Two Damn Good NHB Matches To Celebrate John Wayne Murdoch

With NHB Volume 100 on the horizon next month, you’re gonna see me do a few pieces on this company leading up to the show... because it truly has to be one of my favorite Deathmatch companies in the United States right now. I’ve been hooked on NHB  since I found out about it in 2020 and it’s overall cool to see a company make it this far. I wanted to look at some matches of, coincidentally, one of the best deathmatch wrestlers in America right now in John Wayne Murdoch. These are from his first reign with the NHB American Deathmatch title, the first reign of the belt EVER that lasted most of 2021 going into 2022. I haven’t decided yet if I wanna look at the reign in its entirety or anything, but this will definitely not be the only JWM-related post that I make here. He's amazing, man.

John Wayne Murdoch vs. M*E*R*C - The Pit #6 (11/19/2021)
I wanna preface this by saying that ICW’s Pit/Pitfighter shows have got to be some of my favorite shows of the entire NHB catalogue. Spiritually it feels like these shows turn up the typically seedy & grimey aesthetic of ICW, especially helped with the venue choices. This TWE show exemplifies what i’m talking about here with “the pit” in this case just being a mat on the floor with a structure entirely made up of 2x4’s looking like ringposts surrounding it, with barbed wire ropes and literally whatever shit they can find thrown in. I mean like just look at this shit, man:


The match itself is fucking crazy. This might be one of my favorite NHB matches of all time. It’s about as violent as it possibly could be, with JWM and MERC using literally whatever they possibly could that wasn’t nailed down to kill each other. The crowd is not just entirely into it, but they are fully bloodthirsty the whole way through, it’s quite literally split down the middle between TWE/MERC fans and ICW:NHB/JWM fans which leads to awesome moments like the TWE fans flipping off Murdoch whenever he gets close to them. Not to mention the dueling “IC-Dub” “Sucks!” chants from both ends of the arena. Murdoch even gets into it a little with the TWE section of the arena, it’s awesome. JWM is definitely pulling his weight throughout, he actually pulls out a knife from a container and LITERALLY STABS MERC NUMEROUS TIMES. Holy shit, man. Merc gets stabbed in the face, chest, hell his back gets a little bit of action as well. His face is carved up and looks gnarly. There’s even a spot they do where JWM forces the knife into Merc’s mouth and delivers a chinbreaker soon thereafter. Merc, however, is not a pushover either. He takes control of the match midway through by escaping a brainbuster attempt, then just picking JWM up and dropping him right on his head through a chair!! (I believe Struggles calls the move a “Beach Break”, i’m not as familiar as i’d like to be with Merc so I will just trust in Struggles)
Merc grabs a trash can with a board stuck into it and looks to hit John over the head with it… but instead hands him the weapon to grab ANOTHER one of his own, with Merc giving the first shot and JWM attempting to hit back but the trash can spectacularly flies off the fucking stick and possibly either nearly hitting or just straight up hitting Struggles on commentary. Merc just batters Murdoch with the trash can a few more times before producing a chain to try and attack JWM with before Murdoch finally drops him with a brainbuster. As an aside though…. has any indy out there thought of booking Merc vs. Mad Dog Connelly in a Dog Collar match? Just a wild thought. Merc reverses a Destroyer into a pin attempt that only gets a two, then uses the chain to put Murdoch in a crossface but that’s also unsuccessful. The finish of the match is great, with both men managing to set up a wicked contraption of first four chairs with two doors stacked on top of them… then two chairs with a door that has a bundle of carpet strips taped to it. Should I also mention the ladder that’s right in front of the contraption, too? Merc tries to attempt a move with Murdoch off the top of it but Murdoch grabs him and gives a HUUUUUUUGE superplex off of it.
If you’re a big fan of plunder-heavy fights then this is a match for you. It’s nasty, it’s insane, it feels cramped with all the shit in the area and everybody in the TWE Arena just eats it up. So do I. If you’re looking for ICW:NHB matches to get a friend into, this is one I'd recommend in a heartbeat. I’m actually shocked Merc only got two bookings with NHB in general, because he does a fantastic job here.

John Wayne Murdoch vs. Justin Kyle - No Holds Barred: Volume 16 (7/10/2021)
What happens when you put a crazy person in the ring with a total freak of nature… who also happens to be really crazy in his own right? You get John Wayne Murdoch vs. Justin Kyle. Justin is an absolute beast here, to me he’s spiritually what would happen if you threw Bill Goldberg into a deathmatch environment. A big bald motherfucker who can throw guys around rather easily just because he can. Justin immediately starts throwing punches at Murdoch before picking him up with total ease and giving him a huge belly to belly suplex. He gets Murdoch with another suplex (which, might I add JWM’s face of horror before he takes it is beautiful) and TRIES to do a German Suplex but Murdoch smartly grabs some light tubes to huck right in JK’s face. Honestly, the amount of light tubes being used in this match by Murdoch alone is crazy, I dunno what the actual number is but it FELT like it had to be in the twenties or thirties. Murdoch even grabs a fucking saw to start carving up the top of Kyle’s head, the second moment tonight where i’ve actively had my hand over my mouth in shock because of how awesome something was. The visual of JWM using the saw looked insane, I can’t help it.

JWM tries to introduce a glass pane into the fray, but gets picked up rather easily again by Kyle so he can throw him through said glass. Both men spill into ringside with, like I mentioned, a lot of light tubes being used in the process. There is actually a smaller spot where Kyle punches a broken bit of tubes into the arm of Murdoch, which I thought looked cool. Kyle funnily enough at one point even grabs a broom to whack across JWM’s back! He’s so unbelievably busted up by now, just absolutely pouring blood. Murdoch drags Kyle over to the merch table for a moment to somehow magically procure a fucking knife! How did he do that? Even the commentators are confused. Murdoch not only stabs Kyle hard in the back, but in one of the funniest moments he even manages to literally stab Kyle in the asshole. No, I'm not joking. Justin Kyle gets stabbed in the butt. Kyle tries to take back over for a moment after slinging a chair into JWM’s head but gets absolutely demolished by an overkill of light tube shots by Murdoch… he does however manage a HUUUUGE dive onto the outside of the ring AND an equally big Jackhammer onto light tubes that just barely gets a 2.99. His further attempt at a Three Point Stance Spear into a door gets thwarted when Murdoch just barely moves out of the way for Kyle to almost comically run straight into that door. The finish comes with another door being introduced with Kyle looking to set it on fire this time, but Murdoch hits him with some tubes then sets it on fire and gives him a Brainbuster through the flaming door!!! Kyle looked like he landed very weirdly on the door but man it still looked awesome.
This is a fucking beaut. Centered around JWM trying to dismantle the big man as best as he possibly could, Kyle looks like a total freak even in defeat here. I was gonna talk about how he was a guy that weirdly disappeared until I found out he popped up for EMERGE Wrestling in Indiana back in April this year, which might be a match that I have to search for because I fuckin’ love this guy. God bless JWM and god bless ICW: NHB.

Another IWA:MS Match For The Soul

Chris Hero vs. Reed Bentley - IWA:MS (03/09/2014) This was a “Knockout or Tapout Match.”

It’s hard for me to exactly describe it but there’s something so surreal about seeing Reed Bentley, a person whose catalogue i’ve mostly associated deathmatches with due to watching mostly a lot of his ICW:NHB stuff, in a non-deathmatch (or at least non-deathmatch adjacent) environment. It’s not really a “new idea” mind you especially when Reed in specific had been a non-deathmatch guy for a few years to my understanding, nor am I saying this as a knock on him as a worker because I think he’s fantastic but whenever I see a match like this it just interests me heavily.

Reed at this point was a member of the stable White America, a stable that I don’t know much about but it consisted of himself, Tripp Cassidy, Adam Gooch, Trik Davis and Josh Crane. I'm a big fan of the difference in demeanors between both men during their entrances, with Hero clearly determined and focused to beat the shit outta Reed meanwhile is a cocky shitheel who actually comes out to Hero and Claudio Castagnoli’s old Kings of Wrestling entrance music. I’m not even gonna lie, things like that still manage to get an earnest pop outta me. I can’t help it.

Then you get to the match.

The first couple of minutes are spent entirely on the outside. Reed tried to force Hero to chase him on the outside and got met with a big boot, so Hero just fucking dogwalks him with some nasty sounding strikes. Like, seriously, Hero hits a shitload of elbows on this man in such a short period of time and it’s awesome. Every time Reed attempts to mount a comeback it gets thwarted, and he only gets some real respite by countering an Irish Whip attempt and tossing Hero into about four or five rows of chairs. They make their way back to the ring eventually, with Reed attempting to bring a chair he grabbed into the fold until Hero catches him and puts him in a Boston Crab while actually attempting to sit on the chair that Reed brought in, a spot that I immediately recognized from Hero’s 2007 Ted Petty Invitational match with Eddie Kingston.


If you wanted to make a counter on how many elbows both men do following this point, you’d almost assuredly lose count… because it’s a LOT. Reed manages to hold his own throughout the rest of the match, actually managing to take advantage by targeting Hero’s arm and his hand at points but Hero firmly knocks him loopy a few times in the midst of it. The best moment was Reed managing to hit a big combo of a Reed Awakening (*Pop Up Forearm, Thanks to Nick Maniwa for the correction) + Rolling Elbow and thinking he could get the win off of that before Hero pops up just BARELY before the 10 count to attack Reed with a great looking sequence of moves. This was a moment that genuinely had me for a solid minute, seeing the crowd’s reaction to it (which I'll admit, the crowd was pretty lackluster) added to the whole thing. Hero tries locking in a Stretch Plum only for Reed to bite the arm and move his way to the ropes for a break. Reed hits some awesome Saito Suplexes and a submission of his own, but that doesn’t work either. The two then just decide to go completely crazy with the strikes: Elbows, Kicks, Uppercuts… it’s just a total flurry of them man.

Near the end of the match, Reed ends up spitting in Hero’s face after Chris screamed at him to stay down which gives Hero an excuse to hit FOUR ROLLING ELBOWS IN A ROW GOOD GOD. Trik Davis tries throwing in the towel for Reed, but Hero grabs the towel and tosses it in the crowd. When Reed slowly gets up at the count of five, Hero not only hits ANOTHER elbow but stops the count to hit one more elbow AND THEN lock in a second Stretch Plum to make Bentley tap out. Good fucking god.

This match was great, a pure adrenaline rush from start to end. It’s entirely structured around both men earnestly beating the dogshit out of each other until one of them couldn’t stand anymore. Reed plays an excellent heel foil to the mega babyface in Hero, selling the offense particularly well while also managing to hold his own with some moments where I genuinely thought he could’ve had the win. If Redneck’s Kings Road is a term that could conceivably exist, this might be a good example of it although I'm probably being extra. I don’t know if I could definitively call it one of the QUINTESSENTIAL~!! Hero matches of the 2010s purely based on the fact that I have not seen every single Chris Hero match, but it’s definitely one that you should go out of your way to watch on YouTube.

Show Review - ACTION Death Valley Days: Road Report

I’ll fully admit i’m a bit behind on “wrestling in the big ‘26” for the most part (outside of the Retinal Wrestling show I saw live two months ago, shoutouts to them) so I wanted to remedy this by trying to play catch up and watch a lot of the stuff I'm interested in at the moment. I also wanted to try and write about it partially as a means to try and hold myself better accountable, or whatever. Obviously I'm gonna start this by watching the ACTION/Segunda Caida-produced Death Valley Days from back all the way in February. This was definitely one of the indy shows that i’ve anticipated since I saw it was announced and, honestly, if there’s one thing that I can put over in general about it is that this show was a breath of fresh air in terms of match times. There definitely have been times over the past few years where I'll watch an indy show, even from companies that I enjoy, and think that maybe a match or more would’ve been better if 5-10 minutes were shaved off. However, nothing on this card felt like it dragged on longer than it should’ve, and there was a good amount of variety to it. That’s a good deal. I like it.

Darian Bengston vs. Ryan Mooney - ACTION Championship Match
Darian Bengston is naturally great and I hadn’t actually seen much of Ryan Mooney since the late 2019 ROH days (shoutout his team with Eli Isom and Cheeseburger, Shinobi Shadow Squad) so this was a fun re-introduction to him. There’s a real fun clash in styles between Bengston’s grandiose, flashy presentation in his maneuvers versus the more grounded, possibly rabid way Mooney works. Bengston obviously shows off when he can with his holds, attempting the Makabe Lock on more than one occasion for example but Mooney manages to break out of them by literally scratching and biting his way out, something I honestly don’t see too much of. Mooney’s offense is definitely not anything to scoff at though, with good strikes and a very nice looking diving uppercut, he pulls some rather smart stuff too like him countering a Cattle Mutilation into a pin attempt and using a nicely applied Calf Slicer later on. I also liked that the finish was basically a conclusion to the idea of the rules of three, with Bengston trying to apply the Makabe Lock and Mooney trying to bite out of it again until Darian makes him bite his own arm to then lock in another Cattle Mutilation for the win. Really fun match, love Darian as ACTION Champion.

Oldman Youngboy vs. Angus Legstrong
This was a match featuring two wrestlers that I had never heard of until it was announced back in February. Well, okay, technically I had heard of Angus but not as a wrestler, mostly just a funny guy that I followed on Twitter. Hope that still counts, I guess? Anyways, this match completely sold me on both guys, it genuinely might be one of my favorite sub-5 minute bouts second to maybe Marvin vs. KENTA from NOAH. Angus’ and OMYB’s presentation in their entrances are simple yet unique, they don’t really need to do anything flashy do they? It begins out the gate with some awesome looking grappling, both men trying to fight each other for an advantage on holds while on the ground and their feet. Loved the moment during this stretch where Angus gets his legs tied up by OMYB, trying to go under and grab one of Youngboy’s legs which leads to him getting a ropebreak. There’s a test of strength attempt that becomes a great looking takedown into a Single Leg Crab attempt from Youngboy, but Angus grabs the ropes. The paintbrushing from Angus while they’re on the ground looked pretty funny, but god I loved that suplex which rolled into a pinfall attempt by Youngboy. Youngboy later hits a beautiful looking butterfly takedown attempt after getting Irish Whipped into the ropes that only gets a two count of all things! It all comes to an end with an awesome looking gutwrench powerbomb that ends up letting Angus roll over into a successful pin. What a match.

I won’t sit here and pretend that I know everything about pro wrestling, although I've been watching for a while but obviously I'm still learning everyday and whatnot. However, every time I’ve watched this match back (and will continue to do so) I feel myself getting a little bit smarter each time. Like my brain is kinda expanding. If I were a wrestler myself, I'd probably use this for tape study. I know it’s high praise, but you should go out of your way to watch this. Watch it on IWTV, if it goes on YouTube or whatever site you may prefer then go there, but you will NOT be disappointed.

Isaiah Broner vs. “Big” Jake Shepherd
There’s definitely a funny contrast in going from the technical brilliance of the previous match, to something which is 100% the opposite in terms of style but it’s also a positive contrast. To put it simply: Broner and Shepherd are two huge motherfuckers and they hit each other with literally everything they’ve got from beginning to end. Much like the previous match, this was also my first time watching a Big Jake Shepherd match and goddamn he’s fun. Total monster, I love him. Both men hit nasty looking strikes, with Broner getting the upper hand in the moment with a forearm strike that probably could’ve knocked anybody else out. It devolves into a brawl on the outside with Broner trying to get him up for what is speculated as a Death Valley Driver but Big Jake gets out of it for not only a suplex but a GROSS looking splash on the outside. Jake’s jawjacking to the camera is crazy, something that you’d see out of some early 90s WCW era-monster like Vader. Jake controls the match a little, with Broner still trying to get him up in a Fireman’s Carry until he grabs Shepherd from the turnbuckle and delivers a MASSIVE looking F5 for the win. Awesome Super Heavyweight action from both guys, literally just fucking coming at each other like two monsters. Broner is somebody I've thought was awesome for a long while but Big Jake is somebody who I'm gonna have to go out of my way to watch more of.

Kasey Owens vs. Adrian Alanis
Everybody loves when two bad guys fight, right? The main crux of the match is entirely based on the fact that both Alanis and Owens are dirty heels and nobody in the building likes them to begin with. Hell, they don’t even like each other! So, of course, they’re gonna try and use every trick in the book to out-shitheel the other man even before the match begins, with stuff like Kasey forcing the ref to check Alanis for weapons meanwhile hiding a pair of brass knuckles in one of the turnbuckles while they’re not looking. The idea starts subtle enough during the match with a lotta hair and tights grabbing, Kasey threatens to punch Alanis in the face when he’s sent into the corner before being pulled off… They try to work clean (mostly due to the ref yelling at them) and there’s some really fun stuff in this stretch. I was a big fan of Kasey reversing a headlock into a Kimura by simply just wrapping his legs around Alanis and rolling him over. Eventually, it just devolves into both men trying to very openly cheat. Kasey heads to the outside to throw chairs and even a crutch into the ring, which the ref tries to throw out until Alanis throws them back in. Alanis gets caught though, him and the ref are yelling at each other over it. Both men try to hit each other with weapons, but the ref takes them, so they try and both do the Eddie Guerrero fakeout spot and only come back to life when the match is threatened to be thrown out. Loved the fact that the brass knuckles came back into play for the finish after Alanis got thrown headfirst into them. Great heel vs heel match, doesn’t feel like it overstays it’s welcome and both wrestlers looked good.

Slim J vs. Tim Bosby
A really fun one here. Bosby is somebody I've been watching here and there for the last year or two and I've been a big Slim J fan since the first DEAN~!! show so it’s always fun to see him here. J was well over with the Chattanooga crowd and definitely looked great as always but Bosby had a definite size advantage over him. There’s a few times where J gets thrown around by Tim and all those moments look gnarly, especially a great moment when Tim managed to pick Slim J up from an armbar to give a big corner turnbuckle Powerbomb and then a belly-to-belly toss which J sells like death. It should also be stated that Dylan Hales plays a good role in this match too, having a moment early on when he gets into Slim J’s face on the outside allowing Bosby to attack J from behind. He’s a fun heel manager that doesn’t feel like a distraction to what’s going on. J’s selling in general is awesome because he makes Bosby look like a real beast with his offense but he does have a lot of great fiery babyface moments on his own. There’s a stretch near the end of the match where he not only counters a Powerbomb attempt into a Hurricanrana but he also hits a beautiful looking Wheelbarrow Flatliner and a Crossbody that only gets him a two count shockingly enough.The peak of the match was absolutely awesome, with Slim J no-selling a German Suplex and ripping his shirt off to lay in some strikes and an Enzuigiri, punching Hales off the apron and hitting a Dragon Cutter for the win. Definitely the longest match on the card but it doesn’t feel like a drag, everybody plays their roles well. I would love to see these two go at it again someday.

Toby Klein vs. Nathan Mowery - Coven of The Goat Rules Match
In a similar way that Broner vs. Shepherd was a tonal shift from Angus vs. Oldman Youngboy, this match was definitely a tonal shift to everything on this that I watched so far. Once again, in a completely positive way. It starts heavy with Klein interrupting Mowery’s entrance by slinging a VCR directly at his head and doesn’t falter for a second. There’s a lot of brawling at ringside for roughly about the first half with Klein choking Nathan out with the tape from the VCR. Mowery gets thrown into the chairs and stabbed with a fork a lot, but ends up turning it while Klein’s distracted by The Rev and uses some antlers he came out with to stab Toby right in the forehead with them. As they make their way to the ring there’s a lot more stabbing and even biting from both dudes, with Toby setting up a door on top of some chairs for a potential spot. Nathan starts throwing some good looking punches which ends up sending Toby off his feet, long enough for a handsaw to come into the equation which Nathan GLEEFULLY uses to cut Klein’s head open with. Dragging him to both ends of the ring, he actually yells out “WATCH HIM BLEED. WATCH HIM SUFFER” to the audience which was an amazing shot. Nathan tries to bring in a bundle of light tubes wrapped in barbed wire but Klein ducks the shot and kicks the bundle into Nathan’s stomach. While they definitely planned on a big spot with the door, Toby ends up accidentally going through it when he’s laid upon the structure… but Nathan makes good use of the situation by lighting his elbow on fire and hitting an elbow drop with it for the win. That was awesome. Overall awesome match. Nathan is somebody who I plan to familiarize myself with more but he was great, and I've been a big fan of the career revival “Mr. Insanity” has had in recent months.

Jamesen Shook vs. Tank - TWE Championship Match
This is an interesting one. Especially considering the finish. It isn’t a real movez heavy match, but I liked both guys working the other’s arm until Tank got himself to the ropes for a break. They try a Test of Strength until Tank kicks Shook in the balls with subsequent jabs and a wind up eye poke from Tank, which looked particularly hilarious. Tank tries to bite Jamesen in the forehead while on the ropes, but Shook takes over with some nicely executed blows including a ten count segment that gets interrupted before the last punch by Tank grabbing out of it. Shook tries to headbutt Tank but it clearly doesn’t work, leading to Tank headbutting him a few times in return. I was a big fan of Shook’s selling in this, much like Slim J’s, there’s a moment after a headbutt in particular where Shook stands on wobbly legs and moves to the corner that looked awesome. Then came Tank feigning a knee injury, which I'll admit in my initial watchthrough absolutely had me for a moment. Tank does an awesome job in selling it and the moment where he shows it was a ruse by running and hitting Shook with a lariat had me on the edge of my seat. Then Shook rolled up Tank and y’know what? I honestly really liked this. Tank showed that he was willing to try and do anything at all in order to win, but Shook was able to out-maneuver the veteran in order to keep his title. Awesome match, props to both guys.

Karl-Greco Malenko vs. Matt Mako - BattlARTS Rules Match
Holy shit, man. I wanna start this by saying that Karl looks absolutely fucking amazing here for somebody at his age, and while I had only seen a small amount of stuff from him during his BattlARTS days he definitely looked like he had not missed a step here. The match starts with a Muay Thai clinch, both guys trying to knee each other in the chest until Malenko brings it to the ropes and executes a great looking headlock takeover into a full on headlock, which Mako has to use one of his rope breaks for. There’s attempts at strike-and-kick exchanges until Mako tries to grab the waist of Karl from behind but Karl does a good looking inside trip to try and get an armbar. Mako tries to take control of the back of Malenko while on the ground but Malenko rolls over for a second to try and get a Kimura but Mako rolls back over to adjust into a Twister lock, a hold I don’t think I've seen before, which looked absolutely gnarly. They try to work over a leglock on each other with some slaps to the head while on the ground, building to Malenko and Mako incidentally rolling into the ropes. In a humorous turn of events, Malenko is the one to end up on Mako’s back and wraps his legs around it while stretching his arms out until Mako manages to get up and force Karl to go for a kneebar. Matt does manage to turn over and get some shots in, as you do. Mako ends up pulling out a particularly nasty looking hold when he not only gets Malenko into an armbar but actually grabs one of his legs as well to pull it upwards leading to another ropebreak. Mako tried to punch Malenko in the head some more while on the back, but Malenko had an answer for it by turning it around into an extended rear leglock and it actually made Mako tap out! What a match.

I’ll fully admit that this is the first time I've written about shootstyle, it’s one of my weak spots admittedly in terms of my wrestling watching so I hope I did a good job here but this was awesome. Loved the youth vs. veteran story being told, along with the particularly nasty looking holds. God bless BattlARTS Rules.

Mad Dog Connelly vs. SLADE
Connelly and SLADE are two lunatics who can produce great stuff on their own and what they produce here together, especially in such a short amount of time, is nothing short of awesome. It starts off with heavy forearm exchanges before it morphs into a wild brawl on the outside, with Mad Dog grabbing SLADE's eyes and even biting his head which looked nasty. This whole section on the outside is nasty, they’re both good at making it look like not some technically proficient wrestling match but some kind of ugly looking fight. A total car crash that you can’t seem to look away from. ESPECIALLY when they start just demolishing each other with headbutts, there’s a beautiful looking shot of Mad Dog repeatedly bashing his head into SLADE’s under the SPO memorial banner (RIP) and busting open both SLADE and his own forehead. Both guys take each other out with lariats, and slowly get to their feet to stare down before SLADE tries to chokeslam Connelly… which leads to him headbutting out of it to deliver an excellent Gutwrench Suplex that SLADE completely no-sells like a goddamn beast and chokeslams Mad Dog anyways. It wraps back around to the beginning where they start exchanging forearms again until Mad Dog tries to go for a Hangman’s choke that gets stopped by SLADE forcefully biting out of it. He gets pushed off after, and, of course a man as crazy as Mad Dog Connelly has no other choice than to grab the chain he came out with, slug SLADE right in the head with it AND choke him out with it for the win.

What a match. It’s a real adrenaline rush from start to finish, so much violence packed into maybe about five-or-six minutes. Two guys throwing everything they can to kill the other man, to me it’s one of those matches that is a personification of “dudes rock.” Mad Dog and SLADE are two of my favorite guys on the American Indies right now, both men bring an equally unique level of violence and intensity to what they do that isn’t seen by a lot of wrestlers out there. It’s awesome.

Assorted Eddie Kingston Matches, For Your Viewing Pleasure

I think it’s safe to say that Eddie Kingston is one of my favorite wrestlers, probably in my top 20 of all time at the very least. The same could probably be said for a lot of other people too, actually. The man has an undeniably great catalogue of matches with a who’s who of wrestlers, some of which writers greater than me have no doubt talked about. So, in an added attempt to help further my exposure to the wider reaches of professional wrestling, I'd like to introduce everybody to a more… “loosely done” project, compared to the SMW watchproject i’m starting anyways. I say loosely done because I'm not really going in any kind of chronological or “traditionally structured” format, I'm just going to be watching as much Eddie Kingston footage as I possibly can and I'm gonna write about it whenever I feel like. Of course, inevitably, I'm gonna watch through stuff like the Kingston and Hero feud, and I also ABSOLUTELY plan on checking out the recent match he had with Charli Evans recently for St. Louis Anarchy as of the time of writing this but I wanted to show off some real heaters I found through simply just searching around a little bit. These are all matches that are freely available on YouTube currently, and you, the reader SHOULD go watch.

Eddie Kingston vs. JD Drake - AEW (02/17/2021)
Don’t we all miss AEW Dark? I know I do. When I found this match I thought initially that it would be an inconsequential, but fun squash match with not a whole lot of spice to it but this definitely blew my expectation out of the water. A good amount of hard, heavy-hitting offense from both guys in a short period of time. JD looks exceptionally great, seemingly giving Kingston a bit of a run for his money during the latter stretch following Kingston’s attempt at a Diving Shoulder Tackle being stopped by simply getting smacked out of the air. Drake actually hits a BEAUTIFUL looking Vader Bomb that only gets a 2, but definitely shocks Kingston afterwards. Nice little finish of Kingston rolling away from an attempted Moonsault and hitting Drake with the Spinning Backfist for the win. Fun, interesting little gem.

Eddie Kingston vs. Mance Warner - AIW (04/26/2019)
I’ll admit I'm definitely not as familiar as I'd like to be with Absolute Intense Wrestling, especially when I see the level of talent that’s gone through its doors throughout the years, but this match was a fun surprise. Eddie and Mance start off easy with just some hold exchanges, but I particularly liked the instance where, while Kingston had Warner in a hammerlock, Mance tried reaching for the ropes (with his manager The Duke pushing them closer for assistance) and distracted Eddie enough to elbow him in the face. From there, it devolves into a purely nasty scrap and it’s beautiful. Both of them throw everything at each other: slaps, chops, and ESPECIALLY headbutts. Good god, there’s a lot of headbutts. Big fan of the subversion of expectations with Mance running like he’s gonna do a dive to Kingston on the outside but instead just climbs out and eyepokes him. There’s also a particularly NASTY looking point during their brawl to the outside with Eddie getting his head sent directly into the ringpost, which got me to visibly wince while watching it. Eddie’s great at pure verbal reactions, something i’m sure i’ll be getting used to, with how many times he shouts some variation of “fuck you!” at Mance during the match. The finish, while just a simple “manager distracts the ref as a wrestler does their finish, allowing the other to get the win,” was done well enough. The Duke definitely played a decent role throughout the thing, not trying to be a deterrent to any enjoyment. The match was fun as a whole, although i’ll admit a particularly greedy part of me wanted to see a bit more violence due to being more used to Deathmatch Mance Warner, but what we got was absolutely great.

Eddie Kingston vs. Orange Cassidy - St. Louis Anarchy (01/11/2019)
This match was for Orange Cassidy’s IWTV Championship. I’m going to be echoing a sentiment from Joseph Montecillo’s video on Cassidy from 2021 here but for as much as I've come to appreciate Cassidy’s work.. I largely prefer watching him when there’s some kind of serious straight man to balance out the chicanery instead of the other wrestler trying to get down to his level. Cassidy vs. Kingston is, in my opinion, the best example of this. Cassidy already gets under Kingston’s skin from the start by his lack of effort in his chops and kicks, but also avoids Kingston trying to actually harm him. OC tries to take advantage of St. Louis Anarchy not having any kind of countout rule by just plainly avoiding him altogether: when Kingston rolls him into the ring, he rolls all the way to the other side of it. Eddie walks all the way to that side, rolls him back in, and he goes to the other side. Rinse and repeat until Eddie intercepts Cassidy as he’s rolling and attacks him. Eddie pulls out some great suplexes during the match that only manage 2 counts, at one point during his offense actually yelling at OC to “stay down and fight” before another pin attempt. Love the spot where Eddie does a big suicide dive to Cassidy on the outside, drags him back into the ring and Cassidy gets up to do a big dive of his own to Eddie. The latter stretch of the match following this spot is the sweet spot for me, with Cassidy firmly woken up and putting in the work to try and put Eddie away. OC hits both a lovely looking Brainbuster and Michinoku Driver after spitting orange juice in Kingston’s eyes, but neither put the big man away. Cassidy then tries hitting a powerbomb which gets countered into a Sambo Suplex and DDT, before Kingston hits a bomb of his own. The part where Eddie tried going for another lariat but couldn’t due to his shoulder slipping out of his socket was particularly fun, and the finish being Eddie going for a Spinning Backfist before being caught by a Mouse Trap rollup from Orange for the win was awesome. Great match, Kingston does very well as the straight man trying to get some level of effort outta Cassidy and ends up getting more than he bargained for, partly due to his own hubris. Cassidy’s character work is awesome, really this is a match that you should show to somebody trying to understand him.

Eddie Kingston vs. Ian Rotten - IWA:MS (07/08/2005)
This was an I Quit Steel Cage match. Holy fucking shit. Just, holy shit. Maybe one of the most raw and uncomfortable matches I think I’ve ever seen, and in terms of the Eddie Kingston performances i’ve seen the only one I think maybe beats it out has to be against Chris Hero in the Last Man Standing Match from 2 years later but EVEN THEN it’s only by a miniscule amount. Kingston and Rotten basically spend almost 26 minutes literally trying to kill each other while being filmed on some handcam... the match literally STARTS with Kingston attempting to brain Rotten with a chair as he’s entering the ring, before the announcer can even finish introductions. This isn’t a real “movez”-heavy match, in fact it’s entirely all grappling with the added assistance of whatever weapons are available. Mostly chairs and thumbtacks brought in by Chandler McClure, but also the cage walls and door. It should be noted that Ian clearly does not come into the match 100%, having a cast on his wrist and Eddie takes the opportunity to absolutely torture Ian for it by working his hand and attacking it with one of the chairs he brought in on multiple occasions. Ian, in turn, responds by attacking Eddie’s arm with holds or weapons as well, at one point literally BREAKING something in Eddie’s arm following an errant chair shot and very audibly threatening to break both of his arms a little bit after. Speaking of audible, the verbal outbursts from both men really sell it for me. Kingston basically doesn’t shut the fuck up throughout the entire runtime, calling Ian every name under the sun and getting into it with fans when he can, not to mention the near Tom and Jerry level screams of pain that come from both him and Ian. Ian also throws back his own share of insults, too, at one point while in a hold screaming something along the lines of how he’s gonna “kill Kingston, you asshole!” Gotta love the absolutely nasty headbutts that had me genuinely wincing on first watch. I would also be quite remiss if I didn’t mention how much blood Ian was gushing from his head throughout a majority of the match. Don’t get me wrong, Eddie gets busted open quite hard too (and you can see it near the end of the match with his formerly-white gear) but not to the amount that Ian is, because his face is literally entirely coated in red near the end of the match. I could see how some people might lament over the shoddy camera work, with the one guy holding the camera having to run to catch up with what they’re doing or the crowd that isn’t particularly all that great when they’re not uninterested in what’s going on as downsides to the match quality but honestly I think they help add to the real genuine feel of everything going on. This isn’t some overproduced technical masterclass match where both of the wrestlers uphold the Code of Honor™ at the end of it, this is just a fight where they’re both trying to make sure that the other man doesn’t walk out of the cage. Absolutely magnificent.

Eddie Kingston, Robby Mireno (& Ruckus) vs. Zandig (& Joker) - CZW (07/30/2005)
This was a Fans Bring The Weapons Handicap match that was in the first round of CZW’s Tournament of Death 4. Going from the uncomfortably raw nature of Ian vs. Eddie to this match, literally only a few weeks later, was such a hilarious tonal shift but god this match ruled. It’s basically classic 2000s multiman deathmatch shenanigans that goes a million miles an hour with heinous spots. It starts as a 2on1 assault by Kingston and Mireno on Zandig, loved the visual of John’s promo getting interrupted by Eddie blasting him in the back with a bundle of light tubes in particular. Zandig gets busted open quite easily by Robby peppering him with shots from a pair of brass knuckles wrapped in barbed wire, quite literally bleeding like a stuck pig within the first few minutes. Zandig soon tries to get some heat back but that dastardly Ruckus sneaks into the ring to cut it off and essentially insert himself into the match, double stomping him into some more light tubes. Gotta love the decent little pop for JOKER returning from Iraq temporarily to help try and even the odds for da CZW boss, baby! Somehow once Joker’s gotten into the match, the nonsensically awesome shit ramps up x10, but Robby Mireno gets ragdolled like a MOTHERFUCKER by Zandig in particular. Mireno tried to hit Zandig with a crutch on the outside but Zandig grabs the crutch from out of his hand and assaults him with it repeatedly AND ends up powerbombing Ruckus on one of the tables. Joker and Kingston headbutting each other with barbed wire wrapped around their heads was also such a gruesome looking spot that it got the most audible “holy shit” from me. The obvious highlight of the match is Zandig stopping Ruckus from doing his handstand kick purely by lariating him, only to throw Ruckus to another corner and do HIS handstand kick. It may have been the single most “graceful” move I've ever seen John Zandig do that wasn’t his whirlybird lariat. BLKOUT seemingly regains some control, with stuff like Ruckus doing a cool looking backflip onto Joker in the corner with a trash can draped over him and Kingston sending Joker through a pane of glass with an awkward looking kick. However it all goes to shit for them after Kingston is given an overhead belly-to-belly onto a file cabinet. For as much as I love the match though, I gotta admit the finish of Joker giving a Joker Driver to Mireno on some plunder AND getting the pinfall despite not ever officially being in the match (neither was Ruckus, but still) absolutely confused the shit out of me. This is really awesome though, a complete car crash with twenty billion things going on. Watch it if you want a pure adrenaline rush for almost twelve and a half minutes.

Official Introduction

Hi, I'm Emmo.

I like to watch and write about really strange and niche professional wrestling. I had a blog opened a few years ago but I've decided to remake it because I felt like it. I’ll probably archive some of the old stuff I had on the original blog here.

On this blog, I’ll mainly be talking about various parts of this weird, weird industry at various different times. Including, but not limited to the 80s, 90s and 2000s. Alongside with more current day stuff when it’s something I’m actually interested in. There may be non-wrestling stuff featured, but it depends on what I'm feeling at that moment. Basically, if it’s a project that I don’t feel like making for my YouTube, then you’ll see it here.

Hope you have fun. Or don't, I guess.