New Footage Friday: TANK! SE7EN! WAR GAMES! CORINO! TEDDY HART! BRAZO DE PLATA! CASAS! HEADHUNTERS!!

Brazo de Plata/El Dandy/Negro Casas vs. Head Hunter I/Head Hunter II/Mocho Cota CMLL 8/12/94

ER: This was one of those matches I knew I was going to write up the second I saw the listing. How could I not watch a match with the Headhunters opposite Super Porky? Oh sure I guess it also had Negro Casas, El Dandy, and some guy named Mocho Cota (who we definitely don't dive into every new match we come across), but this was always going to be about some legendary fatness for me. I wanted to see bodies smoosh together, and smooshing was what I got. Porky was a beast in this, really putting some strain on his shoulder by hitting at least a dozen western lariats on both Headhunters. My shoulder was killing me just watching him run his arm into these unmoving human boulders. I loved how relentless Porky was throughout, just running into these beasts with lariats, spectacularly sending them over the top to the floor a couple of times. I loved all the build up to the Headhunters getting knocked to the floor, with Porky getting bigger and bigger heads of steam, Casas helping him on one of them, and then a big triumphant moment in the tercera where he not only finally bodyslammed a Headhunter (something he tried a couple times in the primera to no avail), hit a big backdrop (I wish I knew the difference between Headhunter A and B, because the bigger one was taking some real huge bumps here), smashed one over the top to the floor with a lariat by himself, then leveled him with a tope en reversa off the apron. Porky even had the most impactful big splash of the match, which I was not expecting considering how much larger the Headhunters are.

Casas and Cota mostly stuck to each other, cheapshotting each other the whole time, Cota taking his spectacular quick exits to the floor (one of the finest wrestlers ever at quickly bumping from the ring to the floor) and culminating with Casas faking a nut shot while the skinny furball flips out in protest. The Headhunters were awesome, twin towers who made it count every time they left their feet. They built to back bumps well, letting Porky and Dandy knock them down with lariats, but always needing 4 or 5 to finally do the job. I loved their Doomsday Device to win the primera, a heavy ass clothesline/crossbody that looked like it flattened Dandy. We got an incredible spot where a Headhunter went up to the top for a ring punishing splash, but Casas started shaking the ropes until the Headhunter took this amazing bump onto the ropes, down to the apron and thudding on the floor below. I wish he hadn't just appeared on the apron again 20 seconds later, because the bump looked like something that would have taken him out of action the rest of the match. But whatever, this was everything I wanted, some of my all time favorite luchadors and some all time favorite fatsos. Of course you want to see this.

MD: What a line-up! I love the Cota vs Casas feud even if the final match doesn't quite live up to what you want it to be. True of the greatest characters in lucha history, maybe wrestling history. This has them with quite the cast of supporting players. Porky! Dandy! The Headhunters. All four lucha mainstays 100% know how to maximize who and what they are and who and what they have in the Headhunters. I love how Dandy and Casas use Porky a a weapon. It's so fun seeing them as partners in general. I love how Porky builds recoil into all of his spots against the Headhunters. There's such vile intent and attitude in everything Cota does. All of the press slams and power moves here by Porky and the Headhunters really hit too, including those surrounding the finishes, especially that in the tercera where everyone's so distracted by the big spot, including the refs and the cameramen that Casas is able to fake a foul and lie his way to victory. They still had a number of weeks to milk before the apuestas match here and this was a great way to do it.

PAS: Total murderers row of entertaining guys. Headhunters were really at their insane peak in 1994, and break out some crazy agile stuff for two blobs. One of the Headhunters climbs to the top and gets shaken off and takes a crazy bump on the top rope and to the floor, and they hit this incredible powerbomb top rope STO combo which should be stolen by every big guy tag team. Porky is so much fun against other big guys, he has to be the biggest chubster on the block and has a bunch of fun ways to attempt, fail and succeed to reign supreme. I loved his apron dive, it looked like the kind of thing an 8 year old kid would try on his bed. Cota is a scheming cretin and he and Casas are always magic together.

Steve Corino vs. Teddy Hart PWX 9/13/06

MD: The sort of match that launched a hundred indies. I'm pretty sure this was the PXW debut show, and it's certainly the feud they tried to carry forward. That, and the facts that Jack Victory and Ruckus were both out as seconds and that the original ref was chummy with Corino, meant you were going to end up with a lot of BS and no clean finish. What we got was good, and even some of the BS worked towards the narrative, a step up over what a lot of people would offered. There had been heated promos setting all of this up so they were ready to go from the bell. Hart pushed Corino. Corino slapped Hart. Hart bled from the mouth and shot bloody mist at Corino which was an insane visual. There was a visceral sense that despite that, Corino had goaded Hart off his game early on (though even pissed, he'd still do a backflip for no reason because that's how Teddy Hart expressed his emotions). He hit an amazing corner clothesline/punch and a dropkick through the ropes, but the latter didn't quite slam Corino into the guardrail and he was able to capitalize by pulling Hart off the apron. What followed was some high quality bullying control work and cut offs by Corino, right up until a too early ref bump. The BS that followed had a few too many moments of everyone waiting around for a dive but otherwise served quite effectively as Hart's transition into a comeback. After that came a bunch of pulling out of refs and a dubious submission (to a seated crossface style cobra clutch which is one of those things someone should steal), before Hart threw a temper tantrum and they set up more matches to come. The violence, blood, dives, and clever bits of structure in the midst of it all, probably led this to be pretty satisfying to the people watching, despite the BS surrounding it. And they were able to plug the website for the real result. Obviously, that only got PXW so far, but hey, this accomplished what it set out to do. 

PAS: I thought this was excellent. I really enjoy Teddy Hart spectacles (too bad he seems to be a monstrous person), and this had all of the horseshit and weirdness you would expect from Teddy at his Teddiest. The opening slap by Corino was super nasty and I assume the mouth full of blood was a work somehow, but damn was that whole section nasty. There were definitely moments that felt uncooperative, both guys were throwing back elbows like they were trying to crack cheekbones. I also loved Corino pulling out the fork and stabbing Hart with it, obvious shades of the Homicide feud and this may be the only time I have ever wanted a match to be a three-way dance. I could have done without the 500th iteration of the Montreal Screwjob in the finish, but this was a great start to what should have been a wild feud, if this fed didn't go under.

Team UNWA (Adam Jacobs/Tank/Adam Roberts/Will Owens) vs The Devil's Rejects (Shaun Tempers/Patrick Bentley/Se7en/Rufus Black) UNWA 12/11/10 - GREAT

PAS: Yet another Devil's Reject's War Games shows up on the internet. This one isn't tip top tier Reject's War Games, but these matches have super high floors. Tank is normally a Reject, but was on the face team for this match and just hits the ring stabbing everyone. I really liked his couple of big man face off's with Rufus Black and Se7en and he really added some flavor to a face team which was otherwise a bit samey. The big spots weren't as big as they are in other War Games matches, but I am here for the asskicking and stabbing and we had that in spades.  

MD: Phil and Eric have seen a few more indy War Games than I have, but it's really hard to get it too wrong. Heels get the advantage. Babyfaces start off strong and fiery. Then it alternates with logical transitions until it breaks into the big spots at the end. That's exactly what happens here and mostly everything worked how it was supposed to. I had questioned why Tank wasn't batting cleanup for the faces, but The fans were totally into Owens who did exactly what he ought to. The heels were able take over with weapons as much as anything else, which worked for me. There was good use of the cage right at the beginning (and the only other big spot being a Canadian Destroyer once the heels got the first advantage which honestly felt more like an insult than anything else) and then it didn't really come back into play until the end when people leaped off of it. The big dive was really to clear the center of the ring for the finish, which is a great use of it. Then the post match was everything you want from an indy, just a triumph that respected the stipulation instead of trying to screw the fans and milk out more. Good stuff.

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Monday AIW - Against the World 8/26/16

42. Jollyville Fuck-Its (Nasty Russ/T-Money) vs. Cheech/Eric Ryan

PAS: This was the Fuck-Its' return to the promotion and was kind of a Fuck-Its showcase, which is a hell of a showcase. Colin Delaney couldn't make the show so Ryan replaced him, and Cheech and Ryan are a fun makeshift team. T-Money was especially great in this, his tope looked as good as ever and he was wrecking people with clotheslines and slams. Ryan hits a chop where he runs around the outside before landing it, and when he goes for it a second time, T-Money explodes out of the rail and pounces Ryan into the crowd, it looked like one of those NFL films violent collision videos they stopped doing after CTE became prominent.

ER: Any show that starts with a Jollyville match is gonna go up a grade in my book, and I love a cool WCW style thrown together tag team. WWE always threw together as a lazy way to write in tension. WCW thrown together teams were always born out of a guy suddenly left without a partner and forced to find the best substitute on short notice. It's how we end up with a cool Bobby Eaton/Mike Enos team, or Rick Steiner/Kenny Kaos, or Bobby Eaton/Kenny Kaos! Eric Ryan is an awesome wrestler and Cheech is a great flashy counterpart. Jollyville are just a great team, that honestly also would have fit into WCW. They feel like an awesome SMW team, T-Money hits hard shoulderblocks and clotheslines and punches like the best possible Ice Train. Nasty Russ has the long combed back hair and looks awesome, like a badass estranged brother of Mr. Rosso on Freaks & Geeks. And this whole thing was awesome, just my exact favorite kind of tag match. Jollyville looked great. This is absolutely one of the best Jollyville performances I've seen, and these guys are my team. Russ bumps like crazy but hits hard, and sometimes he hits the mat hard while hitting hard. He takes a clothesline in the corner at one point that knocks him up to the top rope and back down on his shoulders in one quick shot, and it's like a Psicosis bump that never happened before. And the match ends with him hitting one of the most gung ho cannonballs, really throwing himself into it like he was  jumping into a pool and not onto a man. T-Money looked so big league here, Just running into guys like a freight train with hard punches, big ass lariats, and an all time great no hands dive into both Ryan and Cheech, the greatest double clothesline. Money leans into beatings too, and he bravely took his lumps in the corner to eat a mean facewash from Cheech, coast to coast dropkick from Ryan, and that cool 619 around the ringpost from Cheech. Ryan has great snap on everything and is always running fast and crashing hard, and Cheech as I've said a ton just blends so well into a great formula tag match. I loved all the exchanges here, from the big hard hitting flash right down to simple missed exchanges. In fact, my favorite part of the match was T-Money missing clotheslines, just running fast as possible off the ropes and swinging so low and so fast with those meaty arms that any miscommunication would have ended in murder. That kind of stuff is why I love pro wrestling. I love this tag scene.

Shawn Shultz vs Louis Lyndon

PAS: This was a match with some cool individual moments, some nice kicks by Lyndon, a brutal DDT on the floor by Shultz, but it was ultimately kind of a mess. It seemed like they were switching from face to heel every 90 seconds or so, there was some super dancey stuff from Shultz who is supposed to be working as a Southern wrestler, and the aforementioned DDT on the floor was so nasty that it makes no sense for them to work a your turn my turn roll up section a minute later. I have liked both guys in the past, but this was no bueno.

Britt Baker vs Crazy Mary Dobson

PAS: Britt Baker is the big female AIW graduate and definitely got pushed past her ability level. Mary Dobson was throwing bows like someone who was putting over someone she shouldn't. The parts of the match where Mary was kicking her ass was fun stuff. The Baker wrestling sections significantly less so. I have dug Logan in the WWE, is there fun Crazy Mary I should be checking out?

14. Eddie Kingston vs. Shigehiro Irie

PAS: Kingston Road matches are specific subset of his big matches and there have been some awesome ones. I think this might be my favorite. Irie is a sawed off asskicker, who is going to hit hard and take a beating but this was Kingston taking what he can do and crafting a classic around it. Standard hard hit start, until Kingston takes an elbow to the ear and collapses. For much of the rest of the match he does some amazing head trauma selling, constantly shaking off cobwebs, unsteady on his feet, but moving forward and attacking. Irie is a force in this match, he breaks Kingston's hand by ducking his head on the backfist so Kingston hits the top of his skull instead of his jaw. Such a simple counter and so awesome looking. He also shrugs off a big lariat, hard to lariat a guy with no neck.  There was a bunch of tough guy selling in this match, but Kingston especially put enough pain behind his eyes that it wasn't just a cheap stunt. Finish had Kingston dumping Irie on his head and Irie popping up to stumble around, it was a tribute to the Williams vs. Kobashi finish and done about as well.

ER: Goddamn do I love 2004 NOAH Eddie Kingston. He is so damn good at perfecting one of my all time favorite eras of wrestling, with a unique slant, inventive selling, and a ton of personality, he's just going from I guy I've always been into to an all time great. This is everything Kingston does great, distilled into one match. I see this and it makes me angry I never got to see him against every guy who worked NOAH from 2001-2007. His stand and trade tough guy dying on his sword bombfests add so many more interesting dimensions to his style that it feels like it's exposing every single big dumb New Japan wankfest for what they are. This whole thing is just Irie and Kingston hitting each other while Kingston plays out the best vinyl pants Kawada match structure. I loved it, and I loved Kingston's heavy armed chops, backfists to the neck, big damn STO, and his selling while taking a big bodied beating. When he goes to hit Irie and hurts his hand, recoiling and falling down to a knee and then back on his butt, I was gleeful. And by the end of the match where Irie headbutts to counter two spinning backfists, and Kingston is rolling around on the floor holding his hand while the ref tries to get a read on the situation? I was in wrestling heaven. Two incredibly fun personalities, throwing blows, adding their personal color in a wonderful combination, harkening back to a style of puro I greedily consumed (and looking even better coming not several hours after checking in for the umpteenth time on New Japan to the usual disappointment). Another Kingston classic. 

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Wang Yang

PAS: This was Yang's first match in 3 years (he took another 2 off and worked a Tokyo Gurentai match in 2018). It was a lot of shtick to cover up a guy who hadn't worked in forever. They took a plant from the crowd and made her Yang's manager, had lots of stuff with the Duke, etc. Yang had some nice looking flips, but wasn't landing anything with particular force. It was OK, but more of a live crowd match then anything to revisit. 

Alex Daniels vs. Matt Cross vs. Triton vs. Laredo Kid

PAS: Fun spotfest. Triton had a nice double jump dive to the floor, but was a bit slow and a bit leadfooted for some of the stuff he was trying to do. Dainels was surprisingly adept at the armdrag/lucha rope running part of the match, he looked like he had been working in that style for years. Lots of crazy spots, leading to kind of a lame ending with Gregory Iron tossing in a belt for Daniels to graze Cross with for a roll up. Took a bit of the steam out of the match honestly.

Tracy Williams vs. Michael Elgin

PAS: This was a very 2010s wrestling match. With your opening feel out mat sections, exchanging of big bombs, moves on the apron, forearm exchanges and big 2.9 sections at the end. It is expected stuff. This did lack some of the true excesses of the style, there wasn't a bunch of no-sells or a big "fight forever" finisher killer end run, and it had some little moments I really dug. Elgin is a big strong guy, and they did a short arm scissors deadlift spot, which is one of my all time favorites. I also loved how Elgin stepped into William's forearm blunting the impact with his belly. Overall this was a good match in a style I am weary of. Williams had a hell of a singles match run in AIW from around 2016 until he got signed by ROH, and this was a worthy part of that run.

Josh Prohibition vs. Nate Webb

PAS: Prohibition gets on the mic and says that no one paid to see them wrestle a mat classic, so they go relaxed rules. This was a greatest hits Nate Webb show, from the Teenage Dirtbag entrance, to a bunch of dumb bumps, to all of his twisty offense. I am a Nate Webb fan, so I was happy to watch him play his hits (Eddie Kingston even makes that call on commentary). Prohibition got put through a table and thrown around a bit, he was fine Nate Webb dance partner, made him look good.

Teddy Hart vs. Facade

PAS: This was a super Teddy Hart match. Mr. Money comes down with him. They open with some pretty awesome Teddy matwork, including a Fujiwara take down, and an incredible spot where he caught a kick to the chest and turned into a mid air leg lace, it looked like something Tamura might do. Then, of course, Teddy hurts his ankle applying a spinning scorpion. They stop the match, have people come from the back, take his boot off. Teddy limps to the ring gets on the mic and apologizes to the fans and puts over Facade as the future of the business. Facade thanks him, and attacks him giving him a Canadian destroyer. Teddy is able to fight back though and lay Facade out with a Destroyer on a guard rail. It did a nice job turning Facade heel and setting up a blood feud rematch (although Teddy just should have been laid out and not gotten his heat back), but of course since this is Teddy Hart, he never comes back to AIW. Still a cool, if ridiculous bit of business.

ER: Teddy Hart pulls off things that most wrestlers can't, and this is him pulling off a modern era Chris Hamrick performance. Chris Hamrick never had a cat, but you can imagine how successful he would have been with a white cat (obviously) wearing a matching shiny confederate flag vest. I loved those matches where Hamrick would take a grizzly bump and stop everything, bring out a couple guys from the back to check on him, lie motionless talking under his breath in a scared tone about his neck or his knee, get an organic Hamrick chant going, and basically derail everything for 8 minutes just to cheapshot his opponent with a ballshot. Could he have just kicked his opponent in the balls without falling off the top turnbuckle and twisting his knee in the ropes? Well, yeah. And HHH could have just hit Stone Cold with a sledgehammer in the first segment instead of setting up an elaborate series of costumes and double switches before hitting someone with a sledgehammer (except faking a knee injury to kick someone in the balls is infinitely more interesting and HHH didn't understand that). Here Hart punches Facade across the mouth a bunch, drops some cool unexpected transitions, and eventually hurts his ankle and limps back to the ring to put over Facade, AIW, the crowd, the boys in the back, and professional wrestling. And I liked the twist of Facade being the one to lash out with a Canadian Destroyer. I think it would have been a great heel turn...if Teddy Hart didn't immediately get to do a FAR cooler Canadian Destroyer from the apron onto a freaking guardrail that Facade had set up. Oh my god Gordy just slammed the cage door right in Kerry's face! But look at that, here's Kevin, and he slams the cage door right in Flair's face!! Von Erichs win!! And they never fight again.

71. Raymond Rowe vs. Tommy End

PAS: These two looked like a mosh pit fight at a Black Metal concert. I think this could have been an incredible 10 minute sprint. Both guys have super cool ways to throw knees, kicks, forearms and punches. I really like how End throws combos from different places, shooting low kicks to the knee, and punches to the ribs and kicks high. Rowe had some bangers too, although he did do some unnecessary leg slapping. There were some especially gross knees to the back of the head. This did feel a bit bloated, lots of killer shots which should have ended a match, but instead were just kind of there without any context. This was a big main event with Rowe fighting his friend in his home town, so I get why it was worked at the length it was, and it was overall a good match, I just think with some edits it could have been a great one.

ER: I really liked this, but agree it went too long. It's a bummer when I find myself really hooked into a match, and then feel myself mentally checking out through the last few minutes of kickouts and strikes. There were a couple of those "I am definitely checking out now" moments, like nearfalls where the guy doing the pinning is the one who kicks out first, and the peak just felt like it hit, then we shot past it and it's like we don't actually know how to end things but at least we still hit hard. But I really like these two! End is a strike combo guy, but he's one of the few who doesn't actually do the exact same combos in the exact same order every time out. There's a lot of strike combo guys. Every one that I'm thinking of always goes through the same sequences in the same way. End always winds up surprising me with a couple of the ways he sets up a kick. He hits his hooking spin kicks so quickly and accurately that they really do seem to come out of nowhere, and we never wind up with any of those stupid "I kick you and then you bounce off the ropes and hit me and that spins me around into another kick" kind of bullshit, End just comes up with cool ways to land shots without ever swing dancing. I really dug the stuff on the floor, both guys hitting the railing, Rowe setting up knee strikes on the apron, but wherever they were at I was never quite sure what was going to happen next. They always kept me guessing, and I like the strikes and big slams from both (that standing splash mountain from Rowe is damn cool), they manage to avoid the worst parts of this style.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2019 Ongoing MOTY LIst: Darby vs. Teddy

14. Darby Allin vs. Teddy Hart Limitless Wrestling 3/9

PAS: This was a match between two of my favorites, I had no idea I wanted to see. Teddy works this like a powerhouse grounding a flyer which is trippy considering where he came from. There are some really great moments in this, Allin goes for his springboard armdrag, but Teddy counters it with a rip down Fujiwara which looks like it might have dislocated Darby's shoulder. I also loved Darby's low topes, and spinning sprinboard which Teddy sold like a left hook to the jaw. Classic Darby Allin finish, with him coming very close to pulling off a big upset only to get absolutely murdered on the finish with a top rope Teddy Destroyer, choice stuff.

ER: A lot of this was like the best kind of Eliminators tag, with Teddy Hart just practicing cool new moves on Allin like Allin was Hart's own personal Wrestling Buddy. Hart is so overpowering and hits so hard that Allin never really felt like he was in this, but I never really cared because these two matched up so well. Hart has the best punches of any active wrestler, and he throws so real tooth looseners here, and then throws in a delayed European uppercut that looked like some hard hitting time bending shit from The Matrix. If Teddy Hart isn't in Bloodsport next year it means that somebody fucked up. I think current Teddy Hart is the best Teddy Hart we've ever had, he's really turned into one of the names that jumps off the card. Not many guys have been able to pull off "aloof asskicker" before, and current Teddy Hart plays like a babyface version of 1988 heel Terry Taylor. He drops Allin with combos, throws him up in the air to drop him into his pointed knees, drops a moonsault seemingly intentionally doing a kneedrop across the back of Allin's head (he even smacks his knee a few times afterwards to rub it in!), and comes literal millimeters away from breaking Allin's neck a couple times, first with a disgusting double underhook piledriver and later with a wrenched arm DDT that you can't even see a pin of light through the top of Allin's head and the mat. Hart is either a master at working dangerous optical illusions, or he can just consistently barely drop opponents on their heads. And what's crazy (and again, makes him an absolute necessity for Bloodsport) is that his ground game is so convincing that he could be just as awesome removing any other element of his offense. I loved the way he violently took Allin down with a Fujiwara, really making it look like Darby was not along for the ride. Even on something like his trap arm DDT, he doesn't just trap the arm, he catches it and really sadistically yanks that elbow farther up Allin's back than it needs to be.

Allin is a great crash test dummy, as always, the guy is the most brilliant Spike Dudley of the decade. The Coffin Drop is one of my favorite moves in wrestling, and he hits a couple all timers here. They work a few different moments where a big Allin flying move sends Hart smooshing into front row fans, and Maine wrestling fans are cooler than I ever knew, as nobody budges at all for any of it. I go screaming out of the way on dives, shoving women out of my way like George Costanza. Allin does a awesome fast tope and falls really far off the top with a perfect Coffin Drop, and even when he lands a little sloppy (like his bottom rope tornillo), it works within the match psychology as him landing on Hart's head feels like a good equalizer. Hart's victory lap finishes are something that shouldn't work for a babyface, as he shortens Allin's career with a top rope Destroyer, throws him up into the air for a brutal backcracker powerbomb...but then refuses a cover, just so he can pump a few more slugs into the dead body. How does Teddy Hart work as a babyface? He's a truly unique character and performer, a guy who was kind of a joke for a long time (even when still being a good performer), and he's really feels like he's at the zenith of his career right now. And I think it's reassuring to my ego seeing a guy who is older than me is still hitting his personal peak. This match felt like a modern head drop indy match version of Bret Hart vs. 123 Kid, and I mean that in the very best way possible.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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MLW Worth Watching: Daga! Teddy! Myron!

Daga vs. Ariel Dominguez MLW Fusion #51 3/2 (Aired 3/30/19)

ER: This was a cool Daga showcase and probably the best he's looked in MLW, Dominguez is a pint size guy who has done a lot of fun work getting squashed in MLW and here was his longest match - by far - in the fed, and as an added bonus we got to hear Jim Cornette talk about Negro Navarro and Misionarios de la Muerte. This was a long Daga beatdown, and Daga is way cooler when he's throwing downward angled punches and hard kicks to a pint sized dude. I'd much rather see that than the same dance spots every other indy kicker does. I dug how long Dominguez held on, even if his comeback offense looked a little light and stumbly (he's also still really new at this, not even sure he's been in wrestling for a year, so tiny guy with no offense is still a fine role for him) but it made for a fun story. The story of Dominguez holding on, Daga looking meaner than I've seen (building to the Low-Ki ear ripping revenge match), and the finish really made this worth watching. That damn finish was gross. Daga hit a fast release German at a cruel angle, looking like he bounced Dominguez off his head. As Cornette is going on about chiropractors, Daga picks him up and plants him with one of the most cursed Hashimoto style DDT/brainbusters I've seen. Kid got crushed. Very excited to see this Daga run it back against Ki.

Teddy Hart vs. Myron Reed MLW Fusion #51 3/2 (Aired 3/30/19)

ER: Reed is a guy I enjoyed a lot and wrote up several matches of when he was a babyface flier. But heel Reed is even more fun! There's something great about a wiry, shit talking highflyer. How infinitely more interesting is that than a sexy dance fighter who is worried about remembering the next step in his routine? Hart comes out with taped up ribs and Hart laces into Reed with some nice punches, Reed firing back with elbows, but both sold appropriately. Hart's punches look better and more painful than Reed's elbows, and both guys recognize that and sold to that level. Once Reed started working over Hart's ribs this thing jumped up to the next level, with Reed targeting a bunch of flying directly into Hart's ribcage, with Hart rolling around holding his stomach like my buddy who bought street tacos at 11 PM after a Mexico City lucha show. Teddy toned down most of his flash once Reed starting working his ribs, and he even threw in a cool tribute to Bret by running hard chest and ribs first into the buckles. He put his own spin on it, crumpling inward and slumping towards the buckles, instead of violently recoiling the way Bret would. Reed worked smart chestbreakers and Teddy would make inroads by dodging out of the way of springboard attacks. It was a really great twist on the flyer match formula. This was easily heading toward list, but the finish was a little uninspired: Reed argued with the ref for way too long and Hart just pinned him with a backslide. We certainly could have done better than that. Still, the bulk of this was really good, and that's the important part.

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MLW Worth Watching: Teddy Hart! Mance Warner!

Teddy Hart vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman MLW Fusion #45 2/2 (Aired 2/16/19)

ER: Man I love Teddy Hart! I've always enjoyed him to some extent, sometimes because he does stupid things, sometimes because he's a great punching bag, but 2018/2019 Hart is different. This feels like the best version of Hart. He's always been great against mean brawlers, but now he IS a mean brawler. I think Hart is my favorite current puncher in wrestling, and mid 2000s Hart wasn't a guy I was watching to see punches. Now I want to see him throw punches and uppercuts more than I want to see him do moonsaults, and this match was a great showcase for both of those things. Friedman's whole deal isn't something I look forward to, but he's not a hack, and occasionally surprises me with a laugh. Here he and Hart did a posedown and when the fans booed him MJF hissed out a great "Are you kidding me??" through clenched teeth. Hart takes a great sprawling bump to the floor, bouncing himself off the guardrail, and we basically start with a long grounded MJF headlock, like 3 minutes, but I dug it. MJF was interesting working a side headlock (in fact he was interesting working all his holds this match) and Hart had cool things he would do to try and break it; fishhooks, trying to work his own cravate, going after the eyes, a bunch of nice things to fill a 3 minute headlock. The real money comes once they're on their feet, as that's when Hart can wallop MJF in the corner with a punch, then throw his whole body into an uppercut. Who would have guessed Teddy Hart would have a better European uppercut than Cesaro? I wouldn't have, but here we are. MJF and Hart come up with a real smart, real fun way to move into Hart's flipping piledriver, and I don't think I've ever seen the move set up this well. Hart is up top, and MJF catches him and starts throwing at him, Hart throws a few nice punches back (sitting on top turnbuckle throwing punches at a guy who is standing on the middle rope isn't an easy spot to throw from, and these looked good), and Hart gives MJF an enormous wedgie. Just a quick yoink and MJF drops to his feet pulling trunks out of his ass. And while he's doing that Teddy jumps off with his piledriver. Great spot, great set up. MJF worked over Teddy's arm nicely, really liked MJF's Fujiwara armbar and he was not someone I expected to work a nice Fujiwara armbar. He also robbed Teddy's rope leverage piledriver which feels like a move that makes more sense for MJF to use than current Teddy Hart. There was some unnecessary ref stuff that kept this from list, but I dug this a lot.

Mance Warner vs. Jimmy Yuta MLW Fusion #46 2/2 (Aired 2/23/19)

ER: This is Mancer's MLW debut and it's a fun showcase. He does a lot more cosplay here than I'm used to seeing from him, but if you're gonna cosplay he at least picks some good idols. He is billed from Bucksnort, TN and also dresses like Bunkhouse Buck, does a nice Tenryu chop/jab combo in the corner, and does the Arn fake punch/DDT spot on the apron. If a guy is gonna steal, stealing from Arn, Tenryu, and Buck show his head's at least in the right place. Yuta doesn't do a ton for me, but he's a nice Mance punching bag. Those corner jabs looked pretty gnarly, and there were some amusing spots around eyepokes (Yuta isn't the kind of guy who is going to sell an eyepoke for more than 1 second, so they're kind of wasted). Yuta hits a dive, Mancer takes a big bump into the guardrail, we get a nice headbutt from Mancer to cut off, and the best thing about this is easily Mancer's running knee shiver. Yuta leans right into it and Mancer throws a great knee to the side of the head. The follow diving lariat for the finish doesn't look nearly as good. Reverse the order of those two or really lace into Yuta with the lariat.

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Long Road Report to Hell 4/4/19, Show #3: MLW Rise of the Renegades

TKG: Bloodsport ends and we head into town for MLW. Originally this was scheduled to be LA Park v Rush and the thing I was most excited for. That wasn't happening. This was a long TV taping and had the real rhythm of a TV taping (angle followed by long showcase match, angle followed by long showcase match, angle followed by long showcase match ) and that rhythm eventually kills you. 

PAS: Hindsight is 20/20, but we probably should have just gotten a good dinner somewhere, rather then two long, expensive Uber rides into the city for this show. When we got these tickets we thought we were out of luck for Bloodsport and didn't want to fly to NYC for two shows, once we got Bloodsport tickets this became a mistake

ER: This show sounded like an excellent idea at the time. We had a gigantic gap in our schedule due to Bloodsport selling out sooner than we anticipated, and wanted to fill it with wrestling. WWN tickets at the same time were like $80, MLW tickets were $20. Easy choice was easy. In hindsight though we should have just had dinner and then rolled the dice on whatever was playing at White Eagle. Getting to Queens and back was a nightmare, and MLW didn't really book any interesting on paper match-ups. MLW has a several guys I really like, and they were all matched up against guys I don't care about. So we drive into the city and it's weird because in California the uber drivers never shut up. You go to the airport and you know you're going to be talking about the new elimination diet your food-allergic driver is starting for the duration of the fare. In NY they're nearly completely silent, so this driver had to listen to us talk about the tremendous hit our music collection will take if we were to cancel 60s rockers the way we easily cancel guys like Ryan Adams today when we find out what scummy dudes they are. Wrestling too. Tom talks about how many different musicians beat up Tammi Terrell. And soon, the talk turned to Ferriday, Louisiana and Jerry Lee Lewis. Phil talks about how Jerry Lee essentially killed two wives, with a "Ferriday's Most Famous Son" police report saying the women died from falling down and hitting their head too many times. Then Tom tells an incredible story about early 90s Jerry Lee tax troubles, and how he had a 900 number grift that Tom actually called, and to milk the time of the call Jerry Lee had *known stutterer* Mel Tillis doing the call intros!! Our driver sat in silence as Tom went into an extended "Now if-a you'd like to he-he-he-hea-hear Jerry Lee tell a story about E-e-e-el-ell-elvis then press 1, and uh if-a you'd..." I was in stitches. Phil tipped the driver handsomely.

Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman

TKG: Maxwell Jacob Friedman? Not Maxwell Jacob Goldstein? It was MJF and not MJG? We must have watched 30 matches of his and no one corrected me all the times I yelled “Don’t want drama, don’t want none” and “Hey 8ball says your mouth says no but your body says stick me”?

PAS: We came in during this match and headed to the bathroom and got situated, so weren't fully settled and focused on this. Both guys are fine, but this was mostly a set up for the six man later in the show. Pillman does look exactly like his father and I am happy to have a Pillman back in my life.

ER: We got there a little late and missed an Ariel Dominguez match which is a drag. He's a fun tiny babyface underdog in a gi. And like Dominguez, Pillman is a guy I like, who I haven't actually seen in a match I really like. This seemed to have a nice pace but as Phil said, we showed up as it was starting, used the restroom, found a place to stand (and I went over and pet Mr. Velvet in between peeing and finding a spot), so I only caught glances until the finish.

Jacob Fatu vs. Barrington Hughes

TKG: Fatu, Samuel, and Simon Grimm are working some kind of paper bag passing international brown solidarity heel team gimmick. MLW likes to use vintage managers and semi disappointed that Armand Hussein isn’t out explaining this. Is Armand Hussein still alive? 2019 Arman Hussein would be awesome ridiculous move. Fatu squashes the huge Barrington Hughes and the heel team bury him under either a balaclava or their team flag. Hughes is super obese guy from Florida so him getting knocked down is always scary.

PAS: Fatu is really explosive and fun to watch. No idea why they would fly in Hughes from Florida just to get squashed a couple of times, that guy is two airplane seats minimum, you might need to buy him a whole row. They are really burning through that venture capital cash in dumb ways.

ER: I got excited for Fatu's music as he's a Bay Area guy who had big early impact and clearly looked like a guy who would get national opportunities. He also had a great match against Boyce Legrande which was arguably my favorite match for Phoenix Pro Wrestling, the local group Tim Livingston and I do commentary for. And then the Caramel Colossus comes out and I'm stoked for a BIG big boy battle. But since it's a Hughes match, it only goes 1 minute. Hughes has really only worked 1 minute matches for MLW (other than their bad WarGames match) so I knew it would be too flukey that I would be there live for his first actual match. Jesus, give me 4 minutes of this dude working a tubby match and I'll get it on our list. Little did I know that we'd be seeing like 7 segments of Hughes getting jumped by Fatu's stable throughout the night. Phil and I were dying the next day talking about MLW buying 3 airplane tickets to fly Hughes up to just get jumped by Fatu's gang. I mean Hughes is gigantic, gigantic enough that you not only have to buy him 3 tickets, but they have to be tickets in an extra leg room seat, which can cost considerably more than other tickets. Just a wild use of $$ there. We saw so many obese dudes get jumped by Fatu's gang by the end of our time at MLW. It got absurd. I would have cried laughing if Hughes had shown up at the late night AIW show just to get jumped and rolled over slowly with kicks. Would have made me even more of a fan.

Rey Horus vs. Ace Austin

TKG: This was a long long showcase match. I think Ace Austin is working a “close up magic” gimmick and does lots of stuff built out of headstands. First juniors exchanges were fine and felt like they could have had a fun lightning match but then they try to a strike exchange section, and a throws section and a mask removal section and a finisher exchange section. This felt like had way more sections than needed and no one had any idea of how to move from one to the next.

PAS: This was a long singles match from two guys who clearly can't put together a long singles match. Maybe if either guy was with a veteran who could control the match and work around their spots it might have been OK, but we didn't have that guy and it suffered.

ER: This match felt so long. Starting from the time we walked to breakfast, we'd already been up and about for 9+ hours, and this thing was long enough that I assumed they were going to Mordor. Horus is good with a base like Steve Pain or flying in for trios spots, but god I did not need to see 20 minutes of him working on material. Austin is a guy I haven't seen much of, and then oddly saw the next day on the subway taking up a seat while women were standing, and he had some fun material and some unique body movement, but his shtick didn't work in an epic singles. The match already felt long when Phil managed to have enough time to get in four different and spaced out "How long IS this match?" riffs. The best was "How is Rey Horus vs. Ace Austin going to be the longest match we see this weekend!?"

Low Ki/Ricky Martinez vs. Mr Grim/Hollywood ?

TKG: I think this was Ki and Martinez v Grim and maybe Hollywood Shuffle. Guy had Hollywood on his pants and he was beaten into realizing that there is always work at the post office. I was pretty sure his name was Hollywood Shuffle but also thought MJF was MJG. Of the squashes on the show this was best as Ki squashes are always going to be nasty. They do a post match angle with the Fatu, Samuel Simon team burying Ki under cloth.

PAS: I think this might have been Ki turning face, as he was arguing with Salena De La Renta coming down the aisle and it looked like Ricky Martinez abandoned him before the Contra beatdown. Hard to turn someone face after this brutal of a beatdown. Ki ko's Grim with the first blow and ends up opening up Hollywood's jaw so he could break it with a punch. It seems like Ki's MLW run is based around his unprofessional rep, and he KO's Grim like he was Mace Mendoza or Elax. This was fun, but man what a waste of Ki, I kept hoping they would announce a cool Ki match, and when they didn't I was hoping for a surprise Ki match, and instead we just got a fun squash.

ER: Love Tom going for a "There's always work at the post office" joke. He didn't do that while we were watching the show. He sat on that one so as not to risk either of us stealing his Hollywood Shuffle joke even though Phil and I are going to be the two people who would have laughed at a Hollywood Shuffle joke. And I knew they were going to screw us like this. Segunda Caida might be the collective biggest Low-Ki fans in the world. We've probably brought more attention to the Low-Ki/Rey Mysterio match than JAPW brought to the Low-Ki/Rey Mysterio match. But the whole time leading up to the event, matches with everyone else kept being announced, and Low-Ki kept being announced as merely "appearing". We all knew that meant we'd get a 3 minute Low-Ki squash and not a Low-Ki match for our list. We can't have nice things from MLW. Luckily Low-Ki is a great guy to beat up a couple no names in a squash, you know he's not going to finish the match without at least a couple noteworthy moments. Here his double stomp landed so hard my stomach hurt (although my stomach also had two IPAs and a heavy mac and cheese still hanging out in it so...). Bummed we only got like 2 minutes of Salina De La Renta, too. She's my favorite manager in wrestling today, and I was excited to see how she works the crowd live when the cameras aren't on her. Sadly I saw barely any of her.

Myron Reed/Rich Swann vs. Jimmy Yuta/Lance Anoa'i

TKG: I don’t think I’ve ever seen Reed before but really liked him as cocky guy who wants to hit his stuff on opponents and runs away from getting hit.

PAS: This was pretty good. Reed and Swann seem to be work a heel Black Lives Matter gimmick which is problematic, but they were a fun heel team, cutting off both faces and feeding their comebacks well. Anoa'i seems kind of superfluous in a fed pushing Jacob Fatu so hard if they aren't going to be teaming or feuding.

ER: I've really liked all of the Reed matches that have been on MLW. He brings a lot to job work, getting the best matches in MLW out of guys like DJZ and Kotto Brazil. Swann kind of has a natural smugness to him, can't really put my finger on it, but always felt he would work much better as a heel (and he does), so this is a heel team with a ton of potential. Here he's an overlooked heel who now uses what had been used as flashy babyface comeback offense (like all of his awesome cutter variations that he would hit as a dramatic "3 point tying shot") as awesome sneak attack cheap shot flashy offense. He literally ran in at one point with a match turning cutter from the entrance ramp, and it looked even more spectacular as we were standing in the corner to the side of the ramp, so we couldn't see his starting point. We just saw Reed suddenly bursting into frame with a great cutter. I agree with Phil that it's weird having Anoa'i as a semi featured role while Fatu is getting a major heel role. It's like they purposely wanted to avoid teaming up the Samoan guys but really Anoa'i would be more effective as a monster Samoan in that angle than teaming with a dud like Yuta.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Daga

TKG: This was my favorite match on the show. These are two guys who know how to put together a complete singles lucharesu match, know how to put the lucha in the puroresu, know how to put the puroresu in the lucha, understood lucha in a real traditional sense, and understood the puroresu style before all of the Choshu and ”shoot” Inokiism was stripped from it. Really felt like a complete match where transitions between the mat work, strikes, and dives and back all made sense, didn’t feel like they were just done to check off boxes. And everything done on high, high level. Felt like it needed some type of stakes instead of just being two guys thrown together to give it some sort of added meaning. Like a championship, or if this was part of the MSG G1 show (people would have praised this highly if it were on MSG show). Best match on show but still thought it was weird match to throw money at….I don’t know. Also possibility that overrating it as response to Rey v Austin match.

PAS: I thought this was good, although I think I liked it less then Tom. Daga is a guy who is inspired by people inspired by Minoru Tanaka so there was nice synergy in the match up. Tanaka is pretty low on the list of BattlArts alumni I would be excited to see live, but he still can throw out some tricked out counters and submission attempts. This was also pretty stiff, although with added leg slaps. I agree it felt a little exhibition-y, but its shining competence was really needed at this point of the show. 

ER: Tom's enthusiasm helped me get into this one more. I think he was so insulted by the Avengers length Austin/Horus match, really Daga is a not as good Minoru Tanaka, and on the car ride back to White Eagle we talked about BattlArts alumni we'd want to see live less than Tanaka. Came up with junji.com, probably Mohammed Yone, consider Viktor Krueger but decide it would be cool to say you saw Viktor Krueger live, and maybe Tsubo Genjin. But Tanaka was a major part of my 2000-2001 wrestling fandom, a guy I actively sought out and remember being super excited for his first CMLL tour as Heat (which was disappointing and in retrospect the beginning of me drifting away from him as a worker), and that still means something to me. He was a real pro here and it was cool to see how hard even the lesser BattlArts guys hit in a live setting. You see guys like Rey Horus or MJF and then you see Tanaka throw a sidekick to Daga's chest and you're like "oh right, the BattlArts." This was a really fun match and felt like it was at a good spot on the taping, which I can't say for a lot of other things. Daga hit a great dive at one point and Tanaka really hurled himself into the railing off it, probably the best dive we saw at this show. Some of this really isn't my style of choice anymore, but it was a nicely done version of that match.

Dynasty (Alexander Hammerstone/Maxwell Jacob Friedman/Richard Holliday) vs. The Hart Foundation (Brian Pillman Jr./Davey Boy Smith Jr./Teddy Hart)

TKG: Is this the first time I’ve seen Teddy Hart live? This can’t be the first time I’ve seen Teddy Hart live? He comes across as a giant fucking bigger than life character in person wearing insane sparkles carrying his Persian aloft. A star from a different universe than our world cotidiano. Pre-match me and Phil bet on how many moonsaults he will do and when in match he would fake a knee injury. He only did two moonsaults but both done in the thrown out way only he does them, and he tweaks his arm near the end and angrily works at restoring feeling in hand, popping arm back into place. Anyways, superstar. Pillman had an injury angle early in the show and so match started 2 on 3 with Pillman eventually running in to make injured guy comeback save. This was at its best when Hart Foundation were kind of working as walking tall babyfaces in a tables match. Hammerstone I thought was amusing as heel powerhouse who just isn't as strong as face powerhouse. Him being challenged into dueling delayed vertical suplexes with Davey Boy Smith really got that whole thing over.

PAS: This was my favorite match of the show. Hart and Davey Boy work the first part of the match like Teddy Hart vs. Homicide with Teddy in the role of Homicide. They bumped all three heels around the ring with super stiff shots and for a while it looked like a fun squash match. The Dynasty got some big comebacks and Teddy took some big bumps. The spot where Hart hit a Doomsday Destroyer while leaping off the back of Hammerstone was maybe the craziest spot we saw all day, and we saw some crazy shit. Enjoyed this thoroughly, and Teddy is pretty much a must see guy at this point, really wish he worked Bloodsport.

ER: This was definitely my favorite match of the show. We were all pretty much in awe of Teddy Hart. The guy is a total megastar. He looks like if Colin Farrell had a hip hop producer role in Spring Breakers, coming out in a spectacular turquoise and purple glittery sequined jogging suit with matching tank, leaving him and the ring covered in glitter (which has been a theme of our day that Bloodsport sadly didn't honor). He was carrying Mr. Velvet - which is weird to see live and comes off borderline cruel - but we did get to see him placed on the turnbuckle and I'm sorry but that's cute. This was a really action packed garbage brawl with Teddy throwing the best punches in wrestling today, fans making fun of Hammerstone for looking like Jericho (although at least looking better than current Jericho), Davey Boy looked like a great powerhouse opposite him, we got a cool Pillman triumphant run-in, MJF did an actual funny spot when Holliday called for a tandem suplex and MJF had a great facial reaction that said "Man I'd rather not, my neck is still dead from an earlier bump" and the delay caused him to get suplexed. The ringside brawling was really intense, and Teddy did a bunch of great "popping my arm back into the socket" material right in front of us, into the barricade. The match was a tables match that didn't waste a bunch of time on table set up and didn't waste time teasing a bunch of table spots. They set up one table, and had a cool finish through it. Excited to see how this plays on TV.

Josef Samael vs. Ace Romero

TKG: I looked it up and sadly Armand Hussein has passed. I kind of liked Allen Martin as a manager. Is Allen Martin still alive? 2019 Allen Martin managed Contra would be an awesome ridiculous move. Samuel has heel Persian boots with exaggerated hooks on toe making him kicking an obese man low seem like he might get under the pannus to do some real damage.

PAS: Barrington ambled out to make the save and got beaten down for a second time, and this Contra war on the obese continued, really felt like they should have booked Simon Grimm vs. Fallah Bah or Big Slam Vader for continuities sake.

ER: We were trying to come up with more obese guys they can bring in, which highlighted the dearth of big fat guys on the indies right now. I like Romero a lot but this was more fat guys getting rolled over slowly with group kicks. I did enjoy my conversation with Tom about how a kick to Romero's groin would have no effect due to how his belly hung low enough to cover his genitals. Tom - without missing a beat - explained the physics of Samael's effective hooked boots ball kicking.

Gringo Loco vs. Puma King

TKG: This was true lucha and I will always take lucha over lucharesu. But this was lightning match lucha…and I could’ve watched it go on for another ten minutes happily. Gringo Loco’s hair was the most spectacular hair on a weekend of spectacular hair.

PAS: This had a couple of moments of real transcendence,  Loco is a elite level Lucha base, and they had some really great fast exchanges. When it got away from that into more extended runs of offense for either guy it got less special, still it had those moments. Loco is a long time favorite of mine and I was excited to see him live.

ER: Glad I finally got to see Gringo live. He's a favorite of the blog and a real artist, reminds me of watching Skayde matches for the first time. He'll throw in some World of Sport style handsprings but break out one of a few different headscissor variations, a cool cross ring cutter, can do great dives and catch dives great, and yes Tom is correct that his Mania week hair was spectacular. Crowd was a little tired so Puma's shtick didn't work as well as it typically does, but I thought this match was a nice pace and should also play well on TV.

Mance Warner vs. Sami Callihan 

TKG: These two work a two disgusting guys brawling indifferent to ref who DQs them early. Lots of spitting and snot rockets early. Kind of like imagine a Joel Goodhart booked Henry O Godwin v. Bastion Booger brawl. Holy fuck how awesome would Mark Cantebury v. Mike Shaw for Goodhart have been? Aww fuck. Back to actual match in front of us. Warner and Callihan beat each other around ring. Pretty early in the match they do the wearing chairs like necklace spots that I thought dragged down the Jay v Parnell match. After bitching about those spots earlier, those spots worked surprisingly well for me here, some of that is when in match they were used and some of it is these guys are playing such cartoonish caricatures that them obliviously not taking chairs off their necks works. Would Bastion Booger or Henry O Godwin prioritize taking a chair off their neck? No, of course not. Why would they? Two guys who wanted to beat each other up.

PAS: This was a day in which we watched a lot of brawling, this was solid violent stuff, but was overshadowed in my mind by the violence proceeding it, and the horrific stuff still to come. Callihan and Warner both bring a bunch of energy to what they do, and the execution was fun. Finish with the Hijo de La Park and Martinez run in, and crazy guy team up, served its purpose, but the whole match felt a little like they were working towards a run in.

ER: This was the kind of match that played great live and up close. They guys spent most of the match on the floor and when these two are on the floor somebody is going to get hit hard. They brawled over near us a bunch and the shots look so much meaner 7 feet away that through a TV screen. Seeing hard chops to the throat live is just cooler, and we got the added bonus of them trying to wrap beer cans around each other's head. The spitting stuff is gross, but damn hitting a guy in the side of the head with the EDGE of a beer can looks like it would instantly bust someone open. These guys really hit heard and Mancer is a cool MLW addition. The stuff around a chair was really nasty, and we get a ridiculous moment of a tombstone piledriver through a chair that had been set up. It got a 2 count, and this marks the first - but not last - time of the day we would see a piledriver through a chair get only a 2 count. Still, match was a fine asskicking.

TKG: Airwolf v Rey Fenix starts and we decide that we don't want to miss the AIW opener, so we pour one out for Jan Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine and leave.

ER: I make a "manager as Alex Cord with an eyepatch" joke but it gets minimal reaction. I silently assure myself that nobody heard it and that's why it got no reaction.

PAS: This show ran really long which was kind of a bummer, we came to see LA Park, and didn't get that chance, but I didn't want to miss any of the AIW show and we really made the right choice.

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MLW Worth Watching: Hart Foundation! Lucha Bros! Ki! Lawlor! Reed!

Teddy Hart/Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Rey Fenix/Pentagon Jr. MLW 2/2

ER: For a modern spotfest tag match, this had a lot more in common with an early 2000s JAPW spotfest with stiff vaguely uncooperative work, increasingly dangerous spots, and of course MLW/JAPW Original: Teddy Hart. This doesn't waste any time like other Pentagon matches, these guys get right down to it, and I loved Lucha Bros. controlling and double teaming Davey Boy for the first several minutes. I thought it was cool because it kind of flipped what I expected the layout to be (Smith dominates early, Hart eventually gets worked over to build back to Smith hot tag), and instead Smith gets swarmed for several minutes, unable to get out from the middle of it, Lucha Bros. working together more like hyenas than ninjas, one of them distracting while one attacks a leg or kicks him in the back of the head. At one point Davey Boy fought back with hard slaps and a big knee, but was quickly picked off again and I was impressed that Lucha Bros. really looked like they were picking apart the big man. I loved things like Davey picking up Fenix for a powerslam only to get kicked right in the patella by Pentagon. When Teddy comes in you know the laser light show is really going to start, that's when we get to the stiff "top that" stretch of those JAPW matches, with Hart throwing mean as hell right hands, sharp knees, breaking out moonsaults off of everything, his awesome moonsault elbowdrop that I've seen him nail the landing every single time but once, and some ridiculously escalating flipping piledrivers (obviously we were getting a crazy one on the apron, but I had no idea how far they would go until the finish). Finish is crazy with Fenix bursting into frame and hitting a bananas Jean-Claude Van Damme spinkick off the apron to KO Pillman, and then the Hart Foundation hitting what should be immediately inducted into the Indy Wrestling HOF: A flipping piledriver Doomsday Device. And you know everybody was at least partially expecting a kickout.

Low-Ki vs. Tom Lawlor MLW 2/2

ER: This is kinda weird as they spent literal months building to a match between these two, but after all that build they worked a short, brisk 5 minute match with a kind of sudden finish. Ki is really great at fitting a bunch of cool things into 5 minutes though, so that works for me (even though just like with the Yehi match I really wished we could have gotten twice as much). It's really weird because right before this was a Ricky Martinez match that was at least twice as long as this one, so was there some kind of weird timing issue with the live show? Did they go too long earlier and then suddenly had to end this match way short? Maybe Ki and Lawlor knew this, which was why they went out and had the awesome scrap they did. If this came from Worldwide it would certainly be legendary, as they really don't waste any time beating each other senseless. Lawlor even knocks Ki to the mat with an early left right to the ear, and Lawlor was throwing hard ground and pound, working for a choke, and from that knockdown Ki was really trying to tangle him up. Lawlor muscles Ki over with a cool suplex, nothing really coming easy in this match, Ki kicks out Lawlor's knee and boots him right in the chest. A freaking door gets involved, and we get a cool visual of Ki missing an attack and punching right through the door (particle board everywhere!!). Striker points out some cool Ki psychology when Lawlor tries to lift Ki and Ki is making himself as tough to lift as possible, scrambling his legs to the ropes so he can get leverage on Lawlor. I dig the shots these two were throwing on the top rope, nice body shots and some genuine struggle around a superplex attempt, and Ki ends up stomping Lawlor's kneecaps before hitting a big double stomp. Things after this feel like they got cut way too short, as Ki grabs the dragon sleeper but Lawlor somewhat easily (for someone who just got his sternum crunched) grabs a rear naked choke. I wanted more from this, but the 5 minutes we got was dynamite.

PAS: I really liked this, but it was really weirdly paced. I dug how they went right at each other, and the standing 8 count on the punch behind the ear was a really nice touch. I have seen Ki get hit with hellacious shots before, and would have liked Lawlor to lean into some of the body shots especially, still it was a neat and different start to a match. Ki was really good at countering Lawlor's straight ahead attack. I thought the door was a misstep, Ki punching it to shreds was a neat visual, and I liked how the hand injury tied into the finish, but it was really outside of what they were doing in the rest of the match, and for such a tightly paced match, we didn't need Ki wandering around outside like Sabu. Finish was pretty cool with Lawlor rolling through and using technique to lock in the choke. Fun stuff, although everything felt chopped.

Myron Reed vs. DJ Z  MLW Fusion #44 2/2 (Aired 2/8/19)

ER: I really like Reed, a flyer who still has some improvements to make but already has a handle on basic stuff that a lot of flyers jump right past. We have no shortage these days of ultra athletic flippers and floppers who can intersperse cutter variations with flipping piledrivers and pinball around a ring. Reed has the grace an easy movement to stand with any of them, but here you can see him actually aiming for where DJ Z's throat would have been on missed clotheslines, locking in a nice looking headlock (especially liked when he flattened out on it), and hooking deep leg during pins. I mean sure we get a cool dive past the ringpost from DJ Z and a nice dive from Reed, and a big somersault senton from Reed turned into a sitout powerbomb from Z, and while there were certainly some dance-y moments I really like what Reed brings to these matches. He's super young but works a ton, and he's already got a higher floor than most within his style.

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MLW Worth Watching: Yehi! Holliday! Hart Foundation! Stud Stable! PCO! King!

Fred Yehi vs. Richard Holliday  MLW Fusion #21 7/19 (Aired 9/7/18)

ER: This works as both a cool showcase for Yehi, and a nice introduction to Holliday, of whom I know nothing about. Yehi doesn't squash him but never feels in trouble, and Holliday has a nice undeserved smugness to him, like a guy who would make sense teaming with MJF but taking all the pinfalls; a good entitled stooge. Yehi blocks a lot of his shots in fun ways, hits a hard shoulderblock, stomps his hand, does a couple leg sweeps that nobody else does, the kind of stuff you want to see Yehi doing. Holliday bumped around and acted perplexed by all of it, but still nicely worked in a couple pieces of offense; I really liked Yehi grabbing him with the trapped arm kicks to the chest and pushing him off, put Holliday blazing back off the ropes with an elbow. Holliday showed his egotistical charisma while clearly on the losing end, and I love a big mouthed jobber. Yehi grabs that Koji Clutch and Holliday starts tapping the second Yehi starts throwing shots. Nice touch.

The New Hart Foundation vs. The Stud Stable  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: I would have liked to see this twice as long, but what we got was as good as I hoped it would be. Teddy Hart has been so great everywhere he's turned up this year, that right hand is just lighting everyone up. Pillman is green as hell but a good lackey for Davey Boy and Teddy, and I dug them basically using him as a way to distract Parrow, basically throwing him to the wolves so they can get in their licks. Parrow took a nice Nestea plunge bump off the apron into the Blondes and Hart hit a huge moonsault off the top onto all of them on the floor. Both Blondes take big suplexes well for big dudes (and Patrick takes a brutal Saito suplex from Davey) and they both throw out some nice offense. I'll pretty much be completely in the boat (is that a phrase? I don't know what the fuck I'm doing) for any tag team that does a tandem elbow drop, that kind where both guys are dropping elbows one after the other. It always looks great, and it looks ever greater when it's two guys (like the Blondes) with great elbow drops. We get a kind of goofus finish with Parrow wanting the pinfall all for himself, but Pillman breaks it up and Parrow gets pinned like right after. Blondes were each up on the top rope when Parrow opted to go for the pin, and I really wanted to see what the heck they were going to do. But afterwards they give Parrow a beatdown, and I kinda just want them to start getting actual tag matches. We've already wasted time feuding them with the already broken up Team TBD, now they're starting up something with Parrow, but they still don't feel established. Just give these guys a run already.

PCO vs. Brody King  MLW Fusion #23 9/6 (Aired 9/21/18)

ER: Phil pointed out that one of the keys to successful PCO matches is to keep the pace fast, and the more we see of him we realize another key is keeping things short. There's a set amount of material, and that material is fantastic at 10 minutes or under. Brody King is kind of similar, so you give these two 5 minutes to lace into each other and pull out some crazy nonsense? Then that's absolutely going to be something worth taking time out of your day to see. These are two big dudes who have no problem sending shivers to the jaw, and taking man size spills that aren't typical of guys their size. The whole match was filled with hard elbows, big clotheslines, headbutts, and hard knees. That alone would have been enough to make this good, but PCO breaks out a huge and impressive dive early, King drops him with a brainbuster, launches him into the buckles with a backdrop, misses a rolling senton that lands him on his head, PCO hits a big powerbomb and running knee; the match is just packed with cool stuff and hard shots. King pie faces the ref when he gets in the way of two adults beating each other's ass, and we get an awesome postmatch melee with other officials running out to separate, and PCO hits a flat out GREAT moonsault off the top to the floor, crashing through everybody. This is exactly what this match should have been.

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MLW Worth Watching: TEDDY HART!!!

Teddy Hart vs. John Hennigan  MLW Fusion #17 7/12 (Aired 8/10/18)

ER: So I'm not sure I could call this a really good match, but teddy Hart is eminently watchable and Hennigan is a guy with freaky athletics who you know can be coaxed along into a bonkers Teddy Hart match. And both guys bring exactly what I was hoping they'd bring. Hart is a fun highflier and I love his aloof faces, a guy whose gimmick is that he wants to put on a great show for everyone and doesn't care if he comes out a winner or loser. That type of thing can easily be turned a bit and become the traits of a really annoying wrestler, but Hart works with such a shrug that he never comes off overly serious, which is what plagues most of those "putting on a MOTY for the fans" types. Plus Hart brings stiff strikes and a general unpredictability, and those are key to him standing above the rest. Here he brings out the crazier side in Hennigan as I hoped, and they went through some sequences you won't see from most. I dug the opening counter stuff, all weird flips and angles, vaguely lucha, vaguely parkour, vaguely silly, but then Hart will throw a hard right hand and snap everyone awake. Both guys hit big moonsaults into the fans, crashing through the front rows (Hennigan not even both to tell people to move, just crashing through fans). We get a bunch of big moves, Hart breaking out a bunch of cool and weird piledriver variations, leaping off the top and catching Hennigan standing before flipping into a piledriver, and a great leverage piledriver when Hennigan is getting back into the ring and Hart grabs his head in his knees and sits back with it. That's a variation I don't really see a lot, and as indy as it seems I think it actually makes a ton of sense. Your opponent is climbing back through the middle ropes anyway, meaning his head is right where it needs to be for a piledriver. We've seen several DDT variations from that spot, but not really a piledriver, even though they make equal sense. Hart always makes me laugh when he climbs up to hit a crazy move, as it's almost always accompanied by him making Fericito Ay Dios Mio faces before plunging to failure or success. So sometimes he'll make the face and get planted with a Spanish Fly, other times he'll make the face and hit a couple of gorgeous late rotation twisting springboard sentons. The finish of a match between these two is almost never going to be very satisfying, as they do so many big moves throughout that whatever wins is going to seem like any old move. Hart hits a nutty powerbomb onto his knees and a harsh hammerlock DDT, but I don't dislike Hennigan winning by blocking a sunset flip and leaning forward with his own pin. Something has to end a match like this, and the journey getting there was exactly what I wanted.

Teddy Hart/Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Rich Swann/ACH  MLW Fusion #18 7/19 (Aired 8/17/18)

ER: This got a little messy at the end, which is a shame as it started out like it was going to be easily the best tag match of the resurgent MLW. Smith is a guy billed as a catch as catch can master but who wrestles like Test, and Hart is really great at utilizing Test into a tag setting. Hart is so adept at all the grappling we start with that I really want to see him against any of the Catch Point alumni, he works real snug with Swann, fast armdrag while bullying him into a Rings of Saturn, great right hands, big snap powerslam; Hart would really be a fun third man in a Dickinson/Jaka stable. Hart is dominating Swann, hits his cool surfing Code Red out of the corner, and we get great involvement from ACH as Hart has him locked up and ACH's leg comes in out of nowhere with a great superkick to Hart's jaw. Smith follows suit with a nice running big boot to save his boy, and we get some cool stuff like Smith tossing ACH from the ring to the floor with a bodyslam, onto Swann. Pillman Jr. starts getting involved, and Smith has some simple, nice ref distraction as Swann goes up top and Smith gently shifts the referees positioning so he can't see Pillman smashing Swann's groin with his cane. This felt like they were well on their way to a great tag match, but kind of went into the finishing stretch too quickly, which is a common quibble with MLW TV. A lot of the matches seem to have a pretty firm 10 minute time limit, but a lot of the matches I've liked would have benefitted from a few more minutes. Still, this made me want to see a lot more of the New Hart Foundation.

Teddy Hart vs. Vandal Ortagun  MLW Fusion #20 7/12 (Aired 8/31/18)

ER: This post didn't set out to be a post highlighting all of the Teddy Hart, he just happens to be bringing it every damn time he shows up on MLW. The first two matches here are full matches, and this one is a squash...but mah god what a squash! The opening of the match is almost uncomfortable as Hart unloads some hard punches right at Ortagun's forehead, each one looking like a KO blow. Hart is a legit tough SOB but after the second punch you can really see Ortagun's head start to turn bright red from the shots, and as I'm waiting for Ortagun to go limp Hart starts putting a hole through his chest with stomps. But don't worry as Hart goes back to working over the face by trying to smash his skull with a curb stomp. Jesus, Teddy. Ortagun gets a one count schoolboy and Hart rolls right through it into a sick Rings of Saturn/crossface, yanking Ortagun's arm while meanly tugging at his beard and mouth. A couple of Hart's crazy lungblower variations end it pretty easy (electric chair into knees always looks like such a tough landing) and Hart as violent badass is awesome. I'm unsure what Ortagun did, but I can only assume that he definitely deserved it. Later in the episode he, Smith Jr., and Pillman Jr. got into it with Kevin Sullivan backstage. It got a bit too shooty, but it was a pretty intense segment with all of them eventually jumping Sullivan and Sullivan blading. Not sure where it's going, but they did it well.

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MLW Worth Watching: Cobb! Hager! Swann! Brazil! Teddy Hart!

Jake Hager vs. Jeff Cobb  MLW Fusion #7 5/3 (Aired 6/1/18) 

ER: I like a good short big boy battle, seeing two guys waste their gas tank by working fast for 6 minutes gives something like this a fun "ambitious Power Plant grad" battle. Hager is both a guy who doesn't really interest me. We saw a LOT of him during his long WWE run, literally hundreds of matches are out there involving him. And he hasn't changed things up a ton. But I've been enjoying him lately in squash work, he's got a lot of stuff that translates well to short matches, and a match-up with Cobb is going to work. Hager had a sharp back elbow while Cobb was working a go behind, his knees to Cobb's ribs looked good, decent lariat, big missed splash, nice throw. Cobb made all of Hager's stuff looked good, loved him getting totally upended by Hager's tackle to his knee, like a kid getting thrown off a banana boat by Jaws. Cobb takes offense really impressively, really runs into things with his cinder block noggin'. I would have liked to see more stuff on the mat or more fighting over throws, but we got a fun power sprint and still have a lot left for rematches.

Kotto Brazil vs. Rich Swann  MLW Fusion #7 5/3 (Aired 6/1/18)

ER: This started as a perfectly fine mirror sequence juniors match, with both men doing enough different athletically to make that kind of match more interesting than normal. Brazil is a faster, better Kofi Kingston, and while some of his offense misses as much as Kingston's he also has a couple things that land well (which I'm not sure Kingston has) and quicker kip-ups. He hits a big springboard elbow that lands well, and it's shaping up fine. And then Swann grinds things to an absolute halt and starts working cocky dickhead heel, and things go from potentially getting written up, to definitely getting written up. Swann bullies him around and talks trash, throws a mean chop and punches Brazil in the face when he tries to block another. Swann lands hard mule kicks to the gut, breaks out a Blue Panther/Negro Navarro type maestro submission, and all his punch-based combos actually look really good (his right hand is better than I recall, and he had a cool quick right hand/chop combo. This went from mirror juniors stuff to a vet working over a Young Lion. Swann is picking on him and it's way more fun than juniors All Night Long Swann. Brazil kinda flubs his comeback, not timing a dropkick well, but his comeback is fun and has good energy, hits a nice running leaping back elbow in the corner, big leapfrogs, fun ways to stay a step ahead of the suddenly flustered Swann. We go through a long series of Brazil kicking out unexpectedly, and it has some legs even if Brazil probably ends up kicking out a couple times too many, but I really liked the story of Swann coming into his MLW debut and almost getting stunned by a younger guy (they kept calling him a rookie and that's one annoying thing so far about MLW's comeback, referring to non-rookies as rookies). This whole thing did a good job of getting Brazil over, and this turned into a match much better than the one I was expecting.

Teddy Hart vs. Trey Miguel  MLW Fusion #10 6/7 (Aired 6/22/18)

ER: There's a lot of uninteresting Teddy Hart types on the 2018 indy scene, but if I'm going to see a guy doing stupid moves and seemingly making up stuff as he goes along, I want someone like Hart who is aware of his excess and doesn't care, and will also punch someone in the mouth. Hart dispatches of a guy in a gi (who appeared on an earlier episode doing capoeira before being quickly finished), and Teddy Hart opts for the standard move when dispatching someone from a fight, a split legged moonsault. Miguel is fine, a guy with a good entrance and a couple crazy spots, including a somersault legdrop to the floor (that the camera mostly missed in his prior match against Brazil), and he has no problem taking some of Hart's ill-advised spots, like Hart basically surfing on Miguel's back before dropping down into a fast code red. Things finish with a top rope Canadian Destroyer, and he whips into it with abandon. Hart runs hard chest first into the turnbuckles like his uncle, catches knees on another split legged moonsault, takes an apron DDT like he's posing after breaking, and the match gets really fun when Miguel unexpectedly kicks out of a couple things, and Hart starts getting frustrated. Hart makes great indignant faces, and is good at teasing an upset by barely getting his boot on the ropes a couple times. The finish run is fun, with Hart popping Miguel in the mouth with both on the top, then Hart dropping him across the top buckle with a backbreaker. You know, MLW, I don't think we've ever gotten a Ki/Hart singles...

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Matches from JAPW Halloween Hell 10/30/04

This show showed up on my internet, and it has a bunch of C+A guys in matches, and a opening salvo for my mini Homicide vs. Teddy Hart RIVALS C+A

H Effect (Dixie/Deranged) vs. The Solution (Havok/Papadon) - GREAT

ER: This is pretty much exactly the 7 minutes you would want out of these two teams. Solution are better than you remembered them being, like a more generous High Voltage. Havok is the slightly larger of the two and had a big fallaway slam, spinebuster, a couple big throws, but would also sell. Papadon dropped elbows and a nice kneedrop, and was also game to take Deranged's big flipping kicks. H Effect had such great energy and it's fun to watch them against a team that easily could have opted to steamroll them. Deranged really is deranged, flying to the floor with a freaking 450 legdrop while Dixie is also diving out onto a target right next to his. Dixie was so special because he was a great flyer and a great junior, but didn't skimp on things you usually don't expect from juniors. At the bell H Effect gets jumped and Dixie is immediately firing back with these great punches from his knees. Nobody pays any attention to making their punches from the knees, or elbows to the gut out of a headlock, look good. Dixie does. It makes his hot tags even better, as he comes in with his big speed but isn't just hitting weak flying forearms while pinballing between Solution, he's coming in throwing great punches. The finish is great as Deranged gets caught doing a rana off the apron to the floor, and eats a powerbomb into the ringpost, then gets tossed in the ring for a Blockbuster Doomsday Device. That's a finish and since it's Deranged of course he takes it as vertically as possible. But Dixie straight up almost died post match. The Solution bring in a chair and set it up, and give Dixie a tombstone onto the set up chair, starting with Papadon standing on top of the chair. So you had him jumping off the chair while dropping Dixie headfirst onto the chair, just looked insane and also looked like an incredibly stupid idea. Dixie never seemed like a guy to turn down a bad idea though, and it's why we love him.

PAS: I remember Havok being really fun in the Hard Hitters tag team with Monsta Mack, and he is really good here too big spinebuster and great looking diving elbows he looks like he is caving in Dixies chest, he seems like a lost big boy wrester of the 2000s. Dixie and Deranged are perfect pinballs for muscled up gym rats, the bump insanely and have some big spots, the Deranged flipping legdrop dive was great looking, and Dixie has such great execution on simple spots. The double team block buster and tombstone on the chair were both certifiable bumps. I could watch H Effect gets mauled everyday.

Low-Ki vs. CM Punk - GREAT

PAS: This was a nifty match which basically served to highlight Ki's shift from respectful martial arts Ki, to Strong Style Thug Ki. I am a big fan of heel Low-Ki and he was in full fuck you mode in this match, flipping off the crowd, constantly shit talking to Punk, and constantly breaking up Punk's momentum by thumbing him in the eye. Punk really didn't have the flexibility or athleticism to keep up with Ki in a showcase match, so something built around character work like this fits with his strengths. Ki was working really stiff as you might expect, including two super high double stomps which really pulverized Punk's toxin free liver.

ER: For two guys who I lump into the same East Coast Indy Revolution barrel, I certainly don't think of CM Punk as a Jersey All Pro guy, and wracking my brain I cannot actually think of a time I saw Punk match up with Ki. They were all wrestling the same guys during the same time period, so it had to have happened, I just don't recall seeing this match-up before in any form, before writing this entry. I was surprised that Low-Ki took so much of the match, and I wish we could have had a more interesting structure than Ki mostly dominating Punk for the first 80% before Punk just comes back full speed. I liked Punk's comeback, thought his long armed chops looked good, thought he had impressive pulling strength on an Irish whip, and he threw one of the best swinging neckbreakers. But it felt like he spent way too long getting his back and core worked over in brutal ways to come back so suddenly. Or maybe it was just that Ki looked that devastating on offense. Ki was great trash talking Punk, and making the fans clear space for him to throw Punk to the crowd, only for him to throw him to the ring, isn't something we see from Ki and I liked the Fuck You attitude as much as the expected silent warrior mode. I loved him taking apart Punk's core, dropping him on the guardrail, a really great gutbuster, a pair of double stomps with insane height (and another from the tree of woe that started with some clunkiness, which Punk recognized and totally saved it by punching back while getting put in woe), a really mean, targeted attack. Ki took Punk's stuff great (he's one of the best offense takers in wrestling history, and several guys who were JAPW regulars were also great at it) and I love him getting planted with that DDT earlier gave a nice reversal when Punk went to that DDT later. All in all it was a super fun contest, from an uncommon pairing.

Samoa Joe vs. Super Dragon - EPIC

PAS: These two guy had a pair of wars in PWG, but this war more of the touring indy version of this match. While this might not have been as epic in scope, they didn't tone down the violence even a little which makes it epic to me. The fact that Super Dragon throws such uncalled for shots really unleashes Joe's violent side. I have never seen a Muscle Buster look as spine damaging as it looked here, and he crushes SD with a death valley driver, and hits this jumping knee which looked like might have severed Dragon's head. Dragon of course unleashes nasty kicks and slaps and backhands, JAPW was and is a fed with potato chefs and these guys took it to a higher level.  I especially loved all of the leg sweeps, both guys where just flinging their legs recklessly at the ankles and knees of their respective opponents.

ER: This was really the peak of Super Dragon being king of all bump freaks. Indie wrestling was filled with tiny guys dying hot death (just look at H Effect earlier in the show) but Super Dragon was a heavyweight (still lean in 2004) that was just regularly taking moves on his neck. And if you were willing to eat a beating, this era Joe was a bad opponent for your body. I was surprised at how much this was dominated by Joe, but Dragon never felt out of it. Joe really was a beast here, that kneedrop Phil mentioned was one of the best I've seen Joe drop, and he had some absolutely devastating looking facewash kicks on the floor, plastering Dragon's head into the guardrail. Dragon had a great sell of one of them, seated in a chair, Joe lands the kick and Dragon just kind of slumps into the chair, holding his face. We build to a big dive where Dragon hits his insane tope, flipping through the ropes past the ringpost, and ends up falling on the back of his head due to the way he fell into Joe. Nasty. He hits a gorgeous springboard spinning heel kick to the back of Joe's head, and a nice double stomp/kneedrop off the top to the back of Joe's neck. But Joe is not a selfish man, and doesn't want to hog all that neck pain to himself, so he plants Dragon with a wayyyyy too snug death valley driver, and then yes, one of the nastiest muscle busters ever done. It's a shame we don't get Super Dragon the wrestler anymore, but after watching this 15 years later, it's kind of amazing we got him for as long as we did.

Homicide/B-Boy vs. Teddy Hart/Jack Evans - EPIC

PAS: This lived up to it's on paper promise. Teddy did lots of crazy flips, took a bunch of nutty bumps and clutched his knee a lot. Homicide chopped and punched people a lot and made crazy faces, Jack Evans did some wacko dives, including a moonsault to the floor bounding off of B-Boy in a fireman's carry. I loved the shooting star press version of Demolition Decapitation which the Matrats team pulled off, and Homicide just flapjacking Evans to the mat and flipping him right into a cop killer was nasty awesome stuff. Finish had some silly bullshit which JAPW would unfortunately fall victim to, the lights go out, and the Carnage Crew is in the ring (which has to be the most underwhelming, light go out guys in the history of wrestling), this is playing off of some early ROH locker room drama between Crew and Teddy, but then they have a swerve and the Crew turns on the SST and joins up with Teddy, big yawn, just end in a double DQ or something, this felt almost Russoish, and almost kept this match from EPIC status, still this is a magnetic match up and I can't wait to watch it all.

ER: I loved this. I think it's one of Hart's best performances. He absolutely dies so tragically on a few bumps that the crowd at the freaking Rahway Rec Center starts actively rooting for Teddy Hart and starts BOOING Homicide. B-Boy and Homicide came off like total assholes, and Evans/Hart have bodies that bend in ways that just shouldn't be possible. Hart and Evans get crumpled all over the ring and floor, Evans getting dumped by an Exploder, Hart getting launched into the crowd and taking out a fan and tumbling off the top to the apron and bouncing off the ring steps. It was crazy hearing the fans get so behind Teddy Hart, and Homicide/B-Boy were relentless. Evan's double stomping B-Boy and vaulting off of him into a moonsault was nuts, and that shooting star Demolition Decapitation was really breathtaking. There's no way that move should have looked that good and not seriously injured someone. It makes no sense. But a lot of stuff in this match looked like it would hurt like hell, like B-Boy's dropkick through the ropes or Evans getting folded in like 8 spots by the Cop Killah. This match also has an immaculately timed stupid spot that was timed so perfectly that it no longer looked anything like a stupid spot. Hart was setting up a shooting star press on B-Boy and as he starts it Homicide rushes in out of camera right and hits a perfect cutter. Those complicated precision timing spots usually just don't work. There are always seams. You see a guy frozen and waiting to hit his mark, because the window is so small. This was the most natural the spot could look, and really should have finished the match. We do get some match ending silliness, but I liked Homicide taunting Hart by locking on a sharpshooter, and Carnage Crew can NEVER be the most underwhelming lights go out in history because 1999 WCW gave us THE GIFT OF MIDNIGHT which will assuredly never not be the answer to that question. Hart cuts a hilariously 2004 post match promo about how Gabe Sapolsky thinks he's a piece of shit (because he did a bunch of flips or something and then pretended he had a concussion so didn't remember doing a bunch of flips) and then Devito says "Yeah but he's OUR piece of shit". This is gonna be great.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SUPER DRAGON

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DIXIE AND INSANE DRAGON

HOMICIDE VS. TEDDY HART RIVALS

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Mini Complete and Accurate RIVALS: Teddy Hart vs. Homicide

One of the craziest feuds in the 21st Century, every time these two stepped into the ring with each other it felt like an out of control, dangerous bar fight, the kind of fight where someone might lose an eye. It reached a level of danger that few wrestling matches ever do. JAPW isn't as widely distributed as much of the great indy wrestling of the last 15 years or so, so this feud fell a bit under the radar.

2004

Homicide/B-Boy vs. Teddy Hart/Jack Evans - JAPW 10/30/04 EPIC

2018

Homicide vs. Dezmond Xavier vs. BLK Jeez vs. Teddy Hart JAPW 2/24/18 - GREAT

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Matches from JAPW Redemption: 2/24/18

The Hooligans (Devin & Mason Cutter) vs. The Private Party (Isiah Kassidy/Marq Quen)

ER: I like the Hooligans, squat chubby guys who will take a couple big reckless bumps, set up junior offense nicely, have a couple nice high spots of their own, and have a great throwback wrestling hillbilly look. I'd never seen the Private Party, and came away wanting to see more Kassidy. He's an Amazing Red trainee and had several Red-like moments of stringing together some unexpected and beautiful offense. Hooligans have some thump and can work like Nise Necro Butcher (even dropping Quen over the back of a couple chairs at one point), loved their hip attack/cannonball combo, loved the assisted standing "corkscrew" moonsault, they're good at catching dives (and Kassidy and Quen each had a couple big dives, with Kassidy hitting a wicked tornillo that could have fallen short, and later hitting a cool plancha running up the turnbuckles and shifting directions to land on Mason). Private Party had a few killer moments that Eric Corvis (gotta call out Corvis by name, as Phil was the big drum beater for him) on commentary called "Rewind Moves" that feel like something they both worked out with someone like Red. Not just simple reversals, more like getting hiptossed into your partner, and your partner flipping your momentum back the other way leading to a cool headscissors or kick. There were lots of neat "momentum reversing" moves, a cool Electric Boogaloo way of delivering your offense that's more than welcome in a tag like this. 8 minute tag, plenty of fun spots, basically exactly what I was hoping for when I went out of my way to check it out.

Da Hit Squad vs. Team Tremendous (Bill Carr/Dan Barry)

ER: This started out mildly joke-y and I was considering just going forward to the main event, but I'm glad I didn't because this turned out to be a total blast. Team Tremendous is a team I'd pretty much written off; never did much for me in their Evolve run (though while I hated the stupid 70s cops gimmick, I do gotta say Carr looks cooler as Big Bubba), and they don't always turn up in places that I frequent. But I cam away especially impressed with Barry, naturally when they say that he's going to be retiring soon. He's been around the indies for years, and this was the best I've personally seen him look. He's chubbed out a bit, and he really controls this match (which is crazy considering the guys across the ring from him). He was hitting DHS hard with chops, busts Maff's nose, throws a jab with great snap, nice vertical suplex on a big fat guy, nice running forearm, all good stuff. Then starts breaking out highflying that lands on point, hits a nice tope on Mack, hits a wild Fosbury Flop running moonsault to DHS on the floor, lands a great moonsault back in the ring. It's odd not seeing DHS as the aggressors in a match, I always expect them to steamroll dudes, but I liked Tremendous controlling a lot of this, made Hit Squad's big stuff seem even bigger. Mack hits a great fat guy dive, and even a rana (leaping off the middle rope onto Barry), and Barry deserves tons of credit for catching that dive, catching that rana, and taking a brutal double cannonball from DHS. The visual of Hit Squad doing the piggyback double cannonball is always so great, feels like a double team move you'd do in the old Simpsons arcade game. Barry himself even does a big man flip dive! There was no overkill, everybody got their moments, Barry was a freaking workhorse, and the match ends simply after Barry eats a Burning Hammer. Just the match I needed.

Homicide vs. Dezmond Xavier vs. BLK Jeez vs. Teddy Hart

PAS:  Really a tale of two different matches. We open with Cide, Xavier and Jeez in the ring and the commentators saying Hart no showed, there is some really stinko juniors wrestling to start, with Xavier looking especially terrible. Then Hart comes from the back and we get a classic psychotic Hart vs. Cide JAPW arena brawl. Eye gouging, fish hooking, awkward chairshots to weird parts of the body, everything you want from those two lunatics try to kill each other. At one point Homicide places Hart's foot in between a chair and smashes it with some fans backpack, Hart pries open Homicide's jaw with his hands and punches his square in the open jaw. Xavier and Jeez take some bumps too, Xavier gets hurled into the bleachers back first, Homicide takes Jeez's head and cracks against the wall like he was trying to open a coconut. All of this is going on while Julius Smokes (who is managing Jeez now) is running around whipping Hart and Xavier with his belt while his pants are falling down exposing his bare ass. It goes back to ring we get another terrible looking juniors run between Xavier and Jeez, while Cide and Hart are fighting on the floor. Hard to rate this, because the brawling was fucking amazing, and the wrestling parts were mostly awful. On a pure enjoyment scale though, this was pretty high.

ER: What a confounding match. Genuinely terrible at times, genuinely exhilarating at times. Homicide is possibly the best wrestler who also has a bunch of bad performances. He's so hot and cold. Within this match he's out of place and completely in his element. Xavier and Jeez looked bad. This was the worst I've seen Xavier look, even though he got better down the stretch and I've liked other stuff I seen from him, and he still took some big (maybe too athletic) bumps here. I don't know if I've ever seen Jeez before, and I do not want to see him again. He looked bad in almost every part he was in, other then hitting a springboard stomp right into the lower abdomen of Xavier. Every other part he looked awful, with some truly putrid strikes throughout, strikes that fell short or looked slow and soft if they did land, he was constantly out of place for stuff, looked like he had never taken juniors offense before. My god he looked bad. Julius Smokes was fucking insane. I love Park matches and old Pierroth matches where there are long belt whipping sessions. And here's Smokes running around with his belt and his towel, whipping everyone who wasn't Jeez, and showing his bare fucking ass the entire time. Julius Smokes shows more ass in this match than Mathilda May in Life Force. His belt was a NECESSARY accessory to his outfit, and he sacrificed it just to get in some whippings. All while showing so much ass. 

But Teddy Hart was that flat out savior of this match. He comes out dressed in something a wrestler would wear to a Pajama Jam, and proceeds to inject all the chaos into this match, and punches everybody as hard as he can in the forehead. All of his strikes look so damn great in this match, stiff body blows and rough shots to the face, and he makes every move he takes look painful as hell, even if it's not. He gets hit with a bunch of nasty chairshots, shit to the back of his hands and his fucking ankles, gets his leg and ankle and foot slammed in between a chair, Homicide weakly shoves a clothing rack or something at Hart and Hart makes it look like he got hit by a Yugo and got his fingers slammed in a door. He continued throwing nothing but great strikes, it made me really want to see more matches between Hart and other guys who can throw hands. This match started with the crappiest slop juniors exchange you've seen, reached stiff vaguely unprofessional brawl in the middle, and then ended with slightly less offensive but sorta stupid flipping piledriver juniors wrestling. It somehow worked both as sleeze fed pain pill crowd brawl, and a parody of Japanese jerk off juniors learned behavior east coast early 2000s indy debris.

ER: Well, while I didn't love every part of the stuff I watched, JAPW delivered goods that still felt like JAPW, and that's really all that I wanted. They've been one of my favorite feds since the tape trading days, and they still bring that sloppy, stiff, wrestling for wrestling fans vibe, which is the reason we'll continue to seek out new JAPW and review old JAPW. The Teddy Hart match had too much good shit to not include it on our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, so we threw it on down towards the bottom. Teddy Hart, gunslinger, y'all.

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