Joseph Anthony Montecillo Apr 6, 2022. 6 minute read
Have a Week, Speedball Mike Bailey: FanFyte’s Best of WrestleMania Week 2022
WrestleMania weekend is so much more than just The Show of Shows itself. Going back to the mid-2000s or so, WrestleMania weekend has been a hotbed for independent wrestling as promotions flock to the host city to showcase their product to the largest concentration of professional wrestling fans anywhere on…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Apr 5, 2022. 5 minute read
Spitting in the GOAT’s Face: FanFyte’s Best of the Month, March 2022
Before we get into things, a little bit of housekeeping. I’m lucky enough to be taking over the Best of the Month list that FanFyte featured through the tail end of 2021. Of course, the major change now is that instead of hearing perspectives from several writers, all these picks…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Mar 18, 2022. 7 minute read
To Celebrate Its 50th Anniversary, NJPW Chased Its Past
New Japan Pro Wrestling currently has a complicated relationship with its history. The company has existed for half a century now, having spent most of that tenure as the leading wrestling promotion in Japan. New Japan’s grip on the top spot in Japan has rarely wavered in any quantifiable way.…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Mar 9, 2022. 5 minute read
Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley Are Done Compromising Their Vision of Pro Wrestling
Bryan Danielson has an uncompromising vision of professional wrestling. And why wouldn’t he? This is a man who has gone on record to say that a bloody pro wrestling match has brought him closer to sensing God’s presence than years of organized religion. “I’m not doing it to have the…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Feb 23, 2022. 13 minute read
Interview: “Hoodfoot” Mo Atlas Is Making Moves
Hoodfoot likes to play chess. It’s not the first thing you’ll ever find out about the independent wrestler currently based in Indianapolis. More likely, you’ll first hear about his time as the top champion in Paradigm Pro Wrestling, where he wrestled under UWFi rules. Or perhaps you’ve seen him on…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Feb 18, 2022. 6 minute read
FTR Finally Wrestled the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, the Fathers of Their Style
There’s a danger to making one’s influences so well known. Since they first burst onto the scene in late 2010s NXT as The Revival, FTR have never made any secrets about who they were trying to be. In their aesthetic, their ring work, and their dedication to classic tag team…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Feb 16, 2022. 5 minute read
Biff Busick’s Bloody Return to Wrestling
It’s been close to seven years since Biff Busick last wrestled in Fete Music Hall. On his last night for Beyond Wrestling, he defeated longtime rival Eddie Edwards to win the first ever Greatest Rivals Round Robin. Having won all three of his matches on that night, Busick left the…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Feb 3, 2022. 6 minute read
Between the Bells, CM Punk and MJF Got It Right
It’s been a rocky road getting here. I’ve written before about how I didn’t love the much-lauded CM Punk/MJF promo from last year, but what I failed to mention was how effective I found the opening angle to the entire rivalry to be. Punk brushing off MJF felt like the…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jan 14, 2022. 5 minute read
Not Just the Fourth Pillar: The Essential Akira Taue
Few things in wrestling fandom grind my gears as much as Akira Taue slander. If you only have a cursory knowledge of Akira Taue, then you might know him as “The Fourth Pillar.” For much of the last two decades, there has been a general assumption among most fans of…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jan 13, 2022. 8 minute read
Jonathan Gresham and the Rebirth of the ROH World Championship
Best in the world. At its peak, the ROH World Championship represented those four words to many professional wrestling fans. It’s a reputation forged by the efforts of generational talents such as Low Ki, Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, and many more. Through much of the 2000s, being part of the…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jan 10, 2022. 5 minute read
Headbutts and Revenge: “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson II
First thing’s first, it’s not as good as the first one. Really, it’s almost unfair to have expected this pair to hit that level again. Outside of doing something radically different or just extending the time limit out further, there’s really no way that Page and Danielson could top the…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jan 5, 2022. 6 minute read
Matches On WWE Day 1 and Raw Showed What Brock Lesnar Brings to a Match
Brock Lesnar once again holds the WWE Championship. In other news, the sky is blue and grass is green. I understand the frustrations that people have with the result of the WWE Championship match at Day 1. In spite of his recent face turn, Brock Lesnar still represents the status…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 31, 2021. 6 minute read
DDT’s Jun Akiyama and Yoshihiko Are an Iconic Duo
When Jun Akiyama arrived in DDT in 2020, it was with the express purpose of passing on his knowledge to a new generation of professional wrestlers. As a guest coach, Akiyama sought to bring the teachings of Giant Baba to DDT. Really, few other wrestlers are quite as capable as…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 31, 2021. 6 minute read
Once a Match of the Year, Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan Didn’t Endure
I never thought Daniel Bryan would get two WrestleMania main events. He deserves more, of course, but the WrestleMania XXX triumph felt like such a large ask on its own. That this favorite from the indies that the WWE tried so very hard to put down would be the beating…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 30, 2021. 6 minute read
Bryan Danielson’s Wrestler of the Year Case Needs Daniel Bryan
Look, I get it. Of course, Bryan Danielson’s run in AEW is going to be the centerpiece of his Wrestler of the Year case. That’s to be expected, and it’s not at all the wrong approach to take. Hell, I’ve spilled a lot of ink this year covering many of…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 29, 2021. 5 minute read
Don’t Overlook Mio Momono For Wrestler of the Year
I don’t claim to be an expert on joshi. Along with lucha libre, it’s one of the bigger blind spots in my wrestling fandom, so I do what I can to try to actively seek it out. This year especially, I made a much greater effort than before to seek…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 22, 2021. 11 minute read
Hangman Adam Page and Bryan Danielson Made an Hour Fly By
There’s a little gem hidden on the Fite stream of this match. About 35 minutes into this hour-long draw, Excalibur throws to another commercial for all the viewers watching on TNT. Meanwhile, the international stream holds on the action, complete with the commentary team still hooked up to their audio.…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 14, 2021. 7 minute read
Jimmy Rave’s Legacy Is Forever
It’s a big night for wrestling fans in Piedmont, Alabama. The IWGP Heavyweight Champion is in town. A small crowd has packed themselves into 627 Southern Avenue for the ProSouth Wrestling show. Ringside seats sell for $10 a pop, general seating only $8, a real bargain to see AJ Styles…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 8, 2021. 13 minute read
An Interview With Kevin Ku, One of the Best Independent Wrestlers in the World
When Kevin Ku enters the Zoom call, he’s wearing an American Dragon hoodie. No shock, he and I share the same favorite wrestler. In fact, the first time I had the opportunity to interact with Kevin Ku online was when he volunteered to be a talking head on my “Bryan…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Dec 5, 2021. 5 minute read
Yuji Okabayashi’s Time Limit Draws in the D-Oh Grand Prix: The Good and the Bad
One was good, the other not. It is always a fascinating exercise to see how two different wrestlers utilize time. So rarely do we get as direct a comparison as with Yuji Okabayashi’s two 30-minute time limit draws in the block stages of the DDT D-oh Grand Prix 2021 II.…
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WRESTLING