666 7/3/2010

Considering that the last time I reviewed a 666 show, the tag title tournament was won by the ring announcer in a ladder match, it probably comes as no surprise to learn that this show has an equally odd ending, this time with the night's earlier participants competing in a sumo tournament. Obviously, I wont bother to review that, suffice to say it ended with Yuko Miyamoto beating the ring announcer (him again!) to pick up the title. The rest of the show was an interesting mix of matches too...

Shinobu vs K666

K666 attacks at the bell, but is soon overpowered, and Shinobu really dominates the opening portions of this match. Even when K666 tries for a token enzuigiri, Shinobu ducks it and locks in an STF. K666 does look a bit better than on the last 666 show I reviewed, with a flip dive to the outside looking decent and a standing corkscrew moonsault is pretty impressive. He locks Shinobu into a crossface variation and I liked the way that later, following a pin attempt by his opponent, he locks it in again whilst Shinobu is plotting his next move. The end sees Shinobu get two from a lariat, so he hits a brainbuster and another lariat for the win. Perfectly acceptable.

Makoto vs Riho

So, when this match started, I noticed Riho looked really young, as in “I’m not even sure this girl is a teenager yet” young. A bit of Googling revealed that she’d have been 13 when this match took place. That probably explains why this match comes across as more of a exhibition than as an athletic contest, which is probably for the best. Makoto seems to work pretty light with her, until a cartwheel into a kneedrop which looks nasty. Makoto locks in a half crab, but Riho makes the ropes and then locks up Makoto in a half crab. She also makes the ropes. Riho misses a top rope stomp and gets rolled up for the win. I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan of this match, Riho looked competent, but it’s hard to shake the fact that she’s still a child and I don’t like feeling uneasy when watching wrestling.

Tochiki vs The 101

The language barrier means I’m not able to accurately work out what was going on at the start of this match. Suffice to say, hijinks abounded. Tochiki has a load of hardcore plunder with him, so he quickly sends 101 outside and hits a Sabu-esque chair-assisted dive. The 101 keeps clowning around in a pretty irritating manner, so Tochiki locks him in a camel clutch, and hits a pretty good Samoan drop. It’s probably his best move, because a lot of his stuff looks like he’s moving at 2/3 speed. 101 still has that impressive corkscrew moonsault from the outside, but he misses a twisting splash and appears to land awkwardly on a chair. More difficult comedy as the 101 pulls out a sword and duels with Tochiki, wielding a large bundle of hay. Somehow, the ref gets slashed by the sword and both guys bow down to apologise. Tochiki quickly levels the 101 with a metal tray for the victory. Might have been better paced without the awkward comedy. 

Yuko Miyamoto & Shinobu vs Konaka Pale One & DINASTY

This is easily the best match on the two 666 shows I’ve watched so far, in that it’s a really fun tag match. There’s a fun test-of-strength to start between Miyamoto and Pale One, with KPO showing great flexibility to wrestle mainly from his knees, with his legs crossed over underneath him. His flexibility is very much his gimmick, as a lot of his offence involves him contorting his legs in such a way. Miyamoto and Shinobu work decent heat sections on both DINASTY and KPO. I loved Miyamoto taunting KPO by badly trying to cross his own legs in the ring. Shinobu and Miyamoto both seem to be working pretty snugly, which is nice especially in comparison to DINASTY, who moves well but has offence that doesn’t appear to be very painful (AKA a case of the Zigglers). I love Miyamoto locking a Boston crab on KPO, and Shinobu working the edges of the ring to ensure DINASTY can’t make the save. DINASTY flies really nicely, nailing a beautiful Fosbury Flop to the floor, and hitting a lovely corkscrew splash in the ring for a two count. KPO hits a cross-legged senton for two. The ending run is really fun, with DINASTY resorting to a series of quick roll-ups to try and steal the win. However, Miyamoto levels him with a clothesline, plants him with a German suplex and finally nails a perfect moonsault for the win. Really good match.

The Best of Mark Andrews: Fly Or Die Trying

So, this little gem I picked up last year from Mark Andrews' Big Cartel page, a collection of 5 of his best matches against 5 different opponents. I've always liked Andrews since the first time I saw him live (as mentioned later) and it's no surprise he's gone on to win British Bootcamp II- he combines really crisp, fluid high-flying with an innate charisma and likability, and this collection is a really fun watch.

Mark Andrews vs Pete Dunne

The first bout on the disc is from AIW in the US, where the crowd don’t know either guy. Thus, the match is almost like a sampler of what both guys can do. This means it also works well as an opening match on this comp, giving a flavour of what to expect from the following matches. Pete heels it up, giving the crowd the finger early on, and as the bigger guy he bullies Andrews a bit, hitting some nice suplexes and grounding Andrews by working over the arm. I liked the way he did some nasty joint manipulation, showcasing his nastier side. Andrews pops the crowd with a lovely standing 630 senton. Dunne hits his pumphandle DDT for two, before Andrews busts out a lovely flip dive and a springboard rana for two. A reverse rana is followed by a shooting star press for the win. The crowd is totally won over by the end, giving both guys a standing ovation. Really fun match.

Mark Andrews vs Zack Sabre Jr

From Triple X Wrestling. Regular readers (ha!) might remember this was top of the leaderboard in my "Top 10 Matches of 2013" list. However, there is always a disconnect of watching a match in person and watching it on DVD, so I was curious to see how it would hold up. In all honesty, I actually like it more on second viewing. At the time, I’d never seen Andrews wrestle before, but now, having seen him plenty of times, I can really appreciate the little things that he changed up specifically for this match. It starts with Sabre Jr totally schooling Andrews on the mat, viciously working over the arm and even hanging onto the arm from an Andrews armdrag to retain control. Zack throws in some nasty little touches, such as grinding his elbow into Andrews’ eye during a chinlock. Andrews is a great underdog and, after Sabre kicks his legs out during a brief offensive flurry, he realises he has to react as quickly as possible to any opening. Thus when he gets Zack outside the ring, he immediately follows with a big flip dive.  Normally, Andrews plays to the crowd before hitting a standing moonsault, but here he just doesn’t have the time, so hits it straight away and follows it with a swift double stomp. Sabre viciously kicks out Andrews legs on a springboard attempt and hits a vicious kick to the chest. Andrews tries a few kicks of his own, but this just seems to rile Sabre, who decks him with some nasty slaps to the face. 2 Dragon suplexes only get a two count on Andrews. Andrews downs Sabre and tries to put him away quickly with a 450, but Sabre is able to move and ties up both of Andrews’ arm to get the tapout victory. Absolutely love this match. Sabre, as the former champ and longtime ace of the promotion, dominated, but Andrews made the most of his openings and looked tough as nails in surviving the onslaught.

Mark Andrews vs Will Ospreay

This is a first round match from the Progress Natural Progression Series. Both guys are really crisp high-flyers, and pretty evenly match. I dug the initial matwork, before they start to speed things up. Ospreay hits a great dive, sliding under the ropes to barrel Andrews into the crowd. He hits a standing shooting star, before going back to the mat, trying to wear Andrews down. I loved the insane backflip into a tornado DDT by Andrews, really looked like a move that would catch the opponent totally by surprise. Both of them hits nice sequences of moves which flow nicely together, meaning they hit a few big moves in succession for more realistic pinfalls. Ospreay gets a really close fall off a top rope reverse rana, but, even though he lands on his feet on a missed 450, he gets caught by a beautiful springboard rana for the win.  

Mark Andrews vs Jonathan Gresham

Another Triple X bout. I’ve never seen Gresham before, so I was looking forward to this. Though shorter than Andrews, he’s stockier and here plays subtle heel. This lets Andrews work as underdog, which is where he really excels. Gresham takes an early powder from the ring after an Andrews onslaught, and has a noticeably more vicious streak when he comes back in. He whips Andrews into the turnbuckles with real velocity, hits a nasty elbow to Andrews’ face and really snaps him to the mat with a back suplex. Andrews buys himself a little time with a Bubba Bomb, and hits a really cool looking forward roll enzuigiri. They exchange pinfalls, which Gresham ends with a “Fuck you” and a big kick to the head. Andrews fires back with a tornado DDT, which he hits from a totally different angle to the Ospreay match, which gives it a real “from out of nowhere” vibe. Andrews nails the 450 splash, but is too hurt to cover straight away, only getting a two. Gresham plants Andrews with two German suplexes, then hits a deadlift straightjacket version for the pin. Really nicely worked  match, really enjoyed Gresham’s vicious streak.

Mark Andrews vs Paul Robinson

This is the final of the Progress Natural Progression Series. I really liked the fun matwork at the start, as they rolls through a series of armbar reversals. Robinson hit a great spinning headscissors with two full rotations. The commentary mentions Robinson has a kickboxing background to go with his highflying, and he’s got some really nice looking kicks. Robinson shows a more vicious side, clawing at Andrews’ face and hitting an elbow to the spine immediately as Andrews forces a submission break by grabbing the ropes. Nice dive to the outside by Andrews. I really love the fact Andrews has a few moves he hits standing variations of, as it creates a sense of mystery as he builds up to it- in earlier matches we’ve seen a 630 senton, but here he hits a great corkscrew moonsault from the same position. Robinson misses a top rope legdrop, which he gets insane elevation on, but he hits a great twisting top rope rana and spinning kick to the kidneys. Robinson misses a shooting star press, and Andrews hits this awesome top rope moonsault belly-to-belly suplex for the win.