Mini Complete and Accurate Necro in PWG: Necro vs. Danielson

Necro Butcher vs. Bryan Danielson PWG 7/29/07

JR: Wrestling is presentational at its heart. When I think of wrestling, when I think of foreign objects, I think of people holding them high in the air so that they catch the light and the back row sees them. I think of the crowd shouting and reacting to the moments before something happens, the dramatic irony of knowledge as their hero still has his back turned.

I also think of how casually a man can take a CVS bag from the pocket of his jeans and put it over the head of someone else, the expression on his face barely changing.

I think I heard about that spot long before I ever saw that match, as this took place at a time when PWG was hard to come by in some ways, and I had to rely on the stories of others, and yet when I finally watched this, the image in my head was almost perfectly aligned with reality. The angle was off, as I pictured Necro Butcher stalking Bryan like a film, looming in the background. Instead it’s shot like a nature video, it’s just a thing that happens in the midst of a series of other things that happen.

It’s really sort of incredible that it doesn’t overshadow the match at all. Necro Butcher has fast hands, faster than Bryan realized at the start. Bryan is better but wary at all times, even when he’s in control. It’s structured in a way that truly plays to Necro Butcher’s strengths as a performer; The things he lands are memorable and impactful, his offense in comparison to Danielson’s creates a tremendous amount of natural dynamism.

It also allows Necro Butcher to sell, something that he doesn’t get enough credit for. He has an uncanny ability to sell for a long period of time and then take one shot and react in a way that makes you truly believe that it hurt him more, or at least in a different way. There’s a moment about three quarters of the way through where Danielson throws chairs at Necro while he’s prone, three or four times. On the last, Necro grabs at the chair and gets it stomped into his face. On this he reacts as though he’s been shot, writhing and squirming and moving in ways we have not yet seen. It’s almost the same cadence one would see from someone finally getting a heavyweight off their feet, but done in a way that projects damage and not just progress.

He manages to work in a similar pattern but escalate it for the finish. Danielson is clearly in control, running through many of the moves that he has finished matches with previously. Necro manages to kick out, escape or even reverse all of them, gouging and grabbing at eyes at every opportunity and unleashing a fury or punches, a last gasp. The brief moment of violence that interrupts Danielson’s rhythm works wonderfully as a natural way to make him realize that he must use a more violent finish.

This match doesn’t seem to get the same level of praise as the Joe match and the Low Ki matches, but in terms of laying out what Necro Butcher does better than almost all of his peers, I’m not sure there is a better series of examples.

SG: One of this guys is a big drug-fueled hillbilly and the other is a tiny pasty possible eunuch so we know that the match is going to be based around Bryan grounding Necro and making him taste the chain until he can taste no more. Danielson in this era really worked grappling fundamentals for their maximum heel effect which somehow let it go unnoticed by the "highspot technician" types how beautifully that he could work a duelling knucklelock spot that made both he and his opponent look like killers (not to mention that he knew that a good technician should know how to exploit a cut, just tremendous stuff). Necro gets his revenge with a Sabu chairshot toss cutting Danielson over the brow. Very little better defines pro wrestling than two motherfuckers literally ripping each other's faces off.

PAS: This was great stuff of course, you get two geniuses of pro-wrestling in a match together it is going to be great. I have been watching Danielson since the Super 8, and I can't remember him in this kind of compact fast moving brawl. He has had other bloody matches (hell he just had one a couple of weeks ago) but those were always more stretched out, with the blood used as a way to show fatigue. This was a 10 minute balls to the wall sprint with both guys emptying their gas tanks entirely. Loved Necro's wild punch flurries which put Danielson on his back foot and the total insanity of the CVS plastic bag. But Danielson was vicious too: the ranking of the cut, the hurling of chairs and the final grounded elbows. This was the nastiest I have ever seen those elbows, actually resembling the violence of what Gary Goodrich did to Paul Herrera. It felt like Necro brought something out of Danielson that he never really tapped into again. I would have loved to have seen these two run this back at one point. They really had great chemistry. 

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Matches from PWG All Star Weekend Night 1 1/5/08

Low-Ki vs. Bryan Danielson - EPIC

PAS: This was their first match against each other in four years, and their last ever indy match (they had a couple of FCW matches during their time in WWE Developmental). This was the matchup that launched modern indy wrestling, but this is one of their least hyped matches (PWG footage used to take so long to show up, that sometimes their stuff would fall a bit through the cracks). This was really great, as good if not better then their matches earlier in the decade. This was structured a bit differently, as these weren't young guys trying to prove themselves, but established stars. Danielson worked this as a heel, really trying to torture Ki by ripping up his arm in gross ways, he also had mixed in a fair amount of MMA spots in his arsenal, and there was a couple of really slick moves in and out of the guard, I especially dug him working an armbar, jumping into guard to throw down elbows, and slipping right back into the arm bar. Danielson also kept attacking with Goodrich elbows, setting up the finish nicely. Ki breaks out a bunch sick kicks to the chest and face, including catching a Bryan tope with a head kick. The finish run was awesome stuff, as they are fighting on the top rope, Ki actually bites Bryan getting him in position for the Warriors Way, Ki then hits the Ki Krusher, and spins it into the Ki clutch where he pays Bryan back with Goodrich elbows of his own. This is a undercover classic, I think it had too much matwork for the people who were really pushing PWG in 2008, but I am always going to love these guys banging the mat. 

Jack Evans vs. Roderick Strong

PAS: This was a fun match, although fell a little short of what these guys can do at their peak. Evans, at this point especially, was completely rubber-spined, and Strong found a bunch of ways to twist him into pain pretzels, at one point he had him wrapped up the ropes and nearly touched his ankles to the back of his head. Strong also unloaded some blistering chops, and Evans took a gross bump to the floor when he missed a dive and nuked his ankle. Evans always had a bit of an offense problem, he is kind of the Lugentz Dort of indy wrestling, he ends up going over in this match, and I just had a hard time buying the stuff he threw putting Strong down, although the 450 always looks great.

Eddie Kingston/Claudio Castagnoli/Human Tornado vs. Necro Butcher/Chris Hero/Candice LeRae -EPIC

PAS: This was a total blast, a wild brawl which ebbed and flowed had great pacing and told a bunch of little awesome mini stories. All six hit the ring fast and start brawling, and they eventually spill into the parking lot. Necro starts throwing rocks at the heel team, I mean big stones tossed hard, the kind of reckless insanity which made Necro special. This was a Necro masterpiece, he wilds out smashing the shit out Tornado and Kingston with crazed punches, at one point he comes in as a hot tag a just throws these totally gross JYD no hands headbutts. Tornado is a great gross cheapshotting prick, he absolutely obliterates LeRae with a superkick to the throat which puts her on the shelf for most of the match. Every time Kingston and Hero matched up it was as borderline unprofessional as you want from those two, and the finish was great with LeRae getting back into the match only for Eddie with a full wifebeater smirk, line her up for a backfist, with Hero diving in front of the bullet only to lose the match. On paper this looks awesome and in ring it delivered on it's promise.

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Super Dragon Doesn't Want the Pistols to Whistle

Super Dragon is back!! After a six year hiatus (which followed a three year hiatus, which followed another three year break) Dragon came out last night at the PWG return to jump Bandido and form a heel trio with Taurus and Flamita. Who knows how many matches we will get (if any) but I am amped. Figured I would review a couple of his big matches and pump up the Super Dragon C+A

Super Dragon vs. Bobby Quance APW 10/25/02 - EPIC

SR: This was a serious contender for the greatest US indy match I've ever seen. Virtually flawlessly worked 30 minute junior epic which had everything – matwork, storytelling, selling, devastating moves and guys slapping eachother in the mouth. We start with 10 minutes of nearly uninterrupted matwork which was ultra tightly worked, smooth stuff. Quance is someone nobody really talks about anymore, but he was a great talent and just mindlbowingly good for a dude in his 2nd year of wrestling. The matwork they did here was much better than the wristlocky WoS imitation stuff you usually get in US indies and closer to lucha matwork with a bit of japanese influence sprinkled in. Quance would shoot for double leg takedowns and judo legtrips, while Dragon just pounces on him like a snake, in between working ultra tight pin attempts and slapping eachother. Quances tiger feint rana may be the single coolest move a skinny US junior has ever invented. This is 2/3 falls and both the first 2 falls have really smart finishes that pay off in the long run of the match. Dragon was incredibly vicious here, modifying his signature offense to work Quances arm, but he also did a great job selling a big head kick. Quances arm selling was pretty much flawless as he was struggling to hit his offense for the rest of the match and he looked quite sympathetic trying to take down his bigger, more vicious opponent. There were also numerous great counters from Super Dragon, ranging from Fujiwara armbars to turning a DDT into a powerbomb mid-air. He also had this amazing flying armbar. Match also had all the usual brutal offense, neck-compressing suplexes, huge double stomps and lariats etc. The finish is fucking infuriating, but please don't let that detract from the amazing work these two did here.

PAS: I didn't like this quite as much as Sebastian, the knife's edge between a pro-wrestler and a reckless maniac which Super Dragon lives on is what makes him so compelling. This was much more a typical juniors match, although admittedly one worked at a super high level. I loved all of the arm work and the different ways Super Dragon whipped into them, he feels like he could have been the world best Minoru Tanaka, and this match really made me think about how great Super Dragon would have been in BattlArts. Quance was a bit colorless, but I was super impressed with his matwork, and that 619 rana was excellent. His shooting star landed with a real thud too, which was nice. Finish had a ref bump and imposter Super Dragon run in and get the win (two matches two imposter Super Dragons), a bummer considering how good the work was, but it was still a treat to watch 

Super Dragon vs. Samoa Joe PWG 2/12/05 - EPIC

PAS: This is the rematch after Joe was able to beat Dragon by count out in their previous match. This was as border line unprofessional as you want a match up between these two to get. Dragon and Joe are just unloading with slaps, headbutts, chops and kicks, and every couple of minutes they interrupt the wrestling match they are having and just start a double murder. They do a cool countout tease with Joe crushing Dragon with a spectacular elbow suicida, and Dragon barely beating the 20 count. Joe almost gets the pin with a sick death valley driver, but Dragon is able to fight back, hitting a gross curb stomp where he grabs Joe by the nose, a top rope double stomp to Joe's neck and a psycho driver which dumped Joe right on his hot dog neck. Joe rolls to the floor and is able to get a flurry of slaps, but Dragon sneaks in right at 20 to steal a count out win. Though the fake Super Dragon jumping SD 1, kind of Shelton holed Joe a bit, but otherwise this was a classic, totally what I love about both guys. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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Low-Ki Advent Calendar Night 23: PWG Legends 4 Way

Low-Ki vs. Necro Butcher vs. Chris Hero vs. Eddie Kingston PWG 8/3/08 - EPIC

PAS: This is a four way made up of incredible match ups. Kingston vs. Hero and Ki vs. Necro are all time feuds and every other combo of these guys have had amazing singles matchups against each other. This took a minute to get going, there was some early Necro and Kingston comedy which didn't do much for me, but man when it got rolling it was as violent as promised. These are four guys who throw with abandon, and there were parts of this match that was uncomfortable, Ki hit a koppo kick on Hero that looked like it sliced his skull like a meat cleaver, and then hit a koppo on Necro that looked like it broke his wrist. Necro was throwing huge potato right hands on everyone, Kingston was throwing big chops, talking shit, and Aja level backfists. We get a nice Ki vs. Necro section, no one takes full force kicks to the face like Necro, and if he is going to kicked in the temple he is going to try to clean Ki's teeth with his fist.  Match finished with Hero KOing Kingston with a big elbow while Ki was trying to tap Necro. Hero grabs the mic after the match, and calls Kingston a piece of shit and they have an awesome violent pull apart. The internet thinks it might have been a shoot, (Kingston hasn't been back to PWG since) and there are definitely stuff in it that don't feel like wrestling, Hero throws a slap right to Kingston's ear, and Kingston tries to choke him and Hero violent throws the back of his head into Kingston's face, I love this feud so much. Real treat which delivers all of violence you want.

ER: I had never seen this before, and it's just about the most indy wrestling dream match you can get in the Segunda Caida universe. I've never gotten the chance to see Kingston live (he really didn't make it out to CA a ton), but the others I've seen live several times and it was always super memorable. The two Necro matches I've seen live were such fun experiences, me running around a venue following all the action. I saw him in an SF club working King Dabada, a big fat guy, and they brawled all over a small club and fell onto Rachel's sister and her girlfriend. Just a big sweaty fat guy and a hillbilly brawler falling onto their laps. All these guys are among my all time favorites so this was exciting just knowing this match existed. But that it also wound up totally delivering on its on-paper potential, just made this kick extra ass. It felt set-up for disappointment due to high hopes, but over-delivered. The early comedy was a fun twist from the violence that was to follow, and limiting it to the very beginning was fine. Because I wasn't thinking about Kingston running away when every body in the match was throwing fists and boots and kicks and elbows at each other. There's a fantastic  sequence where Hero grabs Ki in this nasty cravate while Ki is flopping about, and Kingston breaks it up with a nasty spinning backfist on Hero, and immediately pins Ki which narrowly gets broken up by Necro. Ki hits his nastiest ever koppo kick into the middle of Hero's forehead and then turns around and throws his nastiest ever koppo kick to Necro's swinging arm. Necro's arm selling looked great, probably because the man just took an insane kick to the arm. Necro punched a lot of face (loved another Ki crumbling sell), Ki bounced off Necro's spine with a Warriors Way while Necro was draped in the ropes, and the end is sudden and violent, Hero finally dropping Kingston with one of several elbows. This match delivers everything you could ever want it to, jumping a high bar.

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Blame it on Super Dragon, Cause he Says it Gets Funky When You Got a Subject and a Predicate

Super Dragon vs. Samoa Joe PWG 8/14/04 - GREAT

Nifty match which told a great story of the bully Super Dragon, running into the even bigger bully Joe.  This was in the middle of Joe's ROH title reign and he was coming back to the West Coast as the conquering hero. Dragon tries to smack him around and stiff him, and get met back with even bigger shots. Say what you will about Dragon, but he isn't afraid to take it as good as he gives it. He gets hit with some nasty slaps and punches here, including some big stiff slaps to the back of his head. Dragon did get some moments of offense, hitting a teeth loosening lariat and even landing a top rope double stomp onto Joe's head. Finish was really cool with Dragon hitting the violence party, only to get thrown over the top rope with a belly to belly and landing hard on the wood parquet. Dragon tries to get back in the ring but ends up collapsing unable to answer the count. Loved the way they told the tale, and the moves were brutal, just thought it could have been a bit shorter, if the pace had been pushed a bit this could have gotten into all time classic territory.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Young Bucks v. Cobb/Riddle

18. Young Bucks v. Matt Riddle/Jeff Cobb PWG 12/16

PAS: Young Bucks matches have some problems baked in, you are going to get winking goofiness, some contrived spots and way too many superkicks, however both guys are big bumpers, have some nice looking offense and good timing. This was a match where the good outweighed the bad, Riddle and Cobb are a fun Steiner brother tag team, and really chucked around the Jacksons. I loved Cobb just throwing them both like sacks of wheat into a truck bed. Meanwhile the Bucks did a nice job timing their superkicks, I especially loved the superkick on Riddle's bare foot, which is a really nifty way to work a bodypart. I really should dislike the Young Bucks, but man are they in some good matches.

ER: My god I loved this. Bucks are usually a no middle ground team with me. I think I'm overall higher on them than most people, but I also recognize pretty early in a match if a particular Bucks match is going to work for me. So I love peak Bucks, and bail early on the stuff I recognize as not working. But this worked. It was like a Steiners/PG-13 match that never happened (wait did the Steiners ever face PG-13!?!? No that's impossible...unless it happened like a year ago at a Gathering of the Juggalos or something). Riddle and Cobb dominate so convincingly (tossing both around as you'd expect) that you start wondering how the Bucks will convincingly go on offense...and then Matt gets the boots up in the corner, suckers Riddle into chasing him around the ring, right into a beautiful Nick blindside superkick from the apron, and shit is ON. The rest of the match is a wonderful off the rails sprint, with unexpected double teams, neat move set ups, and tons of superkicks. People are weirdly offended by the Bucks use of superkicks, but I like it. It's an adjustment of thinking, no longer treating them as a KO blow but more as a thousand tiny cuts. I think they're effective because while they use them constantly, they use them in different ways and to different degrees. Sometimes they use them the way Lawler uses a punch, other times they're more devastating (like when Cobb is going for Tour of the Islands and takes one to the back of the head, and crumples beautifully), or when they're used specifically as a blindside cut off, or when they're used specifically to set up an opponents offense (the several times they get caught by Riddle and get used against them). They take it to the next level once they start stomping Riddle's ankle and then hold it up on a platter to superkick it. Great, great spot. They also avoid the Bucks mugging while the opponents have to sit around and sell. All Bucks mugging leads directly to Riddle/Cobb getting the momentum back: Nick mugs to the camera while punching Riddle, leading to him getting popped in the eye; both doing cocky superkicks to kneeling Cobb/Riddle leading to them getting caught in ankle locks.

This match is just a great confluence of styles, within the tag structure. From there we get unique Bucks double teams (Matt powerbombing Riddle into the corner while Nick hits an enziguiri, Matt hitting a cannonball while Nick hits a sliding shotgun kick), neat subtle taunts (Matt Jackson hitting a more vicious version of Riddle's running corner knee than Riddle hit earlier in the match), clever quirks (Matt pulling the ref towards him to hide the fact Nick is tapping to an ankle lock), big bumps, great nearfalls, and a satisfying, logical finish. I would have flipped my wig had I been there live.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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PWG Lemmy 1/2/16 Review

1. Brian Cage vs. Chris Dickinson

ER: Fun match with some absurd overkill, and some big power guys working cruiser spots. One sentence can kind of sum up this match: "A burning hammer gets a 2 count in the first match of the show". That's kind of what you need to know. Once you know that, and get that in your brain, you can enjoy or hate the rest of this. These are two power guys, and the power spots all looked good. I liked the running story of Cage trying to go for bigger and bigger power spots, that would allow Dickinson to slip out and do damage. One time Cage went for a powerslam off the top and Dickinson slipped out and eventually hit a huge rana, and another time he slipped out, kicked Cage's leg out and hit a big back suplex. Cage is a complete psycho taking burning hammers and dragon suplexes and doing big flip dives with all of his mass. One match in the future is going to see every single muscle in his body simultaneously tear. I really liked Dickinson in this. He appears to have more actual strength than Cage which lead to some pretty wild stuff, like a deadlift powerbomb and deadlift wheelbarrow suplex, and then he'll break out a crazy accurate spin kick. I also liked his little detail moments like stomping on Cage's foot to get out of a go behind, and standing on Cage's wrist while Cage is on the mat and Dickinson is transitioning to a new position, and the inverted Boston crab looked really great. Cage is just a weird worker as he's very agile, while also being slowed down by his bulk. So he does fast indy sequences but doesn't have the flexibility of the guys who typically do these spots, so they look strange. I wish he'd dial things back a bit but also understand these show off tendencies on cards like this. Match was ridiculous and structure was kind of out the window, but as a collection of big spots it was fun.

2. Drew Gulak vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: How weird, these two guys having a match I enjoyed! This was all built around each guy trying to rip the other's arm off, with some painful and convincing selling from both. Both break out cool arm stuff I haven't seen much, with Thatcher Irish whipping Gulak a few times but then yanking him down by the arm. Thatcher's curb stomp to the wrist is always a gross spot, and here he ups the ante by grabbing a kimura on Gulak and then lifting him up in the air by his damn arm! Gulak punishes Thatcher with annoying painful stuff like yanking on his thumb while grabbing a wrist, throwing open palm strikes to Thatcher's ear, throwing fast and low dropkicks to Thatcher's shoulder, snapping off a quick piledriver, wanting to compress Thatcher's neck in the same way Thatcher tried to do with his earlier north/south knees. I loved the ebb and flow of the arm stuff as each guy would push the other a little further, but there was an undercurrent of respect where neither wanted to go too far over the line...but then they'd keep pushing. Both guys sell the arm really nicely, doing some nice dead arms, not wanting to bend them, rubbing them out. There was one point where both were on the mat recovering, and both were independently holding their arms kind of straight off the mat, not putting weight on it. They still manage to snap off some throws and immediately regret them, with Thatcher pulling off a big gut wrench, and there's cool moments like Thatcher bridging out of a pin with his neck while keeping his arm motionless. The finish was so damn good with Gulak finally lacing in with slaps to Thatcher's ear and side and then starts with nasty elbows, and Thatcher just DROPPING him with his thrust headbutt as Gulak is whirling around with a rolling elbow. Gulak crumples better than maybe anybody, and that headbutt sent him into a nasty fold. It gets a surprise kickout but Thatcher locks on the kimura right after for the win. Awesome stuff. Not a shock.

PAS: This was a really great version of this match. They sped it up a bit for a PWG audience and I enjoyed the sprinty style of this a ton, it was almost like the Wrestlemania 3 version of Steamboat and Savage, all of the hits in less the time. That Kimura lift by Thatcher was honestly one of my spots of the year, just an unbelievably violent piece of business. Awesome performance by Gulak who maybe my 2016 Wrestler of the year, I loved his wide hip counter into this weird regal-plex where he through Thatcher by his chin, he also made Thatcher short headbutt look devestating, that is a really hit and miss spot, and Gulak sold it like he had been hit by Gennady Golovkin.

3. Sami Callihan vs. Trevor Lee

ER: This was below what I was expecting, but I'm also starting to realize that one of the first Trevor Lee matches I saw (vs. Mike Bailey) is still clearly the best match I have seen him in. And so every Lee match I watch I still think of him at that level, and that may not be fair. I need to recalibrate my` Lee expectations. They don't really have much of a gameplan here so the first half of the match is pretty unfocused. The spit right in each other's face which is freaking disgusting. I mean Sami especially can muster up a LOT of spit and he just projectiles it right into Lee's beard. It's fucking gross, guys. The match picks up when Sami catches Lee's apron punt on the ground, and back in the ring starts his brutal face wash kicks, throws a couple bicycle stomps and kicks, gets Lee tied up in the ropes and kicks him some more. Once they commenced with the kicking it got good. But overall it fell short.

4. Drew Galloway vs. Jack Evans

ER: Well this was really fun! Evans comes out running everybody down with a promo and then doing some show off breakdancing, and Galloway dropkicks him while Evans is doing a handstand. And then we go on a wild run of Evans taking ridiculous bumps off of Galloway kicks, lariats, punches and more. At one point Galloway no sells two dropsaults and when Evans goes for a third he plasters him with a lariat. Later as they brawl on the floor Galloway catches a crossbody off the apron and chucks Evans into the ringpost. Good god. Evans gets a couple nearfalls on flash roll ups but this was mostly him getting tossed by Galloway, and Evans is really good at getting tossed by Galloway.

5. Adam Cole vs. Speedball Mike Bailey

ER: Really good match, and amusing in the ways it factored the shittier parts of Adam Cole (moves with ridiculous set ups, cringe taunts) into a match story. Every time Cole would take time to taunt (like the embarrassing "Suck My Dick!") Bailey would meet him with a kick. Cole sets up his stupid bunny hop rolling piledriver, and it's Bailey suckering him in with a roll up. Bailey, that barefoot psychopath, looked really great and really crafted a great little match around Cole. Not a shocker that Bailey had some great kicks here. I especially love his Karate Kid crane kicks and his multiple rotation roundhouse kicks. And to Cole's credits he leaned right into them, and took a bunch of other nasty stuff like Bailey's moonsault knee drop right to the lower abdomen. Yuck. We don't get any overkill and things end when they should, and there was a nice nearfall with Cole grabbing the ref's arm. Really good stuff overall.

6. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Akira Tozawa

ER: Well, a lot of this ate shit. I'm not a big fan of "comedy striking" or "comedy grappling", and this match had an abundance of both. A problem with Tozawa is that a lot of his normal strikes already looked shitty in this match, so when he throws purposely shitty strikes it doesn't really land as comedy, it just lands as him looking slightly worse than normal. Sabre does some cool submission stuff, but also spends way too much time looking for yuks. Locking in a sub, making a face at the crowd, breaking the hold, repeat. We get some bad strike exchange moments, then some bad "this is supposed to be bad" strike exchange moments. We get suplex tradeoffs. It ticked a lot of the "this is bad" boxes. Sabre had some nice kicks, loved him kicking Tozawa's leg out while climbing the ropes, and at least the penalty kick finished the match, but I was bored and loathing this one pretty early when it was clear what they would be doing.

7. Chris Hero vs. Roderick Strong

ER: This was a long, boring match between two guys I like. It just didn't work. We got bumped refs, we had weak title belt shots, it was poorly paced, and it was a waste of two guys stiffing each other. They had an interminable section with Hero sitting on the top rope and Strong fighting to suplex him off. Hero looked tired really early and had zero steam by the end. There were spots where he was supposed to be tired and beaten down, and other spots where he just looked flat out gassed: not kicking high enough on kicks, elbows thrown noticeably slower. Roddy pulls the ref into the path of Hero offense a couple times, and I get it, he's a heel champ. But he does stupid nonsensical things related to the ref bumps. He pulls the ref into the way of a Hero elbow, and the ref goes down like a shot and rolls out of he ring. Right after, Roddy hits a brutal tiger driver.....and then pins Hero. HE was the one that purposely got the ref KO'd! He SAW the ref roll out of the ring! WHY would he cover?? Ohhhhhhh, because a second ref was running down to count a nearfall. Roddy didn't see this second ref, but he pinned Hero, because why? Too much of that garbage in this one. Way too long, horribly laid out, majorly disappointing for these two.

ER: Overall a mixed bag of a show. It was definitely front-loaded, but the last two matches were not only the longest of the night, but easily the worst of the night, so it's hard to not end the show feeling like it was worse than it was (especially when I watched the first half several days before the second half). Still, a great match, two very good matches, and some fun stuff in between....it's hard not to like that. But man those last two matches blew.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

17. Young Bucks v. Angelico/Jack Evans PWG 7/24

PAS: I am really rating this as a whole segment. Ricochet and Tozawa are hugging after their wank off of a match, and Super Dragon comes from the back and starts killing folks, the Young Bucks come out in Super Dragon masks and the three of them lay waste to the entire locker room. Super Dragon especially kills Candace LaRae including curb stomping her on the bottom turnbuckle which is just horrific looking. All three guys are hateble dicks. Finally Evans and Angelico make the save with some big dives and we have a balls to the wall spotfest tag. I imagine if I watched a lot of Young Bucks matches I would get tired of their shtick, but it is fun in small doses, and Jack Evans just takes a huge asskicking. Didn't out stay it's welcome (Hero v. Bailey earlier on the show went 5 near falls and 6 minutes too long) kept it moving and had plenty of high points.

ER: Well this is pretty much the spotfest of the year. This is just absurd, at times flat out impossible wrestling. This whole segment was outstanding, with Super Dragon destroying everybody while the Bucks wait for them to feed out of the entrance way. Reminded me of the big coliseum scene in Gladiator where all the captives are shoved into the battle arena and one gladiator is just waiting at the entranceway to blindside them. The abuse LaRae takes is borderline uncomfortable, and Super Dragon basks in the discomfort. And the beatings just continue, and continue, and that's what makes the Evans and Angelico entrances so great, as they rush out and separately fling themselves into the attackers. Angelico especially just launches himself past the rinpost and into the crowd. The Reseda venue adds TONS to a match like this, as the crowd is just directly in the way of everything at all times, and this match featured guys constantly flying into the crowd in dangerous and spectacular ways. Some of the double teams in this are just.....I have no idea how they came up with them. I'm not even going to begin to describe them, but there were so many strange "I'm holding this guy and then another guy jumps off of me into a shooting star and then I do a 450 while holding this guy" and it's incredible that nobody broke their neck. Sometimes I think they're setting up one insane spot and then they take it a whole different direction ("oh, obviously Evans is going to springboard onto his partner's back while Matt is holding Angelico in a samoan drop.....wait Evans did that and then moonsaulted from Angelico's back to the floor!?!?"). Guys fly in and out of frame, you get every flying move you could possibly desire, done from the top to the floor, done springboard style, men fly into fans, through chairs, and the whole thing is a flat out sprint from beginning to end. This is the match you show to your friends who don't care about one bit about pro wrestling, and then watch them lose their shit the entire time. Just unreal.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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PWG From Out Of Nowhere 2/27/15 Partial Review

ER: Phil wrote up a couple of these matches 9 months ago, and usually if a card has two matches that look really good I'll go ahead and watch the rest of the card. So I started doing that, but once I got through the last match I really wanted to see (Hero/Gulak), I didn't really feel like watching three more 20+ minute PWG epics. So blame that on me for willingly watching a Chuck Taylor match. A bad choice to be sure, but not the worst choice I've ever made. For we are men. We are all just men. We are all just canceled fall CBS replacement sitcoms.


1. Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Biff Busick

PAS: Really fun spotfest intro match for Bailey. Felt kind of like the first Rey Jr. v. Psicosis matches in ECW, where you had a crazy impressive athletic guy show off his stuff with an opponent he is really familiar with. Bailey has a lot of Tae Kwon Doe training and throws these awesome looking spin kicks which he mixes in well with fast high spots, he did 10 crazy things in this match, and my favorite was a loony looking springboard headlock takeover. This was Busick as a power highspot guy, not a mat wrestler, and he really throws Bailey around. Fast food kind of match, but unlike a lot of PWG spotfests it hit the spot for me.

ER: Man this match was awesome! This might have actually been my favorite Bailey/Busick match and we've been collective fans of all of them. Bailey does neat little twists on a bunch of spots you're used to (the handspring headlock takeover was a wonderful momentum shifter, and Busick was great at looking like he was bracing for an elbow and then getting caught in the headlock) and throws these cool misdirection kicks where you think they're going to land one way and then loop under and hit you in the chin. Busick's power offense is sick and these two were practically made to work each other. Busick tossed Bailey in all sorts of great ways, battered him with mean uppercuts and shoulderblocks, and latched on with the best headlocks in the business. I could watch most of a match made up of Busick finding ways to get a guy in a headlock. Then he starts throwing his nice palm strikes while locking in the headlock?? His low bulldog, his accurate blockbuster?? Forget it, Busick just hits all the right notes. Finish probably went on a bit too long (this is PWG, after all) as they started kicking out of some pretty devastating moves (brutal lariat from Busick, shooting star kneedrop from Bailey, massive sleeper suplex from the floor to the ring by Busick) but I love these guys doing moves to each other so can't complain too much. I still love Busick's rear naked choke being treated like death, and this match was the best highlight reel match so far for me this year. Awesome stuff.

2. Cedric Alexander vs. Tommaso Ciampa

ER: Hey we're 2 for 2 on this show! Cedric Alexander (previously listed by us as one of the obvious better Lucha Underground black wrestler choices instead of Shane Strickland) has fun offense and so does Ciampa, and they string them together here in a satisfying way. Cedric throws a nice dropkick, can take a big bump and knows how to belly flop in an impressive way (seems like a lot of Ciampa's moves see his opponent falling at kind of a dangerous angle, and Cedric manages to take all of it in a painful way, but while protecting himself). Ciampa has some nice throws and I dug his cannonball off the apron. They worked around some really fun reversal-of-reversal spots and everything built into a nice little spotfest. I hadn't seen both men in awhile and they've both improved since my last viewing. That's always a nice thing.

3. Beaver Boys (John Silver & Alex Reynolds) vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?)

ER: Well, we all knew what this would be. There are obviously many people who adore Taylor's shtick. The crowd was alive and way into this the entire time. They responded to every single thing he did in the match. He knows how to perfectly work in front of this audience. It just does nothing whatsoever for me. It is possible that I am a joyless shit sack, and in this instance I'd be okay with that. We get the grenade gag, some slow motion moves sold as high impact, some pause for photo gags, some Ace Ventura mannerisms, the whole shebang. My mouth was in a straight horizontal line the whole time. Trent is a guy who I think is an okay wrestler, who because of the shtick does very not okay things. Whereas Taylor is a guy who is a poor wrestler kind of saved by his shtick. I think Trent is capable of straight wrestling, whereas Taylor just looks bad no matter the circumstances. Trent has good timing, nice follow through on stuff like back elbows and running forearms, and knows how to take offense way better than Taylor. I had not seen the Beaver Boys before. I ended up liking Silver who is one of those short spark plug types. Reynolds was horrendous, like the worst possible version of Taylor. He had one long embarrassing comedy bit where he mimed jerking off on Trent, before "finishing" and throwing invisible jizz in Taylor's face, leading to Taylor desperately wiping it off with a rag. And you know that rag comes back multiple times the rest of the match. If you giggled at all while reading those last two sentences, that may be some insight into how much you would personally enjoy the match. Maybe it works better live. Maybe it works better while drunk. Maybe it works better if you're a teenage boy. I don't know. I don't think I have a very high brow sense of humor. But whatever brow level this is, it isn't for me. I think this could have been an actual good match, as once we got past the opening 12+ minutes of yuks there was plenty of the actual wrestling that I enjoyed. Beaver Boys in particular had an awesome run of timing based double teams, the kind where one guy does a move, immediately followed by the next guy, and so on. Silver had some cool deadlift suplexes and good energy (like to see more of this guy) but overall this match was close to 20 minutes of stuff that isn't meant for me. C'est la vie.

4. ACH vs. AR Fox

ER: Another one to file under "just not for me". Both guys do some things I like (although I would like ACH more if he cut down on the yuks, but there's me being a joyless shit sack again since obviously what he was doing worked fine for this audience), but both do stuff I don't like. ACH's comedy doesn't really blend with his actual wrestling, so we're left with starting off the match getting all his comedy spots in, and then eventually we transition to the "actual" match. This of course results in a neverending 22 minute match, and jesus why are PWG matches all so damn long? It really feels like they're long because each guy has shit and routines that they have to get in. "The fans are expecting the grenade bit, gotta fit it in" "The fans are expecting my Stone Cold routine, gotta fit it in". We bring back the jizz rag from the previous match, and really if you're working a jizz to the face spot you might as well work with a professional like AR Fox. We get a lot of intricate reversal sequences, and good timing is intrinsic in these things or else the curtain lifts a bit and you realize you're watching too much dance off, not enough wrestling. Stuff like ACH rushing, ducking a Fox kick, catching the kick around the back of his neck, then using that leverage to suplex Fox. But there are always little wrinkles like ACH not catching the kick flush, so having to place it there while Fox waits to be suplexed. There were things I liked about this, Fox had an awesome weird springboard cannonball to the floor, where he was facing the ring and sprung backward while tucking forward. It looked killer. Also really loved a giant swing that ACH did, where he grabbed Fox in a Texas Cloverleaf, did the swing while holding the Cloverleaf, and then set him down and locked in the sub. It looked great. We had a cool Fox dive over the turnbuckles, some of the worst 10 count punches you've ever seen (from both!), and overall this just didn't click for me.

5. Chris Hero vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: Really happy to see Hero mixing it up with the next generation of Indy mat guys, one of the cooler things in wrestling this year. This was the first of these match ups with EVOLVE running them in March. I really liked the beginning of this, with Gulak showing himself a step ahead, catching and dumping Hero with some fast german suplexes. Hero turned the tables with a killer elbow KO and landed some nasty kicks to the head and elbows. Finish run had Gulak going after the leg and even ripping off Hero's boot, it got a little discombobulated at the finish although I loved the jumping piledriver by Hero. Looking forward to checking out all of these.

ER: Classic great 16 minute PWG match, that goes 22 minutes. As they go, things keep building, and peaking, and building....and then still peaking....then more building....then an ending. These guys beat the holy hell out of each other but it's crazy how PWG matches so often overshoot that peak excitement and then kind of drift into mindless slog territory. The guys still look great, the work is still high end, you just want the match to end every single move past the point you mentally think it should have ended. I love how these two work around each other though. You can tell Hero is kinda like Kraneo, as he's put on a bunch of weight but still prides himself on agility and shutting up the naysayers by working as hard as ever. I loved his rolling ankle picks on Gulak and loved how the evolved during the match, how Gulak would get wiser to them and Hero would switch them up and go for fakeouts. And then Gulak would bait him and try and work his own ankle lock. But before long these two are railing into each other with kicks and elbows to the face. So, so many kicks and elbows to the face. Probably too many elbows and kicks to the face. But they aren't your standard issue your turn my turn growl strikes, because each guy is always looking for an opening, each guy is always waiting to catch a limb. And there are some damn cool sequences and reversals and some fun silly spots. I loved Gulak grabbing the ankle lock and Hero slipping out of his boot, kicking Gulak a bunch and but then getting leveled by Gulak swinging his own boot at him. Is it silly that a loose boot does more damage than a boot with a foot in it propelled by the force of a leg? Most definitely, but this is wrestling physics.


***Bailey/Busick and Hero/Gulak were both clearly awesome and easily made our 2015 MOTY List. So really I can't talk poorly about a show that had two great matches on it. Maybe it had more! The final three could be real killers, for all I know. I heartily encourage you to watch them and fill in the rest of the review in the comments section. All I know is if you add up my time spent watching this show, it was spent watching more good wrestling than bad wrestling. Believe in yourself.***

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

6. Drew Gulak v. Sami Callihan PWG 12/11

ER: Holy hell this was great. 10 minute matches are my kryptonite and they can't possibly come better than this one. Sami returns from 2.5 years of exile and celebrates by booting Gulak in the face, booting him in the face on the floor, chopping the hell out of him, slamming him into fans, giving him a freaking EXPLODER into fans! Gulak catches his breath by dodging a charging Sami and sending him hurtling into chairs in classic Callihan fashion, and then it's Gulak's turn to punish as he dumps him hard on the apron with a back suplex. Gulak chops a ringpost in a spot that always makes me squirm, and the fans in Reseda being so damn on top of them makes this atmosphere unbeatable. Back in and Sami unleashes some hellish face washes and then boots Gulak's hand. Gulak is crafty though and catches Sami with a quick and powerful deadlift German. But Sami is relentless and eventually we see him superkick Gulak's knee, hit a fine powerbomb and roll it into a stretch muffler. God I love the stretch muffler. Gulak rolls out and traps Sami in the ankle lock, but Sami gets out and starts just violently stomping on Gulak's face before getting the tap with the muffler. Good lord. I love these guys. I loved the tone shifts in this, the strategy shifts, the unparalleled violence. Gulak shows he's more than just grappling and he can fight with the best of them; Sami shows how underutilized he's been for the last few years. This was sooooo damn good.

PAS: PWG is really at its best in these quick sprints. This kind of bang bang bang match can really burn you out when they go 20+ minutes with multiple kick outs, but if they have guys just go out there and fire all cylinders for 10 minutes you don't get sick of it. Sami Callihan maybe the best sprint worker in the world, he is so intense and has a bunch of great vicious fast moving spots. Loved all the stuff with the fans, that crowd is jammed in there and you might as well use LA hipster nerds as weapons. Gulak was great out of his element, and that stretch muffler stomp finish was nasty as fuck.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2014 Ongoing Match of the Year List

35. Bobby Fish v. TJ Perkins PWG 8/29

PAS: Pretty enjoyable opening match from the BOLA. Standard stuff to start, including sort of a goofy comedy spot, Perkins is so fast and fluid though, that he makes even simple things fun to watch. The match picks up when Fish starts working over the knee, including Fish brutally checking a kick Chris Weidman style. Perkins did a nice job selling danger, and damaged including doing a cool tope from almost a dead stop because he couldn't run. Really liked the finish with Fish trying to twist off the knee until Perkins was able to slip in a bridge and turn a submission into a pin. Fun stuff

ER:  Man I really liked this, and also liked the pre-leg work stuff. I thought all of it worked great (except the comedy spot; that felt really shoehorned in). Reversals and "guys who scouted their opponent's arsenal" stuff can come off way too cute and over-rehearsed. But they broke out some real slick and impressive stuff, stuff I wasn't expecting. Perkins especially can get too cute, as he can try to blend too many styles and occasionally can come off like a Rocky Romero type. Still better than Romero, but you don't ever want to be compared to Rocky Romero. Here all of the potential cute stuff actually fits logically and seamlessly into the match. For example, this may be the only time I've ever seen Perkins' little "Spider-man catching himself in the ropes" spot actually make sense, with Fish throwing him hard and close into the ropes, and Perkins actually looking like he was going to fly out to the floor before catching himself last minute. I was digging the reversals and all the "guys attempt same move at same time" stuff more than I usually dug that stuff, but things jumped to another level once Fish checked that low kick and Perkins sold it 100% perfectly. He went down like he had kicked a ringpost and it looked great. Overall I thought Perkins did an exceptional job selling the knee, doing things like the near stop tope Phil mentioned, and other little details like going for an Irish whip but not being able to plant his leg. Joey Ryan was really good on commentary here as well, putting over what Perkins is going through with his knee, not being able to trust it, how the knee feels hollow, or light. The execution from both guys was great throughout. Fish was vicious finding new ways to attack the knee, and I especially liked the few variations of him kicking Perkins' legs out from under him. The flash bridge finish worked well, and man I just really, really liked this.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

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With Right, Left, Right Left You're Toothless, Then You Say Goddamn Dragon's Ruthless

Super Dragon v. Excalibur PWG 5/13/05 -GREAT

This was an impromptu Guerrilla Warfare match which was started after Excalibur turns on Super Dragon and takes responsibility for the fake Super Dragon who had been attacking Dragon at previous shows. They have a pretty nasty prop garbage match, it doesn't have the frenzied brawling of the best Super Dragon fights, but it does have some especially nasty spots. Especially nasty was Excalibur getting curb stomped with his head between a ladder which looks like it might decapitate him, and Super Dragon taking some gross chair shots to the top of the head. Excalibur does a nice job looking vicious despite not having the best looking offense. Finish had the fake Super Dragon run in and unmask as Steen, and both he and Excalibur beat up Super Dragon and Excalibur ended up pedigree piledrivering SD through a table (which broke first and end up looking nastier.) Kind of a BS WWE PPV finish, and Super D wasn't as much of an asskicking tsunami as the best stuff, still if you want a couple of guys totally die on bumps this was pretty great.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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Super Dragon is the Motherfucker that You Read About

Super Dragon v. Kevin Steen PWG 8/6/05-GREAT

This is a Guerrilla Warfare match and the match that set the standard for brutality in the gimmick. I loved the opening 10 minutes or so of this match. Steen had been coming out in a Super Dragon costume to taunt Dragon in the set up to this match, and this was almost like Super Dragon v. Super Dragon, with both guys just exchanging nasty backhands, and awkward thrown chairshots. Steen was trying to beat SD at his own game and the reckless brawling was really compelling. The second half of the match brought it down unfortunately . You had one guy set up his opponent for a brutal garbage spot, only to get a kickout, and then they would go set up another big garbage spot only to have the tables turned. There was some truly sick stuff here, package piledrivers onto thumbtacks, slams through barbed wire boards, Steen getting handcuffed and chairshotted, but it just took too long to set everything up. It felt less like a fight and more like a CZW death match tourney final. Still had lots to love, but this was a step below the best Super Dragon brawls.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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Some Drop Science Super Dragon's Dropping English

Super Dragon/Davey Richards v. Jack Evans/Roderick Strong PWG 3/4/06 -EPIC

I was a little hesitant about digging into the Davey Richards tag period, so far I only reviewed Dragon brawls, and a long tags with Davey Richards of all people as his partner was pretty daunting. This however was fucking choice. Jack Evans is really best as American indy Kikuchi and Super Dragon lays a horrific ass kicking on him, stretching him in unnatural ways, dumping him on his neck and beating the grits off him. At one point he just pokes him in the trachea.  He also gives him a curb stomp on the side of his neck, and a bunch of different bits of violence I can't even describe.

Evans had some pretty offense, he cracks Richards with one of the best pele kicks I can remember, and hits a spaceman plancha into a 450, which was totally bonkers.  Richards was pretty much just doing Benoit shtick here, and kept it pretty simple, he did a little goofus selling, but was in the background enough so he didn't bother me. This did stretch, with three separate long beatdowns on the faces, still when the beatdowns are this nasty I don't mind it. Finish run was pretty exciting and the long finish runs were always what bugged me about PWG and the length here was fine.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

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Super Dragon is Expressin with his Full Capabilities

Super Dragon v. Necro Butcher PWG 9/2/06 -EPIC

I remember losing my shit over this when I first saw it in 2006, and almost 10 years later it still holds up great. This had a really dream match feel, even more then most indy dream matches, you had the craziest brawler from the east coast traveling down to the west coast to take on their resident lunatic, and this match was worked like that kind of traveling kung-fu master battle.

Dragon opens the match up by slugging Necro in the jaw with a forearm right at the bell and it goes from there. Weirdly for a match like this, this was built around Necro's masterful selling. Early in the match Dragon obliterates Necro's hand with a chair shot, and for the rest of the match Necro would still throw it, but it was the way a boxer with a broken right hand still has to follow up the jab. Every punch was sold with a wince, and sometimes Necro just hand to open his hand up and slap him.

Both guys did a bunch of cool little things, I loved the way they threw chair shots, both guys would let go right before impact so the chair would go careening reckless into the body of their opponent. That lack of control really led to some hideous shots, including Necro taking a thrown steel chair right to the back of his head. I also liked how they adjusted to the blown table spot, they don't get frustrated or re-try it, Necro just rips out a piece of the table and waylays Super Dragon with it.

This match had some of the grosser bumps in wrestling history, it is shocking that Necro is walking 10 years later, much less still wrestling. Super Dragon lands awkwardly on his tailbone on a backdrop, and gets Tiger Drivered on the stage, but of course 2006 Necro will not be outbumped. The finishing run was as violent and reckless as anything I have seen, Dragon is a guy who will take liberties, and this was even much for him, his leaping double stomp directly into the side of Necro's face was shocking, as was that finishing psycho driver. Harrowing stuff, and a stone cold classic of a match.

Complete and Accurate Super Dragon

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PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night 2

Marty Scrull v. Rich Swann

This was fine indy juniors wrestling. Scrull had a lot of shtick which I began to tire of, I liked the finger breaking spots, but it didn’t really lead anywhere. Still this was short enough and didn’t have a ton of things I hated. Would get the full Worldwide point

Angelico v. Jack Evans

Well if you are going to do a goofy indy comedy match, I much prefer this kind of thing to stupid shit like slow motion or hypnotizing. Jack Evans is talking shit to the audience and goes to grab a beer, he drinks it and breaks out Drunken Kung Fu, which he was totally awesome at, so much fun to watch him and Angelico do Jackie Chan spots. The rest of the match was fine, but they probably should have made that the apex of the match.

Chris Hero v. Timothy Thatcher.

This was really great, and the kind of change of pace night one really needed. Less grappling then EVOLVE Thatcher matches, as this was more of a FUTENish slugfest. Hero was absolutely blitzing Thatcher with kicks and elbows, which Thatcher would do a great stunned sell of. Thatcher meanwhile would fire back with uppercuts and grabbing ankle picks, including one in the ropes which looked like it might shred Hero’s achilles. Lots of great violence here, including a Hero short snap piledriver which Thatcher sold like it paralyzed his arm, and a headbutt counter by Thatcher which looked like it dislocated Hero’s jaw. I didn’t love the finish, which had Hero hit a sick tombstone, and have Thatcher grab a Fujiwara  but get countered to a Hero’s welcome for the pin. Hero’s welcome is a real Novaish finisher to end a slugfest like this, should have just had Hero get the pin after the tombstone. Still this was a blast.

Fenix/Aeorstar v Drago/Pentagon Jr.

Hyped up version of a Nitro Lucha tag. None of these guys are prime Juventud Guerrera, but this was a blast. Fenix especially looked good, hitting a really insane dive really fast. I thought Aerostar was a bit botchy, but outside of him everything was hit cleanly and Pentagon continues to look like a total badass.

Drew Gulak v. Tommy End

I enjoyed this, it was worked as sort of a bankrupt man’s Ikeda v. Ishikawa. Gulak would control with takedowns and grappling, while End would spring out and land a big punch or kick.  I liked End’s spin kick a lot, which is a great looking strike which Gulak sold great. There was a silly spot with End selling a knee by falling down hokeyly and getting clotheslined, and I thought the finish was a good idea that wasn’t executed properly. Still this was mostly pretty good, and I like how this show is mixing up the styles of matches, much better then night one which was very samey.

Speedball Mike Bailey v. Drew Galloway

Bailey has gotten to be a master at this kind of workrate indy match. Galloway is just a monster compared to most indy wrestlers and this was almost Rey v. Big Show.  Really liked how nasty all of Galloway’s simple stuff looked, he had really nasty stomps including some right on Bailey’s insteps. Galloway set up some very realistic near falls, and made Bailey look overmatched but credible. Felt this went a little long, and would have been better if they cut a near fall or two.

Zach Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet

Pretty entertaining stuff, with Ricochet looking perfectly comfortable working Sabre’s WOS tribute act stuff. Ricochet even breaks out the Cerebro special which will endear me to you. Sabre has a bunch of fun ways to snatch someone out of midair. This seemed like it was raring up to go long, but I actually liked the point it ended at. Good stuff.

Mt.. Rushmore 2.0 (Super Dragon/Young Bucks) v. Andrew Everett/Trevor Lee/Biff Busick

Super Dragon returns after a four year absence, which was preceded by a three year absence, so it has been seven years or so since he has been a regular active wrestler and he comes in killing people like he hasn’t missed a beat. He takes an Alabama Slam on a ladder, does a flip dive and takes a bunch of chair shots to the head. Busick and he just rip into each other all match. Busick feels like a guy who grew up watching Super Dragon and was super amped to have a chance to have one of these crazy brawls. Bucks are fine in this kind of nutjob brawl (my favorite Bucks match ever is their Guerrila warfare match against Dragon and Steen), they aren’t afraid to take big bumps and they make you want to see them suffer.  Everett has had a great tourney so far, his big fake out dive was one of my spots of the year, and his lunatic springboard shooting  press was incredible. Did care about the stuff with the ref, and the thumbtack shoes were cooler in theory then in execution, but this was the most lunatic match of the year, and I loved it.

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

18. Biff Busick v. Andrew Everett PWG 8/28

PAS: I really enjoyed this. Busick is great as a bully against highflyers, he has had a series of good matches against Mike Bailey and this was in that style, Everett would hit some big time highspots inbetween Busick muderizing him with suplexes, clotheslines and uppercuts. There were point where it felt a little formless, but the big stuff was big. At one point Everett went back on offense with this leaping one motion backwards rana which was one of the prettiest highspots I have seen in a while, really shouldn’t have been thrown out in the middle of the match. Finish run of Busick offense looked awesome as Everett takes stuff so crazy that all of Busicks moves look deadly.

ER: Busick is so awesome. He's the perfect foil for flippers, especially fearless ones like Everett who have no problem getting obliterated by strikes. And Busick threw out some brutal strikes here, including the best clothesline I've seen in ages. I want someone to gif it so I can just watch it on a loop several dozen times in a row, like Buster Posey's grand slam off Mat Latos in the 2012 NLDS. Busick charges an unsuspecting Everett who turns right around into a nasty yet gorgeous falling lariat. Everett gets turned inside out and everything about it was perfect. Busick controlled much of this with nasty strikes and his great headlock choke (my favorite finisher of the year). I love the Busick headlock choke takeover. Everett would pepper in comebacks (including a real great Pele kick) but would always bite off more than he could chew, like a nutty Phoenix Splash that turned into a weird Phoenix elbow drop. Like the moment of Everett thinking he can go strike for strike with Busick, throwing nice right hands with Busick getting hands up, but it was always inevitable Busick would grab ahold of him, toss him with some nasty suplexes, and then peaking with him nailing an uppercut off a shooting star. I cannot even imagine the trust that goes into pulling something like that off. Good lord, guys.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

8. Will Ospreay v. Mark Andrews PWG 8/28/15

PAS: This first round placed guys together who had worked each before or worked similar styles. It hurt a little on the dream match aspect of a tourney like this, but it did allow new guys to avoid awkwardness and show their stuff. This was a total blast, both guys are hitting very high difficulty flips and arm drags, I know my man Robert Bihari must have been losing his shit live, Andrews especially was just contorting his body in mid air with a variety of crazy takedowns, reminded of a taller Mascarita 2000, including one of the prettiest springboard ranas I have ever seen. Osprey was also really fast, and got crazy height on everything he did, his twirling kick looked like something out of a wire kung fu movie. Exactly the kind of opening round tourney debut showcase match you want to see.

ER: Well this was just absurd. Every so often you get surprised by guys, moving in ways you wouldn't expect. You had Blitzkrieg popping up as an unknown on Nitro, Low Ki and Red aping old Jackie Chan movies, and now Andrews and Ospreay doing movements that I couldn't begin to accurately describe. Andrews looks like Spud except does spectacular things, and Ospreay had some of the most rewindable kicks and flying that I've ever seen. We start with some stand exhibition-y mat rolling and armdrags and I'm beginning to wonder why Phil told me to go watch this. And then it starts to break down into all sorts of cool stop/start armdrags and reversals, and then we go flying full bore into ridiculous kick combos and nutty flying and strikes and slender men getting dumped on their heads. At one point I note that Andrews has a nice little thrust kick to the stomach, really treating it as more than a throwaway to set up another spot, but then I've forgotten about it moments later when Ospreay lands the most physics defying spin kick I've ever seen. As Phil said it's like Crouching Tiger come to life as Ospreay spins what seems like a dozen times in midair before landing with a knee to the back of Andrews had. Later Ospreay lands some insanely quick kicks to the face and head, making me die to see him vs. Bailey (or Busick!). We get a nutbar flipping DDT out of a northern lights, and couple vicious reverse ranas that look amazing - even in a fed where everybody throws out a reverse rana - with both guys SUWAing the other's rana, and some just flat out weird stuff like Andrews climbing the buckles, only to have Ospreay grab his head and tuck it behind the buckle before superkicking him through his legs. It's like he tied him into a Nieblina on the top rope and then kicked his face. Silly. Loved it. This really felt like something you could show your friend who doesn't ever watch wrestling, and then watch them lose their shit.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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PWG Battle of Los Angeles Night One

PWG BOLA has gotten some great reviews, and I figured I would check it out, let see if I can get through a whole show.

Brian Cage v. Aerostar

One of my fears about this tourney was the dreaded PWG bloat, this is a fed in the past that has had 14 minutes matches drag to 25, so I was happy this was a compact 9 minutes. Both guys had some cool ideas, that they only hit sometimes,  I liked Cage doing curls with Aerostar's body, and that finish hanging Steiner screwdriver was uncalled for. Cage is good in Lucha Underground 4-Ways, and this felt like it could have used two more guys to do some stuff in between their big spots. If they had included Big Ryck and Drago this might have been something great.

Biff Busick v. Andrew Everett

I really enjoyed this. Busick is great as a bully against highflyers, he has had a series of good matches against Mike Bailey and this was in that style, Everett would hit some big time highspots inbetween Busick muderizing him with suplexes, clotheslines and uppercuts. There were point where it felt a little formless, but the big stuff was big. At one point Everett went back on offense with this leaping one motion backwards rana which was one of the prettiest highspots I have seen in a while, really shouldn’t have been thrown out in the middle of the match. Finish run of Busick offense looked awesome as Everett takes stuff so crazy that all of Busicks moves look deadly.

Will Ospreay v. Mark Andrews

This first round placed guys together who had worked each before or worked similar styles. It hurt a little on the dream match aspect of a tourney like this, but it did allow new guys to avoid awkwardness and show their stuff. This was a total blast, both guys are hitting very high difficulty flips and arm drags, I know my man Robert Bihari must have been losing his shit live, Andrews especially was just contorting his body in mid air with a variety of crazy takedowns, reminded of a taller Mascarita 2000, including one of the prettiest springboard ranas I have ever seen. Osprey was also really fast, and got crazy height on everything he did, his twirling kick looked like something out of a wire kung fu movie. Exactly the kind of opening round tourney debut showcase match you want to see.

Jack Evans/Angelico v. Rich Swann/Ricochet

Took a while to get going, as they did a lot of dance contest horseshit which didn’t do much for me. Had a fun finishing run, including a great dive by Angelico, but the problem with tourneys like this is, is that you get inured to all of the high spots, there has been a reverse rana in every match so far, so when Rich Swann does one, it is hard to care, same with 450s and 630s, just the same kind of spots over and over again. I liked this fine, but I could see having a problem watching all three nights of this tournament.

Trent ? v. Trevor Lee

Trent ? is the former Trent Barretta and an ex Chuck Taylor partner, and he has the same junior college improv troupe approach to wrestling. After his early shenanigans he tries to have a serious indy wrestling match, and he isn’t particularly good at that either. We get the 43rd reverse rana of the tourney, and some german suplexes and shit. Lee is a guy I have liked in other matches (He had an awesome sprint with Bailey in PWG earlier this year) but he couldn’t do much here

Pentagon Jr. v. Drago

This was a bummer, I like both guys a lot and you figure they would have lots of experience working each other, but lots of this felt off, and even the big spots weren’t as big or interesting as stuff that was hit earlier in the tourney. Pentagon Jr. has a lot of charisma but this wasn’t good.

Matt Sydal v. Fenix

This was pretty much a popcorn match, with both guys breaking out all of their spots until there was a finish. For that type of match it was pretty good, although nothing I will remember later (unlike the British match earlier which was a similar style but with more pizzaz) . I liked how Fenix brought a little extra to all of his kicks and chops, there was one point where he toed Sydal in the eye, which was brutal looking.  Sydal is good at playing the outclass veteran who used to be able to jump as high as these kids, but now is a step slow, kind of like a Grizzlies era Vince Carter. Still the match ending on a reverse rana,, into a SSP after every nearly every other match on the show through out a reverse rana as a nothing mid-match move, really hurt the finish, this show really needed someone backstage producing this tourney.

Mt. Rushmore 2.0 (Roderick Strong/Young Bucks) v. Marty Scrull/Zach Sabre Jr./Tommy End

This was the most PWGish match on the show. Mt. Rushmore 2.0 has some fun triple teams, and I loved ZSJ using a Breaks special as a hot tag move, but this match just went forever. It felt like it had two or three crescendos, and then the match would slow down with the Bucks doing shtick. It this had seven minutes or so cut, it might have been pretty good, but I just lost interest as it just kept going. I did think this set up Sabre Jr. v. Strong pretty well, and made Rushmore look badass going into the next two days.

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