Wrestlemania Weekend Thursday: Matt Riddle's Bloodsport

For those that don't know this was a no-ropes show with every match being submission or KO. It lost a little shine for me when Low-Ki canceled, but this is still full of guys I dig in a style I love

KTB vs. Dominic Garinni

PAS: Really fun short intro to this style. KTB isn't going to be comfortable exchanging holds with a Ju-Jitsu champion, but I did think he showed nice explosiveness on his takedowns, and I loved the little short jab he threw. Finish was really great with KTB dropping Dom with a jab and diving on him, only to get caught in a triangle choke for the tap. Cool flash finish, very Fujiwarish, which is a style that works well for Dominic, I really like him as a guy who can tap anyone, anytime.

Eddie Kingston vs. Tracy Williams

PAS: I liked this a lot too, Kingston is great as the unpolished guy who is just going to fight his way out of submissions with grit rather then technique. Williams is tying him up with leg locks and King is just looking for faces to punch.Told a very cool little story. I have no idea why Riddle was working as Eddie's second, but he is a great second. Neat finish with Kingston able to get to get to his feet, Williams runs right into a knee and King rocks him with shots and drops him with a backfist. Neat stuff and I need to track down their AIW match.

Martin Stone vs. Masada

PAS: First real miss of this show, they really should have thrown this out and had a fist fight, but they tried to grapple and that isn't up either guys alley. This was also marred by some really weird ref shit, Bryce Remsberg reffed half the matches, but the kid that was doing this match didn't seem to know what he was doing, he had a couple of weird standups, and seemed to stop the match early. Whole thing was kind of a mess and the referee didn't help

WALTER vs. Filthy Tom Lawlor

PAS: Kind of funny that the UFC guy versus the multiple time AMBITION guy was the least shooty of the matches on the show. This was just a stiff fight, with WALTER lacing Lawlor with chops and Lawlor firing back with shots. It had bodyslams and Tenryu jabs and not much grappling or submission attempts, and one point WALTER even ripped off Lawlors soft cast. Finish was great with WALTER just trying to pound his fist through Lawlor's chest and then locked on an arm trap sleeper hold.  I enjoyed this a bunch, crowd was really into it, although I would have liked to see them try to work a really shootstyle match.

ER: Hot damn this was a bank filled with money. This was a short match, just 8 minutes, but wasn't worked as a sprint with them rushing to fit everything in, and yet still seemed like a complete and total match due to the stiffness and selling and personalities of both. Lawlor is a big guy but looks small next to WALTER, and WALTER treats him small. This was a beatdown to start, with Lawlor attempting to trade but getting met with expectedly nasty chops and a smothering ground attack. Before long he's ripping off Lawlor's soft cast and starts slamming that freaking arm into the mat in the most violent disgusting way. My god, man. Lawlor's selling was great throughout and his comebacks really amped this up, knowing he was likely outgunned but not giving a damn, unflinching at the thought of going down in a blaze. I dug the Tenryu chop/jab comeback, and I flipped out for Riddle's superman punch. WALTER went down in a heap, and because Lawlor is the man he then even does the Roman Reigns shotgun to set up his next one...except WALTER chops him out of air to his doom and then levels him with a short arm clothesline. Toast. Lawlor throws a Hail Mary and rolls through a WALTER choke to set up an armbar, but it is fleeting. WALTER powerbombs out of it, pounds on Lawlor's chest like Donkey Kong, and locks on the most disgusting choke, trapping Lawlor's arm behind his own head while applying a sleeper. This match was huge, total war that was short without actually feeling like anything was left out. A real gem.

Chris Dickinson vs. Dan Severn

PAS: This was the most shootstyle of the matches so far, and I really enjoyed it. It was the story of Severn using his strength to ground and slow down Dickinson and Dickinson having some real explosion and aggression when he was on his feet. Loved Dickinson's kicks to the body and Severn kidney shots. Awesome spot where Severn caught Dickinsons high kick and took him down. Match was marred with another terrible ref spot, where Dickison was in the mount raining down elbows and the ref restarted them on their feet. This allowed Severn to catch Dickinson with a german and choke him out. Clearly the ref thing is some sort of angle, and it is a stinky one, show didn't need Tirantes and it is only making matches worse.

Nick Gage vs. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: Gage is over huge with the crowd, Gage is a bit hit and miss with me as a wrestler, but what a cool story his return has been. This was fun but a bit messy. I loved Thatcher chicken winging Gage out of the ring to the floor, it was cool that they kept all of the other matches in the ring, so this was a bigger deal. Similar story here that they had for Williams vs. Kingston, although this had more heat and some ringside brawling. I did think Gage needed to lay it in a bit more, for a deranged ex-convict, his stuff can be a little weak some times, I needed him to really smash Thatcher to buy the stoppage.

Matt Riddle vs. Minoru Suzuki

PAS: I really enjoyed this, and it was easily the match of the show. This felt like a big deal, Suzuki was super over and this was a main event match. All the early grappling was cool, and felt UWFIish, more then anything else on the show. Loved all of the leverage spots around the apron, such a clever use of the no ropes gimmick with the guy on top having the advantage some of the time, and then the guy on the floor being able to gain the upper hand. Also loved the finish with Suzuki really sinking in the choke and Riddle considering hurling them both to the floor, before thinking better of it and slamming Suzuki hard, but not hard enough, down on the mat. I am bummed about Low-Ki no showing, because that could have been really special, but this was a great last minute replacement

ER: Phil has been watching hot topic (because it's a hot topic online right now, not a show promoted by a bunch of doofs in Bullet Club shirts or something) all day and texting me about it, while I've been glued to my desk finishing up my yearly Fixed Asset Certification Reports. Much like with professional sports trades, we're better off evaluating them long after the fact and then deciding who had the better day. This was the first WM weekend show I watched and it was probably one of the most anticipated, and I imagine this delivered pretty much what people wanted and went as expected. The takedown defense of Suzuki is fun, and the grappling between the two of them is a gas, and you know we get some dueling kneebars that look like they would just snap my tibia. All my favorite stuff in the match happened around the apron. Since there were no ropes they were able to do some cool leverage spots with the apron, with Suzuki pulling guard for an advantage, but it quickly turning to a disadvantage when Riddle slipped off the apron and was now standing on the floor, hammering down on Suzuki's face and body. The other perfect apron spot was the end, when Suzuki had a backpack choke on Riddle and Riddle stumbled to the edge of the apron and threatened do plunge backwards off the side, instead dropping backwards into the ring before getting choked out (and turning purple in the process). Tons of fun moments here, like their lightning fast strike exchange that saw several limbs flying at once, the battle over a slow German suplex by Riddle (followed up by a big senton), Riddle calling out a fan for cheering Suzuki, pretty much all you wanted out of this match-up.


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Wrestlemania Weekend Cherry Picking

Way too much wrestling Wrestlemaina weekend to watch, but we cherry picked some non EVOLVE indy stuff that looked good

Matt Riddle v. Dan Severn GCW 3/30/17

PAS: Really fun match with Riddle and Severn just in there rolling with each other and laying in every time the threw. Severn is a little awkward, but mean old football coach is really the best wrestling role he has had, I loved his knees to the kidneys and how he would walk through Riddle's shots to grab him. I really think Riddle doing his fighting spirit german no-sells was weak shit, especially in this kind of match, but I liked everything else. Finish was especially awesome with Severn landing these nasty knees to the spine, getting a really close near fall with a bodylock dragon sleeper, only to have Riddle squirt out, land some vicious elbows to the temple and lock on the twister. This really makes me want to see more 2017 Severn, totally fun stuff.

ER: "Old man grappling" sounds like a top contender for the Segunda Caida masthead, so I was expecting to enjoy this, and it delivered. Severn is pushing 60 and pretty stiff in the ring (as in, inflexible), but he's got the size and the strength and the literal decades of muscle memory bore into his brain, so he's a fun lug within the current grapple-heavy style. He's also pale, which made Riddle's knee and palm strikes read terrific, as Severn had tons of pink and red areas minutes in. Severn kept bullying through Riddle's finesse while Riddle just wanted to land strikes in bunches. I liked the commentary as they brought up things like Severn being a part of MMA infancy and how far it advanced by the time Riddle was brought in, but they also made me genuinely laugh out loud a couple of times (talking about Severn's "dad strength", which is funny and true, and as Severn is fishing for "Beast" chants one of them points out his crowd work, calling him "the Todd Barry of wrestling". That's funny). I really hated the Riddle German no-selling, and I was hoping it was leading to Severn just destroying him with those knees to the spine into the dragon sleeper he was going for, like Phillip Jennings breaking that dude's neck on The Americans. This was all fun stuff.

Dominic Garrini v. Martin Stone PPW 3/31/17

PAS: I thought this was pretty disappointing. Garrini is a new Segunda Caida favorite, but lack much of the style which made the Cain Justice match so special. Stone is a guy with a positive rep, but I thought he was pretty terrible in this, this was Garrini forced to work a Stone match, full of tough guy elbow exchanges and goofy finger breaking spots. Garrini had a couple of leaps into triangle chokes which were cool, but this did very little for him. Finish was lame with Stone just breaking a triangle choke from a Ju-Jitsu world champion and putting on some sort of weak crossface for the tap, totally lame, the equivalent of Shane McMahon out wrestling Kurt Angle.

Low-Ki v. Shane Strickland WrestleCon Supershow 3/31/17

PAS: My Killshot thoughts are well documented, so this wasn't an ideal Ki opponent for one of his 6 or so matches we might get this year, still they worked this mostly as a quasi-competitive squash and Strickland is a perfectly fine guy to get squashed. Ki is in the Game of Death gear and no matter what he is wearing he will kick a dude hard in the chest, his downed elbows looked especially nasty here, thought they might slice Strickland. Stricklands moments of offense looked kind of dumb, but they were few and far between. Really liked the finish as both guys fought on the top rope, until Ki set up his hanging double stomp onto the ring apron, which was a finish for sure. Ki's base match is so high right now, not sure this was anything more then his base match, but I enjoyed it.

Jay Lethal v. Cody ROH 4/1/17

PAS: This was a bullrope match with a member of the Rhodes family, so I figured I would check it out. I mostly enjoyed this especially when they were hitting each other with cowbells. Cody breaks out a nice blade job (wasn't at the level of Dusty or Dustin, but not bad for a first time), there was a great moment where Lethal went for the Lethal injection but Cody pulled the rope causing Lethal to piledrive himself. I thought this got a bit move tradey at the end for a match which should be all about gouging and choking, but I still enjoyed this more then I would have any other version of this matchup.

ER: Decided to add Riddle/Severn to our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List. What other WM weekend matches should we look at for possible inclusion?


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE MATT RIDDLE

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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NXT Episode 219 5/1/14 Review

HHH opens the show and sounds markedly drunk as he stumbles through run on sentences, mumbling about the future, oddly touching his face and smacking his lips. Dude looks and sounds wasted, like he's most focused on standing up than what his next words will be. "And there will be...there will be a live 2...hour event. And the name...the name is...the name will be MOST appropriate...for what we have going on, down here...." Pull it together dude.

1. Tyson Kidd vs. Bo Dallas

Regal says that he was a godless heathen before Bo Dallas gave him something to BoLieve in. Though Regal also calls Kidd one of "the last journeyman wrestlers" who traveled all over the world honing his craft. I mean...you can literally say that about dozens of guys who still work American indies and Japan and Mexico. Byron Saxton is so much more palatable with Regal by his side. Regal actually feeds him things and compliments him when he makes a good point. On the main brand they literally spend the whole broadcast just waiting for him to say something they can make fun of. And this whole match was really fun. Dallas is such a completely different wrestler in NXT than he's ever been given the chance to be on the main brand. The confidence he gives off is crazy, because that hasn't been there for even one moment in WWE. All their little things looked good here, super engaging collar and elbows, really trying to bully each other around instead of going through motions. Dallas got into position nicely for Kidd's stuff and Kidd leaned into Dallas' lariats and knees. Dallas is smart using Kidd's offense against him, and hits a bulldog the old fashion way that we all miss. Crowd continues their descent into a bunch of "we're super insiders and in on the joke, this is OUR show" jackassery. Dallas has been really good at handling his spiral from champion to guy who keeps coming up short. The facials and frustration are there, looking like he's about to cry and/or upend a table.

Sasha Banks' line reading is a real step above almost anybody else in the fed. Adam Rose continues to look like the phoniest, most minor league gimmick.

2. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

Really fun match. They had 5 minutes to do their thing and managed to work about 8 minutes of match into that 5. Not by rushing through their spots but by not wasting any time. No stalling, no chinlocks, just working to finish. Both match up nicely and do little things like hold pinfalls really snug, never looking like they're cooperatively letting the other one kick out, actually looking like *gasp* the pins are supposed to be pinning someone. Both work really nicely in the corner, I LOVE that Bayley uses a bearhug (because, of course), and I wasn't expecting the Banks win. The backstabber into a crossface is a great combo as the backstabber is so much better as part of a sequence instead of the be all end all. Sasha has kind of been portrayed as someone who always fails in big moments, whether they mean to be doing that or not, so this was good.

3. Adam Rose vs. Danny Burch

Really didn't need to see this match again as they just ran this a few weeks prior and there are so many other guys I'd rather see Martin Stone up against. The last one was a bad Rose showcase squash and this at least had some Burch offense as Burch controls a bit to start with some go behinds and a nice punch, but then we go into dogshit Rose squash mode.

4. Natalya vs. Layla

Layla!!! My favorite! I thought she got really good teaming with Michelle McCool and hadn't realized she was still in the fed at this point. Regal talks about how Layla picked up some "very vicious habits" from him. Love it. And really Layla is still really good. Her facials are better than most Divas, and she knows how to put over that she's really enjoying dishing a beating. She's also great at making it look like she's talking shit to her opponent when she's actually just calling spots. That's an underrated skill right there. The Natalya win was never really in doubt, but I was surprised that Layla took the entire match up until the sharpshooter finish.

5. Oliver Grey vs. Mojo Rawley

You know what happens here. Mojo hits some weak avalanches and a decent bombs away. For a guy clearly not ready for TV, he sure is on TV as much as anybody.

6. No DQ Match: Brodus Clay vs. Adrian Neville

I guess we needed this No DQ match? Their match a couple episodes before this was pretty bad, ending in a count out after Brodus missed a terrible looking splash off the ring steps. I'm sure we were all ready to forget about the feud that really just happened out of nowhere anyway. And then they shut my mouth by going out and having a really damn good match. It's No DQ but they don't bog it down with weapon spots, and instead let the match stipulation inform their attitude. So they aren't wrestling a rote match with the addition of a chair or table spot, but instead Neville jumps Brodus at the bell and starts stiffing him, so Brodus is fighting underneath right from the beginning, meaning once he starts shifting tides he's doing things with an exclamation point. He's kicking Neville in the ribs, he's slamming him unsafely, he plants him with a big splash off the top, big avalance in the corner, belly to belly, fat elbow drop. The guy actually looks pissed and so does Neville. That's a huge difference from their previous encounter. Clay grabs the NXT title and rushes Neville with it, but Neville sidekicks him, kicking the title right into Clay's chest and throat and leading right to the Red Arrow. I loved the abruptness of the finish, really made the first involvement of a weapon seem like a bigger deal. Really good match.

Better show this week than we've been getting, although I reallllllly want them to stop these 6 match shows. I don't need a fucking Mojo squash every damn week, don't need Adam Rose. Just give me 4 matches that run 5-10 minutes each. But I like the idea of the women's tournament and that main event was really damn satisfying.


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NXT Episode 216 4/10/14 Review

1. Adam Rose vs. Danny Burch

Burch is UK wrestler Martin Stone who I have seen before and really liked in Evolve. There are many guys in NXT I would rather see him go up against. Shame Regal wasn't on commentary here as I'd love to hear his thoughts on Burch. The match itself wasn't really given a chance to be interesting as it was mostly a heatless Rose showcase. Rose hits some nice shoulderblocks and a nice Bret Hart elbow drop (with elbow pad removal!) but the schtick wastes too much time and got old immediately. Hopefully Burch pops up more in the future though.

2. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

Short match but go go go and they made the short time work for them. Sasha knows she doesn't have much offense but makes up for it in other ways, and clearly has tons of body charisma and knows how to bitch it up in the ring. She also knows how to let her opponent transition to offense by letting her own bitchiness distract her. Bayley fit a bunch of cool things into her shine, throwing a few flying back elbows and hitting a great high lift belly to belly (The Bayley to Belly is an amusing name). Sasha really bumped hard for those elbows and especially took that BtB really high up on her shoulders. I'm actually pretty shocked Sasha loses as much as she does - in my brief time spent with NXT. She comes off like a pretty big deal but maybe I'm misreading her character and part of it is that she thinks she's a big deal but always loses? Legend in her own mind? The announce crew doesn't play things that way (although I wouldn't trust Riley and Albert to be able to get anything over properly).

3. Sylvester Lefort vs. Mojo Rawley

Albert is to "Oh man this guy gets me pumped" during Rawley's entrance, as Tazz is to "Well...here comes the pain!" during old Lesnar entrances. If Mojo has to be on TV every week at least this match was just a minute long. Though I always really really hate when a match is shorter than the combined ring entrance time. Lefort seems kinda fun and he makes Mojo look good enough in his short time in the ring. This kind of Mojo in ring training seems like stuff that can be happening off camera though.

We get a fun look at the NXT events during the 2014 Wrestlemania weekend. I will say that when WM was in San Jose last year we tried to get NXT tickets and that thing sold out QUICK. We didn't starve for wrestling as we got to see a couple of killer Evolve shows. We get some fun moments like a nice seeming dad congratulating Zayn on his accomplishments, and telling him he's phenomenal. Also get Lefort pretending to take a nap behind Rawley while Rawley goes on about how hyped he always is.

4. Bo Dallas vs. Justin Gabriel

We get a longish segment with Bo having a breakdown in the ring, wanting the fans support while they turn their backs, then "Commissioner" JBL comes out and lets Bo know that he'll be facing Justin Gabriel. JBL is the NXT Commissioner? This is literally the first time I've heard that even mentioned, and this is the 10th episode of NXT I've watched. Albert and Riley go on about all the great choices JBL has made as Commissioner but I swear this is the only time I've ever heard JBL's name even mentioned here. WTF? Match didn't do a lot for me. Crowd was really chant-y the whole show, which I get when you're there every week and see all these guys in a small venue, but this was the first time I felt it was getting into a "Let's be the show!" type of thing. This match was just Albert yelling OOOOOOHHHHHHH whenever Gabriel did literally any move. He was so constantly amazed at every light-landing Gabriel crossbody. Albert was like an immigrant seeing the Statue of Libery for the first time, just eyes wide in amazement when Gabriel would do a standard dropkick. Bo Dallas shows so much more polish in NXT than he's shown on the main roster. It's odd as it's obviously why Ascension look worse on the main roster: Their bodies deflated a bit and they weren't allowed to be super violent with people the way they were to jobbers, kinda like the old Mike Awesome dilemma. But Bo might just be one of those guys who translates to 400 people and not 4000 people. But he knows how to react to this crowd, knows how to work heel, and looks good in the ring. I've not seen him do any one of those things in WWE. But yeah, this got a lot of time and didn't do much for me.

Pretty throwaway episode right here. But hey next week we get Great Khali (no clue that Khali was still employed in 2014)!




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EVOLVE 41 4/17/15 Review

ER: Show starts with the Premier Athlete Brand (Nese, Conley, SoCal Val, Andrea, Su Yung) coming out, and Nese running down Yung for his losses at the WM weekend shows, even though she wasn't there. Val is always amusing in her chief bitch role, but this can't really go anywhere that interesting to me. Are we building to a Yung/Andrea feud? Is the payoff going to be Yung triumphantly leaving the team to go stand ringside for a different team?

1. Anthony Nese vs. Martin Stone

ER: I liked this more than I thought I would. Martin Stone is a guy I hadn't seen much and I came away really wanting to see more. His dedication to little things means his matches have a higher floor than most matches. When you fly into everything, cut low on clotheslines, have a snug side headlock,  hit firm shoulderblocks, miss like you mean it, take opponents' offense great, etc. I will want to see more of you. Stone seems like a guy that would match up great with Busick/Thatcher/Gulak and I'd be excited for any combo of that. Nese is...trickier. I don't think he's bad, and a lot of things he does has a nice crispness to it. The guy is very athletic (if you didn't notice that on your own, just wait a minute and you're bound to hear the announcers fawn all over his body. Their affections play as if they learned commentary from listening to Kal Rudman call Tony Garea matches. "Look at the body on Nese. These aren't just 'show muscles' either, they're functional. The fucking camera lens steamed up at one point.) and has a similar snap to his stuff as Stone. But it's when he reverts back to his old life as "athletic indie wrestler" that he starts kind of sucking. If he was just a grounded asskicker who worked more like a black trunks young boy, I like that guy. A mean dropkick and a wrenched half crab, sure, gimme that shit. It's when we get into those stupid athleticism for the sake of athleticism spots that plague your workrate indies that makes me not like him, so we'll occasionally get a springboard moonsault that overshoots and sees his arms barely graze his opponent. He seems to be getting away from that mumbo jumbo and has been better for it. He's moving in the right direction. But yes, I enjoyed this. Nice tight work from Stone, no overkill, mostly good performance from Nese, fine opener.

2. Caleb Konley vs. Rey Horus

ER: Well this one didn't do much for me, especially with the time allotted. It was not bad. But it went too long and neither guy's offense is something I'm into. I've seen Horus look better, I've seen Konley look worse. A lot of Horus' offense kind of reeked of dated early 2000s indy lucha spots, a lot of "hold my hand while I scale on the ropes and then bounce on them a bit before my armdrag!" or both guys going up top for a move but at a certain point they're just standing up there for way too long trying to help the other guy get balanced, instead of actually looking like guys that want to fight. I mentally prepared for Konley to have to hold himself balanced over the middle rope while Horus did a legdrop, but it never came. Horus needs to watch some more Scoot Andrews tapes. Konley throws a nice left elbow but both guys kind of get a little too cute with a lot of spots. Konley is part of the new wave of do-si-do indy workers, where so many of their reversals and reversals of reversals and scouting of the opponent is so up inside their own ass that it no longer resembles wrestling at a certain point, it looks more like pairs square dancing. Just hooking elbows and do-si-doing around each other.

3. TJ Perkins vs. Biff Busick

PAS: Perkins is a fun addition to the grappler EVOLVE crew. He throws in a really luchaish vibe to the matwork, lots of cool headscissors, and cartwheel counters out of Busick takedowns. Perkins is just silky smooth, really reminds me of El Hijo Del Santo in the effortlessness of his movements. Busick is a bulldozer as usual, he really has some cool throws and shots when he could get his hands on Perkins, finish was very cool as TJP avoids and avoids until he slaps on a cross armbreaker with heel kicks to get the tap. Makes me excited to watch Perkins v. Gulak and Thatcher.

ER: Perkins is a guy I've been seeing live since at least 2001. One weekend in 2007 we saw him in 4 matches in 3 days for 4 different feds while working 4 different gimmicks. He is a guy I'm quite familiar with. He's also arguably one of the most hit and miss workers that I watch semi-regularly. It is never a shock to see him in a meh match, just as it is never a shock to see him in a really really good match. I saw him live twice WM weekend, on an Evolve show and on the WWN show and did not think he looked great in either match. He looked better in the WWN match. I was disappointed in the Gulak match. So I tell Phil how I was disappointed in Gulak/Perkins and Phil is bummed because he liked the sound of that on paper. And now we have this match where Perkins looks really great and now Phil thinks I'm just a liar. Phil thinks many awful things about me, but he normally doesn't think I'm a liar. Perkins flaws are tough to work out, because they can also be his strengths. Sometimes I think he tries to do too many styles: lucha, workrate indy, grappling, faux-mma stuff, etc. Sometimes all those things jammed into a match doesn't work. Sometimes the execution isn't there. And then there's a match like this where he gels wonderfully with Busick and it's precisely because of his different styles. The opening was a really great mixture of Perkins' lucha mat stuff with Busick's more stretching style. At one point Perkins went for an armdrag and Busick rolled through and flawlessly rolled into a hammerlock. It looked outstanding, like something you could try and do several more times to make it look so natural and just never be able to. Both men managed to do a reversal style of wrestling without making things seemed rehearsed to the extreme. Little sequences like Busick blocking a kick, throwing an uppercut that gets caught into a backslide attempt, which Busick reversed into his great side headlock came off so naturally, these two just really gelled together. Ending was even cooler than Phil described it as Perkins rolled through into an armbar with Busick trying to reverse, so Perkins hammers down on Busicks face with his calf and heel until Busick starts to go out, his arm flopping on the mat, and the ref stops the match. Busick immediately comes to and has no idea why the match ended, as he didn't tap. Sometimes the MMA winks can get a little too cute, but I thought this finish was a cool use of it.

4. Ethan Page vs. Rich Swann

ER: You have never heard a quieter crowd than during Ethan Page's entrance. Even the crowd at WM weekend when he turned on Gargano was not this quiet. That weekend was my first time seeing Page, and I did not love what I saw. Nothing he does ticks any of my boxes in what I look for in wrestling. Swann I like more, but like him more in tags than singles. This match had a couple moments I liked, but didn't really care for the structure and pacing. So lets hit the things I liked: I liked Page's low angle leap Ace Crushers, starting from low and leaping up into it, delivering more of a spike. I loved Swann reversing one of them by hooking his feet on the ropes, sending Page crashing. It looked kind of freaky, but plausible. I also dug Swann's no hands pop up rana when Page went to the top. So those are some good things. The rest? I didn't care for the looooong Page control section, just stomping and slowly controlling Swann. Swann came out swinging before the bell with some nice punches, but from there the action slowed waaaaay down. All of Swann's comebacks came after taking some theoretically rough stuff, like a Gotch piledriver on the floor. We even went one worse than the standard forearm exchange portion, as instead we get a trade off of kicks to the head. The finish run seemed false with the tacked on long control stuff. If big kickouts were what they wanted they kind of wasted their time and everybody's time by having Swann sell so much so early. He sold far more when he was taking meager stomps from Page than when he was taking finishers. Overall just didn't work for me.

5. Davey Richards vs. Johnny Gargano

ER: For reasons none of us will ever know or understand, 22 minutes of my feed for this show were missing.

6. 2/3 Falls: Timothy Thatcher vs. Roderick Strong

ER: Thatcher has been my boy for quite a few years as he was a nice little well kept secret out here in the Bay Area. So seeing him get gigantic reactions WM weekend was super exciting. That Hero match really felt like it took him from crowd favorite to big star, and it was such a great moment seeing him win while the people who he came up training with were screaming their heads off across the aisle from me. This guy is way over now and it's exciting. I don't get to be in on the "ground floor" of many things, people.

This was a really really good match, my favorite on the show. Strong is a guy I kinda put in the same bucket as AJ Styles, as he's a guy I like, who is also sometimes trapped in a bad promotional style which leads to matches I don't care for. There always seem to be Strong matches that I dig, but also long stretches where he's working a certain style or certain opponents that I don't care for at all. But I think it's safe to say that the last 6 months of Roderick have been the best of his career. All of his cute offense has been dropped and now he's all about mat work struggle, nasty knees and elbows, and logical nearfalls. The first fall was almost all mat stuff and it ranked up there with any of the best Busick/Thatcher/Gulak stuff we've seen so far. I loved little things like Thatcher holding a go behind and trying to shift his hips to toss Thatcher over, but Thatcher just dropping down and widening his base to prevent it. Strong wins Fall 1 with a nice crucifix roll up, which sprang nicely from Thatcher going after Strong's arm with the blinders on. There was a nice moment where Thatcher uses Strong's leverage against him to grab the arm in the first place, but Strong uses it right back to hold onto the snug crucifix. 2nd and 3rd see us move into some nasty strikes. Strong throws some mean elbows and his leaping knee from a standing position is one of the best things in wrestling today. Outside Strong chops a post and even though it's a spot that gets used more now, the sound of a hand clanking off a metal pole always makes me gasp. Thatcher smells blood on that arm and it sets up the eventual armbar finish for the 2nd. We get some nice near falls in the 3rd. You know that leaping knee I mentioned as being one of the best things in wrestling? Well, Thatcher's momentum cutoff headbutt is even better. I never see it coming and it always looks great. Here Strong nails a pick left, spins around for a roaring back elbow, only to be met with a short thrust headbutt to the chin. Strong goes down great, and Thatcher drops to his butt. The whole match was filled with all sorts of awesome struggle. These two went great together, awesome stuff.

PAS: Very good match, I am concurring with Eric about how good Strong has looked lately, he really puts weight into everything he throws, he just lands some crushing looking stomps, elbows and knees here. Watching Roderick stomp Thatcher in the chest might have been one of my favorite spots in wrestling all year. The chopping the post spot in the second fall was great as Thatcher possums him in and has this great shit eating grin on his face when he slides down and Strong cracks the ring post. Thatcher did some nasty hand work right after that, although it got forgotten later in the match. Third fall was good too, although it got a little indy wrestling at the end for me with big moves and two counts. I also thought the ending was bit sudden which is strange for a match that went this long. Still all over a great match and a nice addition to both guys resumes for 2015.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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