Forever Forward Fridays

ACH VS Prince Mustafa Ali - AAW Heritage Title Tournament 1/25/2013

JJZ: This is definitely the earliest match of Ali's that I have ever seen. You can really see he had greatness in him even at a young age. I know at the time I'm writing this Ali is a heel in WWE but for me this is the first time I've seen him wrestling as a bad guy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised how natural he seems as a heel considering he is able to play such a sympathetic babyface. ACH is someone that I have always been a big fan of. So much talent and not that many companies really went in on him. Except AAW of course. He was a top guy there for a large part of his career. Now this match was the first round of a tournament but honestly felt like a title match with all the risk taking and big bumps. I loved how well these two worked with each other. ACH's wow moments mixed with Ali's psychology made for a fun ride.

CJD: Ali has talked about how he's wanted to avoid playing a stereotypical ethnic heel his entire career. You can sense it here from a young age even as Prince Ali, he's working heel in a much more fundamental sense than looking for cheap heat. And like you said he's really good at it. Both guys are still a bit rough around the edges but they really put a lot of substance into this match. If I was a promoter and saw this potential I'd immediately run a longterm feud between them. Their chemistry jumps off the screen. Instead it seems like this is the only time they wrestled. The Chicago area scene fascinates me, it's always been one of the hottest territories for wrestling but their indies often fly under the radar. Glad to take a closer look the last two weeks.

Forever Forward Friday

Lio Rush VS Mustafa Ali - Freelance Walk Among Us 10/27/2016

CJD: Back to back dream opponents for Lio as far as our tastes go. Normally the audio being off on a match is a deal breaker for me, and it gets progressively worse as this one goes on, but I'll make an exception. Because these guys really busted them asses in Chicago that summer night. I don't think I've ever actually watched any Freelance before but I'm happy to feature them knowing the talent that has passed through. I could do without the commentator doing his best hardcore band vocal audition by the finishing stretch but what are you going to do. Both Rush and Ali are silky smooth in this but are also working for the W from beginning to end. Very focused, exciting, fun match here. Watching this makes me want to check back in on the Retribution stuff to see if Ali is actually salvaging it.

JJZ: This match is exactly what you said, silky smooth. Watching wrestlers performing at the top of their game is special. Special because you know when they started they were the shits wrestling in dollar store gear dreaming about main eventing for a packed crowd. I've actually watched this whole show and this match was head and shoulders above anything else that night. You can see in this match that Rush and Ali are entering that independent elite status. So I'd definitely call this an indy dream match. The only negative is that I wanted more. I liked everything besides that. Even the finish was wonderful. Hopefully we'll get to more matches of their's one day.