Phil Schneider

I am not 100% sold on Sabre Jr. yet, but he has been in some of my favorite matches of 2016. In those matches he mostly plays game underdog who takes a beating and uses his guile and craft to sneak advantages. This however was Sabre working on top as a Fuchish torturer of a young game kid. He was really nasty here, he threw a Tiger suplex which looked like it dislocated Webster's shoulder, he had some neck cranks which looked like he was trying to twist the kids head off. Webster showed some spunk, and had some ok highspots, although he didn't have the vertical leap to really make them look great. I liked heelish Sabre Jr. a bunch, and hope we get to see more of that from him.

Posted my live thoughts over at SC http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2016/05/evolve-60-live-thoughts.html Fervently disagree about Gargano v. Scrull, thought it was the worst match live, indy wrestling at is most indy wrestling

That is a completely insane opinion, looking forward to reading it

There should also be threads for each match, we could link and comment there.

My go to for this category is always the 2001 Kawada v. Fujiwara match, two guys who both made my top 15 wrestlers of all time, just shit the bed, here is my review for Segunda Caida This is a match I a have watched several times. The first time I saw it was in 2001 and it ruined Fujiwara for me for years. I rewatched after getting into the Other Japan Fujiwara stuff, and then rewatched a third time for this project. It may be the most inexplicably bad match I have ever seen. I mean on paper this seems like it should rule, two of the greatest Japanese wrestlers ever, seemingly compatible styles, Kawada isn't a guy who did much shootstyle, but you always figured he would be great in it, and it isn't like Fujiwara can only work one way. Sure Fujiwara is past his prime a bit by 2001, and you knew this wouldn't be as good as it would have been in 1994, but this wasn't just a little disappointing, it was down right shitty. As much as it pains me to say it, the blame goes pretty squarely on Fujiwara's shoulders. I have run across other bad Fujiwara matches in my travels, but no other match where he is the reason it is bad. He eats Kawada alive here. It is 2001 AJPW, Kawada is clearly the top guy in the promotion, and Fujiwara treats him like shit. He basically no sells almost all of Kawada's offense, Kawada will kick him in the face and he will just look at him, this isn't the Fujiwara tough it out sell, he just waves it off. At one point he gets German Suplexed, rolls out of it and goes on offense. There wasn't even a shitty Takiawa Fighting Spirt yell. He also takes a ton of the match, not really with cool mat holds or nifty punches, but mostly with JYD headbutt stuff. Even when he loses, he kicks out at the three count in a crappy keep his heat kind of way. Kawada seems to be trying pretty hard here, but Fujiwara just doesn't give a fuck. I don't know if this was a NJ v. AJ thing, or Kawada tried to fuck Thundercrack, but this was a total stinker.

Also nothing on LU yet as been from 2016

I think you should make people comment a little bit if they are going to nominated or vote on matches, otherwise it is just a big list of names

It's a show about a Wrestling show. They don't know it's a show, so they aren't aware of the vignettes. Yeah that is another dumb thing about it

This feels like someone discussing how racially progressive blackface is.

Negro Casas worked TNA? I have no memory of that at all

I watched this match Really fun stuff, Takayama looked good and I dug Brookes too

The current Sexy Star storyline is as bad as anything Russo ever did, maybe worse

I liked Chris Brookes when I watched the Shootstyle Tetsujin show. What other Brookes can I easily watch?

Over at SC we have reviewed every show (haven't done last weeks yet), here. Show overall is really hit or miss, the highs are super high, but some of the booking is Russorific dipshittery at its worst http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2014/11/complete-accurate-lucha-underground.html

This is a 5 v. 5 gauntlet challenge, following the spectacular 5 v. 5 elimination tag the previous month. Truly a classic match, with only a couple of down spots keeping it from reaching the heights of the 1984 gauntlet. The match starts out with Takada and Yamada and I enjoyed this juniors shootstyle more then I can ever remember enjoying the more heralded Takada v. Yamazaki match up. Yamada is super fast on the mat and worked around Takada well. We then get three really fun Sakaguchi matches with him chucking around Takada and Yamazaki and getting caught by Kido. Kido showed some great fire in his Sakaguchi match landing a nasty kick to the face, the other two matches left a bit to be desired, even for a Kido fanboy like me. Of course the match picks the fuck up when Fujiwara hits town, Kimura jumps him at the bell and they have a great little toe to toe brawl with Kimura busting him open and working the cut. There was a great escape with Fujiwara using a headstand while blood dripped onto the mat. Fujiwara sinks in a super nasty armbar for the win. He is cranking it about as badly as he can. Then we get Fujiwara v. Fujinami which is the closest we ever got to an epic singles match between the two. Fujinami is really working a choke sleeper here, cranking it and pulling at Fujiwara's neck. You rarely see Fujiwara dominated on the mat, but Fujinami's strength and Fujiwara's blood loss gave Tatsumi the advantage. So Fujiwara says fuck it, and takes Fujinami to the floor smacking his head into the ringpost and spiking him with a piledriver. Fujinami is leaking now, and Fujiwara switches into killer mode. I loved how he didn't even give a fuck when Fujinami got the flash backslide. He just got up and punched him in the head. Maeda comes in and finishes off Fujinami who ends up losing on a perfectly reasonable blood stoppage. Blood stoppages are one of my favorite wrestling finishes as long as the bleeder is bleeding, and Fujinami has a face full of Heinz.

This is a previously unavailable HH I picked up from Max Lanicault and it is another classic from this series. I think these two work so well together because of what they do different. Fujiwara is going to take you down and rip at your extremities, Sayama is going to throw fast nasty kicks and punches and knock you silly. Both guys can hang in the others world, Fujiwara throws some very cool punch combos in the corner, Sayama counters some on the mat, still they want to get the match where they need it to be. Sayama tries to punish Fujiwara when he gets it to the ground by slipping out and landing huge jumping knees on his prone body, Fujiwara gets some very nasty throws when he can get inside of Sayama's kicks including a cool shoot piledriver. More then almost any other great wrestling matchup, this is a battle of gameplans. This version has Fujiwara coming out ahead. Sayama comes very close to snoozing him out, but finally Fujiwara is able to grab hold. The finishing submission is awesome, we get to see Fujiwara work through every step of the hold, before finally snapping the elbow which causes Tiger to very quickly tap, the submission was a great combo of fast and slow, much like the whole match.

Hansen and Brody tag team sucked though. Kawada and Misawa never had long runs which were that bad

Oooh exciting!

Welcome to all of the DiBiase matches I had to watch to make the DVDVR Mid-South set

I doubt that, Joshi is a pretty dead style and its prime is even further in the rear view mirror, I can't imagine there will be some sort of Joshi review, unless its something like LLPW which wasn't beaten to death by guys in the 90.

You stink

I loved this, Yehi is one of my favorite new guys in wrestling and it is really fun to watch him match up with a true pro like Gulak. His offense always looks a little different then regular wrestling offense. The angles he throws suplexes, the parts of the body he stomps it is just a bit off. Gulak has a much more traditional wrestling base, but knows how to work interesting struggles around Yehi's weird stuff. I agree with Eric about Yehi's leg selling it was awesome , and I loved how aggressive Gulak was when he saw it, they way a great counter puncher will parry until he sees any opening.

This is a battle of 2010s best indy style guy with 2015 best indy style guy and it lives up to that billing. Callihan is really great at beating on high flyers and Bailey is awesome at fighting back from a beating and they mesh wonderfully. I can tell this will be a great touring match, the same way Bailey v. Busick was. Loved Callihan's super nasty shoot JYD headbutts, and him dickishly ripping away the ankle pad. Bailey mixed in his kicks nicely and Sami really made them look violent. Normally I hate one count kick outs, but I kind of dug it here, because Bailey didn't jump back on offense and instead just died a little slower.

This was kind of the US Indy version of Shibata v. Ishii from the dome show. Two big hitters just unloading on each other. Hero and Callihan are much more varied and expressive performers though and that is why I liked it better. Callihan has a very Terry Funkish selling thing going on, he is always checking his jaw for broken teeth, drooling grossly after a big shot, stumbling around, he also really knows how to unload, I loved him recklessly chucking a chair at Hero's ankles. This did have some of the same flaws as the Dome show match, as it did get a little repetitive, still I am really happy to see Callihan back and pounding on people, and Hero is always worth watching.

This was very indy juniors dream match style, which isn't really my thing, but this was a pretty great version of that match. I really liked the opening scramble sections of this, which were functionally Guerrero v. Malenko roll up, but with completely different spots. Styles has very powerful and aggressive take downs which really add interest to any jockying for position. I also really dug all of the different ways both guys got into there submissions, very creative stuff, Styles especially has a bunch of nasty ways to work in his ankle slicer. They did a strike exchange section which was a bit superfluous, but the finish run was pretty good, and I liked the finishing submission a bunch.