Lionheart vs Kenny Williams
Williams is quite a gangly looking guy, and his offence
doesn’t look like it could cause too much damage. I enjoyed Lionheart’s control
here, as he’s prepared to use his size advantage to outman Williams. Loved him
putting Williams on the top rope only to punch him in the face. Williams
further disappoints me by taking a superkick flush in the face, only to hit a
rebound lariat. Still, Lionheart looked good, with the end seeing him superkick
Williams in the head on the top rope then absolutely plant him with a Rock
Bottom for 3.
Joe Hendry vs Dave Rayne
There’s more time spent here on angle than match, but it
served to get a debuting Hendry over, so it served a purpose. Hendry’s schtick
sees him singing a lot (including coming out to his own version of “In The Air
Tonight”, with lyrics referencing his own name) and promising to sing in lieu
of his match with an injured Joey Hayes. This prompts Rayne out to face him,
but first lead the crowd through a singalong of “Sweet Caroline”. Being a true
heel, Hendry attacks Rayne from behind before he even gets to the chorus. This
was brief, but Hendry was pretty solid. Loved his fallaway slam before he hits
a dominator for the win.
Sonjay Dutt vs Bubblegum
This is for Dutt’s GFW Next Gen title, which is a huge belt.
Some really nice matwork to start, with Bubblegum maybe a little ahead on
points. The pace picks up, and Dutt nails a massive baseball slide dropkick.
Dutt’s octopus stretch looks nasty. Bubblegum is good at fighting from
underneath, but he doesn’t get a whole load of offence here, mainly limited to
hitting some swank kicks on his comebacks. They botch a backslide, but that
aside everything looked good here. Dutt picks up the win following a tornado
DDT and a top rope splash, before attacking Gum after the bell to cement himself
as heel. Maybe a little too one sided, but this was fun.
Johnny Moss vs Chris Dickinson
Two big muscle-bound lads here. Their similar looks (bald
heads, black trunks, ripped torsos) see the crowd yell Mitchell brothers
references, which must have baffled Dickinson. Enjoyed the opening matwork and
roll ups, as both guys strength made it look like they could power the other
one down for a win and hold them there. Moss looks great here, nasty elbow drop
and a lovely capture suplex. Dickinson for his part has some great footwork,
with his standing kicks to the torso thudding like logs into Moss. They trade
rolling German suplexes at one point, which is the kind of thing I normally
hate, but it works here, as both guys show the effects of being worn down,
getting up slower and slower each time. The end sees Dickinson maybe getting up
a bit too quickly from a tombstone (though Moss takes his time getting to the
top rope)and hitting a top rope falcon arrow to win. Really good big man match.
Jeff Jarrett vs Noam Dar
The commentary points out that Jarrett is 48 to Dar’s 22, so
it’s probably no surprise that Jarrett brings out a whole heap of schtick.
Loads of stalling at the start with Karen Jarrett getting into arguments with
fans. Jarrett hits a pair of armdrags, both followed by a strut, so predictably
Dar follows with one of his own after his first piece of offence. Jarrett
actually keeps up with Dar pretty well – normally in matches like this the
younger wrestler has to noticeably hold back to not show up the veteran, but
Jarrett still moves well. Plus, he’s also wise enough to fall back on a load of
cheap moves, poking the eyes and choking behind the ref’s back to maintain
control. Dar’s comeback offence is a little flurry of quick, crisp offence that
looks nice, before they pay off the continued Karen interference by having her
accidentally slap Jarrett instead of Dar. Dar locks in the Champagne
Superkneebar, but more Karen distraction allows Sonjay Dutt to sneak in and
nail Dar with his oversized belt for the Jarrett win. A masterclass in cheap
heat and stalling by Jarrett.
Team Single vs Jack Baron & Jack Garvin
Team Single are supposed to be fighting the Hooligans, but
an injury to Roy Knight means that they instead offer an open challenge,
answered by two rookies from the PCW academy. There’s a big size difference,
and I’ve seen plenty of matches where the big veterans just guzzle up the
rookies, but Team Single give a surprising amount to the two Jacks. Baron and
Garvin seem green but have the fundamentals down. They logically focus on
T-Bone’s arm and use their speed to try and avoid Rampage, but Brown catches
Baron in midair on a Poetry in Motion attempt, dropping him on Garvin. Despite
a decent period of control on Baron, Team Single still let the rookies back in,
as Baron hits a nice tilt-a-whirl DDT to tag out. It’s played up that Team
Single have underestimed the rookies, but it still lets Baron and Garvin look
good. The end sees T-Bone German suplex Baron into the corner, crotching a
climbing Garvin on top. Brown hits a superplex on Baron, with T-Bone following
with a top rope splash for three.
Sha Samuels vs Dave Mastiff
For Samuels’ PCW title. Love the start with Samuels getting
into Mastiff’s face, and getting grabbed with two overhead suplexes. They fight
in the crowd, including some stiff headbutts from Mastiff. The camera does lose
them a bit as they brawl in the audience, before Samuels suddenly reappears,
thrown through a load of chairs from the back of the room. Samuels takes
control by ramming Mastiff into the ringpost 3 times, before locking on a
sleeper in the ring. He makes the mistake of jawing with the crowd though,
which lets Mastiff break free and hit two big German suplexes. He looks set to
hit the cannonball, before 3 masked men come out, causing a distraction for
Samuels to hit the match-winning low blow. This was good, but felt too short
and we missed a chunk of the crowd fighting due to the camera losing them, but
what we did see was fun.
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