Hollywood Mike's WNO Match Rankings: Lightweight
Hollywood Mike's WNO Match Rankings: Lightweight
Professor Hollywood Mike ranks the best matches in the insane lightweight division at the WNO Championship!
WNO is all about putting on the most exciting matches possible, and the WNO Championship surely didn't disappoint. The lightweight divsion was absolutely bonkers, every match on the front side or the back side was insane and could have been the best match on a normal card.
In the end, Kade Ruotolo left with $33,000 and the lightweight strap. Kade is a five star match machine, and the rest of the athletes in this division pitched in as well to put together maybe the most exciting bracket from start to finish in history. Was honestly tough ranking these matches, they were all elite when it comes to excitement.
I'll rank the matches from every division in the next week, but here is the Official Hollywood Mike match ratings for the lightweight division at the WNO Championship, and as always -
GOD BLESS YOU
9 Josh Cisneros vs Kade Ruotolo
Ended early with an injury to Josh, need to see this one run back. Not gonna include the match link for this as I'm not that into injuries. Stars = N/A
8 Diego Pato vs Damien Anderson
Guaranteed barn burner with these two matched up. Good back and forth match to kick off the consolation bracket at lightweight, with Pato winning a well deserved referee decision. 3 stars
7 Diego Pato vs Josh Cisneros
Props for Cisneros for coming back on day 2 after his injury on day 1. These guys have a long history, and Pato appears to still have his number, getting the RNC to finish in third place. 3.5 stars
6 Josh Cisneros vs Damien Anderson
Cisneros is a buzzsaw and showed it yet again in this match, pressuring Damien from start to finish and getting the win by arm bar in under five minutes. 3.5 stars
5 Geo Martinez vs Cole Abate
We suspected it, but this is the match where the 16 year old Abate proved he’s already amongst the best in the world. Cole attacked from start to finish, and his heel hook game was especially on point, he hit some beautiful leg entries and took Geo out of the consolation bracket with his breaking mechanics. Cole also hit a really nice back take early in the match. 3.5 stars
4 Gabriel Sousa vs Cole Abate
A controversial split decision here. After rewatching I’d lean towards Cole, but Gabriel has an argument because of how long he had the heel hook at around three minutes left. More great heel hook stuff from Cole here though, he looked pretty close to getting the tap on his second attempt. Great match that I’m sure we will see run back before long. 3.5 stars
3 Gabriel Sousa vs Kade Ruotolo
Classic Kade Ruotolo, doing what makes him the most exciting grappler in the game. Another beautiful darce finish to get the belt and the $30k. 4 stars
2 Gabriel Sousa vs Mikey Musumeci
The type of star making performance that is possible in the tournament setting. Gabriel Sousa came to win, and despite drawing the favorite according to betting lines in the first round in Mikey Musumeci he went out and dominated. Gabriel kept moving with his toreando passing, passed first off what appeared to be an error by Mikey but then proved that was no fluke when he passed a second time. Gabriel wasn’t content with just riding out the time in north south though, finishing with a north south choke and securing one of the biggest upsets of the tournament. 4 stars
1 Kade Ruotolo vs Diego Pato
One of the best matches of the entire tournament. Tim Spriggs has been calling himself the “Best Match Machine” but there is a strong argument that the name should go to Kade. Pato did his part as well, locking up a tight arm bar early in the match, but Kade weathered the storm and in Ruotolo style set up a beautiful Darce to finish the match. 5 stars