FCP Dream Tag Team Invitational - Day 3: Meiko Satomura vs. Pete Dunne
One of those matches on paper where I think to myself: "is there even a chance this won't rule?" - especially with the video of it only being about 13 minutes long. Absolutely #blessed. The match did indeed rule; you got PETER delivering an absolutely tremendous nasty, cocky bastard heel performance, showing no respect to the veteran. His work over Meiko was fantastic, and his facial expressions & body language, as usual, were terrific. This might honestly be Pete's finest hour in portraying his character in the ring. One slight complaint about the match is that, in the end, I thought that Meiko should've got some more & stronger comebacks in - I liked the story of Pete cutting her off in most of her comebacks attempts, and Meiko just refusing to give up on trying, but what the match needed to hit that ****+ level was a full on Meiko comeback with her kicking the shit out of the cocky bastard that had been working all over her & showing no respect. ***3/4
WWE SmackDown 06/12/18: Daniel Bryan vs. Shelton Benjamin
Literally nothing better in wrestling than waking up on a Wednesday morning knowing that you got a Daniel Bryan TV match banger waiting for you. Shelton has, off the top of my head, only had 2 matches that I'd consider better than this; vs. HBK & Shibata, and this might be the best single match performance of his. He was SO focused w/ his work over Bryan's left leg, I especially loved those single leg crabs. Bryan's leg work was of course great as well. Really good dueling leg work battle. ***3/4
OTT ScrapperMania IV: Jordan Devlin vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
A good match. Thought that by the end it drifted too much into the 50/50 stuff, but I very much enjoyed it from start to finish. Devlin unleashed some very good leg kicks & ZSJ was a treat on the offense, as always. ***
PWG All Star Weekend 14 - Day 2: Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher
Riddle vs. Thatcher is always a good time. As usual, they had some shoot style elements here, mixed with some big pro wrestling moves. ***
One of those matches on paper where I think to myself: "is there even a chance this won't rule?" - especially with the video of it only being about 13 minutes long. Absolutely #blessed. The match did indeed rule; you got PETER delivering an absolutely tremendous nasty, cocky bastard heel performance, showing no respect to the veteran. His work over Meiko was fantastic, and his facial expressions & body language, as usual, were terrific. This might honestly be Pete's finest hour in portraying his character in the ring. One slight complaint about the match is that, in the end, I thought that Meiko should've got some more & stronger comebacks in - I liked the story of Pete cutting her off in most of her comebacks attempts, and Meiko just refusing to give up on trying, but what the match needed to hit that ****+ level was a full on Meiko comeback with her kicking the shit out of the cocky bastard that had been working all over her & showing no respect. ***3/4
WWE SmackDown 06/12/18: Daniel Bryan vs. Shelton Benjamin
Literally nothing better in wrestling than waking up on a Wednesday morning knowing that you got a Daniel Bryan TV match banger waiting for you. Shelton has, off the top of my head, only had 2 matches that I'd consider better than this; vs. HBK & Shibata, and this might be the best single match performance of his. He was SO focused w/ his work over Bryan's left leg, I especially loved those single leg crabs. Bryan's leg work was of course great as well. Really good dueling leg work battle. ***3/4
OTT ScrapperMania IV: Jordan Devlin vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
A good match. Thought that by the end it drifted too much into the 50/50 stuff, but I very much enjoyed it from start to finish. Devlin unleashed some very good leg kicks & ZSJ was a treat on the offense, as always. ***
PWG All Star Weekend 14 - Day 2: Matt Riddle vs. Timothy Thatcher
Riddle vs. Thatcher is always a good time. As usual, they had some shoot style elements here, mixed with some big pro wrestling moves. ***
WWE NXT 06/13/18: Pete Dunne vs. Kyle O'Reilly
Other than the last 15 or so seconds, this was pretty awful. The strikes of both guys were hilariously bad for what they were trying have the match come off as; funnily enough, the match I watched before this one was Riddle vs. Thatcher from PWG, and in many ways, this felt like a shitty indy version of it. Quite ironic. *1/4
*** is pretty disappointing for two of the best wrestlers around - Thatcher and Riddle. I was expecting a MOTYC here.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I don't really think so. My favorite match of theirs is their EVOLVE 82 match, and I am not sure would that same exact match work so well in a PWG setting. They basically did a lesser version of that one here.
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DeleteWell, the HEADLOCK match worked in PWG so...
DeleteTo be fair, 2006 PWG is completely different from the 2018 PWG :p And the HEADLOCK match is so great it would've worked anywhere!! Thatcher actually has one HEADLOCK match of his own, which is one of my favorites of his. Vs. Oliver John.
DeleteI know PWG is well-known with its spotfests and FUN but would love to see more mat wrestling-based matches.
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