Eddie Kingston is Behind The Diner Selling Marijuana to a Minor

Eddie Kingston vs. Thomas Shire vs. Joe Black vs. Matt Kenway AWE 11/3/19 - FUN

PAS: Kingston vs. Shire was one of my favorite matches of the year, but I never think this really got going. I did like that they mainly focused on one on one matchups, rather then running through a bunch of complex four way spots, and Kingston and Shire were really throwing heat both at each other and the other guys in the match. Black has a great look, he looks like an even more jacked Sabian, but I didn't have a great sense of his ring work and had an awesome loony dog collar match in 2020 . This was built up as a big Kingston win because of his history with Black, and I feel like they might have some good singles matches in them, hopefully AWE uploads more of their back catalogue to IWTV


Eddie Kingston/Homicide vs. Butcher and the Blade Empire State Wrestling 11/23/19 - FUN

ER: This doesn't quite rise up to the level I thought it could, but I'm happy we got to see these teams cross paths. Things felt almost a little too structured, especially during the parts where Butcher and the Blade were in control. I was impressed how quick Homicide was moving around, really working quick sequences even when it was setting up stupid stuff for The Blade (like that indy BS where Homicide will get knocked down with a move, hard enough that it makes him get right back to his feet, in time to get put down with another move). Kingston worked great shtick, was yelling from the apron the whole match, tagged in only to whiff on a backfist on The Butcher and gets dropped hard on the mat, then rushes to tag out. Even when Kingston is focusing more on making jokes to the crowd, he's still someone who will take a couple of high back bumps in a match. Homicide and Kingston's energy made this one for me, Kingston throwing big chops before taking a beating, and the finish was really nasty with Butcher suplexing Homicide right across Blade's knees, Blade sliding in at just the right time. This never lagged and had a lot of good, but the high floor didn't make way for a high ceiling. If they ever cross paths again I wouldn't be shocked if they did it even better. This felt more like Kingston and Homicide squaring off against Kazarian and Daniels to me.

PAS: This had it's moments but overall it didn't totally work for me. I thought Pepper Parks was pretty bad in this match. Kazarian is a good comparison, because he had that "old guy trying fast juniors wrestling" vibe to it. Butcher isn't great but he hits hard and the exchanges with Kingston were the highlights. This was house show Eddie, and he is a really great house show wrestler, shit talking, strutting, jaw jacking with the crowd. He still takes some big bumps and such. Didn't love the finish run, but the actual finish was badass. Worth watching for sure, but not a real standout.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Glory Pro 4-Way Tag

57. Boys From Jollyville vs. Besties In The World (Davey Vega/Mat Fitchett) vs. The Pride (Aaron Dzinic/Matt Kenway) vs. Zero Gravity (Brett Gakiya/CJ Esparza) Glory Pro 5/7/17 - GREAT

PAS: Jollyville 4-Ways are always highlights of AIW cards so I was eager to see how the match style traveled, and the answer is: pretty well. I am not sure who The Pride have pride in; Aaron Dzinic's last name suggests maybe they're working a Serbian militia gimmick. They were clearly the greenest of these four teams, but I thought they bumped big and had some nice timing on cut offs. Zero Gravity had some fun highspots, although I want a team with that name to have crazier dives. Besties in the World have a cutesy ring entrance and infuriating name but looked really good here. Fitchett especially was really athletic and explosive, got crazy height on his pele kicks and really flew into all of the opposing teams' offense. He took the T-Money pounce about as well as I have seen it taken. Jollyville played the hits, but they are great hits, love the Russ cannonball and the airplane spin by Money, punch in the head by Russ. I never get tired of watching T-Money barrel through people, and his big dive looked great, especially in comparison to some of the other dives which felt constrained by a close crowd. The match kept it moving and outside of one kind of dumb multiple man DDT spot kept it plausible. I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to digging into more Glory Pro Jollyville.

ER: The Fuck-Its are a perfect team to throw into a match like this, because it actually breaks up all the dancey body slap fighting and grounds it into something heavier. But a big multiman tag is also the best place to hide dancey wrestlers, because when the pace is fast enough everyone only has time for one or two sequences at a time. We don't ever get too bogged down with extended rehearsed sequences and instead we get guys getting their sequences interrupted with a nice strike or get tossed into a nasty bump. That's way better than watching Besties vs. Zero Gravity as it keeps things feeling more spontaneous and less locked in, less instances of "I miss you and you missed me back and then we spun into another miss before both hitting!" This was kept to a smart length so that nobody got too exposed, but the quality picked up noticeably whenever Russ or T-Money were involved. Both looked great in every single sequence they were involved in, and this is one of the all time monster T-Money performances. Russ stood out as a guy throwing the nastiest worked strikes in a match with leg slappers, getting in the ring during a flippy sequence and immediately throwing right hands to everyone. Money hit one of the greatest Pounces mine eyes have seen, with Kenway taking a huge bump bouncing into and off of the ropes. Money has such explosive power, always yoinks guys so quick off the mat and launches them into the air, just the perfect Rampage monster in a match like this. The dive train was big and wisely capped off my Money's crowd surf dive, there were several hot double teams (I really loved Esparza hitting a chestbreaker and holding it so Gakiya can hit a wicked double kneedrop off the top), and I'm going to love any match that features a big falling meteor from Russ. This easily could have been a long mess, but they kept it tight and crushed it.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE JOLLYVILLE

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IWTV Worth Watching: BIG BOY SEASON! BEEF! MANDERS! KLD!

Big Beef Garvin vs. Mikey! St. Louis Anarchy 1/11/19

ER: This ruled, and kept getting better the longer it went. I wasn't sure what kind of match we were going to get, if it was going to be Mikey being silly but occasionally getting caught, or just Beef mauling him, and what we got was the best version of what I was hoping for. Beef works a nice side headlock to start things boiling, and I honestly would have been cool with a match based around a snug side headlock. But I liked the way Mikey both worked up to Beef, and the ways he avoided him. Beef is good at missing things, and Mikey has some simple offense that I dig, like his splash off the bottom rope. He doesn't play the splash for comedy, and it doesn't look silly. It comes off like a smart way of using the ring to your advantage, boosting off the bottom rope while getting back into the ring. They work a fun sequence where Mikey keeps firing up to chase after Beef when beef is trying to run the opposite direction to hit the ropes: Beef starts to run, Mikey runs right after and gets popped with a back elbow; Beef goes to run the ropes again, Mikey runs after him again, gets caught with a boot to the face. It was a great play on the beyond tired sequence that would have had Mikey run after and hit an elbow, then himself run to the opposite ropes only to get met with an elbow from Beef. We see so many of the same sequences in matches, and it really makes me take notice when a couple guys flip those sequences to something better, something fresh. They really ramp this up nicely: Beef hitting bigger and bigger slams, Mikey hitting countering with a big running knee to the face, just a super satisfying match. I didn't even realize these two were on this show when I started it, and this is one benefit of skimming through a show and not just skipping to something I want to see.

Manders vs. Matt Kenway Glory Pro 10/5/19

ER: This was a really fun 13 minute match that could have been an absolutely scorching 10 minute match. I don't think stand and trade or kneel and trade are automatically evil (well maybe kneel and trade) but every time they went to that well here it felt way out of place. The rest of this was a nice war with a cool story of Manders overwhelming Kenway before eating a Russian legsweep into the ringpost and a DDT on the floor and then getting his neck worked over. I liked the attention Manders would pay to his neck, and some parts of the match it actually looked like he was giving Kenway a cue to go back to the neck. Kenway didn't explicitly work the neck, but Manders would take a move and start holding his head and back of neck, and Kenway would at minimum throw a clubbing shot to it. Manders did the kind of Manders things I want, like catching a big powerslam, breaking out the Vader running bear attack, bringing the 3 point stance charge back to wrestling by using it with a running chop. Manders will barrel into guys, and he reads heavy enough that it always came off impressive when Kenway would toss him. Manders is already so good at little things, that I don't think he needs cheap pop stand and trade to prop his work up. My favorite thing he did - outside of that careful attention to his neck - was late in the match when he whiffed on a hellish clothesline. He didn't throw it any differently than he would have if it were supposed to land square on Kenway's Adam's apple, a shot that would have murdered Kenway had he not ducked. And, it made the lariat he hit moments later feel that much greater, as he threw that direct hit exactly the same as he threw the miss. When guys have basics like that down, their ceiling is vaulted.

Kevin Lee Davidson/Danny Adams vs. Matt Knicks/Nick Brubaker Glory Pro 10/5/19

ER: This was KLD's big return after missing most of the year, and he comes out to a huge match long reaction looking like he's ready to squish some dudes in a street fight. KLD is Midwest Akebono and he stomps and chops his way through this in a mighty return. He beats Brubaker around the ring and they set up a spot for KLD to chop the ringpost, except he sees it coming a mile away and chops Brubaker right in the back. KLD gets the chance to show off a bit, show that he's back and healthy, hits a fast dropdown and leapfrog into a nice spinning heel kick, and he even gets monkeyflipped by Adams as a giant cannonball. Adams hits a dive, KLD hits a monster flip dive, and The Heroes finally get rid of KLD when Brubaker gives him a sunset flip bomb through a table on the floor. Now, there's not a ton of room ringside and the ring was set up close to the ground, so it turns into Brubaker basically getting too far under KLD, meaning he basically pulled KLD on top of him and then both went through the table. But this at least disposes of KLD, allowing them to double up on Adams, with Brubaker always attentive to kick at Davidson when he gets close to making it back in. And we get a few twists along the way, with Davidson pulling Adams out of the way after Knicks had set him up on a couple of chairs, Brubaker hits one of the better nut shots I've seen on Davidson with KLD letting out a perfect "OOOF" and looking like a guy who got hit in the nuts, and later on Brubaker himself goes through a couple of set up chairs. This was a fun, quick moving street fight, they did plenty of painful things without getting stupid, and we got a good return from Davidson. That's worth watching.

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