Forever Forward Fridays

Myzteziz Jr VS Puma King VS Sammy Guevara - AAA 6/16/2019

JJZ: Get your popcorn ready CJD! This is one action packed contest and if you blink you're gonna miss something. I'm super familiar with all three of these gentlemen so when I saw this I said out loud, here we fucking go. This match really showed that all three are at the top of the high flying game. Puma was such a nice add to bring a little something unique to the floppy dips. The control that the wrestlers have in their aerial attack is really impressive. They make it seem effortless. This would be a prefect match to throw on to impress a non wrestling fan.

CJD: I'm not super familiar with Puma King or Myzteziz Jr, and after these two weeks of matches I'm going to keep an eye on our current FFF Champion for certain. We throw a lot of lesser known high flyers up on the blog and some stick with me more than others. Myzteziz Jr isn't the most polished but he has something about when he pops spots off perfectly that has a wow factor a lot of other high flyers are missing. I enjoyed how different this 3 way was than last week's even though they're both quick car crash style matches. Sammy's very American antics brought a different energy that was a lot of fun. He's very good at positioning everyone in busy matches like this. I didn't love the selfie spot. But I'll admit that my thought immediately was "if he can post a reel or a story while the match is still going that's super fucking impressive." I don't think he did but that has to be a spot that's happened in a match before, right? Next thing you know wrestlers will be on Zooms in the middle of matches. Has anyone ever recorded a podcast while they wrestled?? I need to get on the phone with Conrad Thompson ASAP.

You Down With TJP?

Dominik Dijakovic VS TJP - WWE When World's Collide 1/26/2019

CJD: I was really excited about this tournament when it happened. It seemed like a great concept and exactly the sort of content having multiple brands with distinctly different styles and your own personal streaming Network would lend itself to. Instead it was presented and executed with all the importance of a pickup basketball game. But this match at least was closer to what I was hoping for. I don't remember if I even watched it at the time but I thought it delivered on this watch. Dijak has constantly gotten better throughout his career which is a quality I highly value. TJP refuses to let himself get eaten up as the former first Cruiserweight Champion even though I think he can see the writing on the wall for his WWE run at this point. I liked the chemistry, the transitions, the little moments of this match. How they took a barely present convention crowd and drew them in whether they were planning on watching or not. And with the quiet brightly lit venue I think both guys really laid it in too. Mix all that up and I was happy to revisit a tournament I didn't expect to ever spend anymore energy on.

JJZ: Now this is how you book a 10 minute match between two guys with such a staggering size difference. Both wrestlers got such a shine from this match. Dijak looked like a true monster totally dominating TJP at every turn. While Perkins used his speed and agility to pepper in offense when he could. Smart and simply psychology by TJP to try to chop the big man down. The end stretch was really well done and I think both guys came out looking better than when they went in. I mean come on. It's hard to have a 10 minute match that tells a complete story like this one did.

Pockets So Big They Sumo

Human Tornado VS TJ Perkins VS Bino Gambino VS Don Fuji - PWG 5/20/2007

JJZ: So I watched this right after watching Wrestle Kingdom and I was so in the mood for a junk foodie independent wrestling match. Like craving one. So when I came upon this I was like, oh fuck yeah. This hit everything I wanted to see. Don Fuji played his role great. Hitting all his big stuff while letting the younger indy guys still shine. Human Tornado came in like a wrecking ball with a lot of his own stuff. TJ worked as the young guy going a little too stiff trying to prove something but hey! It looked good. Gino Bambino Dan Marino added some fuck shit also. I liked it. Wrestling good! PWG good! Don Fuji good!

CJD: Man, I watched so much PWG in this era, random 4 ways were such a staple of indy wrestling at the time, and this match still came so far out of left field for me. Absolutely the last thing I expected you to play forward in the best way possible. This is one of those 4 ways that took four guys that almost certainly had nothing in particular going on for that show (a tag tournament) and put them all in a situation to shine. But we've both watched plenty of matches like this where it's still totally forgettable and treated more like a night off. Well this was good fun but it was still a night at the office for these four and they absolutely punched that clock. I liked that they didn't revert to the format of two heels teaming up against two faces for the majority of the match. There were moments of that but overall this was, as you love to say, a junk food match that played the part to perfection. The type of match that perfectly breaks up the pace of a show or of a marathon session of watching wrestling. Or of a blog that's shared a match or two a week for years and years and hundreds of matches!