David Starr vs. Mercedes Martinez

[7.0] "I don't understand why this match has such a high rating. It was good, but I didn't experience a single emotion. For the sake of justice, 30 minutes of the match weren't felt at all."

[7.0] "Did not meet expectations. There were a lot of unnecessary techniques that looked especially inappropriate, given the weak impact. The match is still good and in some moments can even entertain, but any rudiments of conflict immediately go away as soon as the next exchange of techniques begins. It got a little better in the end, but I still don't understand this rating. Speaking of which: Starr not selling the consequences of backdrop - this is meh. The match is pleasant, I just didn't see anything unique in it. Martinez's work was good (***1/4)."

[9.0] "Great match and well worthy of a lot of positive attention. The only point against it is that I'm not a big fan of the "asking to get hit" trope that we see so often these days, and they leaned on that heavily for a while in this match. Other than that this was top notch, awesome performance from both wrestlers."

[10.0] "Great match! It was my fist time watching a Mercedes Martinez match that wasn't a battle royale and I wasn't disapointed."

[6.0] "It just seemed sloppy to me. David Starr was great, but it just seemed like MM was gassed and was having a hard time keeping up"

[8.0] "This was a long ass match, but the two competitors managed to make a very enjoyable one out of it. I particularly liked the first part, maybe it dragged a little bit in the middle but overall it was pretty good."

[9.0] "This was really, really awesome. They went to work a very long match but actually, they knew how to do their stuff and built the match well. Starr working on top and bullying his opponent and of course, Martinez worked as an underdog. Her comeback was very good and she looked naturally badass without feeling forced. Starr's work was good, as well. Both paced the match well and it didn't feel dragged despite going nearly 30 minutes. They didn't let any dead time, spot and actually had something to do to get crowd invested into it. I like how Martinez constantly survived Starr's moves showing her resilience unlike many matches just spamming moves for no reasons. The only thing I dislike was Starr no selling the back suplex. Other than that, it was great. Intergender wrestling does not sound exciting to me. But both of them here worked well and I did enjoy a lot. Better than the Tessa/Sami in Impact few months ago. Thumb up."

[10.0] "Es increíble lo bien que se vio este combate. Primero, el tema de que no se sintió esa mierda de "oh, lucha entre hombre y mujer. " Es una lucha bastante orgánica, que va desde muy poco, con un llaveo y contra-llaveo a ser una guerra total. Excelente selling, psicología y el performance es el necesario, sin llegar a ser una lucha típica indie empalagosa. Excelente lucha. **** 1/2"

[6.0] "Two good wrestlers having the most bog standard throwback epic possible. Most of it is performed well and some of the submissions were creative but it was mostly a well-executed nothing match. It's nice to see these two get some fanfare but they both have matches worthy of this hype. This match is far from one of them. Maybe watch more wrestling?"

[6.0] "Alright move along, folks, move along. Nothing to see here -- just the flavour-of-the-month indy match that is "totes legit a MOTYC, forreal". I have to imagine that the entire reason this is getting such rave reviews is due to the intergender gimmick, but that isn't enough for me to declare a match 'great' or even 'good'. Starr is a very good wrestler, so of course the best parts of the match were seeing him play up his arrogance and unload with all his vicious stiff strikes and power moves. That was all great fun. Sadly, there was another person in this match -- Martinez. She was honestly very mediocre, and even bad at points. Her movements and attacks were either 'fine' or just outright sloppy, and she messed up quite a few big exchanges due to poor selling/bumping or even (unintentional) sandbagging, which made some of Starr's attacks look rather weak or clumsy. I appreciated that she didn't have the full 'running through water' affliction as many other wrestlers unfortunately possess, but she clearly wasn't anywhere near Starr's level either, so it was really jarring to see her pushed as a badass through all her forced and contrived hope spots and comebacks. She had a handful of good knee strikes, I'll give her that, but I didn't see anything else to make me think of her as being anything more than just mediocre. If we're going based on in-ring performance, then Starr should have won this match in like 7 minutes. Martinez wasn't equipped for this sort of match, especially not at a nearly 30-minute-long length. It's a good thing Starr was here, because this would have been outright mediocre, if not bad if Martinez wasn't lucky enough to have such a good partner to carry her. ***"

[10.0] "The best intergender match ever. Incredible how they built the fight and made it personal. There was a man and a woman that wanted to show who is better. At the end one can made a "womens revolution" or bull***t similar but in wrestling nothing is better than a match well done"

[9.0] "Excellent match. Intergender matches are usually pretty good but this was one of the better ones in recent years, if ever. I loved the mat wrestling in the match, early in the match especially. Starr using his weight and size for leverage, even though Mercedes has the better technique. Loved Starr using the wrist to control Mercedes, either to setup something or get out of a hold. It was great use of a simple hold. Mercedes was great on the back foot, selling for Starr really well and using what she can to get some offence against Starr. All the strikes she took and still being able to carry on was impressive. The match built really well for the most part, even if the match went longer than it's peak. It was one of those matches that kept your attention right the way through. A really great simplistic match that everyone should go out to see. ****1/2"