Ace Rockwell

[Dylan Waco]

Discuss Here.

[Dylan Waco]

I just wrote a long post on Shaun Tempers, and Ace Rockwell probably deserves the same though I'm not sure I have enough context with him to do it. That said I could not imagine nominating Tempers and not Rockwell.

 

If Tempers is the evil spawn of the Chattanooga indie world that went fourth into Georgia and douched his way through the broader scene, Ace is the good son. Mechanically he's actually better than Tempers and has a better range. I love Tempers, but I can't imagine him having effective "workrate" matches on a weekly basis. I could easily see Rockwell doing it, though he'd be the first to bitch about it as it's not really his style.

 

In fact his style is basically to be an old school, traditional, hard nosed, Southern babyface. This means he knows how to take an ass beating, and knows how to return fire. He's very good at setting up, teasing, and delivering on his big spots, none of which are especially huge by contemporary standards, but all of which are effective and generally very crisp. He's probably got the best bulldog in the game for whatever that is worth.

 

In last years Scenic City Invitational he had a match with Gunner that I loved, but didn't resonate with others. In fact it was probably the most polarizing match of the tourney. To me the match was entirely believable and featured a masterful performance by Ace in particular with his timing, bumping, and facial expressions really carrying the day. It's not the best Rockwell match I've seen, but the fact that he was able to get over as an equal "star" against Gunner in that building on that night was telling to me.

 

He has plenty of good matches from Anarchy online, but the real standout there is the excellent title match v. Tempers. The Empire title match that is on the Empire website is also great, and remarkably ambitious for a match of this era. That said the best match of his I've seen is probably the I Quit match from 1/2/14 v. Matt Fortune, a talented but young kid. They worked an excellent brawl that probably would have rated in my top ten matches of that year from anywhere on Earth had a seen it sooner. If pressed I'd rate it as the best Empire match I've ever seen, and that's a promotion I like a lot.

 

I'm probably less inclined to rate him than Tempers because I have seen less of his career, but I couldn't in good conscience nominate Tempers and not Ace.

[Exposer]

Ace is interesting. I remember when he was younger than I am working as Twiggy in 2002. So I've seen a lot of him live. This is a pun, but he is a great Indie promotion ace. He's especially strong as a lead face. He's very old school in a lot ways in how he works as a babyface. He doesn't do a lot of flashy stuff. He can, but he'd rather sell his ass off, bump big, and build sympathy. He's been a part of some of the best brawls I've ever seen. The Naturals vs Tempers/Rockwell is one of the best live matches I've ever seen as they brawl and bleed everywhere. It's basically Rose/Somers vs Rockers 20 years later in a National Guard Armory. He's got the Matt Fortune match from Long Cold Winter 2014 in Empire which is probably the greatest Empire match of all time. He's got a great series with former partner Shaun Tempers that has spanned over a decade with great matches in multiple promotions. I thought he was great in the Gunner match at SCI last year bringing aggression and intensity that was much needed. I think there's something missing from Ace though whether it be footage issues or maybe some inconsistency (I have seen some pretty disappointing Ace matches over the years on an average night). He's certainly worth thinking about when it comes to Southern Indie guys.