Matches from WXW 16 Carat Gold 3/6/20 - Night One

Mike Bailey vs. Chris Ridgeway

ER: This match never really grabbed me, because they kept showing throughout the match that there weren't going to be any real consequences for any of the actions they chose. These guys both do plenty of things I love, but it seems like their default style is something that I do not love. So we get a long elbow exchange, we get enough knee work by Ridgeway that you think it would have slowed down Bailey a tiny bit (it didn't), and we got a few Both Guys Down moments (which is too many for an opening match that only goes 12 minutes). You could make some really great gifs of all this, like Bailey's big middle buckle moonsault to the floor, and number of kick combos (although I was getting sick of guys selling a big kick by just doing a big kick), and several awesome body shots by Ridgeway. I didn't realize until the tag match opposite Ikeda/Ishikawa, but Ridgeway has a fantastic body shot, set up with him throwing a dummy distraction strike. He lands a couple here and they were both right towards the top of the things I liked about this match. There was also a great moment where Bailey went for the shooting star kneedrop only for Ridgeway to get his knees up...into Bailey's knees! Give me the choice of knees landing on my guts or knees landing on my knees, and I'm taking my guts every time. There was a real nasty clonk sound from their colliding knees too. Luckily for both of them, while they were down recovering from their clonked knees, it didn't actually bother them in the least once they were standing. Bailey's Ultima Weapon off the top directly into Ridgeway's back is such a disgusting move that it really should have been the finish, but by the time it got to that point I didn't much care.

2. Eddie Kingston vs. Daniel Makabe

ER: Here's another Kingston dream match being brought to us by a Europe fed, and this is the match I pictured when Kingston vs. Makabe was announced. I would have loved to see Kingston forced more out of his element and into a mat battle, see how he handles things, see how he brute forces his way through other things, and we do get a little of that. I dug Kingston working Makabe into a head and arm choke and how Makabe kept his hands clasped to force separation before Kingston could take it further. This was always going to be Kingston aiming to land shots and other cruelty before Makabe could take him down and tap him, and we got some good moments of Makabe getting slick single legs and a nice takedown where he slid to Kingston's side and swept the leg. But when Kingston lands, he lands, and the first time Makabe mixes it up and goes for the Big Unit, Kingston hits one of the coolest strike combos of his career when he smacks Makabe in the stomach and right behind the ear with a quick 1-2. We get big Kingston STOs and a nice lariat, all leading to a uranage and suplex so cursed (a beautifully cursed high arcing Saito suplex) that I thought for sure that was the match, wasn't expecting the kickout. Makabe makes sure to pay that forward with one of his best Big Unit punches I've ever seen him hit, really accurately pasting Kingston's chin, and Makabe's figure 4 German suplex dumps Kingston on his shoulder in an ugly way. The finishing exchange was a real fun clash of their signature strikes, with Kingston immediately shrugging off a great Big Unit and whiffing on a backfist before catching Makabe with a backfist as Makabe was going for another punch. I would have liked to see more style clash moments, or fish out of water moments for both (Kingston forced into matwork vs. Makabe forced into strike trading), but these two bring such a high floor with them that of course this was good.

PAS: I thought this was excellent, one of the coolest things about Kingston is his variability. We saw him work as Fuerza Guerrera in an LA Park match, and here he is working like Kawada in a Daniel Makabe match. Eddie is a sneaky good matworker and I liked all of the early matwork, including Eddie with a power takedown and working into side control. I want to second the greatness of the Kingston big punch counter, the quick shot to the ribs and palm to the ear was totally awesome stuff. I love when wrestlers beat someone to the punch instead of just exchanging. All of the suplexes in this match were super nasty, both guys were landing hard on shoulders and necks, nothing was a flat back bump. I also love the backfist as a KO move, and this was an especially great one. Kingston almost left his feet, and Makabe slumped like his lights shut off. Makabe has been on a big run for the last couple of years, and this was one of my favorite matches of his, and Kingston continues to be the best.

Black Taurus vs. Shigehiro Irie

ER: This was definitely stiff heavyweight wrestling, and had some incredible moments, while also having plenty of moments that minimized the impressiveness of some of their best attacks. This had plenty of those moments that are the lamest version of something cool: instead of just hitting hard shoulderblocks like Scott Norton, they have to hit hard shoulderblocks that bounce them back into the ropes and spring back into another shoulderblock that sends the other guy bouncing back into the ropes; instead of Irie using a elbow smash to repel a charging Taurus, they just stood there and traded a dozen of them. You don't need to throw 3 western lariats to win, and Eddie Kingston on this same card shows the value of having a killshot (his spinning backfist) instead of hitting hard but demanding no consistent selling. Hitting hard is cool, but hitting hard sold by standing back up like nothing happened and continuing to hit hard? That just undersells what punishment they're actually dealing.

These two undeniably have a ton of cool tricks, no shortage of cool shit to make people leap out of their chairs. Early on Irie hits a tope while Taurus is seated on the apron, crashing both of them into the guardrail with a visual like nothing I've seen. And I can't stand that they did so many things that approached "nothing I've seen" and all of those things got sold exactly the same as everything else. Taurus has some great stuff, a high rotation powerslam, big agility spots like a springboard corkscrew cannonball, and the fearlessness to really run right through Irie. Watching Taurus run full weight into and through Irie is a treat. Irie has a wild set of offense, from cool little things like his slingshot standing splash, to HUGE things like that bananas springboard samoan drop he pulled. Just attempting something like that is pure madness. We got heavy cannonballs and a perfect spear, and plenty of these two crashing into each other at full speed. But there's a strong can vs. should aspect to this, and some restraint would have made the work pop more.

Jeff Cobb vs. Alexander James

PAS: This had some moments I really liked. James was working straight heel, which is refreshing in a tourney setup like this. It is good to have some character work instead of just a series of guys working "great matches." Cobb is one of the most explosive wrestlers in the world, so it is tough for a guy to try to go toe to toe with high impact moves against him. I liked James dropping Cobb on the floor with a Tower of London and dragging him up the aisle to try to get the count out. I really would have liked that to be more of a focus of the match, but they just went back to a back and forth match after that.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Ikeda/Ishikawa vs. Ridgeway/Makabe

8. Daisuke Ikeda/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daniel Makabe/Chris Ridgeway WXW 3/5

PAS: Such a treat to get to see new Ishikawa and Ikeda footage. This is clearly a thrill for their opponents, don't know a ton about Ridgeway but I know Makabe is a giant BattlArts mark and this had to be like a fantasy camp for him. Ishikawa has been more active than Ikeda in recent years, and he still looks likes one of the absolute best in the world. There are a bunch of very cool moments in this match, where Makabe seems like he has Ishikawa caught in something only to see Ishikawa smoothly reverse his way out. The way he spun into a cross armbreaker was just masterful. Ridgeway and Ikeda matched up, and Ridgeway clearly understood how hard he had to hit in a Daisuke Ikeda match. There were a bunch of elbow exchanges in this match - which I don't love - but I did like how both Makabe and Ridgeway would mix in sharp elbows to the body to get an advantage. Ikeda hit pretty hard in this, but never Daisuke Ikeda hard (hopefully that came in the singles against Ishikawa), and I was hoping for this to hit that level of sublime violence which the best BattlArts/FUTEN tags reach. It never got there, but I thoroughly enjoyed everything we got.

ER: Just the fact that this match happened would have likely been enough to make me happy. This feels like an alternate timeline WCW WorldWide match that someone finds years after it happened. Makabe has been one of the most creative and high quality mat workers of the past few years, so seeing him up against two guys who really made me dive into that style was really special. Seeing Makabe get tied up and scramble to save his arms from Yuki was a treat, and I absolutely loved all of Ridgeway's submission attempts on Ikeda. He and Ikeda were constantly going after each other's knees and ankles, from their first roll to their last. Ridgeway broke out some tricks that I didn't expect and appeared to genuinely flummox Ikeda, my favorite moment being Ridgeway twisting through an Ikeda attempt at a kneebar and getting a figure 4 across his knee and ankle. And I really liked the strikes thrown between Ikeda and Ridgeway, actually jumped the first time Ridgeway realllly punted Ikeda in the back after a snapmare. Now, I jumped because I thought a kick like that to a guy like Ikeda was just a fancy way of signing your death certificate, but I loved how Ridgeway sold all of Ikeda's strikes after that. Ikeda came in with some blistering shots to Ridgeway's back and triceps, then threw a few isolated elbow strikes. Ridgeway fought up after each strike, but there was no silly stand and trade, just Ridgeway not backing down until Ikeda really put him down. And it lead to something even better, which was Ridgeway starting to throw decoy strikes to throw Ikeda off his game. Ridgeway threw a sucker high kick that Ikeda bit at, leading to Ridgeway throwing heavy weight behind a shot to Ikeda's body. Later, while working for an ankle lock, Ridgeway leans in his chin to sucker Ikeda into going for an enziguiri, which Ridgeway dodges and grabs *that* ankle. Dug Makabe's hot tag as he capitalizes on the body shots Ridgeway had just dished out to Ishikawa, pastes Yuki with a corner dropkick, and even gets off the Big Unit. Seeing Makabe hit a Big Unit punch on Ishikawa AND Ikeda was something special, and now I'm gonna need to see him fire that off on Katsumi Usuda, Carl Malenko, Takeshi Ono, Alexander Otsuka, just start working a gimmick where he's tracking down old Batt guys to punch, the way some try to visit every MLB stadium. I'll be the first to write about the GoPro video of Makabe finding out where Urban Ken lives and then punching him in the face right as Ken opens the door. Makabe can even call him Suburban Ken as he mocks the man at his own home. Anyway, the match doesn't quite cash in on things they were building to, and the end felt a little abrupt after what we'd seen, but I find no faults whatsoever with the actual ring work. That was everything my eyes wanted.


2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: Ringkampf vs. Irie/YUKI ISHIKAWA BABY!!

2. Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher/WALTER) vs. Shigehiro Irie/Yuki Ishikawa WXW 3/7

PAS: I have been beating the drum for someone to bring in Ishikawa and have him work this new generation of mat guys, ever since he moved to Canada. For some reason the first fed to do it is all the way over in Germany, still here he is, and it is marvelous. Thatcher is clearly a guy who grew up on BattlArts and he fits right in like a glove, every time he and Ishikawa match up they never stop adjusting and countering and moving, there are some really dope counters in this match, at one point Ishikawa suckers Thatcher into an omaplata by initially attacking his arm and it was the kind of cool mat wrestling even the best of the new generation can't pull off. There is a section near the end, where Ishikawa tries four different arm attacks, each countered until he finally locks on a seated Fujiwara which WALTER has to break up.  WALTER and Irie are your big thumping meatheads, they have some big slugfest sections with each other, and some nifty exchanges with Thatcher and Ishikawa as well. I loved Ishikawa liver shotting WALTER from the mount, only to get swatted King Kong style from the ground by WALTER's catchers mitt. Finish run focused on Thatcher vs. Irie, which was good stuff and left plenty of Thatcher vs. Ishikawa meat on the bone for their singles match. Ishikawa's body looks a little older, but he doesn't seem to have lost a step in the ring. I loved that this happened, and loved how it turned out.

ER: In one weekend Jun Akiyama wrestles in the US for the first time in his 27 year career, and Yuki Ishikawa wrestles in Germany for the first time in his 27 year career. I have no idea why now, for either of them, but I'm overjoyed I got to see the former in person, and the latter at all (with presumably a couple more matches on the way including the dream singles match vs. Thatcher). This tag was a ton of fun, I love seeing WALTER up against a pair of guys sturdy enough that they won't make me eyeroll when they come back against that beast. We've all wanted to see Thatcher/Ishikawa match up ever since that became a possibility (jeez Thatcher's trip to Canada was probably over two years ago at this point) and these two absolutely delivered against each other. I was live for every exchange between the two, especially when Thatcher came right out and hit Ishikawa harder than Ishikawa was throwing. Ishikawa with both hands gripped behind Thatcher's neck, forcing his shinbone into Thatcher's throat was not something I expected to see today, but I'm happy I did. Irie is a big meaty son, like a less snacky Yutaka Yoshie, and Thatcher was a cruel cruel man going after Irie's joints, twisting hard at his ankle, and I dug all Irie's stuff opposite WALTER. From the first moment those two slammed into each other and didn't budge on a shoulderblock, they had me. I mean good lord WALTER yanking Irie's leg around before dragging it into a disgusting single crab, and we even got a couple big time belly to belly suplexes. Some of my favorite stuff in this was based around moves that never ended up happening, and the struggle around them, like WALTER trying to powerbomb Irie but Irie holding that back of WALTER's legs with all his might to prevent it. And I dug that Irie got to pay back all of Thatcher's joint manipulation by absolutely throwing down some Vader style swinging arms. You could really see Thatcher's head get rocked a couple times, then  goes down to the body and it all looks great. Irie really could have been the odd man out in this but he slotted nicely with three varying degrees of legend, and this delivered what anybody could have possibly wanted.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Briscoes vs. EYFBO

76. Briscoes vs. EYFBO wXw 10/7

ER: Tons of fun, just go go go go with no stopping for breath, great way to start off night 2 of this tournament. Even though the Briscoes aren't too much bigger than EYFBO, they are able to convey a super overpowering aura in their matches, always coming off faster, stronger, crazier, and I thought EYFBO was good at finding their moments and bumping big for the Briscoes. We start with a kind of lucha style opening, arm drags and rope running and ranas, but once they kick into the next gear and start chaining together big moves and double teams they never look back. Match really got great once Jay got the hot tag and started throwing savage lariats, really throwing from the shoulder with huge follow through. Both teams keep one upping the other, everyone is throwing huge dropkicks in the corner, Draztik hits this crazy swanton into Mark slumped in the corner (vaulting off Ortiz), they set up some loony cutter in the corner with Mark stretched from the turnbuckle to the shoulder of Ortiz, and Draztik runs the length of Mark and flies off with a heavy crossbody on Jay. Mark takes out Ortiz with a cannonball off the ring apron, and Jay crushes Draztik with his best lariat of the match (which is saying something), and they really knock Draztik's block off with the Doomsday Device. This match couldn't have been more than 12 minutes but was a fantastic spotfest, not a second of slow down. I would have been burnt out already had I been there.

PAS: This was the best EYFBO match I have seen, as they have always felt like a team I should love but always fell short for me. This was total go-go stuff, reminded me of the great Garden State Gods JAPW matches in the mid-2000s. I have been watching the Briscoes since their earliest matches, and man have they fully gone in on their scraggly militia look. They look like they should hijacking Federal land for grazing rights. All of their stuff looked great, they have gotten so good at making little things look impactful, big highspots, but also great looking elbows and clotheslines. I haven't watched ROH in years, but I need to check out some more recent Briscoes.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Rottweilers vs. Nationalists

23. Low-Ki/Homicide vs. WALTER/Timothy Thatcher wXw 10/7

ER: I love a good style clash, and they don't get much clashier than two small Puerto Rican lunatics going against two large Euro clubbers. There is no chance Homicide has crossed paths with these two, Ki definitely has never fought Thatcher, and apparently Ki matched up with WALTER a decade ago, but this is about a fresh and weird a match up as you can get. In a fair exchange stand up battle, the Rottweilers don't have much of a chance. Thatcher tosses Homicide around with ease, and Ki matches up against WALTER...and awesomely suckers him into eating a kick on a test of strength. You knew this would roll to the floor early and I love how Thatcher and WALTER had no hesitation playing into the Rotts' game. WALTER especially looked like he would have fit great into JAPW, not hesitating to brawl through the crowd and jump over chairs to grab Homicide in a choke, Homicide's only hope is cheapshots and eyepokes (which I'm fine with). Ki and Homicide are two guys who can keep a match interesting outside of the ring, really felt like we needed a split screen, but I'm glad we caught Ki hitting a mammoth running dropkick on a seated Thatcher. Ki is awesome reversing WALTER power offense, loved him getting press slammed into the ring but landing on his feet to set up his shot out of a cannon dropkick, then he absolutely crushes WALTER's sternum with a crazy double stomp to the narrow rampway (and wrecks his knee in the process). You need something big to conceivably keep WALTER out of a match long enough to isolate Thatcher, and that was it. Ki is insane as even with a torched knee he still opts to lift Thatcher up on his shoulders so Homicide can hit the match finishing cutter. It's a shame the injury robbed us of Rottweilers/Briscoes, but still happy we got this.

PAS: This was a total blast, the kind of dream match you never even thought about until someone booked it. I loved how this went Bayonne, with the crazy crowd brawling, we just needed WALTER to press slam someone into a wall. Thatcher is known for his technical stuff, but he is a great brawler and isn't afraid to wade into a street fight, I loved him uppercutting Homicide mid tope con hilo. Homicide is really spry here, he feels like he has caught a late career second wind. Ki is so great, loved his insane reverse shining wizard and how great he is working David against WALTER. That double stomp on the apron was nuts, and the fact he lifted Thatcher on his shoulders with a blown out knee is totally bonkos. Heck of match to close out a pretty great Ki year.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Starr v. WALTER

79. WALTER v. David Starr WXW 3/10

PAS: This is your other big pimped WALTER match from the WXW tourney, and I liked it a fair bit more then the final. We open with both entrances including some WXW fans sieg heiling WALTER incase you thought all of my jokes about WXW fans were unfair. Starr spends the first part of the match cleverly avoiding WALTER and using his aggression against him. Whenever WALTER catches him he really lays into him, every one of his forearms and kicks lands with real force, he is also really great at throws, there is a real explosion when he chucks a guy, and his slap down german is one of my favorite signature spots. Starr has nice offense and his big shots seem plausible, his elbows to the back of the head are super nasty, and he hits a big clothesline. Still Starr is a complete ham, his dramatic acting is cringeworthy it is on a 10 on the Shawn Michaels cry face level and it takes me out of the match, it takes me out of the drama of a match when one guy is going "LOOK HOW DRAMATIC THIS IS." Still there is a lot to like here, and WALTER has really turned into a beast.

ER: I always used to be slightly disappointed in WALTER matches. I always wanted to like him more than I actually ended up liking him. But WALTER has definitely grown into a guy that does not disappoint. Starr wrestles like Drew Gulak, if Gulak kept the strikes but decided to be Johnny Gargano instead of work the mat. He's a good babyface that hits hard, which is great as you need to hit WALTER hard to make things at least somewhat plausible. WALTER swings big and misses early, although the hits hit big. I love his big kicks and I love how Starr flies around for them. I love his throws and I love how Starr flies around for them. Starr wrestles like a guy with bad offense, and every time he goes on offense I expect it to look bad, and it usually looks great. That consecutive topes spot ranges from looking terrible to being a huge moment depending on who uses it: Seth Rollins looks like he's barely nudging a guy, whereas Blue Panther is old and a great babyface and makes it feel triumphant. Starr's topes here were closer to BP than they were to Rollins, and WALTER did a killer job flying around and into chairs. Starr shoving WALTER into the ropes to blast him in the back of the head over and over was one of the nastier moments I've seen in wrestling this year. WALTER was selling it great (although I'm sure a lot of us would sell a shot to the cerebellum pretty believably) and Starr's shots kept looking meaner and meaner. We don't overdo things to build to the ending, with one giant kickout by Starr after a release German and a lariat that upends him. I agree with Phil that I really would have loved Starr to dial things WAY back down the stretch. That wide eyed open mouth scream selling, like you're fucking Andy Dufresne bursting out of a hole outside your prison in the middle of a rainstorm after you kicked out of a headdrop? Stop it. But the good in this was great and I want more WALTER.

2017 Ongoing MOTY List

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: 16 Carat Gold Final

94. WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov wXw 3/12

PAS: I have seen this show up at the top of peoples MOTY list, which seems nuts to me. I am a Wahoo fan from way back, and there is a pretty high floor for any match where a guy's chest gets sautéed like Dragunov's did here, you could see little bits of flesh hanging off, it was grim. Still Drangunov - who kind of looks like a downsy Ken Cosgrove - didn't have a moment of plausible offense. His big running back tope (or is it an uppercut, couldn't really tell) looked like it hardly connected, and it seemed totally nuts that he pins WALTER with it. There is another section where they are having a Kobashi vs. Sasaski chop exchange and WALTER is breaking blood vessels and Draganov is barely hitting him, and they are sold as equals. This had a great WALTER performance, he is a killer, and shows really nice technique, I loved the move where he slaps down the arms to hit the powerbomb, and he did a yeoman's job selling all of Dragunov's stuff, still this was basically a Colin Delaney ECW match, if Colin went over Big Daddy V clean for some reason.

ER: I thought this was a really good WALTER performance, really made Dragunov seem like a plausible competitor, and there were plenty of moments where Dragunov shouldn't have looked plausible. He's a classic 1990s looking goofball, with a 1995 haircut and probably still owner of this jacket. He looks and wrestles like a guy who should never beat WALTER, but I did love how the crowd genuinely got behind him. The crowd really started reacting to him like a huge territory babyface, and it was a good feeling. Phil has always been less into chanting groups of Germans though, for some reason. When you look back at the match though, and at the damage dished out by both guys, it's crazy that WALTER somehow got beat, while the guy he beat on for 15 minutes pulled out the decisive victory. WALTER was like prime Takayama here, and this was basically prime Takayama having to come up with a way to plausibly lose to Kotaro Suzuki. WALTER is a real bulldozer, lacerating Dragunov's chest over the duration, plowing into him with running high kicks, throwing out some nice sitout powerbombs and a surprise over shoulder piledriver, and I loved him thundering down his arms to break Dragunov's arms from the ropes to hit a massive German suplex. We also had some unnecessary violence like WALTER delivering a nasty powerbomb on the corner of the apron at a real awkward angle. The fans were really into Dragunov doing the undoable, and it did help me overlook some of his doofey qualities, but not all of them. A lot of this matched hinged on the very long chop exchange. It was kind of Ilja's chance at recovery, and it was him standing on even ground with WALTER. To give credit, WALTER appeared to be shying away from many of Ilja's chops, while he kept his chest wide open for WALTER's huge shots. Were Dragunov's chops harder than they looked (does that also mean his lousy lariats were more painful than they looked?), or is WALTER's selling better than I thought? Maybe both. I still never bought Dragunov as capable of beating WALTER, but this match is the most I've ever been impressed with WALTER, so you take the good and take the bad.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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WXW Tag League Weekend Cherry Picking 10/15/17

WXW is a promotion I have always been a bit hit or miss on, but their tag league weekend had some SC favorites on it (Timothy Thatcher, Low-Ki, Briscoes) and some intriguing match-ups so I decided to cherry pick some reviews

10/5/17

Timothy Thatcher v. WALTER

PAS: This is an AMBITION style match, which is the yearly shootstyle tournament that WXW runs (and always places some stuff on our year end lists). This is very similar to the Thatcher matches which we loved a couple of years ago. WALTER is a fun opponent for Thatcher, he isn't as skilled on the mat (although he had some nice chicken wing work), but he is a big bear of a dude and throws some meaty slaps and throws. This got really fun when tempers flared, and the finish was neat, with Thatcher taking an 8 count on a powerbomb and countering a slap combo with a Fujiwara for a flash win. Not as a good as the absolute top tier AMBITION stuff, but a nifty scrap.

Homicide v. David Starr

PAS: This show was in the WXW gym and had the feel of those early Beyond show. I haven't seen Homicide in a longish singles match in a while, and looked really sharp. Started with some solid back and forth matwork, moved into some brawling on the floor, including a tope con hilo into the tiny crowd by Cide. Finish run was good stuff, with Starr trying multiple times for his arm capture German suplex, Cide fighting it off and Starr finally squirting out of the Cop Killer and hitting for the win. Starr is kind of a hit or miss guy for me, but he felt like a guy who grew up on JAPW Modtrom tapes excited to work a Homicide singles match

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Callihan v. Thatcher

Sami Callihan v. Timothy Thatcher WXW 3/12

PAS: This was one of the matches I was most excited for when Callihan was unleashed back on the indy scene. I loved the early parts of this, as it had this fun stop and start quality, with each guy searching for a big shot.  Callihan spent a bunch of time aiming at big strikes to the back of Thatchers head, which is an especially nasty looking move. Back during my boxing days I got cracked in the back of my head sparring and had to spend Phil Rippa's bachelor party totally sober, so I sympathize with Thatcher who catches elbows, kicks and stomps right in the soft spot. Thatcher spends much of the match hunting for the Fujiwara arm bar, while throwing in some big headbutts and slaps of his own. He has a bunch of cool counters and attacks for the move, and really broke out some nice near falls with the move. I loved the viciousness of Callihan in the end run, Thatcher was hard to put down, so Sami just got nastier, if Thatcher was willing to die, Sami was willing to kill him. Great, great match.

ER: This felt like the kind of match you would expect coming from these two, if a tad underwhelming based on what you've seen from them. Thatcher had a couple awkward moments where he was waiting around to be hit, and some of the strike exchanges came off as lesser than other 2016 Callihan strike exchanges. Those matches didn't have as much turn based strikes, or guys both going for the same strike at the same time type of spots. But obviously both of these guys are good, and so even with some sticking points they are going to work a base level match that most guys can't. And this one benefitted from a nice build with no overkill. That goes a long way when you already have the high floor these two have. I love Thatcher's thrust headbutt, it's such an ice cold spot that I don't always see coming, and it's a vicious way to break up a strike exchange. Thatcher takes quite a beating in this, gets dumped right on his neck and shoulder on a deadlift back suplex, and several shots to the back of the head. Sami stomping him in the back of the head several times before locking in the stretch muffler is a nasty finish, and most importantly, the thing that should have finished.


2016 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Dick Togo is Hines Ward of the Crime Lords, Running Through this Money Screaming Encore

Dick Sato vs. Vicente Viloni 100% Lucha 3/11/08 - FUN

Another match from Dick Togo’s excursion to Argentina. Viloni is kind of fake Jericho, and was perfectly fine outside of a terrible spin kick. It was clearly a showcase for him rather then Togo, as he gets to hit all of the big spots including a tope rope superplex and an elbow through a table. Opponent Togo isn’t the best Togo, although he did a couple nifty things including ripping out pieces of Viloni’s long flowing hair. More of a curiosity then a great match, although god bless Youtube for uncovering random shit like this.

Dick Togo v.  Zach Sabre Jr. WXW 11/24/11 - GREAT

This was Togo's Europe retirement match, as he retired in every city in every country in the world. This was very much a 2010's US Indy main event, which is far from my thing. Still if you are going to do this kind of match, it is good to do it with Dick Togo on one side. The early matwork was pretty nifty, Sabre does some WOS style stuff and Togo was clearly having a blast breaking out the stuff Johnny Saint taught him back in 97. We get a big finish run with lots of near falls, some were pretty cool, like Togo's spinning pedigree, some like Sabre's kick combos could use some work. There was also a giant discrepancy when they did their punch and forearm exchanges. I loved the very end with Togo doing a great job selling pain and desperation in the rolling cross armbreaker. Well worth checking out as it never devolved into rampant Davey Richardisms as this kind of thing can oft do.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

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