This review was commissioned by Alex Fyrehart over on my Ko-fi account.
The southern tag goes down under.
There’s a lot of charm packed into this bout, and one that speaks to the universal effectiveness of classic pro wrestling structure. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about Mitch Ryder and Tim Hayden teaming here as Top Tier. But their manager at ringside and the actions they take in the ring tell me everything I need to know. They achieve this with the classic southern tag structure: an initial babyface shine that allows the TMDK team to show their strengths, the heel heat where Top Tier steal an advantage and work to retain it, and then in the comeback when they finally go down to the heroes.
The first two acts of the match are the strongest. The shine isn’t quite the big bump and feed that one might get from 80s tag team wrestling, but even working a more mat-based style for this section, all four competitors get the idea across incredibly well. Hayden and Ryder try to tie it up with Eagles and Fujita in straight chain wrestling sequences and get pretty embarrassed at every turn. At points it feels like TMDK wrestle circles around the heels, in the best way possible, highlighting that skullduggery will be necessary to claim any sort of advantage.
And to their credit, Top Tier do a great job bringing the sketchiness to the party. They need the numbers to stunt Eagles’ momentum and a cheap shot to Fujita on the apron allows them to isolate Eagles in the ring for an extended heat. I also found myself real impressed by how well structured this heat ended up being. At multiple points, they run the risk of giving up what they’ve worked for too soon, often with Eagles himself taking just a little too much in a comeback attempt than I might have preferred. There’s an old school idea that the face in peril shouldn’t make their own comeback, otherwise what’s the point of having to do a hot tag. Luckily, Eagles doesn’t really break that rule here, instead using his brief moments of offense as an application of the Steamboat rule instead. He stays in the fight and can even flummox the heels, but the numbers game and shady tactics of the heels keep them on top. When Eagles finally does set up for the hot tag too, he doesn’t even do it with his own offense, instead dodging out of the way to have the heels crash into each other. That’s classic southern tag bullshit, immediately followed by a genuinely impressive hot tag from Fujita whose offense feels crisp and fiery.
It’s at that point, the match starts to wander. Unlike the classic southern tag that sees the the hot tag itself as the climactic finish, modern day tags will extend the final act into a back and forth bombfest, and that happens here as well. There’s not much of note here to be thrilled with. Some nice suplexes, a couple good strikes, but mostly just a “your turn, my turn” rhythm to try to milk more pops out of the crowd. Nothing offensive but also not great enough to justify itself, and just average enough to dilute a lot of the patience they showed in the first half.
Still, a small room match with a lot of charm, showcasing a lot of why classic pro wrestling worked and continues to work to this day.
Rating: ***1/2
