Phil Schneider

Callihan is the AAW champion and is coming in trying to avenge a beating Ki gave him in JAPW back in 2011, and it really delivers the level of violence that set up promise. Ki is rocking his Hitman suit gimmick and both guys rip into each other early. Callihan is landing straight punching him in the forehead and Ki is lacing him with chops. This is the best Sami performance since his return to the indies, violent, explosive, and a bunch of fun Finlayish tricks like catching Ki in the ring skirt and yanking Ki's arm and causing him to whiplash himself into the top rope. There were moments in this match which felt like high end FUTEN which isn't something you see in wrestling these days, near the end Ki is unloading these uppercuts which are thrown at full force. There was alot of fun horseshit in this match too, Callihan tapes Ki to the top rope and brutalizes him with a chair (including a shot to the face which was super nasty) when Ki gets loose he retaliates by grabbing Callihan by the jaw and dislocating it, Callihan then rips his managers shirt and makes a makeshift bandage. This was working it's way to an all time classic until the plum awful Abyss run in, about the worst way to end a great match reminded me of the end of Lesnar v. Reigns or Fiera v. Estrada. Still strong MOTY contender but any better of an ending it could have closed the debate.

We are updating this weekly over at Segunda Caida, with a new entry every Tuesday and a challenge every Saturday. Just had a new upset for 2006 http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/03/all-time-moty-list-head-to-head.html 1950 Buddy Rogers v. Lou Thez Chicago 6/21/50 1962 Dan Aubriot v. Pierre Bernaert French Catch 9/11/62 1965 Gilbert Cesca/Ben Chemoil v. Anton Tejaro/Inca Peruano French Catch 3/12/65 1967 Anton Tejero v. Walter Borders French Catch 8/29/67 1971 Bert Royal/Vic Faulkner v. Tony & Roy St. Clair WoS 1/12/71 1975 The Destroyer v. The Spirit AJPW 7/25/75 1976 Killer Karl Kox v. Dick Murdoch AJPW 12/9/76 1977 Harley Race v. Terry Funk NWA Houston 7/1/77 1978 Wahoo McDaniel v. Harley Race NWA Houston 2/10/78 1979 The Spoiler v. Wahoo McDaniel NWA Houston 4/21/79 1980 Roddy Piper/Rick Martel v. Buddy Rose/Ed Wiskowski PNW 8/2/80 1981 Andre the Giant v. Stan Hansen NJPW 9/23/81 1983 Sangre Chicana v. MS-1 CMLL 9/23/83 1986 Akira Maeda/Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Osamu Kido/Nobuhiko Takada/Kazuo Yamazaki v. Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami/Kantaro Hoshino/Kengo Kimura/Umanosuke Ueda NJPW 3/26/86 1989 Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Kazuo Yamazaki UWF 7/24/89 1990 Atsushi Onita/Tarzan Goto v. Kendo Nagasaki/Masanobu Kurisu FMW 4/27/90 1991 Vader v. Tatsumi Fujinami CWA 12/21/91 1994 Mitsuharu Misawa v. Toshiaki Kawada AJPW 6/3/94 1997 El Hijo Del Santo v. Negro Casas CMLL 9/19/97 1999 El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas v. Bestia Salvaje/Scorpio Jr. CMLL 3/19/99 2001 La Parka v. El Hijo Del Santo Monterey 12/23/01 2002 American Dragon v. Low-Ki JAPW 6/7/02 2003 Tamon Honda v. Kenta Kobashi NOAH 4/13/03 2004 Necro Butcher v. Toby Klein IWA-MS 6/25/04 2005 Daisuke Ikeda v. Yuki Ishikawa FUTEN 4/24/05 2006 Team Anarchy (Shadow Jackson/Nemesis/Slim J/Ace Rockwell) v. The Devil's Reject's (Iceberg/Tank/Azrael/Shaun Tempers) NWA Anarchy 7/22/06 2010 Daisuke Ikeda/Takahiro Oba v. Makoto Hashi/Kengo Mashimo FUTEN 10/25/10 2011 Dick Togo v. Antonio Honda DDT 1/30/11 2014 The Shield v. The Wyatts WWE 2/23/14 2015 Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Low-Ki JAPW 11/14/15

What a grizzly blood soaked war, Devil's Rejects have to be the scariest faction in wrestling history, they look like a gang of hillbilly cannibals. It really adds something to the danger of WarGames it is one thing to be locked in a cage with Arn Anderson or Sid, totally different thing to be locked in a cage with a bunch of guys who look like they have lost hikers chained up in their basement. Rockwell comes in with a broken arm and Slim J comes with a bad eye and they both injuries get exploited in horrible ways, Rockwell gets crucifix powerbombed arm first into the cage, Tempers drives a fucking meat cleaver into Slim J's eye. The babyface comeback after the sides equalled up was awesome, Shadow Jackson was great in the Nikita/Sting roll of powerhouse babyface roll coming in an powerslamming the 600 pound Iceberg. Rockwell wails on Azreal with his cast, and they end up Russian legsweeping Tank off the top through a table and superplexing Iceberg which might have opened up a crater in Cornelia. Finish was totally legit as Rockwell takes a claw hammer and tries to rip out Tempers cheek. Post match was crazy too, the match was control of Anarchy v. owner getting 5 minutes in the cage with Rev. Dan Wilson (all of these War Games seem to be about control of the fed, fucking McMahon GM nonsense ruined indy wrestling), the owner gets one punch in and then the Reject's stream in and maul that dude, stab him in the head, Iceberg second rope splash, meanwhile the crowd is hurling garbage and wrestlers are trying to scale the cage.

So glad to see these two guys back and brutalizing each other. I am continually amazed by what LA Park is doing at 51 years old, this isn't a guy working slick mat holds or even stand up brawling like Black Terry. This is a fat old man getting rolling drink carts hurled at his head and hitting flying full speed tope and mega height planchas, probably the most impressive post 50s wrestling performances I can remember, not only smart and awesome work, but athletic and dangerous too. Rush is a great foil for Park, smarmy, hateable and willing to bring the violence. I am not sure how much Rush has bladed before, but when Park breaks out the case of beer to the head, and the broken beer bottle to the forehead, Rush starts leaking like an old pro. I am really over lightubes, but an old fashioned broken beer bottle to the head still warms my heart. Finish was a bit of booking overload, but I did love some of the near falls, including Parks great spear. Nasty bit of violence and a real treat.

I really liked babyface Percy Pringle in the waining days of World Class, I think it works best as a babyface turn for a longtime heel manager. I imagine Heenan turning face to deal with a greater evil would have been a huge deal.

Powerbomb.TV delivers with this barrel of fun 3 way dance. Janela gets a great heel reaction from me by turning a singles match into a 3-way, always my least favorite booking move, but bumps his way into my heart, with a missed top rope senton on the ring apron which looked chiropractic. The low celling was clearly fucking up his flying, but outside of that 2 Cold looked awesome, he is wrestling like an athletic Gypsy Joe at this point, as he mixes in shoot punches and chops with great looking flip kicks right into faces. I really enjoyed all of the karate sparring face offs with Bailey early, and Scorp isn't afraid to take a shooting star kneedrop right to his kidneys. This had some of the 3-way awkwardness, but man alive did I love watching it.

I was a little worried that this wouldn't age well, juniors wrestling is a style which I have soured on the most as a fan, so much of current wrestling is infected by crossfit juniors style, that stuff which looked great back in the day, tends to really show it seams now. I hated the Tiger Mask stuff on the NJ DVDVR set, really didn't like Ultimo Dragon WAR matches, thought Liger v. Pillman sucked last time I watched it. However, while this match was clearly in the Sayama to Okada lineage, Low-Ki will kick a match into my heart. The hellacious assbeatings laid in on this match really separated it my eyes, Ki and KENTA both unloaded on every shot and Ki especially did a great job of selling concussive force, I loved his selling of the final Go 2 Sleep, he just crumpled in a ball. The nastiness of the shots really helped the momentum shifts, if a guy needs to go on offense one of those face kicks will really do it. Ki was also such an explosive athlete in 2005, watching him leap to the top rope for a Spaceman plancha or elevate for a double stomp is like watching MVP season Derrick Rose. I also really loved all of the slap exchanges, trading slaps is the one of the most played out things in wrestling, but man do both guys throw fast and hard shots, and they also don't just exchange, but perry, block and counter.

I thought this was totally awesome, CWA is the most recent iteration of Kingsport TN indy wrestling which is a tradition which goes back decades. I loved the opening section of this with Robbie Cassidy bumping around and busting open Chase Owens. Cassidy was fucking great in this, classic southern punches, big cage bumps, an awesome top rope fist drop, I had watched bits and pieces of Kingsport indies before (Tony Givens used to send me DVD's) , but this match made me want to search out more Robby Cassidy. James and Logan are a classic fat guy southern heel team, lots of great looking punches and cheap shots, sort of next generation Dirty Rhodes and Don Bass. This built nicely to a pretty crazy ending, with the faces locked in the cage another heel group comes out and menaces an injured member of G1 doing commentary, Winters does a nutty plancha off the cage onto the floor to break it up, and then there is a wild brawl on the floor and in the ring. The heels throw all of the faces out of the ring and focus on Givens, until Robbie Cassidy does another nuts dive from the cage to take out Logan, the only thing I didn't love was the finish with Givens getting a stoppage on James with MMA elbows, they didn't look great and they added some unneeded 2000s to a match that was gloriously 80s. Still this was a fucking blast, everything you want a War Games to deliver.

Holy hell, what is this match? I have loved Justice before, but this felt like him taking the next leap, and fuck is Garrini fun to watch. For two rookies, this was off the charts, it felt like watching Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki in their first UWF and Pro-Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi matches. Justice has Judo training and Garrini is a ranked Brazilian Ju-Jitsu competitor and they do an awesome job of showcasing those skills in a prowrestling context. The early mat rolling was really cool, I loved the kneebar countering and how smoothly Garrinin shifted from a rear naked choke into a twister. This was still a prowrestling match, and they both did cool things where they would be rolling for submissions, and one guy would catch his opponent in a cradle for quick pin attempt, getting small packaged isn't something Garrini has to worry about in Abu Dhabi grappling tourneys, and I liked how Justice threw in some pro-wrestling flavors. Justice nearly gets finished by a bunch of submissions and decides to get a little dirty, by banging Garini's arm off the ring post, and then we get a thrilling end run with Justice baring down on the arm while Dominic tries to catch him in chokes.

CWF worldwide is the answer, either that or old NWA wildside

This match only had one ring and was 3 on 3, so it stretches the War Games definition a bit, but it delivered in the gritty violence area. Anarchy has run a bunch of War Games matches which fits with Atlanta metro area location and the seedy violence of the arena. I loved the Stryknyn and Nemesis opening section really intense brawling with Stryknyn especially laying in some brutal stomps, Stryknyn also wins the Tommy Rich award as he is leaking all over the ring. Azrael stood out too, as he is a big guy who took some wild upside down bumps into the cage. Match didn't have too much of a story, for a while the heel team was working over Jacksons bad ankle, but Kimo slapped on a submission without a ton of build. Still this felt like a street fight between a death metal band and a bunch of Crips, and it is hard to not love that.

Paul Sonowski over at DVDVR questioned the date of the Wahoo v. Race title match http://deathvalleydriver.com/forum/index.php?/topic/5588-1978/ Anyone have any insight on this? If it is 1979 instead of 1978 it kind of fucks up my Segunda Caida All Time MOTY list

I can't imagine anyone thinking that. I wouldn't even understand the thought process

Nothing I love more then when a classic match like this shows up out of nowhere. Until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea these guys even matched up in Germany, and here it is. This is on par with the best singles matches either guy has had. Fujinami is really aggressive, taking it right at Vader including opening up with a slap in the mouth. Vader smashes him with some of those slightly harder then expected blows but Fujinami opens up his eye with a post shot and then really works over the eye including an awesome looking flying forearm right to the socket. My only real problem was the finish as Fujinami kicks out right at three which takes some of the steam out of the pin. Still a big time main event fight between two bad ass dudes.

This was match with the Commissioners office being put up in a WarGames match, with Dillinger and Cross playing the J.J. Dillon and Paul Ellering roles as non-wrestlers (I know Dillon and Ellering used to wrestling, but you know what I mean). Lots of this was really great, I loved the opening section with a pre Man Scout Manning and Brad Attitude. Manning bleeds buckets, and Attitude has great punches and some really cool dives between the two rings. I also really liked Silivia who had some nutso athleticism, including maybe the best Scott Steiner backflip powerslam I have ever seen. They used the two rings really well, including an insane superplex from one ring to another. I thought this match had a couple too many cage dives, that is a huge spot which is really diluted when four different guys try one. Finish also was a lot of booking, we get a run in and the heels handcuffed all of the faces to the cage except for Converse, the actual finish was awesome with Converse getting hit with a vicious chair shot, and as the heels threatened him again, Cross submits to save his career. It just took a little long to get there, the last seven minutes or so are just setting up for that final moment and we lose the momentum of the match a bit. Still overall a very entertaining version of this match with some really high highs. Well worth watching

You got to come harder then Wendy Richter after a hiatus

We reviewed a fair number of the shows over at Segunda Caida http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2010/08/segunda-caida-declares-war.html

That isn't fair, at least on this board I would imagine it is 90-10 anti-trump

Dear god what a match!! Maybe the best example of a classic NWA title defense we have on tape. 2/3 falls, traditional build with a absolutely off the charts finish. We have an expected long feeling out process, and it is really great matwork. Funk goes after Race's arm with some great arm wringers where he would bootscrape Race in his mush, and yank back violently. Unlike many other great wrestlers (Flair, Bret Hart, Santo) Funk is more of an improv guy then a stick to the script, Bosch mentions on commentary that Funk is doing thing he has never seen before, and I get the sense he is just making moves up in the match. I also loved the sequence built around Race's headscissors where Funk tries to scramble to his feet, such a unique escape. There was also really great variations of tempo in this match, lots of the early work was very deliberate, but there would be moments of speed and explosion, the finishes to both falls were set up by one of the two guys shifting into high gear and catching his opponent a step behind. 3rd fall is what elevates this from a classic to a legend. After Funk planted Race with a piledriver to get the second fall, you could tell he felt the match was his and he goes after the spinning toe hold with reckless abandon. Race counters the toe hold with straight shots right to Funk's eye and Terry starts leaking badly. However Funk will not be deterred, he keeps going back to the hold, tearing away at Race's knee and keeps eating right hands. Funk is betting he can destroy the knee before Race can destroy his face, he decides to walk through fire betting he can drag Race to hell and come out ahead, he loses the bet as he gets Race down but is too dazed to apply the hold and the ref calls the match. Awesome blood loss selling by Funk and a classic finish.

The whole review is terrible, it felt like the wrestling equivalent of a Breitbart article.

We don't typically do obituary posts, but Chavo Guerrero is a Segunda Caida favorite and a guy with a bunch of under the radar classics. This is a 2/3 falls Jr. title match courtesy of the invaluable NWA Classics service. The match is reffed by Lou Thez, but is worked differently then most Thez reffed matches. Match starts with Gino beating the everloving shit out of a fan, it was hard for any match to live up to the violence of that fan beatdown. We get some Thez approved mat work in the first fall including some very cool stretching by Chavo, he wasn't fancy like a Negro Navarro or Johnny Saint, but his maestro chops were more about making simpler things look really painful. Match breaks down into a hell of a back and forth fight in the third fall with both guys exchanging big shots. Chavo has really great looking punches as does Gino, and both guys are amazing at selling punches, both guys would make weak shots look strong, and they make the strong shots look devastating. Chavo gets the belt with an OG Guerrero cheat to win tight pull, only to have Gino smash him with a belt leading to the crowd going apeshit as Thez clears the ring. Great match, and an awesome example of what Chavo could do as a triumphant babyface, this is how I imagine his Olympic wars with Roddy Piper must have looked like.

He would have been super small in the 80s, I can't think of anyone his size who got any sort of real push. Even Dundee was really barrel chested

It's MS1 v. Sangre Chicana and it isn't that close.

The greatest match in wrestling history takes the #1 spot for 1983. I have probably watched this match 20+ times and love it as much each time. This has my favorite match structure for a 2/3 falls match. MS1 jumps Chicana in the aisle and brutally beats him, Chicana is spraying blood while MS1 struts around the ring. We have old ladies in the audience wiping his forehead with their handkerchiefs. MS1 rolls the beaten and bloody Sangre into the ring, hits a top rope splash and pins him. Totally one sided beating, not a single moment of offense from Chicana. The second fall starts more of the same with MS1 in total control, and then we have a perfect wrestling transition, MS1 throws a big right and Sangre ducks it and hits this huge left hook, and the crowd blows up, he hits one more and then this maniacal tope to get the count out win. Chicana busts MS1 open in the beginning of the third fall and we have this crimson ballet in the third fall, with MS1 missing a couple of big top rope moves and succumbing to a submission to lose his hair.

Lies!!!