Found Footage Friday: GALLI~!

GALLI 1/11/09 Full Show 

Calypso vs. D-Ray

MD: The ref (animated, sunglasses, shorts) here came off as a bigger star than either of these guys unfortunately. I couldn't tell if he or D-Ray(?) was coming out to the NWO theme. Calypso had an ok act on the way out running around the ring and at times he'd grunt and scurry about, but most of the time he turned it off. D-Ray had that solid Pat Rose physique, was vocal throughout with the fans and ref and his opponent in a good way and controlled the match. At one point he had a pumphandle power slam (Wrath's meltdown) with a slightly different entry position that was kind of neat. Calypso won in less than five minutes with a small package driver (maybe wasn't supposed to be a driver?) out of nowhere. This makes me wonder just how many matches are going to be on this card.

Chilango vs. Emperador Azteca

MD: Chilango here had a tee-shirt and bandana. He did the most heelish thing possible on an indy show; he interrupted the calling out of the sponsers. After that he ran down the fans. The guy in the red mask came out stop him and they rang the bell and got a ref. Chilango was quite the stooge to start, running about. He took over with a foul and didn't really look back. Just a lot of decent jerk offense. Simple, straightforward stuff that was mean and got over who he was. Mask guy didn't even get a comeback before he won with a Sharpshooter. Not sure about the layouts here so far.

El Potro/Justiciero vs. Simbolo/Silver Dragon

MD: Perfectly fine mechanical work until the end, just with a big "but." They were moving fast and hitting things mostly clean with just a slightly tendency to land a little too close to the ropes on armdrags and what not. Things didn't feel overly cooperative. It was a good mix of advanced and basic. The de facto rudos became more than de facto after ending up on the losing end of one too many exchanges and took over with a handshake > kick. Weirdly, there was no actual comeback, just one of the tecnicos coming in on a hold, breaking it up, and cycling on to the finish which was the only thing in the match that looked way off. Some bizarre layout here. Like reality itself was clipped.

Venganza/Resistencia vs. Elektron/Silueta Dorada

MD: I had the sense we hit the part of the show with more of the GALLI regulars. This still didn't have quite the comeback I would have wanted as Elektron just stormed into the ring while Dorada was hung up and there was a bit too much stumbling all around, but in general, it fit into the pattern better and they were working both each other and the crowd in a more concerted way, while still hitting a lot of their exchanges cleanly and crisply. Dorada and Resistencia worked together best overall. They started it and it felt like a living, breathing match instead of guys trying to figure it all out and glue together their spots. So not perfect but on the right track at least.

Centella de Oro/Meteoro I vs. El Guerrillero/Pentagono del Infierno

MD: I feel like over the last few matches, it's been like the meme of the horse drawing where more and more of it is filled in and made complete. Pentagono had a second who was a kid in a mask and I wonder if he has 13 year of experience wrestling by now. There was just more connective tissue between each move, even more working the crowd, everything seeming more alive. The wrestlers tried to get tecnico/rudo chants going since the fans were likely not super familiar with them. The rudos took over after Centella teased a dive and his back was turned. The dives did come towards the finish. I will say again that the comeback was kind of missing even if everything was a bit more fleshed out but I think at this point it's probably just a victim of this being a 9 or 10 match show which is maybe not how lucha should operate?

Demencia/Payaso Blanco/Payaso Negro vs. Furia Roja/Kamikaze/Nemesis

MD: Another match where they didn't actually have a comeback but instead just went straight to the submission cycling. Very weird. The opening exchanges and action was good but needed way more Payaso comedy. That was the best part. We've already seen a bunch of things hit clean. That's what would have made this one stand out. They did have a lot of fun tandem moves when the heat started, including this nice double torture rack. This had a solid enough beatdown that you could have gotten a solid comeback out of it. Pressure was ramped up. My guess is that both the comebacks and the comedy are waiting for later matches? The fans were getting their money's worth spotswise but it's all a bit much by this point.

El Tigre/Samuray del Sol/Slayer vs. Amenaza del Siglo/Mason Conrad/Tony Scarpone

MD: This was a bit of a mess but not an unentertaining one. It never really settled down into any sort of meaningful structure. People hit a bunch of stuff and eventually it ended with Amenaza turning on Conrad and Scarpone since they wanted to use a chair to set up a roll up out of nowhere. In the meantime, Amenaza did a lot of work in trying to base for an out of control Tigre (A for effort, lower score for most other things), Conrad did admirably against Slayer all things considered, and Scarpone postured well against Samuray del Sol but maybe, just maybe, this wasn't the right card for him to be on? He seemed like he'd make a very solid 1987 Crusher opponent on one of those bar shows they ran in the mid-west. 

El Pantera/Incognito/Lince Dorado vs. Cassandro/Charley Manson Jr./Gringo Loco

MD: This was the reward for everyone sitting through the rest of the show and it was quite the reward. To start you had Gringo Loco singing and Cassandro coming out like a head of state, full the sort of methodological grace that only he could encompass, kissing babies, the whole nine yards. The pairings were good in all the falls, Cassandro and Incognito wrestling clean with just a little bit of an exotico bent, Gringo basing for Lince like only he could, Pantera and Manson going tricked out but competitive.

The primera ended with absolute chaos, just a great mass of bodies hitting the mat from every angle before the tecnicos took it. The segunda went into the rudo beatdown as Cassandro hit a cheapshot dropkick out of nowhere. Gringo and Charley had some great tandem stuff like the rolling monkey flip across the ring into a headbutt. Again, not a very clear cut comeback but you almost don't care because it went right into Cassandro and Incognito doing super cool stuff like a small package out of a cazadora and a top rope dragon rana and then right into the dive train. The rest of the show had its moments, but by the end of it, you were absolutely appreciating the competence and brilliance to be found here.

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2022 Ongoing MOTY List: Real1 vs. Lince

 

30. Real1 vs. Lince Dorado MLW 5/13 (Aired 7/7/22)

ER: Look, it's been a long time since I've been accused of pretending to like - or dislike - a wrestler just to be a contrarian. Maybe it's the decline in message board usage, maybe it's that everyone now recognizes my honesty and ability to back up my opinions, or maybe it's because we all collectively give less of a shit about pro wrestling arguments than we used to. Why was Mark Henry such a lightning rod? What didn't people see in Comandante Pierroth? Who's to say. I have no interest in pretending to enjoy wrestlers who are actually bad at wrestling. My wrestling writing time is limited these days, so why would I spend time writing about bad wrestlers? I want to write about guys who surprise me, about guys who put in the work and got really good, who nobody else talks about because they - the wrestler - aren't cool in any way whatsoever. With that in mind, it brings me no joy whatsoever* to say that Enzo, the Real1, has gotten really good. 

Enzo and Lince Dorado had at least 30 WWE singles matches in 2017, including a 15 minute (!) lumberjack match on Raw. I'm not going to go back and watch those Enzo/Kalisto matches. Maybe I'll go back and watch the tag with Drew Gulak in it. But those 2017 matches would not be like this match, because these two were very different wrestlers then. I didn't care about Enzo in NXT, didn't care about his 205 Live run, didn't care when he got released, didn't watch anything he did on the indies. But, I am a big Reelz viewer. A Reelz Head. A Reelz1. You tell me where else I can watch Cops, On Patrol: Live, Cops Reloaded, On Patrol: First Shift, and maybe I'll leave my TV on another channel 24/7. One night a few weeks ago, turning on my TV expecting to see my little 4 hour block of Celebrity Autopsy, imagine my surprise when I saw Enzo Amore wrestling in MLW from like a year ago. And then, imagine my surprise when I realized that Enzo had gotten really good. 

Real1 looks like a freak. He's dressed like Ketamine Danny Davis with no tan and fried hair. He was always a big bumper in WWE, but he's evolved his big bumping into being actually good at taking offense. Big bumps are cool, but unique bumps catered to his opponent's offense and done like nobody else are much cooler. I never thought I would say that "I like how Enzo moves" but this is a real gotta hand it to ISIL moment. This match had cool matwork, a big dive, a couple of nasty bumps onto the concrete, and a scuzz bag from Hackensack who knew how to work with Dorado's inconsistent offense. The matwork opening was cool, and look at Real1 grind down a side headlock, or reverse one into a rolling ankle pick. He does some Finlay level violent shit, like yanking Dorado by the arm head and nick first into the top rope on a rope break, but knows that it plays different when he does it. When Finlay would do something like that, he'd come off as a guy leaving some guy's teeth in a pub. Real1 makes it look like something a dealer had to learn to keep his apartment from getting robbed. He fully stands his ground to catch a nice Lince tope suicida, really forcing the contact, generously leaning into everything. 

Dorado got shoved off the top FAR past the ringside mats, real dangerous looking leap to nowhere, but it probably wasn't as viscous as Real1 throwing him into a ringpost with a running splash mountain. He got a real head of steam and threw him accurate, and Dorado hit the concrete really hard. Disgusting. Real1's timing is really good. He knows how to move out of the way at the last step, or get his boot up into a charging Dorado at the last possible second. It makes sequences look more honest, not telegraphed. I loved his sell of Dorado's lethal injection, a move that I hate. He didn't bump to his knees. His soles stayed planted while he bent down into a squat, and snapped up into fast fall to his side, like a beaten rug. You remember Rashad Evans KO'd Sean Salmon, and Salmon's body slumped forward before whipping back like it was under his own control? Real1 did something like that selling the whip of this, the stupidest way anyone has ever hit a cutter. 

Maybe I am going to go back and watch the Enzo/Kalisto matches. 

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

*it did

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I Spent All Those Nights Just Trying to Take Gulak Home

Drew Gulak vs. Lince Dorado WWE Main Event 5/5/17 - GREAT

ER: "It's great to be here in the wonderful capital of California: San Francisco!" Gulak says to the Sacramento crowd, and that's the kind of stupid heel work I can always get behind. It's even better when you flip flop interchangeable Bay Area cities like San Leandro and San Lorenzo, but this is some good base level annoying stuff. This match played out like WWE was giving a tryout to some Chikara regulars, a 5 minute showcase for a contract. Gulak is an excellent base for Dorado, takes all of his armdrags and headscissors effortlessly, including a flawless knucklelock that ended with Dorado kneeling on Gulak's shoulders into a slick sunset flip. It looked as good as the first time I saw Rey do that same sunset flip, and Gulak is a great levelheaded Psicosis. 

One of the best things about Gulak's basing are his facials as he's clearly about to take an armdrag. As he's getting Dorado onto his shoulders, his face is the face of a man 100% confident that he's about to pull off his fireman's carry slam, then a face of utter shock as Dorado spins out of it. You never see the far off look of a man who is preparing to take a spot, and it's a layer that makes Gulak one of the best. Gulak's control is simple, hardly even throwing a strike, mostly just knocking him down and keeping him there with stomps. Dorado goes for a moonsault and Gulak catches him with a perfectly timed pair of boots, and for a spot you've now seen in nearly every Mistico or Volador match it sure looked great here. Gulak timed the thrust on his kick right as Dorado's chin was nearing his boots, and Dorado pinballed diagonally across the ring. But the very best thing in the match was Gulak setting up his match winning dragon sleeper. When Bill Dundee would lock on his sleeper, he'd use a nasty clothesline and just wrap his arm around the neck; Gulak does the inverse, running at Dorado with a back elbow that then hooks his arm snugly around Dorado's neck, then dropping to his back in the sleeper and sinking in the hooks. This might be the best set-up/execution of that dragon sleeper, sick stuff.

Drew Gulak vs. Akira Tozawa WWE Main Event 10/21/21 - FUN

ER: Drew Gulak piles up Ls against nearly every single person on the roster, but every few months he gets to have a fun 5 minute match and beat Akira Tozawa. I've written about at least four Gulak/Tozawa matches, and they haven't had a true banger yet, but they've settled nicely into doing 5 minutes of cool shit and I always like seeing them do cool shit against each other. Gulak always starts these matches off nice and smug, grinning as he locks in a tight headlock and throws a couple stiff elbow smashes, and getting brought back down to earth a bit when he lands a thudding chop and Tozawa hits him back with one just as hard. Gulak is always good at getting knocked down a peg, and I love how he angrily held his mouth and jaw after running into a high kick. Gulak sweeps Tozawa's legs off the top rope and locks in a sick crossface chickenwing (a really underused submission these days, and I'm sure there aren't many who can lock one in as well as Gulak does here). Gulak is good at taking all of Tozawa's offense, and I especially loved how pretzeled he got on Tozawa's extremely sunk in octopus. Tozawa is at his most fun when he's allowed to dig a little deeper into his offense bag, and I dug him hitting a Koshinaka-esque hip attack off the top and a front spin kick, two things he typically doesn't have room to use. Since Gulak is often on the losing end of things, I fully bit on a nearfall when Tozawa rolled through a bodyslam attempt. It would be very Gulak to get angry, try to throw a bodyslam in disgust, and get rolled up. But he obliterates Tozawa with a hard clothesline after Tozawa builds momentum off the ropes, and finishes him off with the old Kanyon Cutter. I'll still hold out hope for them getting a fully gelled classic, but I'll always be entertained by them finding new ways to fill 5 minutes. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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Caught Gulak in Our Room Staring' at the Light, I'd Been Up All Night

Drew Gulak/Ariya Daivari/Tony Nese vs. Gran Metalik/Mustafa Ali/Lince Dorado WWE Main Event 3/31/17 - FUN

ER: This had some real highs but also some oddly laid out peaks, giving Lince Dorado a lot of the big triumphant moments. Out of the three tecnicos in 2017, he was the least natural and spectacular - and also the clear smallest - so it was weird that the match built to him getting the hot tag and getting weaker reactions than anyone else in the match. But the peaks were strong and the pace was brisk. It starts with some pretty so-so Nese moments, but at the same time gave Metalik nice moments to shine. Metalik's nice rana off the ropes was an early highlight, but the match doesn't quite round the corner until Daivari held the middle and top ropes open so that Ali flew to the floor while running ropes. Ali is always great for one big bump per match, one real dangerous one, and him basically hitting a tope to nothing moved us along nicely. The Gulak/Ali portions were really special, with Gulak really throwing hard basics at him and Ali hitting the mat hard. Gulak throws such a hard clothesline, and he throws a straight arm clothesline here that knocks Ali into next week! The big flying moves throughout are good, like Daivari's stiff Naniwa elbow, Metalik's plancha to Nese, Ali's match winning inverted 450, even Dorado's shooting star was delivered swiftly and landed clean (Dorado's problem is more with some wait times on his set ups, and not really flowing through spots very well, all things he got much better at a few years later). Weird to me that Gulak is the one eating the pin after looking like the biggest monster during the match, but this was fun stuff.

Drew Gulak vs. Angel Garza WWE Main Event 7/22/21 - FUN

ER: Here are two modern wrestlers that I love, who have now wrestled five singles matches over a seven month span, and somehow haven't managed to have a really good one. Drew Gulak is one of the guys in WWE who you can argue has had the best matches against the widest selection of opponents over the past several years, but for whatever reason there just does not appear to be a connection between these two. Over their previous four matches, three of them never even made it to 150 seconds. Those were matches with fun, well executed ideas that didn't have enough time to build into stories. The other match went 9 minutes - longer than all but one 2021 Gulak match - and it was somehow one of the weakest Gulak matches of the year. This is more of a satisfying porridge 5 minutes, but still doesn't quite click. Their matches always have good moments, but never quite feel cohesive enough to get to that next level. Garza's transitions back to offense always feel a bit too easy, always completely shrugging off whatever Gulak just did, no matter how punishing it looked. Obviously, a lot of Gulak's offense looked punishing. Gulak never works the same offense every match, so you never know what kind of tricks he's going to pull. He throws a few cool body shots, stiff standing clotheslines, and a great bridging German that I thought was actually going to give him a rare win. Garza has great charisma and taunted Gulak in some fun ways, and he actually gets a good reaction for his tearaway pants late in the match (even though Gulak looks more and more like an idiot every time he catches those thrown pants), but it felt like he was sometimes working a totally different match than Gulak. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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Gulak's Been Holding On Too Long, That He Hardly Knows the Score

Drew Gulak/Tony Nese vs. Gran Metalik/Lince Dorado WWE Main Event 9/29/17 - GREAT

ER: This was mostly a showcase for the luchadors, but it was a really good showcase for them. Nese and Gulak had enough cut off spots to keep it fresh, and they were both great at making the lucha spots shine. Gulak really doesn't get involved at all until halfway through, but it doesn't actually matter because the Nese performance is strong. When you go back and watch them 3-4 years ago, it's pretty startling how much better some of Metalik and Dorado's offense looked. It's a lot tighter and the flow is much smoother. 2021 Metalik feels a step slower than 2017 Metalik, but they're on fire here. Dorado hits a great moonsault press and flies off the apron later to cut off Gulak with a Thesz press. Nese catches Dorado on a big springboard crossbody, and eats it when Metalik hits a springboard kick to send the crossbody through. Nese really nails Metalik with a back elbow to cut off a dive, and Metalik's flipping bump felt really natural. 

Gulak and Nese are good at setting the luchadors up, and Gulak/Dorado pull off a Dorado Lethal Injection that actually looks good! Gulak is great at naturally getting into position for a stupid springboard cutter, and Dorado's cutter was so quick that I actually didn't see it coming. When Jay Lethal does it it takes an eternity and his opponent is frozen there waiting for a Fatality. The finish looks crazy, perhaps by complete accident. Dorado goes for a shooting star press but doesn't rotate, luckily doesn't land on his head, and instead crushes Nese with a kamikaze senton. Since he looked like he was flinging himself hard backward to complete the flip, that just means he flung himself out over Nese. Happy accident, Dorado pulling off a better senton than Dick Togo. 

Drew Gulak vs. Ricochet WWE Main Event 6/17/21 - GREAT

ER: This didn't have the same organic build and offbeat timing that their awesome match earlier this year had, and the shifts in momentum didn't come off as smoothly as they did in that first match, but this was still a really cool match between two of the current best. Gulak might be the best in WWE at working control segments right now, as he always comes up with new things to use against specific opponents. With no Kassius Ohno on the roster, Gulak is the main person here who can craft a match around his specific opponent without running the same act each time. He dominated and slowed down Ricochet in completely different ways than he did six months ago. There's a cool long double knucklelock to open that ends with Ricochet trying to break off the ropes but Gulak twisting him into a straitjacket. Ricochet hits a crazy high dropkick that shotguns Gulak off his feet, and we get a killer run of Gulak taking that dropkick out on Ricochet's hide. Gulak hits a 1.2 level Finlay bodyslam that sends Ricochet's achilles off the top rope and the back of his head bouncing off the mat. He punches a hole in his chest with an axe handle, aims a back elbow at Ricochet's orbital bone, throws him across the ring with a Steiner level gutwrench suplex, and debuts these sick IZU falling shoulderblocks to jam Ricochet's shoulder. 

Ricochet's comeback felt like much more of a WWE Superstar Moment than something that really fit into the match they had been having. It felt way more theatrical than the snug back and forth they had started with and had built into a punishing heel beatdown from Gulak. Ricochet's comeback flips and kick combos looked tighter than most indy versions of that style, but I like Ricochet so much more when he surprises with less rehearsed looking stuff. But, again, Ricochet's combos look sharp and Gulak is aces at keeping pace for all of it. The concept of the finish was cool, with Ricochet going after one of Gulak's limbs and playing the ass kicker's game, and winds up tapping Gulak with a top wristlock. I really dug the cranked in top wristlock finish, but also would have liked it hinted at or established a bit more. The match got nearly 10 minutes, but it didn't feel like Gulak should have been at the disadvantage he was at when they got to the finish. A couple more minutes could have lead to a couple cool twists before getting that surprise tap. No matter, I love watching these two move inside a wrestling ring, and my complaints are only because of the high standards both have set. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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But a Dream Like Gulak Gets Wasted, Without You

Drew Gulak/Jack Gallagher/Brian Kendrick vs. Gran Metalik/Kalisto/Lince Dorado 205 Live 6/12/18 - GREAT

ER: WWE was just giving these guys 15 minutes with no kind of feud, to just go out there and fill that time. It's incredible. We get the most Segunda Caida rudo trios team possible, and they are a great group of rudo bases for our Lucha House trio. Sending six cruiserweights out to work an unannounced 15 minute match in front of a WWE crowd feels like a bit of a prank, but they build nicely with their time and the biggest reactions come from the finishing stretch. The match is cool, with them working this as a lucha trios that veered into the rudos cutting off Kalisto from the rest of his Party, before Kalisto finally gets a fun hot tag to Metalik. It's fun seeing all of the rudos act as bases for flying, and it's a natural fit as Gulak and Dorado go way back. Dorado gets a long run of offense peaking in an assisted rope walk flip dive, but my favorite parts of the match was watching all the rudos finally halt Kalisto and make quick tags, knocking Dorado and Metalik off the apron with hard elbows, just working their "non flyer" beatdown. Kendrick comes in with a big kick, Gulak works a kneeling torture rack and shifts that into a half crab/arm lock, all cool stuff. But Kalisto hits a great jawbreaker on Gulak, Kendrick takes a tornado DDT right on his face, all building to Metalik's big missile dropkick heavy tag in. Kalisto gets a nice rana roll up on Gulak, and Gulak pays him back for almost beating him by blasting him with a lariat, the kind that gets a crowd into a match regardless of the particpants' size. Kendrick almost murders Kalisto getting him into the Captain's Hook, not sure who twisted too early, but it only makes his headlock takeover look even more dangerous. This match did not need 15 minutes, but if you're going to give some guys 15 minutes of time to fill during an already long TV taping, I can't think of three better guys than Gulak/Kendrick/Gallagher. 

Drew Gulak vs. Mansoor WWE Main Event 6/3/21 - GREAT

ER: Before I watched this, I had already seen four Gulak/Mansoor matches this year, and it's kind of crazy to look at the people who were cut or allowed to leave and then still see Gulak working as essentially the man who is working as Mansoor's personal in-ring trainer just doing his thing. The proof is in the pudding as the results have been great. Mansoor has improved as much or more than anyone on the roster in 2021. It's a testament to Gulak's powers that they can keep having matches against each other that feel completely different from their other matches, all worked around some unsaid obstacle. This was mostly grounded and over the year you can really see how good Mansoor is getting at selling holds and moving honestly into and out of holds. Working with Gulak has already elevated him above the level of performative mat guys who roll through a quick sequence that ends in a tandem kip-up. This is more about Gulak constantly catching Mansoor in a headlock and Mansoor trying to find his way out of it to a win. When Mansoor is in control you can see Gulak doing little things to direct traffic, things that Mansoor responds naturally to. 

I loved how Gulak worked like an old sensei, reversing everything Mansoor threw (grabbing a headlock off a single leg, gaining arm and wrist control after a Mansoor slap) while also keeping Mansoor's work snug (loved how when Mansoor had arm control Gulak went to cover up his face which was a sly reminder for Mansoor to plant his knee on Gulak's face). Gulak has a couple of cool takedowns off an armdrag reversal and later one where he just takes Mansoor down, traps his legs, and ties him up in a dragon sleeper. I'm going to love a match where guys refuse to break headlocks off the ropes or get tied up in messy holds that don't look as "clean" as other WWE holds. The spot of the match is Gulak blocking an armdrag and turning it into a kind of Gory special as Mansoor fights it, only for Gulak to just drop straight down into a side headlock. The pinfall trading at the end is just about as interesting as you can make that spot now, worked very seamlessly but with Gulak actually looking like someone who is trying to pin Mansoor, not just positioning himself for the next reversal. I'm not sure how long Gulak is going to be able to get away with weird subversive matwork matches on these undercards, but I am going to be in love with it as long as it happens. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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Wading in the Water, Gulak's Trying Not to Crack

Drew Gulak vs. Lince Dorado WWE Main Event 4/22/21 - GREAT

ER: The week before this Gulak had maybe my least favorite match of his this year, and definitely the only match of his this year where it seemed like he wasn't as sure how to fill time. And then this, a week later, is one of his absolute strongest showings of the year. Maybe you can give credit to his long history with Dorado, but whatever the reason, I love what they did here. Gulak was excellent at being into position for every Lince strike or piece of offense, and in between all that he went after Dorado's joints. I love how Gulak doesn't treat any small piece of offense as merely a transition. Sometimes his nastiest stuff comes off a move that many other wrestlers treat as a means to get to something more flashy. Here Gulak hits a drop toehold early in the match that looked like Inoki unprofessionally hacking at a fake Russian judoka's knee. They work some cool knucklelocks, Gulak has some nice bridge work, Dorado gets Gulak down by pushing his knee into Gulak's arm, all cool stuff. Gulak always seems to bring different offense to each match, things you won't see him do for the rest of the year. He hits a great spinning side slam (looked like he was corkscrewing Lince into the mat) and a nice sitout powerbomb, and I like how he slowed things down with a nice joint-stretching Gory special. 

It's difficult for a masked guy to sell a Gory special well, since all their limbs are tied up and most of their face is obscured, so Gulak knows he has to pick up the slack to keep it engaging. The shot of Gulak hunched down in a squat - aiming to tear Dorado's quads and wreck his shoulders - was completely badass, and Dorado's arm drag to break the Gory special was excellent. My favorite Gulak moment (in a match filled with them) saw him duck a Dorado superkick and seamlessly get him into an electric chair faceslam that moves immediately into the Gulock, and no part of it looked like Dorado was intentionally missing the superkick *just* to get into position for the electric chair. It was a very complicated spot that they made look as natural as a bodyslam. I really dislike the trend of guys being able to survive the Gulock, as the prior week saw Garza spend 90 seconds working to the ropes, and here Dorado lasts 25 seconds before forcing Gulak to break with a roll up. They went to the Dorado win way too easily for how the match had been going, essentially letting Dorado survive Gulak's finisher and tons of punishing and then go right to the superkick/shooting star for the win, but I'm not going to let that ruin an otherwise great match. 

Drew Gulak vs. Akira Tozawa WWE Main Event 4/29/21 - GREAT 

ER: Great work from both in a match that got a few more minutes than either usually get. Gulak is great at  slowing down sequences you might recognize, make his opponent work for something that can be more perfunctory. Here he controls Tozawa with a nice top wristlock, holds on to headlocks, breaks Tozawa's reversals with a snug headscissors, drops to a knee to neutralize a Tozawa headlock, uses his leverage to block a Tozawa armdrag, it's all a cool way to do some flashy aggressive grappling with a bunch of twists on familiar exchanges. Gulak gets kicked to the floor and Tozawa hits a fantastic tope, just a flawless headbutt torpedo that nails Gulak in the chest. But it's an interesting note about the match story, as Gulak shows he is prepared for Tozawa and has counters for a lot of Tozawa's offense. Tozawa may be able to surprise him with a perfect headbutt, but anything short of perfection Gulak will be there with something mean. 

He elbows his way out of a fireman's carry and blasts him with a clothesline, chokes him over the bottom rope with his boot and then wedges Tozawa's face between steel rope cable and boot, just standing on Tozawa's head over that rope. Gulak drapes him over his back and holds onto only Tozawa's jaw, like a Gory special if you want to rip a guy's head off, then makes things even more painful by twisting Tozawa like Volk Han would. Gulak locks in that dope Volk Han special inverted STF, and the immediacy that Tozawa went rolling for the ropes made an already devastating sub look even more dangerous. Tozawa's flying seems to be his only in, as he's landed a few nice punches but every time he tosses a limb at Gulak that limb seems to get eventually caught, so he nails a cannonball off the top (to a standing Gulak, love how it looked) and appears to be rolling, until Gulak shifts perfectly to catch Tozawa's senton in a match finishing Gulock. Excellent stuff throughout, a dominant Gulak performance that ends with him looking still dominant, and a very fun Tozawa performance. A lesser wrestler would have looked like they got steamrolled by Gulak, but Tozawa knew how to get his while also getting beat. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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WWE Elimination Chamber Close to Live Blog 3/8/20

ER: Chamber shows seem to deliver a higher rate of success than other yearly WWE PPVs, and this card looks especially strong on paper. I'm so used to not being very excited by cards (and then being pleasantly surprised) that it feels weird going into a show actually excited for most of the matches.


Viking Raiders vs. Curt Hawkins/Zack Ryder

ER: I'm used to seeing Hawkins and Ryder work even matches with guys who most people don't even realize are on the roster, like Eric Young or Shelton Benjamin. But every year or so they show up on a PPV pre-show and suddenly they're the ones cutting of the Viking Raiders. I expected this to be the Vikings absolutely wasting these two, but instead we get a cool section of Hawkins and Ryder cutting off Erik from Ivar. Hawkins even dropped Erik with a vertical suplex on the floor. That ended once Erik tagged in Ivar, and Ivar had the kind of hot tag that really snaps a pre-show crowd to life. Ivar's timing looked really good, hitting a huge lariat on Hawkins after cartwheeling past him, flattening Ryder with a crossbody, drops down with a great butt splash, and their finish looks like a damn finish, a big flapjack into an over the shoulder powerslam. The finishing stretch of this really made them look like the kind of wrecking ball tag team that WWE hasn't been featuring as much, but I also like how we got a fun stretch of them selling. Typical good pre-show match.


Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: I am used to seeing these kind of non-WWE style matches hidden on 205 Live or NXT UK, but this is the most un-WWE match I can ever remember seeing on an actually big card. It is crazy that Bryan has the juice to work a 15+ minute match with Drew Gulak, have it go almost entirely on the mat and get in on PPV.  So much to love here, total star making performance for Gulak, who got to dominate most of the match, with the story that he knows Bryan better than he knows himself. He is like the Survivor super fan who knows all of Tyson or Boston Rob's strategies.

Bryan took a hellacious beating to put over Gulak, that Saito suplex was awesome looking with Bryan selling a stinger, the released suplex looked a horrific as one of those has ever looked, and I actually thought Bryan might have Misawa'd his neck. All of the little things were cool too, with Gulak able to either win the mat exchanges or fight Bryan to a draw. Nasty grinding mat wrestling too, after the leglock exchange, Gulak had a mouse over his eye, and Bryan had multiple welts and bruises.  Finish run was so class, the Ultimo Guerrero reverse suplex into the Gulock was perfect, and I really thought Gulak might go over. But the desperation reversal into the super violent Yes lock for the pass out, was really great grappling. I had super high expectations for this match, and it exceeded them. Gulak's career match and honestly really high on Bryan's career list too.

ER: Wow. The other night I watched a real dream match for me, Eddie Kingston vs. LA Park, and it landed at #1 on our MOTY List. And now the very next night I get ANOTHER genuine dream match of mine, and it immediately, easily becomes my favorite match of 2020. This is a real teacher vs. student match, trailblazer vs. acolyte, two guys having a match that looks like no WWE PPV match has looked before. Gulak wouldn't be in WWE if it weren't for what Bryan did in wrestling in the 2000s. There's a chance Gulak wouldn't be in wrestling at all if it weren't for what Bryan did in wrestling in the 2000s. This match is Gulak's return to TV wrestling, a guy who has seemed rudderless since they took him off 205 Live with no warning almost a half year ago, and here he is in his first WWE PPV match. Nobody rightly expects dream matches to fulfill their potential to this degree.

These two take it to the mat and work it so intensely that you really see how easily a WWE audience could get trained to get fully behind that style. They built the matwork in a way that kept the crowd engaged, even thought they weren't working strikes or highspots for the first half of the match. This kind of extended matwork is rare on any TV (even lucha TV format has phased out a lot of extended primera matwork), and here is an all time legend making another star on a big PPV working a rugged mat style. They cranked headlocks, twisted ankles, bent knees, fought with intent over kneebars and each wrangled over Boston crabs. Gulak booted Bryan right in the chest to break a hold, and it wasn't long into the match before both bodies were showing bruising. The fans got into a surfboard as if it were a move they'd never seen before, and by the time Gulak dished out chops and elbows in the corner they were even more into it.

Gulak and Bryan kept that matwork looking like a fight at all times, so that by the time the two were actually fighting, the building had been ramping up for 7 minutes. We got some of the nastiest throws and suplexes seen in WWE history, like the two were fighting to be included in highlight packages featuring Brock and the Steiners. Gulak throws Bryan with a Saito suplex like a Russian Olympian, and his release German is one of the most holy shit spots I've seen in WWE (which is saying something since the match also had a vertical suplex from inside the ring to the floor). Bryan got launched halfway across the ring and lands squarely on his left shoulder, and as the cameras linger on his body slumping and folding into the mat you get to visually see how much punishment his body has been through. The expertly teased count out finish really felt like it could have been the actual finish. Bryan took a complete beating here, and his known history of neck problems made every fall feel even worse. Sure, he had his own shots, Gulak had his own bruises and got dumped with a nasty dragon suplex, but Bryan looked like a guy really getting put through the shredder. Bryan takes a hard fall onto the top buckle, and as Gulak is locking in the incredible reverse superplex, I think Gulak really has a chance to win this. This really was built to make Gulak look like a star, and he looked all of it. This match hit a point where it ceased mattering who won or lost, just because of how unforgettable they had made it. That superplex and Gulak bending Bryan's body backwards into the Gu-lock would have been violent enough to successfully run a fake Bryan injury retirement angle. But Bryan's victory seemingly opens the door for them to do more. This was really the first time in WWE that Gulak hasn't been featured as a comedy figure on the main stage, and I have to think this match really opened some eyes.


Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

ER: I thought this ruled too. Andrade went out there clearly realized he had to follow what Gulak and Bryan just did, and so he beats the hell out of Carrillo. These two have had a lot of matches already, several on TV and one great one a couple months ago at TLC. All of their matches have gotten a lot of time to do their thing, so they've really been able to grow their style a bit. Phil and I were chatting about the match, and he thought they should have worked more of a Rey/Juvy match than working a similarly stiff match to the already legendary match that preceeded them. But I've seen them work their Rey/Juvy match, and I liked it, but now I'm glad I got something different. I actually thought they were going to have a 4 second match, and honestly thought that would have been cool. Andrade's whipping back elbow looked like it decapitated Carrillo, who took it like he ran headlong into a doorframe he didn't see. Carrillo kept pasting him with shots, and I liked the way Carrillo worked into slick flying spots around the violence. Carrillo benefits from being in there with someone like Andrade, and Andrade takes his payment in bruises. All of his shots landed hard, from his elbows looking like Carrillo was getting knocked back to his heels, to his running knees threatening to break Carrillo's collarbones. But then he made Carrillo's biggest moments look even bigger. That super rana showed they had retained the crowd after a real tough match to top, and he put that kind of bumping energy into everything Carrillo did. The finishing roll up sequence was inventive and I thought the narrow win off a quick leveraged pin was a great way to have him escape. This PPV has started great.


The Miz/John Morrison vs. Robert Roode/Dolph Ziggler vs. Gran Metalik/Lince Dorado vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Big E/Kofi Kingston vs. The Usos

ER: New Day are wearing all white Paint By Numbers gear, with a key for the colors on the back, and it's some absolutely all time gear. Is Paint By Numbers style a trend that I haven't heard? I love it. The crowd is noticeably quiet during the Usos/New Day opening, and those are teams that usually get reactions. It's possible they got burned out from the previous two matches, but I think the ring entrances for this match alos dragged on too long. Too many long, separate entrances felt like too much of a cooldown. But they didn't let it discourage them, which can happen. The match gets fun when Lucha House Party gets in. Just as Drew Gulak had his first PPV match, this was somehow the first PPV appearance for either Metalik or Dorado. That's really cool, and they both come into the match hot (a little too hot, as Metalik ends up taking a powerbomb on a failed rana attempt on Big E, but they treat it as if the rana connected) and once they settle down we get a great run from them. Metalik does his gorgeous ropework that always gets a reaction, and he and Dorado work some fun misdirection chained spots, ending with two nice moonsaults. Metalik was also getting reactions from big bumps (always gotta have a lunatic taking the hiptoss bumps on the edge portions of the Chamber), and Dorado gets to be the guy flying off a Chamber pod onto guys, and then gets to hitting a Spider-man shooting star press onto everyone from the top of the Chamber. Dorado's spot off the center of the Chamber is probably the most successful version of that kind of spot. Shame they got eliminated by a Heavy Machinery compactor literally right after, but I like the attention to detail in having Otis be the only one to be left standing after Dorado's big moment. Tucker tossing Ziggler off a pod and Otis catching him was a super impressive spot, and the hotshot Otis gave Ziggler right after looked great, but catching Ziggler felt like such a big deal that it felt like it needed a bigger exclamation point than the hotshot. Felt like it needed a big slam. But then Tucker flies off the top of the pod with a cannonball into the remaining bodies and goes tumbling away from the group. Tough to top that right?

Well Otis immediately tops it by crashing through two walls of the pod to fly completely out of the Chamber to the floor. He crashed through those pods like Pee Wee riding a motorcycle through a billboard. It was a total Wile E. Coyote spot, and one of the all time greatest spots in a gimmick match that has created a ton of all time great spots. Otis slander can stop now, this guy is a tank. I wish they would have gone all the way through with Heavy Machinery, would have been nice to see them have a run, even keep the Mandy story going with a Roode/Ziggler feud. Usos vs. Miz/Morrison doesn't excite me much, feels like I've been watching Miz fight the Usos frequently for the past 5 years. Morrison brings something different to the equation in theory, but it still feels like a thing I've seen too much. Ending a Chamber match with a feet on the ropes roll up is a pretty amusing way to do it, but I'm not sure it was the right move. I like the dichotomy of the match having some really crazy moments, then ending with the oldest trick in the book, but the purist in me feels like you need something stronger there. Good match overall though, plenty of memorable big moments.


AJ Stlyes vs. Aleister Black

ER: This had a lot of strong work, but was much slower paced than not only other No DQ matches, but slower than the two very similar matches we've had on this card. This was focused on some stiff striking and wrenched in submissions in the same way Gulak/Bryan was, with Black hitting several kicks to the chest that Styles made look like he was getting hit with a full baseball swing, and Styles throwing several kicks and stomps to work over Black's leg. Styles would kick his leg at a buckling angle, and had a couple real sick calf crushers. But the downtime in between the cool stuff left a lot of the crowd cold, in a way they perhaps wouldn't be had they been attending a lesser show. This was a show that already had a lot of stiff strikes and big highpots, so this was a tough position for these two. Plus, the Singapore cane stuff felt far less interesting than any of Black's kicks. I also didn't care a ton for Black's knee selling, getting a little too performative at times. It's kind of neat seeing a guy hopping around on a leg selling a limp, but after seeing him go for another quebrada you start to think he's maybe asking for a sore knee. This match loses me once the OC get involved, but at least the finishing Black Mass looked good (it always does, but still). The No DQ stip didn't lead to anything interesting, a regular match between them would have been fine. This might have stood out more on a weak show, but this has not been a weak show. The Undertaker stuff does not move me in either direction.


Street Profits vs.  Seth Rollins/Murphy

ER: Hey here's a match I didn't want. How to lose my interest in a great show, check out these past two matches. This match is really shoveling on the dirt, and the quiet crowd appears to be with me. Street Profits keep some fans interested, but Rollins is so cold for me. What's funny is that Rollins and Murphy each had a headlock that I really liked, it was all their athletic spots that I thought looked light. Murphy can make a scary bump off the apron look like a routine tumbling exercise, and he has a tendency to bump everything with the same level of impact, actually doing his opponent's offense a disservice. Dawkins' hot tag was good, big man lariats and his 360 spin avalanche is a great signature hot tag spot. Ford takes some big bumps (really liked him eating knees on a high frog splash, and liked Rollins turning it into a small package), but can also come off a step slow in ring. Rollins/Owens isn't a match that I am interested in seeing, don't care about the match involvement, but this match made the show feel an hour longer. But I will watch Viking Raiders vs. AOP.


Braun Strowman vs. Shinsuke Nakamura/Cesaro/Sami Zayn

ER: This is another match that I don't really care about, so the unfortunate Styles/Black match followed by the dull tag, capping it off with a kind of silly handicap match, isn't going to help the show. BUT giving Sami Zayn an IC Title run is an actual great move. His kind of opportunistic undersized weasel works great as a mid level title holder, always making a babyface look good in the chase, and he's a good guy at getting clowned for 75% of a match and still somehow win. So this was a kind of nothing match that had a fun end result that should make for some entertaining programs, so it was an overall win.


Asuka vs. Sarah Logan vs. Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Ruby Riott vs. Natalya

PAS: This was clearly designed to get Baszler over, and pretty much everything after she came in was an angle, but man what a delivery. I want to give real props to Logan, Natalya, and Riot who all absolutely killed each other in their section before Baszler came in. The Riott senton off the side of the Chamber was nastier and cooler then any of the crazy highspots in the tag chamber, and Logan's running knees to Natalya and the plexiglas were super nasty. Once Baszler came in she rampaged. I think they should have worked the times a bit, I think Baszler had to dance around a minute or two too long before the pods opened. I also would have liked to see her tap the women with different submissions instead of always the RNC, although I get how you want to establish that as deadly to people who don't watch NXT. I am a Baszler fan, so I enjoyed the monster push, and hope they have her beat Becky too. You need to set up Baszler vs. Ronda when she comes back.

ER: I really liked the looks of this match on paper, almost all of my favorite women on the roster in my favorite gimmick match. And I thought this match absolutely ruled...whenever there was actually a match happening. There has been a killer violent streak happening in the women's division this year, with some nasty under the radar TV bouts (Asuka vs. Natalya, Carmella vs. Bayley, and a host of other individual performances) and this continues that trend. Riott, Natalya, and Logan really killed each other. All of the stuff pre-Shayla was hitting hard on every level for me. Riott had a great return to prominence. Her trash talking was great as she smashed Natalya with shots, but then took a hard beating of her own with a couple nasty bumps on the Chamber edge (including a great powerbomb). Logan looked like she broke Natalya's face when her pod opened, flying into her knees to chin. When Baszler came in I felt bad that those three got completely steamrolled by Brock Baszler, after all they had just all clearly worked their ass off in the main event of a big show, but the killing was handled so well that I loved it. Baszler murdered Logan and Riott with knees, and her rear nakeds on both looked braincell reducing. Logan especially sold it incredibly, and Riott had a great sell from the kneelift.

But the match made a major faceplant by hanging Baszler and Asuka out to dry by stubbornly sticking to actual real time. This desperately needed a worked clock, as Baszler did not have enough material to fill in the incredibly, fast forward worthy downtime. How did nobody call an audible? The downtime was so long, and the crowd got deservedly restless. Who in the back is so dedicated to the art of taking proper time, that they didn't realize the MAIN EVENT was in danger of dying? Baszler/Morgan and Baszler/Asuka delivered, even though I wish Liv got a longer go. She's been a strong house show performer that for some reason hasn't been given much of a chance on TV the last year, and she died a valiant death here but deserved a run in charge. Asuka vs. Baszler felt like a big deal main event (one that fans had to wait a deathly long amount of time to see), and Baszler was killing her with knees. Asuka has so much charisma and has been absolutely unleashed the past several months, and I thought she was actually going to conquer Shayna with her chickenwing choke. But the final showdown came off great, they just bizarrely blew out two of their tires on the easy trip to the finish line.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 2019 Catch-Up

None of the Big 3 appeared on WWE TV this week, so I will continue looking back at matches of theirs I missed in 2019, filling in those blanks.

Drew Gulak vs. Eric Bugenhagen NXT 1/30 (Aired 2/6/19)

ER: This was my first time actually seeing Bugenhagen, and I dig the vibe. A less grating, more natural fit Adam Rose. This was obviously going to be a Gulak showcase, and it was that, while also giving Bugenhagen a couple decent moments. He wanted to rock, Gulak wanted to throw boots, both got their wish. Holding an abdominal stretch while doing a Pete Townshend windmill is a good spot for the gimmick, I like his look and I like his era appropriate tights. Gulak was the sadistic parent filled with Satanic Panic worry, jumping off the ropes with hard stomps to Bugenhagen's chest, tossing him with suplexes, locking on that sick body vice dragon sleeper for the win. This was short, and the right mixture of violence with goof off. 

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. The Forgotten Sons (Wesley Blake/Steve Cutler) NXT 2/20 (Aired 3/6/19)

ER: Cool go go go match with Forgotten Sons working over Lorcan's back early, and then continuing to take their shots at it whenever they could. Lorcan is a fun guy to fight through a back injury, and I liked the ways it extended the match. Lorcan and Burch always felt like they were fighting from underneath, a regular role for them, and one they excel at. The back work was simple, just Blake throwing forearms at Lorcan's back, working some big stomps off the ropes, and I dug how it kept paying off the longer the match went. It's easy to work a simple moment like Lorcan not being able to lift an opponent, leading to Burch getting waylaid, and the Sons have a lot of offense to waylay someone. Burch had several impressive moments, mainly working his schtick around members of the Large Adult Sons getting in his way. There was on section where he dropped both of them with German suplexes, noticed one of them had rolled into the way of where he was throwing the next one, so pivoted his hips and threw his next German diagonally so he wouldn't cause a brutal crash landing. That's pro. Cutler also rolled into the way of Burch's kip up, and Burch spun slightly on his back to change the kip up direction. It's impressive when a guy is that aware of his opponents' replacement and doesn't just go stumbling through everything. Lorcan had a cool comeback where he flew hard into uppercuts and hit his wild flip dive, but I dug how things wrapped up by him getting caught in a powerbomb, throwing him right into knees. Forgotten Sons have some cool double teams, I liked this match up a lot. 

Jack Gallagher/Drew Gulak/Humberto Carrillo vs. Gran Metalik/Kalisto/Lince Dorado 205 Live 3/26/19

ER: This was okay, but Lucha House Party came off pretty sluggish in spots, really low energy for guys who are supposed to be super fast exciting spot machines. Even their Lu-Cha chants felt like they were moving their arms through cement, and the layout wasn't very interesting at all. The LHP showcase moments were pretty bland, even with an occasional nice spot (like Metalik's always nice tornillo). It got interesting for a bit when Gallagher made Dorado slip on the apron by yanking on the ring skirt, allowing Gulak to dropkick Dorado to the floor, where Gallagher threw a couple punches to his ear. The Gulak control portions were the only part of this I was really into. Gallagher felt really underused, and when he was in he was always opposite Lince Dorado, who kept throwing off the timing of everything. They tried for a big car crash moment to end things, and they couldn't even do a lot of that right. They build to a big tower of doom spot where Carrillo and Gulak get powerbombed by Metalik which also sends Kalisto taking the worst of it with a massive superplex. But of course, due to the way they laid out the car crash spot, Kalisto was right back hopping into action about 10 seconds later. Dorado flinches while taking Gallagher's big headbutt, so even Gallagher's big spot in the match doesn't end up looking like much. This was another 15 minute 205 Live match that fell way short of what it should have been. The 6 man tag feels like one of the easier formats to deliver a banging 15 minute match, and most of the 205 Live 6 mans are just a drag. You should, in theory, be able to throw any 6 people from the WWE roster in a match, give them 15 minutes, and have a fun match at the other side. But somehow this is rarely the case on 205. It's really weird.

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WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 9/15 - 9/21

Clash of the Champions 9/15

Drew Gulak vs. Humberto Carrillo vs. Lince Dorado

ER: Fun match with typical problems that curse three ways. I don't know why Lince was added to the match, but I would have been far more interested in Gulak vs. Carrillo or Gulak vs. Dorado. But we got a three way instead, and it had awkward three way moments where timing was off or someone accidentally kinda took a move instead of dodging it, and of course disappearing for minutes. But it was genuinely fun, in spite of those accurate complaints. Dorado had a cool pescado with his arms at his side, following it up with a slick rana to Gulak on the floor, and then turns a potential silly hot shot bump into a dangerous tumble to the floor. I like Gulak against lucha guys, like how he can make flippy offense seem legit, and Carrillo is someone who tries a lot of things even if they don't always work flush. They try a wild tower spot with a Doomsday Device dive to the floor, I enjoyed the moment where Gulak got his feet up on Carrillo's moonsault but Carrillo anticipated it, Carrillo takes a great posting bump, Gulak breaks out cool things like a gutbuster, and then some other things don't work. But it was a fun opener on a PPV pre-show.


205 Live 9/17

Jack Gallagher vs. Brian Kendrick

ER: This is the cruel opposite of what we've been getting from 205 Live. We've been getting 20 minute matches from guys who I don't want to see go 20, but that's way better than this. This was 2 really great minutes followed by a dead ass ending that got no reaction from the crowd. I mean, the 2 minutes of awesome action they gave us got no reaction either, but fans are idiots fuck 'em. I'd love to see these two work a Bloodsport match. If Kendrick ever gets released (fyi I'm really glad Kendrick has been cashing a nice WWE check for a few years now, he's earned it) he'd be a cool out of the box guy to have on some cards. He and Gallagher on the mat just made me want to see more of that and made me made we got deprived of it. Gallagher doing his recline while trapping Kendrick's arms, and Kendrick escaping by hooking Gallagher's calf. There standing exchanges were really cool and I thought the work around the apron on the floor was slick. Kendrick finds cool ways of getting into position for offense, really approaches moves and takes moves from cool angles. He and Gallagher clearly have a series of classics in them, and I hope they get the platform to have them. Also, I realize I have not watched a single bit of their 2017/2018 205 Live output teaming with each other, or opposite each other. I'm going to change that.

PAS: This was fun while it lasted, although it didn't last long. We had the opening couple of minutes of a great match, with Gallagher using a bunch of tricky WOS to frustrate Kendrick, and Kendrick getting more and more agitated. Kendrick has a really great wiry junky energy, I could totally see him as a guy in a Abel Ferrara movie who pulls out a straight razor in the middle of a bar. Finish was blah, I grew up on the Sandman, if you are going to clean someones clock with a Kendo stick, make sure that clock is clean.

Oney Lorcan vs. Tony Nese

PAS: I certainly prefer brawling heel Tony Nese to athletic combo babyface Tony Nese, but I would really prefer anyone else to be getting his airtime. Nese is a good bumper, so the highlights of this match were Lorcan beating on him and making him bump, there is a great spot where Oney tosses him into the barricade and Nese lands kidneys first into the top of the barricade and flies into the crowd,  Tony also took a big bump to the floor after an uppercut. It is when he is on offense that it gets more problematic.  His punches and stomps look so bad that it is hard to buy him holding his own in a fight with Lorcan. He also does of couple of his signature do-si-do reversal sequences. Pissed off Lorcan is great, and overall makes this match pretty enjoyable, but goodness elevate someone, anyone else to the long main event matches.

ER: Man Tony Nese has been the scourge of this project. He's a pest and he just will not go away. If he has to exist, why does he have to exist in this close proximity to all of the guys we set out to watch? We've already been forced to write up seven Tony Nese matches this year because of this project! You guys are now reading your seventh Tony Nese joint review instead of whatever seven matches we would have reviewed instead. Think of what seven matches you'd absolutely LOVE to have us review, and now think of how we've instead written about seven Tony Nese matches.

That said, I liked this match, and while I don't like Tony Nese I like this version more than his other forms. Lorcan was obviously the star, but Nese filled in his share. Totally agree with Phil about his punches and stomps, but at least here he was doing delayed one armed vertical suplexes, working a body vice, grabbing a rear waistlock as an offense, that kind of stuff is Tony Nese offense that I like. And he is a good bumper, a guy who when he misses has no problem missing big. His missed Asai moonsault looked really painful, and I loved the match long contest between the two of them to see who could take crazier bumps into the barricade. Nese is brave about flying into Lorcan's offense, and Lorcan is someone who will fly into his own offense. His running elbows and uppercuts and body as weapon abandon is fun against someone who leans in and bumps big. I wrote a paragraph grousing about watching so many Tony Nese matches by choice, but I actually quite liked this one.

NXT 9/18

20. Oney Lorcan vs. Lio Rush

ER: I thought this ruled, with a super fast start and a ton of neat moments peppered throughout. Lio came off more interesting than most of the 205 Live juniors, and Lorcan looked like a guy who needs to be slotted much higher on the roster. Rush was a perfect Lorcan opponent, leaning into his strikes, bumping uniquely for his big shots, and firing back with actual interesting cruiser offense. Rush gets demolished by Lorcan's charging uppercuts and whips his body to the mat for the blockbuster, but soon after he's hitting three straight suicide dives that I guarantee hit harder and looked better than whatever Seth Rollins' three best dives this year have been. This felt like one of the best uses of the suicide dives trio, as they hit flush and I dug how Lorcan sold them. This felt almost like an updated Psicosis/Rey match, the way Lorcan would fling Rush around (look at that gutwrench powerbomb!) and even simple things Lorcan would do like bodyslams would look devastating with Rush taking them. I was super impressed by Rush's body control in this match, felt closer to Low-Ki movements than most guys are capable of. Rush getting whipped into the corner and winding up half out of the ring/half tied up in the ropes was awesome, and it lead to a Lorcan uppercut that looked even cooler with Rush recoiling in the ropes.  Lorcan kept getting meaner, and that STF choke was real nasty, good enough that I would have bought it as a finish, and before long he's grabbing Rush right by the jaw and slapping him. Rush is fast enough to snap off cruiser offense that looks less mapped off than others doing the same, like his cool bottom rope rebound cutter or the fluidity of his one-man Spanish Fly; plenty of other juniors use those moves, but few looked as good as Rush, and it's possible that some of that is because Lorcan is great at taking quick offense. The Spanish Fly transition was unexpected and came at a cool moment, really stopping Lorcan's freight train in its tracks, and it's among the best the spot has looked. I was hoping the match would keep going, not because it ended abruptly, but because I was loving how they worked together so much. To my knowledge they've never matched up together before, and they nailed it on the first shot. Not to mention, this was Rush's first match back in 6 months, and how could you possibly have a better reintroduction than this?

PAS: When I read Eric's review, I went and checked Cagematch, I figured they must have run across each other in CZW, but outside of a house show NXT tag this was a first time matchup. It really felt like a totally polished touring feud, just awesome chemistry. Rush is super flexible, and Lorcan is very willing to twist his body in horrific ways (those may have been the most violent looking single leg crabs I can remember seeing). Loved the way this match was paced, with a crazy opening couple of minutes, some dips in pace, and a big wild finish. They really knew how to work the timing. Rush has real explosiveness which is rare, he hits spots that might look lame normally (think about how bad Gary Jay's multiple tope's look, or most standing Spanish Fly's), but snaps them off with such speed and force that they look awesome. The WWE house style is still toned down enough that we don't have to worry about Rush no selling piledrivers off ladders, so I am excited to see what he can do with that fear removed. This was great, and I am amped for Rush vs. Gulak.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 9/7 - 9/14

205 Live 9/10/19

Jack Gallagher/KUSHIDA vs. Brian Kendrick/Akira Tozawa

ER: We're back to appropriate match length on 205, and this was a bunch of fun. I thought everything in this was great...up until KUSHIDA's hot tag. The opening scramble with Kendrick/KUSHIDA was really cool, and filled with little things that make me love Kendrick: blocked headlock takeovers, refusing to go down on a drop toehold until forced, clasping his hands on a hiptoss armbar until KUSHIDA starts throwing fists at his hands, even doing a leapfrog much more like he was jumping a hurdle in competitive track so that he lands in a more advantageous position. Kendrick is a great logic  wrestler and I love seeing his tricks. Gallagher and Tozawa are always fun together, and I dug what Kendrick did with a blind tag as Tozawa baseball slides to the floor making Gallagher think he had been too much for him, only to turn around and take a nasty posting from Kendrick. Tozawa trotting by on the floor and rustling Gallagher's hair while he was still hung around the post was an excellent touch. I loved Tozawa's short punch, and seeing Kendrick and Tozawa corner and isolate Gallagher was great stuff, but it all built to a KUSHIDA hot tag that I didn't think was very good. I don't think KUSHIDA's stuff looks very good when he rushes through things, as he's a guy who always looks like he's thinking too hard about the next part of the sequence, so all of his strikes looked more like someone practicing a sequence than actually doing the sequence. We still get Gallagher spilling to the floor and Tozawa pasting him with his cannonball off the apron (Gallagher always seems like the guy who gets smooshed into the barricade with that, and it always looks great), but overall I think things wrapped up way to neatly once KUSHIDA came back in, match could have used another twist or two.

PAS: I thought this was really good, I am not a New Japan guy, so my KUSHIDA experience was his not very good Gulak matches from NXT. I think he may be better suited as a tag worker, where he can do some cool opening mat scrambles, let his tag partner do the majority of the actual in ring work, and then tag back in for a hot tag. Gallagher was pretty great in this taking a huge bump into the ringpost, and taking a pasting from Kendrick and Tozawa. Kendrick has been a bit of forgotten man in 205 lately, but man is he great, I loved him escalating the violence, and his smaller stuff is about as good as it gets in wrestling. I thought KUSHIDA's finishing armbar was pretty great looking and the coolness of that allowed me to forgive some of his awkward moments.

Drew Gulak/Ariya Daivari/Tony Nese vs. Humberto Carrillo/Gran Metalik/Lince Dorado

PAS: This was a long trios match with some cool moments, but some real stinkers too. Nese is really bad in this, at one point he puts on maybe the loosest crappiest chinlock I have even seen, he might not have even been touching Dorado's body. Lince Dorado being shoehorned into the PPV title match is really weird. He isn't even a top 10 2008 Chikara roster member (Hero, Claudio, Quack, Colin Delaney, Brodie Lee, Whatever Ant Tracey Williams Was, Tim Donst, Jigsaw, Mitch Ryder and Kingston for sure would have a better match with Gulak) and the third best guy in his stable. Watching both him and Metalik in this match, it is even weirder that they are pushing Dorado. Apparently WWE bought the Dorado gimmick from Chikara, which is amazing. How much could they have possibly paid? It can't be more then a 100 bucks. I just imagine Quackenbush buttonholing Helmsley after Quack's training center gig "You know Hunter technically we own the Lince Dorado IP, you really should buy it from us, if you are going to use it on TV." and Helmsley just handing him whatever he had in his pockets "I got 67 dollars and a GMC gift card with an unknown amount on it, take it or leave it."

Gulak was good as usual, the crowd was clearly not paying attention to the match and chanting for a baby in the crowd. Gulak starts rocking Dorada like a baby as a taunt to get the crowd back in the match. Total pro move.

ER: I was hoping Phil hadn't noticed Gulak's extremely pro as hell reaction to distracted fans, because I was more blown away by that than anything that actually happened in the match and wanted something to talk about. Can't be much more of a bummer for wrestlers than a fully distracted crowd, and Gulak improvising and rocking Metalik like a little baby to instantly get all eyes on him was one of the more brilliant things I've seen. I mean, Tony Nese lost their attention like 12 seconds later, but I'm not letting Gulak get dragged down just because Tony Nese sucks. I really like Phil's 2008 Lince vs. Chikara exercise, and you can easily add Hallowicked, Sara Del Ray, Cheech AND Cloudy, Pantera, Larry Sweeney, Drake Younger, really Lince is nowhere close to 2008 Chikara top 10. He's a guy battling to get on the 25 man roster.

The match itself was too long, though the length did give it more time for nice moments, and there were plenty of nice moments. I don't think the whole added up to much, but you stick a couple interesting guys in an 18 minute match and something decent will shoot out the other side. There was some fun stuff on the floor, Metalik always breaks out a couple of impressive flips, Carrillo had a couple big dives, Metalik had an outright awesome rana leaping over the ropes to the floor, and Daivari took a fast splat bump off that rana. But there was also a lot of really awkward shifting into position for offense, lotta messy stuff, and Phil didn't even mention Nese's awkward loose body vice. I will say, that I think these guys are all at least trying to have bangers out there, and that counts for something. That enthusiasm can help lift up matches and I hope the show goes on a good run.

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WWE Big 3: Lorcan, Gallagher, Gulak 2019 Catch-Up

WWE is cruelly depriving us of fresh Big 3 TV matches this week, so I figured I would dive back deeper into 2019 and pick up some matches of the guys that I missed, see if there's anything worth going back for.


Drew Gulak vs. Jordan Devlin WWE Worlds Collide 1/26/19 (Aired 2/2)

ER: I thought this was really good, especially when viewed as a great Gulak performance. I thought Devlin was along for the ride and held up his end in a lot of ways, but also thought the weakest parts of the match were because of him, and still find it weird that a lot of these UK guys seem to work really flat finishes into their matches. But you view this as a Gulak show with an 80% capable guy across from him, and there were some great fireworks. I loved every way Gulak would grab a limb, and every way he would kind of stop a sequence midway through and take it a different direction. I would have been happy with him working cravats, locking in a leg in place while twisting Devlin's arm behind him, sinking the body vice of the Gulock while stretching his bicep back across Devlin's eyes, all of his work looked nasty. But I liked the bits of personality he added, too, like the section in the middle where both guys try to get their feet on the ropes during pins, and Gulak escalates things into a slugfest. Now, I dug that, because Gulak hits much harder than Devlin. Things come to blows, and Gulak gives him an elbow that knocks him back in the corner while walking through Devlin's punch/elbow hybrid thing. As the match went on it felt like Devlin started working up to Gulak, I thought his elbows looked harder during the back half of the match, he started toeing Gulak in the cheek with little kicks, and then he hit two strong as hell standing lariats. Those lariats looked so mean that if I had taken them I would have been clutching my chest on the floor like Redd Foxx. Gulak brings in fun misdirection when Devlin starts firing back harder, and I loved the look of Gulak bringing a unexpected dropdown, then getting up to run a alternate direction before catching Devlin in the surprise sunset flip. That was a great nearfall and I think could have ended the match. I also think Gulak's nasty trailer hitch could have ended things, as he kept Devlin's ankles tied up and bent, while wrenching every other limb away from the ropes. The finish itself came off flat (a lot of these UK guys seem to peak their matches 3/4 of the way through), so it just feels like Gulak going down to a fireman's carry, but I also think Gulak sold well enough for Devlin, put over the physical toll well enough, that the finish didn't feel out of place.

Jack Gallagher vs. Lince Dorado 205 Live 2/12/19

ER: This kind of felt like a weird WCW match up, throwing together Robbie Brookside vs. JL, only WWE gives that match 10 minutes in front of a silent crowd. They threatened to make some noise while Gallagher held an abdominal stretch, then almost came alive when Dorado was hitting moonsaults off each turnbuckle, but most of this time this read like an exhibition both guys worked in an empty training room. And that's not such a bad thing, but the match itself didn't seem to have much glue. There were cool things, and I dig this kind of style clash, but Gallagher wasn't working as quirky as he can, and Dorado wasn't as interesting as he is in multimans. Taken in highlight form it would make an excellent package. Dorado hit a big springboard crossbody to the floor with his knees cracking across Gallagher's face (the replay showing the angle from behind Gallagher looked even more nasty) and I dug how Gallagher took all of Dorado's flying in a really heavy way. Gallagher would take a crossbody and fall back with a thud, or flip into a heavy flipping back bump off a headscissors; I thought it made Dorado's light offense look more damaging than if Gallagher had just rolled through everything with more lucha style bumps. I dug the build to Dorado hitting his three moonsaults, catching knees on the one off the top, and then flipped out for Gallagher's muscled up powerbomb turned into a tight single leg. But when the match didn't end on Gallagher's rebound headbutt, I called shenanigans. Dorado treated every move from Gallagher the exact same, sold it the same, so you had him shrugging off a sick powerbomb and kickout out of that wicked headbutt, but treating them the same as early match work. Good moments, fun highlights, never really felt like a match.

Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake/Zack Gibson) NXT UK 1/27/19 (Aired 2/27)

ER: Simple match with a simple formula of GYV cutting off the ring, with the enduring problem being that GYV aren't very interesting here. Now I understand that to build to a big fiery comeback you need to wear down the faces, really make it seem like long odds, and then the faces explode into action. But Drake and Gibson really didn't do a ton with their long heat segment, and the hot tag kept weirdly chopping off its own limbs. The time was right, the formula was sound, but I didn't think it added up to much. Gibson and Drake work this match like the least interesting Gallows/Anderson, with occasional bright flashes coming from Lorcan and Burch. Burch has a couple of nice thrust headbutts, Lorcan tags in with his huge double blockbuster and then hits a wild Doomsday Device uppercut that sends Drake flying dangerously off Burch's shoulders. But the only big moments that GYV would build to all ended up in lame chestbreakers. This whole thing was way too dry. Simple can often lead to great, but some guys just aren't good at doing anything interesting while working simply.

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205 Live 12/14/16

1. Jack Gallagher vs. Drew Gulak

ER: Not the flat out classic I was hoping for, but still two guys I really like having a likable match. I thought Gulak looked pretty vicious here. People might not want to see cruisers doing headlocks, but I love his side headlocks and cravates. Love the spot where one guy has a headlock and the man in the headlock tries to push him off, but he holds on. Seeing Gulak hold on and wrench it in looked great, and then seeing Jack handstand out of a headlock takeover was gravy. Also love how he tightens the cravate by going for a snapmare and stopping short. The fans really do not care about Gallagher's knot tying at the moment, which I think is for the best long term. They respond much better to his great uppercuts and sick headbutt and dropkick. Them responding to his violence and not his comedy is a good sign going forward as he'll veer towards ultra stiff Dean Malenko instead of just becoming Scotty II Hotty. But Gulak was a real asskicker here and I did like how the (too long) butt kicking spot lead to him immediately transitioning back to ass beating with a big running kick, then pie facing Gallagher off the bottom rope in a cool spot. Would have liked to see a longer strike exchange (weird comment right there) but I liked the brevity of Gulak's ear cup slap leading directly to the KO headbutt (with king douche Mauro naturally mentioning New Japan). Hopefully these two match up again.

PAS: Yeah this was a really fun Worldwide style match up between these two guys. I guess I don't mind the knot as a set up for the heel to get pissed off at Gallagher, which seems to be how they are using it, but I would love to see that retired. Loved mad Gulak, that pie face into the bottom rope was super nasty looking. I really wish the Davari feud was between these two guys, as I could see them having multiple matches against each other and find new interesting things to do.

2. Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali

ER: I quite liked this up until the shrug finish. Lince's matches will always be as good as the spots he hits, and he hit everything clean. More importantly Ali had a real impressive showing, really lacing into Dorado with stiff clubbing forearms and being a great base for his flying. He certainly looked more impressive than in his CWC match against Dorado, and I like some indy stuff I've seen from him and also dug how he carried himself here. It's nice to see they're at least attempting a "you only boo me because you don't like my name" angle, instead of having him be a sheik. Finish was something, but I dug him jumping Dorado back in the ring, and then he went and bumped huge to the floor to put over a spin kick. Not bad.

PAS: Eric has a lot more faith in the WWE racial  then I do, the last time the ran a "you just boo me because I am Muslim gimmick" three weeks later we had Jihadi's beheading the Undertaker. Of course that was before Linda joined the Trump administration, a place full of nuanced opinions on the Muslim world. Ali looked great here, I also enjoyed this more then their CWC match, everything got hit cleanly, and I really dug the nastiness of both bumps which set up the double count out.

3. TJ Perkins vs. Rich Swann

ER: The parity in this division is tearing me apart!!! Everybody beats everybody and then rematches and the other guys beat the other guys and everybody is equal to everybody. There are 15+ guys in the division but it feels like we're seeing the exact same matches already. That said, I liked this match and thought it was one of TJP's best performances in WWE so far. He's definitely a "timing & execution" guy, so sometimes things just click better than normal. Opening stretch was simple but nice and fluid and I liked the way they worked in the knee tweak and the way TJ started going after it.  Perkins was nice and aggressive and it lead to some fun Swann nearfalls, especially the cool victory roll into a tiger driver. TJ's knee bar has come replete with some cool reversals, and I love when he rolls under a guy as they're doing some sort of flip so he's lying there in wait to lock it on. Fun, satisfying match with logical progression. It went the direction you thought it would, and was better for it.

PAS: Yeah I am tired of seeing the same match ups over and over again, but I did enjoy this. I thought Swann did a nice of job of selling his knee on the jumping 480 splash, and the knee bar finish was really nasty looking. I am not a huge fan of mirror sequences, but TJP and Swann are really good a mirrors. I really hope they move into something different after this weekend though.

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WWE Hell in a Cell 2016 Not Live Blog

1. Sin Cara, Lince Dorado & Cedric Alexander vs. Tony Nese, Drew Gulak & Ariya Daivari

ER: This match left me pretty hollow, really didn't think a lot of the guys in this looked good. Gulak looked the best, loved his subs working over Lince. Him locking the deathlock, fighting with him over his arms, all that looked great. The match started getting good right after the big dive train. The dives happened and back in the ring Gulak grabbed a dragon sleeper real smooth on Cedric. There was a great fight spot over it, with Nese holding Cara's foot on the floor, and Lince coming out of nowhere with the save. We get some fun moves trading, Nese looked stumbly, and the lumbar check somehow always ends up looking good. It seems preposterous, but man does it look painful.

I had that New Day Q&A segment on in the background while I typed up that Cruiser match, and my goodness that was bad. They just yelled the whole time.

2. Rusev vs. Roman Reigns

ER: So they went really long with this one. Probably too long. And it really could have used blood. But overall it was good. It started to get real good when Reigns missed his sliding kick on the apron and Rusev hit a lariat. Once weapons got in their I really suckered in. Rusev bashing Reigns in the ropes with the kendo stick was great, although after he broke it over his knee I started rooting for him to stab him with the stick, Abby style. Things would have gotten so damn real with a kendo stick stabbing. I thought Rusev was on point the entire match. His punches looked way better than Roman's (except for the first time Roman caught him with the chain, then Roman was throwing bombs), and all of his kicks looked great. Roman ran forehead and nose first into one of those, and I thought for sure he was gonna get up with a black eye. The chain spots looked good and that sub with the chain through Roman's mouth was great. So yeah, plenty of great stuff in this one, but they were also given an insane amount of time to do the great stuff. Overall win.

3. Bayley vs. Dana Brooke

ER: Eh this was okay. I actually liked Brooke more than Bayley in this one, which was not something I expected. Dana's the one that got me into it, the moment she kick Bayley's arm in the ropes. All the arm work was really good, her lariat looked really good, and suddenly I liked small powerhouse Dana Brooke. Bayley firing back with her one good arm was nice, but the end felt too sudden and convenient.

4. Enzo & Big Cass vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

ER: Surprising result, but this was pretty bleh. One of Anderson's better WWE performances, though, so that leaves me mixed. Enzo and Cass just are not good. Cass' big boot usually looks good. But even Test had a bit more going for him than his good big boot. Gallows superkicking Enzo was satisfying, and I did like Enzo's crossbody earlier, but this was flat for me.

5. Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins

ER: This was actually my favorite match with these guys. It also got tons of time, but I think that actually made it feel more epic in scope. I think this was the tightest that Rollins has looked in WWE. The strike segments weren't "hold my hair and swing in a phone booth" things that Owens has been spamming, it was just an old fashioned punch exchange. And Rollins looked good in it, really throwing them at all angles. Owens worked in some cool stuff like flying hard into cannonballs (including a brutal one into the cell) and then later splatting Rollins with a couple nasty sentons. One of them hit while Rollins was on all fours, and damn that just hurts my wrists and elbows thinking about it. Rollins muscling up Owens with a powerbomb was nuts, and even though the tables were set up for it, I still didn't think anybody was going through that table structure. But hot damn did Owens get powerbombed through it. Nuts. Owens' chairshots were among the most violent I've ever seen, he really looked like he was laying Rollins out. They weren't landing flush, Rollins was catching some edge, they were thrown to his ribs and arm and stomach, really nasty shots. So yeah, this match felt appropriately violent to justify the time given. Much better than I hoped.

6. TJ Perkins vs. Brian Kendrick

ER: A good match but I think they have better in them. I do love that they're working long real time injury spots into matches thanks to Kendrick. It feels like if Chris Hamrick were suddenly a guy they cared about. But Kendrick does a great long convincing knee injury, always knowing it would end with him jumping TJ. I still wasn't actually expecting the Kendrick win, even though I love it. They've kinda treated TJ like a wet noodle since this whole cruisers on Raw thing happened. Some fan in the front row manages to insult both men in one breath with a "Get a fucking haircut hippie. Nike sucks!" One man, raging against the system. I love how dangerous they have made the captains hook look, almost always a guaranteed win. But this felt like it needed a bit more build.

7. New Day vs. Cesaro/Sheamus

ER: This felt long and I actually think the match benefitted from the slow spots. I liked Big E and Cesaro selling how damn tired they were. I really liked Cesaro and Sheamus cutting off Woods. They were pretty vicious to him in the corner, with both seeing who could throw a harder uppercut. The rolling senton into Cesaro's double stomp. That's finisher level nasty. Cesaro catching Woods' running leg and turning it into a sharpshooter was slick and vicious as all hell. I really wanted it to be the finish. In a way it was, but they get cute and DQ Kofi for interference. But this was a real good Sheamus/Cesaro performance, and a nice New Day showing. The ending was kinda annoying, but match was solid.

8. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks

ER: Well hot damn I loved this. This felt epic, this had some gravitas. Charlotte jumping her before the bell was awesome, and both of them beat the hell out of each other around ringside. Sasha showed real fire when prepping the table, and you knew something bad was happening. But I somehow didn't guess powerbomb. Sasha got planted with that powerbomb, sprawled across the collapsing table fantastically. I loved the lonnnnnnng stretcher set up. It was taking forever, but I loved it. Every minute that went by made it look like Sasha had more and more of a chance to recover. That powerbomb was nasty but juuuuuust maybe...so when she gets off the stretcher and slaps the hell out of an EMT, I was way into it. And they had a real assbeating fight. Sasha flew into her with knees, Charlotte landed kicks, they laced right into each other. There was a certain sloppiness that actually added to the gritty fight feel, totally made the match. I had no idea who would win, no clue where it would go, was constantly waiting for a swerve of some kind. But the table coming in, Sasha getting tossed all over it, ragdolling into and off of it, felt like a really violent human breaking move. The whole match felt like a big deal (which is annoying to type after how much I know they're going to pat themselves on the back because HISTORY), and they shocked the hell out of me. I thought they would work stupid to justify their spot in the main event, but I thought they were smart in this - even with a couple crazy spots. Awesome match.

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Dark Matches

Oney Lorcan v. Cedric Alexander

PAS: Orney Locan is the ex Biff Busick, it is a pretty oddball name, but Biff Busick is also a pretty terrible name, it sounds more like a NXT create a name then the name that got created. After loving the Ibushi match, I am back to being unimpressed with Alexander. All of his stuff looks good, but he is more Tony Neeseish then an actual great wrestler. Lorcan was a nasty fucker in this, his leaping headbutt was awesome as was all of his different uppercuts, would have liked to see him break out some grappling, but he was great as a guy hitting hard. Worth watching just for him.

ER: Biff Busick at least sounds like the name of a human man. I personally have never known a person named Biff, but I have known two different men named Butch. But Oney Lorcan sounds so alien that you assume that it's an anagram or spells something foul backwards or rhymes with a dirty expression (Boney Porkin'?). But whatever, he's still awesome. His chops sound like they are getting the Lucha Undergound sound sweetening, he tosses out a bunch of uppercut variations that could look silly but instead look brutal, and then tosses out THAT headbutt. Cedric really does come off as "athletic guy doing athletic things" too often, but he also knows how to deliver some cracking strikes, and Lorcan takes some nasty stuff from him like that big suplex into the buckles. I thought most of this was super fun, and only kind of highlighted the additional awesome matches that could have happened if Lorcan had been in the CWC instead of a couple of the duds. Oh, and "It's hard not to get excited with action like this!" wins Daniel Bryan the award for "Vaguest Soundbite That Comes Up 4 Times Per Match While Playing Smackdown vs. Raw". You know you can picture Michael Cole saying it after you just did a snapmare as Trish Stratus.

Drew Gulak/Tony Nese v. Kenneth Johnson/Lince Dorado

PAS: Perfectly fun little tag match. Johnson is pretty green, but does have a nice underdog charisma, and plays nicely off of Gulak as jersey dirtbag Fuchi. Gulak is a beast, I loved his  JYD headbutt to break up a pin, Gulak is pretty much always worth watching no matter what he does. Neese is still kind of a lame-o, but he and Gulak had some fun double teams and I could see them as a nice team. If they end up doing something with Crusierweight tag wrestling I could dig this tag team.

ER: With the color scheme and makeshift team setting this had a feel of an early 2000s Velocity match, which gave it an almost inherent likability, even though I don't really like three guys in this match. Gulak is a favorite of mine, but Nese is more of an RVD without the dangerous bumps. Dorado has some of my least favorite offense, and Johnson just isn't very good. BUT, despite his badness Phil is right that there's some kind of charisma there, something to like. He may have done one of the worst double leg takedowns I've ever seen, but I oddly likely Johnson throughout this. Nese could only improve by working with Gulak, and I did love the two of them cornering poor Kenneth. Gulak locking on that nasty lucha sub was a highlight, as was Nese doing the one arm powerbomb to the floor, onto Dorado. Also liked how Gulak literally brushed off Dorado's strikes, because, yeah, those strikes looked brush-offable. Nese continues his streak of almost 450ing his face into the mat. This was just one of those odd matches that I didn't really think was good, but enjoyed watching it for the duration. It's not so much that I'm a complicated person; burdensome would be perhaps more appropriate.

Ariya Daivari/Sean Maluta v. The Bollywood Boyz

ER: I was prepared to dislike this one, but by the end it pretty easily won me over. That seems more like a testament to a simply worked traditional tag formula, but it won me over nonetheless. Bollywood Boyz definitely play better as a team than as singles, and Daivari is now seeming like the best guy in the tournament that got the most silent reaction. I started out groaning as I don't really care for the whole Bollywood dancing routine. It feels like actual guys from India doing an Indian minstrel show. But that died down as the match went on, and as they started working like an Indian Fantistics I got into it. Daivari bumped all over for them which helped them out a bit, as he made a double team battering ram in the corner look great and later flew recklessly and painfully to the floor. The Bollywood Boyz tandem offense kind of makes up for the looseness of some of it, although Gurv (?) throws a nice elbowdrop and had a fine hot tag. Plus, they're all tasseled out which is bonus gravy. Maluta didn't look great, seemed really lost at how to get into position for double teams, and capped it by throwing a really bad and awkward dropkick off the middle. Still, fine formula tag which showed the Boyz as a team wouldn't look out of place on the roster, and that Daivari is certainly the better Daivari.

PAS: Daivari did look great here, bumping around, being kind of a contemptuous dick to the Bollywood Boyz shtick. He felt like a guy who should stick around, maybe team him with Prince Mustafa Ali in a Saudi prince who comes to college and uses coke and BMW's to bang sorority girls gimmick. Bollywood Boyz clearly have a ton of experience working basic tag matches, and know when to work a hot tag, when to get heat etc., it felt very professional without really inspiring me.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE CWC

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 8/24/16

1. Rich Swann vs. Lince Dorado

ER: Hey! This was awful! This felt like 8 minutes of two guys doing wind sprints. I hardly remembered any of the moves that happened, just felt like two guys running around, back and forth, occasionally slapping a leg and doing something that approximated hitting the other. Lince pulls out of every strike and every impact, like he's almost afraid of touching Swann. Their punchy slappy exchange was just so...so bad. It looked like the body movements of a competitive Olympic table tennis match. It did not look like two men HAVING A WAR or whatever hack spot they were going for. "This is their version of Frye/Takayama" screamed Mauro. Yes. Their version is the shittiest possible version. Very little of this landed with me. I couldn't wait for it to stop.

PAS: I thought this was fineish. Nothing amazing, but I didn't have the vitriol that Eric had for this match. It was an indy juniors spotfest, and didn't last forever, which is the normal sin for this kind of match. Some stuff looked awful, like their Frye tribute, but the double jump kick was really stigg and I liked the reverse rana by Dorado. Swann's phoenix splash was nasty looking, usually dives with that many rotations land soft, Swann landed hard.

2. Drew Gulak vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

ER: I liked this much much more. I was bummed that Gulak didn't advance but didn't think he had much chance to. I am happy that he didn't get dominated, and was satisfied that the ending was Sabre catching him with an almost flash bridging pin. The opening standing grapple stuff was some of my favorite stuff in the whole tournament so far, the way they would work around each other grabbing at arms and wrists and bending until their leverage point was up, allowing the other to flip the switch. I loved Gulak's aggression, slamming him into ropes, jumping off the bottom rope with stomps, and I loved Sabre working from more of a counter point of view. A lot of people have problems when he just requires people to stand still and take a move, and I agree his stuff works best when he uses someone's momentum against them, like when Gulak went for his awesome flying clothesline and Sabre reversed it into a Fujiwara. And I love when Gulak counters counters, like when Sabre blocked a sunset flip so Gulak shifted his momentum back to catch him. The slap and kick exchange is getting weird and bitter criticism but I liked it. I liked that the timing was off and a third of the strikes didn't land, because the shit that landed landed with a crack, with both guys thrown off and letting limbs fly. I'll take that any day of the week over your elbow-my elbow double jack off fist pump exchanges.

PAS: This was really good, it was very counter wrestling based but all of the counters were very aggressive and it never felt like a do si do. The early mat scrambling was awesome, and I loved the structure of the match with Gulak always moving forward and Sabre looking for openings in his aggression. It is exactly the way the match should be worked, ZSJ looked silly bulldozing his opponent in round one, he is pretty great however as an overmatched guy who can capitalize on mistakes. I also liked the slap exchange, of course Sabre's slaps aren't great, he is supposed to be a guy outmatched in a slugfest, and when he got suckered into one he got cracked, certainly that last Gulak slap was very nasty. Honestly one of my favorite Sabre matches ever, this is a good match structure for him, and it works way better in a 10 minute match then a 25 minute EVOLVE main event where he has to take a long beating and kick out of a bunch.

3. TJ Perkins vs. Johnny Gargano

ER: For two quick counter indy moves matches on one show, I at least enjoyed most of this one, but these two are better at what they do than Dorado and Swann. TJP winning was a legit surprise for me, as rightly or wrongly I had Gargano pegged as a finalist. Gargano came in selling the leg and did a mostly admirable job with it, allowing for a few moments of convenient healing, and there were a couple of moments where either man's crack timing was off a hair, leaving one man standing still waiting to take something; but for fast paced your signature moves counter my signature moves wrestling, this was fun junk food. TJP is super slippery and watching him fire on all cylinders, slipping in and out of ropes, is fun. The pins were locked on tight and looked incredibly tough to kick out of, the lawn dart spot is just freaking crazy (and really would have made sense as a finish), Gargano overshooting the senton into the barricade was nuts, and loved that TJP's already established heel hook was successful.

PAS: The CWC has done a really good job about making me care about guys I haven't given a shit about before. The Gargano v. Ciampa match is the most I have cared about either guy and I got invested in Cedric Alexander in the Ibushi match, and couldn't care less about him before or after. This match tried something similar with Gargano fighting through his knee injury from the future, but most of this match was the kind of disposable juniors stuff EVOLVE keeps running as CWC showcases. TJP had some cool spots, and the lawndart bump was especially nutso, but this was near falls for the sake of near falls. Didn't hate it, but it didn't engage me.

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