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| Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish |
HDD on Wrestling
By Nathan G. O'Brien
To stave off boredom brought on by some
unfortunate and unexpected downtime (explained here) I have decided to do a
little writing about one my favorite things in the world: pro-wrestling. I’m a
lifelong fan of the “spandex ballet.” Like many people my age who grew up in
Minnesota, my earliest memories are of the AWA’s (American Wrestling
Association) Saturday morning TV show called All-Star Wrestling
. The High
Flyers – “Jumpin’” Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne, Jerry Blackwell, Nick
Bockwinkel, “Sheik” Adnan Al-Kaissie, Bobby Heenan, The Fabulous Ones – Steve Keirn
& Stan Lane, The Road Warriors – Hawk & Animal, Rick Martel, Medusa
Miceli, “The Incredible” Hulk Hogan, Bruiser Brody, Curt Hennig, The Midnight
Rockers – Sean Michaels & Marty Jannetty, Mr. Saito, Badd Company – Paul
Diamond & Pat Tanaka, and the list goes on. This of course led to NWA, UWF,
World Class, CWA,WWF and countless other territorial federations and alliances,
many of whom I was only able to follow through Bill Apter mags like
Pro-Wrestling Illustrated.
I eventually moved on to reading newsletters in the
‘90s, when some coworkers suggest we split the subscription cost. And then of
course there was the Internet wrestling explosion of the early ‘00s. What
started as typical childhood fandom eventually grew into full-fledged passion. Today
I’m what you would call a smart mark (or a smark); meaning I have as strong an interest
in the backstage and non-scripted aspects of wrestling as I do the storylines and
the in-ring/on-mic product.
I’ve written some essays and some show
reviews in the past but it’s not often that I write much more than 140 characters on the subject of pro-wrestling, so this is kind of an experiment. Whether
this turns into a regular thing or not remains to be seen. I do have an idea
for another piece, but for now I’ll hold off on giving this thing an official name. We'll just call it HDD on Wrestling
for the time being.
For this particular exercise I picked three
wrestlers that I wanted to watch an old match of—Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, and
Dean Ambrose—and plugged their names into YouTube.
Bobby Fish vs. Ricky Reyes
NWA New York: Indytational 2010
Rochester, NY – 10/23/10
This is one
of my current favorites in “Big in Japan” Bobby Fish versus one of my older
favorites in Ricky Reyes. In early to mid-‘00s I was a big fan of The Havana
Pitbulls—or the Rottweilers as they were known in Ring of Honor when they were
in a stable with Homicide and Low Ki—the tag team that Reyes was part of with
Rocky Romero. I’ve seen Romero a few times recently on ROH teaming with Alex
Koslov as Forever Hooligans but I haven’t seen Reyes in quite some time. Even
as of 2010 when this match took place, I wasn’t really aware that he was still
around. And this was probably about the time that Bobby Fish started entering
my peripheral. I don’t watch a lot of Japan though, so it’s likely I’d be more
of both of these guys back then if I did.
In my
opinion a Bobby Fish match that isn’t preceded by a Bobby Fish in-ring promo
has significantly less heat than one that is. Half of Fish’s appeal is his
on-mic work. But alas we don’t get that here. But we do get the old guys in the
audience trying to act tough and front like they’d fight the wrestlers. Usually
it’s Fish that would engage with these guys and turn into a comical thing but
here Reyes and his big masked buddy, whose name I don’t recall (Star Rider
maybe,) that have to deal with the idiots.
I’m all for
fan participation—it’s one of the best parts of going to live wrestling
shows—but I hate the individual guys that try to be a part of the show. This
whole crowd going into business for
themselves thing is a debate I don’t care to get into now. But I do think
there’s a level of respect towards the performers that needs to be maintained
as an audience member. I don’t give a flying fuck if the live crowd shits all
over a WWE show. That’s an expensive as hell ticket and it’s a company that
treats both their talent and their customers with unmatched vindictiveness and
disdain. So if a John Cena promo is boring, by all means, go fucking nuts. But
at an indie level event, show some fucking respect. Keep it fun and value the
line between performer and fan.
Anyway, the
match! Nothing too spectacular, but not the drizzling shits (shoutout to Lance
Storm, who I have blocked from following me on Twitter) by any means. Fairly
typical indie under 15 minutes match. Nice mix of Japanese-influenced US indie
strong style and power moves like suplex and back breaker variations.
Cool spot
late in the match where they trade hard kicks to the chest. Then both men hit
the ropes, meeting in the middle with double shoulder tackles that leaves them
both on their backs.
Reyes gets
the win with a neck breaker variation after capitalizing on a missed top rope
moonsault out of the corner by Fish. Fun match for what it is.
Kyle O’Reilly vs. Sami Callihan
IPW: Showdown in Naptown
Indianapolis, IN – 1/1/11
Here we have
Bobby Fish’s Red Dragon (stylistically written as reDRagon) tag team partner
Kyle O’Reilly putting on a great match with Sami Callihan for Insanity Pro
Wrestling. This is from a dope card that also featured AR Fox vs. Ricochet, Jon
Moxley (currently known as Dean Ambrose in WWE) vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Irish
Airborne vs. American Wolves (current TNA tag team champions, assuming the
company is still in business at the time you’re reading this,) and other little
big names like Colt Cabana and Chuck Taylor.
Even though
he’s got a lot of smark hype behind him and has been around for a long time
now, I’ve somehow managed to only see a few Sami Callihan matches over the
years. I suspect this is because I stopped buying indie DVDs and tapes on a
regular basis in 2008. (This happen to coincide with me doing a lot of, ah, dating at the time, which left little
room for watching taped pro-wrestling matches that took place in armories,
community centers, and junior high gymnasiums.) I believe this is right around
the time he started building steam. I’ve always appreciated his crazed eyeliner
punk look. He’s currently working in WWE NXT as Solomon Crowe, so hopefully
I’ll see more of his current stuff, as I am a WWE Network subscriber (which
coincides with me also being married now.)
Kyle
O’Reilly on the other hand, I am very familiar with, due mostly to having ROH
TV in our market. In my opinion, he’s one of the top ten American wrestlers
with upward momentum working today. (More about this in a future piece
hopefully.) I’m a huge fan of his offensive MMA/BJJ/grappling/judo skill set
and he has a very unique way of selling (similar to Dean Ambrose) that I think
works really well alongside his more recent cocky and comical skinny jeans
coffee shop hipster gimmick.
Match starts
off fast and heavy as Callihan charges into O’Reilly and lays in some hard
alternating chops and forearms to the neck. O’Reilly takes advantage of a brief
run to ropes from Callihan and meets him in the other corner with some forearms
of his own and a series of his signature kicks. They then exchange upper hands
once again, which sets the pace for the rest of the match. Typical but really
fun strong style exchanges throughout the match. Lots of European upper cuts,
chops, knee strikes, and cool spots where they match face slaps Japan style. The
guys keep the pace of the match high by hitting the ropes frequently and
keeping matwork to a minimum. When they do go to the mat it’s for quick paced
and unique submission attempts, rather than long stalling holds like headlocks
or chinlocks.
Cool spot
outside the ring mid-match when they both take turns missing strikes and slam
their hands into the ring posts. Love how Callihan does the little things; like
when O’Reilly goes to kick him in the face he puts up his hands to block it and
then sells his forearms. You don’t see a lot of guys doing that. Most would
still sell that face which makes it less believable than it already is. Also
like how Callihan does unique things like headbutts to the chest or making
basic collegiate wrestling takedowns look really cool and punishing.
O’Reilly eventually
responds with two rolling butterfly suplexs into a butterfly release DDT. Just
beautiful wrestling. There’s a sweet MMA spot near the end that might have the
anti-MMA pro-wrestling hardcores rolling their eyes, where O’Reilly has
Callihan in a triangle and is delivering elbows to the head from his back. I’m
not sure but I think I heard someone in the audience yell, “Watch the
trajectory of those elbows ref.” At one point O’Reilly ends up with the full
mount which I have to admit, doesn’t really work in pro-wrestling. It just
looks too goofy throwing fake punches in the position.
Callihan
gets the submission win via a Koji Clutch. They shake hands afterwards, ROH
style. Great stuff.
I’d never
seen any IPW stuff before this, which saddens me, as they have now seemingly
gone on extended hiatus. (Building issues I am told.) I was hoping to make a
road trip down to one of their shows after watching some of these matches.
Here’s hoping they can pull it together. Well, at least we still have YouTube
and DVDs in the interim. I’d also like to point out how much I like the green,
white, and black color scheme of the ring.
Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose
FCW TV
Tampa, FL – 9/18/11
Florida
Championship Wrestling was the developmental territory started by WWE after
they ended their longstanding partnership with Deep South Wrestling and Ohio
Valley Wrestling. (Coincidently OVW is now the developmental territory for
TNA…for the time being anyway.) In the summer of 2012 FCW was rebranded NXT,
which was a previously a WWE television show that featured FCW talent.
Of all the
original content on the WWE Network right now, NXT is hands down the best.
Although in my opinion it’s not enough to make the $11 monthly subscription
worth it on its own but with PPVS tossed in and all the old stuff it’s OK. If
they take PPVs out of the equation, it’s likely I’ll cancel my sub, which will
suck because I really enjoy NXT when I get a chance to watch it. But anyway,
that’s all beside the point.
This is
actually the first ever FCW match I’ve seen. FCW was never on TV here and if it
was available on the Internet at the time, I had no idea, or more likely, had
no time to watch it. Like the IPW ring set, I really dig the color scheme; especially
the green ropes.
This is an
early match between the two indie darlings (palm strike to whoever came up with
that term, knee strike to me for using it) that are currently embroiled in a
major—actually, the most exciting—storyline in WWE. Both Rollins (known as Tyler
Black) and Ambrose (known as Jon Moxley) made the rounds amongst the indie
circuits—cutting their teeth in places like ROH, PWG, IWA Mid-South, AAW, FIP,
CZW, Evolve, JAPW, and Dragon Gate USA—before getting picked up by WWE. I’m
actually kind of surprised that Rollins has made it as far as he has with WWE.
I’m happy he has but I am surprised, given WWE’s track record of wasting potential
based on guys’ size, that he’s in the position he’s in; which is poised to
become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Ambrose maybe even more so. I mean I
knew the very first time I ever saw him—Dragon Gate USA: Enter the Dragon 2010—that
he could be a ginormous star if given the chance but I still thought he had a
subversive, loose cannon-like quality to him that would never appeal to WWE. So
it’s really cool to see these guys in an old match that predates their awesome
work on the main WWE roster as The Shield (with Roman Reigns) and their current
feud.
This match
is billed as “most pinfalls in 30 minutes wins” and is also for something
called the FCW 15 Championship. Around
10 minutes into it Rollins scores the first pinfall when Ambrose gets disqualified
for a blatant kick to ye olden old nut sack. Within two minutes Ambrose scores
two pinfalls on Rollins by capitalizing his inability to recover from shattered
scrotum syndrome. It is things like this the make Ambrose so great. And the
best part is he didn’t even have to do that old thing where the guy points his
finger at his head to show he’s ahead in the mental game; you just know it
already. If Trips ever wants to handoff his “Cerebral Assassin” gimmick to
someone, Ambrose is the guy.
With just
under 14 minutes left Rollins evens up the pinfall count at two a piece with a
sunset flip. At this point the match really picks up, and the homoeroticism of
pro-wrestling (let’s just be real here guys, it’s not a bad thing) starts to
set in as they are perspiring and breathing heavy all over each other. There’s
a sweet near fall when Rollins hits Ambrose with a springboard clothesline.
Cool spot when both men tumble out of the ring with a vertical suplex by
Ambrose. And another when they are on their knees slugging it out in the middle
of the ring. Ambrose appears to be yelling, “Harder! Hit me harder!” With
around three minutes left, Rollins misses a 540 (or some other unintelligent
number) moonsault/swanton type thing that would be the pivotal point in any
normal match. But this is not a normal match! The way Ambrose struggles to get
to his feet, by flailing around and crawling up the rope is just awesome; very
much in the Shawn Michaels vein.
With two
minutes remaining Ambrose slaps on a Texas Cloverleaf that will take us up to
the final minute of the match, in which the two men exchange each other’s
finishing moves. Time runs out tied at two pinfalls a piece. A sudden death overtime
is ordered by some women that is apparently “the general manager.” This is
honestly a match that could headline Wrestlemania. If we’re lucky maybe someday
we’ll see it. But don’t hold your breath on that.
Rollins hits
an awesome looking suicide tope through the ropes to the outside. Literally the
best tope I’ve seen in a long ass time. Perhaps I’m caught up in the excitement
of the match. But that’s the point, right? Back in the ring, Rollins super kick
to Ambrose, who rebounds off the ropes with a vicious lariat. One of the
announcers says, “Oh my God, did that just happen?!” Those are exactly the
right words to describe it. Rollins hits two more super kicks and follows them
up with a dangerous-looking package driver for the win. Just. Fucking. Awesome.
Final
thoughts on this match:
It’s cool to
see WWE developmental doing stuff these days besides taking guys from the
independent scene with unique skill sets and turning them into “WWE style”
workers. As in actually developing
stuff like this feud; this is now one of the main draws at the upcoming SummerSlam.
I’m not a
huge fan of multiple super kicks in a match (shoutout to the Young Guns, whose
hands I will attempt to shake if ever given the chance.) But I think it worked
really well in this case because it was at the end of the match, which really
drove home the point that it takes a lot to put a buy like Ambrose down for the
count.
Given the
near-blood feud status of the current Ambrose / Rollins angle it’s unlikely
that they could do a straight wrestling match like this. They’ll probably have
to do a Last Man Standing or Street Fight or some other gimmick match that will
play to the idea that they absolutely hate each other. It’s safe to assume it
will still be good—probably lots of high spots and bumps on announcer tables,
stairs, the ramp, etc.—but I’d really like to see them start with a straight
match like this one. But they’ve been booked beyond that now, so it doesn’t
really make sense anymore. Either way, unless Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena is amazing (which is unlikely,) it is definitely looking to be the
highlight of SummerSlam.
