CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix 2003

After the first CHIKARA show (previously reviewed), there's a gap of filmed shows until this one from a year later. This is a tag team tournament, with 12 teams competing. A mixed bag this one, though it does improve as the show progresses.

The Nightshift (Blind Rage & Hallowicked) vs Team Midwest (Brad Bradley & Jimmy Jacobs)

Fun opener here. Bradley is the wildcard factor of the match, being substantially bigger than the other guys. He dominates both of the Nightshift with his strength, before press slamming his partner to the outside onto their opponents. He follows with a super-impressive tope, with Jacobs holding the Nightshift in place as a nice touch. The heat, logically, is worked on Jacobs, with some nice double-teams. Particularly liked Blind Rage hitting a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and holding Jacobs in place for Hallowicked to drop an elbow. They establish Bradley as an easily distracted hot-head here, as Nightshift barely have to provoke him before he tries rushing into the ring, distracting the ref. Bradley looks great again on the hot tag, with both Nightshift members taking big flips off clotheslines. Great back suplex on both heels by Bradley, before his short-attention span costs his team the match. Hallowicked grabs his foot as he runs the ropes, prompting him to leave the ring, leaving Jacobs to get pinned following a bridging O’Connor roll from Rage. Good tag formula.

Team Toryumon (Arakencito & Skayde) vs the Superfriends (Chris Hero & Mike Quackenbush)

This one never felt like it got going in a meaningful way, and felt too exhibitiony for most of it’s time. Before the match, it’s announced that Arakencito only needs to pin Hero or Quack for a 2 count to win, and they’d need to pin him for a 4. Arakencito is a little spark plug here, and I dug his run of offence in the closing stages, hitting repeat leaping headbutts on Hero in the corner. The opening stages, however, are given up to some matwork between Quack and Arakencito, and Skayde and Hero. It’s all very smooth and enjoyably goofy (loved Skayde turning a Hero hiptoss into an abdominal stretch), but it all feels quite uncompetitive, like none of the wrestlers are really trying to win. There is an Arakencito tope to Quack that looks great, but there’s no sense of trying to stop tags or actively win the match. The end sees Arakencito try and ill-advised Tiger suplex on the much bigger hero, and Hero instead locking in the Hangman’s Clutch for the tap.

Team FIST (Gran Akuma & Icarus) vs The Conundrum (Jigsaw & Rorschach)

This wasn’t very good, which surprised me because some of these guys were really good within 12 months, but a lot of this was very awkward and sloppy. The reversals of go-behinds by Jigsaw and Icarus looked really co-operative. Akuma hits a lovely dive on Jigsaw, which I hoped would kick start things to life. Jigsaw does some nice heeling here, arguing with the ref whilst draping his knee over his opponents throat, and opportunistically slapping his opponent from the apron. There are some good moments from the heels, including a series of reverse and normal atomic drops, but there are several signs of greenness and hesitancy throughout. The faces regain control following a terrible looking twisting splash that misses by Jigsaw. Rorschach grabbing Akuma to go all the way over on a sunset flip and instead be hit with the Jig N Tonic was nice, before Jigsaw takes a stunner/crossbody combo for the loss. Patchy at best.

American Gigolo & Jolly Roger vs UltraZERO (Ultramantis & Mr ZERO)

At first this feels like a step in the right direction. Mr ZERO looks terrific in the early going, showing himself to be quite graceful for his size and showing nice touches like slapping Roger’s chest to open him up for a headlock. Gigolo and Roger seem to be working heel, and gain control of Ultramantis by Gigolo simply outwrestling him. There’s a lot of headscratching moments throughout, like Gigolo trying to whip Ultramantis towards his own corner during the heat section (and worse, Ultramantis deciding to reverse it), and there’s a few sloppy moments like Roger having to stand like an idiot and watch Ultramantis climb to the top. The faces win with a double-team neckbreaker on Roger, who gets abandoned by his partner.

Swiss Money Holding (Ares & Double C) vs Senior Assault Team (Lester Crabtree & Melvin Snodgrass)

Double C is, of course, the future Cesaro. Brief comedy squash, with the SAT being two masked lads playing old men. Double C sends Irish Whips Snodgrass, sending him off very slowly. This gives the Swiss time to destroy Crabtree in the corner and still have time to hit the onrushing Snodgrass with a double-team spinebuster/neckbreaker combo. Effective enough.

Mercedes Martinez & Sumie Sakai vs The Wildcards (Blackjack Marciano & Eddie Kingston)

Intergender tag match here, and one that does show some of the pitfalls of the genre. Mercedes is pretty tall and looks quite strong, so it’s not too much of a stretch to see her keeping up with and controlling the Wildcards, especially when Marciano is cockily underestimating her. Sakai, however, is tiny, and as talented as she is, it doesn’t look believable for the heels to bump for her. A top rope crossbody to the floor looks very safe given how easily they catch her en route to the floor, and you can see Marciano clearly protecting her on some slams. I did like the story of Kingston in particular being dismissive of Sukai, with some loud mouthed trashtalk, before Sukai gives him comeuppance, but some timing issues mean Kingston is on his feet looking like an idiot on more than one occasion before getting downed with a missile dropkick. Kingston takes slow looking ranas from both women, before Sakai accidentally dropkicks her partner. This allows Marciano to roll up Sakai for the victory. I do like Sakai, I’ve seen her have very good matches with other women, but even in those matches she looked small, so against two men she looked positively tiny, and her offence didn’t look tough enough to overcome that.

The Nightshift vs Team FIST

On the retrospective commentary on the first CHIKARA show, Mike Quackenbush revealed that Blind Rage had some wrestling experience before coming to learn in CHIKARA, and boy does it show. He’s really on here, love the sequence where he hits a necksnap on Akuma, slaps Icarus in the face then holds a chinlock on Akuma whist staring daggers at Icarus on the apron, all in one slick sequence. Everything looks a level above the last FIST match, as the Nighshift are both more experienced than the Conundrum. Icarus looks really good on the hot tag, nicely fired up, though he soon falls prey to a huge crucifix bomb by Rage. The end sees Hallowicked hitting a Michinoku Driver near the ropes, with Rage holding onto a leg to guarantee victory. This was fun

Swiss Money Holding vs The Superfriends

This was a whole heap of fun, and despite going 30 minutes, didn’t feel overlong or padded out. All four guys exchange some really nice mat sequences at the start, including Double C falling victim to the Sword in the Stone from Quackenbush. There’s a fun early spot where Ares twice fakes getting slapped in the face off a rope break by Quack, so on the third time, Quack does just slap him. Things heat up with a dive series, with a Quack flip dive followed by a Double C tope and a twisting dive from Hero. This takes us to the second stage of the match, where SMH work a heat section on Quack, including a great STO/Side Russian legsweep double team. After a long heat period on Quack, Hero then becomes face-in-peril, and this is even better. They pepper in enough hope spots to keep it interesting, but you get little details like Hero ending up in the wrong corner to prolong the heat. Things break down and the SMH spinebuster/neckbreaker only gets two. Hero’s Welcome on Ares gets 2. Hero locks in the Hangman’s Clutch on Ares as Double C locks a chickenwing on Quack and it’s a race to see who taps first…only for the bell to go for the 30 min time limit. Dig the fact they didn’t do any time announcements so as not to telegraph the result.

The Wildcards vs UltraZERO

They were always going to struggle to follow that, being two teams of rookies, but this was also really good. Wildcards jumped their opponents at the bell, which is a sensible change of pace from the previous match. The Wildcards do nothing fancy in this match, they’re just dirty cheating heels, and this also helps their opponents stand out. They concentrate an assault on Mr ZERO’s leg, and I love all the cheating from the apron behind the ref’s back, and Kingston trashtalking to the other corner whilst holding a Boston crab is great. Hot tag is made, and even when all four guys are in the ring and it breaks down, Mr ZERO still sells the legs, which I appreciate. Lovely sequence sees Marciano block the Praying Mantis bomb with a Northern Lights suplex, which Ultramantis holds onto and hits the Praying Mantis bomb second time round. It ends disappointingly though, as Ultramantis hits a really shit looking top rope…suplex? Kingston looks legitimately angry at his landing and ZERO awkwardly covers for the win. Until then, this was good.

UltraZERO vs The Nightshift

This is the tournament final, filmed on another day, but they’ve helpfully added it to this show. UltraZERO control this to start, with Ultramantis frustrating Hallowicked with armdrags, and I dug Mr ZERO holding an abdominal stretch on Hallowicked whilst Ultramantis dropkicked him, with Hallowicked having to eat the full impact. Blind Rage’s offensive run on Ultramantis is really good looking, love the big back suplex and a nice Fujiwara armbar. Rage also has nice little touches like rubbing his head after giving a headbutt, putting over how much thrust he put into it. ZERO tags in, and both Nighshift members take hilarious flip bumps from Mr ZERO clotheslines. Odd moment as Ultramantis goes for the Praying Mantis bomb on Rage, and Hallowicked runs at him but elects not to stop it, instead breaking up the pin on a two count. Hallowicked plants Ultramantis with a top rope brainbuster, and this gets the win and the tournament for the Nightshift. 

WWE Main Event 25/02/2014

Decided I'm going to concentrate on Main Event for my C-show watching, Superstars is too much recapping and not enough wrassling for my tastes. Really fun show this week,

Cody Rhodes, Goldust, El Torito & Los Matadores vs Curtis Axel, Ryback & 3MB

This was a real blast. Face Cody was so much fun here, really nice run of offence before Ryback catches the Disaster Kick and plants him with a powerbomb to make him face-in-peril. Loved the spot where Drew tagged out to Mahal, who tagged out right away to Slater, which meant all three were in the ring to quickly each hit a move on Cody before the ref could remove the non-legal men. Ryback hit a great press-slam into a powerslam. The heels attack the faces on the apron, which leaves Cody no choice but to tag El Torito. Really fun offensive run by Torito before everything breaks down with the faces flying out of the ring onto their opponents. This leaves Torito with Slater, which is won by the bull with a flying headscissors that rams Heath’s head into the canvas. Lots of fun.

Natalya & Eva Marie vs Alicia Fox & Aksana

Ha, and to think I was complaining about watching Cameron vs Aksana on the last episode. Natalya and Fox work a pretty good sequence to start, with Fox hitting this great goofy flying headscissors, but you just know we’re killing time until the inevitable Eva/Aksana showdown. Eva comes in and poor Fox hurls herself around for some arm wringers. Fox takes control before Aksana comes in, and goes to hit her eye-busting knee on Eva, but hilariously Eva totally no-sells her beating and starts crawling for her corner right away. Poor Aksana is forced to try and hit a diving missed knee just to keep some forced sense of drama. Natalya comes in and tries a Sharpshooter on Aksana, but gets shoved into the ropes, hitting Eva on the apron and Aksana rolls her up for the pin. Well, three of the four looked competent.

Darren Young vs Titus O’Neill

PPV rematch here, now relegated to semi-main on Main Event. Nice quick tempo to start before Titus takes control. Love the look of disgust on Titus’ face as he looks at his chest after taking control following a few chops from Young. Titus has some great cocky swagger here, and he beasts Young in a really fun way. Sadly, it’s over pretty quick, and Young escapes a slam to roll up Titus for the win.

Sin Cara vs Damien Sandow

This has Sin Cara’s shitty mood lighting, which doesn’t help the viewing experience. Sandow is really aggressive throughout this, and just wails away at Cara with some stiff looking knees to the gut. Even with the Elbow of Disdain, he does the pose, swiftly goes to the mat to repeatedly punch Cara in the head, then drop the elbow. Was there a Cara/Sandow feud I’d forgotten about, because this is pretty heated for the C-show. Cara comes back with some slightly slow-mo lumpy looking highflying, and gets a very close 2 count from a one-armed powerbomb. The swanton gets three for Cara, and this was a pretty fun change of pace, Sandow’s aggression really helped the match.

Filsinger Games - Legends of Wrestling 2014

So yeah, here's an interesting little show. Basically, me and technology have never been the best of mates. I'm a bit of an old luddite at heart. But, I decided that it might save me time and money to start downloading shows rather than buying them. I got this from Smart Mark Video, and I basically chose it because it was the cheapest show I could find, and wanted to make sure I actually was able to download easily. As it turns out, I had no problem, so here is a very odd show. My research shows that Filsinger Games are a company who made a Legends of Wrestling card game, and seemingly put on this show to promote it. However, a look at the line-up will show that only Brutus Beefcake (and at a stretch Stevie Richards) fit the term "legend" - well, a little research revealed that Marty Jannetty was also due to appear, but no-showed in classic Marty fashion. Still, the rest of the show looks like an interesting enough curiosity...

Alex Reynolds, John Silver & Papadon vs Bill Collier, Brandon Thurston & Jimi The Flying Hippie

Pretty decent six man opener here. The heel team of Reynolds, Silver and Papadon all seemed pretty decent, especially considering the opening stages saw all three having to stooge about for Jimi. The Flying Hippie is a gimmick I’m almost pre-designed to hate, and he was pretty annoying. He seemed fine in the ring, bar a rolling senton to a bent-over Papadon that looked utterly painless. Papadon was probably my favourite guy in this, thought he sold well (including some wonderful stooging on a airplane spin), did some nice offensive touches like rebounding off the bottom two ropes to hit a low clothesline and did some fun shit-talking while on offense, which saw him eat a punch to the face. Thurston looked pretty green, bar a nice tilt-a-whirl into an armbar, so I was surprised to learn he was a 10-yr veteran at this point. The heels work heat on Thurston until Collier tags in, and he’s basically the world’s best Colin Cassady. Moves like a big guy, uses his weight and size to crash into people, and showed nice strength in holding all three heels up for a fallaway slam/Samoan drop combo. Everything breaks down with a string of finishers and Collier simply punches Reynolds in the face to knock him out for the win.

Stevie Richards vs Chuck Taylor

This was for Taylor’s 24/7 Kentucky Hardcore title. Stevie looks in fantastic shape here, looking really cut. Before the match starts, a fat Doink waddles out and rolls up Taylor to win the title. Stevie quickly gives him the Steviekick, and becomes the defending champion going into the match. This sets the tone for a really disjointed comedy match. There’s a load of terrible Taylor schtick at the start of this, which is really annoying, and it’s utterly infuriating how he can’t sell a move without pulling a stupid face or yelling at a fan. I like the way the commentators put over Richards’ hardcore experience to explain his dominance early, and he takes maybe the best bump on the show as he’s hurled through a chair into a bin. Stevie takes control again with some lovely punches, before the match totally drops off a cliff.

Basically, commentator Robert Evans enters the ring with a mic, explaining he’d made a deal with another promotion, and had a court order to stop the show. Because the middle of the match is the perfect time for that. Stevie rips up the paper, teams with Taylor to beat up Evans, then the match resumes. Just bafflingly bad booking to properly take me out of the match.

Anyway, the restart goes maybe two minutes. We get a ref bump, both guys hitting low blows, some guy in a mask hitting a DDT on Stevie, then Taylor retaining. Just a hotchpotch mess of a match, though Stevie looked really good. I don’t blame this shit on him.

Brutus Beefcake & John McChesney vs Bennett Cole & Rocky Reynolds

Right, let’s be honest to start: no, this isn’t a great match. Even in his prime, Beefcake wasn’t great and this is him aged 57, so it’s unlikely he’s going to be great here. But, to be fair, he also wasn’t terrible– he worked over the arm of Reynolds nicely, worked a double-team or two with McChesney, could still get his leg to face height to hit a big boot and, most importantly, looked happy to be there, and you can’t expect much more from him than that. Most of the match was Reynolds working McChesney, and that was pretty good. Reynolds was like a mix of Fritz von Erich and Crash Holly, small with a gravelly voice and a real fun presence in the ring. I thought he looked pretty good, loved little things like him selling his injured arm after hitting an ax-handle. Cole was a big fat guy, and his stuff looked pretty wimpy. At one point McChesney hits a top rope rana, which sees him land on the floor before Cole manages to take a bump, and that’s on Cole. I thought the Reynolds/McChesney segments were good, and Brutus tried, so I enjoyed this for what it was. The end saw Brutus lock the sleeper on Reynolds, drawing two associates of Reynolds’ manager into the ring for the DQ. The faces knock these two men out, and cut of their hair, which gives the show a crowd pleasing finish. 

JCW Slam TV Episode 3

Trent Acid vs NOSAWA

Acid does a great job riling up the crowd, taking his sweet time getting to the ring, blessing the crowd with holy water from the apron (a crowd who must have loved that ICP song where they sang about how their entire was for God), stalls some more, has a pray in the corner…then tells the crowd that God has told him not to wrestle. Amazing work by Acid, who walks to the back, leaving ICP to find a replacement…

NOSAWA vs CJ O’Doyle

I remember the name of O’Doyle from the early 00’s, but I never saw him wrestle. He’s got an amazingly generic look, with a shit orange mask on and some black shorts with the Irish flag on. The ICP clearly think he’s hilarious as they talk about his ludicrous mask and massive feet all match. He hits a lovely overhead belly-to-belly following a sneak attack, but the rest of his performance is him selling for NOSAWA, and his selling is endearingly goofy. NOSAWA blitzes him with kicks, nails a standing Shining Wizard followed by a Michinoku Driver for 3

Man Man Pondo vs Corporal Robinson

This is for Robinson’s JCW title, and has Pondo accompanied by Necro Butcher. Robinson has brought a barbed-wire baseball bat, which gets used throughout. Robinson nails a superkick, which is the last non-weapons move in the match. The rest of the bout is quite entertaining, in a hardcore nonsense way. Robinson hitting a running knee in the corner to drive the bat into Pondo’s face looked good, as did his bulldog of Necro onto the barbed-wire bat. Pondo’s offensive run isn’t quite so good, as Corp basically lands on him during a piledriver through the table, though I loved Pondo just hurling a bin right at Robinson. Corp hits a 2^nd rope powerbomb and Boot Camp, both onto Pondo’s trademark stopsign, for 3. Not going to blow away anyone who’s seen these guys before, but as a “greatest hits” for the two of them, it was fun.

WWF Main Event 18/2/2014

Reasonable edition of Main Event here. One very good match, one ok bout and one stinker is a worthwhile use of 50 minutes.

The Shield vs Sin Cara & Los Matadores

This is the logical follow-up to the Wyatts/Cara & Matadores bout from the last main event, with the Shield due to face the Wyatts at the next PPV. The Shield members aren’t as big as the Wyatt’s, so the face team doesn’t have to hit-and-run as much here, instead outsmarting Ambrose and Rollins in the early going. Loved the Total Elimination variant on Rollins by Los Matadores. The fans are well up for a bit of Roman Reigns here, and he’s the gamechanger in the match, making Fernando the face-in-peril by blasting through him. The heat section is brief, leading to a Sin Cara hot tag, but Cara soon becomes FIP, and they work a longer heat section on him. I’d forgotten how not-silly Dean Ambrose used to be on offence, as he grounds Cara with a chinlock, and hits a nasty sharp headbutt to prevent him from making a comeback. There’s a few nice teased tags before Cara tags Diego, and Ambrose is really portrayed as the weak link here (as per the upcoming PPV match), as Diego dominates and Ambrose needs saving on a few occasions. Reigns stops a double-dive by spearing Fernando and Cara, and I loved Ambrose holding Diego up for an elevated Superman punch. Curb stomp gets the win, and this was a fun trios bout, if not as good as the Wyatt’s bout the previous week.

Cameron vs Aksana

Oh fuck off! Aksana is still playing off her clumsy kneedrop to Naomi, and she drops an early knee to Cameron’s head, teasing an early countout victory. Sadly, we aren’t that lucky, as Cameron gets in and bumps around awkwardly for Aksana’s offence. Her offence is even worse, and you know things are bad if there’s a noticeable difference in quality between yourself and Aksana of all people. A roll-up gets 3 for Cameron, so at least it was quick.

Kofi Kingston vs Curtis Axel

I didn’t hate this, but that was almost entirely due to Axel. He bumps around nicely for some of Kofi’s suspect looking offence, including some big flip bumps as his leg gets taken out. Axel is accompanied by Ryback, so Mark Henry comes out midway through to even the sides, but this doesn’t become a tag match sadly. I realised here why I’m not a big Kingston fan – he’s clearly very athletic and gets a great height on all his moves, but his high-flying isn’t very impressive. He’ll get high in the air, but only to hit a sloppy legdrop or a weak looking chop. By contrast, Axel’s stuff looks really good, nice snug belly-to-back suplex. Ryback takes out Kingston on a dive attempt to draw the DQ, but Henry sends him outside for Kingston to hit a big flip dive anyway. Fine, but nothing worth going out of your way to see.

Pro Wrestling Chaos - Rhynos, Boars, Birds & Beards 2015

Feels way too long since I've reviewed a Pro Wrestling Chaos DVD on here, especially as I loved To Crown A King which I wrote about last year. This DVD came courtesy of Wrestlecrate UK, which I signed up to last month, and this was a real treat to find in the box.

Morgan Webster vs Mark Andrews

Andrews is a mystery opponent, as Webster has challenged any graduate of the Dragon Pro wrestling academy to face him. Webster is heel here, and he’s so much better cast as a snotty, whiny heel. What’s great about heel Webster is how he tones down the high-flying so as not to get pops, which also allows the opponents high-flying to shine. This is especially true against a guy like Andrews, who’s arguably Britain’s best high-flyer. After fighting off a sneak attack by Webster, Andrews hits a lovely standing moonsault. I loved the camerawork as Webster throws Andrews out, and the camera follows Webster so the audience discovers Andrews landed on the apron at the same time as he hits an enzuigiri to the head of Webster. Webster takes control as he throws his t-shirt at Andrews as he stands on the top rope, and I enjoyed his control work, including some nasty repeat headbutts to Andrews in the corner. He takes too long going to the top rope for the 450, and this allows to move for the comeback. A standing corkscrew moonsault by Andrews is off target, as he only hits the legs of Webster, but the rest of his offensive run looks great. Loved the victory roll swiftly transitioning to a standing stomp, and a swank reverse rana gets two. Webster, being a great cunt heel, uses the ref to block a charge, pokes Andrews in the eye and hits a cradle neckbreaker for two. Great nearfall. He goes to level Andrews with his helmet, but Panda Cub comes out to stop him. Webster goes to yell at him from the inside of the ring, but this puts him in place for an Andrews 619, and the shooting star press finishes for Andrews. Super opener.

Jeckel vs Tommaso Ciampa

Both guys have a similar look, with bald/cropped hair and beards. Some fun opening hijinks sees Ciampa end up with Jeckel’s manager’s jacket, dropping some Flair-esque elbows on it. However, this gives Jeckel an opening to attack. It doesn’t last long, as Ciampa nails a perfect knee to the face. I loved the outside brawling segment, and thought the spot where Ciampa got fans to hold Jeckel over the railings so he could hit a long-run-up running knee was great. Engages the fans and means Jeckel doesn’t look like an idiot lying in place for 20-30 seconds. The Jeckel control section was decent, enjoyed him just wearing down Ciampa without doing anything to pop the crowd. Both guys use strikes, but by Jeckel using less of them, it allowed Ciampa’s to look more impressive. Jeckel tries a rebound lariat, but totally telegraphs it with Ciampa staring at him for the full cycle, so I loved that Ciampa just clotheslined him right away. Jeckel’s manager sacrifices himself after Ciampa hits two running knees in the corner, as Ciampa murders him with a chop and three running knees to the face. However, this buys times for Jeckel to hit a low blow and a Michinoku Driver for the win.

Jinny vs Martina Kirby

The Martina gimmick is ridiculously over for Kirby wherever he goes, and though he plays it for laughs, it’s never played by his opponents as just being Martin Kirby in a dress, but as an actual woman wrestler. To begin, Jinny demands a walk-off, with a fan, wrestler Robbie Caine and Mr Bananas as judges. Unsurprisingly, Kirby wins, so Jinny attacks him from behind. Kirby hits a nice tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and enzuigiri, but he bumps so well that it becomes a bit of a Jinny showcase. Big DDT sees Kirby planted on the top of his head, and I loved Jinny dropkicking Kirby’s legs as he stood on the second ropes to then hit an X-Factor from height. She makes the mistake of yelling at the ringside judges, and this lets Kirby hit the Sable Bomb for the win. Fun deal.

The Doomsday Killers (Ian Williams, KillBane & Big Grizzly) vs Gideon, Mikey Whiplash & Rhyno

Really great 6-man tag. The underlying thread sees Williams playing chickenshit heel, desperate to avoid facing Gideon. The fans are really hot for the Rhyno/Big Griz face-off, especially after Whiplash had failed in the ring against Griz to really put over his dominance. Rhyno downs Grizzly, but takes 3 shoulderblocks to do so. Really loved Whiplash’s armwork on KillBane, really vicious looking snap to it. The heels work over Whiplash following a KillBane tilt-a-whirl, and do it really well. All quick tags, hitting their offence, then tagging out to a fresh guy right away. Loved Williams’ chickenshit work, as he misses a corner charge to let Gideon tag in, and immediately sprints from the ring to avoid facing him. The heels soon work over Gideon, with Griz looking great at using his strength and size to dominate. You really buy him as an unmovable object. Everything breaks down after Williams misses an elbow on Gideon, and we end with Williams in the ring with a downed Rhyno. Williams does this great cocky celebration…too cocky as Rhyno gets up. Rhyno misses the Gore, runs into a big punch from Griz and gets rolled up by Williams, with his feet on the ropes for the really cheap heel victory. Love it, the total chickenshit of the match beats the big star in the cheapest way possible. Aside from the great ending, loved how this kept moving, and was geared up to make everyone look good.

No 1 Contendership Rumble

Really appreciated the way they rounded off some storylines in this bout. Jeckel getting eliminated in 5 seconds by El Ligero and Mark Andrews was a fun start, and obviously watching Jim Diehard come in and squash both Ligero and Mandrews was fun to watch. Both Henchmen end up in the ring at the same time and have a fun run of dominance. Loved the way they paid off the last match as Rhyno is in the ring when Ian Williams is announced. Williams doesn’t want to get in and is in the aisle so long, the next contender comes out…that being Gideon. Gideon throws him in the ring, Rhyno Gore’s him and presses Williams over the top to the floor. Gideon eliminates himself to hit an ax handle from the top to the floor. Loved that all going full circle.

There were a few other fun spots throughout: loved Sam Wilder using the railings to stop his feet hitting the floor, really enjoyed Scotty Essex hitting a DVD on Big Grizzly, then hitting a DVD on Bunny The Buff ONTO Grizzly. A mysterious masked man enters and eliminates Mikey Whiplash, but gets pulled out from the ring by Whiplash to fight to the back. Morgan Webster runs from the back to eliminate Panda Cub, paying off the earlier match, and that leaves Alex Steele in with Big Grizzly. Steele manages to get Griz out to seemingly win, but the mysterious masked man comes back to throw him out and win. Good Rumble.

Wild Boar vs Mike Bird

This is a 30 minute Iron Man match for Bird’s King of Chaos title. Bird stalls a bit to start, before Boar tires of it, and tries a dive, which Bird meets with a punch to the face. Boar is portrayed here as having more heart and will to win, whilst Bird is cunning and trying to win in a devious manner. Bird hits a low blow and crowns Boar with a chairshot to give Boar a 1-0 lead via DQ. Bird swiftly pins Boar to level things at 1-1, then hits a cradle piledriver for a 2-1 lead. Nice psychology. Bird throws Boar out of the ring to try and get a countout win, whilst buying himself time, but Boar gets in on 9. Bird throws him out again, but this just buys Boar more recovery time so, when Bird tries another piledriver, Boar jackknife pins him to tie things up at 2-2. At this point, Bird starts to lose his focus, getting more and more angry at Boar’s refusal to stay down. Boar is slowly, but surely shaking off the cobwebs, and there’s this awesome moment when he’s finally fully-charged, and just EXPLODES with offence. Great suicide dive, and his corner cannonballs always look great. Loved the moment when Bird tries to headbutt him, and Boar just blitzes him with a flurry of headbutts. Bird takes control again, but can’t put Boar away, and this drives him crazy in the final minutes. Loved the Bird crossface, where he grabs Boar’s free arm as he goes for the ropes and turns it into a sort-of Regal stretch. Bird hits a piledriver, but Boar kicks outa two. Bird tries a second, but Boar reverses it to the Trapper Keeper for the 3-2 lead with a second remaining to win the title. Absolutely loved this, and they did a great job of filling 30 minutes without it dragging. Loved the underlying story of Bird being too cocky, then not being able to take control when he needed to. Loved how both guys sold their desperation at the end, and this was a great feel-good moment. Afterwards, the mysterious masked man attacked Boar and unmasked as Jeckel to set up the next show.

WWE Superstars 21/2/2014

Continuing our run through WWE C-shows, it's time to hit up Superstars. Based on this episode, I suspect I'll enjoy it less than Main Event, with too much time spent on Raw/Smackdown recaps. Stuff that noise, use that time to give me a Fandango vs Heath Slater match!

Natalya vs Tamina
This match starts really oddly, as Natalya walks towards Tamina with her arms raised up high and takes a punch to the stomach straight away to give Tamina the advantage. Made Nattie look like an idiot. Tamina basically controls the bulk of the match from hereon, maintaining her advantage with a vicious looking clothesline. Tamina hits a slightly clumsy looking powerslam before Natalya starts her comeback. Nice to see Natalya showing some real fire too, but her spinning clothesline gets blocked with a big boot to the face. Tamina tries a Samoan drop, which Nattie escapes and puts on the Sharpshooter straight away for the tapout. Really poor structure, as Tamina basically dominates in an uninteresting way, then Nattie gets the win with one of her first real offensive moves.

Big E vs Drew McIntyre
Man, Big E really was the C-show king at this time. I actually thought this was a step up from the Main Event match the same week. Loved Big E showing off his power by catching a McIntyre crossbody and hitting 3 backbreakers. Drew gets control following the smallest Jinder Mahal distraction, as his leaping on the apron gives Drew an extra second or two to avoid a corner charge. Like the Main Event match, Drew works over Big E's arm, but it's more effective this time. Firstly because it makes sense with Big E jarring his shoulder on the corner charge, but also due to how Drew uses it. Here, he's more actively trying for pinfalls and, when he only gets two, goes to the arm as a weak point to control Big E to buy some time to think. In the end, it's Drew's overconfidence that costs him: he starts pounding Big E in the corner, but pauses to lambast the crowd for counting along. This gap allows Big E to throw him down and run though his finishing sequence to hit the Big Ending for the win. Really fun match here, though at this point I'd like to see Big E mixing up that finishing run a bit. Still, enjoyed this.