PP #4

Matt Borne v. Brett Sawyer

I really liked all the opening mat work as it fluctuated pretty nicely between basic amateuresque grappling and flashier "highspot" type stuff pretty seamlessly. Borne tries to steal a fall off of a rope running exchange with a back roll with the tights and Borne's reaction to the accusation of cheating was classic. Borne ends up attacking Sawyer's ribs after a sharp knee to the gut. Really dig Borne's taunting and he throws some good looking shots at Sawyer. At one point Borne is holding Sawyer by the face while he tries to throw punches and then just drops him with a straight right. Borne goes to a body scissors but Sawyer backs him into a corner and makes his comeback with Borne throwing wild haymakers in desperation. Sawyer goes for a pin and gets pressed off the cover way out into the front row. Borne follows him outside but gets caught with a leaping forearm. Match ends in a DCO. This was not terribly long but I liked it a good bit.

David Schultz v. Chris Adams

i was digging the early matwork a good bit and then they badly botched up a roll up with Adams just sort of looking at Dr. D and waiting for him to do something. Having said that I thought Adams did a lot of cool shit in this. I really liked the way he was selling for Schutlz and Dr. D tossed out some really deliberate and sharp looking shots. At one point Adams took a really cool twisting bump on the apron off of a sick shot to the back of the head from Schultz. Adams superkicks looked a lot better here than they did in the other match and I thought Schutlz bump for his enziguri was pretty cool. Adams missed something a splash and ends up getting hung up in the ropes with Dr.D throwing cheapshots for the DQ finish. It is always tough to set a benchmark at this point in the watching and I have been erroring on the side of inclusion so I guess I can give this a tepid endorsement.

David Schultz promo on Buddy Rose.

Mike Miller/Dizzy Hogan v. Tommy Rogers/Brett Sawyer (2/3 Falls)

I really love how in the early going every significant offense move from the babyfaces is celebrated like an epic achievement. Seriously monkey flips and body slams are treated as the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest and it really adds to the match. Sawyer ends up trapped in the corner in a full nelson and they try and rough neck him but of course the heels hit each other which is a spot that always works. Tommy Rogers gets the tag and hits a nice dropkick but Miller has had enough and just steamrolls Tommy knocking him to the floor. Rogers ends up attacking Miller's leg and Miller is a lot of fun bumping around for the babyfaces. Sawyer traps him in some crazy leg lock variation. Sawyer gets steamrolled and knocked to the floor and Miller hits a diving stomp to him on the floor but Rogers comes over and starts lighting him up with punches. Hogan hits an awesome looking body slam, a sick knee and then does a double flex pose on a cover - way better than anything he ever did as Brutus Beefcake. Kind of a funny spot as Hogan tries to coax Miller in for a double team and the ref gets distracted allowing the faces to hit a really great looking double dropkick for the first fall.

Second fall opens up with some pretty decent grappling between Hogan and Sawyer, but Sawyer gets trapped in the heel corner and ends up taking a Buddy Rosesque falling through the ropes backward bump to the floor. Sawyer goes FIP and looks really fucking fatigued at this point. Sawyer takes an AWESOME bump off of a knee lift off the ropes. Sawyer ends up dropping the second fall to a lariat and big powerslam from Hogan.

Third fall starts out with Hogan just walking over and hitting a stiff backbreaker on Sawyer. The heels keep working over Sawyer's back. It's a bit bearhug heavy but works okay. Sawyer ends up getting the hot tag and the fall comes almost immediately off of a drop down/Thesz Press combo. Really fun match. The babyfaces were awesome and the heels were better than expected.

Rip Oliver/Matt Borne promo.

Brett Sawyer promo.

Steve Pardee v. Chris Colt

Holy shit, Colt took a HUGE bump on a back body drop off of a criss cross. Pardee goes to work on Colt's legs and Colt ends up on the floor stumbling around wildly selling the shit out of his leg. Pardee goes for a corner charge but misses and Colt takes over on his arm. Colt throws some really nasty looking shots and works the arm with a cross armbreaker variation, a stiff knee to teh shoulder joint, et. Pardee fires back and hits some nice offense, but Colts him off by going to the eyes. They do a double knockdown spot with colt spilling to the floor. Time runs out and I'm annoyed because I might have nominated this with a proper finish.