Dylan Reviews Full Shows In This Thread

[goodhelmet]

Robert, I couldn't pick Evans out in a lineup. I know Perez has one of my yearbooks somehow.

[FLIK]

Hating it because it was a woman hating, offensive, piece of trash? I don't see it at all and I'm puzzled as to how anyone could.

To clarify, I didn't hate it because of the man on woman violence (i'm not overly fond of intergender but i'm not offended by it). I hated it because all 4 involved as well as the commentators failed to show even a basic grasp of day 1 wrestling psychology should be. Things like, large guy brutally beating up tiny woman should = heel (& if not, woman should atleast be over the top annoying/evil to whear you can sorta do the "she was asking for it" bit), or that faces should be likable and shouldn't act like cocky douche bags.

 

Days later i'm still confused by this match as i'm 99% sure they were not trying to work this as heel vs heel and given that, they massively failed at their jobs.

 

, but it didn't make me want to go out and watch a ton of stuff from the promotion on youtube, other than Chiva Kid.

Coming off this show I did just that and it exsposed me to a lot of other guys I dug a lot from CWF

 

9/22/2012 Chiva Kid, Arik Royal & Nick Richards vs Walter Eaton, Roy Wilkins & Ray Kandrack

12/1/2012 Arik Royal, Kamakazi Kid & Chiva Kid vs Walter Eaton, Roy Wilkins & Ray Kandrack

 

These 2 were both really good

 

12/29/2012 Hurricane Helms, Chiva Kid & Kamakazi Kid vs Mecha Mercenary & The Dawsons

1/19/2013 Ray Kandrack, Walter Eaton, Roy Wilkins, Jesse Ortega & Michael McAllister vs Chiva Kid, Kamakazi Kid, Ty Dillinger, Aric Andrews & Mark James

 

these 2 were great

[Dylan Waco]

ROH Supercard of Honor

 

ACH/Tadarius Thomas v. Q.T. Marshall/R.D. Evans

 

I'm too lazy to see if I'm spelling Thomas first name right or not. I don't care for the Chikara inspired nonsense of Evans at all and the first half of this was flat in part due to that, but they did win me over in the second half. I'm not a huge fan of the goofy-go-lucky part of ACH's act, but when he is allowed to real his stuff off the charisma really shines through and it adds to the match. His running corner clothesline looks incredible and I thought the way they set up the dive run and finishing stretch was well done. Pretty good opener all things considered.

 

Shelton Benjamin v. Mike Bennett

 

I liked this more than I thought I would, largely because Bennett is pretty funny. You have to hand it to ROH, they know their base, and completely milk the fuck out of the Bennett/Maria act. Bennett is a very good bumper for a guy his size and not afraid to show his ass because he knows he can get his heat back by working trolls built around CM Punk and the fact that he's sleeping with a girl most of the ROHbots regularly masturbate too. He also has surprisingly good strikes. Really Bennett/Maria is like your best possible version of Edge/Lita, at least in the universe in which it exists. I could have done without Kevin Kelly's idiotic "jungle fever" line on the otherwise amusing and well done Benjamin grabs Maria's boobs bit, but still I enjoyed the match, and I like Bennett as an act. You have to put up with some pretty questionable Shelton offense, but this was definitely way better than I would have guessed.

 

Michael Elgin v. Jay Lethal

 

Well I made it through this. On some level this was better than I expected, because I had feared the absolute, bottom-scraping worst, when I heard people comparing it to Richards v. Elgin from last year. This match at least had some semi-interesting psychology with Lethal trying to go for his big spots and being countered a few times. It also had a couple of really impressive Elgin power spots. Still this is not the type of match I want to see Elgin work as fundamentally it was a complete MOVEZ! fest, with his power advantage ultimately being a meaningless aspect of the match. This also had some of the worst moments I've seen in wrestling all year, including the Elgin no sell of the Lethal Injection, the crowd chanting "Chris Benoit" during the awkwardly applied crossface spot, Lethal's dive sequence which just looked fake as all hell and really weak and an opening exchange where Lethal got almost into a sprinters crouch to single to Elgin that it was time to do a rope running spot. I will say that I thought Meltzer's argument that they were almost doing too much was odd, because I haven't really seen him make that criticism about these sort of spot running affairs before and though I thought this was a pretty bad match all things considered, it was nowhere near as egregious a match in that regard as many matches worked in this style.

 

Team ROH v. SCUM

 

This was disappointing. I had heard it was just a wild, quick, all out affair. Instead this was worked more like one of your ECW brawls that settles into a normal match and than devolves back into rule-less brawl. As someone who has watched a ton of original ECW I have a soft spot for those matches, but this was not a particularly strong version of that. I did think Mark Briscoe had some really fun spots in this and the Rave/Whitmer dive spot was almost as cool here as it was in the Rave/Matthews match, but I really wasn't feeling this overall. Not a bad match by any means, and I kind of dug the simplicity of the finish, but this should have been better than it was.

 

Karl Anderson v. Roderick Strong

 

Man this was boring as piss. Two guys completely lacking in personality, moving through uninteresting exchanges, with an occasionally stiff spot popping up here or there. I did kind of admire the absurdity of Strong and Anderson teasing meaningfulness of legwork early, in tribute to the Tanahashi v. Anderson abortion from earlier in the year. But other than that this was tedious as fuck and really hard to get through. I didn't like Elgin/Lethal, but it wasn't this painful.

 

Matt Hardy v. Matt Taven v. Adam Cole

 

This was actually pretty enjoyable. You have to wade through an idiotic moment where the camera is focused on Nigel getting a lap dance from Truth Martini's valet(?) and some of the spots are really cute, but it was well paced and Hardy being so loathed by the ROH fanboys added to the match. I really liked Taven in this as your opportunistic champ, who keeps trying to take cheapshots and keeps ending up on his ass. Cole and Hardy had some solid enough exchanges and I thought the elimination of Hardy was pretty clever. Its not worth going out of your way to see, but this woke me up from the Anderson/Strong coma.

 

Bobby Fish/Kyle O'Reilly v. Davey Richards/Eddie Edwards

 

Nigel on commentary on a dragon screw spot "that looked ugly." It sure did. Man this sucked. This was one of those matches that almost fools you, because the first half - while not good - was fairly watchable. There was even (kind of) a heel heat section in this. And then it just turns into a flurry of stuff, lots of which looked really choreographed. Fish had some good facial expressions at points, but they really felt wasted on this match. O'Reilly does a dead legged sell at one point that is just comically bad and just leads to a bunch more "stuff," including an O'Reilly/Richards sequence that literally looked like some strange post-modern take on early 90's country music, line dancing crazy. Watching Fish have to sit in place and hang out for Edwards rana was fairly amusing I guess, but aside from that fleeting moment of comedy, everything in the excessively long stretch run of this sucked AND then the match ended on a roll up. This is every bit as awful as you would expect and was capped off by the awful theme of O'Reilly/Fish playing.

 

Jay Briscoe v. Kevin Steen

 

I hope an unfucked up version of this shows up soon. I was watching from the original stream where the finish is missed entirely which is a shame because I thought the match was good up until that point. I liked the story of Briscoe as underacheiving guy in main events and the fact that Steen kept going back to target his injured arm every time he got in trouble added a lot to it. Jay was good about selling even when he would hit a big offensive spot, and while there was some big stuff in this nothing felt like overkill. My gut feeling is that with the finish this was a really good match, but it's impossible to say absent seeing the last few minutes.

[rovert]

Maria was brilliant in the spot Dylan mentioned:

 

 

DGUSA probably had their best show ever last night. The only issue is that Shimmer ran an hour long which had a knock on effect on CHIKARA and then DGUSA. But DGUSA ploughed on and didn't shave any time off their matches despite most of them greatly needing to.

 

Ricochet/Tozawa and Super Smash Brothers versus EITA and Tomahawk TT were pretty special. The main event Johnny Gargano vs Shingo seems to be really polarising as it went excessively to some, they a zillion near falls even by DGUSA standards telling the story Gargano couldn't beat Shingo until Gargano went into his trunks and got athletic tape and choked out Shingo with the referee unaware. Johnny after the match cut his standard babyface show end promo like nothing happened to a chorus of boos. I was a big fan of it even just for the fact it freshens up Gargano.

[Dylan Waco]

I fucking hate Gargano and Shingo so I can't imagine I would like that match. I will watch it if it shows up. EITA and Tomahawk were complete trash when I saw them in IWRG recently. Not trash as in "I don't like this style, but they are good at what they do." Trash as in "how the fuck do DG guys not know how to base?" I just can't imagine that match is any good, though who knows I guess.

 

I did hear really good things about the Shimmer show

[Childs]

Dylan, can you hurry up and watch the Tanahashi-Okada and confirm for us that it was the greatest match of all time.

[Dylan Waco]

I will watch it. I may even watch that whole show, though watching Sak - who is the most fun to watch of anyone on that roster - get hurt will suck the life out of things for me.

[Dylan Waco]

4/7 New Japan iPPV

 

KUSHIDA/Alex Shelley v Prince Devitt/Ryusuke Taguchi

 

First half of this was nothing special but fairly inoffensive. The second half of this had a couple of spots I thought looked good (big Shelley bump, Shelley tope and one of the Shelley/Kushida double teams), but I hated the way it was worked. On the one hand they largely isolated Taguchi which fit with the post-match angle they were going to run and kept Devitt out of the ring which is a huge plus. Devitt is just terrible. I don't know if there is anyone in wrestling I would rather watch less than him. The guy is a good athlete, but everything he does looks choreographed and his selling is so bad I would actually prefer him to not sell at all. Anyhow despite keeping Taguchi in I thought a lot of the offense during this run looked really low impact for a style that lives and dies on high impact offense. Also the reversal fests were just insane and there was really no heat segment at all despite the fact that Taguchi was basically being booked in a go it alone position. There are plenty of matches worse than this, but I would never want to watch this again and in no way did I feel I had watched a good match. I did think he post-match angle with Devitt turning heel was mildly amusing, though largely not for the reasons others enjoyed it.

 

Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Manabu Nakanishi/Super Strong Machine/Akebono vs. Takashi Iizuka/Tomohiro Ishii/YOSHI-HASHI/Bob Sapp

 

This was actually a pretty good match all things considered. Yeah you have Bob Sapp breaking out some sub-Zeus level strikes and Iizuka straddles the line between charmingly goofy and annoyingly goofy, but there was a lot to like here. I have no clue what the post-match attack on guest commentator was about, but it at least let me know who the heels were and the heels worked like heels in this match. They were using weapons, taking cheapshots, cut off the ring on Super Strong Machine for a while and were using every trick they could to try and take down Akebono. Ishii was a fun little spark plug and probably the best guy on his team, but I thought the best guy in this was clearly Akebono. Having to carry a segment with Bob Sapp isn't easy but he did as well as he could. He was a real fun brick wall and he has a way of closing space that is so in line with his sumo background that it feels more threatening than it otherwise would. I loved his little shove off of Sapp as they built toward the finish and it was cool to watch him in their directing traffic before the fall. This isn't anything that I would tell people to go out of their way to see, but I did like it.

 

El Terrible/Tama Tonga v. Valiente/La Mascara

 

Decent enough spotfest that probably suffered some in my eyes because I watch a lot of lucha. If I was coming at this from a perspective of non-lucha watching, NJPW fan I could see really enjoying the novelty of some of the offense, especially since it was packaged in a format very similar to the way a lot of NJPW matches are formatted. Valiente's big dive always looks great and Tonga is slowly getting better (I like his big elbow and the way he sold the Mascara dive was cool), but this did not have the trappings I look for in a good lucha match. I wouldn't say this was bad or even close to it, but this is not what I want out of these guys, especially Terrible and Valiente.

 

 

Togi Makabe/Tomoaki Honma vs. Masato Tanaka/Yujiro Takahashi

 

There was a lot of hard hitting in this, but I could live without ever seeing one of those minute long chop fest ever again. I absolutely hate that shit and it is a good way to immediately take my interest out of the match. They won back some goodwill with me pretty quickly because they actually segmented this match fairly well with a decent, but short heat section on Honma and Makabe being pushed as the unstoppable lariat machine. Really did like the Honma slow-mo deadlift suplex spot and I have to give credit to Tanaka for trying really hard and looking solid for a guy his age with the amount of miles he has logged. Still this felt like a sped up version of a really good match, more than a really good match. I liked this fine for what it was, but there are tons of matches every year worked similarly, with longer face in peril sections and as a rule I’m going to like those better than something like this in almost every instance. Perfectly watchable, solid match, with a finish I enjoyed, but another match that I wouldn’t really say was worth going out of your way to see.

 

Minoru Suzuki v. Toru Yano

 

I wish I hadn’t heard anything about this in advance because I had built this up as a potential show stealer in my mind and while I thought it was pretty fun and perhaps better than it looked on paper I was ultimately disappointed. They did a good job establishing the dichotomy between the two wrestlers, and I will never tire of Suzuki’s facial expressions and forearms, but this was not the match I expected. Suzuki was surprisingly not all that vicious and what was sold to me as an “out of control brawl” really wasn’t all that out of control, nor was it much of a brawl. I did think Suzuki did an admirable job making Yano’s little flurries look credible, but I wanted more violence out of this. This is something that I might like more in five years than I do now.

 

Yuji Nagata/Hirooki Goto v. Kazushi Sakuraba/Katsuyori Shibata

 

Man it sucks to see Sakuraba go down. I hope he’s not out long because he’s easily my favorite guy in New Japan at this point. I thought the Shibata/Goto stuff was hit or miss, with some over the top silly stuff and some good looking stuff, but I really did like the Nagata/Sakuraba exchanges a lot. Sakuraba just carries an intensity and aura of violence with him that very few people in modern wrestling can match. I liked the feeling out matwork early and even though I could give a fuck about Nagata I thought when they went to war the second time they did a good job mixing in his spots out of the Sakuraba attacks. The suplex that dislocated Sak’s arm looked brutal as fuck. This was on the road toward being a really good match and instead was more of an appetizer.

 

Rob Conway v. Satoshi Kojima

 

This is not really my kind of match but I have to give them credit for succeeding in making a match that easily could have felt like meaningless filler come across as a big deal. I also kind of dug the outside interference and NWA rep cheering along for Rob, as the Conman as a poor man’s Ric Flair, with poor man’s Arn Anderson and poor man’s JJ Dillon seconding him was sort of novel. Lots of near falls and big spots and thinks of that ilk and again that’s not my thing. But for matches of that sort this was a perfectly decent match. I can’t imagine ever wanting to watch it again, but it wasn’t painful.

 

Shinsuke Nakamura v. Davey Boy Smith Jr.

 

I thought this was a very strong clash of the titans style match. I’m not sure this works as well if you don’t buy Smith or Nakamura as titans, but to one degree or another I see them both that way so I really liked it. I would have liked to see more Smith grappling stuff because he’s really good at it and I think it would have added depth to the match, but instead they heavily played him up as a monster for Nak to have chop down and it worked well. I will never like Nakamura’s whacky hulk up routine and I thought his comebacks were a bit to abrupt, but the selling was better than I could have hoped for in the body of this. Really enjoyed the consistency of Nakamura coming back with strikes, first targeting the ribs which Smith sold well for the most part and then later going for the kill shots to the head when he got in deep shit. For his part Smith has a variety of good offense and very capable of controlling a match on top. I really liked his flurry of escalating near falls toward the finish, as one spot seemed to lead to the other and they were milked well. I also liked his big bump on the airballing of the top rope legdrop. Nak’s flurry to win at the end looked good and protected Smith in loss, though again that fucking running in place, “he’s a maniac!” freak out thing he does is the shits. By no means was this a perfect match, but even with its flaws I thought it was very good.

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi v. Kazuchika Okada

 

This was both better than I had feared and nowhere near as good as NJPW fans have been saying. I’m going to try and be diplomatic here because there were things about this that I did think were done well. I thought Okada’s selling was very consistent for example. I also have to give them credit for the pacing as usually these long NJPW matches are either hyperactive as fuck or bore me to hell or both and while I didn’t really like this match I wouldn’t call it boring or hyperactive. On the other hand there was a lot I really didn’t like about this. For example I fucking hated how Okada kept coming back with shots from his hurt arm. Yes he was selling after every shot but I swear 90% of his offense in this match directly involved the use of that arm and it just made him look like a dumb fuck. I guess the idea was to make the arm damage the focus of the match but it was extremely gratuitous to the point of being absurd how often he was throwing elbows in this. I also thought Tanahashi’s arm attack offense was incredibly poor. In general I don’t like Tanahashi’s offense, but I can forgive things like shitty punches to the body in a match like this. What I have trouble forgiving is the fact that he never really worked compelling holds on the arm and instead did some strike attacks that didn’t look particularly vicious or impactful and various whips of the arm into the mat. I am sure people will accuse me of nitpicking here but this drove me crazy as a couple of holds would not have been hard to do and even if poorly applied would have been a far stronger base of attack. I also really hated the middle of the match big spot run, though I give them credit for selling more on the back end of it and not letting the match turn into a Tanahashi/Anderson-like spot running stretch run of doom. I could criticize other things I didn’t like but the general point is that I didn’t think the match was any good. It wasn’t a disaster and it was a lot easier for me to get through than the Dome show match, but this was probably my least favorite match on the entire show.

 

Overall Thoughts:

 

I actually liked this show better than I thought I would and prefer it to the Dome show. There is only one match that really connected with me completely and that admittedly may be because I’m becoming a bit of a mark for Harry Smith. Still the majority of the matches were decent, and while there was nothing close to as good as Sak v. Nak from Jan 4, there were enough thinks I liked to not make it feel like a waste of time.

[NintendoLogic]

Wow. If you didn't think Okada/Tanahashi was any good, our tastes are even further apart than I thought.

[Dylan Waco]

Wow. If you didn't think Okada/Tanahashi was any good, our tastes are even further apart than I thought.

Is that really surprising?

[NintendoLogic]

Eh, I suppose not.

[Matt D]

Can't say he doesn't explain himself though. It's not magic contrarianism or anything.

[Tim Cooke]

Who are the wrestlers that Dylan likes who have offense softer than Cotten candy?

[NintendoLogic]

I deleted that comment because I thought it came across as more confrontational than I intended. It's really not something I feel like getting into an argument over.

[Dylan Waco]

Deleted what comment? Was it a troll of some sort? If not I have no problem with it

[Dylan Waco]

CZW Best of The Best XII

 

Jonathon Greshem v. Caleb Konley v. Biff Busick

 

I kind of have a soft spot for Greshem as he is the ultimate in undersized guys who works hard and tries to make the most out of the fact that he's far too small to ever get a real shot. He was clearly the best guy in this taking some lunatic bumps and throwing some stiff as fuck forearms. But this is a match that really had no business being anything other than a spot running affair and for some reason the first seven or eight minutes of this were "feeling things out" schtick, which really made the spot running stuff feel really artificial. Konley had his burst and then got ambushed out by interfering heels which also seemed really out of place, especially in an opener. I loved Greshem's power spots down the stretch, but there is an exchange of rolling around/reversals right before the finish that is literally one of the worst things I've ever seen in a wrestling match. This wasn't very good.

 

Shane Hollister v. Alex Reynolds v. Tommy End

 

Musgrave told me that Tommy End looked like he was a big CM Punk fan and he wasn't kidding. I am not sure aping ECW era CM Punk look is quite on the level of Chuck Simms doing a "Pretty Boy" Doug Somers tribute gimmick in 1987 Montreal while teaming with Sweet Daddy Siki, but it's not terrible far off. Anyhow this match has a tornado DDT on the floor about a minute into it. I really have no clue what to do with that. I mean when you start with a tornado DDT on uncovered floor where do you go? I enjoy Reynolds against the right guy and the theoretically sound psychology of having End taken out of the match by that spot to hide the obvious problem of all triple threats was sound, but then that really doesn't happen and this turns into a bunch of dangerous but cooperative looking three way exchanges and then it ended and I was happy.

 

Rich Swann v. Shane Strickland v. Alex Colon

 

Man this had some stupid shit in it, but I did like the bulk of it. The theme of guys going for dives and being stopped and/or stopping themselves was pretty amusing and a couple of the flubs in this actually made the match look more authentic and dangerous. Colon being a straight heel and the other guys trying to work to eliminate him was a good base for the match, though the abandoned it. Some of the stuff toward the back end of this was just goofy, but I was actually really happy that Colon won as some real heeling in subsequent rounds could help some of these matches and Colon definitely worked as a true heel in this.

 

AR Fox v. Uhaa Nation v. Andrew Everett

 

Chiva Kid's gear was totally absurd, but it may have actually been superior to the gear/look Everett is sporting now. Trying to think of a good comparison here and the best I can come up with is half Chris Hero, half 1991 Shawn Michaels. This is a complete spotfest, which is really what you want out of this and I think Fox and Everett both looked really good. Lots of nutty rope running spots, rana's springboards, insane dives, et. Everett takes a crazed head bump at the one, then tops it later by eating a backcracker/powerbomb combo that looked like it could have literally killed him. I keep hearing about how awesome Nation is from the spotathon fans, but I thought he sucked shit for big portions of this. There was one point where he was completely clueless about a spot with Fox and he horrible telegraphed a couple of other spots. The guy just has no clue how to base/set up for a big spot without making it look completely obvious. Thankfully he had two guys in here who would kill themselves for his power spots, so it wasn't as annoying as it would have been in most cases. Not sure what the craziest thing in this was. Maybe Fox's imploding flip plancha, maybe Everett airballing on a double moonsault where he cleared half the ring. Fox made a good attempt at leading Nation through once it was just the two of them, though I thought the match lost a lot once Everett was eliminated. Either way this was easily the best match so far.

 

Rory Mondo v. Ron Mathis - Fans Bring The Weapons

 

Pre-match some dude was taunting Matt Tremont and it turned into one of the nastiest punch exchanges I've ever seen as they brawled off punching each other as hard as they could in the face. I like Tremont, so I was kind of pissed, but then these guys started hitting each other with tack filled baseball bats, X-Box's, Lucky Charm's boxes covered in barbed wire and bags of flour and they won me over. Yeah this is complete reckless, senselessly violent and insane, but it was really entertaining. Also this match probably had the least overkill of any match on the show up to this point as Mathis won with a diving tombstone off the top through a guardrail, which would have almost assuredly been a transition move in that Tommy End match. And they even did a stretcher job post-match.

 

DJ Hyde v. Michael Dante

 

I know DJ Hyde sucks, but how is it possible a guy has been around wrestling as long as him and has never learned how to run the ropes. I don't expect Alex Porteau level rope running out of a guy as mediocre as him, but you think he would have mastered the art of bouncing forward off of an Irish whip in a semi-convincing fashion. But nope, that's too much to ask. He does say fuck a bunch of times though. Thankfully this is short and ends appropriately enough after an exchange of awful looking spears.

 

Jonathon Greshem v. Alex Colon

 

I liked the fact that they teased Greshem's octopus finisher early, but I was annoyed about their decision to work your typical indie rope running/mat exchange spots on the front end of this. It was fine, but Colon worked straight heel in the first round and I thought it helped that match a lot. He eventually works heel once he took over here, but would it have killed them to have some shine with the heel actually looking overmatched and frustrated by it? Greshem ends up taking some really terrifying headbumps in this and while I give the guy credit for taking the punishment, it was really too much, even for a tourney like this where you expect overkill. This was disappointing, though I will say that it did have the death blow finish, you want out of a match of this ilk.

 

AR Fox v. Tommy End

 

This match was like the best and worst of AR Fox. On the one hand he seemed to reign in End's worst excesses. The match was basically constructed as a sort of heat segment, with Fox working off of it and hitting offensive flurries before being cut back down. I can't imagine End having the sense to do that and Fox's selling was half decent, so I give him most of the credit for this. On the other hand a lot of his usually impressive stuff looked really off here. His dives in particular were really crummy and he almost killed himself on the corner flip spot. Even the finishing 450 looked flat. Match was okay, which I guess is the best that really could have been hoped for.

 

Sami Callihan v. Adam Cole

 

This was put over and worked as a blow off match to multi-year long feud. As a result of that we got some ref bumps, melodramatics from Cole and shots with the title belt. Unfortunately we also got a couple of stupid ass Canadian Destroyer spots from Cole. Still the bulk of this was very good, largely because when Callihan is on he's as good as anyone on Earth. The opening barrage with Sami going for broke with the big spots was good stuff and a great way to set the tone. The powerbomb into the crowd on Cole was particularly nutty. I am not really a Cole fan, but I'll give him credit for working stiff here which gave Callihan something to work off of with bumps. I thought the flash DVD was especially well done, because that's the sort of thing that often looks like shit or is tossed into a match as an after thought. The Stretch Muffler spots down the stretch were pretty dramatic and while I wasn't in love with the finishing run, it was a logical escalation and pay off. This was not a high end Callihan match, but I did think it was a good match, particularly within the framework they were operating under.

 

AR Fox v. Alex Colon

 

Again I wanted more deliberate heeling from Colon here. I did really like the Fox flip plancha which was a play off of his splat bump at last years show. They end up doing this awful exchange where both guys were trying to counter each guys go to spots, that ended with Colon almost killing both of them with a strange quasi-neckbreaker on the guardrail. Stretch run of this was something. Fox ends up tope-ing the midget woman second of Colon after she interferes. Not sure if I was a guy who had done Thugbait porn, I would have agreed to that spot. Colon kicks out of his finish and then blocks a second attempt with a top rope DVD onto the apron which is about then tenth apron bump spot of the show. Somehow Fox is back up on offense right after this and then loses on a roll up. Colon finally heels it up post-match. I have no clue what to make of any of this.

 

Overall Thoughts:

 

No way I would call this a good show but it was watchable. Callihan and Everett were pretty clearly the best guys on the show. No way would I suggest anyone needed to watch this from beginning to end, but there were a few matches that might be worth going out of your way to see depending on aesthetic preferences.

[Alucard]

Longtime lurker here, just wanted to say great reviews Dylan! Some of your opinions on Chikara (like the King of Trios review) have summed up mine perfectly. This thread has got me interested in a few other shows I normally wouldn't have thought about.

[NintendoLogic]

Dylan's constant pimping of Sami Callihan had me interested in his work, so I decided to check out a few of his matches. Based on what I've seen, I don't see what the big deal is supposed to be. He strikes me as a typical indy weeaboo who does lots of chops and lariats and fighting spirit no-selling. And he gets extra demerits for those thigh-slapping kicks. What should I check out that might change my mind?

[Dylan Waco]

Dylan's constant pimping of Sami Callihan had me interested in his work, so I decided to check out a few of his matches. Based on what I've seen, I don't see what the big deal is supposed to be. He strikes me as a typical indy weeaboo who does lots of chops and lariats and fighting spirit no-selling. And he gets extra demerits for those thigh-slapping kicks. What should I check out that might change my mind?

Two problems here:

 

1. I don't know what you have watched so hard to recommend based on that alone.

 

2. You and I have radically different tastes. You are someone who thinks Bret Hart was a wrestling genius, I think he was a very good wrestler, who had periods of greatness, but is generally overrated by those who grew up on him. You are someone who thinks Okada/Tanashashi title change was a great match and MOTY. I thought it was probably the worst match on the show it was on, albeit better than I had feared coming in. So our starting points are pretty different

 

That said....

 

I don't think Sami is a particularly big "fighting spirit no-selling" guy. To be fair I have certainly seen Callihan matches where that sort of thing may emerge, but it's not a dominate theme. It's not like he's a modern Japanese favorite or Davey Richards or Eddie Edwards for example. Same can be said on chops and lariats. Does he use them? Sure. Is he working five-ten minutes worth of strike exchanges? No. Also I have no real problem with thigh-slapping as a rule. Greatly prefer it to dogshit that looks and sounds completely ineffective like for example every offensive move Tanahashi has ever executed.

 

I am a guy who is a pretty big fan of guys on indies who have a formula they can work, with enough deviations where things don't feel stale match-to-match. Sami is a guy who had that down. I also generally like indie guys who work their spotfests in a sprint fashion, which is something he also does well. Generally like guys who have a sense of timing/pacing and how to escalate a match. I think Callihan does that really well.

 

In any event I'm not really surprised you aren't a fan as I generally start from the assumption that you and I will not agree on wrestling and work from there. But if you can list the matches you watched where you thought he looked bad, I'm willing to play along/advocate for others.

[Dylan Waco]

NWA SAW Gathering of Champions

 

Hot Rod Biggs/Lance Erickson v. Jason Nation/LBK

 

Fair warning to anyone following along, SAW has the absolute worst color commentator I've ever heard. If I'm not mistaken the guys name is Nick Nitris and he's basically the world's most annoying, redneck version of Don West. I myself was a pretty big fan of Don West and tend to think that TNA has been unwatchable trash on a week-to-week basis since he left (really since before he left, but heel West was entertaining enough where I would watch otherwise awful shows to listen to him shit on Tenay and point out the stupidity of TNA angles). Nitris has all of the volume and intensity of West, but absolutely none of the charm and no sense of scale. He's constantly playing to the top of the bleachers in the SAWmill instead of trying to convince the front row and the result is something so awful that it can make otherwise very solid wrestling, feel really tedious. He was shit during this match, but really there was no way anyone was going to make this any good. Over the last few years I doubt there are many non-Tennessee residents who have followed Tennessee indies as closely/regularly as I have and this match was filled with a who's who of no talent Tennessee and surrounding area indie guys. The only one of these guys I've seen do anything decent in the last couple of years is Erickson who has a couple of decent spots and was carried to a good tv match by Shaun Tempers in some weird storefront that NWA Mountain State was running last year. LBK literally looks like the bastard son of Mr. Donnie (this reminds me, KrisZ or someone needs to post a pic of him so I can upload it as my new avatar). Not bastard as in "illegitimate," though we are talking about Tommy Rich's coke hook up so really that's implied as well, but bastard as in complete low life, who didn't live up to dad's expectations. All dad wanted for Donnie Jr. was for him to open up a respectable chapter of the Outlaws in Kingsport and settle down with a nice harem of white slave trade girls, while keeping the family dope business going. Instead LBK started going to raves ten years after their cultural relevance expired, got a shitty tattoo, and worse yet started hanging out with Jason Nation, who may or may not be working a Jason Knight tribute gimmick and who may or may not be pimping LBK out to his friends back in Knoxville in exchange for meth. LBK does throw a good dropkick in this, but otherwise this match was short and stupid, that Erickson who may or may not be working a TNA Team Canada tribute gimmick (actually I think "may" is the clear answer here) won with a pinfall. Post-match Biggs hits people with a stop sign that looks like a giant stop sign pin, which I would normally fear was some weird ironic, Chikara inspired, hipster thing, but in this case I think it's just that Biggs may or may not be working a Broad Street Bully tribute gimmick. And to think I thought Pretty Boy Chuck Simms was rich. In any case this is why I shouldn't write about wrestling at 4:30 AM, after having only slept three hours in the last two days.

 

Next up is an in ring promo with Damien Wayne setting up his Cage Match v. Vordell Walker for the National Title. This is actually a pretty effective promo as Wayne is a good heel, with who has really strong heel mannerisms at all times including when holding a mic and addressing a crowd. He runs down his history with Vordell and all of Walker's failures to beat him for titles. Nick Nitris interjects and he's stupid as always, but this sort of has the feel of an old NWA promo with Nitro as a really poor man's Crockett and Wayne as a Horseman, as Wayne goes on to point out that he wants an NWA title shot against Rob Conway in the future. Then Nitro calls out Walker and they have a face off. Pretty effective way to set up for the big cage match coming later on the show.

 

Josephus Brody/Shane Williams v. Kevin Weatherby/Justin Grandbery

 

I used all of my shitty tribute gimmick jokes on the last match which is a shame because Brody and Shane Williams are probably the two most egregious examples of guys working tribute gimmicks on the modern indies, though Williams was recently stripped of his King title by Wolfie D and is now wrestling in jeans and a sleeveless shirt, so I suppose he is leaving the Lawler schtick behind. This is worked as young guns v. vets tag and was actually a pretty effective match. Grandberry is barely trained and it shows, but he is kept well hidden. Weatherby sort of looks and wrestles like Barry Houston, but the real star of this is Williams who does a good job making Weatherby's stuff look good and straddling the fence between overconfident douche and befuddled jackass. He busts out a really sick brainbuster at one point and ends up getting the win after a really sad looking run of offense by Grandberry that needed to be cut down in even shorter order than it was. Still this was pretty decent.

 

Wolfie D v. Chris Michaels

 

If people haven't seen 2013 Wolfie D they need to. I don't mean to say that he's out of this world as a worker or anything like that, but watching him work as a big man, with strange glam rock/early metal inspired gimmick is something. SAW has some really talented wrestlers and these guys are among them, but it has been riddled with Russoesque, crazed over booking all year and this match is basically strangled in the grave because of that. These are two guys that could have a very good match, instead we get one good Michaels bump, a few strike exchanges, then some interference from Michaels seconds that leads to a stupid finishing run. Wolfie wins and then there is more bullshit post-match. This sort of shit happens on their tv every week. I swear if I didn't know better I would think Russo was booking this fed.

 

Vordell Walker v. Damien Wayne

 

Again this is a Cage Match for the NWA National Title. These are also two of the better workers on the indie scene today and two guys how have had very good matches with each other before. This is not just a cage match for the sake of a cage match as their last match ended in a SAW style clusterfuck with multiple ref bumps and Walker getting screwed. I was pretty excited for this coming in, but my thought was these guys would have been better off having a street fight like their NWA DAWG match from a few years back. I do think the cage limited them some, because it sort of ran against both guys natural instincts. Still after an opening segment that I thought was technically fine, but felt sort of odd in the setting, this got really good. It was almost like they were working out the kinks a little on the front end, and once they went to the violent chops it kicked into another gear. Wayne ended up bleeding and this sort of turned into a bomb throwing "who can survive with their life" type of match. Wayne took some great bumps for Walkers offense in this and I liked Walker's full body selling down the stretch as he looked like a guy who was on the verge of being crippled the longer the match went. Wayne busted out the big elbow off the top, a really murderous clothesline off the ropes and a legdrop with Walker in the tree of woe position which looked pretty sick. Also thought the brainbuster/piledriver stuff down the stretch was really excellent and a great way to set up the finish which saw Wayne go for a rafter assisted leg drop and miss it setting up for the big title switch. Post-match they did a good job making the title win out to be a huge moment in the career of Walker, with Wayne calling off the dogs from beating him down, congratulations from some NWA board member and a fiery promo from Walker. I liked this a lot.

 

Rob Conway v. Chase Stevens

 

As soon as I heard them say this match had a thirty minute time limit I knew they were going broadway, or whatever the hell you want to call a thirty minute draw. Sure enough they start with some standard NWA title match matwork and you pretty much no the drill from there. To be honest I have been pretty impressed with Conway as traveling champ. It is sort of odd to think of the non-French guy from La Resistance working as modern day version of Ric Flair, but that's pretty much exactly how this was modeled from the frustration of Conway, to the way the tempo changes were worked to the legwork and figure-four attack on Stevens. I have been pretty high on Stevens for years and I was impressed with him for a big chunk of this, particularly his punching comeback off the legwork, but man it sucked to see him go full blown Shawn Michaels on me with the nip up counter right before the finish, which was a big "fuck you" to the entire theme of the match. Having said that I thought this was a pretty impressive effort all things considered, as you could easily see this being a disaster on paper and while it had some uninteresting moments at no point was I bored or just begging for the finish. Not sure about two consecutive post-matches being built around "I respect you man!" mic work between opponents but what can you do.

 

Overall Thoughts:

 

It's possible they ran one or two other matches that weren't taped, but for a five match show this was pretty good. Still with some very mild adjustments (better opener, no bullshit in the Michaels/Wolfie match) this could have been really high end stuff so in a weird way it felt like a disappointment. For those who want to watch it, here is the link.

 

[NintendoLogic]

It's true that we have rather divergent tastes. But if someone is really high on a particular match or wrestler, I'll at least give it a shot. The main matches I saw were the Yoshihito Sasaki match and the Michael Elgin match. I also saw the Kevin Steen match, but that was too short to really go anywhere. Based on those matches, I think I have a decent idea of how the Callihan formula works. Also, his selling comes across to me as schizophrenic. Like, he'll sell a chop to the chest like he's been shot and then kick out of a burning hammer at one. I don't think he's completely wretched, but he probably needs some time in WWE developmental to smooth out his rough edges.

 

Moving on, I'm curious as to whether you've had a chance to check out the Okada/Suzuki IWGP match. It wasn't as psychologically tight as Okada/Tanahashi, but Suzuki's arm work was more technically high-end, and his personality and expressiveness add a lot to his matches.

[Dylan Waco]

I liked Okada v. Suzuki but thought it was disappointing.

 

This is what I wrote at WKO after I saw it:

 

"In a way this was worse than I expected as I'm still clinging to the hope that Okada isn't as shitty as Tanahashi and yet the Suzuki carry job here wasn't nearly at the level of the Tanahashi carry job. There was also some really goofy Okada shit in this. On the other hand pretty much all of Suzuki's offense in this after the cross armbreaker over the ropes was really good. Okada had the sense not to use his arm on every offensive comeback here, which is good because Suzuki was really breaking shit down here. I liked most of the stuff with the sleeper too, including the long spot, though I thought Suzuki's facial expressions sort of crossed the line form intense into comical. I also enjoyed the exchanges around the Gotch piledriver and the finish was better than I would have guessed."

 

I still think Sak v. Nak is easily the best NJPW match of the year.

[Dylan Waco]

House of Hardcore 2

 

Crowbar v. Hale Collins

 

I get the idea of booking a veteran v. young athletic guy to open a show, but man this didn't work out as planned. The last few times I have seen Crowbar he's pleasantly surprised me, and in at least one of those occasions it seemed like a real carry job of someone who was completely worthless, but boy did he look like shit here. I don't expect anything from Collins, but less than a minute in Crowbar is throwing some of the worst punches I've ever seen and telegraphing really basic shit. Later he throws possibly the two weakest non-Tom Zenk kicks I've ever seen in wrestling. Then they have this really awkward moment where Crowbar rolls out of what was obviously supposed to be some sort of spot on the top and Collins has to chase him down and clumsily try and reassert himself. I mean Collins is really poor here to, manages to get a "you fucked up chant" less than two minutes into the match, struggles to run the ropes, throws his own shitty kicks, but again I don't expect anything out of him. I don't expect MOTYC's from Crowbar, but I do expect competence and didn't get it. Post-match Crowbar announces his retirement, though the mic was shitty and you couldn't hear him. If this is the best he's got left it's probably time to go.

 

Vik Dalishus v. Little Guido

 

The opener left me really cold which is always strange because sometimes that means my expectations are lower and other times it means I need something to keep me interested. In this case it was kind of both and while this was a perfectly okay match, it really didn't help keep me interested. Again I understand the idea of booking veteran v. young athletic guy, but opening the show with two matches of that ilk feels like a big mistake, especially when the vets in both matches are arguably more athletic then the guys they were working. Guido still moves well and hits his spots nicely, but this didn't really get any time to develop. Most impressive thing was probably Dalishus big bump off the top. This wasn't bad or anything, but would have been the third or fourth best match on an average episode of 1996 edition of WCW Saturday Night.

 

Now at this point I am pretty down on this show and thinking "well it can't get much worse, I mean hell Dreamer's first show was really good." And then....I don't know what the fuck happened. Dalishus calls out any ECW alumni in the back. So Meanie shows up. Somehow this turns into the Harlem Shake. Then Guido and Meanie beat Dalishus ass. Then The Sandman shows up without his beer but looking disturbingly similar to Robert Fuller. At this point I'm thinking here it comes, Sandman is going to beat a woman with this cane. Instead the massively breasted black lady who had been Dalishus' valet starts dancing with Sandman to Fandango's song. Then her wig falls off. Right after this Sandman canes the weird Jason Knight/Disco Inferno hybrid that was managing Dalishus' (yes Dalishus' had seconds, god knows why). Then he puts on the wig and starts strutting around, but refuses to join Guido and Meanie when they strut. And then they leave. So yeah. That happened.

 

Sami Callihan v. MVP

 

I am a Callihan apologist, but this match really didn't work. This was MVP's first match since January and it really showed as he seemed lost a couple of times and they never seemed to pick a direction for the match. The opening strike flurry was a ton of fun and the reckless brawling was pretty insane for a guy who is about to go to the WWE (hurling himself, his opponent and chairs onto fans seems pretty unwise), but then this sort of settled into a more straight forward match and lost a ton of steam every time MVP went on offense. To be fair Callihan really was selling the shit out of MVP's stuff, it's just MVP's stuff isn't all that convincing. Sami's offense looked good, but there was a real contrast here that was distracting, especially when Sami took the fall off of kick that didn't look all that impressive. Far from a bad match, but I wanted something better from Callihan's indie swan song.

 

Mike Bennett v. Carlito

 

I am actually a fan of Bennett's, but at this point on the show the last thing I want to see is 2013 Carlito. This is quickly compounded by the fact that 2013 Carlito went out and stole the 2013 Shelton Benjamin spot where he sneaks in and molests Maria, who thinks she's being molested by Bennett. Rosita ends up running out and of course from there the match sort of goes where you would expect it to go, with a cat fight sequence, Maria getting an apple spit in her face and a ref allowing Carlito/Rosita to double pin Bennett. This was dogshit and a waste of Bennett, who desperately needs to go to the WWE.

 

Alex Reynolds v. Anthony Nese v. Petey Williams

 

Holy fucking shit. I mean if you had said to me "hey Dylan, what match do you absolutely not want to see under any circumstances?" there is a good chance I would have said "Three Way Dance involving Petey Williams." This especially pisses me off because Reynolds v. Nese from the first HoH show was a real pleasant surprise and because the show has been a complete piece of trash up until this point. Having said that, and perhaps because this benefited from exceptionally low expectations, the first half of this was perfectly watchable. In a way this kind of reminded me of your pre-Impact era TNA X-Division match, where there were some overly cute spots that didn't work, but others that really did work and then things just descend into a bunch of "stuff" that blends together and your eyes glaze over and you don't give a fuck . Nese in particular really does some impressive shit, though I've seen enough of him at this point where I know he's not a particularly good worker. Petey is still Petey and his finisher is still over and I still hate it. Still on a shit show up to this point, this wasn't as awful as it could have been.

 

The Steiner Brothers v. Eddie Kingston/Homicide

 

I'll admit it, this sort of qualifies as a dream match to me on paper, though in my mind it's The Steiners from 1990 and Eddie/Homicide from JAPW days and there was never any chance that this good live up to that. Still I had hoped we'd get six or seven minutes of decent brawling and a big Homicide bump to set up a Steiners win. Instead we got Rick as FIP, a couple of fun Steiners signature spots and a shitty looking Kingston bump to set up finish. Scott still has a ton of presence and this wasn't the worst thing on the show, but even setting aside silly dream match fantasies, this should have been better.

 

Too Cold Scorpio v. John Morrison

 

I don't really have faith in Morrison, but I have a ton of faith in Scorpio who pretty much never disappoints and had a good match with Marty Jannetty of all people earlier this year. Coming in this looked like the match most likely to steal the show, but given how things were going up until this point, they were basically going out there to save it. And then a few minutes into the match they do a dance off. I really don't know why I would have expected anything else on this show and it was ostensibly done as a way to set up Scorp working heel, but god did it piss me off. From there the match sort of takes the form of Sami v. MVP. When Scorp is on offense the match isn't bad and he hits a lot of his fun signature spots well. When Morrison is on offense? Well it helps to have offense that looks like it could hurt a sentient being and Morrison really didn't show that here. The over all effect was that a match I was looking forward to, went on for what seemed like an hour, and never even grabbed me enough to lose me. Even worse than that, they completely lost the crowd who spent the last several minutes doing obnoxious chants for talent that wasn't on the show in the vein of the night after Mania Raw crowd from this year. Super disappointing match, hopefully I never have to see Morrison wrestle again and hopefully Scorp gets booked against someone at least at the level as current Marty Jannetty the next time he pops up.

 

The Young Bucks v. Paul London/Brian Kendrick

 

I really did enjoy the match these two had together at the first HoH show, though the constant selling of it as the show stealer on the first show by the announcers here was pretty annoying. Having said that this, was a good match on a show, where the next best match merely flirted with "pretty good." The Bucks are so much better as heels I can't believe anyone would ever book them as faces. Virtually every annoying thing they do can become a positive when they work the way they worked in this match and they actually were quite good working on top in this. Loved the way they set up the initial London FIP by cutting off the Londrick double dive spot and the fact that they did an AWA double FIP bit in this match was a really nice touch. I was equally impressed by London and Kendrick here as they really sold the shit out of the Bucks stuff, worked pretty stiff and were great at reeling off their highspots in a timely manner. I could have lived without the tombstone on the floor, but at least the near fall after it was presented as a big deal. The conspiracy theorists in me almost wants to believe the rest of this show was sabotaged to give this a MOTY buzz, as it certainly stands out more than it would on even an average show. Of course this wasn't near a MOTYC, but it was at least something that didn't feel like a complete waste of my time.

 

Lance Storm v. Tommy Dreamer

 

Aw fuck. If you were to ask me "other than Petey Williams and 2013 Carlito, what wrestler on Earth do you have the least interest in watching?" probably a 75% chance at worst I say Lance Storm. I respect Dreamer because he always tries hard and these guys did have a complete miracle of a match back in 99 on ppv, but fuck at this stage in the game Lance Storm is not what this show needs. It was nice to see Terry Funk come out to big applause, because it's Terry Funk and I will mark out for him forever, but this was a gloriously boring affair. I guess on the surface level there was nothing wrong with this, though the pre-match respect bit seemed out of place when they were just going to turn around and work a Dreamer style brawl. But then they do the weird bit with Funk snapping and getting involved and X-Pac of all people showing up to double team Funk with Storm and then a silly finish and it was just a clusterfuck. I didn't have the patience to sit through the pre-match round of speeches here, but I think I can forgive myself for slightly cheating on watching this till the bitter end because the whole experience has been painful.

 

Overall Thoughts

 

The first show was the most surprisingly really good wrestling show I have seen in a long time and this was the exact opposite. I suppose the lineup should have told me it wasn't going to be as good as the first show, but I don't think there was any reason to expect something as bad as this. This is probably the worst top to bottom show I've seen all year, with a few outright stinkers, a few matches that were just there, a couple of really disappointing matches and then the tag match, which was pretty good but nowhere near enough to save the show.

[anarchistxx]

What an utterly strange roster they have. Would love to see The Bucks v London/Kendrick though, is it available anywhere online? Are Kendrick and London teaming regularly now? Them against the Briscoes would be really fun.

[Childs]

Needless to say, I'm curious about this latest New Japan "best show ever" without having any intention of watching it myself. Work your magic Dylan.