Sizzle or Steak: Catching Up

I more or less took a six-year break from watching from the summer of 2012 through the summer of 2018, and in that time a crop of wrestlers have become very popular with the internet wrestling fandom. So I’ve collected a series of highly-praised matches (all non-WWE because I watch NXT on the reg) to see if the work of these internet darlings is up to snuff. I’m not going to get into Kenny Omega or Kazuchika Okada because I reviewed a bunch of their matches here and they definitely live up to the hype. A bit of background: I’m a lifelong WWE fan, was a giant Ring of Honor fan from its inception in 2002 until around when Gabe Sapolsky left in 2008, and then got deep into Dragon Gate specifically and puro for the next four years. This past summer (2018) I got back into things by watching the entire history of NXT (post-reboot), and I think it’s just swell. I’ve never been a snob about indy wrestling, but I know off the bat from the handful of recent indy matches I’ve seen featuring the NXT UK guys that the scene is a bit loosey goosey for my tastes right now, so I’m predicting that that’s where much of my criticism will center. But maybe I’ll just be blown away. Let’s see.

August 26, 2018 – Manchester, Greater Manchester

Walter def. Will Ospreay in 22:24 {Defiant Internet Championship Match}
From Defiant Stacked. I can appreciate why people really liked this match. Ospreay gets around the ring in a really cool way, and Walter is a big, scary bad-ass. They put in a lot of effort here and it showed. But there was plenty of indy bullshit in this match, like Walter holding himself up in the ropes so that Ospreay could hit a hanging dive onto him, and Walter rolling himself over and blatantly getting into position between the two shooting star presses. They also moved through everything so fast that it robbed a lot of the bigger spots of their drama. The real credit here should go to the referee, who counted a one-count for Ospreay when he landed on top of Walter after Walter hit his Emerald Frosion, even though that clearly wasn’t planned. That one spot made the final stretch feel more real. Matches like this are why you can’t sleep on guys who sign with WWE, because the trainers there teach them not to do a lot of the stuff they did here that make it feel more like a performance than a fight. ***½

August 28, 2016 – Camden Town, London

Shane Strickland def. Will Ospreay 
From PROGRESS Chapter 35: Writing Nirvana On Other People’s Bags. I think I got enough of an idea of who Walter is, but I’m going to give this Ospreay kid another chance. The opening Matrix bit was cool when Low Ki and Red did it 16 years ago, and it was performed better there than it was here. After that though, just about every move landed in this match did so with precision. Strickland dodged certain moves in a way that was both awesome and kind of breaks wrestling. I’m okay with that. There was a long fake injury stretch that was annoying while it was happening, but was actually woven nicely into the match in hindsight. I also appreciate that this match followed one of my cardinal rules of professional wrestling: if someone hits the Storm Cradle Driver, the match needs to end because of it. ****¼

June 25, 2017 – Queens, New York

Matt Riddle def. Keith Lee in 14:35 {WWN Championship Match}
From EVOLVE 87. There’s a concept in animation called squash and stretch. Basically, if when you see an animated ball bouncing it doesn’t change its shape every time it hits the ground, you’ll have no concept of how big, dense, or heavy the ball is actually supposed to be. So if it’s heavier and/or softer and/or less dense, it should stretch more on the way down and squash more when it hits the ground. If it’s more rigid or smaller, it should squash and stretch less. The technique is also used to add emphasis to emotions characters’ faces. Lee and Riddle used a similar technique to great effect here. The smaller Riddle was in control a lot more here, but because of his size, it was an exhausting challenge every time he lifted Lee up for a move. They conveyed that struggle remarkably well. And while he was able to hit less offense, every time Lee caught Riddle with a strike or a move, Riddle didn’t just hit the mat, he bounced off of it. I really enjoyed this. Lee’s selling was a little wonky and finishing the thing with Riddle basically lucking into a win was a little too cute, but for a speedy main event this did the trick. These two clearly have solid minds for wrestling, so I’m looking forward to seeing them do their thing in NXT. ****

July 31, 2016 – Providence, Rhode Island

Keith Lee def. Brian Cage {Beyond Wrestling Americanrana ‘16 – Providence, Rhode Island}
From Beyond Wrestling Americanrana. Lee didn’t really get much of a showcase in the last match, so I want to watch him take on another buzz-worthy wrestling in Cage. If you ever wanted to watch Brock Lesnar fight Bam Bam Bigelow when they were both young (complete with an F5 from Cage and a moonsault from Lee), you should check this out. Here you’ve got two huge dudes flying around the ring like they’re cruiserweights and tossing each other around with ease. It’s a lot of fun, and I’d like to see it in a promotion with a better ring and much better commentators. I have to say though that the crowd was totally there for it and that added a lot to the match. Honestly, this match is probably better than I’m giving it credit for, but the commentary was so irritating that it was hard to really get lost in the action. ****

September 3, 2017 – Wolverhampton, West Midlands

Pete Dunne, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate def. Cassandra Miyagi, DASH Chisako & Meiko Satomura in 17:17 {Tournament Finals}
CHIKARA King Of Trios. This one is a bit of a cheat, because I’m already sold on British Strong Style and recently watched a pair of dope Satomura matches in the Mae Young Classic. So this is really to see if indy BSS matches can be as good as their NXT work, because I’ve found that the Brits display a lot of bad habits when wrestling outside of a WWE ring. There’s something comforting about CHIKARA still featuring Mike Quackenbush on commentary and Bryce Remsburg as the lead referee. It turns out that a six-person tag match can cover up a lot of the annoying things about indy bullshit. Selling becomes less of an issue because wrestlers can bail and disappear instead of exposing moves. That’s not to say there was an overwhelming amount of bullshit in this match, though there was a litte. Mostly there was just an insane amount of fast-paced action from all six wrestlers. There was also a fun story in which Dunne was the only heel and sometimes had to be reigned in by his partners because they wanted an honorable match to end the tournament. Good work all around, and a real testament to everyone involved that the men vs. women aspect of this never felt icky. ****

June 15, 2016 – Los Angeles, California

Pentagon Jr. def. Fenix, Ivelisse, Johnny Mundo, King Cuerno, and Taya {Number One Contender Elimination Match}
From Lucha Underground Six to Survive. This is here so I can get a look at Pentagon and Fenix, though it’s always nice to see Johnny Netflix do his thing. The gimmick here is that it’s an elimination match for a shot at the championship in the season finale, and everyone in it qualified by tagging together and winning a twelve-person tag match on the previous episode. First, a note question about Lucha Underground in general. Do people want a dark and gritty vibe, and also odd camera angles when they watch pro wrestling? I’ll give this company credit or doing something different (and for having fantastic production value), but it was distracting for me. Also the english commentary is awful and I switched to Spanish ten minutes in so I could focus on the match. And it as a hell of a match. Everyone was in the ring at the same time, but the story was clear and I never felt like it was too chaotic. Having the ladies in there also never felt exploitative; it was more like in a superhero movie when men and women fight, and it’s okay because they’re on a similar competitive level. As for Pentagon and Fenix, they’ve definitely got the goods. As I mentioned earlier in this piece, I’m very appreciative that head-dropping moves led to finishes here, or at least to long breaks in the action. These guys know how to make dangerous moves mean something. ****¼

Let me know who else is a big shot outside of WWE and maybe I’ll do another round of reviews soon.