Weekly Watchlist 009 - August 11 2024

 Back at it again, wrestling fans!

We're but a week away from the big 1-0 and I've gotta say, I'm really pumped up for what I've got in store for next week. Your gonna want to keep your eyes peeled. This week was a bit lighter as far as wrestling viewing goes, but I think if we are going to compare every week to last week, we're gonna be disappointed more often than not. Ended up getting sick for 2 days so basically had 5 free days to do whatever I wanted, and I spent most of it watching wrestling. 

 

Back to a busy schedule and my watchlist reflects that this week;

 

Reggie Bennett vs. Takako Inoue vs. Toshiyo Yamada - Three Way - AJW Wrestling Queendom 1995 Victory - 03/26/1995

 

This match kinda showed up for me on a whim, it wasn't something I'd already had on my spreadsheet for months but after watching it I've got some digging to do to add more from these ladies. More specifically, and the real focus of this review, Reggie Bennett. 

Bennett is a wrestler I see get mentioned time to time online as someone who people feel should get more recognition and respect from wrestling fans as a whole. For a time in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW), Bennett was the premier gaijin joshi (foreign female wrestler, c'mon guys, keep up with the lingo) during the 80's. She exploded in popularity for her feature in a DaDan Sports Drink commercial and quickly became a huge star in the rings of Japan. Competing against, and beside, the likes of Bull Nakano, Aja Kong and Akira Hokuto, a veritable who's who of top joshi names when they were at their peak. And yet, despite her success, despite being over and winning titles, Bennett has all but faded into the footnotes of history. She was even a part of the very first ECW pay-per-view Barely Legal in April of 1997, interfering in the World Title match between Raven and Terry Funk as a member of Raven's Flock. 

While this post isn't to try and answer why Bennett is remembered by only a few fans (might be the subject of a post somewhere down the line), I will take some time to highlight her today and make a case for why she should be talked about more when the topic of influential womens wrestlers is brought up.

The version of this match I was able to find starts right at ring introductions. Bennett's attire is a full black singlet with purple stripes down the side, Toshiyo Yamada is also dressed in a singlet, coloured blue and white with her name "YAMADA" printed across her torso. Whereas Takako Inoue is dressed in, what I can only poorly describe as, a black dress of some sort. Maybe even a skirt. I only know wrestling guys, cut me some slack. The rules of this match seem to follow a 2 out of 3 falls type format, the lack of any commentary or English explanation leaves a lot to the imagination here but I'm able to put the pieces together just by watching the match. 

The match starts with Yamada and Inoue in the ring, with Bennett at ringside. When the first lady scores a fall, her opponent leaves and Bennet takes her place. Whoever scores that fall stays in the ring while the first lady comes back to try and score a fall. Either that, or they go 2 falls in a row at the start and its all over pretty quick. I won't spoil anything here, but I honestly kinda like this style of match. A shake up of a normal three way or 2 out of 3 falls type match. Need more of this in my wrestling.

Yamada and Inoue waste no time here, taking it to each other with strong suplex's and fast offence. This entire match only lasts about 20 minutes all told and these ladies pack 30 minutes of offence and action in here. Almost every move is some sort of suplex, slam or big impact move. The majority of Bennett's offence comes from a rope rebound and every bump is just disgusting. I can't tell if these ladies are just attacking the canvas because that's their style or if the ring is pure concrete, but I'm gonna go with 70% latter, 30% former on that one. Hell, less than a minute in and they're already grimacing as they set up the next move. Good selling or are they just coming to grips with the fact that "shit, we still have 15 minutes to go," you tell me dear reader. 

Some cursory research tells me neither of these ladies had any experience prior to wrestling injudo or any other martial art, which I'm blown away by watching Yamada suplex Inoue. The snap she gets, the power, this is real graps folks. 

 

Pop the hips drive them into the earth. Textbook. AJW

Yamada is able to hold Inoue with a brutal looking Brock Lock (bending her leg across the back of her neck, that one) and holds it in for a while. She's able to use this to keep the momentum on her side, landing a beautiful german suplex with a bridge and flying off the top rope with a heavy forearm smash to the face.

Inoue is able to get the advantage after blocking another top rope kick from Yamada and turning it into an ankle lock, trying to twist Yamada's foot around backwards. She's able to break it, but Inoue keeps the advantage with a dropkick and suplex of her own. When I tell you this match moves at a mile a minute, I'm not joking. Its move after move after move after move, barely enough time to focus or breathe. A brilliant, blistering pace.

Yamada.misses a kick to the head of Inoue and spins around with the force, nearly falling off balance until Inoue shoves her through the ropes and out to the floor. She does the no-lift version of a chokeslam to Yamada on the floor and she starts selling the neck immediately. She rolls back in under the ropes and Inoue seizes on the weakness. She plants her with a rough looking suplex and starts climbing the top rope as Yamada struggles to her feet. Inoue takes flight, crashing into Yamada's skull with her knee and crumples her. She falls onto a flailing Yamada and covers her for a 3, the first fall going to Inoue.

Knee to face, as its been said. JWA

Theres a brief moment of rest as Yamada is taken away to recover, Inoue's corner people tend to her and offer her a drink, sort of like how its done in boxing, and Bennett climbs in the ring ready to dismantle her opponent. 

Inoue charges at the bell and Bennett stands at the ready, catching her much smaller opponent and picking her up into a torture rack, stretching her and then planting her back down in the ring. The crowd's reaction to Bennett is immediate and noticeable, the show of strength is so impressive to them and they seem genuinely caught off guard at what she can do so quickly and effortlessly.

The bulk of Bennett's offence, like I said before, comes from shooting her opponent off the ropes and catching them with big moves, and she starts that off with an equally smooth, equally brutal firemans carry slam, running the ropes herself with a splash that Inoue is just able to get out of at 2.

Despite Bennett having a pretty big size difference, she still moves with great speed. She takes to the middle rope but Inoue rips her down quickly with a big back suplex. Back to the other corner now, Inoue climbs high but gets caught by Bennett for a brief moment, until she drives her down with a big chokeslam off the top for a close 3 of her own.

Bennett bomb incoming. AJW

Bennett takes off from the middle rope and crushes Inoue with a splash, then sending her off the ropes again and catching her in another torture rack and Inoue submits! The time for the first fall was just over 9 minutes, but Bennett only needed 1 minute, 10 seconds to submit Inoue. An incredible display of power and dominance. 

Yamada enters the ring with purpose, charging at Bennett and firing off kicks at her leg, trying to take the big tree down. Bennett responds with a shot of her own, only needing one right hand to flatten Yamada. Its a hard fought back and fourth, with neither of them really able to get a solid advantage. Bennett shoots Yamada off into the corner and charges, but gets stunned with a kick and stumbles backwards. Yamada takes to the top rope and jumps down, kicking Bennett square in the face with a kick that absolutely sounds like it connected flush. 

Yamada keeps trying to pick Bennett up into a vertibreaker position but simply cant, purely due to the size difference and fatigue from already wrestling a few minutes earlier. Bennett, however, is able to effortless lift Yamada up and drill her with a firemans carry slam.

Bennett can change the momentum of a match in a second. AJW

Bennett sees that the end is near, going for the same splash-torture rack combo that put Inoue away but Yamada twists out of the rack, spinning around with a kick to Bennett but gets caught and chopped down with a heavy left hand.  Bennett again goes for a splash, this time climbing to the very top rope and taking flight, but Yamada is able to literally stop Bennett dead in her tracks by sticking both feet in the air. 

Bennett keeps going for the torture rack but Yamada fights out with elbows to the head each time, until she finally is able to hook the legs of Bennett, pull her down and fold her up for a flash 3 count!

Both Yamada and the crowd are in shock when the bell rings, now each woman is up 1 fall a piece, with Inoue coming back to the ring to square up with Yamada one last time to decide who will be the winner. 

The final stretch is, somehow, just as hot as the rest of the match but cranked up to an even greater intensity now. A german suplex by Yamada, a vertibreaker attempt countered when Inoue sits up on her shoulders and rolls through for a pin but gets only 2.  They brawl into the crowd now with Inoue trying to rip Yamada's foot from her leg, grapevining the ankle lock as she writhes in pain. Yamada stumbles back in the ring but Inoue keeps the pressure on with another ankle lock. 

Inoue tries to shoot Yamada off the ropes but she stops in her tracks, kicking Inoue in the gut and folding her in half. Seizing on the opportunity, Yamada is able to pick her up and around for the vertibreaker except her version isn't done in close to the body like Shane Helms would do, hers is almost a suplex in how far out she lands from Yamada. She bridges into the pin and keeps Inoue down for the 3! A hard fought win.

Verti-suplex-breaker? AJW

I really loved this match. It wasn't always pretty but all three hit like someone owed them money and went all out for the 20 minutes they had. The 3 fall style is something I really liked but can't help but feel like the middle position is kinda the worst spot to be in. Either you get a 2 in a row sweep or you lose your fall and thats it, no chance to try again. Yamada and Inoue got to basically run their "first match" back at the end. Maybe its just that I sought this match out specifically to see a showcase of Bennett and she ended up in a real "loser" position because that aside, the match was really fun. If AJW has hard hitting matches like this all the time, I'll be watch a lot more of their stuff. And you should too! YouTube is free guys!

Alec Price vs. Jackson Drake vs. Jay Malachi - DPW Live 2 - 04/16/2023

 

Nobody is wanting to waste any time in this match. DPW

 In my continued effort to work through the backlog of DPW shows I've created for myself, I find myself watching what is probably one of DPW's best shows to date. I remember a few other events having stellar cards from top to bottom, and while this show didn't have any real stinkers on it (even if I wasn't a very big fan of the main event street fight), the entire event just felt so much bigger and better. 

Last week I praised the camera they started using during entrances and how amazing it looked, especially for a promotion that is meant to be a "minor league." But this weeks show was something else entirely. First off, they proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that DPW has an audience that will come out in full force even if they decide to hold a show outside of the Carolina's. This show was held in New Jersey and these fans were on fucking fire tonight. Chants galore, loud as fuck reactions for everyone, pounding the canvas to celebrate a victory, it must have been an insane atmosphere. If this is a sign of what the future holds for DPW, things could not be brighter. 

Alex Price receives a massive ovation from the crowd, being a Boston native gives him a hometown advantage, of sorts. That's not to say that Drake and Malachi receive a muted response at all, but Price was beloved just because of his billing, but I think the fans were really behind Malachi.

 Big moves and quick flips from all three men at the start, with Malachi getting insane air springboarding off the ropes for a big armdrag and sniper-like dropkick. Some may even say that this boy is "bouncy." He tries for a Mali-cutter early but gets blocked by Drake, who tries to get Malachi up for a move of his own and is finally able to drop Malachi with a gutwrench suplex. 

Malachi going up for the ride. DPW

 Drake springboards in to avoid a charge from Price but his leg gives out on the landing, the knee injury from Adam Priest months ago coming into play. Price zeroes in on the weakness and drills into the back of Drake's leg, focusing the rest of his offence on his left knee. The crowd is completely behind Price here, chanting for him to "fuck him up," and he's happy to oblige. 

He yanks him out of the corner while he's still holding the middle rope and hits a backbreaker knee on Drake's injured knee, a really slick move I don't see all that often. Dragging him across the ring, he threads his leg through the ropes and drops a flying knee across it, sending Drake's leg bouncing away violently.

 Malachi is back in but for only a moment as a back suplex from Price sends him back outside, while a quick dragon suplex keeps Drake down for a very close 2 count. With the pair alone but for only so long, Price ties Drake's legs up and puts the pressure on huge, trying to force Drake to submit. Drake seems close to giving in to the pain, but Malachi flies in from the top and crashes on Price to break the hold.

Jay Malachi jumpscare. DPW

With time to recover, Malachi is back on top and taking it to Price, both physically and verbally. "You dumb as hell" is followed by a european uppercut out the corner. "Fuck you" comes after a series of Dusty-esque jabs, and a massive springboard lariat is enough to send Price rolling to the apron. 

 Drake is back on his feet but not for very long, as both he and Malachi are dazed in opposite corners as Price delivers big high knees to the jaws of the pair, setting up for his big corner move. He takes off towards Malachi who moves out of the way, catching himself on the middle rope for a dive onto Malachi but Drake is in the way and gets caught with a huge leg lariat. Price is able to get Malachi now, picking him up into a torture rack. With Drake back to his feet, Price dumps Malachi onto the shoulders of Price and he rolls through with a big DDT.

With Drake outside, Price takes a dive and crushes him. Both the crowd and Malachi have the same thought at the same time, as the Young OG's face contorts into a sick smile. He hits the ropes for a dive but gets dragged outside and thrown up the elevated entrance ramp they have for this show. Price and Drake brawl by themselves as Malachi recovers and takes to the sky! Leaping off the stage and through Price and Drake. 

An actual stage dive! DPW

With Price back in the ring and laid out near the corner, Malachi springs to the top rope but gets stopped by Drake, who is able to sunset flip from outside in and powerbomb Malachi into a moonsault that lands on Price! A huge double underhook facebuster drives Malachi into the mat, but its barely a 2!

With Malachi upside down in the corner and Drake prone from a surprise superkick, Price charges from one corner to the next and jumps to the top rope, dropping down with a huge stomp through the chest of Malachi and onto the body of Drake. A disgusting impact.

Malachi soars from outside in with a Mali-cutter on Drake, who stumbles to his knees as Price charges past Malachi and hits the stunned Drake with a sunset flip piledriver! Rolling over and back to his feet, Price eyes up Malachi who is already on the second rope and climbing to the third, as he fucking flies backwards and kills Price with a massive Mali-cutter, pinning him for a decisive 3. 

Insane height an precision on this cutter. DPW

This match was so, so fun. The beginning wasn't all to quick or exciting but when all 3 men were in there at the same time, the entire building was on their feet. Insane stuff. Drake didn't get much of a spotlight here unfortunately, as his position was really just to be there to take whatever the local star Price dished out to him so Malachi could stay fresh and get the big, crazy moves in. As for Malachi himself, he continues to look like a million bucks every time he wrestles. He's a bona-fide home grown star for DPW and has a limitless future ahead of him as NXT's Je'Von Evans.

There we have it folks, another week of wrestling down! A lighter week again but not lacking in quality by any means! Next week is gonna be a real mixed bag but I'm super excited for whats in store. It's gonna be worth the wait!

As always, drop me a line at cliffmorganwstl@gmail.com, that is a real email and I really do check it, so don't be shy!

Anyways, until next time.

Cliff Morgan