Commentary needs to tell us things.

https://wrestlingrumors.net/kbs-review-cool-tell-us/

IMG Credit: Impact Wrestling

Impact Wrestling
Date: May 10, 2018
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentator: Josh Matthews

We’re still dealing with the Redemption fallout while also starting the build towards Slammiversary. Tonight’s big deal is Eli Drake cashing in his Feast or Fired briefcase for the World Title shot against Pentagon Jr. You also have Austin Aries roaming around near the title and some other people aren’t far behind. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We open with Josh Matthews in the studio talking about Sami Callihan wrecking a recent ceremony in Don Callis’ honor. Apparently Sami is livid at Callis for throwing in the towel to save Eddie Edwards at the WrestleCon show and wanted revenge.

There’s currently a meeting going on regarding Sami’s future. We’ll cut into whatever to let you know the outcome.

It’s off to the ceremony in Toronto with Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella) giving Callis an award. Cue Sami to attack Callis and beat him down while busting him open. Fine angle, but Callis has been on camera around here for less than a month. That’s quite a lot of faith to bet on fans caring about something like this.

The regular opening video talks about Drake vs. Pentagon.

Opening sequence.

Andrew Everett/DJZ vs. LAX

Santana and DJZ start things off with a rather speedy exchange until Ortiz comes in for some double teaming to take over. It’s off to Everett for a failed fireman’s carry gutbuster as Santana is keeping his eyes open for anyone trying to interfere. Santana’s cutter gives Everett two and Josh gives us updates on the meeting: it’s still going on. I’ll take nothing new Josh over nitwit/stupid/self praising Josh. Everett rolls over into a kick to Santana before rolling over to DJZ for the tag.

DJZ sends them together so Ortiz DDTs Santana in that spot that is still so stupidly contrived. A double kick takes DJZ down but a double kick takes LAX down. Everything breaks down and DJZ tornado DDTs Ortiz, only to walk into a Santana superkick. Everett hits a very good looking top rope Asai moonsault to drop Ortiz but Ortiz is up a few moments later for a suicide flip dive. The Street Sweeper is broken up and DJZ rolls Ortiz up for the pin at 8:28.

Rating: B-. This is a good idea as there’s only so much you can do with a two or three team tag division. Everett and DJZ aren’t breaking the mold or anything we haven’t seen before but the division needs bodies right now and there’s nothing wrong with that. LAX’s downward spiral is interesting and I’m kind of curious to see what’s behind the whole thing. Nice match too.

Grado is still waiting on his girlfriend but Joseph Park says he smells a rat. Cue Katie Lea Burchill/Winter (now known as Katarina) name she’s going by now to hug Grado and say she’ll see “James” (Park) later.

Austin Aries wants Eli Drake to win tonight because he knows he can beat him.

Rohit Raju vs. Grado

Before Josh can say it: WHO IS THE DESI HIT SQUAD AND WHY SHOULD I CARE? Raju jumps Grado while he gives Katarina his hat but can’t suplex the rather rotund one. Some running boots to the face in the corner give Raju two and we hit the chinlock. Grado is back with a side slam and a falling splash, which Josh calls unique. That would be true, if Ortiz didn’t do the same thing in the previous match.

We go split screen for a second to show that the meeting is still going. Grado takes too much time with his dancing punches and gets kneed in the face. A swinging fisherman’s neckbreaker gets two but Grado is right back with an elbow to the head and the Cannonball for the pin at 5:39.

Rating: D. I never cared for Grado in the first place and now I’m not sure if he’s supposed to be a heel or a face. By nature he’s a face but if you put a hot manager with anyone, it’s going to make them a heel almost by default. Unless Katarina is with him to stay in the country or just using him or something, I’m not sure I get this.

Joseph Park is the latest X victim. Given that one of his finishers is called Weapon X, Cage is a possible suspect.

Video on Tessa Blanchard, who has wrestling in her blood and has to be the best.

Eli Drake and Scott Steiner are in the back with Drake saying tonight, he becomes the new belt collector. Steiner doesn’t like the idea of Drake saying he’ll do this himself.

Drago vs. Aerostar vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. El Hijo Del Fantasma

Lucha rules and the winner gets a future X-Division Title shot. Now that’s all I ask. Ishimori and Fantasma are sent to the floor in about thirty seconds, leaving Drago and Aerostar to trade covers. The other two replace them in a hurry and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker gets two on Ishimori. A good looking middle rope moonsault to the floor drops Drago and we take a break.

Back with Drago kicking Fantasma in the mask and hitting an ankle scissors to take Fantasma down again. Ishimori comes back in with a Regal roll for two on Drago. All four get back in and Fantasma superkicks Drago down. Ishimori drops Fantasma as well and all four are down for a bit. Drago is sent outside for a dive from Ishimori, followed by a dive each from Fantasma and Aerostar. Back in and Aerostar powerbombs Ishimori into the corner for two but the Thrill of the Kill gives Fantasma the pin on Aerostar for the pin at 16:43.

Rating: C+. This didn’t have the energy or the pace as last week’s six man but thank goodness they did something about giving us a new #1 contender. You can’t have these guys out there doing all kinds of crazy stuff and popping the crowd and not move them up, at least a little bit. Good match here, as you probably expected.

Eddie Edwards goes into the meeting and demands that Callihan not be fired. Management tells him to do what he has to do away from the Impact Zone.

From House of Hardcore in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Moose vs. Kongo Kong

Joined in progress with Moose hitting a dropkick but getting thrown to the floor. Kong follows him out and whips Moose into the barricade as Josh talks about Callihan and Edwards over and over. Kong’s waistlock doesn’t get him very far so he sends Moose shoulder first into the post. Moose switches to a more simplistic offense by shouldering him down but Jimmy Jacobs comes in with a chair for the DQ at 6:08.

Rating: D. Leave it to Kong to pull the good match streak to a grinding halt. I still don’t care for these matches from outside promotions but at least they have something here where it’s continuing a storyline with people we know. Unfortunately one of those people is Kong and I still have no clue why he’s getting so much time, unless he works for dirt cheap.

KM wants Fallah Bahh to become the best man that he can and we get shots of them screaming into the camera.

Montage of KM training Bahh to make him lose weight while eating various bad food. Bahh passes out.

From Pro Wrestling Noah and if what I can find is correct, this is from June 4, 2017.

Brian Cage vs. Takashi Sugiura

Joined in progress with Cage hitting a delayed vertical suplex, followed by a standing moonsault for two. Josh: “If the Avengers ever needed a new member, and they do after Infinity War, they should get Brian Cage.” That’s getting rather close to a spoiler. Cage hits the apron suplex for two more but Sugiura knees him down and hits some running knees in the corner.

A superplex attempt is broken up but Sugiura snaps off a top rope hurricanrana to put both guys down. There’s a buckle bomb to drop Sugiura and an F5 gets two. A German suplex and running knee give Sugiura the same but Cage blasts him with the Tornado Claw for two more. The Drill Claw is good for the pin on Sugiura at 7:49.

Rating: C. They really couldn’t find another match from within the last ten months and had to go this far back? The World Tour idea is fine but come up with something a little more recent. The match was watchable, though telling me who Sugiura was would have been nice, albeit completely beyond Josh’s capabilities. As someone who doesn’t watch Noah, I have no idea if that was a big, middle of the road or meaningless win for Cage, because I don’t know if Sugiura is an all time great, a midcarder, or a jobber. I’m sure I could find it, but Josh and Impact need to be telling us these things. Why that’s so much to ask, I’m not sure.

From Destination X 2009, Suicide wins the X-Division Title.

Allie is looking in a mirror and has flashbacks to last week. She finds a doll with a note pinned to it and opens it up. While we don’t see what it says, Allie looks a little disturbing when she looks in the mirror, almost like something is trying to take control of her.

Impact Wrestling World Title: Eli Drake vs. Pentagon Jr.

Pentagon is defending and Steiner isn’t here with Drake. They trade catchphrases to start and Drake sends him into the corner to stand on his head. Back to back Sling Blades give Pentagon two as Aries is watching in the back, banana in hand. A powerslam cuts Pentagon off as we’re told that next week, House of Hardcore will present Edwards vs. Callihan in a street fight. At least there’s a storyline reason for going to another promotion this time.

We hit the chinlock for a bit before Pentagon headscissors Drake out to the floor. A superkick to the ribs knocks Drake out of the air and the Codebreaker out of the corner gets two. The Gravy Train doesn’t work and Drake misses a top rope Lionsault, allowing Pentagon to hit the Pentagon Driver for the pin at 7:09.

Rating: D+. Uh, where’s the rest of this match? Pentagon defends against a guy who was World Champion about three months ago and it’s barely hyped up and seven minutes long with a clean finish? We didn’t deserve a little more than that for a match like this? Anyway at least the briefcases are already done instead of having them hanging over our heads like the Money in the Bank briefcases so score one for Impact.

Overall Rating: C+. This show was on a roll in the first hour and then rolled off a cliff in the second with some bad matches and lame ideas that didn’t go anywhere. They’re doing a better job of setting up the other promotions’ matches as they seem to have a point now, at least some of the time. The show was watchable but they need to put it together in a better order to really make things work. That and get a louder bell. Seriously I had to rewind four matches tonight to hear where they started. Get something louder.

Results

Andrew Everett/DJZ b. LAX – Victory roll to Ortiz

Grado b. Rohit Raju – Cannonball

El Hijo Del Fantasma b. Aerostar, Taiji Ishimori and Drago – Thrill of the Kill to Aerostar

Moose b. Kongo Kong via DQ when Jimmy Jacobs interfered

Brian Cage b. Takashi Sugiura – Drill Claw

Pentagon Jr. b. Eli Drake – Pentagon Driver

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the WWE Grab Bag (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/03/23/new-paperback-kbs-grab-bag/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: Impact Wrestling

Impact Wrestling
Date: April 26, 2018
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Don Callis, Josh Matthews

We’re past Redemption and that means it’s time to get ready for Slammiversary. What that means is kind of up in the air at this point but it really could go in a variety of directions. Above all else though, we have a new World Champion as Pentagon Jr. defeated Austin Aries and Fenix in a triple threat match on Sunday. Let’s get to it.

Here are the Redemption results if you need a recap.

We open with a long recap of Redemption, including results from every match.

Earlier today, Austin Aries talked to the roster and said he’s still the Grand Champion so it’s now the top title. Aries makes a bunch of excuses and Moose calls him out on them before walking out. The rest of the people leave as well. Sounds heel turnish to me.

Opening sequence.

The pay per view set is now the regular set.

Brian Cage vs. Trevor Lee

Lee drops to the floor for a meeting with Caleb Konley to start before a shoulder drops him to the floor again. Cage throws him around and shrugs off a forearm but a Konley distraction lets Lee kick him outside. Back in and a bridging German suplex gives Lee two and Konley adds in some choking. That’s enough for Cage who Hulks Up and hits a powerslam, followed by the apron superplex. The Drill Claw puts Lee away at 5:04.

Rating: D+. Cage is starting to run through some bigger names and it wouldn’t shock me if the names get bigger and bigger as we move forward. There’s a certain monster quality to him and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him near the World Title picture within the next year or so. Lee isn’t going to lose anything by getting destroyed here, but it was nice to have him get in some offense.

A livid Eddie Edwards arrived earlier today and ran into Tommy Dreamer (in a Lucha Underground shirt). Tommy told him to go be with his wife but Eddie shoved him out of the way.

Here’s Eddie in the arena to talk about putting Sami Callihan in the hospital. He’s not done though because he wants to put OVE in there right next to Sami. Cue OVE for the 2-1 fight and Eddie runs through them before grabbing the kendo stick. We cut to the hospital room where someone in a wheelchair with balloons covering his face rolls up to Alisha Edwards’ bed. It’s a very banged up Callihan, who says he wants to talk.

OH MY GOODNESS how stupid can Eddie be? A few weeks ago he sees OVE in his wife’s hotel and then LEAVES after checking on her for a few seconds. Now he leaves her IN THE SAME HOSPITAL WHERE CALLIHAN IS STAYING??? My goodness I know he’s a face in wrestling but Sting would find this dumb.

We look at Sunday’s main event.

Classic clip: the Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D at Bound For Glory. I really wouldn’t point out that one half of your Tag Team Champions was old eleven years ago.

Video on DJZ, who is back after over a year away.

Moose vs. Braxton Sutter

Sutter’s pre-match promo is cut off by Moose’s music. Moose throws him into the corner to start and dropkicks him out to the floor in a heap. Sutter gets in a whip to send Moose into the barricade, followed by a suplex into the corner for two. That earns Sutter a running elbow and running dropkick in the corner, followed by a spear for the pin at 3:32.

Rating: D. Nearly a total squash here, which makes sense as Sutter has announced that he’s done with the promotion. It’s not like Sutter has done anything of note in the company and now that he and Su Yung seem to be done, there’s no reason to not have him go out on his back like this.

Post match the fans chant HAPPY BIRTHDAY at Moose. He wants Pentagon Jr. and the World Title.

Matt Sydal promises to retain the X-Division Title against Taiji Ishimori. A commotion is heard and we go to see someone (not clear who) unconscious with an X on their chest.

LAX wants the titles back but also want to know what’s happened to Konnan.

Knockouts Title: Taya Valkyrie vs. Allie

Allie is defending. Taya wastes no time in jumping Allie and hammering away in the corner. Allie’s comeback is cut off in very short order as Taya powers her down without much effort. A running dropkick in the corner only hits buckle and Allie is in even more trouble. Taya is all fired up but the Road to Valhalla is broken up, allowing Allie to hit the superkick and Codebreaker to retain at 4:17. That was pretty much all of her offense.

Rating: D. Nothing to this one and Taya deserved more than that in a title shot. Allie shrugged off everything Taya threw at her and won with her regular stuff in short order. The match needed more time, but then we wouldn’t have been able to plug the Steiner Brothers vs. Team 3D match and that’s WAY more important.

Post match Su Yung appears, flanked by a bunch of dead brides. They load up a casket but Rosemary appears for the showdown. The lights go out again and Su is gone.

Slammiversary is in Toronto.

KM yells at Fallah Bahh, his partner for next week. Why in the world are these two getting TV time?

Eddie goes to the hospital to see Alisha, who isn’t happy with him leaving her there. He goes into Callihan’s room and beats the heck out of him until a bunch of doctors make the save. This crazy Eddie character is actually working for me.

Video on Kongo Kong vs. Johnny Impact from last week.

Tag Team Titles: Eli Drake/Scott Steiner vs. LAX

Drake and Steiner are defending. Before the match, Steiner says he promised he’d win “last night” (which he says twice) because he’s world famous. Konnan was at Taco Bell due to a discount on burritos so we know his priorities. The champs stall on the floor for a long time before Ortiz drives Drake into the corner to start. Santana comes in for a chop of his own but gets taken outside and sent into the steps by Steiner as we take a break. Back with Steiner getting two off a belly to belly as he picks Santana up.

The fans chant for LAX but get cut off when Steiner “hits” a belly to belly superplex (not rotating enough and nearly falling backwards). It’s back to Drake (thankfully) for a chinlock as we hear that Edwards has been arrested. Well duh. Santana rolls over for a tag so Ortiz can get two off a short DDT. The Death Valley Driver gets two more on Drake but the Street Sweeper is countered into a powerslam (ala Rick Steiner back in the day) to pin Ortiz and retain the titles at 10:54.

Rating: D+. Steiner continues to be scary with some of those near botches, but at least they have a “big name” on the roster now right? Steiner does offer some star power but really, how much is he going to be able to offer without maiming someone? I can’t imagine that he’s going to be around very long but I’m still not a fan.

Post match Drake holds up the World Title briefcase and suggests that he’s cashing in right now. Actually it’s just a warning, but here’s Aries anyway. Back from a break, Aries says he’s healing from a dislocated elbow and looks at the “suitcase”. The fans chant for Aries, who says he wishes they were here on Sunday. The Grand Championship is what matters now but he’ll get the World Title back soon enough.

Drake wants to fight Pentagon, Aries and the Easter Bunny because it means he’s getting the title back. Cue Pentagon Jr. to say CERO MIEDO (zero fear) but Steiner and Drake beat down Pentagon and Aries. They fight back and clear the champs out of the ring, leaving Aries and Pentagon to stare each other down to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. I wasn’t feeling this one, as there wasn’t a lot in the vein of storyline advancement and the wrestling was nothing of note. Allie and Rosemary continue to be an interesting team but really, there’s not much else to go on here. That being said, they have a ton of time to get ready for the next pay per view so it’s not like this needed to be incredible. Not the worst, but nothing that pulled me in.

Results

Brian Cage b. Trevor Lee – Drill Claw

Moose b. Braxton Sutter – Spear

Allie b. Taya Valkyrie – Codebreaker

Eli Drake/Scott Steiner b. LAX – Powerslam to Ortiz

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the WWE Grab Bag (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/03/23/new-paperback-kbs-grab-bag/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: Impact Wrestling

Impact Wrestling
Date: April 19, 2018
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Sonjay Dutt

It’s the go home show for Redemption and I’m really struggling to think of what’s going to be on the card. There’s the three way for the World Title with Austin Aries suddenly needing two more opponents because Alberto El Patron reverted to his high standards of bailing. Other than that though, I’m not sure what there is on the show, save for Scott Steiner getting a pay per view title shot in 2018. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

We look at Alberto El Patron’s press conference fight with Austin Aries on WrestleCon Friday and subsequent no show that night. Instead we saw a triple threat match with Aries facing Pentagon Jr. and Fenix. Aries lost the match and agreed to a rematch for the title at Redemption for the title. Really, that’s their only option and there’s nothing wrong with going this way.

Opening sequence.

Su Yung/Braxton Sutter vs. Fallah Bahh/Kiera Hogan

The villains attack from behind to start but a pair of crossbodies put them down. Sutter dives into a belly to belly from Bahh and there’s the rolling splash for good measure. The women officially get things going as we hear about seeing the Aries vs. Fenix vs. Pentagon match in its entirety tonight. In other words, they’re editing around Alberto, which again is their only option.

Yung actually puts Bahh down and even drops him again with a cannonball off the apron. Back in and Sutter gets a turn with some stomps and a chinlock. A Samoan drop not only gets Bahh out of trouble but sets up the double tag to the women. Kiera butterfly suplexes Yung but she pops up to kendo stick Bahh in the back. When that has no effect, Sutter sends the angry Bahh to the floor, leaving Yung to hit the Samoan driver for the pin at 6:19.

Rating: D+. I really don’t get Bahh. I mean, I get the idea that he’s huge and can move fairly well, but you would think he’s a Yokozuna level guy and that’s just not the case. Maybe he’s just a crowd favorite and that’s fine, especially when they’re not pushing him past the midcard. If he stays there, there’s nothing wrong with that and let the fans have some fun.

Post match Allie runs in and jumps Allie but Sutter’s distraction turns it into more of a fair fight. Referees break it up with no one really getting the better hand.

Clip of Rhyno winning the NWA World Title at Bound For Glory 2005.

LAX isn’t worried about Scott Steiner because he’s so nuts that he might not even show up.

The announcers preview the rest of the show.

Jimmy Jacobs is tired of Johnny Impact being handed everything because of how he looks. What about someone like Kongo Kong? Tonight, Kong is going to rip everything away from Johnny and Johnny won’t be so gorgeous anymore.

OVE is here to destroy everything and this Sunday is about Eddie Edwards, Moose and Tommy Dreamer. This feud still does very little for me.

From Bound For Glory 2011: Kurt Angle successfully defends Bobby Roode to retain the World Title because Hulk Hogan decided that Roode wasn’t right. Somehow they didn’t realize this until after spending months setting Roode up as the new star.

Here’s KM to issue an open challenge. Erg. He lists off a bunch of famous jobbers, even name dropping ECW’s Musketeer, as desired opponents.

KM vs. Brian Cage

KM can’t get out of this and we’re ready to go. Cage dropkicks him in the side of the head to start and hits some corner clotheslines. An apron superplex sets up a top rope elbow and the F5 for the pin at 1:37. KM didn’t get anything in.

Redemption card rundown. The show doesn’t look half bad (though not exceptional), mainly because of the Lucha Underground additions.

Video on Jacobs and Kong. Yeah yeah Jacobs is brilliant and innovative and all that. Kong is still a big fat tub of goo and there’s no fixing that.

Kongo Kong vs. Johnny Impact

Johnny throws some kicks to start as he’s not sure what to do with a monster like this. That’s only going to last so long though as Kong sends him into the corner and gets in a belly to belly. A legdrop misses though and Johnny knees him in the face. The standing shooting star gets two on Kong and Johnny slides through his legs for an enziguri.

Another splash in the corner rocks Johnny but he jumps over the steps on the floor. Instead Kong knocks him out of the air and crushes Johnny against the steps. Kong doesn’t like being yelled at so he throws the referee down and put the steps on the apron. Johnny is lawn darted into the steps to draw blood as the match is a DQ at 7:20.

Rating: D. I can get behind the story here but my goodness KONG IS NOT GOOD. This could be almost anyone in Impact but for some reason he’s getting the spot against any and all common sense. It’s not like Kong is anything special in the ring and it’s not like Jacobs is a great promo. Why is he sticking around at this level?

Video on Allie vs. Yung.

Video on Matt Syday vs. Petey Williams. Sydal is enlightened now thanks to Josh Matthews but Petey has a cool finisher and won a briefcase in Feast or Fired.

Video on Eli Drake and Scott Steiner getting a Tag Team Title shot. I get that Steiner is the replacement for Chris Adonis, but was no one else available? KM perhaps?

Drake is ready to win the titles. Steiner comes in and agrees with him.

We run down the rest of the card.

From Impact Wrestling vs. Lucha Underground.

Austin Aries vs. Fenix vs. Pentagon Jr.

Non-title. Pentagon does CERO MIEDO at Fenix so Aries chills on the ropes. An early exchange of strikes to the face gives us a triple knockdown with Aries being knocked outside Back up and the other two slug it out until Aries is back in with the middle rope elbow to Fenix’s back for two. Aries DDT’s Fenix but Pentagon gives him (Aries) a Backstabber for two at the same time. Pentagon kicks Aries in the ribs to take him down but here’s Fenix with a rolling cutter. With the other two on the floor, Fenix hits a big springboard flip dive to take them both down.

Back in and Fenix flips over Aries before hitting a German suplex for two. They’re certainly moving so far. Pentagon comes back in but gets caught with a neckbreaker across the ropes. The Last Chancery goes on but Fenix makes a save as we take a break. Back with Pentagon breaking the same hold on Fenix as the double teaming begins on Aries. As you might expect, that leads to both of them attempting a pin and the fight is on. A double superkick sends Aries outside and a pumphandle driver gives Pentagon the pin on Fenix at 9:52.

Rating: B. If this is any indication of what these three can do in a twenty minute match, we’re in for a treat on Sunday. The lack of the title being on the line helped here as you would have expected Aries, the biggest American star of the three, to win here but Pentagon is more interesting. It also helps set things up for the pay per view, which isn’t the most thrilling on paper.

A big Redemption hype video takes us out.

Overall Rating: D+. Well, they tried. The lack of Alberto and all the stuff that probably had to be put into the show in his place didn’t help things, but this wasn’t a great show on its own. Some of the stuff is intriguing but at the same time there’s stuff on there that doesn’t make me think this is a major promotion. I mean, really, Scott Steiner in 2018? There’s enough stuff to make me want to watch though and this show highlighted it, but the bad outweighs the good tonight.

Results

Su Yung/Braxton Sutter b. Fallah Bahh/Kiera Hogan – Samoan driver to Hogan

Brian Cage b. KM – F5

Johnny Impact b. Kongo Kong via DQ when Kong shoved the referee

Pentagon Jr. b. Fenix and Austin Aries – Pentagon Driver to Aries

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the WWE Grab Bag (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/03/23/new-paperback-kbs-grab-bag/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: Impact Wrestling

Impact Wrestling
Date: April 5, 2018
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Sonjay Dutt, Josh Matthews

Things continue to change around here as many names seem to be either debuting or departing. There’s a lot going on at the moment, including the build to the first regular pay per view in about six months. It’s time to really start the build towards Redemption and a lot of that could take place tonight. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

The opening recap looks at Brian Cage beating Bobby Lashley in a big upset with the rematch taking place tonight. Austin Aries vs. Alberto El Patron gets some focus as well.

Opening sequence.

Here’s an annoyed Bobby Lashley to rant about everyone wanting to prove themselves against him. He’s not going to have Cage out here saying he proved something by winning once on a fluke. Come out here and do it again.

Bobby Lashley vs. Brian Cage

Lashley knocks Cage off the apron before a bell and hammers away without taking off his hat and shirt. Cage shrugs it off and gets two off an F5 but Lashley hides behind the referee to avoid the discus lariat. A low blow gets two on Cage and Lashley hammers away in the corner while Dutt mocks Josh for losing his title last week.

Cage grabs a German suplex and a Death Valley Driver for two more, followed by the apron superplex to drop Lashley again. Lashley gets in a superplex of his own for two and the spear is good for the same. Instead it’s the Drill Claw to put Lashley away at 8:06 for Cage’s second straight win over him.

Rating: C+. Nice power match here and another good way to make Cage look like the new monster now that Lashley is on his way out. There’s a good chance that this is Lashley’s last match with the company and that’s probably the best all around. There’s nothing left for him to do around here so go back to WWE and see what you can do there.

The announcers preview the show.

Here’s Allie for a chat. Allie isn’t afraid of Su Yung and ACTUALLY SWEARS as she demands that Yung come out here for a fight.

Allie vs. Su Yung

Non-title. Allie hammers away to start but the superkick is blocked with a kick to the ribs. Back from a very early break with Allie getting stomped down in the corner. Yung brings in the kendo stick but Allie knocks it away. A running dropkick sends Yung into the corner but here’s Braxton Sutter to beg Allie’s forgiveness. Allie doesn’t care and gets two off a Codebreaker but Yung hits her with the kendo stick for the DQ at 7:44.

Rating: D. Not a good match but clearly just there to advance us to the likely title match at Redemption. Yung is a more sinister Rosemary and that’s a good way to play off of Allie. She can be a good first title defense as Allie needs to get away from being Gail Kim’s fangirl for a long time. There’s potential in Allie, but she needs some big wins.

Rosemary wants to face Taya next week and finish this once and for all.

Matt Sydal and Josh Matthews rant about Austin Aries and want to get rid of him once and for all. Sydal is ready for Petey Williams at Redemption but next week, Josh will face Petey himself. Egads.

KM sends Richard Justice to the ring for a match.

Post break, KM comes to the ring and berates Justice for being a fat embarrassment to wrestling. Well yeah. After some more fat jokes, Justice starts crying. KM: “I’m sorry I have to say this to your face. I would have said it behind your back but my car only has a half a tank of gas.” Fallah Bahh comes in with Josh saying fat shaming is bad. The Cult of Lee comes in and beats down Bahh, bringing in Tyrus for the real save. A six man is likely for next week.

Eli Drake is ready to win the other briefcase so tonight he can swim in gold like Scrooge McDuck.

Taiji Ishimori vs. Johnny Impact

They fight over wristlocks to start until Johnny takes over with a headlock and front facelock. A dropkick puts Impact on the floor as the announcers try to dub him Johnny Gorgeous. Ishimori’s middle rope moonsault to the floor puts Johnny down again and they’re both a bit winded.

Back in and Johnny wins a slugout before taking Ishimori down without too much trouble. A standing shooting star gives Johnny two but his sunset bomb is countered into a hurricanrana for two. Not that it matters as Impact is right back with a running knee to the face, followed by Starship Pain for the pin at 7:55.

Rating: C+. Not bad here but the hyping of “FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER” was a bit of a stretch here. They’re both good, but I need something a bit stronger for that to be the match’s selling point. Johnny winning helps set him up for Kongo Kong, because Impact Wrestling is the kind of promotion where you have Alberto El Patron fighting for the World Title and Kongo Kong feuding with Johnny Impact.

Post match here are Jimmy Jacobs and Kong to destroy Impact. Johnny fights back and hits a dive to clear out the villains.

Long video on Aries vs. El Patron. Aries recently returned and won the World Title after fighting to get where he is. Alberto talks about being from Mexico and having to fight for his one shot. He was stripped of the World Title and needs a chance to get it back on his own (this is talked about with shots of the domestic violence headlines shown).

They both know they can’t get in the other’s head and they both need to be ready for the fight of their lives. Aries knows he can’t intimidate Alberto because he’s been on the biggest stage so he’ll just have to beat him. It’s about redemption for both of them. This ran nearly eight minutes and was really good stuff as there’s actually a story there.

Moose would love to win another briefcase.

Classic Clip: Kurt Angle vs. Jay Lethal from No Surrender 2007. That’s still a great job of putting someone over and I’m sure Angle had something to do with the decision.

LAX doesn’t care who leaves with the briefcase.

Moose vs. Eli Drake

Winner gets both briefcases. Moose wastes no time in dropkicking Drake outside and then lawn darting him onto the apron. Drake posts him though and we take a break. Back with Drake hitting a guillotine legdrop and hitting a powerslam. The E-LI-DRAKE elbow gets two and we hit the chinlock.

Drake gets the same off a neckbreaker but misses a charge and gets caught with a buckle bomb. The Game Changer hits the referee (erg) so here’s OVE to take out Moose. Cue Eddie Edwards for the save and Jake Crist takes a powerbomb from Moose. Drake picks up the bat and hits Moose in the face for two, followed by the Gravy Train for the pin at 13:38.

Rating: C. I’m so over OVE. They’re not entertaining, they’re not very good, and their whole thing is hitting someone in the face with a bat, which apparently doesn’t work very well. The match was just a match until the ending, when things got a little stupid. I like Drake winning though as he’s the more interesting of the two (better promo at least) and thankfully they’re leaving him in the main event at least for now.

Overall Rating: C+. Nice show this week with some good wrestling and story advancement as they’re getting ready for what should be a solid pay per view. They also got some stuff ready for next week, which is always a welcome addition to any show. Just deliver on what you’ve set up and things will be fine.

Results

Brian Cage b. Bobby Lashley – Drill Claw

Allie b. Su Yung via DQ when Yung used a kendo stick

Johnny Impact b. Taiji Ishimori – Starship Pain

Eli Drake b. Moose – Gravy Train

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the WWE Grab Bag (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/03/23/new-paperback-kbs-grab-bag/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

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IMG Credit: WWE

Impact Wrestling
Date: March 29, 2018
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Sonjay Dutt

We’re about a month away from the next pay per view (with the well thought out REDEMPTION moniker) and that means it’s time to start filling in the card. Last week saw the Feast or Fired briefcases opened up, meaning we could be having title matches soon. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Austin Aries arrived earlier today and ran into Josh Matthews and Matt Sydal. Aries applauds them for their title wins and Sydal can feel Aries’ energy in the X-Division Title. Option C is mentioned and Aries is willing to give Sydal a shot in a title for title match. As in the World Title against the Grand Championship. Josh freaks out but no one says no.

Petey Williams vs. Suicide vs. Rohit Raju vs. Taiji Ishimori

One fall to a finish. Suicide and Raju head outside so Ishimori spins Petey around by the wrist. All four are back in with Suicide atomic dropping Raju onto Petey’s back, followed by a running bulldog to take the two of them down. Ishimori 619s Suicide into a missile dropkick but Petey grabs a Sharpshooter.

Raju makes the save and dives onto Suicide and Petey as this is all over the place so far. Ishimori moonsaults onto all three and a series of rollups gets a series of near falls. Petey’s slingshot Codebreaker rocks Raju and Ishimori’s springboard senton drops Suicide. The Canadian Destroyer is broken up and Ishimori gets in the 450 for two. A second Destroyer attempt is enough to put Suicide away and give Petey the pin at 8:11.

Rating: C. The match was fun, albeit nothing that we haven’t seen before. What continues to drive me nuts though is Impact throwing Raju out there and saying he’s part of the Desi Hit Squad without explaining ANYTHING about them. I’ve only heard about the stable through news sites. I’m assuming there are videos and information about the group on Impact’s site but it’s not my job to go read outside resources to know what the heck is going on. Just give them a thirty second promo or let them show up for a match and everything is fine. But nah, just assume fans know what the heck you’re talking about.

Post match, Petey says he’s cashing in the briefcase at Redemption.

Eli Drake isn’t happy with having the Tag Team Title briefcase because he’s a one man show and should be World Champion. But never mind, because he has an idea.

The announcers have their weekly chat. Tonight: two matches from different promotions!

Eddie Edwards has gone to Dayton, Ohio to find OVE. Maybe he can leave his wife behind when a group of psychotic stalkers follow her to her hotel.

Su Yung vs. Amber Nova

Braxton Sutter introduces Su and looks very proud. Yung jumps her to start and the spinning Samoan Driver (Pain Switch) is good for the pin at 42 seconds.

Johnny Impact still wants to be World Champion when Jimmy Jacobs interrupts. Jimmy promises to burst Johnny’s bubble and makes Kongo Kong threats.

Taya Valkyrie is in the back but Rosemary walks atop some offices and throws a trashcan down, hitting her right in the face. The fight is on, in the overproduced way that Impact likes to shoot these things. Richard Justice tries to intervene but Rosemary dives onto everyone and Taya appears to be busted open.

From WrestlePro in Brooklyn.

KM vs. Fallah Bahh

Yes, this is seriously what we’re watching. Bahh knocks him away with the power of the belly and the rolling splash. A running clothesline drops Bahh and we’re clipped to another Bahh kickout as KM kicks away at the ribs. We hit the chinlock for a bit until Bahh fights up with a Samoan drop. A Banzai Drop misses and KM puts his feet on the ropes for the pin at 4:12.

Rating: D. Sacre bleu, what a waste of their time. I know that they’re trying to stretch things out, but a guy as lame as KM getting a pin over a fairly popular act like Bahh is really the best that they can do? Good grief the classic clips are better than this. And it still looks like they’re in front of about 200 people in some nothing indy promotion. That’s not the presentation you want as even Ring of Honor looks better than this.

Video on Brian Cage vs. Bobby Lashley. Cage is the new monster on the block and Lashley didn’t like his help a few weeks ago. Tonight, a match.

Brian Cage vs. Bobby Lashley

They waste no time with the power lockup and neither can get much of anywhere. A hurricanrana sends Lashley down and a clothesline puts him on the floor as Cage gets the early advantage. Back in and Lashley gets two off a clothesline, followed by a neckbreaker for the same. Cage powers back up and sends him outside for a running flip dive. They both jump from the apron the floor but it’s Cage scoring with a series of kicks. Lashley slams him off the top though and we hit the chinlock.

That goes nowhere so Cage fights up and hits a springboard tornado DDT of all things. Josh: “HE SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO DO THAT!” I can’t believe I’m saying this but Josh is absolutely right. Back up and Cage gets two off a floatover spinebuster but Lashley is right back with a running powerslam for two. Cage misses a discus lariat and gets speared to the floor for a delayed near fall. The second attempt at the discus lariat connects to give Cage the big upset at 11:03.

Rating: B. This was a lot of fun as Cage looks like the new beast on the block, which is exactly the point of this match. Cage pinning Lashley clean is a big deal for him and not something that happens very often. Lashley is on his way out so putting someone over clean like this is a great parting gift.

Gail Kim (WHY IS SHE STILL HERE??? She retired like five months ago and it seems like she’s barely ever missed a show) is doing her makeup when Allie comes in to ask for some advice. Gail tells her to go be the champion.

Classic Clip: AJ Styles vs. Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin in Ultimate X from Final Resolution 2005.

Eli Drake offers to trade his case with Moose for the sake of winning two belts instead of one. That’s not happening, but for some reason Moose does agree to a case for case match next week.

Eddie Edwards invades a show in Ohio and goes after OVE and Sami Callihan with a kendo stick. The numbers start to get the better of him but Eddie takes Callihan’s baseball bat and cleans house. Since beating guys up with a baseball bat doesn’t work very well, Eddie gets beaten down again and a spike Tombstone leaves him laying.

Sami promises to destroy Eddie.

Video on Aries vs. Sydal.

Impact Wrestling World Title/Grand Championship: Austin Aries vs. Matt Sydal

Title for title with both guys defending. Aries has all four belts with him and has to make sure he holds up the right one. They fight over wristlocks to start (must have been watching WWE) as Alberto El Patron is watching the match in the back and enjoying a steak (Leftovers from his restaurant?). Matt bails to the floor and Aries lays over the top, followed by a basement dropkick to take us to a break.

Back with Aries holding a stump puller and firing off some kicks to the back and chest. The middle rope elbow to the back gets two as Sonjay continues to shine on commentary. Sydal comes back with a spinwheel kick and starts in on the leg. That goes nowhere so Sydal fires off some kicks but a springboard is cut off. Aries’ neckbreaker across the rope is broken up and the brainbuster is blocked as well.

Something like an Eye of the Hurricane with a leg instead of the arm drops Aries. A bridging German suplex gives Sydal two and Aries has to kick Matthews away. Now the neckbreaker works just fine and here’s Petey to scare Josh off. That leaves things one on one and it’s a running corner dropkick into the brainbuster to give Aries the Grand Championship at 20:35.

Rating: B. Pretty standard “big time” Impact main event here and that’s all well and good. Aries collecting (and hopefully retiring) another belt is the right call and it’s not like Sydal takes a huge hit when the World Champion pins him. Odds are we’ll get a tag match out of this soon enough with El Patron and Sydal against Williams and Aries, which should be a nice way to go.

Overall Rating: C+. The main event was good and Lashley vs. Cage was a heck of a fight, making this a better show than usual. The Bahh vs. KM match, while stupid, was at least short and didn’t hurt things too much. Other than that, the show went by fast enough and set up some things for the future, including a few things for Redemption. Nice night overall.

Results

Petey Williams b. Suicide, Rohit Raju and Taiji Ishimori – Canadian Destroyer to Suicide

Su Yung b. Amber Nova – Pain Switch

KM b. Fallah Bahh – Rollup with feet on the ropes

Brian Cage b. Bobby Lashley – Discus lariat

Austin Aries b. Matt Sydal – Brainbuster

Remember to check out my new forum at steelcageforums.com, follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of the WWE Grab Bag (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/03/23/new-paperback-kbs-grab-bag/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

IMG Credit: Impact Wrestling

Impact Wrestling
Date: March 8, 2018
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Josh Matthews, Sonjay Dutt

It’s a big show tonight with Crossroads. The name doesn’t really mean anything but it’s a stacked card with Austin Aries defending the World Title against Johnny Impact as the main event. Last week’s show saw Sami Callihan crush Eddie Edwards’ face with a baseball bat so you can almost guarantee some fallout there. Let’s get to it.

Here’s last week’s show if you need a recap.

In the studio, Dutt and Matthews run down the card and talk about how important tonight is.

We recap LAX vs. the Cult of Lee, which boils down to “LAX needs challengers and the Cult of Lee is all we have”.

Tag Team Titles: LAX vs. Cult of Lee

LAX is defending and jumps the Cult before the bell. They slug it out on the floor with Caleb Konley throwing Ortiz into the steps to take over. We finally settle down to Santana and Konley in the ring with a Lionsault/legdrop combination crushing Caleb as we take a break. Back with Santana hitting a running kick to the face to put Lee down. The hot tag brings in Ortiz for some running ax handles and a backdrop.

The champs start their double teaming, followed by the barrage of flip dives. Back in and some hard forearms into a superkick rock LAX, followed by a Samoan Driver for two on Santana. Ortiz hits a quick suplex into a Stunner but Lee breaks up the Street Sweeper. Konnan offers a quick distraction though and now the Street Sweeper puts Konley away at 13:00.

Rating: C+. This wasn’t interesting coming in but the action more than made up for it. The problem of course is where do the champs go from here, but odds are it’s going to be a long series of rematches with the Cult. Hopefully they’re like this though as it was a lot of fun and better than I ever would have expected.

Bobby Lashley doesn’t have a partner tonight but is ready to face OVE on his own tonight.

Classic clip: Monty Brown vs. Christian.

We recap Taiji Ishimori vs. Matt Sydal in a title for title match. Grand Champion Sydal has been following the advice of his spirit guide and won the title as a result. Now the guide has told him to go win the X-Division Title as well.

X-Division Title/Grand Championship: Taiji Ishimori vs. Matt Sydal

Title for title. I didn’t hear a bell ring but it’s a feeling out process to start with Sydal taking him up against the ropes and saying PEACE twice in a row. Ishimori spins out of a wristlock as the announcers make fun of internet reports. Sydal takes him up top but gets shoved down, followed by a jumping Codebreaker as we take a break.

Back with Ishimori holding a chinlock but getting slammed head first into the mat for the break. A half crab keeps Ishimori down and a reverse Muta Lock makes things even worse. Ishimori fights up and hits a running kick to the chest, followed by a Vader Bomb double stomp (I still don’t get how that doesn’t crack a rib) for two. A modified TKO (Sydal’s back was against the back of Ishimori’s head) gets two more but Sydal snaps off a middle rope hurricanrana to get things to even.

Sydal is sent outside and Ishimori gets a running start down the ramp for a hurricanrana. Back in and they exchange near falls until Sydal’s jumping knee t the face drops Ishimori. The shooting star misses and Ishimori’s Tombstone gutbuster puts him down. The 450 hits knees though and Sydal hits the shooting star for the pin at 16:25.

Rating: B. Heck of a match here with both guys hitting each other with everything they had. The clean ending is kind of surprising but hopefully this leads to the end of the Grand Championship. This show just doesn’t need that many titles floating around, especially when the Grand Championship is just a standard midcard title anymore.

Allie is ready to win the Knockouts Title back because she’s grown as a Knockout. She’ll dedicate the win to Gail Kim. WELL OF COURSE SHE WILL!

We recap Allie vs. Laurel Van Ness. Laurel is all crazy and such but Allie is growing up and immune to her mind games.

Knockouts Title: Laurel Van Ness vs. Allie

Laurel is defending and Allie jumps her in the aisle to start. They head inside with Laurel hammering away and pounding Allie in the face on the mat. Laurel misses a dive off the top though and walks into a Codebreaker for a double knockdown. Allie suplexes her into the corner and takes Laurel outside where the champ is sat in a chair.

A running elbow drops Laurel but she grabs an Unprettier onto the floor to knock Allie silly. That’s only good for nine so Laurel stomps away back inside and a curb stomp sends Allie face first into the buckle. Laurel grabs the belt but walks into a Death Valley Driver. A superkick is enough to give Allie the title back at 8:40.

Rating: C. This didn’t have time to really go anywhere but Allie getting the title back should have happened about a year ago. It’s nice to have her FINALLY get to do something positive instead of being a glorified joke. Good enough match here too, but it’s really just a way to get the title off of Laurel before she leaves the promotion.

Post break, Gail congratulates Allie. Good, now go away.

Austin Aries is sore from carrying the world on his back. Tonight, he’s ready to defeat Johnny Impact because he doesn’t take nights off.

We recap OVE vs. Lashley. OVE decided to go after a big prize like Lashley but Eddie Edwards came to Lashley’s aide. Then Sami Callihan crushed Eddie’s face with a baseball bat, making this a handicap match.

Lashley vs. OVE

Lashley clotheslines them down on the ramp and then suplexes both of them inside. Some kicks to the ribs take Lashley down though and we take an early break. Back with Lashley still in trouble but here’s Brian Cage to tag himself in and start cleaning house. Dave is sent to the floor so Sami comes in with the baseball bat. That earns him a spear though and Cage Drill Claws Jake for the pin at 9:56.

Rating: D. This was more of an angle than a match and really, that’s fine. It’s not like there was a ton of motivation from OVE in the first place so having them lost (in dominant fashion) to Cage was a good idea. Not a good match or anything, but it’s fun to see Cage destroy people as he’s exceptionally good at doing so.

Post match Cage won’t shake Lashley’s hand.

Johnny Impact has more names than Aries has titles but he doesn’t call himself the greatest man that ever lived. He’s not that insecure and only wants the Impact World Title. Tonight is his night.

Feast or Fired is back next week.

Impact Wrestling World Title: Austin Aries vs. Johnny Impact

Johnny is challenging. Feeling out process to start with Aries rolling into the corner for a standoff. Aries jumps over him in the corner and snaps off an armdrag into an armbar. That’s broken up so Aries settles for a basement dropkick instead. Back from a break with Johnny hitting a jumping fall away slam and grabbing a cobra clutch with a body scissors. Johnny lets go but Aries breaks up a springboard by knocking the legs out.

Aries follows him to the floor with an ax handle and a middle rope elbow to the back gets two. The sliding German suplex gets Johnny out of trouble and a double springboard Flying Chuck gives him a near fall of his own. A leg lariat and the standing shooting star give Johnny two more but Aries is right back with the Last Chancery.

Johnny gets a foot on the ropes for the break and manages to catch Aries on top with a Spanish Fly. That’s not enough for the Countdown to Impact as Aries blasts him in the face and pulls Johnny to the apron. A Death Valley Driver on the apron knocks Johnny silly, followed by the brainbuster to retain the title at 18:11.

Rating: B+. These two know how to have a big match against each other and that’s what we got here. I could have used a story between them but that’s just not the way Impact does big time matches like this. Aries winning is another big deal for him and whenever he loses, the new champion is going to look like a big deal, which is very important for a reign like this.

Alberto El Patron comes out to applaud Aries to end the show. Well where would we be without Alberto getting a title shot?

Overall Rating: A-. Heck of a show here, as is usually the case with these specials. They don’t try to be anything more than a bunch of very good matches and that’s what we got here. The problem of course is going back to the storytelling episodes, which are rarely the strongest things in the world. Impact knows how to do something like this very well though and they did it again here.

Results

LAX b. Cult of Lee – Street Sweeper to Konley

Matt Sydal b. Taiji Ishimori – Shooting star press

Allie b. Laurel Van Ness – Superkick

Austin Aries b. Johnny Impact – Brainbuster

Remember to check out my new forum at steelcageforums.com, follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the 2018 Updated Version of the History of the WWE Championship in e-book or paperback. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2018/01/26/new-book-kbs-history-of-the-wwe-championship-2018-updated-version/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

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WrestleCon Supershow 2017
Date: March 31, 2017
Location: Wyndham Orlando Resort, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Marty DeRosa, Excalibur

This is something I’ve heard about for a few years now and when I saw the card, there was no question about taking it in. Basically this is a HUGE indy show with talent from all over the world working one show tied together with the incredible WrestleCon convention. I was in the crowd for this show and I’m really curious to see if it holds up on a second viewing. Let’s get to it.

No real intro for the show, likely because the show was already starting late.

Michael Elgin/Mascarita Dorada/ACH vs. David Starr/Trevor Lee/Caleb Konley

This is under Lucha Rules, meaning tags aren’t required. ACH is billed as “Mr. I Paid My Bills With This Booking” in a funny bit. It should also be noted that a lot of these matches weren’t announced in advance so these teams were total surprises. Dorada is better known as El Torito. The announcers talk about this being the fifth of Elgin’s TEN matches over the week (it was his second of the night) compared to John Cena only wrestling one. Oh yeah it’s going to be that kind of a show and that’s a good thing here.

ACH and Starr run the ropes to start and it’s already time for the dropkicks with all three heels (Starr and company) getting knocked outside. Starr offers ACH a free chop but gets hit low for his efforts with Konley getting one of his own. Lee blocks it though and a double superkick puts ACH on the floor. That means Dorada can come in for a triple armdrag and we have some heel miscommunication. Lee: “WHAT IN THE F****** F*** WAS THAT???” You can imagine the laugh that line got.

None of the villains can do a thing with Dorada, who grabs a headscissors on Konley but spins around him ten times before sending him down. Elgin takes a lap around the ring as Dorada collapses, finally allowing Lee to get in a hard shot on Dorada. I believe Dorada takes a thumb to the eye (the camera work is shaky at best and the arena is already dark so it can be a bit difficult to follow some of the action) and all three villains come in for some rhythmic clapping and a triple crotch to the face.

That actually doesn’t have any effect on Dorada so it’s a triple low blow and a hot tag to Elgin. Konley and Lee get suplexed at the same time and a Falcon Arrow gets two. That’s not enough strength so he German suplexes Konley and Lee at the same time for a bonus. ACH, now in a hat, remembers that he’s in the match as everything breaks down. Dorada is launched over the top onto all three but ACH’s followup dive is countered with a superkick. Not that it matters as ACH grabs a brainbuster, setting up Dorada’s moonsault for the pin on Konley at 11:53.

Rating: B. About halfway through this match, I knew this show was going to be a blast. This was the perfect choice for an opener with the heels really just being there to give the fun good guys something to do, which made this feel a lot more fun than serious. That’s likely to be the case with everything tonight and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The winners dance post match with Elgin doing the Worm.

Shane Strickland vs. ???

Strickland is better known as Killshot in Lucha Underground. The lights go out and we’ve got a surprise opponent with……Low Ki. This was a punch to the stomach for me as I’m REALLY not a fan of Low Ki so hopefully this one doesn’t last too long. The announcers basically say Strickland is screwed here and I can’t imagine we’re in for much of an upset. Feeling out process to start with Low Ki working on the arm and kicking Shane away. I have a feeling you’ll hear that more than once tonight. Say ten to fifteen times for a low number.

Strickland starts cranking on both arms to take over as the announcers praise Laycool with Low Ki’s success. DeRosa: “Somewhere in a parallel universe Killshot is wrestling Kaval.” We go to a test of strength with Strickland being driven down into a bridge. That just earns himself a hard kick to break things up, followed by even more kicks for two. Things slow down as Low Ki grabs a headscissors before chopping the heck out of Strickland’s chest.

Back up and Low Ki flips him into the ropes, setting off one heck of a counter sequence capped off by Strickland spinning around Low Ki and nailing a dropkick. Strickland has to bail out of a flip dive but lands on his feet, only to eat a hard dropkick through the ropes. Back in and Strickland easily counters a waistlock (likely because it’s a waistlock) into a catapult but Low Ki bounces right back off the ropes into a middle rope double stomp. Strickland won’t stay down though and comes back with a 619, followed by a jumping cutter (Strickland: “GOTCHA!”) for two.

A slingshot double stomp to the back gives Shane two and the announcers seemed stunned that Low Ki is in trouble. Both guys head up top at the same time and there’s no way this is going to end well. Strickland gets knocked down into a Tree of Woe over the apron, setting up a HUGE double stomp to the chest (think Del Rio’s bad finisher done well) onto the apron. Low Ki throws what used to be Strickland back inside for the pin at 13:03.

Rating: C+. Like I said, I’m certainly not a Low Ki fan but this was a VERY hard hitting match and the ending looked awesome. Strickland isn’t someone you see very often (save for Lucha Underground of course) and he got to show off quite a bit here. You knew there was going to be a kick based match on the card somewhere and this is as good of a place as you’re going to get.

Impact Wrestling World Title: Jeff Cobb vs. Lashley

Lashley is defending and the fans IMMEDIATELY break into a F*** THAT OWL chant. Cobb is better known as Matanza in Lucha Underground but he’s just a big athletic monster here. Now for the oddest part of the show, Lashley is announced and a country song comes on. There’s no Lashley so they hit his entrance again and he’s still not here. Fans: “F*** THAT OWL!”

Lashley appears through the crowd and we’re ready to go. I actually got to talk to Lashley the next day at WrestleCon and there was a very simple explanation: they didn’t have his song for some reason so he came to the ring anyway, knowing he was going to be the heel no matter what. Apparently it’s a BIG offense if you come out to someone else’s music so Lashley wasn’t about to make his entrance to the country song.

We get some Big Match Intros and Cobb holds up the title to really rub it in. Fans: “F*** THAT HEADBAND!” The good thing is that Lashley is really soaking it all in and relishing the whole thing, as he almost has to do. Lashley goes for a single leg takedown but Cobb muscles him up onto his shoulders to block. A hard shoulder drops Cobb and it’s time to slowly pound away in the corner.

Cobb gets in a clothesline to send Lashley outside but the champ whips him into the barricade, only to stop to argue with a fan. Back in and a neckbreaker sets up a chinlock as this is going really, really slowly. Lashley shows off a bit with a delayed vertical suplex, only to have Cobb muscles him up with a throw of his own.

It’s off to a triangle choke on Cobb….who lifts him up for a powerbomb to break. That’s the kind of thing they needed to do all match. Cobb gets athletic with a standing moonsault followed by a standing shooting star press for two. A deadlift German suplex gives Cobb two more but the spear just ends him for the pin at 10:45.

Rating: D+. This was ok but really felt like a major disappointment. It was billed as and should have been a battle of two monsters hitting each other really hard but instead it was more of a technical power match. You don’t see those very often and it made for a pretty slow match which didn’t work very well. Not horrible by any means but it could have, and should have, been better.

Sammy Guevara/Flip Gordon vs. Angelico/Jack Evans

I actually hadn’t heard of Guevara and Gordon, both of whom are apparently pretty talented guys from the northeast. Angelico might be my favorite guy from Lucha Underground so this was one of the matches I was looking forward to the most. Gordon and Angelico start things off with Angelico handling the early flipping. A roll through into an ankle lock sends Flip over to the ropes so it’s time for some handstand dancing. As is so often the case you see.

Gordon won’t shake his hand but he will bring in Guevara to face Evans. Jack wants a mic but can’t get one that works. Instead he just shouts a lot, saying that he can’t believe he’s getting to wrestle Justin Bieber (who Sammy resembles). Evans even offers to lay down if Sammy will sing a bit. That just gets him a superkick because it’s been too long since we’ve had one.

Sammy and Flip start stomping away in the corner, followed by a standing moonsault followed by a standing shooting star for two. Guevara gets a running start and flip dives onto Angelico and Evans for a nice pop despite being the heels here. Back in and we hit some fireman’s carry squats on Evans, who quickly reverses into an ankle lock.

Sammy shouts that he has a good one and grabs a crossface chickenwing. That goes as far as it’s going to go without Marty Scurll involved so Evans goes up top for a double Blockbuster. The hot tag brings in Angelico for the long legged knee shots as everything breaks down. Everyone kicks everyone until Evans does a ridiculous flip dive to the floor, leaving Angelico to hit the Fall of the Angels for the pin on Gordon at 13:02.

Rating: B-. Gordon and Guevara looked GREAT here and I could easily see them being a heel team in either NXT or TNA. Evans and Angelico were the bigger names coming in and while I’m a fan of the latter, I thought they were out shined here. Good match and I had a lot more fun watching it the second time around.

Hands are shaken post match.

Team Ricochet vs. Team Ospreay

Ricochet, Jason Cade, Sami Calihan, AR Fox, Desmond Xavier

Will Ospreay, Lio Rush, Drew Galloway, Ryan Smile, Marty Scurll

The ten man tag has become a staple of WrestleCon weekend and this might have been the most anticipated match of the show, if not the entire weekend. It’s fallout from the infamous match earlier in the year that saw the captains do an incredible match with all kinds of choreography. Just a hunch but I have a feeling that it’s going to be a lot more of the same here. The teams were only partially announced in advance and the members weren’t announced in the arena so this was a bit confusing.

Ricochet charges at Ospreay and they’re on the floor less than three seconds in. Everyone other than Scurll and Calihan join them less than fifteen seconds in before it’s off to Smile and Xavier for a double headbutt. They’re FLYING in and out of here so I’m not even going to be able to try to call everything here. Cade DDTs Smile to the floor but Galloway comes in and launches the much smaller Cade into the corner for some chops.

Fox tries some springboards on Galloway but gets thrown down in a big crash. Rush comes in to speed things up even more with those rapid fire kicks of his, only to have Sami come in with a cat mask on. Apparently it’s called space cat and as Rush says, “I F****** HATE SPACE CAT!”. Ospreay comes in and rips the mask off, only to have Ricochet come in as well. Now, I don’t usually do this, but I flat out admit I can’t do the following justice. Therefore, just watch.

And the version I filmed myself for a bit of a different angle.

Some of you might not get this and that’s fine but that’s for you Sally. I wish you could have seen it.

Anyway, we’re down to Ricochet vs. Scurll in the ring (for the second time tonight after their great match at the Rev Pro show) for all of five seconds before Cade and Smile come in for HUGE dives to take out a pile of people each. Ospreay gets superkicked by Cade and Xavier who follow it up with stereo flip dives out to the floor.

Fox goes even crazier with a springboard imploding 450, thankfully not killing himself when his head bangs into the barricade. Now it’s Galloway with a running flip dive (Marty: “He can dance! He can fly!”) but the captains won’t be outdone, meaning it’s Ospreay taking Ricochet to the top. Me from the crowd: “Oh they’re going to die.” Ospreay hits a HUGE C4 onto the eight others and everyone is of course out cold.

Back in and it’s Cade being put on top of a Tower of Doom with the superplex sending him into a sitout powerbomb from Galloway. Marty gets all fired up for the chickenwing on Calihan….who punches him in the face instead. Team Ricochet gets up first and puts four opponents in a corner each, only to charge into four stereo boots. They come back with superkicks but they all get stuck on top with their heads tucked on the buckles.

That means stereo superkicks, followed by everyone missing charges and taking similar superkicks of their own. We’re still not done yet though as Team Ospreay is down in front of a corner as four members of Team Ricochet goes up top. We get a completely ridiculous quadruple dive off the top (shooting stars and 450s you see) with Calihan hitting something like a package Tombstone on Galloway for a quintuple near fall and a huge gasp from the crowd.

The announcers talk about how Dave Meltzer is in the crowd tonight and needs another notebook from Walgreens, which is probably the fourth plug of the night for the store. Seriously it’s a great Walgreens. With nothing else left, it’s time for a long exchange of strikes, starting with six straight superkicks just because they can. Then they upgrade things a bit with a series of Diamond Cutters, including Smile blocking ones by just putting his hands out.

Rush jumps into his and does Orton’s pose on the ropes. Calihan flashes the Diamond Cutter sign and pulls Rush down (Marty: “Calihan yoga classes tomorrow morning!”), only to eat a Stunner, complete with middle fingers, from Galloway. It’s back to the Diamond Cutters, capped off by Ricochet going to the top but getting caught in a crazy springboard cutter from Ospreay.

Everyone goes after Ricochet with Galloway hitting a piledriver to set up a dog pile pin. Four people dive in for a save at two and this somehow keeps going. Fox and Ospreay slug it out until Scurll snaps AR’s fingers. You really can hear the noise in the arena and it’s impossible to not cringe. Calihan powerbombs Smile but gets dropped by Galloway.

It’s back to Ospreay vs. Ricochet with their series of counters until Will hits the Stundog Millionaire (spinning Stunner) into a springboard cutter…..for two. Excalibur: “Why would that be it? We’re having too much fun!” Ospreay hits a 630 but walks into a Canadian Destroyer from Cade. Jason follows it up with a West Coast Pop to FINALLY put Ospreay away at 22:05.

Rating: A+. Much like the match, this might be a bit long. I’ve been accused, and probably accurately so, of being a bit of a wrestling snob at times. It’s certainly true that I do tend to go a bit too hard towards the artistic side of wrestling where I need things to make sense and follow a logical progression or I get a bit annoyed at it. During and after this match, I started thinking about something.

In addition to being obsessed with wrestling, I’m also something of a movie geek (by last count I’ve seen I’ve seen just shy of 1400). I love old movies with the big sets and big performances but I’m also never going to miss a James Bond movie or anything from Marvel. Of course there’s stuff in there that doesn’t make a bit of sense sometimes but that’s completely missing the point. Those movies mainly exist to entertain and just be awesome. Now why can’t that be the case with wrestling as well?

I loved this match and after watching more live wrestling over the course of about a week than I had in my entire life, this was the match that stuck with me the most. This was incredible stuff with ten guys doing everything from action to comedy to emotion in more time than almost anything else got all night.

Of all the shows and all the matches I’ve ever been to in my life, I have never had more fun watching a single match that this one, including anything from any Wrestlemania I’ve ever been to. I got completely lost in this match and I nearly collapsed when it was finally over. Outstanding stuff here and a total blast, which is a lot more than I was expecting from what looked to be just another spot fest. Find this match if you can and just have fun watching some wrestling.

The fans chant ALL THESE GUYS as all ten sit in the ring and shake hands. Ricochet gets the mic and says that one year ago today, a British wrestler named Chris Travis passed away. That was a big deal at the Rev Pro show and it clearly meant a lot to them. As for this match, the captains actually got to pick their guys and it’s clear who is on Ricochet’s team because all of his guys are black (not quite) and all of Ospreay’s guys are British (Rush, from Baltimore: “Ello governor!”). Ricochet thanks everyone, including Vader, who he certainly loves.

Intermission, during which I met most of the people on the card so far, plus several who haven’t been on the show yet. I also ran to the fabled Walgreens and bought two big bottles of water because there were well over 1,000 people in a hotel conference room. That and the fact that a can of soda was SIX DOLLARS at the concession stand. I also saw Donovan Dijak watching the show as a fan, which is something you almost never see outside of something like this. The video actually includes intermission, which is just a still shot of the ring with no sound.

Ironman Heavymetalweight Title: Battle Royal

Now THIS was a treat. I’ve heard of this title for years but it’s almost always been in Japan. Basically it’s a parody of the Hardcore Title as it’s defended in battle royals but someone always jumps the champ after it’s over to win the title. Now I know that sounds like something you would see in WWE but oh not quite.

The belt has changed hands well over 1200 times (including once via dream sequence) with champions including a sex doll, a cameraman, a baseball bat, a ladder, the title itself, a young girl with the power to chokeslam adults, Vince McMahon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (someone was in a hold and tapped out on it, which meant that they tapped out to the star) and of course Joey Ryan, who is defending here.

This is basically a Royal Rumble with one minute intervals and the title can change hands via pinfall or submission. However, pins and submissions don’t count as eliminations and the only way to be eliminated is by being thrown over the top. Got all that? Good as I want to see Joey come out to the Pina Colada Song because it fits him so perfectly.

Colt Cabana is in #2 and we have one minute intervals. Here’s how this thing starts: Bell, Joey: “Touch my d***!” Instead Cabana pulls out some chest hair, which you can see fall out of his hand. A low blow has no effect on Joey so the fans chant KING OF DONG STYLE. Thankfully Kikutaro, a Japanese comedy character, is in at #3 and tries to go in slow motion. A Shining Wizard gets two on Joey and they take turns kicking Joey low, only to keep hurting themselves.

The Underground Luchador is in at #4 and there’s no hiding the fact that it’s Matt Striker. Luchador rolls Ryan up for the pin and the title before revealing himself to be, in fact, Matt Striker. Kikutaro grabs him low and spins around so Joey can eliminate him, meaning he’s the new champion. The Manscout Jake Manning is in at #5 and goes to the corner to read his scout manual. Everyone charges at him but he raises his boot every time without looking away.

It’s time for #6 and Welcome to the Jungle starts playing. Excalibur: “This could literally be any indy wrestler from twenty years ago.” It winds up being George South of all people and the fans…..don’t seem to care. For those of you who don’t know, South is a former NWA jobber who Ric Flair thought he could have a classic with if they were given time. That never happened but South is kind of a mini legend as a result.

Suicide (apparently played by Caleb Konley) is in at #7 and the fans don’t like the owl again. As you might be able to guess, there’s nothing to the wrestling here as this is all about the entrances and wondering who comes out next. Speaking of which, Mr. Hughes is in at #8 with no music and missing about 140lbs. South is eliminated off camera and it’s Zane Riley in at #9. He’s a big guy named Mr. 305 Live and grabs various people by the tights. 2 Cold Scorpio (one of the reasons I wanted to go to this show) is in at #10, thankfully rocking the Flash Funk gear.

Billy Gunn of all people is in at #11, complete with his most famous song. Riley takes a Fameasser and gets tossed, followed by Kikutaro, Manning and Cabana. Moose is in at #12 and we have Moose, Gunn, Hughes, Scorpio and Ryan at the moment. We get something of a bizarre staredown between Gunn and Moose, which Marty describes as the staredown he never knew he wanted.

Nothing happens until Swoggle is in at #13 as I wonder if this counts as a DX reunion. Swoggle is shoved down so Moose and Gunn can fight with Moose scoring off a dropkick. Shane Douglas, unfortunately not in a Target uniform and thankfully not in gear, is in at #14. Gunn gets rid of Hughes and Swoggle low bridges Suicide out. Kevin Thorn is in at #15 to scare Swoggle half to death. Shannon Moore is in at #16 but Gunn drops him with a side slam.

Hurricane is in at #17, complete with the full WWE entrance, to a huge reaction. That means chokeslams, including one to get rid of Thorn. Another one plants Gunn but he can’t lift up Billy’s dead weight. Abyss is in at #18 to get rid of Shane as Gunn was tossed off camera. Another chokeslam is enough to get rid of Scorpio before Hurricane’s chokeslam is swatted away.

Gangrel is in at #19, complete with that still rocking entrance music. Moore and Helms use the power of 3 Count to get rid of Abyss as Gangrel spits the liquid. A clothesline actually gets rid of Hurricane as Swoggle hits a pop up powerbomb on Moore. Marty Jannetty is in at #20 and Jake Roberts might be passed on the “how out of it can you be while still working a match” scale. I actually got to shake Marty’s hand in the lobby during intermission and mentioned that we had the same birthday. He didn’t actually say anything but just walked away….without letting go of my hand.

Anyway we have a final group of Ryan, Gangrel, Jannetty, Moore, Moose, and Swoggle. Marty starts dancing as Moore is tossed out. To make sure you know how bad it is, Jannetty takes Gangrel down and the announcers can’t keep straight faces over how gone he is. The fans think Marty is wasted (DeRosa: “That chant was true twelve hours ago.” Excalibur: “We’re going to have to have Sting come out here and give him a DDT to pin him.”) and Gangrel throws him out to get us down to four. Moose gets rid of Gangrel and starts the pump jabs on Ryan.

I’m not going to try to spin what happens next so here’s as literal of a play by play as I can give: Joey grabs Moose’s hand and puts it on his crotch, which causes Moose extreme pain. Moose goes down, tries to Hulk Up, gets cranked right back down, and is tossed out of the ring, all due to the power of Joey’s crotch. Swoggle runs up and throws Joey out for the win and the title at 25:00.

Rating: D. I think you can grasp (like Moose grasped Joey) that this wasn’t about the wrestling or the action but just getting some older wrestlers (I hesitate to call most of these people legends) out there and wondering who was coming through the curtain next. The anticipation here was outstanding and I really did have a great time finding out who they were dragging out of mothballs for each entrance. It doesn’t hold up but this is the definition of a thousand times more fun live than watching it later.

Joey grabs a rollup to get the title back less than thirty seconds later. Since we need something else to get fired up about, Joey makes the mistake of saying he’s the greatest champion of all time and issues an open challenge. In a moment that actually made me jump to my feet in shock…….ENTER SANDMAN starts up and we get the full on ECW entrance, complete with beer, cigarettes and the fans singing the song. I wasn’t a huge ECW fan but I LOVED the Sandman’s entrance so this was one of the coolest moments of my entire weekend.

Sandman drinks a lot of beer with the announcers ensuring us that he has personally checked every ID in the building. Excalibur gets to the obvious question: WHY IS RYAN STILL IN THE RING? Now it’s off to the other side of the arena with Sandman actually holding a full twelve pack of beer. At least you know it’s going to be a long entrance. Excalibur: “This entrance has lasted longer than Marty Jannetty’s sobriety!” Sandman gets in the ring, offers Joey a beer, and canes him in the head for the pin and the title.

And of course a fight breaks out as Sandman leaves.

Brian Cage vs. Johnny Mundo

This is a TLC match for no apparent reason with Melissa Santos and Taya Valkyrie as the respective seconds/girlfriends (both looking great). Melissa even does Cage’s entrance for a little Lucha Underground flavor. The announcers immediately start making fun of Lucha Underground’s, shall we say, hit and miss taping schedule as Cage misses a charge to start. Mundo misses a dive but hits the Flying Chuck for two.

We get the first chair but Cage snaps off a release German suplex instead. Something like a Van Daminator knocks Cage outside so Johnny can spit on a fan. Taya gets in a few stomps of her own as Johnny goes over to find a ladder. Mundo throws it at Cage to send him into the chair as we’re somehow five minutes into this.

The ladder is laid across the middle rope so Johnny can jump over it, only to have Cage dropkick it into his ribs. A backdrop sends Mundo into the ladder again and it’s FINALLY time for a table. Cage takes too long going up though, allowing Taya to grab his foot. Mundo gets knocked to the floor so Taya tries a hurricanrana…..right in front of a table. One heck of a superbomb ends Taya so Mundo, without checking on Taya for very long, completely misses Starship Pain onto the ladder onto Cage.

We get another table set up in the corner but Cage is up and holding a chair. Ever the villain, Mundo grabs Melissa for a distraction so he can kick Cage low. For the first time that I can ever remember, Melissa gets physical with a kick to the head, earning herself the safest spear through a table ever as Johnny turns around, basically driving himself through instead. Cage is livid and basically murders Johnny with a Steiner Screwdriver onto the chair for the pin at 14:05.

Rating: D. Easily the weakest match of the night here, mainly because it was billed as a TLC match. This would have been better off as a street fight or something like that as the ladder was barely ever used (not climbed once) and the rest of the weapons were just kind of there. It wasn’t so much bad as much as it was really disappointing, which is often a much worse case scenario.

We pause to clean the ring a bit before the main event with the broom guy getting a nice ovation. He even poses a bit because everyone is a ham at this show.

Hardys vs. Lucha Bros

That would be Pentagon El Cero M (Pentagon Dark in other words) and Rey Fenix, another pair of real life brothers and the PWG Tag Team Champions. The Hardys get an incredible reaction (as incredible as you’re going to get at nearly 12:30 at night) as they might not be playing the Broken Hardys…..but they’re playing the Broken Hardys. The anti-owl chants begin again as we have the Big Match Intros. This turns into dueling DELETE/CERO MIEDO (zero fear, Pentagon’s catchphrase) chants and for a little while, Cero Miedo is actually a bit stronger.

The dueling chants continue after the bell until the Lucha Bros take over with some kicks to the face. Pentagon picks Fenix up in a wheelbarrow slam but gets flipped forward into a 450 onto Matt in a cool spot. A double low blow gets two on Jeff but Fenix eats a Side Effect for the same. Matt and Pentagon clothesline each other and all four are down. Pentagon heads outside but Fenix misses a dive and takes his brother out by mistake.

That means a dive from Jeff to take both of them out and all four are down again. Back in and stereo Twists of Fate give the Hardys two before Pentagon loads Fenix up in a Gory Bomb but jumps forward for a backsplash/splash combo. There’s the Twist of Fate to Pentagon, followed by another to Fenix to bring him down onto his brother. The Swanton to both Brothers gives Jeff the pin at 7:22.

Rating: D+. The time killed this one and there’s no way around it. The show was pushing four hours at this point, meaning it was almost 1am. Couple that with the ten man tag and the battle royal and there was almost no way that anyone, even the Hardys, could make this work. They were probably smart to keep the match short as I don’t think the fans would have been able to handle anything that much longer.

The announcers sign off but Matt grabs the mic and say these are the fans that make wrestling great. They come here to get good wrestling and that’s what they get. Matt says the future of tag wrestling is safe with teams like the Lucha Bros, the Young Bucks and the Briscoe Brothers. If companies try to get rid of teams like them, they’ll fade away and classify themselves as obsolete. Fenix thanks the crowd and the Hardys to finally end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This is a show where the right expression is “you got what you paid for”. The Supershow isn’t about angles or stories, but rather bringing together some of the top indy talent in the world for one show in a series of dream matches. I can easily get why this show wouldn’t be for every wrestling fan but if you just love having fun with wrestling, there’s almost no way you won’t have fun with this. I’ll definitely be taking this in every year and it was a major highlight of the weekend. Go out of your way to see the ten man tag and just have a good time watching the show.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the NXT: The Full Sail Years Volumes I and II, now in PAPERBACK. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2017/03/24/kbs-history-of-nxt-volumes-1-and-2-now-available-in-paperback/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

In addition to the Rev Pro show on Friday night, WrestleCon also put on a Supershow in the same room (and with a lot of the same talent). This was the definition of a supershow with a little bit of everything from comedy to violence to dueling chants. To say this was a lot more energetic than most shows is an understatement.

The show was scheduled to start at 8:30 but since Rev Pro went fairly late it wound up starting at about 8:50. There were also well over 1000 people in one room sot he place was BOILING. Prices for a bottle of water (as in a regular one) at the bar: SIX DOLLARS. Realizing this was insane, I went down the street to Walgreens and bought a liter sized bottle for $1.79. At intermission I went and got two more, with all three not combining for the cost of one. I get the idea of making money but those prices would drive customers away.

1. David Starr/Caleb Kenley/Trevor Lee vs. Michael Elgin/ACH/Mascarito Dorado

That would be El Torito at the end. To give you an idea of what we were dealing with on this card, ACH was introduced as “Mr. I Used This Booking To Pay My Bills.” The match was under Lucha rules and it was very clear that this was going to be a very Un-PG show. Dorado did a bunch of speedy stuff, causing Lee to shout the following at his partners: “WHAT IN THE F******* F*** WAS THAT???” Later, when Dorado was in a chinlock, Lee shouted at Kenley to “MAKE THAT MIDGET TAP!”

Dorado got beaten up for a good while (including taking a triple crotch shot to the head) until Elgin got in to clean house with the power. ACH didn’t really do much here and really could have been anyone in the spot. Dorado eventually ended Starr with a moonsault in about 12:00. This was a lot of fun and a great opener. B-.

2. Low Ki vs. Shane Strickland

Let’s make this clear: I’ve never liked Low Ki. I find him to be very one dimensional and repetitive beyond believe. He was a surprise here though and the roof came off when he appeared in the ring. They kicked each other a lot and Low Ki hit a top rope double stomp to the apron for a huge crash and the pin at 13:04. This was pretty repetitive and just kept going. D+.

3. Impact Wrestling World Title: Bobby Lashley vs. Jeff Cobb

Now this was interesting before the bell as Lashley was introduced to some country music and didn’t appear. It wasn’t clear what happened but an “F*** THAT OWL” chant started up. I couldn’t see the entrance but I saw Lashley walking around ringside with no entrance. As luck would have it, I got to ask him what happened at WrestleCon and it turned out they didn’t have his planned music and it’s a VERY serious rule to never come out to someone else’s music. He didn’t come out because they didn’t play the right song but he knew he was going to be the huge heel so he just came through the crowd instead.

The match was a good power brawl with Lashley not taking Cobb seriously to start and eventually getting thrown around. The more I watch of Lashley, the more I appreciate him. He’s just a machine out there and looks like a tank while also being a really nice guy outside the ring. Lashley realized he had to put some effort into things so he eventually got in the Dominator and a spear to retain at about 10:45. B-.

4. Flip Gordon/Sammy Guevera vs. Angleico/Jack Evans

Angelico is my favorite from Lucha Underground so this was a treat. I didn’t know who Gordon and Guevera were at first but they both put in a very solid performance and got my attention more than once. Sammy looks a lot like Justin Bieber so Evans made a bunch of jokes when he got the tag. Evans did a bunch of insane flips and eventually Angelico’s running Razor’s Edge buckle bomb got the pin at about 13:00. I could very easily see Gordon and Guevera as a team on a bigger stage as they had a nice, clean cut look but played good heels.

5. Team Ricochet (Ricochet/Jason Cade/Sami Calihan/AR Fox/Desmond Xavier) vs. Team Will Ospreay (Ospreay/Marty Scurll/Lio Rush/Drew Galloway/Ryan Smile)

This was a ten man tag, which is becoming one of the signature matches of the WrestleCon Supershow. Let me put this very simply: I’ve been watching wrestling for a long time. Like, a very long time. I’ve been to more shows than I can count, including three Wrestlemanias. I have never, in my entire career watching wrestling, had more fun watching a wrestling match in person.

The captains were chosen due to a great match Ospreay and Ricochet had last year in Japan which was called choreographed nonsense. The solution? Give then four partners each (which they say they were allowed to hand pick) and TWENTY TWO MINUTES to do as much choreographed stuff as they could. This included a series of about ten straight cutters, quadruple big boots, a quintuple suplex and a dance off that has to be seen to be believed. As luck would have it, I had a camera on me and filmed the second half of said dance off. Everyone danced but I only got the last few. The one that matters is included though.

This was twenty two minutes of having fun with professional wrestling. It had been a very long day and I was starting to check out on the show due to a bit of a boring card. This match snapped me back to life and I had one of the best experiences I’ve ever had watching. Honestly I don’t even remember how the match ended but that wasn’t the point. Find this match online (the full show is available for $5 at Highspots’ website) and have a good time being entertained by it. Easy A+ and the most fun I had all weekend.

Intermission time, which again ran long as the wrestlers were running their merch tables. It also meant time for me to meet some more wrestlers, including Angelico, Lio Rush, Flip Gordon, Sammy Guevera (very nice guy), Desmond Xavier and Moose. As I was coming back from Walgreens for water, I saw Marty Jannetty in the lobby and WOW he was out of it. I shook his hand and he started walking around without letting go while hitting on a woman. As I was heading out of the arena, I also saw Donovan Dijak watching the show as a fan.

6. DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Title: WrestleCon Rumble

So…..explaining this title……uh……basically it’s a parody of the WWF Hardcore Title where the belt can be won by ANYTHING, including a baseball bat, a ladder, a cameraman, various sex dolls, a child who had the ability to chokeslam anyone and Candace Larae, whose title win took place in a dream. This was a Royal Rumble with one minute intervals but the title could change hands via pinfall, submission or an elimination. In other words, the title can change hands during the match but the winner would be champion no matter what. Instead of going through this step by step, here are the entrants and anythign of note.

1. Joey Ryan (defending champion)

2. Colt Cabana

Here’s what I’m dealing with in this match:

Bell rings.

Ryan to Cabana: “GRAB MY D***!”

Fans: “GRAB HIS D***! GRAB HIS D***!”

3. Kikutaro (Japanese comedy character)

4. Underground Luchador

This was a masked guy in a Lucha Underground t-shirt. It was obviously Matt Striker and after a rollup to pin Ryan (which wasn’t an elimination), he was unmasked as such.

5. Manscout Jake Manning (He reads and beats people up at the same time)

6. George South

7. Suicide (Never unmasked, apparently Caleb Konley)

8. Mr. Hughes (Down probably 100lbs from his mainstream days)

9. Zane Riley (Mr. 305 Live)

10. 2 Cold Scorpio (One of my favorites so this was a treat)

11. Billy Gunn (Easily the biggest pop of the match)

12. Moose (Who had a staredown with Gunn for a bizarre visual)

13. Swoggle

14. Shane Douglas

15. Kevin Thorn

16. Shannon Moore

17. Hurricane (With a bad limp)

18. Abyss (House was cleaned)

19. Gangrel (That music is still SWEET)

20. Marty Jannetty

The final five were Jannetty, Moose, Gangrel, Swoggle and Ryan. I don’t often say this, but Jannetty was an embarrassment. I know he’s on a horrible ankle but the fans were booing him out of the building, which says a lot given how fun this match really was. Thankfully he was gone soon thereafter but it was bad while it lasted. Ryan’s “special” suplex eliminated Moose and Swoggle tossed him a few seconds later for the win and the title at about 25:00. Much like the Gimmick Battle Royal in 2001, this was all about having people come to the ring one more time and not the result.

Ryan immediately rolled Swoggle up to get the title back (it’s defended 24/7 like the Hardcore Title) and then made the mistake of saying he would defend against anyone anytime. Then, in something I’ve always wanted to see and never thought I’d get to: Enter Sandman.

The Sandman came out with a full entrance, complete with the entire Metallica song, cigarettes and beer being poured into fans’ mouths. Sandman offered Ryan a beer but caned him instead for the pin and the title. I’ve always wanted to see a Sandman entrance and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

7. Johnny Mundo vs. Brian Cage

This was a TLC match, though in this case it was won by pinfall or submission. Mundo had Taya Valkyrie with him (showing off very well in basically a red swimsuit) and Cage had his real life girlfriend (which I didn’t know) Melissa Santos, who did his entrance ala Lucha Underground. It’s very odd to see Santos out of her ring announcer outfits but jeans and a Lucha Underground shirt worked very well. She’s a very beautiful woman.

I was somewhat disappointed by this one as they really just hit each other with weapons for a bit. Taya tried to interfere and got superbombed through a table while Santos actually got physical (I don’t think she ever has in Lucha Underground) and took a very protected spear through another table. That was enough for Cage as he busted out a Steiner Screwdriver onto a chair for the easy pin. I forgot to start the timer but I’d guess around 12-13 minutes. There really wasn’t a need to call this a TLC match as it was basically just a glorified street fight. C-, only because of the gimmick announced.

8. Hardys vs. Rey Fenix/Pentagon Dark

The Hardys weren’t playing their Broken characters here…..but yeah they were the Broken Hardys. Matt kept doing DELETE and shouted WONDERFUL a few times. Interestingly enough, CERO MIEDO was getting louder reactions than DELETE. This was actually pretty short with the Hardys never seeming to be in much danger. Fenix and Pentagon (collectively the Lucha Brothers and the reigning PWG Tag Team Champions) had some sweet double team moves though and I’m sure they’d be fun to watch more. A Twist of Fate into a double Swanton ended Pentagon at about 7:00. D+. Too short to be very good.

Post match Matt put over the Lucha Brothers (who are real life brothers as well) as the future of tag team wrestling, along with the Young Bucks and the Briscoes. Matt basically said he didn’t know how much longer he and Jeff could do this (I’m writing this after they won the Raw Tag Team Titles) but he doesn’t want Meek-Ma-Han to destroy tag wrestling (oh the irony). However, if any of McMahon’s teams try to take over, Jeff said they would fade away and classify themselves as obsolete. Hands were shaken in a sign of respect to end the show.

Overall, this was a total blast as they basically took everyone they could find not in WWE or ROH and threw together a wrestling card. Not everything can be Wrestlemania, but it doesn’t need to be. This show made me realize that sometimes you need to forget about the quality and the storytelling and such and just have fun watching people do wrestling moves to each other. I mean, this kind of stuff isn’t likely to work for the masses (WAY too many kicks to the head and silly flips) but it’s the junk food of wrestling: entertaining at the time and you remember it well. Really entertaining show here and I’ll be back for the 2018 edition. B+.

Triplemania 23
Date: August 9, 2015
Location: Arena Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
Attendance: 22,300
Commentators: Hugo Savinovich, Matt Striker

This is a show that was talked about quite a bit back in the day as it featured English commentary from Matt Striker (oh yay) and Hugh Savinovich (oh….yay) but was plagued by some horrible technical issues. I’m kind of curious to see how bad things get here but it’s probably going to be even worse as I have almost no idea what’s going on coming in. Let’s get to it.

Before we get started, my usual disclaimer: my Spanish is conversational at best so there’s a very good chance I’m going to get some history or backstories wrong. I apologize in advance and I’ll be going mainly off what I’m told here and what information I can find online.

As is customary, we open with the widow of company founder Antonio Pena being introduced to the crowd.

The announcers are introduced.

Video on the history of Triplemania. In a bad sign of things to come, the video is airing on the screens and the camera is just pointed at them. The video has a Mission: Impossible theme, which is likely a tie-in to the latest movie. How did that licensing meeting go? “Hey movie studio: we want to tie your blockbuster in with a Mexican wrestling show!” I’m sure the producers were thrilled by the concept. The audio issues are already kicking in before the video ends.

An older man comes to the ring, flanked by a group of good looking women holding some flags. I believe this is another Antonio Pena tribute but apparently he’s the ring announcer, at least for the first match.

Dinastia/Drago/Goya Kong/Pimpinela Escarlata vs. Mamba/Daga/Sexy Star/Mini Psycho Clown

The audio cleans up a bit during the entrances but good night this could be a long show. Sexy Star is one half of the World Mixed Tag Team Champions, Goya is about Nia Jax’s size, Dinastia and Clown are both minis and Escarlata is an exotico. After hearing what sounds like the production truck, we can barely hear Striker doing English commentary. He sounds like he’s standing five feet away from the microphone and Hugo isn’t much better.

The minis get things going with Dinastia (the Minis Champion) headscissoring Clown around with ease. Off to Mamba (who might be another exotico) vs. Drago as everything breaks down due to the lucha rules (going to the floor is the same as a tag). Dragon hits a BIG flip dive to take Daga down on the floor, leaving Mamba vs. Escarlata. Star comes in but gets armdragged down as this is all over the place. Goya armdrags down Star and Mamba before she and Escarlata load up double dives, only to stop to dance. There is no sense of order or story to this other than Goya getting quadruple teamed in the corner.

Daga launches Star onto Drago for two before it’s back to the minis. When I say back to I mean they fight while almost everyone else is in the ring at the same time. Now it’s Kong getting quadruple teamed again but she actually fights them all off (so she’s the Roman Reigns of this match?) as her teammates come in to help her a bit. Goya gives Star a Stinkface as Striker talks about the show trending on Twitter. The much smaller Daga is run over by Goya as the match has actually settled down for a chance.

Drago kicks Mamba to the floor and hits a huge corkscrew dive, allowing the minis to fight even more. Star corkscrews onto Mamba and Drago with Escarlata following. The audio starts glitching again as Goya does a dance, followed by an apron flip dive. Back in and Escarlata kisses the referee before grabbing a freaky submission on Star (as in he ties up the legs and bends her over his back) for the win.

Rating: D+. These matches have always been lost in translation for me. I know they’re supposed to be a fun mess to get the crowd going but I’ve rarely been a fan of this much insanity. Really all this made me want to do was watch Lucha Underground, though it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. This just isn’t my thing and I don’t think it ever will be.

Escarlata kisses Striker on the cheek after the match.

Referee Pepe Tropicasas gets a special presentation for what might be his retirement ceremony. It seems that he’s going to be refereeing here, despite being in his early 70s. There’s going to be a second referee in the ring though, which could either help or make things even more complicated.

Los Psycho Circus vs. Los Villanos

This is a battle of famous wrestling families with Los Villanos being VERY established veterans who you might remember from WCW. This is Villano III’s (partner of IV and V here) last match, meaning we get a video package (again with the camera just pointed at the screen) on the family’s history.

Los Villanos have titles with them but of course Striker and Hugo are too busy drooling over history to explain what’s going on right in front of them. Or maybe they do explain it but the audio issues flare up again. The Circus has a full theme entrance which is a bit more energized than the Villanos (with a combined 160+ years between them). Before the match, Villano IV says he and V lost their masks but get to wrestle with them one more time, only to guarantee to take them off post match.

Psycho (of Psycho Clown, Murder Clown and Monster Clown) starts things off with I believe IV but everything breaks down into a chop fest with Tropicasas looking annoyed. The Clowns are all beaten up as this is in slow motion so far. Striker apologizes for the technical issues as all three Villanos go for Murder’s mask. That only goes so far so they send him into the post instead before going back to the triple teaming. Just like in the first match, this is all over the place but going far more slowly. It doesn’t help that the announcers seem to have no idea who is who for either team.

Los Villanos are in full control with their ancient looking offense, meaning it’s time for another clown to start honking a horn. Now a buzzing comes over the audio feed as two Clowns dive on two Villanos. Hugo tries to explain something but the audio is almost completely drowned out by the buzzing. A triple splash crushes one of the Villanos (at least in WCW they had numbers on their attire) and Psycho hits What’s Up to make it even worse.

One of the Villanos mostly loses his mask as Striker is currently doing audio on his own. You can hear Hugo’s voice at just above a whisper but it’s impossible to make out. Striker seems to get annoyed at the fans for letting them know about the buzzing on Twitter. Striker: “Just pretend I’m calling a Killer Bees match.” Psycho and Monster break up a double superplex with cookie sheets and turn it into a Tower of Doom, only to hurt Murder in the process.

Commentary is virtually non-existent at this point, with Striker saying that makes it feel more special. I know it’s a stupid line but I can excuse it a bit in this case as he’s basically helpless out there. Two Clowns are taken out by the slowest suicide dives you’ll ever see, leaving I believe Psycho to hit Villano III with what looked like a yellow belt.

They salute each other (a sign of respect) and VERY slowly chop each other as we can hear Hugo for the first time in a good stretch. We get the “showdown” between Villano IV and Psycho, which apparently restarted this feud. The others are held back, leaving Villano IV to get in a low blow for the pin.

Rating: F. There’s really no defending this one on almost any level. The commentary issues aside, this was WAY too slow and treated as something for the live audience instead of the fans at home. I get that this is the AAA show but you’re presenting it to an American audience who doesn’t know the history and the backstory here.

They were trying to explain things, but at the end of the day you had three guys at least 50 years old beating up a much younger team and looking every bit of their age. That’s really not something I wanted to watch and it was made even worse by the buzzing. Really bad stuff here and a lot of that can’t be blamed on the technical issues.

Villano III and Villano V take their masks off, which has to be done to satisfy some wrestling commission rule. Villano III looks older than Tropicasas. Members of the Villano family come to the ring and we get a retirement presentation to Villano III and Tropicasas because this hasn’t dragged on long enough yet.

Here’s Pena’s widow again but this time she just waves to the crowd. Did I mention she’s carrying her husband’s urn?

The next match is announced as a cage match, which I believe is a surprise. It’s for the Trios Tag Team Titles, but since this is AAA, you can leave the cage at any time and it’s basically an Ultimate X match inside a cage. Only one belt has to be pulled down to win the match.

Trios Titles: Los Hell Brothers vs. Fenix/Los Gueros del Cielo vs. El Hijo de Fantasma/El Texano Jr./Pentagon Jr.

There’s quite a bit to get through here. Los Hell Brothers (Chessman (Latin American Champion here)/Averno/Cibernetico) are defending and are fighting against Konnan’s La Sociedad stable (Represented by Pentagon Jr./Texano Jr./Hijo de Fantasma (King Cuerno and Cruiserweight Champion), who you probably know from Lucha Underground. If you don’t stop reading this and go marathon the first season because it’s AWESOME.) as well as against the evil bosses of AAA.

Fenix/Los Gueros (the White Boys From Heaven, comprised of Angelico and Jack Evans, both of whom appear with Fenix in Lucha Underground as well) are just good guys who want the titles. Got all that? It’s a lot of backstory but my goodness it’s nice to see a match where I know who almost everyone is.

The entrances take their sweet time but we’re entertained by the sound testing stylings of Matt Striker. The whistle blows (yeah AAA doesn’t use a bell) and we immediately go to a wide shot of the arena, meaning we can barely see anything. The buzzing is back as Striker does a pretty good job of telling us who everyone is. Of course it’s still early in the match so it’s still everyone going at it at once but I appreciate the effort.

Pentagon drops a top rope leg to low blow Evans and it’s time for the cookie sheets. Angelico has a camera on him which could be cool if we actually went to the feed. Evans goes up for the title but is quickly pulled down into a cutter. Fenix gets quintuple stomped as Striker tells us to “use the Google” to learn about some of the names he’s dropping. Evans is beaten up and of course does flips off the simplest bumps.

Angelico fights back with his running knees but Cibernetico drops him with a clothesline. Things speed up a bit with Fenix getting backdropped, only to land on Texano with a hurricanrana. In a cool attempt, Evans flips up onto Angelico’s shoulders but can’t reach the belts. Evans goes up again but opts to dive down onto Pentagon and I believe Averno. Fantasma and Chessman climb to the outside of the cage and Chessman is knocked onto a table at ringside.

Back inside, Cibernetico spears Texano through a table, leaving everyone else to climb the cage. Most of them fall outside and it’s Fenix and Pentagon going at it inside. Fenix moonsaults off the top of the cage onto Pentagon for the insane spot of the match, which was only mostly insane. That leaves Averno and Fantasma to go after the belts but Angelico pulls himself up to fight Averno. Fantasma kicks Angelico in the face and knocks him down, only to get shoved off by Averno, leaving him to pull down the belt to retain.

Rating: C+. Match of the night by about a mile here but it’s still nothing that hasn’t been done better before. Some of the dives were good and you started to get a feel for it, but this really needed to be a six man match instead of having everyone in there. It felt like nine people who happened to be in the ring and I never got a sense that any of them had a personal issue with anyone else in the match. It’s a fun match but too chaotic to really work.

Now the Spanish audio bleeds over the English before the English disappears all together.

It’s been too long since we focused on an old guy so here’s a match dedicated to Blue Demon’s thirty years in wrestling.

Electroshock/El Mesias vs. La Parka II/Blue Demon Jr.

Mesias is Mil Muertes sans mask. He and Electroshock used to be big deals but time is passing them by. This means it’s time to fight two old guys who are loyal to AAA because why use the old guys to put over young talent when you can put over Blue Demon’s thirty year career and La Parka, who is even older?

Demon and Electroshock get things going with Demon using more old man style offense and looking like he should have retired years ago. The buzzing gets louder than it has all night and it’s off to Mesias vs. La Parka. They’re quickly on the floor and out into the crowd with Mesias getting the better of it. Mesias gets kicked outside again so it’s off to Electroshock as we’re lacking commentary again.

Back to Mesias for a right hand to the skeleton face but it’s a quick double tag to Demon and Electroshock. Demon headscissors him down and ducks a charge to send Mesias outside for the third time. It’s off to Mesias vs. La Parka for a slugout with La Parka getting dropped off a few shots to the face.

Mesias is sent outside again (ok we get it already) and La Parka hits a weak dive, leaving us with Electroshock vs. Demon again. A powerbomb gets two on Demon, followed by Demon standing there so Electroshock can chop him a few times. Demon shrugs those off, hits something like a cross body, and grabs a Sharpshooter without turning Electroshock all the way over for the submission.

Rating: D. Blue Demon is another guy that I just don’t get. He’s old, he’s slow, and he keeps getting pushed like this god for reasons that I can’t understand. The rest of the match was just kind of there and again, there was no backstory given or a reason we should care other than “BLUE DEMON IS A LEGEND!!!” I only knew the story I mentioned earlier because I saw it elsewhere online. As has been the case with this whole show, it’s all about the old guys and if you didn’t see the shows that built this one, you’re going to be mostly lost.

Demon gets a plaque. Electroshock shock comes back, flips off the fans, and then leaves again.

It’s time for the Hall of Fame inductions, starting with Hector Garza. We get his family on stage, a video package, and a bunch of statements from various legends.

Second is Perro Aguayo Jr., who passed away earlier this year.

Brian Cage vs. Alberto El Patron

Patron’s (Alberto Del Rio of course) Mega Championship isn’t on the line because Cage has already used his title shots so instead it’s hair vs. hair. Cage has Hijo de Fantasma in his corner while Alberto has Fenix. Patron comes out with a full mariachi band and a modified version of his WWE theme music. Cage one ups Alberto’s robe with a Trump 2016 shirt.

Alberto starts fast with right hands in the corner and starts pounding away with a chair. Thanks for telling us that it’s No DQ after he started swinging. Cage bails and gets taken down by a suicide dive so it’s time to pose on the table. The armbreaker almost goes on but Cage powerbombs him down for an early break. Now it’s the very muscular Cage with chair shots of his own before he wedges the chair in the corner. Really why would you do that? Have you ever watched a wrestling match before?

They head outside where Fantasma is stomping on Fenix while Cage rams Patron into the table. Back in and we get a cookie sheet upside Alberto’s head, followed by a nice slingshot splash for two. Cage really shouldn’t be able to do something like that. Cue Fantasma to choke a bloody Del Rio on the ropes but Fenix comes in for a save off some kicks. Fenix dives onto Fantasma and Striker goes on a rant about how international that was.

Cage apparently doesn’t care for it as he powerbombs Fenix against the post, sending the seconds up the ramp. Alberto grabs a quick armbreaker over the ropes for the exact same break it always gets, even though this is No DQ so there’s no reason to break the hold. Cage takes forever jumping from the middle rope to the top rope for a moonsault (again, shouldn’t be able to do that) and only hits the mat. A Backstabber gets two for Alberto but it’s time for Fantasma to send in the tables with the referee helping to set them up.

Alberto breaks up a superplex and hits the double stomp but since this is Mexico, Cage doesn’t have to sell it and sends Patron through a table instead. The low superkick gets a heel one count from the referee so Alberto gives him a backbreaker. Del Rio’s top rope hurricanrana is countered with a low blow and a super bomb through another table for two off a fresh (well as fresh as someone that old can be) referee. With nothing else left, Cage pounds away at the head with a chair, only to be sent into the wedged chair (you knew that was coming). The armbreaker makes Cage tap.

Rating: B. Match of the night by a mile here and one of the most predictable endings due to the nationalism angle but still fun. Del Rio continues to be WAY more interesting as a face, which is why WWE makes sure to push him as a heel every single chance they can. I’m almost sure Cage is going to be back in WWE at some point and I’m really not sure why they let him go in the first place.

Post match Alberto has something to say but can’t find a working mic. Apparently he swears in Spanish and Hugo won’t translate it. Alberto grabs the Mexican flag and says this is his house. Until WWE calls again that is.

Cage gets his head shaved and goes after Alberto, only to get beaten down again and covered in the American flag. Dang it Alberto now we have to get it cleaned.

Actor Simon Pegg introduces Myzteziz (formerly Sin Cara), who comes out to the Mission: Impossible theme and repels from the ceiling like Tom Cruise did in the first movie.

Rey Mysterio vs. Myzteziz

Dream match main event. Rey comes out with black wings and looks like Hawkman. Myzteziz on the other hand is in half white and half black. We get a reluctant handshake and they take turns posing with Myzteziz getting annoyed at the lack of cheering. Striker and Hugo take shots at WWE because they think those mean anything these days. I mean, I know JBL and Cole aren’t the best commentary team in the world but they’re better than Striker and Hugo as you can actually hear them on big shows.

Rey sends him into the corner three times in a row to start and there goes Myzteziz’s shirt. Myzteziz gets tired of this waiting and punches Rey in the face, only to get taken to the mat for a headlock. Back up and Rey is sent outside for his stomach first crash, followed by a powerbomb onto the table. I guess Mexican tables are tougher than American ones too.

They get back in and Rey snaps off a headscissors with the announcers going on about traditional lucha libre. A seated senton off the apron sets up a hurricanrana to send Myzteziz into the post. That means it’s time for blood under the mask and Rey is in control. Naturally there’s already a fresh table set up at ringside. Even ECW would say tone it down with those things already. Back in and Myzteziz grabs a quick suplex to send Rey through said table and both guys are down again.

Matt can’t remember the Spanish word for blood as Myzteziz (dang I can’t stand having to type that name over and over) buckle bombs Rey for two. Myzteziz tries it again so Rey hurricanranas him to the floor, setting up a big seated senton from the top. Back in and Rey gets two off a La Mistica rollup (nice touch), giving the announcers something to actually get excited about. Rey actually starts going after the mask but opts for two off a sunset flip instead.

Myzteziz flips him face first onto the mat instead, setting up a twisting Swanton for two. These slow counts may be traditional but they’re getting annoying in a hurry. Rey’s high cross body is countered into a spinning Side Effect for two more and both guys are down. The 619 is broken up (Hugo: “Wrong number!”) so Myzteziz uses it himself. A frog splash (minus the frog) gets two on Rey so he comes back with La Mistica, followed by the real 619 for two.

Back up and Rey uses La Mistica again for the submission. That was kind of weird but even more out there was Striker freaking out that the two main events both ended in submission. It’s really not that big of a deal dude, though to be fair neither is Striker and he’s never gotten that either.

Rating: B. This was a lot less messy and the match was much better as a result. It felt like a big deal and the idea here was much simpler but it’s still only so good. Rey can still go with the right kind of opponent and Myzteziz didn’t botch anything major. For these two at this point, this was just a step beneath a miracle and one of the best matches of the night.

Post match Rey goes to be with the fans but Los Perros Del Mal (Joe Lider/Pentagon Jr.) and Averno run in to go after Myzteziz’s mask. Rey makes the save but gets a staple gun to the head for his efforts. Myzteziz gets up and fights them off with Rey’s help. The heels are all gone…..so Myzteziz shoves Rey down and sprays something in his eyes to go full heel. Oh sorry rudo. Myzteziz wants a mask vs. mask rematch, presumably at the next pay per view. The blind Rey gets powerbombed through the table.

Cue Rey’s friend Konnan and his super heel stable La Sociedad….and the show goes off the air early as Konnan is giving Myzteziz a sales pitch. Myzteziz would turn it down after the show was over and would leave AAA in about two months, meaning no rematch.

Overall Rating: D+. The last two matches are good but they’re nowhere near enough to save the show. Between the horrible technical issues and the old guys being almost universal disasters, there’s really no way to validate this being seen as a good show for the American audiences. The bad things here are just too much for the limited good to overcome and there’s little any company can do to get around that.

Above all else, this show reminded me of the biggest problem with ECW’s first pay per view Barely Legal (which just missed going off the air early by about ten seconds). The problem with that show was ECW assuming you knew everything that was going on so they didn’t bother recapping most of the stuff on the show. That becomes a big problem when you’re presenting your first pay per view to an American audience in a very long time. You can’t assume that fans have watched TV leading up to the show because the more lost they are, the less likely they are to buy another show.

This show was putting in an effort, but it was WAY too focused on honoring legends. It’s cool if you want to do that, but at the same time you risk the problem of fans getting really bored watching a lot of the lame action. That’s the style that dominated most of the first half of the show and really made me want this to be over. The last two matches helped a lot and it’s no coincidence that they were the matches with the most detailed backstories. This was a pretty strong misfire that could have been made much better with some strong adjustments, but it really doesn’t work as is.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new book of the History of Wrestlemania at Amazon for just $3.99 at:

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