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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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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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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2015 Ongoing Match of the Year List

5. Speedball Mike Bailey v. Trevor Lee PWG 4/3

PAS: One of the best turn the dial to 11 indy matches I have ever seen. I watched Mad Max Fury Road earlier today, and in many ways this was that kind of wrestling match, never has Speedball's nickname been so apropos, cause I felt like I did a speedball before I watched it. I hadn't seen much Lee before, but he was great, he has this Clay Guida look, and kind of wrestles like Guida, intense always attacking and with great closing distance speed, when an opening presented itself he would leap right on it. He had some really brutal stuff, too, nasty running forearms, great dropkick, crazy judo throw. Bailey has some fun fancy shit, crazy kung fu movie kicks, and great highspots, and was awesome as a guy trying to fight off a wolverine. Finish run had spot of the year, don't want to ruin it, but it was fucking lunacy, and then Bailey hits this great looking double knee shooting star off the apron, but by the time he rolled him in and set up another shooting star, Lee had been given enough time to plausibly recover, and he got his knees up and hit a nasty small package driver for the pin. Most PWG matches have endless 2.9 sections which eventually just lose him, this had a killshot, but it was outside the ring, so I bought the recovery, and then instead of a bunch more near falls Lee just grabbed him and smashed him. Awesome stuff, that I can see both Segunda Caida people and people who don't love us agreeing on.

ER: I had seen Lee a couple times before and didn't think much, and Bailey is a SC favorite at this point, but Lee in this match is a wholllllle nuther son of a bitch. This guy was relentless here. Everything he did seemed so natural, even some spots that I've never seen look like anything but two guys being verrrry cooperative with each other. Comparing him to Clay Guida isn't very nice, as Lee is way more interesting than Guida, and does way more than headbang and dry hump his opponent to death. I apologize in advance for Kenny Omega eventually adopting a "dry hump opponent to death" gimmick. Lee threw some of the best running forearms I've seen, exploding late and looking great. He tossed Bailey around in some really impressive ways, rolling naturally into a nice Karelin throw. Bailey is a great underdog babyface and feeds nicely off of Lee's constance. Phil was kind and didn't spoil the spot of the year, but I'm cruel and will say that it was a beautiful, certifiably crazy, dangerous nasty reverse rana on the ring apron (and the apron was reallll narrow). As stupid as it might read, the move came off real organically and was just epic. Bailey tops it off with a shooting star kneedrop off the apron onto Lee's back. His freaking back! Also, it should be noted that Bailey wrestles barefoot, which means he's one of the rarest lunatics. How easy would it be to break a toe, crush your heel, damage one of those couple dozen little bones in there. Bumping barefoot just sounds...stupid. The finish, as Phil mentioned, is logical, satisfying, and original. We were watching it together and I wouldn't stop babbling about it. Bailey goes for a shooting star, Lee gets the knees up, and while Bailey is hunched over from landing on knees Lee grabs him in a small package, fluidly rolls through it and in one motion hits the package driver to end it. The whole sequence looked great. This match goes just the right amount of time, delivers some great, constant action (even the chinlocks had nice character stuff, as Lee undoes his hair so it hangs down in Bailey's eyes and mouth) and was a real blast.


2015 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Phil's Ongoing 2008 MOTY List

1. Blue Panther v. Villano V CMLL 9/19
2. Yuki Ishikawa + Alexander Otsuka + Munenori Sawa v Daisuke Ikeda + Katsumi Usuda + Super Tiger II BattlArts 7/26
3. Jimmy Jacobs v. B.J. Whitmer IWA-MS 3/1
4. Floyd Mayweather v. Big Show WWE 3/30
5. Mike Quakenbush v. Johnny Saint WXW 3/8
6. Teddy Hart v. Eddie Kingston v. Homicide JAPW 1/19
7. Yuki Ishikawa v. Carl Greco BattlArts 6/1
8. Necro Butcher v. Sami Callihan IWA-MS 10/4
9. Rey Cometa/Pegasso/Freelance vs Los Oficiales IWRG 10/17
10. Bull Pain/Todd Morton v. Jerry Lawler/Chris Michaels XCW-Midwest 8/9
11. Mystico De La Juarez/Silver King/Rubi Gardenia v. Cassandro/Magno/El Hijo Del Santo Lucha Libre London 12/9
12. Necro Butcher v. Predator IGF 6/23
13. Necro Butcher v. 2 Cold Scorpio IWA-MS 8//17
14. Low-Ki v. Chris Hero PWG 11/2
15. Blue Panther v. Atlantis CMLL 7/11
16. Blue Panther v. Villano V CMLL 9/29
17. Meiko Satomura v. Aja Kong SENDAI 10/26
18. Yuki Ishikawa v. Alexander Otsuka RJPW 6/18
19. Mitsuhara Misawa v. Takeshi Morishima NOAH 3/2
20. Bryan Danielson v. Nigel McGuiness ROH 2/23
21. Erick Stevens v. Roderick Strong FIP 2/8
22. Trik Davis v. Sami Callihan IWA-MS 8/17
23. Hayato Jr. Fujita v. Yoshitune MPRO 12/12
24. Evan Bourne v. Chavo Guererro WWE 10/14
25. Finlay v. Chuck Palumbo WWE 5/20



(In addition to adding Ki v. Hero, I moved around some things)

Previously on the List

Nigel McGuiness v. Austin Aries ROH 3/28
Shawn Michaels v. Ric Flair WWE 3/30
Finlay v. JBL WWE 3/30
El Valiente + El Hijo Del Fantasma + La Mascara v. La Sombra + Volador Jr. + Sagrado CMLL 4/30
Blue Panther v. Averno CMLL 11/4

14. Low-Ki v. Chris Hero PWG 11/2

I was live at the 2001 ECWA Super 8, which was the birth of current indy wrestling. The thing about most Northern Indies prior to 2001 is that they were even looser then the WWF, which looks really bad when you are 10 feet away from the action. It got to the point when you would get excited when Tom Brandi threw a noisy knife edge chop. So here come Dragon and Ki delivering brutal back and forth shots and what they are doing is so different then everyone else it was just captivating. Now you can show up to any indy show and the guys in the first match are shoot kicking each other in the face, stiffness, like head drops and crazy bumps and dives are something which have lost pretty much all of their value in and of themselves.

Ki is on his way to the WWE, so this was his swan song in the style he created. It was a catchy little song, Hero and Ki start with some nice tight matwork early and Ki opens it up with a brutal soccer kick to Hero’s face busting his nose. Undaunted Hero fires back with a brutal forearm, that either rung Ki’s bell or Ki sold his ass off (I actually think it was selling, as he didn’t blow anything later.) You get Hero working him over for a while, Ki has a big comeback and you have a really great finish, All you could possibly want out of a Low-Ki match. PWG isn’t a promotion I normally care for, most of the pimped PWG matches really feel like bloated Directors Cuts of good matches. They are in LA, if they hired a film student to cut three minutes here, take the selling here and put it someplace else, then move around the finish, they would be in better shape. This match however didn’t feel like Cimino got carte blanche, someone cut 10 minutes from the roller skating scene and it really worked.

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