Ki is Carving Initials on Your Forehead, So Every Night Before Bed You See LK Shine Off the Board Head

Lokey vs. Monster Mac vs. Ken Sweeney vs. Indian Chief Tango LIWF 10/10/98-FUN

ER: I used the name spelling used by the Long Island Wrestling Federation's own graphics department, and this absolutely has to be the earliest Low-Ki match that I've seen. He and Monsta Mack are both fresh faced teenagers (!) and this is a fun snapshot of a transitional period for east coast indy wrestling. There were guys like Ki and Mack who in just a year or two would be accepted as the new popular style on the indy scene, and here they are as teenagers working an indy show underneath Bill Eadie and Jimmy Snuka. Nineties indy cards were littered with old WWF guys in their mid 50s (or worse, guys in their mid 50s who were never even in WWF but they owned a ring). Phil once described going to a late 90s east coast indy show as "You'd leave going 'Well, Axl Rotten threw a couple of nice chops.'" So something like this - four guys throwing out a bunch of spots in a chaotic Texas tornado style match - would have really stuck out as something fresh.

Ki and Mack are still in a gestation period. I found an angelfire page saying this was Ki's FIRST MATCH, and that page was also selling all 3 volumes of BUDMAN316's Ric Blade compilations, which is a sentence funny enough that I couldn't have actually thought of it myself. It's fun seeing early footage of guys you've watched for almost 20 years, see how completely different their moveset is. Ki's moveset here wasn't any more or less spectacular than his current moveset, just different, like when you watch Wildside era AJ Styles and he does a lot of legdrops. Ki hits missile dropkicks different, does a springboard frog splash and a frog splash off the top, hits a moonsault press off the top to the floor, moves entirely different on kicks (appears to be throwing X-Pac kicks in the corner) and even tries an ill-advised RVD terrible looking single leg dropkick off the top. It could have gone terribly as Mack tries to catch the kick meaning Ki lands awkwardly on one leg. Mack is such a baby here, hadn't yet grown into a true monster, but still had no problem yelling at a Puerto Rican girl at ringside and dropping guys with powerbombs. The Indian guy has the worst chops in the match, which I think might constitute a hate crime, but he has a nice standing spinning heel kick and so naturally does that to the other three.

Ken Sweeney is perfect. He's such a flawless New Jersey metalhead cosplayer that there is zero chance of any cosplaying actually taking place. There is a dearth of speed metal indy wrestlers, and here's Ken Sweeney showing up in sick as hell torn pink tiger striped fringe tights, Iron Maiden shirt, apology mustache, and a thick as hell blowback mullet. I'd bet a days wages that Ken Sweeney has a vest with a Saxon patch on it, and I'd love to drink tallboys and talk Piece of Mind with this dude. Watch him almost trip on the ropes getting into the ring, and then back the fuck off because he's mine. And Sweeney works like a dude amped up on British speed metal, working a fast pace. He doesn't have the technical precision of say Adrian Smith, but he comes at you like Bolt Thrower, trying guillotine legdrops and a superplex and a plancha to the floor. This match inexplicably goes to a time limit draw, but we're all made better for watching it. Up to you whether or not to stay for the Eadie match. I'm staying (and Eadie fought Tito Santana and it actually ruled because 1998 Tito still ruled).

PAS: Cagematch has one earlier Ki match listed (9/25/98 JAPW Nation of Immigration (Homicide/Kane D) vs Low-Ki/Ron Zombie) but this is definitely baby Ki. Ki and Mack are cousins and they basically matched up 95% of the match, Ki has eye black under both eyes and looks like he is at JV football tryouts. This had a bit of an ambitious back yard feel to it. They didn't blow anything, but it felt like they were just running through every spot they practiced, with out a ton of thought put into the sequence. There were some fun moves, Mack press slams Ki to the floor, Ki hits a couple of big height frog splashes, and a spinning double arm DDT. Mack also splats him with a couple of big powerbombs. The other two guys in this match kind of matched up with each other and stayed out of the way. Sweeney looks just like I imagine Cyrus and Jeff looked like in The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LOW-KI