All TIme MOTY List Head to Head 2011: Kingston vs. Quakenbush Vs. Togo vs. Honda

Eddie Kingston vs. Mike Quackenbush Chikara 11/13/11 - EPIC

PAS: With Eddie Kingston about to have the biggest match of his life on Saturday, I wanted to revisit the previous match to hold that title for him. This was the first singles match, against his trainer Mike Quackenbush, to crown the first ever Chikara Grand Championship, in the finals of a tournament named after his best friend, who had died tragically of suicide. Kingston is a wrestler who is the best when he is fueled by emotion, and this was the most emotional US indy match of all time. I am a long time Chikara low voter, I honestly think 75% of their shtick is idiotic, but as a presentation and a story, this match was as good as anything wrestling can deliver full stop.

Before the match we see a video package of Quackenbush training for the match while he talks about forming Chikara and using it to wrestle his idols, how it is his, and how he is destined to be it's first champion. We then see Kingston deliver an all timer wrestling promo, where he talks about how he has let people down his entire life, and he sees the championship as his shot for redemption, how Larry Sweeney would have been the godfather to his children, and how he was dedicating this match to him. Kingston can speak from the soul the way few wrestlers ever have, and this was as raw and exposed as you will ever see anyone in public. He stripped himself like a live wire and sold this match as well as anyone can.

Kingston comes into the match with a partially torn MCL, and has a slight limp even coming to the ring. The ECW arena crowd is 100% behind Eddie, putting Quackenbush in the rare position of working heel. Quack always had strong Ben Shapiro energy, and he uses that self superior smarm really well here. His over mannered style can be a real determinant to his babyface work, but is a tremendous contrast to Kingston here as a heel. He wrestles the match like he is lowering himself to Eddie's level even to compete, and much of his fancy submission work comes off as vicious rather then performative. At one point he eats a shot or two and just kicks Eddie right in the side of the knee, later he slips in an eye poke. If Eddie is going to come into the match with a partial torn MCL, Quack is going to tear it fully. Eddie is the Daniel Day Lewis of injury selling, and he needs to fight through the pain to fulfill his destiny, and he is incredible firing himself up and fighting through. The one count after the Quackendriver is one of my favorite one counts ever. Quack hits it, puts his knee on his chest with a kind of celebratory pin and is just flabbergasted when he doesn't get the win. Quack goes for a double knees off the top, but lets the crowd rattle him and misses, now his knee is jacked and it gives Eddie an even playing field. The finish run of suplexes and backfists drops and wobbles Quackenbush and the final pin by Eddie is pure catharsis. 

The title is presented to Eddie by Sweeney's brother and a close friend while the entire locker room surrounds the ring, and it was the kind of emotional scene you usually can only get in lucha mask matches. What a big game performance this was from both guys, and if Eddie can do something even close at Full Gear this weekend he will cement himself as an all time great.

ER: This is one of those matches - and this doesn't happen often - where I watch the match, and immediately run it back to the beginning and watch it over again. For this one I even went all the way back to the video packages and Kingston promo, because this really is a complete match presentation. Quack's video is impressively self-aggrandizing and yet doesn't say a single thing that isn't true. He's a successful wrestler with earned pride in his career and the things he accomplished. Kingston's promo is straight and heartfelt and I would find it impossible for someone to not be immediately drawn into seeing this man with a torn MCL fight for a title to honor the man that would have been his Best Man and Godfather to his children. And they manage to work truly the perfect match for the crowd and the situation. 

This could have been an opportunity for Quack to play a more overt heel role, more of an over the top Chikara "villain" role, and instead he just works mercilessly and has no problem going after Kingston's knee. He does a ton of messed up stuff to that knee, like a diving block into it to drop King right on his stomach, to a running knee into the side of King's knee, a hard kick to the knee, stomping that knee slowly into the mat while he twists the foot in cruel ways. Kingston limps his way through it and the bad wheel makes him slow on strike exchanges, makes him telegraph the backlist a mile away (also doesn't help to yell "Backfist!" before doing one) and slows down his elbows. He does a great job demonstrating how much you need a strong base to throw strong strikes, and realizes his only chance of damage Quack is by overpowering him when they're in close and catching a few breaks. He makes some of the breaks happen, like knocking Quack's legs out from him on the top rope, or suckering him into throwing running palm strikes to set up an incredible lariat. It felt like he determined that the palm strikes were something he could absorb, something he could withstand, so he egged Quack into hitting a couple, luring him into running at him, and then just rudely upended him with a clothesline, Quack landing badly on the side of his neck. Quack really makes his landings seem completely out of his control, made it look like his body was at the mercy of Kingston's throws, and he takes some sick falls at the hands of Kingston. He makes Kingston look like Gary Albright on every suplex, flying onto his neck on a German, folding terribly on a tiger suplex, making King look like he was throwing with the power of two men. The fans pulled for Kingston in a big way, and it's exciting and powerful to experience any kind of large crowd that all wants the same thing and isn't sure they're going to get it. Kingston's big suplexes leading to a dead on his feet Quack unable to stop even the slowed down backfists, and our touching post match with Larry Sweeney's family giving Kingston the first ever Chikara Grand Championship. 

Honda vs. Togo review

Verdict: 

PAS: I adore Togo vs. Honda, and as a wrestling match it is a bit better, but as an entire presentation I think I have to give the duke to Eddie vs. Quack, what a special moment. 

ER: This was an extremely special presentation and a match I already want to watch a third time tonight. That's special, and as great a match as Togo/Honda is I will never be connected to or drawn into it the same way I bonded with this match. New champ!

ALL TIME MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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Super Dragon is the Original Subliminal Subterranean Titanium Criminal Minded Swift SD

Super Dragon vs. Mike Quackenbush Rev Pro 9/28/02 - FUN

ER: I had higher hopes for this one, as it never really felt like a match, much more like a fun exhibition of moves and submissions. Now, I was kind of expecting a fun exhibition of moves and submissions - these are two guys with plenty of both - but this literally felt like an exhibition as there wasn't much happening between the moves. There was a lot of move, stand up, new move, stand up, submission, stand up, other guy's move. It wasn't bad, but Quack is someone who can string together a match really well and none of that happened here. Neither guy did their wildest spots (no big crash and burns to the floor), with the biggest miss being a Dragon corkscrew senton that would have missed Quack by a couple feet even if Quack hadn't moved. But the few subs looked good, Dragon hit a hard clothesline right into Quack's chest, Dragon got nicely spiked on a DDT for a nearfall. And Dragon's finishing run combo of a German suplex, rolled into a Blue Thunder Bomb, turned over into a piledriver? Well, that's a brilliant looked finishing package. However, that finishing package came literally after that spike DDT that got Quack a 2 count, and Dragon literally just stood up and hit all of those moves. So nearly everything looked good, but it had the psychology of a Smackdown vs. Raw video game match.

PAS: I agree, this didn't feel like it had much of a structure or process. I liked the early matwork, but when the got up off the mat they just did some stuff without any of it really stringing together in a sensible way. This was a tourney match, and maybe it would have been better if it had been a PWG or Chikara main event, just didn't feel like they put much thought into this match. 

Super Dragon/B-Boy vs. Bobby Quance/Jardi Frantz GSCW 3/29/03 - EPIC

ER: Big spot tag with some fun location specific structure, with Jardi and Quance are heels opposite hometown boys Dragon and B-Boy, leading to some heel in peril sections and our faces working like the bigger jerks. It's a fun tone for a stiff spotfest tag to take on, and I like all of these guys together. I miss this era of wrestling as these were all guys I got to see live a bunch so I have lots of memories associated with these lunatics. Heel Jardi was an awesome part of 2003, a heel proto-Matt Riddle with more of the stoner vibe and none of the MMA vibe, but all of the violent bump vibe. Quance was barely 30 matches into pro wrestling at this point, but it adds to his ring work. He doesn't hold back on hits or misses, and has that same kind of excitement that Blitzkrieg had. And since he's so new to all of this, there's a rawness to his misses and a desire to impress on things that don't quite work. When a move is supposed to miss, he goes through with it like he expects it to hit, which leads to several of his exchanges with Dragon look like something out of early Zero-1. Quance would throw an elbow that Dragon would kind of duck, and the off balance positions Quance winds up in make it look like he was never expecting anything to miss. It looks so much better than moves today that are thrown specifically to be reversed. Quance seems confused by the heel reaction from the crowd, but Jardi leans right into his role as deadbeat stoner heel who was getting high with his friends in the drive-thru before accidentally driving directly into a girl on a bike.

Dragon and B-Boy throw nothing but stiff shots, everyone gets kicked in the back at least twice throughout this match, Dragon comes up throwing hard slaps a couple times against Jardi, and both of them really start teeing off on Jardi in the corner. Frantz is a great punching bag and rag doll, and it's crazy he is the heel here as B-Boy drops him to his butt with a high left kick, plasters him with his running corner dropkick, and really gets folded in half several times. His comeback offense is cool, like his leaping top rope tornado DDT on B-Boy or his super impressive springboard rana on Dragon. There isn't too much selling in this one, but it doesn't really matter once they all start stringing together big spots. The match could have been different as there's some fairly engaging submission work earlier once B-Boy/Quance started against each other, but I like the big spots breakdown. Quance and Frantz hit stereo shooting star/450, there are some nice pinfall saves, Dragon hits an awesome top con hilo past the ringpost into Jardi, and the finish itself is really great: Dragon goes for a Psycho Driver on Quance, Quance lands on his feet and tries a low dropkick which Dragon leans out of, leaving Quance prone to an awesome B-Boy shining wizard. Dragon even dives onto the pin just to prevent Jardi from breaking it up. The match was a little scattered at times, but I loved the way it played against dynamics, and everyone involved did too much cool stuff.

PAS: Crazy spotfest tag matches aren't my favorite style, but I think this is about as cool of match you can have within that parameter. You have a ton of big spots hit pretty perfectly (the Frantz single jump springboard rana would be an all time legendary spot if hit on a bigger stage), counters and reversals that actually looked good rather then just dance moves, some actual drawn heel heat by Frantz and a whole ton of sick violence. B-Boy and Super Dragon are a tremendous team of violent asskickers, and they find lots of ways to kick people really hard in the face, and I loved Jardi winding up Super Dragon and then taking a Super Dragon sized asskicking. Jardi really got the crowd worked up, so they went nuts when Dragon started pushing his shit in. Quance was a little dry, but he had tremendous physical body control and looked really good mat wrestling with B-Boy. These matches can often go on too long, but I thought this ended right when it should have with the three count coming right at the apex of the crowd engagement.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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IWTV Worth Watching: Quackenbush Atomicos

Mike Quackenbush/Razerhawk/Thief Ant/Green Ant vs. Cornelius Crummels/Sonny Defarge/Hermit Crab/Cajun Crawdad Beyond 7/3/19

ER: I really do like Chikara Atomicos matches, but the best ones tend to include Quack, because he's clearly the guy running the show. And I'm not sure even with practically two decades of training guys that he's even come close to getting one guy up to his level of Atomicos match director. Quack looks like the best of the 8 here, and is treated as such. He also mostly pairs off with Cajun Crawdad, which is smart because that guy is probably the least of the people in this. I've never seen Crummels or Defarge, but they are obviously Chikara through and through, wearing suspenders and bowlers and shockingly not riding a bicycle with one large wheel to the ring. Seeing this kind of person in Chikara is just expected, in the same way that unicycler casually rolled past a group of friends and I as we were leaving a Portland restaurant, and nobody had to say anything. Razerhawk has breakout potential. He's super small but really flies around that ring, his ranas and headscissors and big ringpost bump already look ready for actual lucha, and his flying around was easily a highlight here. Hermit Crab seems like the best of the rudos, bringing some professional basing and hitting heavier than the others, but he and Crawdad - outside of both being dressed somewhat like crustaceans - don't have a ton of team chemistry; they are similarly sized but don't really gel, and that's possibly due to Crawdad's lack of experience. Crummels had some nice running strikes, both Ants hit pretty spectacular dives, and the big move chaining ramped up more impressively than I was expecting. Quack is that maestro, like Bruce Lee directing traffic during fight scenes, and he's smart about giving guys chances while not letting them get too far over their heads. His segments were great, I dig his short palm thrusts to make space, loved him trying to make Crummels' shoulderblades touch, really hope this guy isn't actually going to hang it up after this year.


Mike Quackenbush/Mick Moretti/Cabana Man Dan/Lucas Calhoun vs. Logan Easton LaRoux/Eel O'Neal/Killian McMurphy/Alan Clayball Flying V 9/14/19

ER: I am a sucker for vets vs. young guys, and this is mostly that. LaRoux is certainly a vet, but the rest of his team is made up of two very new rookies and a guy with under 100 matches, so he's the guy leading some lamb to slaughter. And this was overall another fun Quack atomicos, but one that was shaping up to be something special before hitting the backloaded comedy and then rushing to the finish. You traditionally start something like this was the good feelings and comedy, and if it's going to be there I'd much prefer it to start than as a late match breather. Here our beginning sections were so intriguing that I had no interest in seeing any comedy, just wanted them to keep building and see how they could peak it. Well, we never really got that peak. But I loved the beginning. Quackenbush works 4 layered minutes opposite Eel O'Neal, a wrestler so new that he somehow has less Twitter followers than we do. He's a tentative rookie and they work a rookie acceptable headlock takeover/headscissors sequence, with Eel eventually handspringing out of the headscissors. But then Eel gets to show some personality, gyrates oddly into Quack, unzips his wetsuit gear while making eyes at him, and then Quack gets to pay him back for his insolence by rushing him with a tight single leg, muscling him into a pendulum and smacking his head against the bottom buckle, and the work a cool sequence where Quack is pushing off Eel's ankle with both feet while Eel tries to pull him to his feet. Their exchange started out as a basic student/teacher exchange and built to something more interesting over 4 minutes. And the match finished with them squared off again, and Quack absolutely shaking him with a superkick before eating a LaRoux cutter. I like Moretti as he always does a couple impressive acrobatic flourishes and lands heavy on crossbodies, and CMD is a certified pro who is good at working fast exchanges that make these things go. I like the bites everyone is taking, like how the pairings are ramping up, but then we gotta hit comedy. Silly strike exchanges, group headlock, tandem overplayed axe handles off the apron, stacking 4 people in the corner at once, that kind of stuff. It isn't terrible and they kind of cut right to the finishing stretch after, but it easily could have just been left out. That kind of thing robs us of time that could be spent on pairings we didn't get, but it's also expected.

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Matches from CHIKARA Aniversario: Scotch Mist 5/26/19

The Crucible (EM Demorest/Matt Makowski/Tunku Amir) vs. The Colony (Fire Ant/Green Ant/Thief Ant)

ER: I hadn't heard of Makowski until that Bloodsport show a couple months ago, where he had one of my favorite matches of the year opposite Rory Gulak. So, obviously I'm going to seek out more Makowski, and here we are! This is a fairly sloppy trios match, but the sloppiness kind of worked to the match's advantage. Makowski looked cool throughout, looked great on his missed strikes (great spot where he swung for face on a kick that Fire Ant narrowly avoided) and landed well on his big strikes, and tangled Green Ant up into a cool triangle attempt. All members of The Crucible are super new, and Demorest and Amir look super new, but Makowski already looks like he's been doing this for awhile. It's kind of amazing how quickly MMA people have been able to crossover and adapt. The Crucible is a pretty cool idea, a group of guys throwing a wrench into the gears of the most established trios team in the company. I dug all the spots of Crucible catching the Colony on dives and interrupting their momentum and flow, and how it lead to cool stuff like Green Ant absolutely crushing Makowski with a double stomp off the top while Makowski had a submission locked in. Crucible interrupting the flow of dives, Colony interrupting subs, that's just smart layout. The Colony were clearly pros leading a some sequences, and that's cool, as my main takeaway was just how awesome Makowski looked regardless of experience.

Ophidian vs. Mike Quackenbush

ER: Well this was not what I was expecting. Ophidian jumps Quack to start and locks on a guillotine, then hits a flipping piledriver after sufficient choking had taken place, locks on a sub and Quack's arm hits the mat three times. Well, I'm the one who always gripes about how flipping piledrivers mean nothing, and this certainly put over the danger of a flipping piledriver. The angle was put over strongly by Quack, who did insanely great neck selling post match, looking like a guy who clearly knows the ins and outs of neck pain and neck injuries. I was obviously hoping for an actual match, but am admittedly curious where this angle leads.

43. Mask vs. Mask: Dasher Hatfield vs. Boomer Hatfield

ER: Now I'm not someone who keeps up on Chikara storylines, but that's why I have always appreciated Quackenbush's commentary skills. He presents silly information with a straight face, like Joey Styles without the smarm or digs at competition, and there aren't many commentary guys who can naturally go over storylines while calling action, explaining why certain moves should have more meaning. This is a father and son mask vs. mask match, Dasher one of the longest tenured Chikara guys, and the confusingly named youngster Boomer being an 18 year old rookie. There's a pretty significant size difference, Dasher being possibly the largest guy presently in Chikara and Boomer being practically half his size. But they made up the difference well, with Boomer relying on fast leverage moves like backslides, crucifix roll-ups, hanging off Dasher with guillotines, or just flying into Dasher body or feet first. Dasher worked this less flashy, really being a bully, coming in hard with big one knockdown chops and hard single arm lariats, and using his size advantage to toss him around like a dummy, but also doing dickhead heel stuff like faking a ball shot only to get a minor cheap advantage. Dasher hits a couple powerbombs - one a huge running Liger bomb - and maneuvers him into a cool Gory Special, and I liked how after taking some damage, Boomer started firing back with nice uppercuts. I thought they ramped nicely into the big spots, with one awesome moment really ramping things up: Boomer had reversed lariats into a hanging guillotine a couple times already (and Dasher was really great at selling the guillotine, making it seem better than it looked, really yanking on Boomer's arm to try to free himself), caught him in another, and seeing no better way out Dasher rushed the ropes and took both of them painfully to the floor. Dasher even suplexes him into the ringpost/buckles once they're on the floor. I thought they did a real good job at working like they knew what was coming, really putting over the mentee son angle, and I liked a lot of the learned behavior results (loved Dasher catching a running back elbow and quickly converting it into a Gory bomb into the turnbuckles). I did think the ending was a bit sudden and meant Boomer had to shrug off some pretty big offense, but overall this was a great main event that I thought captured the drama that an apuestas match should have.

PAS: This was shockingly great for a match between an old timey baseball guy and a smaller old timey baseball guy. I couldn't be less interested in this match on paper, but man did they deliver. Dasher was really great as a Great Santini style abusive dad, who continued to escalate his abuse as he began losing control. I thought all of the cheap shot stuff really worked as Dasher was especially dastardly while trying to beat and unmask his son. I thought they built to guillotine really well, with Quackenbush putting over how quickly that move can put someone out, and Dasher already desperately diving out of the ring to avoid it earlier in the match. I didn't like Boomer almost no-selling a top rope powerbomb to put it on, but that was really my only problem with this match. I get the sense that this match was worked out move for move at a training center, but it kind of makes me want to watch more huge Chikara main events.


ER: It looks like you'll be seeing more Chikara on Segunda Caida. We've mostly avoided it over the years, but I watched this show on a lark and came away impressed with some things I wasn't expecting. I liked the allure of the mask match - that's mostly what brought me here: I'll give any lucha unknowns a chance if it's a mask match. I'm a sucker for them. Phil mentioned the main event felt really written out, and I agree, but it's a kind of worked out that makes me want to seek out more of their main events as well. I like how they laid this out and presented the story, and would like to see more of their layouts. We're a Chikara blog now? Seems like.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from Chikara's We Must Eat Michigan's Brain 6/26/10

Mike Quackenbush vs. Green Ant

ER: Phil had reviewed the Kingston/Danielson match later on this show, but I scanned through the show and a couple other matches caught my eye, so I decided to officially make us a Chikara fansite. This Green Ant is the eventual Silver Ant, who is better than the current Green Ant. And the match is worked with some cool Green Ant headlock variations in an attempt to counter some of Quack's weirdest and most painful subs. Quack twists GA in some awesome ways, locks in a cool single leg bow and arrow, wraps his arms in violent ways, and does a great long reversal of a body vice. I thought Green Ant's couple comebacks were well done, and the Cloverleaf was a nice touch as a bit of potential danger for Quack. Ant's disappointed reaction when Quack made the ropes was really well done, and I liked how Quack stepped a little over the line to teach younger guy a lesson with his final sub.

Soldier Ant/Fire Ant vs. Super Smash Brothers

ER: The more I see, the more it looks like I would have been an Ants fan in the 2010s. Soldier Ant is Drew Gulak, and it's cool seeing him wrestling with the same high end basics as Gulak, but break out weirder (and sometimes more dangerous) offense as Soldier Ant. Fire Ant is a risk taker and also has among the best basics of Chikara grads. Smash I have a more complicated relationship with: Dos does a lot of backflip offense and not all of it looks good, Uno I prefer as a heel but still like him as a face. But this is a fun action tag, peaking nicely and building to bigger and bigger things, without getting ridiculous. The Ants were great, especially Gulak's Soldier: Soldier hits his lariats as well as Gulak hits them now, but he also had some wild diving offense, saluting his way into a couple of crazy belly flops. He salutes and hits a huge diving headbutt, salutes and hits a torpedo in the corner, and I even but into his diving pinfall save because this guy has shown diving into the mat is his specialty. Fire Any attempts a crane kick off the top rope and it gets ducked, and what an absolutely bonkers thing to try; have none of them seen Sid or Gronda?? But the Ants are good at setting up Smash, both teams pull off good double teams, Uno bridges his spots nicely with things like nasty double hand strikes to Fire Ant's ribs, a chestbreaker to Fire Ant gets a cool set up that could have easily not worked, Dos hits a huge tope con giro into the crowd, all of this was good.

Eddie Kingston vs. Bryan Danielson - GREAT

PAS: This was Danielson first match in his brief return to the indies after being fired from the WWE. It was also in the midst of Kingston doing kind of a dream match tour in Chikara while feuding with Claudio and BDK. This was a Danielson showcase, the crowd was their to see him do his shtick, and he had great shtick. Kingston does a classic Kingston selling job, as Danielson really works over his hamstrings with kicks and nasty submissions. Kingston lands some big chops and suplexes, but this was mainly a Danielson match, I would have loved to see Danielson work a Kingston match. Still this was mostly awesome stuff, held back by kind of deflating finish with Claudio distracting Kingston so he got rolled up in a small package. Not at the level of the classic matches both guys have had, but this was still a fun little photograph of this time in both guys careers.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE EDDIE KINGSTON

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IWTV Worth Watching: Space Pirates! Work Horsemen! Quack! Colony!

Space Pirates (Space Monkey/Shane Sabre) vs. Work Horsemen (JD Drake/Anthony Henry) Freelance Wrestling 6/14/19

ER: Fun tag that didn't get the ending it deserved, but had a real nice extended peril segment from Space Monkey, with some big fireworks happening once we dropped the tag structure. Work Horsemen get rid of Sabre fairly quickly, and I got really into the story of Space Monkey going alone, EXTREMELY disappointed in the commentary crew (one of whom sounded uncannily like me, no joke) not pointing out that - due to his NASA training - he was used to going it alone for long, lonely missions. We had nearly 10 minutes of Sabre being gone, leaving his boy in their alone, and nobody is talking about all the sensory deprivation training Space Monkey had gone through. I thought they did real interesting things with SM getting to the corner and finally noticing Sabre wasn't there, continuing to eat a beating, making it back to the corner, only to find Sabre still not there. Henry mocks Monkey, gets on the apron and reaches in the for tag, and then Space Monkey starts kicking at Henry, knocking him to the floor, then hitting a mean baseball slide. I loved how they handled Space Monkey getting back into the action, not just having him eat a 7-10 minute beating and then make a comeback, but instead finding a couple logical ways to have the action swing (har har) into his favor. Space Monkey is essentially El Generico, only I liked how SM peppered in his comebacks, dug those tornado DDTs that Drake and Henry took on the side of their respective heads. What I didn't love, was Sabre's eventual hot tag. I don't like a lot of his offense, and coming in after a 10 minute layoff and hitting a silly spinning facebuster isn't going to cut it.

But we do build to a nice and hot finish run with some real cool sequences strung together. My favorite was Space Monkey hitting the Molly go Round on Drake only to eat an immediate kick from Henry, who then eats an immediate spear from Sabre. That's a sequence that isn't played, and they executed it great. The nearfalls were good, genuinely thought Space Monkey was going to pull things out, and I liked the way they swung momentum throughout. They were good at not just having someone start hitting their offense until their turn was up, instead turning in situations like Drake catching a Monkey rana and powerbombing him onto Sabre. I really dug where they were taking this and was there for the full ride, but the match ended disappointingly on an unseen count out. Both teams brawled outside and cameras weren't able to follow, so we stare at fans' midsections for a couple minutes until the ref gets in the ring to call it off. Flat. Still, Space Monkey is someone who stood out over our long ass WrestleMania day, and I took a blind stab at this match, left even more impressed and fully into his face in peril tag work. With a proper finish this would have landed on our MOTY list, and he was the chief reason why.

Mike Quackenbush/Lance Lude/Rob Killjoy vs. The Colony (Fire Ant/Green Ant/Thief Ant) Flying V Fights 7/13/19

ER: Quack has been working more in 2019 than he worked the last 6 years combined, heading several trios and atomicos matches. A lot of the earlier sections were Quack working primarily Green Ant, sending him through cool holds and nice mat exchanges. I know people who don't love Quack think his stuff looks too exhibition-y, and I think it looks that way because it looks so odd, as it certainly doesn't look that way because he's having trouble applying moves or requiring a ton of time stand still moments. He has a singularly vision for wrestling and pulls it off. I love the foot stomps he uses to set up spots, and he doesn't skip steps in mat exchanges. I love his maestro style of matwork where you can see each step of the move but can't necessarily prevent it from happening, and some of the leverage spots he pulls guys into come off physically super impressive. I loved him twisting Green Ant's arm one way while maneuvering Ant's legs with his own legs, throwing distraction to one body part while always working towards another. He locks on a weird inverted bow and arrow and lifts GA upside down over his own knee in a way that comes off effortlessly, as if he knows the proper ways to lift someone while exerting the least amount of force.

Match gets derailed for awhile when we work a very long comedy routine with Coach Mikey accidentally catching an Ant, then wanting to get involved, then not being allowed, then pouting, the kind of several minute distraction that you expect to happen in Chikara and Chikara-related matches, but I certainly never look forward to it. The comedy chops improv stretch did at least divide the match into two main segments, before comedy halted everything it had been all mat based, and after the comedy wall was when we went into full spot sprint, which was great. Ducks are both guys with some nice spots, who take big bumps. Killjoy drops a really great sitout powerbomb, Lude comes into the ring with that cool Erin O'Grady rope flip rana and gets dropped with a disgusting neckbreaker/powerbomb combo, Launchpad McQuack hits hard and gets a good nearfall, Quack continues hitting cool little legsweeps and works a slick abdominal stretch/reversal/roll back into the stretch (like the action was rewound but came off perfect), Lude and Killjoy hit a cool moonsault combo, the Ant Hill is a pretty great triple team move, a weird Eiffel tower spot ending in a splash; basically there was lots of great stuff. Fire Ant clearly has the most polish out of the Ants (pretty sure he is an original Ant, so he's been doing this for awhile) and I wish we got a lot more Fire/Quack, but Quack seemed to mostly punish Green. I dig the way Quack sets up these trios matches, and it's a format I dig watching him in. 

Arik Royal vs. Isaiah Frazier CRAB 8/3/19

ER: This was shorter than I wanted, only 5 minutes, but made sense as Frazier had worked earlier in the evening. So considering he had already worked, I like how they approached this even though I was hoping for more of a match. Royal drops him right at the bell with a Face Jam, and I'm a big fan of Royal matches where he's working with an immediate head start. He's great at working as the cocky guy with an advantage, and great at showing ass when he's getting his comeuppance. I love Royal talking smack to ringside fans before turning around and hitting his sliding shoulderblock, and I dug Frazier's two big comeback topes. Royal is super skilled at taking big offense right next to fans, without putting fans in any danger. That's kind of a specific skill, but one of many for him. Royal bookends this nicely with another Face Jam to finish. This was a smart way to work the match to set up future Royal title defenses, so I can't really be critical of the ring work, which was good.

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New Footage Friday: Paul Diamond, Liger, TNT, Hashimoto, Claudio, Navarro, Solar, Quack

Negro Navarro/Claudio Castagnoli/Mr. Ferrari vs. Mike Quackenbush/Solar/Kendo LLM 3/9/09

ER: This is something I've heard about for a decade, but have never seen, and now I have! And it is just what I hoped it was. It has a super satisfying build and the pairings I hoped to see, thought everyone was good at ramping up the intensity of the match. Just some maestro lucha straight outta Delaware, a state I think about less than at least 40 other states. At minimum I wanted some exciting Navarro/Quackenbush in spades, and we got a nice bounty of them; the whole match starts with them and far more time is devoted to them together than anyone else in the match, which is what I wanted. The pairing is playful but can turn painful in a blink. Navarro was looking spry as hell and it was great seeing him whip Quack's legs in a predicament and then clap his hands and break, like a magician doing a trick for you, and then repeating it to see if you can figure it out. Quack is a perfect dance partner for Navarro as he has a bottomless bucket of ideas and can execute them at any moment, and it was cool seeing them both executed and blocked. I loved a moment where Navarro was on his back, Quack grabbed his hand and immediately did a handspring off Navarro's chest, dragging the arm with him and setting into position; not long after Quack went to grab Quack's hand and Navarro immediately dropped it, dropping Quack in the process. There exchanges were what trippy lucha matwork dreams are made of. We didn't get to the Navarro/Solar section until 3/4 of the way through the match, really building to the longest running feud, and their short time together was pretty amazing. It's a match-up we've all seen many times but they appear to be doing their thing in double time, and I mean these are guys in their early 50s and we know that, but I don't think I've ever seen someone in their 50s move like this. The others in the match are nice complements: Ferrari is a husky boy who resembles no kind of sleek Ferrari that I've seen, but I liked what he and Kendo pulled off together; I thought Claudio was somewhat out of place - his strength is his work as a base and there weren't really fliers here - but there were rewarding moments with him; I loved a Navarro moment right at the end, going back to the theme of Navarro as Lucha Magician, where he comes in only to boot Solar in the balls, and then disappears by bumping backwards through the ropes to the floor, like he threw a flash bomb after a ball kick. Why do I suddenly want to see Navarro vs. Jarek 1-20?

MD: Big thanks to Rah for reuploading this after other things went down. We get two falls out of three here and while a lot of the narrative is sort of the sloppy indy affair you'd expect, that's not why you're here. This is about seeing Navarro work with an empty canvas and with a wholly receptive opponent. Quackenbush must of had the time of his life getting stretched. He was smaller and very flexible and totally willing to let Navarro bend him in any number of shapes. That his own stuff looked so good is a testament to both of them too. There were a few moments that looked just a little too cooperative (or involved excessive waiting) but in general, everything was way more fluid than you'd think. That's not a slight on Quack either. It's just that the stuff they were trying was so tricked out. The rest was ok. Claudio was deep into shtick at this point, flexing at every point. He worked a bit with Solar and it was ok with lots of armdrags, but really didn't have nearly as much time to breathe. Kendo and Ferrari were fine rounding things out. We had the segunda and tercera here and we probably missed a bit more with the others not having the primera. The rudo beat down towards the end gave me just a taste of the other thing I wanted here, Claudio and Navarro working together. Navarro's a ham too (though the world's most astute, dangerous ham) and you figure the two of them could have really done some fun stuff. We get a hint at it but no more. Watch this for Navarro and Quack, which felt twice as long as it actually went but in the best way.

PAS: Tomk and I went to this show live in 2009 (long road report which really pissed off a bunch of Chikara die hards here) and outside of a random bit of this showing up on a weird streaming site later that year and disappearing (that might be what Rah got his hands on) I hadn't seen any footage of this show. Really cool to revisit this a decade later. From reading our live review it looks like we actually get most of the first fall, and the third fall but miss the segunda. Some of the narrative issues Matt have had might be because of that. I loved Navarro schooling Quack, and we get almost 10 minutes of those guys rolling, sometimes Navarro's catch and release mat work bugged, here it worked great. He was showing this indy punk that he could tap him any time he wanted, so he would lock him up and let him out, just to lock him up again. In that second fall we don't see here, Quack gets the tap, which really helps the story. The taste of Solar vs. Navarro was incredible, just adderall fast which was nuts for so many old guys. Too bad Navarro pissed off Quack, as he would have been an awesome semi-regular in Chikara like Skayde or Saint, still not knowing what happened between them, I am always siding with Navarro.

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Paul Diamond NJPW 7/18/93

MD: I wasn't entirely sure what to expect out of 93 Paul Diamond here, but he delivered. He could have been the third guy in a Kroffat/Furnas trio. He had some great junior acrobatics, including a cartwheel out of a monkey flip, traded holds well with Liger (though there wasn't a lot of chain wrestling though what they did was ok), and had great offense (this deep German, a slide through the legs from the outside in to a Northern Lights, what looked like a Casas seated dive off the apron, and a gourdbuster, plus this great kick in the corner), and mostly everything was smooth. For all the limb targeting they did, it could have used a bit more focused selling, but this was an overachiever of a back and forth juniors match.

PAS: This was a Diamond showcase match, and he really looks like a guy who could have had a Benoit/Guerrero/Malenko like run in the New Japan juniors division. He had some big time offense for this time period, his Northern Lights suplex looked great and his Casas senton off the apron got great height and distance. Liger is an all time master at working with a guys strengths, so maybe you need to see Diamond's Kido singles on the same tour to really get a sense of his potential, but this was a weirdo match up which totally delivered.

ER: The Paul Diamond showcase we've all been waiting for! Phil is right that Liger is great at showcasing any guy's strengths, a guy who will always have an interesting match with a young lion, a guy I saw try to do things with Blue Demon, a guy who is going to make a singles match work. And Diamond is a guy with cool stuff! More cool stuff than I realized! He kind of came off like a junior heavyweight Jerry Flynn. I dug how the crowd reacted to him cartwheeling out of Liger's monkey flip, liked the matwork as he's a guy I've never seen work the mat this long, hit two really nice lefty lariats, a cool hooking kick in the corner, a guy I've seen plenty of but felt like I was seeing something really different from him here. There were a couple awkward moments but overall this was a blast, and jeez does Liger take 2" of Diamond's height with his match ending Liger Bomb. He practically dropped Diamond vertically, and we're obviously happy that this exists. 

Shinya Hashimoto/Akira Nogami vs. Brad Armstrong/TNT NJPW 7/18/93

MD: I also had my doubts about this one (it fit into our weird match ups for the week), but I thought it really held up. Vega as TNT can be great or goofy depending on how deeply he leans into the shtick and who he's up against. Here it's perfect though, because Hashimoto's the perfect intersection of toughness and charisma. After a bit of anticipation by having Armstrong star the match against Hash, TNT comes in and it's great. They ran a couple of sequences of TNT controlling with cheapshots and martial arts punctuating with both guys missing spin wheel kicks and TNT doing his karate chop pose at the end. Finally though, Hash hits one and follows it up by mocking the pose with a middle finger payoff. Great stuff. About one third of the way in, Brad starts to work heel which is surreal but really enjoyable, with them primarily working over Nogami. It's a little nervehold-centric but with some good hope spots (including a headbutt flurry) built in. The hot tag's good, with another wrinkle of Brad and TNT cheating to take back over on Hash (including Brad's always awesome Russian Leg Sweep) before Hash comes back for the win. Good, measured stuff, making the most of the tag structure, including utilizing break ups instead of kick-outs. Post match, TNT and Hash clown around with the pose and middle finger again.

PAS: I really loved the opening section with Hashimoto and TNT, it was more Stan Lane martial arts then normal Hashimoto stand offs, but I thought it worked really well and I loved Hash doing the TNT pose and flipping him off. Still this was a Hashimoto match where Hashimoto is almost an afterthought. Most of this match was Nogami being worked over by TNT and Brad and Nogami isn't really a compelling face in peril, and TNT and Armstrong aren't doing many interesting things in control. It picks up a bit at the Hashimoto hot tag, but that doesn't last long before the finish. Fun oddball matchup, but I want more Hash.

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Wrestlemania Weekend Cherry Picking Friday: Joey Janela's Spring Break 2

ER: 100+ hours of wrestling happened in one city over 3 days, so we've been trying to go through and watch the stuff that appealed to us. Here's a couple matches from Spring Break 2 that looked fun.


PCO vs. WALTER

PAS: Man this was awesome, it was basically like if Randy the Ram vs Necro Butcher was an actual match. PCO is certifiable, WALTER chop his chest so hard that it turned eggplant purple, he got powerbombed through a table, ate shit on a moonsault to the floor, and just kept going. WALTER was great as a violent bully who got more and more flustered as this insane old person kept standing in front of him and firing back. The chop exchange in this match worked so much better then the elbow exchange in Cobb vs Ishii the day before, because they built to it, it was PCO absorbing a beating and refusing to back down and firing back, instead of just two guys exchanging to exchange. Loved PCO's tope and top rope rana too, what a certifiable nutcase. Great match, will probably end up the most memorable indy match of the weekend.

ER: This was really fun, total PCO showcase with WALTER giving him a venue to try all of his new offense. Ouellet is basically working as "middle aged and crazy Terry Funk", and it's crazy to note that PCO here is literally just a few years younger than that era Funk. He looks crazy, like a sadistic gym teacher burn victim, and wrestles as if he has a bucket list of moves he'd like to attempt before he's done with wrestling. This all builds to nuttier and nuttier PCO moments, from a moonsault off the top to the floor (that looked downright Funk-y, all crooked and landing more on floor than men), and WALTER was awesome at being kind of perplexed by it all. WALTER mostly just threw chops, and PCO's chest had turned black halfway through the match, looking like he was getting some cool new Uso ink. PCO hits a dive, a great Finlay roll, tries a split legged moonsault because why the hell not, gets German suplexed onto his stomach, hits a huge top rope rana, and flattens WALTER with the cannonball. Fully agree with Phil about the chop exchange, this wasn't throwing blows back and forth to a clap along rhythm, this was a crazy old guy refusing to accept that he couldn't stand up to this giant of a man (seriously some of the camera work in this match made WALTER look Great Khali size), really added emotional heft to the match. PCO's execution wasn't always there, but the crazier the attempts made by a wild Canadian pirate, the more leash is given on how pretty something needs to be. Truly a weird and unexpected display, and impressive because he easily could have gotten away with doing far less and still gotten praised for it.

Mike Quackenbush vs. David Starr

ER: This was tons of fun. Quackenbush works a couple times a year and looks just as great as he ever has. I'm positive he and Starr have never matched up before and it's an immediately great pairing, with Starr getting tangled up in all of Quack's cool movement. Quack is probably my favorite hybrid wrestler of all time, with the biggest and weirdest bag of tricks in wrestling. The announcers point out that he has such a deep pool of offense that you never know what he'll dust off, and Starr has no problem meeting that head on. We get some cool twisty armdrag exchanges, and a great moment where Quack gets Starr into a snug abdominal stretch, Starr shakes him loose, but Quack springs back right into the stretch. It's like that scene in Young Frankenstein where the monster catapults a girl on a see saw and she lands perfectly tucked into her bed. I'm always surprised by big Quack bumps in his "comeback" matches, as for a retired injured guy he sure doesn't hold back. One moment Quack will be doing something super smooth and graceful, like his note perfect Hijo del Santo style rolling senton, and the next moment Starr lariats him off the apron and instead of bumping on the apron he does this great dropdown back bump splat on the floor, and later Starr chucks him a couple times into the turnbuckles with nasty death valley drivers. Starr has some cool counters of his own, really liked a small package reversal, and he really starts crushing Quack with some suplexes and running knees. We hit a crazy peak down the stretch where Quack plasters Starr into the guardrail with a dive, instantly slides back in the ring to follow up as the camera follows his movements, and as it pans back we see Starr waiting at the same time Quack sees him, and catches Quack with a brutal DDT into the apron. Starr was smart to work heel here (though heel Quack would have been fun, nobody would have wanted to boo him), and I liked the finish of Quack trying to work this nasty double arm submission, really looking to rip both arms off, and Starr finally breaks free and hits a big lariat. This was a great mix of stiff work and artistry, a match style not a lot of guys can pull off.

PAS: I thought Quack was really fun here, he has a weird unique style and really knows how to integrate his weird stuff into a compelling match. The spot where he bounces back into the abdominal stretch was really cool. I did like the story of Starr getting frustrated and taking cheap shots, although I thought the Beyond guy on commentary was a little OTT in his Starr bashing (Starr just left/got fired from Beyond). I wasn't totally buying Starr in this (I am not buying Starr at all really) , I thought when he tried to go hold for hold with Quack it got a little dancey, and his frustration faces were on 11. Always fun to see Quack, and he works well as a special attraction.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Gulak v. Quack

34. Drew Gulak v. Mike Quackenbush Chikara 12/3

PAS: This was Gulak's Chikara swan song, and one of the last chances we will have to watch him work a Drew Gulak style match. This is only the second match Quackenbush has wrestled since 2013 (unless he is under an ant mask or something now), and he still looked silky smooth and even takes a nasty back suplex onto the ring apron, I don't like Quackenbush as a booker, but have always dug him as a wrestler. This was a fun battle of Quack's flashy lucha matwork against Gulak's gritty stuff, I really loved a lot of the counters and the finish run was pretty cool too. Gulak has been one of my favorite guys in the last couple of years and while it is good to see him get paid, I am going to miss him bang the mat like this

ER: I love watching Quack do his thing, and I love watching Gulak do his thing, so this was going to be a thing I was almost guaranteed to love. Quack has always appealed to me, used to love his articles in The Wrestler, and he was actually the first indy wrestler I bought a tape from. I love how he moves, love how he clearly makes up moves and practices them and doesn't always care about making stuff look extra painful per se, but the execution is always so liquid that I just love it. Watching him is like watching a lava lamp, and he does all of this great exhibition-y stuff without it ever seeming like him putting on an Eliminators style exhibition. I never feel like he's placing his opponents and having them hold still while he readies himself. And it's a great style to work opposite Gulak and they each kind of bring out a trippy side to each other which leads to some fun visuals and things likely won't see with any other guys. Little things like Quack going for a sunset flip and Gulak waddle walking back to the ropes to prevent going down, or Gulak going for an Irish whip and Quack just dropping to his butt to prevent it, or all of the cool rolling headscissors with Quack adjusting for different pressure. That kind of stuff makes my eyes turn into hearts. Sure I love FUTEN as much as the next....well, as much as the next 7 or 8 internet wrestling nerds, but Quack seems like a guy who embodies Lance Storm's "work safe" mantra while actually making his stuff look interesting. We get several fun mat workouts, trippy rollthroughs, extended Blue Panther-esque rolls with that same kind of grace, and then Gulak starts edging in with some grit. Throwing elbows, stomping hamstrings, then slamming Quack into the ropes a couple times (my current favorite nasty spot) and then Quack starts fighting back in a fun way, knowing Gulak is stronger and fresher so trying to catch him off guard with slaps and kicks to pinpoint areas. The apron bump was nuts and kind of out of the blue for the match, and I think things would have maybe been better without it. Things kinda slowed down afterwards for totally understandable selling reasons, but I think a full out exhibition roll clinic would have been best. Let the other thousands of indy guys take dangerous apron bumps. The stuff around the sunset flip roll through was mind warpingly cool, and the dragon sleeper reversal out of the Quack driver is a wonderful, fitting finish. I'm gonna miss these guys doing their thing on their own stage.

2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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IWA Mid-South Top 18 Matches #9: Mike Quackenbush v. Claudio Castagnoli 9/30/06

 #9 Mike Quackenbush v. Claudio Castagnoli 9/30/06

PAS: This was a TPI match and a really fun showcase of the wacky shit that Quackenbush and Claudio could come up with working together in the Chikara school. The stuff they pulled off was really elaborate but didn't come off as swing dancey as this kind of thing can at its worst. The parts where Claudio was controlling with forearms were a bit dull, but the finish was pretty crazy, loved Quack standing on Claudio's shoulders, and the finishing rana reversal powerbomb was totally nutso. Well worth the ten minutes.

ER: Oh man did I love this. This is one of those 10 minute matches that you can show to the most casual fan, or even non-fan, and they would totally lose it during several moments. You see several facebook posts a day of things that have gone viral, and I can't see how a 1 minute comp of this match hasn't blown up social media for 7 minutes before promptly being forgotten by everyone who watched it. Claudio was always a great base for fliers, and this is probably the fullest realization of Quack's work, the best representation of all his weird flips and armdrags and roll ups and moments where he ends up in a spot you didn't expect him to end up. The announcers at one point mention "body control" and that's totally accurate. The dude knows where he's going, even if nobody in the crowd knows. Claudio was in full base mode here, so it was up to him to tie things together with stiff forearms and nasty clubbing shots to the back, and all of Claudio's strikes looked great. But his main role was to catch all of Quack's wildest fantasy moves and he did that with aplomb. Quack's armdrags are mind blowing and gorgeous, and here he tops them all by leaping from the middle turnbuckle to the floor, flips upside down and armdrags Claudio into some chairs. Wow. I mean just crazy gorgeous and insane. But there are plenty of other cool moments, like Quack leaping all the way over Claudio in a knucklelock, Quack leaping up to Claudio's shoulders at another point, the finish where Claudio SUWA's a rana so damn fast that he flips right through into his own powerbomb, some wild roll ups including one that made for a great nearfall; I mean this was some comic book video game awesomeness, maybe the best ever execution of that style. This is the kind of thing I want to show all my friends.

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Folks Rush In, 3 Letters try to Stop It. D-I-C-K-T-O-G-O, One Letter Short but Motherfuck the D.A.

Dick Togo/GENTARO vs. Takashi Sasaki/Masashi Takeda FREEDOMS 10/28/10 - GREAT

This was a workrate tag match, kind of the indy Japan version of a ROH Briscoes tag. That isn't my type of wrestling at all, but Dick Togo is the great style equalizer. This kind of match is normally judged on the coolness of moves and the amount of overkill, however Togo's little spots were cool enough that he added and extra dimension. It did well on the two normally criteria though. I thought the end of this match felt like the end, with GENTARO hitting a sweet looking bridged Saito suplex while Togo slapped on a crossface. There was a bunch of cool moves too, Sasaki countered a flying clothesline with a kick to the stomach, Takeda hitting a top rope northern lights suplex. Could have used a dive train, and maybe some cool double teams. Also there was one spot where GENTARO was on the top rope and Sasaki kept spanking his ass, I guess he was trying to knock him off the top but it was weird. Wouldn't be the best match on a PWG show, but would probably be in the top 3.

Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda DDT 1/30/11 - EPIC

The Dick Togo singles match train continues. Gem after gem, his last six months have been incredible. Honda is a comedy guy an used to be Togo's partner in the DDT Italian Horseman. This is clearly the match of his life, and I give him a ton of credit for stepping up and bringing it to Togo like he did. Early part of the match had Honda working over Togo's arm. Togo did a really nice job selling, and it makes total sense to give him a ding to make Honda's offense credible, still Honda's attack was a little pedestrian. Match really kicks it into gear when Honda hits a nice tope and comes up bloody. After that, the match morphs into a Mid South Coliseum main event, with Togo working over the bloody babyface and Honda making awesome valiant comebacks. Togo has him in the corner, smashing his head into the turnbuckle and punching him, and Honda does a full on Lawler 1986 TX Death Match comeback, dropped strap, 17 punch combo ending in a huge uppercut for a near fall. Such a neat moment, which Togo sold perfectly. We get a big near fall run, which is really something that Dick Togo does better then anyone in the world, and then take a trip back to TN with an awesome punch Lawler v. Mantel style toe to toe punch exchange. Hell of match, the kind of thing only Dick Togo can deliver in 2011. If he really retires in June it will be at the height of his game, like Jordan leaving in 93, lets hope Togo does a season of minor league baseball and returns to the game

Dick Togo/Great Sasuke/Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Manami Toyota CHIKARA 4/16/11 - FUN

The Chikara trios matches continue to be disappointing. Everyone in this match it as least a solid wrestler, but it never felt like they got on the same page. Togo was the best guy in the match, although it may have been the least spectacular Togo match I have seen in this project. He was a bunch of fun smacking around Toyota, making great asshole faces. I enjoyed Jigsaw here too, as he hit a pretty tope and moved around well. Everyone else was pretty MIA. You kept wanting this match to explode in a crazy run, and it never really did. The finish especially felt really flat. This didn't have as many things to hate as the opening round match, but it didn't have a ton to love either.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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