Matches from Black Label Pro 2/2/19

Daniel Makabe vs. Rory Gulak

ER: Fun on paper match that totally ruled, real tight 11 minutes of cool grappling and almost lucha maestro submissions, with some nice strikes and a boss suplex peppering the action. Makabe is getting gigs all over the place now, so I didn't used to even think about "dream matches" as I felt lucky enough we got to see guys like Thatcher and Navarro work the PNW (and shoot, on this card I'd love to see him against Bateman), but even then I don't think I would have thought about Gulak as a "dream" match-up. But they're super complementary and Gulak gets hyper focused when in with a guy like Makabe. There's a lot of comedy Gulak out there, but he can be a real pitbull and I'm glad that's who we got. The minimal comedy we did get (Gulak being squirrely during a knucklelock) was put over nicely by Makabe, who then punished him for wasting his time. The ground game was really fun from both guys, especially liked Gulak tying up Makabe's arm and leg, and another time touching both his arms behind his back while wrenching his neck. That looked like a finisher sub right there. Makabe has a nice STF and a good brain that's always looking for a limb or neck to crank, always working to set up one sub only to pivot to grab the sub he actually wants. These two make something fairly innocuous - like a series of waistlock reversals - feel really exciting, simple single leg takedowns become highspots, and Makabe doesn't cheap out on things like snapmares, always throwing them tightly. The strikes were laid in tightly throughout, short elbows from mount, a nice brief stand and trade capped with the Big Unit punch, and my favorite quick sequence where Rory brags to the crowd and gets snapped over into a nice German. Makabe's corner dropkick lands hard and I liked his surprise Teddy Hart leg sell after that lead to Gulak locking in an absolutely vicious kneebar that looked like it was going to touch Makabe's sole to his head. This was super brisk and always violent, always cool. One of my favorite show openers of the year.

25. Sadkampf (Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku) vs. WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry/James Drake)

PAS: After Garrini's weekend stealing performance in NYC, I am tracking down all of the Sadkampf. This was a total blast, just four guys teeing off on each other. We get an opening mat section with Garrini and Henry and it really makes me want to see them match up in Bloodsport 2020, fast takedowns, cool reversals. Henry mostly is a workrate junior, but can really roll if he wants to. Everyone goes to the floor, and we get a great arena tour brawl, which ends with Garrini smushing Drake with a running knee into the wall. It is two on one for a while, until Drake comes crawling back for the tag. I think they went a bit long after the dramatic hot tag, and the finish run wasn't as good as the body of the match, but man these are four guys who will unload.

ER: I might have liked this even more than Phil. The only portion of the match I didn't really like was a middle section that saw Garrini and Ku kind of just standing around waiting to be hit several times. That slowed down the pace of what was - before and after - a smoking match. When a match is built around 100% asskicking and not cool moves, it's going to have a really high floor. And these guys can all hit. I was really impressed with Garrini's strike selling in this match, a feature of his I've never really noticed before. Henry has a lot of kick combos (and a lot of cool kick combos!) and I loved the way he attacked Garrini with leg kicks and a big variety of spin kicks and high kicks. Garrini sold them in a fun off balance way while finding many different ways to fall down. I especially liked him getting knocked off balance, teetering on one leg, before face planting. The crowd brawl was fun and peaked with Drake missing his cannonball into a wall and eating a nasty knee from Garrini. Sadkampf can throw some vicious knees and chops (Garrini's palms together chop to Drake's neck is just unfair) and we got those in spades. It can be hard to keep building up fans to a finish when you have multiple "all four men knocked down" moments, but I thought the pace did a good job of escalating and deescalating fans. I really liked the finishing stretch and felt it build like some of the hotter Kings Road tags, really liked the focus on painful partner saves (Henry doing a double stomp from the top to break up a pin, Garrini hitting a heavy senton), and it was cool seeing what both teams could string together for painful match finishing combos. This was an awesome tag.

Tyler Bateman vs. Gary Jay

ER: Two guys I like, having a match that I didn't really like! Opening up a match with a lonnnnng chop battle isn't going to do much to win me over, no matter how beet red both guys get from them. We already had a zillion nasty chops and red chests during the tag match, stacking a card with a bunch of white guys getting their chests beaten red feels like BLP is catering more to a fetish market. And you have to make money where you make money, so if it helps the merch tables I don't really care. This match had a lot of good ideas but they weren't really integrated well into an overall match. There was a little bit too much of a disconnect to the bigger spots, Bateman obviously landing his head a foot away from the apron on the big DDT, an obviously thigh slapped headbutt on the finish, and honestly that's fine. I'd rather these two not brain themselves into CTE, but the close up magic has to look better. I still like both guys and both guys have cool moments here, a nice lariat from Bateman results in Jay getting absolutely upended, and both guys hit plenty hard, just not as often during the moments that were supposed to be KO shots.


ER: This show had some cool looking fat guys stuck in multimans that I didn't really want to watch, so I'll keep coming back to BLP. It's easy when there always seems to be a match as good as that tag, a real brawl with awesome build, an easy add to our 2019 Ongoing MOTY List. I was also a big fan of Makabe/Gulak, with Makabe really crafting a fun 11 minute match. I like these guys.