SUP Swing of the Axe 10/9/20

25. To Infinity and Beyond vs. Violence is Forever

PAS: This was totally killer, TIAB ramped up the violence to meet the potatoes that Ku and Garrini were throwing. Delaney was skin singeing in a chop battle with Ku and Cheech landed some nasty back elbows to Garrini's jaw and the back of his head. Infinity are the best team at the world at cutting off the ring and other old school tricks and I loved how they kept cutting off VIF''s double teams by pulling them out of the ring. They also did a great job of working over Dom leading to a wild Ku hot tag. Great traditional tag structure with moments of gross violence mixed in. Infinity crunched Garrini's neck with a Kudo Driver combo, and VIF obliterated Colin with a Total Elimination. They kept a crazy pace, but nothing felt overdone. Really good stuff, would love to see this be a series. 

ER: When this started out I thought it was going to be one of those inside joke matches, where we were going to get some gags based on something that happened the night before at whatever hotel conference room everyone was hanging out at. And while there is some comedy and Delaney wears a Buzz Lightyear backpack for a bit, once this starts with Cheech rolling with Garrini, Garrini dragging him down into an ankle lock and then each rolling through a series of cool wrenched in armbars, I knew we were running. I love the way To Infinity lays these matches out, and as long as opponents match the pace then the formula is lights out. Their best matches are filled with quick tags and quick set-up, and this had all sorts of complicated double teams and timing spots that never seem to lag or hitch with To Infinity. 

Ku seems like a guy who likes working quick and is a perfect opponent, as he's always running hard into people and sending his legs even harder. He had a sliding knee on the apron that looked an hair away from a broken jaw, and I like that he doesn't always go for style on strikes. He misses some but they always look like they're thrown to land. He takes offense well, will splat head first on a rope hang DDT, and had a couple of late saves that saved Garrini. The double team vertebreaker was disgusting, and it's a frequent reminder of how talented Dom is, while also knowing there will almost always be something this nuts taken in a Dom match. There were a few misses here, didn't love Ku's standing chops to hold of Infinity, and the big head kick as part of the finish looked like it completely whiffed (it's always unfortunate when the finish doesn't look nearly as cool as the rest of the match) but when you go this hard you're going to miss a couple things. 

29. AJ Gray vs. Nolan Edward

PAS: I am fully aboard Gray just becoming Black Stan Hansen (which feels like a secondary nickname for a Griselda crew hanger on, Daringer should totally start calling himself Black Stan Hansen in drops). The story of this match was plucky youngster Nolan Edward proving himself against a veteran, and Gray delivered the asswhipping that match structure needs. He jumps Edwards at the bell and just plasters him with reckless forearms and punishing chops. There was no carefully timed shots in between stares, just blows thrown with no real concern for where they land. Edwards fired back with some stiff shots too, just to let you know he was there, and got a couple of well timed kick outs, but Gray was a Mack Truck and Edwards was the possum who crawled onto the road. 

ER: You're going to do an under 5 minute match, this is how you do it. This is the kind of AJ Gray match that people will talk about when they talk about Gray becoming their favorite wrestler. He doesn't give Nolan Edward time to breathe for the first 2 minutes, fast walking from the back straight into the beginning of his ass kicking. He's throwing full arm shots, just pummeling Edward's body, hard forearms to the jaw, and I swear at one point picks Edward up just to send a forearm straight into his teeth. Edward weathered the storm and managed to send Gray off balance with a high dropkick, then flew into him as hard as he could on a tope (and what a great tope catch by Gray). Edward's missile dropkick believably sends Gray flying across the ring into the corner, and Edward hits a wild spinning heel kick that almost sends him flying to the floor in an unprotected tope con hilo. If that had happened, Edward may have delivered a meaner spinning heel kick to his own head than the one Gray almost decapitated him with earlier. When Gray finally catches him it is a no more fucking around situation, as he lays Edward out with three increasingly brutal clotheslines. That finishing shot has to have the claim for lariat of the year. Nolan Edward came out of this looking like a man for withstanding way more of a beating than most of us could imagine, and Gray came out of this looking like a superstar. 

Allie Kat vs. Davienne

PAS: US Indy women's wrestling is something I am a real low voter on, however I would much rather watch B- Aja Kong vs. Bull Nakano matches then B- Stardom matches, and that is what we got here. Two thick girls beating on each other until one of them drops. Allie Kat didn't do any of her cringey "I am a human cat" spots, and instead just threw forearms, jabs and sentons. Davienne knows how to use her size well and threw herself into everything. Didn't wear out it's welcome, kept it moving and had some oomph, this gets a thumbs up for me. 

ER: This was good enough for me, and a thing I really like about Allie Cat is her willingness to take a shot. Unfamiliar with Davienne, but liked her willingness to also hang in and let Allie's limbs and body land on her face. I did not like the moments of unnatural set up, like Davienne missing hooks by 3 feet just to set up Allie jabs. There's just got to be a way to make those look like they were actual misses. But there are a lot of hard landings and snug pinfall attempts, and I liked how Davienne really scooped Cat's legs every time she tried to cover. Allie Cat's best offense is when she just runs in and flings herself at her opponent, and she really crushes Davienne in the corner with a hip attack and cannonball. My favorite things in the match were when they twisted a sequence just slightly, like when I thought they were going to do a played out "I hit you in the corner and then you chase me to the other corner" spot, and Allie just drops to all fours and sends Davienne faceplanting over her. Things like Allie sliding on her knees face first into the buckles was cool, and I think plenty here looked cool. 

34. Daniel Makabe vs. Lee Moriarty

PAS: Reversal heavy matches are normally not my thing, but I have to give a lot of credit to all of the cool shit both guys did in this match. Makabe especially looked awesome, although I wish there had been a beat or two more in between spots and reversals. Makabe hits this incredibly awesome La Magistral cradle into a rear naked choke, but Moriarty is on to the reversal before it even gets locked fully in. Give me a beat, let me soak in that move a bit before you move on. The finish was a much better example of what works better: Moriarty puts the Makabe lock on Makabe, and we watch Makabe move Moriarty's legs into position before spinning him into a sort of a reverse Cattle Mutilation for the pin.  There were also some cool big impact moves, Makabe's top rope rana looked moments away from killing both guys )which made it great), and there was a couple of nasty suplexes too. This is Makabe's only pandemic match, and he made it count. 

ER: I thought this was great, while also thinking that Moriarty was kind of playing the Angle to Makabe's Eddy. Moriarty is very smooth and has some slick maneuverings, but there were several things I wish he let breathe. What's perhaps most impressive is that while a lot of things were moved into and out of very smoothly, this never had a big cooperative feel to it, and it's hard to get to this level of smooth without feeling and looking entirely mapped out. I think there were a couple times where Moriarty kind of left Makabe hanging on a couple spots, requiring him to sell in place while Lee set up the next bit of offense, but mostly this was seamless. And while I also wish there were a couple beats and I was allowed more time to ruminate on certain things, I was at all times impressed by the pace. This whole show has felt like a real "pace" show, and these two filled the most time of anyone, and it's not easy to make an 18 minute match feel like a 9 minute blur. 

The match felt like one cool reversal after another, far too many (and far too pointless) to list here, but they all looked great and only a couple times did it look like Makabe was intentionally leaving a limb out for Moriarty (there were also clearly Makabe playing possum sells, so they all easily could be chalked up to that). Moriarty targeted Makabe's left arm, and I like how Makabe had this desire to land his big right hand, and the more it appeared Moriarty had scouted it the more it made Makabe want to land it. Makabe's roll through reversals are one of my absolute favorite things in wrestling, the way he springs his legs back over his head to wind up in a position nobody was expecting to grab a limb or snag a pinfall that nobody was expecting, it's insane to me he manages to do it around his opponent. It never once feels like his opponent is adjusting their momentum or trajectory just to make his slick rolling reversal work, and that's wild to me. He has a great sense of where he needs to be to make a spot or submission work, and I dig the way he gets to that spot. Reversing direction on a magistral to drop into a rear naked choke would be a contender for spot of the year, and I hate that Moriarty basically slipped right out of it into something new. There's value to adding rope struggle or positional struggle to things, but this felt like the most interesting match that could happen while showing both guys almost exclusively neutralizing each other.

Makabe finally catches the Big Unit punch (if we're naming it after guys who have had at least one good season as a Mariner, I think that punch should now be called the Doug Fister) while Moriarty was up top, and eventually hit a crazy LATE rotation rana that I was not expecting at all. The trap leg bridged suplex looked outstanding, and I dug how commentary pointed out how high end Makabe's bridge work is. It's an important thing to note, as he has several different important spots where the leverage is made all the more painful with his bridging. Moriarty was eel slick getting into and out of everything, and that really did make me appreciate the home stretch where Makabe kept getting better and better at trapping him, before finally trapping him. 

O'Shay Edwards vs. Jake Something

PAS: I like that indy wrestling has gotten more legit big dudes lately who wrestle like big dudes and just hit each other. This wasn't a Lee vs. Dijak rana fest, this was all forearms and clotheslines and big slams. I especially liked the early section where Something taunted Edwards into going for a running shoulderblock, and as he turned his back cracked him in the back of the neck with a forearm. I do wish Edwards was like 15% stiffer for what he is trying to achieve. On this card you have guys like Gray, Ku, Garrini and Manders and Henry absolutely obliterating people with strikes and there are some forearms in this match that look pulled. Structure was cool, but I wanted it cranked up a bit.

ER: I thought this was cool, and keeping with the theme of the night of people running into each other as hard as possible. Jake Something really laid into O'Shay with everything he threw, including three different brutal shots to the back of the head. He nailed him once early in the match after a missed shoulderblock, then late in the match ducked a clothesline to nail his own to the back of Edwards' neck, then ran off the ropes to lay him out with the hardest lariat of the match to that same spot on the back of O'Shay's neck. I'm pretty tired of standing elbow exchanges, but loved how much of their body they were putting into these shots. You could see both of them following all the way through with their weight, and they looked like the kind of shots that at best would break my jaw and send me flying 8 feet backward. They didn't linger on them (always weird to me when people put long strike exchange spots in their matches, effectively making none of their strikes mean anything) and moved quickly into standing lariats, and there haven't been many times in pro wrestling this year where full arms landed hard on chests. 

We quickly went into a home stretch of big moves, like that diving lariat of Something's I mentioned, a Thesz press/Vader bear attack from Something, or O'Shay hitting a sick over the shoulder piledriver, and we wrapped up with another economical ass kicking. Although, at this point it's obvious that this match would have stood out so much more on a show that had a lot more variety. Given the choice, I'd rather see a show like this with a ton of matches filled with stiff beatings - a style I love - rather than a few bad cooperative flipper matches leading to a match like this. But having 6 different "people laying in the shots" matches is going to mean some excellent things blend into the background. 

52. Anthony Henry vs. Jaden Newman

PAS: This was our second young guy gets beaten by a veteran match, and Henry lays in an appropriate beating. I liked the early section with Newman using his speed to frustrate and taunt Henry. When Henry takes over he really laces into the kid, including some whip kicks to the torso which were Akitoshi Saito level nasty. Newman got a couple of nice comebacks before being put away with an absolutely vicious looking trapped arm dragon sleeper, one of the cooler new submissions I can remember seeing. 

ER: This one really didn't land as with me as some of the other big bangers, even though I liked just about every single thing Henry did. This is another example of a match that probably would have stood out on a bunch of other shows, but not really on this one. I've been to plenty of indy shows in my life where this match would have easily been the best on the card, but it has some stiff competition just 90 minutes into this show. I also think that you can't really go 12 minutes doing an underdog match on the same show where you had an amazing underdog match that didn't even go 5 minutes, and I didn't really think some of Newman's comeback offense fit into what they were going for. 

Henry can be really nasty and that's where this match was at its best, and you knock half the time off the match I think you end up with something far more memorable. The opening exchanges were really good, as Newman stayed a half step ahead of Henry while everyone knew it would last, leading to Henry dishing some good punishment. Henry gets a ton of force on his kicks, and at one point is just standing and walking on Newman's face in the corner, later he somehow pulls off a double dragon screw without making it look the least bit implausible. Henry is great at taking Newman's offense, landing on the top of his head to sell a rolling cravat snapmare, has no problem banging his chin on the mat taking an F5. The finish run was really cool, loved how Henry anticipated Newman lunging at him from behind and ducked, Newman going sprawling, and Henry going after his arm to go after his leg to trap both arm and leg while throwing a capture German. The ending of match trap arm dragon sleeper was sick, made me need to see Makabe vs. Henry in a battle of that dragon sleeper and Makabe's magistral RNC. I think I'm actually really liking this match a lot more, the more I think about it. 

Brett Ison vs. Erick Stevens

PAS: This didn't do a ton for me. I think this card really needed another tag or trios match, outside of Makabe vs. Moriarty every match on this card was some variation of a stiff slugfest. This was worked very similar to the rest of the card, but was the least of those matches. I have the same issues with Ison I have with O'Shay except even more, they announcers kept selling those forearms as monster shots, when we just watched Henry in the previous match. This wasn't an actively bad match, but I can't recommend it. 

ER: This was pretty easily the weakest match on the card, not just because of the same-y feel it had, but there seemed to be no real strong rhyme or reason to kickout vs. power up, and Ison's offense seemed to get weaker as the match went on (and the match was only 6 minutes). I liked Stevens trying to tie Ison up with subs, and some of the early stuff looked really good. That Ison face wash is a killer, even though it always looks like he half asses the lead up back elbow to focus on the face wash. He leans a bit far out of the double underhook piledriver, and the arm unroll backfist did not work as a finisher for me, especially on a show that's been filled with a couple dozen gnarlier strikes. Stevens came off much more impressive, and either Ison comes off smaller than he really is or Stevens works bigger than he really is, because Stevens worked this as if he was Ison's strength equal and pulled it off. This also would have played better on a different show, but the flaws here were more real. 

48. Manders vs. AC Mack

PAS: This was a really fun main event, with Mack playing the role of the sneaky heel champ faced with a powerhouse babyface. Manders hits a ton of big time offense, big lariat, Iowa Stampede, Doctor Bomb, second rope powerslam. Mack found a bunch of different ways to weasel his way out of loss, and give a big Un Foul to get the pin after escaping Manders. I would have rather seen Mack hit the Mack 10 after the low blow, as it felt like one low blow was a little weak to put down Manders, but this was classic Flair stuff, Nikita does everything but win the title, and you sell the ticket for the rematch. 

ER: Manders came off of this one like an out and out badass, maybe the guy I would least want to be hit by, on a card populated by nothing but people who I wouldn't want to be hit by. Manders got that heavy low end that grounds all his big strikes, makes every charge explode. Really the only problem with the match was I don't think a lot of Mack's stuff looked like it should fell Manders. There were two different kicks that were supposed to be big exclamation points to completely stop the beast, but both were grazing shots at best, coming right after Manders did nothing but waste Mack. It kind of felt like a babyface Shawn Michaels or Macho Man performance during some portions, the kind where they would eat a tough beating and then the heel would have to sell a Michaels bodyslam while he took forever to climb to the top rope. It threw the dynamic off when the babyface was just destroying Mack and half of Mack's entries into the match looked like shots that shouldn't have been sold. 

Manders has some of my favorite offense in modern wrestling, those running shoulderblocks and avalanches are full bore, his lariats and chops hit super hard (love how he throws missed clotheslines with the same ferocity), got a great powerslam, great Iowa Stampede, great Doctor Bomb, really I'm not sure he has any offense I even remotely dislike. He even makes things that could look silly - like his 3 point stance running chop - look devastating. I've seen several people try to pull off the running chop, and it never works. It goes against your bodies own momentum, you have to throw across yourself while also running, just doesn't work. And here Manders makes everyone else who's ever tried it look like a real dummy. Mack did have some great stuff, so it wasn't completely one sided. His Liger bomb out of the corner was a great surprise, he throws a couple of punches throughout the match that appear to target Manders' ear, neck, and jaw, and he hits a yakuza kick that really mashes the sole of his boot into Manders' teeth. I also wasn't a fan of the finish, even though I LOVED Mack grapevining the bottom rope to prevent the kickout. It made me want to see Manders wreck Mack for the title. 

Which, well, considering AJ Gray comes out after the match, eats a kick to the balls and just wastes Mack with a lariat for the title anyway, I am not sure when we're actually going to get that title match. Curious to see how they book the Bonestorm title going forward, but AJ Gray's lariat going up against Manders' um...everything? Also, Gray/Manders is a match that's happened a few times, and I need to seek those matches out pronto. 

ER: There are still some Collective shows I need to see, but it's going to be tough to beat this show. It's not often the weakest match on your show still stands out as a fun match, and this show landed a ton of matches on our 2020 Ongoing MOTY List. This made me want to see more of just about every single person on the card, and there aren't many better ways to leave a show than that. 

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Matches from Effy's Big Gay Brunch 10/10/20

Manders/Matthew Justice/Mance Warner/Levi Everett vs. O'Shay Edwards/MV Young/Billy Dixon/Joshua Wavra

ER: 8 man tags are a great formula, nearly impossible to mess up. It's a match structure that really only needs a couple of good wrestlers to work, and the rest can just be guys with 1-2 nice spots. The higher the % of good wrestlers, the better the formula works. There are roughly several hundred incredibly fun 15 minute NOAH 6 man and 8 man tags, maybe the peak of the non-lucha multiman style, but it's a match should always work. This one is on the low end, but it's a high floor match type. It had a disappointingly low amount of Manders and O'Shay (with them working a somewhat out of place moment where big Billy Dixon inadvertently knocks O'Shay off the apron and it leads to a minor argument) and Manders just being by far the least featured guy on his team. Seeing the brilliance Manders has produced with Big Twan  Tucker, Manders vs. O'Shay was the showdown I most wanted, and I don't think it happened at all. Outside of O'Shay I was unfamiliar with our babyface team. This match felt oddly built as a MV Young showcase, which is fine, he had some nice kicks, but was also the most "kickpad pro" which isn't something I wanted out of this. Dixon has a nice round shape and hit a cool Thesz press off the top for a good nearfall, and Wavra was someone who had no problem leaning into and getting bent painfully by a Mancer lariat. Justice and Mancer have the kind of charisma you want in a match like this, and Justice especially has that beefy Snake Pliskin thing that just connects. He takes a disgusting vertical suplex over the back of an open folding chair, hits a big man splash to pin Dixon, is part of a big dive train (that also includes a nice fast Levi Everett tope and Wavra tope con hilo), and knows how to fill downtime with brawling. Mancer hits his fakeout tope into several eye pokes, Everett hits a diving headbutt far across the ring, and they kept a strong pace going through 15+ minutes. Pace is maybe the most important part of a match like this, as there should never be downtime in a match with this many people. So while not everything worked and there was some messiness and poor balance of who got the most ring time, the pace meant that this always kept at least a certain level of enjoyability. 

Cassandro vs. Sonny Kiss

PAS:  So awesome to see Cassandro get a showcase match in the US like this. He is really a guy that should have been used by indy promotions for years, but I can only remember this and a IWA-MS Ted Petty spot. Kiss is a guy with impressive individual spots, but a lack of connective tissue, and Cassandro can provide that. Cassandro is 50 now, and you can tell all of the hard falls over the years have taken a bit off his fastball, but he still goes damn hard in this match, doing an awesome flip tope, taking some bumps on the concrete and even winning with a top rope victory roll. Kiss is clearly thrilled to be working a legend and also tries really hard. For a second this felt like this would turn into a nasty brawl, which would have brought it to the next level, but it was a good showcase match for a guy truly deserving of a showcase.

ER: It really is nuts that American indy Cassandro wasn't more of a thing, and I consider myself lucky that he was the top Lucha Va Voom guy (meaning I got to see him work CA a few times). But even old man Cassandro feels like someone who should be getting spots on indy shows (and would be an actual draw to those shows). I like Sonny Kiss but he's a guy who fits great into a trios, less so into a singles. That said, this felt like the most natural pairing on the card. I could have seen him against Still Life, Allie Kat, or Effy, but the most famous exotico of the past 20 years vs. the current most broadly seen exotico felt like something you couldn't pass up running. There were a couple odd moments, like Cassandro hitting a heavy crossbody but then staying down to sell for so long that Kiss just pinned him, but there was a ton to love here. Both are good at taking the others' offense, like Kiss snapping over for Cassandro's still quick armdrags, or the expert way both caught each others' dives. The two dives we got were great, with Cassandro's excellent flip tope sending them into folding chairs my favorite move of the show. But Kiss hits a nice tope that Cassandro totally absorbs, sending them both spilling back toward the entrance. I, too, got excited once they started brawling on the floor, and as Kiss comes after Cassandro on the floor Cassandro just ole's Kiss face first into a chair! I didn't see it coming and it looked like the kind of trick Cassandro could use to send a mugger into the side of a building. We don't get the violent crowd brawl that they hinted at, but the stuff in ring was fun. I loved Cassandro's pageant rope walk armdrag, and Kiss hits this awesome handspring axe kick while Cassandro is laid out over the turnbuckles, just a heel coming down hard right in the breastbone. Cassandro's victory rolls (the normal and avalanche version to finish) looked great, Kiss had this cool splits landing into a sweeping kick (basically all the splits landings Kiss does amaze me every time), and I'm so happy we got this. It was a lot of fun, and it's a match that's been long overdue. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE CASSANDRO

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #1: IWTV Family Reunion

PAS: Segunda Caida rides again, as Eric, Phil and Tomk met up to do all of Wrestlemania weekend in one day. We started out at the White Eagle Hall for Family Reunion

ER: Phil and I had a nice unexpected breakfast of hot dosas, lemon rice, spicy soup, and I had a delicious chicory madras coffee. We hadn't planned on going for dosas, but it was a close walk and the place totally delivered. The ladies and baby broke free for a fun day in the city, while Phil and I had a nice walk over to the White Eagle Hall, where we would be spending the bulk of our day. I love walking around places like this and seeing big brick school buildings and churches, because we can't have brick buildings out on the west coast, with our sick and constant fear of earthquakes. I like seeing the buildings, and graveyards right in the middle of the city, while Phil told me amusing pick-up basketball gym stories (as I realize that 60% of what Phil tells me about are pick-up basketball gym stories...). The White Eagle is a cool spot, nice stained skylights and seeing wrestling with daylight pouring in through doors is a cool vibe. Tom meets us there as we grab a nice spot in the third row, right by the entrance curtain.

TKG: Phil and Eric explain the concept of Family Reunion as this big interpromotional showcase thing and I go “Oh like Breaking the Barrier”. Spend the entire show trying to figure out which match this would have been the functional equivalent on Breaking the Barrier but refuse to use my cell to look up the actual card.

Orange Cassidy vs. Johnathan Gresham

PAS: Not for me. Good for Cassidy for finding a way to get himself over and not killing himself. Colt Cabana had a way longer career then Necro Butcher. Doesn't mean I want to watch one second of it. Gresham not only has to sell all of his yuks, but has to get squashed by his yuks. I dunno, a Kip up with hands in your pockets is athletically impressive I guess.

ER: Not really any of our thing, but it's better to get that kind of match out of the way first. That way we were able to catch-up and go through formalities with Tom without having to remember too much stuff about the match for later. I'm always a fan of people working the system, and Cassidy has tapped into something easy on the body that people clearly want to see. If you have the personality to pull it off, and you aren't dropping yourself on your head? Do it man. Phil, Tom, and I weren't laughing, but we were in the minority. Hands in joggers and sunglasses and pops, can't say he's doing it wrong. We felt bad for Gresham all day. Here he has to open up his day, the start of the biggest indy wrestling showcase of the year, and he has to spend 10 minutes entirely putting over the entire shtick of somebody else, and then lose, twice! Gresham was essentially the theatre hand wearing all black to be hidden from the audience, while busting their ass for an elaborate prop moving moment. All the work, none of the credit. Are their any matches where someone gets to make Cassidy pay for his nonchalance?

TKG: I like Jeff Spicoli, like David Wooderson, enjoy some Owen Wilson. This left me cold. On Breaking the Barrier, Stevie Richards was able to get his comedy gimmick over without making Tom Brandi feel like a prop. Post-match MJF comes out working gimmick of Jersey used car salesman who listens to a lot of MJG. I think that’s the gimmick. Me and Phil argue if he is supposed to be rich and pompous or a guy who aspires to be rich and pompous. He had a poorly tailored suit but a nicely accessorized off the rack scarf.

Shane Sabre/Space Monkey/Brett Michael David vs. Justin Sane/Kobe Durst/Kody Lane

PAS: This match was indy wrestling the names. How is there a match where Shane Sabre isn't the most PWI 500 name in the match? This was a six man tag showcase, with all that implies. Some stuff looked good, I like BMD's clothesline a bunch, some stuff looked OK, and a fair amount looked weak. The kind of match where you would try to find individual moments to enjoy, but the match as a whole wasn't it.

ER: Look at this lineup of names! This match was totally worth it just for the names alone. This felt like the first time I read a PWI 500 and actually thought the process was legitimate. I would love to do an SC 500 but it would weirdly be harder to do now as we have access to far more stuff than we ever did before, and less time than ever to watch it. I had seen a couple of these guys before. Tom had never seen Space Monkey, and by the end of the day he'd have seen Space Monkey more times live than most guys he genuinely liked. In fairness to the monkey, he seemed to get better each match of his we saw over the 14 hour stretch. New outfits each time, too. Had a banana flask this time and hit a big moonsault off the top to the floor at one point. It was at least an honorable mention for best dive of the day. Justin Sane was a guy who seemed better than his name; I joked that it would be funny if an indy guy was name Just Insane, like he thought it sounded cool and didn't understand it was a pun. Brett Michael David felt like the name of a guy working a Rock of Love gimmick, but he was the biggest guy in the match and had a couple nice strikes and nice lariat. I think BMD was the most memorable here.

TKG: I had actually seen Space Monkey before and thought this was the best of his matches. He needs to watch some GG Allin and work for the scat fans who Joey Ryan is unwilling to reach. Him BMD and Justin Zane seemed totally competent.

Red Eagle vs. Ethan Page vs. Ophidian vs. Arik Cannon vs. Mikey vs. Mike Verna

PAS: Weird match where the relative newcomers Mikey, Verna and Eagle looked more polished and professional then the decade plus veterans they were in there with. Page is on a zillion shows this weekend and was on cruise control here. Verna is from IWA Italy (not sure if that fed was part of Ian's early 2000s expansion) and has some cool strength spots. Outside of that this was pretty forgettable.

ER: This was fine, they've done a good job this show and kept all the six man stuff around 10 minutes and moving briskly. I actually like Arik Cannon here, thought he was the most impressive bumper out of the bunch, seems in better shape than over 12 years ago when I saw him more frequently. The other two vets I can do without. Ophidian has been doing the same routine that I wasn't interested in over a decade ago. Ethan Page showed off his comedy chops in this one, and between he and MJF sitting in the crowd mugging and hamming up hack jokes, I had already had enough comedy in wrestling for the day. Lucky for us Page and MJF were also guys we couldn't stay away from all damn day. Shane Sabre was fine and had the most classic name of all, made us all actually giggle every time we mentioned it. Mikey looked like Yahoo Serious and had a dumb fun mustache, and like the better comedy wrestlers he took a couple nice bumps. Yelling "Here's my moment!" right before running into a big bump is a funny spot.

TKG: Of all the comedy guys I saw, Mikey may have had the best comic timing. It never felt like he was just trying to force gags in, all made sense in the context of what was happening. Bet he has an interesting ladder match in him. That fucking simultaneous DDT one guy while suplexing or ace crushering other guy spot was whipped out a bunch over course of day…not sure if it was in this match but felt like every match and there is no reason to do it. Total Elimination was a fucking superkick/Russian leg sweep. You have multiple guys in ring have them do combo moves doing solo combos always looks a little blown.

Bell Pierce/Jack Bonza/Mick Moretti vs. Caveman Ugg/Steph De Lander/Unsocial Jordan

PAS: This was an all Australian trios match which had some moments. I thought Bonza had some fun tricky mat stuff and Ugg was really impressive. He obliterates Pierce with a chop, which felt boundary pushing and was really agile for a big dude. Pierce has a spot which she blows glitter at her opponents, which is a really dick move towards anyone else who has to wrestle on this show.

ER: This was also a perfectly fine 6 man, with the brief section of De Lander vs. Pierce being the only really weak portion. Tom was just happy that Bel Pierce gave us a better pun name than Justin Sane. Moretti is a guy I like and he had a couple big bumps here. This was our collective first time seeing Ugg and we all came away impressed. We thought we were getting the "Cavemen aren't sending their best" version of Cavernario, but Ugg moved quick for a bigger guy and hit hard, showed enough to make me watch Ugg the next time I see he's on a show I'm already watching. Pierce did have a funny moment where she threw glitter everywhere. It meant that every single wrestler that hit the mat the rest of the day in this venue was going to have glitter on their torso for the next week.

TKG: my son really likes Raymond Brigg’s Ug Boy Genius of the Stone Age so I want a little more sadness out of my Caveman Ugg…my desire for hints of suicidal Owen Wilson under the laid back veneer of Orange Cassidy or sadness at Caveman’s inability to improve his quality of life…may be too much to ask for wrestling gimmick. The Lazertron-ish, Unsocial Jordan made sense as a caveman’s tag partner.

Isaias Velazquez/Kylie Rae vs. Robert Anthony/Shotzi Blackheart

ER: Most memorable thing about this was Tom repeatedly asking what Egotistico Fantastico's gimmick was supposed to be now. They were more familiar with him than I was. First look at Kylie Rae and she was fine, though her Bayley gimmick would play better on a local show that would actually be attended by dads with their little daughters, instead of a show filled with weirdos who already had beer sweats at 1:15 PM. It was cool seeing Shotzi getting east coast bookings in person. Rachel and I have been seeing her for years. She was originally eye candy on a local Bay Area Saturday night public domain horror movie show called Creepy KOFY Movie Time, a weekly staple in our house until its demise. When she got into wrestling it made sense, she was always a performer who didn't seem to get nervous. She has good energy and I think eventually her ability will match up to her potential. I thought Frank the Clown was an unexpectedly good second. I had heard the name and heard that people couldn't stand him, but I'd never seen anything he was in. I thought he looked scummier and meaner than anticipated and looked like a guy who got his role. Felt like his routine was actually pretty effective.

PAS: Anthony was a big part of the IWA-MS run with Dingo and the two guys named Jayson having a loser has to change his first name feud. Not the best part of not the best run of IWA-MS but a fine guy. Good idea dumping the racist gimmick, although his new gimmick seems to be guy obsessed with Cactus Jack's weird son-in-law, which doesn't seem to have legs. He seemed like a guy who knew how to get heat, and Frank the Clown is actually an effective second.

TKG: Back when “ha ha Mexicans are funny” racist gimmicks were all the rage on the indies with probably El Generico being most successful, Egotistico Fantastico was one of the more egregious with all of his moves named after Taco Bell items. Does anyone still do that gimmick? Just El Ligero? Anyway, Robert Anthony really impressed in this, easily most polished guy on show thus far and probably top 5 by end of show. All of his stuff looked great and he ate everything well. Lots of times during show, you got the sense that you were watching parejas increibles matches where guys not always on same page as to if they were heels or faces but he was real clear. And he looked like he wanted to beat opponent and didn’t want to be beaten. I thought he also did real nice selling for Rae in believable manner. He is guy I’d watch again.

Fred Yehi vs. AC Mack

PAS: One of the matches I was most looking forward to of the day, and it unfortunately fell a bit short of expectations. Love both guys, love ACTION wrestling, but this never hit the gear it could have, and Mack seemed a bit off. Mack was able to get some real heel heat, and I have no idea why MJF is booked on fifty shows over the weekend, and Yehi is only on two. Yehi seems to be working a Soul Glo gimmick, and we added activator juice to the glitter which was already all over the ring. Guys this talented aren't going to have a dud, but this should have stolen the show and really didn't.

ER: I really did build this one up a lot in my head. This was one that I would have had in my 5 most anticipated matches of the weekend, which was probably setting a high bar in retrospect. AC Mack is a fairly recent discovery for us, when we started getting access to ACTION shows last year, but was an immediate favorite. This was probably the least performance I've seen from him, and I felt kinda bad building him up to Tom so much. I still think the stuff I've seen from him speaks for itself, and this felt like more of an off night than a norm. The match also felt very rushed, and maybe that threw things off a bit. We still got some fine moments - these two have a higher floor than most - but I think I was relatively justified in my high expectations and this didn't approach that. 

TKG: Why wasn’t Yehi being used more? He came out as part of Kelly Klein’s entourage on the ROH show. Mack is working heel and actually got heel heat and I was digging this a bunch and then it just felt like it went home early with low blow finish.

Kris Stadtlander/Solo Darling vs. Jessica Troy/Shazza McKenzie

PAS: Lots of Australians on this show, seems like a long flight for this amount of shine. This match was a casualty of the long day, as I remember very little from it. I think I dug some of Darling and Stadtlander's power stuff, but I am hoping Eric and Tomk can fill in some more.

ER: During the match you groaned and made ugh noises a lot during the Troy/McKenzie control periods, you weren't a fan so I applaud you effectively willing it from your memory. I came into this only familiar with Stadtlander and she's been getting some hype lately. I came away from this with only Solo making a decent impression on me. Darling came off like a little powerhouse, coming off more like a good hand joshi babyface that anyone else we saw. The team that Phil was grumbling about were not good. They did a lot of semi-complicated offense, but they had this awful habit of doing only the first 1/4 of the move, and leaving Stadtlander and Solo on their own to bump it. There were three different moments where McKenzie would start a potentially nice headscissors or rana, and then just fall and immediately after starting the move. It was infuriating.

TKG: I really had high hopes for the Roller Derby revival which was attracting ex-college rugby players, field hockey, ice skaters, gymnasts, and theater nerds into this semi athletic tradition and felt like it would eventually return to being a worked sport. And was watching this thinking, everyone here would be really fun taking bumps on a banked track. Women’s wrestling revolution may have killed the rollerderby one. I thought Solo Darling looked super solid and like she knew where to be at all times.

15. Mr. Brickster/O'Shay Edwards/Cabana Man Dan vs. Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku/Brett Ison

PAS: This was really great stuff, we had a totally over the top ring announcer and a possible group of front row Hales cousins serving as hype-men, so I was ready to be let down, but man all six guys brought it. Brickster was great as a fired up 80s babyface, loved the whole presentation and he brought the heat like Sting taking it to the Dangerous Alliance. Sadkampf were throwing and receiving reckless potatoes (opening up what would truly be a fucking insane day by Garrini), and this was the first time O'Shay Edwards hit as hard as it looks like he should hit. It felt like a raucous southern main event, with the babyfaces walking tall and the heels coming forward. Edwards moonsault felt like a big deal for the finish, and this totally won me over.

TKG: This had a really chaotic feel to it. Like the kind of Briscoes, JAPW chaos that I want out of wrestling but still southern tag as fuck. Brickster is a guy who should get more bookings as he looked like the best of the guys working power offense that I saw that weekend. Just bumped well, wrecked people with clotheslines and made lifts into throws look like lifts. And had the real “I’m guy fired up in a 6 man tag” aura. Garrini is insane and pretty much the star of the whole day. Just runs into taking offense and everything he does looks like he wants to win. We had already seen insane big guy moonsault from BMD but O’Shay’s looked like he actually wanted to flatten opponent.

ER: Tom was really attracted to the chaos of this match. After this match, for the rest of the day, he would frequently lob a "felt like it should have been more chaotic" backhand to matches Phil and I liked, having clearly won over - twice - by Brickster within the first two hours of our day. And it was really really fun, a nice portend to a super fun exhausting day. Brickster had a best-possible-Cheetah Master feel to him, or Dolph Ziggler understanding his flaws, or Matt Taven who wasn't a total embarrassment. Out of all the downright unique wrestling experiences the three of us went through today, we were all talking about Brickster 10 hours later. Hard strikes, great energy, felt like triumphant Stan Lane. O'Shay had his career best performance, a big dude taking some great risks. Later Phil and I saw him hanging out with someone who had to be his uncle, and the uncle was flipping out about his performance. Gotta love a guy putting on a show for family over Mania showcase. Ku smacked Dan hard in the chops and dropped him hard on his knees in a powerbomb, and Dan's flip flop chopping actually made a good slapping whipcrack. We had a total ball during this match with a hard hitting fast paced 10 minutes, and I made Phil laugh as much as he laughed all day, as we were all tickled by the early 2000s hardcore ring intros. Some guy would get kicked in the face or Garrini would throw a double chop to someone's neck, and in the energy I would cookie monster grunt "PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS TOGETHER FOR CABANA MAN FUCKING DAN YOU PIECES OF SHIT!!!! YOU WANNA SEE SOME FLIP FLOP COMEDY SPOTS YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!?!?" Just a bearded guy who looks like me with tattoos.

Gary Jay vs. Jake Parnell

PAS: This was a long running midwest feud given a showcase spot, and both guys really delivered. They chopped the hair off each others chests, took some big hard bumps to the floor and the apron and made the match feel like a feud ender, there were a couple of big dives right into the seats we were sitting in which felt crazy and uncalled for. I thought the end section was a bit construction-y, you really need a manager to set up all of the chairs and tables to fly into, would have rather seen them just beat on each other, rather then set up big garbage bumps, although to be fair, the big garbage bumps were big ass garbage bumps.

TKG: Gary Jay is Gary the Barn Owl who I had seen get booed out of building by idiot provincial Chikara fans who hate tall guys 9 years ago. “Hey this guy is 5 ft 8, I only want my wrestler’s 5 ft 2”. So awesome to see him main eventing this show. The early brawling and dives were crazy, I had less of a problem with how long it took to set up on the big construction garbage spot. As pretty much everything that took a long time to build almost universally gave opponent time to recover from last garbage spot and either reverse or get an escape in. Getting to watch Nick Gage realize they were going to try for a fish hook spot with ring ropes as Jay unhooked them was pretty neat….and well knowing ahead of time that the next show was going to be a no ring rope show added a whole “they are going to take down this whole set” Who burning their guitars feel. I didn’t dig the chair fu at end of match. Walking around with chair on head has a Terry Funk head caught in a ladder joke spot feel. Felt like a joke that you work in early or in middle of match and not at end.

ER: I'm with Tom in that I thought the big stunt spots were paced out nicely, so that the set up time was conceivably possible due to big stunts. I don't love Last Man Standing as a stip, even though it has created some great matches, as it lends itself to a lot of lying around and counting, so there is a constant interruption to the violence. But I really liked this and thought the chaos was worth the price of admission. In my history of going to live pro wrestling, any time I have to run away from the action by escaping over chairs and narrowly ducking dives, always leaves me with a positive memory of the show. These two hit each other with real force, both had red chests, and they sent us scrambling and ducking with some reckless dives. We were sitting in the corner near at the entrance curtain, and dives getting to our seats mean that the action was going a little out of bounds. I loved running over chairs and getting as close to the roving fight, and the violent chop exchange on the apron was one of the top moments of the night. There was no slap on these chops, these were deep bruising shots. We saw violent shots all day, and these held their own. I do agree that the match lost some steam as it went to the finish, but I also think that plays into the psychological structure of the stip, so I probably liked all of this more than Phil and Tom. I thought the KO spots felt worthy of the KO recovery, and while I do think the finish didn't match the violence of the rest of the match, I still thought this lived up to expectations.

ER: Price was right on this one, with me cashing in my free ticket for being a Independent TV subscriber, and the show was a briskly paced start to our terrible idea of a day. The Brickster trios match was the kind of overdelivery that makes this kind of friendship reunion worthwhile, the best kind of surprise addition to our 2019 MOTY List, and a cool "first show the three principle Segunda Caida doofuses ever attended together."

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