Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 22: Ki vs. Necro in JAPW

Low-Ki vs. Necro Butcher JAPW 5/19/07 - EPIC

PAS: I still have one more singles match to track down and watch, but so far this is an unimpeachably all-time great series of matches. It is like the US version of Ikeda vs. Ishikawa if Ishikawa was a homeless drifter. This had some structural issues which kept it from being at the all time great level of the second IWA-MS match, but this was just as stiff and had as many eye popping moments. Ki just brutalizes Necro as one might expect, he laces him with chops so stiff they bloody his chest a bit, and throw these full force kicks right to Necro's mouth. Necro responds with full force punches right to Ki's jaw, he does the Tenryu chop/punch combo stiffer than fucking Tenryu does it, and I have seen Tenryu straight break a guys nose with those punches. Necro also takes two horrifically violent spills through wood doors, including missing a cactus elbow off the apron through a propped up door, and getting John Woo kicked through the door where he looked like the victim of a car bombing. There is a great spot where Necro fights out of hanging double stomp by punching Ki square in the mouth, and then Necro's hits an awesome looking sloppy top rope rana for a near fall. They do some stuff with thumbtacks at the end, which is really redundant, stepping on tacks is nasty, but Necro was taking full force kicks to the ear, a tack in the foot is nothing in comparison.

ER: I thought this was great, as great as any of their other singles matches. It is notable for being the most slender I have ever seen Necro. He's never been a fat guy, but this is definitely the leanest I've seen him. He's almost fully Lead Singer from Spin Doctors here, and he's awesome. Also, we have Monsta Mack on commentary and I had no idea that Mack sounded liked Bobcat Goldthwait mixed with Don Knotts. And that voice happened a LOT throughout this match. But this was a total brutal beatdown from both guys, and nothing will keep you from enjoying that. Ki throws some of his best kicks here, with a ton aimed right at Necro's face and head, with several more right to his chest. There's a kappo kick that is the most deserving thing of a Necro stumble sell. Necro punches to offense and kicks at Ki, flies through a table set up at ringside, hits a nasty folding powerbomb that Ki almost reverses, and punches some more. We got a cooler version of Necro fighting out of the tree of woe, with Ki grinding on Necro's kneecaps from the top rope leading to Necro decking him, and that sloppy rana was dangerous and exciting as hell. I liked how they used the thumbtacks, personally. Necro brings them out then starts stumble stepping into them, tries to powerbomb Ki on them but Ki wriggles out, then Necro hits the punch of the match (punch of his career??) and Ki takes this spectacular falling bump into the ropes, hitting all the ropes on his way down before lying slumped in a pile. He didn't go full Bernard Hopkins, but he didn't need to. The thumbtacks were used as a great distraction for Necro to allow Ki to recover. Necro stumbles through them, and while the kicks to the head earlier, this was a good way to occupy Necro. Ask Phil how he feels when he inevitably steps heel first onto a LEGO when his boy is old enough to play with them. So while Necro is trying to sway tacks out of his feet Ki hits his shotgun dropkick to propel Necro through a table like he was making an airbag test video to post on YouTube. Necro takes that killshot, Ki lands in the tacks back first performing the dropkick, but the shelled table leaves Necro prone for the Warriors Way. Awesome, awesome match, right up there with the best they've done.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 21: Ki vs. Crash

Low-Ki vs. Crash Holly WWF Metal 2/17/01 - FUN

PAS: This was Ki working WWE Metal jobber duty, but he gets to show off some stuff, including his big handspring tornado kick right to Holly's jaw. I don't really remember much about Crash Holly, but he seemed to be working a bunch of fun carny roll-ups. I thought he was all comedy bumps, but instead he was wrestling like Checkmate Tony Charles.

ER: I thought this was some fantastic syndicated pro wrestling. Metal was my JAM during this era. I was doing my college radio show midnight-2 AM on Saturday nights (The Late Night Honey Run), and during my show I would set a tape for Worldwide and Metal. I would play music, get calls from drunk students, pick up some Taco Bell on the way home (2 bean burritos, 2 double decker tacos), then plop on the couch and see what jams were on my syndicated pro wrestling. I loved it. Metal was basically thee place to see snippets of random indy guys that I had read about. Ki was a semi-regular on Metal/Jakked during this era, popping up memorably every month or two and actually getting talked about by commentary during matches. That wasn't a thing they did for every indy jobber. I remember being really excited when Ki worked the West coast and I got to talk with him about his Essa Rios match on Metal, and Ki said "You see that guy in the front row flip out when I threw that kick?" I followed Crash more than Phil did, if only because he came up in local indies and I was extremely excited when he made it to WWE. But even I didn't remember him breaking out trippy nearfall roll-ups. I don't remember anybody working these kind of roll-ups in early 2000s WWE, or even in 2000s indies. World of Sport tape watching didn't seem to hit indy wrestling until maybe 2003. But Crash breaks out a couple cool ones here, trapping Ki's arms behind his head (as if he was standing backwards during a stump puller) and flipping that into a roll up, then later trapping Ki's arms, pulling them through Ki's legs and flipping him into another cool pin. Both of these roll ups are ripe for stealing today, nobody would know the reference point by now. Crash also has a dope reversal on a tornado DDT, turning it into an inverted atomic drop. Most WWE Metal Ki matches were more competitive than your average WWE guy vs. indy guy, and Ki getting to hit his handspring roundhouse kick is a super showcase move for someone to get, and the crowd responded accordingly. Lots of fond personal nostalgia from me for this era, glad it still holds up as good fun.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 20: Ki vs. Scorpio

Low-Ki vs. 2 Cold Scorpio IWA-MS 8/11/06 - GREAT

PAS: Ki comes in with the X division title and Scorp comes in with the GHC Hardcore belt, so you know you aren't getting a clean finish. My only complaint about this match is that was worked like a draw, it never felt like it went for a finish run until the five minute overtime period. Despite that there was a lot to love here. There was some really gritty grappling in this match, lots of hard takedowns, body vices, legscissors, both guys seemed to be using the matwork to sap their opponents wind, not really going for submissions, just grinding to punish. As one might expect this was really stiff too, Ki through some big chops and kicks, but Scorpio was up to the task, with big thick elbow smashes and a front kick which bloodied up Ki's mouth. At one point Ki dimmed Scorpio's running lights with a kappo kick right to the bridge of the nose. The first time limit call felt sort of out of nowhere, although they did build to a big finish in the 5 more minutes. Including Scorpio hitting a gorgeous moonsault and Ki crushing him with a double stomp (complete with Scorpio's bug eyed Pigmeat Markham sell.) It felt like they left a lot on the table for a rematch which never happened, but this was undoubtably a heck of a contest.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 19: Ki vs. Sabu

Low-Ki vs. Sabu ICW 1/25/02 - FUN

PAS: This is a touring indy legend of the 90s versus a touring indy legend of the 2000s and unsurprisingly is kind of a muddled mess. Shocking in a Sabu match, it is Ki with the biggest botches, he blows a tope early and lands on the top of his head, and then blows a second tope later getting caught up in the ropes. Sabu does some Sabu stuff, including a crazy spot where he stands Ki on a chair on the floor and springboards off the rope, Ki moves and Sabu crotches himself on the lip of the chair and the guardrail. They do a terrible, crowd killing double count out (what happens I guess when the unjobbable force meets the unlaydownable object). Still there is enough wacky shit to at least get this to a fun, there is some early Sabu grappling which I always love and a couple of car crash spots which were car crashable. It's a trainwreck, but trainwrecks are cool to watch sometimes

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 18: Ki vs. SAT vs. Red

Low-Ki vs. Amazing Red vs. Jose Maximo vs. Joel Maximo NWA-TNA 8/21/02-FUN

PAS: This was an elimination four way for the X Division title, which made no sense, but was undoubtably a barrel of fun. The Maximos are not rewarded by a deeper dive. There are a couple of pretty bad moments, including Jose getting hit with a dropkick and instead of bumping, pausing and then stumbling through the ropes. There were also some triple teams which didn't come off. I did dig Ki just kicking Joel in the face multiple times, and there was some fun Red versus his cousins spots. The Red vs. Ki stuff was great as always, I loved Ki countering the Code Red by hurling him back first into the turnbuckle. We had a bit of a kung fu standoff and a finish with Ki absolutely murdering him with a top rope Ki Krusher. The crowd was clearly ready for Red to get a win over Ki at some point, they blew it by never paying that off.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 17: Ki vs. Necro KO or Submission

Low-Ki vs. Necro Butcher IWA-MS 12/16/06 - EPIC

PAS: This was flat out incredible. Probably Necro's career match, and he is a guy with a great fucking career. This was the perfect mix of Ki's sadism and Necro's masochism. This was a KO or submission match and both guys were at their apexes. Necro takes an all time shellacking, and has some incredible moments of selling which really gets over the brutality of Ki. He gets kicked in the temple and falls on his back and starts pawing in the air like a kitten with a ball of string. He ends up getting double stomped with his chest on the back lip of the chair, and sells like he is going to puke blood, and he gets a 1970s Wahoo level chop right to the dick and sells like he got chopped right in the dick. Necro has great looking offense in this match too, he throws these Juan Manuel Marquez style hooks to the body with full force, and you can really see him move Ki's organs around with them. He also has some great headbutt's nice powerbombs and various awkward hurls of chairs. Real testament to the greatness of both guys, and it is pretty amazing that Ki can have mat classics like the Danielson matches, bonkers spotfests like the Red matches, and horrifically violent spectacles like this, what a versatile maestro he is.

ER: My god the violence! This match gets a *lot* of time, and the fact these guys kept up the level of beating for the entirety of the match was just an absurd level of violence. You can count over a hundred strikes in this match, but you can't count a single thigh slap. Ki throws so many kicks at Necro's legs, chest, and head, and all of them land great. There were a few moments where Necro would lumber toward Ki and Ki would fire off a 3 pronged attack one step ahead of Necro's reactions;  take out his leg, kick his chest, kick his face, and not many people get kicked in the body and face better than The Necro Butcher. The whole match Necro is taking these shots and responding with relatable moans and OOFs. Ki kicks him right in the stomach and Necro just goes "Ooooooooooooooo" like he was a cartoon fox getting hit in the stomach with a cannonball. Necro filled the match with a ton of great doddering sells, struck stupid faces, and Terry Funk like punch drunkenness. Necro's whole body was a shade of pink or red by the end of this. But while we've gotten kind of used to seeing Ki eat guys for lunch, he doesn't come anywhere close to escaping this unbruised. This is probably the biggest beating I've seen Ki take, and Necro's shots landed with an impossible thud the whole match. Both guys had these King Kong chops, Necro was throwing big knee lifts, shifting Ki's ribs with nasty blows, and always ready with a punch to the jaw when he needed it (loved him using all his strength to lift himself up out of the tree of woe and punch Ki before the Warrior's Way). The big moves looked dangerous and suitably crazy: Necro drops Ki on some chairs with a backbreaker, body slams him while holding a chair to his back, whips him violently into the mat with a Tiger Driver (the snap on that thing made it one of the greatest tiger drivers I've seen), and even went so far as to do an insanely not recommended tiger driver off the top. Someone could have died on that one. We had headbutts and kicks behind the ear and Necro's big awesome barefoot boots to the face; we had Ki throwing Kawada kicks to Necro's trapped head; we had Low Ki double stomping Necro's stomach from the apron to the floor. And the spot of the match sees Low Ki throw a freaking knife edge chop right to Necro's balls. Necro sold it so great that I assume he fully got hit in the balls, and I am shocked that he didn't puke. We've seen Necro puke in matches before, this would have been just as appropriate a place. I was disappointed by the finish, with Ki locking on a sort of sloppy triangle. I can see a submission being the only way to actually finish a guy who can seemingly take blows to the head as well as Homer Simpson, but we had spent 20+ minutes on two guys trying to knock each other out that it felt we had all collectively moved on from submission being a part of it. But it's a light blip on a genuine all time war. After the match Ki gets on the mic and groans "...god that hurt." No kidding, it was like we were watching Daisuke Ikeda vs. Daisuke Ikeda in a Chicago suburb.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 16: Kaval vs. Cottonwood

Kaval vs. Eli Cottonwood WWE 6/22/10 - GREAT

PAS: This was a short TV match against a giant guy who barely had a career, but was actually really nifty and an example of what a long WWE run Ki could have had. Ki takes huge bumps for all of Cottonwoods offense, flying all around the ring on every throw, and hit a couple of super cool moves including a diving double stomp to the back off Cottonwoods neck while Cottonwood was standing, Cottonwood was 7'0 feet legit and it looked awesome. Great way to spend four minutes

ER: AND SO BEGINS OUR ELI COTTONWOOD COMPLETE AND ACCURATE! But I really thought this was awesome. I don't imagine there's anyone on the roster at the time that could have made Cottonwood's offense look any cooler. Cottonwood looked like a gigantic Matt Hardy and doesn't totally know what to do in the ring, but this whole thing had a fun 90s WWF freakshow vibe to it that really worked. Ki flies around for offense in such a unique way that it looked super cool seeing him stick and move (his springboard kick looked like it razor slashed across Cottonwood's cheek) and Ki bumps for his throws by getting hung up in the ropes in cool ways. They built this in a real satisfying way, letting Ki stick and move and letting him land on his feet a lot when getting caught by Cottonwood, and they find nice ways to set up spots. I really loved Ki getting tossed chest first into the buckles, and like him getting violently hoisted onto the top rope, allowing him to grab Cottonwood's arm in his ropes assisted armbar. Cottonwood has long as hell arms so Ki was really able to grab and bend that thing, made for an awesome visual. The Warriors Way to a standing giant looked killer, stomping him right in the back of the neck, also felt huge as it was the first and only time Cottonwood hit the mat. Ki worked a perfect match around Cottonwood, plus we get to see Laycool. That's a major win.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 15: TNA Trios Match

Low-Ki/Elix Skipper/Christopher Daniels vs. Amazing Red/SAT's NWA TNA 12/18/02 - EPIC

PAS: This match has probably more sketchy moments then almost any match I have rated EPIC. There are some really preposterous SAT triple teams, ridiculous even in the context of ridiculous SAT triple teams. There were punch exchanges between Joel Maximo and Elix Skipper and no one wants to see that, plus the whole thing was set up by Daniels, Skipper and Ki forming Sports Entertainment Xtreme (SEX, get it, SEX, like FUCKING) a Vince Russo run stable. Still with all of that hamstring it, they still put together a raucous six man with an absolutely nuclear crowd (TNA never should have left Nashville.) Don West even stands on the announcers table to start a "Let's Go Red" chant. This is star making performance for Red as he is worked over by the SEX crew (fucking Russo) and while we don't get a matrix minute, Red and Ki really have some great chemistry and there a some really great near falls and reversals by Red.  They time the near falls perfectly and I buy Red getting the upset a bunch of times, before he is killed with a second rope Ki Krusher. This should have led to something great, but I am sure it led to Russo worked shoot nonsense (looking it up, Jarrett beats all three of SEX the next week, and  AJ Styles turns and Dusty comes out, next week has Russo cutting a promo on making David Arquette champion and Mr. Wrestling 3 unmasking as Nikita Koloff, SAT's and Red never wrestle SEX again.)


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LKAC Night 14/ New Footage Friday: Ki, Murat, Solar, Heavy Metal, Jumbo, Robinson

Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta AJPW 3/21/82

MD:I promise we'll get back to the weird stuff soon with the 1981-1982 footage. There's another Robley match that Eric's been sitting on, for instance. I just feel like we have a moral responsibility to take our medicine on these matches. If we have something that feels canonical that no one in our extended community's ever seen before, we have to get it out there.

On this one, it helps that Billy Robinson's amazing. Yes, we have a lot of footage of him between 75 and 85, even it it feels like we're missing all of the AWA main events that I wish we had, but watching him be a wizard in the ring is always special. You can't look away from him here. The way he brings a limb around to create a momentary point of leverage to escape a hold is pure magic. He does things that make so much sense, like bringing his hands together to force just enough space to pepper in elbow shot. Just the footwork in widening his base to force Jumbo off balance is stuff that no one else does. He does all this while continuing to succumb to Jumbo's persistence. It means that while he stays in a hold forever, it's never at all boring. When he takes over, he puts the same effort and creativity into his holds. You know this is heading towards a draw but it's still fun how it gets there, with meaningful hold trading down the stretch and Jumbo making everything feel big and important and the crowd coming along for the ride.

Maybe this was us taking our medicine, but I, for one, feel healthier for it.

PAS: I am a real low voter on 70s/early 80s Jumbo. He just doesn't have a ton of spark to me, still he is technically excellent and you put him in with an elite opponent and the match is going to be great. Billy Robinson definitely counts as an elite opponent, and this was a real treat to watch, despite being a 30 minute draw which is always tough. I dug how a huge part of the opening section of the match was contested grappling on their feet. You normally think of grappling as a mat based thing, but here both guys were doing some great Greco pummeling, as well as grabbing holds and counters while keeping their vertical base. Robinson is awesome at using leverage and level changes to bring drama to a match. He was also rocking a great early 80s mustache which made him look like Dan Severn's dad. We get to the big bomb section and both guys have great looking bombs. I love Robinson's delayed neckbreakers and Jumbo has a beautiful butterfly suplex. It really felt like a draw was coming from the first minute, and it could have used a spit shine at the end to make people believe the near falls. Still this was a great excavation a chance to see two all timers with plenty of time to do their thing.

Solar vs. Canelo Casas UWF 1/19/92

ER: Man, 21 year old Heavy Metal looked like 1992 Johnny Depp had sex with 1992 Tawny Kitaen and they birthed a fully formed adult luchador. And this was awesome, very fast paced and very feisty. Solar comes off super powerful and Casas comes off nice and slippery. There were so many fun mat scrambles, so many fun simple spots worked around an arm (at one point Solar picked Casas off the mat by his left arm and chucked him across the ring with what looked like a half judo half lucha toss). This was no Solar exhibition, it was Solar scrambling to lock in subs on Casas who kept slipping out in fun ways and frustrating him. This whole thing is go go go and while there is good Heavy Metal out there this footage really paints him as someone who should have been a lucha legend. We get a lot of great Solar show off moments but I love how Casas never just lied still during submissions, always struggled to get out of them even if it lead to him getting caught in something else right away. Solar takes a big fast bump to the floor and gets hit with a big Casas plancha and staggers all around ringside into tables. The ending is a little abrupt with a couple Solar backbreakers and a belly belly that Casas appears to kick out of, but this felt like a 15 minute sprint which was more breathless than I expected it to be. Nothing but fun here.

PAS: Solar is a stone cold mat legend, where most of the footage we have is when he is in his 50s and 60s. While I love watching Solar and Navarro rip it up in Maestros matches, it is super cool to see him work that style closer to his athletic prime. Casas never reached his potential (don't do heroin kids) but you could see the potential here, while a little jumpy he was right there with Solar hold for hold, using his speed to press the action and shake Solar a bit. I really liked that contrast of styles, with Casas more jackrabbity and Solar more deliberate, it was really cool to see that work itself out in the context of a match on the mat. The standup stuff was a little more pedestrian, I liked Casas's dive fine, but it was pretty basic, and the three count felt tossed off. They basically did an awesome first fall, and kind of jumped to a finish. Would have loved to see this in Mexico where the second and third falls would be their own thing.

MD: I'm glad this turned up. It's just pure, distilled lucha fun, like you often get in Japan in this era. Sort of an abridged "good parts" version of a title match. Now, I'd argue that you lose something without more of the build, but the good parts are still good parts. They stay on the mat for most of it, with some rope-running interspersed. I'd argue that it's probably a good match to show to someone to introduce them to the style or as a bridge to more traditional title matches. There's a chunk of this with Solar letting Heavy Metal put him into stuff, and I do think he shows his youth and that not everything is entirely smooth, but it's all believable and effective. Still, this is somehow the epitome of lucha matwork, where they leave realism at the door for the sake of aesthetics, creating a new, entirely immersive reality where tying up a limb or adding in an extra twist or just one more rotation creates a superior overall effect. It's a journey to a mirage and it's the most beautiful wrestling there can possibly be.

Low-Ki vs. Murat Bosporus 2007?

ER: Bosporus is a Turkish wrestler who showed up on a NOAH tour or two, and worked some names we like (Chris Hero, Trik Davis, I assume others) on American indies in the mid 2000s, and seemingly pops up at random in Japan and Europe. I seem to remember TomK being into him. He's the same height as Low-Ki but probably 80 lb. bigger, just a Turkish spark plug (if there's a brand of Turkish spark plugs and he never did advertising for them while wearing a spark plug cone hat, then I'm not sure this is a world I want to be a part of any longer). He's basically an even stockier Sugiura. The match is pretty clipped up so it's hard to get a feel for ebbs and flows, but it's clipped to 6 minutes of all action, so we can at least see that they did a lot of fun stuff. This is Ki taking a humble loss in Murat's home country, so we get a lot of Murat, big belly to belly suplex and German suplex, some real explosive standing elbows, a nice lariat, and really plants an awesome frog splash. Ki didn't work unprofessionally stiff, but he still hit a double stomp to the chest after blocking a sunset flip, and hit some flat out baseball bat to chest kicks, hard uppercuts, a nice low kick, but goes down pretty easy. Couldn't get too invested in this one, even if a lot of stuff looked good, as - likely due to the clipping - we never really got to create much drama.

PAS: I really dug this as an opportunity to watch Ki as a traveling heel. It isn't a role we see a ton of anymore, but Ki is pretty great as a guy putting over a local legend. I loved his dropkick, smirk, eat and opposing dropkick spot, and his offense works well as a pure heel. That double stomp and those wheel kicks are mean stuff when punishing a hometown hero. I remember liking Murat during his random US Indy and Japan appearances, and he was neat here, great crowd pleasing wind ups on his uppercuts, and his big suplexes really looked great, he had that big hip power you see from legit amateurs, Ki isn't leaping over on that belly to belly he is getting thrown. I would have liked to see this in full, but I imagine this is what exists, and it is a treat.

MD: The clipping is definitely in an issue here, especially early as you can't really get a handle on the initial back and forth. Once we get more defined control, it's a little better. Murat has a sort of abandon to his stuff. When he did take over, I liked the way he was throwing himself into everything with a Jim Duggan-esque enthusiasm. Ki adapted to the audience just as much as he had to, setting up a comeback spot with an extended over-the-top thumbs down for instance. The clipping means we miss the set up to the finish, which is always a little frustrating. Do we have more Murat in Turkey? I could go for a few more matches of him as local babyface against mid-00 indy foreign invaders. 

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 13: Ki vs. Joe

Low-Ki vs. Samoa Joe ROH 10/5/02 - GREAT

PAS: This was Joe's debut in Ring of Honor (rocking the blond dye job), he was coming in as a hired gun for The Prophecy, this was billed as a Fight Without Honor (which I guess meant they didn't shake hands, some of these early ROH gimmicks didn't age well). This was these guys doing their version of a BattlArts punch out, everything got thrown with real menace and it was a great way to debut Joe. I really loved the early stuff working out of the guard, with both guys hurling full force shots, both from the top and from the ground. Ki especially landed this meaty punch right to the ear. Ki is well known for throwing taters and some of his kicks here were uncalled for, but he was taking it as good as he was dishing it out here, Joe landed some real jaw clicking slaps and light dimming forearms. I though they got a little too much into the "stand here and let you hit me" stuff which would infest New Japan later in the decade, but both guys delivered on what we signed up to see.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 12: Low-Ki vs Red 2

Low-Ki vs. Amazing Red ICW 9/14/01 - EPIC

PAS: This was one of the first events in NYC after 9/11 and it was a special moment. This period of indy wrestling is my all time favorite, you had these young Puerto Rican kids inventing their own thing, a mix of lucha, New Japan Juniors and Sonny Cheba movies. ROH kind of took this movement and commodified it, pre-ROH it was young guys trying to steal the show from the Balls Mahoney vs. Crowbar main event, it was way more punk rock and pure.

We open with the famous Matrix minute, with both guys having a martial arts movie fight. Attempts to replicate this by others have almost always failed, Red and Ki make it look like a Kung Fu movie, almost everyone else has it look like a dance routine. After that it is more a standard juniors match, with Ki landing big thudding kicks and Red firing back with hard shots of his own, and some real breathtaking agility. No one takes Ki's offense better then Red, that finish Ki Krusher looks like he compressed his spine into an accordion. I think I might like some of their lesser known works a little better, but that is very hipster of me. This was their classic match, what put them on the map, and is truly an all timer.

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 11: Kaval vs. Chavo

Kaval vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr. WWE 9/21/10 - GREAT

PAS: Really well worked television match with a total pro like Chavo. This is sort of a window into an alternate reality for Ki where he was a Rey Mysterio Jr. style excellent TV worker. Chavo works over the ribs, landing some nice simple knees to the ribs and smashing Kaval chest first into the ring barrier. Kaval sells the rib injury for the whole match, and Chavo returns to the well whenever he gets in trouble. We get some nice near fall fake outs, a couple of cool Ki spots, including a bottom rope feint, and a nifty finish where Kaval goes for a top rope rana, Chavo holds on, and when Ki crashes and burns, Chavo hits the frog splash.  Just solid TV wrestling, and I would have liked to see what these two would do with a larger canvas.

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Low-KI Advent Calendar Night 10: 2006 NOAH Trios

Low-Ki/Mushiking Joker/SUWA vs. Mohammed Yone/Dakota/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi NOAH 3/5/06 - FUN

PAS: Pretty disposable NOAH trios match, with a moment or two, but some really bad stuff. Dakota (who I assume is one of the Harley Race trainees who would get NOAH runs, he was more Bull Schmidt then Trevor Murdoch) and Mushking Joker are both pretty bad here and Kikuchi was really washed. SUWA is always worth watching and he hit his great John Woo dropkick, Ki had a fun finish run too, with a great looking wheel kick and Ki Krusher. Good doesn't outweigh the bad, but there is some good for sure.

ER: Really feels like I watched a different match than Phil. Dakota was not a guy I remembered at all (even though this was a pretty major NOAH show from an era when this was my favorite fed) and he's green but also spends much of the match eating a beating from SUWA and Low-Ki, two guys you wouldn't want to eat a beating from. He also wrestles barefoot and I give extra crazy points for guys who do that. He hits a great plancha early on Marvin, pops the crowd with a crossbody off the top coupled with a YEEHAW, and is fun as the guy clearly eating the pin. The heel team is a real fun combination that teamed a few times, three real favorites of mine with SUWA da GOD, Ki, and Ricky. They're really complementary as workers while being different as workers. Marvin had a couple great bumps here, an awesome bottom rope springboard low dropkick, took a fast bump to the floor early to eat a Dakota plancha, big flip bump on a lariat; SUWA was at his best here, targeting Dakota's bare feet the moment he tags in and stomping all over them, stomping over his ankles too, big fistdrop, nice elbowdrop and a slingshot elbowdrop, really made Dakota duck clotheslines and a backfist while running ropes, just doing every single thing that makes SUWA an all time favorite of mine. Shoot, SUWA even kicked at a cameraman on the floor while walking to the ring. He's exactly what I want a pro wrestler to be. Kikuchi is a step slower here but a fun SUWA foil, hitting his calf kicks and dropping a nice snap suplex/fisherman's suplex combo and stays out of the way for the rest. Yone is a guy who I have watched a ton yet often forget how much I enjoy. My brains always thinks of Ikeda as the former Batt guy in NOAH, but there's Yone the whole time, and man Yone is STILL IN NOAH. He throws a few awesome running big boots to the face and chin (loved Marvin leaning right into that kick) and he drops his big damn heavy legdrop. Ki was doing a fun elbow-based offense that he's mostly dropped, flying into people a few times with standing elbow drops, and the group's concentrated effort on getting Dakota away from the pack for the finish is a great run off chain offense. The big SUWA atomic drop and running dropkick (thought Dakota's dazed sell in the corner after the dropkick was fun) looked great, and Ki hits a big cartwheel kick and sticks him with the Ki Krusher. The thought that this trios has more bad than good really doesn't make sense to me as the only sketchy moment I saw was Dakota leaning away from a Ki springboard kick too early. There might be some miscommunication between Dakota and SUWA but I can't tell what it is as SUWA did something different than planned and it worked fine. I thought Dakota overall added to the match and was a fun Mandela Effect guy (rodeo cowboy junior working NOAH in the mid 2000s is something I clearly saw all of yet I would have called you a liar about before watching this), and everybody else wrestled as well as you would expect those names to wrestle. Who was taking the pin was never in doubt, but we got a long fun heat section on him and some awesome hits from the others.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 9: Matches from HOG High Intensity 7 8/17/18

80. Low-Ki vs. Sami Callihan

PAS: This is one of my favorite matchups in current wrestling. They had an AAW match last year that was an awful ending away from being our MOTY. At their peak against each other, they approach Ikeda vs. Ishikawa levels of insane stiffness. This is only their third singles match, the first being a 2011 JAPW match, then last years AAW and now this one. I don't think this got to the dizzying heights of last years match, it only got really crazy at the end, but it was a lot to love. Callihan really pushes pace, and this was much more of a sprint then some of Ki's MLW matches. Ki took some huge bumps to the floor, including laying out a guardrail and a couple of rows of seats while taking a Callihan basement tope. We got some great chops and elbows from Ki too, and an awesome heavy bag combo of bodyblows to Sami on the outside. The finish run took it to the next level with Callihan hanging Ki by his tie and thrust kicking him in his head. Callihan does his thumbs up/ thumbs down taunt and Ki responds with a huge uppercut that looks like it could have knocked Callihans teeth through his eyelids. Then Ki tries to rip Sami's jaw off, before Callihan lands an enormous uppercut to nuts to lose by DQ, but keep his title. I selfishly wanted to see more violence, so the finish was a bit deflating, but it is hard to complain about an uppercut to the nuts ending a match.

ER: Phil is right about last year's match. That was one of the stiffest matches in wrestling history. I legitimately don't know how those two didn't KO each other at several points of that match. I liked that match a lot more than this one, as that one had a lot more focus on strikes and violence, whereas this one felt more abridged and a little disjointed (much of it taking place around the very dark ringside area didn't help, unless you feel the poor lighting lent a feeling of creeping despair to the match, as if it was the wrestling equivalent to a Pedro Costa film), but these two are exactly who they are and they're always going to hit each other hard and take some not recommended bumps. Callihan flies around a couple times off running Ki dropkicks, both guys crash hard into the guardrails, Ki gets dropped throat first on a rail, Callihan crashes into him hard with his low tope, all mean stuff. Fully with Phil that things really jumped up once Sami tied Ki's necktie to the ropes. I love integrating the ring or somebody's attire into a match, and you'd think you'd see more of Ki getting choked by his holster or strangled by his tie but it really doesn't happen, so this was a nice payoff. Ki slipping out of the necktie and popping Callihan with an uppercut perfectly placed under the chin was the moment of the match, not a strike I see out of Ki and it's no shock that it looks like murder. The finish makes a ton of sense in context and looks great, with Callihan taking that uppercut, reeling, and immediately looking for a way out by dishing out his own uppercut square to the balls. Two of the finer uppercuts I've seen all year, can't complain about that.

16. Red vs. Anthony Gangone

PAS: Hell of a brutal spectacle, this was a no-ropes match and an absolute apocalypse. Red is a 20 year vet and semi-retired, I have no idea why he is taking these kinds of brutal shots and psychotic bumps. Haven't seen Gangone before, and indy cult leader is a pretty played gimmick but I have to respect his willingness to take this kind of drubbing too. They did a bunch of cool stuff with the no-ropes gimmick, both guys took early awkward spills into the exposed turnbuckle posts, including Red hitting a fancy lucha armdrag which sent Gangone forehead first into the exposed bolt, I also liked how Red lured Gangone to the edge of the ring and Spanished flied him through a table.

We have three refs go down very violently. One eats a thrown chair to the head, one gets thrown through a table, and the commissioner gets violently chair shotted by Red after Red refuses to pin Gangone. When this gets to the big bump section, the bumps are enormous. Red dives off a super high ladder to double stomp Gangone who has a chair necktie. That is when Red refuses to pin him, instead bodyslaming Gangone on tacks, and then removing the padding from the mat (which has become a bit of a 2018 cliche, but this is my favorite use of it so far). Red climbs on top of the giant ladder, but Gangone is able hurl a chair at his face and superplex Red off the ladder onto the exposed boards, totally insane bump for both guys, and I have no idea how someone didn't shatter an elbow on the fall. Red at one point gets Gangone to tap after putting a chain around his mouth, with no ref to count it.  Gangone gets Brian XL (who looks like D-Lo Brown now)  to throw in the towel after nearly breaking Red in half by falling with all of his weight on the ramp with Red on his back (basically the move Foley tried with Vader at Halloween Havok when Foley was trying to end his career on purpose) and wrapping a chain around his neck and stomping him in the head. Gangone refuses to lose by surrender, and wakes the last KO'ed ref and forces him to count the pin. I liked how the lack of refs, allowed both guys to sell the beating they were taking, I never though any of the huge moves got shrugged off. My only nitpick might be the weak blade jobs by both guys, both guys bleeding a lot would have even added to the spectacle.

ER: Phil picked up on a lot of the things I loved about this so excuse the repetition, he makes a lot of great points about the logic of working the length they did, with the bigs moves they did and the placement of the out of commission refs, and fairly points out the weak blade job (seems a waste when both guys just looked like they had blood that would be notable if we were grading on popped zits, but not worthy of mention when graded against wrestling blade jobs). This was a New Jersey-bred version of a modern NXT TakeOver main event, it was overblown in different ways and indulgent in similar ways. But the violence was great and it did justice to the overindulgent story. Red is a guy who needs to have a Cruiserweight Classic built around him, a guy who we all enjoyed as an almost novelty 15+ years ago (like he was the new Blitzkrieg or something) and now in 2018 he seems far more comparable to a new Rey Mysterio. His whole game is tight, and as we came for some innovative offense when he was new, now we show up for stiff strikes, big bumps, and there's something about an older guy working death wish spots that creates different emotions than a young punk kid doing death wish spots. Young daredevils feel almost disposable, you expect them to burnout quick and you enjoy them for what they are; old daredevils have a weird built in sympathy combined with an almost can't look away freakshow factor. This match was violent enough that I had one of those "Why are you still doing this!?" reactions, but what they did undoubtedly added to the match.

We got a bunch of insane spots, but I much preferred the early focus on simpler and greater bumps, like both guys showing off how violently they can get whipped into a guardrail, or both of the ringpost spots. Those two ringpost spots were some of the coolest and nastiest spots of the year, with Gangone bouncing off ribs first and Red flying face first into it, wrapping around the post to the floor. Red's eyeball could have easily hit one of those eyelets, and eye stuff is an instant nope for me. The big moments are cool, Spanish Fly off the apron through a table, Gangone flying backward through a guardrail, a freaking ref flying backward through a table, Red hitting a frog splash off a ring post onto a still standing Gangone, and the piece de resistance is a superplex off the top of a very tall ladder onto exposed ring boards. Superplexes are a crazy spot anyway, definitely something that's finisher worthy to me. Then you add a ladder, then you take away the padding, then you do it toward the edge of the ring instead of the center...and man you wonder how that affects a man's back longterm. One of the boards is left popped up and I wonder if anyone fell on the edge of that board. Good god boys. I thought they did good justice to the big spots, positioned the big ref bumps and interference moments well to allow them reasons for both surviving through the big spots, and by the time Gangone is stomping cruelly on Red's face this more than felt deserving of the epic they were striving for.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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LKAC NIght 7/New Footage Friday: Low-Ki, Red, Colon, Flair, Dory, Abby, Race, Tenryu

Harley Race vs. Genichiro Tenryu AJPW 7/16/82 

ER: About the match you'd expect, that was robbed of a finish by a sudden run in caning from Umanosuke Ueda, but also given a lot more life and energy because of Ueda's appearance. The match is pretty typical of these two from this era, with Race dominating Tenryu but them finding nice ways of working Tenryu into it. Race has a nice jumping knee, big kneedrop, elbowdrop, works some headbutts in the corner, and throws a couple of really awesome knees to the stomach. I don't know that I've seen a standing knee to the stomach look more vicious in pro wrestling, but Race just grabs Tenryu by the left arm and buries his knee into Tenryu's stomach, leaving Tenryu with nothing to do but take that damn knee. Tenryu peppers in nice comebacks, hits the enziguiri (and I liked how Race treated it more like he got his bell rung than as a KO type move) and some cool gutwrench suplexes, but while all the action looks good it never really feels like it ramps up in intensity. When Ueda runs out of nowhere and starts beating Tenryu with a cane, however, things pick up, and get even better when Race intervenes and both of them start beating on Ueda. This was fun (although if this was later on surly jerk Tenryu vs. this era Race it would have been epic) but nothing essential.

MD: This was a fun ten minutes of action with a rousing post-match of Race and Tenryu working together and standing tall that stands out, first and foremost, for Harley taking 90% of it. If you just know the guy's rep, there's nothing surprising about that. If you actually watch his matches, it almost never happens. We've seen tags even in the last few months (the Kox one in particular) where Race was working like a heel manager and not one of the toughest guys ever. He had a tendency to give and give and bump and feed and stooge and I get why he might do that as a traveling heel champion, but he did it all over. Here, though, he absolutely crushed Tenryu, cutting him off again and again. Those knees to the gut jumped through time and caused me some physical pain over thirty-five years later. It never quite came together as a match but as an exhibition of just how brutal Harley could be when he actually turned it up, it felt very worthwhile. I can think of a dozen Race matches where I wish we had gotten this version instead of.

PAS: No idea why these guys are wearing identical purple trunks, really distracting, they have other trunks, I don't know why someone didn't put a bug in their ear. I really enjoyed this as an opportunity to see meat grinder Race. He kicked the shit out Tenryu, crushing him with knees and suplexes, and hitting the best headlock punches to the face I have ever seen. Tenryu had his moments, but this wasn't peak Tenryu and he worked this more like a young guy taking his shot at a legend, then as a legend himself. I really liked his enziguiri, and the Ueda run in was fun, this was mostly a Harley showcase though and a nifty one.

Carlos Colon/Abdullah The Butcher vs. Ric Flair/Dory Funk Jr. WWC 1985

ER: Cool find and an awesome big babyface performance from Colon (though it's always weird to me seeing the babyface biting at people's heads) with a big bumping heel team performance from Dory and Flair. What is probably most fascinating about all of this is seeing Flair and Dory as a team. What other situation would we have ever seen these two team up? It's not two guys I ever thought about teaming up, so it's a pretty awesome snapshot at Dory working Terry-free and adopting some of his new partner's mannerisms. There are two moments where Dory bumps almost Flair-like that don't feel like any bump I've seen him take before, him snapping back off a Colon punch and then going with a slow upside down vertical bump off a big headbutt felt VERY Flair to me. And it should be noted that bearded Dory was the coolest Dory could look. It made him look like a cool character actor, like David Morse, instead of his usual look which was more like David Morse playing a substitute teacher. Dory bumped big here but teaming with Flair and working slight heel gave him a little edge, made him come off meaner, gave his knees to the gut and his uppercuts some extra snap. Colon has some of the all time greatest punch comebacks, it's invigorating to see him firing off big right hands while fueling a rabid Puerto Rican crowd (who were much closer to the ring than I'm used to seeing), and I really loved how they handled a partner miscommunication with Colon accidentally hitting a leaping knee on Abby when Flair moved. Abby gets hit, bounces back into the ropes, then immediately punches Colon hard. It was an interesting take on accidentally getting hit, there was no mulling it over, no overdone/stupid late match turn after not acting the whole match, or refusing to tag in, it's just reactionary. When I was maybe 8 or 9 my dad was coming home from work, and I hid around the corner of the divider between our dining room and living room, waiting to jump out and surprise him. Well, I jumped out, and he was definitely surprised because he instinctively struck, belted me before he had any idea what he was reacting to. Abby punching Colon felt more like that, a guy surprised he got hit just instinctively hitting back. Abby eventually does leave when things get hot, and Sweet Brown Sugar (the Texas guy, not Koko B. Ware) comes out to replace him but it's all over for Colon from there. Puerto Rico really is the territory I need to watch more, the energy and atmosphere alone always makes things great, and this was just what you would want out of 10 minutes with 4 legends.

PAS: The match is joined in progress with Abdullah already bleeding, but honestly with Abby that might just mean we missed 45 seconds. There is an alternate world where Flair and Dory are a great touring heel team, as opposed to a one time (maybe more, but I can't imagine when they would have matched up before) dream team. They do a nice job working over both faces and bump great for the big Colon comeback. I have no problem with Abby immediately firing back on Colon when, Carlos hits him, but he did come off kind of churlish leaving the ring, since when is Abdullah the Butcher running away from a fight? He should have just forked everyone in the ring. Abby leaving turned the match into more of a set up then a complete match, but the individual work in this was pretty cool, and it is a nifty discovery.

MD: Our Man in Puerto Rico, PWO's Boricua, let us know that this was either the initial airing or an early repeat, as opposed to what's been easily available for a few years. This set up Colon vs Abby at Aniversario 85 and I love how Memphis Puerto Rico always feels with this stuff.

We miss most of the heat on Abby and while it was probably just him laying about as Dory and Flair worked on the leg or some such, it still seems a shame. They're a very fun heel unit here. I'm pretty certain at this point, I'm always more glad when a new Flair tag pops up than a new singles match.

Colon clearing house as a hot tag for Abby is a great image and for a second, you think all of this might actually work. Then they end up accidentally hitting one another though and reality sets in; no, this would never ever work. Abby figures it out and decides to leave. The crowd remains disappointed and pelts him with garbage. Sweet Brown Sugar does run in (maybe a bit too early for what they were trying to accomplish) to take Abby's place, but Colon, despite fighting valiantly, can't make it to the corner.

Good stuff and very effective use of Dory and Flair to set up a match that neither of them would be in.

Amazing Red/Ice XVII vs. Low-Ki/Stevie Lynn 3CW 11/11/05

PAS: I thought this was shockingly great, Lynn and Ice XVII were a pair of feuding opponents in Britain who I had never heard of. They brought in Red and Low-Ki the way Lawler and Dundee might work paired with random Tennessee money marks in the 90s. I actually thought Ice and Lynn brought a fair amount of juice to the match, they clearly had stuff worked out with each other, but served as nice dance partners for Ki and Red as well. We get a couple of Red vs. Ki sections, which were unsurprisingly nice, we get a matrix which is always incredible,  but much of the match was focused on the Brits. Ki is a great hot tag and he just brutalizes Ice XVII when he tags in, there was some especially nice selling on Ki's kappo kick where he went limp (although with Ki it is always possible that he got legit dimmed). We had a pretty hot finish and I really was into the finishing combo which Lynn used, a lightning fast fisherman's buster for two and a brainbuster for the duke. No idea what happened to Lynn and Ice XVII, but on first glance I would rather watch them then a lot of your current British indy guys.

MD: What stood out the most here was how grounded all of this was. I haven't seen a lot of 2005 UK tags in a while or anything, but the thing doesn't break down until 20 minutes in and when it does, it leads to the finish. Most lauded 2018 WWE tag matches break down in the second minute and just stay tornado tags with fifteen minute finishing stretches. I guess I was expecting less discipline here.

While I get it was mainly them doing their usual shtick, I liked the anticipation early for Red and Low Ki locking up (they ran through other pairings first). If, in a normal match, you'd get holds with spots worked in and out, the Low Ki vs Red pairing served here as the spots. Everything popped when they faced off against one another. Ice felt like you'd expect an indy guy of the era to feel. He had a bunch of stuff and hit it well enough. Here, it served the match fine. Lynn brought a little bit of size but I'm blanking on him past that, and I only saw this thing a few minutes ago. Obviously that means he didn't stand out negatively either though.

Past the measured escalation, what I liked the best was Low Ki working the apron. I know it's a crazy notion, but as it comes to the belief in his own character, I liken him a bit to the Ultimate Warrior in my head. My favorite thing about Warrior is how into what's going on he gets when he's on the apron. Here, Low Ki was selling the action and you could viscerally feel how badly he wanted the tag. That's the sign of someone who's fully given himself to the moment.

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 6: 2005 NOAH Trios

Low-Ki/Bison Smith/Mike Awesome vs. 2 Cold Scorpio/Doug Williams/Ace Steel NOAH 3/20/05 - GREAT

PAS: What a goofy on paper bunch of guys to work each other and it was pretty fun to watch the match ups. You wouldn't think Ace Steel and Mike Awesome would have ever wrestled each other, and that is a fun matchup, I would have dug seeing a singles match. Ki and Scorpio have a couple of fun exchanges, and I clearly need to dig up their IWA-MS singles match up. I loved Scorpio trying to big time Ki at the beginning only to get lit up with chops and kicked in the face. We get a neat dive train and a fun finish run, all around good time although it never hit the top level which NOAH matches can get to.

ER: I love this era of NOAH, and love NOAH six mans, and I loved when NOAH or AJPW would seemingly throw nearly every single gaijin on the tour into their own match. Ricky Marvin was the only non-native on this tour who was not in this match, and it makes me wonder if any fans that night in Korakuen were entertained by this in the same way that a few hundred people were entertained watching Kaientai DX in some tiny town in Massachusetts. Ace Steel is a guy I always forget did several NOAH tours, and I liked him a lot here as "guy clearly taking fall" as he worked like a guy over his head with nothing to lose, so he was aggressive about attacking Mike Awesome and Bison but great at stooging when they would catch up to his initial surprise attacks. He hit a big missile dropkick off the top and got a few moments to shine. I'll always have a soft spot for Bison. I saw a bunch of his very first matches when he came up in APW, and was a big fan of his APW turn as Super Destroyer 2000, my friends and I all loudly whooping when he'd break out his heart punch finisher. So it was great to see him get such an extended run in NOAH, really one of the longer gaijin runs in history (which is nuts when you think about it). Here he was super generous bumping around for Ace Steel and gamely going along with and getting into position for all of Doug Williams "exact same order every time" World of Sport stuff, actually selling being off balance when Williams crawls backwards through his legs and schoolboys him. The dive train was nuts as there's just not much room between ring and guardrail at Korakuen, but Awesome hits his no hands dive, the camera misses Steel almost blindsiding Awesome with some kind of wild dive (no clue what he did but it sends him into front row laps), Ki does a big phoenix press that 4 people manage to miss, and Bison does a huge crossbody off the top to the floor (and watch Ki run the hell out of the way so he doesn't have to catch the big man). It was really cool seeing Scorpio and Ki go against each other as I had only seen them teaming in NOAH (looked it up, and this match is literally the only time they were on opposite sides in NOAH, and that's incredible to me! What a missed opportunity.). Scorpio amusingly asks for one of the big guys to tag in but Ki is totally cool hanging. NOAH six mans from this era are some of my absolute favorite junk food.


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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 5: Ki vs. Brain Damage

Low-Ki vs. Brain Damage IWA-DS 9/1/07 - GREAT

PAS: Brain Damage is a death match guy and this was attempt to recreate the Low-Ki vs. Necro Butcher magic (fellow 2000s Indy legend Daniel Bryan has been locked in a long losing feud with Brain Damage). It wasn't that, but a giant thin headed death match guy is a guy who Low-Ki will kick very hard and kick him hard he does. At one point it looked like he legit dimmed him, as Brain Damage slumped weirdly against the ropes after taking a jump kick to the mouth. Brain Damage is a big guy and chucked Ki around a bit including a big powerbomb. I really liked Ki awkwardly stomping Damage sort of through a table which didn't really break. Parts were a little awkward, but it had plenty of tart chops and kicks and is definitely a spectacle.

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 4: Fat Frank's Suicidal Games

54. Team Doghouse (Low-Ki/Homicide/Da Hit Squad vs. Team Pazuzu (Chris Dickinson/Jaka/Team EYFBO) JAPW 4/30/16

PAS: This was a War Games style match without a cage and a fans bring the weapons stip (more ECW style weapons like stop signs and ironing boards, then the kind of CZW style barbed wire and glass basement hooker torture devices.) It had the kind of chaotic fun that the best ECW fights had, lots of fun charismatic, talented guys, grabbing everything they can to try to brain each other. Really impressed with Mike Draztik from EYFBO here, he bled the most, took some nutso bumps and hit a crazy tope. Dickinson and Ki had a match in 2015 which I loved, and they had some awesome interactions here, I really wish this was a touring indy matchup. There was some really fun bumps by everyone, Dickinson was delivering cool old school piledrivers, Mack gets blockbustered through an ironing board.

Finish was a little goofy, Mack does a very 80s wrestling "you accidentally hit me, so I am going to turn on you" thing where he pushes Ki off the top rope (Mack turned on Ki on the 2015 show, although they didn't acknowledge it, which is kind of like Terry Taylor joining the York Foundation on every WCW Syndie, he turned on Dustin like three times.) Then instead of that causing Ki to be pinned, Ki ducks the clothesline from Compton and they have a stare off, Joker comes from the back and hits a nasty running knee on Mack, and Mack does a great open eye KO sell, the ref calls the match and awards it to Pazuzu. The knee was awesome, but the whole thing was super confusing, Mack felt like the heel initially, but then came off sympathetic because he was sucker punched and KO'ed, Pazuzu also felt Shelton holed, disappearing completely to set up the big important angle, after how much they killed themselves, they deserved more.

ER: This is 8 guys I really like in an unhinged brawl, so the odds are high I was going to like this one.  This is worked like a WarGames without the cage, with Dickinson and Homicide starting, and one new entrant every couple minutes. Dickinson was awesome throughout the whole match, you want someone working with intensity if they gotta be in there for 30 minutes and Dickinson always brings intensity. Jaka is in next and I love Doom Patrol stuff, the dudes mesh really well together and they were my favorites in this. They were both the glue here and always bring out clever offense in brawls (Jaka had some awesome throws, big capture belly to belly, headbutts, kicks with his heels, Dickinson dropped a huge piledriver, huge running kick at ringside to a seated Homicide, threw sharp chops and was super active the entire match) but they also know how to work through everyone and eat offense to let other team shine, Dickinson especially just eating all of Ki's strikes when Ki came out as the final man. I was also super impressed with EYFBO, especially Draztik. Draztik was a real ham (in good ways), bled way more than anyone, and both EYFBO guys basically got beat around by Hit Squad the whole time, and all built to them hitting a pair of dives down the stretch. The dives were nuts as security was trying to hold the guardrails with their backs to the action, and the dives were coming right at them, would have been real easy for security to get rolled up on. We get fun moments like Mack giving Jaka a cannonball while holding Ortiz on his back, later Mack takes a bump through an ironing board. In fact the true MVP of this match was the camera crew and whomever edited this match together. We jumped around perfectly to all the action happening at ringside and in the ring, never felt like we missed anything, never felt like the cuts were jumping from one to the next too quick, just excellently timed bursts of violence. It helped the chaotic feel of the whole brawl, really seemed to find the best action currently happening. Now the finish sucked a lot of wind out of this, took way too long to set up, and required everybody in the match not directly involved in the finish to just disappear. And it wasn't worth it. Mack turns on Ki for an errant dropkick moments earlier, then stands in the ring forever to set up his big clothesline, which eventually misses. The Joker stuff looked fine but felt so dumb coming as the end of a 30 minute match. Suddenly 75% of the guys in the match are selling damage and not working for the first time all match, and it just ground everything to a halt. The KO knee from Joker looked good, Mack sold it great, but it came off like a super flat and confusing way to end what had been such a wild fun match.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 3: Ki vs. Callihan 1

Low-Ki vs. Sami Callihan JAPW 3/26/11 - GREAT

PAS:  This opens with a pretty great angle with Sami getting into Ki's face at the merch table, including menacing some kids and flipping the table and them having to be pulled apart (Sami yells "Your a Hero? I'm an Anti-Hero" he was always a total cornball). This is a classic Ki asskicking match with moments that verge on unprofessional, in the early moments of the match Ki flies through the ropes with a dropkick and total jams Sami's neck and sends him into the guardrail. In the most famous moment of this match Callihan slaps Ki in the face and Ki responds with a receipt which looks like it knocked Callihan unconscious, couldn't tell if it was legit or great selling and I don't really care. Match went on for a long time after that, and it really felt like that should have been closer to the apex, we also had kind of a weird finish with a Dickinson run in and a roll up for a two count and then Ki just making Sami tap with a face lock (he might have broken his jaw with a kick right before that which would make it a rad finish, but it was hard to tell.) I love this match up so much, Callihan is a nut, and willing to take a uncalled for beating, and willing to strike back just as hard, its what made the Finlay matches so great, and what makes him such a great Ki foil.

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 2: Matches from ICW 3/4/11

Doing some internet surfing I discovered that there was a 2011 Red vs. Low-Ki match I had no idea happened, considering that is one of my favorite rivalries ever, I signed up for Titlematch Wrestling Networks service to check it out. The show also had a Kingston vs. Moxley match which fits our C+A Kingston so I made a double post

Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley - FUN

PAS: It feels like a real blood feud between these two would have been awesome. A chance to do competing promos, really stretch out and get violent would have been great. This was more of a house show undercard contest.  Moxley is a fun Piper style seller, and he had some fun flopping and gesticulating when he was hit with Kingston's big shots. There was a neat arm sell by Kingston when he got hit with a tope, but this was mostly just exchanging shots until a tights roll up finish. Entertaining but pretty unessential, you should mute the commentary for sure, as one of the guys does a racist gibberish Japanese announcer gimmick which is unbearable

Low-Ki vs. Red - GREAT

PAS: This is their first singles match in eight years, and worked very differently then their turn of the century series. Ki was coming off of his WWE stint and Red had finished rehabbing his knee injury. This went 30 minutes, and was worked at a slower pace, with the focus more on stiffness then on mind bending athleticism. They open up doing some shtick with the crowd including Red shit talking a dipshit fat NYC fan who tried to start a boring chant during the feel out process (Low-Ki takes a second out of the ringside brawling section later in the match to dump a beer on his lap).  Ki really unloads with his kicks and chops as usual, but Red brings it just as hard, including a nasty running forearm to the face which landed with a base deep thump. We do get a Wushu section, which was pretty cool, although a bit slower then in 2001, I love how Ki mixes it up by landing a stiff straight kick to the chest instead of a pose to the crowd. They built to a pretty dramatic finish, although Red didn't really have the kind of big offense needed for this kind of 2.9 finish run (a red star press is a cool flash pin, but doesn't really feel like a milk the drama near fall). Ki wins with a head and arm choke which also seemed a bit of an incongruous finish for the match they were telling. Still those are minor quibbles for what was a really nifty match, it isn't the Red vs. Ki you were expecting, but a cool experience anyway.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI
COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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