The Wrestling Bucket

Roderick Strong vs Willie Mack, PWG "Card Subject To Change III"

This was Willie Mack's coming out party, and I am officially on the bandwagon. The guy not only dishes it out with strikes and has a fun personality, but does some shockingly athletic flying too. He absolutely launched Roddy with some HUGE suplexes, and his kip-up to standing moonsault was nuts. I wasn't so hot on the match overall, because it went on way too long, and Roderick is still Roderick, a total black hole, but fat guys flying round is one of the coolest things in pro wrestling, and Willie Mack looks like one to watch.

Low Ki vs Akira Tozawa, PWG "Card Subject To Change III"

This was not a great match, maybe even a little dissapointing, but thats more to do with expecations, as it was still very good. The early parts were pretty weak, too much "we are equal" cliches and a couple mistimed spots, and Ki getting on the mic to diss WWE was kind of lame, but once they started slugging it out it became the match we want it to be. Chops, kicks, stomps, all were stiff as fuck, and the selling was top notch. Quality slugfest.

Johnny Goodtime vs Ryan Taylor, PWG "Card Subject To Change III"

Bad. I like Goodtime but it's obvious he's much better at tags than singles, and Taylor sucks. Goodtime's huge dive at the start was cool, as was his pancake bump on the apron and Taylor's standing Stretch Muffler but ultimately this felt like two guys throwing shit at the wall and seeing what stuck, and it flopped.

Claudio Castagnoli vs Joey Ryan, PWG "Card Subject To Change III"

Again this was good, but far from great. Ryan throws nice punches but otherwise is pretty useless and even with all the armwork and effort into getting his finisher over his submissions felt like restholds and the crowd was totally flat for them. Claudio sold the armwork quite well, especially for a dude who's main offensive moves are uppercuts and lariats, and the superplex out of Ryan's finisher was nuts. The finish was great and paid off the legwork, and the openeing minutes were also really fun.

El Generico/Ricochet vs The Young Bucks, PWG "Card Subject To Change III"

Boring. I thought this could have atleast been a fun spotfest, but instead the Bucks tried to work a normal tag and they just aren't good at it. Couple cool spots from Ricochet, otherwise this sucked.

Chris Hero vs Zack Sabre Jr., wXw "Kreuzzug ZXI: Union City"

I was actually kind of shocked at how good this was. As a fellow Brit, I feel like I should like Sabre Jr, but he strikes me as English Kyle O'Reily, but here he proved he can atleast be lead to something good. All of the openining matwork and grappling was really fun stuff. Felt like a mix of faux-shoot style and faux Euro style, but it clicked and both men had some cool counters. Once Hero cracked his arm on the ring post, this reached another level. Great selling from Hero, switching to using kicks more to compensate, and Zabre Jr went after the arm effectively for some big nearfalls. They built to the finish really well, and Zabre Jr came out looking strong in defeat. Good shit.

Best Of 2011