Chris Hero/James Mason vs. Johnny Kidd/Doug Williams, IPW UK 200 (6/5/2016)

This was a Best Two of Three Falls match.

It’s another Johnny Kidd retirement tour match here, but in this case, the stipulation is actually correct. This will be Johnny Kidd’s last ever match in IPW UK. Now, that’s not because he stays retired so much, but truth in advertising in professional wrestling is the rarest of gift horses, and so we do not need to look inside of its mouth.

That’s sort of how I feel about the match.

It’s a lovely little gift.

There’s a real joy in seeing Kidd do his thing against James Mason for a while in this. While we don’t get nearly enough of Hero vs. Kidd here, it is delightful. Doug Williams isn’t as great and/or as fascinating to watch as the other three, but throws a hellacious little uppercut still, and contributes where he can. It’s so cool to see Hero do something different at this point, and as someone who misses a more grappling centric Chris Hero sometimes (we’re talking like mid to late 2000s here, not so much 2003 just bought real gear for the first time IWA-MS “every match has to be half an hour” Hero), it was a lot of fun to see that return, even if he feels like he’s in this far less frequently than the others, an outsider mostly observing.

You won’t find a whole lot of ambition here. It’s not like the Kidd/Quackenbush matches, either in terms of the story or the level of mastery on display. It’s not like the Kidd/Sabre Jr. match either, there’s no real hostility that begins to unfurl itself as the match goes on. That’s fine. Good wrestlers come together and create a charming little piece of old wrestling. It’s a showcase of a bunch of neat tricks and clever ideas, where Kidd gets to win one last time on his way out the door, no matter if he comes back in or not. Good and simple fun.

Everyone who watches this will have a wonderful time, and that’s a perfectly admirable thing for a match to aim for.

***

Mike Quackenbush vs. Johnny Kidd, CHIKARA Aniversario: Chamber of Secrets (5/28/2016)

This was a World of Sport Rules match.

(It is also announced as Kidd’s final match by the ring announcer, but as anyone who can look at Cagematch can tell you, that is patently untrue. There was a retirement tour of sorts in 2016, but he would be back within eighteen months. Pro wrestling, baby.)

A match this is sort of self-selecting in terms of viewership in a way that I really respect.

For the most part, nobody is going to watch this match who won’t like it.

You know ahead of time, in most cases, if this is going to be for you. If you are some sort of boring water-brained weirdo who doesn’t like this sort of wrestling for any number of shit headed reasons, this is not for you (and that includes this site too, probably). If you are going to disqualify a match because Quack is a big ol’ geek or because he’s a shithead in real life, or because CHIKARA hosts some real eye-rolling stuff at this point at other points on a show, you know, you were probably never going to watch this to begin with.

I love that.

I love that for you, but way more importantly, I love that for me.

What we have as a result is a match for the true maniacs.

Twenty four minutes of the god damned sweet science. Sick reversals, cool holds, fun little bits that let in some entertainment but without it ever overpowering the contest. A slow and steady escalation of pace and intensity, furthered in tiny little ways, but all ones that matter. Little bits of storytelling like Kidd knowing more, but Quack being a little younger and a lot quicker. Nothing that shouts that at you, but again, there’s a kind of self-selection at play I think, where anyone who really needed that to be done likely wouldn’t have loved this match anyways. What matters is that the little things telling these small stories all matter, each finish in the match is about these ideas. Kidd’s first fall comes from him getting a little meaner to open Quack up for a pin, and Quack’s comes from shrugging off the respect and picking up the pace, outmaneuvering the old man before going into his own. It’s wonderful. It’s easy and cool and fun as hell.

In the end, time runs out, and the clock stays unbeaten.

For Kidd, the time runs out in his attempt to beat Quack for the “last” time. Too long is spent warming Quack up so he can bring up the intensity in the back half, unable to get him hot and bothered like he did to Zack Sabre Jr. in a similar match the year before. For Quack, time runs out in his attempt to beat Kidd after failing to in a similar match seven years prior in Germany. He’s a little less starstruck and a little more ready, looking more and more like he’s going to win as the match unfurls itself, but without enough time to effectively close in on a third fall that seems like a guarantee to fall in his direction.

There isn’t enough time to do everything that they ever wanted to do, but thankfully more than enough to do everything everyone else needed them to do.

One of the best matches of the year, provided you’re right for it.

***1/2

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Johnny Kidd, IPW-UK Christmas Cracker 2015 (12/20/2015)

The winner of this match becomes the 2015 Christmas Cracker, fought under rounds rules.

As expected with all of these sorts of Johnny Kidd matches against children, it’s a lot of fun. An overwhelmingly good time in the expected way, and with the expected story. A middle aged man teaches some punk a thing or two, gets taken to task, before he’s able to pull it out at the end. Kidd’s craftiness and heart makes up for no longer having the speed or advanced technique that Sabre Jr. has going for him. Everyone goes home happy, it’s a real reaffirming sort of thing, unless you’re some sort of Zack Sabre Jr. superfan who needs him to win all the time, and if that’s the case, I’d like to ask you where his cell phone is.

Matches like these fall short if they don’t get every single part right. with each man playing it off with smiles and handshakes and all of that, and they do a sensational job of that. Zack can never really feel like an actual good guy to me, but because of him being who he is, it plays just as well as a smirking little display of condescension towards the veteran. Aggression eventually comes in after Kidd takes the first fall on a simple cradle cutback, and is played two different ways by the two wrestlers. You know what Zack’s looks like by now. Petty uppercuts, getting meaner with his holds, and pouting his way around the ring. Kidd plays it differently than that, throwing in little comments here and there about how to do this one right or asking if they taught Zack this one in Japan before he uses some old tricky little thing.

Zack uses the folded arm European Clutch to take the second fall, and gets unbelievably cocky about it. Having seemingly proven something, he abandons it entirely and starts trying to win. He throws more uppercuts than ever at the old man in a row, but it allows Kidd to grab him in a plain and simple inside cradle for the win.

While Sabre Jr. isn’t quite the best loser of a generation, or even as great of a loser as a sex creep who he’ll have many of his best matches with over the next few years, he does have a similar gift for it. He’s a great loser, but it also feels incredibly incredibly good to see him lose. While he’s lost better matches than this, it has rarely felt quite as gratifying or as funny as it did here to see him get totally schooled by an old man.

Like most of these Johnny Kidd rounds matches that pop up with your indie stars, it’s sort of a self affirming thing. If you think you’re going to like this, you almost definitely will, and ought to just watch it already.

An absolute blast.

***1/4

Fit Finlay vs. Johnny Kidd, WXW 16 Carat Gold Night Three (3/4/2012)

This was a European Rounds match.

Very similar to his other recent European Rounds match against Mal Sanders. Finlay is the one working from a rougher position now, as the match directly compares Kidd’s science to Finlay’s harder nosed approach. It’s less satisfying than the novelty of Finlay working as an underneath technical babyface in that match, but he’s just as good here. It all escalates pretty perfectly, tons of fun holds, etc., and each of the three falls plays into the central theme behind everything they do. Kidd’s pure science wins him the initial fall, before Finlay turns it up and wins the second and third fall with more impactful stuff, winning the third and decisive fall with the Tombstone Piledriver. Inadvertently an attempt at owning European wrestling traditionally, before the sorts of things Finlay learned in America got him the win in the end. A fitting thing for WXW to put out there.

Nothing that’s going to turn heads or change many minds, but if the idea of this excites or interests you, you’re not going to leave disappointed.

***

Johnny Saint vs. Johnny Kidd, CHIKARA Chikarasaurus Rex: King of Sequel N1 (7/30/2011)

This was contested under World of Sport Rules.

One of the better exhibitions of the style you’ll ever see on a U.S. indie show. There’s not a lot more to it than an old master trying to hold off a slightly younger guy trying to knock him off in front of a more casual audience to make his name, but that’s all they need. Just about everything that happens in this match works to that idea, before they take it in a different direction than one might expect for a special attraction like this.

In the first few rounds, Kidd repeatedly tries to putt Saint in positions where he’ll show his age and Kidd will look smarter, only for it to totally backfire. Saint embarrasses Kidd not through any real trickery on his own part, but simply by avoiding Kidd’s own attempts and leaving him holding the bag before patting him on the back as if to say that he tried his best and it’s alright.

As the match goes on, Kidd does pull ahead, because he’s younger and more importantly, Saint is an old man and once this pushes past fifteen and closer to twenty, that becomes pretty apparent in the story and also on a purely mechanical level. And that’s fine. It’s better than pretending that isn’t the case, and given how the first two-thirds played themselves out, it’s a more interesting way to go about it. Saint got caught up in playing around and showing Kidd up, but wound up getting boxed into something Kidd was better suited for. It catches up with him eventually when Kidd sits down on an attempted ankle pick and reaches back for the legs to get a three count. There’s not much of a struggle from Saint after that, being truly defeated and not simply trapped.

The sort of thing that isn’t going to change anybody’s mind one way or the other, but if this sounds like it’s for you, it absolutely is.

***