Monday AIW - Escape From Cleveland 9/14/18

The Production (Frankie Flynn/Magnum CK) vs. Twins (PB Smooth/Swoggle)

PAS: One of the downsides of deciding to review entire AIW shows is that I am watching a lot of Swoggle matches. I can totally see how one might appreciate his shtick in a live setting, and he does vary his material some, but you watch a dozen Swoggle matches and you can approach saturation. But Magnum CK is such a glorious ham that he can make Swoggle's stuff seem fresh and hilarious. CK is like watching Christopher Walken chew up scenery in a hacky Tarantino rip off, the material is still the material but you have to appreciate the craft. PB Smooth and the Production were married for two years (still are except with the face/heel alignment flipped), so they work well with each other. Worth watching for CK for sure, I just love that dude.

Flip Kendrick vs. Facade vs. AJ Gray vs. Space Monkey vs. Wheeler YUTA vs. Matt Cross

PAS: A lot of times these scramble matches are focused on guys hitting complicated head drops and combo moves, here this was all high flyers so most of the big spots were crazy dives which I am always going to prefer. No idea why Flip Kendrick got passed over during the big wave of ROH/AEW/205 Live highflyer signings. His in-ring and out of ring dives are always crazy impressive, and he is a better in ring wrestler then most of the guys who have his role in bigger feds. He hits like a standing 720 senton in this match! Facade and AJ Gray are also landing crazy looking stuff, Facade does an out of nowhere dive from the ramp to clear everyone out, and AJ Gray's Alabama Jam finish was really nasty. He is a thick dude and got crazy high before landing that tree trunk leg across Yuta's chest and throat. Fun match.

Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham vs. Joshua Bishop

PAS: This was a Bishop showcase with Dr. Dan replacing Ethan Page and Bishop pounding him out pretty quickly. I did really like Dr. Dan counter a bossman slam into an ab stretch, and there was a great spot where Bishop kept pulling Dr. Dan up by his tie only to forearm him back down. Tidy match which achieved its goal.

ER: Full damn Worldwide point for this one, the best thing I've seen involving Dr. Dan and a cool throwback 4 minute non-squash that we rarely get on the indies. Bishop jumped him and Dr. Dan never responded with silliness, instead responding as a guy fighting hard to get out of the red, and occasionally finding himself in the black because of it. I found myself actually excited for Dr. Dan when he ran off the ropes with a great back elbow and then starts his first of several pushing, mocking little push kicks to Bishop's face. Dr. Dan had 1998 Chris Jericho's attitude with 2019 Chris Jericho's body. I really dug the aggression and fight from Dr. Dan, but also loved how Bishop didn't revert to stooging "I fucked up" heel mode when Dan fought back maybe more than expected. He jumped him, then when it turned on him he just kept up his same aggression. I liked Dan reversing the Bossman Slam into the abdominal stretch, loved how they worked strike exchanges with Dan throwing his whole body into landing one big shot while Bishop would overwhelm him. This was simple, hard fought, competitive wrestling that made Dr. Dan look like more of a threat than ever in only 4 minutes, while also showing Bishop as an efficient asskicker. Loved this. 

Ultimo Dragon vs. Louis Lyndon

PAS: Clearly a thrill for Lyndon and he does a great job working a longish WCW Thunder match with Dragon. Dragon looked pretty great, outside of one slightly blown spot he hit all of his complicated stuff well, and had an awesome looking hammerlock takedown and spinning Indian deathlock. Lyndon toned down some of the more elaborate stuff which can irritate me, and was there to make Ultimo shine, which he did.

50. The Production (Derek Director/Eddy Only) vs. To Infinity And Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney) vs. No Consequences (Chase Oliver/Tre Lamar) vs. The Philly Marino Experience (Marino Tenaglia/Philly Collins)

PAS: There are few things in wrestling as guaranteed as a an AIW four way tag. This was great as one might expect. No Consequences were a fun addition to this match formula, both Oliver and Lamar are great athletes and they get crazy bounce on all of their highflying spots. TIAB are masters of this kind of match and seem to be conducting, I loved Colin Delany intercepting Marino mid air during PME's springboard dive attempt. Production were total offense machines, their big run of combos near the end of the match (sunset bombing one Consequencer into another, running corner knees by Director, and a coast to coast flip dropkick) was insane and had the crowd standing. PME getting the win works great, they are one of my favorite babyface tag teams in years, they pretty much have it all.

ER: Big shock, another tremendous AIW tag scramble. This is a big No Consequences nostalgia fest for us, Chase Oliver needs to know we are dying for him to come back. But I love everyone here, every team brought something great to this match, 10 minutes of condensed gold. I could make a case for every tag team in this one being clearly the best in the match. Derek Director and Eddy Only had a couple of incredible runs, starting with Only knocking Delaney out of camera sight down the ramp, then hitting a way above his weight Philly with a lariat that crushes him fast over the top. Later they sunset flip bomb Oliver's head into Lamar's balls in a way that felt like Buster Keaton doing pro wrestling, and follow it up with a great Director cannonball and Only post to post flipping dropkick. Delaney and Cheech are just masters of this style, probably my favorite non-Jollyville team in modern wrestling. They orchestrate some really complicated Rube Goldberg spots and always throw in some unexpected twists. But again, everyone shone. Lamar hits a fantastic tope, we get guys chucked from the ring into the others, No Consequences pull off some perfect timing on some double teams, syncing up so well on strikes and big flying displays. One of my absolute favorite moments of the match is No Consequences sandwiching Delaney's head in between perfectly timed elbows, then setting up something assuredly worse before being interrupted, and a dropped to his knees Delaney taking the opportunity to roll to the floor. PME have a great babyface vibe, and I love how they're a new Rock n Roll Express for Phil to get excited for. There are too many cool moves and great double teams and innovative twists to mention, but this is just more evidence that the AIW tag scene is one of the very best guarantees in pro wrestling today.

Tim Donst vs. Colt Cabana

PAS: This was a Colt Cabana special, no real bumps, all shtick. Lots of comedy spots around Donst fucking with Cabana's merch. I admire Cabana being able to make a living without damaging his body, but I don't think he is particularly funny, so a long match with his jolly stuff isn't going to do it for me.

123. KTB vs. Nick Gage vs. Tom Lawlor vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: Big boy wrestling done really well. All bombs, with guys rolling to the floor after getting rocked. Gage takes some big bumps including getting backdropped into hard plastic chairs and gets piledriven on the apron. Pretty much everyone in this match is nuts, Justice flies through the ropes with little regard for himself or who he was landing on. I loved the finish with KTB going for an Asai moonsault and lands right into a Lawlor triangle choke. KTB does the Matt Hughes lift right into a flying knee by Justice who gets the pin.

ER: This was awesome, these guys are all lunatics and this was a pretty breathless run through some big boy bumps and a lot of body damage. I'm really starting to look forward to Matt Justice matches; you know there will always be a crazy dive that either hits into the 2nd row or misses entirely and crashes him to the floor, uses his body as a weapon, dies on at least one bump per match, and I love that big leaping knee. KTB is another guy who takes risks, throws boots to faces, will take a big bump to the floor, and break out a heavy flying move. Now, taking bumps to the floor is a good skill to have, and this match was filled with guys taking bigger and bigger bumps to the hard floor, sometimes while doing offense and sometimes while just crashing to the floor. Nick Gage gets thrown into a crowd of hard ass empty chairs and eats a sick apron piledriver, but also crashes to the floor with a prison fight tope con giro and rakes his boot across faces. Lawlor brings a cool vibe to things, does crazy dives with the crazy divers, hits hard with the hard hitters, and brings a great finish to a big time match: KTB goes for a big man Asai moonsault and Lawlor catches him lengthwise in a triangle in a very nicely prepped for trap, KTB lifts him up and out of it, and then gets pasted by that Justice flying knee. Another big AIW match stuffed with action and cool moments. 

94. Tracy Williams vs. Dominic Garrini

PAS: I have talked a lot about how under the radar great Williams AIW Title/Powerbomb Title run was and this was another banger. Really felt like a Catch Point EVOLVE match, built mainly around grappling and limb control. Garrini was really jujitsu in the first part of this match, and the more jujitsu Garrini is the more I dig him. Lots of very cool lifts and hard throws to the mat. They do the triangle choke counter to a dive which they did in the previous match, and probably should have had an agent tell someone to excise it out. Otherwise this was pretty flawless, Williams does slightly flub the counter finish, but makes up for it with two disgusting stuffed piledrivers for the win. I like having the tile matches on AIW show be these more slow burn grappling matches, it contrasts nicely with the wild brawling on much of the rest of the card.

ER: Tracy Williams is one of those guys I really like, who I also consistently underrate. It's like I forget how much I like him every time, and he's never a guy I bring up when talking about current wrestlers I dig. He occupies that same brain space as Roderick Strong, who I think has been consistently great for at least a decade now, yet I still find myself saying "Man Roderick Strong is good." Maybe's it's just lean turkey eating white guys with short cropped Affleck hair. But of course I'm going to like Garrini vs. Hot Sauce, I'm a complete sucker for these years removed from the story and fed "Catch Point Explodes" matches. I love the way these two crack jaws, a full arm behind it forearm shiver from Garrini, a boot in the corner with extra pump from Williams, these guys go hard with every strike and really punish each other...in  away that seems all in good spirits. The early grappling was tough and snug, and then they kept building to kicking each other, or Williams locking on a nasty guillotine, or Garrini going after Williams' taped up arm, and this thing just kept burning more intensely. The ending was violent, but I think a bit much: Garrini hits an incredible spinning tombstone, something that really really looked like a damn finisher. But Williams stumbles on the reversal after the kickout, and it kind of just comes off like he ignored the nastiest move of the match to hit two piledrivers of his own. The piledrivers looked great, but the order of events seemed off. That said, this is the kind of back and forth that does it for me. How about this Tracy Williams guy? 

La Familia de Tijuana (Bestia 666/Damian 666) vs. The Young Studs (Bobby Beverly/Eric Ryan)

PAS: This was Eric Ryan's dream match, and FDT kind of just stayed out of the way as that lunatic flung himself through things. Ryan takes two crazy bumps through pains of glass and gets tied up in barbed wire. They kept talking about his "Ready to Die" tour and he was living up to that designation. I thought the rematch of this Wrestlemania weekend was had more stuff from all four guys, this was pretty much all Ryan dying, and while that was fun, it was less of a full match.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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AIW Monday - Absolution 7/27/18

Louis Lyndon vs. Derek Director vs. KTB vs. Space Monkey vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Rex Brody

PAS: One of the better "get everyone on the card" scrambles they have done. Even with Space Monkey and Brody we didn't have anyone grinding the match to a halt with their comedy spots, the action really kept moving. Derek Director had some cool moments, including a nasty running knee to the face and a spot where he monkey flipped Yuta into Brody's crotch. KTB had a couple of amazing moments including a spot where he had two guys fireman carried and caught a third in his arms. Yuta looks like he blew out his knee, but they worked around it OK. Fun all action match,

Mance Warner/Jock Samson/Twan Tucker/Parker Pierce vs. Weird World/Philly Marino Experience

PAS: This started in a very Crockett way, with multiple heels bumping for super over babyfaces. We get a good heel beatdown section on Marino, and a really fun Worldwide hot tag. Finish run is car crash wrestling done well. I really love Philly's fat boy Orihara, and Marino's assisted plancha, just an awesome pair of signature dives. Our boy Weird Body takes sick bumps on a tower of doom superplex, and a Steiner Square Driver from the Duke. Our heroes get screwed out of victory by the dastardly heels, and this was a wholly satisfying bit of business.

48. Young Studs vs. The Production (Danhausen/Eddy Only)

PAS: This was excellent, just awesome stiff 2019 tag wrestling. These are four guys who throw heat and will take huge nasty bumps, and they run a pretty great all action tag with those as a base. Eric Ryan is truly certifiable, he takes 90s Foley bumps in almost every match, here he gets backdropped off the ramp and lands spine first on concrete. These guys were wasting each other in the ring too, Bobby Beverly obliterates Danhausen by intercepting an in-ring plancha with a savate kick, Only threw really nasty elbows and punches, there were some big slams and throws, really a bomb fest. We are Production stans here at Segunda Caida, but this was the best they have looked. Loved this.

ER: Yeah this really delivered. I was excited for it anyway - always gonna be excited for The Production - but The Production jumped the Studs on the entrance ramp and asses got kicked for the next 15 minutes. These guys were all ringing bells, hard elbows all around, nasty throws, nasty bumps, no nonsense just asskicking. AIW always brings asskicking, The Studs always bring asskicking, and it was cool seeing Only and Danhausen ALSO as kickers, not just ass kickees. Everybody in this comes off nuts to a degree, but Ryan is probably the most nuts. He throws such violence behind all of his strikes, and then he's crushing Only and Danhausen into the guardrails over and over with topes through the bottom ropes, and then he's splatting off the entrance ramp with a lunatic backdrop bump. My god man. I think they did a really good job using saves and building the action, as tough strikes eventually turn into amped up risk and fun double teams. I loved all of the quick suplexes from the Studs, they would really snap them over and when they'd be hitting snap verticals and stacking The Production like cordwood. There were a couple hitches when they tried getting a little cute (a DDT your partner spot is much clunkier than it should have been, and an Only cutter to the floor looks like both guys realized what a bad idea it was halfway through), but the answer always came right after those spots when everyone would go back to hitting each other hard. Bless this tag division.

Matthew Justice/Scott Steiner vs. Ethan Page/Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham

PAS: Justice brings out Steiner to even the odds, and it is pretty much just the heels bumping for Steiner and Justice, which is exactly what you want from this match up. Dr. Dan takes a couple of big bumps, and Page eats a big overhead throw from Steiner. Not much to say about this match, it does what it set out to do.

96. No Consequences (Tre Lamar/Garrison King/Chase Oliver/Joshua Bishop/AJ Gray) vs. Josh Prohibition/Jollyville Fuck Its (T-Money/Nasty Russ)/To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

PAS: 2017 Absolution No Consequences 10 man tag was one of my favorite matches of the year, this didn't live up to that level but was still a bunch of fun and had some big highlight moments. Both Tre Lamar and Chase Oliver are nutty fliers, Oliver hit an incredible springboard moonsault at the same time Lamar hit a great ringpost Santo style tope. The structure of the previous years match had the Consequences take an extended beating before making a comeback, here the match was worked more even, it makes narrative sense, NC are all a year more experienced, but evenish is a less cool structure. We do get some solid asskicking though, especially by the Fuck-Its including an awesome Pounce by T-Money where he ran all the way down the ramp before sending Lamar into the stratosphere. The story of the match was Joshua Bishop trying to earn the respect of Josh Prohibition, which isn't a matchup I cared a ton about. Still I will pretty much enjoy any combos of these guys.

ER: So no, this is not quite as good as the 2017 10 man, but this ruled pretty hard on its own. Everybody got their moments and there were some good by god moments to get. Jollyville are my faves and lived up to that here. Russ comes off like a total badass WCW undercarder that I always hope is going to come out those fake air-powered doors through the Mothership's fog machine, throwing hard punches and elbowdrops with his own body, and an absolutely crunching cannonball off the top. T-Money pounces Tre Lamar from the entrance ramp into the ring, in a spot that was only slightly less impressive than some of Lamar's by-choice flying. Chase Oliver was a real standout here. He and Lamar work a hyped up indy style that I hate when it's worn by most guys, but they really pull it off. Oliver can land played out indy offense like standing shooting star presses and make them actually land, he and Lamar hit a bonkers tandem dive that looked like two prop planes that missed a fatal collision by mere feet, and then there's crazy stuff like his rope walk rana. I loved it all. There were a couple hinky moments (Lamar does land full weight on Oliver with a mistimed missile dropkick that they pretend didn't land like that, and the Bishop/Prohibition stuff wasn't my favorite), but TIAB were pro as hell throughout, AJ Gray had some nice flying into and out of the ring, the double Drunken Drivers by Prohibition were a definitive finish, and I'm just going to need them to keep running this back every year.

Tim Donst vs. Joey Janela

PAS: These are two guys I am normally a low voter on, but man it is hard to deny their willingness to absolutely crash and burn in hideous ways. This is a ladder match, and has some slow climbing and grasping which is endemic in all ladder matches, but it also has some truly holy fuck moments. They mention Donst recovering from kidney cancer and how his doctor told him to not wrestle in ladder matches, and then later have him fall directly off a ladder onto a pile of chairs with the legs sticking up. Janela gets chucked through a ladder on top of a table and the ladder just explodes with the impact. Totally gross stuff, but hard not to appreciate the hell these guys put their body through.

Dominic Garrini vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was a dog collar match, and definitely very different from the other matches between these two. There was a lot I really loved about this: the stuff with the chain and collar was pretty awesome, Lawlor hit a superman punch with the chain, Garrini used the chain to headbutt Lawlor, there was a bunch of cool uses of the chain to make submissions look nastier. And this included an awesome ending where Garrini used a chain assisted Gargano escape to choke Lawlor out, with Lawlor refusing to tap and flipping off Garrini as we watched his finger fall down into unconsciousness.  I think if this had just been a dog collar match it would have ended up really high on the MOTY list, however, they used a bunch more props, like thumbtack bats and a board with bottle caps and a board with poppers. All of that stuff didn't add to the match. A dog collar is a great gimmick, you don't need more stuff. My wife's best friend will never just make chocolate chip cookies, she has to throw in gummy bears, and Twix pieces and candied almonds, until you are overwhelmed. This was a match with too many ingredients. I still liked it, but it kept me from loving it.

Franky Flynn/Magnum CK vs. Swoggle/PB Smooth

PAS: Swoggle isn't an act I really rate. Having him in a tag title match is bound to turn it into a yuks fest. Magnum CK is awesome at comedic matches, he has great facial expressions and if someone has to sell for Swoggle it might as well be him. He was also pretty great at the actual wrestling stuff, there was a spot where he goes for a blind leapfrog and gets caught in PB's arm, and he had an awesome look of terror before he was thrown. Some fun stuff, but I am glad the tag titles have moved back into actual great wrestling matches.

Tracey Williams vs. Nick Gage

PAS: This was Gage working a stiff title match, without any shortcuts. It was pretty entertaining, Gage works stiff and has some big over moves. He really dominated the match, and did it with wrestling. There was some pop ups which I didn't love, but I also really liked some of the big exchanges. The finish was pretty shocking, can't believe Gage would tap out, seems like something he wouldn't let his character do. Williams had some great matches during his title run, the start wasn't a great match, but it was nice example of what was to come.

ER: Another AIW show, another couple matches added to the ongoing MOTY List. The Young Studs/Production tag and the 10 man were the kind of things that keep these AIW loving hearts beating.

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AIW Hell on Earth 14 11/23/18

Duke Money (Mance Warner/Jock Sampson) vs. The Production (Derek Director/Danhausen) vs. Young Studs (Eric Ryan/Bobby Beverly) vs. Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ/T-Money)

PAS: AIW has a lot of really fun multi match workers, and their big clusterfucks are at a minimum enjoyable. This was a little more than that, as we got a bunch of cool big moments, along with a really exciting finish. I love the Jollyville Fuck-Its, they are a great version of the tough guy face tag team a 21st Century version of Bruiser and Crusher. This was an especially great Nasty Russ performance, he hits a standing version of his great cannonball, does a totally unexpected and insane Orihara moonsault, and while attempting to do a cannonball on the Duke, dives from the top rope right into a kneelift which looked like it removed all of middle school from his memory. Everyone else had a cool moment or two, and they really built to a cool crescendo, just a great way to open a card.

ER: I'm officially over the moon for AIW multi man tags. They're the best. I'm not sure who's training all these guys but these matches always have a ton of moving parts and everyone is able to work real fast and real stiff without clogging up the works and stumbling through anything. It's super impressive and there's always a few wild moments and a ton of hard as hell shots. Everyone makes the most of their time in so that everybody leaves looking real good. Mance was hitting hard all match, sprinting in with hard chops and bringing a boot into play (where did that boot come from?) and Mance is really good at corner beatdowns, really made this feel more intense; The Production is a fun stable, dug Derek's avalanche and Danhausen (looking like a spitting image of King Diamond) gets dropped with a nice backdrop driver, and clonks heads at high speed with Derek in a fun spot (T-Money had Derek in a fireman's carry and was spinning him around while Russ punched him on each go 'round, Danhausen ran in to stop it and two melons collided), one of those spots that never looks good but here looked great. The breakdown of the match was pretty crazy, with Ryan hitting a huge cannonball off the apron into Derek (his stuff to the floor is great, earlier he was running into the ring and out hitting spots, including an awesome moment where he slid to the floor to hit a Russian leg sweep into the barricade), Russ hits a wild Orihara moonsault to the floor, Money hits a big pounce on Duke (who looks like Louis CK so the spot is satisfying on a couple levels) and then the spot of the freaking match: Russ goes for a cannonball off the top and eats the nastiest kneelift to the teeth from Beverly, and then Beverly eats a sick running knee from Mancer. These guys know scramble tags, know exactly what makes them work and what keeps them exciting. AIW opening match tags have pretty much become the best guarantee in pro wrestling.

Swoggle vs. MJF

PAS: Swoggle was the surprise replacement for a retired Tracey Smothers, and this was a basic comedy match, with MJF loudly talking trash and taking a pasting. Swoggle was almost too dominant, 30 seconds into the match he is throwing a German suplex, although he does work stiff, and I do buy that it would suck to try to wrestle him. Not really my thing although it was solidly executed.

Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham vs. KTB vs. Dominic Garrini vs. Joshua Bishop

ER: This was weird. Decent, but weird. It only goes about 5 minutes and Garrini/Bishop disappear to the back a couple minutes in, so we mostly get a short Rockingham/KTB singles. But this whole thing is fun enough. Garrini gets a cool release German and a nice running shot in the corner, KTB hits a suicide dive, Asai moonsault, and a nice top rope lariat, but for the life of me I still have zero clue what DCR's trap arm finisher thing is supposed to be, or who it's supposed to hurt, because every time I've seen him attempt it, it always looks like both people fucked it up. Any help on what that is supposed to be? He traps an arm, do-si-dos to the side, grabs another arm, then KTB gets dropped straight on his head while DCR acts like he's taking a rana...it's something that can only happen on the indies. A move where neither guy seems to know what he's taking or delivering, at least one guy gets dropped on his head, and the fans have no clue how to react? That's an indy finisher baby. But, the good here was good (not sure why it was so short or why Garrini got brought in to work about 1 minute of a scramble though).

No Consequences (Tre Lamar/Chase Oliver) vs. The Production (Frankie Flynn/Magnum CK)

ER: Another short match, with Magnum's epic ring entrance taking much more time than the actual match itself. And Magnum's entrance is spectacular, so that's not a huge issue. He walks around ringside taking people's hats and throwing them into the crowd, some quickly, taking his time on others, making me laugh when we cut to the hard cam and you can see him running in and out of frame snatching and throwing hats. He gets a massive reaction from the crowd too, and a guy over huge in front of his home fanbase is awesome to see. It sounds like he really went through the shit, and it will always be awesome for someone to go through the weeds and come out the other side bigger than ever. It's an easy thing to root for. We've seen these two teams match up before and they gel nicely, so it's disappointing we didn't get much of a match. There's some cool stuff, I especially dug No Consequences going for a tandem flying knee and crashing their own knees into the other, liked CK's two big spinebusters, liked Oliver's full extension superkicks, but I wanted more than a 3 minute match ending with a quick roll up.

Frankie Flynn/Magnum CK vs. Weird World (Alex Kellar/Evan Adams)

ER: That match leads directly into this match, with Weird World coming out with big trophies that I believe grant them an any time title shot. They bring a ref and start brawling on the entrance ramp and some wildness is there, but overall this didn't work. I liked Weird Body brawling through the crowd with Flynn and Derek Director taking a nice spilling bump through a chair, and back in the ring Flynn hit a cool delayed side slam that really whipped Weird Body into the mat. But this whole thing overall was too short and the champs went down way too easy. Magnum went down after getting press slammed off the top and eats a DDT and not much else to put him down. I would have liked to see an actual match with these teams. A title change should have felt like a bigger deal. But it does all make a ton more sense (and his huge reaction pre-match makes a ton more sense) after the match when CK does a long and heartfelt promo about how his back has gotten worse and he found out that he has always had spina bifida, apparently. I had noticed he really really slowly locked Kellar in a figure 4, but I just assumed he was poor at applying a figure 4. He said spina bifida was supposed to be diagnosed from birth but it wasn't diagnosed. A fan amusingly said that it was probably Dr. D who blew it. His talk is really straight from the heart and the locker room comes out and he gets a lot off his chest. He talks about his difficult upbringing and how he started watching wrestling, tells a couple stories about his career. A real nice moment.

The Philly Marino Experience (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. To Infinity & Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney)

ER: This show is almost exhausting in its high quality. The tag scene in AIW is just incredible, these guys can just keep matching up in different combinations and having killer 12 minute matches and I will keep watching these shows. This match had it all in an economical amount of time, fun opening stooging from Delaney and Cheech, great double teams from To Infinity, fun spots from all, really built in a satisfying way and never threatened to overstay. I thought Colin Delaney looked really great here, and he's a guy I've enjoyed plenty before (and really loved his Hero singles) but this felt like a guy really coming into his own. He can do quick spots, innovative-while-not-ridiculous double teams, stooging, hard shots, really moved comfortably around a ring that constantly had action in it. I really dug his sliding in-ring powerbomb to the floor, then running around the side of the ring to hit an under bottom rope dropkick back into the ring, then ran in with a leaping cutter off the middle rope that lead right to Cheech planting Marino with a sick German. Super fun sequence in a match filled with them. He and Cheech worked consecutive running elbows in the corner then follow with consecutive face washes, and every tag team in AIW seems so in sync. Delaney even surprised me later with this awesome springboard cutter that saw him climb over the ropes and stop on the inside middle rope before leaping off. Philly Marino were fun foils, with Marino hitting some nice flying spots (big leap to the floor, awesome rana off the top that sent To Infinity cannonballing into each other) and Philly having a nice fired up babyface comeback hitting some big lariats on Cheech. They all made good use of saves and cut off spots so we didn't have ridiculous kickouts, and while it took a bit to set up the match appropriately ended on a tag team Vertebreaker/Air Raid Crash, which is a suitable way to end a match. Very very excited for this tag division going forward. Also, for whatever reason, it hit me that one of the commentators during this match is basically 0.9 Rick Sanchez. He doesn't do the belching, but the dude sounds exactly like Rick while calling the action.

PAS: This was really fun stuff. Delaney and Cheech are long time staples in AIW and it was really fun to see them work subtle heel here against a pair of young energetic kids. Fat guy and flippy guy is a good tag team template, and Marino took a big beating leading to a great fired up hot tag from Philly.  Loved the springboard plancha, Marino got great height on it and he had an awesome Skayde style roll up which is a great dude to crib from. I didn't think any of the double teams looked goofus (which is always a fear with indy tag team double teams, I see you Lynch Brothers), and that finishing Vertabreaker/ARC was super nasty and I appreciated the lack of kick out. So many good tag teams in this fed, there are dozens of different match ups I am excited about.

El Hijo De LA Park vs. Facade vs. Louis Lyndon vs. Laredo Kid vs. Gringo Loco vs. Flip Kendrick

PAS: Throw a bunch of nuts in a ring and let them try every highspot in their crazed minds. Obviously not everything is going to be hit cleanly, but there is enough frosting to make this a great dessert. Loco is a fucking beast in this match, his exchanges with Laredo Kid are pretty breathtaking, and he just takes offense so well, love the fact he is back in the wrestling spotlight nearly a decade after his IWRG peak. Lyndon and Flip are brothers and have some crazy ideas, including Flip hitting a destroyer into the turnbuckles (unsurprisingly this match had a bunch of Destroyers) and Lyndon hitting double poison ranas on Facade and Flip for the win. Hijo Park was probably the weak link, but this was on the level of any crazy Crash, AAA or indy lucha spotfest.

ER: I love a good spotfest and this, like any decent fireworks show, had a couple nice peaks and then kept drawing out the action, getting to a respectable runtime and leaving before running out of ideas. If I had attended this show and not enjoyed anything on the card so far (not true as this card has whipped) but I would have left happy, saying that Gringo Loco squaring off against Laredo Kid was worth the price of admission. Those two were so good and matched up so excellently that I just kept waiting for the match to get back to more Laredo/Gringo tradeoffs. Loco is certifiably Loco, and he works such graceful fast sequences well with basically anybody, but watching him take the flourishes of Laredo were too cool, especially that absolutely nuts rana that he took onto the entrance ramp. That ramp doesn't provide a lot of room to move - let alone bump - but he caught it and tumbled on down the rampway. Hijo de Park isn't great and he slowed things down when he was in. Slower is a better speed for him as there's still delay with a lot of his moves, but when he works faster he tends to cut corners (sloppily applied ranas, ugly headscissors). Lyndon, Kendrick, and Facade all had moments, every one of them knows how to take a flipping crazy bump off another crazy move, but I still was just waiting around for cameras to show Loco or Laredo again. Because come one. We had Laredo getting flipped into a dragon rana on Loco, Loco taking an MK Ultra from Hijo Park right on the top of his head, Laredo flinging himself off the mat and bouncing around after taking a flipping piledriver, Laredo hitting an insane dive - fast as hell - that crashed him into Loco and the guardrail (with Park hitting an Asai moonsault into him right after, and Facade hitting a flip dive onto Loco) and Loco is just an expert at flying around the ring and getting delicately into position for others' madness. I have a feeling we'll be writing up more available Gringo Loco footage than just about anybody.

LA Park vs. Nick Gage

PAS: There were some moments of miscommunication and awkardness here, but for the most part it delivered on its on paper promise. Gage gets mauled early, with pretty sick chairshots, and belt shots, getting tossed into the ringside. Gage makes a comeback beating on Park some, and we get a great Park dive and spear, before the shticky finish. It felt a little like play the hits PARK, which is fine those are some good hits, but it never reached the intensity of a great PARK brawl, or even a great Gage brawl. This isn't a big main event Apuestas match or anything, and I get why he didn't go nuts and have a classic,  but the PARK ceiling is so high, that it is hard not to think about what could have been.

ER: Phil didn't think I needed to watch this, but I was still curious and like these guys, wanted to see for myself. And I'm glad I did because I thought this delivered. It wasn't clean, it was a little messy, but I thought that dirtiness added to the mean fight feel of it all. Gage looks hungry and angry, Park looks like a larger and larger boss, both look like two guys you *want* to cross paths violently. Park jumping him with a chairshot got everything off to the perfect tone, and I thought that tone was matched through to the beginning. The brawling in this had a good amount of danger, and there were some major moments like Park's colossal dive, and Gage getting powerbombed kidneys first into a couple set up chairs. Park whips him with that sharp belt, but I loved the Gage comeback we built to. I dug how Park was working this almost subtle heel, really made Gage's comeback feel more exciting. I liked the up close hits in the middle of the ring, both guys throwing hard straight arm lariats, fun low blow finish all with great vocals and visuals from Gage. I'm glad I checked out these two kooks doing their thing.

Matthew Justice vs. Tim Donst

ER: This was no DQ and had a fair amount of crazy stuff, but it had a lot of backyard level spot set up and a confusing (which is not uncommon) Donst performance. Donst keeps kind of morphing into Balls Mahoney, and here he really lazily crawls onto tables to wait to be put through them, seems tired all throughout, but has no problem taking some rough spills. He splits Justice's head open kind of early with a brutal hard chair shot, then jabs at the cut with his fingers and scrapes Justice's bullet belt into it. There are a few big table spots, a nasty Jackhammer on the entrance stage where Donst likes like he doesn't really get all the way over, Justice really taking a long time with some of the set up, really dragging out the match time for spots that weren't ever treated like anything close to a killshot. The ref even takes an insane clutched death valley driver through a table after not letting Justice wrap Donst's head in a chair. The absolute craziest spot of the match - and one of the wildest things I've seen in wrestling this year - was Donst hitting a double underhook piledriver on the entrance ramp, and Justice's head splitting that ramp into a jagged particle board hole as it completely broke away and dropped Justice into the hole. A piledriver that literally drove Justice through the surface he was being piledriven onto. It gave us a great visual of Justice disappearing into the depths. Donst dragged him out and it got a 2 count. I lost interest in it the rest of the way (which wasn't much, but everything after felt like it was post a moment they wouldn't be able to match intensity-wise).

Eddie Kingston vs. Tracy Williams

PAS: Eddie Kingston does big Puro epic matches better then anyone in Japan. This was a hell of a battle and a kicker for a great year for both guys. I get a total kick out of Brooklyn street fighter Eddie Kingston training BJJ at American Top Team, but the early rolling here was pretty great, including Kingston with an awesome guard pull. Williams stomps and twists Kingston's fingers and we get some classic Kingston bodypart selling. He is constantly pulling at his finger, trying to pop it back, and get feeling back, it is a part of the match the entire time, nothing he does isn't informed at least a little bit by that bad finger. I have said it a bunch before, but Kingston may be the best seller in wrestling history, he takes a backdrop on the floor and starts groaning like someone who just blew out his knee in a pick up game. Kingston lands some very big shots on Williams, busting his eye open and smashing him with backfists. and Tracy refuses to go down. We get maybe the only good version of the emo Gargano spot, where Kingston makes the sign of the cross before trying to hit the Burning Hammer. Williams is able to flip the switch and hit two piledrivers to put Kingston down, and Kingston does his post match mic work while holding his arm straight out because of neck trauma.

ER: Main Event of a 3.5 hour 10 match show, and following a 6 man spotfest, a No DQ match, an LA Park brawl, and a fan favorite's retirement. That's a spot Eddie Kingston seems to have no problem occupying, and you knew he'd approach that fan burnout with his own unique touch on main event epic. This was a deep bruising war, and there really aren't guys around that do these deep bruising wars better than Kingston. Williams has his shoulder wrapped and Kingston is always nursing something, and that was an awesome story for two guys who couldn't look more different but have super complementary styles. Williams has hard elbows to the jaw, and the impact makes me think of my hands hurting after making bad contact with an aluminum bat. That ringing through your body. At one point Kingston starts gnawing on his tongue to get feeling to his jaw (a weird habit I sometimes do while running). Kingston hits back just as hard as Williams, sometimes Kingston can't help it and forecasts his shots, but it's a fun wrinkle in his game and I always like how he plays it. These guys throw each other around a ton, and each landing was so hard. These landings all looked no give, Kingston taking a back suplex on the floor, both getting dropping in the ring, Kingston unleashing a career shortening head and arm suplex (dumping Sauce directly onto his head and neck); all the suplexes looked tough, fought for, earned. That butterfly suplex by Kingston was something that you could see in a creative playground fight. Now, I do think the match went long. I see why they went long, and I kind of appreciate them going long considering their spot on a very big card. But my absolute favorite Kingston wars do tend to be his somewhat truncated shoot outs. This went a little over on the damage for me, and I'm never going to be excited for a piledriver rendered meaningless. These guys were crushing vertebrae, I'm going to need that to be respected. These guys earned their scars, sheesh we see in real time a cut get opened on the side of Williams' eye for goodness sakes. But these two were mean, they should have protected their killshots.

ER: What a fantastic show, this fed is really ticking off all the boxes on what I want to see on a pro wrestling show. The base style of this fed is very high floor for me, so with that structure and an enjoyable pace these shows really deliver. We're putting THREE matches from the show on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, and there were a couple others that were arguable. That's a show that's easy to recommend, highly.

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AIW Death Rowe 1/19/18

Shane Mercer vs. Matt Justice

ER: Mercer is like if Sheamus mated with Petey Williams, and Justice is like if Drew Galloway mated with Baron Corbin. And both of those things have their benefits. There are a couple drawbacks of the Sheamus/Petey Williams mixture. If your water has over 10 Petey Williams parts per billion, your wrestling DNA is going to be at least somewhat tainted. But he's a compact guy with genuine power, but also gets a bit too married to a sequence. He hit an awesome press slam spot that saw him holding Justice up with one arm, but there was also a clunky planned sequence where he got suplexed into the ropes upside down, and was supposed to hold on, but he didn't catch the turnbuckles properly. So then he stayed "stuck" in the turnbuckles as he scrambled to go through with the planned spot while people groaned. But he's pale so his chest turned bright red on chops, and Justice throws a lot of chops (and some great headbutts). Justice hits a nice shotgun kick and the finish looks big time, with Justice hitting a flying kneedrop to the back of Mercer's head while Mercer is bent at the waist. It was like a modern indy version of a Cattle Branding, looked cool.

Parker Pierce/Big Twan Tucker vs. Weird World (Alex Kellar/"Weird Body" Evan Adams)

ER: Weird Body is probably my favorite wrestler who isn't actually very good, but I'll always watch him! Match was okay and had some surprises. Kellar has gotten better and while he isn't as funny as White Mike, he hits harder. Late in the match he hits a tope that's ugly when compared to the oldest luchador tope, but points for hurling your belly and dirty tights through the ropes onto another human. Pierce and Tucker work a frat gimmick, and Pierce has a good potentially hateable charisma, like a Chris Dickinson ceiling. He's not there, but his potential for improvement is big, and he did things I liked: drops a big leg (in tandem with a Big Twan splash to Weird Body), bullied Adams around, dropped him with some indy "I drop your face on my knee", and as Adams is sitting upright and stunned Pierce shoves him over to pin. The shove was a nice, Finlay-esque move, those kind of things are good signs. Weird Body beatdowns aren't ever really as good in practice as they seem like they would be on paper. He does get tossed with a fallaway slam and eats a splash/legdrop, but you almost expect the beating on him to be more violent and it usually isn't. He has no meat on his bones to absorb bumps, I wouldn't want to get tossed around much either.

Frankie Flynn/Magnum CK vs. Chase Oliver/Tre Lamar

ER: Good match, I liked what all four guys brought. Flynn is a good Jimmy Jacobs lite, sells really well, took a kneeling rana really cool and made it look like he lawndarted himself into the mat, a guy worth going out of your way to watch. Magnum CK is this big oaf-y Davey Boy Smith Jr./Matthew Rhys on the Americans looking guy, who apparently had been out of wrestling for 8 years (his comeback promo made it sound like he was dealing with alcoholism?), and has an all time great ring entrance: He comes out in his show cape, arms extended, and he proceeds to walk all around ringside with arms fully extended, which means his outer hand is just lightly slapping and pie-facing everybody in the front row. He wrestles like Bret Hart with a dash of John Tatum, so he'll hit a nice diving elbow off the middle rope and hit a legsweep, but he'll also pinball between punches and flop face first hard to the mat. Oliver and Lamar are a cut above your typical timed sexy dance fighters, they throw decent punches and have cool tandem offense (loved Lamar armdragging Oliver into a a slumped-in-the-corner Flynn), and they peak with each hitting tandem dives, Oliver moonsaulting to the floor while Lamar crosses paths with him diving diagonally past the ringpost. I mean holy crap, crossing paths on a dive is just flat out crazy. They weren't operating with a ton of space, like the fucking Blue Angels of wrestling. Everyone added to this, went a nice length, real satisfying tag.

Johnathan Wolf vs. Malcolm Monroe III

ER: My, this went on for quite awhile, didn't it? Both guys have some ideas, and both guys want to use every single one of their ideas smack dab in the middle of an 8 match card. I thought Wolf had some neat things, especially liked his aloof dickhead habit of tying his hair back in a loose bun whenever he had some down time, including kicking and stomping at Monroe while doing so. Monroe slips up on a couple of the dancier spots, but breaks out some crazy ideas, even hits a big moonsault off the top into the crowd and takes a huge running powerbomb into the guardrail. But he relies on Wolf's recklessness, and seeming willingness to get dumped on his head by stupid flipping piledrivers. We had a lot of piledrivers in this match that didn't mean a whole lot. Monroe did a lot of annoying death sell, only to be up hopping around moments later. We had an amusing moment of both landing kicks and strikes at the same time and both falling on their face. And we also had a freaking flip piledriver off the top, that then left Wolf standing on his feet swaying back and forth, waiting to take another flip piledriver variation, like he's waiting to take a Fatality in Mortal Kombat. They both had good ideas, they both had bad tendencies. I'd like to see them reigned in.

Colby Redd/Derek Director/Eddy Only vs. Garrison King/AJ Gray/Joshua Bishop

ER: AIW seems to be able to just throw guys together in a multiman and have it deliver, and this delivered. The former team is the rest of The Production, and the latter team we saw in the great 2017 AIW 10 man. A trios like this can play to everyone's strengths, and I thought this mostly did. Director was maybe exposed too much, but his good stuff was good. Eddy Only has a great dirtbag look, he could be the roadie for Ugly Ducklings (if the Ugly Ducklings were a Banana Splits style band and went out on tour). He looks like someone in an action movie, where our hero gets into a big fight with a bunch of truckers at the bar, and Only is a tiny scrappy trucker who our hero laughs off before realizing Only is the crazy trucker who overindulges on speed cut with bleach. He bumps big and moves quick, and I like how people somewhat used him as a weapon, like Bishop powerbombing him to the floor onto everyone. King also bumps big and moves quick, loved how he took a Colby Redd suplex, loved the section with The Production beating him down. AJ Gray is a Wee Willie Mack and hits a big tope at one point, a crazy tornillo to the floor. Throwing together a roster for a fun 15 minute 6 man is one of my favorite things in wrestling; I love 2000-2007 NOAH trios, obviously WAR trios, it's just a cool easy always fun match if you have the depth. And AIW has rarely disappointed me in that department.

Dominic Garrini vs. Juice Robinson

PAS: New Japan and NXT are two of my biggest wrestling blindspots, so I had seen hardly any Juice Robinson, but I will watch pretty much any Garrini match, and this was a ton of fun. Robinson comes in crowbarishly and it forces Garrini to throw big shots too. I liked the story of this match with Garrini scouting the bigger star and having counters, while Juice doesn't know anything about Dominic. It felt like Garrini had answers to all of Robinson big moves, he countered his big senton to a cross armbreaker, avoided his kicks and countered the Pulp Friction into a wastelock throw and nasty armbar for the tap. Robinson really hit hard here, big chops, and a couple of huge clotheslines, basically working this like a dominant guy, that dominance really made the upset victory work. Dom has started out 2018 on fire, and I imagine he is going to have a big year.

ER: I'm a big Juice fan. Juice is a guy I really liked in NXT. Easily one of the best workers there, and he really made his condescending dirty hippie heel character work, and I’ve always like his wrestling style. He doesn’t skimp on little things like stomach kicks, he throws a variety of nice punches, he hits way harder than you might guess by looking at him, has some weird offense that he makes look better than others (his standing spin kick doesn’t seem like it should land effectively, but he always makes it look like a kill shot), he’s just a quality guy. Garrini is someone who I think will be good, and has obviously been a major contributor to some great stuff already. I do think he has a tendency to look a little robotic during strike exchanges, and some of his set ups feel like something I would be more critical of if they were done by someone I didn’t like. But I like Garrini, and I like the skillset he brings to a match, and I think these two are good dance partners who I had never actually pictured dancing together. Juice has kind of a cocky style without always being overtly cocky, which is the perfect kind of guy to go up against someone with legit submission skills. Every time Juice would leave a limb out there or go into guard for a pinfall I kept waiting for Garrini to snap the bear trap. Juice bumps big on lariats but dishes nice jabs, that big spin kick, a nice powerbomb out of the corner, and they work some cool stuff like Garrini locking on a standing guillotine but eventually getting slammed by Juice. I love those moments in Riddle or Garrini matches, where their opponent leaps into something only to get caught in a sub, and they’re even better when they actually incorporate the opponent’s regular offense. I rarely see them used as “trying to sunset flip Rikishi” or “trying to powerbomb Kidman”, they’re usually pretty smart. Juice has a nice senton so it makes sense when Garrini gets his knees up and locks in an armbar. The finish is the same and it’s satisfying, Juice getting caught in another armbar and immediately tapping. Fun match that solidified what I like about both guys.

43. To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech/Colin Delaney) vs. Philly Marino Experience (Philly Collins/Marino Tenaglia) vs. Young Studs (Bobby Beverly/Eric Ryan) vs. Excellence Personified (Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham/Brian Carson)

PAS: AIW has mastered these multi man tag matches, and I really think To Infinity and Beyond are the glue that holds them together. This is really early PME, they have really developed in a great team, but this match was 18 months ago and they are still pretty seamlessly integrated into the match. This is the most I have enjoyed Dr. Dan, as he cuts out the comedy and just takes bumps. I think TIAB are just conducting a complex amount of traffic. Philly Collins's fat boy moonsault to the floor is one of the more impressive highspots around, he gets great height and lands with tubby force. Brian Carson has a crazy bump to the floor where he cracks his head on the top of the metal post, we get a bunch of cool double teams, and some really well timed cut offs. Just such an enjoyable bit of craziness.

ER: Yep, this ruled, easily my favorite match of the show. I'm never going to know/remember why I didn't watch this match with the rest of the show. AIW has my favorite tag scene in wrestling, and they do these wild action multi mans SO much better than anyone else, and Delaney/Cheech really do seem to be the consistent denominator in all of them. But this match was filled with star performances. Yes, Cheech and Delaney are constantly a part of that, and seem to trigger each new momentum change, while looking explosive as hell. Delaney runs into guys faster and with harder elbows than anyone in this thing, he has gotten so good in the past couple years. PME looked great too, with Marino dropping a great underdog babyface performance. Every time he would come in it lead to something exciting. Philly built to his big moments nicely, and that moonsault to the floor was like a strike that sends every single pin exploding backwards. But my favorite thing he did might have been when he got accidentally tied up in the ropes, to set up Delaney's sliding German. I'm a big fan of guys finding cool ways to set up someone else's trademark offense, anything other than just standing there and waiting. Brian Carson takes the bump of the match, missing an avalanche and hitting the ringpost, and then continuing to tumble over the top and off the ring steps to the floor. Young Studs looked good as ever, Beverly delivers his slams super fast and Ryan threw the best punches of the match, and threw them often. This whole thing was 8 guys running hard and running into each other, taking big bumps, finding fun ways to break up pins, just the best, most thoroughly mapped out tag. These matches are the best versions of those Dragons Gate scrambles that got acclaim over a decade ago.

Keith Lee vs. Raymond Rowe

ER: This was Rowe's final indy match before going to NXT, so I figured I should check it out as I like him and obviously like Lee, and they went for an epic, and several big parts of the epic worked, but it also dragged something fierce. The match was a little over 25 minutes and felt about 45. To somebody who has somehow not seen either of these guys work before, both move like you would not expect them to move. They both have explosive speed and both hit hard, so you get this neat mix of quick bursts ending in meaty thumps. This takes awhile to get going, as they really milked the opening, milked the first lockup, milked all of it. By the time Rowe went for a handshake and decked Lee (which Lee sold in the ropes with a nice amusing cross-eyed sell) and they started trading their big moves, every move was a peak, and the wait time until the next move was a big valley. I don't want to sound like I expect go go go highspots in every match, but these two both have impressive gas tanks for their size and probably could have crushed a 13 minute sprint, but we ended up with a lot of lying around and a lot of shocked reactions at the referee when a move did not get the 3 count.

But I like how both guys move so there's a lot of pleasure just seeing them interact, seeing a big Lee leapfrog/dropdown/dropkick, seeing Rowe superman punch Lee around ringside, seeing these giant dudes throw each other. We got tons of elbows and knees, and some cool blocking of those moves: Rowe starts blocking Lee elbows with his head and then clunks him in the chest with a headbutt, Lee starts blocking Rowe's knees with his forearms and sinks a few nasty knees to the gut himself. Rowe hits Lee with a mammoth uranage, and I liked Lee screaming on the way down. Rowe starts dishing huge running knee's to Lee's face, almost winding up like he's hitting a short arm clothesline, but nailing a kneeling Lee in the jaw. We even get Rowe hitting a flipping piledriver on Lee for a 2 count, which looked spectacular and really should have ended the match. But we kind of drag out the nearfalls and the finish is a kinda fun twist, as Rowe hits the Death Rowe knee to the back of Lee's head and hits a tornado elbow...only to have Lee timberrrrrrr down on top of him for the 3 count. I like the use of "man trying to reach for one last free snack from the vending machine, ending with the vending machine crushing him" parable. The match had some weird moments, like Lee stopping the match to tell the ringside fans to feast their eyes on the specimen of Keith Lee, and Rowe stopping the match to tell the crowd "Let me feed off your energy". And the proceedings just dragged on too long, though I understand them wanting to go big on Rowe's last show. An enjoyable match, but not as big as I hoped.


ER: Really fun show. The AIW roster is really awesome, cool mix of guys, definitely a crew I'm going to keep seeking out. Even when the matches aren't "MOTY" level, they still deliver. There's a bunch of match-ups I want to see with these guys. Juice/Garrini is an easy choice for our 2018 MOTY list though, totally delivering on a match that I hadn't thought of as happening. You will certainly see more AIW stuff written up here, that's for sure.

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