Super Dragon vs. Bobby Quance (APW 10/25/2002)
This was a serious contender for the greatest US indy match I've ever seen. Virtually flawlessly worked 30 minute junior epic which had everything – matwork, storytelling, selling, devastating moves and guys slapping eachother in the mouth. We start with 10 minutes of nearly uninterrupted matwork which was ultra tightly worked, smooth stuff. Quance is someone nobody really talks about anymore, but he was a great talent and just mindlbowingly good for a dude in his 2nd year of wrestling. The matwork they did here was much better than the wristlocky WoS imitation stuff you usually get in US indies and closer to lucha matwork with a bit of japanese influence sprinkled in. Quance would shoot for double leg takedowns and judo legtrips, while Dragon just pounces on him like a snake, in between working ultra tight pin attempts and slapping eachother. Quances tiger feint rana may be the single coolest move a skinny US junior has ever invented. This is 2/3 falls and both the first 2 falls have really smart finishes that pay off in the long run of the match. Dragon was incredibly vicious here, modifying his signature offense to work Quances arm, but he also did a great job selling a big head kick. Quances arm selling was pretty much flawless as he was struggling to hit his offense for the rest of the match and he looked quite sympathetic trying to take down his bigger, more vicious opponent. There were also numerous great counters from Super Dragon, ranging from Fujiwara armbars to turning a DDT into a powerbomb mid-air. He also had this amazing flying armbar. Match also had all the usual brutal offense, neck-compressing suplexes, huge double stomps and lariats etc. The finish is fucking infuriating, but please don't let that detract from the amazing work these two did here.
Ian Rotten vs. Chris Hero (IWA MS 5/4/2002)
More meth lab BattlARTS. This starts out with some somewhat conventional, good lock ups and grappling, altough quickly devolves into a gritty seedy fight. Watching these two fight over pin attempts and submissions is way more interesting than skinny juniors running through choreographed reversals. Hero looked good working over Ian with stiff strikes and Ian once again just pasted him with european uppercuts and crossfaces. There was some nasty as hell legwork with Hero wrapping tape around his leg to protect himself. The vocal selling was pretty outstanding too. Great post match with Ian having his knee popped back in place. The IWA MS crowd proves they are true connoisseurs by giving this a standing ovation.
Super Dragon vs. Bryan Danielson (EPIC WAR 6/16/2002)
INDY KINGS ROAD! It's almost needless to say this was very good, stiff pro wrestling between arguably 2 of 3 most talented US dudes in 2002. Match had good build and Super Dragons arm selling was excellent, textbook stuff. He was struggling to hit his signature move, even intentionally fucking up a springboard dive and whiplashing into the ropes. Outside interference was a little goofy but lead to a huge double stomp from Dragon. Danielson in this early stage was a pretty fun wrestler of his own, busting out a lot of things that will come unexpected if you are used to the later WWE or RoH version.
Steve Corino vs. Barry Windham (2/19/2002)
Damn, 2002 Barry Windham was pretty good still. He could still throw a great punch and bump around, and he knew exactly what to do. Then, he even decided to blade. The highlight of this was Corino viciously attacking Windhams cut and if it had more of that this would've been really great.
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