Axel Dieter Jr vs Da Mack
I’ve been far more impressed with Dieter Jr in these shows so
far, and that trend didn’t buck here. Didn’t buy that Da Mack had hurt ADJ
enough to perform a stupid moonwalk into a penalty kick without ADJ trying to
block it, as it occurred 30 seconds into the match, though the kick itself looked
nasty. I did love Dieter Jr blocking a flying headscissors by just dumping Da
Mack face first onto the mat midway through, and his running cross chop is
great. It felt like another match where Da Mack was facing someone better than
him, as highlighted by a shitty cutter he uses to catch an ADJ dive with. Most
annoyingly, Dieter Jr had been targeting the arm of Da Mack earlier in the
match, but it was Da Mack who got the win with a Fujiwara armbar from nowhere.
Danny Hope vs Dave Crist
Hope had injured himself in the afternoon show that day, and
I assume it must have been pretty bad, as they just work this as a shitty
comedy match. More to the point, they recreate the Goldberg/Lesnar match from
Survivor Series the previous week. Only here, Hope hulks up at 2 and hits a big
boot (complete with 360 sell from Crist) for a nearfall. Seconds later, Crist
does a springboard armdrag into a cutter, slipping on the way, for the win.
Understandable if Hope was hurt, but possibly would have been better to just
sub him out?
Chris Dickinson vs Tracy Williams
Good little match. Liked the opening matwork, nothing too
flashy, just felt like two guys trying their best to wear the other one down.
Every hold looked like it would hurt. Wasn’t as keen when they got up and
started exchanging strikes – Dickinson is substantially bigger than Williams
and his blows looked far bigger, so Williams winning the exchange with a
clothesline was hard to buy. Williams blocks a top rope superplex by dropping
down and giving Dickinson a DDT on the top turnbuckle in a nice spot. Williams
is really good here at timing his counters so they fit the match – when Dickinson
is giving him mounted punches in the corner, he waits for Dickinson to yell to
the crowd as his opening to counter. In the end though, they are very evenly
matched, but Dickinson has the size advantage, and he picks up the win with a
big spinning kick.
T-Bone vs Iestyn Rees
Dug the start, with Rees taking advantage of T-Bone taking
his eye off the match and spearing him. This is quite a methodically paced
power match, not especially exciting, though I did like T-Bone’s fallaway slam
before Rees gets a sudden win with a kind of Jackhammer slam. Very brief.
Scarlet & Graves (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) vs
Martin Kirby & Joey Hayes
This was a fun match, really enjoyed to start where both
teams were isolating one guy and hitting some nice fluid double teams. Kirby
and Hayes ending a Dream Sequence with an eyepoke was a nice touch. Wentz is
singled out for Hayes and Kirby to work over, which allows Xavier to look
terrific on the hot tag. He’s a very fluid wrestler, moves almost effortlessly,
so it gives him a nice opportunity to showcase that. Loved Xavier slingshotting
Kirby into a Wentz leaping double-stomp, it looked great. Wentz has a lot of
success hitting some springboard moves, but goes to the well too often, getting
caught in midair and spiked with a double team DDT to give Kirby and Hayes a
win.
Jurn Simmons vs Dave Mastiff
This is the final of the Openweight tournament and is a real
prick tease of a match. It starts out brilliantly, as Mastiff spoofs Simmons’s
overblown entrance by playing air guitar to his own theme, then air drums,
before finally recruiting audience members to bean air band for him. This
infuriates Simmons, who complains to the ref, allowing Mastiff to sneak in, hit
a German suplex and the corner cannonball….only for the ref not to count
because the bell hasn’t rung. Simmons stalls outside, then blocks another
German suplex with a low blow and hits a running kick to win. Really promised
to be a great match, and ended up as nothing.
Joey Janela vs Keith Lee
This was really fun, both guys blended well as personalities
as well as in ring. Janela has real goofy charisma that makes him really
endearing to watch, but also leaves plausible openings for him to exploit in
this match. At first, he’s getting totally overpowered by the massive Lee,
failing with shoulderblocks and getting caught on a cannonball outside the
ring. However, with Lee not expecting it, he’s able to turn that cannonball
into a rana, sending Lee into the ringpost and giving him an opening to strike
with two quick suicide dives. Lee is not just huge though, he’s also quick, and
he stops a third dive by leaping into the ring and nailing a shoulderblock.
Huge Samoan Jackhammer gets two, before Janela hits an unlikely Canadian
Destroyer and a totally ridiculous DVD on Lee for a two count. While Joey plots
his next move, Lee suddenly bursts up and nails a MASSIVE Spirit Bomb to win.
Really great stuff.
The Hooligans vs Sha Samuels & Lionheart
Super spirited brawl here. Lionheart and Samuels jump the
Hooligans outside the ring, but are soon under attack, with Zak Knight hurtling
over the top rope towards them on a huge flip dive. The Hooligans are really
fun, they’ve got an enjoyably reckless looking way of hurling themselves at
their opponent, but not in a way that makes them look untrained. Love Roy
nailing a top rope elbow whilst Samuels is prone on a chair. Zak coming off the
top with a diving punch also look great. The heels weather the storm and steal
a win as Lionheart grabs Zak’s leg on a suplex, causing Samuels to fall on top
for the win.
AR Fox vs Bubblegum
This is the final of the cruiserweight tournament, and
thankfully goes a bit longer than the openweight match. Thought this went just
the right length, as they got to the point of kicking out of a few big moves by
the end, but none that you’d call a definite finisher. They start with a little
matwork, throwing in nice little touches like Bubblegum pushing at the knee of
Fox with his feet to gain extra leverage on a wristlock escape. The kind of
details that make it look like a struggle, rather than holds just being given
up. Fox increases the tempo with an insane dive over the turnbuckles to the
floor. The commentary plays up the fact that the two men had faced each other
just 7days previously, so were aware of the moves the other might try. This is
highlighted by Fox blocking a satellite DDT by Bubblegum, turning it into a
brainbuster. Bubblegum hits a huge bulldog that Fox bumps huge for, and the 619
gets a nearfall. By the end, both guys are selling their fatigue, and this
costs Bubblegum, as he takes a little too long going up top and gets caught
with a split-legged Spanish Fly and a brainbuster to give Fox the victory. This
was really good, great main event.
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