AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 2/20 - 2/26

AEW Dark 2/21

Slim J vs Matt Sydal

MD: A rare week where all we had was a great Danielson brawl and a Dustin promo, so let's check in on how Segunda Caida stalwart Slim J is doing at the Universal Tapings. The answer? He's doing pretty damn well. One of the fun things about this run is that we get to see him up against a bunch of guys that are brand new opponents for him. Sydal, despite wrestling for almost as long, had a completely different path to this episode of Dark. 

They made for solid dance partners in this one. Given their physical adroitness, their dexterity, balance, and flexibility (elements that all but define Sydal and that serve as aggravating and undeniable points of dissonance relative to his appearance and persona when it comes to a heel Slim J), they were able to not only take each other's most complex and tricked out stuff, but to push the needle just a little bit further. They matched up perfectly in the early feeling out segment, with Slim J providing Sydal two or three flowing counters before Sydal could finally gain an advantage. They went around that circle a few times, Slim J showing his frustration and aggravation by stalling out on the floor or rushing into yet another failed attempt. Ultimately, though, he had the numbers game on his side, that and a brazen shamelessness that let him all but embrace Bryce Remsburg so to enable interference. Just as Slim J had been able to help Sydal put a little extra torque into something as straightforward as a side slam, Sydal was able to base steady for the sailing reverse ddt off the top, but from the middle of the ropes instead. They'd go back and forth from there, Sydal getting comebacks and Slim J leaning on interference to take back over, ultimately leading to a finishing stretch where Sydal got turned inside out by the most complex wheelbarrow half-nelson twisting driver imaginable, but one that the two of them somehow made look absolutely believable, maybe more believable than Sydal's subsequent kickout. The Trustbusters lived by the interference and they died by it in the end. 

AEW's a weird place. Slim J is one of the better babyfaces we've ever seen, and crazier things have happened then him potentially blowing up in that role on Dynamite or Rampage in the years to come. But if all we get are these YouTube studio matches against other great journeymen he never encountered before, we're happy to have that too.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death: Week of 5/23 - 5/29 (Part 1)

AEW Dynamite 5/25

Eddie Kingston/Jon Moxley vs. Private Party

MD: Absolute mauling with a little bit of polish for Private Party at the end before they got crushed. The polish was them throwing themselves at Mox and Kingston and a shooting star press by Quen. Amusingly, Regal, much like us, was more interested in the way Moxley turned his hips on the kickout than the beautiful top rope move and was trying to get the replay to last long enough to show it. Where Private Party shined the most was bumping all over the ring: Nasty over-rotations on power bombs and clotheslines, including when Moxley came back the other way on a poetry in motion, and Quen crashing so hard into the rail that he knocked some guy's drink out of his hand. Still, this probably would have been a little more interesting structurally a few weeks ago when they weren't doing such a hard sell for the PPV match. The act, overall, works better against young faces than young heels, as between the guest announcers sniping and the fact that no one was really rooting for Party, I don't think they got enough credit or rub for surviving the beating they took to come back at the end. 

ER: I agree that Private Party was the wrong team to take this specific beating, even if the match benefitted from the way they physically took this beating. Private Party have gotten good enough that she should be past matches like this, but will likely always be put in matches like this because it looks fucking great when Isiah Kassidy vaults off Quen's back and gets folded all the way across the ring after connecting bad with a Moxley kneelift. I can't believe this is the first time Moxley and Kingston have teamed since September. Their vibes are so good that I have been thinking about them as a team for the entire time that they have not been teaming, bonded together in my brain because of their substance abuses and open faced honesty about them, they're just a perfect natural pairing. Moxley looks as inspired as he has in years, and Kingston played all of this with the right intensity. Quen's shooting star press looked awesome, with a flat rotation that look slightly against physics, and I loved the way Kingston ran in before the finish to lay him out with a running spinning backfist. 

AEW Rampage 5/27

Bryan Danielson vs. Matt Sydal

MD: I can't say enough good things about this one. Great build. Great big moments. Great little moments. This was one of my favorite AEW Danielson matches and seemed to pay off the promise more than when he was running through the Dark Order, for instance. Right from the beginning, there was incredible gamesmanship between the two, things like Danielson sneaking in a forearm on a Greco-Roman knucklelock or just how hard Sydal had to work for that flying mare. Once they got going, Sydal may have needed to put an extra bit of effort into his transitions, but he could; that was the point, speed and athleticism in hitting a leg lariat out of nowhere or landing on his feet to counter a snap mare. Danielson had maybe three just massive moments here: the roll forward to the Romero special, the roll through on the meteora into a crab, and then when he hit the knee at the end, but Sydal had his own with the top rope sunset flip power bomb. They gave Regal and company plenty of little things to note and plenty of big ones to pop for on commentary. About as good of a Rampage opening match as you could possibly hope for.

ER: My brain thinks of these two as "frequent competitors" and that's probably because I had burned DVDs of their one ROH singles match and their one FIP singles match from 15 years ago but can't actually comprehend that happened over 15 years ago. Sydal managed to have 400 matches in WWE and was rarely in the same ring as Danielson. So my brain just thinks of them as natural opponents from the same indy wrestling boom era, and yet they've mostly avoided each other in-ring. I feel like an idiot repeatedly saying things like "This may be my favorite Danielson performance in AEW" but I guess I'm just going to say dumb things like that. Probably the only thing I didn't care about here was Danielson hanging Sydal over the top rope like an evolved piece of Scoot Andrews offense. That might be the weirdest piece of offense to survive from year 2000 indy wrestling. It's almost shocking that there isn't You Can't Powerbomb Kidman throwback offense. 

That move felt weird to me only because every other piece of offense in the match felt *worked for*, and that was the one thing that felt *waited for*. The match starting knucklelock was an absolute struggle, both with shaking arms that allowed Danielson to sneak in an elbow across the jaw. Danielson threw European uppercuts with his entire body, making contact not only on the uppercut but throwing his full shoulder and hip into Sydal. I don't think Fit Finlay would have elbowed and uppercut Sydal as hard as Danielson did. Both broke out more spectacular versions of things they've been doing for years. Danielson's kicks looked more like Kawada stiffing up Kikuchi, Sydal's meteora looked like a guided missile and the Danielson reversal was finisher worthy. However, Danielson rolling through the Romero Special and then elbowing Sydal in the neck until the forced break felt like such a spectacular spot that it should have been saved for the finish of a huge match. That's also a part of Danielson's AEW charm, though, the fact that it instead came 4 minutes into a Friday night match with Matt Sydal. Sydal's sunset flip powerbomb reversal of a top rope back suplex was incredible, impactful enough to believably get a win and pulled off so well that it looked like an organic reversal. I swear Danielson is hitting harder every week on those downward elbows, and they always look like they earn the stoppage finish. This really made me want to look through some spindles and binders for those ROH and FIP matches. I'm not certain they'll be able to top their future selves. 

PAS: This was really great, one of the top minor key Danielson performances, not at the level of Kingston or Dustin or Moxley, but a throwback to us getting cool Danielson singles matches every week. It is fun we have gotten to see this mini Sydal vs. BCC feud for a couple of weeks now. This felt very FIPish which is ironic considering their previous match, just two wrestlers going out there and performing. We all know how perfect Danielson's execution is, but Sydal looked great too. That deep stack on the powerbomb reversal was a thing of beauty, and the Meteora looked super forceful. Love that Danielson has so many ways to take people out, and a weekly Rampage match seems like a great way to keep him relevant for his next big moment.

AEW Special Dark 5/28

Darby Allin vs. Brandon Cutler

MD: Very short match to set up the PPV here, but I liked Cutler running around the ring only to eat Darby's explosive dive anyway. The timing on that and the staggering catch by Cutler were both excellent. I could have lived with Cutler stooging a little more and then having a comedy spot or two, but better to have the match the promotion needs than the match you just happen to want.

2022 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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AEW (And Friends) Five Fingers of Death: Week of 5/16 - 5/22

Only one AEW match this week but Eddie Kingston's been barnstorming, and since Phil has to watch them all for the Ringer, we're on top of all of it.

AEW Dynamite 5/18

Blackpool Combat Club (Moxley/Danielson) vs. Peace, Love, and Pro Wrestling (Matt Sydal/Dante Martin)

MD: I am heartened, but not hardly surprised, by Phil picking this match over the Hangman Page one for AEW's match over at the Ringer, and go over and read his review there. I'd put Woods vs Yuta up there as well for the week and even Bear Country vs Workhorsemen, but I'm happy to write about this one. This is the first time in a short while that we've seen the BCC up against babyfaces instead of heels, interesting given that they are in a program now against the JAS. The match was structured accordingly, with an immediate rudo ambush and no shine. It meant that both Sydal (paired primarily with Mox) and Dante (hitting everyone but especially paired with Danielson) got to be the recipients of hot tags and got to be houses afire. It did mean that we missed out on some early feeling out or a quick exchange with Sydal or Martin and Danielson. There's a twelve minute Danielson that's going to be very exciting some day but for now it was just a taste on the comeback and then Martin getting stomped out and surviving up until the point he didn't in the stretch. Regal and Jericho did a great job getting over the discrepancies between the two groups as the match was going and you know Jericho's going to design a "Money, Merch, and Sports Entertainment" shirt out of the exchange, whereas Regal was great at indicating that he knows everyone's weaknesses and that he was the one who had been there for Hager from the start, not Jericho. We missed out on a shine but two comebacks of Sydal and Dante doing their thing surrounded by Mox and Danielson beating people to a pulp works pretty well too. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Isaiah Broner AIW 5/21/22

MD: The match is on IWTV, and Phil wrote it up on the Ringer. It was a war. There are explicit narratives and implicit ones in wrestling. Explicit ones are more along the lines of long limbwork or big vs small or a southern tag where there's a lot of cheating with hope spots and cut offs or even shine-heat-comeback. To me, an implicit narrative is more about making everything take effort and struggle and filling in gaps, by making the match absolutely airtight. This match was airtight. Everything was worked for. Nothing was given. Eddie wasn't going to get a single throw without battering Broner first. Broner could heft Kingston up but he'd have to put him back down and smack him around a bit before tossing him too. Eddie chipped at the arm, not to actively dominate the story for five minutes, but to passively make it so Broner's killshots weren't quite enough to kill him. That's the other half of the equation. If a match is airtight and violent but nothing's registering, if nothing has impact, it's just going to be noise. Here they hit hard and then sold the impact of what happened. They recoiled. They staggered. They sold. So everything took effort, but once it hit, it was worth the effort. That was from the first chops and Broner's killer forearm all the way to the finishing stretch where he could show his toughness, where he could get up in the face of Eddie's best stuff, but once he did, he was helpless to do anything but to take the next shot. Nothing was glaring. Nothing was telegraphed. Nothing was over the top. Yet it was all violent and it all earned and it all meant something and it all mattered. When a match can pull all of that off, it's a hell of a thing.

Eddie Kingston vs. Davey Richards Glory Pro 5/22/22

MD: I haven't seen a Davey Richards match since chain suplexes in and out of the ring were involved. It's been a decade probably. That said, he's an interesting and unique Kingston opponent, not to mention older and maybe wiser. I'll say this: you watch a Davey Richards match and you're going to get commitment. This is a guy who is always on, who is always feeling it, who is always in the moment. I may not have always liked or agreed with those moments during his career but you never doubt his belief in himself and what he's trying to portray. You may end up disbelieving what he's trying to portray, but you end up believing that he believes it, and in this day and age, that is a special quality and it's worth something. That gels with the notion that with Kingston, what you see is what you get.

It meant that that the early wristlock feeling out process was full of struggle and grit. They covered a bit of the match with work on Eddie's leg, and he was the guy, out of the two, you'd want selling, so that was a good thought. Eddie, maybe inspired by his opponent, hulked up after a bunch of insulting Kawada-style kicks and you can't say it didn't fit the match, and then the finish had Richards full on motion charging in only to run into a freight train. I'm not sure I need to see them run it back, but as a thought experiment and a clash of two very different styles but similar levels of commitment, it was fun and never wore out its welcome.

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 1/6/21

What Worked

-I was initially down on the opening 8 man tag, finding at odd how much of a backseat The Acclaimed took the entire match. I thought they showed a lot of presence in their Dynamite debut and had kind of assumed they'd be treating them big. So it felt odd when they were such afterthoughts here, at the expense of talking about how Frankie Kazarian hadn't lost a step the entire match. But I admittedly got into the story after the match, with Kazarian's promo. I like a retirement or team breaks up storyline, and while it's true I haven't been excited for a Daniels/Kazarian match since 2001, I think the role of old gunslingers can be suitable to a lot of late career wrestlers. I have a soft spot for wrestlers playing that role, and I like the addition of them breaking up after their next loss. It's something that could supplement the in-ring. The match itself was fun enough, if way too one-sided for SCU/Bucks. I kind of talk out both sides of my mouth, as I have complained about AEW matches worked too competitively, but I think this would have been better if it was more even. I think SCU winning but having to work hard to beat Acclaim/Hybrid2 would have felt like even more stakes going into a much bigger match against the Bucks. It would be more like Rocky taking too much of a beating in a tune-up fight. Bucks had some nice dives, Kazarian worked hard in the match to give the angle some weight, and it kept a good pace. 

-Snoop Dogg at nearly 50 looks so cool in the Doggystyle hoodie. This guy is going to look cool forever and then cool as a corpse. He looked terrible up on that top rope, but who cares, Snoop went off the top rope. We can't all be Federline. 

-Shida/Abadon was nicely laid out, even if it wasn't quite good? Shida has charisma for sure, but her wrestling can be a real mess. She comes off uncoordinated during a lot of spots, and has timing issues, but she has the kind charisma that plays well off of a horror movie Kamala. Abadon bites at Shida's thigh and neck, and works like an ugly bruiser character from the 50s. Shida's incoordination comes out when she is doing more complicated roll ups and timing things with multiple people, and that really didn't come up until the very end here. She mostly sold a beating, brick walled for a couple Abadon clotheslines, and her fighting through things is where her charisma works. So the match played to their strengths without actually being great in-ring. 

-I didn't love the main event - too much Omega goofiness and it could have used an editor - but it was the first time since Fenix got dropped on his head that he looked like he knew which direction he was going in the ring. It was a good main event performance (could have used less melodrama) and had a nice mix of him hitting his great flying offense (dug his double springboard dropkick into wild tope con giro that almost went over the guardrail), and he's great at taking Omega's offense. Fenix will get tossed hard on Germans and lean into v triggers, and he did that all match. Omega takes a reverse rana in a way that looks devastating, but I couldn't tell you the last time a rana that looks like someone is getting spiked on their head was anything more than a "shocking" kickout. We'll see where the pinfall controversy goes, but I don't know if I need another Omega main event epic with Fenix. Fenix is doing well at working big match drama into his bigger singles, but I don't like Omega's specific brand of drama. Maybe I would like a Fenix/Omega sprint more? 

What Didn't Work

-Wardlow/Hager felt like they should have accomplished more with the time they got, felt like the middle was a little time killing. I liked Hager's takedowns and some of the early matwork, and I think would have preferred things stay that way. It feels like a fresher way for bigger guys to work a match these days. But eventually Hager took a nice bump off the apron into the guardrail, and I liked Wardlow's three suplex and slams and a couple other throws. But this didn't quite get to the level that I think it could have. 

-I thought Sydal/Rhodes went WAY too long and felt like they were throwing out way too much. Cody was really flavorless here and he was responsible for a lot of the drag. There was early clumsiness, and Cody felt so...in the way through much of this. Sydal hit a nice meteora to the ramp and a nice dive, but Cody kept taking this thing in such uninteresting directions. The Sydal crossbody with a clumsy Cody roll through into leg work just seemed like somebody throwing dumb sequences at the wall. I hate that thing Cody does where he bumps the same direction his opponent is already bumping, so has to do this stupid jog like when a car is waiting for you to finish crossing the street, just to be able to bump somewhere there isn't a body. He did that kind of thing a lot here. This had bad energy despite not being dull, it just went too long and never hit the level it thought it was at. 

-I do not like Jericho on commentary. It is way too much, and he sounds like a drunk guy rambling over everyone half the time. It's like having two JR's out there, which is two too many. During Inner Circle matches? Fine. During entire broadcasts? Please, no. No more. 

-A Bullet Club revival, famous hand sign included, is not going to be the thing to excite me. I am sure that it excites many other people, and that's fine by me. Is this something people are excited about? Jericho was acting excited. 

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AEW Dynamite Workrate Report 11/11/20

What Worked

-I'm not sure what it would take for a bloody bunkhouse brawl featuring Dustin Rhodes to not make the upper half of this write up, so obviously the bunkhouse brawl is here. Throw in the fact that the average age of the combatants was 42 then even MORE obviously the brawl is up here. Everyone comes out wearing white clothing (with Dustin and QT looking like the two men who most understand street fight fashion culture in cowboy boots, kneepads over old jeans, and white shirts with the sleeves cut off) and B&B wearing white jeans. Seeing all that white you knew guys were gonna juice, and juice was what we got. I don't think this was anywhere near as good as the parking lot brawl from a couple months ago, but this was bloodier and had plenty of dumb bumps of its own, so of course it ruled. 

QT Marshall is definitely the best friendship signing in AEW, a guy who was roundly laughed at for being on the roster due to nepotism, yet has delivered in every single spot he's been put in. He's the first one busted open here, he was really great at coming in at just the right time with saves, and hit a picture perfect elbowdrop off the top of a very very tall ladder onto the even bloodier Blade. Dustin wrestled like Dustin, which is what you're gonna want in a match like this. He and Butcher beat the hell out of each other, with Dustin hitting a sick twisting vertical suplex on a set up chair, hitting a big bulldog off the staging into a crash box that luckily was right next to the stage, and later Dustin takes a disgusting powerbomb kidneys first through a couple chairs. Butcher and Blade did what Dustin bunkhouse opponents needed to do. Blade hit a great, erm, blade job and really utilized the bleached blond short haircut, both took nasty bumps, their double teams looked good and I thought they set them up in smart ways. Even Bunny took a nice bump off the apron through a table (which the cameras mostly missed) and that nicely made up for her taking forever to try to handcuff Dustin to the ropes earlier in the match,. Oh, and Excalibur got a great laugh out of me by calling The Butcher "Bunkhouse Butch". 

PAS: I thought this was a lot of fun, the kind of entertaining fight which they really should run every six weeks or so with different combinations of guys. I think it would have worked a bit better if the finish had been the elbow off the ladder, that was the apex of the match and ending on a bunch of B- diamond cutters wasn't nearly as effecting. I enjoyed the Butcher as a reckless sloppy guy possibly hurting people, I wish his clotheslines were better, but this was easily the most I have enjoyed him. Blade nearly bleeding to death was a nice moment too. For Dustin Bunkhouse opponents, they aren't Windham or Buck, they really aren't even the Blacktop Bully, but were perfectly fine. I wonder if this is the only match in Dustin Rhodes career where someone has bled and he remained dry? Really odd, I kept waiting for him to open up and was just flabbergasted by his reddless forehead. 

-Maybe I'm just feeling generous because they gave me a bloody Dustin match, but I'll throw the Shawn Spears/Scorpio Sky match up here. Both do tons of little things that I hate (Scorpio Sky has this extremely annoying habit of kicking out of his pinfalls before his opponent does), but there was some cool stuff here. I loved Sky's inside out armdrag to send Spears to the floor, and his follow up pescado. Sky also bumped around for Spears, got thrown hard into the barricade, and other back work that didn't matter once it was Sky's turn to go on offense. The announcers said Spears is 15-2 in AEW this year, and it would be hypocritical of me to complain about them pushing some old nobody (an old nobody who is a month younger than I am) after praising all the old guys practicing bloodletting earlier. So yeah, fuck it, keep giving wins and pushes to dudes in their late 30s with my hairline. AEW knows how to make their fans feel seen. 

-I'd be willing to sit through a third lousy Fenix/Pentagon match just for the opportunity to hear Eddie Kingston on the mic before, during, and after the match. 

What Didn't Work

-Ah yes, my least favorite bullshit. I hate these Brian Cage matches where he outweighs a guy by 60 pounds and proceeds to have a 50/50 juniors sprint with them. I am impressed that Cage can do some of these things at his size, just as I am impressed with some of the things Keith Lee can do. But it just comes off stupid when he's working even with Sydal. Cage is just leveling Sydal with lariats in this match, so why would he decide to do a running headscissors? He knocked Sydal onto his ear or neck four different times with power moves, what would the best case scenario have been had he hit a huracanrana? Just fucking hit the guy you gassed up goof! The moves in this were hot, the logic was not. Go watch the AEW Dark Sydal/Kingston match and see a heavyweight who knows how to work an actual interesting match with Matt Sydal. 

-Outside of Darby running into Cage with his thumbtack jacket, that Cody/Jade Cargill/Brandi/Tazz segment was a muddled mess. Is Cargill someone who has just been in AEW Dark, with the other couple dozen black wrestlers on the AEW roster? 

-How is someone like Tay Conti not just watching every single Ronda match and merely doing that? She's still inexperienced and hasn't really been doing this that long, but she has the absolutely perfect blueprint to learn from, literally the best rookie of the past 20 years (or more?) is a judoka almost exactly her size. Every time Conti integrates judo into her matches it looks awesome. A lot of the non judo, timing based stuff? That looks significantly less awesome. A lot of AEW women's matches have these awkward moments where someone has to walk into position or makes a few tentative movements, and this was no different. I'm glad to see Red Velvet get a longer showing, but didn't think she did much with it. She hit a nice leg lariat and leaned into a couple hard Conti kicks, but this didn't add up to much. 

-There has to be an actual good Fenix/Pentagon singles match out there, right? And yes I know Meltzer gave 4 stars to the one from a few weeks ago that saw Pentagon treat his brother like Bernie Lomax after Fenix almost broke his neck. Penta looked extremely sluggish here, but that's kind of his thing. The layout was lazy as hell and it was filled with Penta slowly walking around catching his breath. It's mostly a long dull Penta control segment where he's clearly just filling time going through the motions, including a hilarious moment where he started ripping at Fenix's mask out of nowhere, before moments later winding up just holding a chinlock for awhile. Maybe he was doing an amusing "that's right this match is getting ugly, ah you people don't deserve it I'll just hold this chinlock" heel routine, but I think he just needed rest. Of course Fenix eventually comes back by just...not taking offense any longer, hits a great tornillo, gracefully gets into position for overly complicated Pentagon offense (my favorite being that stupid flipping DDT where Pentagon didn't even twist Fenix properly into, so Fenix just had to turn around in the hold without Pentagon moving an inch. Fenix may as well have placed Pentagon's arm around his neck first), gets dropped on his head few times with package piledrivers and a flipping piledriver, and man I wish Eddie Kingston was affiliated with someone who is not Pentagon. 

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Eddie Kingston's Rude Ass Carries Three Weapons, He'll Give Your Face a C-Section and Keep Stepping

Eddie Kingston just main evented a PPV that got a lot of buzz, and it felt like a good time to find any Kingston AEW matches we hadn't yet watched and review them, for the purpose of science. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Lee Johnson AEW Dark 9/8/20 - FUN

PAS: This was Eddie's first singles match post being signed, and he methodically worked over Johnson, gave him his one run of offense and then finished him with a running knee and backfist. Johnson's had the least impressive offense run of all the guys Kingston squashed, but he did seem to move well, and took a solid beating from the King. 

ER: Kingston is a guy who fights from underneath so often in his matches that it's cool to see how he works shorter squash matches. He's really punishing with hard chops and a cool delayed high crotch lift suplex, but then runs temple first into a back elbow and jaw first into a boot, and it's cool that even in a one sided match he plausibly worked in Johnson hitting a blue thunder bomb. I dig how much of a comeback he's given to the kitchen sink. He's been using that low running knee to set up the backfist. In a promotion where Omega does 6+ running knees to the face in every one of his matches, Kingston has shown the value of one expertly timed knee to the breadbasket. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Brian Pillman Jr. AEW Dark 9/22/20 - GREAT

PAS: This ruled, unlike the other AEW Dark matches, this was back and forth and competitive, and Kingston is a master at the Tenryu style beat a rookie into looking great matches. Pillman gets in all of his spots and has a bunch of moments, but Kingston is fully kicking his ass throughout. I loved Pillman firing with a bunch of huge overhand and traditional chops and Kingston responding with line crossing slaps to the ear and face. At one point Pillman lights him up, turns his back to celebrate and Eddie half clotheslines and half punches him in the back of the head.  Kingston used the running knee to the stomach as a set up for the backfist in all of these matches and this was the nastiest, I thought Pillman might puke blood.  BPJ looks so much like his dad in his movements, this at times felt like a time machine match. Man, a Brian Pillman Sr. versus Kingston feud would have been incredible. 

ER: Damn have we seen Kingston in the sleeveless Mad King duster and rosary beads before? He's like a character in a Robert Rodriguez movie. I thought this was great. This felt like if WCW had given us Dick Murdoch vs. Brian Pillman in 1991. Kingston gave Pillman such a hard beating that at one point Tazz broke and just started laughing, saying that Pillman must owe Kingston money. Any time you get an announcer to genuinely break character to marvel at the violence it's always memorable violence. Pillman really does take a beating in this match, a real sit up and take notice Kingston beating. He kicks Pillman in the back, lands heavy chops, and then really steps it up with a thunking downward strike clubbing arm to the back. He throws a few of those clubbing downward shots and every one of them looks and sounds painful. 

Kingston also has the kind of excellent, honest selling that keeps brawls interesting and avoids ever feeling same-y. He doesn't react the same to every shot, he really tailors his reaction to a specific strike. Pillman hits him with a weak overhand chop at one point and within a split second of it landing light he was already shaking his head and asking him to re-do it. Most strike exchanges are sold by selling each shot by guessing ahead of time how hard it will be. Kingston's candid selling gives this really one sided brawl a great energy, and makes Pillman's comeback feel like a big deal. Pillman gets a great nearfall off a nasty inverted driver, and Kingston had this dirt off shoulder way of dealing with Pillman. He hits this intentionally sloppy bodyslam, just scooping and dropping Pillman, drops him fast and low with a hotshot on the guardrail, and late in the match hits an all time great uranage. The kitchen sink used at the end of this match is one of the best running knees I've seen. It was a straight running shot right below the bellybutton, not a running blow with the leg held out to the side. He just runs knee first into Pillman's stomach, like a knee to the balls that went high. Is AEW Dark harboring a bunch of under the radar beatings like this one? 

Eddie Kingston vs. M'Badu AEW Dark 10/6/20 - FUN

PAS: Short squash, but nifty stuff. M'Badu is a big jacked guy listed from Nigeria, he had a good look and nice height on his Stinger splash. Mostly Kingston taking it to him though, and ending the match with a backfist and a kimura. Kingston gets on the mic and calls out Moxley, and says he will make him say I Quit with the Kimura like his buddy Josh Barnett. Certainly served it purpose, although a squash is a squash.

ER: This accomplished as much as a squash match could accomplish, and AEW is smart using some larger guys in squash matches and not just making it established guys running over juniors. I wouldn't mind seeing more M'Badu, and squash match Kingston is really good at giving guys one big spot (here an awesome rotating M'Badu powerslam). This finished with King's tried and true kitchen sink > spinning backfist, but I loved the wrinkle of him lifting M'Badu for before 3 and locking in a nasty kimura for the tap, looking into the camera while doing it. Heels need to make crazed faces while locking in a finishing sub, bring that Backlund chicken wing energy. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Baron Black AWE Dark 10/13/20 - FUN

PAS: Another squash match, which sees Kington end it with a really great looking backfist and front chancery choke. Black gets one Exploder and a spinning clothesline which looked OK, although I wasn't a fan of his chops. This was a 3 minute match which got it's point across. They must have a deal with Mr. Hughes' school or something, because they have a ton of black job guys but hardly any black people on the actual roster. I mean Eddie beat as many different black wrestlers on AEW Dark than are on the whole main roster. 

ER: Going through all of the AEW Dark Kingston matches is the first time I've watched any AEW Dark, and I didn't realize the show got its name because all of the job guys are black. I liked Black's spinning lariat/Exploder combo (the guy has a really strong Exploder), and while his strap takedown could use some work it's a good sign that he at least incorporates a strap takedown. This match continues the cool trend of a King kitchen sink/backfist combo (this was one of his best backfists too), then locking in a sub for the actual finish. Establishing Kingston as a guy with several ways to finish a match, not just a guy who needs to focus on the backfist. His standing front chancery choke looked sick, great finishing sub. 

Eddie Kingston vs. Matt Sydal AEW Dynamite 10/28/20 - GREAT

ER: I really liked this. I loved the looks of it on paper and thought it delivered in a bunch of cool ways. I wasn't sure if they had a singles match before (apparently they had one in 2005, anyone know if it's cool?) but they matched up great. Kingston starts us off with an effortless promo, calling out wrestlers at ringside, making inside jokes with sly grins at the camera, really the only guy who can do that kind of stuff and not have it come off like some dumb shooty shoot comments. Kingston is so great at being flustered by Sydal's speed, throwing clotheslines over his head, leaning cheek first into a great solebutt, staggering excellently into position for a hard dropkick; that Chikara background has always made him a compelling worker against speed guys (but really, is there anyone he is not compelling against?). I really loved Sydal's cradle and backslide variations. Sydal really moved around Kingston's body with grace, especially love when he slipped around out of a headlock and swung into a grounded crucifix. Kingston basically had only chops and elbows to work with, and the way he worked made it feel like something could end quickly if he just got Sydal's timing down. Sydal stayed ahead of him, got him on wobbly legs, flipped him off the top with a headscissors, almost took him out with knees. Kingston could not keep up, until I saw it in his face right when he was going to turn things. He missed a clothesline that almost seemed intentional and then knows right when to catch Sydal with a low knee and then locks on that bully choke for the tap. The bully choke is a great finish, really does feel like something that would leverage an immediate tap. Kingston is so good at fighting from underneath against any type of opponent, that even though it felt like Sydal took a ton of this it always felt like Kingston just had to catch that timing. 

PAS: This was a really solid TV match, I thought it was a step below the Pillman match, but not a giant step. I agree with Eric about how smooth Sydal is, he spins around Kingston's body like a breakdancer. I loved Kingston's wobbly leg sell of the high knee, and he has really developed that running knee to the gut/backfist as a television wrestler finishing combo. It is a nice adjustment to the change in his circumstances, he can use it to finish off the Baron Black's and Sydal's of the world, and it will make a great near fall in a bigger match. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Ki/Sydal/Fantasma

29. Low-Ki v. Matt Sydal v. El Hijo Del Fantasma GFW Impact Wrestling 7/4 (Aired 7/20/17)

ER: Yes, keep putting Ki on my TV!! I hate triple threat matches, but Ki at this point seems like modern Lawler, in that he can take any dumb stip and work a compelling match around that stip. We already got what I think is easily the best Ultimate X match, now I want to see Ki working a "blindfold match" or a "hand tied behind the back match". I have no doubt that regardless of opponent, it would make the MOTY list. He's creative and violent and lifts others up with him. Sydal is a super impressive athlete who can be turned to the dark side depending on his opponent. But all three work some compelling spots within a tired formula, and Ki/Sydal have the body control to make typically contrived spots look fresh. Fantasma getting Sydal in a sufboard only to have Ki do a wild stomp into Sydal's guys seems like something that would be tried in dozens of other indy 3 ways, and never look this good. They were able to craft a 3 way without making it seem like one of them was just hanging around out of the way, waiting to get his spots in without ruining the rhythm. That's the thing that plagues most 3 ways, and I never felt that. It felt like all 3 were right in each other's face the whole time, and it was awesome. We still get great spots like Ki plastering Sydal through the barricade with his gorgeous baseball slide dropkick, and Ki gets plastered by Fantasma's killer tope. The opportunistic "alliances" moved seamlessly, guys simultaneously working together while trying to each win, so we get stuff like Fantasma hitting a rana on Ki, then Sydal hitting a moonsault on Ki, with none of the three looking like they're waiting for the right time to get into the fray. Finish is bonkers as Ki hits a massive double stomp on Fantasma, covers, and Sydal flops onto BOTH of them with a shooting star. Awesome. It felt like they could have kept this pace up indefinitely, great showing.

PAS: This reminded me a lot of the three way which main evented the first ROH show. Neither Sydal or Fantasma are 2001 Bryan Danielson, but I think both are comfortably better then 2001 Christopher Daniels so it all comes out in the wash. Ki is a marvel in this, he seems to have increased his athletic explosiveness in his late 30s, which is pretty remarkable, I mean Vince Carter can still get up for a big dunk, but he isn't dunking harder then he did in the late 90s. Sydal is also a really impressive athlete and one advantage of a 3-way is we don't get a bunch of 2.9 count fighting spirit stuff, they just have a third guy break it up. Fantasma was fun, he got landed on in hurty ways, and broke out his great tope (although the physics of the 6-sided ring cuts off some of his speed) Both the surfboard double stomp combo and the the Sydal shooting star pin break up were crazy impressive spots, but the great thing about Ki, is that his elbows and chops are just as impressive.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches, #8: Chris Candido/Steve Stone/Nigel McGuiness/Claudio Castagnoli v. CM Punk/Ace Steel/Danny Daniels/Matt Sydal 10/22/04

Chris Candido/Steve Stone/Nigel McGuiness/Claudio Castagnoli v. CM Punk/Ace Steel/Danny Daniels/Matt Sydal 10/22/04



ER: IWA-MS advertises this match as "the funniest match in the history of [the promotion]". "Funniest" and "pro wrestling" are typically words I don't care to seek out when they're together, like "saltiest cocktail" or "silliest guitar solo" or "leakiest gas tank" or "most pleated khakis". And it's tough going into a match knowing that it's advertised as "the funniest pro wrestling match", because it's definitely something that is going to work better in a live setting, within the context of the other wrestling you had already seen that night. This match was the THIRTEENTH MATCH of this specific card, some type of "Strong Style Tournament" (whatever that means) that also featured non-tourney matches such as an Abyss singles match and a Chad Collyer 3 way. Fourteen matches on the card, and this match went on thirteenth. So it was probably a long night of wrestling, and we can assume that with a name like "Strong Style Tournament" all of the tourney matches were probably pretty serious business. So live, at the end of a long night of wrestling on a Friday night (Friday night is the night I most often crash early, tired from the end of the work week), the crowd got a comedy match that was probably much needed. For me at home, watching the match in a vacuum, it was merely okay. We get a pre-match pat down where several forks, a dumbbell, and a jumprope are all found on members of Candido's team. Candido gets his trunks pulled down (dangerously low) on a sunset flip, and stumbles around getting bodyslammed by everybody, including ref Bryce Remsburg. There is a chicken fight with Sydal and Claudio fighting on top of Punk and Candido's shoulders (ending with Claudio taking an unexpectedly nasty bump on the back of his head), Nigel had a bulky foreign object stuffed in the bulge of his trunks that eventually backfired when he got atomic dropped, and we got some yuks involving multiple guys assisting an abdominal stretch. Truthfully the only time I actually laughed was seeing Ace Steel dance to "Early in the Morning" before and after the match. But Candido was really on fire throughout, his passion for all the bullshit of wrestling really shining through. He stooges like the best John Tatum you've seen, takes some big bumps while still horsing around, worked the apron and the overall match gimmick better than everyone else, a real showcase. Steve Stone looked much better than I remember Steve Stone looking, CM Punk looked much worse than I remember CM Punk looking, and I wish we got more Ace Steel vs. Candido during the match.

PAS: I could have sworn I did a draft of this, Eric wrote this up and I am in the unenviable position of having to watch this match twice. I enjoyed Candido in this, as he worked this more like a SMW match then a indy winkathon. Outside of Candido I also enjoyed Steve Stone doing World of Sport armwork and forcing Nigel to give himself the finger. Otherwise I found this rather mirthless. Sydal's actual wrestling looked cool, but otherwise this was long and dumb

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Ring of Honor on Destination America 10/14/15 Review

1. ACH vs. Matt Sydal

This was awesome. Great fun. It was super spotty, but when all your spots work and they all look awesome, then shiiiiiiiit I can get into that. ACH starts with some fun wrist work and it does effect the rest of the match as from here Sydal switches to knees and kicks, and all of his knees and kicks looked gooood. ACH is freakishly athletic and can land in all sorts of crazy ways, really leaning into Sydal's baseball slide and going sprawling into the barrier. Sydal is no stranger to big bumps himself and both guys really bust out all the spots they know, ACH nails some nasty elbows, lands the punt on the apron (as well as an awesome rope running punt later to boot Sydal off the top), and ACH's screaming fast Fosbury Flop dive is just gorgeous. Both guys fly into the others knees on missed flying moves, ACH dumps himself on a reverse rana, and this was just tons of fun. Not much story to speak of, but when both guys have cool offense you can work a good "one-upper" type of show me match. Awesome stuff.

The Addiction and All Night Express have a spirited mic showdown, but neither team says much of anything. They speak in catchphrases, they don't stumble over words, they speak loudly and pointedly annunciate specific words in sentences, but they don't say anything. "Belts are still ours!" "ANX does it all night long!" There's a recap. Watching it took much longer.

2. Beer City Bruiser/Silas Young vs. The Boys

So apparently Silas won The Boys. This already feels like a major disappointment. Dalton wasn't out here causing a ruckus? This angle got way less gay and way more uninteresting way too fast. This match was fun though. Beer City Bruiser is an egg-shaped old Harley trainee, hits a nice elbow and a powerful dropkick, dumps one of the Boys with a nasty suplex. Another boy takes a nasty lariat from Silas. Short little squash, but good. I wish the Bruiser was on TV more. But man this is just so predictable and frustrating. Silas vs. Dalton with Silas himself volunteering to take the Boys, the simmering homosexual lust, all of it wasted. Castle not even running out fighting for his Boys is just unexcusable. Also, instead of a Tale of the Tape at one point there should have been a graphic with Silas Young looking into an ornate mirror, with Dalton Castle being reflected back. It would have been perfect. Dalton Castle, the man Silas Young is refusing to accept as his real identity, just staring back at him. If it was reflected in a truck stop men's room mirror it would have been even better. I'm so bummed they messed this all up. They could have easily just ripped off the Beecher/Chris Keller storyline.

3. Watanabe vs. Jay Lethal

Well, this was better than I expected it would be. I was expecting it to be terrible, but, tiny victories. Jay Lethal is just bad. He has terrible flimsy blowjob offense, offense that would be terrible if he were a babyface, except he's this awful HHH "have my title match masterpiece" performer now and so he wedges all this lousy blowjob offense into these awful touring champ main events. He does the 3 topes (which has now become a totally played out move. It's the Roll the Dice of 2015 indies) and the Lethal Injection is hands down the worst finisher in wrestling. Watanabe was fine here, liked his big suplex comeback, liked his senton, liked how he sold his back going into the barrier off the topes. Hated Lethal. So tired of Lethal main event epics.

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Ring of Honor on Destination America 9/30/15 & 10/7/15 Review

9/30/15

1. Matt Sydal vs. KUSHIDA

Well this was pretty unlikeable. This was that perfect combination of uninteresting ringwork combined with constant crowd chanting. Crowd is chanting This is Awesome as the match begins, because you see, they're in on the gag. We jerk off with some bad matwork with one guy holding still so the other can do stuff, and then doing stuff while the other guy holds still. The strike exchanges were weak and the moves were really poorly set up. KUSHIDA has some slow motion handspring offense that doesn't look good if and when it connects, and requires Sydal to either stand there while a man does a handstand, or run face first into a man doing a handstand. KUSHIDA hits a decent flip dive at one point. Sydal still has a pretty shooting star press. Boy I did not like this.

2. Adam Page vs. Will Ferrara vs. Watanabe vs. Moose

Boy we are not doing well tonight. This was a rushed 4 way, starting out clunky then burning through some suplexes leading to the early finish. Page was a standout and this was probably the best I've seen him, showing some personality and setting up offense for others nicely. He also had a really great fallaway slam on Ferrara at one point. Ferrara has terrible strikes but is game to take a bump. Moose is always disappointing. There is still plenty of potential there, and he throws a nice back elbow here, but there's just always tons lacking. Watanabe is from Japan, LAND OF WORKRATE and thus he is awesome and we must all throw streamers at him. He never looks very good. Everybody threw suplexes. Colby Corino took a decent bump from the apron at one point, but he leaned way out of a Moose kick to get to that bump. Steve Corino continues to miss every emotional note, woodenly saying "Colby. Nooooooo. Get off of the apron." At least it was short?

3. Adam Cole vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Well this was disappointing. Cole is not great, and Nak really didn't try too hard. We had Cole doing a bunch of fairly engaging leg work, leading to Nak not caring much at all about the leg work. Some of Cole's superkicks to Nak's leg were alright. I especially liked one to the back of Nak's leg. But almost immediately after the legwork stopped, Nak was back up, throwing knees, doing suplexes, jumping around, being generally just fine. My time felt wasted.


Eh, Rachel was on the phone with her sister and she didn't want me to watch You're the Worst or The League without her, so what else was I going to do. But this show was three matches that could have been good, but none of them were.

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10/7/15

Oh man this show is filmed at MCU Park in Brooklyn and it already looks so awesome. This needs to be done more often. Such a great venue and it reads super cool on TV.

1. Time Splitters vs. Briscoe Bros.

The Time Splitters...are not a team I would like to see again very soon. KUSHIDA is just really bad. Their comedy doesn't work, most of their actual ring work doesn't work, they just don't work. Shelley can at least throw a halfway decent punch. KUSHIDA is one of those guys who has really bad trademark offense, but it's made even worse because he doesn't make any of it look good. He's the one who picked this offense. You'd think he would know more than anyone that he has a shaky handstand and a bad looking jab. But then he goes and does bad handspring offense and just a terrible left jab combo. We get a too long super silly arm wringer segment which I'm sure is amusing to the live crowd and all but I'd rather see Briscoes kicking the hell out of them. And we do get that, we do. We just get so much KUSHIDA. Too much. He's junk. I'd rather just watch the Briscoes fight each other.

2. Watanabe vs. Cedric Alexander

Well hey this was the best I've seen Watanabe look! The match was JIP so who knows what kind of mess we missed, but Watanabe looked like a guy I would actually want to see here! Stiff senton, nice strikes (actual painful elbows! Funny how NJPW main event style always has interminable elbow exchanges, yet most of their guys have lousy elbow strikes), a couple of headbutts I didn't expect. Cedric knows how to miss big and I dug his thrust headbutt. Veda Scott is always amusing at ringside. Maybe Watanabe just likes working in the outdoors more? I had a copy (like a photocopy) of Farmer Burns' old "Lessons in Wrestling and Physical Culture" and it recommends to always do your calisthenics in an outdoor setting or at least next to an open window. It also recommended eating your daily steak next to an open window. And to use soothing syrups made from only the finest heroin. But still, I have seen many indoor Watanabe matches that were terrible. And now 100% of the outdoor Watanabe matches I've seen have been good. Science.

3. Roderick Strong vs. Kazuchika Okada

For a guy nicknamed Mr. ROH you think they would just spell his name ROHderick. Okada is very much not good but there were moments in this I enjoyed. Instead of their usual guardrail with metal signs on it, the infield had these flimsy plastic barriers (I guarantee there were some people upset that they paid for front row and were denied flat metal to slap their palms on) and at one point Roddy backdropped Okada onto a barrier, overshot a bit and dumped Okada on his head into the crowd. But man the way Okada builds matches is just annoying. He has no clue how to go back on offense. He just gets hit with a move for a nearfall, both men sell, then Okada just does his own move. We get a few strike exchanges, and Strong's strikes completely smoke Okada's, so Strong always gets the better of him, and then every time Strong then turns to run the ropes that's when Okada greets him with a dropkick or something else. This shit happens in every. single. Okada match. It's just lazy structure, and it's why I get sucked out of his way-too-long matches at the halfway point. At a certain point it switches into "opponent does shit until Okada just does his signature shit". Nothing means anything after awhile. Strong gets a nice nearfall with his running kick, people in the crowd can't believe it, thought it was over. But then Okada just gets up at the same time as Strong and hits a tombstone. Story of the match, story of the wrestler. Yuck.

Not a bad show, although I have now officially seen too many Okada matches. I don't like him. BUT I loved the outdoor setting of the tapings. Gives the show a nice fresh look and looks like they got a bunch of people there. Funny as I hated the look of WMIX, but grew to enjoy the look of outdoor shows more and more. I wonder what moment turned me. It could have been Onita riding in a boat to get to a ring. Or a WCW Spring break show with somebody falling into a pool. It may have been CW Anderson riding on the back of a tractor to a ring in the middle of a cornfield. Yeah. It was probably that one. But whatever it was, I love the outdoor show vibe. So, excellent marks for presentation.

Also, A+ on the sound mixing. Kelly and Corino were mixed WAY down so I could hardly hear them, making them so easy to tune out. I don't know if this was Destination America or ROH themselves, but mixing those two dunderheads down is just an excellent move all around. Great job gang!

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Ring of Honor on Destination America 7/15/15 Review

1. Adam Page vs. Matt Sydal

This match happened, some stuff was good, other stuff was not good. Starting to think Adam Page is not very good. BUT his shooting star "shoulder block" off the ring apron always makes me laugh. It's just so stupid and impossibly indy. It makes next to no contact, looks really dangerous, would be confusing to explain what was happening to a non-wrestling fan, it just checks off all the boxes of hilarity. There was a real nice moment where Sydal hits a huge baseball slide dropkick that accidentally takes out Colby Corino. Colby really leans into it and takes a big bump off it. Steve Corino was horrible (but also unintentionally hilarious) on commentary, saying really forced things like "My son! My son was sacrificed for the benefit of Adam Page!" Just...the worst read. This whole match just left me a little flat. I liked things both guys did (although the more I see him the more I think Sydal peaked during his '09 Superstars/ECW run), liked Page's pumphandle fallaway slam with a bridge, liked a Sydal spinning back kick, and really loved the baseball slide I mentioned, liked Page's slingshot flipping lariat (Page is really a guy who does a lot of stuff, some of it even good!) that Sydal flew into. It just didn't add up to anything for me. Each guy did things until it was time for the match to finish. There was no actual flow, just a series of moves in a bubble.

Veda Scott is a marginally more attractive Chelsea Peretti. Maybe slightly more than marginally. Marginally x2. She's pretty. But Chelsea Peretti would clearly be better at riling up a wrestling crowd.

2. Silas Young vs. Will Ferrara

Ah Silas Young. The man who looks like James Gammon yet wrestles like Chris Sabin. And for a 5 minute Velocity match this was pretty fun. It had a played out finish, with Dalton Castle's eunuchs distracting Young leading to Ferrara's roll up victory; but the match had tons of cool stuff, like Ferrara's cool armdrags including a real nice one into a short arm scissor. Then Young did the awesome Backlund lift all the way over to get out of the scissor. Ferrara took a big DDT and planted vertically. Young worked some nice headlocks where he would refuse to get pushed off. I love stuff like that. This was probably the most interesting I've ever seen Young look, so maybe his work is catching up to his mustache? We'll see, but I liked what I saw from both guys here.

3. Mark Briscoe vs. Jay Lethal

Wow, Jay Lethal is a really really boring wrestler. He just really does not do anything for me. His control segments were so bland here, and while he made Mark's offense look good, Mark has offense that's really easy to make look good, and Lethal never made it mean anything. Briscoe looked great, all his stuff was on. He made Lethal's shots actually look like they had something behind them (which, ehhhh), but I love all of Mark's offense. He throws some really great elbow drop variations, nice big boot, amusing uppercut strikes, etc. The match turns pretty messy when Lethal's untalented goons get involved, and then ODB comes out, and then Jay comes out to make things actually interesting. I defy anybody to come up with a stupider finisher than Lethal's handstand into a diamond cutter. I mean come on. How can anybody take that seriously. A finisher that requires the recipient to wander independently into the middle of the ring, wait in position while the gymnastics takes place, and then just take a move that looks far less devastating than if he had just done a diamond cutter without a dorky handstand. I cannot see any argument for that move being improved by adding that handstand. It feels like Lethal is trying to work more "serious", like he's a touring NWA champ. But it really isn't a style that suits him, and it's not one that he's capable of pulling off.

I had been excited for the main this week, but Briscoe just couldn't lift it up to his level. Ferrara/Young was a pleasant little surprise, though. This episode was filled with guys executing things nicely. But move execution doesn't mean a whole lot to me when it goes nowhere.

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Ring of Honor on Destination America 6/17/15 Review

Kevin Kelly looks like current Henry Winkler.

1. Colby Corino & Adam Page vs. War Machine (Hanson & Rowe)

This again started with Whitmer graciously giving his spot to Corino, and then War Machine lacing into Corino as Page refused to tag in. I like how this has been presented so far, although I'm not totally sure *where* it's going. Corino won't be able to realistically get much offense in against any of these guys, as man is he scrawny. I do like him showing some spunk, slapping Rowe and going after Hanson right when he tagged in. Rowe's rolling tilt-a-whirl back/chest breakers into a powerbomb looked nasty, and I dug the Steve Corino/Whitmer tease in the postmatch. Still, curious where they're going, how they're gonna get there, and how long the plan is. With those questions I presented, I suppose you can refer to me as a man who is "engaged".

2. Cedric Alexander vs. Moose

A lot of this was problematic, but had some moments. Moose is still really green, and doesn't have great timing on a lot of things. He took a nice ringpost bump and threw a great clothesline, but also showed horrible instincts catching a flip dive, stumbles into place at other times. The bomb trading portion of the match looked really good, which was not what I was expecting. I also liked the screwy finish that costs Moose his first loss, if only because Cedric made the shot with the wrench look really great. It was easily his best strike of the match, making me think of only one thing: "Make it good!" RIP Dusty. I don't think Cedric is very good, so the choice to have him end the Moose streak is curious, but sometimes streaks can be more of a crutch so maybe they just wanted to unburden him with it. Look man, I don't have answers.

3. ACH & Matt Sydal vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiroshi Tanahashi

Well hey, this was pretty good! I liked ACH more than Sydal in this, which surprised me as Sydal is a guy I like and ACH is a guy I usually do not. But now I'm thinking that's just because I've only seen ACH working long singles, and I should just watch him working more tags. Because tags make more sense for him. Naito is a guy who is...not good...but actually showed some sort of charisma while working as an invading pseudo heel here. He kept doing these weird "wide eyed" mannerisms which read like he was taunting white people. That is officially more personality I've ever seen from him. There was some clunkiness throughout this, but damn if ACH doesn't hit the awesome Aerostar flip dive, we get a cool Tanahashi German suplex with him grabbing Sydal out of the air while Sydal was doing a standing moonsault, and we got a great near fall save from Naito that conceivably could have been the 3. Ending was a little anti-climactic, but overall this was plenty decent.

I'm always a sucker for a contract signing in wrestling. I love the build to the table getting flipped over. Jay Lethal was really good with that, saying "yeah, I could flip this table over, get mad, but I'm not gonna do that." And then Briscoe made him mad and you KNOW that table got flipped the fuck over. Truth Martini makes a contract signing (or anything, really) worse, but even though nothing of note happened here, it did make me more interested in the match.

Better episode this week. I was all dewy eyed and tired after work, so I sat back in the chair and it was that satisfying kind of focus, and I dug what was presented. I'm surprised they didn't push their PPV way more, as they hammered it home during the contact signing, and a little during the Moose match, but it's wild there weren't constant commercials for it. Seems like that's a big deal, right?

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ROH Driven PPV review

Resilience v No Remorse Corps:

TKG: I dug this a bunch I'm always a fan of the spotfest as opener format. This was filled with guys who I actively don't like and for some reason they kept on matching up Romero and Cross which didn't help to hide either of their flaws. But the advantage of this type of quick multiperson spotfest was it got guys in and out quickly. Guys hit their spots and then get out of the way, guys who are tempted to work, everything is even, matches are forced to work man down and sell for the two on ones,etc. Davey Richards was perfectly fine in this and both Delirious and Erick Stevens delivered. Roderick Strong who is normally the best guy on his team looked really really off for large chunks of this. But even with the an off Strong and the pairing of Romero/Cross this was a format that meant none of that really hurt the match. Post match-Austin Aries does some babyface mic work and they need to get a real sound-man for these shows.

PAS: Yeah Strong looked actively terrible here, which is kind of weird. He blew a missed clothesline by actually clotheslining the guy, which is actually kind of unique. I liked this way more then I thought I would considering how much I dislike most of the guys in it. Stevens especially looked really good, in a type of match that isn't really his thing. I think they should have shaved off a minute or two at the end, as they had a two count or two too many.

Claudio Castagnoli v Matt Sydal

TKG: This had some spectacular spots, Castagnoli takes the Chris Hamerick/Fuerza bump, and Sydal eats a giant swing better than I've ever seen anyone eat a giant swing as his face goes through multiple guy trying to hold down his lunch on a roller coaster variations. But this was disappointing. Both guys are guys who can work multiple speeds. Guys who can move from fast to slow to concentrated fast to medium, etc. Both guys can do and sell for nice mat work, both guys know how to do and sell for good brawling strike sections. Both are guys who can work face and heel and here instead they worked just super match up and those are completely forgettable outside the spots. Part of the format of starting show with fast 6 man spotfest is that you slowly move away from that opening speed. Second match at same speed as first means they start to run together.

PAS: I had similar problems with this as Tom. This really could have used some face/heel structure, so it would be something besides just spot after spot. Still I guess for the post match angle to work, this needs to be worked as a scientific face v. face match. I would rather see Bret Hart as a face working Buzz Sawyer as a heel, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy them exchanging gut wrench takedowns in their Georgia match. I guess intricate headscissors are the 2007 version of gut wrench takedowns.

TKG: Post match Larry Sweeney does mic work to sign Sydal up for a contract and I really liked the almost parallelism of Austin Aries signing contract to Ring of Honor-this place that values and respects the wrestlers and the fans, while heel Sydal signs contract with Sweeney who represents lack of respect and sportsmanship. Larry Sweeney has never facially looked or sounded as much like Christopher Love.

Naomichi Marifuji v BJ Whitmer-

TKG: Lenny Leonard tells me all about the backstory of Marifuji and how he has held every title in NOAH including the "prestigious" GHC belt and he tells me Whitmer's backstory and then he announces "this will be a very even matchup". Really? They are going to run an even match-up between the guy they are putting over as a GHC title holder and the guy who is working a PPV loosing streak leading to joining an Adam Pierce stable.??? I guess working 50/50 opposite former GHC title holder is better than last PPV where Whitmer took 60 against current ROH title holder. Still this was shitty and the half that Whitmer was in control for was ugly and the half where Whitmer was eating stuff wasn't a ton better. This was worked really even and started fine but quickly went to shit. They did lots of bad looking strike exchanges which only reminded me of how much the last match could have used some strike exchanges.

PAS: I didn't hate this as much as I hated either guys previous PPV match, but that is damning with pretty faint praise. Whitmer is a guy who is clearly someone who started tape trading about 1998, I bet I sold him a Schneider Comp at some point. He jumps between 1998 Big Japan bumps, and 1998 All Japan suplex exchanges. He doesn't do either particularly well, but his channeling of a 1998 Kobashi v. Akyama match is the shittier of the two. Marifuji was probably a ring boy at that point so he can run through a shitty approximation of one of those matches. Also Marifuhji has some goofy fucking offense, less like he is channelling Misawa and more like channeling Cheech and or Cloudy. There is a point where Whitmer crotches himself on the top rope, where he actually crotched himself before Marifuji made contact with the ropes. One of the problems with both PPV's so far has been that all the matches are too similar, they don't break up the high impact stuff with mat based matches or comedy matches. I guess your poorly executed Whitmer match is in the spot on the card where Colt Cabana v. Kikutaro used to go.

Pelle Primau v. Brent Albright

PAS: I like the idea of introducing someone new by having them brutal squash a jobber, it is basically how they introduced Steen and Generico on the last PPV, and it works well here too. Albright is a shitty guy to showcase, as he looks like Joey Fatone with an HGH belly, but this is a fine way to showcase him.

TKG: Yeah this was fine. Primau eats stuff well and Albright hit his stuff well. They should have worked the Whitmer v Morishima match more like this. This was also helped by just being the only uneven match on the show thus far and just being paced differently from everything else on the show.

Briscoes v. Kevin Steen/El Generico

PAS: I liked this better then the Briscoes match on the last PPV, as Kevin Steen is really good at working heel, and you do want to see him get his pasty face kicked in. The match meandered a bit in the beginning, as Generico worked face in peril, which he isn't very good at, and he wasn't a face. Still when they got kicking with their Briscoes finish it was something to see. Jay's Cactus clothesline was awesome, and the beel into the chairs was a great street fight execution of a signature spot. Jay should really stop using the press slam DVD as a set up move, but I liked this a bunch and it makes me want to see all of their garbage match rematches.

TKG: Yeah this was the best thing on the show thus far. It had the face/heel dynamic that was missing from the last PPV tag match. Had less Marc insanity though. Being paced like everything else made it not stand out as much as it should have but it was fun crazy tag with nice hateful crowd brawling. Generico as faceish member of his tag team working heel in peril didn't work to well for me either but Generico looked pretty great in everything else he did. It really feels like he needs to go the Jimmy Jacobs route and move on in terms of gimmick. This type of match can feel like it has excessive near falls or goes, this didn't. Outside of the press slam DVD for two that set up the finisher, this really felt like it ended right where it should end.

TKG: I liked both the backstage Sweeney and Adam Pearce promos, both a lot better than their promos from last PPV.

PAS: Adam Pearce's Kevin Sullivan stuff doesn't work with his black button up shirt and blue jeans. He needs a robe or something. It doesn't work with a guy dressed like a middle manager at a sports bar.

Takeshi Morishima v. Jimmy Rave

PAS: I don't like the Morishima 3 minute squash, where opponent still gets all of his signature offense in, match formula at all. Still Rave takes crazy bumps on the clothesline and backdrop so this was better then the Whitmer match. Still it is a dumb formula.

TKG: It should also be said that Rave's spear and other offense looks alot nastier than Whitmer's offense. Bad formula, but like the Albright squash, this still felt different enough to other matches that it was satisfying.

Bryan Danielson v. Nigel McGuiness

PAS: Man alive, this is how you end a PPV. These guys have a real formula worked out with each other, and it is really great to see how they adjust that formula in their different matches. I loved all of the opening matwork, all of the stuff with Nigel in the guard, and Danielson digging his knuckles into the temple was spectacular, I loved how they did the MMA spots, but made them pro-wrestlingy. I thought the selling in this match was actually pretty top shelf. Nigel often works restarts into his big matches, but here he kind of did mini-restarts throughout the match, toughing his way through moves he normally does easier. The fighting into the Tower of London was especially awesome. This match really felt like it was the stylistic offspring of all of those Regal v. Benoit matches, like this was the main event match those two never got to have with each other. Of course it is hard to watch both of these guys slam their heads into each other until they bleed without thinking about ghosts. Still great art is often tinged with tragedy, and this is the best piece of wrestling art this year.

TKG: Yeah this was pretty spectacular. And this is what you watch ROH for. So I complained earlier about everything on this PPV being worked at same pace. Instead of starting with a hot multiperson spotfest opener, slowing down to a technical match, then doing a brawl followed by a comedy match, followed by your big hard hitting main event...they instead ran with lots of even stuff, worked all at the same breakneck level and a couple squashes. And I could see there being a market of people who were upset that TNA didn't just build around the X-division but that market isn't me. This is what I want to see and I imagine that people who enjoy the other stuff on the show should enjoy this too. There were parts of the main which were really Regal v Benoitish and parts which were really about All Japan cumulative selling. For a match to determine who gets to challenge for the title it really was worked like a title match. The previous two Nigel v Danielson matches were worked essentially with Danielson as the man and Nigel as challenger to the man. Danielson had the title then. Here Danielson doesn't have the title and its not quite that you feel like he's the guy challenging, but the dynamic is completely changed. Here he isn't guy fighting to protect and hold onto his title, instead he is guy who has to take the title shot away from Nigel. The match moves really nicely from mat section to hard hitting section to throw section to dives into brawling section to your post-back dropped on guard rail back selling stretch to final strikes finish. The match never really feels broken up as you don't have a sense that you are in one section as it just it all flows from one to the other as both guys sell the cumulative punishment as they try to win. Great main event and it feels like this PPV top to bottom is probably a much better advertisement for ROH than the last one. I think even if your only exposure to Morishima was from these PPVs, you'd leave this one excited about Morishima v Danielson. So not only a good advertisement for their other product but also good advertisement for next PPV.

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The Wrestling What I Watched in 2007 Pt. 2, by S.L.L.

Matt Sydal vs. Pac
ROH - 3/4/2007 - Liverpool, England

Pac's brand of flippy-floppery already pleasantly surprised me once last year against El Generico. Let's see if he can't do it again. He is in the capable hands of Matt Sydal, which should help his case. Sydal is in mid-heel turn here, which makes it all the better. Sydal turns up the dickishness early, including covering for a blown hurricanrana by standing around and looking like an asshole. He also busts out this ridiculous arm-trap-rolling-into-a-crucifix-pin thing that I really can't even accurately describe any better than that. Sydal sets up a top rope hurricanrana, leaps up, only for Pac to slip down underneath him, letting him gloriously crotch himself on the turnbuckle. Pac takes over with the flippy shit the kids love, and it is some choice flippy shit, to be sure. Pac goes up top for something, but Sydal comes to his senses, leaps up, and the hurricanrana doesn't miss it's mark twice. A shooting star press later, Matt Sydal is your winner. Boss match. This Pac feller is a pretty fun flyer, but the real story of the match is how good Sydal has become over the last year or so. He's still really sharp on offense, but he's just so well-rounded now. It really feels like he's up there with the best guys in America at this point, hanging on the notch below John Cena and Matt Hardy with Nigel, Finlay, Umaga, Jeff Hardy, and a couple of other dudes. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Samoa Joe vs. Takeshi Morishima
ROH - 2/16/2007 - New York City, NY

A dream match between the internet's current two favorite balls of dough. It's kinda in vogue to hate on both of these guys right now, but I can't bring myself to do it. Well, okay, Morishima sucks at wrestling juniors. I think we can all agree on that one. But give him another heavyweight and he will mess you up right good. As for Joe, I think it is just your 2000 WCW syndrome redux, where a promotion is so utterly hopeless that trying to do anything worthwhile seems futile. He had a really fun match this year against Eddie Kingston in Fight Sports Midwest. His last match with Nigel in Liverpool is my MOTY so far. And he looks as good as ever here. He's still got it, but damned if you're gonna see it in TNA. Oh, well. Morishima's nose is bleeding. Again. It's not very manly looking. I suppose that's another valid criticism of him, but I don't know how much he can really do about it. It's like complaining that Khali is slow. It's true, but really, what do you want him to do? Is now really the best time to have a wrestler working a coke fiend gimmick? In his favor, he hits dudes hard, and has some nice athletic big man offense, as well as some nice "fat guy hitting you with his fatness" offense. And sometimes, he can combine the two, like the handspring splash, and the Thesz press, and the rolling ass to a sitting opponent. Really, Morishima suffers from a lot of the same booking apathy problems that Joe does. It's not so much a lack of effort on his part, in this case. But there's really nothing interesting going in the ROH main event scene, although Ages of the Fall may change that. But I don't really see Mori dropping the strap to Jimmy Jacobs. Maybe Necro Butcher, but Gabe had to be dragged kicking and screaming through the ROH vs. CZW feud. Gabe has certain (not particularly good) standards for the World Title scene, and it's kinda worked over the years in spite of itself because he had some really gifted wrestlers to work with. They still have a lot of really talented guys, but the only ones who seem capable of working that style are Danielson, Nigel, and Morishima. Morishima ran through both. Now what? Am I really expected to care about Morishima vs. The Hangmen Three? You know the drill here. Mori kicks out of the Muscle Buster, Joe kicks out of the backdrop, Mori struggles in the rear naked choke before finally going out. It's a bit rote, but you buy it from them. By the end of the year, you don't buy it from them anymore. But this was part of a nice little going away party for my interest in both of these guys.

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Phil's Ongoing 2007 MOTY List

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


Previously on the list

Necro Butcher v. Toby Klien CZW 1/13
Chris Benoit v. Chavo Guerrero WWE 1/16

4. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer ROH 3/4

The first third of the year was Jimmy Jacobs time. They had been building his feuds with Whitmer and Cabana for months, and he had been the best character in wrestling for most of 2006. Then they wrap it all up in the first part of 2007 and he gets to absolutely rule it in the ring. I haven't watched the cage match yet, but this was the best of the Jacobs brawls so far. This was a falls count anywhere match, and Jacobs gets thrown through everything in the arena. He goes through chairs, down the bar knocking over drinks, head over heels down stairs. He pretty much touches every part of the arena with his head. Jimmy also does a crazy looking plancha off the balcony. When they get into the ring, they have the great Shiek sections of ever Jacobs brawl, where he stabs Whitmer in the head, and then wipes his face in Whitmers blood, and lays underneath Whitmers bleeding head and yells "BLEED ON ME BJ". It feels less like a move to gross out the fans, then something a legit depressed cutter emo kid would do in a fight. Whitmer was along for the ride, but much like their January match did nothing to irritate me. I would love to see Jacobs in a feud with a top notch brawler like Necro or Homicide, but BJ at least didn't fuck it up. Your finish run was nasty enough to buy it ending the match, but not so nasty that it felt like a feud ender. Man I can't wait to watch that cage match.

15. Matt Sydal v. The Man Gravity Forgot PAC ROH 3/4

Matt Sydal maybe the best underdog babyface in wrestling, this match however he was playing arrogant heel champion, which I figure wouldn't work. Man was I wrong, as he was completely awesome. He took all of The Man Gravity Forgo PAC's rana's and headscissors great, caught all of his big dives well, and had a bunch of signature bumps which would work with anyone. I especially loved his attempted top rope rana, which he missed and crotched himself. For a guy who works so well from the bottom, he is also really great working from the top and controlling, you rarely see someone who can do both equally as good. I would love to see him take the Open The Brave Gate title around the horn and work as touring heel champ against other green local juniors. The Man Gravity Forgo PAC had some nice spots but you get the sense Sydal could have the same match with "The Ethereal" Sean Alty in North Carolina, Kid Mikaze in Boston, Ricochet in Chicago or Mistico in DF.

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