Jerry “The King” Lawler vs. Bill Dundee in a Loser Leaves Town/Hair Match (and other Dream Matches!)

Welcome back to more Dream Matches! This week has a bizarre assortment of stuff, including a match featuring KAMALA of all people in World of Sport! As “The Mississippi Mauler” Big Jim Harris, he comes to the UK to fight their Hulk Hogan, BIG DADDY, in a match during a bit charity event!

But importantly, as Bill Dundee passed away recently (the same day as we lost The Butcher), I decided to go and find one of the matches people always talk about, and it’s a doozie- a Loser Leaves Town match where if Jerry “The King” Lawler wins, Bill Dundee AND HIS WIFE must shave their heads! But before the match, Lawler has his eye affected by a vial of chemicals thrown by Dutch Mantell, leading to Jerry fighting blind and Dundee cleverly using that to his advantage all match long! Then I look up some stuff featuring The Butcher and the Blade- an AEW Dark squash against Pineapple Pete and Anthony Catena! Also, a match from WWE Evolve got recommended to me, so I’m going to check out Charlie Dempsey (son of William Regal) vs. Ulka Sasaki!

Finally, it’s a trifecta for PWI 500 guys, as “Inferno” Johnny Adams, Kevin Bennett & Gabreal Saint all face each other in an indieriffic LADDER MATCH that shows all of the pratfalls of modern indie wrestling!

AWA SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE:
NO DISQUALIFICATION:
DUNDEE AND HIS WIFE GET THEIR HEADS SHAVED IF HE LOSES, LAWLER LEAVES TOWN IF HE LOSES:
JERRY “THE KING” LAWLER vs. BILL DUNDEE:
(Memphis, Dec. 30th 1985)
* It’s here! It’s transfered via a potato but it’s on YouTube. Lawler’s in a yellow singlet and Dundee’s in black tights. Lawler has a bandaged forehead and eyepatch thanks to Dutch Mantel’s attack (via a vial of something) that I’m sure Dundee is too kind-hearted to target.

Before the bell, Lawler goes after someone and Dundee knocks him down alongside the ref, then keeps taking potshots at him until Lawler goes down and Bill takes to his forehead with right hands. HEY NOW HE HAS A BANDAGE THERE YOU BIG MEANIE! Dundee gets two off a big right hand, then another off an overhead elbow, then openly throttles Lawler and goes after that eye, and establishes the stakes by simply shoving referee Jerry Calhoun and slugging him, then teeing off on Lawler with lefts and rights, getting a delayed count thanks to… well, his own beating of the ref. Dundee baits a dazed Lawler, who can only throw aimless punches into the mists as he can’t see worth shit, making this look totally hopeless, and we get a few shots of Dundee’s wife cheering Bill on. Jerry’s staggering and stumbling is just DEAD ON as he tumbles to the mat and Bill gets another two-count. Bill literally ducks down and hides behind him so Lawler can’t spot him upon getting up and slugs him down yet again, and does a Fargo Strut like an utter asshole. Lawler’s defiant but keeps missing jabs, stumbling into the ropes off each one, and Dundee starts waving his chin into Jerry’s field of vision and pulling it back, just taunting him repeatedly and having fun with him. Lawler misses a punch, stumbles, and Dundee handily takes him down with a double-leg and STOMPS on his eye, openly gouges it, then sneaks behind Lawler again and uppercuts him when he turns around, getting an arrogant cover for two.

Dundee is brilliantly staying on Lawler’s blind side and popping him with repeated shots to wear him down, then even jumps on his belly while he gestures to all the wrestlers watching at ringside. Back from break with a flying fistdrop leaving Lawler writhing around, and when he turns around again a ducking Dundee busts him another one, slumping Lawler into the corner. Dundee gets a fistdrop off Bret’s rope and starts building his SmackDown! meter instead of paying attention but Lawler’s so dead it doesn’t matter. Eight straight minutes of ass-kicking! Dundee BITES his face and takes tons of free shots, but makes the mistake of GRAPPLING Lawler and that’s what he needs to unload with a huge right hand! Don’t need to see him when he’s grabbing you! So a panicked Dundee just shoves him over and bails to recover his nerve, coming back with a flying axehandle. Dundee throws some insane jab combos to Lawler’s face, but with brilliant timing he sells by falling back into the ropes and the momentum lets him get another huge shot! Dundee recovers fast with a stomp but falls on his ass- he’s been rocked! Back from break- Dundee gets flung into an upright table then slides across it when it falls back so he hits the floor! Lawler and the ref count him down at once out there, but Dundee, his heart full of cowardice, rolls in to break it then runs off again and GRABS HIS WIFE so they can leave without repurcussions, so Lawler has to chase them down and kick Bill’s ass all over the place, as the poor ref chases them up the stands, but Bill fires back with a right hand that sends Jerry OVER THE RAILING into a bump on the floor! Hell of a bump, even from leaping over a railing on a stand 5 feet in the air.

And that clever piece of shit Dundee, having just tried to escape, now senses an easy win and drags the ref all the way back to the ring and DEMANDS A COUNT knowing he’s got Lawler hurt, and the fans desperately have to cheer for Lawler so he can stumble back. Jerry can barely roll back in before Dundee baseball slides him and smashes him into a table, then hits a couple rights and slams him HARD into the ringpost, Jerry wrapping himself around it. Dundee rolls back in and is like “Come on, Lawler!” as Beverly Dundee is on HER feet, but here comes Jerry! He’s like “try it!” and absorbs lefts and rights and DOWN COMES THE STRAP! The fans go BANANA as this marks the Lawler trademark comeback. He hits three monster punches (Fans: “OOH!” to each one) as Dundee helicopters around 270-degrees on each one, flailing BOTH arms as he does so. And now DUNDEE aims the wrong way to throw a punch, and a final one sends him up onto his back! Such was the exertion of the punch that even Lawler falls on his ass, and he needs to recover, and he collapses to his knees on another right hand that sends Bill first into the corner, then slumping onto his face. Lawler turns him around, hits a fistdrop, then ratta-tats him with repeater punches while on his knees, then pulls Bill up into the Mortal Kombat “FINISH HIM!” dizzy pose and of course gestures to the fans “Should I hit him with a really big one?” to maximize the spot, and he does the full Popeye wind-up and BLAMMMO-O-O-O-O- Bill sells it by flinging himself all the way acros the ring, ending up face down in the corner. Heel wrestler Tony Falk and Beverly come out to cheer him on, but Falk has SLIPPED HIM SOMETHING, and so Dundee flings something at Lawler’s face that has him covering it in pain and he goes down and NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Dundee has won by cheating (15:27 of 22:41 shown)! That dastardly son of a bitch! I hate him so much! Lawler must leave Memphis for months!

This was INCREDIBLE, haha. This shows you what can be done even when two guys are otherwise kinda limited- almost no move in this match was anything other than a punch to the forehead and it was amazing! The first 8-9 minutes is ALL DUNDEE, chuckling as he easily avoids Lawler’s counter-punches and uses the injured eye to hide out in his blind spot and score easy punches. This finally leads to a BIG Lawler punch that does the damage of 10 Bill ones… but Lawler’s still hurt and so it’s not enough. But he’s able to use the momentum of a headbutt to fling back into the ropes and use THAT to score a bigger one. Then it’s outside the ring with Bill getting a proper ass-beating, but after a lot of that he decides to bail like a chickenshit, then when a lucky punch sends Lawler into a big bump over the railing, he bolts to the ring to pick up an easier win via countout, then pounces on Lawler when that doesn’t work. And finally the “Lawler Comeback” is handled perfectly, as he’s able to now absorb punches instead of sell them (as is tradition), drops the strap, then throws out some right hands that have the heel spinning in an axis with is feet planted on the mat, then somersaulting around the ring, but Bill’s able to cheat like a coward and win anyways. Lawler would return in April and defeat Dundee in a Steel Cage Match for the belt, but win it back weeks later, then lose it to Buddy Landel. He loses one final Loser Leaves Town Match to Lawler in July and actually leaves town until ten months later.

Rating: ****1/2 (just wild shit- illustrates how you can make an amazing bout out of simple offense)

BEST TWO OF THREE FALLS:
ARM WRESTING/KNOCKOUT:
BIG DADDY vs. “THE MISSISSIPPI MAULER” BIG JIM HARRIS:
(World of Sport, March 13th 1982)
* It’s KAMALA! As a green nobody all the way over in the UK, talking shit to Big Daddy, hero of the UK and one of their top wrestlers! That always amuses me, given how I associate the World of Sport style with incredibly intricate and quick technical wrestling and the big hero is mr. Big Fat Guy. Daddy comes down with the fans singing along to his theme, and he’s pushing a very small child on a stretcher- the kid appears to be very ill or crippled in some way. oh god tell me Jimmy Saville isn’t around. Ah she’s a 9 year old with cancer, and he’s promised to wheel her to ringside! Harris at this point is rather svelte, simply being VERY tall and in a red singlet. The ring is SUPER tiny, which looks silly with two such large men in it.

FIRST FALL (Arm Wrestling): They work the arm wrestling well, appearing even and shaking until Big Daddy’s arm slowwwwwwwlllly goes down, but he naturall shakes his head a lot and makes the comeback and slams the Mauler’s hand against the table for the win (0:44)! They try again on different chairs, but Harris pulls his hand away at (0:14) before he loses, complaining that this “isn’t my kinda game!” and he wants to beat Big Daddy in a real wrestling match.

SECOND FALL (Wrestling to a Knockout): No pinfalls here! They “lock up” and Daddy does the “fling his arms down” thing, sending Harris back, where he throws a giant tantrum and comes at Daddy with his fists up. Another attempt and he pounds his chest in defiance, scoring a headlock next but then it’s FAT GUY NO-SOLD SHOULDERBLOCKS and Big Daddy whips him to two corners and back body drops him! Harris bails to the floor as the second shot to the corner appears to have dislodged the middle rope. They start wrestling while it’s being fixed, and Harris takes a pretty stiff backwards-roll bump off a shoulderblock, then goes into the corner after another. You can tell he’s green because he stiffens up for most of them as if he wants to be SUPER SURE he’s ready for it and to do his “bump motion”. With experience, most guys automatically go into bump form at any time. Body Slam by Big Daddy! He pulls Harris up and whips him to another corner, but they have the dreaded “failed whip” as Mauler’s legit momentum carries him out of Big Daddy’s grip, wrecking the spot. So Daddy repositions and whips him to the other corner, then back to the first one, then pulls out a motherfucking MOUNTAIN BOMB, absolutely splattering the Mauler’s head against the mat and the guy is unable to answer the count at (2:53)- Big Daddy wins! Yeah I would think so. Mauler’s twitch sell of death on that is great.

haha, so weird. You can tell Harris is green because almost every single move is based off of an Irish whip- one of the first thing a wrestler is taught in training class. Like, over and over again they do that to the point where the match is JUST Irish whips. The only real signs of how untrained he is is with how he absorbs some of those shoulderblock bumps- making sure he goes to a default position before taking them because he’s probably unsure of how to take a bump while moving forwards beforehand. He manages it a COUPLE times, at least. Oh and also ending the match in 3 minutes after all that hype is a sure sign they don’t want him going long. The finish was one hell of a slam, though- Daddy just squashed his head underneath him and I’m not sure there’s a way to fake that easily.

Rating: *1/2 (harmless and super-short and simple)

ULKA SASAKI vs. CHARLIE DEMPSEY:
(WWE Evolve, Aug. 12th 2026)
* By request from Phrederic, this match from Evolve got a lot of attention from those on his review thread- this was apparently a cool match! Sasaki is a former MMA fighter who joined Pro Wrestling NOAH, and occasionally wrestles on NXT, as well as Evolve, which from what I’ve been told is like the AAA version of WWE- like… if you’re not ready for NXT, you go to Evolve and they see what you’re capable of without a big audience or as much “bad reputation from NXT” stuff going on. Ulka is a Sansrkit word for “Tengu”, and he has Tengu-themed stuff. Tengu are of course the long-nosed tricksters of Japanese mythology (Mr. Karate in Art of Fighting/Fatal Fury is wearing a Tengu mask). His opponent is the son of William Regal, announced by commentary here as the son of William Regal, whose real name is Darren Matthews, so of course his name is Charlie Dempsey. He’s a tall-ish guy in purple trunks with a decent physique for a guy who doesn’t look roided. Sasaki’s in high boots and baggy pants and a a shirt, all black.

Dempsey quickly takes the arm and uses it to backdrop Sasaki down, but he gets caught in a headscissors, having to bridge out and slap on a TIGHT headlock across the face. They slap each other’s chests a bit but Sasaki proves his mettle by doffing his shirt (revealing a nothing-to-write-home about physique- not quite up to his Wikipedia page picture! *swoons*) and they have a MANLINESS CONTEST, smashes each other wtih forearms and chops. I like that spot- unlike the way wrestlers use that to take a break most times (or worse, the “hockey fight” spot that thankfully AEW’s guys have mostly stopped doing- it was AWFUL and usually looks so loose it exposes the business) this looked like they were slugging out out and actually TRYING to hurt each other while trying to “prove” the other couldn’t hurt them, then they criss-cross the ring really fast and Sasaki lands a hiptoss. Another smashfest leads to Ulka shoving Charlie, luring him into a charge so Ulka can armdrag him. Dempsey gets his own deep one, but Sasaki uses the hair to pull him down in a hammerlock, then bridges with a lock on the arm and Charlie has to shake off the pain in the corner. Sasaki fires off some chops in the corner, then calls a spot and Dempsey counters a corner-whip by LUNGING himself backwards in an arch so Sasaki’s flung face-first into the middle turnbuckle. Dempsey forearm smashes him repeatedly and hits a gutwrench suplex. Ulka refuses to even go down for a pin so Dempsey has to sledgehammer him to death to get two, but Ulka counters a suplex and does a slick trip to set up a knee smash while Dempsey’s kneeling. Dempsey throws a blind strike and gets smoked in the head by a running shot.

Dempsey manages to fight back by going to the arm and slapping it around, then bends it and knucklelocks him- they flip each other over repeatedly and do backwards rolls into pinning combos, but Ulka slaps on a kimura attempt, but Dempsey turns it into a Boston crab (sadly no real “counter”- he just leaned over and shifted to that move), but Sasaki powers him over and goes for a jujigatame, but Dempsey powers out and release Germans him, Sasaki using the momentum to bounce off the ropes for a rolling elbow before both collapse and sell. They do the old “fight up from their knees” spot, Dempsey taking the lead with his usual array of chest-slaps-to-forearms until Sasaki dodges one and backslides him for two, then rolls him up twice, turning the last into a Fujiwara armbar, then a Rings of Saturn when Dempsey slides near the ropes- he’s able to put his foot on them. Sasaki snapmares him into some kicks, but Dempsey sees one coming and catches it, cranks him with a dragon screw legwhip, then backdrop suplexes him twice and hits a Butterfly Suplex, arching theatrically with his hands on Sasaki’s shoulders- two! Hey, what’s that thing Dempsey’s doing, where he just slaps the mat in frustration and moves on instead of standing there, bug-eyed and in shock, dramatically overselling the surefire kickout? WHO TAUGHT HIM TO WORK? Sasaki is so dead he can’t be picked up, and he’s wobbly when Dempsey finally hauls him up, able to only slap weakly… but he suckered him! He slaps on a sleeperhold from behind to counter another backdrop, but Charlie carefully locks up his leg and gets a Capture Backdrop Suplex Hold for three at (8:46).

Well this was snug! Very stiff strikes with none of that weak “hockey fight” shit or “to make loud noises” chops- half of it was aimed at the HEAD. Even the corner-whips and stuff felt tight and well-executed. I got so used to the way a lot of guys today run the ropes by just rushing past one another and giving each other light taps on the back that I had to be reminded that LOOKS STUPID to normal people, and now I see it everywhere- these guys were doing it right- GRAB that wrist and just haul off on them. Yeah Irish whips are fake as fuck but that doesn’t mean you should just arbitrarily run around. It was funny seeing them talk about Dempsey’s “World of Sport” stuff because everything I’ve seen has been super-intricate mat/submission wrestling and theatrical bumps (and like… Big Daddy stuff), not the Japan-style “beat them to a pulp and make it look real” stuff. I liked how GRITTY they made this, grunting and roaring to show the effort of every little bit of ground they gained, or how Ulka would trip Dempsey so he’d go into “kneeling position” instead of just have Dempsey do it with little reason. Similarly, the whip into the turnbuckles looked snug. Good chain-wrestling from Sasaki, turning one thing into another thing when Dempsey so much as shifts, though they had a few of the “magical counters” (how’d a kimura turn into a boston crab?). Overall it was a very good length for a TV match, built appropriately with some one-upsmanship, and was very snug and direct (very much what I recall from… well not EVERY Japanese promotion but some of them), and a pin more from constant weardown instead of throwing out MDK after MDK until one arbitrarily got the win.

Rating: *** (highly good stuff overall!

THE BUTCHER & THE BLADE vs. PINEAPPLE PETE & ANTHONY CATENA:
(AEW Dark, 6/9/2020)
* PINEAPPLE PETE?!?! I hate that guy! So it’s back to the “AEW Dark” era of matches in front of almost zero fans, with the Butcher and the Blade- I wanted to cover at least something since the Butcher died, and I was hesitant to just do something from their “Jobbers To The Stars” AEW run, so this at least mixes with my “check out some Dark stuff” request. Catena is a guy with only 2-3 years in the business at this point, but a ridiculously short amount of ring-time if Cagematch isn’t lying- maybe something like 20 matches? He never really went anywhere despite his height- he’s billed at 6’4″ (lol ya right) but is still wrestling for the modern Ohio Valley Wrestling and ICW and whatever. He’s got a solid physique and “Generic McWrestler” look in orange trunks. Pineapple Pete is a dweeb with 14 years in the business (!) who became a bit of a meme in AEW for appearing in the “wrestler crowd” during the COVID shows as a warm body and earning special enmity from guest commentator Chris Jericho, but only got 9 AEW matches before being cut loose. He currently goes by Suge D. I remember him being fat, but he’s more… like FLABBY. A jiggly midsection and no ass.

The Blade is a lonnnnnnnnnngtime vet by this point, having been trained by Les Thatcher and debuting in 2001, and is by far the most successful guy to be #500 in the PWI 500, as he actually ended up with a real career. He also trained The Butcher, who was about 42 here and seems to have had barely 20 matches to his name until getting tons more in 2019, then debuting for AEW. The two became a meme quickly when they debuted and Excalibur went “It’s the BUTCHER!” as the Butcher pierced through the ring mat to fight Cody Rhodes, and Jim Ross, on a live mic, responded “WHO?!” sounding either confused or disgusted, which Excalibur used as an excuse to repeat himself- “It’s THE BUTCHER! And THE BLADE!” with no other explanation. It was HILARIOUS and immediately brought to the forefront how AEW booking seemed to expect us to just know & pop for all of these new hires, who never seemed to have any exposition given to them. They were used as a “heater” for babyfaces for a bit, but eventually became JTTS guys, sticking around for about 5 years before being quietly released. Interestingly, quickly watching their 2020 matches against the Young Bucks & FTR, they’re both “the Blade in for 90%, The Butcher gets 2-3 spots then tags out” sorta affairs, clearly keeping him out for the most part.

Tazz buries Pete’s horrible physique as he strips down to pineapple-themed undies and throws jabs at nothing, so the Butcher just bulls him into the corner, rakes his forearm across his face a few times, and puts the boots to him. Pete gets raked across the top rope and double-teamed a bunch, Butcher choking him behind the ref’s back. Pete manages to roll under the Blade and hits a pitcher’s wind-up punch, but does a silly Karate Kid pose into a crane kick, which is easily caught and turned into a fisherman’s neckbreaker. He throws on another one and casually lets Pete tag out to Temu Randy Orton, who rushes in and gets beaten up, then eats a stunner and turns around into the Butcher’s clothesline, flipping him over. Butcher stiffly hits a running powerslam, broken up by Pete. They beat the shit out of him as he flops around on the sell, and he hits the floor so they can hit the Full Death, Butcher suplexing him onto Blade’s “knees” (he drops down but is too close so it looks like shit), scoring the pin at (3:58).

Solid-ish squash, with Pete… mostly making a fool of himself and commentary burying him for “squandering” his opportunities, and Catena looked like any other warm body. The heels looked fine, though Butcher always had that full-body stiffness he never really got over (given he debuted at like 39 years old I’m not surprised) and the finish was ass.

Rating: 1/2* (inoffensive nothing- about 2/5 on the Squash Scale without too much going for it since it was mostly Pete goofing off and flailing around)

THIS WEEK’S PWI 500 GUY: “INFERNO” JOHNNY ADAMS:
Appearances: #499 in 2011, #496 in 2012, #496 in 2013, #490 in 2014

-Another “nothin’ to write home about” indie guy, Adams has been trucking along for decades in the New York scene. His PWI rankings are a hoot- I’ve never seen someone so stuck at one level- #499 to #490 and that’s it. He looks sorta like Adam Cole’s head was put on a doughy Crockett jobber’s physique- flabby body, kinda man-boobs and long, greasy brown hair. He looks to have wrestled from 2001-2017, mostly for Empire State Wrestling and NWA affiliates in the New York State area.

THIS WEEK’S PWI 500 GUY: KEVIN BENNETT:
Appearances: #481 in 2014, #407 in 2015, #443 in 2016, #360 in 2017, #417 in 2018, #400 in 2019, #347 in 2020, #428 in 2023

-A bone-thin indie geek with “overcomplicated tights” similar to the ones Nick Wayne, Wheeler Yuta and others have worn, Bennett is another “Stuck in New York” indie guy. He has a hilariously long run in the bad ranks of the PWI 500, which, given what we now know, means he sent in 30 bucks and his resume like eight times before getting sick of it. He wrestles from 2011-2024 from what I can tell, and moves around a lot- wrestling mainly in Pennsylvania for a while, then Toronto, and has lately mostly been in Empire State Wrestling.

THIS WEEK’S PWI 500 GUY: AKASHA BLAQUE (aka Gabriel/Gabreal Saint, Camryn Akasha Blaque):
Appearances: #497 in 2010, #466 in 2012, #450 in 2013, #440 in 2014, #425 in 2015

-Going by a lot of names, Akasha Blaque has been around New York promotions from 2003-2024 and never really went anywhere. He looks like a Generic McWrestler sort- the basic barebones style with nothing flashy. And he’s PUNY, too- Bennett is super-tiny and as Saint, Blaque was noticeably shorter and with no physique. Like, he has a big gut and he walks in the worst way to hide it, sticking it out and jutting his ass out like a duck.

LADDER MATCH:
ESW INTERSTATE TITLE:
KEVIN BENNETT vs. GABREAL SAINT (w/ Spooky Blonde Lady… thankfully it says Lady Lala on the thumbnail I just noticed, haha) vs. “INFERNO” JOHNNY ADAMS:
(Empire State Wrestling, 5/10/2013)
* OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH an INDIE Ladder Match! It’s been a minute since I’ve reviewed one of THESE! These are either total messes or just derivative of Shawn/Razor, and either is fun to watch in its own way. Saint comes down with a valet who is throwing up devil’s horns the whole way, and he climbs the ladder to show dominance… and then BIFFS IT when he leaps down. Serves him right for being a dumbass, haha. At least he’s the heel. Though he’s obviously doing a Spoopy gimmick so that was NOT intentional. He’s a black guy in a black singlet with one half of his head shaved into elaborate patterns. Adams is dressed like Captain America for some reason. With an “I” in the chest star. Bennett looks to be a 120-lb. skinny teenager in those “Modern complex tights” with one side green and the other black, but he’s taller than Saint. There actually looks to be a lot of people here- easily 100-200 or so, so ESW must do pretty well and has a real fanbase.

For some reason the announcer keeps yakking after the bell rings… oh lord, he’s actually doing COMMENTARY over the crowd mic. A 3-way fight sees Adams spear the other two, but Saint clotheslines him. They fight to the floor and the valet holds up the ladder in the worst way possible, standing BETWEEN the sides while holding it up so Bennett can be tossed into it. Adams Germans Bennett, then stupidly stands with his legs between the ladder and Saint swings it up into his nuts. Saint rams it into Bennett, but gets flung upside-down into it himself- ah yes, so it’s Shawn/Razor style, then. Adams punches down Bennett and backdrop suplexes Saint off the middle rungs, but the ladder gets draped across the 2nd ropes in the corner and Adams & Saint have a very careful fight on it, Saint getting flung off and his manager but launched off into him. But Adams climbs in the corner there for no reason and sits there and oh noooooooooooo Bennett charges across the ring and leaps into a super frankensteiner. At least he’s supposed to but instead he slips off, powerbombs himself on the ladder and bounces off head-first to the mat. So it looks like shit AND devastating and painful, haha. Literally the worst way a move can be botched.

Saint runs in to pull Adams off by his leg (Adams goes “NO!” theatrically but nods “yes” subtly to be pulled off), then drapes the ladder in Bennett’s face while the camera somehow manages to catch Bennett openly conversing with him despite being in the opposite corner. Oh my god, hee hee NOW we’re well into “indie mess” mode. Saint gets drop-toeholded on it, hurting them both, then Adams DDTs him and sends him into a theatrical flop sell. Adams tosses the ladder onto both and Saint does it again, but a super-slow-mo fight results in the ladder being see-sawed into Adams again. Bennett baseball slides the ladder into Saint and brawls with Adams, who pushes the ladder over, Bennett stopping himself with his foot and leaps in for a crossbody. That was awkward- like he was either supposed to be crotching himself or to counter more easily. Saint then props a second ladder up next to him and they do the “climbing fight”, and Adams shoves them both off. He climbs like he’s 81 billion years old until Bennett missile kicks him off. Saint gets out a big ladder and drapes it across the mat and guardrail, whipping Adams hard into it then flinging Bennett up and onto it. Saint climbs the corner for some reason and gets crotched and Bennett kicks the ladder into Adams, and… just climbs the big ladder and wins (15:49), keeping his belt. That was it?

oh mannnnnn- the first 2-3 minutes I was delighted that they were slowly but surely doing “Shawn/Razor” simple stuff, but then they just HAD to get in their “List o’ Spots” and it ended up a total car crash in the “shitty guys trying TLC matches” kind of way, doing elaborate spots with no real rhyme or rhythm. A guy would eat a transitional move and sell for 3 minutes, or guys would mess up whatever they were planning or have a cameraman who didn’t know to point away from open conversations. Saint did a lot of theatrical “thrash around” selling but only on a couple spots, and appeared to take a ton of powders so the other two could do their preplanned spots, in fact. And then the ending was weird- the least impressive bumps (a basic shitcan after being crotched, and someone kicking a ladder into you) and Bennett handily gets his belt back.

Rating: DUD (it was almost looking like the start of a ** match, but they just had to do their cool shit, which was mostly done clumsily and unconvincingly)