2017 Ongoing MOTY List: Skyler vs. Hollis Unsanctioned

56. John Skyler vs. Corey Hollis PWX 10/21/17

PAS: I got interested in this feud from reading a great article by Mike Mooneyham in the Post and Courier. This feud is the southern indy version of Gargano vs. Ciampa, long time tag partners have an ugly breakup and a vicious feud. This nicely mixed the more 2000s aspects of brawls (big showy bumps, weapons shots) and some really great 70's and 80's punching and bleeding. They start out by brawling all over the arena, both guys get slammed hard into concrete walls, and Hollis even gets his head stuck in a urinal. Skyler (who is the face in this feud) comes up bleeding badly, at points he even looks like IWA Cactus Jack. Hollis is pretty relentless on the cut, including pounding Skyler with a heavy chain wrapped around his fist. It is hard to do great looking punches with a chain like that, and Hollis really looked like he was waylaying him  Loved the false finish, they set up the table spot really well, with Hollis getting smacked by a ring bell and collapsing on the announcers table, and Skyler diving off the metal post and splashing both guys through the table. They do a whole stoppage with the announcers doing "Owen Voice" and everything. Security starts helping Hollis to the back but Skyler gets a second wind, jumps him, throws him into the ring and starts smashing his head into a chair. Unfortunately the finish brings this down a bit due to the run in by Brady Pierce and Gunner Miller and them triple teaming Skyler until Hollis pins him. I did like the visual of the heels ripping back the padding and exposing the wood beams under the ring although a 3 on 1 beatdown is an unsatisfying finish to a war. This was a balls out killer fight though, and got me excited to check out their I Quit match.

ER: This was definitely Gargano/Ciampa before Gargano/Ciampa, and this had a lot of what I've enjoyed about their big matches only we get blood, a more southern feel (especially during the early crowd brawling), and no Gargano faces! The crowd brawl was really good, making nice use of the venue and the camera was right there with cool shots. Hollis gets thrown far over the guardrail onto concrete, and Skyler climbs the guardrail to leap after him with a clothesline, and we get a cool shot of through Skyler's legs as Hollis climbs to his feet in the background. Both guys lay it in and we don't get any tired "walking and hair holding", just a couple guys kicking asses around an events center, faces slammed on merch table 8x10s as other wrestlers look on, hard strikes thrown, tough whips into brick walls (it's hard to make "getting thrown into a wall" read well, but these looked great), and of course a brawl into the bathroom. The bathroom stuff was great, and I'm happy we didn't get a commentary reproduction of Dusty shrieking about a lady in the men's room (which I'm sure was tempting as they scanned the faces of fans in the bathroom), with Hollis doing the lord's work by flying face first into a couple of toilets, including getting flushed in a urinal. The toilet stuff is disgusting, but I think also weirdly important to establish just how crazy these two are. Once you get thrown face first into a urinal that tells me "well these guys are down for any damn thing in this fight".

And, they really are. Trash cans and ladders and kendo sticks and chairs get involved, but they thankfully shy away from prop set up and instead focus on beating each other with all of those things. Trash can lids can come off flimsy and lame, so the workaround to that is hitting someone with the edge of a lid, slicing open their head in gruesome fashion. Hollis hits a slashing lid blow on Skyler and then works that cut, Skyler's boss Jack Burton tank top getting messed up beyond the damage even Burton himself sustained. They don't linger on these items for too long, there's no Tanaka/Awesome moments, weapons are picked up, used, discarded, but kept around for potential later use. Hollis introduces a chain and I think even the worst chain-wrapped-fist punch would look good, but Hollis hits him with a real blow. I thought the false finish was splendid, Skyler really flew threw that table to crush Hollis, and they just lie in the wreckage for minutes while being tended to. I loved security bringing Hollis to his feet, and really it may have been my favorite part of the match. Hollis' selling was perfection; as he was dragged to his feet and basically carried out, he looked like someone who accidentally took too much Ambien on a flight and had to be carried off by flight attendants and one of the pilots upon arrival. Skyler runs him down, throws him into the ring and goes wild, true babyface comeback. Alas, the finish let the wind out of the sails, even though I fully understand what it was setting up. Once it becomes clear that three guys are just going to beat down one, and nobody is likely coming out to help the one, it becomes more of an exercise in reaching the inevitable win. To get over the desire for a rematch, the 3 on 1 beatdown needs to almost be worse than the match-long beating that preceded it, and I don't think we got there. Country Jacked holding Skyler while Hollis punts Skyler in the balls was a great moment, but to really put it over I was wanting excess. I wanted Hollis to keep punting those balls, build that sympathy back up, make it something that transcends the played out "he hired these goons to help him" No DQ trope. The finish sets up the I Quit, and I'm excited to see the I Quit, but I thought this specific finish could have been worked into the match better.


2017 MOTY MASTER LIST