So, today is the 10yr anniversary of the demise of the GWF, a British indy that ran one show (which you're about to read below) and had their second cancelled on the day by the ring never turning up on 02/02/03. This infamous episode in British Wrestling is captured nicely in Greg Lambert's excellent book "Holy Grail", but I felt like today was the perfect day to revisit their only show. The focus of it is an 8 man title tournament, with four Brit wrestlers (Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Paul Sloane and James Tighe) and four international talents (Little Guido, Trent Acid, Justin Richards and Michael Kovac) battling for the GWF title.
Graham Hughes vs Mark Sloan
Christ, these two rattle through a meaningless selections of highspots like there is no tomorrow. Hughes takes a rana and busts out a moonsault in the first 30 seconds. Within two minutes Sloan has nailed him with a sunset flip powerbomb for two. Sloan then hits Angels Wings for two. We do get a nice jumping kick by Sloan, but this is totally lacking in storytelling. The match is interrupted by heel manager Ross "The Boss" Gordon dancing at ringside, and all the international talent booked for the show jumps in for a double DQ. Not a great loss to have this cut short.
Justin Richards vs James Tighe
This is the first match of the tournament. They run through a nice little series of holds and counters to start. Richards soon starts heeling it up by yelling at the ref before grinding Tighe's eyes on the top rope. Richards maintains control by cutting off Tighe's offence with an eyepoke. They keep the moves simple compared to the first match, but tell a straightforward story where the face/heel divide is easy to follow. Tighe gets two on a roll-up, which I suspect was supposed to end it as he follows win a small package for 3 right away.
Little Guido vs Jody Fleisch
We get a nice little opening sequence, which sees both men try to out-do one another. Jody is more of a risktaker than Guido, so despite a successful flurry of high-risk offence, he crashes and burns on a springboard dropkick to give Guido the advantage. Guido keeps it to the mat, playing a safer game. Guido shoves Fleisch to the floor on an attempted springboard, sending him flying into the railings. Jody manages to get two from a bridged pin, which obviously worries Guido's manager Jake Roberts enough to throw Guido a foreign object for the cheap win. Too short, and lacking decent structure. Twice Guido locked in a cross-armbreaker, with no build up or aftermath.
Robbie Brookside vs Jack Xavier vs the Zebra Kid
One of the things I like in the opening sections is that the wrestlers would tactically just stop and let the other two fight, rather than have a load of convoluted 3-way spots. Zebra dives off the top to the outside, but the camera is static and thus totally misses it. This is followed by Zebra hitting a cannonball from the apron on the opposite side of the ring to the camera, so not a good day for his highspots. Zebra and Brookside both seem to be focusing their assault on Xavier, taking each other out so they can concentrate on Jack. Zebra nails a sick looking piledriver on Xavier, before yet ANOTHER Zebra dive is missed, so all you see is him leaping off the screen. The ringwork is mostly crisp, though they aren't helped by the ref telegraphing a false finish by dramatically slowing his count before Zebra makes the save. A top rope elbow on Xavier gets the win for Zebra Kid. This wasn't bad, but I hoped for a bit more structure, rather than just guys taking it in turn to hit moves.
Michael Kovac vs Paul Sloane
Kovac, I believe, is a German wrestler. Sloane is the guy I know least about in this tournament, but his first in ring act is to hit a spear followed by some of the worst forearms this side of the Divas division. Kovac seems to be the more experienced of the two, as he carries himself nicely in the ring and busts out some nice offence including a swank torture rack dropped into a facefirst slam. This gets three, total squash. I'm looking forward to seeing more Kovac in this tournament.
Trent Acid vs Jonny Storm
CZW was pretty popular in the UK in 2002, so Trent gets a decent reaction here. Ross Gordon returns and cuts a promo that I can't hear very well. Acid stalls like Hell to start. The highlight of an overly-flippy opening segment is Acid smoothly reversing a hiptoss into an abdominal stretch. Acid really has his character work nailed on here, waiting until Jonny turns around before hiding behind him, then following him in a hilarious, OTT manner. They brawl into the unlit crowd, with something impossible to see earning a "Holy Shit" chant. Acid feigns a leg injury in the corner, then suddenly strikes to attack Storm in a classic heel spot. Acid's mannerisms are great in his control spot, and I like the way that, for a guy who often did too many choreographed looking moves in his matches, he works simply here, drapping a leg over Storm's throat whilst posing to soak up the boos. I also like him following up a backbreaker with a full Nelson camel clutch to focus on Storm's back. Storm's offence at this point was mainly high-risk and flashy, so he was perfect for comebacks that pop the crowd, with a top rope leg-lariat looking great. A triple jump rana gets two for Storm. They work a pin reversals sequence before an Acid Yakuza kick gets two. A second attempt misses and Storm hits a rana for the win. It broke down in places, but overall this was damn good.
Little Guido vs James Tighe
We're now in semi-final territory in the tournament. Tighe is slightly bigger than Guido, so I liked him using a few shoulderblocks to establish his strength advantage. Tighe hits a poor looking bridging German suplex, but makes up for it with a swank looking 2nd rope moonsault. However a distraction from Jake Roberts allows Gordon to come back and nail Tighe with a weapon, gifting the win to Guido. Short match, but it puts more heat on Guido getting an easy route to the final.
Michael Kovac vs Jonny Storm
Storm is still selling his injuries from the Acid match, and Kovac is much larger, so the story should write itself here. Storm goes for broke early, nailing a dive on Kovac (which the camera caught!) but as soon as Kovac takes control, he slows the pace down to his comfort zone and starts to tie Storm up to work over the back. Kovac uses a camel clutch here, which plays back to the Acid match in a nice touch. Storm gets a few hope spots, but Kovac is great at turning them to his advantage, reversing a sunset flip into a belly-to-back piledriver. He hits the torture rack facebuster, but Storm turns his cocky pin into a crucifix to win. Normally I hate that finish, but it worked here as Kovac had essentially killed Storm, so it shows Storm's desire to win, whilst keeping Kovac looking like a monster. Kovac is really someone I'd like to see more of.
Shak Khan vs Lee Butler
This is a hardcore match to kill time before the final. It's probably fair to say these two are a bit bulkier than the contestants in the tournament, so this should be a change of pace if nothing else. Brilliantly, within 2 minutes they're brawling in the unlit crowd away from the hard camera. No idea what is happening. This is probably for the best, because this is total shit when it gets in the ring. No weapons get involved, just some slow, plodding action as neither guy looks particularly bothered. Butler misses a moonsault and Khan rolls him up in the ropes, which the ref somehow counts for 3. Seriously, Butler's shoulders were pretty much on the ring apron when he was pinned, with the refs hand hitting the bottom rope everytime he lifted his arm to count. Nonsense.
Little Guido vs Jonny Storm
Storm is still selling his battering in the two previous matches. They start off, making as if to run through a quick exchange of moves, but Guido abruptly drops a low elbow on Storm to give himself an advantage. Guido dominates, but does allow Storm a few hope spots, with Storm getting two from a moonsault. Guido holds Storm to allow Ross Gordon to attack him, but Jonny ducks and Guido gets nailed instead. Storm rolls him up and...wins? Christ, that was abrupt. Really feel like all of Guido's matches were way too short, though at least Storm gave a great accounting of himself throughout the event. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the entire output of the GWF
Saturday, 2 February 2013
Sunday, 27 January 2013
TNA Road To Lockdown, Nottingham, 24/01/13
For my birthday last year, my ex-housemate bought me tickets for this TNA tour. Despite not being a huge wrestling fan himself, he joined me for the show, which featured a steel cage match in the main event. Taking our seats, we settled in to enjoy the show...
Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez vs Bad Influence
Pretty solid choice for an opener. Chavo and Hernandez were pretty over in Nottingham, which surprised me as UK fans often seem to side with entertaining heels, which the Bad Influence boys certainly are. We kicked off with some comedy early on, as a mix-up led to Kazarian accidentally working over the arm of his tag partner on the apron, as well as a spot where Hernandez held Kazarian up for a vertical suplex, whilst his partner rammed Daniels' head into every corner of the ring, before Hernandez finished the move. Chavo eventually got isolated, and Bad Influence worked the crowd terrifically to build up to the hot tag. This was the best possible use of Hernandez, who looked like a tank in taking out Daniels and Kazarian. Eventually, Chavo hit a frog splash on Daniels for the win.
Marty Scurll vs Rockstar Spud
Two of the stars of British Bootcamp paired up here. Spud, despite being absolutely tiny, is great at projecting himself to a big crowd. The Rockstar gimmick has probably added years to his career, both by making him more interesting as a character, but also by limiting the insane stunts which he went for early on in his career (as my friend put it tonight, "Spud appears to have more poses than moves"). Which doesn't mean Spud wasn't impressive here, as he hit a swank tope and a nice Code Red that got a 2 on Scurll. Marty also looked great here, schooling Spud on the mat early doors and looking great in the process, as well as nailing the Rockstar with a perfect tornado DDT. Marty went for his backbreaker finisher a few times, but Spud slipped out and rolled Scurll up for three. Great showcase for both of them.
The Blossom Twins vs Tara & Gail Kim
I missed the last episode of British Bootcamp, so I'd never seen the Blossoms wrestle until tonight, and I was pretty impressed. They looked comfortable in the ring with two relative veterans, and you never got the impression they were being carried. The heel team were having some communication problems throughout, but managed to isolate Holly Blossom and worked her over. The Blossoms look too sweet to be wrestlers, so they were able to illicit sympathy pretty easily, and they achieved a decent pop for the hot tag. Kim managed to hit Eat Defeat on a Blossom, but was pulled off from making the cover by her own partner. Tara then tried to take control, but again the heel bickered. This allowed the Blossoms to switch places in the ring, and roll up an unsuspecting Tara for three. After the match, the heels attacked the Blossoms, but Velvet made the save, managing to have the worst looking offence of the match in her minute long save section. The Blossoms look like they'd be a good addition to the TNA roster.
Rob Van Dam vs Zema Ion
This was better than I was expecting. RVD seems to go through the motions a lot in TNA and, while he didn't set the world on fire here, at least he seemed to be having fun. Ion did a fair bit of schtick work early on, reapplying his hairspray after every RVD attack, until Van Dam stole it, spraying the head of a bald chap at ringside. The match was exactly what you'd expect, though Ion looked pretty good on offence here, with a sweet looking tornado DDT. RVD won a short match with the Five Star.
Magnus & James Storm vs Austin Aries & Bobby Roode
Apparently, the previous night had seen a triple threat match between Storm, Roode and Aries that Storm claimed had ended up more like a handicap match. To combat this, he brought out his tag partner Magnus, who got a huge reception. This match was really good, as you'd expect with workers of this standard, especially with Storm and Roode being so well versed as tag workers. Roode and Aries stooged nicely in the early going, allowing themselves to look foolish to show their opponents superiority. After working through the heat period, we ended up with all four guys in the ring. Aries tried to spit some beer in the face of Storm, but ended up getting Roode instead. Storm hit Roode with the superkick and Magnus followed that with a top rope elbow for three.
The main event was held in a steel cage, so Jeremy Borash had to work the crowd for the ten minutes that the cage was being assembled. All in all, he did a good job, though his attempts to find a Notts Forest fan in the crowd didn't go as well as he hoped. Still, he did a tricky task well.
Sting & Kurt Angle vs Devon & Doc
We actually ended up getting a handicap match for most of this, as Mike Knox attacked Angle before he got in the cage, leading to Sting having to take on both Aces & 8's members alone. The drama of the match came from this, as Angle made repeated attempts to get into the cage only for Knox to keep beating him down everytime he got close, whilst Sting took a battering in the ring. Eventually, Angle hit a low blow on Knox and was able to enter the cage, cleaning house in the process. However, as he had Doc in the ankle lock, a fourth Aces member came in and nailed him in the head with a hammer. Suprisingly, this didn't kill Kurt instantly, as he kicked out at two. A table got set up in the ring, which cued Bully Ray to come to the rescue. He joined up with Sting to hit a Wassup Drop on Doc, before Devon got double chokeslammed through the table for the winning three count.
All in all then, a pretty good night of entertainment. None of the matches were jaw-dropping, but none of them were less than decent either. All the wrestler seemed to be having fun, and the time seemed to fly by. Can't complain too much about that.
Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez vs Bad Influence
Pretty solid choice for an opener. Chavo and Hernandez were pretty over in Nottingham, which surprised me as UK fans often seem to side with entertaining heels, which the Bad Influence boys certainly are. We kicked off with some comedy early on, as a mix-up led to Kazarian accidentally working over the arm of his tag partner on the apron, as well as a spot where Hernandez held Kazarian up for a vertical suplex, whilst his partner rammed Daniels' head into every corner of the ring, before Hernandez finished the move. Chavo eventually got isolated, and Bad Influence worked the crowd terrifically to build up to the hot tag. This was the best possible use of Hernandez, who looked like a tank in taking out Daniels and Kazarian. Eventually, Chavo hit a frog splash on Daniels for the win.
Marty Scurll vs Rockstar Spud
Two of the stars of British Bootcamp paired up here. Spud, despite being absolutely tiny, is great at projecting himself to a big crowd. The Rockstar gimmick has probably added years to his career, both by making him more interesting as a character, but also by limiting the insane stunts which he went for early on in his career (as my friend put it tonight, "Spud appears to have more poses than moves"). Which doesn't mean Spud wasn't impressive here, as he hit a swank tope and a nice Code Red that got a 2 on Scurll. Marty also looked great here, schooling Spud on the mat early doors and looking great in the process, as well as nailing the Rockstar with a perfect tornado DDT. Marty went for his backbreaker finisher a few times, but Spud slipped out and rolled Scurll up for three. Great showcase for both of them.
The Blossom Twins vs Tara & Gail Kim
I missed the last episode of British Bootcamp, so I'd never seen the Blossoms wrestle until tonight, and I was pretty impressed. They looked comfortable in the ring with two relative veterans, and you never got the impression they were being carried. The heel team were having some communication problems throughout, but managed to isolate Holly Blossom and worked her over. The Blossoms look too sweet to be wrestlers, so they were able to illicit sympathy pretty easily, and they achieved a decent pop for the hot tag. Kim managed to hit Eat Defeat on a Blossom, but was pulled off from making the cover by her own partner. Tara then tried to take control, but again the heel bickered. This allowed the Blossoms to switch places in the ring, and roll up an unsuspecting Tara for three. After the match, the heels attacked the Blossoms, but Velvet made the save, managing to have the worst looking offence of the match in her minute long save section. The Blossoms look like they'd be a good addition to the TNA roster.
Rob Van Dam vs Zema Ion
This was better than I was expecting. RVD seems to go through the motions a lot in TNA and, while he didn't set the world on fire here, at least he seemed to be having fun. Ion did a fair bit of schtick work early on, reapplying his hairspray after every RVD attack, until Van Dam stole it, spraying the head of a bald chap at ringside. The match was exactly what you'd expect, though Ion looked pretty good on offence here, with a sweet looking tornado DDT. RVD won a short match with the Five Star.
Magnus & James Storm vs Austin Aries & Bobby Roode
Apparently, the previous night had seen a triple threat match between Storm, Roode and Aries that Storm claimed had ended up more like a handicap match. To combat this, he brought out his tag partner Magnus, who got a huge reception. This match was really good, as you'd expect with workers of this standard, especially with Storm and Roode being so well versed as tag workers. Roode and Aries stooged nicely in the early going, allowing themselves to look foolish to show their opponents superiority. After working through the heat period, we ended up with all four guys in the ring. Aries tried to spit some beer in the face of Storm, but ended up getting Roode instead. Storm hit Roode with the superkick and Magnus followed that with a top rope elbow for three.
The main event was held in a steel cage, so Jeremy Borash had to work the crowd for the ten minutes that the cage was being assembled. All in all, he did a good job, though his attempts to find a Notts Forest fan in the crowd didn't go as well as he hoped. Still, he did a tricky task well.
Sting & Kurt Angle vs Devon & Doc
We actually ended up getting a handicap match for most of this, as Mike Knox attacked Angle before he got in the cage, leading to Sting having to take on both Aces & 8's members alone. The drama of the match came from this, as Angle made repeated attempts to get into the cage only for Knox to keep beating him down everytime he got close, whilst Sting took a battering in the ring. Eventually, Angle hit a low blow on Knox and was able to enter the cage, cleaning house in the process. However, as he had Doc in the ankle lock, a fourth Aces member came in and nailed him in the head with a hammer. Suprisingly, this didn't kill Kurt instantly, as he kicked out at two. A table got set up in the ring, which cued Bully Ray to come to the rescue. He joined up with Sting to hit a Wassup Drop on Doc, before Devon got double chokeslammed through the table for the winning three count.
All in all then, a pretty good night of entertainment. None of the matches were jaw-dropping, but none of them were less than decent either. All the wrestler seemed to be having fun, and the time seemed to fly by. Can't complain too much about that.
Saturday, 12 January 2013
TNA World X Cup 2008
With the announcement that TNA are running special stand alone PPV's, including a World Cup tournament, what better time to revisit the 2008 X Cup, which saw wrestlers from Dragon Gate, CMLL and NJPW join TNA for a one month tournament. There is a points system, but essentially the winners of the final Ultimate X match win the whole thing. It's the first blog review of the year and there are two contenders for the year end top 10 already. It's going to be a great year...
Tyson Dux & Daivari vs the Motor City Machine Guns
The initial Dux/Alex Shelley segment is really smooth, and the larger Dux keeps up with Shelley throughout, though he does massively telegraph a top rope Sabin armdrag by standing there with his arm out. Team International are slightly bigger than the Guns, so try to overpower them, but the Guns use some quick tags and a slight speed advantage to control. The heat section on Shelley is really brief and I did briefly think that the match was going to be a glorified squash, but Daivari grabs Sabin on the outside as he tries to springboard in to gain some advantage. Again, the heat section doesn't last too long as Team International, whether accidentally or on purpose, sort of get in each others way, allowing Sabin to come back. Shelley blitzes Daivari, and gets two on a top rope splash. Daivari always struck me as a small guy who didn't do much high-flying, so I was pretty impressed with the top rope rana he hit. Dux is certainly smoother than Daivari in the ring, and I wonder why he never appeared in TNA after the X Cup. The end sees Dux caught in a tree of woe, and Shelley hits Sliced Bread on Daivari to hit the three. Team International are the only team not representing a promotion, so don't expect many wins.
Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs Rey Buccanero & Ultimo Guerrero
Team Mexico are a lot bigger than their Japanese opponents. Yoshino & Doi uses their speed to control Buccanero early, as well as some superior double-teaming. The size difference is so great that Guerrero doesn't need a partner to hit a double spinebuster on both of his opponents. Guerrero and Buccanero also use some swank double-teams which pop the crowd. The match is super fast paced, and I loved the spot where Yoshino hit a missile dropkick on Guerrero whilst also landing on Buccanero with a senton. Similarly, I loved Guerrero knocking Yoshino from the ring, and Buccanero sliding out of the ring straight into a splash on him. With Yoshino out, Guerrero drapes Doi over his knees, and Buccanero comes off the top with a corkscrew senton, which is enough for three. Good, high-paced TV match.
Alex Koslov vs Rey Buccanero
As far as I know, Koslov has some lucha experience, so he should work well with Buccanero here. A quick opening section leads to an insane Koslov plancha. Standing enzuigiri gets two and Koslov looks really slick here. Buccanero comes back with a Cradle Driver that lands Koslov directly on his head. Twisting senton gets three. Felt like a good match cut off 3 minutes in.
Milano Collection AT vs Curry Man
Again, Daniels has wrestled in Japan plenty of times, so this is a sensible pairing. Milano does that "roll the opponent 360 degrees round the ring whilst pinning him" spot I always like, leading to an awesome "dizzy" sell by Curry Man. Milano has great flexibility here, bridging out of a Curry Man pin, doing the splits to avoid a top rope dive and generally looking pretty impressive. Curry Man is super-over here, so he keeps the offence simple, knowing everything will get a reaction. It also allows AT an opportunity to shine. Milano hits a sneaky low blow followed by a twisting quebrada to win.
Masato Yoshino vs Doug Williams
You'd think this would be a bit of a styles clash, but this works pretty well. Both play to their strengths: Doug uses his size advantage to make his strikes look really nasty, whilst Yoshino outpaces him and takes control with his flying ability. The layout of the Impact Zone was really good at this time, as it gave a nice, big area for dives. Yoshino takes full advantage of this with a huge tope. I like the comments from Don West, saying Yoshino is so fast that it's harder for him to stop when Doug strikes him. They sort of flub a flying headscissors, but Yoshino wins my heart by putting in an extra burst of effort, as if he realised Williams was blocking it and knew he had to put in a little more to complete the move. Nice top rope buttlerfly suplex by Williams. Nice ending sequence sees Doug hit the Chaos Theory for the win.
Kaz vs Ultimo Guerrero
Of all the matches so far, this one feels the most awkward in the early goings, as you can see both guys aren't quite clicking yet. Love Guerrero hitting a handstand in the corner and holding it to give added momentum when he lets gravity send him into a prone Kaz. Feels like a spot Ziggler should steal. Guerrero dominates a fair bit here, nailing a nice top rope reverse suplex for two. The storyline here is that, as Team TNA captain, Kaz is feeling a lot of pressure to win, which plays into him fluffing (deliberately) a springboard to give Guerrero more advantage as Kaz sells a knee injury. Tenay mentions the looks of concern on the faces of all Team TNA, which is odd as Curry Man is fully masked. Guerrero blocks a top rope rana with a nice powerbomb. Kaz avoids a moonsault and nails the Wave of the Future to win the match. Decent enough, though I thought the knee injury would play a bigger part in the ending.
Masato Yoshino, Puma & Milano Collection AT vs Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Buccanero & Averno vs Doug Williams, Tyson Dux & Alex Koslov vs the Motor City Machineguns & Curry Man
This is an elimination match, and I can only imagine it's going to be nuts.To start, Curry Man challenges Yoshino to a race having seen his speed, but just trips him up instead. Dux and Williams come in to double team Sabin, and they look super slick as a team, with just nice, quick double teams. Even odder when you consider they aren't a tag team. Team Mexico come in, triple team Williams and Dux, and swiftly eliminate Dux with a Buccanero Cradle Driver. Puma and AT come in to attack Buccanero, but Averno is swiftly tagged in and takes care of both guys, eliminating Puma with a spinning facebuster. Thing is, this is a total spotfest, but it's so quick, fluid and crisp that it's really fun to watch.
Both Machine Guns end up in the ring with Milano, who evades both of them and rolls them both up in a double single leg crab. Awesome. After the escape, Milano shoves the ref, then grabs Sabin's leg between his own legs to pretend he's taken a low-blow, but the ref outside the ring prevents the DQ. Sabin gets the Cradle Shock to pin AT for 3. Milano has undoubtedly been the star of the match so far. Yoshino is the last member of Team Japan left and the Guns smell blood, blitzing Yoshino to try and eliminate him. Averno comes in and continues to hammer Yoshino. However, Yoshino comes out of nowhere with a high-speed roll up to eliminate Averno. Team TNA and Team International ignore the knackered Yoshino and start going for each other, with frantic results, so Guerrero and Buccanero dive off the top to take out Curry Man and Williams. A top rope powerbomb eliminates Curry Man mere seconds after West highlights that all of Team TNA are left in the match. Williams is swiftly pinned too after a twisting senton from Buccanero.
After the Machine Guns wipe out on a missed pescado attempt, Guerrero and Koslov wind up in the ring together, with Koslov hitting a low blow on Guerrero, followed by an Anaconda Vice variation for the tapout. Sabin swiftly focusses on Buccanero , nailing a top rope hurancanrana and a kick to the face to fully eliminate Team Mexico. The Guns double team the two remaining opponents, Koslov and Yoshino, but somehow Yoshino keeps surviving. He's like the Conquistadors from the second Survivior Series. Koslov manages to survive long enough to pin Sabin for three with his feet on the ropes to leave a final three of Yoshino, Koslov and Shelley. After Koslov nails Shelley with an insane plancha, Yoshino ties up Koslov in a ridiculously complex submission hold for the tapout. Yoshino, the ultimate survivor, tries his best to eliminate Shelley, but gets caught with the Sliced Bread...which only gets 2! A swank Shelley Tiger Suplex only gets two. Eventually, a Kryptonite Krunch gets the three. Absolutely unreal spotfest, and they made Yoshino look awesome in defeat.
This leaves the scores as:
Team TNA - 6
Team Japan - 4
Team International & Team Mexico - 3
Which means that whoever wins Ultimate X for 4 points, wins. Convenient.
Volador Jr vs Kaz vs Naruki Doi vs Daivari
I was really impressed with Volador when I saw him in the CMLL DVD I reviewed a month or so back, so looking forward to seeing him here. I like the way Kaz shows his experience edge by going for the X right from the start and goes for it any chance he gets. Volador slips slightly trying to climb the ropes, but I like his awareness as he realises Doi is about to pull him off the wire, so drops into a hurancanrana to maintain his advantage rather than take a blow. I did Daivari's gameplan of working over Kaz's injured arm to hinder his climbing ability. The 3 opponents all then zero in on Kaz's arm, which makes sense due to his experience edge. This leads to Kaz clearing them all away, but slipping off the cables, as he can't support himself with one arm. Volador takes a huge bump after Doi elevates him over the top rope, before Doi nails Kaz with a cannonball in the corner. Doi climbs, then takes a nutty bump from the supports to the floor. A really fun spot follows as Volador takes advantage of Doi fighting Kaz to go for the X, only for Kax to elevate Doi headfirst into the hanging crotch of Volador for a lowblow that sends the luchador to the mat. I like the way that on Kaz's next attempt to climb, he uses his legs to support himself on the cables, knowing his arm is still too injured. Daivari only just stops him. Volador takes Doi out of the match with a beautiful top rope moonsault to the floor. Daivari gets right up to the X, only for Kaz to leap from the top of the structure to hit a legdrop in an absolutely insane spot. However, this leaves the path totally free for Volador, who climbs to the X totally unhindered for the win. Team Mexico win the X Cup. Terrific match, a great mixture of logical storytelling, high drama and insane spots. Even in defeat, Kaz got to look great with the most memorable spot of the match
Tyson Dux & Daivari vs the Motor City Machine Guns
The initial Dux/Alex Shelley segment is really smooth, and the larger Dux keeps up with Shelley throughout, though he does massively telegraph a top rope Sabin armdrag by standing there with his arm out. Team International are slightly bigger than the Guns, so try to overpower them, but the Guns use some quick tags and a slight speed advantage to control. The heat section on Shelley is really brief and I did briefly think that the match was going to be a glorified squash, but Daivari grabs Sabin on the outside as he tries to springboard in to gain some advantage. Again, the heat section doesn't last too long as Team International, whether accidentally or on purpose, sort of get in each others way, allowing Sabin to come back. Shelley blitzes Daivari, and gets two on a top rope splash. Daivari always struck me as a small guy who didn't do much high-flying, so I was pretty impressed with the top rope rana he hit. Dux is certainly smoother than Daivari in the ring, and I wonder why he never appeared in TNA after the X Cup. The end sees Dux caught in a tree of woe, and Shelley hits Sliced Bread on Daivari to hit the three. Team International are the only team not representing a promotion, so don't expect many wins.
Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino vs Rey Buccanero & Ultimo Guerrero
Team Mexico are a lot bigger than their Japanese opponents. Yoshino & Doi uses their speed to control Buccanero early, as well as some superior double-teaming. The size difference is so great that Guerrero doesn't need a partner to hit a double spinebuster on both of his opponents. Guerrero and Buccanero also use some swank double-teams which pop the crowd. The match is super fast paced, and I loved the spot where Yoshino hit a missile dropkick on Guerrero whilst also landing on Buccanero with a senton. Similarly, I loved Guerrero knocking Yoshino from the ring, and Buccanero sliding out of the ring straight into a splash on him. With Yoshino out, Guerrero drapes Doi over his knees, and Buccanero comes off the top with a corkscrew senton, which is enough for three. Good, high-paced TV match.
Alex Koslov vs Rey Buccanero
As far as I know, Koslov has some lucha experience, so he should work well with Buccanero here. A quick opening section leads to an insane Koslov plancha. Standing enzuigiri gets two and Koslov looks really slick here. Buccanero comes back with a Cradle Driver that lands Koslov directly on his head. Twisting senton gets three. Felt like a good match cut off 3 minutes in.
Milano Collection AT vs Curry Man
Again, Daniels has wrestled in Japan plenty of times, so this is a sensible pairing. Milano does that "roll the opponent 360 degrees round the ring whilst pinning him" spot I always like, leading to an awesome "dizzy" sell by Curry Man. Milano has great flexibility here, bridging out of a Curry Man pin, doing the splits to avoid a top rope dive and generally looking pretty impressive. Curry Man is super-over here, so he keeps the offence simple, knowing everything will get a reaction. It also allows AT an opportunity to shine. Milano hits a sneaky low blow followed by a twisting quebrada to win.
Masato Yoshino vs Doug Williams
You'd think this would be a bit of a styles clash, but this works pretty well. Both play to their strengths: Doug uses his size advantage to make his strikes look really nasty, whilst Yoshino outpaces him and takes control with his flying ability. The layout of the Impact Zone was really good at this time, as it gave a nice, big area for dives. Yoshino takes full advantage of this with a huge tope. I like the comments from Don West, saying Yoshino is so fast that it's harder for him to stop when Doug strikes him. They sort of flub a flying headscissors, but Yoshino wins my heart by putting in an extra burst of effort, as if he realised Williams was blocking it and knew he had to put in a little more to complete the move. Nice top rope buttlerfly suplex by Williams. Nice ending sequence sees Doug hit the Chaos Theory for the win.
Kaz vs Ultimo Guerrero
Of all the matches so far, this one feels the most awkward in the early goings, as you can see both guys aren't quite clicking yet. Love Guerrero hitting a handstand in the corner and holding it to give added momentum when he lets gravity send him into a prone Kaz. Feels like a spot Ziggler should steal. Guerrero dominates a fair bit here, nailing a nice top rope reverse suplex for two. The storyline here is that, as Team TNA captain, Kaz is feeling a lot of pressure to win, which plays into him fluffing (deliberately) a springboard to give Guerrero more advantage as Kaz sells a knee injury. Tenay mentions the looks of concern on the faces of all Team TNA, which is odd as Curry Man is fully masked. Guerrero blocks a top rope rana with a nice powerbomb. Kaz avoids a moonsault and nails the Wave of the Future to win the match. Decent enough, though I thought the knee injury would play a bigger part in the ending.
Masato Yoshino, Puma & Milano Collection AT vs Ultimo Guerrero, Rey Buccanero & Averno vs Doug Williams, Tyson Dux & Alex Koslov vs the Motor City Machineguns & Curry Man
This is an elimination match, and I can only imagine it's going to be nuts.To start, Curry Man challenges Yoshino to a race having seen his speed, but just trips him up instead. Dux and Williams come in to double team Sabin, and they look super slick as a team, with just nice, quick double teams. Even odder when you consider they aren't a tag team. Team Mexico come in, triple team Williams and Dux, and swiftly eliminate Dux with a Buccanero Cradle Driver. Puma and AT come in to attack Buccanero, but Averno is swiftly tagged in and takes care of both guys, eliminating Puma with a spinning facebuster. Thing is, this is a total spotfest, but it's so quick, fluid and crisp that it's really fun to watch.
Both Machine Guns end up in the ring with Milano, who evades both of them and rolls them both up in a double single leg crab. Awesome. After the escape, Milano shoves the ref, then grabs Sabin's leg between his own legs to pretend he's taken a low-blow, but the ref outside the ring prevents the DQ. Sabin gets the Cradle Shock to pin AT for 3. Milano has undoubtedly been the star of the match so far. Yoshino is the last member of Team Japan left and the Guns smell blood, blitzing Yoshino to try and eliminate him. Averno comes in and continues to hammer Yoshino. However, Yoshino comes out of nowhere with a high-speed roll up to eliminate Averno. Team TNA and Team International ignore the knackered Yoshino and start going for each other, with frantic results, so Guerrero and Buccanero dive off the top to take out Curry Man and Williams. A top rope powerbomb eliminates Curry Man mere seconds after West highlights that all of Team TNA are left in the match. Williams is swiftly pinned too after a twisting senton from Buccanero.
After the Machine Guns wipe out on a missed pescado attempt, Guerrero and Koslov wind up in the ring together, with Koslov hitting a low blow on Guerrero, followed by an Anaconda Vice variation for the tapout. Sabin swiftly focusses on Buccanero , nailing a top rope hurancanrana and a kick to the face to fully eliminate Team Mexico. The Guns double team the two remaining opponents, Koslov and Yoshino, but somehow Yoshino keeps surviving. He's like the Conquistadors from the second Survivior Series. Koslov manages to survive long enough to pin Sabin for three with his feet on the ropes to leave a final three of Yoshino, Koslov and Shelley. After Koslov nails Shelley with an insane plancha, Yoshino ties up Koslov in a ridiculously complex submission hold for the tapout. Yoshino, the ultimate survivor, tries his best to eliminate Shelley, but gets caught with the Sliced Bread...which only gets 2! A swank Shelley Tiger Suplex only gets two. Eventually, a Kryptonite Krunch gets the three. Absolutely unreal spotfest, and they made Yoshino look awesome in defeat.
This leaves the scores as:
Team TNA - 6
Team Japan - 4
Team International & Team Mexico - 3
Which means that whoever wins Ultimate X for 4 points, wins. Convenient.
Volador Jr vs Kaz vs Naruki Doi vs Daivari
I was really impressed with Volador when I saw him in the CMLL DVD I reviewed a month or so back, so looking forward to seeing him here. I like the way Kaz shows his experience edge by going for the X right from the start and goes for it any chance he gets. Volador slips slightly trying to climb the ropes, but I like his awareness as he realises Doi is about to pull him off the wire, so drops into a hurancanrana to maintain his advantage rather than take a blow. I did Daivari's gameplan of working over Kaz's injured arm to hinder his climbing ability. The 3 opponents all then zero in on Kaz's arm, which makes sense due to his experience edge. This leads to Kaz clearing them all away, but slipping off the cables, as he can't support himself with one arm. Volador takes a huge bump after Doi elevates him over the top rope, before Doi nails Kaz with a cannonball in the corner. Doi climbs, then takes a nutty bump from the supports to the floor. A really fun spot follows as Volador takes advantage of Doi fighting Kaz to go for the X, only for Kax to elevate Doi headfirst into the hanging crotch of Volador for a lowblow that sends the luchador to the mat. I like the way that on Kaz's next attempt to climb, he uses his legs to support himself on the cables, knowing his arm is still too injured. Daivari only just stops him. Volador takes Doi out of the match with a beautiful top rope moonsault to the floor. Daivari gets right up to the X, only for Kaz to leap from the top of the structure to hit a legdrop in an absolutely insane spot. However, this leaves the path totally free for Volador, who climbs to the X totally unhindered for the win. Team Mexico win the X Cup. Terrific match, a great mixture of logical storytelling, high drama and insane spots. Even in defeat, Kaz got to look great with the most memorable spot of the match
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
The Top Ten Blog Matches of 2012
So, for the third year running, I try to sum up the year on this blog with the 10 best matches reviewed this year. This year has seen me venture to more wrestling shows than in previous years, which is represented by the presence of several SWE matches on the list. Without further ado, here is the big 10...
10. James Storm, Sting & Hulk Hogan vs Kurt Angle, Bully Ray & Bobby Roode (TNA Maximum Impact Tour in Nottingham)
A bit of a self-indulgence here. While I accept this match isn't a mat classic, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Hogan and Sting team up in person. The epitome of a crowd-pleasing main event.
9. Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim - No DQ (TNA Knocked Out)
The TNA Knocked Out DVD featured 3 matches from the Kim/Kong series of 2008. This No DQ encounter was my favourite of the three, a hard-hitting PPV encounter which used the stipulation to enhance the match.
8. Psychosis vs Super Crazy (XPW Fallout)
From the much-maligned XPW comes this rather terrific match. Admittedly, it doesn't take much booking smarts to put these two together and end up with a great result, as the the luchadors put on a great match to totally steal the show.
7. Kid Kash vs 2 Cold Scorpio (Hardcore Homecoming 2005)
Another card-stealing match. On a surprisingly good ECW reunion card, these two combined some slick mat-wrestling with some hard-hitting action. I also enjoyed the contrast of Scorp dominating in the ring, and Kash dominating outside.
6. Stixx vs Mark Haskins (SWE vs HOP Ill Manors)
Great last-man-standing main event in the Southside/House of Pain interpromotional show, which saw two of the best workers in the UK put on a war, where they cleverly worked around the size difference between the two to leave both men looking strong at the end.
5. Gregory Helms vs Matt Hardy (WWE No Mercy 2006)
From one of the great forgotten WWE PPV's of the 00's comes this terrific opener, where two longtime friends put on a clinic in their home state in a battle of the OMEGA veterans.
4. El Ligero vs Ego Dragon (SWE Menace II Society II)
If Stixx/Haskins was a war, then this...fucking Hell. The two men fought all around the Rushcliffe Arena, with chairs, ladders, tables and even the ring ropes being used as a weapon. A vital part of my favourite feud in wrestling in 2012.
3. James Storm vs Bobby Roode (TNA Bound For Glory)
TNA has been on fire this year, but one of the few things they've messed up has been the Storm/Roode feud, which has seen the Cowboy look like a chump far too often. That wasn't the case here though, a bloody, brutal, beautiful match. If they'd left it here, it'd have been just perfect.
2. Mikey Whipwreck vs Kidman (The Best of Mikey Whipwreck)
So, Mikey Whipwreck, ECW icon....had the best match on his "best of" tape in WCW. Here positioned as the roughneck bully of the Cruiserweight division, he dominates this match in a taster of what Mikey's WCW career SHOULD have been like. Kidman battles from beneath like a great underdog champ, and both men leave the match more over than when they came in. Tremendous.
1. The Predators vs Project Ego (SWE Menace II Society II)
A fantastic tag encounter between two of the best teams in the UK today. The Predators are one of the fastest rising duos in the country, with Joseph Connors specialising in the art of being an unlikable dickhead in the ring, whilst Malen is just vicious. Paired up with the slick, confident Ego team, we got a great battle where their two styles just meshed perfectly. A bit of comedy, a bit of classic tag-formula and some swank highflying lead to my match of the year. A great advert for UK wrestling.
10. James Storm, Sting & Hulk Hogan vs Kurt Angle, Bully Ray & Bobby Roode (TNA Maximum Impact Tour in Nottingham)
A bit of a self-indulgence here. While I accept this match isn't a mat classic, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Hogan and Sting team up in person. The epitome of a crowd-pleasing main event.
9. Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim - No DQ (TNA Knocked Out)
The TNA Knocked Out DVD featured 3 matches from the Kim/Kong series of 2008. This No DQ encounter was my favourite of the three, a hard-hitting PPV encounter which used the stipulation to enhance the match.
8. Psychosis vs Super Crazy (XPW Fallout)
From the much-maligned XPW comes this rather terrific match. Admittedly, it doesn't take much booking smarts to put these two together and end up with a great result, as the the luchadors put on a great match to totally steal the show.
7. Kid Kash vs 2 Cold Scorpio (Hardcore Homecoming 2005)
Another card-stealing match. On a surprisingly good ECW reunion card, these two combined some slick mat-wrestling with some hard-hitting action. I also enjoyed the contrast of Scorp dominating in the ring, and Kash dominating outside.
6. Stixx vs Mark Haskins (SWE vs HOP Ill Manors)
Great last-man-standing main event in the Southside/House of Pain interpromotional show, which saw two of the best workers in the UK put on a war, where they cleverly worked around the size difference between the two to leave both men looking strong at the end.
5. Gregory Helms vs Matt Hardy (WWE No Mercy 2006)
From one of the great forgotten WWE PPV's of the 00's comes this terrific opener, where two longtime friends put on a clinic in their home state in a battle of the OMEGA veterans.
4. El Ligero vs Ego Dragon (SWE Menace II Society II)
If Stixx/Haskins was a war, then this...fucking Hell. The two men fought all around the Rushcliffe Arena, with chairs, ladders, tables and even the ring ropes being used as a weapon. A vital part of my favourite feud in wrestling in 2012.
3. James Storm vs Bobby Roode (TNA Bound For Glory)
TNA has been on fire this year, but one of the few things they've messed up has been the Storm/Roode feud, which has seen the Cowboy look like a chump far too often. That wasn't the case here though, a bloody, brutal, beautiful match. If they'd left it here, it'd have been just perfect.
2. Mikey Whipwreck vs Kidman (The Best of Mikey Whipwreck)
So, Mikey Whipwreck, ECW icon....had the best match on his "best of" tape in WCW. Here positioned as the roughneck bully of the Cruiserweight division, he dominates this match in a taster of what Mikey's WCW career SHOULD have been like. Kidman battles from beneath like a great underdog champ, and both men leave the match more over than when they came in. Tremendous.
1. The Predators vs Project Ego (SWE Menace II Society II)
A fantastic tag encounter between two of the best teams in the UK today. The Predators are one of the fastest rising duos in the country, with Joseph Connors specialising in the art of being an unlikable dickhead in the ring, whilst Malen is just vicious. Paired up with the slick, confident Ego team, we got a great battle where their two styles just meshed perfectly. A bit of comedy, a bit of classic tag-formula and some swank highflying lead to my match of the year. A great advert for UK wrestling.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
HoP Shockwave 2010
House of Pain Wrestling is a small Nottingham-based promotion run by BritWres standout Stixx, who also trained the majority of the roster. Both their shows and DVD's are nicely-priced, and the roster contains plenty of guys who are on the cusp of breaking out on the UK scene. Quite a few, in fact, have wrestled for SWE or NGW over the past year or so. Whilst the fact that a lot of these guys are still learning means I wont be over-critical of these matches, there would also be no point in me commenting on them if I just whitewashed everything. On the whole though, this is a fun card...
Shane Spyral vs "Diamond" Dave Andrews
Andrews goes for the cheap shot slap before running from the ring, but Spyral dons Andrews' jacket to lure him back in. They work a nice opening segment, pretty high paced and really smooth, which leads to Spyral nailing a plancha. Also Andrews is more than happy to make a fool of himself in comedy spots. He also has some nice looking forearm blows. Some of Spyral's strikes are a bit milky, but on the whole he looks good here. Andrews looks really decent on offence and worked a nice little combo of moves leading to a leaping neckbreaker. Spyral comes back, but a 450 only hits mat. Spyral makes another comeback, but a distraction at ringside by SC Supreme allows Bam Bam Barton to crotch Spyral on the top and Andrews nails a leaping DDT to win. Solid opener
Lucas Black vs Matt Pedin
Pre-match, Black cuts a lengthy promo, which Pedin interrupts by bringing a sleeping bag and pillow into the ring for a nap, before telling Black he's boring. Pedin plays things for comedy, taking into account the ass-punch as one of his early moves. However, Black gets a cheapshot in, allowing him a brief spell of offence. Black's offence is basic, yet effective, and I liked him threatening a legdrop, only to stand on Pedin's head instead. The middle rope falls down mid-match and, to their credit, neither guy seems put off because of it. Some of Pedin's offence is a little hesitant in places, but then some of it has a really nice zip to it, so you have to attribute a bit to his inexperience. Pedin hits a nice looking Shining Enzuigiri for two. Black starts getting a bit cocky, and uses a very arrogant cover for two. Black sets up a bucket, wedged in the corner, but Pedin reverses leading to Black getting the bucket stuck on his head, and Pedin nails a Codebreaker to win.
The Asbos vs Nate Colt & Mike Wyld
The Asbos are working a chav gimmick, which they play really well. They consist of the larger Tony Asbo and a smaller lad whose name I didn't catch. It sounded like they called him Burberry and, seeing as how he is wearing a burberry shirt, that is what I'll call him. Regular readers might remember Nate Colt from the Awesome Wrestling show reviewed in June last year. He was pretty much just stooging for Mad Man Manson there, so this should be a better showcase for him. Nate starts off with Burberry and, though they blow a leapfrog spot, they bring some good energy to the early stages. They shake hands, which doesn't impress Tony much and provides the storyline for the rest of the match. Tony tags in only to get plowed down by the larger Wyld. Tony wisely goes for the legs of Wyld, and both Asbos focus on that, which is good strategy. With Wyld as face-in-peril, they work a formula tag match until Colt gets the hot tag. Colt looks really good as a fired-up face, until falling prey to a Tony swinging Rock Bottom. Wyld tries to get involved, but gets tangled in the ropes. Burberry tries to broker some peace between Tony and Colt, but Tony shoves Burberry into Colt from behind, and rolls Colt up with a hand of tights for the win.
Bam Bam Barton vs LJ Heron
Heron sneaks in from the backside of the ring to nail Barton on the outset. These are two of the better guys in HOP, so this should be real good. We get some brawling outside the ring from the get go, with Barton taking control after spitting water in Heron's eyes. Heron fires back, but Barton avoids a corner charge to retain control. Heron's hope spots are pretty good, with a sudden crossbody coming out of nowhere. The heel faction of SC Supreme, Jewel and Dave Andrews come out to support Barton, which draws out a face trio of Shane Spyral, Stixx and Max Angelus to counteract them. They must provide good motivation, as Heron manages to fire back with a powerslam. The camera does spend a bit too long focusing on the guys outside the ring to the detriment of the action inside. Heron avoids a running kick and hits a Sky High, but as he prepares to finish Barton, Supreme comes in for the DQ finish. We soon get a big melee, ending with the faces standing tall.
SC Supreme, Brian Wright & Jewel vs Sammy Hope & Punk Jock
The Punk Jock team consists of Callum Piper and Jimmy Crash. Crash is a punk and Piper is Scottish, you see. The two women competitors start off the match, and they keep it simple with the larger Jewel using her size advantage to control, whilst Hope is quicker and uses this to take Jewel to the mat. The section with the male competitors is a bit more advanced. Admittedly, Crash hits a poor looking diving headbutt from the second rope, but him and Piper combine nicely to hit a top rope stomp/powerslam combination on Wright for two. Piper looks really good here, with some nice explosive energy and he looks pretty slick on offence. My admiration of Supreme has been expressed on the blog before, and he's just a tank on offence here, nailing his swank overhead belly-to-belly on Piper. We don't really get to see much of Wright on offence before the hot-tag to Crash, and he and Supreme get down to business in a battle of the big men. Crash has some fun looking "high energy fat man" offence that makes me forgive him the terrible headbutt earlier, as he nails Supreme with an STO. It breaks down and Piper nails a cannonball from the apron on the other men to leave Hope and Jewel in the ring. However, the camera focuses on the men fighting, so we only just catch Hope rolling up Jewel for the win. This was fun.
Danny Chase vs Kaleb Hughes
This is for Chase's Cruiserweight title, and this should be good stuff. I like how evenly they work it to start, with both hitting strikes at the same time to send each other down. Hughes takes control on the outside, then brilliantly trolls the small kids at ringside, by getting them to move as if to throw Chase into their chairs, only for him to throw him into the ring cackling instead. Despite their similarities, they keep the face/heel divide clear, with Hughes trying to wear Chase down with strikes, whilst Chase makes high-flying comebacks. Chase makes one comeback with a springboard crossbody, but when he tries a second Hughes is prepared, and kicks his legs out to retain control. Hughes hits two top-rope ax-handles on Chase, but spends too much time taunting the crowd, and gets caught with a top-rope rana as he attempts a third. Chase sends Hughes to the floor and hits a swank moonsault to follow him down. They brawl outside the ring, which suits Hughes' style more, but his attempt to send Chase into the wall fails, as Chase runs up the wall and hits a moonsault in an awesome spot. Back in, Chase gets a super-close 2 count on a springboard kick. The ref gets bumped, leading to a Hughes low blow, but his attempt to nail Chase with a chair fails, as he manages to kill the ref instead. This comes back to haunt Hughes, as he nails Chase with a Death Valley Driver, but by the time Stixx comes in to replace the ref, Chase has recovered and kicks out at two. Chase is dead weight on the mat, but it turns out he's playing possum, reversing another Driver attempt into a rana for the three count. Deserved main event, both guys put in a great showing.
Shane Spyral vs "Diamond" Dave Andrews
Andrews goes for the cheap shot slap before running from the ring, but Spyral dons Andrews' jacket to lure him back in. They work a nice opening segment, pretty high paced and really smooth, which leads to Spyral nailing a plancha. Also Andrews is more than happy to make a fool of himself in comedy spots. He also has some nice looking forearm blows. Some of Spyral's strikes are a bit milky, but on the whole he looks good here. Andrews looks really decent on offence and worked a nice little combo of moves leading to a leaping neckbreaker. Spyral comes back, but a 450 only hits mat. Spyral makes another comeback, but a distraction at ringside by SC Supreme allows Bam Bam Barton to crotch Spyral on the top and Andrews nails a leaping DDT to win. Solid opener
Lucas Black vs Matt Pedin
Pre-match, Black cuts a lengthy promo, which Pedin interrupts by bringing a sleeping bag and pillow into the ring for a nap, before telling Black he's boring. Pedin plays things for comedy, taking into account the ass-punch as one of his early moves. However, Black gets a cheapshot in, allowing him a brief spell of offence. Black's offence is basic, yet effective, and I liked him threatening a legdrop, only to stand on Pedin's head instead. The middle rope falls down mid-match and, to their credit, neither guy seems put off because of it. Some of Pedin's offence is a little hesitant in places, but then some of it has a really nice zip to it, so you have to attribute a bit to his inexperience. Pedin hits a nice looking Shining Enzuigiri for two. Black starts getting a bit cocky, and uses a very arrogant cover for two. Black sets up a bucket, wedged in the corner, but Pedin reverses leading to Black getting the bucket stuck on his head, and Pedin nails a Codebreaker to win.
The Asbos vs Nate Colt & Mike Wyld
The Asbos are working a chav gimmick, which they play really well. They consist of the larger Tony Asbo and a smaller lad whose name I didn't catch. It sounded like they called him Burberry and, seeing as how he is wearing a burberry shirt, that is what I'll call him. Regular readers might remember Nate Colt from the Awesome Wrestling show reviewed in June last year. He was pretty much just stooging for Mad Man Manson there, so this should be a better showcase for him. Nate starts off with Burberry and, though they blow a leapfrog spot, they bring some good energy to the early stages. They shake hands, which doesn't impress Tony much and provides the storyline for the rest of the match. Tony tags in only to get plowed down by the larger Wyld. Tony wisely goes for the legs of Wyld, and both Asbos focus on that, which is good strategy. With Wyld as face-in-peril, they work a formula tag match until Colt gets the hot tag. Colt looks really good as a fired-up face, until falling prey to a Tony swinging Rock Bottom. Wyld tries to get involved, but gets tangled in the ropes. Burberry tries to broker some peace between Tony and Colt, but Tony shoves Burberry into Colt from behind, and rolls Colt up with a hand of tights for the win.
Bam Bam Barton vs LJ Heron
Heron sneaks in from the backside of the ring to nail Barton on the outset. These are two of the better guys in HOP, so this should be real good. We get some brawling outside the ring from the get go, with Barton taking control after spitting water in Heron's eyes. Heron fires back, but Barton avoids a corner charge to retain control. Heron's hope spots are pretty good, with a sudden crossbody coming out of nowhere. The heel faction of SC Supreme, Jewel and Dave Andrews come out to support Barton, which draws out a face trio of Shane Spyral, Stixx and Max Angelus to counteract them. They must provide good motivation, as Heron manages to fire back with a powerslam. The camera does spend a bit too long focusing on the guys outside the ring to the detriment of the action inside. Heron avoids a running kick and hits a Sky High, but as he prepares to finish Barton, Supreme comes in for the DQ finish. We soon get a big melee, ending with the faces standing tall.
SC Supreme, Brian Wright & Jewel vs Sammy Hope & Punk Jock
The Punk Jock team consists of Callum Piper and Jimmy Crash. Crash is a punk and Piper is Scottish, you see. The two women competitors start off the match, and they keep it simple with the larger Jewel using her size advantage to control, whilst Hope is quicker and uses this to take Jewel to the mat. The section with the male competitors is a bit more advanced. Admittedly, Crash hits a poor looking diving headbutt from the second rope, but him and Piper combine nicely to hit a top rope stomp/powerslam combination on Wright for two. Piper looks really good here, with some nice explosive energy and he looks pretty slick on offence. My admiration of Supreme has been expressed on the blog before, and he's just a tank on offence here, nailing his swank overhead belly-to-belly on Piper. We don't really get to see much of Wright on offence before the hot-tag to Crash, and he and Supreme get down to business in a battle of the big men. Crash has some fun looking "high energy fat man" offence that makes me forgive him the terrible headbutt earlier, as he nails Supreme with an STO. It breaks down and Piper nails a cannonball from the apron on the other men to leave Hope and Jewel in the ring. However, the camera focuses on the men fighting, so we only just catch Hope rolling up Jewel for the win. This was fun.
Danny Chase vs Kaleb Hughes
This is for Chase's Cruiserweight title, and this should be good stuff. I like how evenly they work it to start, with both hitting strikes at the same time to send each other down. Hughes takes control on the outside, then brilliantly trolls the small kids at ringside, by getting them to move as if to throw Chase into their chairs, only for him to throw him into the ring cackling instead. Despite their similarities, they keep the face/heel divide clear, with Hughes trying to wear Chase down with strikes, whilst Chase makes high-flying comebacks. Chase makes one comeback with a springboard crossbody, but when he tries a second Hughes is prepared, and kicks his legs out to retain control. Hughes hits two top-rope ax-handles on Chase, but spends too much time taunting the crowd, and gets caught with a top-rope rana as he attempts a third. Chase sends Hughes to the floor and hits a swank moonsault to follow him down. They brawl outside the ring, which suits Hughes' style more, but his attempt to send Chase into the wall fails, as Chase runs up the wall and hits a moonsault in an awesome spot. Back in, Chase gets a super-close 2 count on a springboard kick. The ref gets bumped, leading to a Hughes low blow, but his attempt to nail Chase with a chair fails, as he manages to kill the ref instead. This comes back to haunt Hughes, as he nails Chase with a Death Valley Driver, but by the time Stixx comes in to replace the ref, Chase has recovered and kicks out at two. Chase is dead weight on the mat, but it turns out he's playing possum, reversing another Driver attempt into a rana for the three count. Deserved main event, both guys put in a great showing.
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
TNA Knocked Out
This is a DVD from 2008 focused on what was, at the time, the best thing going in TNA in the Knockout's division. In many ways, watching this DVD was kinda depressing, as you realised that, despite TNA currently being on top form, the Knockout's division is currently a pale imitation of what it used to be. That said, the DVD isn't without flaws. You can't skip straight to a match, you have to sit through interview with the various knockouts first and trust me, there is only so many times you can hear "We're not wrestling barbies/We wrestle like the men/All the girls here enjoy the competition" without wanting to kill yourself. Luckily, the matches are pretty great.
10 Knockout Gauntlet For The Gold
Ms Brooks and Jackie Moore kick this off. There is only 60 seconds per new entrant, so things stay pretty high paced. Jackie has barely planted Brooks with a huge German suplex before Shelly Martinez comes in. Tenay hypes up her "lucha libre moves". This doesn't happen. Awesome Kong enters and Traci and Martinez look rightly terrified. Kong took so long getting to the ring that ODB's music starts before anyone has a chance to attack her. However Kong swiftly backfists Martinez from the top rope to the floor and Jackie eliminates Brooks. Kong swiftly destroys and eliminates Jackie. ODB isn't faring much better until Angel Williams enters. The future Angelina Love tries a sleeper on Kong, which doesn't end well before Kong suplexes her and ODB at once. Christy Hemme comes to the ring, and Kong decimates her, torture racking her and Awesome Bombing her to eliminate her through injury. They really made Kong look like a monster here. Gail Kim rushes to the ring and assaults Kong. Kim gets a headscissors on Kong over the top rope, and Williams and ODB help to eliminate Kong. Talia Madison (Velvet Sky) enters and works a weak looking segment with Williams, before ODB and Kim eliminate Williams. Roxxi Laveaux is the last entrant, and Talia and ODB are eliminated in quick order to leave Kim and Roxxi in a 1-on-1 match. Roxxi hits a swank looking fallaway slam, but Kim comes back with an octopus stretch. Roxxi manages to keep on top with her power advantage, hitting a powerbomb with a (weak) bridge for two. Gail avoids a blow and nails a Kryptonite Krunch to win. The battle royale was fun, especially with the Kong monster push, but the final match was a bit too your-move-my-move.
Roxxi Laveaux vs Angel Williams vs ODB vs Gail Kim
All three challengers focus on Gail right away, but Kim manages to overcome all three. The Voodoo Kin Mafia, who accompanied Roxxi, get thrown out for interfering. Roxxi puts a spell on the ref for this, which means he doesn't count when OBD rolls her up. Christ. Williams botches a flip into the corner, and the camera takes a lingering view of her backside as ODB spanks her. Roxxi and ODB then have a "mental face face-off" in the middle of the ring. ODB hits a 2nd rope Thesz press on ODB for two before Kim makes the save. Feels like ODB is concentrating here on getting her character over which, considering how popular she became, is no bad thing. Gail hits a top-rope crossbody to the outside on Roxxi. Williams flips out of a backslide attempt to DDT ODB in a nice move. All four end up in the ring, and Gail nails a nice diving legdrop on Roxxi for two. Roxxi accidentally spits some mist in ODB's face before getting blitzed with a Gail Kim spear. Kim then hits the Happy Ending on the blinded ODB to win. Fun match.
Angelina Love & Velvet Sky vs ODB & Roxxi Laveaux
With Angelina Love renamed, we are in Beautiful People territory here. Curiously, the BP wrestle like faces in the early going, with Love avoiding a Roxxi attack and controlling the early going. We end up in odd comedy territory as Velvet rides ODB like a horse and wedgies her, before ODB wedgies the ref. Roxxi nails Sky from the outside, so yeah, the BP are faces here as we get the heat section on Velvet. Nice spinebuster from Roxxi gets two. Velvet brekas out of the Dirty Dozen and makes the hot tag to Love. Probably makes sense to Love to be the hot-tag partner, as shes a better wrestler than Velvet, and thus more able to pop a crowd with her moves. The BP throw ODB out and hit a Yakuza kick/Russian legsweep combo on Roxxi to win. Solid, if unspectacular, tag match, but switching the face/heel dynamic for these two teams would soon be one of the smartest things TNA did with the knockouts.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
Kong nails Gail before she even enters the ring, leading to the two brawling outside. Kong naturally has the advantage here, but Gail manages to avoid a clothesline, leading to Kong hitting the post. Gail wisely goes right after the arm, but gets too close to Kong, who grabs her in a sleeper and hurls her across the ring. They both manage to look good in this match: Kim gets to look resiliant, firing away on Kong any chance she gets, whilst Kong gets to look like a monster, as one of her shots in enough to send Gail to the mat. Everything Kong does looks so impactful, and Gail sells every shot like death. When Gail does get on offence, it takes a lot to knock Kong off her feet, so it really means something when she does so. Kong loses control and keeps choking Gail in the corner and shoving the referee to the floor, which earns her a DQ. Kong goes on a rampage afterwards, attacking the ref and both Beautiful People. Great match and, whilst the ending was cheap, it did lead up to a no-DQ match, so makes sense booking wise.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
THIS no-DQ match in fact. Gail gets attacked on the ring apron AGAIN. Kong threatens to Awesome Bomb Gail through the announce table, but Kim bends over far enough to kick Kong in the head with a mule kick. In the ring, Kong is now able to choke Gail with no problems, playing off the last match. Kong sends Gail off the top rope with the spinning backfist. Kong swings Kim into the guard rail, which looks insane. They brawl into the crowd, which I normally hate, but they used it wisely in this match. Gail uses the elevation of the stairs to kick Kong directly in the head, then is able to find a bottle to beat Kong in the head with. The brawling looks really good here, like they're actually having a fight. The no-DQ stip also allows Kim to be able to cause serious pain to Kong, whilst keeping Kong looking like a monster: Kong misses a chairshot and instead gets it kicked into her face to kickstart a spell of offence for Kim. Gail gets caught on a top rope crossbody to the floor and dumped by Kong, which is really impressive. The referee gets powerbombed by Kong for only counting two after a facebuster. Kong loses control again and levels the ref with chairshots, but Gail grabs the chair and waffles Kong with it. What I love with these matches is that, even when Kim is in control, Kong feels like she's only one move from victory so Kim has to stay on top whilst she can. Kong gets two from a chokeslam after a new ref comes in, which sends her furious again. She tries to Awesome Bomb the new ref, but Gail rolls her up, with the ref landing on top of Kong, for the win. Great match, and they used the No-DQ stip effectively.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
This is the first appearance of Raisha Saaed. This time Gail is prepared for Kong's early attack and moves out of the way, which shows she's learnt from the previous matches. They brawl outside where Gail takes a nasty bump into a wall, but avoids a charging Kong who breaks through the stage. In the ring, Gail takes over with a tornado DDT and a top rope senton for two. Saeed distracts Gail, who gets caught off the top by Kong with a chokeslam for two. Kong remains on offence, but they really show the resiliance of Kim as Kong hits her with an implant buster, which only gets two. Gail leaps off the top with a Frankensteiner attempt, but Kong holds her and nails two powerbombs, holding on and nailing the 3rd as an Awesome Bomb for the title. For a sub-ten minute TV match, this was really good stuff, putting Kong over strongly, but also making Kim look tough as nails, with Kong needing to hit 3 powerbombs to be sure of putting her away.
Angelina Love vs Velvet Sky vs Rhaka Khan vs Salinas vs Christy Hemme vs ODB vs Roxxi Laveaux vs Jacqueline vs Traci Brooks vs Gail Kim
I need to highlight how awful Rhaka Khan's ring music is. This is a battle royal with the last two entering a ladder match to become the number one contender to the Knockout title. However, the loser in the ladder match will get her head shaved....unless it's Gail Kim, who won an immunity match, so it would be Angelina taking her place. Already a bit of overbooking, you'll notice. The battle royal part is pretty uneventful, though Jackie and ODB teaming up on Rhaka Khan is quite fun. The final two are Roxxi and Gail, so we'll either see Roxxi or Angelina Love shaved bald. The referees demand Angelina stays at ringside in case she needs to be shaved, but it does also clearly allow her to be at ringside to massively interfere. The booking here is so arse-backwards, as the fans don't want to see Roxxi shaved, so they cheer for her over the number one face in the division. Good plan TNA. It's a shame, as Roxxi and Gail really go for it in this match. Gail takes a proper battering, getting sandwiched at speed between Roxxi and the ladder. Roxxi too takes some lumps, getting monkey-flipped onto a ladder and getting split open on a ladder on the scalp. Roxxi spinebusters Kim onto a ladder in another sick bump, but the BP stop Roxxi from being able to climb and essentially gift victory to Gail, which doesn't really help Gail. Roxxi is then shaved as the BP gloat to a chorus of "Fire Russo" from the crowd. This might have been acceptable if Roxxi got her revenge on Angelina and Velvet, but I'm pretty sure she never did.
Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs Gail Kim & ODB
This is a cage match and should be pretty good. ODB starts with Kong, but gets hurled into her own corner to tag in Kim. Gail demands Saeed gets in, which sorta makes her look scared of Kong. Saeed is, of course, Cheerleader Melissa, and is a rather great wrestler. Her initial exchanges with Gail, working over Kim's left arm is pretty sweet. The problem with the Saeed character is that she soon became the person people would beat in build-up for title matches with Kong, making her little more than a glorified jobber. Kong gives Saeed the advantage by ramming Kim's face into the cage. Saeed uses so many cool little touches while in control, like climbing to the top rope with Gail and ramming her head into the cage over and over with her foot. Kim makes the hot-tag to ODB, but Saeed can't make it to Kong in time, so ODB flattens her. All Hell breaks look, leading to Gail hitting an insane Hurracanrana from the top rope on a standing Saeed, using the cage for assistance. The crowd goes rightly nuts for that. Kong accidentally hits the backfist on Saeed and ODB nails a top rope splash on Saeed for the win. Super-enjoyable tag match.
Taylor Wilde vs Awesome Kong
This was after Taylor had been the most successful challenger from the crowd in the $25,000 Kong challenge and had beaten Raisha Saeed to earn this match (see, told you). Kong blitzes her to start. Like Gail, Taylor isn't afraid to bring the fight to Kong, but uses a few more cat-and-mouse tactics to play the underdog card more clearly. Kong misses a second rope splash, and Taylor gets a 2 count from a missile dropkick. The match is structured differently to the Kim matches, as Taylor is less experienced than Gail so has less spells of dominance. Kong's tendancy for attacking refs comes back into play as she swats one away as he tries to stop her choking Wilde in the corner. This distraction allows Taylor to hit a crossbody, with Kong tumbling over the downed ref for a nearfall. Taylor's inexperience shows again as she tries to German suplex Kong, but instead gets caught in an implant buster for two. Kong goes for the backfist, but Taylor ducks and rolls her up for the win and the title. Not as good as the Kim series, but it told the story it needed to really well.
10 Knockout Gauntlet For The Gold
Ms Brooks and Jackie Moore kick this off. There is only 60 seconds per new entrant, so things stay pretty high paced. Jackie has barely planted Brooks with a huge German suplex before Shelly Martinez comes in. Tenay hypes up her "lucha libre moves". This doesn't happen. Awesome Kong enters and Traci and Martinez look rightly terrified. Kong took so long getting to the ring that ODB's music starts before anyone has a chance to attack her. However Kong swiftly backfists Martinez from the top rope to the floor and Jackie eliminates Brooks. Kong swiftly destroys and eliminates Jackie. ODB isn't faring much better until Angel Williams enters. The future Angelina Love tries a sleeper on Kong, which doesn't end well before Kong suplexes her and ODB at once. Christy Hemme comes to the ring, and Kong decimates her, torture racking her and Awesome Bombing her to eliminate her through injury. They really made Kong look like a monster here. Gail Kim rushes to the ring and assaults Kong. Kim gets a headscissors on Kong over the top rope, and Williams and ODB help to eliminate Kong. Talia Madison (Velvet Sky) enters and works a weak looking segment with Williams, before ODB and Kim eliminate Williams. Roxxi Laveaux is the last entrant, and Talia and ODB are eliminated in quick order to leave Kim and Roxxi in a 1-on-1 match. Roxxi hits a swank looking fallaway slam, but Kim comes back with an octopus stretch. Roxxi manages to keep on top with her power advantage, hitting a powerbomb with a (weak) bridge for two. Gail avoids a blow and nails a Kryptonite Krunch to win. The battle royale was fun, especially with the Kong monster push, but the final match was a bit too your-move-my-move.
Roxxi Laveaux vs Angel Williams vs ODB vs Gail Kim
All three challengers focus on Gail right away, but Kim manages to overcome all three. The Voodoo Kin Mafia, who accompanied Roxxi, get thrown out for interfering. Roxxi puts a spell on the ref for this, which means he doesn't count when OBD rolls her up. Christ. Williams botches a flip into the corner, and the camera takes a lingering view of her backside as ODB spanks her. Roxxi and ODB then have a "mental face face-off" in the middle of the ring. ODB hits a 2nd rope Thesz press on ODB for two before Kim makes the save. Feels like ODB is concentrating here on getting her character over which, considering how popular she became, is no bad thing. Gail hits a top-rope crossbody to the outside on Roxxi. Williams flips out of a backslide attempt to DDT ODB in a nice move. All four end up in the ring, and Gail nails a nice diving legdrop on Roxxi for two. Roxxi accidentally spits some mist in ODB's face before getting blitzed with a Gail Kim spear. Kim then hits the Happy Ending on the blinded ODB to win. Fun match.
Angelina Love & Velvet Sky vs ODB & Roxxi Laveaux
With Angelina Love renamed, we are in Beautiful People territory here. Curiously, the BP wrestle like faces in the early going, with Love avoiding a Roxxi attack and controlling the early going. We end up in odd comedy territory as Velvet rides ODB like a horse and wedgies her, before ODB wedgies the ref. Roxxi nails Sky from the outside, so yeah, the BP are faces here as we get the heat section on Velvet. Nice spinebuster from Roxxi gets two. Velvet brekas out of the Dirty Dozen and makes the hot tag to Love. Probably makes sense to Love to be the hot-tag partner, as shes a better wrestler than Velvet, and thus more able to pop a crowd with her moves. The BP throw ODB out and hit a Yakuza kick/Russian legsweep combo on Roxxi to win. Solid, if unspectacular, tag match, but switching the face/heel dynamic for these two teams would soon be one of the smartest things TNA did with the knockouts.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
Kong nails Gail before she even enters the ring, leading to the two brawling outside. Kong naturally has the advantage here, but Gail manages to avoid a clothesline, leading to Kong hitting the post. Gail wisely goes right after the arm, but gets too close to Kong, who grabs her in a sleeper and hurls her across the ring. They both manage to look good in this match: Kim gets to look resiliant, firing away on Kong any chance she gets, whilst Kong gets to look like a monster, as one of her shots in enough to send Gail to the mat. Everything Kong does looks so impactful, and Gail sells every shot like death. When Gail does get on offence, it takes a lot to knock Kong off her feet, so it really means something when she does so. Kong loses control and keeps choking Gail in the corner and shoving the referee to the floor, which earns her a DQ. Kong goes on a rampage afterwards, attacking the ref and both Beautiful People. Great match and, whilst the ending was cheap, it did lead up to a no-DQ match, so makes sense booking wise.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
THIS no-DQ match in fact. Gail gets attacked on the ring apron AGAIN. Kong threatens to Awesome Bomb Gail through the announce table, but Kim bends over far enough to kick Kong in the head with a mule kick. In the ring, Kong is now able to choke Gail with no problems, playing off the last match. Kong sends Gail off the top rope with the spinning backfist. Kong swings Kim into the guard rail, which looks insane. They brawl into the crowd, which I normally hate, but they used it wisely in this match. Gail uses the elevation of the stairs to kick Kong directly in the head, then is able to find a bottle to beat Kong in the head with. The brawling looks really good here, like they're actually having a fight. The no-DQ stip also allows Kim to be able to cause serious pain to Kong, whilst keeping Kong looking like a monster: Kong misses a chairshot and instead gets it kicked into her face to kickstart a spell of offence for Kim. Gail gets caught on a top rope crossbody to the floor and dumped by Kong, which is really impressive. The referee gets powerbombed by Kong for only counting two after a facebuster. Kong loses control again and levels the ref with chairshots, but Gail grabs the chair and waffles Kong with it. What I love with these matches is that, even when Kim is in control, Kong feels like she's only one move from victory so Kim has to stay on top whilst she can. Kong gets two from a chokeslam after a new ref comes in, which sends her furious again. She tries to Awesome Bomb the new ref, but Gail rolls her up, with the ref landing on top of Kong, for the win. Great match, and they used the No-DQ stip effectively.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
This is the first appearance of Raisha Saaed. This time Gail is prepared for Kong's early attack and moves out of the way, which shows she's learnt from the previous matches. They brawl outside where Gail takes a nasty bump into a wall, but avoids a charging Kong who breaks through the stage. In the ring, Gail takes over with a tornado DDT and a top rope senton for two. Saeed distracts Gail, who gets caught off the top by Kong with a chokeslam for two. Kong remains on offence, but they really show the resiliance of Kim as Kong hits her with an implant buster, which only gets two. Gail leaps off the top with a Frankensteiner attempt, but Kong holds her and nails two powerbombs, holding on and nailing the 3rd as an Awesome Bomb for the title. For a sub-ten minute TV match, this was really good stuff, putting Kong over strongly, but also making Kim look tough as nails, with Kong needing to hit 3 powerbombs to be sure of putting her away.
Angelina Love vs Velvet Sky vs Rhaka Khan vs Salinas vs Christy Hemme vs ODB vs Roxxi Laveaux vs Jacqueline vs Traci Brooks vs Gail Kim
I need to highlight how awful Rhaka Khan's ring music is. This is a battle royal with the last two entering a ladder match to become the number one contender to the Knockout title. However, the loser in the ladder match will get her head shaved....unless it's Gail Kim, who won an immunity match, so it would be Angelina taking her place. Already a bit of overbooking, you'll notice. The battle royal part is pretty uneventful, though Jackie and ODB teaming up on Rhaka Khan is quite fun. The final two are Roxxi and Gail, so we'll either see Roxxi or Angelina Love shaved bald. The referees demand Angelina stays at ringside in case she needs to be shaved, but it does also clearly allow her to be at ringside to massively interfere. The booking here is so arse-backwards, as the fans don't want to see Roxxi shaved, so they cheer for her over the number one face in the division. Good plan TNA. It's a shame, as Roxxi and Gail really go for it in this match. Gail takes a proper battering, getting sandwiched at speed between Roxxi and the ladder. Roxxi too takes some lumps, getting monkey-flipped onto a ladder and getting split open on a ladder on the scalp. Roxxi spinebusters Kim onto a ladder in another sick bump, but the BP stop Roxxi from being able to climb and essentially gift victory to Gail, which doesn't really help Gail. Roxxi is then shaved as the BP gloat to a chorus of "Fire Russo" from the crowd. This might have been acceptable if Roxxi got her revenge on Angelina and Velvet, but I'm pretty sure she never did.
Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs Gail Kim & ODB
This is a cage match and should be pretty good. ODB starts with Kong, but gets hurled into her own corner to tag in Kim. Gail demands Saeed gets in, which sorta makes her look scared of Kong. Saeed is, of course, Cheerleader Melissa, and is a rather great wrestler. Her initial exchanges with Gail, working over Kim's left arm is pretty sweet. The problem with the Saeed character is that she soon became the person people would beat in build-up for title matches with Kong, making her little more than a glorified jobber. Kong gives Saeed the advantage by ramming Kim's face into the cage. Saeed uses so many cool little touches while in control, like climbing to the top rope with Gail and ramming her head into the cage over and over with her foot. Kim makes the hot-tag to ODB, but Saeed can't make it to Kong in time, so ODB flattens her. All Hell breaks look, leading to Gail hitting an insane Hurracanrana from the top rope on a standing Saeed, using the cage for assistance. The crowd goes rightly nuts for that. Kong accidentally hits the backfist on Saeed and ODB nails a top rope splash on Saeed for the win. Super-enjoyable tag match.
Taylor Wilde vs Awesome Kong
This was after Taylor had been the most successful challenger from the crowd in the $25,000 Kong challenge and had beaten Raisha Saeed to earn this match (see, told you). Kong blitzes her to start. Like Gail, Taylor isn't afraid to bring the fight to Kong, but uses a few more cat-and-mouse tactics to play the underdog card more clearly. Kong misses a second rope splash, and Taylor gets a 2 count from a missile dropkick. The match is structured differently to the Kim matches, as Taylor is less experienced than Gail so has less spells of dominance. Kong's tendancy for attacking refs comes back into play as she swats one away as he tries to stop her choking Wilde in the corner. This distraction allows Taylor to hit a crossbody, with Kong tumbling over the downed ref for a nearfall. Taylor's inexperience shows again as she tries to German suplex Kong, but instead gets caught in an implant buster for two. Kong goes for the backfist, but Taylor ducks and rolls her up for the win and the title. Not as good as the Kim series, but it told the story it needed to really well.
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Southside Wrestling: SWE vs HoP Ill Manors
Having been out of touch with the British wrestling scene until I started going to Southside shows earlier this year, it really is heartening to see how much great talent there wrestling all over the UK (a fact verified by how much Brit talent is currently under contract to the WWE and to TNA). SWE constantly deliver a great product, and getting to see such great shows just a stones throw from my house is terrific. House of Pain Wrestling, who are feuding with SWE as the theme for this show, is also a darn fine promotion. Considering they are a training school/promotion based primarily in Nottingham using local talent, they've got a very good roster who are improving all the time: aside from the guys on this show, the likes of Danny Chase, Nate Colt and "Textbook" Dave Breaks are all top wrestlers.
I should mention first off the set-up for the show, which really enhanced the inter-promotion war aspect. Each promotion had their own entrance way and their own ring announcer (HoP providing Harvey Dale, who also operated as manager for most of the HoP guys, and was tremendous as an obnoxious loudmouth throughout), plus the HoP fans were congregated on one side of the ring, giving a real us vs them atmosphere.
El Ligero (SWE) vs Bam Bam Barton (HoP)
A fun battle of power vs speed to kick things off, and the split in the crowd provided an interesting atmosphere from the start. Ligero is a very likable face wrestler, but the HoP fans gave him no slack, cheering the naturally heelish Barton. Ligero used his quickness to take the advantage with a series of kicks, but found himself in trouble as Barton was able to catch him on a pescado. Barton is larger than Ligero, big enough that his power offence looked effective, but not so big that he couldn't keep up with the masked man and he looked decent throughout. The end saw Ligero miss a frog splash, but Barton then missed a spinkick to allow a Ligero rollup for the win, putting SWE 1-0 up. Good opener.
Max Angelus (HoP) vs T-Bone (SWE)
I've been pretty high on Angelus since I first saw him, and matches like this only serve to prove me right. This was a heated grudge brawl after the chairshot Angelus levelled T-Bone with at the June show I wrote up. I've seen Angelus work as an underdog face before, but here he had to wrestle differently, not only having to take some nasty licks from T-Bone (including a tough looking back suplex directly onto the ring apron), he also had to show he could realistically dish out some stiff offence too, which he did. This felt quite short, but there was no lack of effort from both guys and crucially there was little resting too: It felt like two guys wanting to hurt each other. Max ultimately won after nailing a stomach buster on T-Bone (harking back to the rib injuries caused by HoP in June) and a Roaring Clothesline for the win. 1-1
The Predators (HoP) vs the Hunter Brothers (SWE)
Right now, the Predators are one of the best teams in the UK. Not only is their ring work spot on, they have mastered the art of being detestable. Joseph Conners in particular is a shit-talking heel you really want to see get a kicking. This was the Hunters' debut for SWE, so at first there was a bit less heat in the early going. Thankfully, the match was a well-structured tag affair and the pure dickishness of Conners got the fans riled up, including a yell of "You don't even care about the Hunter Brothers". Conners rules. They worked an extended heat sequence on one brother before the hot tag, and the finishing stretch was a really exciting collection of nearfalls. The Hunters slipped up once or twice, but managed to cover nicely, and seemed to have won the fans over by the end. They recovered from a nice looking spike flapjack from the Predators and got a visual pinfall following a top rope Frankensteiner/splash combo, but Harvey Dale distracted the ref and it was the Predators who managed to pick up the win. Realistically, the Predators were always going to win from a logical booking perspective, but there were several moments when I believed the Hunters would win, which shows how much they drew me into the match. Really good match, and now it's 2-1 to HoP.
Robbie X (SWE) vs Alex Gracie (HoP)
This was a battle of the SWE Speed King champion (X) vs the HoP Full Throttle champion. I missed the intro to this on a toilet dash, but there was a 10 minute time limit for this match. Robbie's new haircut was kinda odd, but he carried himself like a champion here and Gracie, who I'd not seen before, held up his end of the match too. The time limit worked against them in a way, as Gracie only got to work a brief heat section on Robbie before they had to go to the finish. Robbie locked a Last Chancery on Gracie as the seconds ran out, and switched to a Dragon Sleeper, but Gracie held on for the draw. I can see why they had to book a draw (protecting both champions), but I could have happily watched another 5 minutes at least of this. Still, leave the customer wanting more...
This was followed by a brief angle where Harvey Dale wanted Max Angelus to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Robbie, with threats of firing if he refused, but Max quit instead.
Michael Elgin vs Prince Devitt
This is the only non-HoP/SWE match on the card, so initially didn't have the heat that the other matches had. However, when you've got guys this talented, you can soon win the crowd back around. Devitt here played underdog for a lot of the match, as he had to cope with the size and freakish strength of Elgin. They built the match up nicely, with an initial feeling out process before Elgin took control. Elgin managed a deadlift German suplex with Devitt lying on the mat, which was super impressive. Devitt managed to come back into it with an insane tope to the floor and just generally looked slick throughout. Elgin held up his end terrifically too, with a deadlift superplex when Devitt was stood on the apron. Devitt thought he'd won it with a top rope stomp, but it took the Bloody Sunday DDT to finish Elgin off. Tremendous match which earned a standing ovation to take us to intermission.
LJ Heron vs Nathan Cruz (SWE) vs "Diamond" Dave Andrews (HoP)
The booking for this match was Cruz representing SWE, Andrews representing HoP and Heron could choose who he was representing if he won. The only time I'd seen Andrews wrestle previously was jobbing in a comedy match in April. Given that Cruz is a pretty big name on the UK scene and Heron is reigning HoP champion, I fully expected Andrews to be there solely to eat the pin to protect the third man. Well, I was half right, as this actually felt like a breakthrough match for Andrews. His ringwork was crisp, and his character work was outstanding. Cruz and Heron are two top workers and Andrews really didn't look out of place. They worked a fun variation on the old Tower of Doom spot, with Cruz German suplexing Andrews from a tree of woe position, whilst Andrews superplexed Heron. Cruz had to play face here, which felt a bit odd (he doesn't cockily yell "Showstealer" anywhere near enough as face), but he played his part nicely. Here the "Showstealer" turned pin-stealer (sorry), nicking the victory after Heron speared Andrews. 2-2
Mad Man Manson (SWE) vs SC Supreme (HoP)
I really like Supreme. He's just a big, nasty chap who likes to beat up his opponents. Plus you've got to love a guy who can cause a child to cower in their father's arms with just one cold look. You may think that putting him in there with Manson might be a clash of styles, but they somehow managed to pull off a comedy match whilst still enabling Supreme to look like a badass. Part of this comes from the nasty chop exchange in the early part of the match, which saw Manson having to give as well as he can take. Supreme is also the only guy who can still look scary doing a "nipple twister" comedy spot with the referee. Supreme dominated once he got in control, and even lifted Manson's shoulders up during a pinfall, to dish out more pain to the man who had made a fool of him earlier on. It backfired though, as Manson pulled out a rollup to pick up the win and put Southside 3-2 up
Stixx (HoP) vs Mark Haskins (SWE)
This was a last man standing match for Stixx's SWE title, and it was a war. Stixx is a lot bigger than Haskins, so I was interested to see how Haskins would be able to put Stixx down for a 10 count. At first Haskins did a good job of going toe-to-toe with Stixx and using his speed and an assortment of kicks to keep in the battle, but soon found himself overpowered. Stixx is one of my favourite guys in SWE to watch. He can wrestle the power game well, but is also able to sell for smaller guys without seeming weak. Haskins really started getting into the match when Harvey Dale tried to interfere with a chair, which Haskins took for himself and used on Stixx. Wisely, he went to the legs of the big man, which gave some realism to the ten counts as Stixx struggled to stand. At this point, the booking came into play which made the last section really exciting. First the ref got bumped with a massive chairshot, leading to a second ref coming to the ring. Earlier on, I'd recognised this ref as HoP wrestler Danger Russ, but I'd given it no more thought, until Haskins had Stixx down for a cert 10 count, only for the new ref to stop counting and give Haskins the fingers. He then tried to fast count Haskins down for ten following a Stixx revival , but Haskins got up in time. At around this point, the ring seemed to fill with SWE/HoP wrestlers following failed interference from Alex Gracie, as the Predators, the Hunter Brothers, Ligero, Barton and Robbie X all piled out, leading to an insane top rope moonsault to the floor from Robbie. A table came into play, which ended up with Stixx getting put through it, but as the referee was counting to ten, Dale clocked Haskins with the SWE title before he fully got to his feet, while Stixx rolled out to the floor, landing on his feet, which meant that only Stixx beat the ten count to win the match.
This put the series at 3-3 and the HoP crowd were celebrating victory, when Max Angelus returned to the ring to cash in his MitB briefcase...
Max Angelus vs Stixx
One Roaring Lariat later, and Max was the SWE champion
Personally, I though the booking on this show was tremendous. Bear in mind SWE uses top wrestlers from around the UK, whereas HoP relies mainly on local talent from their training school, yet HoP were realistically portrayed as a threat throughout the show. The series ended as a draw, the Predators still hold the SWE tag titles, and the new champion is a HoP guy who has defected to SWE. It sets up the feud to continue, plus it should lead to at least one more Stixx/Angelus match, which has delivered both times I've seen it previously. Overall, a cracking night of entertainment
I should mention first off the set-up for the show, which really enhanced the inter-promotion war aspect. Each promotion had their own entrance way and their own ring announcer (HoP providing Harvey Dale, who also operated as manager for most of the HoP guys, and was tremendous as an obnoxious loudmouth throughout), plus the HoP fans were congregated on one side of the ring, giving a real us vs them atmosphere.
El Ligero (SWE) vs Bam Bam Barton (HoP)
A fun battle of power vs speed to kick things off, and the split in the crowd provided an interesting atmosphere from the start. Ligero is a very likable face wrestler, but the HoP fans gave him no slack, cheering the naturally heelish Barton. Ligero used his quickness to take the advantage with a series of kicks, but found himself in trouble as Barton was able to catch him on a pescado. Barton is larger than Ligero, big enough that his power offence looked effective, but not so big that he couldn't keep up with the masked man and he looked decent throughout. The end saw Ligero miss a frog splash, but Barton then missed a spinkick to allow a Ligero rollup for the win, putting SWE 1-0 up. Good opener.
Max Angelus (HoP) vs T-Bone (SWE)
I've been pretty high on Angelus since I first saw him, and matches like this only serve to prove me right. This was a heated grudge brawl after the chairshot Angelus levelled T-Bone with at the June show I wrote up. I've seen Angelus work as an underdog face before, but here he had to wrestle differently, not only having to take some nasty licks from T-Bone (including a tough looking back suplex directly onto the ring apron), he also had to show he could realistically dish out some stiff offence too, which he did. This felt quite short, but there was no lack of effort from both guys and crucially there was little resting too: It felt like two guys wanting to hurt each other. Max ultimately won after nailing a stomach buster on T-Bone (harking back to the rib injuries caused by HoP in June) and a Roaring Clothesline for the win. 1-1
The Predators (HoP) vs the Hunter Brothers (SWE)
Right now, the Predators are one of the best teams in the UK. Not only is their ring work spot on, they have mastered the art of being detestable. Joseph Conners in particular is a shit-talking heel you really want to see get a kicking. This was the Hunters' debut for SWE, so at first there was a bit less heat in the early going. Thankfully, the match was a well-structured tag affair and the pure dickishness of Conners got the fans riled up, including a yell of "You don't even care about the Hunter Brothers". Conners rules. They worked an extended heat sequence on one brother before the hot tag, and the finishing stretch was a really exciting collection of nearfalls. The Hunters slipped up once or twice, but managed to cover nicely, and seemed to have won the fans over by the end. They recovered from a nice looking spike flapjack from the Predators and got a visual pinfall following a top rope Frankensteiner/splash combo, but Harvey Dale distracted the ref and it was the Predators who managed to pick up the win. Realistically, the Predators were always going to win from a logical booking perspective, but there were several moments when I believed the Hunters would win, which shows how much they drew me into the match. Really good match, and now it's 2-1 to HoP.
Robbie X (SWE) vs Alex Gracie (HoP)
This was a battle of the SWE Speed King champion (X) vs the HoP Full Throttle champion. I missed the intro to this on a toilet dash, but there was a 10 minute time limit for this match. Robbie's new haircut was kinda odd, but he carried himself like a champion here and Gracie, who I'd not seen before, held up his end of the match too. The time limit worked against them in a way, as Gracie only got to work a brief heat section on Robbie before they had to go to the finish. Robbie locked a Last Chancery on Gracie as the seconds ran out, and switched to a Dragon Sleeper, but Gracie held on for the draw. I can see why they had to book a draw (protecting both champions), but I could have happily watched another 5 minutes at least of this. Still, leave the customer wanting more...
This was followed by a brief angle where Harvey Dale wanted Max Angelus to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Robbie, with threats of firing if he refused, but Max quit instead.
Michael Elgin vs Prince Devitt
This is the only non-HoP/SWE match on the card, so initially didn't have the heat that the other matches had. However, when you've got guys this talented, you can soon win the crowd back around. Devitt here played underdog for a lot of the match, as he had to cope with the size and freakish strength of Elgin. They built the match up nicely, with an initial feeling out process before Elgin took control. Elgin managed a deadlift German suplex with Devitt lying on the mat, which was super impressive. Devitt managed to come back into it with an insane tope to the floor and just generally looked slick throughout. Elgin held up his end terrifically too, with a deadlift superplex when Devitt was stood on the apron. Devitt thought he'd won it with a top rope stomp, but it took the Bloody Sunday DDT to finish Elgin off. Tremendous match which earned a standing ovation to take us to intermission.
LJ Heron vs Nathan Cruz (SWE) vs "Diamond" Dave Andrews (HoP)
The booking for this match was Cruz representing SWE, Andrews representing HoP and Heron could choose who he was representing if he won. The only time I'd seen Andrews wrestle previously was jobbing in a comedy match in April. Given that Cruz is a pretty big name on the UK scene and Heron is reigning HoP champion, I fully expected Andrews to be there solely to eat the pin to protect the third man. Well, I was half right, as this actually felt like a breakthrough match for Andrews. His ringwork was crisp, and his character work was outstanding. Cruz and Heron are two top workers and Andrews really didn't look out of place. They worked a fun variation on the old Tower of Doom spot, with Cruz German suplexing Andrews from a tree of woe position, whilst Andrews superplexed Heron. Cruz had to play face here, which felt a bit odd (he doesn't cockily yell "Showstealer" anywhere near enough as face), but he played his part nicely. Here the "Showstealer" turned pin-stealer (sorry), nicking the victory after Heron speared Andrews. 2-2
Mad Man Manson (SWE) vs SC Supreme (HoP)
I really like Supreme. He's just a big, nasty chap who likes to beat up his opponents. Plus you've got to love a guy who can cause a child to cower in their father's arms with just one cold look. You may think that putting him in there with Manson might be a clash of styles, but they somehow managed to pull off a comedy match whilst still enabling Supreme to look like a badass. Part of this comes from the nasty chop exchange in the early part of the match, which saw Manson having to give as well as he can take. Supreme is also the only guy who can still look scary doing a "nipple twister" comedy spot with the referee. Supreme dominated once he got in control, and even lifted Manson's shoulders up during a pinfall, to dish out more pain to the man who had made a fool of him earlier on. It backfired though, as Manson pulled out a rollup to pick up the win and put Southside 3-2 up
Stixx (HoP) vs Mark Haskins (SWE)
This was a last man standing match for Stixx's SWE title, and it was a war. Stixx is a lot bigger than Haskins, so I was interested to see how Haskins would be able to put Stixx down for a 10 count. At first Haskins did a good job of going toe-to-toe with Stixx and using his speed and an assortment of kicks to keep in the battle, but soon found himself overpowered. Stixx is one of my favourite guys in SWE to watch. He can wrestle the power game well, but is also able to sell for smaller guys without seeming weak. Haskins really started getting into the match when Harvey Dale tried to interfere with a chair, which Haskins took for himself and used on Stixx. Wisely, he went to the legs of the big man, which gave some realism to the ten counts as Stixx struggled to stand. At this point, the booking came into play which made the last section really exciting. First the ref got bumped with a massive chairshot, leading to a second ref coming to the ring. Earlier on, I'd recognised this ref as HoP wrestler Danger Russ, but I'd given it no more thought, until Haskins had Stixx down for a cert 10 count, only for the new ref to stop counting and give Haskins the fingers. He then tried to fast count Haskins down for ten following a Stixx revival , but Haskins got up in time. At around this point, the ring seemed to fill with SWE/HoP wrestlers following failed interference from Alex Gracie, as the Predators, the Hunter Brothers, Ligero, Barton and Robbie X all piled out, leading to an insane top rope moonsault to the floor from Robbie. A table came into play, which ended up with Stixx getting put through it, but as the referee was counting to ten, Dale clocked Haskins with the SWE title before he fully got to his feet, while Stixx rolled out to the floor, landing on his feet, which meant that only Stixx beat the ten count to win the match.
This put the series at 3-3 and the HoP crowd were celebrating victory, when Max Angelus returned to the ring to cash in his MitB briefcase...
Max Angelus vs Stixx
One Roaring Lariat later, and Max was the SWE champion
Personally, I though the booking on this show was tremendous. Bear in mind SWE uses top wrestlers from around the UK, whereas HoP relies mainly on local talent from their training school, yet HoP were realistically portrayed as a threat throughout the show. The series ended as a draw, the Predators still hold the SWE tag titles, and the new champion is a HoP guy who has defected to SWE. It sets up the feud to continue, plus it should lead to at least one more Stixx/Angelus match, which has delivered both times I've seen it previously. Overall, a cracking night of entertainment
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