MLW Worth Watching: Yehi! Holliday! Hart Foundation! Stud Stable! PCO! King!

Fred Yehi vs. Richard Holliday  MLW Fusion #21 7/19 (Aired 9/7/18)

ER: This works as both a cool showcase for Yehi, and a nice introduction to Holliday, of whom I know nothing about. Yehi doesn't squash him but never feels in trouble, and Holliday has a nice undeserved smugness to him, like a guy who would make sense teaming with MJF but taking all the pinfalls; a good entitled stooge. Yehi blocks a lot of his shots in fun ways, hits a hard shoulderblock, stomps his hand, does a couple leg sweeps that nobody else does, the kind of stuff you want to see Yehi doing. Holliday bumped around and acted perplexed by all of it, but still nicely worked in a couple pieces of offense; I really liked Yehi grabbing him with the trapped arm kicks to the chest and pushing him off, put Holliday blazing back off the ropes with an elbow. Holliday showed his egotistical charisma while clearly on the losing end, and I love a big mouthed jobber. Yehi grabs that Koji Clutch and Holliday starts tapping the second Yehi starts throwing shots. Nice touch.

The New Hart Foundation vs. The Stud Stable  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: I would have liked to see this twice as long, but what we got was as good as I hoped it would be. Teddy Hart has been so great everywhere he's turned up this year, that right hand is just lighting everyone up. Pillman is green as hell but a good lackey for Davey Boy and Teddy, and I dug them basically using him as a way to distract Parrow, basically throwing him to the wolves so they can get in their licks. Parrow took a nice Nestea plunge bump off the apron into the Blondes and Hart hit a huge moonsault off the top onto all of them on the floor. Both Blondes take big suplexes well for big dudes (and Patrick takes a brutal Saito suplex from Davey) and they both throw out some nice offense. I'll pretty much be completely in the boat (is that a phrase? I don't know what the fuck I'm doing) for any tag team that does a tandem elbow drop, that kind where both guys are dropping elbows one after the other. It always looks great, and it looks ever greater when it's two guys (like the Blondes) with great elbow drops. We get a kind of goofus finish with Parrow wanting the pinfall all for himself, but Pillman breaks it up and Parrow gets pinned like right after. Blondes were each up on the top rope when Parrow opted to go for the pin, and I really wanted to see what the heck they were going to do. But afterwards they give Parrow a beatdown, and I kinda just want them to start getting actual tag matches. We've already wasted time feuding them with the already broken up Team TBD, now they're starting up something with Parrow, but they still don't feel established. Just give these guys a run already.

PCO vs. Brody King  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: Phil pointed out that one of the keys to successful PCO matches is to keep the pace fast, and the more we see of him we realize another key is keeping things short. There's a set amount of material, and that material is fantastic at 10 minutes or under. Brody King is kind of similar, so you give these two 5 minutes to lace into each other and pull out some crazy nonsense? Then that's absolutely going to be something worth taking time out of your day to see. These are two big dudes who have no problem sending shivers to the jaw, and taking man size spills that aren't typical of guys their size. The whole match was filled with hard elbows, big clotheslines, headbutts, and hard knees. That alone would have been enough to make this good, but PCO breaks out a huge and impressive dive early, King drops him with a brainbuster, launches him into the buckles with a backdrop, misses a rolling senton that lands him on his head, PCO hits a big powerbomb and running knee; the match is just packed with cool stuff and hard shots. King pie faces the ref when he gets in the way of two adults beating each other's ass, and we get an awesome postmatch melee with other officials running out to separate, and PCO hits a flat out GREAT moonsault off the top to the floor, crashing through everybody. This is exactly what this match should have been.

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Wrestlemania Weekend Cherry Picking: WWNLive SuperShow - Mercury Rising 2018

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Munenori Sawa

PAS: Sabre actually worked a FUTEN show in 2015, and seems to be really excited to work a BattlArts guy. He keeps this mostly BattlArts style, with the matwork being pretty shooty, and really dialing down his flourishes (in fact any of the goofy stuff in the match was done by Sawa). There is some really nice grappling early. With Sawa working for leglocks, and Sabre attacking the arm. They exchange some nasty slaps to the ear which is the stiffest I can remember Sabre working, he really laid into Sawa and bloodied his mouth. Finish run was awesome, with Sabre yanking Sawa out of the air on a kick attempt and putting on a nasty STF variation. After Sawa gets to the ropes, they exchange some shots, and Sabre does another cool counter as he ducks the Ohtani punch and drags Sawa down into a sleeper which he quickly transitions into a banana split for the tap. I really liked this, it was one of my favorite Sabre performances, it wasn't his best match, but I thought he maximized the cool shit, and minimized the dumb shit in a really entertaining way.

ER: This was maybe the most savage I've ever seen Sabre work, and it's on the same card that will later see Riddle work like a total lunatic. I had thought of skipping this match as I thought they would bring out bad tendencies in each other, but I was wrong. The rolling is really fun and springy and you get the sense that Sabre can just grab a limb whenever he wants. Really I would have been cool with it staying there, but we forget that Sawa came back after 7 years to get his body and face attacked. Sabre brings his best ever smacks and uppercuts, and before long it looks like Sawa has a port wine stain on his neck and chest. Sabre can come off cocky even when facing guys way larger, so it's fun watching him be so smug and jerky to a guy smaller than him. He was really picking on Sawa, but I loved how he sold for Sawa's stuff, love how he crumpled on the Ohtani punch, loved Sawa yanking and twisting his leg and ankle on the apron. But Sabre was pretty relentless, really seeming like he could bully Sawa around and grab an octopus whenever he wanted, and the banana split finish was a real trip. Sawa looked like he was tied to two trucks driving in the opposite direction, and Sabre soaks up the adulation from fans afterwards. Great performance, a real smug cad, and a fun note to go out on for Sawa (unless this is him back in wrestling?). Killer match.

Dominic Garrini/Tracy Williams vs. Anthony Henry/James Drake vs. Parrow/Odinson

ER: Big old sloppy weapons brawl between teams that I'd rather just see in a straight match. This was fun, except for all of the moments that were dumb. Really the problems all could have been avoided by just having a straight tag match with any combination of the teams. The best moments of the match were always when one team was gone missing for several minutes. The End may have spent more of the match hiding in the entranceway - which is weird for the two hulking gladiators of the match to be doing - or selling injuries on the floor from moves meant to take them out of the match. But they were also the victims of cruelly rigid tables, absolutely refusing to cooperate. Parow gets powerbombed through a table, only to slide off as the unbroken table gets pushed away. Odinson gets double stomped through one, but just eats a double stomp with no breaking table. The dumbest parts were always setting up a 3 way spot, peaking with "stereo" top rope suplex/powerbomb spots that the crowd groaned through. I don't think anyone wants to see tower spots anymore. Tower spots are over. The risk of injury never feels worth the end result. The match did have a bunch of guys throwing hard. Williams was really pasting guys with elbows, so was Henry. And the chair/ladder shots were actually pretty great in a reckless Eddie Kingston way. Drake and Garrini throw ladders hard at Odinson, Parrow eats a couple chairshots to the chest, tough stuff. Garrini was part of a couple great moments, hitting a somersault dive off the top, getting his feet slammed in a ladder and hit with chairs, and getting pounced through a set-up-in-the-corners table by The End. Henry & Drake do a huge extended beatdown of the End before finishing the match, it actually made them come off totally badass. The End never even attempted a comeback, just Henry & Drake beating them with chairs and ladders and a big fat Drake moonsault. Between hiding in the entrance for the first several minutes, and getting a few minute beating to end the match, The End didn't exactly come off like contenders. A gif of this match would be really fun, but there really was a lot I liked about it.

Keith Lee vs. Daisuke Sekimoto

PAS: Pretty much exactly what you want out of this match up, a pair of big corn fed dudes throwing chops and forearms at each others chests.  Sekimoto may make some goofy faces for no good reason, but he is a crowbar. He was throwing really nasty meaty forearms and big chops, and Lee was pounding him back. That double over hand chop spot by Lee is really something to see. I thought this fell off a bit when they started doing top rope moves, but that closing german suplex by Sekimoto was gorgeous.

Timothy Thatcher/WALTER vs. Chris Dickinson/Jaka

ER: A good tag match that felt like it should have been hitting me harder than it actually did hit me. I enjoyed all of it and obviously like both teams, but I kept getting weirdly distracted wondering why it wasn't totally connecting with me. I'm really like Jaka right now so I was into his beatdown building to a big tag out to Dickinson, liked his big kicks and German suplex to Thatcher before Dickinson came in and roughed him up more. Dickinson hot tags are some great pro wrestling, he always comes in fast and swinging. Jaka has a fun twist on Islander striking, and even goes for a Kona Crush head squeeze which...yes I just confirmed, Hawaii is an island. We get consecutive hot tags, as Jaka builds to tagging Dickinson, and they isolate Thatcher which builds to a big WALTER tag. WALTER, you may have noticed, has some great hot tags. WALTER comes in on a chop rampage, and I love when he goes for a double clothesline, only gets Jaka, rebounds off the other side and meets Dickison with a boot. The match peaks with my favorite moment, WALTER getting Dickinson in the Gojira Clutch only for Jaka to save him with a huge full force splash off the top. But I kept wondering why I was never fully hooked, and I think it was just because there weren't really defined face/heel roles, just four good wrestlers who are capable of working both (though I suppose when in doubt, just assume Dickinson is the least likable one), and while they built to tags there was still a lot of this that felt like a Texas Tornado. The work looked great, but it felt cluttered and compressed. I think it needed more of a peaks/valleys set up. At minimum it was four guys I like, working hard in a tag match, and that will have a lot of value.

Will Ospreay vs. Matt Riddle

PAS: Riddle continues his incredible Mania weekend with a wild sprint with Osprey. Osprey comes in with his neck taped from a gif worthy blown spot in New Japan, and Riddle just viciously attacks him. He really feels like he wants to knocks his blocky yellowed British teeth down his throat. Osprey gets his neck wrecked with Riddle just crawling all over him and landing sick elbows right to the KT tape on his neck. The spot where Osprey climbs to the top rope with Riddle on his back, only to get murder deathed off the top rope was truly nuts. I honestly would have been fine with the match ending there, it would have established Riddle as a vicious killer, and Osprey as a tough guy with a death wish. The post restart stuff was great though, the crowd gets totally behind Osprey and his comeback and it ends up being really frenzied and great. I wouldn't think these guys would work well together, as Riddle against flyers is often iffy, but this was a hell of war. Loved it.

ER: Man, do I like small occasional doses of Ospreay?? He's got an overly sleek athleticism that annoys me sometimes, but he also is like a super gymnast Chris Hamrick in his dedication to going through painful spots for the sake of a worked injury. That's a pretty big thing. His match with Liger got a little ignored compared to other matches on that card, but his injury in that was super convincing and hooked me in. And here he gets dumped on his neck early with an exploder and is squeezing and rubbing that neck out from there. And Riddle aims to just wreck Ospreay's neck in as many ways as he can think of. Riddle was pretty merciless, really hitting too damn hard with elbows and kicks, and punishing Ospreay's neck. The fans get way behind Ospreay as some of the damage starts to feel almost uncomfortable at a point, due to Riddle relentless attack and Ospreay's selling. Ospreay gets one big run that Riddle treats like a big deal, but before long Riddle is tossing him with rolling gutwrenches, wastes him with a powerbomb that gets followed up with a knee (that really bends Ospreay back over himself in painful fashion), and things peak with Riddle going for a sleeper and then the Bromission, throwing a bunch of elbows at Ospreay's head, and we get this crazy moment of Ospreay climbing the ropes with Riddle holding a sleeper....and Riddle does a Crucifix Driver off the top and several people clearly jump up as if they've just witnessed the death of Will Ospreay. The stoppage was nice as Riddle comes back and destroys Ospreay with knees, rips at his tape, hits a huge senton, plants him with a jumping tombstone, looking completely deranged. We do run a little crazy with all the kickouts down the stretch, but I did really love Ospreay's triangle couter to Riddle;s piledriver. Riddle was great at struggling to escape, rolling around, trying to stand, trying to strike at Ospreay, then gets just totally laid out by an Ospreay lariat and snapped in half by a sitout powerbomb. So the last couple minutes of this were insane, most definitely overkill, but the savagery in Riddle's face woke this crowd up HUGE. If all this came at the end of a 24 minute match, I'd be out, but here I liked how the insanity just kept ramping up. You got the actual sense that the match would continue until one guy was actually injured.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Matches from EVOLVE 99 1/14/18

Darby Allin vs. Brody King

ER: Darby is one night removed from getting his tendons and joints rearranged by Zack Sabre, so now he's punishing himself by putting himself in the opener to get the beating that he deserves. That Sabre match was painful as hell, so this guy is really cementing how nuts he is by going out and wrestling just as crazy as he usually does. King is a beefy guy with tons of tattoos, growing out a dye job. He looks like Steve Corino, if Corino was raised in Portland. This goes to a 10 minute draw, which isn't a very exciting finish, but the crazy we got from Allin during those 10 minutes cannot be denied. I love things that he adds to traditional crazy, like he doesn't just hit a screaming tope con hilo through a seated Brody, he does so while also swinging fists; so he crashes through King and then punches him with both hands until he gets to his feet. He hits a Coffin Drop from the buckles into the crowd (through King and some chairs) and also hits one in ring that gets turned into a nasty German by King. Allin takes several rough bumps, getting tossed from the crowd back to ringside (no padding) and also takes a huge clothesline. Allin is nuts and I can't imagine not going out of my way to see this guy.

Timothy Thatcher vs. Fred Yehi

ER: This never really got into gear, which happens with these kinds of matches. Sometimes it only takes a little bit of disconnect to make the whole thing feel like an exhibition, which I think this felt like at several points. Nothing ever felt at stake, the trading never really went anywhere satisfying, and the move escalation had no real drama. Thatcher works to throw Yehi a couple of times with big deadlift suplexes, but Yehi is up suplexing him in no time so why did we go through that pantomime of struggle? I liked how Thatcher went to throwing strikes early while grappling; so many times we get the same "this was a professional grappling exchange until x started losing and went to strikes", so I liked that they were getting those out of the way. But I don't think it really went anywhere worth following.

The End (Odinson/Parrow) vs. Catch Point (Tracy Williams/Dominic Garrini)

ER: This one definitely sounded cooler on paper than it ended up being. It's a tornado tag that ended up being kind of a mess, probably because Odinson and Parrow are not as good as I thought/hoped they would be. Parrow (apparently pronounced like Agatha Christie's Poirot) especially looked lost at a few points, and was constantly bugged by minor hesitations, made it look like he was holding back and wrecked some flow. He would throw a strike and then kind of look around before doing his next move, slam someone and then look around. It didn't read as ruminating monster, it read as confused. I thought he looked really good the night before against Dickinson, but maybe Dickinson is just that damn good at this point. The match still had plenty of cool, by no means a waste of time, I just had (perhaps unrealistic) expectations. Rightly or wrongly this was the on-paper match I was most excited about. Odinson had good fire, loved him obliterating Hot Sauce with a vicious pounce, and it set up the best spot of the match later, when Garrini caught him in a triangle in mid air while he went for another pounce. Odinson charged hard into the ringpost, took a huge German from Garrini, was really ripping around the ring while Parrow was missing a lot of the spark he showed the night before. Really the Garrini triangle should have been the finish, but they got a little cute with having Williams get a triangle on Parrow, and The End powering up and powerbombing them into each other. It looked cool, but I'd rather have Garrini's sub skills treated more seriously. If a black belt in jiu-jitsu can't tap a couple big muscle-y guys, then what really is the point of being a black belt in jiu-jitsu? This was a miss, but I'm still optimistic for future match-ups.

Matt Riddle vs. Jaka

ER: A match with no shortage of really great stuff, and also its fair share of stupid stuff, that overall went a bit too long. It started off with a kind of cool grounded pace, and once we got to the silly suplex trading and on-my-knees bomb throwing I was wishing it stayed there. Riddle throws a bunch of cool kneelifts right to Jaka's face (one of them causing an instant nosebleed) and Jaka has a bunch of fun Kamala-as-taekwondo-student strikes, and they come up with some cool counters around those. I love Jaka's headbutts and standing spinning heel kick, and he really levels Riddle with it at one point (with Riddle doing a fun and goofy wobble leg delayed sell), or when he caught Riddle's Pele kick and just started biting Riddle's heel. Riddle hits these hard to watch heel kicks while Jaka's arms are trapped, just unprotect shots to the face that were nasty enough that we could have gotten a stoppage finish. Earlier in the night Yehi did his silly kicks to Thatcher's chest from his back, and Thatcher sold those as much as these absolutely nasty shots were sold. We get a surprise kickout after Riddle messes up Jaka's face with a knee and hits a tombstone, but the actual finish is great: Jaka goes for that fast spin kick and Riddle catches him and just smothers him with the Bro Lock. Sadly, in the middle of the match we got a super goofus German suplex exchange, with both men taking turns selling the actual throwing of the suplex far more than the actual suplexes they were taking. Riddle suplexes Jaka, slowly gets to his feet with back to Jaka while Jaka stands up and suplexes Riddle, Riddle gets to his feet while Jaka slowly stands to his feet, back to Riddle, etc. It sucks. And the Hack Myers cosplay strike exchange was maybe dumber. So yeah, a lot to love, annoying stuff to hate.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. WALTER

ER: Good match, with Sabre foolishly, pridefully, continually trying to stand with WALTER, and WALTER continually slapping and chopping him down until Sabre could no longer stand. WALTER kept throwing these huge right handed chops all match that wouldn't just knock Sabre down, but also send him flying. Sabre still found ways to tie WALTER up, and that was going to be his only chance to win. Every time he would slap WALTER I would cringe, because I know he was about to get blasted. The grappling was really fun as you'd have Sabre trying to lock on complicated holds and WALTER gracelessly bulldozing his way through them. I loved the knuckelock sequences where Sabre legkicks WALTER to his back and gets into mount while still throwing kicks to WALTER's inner leg, and WALTER powers up on his neck. Then WALTER flattens Sabre but somehow Sabre is able to power up on his neck. Nuts. Sabre was always smartest when sidestepping WALTER's attacks, dodging the dropkick to land the punt, throwing a cool fakeout legsweep that WALTER bit on, leading to a nice rolling ankle pick from Sabre. But every time Sabre would lock something on, that means WALTER was in striking distance, my favorite moment of that being the final stretch where Sabre starts to lock in a triangle, and WALTER just starts hammering down on Sabre's chest with chops. WALTER just starts powerbombing him afterwards and after three Sabre is down. I'd love a rematch where Sabre does a lot more stick and move, puts pride aside and plays to strengths, throws leg kicks, that kind of thing. We got a glimpse of it with that great late stretch of Sabre beating WALTER to the punch, literally. WALTER would throw punches and 2 or 3 in a row Sabre countered them with kicks. I want more of that kind of stuff, and I think there are a few ways to work a cool rematch.

PAS: I thought this had a lot of fun parts to it, although it could have used some editing. I really liked all of WALTER's early contemptuous throws, he really chucked him with disdain. The knuckle lock sequence was great, Sabre getting smushed on his first attempt was almost a comedy spot, and it was a big moment when he was able to then bridge up, crazy neck strength, and really impressive, I think I would have liked them to save the bridge up for closer to the ending of the match, make it an epic moment, as opposed to something in the beginning. I did think the strike exchanges were a bit superflous, I guess the story was Sabre foolishly standing in front of WALTER, but I though it seemed silly anytime WALTER sold anything he did. I loved the WALTER counter of the triangle attempts, and I liked how Sabre just went down after getting smashed with a bunch of powerbombs, I thought we were going to have a bunch of comebacks still and I am happy we didn't. They did build on a bunch of stuff for a rematch.

Keith Lee vs. Chris Dickinson

ER: I really liked how this started, with Dickinson attacking with leg kicks, all building up to him hitting that huge Pazuzu Bomb out of the corner. That's such a big moment, and Dickinson pulled it off with some struggle, like me lugging heavy antique furniture up the stairs at my parent's house. And Dickinson keeps going right after those legs, locking on a nasty cloverleaf variation where you can see him bending one of Lee's calves over the other, and kicking at his legs in various spots to knock that tree down (I especially loved in the corner when he kicked Lee in the front of the thigh, right over the knee). But I don't think it went anywhere really interested, as Lee going on offense felt sluggish, but not in a way related to his legs being worked over. He just seemed kind of sluggish and after seeing a match where Sabre kept trying to stand with WALTER, it was a little same-y to see a match where Lee kept trying to go to the top rope over and over, getting caught almost every time. Lee hits a nice moonsault from the middle rope, but there were too many moments of Lee slowly climbing the ropes only to get caught by Dickinson, and once Lee kicks out of a freaking top rope reverse rana then all bets are off. Literally anything can happen once a 300 lb guy can get dumped on his dome and still be interested in going back to the top. I liked Dickinson reversing the Ground Zero with a smooth roll up, but Lee just didn't do tons for me here. I thought Dickinson was awesome throughout, but Lee came off bored, either he wasn't conveying his selling strongly enough, or he was just tired. He's super talented and Dickinson worked the match around him in a cool way, so it had a real high floor, but after a promising start I don't think it lived up to its promise.

ER: This show underwhelmed compared to the prior night, as this show more had neat individual performances but in flawed matches. Still, we thought Sabre/WALTER was good enough to land on our Ongoing 2018 MOTY List, and it set up some good potential rematches.

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EVOLVE 98 1/13/18

PAS: Really liked the opening with Darby Allin giving a promo at his skate park and getting Champ tattooed on his upper lip. A wrestling version of a Soundcloud rapper is a pretty in culture gimmick, wrestlings Lil Peep is a pretty great gimmick especially for a guy who takes the bumps Darby takes.

Jarek 1:20 v. Snoop Strikes v. Brody King v. Jason Kincaid

PAS: This was a four-way with all of the pluses and minuses of a four way. We got a chance to see all four guys do some impressive stuff (well three guys, I am not riding the Jarek 1:20 train), King had a great dive for such a giant fat guy, Kincaid hit some brutal double stomps including the finishing stomp which nearly caved Strikes chest in, Snoop had some really fast counters and a great missile dropkick. Still there was the downsides which was a lot of complicated four person spots which weren't always pulled off and what ever the fuck Jarek's comedy magic gimmick is. First time I have seen Strikes and King and they are a fine poor mans Cool J and Mike Mars

Dominic Garrini/Tracy Williams v. Timothy Thatcher/WALTER

PAS: Man was this great, Garrini is a guy we love and I am really happy to see him step up in his most high profile match and deliver like this. He was a pitbull, getting his teeth on a scrap of meat and not letting go always pushing pace and attacking, he also laid in his strikes better then I had seen before. Loved the early Thatcher v. Garrini matwork, Thatcher is super comfortable rolling with a Jujitsu black belt, and they do a bunch of cool things based around knee and ankle locks. WALTER is a beast and is a great hot tag, just wrecking everyone with big boots and sack of laundry german suplexes. Williams is a problamatic guy for me, he has a lot of skill, but will occasionally do some comically bad looking stuff, this was mostly the good Tracey (outside of one silly 619) and I really liked how tenaciously he went after the neck near the end. Finish run was dope with Garrini countering a rear naked choke and pulling a triangle  but WALTER hoisting him up and chucking him on Williams. One big WALTER powerbomb later Williams is smushed. So much fun, and I am hoping 2018 has Garrini really mixing it up with the EVOLVE uppercard.

ER: This is probably the best I've seen Garrini look in a match, even better than the Cain Justice match we loved so much. That match felt more like Cain knowing how to use every one of Garrini's strengths to craft the perfect match with him. This felt like him really bringing all his skills into pro wrestling, and knowing just how to work within a nicely built tag structure. The control segment on Thatcher was awesome, and I love how abrupt the finish was. There's a pretty high correlation between a lack of overkill and the guys we love, as I could have easily seen this match going much longer but was very pleased with where and how it ended. Thatcher turned in a great performance and I loved how he matched with Garrini, and really got into the match when Garrini and Williams were keeping him isolated. Williams brought really good energy to everything, and the longer they kept Thatcher isolated the bigger I knew WALTER's hot tag run would be. And before long WALTER is throwing chops and lariats and boots and Garrini and Williams and it's great. Garrini keeps trying to slow him down and smother him, going for triangles and chokes, allowing Williams to target Thatcher. The finish was awesome and sudden, with Williams catching Thatcher in an armbar and Garrini getting a rear naked on WALTER, and I love the camera shot of Williams' armbar in the foreground, and in the background you see WALTER rolling through and deadlifting Garrini, and then WALTER just powerbombs him onto Williams. Awesome moment. And I love how that leads to Williams eating an immediate powerbomb for the sudden win. Very fun tag.

Chris Dickinson v. Parrow

PAS: The End run out, and we get a brawl with Catch Point that lead to this singles No DQ match. Pretty fun ECW brawl. Parrow is a big dude and Dickinson really wails on his back with chair shots. I also like Dickinson going to the back and getting a broom to choke him with, I always like wrestling match with plausible plunder. Finish is Parrow eating a pazuzu bomb on some chairs which is a nasty bump for such a big dude, that is a lot of weight on a fat neck.

ER: I thought this was great! Dickinson looked fully consumed by hate as he went after Parrow, just the worst kind of initiation as Dickinson beats him all around ringside with nasty chairshots with uncomfortable plastic seats, and you can start to see bruises forming on Parrow's back as he falls around. Dickinson ramps it up and unfold a chair over Parrow's neck, and then stands on the chair as Parrow chokes. Nasty spot. Dickinson also makes a wooded broom look like a mean weapon, choking Parrow with it and talking trash before breaking it over Parrow's chest (but not before sweeping some dirt on him). Dickinson was classic dickhead Dickinson here, with his crazy eyes and zebra Zubaz (zebraz?), and it's weird for a giant 300 lb. dude to be the underdog babyface, but Parrow coming back and chucking Dickinson onto the stage with a powerbomb was an awesome moment. The camera angle made it look like Dickinson was swallowed by crowd and chairs, and I love integrating a venue's terrain into a match. Both guys take a couple rough bumps on the stage with Dickinson going through chairs and Parrow threatening to powerslam him OFF the stage before Dickinson - in true asshole fashion - claws at Parrow's balls to get down!! The vertical suplex is already an underrated awesome move, but a 300 lb. guy getting vertical suplexed on a small stage makes it even more awesome. Both guys take nasty bumps, with Dickinson back in getting powerbombed through a chair, and we get a great visual of Parrow - back to camera - asking for chairs and then swatting chairs into the ring as they're tossed. But as goes the rule of spot set up ("He who sets up the gimmick, goes through the gimmick"), Parrow takes too long and eats the insane pazuzu bomb onto a bunch of chairs. The visual was nuts with a huge guy taking that move, and this whole thing was a cool little mean spirited scrap.

AR Fox v. Matt Riddle

PAS: Fox comes out with a whole crew of dudes, and has an amusing back and forth with them. I enjoyed Fox taunting Riddle at the beginning by dropping down into guard and making punching motions. I also liked Riddle being pissed and super aggressive. When Riddle turns it on, he is a really dynamic offensive wrestler. I do think they are forcing the "Riddle hates rope breaks" story a bit, and I do have a hard time buying Fox's offense being strong enough to put him down. I did think this was better then some of Riddle's other matches against flyers as it felt like a clash of styles, rather then Riddle justing trying to work as a workrate junior.

ER: I love a good posse in wrestling, and Fox has a good crew of sycophants around him. It's awesome seeing all the boys overly praising Fox for everything he does, you got fanny pack guy, hair guy, wife in the high heels overselling Riddle's entrance music, etc. You gotta have a good crew. And I thought this was awesome, easily my favorite AR Fox performance ever. In the same way I hated end of career Shawn Michaels, but would have loved his same moveset as a heel, AR Fox is a guy who works much better as a heel for me. I love a cocky highflyer heel, and Fox is so athletic that he can pull off complicated stuff and then smirk like an asshole. It works great. Riddle doesn't fall for his trap and start pulling off a bunch of similar moves just because he's also athletic, instead he waits to sink in violence, like a killer leaping high knee lift to the chin, or a huge tombstone followed up with a powerbomb, that only doesn't get the 3 count because Fox was next to the ropes. Riddle also throws out these dismissive sentons that are heavy and smartly used. Fox's crew at one point gets baited into catching a huge springboard cannonball dive from Fox, again, you gotta have a good crew. Finish is insane and a total kill shot, with Riddle putting Fox up top but Fox hitting a stupid Destroyer off the top, then a Spanish Fly variation off the opposite corner, and then a hard 450 splash, no way anybody would kick out of that. Awesomely build crazily ramped up spotfest, both guys using their athleticism to the match's advantage. My easy favorite AR Fox performance, and my favorite Riddle singles match in awhile.

Austin Theory v. Fred Yehi

PAS: Fred Yehi is always entertaining, but I am not buying any of what Austin Theroy is selling, I am not buying Priscilla Kelly goth temptress, I am not buying the goofus redemption story with Jason Kincaid, his goofy ass NOVA finisher, I am not on board for any of it. Yehi tries, and I do like his stomps and his upkicks, but this was tons of booking and not very interesting booking. Pricilla Kelly has a nice flip dive off the apron though.

Jaka v. Keith Lee

PAS: I enjoy slugfest Lee way more then worlds thickest junior Lee and he and Jaka pound on each other here. Lee has some awesome throws, at one point Jaka tries to grab his arm and he just throws him through the air with his wrist, I also love his overhead belly to belly where he just tosses him with no back bump. Jaka had some cool flurries, I loved his leg sweep and his over hand slaps. Finish was a little goofy with Lee being distracted by AR Fox's posse which allows Jaka to unload on him, only problem was the finish spin kick didn't land with the kind of force you would need to drop a mountain like Lee, really took the steam out of an otherwise enjoyable match.

ER: I think I liked this more than Phil (and it kind of seems like I've enjoyed the show as a whole more than Phil, though I've also skipped a couple matches), but I thought Jaka looked good competing at the WWN champ's level, and didn't think Lee was brought down a lot in losing (though if beating him is to make him seem more vulnerable heading into a match with Fox, it's a lot to ask to believe he'd lose to Jaka and then turn around and lose to Fox). I thought Jaka was great bumping around for Lee, and I liked the varied strikes he tossed out, coming big with chops and leg kicks and working the knee, and I thought a couple of his blocks of Lee strikes were used nicely. Lee is a physical freak and breaks out the big rana (which he shouldn't use often, but as a big surprise moment it looks so cool) and Jaka makes me actually care about a tornado DDT in 2018! It's been such a regularly used, unimportant move to most matches, but somehow seeing Lee whip around and bounce off his head made it huge. Jaka hits some rolling kicks and then bumps awesome into the corner when he misses (and later bumps great into the ropes off a mean Pounce), leading to Lee chucking him with a couple big throws. I didn't hate the distractions from Fox's crew, but maybe it's because I'm really digging Fox's crew, and love how it kept Jaka in the game. Going into the match I thought this was going to be a 6-8 minute destruction of Jaka, so I loved him repeatedly staying in it, and was not expecting him to get the win. I guess the end spin kick could have landed more "KO blow", but it was a heel whipped into a guy's neck and jaw, so who am I to judge? I love Jaka and Dickinson got to both conquer two huge dudes, love them getting some singles match clout.

Zach Sabre Jr. v. Darby Allin

PAS: Tremendous match. Modern day version of Fuchi v. Kikuchi with stellar performances from both guys. Out of this world stuff from Allin, he is a guy who made his rep for taking insane bumps, so it is pretty incredible he could pull off a main event match with basically no bumps at all. Not only did he not take some crazy spill, he basically took two flat back bumps all match. Allin comes out and tries to catch Sabre quickly with some lighting fast roll ups, but Sabre quickly takes control and starts torturing Allin. He was twisting his body in some vicious ways, manipulating elbows and wrist, I mean gross stuff. Allin is super flexible and a really charismatic seller, you totally buy the pain etched on his face, and the stubborn willingness to go farther then anyone should to get a win. I loved Sabre as a technician in this, he had awesome counters for both the coffin drop and last supper (Allin's Gibson leglock rollup), and I loved how that composure slipped as Allin refused to go down. We get a couple of really persuasive Allin near falls, and going into this match not knowing the results, I bit on the code red totally, and then the finish is gruesome with Sabre transitioning from submission hold to submission hold kicking a prone Allin in the head until the ref has to stop it. Great stuff, hell of a match for EVOLVE to start the year on.

ER: Damn damn damn! Sabre is undeniable at this point, and he was a full force asshole to Allin's body in this match, and Allin can convincingly play the stubborn idiot who is too badass AND too dumb to know when to quit. But this was a savage Sabre performance, with him just torturing Allin, bending his limbs, slamming his legs into the mat, kicking at joints, throwing some of his best uppercuts, digging his elbow into meat to get Allin to offer up limbs, throwing the best mocking kicks to a downed Allin, just mean cruel stuff. The stretching and beating and torture would sometimes go so long without being broken that it made Allin's comebacks and surprise offense so much more satisfying. Sabre was just in full jock heel mode, showing the first day of class rookie a lesson, mugging at the crowd with doofy faces, flexing, cockily having the ref count Allin down after strikes while he waited in the corner, just awesome overly confident heel masterclass. Allin has tons of cool offense and Sabre's wide-eyed idiot faces were great when Allin would catch him with a flash roll up or plausibly executed Code Red. Sabre's control of Allin's limbs was a treat to watch, knowing when he had Allin's leg leveraged enough that he could break his grip (supporting the leg with his body) to allow him to shift focus to another part of the body, back to bending elbows or hyperextending arms or wrecking wrist ligaments. Allin was just the perfect amount of nuts in this, still crazy enough to try locking in an awesome guillotine choke, with no regard to what Sabre is going to do to him when he inevitably pops out free. This was really squashy in parts, but with Sabre's movements and cockiness it always felt like he was ripe to be upset, and with Allin's grit he always felt like a guy who could get that upset. He does get two very good nearfalls, close pinning combos that could have easily held Sabre down for an extra split second, and that just made the finish all the more brutal: Allin goes for the Coffin Drop, Sabre catches him in an armbar, and begins just bending both his arms back while digging his boot heel into Allin's face, kicking him in the head, just making you want the match to end. Ref stops it, and we get a truly awesome match very early in 2018.


ER: This was an awesome show, great start to the year, with three matches easily landing on our (very young) 2018 Ongoing MOTY List. A lot of guys are making big strides forward, and it won't be shocking to see a bunch of these guys continue to pop up on our list.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE MATT RIDDLE

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