Limitless Wrestling - The World Is Ours

Jeff Cobb vs Darby Allin

Really nice match up here, with Cobb as the all-powerful bull being frustrated by a fly that he just can’t seem to swat away. Allin has to use his speed here, hitting a suicide dive in the first few minutes, but due to Cobb’s size he can take control with just one big forearm. Allin manages to hit a tope con hilo on Cobb through a chair, but he takes too long getting into the ring, and Cobb basically sucks him through the ropes from the apron and just hurls him. Watching Cobb manhandling an insane bumper like Allin is so much fun. Cobb hits a stalling superplex and a vicious forearm to the face, and Allin looks done. Cobb gets cocky though, holding a suplex with one hand, and Allin knees him in the head to escape. I like how Allin almost seems to accept this is his last chance, hitting a Coffin Drop from the top and tying up Cobb’s legs on a roll-up for the upset win.

David Starr vs Martin Stone vs Fred Yehi

All three guys are faces here. Because of these guys' styles in the ring, we get some gnarly three way grappling spots to start, instead of the usual string of moves. Yehi uses his stomp based offence to good effect here, first stomping on Stone’s foot to hold him in place for a back elbow, then stomping on the fingers of David Starr which Stone had broken moments earlier. All guys get time to shine, loved Starr’s succession of big dives on alternate sides, wearing down both men, and I liked the nice touch of Stone holding down Starr’s arm on a pin so, when he kicked out, he rolled straight into a Stone crossface. Also have to appreciate Starr making an effort to sell his fingers throughout. The end sees Stone break Yehi’s Koji Clutch on Starr, and lock Yehi into a crossface for the tap.

Maine State Posse (Danger Kid, Alexander Lee & Aiden Aggro) vs Allie Kat, Ashley Vox & Kris Statlander

Intergender six-man here, with each of the ladies having a silly gimmick (Vox comes from the sea, Statlander is an alien and Kat is….well, guess). Didn’t take to this, too much goofy shit especially from Allie Kat whose gimmick seems to take over a lot of the early part of the match. There’s too much clunky comedy mixed with out-of-place moments of violence. Aggro hits some big forearms and Lee hits a nasty looking complete shot, then moments later Statlander will do some “hilarious” alien mind trick comedy. It doesn’t work and disrupts the flow of the match. There’s some poor looking offence too, unfortunately, with a really clunky dive train and Vox hitting a terrible looking DDT on Lee. The end sees all six in the ring in and it’s a mess of bad timing and bad execution. Kat finally gets the win following a piledriver. Yeah, didn’t like this.

Dick Justice & Troy Nelson vs DL Hurst & Brett Domino

Match of two halves here. Dug the first half, where the heels Hurst and Domino control. They’ve got good swagger and nice heel control, keeping Nelson contained in their corner. Domino hits a lovely dropkick right to Nelson’s face. Then Hurst misses a moonsault and it’s like the match resets, with the heels having to stooge for a load of comedy offence. The faces basically run wild from the moment Justice gets in and win with a Heart punch/neckbreaker combo.

Matt Cross vs MJF

After the last two matches, this was like a cool glass of water in the desert. Just well executed stuff, with MJF as a truly unlikable heel. After a run of control by Cross, MJF pulls the ref in the way of some Cross offence in the corner, forearms Cross in the face and throws him into the ringpost. From there, we get smug heel control, with petty little touches like stomping on Cross’s ankle. MJF works the arm, with a slingshot Divorce Court, and a really painful looking Quackendriver focused on the limb. Cross does ruin the effect by hitting a cartwheel elbow, but he does at least pay lip service to it for the rest of the match, limb dangling limply by his side as he tries to fire back with chops. MJF stopping a barrage of strikes by spitting directly in Cross’s face, a perfect way for such a dick to take over. Cross gets a cutter from nowhere, but misses a shooting star, landing on the arm which MJF instantly locks into a crowbar for the tap. Really good stuff.

Tessa Blanchard vs Deonna Purrazzo

Thought Blanchard was excellent here, just comes across as having a nasty mean streak and her offence looks great. Loved her barrage of offence when she had Purrazzo leant against the ropes, running at her with elbows to the back and dropkicks to the neck. Not overtly heelish, just aggressive and determined. Purrazzo gets a short shine period, luring Blanchard into going up top and suddenly catching her with an armbar. Purrazzo wisely uses Blanchard’s aggression against her, moving out of the way to avoid charges and using this to take her openings. However, Blanchard hits a killshot, a top rope Codebreaker, which is enough for the win. Really neat little sprint.

Eddie Kingston vs Chris Dickinson

Absolutely loved this, two of my favourite wrestlers beating the tar out of each other. They open in a really fun way, jockeying for position on the mat before Dickinson suddenly hits a huge overhead belly-to-belly from nowhere. Eddie soon retorts by pump kicking Dickinson off the apron and hitting a huge suicide dive. Kingston is a really smart offensive wrestler, here putting Dickinson in a neck crank, with the result that it leaves a wide open spot for him to hammer repeated elbows into the side of Dickinson’s face. The viciousness of Kingston’s control manages to make a brute like Dickinson fighting from beneath seem viable. They exchange strikes, and for once it doesn’t feel awkwardly slotted into the match – Kingston is a man who won’t stop fighting if he still can, whilst Dickinson is a man who’s too meatheaded to know he’s in pain. Dickinson hits a huge German suplex, an enzuigiri and a Death Valley Driver in quick succession, and you can sense Kingston doesn’t have much left. Another strike exchange sees neither body willing to give in, until Dickinson throws a thudding kick into Kingston’s head and hits the Pazuzu Bomb to finally put him away. I loved this.

The Thick Boys (Jay Freddie & John Silver) & Ethan Page vs Austin Theory, Christian Casanova & Mr Grim

Reasonable six way action here, with the Thick Boys having some neat offence. Loved Freddie’s pop up powerslam and their flapjack into a big uppercut. Theory also puts in a good performance here, with a brainbuster and a standing moonsault looking great. He hits a lot of moves from forward rolls, which you know will be his downfall later in the match, so it’s no surprise when a heat section on Page is ended up Theory rolling straight into a cutter. Silver is a blog favourite and he looks predictably good here, snapmaring Casanova into a cannonball on Theory in a great spot. Casanova hits a nutso twirling bulldog on Silver, to keep up the run of fun offence. Even the guy I knew least about, Mr Grim, gets a fun moment, hitting a full weight DVD on Silver. However, Grim accidentally hits a pounce on Casanova, and the Thick Boys hit a big slam to get the win. Just enjoyable stuff.

Anthony Henry & James Drake vs Dorian Graves & VSK

This starts off feeling like a squash, with the team of Henry and Drake decimating their massage-gimmicked opponents. Henry stomps the shit out of Graves, but Grave’s hits an unlikely tornado DDT on Henry, really forcing him down to the mat. There’s a little bad comedy as VSK gives Drake a shoulder massage to stop an offensive run, but aside from that he looks really good, and I thought them using massage oil to create a slip-n-slide for a cannonball was a neat way to incorporate the gimmick. Drake misses a standing moonsault, and the faces hit Shatter Machine for the unexpected victory.

Anthony Greene vs Ace Romero vs JT Dunn vs Josh Briggs

At some point, the bottom rope has fallen off, so this match kicks off with only the top two sets of ropes. This doesn’t seem to hold them back though, and this ends up being a big, daftly entertaining four-way. Briggs sets the tone early, hitting a big overhead suplex on Dunn before hitting an insane dive over the turnbuckle. Romero hitting a devastating senton to Greene also is pretty neat, before we get a big crowd brawling section that ends with a super-high Dunn crossbody from the top of the lockers. We get utter chaos in the ring, with Briggs eating a superkick to the face from Dunn whilst he tries hitting a moonsault. Hurst and Domino, who had been sent to the back by the ref earlier when they came out with Greene, come out and punch the ref, assumingly to allow them to interfere freely, but they get squashed when the enormous Romero hits a dive to take them out. However, Greene still gets the win when he lets Dunn hit a big elbow to Briggs before rolling JT up for the win. These matches rely on a minimum of resting and some big well-executed spots, and this was really good stuff. Greene maybe had the least moments to shine, but then he’s also the shitbag heel who pulls out a cheap victory, so that kinda makes sense. Josh Briggs, who had seemed merely fine first time I saw him, looked great here, in many respects the rich man’s Baron Corbin, hitting all sorts of big throws and that incredible dive. Excellent main event.

PCW/CZW/WXW/Beyond - Wrestling World Championships Night 1

So, this is the first night of a 3-show tournament that PCW booked to replace their annual Supershows of Honor after differences with RoH. This involves WXW, CZW and Beyond wrestling, and has openweight and cruiserweight brackets. The line up of wrestlers is really good too, so it promises to be a good show

Da Mack vs Zachary Wentz

This is a WXW vs CZW match. Pretty decent opener, without setting the bar too high for the following matches. I wasn’t a big fan of Da Mack’s goofy dancing kicks, but he had some other strikes that looked a lot better. The opening matwork was a bit perfunctory, but it allowed Wentz to speed things up a bit to get a bit of personality over. Loved Wentz’s through-the-ropes codebreaker and handspring leaping knee, but the end was a bit weak, with Wentz going to the top to hit a diving nothing right into an RKO to give Da Mack the win.

Tracy Williams vs Martin Kirby

Beyond vs PCW. First time I’ve seen Williams, who I know is pretty hotly tipped. They work a really nice sequence of counters on the mat, which isn’t something you always see from Kirby, though he is capable of doing so. Williams is pretty slick on the mat though, and is always one step ahead. When they get off the mat, Kirby’s running shoulderblock in the corner looks typically great. I liked the way they built up to the strikes too, culminating in a big Williams clothesline that puts Kirby on his head. The end was pretty good, as Williams only gets 2 off an Emerald Frosion, so chains into a crossface right away to focus on the neck. Despite the best efforts of Kirby’s partner Joey Hayes to interfere, Williams is able to get the tap from a second crossface to win. Good stuff.

Axel Dieter Jr vs Bubblegum

WXW vs PCW. Was really impressed by Dieter Jr here. Loved his controlled armwork early on, making Bubblegum work to escape. Dieter catching a Bubblegum dive and hitting a European uppercut instead was pretty choice, and I loved how he had Gum in control in the corner, casually sauntering up with his arms behind his back. Just tremendous character stuff. Sliding diving elbow looked great, and Bubblegum also looks good on the comeback, with a top rope stomp looking good. I liked how the ending saw both guys upping the tempo, but both of them made their offensive openings by reversing the other’s move, not just randomly recovering from the last move hit on them. Bubblegum wins with a 619

Dave Crist vs Jurn Simmons

CZW vs WXW. Simmons takes a ridiculously long time to get to the ring – we’re talking Undertaker levels here – so Crist pump kicking him out of the ring as soon as the bell goes feels fair enough. Crist makes a rookie mistake by trying to chop Simmons against the ringpost, but only hurts himself when Jurn ducks. From there, it’s all one way traffic, and Simmons looks great throughout. Great looking power offence, with a power slam looking terrific and I loved him whipping Crist to the turnbuckle with real force. Crist seems to be a better seller than on offence, as a lot of his stuff looks sloppy here, but him taking a 360 bump from a Simmons shoulderblock is impressive. Simmons hits a big piledriver and wins a borderline squash.

Joey Janela vs Chris Dickinson

CZW vs Beyond. This is worked around Dickinson having a power advantage over Janela, and Janela having to work on a hit and hope basis. This is established early when Janela hits a cannonball from the apron, but Dickinson rolls through with it and hoists him up to powerbomb Joey on the apron. Janela manages to create some distance and dives on Dickinson from a balcony, as this is the only way he’s able to hurt him. When Dickinson does have Janela in his grasp, he does blitz him, with his kicks looking immense – his legs are nearly the size of Janela. Joey has to keep taking risks to try and stay in the match, but when they don’t pay off, he’s really in the shit. He sits Dickinson in a chair and goes for a top rope flip, but Dickinson moves and sends Joey ploughing through the chair. Janela is really winning the fans over here pretty much by killing himself. Joey does manage to hit a tilt-a-whirl tombstone, but gets caught by Dickinson and takes a face-planting version of a burning hammer on the apron. Janela kicks out, which makes him look amazing, but he’s basically out and a Dickinson lariat gives him the win. Really good bout here, with Dickinson looking unstoppable and Janela gutsy and fearless in defeat. Both guys left the bout looking great.

Dave Mastiff vs Keith Lee

PCW vs Beyond. These are two big boys here, but both guys who are able to move about. They work this really smartly, building up to the big spots. They exchange really thunderous looking blows early on, moving to running the ropes before Lee snaps off an impressive looking running rana. He makes the mistake of shit-talking though, and Mastiff whiplashes him into the ropes and hits the bathtub senton. What’s great is, both guys are agile enough to bump and make the other guy look immense, with Dave taking a huge powerbomb from the corner. Lee misses a moonsault and Mastiff hits a German suplex into the buckles and the Bastard Bomb for three. Enjoyed this.

T-Bone vs David Starr

PCW vs WXW. Starr plays the early stages as a smart-ass, outwrestling T-Bone and trying to make him look stupid. T-Bone responds by just beating him up. They brawl outside, and there’s a fun spot with Starr getting fans to hold T-Bone in place while he takes a run up, but by the time he reaches him, T-Bone is free and superkicks him. Starr hits this really cool looking DDT to the apron, with T-Bone draped over the ropes from the inside. Starr tries going to the top, but gets caught with a draping DDT and a tombstone for 3. This was fine.

The Hooligans & Danny Hope vs Sha Samuels, Lionheart & Iestyn Rees

Odd deal this. The vast majority of this is a big brawl on the outside of the ring that’s pretty entertaining, highlighted by a big suicide dive by Roy Knight. They take nearly 5 minutes to reach the ring, which is when Rees and Hope make it there. They have a brief sequence, ending with Hope trying his own version of the Alpha Lock, getting hit by a Rees low blow and Rees getting his own Alpha Lock for the anti-climactic win. Very strange.

AR Fox vs Dezmond Xavier

Beyond vs CZW. This is the final match of the night, and as such you get the sense that they’re going out to steal the show, especially as they aren’t exactly the biggest names of the evening. This is a full on spotfest, and those live and die on how good the spots are. Well, the spots here are really fucking nuts. Fox hits a huge inverted somersault to the floor that just looks nuts, and Xavier flies out with an insane handspring somersault. These guys both look like they’re actually trying to hurt each other, with a minimum of superfluous flipping, whilst still hitting some bonkers stuff. I could really have done without the piss-poor strike exchange in the middle, but that aside, this was really fun. Xavier escaping an RKO attempt by just slipping out looked great – it looked like he was going down, but his head slips out at the last moment. Fox gets the win with a brainbuster, which oddly means CZW have lost all four of their matches on the show, which is odd. This was a worthy main event though.

NYWC Going The Distance 2015

The NYWC is the New York Wrestling Connection, a US indy that gave the world the likes of Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins and Trent Baretta, and they've just launched an online streaming service. Seeing as how it worked out as about £2 per month, I decided to sign up and check out what was on offer, and settled upon this show.

Dan Barry vs Jesse Neal

This was a perfectly ok match. Hadn’t seen anything of Neal since his TNA days, and he had some good moments here, nice little heel touches like scraping his boot on Barry’s face and little stomps and kicks. Barry is someone I’ve seen people talk highly about, but he didn’t really shine here. I did like the superplex he hit, especially as both guys really fought over it, but the sloppy flatliner/DDT he hit looked really poor. Barry misses a shooting star press and Neal spears him for the win.

Tony Mamaluke vs Tyler Murphy

Getting older has allowed Mamaluke to fill out some more, he’s not as rake thin as he used to be, and it kind of suits him to be working as a grizzled veteran. Really liked his opening wristlock stuff, and the way Mamaluke cut off Murphy’s first shot at building momentum with a nasty clothesline. Mamaluke also takes a few nutty bumps to help put over Murphy. It was harder to get a read on Murphy, but he looked fine here, really good looking suicide dive. Murphy gets a single leg crab, and Mamaluke does this great sell job, frantically grabbing the ropes then clawing at the ref in an attempt to alleviate the pain. He escapes, but the leg injury causes him to lose his balance on the top rope, and Murphy locks in another crab. Mamaluke sells the shit out of it, and just about hangs on for the time limit draw. Dug this.

The Beaver Boys (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) vs The Premiere Gods (Tony Nese & Papadon)

I really enjoyed Papadon last time I watched him, and he was still really fun here. He’s great at playing a loudmouth braggart, yelling at the ref when things go wrong and stooging magnificently when the faces take him down, which is the case here. The Premiere Gods take over on Reynolds after ambushing Silver when all four guys are in the ring, leaving Reynolds isolated. I like the fact that Silver is so beaten down he can’t even get to the apron and, when it looks like he might make it, Papadon hurls Reynolds from the ring, sending him crashing into Silver and the railings, and preventing the tag from being made. Silver looked good when the hot tag was made, with a great looking sitout powerbomb on Nese. All four guys end up in the ring, and things break down a bit, leading to a nice finishing run when Papadon hits a Canadian Destroyer on Reynolds, followed by Nese hitting a Jig-N-Tonic for the win.

Angelo Andrews vs Drew Gulak

This was face vs face, with Gulak spending the majority of the bout in control. According to Cagematch, Andrews is very much a rookie at this point, and Gulak controls him quite easily on the mat. Gulak is always portrayed as dominant, but it never feels like he’s taking advantage of Andrews in the ring, just that he’s better. Andrews gets a few nice spots, loved him catching Gulak’s head as he goes for a second headbutt, and hitting a neckbreaker, but some of his offence looked light. There was a lot of air shown on his atomic drop and knee to the face. Loved Gulak’s wristwork, especially when he contorts Andrews’ wrist in such a way that it’s held down under Gulak’s bodyweight, leaving his hands free to simultaneously wrench at his head. In the end, Gulak locks in a Cattle Mutilation, and quickly transitions to a wristlock for the tap.

Joe Gacy vs JT Kasin

This is for Gacy’s Fusion championship. These are two big lads, though there’s something odd about the way Kasin looks. He doesn’t have the movements of a wrestler, he just looks like the local hard lad who’s been put into the ring for a scrap. Gacy works over the arm of Kasin, amplifying this after Kasin rams his shoulder into the post. Gacy actually looks pretty decent throughout, with his armwork looking great, before he gets the tapout with the Rings of Saturn

Stockade vs David Starr

Stockade is the NYWC champion and this is for his belt. Stockade is a big, big lad, so it’s an odd game plan for Starr to try and take him down with shoulder blocks. From then on though, this is a fun match, and it’s even a bit All Star-ish in places, with simple logical work the order of the day. For example, after Starr chops the ring post, both guys act like they should: Stockade grabs the hand and rams it into the railings, whilst Starr quickly tries to put as much distance as possible between him and the monster. I liked the little touches they put into the match, like Starr yelling with exertion when he breaks free from a chinlock. Stockade misses a big top rope senton, but though Starr fires back, Stockade ends his challenge with a big clothesline for the win. Good match

Matt Tremont, Blake Morris & Rex Lawless vs DJ Hyde, Brandon Watts & Randy Summers

Summers and Watts make up the team of Milk Chocolate, so named because of their mixed ethnicity. This is a street fight, and really is a match of two halves. The first half, where all 6 guys brawl all around the building, inside and out, is hard to follow, with the lighting limited. The second half sees them return to the ring, where things get good. The heels isolate Morris alone in the ring, and methodically beat him up, knocking Tremont and Lawless down when they try to save him. It’s well worked, to the point that Morris grabbing a kendo stick and hitting Watts before getting beaten down is an effective hope spot. The heels are really cocky, and are able to casually set up a table in the corner, which they coat in thumbtacks. At this point, they’ve been threatening the tacks all match, so the crowd has been looking forward to seeing them come into play for a while. They set up Morris for a top rope superplex, but Tremont and Lawless have recovered by now, and their attack leaves Watts perched on the top rope, prone for Morris to powerbomb him onto the non-breaking tack-covered table. Sick spot, and Watts sells the fuck out of it. Morris decides to give him another one, again failing to break the table, which earns the three. The big spot really paid off, and the second half of this was enough to pay off the first half.