New Footage Friday: RAVE~! DANIELSON~! MATTHEWS~ J-ROD~! LEATHERFACE~! GOTO~! COLLYER~! YONE~! RASTAMAN~! TAKESHI ONO!!!!

Leatherface vs Tarzan Goto IWA 3/1/96

MD: Really enjoyable superheavyweight collision from what we could see. We couldn't see everything, but you could fill in the blanks easily enough. This was a straightforward battle, not complicated rocket science. These guys hit like a ton of bricks, with Leatherface using his girth to bully Goto around the ring and Goto using his strength to put a stop to it. We could see things best when they were in two of the corners, but even in missing the impacts on a lot of Goto's elbow drops, you could just tell how intense the impact would be from the set up and drop off screen. He spent a good chunk of the match trying to contain Leatherface since he could monstrously swarm back at any point but was finally able to end it when he landed a few headbutts and controlled the action long enough to launch a clear whip for the clothesline. I wish we could see a bit more of it but what we could see was good stuff.

ER: Some random IWA Japan main event from 25 years pops up featuring another feather in the cap for Tarzan Goto, I'm cool watching the match from the POV of a man hiding underneath chairs while secretly recording pro wrestling. What defines a hero, anyway? This is a testament to how powerful a gas tank Goto had, as there's a lot packed into this 13 minute match and all of it is very active. He hits hard with punches and shoulderblocks, and manages to make every lariat hit harder than the last (they all look finisher worthy). Goto is so active, constantly leaping onto Leatherface's body, dropping heavy horizontal elbowdrops (Goto had the finest elbowdrop form of any native in Japanese wrestling), just ATTACKING Leatherface. And I laugh, thinking of this burly solid Japanese man in a Tarzan singlet working over Leatherface's leg in the backwoods of Texas. 

Rick Patterson is such a presence as Leatherface, and I'm sure we all have early tape trader memories of getting a death match comp and seeing this giant guy named Leatherface running through a gymnasium with a chainsaw. Goto's legwork is pretty violent, and as this is an untaped house show we really get to see how much of a Japanese Finlay he was. Every time he jumped on Leatherface's leg it looked nasty, and while Leatherface is huge, Goto has lariats strong enough to sent him flying over the top to the floor. Leatherface has a cool out of control reckless energy, like how he sends his legs flying as he bumps for those lariats or how he throws the sloppiest missile dropkick...except it's a 6'6 350 lb. man in a mask and wig and jeans and apron attempting to throw a missile dropkick. Goto saves some real dynamite for the finishing stretch, including an insane brainbuster (crazy to even try one on a guy this big). Awesome, weird find.

PAS: The parts of this we saw were pretty dope, just a pair of big corn fed guys pounding on each other. Goto had such certainty and force with everything he did. I loved his little uppercuts, such a great strike, and Leatherface's big looping rights looked great too. I wish we could have seen some of the crowd brawling, I imagine it would have been awesome. Both Goto suplexes looked killer, as did Leatherfaces's awkward tumbling top rope drop kick. I love that this finished with a hooking lariat. Goto threw great ones, and that is the kind of thing that would even drop a giant manifestation of evil. 

Chad Collyer/Rastaman vs. Takeshi Ono/Mohammed Yone BattlArts 6/3/00

PAS: Chad Collyer has been uploading a bunch of cool handhelds from his personal collection. We covered a couple of Danielson matches a while back, and he just dropped another big batch. This is a BattlArts tag which is something we are of course going to jump on. Takeshi Ono is an all time great wrestler with a very limited tape footprint, so new Ono is a celebration. I thought most of this match was a bit meandering, but like most BattlArts tags it ended with a big showdown. This was Rastaman versus Ono and it was pretty damn great. Takeshi unloads the kitchen sink on Rastaman and it is a deep sink. He turns him all around, landing a crazy combo in the corner, a big straight right hand and a furious Octopus attempt. Rasta is so much bigger and he is able to eat all of that, then land a decapitating lariat and an armbar for the tap. This wasn't much up until the finish, but a heck of a finish. 

MD: This took a little bit to get going but became a nice varied sprint once it did. I liked Collyer taking Yone's shots and feeding into Ono's grappling and unveiling a really nice series of leglocks from a number of different entry points. Rastaman was electric whenever he was in there, just a big force that'd either hit something interesting or take something interesting, until the end when Ono looked positively heroic against him, right up until he didn't. 

ER: Active 10 minute tag with everyone throwing stiff strikes and taking bumps on a hard mat. This was a fun showcase for Rastaman, as you get some lumbering presence with actual cool spots. He press slams Ono back into the ring, hits a wild kick combo in the corner that ends with a spinkick across Yone's jaw, he takes some complicated Ono combos and levels him with a lariat, then tries to break Ono's arm in half with the sick trapped neck armbar finish. Collyer was good at absorbing heavy kicks from the Batt duo, with Yone especially going after Collyer's ribs with heavy kicks and dropping him with hard bodyslams. It's a little formless, but that doesn't really matter when guys are running in making up spinning heel kicks on the fly. Cool look into what was happening on some post peak Batt house shows, with regulars still working hard and odd style clash gaijin throwing a wrench into things. 

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Rave vs. Kyle Matthews vs. J-Rod RPW 7/31/10

MD: Danielson was, in some ways, in the 80s Flair role here. The world revolved around him even though local issues were at play. His presence allowed the promotion to drive them forward. Rave was the TV champ. J-Rod was his biggest challenger. Matthews was his protege. The first two thirds were good with the highlights being the more story-focused work, when Rave and Matthews both ended up in the ring against each other, for instance, or the cracks of miscommunication between them. J-Rod got solid rub just for being there and for outlasting Rave. The match really picked up when it was just Danielson vs Matthews though. Matthews was still a young lion here and this felt like the sort of match that would make him, at least in the territory if not in the wider community. Danielson switched gears when it was just the two of them and went more aggressive and almost heelish, dismantling the arm. It was pretty vicious, masterful stuff, with Matthews having to fight back at a severe disadvantage, but Danielson was super giving in his role, letting him escape from the Cattle Mutilation and giving him not just hope spots but some very good and meaningful nearfalls as well, as well as taking a huge dive. The last ten minutes were an excellent, star-making exercise from both Danielson and a very game Matthews.

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TWE The Night Before 8/5/21

Tank vs. Ron Bass Jr.

PAS: This delivered what it promised. Bass is a huge guy with a great looking old school wrestler gut and it is fun to watch Tank have to work from beneath. Bass knocks him down a couple of times with shoulder blocks, Tank responds with a cuff to the ear, and then pulls the rope down when Bass charges him. They brawl on the floor and it is a slugfest from there, not everything lands clean, but that raggedness is what I liked about it. Finish was the kind of thing which put over both guys, Tank gets the win, but it looked like Bass was stunned rather then stopped.

ER: With no hyperbole, this might have been the match I was most looking forward to seeing SCI weekend. Two behemoths colliding is always going to be my favorite thing, and starting a weekend of wrestling with the Reverend shouting at us about Tank is a great start. I love Tank wrestling in his 2017 retirement shirt, feels perfectly professional wrestling. Tank is older and slower, so has to be crafty with the shockingly larger Bass. He can't budge him with his body, shoulderblocks don't make a dent, so he tricks Bass with a low bridge to send him tumbling to the floor. And then the striking starts. Tank throws some blistering right hands, and Bass is great at being the giant man falling all through a small building. Bass is huge so it's great seeing him against parts of the building for size/scale comparisons, and he's a great big man at falling into support poles and walls. Once it's a fight Tank is relentless with chops and punches, loved his combo to the body and face. Bass brings big clubbing and great presence, and while I'm bummed we didn't get a bunch of avalanches or standing splashes, the finish was killer. They have a big punch out, then clonk their melons a few times, then Tank just blasts Bass with a spinning backfist. A Saito suplex doesn't get much air (how could it?) but the backfist to the mouth with the low back suplex is enough to barely keep Bass down for a 3. I love how the finish looked, and loved the psychology of Bass still being in the match if the ref had been a split second later to the count. 

Nick King vs. Erron Wade

PAS: Nick King is a guy we enjoyed in the UWFI Contenders series, and he was a lot of fun here as well. Wade is doing a hyped up Karate guy gimmick with Matt Griffin as his coach, and had some nifty stuff as well. I really liked King's early mat control and his suplexes. Wade had a great spin kick to the head, and his finishing submission was nice stuff. They both got to show out a bit, but it didn't overstay its welcome, just what you want from the second match on the card.

ER: It's kind of hard to judge this as a match, as it was clearly two guys being given 5 minutes to show off some cool shit, and it feels like 5 minutes of guys pulling off some cool shit without actually being structured around much of a match. It's a quick showcase of some of what each guy has to offer, and would have made a cool 30 second highlight reel. King has real explosiveness and I wish we got that in more of a match, but he takes a big bump to the floor and shows off some impressive strength when he pulls Wade into a German suplex (also his safety green boots and trunks looked cool under a black light). Wade looks like he punches a damn hole through King's chest with a shotgun dropkick, and an earlier seated dropkick looked really good too. Wrestling needs more guys with brutal dropkicks. King fired out of the corner with a big lariat after taking that shotgun dropkick, and I wish that dropkick would have had more time to settle in, but that's not what this was supposed to be. Wade's armbar win surprised me, and this match did what it was supposed to do: Show off a couple cool things in the arsenal of two new guys.  

11. Daniel Makabe vs. Damyan Tangra

PAS: Very fun Makabe style match with Tangra hanging with Makabe on the mat, which isn't easy to do. You see a lot of guys with cool mat offense, but I was really into how slick the mat defense was by both guys, with some really sick looking reversals from the bottom by both. Somehow Makabe turned a scissors kick takedown by Tangra into an STF, and Tangra had this counter to an STF counter later in the match where he some how transitioned into a reverse STF which caused me to rewind multiple times to figure it out. I am not a fan of strike standoffs, but I did like how both guys mixed in different stuff instead of just forearming and staring, I am always going to dig going to the body, and there were some nice kidney shots here. Finish was awesome with Makabe eating ground and pound until he slapped on a triangle choke where he jams his fist into Tangra's carotid artery. I mean who even thinks of crazy shit like that, much less pulls it off?

ER: Probably the most technical soccer hooligan fight I've seen. This match was heavy on reversals, and yet it was clearly not one of the awful modern "this match is only planned out reversals". The reversals here all looked great because they looked like actual reversals of offense, not planned reversals. It's an important difference that I feel is getting missed. There were some moments here where it looked like Makabe was baiting Tangra into throwing something out there, and Makabe had so many interesting counters to Tangra that he really came off like an amazing three steps ahead wrestler. Makabe comes off like someone who really analyzes his opponent and works out reversals to match each opponent. Yes, obviously that is how pro wrestling works, but Makabe makes them feel like his wrestling character is a guy who is doing all of this tape watching in advance, and that is another small but very important distinction with him. 

I loved him reversing Tangra's rolling body scissors, knowing immediately which leg of Tangra's to grab and roll into a kneebar to trap the leg before moving into an STF. Both guys know how to work really compelling STFs offensively and defensively: Tangra locks his forearm straight across Makabe's throat and goes for the kill, while Makabe's STF has him hooking his arm around Tangra's throat and it always looks like he's using the STF to set up something as a surprise. But that's kind of the trick with Makabe, as he has so many directions he can go that you never know what the killshot is going to be. I like how Makabe telegraphed a few things, sometimes to sucker in Tangra, other times because he was just telegraphing them. Tangra was smart at picking these up, loved him thrust kicking Makabe's arm on a punch or dodging out of a charge so that Makabe Psychosis's himself in the ropes. 

But Makabe is proud and keeps flexin' his way to that Flexen right hand, also throwing some nasty cupper hands to Tangra's ear/neck/jaw. The finish stretch was incredible as I had no idea who was pulling away with this. When Makabe maneuvered his way out of a sub and somehow worked Tangra into a nasty tombstone, I thought for sure that was it. But the actual finish ruled even more, with Makabe trapping Tangra in a triangle choke. But we've also seen Tangra escape a triangle, a couple STFs, and more, so - ever the showman - Makabe holds the triangle, flips Tangra's hair out of the way so everyone can see what he's about to do, and jams his fist into Tangra's carotid. Right first into the neck, left hand gripping the right wrist for maximum pressure, brilliant. The Carotid Fist feels like an untapped wrestling submission. It feels like a move that would have made Wild Red Riggins a huge 60s territory draw and been on the cover of lurid wrestling magazines.  

Brett Ison vs. Lutha X

PAS: This didn't work for me at all. They started this as almost a kickboxing fight, which is a cool idea, but nothing landed hard enough to make it compelling. There were some stiff shots mixed in by both guys throughout but not consistently. Eventually they gave up the attempts to do something different and just had a US indy match complete with forearm and stare exchanges, and a 1/2 speed All Japan 2.9 count finish. This was a miss. 

ER: This didn't offend me as much as it offended Phil, but I agree wholeheartedly with the lack of consistency being a problem. This felt like several different matches in one, and I think the match would have worked if they had chosen one and stuck to it. The UWFI stuff at the beginning did not look good, coming off like sparring or half speed practice. If those shots were all making solid contact live, it sure wasn't reading that way through the screen. This was at its most interesting as they gradually upped the stiffness, as Lutha X had some excellent selling off some brutal Ison elbows. Ison really rocked Lutha's jaw and Lutha had several different great staggers to get back to his feet, stumble to the ropes for support, fall fist first into Ison's face, and I liked how all of that looked and felt. But the match felt longer than its 15 minutes because it never felt like they were sticking to a thread. It felt like we had unconscious restarts after every couple sequences, and I did not love the pop up suplex finish. Ison falling onto Lutha for the pin looked like some great timing, but great timing after a sequence I grew tired of years ago only goes so far. 

Jaden Newman vs. Kyle Matthews

PAS:  Matthews is a southern wrestling maestro who has been one of the better traditional US mat wrestlers of the 21st century. There were a bunch of nifty moments of mat work which were the highlights of this match. I loved him countering Newman's fancy multiple kip ups by just dropping down with a side headlock, and he also had a really nice surfboard. This got a bit indy wrestling at the end with a bunch of elbow exchanges, superkicks and 2.9 near falls. I did like Matthews sick kick on the ring apron and he took a brutal bump on a springboard stroke to the floor, it looked like he divoted his forehead. Newman was fine, hanging with Matthews on the mat, but I think some of the bad parts of this match might have been his idea. 

ER: Up above I talked about how organic the reversals in Makabe/Tangra happened, and bemoaned our current state of "reversals" wrestling where you can barely tell what is being reversed. You can barely tell what is being reversed because you can see the move was never supposed to hit, the move was only thrown with the intention of it being reversed as part of the "real" spot. A lot of this, was that. I hate the kind of wrestling where someone kicks someone in the face and that kick to the face allows that person to spin around with a backfist, which allows that person to spin into another kick. It makes 80% of the offense look like trash because nothing is being absorbed, everything is just making people spin into their own offense. A lot of offense here looked actually good, some of the strikes looked like they were really rocking each other, but none of it had a chance to settle in. Nothing was treated as damaging, everything was only done in service to the reversal. Newman has a lot of offense that seems to do far more damage to him than his opponent, but since he hardly sells his opponent's offense I guess it doesn't make sense to sell spiking himself on a meteora or whipping his head into the floor going over the top to on a stupid botched apron move. They established pretty early that moves don't matter, only the reversal of the reversal of the spinning reversal of that move, and it only felt more egregious the longer they went on. 

Arik Royal vs. Graham Bell

PAS: Fun heavyweight slugfest which got cut off by an angle setting up a future match. Royal has great looking offense, including a killer looking black hole slam backbreaker which should have been his finisher. Bell looked fine too, I liked his senton to Royal's back. It didn't really have a conclusion which kind of kept this from anything more then fun. 

ER: This did end in a big schmozz angle (which was impossible to see any of because the ringside cameraman filmed it like he was recording a competitive game of ping pong), but we still got a lot of match before it turned into an angle. The best parts of this were the slugfest portions, as Royal has a cool array of chops, body shots, and uppercuts, and it never once turned into boring stand and trade. Bell would throw heavy kicks, Royal would hold his side while throwing a fist. Bell is a big guy but doesn't totally work like a guy with size, and doesn't really have lifting power. But Royal is great at making the best of Bell's offense, including catching a pretty crazy rana to the floor (paid off nicely later on when Royal caught a rana and planted Bell with a powerbomb). Royal's tackles are one of my favorite things in wrestling, here he does a diving tackle to knock Bell to the floor, and later after taking a hard cannonball - and to cutoff a second cannonball - he upends Bell with a nice explosion out of the corner. The big schmozz happens when Bell gets knocked into the referee (I really liked ref Kim's bump into the ropes, looked like her head whipped back into the top rope), but we still got 10 minutes and a lot of cool stuff. This whole thing was worked at a real fast pace, and they got a lot of bang out of their 10 minutes before the angle. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: Virus! Commando Bolshoi! Ace Rockwell! Jimmy Rave!

Virus vs. Super Nova Nuevo Leon 5/4/08

MD: The problem with Virus is always footage. We have him as a role player in countless trios but save for when he had a title in CMLL and some late career indy matches (which are still great), it's a lot harder to find him in showcase matches. Even the ones we know about often aren't online for people to see (like the Valiente lightning match that I had to put back up recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfqlxHTQrHs). Another problem is that it's a lot easier to search YouTube for "Negro Casas" or "Hijo del Santo" than Virus, but that's sort of beside the point.

Why is footage a problem? Because the guy is bulletproof. He can do just about everything well, but without the footage (or the opportunities), it's tough to make a case for just how good he is. This is him in a supre libre match and he absolutely delivers on all fronts. Because of his diminutive stature, he can take dropkicks straight to the skull, which is how the match starts, but he quickly locks in the vertebreaker (which is a killer move in 2021 but even more so in 2008) to take a quick first fall and the beatdown ensues after that. It's a great one too, with mask ripping, an awesome posting, just tossing Super Nova over the rail into empty seats and wound biting. Everything you'd want in a rudo beatdown, which means when the comeback happens, it's very deserved and very satisfying. It's all the more so when Virus himself goes sailing into the crowd and bleeds a gusher, basing and feeding and catching the whole way. It builds to a tecera with a lot of selling that actually feels warranted for once, and here he plays around with his clever hooking to score some nice nearfalls before they take it home. Great, visceral showing where Virus basically does everything there is to do.

PAS: Virus is undeniable, much of his stuff on tape is super fast and intricate matwork, and world class basing for high flyers, we don't really have a lot of Super Libre brawls, but of course he is brilliant at that as well. I loved the Veterbreaker as a killshot, setting it up in the first fall allows them to tease it big later, with Nova reversing it to get a submission in the segunda. The rudo beatdown was great, opening up Nova's mask and enraging the crowd, we had some great looking lucha libre fan characters, a big old lady who looked like she was going slap Virus, a weird Dee Snider looking rocker who was enraged by his behavior, real weirdos are way cool then internet weirdos. Nova was kind of along for a ride, although he hit a nice asai moonsault, I kind of didn't buy him rolling up Virus for the pin, Virus is a master, can't believe he don't spin out of that weak inside cradle, otherwise this was great.

Jimmy Rave/Mike Posey/Chip Day/Corey Hollis/Sal Rinauro vs. Kyle Matthews/J-Rod/Ace Rockwell/Patrick Bentley/Adrian Hawkins RPW 10/30/11

MD: It's a War Games that breaks all the rules: the babyfaces start with advantage; it ends up 4 on 4 as people get out of the cage (and head to the back, even). There are only pretty much the only two rules to break: heels get the advantage and there's no escaping the cage. The third one would be that color is needed, I guess, but this checked that box. Despite the broken rules, this still pretty much works. How? Because it leans harder into the traditional shine/heat/comeback structure given the booking. There's a clear two-on-one shine on Jimmy Rave, with him begging off, taking his licks, and bleeding early. It looks like the faces are going to cruise through the periods until the turn happens. After that Matthews gets a hope spot for his side until the numbers game overtakes his side (the babyface advantage doubly damns them due to the turn; for a while there it's 4 on 2 and then 5 on 3). I wish the announcers had built the Rinauro issue through the match a bit more, but I'm sure the crowd watching knew what the story was. He played his part well when he came in and by taking both he and Rave out of the match, they evened out the numbers advantage in a way that made the finish possible. On the one hand, I would have rather some things not be fully resolved (like Matthews tapping Bentley; he could have just contained him or beat on him while the submissions were happening and then gotten a real win later on), but I guess they knew what they were doing for that crowd since they were going to be right back in front of it a week later. I'd say they beat the odds and had a good War Games despite breaking the rules, so full credit to them on this one.

PAS: This had a superkick or two too many for a Wargames match. Jimmy Rave Approved were a bunch of fresh faced youngsters here and I think that this would have worked a little better with the later more grizzled versions of these guys, fat greasy haired Chip Day, the Corey Hollis of Yard Call etc. I also think two turns in a War Games is two turns too many. I still was really into this though, the offense looked like it hurt, the blood was really flowing (especially from Ace Rockwell, that guy was a hidden gem of 2000s wrestling, he always rules). Fun to see Matthews, who was always a technician work in this setting, the Hidaka Octopus hold was surprisingly good War Games submission. I did think they need something to change the babyface advantage in War Games so in that sense the turn worked, but you could get around that by not having a babyface advantage. 



Commando Bolshoi vs. Akira Nakajima JWP 3/16/08

MD: A few moments really stand out here to me. The match started with Nakajima just an absolute dynamo of energy, hitting shots from every direction with wild abandon. She finally gets Bolshoi down and is just pounding on her and time seems to slow down as Bolshoi's leg comes around to catch the pounding arm changing the course of the match instantaneously. Nakajima would wrestle the rest of the match favoring her arm and unable to capitalize on her hobbled offense because of it. The second moment has her catching Bolshoi off the ropes with a sweeping takedown only to get punched straight in the face from underneath; from there, Bolshoi did this spinning armtrap from her back before locking in a triangle of sorts that was just magic. There was one point where Nakajima was laying in shots with her hurt arm, but each one took more out of her than the last and there was just an almost tragic sense of inevitability, one that carried over to her lightning pinfall attempts. It all felt like a matter of time in the best way. I think they ultimately went a little too long with this because of that. It probably should have ended with Bolshoi's triangle and not gone back up to the top again, but the stuff from the top was pretty nasty and dramatic, as was Bolshoi's late Tiger Suplex (easily locked in when she was blocked earlier) because Nakajima had nothing but desperation and hope left. Nakajima never gave up but you spent good chunks of this match eagerly waiting for her to get caught to see what Bolshoi would do to her next. While that admittedly says more about us than the match, it also says something about Bolshoi's wizardry here.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Nightmare v. Buck

34. Billy Buck v. Nightmare Kyle Matthews Anarchy 6/10

PAS: I loved this, I have been talking a lot about how Matthews is working as an 80s babyface, here he meets his 80s heel and they have an awesome 6:05 style match. This is basically Ricky Steamboat v. Arn Anderson. Buck cribs a bunch from Arn, he hits the fake punch into a DDT, great hooking left hand punch and a sweet spinebuster, he also had some other cool moves of his own, I loved the superkick to the ankle into a figure four. Matthews is just great, he gets a little fancier here because it was a big match and throws a tope, but hell Tim Horner had a tope too so I forgive it. Lots of great near falls and a killer finish, exactly what I was hoping this match would deliver.

ER: Yeah this felt like one of those Arn Anderson vs. Alex Wright matches, but better. Matthews is better than 1995 Wright. Buck isn't Arn, but that probably didn't need to be said. Buck is still really good. Matthews is a great underdog and Buck is a vicious dude. He throws his whole body into strikes and Matthews knows how to crumple in neat ways, and they wonderfully build this great little slice of 80s territory upstart vs. cocky bully, to the point where a Matthews dropkick felt like a major moment. The superkick to the knee was definitely my favorite spot as I was not expecting it, but Buck pulled it off way better than most kickpad workers I've seen with similar spots. I do wish they hadn't 100% aped the fake punch -> DDT, especially going to it so early in the match. And I wish Matthews didn't use a backcracker, doesn't really fit with his whole thing. But overall this was some classic wrestling.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Anarchy Wrestling Hostile Environment 6/24/17

Chase Jordan v. Jeremy Foster

Really energetic opener. I liked Jordan as a goofy looking guy who would get vicious when taunted by the crowd. At one point he hit a diving punch to the back of Foster's head which was as violent as anything on this show. Foster is a hyper competent babyface who had some nice moments, including a great looking heel hook. Finish felt a little off, but this was a fine use of 8 minutes.

Ryan Vega v. AJ Gray

This was the climax of a feud which saw Vega stab Gray in the eye with a pen and piss on a referee. Vega has a nice scumbag look, although it is more Reddit troll then dangerous gutter punk. Match was a Gray showcase, as he was getting his revenge by hitting huge spots, he had a crazy Orihara moonsault and finished with a Phoenix splash where he kneed Vega in the ribs. Gray was fun (I remember liking him in CWF too) and this was another good match. 

Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Anthony Henry

Another in a run of really entertaining Kyle Matthews matches, he has turned into one of my favorite guys in the world to watch. Henry is a guy I have seen a lot in EVOLVE and he was always a bit too go-go-go for my tastes, there was some of that here, but Matthews slowed him down some but still danced with him when it was time to dance. Really enjoyed Henry's arm work, after a Valet distraction he whipped him off the apron with the arm, and worked it for the rest of the match, including a cool bridged Fujiwara and a elbow lock with back control. I love how they have turned Matthews octopus into a killer hold, and both Henry's escape from the first attempt and the final finish were really well done. Looking forward to Matthews having a long fun run with this belt.

Lynch Mob (Joey Lynch/Matt Lynch) v. The Approved (Adrian Hawkins/ Bobby Moore)

This was a taped fist street fight for the tag team titles. I really dug this when The Approved and the Lynch Mob were punching each other in face, the Approved both have some really nice looking right hands, and the early part of this had a ton of energy. I liked how the Lynch Mob used dives, they were almost Sabuish in their recklesness. This fell apart a bit at the end, as both teams were setting up elaborate set pieces with chairs and it lost a lot of the energy it had earlier.

Tank v. Brad Cash

Here we had a Tapai death match along with lots of additional pokey weapons. This had some nice moments, Tank is a good brawler and the parts that resembled a brawl were good, still lots of this was geek show Mr. Pogo stuff. Lots of slow cutting by each guy, it was gross and bloody but not that compelling. I always prefer death matches to be built around stiffness and and bumps, the final bump by Cash was nasty as Tank choke slammed him on gusset plates, but this was mostly stabbing. Gory spectacle, but I am over gore for gore's sake

Rock C v. Jessica Leigh

I liked Rock C's reverse grapevine leg lock finisher, and she had one nice side suplex, but otherwise this was more a match for the live crowd, then anything you want to watch on tape.

Jacob Ashworth v. Stryknyn

Really fun heavyweight title slugfest. They start out early with some basic tight takedown and lock up wrestling, but like most face v. face matches, it really kicks in when they start throwing hands. Stryknyn hits a great looking barfight headbut and throws some really great straight rights, he also has some nice looking stomps. Ashworth doesn't have as crisp punches, but has great babyface fire, and some of the exchanges looked down right Lawlerian. I didn't love the moves section as much, lots of full nelson slams and B- spears, but I have to love any match based on great punches.

Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azreal)

The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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Some of Anarchy Wrestling: Captain O' Captain 6/10/17

PAS: I am eager to get caught up so I can watch and enjoy the big Hostile Environment show, so I thought I would cherry pick the best matches from this show (thanks again to the mysterious backwoods cult leader for letting me know what I should look for)

Billy Buck v. Nightmare Kyle Matthews

PAS: I loved this, I have been talking a lot about how Matthews is working as an 80s babyface, here he meets his 80s heel and they have an awesome 6:05 style match. This is basically Ricky Steamboat v. Arn Anderson. Buck cribs a bunch from Arn, he hits the fake punch into a DDT, great hooking left hand punch and a sweet spinebuster, he also had some other cool moves of his own, I loved the superkick to the ankle into a figure four. Matthews is just great, he gets a little fancier here because it was a big match and throws a tope, but hell Tim Horner had a tope too so I forgive it. Lots of great near falls and a killer finish, exactly what I was hoping this match would deliver.

Gladiator Jeremiah v. Gunner Miller

PAS: This was also very good stuff. This was a Captain's match for the WarGames match, with the winner's team getting the advantage. Jeremiah (aka Slim J) is one of the most underrated great wrestlers of this century. Outside of a brief ROH run, he has worked pretty exclusively in the South and is always well worth watching. He seems to be a bit more ground based with the Jeremiah gimmick, but he has great bumping and a ton of intensity. He takes over early on Miller really pounding on him, until Miller is able to grab a big boot and hyperextend Jeremiah's knee. Then Miller really rips at the knee and the match is built around Jeremiah fighting back with a bad wheel. Finish run was really great with Jeremiah's bumping making Miller's football tackle and diving headbutt spear look brutal. This was the first time these two had wrestled each other in a singles and their chemistry was great, I hope Anarchy runs this match back, and I am suitably pumped for War Games.

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Anarchy Wrestling: End of Days 5/27/17

Cyrus the Destroyer v. Gunner Miller

This match was set up by Gladiator Jerimaih challenging Gunner and Team TAG to a war games match, and announcing Cyrus as his first team member. Cyrus is a big boy, looks like a young King Kong Bundy. Not much of a match, a couple of minutes before a run in, but I did enjoy Miller deadlift German suplexing Cyrus, really felt like a feat of strength. Very excited about War Games of course.

Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Ryan Vega

I really enjoyed this, Matthews breaking out his awesome Steve Armstrong offense, which mixed nicely with Ryan Vega's 2010s indy shtick. Vega breaks out some big spots including a nifty top rope jawbreaker and a nasty death valley driver. Meanwhile Matthews is throwing out pin point dropkicks and indian death locks. Continue to love Matthews finishing folks off with a nasty octopus hold. The Nightmare continues to be a highlight of these shows.

Billy Buck v. Jeremy Foster

Really good old school style match, with Billy Buck being an impressive regional heel. Good spinebuster, nice punch, good bumping, quality stuff. Foster didn't really do anything to make himself stand out but everything he did looked good. I actually think they may have had a bit of overkill in 80s finishes. Foster pushes off a sleeper and rolls up Buck, Bucks partner distracts the ref and Foster gets cheap shotted, they ran through a dozen ways that would finish a Prime Time Wrestling match in 1987 and it almost felt like a PWG match burning through headrop suplex two counts. Still I really enjoyed this and I am all in on Buck

Rave Approved v. The Lynch Mob

This was a pull apart brawl rather then a standard match. It was a pretty energetic pull apart brawl, lots of guys jumping into punches. This set up a taped fist street fight for Hostile Environment which I am excited to see.

Team TAG v. The Beautiful Bald Besties

Team TAG had some amusing heel stooging in this, not exactly Midnight Express, but a fine Southern Rockers. This was a little short to get much of a sense of the Besties. Would be into to seeing this match get a little time

Drew Adler v. Stryknyn

Another match which was more to set up stuff in the future. Stryknyn had some nice energy early, I dig his mosh pit dancing as wrestling offense. Adler had some really nice stomps, but otherwise I didn't get a huge sense of him (saying that a lot on this show), Dany Only drills Adler with a motorcycle helmet for Stryknyn, to get the pin. This leads to Ashworth and Only getting into it to set up a match on the next show.

Devil's Rejects (Tank/Iceberg) v. Devil's Rejects(Seven/Brad Cash)

Really fun big boy brawl for the rights to the name Devil's Rejects. Seven really throws ham hocks and I especially liked him and Iceberg exchanging. We get a double count out, and Dan Wilson (who is no longer Rev. Dan, but is now the match maker) restarts the match with Rejects Rules. There are some nasty chair shots, and Seven takes a huge bump getting back suplexed through two chairs. Finish had Tank pounding Cash on the ground until the ref stopped the match. Some of the shots looked really good, and some didn't, it is a hard finish to pull off, I think they mostly did, but I was expecting something big, and this finish was clearly setting up Tank v. Cash, and the huge violence is clearly being saved for that.

This was paced more like a RAW leading up to a PPV then a big show on its own. Still they totally did their job of selling me on the big show, and Anarchy has a bunch of fun guys that I am eager to keep following

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2017 Anarchy Grab Bag

After digging into some classic NWA Anarchy for the Wednesday Morning Wargames, I got excited to check out some of their more recent stuff . They are releasing shows every couple of weeks over at Powerbomb.tv, I got some recommendations from a backwoods cult leader who shall remain nameless, and cherry picked from the first handful of 2017 shows. I am hoping to review their more current stuff as it gets released.

Hardcore Hell 3/25/17

Hate Junkies v. Tank/Iceberg

This was a four corners of hell match, with bags of weapons in each corner.  This was set up as a battle between dominant teams from different eras in Cornelia history. I really dug this when it was four giant guys having a fist fight, Stryknyn is the least intimidating looking of the four (Danny Only, Iceberg and Tank all look like hillbilly cannibals, Stryknyn looks like a chubby goth) but has great looking punches and kicks and can really bring the intensity. Only look great too he hits a running drive-by style boot with Icebergs head pinned to the ringpost that looks like it might squirt Berg's brains out.  Once the weapons came out I thought it veered into geek show territory, the stuff with skewers and sickle felt too much like a Lollapalooza carnival sideshow and less like a fight. Finish got intense again, Tank double stomped Only which looked like it flattened his intestines, the spear into the thumbtacks was super nasty too.

Team TAG v. Devil's Rejects/Odinson

Really fun example of a sneaky heel team getting thrown around by a team of babyface monsters. Odinson and Seven are especially impressive, both are legit huge (Seven is probably 6'8, Odinson is built like Brian Cage or young Brock) and really agile. Seven hits a standing elbow drop with dunk contest level height, and Odinson hit a drop kick that looked like Jim Brunzell. This was a fans strap match and you had lots of spots that allowed the fans to take shots at the heels. Tank comes out to distract Brad Cash which leads to TAG shooting a confetti cannon into Odinson's eyes for the pin. Not sure about that putting him down, it feels like a confetti cannon would be irritating but you might need a real cannon to knock down that beast.

Jacob Ashworth v. Gunner Miller

This was a classic wrestling story with Ashworth coming from being a fan in the stands, to working on the ring crew to finally getting a title shot against the dominant champion. This was worked very much like a mid 2000s WWE main event, lots of punch exchanges, suplexes and dramatic near falls. They did a nice job of timing the big nearfalls, Miller hits his CTE running headbutt which is his killshot move, but Ashworth bumps to the floor, Ashworth hits his finisher but the ref is down. Nice moment at the end of the match with Ashworth's family and the locker room emptying to celebrate his victory.



Writing on the Wall 5/13/17

The Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Torque

Matthews has taken on the Nightmare gimmick to honor Ted Allen who trained him. I really enjoyed Matthews in this, he basically works like an 80s highflyer, you have to love a guy who wrestles like Tim Horner in 2017. Beautiful dropkick, great looking crossbody, good 80s matwork, and even finishes the match with an octopus hold. I really like how Matthews sold a kick to the ribs, he sold it like Torque had caught him wrong with a simple move and cracked a rib. Torque has a much more 2017 style and it works as a contrast, this may have gotten a bit 2 county at the end, but I enjoyed it. Definitly want to track down more Matthews.


Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Chris Spectra/Billy Buck v. Gladiator Jeremiah/Jacob Ashworth/The Hate Junkies

This is an 8-man tag which is combining a bunch of the big feuds in the fed. Gladiator Jeremiah is the former Slim J and he looks great here, he has put on a fair amount of muscle, and was working more like a Dynamite Kid style hard hitter, while still breaking out some cool highflying. This was the first time Miller and Jeremiah had matched up and it felt like a big deal. I enjoyed Team TAG in this more then I did in the six man, they did a nice job cutting off the ring and they had some cool contributions to the finisher run at the end, I liked Blue's weaponized school boy where he schoolboys someones head into the bottom turnbuckle.

This was a fun mix of what Anarchy is putting out in 2017, it got me very excited to start watching the shows regularly. There are building to WarGames and that should be awesome.

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