ACTION Wrestling - Action for Kids 29/06/2018

AC Mack & Ike Cross vs the Lynch Mob

Good opening bout, the Lynch Mob are well served to fast paced matches like this, and the heel team of Mack and Cross look really good in opposition. The Lynch Mob hit huge dives from the off, before working some quick double teams. Mack takes over on Matt Lynch in a really neat way, as Mack forces him backward through the ropes and Irish whips him throat-first into them. Cross is clearly a terrific athlete, getting nice height on a corner splash and he takes a big bump off a backdrop to the floor. Matt Lynch eats a huge spear from Cross for two, with Joey pushing Mack on top to break the fall. The Lynch Mob pick up the win with a rolling senton/frog splash/moonsault combo, enjoyed this. Good start to the show.

James Ryan vs James Bandy

I’d been impressed with Bandy on the debut show, so it was nice to see what he could do here in singles action, and what he did seemed really good. Nice jumping knee, sharp elbows in the corner and a nice dropkick on the floor through the ropes. Ryan played to the crowd well, though his offence seemed a bit softer than Bandy’s. Bandy makes a comeback after a short Ryan offensive spell, hitting some nice kicks before nailing a running dropkick for the win.

Tragedy Ann vs Aja Perera

Probably the weakest match of the show, albeit still decent in places. There were little bits I liked, such as Ann hitting a mule kick after a compactor legdrop and Aja had a few nice moves, with a facebuster and a running knee both looking good. However, there were a few awkward bits that dragged the match down – Ann running Perera into all four corners looked weak, an odd spinning slam didn’t really work and there’s a strange moment when Ann runs at Perera and bends down into position for a piledriver for no reason. Perera hits a Franchiser into a flatliner for the win.

Cain Justice vs Anthony Henry

This, on the other hand, was really good. Loved the opening matwork, with both guys jockeying for position, felt super competitive. Henry escaping a single-leg crab by forcing himself backwards through Justice’s legs looked great, and I liked Justice trying to get control by yanking Henry off the apron to the floor, only for Henry to immediately hit a forearm instead. A big exploder through the chair follows, must really have sucked for Cain. Justice finally gets control by using the ringpost to his advantage, contorting Henry’s hand over the top and through the loop on the side of the post. Cain from this point works the arm nastily, maintaining good focus. There’s a really clunky roll up sequence mid-match that doesn’t really work, but after that they get back to the good stuff. Loved Justice catching a kick, with Henry rolling though from there to lock in a submission, the commentary suggesting that Henry might have deliberately given the leg to allow him to transition to the submission. However, Justice gives a low blow behind the refs back and locks in the Twist Ending to win. Really good stuff.

Team TAG (Kevin Blue & Chris Spectra) vs Michael Spencer & Chance Rizer

Dominant victory for Team TAG, with Spencer and Rizer getting just enough hope spots to keep it competitive (including Rizer briefly getting the visual pin on Blue with the ref distacted). Rizer gets a nice run of offence to start, before Spectra cuts him off as he goes for a dive. Team TAG then work over Rizer, including a nice belly to belly by Spectra. They don’t do anything fancy, just nice simple control, keeping Rizer in their part of the ring. Tag Team 101, essentially. After a melee, where Rizer scores the visual pin, Spectra hits a huge shoulderblock, with Rizer taking a nasty looking bump, and a double team assisted DDT gets the win.

Billy Buck vs Cabana Man Dan

This immediately follows the previous match, with Dan making the save as Team TAG and Buck continue a beatdown. Dan is a short little spitfire, seems to have real energy and physical charisma, and he looked very good here. Dug him avoiding being blindsided at the bell by side-stepping a charging Buck, and taking him down with a fun mixture of takeovers and pins. Buck stomps on the bare feet of Dan to get an advantage, and allows Team TAG to beat Dan down on the floor. Buck controls CMD nicely and even gets to show some ring smarts as well, avoiding Dan leaping out of the corner and slamming his head to the mat. When he does make his comeback, Dan is like a bouncing ball, leaping up into a chinbreaker, hopping over and nailing a mule kick to the jaw. Team TAG try to interfere, but CMD chops them both down with his flip flops. However, this leaves him exposed as he turns around into the Buckshot superkick for the loss. Really enjoyed this, CMD comes across as a really likable fired up face, whilst the heels come across as suitably nefarious and smart enough to take advantage of their openings.

Slim J vs Cam Carter

Really loved the opening to this, with both guys countering and rolling through moves, gave the air of competitive one-upsmanship. I’d never seen Slim J before, and I was really impressed. He’s really fluid in the ring, just feels totally natural in the ring. Carter continued the good impression he made on the debut show, ending a nice kick combo with a really high German suplex. I liked how the veteran Slim J didn’t give Carter a second to breath, at one point nipping to the top rope and hitting a big spinning kick so quickly. Slim J commits to a big missed moonsault and we get a nice strike exchange that actually feels like a fight. Slim J takes a big kick to the face, and stumbles into the corner, subtly hooking the top rope with his arm to stop himself falling down. Lovely bit of selling. Carter hits a destroyer and a really nice 2^nd rope 450 for two. Slim J hits a superplex that he chains into a guillotine that feels like it should be the finish, but Carter powers to his feet and hits a double underhook brainbuster for the win.

Tracy Williams vs Arik Royal

This is for Williams’s Powerbomb title. Loved the commentary putting over Royal having two victories over Williams already, and throughout the match they make the suggestion that Royal might have his number. They tell a really good story here, with Williams working a limb, in this case Royal’s arm, and taking advantage of his openings to try and damage to his chosen damage point. For his part, Royal goes for big shots, using his raw power to break Williams down. Williams’s offence to Royal’s arm looks convincing, with nasty kicks to the armpit, hitting big downward chops with the arm propped on his own shoulder, plus his opportunistic attacks are really well worked. He lures Royal into throwing a wild punch just to yank the arm over the ropes, he lets Royal take his time going to the top in order to catch him with a crossface mid-dive and, when he gets caught on the top rope a la Ric Flair, he grabs the arm and drops it over the top rope again. When Royal is on offence, he beasts Williams, hitting a huge overhead toss, crushing him in the corner with a shoulder charge before sprinting Williams to the other corner to crush him again. He also hits a lovely stump piledriver, making it look like a struggle to get Williams up. Royal gets a two after a big tackle, with the ref recovering from a bump to keep him looking strong, before Williams locks in a Fujiwara armbar to get the tap. Thought this was excellent.

Scenic City Invitational 2018 Night Two

Darius Lockhart vs Scorpio

Glad to see another showing from these two, despite going out in the first round. Scorp has some nice kicks on display, including getting great height on a spinkick. Lockhart hits a few nice elbows to the face, and a decent cradle hammerlock DDT, which gets him a two, and he got to look decent working even exchanges with Scorpio at the start. The two shows have definitely made me want to see more of him. Scorp hits a flipping kick and a moonsault leg drop to win.

Corey Hollis vs Nick Gage

Hollis continues his performance from night one by heading straight out of the ring. This may not have been his best plan, as Gage isn’t opposed to fighting outside the ring. It’s very much his playground. Hollis gets hurled into chairs and gets taken to the top of the bleachers, only for Gage to throw him back down again. Liked the continuity, as Hollis tries the same sneaky low blow that won him his match on night one, only for Gage to catch the kick and hit a chokebreaker. Hollis is undeterred though, and when the ref prevents Gage from using a hammer as a weapon, Hollis does get the kick to the groin and a small package to win. Kudos to Hollis for selling the win by sprinting to the back.

Jake Parnell vs Gary Jay

Both were guys who went though against potentially more interesting opposition the night before, so I was hoping to be impressed on night two. Thought Parnell was really good here, looking really fired up. He hit a nice dropkick into the corner, before catching the third of Jay’s suicide dive trilogy and hitting a big Northern Lights suplex on the floor. He also takes a backdrop straight onto rows of chairs, which must have been a horrible landing. Jay seemed fine, but Parnell gets the best of the offence, hitting a lovely half Nelson suplex and a stomp to the floor. Parnell comes off the top to the floor with another stomp to the neck, and looks for the countout victory. Jay does this cringeworthy comedy sell of realising he’s about to get counted out before getting back in the ring. Parnell tries another stomp, but eats a big forearm to give Jay the win.

AJ Grey vs Fred Yehi

This was good stuff, like how they played off some of the spots from their matches in night one. At one point, AJ tries the Yehi “stuff your opponents arm inside the ringpost” spot from the previous night, but Yehi elbows him in the head to escape and sends him crashing to the floor with a dropkick. Yehi controls a lot of this match, wearing Grey down, but Grey stays in the fight, including a lovely reversal when Yehi tries a top rope German, only for Grey to roll through and nail a springboard dropkick whilst Yehi is still in the tree of woe position. However, the end sees Grey miss a twisting moonsault, and Yehi stomps him down and locks in the Koji Clutch. Grey won’t tap, so Yehi stomps him twice more and reapplies the Clutch whilst punching Grey in the face until the ref stops it. Really loved the ending, showed Grey’s heart whilst still putting over Yehi as a wrestling machine.

PCO vs Joey Lynch

I enjoyed this a stupid amount, just non-stop from start to finish, which is really what a match like this needed. After the huge abuse PCO withstood on night one, Lynch does the right thing in taking the fight to him right away, and following him out with a suicide dive. This is really a match of big hits, and my notes contain a lot of moves followed by exclamation marks. Lynch hitting a superplex on PCO onto the apron is utterly insane, and it’s followed by Lynch hitting a moonsault to the floor that looks like he’s only just caught. PCO is playing a sort-of Undertaker-esque unstoppable monster role, and he’s soon back in control, hitting a tombstone and a moonsault for two. This is played up as Lynch desperate to win in his hometown, so I can kinda forgive him kicking out of what should be a death move. Lynch hits a top rope Canadian Destroyer and a moonsault, but PCO sits up. Lynch hits a second – PCO sits up. A third has the same result. A fourth….finally keeps him down. Lynch plays it safe, hitting three more moonsaults to finally put PCO away. Utterly, utterly daft, but hugely enjoyable.

Marko Stunt vs Shaggy vs Matt Lynch vs Ike Cross vs AC Mack vs Cyrus the Destroyer

This is a neat scramble match that’s just to kill time before the finals. Cyrus is aptly named here, as he just bulldozes through everyone. Cross eats a huge Samoan Drop, before Stunt is speared through Mack and Shaggy. He also wipes them out with a cannonball later in the match, which is particularly satisfying coming after some weak comedy between Stunt and Shaggy. Loved Cyrus grabbing Stunt by the ankles, swinging him around as a weapon. Eventually, Cyrus is taken out of the match by Cross spearing him to the floor, and Stunt nails the tilt-a-whirl codebreaker on Lynch…only for Mack to sneak in with a roll up for the win. This achieved what it needed to.

Cain Justice & Mance Warner vs The Carnies (Kerry Awful & Nick Iggy)

This was underwhelming. Justice is really misused here as Warner’s stooging partner. Not to say he isn’t good at it, as he’s a lot of fun here, but it’s the second night in a row that I’ve been left wanting more from him. He does get to show a bit of what he can do, locking Iggy in a cross armbreaker and twisting away at his fingers while doing so before Awful breaks it by dropping Warner on top with a death valley driver. Aside from that, Justice is getting hit in the face by his partner accidentally and generally being made to look like a goof. The Carnies are a team I enjoy, though they do have the single shittiest move in tag wrestling, where they contrive to make one opponent accidentally hit a Canadian Destroyer on his partner. The end comes quite abruptly, as the Carnies hit a double-team piledriver on Warner from the apron through a table, and the pin is quickly counted on the floor.

Joey Lynch vs Fred Yehi vs Gary Jay vs Corey Hollis

This is the four-way final to declare the 2018 winner. Hollis sticks to type and immediately leaves the ring as the bell goes. Liked Yehi dragging Hollis out from under the ring, where he was hiding, and holding him in place for a Lynch moonsault. Hollis plays up his opportunist role, sneaking in and trying to gets pins wherever he can. This turns into a real Lynch showcase, as he pins Yehi after hitting a moonsault whilst Yehi has Hollis in a Koji Clutch, and then pinning Jay after a Canadian Destroyer and a moonsault. This leaves him against Hollis, which is smart booking as Hollis is the one guy in the match guaranteed not to get cheers. Hollis gets another low blow, but this time only gets two, and as he argues with the ref Lynch rolls him up for a close two. A Canadian Destroyer and a moonsault finally give Lynch the win.

ACTION Wrestling Debut Show 27/4/2018

AC Mack vs Joey Lynch

Good opener. I liked Mack as a loud-mouth braggart, and his attempt to get in Lynch’s face sees him get met with a big elbow to the jaw. Loved Lynch holding a wristlock and clapping using Mack’s hand to get the crowd into it. The commentary makes mention of Lynch returning from a knee injury, which nicely pre-empts him jarring his leg on a floatover. Mack works it over, but the selling is inconsistent. At one point Lynch can’t even run the ropes without collapsing to the mat, then moments later he’s landing on his feet flipping out of a back suplex and sprinting across the ring. Wouldn’t stand out so much if he’d not oversold it in the first place. Lynch misses a moonsault but reverses a figure four attempt to a cradle for the victory.

Arik Royal vs Michael Spencer

Spencer isn’t the most intimidating looking character, and he’s pretty awkward throughout this. Right at the start, he hits an ugly looking wheelbarrow armdrag. Royal is far better here, taking control with a nice cheapshot where he puts his body between the blow and the referee. Royal hits a kind of kneeling pounce that looks good. This is basically a squash, but at least the right guy won, as Royal slams Spencer’s skull to the mat with a leaping dunk before nailing a spear to win. Liked Royal a lot here.

Ethan A Sharpe vs James Bandy vs Donnie Dollars vs Adrian Hawkins

The only guy I’ve seen here is Dollars, who’s pretty good. He’s easily the best wrestler in this match, looking really impressive, with a really nice slam-facebuster and a great big boot to the face. Hawkins slips on a springboard on his very first move and I don’t know if it affects him, but he’s a bit sloppy throughout. Sharpe has all the look of a comedy wrestler, and his strikes are indeed laughable. Bandy seemed fine, but it’s probably for the best this is short, with Hawkins slipping out of a Dollars pumphandle slam and rolls him up to win.

Billy Buck vs Cam Carter

Buck is accompanied by Team TAG, Kevin Blue and Chris Spectra. Carter is the leaner competitor here and makes the most of his speed advantage. Early on, he sends Buck out of the ring with a headscissors and hits a neat dropkick to the stomach as Buck tries to get in. There’s some lovely camera work as Buck takes control by hurling Carter shoulder first into the corner, with Carter almost coming straight into the viewer. Dug Buck’s control on the shoulder, with him wrapping Carter’s left arm around the corner post and really yanking on it. Buck continues to impress with come great height on a dropkick, and I loved how he just casually threw Carter to the floor to be picked off by his henchmen. Carter makes a nice comeback, taking out all three opponents with a plancha and hitting a neat springboard 450 splash back into the ring. However, there’s a ref bump and Buck takes advantage of a missed 450 to hit the Buckshot superkick to win. Really good stuff here.

Matt Sells vs Big Bite Martinez

Sells looks like a knock-off of 1992 DDP whilst Martinez is a guy wearing an interesting looking mask with a big tooth-filled mouth. This is short, with some sloppy looking offence before Team TAG come back and beat both men down.

Cain Justice vs Fred Yehi

This right here was terrific. I’d heard a lot about Justice from various people who’s opinions I trust, and I liked his performance in the CWF Mid Atlantic rumble I watched, but this is the match that made me a believer. Loved the focus both guys had on their matwork, with Yehi trying to lock on a Koji Clutch right on kicking out of a pinfall while Justice dropped his guard for a second. The kind of matwork where the wrestlers have to be alert or they’re done for. Yehi works over the arm of Justice viciously, jamming the arm over his shoulder. They fight outside the ring, and this is where Justice takes over, breaking Yehi’s fingers by snapping them through a small look on the outside of the ringpost. Real nasty looking shot. I like how instead of this being just a one off spot for a pop, it dictates how the rest of the match goes, which it really should. With every hold Justice applies, he makes sure to include the fingers in some way, making escape harder for Yehi. Every time Yehi tries to comeback, he goes for Justice’s shoulder, which he worked over earlier. It means the early matwork has consequences. Justice locks in a triangle, grabbing the fingers in the process, but Yehi is able to power up and slam him down to escape. The end is perfect, as Justice goes for a knee strike, only for Yehi to avoid and use the momentum to send Cain to the mat, swiftly locking in a Koji Clutch with elbow strikes to the head for the victory. Great, great match.

Gunner Miller vs Dominic Garrini

Interesting clash of styles here, with the power of Miller vs the technique of Garrini. In the initial stages, Garrini is really fun at trying to grab a limb from anywhere to down Miller, trying to force a submission. Miller finally gets some separation with a big overhead belly-to-belly suplex. There’s a nice spot where Miller tries some shoulder barges in the corner, only for Garrini to lock in a front choke. However, because they’re so close to the ropes, Miller is able to force the break and hit a knee strike as Garrini lets go. Garrini has nice open palm strikes, though he does kind of telegraph a missed back elbow. Both gets close nearfalls with the CTE pounce for Miller and a stump piledriver by Garrini getting two. Finally, the end sees Garrini lock on another front choke from a Miller spear, but Miller holds on a powers him up into a jackhammer for the win. Good main event.