WrestleMania 38 was maybe the most fun I’ll have watching a wrestling event this year. Bianca Belair v. Becky Lynch was my “traditional” match of the weekend and an early contender for match of the year but less than a week removed from that the good old gents across the pond gave us another match to add to the list of contenders. So let’s see what it was!
Honorable Mention: Dave Mastiff. While Mastiff and Starz were working out backstage they drew the ire of Joe Coffey. After exchanging words Mastiff said he and Starz are much tighter than the Coffey brothers right now. Later on Wolfgang asked where Joe and Mark were for his match. Joe said he had other stuff to do but Mark was apologetic and all 3 Gallus boys went in their locker room. For helping drive the wedge further between these hooligans Mastiff gets an honorable mention.
5. Kenny Williams. The Scum of the Earth was great again this week. Early in the show we saw Sam Gradwell interviewed only to put his hand in his bag and reveal very delicious looking rainbow colored maggots. Later on as Williams was leaving the shower he was questioned about the roaches in Gradwell’s bag and Williams said “I think you’ll find they were maggots. But I don’t know anything about that.” Which was great! Then he found a note on his locker that said “Keep guessing cockroach! Watch your back!” and he flipped out. I have no idea who the note leaving culprit is if it isn’t Gradwell but I’m excited to find out.
4. Wild Boar. Boar took the loss to his former partner Primate but increased my interest in him again. Symbiosis entered on chain leashes held by Dennis and those would come into play later on. After Boar was cut off from getting to Dennis T-Bone hopped on the apron to distract the ref which allowed Dennis to punch Boar through the ropes with the chain wrapped fist and let Primate cover him for the win. After the match the trio continued to hammer on Boar with Dennis wrapping the collar around Boar and whipping him with the chain. SubCultre’s Mark Andrews then came down with a chair and we were told he was a former friend of Boar. I’m sure we’ll get Symbiosis v. Boar & Andrews next but I hope this is leading to Dennis v. Boar in a chain match as the big pay off.
3. Charlie Dempsey. He and Dragunov have made me fans of a style of wrestling that never, in my 25+ years as a wrestling fan and 14+ years regularly attending shows appealed to me before. The way this kid bridges, torques and maintains holds while wrestling is art. Tonight he took down the one member of Gallus I don’t hate in Wolfgang and he did it with a bridging double underhook suplex. I know London Bridge is falling down but Dempsey bridges enough to replace it many times over. And his bridges are much more impressive. We’ll just pretend “The Eye” didn’t flash on the screen and Rohan Raja didn’t get up on the apron to distract Wolfgang so Dempsey could hit the afforementioned suplex.
2. Roderick Strong. Ranking above Charlie Dempsey for me on shows he even appears in a segment in is tough. Ranking above him on shows where he has matches is even harder. But to rank above him in a week where he wrestles and wins but you wrestled and lost?! Nearly impossible. Until now. I’ve watched Strong since 2008 and maybe this is prisoner of the moment thinking but I cannot recall a Roderick Strong singles match I’ve enjoyed more than this. So he makes the list despite the loss.
1. Ilja Dragunov. The only bad thing about Dragunov is that he still hasn’t been given replacement music that fits his entrance gestures. I get why they might want to distance themselves from some of his old presentation (Unbesiegbar doesn’t come across the screen anymore despite being a German word and they don’t refer to the Torpedo Moscow by name anymore) and that this was likely edited after the fact but find something that syncs up closer to the old music, please. Whining aside this match was FANTASTIC! I typically adore high spots and death defying matches but these 2 really made me appraciate wrestling psychology and in ring story telling in a way that few have. The story here started when Dragunov went to hit F.K.A. Torpedo Miscow and Roddy avoided it sending him crashing shoulder first into the ring post. Strong then worked over the arm. There’s such small things these 2 did that I loved like Ilja letting just one finger go at a time when Strong was trying to break his clasp for a kimura. Ilja couldn’t break the hold once it was in so he bridged back, circled around and got into a pinning position to force Strong to break. Strong hit a brutal shoulder breaker to his knee and a back breaker catching Ilja flying at him in the corner. Dragunov was then able to chop the leg of Strong running off the ropes and from here the match really picked up. Dragunov hit the former Torpedo Moscow to Strong’s quad and locked in a stretch muffler but with his injured shoulder and arm he couldn’t maintain his grasp. Strong fell over when Ilja flew at him with yet another finishing attempt and rolled to the outside. There he caught Ilja’s arm and dragged him outside to land a backbreaker on the stairs. Back in the ring he covered Ilja for a 2 but when he kicked out Strong hit another one across the top corner. However Roddy’s leg gave out and he had to crawl over to the cover and only managed a 2 count. Ilja was leaning against the bottom rope and Roddy limped around trying to do his running forearm strikes. After the first Ilja staggered out to the middle of the ring and Roddy hit 2 more. Strong tried another backbreaker but his leg gave way so they went back to exchanging strikes. Strong hit a big knee that sent Ilja into the ropes. He tried to rebound but Roddy dodged, Draugnov then bounced off the opposite ropes and hit the final (now unnamed) Torpedo Moscow for 3!
Leave a Reply