Bandido vs. Flamita, FCP Project Mayhem VII Night One (9/28/2018)

(photo credit to Oli Sandler)

A significantly better match than their 2018 Battle of Los Angeles tournament match.

How much had to do with the unbelievably good and charming (a rare quality for a crowd in this country) chant for Bandido to the tune of “Maneater” by Hall & Oates, “WHOA OH HERE HE COMES, HE‘S A BANDIDO!” and then also the same for Flamita, because that rhymes too?

Listen, I am never going to lie to you.

That is part of it.

I am going to respect a good bit when it is put in front of me.

More than that though, I think there‘s just an energy to this match that was missing there. Chalk it up to a hot crowd moreso than just the chant, or chalk it up to Bandido and Flamita simply having two better nights here than they did then, or many other times when they face each other. You could also, and this is probably a not so insignificant part of it too, chalk it up to them not doing any song and dance era PWG bullshit at the start and instead getting right to it, so that by the time they got to the really really cool stuff, my patience had not been exhausted and I could enjoy it so much more. 

Whatever it is, it works here more than it usually does.

Removed from all of the reasons these two sometimes have struggled in singles matches in their indie runs, what we have here is a pure and unabashed fireworks display. It is not the most airtight or perfectly executed one, of course. I will always prefer them as a tag team to them ever wrestling each other. However, this is the one of the bunch that leaves me very little to complain about and that is able to access the rarer part of my brain that is entirely fine with a million spots in a row and zero thought beyond that.

The trick is to cut out everything but the coolest shit possible, and finally, these two got that right.

Of all of them, the one to watch.

***

Kota Ibushi/The Young Bucks vs. Rey Mysterio/Rey Fenix/Bandido, ALL IN (9/1/2018)

ALL IN, famous landmark theoretically self funded wrestling show that eventually led to AEW, was a real big deal as everybody knows at this point, but the secret behind every “spirit of ALL IN” post is that, as a wrestling show, ALL IN kind of sucked. Constructed more around Youtube vlog bits, highlighting at least two sexual predators in big spots, and generally, just not creating a show with a lot of good wrestling matches on it. It valued moments over everything else, with little behind them in terms of the actual wrestling meat and potatoes part of the equation, which is maybe a point about that fanbase best expanded on at another time. The end result is a show that I (a) missed at the time, and after having now finally watched the big stuff on it (NWA Title, Hanger/Janela with the dick spot rapist resurrection angle with cock druids, Kenny/Penta, and even Okada against the bird pervert), (b) I am not exactly sad that I waited this long to see.

This is the exception, because this fucking rocked.

I know what you’re thinking, and as always, I also imagine what you have to say to me.

“Wait, isn’t this the match that got cut down to like twelve minutes because the match before it needlessly went twenty-six minutes/because they were clearly laying out a show for the first time?”

YOU’RE GOD DAMNED RIGHT.

This is not a great match that unfortunately got cut down to twelve minutes, forcing them to only hit the biggest and wildest spots that they had planned and cutting out much of the material in between those high points.

It is a great match because it got cut down to twelve minutes, and they were forced to cut so much out of it.

Now, it’s not to say a fifteen or even twenty minute version of this is not also great. It probably is. Maybe the connective tissue here that got shredded to pieces would have been really really good. The thing is though, this is not a match with a ton of narrative weight to it, and it is not a match where I am positive what we lost was anything with preserving. What we lose is, seemingly, the least essential stuff, leaving us with a pure highlight reel from six of the best highlight reel wrestlers in the world. The only real problem with what happened is (a) someone being caught saying to go home and then the pace rapidly increasing & (b) some clear communication at points, clearly about what gets cut out. Otherwise, it’s a ton of unbelievably spectacular things in a row, and because of their need to fit this into a rapidly closing window, the match accidentally has a real sense of urgency to it at a few moments near the end.

Everything about ALL IN, to me, exists in the greatness of this match. An incredibly cool line up that found itself in the most slam dunk can’t miss format possible because of the rank amateurism on display in virtually every other spot on the card.

The happiest accident possible, cutting down a main event epic that could have been either just barely great or not great at all, and turning it into a Nitro or 1997 WCW PPV opener style display of only the wildest stuff they had to offer, with no room for anything else.

***

Flamita/Bandido vs. The Rascalz, DG Open the New Years Gate 2018 Day Three (1/16/2018)

This rocked.

I am not the biggest fan in the world of any of these four wrestlers (one in particular…), but this is some great bullshit. Peak era WCW Monday Nitro level cruiserweight bullshit, simply giving some talented guys like ten minutes, and getting entirely out of the way. That doesn’t make it perfect, not by any means. There are a few bits where someone gets caught waiting for a thing or where something isn’t timed or executed to absolute perfection.

Would I have liked this a whole lot less on an average U.S. indie?

Almost definitely!

There are so many things that could have impeded this. Bad commentary, more than one camera shot to really rub it in if things didn’t go exactly one hundred percent perfectly, more annoying fans doing more than simply cheering and going nuts, and probably other issues with American fans that I haven’t even thought of. It could have been so much worse than it was, in almost any other setting.

Did I like it in the format in which it was presented, a single camera shot of a Korakuen Hall crowd losing its shit for a bunch of incredibly cool stuff in quick succession?

Yes.

Absolutely, I did. It fucking rocked, watching a delightful little chunk of bullshit, executed and presented as well as possible.

That’s what matters the most, more than anything else. Wrestling is wild. I can one hundred percent see myself hating another version of this, but here and now, I loved this one. As it was, it totally and completely worked, even if it won’t always.

A truly stellar fireworks display.

***1/7