WWE Summerslam 8/23/20 Taking My Sweet Time Blog

I am not expecting a whole lot from this show, and those shows can sneak up and surprise me. It feels like I've been saying that about every show the last year +, and that's probably because I have not been excited by many on paper lineups they've been throwing out there. But good matches are always a possibility. Sadly, this card doesn't feature Pat McAfee, so good matches on this show aren't as likely. Also, sad to see Renee Young leaving, but obviously she is talented enough to just not be in wrestling. Her commentary with Regal during 2014 NXT is some of my favorite WWE commentary of the decade, and she was never properly utilized after that on any important program. Honestly, she stuck it out longer in WWE than made sense, and I'm sure she's going to crush wherever she winds up.


Apollo Crews vs. MVP

ER: Pre show matches deliver more often than not, and this one added to the "delivered" bucket. MVP working as an opportunist is a fun undercard thing to see, loved him shooting for a kneebar to start the match, then just blindsiding Crews while the ref separated them. His superplex was sloppy, but in a way that kind of added to it and made it feel impactful. MVP also throws his strikes with more immediacy, which is one of Crews' shortcomings. In fact the weakest part of this match was Crews seemingly holding way back on a lot of his offense. He was treating MVP like he was mid 90s Giant Baba, barely touching him with his forearm strikes, and hitting these weird weak avalanches. That was mainly a problem earlier in the match, as once he hit his nice flip dive he felt a little more normal in the ring. The match finishing dead lift blue thunder bomb ruled, and Crews needs to do more cool stuff life that.

Asuka vs. Bayley

ER: I really liked this, but felt like it lost a lot of steam in the final minute or two. They kept up a hot pace, with Asuka coming off nicely chaotic and Bayley scrambling on her heels. Asuka hits the flying hip attack to knock Bayley to the floor, and Bayley manages to take Asuka's flatliner type move off the ring steps and distracted from the fact that Asuka was splatting with a hard back bump. Bayley's scream and sell of that move was so effective in making that spot work. I liked Asuka going after Bayley's arm (even though it really didn't lead to much), and liked a couple of the spots where Bayley went after Asuka's leg. Even though Bayley's actual heel hook looked really awful, the moment where she turned an Asuka missile dropkick into the heel hook was awesome. After that there were a couple hinky moments, like Asuka waiting bent at the waist waaaay too long to take a sunset flip bomb in the corner. The finish was good and a nice call back to the beginning, and I thought the execution was great: Asuka hits the hip attack to knock Sasha off the apron, and Bayley grabs her with a small package off the ropes. Looked great. I don't have a strong opinion either way on whether Asuka should have won or lost, as I'm a fan of both acts, dig what Sasha/Bayley have been doing and have no problem with them dominating the belts.

Andrade/Angel Garza vs. Street Profits

ER: I think this might have been helped by a live audience. That sounds like an obvious statement, but I think these kinds of matches are really hurt by no crowd. The kind of match that plays like a cold tag or a fun Smackdown match depending on the crowd sounds, like a AAAA center fielder. It's mostly the Andrade show, with Garza practically playing this like a handicap match past a certain point. They worked over Ford and I love how they cut him off by catching the top con hilo and powerbombing him on the floor. That spot could have looked overly planned, but it came off smooth and then mean. They set up the Dawkins hot tag well, and I like his big man leaping back elbow. That move was used by a lot of mid 80s WWF guys, one that I associate with that era, and even though I'm sure he's not consciously doing it because of that, I still like seeing it. Andrade's fake out pump kick into the back elbow always looks great, and I love how hard Dawkins bit on dodging that kick and eating that elbow. Somebody's wrist tape even flies out when the elbow lands, and gear getting knocked off someone after a big impact move is never not awesome. The Street Profits as an act don't do a lot for me overall, and Vega's team actually needs to win occasionally but instead they always seem to go down clean as a sheet. Ah well.

Sonya Deville vs. Mandy Rose

ER: I wish this was worked under different circumstances, as it really shouldn't have taken this long to give these two some kind of PPV showcase singles match. The incident that happened to Deville is genuinely terrifying and it was pretty incredible she went out there and made the best of it. Oh god she wasn't forced to go out there and do this was she? Anyway, I wish this match was better, because they went out there and tried to do the right match. The stip got changed and the feud got cut short and it sucks that things turned out this way. They went out and had the No DQ fight they should have had, it just didn't look great. Rose is someone who has killed it in every house show match I've seen her in, and for whatever reason it does not come off on TV. Whatever crowd connection that I've witnessed firsthand several times is mostly gone on TV. She comes off flat and kind of dead eyed, and I think people think I'm lying about her house show work. It's No DQ, they try to throw a lot of strikes, and a lot of the strikes don't look good. Mandy does this weird thing where she just doesn't sell a lot of Sonya's elbows, just kind of holds still while Deville is throwing blows. They wanted to have a tough fight, and their heart was in the right place.

Even though a lot of it didn't look great, the bar has been lowered a lot this year and even just a match that at minimum aims to work within the story instead of having a "great match" is going to win me over. I liked Mandy trying to slide chairs off a table into Sonya's face, feels like a reckless spot where a camera guy can take a shot in the balls or something. Sonya is also someone who hasn't translated as well as it feels like she should. It didn't help when WWE brought in a bunch of actual MMA women right after she got on TV, but she's also dropped a lot of the MMA stuff that she actually did quite well. I'm sure she could have been told "hey don't work like all of these actual MMA women we brought in", but I also like the fact that she's someone who throws sidekicks without kickpads. Mandy threw some hard knees to make up for her weird strike selling, and there were a couple of nasty spills on hard surfaces. Again, it was the match they should have had and that counts for a lot, and I'm glad it happened. And it's honestly hard to care as much about a match like this when it's so closely related to an actual Manhunter fucking Tooth Fairy incident (incel-dent?), but there were small amounts of carny "on with the show" joy here.

Seth Rollins vs. Dominic Mysterio

ER: No matter how this match goes, Dominic took one of the best on screen beatdowns of the past 5 years, and that can't be taken away from him. The cane beating would have gotten over with a mid 90s ECW Arena crowd, and that's more cool carny wrestling bullshit to find sicko joy in. We are truly blessed getting a Pat McAfee match one night and Dominik Mysterio's debut a night later. Wrestling debuts (yeah yeah I know Pat worked a match a decade ago, it's fair to call this a debut) are always exciting for me. I love seeing how much someone "gets" and what nuanced (if any) part of wrestling they understand from match one. Now, even with that beatdown angle, I haven't been able to get into this feud at all. Rollins is so dull to me, and Dominik really isn't a great actor, in ring or out. I was more excited for the McAfee debut, and that was in a match with ADAM COLE! McAfee/Cole felt like a perfect amount of time to deliver the story they needed to. Yes, it should have ended after McAfee's punt to the chest, and we didn't need Adam Cole's home stretch acting chops, but it was laid out fantastically. This match went too long, and the smoke and mirrors weren't anywhere near as satisfying. Rey and his wife did what they could, and I dug their Louis Vuitton gear. And Dominik did really well for a first match! He hit some fairly complicated stuff, missed a real nasty splash into Rollins' knees, and looked like he belonged. If you saw him at your local indy and this was his first match in, you'd be leaving the gymnasium and at least bring him up positively on the ride home. There was a good match in here, even if this wasn't it. I'm more interested in what Dominik does next.

Sasha Banks vs. Asuka

ER: This was the match I was most excited for. Sasha is probably the wrestler who I like the most, without ever thinking to answer "Sasha Banks" when thinking about wrestler I like the most. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I *always* get excited for big Sasha singles matches. I think she has easily been the women's MVP over the past 5 years, and I think she's easily the most consistent and delivers more often in big matches than the rest of the 4 horsewomen, and she has by far the most natural charisma of the 4. This was the match I was most excited for, and it delivered. These two both took some shots, it felt like it peaked perfectly and ended right where it should have, and the way they laid into each other made it feel important. Sasha went after Asuka's leg and it backfired, as Asuka just started throwing kicks, and I love Sasha when she realize a plan isn't working. The match is tough right from go, loved Asuka yanking Sasha off the apron into a kneebar, felt like a cool dickhead babyface thing to do. Asuka hits ringpost on a kick and winds up eating a nasty powerbomb off the apron to the floor, big THUD sound. Both flew gleefully into moves that targeted their heads, Asuka taking that powerbomb and then immediately eating a head kick, Asuka later landing a DDT off the middle rope that Sasha takes on her face. Sasha is great at taking Asuka's offense, they're an awesome super complementary pairing. Sasha takes the missile dropkick better than any other heel, her bumps less athletic but more ragdoll and interesting. I love their dueling arm and leg work, the battle over the Asuka Lock and Banks Statement is a strong finishing stretch. The double callback hip attack finish was handled well, and the tap for the Asuka Lock felt nicely triumphant. Sasha Banks really deserves a lot of praise for the character work and personality she's brought to the empty arena era. And this was her strongest match of the year.

Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre

ER: Very low expectations for this one, which may be to the benefit of the match. Orton starts with a lot of smug stalling, which is the closest we get to Jacques Rougeau style buffoonish smug stalling. It's not anywhere near as good, but I like the tradition. This is a slow paced match, but it felt more natural in its pace than the other purposely slow "dramatic" matches from this weekend. This felt hard fought in its slow pace, and that makes this kind of thing work. Orton is someone I have to be in the right mindset for these days, but he can still work within that window of interest. I liked him spamming RKO attempts early after weaseling out of contact, then ramping things up to meaner stuff like two back suplexes on the unbreaking announce table. McIntyre's spinebuster to comeback looked good and the overhead belly to belly landed heavy. I liked it a bit less once we went into the longish feeling second half, where it felt like it was based entirely on attempts at Signature Offense. The stuff where Orton was just stomping on him and dropping him from a high place where stronger. Still, for a modern WWE title match epic, this felt above average. I wish we could have just had Drew pin Orton with the Claymore kick. Randy Orton is fucking 40, guys. Let a dude in his mid 30s win with his finisher. Let a 6'5 265 lb. guy win a match differently than a Terry Taylor finish.

Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt

ER: It's sad when a match between two heavy dudes doesn't inspire me. They keep it short and to the point, and for that I am thankful. But this should be more exciting. The chokeslam into the announce table looked hard and the spear through the barricade was a nice crash. But this felt kind of stale on arrival. This should feel bigger and be cooler, and it shouldn't be that hard. It wasn't terrible by any means. The Braun powerslams where impressive and Wyatt's tool box attack had a stupid 1999 quality to them. Both a pretty uninteresting to me at this point (think of the sadness in that. Braun is 375 and he's not an automatic What Worked for me), so who won or lost didn't interest me. Therefore, the uranage and double Sister Abigail on the exposed ring boards was a cool enough finish to make me come around a bit on it.

BUT of course this match was just a mere slow set up for the real main event, which was Roman Reigns returning after 6 months to kick the shit out of both of them. Reigns looked like an absolute superstar destroying both men, and it's cool as hell seeing him in pure destruction mode. His spears on Wyatt were among the best of his career, and the visual of him wrecking Braun with chairshots was strong. This was the best way to bring Roman back, having him Walking Tall as we fade out. Roman really saved this segment and made it immediately feel more electric. Roman had Braun's best matches and some of Bray's best as well, and it immediately felt like that.

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

MLW Road to the World Championship

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

Destino Negro vs. MEGA Danger

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

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

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

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

Low Ki vs. Kotto Brazil

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

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

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

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

Tom Lawlor vs. MVP

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

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

Jeff Cobb vs. Matt Riddle

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

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

Darby Allin vs. Sami Callihan

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

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


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

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APW 6/12/15 War at the Shore Road Report

APW has been running quarterly shows at a community center up the hill from the Cow Palace, and they've been getting some good, lively crowds with tons of kids. We've been to a few of them (maybe all of them?) and figured hey, why break the streak?

1. Truex vs. John Redito

This was a "dark match" so it was kept to about 3 minutes. Truex is a real great slime, skinny with long greasy hair and a real punchable face. The kind of guy who should not ever work face. Redito is a short chubby Filipino guy who did not look very good. Truex had a couple nice suplexes, but this wasn't much.

2. Reno Scum & Nicole Savoy vs. Joey Ryan, Candice LeRae & Ryan McQueen

This match was a blast and probably the best of the night. Scum were supposed to team with Christina Von Eerie but for reasons not given she was replaced by Savoy, which only helped the match. CVE is not good, and Savoy looks better every time I see her. Ryan and LeRae have their schtick down (dig their matching gear and Joey's white members only jacket), and it works. McQueen was pretty bland. Savoy gets to be the star of the match which I was not expecting, but she totally worked up to it and looked awesome. She has long legs and throws big high kicks, decking LeRae at one point (who did a nice falling tree bump) and throwing nice strikes all around. This all builds to a triple dive into the entranceway, with  Savoy's being particularly wild as she flips completely over (think those wild old Shocker dives). We get an absurd tower spot with McQueen taking the worst of it and doing some great Terry Funk fish flops, and we get tons of suplexes all around. LeRae throws her ball grab suplex to Lester, Savoy dumps LeRae on her head with a nasty German, Joey Ryan does a sleazy suplex on Savoy while grabbing her boobs, everybody gets left in a pile. Fun match, went the right amount of time, and Savoy is somebody I want to see more.

3. Pistolero vs. "Out of Control" Matt Carlos

Ahhhh, one of my least favorite gimmicks in wrestling. Matt Carlos - aside from making the choice to devote his life to professional wrestling - is oftentimes the most in control wrestler on a card. He has a normal haircut, he has no tattoos, probably drives a fairly fuel efficient car, has likely never shared needles when doing intravenous drugs, has likely never committed arson, and wrestles just about the most boring indy style you can imagine. You can call Matt Carlos plenty of things, but "Out of Control" is really not one of them. Carlos has a bunch of moves that need to be set up by kicking a guy in the stomach, and not only do the kicks to the stomach look bad, but the moves aren't too inspired either. Pistolero throws a couple of decent punches, plants himself nicely on a DDT, and has hair and facial expressions that are clearly more out of control than "Out of Control" Matt Carlos, and man this stunk. It all built to what was supposed to be a big spot, which was Pistolero giving Carlos a Russian leg sweep into the ring post, with Pistolero in ring and Carlos on the apron, but Carlos missed the post completely and just kinda fell to the floor, and Pistolero ended up looking like the one taking the move. Not good.

4. Timothy Thatcher vs. "The Butcher" Tyler Bateman

Hmmmm, maybe *this* was the best match of the night. Tough call. The 6 man was a fun spotfest, these guys went out working a body part based mat match. Personal preferences I suppose, but both hit the right marks. I had never seen Bateman before, and he's...well I don't quite get what he is. He's called the Butcher, and I suppose he vaguely sorta somewhat looks like Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of NY (he has the quirky handlebar mustache at least), but then has a long ponytail, wore weird capri leopard print tights (I thought there was a pro wrestling rule that only islanders can wear capri tights...) that had a cartoon bunny with a handlebar mustache. But he doesn't really act quirky or odd. I just don't see how the whole package fits together. The match itself was just 9 or 10 minutes, but everything was paced nicely so that it didn't feel too short. All the opening mat stuff was good, as you'd expect from a Thatcher match, with Thatcher locking in some nasty wrenched in cravates, and then Thatcher began working over Bateman's right hand. Thatcher is a guy who always has compelling hand work, but it doesn't always factor in to anything later, so it was awesome when Bateman broke free of Thatcher's mat stuff, then belted him real good, only to have to shake out and hold his fist, which gave Thatcher time to belt him back. Bateman abandoned the mat game and started throwing strikes at Thatcher, hitting him with a nice straight kick that allowed Thatcher to do his really great sell where he drops to his butt. Thatcher lures him back into exchanging elbows, but it's a trap to set up Thatcher's great out of nowhere Fujiwara arm bar for the win. This was a pretty basic Thatcher match but that will always be a good thing, and Bateman's selling added to things. So basically the two matches I was hoping would pay off on the card, have paid off. So I'm a happy camper.

5. Idris Jackson & "The Mad Tongan" Sione Finau vs. Buddy Royal & Mikko Maestro-Shapiro

Well this was a waste of everybody's time. Short match with not much happening anyway, and then it ends when Finau turns on Jackson. Finau/Jackson have been teaming for awhile, but they haven't teamed much at the Bayshore shows, and most of the people at these shows only go to the Bayshore shows. So the break-up didn't really mean much to the majority of the crowd. As far as bright spots, Donovan Troi is always an amusing heel manager, usually more entertaining than the guys he manages. And I had never seen Mikko before and he's a great entitled white douche, wearing a wrestling singlet that says "Varsity", and he has this obnoxious fluffy white hair and rosy cheeks. You know he'd have an awful flesh beard if he could grow one. Couldn't get much of a feel for him as a worker, but his douche presence was high end.

6. Willie Mack vs. MVP

The battle of secondary TV wrestling promotions!! Slow-paced but smartly worked match. It's nice seeing MVP not dogging it post-WWE. The guy has worked hard in TNA and in the indies, just nice to see. He and Mack worked pretty stiff, with MVP at first laughing him off and Mack laying in some insanely loud chops, with MVP responding nicely with some hard forearms to the jaw. They took it to the floor with MVP hitting a pescado and then a mean yakuza kick over the ring barrier. Back in and Mack hits a couple of his impactful and beautiful dropkicks, but misses a huuuuuge frog splash, really committing to that miss and doing a big belly flop. Finish could have been better as MVP hits a couple Plays of the Day that Mack kicks out of, which is good as that really doesn't seem like a viable 2015 finisher. But then MVP kinda whiffs on the Drive-By and it gets the win anyway. It seems like it would be easy to work out a secondary finish ahead of time, something like "hey if my kick doesn't land I'll yell something like ONE MORE and do it again". Something like that wouldn't even look like a re-do, it would look like somebody putting an exclamation on the finish. MVP would look better as the kick would land better, and Mack would look better for looking like it took two of them to put him down. It's surprising that more guys don't work out audibles like that ahead of time.

7. Bobby Hart vs. Virgil Flynn

Had higher hopes for this one as I like both guys, but it barely goes 4 minutes. Virgil hits a nice SUWA pump dropkick that Hart bumps kind of recklessly into the corner, also hits a wild standing corkscrew senton off the top, and a stiff cannonball senton. But Hart kinda just brushes him off and crushes him for the clean win. Would have liked to see more from Hart as this was kinda worked like Virgil getting his highlights before Hart just decided it was time to go home.

8. Marcus Lewis vs. Roberto Rodriguez

Well this was really fun! It's possible RR was not using that name, but I missed what name he's using on the indies now. This was another match that went just the right amount of time. Rodriguez gave Lewis a lot here: leaned into a big shoulderblock, and admirably bounced his face off the mat taking a  rana while on his knees. Rodriguez gets a nice fast snap suplex, but really Lewis took most of the match with some pretty awesome stuff: big dive to the floor, and then an insane reverse rana that RR takes like a complete lunatic. I mean RR just planted himself vertically and stayed that way for a split second. It looked disgusting and was easily the spot of the night. Lewis hits the 450 and that's that. Nice little showing from both guys. Damn that rana was gross.

9. "Mr. Athletic" Jeff Cobb vs. JR Kratos

Was really excited for this one, and it delivered. Both guys are meaty tough guys so seeing them slam into each other is always fun. Cobb has freakish Backlund strength so seeing him do a one arm vertical suplex to a guy as thick as Kratos is always eye popping. Cobb has added a nasty headbutt into his arsenal and it always adds with a gross smack. Both guys throw some rough shots to the other's jaw, Cobb ends up laid up over the bottom rope and Kratos hits a great running knee on the floor (think Roman Reigns' dropkick but as a nasty jumping knee), and later does his nice running dropkick in the ring. Cobb didn't do as much flying as he normally does and this was worked more like a slugfest which is fine with two big guys. Finish kind of fell flat. On paper it wasn't a bad idea, it was a KO stoppage with Kratos beating Cobb unconscious. But their ring placement could not have been worse. The way the crowd is situated is three sides of the ring have people on them, with the entranceway taking up all of the 4th side (and the most seats being the side opposite entrance). Well the did the mounted punches on the side of the ring with no fans, meaning Kratos' back was to 60+% of the crowd and you couldn't see any of the shots landing. So not only did anybody see the finish coming, but most people literally couldn't see how why the shots would be devastating enough to KO Cobb. The idea doesn't sound bad on paper, but it wasn't executed great.

10. Jinxx, Jeckles, Dylan Drake, Jody Kristofferson & Will Cuevas  vs. KMJ, Damien Grundy, Will Rood, The Almighty Sheik & Boyce LeGrande

Well this was a giant mess. This was billed as Team APW (that first team up there) vs. The Animal Farm. But the match structure was pointlessly absurd. Instead of just doing a 10 man tag, it was War Games rules, where a new person would come in every minute, but eliminations could happen at any time, and you could get eliminated by getting thrown over the top rope as well as pinned. It was also No DQ, but you couldn't pin the guy outside the ring. So basically not too long into this you just had guys wandering around the ring hitting each other, but to eliminate them they always had to find a way to implausibly make their way back to the ring. It was billed as a team based match, but there was minimal semblance of teamwork throughout and it came off WAY more like an every man for himself match. Since there was no sort of flow whatsoever to this, and parts really dragged, I'll just hit a few notes on certain guys: standouts in the match were Will Rood and amazingly, The Sheik. I've never seen Sheik look good in any match, but a no DQ match where he can wander around and hit people with shit seems to be an environment he thrives in. He showed a lot of personality and came across great running through the crowd and hitting people with chairs and trashcans. Rood had some nice stuff too, including a molar rattling clothesline. Kristofferson showed some fire and got a surprisingly huge reaction. I had no idea he was so popular. He kinda looks like Bison Smith and acts like kind of a reckless asskicker, but needs to tighten up his strikes a lot more. It would be one thing if they looked dangerous, but they just sort of look not good. Jinxx hit a nice dive and a massive corner dropkick, and seems to be improving. I think he hasn't been wrestling very long. A bunch of his stuff still looks bad, but he's looked better each time I've seen him. Dylan Drake is the most forgettable wrestler ever. I have seen him live at minimum 10 times, and my friends and I always marvel how we never remember a single thing he did in his matches. If he was really horrible we'd remember that, and if he was actively good we'd remember that. But he's just an instant distant memory. Amusing anecdote: Our friend Brian joined us this time, and he is not in on our Dylan Drake "most forgettable wrestler" joke. But he's definitely seen him live several times before. So when Brian asked "Hey who is this guy? Is he new?" we all burst out laughing and poor Brian thought we were laughing at him, but we were just tickled he helped prove our point. The best thing about Drake is his robe, and he didn't even wear his robe tonight. He has this really awful full back piece tattoo that just looks like colorful spin art, and it seems to get bigger every time we see him. It is a tattoo completely devoid of interest, creativity, personality, etc. It is a tattoo somebody gets if they have no idea what to get a tattoo of...except they keep adding to it and adding to it, for reasons they possibly don't know. They're driven to add to this shapeless splattery mess of a tattoo, it is beyond their control. What is driving me to keep making this bigger!? It is slowly taking over my body, slowly spreading to my lower back. Soon it will creep around to my stomach and onto my arms. What could be happening to me!? What am I infected with!? Why does my back now look like a blurry polaroid of a sunset reflected in a murky lake!?!? Dylan Drake threw surprisingly nice mounted punches. The end.

Show went on way too long. Ten matches is just wayyyyyyy too much wrestling. I was yawning by the end and it wasn't even that late. It's just too much and we really don't need to find a way to get *34* wrestlers on one card. THIRTY FOUR!! That's far too many wrestlers to shoehorn into matches. There ended up being a lot of dead weight, and it distracted from some of the very fun matches. A tight 6 or 7 match card would be best for everybody. And 10 matches is WAY too many when you still plan on having a 30 minute intermission. Also, shows at Bayshore have been $10 in advance, and this show was $15. Maybe that's because they had some names like MVP on the card, or maybe it's because they've been drawing well there so why not try and make some extra scratch. I get it, smart move. If you sell 85% less tickets than before, you're still making more money since you're charging more. Why not play around with the price point a bit. Plus they only run every 3 months so $5 extra wouldn't quite be enough to make me skip it or not. If a card looks good then I'm game. So overall it was a fun night, but also had potential to be better than it ended up being. But a fun show is a fun show, and my time didn't feel wasted. That's a win.

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JAPW Awaken 3/21/2015

JAPW has been around in some form for 15 years or so, and has been one of the great under the radar indies. They seem to run really sporadically, and I was really excited to see a new show pop up in the dark corners of the internet. I am watching this without a match list so I am pretty excited to see who pops up.

Opened with a 10 bell salute to Perro Aguayo, which Chris Dickenson comes out to interrupt. Dickenson is a really hit or miss guy, but he is apparently working Low-Ki in a grudge match, and he seems like a guy who will have a fun unprofessional grudge match with Low-Ki. Low-Ki is with MVP and Samoa Joe as part of their TNA stable, and I see Teddy Hart and Necro Butcher ringside, that is a bunch of guys I like (and MVP).

Silver Ant v. JT Dunn

Silver Ant used to be Green Ant and JT Dunn I have seen before as a member of indy workrate tag team Juicy Product. This was a Beyond Wrestling showcase, and very much felt like a indy wrestling showcase match. Lots of counters and dramatic two counts, and blah blah blah. JT Dunn is very much an indy wrestler, and he does lots of convoluted ways to hit cutters and faceplants. Nice tope by Dunn, but otherwise very forgettable

Steve "Monsta" Mack v. Jaka

On paper very exciting stuff, I am long time Monsta Mack fan, saw the Hit Squad live a bunch of times always enjoyed them, there is an awesome early Low-Ki singles where he works like Vader, loved the Hard Hitters team with a big white guy whose name escapes me. Jaka is Chris Dickonson's tag partner who kind of works an indy Haku gimmick. So this should have ruled. Unfortunately it starts with both guys no-selling german suplexes, and Mack badly blowing a jumping rana, and then right into a bad forearm exchange. One of the worst opening couple of minutes I have seen in a while. It gets a little better at the end as Mack just kills Jaka with some huge throws and clotheslines before pinning him with an awkward nasty powerbomb, still they couldn't dig themselves out of that early hole. Still love Monsta though.

Archadia v. Bandido Jr. v. Smiley v. Joey Janela v. Kimber Lee

Juniors five way with all the flaws that style promises. There were a couple of cool highspots from Bandido Jr. who is a undercard JAPW guy I have always liked, he did a crazy springboard rana, and a cool dive. Otherwise this was kind of mess. Finish was especially stupid, Joey Janela just randomly climbs to the top of a really high pillar, Smiley follows him up for some reason, and the throw some bad punches, and Joey Janela does a flip onto a bunch of security guys, I guess it was supposed to be a bump off the pillar, but it really looked like that what was he was trying to do, looked super fake and dangerous for no reason. Then when those two get back to the ring, everyone else is gone and Janela hits a suplex and pins him. Total mess.

Christopher Daniels + Frankie Kazarian v. Bravado Brothers

Indy wrestling workrate tag, which is a style I just can't get into. Everything was executed slickly (it is a Chris Daniels match) but it didn't add up to a ton. Kazarian does have some cool springboards, and the Bravados have some double teams which look good, but I forgot everything about this a minute after it was done.

Necro Butcher + The Hooligans v. The Viking War Party

The wild Necro brawls around the Rahway Rec center were my favorite thing about the latter day JAPW, this was in that spirit, but was surprisingly subdued. Necro actually spends a fair amount of the match in the ring, instead of reckless fling chairs in the crowd. There was some good craziness including the fat Viking getting smushed through a guardrail, and the Littlest Viking eating a running powerbomb in the rail. This kind of thing is always fun to watch, but this wasn't close to  the level of the great Necro/Brodie Lee matches from a couple of years ago.

Azrieal v. Black Jeez

Surprisingly solid juniors match. Haven't seen a Black Jeez match in years and while he was pretty terrible in CZW back in the day, he was OK here, definitely should have put him on the list of black guys LU should have brought in instead of Killshot. He works pretty stiff here, and applies his stuff well. Azrieal was one of the solid JAPW juniors back in the day, he was no Dixie or Insane Dragon but probably a bit better then Elax the exploited child, he had a nice tope and some solid mid range juniors offense, still nothing about this leaped out at me and didn't stick out in my brain 10 minutes later.

Teddy Hart/Chris Hero v. Samoa Joe/MVP

There are tons of indy wrestlers in the world doing "crazy guy" gimmicks, but how many of those guys spend time training their cats. Teddy Hart is such a legit lunatic that he is compelling to watch. Teddy's valet comes down with a fluffy Persian who seconds him and Hero during that match. Joe and MVP are working their TNA gimmick with Homicide at ringside, pretty fun match. MVP keeps refusing to take any of Teddy Harts moonsaults including moving so he smashes some fans on a dive, it almost felt like a weird inter promotional Puro match where guys are not cooperating. The match was mostly shtick, although Teddy had some nice brawling with Joe. There was also a great moment where Homicide just decides to break a chair over Teddy's head for the hell of it, I love that feud, and hope JAPW runs some more of it. Postmatch had Hart making a lot of jokes about his Pussy and thanking Jesus, what a kook.

Low-Ki v. Chris Dickinson

PAS: I was pretty low on Dickinson in the past, I described him as a fake Davey Richards which is about the worst way you can damn somebody. He has removed a lot of the extraneous bullshit, and is now mostly working on stiffness and his despicable charisma. He has to be one of the most hatable wrestlers I can remember, he feels like the kind of high school linebacker who would organize a gay bashing or gang rape, and add in the crew of creeps he runs with and you get a really compelling act. Low-Ki, especially in JAPW is a guy you want to see beat the shit out of someone, and man does he beat the shit out Dickinson, although Chris dishes it out too. Match starts out with some karate sparing, which is an interesting way to open a match, and then some decent takedowns and mat wrestling before the asskicking starts, Ki would blister Dickinson and he would fire back with some big shots, and also some fun cheap shots, Dickinson has a great looking eye poke. One point Dickinson kicks Ki really hard in the back and Ki fires back with this awesome four punch combo which they replayed from five different angles, so awesome, and really fit the somewhat ragged and uncooperative feel of the match. This match also had one of the cool superplexes I can remember seeing as Dickinson through Ki almost to the other side of the ring.

ER: Really cool match with some inventive asskicking and painful stretching. We get some nice early mat stuff with Dickinson controlling Ki and Ki almost going for broke early with a couple of double foot stomps. This was a nice change-up as Ki doesn't normally go for those so early so it was a neat indication that he thought he was in trouble, outmatched. Dickinson counters Ki's early attempts to finish with nice little cheats, a low blow here and an eye poke there. Dickinson keeps trapping Ki in this nasty submission with Ki's arms hooked behind his back and Dickinson's feet pushing against Ki's neck. At one point Ki does a great job of getting to the ropes, but facially expressing that it's hurting him WAY more to get to the ropes than was maybe worth it. Dickinson ups the stiffness by booting Ki in the back, and Ki puts it over great by slowly standing up back turned to Dickinson, clearly in pain but not wanting to show it. And then he punches Dickinson a bunch in the face and chest and everything is great. There was some good struggle throughout, especially loved Ki desperately grabbing behind Dickinson's knees to block a powerbomb. Later Ki went for a vertical suplex but Dickinson tried to sandbag him, which backfired and ended with him taking a sort of brainbuster DDT that looked vicious. There were a lot of nice little things like that, and those little things elevate a match. Even the finish had one of those moments with Dickinson hung in the tree of woe and Ki going for the Warriors Way. Now usually guys have to just kind of hang there like dinguses and then find a way to look up before getting their chests stomped in, but here Ki stands on Dickinson's knees causing him to sit up in pain, and then Ki hits the Warriors Way. Nice.


Post match was fun with Dickinson's crew brawling to the back with Joe, MVP and Homicide and Monsta Mack saving Ki from a sneak attack, only to do a big turn on him. Could really dig heel Monsta Mack against Ki and Homicide, and I hope JAPW runs again soon.

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Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY List

1. Nigel McGuinness v. Samoa Joe ROH 3/3
2. John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28
3. Nigel McGuinness v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 4/14
4. Samoa Joe v. Takeshi Morishima ROH 2/16
5. Shawn Micheals v. John Cena WWE 4/23
6. Solar 1/Mano Negra v. Negro Navarro/Black Terry Lucha Libre VIP 3/10
7. MNM v. Hardy Boyz WWE 1/28
8. Briscoes v. Ricky Marvin/Kontaro Suzuki NOAH 1/21
9. Finlay v. Undertaker 3/6 WWE
10. Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico ROH 4/14
11. Colt Cabana v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 2/24
12. Takeshi Sasaki v. Yuki Miyamoto BJW 3/14
13. John Cena v. Shawn Michaels WWE 4/1
14. Shinjiro Ohtani/Takao Omori/Kazunari Murakami v. Kohei Sato/Hirotaka Yokoi/Yoshiro Takayama Zero 1 1/19
15. Davey Richards/Roderick Strong v. Jack Evans/Delirious ROH 4/14
16. Chris Benoit v. MVP 4/10
17. Nigel McGuiness v. Jimmy Rave ROH 3/4
18. Yuji Nagata v. Hiroshi Tanahashi NJ 4/13
19. Matt Hardy v. Ken Kennedy WWE 3/13
20. Samoa Joe v. Eddie Kingston FSM 3/17
21. Undertaker v. Batista WWE 4/1
22. BJ Whitmer v. Jimmy Jacobs ROH 1/27
23 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone v. Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio NOAH 4/1
24. Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
25. Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16

16. Chris Benoit v. MVP 4/10

The conceit behind this Benoit v. MVP feud is kind of cool. MVP comes in as kind of a joke character, who is now trying to prove he is the real deal by taking it to the legendary veteran. Benoit starts out disdainful , but is learning to respect him. Of course this would work better if currently every angle in the WWE wasn't basically the same.

I don't understand WWE at all. I watch ROH and they have this long involved angle based around spurned love and manipulation and hate. Meanwhile everything in the WWE is based around babyfaces earning each others respect through long grueling wrestling matches. Micheals doesn't respect Cena, Cena wants to prove he is the better man. Will they shake each others hands? Batista doesn't respect the legacy of the Undertaker, but he needs to prove his toughness against the legend. Hell even on the undercard, here MVP wants to prove he belongs in the ring with Benoit, on RAW Carlito is tired of being disrespected by Flair. When the fuck did the WWE become 2001 ROH? Hell even look at the Vince v. ECW feud, it is all about Vince not respecting the legacy and hard work of the ECW originals. Vince as Christopher Daniels refusing to shake Balls Mahoney's hand is just bizarre.

Supposedly Michael Hayes has a bunch of power and that is why there is more wrestling lately. That doesn't make any sense either, Michael Hayes is a guy who became a legend by smearing cream in a giant black guys eyes, and making ghetto New Orleans folk pull guns on him. He beat up Fritz and gave him a heart attack, he wasn't trying to earn Kevin’s respect.

The match itself was pretty much a one man Benoit show. For NOVA generation wrestlers, MVP has better execution then Punk or Kennedy, but this is still Benoit as Fuerza. I really dug the post shot Benoit took, and I like how MVP doesn't seem to know how to tuck his head on German suplexes. The finish was pretty awesome too, with MVP teasing the insane German from the ring to the floor, and countering the inevitable Benoit counter. It does a nice job of establishing the learning curve.

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WWE NO MERCY THOUGHTS

No Mercy Thoughts

I was on the fence about getting this PPV, Finlay main eventing is something I wish to whole hardily support, and I really liked the Rey v. Chavo brawl on Smackdown a couple of weeks back. Still not really enough for me to kick out the cash. Then I read Meltzer's report that we get PPV CHAM PAIN~! and Regal v. Beniot and I run and order the replay, and it was well worth it. Great PPV>

Gregory Helms v. Matt Hardy

We used to take road trips down to North Carolina to watch these guys tear it up in National Guard armories, and now they get a big chunk of time to do their thing in Raleigh on PPV. This is why you buy the single brand Smackdown PPV's, guys who can wrestle get the time to do it. Helms has turned into quite an asskicker, as he was working pretty damn stiff here. I especially loved the double underhooks into grounded knees. They broke out their big New Japan juniors finishing run, and it was alot of fun. The top rope Shining Wizard was especially great, and I can't believe I never saw it the indies during the summer of Shining Wizards. I buy 2.9 wrestling more, when they are kicking out of multiple neckbreakers, rather then tope rope brainbusters, and they really got the crowd hot for this.

Aaron Idol/K.C. James v. Paul London/Brian Kendrick

I think this was the best match of the London/Kendrick title run. Just stellar tag team wrestling, and a North Carolina crowd raised on Rock and Roll Express matches popping for every spot. First couple of time I saw Idol, he absolutely blew, but he has seasoned into a perfectly acceptable heel tag worker at this point. K.C. James has worked enough Puerto Rico to work this match in his sleep. I really liked Idol's seated abdominal stretch move for a tag rest hold, and the initial cut off of the hot tag with Kendrick getting pulled down, was great. I also love the way London and Kendrick build their crazy dives into the match. The initial double somersault senton and London's crazy tope to cut off James. I was pretty bummed initially that this wasn't the Pitbulls in this match, but I can't imagine that it would have been any better.

Hey Regal is uncut, didn't think I would find that out on PPV.

Christ the fat writer in the g-string has a name now? What is with all the male ass on this show? I much prefer the subtle gay imagery of Magnum T.A. on his bike, or the Fantastics in their little tuxes, to this really hateful gay imagery on this show. Why can't Vince admit the love that dares not speaks its name, so we aren't subject to it squirting out like this.

MVP v. Marty Garner

Cham Pain used to rule those same armory shows that Matt Hardy and Gregory Helms did. For some reason he was the one OMEGA guy who never got a break. So his PPV debut as a skinny guy for JBL to make recycled Heenan jokes about, was kind of bittersweet. I was hoping for at least one big bump. They must still be angry over the Rock leaving them behind.

Undertaker v. Mr. Kennedy

Undertaker really needs to stop thinking he is Helmsley and needs 20+ minutes every PPV. He really works best in 12-15 minute matches, I loved his recent TV match with Booker, and I got the sense this would have been good with about 8 minutes shaved off. Instead it was way too long, and sort of dull. I liked Kennedy's piledriver though.

Rey Mysterio v. Chavo Guerrerro

I have been FFwding all the build towards this angle, but the wrestling parts have been pretty good. This was a really fun streetfight, with alot of nasty bumps. Chavo giant swinging Rey into chairs and hockey boards was nasty, and the 619 around the rail was fun too. The regular brawl parts of this match was fun too, as Chavo was just laying in the uppercuts. I thought Rey's big dive was a little underwhelming, but otherwise this was what you wanted.

William Regal v. Chris Benoit

Well fuck. This might be my favorite match up in wrestling history, and it shows up on PPV. It was Regal v. Benoit and you got all that you would hope from that. The first headbutt which split Regal open was Kikuchi level nasty, it sounded like someone dropped a Mango off a 5 story ledge. I also loved Benoit chopping Regal right on the open wound to get the blood flowing again. Regal's King Kong kneedrop was a new wrinkle and a great one, one knee to the ribs, one to the neck. I especially loved all of the mat struggling, Benoit's mat work always looks like a viscous fight, and the countering of the Regal stretch here was great, as was Regal fighting the crossface like his life defended on it. I like how Regal doesn't fight the crossface, but always immediately taps, really puts over the viscousness of the hold

Batista v. King Booker v. Finlay v. Bobby Lashley

I liked this alot too, Finlay and Booker really held it together, and outside of a little awkwardness, Batista and Lashley played their roles well too. Finlay was on fire here, I loved his little moment of domination, where he tossed Booker, Fujiwaraed Batista, and then picking Lashley's knee when he came in. Finish ruled too, Lashley's spear from nowhere was awesome, he was super low to the ground, and it was almost a Pete Rose slide. When Batista won the title he was a guy in his late 30's who looked like he was in his mid 20's, now he looks like Lance Herickson, he is a guy in his late 30's who facially looks like he is in his late 50's. Lashley does Batista way better then Batista does, hopefully house show matches with Finlay could get him back to form, otherwise they need to dump him back to RAW. Booker actually won clean which was weird. I also don't know if they are turning Regal and Finlay face, but I am hoping we get a TV Booker v. Finlay title match, as their stuff against each other here was great.

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