2021 Ongoing MOTY List: NXT 2.0 WarGames

26. Team Black & Gold (Pete Dunne/Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa/LA Knight) vs. Team 2.0 (Bron Breakker/Grayson Waller/Carmelo Hayes/Tony D'Angelo) NXT WarGames 12/5

ER: I was so surprised by how much I liked this match. Nearly every WWE/NXT WarGames to this point has been an interminable slog. What kind of world were we creating for our children when we gave them four different WarGames in four years featuring Adam Cole? The Bobby Fish WarGames Era. America changed a lot for the worse in 2016, but I don't think Adam Cole WarGames have been given their fair share of credit for how horrible the next four years would get. Perhaps this particular WarGames only looked better because the women's WarGames that happened earlier in the night was one of the worst matches of the year, truly terrible. This show started with that 30+ minute match, which was entirely made up of half speed exchanges, bad weapon shots, and moments that looked bungled at best. When a 30 minute match ends and your immediate thought is "Well...I guess Gigi Dolin looked the best out of everyone?" then you know you just witnessed something dreadful. At least we got plenty of Cora Jade working through her acting chops. 

This might be the first WarGames in WWE brand history that didn't feel like an exercise in "Guys lying around the edges of the ring selling, regardless of how long they've been in the match". This was the first WWE brand WarGames that actually felt shorter than its runtime. Those 45 minute WarGames felt damn near PPV length, but this never felt like it was intentionally pausing action to capture hack Moments. The women's match that started the show was almost entirely set-up Moments and brother, they were all bad. This main event just focused on action, not on mapping out the best camera angle to capture somebody's gulp face. My main criticism of this match was that there was maybe too MUCH action, in that a lot of sequences were worked as if this was just a normal 8 man tag, and not specifically a WarGames match, but I have much less problem with what they did here than the new trend of working normal wrestling sequences in Royal Rumbles. This had a lot of chained sequences that didn't necessarily fit the structure of a WarGames, but here at least most of the sequences looked GOOD; they do not under any circumstances look good in a Rumble. 

The women's WarGames badly played up every participants' weaknesses, but this match managed to play to strengths. Grayson Waller bounced and sprang and flew off every surface, taking full advantage of the increased square footage. He took the most/best bumps into the cage itself, and seemed to be on the receiving end of the majority of the weapon spots. He was probably my favorite here, but I thought everyone added something. Everything was timed out really well and we never got into any dead patches. There might have been an over-reliance on weapons, but they used a lot of them for max effect. Tony D'Angelo pressing a crowbar into Pete Dunne's jaw before giving him a crowbar-assisted swinging neckbreaker off the top was a great example of an awesome spot with real added danger; a swinging neckbreaker off the top already looks cool, but with a crowbar being held around a guy's throat? Brutal. D'Angelo taking out Dunne's mouth guard before dropping him was a great touch. Waller exploded Knight through a table with a huge elbowdrop, Ciampa dropped Bron with an Air Raid Crash onto a trash can, and they all did a nice job of escalating the match to build to these bigger and bigger spots. They filled in a lot of time with just fighting, instead of lying around or pausing for Moments, and the chained finish looked good. 

I kept expecting Johnny Gargano to bring a lot of his specific type of dumb face drama, but it never came. Instead he did a lot of things that just made sense, like just grabbing onto Hayes after taking a shot to the balls, holding on for dear life to give Ciampa enough time to level Hayes with a running knee. We got to see Bron stand tall at the end - the absolute correct ending - as he speared both Ciampa and Hayes through a table to put an end to the Fairytale Ending, then gave Ciampa a nightmare ending with a sick press slam powerslam. We're not going to get blood in a WarGames, but this was the only one in the last 5 years that actually focused on fighting instead of drama, a classically simple Next Gen vs. Old Blood storyline in lieu of bad acting, and that combined with strong build and execution made it stand out as the clear best WWE WarGames since the concept returned. 

2021 MOTY MASTER LIST

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New Footage Friday: FELINO~! MAGICA~! WOLFIE D~! FLASH~! SLIM J~! MASADA~! MURDER ONE~! WAR GAMES~!

El Felino vs. Mascara Magica CMLL 5/21/96

PAS: A real hidden gem which, barring some third caida wonkiness, is a real classic. The first fall is some of the best lucha mat wrestling I have ever seen. Felino and Magica were working these sick looking leglocks, just tremendous torque on ankles and knees. There was some llave in it, but it really felt more like Tamura RINGS stuff than Negro Navarro. Felino also really bangs at Magica's shoulder in the second fall, leading to a cool bit of business where Magica can't lift Felino into the submission he won the first fall with. I liked the screwy finish to the third fall with Magica sliding under the ropes to beat the count, but not getting his foot all the way in, felt like kind of heartbreaking NBA replay moment where the game winning three point shooter had his toe on the line. I thought the restart Caida got a bit move spammy, and had this possible foul from Felino which didn't pay off. They were telling such a brilliant smaller tighter story and then went unnecessarily maximal, it was like the end of a Marvel series. WandaVision is about grief, Falcon and Winter Soldier is about race, but let's end it with a bunch of pew pew lasers. Still the good was so good that this was a real treat to watch.

MD: A week or two ago, an Atlantis mask match dropped and I realized I'd seen it a few years ago because dataintcash posted it on Youtube, which got me thinking how much I wanted him to post some more stuff as it'd been a while. Lo and behold, this drops. At the least, it's been offline for a while. It's a long title match and outside some goofiness in the tercera (and even allowing for that, really) it's very good. They had plenty of time to let things breathe, which is what you want. The primera was worked straight and it covered the ground of what you look for in these: it was competent, as in they didn't blow things or seem lost; competitive, as holds weren't just given but had struggle; and compelling, with some more tricked out holds and escapes. The next level is having some semblance of a narrative and there were bits and pieces with that, between a focus on the legs and both guys going for STFs. The pace picked up and led to the first of multiple Mascara Magica dives in th e match and the finish. The segunda had Felino fake a leg injury after another STF and then took the opportunity to do a cool victory roll from the apron in to set up the fall. In the tercera, he went full rudo with some great arm focus (including Mascara Magica not being able to hit things), and ultimately a tecnico comeback and huge dive for what looked like the win, but they restarted the match and it felt almost like a fourth fall, building from Felino clotheslines and Mascara Magica roll ups to bigger (and still legitimately impressive in 2021) spots with neither guy able to pin the other until Mascara Magica switched to a submission and got the nod. Just a good, long title match, where even the restart didn't hurt it as it felt thematically different afterwards. Anyway, someone nudge dataintcash to post some more stuff.

Wolfie D vs. Flash Flanagan MCW 4/4/98

MD: This was on a Tojo Yamamoto memorial in 98. Wolfie was on a crutch with his leg in a cast. I'm a big fan of matches where someone's working with a real limitation because they're almost forced to get outside of rote spots and be creative. This was definitely creative. There was a need for Wolfie to be on top for a lot of it so they had to keep finding ways for that to happen when he could barely move around, first with the crutch shot, then by tying Flash in the ropes, then with a chair, etc. It made it more of a thought experiment than the straight up bloody violence you might hope for out of something like this, but maybe that's fitting for a Tojo memorial show. These two worked a bunch of gimmick matches (tables, death match, falls count anywhere, ladder) over the span of a couple of years before starting to team later in 98 and this ended in BS with the chain breaking and nothing really getting settled, but it was fun while it lasted.

Slim J/Murder One/Gabriel/Altar Boy Luke vs. NWA Elite (Todd Sexton/Masada/Rainman/Azreal) NWA Wildside 7/3/04 - EPIC

PAS: Another Cornelia War Games gets dropped and we get to see another classic. This was really wild, with probably one too many gimmicks and ideas, but some real high highs. Slim J has got to be one of the great cage match workers of all time, what a total psycho. He bleeds a ton, takes huge bumps (including a top rope side slam), and gets barbed wire kicked into his face. Really liked the classic Wildside tag teams facing off against each other, with the Blackout of Murder One and Rainman beating the bricks off of each other and the Lost Boys of Gabriel and Azreal doing the same. Masada brings the lunacy by lighting his hand on fire for chops. Lots of set up required for the big ladder bump off the cage, but the payoff looked painful, and Dusty got his moment to elbow everyone. Again Cornelia proves they know how to end a War Games, with Slim J sticking barbed wire in the mouth of Sexton for the tap. Nasty, nasty stuff. 

MD: Interesting structure here as this has the longest Match Beyond that I can remember. Usually, you get through the War Games itself and it's pretty quick to the finish. The first pairing seemed like it was two minutes instead of five, but you forgot that quick. The pre-match promo had Bailey hype up Sexton, who was playing scared to get over the danger of the match (which is always nice to see in a world where everyone tries to be tougher than it) by saying they needed him in first as the technician to work on someone's limb and damage him for the submission or surrender portion. That would be well and good except for the other side surprised them by starting out Slim J, who as the smallest guy, you wouldn't think would start. These Wildside/Anarchy matches are full of clever little bits like that. Some of them, like Gabriel getting trapped outside the cage at the end, worked really well. Azrael (who was pretty great in this one, bumping and basing all over the place and happy to crash into the cage over and over) going through the table from the inside out worked well too. 

Some things, like Dusty freeing Slim J from the cuffs, or the dissension between the two tag teams that were trying to work together, or the final turn on Sexton needed a bit more space to breathe but it's hard in a War Games when things are happening all the time. It was also a bit of a victim of its time, where every move needed an extra twist or flip or spin to it. Everything was a tricked out video game move. When they used the barbed wire or tossed people into the cage, it all worked a lot better. That said, the fact that the match worked as well as it did despite the trappings of its time was a testament to how much effort and thought they put into these and how much history and character elements they could call upon, even in 2004. And hey, what was up with Luke and Rainman deciding to do headlocks and rope running at the start of the third period though? Even the announcers called that out. In a way it, like everything else, sort of worked though. A War Games is pure distilled chaos and everything in this match fit that bill.

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New Footage Friday: ROSE! TENRYU! TAKASHI ISHIKAWA! FINLAY! FUNK! WAR GAMES!

Buddy Rose/Alexi Smirnoff vs. Tenryu Shimada/Takashi Onome Big Time Wrestling 9/2/78

MD: This was a TV match to get over the Rose/Smirnoff tag team and build to more Texas Red/Dean Ho matches where Ishikawa and Tenryu (with their modified names) were there to put up a fight but put over the heels. What's so fascinating about it to me is how naturally Tenryu worked in this setting. You could see him take a different path and be an ethnic babyface throughout a bunch of territories into the 80s. After some pretty good armwork, he comes in off a hot tag and he was like Tito Santana or Rick Martel for a couple of minutes. I know the prevailing thought is that Tenryu doesn't become Tenryu until after Choshu comes in and it's true; this was a different guy, but he was a more interesting guy than we usually see before the transformation and it was his role and his setting. You just don't have a lot of hot tags and "house afire" moments in turn of the 80s AJPW tags. Here he generic babyface stomped instead of the sharp kicks and had the generic wind-up punch. Just a different world from where he'd be ten years later, even if he did get to to the sumo palm charge and rolling cradle as well. If he was going to be this version of Tenryu, he would have done a lot better with it in the States. The heels looked good, with Smirnoff having a couple of interesting submissions, and Rose maximizing every moment, jawing to the announcers about what they'd do to their future opponents and just making everything look vicious and entertaining. You're watching this because it's a Buddy Rose match you probably haven't seen, always worth watching, but also to see a weird Americanized babyface version of Tenryu that might have been.


Terry Funk vs. Fit Finlay vs. Tiger Steel EWR 5/18/01 - GREAT

MD: We're working off of two data points, but from what we've seen lately, Finlay was pretty damn good at being in three-ways. A lot of what makes this work is the interplay between he and Funk, the way they reacted to things and were presences in the match. Funk headbutting people. Finlay broaching no foolishness. Them working together only to turn on each other. Tiger Steel is Butch Masters and he makes a really expansive canvas for getting beaten on here by two of the real experts. He had some good moments of striking down upon Funk's skull too. The use of weapons was generally fun, with my favorite bit being a big piece of wood used as a springboard for Funk as it hung all the way across the ring on the bottom rope. There's a set up for a fire extinguisher that never gets paid off but that's chaos for you. The post match promo where Funk works to get the crowd to turn on him is almost as fun as the match.

PAS: Tiger Steel kind of wrestles like a poor man's Kevin Nash, and poor man's Kevin Nash is actually a pretty great third guy in a Finlay and Terry Funk 3-Way. He is there to get pounded on by both guys, gives each of them a little break where he works the other guy and lets Funk and Finlay catch their breath. This was a pretty fierce pace for guys in their 50s, and Funk and Finlay really vamp, it is a cool contrast with Funk being one of the great maximillist wrestlers of all time and Finlay being the ultimate minimalist, it isn't a contrast at all, it works in concert. Funk is pinballing himself in the ropes wilding around flinging punches, and Finlay is dropping short sick knees and hard forearms, while Steel is there to be hit.. It really works well, and the formlessness keeps it from being an EPIC, but I enjoyed every bit of it


Team Anarchy (Slim J/Azrael/Brody Lee Chase/Jeremy Vain/Iceberg) vs. NWA Elite (Geter/Jagged Edge/Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 3/30/13 - EPIC

PAS: Always glad to see another Anarchy War Games match show up as the NWA Wildside youtube account has been dropping gems lately. This is a nifty bookend to the War Games matches in my book, as like 2006 Jerry Palmer has a 5 minutes in the cage stipulation, except this time as a heel, and like 2007 this is Jeff G. Bailey vs. Rev. Dan Wilson, although Rev. Dan was purely a babyface and didn't have a huge role in the match. Lots of great performances and a ton of blood, Slim J and Azrael and the Urban Assault Squad had been feuding and they are the first four in the cage and I really dug all of their interactions, including all of the ways Azrael used his partners body as a weapon throwing him into a flippy splashes. Vain was the big surprise and gets a big pop, I really liked Jagged Edge coming in with a cowbell and wrestling like a Black Bunkhouse Buck (Blackhouse Buck? Bunkhouse Black?). Geter is enormous and laid everyone out with some really punishing looking power offense. When the Match Beyond starts the face team really goes after Tempers, spraying him in the eyes and Slim J applying a sick looking STF for the tap out. Iceberg says he has too much history with Palmer to beat him up in the 5 minutes, but turns it on him and brings out Mikal Judas who lays waste to Palmer (including a sick kick to the face, which a littler birdy told me was a receipt for Palmer potatoing guys). This really had a lot to love about it, and it is the same neighborhood as the 06 ad 07 classics. 

MD: You knew you were going to get good stuff here anyway, but when it was Slim J coming down for the opening 5 minute period, that was basically cemented. He shined during the first couple of periods, wrestling evenly but gaining advantage at first, leading to the early blood from Jackson, then just getting lawn darted into the cage and bleeding himself once the Urban Assault Squad was at full strength, and finally showing off a hundred double team moves in a two minute span once Azrael made it in to even the odds. He was able to show off a full range of what you'd want from a War Games participant here, down to the big dive and nasty submission (and subsequent emotion with Palmer) at the end. There was so much local history in that ring and the weight of it made everything resonate all the more. The weapons added a bit of variety and made the blood flow even more conveniently. I liked how they handled Vain's return, as he had to clean house and get some shine but couldn't overshadow either Iceberg battling cleanup after him or the surprise for the Palmer 5 minutes. There was a real sense of attrition and advantage from the Elite having the numbers game for so long so even though he made a difference, it made sense that he got swept under even before his period was over. The post-match was a tricky balance. They needed to have Palmer get his comeuppance and take enough damage, but not take so much that the fans were elated and frothing to the point of not accepting the reconciliation; I was a little iffy as it was playing out but it worked for the crowd in the end.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SLIM J

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FINLAY

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Now I Ask Big Meech What He Know About Low-Ki

Low Ki vs. Ahtu  EVOLVE 1/14/12 - FUN

ER: A fairly infamous match, that doesn't actually feel as sadistic as it's been made out to be. This is Low Ki's Evolve debut, and he literally knocks Ahtu out with a rolling kappo kick to start the match. A lot of people on the internet hate Low Ki because a lot of people in wrestling weirdly side with management at any opportunity, but within the realm of pro wrestling shoot incidents this feels like one of the least malicious incidents. If you didn't know better before watching this, you might just think it's excellent selling from Ahtu to jumpstart a cool angle. The kappo kick looks no more savage than any other Ki kick I've seen. He has a great looking kappo kick, and this one hits Ahtu right in the temple and sends him timbering down to the mat. Call me naïve, but the KO blow didn't look intentional to me. There are way more blatant and efficient ways of knocking out an unsuspecting opponent, and this wasn't exactly Kurisu punting Jado in the head. Ahtu has that thousand yard stare, and Ki drags him to his feet (now that is probably the most inadvisable thing Ki did here), nails a handspring kick in the corner, then hits the Warriors Way on a potentially dead body to finish it (totally protecting Ahtu on it, although Ahtu also sells it like a man with a concussion who doesn't know he's just been double stomped). To add to the complete bizarro greatness of this spectacle, Ki gets on the mic and cuts a REAL wrestling is BACK promo and literally ends his promo quoting TAZ! I mean literally shouting out a man from Red Hook and saying "Beat me if you can! Survive, if I let you!" That's weird! And the crowd shouted along to every word! I wanted him to pick up Ahtu's corpse, give him a Stone Cold Stunner, and shout "And that's the bottom line, because LOW KI SAID SO!"

PAS: Eric wrote this defense of Low-Ki before he came out as a COVID denier, so there are actual reasons for the internet to hate Low-Ki now. Still it doesn't make sense to have wrestling be a place to go for morality and common sense, so fuck it, we are still Low-Ki guys. Ki obliterating a roids dude entertains me, and I agree that this looked unlucky rather then reckless, but either way it was bad ass. I wouldn't take health advice from Low-Ki or want to be in the ring with him, but I still love watching him.

Low-Ki vs. Ricky Martinez MLW Fusion #62 6/1 (Aired 6/15/19) - FUN

ER: Low Ki debuted in MLW a year before this, against Ricky Martinez. That match was a complete one-sided Ki squash, not a solitary moment of Martinez offense. But that was before he was The Sicario, and he fares a little better here. The match is a little underwhelming, as normally you can give Ki 4 minutes and expect something a little more cohesive than this. At a certain point they seemed to be killing time waiting for a run-in, but the interference never came so maybe they just got off page for another reason. Their interactions are good and I know they have a better match in them, and at minimum they're good at taking each others' offense. There are even a couple of callbacks to their first match (not brought up in any way on commentary), like Ki rushing Martinez at the bell. A year ago Ki did the same and landed a knee that was the beginning of the end for Martinez. This time Martinez just bails out of the ring the second Ki takes off running. Ki eventually gets into it with Salina de la Renta at ringside, leaving himself open to a great baseball slide dropkick from Ricky. In ring Martinez runs hard into Ki's boots in the corner, and Ki works a cool body scissors. The finish is odd, as Ki hits essentially an axe bomber lariat, and they stop the match with a TKO. Low Ki is a guy who can work a convincing KO finish if the match calls for it, and this lariat (elbow?) looked like the least KO move in the match, so it came off confusing to the crowd. MLW built Ki as a guy who can finish matches in unpredictable and violent ways - which is an awesome way to push someone like Low Ki - but this finish was not that. 

Low-Ki/Tom Lawlor/Marshall Von Erich/Ross Von Erich vs. Jacob Fatu/Josef Samael/Simon Gotch/Ikuro Kwon MLW 9/7/19 - GREAT

PAS: This was a match with some real peaks and valleys. It's main flaw is it's length,  it is hard to sustain the pre Match Beyond parts of the War Games, and this had some real dead zones. Gotch and Marshall had 2 minutes of cool stuff in the opening section, but they had to go five, and by the end of their one on one they were doing chinlocks. Samael was the best time killer in this, he bleeds a bunch, trash talks Kevin Von Erich on the floor, sets up a section with Low-Ki where they tried to gauge each other on the barbed wire, bites Lawlor in the ear, breaks the claw by jabbing Marshall with a spike. I thought Fatu looked good too, although his entrance into the match was the kind of super hot run of offense you want from a face, not really from a heel. Ki was a minor part of this match, but I did like his karate stand off with Ikuro Kwan to start. The other big problem of the layout of the match was the length of the Match Beyond, the last guy in the ring needs to be the start of the end of the match, but they had about five to seven minutes of wandering and brawling before the hot finish. The finish was what put this into great territory for me, you had the cool spot of Kevin Von Erich in Dallas putting the claw on a random masked Contra agent, a big near fall with Fatu hitting a huge Samoan drop, and the Claw doomsday device by the Von Erich's for the win. The match was really losing me, but that ending brought it back big. 

Low-Ki vs. King Mo MLW 2/17/21 - FUN

PAS: This was a no ropes match on Filthy Island which was MLW riffing on UFC. I don't really get what this whole Low-Ki vs. King Mo feud was trying to accomplish. Mo squashes him in the first match, and then Ki wins by tap in a minute and a half, when he locks in a choke by crawling on Mo's back. The curse of MLW since it first started was cool looking on paper things which don't deliver, and this feud didn't. I did like the vibe of the show OK, and the post match Team Filty vs. Ki and the Von Erich's brawl was fun stuff which does keep this out of skippable. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Monday WarGames: AWS Total War

Aaron Aguilera/Babi Slymm/Human Tornado/Sexy Chino vs. Adam Pearce/Al Katrazz/Crayz/The Plague AWS 3/18/08 - FUN

PAS: IWTV put up a bunch of AWS, a mid 2000s SoCal indy, so I grabbed this War Games. This match had a lot of Rick Bassman trainees (or Bassman style dudes) who were big and athletic, but not really good wrestlers. Aguilera, Al Katrazz, Slymm, and The Plague all had some spots, but it was kind of a mess when they need to fill time, and War Games requires some time filling. The match also ended in a pinfall which always sucks in War Games. Great Pearce performance though, he was a guy who really felt like he was in a War Games match, flying into the cage, bleeding a ton, throwing great punches on open cuts. I was always a bit lukewarm on Adam Pearce, but this match felt like he lived up to what he promised. I was most excited to see Human Tornado in here, but he came in with a foot in a walking boot, so he gets laid out before coming into the ring. However he does come back in the finish and hits an insane flip dive off the cage to the floor. The height and distance he got on the dive was truly shocking, and doing that dive in a walking boot is even crazier. Cool discovery with a couple of real high points although overall it didn't really work.

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Monday Wargames: -PWX- Team Revolt vs. Team Xperience

Team Revolt (Harlem Bravado/Lancelot Bravado/Zane Riley/Jake Manning/Caleb Konley) vs. Team Xperience (CW Anderson/John Skyler/Gunner/Corey Hollis/Adam Page) PWX 3/13/16 - GREAT

PAS: PWX really set out to run an old school War Games match. They got the double rings, cut down on the highspots and had a bunch of good brawlers brawl. CW Anderson opening a War Games is what you want, and he and Manning threw some pretty thudding punches. Skyler was the star here, taking the biggest bumps, bleeding the most (not enough blood was my main complaint in this match, just a bit from Manning and a lot from Skyler at the end). They do a little booking at the end with Corino (managing the Xperience) jumping a Bravado and stopping him from joining as the 10th man, only for Corino to get run off by Ethan Case. I thought Zane Riley was a bit loosey goosey for the supposed hard hitter, but I dug Gunner as the heel powerhouse. There was a bit of a muddled focus at the end, which is to be expected with this many guys, but the actual finish of Skyler getting jabbed in the eye with a screwdriver was a War Games finish.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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Monday War Games: PCW - Team PCW vs. The Cornerstone

Team PCW (Brian Blaze/Brian Kane/Geter/Johnny Danger/Kevin Park/Quasi Mandisco/Supernatural) vs. The Cornerstone (Bill The Butcher/The Carpenter/Jon William/Trevor Aeon/Trey Williams/Mystery Man A/B/C) PCW 4/7/16 - FUN

PAS: Total mess of a match, but an amusing mess. This was outdoors with the two ring cage. The entries seemed kind of random more like a battle royal then a Wargames, at one point the Washington Bullets come in as a tag team, and three heels in hoods come in all together. I thought some of the early brawling with Brian Blaze and the Carpenter was cool. Geter is a giant fat dude who is a fun new generation GA Indy heavyweight, and had some cool clear the ring moments. Really hard to understand what the hell is going on in this match, and the ending was weird. Jeff G. Bailey comes out with Gunner Miller and everyone just kind of leaves the cage to let Miller and Geter have a pull apart brawl. Kind of makes me want to check out the Miller and Geter blow off match, but a no-contest is a pretty shitty finish to a Wargames.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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Monday War Games: EWE - The Illuminati vs. Devil's Rejects

The Illuminati (Brandon Collins/Jason Collins/Johnny Viper/Se7en) vs. The Devil's Rejects (Andrew Alexander/Patrick Bentley/Tank/Rufus Black) Empire Wrestling Entertainment 8/3/13 - FUN

PAS: This was a lower end Devil's Rejects Wargames, but they are always well worth watching. The opening 10 minutes or so with Patrick Bentley and the Collins Brothers was pretty bad it was all superkicky juniors wrestling, I really don't want to see Canadian destroyers in my Wargames matches. It got a lot better when Tank and Rufus Black came in, they are exactly the kind of stabby psychos which makes this match fun. The four Illuminati doesn't come out originally and instead Se7en jumps Alexander on the outside before he can join the match. Se7en is really good at seeming scary and monsterous and I dug the finish with Seven squeezing Dan Wilson's bloody head until Alexander surrendered for him. Our buddy Dan is not afraid to spray the fruit punch in these War Games matches and it is appreciated. Hated the start, but liked the finish, so overall OK.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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New Footage Friday: WARGAMES!! Fuchi! Chavo! Finlay! Brad!

MD: There's a real Black Saturday feel this week with the unofficial (because when can WWE ever be transparent about anything? What other industry acts like this?) notice of the end of the Hidden Gem releases. It's rough and we're left on the hook for all those potential 83 Georgia Omni shows or more full Crockett Cups or 90s Dark Matches or maybe, just maybe the 91 WCW Omni shows, etc. That's not going to stop us though. The community is strong. New or rare stuff keeps popping up: lucha, 90s and 00s indies, 80s and 90s Japan TV and handhelds, a treasure trove of German footage, and we know there's always the possibility, any week, of new PR or old French Catch. We have a backlog. We have veins to tap. We are here for you. These posts are up by Saturday morning most weeks. They almost always have links to matches that you almost certainly have not seen. We'll tell you if they're worth watching and we almost always pick matches that are. We're not going anywhere. Follow along, post your thoughts, tell a friend who might be lamenting the neutering of the Network footage. We'll keep going until the well dries up and there's plenty of water to go around for now.


Masa Fuchi vs. Chavo Guerrero AJPW 8/19/83

ER: This starts with a dynamite 3 minute real time package, Fuchi already waiting in the ring with gorgeous swooped hair and a blue track jacket unzipped below his sternum. Fuchi looked like a super cool high school P.E. coach, or an average cool southern California pharmacist. He waits stoically in the ring while Chavo lightly jogs out, mariachi jacket and pants, yellow bandana holding down hair almost as cool as Fuchi's, shotgun shells crossing his chest. And the match itself was cool and tough, about 70% of it on the mat and building to some heavy thuds at the finish. The mat work was snug and linear, nothing flashy, but nice headlock takeovers and headscissors escapes, boots scraped against faces to defend single legs, and cool things like Chavo losing a surfboard on the roll over so just opting for punching Fuchi in the neck a couple times. We get my favorite camera angle on the pescado, filmed across the ring so that when Chavo makes perfect connection the two of them just get swallowed up beyond the other side of the ring. The count out finish was one of the more clever count outs, with Chavo getting back on the apron after the pescado, but Chavo being on the apron gives Fuchi the leverage to drop him down to the floor with a back suplex.

MD: This had everything you'd want from a 1983 AJPW Juniors match. They really took it to the mat early with sharp, sweeping counters and nothing that felt given or even fed. That spiraled into a heel/face dynamic as Chavo went for the cheapshots first. Fuchi fired back angrily. They escalated into some bigger bombs, and it all ended with a dive and a fairly novel yet still definitive count out finish, with Chavo putting the icing on top by trying another cheapshot only to get run off. Just about ten minutes bell-to-bell.

PAS: Pretty basic match with a couple of cool flourishes. Loved those overhand smashes by Chavo, just thudding nasty looking shots. I always enjoy Fuchi grinding a guy down on the match and he really has some punishing moments. The finish was really great with Chavo hitting an alltime great Pescado, only to get snatched off the ring apron with a backdrop suplex on the floor for the count out. Shortish match, and it wasn't an all time great match for either guy, but it is fun sometimes to see the minor works too.

Fit Finlay vs. Brad Armstrong CWA 12/3/95

MD: We have a lot of Finlay to watch in this German footage, and that's the best problem in the world to have. For this week we had to decide between two or three different matches of his. This one felt really novel and was highlighted further by a really nice twitter post he made a few years ago talking about how great Brad was as a wrestler and a human being. This is about 40 minutes worth of video with entrances, a flag ceremony, and music during the round breaks. We get a bunch of rounds, five or so, and lots and lots of meaty, meaningful, illuminating wrestling, but it does cut off before the end.

The face/heel structure is not what you'd expect here. This is probably the most significant heel Brad footage we have, I think, especially unmasked Brad. As good as he was as a meat and potatoes babyface, you always hear from wrestlers that his personality was larger than life and how it didn't transfer into the ring. Just because of who he was and his position within his family, he wasn't going to have the sort of chances to be a heel that Brian or Steve might have, but you get the sense he would have shined a lot brighter in that role and could have easily been a guy on the US title level, despite not being the biggest guy. Here, he realized the way the crowd was leaning early on and he went mean and pissy and didn't look back. He was quick to hit cheapshots, to rile the crowd, to argue with the ref, to have his second (Kauroff?) pull open the ropes so Finlay could bump through, and to feed for Fit.

Finlay was a badass babyface here, the sort of guy who would take a cheapshot, fire back, and then just dare the heel to come after him. He had a real, unmistakable connection to the crowd, one that he managed without pandering and without much changing who he was. At times, it actually hurt the match a little. There were moments where they could have prolonged his revenge on Brad thanks to the round breaks to get a higher payoff. and he stormed out of the ring to give him a beating instead. On the other hand, Finlay actively hulking up towards the end of the footage was both surreal and thoroughly satisfying. You'd expect that out of the way he continuously dismantled Brad's arm with the world's meanest armbar, sure, but not with an outright hulk up.

I wasn't as upset about the lack of a finish as I might have been otherwise because we did get so much action here and because you had a sense the direction everything was headed after that last comeback.

ER: Bruce Springsteen should go into the Pro Wrestling HOF just for the vast amount of wrestlers who have used Born in the USA as their entrance theme because they were the American wrestler in the match. And I thought the face/heel alignments were screwy as hell here, and didn't give me much sense at all of what heel Brad would look like. Outside of some moments in the first two rounds, most of this was Finlay clearly being the heel and being cheered anyway because he's Fit Finlay in Germany. But I really didn't care about face/heel dynamics because the work was simple, tough, and engaging the whole way through. We don't get a finish and there's a clip where I'm unsure how much we missed, but the runtime on this is long so we get a lot of bang for the buck. There were parts of this where I felt Brad was working more stiff than I've seen, but while Brad's work was obviously tight it was mostly Finlay selling like he was seeing stars every single time Brad dished out an elbow to the temple. Finlay is my favorite salesman in wrestling history, and every time he took a shot he would be stumbling, whipping his head back, holding his eye, feeling around for his opponent, falling into the ropes for support, everything he could do to make Armstrong look like a lethal weapon. Brad throws a snapmare the way they're supposed to be thrown and Finlay takes a snapmare bump the way someone is supposed to take a snapmare, and I love how it lead to Finlay finally refusing to go over, stopping Brad's forward momentum and dropping him with a jawbreaker.

Finlay is such a tremendous post bell asshole, just getting in every shot he can every time a round ended. I loved Finlay just pounding away at Brad on the floor, where you can here someone say "Don't do it, Finlay". Finlay takes a tremendous bump through the middle rope to the floor when Brad's second pulls the rope, and it's one of a zillion spots that Finlay clearly works out the physics on. There are tons of those spots in wrestling where a wrestler does Action A which leads to his opponent doing Action E, except most of the time we don't see anything that looks like attention being paid to B, C, or D. A guy hitting a tope but getting stopped with a chairshot will almost always look like a guy just running into a chair, because it's extremely difficult and dangerous to commit to a dive that is ending with you taking a chair to the face and falling painfully to the floor. Finlay is great enough to have a reason to run into the ropes, and then actually look like he was 100% committed to hitting that middle rope before it wasn't where it typically is. Finlay does all of the math on every one of his spots, making things that miss and WHY they miss just as important. Finlay got the most out of taking Brad's offense, and when he fights back it obviously delivers. Finlay throws a short left lariat that is so perfect that I wonder why Finlay didn't use a lariat as a finish. His armbar was fantastic even though Finlay isn't a guy I saw routinely work armbars, but the way he gleefully works to extend Brad's arm is fantastic, as is the way Brad sells it between rounds while I Was Made For Loving You jams over the PA. Some of Armstrong's best work in this match was done between rounds, like pleading to the ref for more time because of Finlay wrecking his arm after the bell. For all we know there's another 15 minutes of this match, but right here we got more total time with these two than all their other singles matches combined, and that's a special thing.

PAS: I would not have expected to see Brad Armstrong of all people step into a Finlay match and match Finlay shot for shot. Where the hell was violent asskicker Brad Armstrong for all of these years. Finlay of course is a master, his crazy bump to the floor was Jerry Estrada level insane, and I imagine a lot of the reason Brad Armstrong felt like Johnny Valentine was Finlay's selling. All of the armbar stuff was perfection, brutal violent bursar sack popping arm mangling, which Armstrong sells great. Cage match has this going to round 10, so we miss some real parts of the finish, but man alive what a treat to get what we get.


Devil's Rejects (Andrew Alexander/Tank/Rufus Black/Se7en) vs. Team Empire (Drew Delight/Rush/Ben Thrasher/Chunky Dragon) EWE 3/1/12

PAS: A music video for this match got uploaded on youtube a couple of days after it happened and I commented on the video asking them to release it in full. Seven plus years later it shows up!! Devil's Reject's Wargames are some of the coolest stuff that happened this century, and hardly anyone has seen them. This isn't at the level of the all time classics in 2006 and 2007 (and Tank was the only constant besides Rev. Dan Wilson) , but it wasn't a huge step below. The Alexander and Drew Delight opening five minutes is awesome, heated brawling, great punches and and some big cage bumps. Tank comes in and starts carving, and there is a nasty spot where Ben Thrasher gets the spike from him and drives it into his arm. Se7en is a huge guy and really good at menace, I am not sure why he never got a bigger role somewhere. The finish is crowd pleasing, although a bit lacking in drama. The babyfaces just take control, and Chunky Dragon lays into Alexander with knife edge chops and a pectoral claw until he gave up. Wargames is a great wrestling formula, all you kneed is some good brawlers willing to bleed, and that is what this delivered.

MD: Very good War Games. I liked the idea of Alexander cutting a promo to begin. It set the mood and was a good use of having the first guy in. It feels like the sort of thing CM Punk might do to make a sanitized WWE War Games work better. Honestly, Alexander was the highlight in this whole thing for me. I'm not sure how I'd feel about him in a normal match but he was a great receptacle for Delight's great punches, stooged and bumped around the ring, even late into the match, and then served as the big end center point where he lasted long enough to gain sympathy but finally surrendered in the face of little enough escalation (but an absolute sense of hopelessness) that you didn't feel TOO bad for him. They handled the momentum shifts well, balancing the new faces coming in and the fatigue/numbers game. I think this would have been better with a second ring as nothing really stood out once everyone was in. I was of two minds on some of the last quarter. They worked one big set piece with the figure-fours and the bat and while it was a little silly for a War Games match, it stood out and was memorable. It was hard to keep track of the brawling in the single ring and no single final transition stood out, but I kind of like how the babyfaces just slowly won the brawling war of attrition.

ER: I don't have a ton to add (though it feels like when I type that I then end up writing two full paragraphs), only that this felt like a genuine article WarGames, and that goes a long way in making me love a WarGames. This was not as great as earlier Devil's Rejects WarGames, but that is an insanely unfair comparison. If these were just 8 guys we'd never heard of and not a stable involved in two classic WarGames, this match would come off even better. Having watched the WWE WarGames within the month and now this one, though? There's no argument which way is better. I came away super impressed with Andrew Alexander, a great front to back WarGames performance that mostly required him to take a beating and be a wobbly kneed clown for Empire, and he did it magnificently. Drew Delight was throwing these great hamfists at his head, big round closed fists that were thrown with no style, just swung right at Alexander's forehead. The order of participants was staggered well, Tank coming in 2nd as a big wrecking ball was great, and even better because he was a wrecking ball with a spike. Tank threw a couple shots with the spike that made me jump, and I love how the inclusion of a spike has been so important to WarGames: You know that bringing a spike into WarGames will mean that your team will be eating a tong of spike, and I dig when a WarGames starts getting deeply into that torture. Everyone filled their roles nicely, bunch of big guys punching and bleeding a ton - and really what more is there? - and I loved Chunky Dragon as the final man. I've never heard of Chunky Dragon, and I assume I'll never see another Chunky Dragon match, but he was such a good fired up babyface tearing into the ring. He had real Michael McAllister energy to him, dug his big crossbody, loved all his hard chops. The finish doesn't necessarily peak anything, but I liked the burn at the end, of Alexander being held prone and trying to hold out as long as possible while getting punched and chopped, and finally accepting that nobody was coming to his rescue. When you hear your local indy is running a WarGames match, this is the level of quality you hope for.

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Wednesday War Games: Anarchy Wrestling Hostile Enviornment 7/28/18

Anarchy Wrestling has moved off of Powerbomb and on to Fite.tv which makes it harder to watch, but for their annual WarGames show I had to find a way.

Team TAG vs. Seth Delay/Marcus Cross

PAS: Team TAG are the Anarchy tag champions and a pretty solid heel team, Kevin Blue especially has really nice snap on his stuff. Delay goes all the way back to the Wildside days, and is a really solid veteran, he had some fun takedowns early and was in the right place for everything. Cross is pretty new and was the weak link in the match, the crowd was into the story of the kid going for his first title, but he seemed tentative and didn't hit a lot of his stuff cleanly. Still this is a basic tag match done well with a crowd pleasing finish. Not memorable in the long run, but eminently served its purpose.

AC Mack vs. Xander Ramon

PAS: Ramon is big burly guy, who is green but promising. Mack is a guy we have seen a bunch in ACTION and is really good, charismatic and a solid heel wrestler. This is a pretty basic match structure, much like the previous match. Ramon is throwing big bombs, while Mack attacks a bum knee. Really solid way to work a smaller heel against a bigger face and they do a nice job here. Mack has some nice chop blocks, and Ramon's selling was solid if a bit broad. Ramon maybe sometime away, but Mack is their now.

Billy Buck vs. Ike Cross

PAS: This was a 2/3 falls match which was squeezed into about 10 minutes, and suffered a bit for that compression. However there was a lot to like, Billy Buck is a old school territorial heel, nice punches, good superkick, slick spinebuster, kind of B+ CW Anderson. Cross is an athletic marvel, and seems like he is going to be a big star sooner then later. He has a great looking tope, a couple of nice spears and a leap onto the top rope into a superplex, all from a guy who is 6'4. Both early falls ended quick, and they go right into a near fall run, with some good ones including some great sneak superkicks by Buck. I liked the idea of Cross winning with Kyle Matthews octopus (Matthews was seconding him after blowing out a knee and retiring), but Cross didn't really pull off the move. Good stuff and I would like to see a longer match between the two.

Geter vs. Mikal Judas

PAS This was a battle of the giants with Judas returning to Anarchy. This was a quick punch out into a double countout to set up a future match. Geter is a legit 400 pound dude and hits pretty hard. Judas has a cool entrance, but didn't show me a ton post entrance. Still I wouldn't mind seeing some big guys hit each other in the future.

38. Slim J vs. Corey Hollis

PAS: This is coming off their awesome dog collar match earlier in the year. This was a Yard Call match, which is a fight in a storage room in a separate building. It had concrete walls, chicken wire door and a ceramic toilet in the side like a holding cell. Slim J comes in with hands cuffed behind his back and gets uncuffed before the fight. This was a total blast, just a grimy fight. Slim J swings a toilet tank lid at Hollis's head and it shatters on the wall, Hollis then uses ceramic shards to cut up J. Both guys get choked with a chain, and J even pulls out a shank. Slim J is a guy best known as a highflyer, but he is a hell of brawler, the best parts of this feel like a Demus lucha brawl or something Tarzan Goto might do in Shin FMW. Both guys are taking bumps on concrete, bleeding in dirt, wailing on each other with fist and chairs. Finish had J winning with a standing choke which was cool looking, but I was expecting something more horrific. Still a great unique match which totally lived up to its cool on paper promise.

ER: This is one of the better combinations of "unique setting" & "willing to be violent enough to make it work" for a street fight that we've seen, up there with the Finlay/Regal parking lot brawl. It's a weird room with chicken wire and chains and a toilet and a freaking shank and a stripped gurney and it looks like a snuff location in Manhunt. Slim J is definitely a fantastic flyer, but the man hits harder like a sack of doorknobs and you don't usually get his level of violent work with agility. The missed weapon shots are as cool as the hits, with J swinging a heavy ass toilet lid at Hollis' head and shattering it on the wall, and Hollis one-upping him by throwing the whole damn toilet at his head. There's a dog collar/chain hanging from the wall and that collar gets slipped around J's neck, and Hollis holds J by both arms and yanks him forward halfway across the room, chain pulling taut while choking him, J barely escaping by kicking off Hollis. We get some nasty spills, J getting pulled painfully onto the tipped over gurney, both men getting tossed into hard walls and rubbed into wire, Hollis comes thisclose to jumping on a chair wrapped around J's neck, J's bloody face gets smooshed into chicken wire a foot away from a bunch of kids, all of it looked great. I did want a bit more from the finish, as it looked like J was setting up this standing grapevine choke near the shattered porcelain throne, I thought he was going to smash Hollis' face down into the shards, but I like what they did anyway. Cool, super unique brawl, Slim J should be a megastar.

Cult of Cash (Brad Cash/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Chop Top) vs. Jacob Ashworth/Logan Creed/Bobby Moore/Stryknyn

PAS: This was annual Landmark Arena Wargames, and was slotted in the middle of the ones I have seen. Landmark based feds have always been able to find legit heavyweights, and there was some big dudes in this match. We get a Logan Creed versus Se7en face off and both guys are 6'7 legit (listed 6'9), Chop Top looked kind of methy and skinny, but everyone else was a legit heavy, so there was a lot of force in all of the moves. Cyrus is 400 pounds and there was a couple of spots where he looked like he was going to bring down the cage. The Ashworth and Cash first section was good, with Cash cutting upon Ashworth with a sickle, and pretty intense brawling. The middle section had its moments, including a crazy top rope rana by Creed, but it was a little meandering. Stryknyn was the surprise partner, and had some big spots, including his fireball. They had a kind of dumb spot with Creed faking being mesmerized by Cash, until he sneaks in a gogoplata. It never got to that upper level of violence you see in the best WarGames, and was kind of overshadowed by the Yard Call right before it.


2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

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NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2 11/17/18

We went to the NXT Tapings/House Show in San Jose on Thursday, had a great time, and have dug every single TakeOver I've watched so far. Plenty of potential on this card.

Matt Riddle vs. Kassius Ohno

ER: Well this was not quite how I was expecting to start off TakeOver, but Ohno *did* sound pretty whiny on the pre-show, so he kinda had it coming. Mauro says the match lasted "about as long as a Hollywood marriage" which was probably a pretty hot reference when Drew Barrymore married some bartender 25 years ago.

Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler

ER: Bummed I didn't get to see Shayna live on Thursday, but she was there with her Horse Girls. I'd never seen Duke or Shafir wrestle (and have no clue how much they have wrestled), but they were fun. I knew they would get involved here but wasn't expecting it so soon, and I do like the trope of a heel getting an immediate pinfall advantage in this kind of match. 2nd fall was fun with Baszler attacking immediately with a knee to the chin, and the knee looked good enough that I thought they would be running two incredibly short matches in a row. Baszler always looks good in control, although Sane isn't an interesting seller, just kinda flops and rolls around no matter what happens. But things ramp up when Baszler eats a crazy DDT on the ring apron, really planting that head in a great visual. I also liked the Horse Girls interference backfiring, especially Duke missing a kick and hitting the ringpost, and Sane doing her wild elbow off the top onto all of them. Things get pretty silly from there with the match basically serving as the background for Dakota Kai and Io Shirai running out and taking out the Horse Girls. Kai looked good, really booting Duke in the face, but Shirai does that super dumb thing where you run out to save your friend, and instead of attacking them when they're 4 feet away, takes all the time in the world to slowly climb to the top and hit a moonsault onto all of them. The visual looked good, but it's really dumb when you think about it for one second. The finish I don't think worked at all, with Sane hitting her elbow but Baszler immediately rolling her over for the crucifix pin. I don't get how the elbow can finish all her matches, but also be instantly ignored and reversed into a pin. Maybe it wasn't supposed to hit and it was supposed to look more like Baszler catching her? Whatever it was, it didn't work, and this whole thing underdelivered. I guess they're focusing on this as a trios match instead down the line, which is a match up that can be fun.

Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black

ER: They start with a bunch of cat and mouse that feels directly inspired by Low-Ki/Red or like they were jacking Anderson Silva highlights, but I thought it was cool, Gargano using head movement to dodge jabs, eventually getting caught when Black faked a jab to get Johnny to duck and then nailing him with a kick. Also liked Black doing his little yogi pose and Gargano running right in to kick him. The whole first several minutes are a bunch of fun bullshit, but a modern indy twist on stoogey bullshit, using a lot of constant movement without really gaining ground. But it's tougher to make that kind of swing dancing bullshit work when you're getting into the meat of the match, as you start taking big bumps that then get kind of immediately ignored for more ladies night square dance spots. Black eats a crazy DDT off a Gargano tope, and then back in the ring eats another DDT that leaves him suspended vertically on the mat for awhile, but seconds later they're back do-si-do'ing and springboarding into superkick trade-offs. A lot of it looks cool, but a lot of it also feels like total nonsense. Sometimes I find really fast spotfests exhilarating, but this feels like they need to be letting some of this breathe a bit. A lot of the stuff would still look great if it was slowed down a bit, and things do get better when Gargano stops Black with a couple of big flying knees. But there's just not a lot of space here. We go into a formula strike exchange that ends with Black teeing off on Gargano, but Gargano immediately shoves him to the floor, and Black immediately no sells a bump to the floor by kneeing Gargano out of the air on a tope. Again, a lot of the stuff they're doing looks cool, and almost all of it feels completely hollow. Even the finish seemed to come almost out of nowhere, as Gargano had been running around the whole damn match barely fazed by anything, but then goes out like a light. They went for go go go, and a lot of it just went went went in one ear and out the other. Also, I'm trying to write more 1980s Gene Shalit punchlines in my reviews now.

Velveteen Dream vs. Tommaso Ciampa

ER: Dream's 1998 Hollywood Hogan gear is fly as hell. He was Macho Man when we saw him Thursday, and did a ton of great Macho axe handles including a great one to the floor. I mean he's clearly a Savage acolyte anyway so it's a pretty lateral transition. And as I'm typing that I'm realizing that means we might see him doing a bunch of Hogan cosplay here and....and  man that sounds lame. But Dream is one of my absolute favorites this year. I think he's improved incredibly in the past two years and if he can make some Chikara horsehit work then he might be top 25 in the world. It's a big if though. And there is some Hogan cosplay, but mainly with a legdrop and boot, which is something you can work into your offense. He's not out there working a death days Charlie Haas gimmick or anything. And I like a lot of this but really loved the moment where Dream locks in a ringpost figure 4 on Ciampa's chronically bad knee. Not only because ringpost figure 4s fucking own, but we get a surprising tap from Ciampa while the ref isn't looking, and it's cool because maybe he did it to break the hold, maybe he did it because Dream beat him. Once Dream starts working the knee it gets really good, and I liked the figure 4 drama, liked the big dramatic spill on the floor...but fully expected and was fully annoyed by Ciampa limping around on one leg, but still doing every single bit of his offense that involves dropping Dream onto his own hurt knee. "Oooooooo my kneeeeeee!!! Whelp, time to powerbomb a guy onto my knee!" The finishing stretch was both hot, and kind of long winded. There were some awesome moments and awesome nearfalls. I loved how all of the DDTs were set up: Dream jumped off the top but stopped short and caught Ciampa's boot, got kicked to the floor and got planted with the DDT coming back in. Great set up for that DDT. On the floor both flew over the announce desk but Dream caught him with the rolling death valley driver and rolled him in to plant the elbow for a great nearfall. The Dream DDT on the belt looked great, we got Dream crashing and burning to the floor on a crazy missed elbow, tremendous bump, and the match finishing hanging DDT on the metal joining the two rings was an awesome use of a ring. That metal grating is never there otherwise, and it feels like a great Finlay idea to utilize that into a unique finish. But I think there was some unnecessary excess and wasted time, and I think we had some unrealistic kickouts instead of creating actual drama. I don't think this was far from being a really good match, and I thought Dream looked fantastic (getting a little bored with Ciampa's whole thing at this point), but I don't think this quite got there.

WarGames Match: Undisputed Era vs. War Raiders/Pete Dunne/Ricochet

ER: Man those shark cages are dorky as all hell. And Adam Cole was not at all the guy I wanted to see wrestling this entire match. But at least they're smart and put the heels up 2 to 1. It's insane how often that gets screwed up. Everybody screw over Roderick Strong on his entrance, doing all of their selling at the same time in the ring farthest from the cage door. So Strong runs in like a house on fire and has to run through a fucking Double Dare obstacle course to get to everybody standing around watching him like an idiot. And this whole match is just a reallllllll...slog. First off, you know a WarGames with no blood is just always going to be lame as hell. One of the first VHS wrestling tapes I rented from the video store was the big beautiful Great American Bash '87 clamshell, with two different WarGames: THE MATCH BEYOND matches. I was WWF only at this point in my life, and the wrestling I was so used to was so much more...grimy and violent than I was used to. I knew most of the wrestlers in those '87 matches, most had been in the era of WWF that was my first wrestling, but it felt so different than the wrestling I had been watching. This didn't feel grimy or violent. It felt like a series of uninterestingly laid out spots. It had some of the sloppiness of a big CZW cage match, but without any of the grime or violence. There are always going to be good moments from something like this, but my god I was so young when this match began. Mauro says "It must be a nightmare for all involved" and it's the only time he's made sense tonight. This match is a neverending nightmare of a match. If I was King of the References Mauro Ranallo I would say "This match is such an unending nightmare that I'm begging for Freddy Krueger to appear and rip me apart asshole to throat!" Ricochet had some big flying spots (including 7 guys managing to miss catching him on his huge backflip senton), and there was an awesome moment where Rowe alley-ooped Fish into a killer Hanson powerslam, but man did this whole thing draaaaag. I can't decide if the stupid 8 man dude Christmas tree powerbomb off the ropes was really really stupid or just really stupid, but I was laughing hard enough that it didn't really matter.

ER: This was easily the worst TakeOver that I've watched, with few positives. Velveteen Dream delivered huge, but a lot of the match structures felt like they failed huge. And really, Mauro turned in a show long atrocious performance. He stinks.

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2017 Ongoing MOTY LIst: Modern Vintage WARGAMES!!

71. C.W. Anderson/Zane Dawson/Dave Dawson/Arik Royal v. Chet Sterling/Mecha Mercenary/Aaron Biggs/Ric Converse Modern Vintage Wrestling 9/16

PAS: Good to see a real War Games as opposed to an Adam Cole stained NXT spotfest. This had fat dudes and balding dudes and some blood just like War Games are supposed to . Great CW Anderson performance, as he was the first man in and last man out. I liked the opening one on one section with Sterling, and Anderson is especially great at working a cut. Keeping Mecha Mercenary on the floor as the heels triple teamed Sterling was a clever way to work around the middle section of War Games which is usually the weakest. The Squad getting into the ring to clean house was a nice moment. I am not a huge Sterling fan, so a match based around him was always going to be a bit of a letdown for me, I also loved the little bit of Royal, but he felt a bit sidelined. Finish was cool and a nice turnaround from earlier, although we could have used a near fall or two on the faces, it felt like as soon as Converse came in, the heels were done. Still this match, if done correctly, has a pretty high floor and I enjoyed it.

ER: You know when an Anderson starts a WarGames it's going to be a great one. And, sure enough, CW is a total king throughout this whole match. He and Sterling start and he just wrecks Chet, busts him open and jams his face into the cage, takes some nice punches from Sterling and gives back far more brutal ones. CW throws a freaking metal briefcase at the worst angle at Sterling's face, just a super violent shot you'd expect from a Black Terry flea market brawl or a Rush/Park beer bottle brawl. Things really ramp up when Mecha Mercenary comes out to even things up, as Sterling has just taken a beating from CW and Zane Dawson at this point. The camera cuts to the door of the cage as Mecha is entering, and from off camera a CW superkick greets Mecha, then another for good measure to knock him to the floor. I love Mecha, but I love matches constructed to keep him out. He's great at selling longterm damage and he's great at hot tags and comebacks, so him suddenly bursting back into a match is always the best. Royal makes a great entrance by just running in with a chair and blasting the Squad with huge chairshots and leveling Sterling with a great one. Chairshots were something we got so numb to seeing, and now that they aren't all over a wrestling card a real good chairshot finally carries some weight again. Royal is a really great weapons worker as he throws relatively safe shots that always look like KO blows. I've written a few times before he's always great at safely working crowd brawls, and with safe/brutal weapon shots just give him another underappreciated skill and show how great he really is. Plus, his WarGames attire is flawless (really all the heels had great WarGames attire). I loved the Squad going on a tear, with fun stuff like Royal getting avalanched by Biggs into the cage/apron. I didn't love Sterling going off the top of the cage, just because WarGames matches aren't supposed to be about cage flying stunts (I understand it's not easy to make a closed roof cage, but don't call attention to it), but Sterling needed a big moment to make up for that beating he took up front. The finish was a terrific bit of pro wrestling, with a perfectly used celebrity cameo: JJ Dillon (introduced before the match) slams the cage door onto CW's head when he's trying to leave instead of facedown all four babyfaces alone, just a perfect way to use someone like that. CW gets tangled into a submission by Sterling and quits, and in taking his excellent match-long performance beyond the match itself, continues after the match by complaining that he never actually quit. We've spent a year hearing a bald heel deny saying things that everybody heard him say, so it was a great topical heel move. Awesome match.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST
COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WEDNESDAY MORNING WARGAMES

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2017 Ongoing MOTY List: ANARCHY WARGAMES

15. Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azrael) Anarchy Wrestling 6/24

PAS: The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

ER: 10 years on, another great WarGames from Anarchy. They really capture the violence like few can. How many Monsters Ball and other cage matches did TNA run, none of them ever approached the violence here. The opening 5 was great, Jeremiah is a total savage and Buck is a big guy who bumps bigger all around the ring and immediately bleeds; Blue comes in and throws some so-so shots, and Jeremiah absolutely devours him like a Tazmanian Devil cartoon. This guy is great. And then I fall in love with Cyrus the Destroyer, who looks like Buster Bloodvessel at his biggest. He takes an absurd bump into the cage, just getting launched upside down into it and scraping down the side of it. As you'd expect, we get some wild cage bumps, with Gunner upping the ante later by missing a spear into the cage with gusto. Chris Spectra is a guy I've never seen before and he had an awesome entry into the cage, coming in with nunchucks and catching a Jeremiah punch by wrapping it the chain. And as I'm talking about cool entrances we suddenly get druids coming out with very real torches, and Azreal getting lowered from the ceiling on a small plank (and good thing they kept the lights off as it had to be difficult to look cool while balancing on a tiny platform being lowered from the ceiling. Everybody in this tightens up strikes and kicks as if they were being filmed in HD and thought they needed to make it look good, which just adds to the feeling of constant violence. My only complaint is everyone needing to get to kind of the same place damage-wise all at once so Azreal could do his entrance, so you had people who had been in the match for less than 4 minutes selling death the same as the guys who had been in the whole time. But, the entrance was a cool visual so there's at least a decent tradeoff, and the match suitably ends on the nastiest thing in the match, a hacksaw rubbed across Azrael's mouth corners. Yuck. Another great indy cage match, and I'm excited to see more of these guys.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Anarchy Wrestling Hostile Environment 6/24/17

Chase Jordan v. Jeremy Foster

Really energetic opener. I liked Jordan as a goofy looking guy who would get vicious when taunted by the crowd. At one point he hit a diving punch to the back of Foster's head which was as violent as anything on this show. Foster is a hyper competent babyface who had some nice moments, including a great looking heel hook. Finish felt a little off, but this was a fine use of 8 minutes.

Ryan Vega v. AJ Gray

This was the climax of a feud which saw Vega stab Gray in the eye with a pen and piss on a referee. Vega has a nice scumbag look, although it is more Reddit troll then dangerous gutter punk. Match was a Gray showcase, as he was getting his revenge by hitting huge spots, he had a crazy Orihara moonsault and finished with a Phoenix splash where he kneed Vega in the ribs. Gray was fun (I remember liking him in CWF too) and this was another good match. 

Nightmare Kyle Matthews v. Anthony Henry

Another in a run of really entertaining Kyle Matthews matches, he has turned into one of my favorite guys in the world to watch. Henry is a guy I have seen a lot in EVOLVE and he was always a bit too go-go-go for my tastes, there was some of that here, but Matthews slowed him down some but still danced with him when it was time to dance. Really enjoyed Henry's arm work, after a Valet distraction he whipped him off the apron with the arm, and worked it for the rest of the match, including a cool bridged Fujiwara and a elbow lock with back control. I love how they have turned Matthews octopus into a killer hold, and both Henry's escape from the first attempt and the final finish were really well done. Looking forward to Matthews having a long fun run with this belt.

Lynch Mob (Joey Lynch/Matt Lynch) v. The Approved (Adrian Hawkins/ Bobby Moore)

This was a taped fist street fight for the tag team titles. I really dug this when The Approved and the Lynch Mob were punching each other in face, the Approved both have some really nice looking right hands, and the early part of this had a ton of energy. I liked how the Lynch Mob used dives, they were almost Sabuish in their recklesness. This fell apart a bit at the end, as both teams were setting up elaborate set pieces with chairs and it lost a lot of the energy it had earlier.

Tank v. Brad Cash

Here we had a Tapai death match along with lots of additional pokey weapons. This had some nice moments, Tank is a good brawler and the parts that resembled a brawl were good, still lots of this was geek show Mr. Pogo stuff. Lots of slow cutting by each guy, it was gross and bloody but not that compelling. I always prefer death matches to be built around stiffness and and bumps, the final bump by Cash was nasty as Tank choke slammed him on gusset plates, but this was mostly stabbing. Gory spectacle, but I am over gore for gore's sake

Rock C v. Jessica Leigh

I liked Rock C's reverse grapevine leg lock finisher, and she had one nice side suplex, but otherwise this was more a match for the live crowd, then anything you want to watch on tape.

Jacob Ashworth v. Stryknyn

Really fun heavyweight title slugfest. They start out early with some basic tight takedown and lock up wrestling, but like most face v. face matches, it really kicks in when they start throwing hands. Stryknyn hits a great looking barfight headbut and throws some really great straight rights, he also has some nice looking stomps. Ashworth doesn't have as crisp punches, but has great babyface fire, and some of the exchanges looked down right Lawlerian. I didn't love the moves section as much, lots of full nelson slams and B- spears, but I have to love any match based on great punches.

Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) v. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azreal)

The first recent vintage Wargames match I have reviewed since I started my C+A Wargames and it lives up to the name. This has been building for a while since Billy Buck turned on Slim J, turning him into Gladiator Jeremiah. Buck then joined Team TAG and Jeff G. Bailey. Jeremiah then began recruiting monsters to take with him into war. Before the match they announced that Iceberg was in the hospital meaning the Battalion was one man short. Buck and Jeremiah start out and Jeremiah mauls him, bloodying him up and chucking from cage side to cage side. Heels get the advantage and Jeremiah takes some big bumps into the cage. At one point Cyrus, who is 350 if he is an ounce, gets hurled into the cage and breaks the whole thing, For the rest of the match the cage looks like it is going to collapse, which doesn't stop nutso Jeremiah from doing a dive off the top. Really enjoyed Spectra who came in with nunchucks and actually had some fun offense with them as weapons. Se7en also really hurled people around when he came in, he has such force in everything he does. The final Battalion member to come in was the returning Azreal who comes in lowered from the ceiling with druids holding torches. It was a pretty dope entrance, especially for an indy show. My only real complaint in the match is Azreal being the one to submit, a hacksaw in the mouth is a fine way to end a match, but having a guy have this big entrance only to be the loser seems like weird booking. Still great violent performances by everyone in this match, and one of the better Cornelia Wargames I have seen.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE WARGAMES

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Wednesday Morning Wargames: NWA Anarchy: Team PCW v. Team Anarchy

Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Bobby Moore/Stryknyn/Logan Creed ) v. Team PCW (BJ Hancock/Jon Williams/Lars Manderson/Brian Blaze/Geter) NWA Anarchy 8/22/15- FUN

This was stip laden as these indy Wargames matches tend to be, if team PCW won Stephen Platinum would win control of Anarchy (I love the indy wrestling universe where these money losing indies are so valuable multiple nefarious outfits are always trying to wrest control), if Anarchy wins Jeff G. Bailey (Babyface Jeff G. Bailey!?!) would get five minutes in the cage with Steven Platinum. Match itself was solid violent stuff without any real standout performance or huge memorable moments. Creed gave Hancock a full nelson slam off the top rope which was nasty, and Strykynyn spit a fireball which was cool. Geter is a huge fat dude, basically a black Iceberg and he was fun throwing splashes and clotheslines, there was some booking with him turning on his partners leading Anarchy to get the tap. The Bailey v. Platinum stuff was fun when they weren't doing wrestling moves on each other and just punching. Lots of horseshit and runs in there, and the match ends with Jeff G. Bailey giving a rah rah babyface speech thanking the fans, what a world. 

Complete and Accurate Wednesday Morning Wargames

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Complete and Accurate War Games

I have been doing a series of reviews of Indy Wargames match on Wednesday Morning War Games for the last couple of months. Like other C+A's I will be rating these matches EPIC, GREAT, FUN and SKIPPABLE. I have already found some gems, and hopefully I will turn up some more.

1991

Ric Flair/Barry Windham/Sid Vicious/Larry Zbyszko vs. Sting/Brian Pillman/Steiner Brothers WCW WrestleWar 2/24/91 - EPIC

2001

NWA Elite (Justice/Jason Cross/Adam Jacobs/John Phoenix) vs. NWA Wildside (AJ Styles/Onyx/Air Paris/Stone Mountain) NWA Wildside 7/7/01 - SKIPPABLE

2005

Team IWA-MS (Ian Rotten/Chris Hero/Axl Rotten/Corporal Robinson/Bull Pain) vs. Team NWA (Tank/Eric Priest/Chandler McClure/Sal Thomaselli/Vito Thomaselli) v. Fanin Family (Eddie Kingston/BJ Whitmer/JC Bailey/Mark Wolf/Steve Stone) IWA-MS 7/2/05 - GREAT

2006

Team ROH (Samoa Joe/BJ Whitmer/Bryan Danielson/Adam Pearce/Ace Steel/Homicide) vs. Team CZW (Claudio Castagnoli/Chris Hero/Nate Webb/Necro Butcher/Eddie Kingston) ROH Death Before Dishonor IV 7/15/06 - EPIC

Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Slim J/Ace Rockwell) vs. The Devil's Reject's (Iceberg/Tank/Azrael/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 7/22/06 - EPIC

2007

Team Destiny (Joey Silvia/Steve Greene/Jake Manning/Gemini Kid/Ty Dillinger) vs. Team Dynasty (Ric Converse/Brad Attitude/Xsiris/Kamakazi Kid/Commissioner William T. Cross) CWF Mid-Atlantic 2/4/07 - EPIC


2009

G1 (Tony Givens/Robby Cassidy/Moe Jenkins/Wayne Adkins) vs. The First Family (Brian Logan/Beau James) and The VSS (Alyx Winters/Chase Owens) CWA 3/21/09 - EPIC

2011

Urban Assault Squad (Nemesis and Shadow Jackson)/Kimo vs. Hate Junkies (Stryknyn and Dany Only)/Azrael NWA Anarchy 10/29/11 - GREAT

2012

Devil's Rejects (Andrew Alexander/Tank/Rufus Black/Se7en) vs. Team Empire (Drew Delight/Rush/Ben Thrasher/Chunky Dragon) EWE 3/1/12-EPIC

Team M.O.D. (J-Rod/C.J. Awesome/Kris Knox/Cru Jones/The Wicked Nemesis) vs. Team Peach State ( Mike Jackson/Shane Noles/Tommy Too Much/Simon Sermon/The Ultimate Dragon) PWA 6/2/12 - FUN

2013

The Illuminati (Brandon Collins/Jason Collins/Johnny Viper/Se7en) v. The Devil's Rejects (Andrew Alexander/Patrick Bentley/Tank/Rufus Black) Empire Wrestling Entertainment 8/3/13- FUN


2015

Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Bobby Moore/Stryknyn/Logan Creed ) vs. Team PCW (BJ Hancock/Jon Williams/Lars Manderson/Brian Blaze/Geter) NWA Anarchy 8/22/15 -  FUN

2016


Team Revolt (Harlem Bravado/Lancelot Bravado/Zane Riley/Jake Manning/Caleb Konley) vs. Team Xperience (CW Anderson/John Skyler/Gunner/Corey Hollis/Adam Page) PWX 3/13/16 - GREAT

Team PCW (Brian Blaze/Brian Kane/Geter/Johnny Danger/Kevin Park/Quasi Mandisco/Supernatural) vs. The Cornerstone (Bill The Butcher/The Carpenter/Jon William/Trevor Aeon/Trey Williams/Mystery Man A/B/C) PCW 4/7/16 - FUN


2017

Team Elite (Gunner Miller/Kevin Blue/Billy Buck/Chris Spectra) vs. Jeremiah’s Battalion (Gladiator Jeremiah/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Azreal) Anarchy Wrestling 6/24/17 - GREAT

C.W. Anderson/Zane Dawson/Dave Dawson/Arik Royal vs. Chet Sterling/Mecha Mercenary/Aaron Biggs/Ric Converse Modern Vintage Wrestling 9/16/17 - GREAT

2018

Cult of Cash (Brad Cash/Cyrus the Destroyer/Se7en/Chop Top) vs. Jacob Ashworth/Logan Creed/Bobby Moore/Stryknyn Anarchy Wrestling 7/28/18-GREAT

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Wednesday Morning War Games: NWA Wildside Team NWA Elite v. Team Wildside

NWA Elite (Justice/Jason Cross/Adam Jacobs/John Phoenix) v. NWA Wildside (AJ Styles/Onyx/Air Paris/Stone Mountain) NWA Wildside 7/7/01

This didn't do very much for me. This was less a violent fight and more a chance for athletic guys in jnco jeans to do backflips. I liked the opening section with Styles and Adam Jacobs, it was juniors wrestling, but well worked. Styles took some nutty bumps into the cage, which is something he is still doing 16 years later, and Jason Cross has a nice brainbuster, but otherwise this was forgettable. Justice is Abyss and looks even dumber in an Andre the Giant singlet. Finish has Stone Mountain return to the fed as the Wildside team's surprise partner, he then turns on his team and they have a long beatdown section with Jeff G. Bailey yelling over the microphone. Wildside did War Games a bunch of times, hopefully I will find a great one, this wasn't it.

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Wednesday Morning War Games: IWA-MS- Team IWA-MS v. Team Fanin v. Team NWA

Team IWA-MS (Ian Rotten/Chris Hero/Axl Rotten/Corporal Robinson/Bull Pain) v. Team NWA (Tank/Eric Priest/Chandler McClure/Sal Thomaselli/Vito Thomaselli) v. Fanin Family (Eddie Kingston/BJ Whitmer/JC Bailey/Mark Wolf/Steve Stone) IWA-MS 7/2/05

This was a three team, two ring War Games with ownership of IWA-MS at stake. While it was a little overstuffed (Team NWA seemed superfluous, and were the first team eliminated), this really shows the value of having great brawlers and letting them brawl. War Games are always going to have section where lots of guys are just wandering around kicking and punching, Corp, Ian, Eddie Kingston, Bull Pain, Tank, these are all time great punchers and kickers. Watching Corporal Robinson hurl those half punch/half forearms is just pleasurable. We also had the Chris Hero v. Eddie Kingston feud weaving through this, which is one of my all time favorite indy feuds, there is a great moment near the end where Hero just unloads with crazed elbows. Steve Stone was my favorite under the radar guy in the match, his brawling looked on the level of the legends, he bled a ton and he took some nasty bumps. I didn't love either finish, Tank seemed like he went down a little early, and having JC Bailey turn on Fanin seems like a weird finish for a face team to win. Still this is a violent bloody brawl which was very entertaining and worth tracking down.

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Wednesday Morning War Games PWA: Team M.O.D v. Team Peach State

Team M.O.D. (J-Rod/C.J. Awesome/Kris Knox/Cru Jones/The Wicked Nemesis) v. Team Peach State ( Mike Jackson/Shane Noles/Tommy Too Much/Simon Sermon/The Ultimate Dragon) PWA 6/2/12

PAS: This was a loser leaves town match between team Peach State and the main heel stable, and was highlighted by a nutso performance by 62 year old ex-Crockett job guy Jackson. He was the first man in for the face team and wrestled the entire 35 minute match. His opening section with J-Rod was the best part of the match, J-Rod was a little generic looking but he had nice punches and went into a cage OK. Jackson was a complete loon, he does the Spoiler rope walk around the ring, and then insanely does a Spoiler rope walk on the top of the cage. Jackson also bled the most, took a couple of big cage bumps and even did a cage dive, no idea what his crazy ass was thinking. No one else really stood out, although only Ultimate Dragon didn't look like they belonged. Classic War Games ending with the heel manager getting beaten up and submitting. Lots of extra curricular post match stuff including Ultimate Dragon ( a long time Jackson trainee and dance partner) turning heel and Rick Michaels running out. This is the least of these I have reviewed, it goes a bit too long and there are some dead spots, still it is worth checking out, just to see Jackson's insanity. 

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