Edwin

Its Ishikawa's ground game vs. Usuda's stand up and its fun. Ishikawa does a great at countering strikers kicks and ankle picking them and the case is no different here. Also everyone seems to step up the intensity of their strikes whenever they face Ishikawa and Usuda is no different as he blasts Ishikawa with some stiff kicks. The finish was neat and unexpected as Ishikawa puts Usuda over by getting choked out. Good stuff. ***1/2

Man, I really love watching Carl Malenko. Dude is always in some fun matches. Taira has come along nicely here too. I had no idea they had given him the Independent Jr. title... This was good, yet relatively underwhelming considering the sides involved in it. The mat exchanges were fun, but the scrambles weren't exactly at the level of the earlier Ishikawa vs. Ono match from the previous month. The finishing stretch was OK'ish as it wasn't particularly great either as they seem to hold back a lot and not blast kicks ala Nagai, but that body press and rolling butterfly suplex into a double armlock were neat. ***

Eh, I'm with OJ and don't agree with the general overlook of this... Not saying it wasn't good, because it was, however I don't feel it was as good as it's being made out to be. I really dug the endless scrambles which I thought were great, namely Ono channeling Sakuraba and using a cartwheel to escape an armbar attempt. However Ono looks really flimsy, similar to Spanky in TWA levels of flimsy and thus a lot of the stuff he does doesn't come off looking as good as it would if it were someone else. I'm not sure that's what OJ was going for, but that's how it came across to me. Anyway, this was fairly good however. ***

The start to this was fantastic with Nagai dropping to the ground like he's Fabrício Werdum inviting Alistair Overeem to jump into his guard with Ishikawa obliging and getting a full mount and blasting Nagai twice in the face with right hands. I dug Ishikawa finding ways to counter Nagai's strikes on the feet either by ankle picking his head kicks leading to kneebars or countering his slaps with armbreakers. I thought both guys came out looking really strong here as they both looked really durable due to the amount of damage they both took and Nagai pulling out a big win with a brutal heel hook submission which Ishikawa did an awesome job of putting over with his excruciating screams of agony. ****

This was excellent. This is one of Taira's first pro-wrestling matches and he looked really good. He's a BJJ black belt with some Shoot boxing and MMA experience, so watching him bust out a huracanrana was quite the visual and I especially loved how he transitioned from that to a kneebar. Otsuka's selling here is fantastic, namely his selling on that beautiful overhead kick from Taira. I also dug Otsuka busting out the more traditional pro-wrestling subs such as the camel clutch and the variations of the crab holds. That big swing into a Texas cloverleaf was awesome as it reminded me of a HOOK'n'SHOOT fight where a fighter landed a big swing into a heel hook. Great match. ****

The first half was felt kinda flat as it was just a filler until things got good in the second half. The second half of this was really strong however -- everything from the kneebar onward. Minoru's stumbling to get back to his feet and then ultimately crumbling back down due to the pain he's experienced from the kneebar was excellent. Usuda going after the bummed knee with back kicks to escape the back takes for the initial throw was great. Kinda bummed the selling of it wasn't as extensive as Minoru then began cruising to rolling kneebars, flying armbars, suplexes and head kicks, but ultimately it fell back to that during the drama of the finish which I thought was a nice finishing touch. ***

Good Question... I would say you could start in lots of places The most recent C. 49: Super Strong Style might be a reasonable place to start if you wanted to get into sort of the thick of the stories. That would more or less catch you up quickly to that point and then give you a solid grasp on the homestretch of the BSS era, which was great to me. For that matter, you could probably start with any SSS16 tourny and follow along from that point. They are really nice nodal points in the Progress universe where you get your work rate super match, but typically catch everyone up on the plot and move their central stories along nicely. You could skip ahead to Ch. 55: Chase the Sun, where they blew off a bunch of stuff and sort of turned a page to the chapter (no pun intended) they are on now. That would give you a running start into a lot of the current stories. If you wanted to just sample shows and see if you dig it, I would suggest the NYC show. I think that is their best match-for-match show to date. Its kind of a super show in a way, but you can start to "get" Progress from it. Ch. 46: I Like to Chill Out Here and Shoot Some Dinosaurs is another good one and it has a good bit of variety. Ch. 13: Unbelievable Jeff was the first show I ever saw because it was free on youtube (still might be). I quite enjoyed it. It was still a bit before I got around to subscribing, but the show was good and really put Progress on my radar. Ch. 44 is where I started watching show-to-show so anything before that I sort of have an out of order, cherry picked understanding of right now, but I have started to go back in my free time and start from Ch. 1. I wouldn't recommend starting from the beginning. The wrestling is good, but it isn't going to get you hooked on the product most likely. There are probably some other good ones in there I just haven't gotten to yet. The first couple of shows sucked -- except for the Jimmy Havoc development which in my opinion has been their best storyline. I would just sit through the Jimmy Havoc matches for the story development of the early shows and skip everything else until the later episodes where the in ring work gets much better.

Ah yes, good ol’ SoCal indy wrestling in garages... Something APW would also pick up on. This garage seems like its a wrestling school as the walls read “Karl (?) Anderson School of Wrestling” and underneath “IWC Arena.” The match itself wasn’t much as both guys very green and going based of the venue, it seems like its a gym wars type event, so this is probably the first couple of matches for both guys. Skippable.

Yeah, this was garbage. Just the same ‘hit me with a weapon for a pop, I’ll hit you back with one for another pop” garbage. The camera work sucks, but the crowd is always lively without taking away from the match, so that’s something they have going.

Yeah, this was bad. Both guys looked horrible. I guess Punk doing the old Eddie Guerrero faked chair shot win by DQ was neat. Aside from that, yeah, this was horrible.

Im just as shocked as everyone else finding out Adam Pearce had long hair... Im not familiar with Dino Bambino, but hes one powebomb counter into a facebuster and crooked Shooting Star Press from being Billy Kidmans long lost brother. The match itself is not remarkable. Pearce worked different here than he used to when he was working PWG in its early days regularly. He even busts out a top rope flipping dive which is something he would rarely, if ever pop out during his later run. I would have loved seeing what Pearce would have been like in MCW as I feel he would have fit in perfectly there. I guess this is worth watching just to see how much Pearce changed within 2-3 years.

Grown men watch this Santa Clause edition.

Love this place. I've been here for over 10 years now and have only began to start posting regularly as I feel out of love with pro-wrestling a few months after I discovered this place. Around WM 33 time, I began to watch pro-wrestling regularly again and getting into the yearbooks and the PWO2K (which I'm currently exploring through now) have really brought me back full circle. Thanks to you all for making this place one of the more enjoyable ventures for discussing pro-wrestling! Have a blessed and merry Christmas! From Chapter 2 onward, namely for the Jimmy Havoc stuff which imo is the best storyline they've ever put on. If anything, just watch the Jimmy Havoc match from that show and then skip through the rest. Also watch the rest of the chapters for Jimmy Havoc matches only. Start watching the full shows from Chapter 10 onward. That's when they start getting better.

This was really underwhelming as it was coming off a hot steel cage match and it was a big blowoff match, yet it was worked with very little intensity and sense of urgency. Spanky had nothing to lose and showed a sign of lack of understanding the importance of Dragon's mask being on the line, so that sorta makes sense. The post match stuff was fantastic however.

This was pretty forgettable... The novelty of HBK working a hardcore match at an/his own indy show and getting bloodied up in 2000 was quite unique, but aside from that, there's not really much else to rely on. Venom going after HBK's bad back due to the all of the accumulated injuries was smart from a psychological stand point, but there was no selling to go along with it it and the handcuff spot worked, but then everything else was shambles. I agree this should have ended during the hiptoss from the stage through the table below, but instead it didn't and they just kept working ignoring it. The run in by Shooter Schultz maybe the most embarrassing run in in the history of wrestling -- 3 table botches and he never managed to break the table. HBK had to recover and ignore his back injuries to just get the table spot in.

Man, this was not good... I thought their first match wasn't good either, but at least that other match provided us a glimpse of Lawler's horrible dancing. Here, that's not even the case. I'm still not sold on K-Krush. His rapping was as horrible back then as it still is today. Will there ever be an MCW match that doesn't include some over-the-top booking?

Regal, you suck! Shut your mouth our I'll come out there and punch your trap. Fantastic! Regal looked really good here. Some stiff elbows and some solid matwork. That Cobra Twist pin at the end was awesome. His manager pulling out a Tarantula was neat too. Above the norm 7 minute MCW TV match.

This was a neat little TV match... I thought they both did an excellently taking advantage of the short time they were given. Regal truly is a king when it comes to working matches around short time limits. The story of the seasoned vet vs. the young up and comer looking to gain his respect was developed and was pushed in the post match angle. They also let you wanting more, so I'm looking forward to their next match. By far the best MCW match we've seen. Good stuff.

These MCW matches all feel and are the same imo -- 7-8 minute matches with run ins and interference. Its good fun seeing Lawler and Dundee still going in 2000, but its underwhelming watching in these settings where they have a really limited amount of time to work and are just involved in endless matches that feel the same.

This did nothing for me as many other MCW matches have done nothing for me. They have all be sub 10 matches and unfortunately some of them end up like this — overbooked with interferances. Dundee not selling Bull Pain’s strikes until he had handed Lawler the title was unintentional comedy.

I didn’t like this as much as the majority of you did. I was kinda bored with the first half between Candido and Douglas. The Sabu appearance was odd, but he got a massive pop and he continues to carry this odd mystique in the indys. He carried that mystique over to the other three way with Billy Reil and Low Ki in JAP. That last bump that Sabu took face through the table look brutal and was a pretty awesome finish to what I thought was an entirely forgettable match up.

I was ready to dislike going into it, but this was far better than I expected it to be. Everyone here looked fantastic. The short first segment between Ki and Reil was wild with them working real snug and them potatoeing each other at least once. The reaction to Sabu's entrance was epic. He really had this weird aura around him here and luckily that rub onto Ki as the match progressed. ***1/2

This sucked. Neither guy looked good, but apparently Louie is some kinda of JAPW cult hero. Which makes me think, if that fan really considers Louie his hero, then he really needs to reevaluate the people he looks up to. Ian did stiff Louie with a nasty elbow in the corner at one point. Aside from that, there wasn't much else to look forward to here.

Eek... This was underwhelming. I like Quack, but he was totally outclassed here which is to be expected, but he did really bad here and (I hate to state the obvious) was carried by Santito. I thought the commentary, the botched dive and the horrible unexpected 15:00 time limit were really bad. This maybe the worse performance in Quack's career and he really killed this match.

I didn't like this as much as you all... This is felt like the typical U.S. indy match where they where the matwork is brief and meaningless in the long before they go all out. Mike Mayhem -- another guy U.S. indy guy I've never heard of and he really doesn't stand out to me here. His does throw a really bad looking spin kick. Ki's diving headbutt is pretty bad looking too, however his rolling koppu kick, huge moonsault to the outside and his counter into an armbar looked great. I thought this was average.