[2001-10-26-APW-King of the Indies 2001] Adam Pearce vs Doug Williams

[cactus]

I decided to check out this tournament after reading about it in Daniel Bryan's book. This is the very first match and it's interesting to see all these future big names and indy staples in a pre-ROH world. Adam Pearce is wearing these track bottoms and looks very low rent, while Doug Williams looked old even back in 2001.

They start off with some great matwork that looks like a frantic struggle and doesn't look choreographed. Adam Pearce heels it up big time, complaining that Williams is pulling on his non-existent hair to gain an advantage. The pace of this feels off as the match progresses, a lot of big moves are hit with little to no reason. Pearce complains to the referee about a slow count and this gives Williams enough time to land a Chaos Theory, which gets him a huge pop and a win to the quarter-finals.

A decent enough outing that goes a mere 8 minutes. Williams is a sublime technical wrestler, but is lacking in the charisma department, but thankfully Pearce's antics saves this from being dull.

★★¾