NYWC Til I Collapse

Papadon vs Mike Orlando

Really solid opener here, I’ve been pretty complementary about Papadon’s shit-talking and schtick in the past, and it really helped carry the match here. Orlando was fine but a bit bland here, his comeback towards the end being all clotheslines and dropkicks. Papadon takes his control by luring Orlando into a stungun, he stops Orlando from breaking a headlock by just grabbing him by the nose and giving Orlando his comeback by taking too long climbing the turnbuckle by yelling at the crowd, before fully committing to his miss by faceplanting into the mat. Orlando hits a nice flipping spear for two. Liked Papadon catching Orlando in the ropes and landing a quick combo of 2-3 blows whilst Orlando can’t escape. The end sees Papadon spit at Orlando’s valet, causing a ref distraction and Papadon gives an eyepoke and a piledriver to get the win.

Willow Nightingale vs Kris Statlander

This was a step below Nightingale’s previous title defences, took a while to get going. Nightingale in particular seemed to be moving in slow motion, don’t know if that’s because she was facing a less experienced opponent. Liked Willow’s headbutts here, her big mane of hair looked wild as she swung her hair. Statlander seemed fine, though some of her execution was a little hesitant. Nightingale picks up towards the end, hitting a decent senton and I liked her superplex that she floated over into a fishermen’s suplex for two. A good DVD gives her the win.

Born & Bred (Anthony LaCerra & Jesse Vane) vs The Rep (Dave McCall & Nate Carter)

There’s a great early spot in this where Vane kicks both members of the Rep from the apron, before LaCerra hits a huge flip dive, leaping over Vane in the process. The Rep take over after blocking double monkey flips and throwing both faces into each other. Vane gets worked over competently enough, not sure how I felt about the double team stampede into a dropkick-assisted side slam. Vane lands on his feet from a fallaway slam and hits a dropkick in a nice spot. LaCerra hits a few nice kicks on the hot tag, and a superkick into a German suplex gives Born & Bred the win.

J-Redd, GIT, Randy Summers & Rick Cataldo vs The Benson Brothers, JT Kasin & Bo Prichard

This is a throwaway 8 man tag that stems from, of all things, an in-ring karaoke competition, where the heel team attack the Bensons, Kasin and Prichard after their own performances didn’t go so well. Brad Benson ends up as FIP. Pretty impressed by GIT’s boomerang clothesline, before everything breaks down and we get everyone in the ring hitting moves on each other (J-Redd’s moonsault press is pretty poor). Summers decides he wants to finish singing the High School Musical song he’d been singing earlier, but Kasin and Prichard grab him and hit a double-team swinging slam to win. Harmless enough.

Mike Verna vs Talon

This is billed as a grudge match, but it didn’t feel like one, more like a normal match. Talon controls the majority of the match, and his offence is fine. Liked his STO. Also really liked the spot where Verna hit a top rope crossbody, but Talon got in a blow in midair so that even though the move took him down, Verna ended up taking more pain. Makes sense given that he’s flying through the air with his stomach totally exposed. Talon ends up picking up the win, as he takes a crutch and hits the injured Rex Lawless at ringside. This distracts the ref, allowing Talon to nail Verna with the crutch and a Curb Stomp to win.

Bam Sullivan & Victoria von Black vs Stockade & Terra Calaway

This is an intergender tagmatch. Always thought Bam was the better of the Sullivan brothers, and he looks really good here. Loved an early spot with Sullivan in the corner, von Black gets tripped into him as she attempts to charge Stockade, and Calaway flattens them both with a corner cannonball. Liked Sullivan picking up von Black as if to wheelbarrow splash her onto Stockade, but instead drops her knee first onto Stockade. Made sense as von Black is the lightest person in the match, so dropping her knees onto him feels like it would do more damage. Von Black’s offence is pretty smartly worked, she’s quite small and Stockade is a huge guy, so her offence is limited to chokes and kicks. Calaway gets tagged in after a nice Stockade DDT to Sullivan. Calaway breaks an attempted von Black sleeper with a backpack stunner. The faces get distracted by destroying Mouse, who is accompanying Sullivan and von Black, but this allows von Black to low blow Stockade and Sullivan nails Calaway with a clothesline to win. This was well-worked, enjoyed this.

Bull James vs Joey Ryan

In contrast, I absolutely hated this. Just a terribly unfunny comedy match that makes the NYWC title match the least hotly contested contest of the show. Admittedly, if you find Ryan’s “powerful penis” jokes funny, you’ll love this, but this isn’t a wrestling match, it’s just a load of unfunny shit. The first few minutes is just Ryan trying to make James touch his knob. Hilarious. They then work a load of nonsense where they both pull lollipops out of their trunks and try to make the other eat it. This goes on for 7 terribly unfunny minutes before Blake Morris and Alex Reynolds run in to make this a no contest. A total waste of time.