Ikuto Matata

https://rutube.ru/video/170cba1e56b314b7a1b357977bb509af/

Ikuto Hidaka VS Jonathan Gresham - Zero1 Tenkaichi Finals 9/17/2012

CJD: You played right into my trap! When I mentioned Sekimoto was on the short list of guys I wanted to put the title on early you had to know Hidaka was right up there as well. I'm sure you were unaware of Gresham's time in Zero1 as was the rest of the internet apparently based on the video & audio quality of this upload. But we're from the VHS tape trading generation where anything we don't have to watch through a layer of tracking snow and with the volume at 100 (I feel like TVs didn't even go to 100 back then) is gravy to us. With Gresham's amateur background and Hidaka's love of catch wrestling, this is as tricked out with chain wrestling and wacky pinning counters as you'd hope for. I actually don't love when it gets to more traditional juniors action later on but when I found this one I knew unless it was a total disappointment it'd be my pick for the week. And it's definitely not a disappointment.

JJZ: If I could sum up this match in one word it would be smooth. Even with the video quality being poor everything they did looked seamless. I haven't watched a lot of Hidaka recently so this was a treat. Jon looked great in this match. I wasn't aware he was this skilled in 2012. The finish caught me off guard in the best possible way. The Zero1 crowd was okay even though there wasn't a lot of asses in seats for this show. Hidaka is a true legend in my eyes. I know he won't get a lot of talk like this but whenever I get to watch a match of his it just makes me happy.

Ruthless Aggresham

Timothy Thatcher VS Jonathan Gresham - Beyond Wrestling 8/31/2014

JJZ: This match is from 2014 when Gresham was just starting to develop his rep as an elite technician. I wanted to play a match with Thatcher that showcased his strengths. In this match his mat wrestling is excellent and the psychology is on point. A lot of times in indy wrestling the wrestlers ignore a size or strength difference but in this match it is a feature. Beyond Wrestling at this point is at the level of PWG anymore with the quality of matches they produce.

CJD: Back to back Beyond! I agree that they have become one of the must watch indy promotions in the past few years so that makes me happy. I've actually seen more matches from Gresham as Hieracon in CHIKARA than I have as himself so this was interesting to me. At 5'4" he has to be super aware of how hard he has to work to make his work look believable and to his credit he absolutely does in this match. He plays up what a small target he is, how he has to build momentum to do things that are relatively simple for anyone bigger than him, and that if he tried to fight Thatcher toe to toe it simply wouldn't work. The finish was one of those refreshing moments where when it happens you think "there's actually no way out of that" and then there legitimately isn't. Great performances from both guys in this one.

A Good Day To Die Hard

Eddie Edwards VS Timothy Thatcher - Beyond Wrestling 9/26/2015

CJD: So I alluded to not loving everything about Edwards and one of my problems with him for a long while is he didn't always look like he knew who Eddie Edwards was in the ring. Jack of all trades master of none and all that. I will say that the more recent matches of his I've seen he's gotten much better at developing what makes him die so hard. And here he's up against someone in Thatcher that has as clearly defined presence in the ring as you can imagine. The result is a match that is laser focused in the strategy both guys implement. The way they move, the way they sell, the way they execute, this is a beautiful piece of pro wrestling right here.

JJZ: This was the first match of the night for these two in a 4 way Round Robin including Drew Gulak and Biff Busick. I think Eddie does a great job of keeping up with Tim on the mat considering the way they had to pace the match since they would be wrestling 2 more times that night. I love the Indy feel from this match. Fans around the ring in this awkward room with no commentary and you can see the merch tables in the background. The sweat shooting off the wrestlers with every strike that shows the heat in that place is probably off the charts. The psychology and finish of the match was perfect for a RR imo. I am a Thatcher fan but I'm not over the moon for him so picking the next MDTSOWWKDC will hopefully take me over the big cheese.

For A Few Seconds, This Place Was Armageddon

Roderick Strong (c) VS Eddie Edwards - ROH World Championship 3/19/2011

JJZ: This match. I've drug my feet watching this match for no reason at all and I regret it. Wow. This is a classic ROH title match. Great build with great falsies and a great story told. I've always had a soft spot for Eddie. His Art of Wrestling really made me keep an eye out for him plus he was trained by Killer Kowalski and in the NOAH dojo. Double tough imo. This title run of Roddy's is under appreciated. He did some great heel work and worked some great matches.

CJD: It's crazy that Strong has been wrestling a decade at this point but he still looks like such a baby compared to now. I love heel Strong and "...the Other American Wolf!" with that shit eating grin of his is such a great way to start this one off. This match would have been a blast to see live. I know you're a big ol' softy for Edwards, I can take or leave him and there's some stuff he does here that I don't love. But this is the sort of match that by the end has won me over enough that I'm not going to bother nitpicking. It was a fun ride and damn was that one hell of a finishing stretch. And finally, the Mason-Dixon Tri-State Outercontinental WWKD Championship is around the waist of a god fearing red blooded American!

A Shane By Any Other Name

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5r2qds

Shane Thorne VS Roderick Strong - NXT 11/02/2016

CJD: My immediate reaction to picking a match from Shane was that I had no idea where I was going. It only took a day until I realized exactly where I wanted to take you. You've seen this one before I'm sure, but I want to occasionally feature matches that warrant a second look and this is a great example. I know you'd expect me to go tag after giving me a singles match from a tag wrestler, but ha ha! I fooled you! Instead I'm taking your tag wrestler in a singles tournament and giving you a singles match in a tag tournament! This was great creative yet simple booking and everyone involved played their parts perfectly. I think it flew under the radar a bit and I also don't want to stay so so focused on Japan even though I know we both tend to lean that way.

JJZ: Love the concept of both Haste matches being in tourneys. I have seen this match before but remember little about it. Sure as hell didn't remember Shane's drop kick! Jesus! Roddy's backbreakers! Christ! These two put on a show man. Big fan of SH selling also. Loved the finish. The booking made the best out of a bad situation and made both guys looks good. Excited for my Roddy pick!

The Strongest Of BJs

Daisuke Sekimoto VS Shane Haste - NOAH Global League 11/10/2013

JJZ: This was a the hardest decision I had to make so far. When I first watched this match I liked it but didn't think it would be my pick. But then the match stayed with me for a few days before I decided to go with it. The crowd was interesting in this match since Haste was the homer and Sekimoto was the invader. Really fun watch.

CJD: Being a tag wrestler in a singles tournament is always difficult but Haste/Thorne pulled it off well here. I can see why you didn't think you were going to go with this because the finish is less than stellar and that's such a big part of what makes a lasting impression about a match. But everything else about this was spot on. If Sekimoto pulled any punches against the vets in my last match he certainly didn't here against the young gaijin. When we came up with the concept for PIF I had five or so guys in mind that I really wanted to put the title on early and Seximoto is one of them. And we're only scratching the surface of his very prolific career here! I didn't think it was that likely you'd go with Ito or Omori from my previous match but I'm so so happy you went with one half of Strong BJ instead.

Blue Thunder Goes Grey

https://rutube.ru/video/54cebe2c7887d48526a1c8ab7e9933a1/

Jun Akiyama/Takao Omori (c) VS Daisuke Sekimoto/Ryuji Ito - AJPW World Tag Team Championship 10/21/2017

CJD: I went down a bit of a rabbit hole deciding which direction to go with Akyiama as the third MDTSOWWKD Champion. You gave me a match in his "prime" which is a debatable term with a pro wrestler that never faltered through three decades of greatness. I wanted to high lite either super rookie or super vet Akiyama instead and there's a wealth of material either way. I ended up picking this match for a few reasons... Burning Wild, the team of Akiyama and Omori, had a great run around this time. Sekimoto is as you well know a personal favorite and almost an adopted AJPW native at this point. BUT, this is the most "invader" tag he could challenge with teaming with Ryuji Ito, who as much as I hate to admit it, is a deathmatch legend. So we have two homegrown talents from a deathmatch focused company, one who is the best pure pro wrestling heavyweight they have ever produced, the other who was the Ace of the deathmatch division at a time when they badly needed to rebuild after CZW almost destroyed them. They are going up against two of the senior most puroresu heavyweights still wrestling at this time and two absolute traditionalists. This has some rough moments because, if we're going to be honest, Omori and Ito are not great pro wrestlers. But it's fun, it plays on knowing hierarchy and character which are themes I want to focus on, and it's a great example of super veteran Akiyama. My apologies if Russian Youtube splices some ads in!

JJZ: I can honestly say I never thought I'd see Ito and Akiyama share a ring together. This is the most recent Akiyama match I've seen and he can still go. Watching the former Triple Crown Champion trade blows with Sekimoto was awesome. Ito and Omori had smaller roles in this match but did them very well. Loved the atomic drop. You could tell Sekimoto was pulling his blows a little bit which makes sense to show respect to the vets. Good stuff overall.

All Hail The Rat King

Jun Akiyama VS Yoshinari Ogawa - AJPW 9/11/1998

JJZ: Really hope you never seen this, loved this match. I know there are only 4 pillars of heaven but these 2 would be the 5th and 6th imo. And I ain't even an Ogawa fan. Super fun match here, Akiyama edges out Ogawa in every category but Ogawa combats that by cutting corners and playing a little dirty. Very surprising that the crowd was behind Ogawa in this match but it made for a great dynamic.

CJD: Ogawa is hilarious in that he's so far off from what we want from the King's Road style but he's so so good at what he does. We hated him when we were younger but we definitely can appreciate what he was going for these days. I loved this, especially that it's from a time when finishing stretches were a little simpler for a match like this. Straight forward and a total blast. When we started planning this project I don't think either of us with a 100 guesses would have predicted Rat Boy as our second champ!

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...