AEW Five Fingers of Death (And Friends) 3/30 - 4/5 - Part 2

AEW Dynamite 4/1/26

MJF vs Speedball Mike Bailey

Contrast makes the world go round.

There are some great bases in AEW, guys like Claudio and Mortos. Look, a base vs flyer match is almost always better than a flyer vs flyer match, because that contrast gives you something to latch on to. It creates narrative friction, opens the door to easier, more direct, more primal storytelling. It becomes less about oneupsmanship and counterwrestling and the tendency for my move/your move and (which can work but take much more effort when they specifically tend to get so much less) allows for more ebbs and flows.

To me, Max is something else entirely though. He comes from a different school, a different timeline even. If the evolution of most of AEW is ROH and PWG and CHIKARA (and 2010s NJPW and Nitro-era lucha and a bit of CZW), he wears his territory heart on his territory sleeve. 

That doesn't mean he can't do the other things. In fact, he's at his most frustrating when he puts the Max in maximalist either to try to claim the "best" of something or just to show he can hang. He feels the need to remind the audience that he's as "much" as those around him once or twice as year (maybe a necessary evil, but at this point, I don't think so) and while he almost always manages to do so, it comes at a cost of purity and tends to make for matches that are rated highly but that don't hold up relative to what else he has to offer.

He's best when he's out there not just as a base to enable guys to hit their spots, and not as some sort of outright troll, not as a Miz pastiche that's somehow anti-Elite to get heat. When he's best is when he sticks to a sense of vision that is more than what spots might be cool or what false finishes might get the crowd going. He's best as an alternate evolutionary imperative, the idea that what was a champion in the 60s, 70s, 80s, into the 90s is somehow a timelines force, something that can win through hook and crook, through dogged persistence and sheer confidence, that can balance an entirely different sort of earnest and genuine clowning, stooging performance with that of begrudging martial dominance... 

At his best, he stands for the idea that wrestling can still be a moral play, that it still tell universal, human stories about class and faith and hope and grit and heroism and villainy. Like I said, vision, in an artform that's gone away from it towards fireworks stacked on top of fireworks wearing a hat of "evolution."

Wrestling today is what it is. So much of it is judged on a rubric based on "awesomeness", on the number of spots and kickouts and false finishes and counter-sequences, on going as quick as you can go, and fitting in as much as humanly possible. 

Max operates best not as someone who can spit upon that OR enable it, but someone who can meet it halfway, to show that if things are twisted just so, contorted, strained, pulled, held to certain values, that the best of both worlds is still possible. Just like Gagne could against the flamboyant characters of the 50s or Flair against the muscleheads of the 80s.

He's contrast, and as contrast, he has any number of interesting opponents to face, and he can highlight what makes them special.

And he meshed well with Bailey here. Why? Because he didn't blink. Look at the opening. He came out as the American Hero, flag and all. He immediately attacks Bailey from behind. When Bailey fires right back and goes for their charging kick flurry in the corner, Max gets the ref in the way. He's quick to go to the eyes, to portray strength and gain advantages in weakness. But it's still balanced with one or two legitimate counters (the power bomb onto the knee and then catching Bailey later with a Liger bomb), just enough to give him legitimacy, to frustrate you all the more that he resorts to cheating and antics when he doesn't have to. He's the champion. You need a glimpse of him being able to go but for the sake of the vision, it can only ever be a glimpse. 

And of course, part of that vision is Max getting his comeuppance. He survived mocking Bailey's comeback attempts once or twice but going full crane kick pose left him open to a prone Bailey sweeping the leg out. That's part of the appeal (part of the vision). You don't get the confidence without the arrogance. He can't help himself. There's so much strength for a heel in that vulnerable consistency.

Even so, Omega was every effective in putting MJF over (instead of tearing him down and thus tearing the match down) on commentary. When he gets his foot on the ropes or rolls away from an opponent from the top rope, it's frustrating, but you also have to give it to him and note his ring awareness and the overall effectiveness of the strategy. Everything in balance, everything driven by vision. The horse leads the cart and the driver drives the horse and the crowd gets to where it needs to be. That's wrestling.

If you're not going to have a thousand firework spots, then you need to make the most of those that you have and set them up and pay the off well. That meant callbacks and repetition, foreshadowing and payoff. Max went for the Heatseeker, got shrugged off, and took out Bailey's leg with a baseball slide, cutting off whatever high flying counter they might have went for. Max went for it again but this time Bailey was ready, dodged the baseball slide and hit Max with a moonsault. Very smart stuff. Likewise with all of the rolls and avoidance leading to a second rope Ultima Weapon. In that regard, they were able to doubly protect Bailey's finisher. It was just off the second rope AND Max had to get a foot on the ropes instead of kicking out. That stuff matters. It matters for the character of MJF and it matters to protect Bailey and help elevate them even in a loss. Details matter. Details are what allow a vision to become a reality.

Max ultimately won this because Bailey went back to the well once too often. They went for a second moonsault knee on the apron. Max was ready and turned it into a tombstone. That was an opportunistic moment for Bailey but it also speaks to the consistency of vision. Max had frustrated them so. He had survived that far. He had driven Bailey to desperation and an emotional need to mete out retribution and justice. That created an opening but it also protects Bailey, even in the lost. It's human. We sympathize. We would have wanted to drop a knee on Max too. Strength in vulnerability; it works for babyfaces too. 

When you sum it all up: contrast, consistency, foreshadowing, payoff, vulnerability... you get vision and you get a match that works, one that stands out from the rest of the card, one that puts over both wrestlers and leaves them stronger than they came in, one which only increases the ongoing story threads and the narrative pressure for Max to get what's coming to him. It works. Storytelling works. Pro wrestling works. It can include comedic moments, breathtaking spots, teeth-gritting frustration, wild action, and character moments that bring everything to a halt in the best way.

All it takes is the bravery to have a vision and commit to it, and that, when he can fight the tides of crowds, critics, management, and even, sometimes, his own heart, is what Max offers pro wrestling in 2026. And god do we need it more than ever.

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 8/4 - 8/10

AEW Collision 8/9/25

Hangman Adam Page/JetSpeed (Mike Bailey/Kevin Knight) vs LFI (Rush/Dralistico/Beast Mortos)

MD: There's a fine line between genius and madness, likewise greatness and disaster. Sometimes the qualities that make wrestlers stand out, make them dynamic and brilliant, are also the factors that can drag a match down in excess, that can muddle a match in chaos and confusion. Likewise, if properly channeled, some of the worst qualities on paper can channeled into strengths. Sometimes all that matters is the sheer intensity of the qualities at play.

RUSH is as visceral as any wrestler alive. He's a seething, fuming, tinder box of pride (ego might even be a better word), aggression, and a lack of impulse control. He blurs the line better than most wrestlers of this century. You might be frustrated by a Rush match, but you're never going to be bored by it. If anything, you're going to be irritated because he manages to shut enough doors that you don't get all the matchups you want to see with him. Dralistico has his own issues, a tendency to go into business for himself and leave the match's purpose behind, a lack of cooperation, a certain bent for unevenness when it comes to how cleanly he hits his most spectacular offense. It's hard to say much negative about Mortos but sometimes I think he gives too much too soon and works too small. For instance, the tornillo is spectacular but it's not the sort of thing I want to see every match. It should be a huge deal when he goes to his higher agility offense. 

So many possibilities, so many things to be controlled for, some of them being entirely human instincts and emotions and not just something you can move around on a board.  

This was Hangman's homecoming, a rare Collision appearance, an attraction six-man tag main eventing a show just down the street from where he went to college. While there was an existing issue between JetSpeed and LFI, Hangman was here as the ace, the champion, the sheriff who's sick and tired of all of the injustice around him. He's a lead babyface who's going to support the rest of the locker room with his stare, and his words, and if need be, his fists. 

And it's a testament to how this was put together that it all worked exactly as it should have, strengths accentuated, weaknesses (or at least potential disruptions) channeled for the good of the match. Let's look at Rush, for instance, one of the most exciting potential main eventers I can imagine, and certainly a main eventer in his own mind. He was laser focused for Hangman for much of the match. Of course he wanted to go toe to toe with the champ. Early on, he gave just enough. In their strike exchange, he often had advantages, but he took them by switching gears first. He switched from forearms to chops when Hangman was starting to get the better of him. It created the illusion of being in control when he actually wasn't. Later on, he wiped Hangman out on the apron for absolutely no reason, exactly the sort of thing you think he'd do; at face value, it didn't fit into the match, not really, but it set up the big final comeback, as he tried it late in the match and Hangman caught him and nailed him, allowing for the hot tag and the setup for the finish. 

Likewise Dralistico. It doesn't always work out this way, but given the chaotic and bombastic feel of the match and opponents who could do things that were spectacular enough to stand out, that he was uncooperative at times, that he was blustery at times, that he played to the crowd at times, that things seemed a little rough around the edges at times, all added to the gritty fight feel. At times, Knight was forced to contort his body this way or that in order to try to hit a piece of an offense and that made everything feel all the more organic, believe it or not. And Mortos? Well, yes, he hit his dive, but it was perfectly placed and he took out both of JetSpeed in the process, before helping to base for Rush's subsequent dive. That made it feel larger than life in a way that you can't quite accomplish in a singles match against a smaller opponent. 

It was there all the way to the finish. Hangman got the better of Dralistico, planting him down and then scooting backwards to skin the cat and set up the Buckshot. He had to fight off first Mortos and then Rush on the apron, however. That allowed for Dralistico to recover, only for the math to play out and JetSpeed to take him out as well. They followed up with dives of their own (clearing the table for the finish, the real purpose for dives, being means and not ends, in so many lucha trios matches). And then Hangman could flip back over the rope to victory. In wrestling, anything is possible with enough thought and care. Likewise, the opposite. Negatives can be channeled into positives. Positives can decay and mutate into disaster. Thankfully though, this match threaded the needle and maximized possibilities extremely well.

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ROAD REPORT: GCW Devil in a New Dress 4/10/22

This Road Report is going to be much more vibes than actual match analysis. This was the first wrestling show I had been to with this many friends (seven people, including myself) in who knows how long. It was a great night, fun as hell, but there's no way I'm going to be remembering full details of a 20 minute Dark Sheik match or what specific Kidd Bandit spots I thought were stupid. The card was changed around wildly and the two people I was most excited to see (Biff Busick and Gringo Loco) were either there and not used or not there for reasons I don't know (travel?). So that was a drag! And yet, we still had a good time. It was fun seeing it with several friends who don't follow indy wrestling, as a couple of my boys were only familiar with Busick, Jacob Fatu, and Suzuki. With no Busick or Fatu, that meant they were seeing nearly everyone on the card for the first time, brains unsullied by the opinions of those on the internet. I told them to "just think of this as early Jersey All Pro" and that set the mood just fine. 

Effy vs. Nick Wayne

ER: If you had told me earlier in the night that Effy would be the guy putting on my favorite performance of that night, then I would have been skeptical. Had it been my Looper, I would have been more inclined to believe me. This was my favorite personal Effy performance and I thought he came off like an honest to god star. The Yellow Brick Road music, the trashy blonde asymmetrical mullet, the fishnets, and the extreme confidence on the mic. For reasons I could not quite make out (it is not an indy wrestling show without somewhat questionable sound), Effy stated that this was a family show and he would therefore be working much less horny. And honestly? Focused ass kicker Effy is much more entertaining than horny Effy. He did a great job bullying a high school junior, caught all of Wayne's dives (including a big tope con giro), and came off like a real complete act. I'm not sure there was anyone on the card who carried themselves like a bigger star than Effy did in this match, and that includes Suzuki. 

My favorite moment of the match - which might sound odd - is how he handled a failing prop spot: Wayne brought the doors into the match, and as Effy was setting up a door on a couple folding chairs and trying to keep Wayne on them, the door just fell off the chairs. As the fans were jeering the extended spot set up, Effy just did the most hilarious hurrr durrrr face with a funny dance to accompany it, immediately shutting down any potential derision. Now, the *craziest* moment came right after, when Effy went up top and Wayne got up way too quick to catch him with a Spanish Fly. Wayne got up so quick that Effy's feet weren't squared up, one of them looked to be slipping, and those knees were shaking hard as Wayne flipped. I was standing near the turnbuckle directly opposite them, and I swear to you I looked directly into Effy's eyes and saw the expression of a man who did not think he was properly making it over on that Spanish Fly. I thought he was going to brutally plant chin or neck first directly into the mat, but somehow he made it over (not really through the table, instead going off course and flattening one of the chairs). People were going nuts after that Fly, and I know I'm not the only one there who thought we almost witnessed an opening match murder. 

Jordan Oliver vs. Jack Cartwheel

ER: The only thing really worth remembering about this match is the bananas finish, but honestly on a show like this having the most GIFable finish is way more valuable than just having a good match. This was a match that I really didn't care for as I wanted to see Cartwheel get punished for his frequent cartwheeling and I don't think it got there. I did not need to see these two working multiple stand and trade spots and reversals of reversals over a too long 15 minutes, and I could not believe how many Cartwheels Jack got away with. We had to have seen at least a dozen of them (conservative estimate) and every single time I wanted them to end with Oliver cutting them off HARD. I like Oliver and liked when he did get stiff with Jack, but Cartwheel is like a bad Dynamite Kid, only replacing the crisp execution and crippling alcoholism with cartwheels. This match felt like it was peaking to a finish, and then kept going, then went to more slapping and missed its window. However, the finish is something that only the most joyless wouldn't pop for, as Oliver bounced Cartwheel off the top rope with a front suplex and then caught Cartwheel on the rebound with a sitout powerbomb, fundamentally erasing the previous 15 minutes from my brain by finishing with the far and away coolest thing they were capable of doing.  

Allie Katch vs. Kidd Bandit

ER: I would be plenty happy never watching another Kidd Bandit match ever again. I hate a babyface whose only quality is being cute, and this was some next level eye rolling uwu waifu horseshit. I wanted to see them get the shit kicked out of them but instead we mostly got them doing simp fingers, making Allie sell for an eternity while they posed, then posed some more, then did a shitty stunner and 619. Her kicks couldn't break paper and Allie was insanely generous selling for any of it. The best parts were Allie trying to snap Bandit in half with a Boston crab and battering her in the corner with a lariat, hip bump, and big cannonball. I did like Allie's match finishing piledriver, draping Bandit over the ropes and sitting back with it, but Kidd Bandit's act is 100% not aimed at me and that is fine. I do not want to be a member of that club. 

Jimmy Lloyd vs. Masha Slamovich

ER: Out of everyone on the show, I think my friends left this show as bigger fans of Jimmy Lloyd than anyone else. They liked plenty of people on the card, but the different boy just connects...differently. I was excited for Masha/Busick - the originally scheduled match - but this was a fine replacement. I dug the story of Jimmy trying to outpower Masha at the outset with a powerbomb, but when all it did was fire her up, going immediately to the weapons and pushing things to more dangerous places (and Masha being totally fine being pushed there). The floor brawl was cool and lead to some nasty spots, with both throwing chairs (Lloyd is someone who is going to lean into chair shots), Masha running up the apron with a tornado DDT on the floor, and Lloyd hitting a nutso death valley driver off the apron through a door. They broke some doors in this one, and when they took it back in the ring was when Lloyd started breaking out his biggest bumps. He was really good at selling and taking damage from the smaller Masha, never feeling like he was overbumping and mostly selling her shots appropriately. When he flies into a door, it's because he got hit with a high impact missile dropkick that sent him flying across the ring. 

Masha didn't escape damage, as Lloyd powerbombed her across a trash can and brother, that trash can barely took any damage. The can won that battle, and Masha's future back problems will be testament to that. Lloyd leaned face first into her running kicks, took and sold a nasty suplex across an open chair, even took a piledriver onto some open chairs. We don't get to see a lot of classic piledrivers in wrestling these days, so seeing one dropping a guy head and neck through a chair is insane, and I love how she finished with another one right after. It's hard not to be a fan of the different boy after this match, and the boy came off even more lovable later in the night when my friends kept seeing him in the crowd, not always knowing if it was Lloyd or any one of a couple dozen wrestling fans who look exactly like Lloyd. After the show, when most wrestlers were hanging around ringside and the merch area selling polaroids and gear, Lloyd was just chilling in the crowd sitting alone. A different boy even among peers. 

Titus Alexander vs. Midas Kreed

ER: This was kind of a local showcase, although I'm not sure you'll be able to call Titus a local guy much longer, as clearly bigger things await him. The Bay Area scene is not where you stay if you want to grow your career, all the big ones get out and move east. Titus stood out in a big way on this card just by actually working heel, doing things that got actual heat, and sticking to it. He wasn't out looking for MJF "I'm a HEEL" type heat, he did some actual hateful stuff like getting right in the face of the female ref when she made him break a count. He moved into her personal space so quickly that I think it actually caught a lot of the crowd off guard and really got them turned against him. Titus knew how to get heel heat and comedy heat, which is an important distinction. He was good at setting up spots and not paying them off with what the crowd wanted, like clearing a section of crowd to throw Kreed through chairs, only to throw him right back into the ring instead. It's an old trick, but one I'll laugh about every time. It's an especially funny trick in GCW, since every person in the crowd knows there's a chance any match will spill into the crowd and a minimum four guys are going to get thrown through a section of chairs. 

Kreed had some flashy stuff, like a 450 splash that connected (even though he's a small guy) and a really cool pendulum swing reverse DDT that Titus took right on the back of his head. It was like a Sliced Bread, only Alexander really got drilled into the mat. Alexander has a nice moveset: a spinebuster, a couple kneelifts to the face, and a big rolling Chaos Theory German suplex that threw Kreed across the entire ring. These guys were probably the least known on the show, and post-intermission is sometimes a rough spot to connect to a crowd (which typically correlates with how long the intermission is, and this one wasn't bad at all), but these two won the crowd over pretty quickly. 

Matthew Justice/Mance Warner/AJ Gray vs. Juicy Finau/Journey Fatu/D-Rogue

ER: I was excited to see my boy Justice live. I've seen him a couple of times live, and I just really connect with him as a big time babyface. He wasn't really a babyface here, but he's got that same kind of working man's charisma that Jimmy Lloyd has, that same kind of guy who will bleed and wreck his body for the fans, with the major difference being that Matt Justice fucks. He also did not let me down, as he hit some of the absolute LOUDEST chair shots I have ever heard. He was pasting these Islanders with shots (even broke a cane over someone's head!), hitting them so hard in the head and back that I bet his hands were getting hurt just as badly. Justice wasn't just wrecking people with chairs, he also caught a big D-Rogue dive and got flattened by a Juicy splash from the middle buckle. When Juicy told the crowd he was gonna hit a 450, he climbed to the middle buckle and slapped his belly: "THIS...is 450" and then made Justice disappear beneath girth. Earlier, Juicy had threatened to do a dive to the floor, and Mancer got on the house mic and said he had a bad leg and there was no fucking way he was going to stand there and catch that motherfucker's dive. Jacob was gone, but honestly Journey isn't much of a step down in quality. He hung in for stiff shots, ran Gray through a door with a running powerslam, threw headbutts, basically everything I would have expected from Jacob. 

All the stuff in the ring was even crazier than the stuff on the floor. SGC combined forces to suplex Juicy through a table, Gray threw his lariat as hard as possible at Juicy, Justice and Mancer made the perfect bug eyed dumb faces when Juicy grabbed them in Tongan death grips, and we got a cool finish with Justice and Gray nailing D-Rogue with Superfly splashes from opposite corners. The deservedly loudest pop of the match was when Mancer wasted Journey with an unprotected chair shot to the dome, and Journey roared his way through it because, well, the brother is Samoan. This was probably my favorite match of the night, a great mix of violence and personality and big spots. 

Dark Sheik vs. Joey Janela

ER: I am not a big fan of these 20 minute Joey Janela matches, but I recognize that I am likely in the minority, and even though they had the longest match on the card they managed to keep the crowd's interest for all of it. That means something. Still, this felt like a match that was about to wrap up around 12 minutes in, so of course it shot right past that window and yep, we were locked into 20 minutes of move trading, back and forth. If you have the offense to fill 20 minutes of time then more power to you, but a lot of times there felt like no rhyme or reason as to who was in control. Joey catches her with a kind of blue thunder bomb, and moments later Joey is eating a big Sliced Bread on the apron. Joey eats a brainbuster and big guillotine legdrop, but Joey is the one setting up the prop spots just moments later. There was some entertaining bullshit with Dark Sheik's valet, SF drag star Pollo Del Mar, that ended with Del Mar putting Janela through a table with a powerbomb. At the start of the match Janela had hit her with a cheapshot and this was a good way to pay that off. 

After the powerbomb, Sheik hit a big coast to coast missile dropkick, and that's what I thought would be the finish. You know, the cheapshot at the beginning got paid off in a big way, Sheik hit a big impressive finisher, felt like a good time to end all of this. But we still needed another 9 minutes of prop set-up, bad strike exchanges, and even worse kneeling strike exchanges! Janela did hit an insane running elbowdrop through a table, running from the stage and leaping  FAR off it, far enough that I wasn't actually sure he would clear the distance. Great spot. It looked like Janela would pull this whole thing off after a piledriver and top rope double stomp, but nah, we needed to get to some of that kneel and trade that never looks good. If I remember correctly, Janela eventually lost when he suplexed Sheik through some chairs, and Sheik just wound up pinning Janela. They went all out and had a bunch of big moves, and that's great, but man was I ready for this to be over and done with long before we got there. 

Minoru Suzuki vs. Speedball Mike Bailey

ER: When we got to the venue (The Midway, great building for wrestling that I had never been to before) and started wandering around scoping out a spot to stand, one of the first things I noticed was Suzuki just hanging out by the bar, leaning against it and silently surveying the growing crowd. He was wearing a track suit with his name on it, and a sunbeam was coming down from a skylight, giving him a perfect spotlight to lounge in. I swear, I didn't see another sunbeam shining into that entire (large) venue, and here's Suzuki basking in his own personal warm glow. 

Suzuki has a pretty great thing going with his US appearances. He knows what the fans want to see, and he knows the exact bare minimum he can do to scrape by while still leaving everyone happy and excited that they got to see Minoru Suzuki live. Sometimes you get forearm exchange/silly faces Suzuki, sometimes you get that plus a little extra. I think we got the latter. There were a lot of forearm exchanges (way too many), and you can see his personal formula for them when you're watching up close. He throws 90% of his shots totally worked, but knows to payoff his killshots with real stiff killshots. This leads to a bunch of dull exchange where guys are pulling everything and meandering through their 5th, 8th, who knows how many stand and trade sequences, but they always end with an absolute jawbreaker. It's like Suzuki is using George Costanza's High Note Theory, where he knows he can sleepwalk through most of an exchange before throwing one tooth loosener, and everyone will mostly just remember all the big endings to those endless exchanges. I really liked some of their mat exchanges, and thought this would have been a lot more fun if Suzuki kept tying Bailey up with arm and wrist work, leading to Bailey forgoing his arm and just attacking with kicks. We didn't get that, but I would have liked that. 

Suzuki had a hilarious misread of the room, as he kept getting into the female ref's face when she asked him to break holds, I guess thinking that him telling a woman to get out of his face was going to get him cheered? After Titus Alexander used the exact same thing to draw strong heel heat just a couple matches earlier, it was completely brainless to go in thinking he'd get anything but awkward reactions for backing down a much smaller woman. He won them back pretty easily with a funny spot where he ducked a couple of Bailey head kicks, stuck out his tongue to mock Bailey, and then got kicked in the face. Bailey had a few cool spin kicks that stopped Suzuki cold, a couple to the chest and one that wrapped around his head. He also hit a big moonsault to the floor and had a near fall off his flipping double kneedrop that got me to bite. Bailey wound up missing the same kneedrop, only off the top rope, mine own knees crying out in eternal pain just witnessing it, and Suzuki planted him with his Gotch piledriver. The match had far too many strike exchanges, but I don't think it would have been as bad if four of the other matches hadn't had the exact same strike exchanges. If you're on the undercard of a show Suzuki is headlining, it seems pretty dumb to have a shitty stand and trade sequence in your match, but that did not slow down all of the worst strikers on the show! Even thinking that a lot of the strike exchanging in this match was cumbersome, I can't deny that this was a bigger Suzuki performance than I was expecting. The guy is a legend and has some of the most contagious charisma in wrestling, and I couldn't be happier that he's getting the biggest paydays of his life while basking in sunbeams. 

After the show we battled the strongest winds I have ever personally experienced in San Francisco, and drove a couple miles to go to one of the great SF restaurants, Papito. Papito is a great taqueria with a French chef owner-operator, and this is the first time I'd been to their new location (around the corner from their old location). My favorite music venue in SF (maybe anywhere?) is Bottom of the Hill, and Papito is a nice steep uphill walk a few blocks away from B.O.T.H. As I have not been to any concerts in SF since March 2020, I have not been this close to Papito in over two years. The original location would have been a logistical nightmare with a five person party as there were only a few tables inside. Now they have 3-4x the space and we were seated immediately. Glorious. I filled up on their excellent chips and salsa, ruining my appetite for their incredible hamburguesa, one of the greatest burgers I have had in my lifetime. My plan, however, was ingenious, as I took most of my burger home and wolfed it down the next night, regretting not requesting some of their orange salsa to go. 

As I was the driver on this trip and therefore chose what we listened to, my friends' ears were blessed by a 3-2 Giants victory on the radio, some Gene Vincent, Grateful Dead's excellent 4/8/72 show at Wembley Empire Pool (with awesome tonally shifting 30 minute Dark Star, among other highlights), The Brides of Funkenstein's disco classic Never Buy Texas From a Cowboy, and Charlotte Adigery's amazing new album Topical Dancer. 

Even though this was not the card I wanted, there was not one person in our group who was disappointed by this show. Even the matches that were firmly Not For Me had memorable moments, and the people I was excited to see totally delivered. Every one of my pals had a great time too, and when GCW announced they would be returning in July, we made plans to do it all over again. 

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RIP Brodie Lee

Hillbilly Wrecking Crew (Necro Butcher/Brodie Lee) vs. H8 Club (Nick Gage/Nate Hatred) JAPW 11/21/09

PAS: The Hillbilly Wrecking Crew tag run was this truly awesome under the radar series, every match was like a 21st century Moondogs match. Hopefully with JAPW showing up on IWTV more folks will get to check it out. As one might imagine this was an all around the arena tag brawl between four nutjobs. Necro grabs a pair of scissors to carve up Gage, Lee and Hatred brawl outside in the cold and slam each other into walls. Lee might take the biggest bump in the match with all of these crazy bumpers and he gets hurled over the top rope and lands on his knee. I think the end meandered a bit, which kept this from all timer level, but it was as bloody and unhinged as it looked on paper.

ER: It's hard not to love the Hillbilly Wrecking Crew, and this team was my first exposure to Brodie Lee. This match is filled with tough guys taking awful spills on concrete, bleeding, and landing on each other in ugly ways. Gage brought this great Give No Fucks energy to this, running hard enough into guys that he seemed totally unaware that he could come out taking damage as well. Brodie had this insane hulked up Necro Butcher energy, stomping through crowds of people and shoving everyone who got near. He looked like Brody during an All Japan entrance, shoving fans on the upbeat and running into Gage or Hatred on the downbeat. Gage does some gnarly work on Necro's leg, stomping it in a chair and leaping onto it in a way that looked extremely dangerous. But what is danger to a man who was jabbing scissors into Nate Hatred's head? Necro also takes a sick sunset flip powerbomb onto the bad side of a chair, Lee dishes out big boots and big bumps, just the exact kind of war you'd want. The sit and brawl stuff wasn't any good when it was happening in 2009, and it's completely stupid that we're seeing that spot even more in 2020, and I think in this case especially it really slowed things down unnecessarily (it literally always fucks up the pacing of any match that spot appears in). If someone like Necro can't make it work within a match, what chance does anyone else have? Still, this match brought the brawl violence that you would want to see these loons inflict on each other, so let Necro take a seat. 

Brodie Lee vs. Mike Bailey C*4 1/19/11

ER: This was Brodie and Bailey doing the things you'd want them to do against each other, and perhaps doing it for too long. We get some wild Bailey stunts stunt together in fun ways, starting things with a tope, hitting a tornado DDT in the aisle off a cool as hell moonsault, building to him hitting a dragonrana off the risers. I like how they had Bailey not hit these things super clean, having Brodie look like he was about to reverse all of them before Bailey would find a way to finish it. Lee takes over with a big boot and then alternates back and forth with big power offense, and showoff Mike Bailey-style offense. He hits a powerbomb, but also a fantastic dropkick, hits a black hole slam (that honestly looked big enough that it should have ended the match), but also hits a nutso Asai moonsault. I thought they got a little silly with kickouts (I don't think it would have been tough to give Bailey a better way back into the match than just kicking out of things), but they did cool offense after all the kickouts (Bailey hits his great shooting star press, Lee hits his awesome Liger bomb), so who really cares. People want to see Brodie bounce Bailey off the mat and want to see Bailey hit wild offense, and both those things happened a lot.  

PAS: Good example of how comfortable Lee was in a spotfest. He had a great ability of keeping up a juniors pace while still retaining a heavyweight aura. I really liked Bailey's early hit and run offense, and Lee's takeovers were as violent as you hoped they would be. He does this pumphandle suplex which sends Bailey damn near to Manitoba. I do think they had a couple kick outs too many, and a match like this doesn't need as many near falls to work structurally. Still this delivered what you hoped it would, the imported wrestler works a Mike Bailey match formula was one of the cooler things in end of the aughts, start of the teens indy wrestling and this was a great example of it. 

Brodie Lee vs. Eddie Kingston Chikara 3/25/12 - GREAT

ER: This didn't quite get to the heights that it could have, but with these two you know there was a damn high floor. I think this was their only singles match, and it's great that they ran it right before Lee was headed off to WWE. We got some big stuff, including topes from both big men and a half nelson suplex that I'm sure made Kingston think about Lee for weeks after. I love Kingston as Grand champ, going into the match and getting outfought and outgunned by Lee, and Lee was really really swinging like a man who thought he wasn't going to be allowed to work Indy Stiff any longer. The strike exchanges here were really cool, because they were sold exactly how they looked. Lee was buckling Kingston's knees with his elbows and rattling his brain box with uppercuts, and against a beast like Lee you knew that Kingston would be best playing a man outgunned. Kingston realizing he's being outstruck and still letting his mouth get him into hotter and hotter water is one of my favorite types of Kingston match, him taking a hard shot and saying he's been hit harder is such a real thing to bring into wrestling. Nobody likes getting their ass kicked, nobody wants to give the guy beating their ass any satisfaction, and Kingston is the guy who would rather absorb a worse beating as long as its on his own terms. I love King selling individual injuries (like hurting his arm after Lee blocked a backfist), and again that half nelson suplex was a real monster. I wish we could have seen a series of matches between them, as I know they would have kept going out there and doing new things as a feud progressed. I'm glad we got what we got. 

PAS: It was cool to see Lee work a big time heavyweight title match. Kingston did a great job of making the Grand Championship meaningful and this felt like something that mattered. This was two big guys hitting each other very hard, but with the variety and selling to make it matter. Lee was throwing his sick looking open hand shots to the ear and Kingston sold it like a guy getting his equilibrium jarred. Eddie was on his back foot but was going to try to give as good as he got. I liked Lee going for the foul after the ref bump and getting a big near fall on a Liger bomb, it really felt like he was going to be taking the title to Connecticut. I didn't love the finish run, felt like it needed a bigger explosion to put a pin in the match they were building, still this was two greats having their big match and it was neat to see. 

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WXW Ambition 3/7/20

Daniel Makabe vs. Kevin Lloyd

PAS: This was pretty fun. Lloyd was technically solid, if a little dry. I liked his gator roll, and he seemed able to keep moving and attacking. Makabe threw in some cool shit, including his trapped leg German suplex, which he made seem plausible in the context of the match, and the finish was great as he countered a kneebar into an indian deathlock choke combo. Pretty much what you want from an opening match in a tourney like this.

ER: I thought this was really good, a nice scrap to open the show. This was all movement, and I liked their movement. Once they started tangling this looked like a matter of when not if for Makabe, as he was constantly moving on submissions that Lloyd hadn't even thought about yet. At one point it looked like Makabe was attempting several submissions at once, locking on a calf crusher while tangling up the rest of Lloyd's body in legs. But Lloyd was always capable of a surprise, and I loved that hyperextended heel hook he sank in that sent Makabe lunging for the bottom rope with both arms. Early on Lloyd whipped through a super fast gator roll that looked like it could have snapped a neck, and it was movement like that making this one so memorable. The fight over the trap leg suplex was great, with Lloyd working through various stages of blocking before getting slowly dumped for a nice 8 count. And it was cool that Makabe didn't run right at Lloyd with strikes right as he got up from that suplex, instead coolly taking him down and tapping him with a nasty rear naked crossface. Great start to the show.

Chris Ridgeway vs. Vincent Heisenberg

PAS: Heisnberg is pretty big and outside of one throw basically is kind of a large training dummy for Ridgeway in this match. Pretty quick match which ends with Heisenberg eating a bunch of slaps to the ear and a kick to the head. Maybe two minutes at the most.

ER: I'd never seen Heisenberg before, and I can only imagine a Heisenberg gimmick worked on the American indies instead of, you know, an actual German man named Heisenberg. No doubt there was someone working a Walter White gimmick on some mudshow, with white briefs and the Heisenberg hat as their ring gear (okay I just talked myself into that gimmick). I like how these Ambition shows can be used as a way to introduce guys, as Heisenberg got blown out here but I can easily see him coming back next year and advancing. He's a big guy, got some WALTER vibes from him, but also thought Ridgeway would get the win even earlier with that heel hook. The head kick looked like something that would finish, and I like how Ambition keeps quick finishes in play, makes each move in a match feel more dire.

Rust Taylor vs. Tyson Dux

PAS: This had some stuff in it I really liked, and some stuff which looked pretty bad. Taylor is a So-Cal guy who was fun in the last Ambition, and had some nice spinny takedowns and submissions. I especially thought the finishing leg trap Rings of Saturn was really cool looking and he put it on super fast, felt like something Rey Hechichiro might pull out. Dux is pretty jacked and had some good looking takedowns and amateur mat stuff, but also threw a terrible looking elbow smash and weak clothesline, it totally took me out of the match. There is no need for bad looking pulled NJ shit in a tourney like this. More good than bad, but the bad was bad.

ER: I really liked this match! I do think there were a couple moments that got a little too pro style, but thought Rust's selling was strong enough that he made those moments matter. I thought the way he sold strikes and the convincing way he made it to his feet after knockdowns added to those moments, although I can see someone else making those moments feel cheesy. There were some great moments here, with my two favorites being Rust unrolling Dux's arm over his shoulder, really hyperextending his elbow, and Dux heeling him in the thigh to get Rust to break; second favorite, was late in the match when I was positive Rust was going to finish with an armbar, and Dux swept his legs with a killer grapevine. Also, Dux looked like a shootstyle Ron Perlman here, and that just made me like this even more.

Scotty Davis vs. Mike Bailey

PAS: Davis was the guy on the last Ambition card I wanted to see more of and this was a fun striker versus grappler match. Bailey was pretty much just kickboxing and threw with the appropriate level of snap and force. Davis has an amateur background and had some cool catches of kicks and big throws. Liked the finish a lot, with Bailey rocking Davis with slaps, until he gets his arm caught, Davis flips him traps his arms and elbows the shit out of his ribs for the tap.

ER: This ruled. This is the easy front runner for best 3 minute match of the year. I had to check at least twice to see if I was accidentally watching this in 2x speed, as both guys were throwing super fast kicks that gave us some cool near misses and just as cool knockdowns. Bailey as the unhinged shootstyle kicker is the Bailey I love, the guy who's out there throwing out sick spinkicks that are so ace that they look fully plausible in a worked shoot setting. Both guys were working super fast, Davis eating kicks but turning them to his advantage, and he did a couple high speed throws that really added to the Low Ki/Red feeling of this one. If you're making a comp of killer 3 minute matches, this one would have to go on there.

Ethan Allen vs. Luke Jacobs

PAS: These guys are your next generation of Brit-Wres children, and this was a rematch of a pimped match from Tetsujin. I appreciated the stiffness of this, but this is the kind of over emotive juniors shootstyle, which I didn't love when Takada and Yamazaki did it in the 80s and don't really love here. Both guys made a lot of faces and did a lot of gesturing and hammed it up in a way this type of wrestling doesn't need. I thought there was some cool stuff: Allen had a nifty spot where he blocked a slap with a kick, and then landed a second kick with the same foot. Everything they did had some force, and was reasonably well executed, although in a way which felt laid out rather then organic. I get why this match got such good reviews, but it wasn't for me.

ER: Very surprising that there has never been a Chikara worker named "Sofa King" Ethan Allen, but there's the idea just waiting to be taken. And yes the performative selling in this was real painful, really took me out of the match and felt totally out of place with the vibe of the show. It feels like there's always a match like this, on a show like this, and it just wasn't the time to show of your dramatic selling chops. There were some really cool moments that got put on pause, taking an immediate backseat to some charley horses getting rubbed out and some realllllll emoting. Couple nice suplexes (including a cool suplex out of a guillotine from Jacobs), a freaking screwdriver piledriver, and some other nice stuff thrown away in favor of having all the ham.

5. Daniel Makabe vs. Scotty Davis

PAS: This was dope, I loved how Makabe went for a shoot early and Davis just stuffed him and gator rolled him twice. Really established Davis as the superior wrestler, while Makabe would have to depend on his submissions. Davis is really explosive landing some great takedowns including a vicious standing gator roll which really should be his finisher. He hit an awesome Tazplex, and he is pretty slick on the mat too, he really slipped in a gogoplata perfectly. It was cool to watch Makabe outclassed like this, Davis really dominated him for most of the match, and seemed to have an answer for everything Makabe would try especially early, with Makabe pulling out this cool flash submission slipping in a figure four choke when Davis went to slam him. I loved the idea of him working from behind only to find a flash opening for the tap.

ER: This was great, super explosive and a fun surprise seeing Makabe kind of bullied and overwhelmed at points. Makabe is deceptively big compared to a lot of his peers, so even against larger guys like Eddie Kingston or Thomas Shire he holds his own. So seeing the smaller Davis bulldog his way into quick takedowns and forced rope breaks made for a lot of great visuals. Makabe is super crafty and smart at setting traps and I love how they established that his submissions were always going to be a threat. I wasn't expecting the fun strike exchange, filled with hard body shots. Sometimes the strike exchanges on Ambition really interrupt the shootstyle feel, but here they were scattered and skilled while also a little messy, that it made it feel like things were just breaking down more. Davis kept sneaking in body shots and finding gaps, but then Makabe had this great left hook right under Davis's ribcage. Makabe also really is becoming well known for taking hard rolling bumps off suplexes, really fearlessly getting chucked onto his shoulder. The finish is my absolute favorite finish of the year, a real highlight reel worth sequence. Davis rushes in for a takedown and Makabe goes up and over, and I was dreading Makabe getting taken down right on top of his head. But Makabe goes all Rumina Sato all over Davis's ass and brings him down hard to the mat with a hanging figure 4 choke, locking his leg even tighter when they hit the mat. What a fantastic finish, perfect for the story they laid out, executed as effectively as possible. Loved it.

Chris Ridgeway vs. Rust Taylor

PAS: This was pretty fun, I liked all of the leg fighting, with both guys rolling for kneebars, wasn't as fancy as some of the matwork we have seen in this tourny but it was plausible and well executed. The stand up was mostly cool too, although I HATE forearm exchanges in shoot style matches, I did like how Ridgeway popped Taylor with a solebutt to the gut after the exchange though, and Taylor suckering him in and countering with front kick to the chin was cool too. They really had the right four guys in the semis and this was a worthy match.

ER: I was not a fan of a lot of the stand up, as it felt constructed too much of timed combos with ducked strikes that missed by a couple feet, left-right-right-block-duck, all of it looked really mapped out. But I like both guys, so naturally there were going to be several strikes that looked good, loved Ridgeway's big sinking kick to the stomach and Rust just popping him with a straight boot, and I liked how Ridgeway built up to his big elbow to the stomach as part of his big final flurry.


2. Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa

PAS: I was trying to temper my expectations for this match. It has been nine years since their last singles match and both guys are in their 50s and those are a hard 50 years. WXW got the boys back together again though, and they did their fucking thing. This was an Ikeda vs. Ishikawa match with all of the horrific violence that promises. This follows the familiar formula, with Ishikawa the superior ground wrestler, and Ikeda the runaway semi-truck with chainsaw wheels.

Ishikawa of course is not content to just try to ground Ikeda, although he has some super slick submission attempts including a head and arm choke/straight armbar, this is not a monkey show and he is going to stand in the pocket and fire. I loved how they started with a pair of forearm exchanges, until they said fuck that New Japan noise, and commenced to landing straight punches to jaw and foreheads. Both guys ended up with pretty gross contusions on their foreheads from the punches and headbutts, and we also were treated to some nasty kicks to the head. Ishikawa landed maybe the nastiest strike I can remember from him with a wheel kick to the head from the ground. Ikeda of course was throwing KO shots including a spin kick to the temple which was the killing blow. I loved Ishikawa trying to fight his way to the feet after the KO, and then selling like he didn't realize he was counted out (or he might have been legitimately unclear where he was, you can never tell with these guys). It was what I wanted it to be, and I wouldn't be shocked if somehow in 2030 they come back and do it again.

ER: Wow. I'm with Phil. I came into this with tempered expectations, because yeah, they're both over 50 and neither work full time schedules, but they clearly take this feud importantly. We're lucky for it.  They've been doing this for over 25 years and they haven't matched up in 9, and here they act like they're never going to work another match again. This is one of the stiffest matches of the last decade, and it was filled with potential or worthy finishes. This had a real They Live feel, with a sense of humor occasionally shining through as they gave each other long lasting joint and jaw and back pain. Ishikawa is an all time punching bag, and Ikeda aims to break his hand bones on Ishikawa's face. But Ishikawa is always one limb away from a win, that Son of Fujiwara spirit always hiding in the room. This was all about just how much punishment Ishikawa could endure in the hopes of dislocating a shoulder. And Ikeda keeps ramping up to one of the absolute meanest beatings he's ever dished out. And think of the ground that covers! I love when Ishikawa gets baited into striking, as he almost always gets the short stick, but it never stops him from trying to land that one perfect punch to the chin, that one elbow to the neck, that one melon clonking headbutt. The problem is, a lot of the time Ikeda is perfectly content eating a Yuki elbow if it allows him to punch Yuki right in the face. And again, Ikeda punched face. And kicked face. There was this odd thread of humor running throughout, as the beating became so mean and Ishikawa showed such strength, that it became an almost uncomfortable battle between the T-1000 and the T-800.

Ishikawa looked done on several occasions, but he kept rising from the rubble and try to work his way in close enough to grab an arm. But Ikeda rang Ishikawa's bell with kicks, cruel downed shots, hard kicks to the shoulder, a couple of different head kicks that sent Ishikawa down in such a heap that I thought for sure that was it. And that was before Ikeda starting punching Ishikawa as hard as he could right in the forehead. We get a long run of Ikeda looking like he was trying everything to bust Ishikawa open with his hand and head, throwing harder and harder headbutts and keeping those punches coming. Ishikawa locking Ikeda in a nasty modified triangle. Ishikawa had one of Ikeda's legs grapevined and had his shinbone pressed firmly into Ikeda's throat, while trapping and hyperextending Ikeda's right arm. It was a damn fine mousetrap and I thought Ikeda was toast. Ikeda's dramatic escape from the submission was about as high drama as wrestling can get. Ikeda freed his leg and made some space, and him finally extended a leg into the ropes was perfect. Ishikawa has his own high drama moment, fighting valiantly back to his feet after a brutal spinkick right under the chin, something no man should stand up against. Ishikawa made me think 3 different times during that 10 count that he would make it back to his feet, before finally collapsing at 8. These two have such a weird romance, and let's at most keep our fingers crossed for a 30 year reunion match in 2024.


13. Daniel Makabe vs. Chris Ridgeway

PAS: This was pretty cool and worthy final to a great overall tournament. Really liked Ridgeway laying in his stuff, these are two of the better body shot wrestlers around and they were really banging at the kidney, liver and ribs. I especially love Ridgeway's short elbow to the body, really looks like it pulverizes the guts. Really great finish run, with a slick series of submission counters one after another, until Makabe ends up on top with some nasty elbows to the neck and a cattle mutilation variation for the tap.

ER: This didn't play for me quite as well as some of the other things both men were involved with that weekend, but it's a strong pairing and obviously they were going to bring some tricks. Ridgeway gets more momentum behind his slaps, and I like how they establish that he can work through Makabe's slaps while Ridgeway can shut down Makabe with slaps and advance. Ridgeway also advances with some nice leg kicks, a tool that Makabe doesn't really utilize. Makabe's strengths are similar to Yuki Ishikawa's in the prior match, his ability to weather some strikes just to attempt to grab an arm or a leg, and you can see the success in that as he grabs a nice armbar after rolling from back control, and even winds up fighting over heel hooks. Both of them twisting at each other's ankles was my favorite part of this, as Makabe had a cinched heel hook, Ridgeway gave Makabe's ankle a twist, and immediately it was as if Makabe said "Oh cool you want to see that?" and showed his twisting was superior. All of the rolling looked really good and it was tough to predict who would come out on top, both have plenty of escapes that lead to actual subs. They also seemed to be really smart with audibles, like when Ridgeway grazed Makabe with a kick to the stomach, Makabe didn't go down and instead sold it like you would sell a grazing shot to your stomach, by holding your guts and going "Oooooooooo". And while he was holding his guts Ridgeway hit him with a bigger kick. I liked the body shots from both; Ridgeway's short elbow is a strike I really fell in love with after all these WXW shows, but Makabe's short left hook under the ribs is a great weapon. Makabe is really smart about changing up his game throughout a tournament, which might be why we keep seeing him getting booked to go through all of these tournaments. He knows to keep enough tricks the same to give opponents and fans some muscle memory, but he does a great job at branching off into other directions. His cross legged cattle mutilation (following nasty elbow strikes to the side of the neck) was a great suffocating finish. At this point, dude needs to start bringing all his tournament trophies to the ring with him.


ER: This was top to bottom my favorite Ambition show, and we've had positive things to say about all of them. Was that helped by putting one of the all time greatest singles matches together as the semi-main? Of course it was! But we added three matches from this show to our 2020 Ongoing MOTY List, and a couple others weren't far behind. The highest recommendation.

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Matches from WXW 16 Carat Gold 3/6/20 - Night One

Mike Bailey vs. Chris Ridgeway

ER: This match never really grabbed me, because they kept showing throughout the match that there weren't going to be any real consequences for any of the actions they chose. These guys both do plenty of things I love, but it seems like their default style is something that I do not love. So we get a long elbow exchange, we get enough knee work by Ridgeway that you think it would have slowed down Bailey a tiny bit (it didn't), and we got a few Both Guys Down moments (which is too many for an opening match that only goes 12 minutes). You could make some really great gifs of all this, like Bailey's big middle buckle moonsault to the floor, and number of kick combos (although I was getting sick of guys selling a big kick by just doing a big kick), and several awesome body shots by Ridgeway. I didn't realize until the tag match opposite Ikeda/Ishikawa, but Ridgeway has a fantastic body shot, set up with him throwing a dummy distraction strike. He lands a couple here and they were both right towards the top of the things I liked about this match. There was also a great moment where Bailey went for the shooting star kneedrop only for Ridgeway to get his knees up...into Bailey's knees! Give me the choice of knees landing on my guts or knees landing on my knees, and I'm taking my guts every time. There was a real nasty clonk sound from their colliding knees too. Luckily for both of them, while they were down recovering from their clonked knees, it didn't actually bother them in the least once they were standing. Bailey's Ultima Weapon off the top directly into Ridgeway's back is such a disgusting move that it really should have been the finish, but by the time it got to that point I didn't much care.

2. Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Makabe

ER: Here's another Kingston dream match being brought to us by a Europe fed, and this is the match I pictured when Kingston vs. Makabe was announced. I would have loved to see Kingston forced more out of his element and into a mat battle, see how he handles things, see how he brute forces his way through other things, and we do get a little of that. I dug Kingston working Makabe into a head and arm choke and how Makabe kept his hands clasped to force separation before Kingston could take it further. This was always going to be Kingston aiming to land shots and other cruelty before Makabe could take him down and tap him, and we got some good moments of Makabe getting slick single legs and a nice takedown where he slid to Kingston's side and swept the leg. But when Kingston lands, he lands, and the first time Makabe mixes it up and goes for the Big Unit, Kingston hits one of the coolest strike combos of his career when he smacks Makabe in the stomach and right behind the ear with a quick 1-2. We get big Kingston STOs and a nice lariat, all leading to a uranage and suplex so cursed (a beautifully cursed high arcing Saito suplex) that I thought for sure that was the match, wasn't expecting the kickout. Makabe makes sure to pay that forward with one of his best Big Unit punches I've ever seen him hit, really accurately pasting Kingston's chin, and Makabe's figure 4 German suplex dumps Kingston on his shoulder in an ugly way. The finishing exchange was a real fun clash of their signature strikes, with Kingston immediately shrugging off a great Big Unit and whiffing on a backfist before catching Makabe with a backfist as Makabe was going for another punch. I would have liked to see more style clash moments, or fish out of water moments for both (Kingston forced into matwork vs. Makabe forced into strike trading), but these two bring such a high floor with them that of course this was good.

PAS: I thought this was excellent, one of the coolest things about Kingston is his variability. We saw him work as Fuerza Guerrera in an LA Park match, and here he is working like Kawada in a Daniel Makabe match. Eddie is a sneaky good matworker and I liked all of the early matwork, including Eddie with a power takedown and working into side control. I want to second the greatness of the Kingston big punch counter, the quick shot to the ribs and palm to the ear was totally awesome stuff. I love when wrestlers beat someone to the punch instead of just exchanging. All of the suplexes in this match were super nasty, both guys were landing hard on shoulders and necks, nothing was a flat back bump. I also love the backfist as a KO move, and this was an especially great one. Kingston almost left his feet, and Makabe slumped like his lights shut off. Makabe has been on a big run for the last couple of years, and this was one of my favorite matches of his, and Kingston continues to be the best.

Black Taurus vs. Shigehiro Irie

ER: This was definitely stiff heavyweight wrestling, and had some incredible moments, while also having plenty of moments that minimized the impressiveness of some of their best attacks. This had plenty of those moments that are the lamest version of something cool: instead of just hitting hard shoulderblocks like Scott Norton, they have to hit hard shoulderblocks that bounce them back into the ropes and spring back into another shoulderblock that sends the other guy bouncing back into the ropes; instead of Irie using a elbow smash to repel a charging Taurus, they just stood there and traded a dozen of them. You don't need to throw 3 western lariats to win, and Eddie Kingston on this same card shows the value of having a killshot (his spinning backfist) instead of hitting hard but demanding no consistent selling. Hitting hard is cool, but hitting hard sold by standing back up like nothing happened and continuing to hit hard? That just undersells what punishment they're actually dealing.

These two undeniably have a ton of cool tricks, no shortage of cool shit to make people leap out of their chairs. Early on Irie hits a tope while Taurus is seated on the apron, crashing both of them into the guardrail with a visual like nothing I've seen. And I can't stand that they did so many things that approached "nothing I've seen" and all of those things got sold exactly the same as everything else. Taurus has some great stuff, a high rotation powerslam, big agility spots like a springboard corkscrew cannonball, and the fearlessness to really run right through Irie. Watching Taurus run full weight into and through Irie is a treat. Irie has a wild set of offense, from cool little things like his slingshot standing splash, to HUGE things like that bananas springboard samoan drop he pulled. Just attempting something like that is pure madness. We got heavy cannonballs and a perfect spear, and plenty of these two crashing into each other at full speed. But there's a strong can vs. should aspect to this, and some restraint would have made the work pop more.

Jeff Cobb vs. Alexander James

PAS: This had some moments I really liked. James was working straight heel, which is refreshing in a tourney setup like this. It is good to have some character work instead of just a series of guys working "great matches." Cobb is one of the most explosive wrestlers in the world, so it is tough for a guy to try to go toe to toe with high impact moves against him. I liked James dropping Cobb on the floor with a Tower of London and dragging him up the aisle to try to get the count out. I really would have liked that to be more of a focus of the match, but they just went back to a back and forth match after that.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Thursday Shoot Indy Show: WXW Ambition 8/8/19

Timothy Thatcher vs. Alexander James

PAS: James couldn't really hang with Thatcher on the mat here, but they made up for that by focusing the match around hard sharp forearms and upkicks. James really blasts Thatcher with some shots, including some nasty spinning back elbow to the throat. Kept it short and kept it stiff.

ER: This felt pretty base level for an Ambition show. We had some nice uppercuts from both, and a killer back elbow from James (my favorite part of the match), but the matwork was pretty lacking. James felt a little fish out of water off his back, and things felt fairly inevitable because of that. The standing strikes were as snug as the triangle was loose, and that's fine. I do like Thatcher's awesome single crab being used as an actual finisher. I bought it as a potential finish in Thatcher/Makabe 3, looks great.

Daniel Makabe vs. Bobby Gunns

PAS: This was fun stuff, with Makabe constantly attacking the back and limbs and Gunns trying to keep up. The constant motion is one of the things I like the most about Makabe, he never stops looking for an advantage. Gunns goes for a kneebar, and Makabe is attacking his ankle and foot, he tries for the back and Makabe is spinning away. I liked the finish, with Makabe landing an uppercut to the ribs, which Gunn's sells like a KO body shot, with Makabe able to sink the rear naked choke for the tap.

ER: I agree with Phil about Makabe's constant motion being a great part of his game. I've never watched one of his matches and thought he was ever resting on his laurels. Here he looked like he was really wearing Gunns out, and I especially loved the deadweight struggle over a waistlock, with Gunns trying to lift him into a German, shifting hips, eventually kind of getting a forward trip, but being completely surprised by Makabe's go behind into a quick German. That uppercut to the body was such an awesome spot. I loved how Gunns sold it, like he instinctively flinched to dodge it but then wound up taking it worse, like he just absorbed it with his whole torso and left him stunned, a sitting duck for Makabe to sink in the choke.

Daniel Garcia vs. Buck Gunderson

PAS: This had some cool moments and some stuff which didn't work as well, I thought both Gunderson and Garcia had cool looking takedowns, Gunderson lands a calf slicer out of nowhere, and Garcia finishes with a scissors kick takedown into a sharpshooter he just wrenches back. Still a match like this is make or break based on the strikes, and neither guy was throwing with much oomph. Garcia threw some stinker slaps, and you got to slap the shit out of someone in an Ambition fight.

WALTER vs. Mike Bailey

PAS: Short but energetic, Bailey tries to dance his way away from the charging Rhino. He even gets a knockdown with a nasty shot to the liver, but WALTER is just too big and and eventually overwhelms Bailey and gets him to tap to a boston crab. A little dry for two guys who are normally full of flash, but it was fun while it lasted.

ER: This was a little underwhelming for me, mainly because it felt like WALTER kept going down relatively easy on some strikes that didn't look great. He went down for practically every flurry from go, didn't feel like we built to any kind of surprise knockdown since we established early that anything was going to knock him down. The good shots were good, and the Boston crab finish was great, easily the best part of the match. It's like WALTER decided he didn't want to be hit anymore and just bumrushed his way into grabbing the first couple limbs he could and leaned wayyyy into it.

Timothy Thatcher vs. Daniel Makabe

ER: I really liked how this paralleled their third match from a couple weeks prior, but also had some cool shoe on other foot moments. I thought Thatcher's half crab in their match was really nasty, and now Thatcher won his first round match with that crab, and here he goes right back to it. And much like that prior match he works for Makabe's leg, grabs a heel hook after Makabe blocks the single crab attempt, lands a couple of vicious heel thrusts to Makabe's ribs while working that angle, and even goes back to his ankle lock he used in that prior match. Makabe went for the arm and the series of the two of them sinking holds and grabbing desperately for ropes was exciting as hell. Makabe's armbar looked sunk and I thought for sure it was going to finish things, but I really liked the way they moved from one mat strategy to the next. Thatcher even grabs him at one point and dishes a headbutt to just flatten both. It felt like they threw in some callbacks to that last 3-2-1 match, with Thatcher going for an enziguiri but Makabe blocking (Makabe had hit an enziguiri that lead to him hitting a snap German) and here Makabe hits an enziguiri to Thatcher's face. I did think the finish needed more mustard to be a TKO, as they ended on a couple Thatcher slaps that may have hurt but didn't really read well, and really Thatcher's running dropkick and slap were his weakest looking offense of the match. I don't want my dude out there eating a disgusting beating to make the finish look better, but it was a bit of a letdown after providing so many plausible submission finishes just a few minutes earlier.

PAS: I thought this was the least of their matches against each other, although they have set a pretty high bar. This being sort of a touring version of their 3-2-1 battle matches it missed some of the nuance and history that Makabe has with that crowd. Plenty of neat moments, lots of leglocks, and a really good example of what people can bring to the leglock table. Loved Makabe figure fouring his own legs around Thatcher's knee cap, and how Thatcher brought Makabe into his body to relieve the pressure. The finish was disappointing. I have seen Thatcher hit much harder and Makabe get hit much harder for me to buy that as a KO. Just felt pulled and weaker than it should be for that kind of finish. Cool to get to see these guys work their stuff in a different atmosphere though. They both deserve this spotlight.

Daniel Garcia vs. WALTER

PAS: They sure weren't paying WALTER by the minute here, as this was another quick one. I really like Garcia's energy and he has a meathead charisma, but man he needs to throw with more force. Him jumping WALTER at the bell would have worked way better if his stuff landed with some thud. I liked Garcia meatheading up only to get kicked in the mouth, and this was overall a fun two minutes, I just want to like Garcia more then I do.

ER: This was a much cooler short WALTER match. I dug Garcia's scrambly aggression, just swarming WALTER in an attempt to overwhelm him. And of course I love how WALTER put an immediate stop to that with a boot right to the face, then a couple to the chest for good measure. Those three kicks were arguably the nastiest three strikes thrown on the show up to this point. The finish was fantastic, with Garcia rushing in for a desperation double leg, and WALTER not budging an inch as he graciously accepts Garcia's invitation to "please, sir, please powerbomb me" and then sinks that backbreaking crab. Short but dynamite.

47. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Tyson Dux

PAS: God what a pleasure it is to watch Ishikawa work his magic. He is so slick on the mat, just finding multiple parts of the body to grip and twist, and always finding a way to reverse whatever Dux tries. Dux is fun as a jacked strong guy who would try to use his power to counter Ishikawa's technique. I was a little disappointed with his standing, he was throwing these big demonstrative elbows with a big foot stomp, this is Ishikawa you have to bring it more. That was pretty much the only flaw of this match though,  Dux hung well on the mat, and Ishikawa looked as skilled as ever. I loved this finish with Yuki dragged Dux to the mat and incredibly quickly reversing a choke into a grounded chicken wing crossface. The speed of that reversal was crazy for a guy that old, Ishikawa doesn't seem to have lost any of his pop, which is incredible.

ER: I love that Yuki Ishikawa is still putting out some of my favorite work of his illustrious career, into his 50s. His transitions look as quick as ever, which breaks my brain. This is a guy who would be fun as hell working the Champions Tour, and yet here he is still capable of wowing. I was expecting Dux to be a tomato can on the mat, but he looked more capable than a lot of people on this card. He definitely tried to brute his way through some of Ishikawa's game, and sometimes it worked. His mounted elbows looked good, but Ishikawa is a guy who has taken some grounded elbows. This whole thing was just a Yuki mat clinic. He was going to find any opening he could, and was clearly able to tap Dux in any number of ways, and it continues this cool trend of old man Ishikawa being the aggressor in fights. So many of his best matches during his "prime" saw him as the Fujiwara-esque underdog who would hang in fights long enough to catch his opponent and finish it quick. Now he's just a dude outclassing guys and forcing them to survive. That sequence of Dux working a body vice, thinking he finally had the advantage, only for Yuki to apply pressure to Dux's ankles with his thighs, allowing him to pass into a gnarly ankle lock? Brilliant. That felt like the biggest moment on the card, with Dux appropriately panicking and trying to get to the ropes while Ishikawa kept shifting wait to drag him and that bent ankle back to center. And I love when this kind of match hits that narrow escape, only for a pro like Yuki to sweep effortlessly into a killer body vice chickenwing. Ishikawa vs. Tyson Dux was not a match-up I ever expected to happen, but I'm certainly glad it did.

13. WALTER vs. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: Now that is how you do a KO finish. Thatcher barely makes it up from the powerbomb while selling paralysis in his arms, only to get met with a cricket bat swing of a clothesline for the direct KO. I really though this was Thatcher's match to win. He was able to sneak in some cool counters into Fujiwara armbars, including one while in guard after Walter punched the mat, and I also liked Thatcher wailing away at his organs with bodyshots. Still WALTER ended up being too big and strong and was able to put him down. This lacked some of the structural problems of their individual matches earlier in the show, and was a really banger way to end a tourney.

ER: Hell yeahhhhhhh THIS was what I wanted from these two. Yes yes yes yes yes. This kicked too much ass. It was 10 minutes of brutal strikes and sick twisting, and I was here for all of it. It's odd within context of the show that WALTER got weirdly overwhelmed by Mike Bailey, because the WALTER in this match was the best version of WALTER. I dug the story of WALTER coming into the match far fresher due to quicker finishes, as he looked like a guy who had saved all his strength to exact unholy punishment on Thatcher, and Thatcher was still the guy smart enough to pick his spots and hope he could hang on long enough to catch an arm. Thatcher's Fujiwaras looked finish worthy, and I loved the times he would sucker WALTER into throwing a downward strike only to grab the arm and yank, and Thatcher was throwing some absolute shots in mount, really raining down on him. I really dug the callbacks to the earlier matches, Thatcher twice going for that great single crab and WALTER aiming to snap Thatcher in half with that full crab (that I thought for sure would finish). And we got the best suplexes of the night, WALTER just chucking Thatcher in sick fashion with a killer butterfly suplex and a downright EVIL throw using only Thatcher's head. That was not a vertical suplex, that was WALTER locking in a quick guillotine choke and muscling Thatcher most of the way over by only his head and neck. Good god. WALTER was such a raging bull, really throwing full weight behind everything, and the finish was really disgusting. WALTER hits a couple powerbombs and Thatcher does this great sell where his arms straighten out and his neck strains forward, unable to sit up but sorta able to roll over, and as he staggers to his feet you see WALTER already angling off the ropes, and just wrecks Thatcher with an instant KO lariat. This was all I wanted, and it ended the show on the highest high possible.


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2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ishikawa v. Speedball

7. Shuji Ishikawa v. Mike Bailey DDT 1/5

PAS: Really fun David v. Goliath match. Ishikawa is a lumpy WARish dude, kind of a poor man's Takeshi Ishikawa, and isn't afraid to hit hard and get kicked in the face and kneed in the kidneys. Bailey's moonsault double knee's are a nasty bit of offense and they are landed in cool ways, Ishikawa is on his hands and knees when they land which really makes them look hurty. There is a top rope version where Bailey flips right into a big knee. I also loved Ishikawa giant swinging Bailey right into chairs. Might have had a couple of 2 counts more then necessary, but it was fun stuff.

ER: If you gave me $1 for every gut busting Ishikawa knee I was willing to take, I would have zero dollars. Bailey would end up with far more dollars, because he is a crazy person who cares not about his own knees crashing into hard surfaces, nor meaty knees burying themselves into his stomach. Bailey flies into a bunch of crazy things with abandon - both his own wild moves and the beefy limbs of Ishikawa. We've all seen a zillion elbow exchanges over the years, so seeing these two break out kitchen sink knee exchanges is a real treat. Bailey is super fast and always seems to land well, he really is like a speedball bouncing around the ring. His lightning kick combo keeps getting faster, he throws in extra spins on kicks almost as if he was just getting bored, and he's got precise aim. Ishikawa is more of a lumpy bully, but able to surprise with speed bursts, a fun Takayama lite. I really got into the battle of knees, as Bailey tried a ton of moonsault and shooting star kneedrop combos and man do some of those landings kill, just points of knees right into the kidneys. But every time Bailey would miss (and crash knees first into the mat) Ishikawa would be there to dish some brutal kneelifts. We did roll into that overkill territory, where it felt like Bailey took way too much of a beating and kept kicking out the exact same way. It's a bummer that a vicious release dragon suplex can't even keep a guy on the mat for 5 seconds. Bailey gets dumped on his head and is back up kicking seconds later. I thought Ishikawa was pretty punishing down the stretch but felt his big moves were less big because of Bailey's kickouts. But we get a killer release German, an even better powerslam reversal with Bailey grabbing a dragon sleeper and dragging Ishikawa all the way down. The overkill was a bit much, but the work was a blast, no denying that.


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wXw Ambition 8 3/11/17 Review

PAS: Ambition is the yearly shootstyle tourney which WXW runs in the middle of the their 16 Carat tourney. I have enjoyed some of these I have seen in the past (Bryan Danielson ran shit in the first one) and this has a bunch of guys I like in it, matches in this tourney tend to be short, so I thought I would give it a shot

WXW Ambition 8

Bobby Gunns v. David Starr

PAS: Starr is a guy I have semi-liked before, he was a state amateur champion and a good grappler although in his indy matches he tends to get a little go-go spotfesty. Here he pretty much just showed off his big throws and fast takedowns. Didn't get much of a sense of Gunns, although I liked how he used digit manipulation to break Starr's grip and get the armbar.

Jeff Cobb v. WALTER

PAS: This was really short, two minutes or so, and was basically two big spots, Cobb giving WALTER (who is a legit 320) an overhead belly to belly suplex, and Cobb powering out of a triangle choke with a big powerbomb. Liked both spots a lot, would have liked this going 5 minutes instead of 2.

Marius Al-Ani v. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: I enjoyed this, Al-Ani was game, and while he wasn't in Thatcher's class on this mat, he did enough interesting things to prove he belonged. Finish was pretty cool with Al-Ani hitting a high kick, but leaving himself open for a standing choke by Thatcher.

Matt Riddle v. Mike Bailey

PAS: This was the best first round match, pretty classic striker v. grappler match with Bailey using his fast feet to get an advantage standing, while Riddle beasted him on the ground. I really dug Bailey's near KO on a high kick, and the finish was great with Riddle using an ankle pick while trapped in a rear naked choke.

ER: Fun hot and quick action from two guys I really like. Bailey's kicks looked incredible here, even moreso than usual, like that early lightning fast spinkick that almost disconnected Riddle's hand from his arm. Bailey is good at keeping Riddle at bay with kicks, and I loved the near KO when Riddle tried to close the distance. Finish is cool with Bailey thinking he has his choke sunk in but Riddle pulling out the buzzer beater counter. Love these guys.

Bobby Gunns v. Matt Riddle

PAS: Gunns slaps Riddle a couple of times, and Riddle hits two nasty open hand body shots, takes him down and taps him with a modified twister in about 45 seconds. Unlike Cobb v. WALTER which felt way too short, this was about the right amount of time and made Riddle look like a beast.

ER: Only a minute long, but a really awesome minute. Gunns was immediately over his head but scrambled admirably, but you could see Riddle two steps ahead of Gunns' couple reversal attempts, but he still looked like he was supposed to be there. Riddle just floated around him on the mat and tapped him, and it all looked great.

Jeff Cobb v. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: These guys have matched up a bunch, but I haven't seen the classic they have in them (although I need to watch their EVOLVE match), they weren't trying for a classic here, but this was pretty great. This was a short grappling heavy exhibition with Cobb beasting Thatcher on the mat, he did this nasty shoot small package where he bent Thather like a collapsable sofa bed. Really liked Thatcher pulling out an armbar from the ground for the quick tap. Fun match which really delivered a great match in the style of this fed.

ER: Jeez Louise would you look at Cobb? He's like a man cosplaying as a cinder block. As Phil said, this wasn't worked with the goal of having a "great match", but it was great within the style of the tourney, and a great showcase for what these two can do. The grappling is great, with Thatcher throwing short knees to Cobb's breadbox and going for all sorts of painful crossfaces. He was really great at trying to throw Cobb off his grip by jamming a palm into his jaw, rubbing a forearm across his teeth, and it looks like it makes Cobb angry. You won't like Cobb angry. The build to Cobb finally unleashing an awesome gutwrench was the best, and he follows it with a tough German. BUT, Thatcher shifts and lands flat instead of more painfully on his shoulders, and yanks that arm off. Awesome display here.

Timothy Thatcher v. Matt Riddle

PAS: These guys had my favorite non Black Terry match of 2016, and had another killer match here. Thatcher will do Thatcher no matter what, so which keeps Riddle away from some of his more irritating Super Indy tendencies. Riddle was a monster here, just incredibly fast go-behinds and scrambles, some of the more impressive amateur grappling I have seen, I loved him maniacally flipping away to try to escape the wrist lock. Thatcher couldn't keep up with Riddle athletically, but he is great at finding an opening or two to twist and rip at an arm or foot. I really liked Riddle's aggressive knees on the ground, although the final finish knee was kind of lame. Great stuff overall though, and it really delivered on the promise of this tournament.

ER: Agreed, their August Evolve match was the only match that my heart even considered putting over Terry/Wotan. And this is also really awesome (until a fart sound ending). The scrambling in this was off the charts and I loved the frustration building up in Thatcher. Both guys struggle wildly when one of them grabs a limb, with Thatcher bending Riddle's ankle until Riddle gets leverage on Thatcher's ankle, Thatcher trying to rip an arm off and Riddle whipping around like an animal caught by the tail. Riddle won his second round match in a minute and Thatcher drew Cobb AND had minimal rest in between each fight, so I love how he was the first to really go for almost untoward strikes, landing brutal downward striking elbows to Riddle's jaw. Those things landed so violently that I thought they were going for a KO finish. I loved how Riddle barely beat the 10 count, walking himself up the turnbuckles and slumping into them to buy a couple seconds. Riddle responds with nasty knees to the side, and ends up draping Thatcher over the bottom rope. This was ramping up pretty crazily, but sadly it all falls apart right at the end. I didn't love Thatcher's face first fall leading to the 8 count, felt like a really manufactured bump in something like this, but I then immediately wished it was the finish as Riddle whiffs on a KO kick that "knocks out" Thatcher. What a bummer of a finish, and it's hard not to have the previous 10 minutes spoiled by it. I can't believe they didn't call an audible.


ER: Fun show, and the final two matches were good enough to land on our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List. No telling how high that final could have gone with a better finish. As Phil told me, 2017 so far is the year of great matches with poop finishes.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Togo/Speedball v. DAMNATION

28. Dick Togo/Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Daisuke Sasaki/Tetsuya Endo DDT 8/28

PAS: Nifty juniors tag with Dick Togo looking fully back and fully awesome. Whole match worked at double speed, this is one of the biggest crowds Speedball has ever worked (Sumo Hall so probably 10,000+) and he is going bonkers. He has a nutso kung fu sequence with Sasaki, hits all of his crazy big spots and even gets busted open. Togo looked spectacular, he hits a crazy tope con hilo, has an awesome punch exchange with Endo and does some really great counter submission wrestling rolling around for a crossface. For a spotfest tag this is about as good as it gets. I would love to see the Togo/Speedball tag team some more, they just gel.

ER: I thought this was a little scattered, and I thought Bailey was off a bit from all the other times I've seen him, thought we got some too long move set ups, but what made this for me was just nearing 50 Dick Togo still being an incredible wrestling force. But there's more meat to the match than "great wrestler still improbably great after long layoff", we get a bunch of fun spots and a go go pace. I didn't get a big feel of DAMNATION during this, couldn't tell if they were heel or face, but when they weren't brushing hair out of their eyes they were great receivers of Togo/Speedball offense. The big flying moments were wild (Togo hits one of the topes of the year, and Bailey follows it up with a shooting star to the floor) and we get some fun strike exchanges that took me back to Low Ki/Amazing Red. But really this is all about Togo and the Togo is great. Everything he does looks fresh and has great energy, those crossfaces and STFs look brutal, his dropkicks are among the best in wrestling, and he really just looked like a guy who hasn't missed a beat while being away. His presence is still one of my favorite things in wrestling. Though I hope he bought Speedball something nice after accidentally braining him with a chair while breaking up a pin. It's gotta be a bummer to get busted open by friendly fire.


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COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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PWG Lemmy 1/2/16 Review

1. Brian Cage vs. Chris Dickinson

ER: Fun match with some absurd overkill, and some big power guys working cruiser spots. One sentence can kind of sum up this match: "A burning hammer gets a 2 count in the first match of the show". That's kind of what you need to know. Once you know that, and get that in your brain, you can enjoy or hate the rest of this. These are two power guys, and the power spots all looked good. I liked the running story of Cage trying to go for bigger and bigger power spots, that would allow Dickinson to slip out and do damage. One time Cage went for a powerslam off the top and Dickinson slipped out and eventually hit a huge rana, and another time he slipped out, kicked Cage's leg out and hit a big back suplex. Cage is a complete psycho taking burning hammers and dragon suplexes and doing big flip dives with all of his mass. One match in the future is going to see every single muscle in his body simultaneously tear. I really liked Dickinson in this. He appears to have more actual strength than Cage which lead to some pretty wild stuff, like a deadlift powerbomb and deadlift wheelbarrow suplex, and then he'll break out a crazy accurate spin kick. I also liked his little detail moments like stomping on Cage's foot to get out of a go behind, and standing on Cage's wrist while Cage is on the mat and Dickinson is transitioning to a new position, and the inverted Boston crab looked really great. Cage is just a weird worker as he's very agile, while also being slowed down by his bulk. So he does fast indy sequences but doesn't have the flexibility of the guys who typically do these spots, so they look strange. I wish he'd dial things back a bit but also understand these show off tendencies on cards like this. Match was ridiculous and structure was kind of out the window, but as a collection of big spots it was fun.

2. Drew Gulak vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: How weird, these two guys having a match I enjoyed! This was all built around each guy trying to rip the other's arm off, with some painful and convincing selling from both. Both break out cool arm stuff I haven't seen much, with Thatcher Irish whipping Gulak a few times but then yanking him down by the arm. Thatcher's curb stomp to the wrist is always a gross spot, and here he ups the ante by grabbing a kimura on Gulak and then lifting him up in the air by his damn arm! Gulak punishes Thatcher with annoying painful stuff like yanking on his thumb while grabbing a wrist, throwing open palm strikes to Thatcher's ear, throwing fast and low dropkicks to Thatcher's shoulder, snapping off a quick piledriver, wanting to compress Thatcher's neck in the same way Thatcher tried to do with his earlier north/south knees. I loved the ebb and flow of the arm stuff as each guy would push the other a little further, but there was an undercurrent of respect where neither wanted to go too far over the line...but then they'd keep pushing. Both guys sell the arm really nicely, doing some nice dead arms, not wanting to bend them, rubbing them out. There was one point where both were on the mat recovering, and both were independently holding their arms kind of straight off the mat, not putting weight on it. They still manage to snap off some throws and immediately regret them, with Thatcher pulling off a big gut wrench, and there's cool moments like Thatcher bridging out of a pin with his neck while keeping his arm motionless. The finish was so damn good with Gulak finally lacing in with slaps to Thatcher's ear and side and then starts with nasty elbows, and Thatcher just DROPPING him with his thrust headbutt as Gulak is whirling around with a rolling elbow. Gulak crumples better than maybe anybody, and that headbutt sent him into a nasty fold. It gets a surprise kickout but Thatcher locks on the kimura right after for the win. Awesome stuff. Not a shock.

PAS: This was a really great version of this match. They sped it up a bit for a PWG audience and I enjoyed the sprinty style of this a ton, it was almost like the Wrestlemania 3 version of Steamboat and Savage, all of the hits in less the time. That Kimura lift by Thatcher was honestly one of my spots of the year, just an unbelievably violent piece of business. Awesome performance by Gulak who maybe my 2016 Wrestler of the year, I loved his wide hip counter into this weird regal-plex where he through Thatcher by his chin, he also made Thatcher short headbutt look devestating, that is a really hit and miss spot, and Gulak sold it like he had been hit by Gennady Golovkin.

3. Sami Callihan vs. Trevor Lee

ER: This was below what I was expecting, but I'm also starting to realize that one of the first Trevor Lee matches I saw (vs. Mike Bailey) is still clearly the best match I have seen him in. And so every Lee match I watch I still think of him at that level, and that may not be fair. I need to recalibrate my` Lee expectations. They don't really have much of a gameplan here so the first half of the match is pretty unfocused. The spit right in each other's face which is freaking disgusting. I mean Sami especially can muster up a LOT of spit and he just projectiles it right into Lee's beard. It's fucking gross, guys. The match picks up when Sami catches Lee's apron punt on the ground, and back in the ring starts his brutal face wash kicks, throws a couple bicycle stomps and kicks, gets Lee tied up in the ropes and kicks him some more. Once they commenced with the kicking it got good. But overall it fell short.

4. Drew Galloway vs. Jack Evans

ER: Well this was really fun! Evans comes out running everybody down with a promo and then doing some show off breakdancing, and Galloway dropkicks him while Evans is doing a handstand. And then we go on a wild run of Evans taking ridiculous bumps off of Galloway kicks, lariats, punches and more. At one point Galloway no sells two dropsaults and when Evans goes for a third he plasters him with a lariat. Later as they brawl on the floor Galloway catches a crossbody off the apron and chucks Evans into the ringpost. Good god. Evans gets a couple nearfalls on flash roll ups but this was mostly him getting tossed by Galloway, and Evans is really good at getting tossed by Galloway.

5. Adam Cole vs. Speedball Mike Bailey

ER: Really good match, and amusing in the ways it factored the shittier parts of Adam Cole (moves with ridiculous set ups, cringe taunts) into a match story. Every time Cole would take time to taunt (like the embarrassing "Suck My Dick!") Bailey would meet him with a kick. Cole sets up his stupid bunny hop rolling piledriver, and it's Bailey suckering him in with a roll up. Bailey, that barefoot psychopath, looked really great and really crafted a great little match around Cole. Not a shocker that Bailey had some great kicks here. I especially love his Karate Kid crane kicks and his multiple rotation roundhouse kicks. And to Cole's credits he leaned right into them, and took a bunch of other nasty stuff like Bailey's moonsault knee drop right to the lower abdomen. Yuck. We don't get any overkill and things end when they should, and there was a nice nearfall with Cole grabbing the ref's arm. Really good stuff overall.

6. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Akira Tozawa

ER: Well, a lot of this ate shit. I'm not a big fan of "comedy striking" or "comedy grappling", and this match had an abundance of both. A problem with Tozawa is that a lot of his normal strikes already looked shitty in this match, so when he throws purposely shitty strikes it doesn't really land as comedy, it just lands as him looking slightly worse than normal. Sabre does some cool submission stuff, but also spends way too much time looking for yuks. Locking in a sub, making a face at the crowd, breaking the hold, repeat. We get some bad strike exchange moments, then some bad "this is supposed to be bad" strike exchange moments. We get suplex tradeoffs. It ticked a lot of the "this is bad" boxes. Sabre had some nice kicks, loved him kicking Tozawa's leg out while climbing the ropes, and at least the penalty kick finished the match, but I was bored and loathing this one pretty early when it was clear what they would be doing.

7. Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong

ER: This was a long, boring match between two guys I like. It just didn't work. We got bumped refs, we had weak title belt shots, it was poorly paced, and it was a waste of two guys stiffing each other. They had an interminable section with Hero sitting on the top rope and Strong fighting to suplex him off. Hero looked tired really early and had zero steam by the end. There were spots where he was supposed to be tired and beaten down, and other spots where he just looked flat out gassed: not kicking high enough on kicks, elbows thrown noticeably slower. Roddy pulls the ref into the path of Hero offense a couple times, and I get it, he's a heel champ. But he does stupid nonsensical things related to the ref bumps. He pulls the ref into the way of a Hero elbow, and the ref goes down like a shot and rolls out of he ring. Right after, Roddy hits a brutal tiger driver.....and then pins Hero. HE was the one that purposely got the ref KO'd! He SAW the ref roll out of the ring! WHY would he cover?? Ohhhhhhh, because a second ref was running down to count a nearfall. Roddy didn't see this second ref, but he pinned Hero, because why? Too much of that garbage in this one. Way too long, horribly laid out, majorly disappointing for these two.

ER: Overall a mixed bag of a show. It was definitely front-loaded, but the last two matches were not only the longest of the night, but easily the worst of the night, so it's hard to not end the show feeling like it was worse than it was (especially when I watched the first half several days before the second half). Still, a great match, two very good matches, and some fun stuff in between....it's hard not to like that. But man those last two matches blew.

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