D3AN~!!! Day 2: MATTHEWS~! STARKZ~!

DEAN~!!! 3 9/6/25

Nicole Matthews vs Billie Starkz

MD: I have absolutely nothing to do with putting these shows on. Can't reiterate that enough. This is Phil and Eric being bold and daring and working with the other Matt and eventually the fine folks at ROH. That said, one note that I, and a lot of other people had, after DEAN 2 was that they should get a women's match on the next one.

And the first name that came to everyone's mind was Nicole Matthews. She's a card carrying member of the club. She knows the secret handshake. She gets it, firsthand. Billie Starkz on the other hand, is more of a fifth of sixth generation creature (I'm more second generation myself, the early days of the board instead of RSPW). She was born into social media, not message boards, but early on in her career she had a couple of select voices in her ears. She may be Athena's No. 1 (actually a different number but I'm not googling it right now) minion, but there's a ~! built into her wrestling DNA whether she actually knows it or not. 

Matthews was naturally de facto face here. She left her fine wine heel gimmick (and the giant goblet that goes with it) at home. Billie on the other hand, is an absolute gremlin, a deranged goblin, a complete menace. Matthews understood the gravitas of the time and the place. Billie was boisterous, bragging that she was the hand-selected ROH rep here to win this first-time match between the two.

So while it was a cold match on paper, the characters really made the thing sing. Billie was incessant, the best possible pimple on the already craggly face of Philadelphia. She messed with Matthews' hair in a headscissors. She switched hands on a test of strength. She slapped her in the face after some chain wrestling. She caught her foot and took a bite out of it. She facewashed her in the middle of the ring. She snuck in an eyepoke during a strike exchange. Incessant. Irritating. Incorrigible.

So, in return, Matthews took her to school. She stretched Starkz with a bow and arrow. She wrenched that hand and drove her to the mat. She chopped right through her in the corner. She stomped away. She caught the foot and drove forearms into her jaw. She regained her vision and hit the nastiest short arm lariat you can imagine. The comeuppance was deserved and the comeuppance was delivered. 

If contrast makes the wrestling world go round (and it does, trust me), this world was happily spinning away. 

Contrast or no, there was a balance to this one. Starkz hit a brutal Alabama Slam in the corner. Matthews got her back later by pulling her feet out and causing the back of her head to hit the turnbuckle. That was the story of this as much as anything else. Starkz stretched as far as she could, taxing and testing Matthews with disrespectful question after disrespectful question and Matthews had a brutal answer for each and every one. 

Maybe the finish was some sort of master plan by Starkz, lulling Matthews into a false sense of security so that she'd miss the moonsault, but I think it was more down to one more irritating Starkz quality, her plucky resilience. Regardless, Matthews did miss and Starkz planted her with the Sugoi Driver to steal one out. Matthews had taught her a number of painful lessons and very likely, Starkz managed to not learn a single thing from any of them. Thus is the state of the American youth, alas. 

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AEW Five Fingers of Death 5/13 - 5/19

Ring of Honor 5/16/24

Athena vs. Nicole (Matthews)

MD: It's been way too long since we've had an Athena match of any length or with any weight behind it. And this was definitely a fun one. Someone asked me the other day to give them my thoughts about Negro Casas as he wasn't entirely clicking with them, which is understandable if you only catch certain parts of his most lauded 90s work. Casas is actually fairly hard to explain, because he's such an exceptional talent. While he excels in a number of conventional ways, what really makes him special are things that other wrestlers generally don't share. He checks a number of the normal boxes, but quite a few boxes that no one else checks. It's like trying to explain Terry Funk. And it's like trying to explain Athena.

The common ground between all three of them, however, is that you never, ever want to look away. No matter what's happening in the ring, no matter what their opponent is doing, no matter how the crowd is taking it, you want to see them react to literally everything that happens from the moment they come through the curtain until the moment they leave again.

And what made Matthews such a great opponent for Athena is that she gave her so much to work with. There was their history which should have put Athena on edge. There was the crowd being very into a local legend which certainly did put Athena on edge. But more than that, Matthews is just so good at doing all of the little things. She hits the big things smoothly, but not so smoothly that it doesn't feel organic and engaging; there's a bit of grit on her whips and grabs and grinds. It's those little things though, an extra shift of leverage with an unexpected body part on a pin attempt, torque on a hold coming from an interesting angle, that put it all over the top. It's style and substance both, something extra that feels additive and not extraneous, something that is visually interesting and unique but that fills in a narrative gap as well, making suspension of disbelief easier and not harder.

In this case specifically, more than just engaging the crowd and filling in between all the lines, this meaningful effort (that somehow still seemed effortless) gave Athena even more to react to. She reveled in Matthews' pain while trapped in the corner. She scrambled all the more, horror and determination flashing across her face, when she found herself in a hold or in one of those ever so slightly enhanced pin attempts. Athena is going to come into any match more alive than almost any other wrestler today, but when you put her up against someone who gives her just so much material to work with, such a vibrant and rich tapestry to color upon, she soars. So yeah, in the end, this was a sub-ten minute proving ground match. There was a hierarchical difference. It was there to set up the post match with Aminata making the save and basking over the belt. But in watching it, you didn't want to look away for a second.

AEW Dynamite 5/15/24 

Bryan Danielson/Jon Moxley vs. Jeff Cobb/Kyle Fletcher

MD: I don't have a ton of big thoughts on this one. I liked it more than the Top Flight match (and I wanted to like the Top Flight match!). It served its purposes, letting Danielson be a star in Washington, both with the music-laden entrance to save Moxley and then by being the one to get the hot tag while Mox worked FiP; having Moxley look dominant both in the shine and down the stretch; keeping the stories churning towards the PPV, starting the show off hot, etc.

Moxley brawling to music always looks right, as if he's somehow choreographed to it, no matter what he does, like a fight scene a movie with a Hans Zimmer score. Here we had the novelty of him brawling to Danielson's theme instead of his own and it worked for all of the high points in the song. Like I said, I enjoyed him asserting himself early back in the ring even if I think that superplex on Fletcher was maybe not the best idea. It was a move that was starting to get protected more in 2021-2022 and there's value to at least making the attempt. Let's not do one in the first couple of minutes of a match

Speaking of protection, Fletcher is the least protected champ I can imagine, but it's gone so far that it's come around to being ok. He's clearly a top guy in a minor league promotion able to stand up to the competition there but unable to face the guys in a major league promotion. You appreciate the attempt but know he's going to get swept under, like a junior heavyweight fighting up in a higher weight class. It was chafing while that was being established but now that it is established it's fine. You can look at Mark Briscoe's Continental Classic record along the same line. Having Cobb in there was a nice change in the mix, both with his strength moves and in him knowing what he had with a homestate Danielson playing to him and the crowd. I'm not sure if the effect would be lessened if we saw him every week but it was nice here as a one-off and teaming the two TV champions was a nice touch and makes me regret we never got more with Samoa Joe/ZSJ last year. Overall I don't think people will remember this much past the brawling over Danielson's theme to start but it was a fun way to spend twenty minutes. 

AEW Collision 5/19/24

Bryan Danielson/FTR vs. Lance Archer/The Righteous

MD: Not much to say about this one. I thought Collision was very effective overall in building things towards both Dynamite and the PPV. Having Trent and Roddy out there for their opponents' matches, letting Toni do her thing, having Wayne use Swerve's move to build to their match, using the bounty as a way to push AitA, and especially having the three FTW eliminator matches back to back with some rampway interaction. It was a very effective cog-in-the-machine show, just good pro wrestling TV. I liked Taylor vs Ospreay especially. I think Ospreay is actually most special when he's being grounded in traditional pro wrestling storytelling. Having Roddy out there, having Ogogo get the cheapshot in, having to overcome the size differential, being able to channel what makes him so spectacular not in an ever-cascading escalation competition but instead in the tried and true narratives of pro wrestling means that he enhances a match instead of distracts from him.

So I liked Collision. As for this, they did a good job with the time they had (closer to 10-15 than 25, as a lot of the big Collision tags go). The goal seemed to be to delay and deny the fans Danielson (save for some extra-curriculars on the outside going into the commercial break and Dutch catching Dax to star the FIP). When he hit the hot tag, he looked like the star he is against a massive opponent in Dutch and then as they went into the stretch, they were able to finally do some team spots with Danielson and Cash, all of which were fun, to build up AitA. The finish was a little cutesy but this was more celebratory than anything else, and the weight of it would come through in the post-match, including the absolutely brutal Blackout on the chair to Cash. Bring on Satnam. 

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2021 MOTY List: Matthews vs. Makabe

29. Daniel Makabe vs. Nicole Matthews NEW 9/11 

PAS: Matthews is a Shimmer veteran who also works a technician gimmick, and this was a cool version of your Makabe maestro match. I liked how they let the counters sit a bit in this match, it wasn't just super fast holds immediately countered, which is a problem with a lot of the indy grappling matches. Here the holds got cranked a bit before being reversed. I liked how Makabe got more frustrated that he couldn't get the upper hand on Matthews on the mat, and wastes her in the corner with a dropkick, and dumps her on her head with a sick figure four German suplex (which he lifted from off the mat). I didn't love the moonsault attempt by Matthews, felt a little out of the spirit of what they were doing, but I did like how missing the move super charged Makabe's attack on the knee. The finishing submission was fucking sick. Makabe has clearly spent all pandemic dreaming up horrible ways to hurt people. Unfortunately the camera angle in the video isn't great, but check the clip on Twitter:

I Mean What the Hell is THIS

ER: This was cool as hell, cool venue, cool match up, cool wrestling, you get the idea. Makabe is really a master at not letting his trademark offense get stale, and this match had some of my favorite instances of that. He's a guy with a lot of cool stuff, enough to easily coast on, but I sure don't think I've ever seen a Makabe match where he was coasting. He has already established so many holds and reversals that it's cool to see him developing new holds and reversals based on established holds and reversals. My two favorite moments in this match (outside of the bananas Volk Han God level submission that he wins with, see link above) were twists on his bridging arm trap pin. That bridging pin used to win matches, but now it's anticipated and more often leads to cool twists. I loved how Matthews slipped out of the first attempt and wound up with her leg intertwined with Makabe's, and they fought for control from that trapped position. It easily could have looked like a slap fight but it came off more like some trippy UWF-I open hand neutralizing until Makabe grabbed a cranked in headlock. Later in the match he tried the same bridging arm trap pin, but this time he planted both his feet firmly on the back side of Matthews' knees. I don't know if there's another wrestler currently going who finds as many ways to branch off his own offense than Makabe, and the dedication is what makes his matches really sing.

Matthews was fun working cravats and kicking at Makabe's knee, Makabe hits a blistering running dropkick in the corner to pay her back for some of those neck cranks, and we get some pretty satisfying suplex drops. Matthews had two different moments of strong "on her feet" selling, which is incredibly difficult selling to pull off. Most people who try to sell on their feet just look like a Mortal Kombat character wobbling at the waist while waiting for a Fatality, but Matthews looked awesome taking that wicked figure four German and rolling to her feet, only able to stand with her head between her knees. She did a similarly effective sell late in the match, showing good instinct on just when in a match to use a sell like that. Makabe was in return really great at keeping the timing of everything in check, slowing down or speeding up to match Matthews' timing (not easy with a few of the complicated sequences they pulled off), and this was a super satisfying look at some modern Canadian indy wrestling pillars. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 6

Zeuxis vs. Io Shirai

ER: Zeuxis had a better showing here than her 1st round match, and this match had the potential to be a good match, but Shirai is a joshi babyface who transitions back from a beating by suddenly deciding that the beating she has been taking isn't as bad as it seemed, and starts running and screaming and hitting offense again. The Shirai arm injury was set up with quality timing and a nutso bump from Shirai: Zeuxis caught her with a forearm in the middle of a Shirai springboard spot, then hit her with a baseball slide that sent Shirai crashing violently to the floor off the apron. Awesome looking spot, and I liked Zeuxis working her over and bullying her around the ring after. But at a certain point Shirai just decides that she isn't all that hurt after all, and then the running starts. Anybody who hates Hulkamania Hulk must hate joshi babyfaces, those unkillable T-9000s but with cool hair. I knew Zeuxis wasn't advancing, which is fine, I don't have a problem with Shirai advancing. But once she just got up sprinting from a beatdown I knew she was definitely going to win, and the rest of the match would be no looking back. Her overshooting the moonsault for the finish was icing on the cake, and as an accountant I like that she netted out, since she sloppily whipped ankles first into Xia Brookside in the first round. This could have been better, it really wouldn't have taken much more.

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Xia Li

ER: I liked the pace they went with here, and while there were things that didn't hit cleanly I still liked what they were going for. Purrazzo goes after the arm but keeps getting caught with various Li kicks, including a nice dropkick off the top (I mean, it was one of those ugly RVD dropkicks, but it looked like it had some impact), and I liked how Purrazzo kept going for the arm and using any kind of offense to eventually get to the arm. Hit a lariat, go for the arm, Russian leg sweep, go for the arm, oh and also hit Li with some nice thumping chops; doing that opened up some nice counters for Li, a nice cradle reversal, a really fun layout. There was some timing that was off, or some things that took a bit or set-up, but pace and layout were strong.

Nicole Matthews vs. Tegan Nox

ER: This was good enough, and really didn't overstay its welcome, but more to their detriment. There haven't been too many under 4 minute matches in the tournament, and they probably could have easily stretched this out twice as long. Matthews was nice and mean, really bullying Nox around after elbowing her out of a dive attempt and hitting some hard kicks on the apron, and I dug how Matthews kind of walked through Nox's stuff to continue pounding her. Throw some kicks at me? Yeah, I'm just gonna elbow you and hit a nice northern lights. But the finish really felt like they just got a sudden call to wrap it all up, as Nox just gets up from what had been a fairly one-sided beating, throws some iffy uppercuts - maybe better than her 1st round ones, but those looked like she was intentionally missing her opponent - before just hitting a cannonball and a so-so shining wizard. Color me unimpressed with Nox, both because she hasn't looked impressive, and because Michael Cole just will not shut the fuck up about her.

Mia Yim vs. Kaitlyn

ER: Well this ruled and I wasn't really expecting Kaitlyn to be my favorite not-Meiko gal in this tourney. In the first round Yim had a bad version of a match she'd had a dozen times with Allysin Kay, with the announcers selling her hand pain for her in lieu of Yim actually selling it herself. Here she has her hand taped up and immediately hurts it with a chop. Kaitlyn hits a bunch of legdrops and a great cannonball, then works an awesome body vice. Kaitlyn was a powerlifter and always had strong legs, really made the body vice look legit and I loved Yim grinding her elbow into Kaitlyn's leg to get out of it. Yim starts working over Kaitlyn's leg after Kaitlyn misses a baseball slide, slams it into the apron, dishes hard kicks to the hamstring, and works an awesome standing figure 4 (almost like a figure 4 and a stump puller, looked painful as hell). Things get really great when Kaitlyn baits Yim into punching her and dodges so that Yim punches the mat, and then Kaitlyn decides to just try to rip Yim's hand off. Good god I totally wanted a tap there, Kaitlyn looked like she wanted to tear Yim's hand off and wear it like a necklace. Kaitlyn was great going for bodyslams (all powerlifters should have a good bodyslam), her leg buckling at first and her stubbornly going back for them. Yim begging off properly ends with her whiffing an attack so Kaitlyn can hit another slam, and Yim's missed strike was a great way to set that up. We get a couple of very convincing nearfalls, especially Kaitlyn's spear which looked killer, and I *really* wanted to end the match. But just like Yim missed a punch to the mat earlier, Kaitlyn misses a stomp to leave herself open for an ankle lock. This was totally great, although I think they really missed out by not having Kaitlyn advance. Yim has had her best matches against Baszler and Kaitlyn, those styles really complement her style, and someone like Toni Storm is much closer to the typical Yim opponent who all just bring out awful 2018 indy tendencies in each other. But this match was fantastic, and made me really hope for a 2018 full time Kaitlyn return.

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Mae Young Classic 2018 Episode 4

Rachel Evers vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto

ER: I thought this was cool. It got a lot of time for a 1st round match and was worked differently than all the other matches we've seen so far. For a crowd who was completely in the bag for Kairi Sane last year, and were clearly well aware of who Meiko was this year, Matsumoto didn't really get much of a reaction in this one. Evers was over huge with the local crowd, and it just made them really silent for Matsumoto, which was really surprising. I thought both looked good, liked Evers with an early shot to the shins and a nice low dropkick to the face; Matsumoto was pretty mean, dropped double knees to the stomach, both threw some hard shots and I especially liked their standing flat footed lariats, and the fans stayed really into Evers. Evers hit a nice senton and a cool twisting legdrop off the ropes. I wasn't expecting Evers to get the loss, but Matsumoto really did launch her with some big throws, a nice German, big powerbomb, and a vicious Saito suplex. This was good, probably best non-Meiko match of the 1st round.

Jessie Elaban vs. Taynara Conti

ER: Oh jeez, this is the first I'm seeing of Jessie Elaban and after that promo package I am one gigantic NOPE on her. Nobody at all needs that "I'm SUCH a NERRRRD!" try hard nonsense. "I'm such a klutz and nerd, I have these comically large glasses that I wear and I've seen THREE Star Wars movies! I'm attainable, and sometimes I just lie on my tummy and kick my legs in the air as if I was on my bed talking on the phone about boys I like!" I want Conti to snap her in half. And NO just in case anybody is thinking it, I have not ever had my heart broken by someone who would ever be considered "adorkable". This girl just immediately rubbed me the wrong way, like when Chili's tried to hip up their "baby back ribs" song. This woman has all the charm of a Kars 4 Kids jingle. But I liked the match. Elaban predictably didn't work at all like she described, but she had a cool high kick and a nice senton. Conti was real vicious in this, going after the arm in a few cool ways, bending it over the ring ropes, bending Elaban's wrist at rough angles, and slicing Elaban's finger webbing (finger crotch?) over the ropes. The arm stuff didn't really go anywhere, and Elaban didn't really acknowledge it much, but I liked the journey. Conti was pretty new last year, and she's made some nice strides. Aside from the arm work she had a couple of great judo throws, and a cool moment where she sidestepped Elaban and kind of hotshotted her, looked cool.

Nicole Matthews vs. Isla Dawn

ER: This had some good moments, but was also fairly messy. Some of the messiness worked, some of it made things look like a mess. I like Matthews as a kind of lesser Tessa Blanchard bully, though there were moments where set-up was clunky. Possibly Dawn's fault, not sure. Matthews has personality though, beyond "I'm going to win this tournament!" and that's important. Kicking at Dawn's back while talking trash gives her a little something the others don't have. I liked Dawn kicking Matthews' arm in the ropes, her Saito suplex looked good, Angle slam looked sloppy but effective, but this thing was all sorts of disjointed. The match ending Lion Tamer by Matthews looked good, but again, several things here looked good. There just wasn't really any kind of flow.

Xia Brookside vs. Io Shirai

ER: How the heck did I not do the math on who Brookside's dad was when I saw her last name? And this is somehow the first time he's seen her wrestle? That's...weird. Did they really say that? That makes no sense. This was an Io showcase but Brookside got a lot: Her forearms to start looked good, rattling hard into Shirai's collarbones, her chinbreaker looked good, she had no problem leaning into Shirai's strikes. Shirai came off like a star, but really a lot of her offense here was made by Brookside having no problem getting kicked or taking knees to the face. Even Shirai's match finishing moonsault came up a bit short, meaning Brookside took knees right to the gut. Shirai is good, and has a good chance of delivering in subsequent rounds, but Brookside has a ton of potential going forward and will no doubt be in NXT any day now.

ER: Second round starts next week, and I'm optimistic it will deliver some quality. After the Meiko match, most of the rest of the first round saw some good individual performances without there being many actual good matches. Evers/Matsumoto was a bright 1st rounder from tonight, probably the best non-Meiko match so far.

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