Showing posts with label Head Droppies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Head Droppies. Show all posts

Sunday, April 11, 2021

The Third Annual Head Droppies



The last year was a wild one to say the least. Amidst the chaos we launched a new feature on Fridays and after damn near walking away from PIF for a bit we decided instead to produce more content than ever before! We're creeping up to 200 matches shared and that means the competition for our highly coveted Head Droppies is even more fierce yet. So let's see who walked away with an imaginary trophy this time around??

...the Punk Monkey Award (Favorite Match Played Forward To You)
Going with the obvious choice here with the 5 star match. But what can I say, maybe Dave Meltzer knows a thing or two about pro wrestling? Or at least John Zornek does finally getting me to sit down and watch this modern classic.

Love these two in the ring together. I was like a kid in the candy store watching this. I've watched it twice outside of the original viewing because I enjoyed it so much.

-Honorable Mentions:

...the Intergender Lightweight-Who's-A-Heavyweight DeathMatch Award (Most Hidden Gem Played Forward)
JJZ: El Hijo del Santo VS Rey Misterio Jr - Promo Azteca (Tijuana) 2/21/1997
Rey was so hot when this match happened I was literally shocked I've never seen this or heard about it before. I don't recall even seeing it on Best of Rey comps.

I don't think we've ever shared a match that got such a genuinely surprised reaction from our readers. Maybe the footage from this one only became available recently, or maybe John is just an excellent pro wrestling researcher. Either way this one really turned some heads.

-Honorable Mentions:

...the Eerie Dragon Award (Most Difficult Quest Playing A Match Forward)
CJD: Arik Cannon (Forever Forward Champion)
This is an interesting one for me. I've watched way more matches trying to play something forward to you before. But with Arik Cannon what made my FFF quest so difficult for him was that I got really invested in one particular feud. Cannon and a young wrestler named Jah-C who was new to me had a good 3 match series that built and built. The promotion was also new to me and I really liked everything going on, except that each match had something that held me back from playing it. When I finished the rubber match and realized I was going to have to go in a different direction it was a pretty big disappointment. I still recommend the matches though, and hope to find another way to guide us to Frontman Jah.

JJZ: Will Hobbs
I just remember being so frustrated that I considered breaking the rules and playing another Cobb match. Endless scrolling.

...the Animal Rat Award (Most Surprising Champion)
JJZ: The Islanders
Totally forgot this was a team. Never ever would I have guessed you'd play these guys forward to me.

[editor's note - Technically the Islanders challenged Tito Santana for the MDTSOCWWKD Championship but were only featured that one week VS Strike Force, thus were not successful in capturing our coveted imaginary title. However, this is Play It Forward where everything's made up and the points don't matter, so we'll allow it]

CJD: Sam Adonis
John's difficult quest to find a Hobbs match brought us to a real pleasant surprise for me. I had no idea Corey Graves had a brother who wrestled under a MAGA gimmick in Mexico. Adonis' MDTSOCWWKD Championship reign had two of my low key favorite matches we featured in the past year too in that Hobbs match and VS Blue Panther.

...the Hammer Phoenix Award (Greatest Champion March 2020-March 2021)
He broke every record for drawing power in PIF history and had a pair of great matches to boot. Marvin/Nakajima is the most read post in PIF history, VS KENTA is top 10, and we got a shootout from Ricky on Instagram!

I'm a total mark for Ali so I had high expectations of him. And he still over delivered. I loved seeing him play heel in one match and face in the other. I was also really impressed with how polished he was in his early days. It would've been easy in both matches to deliver a spotfest with those opponents in ACH and Lio Rush but he brought great psychology and story telling instead.

-Honorable Mention:
Ricky Marvin (JJZ)
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Sunday, March 1, 2020

The Second Annual Head Droppies


At the end of the month Play It Forward turns 2 years old! We've crowned our 100th imaginary Mason-Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental WWKD Champion, which means it's time for our second annual Head Droppies awards. You may remember from last March that the Head Droppies are a chance for us to look back and the last year of matches we've shared with each other and reflect on some highs and lows. Talk a little inside baseball, share a laugh, a tear or two, a drink, and get ready for another wild year of the matches every Tuesday!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you the second annual, highly prestigious, most coveted awards of all weekly pro wrestling match sharing blogs with imaginary Championships like a couple of 10 year olds fantasy booking in a spiral notebook... here are your 2020 HEAD DROPPIES!!

...the Punk Monkey Award (Favorite Match Played Forward To You)
CJD: Koji Kanemoto VS Kota Ibushi - NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors 5/30/2009
This was a match that I had penciled in to watch for years and just needed to make time for. John forced me to do so and god damn am I glad he did. This was everything I wanted and expected and then some, while still taking a less is more approach overall.

JJZ: Tarzan Goto (c) VS Cactus Jack - IWA Japan World Heavyweight Championship 5/10/1995
It was a literal shock how good this was. Honestly it might be my favorite match we've had on the blog.

-Honorable Mentions:
Chris Hero VS Necro Butcher - IWAMS British Rounds Match 1/21/2006 (CJD)
Ric Flair VS Kerry Von Erich - World Class NWA World Championship Cage Match 12/25/1982 (JJZ)

...the Intergender Lightweight-Who's-A-Heavyweight DeathMatch Award (Most Hidden Gem Played Forward)
JJZ: Kotaro Suzuki/Yoshinari Ogawa VS Dick Togo/Yasu Urano - NOAH Jr Heavyweight Tag League 10/15/2010
Loved this match. I've watched so much NOAH and this match was never on my radar. PIF has made me a fan of Ogawa. And as always, Dick Togo for life homie!

CJD: El Hijo Del Santo/Atsushi Onita/Tarzan Goto VS Negro Casas/Horace Boulder/Tim Patterson - FMW 5/16/1992
If I had to rate this match it wouldn't be especially high, but for pure entertainment value it stuck with me as much as any we've shared here. I'm just so happy it exists. Pro wrestling is so beautifully bizarre.

-Honorable Mention:
Christopher Daniels (c) VS Samoa Joe - TNA X Division Championship Match 4/13/2006 (CJD)

...the Eerie Dragon Award (Most Difficult Quest Playing A Match Forward)
CJD: Necro Butcher
There are certainly plenty of great Necro matches available for free online that I could have shared. But I feel like anyone who has a passing interest in Necro has seen these already, and if they haven't, then they need to immediately (VS Joe, VS Ki, VS Klein). I wanted to dig deeper, and in the process discovered a dream match I never knew existed. And it required some serious digging to finally find a version that would stay up to share with everyone but it was well worth the effort.

JJZ: Super Smash Bros.
It blew my mind how hard this was. I rewatched their match with Sumerian Death Squad several times before playing it forward. Honestly it was the first time I got frustrated searching for a match.

...the Animal Rat Award (Most Surprising MDTSOWWKD Champion)
JJZ: Tarzan Goto
I never would have ever picked a Tarzan Goto match to watch to play forward. I was shocked how much I fell in love with his matches here.

CJD: Danny Dominion
I had no idea who Danny Dominion was before John played him forward to me. Clearly he's an important footnote in pro wrestling history and it was fascinating diving into some of his career for two weeks.

...the Stone Phoenix Award (Greatest MDTSOCWWKD Champion #51-100)
CJD: Greg "The Hammer" Valentine
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/07/catch-spirit-catch-spit.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/06/waiting-for-hammer-to-fall.html
Last year I let the numbers factor in to my choice for this award pretty heavily, but the unfortunate truth is traffic was down most of 2019 for PIF. We had some solid draws, but it was like bringing in a decent house during the New Generation era. Nobody set the world on fire. So instead I'll go with a Mason Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental Champion who was a real revelation to me. A wrestler who I went in with an established "eh" opinion of and came out realizing I need to reassess that opinion. Valentine's matches were an unexpected treat for me and I'm glad to admit I was wrong about the Hammer.

JJZ: Satoshi Kojima
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/05/youve-been-thunderstruck.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/05/koji-outta-nowhere.html
He wrestled two of the greatest of all time in his matches with Liger and Misawa. He shined just as bright as those diamonds. Another wrestler I've come grown to appreciate more as I've gotten older. 'Jima brought some Ace quality matches to the blog.

-Honorable Mentions:
Darby Allin (CJD)
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2019/12/still-today-i-hear-pain-we-made-death.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2020/01/im-just-drivin-nails-in-my-coffin.html

Greg Valentine stole my heart. (JJZ)

And that's all for the second annual Head Droppies. Thanks for joining us folks, check back next March to see who grabs those brass rings here at PIF in our next 50 matches!
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Friday, March 22, 2019

The First Annual Head Droppies


Play It Forward started with a good premise, an unbreakable bond of friendship, and a lot of figuring it out as we went along. The core concept of sharing a different match with one of the wrestlers from the previous week (but not the other!) on a weekly basis is what this blog is all about. But the bells and whistles of our imaginary Mason-Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental WWKD Championship lineage, and now our first annual prestigious Head Droppies awards, is what keeps these two manchildren's imaginations captivated. So if you tune in each week to see a new match and posts like this don't make a lot of sense to you, rest assured this is the stuff that keeps our creative juices flowing.

So welcome to the first annual Head Droppies! As we're a week away from our one year anniversary, it seems that we'll crown about fifty MDTOWWKD Champions in a year. Why not host an annual award ceremony every 50th Champ?? We've covered a lot of ground over the course of these 51 matches since March of 2018, and JJZ and myself feel like it's high time we broke down some of our highs and lows through this journey, perhaps even a peak back behind the curtain if you will...

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you the first annual, highly prestigious, most coveted awards of all weekly pro wrestling match sharing blogs with imaginary Championships... the HEAD DROPPIES!!

...Favorite Match Played Forward To You
CJD: Masada VS Jun Kasai - FREEDOMS Pain Limit Finals 8/27/2012
Deep down inside I'm a deathmatch guy. What can I say. And this match is everything a great deathmatch should be.

JJZ: CM Punk VS Jimmy Rave - ROH Steel Cage Match 5/14/2005
This match totally blew me away. Probably the greatest CM Punk match ever in my opinion.

CJD: Alex Shelley (c) VS Claudio Castagnoli - UWA Hardcore Lightweight Championship 2/17/2006
Ignore the fact that this is for a Lightweight Championship featuring a man who can dead lift the Big Show. This is as hidden gem as it gets.

-Honorable Mentions:
Sabu VS Rob Van Dam - AJPW 3/3/2001 (JJZ)
Jon Davis (c) VS Martin Stone - USWA Elite Championship 6/25/2016 (CJD)

...Most Difficult Quest Playing A Match Forward
CJD: Christina Von Eerie
Well I guess the long journey was worth it since the mach I ended up on was John's choice for the previous category! I'm good on watching another CVE match for a while.

JJZ: Ultimo Dragon
Can't believe how hard it was to find newer and unseen matches from one of my all-time favorite junior heavyweights.

...Most Surprising MDTSOWWKD Champion
JJZ: Batista
Not ever never ever did I think the Animal would have been played here.

CJD: Yoshinari Ogawa
John set the tone early when he could have picked the greatest junior heavyweight ever (who's still on the hunt for his first MDTSOWWKD reign!!) but instead went with the Rat Boy as our second Champion.

-Honorable Mentions:
Flip Gordon (JJZ)
Seleziya Sparx (CJD)

...Greatest MDTSOWWKD Champion #1-50
CJD: Hayabusa
https://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2018/07/best-entrance-song-ever.html
https://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2018/07/takayamamania-runnin-wild-on-pif.html
While John's pick is a blue collar, ring mechanic, meat and potatoes kind of Champion, I'm going with one that sold the sizzle as much as the steak. I loved both of these matches, in particular John's AJPW tag title match which I never would have sat down to otherwise. The Phoenix also popped big numbers here at PIF and made money for everyone up and down the card.

JJZ: Martin Stone
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2018/09/martin-stone-vs-flip-gordon-beyond.html
http://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2018/10/simmering-up-some-stone-soup.html
I'm surprised he's my pick, but I came out of his reign with a much higher opinion of him than I had going it. Both matches were of exceptional quality that brought out the best in his opponents.

-Honorable Mention:
Daniel Bryan / Bryan Danielson (CJD & JJZ)
https://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2018/08/we-work-hard-in-paint-we-play-hard-in.html
https://pifprowrestling.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-long-way-from-super-8.html
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