NYWC Psycho Circus 2018

The Benson Brothers vs The Punk Relics

Sloppy, but quite enjoyable stuff here. Not everything hits cleanly, but it’s high energy, ambitious stuff. The early stages establish both teams as being pretty even, with only the size and strength of CJ Benson being an outlier. Ugo of the Relics really works a headlock on CJ to nullify this, but to no avail. The Relics get a little more luck in isolating Brad Benson, with a Valo back elbow looking nasty. The Relics make a tactical mistake by ignoring this control to try and take out CJ on the apron, which causes everything to breakdown. Brad hits a nice cannonball from the apron, though an Ugo top rope moonsault to the floor sees him just graze the crowd below. His top half basically crashes into the apron, which must have hurt. Nice ending as CJ pulls Brad out of a frogsplash/neckbreaker combo, causing the Relics to take each other out, before CJ flips Brad into a moonsault for the win.

Johnny Radke vs Teddy Hart vs Blake Morris

This is for Radke’s Fusion title. This match is basically the Teddy Hart show, as he controls the majority of the bout. Morris gets to hit some nice looking punches in the corner, before his attempt at choking Hart with his boot sees him taken to the mat with a leglock in a fun spot. From here, Teddy runs wild, taking both men out at once with a simultaneous draping piledriver/DDT over the ropes. Hart continues just casually hitting moves on both guys, nailing a huge tornado DDT on Morris and an electric chair backstabber on Radke. However, Morris throws Hart out and steals the pin and the title. A bit disappointing, this did nothing for Radke or Morris.

Willow Nightingale vs Mike Mondo

This is for Nightingale’s Starlets title, which is the women’s belt. Not sure how the very male Mondo got a title match, but hey-ho. Mondo works this as a slightly dismissive chauvinist, confident that he can out-wrestle Willow. He’s the veteran, so manages to lure Willow into attempted shoulderblocks that he laughs off, before suddenly putting his force into a block to send her down. Willow’s ability to comeback fits in with her established character, that being that she’s got a lot of heart. Despite being worn down by Mondo, she wont stay down and this enables her to get up and crotch him as he climbs to the top rope. She hits a series of kicks and gets a German suplex for two. Mondo locks her in a sleeper, but Willow again wont go down and climbs up the ropes for the Bret Hart pin to win the match. Effective match, as Willow looked the best I’ve seen her, confident and with some nice execution to her strikes. The overconfident male vs spirited female is an overused trope in intergender matches, but they worked this really well.

Bull James vs Alex Reynolds

I had high hopes for this match, but this was bitterly disappointing. Bull is a guy I really like, but his title run has been full of underwhelming matches that I don’t think have been his fault – facing the worst regular roster member King Mega, full on comedy mode Joey Ryan and past-his-prime Scott Norton along the way. Reynolds is someone I often enjoy, and the John Silver match on the previous show was maybe the best NYWC match I’ve seen, so I really thought this would be James’ best title defence to date. That it wasn’t isn’t down to the wrestlers, but the booking.

This is fought under “High Society” rules, which seems to mean it’s 2/3 falls with a round system. The rounds seem to mess with their timing, as rather than have a straight match, they have to break the match into sections. So for example, the first round sees them exchange some basic matwork until they realise it’s time for the end of the fall, with James suddenly hitting a clothesline and a buttsplash, only to have his pinfall halted by the round ending. James then wins the first fall in R2 with a cradle. The overbooking starts to kick in in R3 as Reynolds sneak attacks before the bell, controlling and hitting a second rope codebreaker for 2. Rick Cataldo runs interference, allowing Reynolds to hit a brass knuckles loaded punch, also for two. A really nice touch I didn’t notice at first was Reynolds putting the knuckles into James’ s tights. There’s a ref bump and James hits a butt splash for what appears to be the match winning three count, but the High Society members tell the ref about the knuckles in his tights, drawing a DQ and evening the scores to 1 fall each. R4 is sadly the sloppiest of all the rounds, with a terrible looking chokeslam by King Mega onto the apron and James barely getting Reynolds up as he tries to boost him into the post with his legs. Finally, a face full of powder and a belt shot wrap the mess up, giving Reynolds the win and the title. As I said, I like both men, but there was only so much they could do with this booking.

The Awakening (Matt Tremont, G-Raver, Terra Calaway, Stockade & Devon Moore) vs The Extricated (Jeff Cannonball, Mouse, Aidan Baal, Victoria Von Black & Bam Sullivan)

This match also has a lot of booking, but given that this is the Psycho Circus match, you expect and want a big spectacular of a match. The rules take in bits of WarGames, Survivor Series and Cage of Death, as the two teams fight in a ring with walls round two sides, in this case a cage wall and a barbed wire wall, with two men starting the match. Team members join each team alternately, and there’s also elimination rules. This rule really allows for more big spots, as you don’t have to worry about wasting it – there’s generally nine pinfalls in the bout, so you can use 9 big spots and have them all result in pins.

So yeah, this ended up being really fun. I like the way the spots were built to, incrementally increasing in carnage and spectacle. I assumed that the ladies would be the final two entrants for both teams, but I was pleasantly surprised to see Calaway enter first and even the heel Von Black didn’t enter last. Indeed, her entrance saw her blast Moore with a frankly vicious looking weapon that seemed to have plastic cutlery just jutting out of every side. I was pleased to see Baal getting some shine in the match, he’s been really good during this feud and he looked great here from the get-go, hurling himself into the ring as a weapon on his entry. He’s basically the iron man for his team, and gets the pinfalls on Calaway and Moore (who ends the match a blood-soaked mess). They even address the fact that Calaway and Cannonball are a real-life couple for his elimination by having him pretend to play nice at the end, attempt a double-cross and get speared by his partner into a door with tin cans sticking out of it. In terms of big spots, we got a few crackers – G-Raver being eliminated by being pushed off the cage through a large wooden box at ringside, Mouse getting powerbombed violently onto a bin by Tremont, and Stockade pinning Baal after a Death Valley Driver through a barbed wire board. There’s a nice throwback to last year as Stockade eats a big spinebuster on a pile of breezeblocks, which saw him eliminated last year, but he's able to kick out at two this time. Even the overbooked nonsense is fun, as the lights go out, bringing out a returning Boo Sullivan, only for Mikey Whipwreck to also return and take him out. By the time Stockade wins the match (powerbombing Bam Sullivan through a shitload of lightbulbs, through the stage), nearly 50 minutes have passed that haven’t dragged or overstayed their welcome. Really, really fun match.

Mid-South Wrestling 06/02/1982

Bob Orton Jr vs Ken Woodby

Woodby is pale, portly and auburn haired; a less intimidating grappler you couldn’t hope to meet. Orton controls him on the mat, working the arm to keep him grounded. Orton then hits a back breaker, a leaping second rope forearm and a piledriver in quick succession to win.

Ted DiBiase vs Ron Cheatham

Flavourless squash, as DiBiase controls Cheatham rather easily and hits powerslam and the figure four to win. Meh.

The Wild Samoans vs Junkyard Dog & Mike George

This takes two attempts to happen, as the first sees a fun angle with Ernie Ladd furious that Skandor Akbar has taken managerial control of the Samoans, his charges. He goes on the assault, beating all three men down, until an unnamed One Man Gang comes in a beats him down, hitting a (shitty) top rope splash on his legs to injure him.

Twenty minutes later, after Akbar demands the Samoans be allowed their scheduled match, we get it…and it’s a bit nothing. It’s for the tag titles, held by Dog and George, but it’s too short for much to happen. What it does do is show how useful Akbar will be for the Samoans. After a ref bump, a chair gets brought into the ring and, whilst JYD is able to use the chair to deflect an attempted fireball by Akbar, it gets left in the ring and the Samoans take advantage, hitting a Samoan Drop on George onto the chair to claim the tag belts. I hoped for a better match, but the whole deal was fun.

Bob Roop vs Frank Monte

Short, but with bits to enjoy. Liked Roop showing hid power to muscle Monte through a hip toss after it looked like they’d blown it, and I enjoyed Monte slipping out of a second attempt to hit a flying headscissors, which he then held on the mat. Good ending too, as a clubbing blow to the back of the head by Roop sends Monte into the corner and Roop hits a shoulderbreaker for the win. Good stuff.

Paul Orndorff vs Mr Olympia

Really good stuff here. They work a nice even pace, with some lovely punches thrown by both, before Orndorff takes control by rebounding from the corner with a second rope clothesline. Nice driving knees into the side of Olympia’s face. Orndorff starts getting frustrated as Olympia kicks out of some big moves, with a powerslam and driven elbows only getting two. Olympia reverses a piledriver, hits an enzuigiri and locks in a sleeper that, even though Orndorff tries his best to fight it, gets the victory. Good sprint.

Ed Wiskowski vs Brian Blair

They get the “TV time limit” death spot here, but both guys wrestle like they want to win instead of killing time. This is speed vs power, with Blair showing his skill early by reversing a Wiskowski suplex into a small package for two. From there, Wiskowski keeps hurling Blair into the ropes, first catching him with a stungun, then with two slingshots. Blair kicks out of an O’Connor roll, sending Wiskowski headfirst into the bottom turnbuckle, giving him the comeback until time runs out. Fine enough.

WWF Madison Square Garden 20/03/1983

Baron Mikel Scicluna vs Mac Rivera

Joined in progress opener. Scicluna controls the majority of this with some unconvincing offence, mainly weak blows. Rivera makes a comeback after Scicluna misses a wild swing that was obviously nowhere near Rivera’s head, and Rivera isn’t particularly dynamic on offence either. Rivera at least plays to the crowd. The Baron does hit a nice knee lift before a Rivera hits a sunset flip to give him the win.

Tony Garea vs Johnny Rodz

Liked Rodz throughout this one, especially at the start where he ducked around and tried antagonise Garea, begging off and then hitting a sucker punch. Rodz misses a splash, fully committing to the miss, and Garea takes him down with an armdrag. Garea holds onto the arm for A LONG time. Just holding Rodz on the mat and armdragging him back down every time. Rodz continues to enhance the match with a nice leaping forearm, decent legdrop and a hilarious bump into the ropes where he just gets totally caught up. The end of this got quite exciting, back and forth shifts in momentum that make both guys feel like believable winners, before Garea gets an O’Connor roll for the win.

Superstar Billy Graham vs Jules Strongbow

Is it wrong that I actually enjoyed this match. Took me by surprise how much I dug this, all pretty simple stuff that told a simple story. Strongbow works the arm of Graham, in a far more interesting manner than Garea did in the previous bout, actually making it seem like he was trying to hurt the limb. Graham grabs him in a bearhug…then has to release it as his arm is too damaged to maintain the hold. Loved that. Graham has a brief period of control before Strongbow fires up with a war-dance and locks on a sleeper to a giant pop. The crowd honestly went nuts for it. Graham escapes though, and hits an illegal karate chop to the throat to get the victory. Totally effective.

Salvatore Bellomo vs Ray Stevens

Thankfully, a chunk of this is clipped after we endure a lengthy Sal headlock. Stevens bumps around a bit to try and fire this bout up, but Sal offers very little here, going back to the headlock at the earliest opportunity. They exchange fists and end up fighting on the apron, leading to both men getting counted out. That’s it? Stevens tried to make this interesting, but there’s basically zero content here.

Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco

World champion vs IC champion, though only Backlund’s world strap is on the line. This is billed as a Texas Death match by Monsoon, but this just means there has to be a winner by pin or submission. Though it only seems to be Monsoon who knows this, as he chastises the ref for counting for rope breaks and breaking holds. This starts with some fun schtick based around Backlund holding and maintaining a headlock on Muraco. He works the hold too, which at least keeps it interesting for a while. There’s a great spot where Muraco finally breaks a headlock and wearily climbs the rope, only for Backlund to leap to the top and take him back down with another headlock. This does go on too long though, nearly ten minutes, and it gets tiresome after a while. It finally picks up when Muraco takes control, dropping Backlund headfirst on the steel railing and hitting a legdrop on the ring apron. Muraco wastes some time celebrating though, and gets rammed into a ringpost and busted open. Backlund works the cut, before Muraco hits a sudden powerslam from nowhere. He’s too worn down to make the cover though, selling the bloodloss and the lengthy headlock. The ending is pretty great, nice back and forth as Backlund gets an Argentine backbreaker, Muraco uses his feet on the top rope to flip out, Backlund locks in a chickenwing, Muraco gets the ropes and Backlund finally hits a German suplex for the victory. The overlong headlock spot was really tedious, but the second half of this really delivered.