Paradigm Pro Wrestling Cherry Picking

I am going to watch and review all of the PPW UWFI rules shows, as that is a weird thing I am super into, but they run other shows and either sprinkle in UWFI rules matches or have other cool looking things mixed in among stuff I am less interested in, so on to the Cherry Pick!

Matt Makowski vs. Flash Thompson 5/26/21

PAS: This wasn't a UWFI rules fight although the opening section was worked like that with some nice simple grappling by Makowski. When they got to their feet and did some indy wrestling, it didn't do a ton for me, Makowski broke out his burning hammer spun into an armbar which was cool, and I liked Flash's kneebar counter, but they also did some rope running and chops which I could have done without. The finish was cool, with Flash lifting his shoulder on a pin attempt, which Makowski pounced on and hit an armbar for the tap, Makowski is pretty much always worth watching, and is freaky fast when he attacks.

Hoodfoot Mo Atlas vs. Ron Bass Jr. 6/9/21

PAS: This was also a traditional match, and exactly what you want from two big heavy handed guys. Bass towers over Hoodfoot, but Hoodfoot has established his KO power so I totally buy him throwing in the pocket with Bass. Bass has great chin checking uppercuts, and they have a fun long brawling section on the floor which was highlighted by a big Hoodfoot bump over the stairs. They get back in the ring and continue to pound on each other, ending in a sick Hoodfoot clothesline to the back of Bass's head for the win. I could watch this all day. 

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TWE The Night Before 8/5/21

Tank vs. Ron Bass Jr.

PAS: This delivered what it promised. Bass is a huge guy with a great looking old school wrestler gut and it is fun to watch Tank have to work from beneath. Bass knocks him down a couple of times with shoulder blocks, Tank responds with a cuff to the ear, and then pulls the rope down when Bass charges him. They brawl on the floor and it is a slugfest from there, not everything lands clean, but that raggedness is what I liked about it. Finish was the kind of thing which put over both guys, Tank gets the win, but it looked like Bass was stunned rather then stopped.

ER: With no hyperbole, this might have been the match I was most looking forward to seeing SCI weekend. Two behemoths colliding is always going to be my favorite thing, and starting a weekend of wrestling with the Reverend shouting at us about Tank is a great start. I love Tank wrestling in his 2017 retirement shirt, feels perfectly professional wrestling. Tank is older and slower, so has to be crafty with the shockingly larger Bass. He can't budge him with his body, shoulderblocks don't make a dent, so he tricks Bass with a low bridge to send him tumbling to the floor. And then the striking starts. Tank throws some blistering right hands, and Bass is great at being the giant man falling all through a small building. Bass is huge so it's great seeing him against parts of the building for size/scale comparisons, and he's a great big man at falling into support poles and walls. Once it's a fight Tank is relentless with chops and punches, loved his combo to the body and face. Bass brings big clubbing and great presence, and while I'm bummed we didn't get a bunch of avalanches or standing splashes, the finish was killer. They have a big punch out, then clonk their melons a few times, then Tank just blasts Bass with a spinning backfist. A Saito suplex doesn't get much air (how could it?) but the backfist to the mouth with the low back suplex is enough to barely keep Bass down for a 3. I love how the finish looked, and loved the psychology of Bass still being in the match if the ref had been a split second later to the count. 

Nick King vs. Erron Wade

PAS: Nick King is a guy we enjoyed in the UWFI Contenders series, and he was a lot of fun here as well. Wade is doing a hyped up Karate guy gimmick with Matt Griffin as his coach, and had some nifty stuff as well. I really liked King's early mat control and his suplexes. Wade had a great spin kick to the head, and his finishing submission was nice stuff. They both got to show out a bit, but it didn't overstay its welcome, just what you want from the second match on the card.

ER: It's kind of hard to judge this as a match, as it was clearly two guys being given 5 minutes to show off some cool shit, and it feels like 5 minutes of guys pulling off some cool shit without actually being structured around much of a match. It's a quick showcase of some of what each guy has to offer, and would have made a cool 30 second highlight reel. King has real explosiveness and I wish we got that in more of a match, but he takes a big bump to the floor and shows off some impressive strength when he pulls Wade into a German suplex (also his safety green boots and trunks looked cool under a black light). Wade looks like he punches a damn hole through King's chest with a shotgun dropkick, and an earlier seated dropkick looked really good too. Wrestling needs more guys with brutal dropkicks. King fired out of the corner with a big lariat after taking that shotgun dropkick, and I wish that dropkick would have had more time to settle in, but that's not what this was supposed to be. Wade's armbar win surprised me, and this match did what it was supposed to do: Show off a couple cool things in the arsenal of two new guys.  

11. Daniel Makabe vs. Damyan Tangra

PAS: Very fun Makabe style match with Tangra hanging with Makabe on the mat, which isn't easy to do. You see a lot of guys with cool mat offense, but I was really into how slick the mat defense was by both guys, with some really sick looking reversals from the bottom by both. Somehow Makabe turned a scissors kick takedown by Tangra into an STF, and Tangra had this counter to an STF counter later in the match where he some how transitioned into a reverse STF which caused me to rewind multiple times to figure it out. I am not a fan of strike standoffs, but I did like how both guys mixed in different stuff instead of just forearming and staring, I am always going to dig going to the body, and there were some nice kidney shots here. Finish was awesome with Makabe eating ground and pound until he slapped on a triangle choke where he jams his fist into Tangra's carotid artery. I mean who even thinks of crazy shit like that, much less pulls it off?

ER: Probably the most technical soccer hooligan fight I've seen. This match was heavy on reversals, and yet it was clearly not one of the awful modern "this match is only planned out reversals". The reversals here all looked great because they looked like actual reversals of offense, not planned reversals. It's an important difference that I feel is getting missed. There were some moments here where it looked like Makabe was baiting Tangra into throwing something out there, and Makabe had so many interesting counters to Tangra that he really came off like an amazing three steps ahead wrestler. Makabe comes off like someone who really analyzes his opponent and works out reversals to match each opponent. Yes, obviously that is how pro wrestling works, but Makabe makes them feel like his wrestling character is a guy who is doing all of this tape watching in advance, and that is another small but very important distinction with him. 

I loved him reversing Tangra's rolling body scissors, knowing immediately which leg of Tangra's to grab and roll into a kneebar to trap the leg before moving into an STF. Both guys know how to work really compelling STFs offensively and defensively: Tangra locks his forearm straight across Makabe's throat and goes for the kill, while Makabe's STF has him hooking his arm around Tangra's throat and it always looks like he's using the STF to set up something as a surprise. But that's kind of the trick with Makabe, as he has so many directions he can go that you never know what the killshot is going to be. I like how Makabe telegraphed a few things, sometimes to sucker in Tangra, other times because he was just telegraphing them. Tangra was smart at picking these up, loved him thrust kicking Makabe's arm on a punch or dodging out of a charge so that Makabe Psychosis's himself in the ropes. 

But Makabe is proud and keeps flexin' his way to that Flexen right hand, also throwing some nasty cupper hands to Tangra's ear/neck/jaw. The finish stretch was incredible as I had no idea who was pulling away with this. When Makabe maneuvered his way out of a sub and somehow worked Tangra into a nasty tombstone, I thought for sure that was it. But the actual finish ruled even more, with Makabe trapping Tangra in a triangle choke. But we've also seen Tangra escape a triangle, a couple STFs, and more, so - ever the showman - Makabe holds the triangle, flips Tangra's hair out of the way so everyone can see what he's about to do, and jams his fist into Tangra's carotid. Right first into the neck, left hand gripping the right wrist for maximum pressure, brilliant. The Carotid Fist feels like an untapped wrestling submission. It feels like a move that would have made Wild Red Riggins a huge 60s territory draw and been on the cover of lurid wrestling magazines.  

Brett Ison vs. Lutha X

PAS: This didn't work for me at all. They started this as almost a kickboxing fight, which is a cool idea, but nothing landed hard enough to make it compelling. There were some stiff shots mixed in by both guys throughout but not consistently. Eventually they gave up the attempts to do something different and just had a US indy match complete with forearm and stare exchanges, and a 1/2 speed All Japan 2.9 count finish. This was a miss. 

ER: This didn't offend me as much as it offended Phil, but I agree wholeheartedly with the lack of consistency being a problem. This felt like several different matches in one, and I think the match would have worked if they had chosen one and stuck to it. The UWFI stuff at the beginning did not look good, coming off like sparring or half speed practice. If those shots were all making solid contact live, it sure wasn't reading that way through the screen. This was at its most interesting as they gradually upped the stiffness, as Lutha X had some excellent selling off some brutal Ison elbows. Ison really rocked Lutha's jaw and Lutha had several different great staggers to get back to his feet, stumble to the ropes for support, fall fist first into Ison's face, and I liked how all of that looked and felt. But the match felt longer than its 15 minutes because it never felt like they were sticking to a thread. It felt like we had unconscious restarts after every couple sequences, and I did not love the pop up suplex finish. Ison falling onto Lutha for the pin looked like some great timing, but great timing after a sequence I grew tired of years ago only goes so far. 

Jaden Newman vs. Kyle Matthews

PAS:  Matthews is a southern wrestling maestro who has been one of the better traditional US mat wrestlers of the 21st century. There were a bunch of nifty moments of mat work which were the highlights of this match. I loved him countering Newman's fancy multiple kip ups by just dropping down with a side headlock, and he also had a really nice surfboard. This got a bit indy wrestling at the end with a bunch of elbow exchanges, superkicks and 2.9 near falls. I did like Matthews sick kick on the ring apron and he took a brutal bump on a springboard stroke to the floor, it looked like he divoted his forehead. Newman was fine, hanging with Matthews on the mat, but I think some of the bad parts of this match might have been his idea. 

ER: Up above I talked about how organic the reversals in Makabe/Tangra happened, and bemoaned our current state of "reversals" wrestling where you can barely tell what is being reversed. You can barely tell what is being reversed because you can see the move was never supposed to hit, the move was only thrown with the intention of it being reversed as part of the "real" spot. A lot of this, was that. I hate the kind of wrestling where someone kicks someone in the face and that kick to the face allows that person to spin around with a backfist, which allows that person to spin into another kick. It makes 80% of the offense look like trash because nothing is being absorbed, everything is just making people spin into their own offense. A lot of offense here looked actually good, some of the strikes looked like they were really rocking each other, but none of it had a chance to settle in. Nothing was treated as damaging, everything was only done in service to the reversal. Newman has a lot of offense that seems to do far more damage to him than his opponent, but since he hardly sells his opponent's offense I guess it doesn't make sense to sell spiking himself on a meteora or whipping his head into the floor going over the top to on a stupid botched apron move. They established pretty early that moves don't matter, only the reversal of the reversal of the spinning reversal of that move, and it only felt more egregious the longer they went on. 

Arik Royal vs. Graham Bell

PAS: Fun heavyweight slugfest which got cut off by an angle setting up a future match. Royal has great looking offense, including a killer looking black hole slam backbreaker which should have been his finisher. Bell looked fine too, I liked his senton to Royal's back. It didn't really have a conclusion which kind of kept this from anything more then fun. 

ER: This did end in a big schmozz angle (which was impossible to see any of because the ringside cameraman filmed it like he was recording a competitive game of ping pong), but we still got a lot of match before it turned into an angle. The best parts of this were the slugfest portions, as Royal has a cool array of chops, body shots, and uppercuts, and it never once turned into boring stand and trade. Bell would throw heavy kicks, Royal would hold his side while throwing a fist. Bell is a big guy but doesn't totally work like a guy with size, and doesn't really have lifting power. But Royal is great at making the best of Bell's offense, including catching a pretty crazy rana to the floor (paid off nicely later on when Royal caught a rana and planted Bell with a powerbomb). Royal's tackles are one of my favorite things in wrestling, here he does a diving tackle to knock Bell to the floor, and later after taking a hard cannonball - and to cutoff a second cannonball - he upends Bell with a nice explosion out of the corner. The big schmozz happens when Bell gets knocked into the referee (I really liked ref Kim's bump into the ropes, looked like her head whipped back into the top rope), but we still got 10 minutes and a lot of cool stuff. This whole thing was worked at a real fast pace, and they got a lot of bang out of their 10 minutes before the angle. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 5

Hardway Heeter vs. Kerry Awful

PAS: This was Awful working the match as Ian Rotten punishing a young guy, which is a type of match I like. They set this up last week with Awful berating Heeter, his student, for losing. This was Awful potatoing him with kicks to the face, a really tight front face lock and stiff forearms, while Mr. Stuff talks shit from the outside (Mr. Stuff has a great Gary Hart vibe to him). Heeter is able to fire back and hit three big suplexes causing Mr. Stuff to throw in the towel, and earning his respect. I am into this version of Awful and while this wasn't strictly shootstyle, I enjoyed the vibe.

ER: I'm with Phil, the Ian-punishing-student match type is always worth seeing, and this was a really cool version of that. I thought the set up last week was kind of corny, but the follow through match more than made up for that. Awful was a good Ian, and even had Ian's exact same love handles from when Ian was in his best shape. Awful adds a small wrinkle to the match type as he was really great at facially selling Heeter's strikes. Awful slaps Hardway to start and then does a really great wince and stagger in response to Hardway's return volley, and I liked it more than the Ian method of pretending the slap never happened. I dug how Awful immediately went to a single leg as a response, then threw a couple of Kurisu level kicks at Hardway's head. Awful's missed elbow into a Heeter back suplex was set up really well, and Heeter's Saito suplexes to draw the towel looked great. I really loved the towel stoppage, such a great shithead move to preach a Never Say Die match mantra and then have your boy throw in the towel. Love it. 

Appollo Starr vs. Sidney von Engeland

PAS: This was fun. Starr had an old veteran mat wrestling style, and he would get countered by von Engeland's flashier stuff. Engeland worked an armbar in some interesting ways, and while I didn't like Starr's leg slap enziguiri, that was my only complaint. The straitjacket exploder he used to win the match was sick stuff, and von Engeland took it right on his head, appropriate KO for sure.

ER: I liked these two on the mat, and liked how this was a little more drawn out than a lot of the quicker fights we've been getting. This one took a little more time without falling into any bad strike exchange traps, just kept to some mat exchanges and a couple of submission attempts. Starr felt like a guy scrapping by, trying a can opener and looking open to finish any way. I really liked Engeland slowly wearing Starr down, and my favorite moment of the match was Starr selling a backdrop like it really meant something, taking a backdrop as an actual knockdown. The enziguiri was out of place, but that match finishing exploder was something else, just a big boy toss right there. 

Isaiah Broner vs. Dustin Leonard

PAS: This was my most anticipated match on the show, and unfortunately it fell a bit short. I liked almost all of this a lot. It was worked really smartly with Leonard going for limb attacks, and Broner using his core strength and base to counter them or go to the ropes if he couldn't. I love the way Leonard attacks a hold, he is always adjusting, tightening and shifting his grip, he puts it on and then coils his body around to amp it up. Broner's only bit of offense was the KO blow where he hits a palm strike on a Leonard shoot, and it just wasn't a good looking shot. Broner is normally so good at making his KO shots look like KO shots, but he didn't have his feet set and was leaning over and it didn't land the way it needed to. Since the match was short and so much of the match is based around that moment, it really hurts that it wasn't pulled off.

ER: I match up 100% with Phil on this one. Same level of excitement, same absolute love of Leonard's sticky glue submissions, same disappointment with the finish. Leonard is so much fun, love him hanging off Broner's legs and trying to drag him down to the mat with all his weight. His leg submissions were nasty as hell, with Broner using this great strength and balance to stay standing even while Leonard is anaconda wrapped around his leg, hyperextending it. Leonard also has these fun downward palm strikes that look like peak big brother torturing little brother smacks to the side of the head. But the finishing shot doesn't look great, looks like Broner lightly paintbrushes Leonard behind the ear, and it didn't feel like any kind of finish. A good KO shot in a worked fight is not an easy thing, because a lot of the time a "Good Worked KO" is just "An Actual Near KO", and that's a tough thing to brace yourself for. These guys are likely taping several of these matches in a weekend, can't really get your button pressed several times, so it's not easy. But it is an undeniable drag when a match ends like this. 

Ron Bass Jr. vs. Big Beef Gnarls Garvin

PAS: This was two minutes, and what you wanted from a two minute match between two big ass dudes. Beef hits a nasty slap to the ear, Bass lands thudding short clotheslines amidst a bunch of smaller harder shots. It all comes to a head with a Garvin club to the head and a side suplex for the KO. Maybe could have used one more Bass big shot but I certainly enjoyed what we got.

ER: This was my true dream match, but whenever any fed pairs up the biggest guy with the 2nd or 3rd biggest guy available, that will basically always be my true dream match. Knowing how big Beef is really puts over just how huge Bass is. Their stand and trade was among my favorites in this series, as Beef was really swinging with full arm shots, just swarming Bass and not caring about whether every shot was landing. Beef connected on some of the hardest open hand slaps, and Bass throws these cool slow strikes with a ton of power. Bass doesn't have long arms, and his throwing speed is very slow, but every connection sounds like a real connection. He nails a couple of great body shots on Beef in the corner, and lays him right out with a short arm clothesline. Obviously I wanted several more minutes of this match, but Beef powering Bass over with a back suplex was really impressive, and I loved how Bass sold the suplex all through the 10 count. RUN IT BACK BABY!

Cole Radrick vs. Robert Martyr

PAS: This had a lot of energy, and although I thought they might have done a little too much at points (they did six suplexes in a four minute match), I appreciated the pace. The idea was Martyr earning Radrick's respect (which was kind of funny because grizzled veteran Radrick looks like Jimmy Olsen boy reporter). Radrick landed some really heavy stuff here, including the KO short elbow which clipped Martyr right on the jaw. Martyr stood right in too, and landed some big slaps. 

ER: This was really really fun, both guys lighting each other up and neither waiting around for any kind of planned shots. The worst part of strike exchanges is when you can see too many of the seams. Seeing guys throw and then pause waiting for someone almost always takes me out of things, and these two had none of it. They went in throwing hard, and any pauses would have lead to either of them getting rocked, so the only defense was more offense. Radrick landed some real hard shots, and his grounded punches were really nasty. I'm not entirely certain that closed fists are technically allowed here, but striking rules in this series are basically treated like traveling calls, and I am fine with that since it leads to things like Radrick punching the hell out of Martyr. Martyr's suplexes dumped Radrick really unceremoniously, with one looking like it bounced Radrick's head across the ring. They had a tough spot to fill, coming right after a super heavy brawl, and they stuck the landing nicely. 

Matt Makowski vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: I am not sure the point in having Beverly win this title again. There are lots of interesting match ups with Makowski, I see less with Beverly. For a shock title change, at least it was worked well. Beverly hits a couple of side suplexes, but Makowski hits a couple of bigger ones, and dominates Beverly on the feet with several knock downs. Just as it looked like Beverly was going down he hits a Hail Mary big shot on the ear, dropping Makowski. It felt like a big MMA or boxing upset and certainly doesn't hurt Makowski. 

ER: I really don't understand the point in moving the title around like this, even though I enjoyed the scrap that lead to the surprise title change. The idea of the invading MMA stable accruing belts is more fun to me personally, and I was happy to see it off Beverly (even though I obviously enjoy Beverly). The suplexes here were gnarly as hell, a bunch of nasty foldings and hard landings. The surprise finish worked really well, as Makowski was believably dominating the stand up, and Beverly's KO shot and the way Makowski sold it really made this feel like a genuine surprise KO. It was almost the same kind of shot we saw in Leonard/Broner, only this shot behind the ear really looked like what they were going for. 

PAS: This seems mainly to set up a Garrini/Lawlor vs. Justice/Beverly tag match next week, and I didn't dig the Justice promo setting this up, where he shits on UWFI rules and makes a lame Attitude era joke (calling Garrini and Lawlor "Severn and Blackman") and tries to put over him and Beverly teaming up as a Super Team. I have really been into this season but am a little wary of where it's all going, not sure about tag team matches, and there are two of them next week. The Middleweight tourney will be a whole season and while it has some names I am excited about (Nasty Russ!) it has a lot of new guys and seems to be missing some of the more established names they have set up (Austin Connelly, Alex Kane, Garrini, Lord Crewe). The card of Terminal Combat looks great, but the Terminal Combat concept seems really dumb. It's 5 minutes of UWFI rules and then it switches to No DQ. I mean, how many of these UWFI matches have even *gone* 5 minutes, and then having them all switch to garbage matches in the middle of a UWFI rules is going to be really discordant, totally unnecessary.  We will see...but I am a bit nervous.

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 4

Hardway Heeter vs. Austin Connelly

PAS: Wild 90 second match, as we have come to expect from Connelly. He rushes Heeter and they exchange hard winging shots, until Connelly hits a nasty elbow and a gutwrench suplex leaving Heeter laying. They did a post match angle with Kerry Awful berating Heeter and calling him a pussy and a loser, which took a bit of the shine off of Connelly's first win, but I am happy to see him get the duke and hopefully move on to bigger and better things.

ER: This really kicked ass, and felt like it had some solid turns for only 90 seconds. People are already timing Connelly's match starting charge, and I like how Heeter caught him with a knee, but they both kind of responded like they were both surprised by it. It's like Connelly has at least 5 seconds of Tasmanian Devil where he is just going to be invincible, and I love it. Even when he wrestles Heeter to the ground, Heeter is landing hard shots to Connelly's back that Connelly doesn't seem to even notice as he's elbowing Heeter in the face. Connelly throws three slaps in the corner that lead to a plausible standing break, and we get an actual well done elbow exchange. Heeter throw nice, sharp, lunging lefty elbows with a good amount of force behind them, and then gets leveled by one of Connelly's. Connelly bounced Hardway off his head with a gutwrench suplex, looked like the kind of whiplash that should end things. Great scrap. 

Yoya vs. Flash Thompson

PAS: This was my favorite Thompson match so far. He was really fun as a smirking prick bully, using his size to manhandle Yoya until he got too cocky.  I really liked him shit talking as he stuffed Yoya's shoot, and he broke an armbar attempt with some really sick stomps to Yoya's temple. Finishing minute was very cool with Yoya hitting a nasty jumping knee, stunning Thompson. Flash fired back with a palm strike (which looked like a KO shot), but Yoya survived and jumped onto Flash's back, and with the help of some strikes to the temple locked in a choke. Very cool stuff.

ER: I came into this anticipating the upset, just because I don't think I've ever seen them give such huge odds for/against any of the fighters until now, with Thompson coming in as something like a -450 favorite. Yoya is the smallest competitor in this, they set deep odds, I think we know how this pro wrestling thing works. This was a great showing for dickhead heel Flash, a really disrespectful performance with amusing cheapshots and eventually comeuppance. He is A Guy Asking For It throughout, throws an elbow to the back of Yoya's head while they were on the mat, tosses Yoya like a bag of laundry, kicks at his head while breaking a hold. I dug how he started unnecessarily throwing bigger shots, which gave Yoya the chance to actually dodge. When Flash was just throwing leg kicks and working smart, he was on pace to finish in two minutes. But when you commit to a haymaker you leave yourself open if it misses, and Yoya hits a boss leaping knee under the chin for a nice knockdown. He misses another wide swing and Yoya pounces on his back for the tap, and in true dickhead fashion, Flash denies tapping afterward. I'm not sure I totally bought Yoya pulling off this upset, and would have liked it even more if Flash *almost* got caught, but didn't, and didn't learn his lesson. That would have set up a more interesting match down the line. Still, I liked the actual work in this a lot. 

Damyan Tangra vs. Isaiah Broner

PAS: Love Broner, he is one of my favorite guys in this promotion. He comes off like such a dangerous badass, like French Montana's bodyguard who has a bunch of felonies. Tangra is WW4A guy who has a mat wrestler gimmick. Fun structure here, with Tangra trying lots of takedown attempts and Broner using his core strength and base to shrug them off. Broner also drops Tangra with a nasty body shot. Tangra is able to stun Broner with some head kicks, but makes the mistake of going for a German. He gets shrugged off and wasted with a spinning back elbow. Would be into seeing more Tangra, and Broner vs. Dustin Leonard next week should be fucking killer. 

ER: I really liked how annoying Tangra was here, just gluing himself to Broner and tangling him up in annoying ways. I'm not sure I've seen something quite like this, as Broner was on his feet the whole time but because of Tangra's annoyingness he kept having to buckle and reach like someone was trying to trip him up during a game of Twister. Broner has hands, so Tangra just hugs his way in close and takes away that reach. It might not be super effective as a long term strategy, but it's annoying, and when you annoy someone it can force them to make mistakes. And once there is a bit of distance, that's when Broner lands a hard right to Tangra's spleen to put him down. I liked Broner's selling when Tangra lands some kicks, how he doesn't go down for a grazing high kick but leans forward as if he's trying to maintain his center of gravity. Broner sold the kicks like someone who has been having drinks with friends, and realized just how much he had when he tried standing up from the table. The back elbow finish was sick, love a great back elbow. 

Dominic Garrini vs. Ron Mathis

PAS: This was the chickens of Mathis's Shooter Ronnie gimmick coming home to roost.  Garrini tooled him on the mat in a fun way, intentional giving him openings and then countering him. Mathis was able to muck it up a bit, but this was mostly Garrini showing off. Loved the finish with Garrini taking the back and - as Mathis countered - suckering him right into a triangle choke which put Mathis to sleep. Garrini does a lot of different things as a wrestler, a lot of which I like, some I don't. I think he has really found himself in this context. Indy wrestling has plenty of W*ING Kanemuras, they need more Katsumi Usudas. 

ER: I appreciate Mathis committing to the bit and still trying to goof off against someone like Garrini (also, I like how in Mathis's tale of the tape bio it says he "really likes PPW UWFI Rules matches"), even pointing out that Garrini didn't get him with a strike and only grazed his mohawk. Garrini toying with people is a great look for him. I think there is pressure on guys with non "pro wrestling" skills to learn those and better blend in with pro wrestling, but I think there is more value in incorporating your unique skillsets into a pro wrestling frame work. Dom is at his best when he shoehorns his legit skills into a match, and it will always be better than him doing pro wrestling sequences. 

Derek Neal vs. Ron Bass Jr.

PAS: First time I have seen Bass, and I was into him. He is a big fat guy with short arms, and seems really into hitting hard. He had some nasty clubbing clotheslines and used his fat well, which is welcome. I need to track down some non UWFI stuff for sure, feels like he would make an awesome Blackjacks tag team with Manders. I didn't like Neal in his Gary Jay match, and wasn't into him here. I thought the finish looked especially weak. You don't want the guy clearly throwing softer stuff to get the knockdown, and he broke out his windmill arms for the ground and pound. Want to see more Bass, have seen enough of Neal.

ER: Certain things in wrestling excite me more on paper than they should, and "oh hey so Outlaw Ron Bass's actual son is wrestling now and he's a big fat guy" is all the information I would need to know to make me seek out some Ron Bassito. And, I loved him. He's shaped more like a small Akebono or a large Jake Milliman than Ron Bass, with his big broad back and egg torso, and he absolutely lays it in. He threw a couple of lariats with almost no runway, and they were great enough that they would look like a finish if he dropped an elbow right after. I think his bumping reminded me of Milliman too, the way he took a thrust kick to the stomach by almost rolling off his feet. I am with Phil on the finish, didn't think any of Neal's stuff looked like it should fell Bass, and the match stopping slaps were just hitting forearms. Bass looked like he was just dealing with them, not being damaged by them, and that's precisely how they should have been sold. 

Jordan Blade vs. Max the Impaler

PAS: Battle of the non-binary beasts! I thought this was pretty awesome. Max really projects menace well, coming off like a total monster, and they made Blade (who is really strong) look small. Blade would constantly work for submissions and Max would just power their way out of. The question was whether Blade could sink in something before they got got. Max's Hughes slam out of the triangle attempt was nastier than Matt Hughes' original, and the final KO knee did the job for sure. Blade was pretty slick with their submissions and I really bought that they were going to pull off the win, until I didn't buy it. Post match they set up Max vs. Alex Kane which was a match I had no idea I wanted to see, until I really wanted to see it.

ER: This is how you do a satisfying ground and pound stoppage! Blade was really good at staying in things and tying up Max, throwing constant open hand slaps at Max's head while working for any submission she could get. Max seemed to working this like a horror movie villain, where she welcomes any attack Blade can muster, knowing she can finish at any time. It's a risky strategy, but it gave us a cool chance to see a bunch of Blade's cool tricks. I liked how active Blade was during submissions, quick to throw in strikes, and it was fun seeing how Max would break them. I don't know if I can say the Hughes Slam was nastier than the original - I mean, Matt Hughes ran that man across the entire damn octagon - but I love seeing a cool powerbomb out of a triangle attempt. Blade's hanging armbar looked great, and Max's knee strike to flatten Blade was excellent. Sign me up for Max vs. Kane. 

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