This review was commissioned by Hippoboy281 over on my Ko-fi account.
Arguably, the match that launched Mad Dog Mania upon the world.
This isn’t the first Mad Dog match that I watched, that honor goes to the also great Adam Priest match from Uncharted Territory later in 2022. However, it’s this match against Jake Lander from ZERO1 USA that really codified what Mad Dog Connelly would soon represent to the independent scene. By the time he steps through that entrance curtain, shaggy hair, bushy beard, and a chain in his hand, he’s basically already fully formed. Once he gets into the ring to try to murder the ring announcer with pliers, it becomes clear that somewhere out in the smaller indies of the world, a beast had been honing his skills and now the world finally got to see it unleashed.
The match itself is unrelenting. It’s a no disqualification brawl, but there’s actually a real cleverness to how they approach that stipulation and the escalation it requires. They start by actually dropping to the mat and scrambling, but doing so in a way that conveys real anger instead of competition. In a match like this, the early mat work is not a sign of hesitance but aggression. The two charge at each other and what results is pure physics: of course they crash down to the ground, and the struggle continues from there.
After that, the match does spill to the floor, and where this succeeds much more than a million different stipulation bouts is in its dedication to the violence. Mad Dog and Lander rarely give each other any room to breathe, and they’re especially clever about not wasting time setting up their next spot. That’s not to say that there’s no set up, watch carefully and you can see them moving chairs or steps into place, but they’re so brilliant about hiding the seams of this work. They incorporate the set up into the actual selling, making everything feel like a natural consequence of what came before rather than an intrusive break upon the momentum of the action.
Perhaps their greatest achievement though is just the pure physicality of it all.
Jesus Christ do these two hit hard. Even at the point that feels most like a segmented forethought–the bar fight when they’re seated face to face–they at least compensate by throwing some goddamn heaters. Those are some of the best punches I’ve seen in North America all decade, and maybe even longer. Just these meaty, clubbing blows right to the face. None of the hollow snap of a thigh slap to be seen, and if it’s there then it’s hidden beautifully. Fucking violence! God, it’s so fucking good.
This would already have been a great brawl at just that point, but then Lander starts a chair riot and the true greatness unveils itself. My understanding is that an errant chair is what catches Mad Dog in the head to the get wound flowing. Whether that’s fact or myth, I don’t really want to know. There’s ample time down there to get a bladejob going, so maybe it’s that. In this case, I choose to believe what I’ve been told.
A monster gets born in gore, and the legend of Mad Dog truly begins.
It’s fucking disgusting, so much so we can hear the visceral reactions from even the cameraman filming the match. At one point, Mad Dog demands to know where his signature chain is, and the cameraman can’t help but answer in earnest. Wouldn’t you? I would answer any questions that bleeding beast decided to ask me too.
The finish, as brilliant as the rest of it. Mad Dog goes for his chain, but Lander catches it just in time. Lander balls it up in his fist, and yanks the Mad Dog into his own weapon to knock him out. Beautiful, sweet justice in the greatest language there’s ever been: pro fucking wrestling, baby.
While the Demus match allowed Mad Dog to breakout into a wider circle of freak fans like myself, it’s this bout against Jake Lander that solidified him as one to watch to begin with. I don’t think there’s any understating just how powerful of a discovery this was when Twitter accounts started circulating clips and images from this bout back in 2022. The closest experience I’ll ever have to seeing horrifying images in a wrestling magazine and seeking out the footage to find that the product matched the hype.
Mad Dog Connelly, birthed in blood for the freaks.
Rating: ****1/4
