Pro Wrestling Revolution Road Report 3/9/19

ER: Jun Akiyama has been wrestling for 27 years, and he decided to work his first ever match in the United States on a Saturday night in San Francisco high school for a lucha fed that doesn't have any actual lucha on it. Why not? We hit up Papito on the way down, me, Tim Livingston, and our friends Sean and Jason. A good crew for a wrestling show. Papito is this great Mexican place owned by a French guy who makes fantastic food. I foolishly had a late lunch, so just sat there sipping sangria and munching chips while Tim got shrimp tacos, Sean got a pork/duck meat combo, and Jason got a great big burrito. I was jealous, but it was my choice and being gluttonous at 38 isn't as fun as it was at 21. That chorizo hamburguesa with queso fresco, avocado, and caramelized onions was staring me in the face on the menu, tempting me with greasy memories. But eating that close together would have had me feeling like total trash through a 3 hour show, so I sad eyed my way through it. We got to the show a little late, and then there was a very long line for being 20 minutes past listed door time. Our saint from above, our friend Brian was inside having come from a different direction, SAVING four other seats. This show was genuinely PACKED and that move probably got him a couple aggressive stares. It was loud as hell throughout a large portion of the night, real cacophonous gym with a full crowd, lots of air horns.

We got there late from dinner and the long line in, so we missed a 6 man scramble match. Our friend Brian - who had saved FOUR seats through a 20 minute late start time AND a full match - when asked about his opinion of the scramble match, wrinkled his nose and narrowed his eyes, and tilted his head a little. A wordless, unimpressed dismissal of six men's nights' work.

Papa Esco/El Dinamita vs. Viento/Rey Leon

ER: This was a perfectly fine tag. One of the tecnicos comes out to Sweet Child of Mine which is one of those cheesy things that means your brain is wired to become a professional independent pro wrestler. Papa Esco is a fun fat guy with a singlet that even says Fat Boy. He has a good fat guy build, nice and sturdy, bald head and big beard. He's not mega fat, but he looks like someone left Monsta Mack in the dryer a little too long. Viento appeared to be the better of the tecnicos as far as fluidity, but he was also in there more with Esco, who is the much better base. Dinamita was really clumsy during some sequences, especially poor at taking offense (which is not a good sign from a rudo), but Esco is really good at taking armdrags, has that great chubby base pendulum style bumping down. This was fine. Esco is one of the PWR homegrowns that I like, so was at minimum hoping for a decent showcase for him, and got it.

Puma Negro vs. Sonico vs. Arkedy Federov vs. Matt Fury

ER: Matt Fury was originally supposed to be Jungle Boy, but due to the week's circumstances Jungle Boy was obviously not here. I didn't catch the name of his replacement, but he was a black flier who my friend Sean kept referring to as "athletic" and wasn't sure why Jason and I kept giving him a hard time about it. He didn't repeatedly refer to Federov as "hard working" so the likely scenario is that Sean doesn't know sports code. Fury got good height on some things and hit a pretty spectacular springboard shooting star press into the entranceway onto everyone, but felt like he put more thought into ways to do high leapfrogs instead of transitions. My favorites in the match were Puma Negro and Sonico. Federov was okayish, but had some really clunky set up on indy offense. There was a moment where he did some awful 9 step set-up kind of move, grabbing an arm, dipping opponent back into a backbreaker, pulling them to feet before locking into a pumphandle, you know one of those moves that needs someone to be perfectly still while you do your 9 point pre-check before dropping them on their face. But Sonico was a real pleasant surprise, a guy I'd love to see again around here. He got real high height leaping off the ropes for ranas and had a really great fast dive. Puma Negro was an Arkangel type rudo, had a nice stiff arm southpaw lariat just like Arkangel's, good base for Sonico's ranas, had a cool sunset flip variation. Federov ends the match with an awful waffle that looked super dangerous. Overall this is what you'd like from a 10 minute 4 way.

Nicole Savoy vs. Heather Monroe

ER: A 13 minute match that probably would have been much better off settling in around 9. Monroe showed a ton of charisma and personality during her ring entrance, really looked like someone who owned the ring and would be a great heel. Once the match started that completely vanished. The way she was stalking the apron and dismissing the crowd during her entrance felt like the kind of confidence that would immediately translate to the match, but the bell rung and she was completely silent. The middle of the match was a long Monroe control segment that was easily the most quiet the crowd got all night, and her stuff didn't look great. Savoy's moments where much better, nice high kick, even better German, tough fisherman buster, big tope (that Monroe caught nicely) but Monroe took way too much of this. It's only a matter of time before Savoy is in NXT, and she's super easy to root for, but the structure of this was all off.

ER: We had an ongoing bet over how long the intermission would go. I had 33 minutes, I laughed at Tim's guess of 25 minutes. To my shock they ended up coming back right at the 25 minute mark. I HATE intermissions, while begrudgingly understanding their purpose, and PWR's intermissions are filled with incredibly loud music blared into a cramped gymnasium. If I sound old, I genuinely don't care. So I leave to stretch my legs and in the hallway I run into Roy Lucier. Roy has been the true MVP of the online wrestling community these past few years, as he's been uploading a wealth of rare and unique wrestling footage in easily searchable categories, at an incredibly fast pace. Old tape traders seem like they always get along when meeting, and he and I got to chat for a good 20 minutes. He told me about a few things he's recently received that are VERY exciting. We even talked about saving it for Christmas because some of it is a gift that has been seen by very few of us. Talking about wrestling with people is fun, real glad we bumped into each other, been a long time coming. You'll be seeing plenty of Roy's uploads written about by us over the next several (!) years.

Tajiri vs. Super Crazy

ER: This feud was pretty important to late teens me, really was some of my absolute favorite stuff at that time and really worked as one of my gateways to wanting to see more and more wrestling from Japan and Mexico. It was cool seeing them run it back now that both are in the back end of their 40s, and this felt like a fun take on the familiar Tajiri/Crazy matches only done by guys in the back end of their 40s. The speed wasn't going to be there, but the ability to work a crowd was there and they knew what they could get by with. Tajiri was getting good reactions just stalking the ring, and he amusing worked the match like a Repo Man match. Tajiri kept going for headlocks and it was pretty great, due to their expert veteran timing. It really could have killed a crowd, as the buzz would be building, fans would start loudly anticipating a Crazy comeback, and right when the comeback was about to happen Tajiri would trick him into a headlock again. Every time the crowd reaction would get louder before the headlock, before Tajiri would quiet them. Tajiri doesn't do fast roundhouse wheel kicks or high kicks anymore, but instead threw a few nice front kicks, just pushing off with a couple stiff kicks to Crazy's chest or chin. Crazy is definitely chubbier these days, but he still gets the exact same height and rotation on his spinkick, hit a moonsault off the middle that looked just like a moonsault of his from '99, and even missed a moonsault off the top that had some of the absolute best arc and grace of anyone to have ever done a moonsault. His form is still that impressive. The finish was really fantastic as the ref gets briefly bumped, and in that brief moment where the ref isn't looking, Tajiri swings off Super Crazy with a cool armdrag...and mists Crazy while midair in the middle of the armdrag. Great visual.

Jun Akiyama/Ultimo Dragon/Misterioso vs. Vinny Massaro/Colt Stevens/JR Kratos

ER: So before the match they ran around passing streamers to ringside fans, and then promoter Gabe got on the mic and explained to the crowd how to throw streamers, and I think it comes off pretty silly to do a quickie "okay Japanese wrestlers only know you respect them if you throw neon garbage at them". Akiyama does come off like a boss during his ring entrance, wearing a large robe, clearly a guy who felt like a big deal to people (actually many in the crowd) who had no idea who he was. But damn if those streamers didn't look cool during his ring introduction (poor Ultimo was a Japanese man who was apparently shown zero respect, streamers for Akiyama only. We felt bad for Ultimo). Bay Area indies have been kicking around "Border Patrol" teams since at least the mid 90s and I'm thankful as hell we don't get any bad "build the wall" shtick from Stevens and Kratos. Vinny is in for a lot of this and the fans are way into Akiyama, which felt great. This wasn't going to be some wild match, it was going to be worked like a NOAH house show match, which was just fine, all that was needed. The rudos worked over Misterioso nicely, especially loved a long full arm lariat from Vinny, and a big release snap suplex from Kratos (a snap vertical suplex, but he let go so Misterioso flew across the ring, looked great). Akiyama came in on two occasions, laid in some nice knees including a great leaping knee into Stevens, and you knew we were getting at least one exploder. They mix it up and don't just go straight for the finish when he tags in the second time, and we even got a cool surprise nearfall from Stevens. I would have loved to see the reaction if Akiyama got pinned. But of course that wasn't REALLY going to happen. This was a perfectly fine crowd pleasing main event, and nothing more, and it didn't need to be.

ER: I've still yet to see a GREAT match from PWR, and they've been around for at least a decade now. But this was a packed house, a genuinely sold out show, with a crowd that stayed loud and invested throughout the whole card. That's a special thing.

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Mae Young Classic Episode 6

1. Toni Storm vs. Lacey Evans

PAS: I wasn't looking forward to this match, as both ladies kind of annoy me. Still this ended up being pretty good, as it got real crowbarish. Storm kicked the lipstick off of Evens, Evens threw a straight right to the eye and a vicious body shot. Parts of this felt like a distaff Kurisu match.  I also am happy Storm broke out the Dixie Driver, (the finish of Segunda Caida fave and JAPW legend Dixie). If you are going to have a match that is sort of awkward, potato shots are the way to go.

ER: The personalities of both of these two annoy the hell out of me. Toni Storm seems like someone who would do an interview and shoehorn in "oh my god I'm such a nerd!" But...this was actually really fucking good. Evans brings some good clunky matwork, a tough headscissors, stiff headlock, stiffer shoulderblock, a nice tough opening. Storm catches a boot and throws one of her own to Evans' sternum. Evans drops a slimmer Shocker style slingshot elbow that really lands, busts out a single leg takedown with a punch-to-the-gut chaser. Who are these girls!? Storm throws a northern lights bomb that looks like it bounces Evans on her head, then practically snaps her neck over her knee with a Dixie Driver. Holy shit, this was the meanest match of the tournament. Now I'm really bummed Evans didn't advance, but Storm was deserving here. Awesome stiff fest.

2. Mia Yim vs. Shayna Bayzler

PAS: One of my favorite matches of the tourney so far. Bayzler has a great cocky demeanor, and I loved how she acted like Yim was beneath her until Mia made her believe. I loved the smarmy turn down of the handshake, and the twisting of the ankle as almost a taunt. Yim had nice kicks some of the time, although some others looked a little performative, I did dig her tope though, one of the better WWE topes I can remember seeing. Finish was awesome with Bayzler violent yanking Yim on the landing of her 450 into a violent choke. I am all in on the Four Horsewoman show down, as it felt like the kind of battling dojo's thing you might see in Zero One.

ER: Oh man this was great too! Baszler was nice and cocky to start with Yim, and I really loved that bitchy ankle twisting, such a jerk move and a bully showoff, and then we got those rolling gutwrench suplexes that meant this match was going to be a win no matter what followed. Yim was good at being pissed off and focused, and that tope was not only a great tope by Yim, but shows that Baszler really knows how to make a tope look like a battering ram. Instead of deflecting-as-catching she just lets the tope totally engulf her, really making it look impossible to dodge. Yim catching the leg and maneuvering up into a delayed sit out powerbomb looked fantastic. But Baszler was a great snake in the grass, always looking for an opening, and the 450 on the finish was a little messy, but messy in an effective way. The messiness added to the shoot-y feel of it, catching the 450 with a choke. Really satisfying. And I fully got that battling dojo's vibe that Phil got. I wanted one of those FMW vs. Karate Dojo fights, with the 4 Horsewomen having fluffy mullets and wearing a bunch of Ocean Pacific short shorts and crop tops and Zubaz. This episode is the best.

3. Rhea Ripley vs. Dakota Kai

PAS: Really fun Oceanic sprint. Ripley is still green, but she has sort of a uber-athletic charm, like a race horse learning to run. I loved the spot where she caught Kai on her shoulder and dropped her chin first on the apron, really felt like that should have ended a match. Kai has some fun kicks, loved her Chun Li backwards kick, and she has a super nasty face wash. Really nice set up of the warriors way and I dig the continued JAPW finisher tribute. Shayna really should have won with the cop killer.

ER: I was mildly into this, annoyed by the sing chanting but into the simple work that was happening, and then Ripley snaps me into things by whipping Kai jaw first into the ring apron as if she were beating a rug. Kai is a nutbar for agreeing to take that move; one inch off and she's looking for teeth. Ripley continues her devastation, tossing her up for a wicked flapjack. Kai responds with a stiff face wash, Ripley brings a short arm crescent kick and a jarring northern lights suplex. The girls this episode are trying to murder each other! That warriors way looked ankle shattering, like Kai was really trying to slam her feet through Ripley's face, hit or miss, she was gonna make it count. This episode rules.

4. Candice LeRae vs. Nicole Savoy

PAS: Savoy has been one of my favorite ladies to watch in this show, she would make an awesome Alexander Otsuka to Bayzler's Daisuke Ikeda in the all ladies WWE BattlArts spin off I am booking in my head. After not seeing any suplexes from her in the first round, she really chucks Candice with some nasty throws here, and I loved her work on the arm. Candice took a big time beating, but I didn't really buy her being fresh enough to pull off her finisher, still I enjoyed this match, and want to go down a Savoy youtube hole.

ER: I'm really happy how well Savoy delivered in her two matches. I told Phil she was one of the reasons I was so interested in the tournament, so it would have been awkward had she looked bad and I ended up just looking like a fan of hers for weirdo reasons. But really I'm happy that she was awesome. I like her slow builds. That first match saw her work a slow and patient armbar win, and this looked like her taking her time as well, showing she knew when she was and wasn't in trouble, and responding accordingly. I don't really buy LaRae's offense. I like how she takes moves, and think her in-ring charisma is solid, but I don't buy her offense. I bought Savoy's offense. I thought LeRae was a worthy competitor and a great spunky face, but I thought Savoy should have won. She should have been able to strongly counter the finish. But, I still liked this and it capped off the best episode of the tournament so far.

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Mae Young Classic Episode 4

1. Candice LeRae vs. Renee Michelle

ER: I thought this was fine, but it also felt like an indy touring match. I liked Michelle when she was setting up LeRae's offense, but thought there was too much hesitation when she would go for strikes. But LeRae has a lot of offense so you need someone capable to set it up. A lot of LeRae's offense requires someone to be missing something, so you need to plausibly miss a lot of things or run at her a bunch. So Michelle was always good at running into a legsweep, missing a shoulderblock to take a knee on the apron, missing on a spin kick to set up a roll up, missing a big moonsault, that kind of thing. She would also toss out little things like kicking out of a pin while also jamming her forearm into LeRae's jaw. I wish Michelle would have responded a bit more as a heel, since the crowd was naturally behind LeRae and was trying to suck up to Gargano. I liked LeRae's jawbreaker and her ramped up forearms in the corner, and the neckbreaker off the top looked like a finish. This whole thing ran smoothly, but maybe a bit too smooth. It all felt really mapped out.

PAS: I liked the forearm's in the corner by LeRae and her neckbreaker finish was nasty, but this felt in parts like a swing dance routine instead of a fight (the Garganos must rule on wedding dance floors). Lots of miss this, flip that, kip up kind of stuff which was a little too stilted to transcend the silliness of it, Rey and Juvi could do it, these two couldn't pull it off.

2. Taynara Conti vs. Lacey Evans

ER: I've not seen either gal before, but Conti looks like Grace Helbig and I've always disliked that USO show pin-up gal look, the whole Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy thing comes off too Halloween. I think both these two are pretty new, so parts of this were somewhat disjointed, but I kind of appreciated the disjointed parts after the cleanness of the prior match. But I liked how Conti stepped up as a heel, and thought some of her throws were really cool. I mean, if you're a Brazilian judoka you better have a couple cool throws. I'm not really excited for the Evans/Storm match up. It feels like a battle between two Spirit Store advertisements.

PAS: There is something kind of gross about having a combat marine and turning her into some weird burlesque fetish object. The whole thing felt like a GLOW gimmick. Probably a mistake to have a rookie v. rookie match, as both ladies had cool moments but lots looked awkward. Conti is way more interesting to me, and would have rather seen her try to throw Piper Niven or Shayna in the next round..

3. Nicole Savoy vs. Reina Gonzalez

ER: I gotta go hard for Savoy in this tourney. She's definitely the one I've seen live the most since she's a Bay Area gal, and she definitely deserves to be here. It was weird they kept referring to Savoy as the queen of the suplexes and then put her against someone who she doesn't try to suplex. That said, I liked this. Reina seems like kind of a lug, but they worked that in well. Savoy's standing rana looked great, and I liked Gonzalez catching her by the hair and hitting a monster lariat. The finish was a really cool slow burn, my favorite finish of the 1st round: Gonzalez grabs Savoy in a torture rack attempt and slowly realizes she's in a spider web. You can see Savoy with a double wristlock on as Gonzalez tries to maneuver her, but Savoy keeps making herself heavier and Gonzalez drops to a knee, and before long Savoy has adjusted weight into an armbar. I love the time they spent on the finish, thought the slow build was totally worth it.

PAS: They really booked a lot of big girls in this tourney and it has been fun to watch the different ways that they work as powerhouses. Reina works this match like a brick wall, she won't get tossed by arm drags, the queen of suplexes can't lift her, and she smashes her with clotheslines and forearms. Finish was completely awesome, felt like a hidden Fujiwara finish, with Gonzalez not realizing she was in trouble until it was way too late, I loved how we got to see every part of the move up until the finish, so cool and maybe my favorite finish of 2017.

4. Kairi Sane vs. Tessa Blanchard

ER: Killer little match, and while Kairi being in the tournament was one of the things that piqued my interest in the MYC, I came away way more impressed with Blanchard. Both impressed, but Blanchard would probably be the one eliminated woman I most wanted to see advance. She held headlocks tight (and threw nice punches in the headlock), drilled Sane with her elbows, brought an intensity that a lot of them didn't. But both gals impressed. There were a lot of roll ups in the match, and there were no cheapies; both of them fully committed to them and it was cool to see roll ups with somebody actually using their full weight. Both were really good at applying and selling submissions: I though Tessa was really nasty locking in that abdominal stretch, yanking on Sane's head the entire time to twist. And Sane had a nice escape with some elbow points right to the thigh. Later, Kairi locks on a nasty octopus and I outright loved Tessa getting in a painful crouch and walking step by step to the ropes. Blanchard was aces at throwing in callbacks to her hurt back, holding it after that octopus, really screaming in pain after hitting her big senton, all nicely setting up a nice Kairi axe kick that puts her down. There was too much cool stuff in this, like Blanchard's headbutt, her sliding elbow strike to Sane's back, Blanchard's short clotheslines building to a deadlift back suplex; but even with Blanchard's convincing attacks, her selling was excellent enough throughout that I totally bought her staying down long enough for Kairi to hit her massive elbow. Really bummed Blanchard won't be advancing, she was arguably my favorite of Round 1.

PAS: Totally agree about Blanchard, she really wrestled like her dad, tight violent and simple. The moment where she cracks Sane in the throat with the forearm was killer, it really woke Jim Ross up. I also loved her catching the Sliding D into a roll up, great bit of scouting and that would have made a killer finish. Kairi is obviously a pro and a star, although she comes more from the Manami Toyota school of Joshi and I am more of an Aja Kong guy. The elbow looks as great as advertised, although I do wish she hadn't made Tessa sit there while Kairi ran through all of her video game taunts. Sane kind of comes off like Ibushi in the CWC, the most polished, biggest star, but I am more interested in the quirkier folks.

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PREMIER XII 3/6/16 Review

PAS: Premier is one of my favorite promotions in the world, it is kind of a NorCal EVOLVE focusing on a grappling heavy style and using Jeff Cobb and a bunch of lesser known but really talented guys

ER: Premier really seems to be the place where NorCal guys I like go to have their best matches. Definitely my favorite fed around my area (albeit with an annoying habit of running Sunday night shows 2+ hours away from me. Selfish.) and I love that they put their full shows up online (well, all except for that awesome show I saw last year with a great Thatcher/Graves match). Happy they made it to 3 years, hope they put in many more.

PREMIER XII FULL BROADCAST


1. Douglas James vs. Manny Mars

PAS: This was a opening juniors match, worked very much in the style of 2016 opening juniors matches. Pretty well executed, some cool if not unique spots, doesn't outstay it's welcome. I liked James a fair amount, he didn't have anything flashy which stood out, but his stuff looked really crisp and he hit a nasty corner dropkick after doing a World of sport style one foot turnbuckle climb in the other corner. Liked the finish a bunch too, with Mars putting on a guillotine choke and James lifted him into a vertical drop cutter.

ER: Well paced juniors bout with some well done if emotionless stuff in it, and some nitpicky annoying stuff. But pace, build and spot on the card are important factors, and it did well considering all of those things. There were little things that bugged me, like James not ducking at all when rope running past Mars, requiring Mars to miss clotheslines at an obnoxious 3/4 arm slot; but I liked that they didn't approach overkill, loved some of the moments (though the ones I loved that most were the dropkick and vertical suplex out of the guillotine that Phil already mentioned), and you get the sense that these two will be able to acclimate nicely to most opponents.

2. Buddy Royal vs. Marcus Lewis

PAS: I really liked this too Lewis is pretty green but has a lot of explosiveness. He had a nice looking pele kick, double stomp and has a really high leapfrog. This was the first time I have seen Royal and he was great. He has really simple but brutal offense, lots of stiff chops and violent attacks on Lewis's knee. At one point Lewis grabs Royal by the throat and Royal responds by stomping him right on the side of Lewis's knee. Finish was super cool with Royal pinning Lewis on a roll up by torqueing his bad knee so he couldn't power out.

ER: Killer little match with Buddy breaking out some things I haven't seen from him and Lewis showing himself to be a game underdog. I've enjoyed Buddy in his team with Levi Shapiro (The Classic Connection), but haven't seen him in many - if any - singles matches, so this was a nice treat. His attacks on Lewis' knee were great, and that short standing kick to the inside of his ankle/knee was sick, felt like something you'd see some lumpy Russian break out in RINGS. I loved how Lewis peppered in comebacks (though the deadlift fireman's carry was a bit much considering the story of the match), like Royal working the leg close to the ropes and getting kicked over the top to the floor (a sort of trademark Royal spot). All of those stomps to Lewis' knee while it was hung on the ropes were rough, and that finish was one of the coolest I've ever seen. I expect tons of guys to steal that it word ever gets out: Royal has Lewis' legs cradled the way you would after a victory roll, and while pinning him he twists Lewis' bad knee in an ankle lock. Just a nasty exclamation point on a super fun match.

3. Dalton Frost vs. Gabriel Gallo

PAS: This was a big guy slugfest match and was technically fine, however if you are going to work this kind of Hansen v. Vader match you really have to hit harder. Frost had a nice clothesline and senton and Gallo had one potatoish punch, but most of this was a little too loose to really pull off what they were trying to do.

ER: Boy I did not get any of the looseness that Phil mentions, and can't really figure out what parts he thought were loose. For a big part of the match we mainly get the stationary camera set up at the back of the building, which might have taken away from how hard they were hitting each other (no clue why we didn't get the ringside camera for some of these shots), but these two totally hit each other hard for 6 minutes. Frost clotheslining Gallo to the floor was really impressive, like a big dirt mover going up a hill. Gallo's big powerslam later was just as impressive. But I dug both guy's shots, the big clubbing blows from Frost, the huge chops from Gallo that made Frost's chest glow an impressive shade of red (again, those chops and the clothesline to the floor were all shown from far away camera, on the far side of the ring, maybe that played into the perception). And yeah, the shots that looked the best were when they were actually using the ringside cam, with Frost landing his awesome falling lariat and splatting him with a senton, and that punch to Frost's eye in the corner was nasty and I love how it lead to the finish. Seriously, this match was not loose in the least.

4. Tyler Bateman vs. Jeff Cobb

PAS: This was totally awesome, maybe my favorite non-Matanza Cobb singles match ever. Bateman is woking one of the dozens of old-timey Sasparilla Brooklyn bartender gimmicks, but is a pretty skilled grappler and is willing to take a huge beating. He tries to keep Cobb at bay by ripping at his fingers and landing sharp 12 to 6 elbows,  but Cobb keeps hurling him with nasty suplexes, especially loved Cobb chucking him neck first into the turnbuckle, finish was really great too.

ER: Super fun match, Bateman is one of my favorite local guys at this point, someone who I think could get over anywhere in the country. When we first saw him live a year ago nobody knew what to think, and he totally won us all over in a really good match against Thatcher. He always plays a kind of conniving underdog, never really controlling a match but always one sly move away from doing damage and capable of surprising opponents. I loved him picking apart Cobb's arm here, and all the ways Cobb would punish him for doing so. Cobb does one of the all time great European uppercuts here, really looking like it would dislocate Bateman's head from his body. And Bateman does an all time great sell of a Cobb snap suplex, really nailing all the feelings. Most guys just do a dazed loopy sell, but Bateman walks you through everything he could possibly be feeling: hot fire shooting through his lower back, tailbone aching, fingertips tingling. Cobb launches him with a nasty delayed German, and then another into the buckles. Bateman comes back with a couple of big knees, and I loved how he would pounce onto Cobb after felling him, using his whole body to gain any advantage over a fallen beast. We get a great slick elbow pad removal, finish was a fun surprise, and I'd love to see these two continue to match up.

5. Shayna Baszler vs. Colleen Schneider

PAS: This is actually a rematch from the qualifiers for the Rousey v. Tate season of the Ultimate Fighter. Bayzler got on the show and had several UFC fights while Schneider (no relation) has been fighting in Invictus. Fun shootstyle match especially from two girls who are pro-wrestling rookies (this was Schneider's debut). Schneider actually may have looked a little better, he knees were especially nasty including one in the corner which looked like it cracked Bayzlers ribs. Bayzler had some very cool armwork and was able to make it two straight armbar submissions over Schneider.

ER: I really liked this, can't believe it was Schneider's first match and Baszler herself is under 10 matches. There were several cool moments and the whole thing really impressed me. I dig Schneider's look, she's like an anime bounty hunter. Her knees looked great and then she would break out something totally unexpected, like that axe kick while holding Baszler's arm, flipping Baszler into a prone armbar position. Then that awesome missed high kick spot in the corner, leaving Schneider's leg draped over the top rope so Baszler could pull off an awesome high angle powerbomb. Loved some of Baszler's little things, like kneeling on Schneider's stomach to secure a wristlock, and the grappling and scrambling looked expectedly great from both. Again, a really impressive debut, but it would have been a match I dug no matter what the experience level was.

6. Raze vs. Nicole Savoy

PAS: This is for the Premier women's title, and was a match with some very good stuff, and some fun ideas which I am not sure really came together. Raze is a big girl, and puts some girth behind her shots mostly, there was some stuff that looked off (her spear is more Edge then Goldberg), but I liked her and am excited to see what she does with Bayzler. Savoy had some good intentions, she was working this like a Premier style grappler, and had a nice counter from an armbar into a LaBell lock, but she tried some things she couldn't pull off, including a series of German suplexes where she couldn't clear Raze and a back handspring out of nowhere which existed solely to get countered. Not great, but I like what they are trying to do with their women's division.

ER: I liked this more than Phil, but also thought that Savoy's Germans looked good and didn't see the problem with her not clearing Raze. She is smaller than Raze, it would have looked weird anyway for her to be chucking her around. But I thought they looked good. The handspring on the other hand needs to just not be used by any wrestler anymore. Just drop it. Everybody. The only guy who does a cool one is Stuka Jr. with his crazy no hands "hand"spring, and even he does it more as a celebratory taunt, not to set up offense. Let's put a moratorium on the handspring! I felt a bigger problem with the match was working several full extension armbar spots right after a match that featured an immediate tap after an armbar, by two actual pro fighters. You could argue it didn't end this match immediately because Savoy is not a pro MMA fighter, so the application wasn't as strong, but you could also do the counterpoint of that and wonder why Raze's arm was able to stay hyperextended so much longer. Either way, unfortunate decision on this card, right after that match. But overall I really liked the match. I've seen Raze work a comedy slip and fall artist, and seen her as a bully, and seen her as a combo of both. Here she's all bully and it's good. She has some nice powerful thrust kicks to Savoy's chest that are really brutal. I think Savoy is a real good babyface, and I love that her presence on a card brings in some young kids who then get to also see other awesome pro wrestling. She's a good "quality pro graps" ambassador :) I like how Savoy set up her rope walk armdrag by getting caught with it earlier, liked some of Raze's big overhand chops, and loved the crossface ending, with Savoy locking it on tight and Raze making it look great. Good match.

7. Joe Graves vs. JR Kratos

PAS: Great, great match, pretty different from much I have seen in wrestling before, almost like if Yoshiaki Fujiwara got a chance to work Brock Lesnar in a shootstyle match. Graves was desperate to grab a limb and twist, while Kratos was attempting to pound his head in with some of the most brutal looking ground and pound I have seen in a pro wrestling match. We also go some very cool shoot throws including Kratos nestea plunging with Graves on his back. At one point Kratos throws a shoot piledriver which didn't look smooth at all, but looked like how you piledrive someone in a streetfight.  There was a running bulldog and top rope back elbow by Graves near the end of the match, which was really out of place for what they were doing before, but that was my only complaint, loved the finish, really perfect flash submission. Such good stuff, Graves is the best wrestler no one talks about.

ER: Man what a fight, totally different than any other Kratos match I've seen. This was all about Graves staying tight and trying to smother him, trying to rip his arm off, not wanting to put space between them so he could avoid any Kratos bombs. You can see the frustration building on Kratos' face, not being able to shake this guy, and Graves is like a giant squid in all the ways he stays attached to his prey. Kratos shakes him in several different nasty ways, the nestea plunge, blasting him insanely hard to the cerebellum with a forearm, trying to slam him a couple times, trying to choke him, and it seemed like no matter what he would do Graves would just latch on. Graves would fight for that arm, throw body shots, throw shots at random parts of Kratos' body that he wasn't expecting, in an effort to get that arm. And all that is why that shoot piledriver spot is so perfect: It works as a desperation move, it works as a move to get dominance, it works as a surprise to your opponent, it works as a game changer.  One of my favorite wrestling moments I've ever seen (and I'm sure I'm far from the only one) is the finish to the Arn Anderson/Alex Wright match at Slamboree '95.  Arn fakes a left, Wright ducks, Arn nails the ducking Wright with the DDT. Ingenius pro wrestling spot. So when Kratos threw a right, Graves ducked and Kratos didn't hesitate to immediately plant him with that piledriver, I flipped out. New twist on a great moment. Phil is entirely correct that Graves is the best wrestler than no one talks about. He doesn't make tape much, doesn't work east coast, yet is never short of awesome whenever he turns out. Kratos is one of the hardest working guys I know, and he keeps improving, keeps trying new things, keeps looking for ways to get better. It's exciting to see. These two really meshed for something special, can't wait to see how they continue to improve.


ER: Well this was just another typical great Premier show, the guys really ramp things up when they work this fed. It's really something to see, and I can't wait for more. Cobb/Bateman and Graves/Kratos were both awesome enough to land on our 2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST and I have no doubts that we'll see other Premier matches show up on that list before the year is out.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 5/13/16

1. Nicole Savoy vs. Beatrice Domino (2/19/16)

I've been interested in seeing Domino, as she's working a fairly edgy and unique gimmick for wrestling. Now, she paints her face like the Marvel character Domino (not sure how long she'll be able to work this gimmick) but has a BlackLivesMatter slant to her character. Her shirt for this match said "Trayvon - Don't Shoot" and walks slowly around the ring with her hands up in an I Surrender pose. The fans seem really receptive to it and didn't respond to it as a heel gimmick like I assumed.  I'm not sure how far you can really take the message within a wrestling context, but keeping the awareness there is worth something. The announcer instantly shits the bed with a "Shades of the Nation of Domination". Ugh. Early on she at least does her part to fight black stereotypes in wrestling, as she delivers a headbutt and staggers herself. Savoy is really good, easily one of the best bay area ladies. Domino hasn't been around nearly as long so show some awkwardness in spots. Savoy broke out some cool Indian deathlock subs, had some big chops and kicks to the chest, hit a big dive; Domino was a little tentative and clunky, but overall the match worked. Finish was a little sloppy though with Domino turning a snapmare into a small package for the win, but Savoy's shoulder could not have been farther off the mat.

2. Victor Sterling vs. JR Kratos (1/22/16)

They started the show by saying this episode was going to be all lady matches, but I guess that promise only lasted 10 minutes. Still, Sterling is my boy and I was interested in this match when I saw it happened. It didn't quite live up to expectations but it wasn't bad. Kratos worked heel and Sterling worked face, and I think they're each better as the opposite. There were a couple awkward moments where either Sterling got into position too quick, or Kratos wasn't in position early enough, so you had some time stand still action. There was a long weird top rope struggle where a lot of stuff missed but was sold, and it ended with Kratos suplexing Sterling off the top and dumping himself on his head. I think both guys would have matched up much better if the roles were reversed. Kratos doing his power offense as a babyface would have been more effective, and I've seen Sterling's heel stuff and know it's good. Him sneaking in offense against Kratos would have been better than him valiantly fighting back. Kratos hits a decent piledriver that I wasn't expecting, and takes a good bump into the ringpost, Sterling hits a really cool dropkick across the ring corners under the bottom rope after the post shot. I liked the finishing powerbomb-turned-Sterling sunset flip. Sterling whipped over on it real nice and held a high cradle which looked believable.

Well, I really liked Savoy on this episode, I like how current the matches are, and I like how packed the half hour is with wrestling. There's one commercial in the middle, only the necessary parts of matches are shown (meaning most of the entrances and long ring announcements are trimmed) and there are only a couple of cutaway bumpers to the announce crew. It's nicely edited for content, and that's a plus for a self-produced indy wrestling show.

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APW 6/12/15 War at the Shore Road Report

APW has been running quarterly shows at a community center up the hill from the Cow Palace, and they've been getting some good, lively crowds with tons of kids. We've been to a few of them (maybe all of them?) and figured hey, why break the streak?

1. Truex vs. John Redito

This was a "dark match" so it was kept to about 3 minutes. Truex is a real great slime, skinny with long greasy hair and a real punchable face. The kind of guy who should not ever work face. Redito is a short chubby Filipino guy who did not look very good. Truex had a couple nice suplexes, but this wasn't much.

2. Reno Scum & Nicole Savoy vs. Joey Ryan, Candice LeRae & Ryan McQueen

This match was a blast and probably the best of the night. Scum were supposed to team with Christina Von Eerie but for reasons not given she was replaced by Savoy, which only helped the match. CVE is not good, and Savoy looks better every time I see her. Ryan and LeRae have their schtick down (dig their matching gear and Joey's white members only jacket), and it works. McQueen was pretty bland. Savoy gets to be the star of the match which I was not expecting, but she totally worked up to it and looked awesome. She has long legs and throws big high kicks, decking LeRae at one point (who did a nice falling tree bump) and throwing nice strikes all around. This all builds to a triple dive into the entranceway, with  Savoy's being particularly wild as she flips completely over (think those wild old Shocker dives). We get an absurd tower spot with McQueen taking the worst of it and doing some great Terry Funk fish flops, and we get tons of suplexes all around. LeRae throws her ball grab suplex to Lester, Savoy dumps LeRae on her head with a nasty German, Joey Ryan does a sleazy suplex on Savoy while grabbing her boobs, everybody gets left in a pile. Fun match, went the right amount of time, and Savoy is somebody I want to see more.

3. Pistolero vs. "Out of Control" Matt Carlos

Ahhhh, one of my least favorite gimmicks in wrestling. Matt Carlos - aside from making the choice to devote his life to professional wrestling - is oftentimes the most in control wrestler on a card. He has a normal haircut, he has no tattoos, probably drives a fairly fuel efficient car, has likely never shared needles when doing intravenous drugs, has likely never committed arson, and wrestles just about the most boring indy style you can imagine. You can call Matt Carlos plenty of things, but "Out of Control" is really not one of them. Carlos has a bunch of moves that need to be set up by kicking a guy in the stomach, and not only do the kicks to the stomach look bad, but the moves aren't too inspired either. Pistolero throws a couple of decent punches, plants himself nicely on a DDT, and has hair and facial expressions that are clearly more out of control than "Out of Control" Matt Carlos, and man this stunk. It all built to what was supposed to be a big spot, which was Pistolero giving Carlos a Russian leg sweep into the ring post, with Pistolero in ring and Carlos on the apron, but Carlos missed the post completely and just kinda fell to the floor, and Pistolero ended up looking like the one taking the move. Not good.

4. Timothy Thatcher vs. "The Butcher" Tyler Bateman

Hmmmm, maybe *this* was the best match of the night. Tough call. The 6 man was a fun spotfest, these guys went out working a body part based mat match. Personal preferences I suppose, but both hit the right marks. I had never seen Bateman before, and he's...well I don't quite get what he is. He's called the Butcher, and I suppose he vaguely sorta somewhat looks like Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of NY (he has the quirky handlebar mustache at least), but then has a long ponytail, wore weird capri leopard print tights (I thought there was a pro wrestling rule that only islanders can wear capri tights...) that had a cartoon bunny with a handlebar mustache. But he doesn't really act quirky or odd. I just don't see how the whole package fits together. The match itself was just 9 or 10 minutes, but everything was paced nicely so that it didn't feel too short. All the opening mat stuff was good, as you'd expect from a Thatcher match, with Thatcher locking in some nasty wrenched in cravates, and then Thatcher began working over Bateman's right hand. Thatcher is a guy who always has compelling hand work, but it doesn't always factor in to anything later, so it was awesome when Bateman broke free of Thatcher's mat stuff, then belted him real good, only to have to shake out and hold his fist, which gave Thatcher time to belt him back. Bateman abandoned the mat game and started throwing strikes at Thatcher, hitting him with a nice straight kick that allowed Thatcher to do his really great sell where he drops to his butt. Thatcher lures him back into exchanging elbows, but it's a trap to set up Thatcher's great out of nowhere Fujiwara arm bar for the win. This was a pretty basic Thatcher match but that will always be a good thing, and Bateman's selling added to things. So basically the two matches I was hoping would pay off on the card, have paid off. So I'm a happy camper.

5. Idris Jackson & "The Mad Tongan" Sione Finau vs. Buddy Royal & Mikko Maestro-Shapiro

Well this was a waste of everybody's time. Short match with not much happening anyway, and then it ends when Finau turns on Jackson. Finau/Jackson have been teaming for awhile, but they haven't teamed much at the Bayshore shows, and most of the people at these shows only go to the Bayshore shows. So the break-up didn't really mean much to the majority of the crowd. As far as bright spots, Donovan Troi is always an amusing heel manager, usually more entertaining than the guys he manages. And I had never seen Mikko before and he's a great entitled white douche, wearing a wrestling singlet that says "Varsity", and he has this obnoxious fluffy white hair and rosy cheeks. You know he'd have an awful flesh beard if he could grow one. Couldn't get much of a feel for him as a worker, but his douche presence was high end.

6. Willie Mack vs. MVP

The battle of secondary TV wrestling promotions!! Slow-paced but smartly worked match. It's nice seeing MVP not dogging it post-WWE. The guy has worked hard in TNA and in the indies, just nice to see. He and Mack worked pretty stiff, with MVP at first laughing him off and Mack laying in some insanely loud chops, with MVP responding nicely with some hard forearms to the jaw. They took it to the floor with MVP hitting a pescado and then a mean yakuza kick over the ring barrier. Back in and Mack hits a couple of his impactful and beautiful dropkicks, but misses a huuuuuge frog splash, really committing to that miss and doing a big belly flop. Finish could have been better as MVP hits a couple Plays of the Day that Mack kicks out of, which is good as that really doesn't seem like a viable 2015 finisher. But then MVP kinda whiffs on the Drive-By and it gets the win anyway. It seems like it would be easy to work out a secondary finish ahead of time, something like "hey if my kick doesn't land I'll yell something like ONE MORE and do it again". Something like that wouldn't even look like a re-do, it would look like somebody putting an exclamation on the finish. MVP would look better as the kick would land better, and Mack would look better for looking like it took two of them to put him down. It's surprising that more guys don't work out audibles like that ahead of time.

7. Bobby Hart vs. Virgil Flynn

Had higher hopes for this one as I like both guys, but it barely goes 4 minutes. Virgil hits a nice SUWA pump dropkick that Hart bumps kind of recklessly into the corner, also hits a wild standing corkscrew senton off the top, and a stiff cannonball senton. But Hart kinda just brushes him off and crushes him for the clean win. Would have liked to see more from Hart as this was kinda worked like Virgil getting his highlights before Hart just decided it was time to go home.

8. Marcus Lewis vs. Roberto Rodriguez

Well this was really fun! It's possible RR was not using that name, but I missed what name he's using on the indies now. This was another match that went just the right amount of time. Rodriguez gave Lewis a lot here: leaned into a big shoulderblock, and admirably bounced his face off the mat taking a  rana while on his knees. Rodriguez gets a nice fast snap suplex, but really Lewis took most of the match with some pretty awesome stuff: big dive to the floor, and then an insane reverse rana that RR takes like a complete lunatic. I mean RR just planted himself vertically and stayed that way for a split second. It looked disgusting and was easily the spot of the night. Lewis hits the 450 and that's that. Nice little showing from both guys. Damn that rana was gross.

9. "Mr. Athletic" Jeff Cobb vs. JR Kratos

Was really excited for this one, and it delivered. Both guys are meaty tough guys so seeing them slam into each other is always fun. Cobb has freakish Backlund strength so seeing him do a one arm vertical suplex to a guy as thick as Kratos is always eye popping. Cobb has added a nasty headbutt into his arsenal and it always adds with a gross smack. Both guys throw some rough shots to the other's jaw, Cobb ends up laid up over the bottom rope and Kratos hits a great running knee on the floor (think Roman Reigns' dropkick but as a nasty jumping knee), and later does his nice running dropkick in the ring. Cobb didn't do as much flying as he normally does and this was worked more like a slugfest which is fine with two big guys. Finish kind of fell flat. On paper it wasn't a bad idea, it was a KO stoppage with Kratos beating Cobb unconscious. But their ring placement could not have been worse. The way the crowd is situated is three sides of the ring have people on them, with the entranceway taking up all of the 4th side (and the most seats being the side opposite entrance). Well the did the mounted punches on the side of the ring with no fans, meaning Kratos' back was to 60+% of the crowd and you couldn't see any of the shots landing. So not only did anybody see the finish coming, but most people literally couldn't see how why the shots would be devastating enough to KO Cobb. The idea doesn't sound bad on paper, but it wasn't executed great.

10. Jinxx, Jeckles, Dylan Drake, Jody Kristofferson & Will Cuevas  vs. KMJ, Damien Grundy, Will Rood, The Almighty Sheik & Boyce LeGrande

Well this was a giant mess. This was billed as Team APW (that first team up there) vs. The Animal Farm. But the match structure was pointlessly absurd. Instead of just doing a 10 man tag, it was War Games rules, where a new person would come in every minute, but eliminations could happen at any time, and you could get eliminated by getting thrown over the top rope as well as pinned. It was also No DQ, but you couldn't pin the guy outside the ring. So basically not too long into this you just had guys wandering around the ring hitting each other, but to eliminate them they always had to find a way to implausibly make their way back to the ring. It was billed as a team based match, but there was minimal semblance of teamwork throughout and it came off WAY more like an every man for himself match. Since there was no sort of flow whatsoever to this, and parts really dragged, I'll just hit a few notes on certain guys: standouts in the match were Will Rood and amazingly, The Sheik. I've never seen Sheik look good in any match, but a no DQ match where he can wander around and hit people with shit seems to be an environment he thrives in. He showed a lot of personality and came across great running through the crowd and hitting people with chairs and trashcans. Rood had some nice stuff too, including a molar rattling clothesline. Kristofferson showed some fire and got a surprisingly huge reaction. I had no idea he was so popular. He kinda looks like Bison Smith and acts like kind of a reckless asskicker, but needs to tighten up his strikes a lot more. It would be one thing if they looked dangerous, but they just sort of look not good. Jinxx hit a nice dive and a massive corner dropkick, and seems to be improving. I think he hasn't been wrestling very long. A bunch of his stuff still looks bad, but he's looked better each time I've seen him. Dylan Drake is the most forgettable wrestler ever. I have seen him live at minimum 10 times, and my friends and I always marvel how we never remember a single thing he did in his matches. If he was really horrible we'd remember that, and if he was actively good we'd remember that. But he's just an instant distant memory. Amusing anecdote: Our friend Brian joined us this time, and he is not in on our Dylan Drake "most forgettable wrestler" joke. But he's definitely seen him live several times before. So when Brian asked "Hey who is this guy? Is he new?" we all burst out laughing and poor Brian thought we were laughing at him, but we were just tickled he helped prove our point. The best thing about Drake is his robe, and he didn't even wear his robe tonight. He has this really awful full back piece tattoo that just looks like colorful spin art, and it seems to get bigger every time we see him. It is a tattoo completely devoid of interest, creativity, personality, etc. It is a tattoo somebody gets if they have no idea what to get a tattoo of...except they keep adding to it and adding to it, for reasons they possibly don't know. They're driven to add to this shapeless splattery mess of a tattoo, it is beyond their control. What is driving me to keep making this bigger!? It is slowly taking over my body, slowly spreading to my lower back. Soon it will creep around to my stomach and onto my arms. What could be happening to me!? What am I infected with!? Why does my back now look like a blurry polaroid of a sunset reflected in a murky lake!?!? Dylan Drake threw surprisingly nice mounted punches. The end.

Show went on way too long. Ten matches is just wayyyyyyy too much wrestling. I was yawning by the end and it wasn't even that late. It's just too much and we really don't need to find a way to get *34* wrestlers on one card. THIRTY FOUR!! That's far too many wrestlers to shoehorn into matches. There ended up being a lot of dead weight, and it distracted from some of the very fun matches. A tight 6 or 7 match card would be best for everybody. And 10 matches is WAY too many when you still plan on having a 30 minute intermission. Also, shows at Bayshore have been $10 in advance, and this show was $15. Maybe that's because they had some names like MVP on the card, or maybe it's because they've been drawing well there so why not try and make some extra scratch. I get it, smart move. If you sell 85% less tickets than before, you're still making more money since you're charging more. Why not play around with the price point a bit. Plus they only run every 3 months so $5 extra wouldn't quite be enough to make me skip it or not. If a card looks good then I'm game. So overall it was a fun night, but also had potential to be better than it ended up being. But a fun show is a fun show, and my time didn't feel wasted. That's a win.

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