Found Footage Friday: TAKA~! ISHIKAWA~! WARGAMES 2x2~?! SLIM J~! SHADOW JACKSON~! CONCRETE GORILLAS~! NWA ELITE~! DEVIL'S REJECTS~!

Yuki Ishikawa/Kurashima vs. George King/TAKA Michinoku BATTLARTS 2003

MD: If George King wants to post BATTLARTS matches on Instagram, we're going to watch them. King was the odd man out in some ways, but you can't say he wasn't game. Whenever TAKA was in, he was shouting encouragement from the corner. He wasn't afraid to slap and chop hard and he had a lot of feats of strength that felt labored in a way that added to the struggle. Occasionally, you questioned the timing or positioning maybe, but Ishikawa was going to be able to work him into holds and make things look great with just a bit of feeding. That's all he needed anyway. It was a lot of fun to see Ishikawa and TAKA square off, as TAKA threw some nasty kicks but spent a lot of his time twisted and contorted in a crossface chicken wing or outright getting dropped on his head by Ishikawa. Kurashima was in there to take suplexes and throw them, but it was mostly Ishikawa's show. King and TAKA layered in just enough cheating to keep things interesting and help rationalize the finish. 

Slim J/Shadow Jackson vs. Jay Fury/Nemesis 2x2 War Games NWA Anarchy 7/19/08 

PAS: Slim J has seemingly gotten a spot in AEW/ROH which is awesome, he is one of the most underseen and underrated wrestlers of the 21st century, and it is great he is getting a bit of shine. Most people remember him as a high flyer workrate guy, and he is very good at that style, but he truly excels in a bloody ugly brawl like this.

This was a four person War Games match, which conceptually seems a bit silly, but worked fine. It just ended up as a quick tag team I quit match. Nemisis and Shadow Jackson together were the Urban Assault Squad, a long time Cornelia tag team, and this was the apex of their post break up feud. There was a trophy involved in the break up, and the sharp trophy was used as a stabbing implement to open up all four guys. Slim J started the match and took a nasty beating throughout, including getting German Suplexed while both he and his opponent were standing on the top rope, and getting hung with a noose from the cage. There was a lot of battling on the top rope, and at one point the fence started peeling away from the cage, which gave the whole match this chaotic, razor's edge feel. Like any minute this whole thing is going to collapse. Jackson had a real connection to the crowd, but I didn't think his offense looked that great, the heel team was fine, if a little unmemorable, but this was another great example of what an all time deranged psycho Slim J is and was.  

MD: I loved the layout on this. It was like a War Games Lite or a Sprint War Games. Slim J started with Fury for the first five minutes, wrestling from underneath to really dominate towards the end. Nemesis came in and they began to just demolish him. Jackson came in three minutes later to even the odds and they had a big comeback. It was particularly interesting though as Slim J had to earn his part of it like he would have to in order to set up a hot tag. Nemesis had been holding the cage to keep Jackson out and it was only when Slim J was able to fight away from the noose and take over on Fury that Nemesis had to help his partner and Jackson was able to come in. The faces then slipped on a banana peel and we got a really brutal beatdown, tons of shots into the cage, and the insane visual of Slim J eating that German from the top of the cage all the way across the ring. It was an amazing distance to travel on it. Anarchy is so good at booking big moments in these matches and here it was Slim J coming back again as he was about to be hung and Jackson rising up to get his revenge as the crowd lived and breathed with his every movement and the triumphant victory. It was real folk hero stuff which is what you want in a War Games. I agree that specific things could have looked a little better in practice at times and that probably would have put it further over the top, but I'm completely behind the theory of this one.

Devil's Rejects (Azrael/Shaun Tempers/Iceberg) vs. NWA Elite (Abomination/Phil Shatter/KIMO) NWA Anarchy 7/19/08

MD: There was a moment right at the midway mark of the match, even as the announcers were laying out the stakes again, where I thought to myself "This is actually a pretty conventional tag." Of course in that moment Iceberg decided to take a bite out of Shatter's skull, so obviously it's all relative, but this was a different sort of match for these groups. It was titles vs the chance to ever challenge again, where the Elite were trying desperately to wrest some gold, at all costs, from the Rejects after a six month reign from Azrael/Tempers. What you got on one side was a fairly oddball group with KIMO's unconventional strikes and Abomination's size, but with Shatter doing the brunt of the work from underneath as the Rejects worked like a well oiled machine. Shatter had a lot of time working with these guys and taking their stuff and, to some degree, to be able to get Iceberg up when needed, including to set up the hot tag. Unexpectedly, Iceberg took huge bumps in the process. They had a great moment at the end where the managers were taken out on the apron and everyone crashed into each other to set up the finish. Ultimately everyone worked to put over KIMO which was a choice in time, I guess. The Elite's team never really seemed to gel here (Abomination was really just there, an absence in your vision in his all black gear), but Shatter held up things well considering he had the Rejects to work against.

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New Footage Friday: HASH~! LIGER~! CHONO~! SANO~! SLIM J~! BARBED WIRE~! MATT BORNE WILL PLAY SUN CITY~!

Maniac Matt Bourne vs. Daniel "The Hulk" Voges South Africa ??

MD: A bunch of this South African footage dropped and we're playing it safe by going with the sure thing, Maniac Matt Borne. I tried to figure out when this probably was, but only found a story about Borne losing his passport on the way to South Africa and some guy stealing his identity and ODing years later. Here he was facing Danie "the Hulk" Voges, who was obviously a beloved local folk hero, at least from the reaction he got. It felt a little like an Otto Wanz match along those lines. This was a round system, seems like the best of five with some weird production quirks between the Dutch (?) commentary and long shots of crowd reactions of the same few people, a pair of twins, a couple that was very into it, and one guy who seemed to be sleeping. Borne was great here though, laying it in, stooging, getting heat, taking big shots. I'm not sure if Voges' straight on chops would look good against anyone else but they looked great here. It was mostly these two throwing shots but Voges won a fall in the second round with a power slam that was nasty as he barely got Borne over and Borne evened it up with a knee off the top in the fourth. Voges bled pretty heavily in the last round and it ended with both guys still scrapping and the fans left wanting more.

PAS: The Otto Wanz comparison is right on, the match also had sort of a Carlos Colon feel. This was basically all punches, but both guys had great looking punches, with Borne throwing hands, and Voges having this chops to the neck and chin. We get some really dramatic blood a big almost fatal powerslam and some glam looking ladies in the crowd horrified at the violence being laid out on their hero. I wan't to check out some more Voges, I like a big time local hero and he had some big star timing. 

ER: I love the aesthetics of this, feeling like our big German CWA rounds matches. We all separately got the local legend Otto Wanz vibes off Voges, except he's like the Iron Mike Sharpe of Otto Wanz's. Borne doesn't work his Buzz Sawyer lite style here and instead works as Kevin Sullivan. Kevin Sullivan/Mike Sharpe is a fight I'd want to watch, and it was good here. I like big heavyweight matches where they fill a lot of time by throwing downward clubbing forearms across chests and throw right hands and slaps to the jaw that land with thud. Borne throws punches at Voges' hairline and busts him open, and a regional hero fighting and swinging through a bloody forehead is a simple classic recipe that we've now seen get the same rabid reactions on every continent but Antarctica. This is the first broadcast in wrestling history that I've seen let a camera linger on a man who fell asleep in the crowd, capturing that moment where he wakes up with a snort and immediately begins acting as if he hadn't been asleep. It also captures a woman outright screaming in support of Voges, and that kind of regional passion plays to every part of my wrestling heart. That Voges delayed powerslam on Borne was well worthy of winning a fall, and I love the brawl it devolved into. 

Shinya Hashimoto/Naoki Sano vs. Masa Chono/Jushin Liger NJPW 1/6/90 - EPIC

MD: Unique match up where they weren't afraid to mix the pairings. It starts out with Liger vs Hashimoto with a nice bit of Liger crashing against him and Hash giving just what he should until Liger's able to zoom past him and finally get him down. Later on, it's interesting as he almost has a hard time getting Liger up, despite the fact Liger's smaller than Chono, giving everything a grittier, uncooperative feeling that makes every impact all the worse. A chunk of this was Chono leaning on Sano and while that was fine, you were kind of waiting for the other guy on each side to get back in. As per the norm for 1990, the STF was both over and protected. The eventual payoff was Chono and Liger dropping Hashimoto with a spike pile driver and then Hashimoto trying one crushing shot after the next to finally put Liger down. Good match that gave us just enough of the Liger/Hashimoto pairing and never wore out its welcome.

PAS: I love the Liger vs. Hashimoto match up. Unlike most junior versus heavyweight matches Liger always tries to go toe to toe with Hashimoto. It isn't David vs. Goliath, Liger is more like Mike Tyson: he may be short, but he hits just as hard. I loved him using momentum to drop Hashimoto with a shoulder block and a flip kick to the temple. Chono versus Sano was really cool too. Sano was such a smooth and violent wrestler, and I love the solebutt to the stomach as an equalizer. Hashimoto really went after Liger at the end, hitting almost a half powerslam half brainbuster and Liger kept coming and getting in his face. Great stuff, really fun discovery.

ER: I thought this was excellent, with my love for it growing with every moment I reminded myself that this match would have - if not for a man with a camcorder - gone undocumented. Watching how hard these four legends beat the shit out of each other for 2,200 fans in Korakuen early in the new year and nobody else, and yet a 40 year old guy in California is able to see these fully beatings 30 years later. It makes me emotional. It's crazy to see this level of commitment on a house show, with strikes thrown full force in spots and tons of offense that missed, but was thrown to hit. The true greats, men like Hashimoto and Liger, bring that suspension of disbelief into their matches with their full commitment to offense, and to see it worked to maximum effectiveness on a small but hot Korakuen handheld just makes me love them more. 

These guys come off like the toughest wrestlers on earth in matches like these. The Hashimoto/Liger segments were my favorite and they were complemented perfectly by Sano running traffic like a madman and Chono leaning into and bumping big for Sano made him feel like a real force. But Hashimoto and Liger looked like fucking pro wrestlers. Everything landed and every landing felt real. There's an early Liger hook kick that catches Hashimoto behind the ear and Hashimoto crumbles perfectly. The misses were incredible, so violently executed that you buy the idea that Hashimoto threw a spinning heel kick that was supposed to take Liger's head off until Liger moved when he wasn't supposed to. Now, these men are pros, and the reality is that Hashimoto merely threw a spinning heel kick so hard that it would have seriously injured Liger had it not been ducked, and Hashimoto is such an ideal version of what a professional wrestler should be that he makes every miss look like he expected a bullseye. 

Hashimoto drills Liger into the ring with a running brainbuster that is an insane spot for an untaped show, and when Hash hits that spinning heel kick he sends the full weight of his hip crashing into Liger. Sano is a barefoot psychopath, hitting a gorgeous pescado (later to be completely outshone by Liger's gorgeous tope con giro but hey) and throwing a bananas running dropkick to knock Chono off the apron. When Hashimoto gets the pin on Liger, he's a man really holding his opponent's shoulders to the mat, with Liger being pinned because he was the weakened man. It's that attention to detail when they aren't thinking about how many people are going to ever witness it. It's a special thing when you find a match that only exists because of some guy and his camcorder, and the match raises the stock of all four guys involved. 

Slim J vs. Azrael NWA Anarchy 4/9/11 - EPIC

PAS: This was a barbed wire massacre match, and a real great chance for these two sickos to poke little holes in each other. Both guys are really great traditional brawlers, and they had some cool violent moments in a match which was mostly about getting stuck. I loved the insanity of both guys swinging barbed wire baseball bats super hard into each other, I mean just imagine how much their wrists hurt. Azrael driving his forearm into a barbed wire chair on a missed slam was sick stuff on top of it all. Slim J amps it up in the closing moments of the match, wrapping himself in barbed wire and using his body as a pokey weapon. Azrael hits a sick ace crusher on him, but can't cover because him arm got punctured. The announcers mention all the brawls these two have had in this feud and I want to see all of them. 

MD: They delivered on what was advertised here. There was barbed wire everywhere throughout. While it was pretty gratuitous, everything was done with consequence, which is what you hope for out of a match like this. Early on, the basic layout of the ring, with weapons everywhere and Wilson on the outside put Slim J at a disadvantage as he had to get things out of the way whenever he wanted to try to hit one of his moves. I liked how they built up the wire early, as the wrestlers themselves were tasked to put it on the ropes. That was a gradual process but it built up tension for the first few shots into it, and did have the very clever moment of Azrael using the Staff of Righteousness to do it at one point. In a match like this (like an exploding cage match or anything else along those lines), one whip can completely change momentum, so long as the wrestlers put it over, and they absolutely did here, and that makes for different sort of narrative opportunities. Mid-match, Slim J, to create the great equalizer, wrapped himself up in the wire and tried to use his body as a weapon to varying effects. It meant that every impact in the finishing stretch was pushed even further over the top. I probably won't revisit this one anytime soon, but they treated everything in this match with fear and respect and consequence and it elevated it into something that was more than simple blood and guts.

ER: Slim J's legend grows with every month of footage from the past 20 years. He's one of the great babyfaces from that era, as talented as but somehow not even as heralded as The Amazing Red. Slim J has been knocking out Rey Mysterio level matches for years now to a fraction of the acclaim, and it's crazy. Here's another to add to his legend, a violent insane spotfest from the great Anarchy. There's great carny shit like Reverend Dan at ringside, and the early match looked like old school bullshit with classic Dusty Rhodes teased barbed wire spots. But when Slim J dodged and Azrael hammer-fisted a chair covered in barbed wire full force, the tone of this all changed. Slim J took a full force tennis racket shot to the head, and from then on full force was the name of the game. 

Azrael's beating looked vicious, and Slim's selling of the beating made it look even more lethal. Slim J might be the greatest selling babyface of the entire 2000s indy scene, it's not even a contentious statement. Here you get great high level cruiserweight spots from Slim J, like his fine Santo roll, but you get violent additions like Azrael subsequently getting flapjacked face first onto a chair. But soon Slim is wrapping himself entirely in barbed wire like a sexy boy band Sabu and they're swinging - again, full force - barbed wire bat shots like they were wrestling in the ugliest dirt lot lucha. And, as someone who has had their hands stung by many different aluminum bats, Slim straightening his wrists and shaking his hands was a familiar pain. 

Slim's missed corner avalanche while wrapped in barbed wire was like Zona 1-2-3 Kid, and that Azrael ace crusher is one of the greatest ever iterations of that move. Let's get Azrael into the online discussion for best ever stunner/crusher. Slim J takes a kind of whipping slam into a thick garbage can like a true garbage match legend, always combining big impact with a folded body, and Azrael's sitout driver off the rope rope through a table was an incredible finish. It's the kind of finish that even Shane McMahon might not consider to win his father's love. The chemistry here is incredible and it feels like it will play out like a legendary bloody lucha feud the more matches are uncovered. If this is the only one we ever get? We were lucky., 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINYA HASHIMOTO

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

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New Footage Friday: SLIM J~! AZRAEL~BRYAN~! KOFI~! BIFF~! LEE~! JAGGED EDGE~!

NWA Anarchy (Hate Junkies (Dany Only & Stryknyn)/ Azrael/Slim J/Mikael Judas/Nemesis) vs. NWA Elite (Jagged Edge/Bro Newsome/Se7en/John Johnson/Shawn Tempers/Jacoby Boykins) NWA Anarchy 6/30/12 - GREAT

MD: You have to love how many stories they pack into a match like this, each and every time we see one of these big multimans. This one was all action the whole way through but never felt like meaningless noise. Slim J and Azrael working together at the start; the build to Jagged Edge vs Judas (and the payoff in a way that made people want more); Nemesis getting quickly rolled up after wanting to be in there for a chunk of the match (which would theoretically pay off at the end); the John Johnson goofiness which they closed off quickly and with satisfaction; Stryknyn's eye being vulnerable; and having it end with a big finishing stretch between Slim J and Tempers where they were able to set up and payoff the cobra clutch in a clever way for a great false finish before having the turns and setting things up for the future. Everyone did well in there, with the monsters protected and nothing seeming out of place. There wasn't that sense of guys eating pins too easily that you often get in elimination tags too. Mostly everything here was earned. I will say that it didn't quite have the sense of chaotic danger around the ropes with hands swiping that you see in some of the multi-man tags I like the best, but really that just let them focus more on whatever story beat they were telling with the wrestlers in the ring. The crowd was hot for the start of this and it's obvious why given the amount of care and thought put into each and every one of these big matches.

PAS: It is really hard to have a match with this many people in it, and give everyone a moment to shine, and have no unearned pins. I mean you got a pretty good sense of everyone in the match, even the guys who weren't in it long. Loved the Jagged Edge vs. Mikal Judas showdown, really teased a big showdown, got a taste of it, and left folks wanting to a buy a ticket to pay it off. Jagged Edge's chokelsam was probably the move of the match he sent Stryknyn into the cheap seats. Slim J gets the big finishing run with Tempers and it was pretty great, I imagine they had a hell of a title match at some point in this. The finish was booking heavy, but these always are, and I do think a heel Urban Assault Squad is a cool idea., and this was leading up to the great War Games later in the year.

Biff Busick vs. Trevor Lee XWA 1/17/15

MD: This was from January 2015 in RI, so not on as big a stage as their Evolve match a few days before. Lee was 21 at this point but he already had so much of it down. The crowd was absolutely game and really eager to see Biff kill someone. Lee gave them the all too rare for mid-2010s indy wrestling stalling to start and it worked huge. My favorite bit of it was a fan on the outside shouting "I thought you were supposed to be good" and Lee shouting back "I am good!" He cycled that right into a picture perfect eyepoke on a handshake attempt and an opportunistic throw to the outside. All great set up to clearly make the crowd against him and for Biff and to rile them up for some violence. They got that in spades with the crowd brawling as they went all around the place, really keeping things moving including a great visual where Biff got his leg caught on a chair off a whip and bumped huge, and then a bunch of nasty revenge shots using the terrain as a weapon. He even let a kid get a shot in on Lee. Eventually it had to get back in the ring and they moved into more of the back and forth you'd expect with a few big suplexes and shots and collisions. Again, I liked Lee's timing a lot here and his body language, overly following through in a believable way when he was about to run into something for a transition. Biff's stuff all looked unsurprisingly great (though I wish he wouldn't do stuff like the running blockbuster, but I get why he did) with the fans into everything. I haven't seen a Lee match in a long time and this made me want to see how he was doing now as Grimes in NXT.

PAS: This was a really well executed indy wrestling match, which hit on all of it's individual points really well, without ever moving fully into special territory. Still I can imagine the crowd was really happy to see this match live, and I dug watching it 6 years letter. Busick is a guy with tremendous explosion and execution, really tremendous at a fiery babyface comeback. Lee really put in the work early to make the crowd dislike him which made that comeback work. Loved the flip powerslam counter by Lee, it came out of nowhere, looked awesome and was a great moment to cut Busick's momentum reloading it for one more big comeback. This would be a fun feud to bring back in NXT, or if both guys end up someplace else.   

Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston WWE 9/2/19

MD: What a difference a decade-plus makes. This was an entirely different crowd, up for everything, but pretty annoying, down to the CM Punk chant in the middle (though at least that got booed down). It was a sort of crowd Kofi and Bryan were used to by this point, however, and they worked well to it. If you said this was a top 5 Kofi career singles match, I'd believe you, though Bryan drove most of the action and big moments. They worked the first half straight, babyface vs babyface, with just a bit of tension on whether Bryan would turn on him, and it was good, athletic stuff with kip ups and tapitias into surfboards and hesitant handshakes and both guys rallying the crowd and what have you. It felt a little like a mid-2000s indy affair to be honest. Midway through the match, Kofi following some major clowning of Bryan by taking a big bump out and Bryan feigned concern before turning on him with a hard whip into the post. He amped up the aggression after that but didn't really heel it up enough to get the crowd to turn on him, which sort of put a cap on how good the match would ultimately be. The battling over the yes lock towards the end was really good though, especially how Bryan finally got it on Kofi (which is something they probably used in their PPV matches too but I barely remember those); Kofi jumping into it from the top was a great visual. Finish was a bit too big on Kofi escaping Bryan's big stuff without one more rotation of Bryan dodging something of Kofi's but in general it was excellent house show fare that would have been better still if they led the crowd instead of following it.

PAS: The Mania match between these two is an all timer, and it was fun to see how they ran it back on tour. I liked all of the early feeling out sections on the mat, and Bryan turning more vicious. You don't really think of Bryan as an all-time puncher, but he really lays it in here, with those almost Bret Hart overhand loopers. Kofi was fine, he hit his stuff mostly, got height on his dives and didn't get outclassed. Of course this is Brynn's match. He looked great as the wounded ex champ who is plotting to get back on the top of the mountain, only to fall victim to a great looking spinning kick to the face. 

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Slim J Bit Off More Than He Can Chew Like A Face Full of Swedish Fish or Lorena with Two Penises

Slim J vs. Iceberg NWA Anarchy 4/26/14 - GREAT 

PAS: This was more of an angle than a match, but it is a heck of an angle. Iceberg and Slim J had been a tag team (with the amazing name of Iceberg Slim), but Berg had gone back to his heel ways and rejoined up with Jeff G. Bailey. Slim gets on the mic and demands an explanation, Berg cheap shots him with a nasty right hand, then smashes him all around the arena, throwing him into the post and the ring barrier. Slim gets a slight comeback, only to continue to get destroyed until Berg gets DQ'ed for driving the implement of destruction into his head. Ace Rockwell comes out for the save, only to get jumped by Shaun Tempers. This sets up Rockwell/Slim vs. Berg/Tempers which I am sure is great. Cool big man vs. little match if a bit one sided. 

Slim J vs. Griff Garrison Anarchy Wrestling 1/13/18 - FUN

PAS: This was a fun TV juniors match with future AEWer Garrison early in his career. So many of the Slim matches we have been reviewing lately have been brawls, but he is also really good at this kind of AEW Dark juniors match. He hit a really great looking headscissors off the ropes, a flipping springboard dive in the ring and a rubix cube finish. Garrison got a moment or two to shine, but this was mostly a showcase of Slim J's offense, which is always worth watching

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Slim J is Brain Dead like Jim Brady

Slim J vs. Patrick Bentley NWA Anarchy 12/29/07 - EPIC

PAS: I think Slim J will come out of this project as one of the great brawlers of the 21st century. For a guy who is best known as a juniors highflyer, he is a hellacious asskicker. The backstory of this match is that Bentley is a protege of Slim J who turned on him and joined the Devil's Rejects. J jumps him right at the bell and wails on him, with some especially ground and pound punches, it is hard to make those look good, and he looks like he is beating his brains in. Bentley is able to go to the eyes to get some respite and he brains Slim J with a chair, which starts the blood flow. J gets the hell beaten out of him and leaks all over the ring. It is a 21st century cage match, so we know we are going to get big stunt spots, but they have the sense to bring the violence too, and the stunt spots look so much better in the context of a blood feud. I did dig the huge electric chair off the top rope, and I loved how the match didn't end on Slim J's cage dive, instead he hooked on a super nasty reverse STF and made Bentley quit. This was quite a discovery and a real treat to watch, I have a feeling there are more gems to unearth.

ER: This was really great and I think the more we watch of Slim J the more we'll discover not only one of the great brawlers of the 21 century, but also one of the great babyfaces, and great gimmick match workers. What I'm saying is that we may find out that Slim J has been a top 10 worker for the past 15 years and hardly anybody noticed. I said to someone earlier today that I think Slim would be the best chance WWE had at making a "new Mysterio" like they've been trying to do for much of this decade. He's small, but really muscular (not here, but now), and he throws great strikes, so he'd be able to look sympathetic for being undersized, while being able to believably hang with larger guys due to his punch power. Mysterio was king in the Elimination Chamber, Royal Rumble, and others gimmick matches, Slim J has shown he's always the best guy in indy gimmick match staples, as well as other, weirder gimmick matches. Truly one of the most well rounded and excited wrestlers of our time.

This was a cool fusion of a late 80s style cage match with a modern cage match. You had cool stuff that felt straight out of a classic WarGames, like the greatest possible brawling punches, or great color out of the hairline, or awesome spots like Slim ramming Bentley face first into the cage a couple times before muscling him into a nice powerslam. But we had a bunch of modern stunt bumps, big slams off the ropes with the cage as assistance; Slim backdrops Bentley off (which looked like a tremendous bump) but sets it up with smart stuff like smashing Bentley's head into the cage bar before flinging him. The punches from both men looked tight and mean, Slim being the best ground and pound wrestling puncher other than Lawler, Bentley throwing this hard clunking hammerfist blows, and later Slim hitting sick grounded punches with a couple of slashing forearms thrown in. Offense overall was real nice, loved Bentley's fireman's carry backbreaker. If you were putting that move in a video game you would want Bentley wearing the motion capture suit right here. He rolls Slim forward over his head and just plants that knee right in the back, perfection. Slim has a great set up to a sliced bread type cutter, hitting his excellent cravate knees to the side of Bentley's head before running up the ropes to stick the cutter, really using logic to set up a move like that. Also loved Slim's cool leaping inverted DDT to set up the finish, leaping off the top to Bentley standing in the ring, and you couldn't physically place Slim better on his jump. Really impressive body control, always seems to land precisely where he needs to be. I agree with Phil that it's awesome that didn't end the match, merely pave the way for his body bending STF. I've never seen this match and haven't seen it talked about at all, which is really surprising given its quality. This is starting to feel like a real unmined area of our wrestling universe.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Gladiator v. Gunner

38. Gladiator Jeremiah v. Gunner Miller Anarchy Wrestling 6/10

PAS: This was also very good stuff. This was a Captain's match for the WarGames match, with the winner's team getting the advantage. Jeremiah (aka Slim J) is one of the most underrated great wrestlers of this century. Outside of a brief ROH run, he has worked pretty exclusively in the South and is always well worth watching. He seems to be a bit more ground based with the Jeremiah gimmick, but he has great bumping and a ton of intensity. He takes over early on Miller really pounding on him, until Miller is able to grab a big boot and hyperextend Jeremiah's knee. Then Miller really rips at the knee and the match is built around Jeremiah fighting back with a bad wheel. Finish run was really great with Jeremiah's bumping making Miller's football tackle and diving headbutt spear look brutal. This was the first time these two had wrestled each other in a singles and their chemistry was great, I hope Anarchy runs this match back, and I am suitably pumped for War Games.

ER: Man I really missed out on tons of Slim J. I wrote him off pretty much immediately. I saw him on an early TNA weekly PPV in a throwaway trios where he was pretty much positioned to be the least impressive guy in the match, and sure enough, I wasn't impressed. He was probably a teenager, and I was barely not a teenager. Now 15 years later I think he's consistently the best guy in his matches and I just kinda want to find the point where he got really great. Because he's really great. And it still seems like people are writing him off (his 2.69 rating on Cagematch is a cruel kick to the dick. The fucking Boogeyman is at 4.25!). The guy moves like a star and makes offense look deadly. Right from the start the two of them tease a lock up and after a few moments Jeremiah just cracks Gunner in the jaw in the meanest fashion, and all his shots look great and he comes up with some neat ways of catching Miller off guard (loved his little headscissor feint in the ropes). Miller eventually starts ripping into his knee, including some nasty stuff around a ring post, and all the knee stuff was real good. They kind of abandon it to go into a hot finishing sequence, but the moves in the finishing sequence hit big enough to make me forget a knee ever got worked over. Jeremiah gets a wild tornado DDT, and Miller has a few moves that pretty much involve him flinging his larger body into Jeremiah, and Jeremiah bumps like mad for it. Really both guys just make each other's stuff look like kill shots. Finish is good as Bailey distracts Jeremiah, and shows he's STILL the best sneak shot leg hooker in the game, swiping hard and fast at J's leg, leading to Miller absolutely knocking his block off with a flying forearm. Yeah, these two need to fight again.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Nightmare v. Buck

34. Billy Buck v. Nightmare Kyle Matthews Anarchy 6/10

PAS: I loved this, I have been talking a lot about how Matthews is working as an 80s babyface, here he meets his 80s heel and they have an awesome 6:05 style match. This is basically Ricky Steamboat v. Arn Anderson. Buck cribs a bunch from Arn, he hits the fake punch into a DDT, great hooking left hand punch and a sweet spinebuster, he also had some other cool moves of his own, I loved the superkick to the ankle into a figure four. Matthews is just great, he gets a little fancier here because it was a big match and throws a tope, but hell Tim Horner had a tope too so I forgive it. Lots of great near falls and a killer finish, exactly what I was hoping this match would deliver.

ER: Yeah this felt like one of those Arn Anderson vs. Alex Wright matches, but better. Matthews is better than 1995 Wright. Buck isn't Arn, but that probably didn't need to be said. Buck is still really good. Matthews is a great underdog and Buck is a vicious dude. He throws his whole body into strikes and Matthews knows how to crumple in neat ways, and they wonderfully build this great little slice of 80s territory upstart vs. cocky bully, to the point where a Matthews dropkick felt like a major moment. The superkick to the knee was definitely my favorite spot as I was not expecting it, but Buck pulled it off way better than most kickpad workers I've seen with similar spots. I do wish they hadn't 100% aped the fake punch -> DDT, especially going to it so early in the match. And I wish Matthews didn't use a backcracker, doesn't really fit with his whole thing. But overall this was some classic wrestling.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: ANARCHY WARGAMES

15. Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azrael) Anarchy Wrestling 6/24

PAS: The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

ER: 10 years on, another great WarGames from Anarchy. They really capture the violence like few can. How many Monsters Ball and other cage matches did TNA run, none of them ever approached the violence here. The opening 5 was great, Jeremiah is a total savage and Buck is a big guy who bumps bigger all around the ring and immediately bleeds; Blue comes in and throws some so-so shots, and Jeremiah absolutely devours him like a Tazmanian Devil cartoon. This guy is great. And then I fall in love with Cyrus the Destroyer, who looks like Buster Bloodvessel at his biggest. He takes an absurd bump into the cage, just getting launched upside down into it and scraping down the side of it. As you'd expect, we get some wild cage bumps, with Gunner upping the ante later by missing a spear into the cage with gusto. Chris Spectra is a guy I've never seen before and he had an awesome entry into the cage, coming in with nunchucks and catching a Jeremiah punch by wrapping it the chain. And as I'm talking about cool entrances we suddenly get druids coming out with very real torches, and Azreal getting lowered from the ceiling on a small plank (and good thing they kept the lights off as it had to be difficult to look cool while balancing on a tiny platform being lowered from the ceiling. Everybody in this tightens up strikes and kicks as if they were being filmed in HD and thought they needed to make it look good, which just adds to the feeling of constant violence. My only complaint is everyone needing to get to kind of the same place damage-wise all at once so Azreal could do his entrance, so you had people who had been in the match for less than 4 minutes selling death the same as the guys who had been in the whole time. But, the entrance was a cool visual so there's at least a decent tradeoff, and the match suitably ends on the nastiest thing in the match, a hacksaw rubbed across Azrael's mouth corners. Yuck. Another great indy cage match, and I'm excited to see more of these guys.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Rejects v. Rejects

Devil's Rejects (Tank/Iceberg) v. Devil's Rejects (Seven/Brad Cash) Anarchy 5/27

PAS: Really fun big boy brawl for the rights to the name Devil's Rejects. Seven really throws ham hocks and I especially liked him and Iceberg exchanging. We get a double count out, and Dan Wilson (who is no longer Rev. Dan, but is now the match maker) restarts the match with Rejects Rules. There are some nasty chair shots, and Seven takes a huge bump getting back suplexed through two chairs. Finish had Tank pounding Cash on the ground until the ref stopped the match. Some of the shots looked really good, and some didn't, it is a hard finish to pull off, I think they mostly did, but I was expecting something big, and this finish was clearly setting up Tank v. Cash, and the huge violence is clearly being saved for that.

ER: Pretty impossible to dislike a bunch of big dudes (a couple bigger than the others) tossing soup bones at jaw bones. Honestly I could have just watched everybody punch the whole time, didn't even need the chairs to get over the violence of it all. One minute in and you have Iceberg backing Se7en into the corner with sick shots and I was 100% sold from there. Everybody just clubs each other in the face, we don't even need tons of big bumps, so the bumps we do get really resonate: Se7en gets tossed through a couple chairs, Iceberg bumps to the floor, Tank does a painful and accurate cannonball, all awesome moments. I really liked the finish and agree with Phil that it's a hard finish to pull off, but I thought it looked really good. I especially liked Tank mixing up shots and tossing in nasty headbutts. Fun stuff, and Tank/Iceberg remain eminently watchable.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Anarchy Wrestling Hostile Environment 6/24/17

Chase Jordan v. Jeremy Foster

Really energetic opener. I liked Jordan as a goofy looking guy who would get vicious when taunted by the crowd. At one point he hit a diving punch to the back of Foster's head which was as violent as anything on this show. Foster is a hyper competent babyface who had some nice moments, including a great looking heel hook. Finish felt a little off, but this was a fine use of 8 minutes.

Ryan Vega v. AJ Gray

This was the climax of a feud which saw Vega stab Gray in the eye with a pen and piss on a referee. Vega has a nice scumbag look, although it is more Reddit troll then dangerous gutter punk. Match was a Gray showcase, as he was getting his revenge by hitting huge spots, he had a crazy Orihara moonsault and finished with a Phoenix splash where he kneed Vega in the ribs. Gray was fun (I remember liking him in CWF too) and this was another good match. 

Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Anthony Henry

Another in a run of really entertaining Kyle Matthews matches, he has turned into one of my favorite guys in the world to watch. Henry is a guy I have seen a lot in EVOLVE and he was always a bit too go-go-go for my tastes, there was some of that here, but Matthews slowed him down some but still danced with him when it was time to dance. Really enjoyed Henry's arm work, after a Valet distraction he whipped him off the apron with the arm, and worked it for the rest of the match, including a cool bridged Fujiwara and a elbow lock with back control. I love how they have turned Matthews octopus into a killer hold, and both Henry's escape from the first attempt and the final finish were really well done. Looking forward to Matthews having a long fun run with this belt.

Lynch Mob (Joey Lynch/Matt Lynch) v. The Approved (Adrian Hawkins/ Bobby Moore)

This was a taped fist street fight for the tag team titles. I really dug this when The Approved and the Lynch Mob were punching each other in face, the Approved both have some really nice looking right hands, and the early part of this had a ton of energy. I liked how the Lynch Mob used dives, they were almost Sabuish in their recklesness. This fell apart a bit at the end, as both teams were setting up elaborate set pieces with chairs and it lost a lot of the energy it had earlier.

Tank v. Brad Cash

Here we had a Tapai death match along with lots of additional pokey weapons. This had some nice moments, Tank is a good brawler and the parts that resembled a brawl were good, still lots of this was geek show Mr. Pogo stuff. Lots of slow cutting by each guy, it was gross and bloody but not that compelling. I always prefer death matches to be built around stiffness and and bumps, the final bump by Cash was nasty as Tank choke slammed him on gusset plates, but this was mostly stabbing. Gory spectacle, but I am over gore for gore's sake

Rock C v. Jessica Leigh

I liked Rock C's reverse grapevine leg lock finisher, and she had one nice side suplex, but otherwise this was more a match for the live crowd, then anything you want to watch on tape.

Jacob Ashworth v. Stryknyn

Really fun heavyweight title slugfest. They start out early with some basic tight takedown and lock up wrestling, but like most face v. face matches, it really kicks in when they start throwing hands. Stryknyn hits a great looking barfight headbut and throws some really great straight rights, he also has some nice looking stomps. Ashworth doesn't have as crisp punches, but has great babyface fire, and some of the exchanges looked down right Lawlerian. I didn't love the moves section as much, lots of full nelson slams and B- spears, but I have to love any match based on great punches.

Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azreal)

The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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Some of Anarchy Wrestling: Captain O' Captain 6/10/17

PAS: I am eager to get caught up so I can watch and enjoy the big Hostile Environment show, so I thought I would cherry pick the best matches from this show (thanks again to the mysterious backwoods cult leader for letting me know what I should look for)

Billy Buck v. Nightmare Kyle Matthews

PAS: I loved this, I have been talking a lot about how Matthews is working as an 80s babyface, here he meets his 80s heel and they have an awesome 6:05 style match. This is basically Ricky Steamboat v. Arn Anderson. Buck cribs a bunch from Arn, he hits the fake punch into a DDT, great hooking left hand punch and a sweet spinebuster, he also had some other cool moves of his own, I loved the superkick to the ankle into a figure four. Matthews is just great, he gets a little fancier here because it was a big match and throws a tope, but hell Tim Horner had a tope too so I forgive it. Lots of great near falls and a killer finish, exactly what I was hoping this match would deliver.

Gladiator Jeremiah v. Gunner Miller

PAS: This was also very good stuff. This was a Captain's match for the WarGames match, with the winner's team getting the advantage. Jeremiah (aka Slim J) is one of the most underrated great wrestlers of this century. Outside of a brief ROH run, he has worked pretty exclusively in the South and is always well worth watching. He seems to be a bit more ground based with the Jeremiah gimmick, but he has great bumping and a ton of intensity. He takes over early on Miller really pounding on him, until Miller is able to grab a big boot and hyperextend Jeremiah's knee. Then Miller really rips at the knee and the match is built around Jeremiah fighting back with a bad wheel. Finish run was really great with Jeremiah's bumping making Miller's football tackle and diving headbutt spear look brutal. This was the first time these two had wrestled each other in a singles and their chemistry was great, I hope Anarchy runs this match back, and I am suitably pumped for War Games.

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Anarchy Wrestling: End of Days 5/27/17

Cyrus the Destroyer v. Gunner Miller

This match was set up by Gladiator Jerimaih challenging Gunner and Team TAG to a war games match, and announcing Cyrus as his first team member. Cyrus is a big boy, looks like a young King Kong Bundy. Not much of a match, a couple of minutes before a run in, but I did enjoy Miller deadlift German suplexing Cyrus, really felt like a feat of strength. Very excited about War Games of course.

Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Ryan Vega

I really enjoyed this, Matthews breaking out his awesome Steve Armstrong offense, which mixed nicely with Ryan Vega's 2010s indy shtick. Vega breaks out some big spots including a nifty top rope jawbreaker and a nasty death valley driver. Meanwhile Matthews is throwing out pin point dropkicks and indian death locks. Continue to love Matthews finishing folks off with a nasty octopus hold. The Nightmare continues to be a highlight of these shows.

Billy Buck v. Jeremy Foster

Really good old school style match, with Billy Buck being an impressive regional heel. Good spinebuster, nice punch, good bumping, quality stuff. Foster didn't really do anything to make himself stand out but everything he did looked good. I actually think they may have had a bit of overkill in 80s finishes. Foster pushes off a sleeper and rolls up Buck, Bucks partner distracts the ref and Foster gets cheap shotted, they ran through a dozen ways that would finish a Prime Time Wrestling match in 1987 and it almost felt like a PWG match burning through headrop suplex two counts. Still I really enjoyed this and I am all in on Buck

Rave Approved v. The Lynch Mob

This was a pull apart brawl rather then a standard match. It was a pretty energetic pull apart brawl, lots of guys jumping into punches. This set up a taped fist street fight for Hostile Environment which I am excited to see.

Team TAG v. The Beautiful Bald Besties

Team TAG had some amusing heel stooging in this, not exactly Midnight Express, but a fine Southern Rockers. This was a little short to get much of a sense of the Besties. Would be into to seeing this match get a little time

Drew Adler v. Stryknyn

Another match which was more to set up stuff in the future. Stryknyn had some nice energy early, I dig his mosh pit dancing as wrestling offense. Adler had some really nice stomps, but otherwise I didn't get a huge sense of him (saying that a lot on this show), Dany Only drills Adler with a motorcycle helmet for Stryknyn, to get the pin. This leads to Ashworth and Only getting into it to set up a match on the next show.

Devil's Rejects (Tank/Iceberg) v. Devil's Rejects(Seven/Brad Cash)

Really fun big boy brawl for the rights to the name Devil's Rejects. Seven really throws ham hocks and I especially liked him and Iceberg exchanging. We get a double count out, and Dan Wilson (who is no longer Rev. Dan, but is now the match maker) restarts the match with Rejects Rules. There are some nasty chair shots, and Seven takes a huge bump getting back suplexed through two chairs. Finish had Tank pounding Cash on the ground until the ref stopped the match. Some of the shots looked really good, and some didn't, it is a hard finish to pull off, I think they mostly did, but I was expecting something big, and this finish was clearly setting up Tank v. Cash, and the huge violence is clearly being saved for that.

This was paced more like a RAW leading up to a PPV then a big show on its own. Still they totally did their job of selling me on the big show, and Anarchy has a bunch of fun guys that I am eager to keep following

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2017 Anarchy Grab Bag

After digging into some classic NWA Anarchy for the Wednesday Morning Wargames, I got excited to check out some of their more recent stuff . They are releasing shows every couple of weeks over at Powerbomb.tv, I got some recommendations from a backwoods cult leader who shall remain nameless, and cherry picked from the first handful of 2017 shows. I am hoping to review their more current stuff as it gets released.

Hardcore Hell 3/25/17

Hate Junkies v. Tank/Iceberg

This was a four corners of hell match, with bags of weapons in each corner.  This was set up as a battle between dominant teams from different eras in Cornelia history. I really dug this when it was four giant guys having a fist fight, Stryknyn is the least intimidating looking of the four (Danny Only, Iceberg and Tank all look like hillbilly cannibals, Stryknyn looks like a chubby goth) but has great looking punches and kicks and can really bring the intensity. Only look great too he hits a running drive-by style boot with Icebergs head pinned to the ringpost that looks like it might squirt Berg's brains out.  Once the weapons came out I thought it veered into geek show territory, the stuff with skewers and sickle felt too much like a Lollapalooza carnival sideshow and less like a fight. Finish got intense again, Tank double stomped Only which looked like it flattened his intestines, the spear into the thumbtacks was super nasty too.

Team TAG v. Devil's Rejects/Odinson

Really fun example of a sneaky heel team getting thrown around by a team of babyface monsters. Odinson and Seven are especially impressive, both are legit huge (Seven is probably 6'8, Odinson is built like Brian Cage or young Brock) and really agile. Seven hits a standing elbow drop with dunk contest level height, and Odinson hit a drop kick that looked like Jim Brunzell. This was a fans strap match and you had lots of spots that allowed the fans to take shots at the heels. Tank comes out to distract Brad Cash which leads to TAG shooting a confetti cannon into Odinson's eyes for the pin. Not sure about that putting him down, it feels like a confetti cannon would be irritating but you might need a real cannon to knock down that beast.

Jacob Ashworth v. Gunner Miller

This was a classic wrestling story with Ashworth coming from being a fan in the stands, to working on the ring crew to finally getting a title shot against the dominant champion. This was worked very much like a mid 2000s WWE main event, lots of punch exchanges, suplexes and dramatic near falls. They did a nice job of timing the big nearfalls, Miller hits his CTE running headbutt which is his killshot move, but Ashworth bumps to the floor, Ashworth hits his finisher but the ref is down. Nice moment at the end of the match with Ashworth's family and the locker room emptying to celebrate his victory.



Writing on the Wall 5/13/17

The Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Torque

Matthews has taken on the Nightmare gimmick to honor Ted Allen who trained him. I really enjoyed Matthews in this, he basically works like an 80s highflyer, you have to love a guy who wrestles like Tim Horner in 2017. Beautiful dropkick, great looking crossbody, good 80s matwork, and even finishes the match with an octopus hold. I really like how Matthews sold a kick to the ribs, he sold it like Torque had caught him wrong with a simple move and cracked a rib. Torque has a much more 2017 style and it works as a contrast, this may have gotten a bit 2 county at the end, but I enjoyed it. Definitly want to track down more Matthews.


Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Chris Spectra/Billy Buck v. Gladiator Jeremiah/Jacob Ashworth/The Hate Junkies

This is an 8-man tag which is combining a bunch of the big feuds in the fed. Gladiator Jeremiah is the former Slim J and he looks great here, he has put on a fair amount of muscle, and was working more like a Dynamite Kid style hard hitter, while still breaking out some cool highflying. This was the first time Miller and Jeremiah had matched up and it felt like a big deal. I enjoyed Team TAG in this more then I did in the six man, they did a nice job cutting off the ring and they had some cool contributions to the finisher run at the end, I liked Blue's weaponized school boy where he schoolboys someones head into the bottom turnbuckle.

This was a fun mix of what Anarchy is putting out in 2017, it got me very excited to start watching the shows regularly. There are building to WarGames and that should be awesome.

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Wednesday Morning Wargames: NWA Anarchy: Team PCW v. Team Anarchy

Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Bobby Moore/Stryknyn/Logan Creed ) v. Team PCW (BJ Hancock/Jon Williams/Lars Manderson/Brian Blaze/Geter) NWA Anarchy 8/22/15- FUN

This was stip laden as these indy Wargames matches tend to be, if team PCW won Stephen Platinum would win control of Anarchy (I love the indy wrestling universe where these money losing indies are so valuable multiple nefarious outfits are always trying to wrest control), if Anarchy wins Jeff G. Bailey (Babyface Jeff G. Bailey!?!) would get five minutes in the cage with Steven Platinum. Match itself was solid violent stuff without any real standout performance or huge memorable moments. Creed gave Hancock a full nelson slam off the top rope which was nasty, and Strykynyn spit a fireball which was cool. Geter is a huge fat dude, basically a black Iceberg and he was fun throwing splashes and clotheslines, there was some booking with him turning on his partners leading Anarchy to get the tap. The Bailey v. Platinum stuff was fun when they weren't doing wrestling moves on each other and just punching. Lots of horseshit and runs in there, and the match ends with Jeff G. Bailey giving a rah rah babyface speech thanking the fans, what a world. 

Complete and Accurate Wednesday Morning Wargames

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head + Wednesday Morning War Games: NWA Anarchy Team Anarchy v. Devil's Rejects V. Akiyama v. Inoue

Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Slim J/Ace Rockwell) v. The Devil's Reject's 
(Iceberg/Tank/Azrael/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 7/22/06

PAS: What a grizzly blood soaked war, Devil's Rejects have to be the scariest faction in wrestling history, they look like a gang of hillbilly cannibals. It really adds something to the danger of WarGames it is one thing to be locked in a cage with Arn Anderson or Sid, totally different thing to be locked in a cage with a bunch of guys who look like they have lost hikers chained up in their basement. Rockwell comes in with a broken arm and Slim J comes with a bad eye and they both injuries get exploited in horrible ways, Rockwell gets crucifix powerbombed arm first into the cage, Tempers drives a fucking meat cleaver into Slim J's eye. The babyface comeback after the sides equalled up was awesome, Shadow Jackson was great in the Nikita/Sting roll of powerhouse babyface roll coming in an powerslamming the 600 pound Iceberg. Rockwell wails on Azreal with his cast, and they end up Russian legsweeping Tank off the top through a table and superplexing Iceberg which might have opened up a crater in Cornelia. Finish was totally legit as Rockwell takes a claw hammer and tries to rip out Tempers cheek. Post match was crazy too, the match was control of Anarchy v. owner getting 5 minutes in the cage with Rev. Dan Wilson (all of these War Games seem to be about control of the fed, fucking McMahon GM nonsense ruined indy wrestling), the owner gets one punch in and then the Reject's stream in and maul that dude, stab him in the head, Iceberg second rope splash, meanwhile the crowd is hurling garbage and wrestlers are trying to scale the cage.

ER: This match completely surprised me. I loved Wildside but really haven't watched much Anarchy. A decade ago I never heard anybody recommending Anarchy matches, it flew almost completely under my radar. And THIS was there the whole time! This match has been sitting around on YouTube for 8 years and this is the first I've heard of it. And it's wonderful. Ace Rockwell turns in one of the finest fiery underdog babyface performances I've seen, blazing in with a cast on his arm and throwing these great right hands all match, throwing his whole body at Azrael, making me root for Team Anarchy right out of the gate. Phil is right that the Devil's Rejects stable are downright frightening. How many times have you seen metal t-shirt face painted wrestlers come off like total jokes ("I am counter culture!"), and here they look like Satanist bikers from I Drink Your Blood. And it's all great! Again Ace Rockwell is an impossibly good babyface warrior here, Slim J enters by flying off the top with a crossbody and doesn't slow down, Azrael and Tempers are great meathead thugs (who end up hitting big bladejobs), Tank and Iceberg (comically billed at 600 pounds, which I suppose would make Tank 560 and Ace Rockwell 350) are big ol' fat guys who will stiff you, splash you, crush your face with a legdrop, and wrestle like you wish Tank Abbott wrestled in WCW. We get some pretty sick bumps throughout, including what I think are the nastiest cage bumps I've seen. Tempers and Azrael press slamming Ace into the support pole of the cage and letting him just drop was nasty, but there are several other moments of guys flying into the cage at awkward angles and dropping terribly in between ropes and cage. Finish is disgusting as Tempers gets a clawhammer jammed into his mouth and thankfully taps before it bursts through his cheek. This was some wild violence right here, the kind of thing that makes me want to go watch all the Anarchy I can find.

Akiyama v. Inoue Review

Verdict:

PAS: I am going with Wargames, easily the most violent of the War Games I have seen, and a match which delivers visceral fear and hate better then almost anything I can remember. I loved Inoue v. Akyama but that is more a quirky indy comedy, Anarchy Wargames is Apocalypse Now

ER: Going in I thought this was just going to be a fun discovery and would make a good challenger for its novelty factor. But goddamn does it get my vote. Akiyama/Inoue is an all time favorite of mine, and this match crashed the party and made itself known as possibly the most violent WarGames match in history. Think about that. New champ.

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Wednesday Morning War Games: NWA Anarchy - Azreal and Hate Junkies v. UAS and Kimo

Urban Assault Squad (Nemesis and Shadow Jackson)/Kimo v. Hate Junkies (Stryknyn and Dany Only)/Azrael NWA Anarchy 10/29/11

This match only had one ring and was 3 on 3, so it stretches the War Games definition a bit, but it delivered in the gritty violence area. Anarchy has run a bunch of War Games matches which fits with Atlanta metro area location and the seedy violence of the arena. I loved the Stryknyn and Nemesis opening section really intense brawling with Stryknyn especially laying in some brutal stomps, Stryknyn also wins the Tommy Rich award as he is leaking all over the ring. Azrael stood out too, as he is a big guy who took some wild upside down bumps into the cage. Match didn't have too much of a story, for a while the heel team was working over Jacksons bad ankle, but Kimo slapped on a submission without a ton of build. Still this felt like a street fight between a death metal band and a bunch of Crips, and it is hard to not love that.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

39. Slim J v. Fred Yehi NWA Anarchy 3/28

PAS: This is a 2/3 falls match and the 6th match of a best of five series (don't ask). I remember Slim J as a spotfest guy doing a Eminem gimmick in the early 2000 indies (He was a short lived member of Special K), and this was the first time I have seen Yehi. For a US Indy juniors match this was pretty simple wrestling, one dive in the third fall, no real complicated do-si-do stuff, just two guys hitting the mat and each other really hard. I loved how both guys kept contact, they would throw a suplex or an armdrag, and just go immediately into a hold. Yehi especially looked like he was squeezing a orange everytime he put on a bodyscissors or a headlock. Liked the finish to all three falls, and this makes me want to go watch all five of their previous matches

ER: It's amusing to watch this match now, as even though it was only a year ago you can tell Yehi has just grown immensely as a worker. The strides he's made in the past year are insane. You watch this match and see a guy who is clearly talented, clearly has a fleshed out idea of what kind of wrestler he wants to be. but I would have never guessed just how incredible he would be in less than a year. This match had all sorts of sneak previews of his future best features, and was a really cool snapshot. And I fully agree with Phil about how both guys kept contact. Seems like the only times they were apart was during the brief breaks between falls. But it wasn't any sort of gimmicky "12 minute headlock" Danielson match (which I was amusingly there live for), not that kind of closeness. It was just working a US juniors match without any of the pauses and bullshit you've come to expect from that. No breathless pauses for applause after a mirror sequence, no appeals to crowd after a forearm exchange, just some tight mat wrestling, snug grappling without flash, finishes that built compactly and ended logically, some hard forearms, some nice throws, just simple logical and satisfying. What's weird is I see myself appreciating current Yehi a lot, having just watched this match, but in a different way than if I had watched this match a year ago as I should have. If I had seen it then I would be blown away by his advancement as the year went on. Watching it now I impressed seeing him lay the groundwork for his already great 2016. Slim J was no slouch either and I feel bad for not writing more about him here, but this is Yehi's world baby, we're just writing about wrestling in it.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Indy TV Sampler- NWA Anarchy

NWA Anarchy is the successor to our beloved NWA Wildside, it is in the same Cornelia arena, and has some of the same guys. So lets check in with our old friends in Georgia

Episode 283

Skirra Corvis v. Jacob Ashworth

Corvis kind of looks like Charly Manson, and works an unorthodox gimmick. Ashworth is kind of a big guy who does lots of throws many of them looking awkward and landing weird. I liked some of Corvis's stuff, including a crazy looking bridging submission, but Ashworth was kind of a crowbar.

Andrew Pendelton III/Brian Casey v. Armed and Dangerous

Fun tag match. Armed and Dangerous are a neat team. Johnny Dangerous is a really neat flyer, bumps around the ring big and pulls off headscissors and armdrags nicely. His partner Lane Vasser is another in the line of legitimately big muscled guys which Wildside/Anarchy seems to grow. He is pretty green, but works nicely with his partner, including a couple of really impressive double team throws, their finisher is Vasser hiptossing his partner into a standing 450. Pendelton and Casey were more serviceable then super impressive, but I really want to see more Armed and Dangerous.

Jeff G. Bailey leads the monster 7 out to lay waste to the guys in the previous match. 7 is a big black guy who has some nasty looking power moves taken well by Dangerous, Pendelton and Casey. He just spikes Casey with a powerbomb. JT Talent the GM gets in 7 face and gets shoved down, and then Shadow Jackson runs out to make the save, all setting up 7 v. Jackson. I am always happy to see the great Jeff G. Bailey but he didn't get to do much

Bro Newsome small package challenge. Bro Newsomes Situationesque manager offers 25 dollars for someone to break Bro Newsome's small package. Amusing although it ran a little long

Hate Junkies v. Andrew Alexander/Billy Buck

This was a falls count anywhere no DQ match and had a nice out of control feeling. Everything these guys tried didn't come off, but large parts of it felt like a fight. The part of the match where they brawled into the back looked especially violent. Both Hate Junkies bled, and the blood in Danny Only's gnarly beard was a nice look. Alexander took a big backwards bump to the floor, and Buck had a nice superkick. Post match saw the Hate Junkies smash Buck's throat with a chair. I liked Rev. Dan Wilson's Satanic look better then his current Raven Mack look, but I like Dan Wilson a lot still.

Fun show, not sure how many good wrestlers this fed has, but it definitely has the feel of Wildside down. I am going to need to hear some more regular WIlson and Bailey promos to watch this regularly, but when I catch up with the Wildside they have up, I could see skimming through the Anarchy.

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