Phil Schneider Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHsSgSI6640 Great match, Riddle can be a pretty good cocky jerk, but this was Riddle as a babyface fighting a bully and he is awesome at it. Hero is amazing as a bully, and really smacked around Riddle with big elbows and kicks. Hero working over Riddles foot was super nasty, attacking Riddle's feet are getting to be like attacking Kobashi's knees during the NOAH days, but Hero had some of the cooler attacks on Riddle's foot. He really twisted and turned the muscles and bones and I don't see how Riddle wasn't cramping up in the morning. Riddle is great at desperately fighting back, and his submission ability means he is never out of it. Riddle has worked as a KO guy before, but this was really a submission fighter against a big striker, and Riddle is a great Carlos Newton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOTNW Posted December 3, 2016 Report Share Posted December 3, 2016 Crowd was just awful here, chanting stupid shit the whole time, really letting it sink in they care more about yelling for the sake of yelling and "clever" observations than the match and the people in it. The opening matwork was ok, not the type of stuff you want Riddle to do yet precisely the kind of masturbatory work I'd expect out of Hero-him locking Riddle in a headlock with his hands behind him sounds and looked like a cool spot, but it got no reaction, lasted for two seconds and didn't mean anything-so is there really any point to it? Riddle might do a nice headscissors, but Hero then does the stupid delayed kip-up that I'd expect out of Marufuji. The majority of the match has them exchange strikes and moves and it isn't really that interesting or good-you get some nice violence, but Chris Hero can't even shake hands without sound effects. The transitions are what absolutely kills any chance of this reaching greatness-it's so predictable, everything comes from them either countering a move attempt or no-selling, i.e. Chris Hero does three big moves> Riddle hits him with a Fisherman suplex immediately after, the dreaded rope running counters. You get control segments but there aren't any significant momentum shifts and the match is full of artificial moments like Hero acting surprised how come one big Elbow didn't knock Riddle out when it takes him 50 of them to beat anyone, and him taking ten seconds just to lock hands for a Gotch Style Piledriver looked stupid too. There was no struggle there-just Hero taking his time to lock hands so the crowd could "aaaaaaaaaa" to it. Riddle's strikes didn't look very good. The finishing counter was great-and yeah there were some stuff in this match that was good and would make for nice GIFs like the aforementioned finish, violence (Hero's strikes and kicks are always on point) and footwork that Hero did (how clever of him to attack Riddle's feet. he doesn't wear shoes! it's smart! and yeah-it looked good too. but then was promptly forgotten about two minutes later) but that only goes so far when the workers are lacking in creativity and understanding of how to structure a match beyond the short-sightedness of "this is cool in the moment". An overrated match between overrated workers in an overrated promotion. **3/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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