Low Ki vs Davey Richards
What are the odds of two good Davey Richards matches in such close proximity? This was all about Ki returning to the indys and reminding everyone who the fuck he is, and showing the current top dog who's boss. As much as he sucks, Davey has never been afraid to work stiff, so the exchanges were as hard-hitting as you'd want them to be, and Ki really beat the shit out of Davey at points. Davey's lengthy control section was pretty dull and chinlock-y, but Ki's sold it well. And the finish looked like it collapsed Davey's ribcage.
Legends Wrestle-Royale
This was mostly just a fun spectacle most of the way, but towards the end became an actively good match. Jimmy Hart was a tonne of fun, and Chavo Guerrero was also awesome. Funk and Douglas had some really fun exchanges that brought back memories, and the final showdown with Piper was epic. Crazy Terry Funk rambling on the mic, bleeding and punching people in the face is about as pro wrestling as it gets.
Chris Hero vs Kevin Steen
Pretty fun stiff brawl. Both guys laid it in with the shots, took some nasty bumps and brawled all over the arena through the crowd. Steen, an overweight fat guy with bad knees, hitting a splash off a lighting rig was totally nuts. The final minutes were admittedly pretty bad and full of bullshit no-selling, but the rest of was good enough to overcome it.
The Young Bucks vs RockNES Monsters vs The Fightin' Taylor Boys vs The Cutlers
This is just the sort of match that suits the Bucks. A big spotfest where everyone comes in, hits some crazy shit, then ducks out. All of the Bucks's fancy highspots worked well here, and they were pretty fun heels and really came off as a pair of douchebags. Plenty of fun stuff through the match. Cage's power spots are great and Goodtime's stuff always looks terrific. Yuma, Ryan Taylor and the Cutlers all kinda suck, so this wasn't as good as the other big matches on the show, but it was still a bunch of fun, and the finish was totally nuts. Also, Steen nearly kills Yuma post-match!
Claudio Castagnoli vs El Generico
This was also really good mostly thanks to the contrast in styles of both guys. Classic flier vs strength kind of match. Claudio's strength spots are all pretty spectacular and Generico bumps bigtime for them. Generico could have probably sold the legwork a bit better, but it paid off nicely with the great finish. Crowd was pretty burned out at this point though, so it didn't feel as epic as it could have been.
Best Of 2011
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