Papadon vs Aidan Baal
Really enjoyed Papadon in this. He’s great at throwing out
little touches, like shaking out his arm after taking an armdrag. He cheap
shots on every rope break, he yells at the crowd whilst wrenching in a headlock
and he does that awesome Finlay thing of using the ring apron to capture Baal
on a baseball slide. For his part, Baal is a pudgy guy in terrible gear, but he’s
surprisingly agile and moves around really well. Papadon hits a nice uppercut
to the back of Baal’s head to set up a Rude Awakening and hits a piledriver to
win. This was good.
Blake Morris vs King Mega
This wasn’t so good. There’s a big size difference between
Morris and Mega, which is interesting as Morris doesn’t come across as a small
guy, nor Mega as particularly big, but there’s a good foot difference
face-to-face. I should also say that Morris wasn’t the problem with this match –
he looked sharp on offence, liked him working the right arm of Mega with
strikes and hit-and-run offence. It’s more that Mega comes across as very slow
and unimposing, highlighted by Morris sending him “over-the-top rope to the
apron”, which comes across more as “Mega casually bumbling over the rope”. Mega
does at least sell the arm – until he blasts Morris with the bad arm on a
clothesline, then uses it to catch a Morris tope and chokeslam him into a post
outside the ring. Morris narrowly avoids a countout and, though he eats a
chokeslam in the ring, he holds onto the arm and locks on a triangle choke to
win. Would have been better if Mega had sold the arm more.
Angelo Andrews vs Braydon Knight
Really fun sprint here, both guys seem to be adept at
competitively working the mat. Both guys go for takedowns, and there’s a nice
feeling of aggression between the two. Knight hits a nice running knee off the
apron right into Andrews’ face, but gets caught by a kick right to the face as
he re-enters the ring. Neither guy goes over easily on suplexes, adding a
competitive element to every suplex attempt. Andrews controls the bout, with a
vicious clothesline to the back of Knight’s head and catching a diving uppercut
attempt right into a big German suplex. Knight hits a big head-droppy looking
exploder, but Andrews locks on a crossface to win.
Hounds of Hatred vs Bull James & Mouse
This isn’t particularly good, basically worked as a handicap
match of the Hounds against James, as Mouse spends less than 20 seconds in the
ring. James is face-in-peril for the bulk of this match, with the Hounds not
being very compelling on offence. It’s hard to come across as these terrifying
monsters when you’re applying lingering weak bearhugs on your opponent. Mouse
gets pulled from the apron by the Hounds’ manager before James can make the hot
tag, so Bull makes his own comeback. Has to be said, Bull is very over.
However, Stockade attacks Bull from behind and the Hounds double team him to
win.
Tyler Murphy vs Joe Gacy vs Mike Verna vs Randy Summers
This is for Murphy’s Fusion title. I’m currently kicking
myself because I didn’t notice until today that Murphy is Jolly Roger from
CHIKARA, all grown up and a vastly better wrestler. Kudos to him for keeping at
it and improving greatly. He’s heeling it up in this one, with the crowd
favouring Verna and Gacy. Verna gets highlighted here with some convoluted-but-awesome
strength spots, highlighted by a combo powerbomb/falling slam on Murphy and
Summers. Gacy looks really crisp on offense and his suicide dive kicks off a
dive train that ends with a great Verna cannonball. Loved how a brief “This Is
Awesome” chant got drowned out by kids chanting “Man of Steel” for Verna. Gacy
hits an unlikely handstand cutter, but Murphy picks up the win with an
admittedly poor looking GTS variant on Summers. I think you could put any two
of the four into a singles bout and get a better match, but this was still fun.
Stockade vs Rex Lawless
Solid main event. Loved Stockade realising Lawless could
actually overpower him (Stockade is a big fat guy, and Lawless is a tall
muscular fella), so working over the arm to take that powerbase away. Stockade
working as an obese Anderson was fun, big splashes and stomps to the arm. Loved
Stockade using his weight to pull Lawless down into a Fujiwara armbar. He also
hits a killer spear, like a big fat dart right at Lawless. Lawless didn’t
really sell the arm, though he did hit a full Nelson slam using only the good
arm. However, after he stupidly threw Stockade into the referee twice, he hits
two Baldo Bombs and seems shocked the ref isn’t counting. You just hurled a
400lb man at him twice Rex, he’s not going to be in the best nick. A third Baldo
Bomb with a replacement ref looks to finish it, but the Hounds of Hatred enter
and draw the DQ. Could have done without Lawless easily picking up a huge man 3
times with a dicky arm, but I enjoyed the story here.
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