Mikey Cassidy's Match of the Night

Point of Review

My name is Mikey Cassidy. I don’t usually talk about myself too much when I do these (okay that’s a lie), but for the sake of those who don’t know me, let me introduce myself. I tried to become a pro wrestler and couldn’t cut it (more on that later), but you might’ve heard of my older brothers, Jack, or Jacob, and Zeke.

Jack was supposed to be the Next Big Thing in the mid 2000s. He burnt out instead, got some big opportunities but underachieved . You might've noticed him in DEFIANCE a couple times, along with a few less prestigious promotions, but it never developed. He ended up taking almost 10 years off from the business, and then reinvented himself during the COVID era, changed his name to Jacob, and he's been doing pretty good lately. 

Zeke, well, Zeke decided to work more on his presentation and persona than his actual wrestling. I guess what I'm trying to say is he chose to do comedy. But he's been putting in the work for a couple decades and he's proven he can actually go.

 And me? Obviously I wanted to be a pro wrestler, but I've got that basketball build. Six foot three and only one-sixty when I entered training camp. Couldn't build muscle, and the wear and tear was tearing me up fast. So I read the writing on the wall and changed lanes. I've referee'd, even managed Zeke for a bit. But what I really liked is writing about professional wrestling and telling both sides of an argument why they're both wrong. I’m a wrestling fan though, and if I can’t do the provocative opinion thing, I’ll still happily discuss awesome matches and great wrestlers.

You know, when Jack was a rookie making the rounds of the Coalition of Affiliated Leagues back in 2004, I wrote my first couple columns under the name Megaheel McBain. It wasn't quite as cringey as you might expect from the name, although I admit there was a little more troll than columnist in those early days. That was when Jeff Andrews was running the Coalition, and I guess even though I've only wrestled a handful of matches myself, I still count myself as one of those damn "Jeff Andrews guys." If you've been paying attention to pro wrestling at any point between 2000 and 2015, you know what that means. And now that Jeff's resurfaced in ICW, I figured maybe it was time I started paying attention to ICW.

Then I started hearing people say Point of Review was one of the best wrestling shows of the year.

So I watched it.

I was not disappointed. I was undisappointed, anti-disappointed. Amazing action. Great wrestlers. Just about everybody on the card looked like they belonged there. Then somebody floated the idea that if ICW was going to put on shows this good, maybe it ought to start recognizing a Match of the Night.

I liked the idea.

Now look, when your worst match of the night is Iron Kid versus Duchess Vaughn—and those two took one of the oldest stories in wrestling, the bully heel against the babyface underdog, and got a solid three-star match out of it—you've already got one hell of a wrestling show.

Hell, maybe you've got Brothers Gluck versus the Night Riders at the bottom instead. Fine. You're still talking about a match where a two-hundred-eighty-pound man jumped high enough to dropkick a two-hundred-fifty-pound man off the top turnbuckle. That's a pretty good "worst match" to have.

The point is, Point of Review was ridiculous in the best possible way.

The funny thing is, though, there wasn't one obvious Match of the Night.

There were three. 

Now depending on exactly what you watch wrestling for and what kind of wrestling you like best, I don't think you'd be wrong to pick any one of the three. But I’m writing the column, and I had to pick one.

So let's work backwards.

Second Runner-Up

Iron Crown / Trust Fund International Championship

Todderick Davenport III (c) vs. Graysie Parker vs. Kirsty McKinney vs. Eric Dane Jr.

A lot of people watched this match and came away saying the wrong person won. And I get it. I don't fully agree, but I get it. Look, Graysie and Kirsty wanted to kill each other almost as much as we wanted to watch them kill each other. Maybe more. If you’re part of the "intergender wrestling is a bad look" crowd, ICW is not your promotion, because the two women in this match looked like absolute killers. They're out there trying to fold each other in half with German suplexes. Meanwhile Eric Dane Jr. is doing what Eric Dane Jr. does, keeping the pace frantic and flying all over the place.

And then there's TD3. 

He's not out there trying to steal the highlight reel. He's playing the board.

I know that playing the board doesn’t fill the highlight reels and when a wrestler’s absent from the reels they tend to look mediocre at best. But think about how the match unfolded. Early on he tried to slip out of the action, and everybody noticed. They dragged him back in and kicked his ass for it. So he adjusted. He stayed involved just enough that it never looked like he was hiding anymore. 

But here's the question. Who took the fewest really devastating shots in the match? That's right. TD3.

Eric Dane Jr. got murdered by that Dead End suplex from Kirsty. Graysie looked like she was trying to break Kirsty's neck with that full nelson. Insert your own thirsty joke about the Shear Cradle here, but Kirsty practically strangled Graysie with her own kneecap. TD3? He committed to getting his ass kicked just enough that nobody noticed he was spending the whole match trying not to get his ass kicked.

That's not cowardice. That's resource management.

So when everybody else had emptied the tank trying to kill one another, TD3 slipped in with a Gedo Clutch at exactly the best—or worst—possible moment, depending on who you were rooting for. A three count later, TD3 retains, and grabs the bragging reward of being the first person in ICW to defeat Kirsty McKinney too. 

Would I have wrestled that way if I’d made it? Hell no, I wanted to fly like Dane does.

But, do I respect what TD3 did?

Absolutely.

And that's why this lands at Second Runner-Up instead of Match of the Night. I've just spent three paragraphs explaining why TD3 wrestled a brilliant championship match and shilling highlights from the other three wrestlers in the match, but in the end, a flash pin and a quick exit just doesn't have the same cool factor as the other two contenders.

First Runner-Up

Television Championship

Lowlife Larry Edwards (c) vs. Jack Havok

These hardcore chaos matches are always a little harder to compare to traditional wrestling matches. This one started with a fight backstage, got ad-libbed into Hardcore Rules before anybody had time to object, and from there it was just two men trying to convince the other to stay down by applying increasingly unreasonable amounts of blunt force trauma.

Now don't tell me these guys can't wrestle.

I don't know much about Jack Havok before he showed up in ICW, but watching him cinch in that fishhook sleeper he calls the Havok Lock, that's not something you learn from getting into bar fights. Somewhere along the way he learned how to fight fight. Larry Edwards, meanwhile, has the bad habit of trying to block punches with his chin, but he's got the kind of timing that makes up for a lot of bad habits. He doesn't always see the opening first. He usually sees it last. The important thing is, he sees it.

The finish is what keeps this from being my Match of the Night.

I don't know what goes on inside Jack Havok's head. I don't think anybody does. But sometimes a guy just gets under your skin. Sometimes he hangs around long enough, keeps getting back up long enough, that winning the match quits being enough. You don't just want to beat him anymore. You want to convince him to stop getting up.

We'd actually seen that earlier in the night. Duchess Vaughn didn't just beat Iron Kid. She could’ve taken the knockout win, but she outclassed him enough that she was able to hold off on the neat victory to force the submission win she wanted and prove her point.

I think that's close to what Jack Havok wanted. He didn't want to beat Larry Edwards. He wanted Larry Edwards to quit wanting to be Larry Edwards.

Wrong opponent. He should’ve learned that the first time around. Havok may be the monster of the TV Division, but Edwards had already proven he belonged in the ring with Havok. When Havok decided proving a point mattered more than finishing the match, Edwards rejected the point, planted him with two Dumpster Fire Drivers, and pinned him instead.

It was Havok’s match to lose. And then he made a terrible decision and did lose. And that's why Larry Edwards is still Television Champion.

And that's why this isn't my Match of the Night.

Given which matches I picked for the runners-up, it's probably obvious to anyone who watched the show what my Match of the Night actually is. And honestly? As good as those other matches were, I don't think this one was all that close.

Match of the Night

Iron Queen Championship

Sunny Holliday (c) vs. Celestina Cruz

I'm talking about Sunny Holliday versus Celestina Cruz, of course.

A rookie as good as Sunny Holliday is like a four-leaf clover. They're every promoter's dream. Sunny connects with the fans about as hard as she connects with a shoulder tackle. She's a plus-size woman who moves like a ballerina. I don't mean she's trying to be a high flyer. Watch her feet. They've got more to do with why people bounce off her than carrying an extra thirty pounds ever will. She’s almost never off balance, she’s almost never out of place.

But ICW didn't just find one. They found two. Because holy shit, how about Celestina Cruz?

They brought this woman in as half of a sisters tag team when they don’t have a women’s division, and then let Valeria have most of the spotlight while Celestina managed. Then Valeria gets her wrist wrecked and Celestina has to step up instead. Fifteen minutes later I'm sitting here wondering how we almost missed her. We got old-school heeling, Joshi nastiness, and brilliant lucha all wrapped up in one performance. Celestina timed her stalling perfectly, got inside Sunny's pacing, and, just as importantly, got the crowd exactly where she wanted them. That flying bicep slicer was gorgeous, and I still don't know how Sunny stayed standing after that Hotta-style spinning heel kick.

But every time Celestina gave Sunny just enough room to plant her feet, Sunny sent her head over heels.

Some people are going to say it was a mistake to stop attacking the leg and go after the arm. No. That was brilliant.

A lame Sunny can still drag somebody like Celestina to the mat and smother them on one good leg. A Sunny with one arm is a completely different problem. Besides, judging by a couple of the screams Sunny let out, I'd say Celestina was doing plenty of damage. Maybe it’s just because Sunny’s so gosh darn likeable, but that was a bit tough to watch a couple times.

Then we get to the finish. 

Did Sunny scout that racked crab as a counter to the Mindanao Stretch beforehand? Or did she just realize, right then and there, that it fit what she needed? I honestly don't know. Either way, I love it. Sunny's got a natural size advantage over just about every woman she wrestles. Once she's got hold of your leg, good luck dragging her around the ring with just your arms. That's not just good wrestling. That's good physics.

More importantly, if Sunny's next challenger really is judo prodigy turned cage fighter turned pro wrestler Astrid Reichert, she was smart to show everybody that she's been beefing up her mat game. She's going to need every bit of it.

Speaking of which, Astrid, maybe lay off the cheap heat a little. You're a fitness model. Sunny's plus-size. We get it.

Now let's talk big picture. No pun intended.  Because dear God, have you noticed what ICW's women have been doing lately?

Graysie Parker and Kirsty McKinney just tore each other apart in the main event. Back at The Iron Way, who stole the show? Duchess Vaughn and Astrid Reichert in what might still be the best match in this company's admittedly short history. Go back another show and remember everybody talking about how unstoppable the Brothers Gluck were, then remember that Astrid and Duchess came within inches of knocking them off.

No, that didn't happen in some alternate universe.

That happened here.

So yes, I'm looking forward to Astrid and Sunny.

You better believe I am.

Do I also kind of wish Celestina had won the title so she could feud with Astrid while Sunny wandered over to the Television division and picked a fight with Duchess?

Yeppers.

But that's fantasy matchmaking, and this column isn't about fantasy matchmaking, aside from the last couple sentences. It's about recognizing great wrestling when we see it.

Celestina Cruz versus Sunny Holliday is a genuine four-star match, maybe better, and it's my Match of the Night.

I'm Mikey Cassidy, and thank you for paying attention to my opinion.