Trapped in the Cagematch: Declaration of Independents

Back in the 2000s, there was a website dedicated to gathering and publishing every bit of information, verified or not, about the companies and wrestlers in the flourishing American Northeast independent wrestling scene. The Declaration of Independents existed only in memories now (even the Wayback Machine’s snapshots of the site failed to keep a record). The only traces that I could find were some “remember this” threads on Reddit, this archive of DOI Radio, a podcast related to the site that I didn’t know had existed, and a reference to my strongest memory DOI in a column about ROH on 411Mania.

In 2007, Mary Kate Grosso, a photographer who frequently photographed Northeast independent wrestling shows, disappeared from ROH shows. Since Mary Kate posted on the ROH Message Board, other posters there speculated about why she vanished. The common conclusion was that ROH fired her because she had a public conversation with ROH persona non grata Rob Feinstein at a funeral for a mutual friend. DOI, which had a distinct anti-ROH bias, posted a long editorial lambasting ROH for Mary Kate’s firing based on that assumption. At the time, I found that editorial because I was also looking for gossip about Mary Kate’s firing, and I visited DOI fairly regularly after as I attended more indie shows.

The lesson here is that both long human memories and the Internet mean that very little was truly lost forever. That’s only one reason why I try to be thoughtful about the matches that I watch in this column. Who can say if someone might find this in twenty years when they try to unearth what wrestling was like in the mid-2020s? (To the future, I can only apologize. We tried our best.)

To continue carrying the “Defend wrestling” flag from the last time we turned our eye toward the indies, here are some more American indie wrestling matches that caught my attention from June, July, and August.

In this edition, I covered:

• Travis Williams vs. Lee Moriarty (West Coast Pro, June 20, 2026)
• The Meat Market (Isaac Morales & Shawn Hendrix) (c) vs. The Dream Team (KC Kr’eme & Danny King) (New Texas Pro, July 31, 2026)
• VertVixen vs. Syuri (New Texas Pro, July 31, 2026)
• Midnight Heat (Eddie Pearl & Ricky Gibson) (c) vs. New Fever (Danny Orion & Shimbashi) (Pandemonium Pro, June 6, 2026)
• Gary Jay vs. Calvin Tankman (SLA, July 24, 2026)
• Tim Bosby vs. Karl Greco-Malenko (PRODUCE, August 3, 2026)

Travis Williams vs. Lee Moriarty
West Coast Pro Cruel Summer 2026
June 20, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 1134
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 7.06

Last year, Travis Williams caught my attention with a gritty match against Timothy Thatcher for DUSK Pro. (They had a rematch in December 2025 at DEFY: Aeon 2025, which had completely slipped past my radar.) This match against Lee Moriarty was one of Williams’s rare singles matches in the United States this year. Based on how he wrestled against Thatcher, I had assumed that Williams would match up well with Moriarty. I was also curious to check in on Moriarty.

Four years ago, Lee Moriarty got on my radar thanks to Joseph Montecillo’s primer video. In September 2021, Moriarty signed his initial developmental deal with AEW; by October, Moriarty signed his full-time deal with the company. In December 2021, he wrestled CM Punk on Dynamite, which was arguably his peak in visibility. The only alternative might be his AEW World Title Eliminator against Jon Moxley in November 2022. In 2022 (27), 2023 (23), and 2024 (21), he had about 20 matches across all of AEW’s offerings (including Dark and Dark: Elevation in 2022, when they were still going concerns), but he fell to just 11 matches in 2025 and 10 so far in 2026. He only had four singles matches on AEW TV (though all had titles at stake) and just one singles match in 2026 (against Tim Bosby).

Moriarty and Daniel Garcia (who also signed his developmental deal in September 2021 and full-time deal in October) represent the competitive landscape that wrestlers in AEW have to navigate. Consider for a moment how touted prospects like Moriarty and Garcia have to balance honing their craft as professional wrestlers with making the case that they should appear on TV so that they can prove and improve their value to the company. While they struggle with that balance, the company expanded its roster with other wrestlers and on-screen personalities who all have similar ambitions and desires:

(Pardon any names that might be missing, though adding names to this already lengthy list would only support my point.)

So, it’s not surprising that Moriarty has felt at times overlooked in AEW and unfortunately stagnant in his career. He signed with AEW when he was a 26-years-old prospect, and his only appearance on the main card of an AEW pay-per-view was in the AEW International Title 21 Man Blackjack Battle Royale at AEW Double Or Nothing 2023. He won the ROH Pure title on July 26, 2024, but only his two matches against Nigel McGuinness placed in the Voices of Wrestling Top 100 Matches polls (#96 in 2024 and #79 in 2025). None of his title defenses surpassed an 8.0 average rating amongst the Cagematch Inmates.

His ROH Pure Championship reign was like Lioness, Mayor of Kingstown, or Bel-Air, shows that have had multiple seasons on streaming platforms but few evangelist fans or critics who will tell you that they were must-watch shows.

(That would make Athena’s reign as the ROH Women’s World Championship like Power on Starz, which ran for six seasons, had three spin-offs that also ran for multiple seasons, had two more spin-offs yet to debut, and had never received a phrase of critical praise and never entered the television show discourse.)

To his credit, Moriarty wrestled outside of AEW and ROH often even though he had a full-time contract with AEW.

• 2022: 12 matches across Enjoy Wrestling, Battle Slam, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, Black Label Pro, DEFY Wrestling, Prestige Wrestling, and TERMINUS: Modern Age Grappling
• 2023: 12 matches across Game Changer Wrestling, Naptown All Pro, West Coast Pro Wrestling, New Texas Pro Wrestling, Prestige Wrestling, Expect The Unexpected Wrestling, Black Label Pro, Battle Slam, and Ryse Wrestling
• 2024: 7 matches across Enjoy Wrestling, West Coast Pro Wrestling, Ryse Wrestling, Black Label Pro, and New Texas Pro Wrestling
• 2025: 10 matches across Game Changer Wrestling, West Coast Pro Wrestling, ACTION Wrestling, and CMLL
• 2026: 16 matches across PRODUCE By Orange Crush, West Coast Pro Wrestling, Enjoy Wrestling, ASE, CMLL, Limitless Wrestling, Beyond Wrestling, West Coast Pro Wrestling, Labor of Love, Game Changer Wrestling, Metroplex Wrestling, and Orange Crush’s charity show

So, if Moriarty’s career felt stagnant, had he developed as a wrestler? If we compared his match against Gresham from Joey Janela’s Spring Break 4 (his second highest wrestling in Cagematch at 8.61) in 2020 against his match against Gresham from PRODUCE Volume 2 (rated 7.8), it would seem that the fan reception was cooler. Moriarty had put on a fair amount of muscle mass between the two matches, and he had toned down his high-flying as a result. Specifically, he had removed his springboard armdrag from his war crate. He honed his technical precision, and he remained a very good reactive and defensive wrestler, a great foil in the ring, the “Denzel’s friend” but not Denzel.

Moriarty and Williams treated the attentive viewer with a neat bit of body movement right at the start of their match. Williams stepped his left foot on Moriarty’s right ankle so he could twist Moriarty’s left heel. To escape, Moriarty yanked at his right thigh to get the leg out of Williams’s control, which allowed him to flip over and kick his left leg out of Williams’s grasp.

Later, Williams, caught in Moriarty’s straitjacket hold, gave the crowd a bit of the razzle-dazzle himself with his flexibility, core strength, and body control.

To Moriarty and Williams’s credit, their grappling felt spontaneous; even though they were smooth, they didn’t seem like they were going through pre-planned sequences. By the time that Williams spun his body out of Moriarty’s control, I felt primed as a viewer for them to escalate the match beyond the very entertaining grappling. (However, I didn’t need the “This is wrestling” chant from the crowd.)

As the comparatively bigger name, Moriarty made space for Williams to play the aggressor first. Williams stepped on Moriarty’s fingers, backed him into a corner, and chopped him across the chest. Moriarty’s armdrag to Williams after Moriarty leapfrogged Williams seemed soft, but the subsequent armdrag and leg lariat looked better.

In retribution, Moriarty drove Williams’s own left fingers into the mat, and it was a touch of the sadism that make other grappling-heavy wrestlers like Zack Sabre Jr. and Timothy Thatcher sparkle. It was good to see Moriarty’s look of gleeful malevolence.

Back on offense, Williams showed some much appreciated creativity by squeezing Moriarty’s wrist between his shoulder and his chin. They parried each other’s holds before Williams caught Moriarty and threw him knee first to the mat. Thus, the match became a battle of weakness: Moriarty’s knees vs. Williams’s fingers. Williams’s vulnerability came into play immediately when Moriarty freed himself from Williams’s knee lock and cravat combo by prying at William’s left hand.

After some more fancy counter-wrestling, Moriarty gave the match a break with a flapjack. This pause also gave both wrestlers a chance to show their acting chops. Moriarty impressed with the way that he stood up while favoring his right knee, while Williams hunched over to protect his hurt fingers. Just when one might criticize Moriarty for running to lariat Williams in the corner and using his legs to stabilize his bridging suplex, he lifted his left leg in the air ostensibly to relieve the pressure on his leg and to give Williams an explanation for why he could kick out easily.

From there, Moriarty and Williams served the crowd even more counter wrestling full of baits and dodges. For instance, Moriarty side-stepped Williams to catch him in the Border City Stretch. Williams intentionally shot short on the double to bait Moriarty into dropping down so Williams could then capture Moriarty’s head and lift him for an impactful brainbuster. Again, with matches like this, it’s the little things that matter, like Williams dragging Moriarty slightly closer to the middle of the ring by Moriarty’s foot before locking in his single-legged crab.

They dipped into melodrama when Moriarty collapsed to his knees to sell his pain and exhaustion, which prompted Williams to try his handspring rebound lariat. Of course, with the damage to his fingers, Williams collapsed on the handspring. Williams staggered to Moriarty, who headbutted him and sent Williams to the ropes. That gave Williams the momentum to bounce off the rope to lariat Moriarty. It was all a bit silly in the way that professional wrestling can be sometimes. It did feel out of melody with what Moriarty and Williams had done the rest of the match, but it wasn’t a dealbreaker because Williams then headbutted Moriarty’s knee to keep him down.

After Moriarty blocked Williams from tucking his leg into the Figure Four Leglock, the match sped to its conclusion. Williams got his last shot in with a clapping blow at Moriarty’s head, but he dazed himself by clapping his damaged fingers together. Moriarty drove Williams down with a neckbreaker and then an elbow drop from the Tiger Driver position.

Moriarty and Williams kept the energy level high for the 13 minutes of this match, and I really enjoyed how smooth and extemporaneous their counter wrestling felt. While Moriarty felt like the reactive wrestler, he didn’t feel passive. They kept the crowd engaged, and I easily recommend this match to anyone looking for a good time.

Since Travis Williams and Judas Icarus faced Casey Ferreira and Elliot Tyler in 365 in July, Williams and Icarus teamed as Sinner and Saint again in Wales, England, and Ireland at shows that surrounded AEW All In 2026:

• Sinner and Saint vs. Chicago Desailly & RJW at NWW Pride in Roath 2026 (August 28)
• Sinner and Saint vs. Fresh Air (Junior Benito & Macrae Martin) at Mystery Wrestling #28 (August 29)
• Sinner and Saint vs. Greedy Souls (Brendan White & Danny Jones) vs. The VeloCities (Jude London & Paris De Silva) and vs. Aaron McRae & James Ellis at ATTACK! Through Fire & Flames (September 5)
• Sinner and Saint vs. BDE (Big Bad Dirty Nicky & Bittersweet Josh) at OTT Who’s The Daddy: Season Finale (September 6)
• Sinner and Siant vs. Act Two (Benjamin Harland & Jack Knudsen) at PWC 13 Years of Chaos (September 12)
• Sinner and Saint vs. Aaron McRae & James Ellis at SWPW (September 13)

Thus, I am encouraged that they will continue to team. Here’s to hoping that they impress Ho Ho Lun at Pandemonium Pro and DUSK Pro’s See You in Vancouver so they finally get invited to tour Dragongate and learn from teams like Love and Peace soon.

They also signed with Maple Leaf Pro, and I wish them the best of luck with that endeavor.

You can watch the match and the show on West Coast Pro’s YouTube page.

The Meat Market (Isaac Morales & Shawn Hendrix) (c) vs. The Dream Team (KC Kr’eme & Danny King)
New Texas Pro Moonsault
July 31, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: N/A
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: N/A

When I attended my last New Texas Pro show, the Meat Market stood out for their potential to be obnoxious foils. So, while the advertisement showed that the Dream Team would be the champions going into this match, New Texas Pro switched it up by scheduling Morales and Hendrix to beat King and Kr’eme at Anime Matsuri, which took place six days before Moonsault. (And New Texas Pro deserved credit for booking Fuwa-chan, Hazuki, and Ranna Yagami to wrestle at that show.) I opted for this match since this coincided with the high profile Syuri vs. Vert Vixen match, even if the match at Anime Matsuri might have been before a larger crowd because it was at the expo.

It took a moment to actually adjust my contextual settings for this match because I initially balked at King and Kr’eme walking to the ring with paintings that promised doom for Morales and Hendrix at Sacrifice. It felt juvenile and amateurish, and it reminded me of Sammy Guevara’s sign gags from days of yore. The fact that they started the match in their DTF shirts didn’t help matters. However, after I reminded myself that King and Kr’eme were young and were amateurs not long ago and that they were trying to find a gimmick that worked for them, I could reset my frame to accept the act.

Morales, Hendrix, and the rest of the Meat Market felt more fully formed, even if the meat-themed nicknames seemed also infantile. It was simply easier to accept that immaturity from them because they played the heels. In particular, Morales’s charisma broke through the screen; he could play the detestable villain really well.

King and Kr’eme jumped Morales and Hendrix before the match officially started, which was slightly odd since the entirety of the Meat Market outnumbered the Dream Team four to two. Still, neither Eduardo Garcia nor Ronin Reyes interfered to help Morales and Hendrix (at first), so King and Kr’eme started on the right foot with their double legdrop.

After taking some hits from King and Kr’eme, Morales hurriedly retreated to his corner to tag in Hendrix. Hendrix played a more subtle dirtbag, but he was also entertaining. Holding up his hand to stop King in his tracks just so he could strike backwards at Kr’eme in the corner was clean, heelish fun. Hendrix’s shoulder shrug to signify that he just couldn’t help himself was the cherry on top.

The match followed a predictable template: King, the smallest person in the match, fell victim to Impulsive Face Condition. When Hendrix slid out of the ring to collect himself, King followed him right into the side of the ring controlled by the Meat Market. Garcia and Reyes distracted him while Morales blindsided him, which allowed Hendrix and Morales to wail on him for a while to build anticipation for Kr’eme’s tag. Hendrix and Morales’s period of control wasn’t particularly compelling, and Hendrix looked slow as he ran to squash King in his team’s corner.

Kr’eme freed his teammate from Hendrix’s abdominal stretch and tagged into the match. His hot tag was all right; stacking all four members of the Meat Market into a corner and splashing on to them and then German Suplexing one of them at the rest worked well as a high spot.

In general, Kr’eme’s offense emphasized his size and assumed power advantage, even if he looked tentative, as if he were trying to remember what the next planned sequence was, at various points. King did not have a good showing; his punches at the beginning of the match looked slow and soft, and he fell short of Hendrix and Morales on his moonsault from the top rope near the end of the match. Kr’eme knocked down the rest of the Meat Market on a tope suicida, and he hurried back into the ring so he and King could finish Hendrix with their cooperative suplex.

Morales stood out as the most compelling part of the match, and it seemed like New Texas Pro agreed since he was both a tag team champion and the Texas Contenders Series Champion heading into this match. One could imagine Morales in a larger setting, but his personality seemed muted here compared to other matches. He could stand to engage the crowd more. Kr’eme, thanks to his height, also stood out in this match. He needed to wrestle more matches to hone his muscle memories and remove some of the tentativeness.

You can watch the match and the show on New Texas Pro’s YouTube page.

VertVixen vs. Syuri
New Texas Pro Moonsault
July 31, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: N/A
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: N/A

Branding consistency was important, even if it might seem like a slight issue. Using Wikipedia as the source of truth, VertVixen’s name should be one word with no spaces. On Cagematch, she was listed as two words (“Vert Vixen”) and without the stylized mid-word capitalization. In New Texas Pro’s bookmark on the show’s video, it was spelled “Vertvixen.” It was a trifling bother, but those tend to be the most annoying.

Syuri joined Fuwa-chan, Hazuki, and Ranna Yagami on their productive summer trip to the United States with this show.

In a wonderfully absurd ouroboros moment, about a month after this match, F4WOnline and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter aggregated a news hit from Sean Ross Sapp’s Fightful Select that VertVixen had signed with AEW. As of this writing, there had been no announcement from AEW itself.

As a two-time former New Texas Pro Women’s Champion, VertVixen was no stranger to the New Texas Pro faithful. Given that her Facebook handle and description mention cosplay and that many of her costumes are from video games, it seemed fair to say that she occupied the same niche that the Super Smash Brothers (Player Uno, now Evil Uno, and Player Dos, formerly Stupefied, now Stu Grayson) and Leva Bates occupied before her. With luck, VertVixen will surpass the heights that Uno, Grayson, and Bates reached alongside other cosplay devotees on AEW’s roster.

Did VertVixen’s showing against the reliable and reliably hard-hitting Syuri help her case with Tony Khan and whatever passes for talent scouting in AEW? Given VertVixen’s solid showing against a decorated and well-respected figure like Syuri, it certainly couldn’t have hurt. Furthermore, the idea that AEW noticed VertVixen thanks to her work in New Texas Pro, as well as DEFY, Tokyo Joshi Pro, and the Rhodes Wrestling Association, would be a potential selling point for New Texas Pro and DEFY (now back under the ownership of founders Matt Farmer and Jim Perry) to entice other wrestlers to work there. The American wrestling ecosystem in 2026 sorely lacked independent companies where wrestlers could develop, much less the “finishing school” that Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, and Evolve Wrestling once were.

Syuri and VertVixen started off with tentative kicks, but they were able to dial into each other’s frequency to start clobbering each other. The cramped conditions of the New Houston Premier Arena (which looked much less like a warehouse than the old Houston Premier Arena that I visited) didn’t give Syuri much room for her tornado DDT off of the ring, but she and VertVixen made do the best that they could. In general, Syuri moved at about 0.75 of her full speed, which was still pretty enjoyable despite faults like failing to wrap her legs around VertVixen’s head on the headscissors. She was also fairly giving as VertVixen’s scene partner, receiving VertVixen’s stalling vertical and snapping German suplexes and lending VertVixen credibility by showing her struggle to reach the ropes while trapped in VertVixen’s knee lock.

The match ended as it had to with Syuri victorious. VertVixen survived a kick to the head, but she could not escape Syuri’s Suzaku submission hold. This wouldn’t rank as one of Syuri’s best matches of July, much less of 2026, but she put forth a generous performance against VertVixen. On her part, VertVixen showed off her power and a more serious personality.

You can watch the match and the show on New Texas Pro’s YouTube page.

Midnight Heat (Eddie Pearl & Ricky Gibson) (c) vs. New Fever (Danny Orion & Shimbashi)
Pandemonium Dismantling Summer
June 6, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: N/A
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: N/A

Danny Orion had been a highlight of New Texas Pro’s shows first as an irritating heel and more recently as the valiant, fighting champion. After winning the New Texas Pro Championship from 1 Called Manders in April, he defended it against a mix of New Texas Pro regulars and some more high profile wrestlers. Meanwhile, he also teamed with Shimbashi as New Fever to gain experience as a tag team wrestler. In the process, he and Shimbashi also had a chance to play on both sides of face/heel divide.

This year, New Fever faced some of the best prospects in the American indie tag team scene as they toured the country:

• February: vs. the Crush Boys (Starboy Charlie & Titus Alexander) at West Coast Pro Evil Empire
• April: vs. Top Team (Jay Lucas & Terry Yaki) at ACTION We Gambled Away the Graphix Budget
• May: vs. Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller & Kylon King) and The Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black) at PWJ Wrestivus
• June: vs. Cajun Catch Revival (Jiah Jewell & Seabass Finn) at West Coast Pro Cruel Summer 2026 and vs. Midnight Heat (Eddie Pearl & Ricky Gibson) here.

Midnight Heat might have come across your radar from their very itchy match against the Hammer Brothers from Prestige Roseland XIII: The End. Like New Fever, they’ve been accumulating credits in matches against The Outrunners, Dragon Kid & YAMATO, Sinner and Saint, The Righteous, The Good Brothers, The Dark Order, and The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. (After all, if you’re going to be a tag team with “Midnight” in your name, you may as well call on the legacy of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express’s feud with the Midnight Express.)

Here, Orion and Shimbashi played to the crowd even though, as the commentators mentioned, they were hostile New Texas Pro partisans at their last Pandemonium Pro show. They tried to ply the crowd with BuzzBallz to win them over since the crowd detested Pearl and Gibson.  New Fever and Midnight Heat played with the crowd to start the match before Pearl and Shimbashi settled into a fairly standard control section where Pearl held Shimbashi down with punches and rope chokes. Pearl feigned dizziness from Shimbashi’s airplane spin and New Fever’s elbow drops, and he committed to clowning around.

Shimbashi and Pearl swapped out for Orion and Gibson, and the new pair picked up the pace. For as well as Orion engaged the crowd thanks to his charisma, he backed it up with his impressive athleticism. Take, for example, his triple jump dropkick to Gibson and how steady and quick Orion was. It might be a familiar sight to New Texas Pro fans, but it impressed the fans in the front row.

If Orion and Shimbashi brought impressive athleticism and appealing charisma to the dance, Pearl and Gibson brought easy to hate villainy. Pearl stopped Shimbashi from punching Gibson in the corner, which allowed Gibson to wear Shimbashi down with a springboard backbreaker. (I wish Gibson looked at the opposing corner instead of his own when he tried to pin Shimbashi.) As this was the main event of the show, the two teams kept the pace snappy. Gibson did not control Shimbashi for long before Shimbashi landed an enziguri and tagged Orion in.

Now in control, Shimbashi and Orion landed a long chain of attacks on Gibson. Pearl’s commitment to playing the clown continued, as seen in his feeble swipe at Orion to stop his springboard moonsault. As always, it was the little things that catch the eye. (And Shimbashi looked at Pearl during his pin attempt.)

As the clown, Pearl had to be an irritant as well as a buffoon. So, he tripped Orion when he tried a handspring attack off of the ropes, which allowed Gibson to suppress Orion’s effervescence. Pearl’s punches looked and sounded very good, and Gibson helped by dragging Orion to his feet by his hair from the outside so Pearl could pick his target for his punches. As Pearl and Gibson double-teamed Orion, Orion kept reaching for Shimbashi and fought back when he could to show an understanding of keeping the crowd engaged when fighting from underneath. Gibson, Pearl, and Orion worked hard to build the crowd’s anticipation of the hot tag to Shimbashi.

The transition came when Gibson tried to attack New Fever’s cheerleader, MJ Santana, while she checked on Orion. With Pearl squirming in his own corner from splashing on his back, Orion had a chance to take Gibson down with a springboard handspring cutter. Shimbashi tagged in with some quick slaps to Pearl’s face, a Thesz Press to Gibson, and three German Suplexes to Pearl. It was a cathartic hot tag for the crowd.

Things got a little silly when Orion climbed on to Shimbashi’s shoulders to lift Pearl for a chokeslam. (The idea just didn’t survive contact with a moment’s thought about the physics.)

Gibson and Pearl tried to desert the battle, but Shimbashi stalled them near the food and drink stands at Stage 722 before Orion, fortified by liquid courage from a BuzzBall, dove from a second story window on to Gibson and Pearl.

One set of flying attacks later (that Shimbashi didn’t hit at all), and New Fever had dethroned Midnight Heat.

The match kept to a time-tested formula, and it ended at the right time. Orion and Shimbashi could not do anything more spectacular than Orion’s dive. Orion and Shimbashi were very energetic and likable, even if they were occasionally silly and messy. However, my attention was drawn by Gibson and Pearl, who seemed in sync the way that FTR/the Mechanics were early in NXT. They can certainly build on that sense of coordination to better control their parts of the match and increase the crowd’s anticipation for their opponents’ hot tag. I was glad to have seen two teams with such high potential in action.

You can watch the match on Pandemonium Pro’s YouTube page.

Gary Jay vs. Calvin Tankman 
SLA Circus Maximus XXI
July 24, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: N/A
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: N/A

I recently counted the number of wrestling shows that I attended, and I was astounded that I had been to as many as I had. Beyond mere astonishment, this count had a secondary effect of challenging my primary identity as a wrestling fan. First and foremost, I’ve thought myself as a Ring of Honor fan when the company was at its peak. I reeled off the shows that I had attended live (Glory by Honor V Night 2, Black Friday Fallout, Final Battle 2006, and so on) from memory and could picture a match from each show.

I had intense sensory memories of climbing the stairs to the Manhattan Center (and later, the Hammerstein Ballroom), peering over the balcony or peeking between the heads of fans with better seats to see the ring, or nudging other fans aside so I could see what new DVDs were for sale at the always-welcome sales (even if buying six DVDs to get two free or nine DVDs to get three free seemed extravagant). That was why I thought of myself as a Ring of Honor fan, then a wrestling fan.

As it turned out, I attended way more Evolve shows than ROH shows. Like a first marriage, my union with ROH lasted just a year, while my later attempt to find a pro graps ring to call my own struck true because I found love on the dance floor at at La Boom. (And other places like the none-more-Catholically-named Most Precious Blood Youth Center.)

One of my favorite wrestlers during my relationship with Evolve was JD Drake. He was a big fellow, and like fellow big fellow Keith Lee, he could throw his opponents and fly around the ring. If you judged him by his first impression, he might not seem impressive because he seemed fat. Unfortunately, that impression seemed to kneecap his chances of advancing beyond Evolve to a company with a national television presence. Luckily, the spectrum of acceptable appearances for wrestlers on television has grown (or recovered from the specific vision that Vince McMahon and WWE forced upon generations of wrestling fans), and JD Drake was now a wrestler who could appear on AEW Dynamite and Collision, albeit rarely.

Similarly, first impressions of Calvin Tankman based on his appearance would be misleading. Like Drake, he seemed fat. With his hair reduced from his dreadlocks to a buzz cut, he seemed cozier. Nonetheless, Tankman projected menace and danger; when the crowd chanted “Fuck him, Gary, fuck him up,” Tankman was incredulous that the crowd would think a lanky man like the former Gary the Barn Owl could ever present a threat. In a tale of the tape, Tankman outweighed Jay by 185 pounds; in fact, if you doubled Gary Jay’s listed weight, he would still be lighter than Tankman by 24 pounds. Tankman was also 3 inches taller than Jay.

Gary Jay was a fellow victim of first impressions, so he might have been able to relate to Tankman. Instead, in this second-ever singles match between Jay and Tankman, Jay smirked at Tankman’s disbelief at the crowd and chopped him in the chest. For as hard as Jay hit, he couldn’t force Tankman to budge, and Tankman need just one elbow strike to topple Jay for a quick pin attempt. Since the crowd was decidedly pro-Jay, Tankman had an easy path to connect with the crowd by taunting them for their preference and antagonizing them as he whooped (there it is) on Jay.

Jay understood the game and tried a hit-and-run strategy, but that would only work as long as he stayed out of Tankman’s grasp. So, when Tankman caught him on a tope suicida, threw him at the ringpost, and then powerbombed him on the apron, it was fair to say that it was not great, Bob. Trapped between the floor and Tankman, Jay got up and gave Tankman his best shots even as Tankman acknowledged that Jay might hit hard, but it wasn’t hard enough to rock him. (And Tankman deserved credit for wrestling while wearing grills. They looked great, but I’m sure they made getting hit in the face suck even more than it normally would.)

Still, I’m sure his face hurt less than Jay’s did after being thrown into the ring post.

After some more brawling in the crowd, Jay made use of Spaulding Hall’s wall with a tornado DDT. It was a great visual.

For all that, it was a shame that Tankman’s pop-up rolling elbow looked like it glanced off of Jay’s head since that was the major attack that reset the match in the ring. Tankman’s package powerbomb and forearm strikes left Jay wobbly-kneed. Nonetheless, Jay collected himself to hit a spinning bulldog (because it wasn’t quite a tornado DDT) from the middle rope to stagger Tankman. Tankman pushed Jay away at one on the pin attempt. While a waiter tried to deliver a pizza in the crowd, Jay crashed into the back of Tankman’s neck with a diving rolling elbow.

Sensing that wasn’t sufficient, Jay went on the attack some more with a powerwalking big boot to Tankman, a forearm strike to the face after slipping on the canvas, and another forearm strike after Tankman boosted him off his feet. Then, Jay walked into Tankman’s back elbow, and the two of them fell down into a perfect pinning position for Tankman to win the match. They laid in the pin for a while until SLA officials checked on both men, and Jay, still woozy, raised Tankman’s arm as best as he could from his knees.

If we had to judge this on technical execution, this match would not score well. However, it was a short, entertaining slugfest, and some of the messiness (like Jay slipping while positioning himself for a forearm strike) added texture and color to the match. Some of the other messiness (like Tankman’s unsuccessful pop-up rolling elbow) showed that Tankman had room to improve after his return from injury earlier this year.

You can watch the match on St. Louis Anarchy’s YouTube page and the show on IWTV.

Tim Bosby vs. Karl Greco-Malenko
PRODUCE Volume 3: Azúcar
August 3, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 8/1/26: 908
Cagematch rating as of 8/1/26: 7.2

Let’s put aside the mess around Adam Abdalla, PRODUCE’s promoter, for a moment and focus on this match, which I saw live. (Unlike other wrestling writers, I’m courageous enough to write down my thoughts from a 2026 match that originally saw live and have rewatched on video.) (I jest with love.)

This was the first time that I had seen Bosby live. Prior to this, I saw him on various ACTION Wrestling shows and on New Texas Pro Wrestling’s TX8 2026. In particular, I was impressed with how well he played the bully against Jesse Funaki in their semi-final match; it took skill to play someone that despicable. His size reminded me of Julius Creed when I saw him face Matt Mako at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XI. Yet, Bosby hadn’t exhibited the nastiness, the pettiness, and quickness to anger that I saw in Creed that time (and haven’t since).

Karl Greco-Malenko reappeared in the wrestling scene after a twelve-years-long hiatus against Matt Mako (strange coincidence), and his match against Mad Dog Connelly at ACTION Wrestling’s cheekily titled “We Gambled Away the Graphix Budget” at WrestleMania Week 2026 garnered some positive press for the company. So, in the third match of his comeback tour, Malenko, flanked by Matt Mako (there he is again), Dominic Garrini, and Kevin Ku, faced Bosby, flanked by Jay Lucas, Terry Yaki, and Marko Stunt.

Let us take a moment to appreciate consistency and coordination because their absence would always been keenly felt. On the advertisement (see above), Malenko was advertised as “Karl Malenko.” On the on-screen graphic, he was named “Carl Malenko.” During introductions, the ring announcer called him “Karl Greco-Malenko.” The commentators referred to as “Carl Malenko.” (Sure, they could have called him “Karl Malenko.”) After the match, the ring announcer called him “Karl The Greco-Malenko,” and Veda Scott referred to him as “Carl Malenko.” (On Cagematch, he was listed as “Karl Greco-Malenko” for this match and “Karl Malenko” in the card for the upcoming Dean Rasmussen tribute show. His handle on X the Everything App formerly known as Twitter was “CarlMalenko.”)

At 6’3″/190 cm and 242 lbs./110 kg, Bosby towered over the 5’11″/180 cm and 196 lbs./89 kg Greco-Malenko. As Greco-Malenko warned, however, everybody’s the same when they’re on the mat. So, even though Bosby shot the single first and tried to grapevine Greco-Malenko’s left leg, Greco-Malenko quickly got control of Bosby’s right arm and back. When Bosby tried to use his size by picking Greco-Malenko up for a charge to the corner, he did not heed the Wu-Tang Clan’s warnings and sufficiently protect his neck.

After losing on the mat and on his feet, Bosby needed to do something. Youthful physical power proved to be the answer as Bosby flung Greco-Malenko halfway across the ring.

His deadlift German Suplex also looked and sounded terrific. (I thought that the blood-splattered PRODUCE mat looked disgusting, but it fit the mood for this match, at least.) However, experience proved just as valuable as strength as Greco-Malenko blocked Bosby’s knees to the abdomen with the outside of his left thigh. (I didn’t see it from where I was standing at the show, and it was easier to see that detail on video.)

After forcing Bosby to find refuge in the ropes, Greco-Malenko gave chase with open palm strikes to Bosby’s face, kicks to Bosby’s face, and knees to Bosby’s body. Seeking relief, Bosby took Greco-Malenko down with a single-legged takedown out of the clinch, and he again targeted Greco-Malenko’s ankle. Greco-Malenko used his veteran savvy once more by yanking on Bosby’s inside foot to help him roll to the bottom rope to break Bosby’s hold. Now this was grapplefucking.

We got another slice of tasty grapplefuck when Greco-Malenko did a push-up while in Bosby’s Boston Crab to get enough space to bend at the waist and flip Bosby over. That let him apply the cross armbreaker, which placed him in full control of Bosby. Greco-Malenko relinquished the hold on Bosby’s right arm so he could then seize the left arm for the triangle choke. For the cherry on top, Greco-Malenko used his own boot lace to choke Bosby. Thus, we were primed for Bosby’s mighty powerbomb to break Greco-Malenko’s siege on his arm and neck.

Unfortunately for Bosby, he didn’t get his arm out of the danger zone. So, Greco-Malenko just re-applied the triangle (without the boot lace this time), which forced Bosby to powerbomb Greco-Malenko again. This time, he went for the sicker option: a powerbomb backbreaker on a knee.

Having learned his lesson, Bosby wisely retreated from Greco-Malenko to catch his breath. However, he walked right back in to Greco-Malenko’s kick to the head, which dropped Bosby to the mat. From there, Greco-Malenko methodically secured Bosby’s left arm, then Bosby’s face, and finally Bosby’s neck to complete the LeBell Lock and force Bosby to submit.

This was one of the most entertaining matches that was less than nine minutes long that I’ve seen all year. It was just as good on video as it was live. That night, I had wished that Bosby had gotten a little more attention since the main takeaway was that Greco-Malenko was terrific regardless of his age. After viewing the match again, I thought that Bosby’s powerbomb on his knee was enough to make his role memorable. The loss also gave him something to redeem in the event that someone, anyone would book a rematch between them. (And my strong recommendation is that someone should because this rocked and rolled.)

As it was, Greco-Malenko proved that mental power could trump physical power. After the match, Low-Ki challenged Greco-Malenko to a match via a taped monologue at the next Dean Rasmussen tribute show. And that was a match I’d be interested in seeing, though not enough to trek to the White Eagle Hall in Jersey City on a Sunday. In a finer world, we would also see Julius Creed face Greco-Malenko too. Alas, Josh Barnett pulled the plug on the Bloodsport shows (which was a point of contention between Greco-Malenko and Barnett later on in this show).

You can watch the match and the show on MyAEW. In a case of the snake eating its own tail, there was a review of this match on Segunda Caida, which partnered with PRODUCE (and ACTION Wrestling) to put on this year’s Dean Rasmussen tribute show.

Next time: Sareee!!! It’s been another banner year of bangers from my favorite wrestler in the world, and it’s time we gave her the focus that she deserves.