The Southern Indie Spotlight rolls on here on Day 5 with a FULL SHOW review. Even better than that, this is a FULL SHOW that you can watch for free on YouTube!
The show in question is the Indie Wrestling Channel Title Tournament, which took place on December 6th last year in Ellijay, Georgia. I believe the show was technically promoted by DSCW, though a GPW banner is visible above the entrance (both promotions are co-promoted by Woody Hullender). The show was not particularly well attended, though the vibe of the setting is more "studio wrestling" than "empty building," which works for a tourney built around establishing a Roku Channel champion. I have no clue if that was intentional or not, but the look of the building, combined with the brevity of the matches (I believe the first round had ten minute time limits), really ends up giving the show the feel of a logically booked episode of WCW Worldwide. That is a good thing, as you can watch the entire show in a little over an hour (probably right at an hour if you cut out the one non-tournament match), and it serves as a fun little sampler for several different Southern indie talents.
The show is on YouTube in three parts. I will link to them all separately because the uploader was smart enough to separate the video files and label them only by round. As a result you can watch the entire tournament from beginning to end without being spoiled. If you'd like to do that feel free to read this review in pieces after you are done watching each video.
Fred Yehi v. Jaden Newman
So I've recently started advancing the argument that Fred Yehi is the best wrestler in the world in 2016. A big part of that argument is that he's one of the only guys this year who we have been able to see work everyone from the absolute top tier talent on Earth, to people who are literally working free shows as trainees and students, without really missing a beat. No the matches at WWA4 aren't as good as the WWNLive family matches (or even his best match in TWE v. Colby Corino), but Fred is still awesome in them, and more importantly he seems to bring the best out of his opponents.
Here he is matched up against a literal high school student in Jaden Newman. Now one might think that if you are a guy known for having really good matches with trainees, big Chattanooga area teenager is historically the absolute best person you could be up against. But Jaden Newman isn't Terry Gordy, and this match is just kind of there. Really the point here is to establish Fred as the heel, and it is effective when he is on offense. When Newman is on offense...well he shouldn't have been on offense. There was one flubbed spot down the stretch, and Fred won this with the spinning elbow.
Ray Ray v. Shane Marx
Shan Marx is a guy who is really respected by a lot of people inside Georgia wrestling, and is kind of sneaky good in that he doesn't look like he'd be anything special, but he's very solid. Ray Ray is basically a redneck Rey Mysterio, including the 619 as a set up for a crossboyd finisher. I kind of hate that I blogged about Cyrus v. Torque the other day being your consummate Mark Henry v. Rey in a Southern indie setting match, because this is even more so that and no I'm not saying that because Marx is black and Ray Ray is named Ray Ray.
The match is literally worked as Ray Ray v. the big brick wall. Can Ray Ray hiptoss a wall? Nope. Can he armdrag him? Nope. Can he bounce of the wall and sell his back? Yes. Marx is actually a really athletic and mobile guy so calling him a wall shouldn't be misconstrued but you get the point.
Marx is on point in his role, but Ray Ray really makes this because every time he hits a big comeback spot he remembers to sell. I especially loved the teasing of a 619/splash attempt which had been put over on commentary as his finish, and the rana/powerbomb struggle actually leading to a spike DDT on Marx. Finish was literally right out of the Rey v. Mark Henry playbook, as Ray Ray hit his 619/splash combo, but Marx rolled through and absolutely murdered him with a Death Valley Driver. Good match that had the elements to be even better but not the time.
Drew Game v. Deon Mercer
I probably first saw Drew Game work a show back in 2002ish and here he is still making towns. He now looks like the most gloriously awesome 80s/90s WTBS competitive squash match working enhancement talent and I do not mean that as an insult. He is billed as being from "Sun Tan City" and that is just about perfect. I could totally imagine him and The Gambler teaming up v. Fire and Ice in an insanely fun 4:24 second Saturday Night match, and this is a tournament build around the "sampler sized" match so it is right in Game's wheelhouse.
To Mercer's credit he worked the crowd into more of a tizzy than anyone else had up to this point, but I also give Game credit for that because look at him. He radiates heel scumbag with the fire of a thousand suns.
The match is simple but effective, with Game working the back, and Mercer getting in his comeback spots. The highlight was probably Game's axe kick to the kidneys of a downed opponent, which is the sort of thing that would have been considered a cheap shot in 2003 Pride. Mercer gets a flurry down the stretch with the Emma corner splash and a senton, but then pays for doing the "tuning up the band" Shawn Michaels superkick tease with a flash brainbuster that ends the match. Loved the fact that the babyface hot dogging and telegraphing his finish bit him in the ass.
Chip Hazard v. Ray Fury
Ray Fury was announced for the Scenic City Invitational the other day and has the reputation of being one of the better Chattanooga area indie guys who didn't really work the best Chattanooga area indie show (Empire). I said this on Twitter when he was announced, but I think he has the potential to be the Jason Collins of this years tournament, which for people who haven't seen last year's SCI means that I think he could be a relatively unknown guy who gets an at bat and hits a home run on the first pitch.
Chip Hazard is one half of the tag team The Movement with Talon Williams. I haven't seen him work very many singles matches, but I always enjoy him in tags.
Early on Fury took over on Hazard's arm and they did a good job establishing Fury as a tenacious technician whose skill rattled the more bruising heel. Hazard's arm was taped which also made the attack on the arm logical. It didn't really serve a larger purpose in the match, but it was effective.
There were some cool spots in this (tilt-a-whirl into Russian legsweep by Fury, and a really cool STO to cut off a later Fury flurry by Hazard), but the match was really about Fury trying to evade and survive Hazard's piledriver. He evaded it once, survived it by getting his leg on the ropes, and then ended up evading it again and hitting a flash death valley driver for the pin. They actually packed a lot into a small span of time, the match built well, and even though Fury hit his finish 30 seconds after eating a piledriver his selling was strong both before and after, so it's really hard to be critical of that. At this point I had to assume they were building to a battle of the Death Valley Drivers between Fury and Marx...but were they? Let's watch the second round and find out.
Semi-Finals
Fred Yehi v. Shane Marx
Funny enough Yehi, was just talking up Marx on Twitter yesterday. Marx does some nice stuff in this early including a real fast dropkick and a pretty fistdrop. More people should do fistdrops.
Yehi takes control and works over Marx stomach. This is an unusual choice, but Fred makes it interesting by beating him in gut with these sweeping forearm shots that are different from any forearm shots I've seen before which is kind of Yehi's thing. Simple, Logical, Innovative should be Fred's Hustle, Loyalty, Respect.
They build to a spot with Marx countering a German suplex attempt, but Yehi just drives him into the corner and goes back to the stomach. About nine minutes in we get a ten minute call which I love because if you aren't working Father Time you aren't working. Marx wins a strike exchange and goes for a spinebuster, but his stomach gives out and he can't get him up. Fred goes for the spinning elbow - established as his finish in round one - and THEN Marx hits the big spinebuster. That sort of "tease, deliver, tease, deliver" really rewards people who are paying attention and makes the near falls feel like bigger deals.
Fred sells the spinebuster by flopping around the ring like a fish, and Marx goes for a DVD again, but gets rolled up quick for the fall. I wasn't in love with the finish of this, and it really seemed like DVD v. DVD was the obvious thing to build to after round one, but it's hard to argue against the best wrestler in the world moving on to the finals.
Ray Fury v. Drew Game
In the first round Game was established as just the type of heel who would injure a man for kicks, and that's what he does here. Fury gets his arm posted early and this match becomes all about the damage to Ray's arm and whether or not he can work around it. Game was in control, Fury would try to mount a comeback, and he would be cut down by a kick to the arm, a single arm DDT, et. Very consistent work that stuck to the theme.
Fury did try his neat tilt-a-whirl into a Russian legsweep again, but it was countered by a elevated face plant spot which was easily the biggest move in the match. Game followed up by going for the brainbuster that won him his first match, but Fury slipped over the top and hit another flash DVD for the win.
This match was probably too short for it's own good, but the work was really solid and established that Fury's arm was banged up, and that Fury's DVD was a sure fire deathblow when he hits it. The match ended with more than ten minutes left on the video player which actually made the flash fall more effective because the viewer naturally assumes Game is going to kick out when they are looking at the clock.
Instead Game pouts post-match and refuses to leave the ring. Chip Hazard comes out to persuade him but ends up joining him in his sit down strike (kind of?) and the aforementioned promoter Woody Hullender calls over the house mic for someone to come take out the trash which leads to a bonus match.
Good Ole Boys v. Chip Hazard and Drew Game
As a match this is nothing at all, but it's worth watching if you've never seen the Good Ole Boys because it's a gimmick that is every bit as awesome as it sounds. Cousin Cletus is a big old boy, horseshoe balding, and almost jovial looking. Cousin Shaggy is a much smaller fella who kind of looks like the living embodiment of the farmer in the farmer's daughter urban legend, i.e. a deranged John Deere tractor owner who will murder you execution style in a cornfield if you so much as look at his kin the wrong way. Both wear overalls and Waffle House t-shirts. Speaking of Waffle House they are almost always the most over babyfaces on any show they work, and the crowd chants "Waffle House" during their face in peril sections. In other words their existence is a regional treasure.
Again the match isn't much, though I do love the fact that Game ended up working three times despite losing in the semis, and the spot with him being overwhelmed by a Cletus handshake was picture perfect, something out of nothing, schtick. Shaggy picked up the win with an awkward looking splash off the top, which reminded me that I saw him have a pretty good Scaffold match where the ring was filled with mouse traps v. Brad Cash at a DSCW show on Halloween last year. I love wrestling.
Finals
Fred Yehi v. Ray Fury
If you were wondering whether or not the arm injury Fury had suffered in the semifinals was going to come into play in the finals, here is your answer - Fury came out with his shoulder taped. This instantaneously got me excited because I am a huge fan of matches that pick up where the previous match left off.
Then the bell rang and we got possibly the best opening to a match I've seen in the last six months. Fury - who has a visibly injured arm - sprints across the ring, dropkicks Yehi in the face as he's still in the corner, and immediately hits the Death Valley Driver. This is the same finisher that has won him both of his matches as a "flash" spot and was hands down the most protected spot on the show (Remember that Marx won in the first round with a DVD as well).
But as great as an injured man going for broke with his killshot right out of the gate because he knows it might be his only chance is, the best part of this is that this did not lead to an immediate near fall. Instead Yehi rolled to the floor right after the impact. This forced Fury, who was selling his arm already, to roll to the floor and try to pick Yehi back up to roll him in and get the win. Because his arm is damaged, the deadweight of Yehi is especially difficult to get up, and by the time he does get him in Yehi is able to kick out at two.
All in the first minute we have
1. An injury established in the previous match carried over into the next
2. A fast paced, hot, opening attack
3. Strong selling of a damaged body part
4. Strong selling of a big spot
5. Milked drama in the form of the struggle on the floor
6. An extremely effective and dramatic near fall.
This was done off of two offensive moves, neither of which looked especially nasty. While the near fall was off of a finisher, the limb selling actually kept the Death Valley Driver protected, as Yehi was effectively down from it for the entire minute. Just an excellent opening sequence.
At this point Fury is hurting, but he figures "hell it worked the first time" and goes for the running dropkick in the corner. But this time it doesn't work as Fred moves out of the way and Fury gets hung up in the ropes. Then there is this great moment where Yehi retreats across the bottom rope, hand over hand like he's a climbing the thing in gym class, stopping at the neutral corner to gather himself and survey the scene.
What he finds is that Fury is really hurt, so Fred goes to work. He hits a German to incapacitate Fury, and then goes straight for the arm. Fury scrambles to escape a Fujiwara armbar, so Fred decides he's had enough, stands on his hand with one foot, and with the other kicks Fury's injured arm repeatedly. Simple, Logical, Innovative.
From there Yehi goes to this modified Fujiwara armbar (you can tell this is a pro wrestling review because I used the term modified to describe a hold) where he has his knee dug into the elbow joint to apply extra pressure. The camera angle on this isn't the best, but both the idea of it and the selling of Fury are so good that I really don't care. As my buddy Matt D says, wrestling is symbolic (I think he says that...).
Fury actually manages to avoid the Yehi spot where he slaps the rope on a rope running spot to create impact on his opponents arm, and backs Yehi into a corner but Fred actually uses the angle against him. This is some straight up Yoshiaki Fujiwara defensive position wrestling at its finest, as Fred actually takes the impact of the tackle in the corner and folds himself into it so he can reach over and grab back onto Fury's injured wing. It's a small thing, but it's small things that make decent wrestlers good, and good wrestlers great.
Fury is able to come out on top of a strike exchange and hit a single arm snapmare, but Fred cuts him down to size and hits a Fisherman suplex for a near fall. After this he gets back, traps Fury's arm and goes for a powerbomb variation but Fury counters with a Falcon Arrow of all things. This might sound ridiculous, but it absolutely works as a hope spot both in the sense that it showcases that Fury has some big bombs in his arsenal if he can only find an opening, but also in that it is a big enough spot to serve as a transition to the stretch run.
Both guys make it to their feet so of course we get a strike exchange. In 2016 this is sort of a staple, but not every strike exchange ends with one guy hitting the injured limb of his opponent. This one did, but then Fred hit the ropes and ran straight into a leg lariat for a near fall. This was followed by a short arm crossbody from Fury for a near fall. Yes you read that right. Ray Fury did a Rainmaker set up into a crossbody in this match. And if you are paying close enough attention to the theme here you can probably guess that this spot actually made complete sense because it was done in the form of a defensive spot, as he pulled away from Yehi who had grabbed his hurt arm, effectively jump starting him like a lawnmower and then leaping onto him while the opening was there. Just excellent stuff.
Now it was time for the finishing exchange and what an exchange it was. Yehi hits a codebreaker on Fury's hurt arm and goes for his spinning elbow finish. Fury ducks and goes for the Death Valley Driver, but guess what? His arm is completely destroyed now, and though he can get Fred up, he can't hook him with his other hand. Yehi pops off Fury's shoulders, hits a nasty forearm to the injured arm, and then taps Fury out with a cross armbreaker. For extra effect Fred's body was in between Fury's and the ropes so the valiant babyface was put in a position where a rope break was a literal impossibility.
The whole match was less than ten minutes. It was not a match of the year candidate, and not the sort of match that some people would call great. The execution wasn't always super smooth, there weren't a ton of big spots, and it wasn't in front of a loud, animated crowd. But it was as logical a match as you will ever see both in terms of paying off the psychology and build that was contained to the match itself, and in that it played off of things that had been established across the course of the entire tournament. In a vacuum this is a good match and the best match on the show. In the context of the tournament itself - which is how the match was intended to be watched - I would call it a great match.
Yehi won the tournament (and the Indie Wrestling Channel title), and is the best wrestler in the World so far in 2016. But the star of this tournament was Ray Fury, who looked good in three different matches, against three drastically different wrestlers, emphasizing different aspects of his game in each match. I look forward to seeing him at the Scenic City Invitational in August, where he'll have a shot to do something like this again.
No comments:
Post a Comment