DEAN~!!!

ACTION presents DEAN~!!! 4/4/24

MD: A year ago today, we lost DEAN. Eleven months later Phil, Eric, and Matt Griffin (being Jacey North Matt, not me Matt) did something amazing. In true DVDVR fashion, Eric has a road report in the works. Were I to give you a report, it would be why I wasn't there and would involve in-law family wedding drama, conciliatory water parks with the kids, and a bunch of other excuses. I missed being there, being part of that atmosphere, meeting a bunch of people who I respect and admire (and Johnny Sorrow too; I would have liked to meet Johnny). That said, it means I can come in with a slightly different perspective here, and hey, there's also this: DEAN the human was so important to me in expanding how someone could think about wrestling and Phil and Eric are my "people" in everything we do creatively, but because I watched from home (in part in the DVDVR discord, yes, but a lot on my own), I got to watch it with Dylan Hales in my ear, and there was no one I conspired with more closely between 2010 and 2015 about wrestling than Dylan, so while I couldn't be there with you guys, you were all with me as I watched.    

Alex Kane vs Colby Corino

MD: When I say "my people", I do mean a lot of this crowd too and that made it the perfect crowd for this specific match, one that knew how to act, how to buy in, how to give in, how to be wry but not ironic, clever but still earnest, just like the match itself. The wrestlers committed. The crowd committed. The match committed. It's probably sacrilege on a card with the back half that this one has to even consider this as potentially my favorite match of the night, but maybe it was!

Colby came in exhausted (six matches in six days). He had a size disadvantage. The match was always one suplex away from being over. So he embraced the headlock. It was a way to control distance, to control leverage, to frustrate Kane, to make Kane exert himself because Colby couldn't. It was wry, like I said, but it also made sense within the context of the match. Even at the beginning, there were multiple differentials for Colby to overcome and the headlock was a means for him to chip away at them. That's important. The headlock was never an end unto itself. It was the means to even the odds.

As the match went on, it went from being a way to contain Kane to a way to open him up for escalating offense. It went from being a survival mechanism to the entry point for all of Colby's title hopes and dreams. It opened up the bulldog, or an air raid crash, or the front DDT that he was likely going for to maybe finish things off. The problem with such a close contact strategy, however, is that all it took was one mistake, one wrong breath, one chance for Kane to plant his feet, and it was up and over, metaphorically and literally. Colby did valiantly for a man at the end of his rope, but that rope was just long enough for him to hang himself. Honestly in contention for my favorite match of the night (It's up there with Slim J vs Adam Priest as the most "Matt D" match on the card), as wild as that sounds.

O’Shay Edwards/Amboss (Laurance Roman/Robert Dreissker) vs The Good Hand (Kevin Ryan/Suge D/Tyler Stevens)

MD: I think that in some ways this match had the most to work against on the card. For the traveling crowd, there was probably less familiarity with the wrestlers here. It had a sort of similar theme to the "flippy guys vs strong guys" six-man later on the card but couldn't lean too hard into that without taking away from the match higher on the card. What it did have going for it was the ability to lean into the set units here to play with all of the tools you'd get in a southern or mPro style tag.

The Good Hand played their part perfectly, just annoying, arrogant, scuzzy heels, but maybe not carrying with them the sort of madcap delusion that the Sucklings were about to bring to the ring in the next match. These were three guys who were more than the sum of their parts both in style and in substance. They controlled the ring, cut off Roman, threw out a bunch of quick offense and double and triple teams. And then, when it was time, they got their comeuppance, only to take back over with something slick or underhanded or opportunistic. Basically, they used all the tricks of the trade, both in how they presented themselves and in how a match like this could be structured, to overcome some of the disadvantages they were facing. And the babyfaces were the straight men, constantly trying to work their way back into the match and then, when it came time, raining down justice and punishment. Like I said on the night, if you embrace wrestling, it will embrace you, and that's exactly what they did here.

Violence is Forever (Kevin Ku/Dominic Garrini) vs The Ugly Sucklings (Rob Killjoy/White Mike)

MD: I loved how tight and compact this was. That allowed for the Sucklings to do their pre-match promo, which made a lot of sense actually It was driven not just by ego and mania (though there was that as well) but by the relatable idea that if they had a good showing against a top team, they'd get more bookings and put food on the table. Scuzzy but relatable, a fine line to walk. Then, they went right into heat. That worked because ViF even just coming out as the surprise team with the Road Warriors pop... that was the shine. There was a sense of glorious inevitability here in the best way. The Sucklings were organized and effective and persistent but doom was heading their way from the moment Zombie hit, maybe even from the moment they signed an open challenge.

So this went right to the ambush-dirven heat then into the comeback and the finishing stretch and it was all just a wonderful celebratory bonus from guys with big presence. For people not at all familiar with the indy scene, obviously guys like Priest and Connolly stood out but I heard from a few people who only had a working knowledge that they immediately wanted to track down more Sucklings footage, so the mission from the pre-match promo was accomplished. Overall, this match set up a sort of party atmosphere to prepare people's appetites for the chaos and violence to come.   

Gypsy Joe Rules Match: Coven of the Goat (Jaden Newman/Tank) vs 1 Called Manders/"Filthy" Tom Lawlor

MD: This was the match where, on live viewing, I realized I couldn't just turn a write-up out for the show and that I needed some time to process. I'm still struggling a bit with this one. One thing will stick with me, and I mean forever stick with me, like Owen kicking Bret's leg out of his leg or whatever other super iconic wrestling moment is seared into my brain: That's the sequence of Lawlor getting Newman onto a chair and running around the entire ringside area to attack him while Tank and Manders were simultaneously sharing a beer right by the DEAN chair. The contrast was just this serene moment of pro wrestling wonder. It devolved quickly into Tank spraying Manders and Lawlor smashing Tank and Manders getting the revenge spray and of course then revisited it a few minutes later with the headbutt war. What am I going to say critically about this? It was madness and chaos and action with some stuff that was smartly put together but that didn't feel put together at all, that just felt wild and spontaneous and that, along with, you know, punches (and this had a few good ones) is what I could use so much more of in wrestling today. You weren't going to see the strings here, just the flailing limbs and crazy abandon. (EDIT one year later: I was later informed that nothing was put together and it all felt wild and insane because it was wild and insane; any coherency was my pro wrestling watching addled brain magic eying and the natural logic of pressing iron up against iron and watching the sparks fly).

3 Flippy Guys (Bobby Flaco/Brayden Toon/Rico Gonzalez) vs 3 Strong Motherf*ckers (Danny Demanto/Hoodfoot/Isaiah Broner)

MD: Hey, the WAR six man. This was fun. You didn't really get to see Rico do too much. In fact, most of the match was everyone just beating on Flaco, which is kind of what you want in a match like this really, just flipping guys bumping big and getting crushed. Brayden didn't do a ton (really this was mainly Bob getting destroyed) but everything he did looked great. Finish worked ok because the Strong folk were obviously goofing around and taking their opponents lightly; sometimes you live by the door, sometimes you die by it. This was a nice mix of levity and roadkill to give everyone a breather given what was to come.

Dr. Cerebro vs Gringo Loco

MD: This could have absolutely just been a "traveling match" sort of exhibition and it wasn't at all. It was a weird and surreal inversion full of a sort of emotion that isn't neat or clean or crisp. This match wasn't a straight line. It felt a little like a therapy session unveiling in real time through the back drop of gritty, gripping, beautiful lucha libre. It just wasn't a redo of 2010. Gringo Loco has evolved and in some ways, in this match, Cerebro devolved. He sure as hell wasn't wearing his mask against the Gringos VIP. Moreover, even though Gringo worked rudo, he was a pretty clear babyface for a lot of this. That happens! Usually it happens with a guy like Casas or Satanico up against an unfortunately reviled tecnico or an even more deplorable rudo, but it happens. Here it was because Gringo had something of the homefield advantage and because both of them had a chip on their shoulder.

While I loved some of the early matwork (Cerebro scooting around into an amazing contorting bit of torture was likely the hold of the night), and of course the Cerebro dive that almost took out Marty's wife in the third row was electric, it was that underlying snag of emotion that really put this over the top. Gringo's paid his dues, has traveled the world, has been on TV in big arenas and has wrestled in the dingiest, dirtiest venues imaginable; he's grown into a true base god, and yet Cerebro, maybe empowered in all the wrong ways by the mask he was donning once again, refused to forgive the sins of the past. When Gringo wanted a shake, Cerebro made like a matador. When Gringo escalated things, Cerebro was all to happy to call and raise. He raised all the way to bringing in a chair and tearing apart Gringo's shoulder. Watching it, you can't help but wonder if it was because instead of finding a 25 year old that would likely bend under the pressure, he found a man pushing forty who had no give in him at all. Maybe it was because even though he had traveled north and presented himself in all of his glory, the crowd still leaned towards Gringo instead.

Regardless, he crossed a line that both men had crossed many times years before. It wasn't the end, however. The match restarted. Despite the damage to the shoulder, Gringo fought his way back. When the opportunity arose to cross that line himself, he took it. He couldn't transcend past it. Cerebro wouldn't be the bigger man but Gringo couldn't either, not after what had transpired. Cerebro ducked the chair, kicked it into Gringo's face, and honed in on the damaged shoulder for a submission. They wrestled a gripping match, one with a resolution in the record books, but you couldn't help feeling like nothing was truly resolved.

Krule vs “Warhorse” Jake Parnell

MD: On some level, on top of being a tribute to DEAN and on top of being something cooked up by the mad geniuses I write with here on Segunda Caida and powered by the ACTION engines, this whole show was a tribute to the Indies in general, to all eras and all regions. As such, this felt like it could have been the main event of a NWA New Jersey Coralluzzo show from the late 90s or an early 00s ECW successor promotion and I liked it along those lines. They worked hard. They hit hard. They flew hard. It had all the overworked bs you'd expect for the finish. As such, I almost think they did too much; maybe Parnell shouldn't have flipped out of a chokeslam attempt, maybe that dive shouldn't have been a flip, maybe some of the more complex Krule offense should have been straighter and to the point. They did a pretty good job keeping up with parts of the rest of the show but maybe they didn't need to. Maybe they should have leaned harder into the contrast instead. That's a lot to ask of them though, especially with the title on the line, and they did an admirable enough job all things considered.

Matt Makowski vs Arez

MD: I was going to call this a sprint and explain how instead of just spots it was layered with all that and more, but that's not what it actually is. It's a lucha lightning match and it's one of the best I've ever seen. It's cheating a little because it has the patina of a "different styles" fight but it's close enough to a lightning match in my eyes. A lot of it also speaks for itself, with Arez bounding around, hitting from every angle, and Makowski keeping up while trying to ground and stop him. For them to go that fast it for everything, no matter how unlikely, to still come off as plausible in this strange shared reality where Manders and Tank can sit in chairs headbutting each other as hard as possible takes incredible talent and commitment. I loved the transition where Makowski was able to jam the Casita and snap the arm. Arez wasn't exactly selling down the stretch but Makowski was so single minded in getting the cross arm-breaker in that you knew he felt like he was on to something and if he felt that way, you, as the audience, felt that way as well, even if Arez wasn't exactly putting out signals. Then it was all about working three moves ahead while dealing with the world's most unpredictable wrestler, to plant him in the center with the chaos theory cross-armbreaker. Thrilling stuff and a testament to knowing that they'd pack so much coolness into every second that they could let this go relatively short for the sake of the overall card but still feel fulfilling. Trust was the name of the game here, trust in the wrestlers, trust in the fans, trust in the mission

Slim J vs Adam Priest

MD: Yeah, ok, sorry to the first match, which I did thoroughly enjoy, but this is definitely my favorite match on the card. It couldn't be more down my alley. Two guys so good at doing the small things well hitting the fundamentals of what makes pro wrestling work perfectly and then adding just that added bit of creativity to put it over the top. Slim J's been positioned as a heel on TV for the last year or two but he's one of the best babyfaces of the 21st century and it was so great to see him on this stage, in front of this crowd, against this opponent, in this role. Talk about trust. They let this simmer and build so that when they hit bombs down the stretch they meant as much as possible.

Priest came in early with the trash talk and the early posturing and it was all about who would get the first shot in, and even more than that, who would be able to position the referee best to their advantage. Priest got Slim J into the corner behind him but couldn't follow up. Slim J, maybe a babyface here but a guy who knew every trick in the book and invented a good few of them, managed to snatch the ref's hand and use it (with just enough plausible deniability, of course) to smack Priest. Priest stalled just enough to rile the crowd without losing momentum. When he took over it wasn't just catching Slim on the way in with a knee, but then turning it into a neckbreaker over the second rope. It was never the easiest path but always a direct one with the extra little bit generally something additive that didn't distract from the key message.

Slim was always scrappy, always trying to fight back and his hope spots started small and close, an armbar or a chop back, but Priest cut him off definitely and then really added insult to injury as he grinded Slim down. It all built to the escape from the abdominal stretch where it seemed that Slim had come back, but Priest cut him off with a killer pile driver. That, in and of itself, set up the actual comeback as Slim reversed the second attempt at it on the apron. Even then, because the fans had just been fooled on a hope spot attempt, and because Slim was so good at staggering about in the ring selling his neck, the clotheslines he hit to really get back into it and launch the finishing stretch felt all the more striking and miraculous. Just amazing babyface work here.

That finishing stretch was the first time that they really launched bombs. Because they showed the restraint through the match, the big headdrops, which would have meant something just by their innate nature, ended up meaning all the more. Discipline creates opportunity, allows for the ability to build potential energy that can be turned kinetic. Then they paid it off with a finish that people probably didn't expect but that made the crowd happy. Just two architects building a castle of pro wrestling here.

Wasted Youth (Austin Luke/Marcus Mathers) vs Sinner & Saint (Judas Icarus/Travis Williams)

MD: This was as sprinty a juniors tag as you could get. Not entirely my thing but it had a place on a card that celebrated both the indies and DEAN. The first thing that comes to mind is hanging out on the DVDVR board the day that someone posted Brian XL/Divine Storm vs Red/SATs, probably in real media format, tiny file size, tiny video, and how all of us, the big guy included, reacted, like a whole new world opening up. Twenty+ years later, that wave has swept over all of wrestling a couple of times over, and it's led to a match like this. Icarus and Williams carried a lot of the middle of this with their more experienced and superior teamwork. They had a lot of clever tandem spots and sequences. I probably liked the Gory Running Punches the best though I would have liked to see a little more consequence to them. Mathers' connection to the crowd stood out more than anything else on the other side. This was breathless stuff. At times, the camera barely knew which way to focus next because things were going to come so quickly and explosively. This was candy before the steak to come but it was the expensive stuff and not some cheap knock off brand.

Dog Collar Match: Mad Dog Connelly vs Demus

MD: What am I am even going to say about this? How do you write about this? I thought about taking the coward's way out and just writing a paragraph about how Mad Dog Connelly has maybe the most amazing eyes that I've ever seen in pro wrestling, how you can track the entire match just focusing on them and in doing so, it's something different than you've ever experienced, how I'd never even thought about watching a wrestler's eyes a way to track emotion in this way because either the video quality isn't good enough or the quick cuts are too prevalent or whatever you're watching just doesn't rise to that level. How Connelly breaks a mold that you never even had reason to give a thought to before. I could go on about that but while totally accurate, it'd be both pretty weird and also a dodge. But seriously, rewatch this and just watch the guy's eyes. If you even can, because...

So let's try this instead. This match was a roller coaster ride. I hear you groaning. How dare I reduce this thing to some bullshit out of the can nonsense phrase. Just stop, ok? Stop and think. It wasn't like a roller coaster because it had ups and downs and it went fast. Nothing like that. Imagine actually being in a roller coaster. Imagine the first time maybe, when you were a kid, when you strained your neck to just be tall enough to hit the height marker and be allowed on. Imagine that it was one of those old wooden coasters, big and rickety, creaking, without some of the whirls and turns and technology and gimmicks of the last twenty years, just a looming monstrosity that might collapse at any moment because of one loose eighty year old screw. It's not the falling that gets you when you're on a coaster like that. It's not the speed. It's not even the anticipation as you're slowly going up. It's the fact that you're strapped in, you're helpless. If the thing fell apart, there'd be nothing you can do, nothing anyone could do to save you. You can't stop midway. You can't get off. No power in the world can stop it once it gets going. You're trapped.

That's what it feels like to watch this match. The second you hit play, it's like you're watching one of those videos from a Japanese horror movie. You're trapped. You can't shut it off. You can't look away. You can't even breathe. You can't even stop to think. You just have to watch one act of brutality seamlessly flow into the next. It's a river made of blood and you're adrift on it. I can't talk about specific moments of this. I can't break apart some sort of structure or go on about transitions. I've seen this two, three times. I remember the chain whip by Connelly to start. I remember people going into chairs. I remember biting and the smearing of blood. I remember the attempt at a hangman's choke and Dylan proclaiming it was that selfsame blood making things too slippery to hold it. Maybe there was a flying body press of some sort? Connelly choked him out to win. That's what I remember. I literally just watched this. Five minutes ago! It's all a violent blur. It's not a match. It's an experience. It's a sensation. You stare at the screen and your heart tries to leave your chest as you're buffeted by the violent, visceral gale. And like a roller coaster, the second you get off, you just want to get back on and go again. Look, I got nothing. Just strap back in and watch the thing again, ok?

Daniel Makabe vs Timothy Thatcher

MD: Full disclosure. This is an important match to cover well and I think I know what I want to say, even if it opens me up to be a little vulnerable. It's sort of the absolute worst time to highlight personal inadequcies, but here we are. Be kind. Maybe in part because I've got that most recent viewing of Connelly/Demus rattling around in my head, I don't know exactly how to start it. Let's go with this. Late in the match, Dylan likens this to Battlarts, and of course part of the inspiration here was Ishikawa vs Ikeda; Makabe wore his heart on his sleeve there if you get what I mean. So while this had its hybrid elements, much like Battlarts did, I think you could fairly safely classify this as shoot style. Shoot style, to me, is impenetrable in a good way, because I don't entirely get how they do it (Here's the vulnerable part). I watch so much wrestling. I write about so much wrestling. I think so hard (too hard, I know) about structure and narratives and patterns and comparative mythology and symbolism and whatever else is at play. And shoot style done well takes me back to being ten years old in the Boston Garden watching Bret Hart wrestle the Barbarian and just trying to wrap my head around how they could possibly know what to do next. And I've never gone out of my way to change that. I get so much enjoyment out of wrestling in so many ways, but only with shoot style is there still that hint of magic and wonder.

As I understand it, shoot style is a game of opportunities and openings, of mastering technique so well that all the physical possibilities to counter and progress the match are open to you in any moment. A little bit of give leads to a lot of take and the process repeats itself. Whether you're watching Fujiwara and Super Tiger or Volk Han, a lot of the storytelling is entirely implicit, driven by physical advantages and chance and consequence in the moment and over time. The drive for realism leaves certain basic, contrived narrative possibilities out of reach, but when done as well as it can be done, it can pull you in as much as any other form of pro wrestling. That was absolutely at play here, with every touch representing struggle and every contortion, simple or outlandish, feeling earned instead of given. What took this to another level was the genius at play. Yes, the storytelling was by necessity implicit, but underpinning and giving it color it was the weight of all of their previous encounters, the impending Sword of Damocles that hangs over Makabe's head, the expectation of what this match could be and what we all knew it was not (that being Ishikawa vs Ikeda), the well of emotion of the night and what people had just witnessed. 

Genius really is the only word for the alchemy of all of these things coming together, in small ways and in big. That could be Thatcher refusing the initial handshake or his look of glee as he was bending Makabe's wrist. It could be Makabe making the first inroads on the taped-up knee and Thatcher escalating to strikes out of desperation in response and then Makabe working at the upper body in order to open up the lower body to stay on it. Or it could have just been both of them stomping out each other's arm in frustration at the European Uppercuts they were throwing at each other. History creates the personality. The personality defines the character. The character decides how opportunities are capitalized on, and somehow, out of all of it, you end up with the richest, most compelling wrestling match imaginable. When it came to wrestling (and music, and a few other things), DEAN was like a cool older cousin to me, half a generation older, having gotten there first but selflessly willing to share. To him, everything was about sensation in the moment. To me, it's about thought after the fact. A match like this lets me meet the memory of my friend midway, and I'm very grateful for that.

Read more!

AEW Five Fingers of Death 1/30 - 2/5

AEW Dynamite 2/1

Bryan Danielson vs. Timothy Thatcher

MD: This was exactly what you thought it'd be but it was still very nice to see it play out. If I had to point to something, it'd be 1) Danielson's early use of space, the way he kept trying to control the distance between himself and Thatcher 2) Thatcher's expressions in general: elation when he was prying off a body part and grinding on a hold or a sort of toothless but genuine shock when something didn't go his way, very much in the moment of all time, and 3) Danielson's selling overall. We saw it in the Cage match, but it was all the more present here: his movements were ginger; he was putting over the danger he was in at each point; you could feel the desperation and the middle ground between heart, technical prowess, and ability to channel the crowd as he was throwing fists into Thatcher's side on the top rope. 

Otherwise, like I said, it was two masters pressing down on each other, one going for blood and the other playing defense masterfully. I'm writing this on Sunday and I haven't talked to Phil about what match on Dynamite he'd be covering, but I think I'd be most interested to hear what he had to say about this one, because while it was the most predictable of the three (the two I'm covering and Mox/Page III), it also feels like the hardest to say anything meaningful about.

Darby Allin vs. Samoa Joe

MD: Bryce Remsburg referred all three of the Joe/Darby matches and he posted recently that Darby wanted the matches to feel as chaotic as the Necro/Joe match from 2005. This was pretty damn chaotic. With the no holds barred stip, they started with something additive, the thumbtack hairshirt, and ended it by tearing apart the ring pretty efficiently (though not efficiently enough for Darby's kayfabe hopes and dreams of winning the match) and one last ghastly bump to be the spine-compressing cherry on top of a match full of them. Despite props, plenty of replays, and the fact that the only breather to be had was when Joe was putting the squeeze on Darby during the PiP, everything felt brutally organic. The physics of Darby crashing knee first into the ringsteps and somehow going heels over head onto his feet on the other side of the rail should have been impossible, but Darby's a wizard of execution (albeit usually the person getting executed is himself) and somehow it worked. It's a testament to both wrestlers really: two table spots, a couple of gnarly chair spots, a bump over the handrail on the arena stairs, a yeet right over the ropes to the floor. Nothing looked clean or pretty, but it all looked believably painful. Joe's blood helped, not even in putting over the damage to Joe necessarily, but in making you feel like he was angry enough to show this level of malice and disregard. It was one of those Sabu-ian instances where something like Darby not being able to get the hairshirt back on correctly only made the carnage more immersive. 

(After the fact edit: Just read Phil's column and he did in fact go with Darby vs Joe and ended it with the Bryce factoid, which was my entry point into the write-up. Great minds and all that...)

Read more!

NXT Worth Watching: Ciampa/Thatcher vs. Strong/Cole

Tommaso Ciampa/Timothy Thatcher vs. Roderick Strong/Adam Cole NXT 2/3/21

ER: NXT has been the most entertaining part of mainstream wrestling TV of 2021 so far, and it feels like a lot of guys recognized to hold back on a lot of the melodrama. There is a lot more personality on NXT lately, beyond "I am serious about this and am shocked when you kick out of my moves". Guys are figuring out how to do "serious" without looking ridiculous, and this tag is a good example of a Mid-South style tag fusing with the modern NXT style. Modern NXT style is too obnoxious uncut, you need to cut it with an older, better regional style to make it bearable and much better. I think Ciampa has really excelled with these changes, going from seeming comically overly serious throughout the latter parts of the Gargano feud, to reigning in the sillier aspects and coming off as much more of an asskicker than before. He is wrestling more like Roderick Strong, which is a good thing. He hits hard on chops and elbows, and makes simple forgotten moments like kicks to the stomach look actually damaging. When a guy makes you notice how painful a transition kick to the stomach looks, it means he's really focusing on all details. Strong is as good as ever, maybe the most underrated worker of NXT brand history. Preposterous to think of him not having the role Cole occupies, while also excelling in the role of the clear #2 of a stable. 

Ciampa and Thatcher spend much of the match cutting Strong off from Cole, and both teams blur the line of face/heel without it ever getting dramatic and scowly. Strong is great at eating a beating while fighting back, and I especially loved a couple of body shots he threw while Thatcher was prepping for a suplex. I thought Ciampa's timing was excellent throughout, thought a knee he rocked Strong with made for a real surprise kickout, and when I rewatched the spot I thought his action was so strong throughout the whole sequence. The pinfall he sinks on Strong really added to the kickout, feels like he's paying the kind of attention to his game that stands out when you watch Bret Hart singles matches. Cole is energetic in his hot tag even if some of his stuff isn't my favorite. He fit into the match fine, and as the match turned into NXT chain spots I thought they built through them well. Strong was really awesome on offense and defense the whole match, loved him flying through the ropes with a Fuerza bump when Ciampa scouted a baseball slide dropkick, love that immediacy Strong brings to his moments. The Dusty Classic has been a fertile ground for quality men's and women's tags, and this is my favorite of the men's side (so far?). 

PAS: This didn't really do it for me. I really enjoyed the Strong vs. Thatcher parts of the match as they really had some nasty grappling and Thatcher has really dug into the sadistic parts of his character. He really does seem to gain joy out of hurting people, and Strong has always been a solid if a little colorless wrestler. Strong hits the mat just as hard, and lands some big chops. I though Ciampa and Cole were pretty bad though, especially in their exchanges which were dancey reversals as bad as the worst of this modern wrestling style. Man do I hate when two people "know each other so well", and this was some very bad "know each other so well" wrestling. Finish run just felt like the same PWG tag finisher spamming stuff we have seen for years. The individual moves look cool, but it was kind of formless and didn't build to anything. That finish run doesn't play to Thatcher's strengths and he was the guy I came into this match wanting to see. 

Read more!

NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2020 Live Blog

I don't think we've gotten a good WarGames match from NXT...yet. That said, I think this looks like a really good card on paper, and I'm excited for both WarGames matches, really like how both teams match up. 

Toni Storm/Dakota Kai/Raquel Gonzalez/Candice LeRae vs. Ember Moon/Rhea Ripley/Io Shirai/Shotzi Blackheart

ER: Shotzi comes out in her new deluxe tank, with TCB on the front (I assume that means Tankin' Care of Business?). I like Dakota Kai to start the match, but I don't think Ember Moon was a great choice. Ember Moon is someone who always does a disservice to her own offense, because she chains it in a way that you see her opponents brushing things off quickly just to take something else. She has a very good low superkick to a kneeling opponent, but it's always done just to set up something else, even when it looks better than a lot of her other offense. I don't think her chaining things through the first 5 is a good thing, but I liked Kai a lot. Some of her offense isn't as plausible, but she uses her thrust kick wisely and it always looks good. 

And somehow they make the rookie mistake of letting the babyfaces add a man first. WHY would you voluntarily set up Dakota Kai as de facto babyface? It's the easiest mistake to avoid under the specific booking parameters of a WarGames!! Commentary keeps trying to think of things to say, and every single thing just makes it sound like Kai is a valiant babyface. "This is the hardest 3 minutes of Dakota Kai's life" or "you remember Kai was out of action with a knee injury", just everything they said about her pointed out how hard she was fighting through this genuine disadvantage. I don't know how you lay this match out and decide to make Dakota Kai the top babyface, but this is what they did, and Kai is putting in the best babyface performance of the match. She gets powerbombed down the cage by Moon, who then hits a sick crossbody into her. But Kai fights back, and soon she's down two to one, but she jumps on Shotzi's back and tries to fight off the unfair double team, gets dropped with a great Doomsday Device missile dropkick, but somehow fights back from that! Later she gets beat up by Rhea Ripley the second she entered the cage, eating a ton of short arm clotheslines as the commentary continues to struggle with the undeniable fact that Kai is the babyface here. Shotzi was so incredible in the build up to this match, and she is the most afterthought person in the entire match. This makes no sense!!

They are also working this WarGames the least interesting way: Pretending the cage is not there. The knock on a lot of these NXT WarGames is that they are normal matches that happened to be surrounded by a big cage. This is that. Kai takes a nasty spill into the cage 2 minutes in, and the rest of the match is as if the cage is only there to obstruct our view. And since you can't bleed, it means the match becomes an exercise in Singapore cane shots, which is not as interesting to me as someone getting their face smashed into chain link. Ripley eventually takes a bump into the cage 20 minutes later, and Io Shirai does a Great Sasuke tribute by flying off the cage into everyone while entirely in a trash can. Raquel Gonzalez makes a great catch in the middle of it all, really absorbing all of a tiny person wearing a trash can. Kai even gets walking tall moments down the stretch!! It's amazing! She hits a killer double stomp off the top, flatting Shirai under that trash can, then triumphantly beats down Ember Moon and stands tall with a chair. Things do finally get good and heated after, with Moon hitting a pretty disgusting Eclipse, with Kai whipping her neck across the back of a chair. I didn't think Moon was doing that move anymore (don't think I've seen it since she came back), and it's cool when someone breaks out something big like that in a big match, and I like that Moon crashing through a chair taking Kai out of the match also took her out of the match. LeRae kicks a trash can lid into Ripley's face, Shotzi sentons LeRae off a ladder, Shirai eats a Gonzalez powerbomb through a ladder, tons of great stuff down the stretch. But I gotta say I'm pretty stunned how marginalized Shotzi was in this match, for a match that really felt like it was announced and built as HER match. I don't know if anybody would have picked Gonzalez pinning Shirai for the finish of this, but most of this was brutally backwards. 

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: I've really been digging Thatcher bullying guys on NXT, but I like when we get big match Thatcher. I think a lot of this was really good, and I bought into a lot of the attacks from both. Thatcher really looked like he was choking the life out of Thatcher (Ciampa's head veins are a gift when it comes to selling a sleeper), and Ciampa's bully choke down the stretch with Ciampa attacking Thatcher's freshly bloodied ear was great. Rhea Ripley got an earring ripped out of her ear against Io Shirai, then competed in a WarGames without a drop of blood, and then immediately following WarGames Thatcher gets his ear ripped open somehow. Ciampa's back neck is a compelling match story for me, and Thatcher is a guy who can do painful looking things to a neck. So I bought into Ciampa's neck selling and also loved when Thatcher would whip his head back with uppercuts. I do think the match went way too long and really didn't need to be worked as an epic, didn't need stuff like Thatcher bumping for 6-8 straight clotheslines (things like that felt transported from a different match), and I think Thatcher should have won here. I don't want them to fall into the temptation of turning Thatcher into a shoot guy who only picks on guys that can't defend themselves but never uses those skills to beat better guys. 

Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes

ER: Trevor Lee was someone who always wanted to work long matches and big title defenses in CWF Mid-Atlantic, and he seems like a guy who would get into trying to have interesting matches within somewhat limited match gimmicks. So far his performances in a cinematic match and blindfold match have been appropriately stoogey but perhaps too silly. And he brings strong stooging to this strap match, but just like the WarGames match earlier in the evening, it is a gimmick match that keeps pretending like the gimmick isn't there. Long stretches of the match are spent without them tied to a strap, and I was actually interested in how they were going to work in turnbuckle touching until realizing that of course it would just be a normal pinfall match. The best parts of this are Grimes taking a hard beating around the ring. He did a really good job at getting dragged and flung by the strap, including two painful bumps into the protective hockey arena siding, got pulled nicely into an uppercut, did a great job of falling while being yanked. My favorite bit of Grimes offense was when he just punched Lumis in the eye, and Lumis sold it like a guy who just got punched in the eye. They worked a few good spots around getting tangled up in a strap, and I loved when Lumis wrapped Grimeses' ankles and yoinked the strap, sending Crimes crashing head first into a chair. The finish submission looked good, like Grimes getting hogtied into a choke, overall liked what Grimes tried to do with the gimmick. 

Damian Priest vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Leon Ruff

ER: I really liked the two quick Ruff/Gargano matches I've seen (I'm a couple weeks behind on NXT TV, not sure what happened right before this show), and would have preferred seeing a PPV level Gargano/Ruff singles. I am also a guy who isn't a big Priest fan. However, having one much larger guy in there could make for a fun dynamic. The story of Priest not wanting to bother with Ruff because he only cared about taking his pound of flesh from Gargano was strong, even though Gargano's work with Priest is nowhere near as well done as Gargano's work with Ruff. All the Gargano/Ruff portions were good, but the Gargano/Priest stuff had awkward timing on several spots (including stuff like Gargano having to redo a tornado DDT spot, and a silly missed ear clap from Gargano after Johnny ducked early). Ruff eats a big razor's edge through one of the safety shields, and I really wish I could hear a real crowd during his eventual comeback. I think he would really be connecting with fans and I think the Gargano angle would play great in front of real crowds. I really wanted that Leon Ruff/Mikey Whipwreck story to keep going. Ruff keeping the title is could have given him a little more legitimacy, leaves you with a Gargano/Priest #1 contender match while moving Ruff onto someone else for a bit, and instead they just have Gargano win the title back. Ruff's involvement still felt like the best thing about this to me, and right up to that spike DDT that ended him he made everything look good. This was better than I was expecting as they dealt well with getting the third man out of there, but I also didn't love a lot of the Priest/Gargano stuff. The Scream mask guys were the absolute pits and killed any chance at the match being actually good, and I can't get excited in any way for an Austin Theory higher power situation. Nobody wants that. 

Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong/Kyle O'Reilly/Bobby Fish/Adam Cole) vs. Pat McAfee/Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch/Pete Dunne

ER: Pete Dunne moves to Florida and within a couple months he's already getting that Crossfit body. He also might have jaundice? But I liked the opening with O'Reilly and Dunne, thought their mathwork had several fun scrambles, and had nasty things like Dunne kneeling on O'Reilly's arm while attacking the body. This WarGames is already so much better laid out than the women's match, with McAfee doing an awesome job being the guy acting like he wants in that cage, and Lorcan being an excellent choice to help Dunne dismantle O'Reilly. Lorcan dropping KOR with a half nelson suplex before Dunne runs in and kicks KOR's arm out from under him is a great asshole move, and seeing Dunne and Lorcan work as real assholes is great. Lorcan is also great at eating offense, so when Bobby Fish runs in Lorcan is expert at taking the UE double teams (I especially liked him getting pump kicked into a suplex). Weapons in WarGames is pretty stupid and unnecessary (you are in a cage you should act like you're in a cage and use it) but the cricket bat is a more interesting weapon that other played out stuff we've seen. Burch smacking O'Reilly in the bad arm with a cricket bat at least gives off a good sound. But we also get way too much table set up. I do not need all of these tables set up!m You have a whole cage, use the cage! WarGames matches do not need long spot set-ups.

Pat McAfee is a real genuine standout, a personality so strong that it only highlights the personality flaws in every other person in the match. It's incredible how much he gets about what he's supposed to be doing in there, and having him hit a moonsault through a table is the best kind of icing on that cake. The home stretch of the match had good energy, but also a lot of misspent energy? All of Adam Cole's offense runs looked bad, and the best use of Cole was when McAfee clipped his knee. Also, Wade Barrett refers to Pat McAfee as "one of the dirtiest players in NFL history" and...I guess I would really need to see footage of a punter who is also a dirty player. That sounds like a hysterical character (that Pat McAfee assuredly was not). I HATE the Undisputed Era "fight between the two cages" trope in these WarGames match. How does a team with guys I like keep doing things that I dislike? And this thing just goes WAYYYYYY too long. Way too many comebacks, way too many "peak" moments to build to, soooo much fat that could have been trimmed. It just felt like they kept building to the same big moment over and over again, like we were trapped in a loop and nobody knew how to actually finish the match. They build to McAfee and Cole alone, everyone else laid out, several times, and it never finishes anything. Every big move would just get a kick out, and then everyone would lie around for awhile before doing it all over again. McAfee completely knocks the wind out of himself when nobody decides to catch him on his bonkers cage swanton, Lorcan and Burch pull off a sick Doomsday Device, McAfee kicks out of Adam Cole's bunny hop flipping piledriver, everyone in the match lies in one part of the ring while Dunne and O'Reilly fight and also refuse to get pinned. This whole thing was 20 minutes too long and they kept building to things they had already built to. I like both of these teams, and like both of them against each other. But this was TOO MUCH of them against each other. I was totally burned out by the home stretch of this match, because it felt like we got too much wasted time and it felt like they were needlessly filling time. No main event should feel like it's just filling time. Still, Pat McAfee is a star. 

This was a disappointing show. But, up until the part of the main that started taking too long, I was still really enjoying this show. It was an underwhelming yet entertaining show, until it felt like I was trapped in an endless series of big encounter kickouts. There were plenty of strong individual performances, in fact every match at minimum had one real standout performance. So we end up with a show that underdelivered on quality, while also having no true bad matches and thus having an entertaining floor. You can't really call that a win, but it's not a terrible loss. 

Read more!

2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Lorcan vs. Thatcher Rematch

Oney Lorcan vs. Timothy Thatcher NXT 7/15 (Aired 7/22)

ER: These two had a hot 10 minute match just three weeks ago, and we get to see them run it back and work things totally different. This was all about Lorcan surprising Thatcher on the ground, getting convincing single legs and working over his shoulder in the second half of the match. Thatcher was more powerful standing, winning grappling exchanges and landing an awesome belly to belly, so Lorcan starts throwing uppercuts. I like the mid match plot point of Thatcher getting his shoulder run right into the post, love how it made Lorcan smell blood the rest of the match and becomes fixated on going after that arm. Oney works like a real bulldog, constantly bending Thatcher's arm at the shoulder and looking over and over for wrist control. Lorcan throws heavy chops (including one to Thatcher's shoulder), hits a big uppercut off the middle rope, paying Thatcher back with a half nelson suplex, and has by favorite sequence of the match: Snagging a nasty half crab, bending back on it, but using it as a distraction so that he can drop down into a Fujiwara armbar, and I thought things were actually over for Thatcher. But we get a nasty way to break the armbar when Thatcher fishhooks Lorcan to break, meaning this match has the most fishhooking seen in a WWE match. Thatcher has been real good at showing how he is going to win by literal hook or by crook, and the dickhead finish was awesome, Thatcher getting a desperation cover while Lorcan is working that Americana, discreetly holding the tights. I think we might just have to work this as a best of 7, to make sure we get a definitive winner of this feud. It's only fair.

PAS: It is pretty cool that the pandemic means we get to see these guys work small show grappling matches again. Thatcher's selling is always a bit major key, but I think it works in the context of this match, and Lorcan's frenzy always works well as a contrast to Thatcher's more subdued stuff. I thought all of the shoulder work by Lorcan was great, including chopping the joint and the nasty Americana, and I dug the hell out of the finish. They seemed to have put this feud on the back burner, but I have no idea how pinning someone while you are in a submission doesn't lead to a Submissions match. WWE has so much TV time these days, run it back.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Lorcan vs. Thatcher

7. Timothy Thatcher vs. Oney Lorcan NXT 7/1

ER: This was the exact kind of 10 minute fight I wanted to see. You knew you were going to have to endure 7 or 8 different Mauro references to Stu Hart and the Dungeon for whatever reason, but they ripped at each other's limbs in the best way so who cares. The grappling was strong and I dug how they established that Lorcan was going to hit harder and take more risks, while Thatcher felt like he was going to endure some chops and some unfavorable mat positions just for the chance to take apart Lorcan's arm. I like Lorcan's specific level of crazed and focused, where he also has no problem leaning into Thatcher's strikes and has no fear about landing in a disadvantaged position. Thatcher works for a nice Americana and Lorcan takes a nice bump to the floor, and I adore Thatcher's big throw belly to belly, where the motion seems so graceful and the hangtime sublime. Lorcan lands like a sandbag. Lorcan really pays Thatcher back with a nasty half nelson suplex and then slaps him repeatedly down to the mat. I'm into the focus that guys like Lorcan and Gulak have brought back to a single leg crab, as they know how to lock them in so effectively that they make a hold WWE has phased out seem actually dangerous. But Thatcher's kneebar variation was my favorite thing here (if not this, then Lorcan's early match low angle headscissors takedown, one of the coolest headscissors I've seen in months), locking in a half crab of his own and then clutching Lorcan's shin, spreading pressure from the hamstrings to the knee to the quad. That's a disgusting hold and it needs to finish a few matches. Lorcan is a savage so of course tries to dig into Thatcher with a fishhook, and the way Thatcher shifted his weight and rolled across to a Fujiwara to break and win was a thing of beauty. I've seen these two square off several times over the years, and they always bring new fresh tricks to the table. Can't think of better ways to kill 10 minutes.

PAS: It is pretty great that Lorcan, Thatcher and Gulak were able to basically import wholesale what they were doing in 2014 to the WWE in 2020. I mean this is uncut stuff, not even a little watered down. Almost everyone who comes into the WWE has to work the house style, but somehow these guys were able to squeeze through and work an EVOLVE Style Battle match on a big show. I liked the pacing of the matwork, how they were testing limits with the holds early and by the end of the match they were sinking things in and trying to tear ligaments. The finish was about as cool of a mat exchange as I can remember seeing, that kneelock was sick looking, and I loved the counter of the fishook with the Fujiwara armbar. Loved this.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

NXT TakeOver: XXX 8/22/20 Better Late Than Never Blog

Breezango vs. Oney Lorcan/Danny Burch vs. Raul Mendoza/Joaquin Wilde

ER: A match that had some of the typical problems of any triple threat match, meaning we got a lot of different guys lying around for far longer than they should have been. If I focused on how many guys were lying around, and the moves that caused them to stay down (often just "guy gets thrown through ropes to floor", which happened a lot) it would be a silly match. But just trying to ignore the dumb match type and there was a ton of good action. Raul Mendoza looked awesome whenever he was in, loved him slipping through the ropes to the apron to catch Fandango with an elbow, and his rope run tornillo looked insane. Wilde is a big bumper and worked that well into the match (took a big lariat on his shoulder, got dropped with a Burch/Lorcan double DDT), Burch had a decent hot tag, there were a couple of nice offense chains (dug Lorcan hitting a flying uppercut only to eat a Breeze superkick), and a decent nearfall save. I would have rather seen either team other than Breezango win, but oh well.

Finn Balor vs. Timothy Thatcher

ER: Strong match, and it was stronger the closer they were. All of the grappling was really really good, and a match focused solely on that would have been awesome. The stuff I liked less was whenever it tilted a bit more into a Balor match with move reversals and a little stand and trade. The former made up a far higher % of the match, and the latter was worked in well. But the grappling was so strong that I just wanted it to be the whole match. Thatcher went after Balor's leg, and I love how Thatcher gets a tight leveraged grip on his single leg crab, locking his elbow crook in Balor's knee pit and absorbing boots to the face just to do some more damage. I like seeing Thatcher work guys who typically don't do matwork, as it forces them out of their comfort zone and usually makes them look cooler than their normal style. Balor didn't get clowned on the mat, even while Thatcher was bending at his arm and working to lock on chokes, or stomping on inner thigh to open up the left leg to a target. And I liked how they came back to the leg when Balor missed a stomp. Thatcher smelled blood and swam in. Some of the Balor offense felt like it went away from the cooler story they were telling, and I always wish guys were better about adjusting their offense game depending on what their opponent had been working, but I still liked this alot.

Damian Priest vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Bronson Reed vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Velveteen Dream

ER: Not only does Dream get to talk about "getting a second chance" during the pre match video and gets the last entrance, looks like the books are closed on that one. Bronson Reed is wearing a rad Bam Bam Bigelow singlet, and I am into it. And this match was odd, as I didn't really care for the match itself, but it had some pretty spectacular crash landings. Matches with odd number participants are usually off, and a lot of the stuff based around climbing ladders here was actively dumb. There are only so many ways to climb a ladder, and we're pretty far past the point of finding clever new ways to climb ladders. The cuter they get, the lamer it gets, and almost all of the stuff revolving around guys climbing was dumb. Guys also disappeared for odd stretches of time, sometimes after a bump that should keep someone disappeared, other times not. Plus, this thing was too long. We don't need to run past 20 in these stunt shows, just makes it feel silly the longer guys go surviving these crashes. The dive train was strong, especially liked Reed's big tope and Priest's wild tope con hilo after running up a ladder. Grimes did the splits between two ladders but the payoff was kind of weak, the ladder bump crashing over the barricade was wild, and my absolute favorite thing was Bronson splashing Gargano off a ladder with Candice on his back. The rest of the Candice involvement felt way too shoehorned, too out of place and Grimes looked silly selling any kind of offense from her. But a fat man hitting a superfly splash while wearing a tiny woman as a backpack is always going to fucking rule.

Adam Cole vs. Pat McAfee

ER: I LOVE matches with non wrestlers. I always get excited for them. I watch so many damn matches with guys who are trained specifically to do professional wrestling, that it is always exciting to see what someone - especially athletes from other sports - "gets" about wrestling. Sometimes it's Jay Leno doing an arm wringer a few times, but sometimes it's fucking Floyd Mayweather! I've seen Hijo del Santo live more than once, but how cool are those people who were at one of Marcus Dupree's first indy matches? What about those people who got to see Lawler and Dundee each teaming with local Tennessee pediatricians? I love non wrestler matches. And I think this was one of the greater non wrestler performances we've seen.

Pat McAfee was a real natural, and I'm not sure what it says for NXT that he was so much better at wrestling acting than Adam Cole? The match has a weird heel vs. heel vibe to it, that kind of works for the match overall. Cole isn't the guy defending the honor of pro wrestling against an invader, and McAfee isn't the local babyface star from another walk of life playing star in another sport. They're both heels, with McAfee a deservedly cocky loudmouth, and Cole a little brat who feels like the worst guy to be a public face of pro wrestling. The heel vs. heel vibe got me into it, something more fun about two unlikeable guys hurting each other (though I was rooting for McAfee obviously, who wouldn't root for him over Cole). They're smart with smoke and mirrors, and McAfee ramps things up appropriately, showing more and more athleticism and grasp of wrestling. He hits a dropkick, has a nice grounded chinlock, and then takes things to the next level with a tope con hilo into a crowd of plants and wrestlers. McAfee keeps looking more and more like a natural, and by the time McAfee did a backflip off the top, then leaping back to the top with no hands, to superplex Cole off. It was a great superplex, too. But once they start working the match around McAfee being an actual high level punter, this goes from a great non wrestler performance to a great match.

McAfee goes to punt Cole on the apron, Cole moves, and McAfee boots the ring steps. It looked great, and I love the idea about the great distance punter injuring his foot. We get a great moment of Cole kicking out his kicking leg on a charge, playing up the hurt foot and knee that he's had a few surgeries on. McAfee punts Cole in the balls and honestly, the McAfee punting Cole right in the chest and yelping at his hurt foot was one of my favorite wrestling moments of the year. Cole is a little too Edge Acting for the finish - again, McAfee shouldn't be able to play his character than Cole - but McAfee taking the flipping piledriver is a bonkers thing for a new wrestler to be taking. I am always going to be excited for a non wrestler match, and this one was one to seek out.

PAS:  I thought McAfee was incredible in this match and Cole was awful. If you showed someone this match in a vacuum, and asked which one of these guys was an untrained amateur there is no way they would pick McAfee. Everything cool in this match was on him, the tope con hilo, the backflip into the high jump superplex, and everything around his punt of death totally ruled. Meanwhile Cole is making dramatic acting faces and did maybe the worst hockey fight in the history of wrestling, swinging his tiny little T-Rex arms into something resembling a punch. Cole has to be 5'6 with a 4'11 wingspan. I am not sure how he wipes his own ass. That dramatic teased removal of the knee pad was embarrassing. There is a reason I don't watch this community college Death of a Salesman shit anymore.

Dakota Kai vs. Io Shirai

ER: I liked a lot of this, and yet a lot of it left me hollow? Even the stuff I liked kind of felt hollow as it never felt like it had grave consequences. Example: I thought Shirai's double knees and knee strikes  looked uniformly great throughout...and yet she did SO MANY of them to Kai that she made her own offense look ineffective. If something looks like a kill shot, but is sold similarly to a hard bodyslam, by the end of the match I don't care about it. The match was filled with hard knees and double stomps, but the only thing really sold as damaging was a so so moonsault. I liked Kai's work on Shirai's arm, and really thought the struggle by Shirai to get to the ropes made it even better. Shirai was good at selling her arm, and it slowed her down an appropriate amount while not getting too in the way. Kai's strength is stringing together semi-complicated sequences and making them turn out plausible, like when she slid to the floor, spun Shirai out onto the apron, and delivered a yakuza kick. Those kinds of sequences can come off too dance-y but Kai actually makes them look as intended. I think it went too long and they went back to certain things too many times. You cut this 16 minute match down to 10, thus cutting out some of the move spamming, and I think it hits.

Karrion Kross vs. Keith Lee

ER: This didn't work for me. It felt like they were moving in slow motion right out the gate. I'll take this kind of match over the Lee/Dijakovic style of main event, but this was not a match with 20+ minutes of material, and didn't need to be. Lee is bizarre to me. He is an incredible athlete who almost always plays against his strengths. He should be doing things to maximize his size and speed, and yet ever since joining NXT he almost always just comes off as everyone's equal. He's not a good striker, and yet he always does these stand and trade sections that remove any wonder. It would be like Vader working an equal strike exchange with someone 50 lb. (or more) smaller than him, it would look odd and make Vader look far less impressive. Imagine if Lee worked more like a larger, more spry Masa Saito?? Instead he's someone who works to minimize his size, and I don't get it. I was a big fan of Kross vs. Ciampa on the last TakeOver, and that match was worked with an immediacy that made Kross look like a killer without hurting Ciampa. This match had none of that immediacy, and instead was worked like at a slogging pace. I get they are saying that Keith Lee is a big man and takes a long beating to wear him down, but I don't think this did either man any favors. Keith Lee just got slowly worn down over a too long match, and he kept striking to comeback, which paints him in the least favorable light. He needed to just slam his body into Kross on every comeback, and that just didn't happen. I did like the Kross suplexes, and the whipping Saito suplex off the top was a cool finish, but even with the title win this match felt like a step back for Kross, and Lee has felt like he's been spinning his wheels on NXT all year.


ER: Weird show, my feelings for this one are a real rollercoaster. The show felt like a solid TakeOver show, but I really didn't like any of the matches other than the McAfee show. The pre-show match was fun but too short (considering every other match on the show got way too much time, they really could have used more balance), and Thatcher/Balor approached being a really good match but I didn't like the ways Balor took away from their own narrative. Ladder matches don't really move my needle any longer, they just happen far too frequently. The main event didn't work for me, and I was left with a former NFL punter carrying this entire show for me. And yet it felt like an overall good show? And yet it also felt like it went way way way longer than its actual run time. I'm torn on this one. But of one thing I am certain: Pat McAfee rules, and is a far more interesting performer than a large % of the NXT roster. That should be a major look in the mirror moment for the NXT brand. It likely won't be, but it should be.

Read more!

2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Riddle vs. Thatcher

15. Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher NXT 5/13

ER: Their first singles match in over two years, and it's not surprisingly a nifty TV main event. I didn't love their very brief chemistry as a tag team, but them twisting limbs and kneeing lats is the kind of chemistry I seek from them. Their kind of chemistry is the kind that is always working towards something, always trying to outpace, always looking to finish things. The big stuff looks cool, the small stuff looks cool, the kind of joy that can be found with a slick judo throw or a KO kick. The strikes played well to the empty arena, as the slaps and body shots really landed with a deep thud. When Thatcher grabbed Riddle by the jaw and unloaded open hands, not even the Lucha Underground FX crew could have made those sound more damaging, and Riddle's grounded body shots sounded like he was trying to find the ripest cantaloupe at the market. I love when these two try to cross each other up, and my favorite moment of the match was when Riddle hits a knee strike, fakes Thatcher low, and then knocks him into the commercial break with a head kick.

My only real fault with the match is that Thatcher heads into the commercial break sliding head first to the floor, and when we return Thatcher is standing over Riddle holding an ankle lock. Nobody wants a movie where the hostage negotiator is staring down the barrel of a gun, only to blink and suddenly find he's the one holding the gun. The recaps fill in a few of the gaps (including a savage foot stomp by Thatcher), but it felt like we missed something important. I'm not 100% sure what all Thatcher did to gain control, but I liked what he did once he had it, dumping Riddle with a German, stomping some more feet, big uppercut; and I love how Riddle is never inactive against Thatcher, always working in strikes when he can and trying to power through offense when possible (including a sitout powerbomb out of a triangle that had to take some unreal strength). Big move stretch run that never felt like move spamming, and the final submission/pin was handled great. Thatcher really looked like he was going to walk away with Riddle's leg, tying him up to such a degree that he has nowhere to go once Riddle leverages his shoulders to the mat. The two of them tagging together when Thatcher was brought in sounded great on paper, but it turns out the classics still play better.

PAS: This was really good, these guys always had great chemistry and it is cool that they got to do their match on a bigger scale. I loved how they both were always looking for an advantage, constantly struggling in holds, always moving to improve their positions, throwing in little body shots. Thatcher stomping right on Riddle's insole was really nasty, looked like the kind of thing that would hurt for weeks. Finish was nifty too, Thatcher getting too enamored with torture, so he gets rolled up really fits with his unhinged character.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

NXT Great American Bash 7/1/20

Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai vs. Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae

ER: This is done elimination style, which is at least a nice change of pace from these multimans where people conveniently disappear the entire match. The early chaos was good and filled with fun Kai faces and a surprise early Candice elimination. Mia Yim had one very clunky spot where she dove "at" Nox and instead flew to the floor, but Nox hadn't been in that spot for awhile so it looked like Yim just turned around and ran/dove at nothing, like Kerry von Erich hitting a sunset flip on someone standing 10 feet away. But right after that she goes on a real fantastic run, hitting a sick rana on Nox after running across Kai's back, then snapping off a rana on Kai right after, then running into consecutive nice topes on both. It was really exciting in the moment even though after she was eliminated it did come off as one of those "let her get a series of cool moments before she gets pinned". I did not love the final Kai/Nox singles match. Tegan Nox just does not do it to me. Her wide mouth shocked faces on kickouts, her moveset that is a distilled version of the most current/basic indy moveset. It has no personality, and Nox herself appears to have no personality outside of "fashionable apron move shining wizard that doesn't hit and also knee brace". Kai's exaggerated heel expressions adds to things, but I just can't get excited by "Nox should have been finished but now she is fighting back with her heatless offense that everyone does!"

Timothy Thatcher vs. Oney Lorcan

ER: This was the exact kind of 10 minute fight I wanted to see. You knew you were going to have to endure 7 or 8 different Mauro references to Stu Hart and the Dungeon for whatever reason, but they ripped at each other's limbs in the best way so who cares. The grappling was strong and I dug how they established that Lorcan was going to hit harder and take more risks, while Thatcher felt like he was going to endure some chops and some unfavorable mat positions just for the chance to take apart Lorcan's arm. I like Lorcan's specific level of crazed and focused, where he also has no problem leaning into Thatcher's strikes and has no fear about landing in a disadvantaged position. Thatcher works for a nice Americana and Lorcan takes a nice bump to the floor, and I adore Thatcher's big throw belly to belly, where the motion seems so graceful and the hangtime sublime, and Lorcan lands like a sandbag. Lorcan really pays Thatcher back with a nasty half nelson suplex and then slaps him repeatedly down to the mat. I'm into the focus that guys like Lorcan and Gulak have brought back to a single leg crab, as they know how to lock them in so effectively that they make a hold WWE has phased out seem actually dangerous. But Thatcher's kneebar variation was my favorite thing here (if not this, then Lorcan's early match low angle headscissors takedown, one of the coolest headscissors I've seen in months), locking in a half crab of his own and then clutching Lorcan's shin, spreading pressure from the hamstrings to the knee to the quad. That's a disgusting hold and it needs to finish a few matches. Lorcan is a savage so of course tries to dig into Thatcher with a fishhook, and the way Thatcher shifted his weight and rolled across to a Fujiwara to break and win was a thing of beauty. I've seen these two square off several times over the years, and they always bring new fresh tricks to the table. Can't think of better ways to kill 10 minutes.

Rhea Ripley vs. Aliyah/Robert Stone

ER: This wasn't going to impress the crowd seeking a MOTN, but this had a vibe similar to old Coliseum videos or something like Razor vs. Jarrett/Roadie that isn't really seen on WWE TV anymore. They still do handicap matches, but they too often get trapped in this shitty modern version of a handicap match where everybody is still working all of the same spots they'd work in a normal singles match. This is not a great match that people will talk about at the end of the year, but everyone involved worked it exactly the way it should have been worked and I really liked it. I loved seeing non-matches like Heenan vs. Boss Man or Genius vs. Hogan when I was a kid. A match made up of two mostly non-competitive stooging heels is a rarity on WWE TV today, but was a structure that created a ton of fond memories for me as a kid. Stone and Aliyah knew how to create that kind of energy, that ineffective stumblebum who still had a couple small advantages. Rhea got some fun 1 on 2 runs, loved the double boston crabs and other spots where she's just too cool to fall for their Wile E. Coyote bullshit. Stone is a guy who was a regular wrestler who WWE hasn't used as a wrestler until now, and he knew exactly how to work "actual wrestler playing a non-wrestler". He's lean, he's wearing boxer's shorts comically high, he bumps just like a manager who knows how to bump but plays like he's falling on banana peels. He misses a plancha, gets caught doing a roll up and headbutted, just flailing at trying to get one over on Rhea. Aliyah is charming and has no chance against Rhea, it's all fun. This kind of lighthearted southern stooge handicap match is real Memphis, and is a missed presence on WWE television. This played like 1995 WWF in the best ways, an era that plays better than ever in 2020.

Roderick Strong vs. Dexter Lumis

ER: This one needed to be a bit shorter. I liked elements of it, and overall like Lumis as a character. So far I'm into the act, and I'm a Strong fan. Strong is maybe the wrestler I've most enjoyed over the past 15 years, who I talk about the least. He's been a good wrestler for a long time, someone I've seen live several times, someone who has made a ton of tape in several feds. And I think I like him a lot more than I've maybe written about. But I wanted this a little tighter, and without the distracting/overblown finish and Bobby Fish interference. Lumis brings an importantly different vibe to NXT, and Strong was playing a tough guy getting his ass beat really well. I'm a fan of strap matches and there were some cool things involving it, involving weight distribution, and plenty of Lumis yanking Strong around. Strong takes a great splatting bump getting yanked into the ring steps, opting instead to fly over them and backsplash the floor. I don't need the long "Lumis likes getting whipped" spot, but I like the nice Strong superplex, liked Strong tying Lumis up with the strap to lock in a Boston Crab, liked a lot of this. I had hoped this one would play as an overachieving old school stipulation brawl, and we didn't get there. But, it had a lot to like.

Io Shirai vs. Sasha Banks

ER: Just keep on giving me these Sasha Banks NXT main events daddy, and I'll keep enjoying them. It is exciting that there are signs of Sasha and Bayley being Actual Draws, because their act clearly has been one of the best things about minimal crowd wrestling. This whole thing is a win before it even starts, as Sasha/Bayley come out in a convertible and Bayley is holding Sasha's corgi in her lap. You give me corgis in my pro wrestling and I am going to care demonstrably less about the pro wrestling. This whole match was a great main event title match, not worked with parity but still managing to make it seem like either could pull out a win. Io's offense landed heavier here than it usually does, and part of that was Sasha's ragdoll bumping, but a big part was Io clearly working up to a main event singles match. Her missile dropkick, 619, and especially tope hit harder, with that tope really just flattening Sasha at the gut. Sasha goes for meteoras and knee strikes with gusto, which hit hard when she lands them and leaves her wide open when they miss, and that's a cool thing to base a match around. There is one messy spot with a German suplex miscommunication, but I think it adds to the match because of how Sasha chooses to sell it. Sasha was clearly supposed to land on her feet, but they get crossed on the release point and Sasha gets awkwardly folded and instead lands on her knees and face, kinda. But thankfully Sasha does not sell it as if she stuck the landing, and they both sell the proper amount of confusion, the way you should when a landing doesn't go perfectly. The big moments come off big, like Sasha trying to hit a wild sunset flip bomb and eventually flinging Shirai into the plexiglass, or Sasha's big missed frog splash that lands her in a crossface (that I thought was the finish). I'm still on the fence about the end of match interference, as I like Sasha trying to cheat using a tag title and liked the expected Asuka counterbalance. Asuka hits Sasha with the mist but I guess I wish Asuka hadn't just stayed out there dancing around in plain sight of the ref, while Sasha's face was now suddenly green. There were easy ways to do this spot and not have the ref come off dumb. But the match was strong, Banks is the queen, and Shirai looked good in her first match as champ.


ER: This was a real fun 2 hour show, that same sweet spot that the early (and excellently paced) In Your House shows went. 1:45-2 hours, every match with a totally different vibe. That's a great way to run a wrestling show, and this was a fun show top to bottom.

Read more!

2014 Ongoing MOTY List: Thatcher/Busick in China!

38. Biff Busick vs. Timothy Thatcher WWN Live in China 11/16

PAS: This was the least of their matches against each other this year, although that is a pretty high bar. They were clearly working a little simpler and with more standup, I assume because they were working in a bigger arena in front of an audience unfamiliar with wrestling (for those that don't know, this was worked in Beijing in front of like 8,000 people). This actually felt like what a RAW match between the two guys would look like. Thatcher looked great, with some really nasty arm twisting, and Busick took a big beating, threw some bombs and took a cool looking over the top rope bump. The dive into the uppercut was brutal looking, and seemed to pop the crowd too. So crazy that EVOLVE pulled this tour off, a real a cool bit of history.

ER: I had never seen any footage from the WWN China tour, a genuinely impressive feat for them to pull off and probably a genuine high point for a lot of the wrestlers involved. I thought this was real great, managing to be a broad strokes version of their best material, but worked so stiff that it played all the way to the back row with its realism. Nobody on this card had ever worked a stadium show before, and these two got a large crowd of mostly non-wrestling fans to cheer for matwork and get loud for hard chops and uppercuts. It was great. I'm sure the dark seating and brightly lit ring made it easier on the fans' sightlines, but I would have loved to see shots of the crowd during the match. They clearly got into this and I wish I could have seen those reactions. The match starts with a lot of Thatcher wrecking Busick's arm, cranking different stages of an Americana for the first couple minutes. Busick sells it compellingly for the length of the match, switching up his striking to the other side without being showy about it. They get great reactions off of big loud chops and it really seemed like they fed off those reactions and just kept trying to make louder noise with their bodies. I loved when they had a back and forth battle over ugliest back elbow, the match crescendoing with Thatcher hitting a brick wall of a back elbow leaping into the corner. Busick tumbled off the top rope to the apron and into darkness after getting uppercutted off, and the big suplexes down the stretch played big. Thatcher's delayed gut wrench to set up the finish was so cool, and this all felt like a match that could easily play to any wrestling crowd in history.


2014 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Unicorn Gimmick Matches - Fight Pit!

Timothy Thatcher vs. Matt Riddle NXT 5/27

ER: I appreciate this kind of creativity during a less than ideal period for pro wrestling. Give us a unicorn gimmick match that allows two tough dudes to grind each other to a pulp in slightly new ways. The Fight Pit structure is a combination of other cool gimmicks, part Lions Den part scaffold match (although the structure might have benefitted from a being a bit shorter, as there's no great way to organically get up on a 9' platform). Riddle leaps off the top right away and roll attacks into Thatcher, and before long Riddle is treating this thing like a game of Tony Hawk, giving us what I assume is our only WWE commentary mention of Anthony "Showtime" Pettis when he springs up the cage and whips a kick into Thatcher's mouth. We get some fine Grand Guignol with Thatcher rising from the mat with a bloody mouth, and then actually looking around for teeth! Maybe this is like when someone plans on getting a haircut anyway, so they lose a hair match. But damn the teeth looked like molars, and a good molar bridge will set him back $7,000, really should have taken more skin out of Riddle to get his mouth's worth. I liked Riddle's snap German and all of the sentons looked really hard (plus lead to a great moment of Riddle missing a senton up on the surrounding platform), and a lot of the grappling utilized the cage. I wish we got even more of the two of them bullying into around around the cage, as it's a unique form of grappling that we haven't seen among former Catch Point WWE guys.

I thought the weak part of the match was getting onto the surrounding scaffold, as Riddle picks up Thatcher in a big double leg, but confusingly tries to place him up on the ledge, so after a bit it looks like a buddy helping his friend get over a tall fence, and then that friend kicks him in the face. There had to have been a better way up there, because none of what Riddle did to get the action up there made sense. Up top he really pasted Thatcher with elbows, dug the ankle lock with Riddle hanging over the side, and I actually thought they were nutty enough to go through with the butterfly suplex off the top. Riddle's corkscrew senton was cool enough, and I loved his wild animal thrashing once Thatcher hooked in the read naked, trying to shake him by running into the cage and taking that one final desperation attempt to shake him by just landing on him. WWE needs to be getting more outside the box during this whole mess, and this was a cool kind of box.

PAS: I am surprised Eric liked this as much as he did, I thought this was basically a failure. You have this set up, like this was a cage fight not a cage match, and instead of trying something different it was basically a WWE highspot cage match in a different cage. I thought the bloody mouth thing came off obviously fake and sort of silly, and the early half hearted attempts at shootstyle made the match neither fish nor foul. It picked up when they abandoned all of the pretense and just started doing spots, and I loved the rear naked choke finish, really made Thatcher look like a killer. Still they should have picked a lane and stayed in it.

Read more!

Matches from EVOLVE 142 12/7/19

Full Show

Colby Corino vs. Sean Maluta

ER: It always felt like the best possible Colby Corino ceiling was going to be "peak Jimmy Jacobs" and he's clearly working strongly in that direction. This was a straight match worked like a street fight, both guys working aggressively. There are some things that can still be tightened up, but he works quick and has a lot of strong ideas, and already feels really good at thinking on his feet and running through a deep bag of size appropriate offense. The two had a real nice brawl with Maluta hitting hard with chops and Corino throwing stiff kicks and nice punches, executing everything snug. These two craft interesting, engaging sequences around thing that should be treated that way. We get an awesome struggle over a vertical suplex, and a few sequences that don't wind up where I think they're going to. Corino has a nice whipping kick, cool standing cannonball, and his brawling looked good. He's definitely a guy worth seeking out at this point.


117. Eddie Kingston vs. Anthony Gutierrez

PAS: I love Eddie Kingston beating on guys. Gutierrez is an MMA guy, and pretty fun when he sticks to that, although he will delve into bad topes and questionable standing shooting stars. But Sharkbait is a great bumper, and he dies like Pat Tanaka on clotheslines and German suplexes. There was a fun near fall on a tight triangle which Eddie breaks by biting, and an incredible body shot combo in the corner by Eddie which he flows right into an STO. These guys had a couple of other matches which I need to get my hands on, it's a fun match up.

ER: I thought this was awesome, a terrific Kingston-as-Hashimoto performance, giving Sharkbait tons of paths to victory while absolutely killing him with his shots. Kingston hit some real monstrous stuff here, and some of the best moments came when Gutierrez would catch him unexpectedly. Kingston is such a perfect opponent for someone like Sharkbait, and I would have been entertained if this was just several minutes of Kingston eating leg kicks. Kingston is a guy who clearly has a ton of material at his disposal *just* for selling leg kicks, really feels like a guy who can have a compelling match even if you gave three restrictive challenges within a match. I loved seeing Gutierrez land kicks and the occasional knee, and the way Kingston raked his eyes to get back to control and land big chops. Every big move Kingston landed looked like death, from that big time STO, to a nasty 1-2 combo (that could have easily finished the match) northern lights bomb and DDT. Gutierrez took both of those moves as painfully as possible, really stuffing his neck on the DDT. I actually liked Sharkbait's tope, even if it didn't land hard I think the point was that Kingston was not expecting a tope and so it at least threw him back into the guardrail. So Sharkbait stuns him by throwing his whole body at him and then immediately lands one of his hardest strikes of the match, an elbow that shifts Kingston's jaw. It felt like a smart way to set up a big strike. Reversing a big cocky King powerbomb into a triangle was a smart play, but once he did a light slingblade I wanted Kingston to murder him with a backfist, and he did! I loved how these two paired off, Kingston really feels like the obvious best guy in wrestling to do modern Different Fight matches.


106. Timothy Thatcher vs. Arturo Ruas

PAS: Ruas is an amateur wrestler and ju-jitsu black belt who is a WWE signee. I have no idea how he will do in the WWE system but he is pretty fun working an Ambition/Bloodsport style worked shoot match with Thatcher. There was some pretty slick grappling here, I loved Thatcher stacking Ruas guard and going for a kneebar, only to get countered with kimura. There was some really powerful thumping body shots, and Ruas had a cool upkick and german suplex. It reminded me a lot of the Thatcher vs. Ishikawa series. Ruas isn't close to Ishikawa's level as a wrestler, but he is clearly a high level grappler and it was fun to watch Thatcher craft a wrestling match around that.

ER: This was definitely the most I've seen Ruas on the mat, and I think the match benefitted from that. I have a love/hate relationship with his capoeira, as some of the strikes can look cool and land from weird angles, but those same strikes can often force time to stand still a little bit while his opponent figures out where exactly they're supposed to stand to take this strike. I guess you could say that some of his strikes need to get to the point a little quicker. This is almost entirely on the mat and cooler for it, and yes it really does come off exactly like something on an Ambition or Bloodsport show. Thatcher really goes for that kimura, and we get the kind of grappling that just comes off absolutely exhausting. I appreciate that they weren't going for flash, but instead showing all of the effort that goes into just neutralizing your opponent. I loved when Thatcher was slowly making progress up Ruas's body, had his legs tangled in a grapevine and was pushing past Ruas's torso like he was going for a Regal stretch, and we get that slight shifting of body weight that allows Ruas to sweep immediately into guard and roll into an armbar. They kept the striking brief, limited to some Thatcher uppercuts and a big slap, and I liked Ruas popping up on his shoulders from the mat and hitting Thatcher with an upkick enziguiri. Ruas took advantage with a nice German (though I preferred Thatcher's big hip pivot belly to belly earlier in the match) and thought that Thatcher immediately reversing into a kimura was super logical considering the format. The finish felt a bit too jittery and Ruas left a few too many seams exposed, but the bulk of this was really cool.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

Two MOTY Additions from Progress Wrestling 12/15/19

91. Meiko Satomura vs. Jinny

PAS: I clearly need to do a deep dive on 2019 Meiko, as she still looks completely incredible here. Early in the match Jinny looked like she didn't belong in the ring with Meiko, but she kept scrapping and by the end this was a pretty great underdog match. Loved Jinny trying a drop toe hold take down at half speed, only for Meiko to do the same move with incredible speed and precision. I was ready to give up on Jinny at that point, but then she started throwing sharp elbows and actually standing toe to toe with Meiko Satomura. I loved how she flipped off Meiko, only for Meiko to kick her head off. I also liked how it played into the finish with Meiko pulling up at two, only to get pinned on a flash roll up when she was too nonchalant. If you have to take the belt off of Meiko this is a pretty good way to do it.

ER: I like Jinny a lot. She's one of a handful of people I actually go out of my way to see on NXT UK, and I love how her sharp features give her the most natural ice queen vibe, coming off like the Persian Tessa Blanchard. So it's even more fun seeing her pull off the underdog babyface role in her home fed, getting pummeled by one of the best wrestlers in the world. It's hard to work a match like this, where the champ takes 95% of the match without the match feeling like a total steamrolling, but I think they pulled it off. The mat scrambling was cool, with Meiko showing off her supreme talents with sick rolling takedowns, floating effortlessly in every pass she wanted to make through Jinny's body. Meiko showed she could hop from the legs to the arms to the neck essentially whenever she wanted, and every time they stood up I thought Jinny was great at showing she barely escaped with her arm or leg. Jinny is not a tall woman, but she reads like a tall woman. She has long legs and arms, and I like the way those come into play in her matches. They always seem to play into her rope break game, and here Meiko sank in a nasty hold only to see Jinny's long leg reach the ropes, big toe barely making it. When Jinny finally managed to get her head above water, she used those long limbs to throw sharp elbows, and soon she's hammerfisting Satomura's back to lock her arms and pendulum slam Meiko's chest repeatedly into the mat, and hitting a big dive into Satomura and a couple security guards. But I knew Meiko would go into killer mode, and when she does it's the very best, and I thought the big kickouts were very well done. They hadn't spammed any big moves early in the match, so by the time Jinny ate that decapitating cartwheel knee it was still feasible that she had some gas left in the tank. The end stretch felt like Liger/Sasuke to me, with a vet getting too cocky when met with insolence (middle finger fighting spirit spots have been used in some lame ways in the past 15 years, so I like that Jinny got her finger moment in and then got smashed), absolutely folding her with a death valley driver...but picking her up for 2? I loved Meiko's reactions to the crowd after breaking up her own pin, as the crowd really isn't into it, so Meiko feels the need to justify her decision, allowing Jinny to get a flash roll up crucifix pin. I really liked this, but it made me even more excited to see a rematch, curious how the dynamics would change with Meiko as the fired up challenger and Jinny the champ.

15. Timothy Thatcher vs. Kassius Ohno

PAS: This was tremendous violent wrestling. Ohno was in full brutalizer mode just beating Thatcher horribly, with Thatcher toughing it out and firing back with some really big shots of his own. Loved the transition with Ohno catching Thatcher's leg and kicking him right in the patella. Ohno then gets straight down to torture, just mauling with nasty submission holds and brutal stomps and elbows. At one point he ties up the legs in a modified Indian death lock opening up Thatcher's head for ugly forearms. Really liked Thatcher's knee selling, at one point he tries to plant and loses his balance briefly which was enough time to get kicked in the head. Finish was Fujiwarian, with Thatcher countering a rolling elbow with a headbutt right in the elbow, and snapped on a Fujiwara for the tap. Great stuff, didn't outstay its welcome, and every bit of it was violent and nasty.

ER: These two separately are always must see, but these two together? I don't know how much more must see you can get. I was there live for their first ever match in 2015 and it was one of my favorite live wrestling experiences of my life. They match up all through 2015 and have barely fought since, so you knew this was going to be a treat. And this was a quieter match than their prior bouts and I liked that. This really wasn't focused on bomb throwing or big spots, and as Phil pointed out it feels more like a classic Fujiwara match, with Thatcher being tortured and overwhelmed while always being fully in the match and pulling out a last second magic trick. Ohno keeps powering Thatcher down to the mat, and every time he has him there he unleashes something mean, primarily focusing on Thatcher's ankle. Ohno found all sorts of ways to step on, stomp on, and twist Thatcher's ankle: stomping it over the bottom rope, cruelly stepping on the ball of his ankle while getting to a standing position, wrenching and twisting it, doing clever leverage spots, even things like pressing his forehead into Thatcher's arch while cranking the ankle. The hard strikes and big spots we do get are used sparingly and came off effective as hell: Thatcher's stuffed piledriver sell was an all-timer, his arms stiffening and his back rounding into a C. I loved the moment where Thatcher went to put weight on his ankle and buckled under the weight, looking up in time to see a boot land flush in his eye. The finish was that sudden Fujiwara blast, Ohno setting up KO blow only to have Thatcher headbutt his ulna, sending a lightning bolt up Ohno's arm, allowing Thatcher to sink the armbar. Let's make sure these two don't go another 3+ years without crossing paths.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!

WXW Ambition Wildcard 10/6/19

Daniel Makabe vs. James Runyan

ER: I liked this, and liked the turns it took. I knew nothing about Runyan going into this (looks like there are Batt Academy matches of his dating back a couple years) and the way it started I thought it could be Makabe running him over. Makabe works the opening like a boa constrictor, locking on a body vice and working for a choke while on the mat and standing. It looked like Makabe was just going to smother him until he collapsed, and that's why I liked Runyan just falling on Makabe with all his weight to break the hold. Runyan does it again, this time as aggressive offense and not as a last defense, and has a nice headlock takeover. He starts working an armbar and that's when Makabe looks for strikes. I wish Runyan had done more with the strikes Makabe was throwing, as he kind of got glazed over eyes like he was too focused on his parts of the strike exchange, which meant some nice body shots went basically ignored. I'm a big fan of Makabe's german that uses a guy's existing momentum, and here he smacks Runyan and does a quick go behind and almost helps Runyan the rest of the way over, then gets up and hits a lifting german for good measure. Fun opening round scrap, might check out a couple Runyan Batt matches just to see how he looks.

PAS: First time seeing Runyan and I dug him, he doesn't have the same fluidity as Makabe (no slur, Makabe is really fluid) but he had cool ideas and executed them well. Loved his judo throw (got to be the Santino training) and his spinning cross armbreaker. I want to ban all forearm exchanges from wrestling forever and it is especially repugnant in Ambition, but I did really dig Makabe's body shots, I really like his striking, it has a Diaz brothers feel, where he throws a couple of softer shots and then loads up on the third or fourth. I thought the finish was super cool with Makabe spinning out of Runyan's tight triangle into an STF which he cranks violently for the tap. Makabe is pretty much a must watch at this point.

Dominic Garrini vs. Alexander Dean

ER: I thought this would be another first round steamrolling, and while it did feel like Garrini was mostly toying with Dean on the mat, I liked when Dean was landing hard elbows from mount. They had done a little stand and trade before that and Garrini was pasting Dean, so it's cool he adjusted to that and was bringing the strikes more down the stretch. Even though I'd prefer less stand and trade in matches like this, I liked his overhand chops. Garrini had a couple moments where you could really see his power on the mat, really see how easy he can shift and move from any position just by bulling his way through, see him really digging his heels into the mat. I don't think we get enough of Garrini messing with guys on the mat.

PAS: Garrini is a pretty diverse wrestler, and while I certainly enjoy crazy Garrini brawls, this is the stuff I love. I liked Dean using power to take Dom down and his big elbows looked nasty, but man is it fun to watch how talented Garrini is on the mat. He just spins Dean into various different traps, and his scissors kick takedown into a heel hook was awesome. It just feels like Garrini should barrel through a tournament like this and I am interested to check out how Makabe can credibly hang with him.

Rust Taylor vs. Kevin Lloyd

ER: First time seeing both guys, but this felt a little long, a little too exhibition, and a little scattered. It felt like we were seeing a series of resets and restarts, until it eventually decided to end. There was nice stuff, especially enjoyed Taylor grabbing an arm and rolling over Lloyd into a Fujiwara, and the finishing submission looked like something that should finish a match. But the application of these subs were filled moments of hesitation and brief stand stills. Even the match winning sub was applied when Taylor just literally ran across the ring at Lloyd and put it on, and there was very little struggle at any point throughout the match.

PAS: Taylor said he has been wrestling 15 years, which is pretty crazy considering I haven't heard of him at all, I mean I know some shit about wrestling. This was OK, it had a lot of movement, and that pace covered up some possible problems with the execution. Not a ton super memorable, but I enjoyed the struggle, and the final submission was pretty nasty.

A-Kid vs. Scotty Davis

ER: I had never seen Davis before but came away from this far more interested in seeing him than in seeing another A-Kid match. I don’t think Kid brought a ton of interesting stuff to this. I think the one thing he did that I liked was a cocky back somersault after a break (that Davis later taunted him with). Other than that he was a guy using a derpy superkick on an Ambition show. I liked several of Davis’s rolling attacks, his legbars and a cool neck crank, he threw a damn cool head and arm suplex, and I liked the rolling neck crank that sent Kid to the floor (and was what lead to strikes getting thrown). It was a slap fight, but some hard slaps landed in there. The finish didn’t do much for me, looked like Kid took a long time to apply a hold that eventually looked good but was only made possible by Davis holding perfectly still.

PAS: Eric is being kind to A-Kid, I thought he was really bad in this. Davis has a amateur wrestling background, and looked like a beast, tooling Kid on the mat, with great looking takedowns and controls, I loved his Gator roll into the ropes and to the floor, and he hit a great looking german (which Kid no sold) and a nasty Tazish head and arm toss. Kid stunk, he was throwing these lame slaps, did a suplex no-sell and a terrible looking super kick. That submission at the end took forever to apply, and had none of the craft or skill of a lot of the other submissions on this show, Davis laid their like a corpse. I would be excited to see more Davis, can't believe A-Kid is the guy they put over in this tourney.

55. Daniel Makabe vs. Dominic Garrini

ER: This was my favorite match on the card so far, and I was a big fan of the way these two would get tangled up. Both looked really impressive on the mat, tons of nice little moments any time they were rolling. I loved Makabe getting easily into mount, only for Dom to pop his hips and immediately buck him into an unfavorable spot. I dug the focus on each other's legs, with both guys almost racing each other to see who could properly apply a painful heel hook before the other, before they wound up so tangled that the only way out was to slap their way out. The slaps didn't look hard, but I appreciated how tough it would be to get a lot of mustard behind a slap at the close range they were at, with their legs tied up. It would be like swinging a bat while sitting cross legged Indian style and only using one arm. Makabe was smart about getting to ropes quick, not playing the dummy, knowing that once Dom was tugging away at your arm it was a smarter play to break the hold before he broke his grip. Makabe really got dumped with a German, Dom broke out one of my favorite Volk Han leg attacks (where he just leaps onto a guys leg knowing the weight will have to take the guy down), and I was certain the match was finished when Dom had Makabe in a side choke while grapevining his leg. It looked like Makabe was going to have a permanent lean to his left if he hadn't got to the ropes. I did think there was a little disconnect from Dom in a few moments, bumping too hard and early when they were tangled and slapping, and missing a beat before hitting his enziguiri after Makabe missed his Jamie Moyer wind up; it was nothing egregious, but when other stuff is so snug it stands out when someone is left hanging for a move. The finish was cool with Makabe getting Dom right in the center, made me think of all those subs that Dom locked in too close to the ropes.

PAS: This is kind of a dream match which I am surprised AIW or Scenic City didn't get to first. These are the two best end of the decade indy matworkers, and I thought this was a really good tourney semi-final version of this match up (I really want to see the main event or special attraction version). Both guys put on really vicious looking submissions with Dom taking most of the match on the mat, but Makabe squirming away for rope breaks. I loved Makabe getting mount early and Garinni just shrugging him off with his hips and retaking control, it was almost like he gave Makabe mount to show how easy he could get out of it. Garrini spinning out of cattle mutilation into a twister was some Negro Navarro shit. I wasn't in love with the strikes, felt like the timing was a bit off, and while the finish was cool, I thought it was a bit abrupt. The great stuff in this was really great though, and someone needs to run this matchup back.

A-Kid vs. Rust Taylor

ER: I was not as excited for this one, but they kept it short and sweet and I liked a lot of the transitions they did, liked their scrambling. Rust comes off like the best possible Mike Von Erich. He's not as big as Kevin or Kerry, but damn does his build remind me of a Von Erich body. I really like the way he traps an arm with his calf to roll his opponent over. He did it against Lloyd and it looked just as cool here, and he does it fast enough that it comes off totally natural. His use of strength on the mat was cool, and eventually he just hoists Kid up with a big flat landing gutwrench powerbomb. I would have liked a couple extra teases at the finish, but the finish itself looked great: Kid rushes him with a leaping guillotine, and you could see Taylor taking every step to work through a reversal: loosening the choke, getting a grip on the trunks, and as he muscles him up into a sweet vertical suplex, Kid slips out and gets him in a quick rear naked. Even though I liked this, I still liked Kid's opponent far more in both of his matches, but liked him more here than in the Davis match.

PAS: I thought this was a much better performance by Kid. What he seems to be able to bring to the table is really fast matwork and attacks, and he was constantly spinning and attacking the back and pushing the pace. There was some really nifty stuff here including a great finishing run with Kid doing the jumping guillotine, Taylor reversing it, and Kid spinning onto his back for the choke out. Gives me a little more hope for Kid vs. Makabe in the finals.

19. Timothy Thatcher vs. Oney Lorcan

PAS: Thatcher is a mainstay on these shoot style shows, although he doesn't really work that style. This was more of a super stiff 70s match, more Johnny Valentine than Volk Han, but I will take that for sure. Lorcan spent a lot of the match cranking a nasty side headlock, and it really felt like a violent attack rather then a time killer. Both guys unloaded with their shots, Thatcher came in with a bandage already, and by the end of the match Lorcan's slaps made his cheek fire engine red and his mouth bleed. Thatcher was giving it right back with some sick up kicks and some teeth chattering slaps of his own. Finish felt like the end of a heavyweight fight. I loved the Thatcher/Gulak/Busick throuple five years ago and I am glad we got Lorcan vs. Gulak and Lorcan vs. Thatcher this year again.

ER: This is the first singles match we've seen between these two in over 4 years, and obviously it was good. It's not crazy to think a tournament like this wouldn't be happening without what these two brought to indies several years ago, and this is the kind of dream match booking that actually interests me. I love how everything played out here, with my interest really getting jumped up about 5 minutes in: Lorcan rushes in with a short slap to lead into him grabbing a headlock, and we got an awesome struggle over a headlock takeover. Someone stopping a headlock takeover will pretty much get me invested in any match between any two people, in the same way a fistdrop will, or somebody pointing at their head. But this was a nasty side headlock and all I can think about is how damn sore my neck would be if I stopped the momentum of a headlock takeover, and here's Lorcan just yanking on Thatcher's head while Thatcher refuses to be budged, until Lorcan finally forces him down by the neck. Things were worked tough before that, but that slap and headlock really felt like it opened the floodgates and sent us into the real meat of the match. Thatcher fighting for an armbar was memorable, with Lorcan doing everything he could to keep Thatcher's leg trapped to keep him from extending, and both guys start landing hard slaps and shots, Lorcan gets a great half nelson, things seem more aggressive. By the end of the match the left side of Thatcher's face is comically bruised, making it look more like he had a port wine stain than a crazy occupation. We had seen plenty of slaps on this show but I don't think any were better than Lorcan grabbing Thatcher by the jaw and wailing away. The ref sadly got in Lorcan's way on the running uppercut, really felt like Lorcan was going to hit an all timer, and obviously Lorcan should have stuck with it. A Pedro Cardenas situation would have made for a pretty exciting special attraction match. I think Thatcher needed to put some extra juice on the finish if it was going to be a KO (Thatcher seems to hav a weird habit of lacing into a guy all match and then holding up his shots for the finish, which is bizarre), but I love these two together and I hope we get to run it back every couple years.

A-Kid vs. Daniel Makabe

PAS: I thought this was pretty great Makabe performance. A-Kid was going to do all of his goofy shit and Makabe made a super kick, northern lights suplex, and a Spanish Fly semi plausible in a shootstyle wrestling match. This was really stiff which redeemed a lot of it, there was an especially nasty looking A-Kid knee counter which really should have ended the match. I liked the story of Kid using his speed to get Makabe in a compromising position and Makabe using his technique to get his way out of it. Great tourney for Makabe, he really should have gone over.

ER: Despite Phil earlier saying I was too kind to A-Kid - in a review where the only thing I complimented him on was a taunt - he has been my least favorite guy on this card. Makabe was obviously the guy I had hoped would last to the finals, but would have much rather seen him against any of the other 6 guys. Still, my mind is always open, and I went into this excited. After the Garrini match this really did feel like Makabe's tournament to win. But he wasn't originally supposed to win SCI, so the wrestling gods gift one tournament win and take another. This was a fantastic Makabe performance though, maybe my favorite individual performance of his on a show where I dug all three of his matches. I liked how they worked the mat, thought Makabe had a couple of plausible finishes there, and really loved how he finally nailed the Mike Leake wind-up slap, timing it perfectly, and I loved how A-Kid sold it. 

A-Kid gets his absolute best moment of the night when Makabe lands a few leg kicks and then shoots in and gets obliterated with a Kid knee to the chin. I thought that was the finish for sure as Makabe wobbled from his knees right into a rear naked (which Kid had just polished off Rust with). I loved the struggle over the rear naked from both guys, really had no idea if Makabe was going to hold off the arm or Kid was gonna sink it in for the tap. I would have liked that more than the actual finish, even though I think Makabe played into the finish as damn well as he possibly could have. He even gets an amusing close up mug into the camera after eating a superkick, but I don't want to see a Spanish Fly on an Ambition card, no matter how nice they look. This one was worked in just about as well as you can work one into this style match, but Kid struck gold with that knee and I think they should have called an audible. Match was still fun as hell, and gave Makabe three cool performances in 90 minutes. That's efficiency!


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

Read more!