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JvK reviews pimped matches from late 90s-10s


JerryvonKramer

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Parv and I follow the code of honor, apparently.

 

I did not do a write up of the match at the time but there were a few things that stood out to me.

 

I liked the narrative in the first half of the match (and to some extent later on as well that Skyler was capable from a kayfabe perspective. He was arrogant and prone to giving way to frustration or losing himself interacting with the crowd, but he was still presented as capable. He was presented as an actual threat. It was just that Lee was presented on a higher level. The matwork early on felt like a sports game where the score differential was deceptively large and where it was actually closer than it seemed. Honestly, the match that it made me think of was Gino vs Harley from Houston, where the cocky but qualified local heel tried to wrestle up to the visiting champion.

 

I'm with Dylan in that I loved the callbacks, including the STF and penalty kick attempts as well as Skyler paying for trying to spear into the Lee's midsection to set up the finish. I thought the announcers did a great job of getting over Lee working defensively after the mid-section work started. There were a few hope spots where I thought Lee might have had a bit too much pep. They were maybe overly athletic when he should have, given the injury, done something more strike-oriented. I am with everyone else that the arm selling down the stretch by Skyler could have been stronger but also that he made an effort at key moments that I did appreciate. I'll heap on the praise for the pacing most of all though. Chad commented on it at the 20 minute mark, but looking through my messages to him from after he suggested it, I mentioned it at the 14 minute mark. I thought they went for a fairly challenging match for 2016, especially in front of a slightly foreign crowd. While it's probably not a MOTYC, I do think they accomplished what they set out to do and it actively encouraged me to seek out more Lee, which was one thing I more or less said that I wasn't going to do this year.

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I don't know anything about Skyler or Lee but that looked like a 4* match to me. The matwork was pretty darn tight, no execution problems there at all, and the guys really came across as thinking of how to get out of their various holds and counter them, and then executing what they came up with. Rather than the "I wristlock you, you reverse it" dance routines. Moves that were teased early on were paid off later, and moves that were executed early on were countered later. Little not to like from a psychology standpoint.

 

I really didn't care for the floor stuff at all, particularly since they completely disregard any semblance of a countout, but at the beginning of the spots Skyler is working to break the count and then they do a countout near-fall tease at the end--either work the countout or don't, guys. That ends up being a fairly minor blight on the match in the end.

 

The crowd wasn't frothing at the mouth, but they did seem to be watching the match and reacting to everything--and I'm not a guy who holds up "This is awesome" chants as a sign of the decline of western civilization, but it was refreshing to see a modern-day indy without a single chant at all. And that big lady in the blue shirt who was practically praying to the heavens when Lee was in trouble...she was doubtless flashing back to the days as a young lady in the Greensboro or Charlotte Coliseum madly cheering for Steamboat & Youngblood.

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I kind of want to watch that Trevor Lee vs. John Skyler match because I've recently watched matches with both of them that I really enjoyed (Trevor Lee vs. Rob McBride & Skyler vs. Kevin Phoenix) but from Parv's write up of it I'm scared it's going to be some widely over hyped, overly long & boring match like the Colby Corino vs. Fred Yehi match I also recently watched.

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You and Parv do have the exact same tastes after all.

Well I generally agree with a lot of the people I saw pimping the Yehi/Corino match and after watching it I just have no idea what they were watching to call that a MOTYC so I'm less inclined to watch something that is gonna go 30+ minutes if I see red flags like "boring" or "doing nothing" since that was how I felt about large parts of that one.

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You and Parv do have the exact same tastes after all.

Well I generally agree with a lot of the people I saw pimping the Yehi/Corino match and after watching it I just have no idea what they were watching to call that a MOTYC so I'm less inclined to watch something that is gonna go 30+ minutes if I see red flags like "boring" or "doing nothing" since that was how I felt about large parts of that one.

 

I'd code of honor wrestling bet with you on it too but Kozmic Trooths just posted a Bestia Salvaje/Scorpio Jr. vs Casas/Santo tag tile match from two weeks after their mask/hair match that I've never seen before, so that takes priority tonight.

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It's probably been recommended already and I've just missed it, but Shibata/Tanahashi from 7/26/14 is worth Parv's time. I'm not a Tanahashi fan, but I thought he was perfectly good in that match and him having light-ish offence added to the story, with Shibata trying to slaughter him and Tanahashi having to try and combat it with much-weaker-in-comparison strikes. It also features one of the most brutal wrinkles on a rote forearm exchange you'll see. Even the ref' about shit himself.

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