Zona 23 – La Guerra Comienza

Zona 23 is my favorite promotion that I've never watched a full show from, well was now that I've watched a full show from them. I love their youtube stuff and I just love the idea of a wrestling promotion in the middle of a junkyard. Lot of people I'm seeing for the first time on this show, but a few I've seen in other stuff since I just watched an IWA:MS King of the Deathmatch tournament

Guerrera Negra vs, Sadik Maiden

You know it's going to be good when the match starts with them just smashing a bunch of lighttubes over each others heads. Sadik knocks Negra to a seated position then hits running knees to the back of the head with some lighttubes. Negra takes the advantage after some brawling ringside and sticks some lightubes down the back of Sadik's shirt and smashes them with double knees to the back. Sadik makes a comeback and drapes Negra over the ropes and neckbreakers her off them. They go back to the outside and start exchanging strikes. Sadik grabs Negra by the hair and charges her into the crowd as none of them bother mobing out of their chairs. Sadik piles chairs on top of Negra and one fan who didn't move and starts hitting the pile with more chairs. Negra breaks out the skewers and hammers them into Sadik's forehead. Sadik returns the favor and for the first time I've ever seen gets every skewer to stick in. The shen pulls them out and bites the forehead. Sadik comes off the second rope with a splash onto lighttubes and Negra for the win. The top rope is a little loose so she wisely doesn't go up there.

The match has a little too much of them no selling stuff and who has control of the match randomly changing that a lot of deathmatches can suffer from, but otherwise this is a fun brawl between the two women and while they don't go too crazy with any huge spots they do have them build up to bigger stuff throughout the match which is another thing a lot of deathmatches mess up so kudos to them for not doing that.

6/10

Lanatik Extreme vs. Lunatik Fly

We start off with some nice lucha wrestling and escapes for each other and Fly sends Extreme to the outside and hits a dive. We take a turn to the hardcore as Fly slams Extreme repepeatedly into a car near the ring. He thin hits a legdrop off the car onto Extreme, good height on that jump too. Extreme takes advantage and hits an avalanche falcon arrow onto the remains of some lighttubes for a two count. He follows that up with a powerbomb into the corner onto lighttubes. Extreme goes for a double stomp onto the apron, but Fly moves out of the way and then hits a beautiful asai moonsault on Extreme. Back in the ring Extreme regains control and hits a powerbomb onto his knee for the three count.

A fast paced affair between these two and an enjoyable match. My favorite kind of deathmatch where the two competitors just have a good match where some weapons happen to be involved. The leg drop on the outside is insane.

7/10

Joe Lider vs. Super Mega vs. Ultimo Gladiator

A short three way exchange of crazy happens and Ultimo knocks everybody to the outside and hits a suicide dive on Lider. Mega gets back in the ring and hits a suicide dive onto the other two with a bunch of lighttubes in front of him. Mega hits Lider over the head with an unfolded chair like a jerk as they brawl over toward a car. Ultimo suplexes Lider from the hood to the roof then climbs on top of a trailer and hits a splash onto Lider on the car. Lider rolls off the car and Mega suplexes Ultimo onto the roof then takes Lider into the ring. Mega charges at Lider in the corner who counters with a hiptoss through lighttubes and a pane of glass. Mega sets up a barbed wire wrapped chair and runs Lider into it after shoving some skewers into Ultimo's head. Lider breaks up a pin attempt and shoves a bunch of skewers into the forehead of Mega. Lider then gets some skewers courtesy of Ultimo. Ultimo and Mega suplex Lider onto some lighttubes. Mega hits a superplex on Ultimo onto a pile of chairs and lighttubes that gets a two count. Lider drops an elbow with a lighttube and gets the three count.

The three way rule really helped this match be going at all times and led to a bunch of great spots throughout the match and good work from all three of these men. The actual pinfall was pretty anticlimatic and probably should have come more quickly after the superplex, but whatever. Still got a ton of great hardcore spots and good work throughout.

8/10

Pirata Morgan, Super Crazy & Toxico vs. Histeria II, Psicosis II & X-Fly

Psicosis II hits a sloppy tilt a whirl move, but follows it up with a nice suicide dive and has already made his way to the car where he hits a tombstone piledriver on Toxico on the roof. The action is crazy and all over, but it gets back in the ring and the rudos are teaming up on Pirata Morgan. The technicos make a comeback and start brawling around ringside again. Crazy has set up the hood of a car over three chairs on the outside. Psicosis II strips Toxico's shirt off then powerbombs him onto thumbtacks. Psicosis tries to roll out of the way of a Crazy moonsault, but doesn't go far enough and still gets hit. They brawl to the outside and he puts Crazy on the carhood and jumps off the top rope with a legdrop, but Crazy moves. The ref calls for a disqualification victory for the rudos because Pirata Morgan hit a dick kick with lighttubes, but considering all the other stuff going on I don't know why the fuck that would matter.

This match had too much going on to focus on anything and a lot of the people in this match looked pretty bad during it as well. For a while I was worried they were going to restart the match, but all the talk afterword didn't lead to anything thankfully.

2/10

Eliminatoria de cachetadas

A masked wrestler I don't know is in the ring and has issued an open slap challenge and a bunch of fans get to come in and accept it. He's a thoughtful guy so he lets the fans strike first. He no sells the two fans strikes and fucking rocks them with slaps. Dumb, but fun to see. The fans really tried, you love to see it.

Aeroboy vs. Ciclope

Aeroboy Irish whips Ciclope through a barbed wire board then Ciclope Irish whips him into a car hood. Aeroboy hits a suicide dive that slowly sends Ciclope crashing through the chairs. The brawl back and forth on the outside with some lighttube usage involved. A car hood is setup over to chairs with some lighttubes on top for good measure. They brawl on the outside until Ciclope slides off Aeroboy's back into the ring. He trips Aeroboy down then bounches off the far ropes and hits a crossbody through the bottom ropes that sends them crashing through the car hood, awesome spot. Aeroboy recovers despite his back being a bloody mess and gets the barbed wire chair and slams it over Ciclope's back several times. They exchange lighttube shots then brawl over to a car. Aeroboy suplexes Ciclope onto the room then climbs up a stack of trucks and misses a senton that destroys the roof of the car, and probably Aeroboy's insides. Ciclope is lazy so he has the ring crew carry Aeroboy into the ring for him and only gets a two count. Ciclope comes off the top with a moonsault with a bundle of lighttubes and misses. They have a nice exchange of big moves that culminates in Aeroboy hitting a senton followed by a tiger driver for the three count.

The beginning of this match was kind of not much, but sloppy brawling, but once they get out to the car it becomes a lot more entertaining. Some fun bumps and cool stuff from the two guys, but this definitely suffered from death match random control change issues and the biggest spot kind of happening in the middle of the match. A fun match between these two guys though.

6/10

Fly Star vs. Miedo Extremo

Some back and forth exchanges leads to Miedo rolling to the outside and Fly Star hitting an Asai moonsault then chucking a paint bucket at him. We get a lighttube broken over Miedo's head and Fly Star then uses the remains to cut his forehead. Unfortunately that just powers Miedo up who returns the favor, but does a better job of opening a cut. Both men just start grabbing whatever they find at ringside and hitting each other over the head with it. They climb to the top of a trailer and Star throws Miedo off it then goes for a senton that misses. Back in the ring Miedo kicks a bundle of lighttubes into Star's chest then hits a half and half suplex for a two count. He follows up with a big powerbomb onto a car hood and lighttubes in the corner for two. Star drops Miedo stomach first on some lighttubes then hits a sitout fisherman suplex on light tubes for a two count. They exchange some striles before Star hits a german suplex that Miedo no sells then hits one of his own leaving both men down on the mat. Both men struggle to their feet and Star hits a springboard Canadian Destroyer onto some lighttubes then puts Miedo on the top rope. He drags the car hood over then sets it up on some chairs then he lights it on fire of course. Miedo shoves Star off the ropes through the fire. Miedo hits a big lifting reverse DDT then puts a bundle of lighttubes on Star before hitting a 450 for the three count.

A really good brawl between these two guys with some nice wrestling sequences mixed in as well. It was a little directionless before the car spot like the match before, but it gets to that part sooner and does more after it as well. A great use of weapons and they escalate the spots well. Crazy to know the finish doesn't involve the fire spot and still isn't a disappointment. Miedo's 450 was beautiful as well. Both men hit some really good looking suplexes throughout the match as well.

8/10

Matthew Justice vs. Demoledor

After a few stale mate lockups we get a chop exchange between the two men that quickly morphs into a forearm exchange. Demoledor runs to the corner followed by Justice and backflips over him, pretty impressive for a dude his size, but Justice charges and spears him to the mat. Demoledor charges the corner and Justice Demoledor so he flips over to the ground. Justice follows up with a pescado. Demoledor hits some strikes and puts Justice in a chair with some lighttubes then hits a suicide dive. They brawl around the ring taking turns slamming each other into the ring posts with a few light tube shots mixed in. They climb up to the top of the trailer and the roof of the car has been so destroyed they put some glass panes on it as well. They brawl on the roof then Demoledor lifts Justice up and tosses him off with a DVD. The crowd hypes Demoledor so he jumps off and misses a senton. They exchange strikes and then Demoledor puts some skewers into Justice's forehead. The two men get in the ring and exchange chair shots to the head. Demoledor gets the advantage then piles the chairs up with some light tubes thrown in for fun. He climbs the ropes, but Justice cuts him off with a chair shot and powerbombs him onto a chair. They brawl to the outside again and then climb up a different stuck of trailers and trucks next to a car. Justice kicks Demoledor off the ladder onto the chair then hits a big splash for the three count.

A good brawl from tehse two men with some good stuff, but they make the biggest mistake a deathmatch can do and thats have the finish not be a bigger bump than the stuff they did previously. I let some of the earlier matches off after doing the bump onto the car and doing other stuff, but just doing a different one, but without glass this time as the finish is a let down. That being said it is an entertaining brawl before hand and both men do good work throughout the match.

7/10

Overall: This was a fun show to watch and the first whole Zona 23 show I've watched. I usually just check out matches they upload to youtube, but this was a show that built up well with the matches being pretty normal deathmatch stuff until the matches near the end had way bigger bumps and lasted longer. Every match had a bunch of promos afterword, which since I don't speak Spanish since I'm too lazy to do my duolingo lessons seemed to last a while, but I also don't love promos after death matches as it kind of takes the impact out of the damage the wrestlers have done to each other. Must have been some rain fairly recently as it wasn't as dusty at ringside as I've seen it before. Definitely a fun show to watch and a reminder of wrestling shows with fans before the pandemic started.

IWA Deathmatch 97

I'm watching the version with 2005 commentary getting me Dave Prazak and Trik Davis to help me through this show. We get an opening highlight video set to Queen's “The Show Must Go On,” which is a very good song for that kind of video. This ring looks even sketchy then it ends up

Cash Flo vs. Ian Rotten

Rotten has hit Cash with a thumbtack bat to the head and piledrived him on thumbtacks and we're just starting this match. After brawling on the outside Cash turns the tables and hits Rotten with a bunch of lighttubes. The ref isn't wearing globes and gets a thumbtack in the hand while counting a pinfall. Ian hits a bunch of big moves to Cash on the thumbtacks before hitting a DVD and putting him down for the three count.

Pretty much just a squash match from the booker here and Cash really proves how tough he is in his first deathmatch showing I believe. Ian is limping from doing a legdrop onto a thumbtack bat onto Cash's chest.

3/10

Bull Pain vs. Rollin Hard

This one starts with Bull Pain backing Hard into the corner and some punches before dragging his head across the rope, nice that we start with some wrestling before getting right into the big spots. Pain effortlessly throws him over the makeshift rope guardrail and into the chairs. Hard is busted open from anb unprotected chairshot and wisely covers his head the second time. They brawl to the outside, but no camera gets to the action right away. The camera guy gets outside, but its so dark its not much better than not seeing it. After a bunch of brawling on the outside they get in the ring and Hard backdrops Pain onto the tacks. Pain takes Hard to dick kick city and hits him with the thumbtack bat a couple of times. Hard hits the worst fucking tornado DDT I've ever seen onto the tacks for a three count.

This was a fun crowd brawl and a very good change of pace from the previous match. Both men do some decent wrestling and get some color. The finishing move looking terrible kind of hurts the match, but still a fine display.

5/10

War Machine #1 vs. Balls Mahoney

War Machine is the first guy wearing regular wrestling gear so he gets respect for that. Although Balls is also wearing the only gear I've ever seen him in even if it is jean shorts and a shirt. The green sign a fan is holding has been used in all three matches so far. Now Balls is using the rope guardrail to choke Machine, I like the resourcefulness. Back in the ring and Machine takes the barbed wire bat to the forehead of Balls and busts him open. Balls gets Irish whipped into two barbed wire boards. Hero does question if it's the same ring IWA:MS kept using in '05 and allegedly it's not. Machine takes a slow Irish whip into a board and then Balls hits him with an inverted piledriver for three.

This was decent when it was a crowd brawl, but back in the ring the match was very perfunctory and was over pretty quick.

4/10

Axl Rotten vs. War Machine #2

Machine gets tossed out of the ring into a pit of mousetraps. He even gets up with one stuck to his tights. Axl dents a chair over Machine's head then sets up the barbed wire panel over two chairs. Axl hits a powerbomb through the board for three.

This match was also nothing like the first one so a disappointing first round.

2/10

Tower of Doom vs. Mad Man Pondo

Doom wins a test of strength to put Pondo to his knees. Pondo with an uppercut to the dong and then a stop sign to the head. Pondo grabs a testicular claw then shoves him into the pit of thumbtacks and barbed wire. Doom hits a terrible sidewalk slam onto the mousetraps since he didn't want to drop into them as well. Then he hits a piledriver onto some broken glass and Doom is not happy about hitting that move. Pondo then grabs some glass and cuts Doom open. Doom goes up to the second rope and hits a missile dropkick that gets two before Pondo gets a foot on the rope to break it up. Doom grabs a bunch of thumbtacks and individually pushes them into Pondo's head. Doom hits a legdrop off a chair onto Pondo who's on a barbed wire panel. Doom gets laid out on the barbed wire panel and Pondo hits a crooked Harlem Hangover for the three count.

This had some substance to it, but it's also the bad kind of deathmatch where they hit each other for stuff and nobody really sells anything and there's no flow to the match at all. It's just them hitting stuff. I will say that these guys used the weapons a little more fun than the others though.

3/10

Doug Gilbert vs. Ox Harley

Gilbert throws Ox into a barbed wire board then Harley reverses an Irish whip and sends Gilbert into the barbed wire. Ringside Gilbert puts a panel on top of Ox and double stomps it onto him. Bryce is on commentary and makes a joke about quarantining after all the blood in a match and that really hits different now. A bunch of brawling in the ring leads to Gilber hitting a piledriver onto the barbed wire with a lazy kick out then he follows it up with a piledriver that looked super dangerous. Gilbert taunts too much and Ox rakes the forehead of Gilbert with barbed wire. Ox goes up to the second rope, but Gilbert cuts him off and throws him off the top through a barbed wire panel for three.

A little more back and forth and something resembling a real match here, but Gilbert has too much of a need to taunt during the match, but at least it seems more like wrestling.

4/10

Rollin Hard vs. Ian Rotten

Some brawling and barbed wire use has lead to both men being busted open again, granted it's pretty easy since they were both bleeding earlier in the night. The brawl outside and Ian hits him with a bunch of different signs that the fans have at ringside. Ian and some ring crew or fans put in a barbed wire contraption with some glass as well. Ian barely lives Rollin up enough for a powerbomb and basically hits him with a throwing piledriver and we get the first Holy Fuck out of Prazak for the night.

This was some okay brawling and chair shots and Ian nearly killing Rollin Hard so not a lot there, but at least we get an impressive spot at the end. Rollin Hard is a real bloody mess after the match too.

2/10

Balls Mahoney forfeits from the second round because h has an ECW Championship match coming up which is stupid so just have him lose in the first round.

Doug Gilbert vs. Mad Man Pondo

They lockup and Pondo backs Gilbert into the barbed wire, but he no sells and superkicks Pondo into the opposite side ropes barbed wire. The first crazy bump that looks like something that happens now when Gilbert suplexes him off the side of the ring with no ropes into the barbed wire and broken glass. Prazak leveling up from “Hook the leg Man” to yelling “Hook the Leg you Fuck!” when Gilbert does a cocky cover after a piledriver. Gilbert gets a hot shot onto the barbed wire and that gets him the three count.

This match was not good at all, and maybe because I don't get why Doug Gilbert is so cocky all the time it kind of hurts the match, but it's a deathmatch tournament get your shit together.

3/10

Ian Rotten vs. Axl Rotten

The setup of this match is cool as its electrified barbed wire ropes with lighbulbs on the ropes that are providing illumination for the match. Doug Gilbert is a coward and doesn't want to wrestle in the finals so it's just a Rotten match up so that's good. Axl wins a test of strength and delivers some knees to the chest. Some scuffling on the mat leads to the getting close to the edge and Axl rubs the barbed wire on Ian's head. They are using normal lightbulbs on the ring and not light tubes and they are much harder to break so that might be why thigns change in the future. Breaking the light bulbs doesn't seem to work too well, so Ian just grinds the broken remains into Axl's forhead to draw more blood. Uppercut to the dick from Ian and he hits a legitimately good dropkick to Axl that surprised me and Prazak on commentary. Doug Gilbert runs in and hits a piledriver on Ian, but the ref is distracted enough that he can't get the three. Gilbert runs back in and piledrives Axl and the ref starts a count. Ian gets up at ten and falls back down and wins the match.

This was a pretty standard brawl with some cool deathmatch shit hanging around it, but Gilbert not wanting to wrestle then piledriving both guys to lead to a shitty ten count finish for Ian it is so bad.

3/10

This show is so fucking bad. It might have been slightly better at the time, but I doubt it, because I've seen cooler deathmatch stuff from earlier than this as well. Almost none of these were good matches and this is back in the times when most of the deathmatch wrestlers didn't bother to learn how to wrestle a good match. I wasn't expecting much, and this show underdelivered on that. I can't believe the bullshit finish to the tournament.

I wouldn't recommend watching this show, but I'm glad shit like this is saved online anyway. I don't know why, but it's kind of a nice bookmark for how deathmatch wrestling has evolved from where it started at in America. This show really highlights the shitty version of how deathmatch wrestling works and also has so many people dropping out that it proves how tournament booking is tough if you're dumb. IWTV has good stuff even if this show isn't. I'll prove it by writing up a review for a good recent deathmatch show tomorrow.

H2O Last Extravaganza Night 1

The building is way too filled with fans, even if they are all wearing masks so off to a bad start, but I'm not one of the people there so whatever. One of the commentators starting the show by saying It's a packed house Covid be damned is also pretty stupid. Anyway time to watch guys get fucked up in a deathmatch tournament. A bunch of new wrestlers to get acquainted with so that's also a nice treat,

Mouse vs. Bam Sullivan vs. Connor Claxton vs. Eric Ryan vs. Aiden Baal

Some Deathmatches use the weapons to tell a story, sometimes it's a bunch of guys doing a bunch of cool shit and using weapons. This is the latter. The five man nature kind of necessitates that. We get some fun weapons as its vaguely kitchen nightmare themed and there are some tongs used, a board with a bunch of plastic forks on it and then more normal weapons. Including a Nerg Gun with a bunch of tacks on the bullets. Eric Ryan gets a short advantage and hits a bunch of cannonballs and face washes on everybody in the corners. The tables are turned and he gets beat up by everybody culminating in a tiger driver through the fork board. Bam Sullivan eventually gets the win with a spear through some kind of board for the three count.

A fine match, nothing special, but some good stuff throughout it. 4/10

Scotty Vortekz vs. Devon Moore vs. Lucky 13 vs. Drew Blood

This match starts off fast. Moore takes Blood to the outside then Moore stops a dive from Scotty in the ropes and Scotty powerslams him onto the apron whehn he charges at him. Lucky 13 charges and does a fosbury flop over Scotty to Moore on the outside. Both thumbtack strip boards have been broken already, but we've still got a barbed wire board and a barbed wire frame that's really going to suck. Blood and Scotty battle on the top rope and Blood gets the advantage and hits an air raid crash through the barbed wire table. A bunch of back and forth action from everybody that is some good hard hitting action including Moore hitting a great superplex on Blood. Scotty takes Moore out and hits a double knee on him and rolls through right into a cookie sheet shot from Lucky 13 who covers Moore for the win.

A fun and pretty damn good match between these four men. Would have been a good match even without the weapons which make it more fun. Only downside would be when Blood got thrown through the barbed wire frame he didn't really hit it very well. 6/10

Brandon Kirk vs. Orin Veidt vs. Alex Colon vs. Tim Donst

Colon and Veidt get tossed through doors in the corner to start it off then get up with the remains of the tables and smoke Kirk and Donst over the head then start brawling. We get a dive train that culminates in Colon hitting a suicide dive into a spinning DDT. Colon and Veidt are fighting over control of the door when Donst puts Kirk through it with a DVD. We get some back and forth action in the ring before we get a barbed wire board introduced. Veidt lifts Kirk up with a suplex and just chucks him through the board. Then he stops Colon on the top rope and carries him across the ring to hit an electric chair driver on top of Kirk. Donst and Veidt start exchanging chops in the corner. Donst superplexes Colon off the top rope and on top of Kirk. All four men grab a chunk of door and start going apeshit on each other in one of the coolest spots ever. Veidt climbs up the scaffolding next to the ring with Kirk draped over a door in the ring. Colon cuts him off with a door shot then climbs up and hits the flipping belly to belly off the platform through the table for the win.

This match was awesome. Just a great match between these four guys and a bunch of cool spots throughout it. They do a great job of managing the four people in the match and making it have a flow and story. Plus who doesn't love four dudes just beating the shit out of each other with broken doors? 9/10

Lowlife Louie vs. Mitch Vallen vs. Stockade vs. SHLAK

As the last match was a bunch of guys who are good at wrestling doing deathmatch stuff. These guys can't wrestle so they just brawl and do deathmatch shit. Mitch starts the match by beating the fuck out of Louie with different bats and busts him wide open. Shlak and Stockade both mess up piledrivers that they both no sell. Shlak pulls out a plastic bag and starts suffocating Louie then starts stabbing him with a baby railroad spike. Stockade hits a good German suplex. I didn't think he had it in him. Stockade sets up two chairs back to back then climbs up to the top rope and Mitch throws him off over the top of the chairs. Shlak grabs Mitch and hits a DVD through a chair then Louie smokes Shlak with a bat. Louie uses a modified La magistral to get the win.

This is like the classic bad old style of deathmatches where everybody just starts beating the shit out of each other with lots of blood. Granted Louie bleeds a lot which helps add to that kind of match and we get some cool spots. It's not my cup of tea, but I know it works for some people. 3/10

Ryan Redfield vs. GG Everson vs. Dylan McKay vs. Austin Luke

A fast paced match between these four guys with a lot of pinfall attempts and break ups early. GG gets the first advantage hitting McKay with a huge sitout spinebuster then a couple of cannonballs in the corner. Redfield and GG work together for a bit until Redfield breaks up a pinfall attempt from GG. Redfield wrecks McKay with a motherfucker of a lariat. McKay gets the advantage and hits a corner dropkicks on GG then Redfield and Luke hits a coast to coast dropkick on McKay as he finishes the dropkick. Redfield hits a rock bottom then a springboard moonsault on GG who does the laziest kickout ever. McKay and Luke teamup to hit a double stomp tower of London on Redfield. Dylan McKay throws Luke off the platform onto Redfield and GG taking everybody out then hits a shooting star press off the platform for the three count.

Can definitely tell these guys are still students and new at this stuff. They've got some good stuff they can all do, but it's not a very well put together match. There are a few botches and really awkward stuff, but promising from some young talent. 4/10

Jeff Cannonball vs. Kit Osbourne

Kit fails to move Jeff with a shoulder tackle so Jeff hits im with one and sends him through the stack of cinder blocks. Then puts one on Kit's back and breaks it with another brick. Then he crushes Kit's hand the same way. Kit makes a comeback targeting the leg of Jeff, but it evens out again. Kit then dropkicks a cinder block into Jeff's head then grabs a gusset plate for revenge and rakes his forehead. Jeff's draped over the middle rope and Kit slams a cinder block across his back breaking it. Kit starts using a bunch of the carpet strips as weapons and goes to town on Jeff's back. He then puts a block on Jeff's chest and hits a double stomp on it. Kit sets up a chair in the corner and climbs to the top rope, but Jeff pulss him off into a slam onto it. Jeff hits a sitout piledriver for a two count then pulls out some of the blocks from the corner and hits a second piledriver on them for the three count.

Good match from these two. It's the obvious story of a big wrestler against the smaller underdog, but it works really well and both of these guys put in the work here. Not sold on carpet strips as weapons, but I love the use of cinder blocks.7/10

Frankie Pickard (c ) vs Marc Angel vs. Sean Henderson vs. Xavier Cross vs. Steve Sanders vs. Jimmy Lloyd

This match is a mess. Which makes sense with how many guys are in the match. A lot of people flying out of nowhere to hit somebody and some standing around as some people aren't in the right spot at the right time. Once the ring clears out we some we get some good spots in the match. Sanders hits a piledriver off the top through a table. Lloyd sets a door up between the ladders and hits a spinning suplex through the door. He sets up another door over the some tables and Henderson comes in with a superkick and yakuza kick to stagger him then Henderson climbs the ladder and Lloyd follows him up. Henderson hits some punches then hits a Canadian Destroyer off the ladder through the table, but can't capitalize as he's hurt too and Pickard comes in and covers Lloyd for three.

Too many people and not enough idea of what they want to do with this match. There's some cool spots, but its nothing special. 4/10

Matt Tremont vs. Rickey Shane Page

RSP goes to the lighttubes early in the match and within the opening minute Tremont is busted open and gets wipped into the barbed wire and tubes. RSP breaks a lighttube in Tremont's mouth, disgusting. RSP keeps control and breaks a ton of tubes over Tremont. He sets some on the ground and hits a powerslam then grinds the remnant of a tube into Tremont's forehead. Tremont finally counters an Irish whip and sends RSP into the barbed wire. Tremont trips RSP into the tubes and goes to the outside. RSP tries for a tope suicida onto Tremont through the tubes, but Tremont moves. It's all Tremont now and he takes RSP to lighttube hell and just keeps smashing them across his head, chest, and back. RSP escapes a powerslam attempt and chokeslams Tremont onto a lighttube bundle. Tremont's wife comes in to stop RSP and kicks him in the balls then breaks a lighttube bazook over his head. The lockerroom comes down to stop 44OH from interfering.Both men are on their knees and exchanging lighttube shots, but RSP dodges both of Tremont's attempts. Tremont eats a ton of lighttubes, but counters when RSP goes for a move and hits an Angle slam onto a bunch of lighttubes. They both go up to the platform and brawl and RSP throws Tremont off through a stack of lighttubes, pane of glass, and barbed wire board. RSP covers and gets two. RSP then starts chucking all of the lighttubes at Tremont and mixes in all of his big moves and finally gets the three count with a DVD.

This match was fucking insane. They broke so many goddamn lighttubes in this match and it is all spectacle in this one. Halfway through the match every step they take is kicking away broken glass and sounds insane. Some deathmatches use good wrestling and spots to tell the story and sometimes its just a dude about to retire who's refusing to stay down against an asshole who keeps chucking lighttubes at him. Tremont plays the underdog against the guy on the indies everybody wants to see get their comeuppance. This has some fucking crazy spots that looked awesome and Tremont's never say die attitude in this match was dope. 10/10

There are a lot of pretty whatever matches on this show. All those multi-man matches aren't really the easiest matches to make work so its not really surprising to me. But the two matches that are really good are fucking awesome. Honestly everything on this show could have sucked except for the main event and it would have been worth it. It's a spectacle in the best way and has a great story behind it. If you like deathmatch wrestling at all you should watch this show.

AEW Dynamite One Year Anniversary Review and Year One thoughts

 

Dynamite is celebrating its one year anniversary of being on the air. AEW has been a breath of fresh air to the wrestling world and has delivered a lot of quality wrestling and entertainment during that time. It's not all sunshine and rainbows on the show though. Even without the pandemic messing things up there have been issues with AEW's booking in certain areas. The anniversary show is packed with every champion defending their title. I'm going to do a quick review of the anniversary show then do an overview of the first year of Dynamite.

Best Friends vs. FTR

Some back and forth in the beginning of the match and then Trent gets beat up by FTR for a bit as that's what he's best at. Trent hits Wheeler with a big clothesline, but Wheeler gets a tag and Harwood cuts Trent off before he can get the tag then gets him on the top rope and hits a huge avalanche belly to back suplex. Wheeler tags in for a two count then goes for a splash and Trent gets his knees up for a hot tag to Chuck. Chuck clears the ring then hits a big somersault plancha over the top onto FTR. Tully Blanchard interferes and FTR tries to get the advantage, but Trent comes in and makes a save for Chuck then they hit the Soul Food half and half suplex combo for a two count. Harwood takes Chuck off the apron and they double team Trent with an assisted powerbomb for two. Best Friends hit the Strong Zero and Wheeler barely breaks up the count at two for the save. Wheeler hits Chuck with a sick brainbuster on the outside and Trent hits a diving dropkick through the ropes sending Wheeler to the outside. Harwood ends up in front of an arcade cabinet and Trent charges and breaks through it. Wheeler carries Trent into the ring and Trent counters a shatter machine with a DDT. Rick Knox dodges out of the way and doesn't see Wheeler hit Chuck with the belt and Harwood rolls him up for a three count. Very good match between these two teams. I haven't been a fan of FTR in AEW so far, but they're definitely starting to fit in more and work with all the other teams better. The finishing segments were a little rough with some weird timing, but the idea of it was good. Definitely a great way to start the show. 9/10

Miro and Sabian beat up Best Friends after the match for breaking the arcade cabinet.

Miro & Sabian vs. Sean Maluta & Lee Johnson

Miro is just beating the shit out of both men. Sabian hits a splash then Miro locks in a camel clutch to get the submission victory. It's a whatever squash. 0/10

Miro and Sabian complain about Best Friends breaking the arcade cabinet and call them out. Then we cut to Archer beating up Moxley in the back.

After the commercial break MJF is out to make an announcement and brings out the Inner Circle.

We then cut to Britt Baker getting a massage alongside Schiavone who is interviewing her. We get her hyping up her comeback match and mocking Schiavone.

Cody Rhodes vs. Orange Cassidy

Cody knocks Cassidy's glasses off and Cassidy goes into the match pretty seriously with a tight lockup. Cody uses some amateur wrestling to take the advantage, but Cassidy uses some lucha rollups to get some close two falls. Cody hits a big front suplex and starts to bully Cassidy as we go to PiP. Cody hits a big hiptoss that sends Cassidy over the ropes to the outside. Cody gets mad at Cassidy's lazy kicks and shoves him back and gives Cassidy enough space to hit a real superkick that sends him to the outside. Cassidy hits a suicide dive that sends Cody near the Dark Order section of ringside and Silver steals the TNT title to hit Cody, but Cassidy stops him and the Dark Order get thrown out. Back in the ring Cody rolls through a crossbody block then sets Cassidy up for a cross rhodes, but he blocks it with a roll up. Cody hits a low dropkick then drags Cassidy to the corner and slams his leg against the guardrail. Cody hits a huge reverse suplex off the top and covers for two. Cassidy counters a ringpost figure four then climbs up to the top and hits a diving DDT for two. Cassidy hits a brutal Michinoku driver for a two count. Cassidy's knee gives out as he tries to lift Cody up and Cody grabs the leg and locks in a figure four. Cassidy rolls enough times to get to the ropes and break the hold. Cassidy lifts Cody up and hits an air raid crash on the apron. They get back in the ring and fight back and forth and Cassidy hits a bunch of his big moves, but can't get a pinfall before the time limit expires. A good match between the two men. I kind of started to lose interest when they showed Darby was getting a title shot at Full Gear and kept cutting to him in the stands because he has unfinished business with Cody and I figured Cody wouldn't lose the belt. Being the big powerhouse taking it to the smaller indy guys isn't really a style that suits Cody a lot, but it was okay here. Although it was also them seeming to go back to heel Cody that was teased in the initial title run then kind of went away when he started feuding with Brodie. 7/10

Moxley attacks Archer backstage to get revenge and let us know he's still good to go for the title match.

Matt Hardy is interviewed by Schiavone and we see Sammy Gueverra burning some pictures of Matt so that feud is still going on.

Schiavone is in the ring with Bryce and Paul Turner and a spinning bucket to determine the four teams in #1 contender match next week. Private Party, Silver & Reynolds, Butcher & The Blade, and The Young Bucks are the selections. Unsurprisingly all four teams start fighting.

Hikaru Shida vs. Big Swole

Match started with some technical wrestling between both women that looked really good. We get the action to spill to the outside and Swole gets a short advantage shoving Shida into the cameraman, but she quickly turns the tables and drops Swole over the guardrail and hits a jumping knee off the chair to Swole. Shida suplexes her over the guardrail to the floor then the action gets back into the ring. Swole misses a sunset flip powerbomb but shoves Shida off the top to the ramp and hits an ace crusher off the bottom rope then rolls Shida into the ring and hits another one for a two count. Shida hits a sloppy straight jacket german suplex then hits a falcon arrow and Swole kicks out at two. Shida hits some strikes then Swole blocks and hits a ripcord elbow for two. Shida ducks out of a second attempt and hits a big knee then a couple other sliding knees to get the pinfall. These two were a bit sloppy at times and the intensity was there, but not the execution. It was also noticeably shorter than the other title matches tonight, weird. 5/10

Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer

Mox hits a quick DDT for two, but Archer is fired up and takes Mox to the outside. Mox fights free and rolls into the ring to hit a suicide dive. A bunch of brawling outside they go back inside and Mox hits a bunch of strikes and Archer shrugs it off to hit a Pounce that sends Mox to the outside. Archer sets up a pair of tables on the outside. Archer dominates for a while with some hard strikes before Moxley makes some space and hits a release german suplex then gets a chair and clobbers Archer. He sets up two chairs facing each other and Archer chokeslams him through the chairs. Archer takes Mox to the apron and sets up for a move, but Mox hits a low blow then hits a double arm DDT off the apron through the tables. Mox gets him inside and hits a paradigm shift for two. Archer escapes the bully choke and hits a DDT of his own for two. Archer gets Mox in the corner and hits the Blackout for a two count and Mox rolls him up on the pin for three. I hate this finish and AEW has used it a bunch of times already. I don't really love this kind of slugfest match and have never been much of an Archer fan. If you're going to do a no-dq brawl I need more reason for it to be no-dq than a few chair spots. 6/10

After the match Archer attacks Moxley, but Kingston has the Lucha Bros come in and make the save and starts cutting a promo about how great Moxley is. Then of course hits a backfist to the future and starts choking Moxley out. Lucha Bros stop the refs from coming into the ring so Kingston can choke him out.

The show started awesome and trended downward from there. I'm always going to be sad when Best Friends and Orange Cassidy aren't getting wins though. Sadly the women's title match was pretty sloppy and the main event was more of a slugfest than I like. A bunch of the segments throughout the show seemed pointless and could have been used to give future storylines some juice. A Nyla promo or some of the competitors in the number 1 contender tournament would have been a good idea.

The Elite are the bookers of the promotion and have made themselves important factors in the company. As you would expect from the people who were the biggest names in the indies and in the company when they started the promotion. Kenny Omega coming in as the biggest deal in wrestling has kept a pretty low profile beside being the tag champ for a good chunk of that first year. He's had some great matches in the company and as the tag team relationship with Hangman started to fall apart the fact that he was AAA Mega Champion started to get highlighted more and he had a couple of defenses of that title on Dynamite. Hopefully he starts to become more of a factor in the singles scene as he's one of the best wrestlers going today.

Obviously Hangman Page has had a similar role as Omega as the other half of the tag champs, but his status as an up and comer has really been helped by the tag run and has led to some good singles pushes for him and has also let him showcase his charisma outside of the wrestling ring with his angles. Like Omega, I'm hopeful he'll be moving further up the card in the singles run.

The Young Bucks have been really low key in most of their work in the company. They're always there and having good matches, but haven't been the focus of much except the feud with the Inner Circle. Currently they're feud with FTR has seen them attack somebody backstage and throw some money at AEW officials to pay their fine. Like Omega they also haven't had as much focus and chance to have great matches as I'd expect although their feud with FTR has been stretched out as it seems they're hoping to have fans for their inevitable confrontation. The biggest downside of that to me is the effect it has had on the Best Friends and their ability to win the belts. Best Friends have had big feuds, but they're not the biggest and they don't seem to have much chance of winning the belts as that's a minor issue in the bigger picture feud.

Cody Rhodes has had a lot of attention with big feuds and has been very over during his promos. I'm not a huge fan of Cody, but I can't deny that his work on the mic is very good and his work in the ring is good, but not something I'm a huge fan of. His style is largely like the WWE's that he left. Which isn't surprising, because he never changed much while working the indies or NJPW. He has wisely not put himself in a main event position and that is smart, and the crowd reactions to him justify his heavy usage. His big matches generally live up to the hype as he knows how to utilize bleeding and theatrics to make the matches work.

Outside of the Elite there are some talent I love that aren't being utilized as much as I'd like that I'll get to later, but the biggest problem with the promotion so far is the way they woman's division is booked. This obviously isn't a new observation about the company, but it needs to be stated. The women's roster started pretty strong, but a lot of the top tier talent are now stuck in Japan because of the pandemic and have left the company pretty devastated. However that's not a great excuse when there is a ton of great talent on the indies they can bring in and have started to do now. Hikaru Shida is one of the my favorite talents out there so I was excited when she won the belt, but her run as champion has been pretty uninspired despite having some really good title defenses against Penelope Ford and Thunder Rosa that kind of came out of nowhere. The matches have been good, but many of the storylines leading up to them have been lackluster and there only seems to be one feud focused on at a time for the the division. Nobody really has much experience running a promotion and a lot of the other divisions have been booked pretty half heartedly, but have a bigger roster that they have managed to make work with longer match times and better talent. WWE has done a great job signing the best talent they can find and Impact has an strong Women's division as well. AEW will have to spend a lot of time building up younger talent and they haven't really managed to do that yet.

Undeniably my biggest disappointment with AEW's booking is that the Lucha Bros are just a random midcard team. Part of that does seem to be due to the pandemic as they were set to team up with PAC and probably be a bigger factor, but they have always been on the periphery and haven't seemed to come back from that at all. They are two of the best workers with Pentagon being an amazing brawler and Fenix is probably one of the best all around wrestlers and the preeminent high flyer and rope worker right now. I'd have built the company around them so pretty much anything AEW did was going to disappoint me with them.

As I previously mentioned the Best Friends seem to be in a holding pattern along with Orange Cassidy. The Best Friends have been built up as big deals in the tag division and gotten their title shots only to be shunted aside for other feuds. First with FTR showing up in the company and now with the inevitable Young Bucks vs. FTR feud over the titles taking precedence. Their popularity has continued to grow and don't get their title run. It's a similar move to WWE where you have a very over group of wrestlers and you know you can just keep them near the top and the crowd will always pop for them whether they win the belts or not. It will work for awhile until they've just never won anything for long enough and the crowd gets embittered by it.

The World Championship has been booked really well. Jericho was a good idea as a first champion since people know who he is and Moxley as the second champ is an even better choice as he has been on fire in the ring and on the mic since leaving WWE. I don't always love his challengers and the matches they produce, but a lot of good stuff has come from the run so far, especially the recent hm Moxley since he didn't give up title match from Moxley since he didn't give up title match from Moxley since he didn't give up.

MJF is getting a push and I don't care for MJF so that sucks. I guess a lot of people really enjoy him so I don't really have a problem with it, but I just like to point out that I don't like MJF.

They do seem to like bringing in ex-WWE guys in too much and aren't really pushing the younger indy wrestlers they've signed enough. Kind of a weird complaint after talking about them pushing MJF, but it is what it is. Joey Janela, Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, and Sonny Kiss have gotten stand out matches, but no real push despite a bunch of fan support. Cody's TNT title defenses against random indy people was cool as well as showcasing the less pushed talent on the show.

AEW is a good promotion and their shows have a lot of good wrestling on them and have produced some great matches in its first year. Maybe my expectations were too high, or were just different from what AEW was going to deliver. It's my second favorite promotion behind NJPW right now so it's in a good place, but it hasn't really gone the way I'd hoped and hasn't hit the heights I wanted just yet, but there is plenty of run left in AEW to improve.

NJPW Summer Struggle

 

Master Wato vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Kanemaru is much better than I really credit him for in his career. He was always the third biggest name in the juniors division and didn't have the flashy offense to really get me to remember him and appreciate his earlier career, I need to remedy that at sometime. Wato's dye job seems to be fading already so he definitely needs to get that fixed. On the outside Kanemaru bends Wato over the guardrail then runs toward him, steps up onto the guardrail, and hits a legdrop to the back of Wato's head, beautiful. Wato's dives and kicks look good in this match, but the finish is a little weird looking. Wato lifts Kanemaru for a powerbomb then drops backwards and Kanemura lands on his feet kind of, Wato drags him toward the corner, but Kanemaru rolls him up for the three count. Real bummer of a finish, but I guess it is a way to have Wato lose without losing momentum. Finish really took this down a couple notches for me. A simple opening match of a wily veteran vs. the young up and comer which was told pretty well.

5/10

Kazuchika Okada vs. Sanada vs. El Desperado vs. Toru Yano

Great start to this match as Okada goes up on the ropes for his normal entrance and Sanada and Desperado start stomping the shit out of Yano. As soon as Okada saves Yano he joines in on the corner attacks on Okada, because Yano is the best. Okada and Sanada teaming up to attack Desperado then Okada asking for a fist bump and betraying Sanada with a kick to the gut is great. Yano just stuck in the Paradise Lock while Okada and Sanada have a lengthy back and forth is great. A bunch of fun comedy stuff in this match with good wrestling and Yano hits Okada with a low blow and a rollup to win and then immediately starts apologizing to Okada. God, I love Toru Yano. They work the in and out flow of this match and its just a lot of fun.

6/10

Shingo Takagi vs. Minoru Suzuki

Suzuki takes the advantage early and takes the fight to the outside and nobody can match the sheer happiness that Suzuki radiates when beating the piss out of someone. And only Brock Lesnar matches the look of joy when he gets hit by a good shot from his opponent. Lots of great striking exchanges between these two guys. They do some really smooth back and forth avoiding each others attacks and going for their own. Sequence ends with Suzuki getting the sleeper hold then going for the Gotch piledriver, but Shingo slips out and hits a DVD. Shingo brings a lot of fire as the underdog and keeps firing back at Suzuki, but nobody can compete strike for strike with him and Suzuki gets the advantage with strikes and hits a Gotch style piledriver for the three count. A wonderful showcase of just how good Suzuki is at what he does and I'm looking forward to the rematch when hopefully Shingo can improve his hitting and get the win. Great stuff from these two guys.

9/10

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimorii

Back and forth escaping each others moves until Ishimorii hits a spinning headscissors into an arm attack that gets the injured shoulder of Takahashi and gives him the advantage. I like how Hiromu does the falcon arrow where he spins himself to land in the pin instead of spinning his opponent to land in front of him. A lot of back and forth hitting of big moves in this match and when Ishimorii gets in trouble he gets the Bone Lock in and goes after the injured shoulder. Hiromu fights back again and hits a Time Bomb, but Ishimorii blocks the Time Bomb 2 and hits a Bloody Cross onto the shoulder of Hiromu and locks in the Bone Lock for the submission. A really good match between these two men, but it didn't really grab me. The injured shoulder was used when Ishimorii needed to get the advantage, and it played into the finish, but it didn't really seem to matter for a lot of the match, it was weird. Still if you want to see two dudes perform cool moves perfectly, this match had that in spades.

7/10

Dangerous Tekkers vs. Golden Ace

The action quickly spills to the outside where Dangerous Tekkers take the advantage especially on Tanahashi. Tekkers isoloate Tanahashi and work him over. Crazy to realize commentary is right and now Tanahashi is the weaker member of the team, damn the cruelty of time. Ibushi gets a hot tag and hits a great sequence of offense. Tanahashi and ZSJ get tagged in and Tanahashi goes right after the taped up knee of ZSJ with dragon screws. Really good back and forth action in this match and both teams had their target and went after it, and only Tekker's managed to capitalize on their plan. I like seeing Tanahashi and Ibushi adding more tag manuevers in their team and slowly starting to work better.

7/10

EVIL vs. Tetsuyo Naito

EVIL has the advantage early in the match thanks to a bunch of Togo interference and brawling on the outside. Naito eventually manages to turn the tables and get an advantage with a hurrincanranna. Both these guys are really comfortable climbing up and standing on the top rope, they do it so effortlessly, which can't be said for everybody when going for a superplex or hurrincanranna. We get a bunch of finisher teases from both men before EVIL distracts the ref for Togo interference then bumps the ref so Togo is in the ring helping him. BUSHI runs down and runs off Togo, but Gedo cuts him off. Sanada is down and hits a dropkick sending the chair into EVIL's face. Bushi recovers and the two run grab Gedo and Togo with headlocks and take them to the back. The match is now on even setting as nobody is there to interfere and both men are down. Togo keeps trying to cheat and Naito finally blocks an attack and hits Destino to get the win. This match was too slow and long with too much cheating before LIJ got tired of letting it happen. Not a bad match, but I'm not sure EVIL really fits as a main event player.

6/10

A fun, breezy show until a slower paced main event, but a really good show with five fun matches and a decent main event that got us Naito as the champ again and I'm looking forward to Naito defending the belts individually from now on. I really enjoyed the look of the ring on a baseball field and right on top of the pitcher's mound. Plus Shingo vs. Suzuki was fucking awesome. Definitely a good watch on a lazy Saturday. Watch the actual end of the match as Naito doing his tranqilo pose and watching the fireworks going off is a fun visual.

WWE Underground Sucked

WWE debuted a new gimmick idea to pop a rating, and because I'm easily tricked by them I decided to check in and watch WWE Underground on RAW. There's a ring with no ropes inside of a small warehouse looking place. It's got a smoky atmosphere and there are a bunch of people standing ringside pounding on the ring and Shane McMahon has the mic. There's also some not very good dancers on a stage as well. It's a cool setting, minus the dancers, so we're off to a decent start. In the ring there is a guy who doesn't get introduced and then Shane introduces Dabba-Kato who is a huge dude. He beats the shit out of the first guy and a second guy challenges him and gets destroyed as well. An inauspicious start to debut your new idea, but whatever still kind of gets the idea over.

Unfortunately after these fights we go right back to normal RAW and a pair of singles matches between the tag champs and challengers for Summerslam where Andrade and Garza have drugged Montez Ford's drink and it barely ruins his match, until the end. So after the debut of what's supposed to be a realistic fighting club they cut back to some goofy WWE shit that really undercuts that idea.

When we get back to the Underground we have Erik from the Viking Raids with some MMA gloves on against some no name guy. It's another squash match and afterword they go back to regular RAW. We're told there's one more fight scheduled and we are at regular RAW until there's 8 minutes left in the show. Hurt Business hear about the Underground and make their way there in the middle of Dolph Ziggler wrestling a no name guy again and gets a submission with a rear naked choke. Lashley gets in the ring and a challenger comes in and gets wrecked and then repeat that with MVP and Benjamin as well.

So to debut the idea of their underground fight club they had no real fights to showcase the rules and how it's different they just had some guys beat up some no name henchmen. And until the end the guys doing the squashing aren't big deal names either, or guys with real shoot fighting experience. It was a bizarre way to debut something, and after giving in to watching WWE again, it turned me off watching it another time. Another issue, as it often is with WWE, is that it is shot just like every other WWE thing. It has no hard cam, but it has several handheld cams just behind the people in the crowd and it cuts between camera angles every few seconds so none of the strikes or slams have any impact. It's also increasingly disorienting when trying to look at a new kind of set.

I'm torn between which of these two issues is the biggest problem I have with this idea. The fact that there is no real concept of what these matches are beside no rules fights, or that there were no real fights on it. You could probably explain how the matches work with some commentary during a back and forth fight. I know you can, because I am watching the Chikara version of this and they explain it during a gauntlet match. Nothing happened during these segments to sell the idea of Underground as being worth watching, when it easily could have been established. They already had a faction invade the Underground and beat up everybody who was there. Granted putting Lashley in the Underground makes sense as he has real MMA experience, and Benjamin makes some sense as well with his collegiate wrestling experience. The Underground is a concept with potential, but as wrestling knows a debut can kill any potential a concept or wrestler has, Shockmaster.

So this is a reminder to myself and anybody reading this. Don't let WWE sucker you in with their promise of a new direction. Wait until they prove they are doing something different before watching anything they do. And when you do watch make sure not to give them any money when you do it.

Wrestling Without a Ring

The big buzz coming out of Wrestlemania is about the two heavily produced and edited matches. Undertaker vs. AJ Styles in the Boneyard match and The Fiend vs. John Cena in the Firefly Funhouse Match. To a lesser extent Edge vs. Orton and Gargano vs. Ciampa also had this same feeling with the filmed and edited nature of the matches. All of those are very different experiences and a lot of people are talking about how revolutionary they are for wrestling. They're not, and they won't be. Wrestling is largely a live performance that thrives off fan interaction, it's not the first time this kind of thing has been done. DDT runs shows in weird places all the time, but they have fans and the show is whatever happens without any editing. The closer comparison to me is all of the stuff from the Hardy complex. At least for the Boneyard match. There is nothing in wrestling to compare to the Firefly Funhouse Match.

The thing that really differentiated the Boneyard match from any Deletion match was WWE's production values. They used them very well here. Impact did cool stuff with what was at the Hardy's compound, but they don't have the resources that WWE has and it was cool to see a match done with that budget. Thnside of WWE production is there camera work. Specifically the shakey cam handheld and moving the camera with the wrestling taking a blow as well as having a shit ton of cuts at all times. This match has a lot of nice touches in it. Despite not having a ring both men's entrances are great. Undertaker's is helped by the fact that I love Metallica and I really enjoyed his pause to have his graphic show up like it was a grindhouse film. The best aspect of the WWE production over the Hardy matches isn't just the building specifically for the match, but the lighting setups. With the Hardy compound matches they use headlights and a couple of big lighting setups they have, but it's all in the shots as well as lighting up the scene. WWE uses the lights better as you never see the sources of the light and they help to let 'Taker appear out of nowhere.

One thing both of these matches do right is having a soundtrack to the match and adding sound effects as well. This is a thing the two less cinematic matches WWE had both failed to have and felt more awkward for. Those being Edge vs. Orton and Gargano vs. Ciampa. The second of which is made even weirder for not having commentary, although that might not be much weirder than the first having really quiet overly serious commentary. Although the ambiance of the crickets behind everything when Ciampa and Gargano brawled outside was nice.

The biggest failing of the WWE matches is that they are built and performed more like a fight scene from a movie, but don't get shot the same way. Of the three matches Edge vs. Orton was probably shot like a normal match and went straight through and didn't really take advantage of it being filmed. The other two definitely were, but they weren't shot in a way that took much advantage of that. Ciampa vs. Gargano used it at least once that I could tell where Ciampa did an air raid crash from the top rope to the outside, probably onto a crashpad. Then cut to another shot of them crashing to the floor from probably a more sane height. But using cuts isn't the big difference from filmed fight scenes in movies. The action and shots aren't blocked out to look cooler in general. Its not live, there are no fans you can plan your shots better. When Gargano does a suicide dive you can have him go right over the camera using a crash pad or whatever and cut to another angle where he really takes Ciampa out. But they don't really utilize that stuff. There isn't a single shot in any of those three matches that looks as cool as the scene from Tag Team Apocalypto where the Hardy's and the Rock and Roll Express shoot fireworks at Decay and Andrews and Everett filmed from a crane or drone shot swooping overhead.

All three of the WWE examples are very serious fights as well. And none of them have as drastic as stakes as the Deletion matches tend to have. They are all about proving how tough they are, or that they still have it, the Apocalypto match is going to blow up the Hardy's hometown if they don't win the match. The Deletion matches have a sense of humor and aren't self serious which, as these matches tend to be longer, gives the viewer a nice break from the intensity. Matt is getting pinned and the boat, Skarsgard, moves and knocks Trevor Lee off him to break up the fall. Plus the biggest feature of the Hardy compound is the Lake or Resurection which reverts people back to their old gimmicks when they get knocked in. Shane Helms gets knocked in and comes out as Shane from 3 Count and makes Lee and Andrews dance with him. They get mad and superkick him back into the lake and as the match goes on Helms comes back as the Hurricane and helps Matt beat them up. It's not all punching and yelling at the other guy to stay down or shit talking them about how they're not good enough. For me the Deletion matches still have more of the flow of a wrestling match and don't feel like as much like an action movie fight scene and are just more fun to watch.

The same can't be said for the Firefly Funhouse Match. How much this is a match and not an extended promo/skit can be debated, but it definitely can't really compare to the other matches in this piece and is probably unreplicatable. Part of it stems from WWE lucking into the story by having Cena beat Wyatt at Wrestlemania that hurt his momentum, and the fact that Cena has such a storied career in WWE also helps build it up. This is a psychological examination of who Cena has been throughout his career and what that says about him and uses the lense of past superstars as well as previous iterations of his character. The writing is deft throughout with a bunch of humor, and real feelings. None of the sections over stay their welcome and they move quickly from scene to scene with every culmination of a scene helping lead to the next one before Wyatt becomes the Fiend and hits Cena with a Sister Abigail and gets the win. It was perfect, but WWE won't be able to do it again, and neither will any other wrestling company that tries to make this kind of thing work, which hopefully they won't.

Not every one of these cinematic style matches works. Largely because the people who filmed and made them don't know why anything is shot the way it is in movies and television. Or they don't have a strong idea of what they are trying to do. The Deletion matches worked because they were fun and the people behind it wanted to do something that was a wrestling match you can't do in a ring. Anybody can make this kind of thing work if they have an idea. Undertaker vs. Styles worked because WWE had a bunch of production value put into the match. Cena vs. Wyatt worked because Cena is a good actor, which is a big factor that's going to be missing in every other version of this match. Most of them are going to end up like Orton vs. Edge and Gargano vs. Ciampa in that they will be overlong slogs of matches that substitute moving slow and playing hurt with emotion. Without fan reaction a lot of selling loses a lot of its appeal. The wrestler isn't appealing to the crowd for support so it falls apart. Unless they do what fight scenes do when the good guy is getting the shit kicked out of him and have a flashback to show where he gets support from its not going to work the same way.

The biggest factor in making cinematic wrestling matches, or matches without a crowd, good is realizing that it changes how wrestling works. If that's not done you're going to end up with matches that feel empty. The key is making sure you compensate for the lack of audience in some way. Some kind of soundtrack mixed with commentary would be the most effective way so it still feels familiar to the fans watching. It's definitely a style of match that has to be used sparingly and needs to be done well more often than not or it will quickly wear out its welcome, and frankly the WWE might already have worn it out there.

Youtube Wrestling Match Playlist

Time to watch more random wrestling matches on youtube and let everybody know they can watch them for free.

Colt Cabana vs Kikutaro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwmAkBiOWgQ

Aah, terrible handheld footage of matches, you love to see it. Comedy matches require that the wrestlers be good at wrestling. I think its something that is often overlooked when comedy wrestling is denigrated. They have to be good in the ring and great at making a connection with the fans. These two are great at that. Cabana provides a lot of the technical wrestling mixed in with the comedy bits, but Kikutaro excels at the comedy stuff. Him failing to be good at British wrestling unlike Colt is great.

6/10

This is just fun stuff. Colt does some good wrestling and they both provide a lot of comedy and they get the ref involved in a good way. I was going to say a fun way, but the ref taking a kick to the junk probably wasn't that fun. The breakdown into a Sumo match was fun and capped off by Cabana just dodging and not participating in it. The finish was great. Cabana locks in a standing Anaconda Vice and Kikutaro fights back to his feet and keeps pumping the crowd up, then just taps out.

Nick Gage vs. G-Raver

They trick the viewers by starting off with some simple mat wrestling, but Nick Gage gets bored of that quickly and tells G-Raver get to the thumbtacks. A few small bumps on the tacks then some brawling outside before returning to the ring. Nick Gage hits a really nice Northern lights suplex onto the tacks for a two count. G-Raver makes a comeback and hits a meteora. Then puts Gage on the top and sets up a trashcan with a chair on top covered in thumbtacks. He climbs up top and Gage fights back then chokeslams him off onto the contraption. Gage puts thumbtacks in Raver's mouth and hits a bootscrape then piledrives him on the tacks for a two count. Gage follows that up with a piledriver, an elbow to a mouth full of tacks, then a powerbomb on the tacks.

6/10

Thumbtack matches are one of my least favorite versions of deathmatches since they're not that visually impressive compared to going into barbed wire or going through lighttubes. Still this match offers some good looking spots and both men go at it pretty hard. The nice thing about this match is that they build it up slowly before hitting the bigger moves. They don't just go from huge spot to huge spot which can be a real flaw in a lot of deathmatches.

Joe & Dean Malenko vs. Steve Williams & Terry Gordy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7W6ZiJsz_4

Williams demonstrates his power by lifting Joe into the air while he's got an armbar, but Joe flips him back down into the armbar again to avoid the slam. Early on the story is set as its the speed and technical prowess of the Malenko's against he power of their opponents. We get a reversal of roles as Dean and Steve go for a test of strength, but Steve jumps up and hits an enziguri. Terry Gordy comes in and stomps Dean to break up a submission and the crowd boos, but Dean holds on and Joe comes in and stomps Steve to cheers, good stuff. There's some brawling outside the ring we miss, but as we get to the end of the match there is a ton of cheating from Gordy and Williams and the crowd is incensed. The Malenko's keep trying for comebacks and have the crowd behind them. Dean fucks up a top rope move and after some reversals Steve Williams does a nice rollup to get the pinfall.

7/10

This match moves along pretty quickly despite following the AJPW style of the beginning being a lot of technical wrestling that doesn't mean a lot in the long run. It help that this match has a nice heel vs face dynamic and the Malenko's are super over for a foreign team. This isn't a super crazy match, but I like how the Malenko's wrestle and I haven't really seen much of Terry Gordy as a wrestler when he was in his prime. This match didn't do much to impress me, but he did fine in it. I like that this is a fan cam match, just to show newer fans what people used to sit through to see matches from indies and Japan before all these convenient streaming sites existed. This is actually pretty good camera work from the person filming it. It's very steady, they can't move around to get better angles and there is some time spent looking at the back of the lady in front of them's head, but still pretty good work. It's also cool to see that the smaller guys weren't just being overpowered and had the control for a lot of the match if it wasn't for the cheating from the other team. Don't be surprised to see any of these four guys in future iterations of this. I might try and skip Dean for a week or two at least.

Megumi Kudo vs. Shark Tsuchiya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyCKm2AqPfU

I searched this because Megumi Kudo created my favorite move in wrestling the Kudo Driver that I used as my finisher as a backyard wrestler. Megumi comes out in full entrance regalia for a barbed wire match so that's dope. And the way it's set up is that two sides have barbed wire ropes and the other two sides have no ropes, so this should be interesting. Kudo's rocking the one long one short leg pants loook which is super cool on her. The non-barbed wire sides have barbed wire boards on the floor so that makes more sense and both women try to push the other off the edge early in the match to no avail. Kudo hits the ropes first and its not just barbed wire we also get an explosion and she's in trouble already. Kudo takes a beating and starts to make a comeback only to get pushed into the barbed wire again, this time face first. Now Shark has a scythe and cuts her forehead open. This is not starting well for our hero. Kudo revereses an attempted throw by Shark sending her over the edge and into the barbed wire boards on the side with an explosion. Kudo hits a beautiful high angle tiger driver for a two count. Shark blocks a Kudo Driver and when Kudo goes for a hurrincanranna she blocks it then powerbombs her to the outside onto the barbed wire boards. Shark hits a series of nice high angle belly to back suplexes the last of which literally folds Kudo in half, but still only gets a two count. Shark hits some more big moves, but can't get a finish. Kudo gets to her feet and Shark charges at her and Kudo grabs her and hits a flatliner into the barbed wire and they both fall over after the explosion and Kudo gets a three count.

8/10

I really liked this match. It does one of the things that I emphasized earlier is key to a deathmatch and that is a crazy bump has to mean something in the match. I would have rated this higher, but I really didn't like the finish. Just felt really flat. Everything building up to that was good though. I love the bigger heel who is dominating with power and the face who won't give up. There's some really slick wrestling throughout this match and the postmatch stuff is great because they just play Kudo's theme on repeat and it's got a banging guitar solo. Kudo's gear being all white is nice because a lot of it gets singed by the explosions and really helps sell the damage she took which she does a great job of selling as well. It's a really good match and don't be scared by the 40 minute run time a decent amount of that is postmatch stuff, plus both women get a full entrance. I feel like I'm underselling how good Shark is as a powerhouse heel as well. She does a great job and I saw other matches between the two so you'll definitely being seeing more of both of these women in future blog posts.

Andre the Giant vs. David Nivens & Angel Rivera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHo93nHGtAc&t=355s

Nivens fails at several shoulder blocks and tags Rivera in who puts in some fruitless headbutts before Andre lifts him up and sets him on the top rope. Andre hits the biggest atomic drop ever on Rivera, Nivens tags in and gets taken down by Andre's strength in a handshake. He fails at a powerslam and Andre hits him with a n atomic drop. Andre drops Nivens with a shoulder tackle then grabs Rivera as he runs in with a press slam onto Nivens then sits on Rivera's back for the three count.

3/10

It's just a squash match, but its a fun one to watch. It's basically a comedy match and the crowd loves Andre hilariously squashing these two dudes and its fun to watch. Nivens has a very tragic hair cut, that doesn't matter, but it has to be said. I love the look of the smaller promotions studio show with a small audience and the interviews being done at ringside right after the match.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Bruiser Brody (2/3 Falls) (Don't Watch This Match! Or at least don't watch it thinking it will be good.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5R6cj3Od6E

Brody keeps powdering to the outside to avoid Dusty's jabs. Lots of taunting from Dusty and the crowd loves it. Dusty hits the bionic elbow early and Brody stumbles around to the outside. This ring is as unstable as fly by night indy ring. Dusty whips Brody into the corner and the whole thing shakes. Brody stomps Dusty in the face three times then hits the knee drop to get the first pinfall, and the ref does the least enthusiastic count I've ever seen. He's barely tapping the mat. Dusty crawls under the mat to trick Brody and takes him to the outside then hits back elbow then an elbow drop for a three count. They brawl back and forth, Brody gets the advantage and does the Huss chant and taunt. Dusty hits a good looking dropkick. Brody knocks Dusty down with some high boots to the midsection. Dusty starts to fight back with punches and both men are down against the ropes. Dusty is punching Brody and Brody lifts him up and over the ropes and gets disqualified so Dusty wins. After the match Brody ties Dusty up in the ropes and keeps beating him up. Dusty escapes and fights back and Brody goes outside and heads to the back.

1/10

This match fucking sucks. This was just a bunch of punches and shitty kicks and man did I hate it. I thought about taking it out of here, but I watched it so I might as well talk about it and one thing about watching the older wrestling is appreciating the better stuff we have now. I know Dusty has had good matches because I've watched them and I've heard good things about Brody so how boring this was surprised me. The crowd loved it though, but I don't get it.

Terry Funk vs. Bruiser Brody

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHBhVJbY994

This match already has more wrestling than the last one as Brody hits a powerslam then locks in a submission after some brawling. They're on the outside and Brody grabs a chair and hits Funk in the side of the head with it. Funk is bleeding from the side of his head or maybe his ear already. Brody lifts Funk up for a piledriver and Funk fights it by waving his legs, but Brody doesn't care and drops him headfirst to the mat. Funk is in trouble and grabs a side headlock and hits a back kick to the dick of Brody that sends him to the outside. Funk lifts up a table and slams it onto Brody's back. Brody is bused open now from being run face first into the ring post. Funk grabs a side headlock and gets a belly to back suplex for his trouble. Funk fights Brody down from the top rope then hits him with a bunch of punches before locking in the step over toe hold that Brody eventually kicks him out of. Funk fights back with headbutts and they go to the outside where Brody throws a table onto Funk's head. Each Man's tag team partner comes in to help and the match gets thrown out. Brody and Hansen beat up Funk some more, but Dory comes in and delivers some terrible chair shots to even things up and then a bunch of chairs are being thrown around before another wrestler comes down to clear them out of the ring, but they're just brawling around the arena grabbing chairs and hitting each other.

7/10

If it wasn't for the DQ finish this would have gotten a better rating. This is the fun kind of brawl you would expect from these two names. A really solid match between the two men and a lot of fun brawling on the outside. This is the Bruiser Brody I've been told about and it's the classic Terry Funk I've always known, just younger. Love Japan's general disregard for foreign objects when they aren't used in the ring. I think it's a good philosophy more places should adopt.

Jake Atlas vs. Priscilla Kelly

https://youtu.be/cSgiKlRMDBY

The two avoid each others moves for a bit, then Kelly uses the speed advantage with some lucha armdrags to get the advantage before Atlas connects with a big lariat to take control. Atlas keeps trying to use his strength advantage and gets cocky and taunts only for Kelly to fire up and start chopping and kicking him. A back and forth on the arpon lets Kelly hit an STO then get a nearfall then hit a big slam after missing in the first time. Atlas hits a huge Yakuza kick, then goes for a move that's countered by a reverse 'rana. Atlas escapes a Panama sunrise then makes a comeback. Kelly kicks out of the cartwheel ddt, but an elevated double arm DDT puts her down for the count.

7/10

A really fun match from these two, with a lot of cool looking spots and some nice hard hitting action. I haven't watched a ton of Atlas matches, but he might be one of the best at taking a reverse 'rana in the business. Kelly more than holds her own in the match as well and throws out a lot of high flying stuff as well as delivering some nice strikes. Sad I didn't pay attention to Atlas before he signed with WWE, but at least Kelly is still around doing cool stuff on the indies.

Jake Atlas vs. Jungle Boy

https://youtu.be/fu9LPxvDZRw

Tons of counters and roll up attempts to start the match. Jungle Boy gets the advantage when Atlas catches a hurrincanranna from him, but Jungle Boy goes over the top with a code red. They go to the outside and Jungle Boy hits a suicide dive. They go back in and Atlas gets control of the match and hits a german suplex on the apron before going back inside the ring. Lots of fast paced, back and forth action. Jungle Boy tries to go up top, but Atlas hits stops him and hits a brutal back rake. Atlas hits a burning hammer and only gets a two count. Atlas hits the cartwheel DDT, but Jungle Boy rolls through and hooks Atlas's legs for the three count.

8/10

Not quite as intense as their PWG matchup, but damn good anyway. These two are going full speed the whole match and hit everything crisply. A great indie sendoff for both of these guys before going to WWE and AEW.

Genchiro Tenyru vs. Bruiser Brody

https://youtu.be/ffYcnumm32A

Slow pace to start the match as both men are looking for the one strike or opening that gives them the advantage. Tenyru seems to find it first with an enziguri, but Brody gets up backs him against the ropes and chops the fuck out of him. It's a Bruiser Brody match so they go to the floor and he starts to cheat a bit and slams Tenyru's head on a table then smacks him over the back with a monitor. Back in the ring and he hits a nice stalling vertical suplex. Tenyru gets the advantage and starts to focus on the leg with submissions and kicks to slow Brody down. After Brody takes him down with a dropkick Tenyru tries to fight up and from his knees just starts throwing chops on the injured knee of Brody. Love little things like this. They go outside again, this time it's Tenyru's idea and he attacks the knee with the ringbell and wraps it up in the guardrail as well. Brody counters a piledriver by rotating further over and landing on Tenyru's chest. Brody makes a comeback and hits a big diving knee off the top, but rolls out of the ring because he aggravated his injured leg. Tenyru follows him outside and goes for a piledriver or a powerbomb that looks terrible and both men are down outside and get counted out.

7/10

Damn AJPW matches not having a winner. A classic AJPW style match. Lots of back and forth basic wrestling to start the match a couple of big moves and when somebody gets the advantage they target a body part and start going for submissions. It's definitely not a style for everybody, but when its done well it's very good. This is mostly a display for Tenyru with Brody getting worked over for most of the match, but both men play their roles well in this match. The non-finish is a bummer, but probably would have worked a bit better if Tenyru had at least hit the move he wanted out there right.

AEW Revolution Review

Nothing like a super timely review of a pay per view six days after the event happened. But I wanted to write about the show so here we go.

Dustin Rhodes vs. Jake Hagar

I did not care for this match. I hate Jake Hagar and his style isn't made exciting by fighting another big guy so he can't manhandle his opponent. This match also went longer than it really felt justified in happening. Dustin tries, but it just wasn't an interesting match going in.

3/10

Sammy Gueverra vs. Darby Allin

Love that the match started off fast and with lots of brawling ringside. Sammy hits a 630 splash from the top to the outside through a table before the match even started and it looked awesome. A fun fast paced match that told its story and did it in a short time.

6/10

Young Bucks vs. Page & Omega

This match was fucking awesome. So many great false finishes that were built up and so believable for every one of them. I was reacting out loud watching it by myself on my computer. It was a great match, but it was also paired with a great story about the Elite breaking apart. It makes sense that Matt would be the Buck to go too far as he has his injured back and Omega and Page went to town on that injury early in the match. Tons of twists and turns, action on the ramp was great and it was just great to watch. I would like to write more eloquently about this, but I can't do it justice, just watch it. After the match Hangman does the most perfect tease of a betrayal on Omega.

10/10

Nyla Rose vs. Kris Statlander

The match was a little awkward, apparently because Statlander was getting over the flu and it showed. Still a pretty good match between the two even though they almost messed up the superplex, but they both got over safely. The finish of the avalanche powerbomb was impressive by Rose, as she basically did it off one leg as she stepped over the ropes.

5/10

MJF vs. Cody

Cody was never that impressive in the ring, but he knows how to compensate for that by telling the best stories in the ring and being good enough at wrestling to have great matches. I haven't really seen MJF wrestle a ton so I don't know how good he is at that, but he plays his role very well here. There is a ton of shenanigans and fuckery from MJF and Wardlow, Brandi and Arn do a good job of trying to counter it. Cody gets a good run to build up his near win, before outside action distracts the ref to allow MJF to punch Cody with the ring. MJF attacking the broken toe of Cody really helps highlight why he made him wrestle a cage match before facing him one on one and was a perfect touch to the match. On rewatch this probably won't be as cathartic and fun to watch, but at the time it was great.

8/10

PAC vs. Orange Cassidy

A great juxtaposition with Pac's intensity and Cassidy's shenanigans. This went pretty much how I expected and it was great. Cassidy surprised Pac by being an actual wrestler at first, but still mixing in his I'm not trying that hard stuff. Pac destroyed Cassidy for a bit then got a comeback and it was just a good back and forth match between the two. Cassidy got distracted and beat, but fun stuff while it lasted. Looking forward to seeing more of this Cassidy on AEW and this version of Pac has been fantastic.

9/10

Moxley vs. Jericho

A great brawl between two guys who are great at that. A lot of fun stuff in the crowd and ringside before they get into the ring and have a good match there as well. Jericho evolving his style as he's gotten older has been great. He can still pull off his lionsault, but he can't do the fast paced sprints anymore and has gone from a chicken shit heel to a cheating son of a bitch heel. Moxley lives for these kind of wild brawls so it worked great. Moxley revealing he could see from the injured eye before getting the win was very over the top and well done. Just a fun, cathartic match between these two.

8/10

From the second match to the top of the card this was really good stuff. The women's title match was a little rough, but I'd rather the real knockdown fight between Statlander and Rose happen later in her run anyway so I'm fine with that. Just great matches everywhere on the card and they were all different styles and kinds of matches and that's what makes AEW so fun to me. There are pure work rate matches like the tag match and then great sports entertainment stuff like MJF vs. Cody. Darby and Sammy provided a great spotfest, Cassidy vs. Pac gave us some good comedy and damn good wrestling, and the main event was an epic brawl. No matter what you're looking for in a wrestling show you're going to be able to find some of that on AEW. If you haven't already you should find a way to see this show.