[2000-01-22-APW-Y2Kaos Weekend] Michael Modest vs Christopher Daniels

[soup23]

This feels like the climax of late 90's early 2000 indies before Danielson and Low Ki really perfected the style to a degree. Tighter execution, state of the art moves, and a slither of story mixed in. Even the kind of grainy footage really felt like a staple of the indies prior to ROH. There were multiple moments of inconsistency and back and forth action and I really hated the integration of weapons and ref bump in this but overall this was more successful than the stuff we saw with the Ballard Brothers, Suicide Kid, etc. ***

[Loss]

I thought this was pretty great. I don't think this is really a predictor of the more hardcore fan-driven style of the 2000s indy scene at all. It seems to exist as its own thing. Maybe calling it a conclusion to 90s indy wrestling is appropriate. Check out the kids chanting Modest's name, Daniels' cheating and the counting along with Modest's ten punches in the corner. There's nothing exclusive or underground about how this match is worked or the audience to whom it is trying to appeal. It probably more closely resembled the traditional U.S. pro style, in fact, than most of the matches the WWF and WCW were presenting at this point in time. There were a few times that they got a little more creative than I wish they would have with some of the counters, but I really dug this overall and think the iffy moments were overshadowed by what they did right. ****

[Mattsdmf]

I thought this was a fine match besides the really weak conclusion. I have soft spot for early 2000s pre ROH indies and this was fun to watch. It's weird to see Daniels with hair. I can't wait to get to seeing Low Ki and Danielson really break out later in 2000-2001.

[Tim Evans]

These two guys are just so bland. The wrestling was fine and was worked in an early ROH main event style which I guess is where that style came from. Nice to see the crowd into it but it took me a while to notice Modest was the babyface. The finish was just dreadful though. Two ref bumps in less than a minute? What is this WCW?

[Migs]

Interesting to contrast this with what was happening on the east coast. This is a little bit less formally inventive, although a lot more crisply worked. Still, the match didn't feel like it build particularly well - it just was strong in that department relative to the formless messes happening in CZW (which will get worse as the year goes on).

 

One note here - this is for the Internet Title. APW was great at getting their stuff online - I watched a lot of it in '01-'02 just because it was freely available on their website in good quality (for the time).

[Laney]

This was a pretty good indie match that seemed to be the precursor to the style that develops in the early 2000's. A lot of back-and-forth action with both guys busting out innovative moves, but seemed to lack a cohesive story. Overall it was a nice look at the west cost indies. I was never really a fan of Michael Modest, but I remember Daniels being up there as the top indie guy in the 2000-2002 time frame.

 

***1/2

[Childs]

This felt like a heel vs. heel match a lot of the way. These were maybe your two most highly regarded indy guys at the time, and I guess I can see why. They both hit their shit pretty well. But I was bored. It felt like they were doing stuff in the same space but not really competing, if that makes sense. And the finish was flat as a board.

[Moonsault Marvin]

I had forgotten Christopher Daniels with hair. This started off with some sequences that they rushed through. The match just went on and on and was crammed full of moves that were competently performed but didn't seem meaningful. Daniels at least tried to get the crowd involved by posing, but Modest was quite boring. He tried hulk-ups, but he didn't really build to them. Below average.

[GSR]

For the Worldwide Internet championship; which is just so 2000! An exchange of arm wringers eventually results in an ‘indy stand off’, although Daniels has a cool roll up off a Modest leapfrog in this fast paced opening. Leapfrog by Daniels, however Modest catches him mid-air with a scoop powerslam and then plants him with an overhead uranage. Whip to the turnbuckle, Modest charges in, but when Daniels puts his feet up Modest slides underneath to the outside, grabs his legs and posts him. He rolls to the floor and makes his way back to the dressing room, but Modest is in pursuit and bodyslams him on the wooden floor. Back inside and Modest with a release tilt-a-whirl, dropping Daniels chest first to the canvas. Another whip to the corner, Daniels with the foot up again on the charging Modest and this time it connects. Running neckbreaker and he starts to put the boots to his opponent. Bodyslam and a slingshot elbow from the apron over the top rope for two. Belly to belly for a second near fall, while a Lionsault is still not enough to put Modest away. Daniels tosses him to the outside and an Arabian moonsault to the arena floor. Nice gut wrench suplex for two. Modest vaults over the inrushing Daniels, and a release Dragon suplex with the ‘Fallen Angel’ landing flush on the top of his head. A hangman’s noose Ace Crusher, and when Daniels takes another trip outside Modest nails him with a pescado. He gets Daniels up for a torture rack but then starts spinning (like an inverted airplane spin) before hitting a backdrop driver. Face first uranage for two. They trade near falls and an accidental clash of heads off a shoulder tackle sees Daniels falls out of the ring. As the ref start to count him out Modest pulls him out the way, but the ‘Fallen Angel’ then clocks him over the head with a chair. Springboard crossbody, however Modest moves and he takes out the official instead. Daniels heads up top but Modest counters with a headstand in the corner and a headscissors takedown. Death Valley Driver but no-one to count the pin. As he goes to check on the referee, Daniels with a chair shot to the head, ‘Angel’s Wings’ on the chair and Christopher Daniels is the new Internet champion.

 

Modest is a helluva wrestler and is seriously innovative, pulling out a bunch of stuff that is completely new to me; just a shame he’s so darn bland. He also does that annoying thing that RVD does of looking to the crowd for appreciation after a move. Crowd were great here, getting behind Modest and jeering Daniels (especially liked one girl telling him to “go to hell” after he’d hit the ‘Angel’s Wings’). Didn’t like the chair involvement and the ref bump as after how the match had gone I don’t think it was needed. While every pin attempt was a two count too, mix it up a bit fellas! I know he had a cup of coffee in WCW and ended up in NOAH but I’ll be interested to see how much Indy stuff around the US we get from Modest (I have zero recollection of him in ROH) or whether he just stayed on the West Coast. I actually thought Daniels showed a fair bit of charisma here, or maybe that’s just magnified opposed to Modest.

[Seabs]

Daniels feels like he worked the same way in 2000 as he would in 2010 based on this. He's always super crisp even this far back. His problem was always hitting the heights that guys like Joe and AJ could. Shaving his head was a great move. As a 10 minute match this probably would have been a ton of fun but it ended up dragging on a bit and by the 12-14 mark I was losing interest. Once they go that long they needed more to hold the match together than crisp workrate wrestling. This probably would have been received a lot better at the time when this type of match was much less common and more innovative.

[aethelred]

This was fine, but nothing I ever need to see again. It was interesting to see footage from a promotion I only really know from being in every mod for TEW. Christopher Daniels does already show a lot of polish here, not surprising as he had already been wrestling apparently for nearly 7 years! The idea of one of the indy megastars of the 2000s wrestling at the same time Yokozuna was WWF champ is really weird.