Phil Schneider

This thread was 8 years ago, and we are about a week or so away from making all of this stuff available!!

We got our first big match announcement

This was one of the most viscerally violent matches I can remember seeing. Demon was a wandering dead eyed psychopath in this match, with Wagner doing a great job as a charismatic babyface fight back against a horror movie villain. I have seen plenty of matches with big weapons shots over the years, and this match was a great example of making each weapon shot a memorable moment. Demon opens up the match with by breaking a bottle over the head of Wagner, who had come into the match wearing his mask, which maybe stretched the rules a bit, but did allow for a bloody white mask which is always a great visual. The second huge moment came when a sickeningly bloody Demon goes out of the ring and grabs a claw hammer, and attacks Wagner like he was Richard Speck. He slams Wagner in the back of the head and spine, and hammers his hands like his knuckles were penny nails. It was a great bit of close magic by Demon, it really looks like an attempted murder, and I have no idea how you gimmick a hammer to the back of the head. The final huge moment comes at end of the match, after Wagner gets a bunch of close near falls with nasty Wagner Drivers, Demon’s kid runs into with a cinder block, he awkwardly stands around a bit before getting bums rushed by Wagner’s seconds. Demon Jr. gets his hands on the cinder block and smashes in over Wagner’s head, in a pretty gross tribute to Angel o Demonio, KOing him and winning his hair. Hell of performance by two guys in their 50s as they just milked every bit of drama out of everything they did with Demon leaving puddles around the ring like an un house broken puppy.

JYD was a good worker too, he was coasting in the WWF (although there is a huge list of good territory workers who sucked in the WWF), but all of the Mid-South stuff we have from him is pretty good, and some of it was really great

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.

They had maybe the worst Darby Allin match I have ever seen in Black Label Pro

You know who are good commentators? The guys doing the Anarchy War Games match from 2006

If folks want to watch a really awesome War Games they probably haven't seen check out Devils Rejects vs. Team Anarchy from 2006 Here is the SC review http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/03/all-time-moty-list-head-to-head.html Here it is on Youtube

Here is my Workrate report for this show, I am clearly a low voter on this show. What Worked: -The non-wrestling stuff in this show worked for me. I thought the Tony Schiavone limo ride with Cody was great old school stuff. The Dusty and Willie Nelson story was great and the whole presentation made the contract signing seem like a big deal. Jericho is pretty great as a bloated creep leading a pack of wolves, heel Rock of Love era Brett Michaels is a great fucking gimmick, I can just see him faking an OD mid ring only to roll up his opponent when he tries CPR. Dustin's broken arm is a great way to heat up the PPV main event, although that might mean we don't see in ring Dustin for a while, and this show could desperately use him. -Similarly Santana and Ortiz beating down the Rock and Roll Express was simple pro-wrestling storytelling. Ricky Morton is an all timer at taking a beating and Santana and Ortiz are really great as out of control thugs, you can tell they are from that JAPW family tree (speaking of which, sign Homicide and Eddie Kingston already AEW, what are you waiting for). I liked them jumping the Bucks too, nice use of the Rick and Morty gimmick which actually gave that goofy thing some purpose. - Moxley's promo was fine, and he is undoubtedly over. I miss the old Moxley promos where he was talking about his mom turning tricks where he came off like a real unhinged psycho, but he is clearly in a different place in his career. Don't love Tony Khan showing up as an on air character. AEW should stay far away from Authority Figure angles, it has been a stain on wrestling for two decades now, and no one is ever going to approach Vince as a performer. If you need a Jack Tunney for an angle, give it to Arn or Bob Armstrong or something and just have them make pronouncements and don't have them do anything else. -The six man tag was the best of the car crash matches on this show. It isn't really my thing, but the Bucks have clearly mastered that formula, and Jack Evans is still breathtaking to watch. If they did one of these matches a show it would work great, unfortunately that isn't what is going on. What Didn't Work -God, is the ringwork on this show one note. Every match is worked at the same pace, with the same headdrops, 2.9 counts, dives and near falls. They need some fat guys, some mat workers, a couple of guys with good punches, anything to break this up. -Why is Adam Page doing flips and dives? Isn't he your tough Cowboy character? A lariat does not need a fucking front flip. I liked Sammy faking a dive and instead slapping Page, but outside of that this was just white noise -Why does your undercard women's match go 15 minutes with the same dramatic near falls as every other match. Is Shanna even part of the roster? If you have plans for Shida, why is her debut undercard squash worked like a main event title match. Outside of a couple of nice knees by Shida (and there were a bunch that looked bad too) the work didn't particularly move me, and there needs to be an agent telling people that they can't use up all of the tricks in every match. -Why in god's name does your comedy squash have an insane headdrop finish? If your comedy guys are doing moves that look like they should lead to a stretcher job and six month hiatus what does that mean for your main eventers? Just insane escalation which is going to lead to someone breaking their neck trying to outdo the undercard. On the plus side, I think they may have tweaked the Orange Cassidy character enough to make it work for me, having those kicks be a taunt as opposed to something their opponent has to play along with, makes a big difference. The hands in the pocket tope stands out in a show with dozens of crazy dives. Shoot the Best Friends into the sun though. - Fenix is really special to watch, on a show where everyone is working as some variation of his style, he still outshines them. I almost feel sorry for Kazarian and Scorpio, those guys are old, and they are still trying to work a gogo highspot style. Cut off the ring or something. No wonder Kazarian almost broke his neck on that rana to the floor, Vince Carter isn't still trying to thunder dunk every time he gets the ball. You guys are almost 40, work on a midrange jumper.

I thought Gage was perfect in his role in that match. He is a Tank Abbott style streetfighter, an archetype which has a long storied history in MMA. He basically got squashed, but both of his hope spots were great, Kross working a traditional MMA striker only to get smashed with a barfight headbutt was awesome, and the outclassed tough guy refusing to tap and throwing up gang signs as he passed out ruled too. He didn't do anything to remove himself from narrative world of Bloodsport (it wasn't like Kross had to lay in the corner while he did his bootscrapes, or like he grabbed a light tube or anything) which is different then say Hammer and Kratos throwing in a terrible New Japan forearm exchange. I was at the Mania weekend Bloodsport and thought it was a slightly better card, but overall this was a heck of a show, and I thought Barnett vs. Dickinson was a top 10 MOTY, and the Makowski vs. Gulak match on the pre-show was also excellent I think Lawlor has been his best in AIW, he had a great series with Dom Garrini and a couple of really cool matches with Eddie Kingston. Whatever you think of GCW, they tend to be pretty professional in delivering what they tease and have built that kind of reputation with their fans. It would be very out of character for them to tease something like Batista coming in with no plan to make it happen. Both Batista and Rocky worked wrestling matches while they were acting in movies, I don't see why a GCW match would be an insurance issue, but working a garbage brawl with Helmsley wouldn't be. We reviewed the whole thing here http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/09/tuesday-shoot-indies-gcw-josh-barnetts.html

I wouldn't say Bloodsport had no hype, the hashtag was actually trending on Twitter during the show which is pretty big for an indy show. Also there is no way that Kross cuts that promo unless they already worked out the Batista match.