The Wrestling Bucket

Akira Tozawa vs Dingo, ACW "Guilty By Association"

Kinda borderline-ish, but I liked it enough. Both guys hit all their offence really well and lay in a really stiff beating on each other. Tozawa looked like he was pretty much making full contact with those bicycle kicks to the face. Dingo posts his hand and Tozawa works his arm a bit, including smashing it with chairs. Dingo makes a comeback after cutting off a dive attempt with a sick chairshot to the face, and goes to work on Tozawa. I was a fan of him in IWA:MS, so I am glad he Terry Funk'd his retirement. At one point he started kneeing Tozawa in the temple in an almost Regal-ish manner. Finishing run was good, I really liked Dingo's counter into a choke, and the crowd was pretty much going nuts throughout.

MASADA vs Jimmy Jacobs, ACW "Guilty By Association" (Hardcore)

This was solid, but a little underwhelming and couldn't top the match before it. A few minutes into the match both guys go the floor and fill the ring with chairs. The whole "ring of chairs" deal has created some great matches and moments before, but here I think it kind of restricted them later on. The brawling was all pretty good, and Jacobs spiking MASADA in the head was really horrifying, but without feeling like a gross-out exhibition. Jacobs took a number of wicked bumps, including an electric chair drop across chairs which he sold like it broke his tailbone. Jacobs also did a good job holding together the end run with a couple swank guilletine choke counters. The finish saw MASADA counter the Contra Code into a tombstone. Also as an aside that has no bearing on the match - the ACW commentators are god-awful.

Big Van Walter vs Finlay, wXw "Surprise"

Not an epic, but another good match from the Finlay Indy Run. They played up the big vs small story well, with Finlay having to work to knock Walter off his feet, where Walter just floored him constantly with ease. Both guys hit hard with Walter wailing on Finlay for most of the match. Finlay sells the back work like you would expect Finay to, I especially liked him not being able to hit the Celtic Cross because of it. The finish was not one I was expecting, with both guys brawling on the floor and Walter getting DQ'd for killing Finlay with a chair, but it came off feeling pretty organic and violent. This is just screaming for a re-match.

Jigsaw vs Obariyon, Chikara "Small But Mighty"

Pretty fun opening match. Very compact with a hot crowd, and worked at a good pace with a fair number of cool spots. Obariyon managed to counter a brainbuster into a lungblower and not have it looked totally contrived, and also hit an impressive deadlift slam on Jig (not that Jig is big, but Obariyon is also small-ish). Watching this I got the impression the Obariyon and Kodama may be two of the best scrubs Chikara have brought up in a while. They don't do stupid comedy or lame puro-nerd fanboy spots and actually execute their stuff pretty cripsly as well as having gimmicks that aren't goofy. Hopefully they continue to improve.

Eddie Kingston vs Kobald, Chikara "Small But Mighty"

Short match that was essentially a glorified handicap match with one of the other Batiri dudes helping beat down Kingston 2-on-1 for most of the match. Not particularly gripping, but Kingston can make that atleast half-way entertaining just through his charisma and stiffness when wailing on the masked goons. Both backfists looked nasty, but I hope Kingston starts branching out of Chikara again soon.