Got the Feeling Gulak Can't Move Without Sliding

Drew Gulak/Brian Kendrick/Tony Nese vs. Cedric Alexander/Rich Swann/TJ Perkins WWE Raw 10/17/16 - FUN

ER: Fun stuff, a real Gulak/Kendrick showcase. Cedric looked good too, but he had Kendrick and Gulak flopping and flying around for him soooo. Kendrick is a real fun ringleader of goons in this, with Nese as his musclehead goon and Gulak as his snake pit goon, letting them do the dirty work while he makes blind tags to capitalize, and every time he's in just sees him getting bumped in big ways. Gulak's fast sequences with Cedric were good, and I loved him eating that slingshot kick from TJ on the floor. Kendrick was an awesome focused Teddy Hart here, bumping early to the floor and selling a knee, cutting the ring off on Cedric only to take a big backdrop, and vulturing that Nese 450 with his choke. The match was put on in the ultimate dead zone, after a 1 minute tag match but before the big Goldberg appearance, and they somehow manage to get some good crowd reactions. Crowd popped for Swann's nice headscissors and reacted to some characters they really haven't been given tons of reasons to react to. That feels like a win.

Drew Gulak vs. John Morrison WWE Main Event 9/30/21 - FUN

ER: Here's a cool match that's never happened before and I don't think I've ever thought about before. Morrison always gets put into matches with fliers, and not nearly enough against technicians who shut down fliers. Morrison is by definition a heavyweight, but Gulak hits harder, so it's a heavyweight using cruiserweight movements to evade the heavyweight work of a cruiser. I love it. Gulak works snug wrist and armlocks while Morrison cartwheels out of the tight arm work, rolling into pins using leverage without even using his arms. Now, some of Morrison's kicks and headstands and spinning come off too slow and awkward to sustainably work in this match, but I thought Gulak did a great job staying in proper position for all of it. Morrison's slow break dancing offense doesn't always reveal where it is going to wind up, so catching it naturally while looking like you're biting at feints isn't easy, but Gulak spent years training with small fliers with grand ideas and hitchy execution of those ideas so the man has an uncanny knack of being in the right place. 

Gulak is just as great at catching the big stuff, and Morrison's big stuff is more interesting than his array of headstand kicks that barely touch his opponent. Morrison  nails a high speed tornillo tope that annihilates Gulak, and that's the kind of Morrison I love. Morrison should lean into taking freaky Low Ki bumps that most people don't have the body control to pull off, like when Gulak knocks him off the top rope and he rolls and bounces off the ropes to the mat in cool ways, or the way he willingly gets bodyslammed crazily into the ropes. Gulak capitalizing on Morrison's slow rolling is the best, turning a cradle into a nice armbar. This had the bones of a match that should have been better, and part of that is because sometimes Morrison's parkour is on, sometimes the set-up is lacking. You let he and Gulak work this match a couple more times, we'd get a great one. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DREW GULAK

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SEGUNDA CAIDA DECLARES IWA MID-SOUTH!! A Shot of Southern Comfort 5/29/04, Part 1

ER: IWA Mid-South is probably my favorite indy ever, and I have spindles filled with dvds of it. It seems crazy to not occasionally indulge in this product, which once ran so improbably frequently that there are tons of gaps in my viewing. Let's watch some of the best of the carniest. AND, I think - as always - the best way to watch, is by closing my eyes and pulling a dvd randomly out of the stack. That brings us to this show, which had some deliciously classic early-mid 2000s indy bloat: 13 matches over the course of the night, utilizing  32 DIFFERENT WRESTLERS!! 32!!! WWE barely uses more than 32 guys during the Royal Rumble PPV, but here's IWA bringing 32 different guys to some random Saturday night card in a smallish Indiana town. It's the best.

1. Danny Daniels vs. Eddie Edwards

ER: Oh jeez, Edwards has giant silver pants and his hair done in short braids, looking like the worst ever version of Roger from Sister, Sister. Go home, Eddie. But really this wasn't a bad opener. It was kept to 5 minutes and Edwards wasn't having 2.9 kickout wars at this point in his career. He hit a nice spinkick and took a nasty cross arm German suplex, Daniels stuck him with a nice piledriver that did not get kicked out of, surprising me. We did get a standing elbow exchange, how far we've come in 13 years.

2. Rain vs. Sumie Sakai

ER: This built to a pretty nice finish. Rain wasn't really that good here, but Sakai was a pro and kept the floor somewhat higher than it would have been. Rain was really poor at obviously getting into position for the next move, really making everything looked rehearsed, running into position early and just standing there motionless waiting to be attacked. Sakai takes a big sprawling bump through all the chairs, packs a huge wallop with two missile dropkicks, drops Rain with a nice hotshot,  hits one of those fast low-arcing moonsaults, throws fast suplexes, all nice stuff. It's awesome that she's still working the states.

3. Southern Comfort (Chris Hamrick/Tracy Smothers) vs. The Wild Cards (Eddie Kingston/Jack Marciano)

ER: Kingston and Marciano look like they're in a weird religious cult, their heads are shaved bald and they're wearing matching big baggy white pants, white boots and white sleeveless shirts. They look like the Yonkers chapter of the Guilty Remnant. The match was a pretty quick sprint, just 7 minutes, and really a showcase for Southern Comfort. Kingston wasn't really an established guy and was really young at this point,  and Marciano never really got established before getting retired. So we get a showcase for SC's offense, and that's a fun thing. Smothers is a great bully, and he breaks out all his leaping kicks, big chops and overhand rights, gets fired up and does a couple spears, makes great faces when Kingston spits in his face, stuff you'd expect from Smothers. Hamrick is a huge favorite of mine, I love his style, love his dangerous bumps and offense, love that he looks like the most violent Johnny Winter ever. Hamrick gets crazy height on offense and on bumps. At one point he does a missile dropkick that seems like he dropped in from the ceiling, and the end of the match is him hitting a Carolina jam onto Marciano...OFF of Kingston's shoulders (who was seated on the top rope). It was a gorgeous legdrop, dropping insanely in from 10 feet. In between all that he hits a couple big kicks, and takes a flying bump through the ropes to the floor FAR more dangerously/painfully than most people would have taken it. I would have liked current Kingston in there against 2004 Southern Comfort, but this was fun.

4. Nigel McGuiness/Chad Collyer vs. The Second City Saints (CM Punk/Colt Cabana)

ER: A good enough match, though nothing much of note happened. We get a lot of comedy matwork from Nigel and Colt, but it's not bad. I am not completely stone, so I can laugh at Colt rolling through back and forth to try to shake a wristlock. Nigel's Johnny Saint spots come off pretty clunky, but the stuff with them working a wristlock was engaging. Collyer had some fun stuff, had a nice combo with a knee drop followed by a quick elbow drop followed by a quick somersault senton. Late in the match he hits a cool dragon screw on Cabana. Best part of the match was Nigel rushing across the ring and just leveling Punk with an elbow to break up interference, and Punk went flying through the ropes to the floor (taking an even better floor bump than Hamrick the match before!). Punk whiffs on a shining wizard to end the match.

5. Havana Pitbulls (TJ Perkins/Ricky Reyes) vs. Brad Bradley/Ryan Boz

ER: This was pretty easily the best match of the card so far, to my surprise. Both Pitbulls looked good here, especially TJ (and has anyone dropped their 2017 stock more than Perkins? Still, 2004 Perkins is a welcome Rocky Romero replacement). I really liked the Boz/Perkins segments as Boz was kind of blocking Perkins' mat stuff which made all of it look more painful. Perkins grabbed him in a cravate and tried a snapmare, but Boz went straight down on his face. Perkins kept it locked on, eventually got the snapmare, all of it looked nasty. I also thought Perkins was throwing nice strikes against Bradley, but soon we move into Boz and Bradley cutting off the ring to work over TJ. It's all really satisfying, Boz comes off as a god sleaze and Bradley was kind of a green lummox at this point, a good combo. Reyes gets a quick pin as TJ planchas to the floor, and this certainly exceeded any expectations.

6. M-Dogg 20/Josh Prohibition vs. Homicide/B-Boy

ER: Hey, this was mostly really good, because Homicide and B-Boy were really great in 2004. And most of the match is an awesome mugging of M-Dogg who played an admirable FIP. We start with some flash from Prohibition and M-Dogg, including a pretty crazy springboard somersault senton from 20 that he almost lawndarts himself on (yet the late rotation seemed planned). The spot portion was fine but once we settled into the FIP portion it got real good. Homicide and B-Boy were lean and mean in 2004, no signs of those bellies that would pop up later, and they laced into 20. At one point the two of them were taking turns just running and striking him, Homicide would run in with an elbow, get out of the way, B-Boy would run in with a knee, get out of the way, Homicide runs in with a yakuza kick, etc. He gets facewashed, he gets beaten down, it's awesome. When Prohibition tags in we get a crazy train crash run with everyone hitting increasingly bigger spots (the move escalation was handled really nicely). We also learn that Prohibition was flat out terrible at getting into position for moves. He would stand there swaying and jerking around like Johnny Cage waiting to get his spine ripped out by Sub-Zero. He would rush into place early...and then stand there and sway while waiting for the move. We get a couple nasty headdrops at the very end, finishing on Prohibition getting planted vertically with the Cop Killa. Absolutely gross landing. I think he got legit knocked out, as even B-Boy was in the ring checking on him after, and his selling was...well, it was too good to be actual selling by Josh Prohibition. Homicide briefly checks on him, laughs and says "You're fine" and makes gang signs to the back.

7. Alex Shelley vs. Roderick Strong vs. Austin Aries vs. Petey Williams vs. Delirious vs. Nate Webb vs. Jimmy Jacobs

ER: This is an elimination match, and if you look at that list of 7 names and picked the guy you would want to see least...you know that was the guy who advanced the whole way through. Yep, we get alllll of the Petey Williams and he clearly looked like the worst guy in the match. I had completely blocked out just how much IWA Mid-South used Petey Williams in 2004, and how strongly pushed he was. It's like they used him before he was in TNA, so once he was on TNA they just pushed him as the top guy in the company. It looks completely absurd now, even moreso than it probably looked then. Because it sure doesn't look great now. And the thing is, everybody else in this match looked decent-to-great, with Petey looking outright bad. So let's not even waste time on Petey's stomach kicks that don't even attempt to look like a man kicking a stomach, or him needing to be lifted up two different times by the guy who was supposed to be taking a move from him, or his really bad athletic bumping that just makes it look like bumps don't hurt at all. No, no need to waste time on THAT. Let's focus on the good, because there was plenty of good here, namely Roderick Strong. This was a big time spotfest that Petey Williams occasionally slowed down, but there was way too much good for him to ruin all of it. Delirious takes the nastiest facebuster ever to get eliminated, we get a wild divetrain that peaks with Strong press slamming Jacobs from the ring and throwing him into everybody like Bigelow throwing Spike. Strong looks is all babyface and babyfat, but he's the most vicious guy in the match and looks great. Jacobs was super tiny and wasn't quite the crazy brawler he'd become, still doing some of the Brody shtick, and doing more indy goofus "I DDT this guy while bulldogging that guy!" stuff. But he bumps big and leans into stuff, and we all know how good he got not long after this. Aries flew into everything and came across like a big deal, and goth goofball Nate Webb works like Aerostar, if Aerostar had just taken a couple of mystery pills he found in his old vinyl pants. That's a good thing. This whole thing was mostly fun, would have made a great 6 way.


8. Petey Williams vs. BJ Whitmer


ER: There must be someone special out there, lookin' out for me. The winner of that 7 way got an immediate title shot against BJ Whitmer, and my dvd stuttered and labored and sputtered and skipped and sadly, right before Petey won the prior match, it just couldn't take any more, and jumped back to the menu screen. I tried - actually tried! - to get back to where I left off, but the dvd wouldn't even make it past the intros to the 7 way. It just wouldn't let me. I actually went back to see a Petey Williams match, and my dvd was all "Look man, just gimme your keys, alright? Look, I know, you're fine, just gimme your keys. Buddy, I know. No, I know. *wrests keys away, dvd forcibly rejects itself* I was going to watch Petey Williams win the IWA Mid-South Heavyweight title, but fate intervened. A regret understood by no one.

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Brian Kendrick Will Lay Right Down in His Favorite Place

1. Brian Kendrick/Paul London/Demolition Davies vs. Chaos/FVN/Michael Schenkenberg (DPW 4/20/14) - VERY GOOD

This was more of that European tour where London and Kendrick wrestled against a bunch of guys who were clearly inspired by London and Kendrick. This feels even more like an old London/Kendrick tag as Chaos/Schenkenberg are basically a German version of the Bashams (not like they're working a German Bashams gimmick or anything, they just wear baggy German flag pants and are generally Basham-y). This started as a singles match between London and FVN, and that was good. London typically goofs around during his (long) ring entrances, and then works hard during the matches, and this felt just as solid as a Paul London singles match from a decade earlier. I'd never seen FVN before, and he felt really polished, coming off like a stoogier Tyson Kidd. Eventually it turns into a 3 way, and while I don't think Chaos/Schenkenberg added much (they were not bad, but were in there to just club on London to build to a Kendrick hot tag), I did like the addition of Davies. I could have sworn I'd written about Demolition Davies before, as he's a big fat guy (with gear similar to Mecha Mercenary) who hits rolling sentons, really great lariats, and an impressive moonsault, but I found nothing on him when searching Segunda Caida archives. Davies is definitely a guy I need to do an indie fat guy investigation on, as he was really fun here. London was a good FIP, although Kendrick's hot tag was a little underwhelming. I don't think hot tags were ever really his specialty though, as he tends to run in and through light fivearms and dropkicks. It's probably my least favorite part of his arsenal. But it does provide energy and while the German guys are kind of bland, FVN provides plenty of personality. After that the match turns more into a Davies showcase (which makes sense, as he actually works there) and he splats some dudes. There was nothing over the top special about this, but it was a match that stuck to a solid formula for the right amount of time, and there's value in that.

2. Brian Kendrick vs. Akira Tozawa (WWE Raw 2/20/17) -  SKIPPABLE

Not really a match. Kendrick demanded a handshake, Tozawa wouldn't give it to him, Kendrick choked him out with the bully choke. This should lead somewhere good, right?

3. Brian Kendrick/Noam Dar vs. Rich Swann/Akira Tozawa (WWE Fastlane 3/5/17) - FUN

I'm a couple months behind on 205 Live but I do plan to skim through it to catch up. Crowd does not care about this, though over the course of the match the crowd gets into Swann as FIP. Kendrick is great throughout at trying to only be in the match when he's got the advantage. It doesn't always work, which leads to him eating a high backdrop while Swann is about to powerbomb Dar, and then another to the floor before eating a dive. Dar is kind of disjointed the whole match, though I like the way he takes Swann's kicks. This match just didn't have enough going for it. Kendrick was fun but the whole thing was rushed. Tozawa didn't get to do much as the whole match was built around Swann. Swann had nice kicks but his flip dive looked soft, and he came up short on his phoenix splash. Everybody seemed like they were trying, but there's this inescapable desperation that comes through during these cruiser matches. It's like the all know the whole thing is going to die soon. Also, I hate Michael Cole saying "Vintage Rich Swann!" Vintage compared to what?

4. Brian Kendrick/Tony Nese vs. Akira Tozawa/TJ Perkins (WWE Raw 3/13/17) - GREAT

What a cool little 5 minute gem. You're tired of TJ/Kendrick? Yeah, so am I. But they managed to be mostly separated and instead everybody worked the match around a bunch of semi-intricate timing spots and neat saves. Kendrick was around to bump, make saves, and keep working his opportunistic schtick. So then you're thinking, "Oh, so it was a match heavy on Tony Nese" which sounds pretty dismal, but he had a really great showing! Kendrick eats a fast tope from Tozawa that sends him reeling back into the aisle, and Nese comes running around to get Tozawa and eats a rana from the apron from TJP. Post commercial break is when it gets really fun as you get these kinda complicated almost lucha spots where one guy has to trip another while another guy is in position to get knocked off the apron while then another guy capitalizes by pinning the first guy. That kind of stuff can get old fast, but they work it smart and most importantly, work it well. Nobody had to wait around for their cues and everybody was on the same page. Kendrick gets a couple perfectly timed saves, Perkins looked good, and Nese actually looked like a guy fighting to be noticed. It all glued together nicely. Kendrick distracts Tozawa from the floor, Nese runs TJ into Tozawa resulting in Tozawa taking a ultra nasty bump into the bottom rope, leading to Nese rolling up TJ. Cool finish, awesome little match.

5. Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins (WWE Raw 3/20/17) - SKIPPABLE

Well, this was weird. 90 second match, Kendrick tricks Perkins into almost running into the ref, then TJ takes awhile to confer with the ref and talk about how crazy it was that he almost ran into him, and then Kendrick just "sneaks" behind Perkins, grabs his hands, and then kind of clunkily pulls him into position for sliced bread for the easy win. I...have no idea what the point of any of this was.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE MODERN BRIAN KENDRICK

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Brian Kendrick is So Messed Up He Wants You Here

Brian Kendrick/Paul London vs. The Young Lions (Lucky Kid/Tarkan Aslan) (DWA 4/5/14) - FUN

ER: What a confounding match; one which, while I was watching, had a feeling would completely break Phil. The next day when I told him about it, Phil sure enough proclaimed that he had watched enough professional wrestling in his life, and that he was done. His first act as a human who doesn't watch pro wrestling will be to start watching Ray Donovan, where he can enjoy modern performances by great old guys like James Woods, Stacy Keach, Dabney Coleman, and Elliott Gould, and not have to listen to me tell him about matches that he would hate. Because this was a confounding match. The good was really great. The bad was the exact kind of thing I hate in wrestling. This was in Germany at what appeared to be a tiny hunting lodge. The building was small, and there couldn't have been many people in attendance. The match begins with them playing musical chairs for 5 minutes. WAIT NO KEEP READINGGG!!! All four men played musical chairs, Aqua's Barbie Girl played (and stopped, intermittently, per the rules), and it was actually 5 minutes. Paul London made a lot of really lame gay jokes ("I like girls dude!" as the music stopped and Aslan sat on his lap), and they completed the musical chairs, the match actually started.

And it didn't take too long to get really good. Paul London, especially, was awesome. He matched up with Lucky Kid, who appeared to be basically working like 2007 Brian Kendrick or Paul London, complete with overly baggy vinyl shorts. They both did some shoot shoulderblocks with London challenging to hit him off the ropes as hard as possible, naturally building to London hitting a dropkick. Their mat work was fast and landed hard, especially a great go behind waistlock takedown from London. The clubs to the back looked good, and Kendrick/London were great at cutting off the ring. The musical chairs bit was becoming a distant memory, something I could easily tell people "Just start the video at the 5:00 mark".  And then, out of nowhere, the match reverted to comedy, and stayed that way until the end, 7 minutes later. It's like they had all planned on working a normal match until the got a signal, and once that signal hit, the actual match was over. All four men got into the ring, stood in a circle, and just took turns chopping each other. For 5 minutes. Everybody just chopped the person to their right. For 5 minutes. Then the ref got involved, clotheslined London and Kendrick, everybody involved collapsed into a pile, more gay jokes happened, and then the match ended with a sunset flip. That 7 minutes in the middle was so much fun and was really going to a great place. And then they had to go and make Phil finally quit professional wrestling for good.

Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins (WWE Raw 1/2/17) - SKIPPABLE

ER: Alright, bringing some fresh match-ups into the new year! Been waiting for these two to lock horns for awhile now. Wait AND it's under 3 minutes long?? Yeah you don't need this. Even in a total throwaway match Kendrick drops in a few cool moments, especially his weirdo little leap through the ropes to send TJ recoiling back into the ring. The sliced bread reversal was fine and there was nothing terrible about it, it's just that the whole thing was unnecessary.

Brian Kendrick vs. Cedric Alexander (WWE Raw 1/16/17) - SKIPPABLE

ER: These short TV matches have been some pretty uninspiring stuff, and I'm someone who likes short TV matches. This mostly felt like a Cedric showcase, which is a shame as he wasn't on his A game. He does this ugly split legged moonsault to the floor that looked like he was trying it for the first time on a lark, sloppily crashing knees first into Kendrick's head. That was the worst offender as none of his stuff looked very good. Match picks up when Cedric goes for the lumbar check and Kendrick rakes his eyes and yanks at his nose to drop down into the bully choke and I'm digging it...but then Alicia Fox runs out to continue the confusing and poorly acted love triangle plot, made slightly more bearable as I believe Kendrick calls her "toots". We get one more cool bully choke finish tease, but Cedric hits the lumbar check fairly effortlessly after that. Kendrick takes it really nasty, less spring than other guys but his landing looks more brutal, like parts of his body all landed at different times. Nice Kendrick performance, poor Cedric performance, lame angle continuation.

COMPLETE & ACCURATE MODERN BRIAN KENDRICK

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Brian Kendrick is OK, All Across the USA

Brian Kendrick vs. Joe Coffey (ICW 3/30/14) - REALLY GOOD

ER: Never heard of Coffey before, but in my small 10 minute sample of him he came off like a Michael Elgin with no overkill. There wasn't time for overkill here, but I'll give him possibly deserved credit for knowing how long to work the match. Coffey is a stout dude, certainly not fat, but with that body type that looks like he would blow up quick if he wasn't able to work out. Kendrick struts out and casts some side eye to the crowd, grabs a swig of beer from a fan, slimily juggles his crotch at another. So we got a kind of hometown boy vs. a sleaze, and it's a nice tight 10 minutes. They do a chop exchange I don't love, but since it's within a 10 minute framework and not a part of some bloated overly long epic, I don't mind it as much. Their forearm exchange is much nicer and Kendrick really laces in, almost encouraging Coffey that it's okay to hit harder. Once Coffey does start hitting harder, Kendrick wisely seeks shelter by wrapping himself around the bottom rope like someone holding onto a weathervane in a tornado. They do a few successful teases around the sliced bread, Kendrick hits a great side kick across Coffey's cheek, Coffey gets a nice nearfall off a boss release German, and Kendrick's cockiness leads to him eating a quick 360 clothesline for the pin. As some may know by now I'm a big fan of a nice 10 minute match, and this was that. It set out for a simple story, and accomplished what it set out. Coffey doesn't get exposed, Kendrick earned his check by bumping around big for him, and I'm happy.

Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins WWE Raw 12/12/16 - FUN

ER: A good match between these two, but this is literally the FIFTH singles match we've gotten between them in a few months. It's a lot. Kendrick is a total ace and is still finding ways to build off of their previous matches, still trying new tricks and still getting caught in old ones. I love the way he does a kind of big belly flop splash off TJP dropkicks, and his bumps to the floor are a highlight of any show he works. Here he takes a big lariat over the top and smacks his jaw on the apron on his way down. Match was worked a little weird, with a lot of TJ control, and no real nefarious means leading to Kendrick's comeback. Kendrick just took back over with a slick low angle cradle suplex, and really won using his own strengths and cunning. TJ really hasn't been helped too much by any of this, and I imagine they have Swann retain at the PPV, even though it needs to be Kendrick's belt. So, if Kendrick wins...then what? He's already beaten TJP several times. If they have him beat TJ at the PPV, then Swann can argue he never got pinned for the belt. But then you'd have TJ losing AGAIN. If TJ wins, then Kendrick can make the claim that he deserves the shot as he's beaten TJ so often, but then we're just building up yet another TJP/Kendrick match. So yeah, good match, but getting far too familiar.

Brian Kendrick/Drew Gulak/Tony Nese vs. Jack Gallagher/TJ Perkins/Rich Swann WWE Tribute to the Troops 12/14/16 - SKIPPABLE

ER: I waffled between "skippable" and "fun" on this, so decided I would just write about the match and see which direction I naturally write towards. It was rushed and kind of a mess, with some bright points. There were some fun spots like Gallagher's headbutt and his watermelon tights, Tony Nese doing a belly flop bump on the floor, wild Swann hot tag, and the attempt to have some trainwreck cruiser spots. But we get a dive train where seemingly every dive whiffs, Gulak being treated as CWC whipping boy (and locking on the loosest chinlock I've seen from him), hardly any Kendrick, everybody waiting around to be kicked by someone, etc. Seriously a lot of this felt like someone awkwardly trying to get into position for someone else's kick. Okay, this is skippable. Thanks for working that out with me.


COMPLETE 2014-NOW BRIAN KENDRICK

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205 Live 12/14/16

1. Jack Gallagher vs. Drew Gulak

ER: Not the flat out classic I was hoping for, but still two guys I really like having a likable match. I thought Gulak looked pretty vicious here. People might not want to see cruisers doing headlocks, but I love his side headlocks and cravates. Love the spot where one guy has a headlock and the man in the headlock tries to push him off, but he holds on. Seeing Gulak hold on and wrench it in looked great, and then seeing Jack handstand out of a headlock takeover was gravy. Also love how he tightens the cravate by going for a snapmare and stopping short. The fans really do not care about Gallagher's knot tying at the moment, which I think is for the best long term. They respond much better to his great uppercuts and sick headbutt and dropkick. Them responding to his violence and not his comedy is a good sign going forward as he'll veer towards ultra stiff Dean Malenko instead of just becoming Scotty II Hotty. But Gulak was a real asskicker here and I did like how the (too long) butt kicking spot lead to him immediately transitioning back to ass beating with a big running kick, then pie facing Gallagher off the bottom rope in a cool spot. Would have liked to see a longer strike exchange (weird comment right there) but I liked the brevity of Gulak's ear cup slap leading directly to the KO headbutt (with king douche Mauro naturally mentioning New Japan). Hopefully these two match up again.

PAS: Yeah this was a really fun Worldwide style match up between these two guys. I guess I don't mind the knot as a set up for the heel to get pissed off at Gallagher, which seems to be how they are using it, but I would love to see that retired. Loved mad Gulak, that pie face into the bottom rope was super nasty looking. I really wish the Davari feud was between these two guys, as I could see them having multiple matches against each other and find new interesting things to do.

2. Lince Dorado vs. Mustafa Ali

ER: I quite liked this up until the shrug finish. Lince's matches will always be as good as the spots he hits, and he hit everything clean. More importantly Ali had a real impressive showing, really lacing into Dorado with stiff clubbing forearms and being a great base for his flying. He certainly looked more impressive than in his CWC match against Dorado, and I like some indy stuff I've seen from him and also dug how he carried himself here. It's nice to see they're at least attempting a "you only boo me because you don't like my name" angle, instead of having him be a sheik. Finish was something, but I dug him jumping Dorado back in the ring, and then he went and bumped huge to the floor to put over a spin kick. Not bad.

PAS: Eric has a lot more faith in the WWE racial  then I do, the last time the ran a "you just boo me because I am Muslim gimmick" three weeks later we had Jihadi's beheading the Undertaker. Of course that was before Linda joined the Trump administration, a place full of nuanced opinions on the Muslim world. Ali looked great here, I also enjoyed this more then their CWC match, everything got hit cleanly, and I really dug the nastiness of both bumps which set up the double count out.

3. TJ Perkins vs. Rich Swann

ER: The parity in this division is tearing me apart!!! Everybody beats everybody and then rematches and the other guys beat the other guys and everybody is equal to everybody. There are 15+ guys in the division but it feels like we're seeing the exact same matches already. That said, I liked this match and thought it was one of TJP's best performances in WWE so far. He's definitely a "timing & execution" guy, so sometimes things just click better than normal. Opening stretch was simple but nice and fluid and I liked the way they worked in the knee tweak and the way TJ started going after it.  Perkins was nice and aggressive and it lead to some fun Swann nearfalls, especially the cool victory roll into a tiger driver. TJ's knee bar has come replete with some cool reversals, and I love when he rolls under a guy as they're doing some sort of flip so he's lying there in wait to lock it on. Fun, satisfying match with logical progression. It went the direction you thought it would, and was better for it.

PAS: Yeah I am tired of seeing the same match ups over and over again, but I did enjoy this. I thought Swann did a nice of job of selling his knee on the jumping 480 splash, and the knee bar finish was really nasty looking. I am not a huge fan of mirror sequences, but TJP and Swann are really good a mirrors. I really hope they move into something different after this weekend though.

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Brian Kendrick With Your Fists So Tight

Brian Kendrick/Drew Gulak/Tony Nese vs. Cedric Alexander/Rich Swann/TJ Perkins (WWE Raw 10/17/16) - FUN

ER: Fun stuff, a real Gulak/Kendrick showcase. Cedric looked good too, but he had Kendrick and Gulak flopping and flying around for him soooo. Kendrick is a real fun ringleader of goons in this, with Nese as his musclehead goon and Gulak as his snake pit goon, letting them do the dirty work while he makes blind tags to capitalize, and every time he's in just sees him getting bumped in big ways. Gulak's fast sequences with Cedric were good, and loved him eating that slingshot kick from TJ on the floor. Kendrick was an awesome focused Teddy Hart here, bumping early to the floor and selling a knee, cutting the ring off on Cedric only to take a big backdrop, vulturing that Nese 450 with his choke; the match was put on in the ultimate dead zone, after a 1 minute tag match but before the big Goldberg appearance, and they somehow manage to get some good crowd reactions. Crowd popped for Swann's nice headscissors and reacted to some characters they really haven't been given tons of reasons to react to. That feels like a win.

Brian Kendrick vs. Rich Swann (WWE Raw 10/24/16) - REALLY GOOD

ER: This was a fun episode of Raw in terms of hot Worldwide matches. We got a 3 minute Bo Dallas/Curtis Axel match which was could have been a total throwaway but they went out and beat the hell out of each other, throwing lariats to backs of heads, throwing big knees, finding cool reversals of those knees; we got a fun 3 minute Golden Truth/Shining Stars match; and then we get this cool match with Swann working like gangbusters and Kendrick scrambling the whole time to keep up. Swann works crazy fast here and their sequences threaten to fly off the rails at any point but never do. They do tons of complicated stuff and it all looks good. Swann blasts him with some dropkicks, Kendrick armdrags him into the ropes while Swann holds on and flips through, Kendrick repays him by holding onto a different armdrag that sees him fly to the floor and snap Swann over the bottom rope. Kendrick throws big elbows, Swann throws a great mule kick, and I kinda like Swann going over clean. People can cry parity, but Kendrick going over TJ and Swann going over Kendrick right before the former's title match feels more territorial to me, in the way territories would set up immediate challengers. I think it makes a lot of sense within the division, and I'm cool as long as little matches like this keep happening.

Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins (WWE Raw 10/31/16) - SKIPPABLE

ER: Not much to this, mostly angle. It does get a couple of minutes, dominated by Perkins. I like how Kendrick takes dropkicks to the back, he does an amusing comic jump onto his stomach. Perkins did his crazy top rope rana to the floor and both guys spilled out pretty dangerously. I expected some kind of shenanigans finish going into this one, and Kendrick holding onto his title while in the fetal position was amusing, but these two have crossed paths a few times now, no need to make this match the one you seek out.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE BRIAN KENDRICK

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WWE Hell in a Cell 2016 Not Live Blog

1. Sin Cara, Lince Dorado & Cedric Alexander vs. Tony Nese, Drew Gulak & Ariya Daivari

ER: This match left me pretty hollow, really didn't think a lot of the guys in this looked good. Gulak looked the best, loved his subs working over Lince. Him locking the deathlock, fighting with him over his arms, all that looked great. The match started getting good right after the big dive train. The dives happened and back in the ring Gulak grabbed a dragon sleeper real smooth on Cedric. There was a great fight spot over it, with Nese holding Cara's foot on the floor, and Lince coming out of nowhere with the save. We get some fun moves trading, Nese looked stumbly, and the lumbar check somehow always ends up looking good. It seems preposterous, but man does it look painful.

I had that New Day Q&A segment on in the background while I typed up that Cruiser match, and my goodness that was bad. They just yelled the whole time.

2. Rusev vs. Roman Reigns

ER: So they went really long with this one. Probably too long. And it really could have used blood. But overall it was good. It started to get real good when Reigns missed his sliding kick on the apron and Rusev hit a lariat. Once weapons got in their I really suckered in. Rusev bashing Reigns in the ropes with the kendo stick was great, although after he broke it over his knee I started rooting for him to stab him with the stick, Abby style. Things would have gotten so damn real with a kendo stick stabbing. I thought Rusev was on point the entire match. His punches looked way better than Roman's (except for the first time Roman caught him with the chain, then Roman was throwing bombs), and all of his kicks looked great. Roman ran forehead and nose first into one of those, and I thought for sure he was gonna get up with a black eye. The chain spots looked good and that sub with the chain through Roman's mouth was great. So yeah, plenty of great stuff in this one, but they were also given an insane amount of time to do the great stuff. Overall win.

3. Bayley vs. Dana Brooke

ER: Eh this was okay. I actually liked Brooke more than Bayley in this one, which was not something I expected. Dana's the one that got me into it, the moment she kick Bayley's arm in the ropes. All the arm work was really good, her lariat looked really good, and suddenly I liked small powerhouse Dana Brooke. Bayley firing back with her one good arm was nice, but the end felt too sudden and convenient.

4. Enzo & Big Cass vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson

ER: Surprising result, but this was pretty bleh. One of Anderson's better WWE performances, though, so that leaves me mixed. Enzo and Cass just are not good. Cass' big boot usually looks good. But even Test had a bit more going for him than his good big boot. Gallows superkicking Enzo was satisfying, and I did like Enzo's crossbody earlier, but this was flat for me.

5. Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins

ER: This was actually my favorite match with these guys. It also got tons of time, but I think that actually made it feel more epic in scope. I think this was the tightest that Rollins has looked in WWE. The strike segments weren't "hold my hair and swing in a phone booth" things that Owens has been spamming, it was just an old fashioned punch exchange. And Rollins looked good in it, really throwing them at all angles. Owens worked in some cool stuff like flying hard into cannonballs (including a brutal one into the cell) and then later splatting Rollins with a couple nasty sentons. One of them hit while Rollins was on all fours, and damn that just hurts my wrists and elbows thinking about it. Rollins muscling up Owens with a powerbomb was nuts, and even though the tables were set up for it, I still didn't think anybody was going through that table structure. But hot damn did Owens get powerbombed through it. Nuts. Owens' chairshots were among the most violent I've ever seen, he really looked like he was laying Rollins out. They weren't landing flush, Rollins was catching some edge, they were thrown to his ribs and arm and stomach, really nasty shots. So yeah, this match felt appropriately violent to justify the time given. Much better than I hoped.

6. TJ Perkins vs. Brian Kendrick

ER: A good match but I think they have better in them. I do love that they're working long real time injury spots into matches thanks to Kendrick. It feels like if Chris Hamrick were suddenly a guy they cared about. But Kendrick does a great long convincing knee injury, always knowing it would end with him jumping TJ. I still wasn't actually expecting the Kendrick win, even though I love it. They've kinda treated TJ like a wet noodle since this whole cruisers on Raw thing happened. Some fan in the front row manages to insult both men in one breath with a "Get a fucking haircut hippie. Nike sucks!" One man, raging against the system. I love how dangerous they have made the captains hook look, almost always a guaranteed win. But this felt like it needed a bit more build.

7. New Day vs. Cesaro/Sheamus

ER: This felt long and I actually think the match benefitted from the slow spots. I liked Big E and Cesaro selling how damn tired they were. I really liked Cesaro and Sheamus cutting off Woods. They were pretty vicious to him in the corner, with both seeing who could throw a harder uppercut. The rolling senton into Cesaro's double stomp. That's finisher level nasty. Cesaro catching Woods' running leg and turning it into a sharpshooter was slick and vicious as all hell. I really wanted it to be the finish. In a way it was, but they get cute and DQ Kofi for interference. But this was a real good Sheamus/Cesaro performance, and a nice New Day showing. The ending was kinda annoying, but match was solid.

8. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks

ER: Well hot damn I loved this. This felt epic, this had some gravitas. Charlotte jumping her before the bell was awesome, and both of them beat the hell out of each other around ringside. Sasha showed real fire when prepping the table, and you knew something bad was happening. But I somehow didn't guess powerbomb. Sasha got planted with that powerbomb, sprawled across the collapsing table fantastically. I loved the lonnnnnnng stretcher set up. It was taking forever, but I loved it. Every minute that went by made it look like Sasha had more and more of a chance to recover. That powerbomb was nasty but juuuuuust maybe...so when she gets off the stretcher and slaps the hell out of an EMT, I was way into it. And they had a real assbeating fight. Sasha flew into her with knees, Charlotte landed kicks, they laced right into each other. There was a certain sloppiness that actually added to the gritty fight feel, totally made the match. I had no idea who would win, no clue where it would go, was constantly waiting for a swerve of some kind. But the table coming in, Sasha getting tossed all over it, ragdolling into and off of it, felt like a really violent human breaking move. The whole match felt like a big deal (which is annoying to type after how much I know they're going to pat themselves on the back because HISTORY), and they shocked the hell out of me. I thought they would work stupid to justify their spot in the main event, but I thought they were smart in this - even with a couple crazy spots. Awesome match.

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Brian Kendrick Moves So Fast on Me

Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins WWE Raw 10/3/16 - REALLY GOOD

They sure managed to fit a lot into 6 minutes, and this is the return of the more assertive, wild Kendrick that we saw in the CWC. He rushes in a lot like he might not have a plan, but he clearly has an endgame. It's that kind of assertiveness that keeps TJ off balance, so even when Kendrick is taking spills to the floor, he's still acting unpredictably enough to make TJ give him side eye. Kendrick has the great iridescent houndstooth pants and takes a nasty bump to the floor on his hip (which he has taken before, meaning he is intending to bump that way, which looks super painful). And we get a bunch of great scrapping and choking, with him jamming TJ's fingers into the ring post tightener and stomping all over them while TJ hangs there from his hand. Brutal stuff. I like TJ's chickenwing facebuster as if his opponent kicks out it leaves them immediately open to the kneebar, and Kendrick is great selling his knee the rest of the match. He never is obvious about it, but runs with a limp a couple different times and once when scrambling for a pin he even kinda hops on his good knee. Neat stuff. The Captains Hook looks good and him clawing at TJ's nose and mouth to get back to it is vicious. Love the finish with him expertly position TJ in the middle, love the choke being kept strong,  love Kendrick somehow breaking out at age 37.


COMPLETE & ACCURATE BRIAN KENDRICK

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic: Finale

1. Gran Metalik v. Zack Sabre Jr.

ER: This one didn't really move me, but I thought it was a fun match with plenty of nice spots. They worked a really impressive fast pace almost the entire match and had a fun clash of styles. Sabre gets a lot of hate and it's odd to suddenly find myself as an almost Sabre defender. What's odd about it is my opinions on him haven't changed over the last year, but the online consensus opinions on him seemingly have. So while my opinions have stayed static - he being a guy who does a lot of things I like, has been in several good matches, and is also capable of doing plenty of things I dislike - I've somehow shifted from liking him less than the line, to seemingly liking him more than the line. "His strikes look bad" is something I've heard a lot, but...he doesn't ever position himself as a striker. He throws strikes, many of them, and they're never meant to be sold as KO blows, they mainly seem to get thrown to disorientate his opponent to set them up for what he's actually good at, submissions. I wish they would have played up the tradition of submissions in UK and lucha libre, but I guess it was more important for Mauro to scream out names of the same few Japanese wrestlers he really liked. Just because Katsuyori Shibata also does a penalty kick, some tells me that no, Mauro, Sabre's kick was not "inspired by Katsuyori Shibata". I liked how Sabre would use Metalik's speed to kind of lure him into a cranky sub, using Metalik's own momentum off a springboard or other flying attack. Those seem to be his most effective, like catching Gulak in that armbar off a lariat, I liked him shifting his hips to turn or Metalik splash into a triangle, or leaping onto him to wrench in a sick octopus. Metalik is always very smooth, but did a couple things that surprised me, like when he tossed in a nice headbutt during otherwise lax strike exchange. I wasn't actually sure who was going to win and that certainly added to the fun of things, and this was the first time I liked Metalik's build to his finisher. In the other matches he always seemed to kick out of a devastating move, then merely stand up and do his driver. Here I didn't get that same feeling, and he also hit the driver much faster than in the other matches. There was no struggle to lift Sabre, just a quick lift and a drop. So I did not love the match, but there was plenty to like, and I felt they filled the time well.

PAS: I enjoyed parts of this, Metalik had some fun llave which nicely played off the British style of ZSJ, when they were exchanging holds it was pretty good, when they were exchanging shots it really wasn't. Metlalik had a couple of nice highspots although it is more graceful then violent. I second the enjoyment of the Metalik driver, it was by far the best it has been used.

2. Kota Ibushi vs. TJ Perkins

ER: I thought this was an exceptionally fun juniors match, and I'm sure if I thought long and hard about it I could find some kickouts or some selling lapses I didn't care for, but while watching it I was definitely synced up with the vibe of the crowd, and as this match went on the crowd was hot as hell. Hot crowds can do wonders for a match, and this crowd jumped me right in there with them. That moment when TJP kicked out of Ibushi's powerbomb, and a guy in a Bullet Club shirt was standing up to celebrate Ibushi's certain victory, and the camera caught him right in the middle of his STUNNED realization that TJP had kicked out? That shit is awesome. Being in the moment is becoming more and more of a lost joy, and it's infectious getting sucked into a moment. Both guys were very generous here, Ibushi tossed out some great kicks, and I liked how his aggression would lead to a couple of TJP's reversals. The moonsault that hit knees, and TJ's simple grab of the kneebar from that was satisfying. The nearfalls were good and the kickouts were exciting, and on this one I sadly *knew* TJP was winning it, and I could only imagine how exciting some of the nearfalls would have been had I not. But this match felt like the right match to have.

PAS: I enjoyed this a lot too, loved how TJP kept going after the leg and some of the snatches were really great looking, I totally freaked out over him turning the pele kick into a kneebar, such cool shit. Ibushi really laid in his kicks too, I especially loved him pummeling Perkins in the ropes, really felt vicious like something Hashimoto might do, rather then just a junior guy landing kicks that sound good as a spot. Still Ibushi had been built up as so indestructible in this tourney I never really bought any of TJP's near falls and the final finish didn't feel like enough. If Kendrick didn't bring him down with a burning hammer, how did a leg lock do it?

3. Noam Dar & Cedric Alexander vs. Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa

ER: Really fun tag with a real colossal flop of an ending. Gargano and Ciampa are a really good team, both bring out some good things in the other. Noam Dar is still there because...well, nobody has any idea why Dar is there. But he's still digging around in his ears before the match, just like his last match. What is with that? He was doing it so much in the beginning of his match against Sabre that I was positive it would play into the match. But, no, Dar apparently just digs around in his ears a bunch with his fingers. I know I adjust my glasses as a nervous fidget, maybe Dar just jams fingers into his ear canal. Maybe he has an inner ear problem that messes with his balance, and can possibly explain why he looked so terrible in this match. But Gargano's kicks and Ciampa's knees were on point the whole match, and seeing a guy pinball between kicks and knees is a fun diversion from the more common superkick party. The spot with Gargano superkicking Cedric while he was on Ciampa's shoulders was sick, and they really got in a great groove during their car crash spot, one guy hitting a move seamlessly into him taking a move, and so on. And then Dar decides to do that stupid "head tucked against the turnbuckle" spot. Now, it's only a mildly stupid spot when it leads to the guy with his head stuck getting immediately superkicked. Every second beyond that initial tuck the stupidity of the spot increases exponentially. So of course Noam Dar was going to leave poor Ciampa out there to dry, and make him have to pretend to have his head stuck in a turnbuckle for an eternity. This was far worse than the legendary "Jeff, goddammit!" spot where Rico had to lose his balance for 30 seconds because a meth head was out of position. No, this is just Dar being horrible. He traps Ciampa's head, and then goes about his business in the rest of the match, leaving Ciampa just flailing and flopping in place, like he was about to be finished in Mortal Kombat. What a lousy place to be put in. Totally took the wind right out of the match. Maybe it was a comedy spot and I was out of the joke? They didn't do a whiff of comedy the rest of the match, so doing one in the final minute of the match would certainly be strange placement...

PAS: This match was based mainly around people being kicked, kneed and elbowed violently in the head, and that was a nifty twist on your normal workrate tag. Alexander opened up the fun by absolutely nuking Ciampa with a dropkick, and the whole match is mostly guys trying to dislocate each others jaws. It got a little repetitive, although lots of KO shots in a tag works better then lots of KO shots in a singles match (a big problem in Chris Hero matches) because guys can roll out and take a breather or tag someone else in. I agree with Eric about the head tuck spot, super dumb in concept, looked silly and really hurt the momentum of the match. Real problem with a lot of todays indy guys they feel like they need to horn in all of their comedy spots in every match, whether it works or not.

4. TJ Perkins vs. Gran Metalik

ER: Am I the only one who thinks Metalik looks like a mascot for Tecate? I can't be the only one. Is it just because I live in an area with a high hispanic population, and they all drink Tecate? No. Look at this can. That can is Gran Metalik in beer can form. Moving on! I thought this was a fun match that built nicely, but had small disconnects running throughout; spots that didn't hit flush, over cooperation on holds, little moments of the guys checking out of the corner of their eyes to see if the other was in position. And those kinds of things are going to happen. They just seemed more on display here than before. All of the opening mat stuff had those moments, the worst being TJ slapping Metalik's sides and Metalik just offering up his arms to complete a pendulum submission. But things did build nicely even if there was that disconnect. Both got to show off their apron ranas, and there was always that danger of Metalik slipping up and getting caught in the kneebar. This didn't have the drama of some of the other matches throughout. I didn't actually think of this before the tournament started, but there was FAR more drama involved in "I don't want to be eliminated" storylines than in "I want to win" storylines. Maybe it's because we love an underdog, and by the finals we don't have an underdog. Neither guy backdoored his way into the final match. So it didn't have that built in drama of the rest of the tournament matches, especially the 2nd and 3rd rounds. But things still build nicely in their own way, and I liked the finish with Metalik going for a giant top rope version of his finisher, that had been a killshot through the whole CWC, and it failing as he lost his balance, leading directly to TJ locking on his kneebar, than crossing the leg to definitively end things.

PAS: The main problem with the show for meis that they basically were left with four guys I didn't care about. It is a little like the NCAA tourney, in the early round you get all the fun Middle Tennessee State style schools with big upsets, and by the end it is just Duke v. Kentucky again. I also thought some of this felt a little off, Metalik jumped early on the basement dropkick, there were a couple of pillow soft kick and elbow exchanges, just a little more ragged then you would hope from a match between two normally smooth wrestlers. There was some individual stuff I liked, Metalik's dive looked cool, and I loved the final kneebar, but this was pretty forgettable for a final.


COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE CWC

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WWE Clash of the Champions 2016 Live-ish Blog

1. Alicia Fox vs. Nia Jax

I liked the little build we got to this one, as Alicia flipping out on Jax in the hallway seemed like it had an unexpected moment in it, with Fox seemingly accidentally smacking Jax in the face with a box. You look at the reactions of both when it happened, and I genuinely think it was an accident. But it lead to that super violent shove and I was interested in seeing a match. I really liked Fox not long ago when she was a big bumping heel, but almost right after I wrote something praising her work she got buried in 6 mans and wasn't really face or heel. She was just around. And this match went just about as it should. I love monster heels and Fox was given just enough, and I really liked how they transitioned to Jax finishing her off. Fox was smart and jumped her with kicks, but I loved when they went into Jax hitting her with bigger, more damaging kicks. Jax tossing Fox around was great, as Fox has these long limbs that make her ragdolling look even better. She's also just a good ragdoll bumper in general, so it's almost disappointing that this basically ends their feud. I could watch her get tossed around at least a couple more times. But Fox's comeback crossbody was great, loved how Jax leapt into it. Also love how they set up Jax's butt splash in the corner, with Fox slipping out of the Samoan drop and falling back into the corner, only for Jax to be on it. Fun opener.

2. New Day vs. Gallows & Anderson

Damn this was really good! It's one of those wonderfully constructed hot 8 minute tags. It's short enough that nothing stupid needs to happen, but long enough that it feels like it has some substance. Nobody has time to deal with their shortcomings, it's just a hot match that keeps the crowd up. This may have been Anderson's best performance in WWE so far. He really came off like a badass whose moves all ended with an exclamation point. That spinebuster was sick. And the match was obviously tightly constructed, but had a nice chaos to it, with interference and brawling on the floor not being the moment the match breaks down, but being integrated nicely into the match. Big E looked good as usual, both teams clicked, this was a real nice "opener".

3. Brian Kendrick vs. TJ Perkins

Well TJP clearly has a barely rejiggered version of the best parts of Mega Man 2 theme, and I can't help but flip out for that. And WWE putting up the purple ropes for this match is an awesome attention to detail. Phil and I each compared Kendrick in the CWC to Finlay, so it's appropriate he's the one who gets to bring Finlay's great apron skirt trap back into play. I'm picturing Finlay blessing him with the spot backstage in a gruff but touching moment. Perkins is kind of awkward in this one. His double chickenwing just looked like Kendrick fell on top of him with all of his weight. And then he whiffed on that neckbreaker (but Graves had a nice cover for it saying him drug Kendrick down by his hair). TJP hits a wild rana off the apron that sends both men splatting. I think Kendrick's scrappiness is kind of a good way to cover up for any accidental sloppiness. He does some stuff that's unpolished, throws some timing off, it adds an element of uncooperation without ever coming off unprofessional. There was an moment where they abort an Irish whip and it landed in a neat moment of "guy changing his mind on a spot vs. guy just shifting his timing to keep opponent on his toes". The match overall was a step below the CWC stuff, but still plenty fun.

4. Sheamus vs. Cesaro

Cesaro comes out dressed like a badass maitre'd who is actually just a hitman disguised as a maitre'd. I will never have a moment in my life where I look that cool. I love both of these two but weirdly liked the very first match in this series more than the others, and that was buried on a pre-show. Cesaro seems weirdly light in the first half of this. His uppercuts had a little less mustard, that crossbody landed like a Petey Williams crossbody, and that 619 should never see the light of day again. AND THEN THAT HAPPENED. THAT happened. Cesaro takes one of the most grizzly bumps in wrestling history, and the look of fear on his face after his spikes himself on a dive was horrifying. And WWE make sure to show 5 angles of it and it keeps looking uglier, keeps looking more like something a man shouldn't live through. I assumed immediately they would call an audible and just end on a count out. And somehow they didn't. Somehow it kept going. I wake up some days with a kink in my neck just because I slept wrong, and here Cesaro just basically leapt into the air and  landed on his head. We had a swimming pool growing up, and a diving board. And there was a sticker on the side of our diving board with a cartoon man diving into an empty pool, with a red circle and line through it. And when they showed Cesaro's dive in slow motion, he was in the exact same position as the man jumping into the empty pool. But somehow things continue and the crowd's disbelief leads to the crowd getting way into this match, and the drama seems huge afterwards because it doesn't even seem like Cesaro should be walking anymore. I had no problem with the double count out, because after that dive it's like the rule book went right out the fucking window. This wasn't either man not wanting to get pinned, this was two dudes fighting and not caring about a count. Great stuff that all built from a very, very scary moment.

5. Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho

Somehow the slight facial hair has massively improved Jericho's look. He went from looking like old lesbian Denis Leary to more of a Timothy Olyphant type. A massive improvement. And his walk to the ring is very much perfect. The ring work and execution isn't the great in this, but it feels nicely laid out. Jericho is just really bad at taking offense at this point. He essentially bails on Sami's flip dive and baaaaarely catches that through the ropes DDT. Sami wins me over by appropriately selling his genitals and groin after missing the yakuza kick in the corner. The blue thunder bomb was a big moment and Sami added an extra spin, but I thought the finish was extremely lazy with Jericho just standing up and hitting the codebreaker. We can do better than that, right?

6. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte

Not a big fan of three ways but I dug the way the early part of this was worked. I must have missed why this is No DQ though. Sasha and Charlotte match up really well, loved how Sasha bumped face first into the bottom buckle off a Charlotte kick. Bayley seems like she's been disappeared for 6 minutes. Sometimes Charlotte has a really goofy way of getting into position for the next spot. Like she's just doing a zombie sleepwalk. It's weird that it's No DQ but Dana Brooke has only interfered one time. Shouldn't she just be working this like a tornado tag if it's No DQ? Charlotte is just being booked like a beast throughout this whole thing. No move can hurt her, she's hardly needed Dana's interference despite being 2 on 1, and she gets big spots like that moonsault onto both women. You would never know the Bayley to Belly was used as a finisher, because Charlotte didn't even take a moment to act like a move had been done to her. Bayley was just a total afterthought in this whole match. Gone for much of the middle, never made to look important at any point other than the first 10 seconds. This got an insane amount of time and was just a total mess.

7. Rusev vs. Roman Reigns

This was a little deflating, as I really like Roman, but the whole thing was handled so poorly and obviously by the announcers that I just couldn't get into the match. The end felt inevitable. No matter how good Rusev looked, all you would hear about was just how brave Roman was for surviving, or how "Roman just needs to...." or "Is this Roman's moment..." It just sucked all of the drama out of everything for me. Though I was genuinely surprised by the big reaction to Roman's match winning spear. Crowd really exploded for it. I liked the Lana yanking the ref false finish, but I just didn't think this was one of Reigns' better performances. He seemed sluggish throughout, seemed tentative on offense.

8. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens

I'm really liking Owens in this, liked his shit talk as he caught Rollins' leg and kicked him, liked him dropping the elbow out of the apron and working a snug horizontal chinlock. I get a little burnt out by PPVs though. I don't think I have proper stamina for them. I don't know if it's how WWE paces their shows, or if I can only just watch 2 hours of wrestling at a time, but matches just take more to get me involved in them the longer a PPV goes. The crowd seems with me. They all seem super quiet. Owens is trying. That missed cannonball looked great, and the gutbuster off the top was wild, and Owens is so wanting to get ANY kind of reaction from the crowd that he even does crotch chops before missing his announce table senton. That feels barely one step removed from people using a stunner on 1999-2003 indy wrestling shows. And I'm so sick of that moment every PPV where one or all of the announce team goes "Not like this!" This match felt an hour long.

It seems like all of these PPVs start out exciting and just get more and more arduous the longer they go.

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 9/7/16

1. Noam Dar vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

PAS: I am pretty deep in the skeptic camp on both guys, so I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this. These guys have clearly worked each other a ton, and this had a the feel of a practiced touring match, still it was a pretty entertaining one. I really loved all of the early amateur stuff with ZSJ adding some cauliflower to Dar's ear. I thought the arm vs. leg story was pretty well done, with both guys adding some nice flourishes to it. ZSJ slipping during the penalty kick was a nice bit of subtle selling, especially from a guy whom subtlety isn't a strong point. I also loved the double stomp while Sabre's leg was on the ropes, reminded me of the kind of nasty shit KDX used to do to Sasuke's leg right before he went out for surgery. I am also always a huge fan of the double kneebar roll to the floor spot. I did think some of Dar's strikes looked pretty dainty, and the end section where Sabre's arm was hurt too, might have been a little too cute. The all legs Rings of Saturn was really cool, but maybe leave that for a match where your leg hadn't been torn up all match. I did like how Mauro and Bryan started questioning Dar's strategy when he switched to the arm. This was the best job of commentary these guys had done, Mauro cut his "shades" down a bit, and they actually articulated the nuance of the story.

ER: I really liked this, and like Phil I was also surprised (even though I have suddenly found myself on more of the "defending Sabre" side of the fence, which is weird). Both do some things I don't like (Dar moreso than Sabre) but both found some fun twists I liked, and Sabre does plenty of things I actively like. I liked Dar falling slightly short on his dive and instead of both men lying there selling (which seems like what happens whenever guys do a tope) he got up immediately and tossed Sabre back in the ring for a possible pin. I liked a lot of the more complicated indy-ish segments, especially Sabre going for a flying uppercut and Dar turning his body just in time to catch Sabre on his back and deliver and almost backslide driver. Sabre does some nice subtle things that he doesn't get a lot of credit for, like the slip on the PK Phil mentioned (and god, fuck off already Mauro, with your "Penalty Kick ala Katsuyori Shibata!" We get it, wrestlers do moves that other wrestlers have also done. Shut up.), and the spot setting up the tope where he got tossed to the apron but his foot accidentally hung up on the top rope, so he kicked at Dar's face with that hung up leg until getting knocked to the floor. I liked in the Gulak match how Sabre got easily outstruck, and in this match when Dar threw a couple of soft left hands Sabre made sure to toss some hard cupped hand strikes at Dar's ears. The early scrambly stuff was good, the knee bar reversals were good (and I'm with Phil, always love the roll to floor in a leg lock spot) and that finishing submission was just disgusting. Both of Dar's arms looked popped out of their sockets and I just love the slow progression of it, fighting for the rings of Saturn, bending the top arm back, hooking his own legs, and then snapping his legs shut. I always love the slow, struggling sub set-ups in Sabre matches, seen earlier this tournament against Tyson Dux when he slowwwwly bent Dux's wrist back away from the ropes. Really awesome stuff, and a real pleasant over-delivery.

2. TJ Perkins vs. Rich Swann

PAS: I also thought this match exceeded my expectation by a fair amount. Starts out as a rope running backflip contest as one might expect. I am not Vader so I have no real problem with that kind of thing, you could go back to the 50s and watch French Catch dudes do that same sort of one ups manship. Swann and TJP are a pair of guys with impressive kip ups and headscissors too. Then Swann hurts his knee and he does an awesome job of selling the damage while Perkins works over it. Swann would still hit moves, but not have the snap or elevation on them, really the way you would expect a real world knee injury to play out, Kerri Strug still did the vault. Bryan did a great job pointing this out on commentary, and it really added to the match. I also loved Swann's hook kick, such a nasty looking version of the played out superkick. Finish was exactly what it should be. I question the sense of booking two leg injury matches on the same show, but they were both good.

ER: This was really good, and I'm super impressed by Swann here. And I don't really have tons different to say about it than Phil already said. I also have no problem with backflip counter wrestling and if I'm gonna watch two guys do it, then Swann's kip ups and TJ's flips out of headscissors are pretty awesome to watch. So I was enjoying it just fine, but then things leapt up another level once Swann landed wrong on his knee on the floor, and TJ belted him with the slingshot dropkick to the apron. And Swann's knee selling was just excellent the rest of the match. Instead of a bunch of moments with him lying on the mat going "My kneeeeee!" and then getting up and doing his spots, we had a guy still doing his spots but noticeably slowed and less effective, a guy leaving himself open to TJ's kneebar more than he otherwise would. This match was certainly one of Bryan's better commentary moments as I hadn't picked up on what Swann was doing until Bryan pointed out his lack of height on the tornado DDT, and from there I was hooked. Loved him tiring himself out dragging TJ to the corner for his 450, and TJ just grabbing the heel. All of TJ's heel hook/kneebar snares were simple and logical, that kick exchange was awesome (fully agree on how cool Swann's hook kick is), and loved the quickness of the finish, with all the cumulative damage finally catching up to Swann and leaving him with no option. Awesome stuff here.

ER: I was really impressed with both matches this episode, both exceeded my expectations but stand on their own no matter the expectations. Both landed on our 2016 Ongoing MOTY List, which shouldn't be much of a shock with how the tournament has gone so far.

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 8/24/16

1. Rich Swann vs. Lince Dorado

ER: Hey! This was awful! This felt like 8 minutes of two guys doing wind sprints. I hardly remembered any of the moves that happened, just felt like two guys running around, back and forth, occasionally slapping a leg and doing something that approximated hitting the other. Lince pulls out of every strike and every impact, like he's almost afraid of touching Swann. Their punchy slappy exchange was just so...so bad. It looked like the body movements of a competitive Olympic table tennis match. It did not look like two men HAVING A WAR or whatever hack spot they were going for. "This is their version of Frye/Takayama" screamed Mauro. Yes. Their version is the shittiest possible version. Very little of this landed with me. I couldn't wait for it to stop.

PAS: I thought this was fineish. Nothing amazing, but I didn't have the vitriol that Eric had for this match. It was an indy juniors spotfest, and didn't last forever, which is the normal sin for this kind of match. Some stuff looked awful, like their Frye tribute, but the double jump kick was really stigg and I liked the reverse rana by Dorado. Swann's phoenix splash was nasty looking, usually dives with that many rotations land soft, Swann landed hard.

2. Drew Gulak vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

ER: I liked this much much more. I was bummed that Gulak didn't advance but didn't think he had much chance to. I am happy that he didn't get dominated, and was satisfied that the ending was Sabre catching him with an almost flash bridging pin. The opening standing grapple stuff was some of my favorite stuff in the whole tournament so far, the way they would work around each other grabbing at arms and wrists and bending until their leverage point was up, allowing the other to flip the switch. I loved Gulak's aggression, slamming him into ropes, jumping off the bottom rope with stomps, and I loved Sabre working from more of a counter point of view. A lot of people have problems when he just requires people to stand still and take a move, and I agree his stuff works best when he uses someone's momentum against them, like when Gulak went for his awesome flying clothesline and Sabre reversed it into a Fujiwara. And I love when Gulak counters counters, like when Sabre blocked a sunset flip so Gulak shifted his momentum back to catch him. The slap and kick exchange is getting weird and bitter criticism but I liked it. I liked that the timing was off and a third of the strikes didn't land, because the shit that landed landed with a crack, with both guys thrown off and letting limbs fly. I'll take that any day of the week over your elbow-my elbow double jack off fist pump exchanges.

PAS: This was really good, it was very counter wrestling based but all of the counters were very aggressive and it never felt like a do si do. The early mat scrambling was awesome, and I loved the structure of the match with Gulak always moving forward and Sabre looking for openings in his aggression. It is exactly the way the match should be worked, ZSJ looked silly bulldozing his opponent in round one, he is pretty great however as an overmatched guy who can capitalize on mistakes. I also liked the slap exchange, of course Sabre's slaps aren't great, he is supposed to be a guy outmatched in a slugfest, and when he got suckered into one he got cracked, certainly that last Gulak slap was very nasty. Honestly one of my favorite Sabre matches ever, this is a good match structure for him, and it works way better in a 10 minute match then a 25 minute EVOLVE main event where he has to take a long beating and kick out of a bunch.

3. TJ Perkins vs. Johnny Gargano

ER: For two quick counter indy moves matches on one show, I at least enjoyed most of this one, but these two are better at what they do than Dorado and Swann. TJP winning was a legit surprise for me, as rightly or wrongly I had Gargano pegged as a finalist. Gargano came in selling the leg and did a mostly admirable job with it, allowing for a few moments of convenient healing, and there were a couple of moments where either man's crack timing was off a hair, leaving one man standing still waiting to take something; but for fast paced your signature moves counter my signature moves wrestling, this was fun junk food. TJP is super slippery and watching him fire on all cylinders, slipping in and out of ropes, is fun. The pins were locked on tight and looked incredibly tough to kick out of, the lawn dart spot is just freaking crazy (and really would have made sense as a finish), Gargano overshooting the senton into the barricade was nuts, and loved that TJP's already established heel hook was successful.

PAS: The CWC has done a really good job about making me care about guys I haven't given a shit about before. The Gargano v. Ciampa match is the most I have cared about either guy and I got invested in Cedric Alexander in the Ibushi match, and couldn't care less about him before or after. This match tried something similar with Gargano fighting through his knee injury from the future, but most of this match was the kind of disposable juniors stuff EVOLVE keeps running as CWC showcases. TJP had some cool spots, and the lawndart bump was especially nutso, but this was near falls for the sake of near falls. Didn't hate it, but it didn't engage me.

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WWE Cruiserweight Classic 7/20/16

1. Tajiri vs. Damian Slater

ER: I know nothing about the Australian indy scene, so again I love how far reaching WWE actually made this whole CWC. It's about the last move I expected from them when this was announced. And I liked Slater in this. There were really basic things that he didn't do very well, like he seemed tentative on wristlocks and lockups, seemed to be some hesitation during sequences. But he did some nice dead arm selling off Tajiri's kicks, hit a really slick and awesome fireman's carry roll through into a bridging pin, tossed out a tornillo that Tajiri caught kind of awkwardly, and most importantly he fed into Tajiri's trademark offense. Tajiri was sort of a let down as he ran through a standard 4 minute Tajiri Jakked/Metal match, even doing things in the same order as he used to, just a little slower. He just kind of skulked around waiting for Slater to get into position for his signature offense, when I thought he should have been a little more aggressive about getting Slater there. He felt a little sleepwalk-y. Plus all those teenage Tajiri fans watching ECW in 1999 went on to become indy kickers, so he kind of came off like a Jerry Lynn or Christopher Daniels, still working the same game that was novel in '99 but not as effective in 2016. That said, I'm excited to see how he looks in a non "showcase" setting in later rounds.

PAS:  I liked Tajiri way more then Eric did here, I loved all of his little carny counters like reversing the hammerlock by walking through the ropes and his hammerlock where he used the knee to hold down the opposite arm. Those kicks are still nasty looking and really nicely timed. Slater was fine, had a couple of slick moments, but had such a generic look and offense, nothing that made him stand out.

2. TJ Perkins vs. Da Mack

ER: Thought TJP looked really great here, didn't care much for Da Mack's 2000s indy tribute gimmick. TJP has tons of tricks to show off, so a showcase to potential new eyeballs works nicely. Him hitting his usual stuff so crisp only added to things. His spin kicks looked great, his roll throughs into subs looked good, the way he maneuvered off of and through the ropes looked kung fu flick smooth. Mack hits a really nice flip dive over the buckles and almost landed grossly face first on a spinning flapjack, but also threw a bunch of weak uppercuts, cribbed Human Tornado's old jive kicks (I get stealing spots from your favorite guys but man is that a super specific thing to lift) and overall didn't come off like a guy I'm going to seek out.

PAS: Yeah fine TJP showcase, I have seen a ton of him before so his stuff wasn't new to me, but for folks who weren't trading for NJ Dojo tapes 10 years ago I imagine it looked awesome. Mack had a really nice dive but his shtick was pretty bush league.

3. Mustafa Ali vs. Lince Dorado

PAS: This felt like an IWA-MS showcase match from 2005 with green indy guys busting out a bunch of their big spots to earn the post match Ian attaboy speech. The big spots were big spots, that reverse rana was seconds away from breaking Ali's neck, but looked awesome. Still the connective tissue of the match was pretty bad, these guys have been doing this along time and they really should have had better looking simple stuff.

ER: This match kinda won me over by the end, even though I fully recognized it as an Eliminators style "stand there and take my shit" type of match. Dorado has some big spots but usually doesn't hit all of them clean. So for him to go go go and not actually flop was pretty exciting. It made every spot seem bigger, wondering if THIS was going to be the one that was going to murder himself or Ali. Plus seeing a freaking springboard reverse rana and a double jump springboard Spanish Fly on WWE TV is just totally surreal. Ali almost lost me towards the beginning as his missed moves to get into position for Lince's shit looked flat out baaaad. That slow motion spinning backfist was so ugly that Danielson had no choice but to bring up how terribly slow it was on commentary. Then he missed a charge in the corner, when Lince jumped to the apron, so Ali somersaulted out of the corner and then just slowly stood up and turned around. It looked so terrible. "Well, gotta stand up and turn around and take some more offense I suppose." But Ali won me over by taking all sorts of stupid shit and missing some flying moves in ways that alllllmost look like he barely rotated in time. He flopped painfully on a missed moonsault and later on an inverted 450. The springboard reverse rana was nuts, dug Dorado's little sliding kick that planted the flat of his boot into Ali's forehead, Ali was a nutjob for taking that big ol' headscissors off the apron to the floor, and yeah. I knew what this was, but they busted ass and won me over at the end.

4. Akira Tozawa vs. Kenneth Johnson

PAS: Really dumb for both of the last match of the last two shows to have the exact same match layout. Japanese overdog having too much trouble finishing off green kid with lots of heart. Johnson is pretty sloppy and green and parts of this were actively stinky. Tozawa has a bunch of charisma and that final pair of german suplexes looked great, but I thought this was the worst match of this show.

ER: I...actually didn't dislike this. Johnson does do too much choreographed sexy dance fighting, has some offense where you aren't actually sure if he did a move or took a move, and good heavens that missed flipping whateverthefuck off the top (that landed 5 feet from where Tozawa would have been even if he hadn't moved) was atrocious. But compared to his first round peers I thought he showed way more acuity than Ho Ho Lun. I actually enjoyed the very opening with both men rolling wildly while in a wristlock, reminded me of when my cat accidentally got a paper bag hooked around her neck and ran wildly through the house to try to get the bag off. And even in some of his more aimless mat reversal segments he would surprise me by doing a competent hammerlock into side headlock. He ate Tozawa's stuff nicely, ate that nice high jump senton, took some kicks to the guts. Tozawa is going to be fun in later rounds, those scoop and delayed Germans are arguably spot of the show so far. The snap on that scoop one and the way Johnson folded through it was like the floweriest poetry. If someone had a looped gif of that as their sig it feels like something I would get stuck watching like 6 times through every time I scrolled past their posts. But then that delayed German where he just pops him over like nothing, just awesome. I liked Johnson here more than I've ever liked Killshot. That's not saying much, but it's not nothing.


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WWE Cruiserweight Classic: EVOLVE 5 Way

Anthony Nese vs. TJP vs. Lince Dorado vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Drew Gulak EVOLVE 6/11

PAS: This was kind of a mess. All of the faults of four and five ways lots of cutesy double teams and goofy I hit you so you suplex him spots. Not sure if anyone came out of this looking good. Lince Dorado had some nice dives but outside of that, not sure if there is anything to recommend. Neese qualified for the tournament by winning this, but I didn't want to see more of him. He had some especially bad punches, and his long singles section with TJP was a PWG wankathon at its worst. I hope the CWC isn't like this.

ER: I think Phil is being a little harsh on this, even if it wasn't overall good. For example I only counted one "cutesy double team" spot, and it wasn't until 12 minutes into an 18 minute match (there were 2 if you count Dorado's armdrag/headscissor combo, but that's a pretty common lucha spot). Phil's right about nobody coming out of this looking very good though. We're used to seeing these guys in actual matches, so it always rings hollow when 4 guys get separately eliminated in 18 minutes. Serious question: Is the "Johnny Wrestling" chant meant to mock Gargano? Is the wink implied? Because it would always start immediately after he would do something really terrible. We know fans chant "you can't wrestle" at Roman Reigns because they're ashamed of their penises, but why do they chant "Johnny Wrestling" after Gargano raises his hand hiiiiiiigh about his head to bring it down into a thigh slap (you've never seen thigh slaps with less misdirection), or after he overshoots and whiffs on a somersault senton? What joke am I not a part of? I thought individual guys looked good in individual moments of this, depending on their dance partner. Dorada doesn't do much for me with his imitation lucha spots, TJP easily gets a bit too vacant in the eyes thinking about what spot to do next in matches like these, Gulak is one of my 3 favorite guys in the world but I actually really dislike him in these multi man matches. I'd just rather see him in a singles. Gargano had a terrible showing. He's not a favorite of mine but he usually looks better than this. And Nese, the man meant to be featured, had some really nice left hands, great chops, great short left forearms, but would get too in the "strike combo" zone where guys would have to stand still while he went through his rehearsed strike dance. 1-2-knee 3-4 legsweep 5-6 soccer kick. The final 6 minutes where Gulak and TJP essentially had to work a handicap match, setting up a Nese offense exhibition? Brutal. The layout of this match blew. But I actually enjoyed most of it up until the EC3 interruption/restart. I thought Gulak worked around Gargano's signature offense nicely, thought TJP came up with some nice offense teases to set up others' offense, thought Nese looked fine until he became the featured "fighting for his dream" worker of the match. But yeah, you've seen all these guys in better - WAY better in some cases - stuff than this.


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EVOLVE 58 4/1/16 Review

1. Drew Galloway & Johnny Gargano vs. Caleb Konley & Anthony Nese

ER: This is one of those tags where guys run in random directions for the sole purpose of setting up somebody's offense. After awhile you find yourself asking for the 10th time, "what was Konley's plan if Gargano hadn't been there to cut him off with a kick?" Galloway is wasted in stuff like this, which is a shame. Nese takes a nice bump to the floor and I love how he takes a DDT. But this match was victim to some poor move set up, with again, guys going where they shouldn't go just to take offense. On top of that the promotion appears to have totally lost their ring bell. I noticed it at the beginning when the ref called for the bell multiple times, and when it didn't come Gargano just started the match. Well the big finish comes and Konley taps and the Premier Athlete Brand is forced to break up...except there's no ring bell, and half the wrestlers don't know what's going on, and the crowd doesn't know what's going on. Galloway is confused, gets in and immediately repeats the finish and now he makes Konley tap. And the ref says the match is already over. But there's no ring bell. And the fans, being shitheads, all chant "This ref sucks" even though somehow a major promotion started a show with no ring bell. Really embarrassing stuff all around. Post-match Galloway does a decent job saving things by doing a reenactment of what the dramatic climactic finish was supposed to be like, calling in some bearded goober who's trying to ape the legendary style of Dylan Hales. Match wasn't good, but Galloway at least got the fans to stop being assholes.

2. Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: Awesome stuff from these two, which shouldn't be too surprising. There are some moments where you see a couple seams in their style with split seconds of waiting for one another, but I'm stunned that type of thing doesn't happen more with these guys. Thatcher dominated most of this and was really mean, throwing big strikes to Riddle's ribs and neck and ear, tossing him with gut wrenches, making his ankle bend at a disgusting angle with an ankle lock, locking on a brutal sub where he yanks Riddle's leg back while pushing into his knee with his boot. Damn that should be a finisher. Riddle doesn't overdo the selling, but he doesn't no sell either. Watch him lift his ankle after nailing Thatcher with a fisherman's buster. I'm sure many will hate the finish, which I get, but I liked Riddle hyperextending the arm after Thatcher thinks the ref broke the hold. It's a nice Gerard Gordeau dick move that adds another wrinkle to the Thatcher/Catch Point feud.

PAS: I really loved all of the infighting in this match, both guys laid in some vicious shot to the ribs and stomach and I am shocked that none of the shots to the ear popped an eardrum. Both guys come off as naturally tough dudes and parts of this felt like they took it a bit far. I thought the multiple arm bar reversals at the end might have been a bit much, although I did love how each guy found a different way to reverse and counter. Finish was pretty cool, although I think both the ref and Riddle needed to be a bit more demonstrative. I can totally see how it would have come off confusing to the crowd, Riddle need to wait a beat before torquing the arm, so it was obvious he wasn't breaking clean, and the ref really need to over emphasize that he needed to break the hold.

3. Fred Yehi vs. Marty Scurll

ER: Another awesome Yehi performance. Truly one of the must see workers today. This match had plenty of his weird, quick grappling and odd movements that you don't see from others. He finds cool ways to do spots we might not think much about. The way he slides into an ankle pick while Scurll is running, or grabs a single leg off a go behind, it's unexpected and almost foreign and so awesome. I loved all of Yehi's stomps here, loved him stomping hands Finlay style. And I love how him stomping Scurll's hands eventually leads to Scurll finally being villainous and going after Yehi's fingers. Yehi has shown he's a great salesman, and he puts over a finger break really excellently. And then Scurll finds amusing ways to work that hand and finger, even throwing in a thigh slap off a finger break, and then wedging Yehi's finger in between his boots before kicking. I love the trend in Yehi matches of limb work or body work not leading to the finish you expect, but instead leading to someone's focus being drawn away so that they don't see the real finish coming. Yehi is dealing with his hand injury which allows Scurll to leap on him for a nasty falcon arrow into chickenwing submission. Really cool stuff, really awesome finish.

PAS: I thought the beginning of this match was a bit formless. Scurll has never done much for me, his Villain stuff always felt like a big put on, more Chikara then Regal. Yehi is always going to be worth watching, and his weird stomps are some of my favorite things in wrestling. The last couple of minutes were truly excellent though, I loved all of the hand break spots and though Yehi's selling was awesome. I want to second Eric's observation about the coolness of the finish, loved how it came out of nowhere. Yehi really can do no wrong.

4. Ethan Page vs. Sami Callihan

ER: Not bad but below your standard Callihan match. Page isn't really defined enough as an opponent. He does a lot of big moves but tends to be better when he plays up his frat charisma more. This was odd as they seemed to skip several steps to get to the "we're in a war" moments, but they ran really hollow and undeserved once they got there. Callihan screams "QUITTTTT!" at Page, when up to that point it had been a very even match, and the announcers tried putting over the "what is it going to take to put him away!?" when really it was just 8 minutes into the match. I liked Callihan's powerbomb with him already grabbing Page's ankle to set up the stretch muffler, and thought Page's selling of the muffler was impressive. It was just strange and felt like 6 minutes had been clipped out of the middle, suddenly Callihan is lying on the mat begging off Page, one minute after screaming at him to quit. They kept jumping around like that, and everything up to that had essentially been move trading. This felt more like a thigh slap faux epic, even if parts were good.

5. TJ Perkins vs. Ricochet

ER: Sometimes guys like this do so much stuff that it's easy for me to get lost. I prefer Evolve to PWG as they have no problem having matches go 10 minutes. I think an excellent match can happen in 10 minutes. In many cases I think you're asking for trouble if you go too far past 10 for a singles match, as I don't think most workers are capable of filling that much time without things getting at least somewhat problematic. Ricochet is a super talented guy and I'm sure I'm in the minority when I say I don't care about the extraneous goofing around and mugging he does in his matches. It's always the reason I prefer him as Puma to just being himself. Just being himself always adds too much bullshit to matches, matches that I think would be tighter without the bullshit. And that's why I eventually liked this, because Ricochet did his bullshit, and TJP got pissed at the bullshit and wanted to kick his ass. He didn't play along and have a comedy circle jerk (though I guess with two guys it would just be a straight line jerk), he took offense at the jerking around and took it out on Ricochet. These guys both do super fast sequences effortlessly, impossible to keep up with as a viewer. But I loved how TJ kept going after that leg. And how it kept paying off. His grapevined heel hook is a really nasty sub and Ricochet set it up great by doing a show off missed moonsault, landing on his feet, and having that worked over knee buckle. It's a simple formula, take the legs out of the flier, but usually indy guys aren't good enough to pull it off, because they still want to get their shit in. But the match structure was tight enough that it allowed both guys to get their shit in, and still be truthful to the story they were telling. And I appreciate that. I appreciate your wrestling, TJP and Ricochet.

PAS: This was pretty solid, it got a little dancy at times, which is to be expected with these two guys. These are two of the most polished, athletic wrestlers in the world so if we have to watch a dance this is a pretty good dance. Ricochet has one of my favorite kip ups in wrestling, he flies up so fast it ends up looking barely human, like CGI or something. I enjoyed the knee work by TJP it did give the match some structure, although Ricochet really only sold it at the end.

6. Will Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

ER: I went into this one expecting to not like it much, assuming that each man would bring out the worst in the other. BUT it actually turned out to be an awesome match (that went on a couple minutes too long). To me this felt like a cool modern twist on classic World of Sport, with both guys (especially Sabre) pulling from a bottomless bag of tricks with fast exchanges and updated WoS transitions. I loved all the slippery headlocks, with one going for a headlock and it seamlessly getting reversed into a wristlock and back into a headlock. We also had reversals based out of snapmares which is something directly lifted from WoS. They would often do a snapmare with a guy handspringing forward onto his feet, here we get Ospreay turning a snapmare into his own handspring elbow, and it was done quick enough that it looked great. Sabre was killer here, dropping Ospreay with a couple of rough suplexes, including a wheelbarrow roll through turned into a tiger suplex. Then he would come up with all sorts of ways to work over Ospreay's neck, legs, arms, whatever. Ospreay worked a lot of flying moves to counter and Sabre was often there to catch him with something. This was incredibly fun, incredibly quick counter based wrestling. It's something that doesn't work but damn did they make it work here. Where I wish it would have ended was when Sabre caught a triangle choke while Ospreay was going for a standing shooting star. Right before that Ospreay had kipped out of a tornado DDT which I think is an exceptionally stupid spot that athletic wrestlers do. All it does is show how a DDT is just rolling through at the right time. "See? My neck wasn't impacted at all! I was able to just hop out of it!" It's needless. But it would have been great if he had done that, tried his SSP and immediately met his doom in a triangle. Buuuuut we get a 80s WWF hulk up as his arm doesn't drop (since when does Evolve even do that spot? Don't they just call submissions as if they were MMA?), and we have to see some Ospreay tropes like trapping Sabre's head against the turnbuckle. The finishing sub by Sabre is absolutely vicious and almost made the match continuing worth it, as Sabre ends up sitting down on Ospreay's head and neck while yanking both of his arms up and behind his back. It's something Negro Navarro would be jealous of. Even with the extra pointless final two minutes, match was still awesome and a great representation of this style.

PAS: I was also not expecting to like this very much, and was looking forward to shitting on Eric for digging it, but I confess it won me over. A match like this is all about doing cool stuff and not wearing out your welcome, and they did a bunch of cool stuff and kept from dragging on. I loved Ospreys shooting star press, it a spot I haven't seen in a while and he added a cool tuck in the middle of it, I also liked a bunch of the quick counter which is something can bug me. Finishing submission was truly awesome, as was the Liger bomb that set it up. I am still not sold on Osprey, some of his stuff is still pretty stupid looking but I think I need to give up the ghost and embrace Sabre.

7. Chris Hero & Tommy End vs. Drew Gulak & Tracy Williams

ER: Great tag between two teams who complement each other wonderfully. Hero at this point is like the big fat king of the indy scene. He worked hard to get to the top, and some that want to dethrone him point to his cosmetic laziness, and so he gamely gets off the throne to demonstrate why it's still good to be the king. And Hero absolutely is king at this point. He and End are a great team and Hero especially makes it his point to pick on Williams as the weak link, as if he were the Kikuchi of Team Catch Point. And damn do they murderize him. I love End/Hero's spin kick/elbow smash double team, and after that at one point Hero is just toying with him; kicks, chops, elbows, and always capped off with his killer roundhouse pump kick. I loved little moments like Williams finally catching a Hero kick, only for Hero to laugh before dropping back and kicking Williams with his other leg. But Williams would keep coming back and fighting and it was awesome. The match was long and because of that they were allowed to stretch out and do some fun stuff. The opening lucha armdrag stuff with Hero and Gulak was a trip. Hero does a sweet 360 armdrag off the top and Gulak follows with a beautiful tilt-a-whirl variation. We get a couple nice cut off the ring sections with both teams, plenty of cool double teams on Williams (loved when Hero kicked him off the apron onto End's shoulders, and then kicked him again), and great apron performances from both Hero and Gulak. Hero was great rooting on End, Gulak was great pleading for Williams and sneaking in for saves when needed. Hero is cocky but he's smart with his cockiness, and it never came across like Catch Point was only making comebacks due to his own cockiness. Catch Point looked strong by making their own comebacks, on their own merit. And that's important. There was plenty here that you could trim and make it a tighter, better match. But you could trim out a good portion of the White Album, too. Part of the fun is in its bloat. And I'm glad we got the extra minutes of bloat.

PAS: I didn't like this as much as Eric, I love Hero and Catch Point, but I thought the bloat was a bit too much. The long section of Hero and End using Gulak and Williams against each other was a bit SATish. End is a guy who looks cool and has awesome looking strikes until they land, if he could hit his stuff cleanly more I would love him, but a lot of his shots look violent as hell on their way and gentle when they get there. I thought Gulak was awesome as usual, his lucha armdrag challenge against Hero was nifty, and I love his out of nowhere dragon sleeper. Still this lost me by then end, which kept it from being great.

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