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[2000-01-29-JCW] Low Ki vs Billy Reil


soup23

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Low Ki has his traditional music already. Reil has a unique gimmick of the guido too good for the likes of the crowd. He also comes out to an awful male cover of No Scrubs. This had a tighter approach and more restraint than the Blade match making it better overall. Some good wrestling and Ki showing his speed. An excellent jump up senton to the floor from Ki was the early portion highlight. I thought Reil was fine too here on top. He was certainly winded in the closing moments of the match but he tried to stick with Ki and work for the finish. He ends up picking up the victory and then shows respect by shaking Ki’s hand at the end. The first of many 2000’s Ki matches I would classify as good. ***1/4

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The cover is by Sporty Thieves and was a spoof called "No Pigeons" and I loved it at the time. It's hard for me to hate on a wrestler using it as entrance music, that's for sure. And he probably would have won me over anyway, because Billy Reil is an awesomely obnoxious heel. He has all the smarminess of Kevin Steen while working a snobby guido gimmick and constantly setting himself up to be shown up while also maintaining some cred. He's a good worker and this was a good match. I'd be interested in tracking him as long as that's a possibility, just as we obviously will Low Ki. There were a couple of moments where there was a very brief hesitation -- like it was a clear a guy went to a place to set up a spot and he was waiting on the other guy to do something. It was a split second each time, but the seasoned workers are usually able to make those things nearly invisible and neither guy was quite there yet. That aside, I really liked what they put together here and felt the match rose well above that one tiny flaw. Low Ki still looks like a superstar on the rise, and much like Ric Blade did in the 1/8 match, if I was watching this at the time, Reil would have too. ***1/2

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  • 3 weeks later...

This was quite good, some quality indy wrestling. Could have been taken up a bit in the selling department (both the immediate response to moves and long-term damage), but everything hit clean, and the exchanges were very cool. This was at the level of a lot of WCW openers from around this time.

 

It's interesting to see Ki in there at this point with more spot-based workers, because he got known for a somewhat different, more stiffness based style. Curious to see that evolve, or whether perhaps he had it in him already and was simply adapting to who he was in the ring with.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm guessing this is Jersey Championship wrestling? I've heard of Billy Reil before and he was pretty impressive. At least for an early 2000's heel. Had some good moves and even no sold Low Ki's kicks. Weird seeing Ki work from underneath. The finish was cheap compared to the match but all things said it was good.

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This match was pretty good and makes you wonder what happened to Billy Reil as he looked pretty good here. Low-Ki shows more potential in this and you can see signs of him becoming the man on the indie scene in the next year. This is the typical high level indie match of this time period. Innovative moves but lacking a bit in the selling department, but overall a fun watch.

 

***1/4

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Reil insults the crowd before the bout begins so we know that he’s the heel in this one. Nice opening where they trade arm wringers and work a section around that. Arm drag sends Reil to the floor, Ki with a pescado but Reil slides back into the ring avoiding it. He outstretches his arms thinking he’s outsmarted him, not so, as Ki with a springboard crossbody back into the ring for a two. Reil offers Ki his hand and he goes to shake it, but he slaps him in the face before ducking between the ropes so Ki can’t get him. Reil with a headscissors, Ki with one of his own and Reil steps outside for a breather. Not for long as Ki leaps to the top turnbuckle and comes off with a somersault senton to the floor. Ki whips Reil into the turnbuckles, handspring, but Reil comes off the middle with a bulldog (although you can clearly see Ki waiting for this) for a two. He blocks a German and a sit out suplex for another two. Elbow off the top and the near falls continue as Reil complains about the referee’s count. Double jump springboard moonsault but Ki moves out of the way. He fires back with some snap kicks and Reil puts a stop to that with a poke to the eyes. Monkey flip, Ki lands on his feet and handspring into a round off kick. Ki with a Frankensteiner off the top, but Reil reverses it into a powerbomb. It’s Ki’s turn to step outside for a breather, no rest for him either mind as Reil with a plancha off the top to the floor. Reil then starts shouting ‘Wrestlemania’ and referring to himself as ‘the man’! He goes for a trio of powerbombs but on the third Ki blocks it and hits a brain buster. Dragon sleeper and Reil accidentally (?) claws the referee in the face temporarily blinding him and he misses seeing him tap. Tornado DDT by Ki which Reil reverses into a lovely Death Valley Driver. He then puts his legs over the ropes for added leverage whilst making the cover to get the win. Post-match Reil puts Ki over as the toughest man he’s ever stepped in the ring with and they shake hands.

 

A completely different match to Low Ki vs Ric Blade, with Ki showing that he can actually wrestle as opposed to just hitting high spots. He even busts out a bit of Lucha. First time seeing Reil and I enjoyed his interactions with the crowd, his stooging and just generally heeling it up. He doesn’t look the flashiest of wrestlers but the guy can fly and he’s another with real potential. I wasn’t enamoured with the ref involvement at the finish as it was out of place with the match that we had been watching. Preferred this one to Ki/Blade because it actually felt like a ‘match’ whereas that felt like a ‘show’.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 5 months later...

I enjoyed this well enough but they definitely lost me towards the end when the bombs started flying. Ki, much like Kendrick and Bryan, has all the raw talent on show already, he just hasn't connected the dots yet. Reil was entertaining enough with some good heeling, some decent high-spots and managed to cut a good pace which couldn't have been easy with someone like Ki. I really liked the spot where Reil managed to poke the ref in the eye and I'm surprised they didn't just go to him cheating for the finish there but that's a minor nitpick. Either way, I thought this started with a nice ebb and flow, some good back and forth spots and I just think they kind of ran out of ideas towards the end.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Was reading the results over at Cagematch and Gilberg defended the WWF Light Heavyweight title at this event against someone I'm not familiar with called Dave Greco... Bizarre.

 

This was pretty neat, but far from memorable. I'm not familiar with Billy Reil, but he looked far better here than Ric Blade did in the previous Low Ki match listed from this month. They also kept it a lot simpler here than in the aforementioned match.

 

I dug Ki's dive to the outside which was pretty nuts and that counter tornado DDT into a DVD.

 

The ref. selling the eye poke near the end was pretty bad.

 

So far I would say this maybe a top 5 indy match from the batch of matches I've seen for the month.

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  • 1 month later...

My first exposure to Low Ki was when he debuted in TNA in 2002 and he quickly became one of my favorite wrestlers in this period, mostly from his ROH matches. This was cool seeing him work a match as the underdog, I thought he did a good job but I found myself wanting to see the dominant Low Ki and just take over the match. You can clearly see his talent in this match and I am looking forward to see more of this.

 

Then for Reil, I liked how he got the crowd going before the match and he is exactly the type of heel I love seeing in live Indy shows. He held is own in this match and showed off some good moves and agility.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2000-01-29-JCW] Low Ki vs Billy Reil

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