Shayna Baszler vs. Candice LeRae, WWE NXT (8/1/2018)

Another hit, from this year’s Oney Lorcan.

Shayna and Candice have seven or eight minutes together in a clear showcase match for heel champion Baszler going into another Takeover special later in the month. It is not the sort of thing you expect a lot from, and that in the hands of lesser wrestlers, could have easily topped out at simply being very good.

Thankfully, these are not lesser wrestlers.

Candice is perhaps not in her element here, nor would she ever again truly be in her element under a corporate wrestling environment, given that her element is bleeding a ton and fighting men in front of the hottest crowd in all of pro wrestling in hyperemotional independent wrestling stunt brawls, but she does a really good job. Above all, even without the smoke and mirrors, what always worked for Candice is that she was naturally likeable and sympathetic, and it‘s largely through that that she succeeds here. The other part is down to skill and talent and effort too, to be fair, as when Candice’s arm is attacked, she does a very good job with it for the rest of the match. She never forgets, always keeps it present in an astute viewer’s mind, and makes the work feel like it matters, all while also making a series of terrific underdog babyface comebacks.

Shayna Baszler is why this match is great though.

Her attacks on the arm, and in general, are unreal, and unlike anyone else‘s attacks in professional wrestling. It is not only mechanically beautiful, but performed with such aggression and hostility behind every movement. Everything that Shayna does to the arm is not only the meanest and grossest shit that I’ve ever seen, but it is also either brand new or so rarely put to use that it may as well be. It is a perfect antagonistic attack, capable of eliciting both shock and awe in equal measure. 

The match also packs a great little narrative punch too.

Baszler originally catches Candice in the way she did nearly a full year prior in the Mae Young Classic, countering Mr. Toad‘s Wild Ride (the less commonly used name, but the one we will all be more comfortable using) into her rear naked choke, only for LeRae to make it to the ropes this time. Classic pro wrestling booking to show improvement, which also makes every nearfall and big piece of offense after that from Our Hero feel like a major accomplishment and step forward. A cradle almost does it, and a Tornado DDT off the top gets even closer, but with the hurt arm, Candice goes for more, and it’s that classic mistake, the Disease of More, that results in her undoing. 

Candice misses a Lionsault, and after a real nasty punt up into the face, Shayna goes immediately into the rear naked choke to win.

Going into a major title match on a Takeover, it is the exact perfect match to have and with the exact perfect message behind it. Not only is Shayna meaner and more technically skilled than anyone in the division, but she also has an unmatched killer instinct at this point, finally pairing her aggression with the experience to make the most of it. More than any other match in her NXT tenure to date, Shayna Baszler leaves looking like a wrestler who cannot be beaten.

It is not quite her best work in this field in 2018, but no other wrestler on Earth in 2018 was better at these squashes/showcase matches than Shayna Baszler, and this is one more wonderful bit of proof.

three girl

Kairi Sane vs. Nikki Cross vs. Candice LeRae, WWE NXT (7/18/2018)

 This was a #1 Contender’s Match. 

Nobody is reinventing the wheel here or redefining how a triple threat match can work, certainly not in 2018 NXT. It is what it is. You might not be able to call every single move or the exact order of things, but it is more or less the three way match you know, with all of the bits and/or tropes you would expect.

I don’t especially care all that much.

The thing is that it is still good as hell.

Candice, Kairi, and Nikki have enough cool moves and various differences and idiosyncrasies to keep the match interesting for the ten or fifteen minutes it lasts. They have a lovely little fireworks show, laid out (and probably edited) perfectly so as to always stay interesting and be filled with cool things happening, and without any of the many stupid things this company could foist upon them showing up to ruin what gets built largely on the back of pure talent and skill. Not exactly the greatest example of what the machine itself can do, but a great example of the sort of thing it ought to be doing constantly with a roster this great, simply giving them time and getting the hell out of the way.

Kairi succeeds with the In-Sane Elbow (god, I know), breaking up Candice’s pin on Cross, and covering LeRae for the win.

A pleasant little chunk of good ass wrestling TV.

***

Mount Rushmore 2.0 (Roderick Strong/Adam Cole/The Young Bucks) vs. Chris Hero/Mike Bailey/Candice LeRae, PWG All Star Weekend 11 Night Two (12/12/2015)

(an explanation for newer readers who didn’t see the way I approached this in 2013 and 2014 – no, it was not a handicap match. Candice had the dead weight she’s already spent a year too long dragging around on the team with them, but given that he contributes basically nothing to the match on top of being an alleged serial rapist, I think you all are gonna me do this.)

(this is also a big one for fans of the “here’s everything wrong with the match, ***” genre.)

This was a GUERRILLA WARFARE match.

It’s supposed to be the big blowoff, and got a lot of praise at the time. I was mystified when I saw the match, especially given the lack of praise to the more recent version of this with Super Dragon in it, and that feeling hasn’t gone away.

Mount Rushmore 2.0 gets what’s coming to them, all the bells and whistles of a big PWG blowoff match. Adam Cole is back. Kyle O’Reilly returns midway through the match to replace the (alleged) rapist. Multiple referee spots, Excalibur gets involved, Rick Knox does a move. Some cool prop work. In the end, the good guys win. Nothing you haven’t seen before, but it retains a certain charm no matter what, especially carried off by many of the best wrestlers alive.

Unfortunately, the way this plays out makes it clear that the magic is gone. That’s not to say they lost it, in some ambiguous and nebulous sort of a way. PWG isn’t what it was, but there are still moments and matches to come over the next year and seven months that are among the best stuff to ever come out of the company.

It is to say that, seemingly, they have forgotten it.

The key in the past to this match working was that feeling of violence permeating everything. A chaotic energy that sweeps up everyone involved in the match. The Young Bucks vs. Appetite For Destruction match four years earlier is one of my favorite matches of all time and perfectly embodies this idea, as well as being the high bar for a match like this. That’s not to say cool shit can’t happen, but there needs to be more to it than that. It’s also not just that Super Dragon and/or Kevin Steen aren’t in this match, because this sort of a match has been great without them in the past too, most notable in recent memory with Candice’s handicap Guerrilla Warfare match against the Young Bucks in 2014 that was also among the best matches of the decade, and the recent match on the second night of the 2015 BOLA. The formula is just kind of forgotten about now, and replaced with something more like a stunt show than the wild and frenzied brawls of the past. If not literally bloodless, certainly more spiritually bloodless than matches like this had been in the past.

Immediately, the differences are clear. The heels never eat that same level of shit early on, their work in control is more cool than it is despicable, and they go through everything a lot too fast to get as much out of it as possible. That even goes for use of the weapons, like things are brought in and used once or twice, and never seen again. While not a match without cool and nasty offense, it seems at some points as if that is the point, rather than using those things to enhance what already existed.

While the match doesn’t have nearly enough in common with the match three months earlier, the one thing it does have in common is that the focus seems in the wrong place. It doesn’t seem quite fair to say Hero, Seedball, and Candice got entirely eaten up, but it felt at all times like the true focus of the match was either on having a Great Match or on letting you know how good and cool the bad guys were. Beyond that, when you combine Kyle’s return being as an active participant, the sex creep also returning, and multiple interference spots, the heels wind up ganged up on for much of the back segment of the match. It’s a fair point to argue this as them getting all that they deserve from all those they’ve wronged, but it’s also only really been a few shows of them wreaking havoc so they’re not at THAT point just yet, I don’t think. Mainly, it removes a sense of catharsis here, because while hard fought, it’s not entirely even or fair.

There’s a thrill in brutal things happening to bad people, but like so much of this match, it never quite feels as earned or as impactful as it should. Or, specifically, as it has in the past.

Excalibur hits a Jackson with the Tiger Driver ’98. The sex pest spears another off the apron, and Roderick and Kyle O’Reilly spill off the apron through a table outside (this part is fine as they have their own issues — also never really settled after this for some reason?). Kikutaro comes to give Hero a thumbtack elbow pad after being attacked earlier, and he hits a thumbtack Rolling Elbow for the win. Largely left out of this run are Candice LeRae and Mike Bailey, the two best babyfaces in the match and in the company. It’s sort of a perfect metaphor for what this and what PWG often feels like it’s becoming at this point. At least they get to contribute to the match though, unlike poor Trevor Lee who’s been shunted down the card and forced into being a heel after his string of losses all year to these guys, without even the payoff of being on the winning team. Hero winning and getting the glory is hardly the end of the world, but this has always been a struggle that felt like it belonged to the younger wrestlers and the underdogs, and robbing them of that moment doesn’t feel right.

The glory goes to one of the more established guys in the company, an announcer, and a sex pest. Like so much of this match, it just feels incorrect.

I’m not going to say this isn’t a great match though. It is. The stunts are wild, the action is cool, and if scatterbrained, it is at least a match that doesn’t waste my time like these matches sometimes can (and will in the future). There’s nothing I hate about it and a lot to like. While I can’t help but look at the match and see what it used to be and what this version specifically is not, for what it is, it’s pretty great. It’s just that what it is, this time, isn’t my favorite thing in the world and what it used to be just may be.

An end of an era for PWG, but given how this match went, it’s clear that that era has been over for some time already.

***

Nicole Matthews vs. Candice LeRae, SHIMMER Volume 76 (10/10/2015)

This was for Matthews’ SHIMMER Title, following LeRae winning a battle royal earlier in the show.

While far from mechanically perfect, it’s yet another match from the Matthews reign that gets every other bit completely correct. A natural easy match up between SHIMMER’s best and most unscrupulous villain and one of the most natural and sympathetic babyfaces of the decade. A lot of taunting, a little bullshit, and it’s no surprise that it works out in the end when paired with great action down the stretch. As always, there’s a great sense of how to use the nonsense to fake people out, given that they expect it will always happen.

Following a phantom submission for the Gargano Escape by Candice with the referee down, a title belt across the head fails to steal Matthews the win, bringing the people out of their chairs. It’s an impressive thing for such a gimme win (as Matthews/Eagles IV is booked for the taping after this), and then doubly so when they’re able to break everyone’s hearts just a moment later. LeRae gets the hold on a second time, only now for Matthews to roll her way into a pin with a foot on the ropes to steal it in a way that’s both more impressive in its resourcefulness and also all the more crushing given the swiftness by which it comes.

If not all it can be, a perfect reminder going into Matthews/Eagles IV of why you should want to see Nicole Matthews finally get what’s coming to her.

 

Candice LeRae vs. Nicole Savoy, SHIMMER Volume 71 (3/28/2015)

This was part of the CHICKFIGHT tournament.

Not a great match exactly, but a ton of fun.

Savoy is still pretty new and isn’t as great as she’ll get around 2017 or so, but there’s undeniably a lot of potential. Her movement is already great, her offense is smooth, but she’s just young still. Some awkward attempts at filling space in control, but then also this is only seven minutes as part of a one night tournament and it’s all a little rushed as a result. Candice is similarly great here. No longer the best babyface in the world (as Bayley has hit her stride and Mike Bailey as well), Candice is still on a short list and a match like this shows why. Her offense is all cool, relatively crisp, and it’s this super likeable performance putting over the local newcomer. Nothing complex or all that enticing, but a steady and consistent performance, which is always real impressive.

Savoy hits a really good looking Tiger Suplex on Candice for the moderate upset.

This match has happened a few more times, most notable as a six minute Mae Young Classic match in 2017. Unfortunately, it’s never quite been the match that it feels like it should have been. Savoy is still pretty inexperienced here, they didn’t get the time right later on, whatever else. One hopes the window isn’t entirely closed, because it really seemed like there was something here.

The Young Bucks vs. Candice LeRae, PWG ELEVEN (7/26/2014)

This was a Guerrilla Warfare match for the PWG Tag Team Titles.

It’s an incredible match and among the best of the year.

I wouldn’t be writing a word about it if it wasn’t.

For any newer readers, my policy on these sorts of Speaking Out cases is simple. If I can avoid it, I don’t really even want to engage. Putting someone on a list if I can’t help it, covering a match if it’s genuinely one of the best in the year and also somewhat important. Like, there’s a big WALTER series that I’m not going to be able to avoid writing about. And obviously there is a degree of bad. Quackenbush being an abusive shithead or enabling behavior from a ZSJ or Ospreay is disgusting, but not the sort of thing where I feel like I don’t ever want to draw new eyes to anyone’s work if I can help it. I don’t think I even have that kind of a power, but you never know, right? So it’s not worth it.

This is undeniable though.

Super fortunately and much like prior meetings, the alleged serial rapist has virtually nothing to do with this being so great.

From the start, this story has been about Candice LeRae. It was one of the best matches of 2013 when the feud began and she refused to back down from Mount Rushmore. She came close in a tag, won in a six man, and got robbed against Adam Cole for the PWG Title. The other part of her tag team is a hanger on. Not simply in this feud, but in general. His career was dead before he was able to leech off of Candice, which is what still makes this feel just a lot gross even if he’s barely in this in any meaningful way and could be replaced by almost anyone else.

All the same, there’s not a part of this that doesn’t whip ass.

It’s the best Young Bucks match in two and a half years, since the Appetite for Destruction classic, and it works for many of the same reasons. That sense of chaos, their incredible minds for laying out matches like this, and the thrill of seeing these boys finally eat shit again. Super thankfully, most of that comes at the hands of Candice. They also handle the divide perfectly, as Candice is always faster and sometimes smarter, but it takes way more for her to get going and far less for her to be shut down.

She’s also shut down in some horrific ways, leading to one of the best and most memorable blade jobs in independent wrestling history, and of the entire decade. To echo the match that started the feud, Candice shoves [a ghost?] out of the way when Nick Jackson puts on a Jordan with thumbtacks glued to the sole. Candice once again opts to be the hero and take it on herself instead of turning back, leading to the god damned GUSHER.

Muta who?

The match is also, yet again, far less grandiose and overblown than you’d think given that it’s a Young Bucks match. I don’t think it’s over twenty minutes. It’s very simple. They’re mean and then they pay for it and the cycle goes on. It’s far from some Southern tag, but it also never even begins to stretch into a territory of a match that needs to end sometime soon. It reaches the apex and then that’s it. The match ends at its peak, and that’s probably not something that should be praised because it’s how this is supposed to work, but so often these sorts of matches just don’t. I can’t honestly call it a morality tale because of the other half of the winning team, but it does feel incredibly good when the Bucks finally gets what’s coming to them and when Candice finally gets the prize she’s deserved for so long.

In the end, Candice rises up after the all-time level gusher, and fights back. A thumbtack assisted Ballplex finally finishes one of these little perverts off and Candice is somehow able to win both tag titles entirely by herself.

It’s a weird match to watch, it’s something I would never ever RECOMMEND in a million years because of all the baggage, but it holds it up. It holds up if you can handle it. The involvement of a fourth party is incredibly minimal, it’s all about Candice’s revenge and Candice’s shining moment.

It’s why it worked so well then, it’s why it still works so well now, in spite of everything working against it.

***3/4

Kevin Steen/The Young Bucks vs. Drake Younger/World’s Cutest Tag Team, PWG All Star Weekend X Night Two (12/21/2013)

An incredibly canceled match.

For whatever reason, I find it much easier to draw the line with a guy like Younger who sucks as a human being still, but never crossed quite THAT line, so all praise of his professional work still feels acceptable to me. With the other guy on this team though, yeah, no, it’s incredibly distasteful. Spreading Q-Anon and similarly minded conspiracy theories and being a MAGA dipshit is bad. It’s real bad, full stop, but I’m of the opinion that bad thoughts are worse than bad actions and the third member of the team is much more in the camp of the latter, so to continue a similar trend, we’re just not going to bring him up.

Or, I was going to do that. This is a little harder now, because he’s a much bigger part of this than he was of the October tag title match, getting isolated for the match’s big face-in-peril run for some reason, and getting an equal share of big offense. If I wrote this in March 2020 and not March 2021, I likely would have talked for more than a sentence (this one) about how it’s one of his best performances ever and how he held up his end until the two better wrestlers could get in. Fuck doing more than that.

For whatever reason, this one really really bothered me.

It might be that he had a bigger part and that the match asked way more of him and that the relative success in that role makes me feel incredibly gross in the moments watching this when I’m like, “oh wow, that was good!” It might be the combination of said alleged rapist and also Drake Younger’s issues in the same match, even when I’m usually much more able to separate Drake from those things, because again I find words different than deeds. If I had to really try and nail it down, I would say that the reason the Tag Title match in October didn’t make me feel so weird for praising it is because it’s all Candice in that match. It’s about further legitimizing her whereas this is about the entire act. A more equal focus hammers home how gross it all is. I think I’m This serial rapist using an all-time great female wrestler in the history of independent wrestling to get himself back over again while carrying on the way he has, and using this act to really re-launch his career after he failed on his own merits before the few months preceding this. It’s one of the grossest things in the last decade. It always made me feel weird at the time because it was so obviously this sub-mediocre talent taking advantage of a potential superstar, and it’s a thousand times grosser in retrospect.

The major failing of this match on rewatch isn’t just not being as airtight as other Mt. Rushmore six man tags before it, but it’s also that it relies more heavily on emotional connection, which has been destroyed forever for two-thirds of the people in this match. The reason the BOLA six man stood out so much to me is the same reason that this one falls short, that I simply don’t want to see two-thirds of the people on the winning side of this succeed, and the match devotes itself to that goal.

That all being said, there’s still SO MUCH to love here. The Mount Rushmore side of this is flawless. Kevin Steen is a force of nature. The Young Bucks are psychotic and are a perfect match up for Candice and a great one for Drake. The babyface side is pretty good too, especially mechanically. Beyond that, Drake is a lunatic in the best ways and Candice continues to be the third or fourth best babyface throughout all of professional wrestling at this point. There’s a big dramatic finishing run that’s laid out perfectly given that the two most beloved figures in the company are in this match trying to combat Mount Rushmore. We get pitifully little of Kevin Steen vs. Candice LeRae, but it’s probably a smart political maneuver by Steen there. In the end, after Candice takes the Bucks out, and Steen runs through the other two, Drake is able to roll up Steen for his biggest victory in PWG yet.

I could never tell anyone to watch this, and for a match that I was head over heels for once upon a time, it’s a significant drop off. But I still can’t tell you that this isn’t a really great match.

At a certain point though, fuck that. The next one of these that I put time and energy into writing about is the famous blood one.

***1/4

 

 

The Young Bucks vs. Candice LeRae, PWG Matt Rushmore (10/19/2013)

This was for the Bucks’ PWG World Tag Team Titles.

I think this is a way around this that both amuses me personally and which also represents the reality of the team, save for maybe three pieces of offense in this match delivered by a shapeless void. I don’t intend on covering this team much, I originally only intended on covering the big famous 2014 Guerrilla Warfare match, but when I watched this back just for myself to see if it was as great as I had it down as on paper, holy shit, it was. Absolutely incredible match and performance by the three human beings involved in this match. The Bucks against Candice is as great of a pairing as the Bucks vs. Steen was, for both the same reasons (allows the Bucks to be as despicable as possible, provides a great contrast) and for wholly different ones (the Bucks now as bullies instead of cheap shotting preening little fucks).

Candice is a wrecking ball, a pure ball of energy unlike all but a very select few in PWG history. A maniac bumper, but also so fluid and smooth on her big high flying spots. One of the most sympathetic figures in US indie wrestling history, and it’s only like 50% because of the gender difference. It’s sympathetic selling, deranged bumping, and this sort of unteachable natural underdog fire. Candice only does a few things offensively, but they’re all just absolutely wild, and brings the best out of guys as deranged as the Bucks. Let different types of unhinged wrestlers loose on each other with an obvious story and in front of the hottest regular crowd in the country and, yep, you guessed it, it’s that Reseda Magic.

In the end, Candice’s wonderful manic performance lacks the help it needs to accomplish anything. She is an absolute lunatic, but so are the Bucks. She’s always working basically by herself, and the Bucks have never ever been by themselves before. Math is easy. Candice comes so close to doing it all on her own, only for the exact right amount of bullshit to happen. Once again, the balance struck is perfect. Candice is robbed of the win herself, but in the end, the Bucks manage to get the win entirely fairly following that. You feel robbed, but not in the most obvious sort of way, it’s all about what could have been. The worst sort of anger. A top rope Poison Rana gets caught by the other Jackson underneath, and she’s easy bait for the Cutler Driver and then More Bang For Your Buck for the win.

For obvious reasons, I cannot ever ask anyone to watch this match.

But provided your brain is like mine and you’re able to still watch matches back given certain events (this may become harder later in the decade, it’s relatively easy here because the source of those feelings is essentially a piece of furniture for all he adds to this match), this one is absolutely stellar.

***1/2

Adam Cole/The Young Bucks vs. Rich Swann/AR Fox/Candice LeRae, PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2013 Night Two (8/31/2013)

Mount Rushmore is here, and gives PWG another necessary shot in the arm.

This is a blast, one of the most fun and manic Bucks matches of the year. It’s also a nice treat, as it’s one of the only Candice matches of the era that I can review without having to also promote the work of a serial rapist, which has been something of a detriment. There’s a certain tag in 2014 that I don’t feel I can credibly just ignore, but otherwise, that’s sort of the policy. So it’s a delight when Candice gets to have partners who aren’t so much that or gets to be on her own.

There’s no real reason this one works out quite as well as it does.

With these six at this point in time, it was almost always going to be a great match, but this is one of those times when everything goes right for them that can possibly go right. All the stars align, some light shines upon them from above, and they are pushed forward by some great wind. Four absolute maniacs go wild, buoyed by the most detestable heel on the US indies and one of the most likeable and talented underdog babyfaces to add some emotional lifeforce to the proceedings too.

In so much as any theme exists, the big deal here is that Adam Cole and The Young Bucks fit together like a glove, with virtually no effort. Same attitude, same outlook, a similar combination of a total lack of scruples and willingness to do pretty much anything. A perfect dipshit trio, up there with Bucks/Steen and Bucks/Styles as the best Bucks trios by miles and miles. They manage to trade out three different control segments, but the pace moves along so briskly that nothing ever lingers past its expiration date. One of our heroes is always a move or two away from blowing the lid off of this thing, and the villains are trying to plug a leak in a canoe trying to slow this down in any way, which is how this should be done. The sort of match that people should be looking at, in terms of how to do a match like this in the best possible way, and that also includes the people in it who have maybe forgotten about how efficient and short and intense these sorts of matches are at their best.

The fireworks show, when it happens, is one of the best of the year.

Again, the Bucks and Cole make a better team and it matters. Specifically the Young Bucks specifically as a unit are better than any two person pairing on the other side. They always cut them off in some way or do a thing, but the other person will have some ultra-explosive moment out of absolutely nowhere that puts them back to square one. Cole can do the same thing one on one, the World Champion rightfully being presented as individually better than each opponent when all things are fair.

The highlight of this comes when Adam Cole does his whole schtick to Candice, only for her to fight back and shout at him to suck her dick, and Reseda EXPLODES. Candice is suddenly the #1 hero in the company and the match seems to suddenly adjust to this new fact of life. Candice is the one making the big save at the end, and has her big moment when she dodges a double basement superkick as she’s holding Cole, resulting in Cole getting the double superkick into his shitty little hog, opening the Bucks up for the first? ever Double Ballplex. Magical stuff that’s also extremely silly and goofy. It’s fucking pro wrestling. Everyone has their own line, it’s hard to ever know where it is, but this is just on the right side for me that it works perfectly. She later pulls off one of the best hot tags in PWG history by someone not named El Generico. Flawless stuff, maybe the career Candice performance that doesn’t involve the crimson mask.

In the end, the tide shifts when Adam Cole can finally work in perfect synchronicity with the Bucks. Two people working in unison always leaves an opening for the third in a match like this. Three people in perfect harmony is a real stern thing to go up against, it should be nearly impossible to do, and they nail it here. Fox is taken out first when Cole catches the Lo Mein Pain from behind into his grossest German Suplex ever. Swann gets taken out with a three on one after that. Candice is the only one left, and gets this wonderful heroic final stand, crawling back into the ring to face it all by herself, but not backing down an inch. The difference between a good hero and a great hero usually has to do with the odds they’re up against and how possible the challenge seems. Standing up for a fight you absolutely won’t win, and going for it anyways, because someone has to is the all-time babyface hero sweet spot, and for this year or so when PWG actually gave Candice real opportunities like this, there were few better babyfaces in the world.

A triple superkick leads into a double superkick/Florida Key combination move, and the team of champions finally closes it out.

Later in the night, Kevin Steen will turn heel to join them, creating PWG’s greatest stable, Mount Rushmore. The tragedy is that they had less than a year together, and that later Cole/Bucks team ups under another banner never had quite the same sort of magic as they tapped into here.

One of the best PWG matches of the year, one of those examples of Reseda Magic you always hear about.

***3/4

Chris Hero/Necro Butcher/Candice LeRae vs. Human Tornado/Necro Butcher/Claudio Castagnoli, PWG All Star Weekend 6 Night One (1/5/2008)

This is in the middle of one of the great feuds in independent wrestling history, as Human Tornado turned into an EVIL PIMP and Chris Hero finally became a hero and saved Candice LeRae from his ire. In the process, Tornado turned Castagnoli against a now distracted partner and brought in Hero’s top nemesis as well. Hero doesn’t often get to actually play the hero, especially at the time here when he’s left CHIKARA, is sparser and sparser in IWA Mid South, and is horrifically underutilized in ROH. I can’t credit the feud with PWG’s ascent or anything, that’s a result of ROH’s drop off post-Gabe as much as anything else, but as a fan in 2008, I was incredibly willing to give my money to the only company to correctly utilize one of the best wrestlers in the world, and I know I wasn’t alone in that. The feud as a whole is among the best things Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has ever done, and this is one of my favorite matches

It’s not some spectacle of violence, but it’s quite the enthralling little fight in its own right.

Of course, you have three of the best brawlers in the history of independent wrestling, even if Hero is a small level below Kingston and the all time-king Necro, but the others hold their own. Human Tornado could be viewed as dragging it down with his more textbook independent junior heavyweight offense, but when he’s portrayed as the cowardly top heel using Claudio and Kingston as protection, that’s a lot more okay! Claudio is also out of his element, but this match belongs much more to the other two members of his team and Castagnoli commits no harm and thus no foul.

At a point, this memorably goes out of the building and into the rain. They fight for several minutes outside.

The god damned Necro Butcher begins picking up small rocks off the ground and starts throwing them at his opponents. As much as digging a CVS bag out of his pocket, this is the Necro Butcher in one spot. It’s fucking wild, it’s brutal in its own way, but there’s such a charm to it at the same time. I’ve been thinking about it with some regularity since I first saw this show in 2008.

If there is such a thing as a perfect spot, this is it.

Claudio Castagnoli adds something to it when he eats shit on the wet pavement and has rain water poured out of a recycling can onto him, but this is the Necro Butcher’s moment.

The match becomes something more normal back inside the building, but never loses this sort of fury. Candice LeRae is here trying her best, because there’s nobody else for Chris Hero and Necro Butcher, and because she deserves to get her own revenge. There’s a fine line here, before intergender wrestling was all that common (this is her first try at it in PWG, actually), and she walks the tightrope perfectly. She’s good enough to catch people off balance and pissed off and gutsy enough to keep going for her revenge, but eventually gets rocked yet again by Tornado. Hero is a tremendous face in peril. Chris Hero was )is) so great at everything that he often found himself working as a bad guy to help out people without his natural aptitude, but he’s as good as face as you could ask for in this. Beyond just hitting really hard and doing cool stuff, he’s got that fire in his belly in the first third of the match, but then adheres perfectly to the Steamboat Principle when he’s getting beaten down.

All hell breaks loose again, and it’s terrific. This match is mean as hell and consistently out of control, but they also keep up such a frantic pace to it. This is a match with a segment involving a man throwing rocks at three other men, but it is still a PWG match, and I say that in a nice way for once. It can hold both things at once, without losing the entire value of each thing. It’s a brawl with the pacing and layout of a 1996 Michinoku Pro match, even hitting a dive train of sorts near the end. The finish is perfect too. Candice shows the heart to fight her way back into it, and almost gets on a roll against Eddie Kingston, except that she stops being on a roll. Chris Hero intercepts the Backfist to the Future to protect her and Hero’s nemesis defeats him again with the Backdrop Driver. This is a vicious match with an incredibly mean spirit to it, but that’s an ending with real heart to it. Our heroes fought the good fight and had it won, but Hero chose the immediate moral good over a professional victory. f it was the end of this all, it would be incredibly bleak and nihilistic. It isn’t though. It’s something to avenge, a tremendous character beat in the middle of PWG’s greatest storyline.

The strength of this match is how much it manages to be at once. It’s a brawl, it’s a spotfest in its own way, it’s some classic pro wrestling. It’s everything. This is not a bloodletting or a match with the intensity of one of the bigger Necro singles matches of a Hero/Kingston encounter of the year past, but it’s just so much god damned fun. It’s violent, mean, part of maybe PWG’s all time great feud, but at the end of the day, I keep coming back to this because it’s such a blast. I can’t imagine watching this and not having the time of your life.

An ageless pick-me-up. Give it a whirl.

***1/2