I liked the opening face shine to this a good bit. Neither of these babyfaces is terribly exciting on the surface, but Sawyer has a connection to the crowd and I liked his rapid fire knees and the way the heels were reacting to his offense. The spot where he jumps off the top, lands on his feet and then hits an armdrag sounds terrible on paper, but was sold so well by the heels that I bought it. I also liked Pardee's roll over the Assassin and the Assassin general is such a fun guy during rope running exchanges that he makes me bite on even the most middling spots.

 

Heel control is short, but pretty good. I like the big spots of both Rip and the Assassin. Sawyer just ended up in the wrong corner and paid for it. He makes a comeback and hits a great looking dropkick but Pardee eats a huge back body drop and a falling Assassin headbutt for the fall. Not the best ending to a fall, but the bump on the back body drop was big time so it was believable enough.

 

Second fall starts off with Pardee in peril and the heels working over his arm. The hold work here is not terribly inspired, but when they go to the clubbing I enjoy it. I especially enjoy some of the forearms Pardee throws from underneath. Pardee hits a really good back elbow off the ropes and there is an excellent cut off with Pardee inches away from a tag when Oliver crushes him with a knee to the back. Man I kind of loved the Pardee arm drag hopespot and the big spot off of the irish whip was pretty great too. I also really liked the way the fall ended as all the heat was on the idea of Pardee getting the tag and instead he won on a sunset flip, partially as a result of the heels own poor timing.

 

The third fall starts off with Pardee selling his arm and the heels aggressively battering it. Great early moment with Oliver suckering Sawyer in and Pardee desperately crawls over to the corner but there is no one there because Sawyer is tied up with the official in the heel corner.

 

Pardee finally gets the tag and Sawyer comes in with some good fired up babyface offense, but Oliver holds on to a monkey flip attempt and Sawyer cracks his head hard. Assassin comes off the top with a big headbutt and Sawyer rolls to the floor, gets posted and is bleeding like a motherfucker. Match gets stopped on account of blood loss and while the blade job is pretty epic, this to me is the worst part of the match as it had built very well up to this point. I liked this far more than Will, didn't find it boring at all and think it deserves to be considered for the set.

Rip Oliver & The Assassin vs. Brett Sawyer & Steve Pardee (2/3 falls) (31:41)

- This match was really kind of boring until the bloodletting at the very end. In fact, I may cut to the end of the match and then add the interview. This is fucking sick.