[2023-04-28-Arcadian Wrestling] Johnny Kidd vs Mike Quackenbush

[Ma Stump Puller]

I'd say this was a sad occasion to see someone like Quack so hyped up a couple of years back to now be doing matches in a z-tier promotion in what looked to be a British social club which had probably been last refurnished in the early 90's, but that would imply that he's a good guy that deserves that kind of pity lol. Anyway, the match is basically the 69 year old Kidd pulling off a good performance while Quack kinda dragged his feet along and did some really stupid mannerisms, all in round format! Round 1 has them do a few decent back and forth starting sequences, with Quack getting a bit overconfident before getting his legs worked over until the end; despite selling them a bit afterwards, it never becomes an actual thing. Round 2 had Quack do some half-speed escapes from Kidd (including a monkey flip out of a arm wrench, which was a cool bump for the oldie) before they do some surfboard transitions. It goes to the ground and he escapes using his legs to knock away Kidd's arms before rolling out. I do have to generally praise Kidd in this match; the guy is basically 70 but he's still pretty slick when it comes to sticking on the usual holds and he still knows how to get around the ring pretty damn well for his age, probably in part due to the low-impact style that he's still working. Round 3 continues the arm work with some pretty goofy Quack-isms as he lands slow and convolved counters to Kidd just sticking on robust arm work. Eventually the first fall comes as Kidd does a cool old-man cartwheel before catching the legs of a attempted sunset flip to take the first fall.

Round 4 starts with Quack doing weird stuff with his arms before the two go over more fairly basic WoS sequences, with some being a bit more awkward than others. Quack gets a fall by coming off the corner and doing this really goofy 10-second long transition fest into a leg-capture STF. Sure it was a cool move, way better ways of applying it than this though. Round 5 has the two be a lot more tentative, with both using extended holds to drag this along, Kidd with a headlock and Quack with a leg-vice. Quack's still doing weird stuff with his arms so that's something. Really awesome bit where Kidd has a modified Cobra Twist applied, then springs off the ropes into a sunset when threatened with a rope break, thought that was really clever and could've easily been a spot people would gush over if done today. The rest of the round is him dominating with slick arm work until the end. Round 6 is mostly establishing Full Nelson transitions (!!!) and them pacing with each other in-between these Quack does a flip near the end and hits a monkey flip transition, forcing the two to go back and forth until Quack countered the sunset back to get the conclusive pinfall, so there's a bit of storytelling from the first fall to here.

This was perfectly fine for what a WoS match would look like in 2023 if done by a 69 year old and a guy who isn't really that amazing at the style. Quack's a bit stiff (natural given this is his first publicly worked match for about 3/4 years, give or take) and his stuff is nowhere near as refined as Kidd, who mostly kept this going with some solid bumps and focus on limb work and tricky old-guy transitions to carry this along. It's definitely a great showing for him, I don't see how this does anything for Quack though. Someone should do what Quack did and take Johnny Kidd to Japan instead of America so he can work sick Mutoha matches before he retires,  I'd really appreciate that. 

 

 

 

[paul sosnowski]

This is Quack's first match anywhere since Chikara shut down in June 2020.   Weird

[Ma Stump Puller]

6 hours ago, paul sosnowski said:

This is Quack's first match anywhere since Chikara shut down in June 2020.   Weird

I don't think it's that weird when you consider the drama surrounding his allegations probably makes him near impossible to book anywhere worth a damn lol. He's in his late 40's as well and pretty banged up, apparently.