MLW Worth Watching: Lawlor! Gotch! Ace! Brazil! The Biggest Boys!

No Holds Barred: Tom Lawlor vs. Simon Gotch  MLW Fusion #36 12/13 (Aired 12/21/18)

ER: We've been seeing a lot more of the NHB no ropes unsanctioned matches as a gimmick and it's a fun monkeywrench to throw into a feud. This didn't reach the potential heights of the gimmick, but was kept to a brisk 6 minutes. I think they could have made good use of more time, but I also like the stip worked within a 6 minute sprint. There were some issues, namely that Gotch started the match as an absolute killer and had a great first minute that he couldn't really sustain through to the end of the match, but he's a bigger guy than Lawlor and I liked seeing him bully Lawlor around. Gotch goes for an armbar right away and we get the now familiar moment in a no ropes match where a guy breaks a move by shifting his leverage and getting his feet to the floor; this gets a twist on that as Gotch breaks but shoves Lawlor into the guardrail, and the guardrail flies backward and makes a ton of fans jump, great visual. Also loved Gotch rolling him onto the mat from the floor but holding onto an arm, wrapping it around a ringpost, and booting Lawlor in the face. The in ring strike exchanges had a couple misses, but the strikes were thrown in more of a worked shoot style with weird angles and disrupted rhythm, so a few poor strikes thrown in get blended a bit better than if you're doing a turn trading strike exchange. Lawlor is good at these types of exchanges (makes sense) so while a couple of Gotch's shots looked weak by comparison, that's something I'm okay with because Lawlor *should* tool him at that type of thing. Finish was a little off as Gotch looked like he tried something beyond his level, like he was going for a Negro Navarro-like rolling kneebar and did it slow and looked like he was purposely leaving his arm out there, didn't come off very natural, but I dug Lawlor sinking in the rear naked off that. I was expecting a little more from this one and think they could have done more, but also like that Lawlor ended him quick in a fight that was more his own element.

Simon Gotch vs. Ace Romero  MLW Fusion #37 12/14 (Aired 12/28/18)

ER: I wish this would have got more time, it only goes a little over 2 minutes, but it was a really fun 2+ minutes. Romero answers Gotch's open challenge and smacks him around, Gotch spills to the floor and Ace teases a dive, but ends up yanking Gotch up to the apron and into the ring by his mustache before slamming him in a fun worked spot. Gotch's strikes to comeback all looked good, peppering Ace with cupped slaps and body shots, but Ace just yoinks him up and slams him, then hits the best possible version of Abby's running elbow drop, absolutely crushing Gotch. What we got was good, but we should have got more. Romero is a big fat guy but he's not like Barrington Hughes, we've seen him work longer matches. Still, big strikes and a fat guy finisher is gonna make me recommend something.

Kotto Brazil vs. Vandal Ortagun  MLW Fusion #41 12/13 (Aired 1/25/19)

ER: I liked this showcase for the returning - still with eye patch - Brazil. I'm unsure if it was a true eye patch or a fake, as he hits some pretty impressive flying here that would seem tough/crazy to do with one eye blocked. But Brazil's lack of optics helps with the match optics, really making him seem like a loon who wants to return early. He crashes into Ortagun with three big dives, and Ortagun spills nicely into the barricade for them. Schiavone has been a really great part of the MLW return, as he seems so into the product and I don't think I realized how much I enjoyed Schiavone as a commentator until his MLW comeback. He was around so much during formative wrestling memories, but I think many of us got used to him beaten down and over-produced and just not into it. It's hard to call action you can't follow or aren't into, and he sounds clearly into guys like Brazil. As Brazil racks up dive after dive Schiavone's excitement really adds to the moment. Brazil is a guy with some cool stuff, and I especially loved him grabbing a sub after a pinfall, a sub that looks as finisher worthy as anything, as he locked Ortagun's arms behind his back using his legs, then locked on an awesome facelock while the legs were trapped. Sure, do a couple stunner variations, fine, but a cool sub like that needs to be highlighted. I also love that they established that Promociones Dorado straight up MAIMS people, going after eyes and kidneys and ears and braids; it makes payoff matches way more fun, and I'm more interested in seeing Brazil take on Martinez because of it.

Ace Romero/Barrington Hughes vs. Dirty Blondes  MLW Fusion #41 12/14 (Aired 1/25/19)

ER: This was merely a cruel tease, but I am contractually obligated to write about something with this many bigguns. Dirty Blondes were on the first MLW return ep, and were prominently featured, so I was misled into thinking that they would be continually treated like a big deal. Well, all these weeks later and they're one of the only teams left from those original tapings, but they've sadly never been treated seriously since. They're still here, but they're lower than Disorderly Conduct, which is weird on a roster with so much turnover. This threatens to start as Barrington vs. Ace, but you know that's just as tease and sure enough the Blondes come out, and we get a good minute of blubber flying. No reason they couldn't have given this 6 minutes and just hid Hughes on the apron for most of it, but even in one minute we get a lot of fun jiggly clubbering and two mammoth falling powerslams. Still, the Blondes deserve more, and should really go out of their way to be promoting their fat guys in actual matches. Fat guys are the one thing missing from the American wrestling scene right now, and they have the two fattest. We need more fat guy screen time. Watching the Rumble the other night it just bummed me out that we have no big fat guys in WWE right now. That's fucking criminal.

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MLW Worth Watching: Reed! Cade! Guevara! LA Park's Kid! Samoans! CARAMEL COLOSSUS!!

Jason Cade vs. Myron Reed  MLW Fusion #24 9/6 (Aired 9/28/18)

ER: Wasn't expecting to be writing this one up, although Cade has a much better shot at making one of these than his former partner Yuta. This match has flaws, and plenty of big moves get ignored, but this is getting written up due to the splendid style of the master of the cutter, Myron Reed. Reed is super young and already quite advanced. His nickname is Hot Fire, which is damn appropriate. This is the second time we've seen him in MLW, and he's surprised both times, and I love what they're doing with him. First match he had was against Kotto Brazil, and in what I thought was going to be a Brazil showcase, Reed ended up getting a great chance to shine. And now again I think we're going to get a Cade showcase coming off his split with Yuta, and we end up getting another instance of Reed outshining his opponent. I'll give credit to Brazil and Cade for being so generous in their coming out matches, but Reed is just too much fun. I really don't care about the negatives in this match, all I want to do is see Reed hit cutter variations for days. Reed hits 4 or 5 awesome versions here and none of them have implausible set ups. He makes cool use of his opponents location in the ring and hits a bunch of wild springboard variations that finish with great snap. Some get blocked, others land, all look great. This was on the same show as the WarGames, and at one point Reed does a bonkers high jump leap over the double ropes joining the rings and smashes Cade with a cutter (the slo mo replay is sick), and later he tops that by flying to the floor with a cutter that crashes all of them through Cade's boy Rhett Giddins. Cade is good. He's a guy working a modern indy "execution over substance" style, but he's better at it than many. But Reed is seeming like the guy with major potential, and I'm glad MLW isn't just using him as cannon fodder.

El Hijo de LA Park vs. Sammy Guevara  MLW #27 10/4 (Aired by 10/19/18)

ER: Totally coconuts spotfest that makes up for some of its precision problems with a lot of imagination, and a lot of fearlessness. Park hits a wild dive that sends him into the crowd, rolls Guevara back in the ring and like a second later Guevara blindsides him into the guardrail with an unhinged top con hilo. The two crashed hard into the rail and send it and them flying up onto fans, and Park also hits a fun sloppy '96 ECW style moonsault off the middle buckle to the floor. You know that kind of ECW moonsault where guys who probably shouldn't be doing moonsaults to the floor started doing them anyway because the ECW atmosphere kind of encouraged it? And also the bad lighting. Park's felt like that. Park crashed both of them into the guardrail on a dive late in the match too, we always got great dive visuals of one of them momentarily suspending upside down into his opponent. Guevara has several fun ways to fling his body at his opponent, and he's good at making Park's ranas look good, decent at working spots off the apron. The finish was sick as Park just spikes him with a great over the shoulder piledriver. It looked like a piledriver that damn sure should end a match.

Samoan Island Tribe (Samu/Lance Anoa'i) vs. Smash N Dash Connection (Barrington Hughes/Kotto Brazil)

ER: Well damn did this one exceed expectations. Hughes I adore but he clearly hasn't been put in actual matches for a reason, though he did work a lot of WarGames and was directly involved in the finish so they're clearly giving him more trust. And Samu is 55 years old and hasn't been a full time wrestler in 25 years. But this match was awesome and really shows what a badass Samu is, having this involved a performance mere weeks before a cancer diagnosis. Samu is super fun here, not only from the apron, but throwing great punches, bumping big on a clothesline and missile dropkick, still working barefoot (!) and really blasting Brazil with a lariat. It suddenly made me want to go back and do a Complete & Accurate Headshrinkers. I don't think I'd seen Lance before, but he was a good new Samoan, had a couple nice superkicks (in one of my favorite moments of the match he superkicks Hughes, who winds up slumped and tangled in the ropes; it looked like King Kong stuck in a giant spider web), throws some headbutts with his daddy, and commits to a big missed splash at an important turning point in the match. We also got a great moment where Brazil leaps for a hot tag but gets caught midair by Lance into a hard Samoan drop. Awesome cut off spot. Brazil takes a big beating but fires back impressively, especially loved an impactful missile dropkick he had. The Hughes hot tag is fun with Hughes barreling in with nice right hands, and elbow, fat avalanche, and a fun double team finisher ending with him flattening Lance with a splash. This was a super fun old school feeling tag match, all guys impressed. Here's hoping Samu recovers strong and gets a cool final Samoan family WWE run.

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MLW Worth Watching: Brazil! Reed! Hager! Gotch! Callihan!

Kotto Brazil vs. Myron Reed  MLW Fusion #15 7/19 (Aired 7/27/18)

ER: This is a pretty shameless spotfest that has a few dumb moments of one guy taking a big move, then selling that move by getting up immediately to do their own big move. That stuff's dumb and it makes no sense, but sometimes it looks pretty enough or cool enough that I laugh and enjoy it anyway and stop being a total critical nard. It had a fun vibe as Reed was a total unknown to me, and now that I've watched 15 episodes of MLW TV over the past couple weeks, so the patterns they've established are pretty fresh to me. They've often started episodes with a match that never starts due to interference, or a quick-ish squash. They've been establishing a "Brazil climbing the ladder" story and I assumed this would be a Brazil dominant showcase to give him his first dominant showcase win. But it grew into something with a little more fireworks, and the fans reacted really big to it (like maybe they were also surprised at the competitive spotfest nature). There was a lot of mirror action in the beginning that usually feels played out, but these guys move interestingly enough that it feels a bit more fresh. Nice senton, nice corner dropkick, big collision on a mirror crossbody, all worked at high speeds. But the match ramps up when Kotto bends Myron's spine over the guardrail on a great tope and follows it right up, but then Reed cuts off a third with a dropkick and hits a nutso plancha, landing more like a Super Calo senton and landing right on Brazil's face. Reed hits a springboard elbow to a running Brazil, and Brazil leans way in and gets spun nicely by it. The finish is dumb fun and brainless big spots, but you knew what this was at this point and you don't totally regret it. We go into a few cutter variations that actually looked good, especially when we got to Reed hitting a really cool unexpected Stunner/Diamond Dust when Brazil was lifting him up for a back suplex. Brazil naturally sold it about as much as if he had been the one doing the move, and got up and hit his own (admittedly nice looking) Sliced Bread to immediately win the match. MLW Fusion has given us more lame finishes than not, and now that I think about it the only major weakness of the Fusion show so far is more lame endings than not. There have been a lot of run-ins or sudden or otherwise flat finishes. It's a problem with an easy fix, at least.

Jake Hager vs. Simon Gotch  MLW Fusion #16 7/19 (Aired 8/3/18)

ER: I'm really liking these compact Hager matches, this felt like one of those competitive 4 minute WCW Saturday Night heavyweight sprints. Hager jumps him before the bell, then jumps him at the bell, hits a great double leg slam and the Vader Bomb. He works over Gotch's arm, slams it into the post, and Gotch has a nice fired up one armed comeback, throws some running strikes onto Hager in the corner and hits a boss Saito suplex. Team Filthy has nicely babyfaced themselves after Lawlor's great match-long performance in Battle Riot, and to his credit Hager has been an effectively stoic heel. Lawlor battling through Hager's ankle lock was easily the best part of Battle Riot, Lawlor crawling up the ropes and clinging to the top, kicking at Hager to break. It was such a great babyface performance that it easily turned him, and now Hager is taking it out on his boy. Hager hits a really nice gutwrench powerbomb and then just kicks him in the face for the win, and I am digging this feud.

Sami Callihan vs. Kotto Brazil  MLW Fusion #17 7/12 (Aired 8/10/18)

ER: A match that happened when Brazil saved his boy Barrington Hughes from a Death Machines beatdown turns into Callihan assaulting Brazil for 10 minutes while Schiavone yells like he thinks it's a shoot. Which is all pretty great. Sami works really violently the whole match, every move looks like it would basically snap me in two. Apron powerbomb, headbutts, fast Flatliner, ground and pound, hard kicks to the face, choking him over the ropes, brutal lariat, just a rough beating. Brazil was lucid and fighting back, reminded me of some of this year's Darby Allin vs. Monster matches, as he would pepper in his own strikes, hit a Code Red, a big tornado DDT, always in it, always working to surprise, but fighting an uphill battle. Callihan sets up chairs on the floor and puts one chair with the legs facing up, and Schiavone's flip out is awesome. "Who would do that!? Who would set up chairs like that!? Someone is going to get impaled!!" Schiavone is filled with passion for pro wrestling these days and I'm kind of surprised at my own reactions to it. Maybe I've spent too long listening to death years Tony, but I'm really loving him on commentary in 2018. Dude sounds like he's having a blast. Brazil's luck runs out when he goes for a rana and Callihan spikes him with a powerbomb, then the piledriver. Schiavone says that Callihan looked like he was trying to murder Brazil and I don't think he's incorrect. Callihan fought this with such viciousness that it made me even more excited for WarGames. He was working fast and violent, like it was the blow off to a big stip match. If he works like this in the cage? Daaaaaamn.

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MLW Worth Watching: Cobb! Hager! Swann! Brazil! Teddy Hart!

Jake Hager vs. Jeff Cobb  MLW Fusion #7 5/3 (Aired 6/1/18) 

ER: I like a good short big boy battle, seeing two guys waste their gas tank by working fast for 6 minutes gives something like this a fun "ambitious Power Plant grad" battle. Hager is both a guy who doesn't really interest me. We saw a LOT of him during his long WWE run, literally hundreds of matches are out there involving him. And he hasn't changed things up a ton. But I've been enjoying him lately in squash work, he's got a lot of stuff that translates well to short matches, and a match-up with Cobb is going to work. Hager had a sharp back elbow while Cobb was working a go behind, his knees to Cobb's ribs looked good, decent lariat, big missed splash, nice throw. Cobb made all of Hager's stuff looked good, loved him getting totally upended by Hager's tackle to his knee, like a kid getting thrown off a banana boat by Jaws. Cobb takes offense really impressively, really runs into things with his cinder block noggin'. I would have liked to see more stuff on the mat or more fighting over throws, but we got a fun power sprint and still have a lot left for rematches.

Kotto Brazil vs. Rich Swann  MLW Fusion #7 5/3 (Aired 6/1/18)

ER: This started as a perfectly fine mirror sequence juniors match, with both men doing enough different athletically to make that kind of match more interesting than normal. Brazil is a faster, better Kofi Kingston, and while some of his offense misses as much as Kingston's he also has a couple things that land well (which I'm not sure Kingston has) and quicker kip-ups. He hits a big springboard elbow that lands well, and it's shaping up fine. And then Swann grinds things to an absolute halt and starts working cocky dickhead heel, and things go from potentially getting written up, to definitely getting written up. Swann bullies him around and talks trash, throws a mean chop and punches Brazil in the face when he tries to block another. Swann lands hard mule kicks to the gut, breaks out a Blue Panther/Negro Navarro type maestro submission, and all his punch-based combos actually look really good (his right hand is better than I recall, and he had a cool quick right hand/chop combo. This went from mirror juniors stuff to a vet working over a Young Lion. Swann is picking on him and it's way more fun than juniors All Night Long Swann. Brazil kinda flubs his comeback, not timing a dropkick well, but his comeback is fun and has good energy, hits a nice running leaping back elbow in the corner, big leapfrogs, fun ways to stay a step ahead of the suddenly flustered Swann. We go through a long series of Brazil kicking out unexpectedly, and it has some legs even if Brazil probably ends up kicking out a couple times too many, but I really liked the story of Swann coming into his MLW debut and almost getting stunned by a younger guy (they kept calling him a rookie and that's one annoying thing so far about MLW's comeback, referring to non-rookies as rookies). This whole thing did a good job of getting Brazil over, and this turned into a match much better than the one I was expecting.

Teddy Hart vs. Trey Miguel  MLW Fusion #10 6/7 (Aired 6/22/18)

ER: There's a lot of uninteresting Teddy Hart types on the 2018 indy scene, but if I'm going to see a guy doing stupid moves and seemingly making up stuff as he goes along, I want someone like Hart who is aware of his excess and doesn't care, and will also punch someone in the mouth. Hart dispatches of a guy in a gi (who appeared on an earlier episode doing capoeira before being quickly finished), and Teddy Hart opts for the standard move when dispatching someone from a fight, a split legged moonsault. Miguel is fine, a guy with a good entrance and a couple crazy spots, including a somersault legdrop to the floor (that the camera mostly missed in his prior match against Brazil), and he has no problem taking some of Hart's ill-advised spots, like Hart basically surfing on Miguel's back before dropping down into a fast code red. Things finish with a top rope Canadian Destroyer, and he whips into it with abandon. Hart runs hard chest first into the turnbuckles like his uncle, catches knees on another split legged moonsault, takes an apron DDT like he's posing after breaking, and the match gets really fun when Miguel unexpectedly kicks out of a couple things, and Hart starts getting frustrated. Hart makes great indignant faces, and is good at teasing an upset by barely getting his boot on the ropes a couple times. The finish run is fun, with Hart popping Miguel in the mouth with both on the top, then Hart dropping him across the top buckle with a backbreaker. You know, MLW, I don't think we've ever gotten a Ki/Hart singles...

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Matches from MLW Road to the World Championship 2/8/18

MLW Road to the World Championship

ER: I saw there were several intriguing match-ups on a free MLW show (and Tony Schiavone? Has Schiavone always done commentary for MLW?!) so why not dive into the ones that interest me!

Destino Negro vs. MEGA Danger

ER: I had skipped this match but Phil bullied me into going back and watching it, even though he didn't want to watch it himself. "I think you should check out the lucha match too." "Why am I the one who has to check it out?" "You did the rest of the show. Figure we should keep it consistent." He had also asked me to watch it the day before. If I pushed it further he would bring up that I made him watch a couple New Japan matches, which is truth. BUT FOR CONSISTENCY'S SAKE here we are.   Tony Schiavone brings up Salina de la Renta a lot, who is not someone I was familiar with before this match, but every time he starts talking about her I keep hoping he's talking about Selena. Especially the first time he brings her up, as he says "You know whenever these lucha stars are around that Selena...." and he hits a long-ish pause, and I genuinely think he's talking about tejano legend Selena because his tone sounds somewhat somber, and I fully expect him to finish the sentence by saying "You know whenever these lucha stars are around that Selena....is looking down on them from the heavens, their hearts filled with the love that her music bestowed to their generation." But instead he just keeps talking about Salina de la Renta being in attendance or something.

And the match was fine. I'm unfamiliar with them, but this was clearly a match they'd worked before, definitely a touring match. It had a few flipping piledrivers, because modern luchadors like shitting all over old luchadors, and yes many of these flipping piledrivers were then used to just transition into the guy taking the piledriver getting up and doing something else. You know the drill. I like some of the stuff, like Danger throwing a chair at Negro to block a dive, and especially Negro doing a crazy springboard Coffin Drop to the floor that almost saw him fly over and past Danger (and if I was Darby Allin I would have been pissed watching this, thinking "goddamn I already do tons of stupid stuff and then one of these assholes goes and does my finisher just as crazy as me? Guess I gotta do another one with my hands tied behind my back."), and they work smoothly together, the way guys familiar with each other will work. This felt kind of like when Mike Modest and Christopher Daniels got a tryout match on Nitro, and just condensed all of their matches into 7 minutes.

Seth Petruzelli/Simon Grimm vs. Jason Cade/Jimmy Yuta

ER: I like Petruzelli and Grimm as a team, both are kind of sloppy but both can hit hard, making for a fun combination. Grimm looks better here than at any time during his main roster WWE run (or really any time I've seen him over a decade plus run) and I really dug he and Petruzelli beating down Yuta. Yuta entered with a nice slingshot senton and was soon eating a pretty mean beating, including getting tossed by a vicious half nelson suplex (Grimm tossing something like that out 25 minutes into a big show feels about right), and they both hit Yuta with stiff spinkicks. I'm used to seeing Petruzelli bigger (I think he wrestled heavy and light heavy in MMA), but here he comes off like a smaller and less experienced Chris Dickinson, which is a good thing. Cade had a nice hot tag and throws a nice right hand, but Simon & Seth ain't having it. Their finisher is awesome, with Grimm holding a piledriver, Petruzelli launching a soccer kick at Cade's hanging head, and the Grimm planting him with the piledriver. I'm in. Add in Robert Fuller coming back in full Col. Robert Parker get-up managing the Dirty Blondes, and that is a tag match I will 100% want to see.

Low Ki vs. Kotto Brazil

ER: Very quick match, about 3 minutes, with Ki jumping Brazil on the entrance steps and Brazil never really finding his way into the match. I'm sure Brazil wrestles without a mask as somebody else (his tights had MM on the back), but he was fun as a big bumping Kool Jay type, with Ki beating him around ringside and around the ring, and Ki is a guy you like to see beating a guy around a ring. He hits a mule kick out of the corner that sends Brazil flying across the ring, they do some fun springboard ropes dodging with Ki eventually finishing it with a precisely aimed kick off the ropes, and Ki ends it with a nasty necktie camel clutch, really wrenching back on Brazil in a gross way. I'll always want more time in a Low Ki match, but Free Ki is good Ki, so I'm good.

PAS: Such a weird use of Ki. He is a fly in, I assume (I don't think he moved to Florida) and a pretty big name, so he can't be cheap. Why bring in Ki and have him work a quick squash match. It was a cool squash match, Ki will always bring the ass kicking and that finishing move where he uses his own leg to grapevine Brazil's leg was totally awesome, but MLW could have run the first Ki vs. Cobb match or the first Ki vs. Riddle match which would have been big deals, instead they run the 50th Riddle v. Cobb match and waste Ki this way.

Mike Parrow/Barrington Hughes vs. Al Sabah/Vandal Ortagun

ER: Okay, this only goes like a minute, but HOW COME NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT CARAMEL COLOSSUS BARRINGTON HUGHES!?!? Everybody has seriously let me down. He's billed as 469 lb. and it feels like an accurate classification. He's huge, and super duper ROUND. It's the best. Sabah/Ortagun jump Parrow before Hughes is even out, and that's all they get. Parrow hits a big sit out powerbomb on Sabah and Hughes flattens him with a splash. We're gonna need an investigation into Hughes.

Tom Lawlor vs. MVP

ER: This was a ton of fun, easily would have landed on the list with a better finish. MVP is not working a shame-filled post WWE career, and he and Lawlor are a surprisingly good match. MVP gives Lawlor a lot of the match, and Lawlor makes the most of it. Lawlor and crew are a cool stable, he and Petruzelli/Grimm in their cool tights with Onibaba demon mask on them, plus two young boys in track suits (one who gets on all fours and acts as Lawlor's bench while the other vaselines up Lawlor's brow). I'm pretty much going to need to see them against Catch Point NOW. But this match rules. MVP has no problem leaning into sharp elbows, and Lawlor dumps him with a great German. I really liked Lawlor taking apart MVP's legs on the mat, really working a nasty heel hook while grapevining a leg, and all the standing was good. Lawlor throws big chops, a nice elbowdrop, and we even get a nice chop/jab combo from him in the corner, as well as top notch dickhead moves like ripping MVP's omnipresent breathe right strip off his nose. And MVP without his breathe right strip is weird, like when your dad shaved his mustache he had your entire life and your dog was like "who the fuck is this stranger in my house". MVP throws Germans of his own, and Lawlor takes the ballin' elbowdrop like it caved in his chest. But I loved how it was used within the match, as it was kind of out of place considering the toughness that had been happening, and while MVP got to do the signature move, Lawlor was able to go back on offense with a keen reversal once MVP got him to his feet. Lawlor throws another German and then in an awesome spot fakes throwing a German so MVP's body goes slack, then drags him down for a rear naked choke. That's a great spot (it's also very possible that MVP blew up and fell over, and Lawlor covered for him, kind of tough to tell watching on my phone). Ending has interference from Stokely and Low-Ki (setting up a Ki/MVP match), but what we got in the match was tasty meat gravy.

PAS: I really didn't like this. I thought MVP was pretty much a load, the German's he were throwing in his creepy Benoit tribute, barely got Lawlor off his feet, and all of MVP's offense looked labored. Lawlor is a guy I have enjoyed, but he isn't experienced enough to carry a gassed washed guy to anything worth watching. I did like Lawlor ripping of MVP's breathe strip, Lawlor has a fun dick head charisma and is always going to add something to a match, I also did really did his keylock submission. That german suplex spot Eric mentioned clearly was a nicely covered botch, Lawlor didn't fake a german, MVP was too blown up to go up for it, and Lawlor was able to adjust into the rear naked choke, props to him for not falling apart when things didn't work, but it wasn't some clever planned bit of wrestling.

Jeff Cobb vs. Matt Riddle

ER: Wanna see a match with one guy throwing another guy around a bunch, and that other guy fighting back with a bunch of flying knees? Of course you want to see that, and they really bring home the groceries. We get cool amateur scrambling to start, and Riddle gets cocky on a go behind, lifts Cobb and unceremoniously drops him stomach first. This gives Cobb full license to spend the next several minutes spinning and rotating and throwing Riddle as far across the ring as he can, like the world's most violent street corner sign spinner. Riddle is a big guy, and Cobb just hoists him up, shifts his weight around, gets him thinking he's getting tossed one way, then throws him the other way. Many times. Every time Riddle is launched he makes these great stunned faces. Riddle comes back with a cool choke, as he's seated and Cobb comes roaring in with a low diving uppercut, but Riddle shifts hips and tries to lock in a rear naked, and eventually comes back with some brutal knees to the chin, including an awesome Bro2Sleep/German suplex combo. We get a great moment where Riddle hits a glancing Pele kick (which Cobb sells with a perfect zombie stagger), and as Riddle is still seated when Cobb hoists him up and over with a killer low angle German. These guys both took a beating, and the finish was suitably nasty: Riddle hits a mean powerbomb and rolls Cobb's legs over his head, and right when Cobb is rotating into a kneeling position it's too late to see Riddle running at his face with a knee. Awesome match.

PAS: These two have matched up a bunch of times and this was the best of the bunch. Man was Cobb impressive in this, just huge inhuman throws. I love strength based wrestling spots, I was the original driver of the Mark Henry bandwagon, and it is my favorite thing about Lensar and Cena matches, and this was one of the coolest strength based spot matches I can remember seeing. Riddle is a legit 240 probably and he gets slung around like he is Weird Body or Spike Dudley. There are also some pretty cool suplexes by Riddle, and I liked how he decided that his solution to getting tossed was to try to drive his knee threw Cobb's skull. By the end of the match Cobb was bleeding from his nose and he probably took five more hard knees to the honker after he already was leaking. Great stuff, I still think these guys have an all time great match in them, this wasn't it, but they are getting closer.

Darby Allin vs. Sami Callihan

PAS: Allin continues his awesome 2018 by having a nutty no DQ match with Callihan. Allin is really great at elusive springboards and cool roll ups along with insane bumps, he is a mix of 1994 Rey Jr. and 1994 Sabu who are pretty much two of the coolest wrestlers ever. There is a moment in the match which epitomizes how cool Allin is, he does this crazy flipping stunner and then goes for a springboard off the rope and Callihan shoves him off and he flies insanely ribs first into the side of the balcony, one of the coolest and craziest bumps I can remember seeing. Callihan hits really hard in this and rips off his cool low bridge tope, but this was an Allin show. I didn't loved the finish which is going to keep this out of a top 10, but Allin is running away with wrestler of the year in the first part of the year.

ER: Predictably crazy and awesome stuff from these two. Callihan is typically the guy in a match to crash through obstacles, but when you're opposite Allin it's best to just hang back and let him crash through everything in site. And lo, Allin does not disappoint. Allin crashes into Callihan's arm, chairs, walls, balconies, the violence that gets inflicted on him is just shocking. At one point the announcers are expressing honest shock that Allin isn't literally broken in half, and it doesn't actually sound like hyperbole. The first time skin makes contact with skin, it's Callihan hitting a full follow through lariat on Allin, and Allin has this way of taking a lariat not like he's prepping to take a flip bump from it, but more like he's Wile E Coyote running into a steel beam and flipping around it by his chin. Callihan pastes him through all of the chairs with a tope and gets up to celebrate, only to have Allin quickly run into the ring and hit him with his own tope, although before long Callihan is bouncing thrown chairs of Allin's back and legs. Allin's speed spots work great and he always takes a licking and keeps on ticking, always coming off as someone who cares about winning far more than he cares about his own well being. The flipping stunner was really awesome, never seen that one done before, as it doesn't start out like a Diamond Dust, but more just Allin jumping over Callihan's shoulder like he was getting himself into position to be powerslammed, but then rolling through it and completing the stunner. And then we get into THAT balcony spot (which might not even be the most painful bump in the match, considering Allin took a Falcon Arrow through a seated chair), which was such a trippy visual, seeing Allin leaping to the top rope and getting his footing, only to get shoved right into this ornate balcony and drop to his doom. I always loved how Finlay used various parts of the ring and surrounding area as a weapon (in fact I've always wondered if he came back to working full time because he thought of that cool "trap a guy in the ring skirt" spot and wanted to be the first to use it) and Allin is that way with the terrain of a venue. He's grabbed onto balconies, gotten thrown into balconies, leapt from a stage, gotten tossed from a stage into a ringpost; he just finds cool new ways to make the venue a part of his pain. Allin has cool offense (loved that fast twisting springboard splash he hit) but it's the pain he endures that makes him so damn great. And wouldn't you know that Callihan finds some duct tape and tapes Allin's hands behind his back. I can't believe this guy takes bumps without arms, it just seems like a guaranteed way to snap a wrist or something. We do get some silly run ins from Jimmy Havoc and Priscilla Kelly, but the Coffin Drop off the top rope (with hands tied behind the back!!) is a crazy finish, just wish we could have gotten there in a more interesting way than interference. Still, this whole thing delivered the goods, and I'd love to see what they could do in a rematch.


ER: So I skipped around on the show, but really really liked everything that I opted to watch. I never thought I would be seeking out MLW as a fed to watch in 2018, but MLW is clearly going to be a super fun fed to watch in 2018. We added Cobb/Riddle and Callihan/Allin to our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, which shouldn't be too shocking.

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