Kaden Talbain was probably my favourite opponent to work with consistently in all my years as a professional wrestler and is one of the most naturally talented performers I've ever known; someone whom I think could have wrestled all over the world as I did under difference circumstances. Over the course of the 6 years I spent working for 3-2-1 Battle, we had numerous interactions with one another including various forms of tag matches (including teaming with and against one another), but the ones I'm most proud of and look back upon most fondly are the 4 singles matches we wrestled against one another, this one being first instance of such. But our history with one another goes back an additional 10 years prior when a fresh faced 17 year old kid from Coquitlam using the moniker 'Special K' showed up to a VCW event in the Whalley neighbourhood of Surrey, BC wrestling in a "Shabooya" T-Shirt, the name of his high school improv/sketch team.
In the ensuing near 20 years, we would have numerous battles all over the lower mainland/Greater Vancouver as well as trips up and down I5 in Washington State to wrestle in backyards in Everett or in front of hundreds of screaming fans in Seattle. Once on a redeye flight to the east coast to take part in "Backyard Week", a series of shows emanating from 3 different locations/states in the summer of 2007 -in lieu of sleep, we stayed up composing the lyrics to a parody we had conceived of the song "I Love it Loud" by KISS, except now it was about "Dr. Death" Steve Williams as a child being forced to take a bath by his doting Mother, with her being met by threats of retaliatory Doctor Bombs & Oklahoma Stampedes; I wish I was making any of this up. Needless to say, over the years we had seen and done a lot in the company of one another and I'm thankful to have had some of my favourite matches ever regardless of venue or backyard/pro delineation against him - including maybe one of my 10 best ever in 3-2-1 Battle!; although we won't get to that one for a couple more years. Alas, as it were this was the first time we ever squared off in a singles match in the Battle Palace in the midst of the ongoing feud between The Raincity Coalition and Fur & Loathing. I'm also sporting a nice new haircut and of course there's also more of aforementioned, consistently annoying colourful plastic balls; although those were not long for this world at this point.
Whenever we did get the opportunity to wrestle, Kaden and I were always trying to incorporate more and more interesting elements of scientific wrestling as well as long, multi-part highspots into our matches. I distinctly remember us going out of our way to chain together our longest and most ambitious one yet at the forefront of this match - beginning with a World of Sport inspired series of reversals/pinfalls, followed by more NJPW coded shoulder tackles and my then prevalent odes to Dick Blood in the form of arm drags and monkey flips which Kaden always bumped and sold expertly. But we weren't done there as another series of whip reversals lead to me rolling under a Talbain leap frog into a sunset flip (another move I'd often utilize in our numerous matches over the years) straight into a Rolling Death Cradle from a double leg nelson shades of a young Yoshihiro Tajiri. It was this early series of hot moves (TM Big Dave) that brought many fans literally out of their seat and had Kaden calling for a time out as I could barely hide the state of my gas tank (ie empty) and play by play announcer Cody Von Whistler questioned whether or not Timeouts were a part of the official "Canadian Wrestling Rulebook"; something he wasn't personally familiar with.
Otherwise things start off in a similar manner to how a lot of our matches would with Kaden eagerly partaking in my melting pot of grappling influences. A series of mirrored headlock takeovers into headscissors that are escaped with handstands although in the case of the latter, I take Talbain back down to the mat out of his with a nice MiSu esque double wristlock hold. We continue to throw our influences at a wall and see what sticks as the greatest escapologist to ever don a pair of boots finds his work alluded to as well, eventually leading to a quick sequence leading in and out of respective pet holds; Talbain's Crossface Chickenwing and my Cattle Mutilation, mixed in with some amateur wrestling exchanges in a thesis statement that would colour the back half of the match itself. This match features a bunch of story telling elements/short cuts that I would use for years to come and this is the first of such - hitting the audience over the head with a burst of energy, prominently featuring the holds that will be further used to great effect and hope that it gets through to them as best as it can. In the case of these early 3-2-1 Battle fans, that wasn't always the case - but it doesn't mean that it wasn't worth trying nonetheless.
I take over at this point with a relatively slowly paced control sequence centered around neutralizing Talbain's arm with a variety of twists and turns but no real holds or submissions of any real consequence used; although I do hit a really, really nice butterfly suplex at one point early on. I think it's safe to say that these are some of the earliest instances of what would become commonplace in my matches in the future as I started to break out of my small little corner of the wrestling world - controlling the pace and dictating the story with a variety of holds, inspired by the decades of VHS tapes and YouTube streams ingested of my numerous technical wrestling heroes. It wouldn't be out of order to call this match and my approach to how I work it, "Proto Wrestling Genius" although I'm hardly a street walking cheetah with a heart full of napalm or necessarily skillful enough to adequately kick out the jams quite yet, but I digress.
Things progress into the second act of the match with a back and forth fight over a vertical suplex (another regular spot of ours) that leads to some brawling on the floor and another attempt at my then big highspot of the the Apron Diving Dropkick that I truthfully had little recollection of how often I used or at a minimum, teased in my matches in this era. However it's not to be this time out as Kaden leaps up from his seat in the front row and cuts me off with a lariat to the knee, complete with a wild looking somersault bump onto the apron that sent me crashing to the floor which looked pretty out of control but I recall being reasonably safe. At this point he had his own control segment focused around working my leg with a variety of holds including a really nice shin breaker. Another story telling trick that I'm apt to use is pretty glaring in this match too as every single time I attempt to fight back and show some hope - I'm brought back down to size with something that focusses on the aforementioned injured body part - at first crashing and burning on a big corner dropkick like I have so many times before albeit in the safest version I ever took of this bump (probably ever) or my later attempt of successfully monkey flipping Talbain off a hard whip as I had done so previously being thwarted with him lifting my leg high into the air and smashing my shin into the mat.
Going back and watching this, the glaring thing to me that stands out is my lack of struggle and attempts at fighting back while at the same time selling the damage being done to me. This is something that would eventually become a major focus in the later years of my career and become somewhat of a calling card of mine, adding a sense of realism and drama via the underlying sense of struggle, especially when working through adversity/from underneath. Probably the best independent play by play announcer I've ever had the privilege to work with is IWTV's Dylan Hales and with somewhat regularity he would compare me to the great Yoshiaki Fujiwara as a great defensive wrestler and it was upon watching some more recent work of mine in the last few months that I realized that I think a large part of that is just me constantly attempting to work myself out of holds while still selling them adequately in the moment.
Eventually, inspired (?) by the fans who are still somewhat unfamiliar with me or my character, I manage a hot comeback soundtracked by chants of "Let's Go Pink!" and as best as I can tell, "BC Pink!" which to my best guess is a portmanteau of CM Punk and while I'm hardly a Chick Magnet, I most definitely reside in British Columbia so bonus points to them for effort and creativity at least. Things pick back up with my Tetsuya Naito Flying Forearm and Kaden selling into the wrong corner from where I needed him to be, a biproduct of 3-2-1 having their ring set up right against the far wall which in this instance prohibited me from doing a leap up and over the rope to the apron in order set up a top rope dropkick. This forced me to awkwardly execute one from the 2nd rope instead, all the while he fed too close for me to get full extension on it, in a sequence that was clunky all around; not unlike these sentences describing it. The previously referenced favoured holds of ours are exchanged here with me successfully applying a Cattle Mutilation that he desperately reached the bottom rope with his foot to break and Kaden following suite by sneaking through my legs on an attempt of my patented Armtrap German Suplex, flipping me out to my feet and locking in a Crossface Chickenwing. This was one of the few matches that I can remember where he used this hold so prevalently, which is a shame because it's a very under utilized move albeit one that never really stuck within his repertoire.
Things are a little awkward with some dicey selling on my behalf during this section although it does lead to some really nicely executed false finishes - a Great Talbain Brainbuster complete with my vacant/glassy eyed sell as well as me countering his attempt at a Tornado DDT with a go behind to a German Suplex Hold, complete with one legged bridge which was a cheat code of mine for years to come, one that stood out to a handful of my most diehard fans. My selling would get more consistent in the closing stages of this match as Talbain used a figure four that I reversed in the classic pro wrestling manner leading to Talbain shooting a single leg on me that I countered to a backpack rear naked choke used effectively to subdue him long enough and finally hit the previously attempted Armtrap German Suplex with my leg giving out at only a 1 count. Not all of this landed with the crowd on hand that evening but this was the beginning stages of my attempts at training them to appreciate the logic and intricacies that I was starting to come up with and would eventually utilize heavily in years to come.
The finish itself is a mostly well executed sequence that is a montage of a multiple previously utilized and attempted techniques from earlier on, beginning with probably the 3rd or 4th single leg takedown attempt in the match. However this time, the British stepover reversal that has become commonplace in independent wrestling of late is followed by a huge kneelift that sends Talbain skyward, landing hard on the mat below. He returns the favour as a big John Woo dropkick is knocked out of mid-air with a double axe handle that specifically targets the previously weakened knee, with his attempt at another Figure Four Leglock being thwarted by pushing him off into the ropes with my foot where he rebounded into a jacknife hold for a 2 count that I am then able to turn over into a seatbelt pin for 3. It's very possible that I have won more matches with some variation of this pinning sequence than anything else ever and this is likely one of the earliest instances of me using it in the first place. While I really love the back and forth nature of the finish, once things get down and onto the mat it did feel like we missed another pinfall or two with some thrown in struggle and further drama that likely would have built accordingly from having a less out of nowhere, successful pinfall.
I used to say with some regularity that this was the earliest example of a "good match" that I had in a 3-2-1 Battle Ring; which isn't to say some of the matches I've had to this point already (that you've in theory read about in prior weeks) weren't necessarily good, but they weren't indicative of the type of matches that I was wanting to and would eventually have based on my influences/viewing habits at the time. I think that still likely holds true even with some of the glaring short comings that became apparent to be with 10+ years of hindsight as a lot of the thought process and logic that I would carry with me for hundreds of matches to come were starting to take form in this match even if I still had a lot to learn along the way. It's like listening to a demo recording of a song that will one day become a classic, even if only to a niche collection of listeners themselves, if not a broader fanbase altogether. While not everyone will appreciate the raw nature of the recording quality itself, they can hopefully take note of the earliest incarnations of something they've come to love, flaws and all; as one day certain choices and changes will be made that will help it blossom into something that they truly cherish and maybe with hindsight, appreciate even more than they had at first.
The following weekend I was on a plane from Vancouver to the Bay Area - flying into San Jose, CA where I would see a litany of famous professional wrestlers and fans alike as they found themselves patiently waiting at luggage carousels and in rental car lineups. It was Wrestlemania weekend - eminating from the newly opened Levi's Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers but that wasn't what I had on my mind necessarily. One of my favourite bands at the time, Self Defense Family - an arty post punk east coast collective made up of various members and influences were doing a full scale US tour with Sweden's Makthaverskan whom I had recently become familiar with via their newly released sophomore record, aptly titled "II" and it's lead single - the incredibly catchy "Asleep" with the closest date to me geographically taking place at San Francisco's famed "Bottom of the Hill" venue. It was when I began investigating the cost of flights that I realized that it happened to fall on the same weekend as 'Mania and a series of independent shows being run under the Evolve/WWN Banner taking place at the nearby Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
I reached out to some friends of mine that I had made through backyarding years prior - Travis & Martin (along with their entire crew of wrestling pals) who were based in somewhat nearby Vacaville, CA and made arrangements to meet up with them at the venue where I finally got to see some of my favourite wrestlers on the independent scene at the time: Chris Hero, Biff Busick, Tommy End, Drew Gulak and last but certainly not least, Timothy Thatcher. We attended 3 shows that weekend with the highlight being the WWNLive Supershow "Mercury Rising", specifically the semi-main event of Hero/Thatcher - a match that had been built to for months and was eagerly anticipated for anyone following that product at the time. What took place before my own eyes was so much more than I ever could have imagined and still to this day is the best or certainly the most memorable pro wrestling match I was ever witness to in person.
Thatcher and Hero approached one another in the most stoic and tepid of manners as the hundreds of us in attendance that afternoon produced a deafening, consistent dueling chant of "Let's Go Thatcher" and "Let's Go Hero" that almost overtook the match itself; certainly prolonging the inevitable entanglement of limbs, gritting of teeth and endless series of the most effective forearms and kicks known to man. As Thatcher found himself on the receiving end of the bulk end of the punishment, his support from the hometown crowd grew larger and larger and I found myself more invested and enthralled by a match than I had been since I was a 7 year old child being brought to his first series of WWF House Shows at the Pacific Coliseum here in Vancouver. Finally, Thatcher was able to succesfully snatch a Fujiwara Armbar from underneath as he was being pinned haphazardly by an exhausted Hero; a sequence I may have directly lifted for one of my future matches with the man himself, years later. Chris had been succumbed, the crowd rejoiced and I found myself literally brought to tears from the climax of a figurative emotional roller coaster.
Immediately after the show was over, I had to get in my rental car and drive an hour or so into the city to catch the concert that had been the original destination that sparked my interest in making this trip in the first place. Before leaving, I lingered around the venue where a makeshift locker room had taken shape outside and I was able to greet a handful of people whom would someday become my peers, including someone I had known from years of being around the local Vancouver scene and would go on to have some of my best matches ever with, but on that particular day didn't recognize me from Adam; Nicole Matthews. More importantly, I was able to meet the man himself whose work was starting to colour and influence my own more and more as I was starting to wrestle with more consistency and effectively put his principles into use. I politely greeted him, told him how much I loved the match that day and asked for a picture that I posted the following day on my Instagram account. Little did I know how influential his work and presence would eventually be on my wrestling career trajectory and life as a whole, but we'll save that story for another day altogether.
Watch:
Daniel Makabe vs Kaden Talbain [3/20/15]
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