Eddie Kingston vs Chris Hero
09/26/2009
Manhattan Center, Manhattan, New York, United States
(reviewed 05/24/2019) Even if this isn’t quite great it’s better than their preceding TV match and more in line with their 2005-2007 wars, so I’m happy to see it. Per usual we’ve got a brawl-oriented slugfest. They can’t lean too heavily on the brawling, since this comes directly after a big ol’ Ladder War between the American Wolves and Steenerico, but even if they’re limited to moves on the floor and whips into the guard rail they make do. The striking carries most of the weight, as there’s some sick glancing blows here that catch their victim in the worst way. Sadly it’s almost impossible to hear them, as this show has atrocious PROGRESS-in-anything-approaching-a-large-venue sound mixing. Two of the hardest hitters the indies have ever known barely make their shots heard over the bored tones of Dave Prazak and some schmuck they never bother naming. The crowd doesn’t seem to care much either, with the awful mix robbing this match of any fleeting energy these people have left. Kingston pries Hero’s loaded elbow pad off his arm and hits his incompetent manager, Shane Hagadorn, with a loaded pad-assisted backfist but Hero’s able to produce a second elbow pad and clocks Kingston with a rolling elbow for the win.