Match Review: Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss, Full Metal Mayhem (TNA - February 13, 2005)

 

have this funny jeff hardy image because what the fuck would i put here?

This match was suggested to me after I asked snowboiiii on his Twitch stream today what match I should review for here, and he grabbed his recommended matches list, asked his chat to pick a random number, and picked a match from that which was actually available to watch on YouTube. That being Jeff Hardy vs. Abyss in a Full Metal Mayhem match from TNA's Against All Odds 2005. Now, I have no real idea why I chose to do this, but I did. So that's what you're getting.

For those unaware this is the second match in a series of bouts Hardy and Abyss would have from late 2004 all the way to Bound For Glory 2005, which also featured Rhino and Sabu in it for whatever reason that I am seriously forgetting right now. Yes, they'd go on to have matches in the 2010s but I've never watched those matches before so I'm personally not counting them. I did not watch any build up to this so I'm willing to admit that there's probably a lot that I'm missing out on, but the commentators explained that Abyss made his return to TNA after some period of absence, attacked Jeff Hardy and.... we have this match now! But you see, gracious emmo blog viewer, the real point of confusion comes with the added stipulation by authority figure (I forgot what the fuck his actual title was even though they said it) Dusty Rhodes. The match is not just a Full Metal Mayhem match (basically TNA's equivalent to a TLC for those who have never seen TNA before), but is also a #1 contenders match where the winner will face NWA World Heavyweight Champion (JeffJarrettLOL) on a future episode of Impact, but ALSO alongside the #1 contendership contract there is... an empty envelope! The wrestlers have to basically guess which envelope has the contract and which envelope has nothing in it.

Look. I'm not gonna say that the way that TNA will change or add a stipulation in a gimmick match is HORRIBLE, like how I vaguely remember a lot of the talk about TNA and their gimmick matches were from at least a solid core of wrestling YouTubers back then (no disrespect to any of them, ofc) because I do find certain instances of that like, say, The King of The Mountain match to be pretty enjoyable honestly. But I would be lying to myself if I didn't say that I heard this information be delivered to my ears by the commentators and actively paused my watching of this match to stop and think about who thought it'd be a necessary addition to the match and why. Another side note, I absolutely fucking love Abyss' presentation here. The entrance, the theme, the big ass chain he carries with him. It's all insanely good and tells me he is definitely gonna be a future subject on my Wrestlers I Like series. Jeff Hardy's theme here is... a TNA Jeff Hardy theme. It exists. Definitely nowhere as good as Another Me, but still.

Now, if you want my HONEST opinion on the actual match itself?
I don't hate it... but I'm also not sure if I really like it.
It would be simply untrue to call this match bad because there are some really good and nasty looking spots in there like Jeff's Poetry In Motion off a chair very early on, the ladder catapult spot where Jeff springs off the top turnbuckle and lands on one of the ladders to send the other end of it flying into Abyss' face. Hell, I even found enjoyment out of BOTH times that Abyss sent Jeff flying into a stack of tables, even if the second one was WAY more scuffed than the first one, let's be real. However, in general the match just felt... slow. They spend a lot of time setting up tables, setting up ladders, brawling on the outside... there's a part during the match after the first big Jeff Hardy Table Bump™ where, after slamming Jeff's face into the entrance way, instead of grabbing a ladder and actually trying to WIN the match, Abyss chooses to grab a table and set it up on the entrance way. Genuinely, I was internally fucking SCREAMING at my screen like "GET A LADDER!!! YOU HAVE ENOUGH OF AN OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!!" Real shit, nobody in the match actually tries to use one of the ladders to attempt to grab the envelopes for like... I wanna say 14 minutes out of a nearly 16 minute match? Which is insanely goofy to me. I'm not sure if it's just a me thing but it always bugs me when a ladder match has barely any attempt to grab the item that's being held up. Anyways, obviously, the table was set up for a big Jeff Hardy stage dive that in terms of all the big Jeff Hardy dives that I've seen in my life was... just kinda middling to me? I think it was mostly the height of the dive which... wasn't very far even if the cameras and commentators really tried to make you think that it was a big deal. Like, I dunno, I suppose AT THE TIME it was a big deal because I'd imagine Jeff had not done anything like this in TNA yet, but looking back at this in nearly 2025 after already seeing that big iconic Bound For Glory 2005 dive off the stage it didn't give me the reaction that it was supposed to give. That's kind of the big thing with this, if you have not seen any of their other work then I think it would be understandable to say this match was good, but as someone who has seen as such.... I just think about how much I could be watching those other, BETTER matches right now. It's the room temperature water of Jeff Hardy and Abyss matches. Not bad, but you could have literally anything else at this current moment. But hell, I can give the match credit, I'd rate it over probably anything that 2024 TNA Jeff Hardy has done. Last little note is that the post match part where Jeff just gets extremely angry at the stack of tables he went through is incredibly fucking funny and everybody on the planet should see this.

match rating:
★★★.15

Wrestlers I Love: Mad Dog Connelly

(photo taken from Mad Dog's Twitter, unsure of who took it. please dm me and i will properly credit if needed.)

Wanted to start this off real quick apologies to my cumulative seven fans for the lack of actual writing that has been seen in the past couple of months, easiest explanation that I can give is that I've been dealing with a combination of Being Super Fucking Busy™ and also my general mental health being super erratic for reasons that i'm honestly not gonna get into here. Anyways, I wanted to come back to blogging with something of a start to a potential hybrid-blog-and-Youtube content series, which i'm currently dubbing the very simple title of "Wrestlers I Like", an idea that was slightly inspired by both Tom Green's "Why They Rule" series where he goes over why certain wrestlers are really good in the span of 60 seconds and also in a way that is hard for me to explain at the moment, my good friend Hiten Mitsuru's Yap Session videos where she talks about numerous different things usually having to do with art or video games, you should check them out if you like content about that type of stuff. She's really cool.
I'll probably explain how I actually wanna RUN this series of content at a later date, but to put it simply on how this will work: I'm basically going to rant and rave about wrestlers that I really really like. I'll talk about how I found out about them, how good I think they are, along with some blurbs about my favorite matches from them because I am absolutely super fucking autistic about professional wrestling and if you don't like it... well, why are you reading a wrestling blog anyways?

So I figured the best way to start off a series like this is to talk about a wrestler who, genuinely, is somebody I could consider as THE wrestler of the year. If not at the very least in the conversation of top 3.... Mad Dog Connelly.

I got into Connelly, funnily enough, this year, after watching his dog collar match against Demus at ACTION Wrestling's DEAN~!! event during WrestleMania 40 weekend all the way back in April.

I had heard about him vaguely in 2021-2023 but for whatever reason never actually bothered to check out his matches there despite him wrestling in places that I was absolutely watching around that period. Namely Saint Louis Anarchy and Paradigm Pro. Genuinely I don't think I have much of a proper explanation for not knowing about him before this match, but lemme tell you, after watching the match at DEAN~!!... I was absolutely fucking hooked on Mad Dog. Same thing with Demus, somebody who I also need to do a "Wrestlers I Like" entry on at this point, don't you fucking worry your soul.

Now, to answer the question: Why do I love Mad Dog Connelly?
It's very simple.
He's one of those wrestlers whose matches you watch and afterwards go "hell yeah."

Let's be honest. There's a demographic in modern wrestling of guys such as Lee Moriarty, Alex Shelley, Jon Gresham, hell even possibly Danielson and many others that I could easily spout off as examples who give a "cleaned up", smooth and crisp presentation of wrestling in their matches, with Mad Dog you don't get... well, any of that. He's not smooth, cleaned up, or crisp. BUT THAT'S WHAT MAKES HIM SO UNBELIEVABLY FUCKING AWESOME. His work is some of the grimiest, grossest, absolutely mauled in filth shit in North American wrestling today. Pretty much all of his matches have some kind of spot where he's trying to murder his opponent in some form or fashion, every time I go into each one expecting an absolute spectacle and they deliver to the upmost degree. The aforementioned dog collar match with Demus, his series of matches with Steve Manders, hell, even his 2022 no disqualification bout with Jake Lander from ZERO1 USA are some of examples of the closest that you could possibly get to a modern recreation of the old school "southern-style" brawls of the 1980's. It's incredibly difficult to compare Mad Dog to literally ANYBODY else that's active nowadays because the style that he presents is in a completely different universe from basically anybody else in the United States. Literally, I fucking dare somebody to find any wrestler in the US that's on the level that Connelly has been on for the past while. You can't. Literally anybody who comes close to that would be working on the Mexican independent scene right now, one of the reasons why ACTION booking Demus/Mad Dog back during WrestleMania weekend was such a stroke of genius but that's something I'll have to fully elaborate on when (not if) I end up writing about that match in specific. In a lot of ways what makes Mad Dog compelling is definitely the same thing that made dudes like Buzz Sawyer, Atsushi Onita, Necro Butcher compelling in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Another thing that I like about his matches is that they all last the right amount of time. Most likely due to the chaotic nature of his matches, but i've not watched through one of them thinking "man, they really need to wrap this up" or "y'know I wish this lasted longer..." Personally, if you can hit that peak, ESPECIALLY when it comes to modern wrestling where.. admittedly there's a lot of matches that go on for longer than they realistically should, you are one of my favorites. Not to mention his promos are also amazing. There's way too many that I could pull up as examples so if you really need to go scroll his Twitter and you'll be bound to find some but with each promo I watch it feels like I'm witnessing a man grow more and more inhuman and insane as each second passes. They easily captivate me and feed into the notion that when I go into his matches I'm going to expect an absolute car crash spectacle which, again, COMPLETELY deliver each and every time. He's a fucking total package. Expect me to make match edits of him when I actually have the time and ideas for songs to match up with.

To cut things short.
Do yourself a favor today. Sit down, watch one of the many Mad Dog Connelly matches on YouTube (or IWTV, if you have that), have fun, and....
Live Your Truth.

( P.S: SOMEBODY out there in the world better book Mad Dog in the fucking Zona 23 Junkyard. I would actually, genuinely pay money to see footage of it. )

personal quick recommends list:

• vs. Jake Lander | ZERO1 (04/30/22)
• vs. Gary Jay | NWP (05/07/22)
• vs. Eric Dillinger vs. Nate Matthews | NWP (01/14/23)
• vs. Jordan | Timebomb Pro (08/10/23)
• vs. The Luminary | ZERO1 USA (08/19/23)
• vs. Matthew Justice | Paradigm (11/03/23)
• vs. 1 Called Manders | Saint Louis Anarchy (01//26/24)
• vs. Demus | ACTION (04/04/24)
• vs. 1 Called Manders | Saint Louis Anarchy (07/26/24)
• vs. Erron Wade | Scenic City Invitational (09/07/24)

*matches that i've watched of his that should all mostly be available on YouTube currently.
 

Match Review: KENTA vs. Ricky Marvin (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 10/15/2009)

 

requested by Rune

Y'know, it's a really funny thing to go from watching & writing about a match like Lee Moriarty vs. Daniel Makabe, something that initially started off slow and old school but built up gradually and had a lot of interesting submission moves.... to a super explosive match that goes like 2-3 minutes from 2009. Now, I should emphasize the fact that in no way am I at ALL complaining about this, I just think that the tonal shift is funny enough to point out.

Anyways, i'm not really sure of the background for this match, especially because i'm not too familiar of the lore for NOAH around this point in time. I know that it WAS a part of NOAH's 2009 Junior Heavyweight League, a tournament won by based god Yoshinobu Kanemaru and also for some reason had fucking Delirious in it. Literally huh. I also know that they had a longer match I THINK on one of the previous tours, but that's about all I really know. So anyways, how was the match?

It fucking rocks.

It's very much a no bullshit match. Ricky attacks KENTA before the bell rings, tries throwing whatever he can at KENTA to try and get a win before KENTA absolutely kills him with a GTS and a punt to score himself some points in the tournament. What's more to say? I love how absolutely explosive the match is, i'm not sure of how exactly to describe it but everything just feels.... real as fuck. Another part I love is how the crowd are also super into the match as well, they're reacting big for practically just about everything in this and with honest to god good reason. I wanna also specifically highlight Ricky Marvin's selling of KENTA's GTS because he sells it like death. His facial reaction looks like the man has fucking died and went to heaven and it's awesome. I absolutely recommend this match to anyone who has like 5 minutes to kill because it's a joy. It's easily available too, especially cause y'know... it's on YouTube!

match rating:
★★★★★

Match Review: Daniel Makabe vs. Lee Moriarty (Southern Underground Pro - 10/09/2020)

So, I guess I have one of these new-fangled blogs now.

I'm gonna be completely honest, this is something that i've considered doing off and on again for a couple months now and it's always eluded me because I thought "well, what if i'm not good at it?" I was always concerned about how other people would perceive my writing and, if I wasn't good at it, then surely it would never take off, right? Then, very late last night (as i'm writing this, currently it's 10/4/24) I kind of thought to myself.... "fuck it," and made the decision to do one anyways. It's not gonna be as good as other blogs like, say, Joseph Montecillo's or the dragonscrew blog ran by my good buddy Jom (shoutout both of them, you should go check out what they write), but as long as i'm having fun writing this then who really cares?

So, I figured to start things off why don't I make a post talking about a match featuring two of my favorite wrestlers that were an absolute mainstay on the independents for the past... 3 to 4 years, if I remember correctly. Daniel Makabe vs. Lee Moriarty from Southern Underground Pro's "Swing Of The Axe" event as part of the very... interesting 2020 GCW Collective. This match was actually my first real exposure to both of them as wrestlers when I watched the full show on IWTV in very early 2021, in fact, the whole show was my first real exposure to quite a few people on the card such as O'Shay Edwards, AC Mack, Jaden Newman, and I think Violence is Forever, but i'm not sure. Most of my exposure to the independent scene up until that point was generally things like CZW, House of Glory, and the odd GCW-related thing here and there, pretty much whatever I could find on YouTube that could entertain me while I was doing something else on my other monitor when I wasn't watching... i dunno, some Minecraft Youtuber shit or something. I had actually heard of both Moriarty and Makabe prior to this, but it was because of Total Extreme Wrestling, a game that i've been obsessed with for years, and still am! Now, I don't think there's really much background to the match itself since this was during the Coronavirus pandemic and shows obviously weren't being run so there's not much I could realistically go into there. Makabe is definitely the veteran going into the match compared to Lee, he's already worked for companies like WXW and Riptide alongside being a mainstay for 3-2-1 BATTLE! Meanwhile this is a few months before the real surge of bookings Lee would get all throughout 2021, and well before his AEW run during the latter half of said year. So how about we just talk about the match itself?

Something that I like about matches from both of these guys is that I never, ever go out of them feeling bored with what I just watched. There's never really a spot I see from them where I think "man, this is really uninteresting" or "man this is supper sloppy", even if it's a spot that's super simple they always have something in there that will illicit a positive reaction from me when I go back and watch it. This match, for example, is a very good case of that. It doesn't feel too rushed, and it absolutely doesn't feel like it's dragged out, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy it. It's that sweet spot. I know that I noted that it's something with no real background going into it, but this honestly feels like a match between two longtime rivals with tons of chemistry and a backlog of bouts spanning years which is especially crazy to think about when this is their first and ONLY singles match. It's very simple in it's overall narrative, the younger and less rusty Moriarty trying his best to outwork the veteran Makabe but I think it's a narrative that's done exceptionally well. Dan does a really good job making Lee's offense look good, while also holding his own throughout. Some of my favorite spots have got to be Lee and Daniel's struggle to get the Octopus Stretch locked in on eachother, with Lee being the successful one before Daniel manages to break out of it.... pretty much any time Lee targets Daniel's injured arm and shoulders... Daniel countering a big rollup attempt from Lee into an STF... Lee's La Mistica (I hope I pronounced it right)... that BIIIGGGG Avalanche Frankensteiner from Makabe... Hell, i'm just gonna say that the closing stretch of the match is probably my overall favorite part of the match because it's a really good tonal shift from the beginning of the match which starts slow and calculated. Both men trying to throw whatever they can at each other frantically until Makabe is the one who can truly outsmart Lee and get the win with a beautiful cross-legged Makabe lock. 

I gotta say, watching this match almost four years later has gotten me to realize that, infact, this is still really fucking good. Like, holy shit. Go watch it on IWTV if you haven't. I don't wanna call it a "hidden gem," but it... probably could be considered this? It definitely got me hooked on both wrestlers when I first watched it, which in turn got me to check out more of their catalog, leading to my tastes in wrestling changing dramatically. Last little side note because i've been thinking about it since I started getting into writing this: How is it that NOBODY on the indies decided to book them in a rematch? I know they teamed in 5CC which I haven't seen (yet), and i'm not necessarily complaining or anything, but it's just crazy to think about how they have so much chemistry and, to my knowledge, never had another match. Oh well, it is what it is.

match rating:
★★★★★

Anyways, coming out of this: I don't know how often i'm gonna update this, I think what i'm gonna do is that if anyone out there WANTS me to review a specific match then you can pay me $10 on my ko-fi and either link it in the message there or link it to me on Discord (my username is emmoswrld) and I will try and watch + review it as soon as I can. Otherwise, i'll just write whenever I actually feel like it. Hopefully this doesn't completely blow up!