Phil Schneider

Hey Avisman!! I used to love that dude back during the glory days of IWRG. He was always a guy who could work on the mat, and really developed into a great brawler, and then he disappeared (along with other awesome guys like Chico Che and Freelance) so IWRG could be all crappy fake Capos sons. This is Virus working a straight maestro style, focused on leg and arm locks and cool standing counters. Avisman is perfectly comfortable working this match, he has some very cool abdominal stretch variations, and looks perfectly comfortable countering arms and legs, great performance and I hope he shows up more. Virus is great at working this kind of match too, it is different then what he does in CMLL, and while I liked this a lot, I kind of wanted him to work more of his title match style so we could see Avisman stretch out a bit. This was a great painting, but I wanting to see them use more of their pallete.

This was a battle of four all time greats at their absolute athletic peaks. All of these guys are still great wrestlers when they show up, but their style has slowed down a bit as they have moved into their 40s. Here they are all in their mid 20s and the exchanges are so much faster and explosive without surrendering any of the chilling violence. The opening of this match is a great example of the brilliance of this style, Usuda and Ono have this lighting quick intricate exchange of kneebar counters, which was ended by Ikeda running in and kicking Ono's head into the fourth row. A Sunday of skill and speed with a cherry of brutality on top. The match continues on that vein, with great exchanges by all of the participants, with all four looking great. Ikeda throws some of his classic crowbar lariats along with nasty kicks and some really good desperate leg selling. Really the kind of match that isn't done anywhere anymore, and it was such a pleasure to watch.

That could go either way

I have a bunch of people who have similar opinions as me, it is a valuable thing. If Eric or Tomk or Graham Crackers find a match that they think is cool, I will likely love it as well. Really isn't wrestling fandom just about finding cool shit to watch? It is useful to find like minded people so you can find more fun shit.

Pretty great US Indy approximation of an 90's All Japan tag. End and Hero are total ass kicking heels, working together great, laying in a huge creative beating on the overmatch but game pair of underdogs. Sabre is pretty great as spunky young kid who can take a hellacious asskicking, but can always pull out a submission, meanwhile Sami is flying all over the ring making saves, kicking people in the mouth, diving to the floor. He is just a whirling dirvish of energy which is really where he shines. Loved Hero and End's double teams, they did a cool version of Total Elimination with a leg sweep and straight right. Finish doesn't go into overkill which this style of match is bound to do, instead we have Sabre dying on his sword, trying desperately to grab an arm or a flash pin, while getting overwhelmed. Awesome stuff, and a real contender to stay high on this list all year.

I did think this went overboard a bit, but Yehi was a Tank, lots of nifty little bits of brutality. I loved a spot where he tripped Williams and then just kicked him in the mouth. I also loved Williams finishing run of nasty headdrops, his piledriver was gross looking. Could have used a bit of trimming in the middle, but a fun battle between two guys I hadn't seen much of.

I loved this match, Riddle is already really good and I am excited to see where he goes from here. The early amateur wrestling sections were great, some of the better worked amateur wrestling I can remember seeing, Yehi getting Riddle's back and dumping him on his head was great looking, I loved the over rotation on that third german, just looked nasty. I also loved Yehi smashing the bridge of the foot and how Riddle sold it. Finish ankle lock was awesome too, unique way to put it on, and the extra wrench by Riddle to get the tap was great. This made me want to track down everything by both guys.

The second by far. I don't care about the top guys in Japan, Dick Togo v. Hellspawn XL is way more interesting then Dick Togo v. Taguchi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s20uk0Fnflk&feature=youtu.be&t=1h24m24s This took a bit to get rolling, but man by then end it was pretty awesome. Cobb is a beast in this, he is one of the strongest wrestlers in the world, and he was chucking around a pretty big dude. Kaimana got stiffer and stiffer as the match went along and by the end he is just rearranging Cobbs dental work with elbows. He also throws this weird uranage with Cobbs legs hanging on the top rope. Premier is one of my favorite promotions in the world, they just deliver hard hitting nasty wrestling matches like this again and again.

Very excited, how many Terry Funk NWA titles matches do we have on tape?

Wowza! Is that a new Terry v. Harley match? What a discovery if true!

This was a Super Libre match and an old fashioned bloody brawl. It reminded me of the kind of brawls we saw on the Memphis set. This is as basic as it gets, four guys beating the shit out of each other and painting the canvas red. Really cool start with Terry and Cerebro trying to rush the USA team in the aisle, but end up getting faked out and jumped from behind. The Gringos get the advantage and Cerebro and Terry are bloody, and they go back and forth, punching each other and slamming each other into things. Gringo Loco brings out his bag of cactus, that felt like a comedy spot other times we have seen it, here it had a real Abby feel as he drove a Cactus into Black Terry's bloody head.

I was excited to check this out when it showed up. Mongolian Stomper is a legendary figure who I really hadn't seen work in anything but TV matches and clips, here we get to see him in a long 2/3 falls title match, and it was pretty awesome stuff. 1st fall was a bit slow, with Stomper doing some stalling and covering his ears to make the crowd boo him, Slater controls with armbars and takedowns, until the Stomper escapes and starts stomping,and man did he have great looking stomps, he busts Slater open and puts on a nasty looking claw for the submission, second and third falls were pretty awesome with Slater bloody and brawling finally turning the tables and busting open the Stomper. Wild violent stuff which totally took the crowd along for a ride, really makes me want to see more of the Stomper.

Oh weird, we must have missed on the 80s set, still pretty cool that it showed up on youtube

Dataintcash delivers again!! Here is two of the all time greats popping up with a previously unseen match which is the earliest footage we have from either guy. It is a little strange to watch a pair of consummate rudos work this kind of fast paced juniors style, but no surprise, they are really great at it. Two pretty solid initial falls with Fuerza doing some especially nifty armdrags where he never loses contact with the arm, and then a final nutso fall. Fuerza takes his signature bump to the floor at warp speed, and Casas follows it up with an out of control tope. They then exchange electric chair drops and bow and arrow counters, before Casas hits a Rita Romero slam and Casita for the pin. This is the kind of match which would have blown minds in 1986, although this kind of highspot juniors wrestling doesn't age as well as other styles. Still a true out of the blue treat and a great chance to see a pair of legends as athletic young guys.

Really great stuff, an out of nowhere classic. I can't believe how good Jeff Hardy was in this, he is a guy who had his moments over his career, but I think the consensus was that he was completely shot by 2014, a casualty of drugs and bumps, but I cannot remember him ever looking this good, not only was he bumping like crazy but all of his offense looked really good. When has Jeff Hardy ever thrown good punches? He was cracking the Bucks here, spin kicks looked great, just a unbelievable performance. I really loved how the Hardy's incorporated all of the Bucks stuff into a traditional hot southern tag. Their taunts came off more like douchey heeling and less like meta wink wrestling. More John Tatum less Chuck Taylor. I was also really impressed how the Hardys were able to keep up with the Bucks fancy shit, there are some elaborate sequences in this match, and they looked great, the speed was still there, but they way it was slotted in, made it look less like a dance routine then if the Bucks ran them with Ohio is for Killers or the Addiction. Eric is going so nuts for this match so I feel like I have to throw a little water on the fire, I did think the Meltzer Driver should end a match full stop, I just don't buy Matt putting on a move 45 seconds after selling it, even if he did a nice job of selling. I also think that the Hardy's are a little short on offense, so they spammed the side effect and twist of fate a bit, I loved Matt's gutwrench suplexes, and I would have rather he used more of them or even just some bodyslams. Still those are very minor complaints on what is otherwise a remarkable match. No one could have predicted this

This was excellent stuff and well worthy of a final. The final went five rounds instead of three and they worked a nice pace right into the final round. Thatcher is so good at infighting, throwing kidney shots from the mat, cracking fingers, twisting ankles. Graves also looked very good he really does some interesting transitional things on the mat. I loved how the match got chippier with some shots thrown after the bell. Liked the finish too, with Graves countering an armbar, into a half nelson choke which Thatcher tried a bunch of different counters out of before finally tapping. Graves feels right on the level of Thatcher, Gulak ect. and really should get a shot at a bigger stage.

This was really fun. Graves looked great his transition between leg locks are arm locks were really cool, at one point he put one a totally plausible looking shoot figure four leg lock. There was much more of an amateur wrestling base then a Jujitsu base in the grappling which makes sense as Cobb was an Olympic wrestler. Cobb is at his best as kind of an athletic freak suplex machine, sort of a lost Polynesian Steiner brother this kind of real mat based match tamps down what makes him special a bit. Last round was especially exciting with Cobb smacking Graves with his big headbutt he rushes him to finish Graves off and gets clipped in the knee, which Graves jumps on. Loved that Graves move, such a great out of nowhere transition. Match goes to the judges which I didn't like, it didn't really have a finish, and even though the mentioned a ten point must system, we never got scorecards. Don't think this tourney needed this gimmick, and if you are going to do it, you should at least have countdowns, time clocks and scorecards.

This is the closest we have gotten to new FUTEN in a while, as this is a mixed tag with a very FUTEN flavor. Kana and Syuri are regular dance partners and they are very fun running through nasty leg submissions and punching and kicking each other in the face. Yamamoto is an especially nasty fuck in his interactions with Syuri, there is always an uncomfortable spousal abuse vibe you have to work through in these Kana mixed tags, but the Syuri v. Yamamoto section felt like Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba in the Killer Inside Me. Much like your classic FUTEN tags this builds to a singles match showdown, and Kana is clearly as big a fan of Ikeda v. Ishikawa as I am. I have seen her in the Ikeda role against Ishikawa before and here she is the Ishikawa role against Ikeda. The end run is as violent as your Ikeda end runs normally are, you have to suspend disbelief a bit and buy Kana can hang in this abbatoir but she brings it, at one point splitting Ikeda's eye with a headbutt, and removing her boot to throw kicks (which I am not sure would actually make them harder, but it was a cool strap drop spot). Ikeda does Ikeda things, one point he just unloads a straight right, and the finish clothesline was up there with the most brutal he has thrown. Only thing that kept this from EPIC status, was the length, 45 minutes is just too long for a match this brutal, kind of requires too much absorption of stuff that should end it, and it can get a bit repetitive especially before the end run. Still anytime I get to see new examples of Ikeda dancing his special dance I jump on it.

Yup August 2005 it is, thanks for uploading that match BTW, it was awesome

Let's put on our prediction hats and guess who the highest ranking guy on the 2026 list, not to make say the top 200 of this years. I could see one of your EVOLVE grappling dudes getting a big run in Japan or WWE and getting pretty high. Matt Riddle or Fred Yehi are both so good early in their careers give them 10 years they could be great. I could also see wider Houston footage getting Gino or Jose Lothario higher on the list, although I think they have a ceiling

Trauma 1's spinning reverse figure four is awesome

Cool throwback to the days of RAW having awesome six-mans every week. I have been a Gallows fans since the Festus days and I am glad to see him make his way back to the WWE and he was super aggressive in this constantly jumping at Roman and getting in his face. Finish run was really exciting with Gallows and Anderson nuking Roman while an Uso and Styles went at in the ring. I liked the post match angle with the temptation of Styles and Reigns wrecking him after the bell. I am into this feud.

I am totally in the bag for Jack Gallagher he is the best grappler in the world right now and really delivers some awesome little touches, countering a suplex by slipping into an guillotine choke, delivering a kneecap kick float into an ankle lock, he is just doing things on the mat no one else is pulling off. I do want to give some love to Pete Dunne though, what a marvelous dickbag. His meathead faces, his little ponytail, his Bruiserweight nickname, his nasty cheap shots like digging his knuckles into Jack's neck or twisting his fingers, just a complete asshole. I thought his bar brawl bullshit melded really nicely with all of Gallaghers mastery.