Southern Indie Spotlight Take Two (In which I don't know how to embed a video unless YouTube does it for me)

A few months back The Making Towns podcast did a show on a Georgia Premier Wrestling show. The GPW show was most notable for featuring A.J. Styles last independent pro wrestling match (at least for now), but after seeing the show live the host Dustin Spencer had some questions about some of the other performers on the card, most notably Cyrus The Destroyer. I think at one point he asked his guest Al Getz outright who Cyrus' best matches were against, and though I'm not Al Getz I have no problem answering here today. Cyrus' best opponent is Torque, and here are the matches that prove it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMzFeWuqu7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6jin7aptao

Now before I get to the matches I will say that I'm far from a Cyrus the Destroyer completest. In truth he doesn't make tape all that often. That said I've seen him against everyone from Gunner to Drew Adler to Adam Jacobs to Tank, and yet these matches v. Torque are hands down my favorite Cyrus matches.

Things you need to know about Cyrus. He's big. And fast. And surprisingly athletic. But mostly big.

Things you need to know about Torque. He's decidedly not big. But he is faster than Cyrus. So there is that.

These two matches are basically worked like your Southern indie version of the Rey Mysterio Jr. v. Mark Henry matches from 2006 WWE. For stupid people who think Mark Henry sucks this is a compliment. Those matches were great in large part because you had a monster that the fans bought as a monster, and a little guy that the fans bought as a fast, skilled, athlete who might have just enough of an advantage on that playing field to have an outside shot against a much stronger opponent.

What really makes these matches to me is that every Torque spot is a hope spot. By this I mean you never get the sense that he is in control or in a position of dominance and you never should feel that way given the roles the guys are playing and the size disparity. At the same time, the timing and explosiveness of Torque's offense is such that you have just enough belief in his ability where it doesn't feel like a complete mismatch. The fact that the crowd is hot for both matches only adds to this, as does the impact, creativity, and timing of the big spots and counters.

These aren't all time classics, but they are fun matches, and matches that are worked exactly as they should be given the character each guy is playing. Pro wrestling could use more of this sort of thing in 2016.