Speaking of our backyard days; Cole Crazy is someone that I first met in early 2007 when he travelled alongside his friends Richard, Jesse and Ray (government names) up to a big backyard show that we were throwing in Surrey, BC which featured a handful of matches that became legendary in those circles; namely the Zeus McFly/Pyro matchup that I mentioned a few weeks back as well as the main event between myself and Tyrant; another UK yarder with a skillset, lack of fear and ability to take punishment way beyond his years or level of training. That match doesn't particularly hold up upon rewatch (to me at least) but is still a strong core memory regardless and one that features a handful of moments that go pseudo viral on social media every 6 months or so. Cole was still a young kid, figuring out his place in the backyard landscape but I have to imagine that weekend was a big influence and jumping off point for him as the group he worked for in Washington, BXCW began to run shows more frequently in the subsequent years and our crew form BC regularly made the trip south in order to work with him.
This match starts with some early chain work but doesn't really linger too much on that and uses it to transition to some place setting, establishing our roles and the potential narrative threads. It's pretty clearly worked with both of us as babyfaces with me slotting into my prototypical position of leading the dance, taking control of Cole during the second act and utilizing body part work as one of the underlying through lines. Very early on I go back to the top wrist lock a bunch including an arm drag set up from a standing one that leads directly into my first attempt at stomping it with Cole becoming the first person in all of these months to avoid it via kip up and immediately getting in my face, throwing some hard forearms in the process. I'm somewhat conflicted on opponents countering signature moves in initial matches with them, a notion that was made clearer to me when I was lucky enough to work with a particular grappling cephalopod years later; although I do think that when a move is that well established (i.e. used in pretty much every match I had in 3-2-1 up until that point), there is inherently a built in logic to someone anticipating it and being successful in avoiding it accordingly.
Cole takes control from here and establishes where he's going to be most successful; hard strikes and big impactful moves. After an exchange on the apron that sees him faking me out and me covering up accordingly, he kicks out my legs leading to me landing head first on the apron en route to the hard floor further below, where he soon joined me by hitting a Shooting Star Press off the apron in a pretty crazy highspot for this era of the promotion. I love the little bit of nuance that followed in the next few moments throughout the entirety of his control segment; at the beginning of each sequence, I attempted to take control by going to his arm only for him to segue back into a series of moves of his own. First a snap mare followed by a hard kick to the back and a series of leg drops, followed up by a hard snap suplex for merely a quick 2 count. Eventually my diligence pays off as the third time was the charm and I was successful in gaining traction, grasping at straws or in this case a wrist lock; which he countered in turn with the classic roll through to alleviate pressure, only for his kip up attempt to be thwarted by a well timed stomp to the chest and then with his shoulders now pinned to the mat, I was able to finally execute the dreaded top wrist lock stomp successfully and take control accordingly.
While not everything during the second act flows as precisely as similar moments would later on in my career, I do appreciate that there is an attempt at interjecting some connective tissue and logic into my work. An early knee driven into his stomach is transitioned into another grounded top wrist lock, complete with my own elbow digging into the meat of his triceps; putting him in enough discomfort to force him to roll backwards out of it to his feet where he was prone enough for me to execute a nicely timed Butterfly Suplex for a 2 count. A quick schoolboy attempt by Cole follows immediately afterwards (always observe the Steamboat rule), with me bringing him back down suddenly to the hard canvas below with a Gut Wrench Suplex and the first attempt at the now patented Jim Breaks double arm breaker which he is quick to fight his way out of; doing our best to establish it ever so slightly for its inevitable reappearance during the later stages of the match.
After a brief comeback attempt via some running European Uppercuts in the corner, I cut him off with the first instance of a sequence we likely did more than any other over the many years of us working together. First avoiding one of the aforementioned uppercuts by leap frogging him out of the corner, I came charging back in with a hard forearm followed by a release German Suplex with the momentum carrying him all the way through to his feet where he was met by a hard two footed dropkick to the chest; otherwise known as the "John Woo" initially being made famous by a couple of famed dance partners in SUWA & Dragon Kid from Toryumon, the predecessor to the current Dragon Gate promotion in Japan. I could not tell you who came up with this sequence but it got such a huge reaction that Cole requested we insert it or some variation of it into every single match we had from there on out; even after I had long since given up on using that particular drop kick variant. I can't say that he was wrong as it always got an amazing reaction and would be a bit of a cheat code for waking up any audience who may be struggling through a famed "Daniel Makabe heat segment" but at a certain point, it did begin to feel like it was being shoe horned in just a tad too much.
An attempt at hitting another one of my big moves, the Armtrap German Suplex was nicely worked out of as Cole first wriggled his arms free of my grasp before delivering a couple of sharp back elbows to the face in order to work his way free altogether. Eventually after a bit of a lull in the form of a hard to describe and inappropriately sequenced submission hold on my behalf, we worked our way to a neat sequence back and forth between opposite corners of the ring with a caught kick, ducked enzigiri, leapfrog and backwards roll creating enough movement and space for Cole to hit a Pele style bicycle kick and find an opening to fight his way back into the match. Finally now he could hit multiple versions of his hard running Euros, followed up with a crushing somersault cannonball connecting with my chest as I sat prone in the corner; called classically by 3-2-1's resident in house play by play man Cody Von Whistler, "Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Crazy."
Speaking of shoehorning things into a match; it's at this point as we enter the third and final act of the match that all of a sudden I decided it would be appropriate to sell my knee, stemming from it being kicked early on to set up the wild and out of control apron to floor SSP. With no real further work to establish this significant piece of the story; I managed to hobble out of the way, avoiding a jumping knee attempt from Cole in the process and hit him with a German Suplex with a one legged bridge; a sequence that feels directly lifted from my my singles match against Kaden Talbain from just a few months prior and in hindsight does not feel like it was warranted or sold in an appropriate manner.
After hitting the "Colebreaker" out of nowhere to bring things back to an even playing field, things definitely venture a tad into our backyard roots of excess and lack of logic. Now selling my wounded limb with some consistency as I struggled to maintain my balance on my feet, I'm suddenly brought back down to the mat hard with a really gross looking Sleeper Suplex. It's all for not though as in a real "Dudes Rock" kind of moment, I pop back up to my feet and get right in Crazy's face where we exchange a pair of crudely conceived double birds and take off for opposite sets of ring ropes which sent us rebounding back accordingly into the center of the ring where we met with a double clothesline; the collision sending us both flying through the air with simultaneous inside out bumps that brought the majority of the fans to their feet with hoots, hollers and applause.
The ensuing double down brings us back down to Earth just enough with Coles attempt to cover me narrowly avoided by rolling out of the way of his outstretched arm to the safe ground of the apron just outside of the confines of the ring ropes that were indirectly guilty of putting us in this position to begin with. I do still love little moments like this that serve multiple purposes; showing a sense of logic with me doing whatever it takes to avoid Cole's attempt to win the match via pinfall but using that moment as a way to disguise the fact that I was really selling into place on the apron to prepare the next set piece contained within the closing act, as we climbed our way closer and closer to the inevitable climax of the match. A Crazy attempt at hitting an ill conceived Sleeper Suplex on the apron is thankfully countered with a particularly forceful arm wringer sending him crashing face first to the "hardest part of the ring," with the word crazy serving two masters in that previous sentence; acting as both a noun and an adverb.
Vulnerable and in the middle of the ring, I'm able to hit the previously attempted Armtrap German Suplex for a two count with my leg giving out mid bridge in another moment that was wholesale plagiarized from the previously referenced Kaden Talbain match. Wrestlers are going to have patterns as well as specific sequences that they're going to "plug and play" within the context of multiple matches throughout their careers, but in this instance it feels like a little too recent and not at all suitable for the match we were having for me to go back to this well so soon; something I would eventually learn, especially when 3-2-1 transitioned to bi-weekly shows in the coming months.
The match finally comes to a fitting conclusion as an attempt of a Danielson-esque Back Suplex from the top rope is stopped by a series of back elbows from Cole. Finding myself brought back down to the mat after a hard landing from the second rope, Crazy's first attempt from his home away from home in the Top Rope which would soon come to be referred to as "The Amazon District" within the four walls of Evolv Fitness because it's high end real estate, at least to anyone who knows a thing or two about Seattle. Taking too long to capitalize on his advantageous position however, Cole's Top Rope Moonsault was caught semi successfully via me throwing my legs up into the air with him initially landing in my guard but quickly transitioning first to a Triangle Choke and then eventually in to the far gone conclusion that was a fully locked in Jim Breaks Armbar for the big rebound victory.
I know this style of "catch spot" where a submission specialist is able to succumb a high flyer is somewhat divisive amidst wrestling critics and intellectuals online alike but it's definitely something I'm less offended by than some and have come to use as a bit of a cheat code over the years as when it's executed well, it blends the worlds of realism, struggle and suspension of disbelief; it also almost always gets a great reaction from live crowds who are caught off guard by it.
Over the coming months and years, Cole and I would work with one another a lot be it in singles, tags, three ways, four ways and even six way matches and I do not think this our best work with one another. It's still a decent match that does a good job of establishing what was still to come over the next nearly five years as we would go on to have bigger and better matches with one another with more prestigious circumstances attached to boot, be them main events, title matches or what have you. While he sometimes would find himself falling back into some bad habits learned in his backyard days and I'm not sure he was ever properly trained to begin with; similar to Kaden Talbain he was someone who just picked up wrestling on a bigger and more professional stage naturally by being thrusted into "on the job training" so to speak. He was always game to try something new and a take a risk here or there, listening and taking direction well; never not able to adapt to whatever a particular match or situation would call for.
Of the many opponents that will be discussed over the course of the next two years and 100+ matches, there's probably no one outside of my closest personal friends that I trained and grew up with that I worked with more nor enjoyed working with more than Cole Crazy. While they weren't always great, they were usually at a minimum very good and I'm thankful for all of the memorable matches that the two of us were able to have with one another in 3-2-1 Battle.
******
This past week I got word that my friend Kevin Diers of Seattle passed away at the age of 39. He was someone that I met initially at 3-2-1 Battle around 2016-2017 with him attending shows with some regularity and even taking part as a ring announcer or colour commentator when another member of the team was unavailable to fulfill their usual duties. He's someone I quickly connected with as he was a stalwart of the local music scene, focused primarily on Hardcore and Metal and I always would look forward to talking shop with him about our favourite bands, recent shows we had been to or album recommendations for one another. He interviewed me a handful of times over the years, first for a weekly wrestling podcast he took up during the pandemic called the Jabroni Journal and years later, moments before I made my return after nearly four years to wrestle Artemis Spencer in a Seattle Streetfight for DEFY Wrestling at the historic Washington Hall, as part of his series of interviews known as "The Defyant Ones."
One of the last times I saw him was at Bumbershoot in 2023 where we spent multiple hours in one another's company traversing the expansive Seattle Centre grounds, watching a handful of bands including the Descendents as well as a series of wrestling matches presented by Tacoma's own SOS Pro Wrestling. Everywhere we went, we would run into someone that he knew indirectly or was personally acquainted with; it truly seemed like he was everybody's friend and it wasn't hard to see why. He was such a kind and personable human being, who always had time for the people in his life that meant the most to him. The last time we spoke was months ago while he was in the midst of a trip to Japan that I found myself truly jealous of, which included him attending a DDT show headlined by Chris Brookes and Shinya Aoki. He told me how amazing it was to witness it in person and even admitted that he was not previously familiar with Aoki or his work, conceding that while watching him he thought specifically of me, correctly assuming that I must be a fan of his. He's someone I selfishly wish I had gotten to spend more time with and more importantly is someone I wish I had opened up with on a deeper level as I was never aware of the kind of hardship he was going through in his day to day life and certainly never shared with him any glimpse at the moments where I feel at my lowest either.
Watch:
Daniel Makabe vs Cole Crazy [8/21/15]
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