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.

NYWC Sideshow 2018

This show is the last stop before Psycho Circus, the annual show headlined by the eponymous titular match, equal parts Wargames and Cage of Death. The matches here build up nicely to the show, a lot to enjoy in this one.

Bull James vs Johnny Radke

This is part of a “Pick Your Poison” deal, with Alex Reynolds and James picking opponents for each other before their title match at Psycho Circus. At first, I thought James was selling disinterest, working over the leg of Radke whilst looking uncommitted, but then I realised he was showing his reluctance to hurt Radke. There’s no commentary, so James has to get this story over purely with his facial expressions, and he achieves this, including some fun bits where Radke tries to escape from the mat, only for James to casually down him again. By the end, James realises he’s got to finish it, and swats away an attempted top rope crossbody by Radke, and finishes with a seated senton. Nice bit of storytelling.

Alex Reynolds vs John Silver

As a counterpoint, James has chosen Reynolds’ long time tag partner to face him, and Silver looks fired up. I saw at the start that this match was 17 minutes long, and I had a bit of trepidation. I like both guys, but Reynolds is particular has had a few off matches in my NYWC watching, and I wasn’t sure they could fill the time entertainingly. So, it was a real relief that this was really fun. Reynolds has an entourage of Rick Cataldo, King Mega and Blake Morris, and they wisely work a bit early on where the three get evicted from ringside following some interference, which keeps the rest of the bout from being filled with cheap interference. I liked how both men seemed to know what the other was about to do, part of them knowing each other so well. Silver hits some nice throws during the match, using his diminutive stature to get underneath Reynolds and sending him flying. Both have some nice offensive moments, like Silver blocking a sunset flip by holding the ropes, using them to drag Reynolds into position then hitting a big double stomp. Meanwhile, Reynolds nicely chains a side Russian legsweep into a crossface. Silver has real nice execution on his moves, some nice snap to his uppercuts. The end sees Cataldo coming back out to distract the ref, and I loved the nearfall as Silver takes out the rest of the returning entourage, only to get rolled up for two. Reynolds hits a Stundog Millionaire and locks in another crossface for the tap. Really good stuff.

Beer Belly Bandits (JT Kasin, General Romero & Bo Pritchard) vs Anthony LaCerra, Jesse Vane & Joey Conway

Neat six man tag, thought this was a heap of fun. I’m really high on LaCerra and Vane, think both guys have great athleticism and move really well, coupled with really nice looking offence. Loved the height Vane gets on a pop up dropkick. The heat gets worked on Kasin, with some nice Born & Bred double teams. Loved LaCerra holding a leglock on Kasin to allow Vane to hit a springboard splash, just solid tag team wrestling. First time I’ve seen Conway, and whilst he was notably a step below his partners, he looked fine. LaCerra and Vane hit nice simultaneous kicks on Kasin, and LaCerra looks good chaining moves on Kasin, not giving him time to recover. Pritchard gets the hot tag, moves really well for a big man, but he gets distracted by LaCerra wielding a beer, and a dual superkick to the head finishes him off.

Benson Brothers vs The Rep vs Punk Relics vs Matt Striker & Tinder Tom

Bit of a mess this one. This match would have been improved tenfold if the Striker/Tom team wasn’t a part. Really didn’t like Tom from the start. He looks like a scrawnier Colin Delaney, one of his first acts was to dry hump the mat, then he ends up in some “hilarious” accidental 69 positions with Striker. Even aside from that, the work from the other teams looked a bit sloppy in places, though all three teams also did bits I liked. I just feel like any combination of the three good teams in a 2-on-2 match for the same amount of time would have been better. The Bensons win with CJ flipping Brad into a moonsault on Striker for the win.

Matt Tremont & G-Raver vs Aiden Baal & Mouse

This is a lot of fun. Because Baal is the only credible member of his team, Mouse takes a fun beating at different points in the match. Loved the huge Samoan drop Tremont hits on him, and because Mouse has an appropriate rattiness about him, it’s really entertaining watching him take a beating.. Baal doesn’t do anything fancy on offence, but what he does looks really good. Really solid looking elbow drops. The heat gets worked on G-Raver, with Mouse’s cameo not looking too bad, before G-Raver hits a diving DDT on Baal to make the hot tag. Tremont looks great coming in, battering Mouse before blasting the heels with a great double clothesline. He hits a Death Valley Driver on Mouse ONTO Baal, and G-Raver hits a swanton for three. Really liked this.

Willow Nightingale vs Vanity

This works for the most part. There are some awkward exchanges, a few moments where they almost seem to pause as if to remember what to do next, but there’s also a lot here to like. Willow is really good in the early stages at selling her frustration when Vanity is getting the better of her. Willow messes up Vanity’s hair after an exchange, which felt like a good way of taking control of someone with that moniker. Vanity has some good looking offence, and I like how she controlled her focus on one area, clubbing at the back of Willow. She maintains this control with a decent looking camel clutch. Willow hits a nice spinebuster, not much elevation on it, but it looks like she’s trying to drive Vanity into the mat. The match winning DVD for Nightingale feels like it comes out of nowhere, but on the whole I enjoyed this.

Stockade, Devon Moore & Terra Calaway vs Bam Sullivan, Jeff Cannonball & Victoria von Black

This is a Doorway to Hell match, which means there are a load of doors in the ring with sharp objects attached to throw your opponents into. The winning team gets the advantage in the forthcoming Psycho Circus match, though I didn’t know this until it was announced after the match. Which is good, because that would have given away who was going to win. With this acting as almost a preview to that match, they don’t give everything away, but the spots we do get are still pretty nasty, no half arsing it here. Moore gets brutally slammed through a door with jagged metal sticking out by Cannonball, but is able to use his speed advantage to evade the big man and in return dropkick Cannonball into a door with sliced up beer cans poking through. There’s no real story, with people fighting on the floor while a member of each team does battle in the ring, but it’s a fun spectacle. Stockade looks great, love how he uses his weight to add to his moves. His bulldog looks like he’s really dragging opponents to the floor, and his Shining Wizard looks deadlier when a man that size is flying at you. More fun spots follow, Sullivan getting backdropped into a door covered in carpet strips and Cannonball crushing Stockade with a full weight cannonball. The women aren’t highlighted much until the finish, where Calaway goes to slam von Black onto light tubes, only for Cannonball to punch her, causing her to fall backwards onto the lights, von Black landing on top for the win. Man, I really can’t wait for the Psycho Circus match.

NYWC April Reign 2017

Devon Moore vs Blake Morris

Just a swift little opener, goes barely 5 minutes. Wasn’t a great Morris performance, he seemed a bit less willing to lay it in than usual. I did like him stopping a Moore suicide dive with a swift elbow to the face. The end looks pretty good too, as Moore dives from the top into a Morris superkick for the win.

Willow Nightingale vs Sumie Sukai

I’ll be honest, I was slightly apprehensive about this match when I realised it was 17 minutes long. After all, I’d not been massively impressed by Nightingale in her match with J-Redd on the last show and, whilst I used to think Sukai was really good, it had been about 11 years since I’d last seen her in action and I wasn’t sure if she’d still be any good. As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. Sukai puts in a terrific performance, attacking Nightingale before the bell and heeling it up from that moment on. Sukai doesn’t give Willow a chance to rest with her heeling, making the most of every referee count and only breaking at 4, then immediately staying on the attack. Sukai is pretty nasty, fish-hooking Willow on a Camel Clutch, then grinding her wrist tape into the eyes. Loved her telling the referee to check for a submission, then using the distraction to bite Willow’s fingers. There is a notable size difference, with Sukai being tiny and Nightingale being well-built, so it’s impressive that Sukai makes Willow feel like an underdog. When Nightingale goes on offence, I like that she utilises her size advantage, putting on a Boston crab that looks like it’s breaking Sukai in half. Her offence is a bit weak in places, but her spinebuster looks great and her cannonball in the corner feels like it’d crush Sukai. The end is a bit weak, as we get a time limit draw, but it comes at a time where neither is really in control. It leaves it feeling pretty unresolved.

Milk Chocolate (Brandon Watts/Randy Summers) vs Private Party (Isiah Kassidy/Marq Quen)

Really like the Private Party gimmick, two VIP party boys, who take a pre-match shot and have a large bodyguard. Quen also has enjoyably ludicrous hair, and they’re very convincing in the role, posing cockily over the ropes. The bodyguard provides a distraction to give Private Party control, with Summers the face-in-peril. This is worked solidly to formula, with Milk Chocolate getting a few near tags before Watts tags in. Loved his STO on the apron to Kassidy. Great spot as Summers tries to send Kassidy over the top rope, only for Quen to block him on the apron and backdrop his partner back into the ring for a tornado DDT. Milk Chocolate win with a top rope stomp onto a draping DDT, which looks like it should finish a match.

BLK Jeez vs Rex Lawless

Perfectly decent little midcard match. Liked Jeez’s tactic of working over Lawless’s leg, trying to neutralise the size advantage. Lawless has some soft looking offence for such a big guy, though I did like his slingshot senton and his Finlay roll, so maybe he’s just good at forward flips. Jeez hits a killer looking top rope stomp that should end it, but Lawless hits a Baldo Bomb from nowhere to win.

Born & Bred (Anthony LaCerra & Jessie Vane) vs the Benson Brothers

Enjoyed what I’d seen from both teams previously, so was looking forward to this one. Born & Bred feel like a really good team, really like the double-team offence from both that felt like it flowed naturally. LaCerra hits some great rolling suplexes, they flowed nicely and looked to have real snap to them. They work heat on Brad Benson, and I really liked CJ’s work on the apron, working the crowd and motivating Brad by reminding him this was for the tag titles. CJ is a lot of fun as a hot tag, an energetic brawler. I’ve compared him to a surfer Jim Duggan previously, and I think it holds true. Loved his double chokeslam on Born and Bred. Crappy ending sees Private Party hit splashes on both teams to cause a double DQ, but the meat of this was good.

Bull James vs Scott Norton

Very short bout, quite curiously worked. Not sure if James has turned heel since winning the title, or if this was a one-time thing, but he cheapshotted Norton during a pre-match arm wrestle, then hit a top rope seated splash, before picking up Norton on the two count. Norton is obviously past his prime, but due to his size and demeanour, he still carries himself as a threat, and his offence looks nice and stiff. James also sells the damage of each blow to keep Norton looking good. That said, it’s probably for the best that this is kept short, as James hits a low blow and another top rope splash to win.

H2O Wrestling - It Was All A Dream 10/06/2016

Jeff Cannonball vs Tony Deppen

Cannonball is a big fat bald guy who looks a lot like King Kong Bundy. Deppen is considerably smaller, so uses his speed advantage to control at first, including a nice suicide dive and a nifty senton from the apron. Cannonball, for his part, had really fun fat guy offence, like a great diving legdrop with Deppen in the ropes. He also sold appropriately, brickwall no-selling an attempted crossbody and doing great wobble-legged selling to tease going over for Deppen’s strikes. The end sees a ref bump and Cannonball nailing Deppen with a roll of coins to win. Fun opener.

Jigsaw vs Sonny Kiss vs Archadia vs Blackwater

Four way bout, with Jigsaw defending his HOPE King of Flight title. Kinda awesome to see a belt from my local promotion on a random US indy. Kiss has an exotico gimmick, and is really good in the role. His mannerisms are spot on and his offense plays into the character. He seems incredibly flexible, as proven by Jigsaw stretching him with a standing submission. Archadia is also pretty good, nothing spectacular, but nicely solid. Really liked his succession of legdrops from a sat down position. The weak link does appear to be Blackwater, who has a hokey “deranged oddball” gimmick and does nothing of any note in the bout. Jigsaw plays the role of defending champ well, going for quick roll ups and pins in the knowledge that his champions advantage goes out of the window in a four way, and he hits a great flip dive. After it breaks down to all four guys in the ring, Jigsaw pins Blackwater in a top rope stomp.

Amber O’Neal Gallows vs Penelope Ford

Lots of shenanigans within this one. Amy Lee is the guest referee and Ford is accompanied by Sozio (the former Niles Young), who insults Lee before the bout, which seems kind of dumb. Ford is pretty cocky to begin with, making it fun to see the more experienced Gallows ground her and work her over on the mat. Sozio cheats from the outside, and I dug how much Gallows sold being choked in the corner – really put over the disadvantage she was now in. Ford’s offence was pretty weak in comparison, so you can’t really begrudge Gallows no selling a chop to hit one of her own that is far more effective. The end was quite nifty, as Sozio passed Ford some tape to choke Gallows with, which she concealed in a sleeper hold. Lee counted Gallows’ arm down twice, before realising the tape was there, forcing Ford to break the hold. The resulting argument let Gallows recover and nails a facebuster to win. Nice little twist on the usual bit of cheating, but the parts of the match with Ford in charge were average.

Matt Tremont vs Kevin Sullivan

Really great performance by Tremont here. Sullivan is 66yrs old and not as mobile as he used to be – at one point nearly tripping up. What Tremont does here is keep things simple, selling for Sullivan’s punches, including falling for the old master’s cheapshots and doesn’t try and make Sullivan fit into a match type that he’s not going to be able to keep up with. They do a bit of walking brawling, including trips into the kitchen and the toilets, and they manage to build a fun match based around mainly punching. They both pull out their respective weapons – fork vs spike – before Jeff Cannonball comes out to draw the DQ win for Tremont. Stockade makes the save to build up a tag bout for the next show. This kinda made me curious about a Tremont/Jerry Lawler match now.

Jimmy Lloyd & Yuta vs Frankie Pickard & Curt Robinson vs Sozio & Preacher vs Storm of Entrails

Just soak in that team name for a second – Storm of Entrails. How glorious is that? Anyway, this is a 4 team four way, featuring 7 guys I’ve never seen before and one (Sozio) I’ve not seen in over 10 years, so this was really a case of having to pick out bits that I enjoyed from various guys. On that score, I really dug Robinson working basic WoS spots early on, and Pickard impressed as, despite being a short stocky guy, he nicely landed on his feet on a back body drop and let rip with a stiff elbow to the face. All these guys seem to work well together, but the elephant in the room is Storm of Entrails, two muscly, unhinged looking dudes. They’re kept out of the ring until the end, and when they come in, they’re immediately gamechangers. Yuta and Lloyd get taken out with powerbombs, as do Pickard and Robinson. An Alabama Slam and a top rope elbow gets the win for the Entrails.

Shane Douglas vs Eddie Kingston

This is another case of a younger guy trying to make a semi-retired veteran look good. In this case, Kingston fares less well than Tremont, and I think it’s because Douglas is more able and mobile than Sullivan – it means they try more stuff which doesn’t always come off. There are good moments here, Kingston stooges around nicely and buys Douglas time to catch breath on occasion, by jawing at the crowd. But it says a lot about a match when both guys put on nerve holds as a rest spot. That said, Douglas does sell it really well. They work an armdrop spot around it, with Douglas selling it as having lost all feeling in the arm, desperately trying to slap some life back into it. The end is a bit hokey, Douglas catching a flash belly-to-belly whilst Kingston argues with the ref, but this was fine.

Nation of Intoxication (Danny Havoc & Connor Claxton) vs Notorious Inc (Devon Moore & Drew Blood)

This is for the first H2O tag titles, and is no DQ. This breaks down pretty early, with guys fighting on the outside prompting Blood to go for a suicide dive that hits more fans than wrestlers. The camera work is a little off, as we get told by the commentators about fighting happening on the other side of the ring by a pairing, whilst we’re looking at something less interesting on the other side. Things improve as we get back in the ring, with Notorious Inc doing some nice double teams. Fun spot as Havoc has blood on his shoulders in an electric chair position and drops him towards Claxton, who boots him in the balls as he lands. Havoc superplexes Moore through a table, and though Blood tries to fight back, he’s soon wiped out with a running DVD and a top rope leg for the victory. Fun stuff.