Fred Yehi vs. Colby Corino
February 13, 2016
TWE
Chattanooga, TN
** ½
As a preface to this review let me say that I think there is a widespread trend amongst current hardcore fans to be the first to praise a match and to find quality in unexpected places. I have certainly been guilty of this at times, although I am trying to be more cognizant of it. The issue is that someone watches a match as soon as it becomes available and without allowing even a minute for the match to sink in, the person races to a message board or Twitter to praise it. We get instant, adrenaline fueled reactions that are not carefully considered. The second issue was one that I saw raised on Twitter recently and something I have thought about for some time. It is the apparent desire to find quality away from the usual suspects. It has led to a general overrating of indie matches (in the US, Japan, and Mexico as well). I am not suggesting that any hyped indie match is underserving of praise, but I have been burned by overhyped matches from less visible promotions so many times that I am positive there is something to it.
The reason I mention that here is because I think this match exemplified both issues.
Yehi and Corino had a perfectly reasonable match. Yehi is a fun, talented and interesting in this match. Corino was a game opponent and brought both quality bumping and selling to the match. As my rating reflects, the match was right in that solid to slightly above average range and a match that I didn’t regret spending time to watch. To me, that’s passable.
But for me, that’s all the match was. It was not a MOTYC or even a good+ match in my eyes. It goes without saying that people should feel free to rate a match however they see it but I really do get the sense that if this match did not happen in a Tennessee gymnasium for a non-major promotion that it would not have been met with the same praise. Colby Corino’s offense was below average. The limb selling was fine but didn’t add anything major the match. A 25+ minute match time was excessive for what they did. There were obvious issues and even the stuff they did do well did not seem superlative. I tend to defer to the majority opinion unless there are clear stylistic reasons why a broad group might not enjoy a specific match. In this case I feel like there are no such barriers and if you showed it to a wide audience – even a wide audience of hardcore fans – that the consensus opinion would be far more subdued.
I saw a good match that went on too long to fully hold my interest. I am scratching my head to see what the MOTYC elements of the match were.
