Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 4! 2/13/21

Diego Perez vs. Gil Guardado

PAS: These guys are both MMA fighters apparently without any pro-wrestling experience, so this was basically an MMA sparring session. In shootstyle you are going to be better off with MMA guys with no pro-wrestling experience than the other way around, and there were some exciting moments of ground work, although neither guy seemed fully able to pull strikes and make them look good. The rolling guillotine choke Perez used to finish the fight was really cool.

ER: This mainly looked like the kind of karate or MMA sparring you'd see open a late 80s FMW show or two UWF young boys wearing black trunks and tights and having something called a Fight Exhibition. These two even had the black trunks and tights, but it almost always looked like a pretty friendly MMA exhibition. I liked how Guardado worked inside and outside leg kicks, and at one point it looked like Perez got annoyed and threw a straight kick at the kneecap of Guardado's lead leg. Could have used more stuff like that. I think MMA Guy New to Wrestling pairs nicely with Wrestling Guy New to MMA as a match, so I could see either having a fun match with a midwest indy worker in 2021. 

Royce Isaacs vs. Calder McColl

PAS: This was flashier stuff with both guys having MMA and wrestling experience. Issacs had some really cool takedowns and throws, including a cool gutwrench, but would often get caught by McColl working off his back. There was an especially cool McCall trip takedown from behind. McColl reverses an anconda vice into an armbar and then into a triangle choke for the finish. This was a really good ground battle, with both guys showing some skill. 

ER: This felt a bit too long for what we got, but I liked Isaacs working somehow tentatively, not wanting to rush into something stupid, while also pushing pace and making it almost a sure thing he gets caught in something. Aggression is more interesting in Bloodsport than who eventually gets the triangle, and I liked his short takedowns, liked that he went for stuff like low angle German suplexes even though they almost surely took more energy than they were worth. We have a match long story of McColl's triangle attempts, and Isaacs escaping until he can't. At one point Isaacs did a cool hip pop to break out of a triangle, I really dug that. McColl was a little dull but obviously had some skill, thought it was cool how he set up a slow rolling armbar finish almost as a decoy, giving him a third and final chance to lock in the triangle. 

Bad Dude Tito vs. Super Beast

PAS: This started out pretty awesome with Super Beast with some monstrous throws and huge clubbing forearms, a totally jacked dude who wrestled like it. Tito had some fun brawling strikes early and a couple of nifty holds from the bottom, but this got derailed a bit by a New Japan forearm exchange which should be banned by penalty of death from shootstyle matches. And while the Super Beast keylock throw to finish it was pretty rad, this never got back to the awesome start. 

ER: Yeah, this started cool and then went into a beyond bad strike exchange. Tito from his back going for armbars? Awesome. Tito throwing really bad solebutts, yakuza kicks, and spin kicks? Terrible. The striking wasn't even a New Japan kind of exchange, it was just the exact same kind of exchange you see several times on any indy show, and it has no place whatsoever on a show like Bloodsport. Super Beast's suplexes have a place for sure, and that super fast Saito suplex seemed to make Barnett mark out on commentary. Gimme a guy trying to ripe a jacked masked MMA monster's arm off while that monster is trying to club and throw him, and you get a match on our list. But trying to take down a monster by making him sell a bad spin kick? No sir. 

JR Kratos vs. Alex Coughlin

PAS: Coughlin is a New Japan dojo guy who came in with a lot of energy, although he mostly got thrown around. There was an awesome spot where Coughlin does a deadlift suplex on big ass Kratos where he powers him up with a deadlift. Kratos landed some big throws of his own, and dropped Coughlin for good with a knee to the head for the first KO of the show. 

ER: This didn't totally work for me, felt like it was worked a little at 80% speed. Kratos had a real size advantage and I liked how Coughlin tried to head that off by being a little unpredictable. I wasn't expecting the deadlift, and those are the kind of moments that make Bloodsport something worth seeking out. But I don't think we built to much of actual substance, even with some things I liked. One of the strengths of these matches is that even a match that doesn't grab me can still end strong and leave on a high note, and Kratos squaring up and throwing a knee felt nice and decisive. 

Kal Jak vs. Nolan Edward

PAS: KAL JAK IS BACK! This delivered everything you would want it to. Edward is a fun underdog wrestler who works in the IWTV feds, and he has a moment or two in between getting sent into the heavens by Jak. I really liked his jumping headbutt strike, which looked like a UWF Fujiwara strike. This was mostly Jak throwing huge suplexes, which is the best. He really has that Gary Albright vibe which is something missing from pro-wrestling in the 2020s. He throws this sick gutwrench into a knee strike, which might look silly if thrown by a little guy but looked brutal by a giant unkempt dude. He finishes the match by fireman's carry throwing Edward into a brick wall, which might not technically be a Tamura finish, but still utterly ruled.

ER: Kal Jak is such a good fit on these shows, and they really feel like they're helping him open up in ways that weren't happening when he was working strictly pro style. I was waiting for him to destroy Edward the entire time, and I loved how we kept inching to that point, winding up beyond where I thought we'd wind up. Edward never looked like someone who was going to hang with Jak, and that's fine, because he kept going for single legs and didn't back down when overmatched. Kal Jak broke out some cool tricks, like a full tilt-a-whirl into a great German suplex, and later using that same tilt-a-whirl to land a disgusting knee. If you had described a move as a tilt-a-whirl into knee to me, it would sound gimmicky as hell and filled with unnecessary movement. But seeing Kal Jak execute it looked like a damn killshot finisher. Little did I know that the actual finish was Kal Jak hoisting Edward up into a fireman's carry and just throwing him as far out of the ring, aiming for a brick wall way too far away from the ring. Hard landing for Edward, unexpected as an actual finish, and I'm absolutely loving this side of Jak. 

Simon Grimm vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: MLW brings a feud to Bloodsport, and this was really tremendous stuff. This was probably the most grappling heavy Bloodsport match, worked almost entirely on the mat with both guys constantly attacking different limbs, going for chokes and shifting positions. Grimm nicely shifted from a front choke to an armbar into a knee to the head, Lawlor was able to grab the back. The grappling was very balanced, with Lawlor taking an advantage in the match by targeting the liver with knees, open hand slaps and kicks. Eventually all of the body shots took their toll and he was able to get a KO with a running knee to the body. 

ER: I really like how Grimm uses his legs in his shootstyle work. He's not tall, but he has limber and muscular legs and is really great at using body vices. He uses them in active and passive ways, sometimes working towards something bigger and other times using it to tie up and annoy Lawlor. It looked like Grimm came close to finishing things with a guillotine choke, starting with a leaping body vice and dead weighting Lawlor to the mat. Lawlor was smart about working the body, and I loved Grimm's selling as the targeted body shots started to add up, leaving Lawlor openings to strike. And those openings all lead to something nasty, with that running knee to the body really looking like a finish, even if it hadn't been followed up with mean hammer fists to the button. 

Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Calvin Tankman

PAS: I think I am going to end up being a low voter on this match. Smith just hasn't fully connected with me on these shows. Much of the early part of the match was Greco struggle and mat work, which wasn't particularly dynamic, though I did like Smith solving a problem by shoving Tankman out of the ring. Once Tankman gets back in, they go to the dreaded forearm exchange, before Smith was able to get a side suplex and a crossface tap. I didn't love any of the strikes and thought this was overall just kind of there. Although the cool thing about these shows, that if a match doesn't connect it is at least over quick.

ER: I didn't have the same level of problems that Phil had with this, though it did have some of the striking I don't love seeing in these matches. Outside of one section though I thought this was cool struggle between the two biggest guys on the show. Tankman worked a cool rear waistlock and looked to really be grinding Davey Boy down, except it's easy to burn out your arms working a waistlock on a strong guy. Tankman pays it off with a big follow through German suplex that folds Smith in a cool way. Tankman spends some energy and after awhile Davey Boy kind of has to treat Tankman like dead weight, which makes some of Smith's stuff against the big man look more impressive. There was way too much delay during their strike exchange, and these strike exchanges are a tough needle to thread during these matches. To make them look good, you can't just stand still waiting for the other guy to take his turn, because that looks dumb. It's also a risk to both throw at the same time as each other, because that's how you wind up with Lisa Simpson windmill arms fighting. Both look bad, and you start wondering if maybe it would just be easier to not feel the need to do those? I hated how both guys stood there waiting for each other to take their turn, did not like the way it looked at all, and it didn't help that a lot of the strikes just didn't look good. I did like Smith's strikes to set up the finish, thought it was his strongest set he threw: two quick sharp forearms that lead right into two hard knees, nice throw into a cool crossface. There's a good match in this pairing, and I wouldn't hate seeing it again. 

3. Jeff Cobb vs. Chris Dickinson

PAS: Pretty interesting match, not worked the way I expected it all. This was almost entirely grappling with Dickinson trying to outwrestle the Olympian. Dickinson was the stronger submission grappler, with Cobb using his strength and amateur wrestling style to escape when Dickinson would try an armbar or ankle lock. Eventually Cobb is able to muscle Dickinson up and bring him down hard with a couple of big german suplexes. I expected to see Dickinson throw more strikes, but it is cool to watch how his mat wrestling has evolved. 

ER: I thought this was super impressive, and came away with even more respect for both guys' abilities. I thought Dickinson looked awesome on the mat, and kept finding ways to really spread his weight out to do damage and stay in control. Cobb looks powerful as hell on the mat, and at times is able to make it look like he's just effortlessly moving Dickinson exactly where he wants him to go. And that's what made Dickinson look so good, the way he was able to control as much as he did. He has a really good base and the more he flattened Cobb the more you could see actual frustration brewing on Cobb's face. Dickinson had several convincing submissions, and Cobb would punish him with strikes after narrowly escaping them. I loved Dickinson's two ankle locks here. Seeing his application and Cobb selling the danger of it made me think Dickinson could get that move over as a finish on a big level. 

The ankle lock is a move that Kurt Angle spent a decade plus letting every single opponent easily reverse his way out of it, and Dickinson made me buy that he was going to take an Olympian's achilles with it. Cobb had a couple of downward elbows into Dickinson's kidneys after escaping the first one, that I was kind of surprised he had the balls to go back to it. This was a real punishing, exhausting 11 minutes, and I love when Cobb finally decided to shut the door. His suplexes are really incredible. Seeing Cobb live in 2013 when I'd never heard of him before - and then seeing him throw those suplexes - is one of those wrestling live memories I still think about. He starts lifting up Dickinson in ways that few in wrestling could, and his scoop German is a real beaut. I dug how Dickinson reacted to it in frustration more than pain, with Cobb coming right in and finishing him off with another. It was a cool visual sell from Dickinson that showed he knew how close he was to finishing Cobb, but he knew his fate. Great finish to the show. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 3! 10/12/20

Matt Makowski vs. Simon Grimm

PAS: Makowski damn near stole the show at the last Bloodsport, and Grimm is always good in this style too, so this was bound to deliver.  These guys hued very closely to shootstyle, although Makowski always finds a way to innovate something cool. In this match he did a moonsault to pass guard, although it was totally something I could see Caol Uno doing in a real fight.  Makowski landed some nasty leg kicks and a solid high kick, and I really liked how he didn't sell Grimm's enziguiri when it didn't land clean. I liked the idea of the finish, with Makowski turning a cross armbreaker attempt into a kneebar, only for Grimm to hit a suplex for the KO. Suplex didn't land clean though and the ref jumped in way too fast for the call. If you are going to end a match on a suplex like that, it has to look brutal or the guy taking it has to really sell being KO'd. This was a regular flack back bump sold like a flat back bump and I didn't buy it ending the match like that. Still this was good stuff, and Makowski is a must watch at this point.

ER: Grimm has been so good on these Bloodsport shows, something near entirely impossible to predict after being in attendance live for his pro wrestling debut nearly 20 years ago. It's amazing to me how long he's kept at it, but you can look at his career as a whole and then look at his three Bloodsport matches and see the kind of wrestling he truly excels at. His first Bloodsport match against Kratos was the best live match I'd seen from either of them, and they are two guys I've seen live plenty. I really loved the way he kept Makowski tangled up on the mat, eating leg kicks while standing but always super active on the ground. Sometimes it didn't work out, like when Makowski stuffed a takedown and just pancaked him, but I thought his mat skills were very impressive. I loved when he was raining down elbows from mount, and Makowski shifted slightly so that one of the elbows was a glancing blow, essentially sending Grimm straight into a snug side triangle. But I really liked how Grimm stayed calm and worked to snag Makowski's ankle, twisting it to break the hold and continuing to grapevine the legs in a painful way. The suplex did not work for me as a finish for the same reasons Phil mentioned, but I liked the work around the suplex itself. I like the brief fight for it and liked how Makowski going deadweight lead to a hard flat bump, I just didn't like that as a thing that should KO someone. Had Grimm floated right through and locked in a choke I think that would have been great, but this match was still some very good shoot style. 

Killer Kelly vs. Allysin Kay

PAS: This had some cool moments mixed in was some rough looking stuff. This was the second longest match on the entire show, and they didn't seem to have enough stuff to fill a match this long in this style. It felt like they started over again a couple of times. There was some bad looking strikes mixed in with some good looking ones, there was a section where both women took each other down and rained strikes which looked more like a diva era catfight then Hotta vs. Yamada. I really liked the finish though, with Kay getting a crucifix and raining down Goodrich elbows and keeping the crucifix into a head and arm submission as Kelly tried to stand out or roll out. I think with that finish and a bunch of the meat cut out of the middle this could have been a really good match, just too ambitious to really recommend. 

Lindsay Snow vs. Leyla Hirsch

PAS: This was definitely a better length for what they brought to the table. Hirsch was out sized and out skilled, but brought a bunch of fire to the match. The story was that Hirsch is a talented amateur, who is able to get some takedowns, but once she gets to the mat the much bigger Snow is able to control her. Was pretty impressed with Snow's grappling, she seemed to always find a counter or an advantage and it looked pretty slick. Definitely feels like Snow vs. Kay is the right tourney final.

Calvin Tankman vs. Alexander James

PAS: Tankman is fun in these kind of tourneys, he really feels like a guy you would see in an early UFC with some made up martial arts style, Hoodjitsu or something. He is big and reckless and strong and sometimes that will win you a fight. Not a lot of technique though, mostly James trying to take him down and getting overwhelmed by size. Tankman was crazy over with the crowd and that really added to the atmosphere of the match, as they went nuts when he dropped James for the KO.

ER: I really didn't like this at first, which was painful because I did not want to have to write a negative review now that we finally have a fat guy doing shootstyle again. There are not anywhere close to enough Vader guys doing shootstyle, so I was really rooting for a good Tankman performance. He looked like a real fish out of water at first and didn't look like he'd be able to do anything once things got serious. But after a few minutes I started growing into the minimalist style and started thinking this was actually closer to an actual MMA fight than anything else so far. It had that freakshow PRIDE feel and the crowd was way into the freakshow guy lasting longer than he was supposed to. Tankman laid on him and made slow movements, trying to cool back down after throwing some strikes. I liked the slow passes and just using his weight to plot his next move. But James always looked like he was plotting too, and eventually I got really into the short match slow burn. The triangle choke got the crowd even more into it and by the time Tankman escaped and started throwing hands with James I was fully into the match right with the crowd. The finish looked good as a winged hammer of an arm swung down at a cool looking angle to catch James. Cool approach and great build that kind snuck up on me. 

8. Erik Hammer vs. Grizzly Kal Jak

PAS: I thought this was totally awesome. This was legit heavyweight shootstyle, between two enormous guys with real skill. Jak is a Nor-Cal guy who was in WWE developmental, he was an All-American amateur and is 6'7ish, Hammer is a Barnett sparring partner who has done some IGF before. Jak wrestles this like a taller Gary Albright, huge throws and takedown, and even a big slap to the ear to open the match. Hammer is a shoot wrestler so has real submission skill, and was willing to go for a ride to bait Jak into a dangerous position. Loved the back elbows that Hammer threw when Jak took his back, real jaw clicking stuff and something Jak didn't have to worry about in the NCAA's. Finish was dope stuff with Hammer surviving the big throws until he is able to get the arm out and crank it from the tap. Maybe my favorite Bloodsport match ever. 

ER: I'm really happy Grizz got the opportunity to have this match, and hopefully it exposes him to a larger audience and gets him some more bookings. He's a good guy who has given up a lot of his time for our local indy north Bay Area Phoenix Pro Wrestling, a real popular act with that crowd, and here doing something completely different and completely awesome than anything else I've seen him do. This match was pure shootstyle, the kind of thing that could have been between a Belarussian and a Georgian in RINGS. The only pro wrestling in this entire match is the tale of the tape (Grizz is a big guy, but he's not six and a half feet tall). Hammer has a great look, like a jacked Gary Hart. But this is just fantastic shootstyle wrestling and I agree with Phil that it's arguably the best Bloodsport match we've seen. I would rank it with the best under 10 minute matches we have, honestly. The scrambling and takedowns were really cool, and Jak came off super strong with some big lifts and suplexes from positions where he didn't have leverage. The grappling felt like it could always explode into something new, and sometimes that was a throw, sometimes that was Hammer throwing 4 elbows in a row back behind his head directly to Jak's jaw. I thought that was going to be the finish and I was fully prepared to buy that as a finish. Hammer spots his best chance to finish as going after Jak's arm, and I dug how you can see him trying and see Jak keep lifting him, and you got that sense that eventually Hammer was going to be able to get that arm loose before getting thrown. This was an awesome little journey. 

17. Homicide vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: I thought this was a good wrestling match which sort of failed as a Bloodsport match. Weirdly I place the blame on Lawlor who really should have known better. He was the one throwing those bad looking New Japan elbow smashes which were by far the worst part of the match. There was a fair amount of really cool shit though, I loved Homicide countering the guard by brutally stomping Lawlor in the head, exactly the way a Bed-Stuy street fighter would react to a ju-jitsu sweep. Homicide also landed some nasty clinch knees, and even kind of made an STF look like a shoot hold. I also dug the finish with Cide going for the Cop Killer and paying for it by getting choked and then tapped out. Would love to see Homicide back here, especially against someone who hues more towards strict shootstyle for a contrast.

ER: I thought this was great, and an incredible Homicide performance. I mean, we've written up a lot of Homicide matches in our time, but this was some next level wrestling in a style I've never seen him utilize before. It was still pro style Homicide, but with more shootstyle reactions. I don't like when other guys bring too much pro wrestling into these shows, but I really loved how Homicide specifically brought it in. Homicide still wrestling as Homicide but within a shoot fight is something I didn't know I wanted and didn't know I would love so much. I, too, did not like the elbow exchange portions of this (thought the first one was good due to both mixing up shots well, but then we got three others after that and we really could have got by with the one), but I was in awe at everything else. 

Homicide looked outgunned at times, but then would find his way out of it in ways perfect for Homicide-in-a-shoot. The moment where Homicide started stomping hard down on Lawlor's head to get out of an ankle lock was one of those moments where people there realize they're seeing something special. Phil and I synced up and watched some of these matches over the phone, and when Homicide caught a sliding Lawlor kick and violently twisted Lawlor's leg around his own and then cranked into a STF? I lost it and yipped loudly into the phone. Homicide's exploders were great, and the finish was tremendous. Homicide gets to power out of a choke by grabbing onto the ref's shoulder to help pull himself to his feet - at this point Homicide felt like he was acting out a serious church play for special sermon, with the Lord helping him pull himself to his feet and power through the chokehold the Devil has on his life - and fought back to the point of going for a Cop Killer. I was losing it on the phone at the prospect of Homicide finishing a shootstyle fight with a Cop Killer, but Lawlor slipped off into a sleeper choke, Homicide rolled him off, and then Lawlor hit his best action of the entire match: He slides past Homicide and hooks the ankle he softened up earlier while getting his face stomped in, and yanked Homicide into a flat out disgusting single leg crab. I loved this, the kind of genuinely special performance from a legend that makes standing elbow exchanges melt away. 

Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Josh Alexander

PAS: This was the least of the matches on the show. I thought some of the early grappling was fun, I especially liked the spot where Alexander got caught in submission as he fell to the floor, really looked like he jacked up his back on the ring apron. It devolved into a New Japan forearm exchange though, and DBS won with a Liger Bomb. Sort of pointless to do that kind of stuff, if you are going to bother to work this show, work the style. 

ER: I liked this more than Phil. I thought it was a tight 5 minutes, and thought the strength from both guys played well in all the rolling and grappling moments. The match had a lot of tough body scissors and a lot of the grappling looked really tiring. I thought Davey Boy used the Sharpshooter attempt really well, as there wasn't any fumbling or any actual attempt to go for the move, but a cool turned kneebar into a low squat single leg looked as painful as Bret's finisher. They made a couple good uses of the apron, with Davey throwing hammers down at Alexander's head while trapping him against the edge, and later the visual of him holding that Sharpshooter variation right on the edge of the ring looked really cool. I thought the pro wrestling stuff at the very end worked well they way they played it. There were no exchanges, just Alexander getting to his feet and throwing to quick elbows that surprise Smith (strikes really hadn't been thrown in the match) and leads to Smith throwing a couple of hard kicks to the chest. I thought the Liger Bomb worked as a KO finish, as it looked like Smith really powered him into the mat like a Zangief Street Fighter KO. 

Allysin Kay vs. Lindsay Snow

PAS: This was the tourney final and felt like a tourney final. I continued to be impressed by Snow on the mat, super pace pushing, always looking to press and counter and attack. I also liked how she threw big looping forearms whenever she got on top, they really looked out of control. Kay nicely used her height to throw up legs to counter submissions, and I dug how she went for the crucifix again, but she did look a bit tentative at points, and Snow was clearly the class of their women's division. 

ER: This was good, I liked both working long stretches basically neutralizing the other. Kay impressed me by staying with things the whole time, the way things were constructed made her come off strong while not even being in control a majority of the time. She has strong legs and was good at using her legs and height to push through different Snow attacks on the ground, and she looks like she's making headway while always being bent painfully bending over her own midsection. When she was able to stand Snow up she through hard knees, and they looked good while she was balancing and preventing a takedown. Snow was relentless and they seemed like they were each making the other work hard. I liked their ground work and it looked like neither was having an easy time advancing, made the whole match feel like a cool struggle. 

Chris Dickinson vs. Jon Moxley

PAS: I thought this was a heck of main event, and I give Moxley a bunch of credit for working as hard as he did to put Dickinson over. Dickinson is on a hell of a Rona roll, and was firing shots with real intent behind them, just mashing Moxley's legs with low kicks. I really like how they used the ring outs, made both big bumps that Dickinson took look totally credible. It is a real shame they stuck that strike and grimace elbow exchange in the finish run, match didn't need it and it took it completely out of the style. Trust the audience, there were responding big to all of the work they were doing, we didn't need a cheap short cut, really turned the end of the match into a indy wrestling match, and they were doing something special before that. 

ER: I thought this was good, but less than Phil. It mainly made me feel bad for Dickinson, as we review all of the big matches that he was supposed to get before the pandemic. But knowing what his Mania weekend was looking like, seeing why he was one of the obvious choices for a current indy guy as Moxley opponent, and seeing how much momentum he's had over the past year, and it's not hard to see Dickinson on TV within 6 months (I mean when WWE has Anthony Greene and Curt Stallion on every other week now you have to assume Dickinson isn't far away from being part of a stable with Lorcan and Burch). But I do wish this match wasn't so strongly tilted to Moxley. Moxley worked a lot of this the same way AEW main guys work a lot of AEW competitive squashes, and that's something I see every week. Moxley didn't treat Dickinson like a chump obviously, but I don't think a lot of the Moxley control was as interesting as it could have been. 

I loved the surprise moment of Dickinson getting kicked off by Moxley right into/past the ringpost, spilling to the floor. It was a great kind of jump moment, but by the end of the match we had two other shoves to the floor, and again this just kept feeling more AEW than Bloodsport. That was before the big standing exchange/face making portion of the match, which felt like the culmination of this match going from grappling and leg kicks to a certain comfort zone. I think the best part of Bloodsport is getting out of that comfort zone, and this kept feeling like they were fighting to get back to normal pro wrestling. I still thought it was a strong Dickinson performance and the connection he has with crowds is undeniable. Even though they were full indy match by the end, he still kept me invested with his hot comeback after being kind of smothered by Mox, as their aren't many current guys I like see make a fired up last stand in a match. 

ER: Another great Bloodsport show, at this point feeling like the kind of thing that can work as its own promotion. We landed two matches HIGH on our 2020 Ongoing MOTY List (with Kal Jak/Hammer making our top 10 and Homicide./Lawlor making our top 20) and there were several matches (Dickinson/Moxley, Tankman/James, Makowski/Grimm) that were narrow list misses. That's a great show, something we've come to expect from Bloodsport. 

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Tuesday Shoot Indies - GCW Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 2 9/14/19

PAS: I am starting to build a backlog of Shoot Indies which I am always into so I decided for a bit to alternate AIW Monday with Shoot Indy Monday, also this lets me jump right on Bloodsport after loving their Mania Weekend show so much.

ER: Being there second row with Phil and Tom for Barnett's first Bloodsport is going to be one of my great live wrestling experiences when my time is up, and there's still something I think Phil isn't telling me about how he got tickets. Day before the show it was sold out, next morning I wake up to Phil joyously saying "I got three tickets to Bloodsport! You know, three tickets, together, that ticket quantity that is super common for somebody to be selling. Oh, and they're great seats. Oh, and they were below list price." He refused to answer other questions. I don't know what Phil had to do to get us Bloodsport tickets, but he did something that we will never speak about, and I'm fine with that.

20. Matt Makowski vs. Rory Gulak

PAS: I thought this was great. Makowski is an ex-Bellator guy who is apparently working in Chikara now, I assume he is an old timey Gold Prospector or a sentient bag of pork rinds there, but working shootstyle he owns. Gulak comes in repping Catch Point, I assume he inherited the left over merch when his brother went big time. Gulak is really aggressive with his takedowns including a nasty Judo throw, and is always looking to advance his position on the mat. Makowski had a bunch of really cool stuff, climaxing with the O'Connor Roll into the cross armbreak which was incredible looking, the low kick/head kick combo which finished the match was nifty too. Totally delivered.

ER: Fucking Drew WHO? This was awesome, among my favorite 6 minutes of wrestling this year. This is the Rory I knew was there and I have seen hints of, and now I only want this uncut pitbull energy from him. No backsies. Makowski is fun as hell in a 2003 Z-1 kind of way, and his striking and arm twisting made for an awesome counter to Rory's wrestling. Gulak was really vicious on the attack, and the rolling was all awesome, peppered with bigger moments like Gulak's short belly to belly and big ass German, but with a bunch of tiny movements that all felt like they meant something. A match like this is just as fun for something like Gulak shifting his calf positioning to gain leverage than it is for the big throws. I dug Makowski landing a big hook kick to Gulak's jaw, dug how it felt like he was throwing it out as a lark and didn't realize it would land, and it served as a cool wake up for Rory rather than an instant KO. Makowski even had some stuff Sakuraba would have tried to steal, like a moonsault to pass guard (that could have looked stupid but I loved it). The armbar battles were all legit, Rory looked like he was clasping his hands for dear life while deftly maneuvering his hips, and that chaos theory armbar transition was just bananas. Rory shot straight up into the air like the skinniest kid getting bounced off the blob by the fattest kid at Camp Hope, I mean just a fantastic spot. Rory flew spectacularly into the air with Makowski grabbing that arm on the way down, absolutely one of the spots of the year. Kick feint finish was a good one, and this is the kind of killer match that makes a concept show like this such a bottomless well.

Sumie Sakai vs. Lindsay Snow

PAS: This was a bunch of fun too. Snow was listed as having a Gracie Ju-Jitsu background and lots of this match was Ju-Jitsu sparring on the ground. Sakai was really great with both her Ju-Jitsu and her Judo, landing a bunch of cool throws, and constantly looking to adjust and look for attacks on the mat. Snow was a bit more rudimentary on the mat, but used her size well. I loved the finish with Sakai countering each counter attempt and locking in the arm bar for the tap. Sakai has been around forever, but man did she look skilled here.

ER: I've seen Sakai work pro style a bunch (she's been working in the states for 15 years at this point) but not nearly enough of her like this. She was giving up about 30 lb. to Snow but was the clear aggressor here, to the benefit of the match. She didn't necessarily play it like she was more skilled than Snow, but would shoot in quick and bail early if things weren't going her way. This wasn't as explosive as our first match, but the finish run was cool as hell, loved all the counters and the quick tap when Snow knew she was caught.

70. Zachary Wentz vs. Anthony Henry

PAS: This was worked as a crazy sprint, like a worked version of those WEC Bantamweight fights early in the decade. It was a nice contrast to the pace most of these matches were worked at. I really liked how both guys kept frantically attacking limbs during all of the submission attempts. Henry would put on a kneebar and Wentz would bang away with hammerfists and try to escape. Wentz had two really cool choke attempts, one where he pressed Henry his body and flipped him into a choke, and one where he leaped into a guillotine. Finish was very cool with Wentz getting a knockdown and going for a diving punch, but landing right into a tight guillotine for the tap.

ER: This exceeded my expectations as I didn't know if either of them had any kind of fight sports background, so I was just going into this familiar with their indy wrestling. Wentz is a guy who has stood out to me as a big bumper, and Henry has been in matches I've liked, but I wouldn't have tagged them for something like this and came away pleasantly surprised. Phil hit the nail with his WEC Bantamweight descriptor, and it's hard to do that kind of style without it coming off like flash exhibition. A couple of the missed strikes might have, but those were small pieces of a fun sprint. I loved all the action getting into chokes, dug the Wentz missed punch into a side triangle, and thought the finish was fantastic: when Henry went down from a kick I clearly thought that was going to be it, but Wentz leaping in with a Superman punch (a callback to the Bloodsport show we attended where Kratos absolutely wrecked Grimm with that diving punch as the deserved finish) and I didn't anticipate Henry's triangle. Henry made it even more badass by rolling it over and twisting the trapped arm. This show has slayed so far.

JR Kratos vs. Erik Hammer

PAS: This was a pretty mixed bag, it had some stuff I really dug, and some stuff I really hated. Hammer is a shoot wrestler who worked some IGF and really has Zero-One energy, like a lost jacked up McCully. All of the mat stuff was pretty cool, with a pair of big dudes really struggling over holds. I thought the stand up, New Japan style chop, forearm and grimace stuff sucked, it was a bad version of a tired spot that was really inappropriate for this style. There was some good stuff later in the match, but they really lost me and never got me back.

ER: I saw people calling this the fight of the night, and I am not seeing that. There was a lot to like, and I would have loved it had they stuck to the intense grappling that much of the match was based around. I'm not opposed to strikes in these things, obviously, but the stand and trade forearms and chops building to a phone booth fight was so damn out of place. That kind of stuff is in several matches on every single wrestling card in 2019, Bloodsport is supposed to be presenting something different. And I don't think it was particularly good stand and trade, either, which is an additional problem. I really liked Kratos kicking a downed Hammer in the chest, feinting another one, and then punching him in the jaw. BUT, then it lead directly to some old bullshit. But everything on the ground was intense and that struggle was real. I honestly thought we were going to get a fairly early tap when Hammer was hyperextending Kratos' leg on a hell hook, and I loved late in the match how hard Hammer was going for that armbar, and how hard Kratos was trying to keep those hands together to block it, and I got fully wrapped up in the crazy struggle that was happening. Something like that is way more meaningful than some bad overhand chops and screaming.

Nicole Savoy vs. Allysin Kay

PAS: I like how the women on this show have hued strictly to shootstyle, this was almost all grappling and palm strikes, really no pro flash at all. Kay constantly was going for cool mat attacks, Imanari Rolls, Twisters,  which Savoy would either escape or counter. I loved how Kay went for the Imanari Roll one too many times and got blasted with hammer fists. Finish was really cool with Savoy going for an Omaplata and Kay rolling through into a crucifix and raining down elbows for the tap. Neither lady had the polish of an elite grappler, but they were trying cool shit and pulling it off and I am going to appreciate that, even if it was a bit slower and more awkward then Volk Han.

ER: I liked this even though, yeah, the skill level for this thing was quite there. This lead to a couple exhibition-y moments, but this style leads itself open to things like that. I'll always appreciate two wrestlers going for things that are maybe beyond them, rather then settling into the same old comfort zones. I dug both of them rolling through armbars and heel hooks, and really liked Savoy punishing Kay with mounted punches and hammerfists throughout, and I thought they made good frustrated use out of accidentally falling to the floor. The twister set-up was cool and looked like it could've popped one of Savoy's ribs had it been held longer. I really like what these two went for.

Anthony Carelli vs. Simon Grimm

PAS: Holy hell did Carelli look great here, talk about a guy who could have had a totally different career. He looked like a guy who deserved to run a BattlArts school. Super stiff strikes, just bounces Grimm's head off the mat with forearms, great looking judo takedowns, and some cool submissions. Grimm had his moments, and he really got some heel heat on a show without it normally, but this was a Carelli show and a great one.

ER: Calling Carelli a revelation here would not be an overstatement, because we have hundreds of his matches on tape and outside of occasional judo takedowns we saw none of this guy. I know he had early career Batt matches (that I've never seen) and has been running a Canadian Batt Academy (where I don't think he's wrestled), and here he comes out raining down some of the nastiest grounded strikes of the year while trying to leave with any one of Grimm's limbs. He was a genuinely gifted comedy wrestler who could still be making a killing working indy shows, taking no bumps, kids screaming for the cobra, powerwalking the ropes, easy; instead he goes down to Vegas and reigns supreme! I thought Grimm brought more to this than Phil did, even though this clearly felt laid out to show Carelli's (unseen?) abilities. I loved Carelli's downward elbow strikes to Grimm's chest, loved the hard shots to Grimm's body, and loved the fight over kneebars and armbars, and I dug how things ramped up. Grimm started besting Carelli and that's when Carelli hauls off and starts throwing open hand strikes to escape. And my favorite part of the match was probably Carelli locking in a great dragon sleeper, real mean, and Grimm having to get out of it by throwing a knee up over his head. the knee looked vicious and Carelli sold it appropriately. I wouldn't have guessed Grimm would be such a solid addition to these shows, but I like what he brings and hope we get to see more of Carelli.

Timothy Thatcher vs. Ikuhisa Minowa

PAS: I thought this was good but never broke into the great level. Thatcher doesn't really do worked shoot style on these shows, he really works more of a MUGA style heavy on hard forearms and more traditional wrestling submission holds. That worked well as a style break against Hideki Suzuki on the last show, a guy who is the best in the world at that style. Minowa is an MMA fighter who has done a handful of works, he is technically skilled, but he wasn't bringing a ton of flash to the match. I liked Thatcher grinding out submissions, including the finish where he pounded on Minowa's back until he gave up his neck. I also liked how Thatcher would spin out of one submission to another. This ended up being cool but dry, I think Minowa would have probably been better served against more of a shoot guy.

ER: I was left a little cold by this one, even though I liked a lot of what they did, but it did feel like a styles clash that was sound, but not as interesting as it should have been. On paper it seemed like it would be dynamite but it wound up more perfunctory than I was expecting, and I think a lot of that was Minowa. Necro Butcher vs. Minowman is a styles clash classic, but here he showed no charisma and felt much more like a generic karate fighter a fed would add as a special attraction to a 70s card. Except on this card that wasn't any kind of special attraction, it was expected. I thought Thatcher looked awesome working in and around him, and was laying in some pretty mean shots on the mat that felt like they could have been sold better. Minowa would have an occasional nice moment, I liked him spinning out to grab a heel hook, but I think he would have been better off against another MMA guy or even better, someone like Nick Gage. I agree with Phil about how awesome Thatcher looked down the finish stretch, felt like he was grinding Minowa down and by the time he pummeled his way into that nasty neck and crossface choke it felt like a fine finish.

59. Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: I really enjoyed this. Smith is great in this format because of the heaviness he gets across. When he is on the mat he is a this dense ball of tendon strength you have to try to move off. When he lands shots, they feel and look like he is laying cinderblocks upside the head of his opponent. Lawlor was really good at fighting off the back foot, I loved how he threw peppery jabs only to land big leg kicks, and he had some slick counters off of his back. Smith kept rolling though and by the end he felt inevitable.

ER: Damn I just want Davey Boy Smith to work exclusively this style, it's far and away the most I've ever enjoyed him and it's a style he really excels at. He has big strength and hits hard, and really knows how to project his weight. Every one of his elbow shots looks like it should send Lawlor to spaghetti legs, and Lawlor pretty much behaves like that's where he's at. DBS would hit a couple big elbows and Lawlor would throw shorter rabbit punches to set up his only real shot, taking out DBS' leg. But I just loved the power DBS showed, in "smaller" things like a couple back elbows he lands to Lawlor's mouth while in guard (I put smaller in quotes because any one of those shots would have leveled me), to bigger things like when he took Lawlor down with basically a keylock suplex, to fitting more traditional wrestling offense into the match without it seeming out of place. Lawlor attempts a backpack choke and DBS grabs him into a powerslam, DBS hits a powerbomb that fit perfectly fine into a shootstyle atmosphere because it looked like there was nothing Lawlor could do to stop it, DBS dumps Lawlor with a flat out rude backdrop driver, and Lawlor himself even hits an awesome sliding lariat that throws both to the floor. Other Bloodsport stuff that tried to incorporate pro wrestling came off looking phony, but these guys had a great sense of what would work (other than maybe that Sharpshooter attempt, but I appreciate the cockiness to even attempt it).

Killer Kross vs. Nick Gage

PAS: Fun little sprint which delivered what you want out of this match up. Gage is a fun Tank Abbott style brawler on these shows. I loved Kross dominating him with technical striking only to fall victim to a bar fight headbutt, and a soccer kick to the mouth. Kross getting him down and choking him out felt inevitable, but Gage throwing up his set as he passed out was a great bit of theatre. I assume Kross is only making the Batista shoutout because they have that match signed, if they do it is a great bit of business.

ER: This match ruled, the perfect quick and dirty fight to have on a card like this. This is the shortest match on the card but was memorable as hell. Gage has a connection to the crowd that few indy guys today could ever dream of having, and that always adds to his matches. In a setting like this it adds even more, and Kross is a cool opponent for him. Kross goes after Gage's ankle, kicking at it and making it seem like legwork was going to be the story of the match, until Gage completely rewrites the story by hitting a tremendous headbutt to KK's face. He sandbags a Kross backdrop driver and I dug the messiness of the ground grappling, dug how they reacted to hitting each other, and thought Gage going down to a nasty choke while throwing double middles was about as fitting as a finish could be.

10. Josh Barnett vs. Chris Dickinson

PAS: Really excellent stuff. All of the cool shit in the Barnett vs. Suzuki without any of the New Japanish shit. I loved the pace of this match with Barnett using his strength and technique to dominate, only to have Dickinson catch him with semi cheap shots to the back of the head or to the ear. Barnett wasn't fully prepared for shots that were legal in Bloodsport but would be illegal in MMA and Dickinson was able to make hay from that. I also loved Dickinson sneaking in a cross armbreaker after fighting for the leg. Finish was totally awesome, they both stand up after some grappling and Barnett tosses off his wrist tape in a very cool drop the strap way, they stand and throw and Dickinson lands first clipping Barnett in the ear and stunning him, Dickinson lands a nasty deadlift German, and some soccer kicks, Barnett is stunned swinging wildly and catches Dickinson in the temple, drops him with a powerbomb and a KO kick to the jaw. The match was slow paced before that and built to this great wild crescendo. Contender for a career match for both guys, and these are guys with great careers.

ER: What a showing from these two, and I'm especially blown away by Dickinson. He's become one of my very favorites over the past couple years, but this match was going to take something special. To look credible in a shootstyle atmosphere against a guy not only larger than him, but a former UFC heavyweight champ who has beaten a who's who list of heavyweight fighters. And he totally did. Barnett looked like Barnett, and Dickinson fought like a guy with nothing to lose, attacking Barnett with downright cruel closed fists to the body and face. Barnett was working him over with early MMA holds, lots of heel hooks, a can opener, and I loved how he would work an armbar and then catch a push off kick from Dickinson and then just twist his arm AND his leg. But Dickinson was aggressive as hell and the violent pace they kept up for 17 minutes was insane. Barnett was being a good guy and throwing open hands, working holds, and Dickinson was throwing big damn fists and trying to bull his way through, and it was working! Dickinson came off like such a major badass, really hanging with an MMA legend, actually flustering Barnett at points by sneaking in kicks. And the match long struggle built to an absolute explosion with the kind of stand and trade this show really needed. There was a killer moment earlier where Dickinson landed a shot to the back of the head and Barnett did this great lights out recovery, and now he was going to pay him back, peeling off and throwing down his wrist tape in an awesome visual. But Dickinson hits this wild German and just starts kicking the hell out of Barnett, sending Barnett into muscle memory winged shots, and we get a completely plausible epic gutwrench powerbomb with some mean follow up knees to Dickinson's face. The bell to bell action was the best, a major accomplishment and some of the best shootstyle fighting we've seen. A real gem, and a real reason to keep excitement levels high for these shows.

ER: Four matches land on our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List, and others weren't far off. This feels like a format that has a lot of legs as long as the shows are spaced, but then again I'm someone who would get excited at school every Monday of 1998, hoping there would be a Brawl For All segment that night.

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #2: Josh Barnett's Bloodsport

PAS: We really blew it by not pre-buying tickets early, Bloodsport sold out before we could buy some tickets and I assumed we were out of luck,  but the wrestling gods smiled on us and I was able to grab three seats on StubHub for half the face value.

ER: We got to go to lunch after Family Reunion and before Bloodsport, plenty of intriguing options within pleasant walking distance. We landed on a burger place that started playing Hootie upon us being seated, and Tom told a great story about an unearthed Pete Buttigieg "Dave Matthews Band in a Post 9/11 World" college op-ed that is either impossible to believe or a bit with real legs. On the walk back we pass Mr. Brickster on his way to the PATH and he's wearing a full Pac-Man screen suit with a LEGO bowtie, and our day of gushing about Brickster gains strength upon refueling. A line was already 25 deep for Bloodsport when we left, and we come back to a sardine packed White Eagle. Thank god for these assigned seats. It would have been a real shame if we had missed this. We'd never done a Mania week before (I went to some WWN shows when they played San Jose in 2015 but the week wasn't as crazy filled with events then), and had no idea some things sold out so much earlier. Phil casually mentioned as we were walking to breakfast that he had found 3 seats to Bloodsport, and from the second we were seated at our 2nd row seat I was so glad we were there live.

TKG: After Family Reunion we go get food and I see some tall guy on the opposite corner walking from PATH in pleather wrestling gear but without a roller bag, and loudly start with, “Look at that greasy haired fat faced wrestling fan, spent his money on his cosplay leather” or something like that. Eric goes “yeah that’s Davey Boy Smith Jr.”

 

Dominic Garrini vs. Phil Baroni

PAS: Baroni is pretty great at getting heat from the crowd, he was always a hatable sleaze as an MMA fighter and that translates really well to riling up an indy wrestling crowd. I liked this a bunch with Garrini having some nice sprawls to try to get Baroni on the mat, and a brutal finish with Baroni full force punching Garrini in the face. Dom was really going to prove his insanity later in the evening, but letting a MMA fighter with 11 KO wins, punch you full force in the jaw may even be nuttier then some of the bumps he took in the I Quit match.

TKG: Baroni poses and yells at audience “Yeah this is steroids” and neat as I expected Barnett’s vision to be RINGS but instead it was PRIDE. Was trying to explain Baroni to Eric, and couldn’t remember if he was a teen tanning or teen bodybuilding champion or both but the point is he is guy who totally embraces being a Long Island Teen Tanning n. Bodybuilding star, this match was all him doing the same “I’m better than this” shtick that he does in his actual MMA matches and potatoing Garinni. Garinni impressively built a match around that while eating potatoes. If Bloodsport can get some Tony Khan money Baroni/Malignaggi v Berto Bros in Tampa could be super amusing.

ER: I obviously knew Baroni from early PRIDE and UFC shows, and his name on the card excited me for the exact reasons we got here, and I didn't even know about the teenage tan 'n' bodybuilding stuff. He comes out, grinds on a woman, flexes, talks about his steroid bod, and then punches someone. Later, he came out as a second and yelled out tips while eating a PowerBar. Felt like we also could have used Matt Serra yelling tips to Pete Drago Sell. I like gi Garrini, it's a look he should pull more often. This was a quick taste but it delivered and set the tone for the show, really made me happy to be there live and so close to the action. I would have loved to see Garrini control more, threaten another tap (and he did get a cool armbar reversal), but the finish was the kind of fireworks people wanted: Baroni decked Garrini with a right hand for the near KO and then went for a mocking pinfall, then planted him with another to stop the match (after getting a nice dramatic 9 count as Garrini struggled to his feet). Baroni certainly didn't look like someone who was holding back on his KO punch, and agree with Phil that in retrospect taking to straight shots to the jaw may have been Garrini's craziest move of a day with several contenders.

JR Kratos vs. Simon Grimm

PAS: Kratos is a Nor-Cal guy who worked a couple of matches in this style in the late lamented PREMIER fed, but I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was. It was basically Grimm using his technique to try to minimize Kratos power advantage, there were some especially nasty elbows to the back of the head and ear, and some big slaps. The final mat scramble was pretty great with Grimm lifting up in Kratos's guard and raining down elbows, and Kratos transitioning into a head and arm choke. Loved the finish with Grimm using a schoolboy to grab an armbar, Kratos doing a Hughes lift for a powerbomb and wasting him with a brutal jumping forearm smash. I think this was better then any of the matches on last years show and it was only the second match.

TKG: This came out of nowhere and fuck that finish was beautiful. Kratos does the thing you want in pro/shoot hybrid match where he makes the pro-wrestling spots look as nasty as the legit spots.

ER: Kratos is primarily a Bay Area guy and is pretty popular around here, so no matter what kind of match we got I knew Phil would be touting him as my boy. Technically I was there for some *really* early Psycho Seth stuff, too, possibly even his debut way back in 2002, so this was a Bay Area represent match. Once Tom realizes both are APW guys he excitedly wonders if we might have gotten a triple threat with Moondog Moretti at one point. Seth could have crossed paths with Moretti but I think Kratos started too late. And this is weirdly seeming like Kratos' best wrestling style, as I loved his stuff in Premier and his performance in this match more than any pro style match I've ever seen from him. I thought this was great. It was a match that on paper was maybe the least match on the card, and it wound up being my 2nd favorite match of the show. I thought all the working parts were cool, dug how Grimm controlled the stand up striking (at one point he hits an open handed chop to the neck that made me scoot my chair back) with Kratos controlling more of the ground striking. Kratos had some cool takedowns including a couple where he yanked Grimm's arm through his legs and flipped him. Kratos did a good job minimizing Grimm's ground striking, maneuvering to spots where Grimm had no power, and both had some slick armbar attempts. I particularly liked Kratos pushing at Grimm's locked hands with his free boot. The jumping forearm finish was arguably the nastiest finish we saw all day, in a day filled with some nasty finishes. I've seen Kratos matches that were supposed to end in a KO stoppage that didn't really work. This worked so well it looked like Grimm would need to be helped out, and Kratos lifting up Grimm's lifeless body in case another move was needed for a stoppage was a sick touch.

Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Killer Kross

PAS: Another pretty great match which I didn't have big expectations for. They opened up with some kick boxing with Smith throwing some pretty heavy leg kicks. Kross would throw heat and did a nice job of scrambling into positions, much more competent at this then I would expect from TNA fake Batista. This is right in Davey's wheelhouse and he had some really slick takedowns and his final deadlift suplex looked great. Heck of a big boy punch out, and this show just delivered up and down the card.

TKG: DBS comes out in the shorts he wore underneath the tear away pleather pants. I remember DBS in some twitter thread agreeing with Kim Duk about an older credible style that NJ doesn’t do anymore. And thinking “hmm I wish DBS actually worked that style”. And here he is doing it and it is so much more impressive than anything else ever seen of him. This really felt like what he should be doing.

ER: Amazing that we saw DBS in the wild wearing a completely different set of ring gear while out and about. You see a guy walking the streets and taking the train wearing giant baggy pristine white vinyl pants with dog bones all over them, you assume that he's just wearing his gear and didn't feel like taking a roller bag. Then he comes out in trunks and you realize he just has custom walking around dog bone vinyls. But damn would I be so much more excited for DBS matches if he just wrestled like this guy every show. Tom turned to me right after the finish and asks "What other Davey Boy do I need to seek out?" And I responded with a non-word like "Ehhhhhhhhhhh". DBS looked like an absolutely fantastic roller and grappler for the duration of this, and the way he muscled Kross around the mat was really impressive. He really looked like he was moving a human sack of concrete at times, both guys really working the struggle. DBS even tried locking on a shoot Sharpshooter out of a scramble which was a great moment. Both guys threw nice leg kicks, Kross had a couple great Saito suplexes and DBS set up the finish with a bomb hardway backdrop suplex, drags Kross' body to the center and got the tap on a crossface. I thought some of the standing slap exchanges went too long, even though they all paid off nicely, and the throws and rolling totally overdelivered.

Masashi Takeda vs. Jonathan Gresham

PAS: Takeda is a guy who started out in Style E, BattlArts, FUTEN and U-Style before he decided to grotesquely scar himself in death matches, so he was very comfortable doing worked shoots. This was a middleweight fight and worked at a much faster pace then the rest of the show. Gresham is really skilled on the mat, and he kept moving to improve his position, while Takeda would have these almost acrobatic leaps into submission attempts. The match changes dramatically when they both spill to the floor, which opens up Takeda (honestly a sneeze might open up Takeda at this point), we get some very aggressive stand up with Gresham aiming hammer fists and slaps to the open wound and Takeda moving forward, finish was great with Takeda landing a flash knee KO. Really energetic stuff and a nice contrast with the previous match.

TKG: I've watched enough Fedor to know if a guy is made of scar tissue you should try to open that up immediately to get the stoppage. They tease a fall to floor once or twice before actually doing it and not sure how I felt about it. I liked the first match having a DQ for touching ref, Promotion establishing its own unique rules....maintain them. But once got back in the ring it got right back.

ER: I actually didn't remember Takeda as a Tamura guy. He's been a grimy death guy for so long. Is Jun Kasai an Anjo trainee? Takeda comes out and Tom asks "So this guy is a death match guy?" Takeda takes off his shirt. "Yep, that's a death match guy." Gresham's performance in this match really highlighted what a colossal disappointment that Orange Cassidy match that started our day was. There was Gresham generously letting a guy take 100% of a match with his shtick, totally thankless work, here he gets to work several cool can openers and throws down with Takeda and looks like a total badass. They made really good use of rolling to the floor (guys had been broken up while getting to the edge of the ring before this, but nobody had rolled out mid-move) and they really hit the ground hard when both took a tumble. Gresham looked really talented on the mat and I'd love to see that pop up more in his matches, and at one point he was throwing trapped hammer fists to the side of Takeda's head that were among the nastier shots of the show. The finish is the real nasty business with Takeda stunning with a strike, then rushing in with a brutal knee for the instant stoppage. That knee, man. Show was absolutely bananas at this point. We were literally sitting in our seats giggling.

Chris Dickinson vs. Andy Williams

PAS: Williams looks like a Peaky Blinders extra, and Dickinson comes right out into him and they wildly throw for a minute which really fired the crowd up. Williams gasses right after that and they move pretty quickly to the finish with Dickinson getting a choke. Short match, but the first minute was really electric.

TKG: Two guys volume punching with no defense till they couldn’t volume punch anymore is always going to be a winning formula. Two heavyweights doing it always is going to get a crowd riled up.

ER: I flew out here from California, but it's pretty cool they flew Williams in from Branson. And I somehow only found out after this weekend that Williams has been a guitarist in Every Time I Die for over 20 years, which is information that would have been much cooler to me in the early 2000s. And I think Phil and Tom are underselling this one as I thought the coolest stuff in the match came after the big throwdown opening. The throwdown is obviously cool and something we hadn't seen yet, but then you got Williams muscling up Dickinson for a powerbomb, and later a sic gutwrench that looked like it was going to be a ganso bomb, plus Dickinson throwing disgusting shots to Williams' ear and back of his head, and the finish was another classic: Dickinson works his way into a backpack choke with Williams gamely gets to his feet with Dickinson locking in the choke further. Williams knows it's locked in and does a forward roll as a desperation escape, but it doesn't work and just opens him up the rest of the way for Dickinson to lock in the choke. The final choke was a great visual as Williams spits out his mouthguard a bit before tapping, felt like the guy in Casino whose eye starts to pop out when his head is put in a vice.

Frank Mir vs. Dan Severn

PAS: Short exhibition, with Mir grabbing an arm pretty quickly for a the tap. Mir didn't show much in his pro wrestling debut, would like to see if he could provide a bit more spark with an opponent not in his sixties. Severn still looks awesome though, someone should sign him as a troubleshooting ref or something.

TKG: Not at all sure what happened here. This was weakest match on show where never made it to the next gear. Post match Mir says he’s getting into wrestling to take out Lesnar and turn Lesnar into the first pro-wrestling in ring death.

ER: I really liked what we got here, but wanted at least a couple more minutes. The finish felt a little sudden, but the work within was good. Severn is 60 and looks the same as he's looked for the last decade plus, body still looks exactly the same, and it looked cool when he dragged Mir down into a north south choke and gator rolled him. I really liked the maneuvering from both guys while Mir is trying to lock on an armbar or triangle, Mir trying to shift his hips and Severn trying to power up with his legs and advance. The heel hook finish looked really good and the application felt natural, I just wanted more stuff before we got there. At minimum, I thought it was awesome being this close to Severn.

Hideki Suzuki vs. Timothy Thatcher

PAS: This was much closer to a MUGA match then a shootstyle match, which works perfectly to both guys strengths. Suzuki is so great at switching speeds, he will deliberately shift into position, only to snap a limb or flip into a submission.  Just everything in this match was applied so tight and twisty and every shot was thudding, Suzuki stomped Thatcher in the head and it looked like he was smashing a grape to make wine. The backbreaker/double underhook suplex finish by Suzuki was just super impactful. Between this and the Ishikawa match, Thatcher is having a monster 2019.

TKG: This wasn’t shoot style at all, this was just super tight mat wrestling and was my favorite match on the show. There was a couple enziguiri, a spinning toe hold, a bow and arrow, a desnucadora, etc...but all of them were sold meaningful. Thatcher's sell of the early toe hold and just his selling throughout left a real impression. We get so used to reversal of reversal wrestling that we forget how exciting changes of momentum can be in match where both guys are actually fighting for control, fighting to apply moves. Just lots of dramatic changes in momentum that crowd almost treated like finishes and two guys who looked completely committed to what they were doing.

ER: On paper this was the match I was most excited for this weekend, and it totally delivered everything I could have wanted it to. It would have been cool just seeing Suzuki's first and only match in the states, but having it actually live up to being the banger we all wanted was extra special. This was the most airtight match of the show, and one of the meanest MUGA matches we've seen. The headlocks and grappling alone would have made for a great match, seriously Suzuki's headlocks look like something that would pop a head right off a pair of shoulders, and it was fascinating being up close and seeing him work exchanges. Phil mentioned how Suzuki will deliberately shift into a position or move a limb to set up something different, and there are a bunch of cool examples of that here, like Suzuki trapped in a sub but moving Thatcher's calf higher up on his own thigh, which then provides him space to turn, which shifts pressure. We get moments where he digs in an elbow before passing, or applies pressure with his palm to Thatcher's knee, or smacks Thatcher in the shin. By the time Suzuki threw a stomp to the back of Thatcher's head, kicked him in the jaw, and hit a Rockette kick to the chest, they could do no wrong. Thatcher gets a nice gutwrench (love how Suzuki sold it with his arms out, like he was getting nerve pain shooting down his fingers), and when Thatcher locked in a side headlock to hit a Saito suplex I said "Uh Ohhhhh" aloud. Sure enough, Suzuki hammers down with his elbow and drops Thatcher with a backbreaker. Suzuki has done more for legitimizing the backbreaker than any wrestler I've seen. His looks like a genuine finisher and the move is actually treated as seriously as the name sounds. Great match, whole card would have been completely worth it if this were the only watchable thing we got. Instead the match had to set itself apart from a totally great show, and it easily did.

Josh Barnett vs. Minoru Suzuki

PAS: This was a match that felt like a main event. Barnett is such a hard man, and everything he did had some real force to it. First fifteen or so of this were pretty perfect as Barnett brought Suzuki back to PWFG as they were really twisting and pulling at limbs and landing big time knees, forearms and slaps. There is a little nonsense with a ref and a chair on the outside, which really felt like Suzuki taking unnecessary match short cuts. I really liked the finish of the match before the restart, and I thought it built nicely to the five more minutes, but you really need to do a finish if you are going to do a five more minutes. Going to another draw really took some steam out the match. Excellent main event for an all time great US Indy show, but I dug other stuff a bit more.

TKG: Barnett’s current look is ridiculously cool. He looks like Kurt Russell’s bad ass cousin and this match felt like main event wrestling. Everything the two did together was as good as you wanted and all the shoot near fallsish stuff, teased submission, teased going to close to the edge etc were as dramatic as anything you were going to see in wrestling. And the eventual escapes had folks on the edge.The show was excellent top to bottom but the semi and the main were the matches that really got you caught up in the drama of false finishes and changes in momentum, the pop of “is this gonna end it?”….being able to feel that drama again. Years of the goofy cliché 2.9, “one, two, nooooo” followed by three minutes of bug eyed Shawn Michaels faces "How did that not do it?, what will it take to put him away? Where in my reserves will I find what it takes?" almost killed the idea that false finish can have any emotional value. At this point I just treat it as a stock lazzo bit to fill time. Was great to experience drama of false finishes again. They work to a 20 minute draw and the crowd was excited as ending with two guys just swinging for fences while crowd counted down. I watched UWF and PWFG and have no problem with a draw finish. They did the five more minutes and it all fell apart, as they went into octopus and fighting spirit shtick. Either do the draw or do the Fujiwara guy taking a hellacious beating slips in a sub for the win. But going into horseshity overtime, hurt the match. Still this was an amazing show top to bottom and left me on a real high.

ER: This one had a real special atmosphere, with Barnett looking like the flat out coolest version of Jaime Lannister, and Suzuki bringing an impossible amount of charisma to a small room. Barnett looked leaner, more intense, and in better shape than any year during his long MMA run, and it was awesome seeing Suzuki immediately snap back into limb twisting savage. Barnett is even wearing his Inoki Genome pads, so we got a decades in the making interpromotional shootstyle war here! And there's not an easy move made in the match, everything is a fight, and by the end they both looked to have lost about 5 lb. of sweat. This was all ankle snapping heel hooks, sunk in headscissors, elbows yanked up to ears, knees driven into chests, twisted bodies trying to scramble out of chokes, and rained down palm strikes and elbows. At one point Suzuki had one of Barnett's legs grapevined, was controlling his wrist, and was shoving Barnett's free leg up towards his shoulder. Suzuki looked like he was a one man drawn & quartered machine, and it made me literally jump out of my chair and look around to make sure everybody else was seeing what I was seeing (which is in full view of the camera, my expression looking like a rube shocked by a magic trick). Honestly the match could have ended on that sub and it probably would have been stronger for it. Obviously we go past that, and get rewarded with more nasty shots and yanked limbs, but also lose some of the steam and magic that had been created. When we went to a bomb throwing countdown, I was fine with them ending on a draw (even though I was hoping Suzuki would feint his way out of the throwdown and get a last second tap with a heel hook). And the draw did lead to an undeniably great moment, as the crowd is chanting for 5 more minutes, and Suzuki looks like he's having none of it, rolling his eyes he quiets the crowd...and then calls for 5 more minutes. It was a great moment. But not really as great if we knew that it was just going to lead to another draw. The New Japan-ness of the restart didn't help, but it also didn't negate the genuinely great majority of the match. Flat finish or no, this was a tremendous live experience. It flashed in my head at one point that Suzuki might take the night off a bit, but this was among the hardest worked matches I've seen from him all decade.

ER: This should go down as a top show of the year contender, an absolutely thrilling 2 hours of pro wrestling. We put FIVE of the matches on our 2019 Ongoing Match of the Year list, and that seems like a near impossible mark to beat.

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Matches from MLW Road to the World Championship 2/8/18

MLW Road to the World Championship

ER: I saw there were several intriguing match-ups on a free MLW show (and Tony Schiavone? Has Schiavone always done commentary for MLW?!) so why not dive into the ones that interest me!

Destino Negro vs. MEGA Danger

ER: I had skipped this match but Phil bullied me into going back and watching it, even though he didn't want to watch it himself. "I think you should check out the lucha match too." "Why am I the one who has to check it out?" "You did the rest of the show. Figure we should keep it consistent." He had also asked me to watch it the day before. If I pushed it further he would bring up that I made him watch a couple New Japan matches, which is truth. BUT FOR CONSISTENCY'S SAKE here we are.   Tony Schiavone brings up Salina de la Renta a lot, who is not someone I was familiar with before this match, but every time he starts talking about her I keep hoping he's talking about Selena. Especially the first time he brings her up, as he says "You know whenever these lucha stars are around that Selena...." and he hits a long-ish pause, and I genuinely think he's talking about tejano legend Selena because his tone sounds somewhat somber, and I fully expect him to finish the sentence by saying "You know whenever these lucha stars are around that Selena....is looking down on them from the heavens, their hearts filled with the love that her music bestowed to their generation." But instead he just keeps talking about Salina de la Renta being in attendance or something.

And the match was fine. I'm unfamiliar with them, but this was clearly a match they'd worked before, definitely a touring match. It had a few flipping piledrivers, because modern luchadors like shitting all over old luchadors, and yes many of these flipping piledrivers were then used to just transition into the guy taking the piledriver getting up and doing something else. You know the drill. I like some of the stuff, like Danger throwing a chair at Negro to block a dive, and especially Negro doing a crazy springboard Coffin Drop to the floor that almost saw him fly over and past Danger (and if I was Darby Allin I would have been pissed watching this, thinking "goddamn I already do tons of stupid stuff and then one of these assholes goes and does my finisher just as crazy as me? Guess I gotta do another one with my hands tied behind my back."), and they work smoothly together, the way guys familiar with each other will work. This felt kind of like when Mike Modest and Christopher Daniels got a tryout match on Nitro, and just condensed all of their matches into 7 minutes.

Seth Petruzelli/Simon Grimm vs. Jason Cade/Jimmy Yuta

ER: I like Petruzelli and Grimm as a team, both are kind of sloppy but both can hit hard, making for a fun combination. Grimm looks better here than at any time during his main roster WWE run (or really any time I've seen him over a decade plus run) and I really dug he and Petruzelli beating down Yuta. Yuta entered with a nice slingshot senton and was soon eating a pretty mean beating, including getting tossed by a vicious half nelson suplex (Grimm tossing something like that out 25 minutes into a big show feels about right), and they both hit Yuta with stiff spinkicks. I'm used to seeing Petruzelli bigger (I think he wrestled heavy and light heavy in MMA), but here he comes off like a smaller and less experienced Chris Dickinson, which is a good thing. Cade had a nice hot tag and throws a nice right hand, but Simon & Seth ain't having it. Their finisher is awesome, with Grimm holding a piledriver, Petruzelli launching a soccer kick at Cade's hanging head, and the Grimm planting him with the piledriver. I'm in. Add in Robert Fuller coming back in full Col. Robert Parker get-up managing the Dirty Blondes, and that is a tag match I will 100% want to see.

Low Ki vs. Kotto Brazil

ER: Very quick match, about 3 minutes, with Ki jumping Brazil on the entrance steps and Brazil never really finding his way into the match. I'm sure Brazil wrestles without a mask as somebody else (his tights had MM on the back), but he was fun as a big bumping Kool Jay type, with Ki beating him around ringside and around the ring, and Ki is a guy you like to see beating a guy around a ring. He hits a mule kick out of the corner that sends Brazil flying across the ring, they do some fun springboard ropes dodging with Ki eventually finishing it with a precisely aimed kick off the ropes, and Ki ends it with a nasty necktie camel clutch, really wrenching back on Brazil in a gross way. I'll always want more time in a Low Ki match, but Free Ki is good Ki, so I'm good.

PAS: Such a weird use of Ki. He is a fly in, I assume (I don't think he moved to Florida) and a pretty big name, so he can't be cheap. Why bring in Ki and have him work a quick squash match. It was a cool squash match, Ki will always bring the ass kicking and that finishing move where he uses his own leg to grapevine Brazil's leg was totally awesome, but MLW could have run the first Ki vs. Cobb match or the first Ki vs. Riddle match which would have been big deals, instead they run the 50th Riddle v. Cobb match and waste Ki this way.

Mike Parrow/Barrington Hughes vs. Al Sabah/Vandal Ortagun

ER: Okay, this only goes like a minute, but HOW COME NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT CARAMEL COLOSSUS BARRINGTON HUGHES!?!? Everybody has seriously let me down. He's billed as 469 lb. and it feels like an accurate classification. He's huge, and super duper ROUND. It's the best. Sabah/Ortagun jump Parrow before Hughes is even out, and that's all they get. Parrow hits a big sit out powerbomb on Sabah and Hughes flattens him with a splash. We're gonna need an investigation into Hughes.

Tom Lawlor vs. MVP

ER: This was a ton of fun, easily would have landed on the list with a better finish. MVP is not working a shame-filled post WWE career, and he and Lawlor are a surprisingly good match. MVP gives Lawlor a lot of the match, and Lawlor makes the most of it. Lawlor and crew are a cool stable, he and Petruzelli/Grimm in their cool tights with Onibaba demon mask on them, plus two young boys in track suits (one who gets on all fours and acts as Lawlor's bench while the other vaselines up Lawlor's brow). I'm pretty much going to need to see them against Catch Point NOW. But this match rules. MVP has no problem leaning into sharp elbows, and Lawlor dumps him with a great German. I really liked Lawlor taking apart MVP's legs on the mat, really working a nasty heel hook while grapevining a leg, and all the standing was good. Lawlor throws big chops, a nice elbowdrop, and we even get a nice chop/jab combo from him in the corner, as well as top notch dickhead moves like ripping MVP's omnipresent breathe right strip off his nose. And MVP without his breathe right strip is weird, like when your dad shaved his mustache he had your entire life and your dog was like "who the fuck is this stranger in my house". MVP throws Germans of his own, and Lawlor takes the ballin' elbowdrop like it caved in his chest. But I loved how it was used within the match, as it was kind of out of place considering the toughness that had been happening, and while MVP got to do the signature move, Lawlor was able to go back on offense with a keen reversal once MVP got him to his feet. Lawlor throws another German and then in an awesome spot fakes throwing a German so MVP's body goes slack, then drags him down for a rear naked choke. That's a great spot (it's also very possible that MVP blew up and fell over, and Lawlor covered for him, kind of tough to tell watching on my phone). Ending has interference from Stokely and Low-Ki (setting up a Ki/MVP match), but what we got in the match was tasty meat gravy.

PAS: I really didn't like this. I thought MVP was pretty much a load, the German's he were throwing in his creepy Benoit tribute, barely got Lawlor off his feet, and all of MVP's offense looked labored. Lawlor is a guy I have enjoyed, but he isn't experienced enough to carry a gassed washed guy to anything worth watching. I did like Lawlor ripping of MVP's breathe strip, Lawlor has a fun dick head charisma and is always going to add something to a match, I also did really did his keylock submission. That german suplex spot Eric mentioned clearly was a nicely covered botch, Lawlor didn't fake a german, MVP was too blown up to go up for it, and Lawlor was able to adjust into the rear naked choke, props to him for not falling apart when things didn't work, but it wasn't some clever planned bit of wrestling.

Jeff Cobb vs. Matt Riddle

ER: Wanna see a match with one guy throwing another guy around a bunch, and that other guy fighting back with a bunch of flying knees? Of course you want to see that, and they really bring home the groceries. We get cool amateur scrambling to start, and Riddle gets cocky on a go behind, lifts Cobb and unceremoniously drops him stomach first. This gives Cobb full license to spend the next several minutes spinning and rotating and throwing Riddle as far across the ring as he can, like the world's most violent street corner sign spinner. Riddle is a big guy, and Cobb just hoists him up, shifts his weight around, gets him thinking he's getting tossed one way, then throws him the other way. Many times. Every time Riddle is launched he makes these great stunned faces. Riddle comes back with a cool choke, as he's seated and Cobb comes roaring in with a low diving uppercut, but Riddle shifts hips and tries to lock in a rear naked, and eventually comes back with some brutal knees to the chin, including an awesome Bro2Sleep/German suplex combo. We get a great moment where Riddle hits a glancing Pele kick (which Cobb sells with a perfect zombie stagger), and as Riddle is still seated when Cobb hoists him up and over with a killer low angle German. These guys both took a beating, and the finish was suitably nasty: Riddle hits a mean powerbomb and rolls Cobb's legs over his head, and right when Cobb is rotating into a kneeling position it's too late to see Riddle running at his face with a knee. Awesome match.

PAS: These two have matched up a bunch of times and this was the best of the bunch. Man was Cobb impressive in this, just huge inhuman throws. I love strength based wrestling spots, I was the original driver of the Mark Henry bandwagon, and it is my favorite thing about Lensar and Cena matches, and this was one of the coolest strength based spot matches I can remember seeing. Riddle is a legit 240 probably and he gets slung around like he is Weird Body or Spike Dudley. There are also some pretty cool suplexes by Riddle, and I liked how he decided that his solution to getting tossed was to try to drive his knee threw Cobb's skull. By the end of the match Cobb was bleeding from his nose and he probably took five more hard knees to the honker after he already was leaking. Great stuff, I still think these guys have an all time great match in them, this wasn't it, but they are getting closer.

Darby Allin vs. Sami Callihan

PAS: Allin continues his awesome 2018 by having a nutty no DQ match with Callihan. Allin is really great at elusive springboards and cool roll ups along with insane bumps, he is a mix of 1994 Rey Jr. and 1994 Sabu who are pretty much two of the coolest wrestlers ever. There is a moment in the match which epitomizes how cool Allin is, he does this crazy flipping stunner and then goes for a springboard off the rope and Callihan shoves him off and he flies insanely ribs first into the side of the balcony, one of the coolest and craziest bumps I can remember seeing. Callihan hits really hard in this and rips off his cool low bridge tope, but this was an Allin show. I didn't loved the finish which is going to keep this out of a top 10, but Allin is running away with wrestler of the year in the first part of the year.

ER: Predictably crazy and awesome stuff from these two. Callihan is typically the guy in a match to crash through obstacles, but when you're opposite Allin it's best to just hang back and let him crash through everything in site. And lo, Allin does not disappoint. Allin crashes into Callihan's arm, chairs, walls, balconies, the violence that gets inflicted on him is just shocking. At one point the announcers are expressing honest shock that Allin isn't literally broken in half, and it doesn't actually sound like hyperbole. The first time skin makes contact with skin, it's Callihan hitting a full follow through lariat on Allin, and Allin has this way of taking a lariat not like he's prepping to take a flip bump from it, but more like he's Wile E Coyote running into a steel beam and flipping around it by his chin. Callihan pastes him through all of the chairs with a tope and gets up to celebrate, only to have Allin quickly run into the ring and hit him with his own tope, although before long Callihan is bouncing thrown chairs of Allin's back and legs. Allin's speed spots work great and he always takes a licking and keeps on ticking, always coming off as someone who cares about winning far more than he cares about his own well being. The flipping stunner was really awesome, never seen that one done before, as it doesn't start out like a Diamond Dust, but more just Allin jumping over Callihan's shoulder like he was getting himself into position to be powerslammed, but then rolling through it and completing the stunner. And then we get into THAT balcony spot (which might not even be the most painful bump in the match, considering Allin took a Falcon Arrow through a seated chair), which was such a trippy visual, seeing Allin leaping to the top rope and getting his footing, only to get shoved right into this ornate balcony and drop to his doom. I always loved how Finlay used various parts of the ring and surrounding area as a weapon (in fact I've always wondered if he came back to working full time because he thought of that cool "trap a guy in the ring skirt" spot and wanted to be the first to use it) and Allin is that way with the terrain of a venue. He's grabbed onto balconies, gotten thrown into balconies, leapt from a stage, gotten tossed from a stage into a ringpost; he just finds cool new ways to make the venue a part of his pain. Allin has cool offense (loved that fast twisting springboard splash he hit) but it's the pain he endures that makes him so damn great. And wouldn't you know that Callihan finds some duct tape and tapes Allin's hands behind his back. I can't believe this guy takes bumps without arms, it just seems like a guaranteed way to snap a wrist or something. We do get some silly run ins from Jimmy Havoc and Priscilla Kelly, but the Coffin Drop off the top rope (with hands tied behind the back!!) is a crazy finish, just wish we could have gotten there in a more interesting way than interference. Still, this whole thing delivered the goods, and I'd love to see what they could do in a rematch.


ER: So I skipped around on the show, but really really liked everything that I opted to watch. I never thought I would be seeking out MLW as a fed to watch in 2018, but MLW is clearly going to be a super fun fed to watch in 2018. We added Cobb/Riddle and Callihan/Allin to our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, which shouldn't be too shocking.

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Black Label Pro: The Darkest Timeline Tournament Phase 1 9/23/17

B-Boy v. Kevin Lee Davidson v. Simon Grimm v. Space Monkey

PAS: This was a basic four way, Grimm is the ex-Simon Gotch from the Vaudvillians and ended up getting the win and moving on. I enjoyed KLD, he was a big fat dude and hit pretty hard, although he wasn't in the match a ton. Highlight was B-Boy and Davidson pounding on each other. Space Monkey is a Chikara guy with comedy shtick, and would hijack parts of the match to getting in his horseshit. 

Dasher Hatfield v. Joe Gacy v. Mordecai

PAS: This is part of the booking strategy of this fed which is bringing in old names to end up with wacky WAR style match ups, I think they got a little cute with this match. I am not sure if Mordecai has been wrestling anywhere in the last 15 years, but he looked fine. Match was mostly Gacy and Mordecai teaming up on Hatfield, until the expected falling out. It was humming along at an average rate, until Hatfield and Gacy go one on one and it is a totally mess, they blow three spots in a row until Gacy hits a lethal injection of all fucking things. Finish has Hatfield rolling Gacy up after Gacy broke up a pin, and the rollup was sort of a mess too. 

Keith Lee v. Sammy Guevara

PAS: I really liked the first 10 minutes or so of this. Basic story with Lee as a the Grizzly bear tossing around and mauling the high flyer. Guevara took some big shots, and was hurled all over the ring. Guevara had some fun flippy counters and realistic bits of offense, he had a really pretty dive to the floor. Match falls apart, with Guevara kicking out of a big powerslam which should have ended it, and then the momentum dipped with a dumb ref bump, a low blow, a couple of long visual falls and a silly finish where the ref DQ's Lee off of an obvious accidental ref bump. Really dumb way to put Guevara over which makes everyone look worse. 

4. Ernest "The Cat" Miller vs. Ethan Page

PAS: Long mike work by the Cat where he calls everyone in the crowd ugly and fat. Not sure the point of bringing in Miller if you are going to have him work this kind of heel. Isn't the point of a nostalgia act that people are nostalgic for them? Page comes out and runs off Miller and cuts a Tommy Dreamer style "all the guys in the back are busting their ass." I am not a Page guy, but he does a nice hateble heel, recasting him as a rah rah babyface seems weird.

Matt Riddle vs. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was pretty great stuff. I have been wavering on Riddle a bit this year, but putting him in with another MMA guy minimizes some of his more questionable attributes. The opening mat section between the two was pretty great, both guys were just rolling, looking for submissions grabbing advantages, high level stuff which is always good to watch. Riddle is a super impressive athlete and will often do something jaw dropping, after the matwork they exchange tough guy chops, elbows and kicks, and Riddle ends it with a pele kick which looked like it was in fast forward. Lawlor has a fun dick head charisma, shit talking, claiming Dana White sent him to take Riddle out, he is a natural heel and I dug him. His counter of the senton with a rear naked choke was especially cool. Finish was really awesome with Riddle throwing on a super fast triangle choke, and Lawlor trying to slam his way out of hit, only to turn it into a pinfall right before he went out.

ER: I thought this was awesome, loved Lawlor's bruiser heel charisma against Riddle's freak athleticism. The opening rolling was easily some of my favorite mat stuff of the year. I easily could have just watched 15 minutes of that. Lawlor holding Riddle in a facelock, trapping his leg with his own to pull it closer, and then maneuvering into a half crab may be my favorite mat trick of the year. But we got several cool slippery moments, like Riddle hopping into a rear naked only to get immediately shaken off onto his head by Lawlor ducking forward. I didn't think the chop exchange was great, much would have rather seen more mat game, but once they go to blows Lawlor throws some fast and sharp elbows right to the chin. We get several great catches and reversals, which I felt were the best moments of the standing portion: Riddle catching a leg and quickly sneaking in a Pele kick (one of his most seamless Pele kick transitions I've seen, and Lawlor's stumble sell was awesome), or Lawlor shifting to catch a Riddle senton in a rear naked choke. Lawlor does tons of things I love - that most guys don't do - little things like cutting low on clotheslines. It makes the clothesline that eventually hits look so much better when the misses all would have taken a head off too. Loved the Lawlor rear naked choke, the suplexes by both were nuts (Riddle crumbles better than most lunatics on Germans), and the finish was bomb: Lawlor deadlift powerbombing Riddle to escape a triangle, keeps getting triangle locked on after slam, so Lawlor rolls forward with it for the pin.

Dominic Garrini vs. Donovan Danhausen vs. GPA vs. Leva Bates vs. Rory Gulak

PAS: This was short, not very good and sort of a waste of Garrini. I had never seen Garrini work heel before, and I did enjoy him as a smirking meathead prick when he "accidentally" hit Bates. No one else did much for me, and at least the right guy went over.

Darby Allin vs. Super Crazy

PAS: Super Crazy is a guy who has worked rudo against high flyers with nice armdrags for 20 years, so he was right at home eating all of Allin's springboards, armdrags and headscissors. Really pretty stuff, including Allin transition into a somersault dive as smoothly as I have ever seen it. I am use to seeing Allin as an insane bump machine, and it was fun to watch him work as Rey Cometa. Finish was a little abrupt, with Allin countering into a Code Red, getting a two, putting on a Fuller leglock and getting the pin. Seemed like a possible ref flub, otherwise this was a blast.

ER: Phil nails it with the Rey Cometa comparison, but I liked Darby here more than anything I've seen from Cometa this year. He's smooth as silk in his transitions and he shifts into position for things quicker than anybody. He never makes his opponents look like doofuses waiting around to be hit with a move, he's just too damn quick. A lot of his movements remind me of the slickest Freelance spots. Allin needs to go on a sojourn to Mexico as Dark Freelance. Crazy is great as tubby asskicker, though I like him much more cracking Allin in the jaw than doing 1999 Tajiri ECW spots. I know there was nostalgia on this show, but Crazy is a guy with enough tools to still work without relying on nostalgia. That somersault dive of Allin's was flat out gorgeous, and this whole thing was really fun despite the weird and unexpected ending.

Everett Connors vs. The Sandman

PAS: Connors is working a Justin Beiber superfan gimmick, and this was basically Sandman coming out, doing his whole entrance (minus cigarette) and squashing the kid. This was the right way to use a nostalgia act, that is what people wanted to see the Sandman do, so he did it.

Darby Allin v. Dominic Garrini v Sammy Guevara v. Dasher Hatfield v. Simon Grimm v. Tom Lawlor

PAS: This was a six way match with the winners from the early matches to see who advances to the final title match later in the year. Both Guevara and Allin are eliminated almost immediately, which was strange, because both guys are good for at least a crazy spot or bump, multi man matches always need sizzle and dumping your sizzle dudes doesn't make sense. It comes down to Lawlor v. Garrinni v. Hatfield. We never really get a Lawlor v. Garrinni show down (I guess I am going to have to buy the AIW show with their singles) instead it is all Hatfield working both. I did love the finish with Lawlor turning a jackhammer into a nasty rear naked choke and refusing to release it. The show really made Lawlor, and I will be totally into a fed with him as the top guy.

PAS: Lots of this show didn't connect with me, but I did really like Lawlor v. Riddle which was got me to open my wallet (and is an easy choice for our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List), and there are enough fun looking things on the next show I will keep watching.

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