Phil Schneider

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!!!

Here is my BattleCade review, final two matches will probably make our 2016 ongoing list when Eric gets around to reviewing them http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2017/01/cwf-mid-atlantic-battle-cade-123016.html

I am in on CWF too, I should be putting out a BattleCade review on Segunda Caida today or tomorrow, and then Eric and I are dumping 205 Live and doing weekly CWF reviews

If Dave Taylor was there, I see no reason for him not to put someone over in the first round. Have at least one guy someone might have heard of.

Why are you running from FUTEN? Ikeda v. Ono is 4 minutes long

I certainly had no plans to watch this, but I figure someone at SC should weigh in on the canonized best match in wrestling history before we go back to reviewing Black Terry Jr. HH's or Tamon Honda matches. I am really burned out on both long matches and 2010s style CrossFit wrestling, so two guys doing the ultimate CrossFit endurance match for 45 minutes wasn't going to do it for me. By CrossFit style, I mean a wrestling match where it seems like the goal is to pound out one more set of kettlebells to show how tough you are, rather then any sort of sensible progression or story, every match is a show of endurance. It is what Volador is doing in CMLL, Seth Rollins in the WWE, tons of people do in indies I don't watch and what a lot of NJ main events devolve into. Even taking away the problems I have with this style, I didn't think this match was particularly close to the apex of that style. For one thing I am really surprised at how bad both guys basic execution was. Big spots looked great for the most part, but Okada is throwing missed clotheslines that fly a foot over Omega's head, they exchange Ethan Pagian forearm smashes and wrestling school level kicks to the stomach, Okada's top rope elbow is a big move of his and he clearly takes all of the impact on his hip before gingerly placing his elbow in Omega's chest. The match is all wild drum solos, but the back beat is off. The match was also way too long, these guys don't have 40+ minutes of a match in them. They either can't or won't do matwork, so instead it was basically a 20 minute house show workrate match, followed by a 20 minute big show workrate match. It's like Finn Balor v. Seth Rollins on RAW, followed immediately by Finn Balor v. Seth Rollins at Payback. The match did have a couple of awesome huge spots, Omega's bump of the year into the table and the top rope Dragon suplex. That table bump was fucking lunatic, maybe the greatest table bump I can remember seeing, Omega got truly insane height and he landed like a V2 rocket on the table, I honestly don't know how he didn't lacerate his spleen. Still that move was 20 minutes into a 40 minute match and didn't play into the finish at all. Basically the next offensive move either guy executed was Omega hitting Okada with a super nasty top rope dragon suplex, which again didn't play into the finish at all or really get a compelling near fall. If either move led directly into a finish run it would have really made the match make more sense. Instead the finish run was a lot of dancy reversals around Okada's silly clothesline finisher. Omega is a guy with great athleticism, and big holy fuck spots. There was a moment during the finish run where he whips off a dragon suplex that looked like it was in x2 speed, and I really liked some of his desperation running knees. If someone could tone down some of his bad tendencies and and craft a match around what he does well it could be really awesome. Okada isn't that dude, and I don't think that guy is in NJ (or the WWE for that matter, I actually don't know who that guy is, maybe if Finlay gets fired again.) Our 2017 MOTY list will be filled with random small US indy matches, CMLL trios and Kurisu matches on Rutube, and honestly this match probably had enough good to make it objectively better than some of those. But I didn't enjoy it, and it was the poster boy of the type of wrestling I hate. Hard Pass.

OK you really need to watch FUTEN, so much better version of the super stiff style The first match is under 5 minutes