Photo credit: @JWasherBeyond

Monday Match Exchange is back after a brief hiatus, this time with a new contributor. Every week James Lascuola and I will exchange five matches from various independent wrestling promotions, give our thoughts and rate them. James is new to the website but has already been a great addition to PWPonderings. You can read his reviews for The Masked Wrestler every week on the website. If you would like to read the previous exchanges with Andrew Semkow, you can check them out HERE.

We suggest everyone go ahead and add these matches to your watchlist. Let us know what you think by responding to the PWPonderings Twitter and Facebook posts, or send us a tweet at @zerepwrestling or @rockerj881. You can also share your own match recommendations with us. Give us some feedback, we would love to hear from you. With all that said, thanks to everyone that has read or shared any of our exchanges in the past. Be safe everyone.

James’ Recommended Match #1

Kevin Ku vs. Daniel Makabe – Southern Underground Pro

January 5, 2020

Nashville, Tennessee

James:

It says something about a match when it happened the same day as New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual Wrestle Kingdom and it was my favorite match of the day. This match feels like the wrestling equivalent of listening to a fine piece of classical music. In my opinion, this match is an overall contender for Match of the Year.

Luis:

This match is actually one of my favorites matches of 2020. Daniel Makabe is the best technical wrestler in independent wrestling. As for Kevin Ku, he is known as a tag team wrestling but he is also a great singles competitor. Dear, close, personal, long time friend of the website, Dylan Hales is on commentary for this one. Check out this match if you haven’t already. It’s just incredible.

****¼

James’ Recommended Match #2

Colt Cabana and Dick Justice vs. Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy – Beyond Wrestling

June 24, 2018

Melrose, Massachusetts

James:

Fun fact: this match was both my first ever Beyond Wrestling show and also my introduction to arguably the biggest wrestler in the business right now, Orange Cassidy. I know comedy isn’t for everybody but I felt that this match had a fair balance of the goofy with the traditional as Chuck Taylor and Colt Cabana did a great job to even off the more comedic Dick Justice and the aforementioned Cassidy.

Luis:

James has shared another match that I’m very familiar with. It is one of my favorite Beyond Wrestling matches and in my opinion, this is the Omega vs. Okada of comedy wrestling. It was very clear that Orange Cassidy would become a huge star in wrestling, not to mention that 3 out of the 4 men in this match are now signed with AEW. The special appearance at the end is just fantastic. If you’re ever having a bad day, watch this match.

****

James’ Recommended Match #3

Anthony Greene vs. Ava Everett – Limitless Wrestling

August 26, 2020

Orono, Maine

James:

Amid the pandemic, Limitless Wrestling in Maine has done a great job with providing content to the wrestling world during a tough time for many. One of the stand out matches of the series and my personal favorite of Season One features the Limitless Champion at the time Anthony Greene taking on “The Ava-taker” Ava Everett. This is truly an emotional entry with Ava and AG’s personal history on top of the in ring action.

Luis:

I try to catch every episode of Limitless Wrestling’s The Road but here’s a match from Season One that I haven’t seen. The match starts off quick and the pace never lets up. I really enjoyed this one. With his recent signing to WWE, it’s great to see Anthony Greene showing his talent to a larger audience. Congrats to him. You can catch The Road every Wednesday at 7pm EST on IWTV.

***½

James’ Recommended Match #4

Matt Tremont vs. Orin Veidt – Timebomb Pro Wrestling

July 6, 2019

Fargo, North Dakota

James:

People who know me well know one thing for certain: I love Deathmatch Wrestling. Going into this exchange, we were nearing the retirement of “The Bulldozer” Matt Tremont and I would be foolish to not include him in this week’s exchange. I also wanted to really differ things up by throwing in one of my favorite things in the Deathmatch world right now: a No Ring Deathmatch.

Luis:

This might be the first time a No Ring Deathmatch has been part of any Match Exchange. No Ring Deathmatches are pretty cool to attend. I’ve attended one and it was a fun experience, but that experience doesn’t always translate to video. While I can see that this was a good match, the no ring concept did nothing for me in this one. With that said, Matt Tremont had his final wrestling match this past weekend. Thank you Tremont for everything you’ve done for professional wrestling.

**¾

James’ Recommended Match #5

Bear Bronson vs. Gangrel – Zero1 USA Northeast

October 27, 2019

Johnston, Rhode Island

James:

This match was another one that I saw live that stuck out to me. Bear Bronson’s 2019 was spent on the rise in the tag team world as one half of Bear Country. This would be my second time I had seen him in singles competition and I would once again be impressed by his single’s wrestling acumen. With the spooky season happening at the time, his opponent would be none other than the Vampire Warrior known as Gangrel.

Luis:

James sharing a match from around Halloween time last year was a good addition to the match exchange. I have mostly seen Bear Bronson as one half of the tag team Bear Country so I was looking forward to this one. Gangrel is someone that is still wrestling regularly in independent wrestling, and is still a solid wrestler, but has yet to have a breakout match in this run. I can’t wait to see a match similar to the level of PCO vs. WALTER from Gangrel.

***

Luis’ Recommended Match #1

Joey Janela vs. Scott Norton – AIW

March 24, 2017

Cleveland, Ohio

Luis:

This is a matchup that you might see in GCW at Joey Janela’s Spring Break or another one of their shows but this took place at AIW’s Gauntlet For The Gold 12 in 2017. This becomes a nice little brawl with a pretty cool bump off the stage. I will always be a fan of Joey Janela taking on legends of yesterday.

James:

This match is the epitome of what I think of when I picture a Joey Janela’s Spring Break match. Janela and one of yesteryear’s best grapplers going one on one in the ring. One of the commentators put it perfectly when he said “Welp this is real life.” at the start of this match. While this was a fun brawl with a crazy table spot, its obviously not gonna be a technical master class. Does that mean you shouldn’t watch it? Certainly not!

**½

Luis’ Recommended Match #2

Jake Something vs. Nick Gage – Black Label Pro

September 21, 2019

Summit, Illinois

Luis:

Black Label Pro recently held their annual Turbo Graps 16 Tournament where Alex Shelley came out on top. This match is from last year’s tournament and it features Jake Something taking on “The King” Nick Gage in an opening round tournament match. This match is a fight between the two with a bunch of great spots. It even has Nick Gage with a huge dive off the top rope to the outside, something you rarely seen from “The King.”

James:

This was a pretty intense brawl of a match that you’d expect out of these two. They took through the crowd right off the bat and really took the fight to each other. I thought there were some especially sick spots with the hard plastic chairs; including one where Jake drove Nick into the stack of chairs while also clipping his leg into a chair. The biggest con I’ll give this match was the commentary as I felt they leaned too far into goofy territory for a match that could’ve used a little more seriousness.

**¾

Luis’ Recommended Match #3

Kana vs. Cheerleader Melissa – SHIMMER Wrestling

October 18, 2014

Berwyn, Illinois

Luis:

Asuka, known as Kana at the time, taking on Cheerleader Melissa. This is a fantastic match that still holds up to this day. The match is hard hitting and pretty much brutal at times, especially during the ending. Asuka is an amazing talent that will go out as an all time great. As for Cheerleader Melissa, I always wonder why she isn’t a bigger star than she is.

James:

Full disclosure: I hadn’t seen much of Cheerleader Melissa’s work prior to this match. That being said I think she and Asuka worked wonders together. She definitely played a tremendous heel in my opinion and I especially loved the pendulum swing between the barricade and steps when the action spilled to the outside. As for Asuka, what else is there to say about her? She’s easily one of the best performers in the world and I knew I’d get a great performance from her anyways going into this one. I thought the finish was especially brutal and played into what I said before about Melissa. Would absolutely watch this over again anytime.

****¼

Luis’ Recommended Match #4

Tasha Steelz and Christian Casanova vs. Diamante and KC Navarro – Battle Club Pro

January 4, 2020

Ridgefield Park, New Jersey

Luis:

A match that took place earlier in the year, Tasha Steelz and Christian Casanova took on Diamante and KC Navarro in mixed tag action. There’s high stakes in this match, if Tasha Steelz’s team won then Diamante couldn’t challenge for the Battle Club Pro Icons Championship again. The match is fast paced and has a ton of action. I knew James had to be familiar with Culture SZN from Beyond Wrestling so here was another glimpse at the tag team in action.

James:

I was already interested off the bat based on the four talents in the thumbnail. What I didn’t expect was a battle rap to start the match off that got a laugh out of me. The action that followed didn’t slump whatsoever which is a testament to the work that these four performers put in regularly. I also had no clue that Diamante and KC Navarro were related which I thought was a fun little token of info.

***

Luis’ Recommended Match #5

Drew Galloway vs. Roderick Strong – EVOLVE

September 14, 2014

Brooklyn, New York

Luis:

With Evolve no longer a thing, here’s a look at one of my favorite Evolve matches from one of my favorite Evolve events. Galloway and Strong have an extremely physical match in front of a very lively crowd. This might’ve been one of Drew Galloway’s best matches upon returning to the indie scene. A great match that I was fortunate enough to witness live.

James:

I felt that this match told a great story from the get go with Roderick being a cheeky, cocky bastard to the fighting champ Drew. I give both men loads of credit in this one for holding nothing back and really laying it into each other. This is certainly one of those matchups that only EVOLVE could’ve brought to the indies at the time. In my opinion this may possibly be Drew’s best match of his independent wrestling tenure that I’ve seen.

****