Forever Forward Fridays

Zack Sabre Jr VS Jonah Rock - 6/23/2018

CJD: I was going to go a different direction with ZSJ this week and watched a much more ambitious match of his in Mexico. But I had some problems with it and his opponent's performance, so I decided to watch one more to compare and contrast. I've liked everything I've seen from Jonah/Bronson so this was an easy choice. And this match won my rose for the week simply because it didn't have any glaring weakness. It was the type of match that on a great show, maybe a PPV, it might not be the second or even third best of the night. But if that's the case it just means you watched a damn fine event. It has a satisfying, steady pace that builds logically. They do a very good job of highlighting the powerhouse VS technician dynamic, with a nice sub theme of Sabre going after the leg to take away the Australian Samoan's base. And both men are excellent at selling the damage as they keep chipping away, giving you the sense you're watching a brutal competition. In the end the other match I watched had slightly higher highs but it was a lesson in you're only as good as your worst player. Rock was a better opponent and this was the match I decided to play forward to you this Friday my friend.

JJZ: Another reason way I love Play It Forward. If I watched this match under different circumstances I think I might be disappointed. Zack has put himself in the realm of match of the night every match. So when I plan on watching a ZSJ match I'm expecting it to be the ace of the show. But with PIF matches I'm looking for little things that make it stand out to us. In this match I realized that Zack has the ability to eliminate the size advantage that bigger wrestlers have over smaller or lighter wrestlers with his joint manipulation and violent striking. Honestly I can't recall a match where he was just totally over powered and was working from under most of the time. Please correct me if I'm mistaken baby cakes. Jonah does a great job of adding some really nicely timed flying spots. I enjoyed this one. I see that this was a rematch, I'd be curious to watch their first meeting!

Forever Forward Fridays

Keith Lee/Shane Strickland VS Zack Sabre Jr/Matt Riddle - AAW 10/13/2017

JJZ: I was so goddamn excited to watch some Shane Strickland magic! So I've watched several Strickland matches and all of them were worth sharing but I just flat out was marking out to this one. I get it's rich with tip top indy talent but they are top indy talent for a reason. This match is just entertaining. Fun ass spots. Close falls. Crazy bumps. I know we're watching this for free but if I paid for it I'd say I got my money's worth. I appreciate the color coordination from both teams. Not gonna lie, I was surprised who took the fall. Also didn't know Keith Lee and Shane Strickland tagged before AEW. Enjoy baby cakes.

CJD: I had no idea Lee and Swerve tagged together previously either and I love that little bit of continuity and storyline thread! Man this rocked. Dream tag matches on paper often feel like less than the sum of their parts in reality, but this felt king sized and delivered colossal action. My only criticism is there was a good amount of standing around and trading double teams late, but that's not surprising in this kind of setting. And there was a well developed and really satisfying psychology to the match with Strickland's stubbornness and perseverance. And the color coordination!! There's a reason these guys are top talent indeed, and part of it is talent, but I think effort is an even bigger factor. This match had it in spades and they delivered something extremely memorable as a result.

Suzuki Goon

Zack Sabre Jr VS Trent Seven - Kamikaze Pro 2/2/2018

JJZ: I really like Trent Seven. Especially his selling. Zack Sabre Jr is easy but also hard to play forward. Easy because he has wrestled every one ever but hard because he is so damn good that I don't want it to seem like I'm just sharing the first thing I watched. So this was the second match I watched! The first was a Tyler Bate match, and while it was good it wasn't great and maybe over-stayed its welcome. Then I went over to Trent. This match had some really special things in it. First Trent's selling. Tremendous. I was really marking out on the selling of his own offense. A lot of the time he made it feel like he was just throwing shit out last minute hoping it lands. And Fucking Zack. I swear he really just makes shit up as he goes. I was falling for the falsies and loved the home stretch. Enjoy my boy.

CJD: One thing I love is watching great wrestlers wrestle in front of different types of audiences and seeing how they adjust. This match accomplished that big time compared to what I'm used to from these guys. It was super cheeky at times, a little touch and go at other times, and then it landed exactly where it needed to. I agree completety that it felt like they called a good amount on the fly which I loved. The announcers cracked me up by how knowledgable they tried to sound on the submissions. "He's got a Crippler Crossface combined with a Michinoku Driver combined with a La Magistral!!!" This was a really good match that didn't take itself too seriosly but still delivered big time for the crowd it was in front of. Nice find baby, and I'm glad you didn't go with the first match you stumbled across.

Supernova Goes Pop

Yoshinari Ogawa/Zack Sabre Jr VS Muhammad Yone/Katsuhiko Nakajima - NOAH 2/22/2015

CJD: This match brought a smile to my face because it brought me back to PIF's roots almost 4 years ago. After developing this idea for a long time we kicked things off with a series of matches that I still think define our mission statement here, one of which was a ZSJ/Ogawa tag. So why not revisit this underrated tandem?? And how about a workman's team if I ever saw one in 2015 mohawk Yone and "finding himself" puffy pants Nakajima?? This match had me guessing after talking about booking with a real sense of hierarchy, because everyone here has a clear place on their team, and all these guys were typically booked with purpose. Still this match feels a little thrown together, like something to round out an undercard, yet it still builds to a really nice finish. You get the sense these teams could run a rematch for the tag titles in a high profile match and knock it out of the park. For what this was I would have loved 5 more minutes but what we got still left me very satisfied and felt very on-brand for PIF.

JJZ: I would put Zack Sabre Jr and Ogawa as one of my favorite tag teams over the past ten years. Their feuds with Tiger Mask IV/Jushin Liger and Kotage/Harada are low key some of the best junior tag matches in recent memory. This match is wonderful Chris. Just good solid wrestling. Yone is great for this match. He doesn't bring it down at all. Just adds baby. Chubby Nakajima was so much fun. This was before he fully joined NOAH and they still used him in odd spots. I don't know if you remember but I showed you a singles match between Zack and Naks right around this timeframe. Anyway. Good shit baby cakes. It was such a fun watch, I just enjoyed what was on the screen for 17 minutes.

My Mother Worked Sixteen Hours Six Days A Week

A-Kid (c) VS Zack Sabre Jr - White Wolf Wrestling Campeonato Absoluto 4/14/2018

JJZ: I picked this match for one reason. I want your opinion of it. It got a 5 star rating and put A-Kid on the map. This is my second viewing so I'm watching with different eyes than you. I'm almost positive this is our first match from White Wolf. Which is a promotion from Spain. Also a first for us that I can recall. Local star champion VS independent super star. White hot crowd. Stiff and tight as can be. I don't need to say anything else. E n j o y.

CJD: Damn, what a dope match. ZSJ coming out to "Mother" by IDLES is my favorite thing ever right off the bat and the entrance really sets the tone. Apparently A-Kid comes out to Papa Roach which is considerably less cool unless you're a backyard wrestler with frosted tips wearing a sleeveless t-shirt and JNCOs. Then you'd be the Pope of Chili Town. He should stick with this generic royalty free theme they used for this video, it's actually pretty tight. Better than his NXT UK theme. But I digress.

Circa 2015 you and I had a very underrated wrestling podcast with our good friend Mr PB, which unfortunately I'm realizing has vanished from the ether of the internet. And I remember we discussed pretty often how the new crop of indy talent of guys like ZSJ, Thatcher, Busick, and Gulak were exactly what we had been craving. That we were burnt out on the Richards-itis as we called it that had plagued indy wrestling for the previous 5 years or so, and that a return to fundamentals and actual grappling is something we hoped would continue to gain popularity. Fast forward to this match and not only has that hope been fulfilled, but a younger crop of talent influenced by that generation is starting to create their own buzz. And while A-Kid had no buzz that we heard about going into this match, I have to think that ZSJ is the exact type of wrestler he'd been studying as he was cutting his teeth. And it creates such a sublime match with this once in a lifetime opportunity and boy what a buzz did he create for himself as a result.

I hate to sound like a broken record about star ratings but whether or not this is 5 stars is meaningless to me. This is so much of what's great about pro wrestling captured in a beautiful moment in time. I'm glad Meltzer gave it 5 stars to get eyes on it, but if I'm going to take out my red pen yeah there's probably some criticisms I'd have. But I'd rather not waste my time on them, because the positives here are enormous. The grappling feels like such a struggle. The big moments are huge but never outstay their welcome. The small moments make it so you can't turn away or even blink. ZSJ carries himself with such a presence that I don't even mind his ridiculous basketball shorts. I actually find them kind of endearing. I'm so glad you finally got me to make time for this one, and I'm so glad it exists. It's matches like this that make you feel like all the time you invest as a fan is worth it.

Enough Kinetic Energy To Knockout A Herald

Zack Sabre Jr (c) VS Mike Bailey - Defiant Wrestling Internet Championship  1/26/2018

CJD: So we now have 4 pillars of 2x MDTSOCWWKD Champions and I'm going to add a thumb to turn that structure into a fist. Bringing things back full circle to our flagship competitor, the man I think of first when I think of Play It Forward, Zack Sabre Jr. These are two of the wrestlers who have the most distinct styles of their generation. And I love when contrasting styles make the story for a match and that's exactly what we get here. I saw some comments criticizing the selling and I disagree. I think for what they were doing there was just enough attention to detail. This was a very efficient, to the point match and I respected that about it. I know this is one that'll jump right off the screen when you see the names so I'm curious how that expectation is met. I thought it was a great use of the time they had while still leaving something on the table.

JJZ: Independent ZSJ is my favorite ZSJ. I love him in New Japan but on the indies he can do whatever he wants and I believe he does. The start of this match plays out like a MMA fight. Catch wrestling vs Taekwondo. It turns quickly into a battle of kicks that I don't think will fare well for Zack in the end. Bailey is such a great white meat baby face. I don't think there was a real heel or face in this match but both guys wrestled their natural style so it still developed into a good vs bad kinda match. Bailey has such explosive kicks that he can even the match at any moment. And what can anyone say about Sabre that hasn't been said before? So I will verbalize how I felt watching him during this match. I can't take my eyes off him because even his little movements are so smart and purposeful. I loved this match so much. Great base. Great build. Great finish.

Sabre The Flavor

Jushin Thunder Liger/Tiger Mask IV (c) VS Yoshinari Ogawa/Zack Sabre Jr - NOAH GHC Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Championship 12/7/2013

CJD: Nine times out of ten if you put two roads in front of me I'll take the road less traveled. This was the tenth fork in the road for me. I watched a lot of Eagles matches, all of which I liked, but none accomplished what this match did. This is basic, Southern influenced Japanese tag team pro wrestling goodness, and a complete departure from the last ZSJ match. John since you're Captain Noah you may have already seen this one, but on the off chance you haven't then I hope you enjoy it.

JJZ: Really liked this match. The biggest thing that stuck out to me is the fact that Liger/TM IV/Ogawa have all been wrestling as long or longer than ZSJ has been alive at the time of this match and Zack got so much offense in. The respect he was given by two legends says a lot and you can tell he felt little to no pressure in this title match. Ogawa who I am not normally a big fan of did his role of vet tag partner pretty perfect. Loved the end also. Excited to select the next champion!

Crowning The Inaugural Mason-Dixon Tri-state Outercontinental WWKD Champion

Zack Sabre Jr VS Robbie Eagles - WSW International Assault 11/19/2017

JJZ: So my idea was to basically put you in front of two roads so you can decide how to start our journey. A major road with a lot of exits or the smaller road that would take a longer to get back to the highway with. The major road is ZSJ, enough said there. He is wrestling Robbie Eagles, Eagles is from Australia and has been tearing it up. You are probably familiar with him since I believe he has worked Evolve in the past. Enjoy my friend.

CJD: My first comment to John was that this is exactly in the spirit of what I was hoping this project would be. This match is less is more and in a lot of ways reminds me of the types of matches that made us fall in love with the indy scene so hard circa 2003-2005. I actually had never seen Eagles before and I dig what he's laying down. His meat is white, his offense is tight. Pro wrestling thrives on hierarchy and ZSJ knows how to carry himself here. So now it's up to me to decide who gets the belt. Tried and true or into the great unknown? We'll find out in a week's time...