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.

Scenic City Rumble 2017

So I recently signed up for Powerbomb TV, a streaming service that brings a load of indy promotions under one umbrella. I'd heard a lot about the Scenic City shows, and thought this seemed like a decent place to start. Plus everybody loves a Rumble

The Lynch Mob (Matt & Joey Lynch) vs The Carnies (Nick Iggy & Kerry Awful) vs Tank & Iceberg

Fine fast paced opener. Really felt like Tank and Iceberg were the standouts of the match, two big, burly men who aren’t afraid to use their size as a weapon. Loved their big corner splashes, absolutely adored them hitting cannonballs in the corner to both teams and even Tank putting the full stop on a fun dive train with an unlikely cannonball from the apron. The other two teams seemed fine, though the Carnies were responsible for the single worst spot of the match, where through some convoluted means they forced one member of the Lynch Mob to give the other a Canadian Destroyer. Can’t put into words how much I hated that. Quite liked the end, where Tank is taken out with a low blow, before Awful locks a Boston Crab on Iceberg and Iggy drops repeated knees to the back of his head for the stoppage.

Shane Marx vs Kyle Matthews

This was a pleasant surprise, with Marx not wrestling at all like you’d expect. He’s a chubby looking guy so you wouldn’t expect him to be working complex matwork and reversals like a portly World of Sport worker. Marx also looks good cutting off a corner charge by Matthews with his size and his hangman neckbreaker has real nice slap to it. Matthews looks really good too, really liked the dive he hits. There’s a nice moment where a Matthews tornado DDT lands pretty softly, but it’s called as such by commentator Brad Stutts and Marx hits a brainbuster straight from it, so it works. The end sees Matthews hit a corner dropkick and immediately take Marx down with a quick cradle for the victory. Enjoyed this.

Matt Knicks vs Stevie Fierce vs Rob Matter

This is a showcase match for Freelance Wrestling. The only one of these guys I’d seen before was Knicks, who randomly turned up in a four-way at a HOPE show last month. He seemed decent then, and I liked him here too. This had the usual issues the most three-ways do, as one guy always seems to be on the outside of the ring. Knicks not only take a big bump early, but hits a big suicide dive and an Asai moonsault to the floor. Liked Fierce here too, though I can’t really remember anything Matter did in the match. Fierce picks up the win, dropping Knicks on his head with a spider German suplex and hitting a Tomikaze on Matter for the win.

Torque vs Anthony Henry

Fine little match, and I appreciated the story they told, that of the overmatched Torque going for broke to win Henry’s PWX title. To start with, Henry dominated with some big shots: loved him circling the ring to hit Henry with a big running kick and his big overhead belly-to-belly looked great. I didn’t mind Torque doing a bit of no selling as he fired up on the comeback – this was portrayed as the biggest match of his career and as such it makes sense that he would go a level above. Loved the commentary, highlighting that Torque winning would get him guaranteed more bookings, especially as he didn’t wrestle for PWX. Loved Torque’s rana from the apron to the floor, but some of his other moves looked quite sloppy. His two suicide dives didn’t look particularly devastating. Henry though is the superior competitor and his work looked great. He got a convincing 2 count with a big kick to the head after Torque missed a 450, and his match-winning snap DVD looked terrific.

Sal Rinauro vs Austin Theory

Haven’t seen a Rinauro match in 14 years before this, unsurprisingly looked a bit different to how I remember. This is worked as wily veteran vs dynamic young gun, with Theory being only 19. He looks great early on, really nice quick combo of moves. This forces Rinauro to take a quick break. Loved how Rinauro used his wits to take control, taking a swig of water, throwing the bottle into the ring to distract the ref, then spitting it into Theory’s face. I like the running story that, every time Theory tried to speed things up, Rinauro was fully aware that he couldn’t keep pace and would slow things back down, including hitting a sneaky low blow to maintain the advantage. Theory hits a nice cradle neckbreaker for two, but misses a shooting star and Rinauro rolls him up for three. Wasn’t expecting a Rinauro win, but this was decent enough.

The Hierarchy (Chip Day, Adrian Armour & Murder One) vs Gunner Miller, Kevin Blue & Corey Hollis

This was fine, but mainly worked for an angle, where Hollis didn’t really want to be part of his team. Really impressed by Miller, he was a beast chucking Day with three consecutive overhead belly-to-belly suplexes. Heat ends up being worked on Blue, but Hollis manages to accidentally cause a distraction by falling into the ring, thus causing the ref to miss the hot tag to Miller. Miller again looks great on the hot tag, big strong house of fire. The Hollis storyline comes to a head when he makes a save on a pinfall, which leaves him at a 3-1 disadvantage. This convinces Hollis to walk out on the match, leaving it 2-1. The numbers game ends up giving the Hierarchy the win, Day rolling up Blue with a handful of tights to win. Mainly forgettable stuff.

Scenic Invitational Rumble

Always found indy rumbles an odd beast, as it’s hard to get any kind of impression of the wrestlers and you’ve no real idea of the hierarchy of the combatants, as a load of guys I don’t know come into the ring. As a rule, I pretty much work on the principle that the fat lads and the ones with the best tights will be the favourites. There were a few guys who stood out: Mecha Mercenary, a masked fat guy who looks to be pretty agile and has some real heft to his moves, Cyrus the Destroyer, another large chap who looks great as he eliminates a load of deadwood and amusingly hurls a guy called Baniac all the way to the floor in a massive press slam bump and Chris Crunk, who has a real nice fluidity. The end sees all three members of the Hierarchy left with Tank, and in a satisfying finale, he gets to eliminate them all. For a match with a load of guys I’d never heard of, this was a fun match that flew by.