Damon Scythe vs. Robby Lance, ECCW 6/29/2002
This was named the 495th best match of the 2000s by ryugoroshi who was probably a slightly more serious shodate side account. Most people saw these lists as trolls and you'd be inclined to believe that given they are full of seemingly unfilmed matches often with no date or promotion given, but there are some gems there, and this is a total gem, which makes the circumstances of these lists even more mysterious.
This match is mysterious itself. It's a US indy match whereas the listmaker usually favoured obscure Japanese matches. It's an undercard match from a no name indy between two no name guys. Robby Lance doesn't even have a profile on Cagematch or Genickbruch. I can't find a single instance of anyone talking about this match online. Even the old archived website of ECCW doesn't list the results of this event (which, coincidentally, had Bryan Danielson working the main event). Scythe is a Tony Kozina trainee and I imagine so is Lance. Scythe had a minor illustrious shindy career while I can only find evidence of one other Robby Lance match (tho there is a chance he also went as Robby Vance at some point). I can't find any trader who still has ECCW tapes, so the fact that the cameraman randomly decided to upload all his footage to YouTube and even supply this match on request is a near miracle.
So what happens in this match? They do indy BattlARTS. They do really good indy BattlARTS. It's absolutely insane but this is a really good match. A really good match that feels way experimental and ahead of it's time. Robby Lance comes out to "Running Up That Hill" and that is some spooky level of doing his own thing in 2002, while being ahead of his time. Lance has the serious look with shiny kickpads and MMA shorts, while Scythe looks like your typical weed smoking indy wrestler with his ponytail and sleeveless jersey.
Usually you can tell whether these matches are gonna be good from the first minute, and this is good from the first minute. They start trading some really stiff leg kicks. Lance hit's a great looking German suplex, and shortly after Scythe retaliates with an awesome Tiger Suplex into a cool pin. The crowd is already heckling them because nobody gives a fuck about this style of wrestling in 2002, but they keep doing their thing. There's some gnarly submission work, really nasty knees to the back of the need, with both guys really bending each other by the chin in nasty ways. The keep the stiffness coming hitting stiff kicks and Vance crossfacing the fuck out of Scythe at one point.
The first 10 minutes of this are stupidly great and giving the Ki/Danielson match from earlier that month a run for its money. The submission work isn't quite shootstyle, there are some armbars and such but it's mostly nasty bend and stretch moves, like they got inspired by some Regal/Benoit match, and there are things like Scythe breaking out of a crossface chickenwing by hitting a stunner. It feels experimental in the best way, like two guys pouring various influences together into a match that still feels hard fought, competitive and logical.
There's lots of cool bits of struggle. At one point Lance keeps kicking out of pin attempts while Scythe hits some thudding punches to his mid section, later Scythe holds on to the ropes when Lance tries dragging him to the middle so Lance hits a nasty elbow drop. At one point Scythe bails to the corner so Lance stomps on his ankles. Both guys have truely embraced making everything look like a struggle in this match. Scythe, while being the schlubbier looking of the two does some cool stuff, like hitting a nice thrust kick, quick Fujiwara armbar or a cool move where he drops Lance across his knee in nasty fashion. I also liked his constant focus on chickenwing moves.
By the middle of the match both guys move on to dropping bombs to spice up the technical work. Bombs that feel lifted out of some 90s joshi deathfest, like Scythe hitting a huge cross arm powerbomb and later an absolutely horrendous piledriver. There's a really cool bit where Lance keeps going for an Air Raid Crash but Scythe keeps blocking in, so Lance later hits this super cool cobra clutch variation. Between the bombs they go back to wrestling, like at one point Lance was buttscooting and kicking Lance in the leg. At a later point Lance is working a Spider Twist, so this kid was definitely studying Mariko Yoshida. Imagine how big of a nerd you have to be to be influenced by Mariko Yoshida in 2002, and then going to work a match like this for 30 minutes, the sheer fortitude alone is insane. His straight punch was also amazing.
This match is not flawless. They fumble, lose steam and meander at times. There is one fall where Lance kind of fumbles a submission so he just puts on a nasty hammerlock and really cranks it to force a tap. Scythe looks a bit blown up by the 15 minute mark or so. But they just keep going and fighting and brutalizing each other, maintaining the energy. At one point they do the Lou Thesz double bridge up spot into a rolling armbar, and later Lance hits a Thesz press into another straight armbar, the whole sequence feeling like a microcosm of this whole thing. The last fall is particularily bizarre, as Lance has the advantage, so he goes for a waist lock and just hangs on for two minutes with Scythe struggling to get him off until the time runs out. It's such a real move, completely antithetic to the mindset that you have to end a match on the biggest note, not caring to impress anybody with a big spectacular finish. It was thoroughly ballsy as was this whole match.
So there you have it. This match sat 20 years in obscurity before it became a random entry on a possible troll list leading me to check it out and christen it as pure epicness. It feels very typical of the time and timeless at once. It feels like a worthy addition to the canon of oddball indy matches from that time like Ki/Danielson or Ian Rotten/Tarek the great. The stylistic mix they went for was great and it made me wish there was more wrestling like this. They didn't pull off everything perfectly but the lack of polish adds to the charm. They went all out doing something that was completely different and committed to it and the thing holds up even after 20 years. To say this was an amazing discovery feels like an understatement. I watched this early this morning after seeing it uploaded and I watched it again just now, and it feels not only like one of the greatest US indy matches I've ever seen, but like one of the most important matches I ever covered.
