CJD: Before Brody King was the yang to Tyler Bateman's yin it was B-Boy of all people. I've learned a lot about Bateman the past few weeks, the Oklahoma native who relocated to Southern California and after two decades in wrestling finally got some breaks and eventually a ROH contract. Even going back to his earlier stuff he was never bad in anything I watched, but he definitely took a long while to put together the complete package he is now. And as someone who's in his late 30s and still growing professionally, who has also moved around for his career, I think that makes perfect sense and I respect him for continuing that grind and steady growth for so many years. Even here in 2015 you can see he's already got a firm grasp on his British influence, on his character work, on little touches that would become big on the indies that he's clearly been incorporating for a while. And this is an indie match through and through, these Santino Bros matches would fit in great on our Fridays. It's also been fun learning more about this school/promotion that I was totally ignorant of a few weeks ago.
So as for the match! B-Boy is a surprisingly great fit as a bitter rival to Bateman. I've always had a soft spot for B-Boy, he's very much a product of his times for better or worse, but you know you'll always get a great effort and at least something worth watching. Watching a few matches from these two I definitely got the sense they learned a lot from each other, although with what opposites they seem to be on paper I wonder if that chemistry was instant or if the respect had to be earned over time? Either way I really liked the energy these two brought against each other and can see why they had such a long running rivalry.
JJZ: In the 2000s the West coast was the redheaded stepchild for independent wrestling imo but B-Boy was someone that would always grab my attention. Bateman's pirate tights made me chuckle for some reason. So this match was 180 degrees from what I thought it would be. And it's really good. Very tight, stiff, smart limb work. If you didn't let me know they had a long history I still would've thought it with the story they told in the ring. I really enjoyed the spots they built to. The seated elbows followed by both wrestlers walking back into the ring was great. The strength of the match is that it was such a 50/50 bout so I couldn't figure out the finish. Which made me really love how they wrapped it up. Great find man.
CJD: Yeah, that finish sealed it with a kiss for me. What a beaut. If you told me 3 years ago "we need to start a blog so that one day you're forced to watch a Tyler Bateman VS B-Boy match in an armory in front of 50 friends and family" I'd have thought this project went off the rails. I'm not writing this to add to the post or anything, I just think it's funny. But yeah I really really dug this. Glad you did too.
JJZ: Lol. You should add it. Because it's so fucking true.
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