Isaiah Frazier vs David Ali
Neat opener here, and you’ve got to love that the promoters
couldn’t resist the obvious “Frazier vs Ali” match-up. Both guys had really
nice execution here. There’s one slightly shaky moment, where Frazier misses a
flipping splash when he had time to notice Ali had moved, but aside from that
it’s all good. Ali hits a nice forearm to start, hits a bunch of decent
bodyshots, and there’s a lovely moment where Ali takes off his fist tape in
order to hit a big punch, but this gives Frazier time to recover and the shot
misses. For his part, Frazier also has nice bodyshots, a lovely slingshot
elbowand hit a big running knee. The end sees Frazier escape a fireman’s carry
and nail a big DDT for the win. Dug this.
O’Shay Edwards vs Mr Brickster vs Jaden Newman
This is one of three triple threat matches to establish the
three finalists in the tournament. Newman is a loudmouth, who declares himself “number
one”, and he spends the opening stages of the bout stooging about for the other
two, getting thrown out of the ring in comic fashion. Edwards is a big boy, and
gets some lovely power offence in throughout the bout. Big urange, huge
deadlift German suplex and a big standing spinebuster on Brickster. Newman recognises
him as the big threat, and wisely does everything in his power to keep Edwards
out of the ring, spotting Brickster as the weaker link. Edwards is too big to
keep out forever though, and I loved the spot where he breaks up a Brickster
pin on Newman by grabbing Brickster’s leg and hurling him off. Edwards hits a
huge sideslam on Brickster, but Newman hits a big forearm to the back of the
head and steals the pin. Nice ending, kept Newman and Edwards looking strong.
Kevin Ku vs Sean Legacy vs Austin Jordan
This was all about Kevin Ku, who looked fantastic. Legacy
and Jordan seemed decent, though their had slightly goofy offence, but Ku just
came across as a machine, hitting crisp violent kicks and strikes. Ignore the
silly bit where Ku kicks out Legacy’s leg to cause a Big Ending on Jordan, and
the rest is all gravy. Ku hits a big powerbomb into a backcracker on Legacy,
then piledrives Jordan on top and pins them with a foot. Effective stuff.
Marko Stunt vs Alan Angels vs Josey Quinn
Stunt is a tiny guy who JUST about manages to avoid having a
really irritating face. He’s almost the kind of tiny guy who you want to see
get smacked in the face, but he’s so much fun to watch that he gets away with
it. Angels and Quinn pull their weight too, loved Angels leaping from the ring
to the floor, in the process stomping Quinn’s face into the apron. Stunt hits a
huge flip dive which looked great. There’s a really great spot where Angels is
sat in the corner, Stunt is hanging over him in a tree of woe, and Quinn – who’s
a big hairy biker-looking guy – hits a huge missile dropkick to take them both
down. Stunt is all movement, making himself hard to hit, and he’s the standout
in the closing stages. Nice springboard codebreaker, big springboard stomp to Angels
and a 450 to Quinn gets the win. Stunt is instantly eye-catching, but the other
two looked really good too.
Brock Baker & Will Allday vs Johnathan Wolf & Shawn
Kemp
Showcase match for Wolf and Kemp, and they don’t really make
the most of it. Kemp looks good early with some neat looking armdrags, but they
quickly go to some goofy comedy where Kemp is “part dog” and Baker takes
control after pretending to have a ball. The heels don’t get control for long,
and Baker is forced to stand still awkwardly while Kemp readies himself to hit
a top rope moonsault press. Kemp then barely makes it on a suicide dive,
catching his feet on the ropes, and then has some awkward looking footwork as
he stumbles through a wheelbarrow German suplex. We get a too brief spell of
offence from Allday, who looks really crisp, though he’s an egregious AJ Styles
wannabe with his tights, hair and big flying forearm. Things break down,
getting pretty messy as Wolf totally no-sells a pedigree, before Kemp pins
Baker with a sky twister press. Left this far more interested in seeing more
Baker and Allday than the showcased guys.
Jaden Newman vs Kevin Ku vs Marko Stunt
Fun final match, where the tiny Stunt is treated as an
afterthought which proves to the undoing of the other two. Newman and Ku face
off, exchanging chops and kicks, and throwing Stunt out when they can to
continue their rivalry. When Stunt is able to stay in the ring, Ku basically
hurls him around, taking advantage of his diminutive stature. But Stunt isn’t
going to stay down for long, and hits both guys with his high speed offence,
culminating with a crazy tilt-a-whirl into a codebreaker on Ku for the tournament
win.
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