This was for John Boy’s DGUSA Open the Freedom Gate Title.
Somehow, this works.
I mean like really works.
It’s big and stupid and a classical indie or DG style bombfest, but it just WORKS. It’s not pristine exactly, Johnny Gargano never quite turns into a guy with a great working elbow despite always being a guy who loves to throw an elbow, and you could definitely stand to cut a FEW minutes near the end before they get to the point, but enough goes right that it doesn’t matter all that much.
Heartbreakingly, it’s not all Shingo.
Johnny Gargano is genuinely really good here. It’s a less emotive performance than I expected, and that’s great for John Boy. In a rarity in his career, he’s able to communicate a simple story and a transformation without it ever feeling like he or the company is shouting at you to look at the story. Lenny Leonard deserves so much praise for the way he handles this too, never once drawing attention to the small little things Gargano does until he goes all the way with it at the end. You’re not an idiot, you can pay attention. Johnny’s thrown off by the crowd not loving him in comparison to the ultra cool and commanding Shingo Takagi, and thrown off even more by how nothing really seems to work. Shingo’s tougher and stronger then him, but still quick enough for Johnny’s athleticism not to have the effect it has against other guys like Takagi in the past. Johnny slowly gets more and more desperate, before the big turn happens. The way that’s handled is also terrific, with one accidental ref bump giving Gargano just enough time to survive the Last Falconry, so he then purposely sets up a second one to give him the opening to kick Our Hero in the tube and choke him out with tape, hidden in the Gargano Escape for the win.
Mechanically, Johnny’s also better than ever. He spent 2012 kind of slowly moving towards no longer being bad, but this is the first time he’s ever looked like a great wrestler. The weaknesses are almost entirely gone in a match like this, and he has a snap and smoothness to the majority of the things he tries that makes it all work better than any other match he’s had up to this point and most of the matches he’ll have after this point.
Shingo Takagi is totally in his element in a match like this though, and it shows. For all Gargano does right in a match that’s about him, it’s still very much a Shingo Takagi match. It’s the sort of constant action escalating pace kind of a match he’s had with a bunch of other people with similar skillsets to Gargano before and after. Gargano’s maybe mechanically better than BxB Hulk in the 2010 de apuestas match, even if he lacks the same spirit. Gargano’s maybe mechanically worse than Will Ospreay in the 2019 BOSJ finals, but relative to that, he displays a stunning control over his worse habits and puts forth a much more believable and tangible sort of performance. But Shingo is one of the best ever at matches like these, and it’s among his best. He has the energy, all his stuff looks and sounds perfect, but he’s also so smart at pacing these matches. No point in this ever feels wasted, it never feels early on like they’re just filling space, and up until a briefly repetitive final few moments, there’s always another thing coming. Takagi and Gargano build things up and pay them off later on and the most important thing they slowly reveal over the course of the match is that for once, Gargano has absolutely no path to defeat this guy who might actually be the best in the world.
Up against that wall, the coward within comes to the forefront. It’s the entire point of the match and it comes off perfectly. It’s a testament to how far John Boy’s come that it works as well as it does. It’s a testament to Shingo Takagi that even having said that, I’m convinced this is a real eye roller if they try to do it with Gargano against anybody else.
If it doesn’t go down as the best singles match of Johnny Gargano’s career, and there’s a few matches over the next five years or so that make that a strong “maybe”, I cannot imagine it falling out of the top five.
HANDWERK 