Forever Forward Fridays

Riho VS Jamie Hayter - AEW 12/8/2021

CJD: I know my JJZ, and I know there's one thing he loves here at PIF above all else. When two matches we share show very different sides of a pro wrestler! And while Hayter's big personality shines through no matter if she's working under or in top, the nuts and bolts of how she works this match are very different than our last match VS Ayesha. With an opponent like Riho that's no surprise, but I was still super impressed with how well Hayter did in very different settings. There's also one big slice of pizza in this match that Jamie scoops right off the ground, dusts off, and says "5 second rule!!" I thought with the story it told they needed to deliver one hell of a finish if I was going to play this one forward. The match kind of hinged on it. Well I'm playing it forward, so you know how I feel about that. And it's nice getting a non-pandemic AEW match up in here, at least for as long as TK allows this upload to exist.

JJZ: So CJD, I actually watched this one live! Side note my wife walks in during the match and says "oh shit Chun-Li!" I did not pick up on the cosplay. This is a fantastic TV match man. Playing up on the size difference is basic math. Baker's antics on the outside were great but not over the top to take away from the work going on in the ring. I didn't think the pizza was that bad. Loved the finish. That bump was nasty. I remember not expecting much from this one at the time and liking it. Very nice pick

Rock Star, Flip Into The Crowd Like TAKA Michinoku

TAKA Michinoku VS Papi Chulo - ECW 4/3/1999

JJZ: Redo! So with this match I just wanted some late night junk food  goodness. We got all the hits in this one. The best thing about this match that was they hit everything on point. You know with ECW that matches like these, it can go off the rails sometimes. Now I know we both have seen this before but I'm 100 percent positive that we've never reviewed it before. Love me some ECW and their ability to let wrestlers be themselves. It made a lot of wrestler's careers. Watching ECW is like putting on an old pair of shoes. It just feels good man.

CJD: I'll be honest, I remember a few matches from this show, but absolutely nothing about this match. Not even that TAKA came back to ECW at all. So this was a pleasant surprise! The execution was good in this one indeed. It was a little your turn, my turn, but looking at where it was in the card and the time they had that kinda makes sense. The crowd was totally along for the ride. In some ways it was just fascinating to see what a match like this looked like in ECW in 1999. One guy on his way up to WWF. One guy on his way out. International talent colliding which ECW loved. And the two standouts from our last MDTSOCWWKD match going one on one! This was meant to be JJZ.

Forever Forward Fridays

Ayesha Raymond (c) VS Jamie Hayter - GWF Women's Championship 11/3/2018

JJZ: Baby cakes. How you doing! I'm doing great I'm on vacation, drinking a cold one and watching this plucky underdog baby face in Jamie Hayter vs the monster Ayesha Raymond. This match was all about working from under for Hayter and trying to take advantage of Raymond's mistakes. Really good little indy match here. Love the build and psychology. Super impressed with the smoothness of the match. These women showed they were above their pay grade in this one.

CJD: If I wrote you a recap of the last 3 weeks of my life this would be the longest review in the history of PIF. I'm sitting in a camping chair in the only bedroom clean enough in a slumlord apartment that I'm paying an arm and a leg for, one beer in the holster, pizza in my lap, laptop on my fold out twin mattress that I'm about to get a terrible night's sleep on. I'm in a new state starting a new job, trying to move my family up, to give my daughter a home that she will hopefully really thrive in for years and years to come. And I say all of this because if there's one thing I love about pro wrestling above all else, it's that it's the constant that I can always rely on in times when I can't even imagine what to do next. This match was so fundamentally sound, the atmosphere was so electric, and I don't think it could have found me on a better night than tonight. Both of these ladies crushed it. The shifts in momentum and cut offs were perfect. The hesitation and execution of the finish was even better yet. And this promotion and venue were so so on brand for FFFridays. This match was the sip of cool water I needed in the middle of the oasis that is my life right now JJZ. Well played.

Astral Projector, Super Astros Projector

TAKA Michinoku/Sho Funaki/Tiger Mask IV VS Papi Chulo/Super Loco/Apolo Dantes- WWF Super Astros 5/30/1999

CJD: I didn't know which way I was going this week. And maybe the weird stuff is just catching my eye right now, but after watching a few okay matches this one stood out because it was just so damn unique. If we watched this in 1999 our minds would have been blown. If you cut out the intros and the Owen Hart memorial stuff this match might not even be 5 minutes. But for what it is, on a WWF show at the time, and with the guys involved... this is fucking bonkers. Pro wrestling is so weird. It's hard to really critique something like this but I will say TAKA and Papi Chulo both came off like stars which was clearly the intent. And our boy TMIV held his own in the process! We've had plenty of weird detours over the years here at PIF and this is one of the weirder ones. Enjoy my friend.

JJZ: So much flavor in this banger baby. I think everyone really shined in this match. It started at a 10 and never stopped honestly. I'm always super impressed with matches like this when the energy is so high and every crazy spot is hit perfect. The chance for shit to go off the rails is very high but all six wrestlers kept it on track. That T Mask backflip kick thingy might've popped me the most because it was hit right on target and that could of easily fanned. Nice pick baybay!