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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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series 2 Episode 2

Cole Radrick vs. Yoya

PAS: This reminded me of a WEC Batanamweight fight, little guys moving fast and pressing a lot of action. Yoya really impressed me here, he did a bunch of really cool spinning mat attacks including one spot where he goes for an armbar, gets lifted by Radrick off the ground, spins on to his back for a choke and then slips right back into the armbar. Only flaw in this match was Radrick's selling, he sells this big kick like he got brain trauma with his arms sticking straight out in the air. That is cool stuff, but this promotion stops fights for way less, and it wasn't plausible that the ref would let him continue. Outside of that I enjoyed this a lot, interested to see what Yoya does in Bloodsport next week.

ER: I loved Radrick here and thought his selling was excellent. I've seen plenty of people try to work the fencing response selling into pro wrestling, and it almost always looks incredibly stupid (with the stupidest ever being Jimmy Yang taking a Tank Abbott punch in WCW), and here it looked like Radrick clearly had a concussion. And as Phil said, that was why that ended up being a pretty pointless use of such a realistic sell. We've seen a dozen matches in this UWFI series alone that have been stopped for less than a man visually suffering a traumatic brain injury, so the idea that the match wasn't immediately stopped was ridiculous. That really should have been the finish if they wanted to work that spot into the match, makes no sense to give a guy a standing 8 after he's doing a horizontal Frankenstein impression. 

That aside, everything else ruled. Yoya is super small and super quick, and Radrick can use cool power offense against him even though he is small against most other guys. At one point he does a fisherman's buster that starts with both men lying flat, just powers Yoya up. Radrick's selling was strong throughout, loved how he leaned into all of Yoya's strikes, fell into the ropes after a few of them without ever coming off as "acting". The shotgun kick that lead to the should-have-been stoppage looked great, really would have completely worked as the finish. But I did love Yoya pouncing with punches to try to capitalize, and Radrick really paid back that kick with wicked hammerfists and elbows before locking in a wicked armbar for the tap. These guys want to get a lot of their ideas into these quick fights (and Yoya has been one of the biggest "get my ideas in" guys in this series so far), but they really need to save some of them for later in the series. Can't have two cool finishes in one fight, you'll burn out the concept. 

Ron Mathis vs. Nick King

PAS: Mathis works a comedy gimmick on these shows as a garbage guy who claims he is a shooter. I get why you want to mix things up stylistically, but it doesn't do it for me. I liked King on last week's show, but he gets squashed here which is a shame. I would have rather seen King use his skill to flummox Mathis a bit, before Mathis figures it out. Instead he was a comedy guy claiming to be a shooter who steamrolls an actual guy in that style. Nice rear naked choke though.

ER: I was really looking forward to seeing more of King after his fantastic debut last week, and this was not quite what I wanted. What they did was good, but it was not the thing I wanted to see. Mathis rushes King with body blows that King anticipates, and outquicks Mathis into a great Vader/Inoki German suplex. When he recovers, Mathis comes in with a couple strong front chancery suplexes, then locks in the chancery again, but instead of going for another suplex he twists hard into an awesome rear naked choke for the tap. Paradigm has been good at bringing in unknowns and working them up the ladder through this series (guys who were unknowns in season 1 are now treated like known quantities, getting matched up with season 2 newcomers), so I know it's just a matter of time before King is getting to bigger matches. So, within context, I think this worked. 

Freddie Hudson vs. Alex Kane

PAS: Hudson is a former PPW champion who was returning to the promotion, and got a takedown here and even a suplex, but this was a Kane showcase. Kane really uses his hips when he throws people, and that head and leg clutch suplex he uses as a finisher is really sick. This US shoot scene needs an Otsuka, and Kane might fit that bill.

ER: I love when a new guy comes along with real suplex power, and Kane is like new Cobb. I like the set up of the match, with Hudson making his Paradigm return. I like the story of the guy with more matches in a promotion than anyone, returning to find the landscape is different than when he was last here. He comes into the match happy to be here, gets a nice suplex, but once Kane gets down to serious business it is over quick. Kane can really muscle guys around, and that Mark of Kane finisher of his is like he's throwing someone as far as he can after tying them up in La Nieblina. 

Kerry Awful vs. Aaron Williams

PAS: Awful was a lot of fun here, working this like Wellington Wilkins Jr., this old carny wrestler who might not know jujitsu but knows how to twist a wrist or pop a knee. I liked how he taunted Williams early to "take the cowards way out" by grabbing the ropes, which leads the crowd to chant "Coward" at him when he takes a rope break of his own. Williams had some moments too, and the finish was great with Williams hitting an Anderson Silva front kick and going for a stretch muffler for some reason, which Awful turned to a crucifix sugar hold for the tap. 

ER: This was a nice change of pace from the other matches this episode, worked very differently, a little more tentatively but not shying away from hitting each other. Williams' kicks all looked cool, loved when they went for a knucklelock and Williams kept kicking at Awful's head with axe kicks and front kicks. I actually thought this was going to end way earlier than expected, as Williams locked in a sick grounded full nelson that could have gone a few different directions, but Awful broke it by reaching back and clawing at Williams' head. The finish was awesome, thought the Silva front kick looked spectacular, and I loved the wrinkle of Williams going for an ill-advised stretch muffler but not locking it on quickly enough, allowing Awful to tap him with a slick anaconda crucifix. Very cool. 

10. Tom Lawlor vs. Lord Crewe

PAS: I think this is Lawlor's best performance in this style. Crewe is a guy with a bare knuckled fighter rep, and it was great to watch Lawlor ground him and work as a mat master. Loved how he kept controlling with a hammerlock, and how decisive and powerful his takedowns were. Lawlor had an awesome looking Anaconda vice head and armlock, and his reverse triangle choke finish was class. I thought Crewe was fine as a brawler who found his moments, although he should have left his spinning Vampiro kick on the drawing board. Lawlor versus Justice should be a lot of fun, and I hope he works it like this. 

ER: Love seeing Lawlor work a match like this with blinders on, working patiently through Crewe's strikes to land takedowns and work subs, all of which looked finish worthy. Lawlor was able to really convincingly work in a leg scissors submission and make it look like something that could happen in MMA, and I love that submission. There are a lot of ankle lock spots in wrestling now, hard to make one stand out, but I loved Lawlor refusing to break his ankle lock on Crewe, Crewe trying to kick him off, Lawlor grapevining the leg while yelling a FUCK YOU, Crewe hanging in with a worthy attempt of his own before wisely getting to the ropes. Crewe's standing strikes look better than most in this series, long arms sneaking in powerful shots, and once he started landing on Lawlor I loved all of Lawlor's muscle memory takedown selling. I really loved the sequence of Crewe missing a haymaker to set up a Lawlor rear naked choke, which I thought for sure was the finish, until Crewe slipped out and absolutely BLASTED Lawlor with an elbow strike to the cerebellum. Goddamn I thought Lawlor was hit so hard his spinal column separated. Hard to pull off two zombie sells on the same hour of TV, but I can't see any other way to sell that elbow other than Lawlor getting turned into a zombie statue. Lawlor's inverted triangle looked fantastic as a finish, thought this whole thing kicked ass. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Contenders Series Episode 5 Finale

Ron Mathis vs. Akira

PAS: This wasn't really a UWFI match, more of a highspot sprint. It had some nice stuff in it, like Akira landing a gross Low-Ki double stomp and some big high kicks. He is a fun Minoru Tanaka style shoot junior in this garage BattlArts. Mathis had some fun throws, but was almost doing comedy spots at the beginning.  For what this was it was fine, it was pretty out of style though. 

ER: Yeah the Mathis comedy at the beginning really threw me, come off like something we didn't need worked into this series. Felt like the wrong vibe to bring, maybe would have played better in front of a crowd. But every minute of the match was stronger than the minute that preceded it, so it's hard to dislike a match that keeps getting better and ends with the best stuff. There were a bunch of exploder variations, and one of the commentary guys called one of them "a real sack of shit toss" which made me spit coffee out a bit. The throws got pretty big by the end, and I liked Mathis leaping onto Akira with a guillotine. I thought Akira's bridging reversal of the guillotine was fantastic, and his leaping double stomp into Mathis's chin was disgusting, one of the great spots of the season. 

Big Beef vs. Austin Connelly

PAS: I am into Connelly. He does relentless really well, and comes right at Big Beef, only to get rudely and violently rebuked. Some of those forearms that Beef threw were Vader on Cactus level of concussive. For a second I didn't buy Connelly getting off a suplex, until I saw the size of his thighs. He looks like he could squat a mobile home. Quick and violent seems to be a Connelly special, and he is a guy I want to see more of. Beef hits appropriately hard, and I think him versus Hoodfoot could be great.

ER: I couldn't wait for this one after Connelly's last fight and Beef's performance all season, and this delivered. Connelly is a nut, and I buy into the way he keeps popping up and charging in until he can't. I'm not sure how sustainable it is for his career, but I love it! He rushes Beef and runs right into a boot and a powerbomb, and that kind of thing keeps happening. His throw was really impressive, and his ability to eat shots is even more impressive. Beef cracks him across the face and jaw with some vicious forearms, There's also some awesome post match body wrecking, with Connelly running down Beef and laying in full arm forearm shots just as hard as he took, and then Beef powers Connelly up and runs him back to the ring to dump him disgustingly with a powerbomb on the floor. Another season 1 highlight from these two. 

Lexus Montez vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: More of an angle then a match, Beverly does a Fuerza handshake gimmick at the beginning and catches Montez with a couple of his Saito suplexes. Montez is able to bully him into the ropes and hit some shots and the ref does an quick stoppage. There ends up being a locker room brawl setting up Hoodfoot vs. Beverly in Terminal Combat which is five minutes of UWFI rules and then a hardcore match, which on paper seems kind of silly. I needed Montez to land harder stuff for me to buy the stoppage even if it was supposed to be fast.

ER: Yeah none of this worked for me. The referee is wearing a mask so I can only assume it's Steve Mazzagatti under there, because this stoppage was bad, and looked bad. I get the angle, but you need to actually play up to the angle and "bad stoppage" is just about one of the least interesting angles around. Nothing Montez did looked like it warranted a stoppage, his Superman punch just looked like a bad avalanche, and his match stopping slaps were arguably the worst strikes we've seen during this 5 episode UWFI rules run. If not worst overall strikes, then definitely the worst strikes used as justification to stop a match. My grandma really hated my beard, and would always tug on it and give my face these little slaps when she saw it, and those slaps looked harder than the slaps that stopped this match. If a match is going to be used to further an angle, you have to actually a) sell the angle convincingly, and b) make the angle interesting. The match this leads to sounds cumbersome at best, but the execution that got us there was even worse. 

Chase Holliday vs. Jordan Blade

PAS: This was pretty good stuff, with Blade showing their skill on the mat, including pulling guard with a jumping kimura, only to be caught with some big shots when they stood up. There was a nasty short hook which dropped her, and a big spinning back elbow for the KO (better then Holliday's first spinning back elbow, still not as good as Akira's or Broner's). I liked Blade a lot, and this was a better Holliday performance, excited to see more from both. 

ER: I thought this was a nice little snack. I really liked Blade's tie up matwork, her guard seemed really difficult to pass and she had really dangerous upkicks, and strong use of her legs in general. It looked like she had a good plan and I really liked her heavy knees to the ribs while standing. Holliday's worked back elbow finish looked good, and I dug how Blade sold it. 

Aaron Williams vs. Matthew Justice

PAS: I like Justice's fish out of water gimmick in these shows. It was cool how this match kept threatening to spin out, before being brought back in. Williams was fun shit talking on the mat, as he was clearly the more skilled grappler, and I loved his body shot/hook combo which sent Justice to the floor. I thought the buckle bomb and death valley driver were a step too far away from the style for me, but those finishing KO grounded knees were nasty looking. Post match Justice calls out Josh Barnett, which would be a big deal if they could actually deliver. 

ER: This landed a bit short for me. Justice is a "main event" worker I really like, but this didn't have the main event season ending heft that a lot of Justice matches come with. I do like Justice as fish out of water, challenging any Pride or UFC vets in an open challenge (how much could it cost to bring in Gerard Gordeau or Zuluzhino?), but I wanted more out of the last fight of the season. There were several individual things I liked, like Justice breaking a guillotine by trying to drop Williams back of neck first over the middle rope, and those nasty match ending knees from Justice. I also liked Williams talking trash ("I'm gonna get my shit in too!") and his triangle attempt. I thought the dvd was worked in as well as you can work something like that into a shootstyle match, but yeah I'd rather not see it. 

PAS: This is the end of season one, and I think overall this was a successful experiment. Not everything worked on every show, but everything was kept short, and I can digest a four minute failure pretty easily. This introduced me to a bunch of wrestlers I want to see more. Isaiah Broner, Hoodfoot, Austin Connelly, and Jordan Blade being people I hadn't heard of and have left big fans, and there is a whole second tier that I am excited to see more. We are in, and will cover Season 2 for sure.

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Paradigm Pro: UWFI Rules Contenders Series Episode 2

Matthew Justice vs. Robert Martyr

PAS: This had some moments, Justice had a big size advantage and used it to chuck Martyr around, with Marter using speed and technique to get some shots off. Martyr hit a couple of pretty implausible german suplexes, for shoot style suplexes to work you have to buy the guy really muscling his opponent up and this wasn't that. Finish was awesome though, with Justice taking him down and landing a brutal knee right to Martyr's temple which Martyr sold by jerking his arm's straight in the air with cool concussion selling. Or, he got brutally concussed, and the fact I wasn't totally sure either way really made the move. Justice then calls out Chuck Lidell which goes with his UFC legend battling. Not sure they can get Chuck, but Phil Baroni and Ken Shamrock are taking bookings.

ER: I really liked this. I wanted to hate Martyr on sight with his angsty teen scowl face Green Day entrance, but Justice kicked his ass bad enough that it babyfaced him. Justice has the kind of charisma that connects with wrestling crowds, and I liked that he used his significant size advantage to integrate several pro wrestling moves that otherwise wouldn't be in UWFI rules. I don't always like that, but this felt more like a big brother doing every wrestling finisher to his younger brother, and he's big enough that the younger brother can't stop him. Justice is good at that. And Martyr does a good job at slipping out of a couple of the wrestling moves, like when Justice goes for an Argentinian backbreaker and Martyr slips into a backpack choke. Justice drops backwards and slugs him hard a couple of times on the mat, and that's what I mean by Justice turning this annoying guy babyface. Martyr never quite looked like he had a real chance, Justice would hit him 3x harder during exchanges (especially cracking him with a couple hard cupped hand slaps), and Martyr had the absolute worst downward elbows I think I've ever seen in wrestling. But I liked Martyr's two German suplexes, I don't think they come off too implausible due to catching Justice off balance both times he hit them, and I liked how it wasn't just him getting overwhelmed the entire time. Still, he looked like he got murdered at the finish here, Justice drops two knees down on his neck and head, real finisher worthy knees. I am here for Justice facing more old MMA dudes though. I want see all of that. Gerard Gordeau is only a decade older than Liddell, would probably come cheaper. 

Flash Thompson vs. Jeffrey John

PAS: I thought there were moments in this which teased a promising direction, but overall this wasn't good. I like the way Thompson holds his hands and moves his feet but he didn't seem super into this fight. John catches a kick and hits a nice slap, but the rest of his offense didn't look good, and the kneebar finish seemed slightly blown. Doesn't feel like John is a good match for this style and I wanted Flash to look more explosive coming off of the main event last week. 

ER: Yeah this didn't work for me. I was ready to like it, as I liked John's shit talking over the tale of the tape, made me think he would be backing things up with a bit more. His knees didn't look great (although they got better later in the match), and Flash really did look bored here. That's a shame, as there was real value in either Flash demonstrably kicking John's ass for mouthing off, or being so bored that John pulled off a couple near upsets. But they didn't do either of those, they just kind of futzed around until Flash got a kneebar. This felt like a missed opportunity to advance both guys. 

Aaron Williams vs. Ron Mathis

PAS: This had a lot packed into three or so minutes. I liked the idea of Mathis as a brawler who would use his strength to counter technique. He got off a couple of big slams early but Williams always seemed to be biding his time. I wanted Mathis to have better looking ground and pound, elbows just weren't landing with force. I did like the finish with Williams locking in the triangle choke, Mathis powering up for slam, but slamming into a tighter lock. Williams calls out Matt Justice and I could be into that match in this style. 

ER: Early UFC was littered with hillbillies who were in over their head, so they always just rushed their opponents hoping to surprise them. This had that kind of feel, with Mathis powering through technique and hitting a great powerslam and a cool fallaway slam, both moves that look great but aren't going to be as effective under submission/KO rules. I dig that Mathis is a guy with some cool slams who isn't as equipped to finish a match under UWFI rules, and I liked Williams waiting for his chance to use his advantage (while also getting in cool things of his own like a butterfly suplex). I will always like someone trying to deadlift their way out of a triangle, always looks like the lifter is shredding his back for a desperation escape, and that's a cool real element to have in a match like this. 

Don't Die Miles vs. Bobby Beverly

PAS: Weird choice for a main event. This was set up last week, and I guess Miles is working sort of a Colin Delaney in WWECW gimmick. This is just a squash with Beverly winning on points by throwing 8 or so nasty Saito suplexes until they stopped the match. I really liked the knee he hit when Miles jumped at him, but this wasn't really worked in the style, with Miles only offense being a Trouble in Paradise kick, not something he stole from Yamazaki or Takada. Beverly has a nice Saito suplex, but all the matches on this show were pretty one sided, and I would have liked to see a real main event. 

ER: I was into this, and I especially liked that they didn't get too ahead of themselves and give Morales too much actual offense against Beverly. Too many of these angles start off with the extreme underdog almost upsetting the big dog and I'm glad this was just a Beverly mauling. Morales got a couple of light enziguiris and a Trouble in Paradise that sort of hit, and Beverly sold them about as much as he should have sold them. The rest was Beverly manhandling Morales, and that really started at the bell. Morales rushed in and Beverly timed a knee perfectly, took him over with a nice front chancery suplex, and then eventually got to our cool closing stretch of Beverly suplexing Morales over and over to the point where it looked like we'd have our first match end due to points. I thought Beverly's Saito suplexes looked devastating, and loved how Morales fought through them and at a certain point knew he couldn't fight back, but still had points on the board. The knee trembler finish put a stop to that in cruel fashion. 

PAS: This week didn't work for me the way last week did. They are building to some interesting things, but this show was all build. I am hoping for some payoff next week. 

ER: I liked this episode more than Phil, although I agree that we could have used at least one match that wasn't so one-sided. Still, these one-sided matches made me more interested in seeing Justice against tougher opponents, made me want to see a Williams/Justice match, made me want to see more of Mathis, and made me want to see Bobby Beverly/Hoodfoot more than anything. It was a show that, while looking back won't stand out as one of their best, made me more interested in seeing a lot of what's to come, and that's a smart way to use 45 minutes of your wrestling television. 

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Eye on the Indies: CZW Déjà Vu 9/27/14

Wanted to see this show for the Busick/Gulak match, figured I would watch the whole thing since I don't know most of the other guys; Get my brain caught up on some current indy guys.

1. Mason Price vs. The Preacher

I kinda dig the Preacher's vibe. He's a small guy with an old face, like an emaciated MC Gainey, with a big scar across the back of his shaved head. Actually he looks like a really skinny Christian, but with mixologist facial hair. Price looks like Jim Norton working an army gimmick, but an army guy who des a lot of thigh slaps. Match itself wasn't bad, but Price was very much not good. He had zero follow through on any of his strikes or moves. He'd throw a back elbow or pump kick and just kind of stop right where the point of contact would have been. It made all his stuff look like guys going over their moves in the ring before a show. He'd even do it on bigger moves like a Blockbuster, just kind of go through the motions of the move. Preacher had a Jimmy Jacobs vibe, some weird strikes, nice bumps (including flying wildly into a release German), good elbow drop. I'd like to see more of him.

2. Alex Colon vs. Latin Dragon

Lousy video game wrestling filled with reversals that weren't and big moves that didn't matter. Colon wanted to have his cake and eat it too, not really deciding on what kind of character he wants to be. He wanted to be eye raking cheap shotting point at my head heel, but also wanted to do some This is Awesome spots. Some of the reversals were mind numbing. Dragon did a tope, and Colon just didn't sell the tope and gave him a suplex on the floor. Dragon did a nasty reverse rana, then turned around and Colon just small packaged him. A lot of those reversals where you go "oh, so that move just had zero impact I guess." That nasty suplex on the floor I mentioned, which also saw Dragon partially getting slammed into a support pole, and the announce crew talking about a possible broken foot….well Dragon was rope running mere moments later. Yuck.

3. Joe Gacy vs. Aaron Williams

This one had me until it totally lost me. The match gets about 15 minutes to do its thing, and the first half was mostly based around headlock exchanges, some strikes, and then Williams working over Gacy's knee in cool ways. I really dug Williams twisting the knee and ankle and dropping knees on Gacy's knee, and also digging into it with his elbow. Gacy was really good about selling it, really showing how it was slowing him down as every time he would try and transition back to offense Williams could see it coming a mile away. And then suddenly a switch got flipped and Gacy just had to do a whole shit ton of moves with most of the knee stuff a distant memory. It was really like two different matches, and once it turned into "workrate sprint" it turned into a much weaker match.

4. Sozio vs. Caleb Konley

I'm…starting to remember why I don't do more reviews of full indy shows, and why I stay unfamiliar with a lot of indy talent. This one had a couple compelling moments, I liked a lot of Sozio's arm work, and Konley did a fine job of selling the arm damage done, but it didn't save me from a really bad elbow exchange showdown with super slow roaring elbows. Sozio was one of those guys who I couldn't tell if he was a comedy guy or if he was super serious. Sometimes he seemed serious, but then would throw these goofy sweeping crescent kicks and wrestled the first exchanges of the match still in his overcoat. His mafia kick that ended the match looked good at least.

5. Kimber Lee vs. Nevaeh

This was fine although a lot of the stuff seemed overly rehearsed, especially the opening "they know each other so well!" stuff. In fact the more I think about it the more I realize this whole match was practically built around "Kimber goes for this move and misses! Nevaeh follows up with this move and that misses!" kinda stuff. You get your German suplex tradeoffs, your forearm exchanges, you know the drill. I liked one of Kimber's submissions here and both girls seemed willing to lean into things. So that counts for something.

I talked with Phil and it came up that I was reviewing a full CZW show. Phil's response: "Yeah that was a weird thing for you to do."

6. 4 Corners of Ultraviolence: Ron Mathis vs. "The Wrench" Conor Claxton

I really dug this. This was a pretty classic brawl that wouldn't look out of place on older IWA-MS shows. I had never heard of either guy before. Mathis just looks like an athletic kick pads guy, Claxton looks like Dean Ambrose, and they both took and dished out some nasty shots in this. This was constructed really nicely as there aren't just weapons shots for the sake of weapons shots, the early non-weapons work was tight, and once we devolved into weapons the order went pretty logically. Mathis controls most of the early stuff, beating Claxton around the ring and then grossly stapling a dollar to his forehead (which awesomely stays on the rest of the match) and eventually Claxton gets ahold of a chair wrapped in barbed wire (which is a pretty good way to get the advantage to swing back to you). The chair shots were really nasty as they weren't held back much and Mathis took a bunch of shots to his back and sides, the first shot off his arm instantly left a dozen cuts. Claxton went for a light tube and aimed to superplex Mathis into it but took too long, allowing Mathis to reverse into a tornado DDT through broken glass. Gross. Eventually we got tacks in the mix too and they did a few fun tacks tease spots with one of them coming close to falling into them, steadying himself, reversing a move out of them, until both of course take the plunge. Also get the excellent spot of Mathis putting tacks into Claxton's mouth and punching him in the face, with Claxton doing a classic Danny Thomas spit take with tons of tacks. I thought this whole thing was awesome. Their work in between weapons shots was snug, weapons stuff built logically and looked great, didn't go into overkill. This is pretty much what you would want out of this kind of match. Very pleasant surprise.

DJ Hyde comes out but gets interrupted by LuFisto beating him with a stick and they brawl around for awhile. Great spot where Hyde catches her off a dive and launches her at a rough angle through a bunch of chairs. And then that spot is immediately ruined by an announcer saying "We have our Ray Rice moment here in CZW." Eventually LuFisto pulls a knife on him which is just…yeah.

7. Shane Strickland vs. Flip Kendrick

Well this was awful. This match was one 15 minute mirror sequence worked in 3/4 time with most shots missing. Oof. Kendrick is a guy I've liked in almost all the stuff I've seen him in. Strickland is a guy I've never seen before. This was the worst Kendrick performance I've seen, and I never want to see Strickland again. Strickland works the same way Chris Hero did when he was doing his 2001 JAPW extra flips gimmick, except Strickland doesn't seem to do it with a wink. At one point he hit a dropkick, but only after doing a 619 to get to the apron, then somersaulting over the ropes back into the ring. Every move he did had an extra spin leading into it, except he moved so cautiously and slow that it looked strange, like he would get dizzy if he spun around too fast, so he would slooooowly rotate and then just hit an enziguiri or something. The match started with both men slowly running through a bad super choreographed mirror exchange, filled with ducked kicks and dropkicks performed at the same time and stereo kip ups. It was done so slowly and poorly that it looked like clever satire of indy wrestling. Kendrick was moving slowly through his stuff the whole match, a lot of his strikes looked bad, and a lot of the move execution was bad or awkward. A Code Red that was supposed to fling Strickland into a turnbuckle ended with both men slowly tumbling into the corner. Match ended with Strickland hitting a double stomp off the rope, in theory. He really just jumped and landed with his feet on either side of Kendrick, with the camera zooming right in on it. It must have looked as bad live because it was pretty silent when it got the 3 count. Not sure if this poor performance is the norm for Strickland, but if this was the only thing I'd seen of Flip I'd assume he was an awful worker. Yuck.

8. Biff Busick vs. Drew Gulak

PAS: This was the rematch of their CZW title match in May. I haven't really been following the booking but here we have the heel/face dynamic reversed with Gulak coming in as the face and Busick as the bruising heel. This started out with some of the great grappling that these guys bring to the table, with cool armbars and short arm scissors and knuckle locks. Both guys are really great at forceful looking matwork, all of the counters looked like the guy countering was using every ounce of his strength to reverse the hold. Match switches gears when Gulak takes a pair of huge bumps, he gets thrown off the top rope to the floor and cracking the small of his back on the apron (leading to a nasty bruise over his kidneys, he was pissing raspberry tea on the 28th) and getting backdropped into the second row wiping out a fan. Then Busick is controlling, beating on Gulak, with Drew having his moments. This was well on it's way to surpassing their best match up, when sort of out of nowhere Busick counters a suplex into a roll up for a pin. I can't believe I am criticizing a US Indy match up for underkill on its finish run, but I was expecting it to really kick into gear and it just ended. Still much to love and this is a match up that consistently delivers.

ER: Man I love what these guys do, and I love how things have a sense of ending at any time due to both mens' knowledge of reversals and leverage. I agree with Phil that this could leave matches ending without as much drama as they could have built to. But at the same time it keeps me glued to the whole match in the same way I was glued to RINGS matches. Gulak is an ideal wrestler for me. I'm fascinated by all his movements and his combo of skills, maybe the most exciting "new" guy for me this decade. He always breaks out cool unexpected things that make me flip out as a wrestling fan, like his cool roll-up reversal of a Busick leapfrog here. I wasn't even expecting anything to happen there because it just seemed like any other wrestling rope run segment, until Busick leapfrogs and Gulak slides under with the great flash false finish. These two are so good they really make meaningless moments of wrestling mean something. The struggle between them is always so satisfying, I loved moments like Gulak dishing out cupped slaps to Busicks back and head, slowly gaining him access to the arms, moving into a bodylock, into a nasty variation on the Gu-Lock…and I like that he can go through all that but Busick gets a near immediate rope break. Other times they can get a reversal neither were expecting that leaves them in far greater dominant position. I like that ebb and flow of their stuff. The Gulak bumps Phil mentioned were sick and took the match in a welcome and different direction than I expected. Both guys lend an authenticity to their matches; I never feel like they're moving through one spot mechanically to get to the next part of the match. At one point Gulak really wrenches in a hammerlock that is ultimately inconsequential to the larger segment they were working, but that hammerlock looked like a real terror, a real nasty twist, and I could easily see capable but lesser mat workers just going through the motions and not wrenching in a transitional move like that, too busy focusing on what was "supposed to" happen next. These guys might not be for everybody, but for me they're right up their with my favorite all time wrestling. I hope we get to see these guys do their thing for years.

***Note: The Busick/Gulak match was easily good enough for Phil and I to add it to our 2014 Ongoing MOTY list, nestled cozily into spot #37. Instead of doing a whole separate post with my review copied over, I just added Phil's thoughts from the match here. Our full MOTY list linked at the bottom***

9. Ohio is 4 Killers (Jake & Dave Crist) vs. The Juicy Product (JT Dunn & David Starr)

ER: Well, this match was kind of difficult. Stuff I liked, stuff I hated, and then a fair portion of the match completely invisible! Match starts with the Crist brothers diving out of the ring, and they brawl out through the crowd, and outside. The problem is that the crowd was really dark, and the cameras weren't really equipped to follow the action around. What's worse, is when they brawled outside the cameras couldn't follow them. So I just had to fast forward until everybody made it back inside. Jake had a lot of color happening, not sure how it happened. The announcers didn't know either as they stayed at the table and kind of guessed what could possibly be happening outside. I'm sure it was cool for the live crowd, but a weird thing to do on a IPPV where workers should know your filming limitations. Even back inside the building doesn't do much as things are super dark so you can't really see what's happening. Juicy lawn darts Dave Crist into the concession stand. Minutes later Dave appears on top of the concession stand and does a wild Thesz press off the top of it (at least 9-10 feet up). After many, many, many minutes we finally end up in the ring for the match to officially start. There was actually a pretty good FIP story going on with Jake beaten bloody and Dave also gassed from the beatdown, and both Crist guys had some good comebacks and hope spots. But then the match hit the spot where it should have ended, and kept going…and going…and then kept going. They peaked the drama well, and it's just too hard to keep peaking that numerous times in a match. All the guys had some stuff that looked good. There were a couple double team tombstone variations that were nasty, one with Jake hitting a tombstone while Dave hit a double stomp off the top to drive it down. Dave also had an epic double knee drop off the top, and actually threw a really great looking mule kick (it's really hard to throw a nice spinning mule kick). Starr had a couple of neat power spots, and Dunn took some big bumps off clotheslines and other moves. Also, everybody apparently had a bet going to see who could throw more superkicks. At one point we had six consecutive superkicks from everybody. And there were so many more. So yeah, the match had tons of overkill but a lot of the stuff in the overkill looked good. I think the match could have been really great if laid out a little tighter, but as a spot spectacle it was plenty fun.

OVERALL: This was a good enough show, with some nice peaks but also some subterranean lows. The Gulak/Busick match was great, and I also really loved that weapons match. Kendrick/Strickland was one of the absolute worst matches I've seen this decade, but The Preacher was a cool guy I had never heard of that I'd like to see more of, same with Mathis and Claxton. The Crists were also better than I remembered (though had the same faults I remembered).


2014 MASTER MOTY LIST

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