest, and later hitting a low lift German on Kay to return the favor. Favorite spot of the match was Heidi aiming to hit the Heidicanrana (rana to a kneeling opponent) on Kay only to get caught, and Kay stands up from kneeling position to powerbomb her. It looked awesome and also worked as a nice foreshadowing of Heidi snapping it off for the pin moments later. This match had plenty of stuff that worked, although Lovelace looked more perturbed during her FIP segment than like someone who was actually getting roughed up by the heels. But at the same time it felt like the proper reaction for the offense she was taking.

4. Zero Gravity (Brett Gakiya & CJ Esparza) vs. The Hooligans (Devin Cutter & Mason Cutter)

ER: Well this was a hot little 10 minutes! I was unfamiliar with both teams going into this. Zero Gravity appear to be about 5'3" and skinny, Hooligans appear to be about 5'6" and fat. Hooligans are at war with their inner selves as they look like mini Moondogs with great bushy beards and fluffy hair, and cut off overall shorts...but their overalls are covered in punk rock patches. So...they're modern day Moondogs, who work at the mall, get a nice discount to Hot Topic and finally pulled the trigger on that 10"x10" Rancid patch for their wrasslin overalls. This whole thing had tons of hot sequences, some of which were tied together nicely, others which felt a little too rehearsed. You likely didn't come into this one hoping for things like nice stomach kicks or well thought out transitions, but the good stuff was enough to overshadow that other stuff. I really liked the Hooligans and would certainly seek them out. They're short, they're fat, and they got some cool double teams. Mason hits a neat fat guy standing moonsault, and later hits a variation where Devin boosts Mason's foot and allows him to hit an even higher one, ending with a kind of senton twist. They also had a brutal guillotine legdrop with one of Zero Gravity being held over a knee. ZG are small so some of their flying offense lands too lightly, but Gakiya had some cool kick combos (especially liked his hard jawjacker into a fast spin kick right across the mouth), and at one point they set up an awesome double team where they give Mason a chestbreaker out of the corner, Gakiya holds him over his knees, and Esparza hits a double knee drop off the top onto Mason's back. Nasty stuff (even if Mason sold it in that annoying way where you're falling, but have to fall into position for the next move, so you're kinda walking fast on your knees to get away from the ropes while still pretending you're selling the move). Hooligans were always there with nice lariats and serviceable punches, ZG were good to take big flipping bumps off of lariats, and they really did have some stretches where everything was strung together in tremendously satisfying ways. Fun stuff.

5. Chris Hero v. Sami Callihan AAW 1/15/16

PAS: This was kind of the US Indy version of Shibata v. Ishii from the dome show. Two big hitters just unloading on each other. Hero and Callihan are much more varied and expressive performers though and that is why I liked it better. Callihan has a very Terry Funkish selling thing going on, he is always checking his jaw for broken teeth, drooling grossly after a big shot, stumbling around, he also really knows how to unload, I loved him recklessly chucking a chair at Hero's ankles. This did have some of the same flaws as the Dome show match, as it did get a little repetitive, still I am really happy to see Callihan back and pounding on people, and Hero is always worth watching.

ER: Damn, you guys. If you're ever sitting around thinking "I wish I could watch Hero and Callihan kick each other in the face about 30 times" then your wish has been granted. That *is* something that I've wished for, so color me happy. And I don't think it had those Dome show flaws that Phil brings up, as the repetition is there, but there's an actual build and meaning behind what these guys are doing. Watch Hero come out of the gates strong, get immediately slowed down by that chair to the ankle, keep going back to the well even though it gets less effective each time, attempt to change his gameplan too late, and eventually succumb. This isn't just brainless elbow exchanges where the 14th one happens to get a 2 count but the previous 13 just get jack off fists and screaming. The first three minutes of this are just the most fast paced ass beating minutes around. Hero's pump kick, specifically his tornado pump kick, is my favorite strike in wrestling. I don't understand the physics of it, but damn do I love watching him spin as that leg lashes out into teeth. Hero kicks Callihan all around, follows him to the floor with a Fuerza bump kick through the ropes, and here's where we get our turn of Sami winging a chair right at Hero's legs. Hero limps in and is noticeably slowed, still going for kicks but yelping and limping after, allowing Sami to jump in with more of his attacks. Hero still is able to catch him a bunch, but the shots get less and less. Beautiful moment where Hero goes to fire off an elbow, plants on his bum leg and barely grazes Sami with the shot, ending up leaning into and on Sami as the damage has caught up to him. Hero still gets a last gasp with his awesome snap piledriver, but at a certain point it becomes more of the Sami show, with Sami teeing off with kick after kick after kick, basically setting up that leg injury early, and knowing he can outlast Hero from there. Awesome stuff. Hero stays great no matter how much cottage cheese, and Sami is having a wonderful return to form.

6. Shane Hollister, Mat Fitchett & Markus Crane vs. Connor Braxton, Buck Nasty & Eddie Machete

ER: Man why do the comedy matches always end up going longer than any other matches on the show. This was what it was. You either like the comedy or you don't, and you either care if half the moves whiff and most of the flying spots overshoot or you don't. I care, so I watched this x2 and was probably better for it. Hollister is in the awkward position of trying to work somewhat serious here, Fitchett is one of those smooth graceful flyers who gets great height on a standing moonsault but manages to whiff on three different Pele kick variations, Crane is working a crazy guy comedy gimmick, like Mark Briscoe without actual stiff strikes. Braxton has size and did get a laugh out of me coming out to Ridin' Dirty while slowly rolling on a hoverboard (admittedly for a comedy spot, his Big Swing while riding a hoverboard is about as top fucking notch as you can get in a modern comedy spot), Buck Nasty was managing the Hooligans earlier and I'm not really sure what he's going for as he tries to combine comedy with standard issue indy big strikes and spots, but isn't really good at any of it (he did take a nice bump into the ropes off a comedy moonsault spot with Crane), and Machete I really didn't get a feel for at all. It had some nice enough moments, liked Braxton's bump from the ring to the stage, followed by Hollister launching Fitchett into him. Overall, again, it was what it was.

7. Ryan Boz vs. Abyss

ER: It would appear we are definitely into the x2 portion of the show. Boz used to look like CM Punk and now he looks all old and dried out, like Sheriff Eli Thompson during the last season of Boardwalk Empire. You may be surprised to know, but Abyss is still incredibly bad at pro wrestling. Truly one of the worst workers to ever get an extended television run. His set up time on spots is extraordinary. It just takes him forever to do anything. I had this on x2 through most of it, and it was still stunning how long it would take him to search for weapons, get into position, move the match along; him holding Boz by the head and walking around during the crowd brawl portion played like it was in real speed, and then him struggling to kneel down while searching under the ring for plunder played like I had somehow accidentally played it in slo mo. It's clear his knees are shot as it was painful watching him just try to stand up after rolling into the ring, but for a big "monster" man does he wimp out on every piece of offense he throws. He actually puts his hands out in front of him to stop his momentum on shoulderblocks!! I can't believe it. It's hysterical. "I want to make sure I don't actually hit you, I better put my arms out to slow down my charge." He looked flat out embarrassing throughout the duration of this. Boz, however - maybe just in comparison to Abyss, who knows - was a pleasant surprise. I liked his short uppercuts during the crowd brawl, he took a huge bump into chairs off an Irish whip, nice bump in the rail. Shoot at least he *tried* to make a terrible wrestler look devastating. He had great facial expressions and really came across like an unpleasant scum, which will get you somewhere in my book. He made the best of a terrible situation.

8. AR Fox vs. Davey Vega

ER: Yuck. I'm probably not the best guy to be reviewing a match like this as this indy workrate this is awesome type stuff usually leaves me blowing in the wind. This one certainly did. For every little thing I like there are usually a few things I hate. AR Fox hit plenty of his signature offense where he hits a flip dive or senton at an invisible opponent who is just beyond his actual opponent. Both guys do some dangerous shit here, like plenty of stupid stuff, but what you're left feeling is how meaningless it is when they're up bouncing around seconds later. Fox at one point takes a Falcon Arrow on the apron, which would be crazy even if his legs hadn't hit the top rope, sending him quickly neck first into the apron and down to the floor. But moments later he's back inside setting up all his offense for the finishing run. Fox threw nice elbows on the apron, I liked Vega blocking one and hitting a superkick, dug Vega getting the knees up on a 450, but this was all fancy packaging, empty calorie bullshit that you don't even enjoy eating.

9. Eddie Kingston vs. Trevor Lee

ER: Well at least we're through the other side of our x2 portion of the evening. And this was predictably good, even though Lee seemed off a step in spots. He jumps all over Kingston's arm to start and we get a bunch of great limb attacks. I'm a big fan of stuff like taking a limb and slamming it into things, and here Kingston's left arm gets bounced off guardrails, ring posts, and in the spot of the match his shoulder gets corkscrewed brutally into the mat. Lee kept going right after that arm and I like how it slowed the rest of Kingston's game, leading to a big spinning backfist (with his right) attempt that Lee caught, rolled through and locked on a rough armbar on that weakened left arm, and thankfully Kingston was close to the ropes. I have seen Lee look better than he did in this match, and a lot of his kicks to Kingston's arm and chest looked a little limp and wet noodle-y. I did like his superkick to a seated Kingston though, and the way Kingston slumped to the mat afterward. Kingston took a lot of damage in this one, so it was surprising when he caught Lee with a backfist, hit a half German and then polished things off with another backfist. I like that they keep the backfist deservedly strong, but Lee took a whole lot of this match and really came off like he was dishing everything he had at Kingston, and then Kingston just kinda takes it all and dispatches him with a couple backfists (which as much as I love the backfist, it's tough seeing two of those putting a guy down after watching what Hero and Callihan unleashed on each other. These brutal shots to the head are a slippery slope). It kinda made Lee come off like a guy clearly below Kingston, which has not been the case on previous AAW show. Still, I overall dug the match, really thought Kingston came off great. His selling was top notch, not just the way he put over his bum wing, but the way he took Lee's other attacks, the way he would get to ropes, just a fine performance.

ER: After the show we get promos from several of of the wrestlers, including a classic Kingston promo where he calls out the fans who says he sucks, and how he knows Trevor Lee does not suck, but Lee still lost. "He might've dislocated my shoulder, still didn't stop me, still lost." Kingston is really easy to buy into.


ER: Fun overall show with several matches I liked, one legit MOTYC, a fun squash, and about an hour of easily skippable nothingness. Hero/Callihan was great and is an easy choice for our MOTY list (linked below), but I also loved seeing The Hooligans for the first time, witnessing my first hoverboard assisted Big Swing, and this is an easy show to recommend.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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Eye on the Indies: CZW Déjà Vu 9/27/14

Wanted to see this show for the Busick/Gulak match, figured I would watch the whole thing since I don't know most of the other guys; Get my brain caught up on some current indy guys.

1. Mason Price vs. The Preacher

I kinda dig the Preacher's vibe. He's a small guy with an old face, like an emaciated MC Gainey, with a big scar across the back of his shaved head. Actually he looks like a really skinny Christian, but with mixologist facial hair. Price looks like Jim Norton working an army gimmick, but an army guy who des a lot of thigh slaps. Match itself wasn't bad, but Price was very much not good. He had zero follow through on any of his strikes or moves. He'd throw a back elbow or pump kick and just kind of stop right where the point of contact would have been. It made all his stuff look like guys going over their moves in the ring before a show. He'd even do it on bigger moves like a Blockbuster, just kind of go through the motions of the move. Preacher had a Jimmy Jacobs vibe, some weird strikes, nice bumps (including flying wildly into a release German), good elbow drop. I'd like to see more of him.

2. Alex Colon vs. Latin Dragon

Lousy video game wrestling filled with reversals that weren't and big moves that didn't matter. Colon wanted to have his cake and eat it too, not really deciding on what kind of character he wants to be. He wanted to be eye raking cheap shotting point at my head heel, but also wanted to do some This is Awesome spots. Some of the reversals were mind numbing. Dragon did a tope, and Colon just didn't sell the tope and gave him a suplex on the floor. Dragon did a nasty reverse rana, then turned around and Colon just small packaged him. A lot of those reversals where you go "oh, so that move just had zero impact I guess." That nasty suplex on the floor I mentioned, which also saw Dragon partially getting slammed into a support pole, and the announce crew talking about a possible broken foot….well Dragon was rope running mere moments later. Yuck.

3. Joe Gacy vs. Aaron Williams

This one had me until it totally lost me. The match gets about 15 minutes to do its thing, and the first half was mostly based around headlock exchanges, some strikes, and then Williams working over Gacy's knee in cool ways. I really dug Williams twisting the knee and ankle and dropping knees on Gacy's knee, and also digging into it with his elbow. Gacy was really good about selling it, really showing how it was slowing him down as every time he would try and transition back to offense Williams could see it coming a mile away. And then suddenly a switch got flipped and Gacy just had to do a whole shit ton of moves with most of the knee stuff a distant memory. It was really like two different matches, and once it turned into "workrate sprint" it turned into a much weaker match.

4. Sozio vs. Caleb Konley

I'm…starting to remember why I don't do more reviews of full indy shows, and why I stay unfamiliar with a lot of indy talent. This one had a couple compelling moments, I liked a lot of Sozio's arm work, and Konley did a fine job of selling the arm damage done, but it didn't save me from a really bad elbow exchange showdown with super slow roaring elbows. Sozio was one of those guys who I couldn't tell if he was a comedy guy or if he was super serious. Sometimes he seemed serious, but then would throw these goofy sweeping crescent kicks and wrestled the first exchanges of the match still in his overcoat. His mafia kick that ended the match looked good at least.

5. Kimber Lee vs. Nevaeh

This was fine although a lot of the stuff seemed overly rehearsed, especially the opening "they know each other so well!" stuff. In fact the more I think about it the more I realize this whole match was practically built around "Kimber goes for this move and misses! Nevaeh follows up with this move and that misses!" kinda stuff. You get your German suplex tradeoffs, your forearm exchanges, you know the drill. I liked one of Kimber's submissions here and both girls seemed willing to lean into things. So that counts for something.

I talked with Phil and it came up that I was reviewing a full CZW show. Phil's response: "Yeah that was a weird thing for you to do."

6. 4 Corners of Ultraviolence: Ron Mathis vs. "The Wrench" Conor Claxton

I really dug this. This was a pretty classic brawl that wouldn't look out of place on older IWA-MS shows. I had never heard of either guy before. Mathis just looks like an athletic kick pads guy, Claxton looks like Dean Ambrose, and they both took and dished out some nasty shots in this. This was constructed really nicely as there aren't just weapons shots for the sake of weapons shots, the early non-weapons work was tight, and once we devolved into weapons the order went pretty logically. Mathis controls most of the early stuff, beating Claxton around the ring and then grossly stapling a dollar to his forehead (which awesomely stays on the rest of the match) and eventually Claxton gets ahold of a chair wrapped in barbed wire (which is a pretty good way to get the advantage to swing back to you). The chair shots were really nasty as they weren't held back much and Mathis took a bunch of shots to his back and sides, the first shot off his arm instantly left a dozen cuts. Claxton went for a light tube and aimed to superplex Mathis into it but took too long, allowing Mathis to reverse into a tornado DDT through broken glass. Gross. Eventually we got tacks in the mix too and they did a few fun tacks tease spots with one of them coming close to falling into them, steadying himself, reversing a move out of them, until both of course take the plunge. Also get the excellent spot of Mathis putting tacks into Claxton's mouth and punching him in the face, with Claxton doing a classic Danny Thomas spit take with tons of tacks. I thought this whole thing was awesome. Their work in between weapons shots was snug, weapons stuff built logically and looked great, didn't go into overkill. This is pretty much what you would want out of this kind of match. Very pleasant surprise.

DJ Hyde comes out but gets interrupted by LuFisto beating him with a stick and they brawl around for awhile. Great spot where Hyde catches her off a dive and launches her at a rough angle through a bunch of chairs. And then that spot is immediately ruined by an announcer saying "We have our Ray Rice moment here in CZW." Eventually LuFisto pulls a knife on him which is just…yeah.

7. Shane Strickland vs. Flip Kendrick

Well this was awful. This match was one 15 minute mirror sequence worked in 3/4 time with most shots missing. Oof. Kendrick is a guy I've liked in almost all the stuff I've seen him in. Strickland is a guy I've never seen before. This was the worst Kendrick performance I've seen, and I never want to see Strickland again. Strickland works the same way Chris Hero did when he was doing his 2001 JAPW extra flips gimmick, except Strickland doesn't seem to do it with a wink. At one point he hit a dropkick, but only after doing a 619 to get to the apron, then somersaulting over the ropes back into the ring. Every move he did had an extra spin leading into it, except he moved so cautiously and slow that it looked strange, like he would get dizzy if he spun around too fast, so he would slooooowly rotate and then just hit an enziguiri or something. The match started with both men slowly running through a bad super choreographed mirror exchange, filled with ducked kicks and dropkicks performed at the same time and stereo kip ups. It was done so slowly and poorly that it looked like clever satire of indy wrestling. Kendrick was moving slowly through his stuff the whole match, a lot of his strikes looked bad, and a lot of the move execution was bad or awkward. A Code Red that was supposed to fling Strickland into a turnbuckle ended with both men slowly tumbling into the corner. Match ended with Strickland hitting a double stomp off the rope, in theory. He really just jumped and landed with his feet on either side of Kendrick, with the camera zooming right in on it. It must have looked as bad live because it was pretty silent when it got the 3 count. Not sure if this poor performance is the norm for Strickland, but if this was the only thing I'd seen of Flip I'd assume he was an awful worker. Yuck.

8. Biff Busick vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was the rematch of their CZW title match in May. I haven't really been following the booking but here we have the heel/face dynamic reversed with Gulak coming in as the face and Busick as the bruising heel. This started out with some of the great grappling that these guys bring to the table, with cool armbars and short arm scissors and knuckle locks. Both guys are really great at forceful looking matwork, all of the counters looked like the guy countering was using every ounce of his strength to reverse the hold. Match switches gears when Gulak takes a pair of huge bumps, he gets thrown off the top rope to the floor and cracking the small of his back on the apron (leading to a nasty bruise over his kidneys, he was pissing raspberry tea on the 28th) and getting backdropped into the second row wiping out a fan. Then Busick is controlling, beating on Gulak, with Drew having his moments. This was well on it's way to surpassing their best match up, when sort of out of nowhere Busick counters a suplex into a roll up for a pin. I can't believe I am criticizing a US Indy match up for underkill on its finish run, but I was expecting it to really kick into gear and it just ended. Still much to love and this is a match up that consistently delivers.

ER: Man I love what these guys do, and I love how things have a sense of ending at any time due to both mens' knowledge of reversals and leverage. I agree with Phil that this could leave matches ending without as much drama as they could have built to. But at the same time it keeps me glued to the whole match in the same way I was glued to RINGS matches. Gulak is an ideal wrestler for me. I'm fascinated by all his movements and his combo of skills, maybe the most exciting "new" guy for me this decade. He always breaks out cool unexpected things that make me flip out as a wrestling fan, like his cool roll-up reversal of a Busick leapfrog here. I wasn't even expecting anything to happen there because it just seemed like any other wrestling rope run segment, until Busick leapfrogs and Gulak slides under with the great flash false finish. These two are so good they really make meaningless moments of wrestling mean something. The struggle between them is always so satisfying, I loved moments like Gulak dishing out cupped slaps to Busicks back and head, slowly gaining him access to the arms, moving into a bodylock, into a nasty variation on the Gu-Lock…and I like that he can go through all that but Busick gets a near immediate rope break. Other times they can get a reversal neither were expecting that leaves them in far greater dominant position. I like that ebb and flow of their stuff. The Gulak bumps Phil mentioned were sick and took the match in a welcome and different direction than I expected. Both guys lend an authenticity to their matches; I never feel like they're moving through one spot mechanically to get to the next part of the match. At one point Gulak really wrenches in a hammerlock that is ultimately inconsequential to the larger segment they were working, but that hammerlock looked like a real terror, a real nasty twist, and I could easily see capable but lesser mat workers just going through the motions and not wrenching in a transitional move like that, too busy focusing on what was "supposed to" happen next. These guys might not be for everybody, but for me they're right up their with my favorite all time wrestling. I hope we get to see these guys do their thing for years.

***Note: The Busick/Gulak match was easily good enough for Phil and I to add it to our 2014 Ongoing MOTY list, nestled cozily into spot #37. Instead of doing a whole separate post with my review copied over, I just added Phil's thoughts from the match here. Our full MOTY list linked at the bottom***

9. Ohio is 4 Killers (Jake & Dave Crist) vs. The Juicy Product (JT Dunn & David Starr)

ER: Well, this match was kind of difficult. Stuff I liked, stuff I hated, and then a fair portion of the match completely invisible! Match starts with the Crist brothers diving out of the ring, and they brawl out through the crowd, and outside. The problem is that the crowd was really dark, and the cameras weren't really equipped to follow the action around. What's worse, is when they brawled outside the cameras couldn't follow them. So I just had to fast forward until everybody made it back inside. Jake had a lot of color happening, not sure how it happened. The announcers didn't know either as they stayed at the table and kind of guessed what could possibly be happening outside. I'm sure it was cool for the live crowd, but a weird thing to do on a IPPV where workers should know your filming limitations. Even back inside the building doesn't do much as things are super dark so you can't really see what's happening. Juicy lawn darts Dave Crist into the concession stand. Minutes later Dave appears on top of the concession stand and does a wild Thesz press off the top of it (at least 9-10 feet up). After many, many, many minutes we finally end up in the ring for the match to officially start. There was actually a pretty good FIP story going on with Jake beaten bloody and Dave also gassed from the beatdown, and both Crist guys had some good comebacks and hope spots. But then the match hit the spot where it should have ended, and kept going…and going…and then kept going. They peaked the drama well, and it's just too hard to keep peaking that numerous times in a match. All the guys had some stuff that looked good. There were a couple double team tombstone variations that were nasty, one with Jake hitting a tombstone while Dave hit a double stomp off the top to drive it down. Dave also had an epic double knee drop off the top, and actually threw a really great looking mule kick (it's really hard to throw a nice spinning mule kick). Starr had a couple of neat power spots, and Dunn took some big bumps off clotheslines and other moves. Also, everybody apparently had a bet going to see who could throw more superkicks. At one point we had six consecutive superkicks from everybody. And there were so many more. So yeah, the match had tons of overkill but a lot of the stuff in the overkill looked good. I think the match could have been really great if laid out a little tighter, but as a spot spectacle it was plenty fun.

OVERALL: This was a good enough show, with some nice peaks but also some subterranean lows. The Gulak/Busick match was great, and I also really loved that weapons match. Kendrick/Strickland was one of the absolute worst matches I've seen this decade, but The Preacher was a cool guy I had never heard of that I'd like to see more of, same with Mathis and Claxton. The Crists were also better than I remembered (though had the same faults I remembered).


2014 MASTER MOTY LIST

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Beyond Wrestling Americanrana ‘14 Review

Tag Team Battle Royal

This was a tag team battle royal, so like you would expect we have lots of guys with pun tag team names throwing clubbing forearms. There was some Johnny Cockstrong comedy spots, although not as funny as it has been in the past. Really hard to get much of a sense of anyone in a cluster like this.  They kept it moving at least so I wasn’t bored.

Pinkie Sanchez/Sugar D (Sex and Candy) v. Dave Cole/Aaron Epic (Fear in Loathing in New England)

This was based apparently on a breakup of a Sanchez/D/Epic stable, so was a little more heated then a lot of Beyond I have seen. I was happy to see that, but I didn’t love this match. Cole and Epic seemed like pretty generic tights and boots indy guys, lots of double stomp double teams and yakuza kicks. I did like Sugar D’s fired up Mr. Wrestling 2 babyface act, but I think Sanchez hurt himself and the finish was a bit wonky.

Nicholas Kaye v. Anthony Stone

This was a loser must retire throw in the towel match. This is a long running feud I am unfamiliar with, I have probably seen both guys before but they didn’t make much of an impression on me. The match started out like a pretty fun garbage brawl stunt show, Kaye catches the side of a chair in the face early and gushes blood which always adds to this kind of match. I also had no problem with the interference which had Kaye’s second Myke Quest (who looks like a sleazier Dean Ambrose, which I was surprised was possible) and Stone’s sister Natalya brawling on the floor. I was all set to recommend this, but the ending was super dumb, Stone handcuffs Kaye to the ring and goes and gets a chainsaw which causes Kaye to throw in the towel. Really silly, and anti climactic,  it almost felt like a comedy spot, he might as well have gotten a bazooka or a bayonet. It felt like they were building to something pretty cool, but the finish took it out of me.

Bryan Myers v. Ryan Rush

Myers is the former Curt Hawkins who is a WWE guy I know existed, but remember very little about. This was student v. teacher and worked as kind of an IWA Mid-South touring exhibition match. I thought Rush had some pretty nice athleticism, he had big time hops on his dropkick for a solidly build dude. Myers was clearly professional an well trained, although a little bland. There was a fun spot where Myers took a bump into the crowd an laid out four fans, that might work better on a show where everyone watching is a wrestler.

Team Tremendous (Dan Barry/Bill Carr) v. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor/Trent Baretta)

I think I have made my feeling about Chuck Taylor wink and smirk wrestling pretty clear, Baretta I remember being a generic Velocity junior in the WWE, but he is in Taylor land now. I have liked Barry in the past but he is along for the yucks here. Finish is clearly improvised as Baretta blew out his knee on a dive. Very much not my thing, although I suppose if you like Taylor’s horseshit, you might enjoy this.

Eric Corvis v. Jimmy Jacobs

This was a first blood match and was one of the two matches which caused me to buy this show, I haven’t seen a ton of Jacobs recently, but he has always been a guy I liked a lot, and someone who is really great at working a gimmicked brawl, Corvis is one of my favorite Beyond guys, I am not a usually a fan of guys working innovator of offense gimmicks, but he does pull out some cool moves and is also a pretty good brawler. This was good stuff for the lions share of the match, I liked all of the teasing  of spikes and there were some nasty looking stuff with chairs including Corvis hitting a spring board moonsault Van Damninator. Then unfortunately the booking kicks in as the TJ Marconi and Darius Carter heel invasion stable comes out and cuts a promo in the middle of the match, as Dany Only in an V for Vendetta mask comes out and stabs Corvis in the throat with a corkscrew, the carving up of Corvis was pretty nasty, but Jacobs totally got black holed as he had to stand around when they ran their angle. Nothing wrong with setting up something for the next show, but it sucks that they didn’t let the Corvis v. Jacobs feud work itself out.

Drew Gulak v. Tommaso Ciampa

This was a European Rules match, and was kind of a mix of a Gulak style match and an ROH indy match, Ciampa was fine on the mat, and the early parts of the match had some very cool matwork, including a bunch of really nifty spots built around knuckle locks. At one point it kind of flipped to a bunch of elbow exchanges and suplexes into turnbuckles and that stuff was a lot less compelling. I liked the end run OK as they did a bunch stuff working around the specific rules, each exchanging low blows to get an advantage, and Ciampa staying down during the 10 count and taunting Gulak. Good match, and a fun Gulak performance, although not at the level of the best stuff he has done this year.

Kimber Lee v. Silver Ant

I am not sure what the point of working intergender matches completely equal, it feels like less of a big deal when the woman pulls an upset. Silver Ant was pretty good, I liked the counter mat wrestling he was doing and kept himself looking strong while putting over a tiny girl.

Juicy Product v. Young Bucks

This was similar in a way, to the main event with the Beyond guys working a match in the style of their opponents. I liked this a little more, as I have more tolerance for Young Bucks Spotfests then Elgin matches, although neither are my thing.  Lots of crazy spots one after another with minimal selling or little downtime. I thought the Juicy Product seemed very comfortable doing this style which has a high degree of difficulty, this isn’t what I look for in wrestling, but I enjoyed it OK

Chris Dickinson v. Michael Elgin

I couldn’t get into this. Really was clear that Dickinson wanted to a work an ROH main event style Elgin match and that is something it is going to be very hard for me to get into. Lots of fighting spirit stuff, diffident selling, very much not my thing. I can see fans of this style liking it, Dickenson looks credible throwing blows with a big dude like Elgin. Lots of interference which didn’t help.

Not my favorite Beyond show, had a handful of matches I was enjoying ruined by booking, and some stuff that was not up my alley. Gulak v. Ciampa might be worth the individual match price though as Gulak is having himself a year

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