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 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.