ECW Hardcore TV #40 18/01/1994

Tommy Dreamer & Badd Company vs The Tasmaniac, Kevin Sullivan & Johnny Hotbody

Pretty decent six-man, albeit with an ending that makes everyone look like an idiot. Thought this match had a really good Paul Diamond performance, he looks terrific and has some real dynamism to his moves. His running leg lariat in the corner was really nice in the opening minutes, and I liked the touches like fighting desperately to escape when Hotbody had him pinned in the opposing corner. The heels work him over nicely, good tag continuity. Tanaka gets the hot tag, but his flurry of offence is short lived, as he gets stopped in his tracks by Taz. Hotbody nails him with a sloppy superplex, and from this point on Tanaka is basically just beaten down. The heel team even take it in turns to pick him up on two counts, and Sullivan just repeatedly rams his head into the mat. However, Sullivan and Taz both roll to the floor and basically have a fit outside the ring. Hotbody goes for the tag, finds no-one there and gets rolled up by Tanaka for three. So the heels look dumb for throwing the win away, Tanaka looks bad for basically being dead for the final few minutes of the match, just a baffling ending.

911 vs Chad Austin

Austin wants a match, so Heyman gives him 911. Chokeslam, pin. There’s going to be a lot of these coming up, I guess?

Terry Funk vs Shane Douglas

I have to accept I was pretty naïve with this match. The show is a “special” 90 minute long episode, and the match starts half an hour into the show, yet at no point did alarm bells ring. I just assumed we’d get some more matches after this obvious main event. It’s only when we were 10-15 minutes into the match, and all we’d seen is Funk work a headlock (admittedly in an amusing manner) and Douglas apply various holds to Funk’s left arm (in a less interesting fashion) that I realised this thing was going long. And it felt loooooooong. Douglas especially doesn’t have enough stuff to fill this time effectively, and Joey Styles’s commentary highlighting that “Douglas is saving energy, just sitting back and working the arm” didn’t make the abundance of arm work interesting. I’m a guy who loves guys working a hold, but that’s different from lying down and holding the arm for a few minutes, then trying another hold. We also get two different crowd brawling spots, with the second one towards the end especially feeling like filler. Funk does a fun job of selling here, even seemingly blading the arm during the first crowd brawl. As a left-hander, he keeps trying to use his injured limb, the selljob of which keeps giving Douglas openings. However, we also get Funk crawling out of the ring after two piledrivers, Funk briefly working Douglas’s legs for the spinning toehold which he never tries for, a false finish with the ref restarting because Douglas used the ropes for leverage on a pin and then a schmozz of an ending with the Bad Breed and Sherri Martell all involved. By the time we got to the inevitable time limit draw, I just wanted this over.

WWF Raw 3/10/1994

British Bulldog vs Jim Neidhart

This was perfectly ok, while at the same time maybe not being as good as you’d hope for with two family members, one of whom is in his comeback match. Liked the opening battle of the shoulderblocks, with Bulldog winning with a leaping version, and DBS showed nice agility in hitting a standing dropkick out of a test-of-strength. Neidhart goes to “a semblance of a chinlock”, as described by Vince. Bulldog hurts his leg crashing to the floor after Owen Hart pulls down the ropes, which lures out Bret from the back, and Neidhart does a bit of token work on it. Loved Neidhart’s rope-assisted choke, standing on Bulldog’s throat and really working the rope to add emphasis. Neidhart misses a splash and Bulldog hits the delayed suplex, albeit with a minimal delay due to the leg. Owen interferes after Bulldog was going for a sunset flip, and this draws the DQ. Feels like an odd time for Owen to come in, especially after quite a lengthy match.

Doink vs Barry Horowitz

Horowitz looks really good in this match, substantially better than Doink. Doink barely gets enough elevation on a leapfrog and almost loses Horowitz on a backslide, while Barry gets a nice bridging pin and fully commits to a missed corner charge. Doink gets a powerslam and the Whoopie Cushion to win.

Bull Nakano & Luna Vachon vs Alundra Blayze & Heidi Lee Morgan

Odd match this, with Morgan taking 90% of the match, and totally dominating Nakano every time Bull is in. Morgan gets a fun, through-the-legs bridging pin on Vachon, before Luna takes over. However, as soon as Bull gets in, Morgan starts no selling shoulderblocks and getting a victory roll before Luna comes in to take control again. Really odd way to book the monster heel. You can almost hear Vince’s frustration as he complains about Morgan needing to get the champ in there. He also criticises Heidi’s decision to try a missed splash rather than make the tag, before Alundra gets in. Nakano blocks a double suplex and takes both Morgan and Blayze over instead. However, Luna accidentally hits a missile dropkick on her, and Blayze hits the German on Luna to win. Baffling booking of Nakano.

Bob Backlund vs Gary Scott

Fun little squash, with Bob letting Scott look quite competitive on the mat and working a nice sequence with him, before locking in the chicken wing for the win after a missed clothesline. Good way to end the show.

ECW Hardcore TV #38 28/12/1993

The Pitbull vs Chad Austin

Pitbull is a solo Gary Wolfe. Pretty much a mugging for poor Chad Austin, who gets folded in half with a back suplex early. Wolfe is someone I don’t really enjoy, but he looked good in a squash environment, hitting nice fistdrops and planting Austin with a big powerbomb. Austin helps him out by taking a 360 bump on an average looking clothesline. Pitbull gets cocky, constantly picking up Austin on pinfalls, and suddenly Austin gets a terrible looking leg lariat for the shock win. Quite fun stuff.

Rockin’ Rebel vs Don E Allen

Efficient, if not especially interesting, squash here. Rebel jumps Allen at the bell and doesn’t really let up. This is all basic stuff, just slams and punches, albeit well executed. Big piledriver finishes off Allen.

Sabu vs Terry Funk

This is for Sabu’s heavyweight title, and is a bit of a clipped mess. It’s no DQ, so we get some brawling on the outside to start, culminating in Funk slamming Sabu onto a table and then flattening him with a chair. Sabu eats a couple of piledrivers before we clip to suddenly find him in control. Well, that’s a bit jarring. We get a ref bump, Funk gets thrown through a table, and a load of interference from the Bad Breed, Shane Douglas, Sherri Martel and Paul Heyman, finishing with Funk on top for the win. Just a mess to follow thanks to the clipping and assorted chaos.

Pro Wrestling Australia - Release The Quackenbush

With a show title like this, you'd be forgiven for expecting an appearance by Mike Quackenbush, and you get one. Sort of. He's on commentary for the show, which is an odd reason to name the show after him, but they mention he's also been doing some training in the previous week. As a commentator, he's the best possible Mauro Ranallo, calling move names and referencing luchadors, but without the terrible puns, shit pop culture references and irritating yelling. So nothing like Mauro, I guess.

Chris Vice vs Robbie Eagles

Big size difference here, Vice is a big musclebound man, but he shows off some nice rounded edges to his work, hitting a nice leaping rana in the opening moments. He also shows some mat skills, at one point grabbing an Eagles big boot from the corner, whipping him down and tying him up on the mat. Later, as Eagles kicks out of a sitout powerbomb, he immediately grabs a leg, locking in an STF. Nicely, he adjusts as Eagles nears the ropes, switching to Rings of Saturn. His slingshot shoulderblock looked great and a sitout piledriver felt like the end. Eagles spends a lot of the match on the defensive, but gets a few chances to impress. His kicks looks weak in places, but a massive dive into the crowd is nuts, and the match-winning 450 splash is terrific. Good opener.

Juan Direction (Funny Juan, Giant Juan & Romantic Juan) vs The VeloCities (Jude London & Paris De Silva) & Mat Rogers

Juan Direction, as you can probably guess, are a lucha themed boy band, complete with microphone headsets incorporated into their mask design. The opposition has a less united front, as Rogers is a big beast of a man who seems disgusted to be teaming with the smaller, goofier VeloCities. He refuses a tag, leaving London and Paris to work the match, and they do so with some nice double teams. At one point, Romantic Juan misses a big high senton and the VeloCities hit a neat double legdrop. They look fluid until Giant Juan clotheslines De Silva from the apron, and the VeloCities find themselves struggling to get back in, at a permanent 3-on-2 disadvantage. That is, until Rogers tags himself in and just dominates. Nothing fancy, just big shoulderblocks and clotheslines, but they looked pretty beefy. He ends up 1-on-1 with Giant Juan, the largest member of his team, and a big boot and a pumphandle slam gives Rogers’s team the win.

Gavin McGavin vs Mehmet the Turkish Delight vs Luciano vs Jax Jordan vs Dean Valente vs Kai Drake

Getting a match like this with 6 guys you’ve never heard of makes it hard to get a read on these guys. You don’t get enough time to get a feel for what they can do, but the small snippet I got from each guy didn’t make me opposed to seeing more. Turkish Delight especially entertained, a tubby guy in a colourful singlet who the crowd seemed to love. His feud with the serious Gavin McGavin got the most focus in the match, and Delight seemed like a fun character. Some nice spots here – dug McGavin avoiding a Sliding D, adjusting his body to instead get a crucifix for two, Valente had a really nicely executed DVD and I liked the logic of Jordan still jumping for a leapfrog when McGavin pulls Delight from the ring as he runs the ropes, just looked a bit more natural and realistic that he wouldn’t be expecting Mehmet not to keep running at him. In the end, Luciano, who’d probably had the least ring time, got the victory with an inverted brainbuster, and this was fun junk food.

Shazza McKenzie vs Jessica Troy

This is for McKenzie’s PWWA title. Really liked this one, I’d seen bits from both women before that had been fine enough, but this was the kind of match that makes you a believer. Lovely mat work at the beginning, nice logical exchanges with McKenzie being one step ahead. The non-Quack commentator mentioned a shoulder injury McKenzie had suffered, so it’s not a big surprise that this soon becomes the focus of Troy’s offence. She takes over in a neat way, catching a boot on the apron and swinging Shazza face first into her knee, then zones in on the shoulder. Lovely Atlantis Clutch, followed by some high kicks directly to the shoulder. McKenzie sells it well for the most part, despite cartwheeling to safety at one point, as she runs the ropes slightly differently, arm kept close to the torso. McKenzie’s offence also switches to be mainly about the kicks and running knees, trying not to use the arm. Troy gets close to the win with a Fujiwara armbar and a great nearfall from a crucifix, but McKenzie locks in a quarter Nelson chicken wing for the tap. End slightly came from nowhere, but I loved this.

Matty Wahlberg vs Mr Juicy

This was stupid, but the right kind of stupid, daft fun rather than something that makes you embarrassed to like wrestling. It works due to the strength of the characters. Mr Juicy is a chubby guy in a doughnut singlet, who comes to the ring with some beers for a party. Wahlberg, in contrast, is a ripped, tanned jock with an entourage, who insults the amiable Juicy. It’s an easy story to understand and Juicy is a likable guy, so the fact some of this is a bit silly doesn’t matter as I got invested in the character, and primarily in seeing Wahlberg get his. Juicy gets early control with a clothesline, after one of Wahlberg’s has no effect on him, and the entourage of Carter Deams and Harley Wonderland both get involved. I assumed for a DQ, but it turns out they’d ambushed the ref, and left him lying on the floor with his shirt over his head. Juicy fires back, even taking out Wonderland with a keg (and this was quite well done. Juicy didn’t just level a woman with a barrel, he’d twice chosen not to attack her and paid the price, and Wonderland is a trained wrestler, so it didn’t feel uncomfortable). He piles up all three in the corner for a bare-arsed stinkface (and Wahlberg ducked, leaving poor Deams to take the brunt) before a clothesline to the back of the head of Wahlberg gives him the win.

The Four Nations (Adam Hoffman, Jack Bonza & Mick Moretti) vs SMS (SnapChad & Unsocial Jordan) & Big Fudge

This was also fun, it’s a match that is there to ultimately advance a storyline, but it did so effectively. Fudge is a small masked guy, who is tag title partners with Shazza McKenzie. However, Unsocial Jordan is her fiancé, and also in a rival tag team, and he’s not a fan of what he perceives as Fudge using her to gain success. Thus, they’ve got a very uneasy alliance here, which isn’t good as the Four Nations put on a united front. Thought this was good, albeit with some clunky comedy sprinkled in. SnapChad and Jordan both seem better than their gimmicky names would imply, but Fudge seems to be mainly schtick. His big move is an arse punch, that it’s hard for opponents to sell and still look credible. Loved some of the heel double-teaming, especially a sequence of tags, sentons and slingshot sentons on SnapChad that looked great, all three moved so quickly. A three man Poetry in Motion, with Hoffman skipping across two men’s back en route to the corner was neat.Jordan shows his annoyance at Fudge by shoving him out of the way, allowing Jordan to receive the hot tag, but Fudge still blind tags himself in for some comedy. The end sees Fudge join in with SMS’s finisher, but Jordan angrily gets distracted by this, allowing Four Nations to isolate SnapChad and crush him with a towering splash for the victory.

Michael Spencer vs Ricky South

Spencer is a short, angry little man, thus making him the perfect choice to fight South’s effeminate lipstick-wearing grappler. Spencer hits a lot of knee-based offence, so it’s lucky that all his jumping kneestrikes looked killer. However, he misses a knee in the corner, allowing South to take over. Nice delayed suplex, before he finishes Spencer with a head-in-trunks piledriver. A very brief match, but a good one while it lasted.

Jonah Rock vs Caveman Ugg

This is a street fight, and these two don’t hesitate to take it to the floor. These are some big boys, so it’s impressive how quickly they can move. At one point, Rock takes the time to chat shit at Quackenbush at the commentary table, only for Ugg to appear out of nowhere with a cannonball. Bless Mike Quackenbush for justifying Ugg finding a ladder near the ring by saying it was used earlier to put up a banner. The ladder comes into play as Ugg side slams Rock onto it in a big bump. It looked, and sounded brutal. Ugg monkey flipping Rock through a chair looked great, and Rock getting a Death Valley Driver was also nicely done. There’s a slightly goofy no-selling section, but Ugg IS a caveman, so it’s not surprising he’s unable to acknowledge the pain. Rock hits a superplex through a tack-covered table for two, in a great looking highspot, before levelling Ugg with a brick and hitting a brainbuster to win. Really neat main event.

World Class Championship Wrestling 15/01/1983

This is the first episode of World Class after the Freebirds turned heel on Kerry von Erich in his NWA title match against Flair, and in keeping with that, this is a very Freebirds heavily episode

Buddy Roberts vs Brian Adidas

Adidas looks pretty awkward in the early stages, stumbling running the ropes, taking a monkey flip clumsily and hitting a poor pair of dropkicks. Roberts takes over by cheapshotting on a rope break, and levels Adidas with some big shots, including nasty knees and kicks to the head. Buddy continues by working the arm of Adidas, including a nice bit where he keeps trying pinfalls while holding the ropes, moving just in time to avoid getting caught. It’s a familiar spot, but executed really well, as the ref never catches him doing it, but is suspicious of the shaking ropes, until the third time when he catches Roberts in the act. Felt natural, as opposed to “a bit”. Adidas gets two on a terrible sunset flip, and Roberts gets a series of two counts from a swinging neckbreaker and a backbreaker, before the time limit expires. Great stuff from Roberts.

Michael Hayes vs Al Madril

The crowd is absolutely molten for this, popping every time Madril lands a shot. Hayes stalls a lot in the early stages, not giving the fired up Madril a chance to retain control. Hayes rakes Madril’s eyes to take over, and goes to work wearing him down, with chinlocks and kneedrops keeping Al on the mat. Madril gets openings, and is always fired up on his comebacks, but Hayes is really good at stopping him in his tracks. Hayes looks to have it won with a piledriver, but decides instead to keep attacking Madril, drawing out Jose Lothario for the DQ win.

Bill Irwin vs Andre The Giant vs Terry Gordy vs King Kong Bundy vs Kerry von Erich vs Bugsy McGraw

This is a six man battle royal, with pins and submissions, with the winner claiming $5,000. Michael Hayes is accompanying Gordy, and pays dividends early, as von Erich focuses his entire attack on Gordy, going after him from the off. However, a distraction by Hayes lets Gordy shockingly eliminate him early. Andre is always a threat in battle royals, but here his gameplan is very odd – just keep strangling Terry Gordy. He just wont let go of Gordy, even when Bundy jumps on him from the second rope. He breaks the hold for a moment, then goes right back to choking Gordy. McGraw is eliminated by Bundy, leaving Andre 3-1 against the heels. They team up, FINALLY getting Andre off Gordy for a period of time. Gordy and Bundy hold Andre by the arms, to allow Irwin to attack, but Andre soon escapes, eliminating Irwin with an atomic drop. Hayes stops Andre eliminating Gordy, and Andre goes after him…climbing over the top in the process, and eliminating himself. This leaves Bundy vs Gordy, two heels and, after Bundy misses the avalanche, Gordy dropkicks him out.Very strange match, mainly dedicated to Andre choking Gordy, but quite enjoyable.

WWE Main Event 16/09/2014

Dolph Ziggler & R Ziggler vs The Miz & Damien Mizdow

Here, R-Truth is cosplaying as Ziggler to counteract the Miz/Mizdow duo. The face team is pretty unexciting in the early stages, so it’s nice when Mizdow breaks their momentum with a headbutt to Ziggler. Liked Miz ducking a superkick to protect his face, allowing Ziggler to roll him up for two. Ziggler briefly plays face in peril, but makes the tag with no real build up. Miz does a terrible job of selling the Fameasser, but Truth does manage to hit Ziggler’s leaping DDT without the need for to slap Miz’s back, making it much better looking. Truth hits a Lie Detector on Mizdow, but Miz is the legal man, and he hits the Skull Crushing Finale to win.

Brie Bella vs Cameron

Surprisingly decent, albeit not particularly long. Both women seem pretty aggressive to start, felt like they were actually battling over moves. Loved the rolling crab Brie gets as Cameron runs the ropes. Cameron gets a brief control that looks decent, hitting a standing splits legdrop and working over Brie’s back. Bella comes back with a diving clothesline and a facebuster to win. Genuinely decent stuff.

Big E vs Seth Rollins

They get a reasonable amount of time – just over fifteen minutes – but unfortunately they don’t make the most of it. A lot of this match sees Rollins in control, and he really drags it out. His beatdown is methodical and not especially interesting, and he fills more time with two long chinlocks. His standing enzuigiri looks nice, but it’s Big E who really impresses here. Aside from his attempt at press-slamming Rollins from the floor to the ring – where Rollins gets stuck in the ropes, and his eventual landing seems him fall not very far – his stuff looks great. He catches a Rollins crossbody to hit multiple backbreakers, he hits full-bodied corner charges, his overhead belly-to-belly and standing splash are both great looking moves, and his spear to the floor looks mental. In the end, Rollins throws him into the corner twice, and the Curb Stomp gives him the win. 

WCW Thunder 05/02/1998

La Parka vs Hugh Morrus

This starts off with Parka doing some hilarious posturing, sadly getting cut off by Morrus levelling him with a big clothesline. This is mainly Parka bumping around for Morrus, who at least unleashes some decent offence. Morrus decks Parka with a shoulderblock and a big chop, and hits a decent back elbow from the corner. No Laughing Matter gets the win.

Jim Powers vs Goldberg

Hilariously short. Goldberg dominates from the off, working Powers down to the mat with a leglock. Powers hits a knee lift, but gets planted with a spear and the Jackhammer gives Goldberg victory.

Kidman vs Juventud Guerrera

These guys would have better matches later on, but this wasn’t great. A few too many awkward moments with Kidman looking lost. Guerrera looks good though, moving really quickly and with a flying headscissors looking really fluid. Great spot as Juvi ranas Kidman off the apron into Lodi. Running Juvi Driver looks great, before a Lodi distraction allows Kidman to hit a bulldog and the SSP for the win.

Silver King, Villano IV & Villano V vs Super Calo, Chavo Guerrero & Lizmark Jr

Unsurprisingly, this is a fun little sprint. Lots to take in here, they pack a good lot of offence into a short bout. Loved Lizmark blocking a monkey flip, allowing Calo to come in with a big high clothesline. Chavo landing on his feet from a Silver King monkey flip was impressive, he was never a guy I associated with that level of agility. Lizmark hits a big dive to the floor, and Chavo hits a great tornado DDT on Silver King, only for Psychosis to run in behind the refs back and hit a guillotine legdrop to give King the pin.

The Steiner Brothers vs Konnan & Buff Bagwell

The NWO team tries to jump the Steiners pre-match, an advantage that doesn’t last long as both eat belly-to-belly suplexes. The build up to the Steiner split has seen their matches run pretty short, and this is no exception. Lovely moment as Ted DiBiase takes out Vincent outside, but the NWO get involved and Scott Hall pushes Rick off the top onto Scott for the DQ. Appreciate the effort to forward the Steiner split, but this isn’t much of a match.

Raven vs Marty Jannetty

Not as good as their previous match, but still pretty decent. They fight in the aisle, and I loved Jannetty wisely taking Lodi out early with two superkicks. Raven hits a crappy looking elbow from the apron, but a bulldog on the chair looks good. Marty gets a little run off offence, hurling Raven into the ringpost, but a Rocker Dropper gets reversed into the Evenflow in a really great looking spot for three.

Disco Inferno vs Saturn

This gets plenty of time, and improves as it goes along. In the early stages, they don’t seem to be on the same page, a few awkward moments as they both miss opening or try things that don’t seem to work. Saturn hits a few big overhead belly-to-belly suplexes as things start to improve. Disco gets in more offence than you’d expect, even hitting the Chartbuster after Saturn misses a top rope legdrop, only for Kidman to save. Disco lands on top on a back suplex for a really close two count. Sadly, the end goes back to being odd again, as Kidman pushes a groggy Saturn onto a downed Disco. The ref starts to count, but Disco is on his stomach, so the ref realises this isn’t a good idea. A few seconds pass and Saturn locks in the Rings of Saturn for the win.

Louie Spicolli vs Jim Neidhart

Man, the Anvil looks to be in great shape. This goes barely two minutes, as Neidhart batters Spicolli, knocks Scott Hall off the apron and goes for the win before Hall comes in for the DQ. Bit of a waste.

Diamond Dallas Page vs Chris Benoit

This is a US title match, and they give this a real big match feel. They stand off, facing each other from opposite corners, and this runs through the commercials. Sadly, we can see less than 7 minutes remain on the Network’s timer, so this won’t live up to the hype. What we go get is really good, DDP hits a huge tilt-a-whirl slam, Benoit hits some nasty kidney shots to DDP’s taped ribs to set up a back suplex and there’s some real intensity to the punch exchanges. Sadly, the Flock predictably hit the ring, ending the bout in it’s prime. Good stuff for what we get. 

Beyond Wrestling - To Greektown & Beyond

Sonny Kiss vs RJ City

This starts hot, with City sneak attacking before the bell. Kiss is able to come back, moving really nicely around the ring, but gets hit with a slingshot belly-to-back suplex. Fun spot where City slaps Kiss in the face, but takes too long posing afterwards and gets sent into a corner where Kiss repays the favour with a handspring slap. City has a kind of goofy charisma and Kiss is an exotico, so their personalities mesh really well in this match. City tries to steal a win with a ludicrously over-the-top tight pull, which gets caught by the ref, but he does end up picking up the win after rolling through a crossbody, again with a handful of tights. Fun opener.

Anthony Greene vs Brent Banks vs Josh Alexander vs Kobe Durst vs Seleziya Sparx

This was a decent spotfest, feels like everyone brought something to the match. Fun spot with Sparx early doors, as she shows off her leg strength by getting into a handstand and using a headscissors to ram opponents headfirst into her muscular glutes (and a move that Alexander powers out of, via highlighting to the crowd that he’s married). Sparx continues to impress with a big crossbody to the floor and a nice Widow’s Peak on Durst. This didn’t have much substance, but the big moves were fun: nice mid-ring leaping rana by Greene, Alexander avoiding a pump kick and hoisting up Greene for a big slam, Greene grabbing Banks by the feet in the corner and lifting him into a powerslam in one fluid motion, before Durst hits a piledriver on Greene for the win. Fun fast food of a bout.

Jock Samson vs Puf

I hated this. Really overlong, uninteresting comedy match. Samson is a portly guy in jeans and a too short t-shirt, whilst Puf is an obese chap who dances to the ring. They do some basic comedy wrestling which is executed well enough, before we get a dance off. I did appreciate Samson using it as a lure to attack Puf from behind, and him hitting a back elbow into a dab raised a smile. Puf’s offense is unbelievably bad, with his punches looking soft and choreographed. He felt like one of the worst wrestlers I’ve ever seen. Puf only gets 2 on a splash as I beg for this to end. Samson gets a low blow, before some bloke comes out and leads the crowd through a rendition of the Canadian national anthem, distracting Samson enough to allow Puf to roll him up for three. Shite.

Josh Briggs vs Trent Gibson

The only Gibson match I’ve seen before was a three-way tag match from Smash where he’d impressed, so I was looking forward to seeing what he could do in a singles match. Thought this was a really good match, they played up the size difference between Gibson and the larger Briggs really well. Gibson attacks to try and get an early advantage, but he gets caught on a suicide dive and chokeslammed onto the apron. Briggs easily controls as they fight on the floor, but back inside Gibson slips out of a reverse Razor’s Edge and clips the knee to give him an opening. Gibson hits a successful dive to the floor, sending Briggs flying, and I loved him rushing into the ring, imploring the ref to start counting Briggs out. Briggs just about beats it, so Gibson attacks him as he enters, slingshotting him into the ringpost on the floor, and goes for another countout attempt. This again only gets to a 9 count. Gibson rolls the dice for two and tries to hit Briggs with a cricket bat. The ref stops this, but the distraction allows Gibson to hit a low blow for two. I liked Gibson selling his frustration and goes to the top rope in desperation. However, he only meets a big boot and Briggs hits a chokeslam into the backbreaker to win. Really nicely worked, they told the story really well.

Alexia Nicole vs Kris Statlander

Bits of this were really good, but there were also bits of this that weren’t very good. Statlander has been getting a lot of praise recently, but I’ve not quite seen that performance from her yet. Here, I thought she was pretty solid, she did the lions share of the entertaining stuff. I liked her early cartwheels after escaping an armbar, which lured Nicole into missing a kick to give Kris an opening. Nicole misses a double-knees to the corner and I really liked how Statlander focused her offence on the legs, felt like an organic gameplan. She works the leg with a dragon screw and some kicks before locking in a nice bridging leglock and a reverse figure four. Nicole comes back with a really slow victory roll, then does a load of offence totally ignoring all the work done to her legs, running around with no ill effects and even standing up with Statlander  on her shoulders. Just makes the preceding minutes pointless. Nicole hits a terrible looking spear to really compound the horror, before they brawl to the floor for a double count out.

John Atlas & Space Monkey vs MJF & Stokely Hathaway

This was enjoyable stuff, felt like a classic old school tag with a heel manager on one side and a plucky undersized babyface on the other. The heels sneak attack before the match starts, hiding either side of the entrance, and we get a brawl on the floor. Space Monkey is quickly the face in peril, and Stokely hits some good looking offence, with a big kneedrop and a great DDT that Space Monkey sells like death. MJF works over Space Monkey’s tail for no reason other than to be a dick, yanking it to keep Monkey in their corner. We build to the hot tag, and Atlas seems decent enough. Good press slam into a powerslam. I liked him no selling Stokely’s spear and hitting a huge powerbomb. Monkey comes back in, but MJF hits him with a burning hammer. However, Stokely tags himself back in, giving Space Monkey to opportunity to reverse a fireman’s carry into a small package for three.

Channing Decker vs Chris Dickinson vs Kobe Durst

This started well, but turned into a bit of a mess by the end. Decker was Trent Gibson’s partner in the Fraternity, but here he’s working solo with a hardcore gimmick. This start 1 vs 1 with Decker and Gibson, and these parts are really good. Dickinson is really good at working people into his kind of match, whilst also letting them shine. He’s a really fun mat worker, using his size and strength to overwhelm Decker on the mat. Dickinson batters Decker with some strikes, but Decker gets a sudden Finlay roll and moonsault to gain control, and then just hurls himself with reckless abandon through the ropes with a cannonball. Absolutely insane dive. We get a ref bump as Decker sets up a door in the ring corner, and he hits a DVD on Dickinson through it, causing the table to just explode. Great visual. Here’s where things start getting messy. We get a new ref and suddenly Kobe Durst arrives, attacking both and the match becomes a triple threat. All structure goes out of the window and we just get a few big spots. Durst piledrives Decker off the apron through another door on the floor, which in a sensible match would put him out for good. Durst tries to open a step ladder on the floor, but is unable to do so, resulting in an embarrassing scene of officials trying to open the ladder for what feels like ages. Decker is somehow back on his feet, climbing the ladder to the balcony as the rest of the roster appear as if on cue to allow him to moonsault onto the pile and pin Durst on the floor. Dickinson basically became a non-factor by the end, which feel ridiculous.