TNA Bound For Glory 2015

Those of you who were reading this blog in it's formative days might have noticed I used to review a lot of TNA. In the days when I had minimal internet access and way before I had a load of streaming channels available, I had to basically rely on what I had available which, due to Lovefilm and Challenge TV, was mainly TNA. But until today, I'd not watched any recent TNA in a couple of years. I'd recorded this back in October, but never gotten round to watching it. However, having the house to myself for the weekend meant I worked through some of the stuff on my Skybox, and I decided to give TNA another go...

Tigre Uno vs Andrew Everett vs Manik vs DJZ

This is an Ultimate X match for Uno’s X Division title. Uno actually looks really sloppy at the start, with an attempted tornado DDT on Manik barely connecting. The crack TNA camera crew manage to miss a DJZ dive, before Everett hits all four men with a springboard shooting star to the floor. I like that it Everett who was the first up from that and going for the title, made it look like a wise tactical move. I like that as all four guys have taken some offence, they start going for the title believing the others might be suitably worn down, though Uno deciding against going for the X to hit a 450 to the floor on DJZ seems a bit dumb. The end sees Uno and Everett both at the title and Everett taking a huge bump to the mat to let Uno retain. Nothing spectacular, but a fun opener

Number One Contender’s Gauntlet

This seemed to be basically a “get everyone else on the card” match, and really wasn’t up to much. Too many generic looking wrestlers in black trunks not really doing much. It gets to the point where the arrival of Aiden O’Shea and Robbie E boost things a whole lot, with unique looks and, in Robbie’s case, a sudden burst of energy to the match. You also get the likes of Tommy Dreamer and Al Snow turning up and getting better reactions than the rest of the roster. It’s most glaring during a mid-match comedy spot where everyone does the Sheera Shuffle and the audience simply doesn’t care. Pope entering the match, realising that the only wrestlers not down were Abyss and Tyrus, who were both looking at him, and immediately exiting did raise a smile. The final two are Mr Anderson and Tyrus, which sees Tyrus basically no-sell Anderson’s offence and hit a thumb to the throat to win. Totally skippable.

The Wolves vs Trevor Lee & Brian Myers

This started off pretty evenly, until Lee hits a swank looking moonsault slam on Richards to take control. A large part of this match was fought in classic tag team formula, and when Lee and Myers worked heat on the Wolves, it was really good. Myers isn’t a particularly flashy wrestler, but he’s good at working tag formula, be it grounding his opponent to reduce the chance of them tagging out, or luring Richards into the ring to allow a beatdown on Edwards, grinning over the refs shoulder at Davey. This also led to the second hot tag of the night, as the sight of a recovering Edwards led both Myers and Lee tried to attack Richards on the apron, who dropped down, causing the heels to turn round to a shit looking two person rana by Edwards. I also liked the build of Myers stopping Richards diving on Lee, before Edwards sends Myers outside and the Wolves hit a double dive. Nice pay off. Sadly things do break down a bit in the final minutes, with just a load of moves leading to Richards pinning Lee with a brainbuster, but the meat of this bout was really fun.

Bobby Lashley vs Bobby Roode

Bit of a disappointment this one. I actually thought Lashley looked better than I remembered him, had good movement and some of his offence looked really good. I also liked his game plan of ramming Roode’s shoulder into the ringpost  and concentrating on it with a repeated keylock. However, it was the layout of the match that didn’t work. After Lashley dominated (included impressively plucking Roode out of midair and hitting a powerslam), he then hit a spear for two. Right away, Roode gets up and hits a Roode Bomb for 2. No build, just hoists a massive guy onto his injured shoulder and hits his finisher. From there, we get some awkward submission trading, both guys hitting the other’s finisher then Roode hitting another Roode Bomb for the win. Real anti-climax.

Gail Kim vs Awesome Kong

Match of the night to this point. Kong just plays brickwall to start, with Kim bouncing off her. I liked Kim instead going to the knee of Kong, slowing her down to give Kim time to hit a moonsault. I loved Kim locking a leglock on Kong then, realising Kong might make the ropes, switching to a front facelock. Really great looking nearfall as Kong blocks a top rope rana and instead hits a 2^nd rope splash. On the outside, Kim takes a nutty bump as Kong hits the Implant Buster on some chairs. Getting her back inside means Kong only gets a two from it, so tries for a top rope Implant Buster, which Kim reverses to a top rope Eat Defeat for the win. Really liked this, all logical work.

Eric Young vs Kurt Angle

This is a no DQ match, and the first few minutes of this were really good, some nasty looking brawling on the floor. Then Young hits a piledriver on Angle and it all goes to shit. They work an injury angle, with one doctor telling the ref to call off the match. Instead of doing that, the ref watches Angle get walked to the back, before Young assaults all the medical staff and drags Angle back to the ring. For some reason, the ref decides not to call off this match and allows Young to keep working over Angle’s severely injured neck. Some of Young’s offence looks suitably dickish. Loved him hitting a top rope elbow, then flipping Angle over and hitting an elbow right to the neck. Angle’s offence seems to rely mainly on German suplexes. I did think the end was good, with Angle managing to lock on the Ankle Lock. Young managed to grab the bottom rope, but was told there was no DQ for Kurt holding onto the move, and Angle dragged him back into the middle for the tapout.

EC3 vs Matt Hardy vs Drew Galloway

Main event and match of the night. Really well worked triple threat, and thankfully contained the bare minimum of “one man lies of the floor whilst the other two fight” spots. What it did have was a succession of great looking bumps and big spots that paid off. EC3 started the trend by driving himself and Hardy through the ropes to the floor to reverse a Twist of Fate, before Galloway follows them out with a massive tope. Galloway then reversed an attempted powerbomb through a table by EC3 to a Celtic Cross on the ring steps. Absolutely mental spot. I didn’t like Hardy deciding to try a backslide on Galloway, as it seemed to only happen to allow Drew to reverse to the Futureshock DDT. Another nutty spot as EC3 suplexed Hardy from the apron to the floor, through a table that Galloway was laying on. However, the failure of his big spots to earn him the win would cost EC3. After a double 1%er failed to earn him the win, he snapped, trying to provoke ref Jeff Hardy into assaulting him with a chair. It worked, as Jeff nailed him with the chair, causing Galloway to boot him out of the ring, only for Matt to hit the Twist of Fate to win the title. Really fun three way, and crucially all the big spots hit.

WWE Main Event 25/03/2014

Pretty disappointing episode of Main Event here. Fuck knows what I did to deserve two Ziggler matches.

Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio vs Dolph Ziggler

Christian had won a four-way on Raw to face Big E for the IC strap on this episode of Main Event, but had picked up his career ending concussion, so the other three from the match had this triple threat to see who got the match. Nice little one-show angle. The problem this match suffers from is that you’ve got two guys really laying in their blows, putting in a sense of struggle when trying to escape holds, and it clashes with the wrestling style of Ziggler, who’s offence looks milky in comparison and isn’t the kind of guy who puts in realistic touches. Compare Del Rio punching at Sheamus in a failed attempt to prevent the rolling senton with Ziggler hitting his “opponent holds me in the air until I slap his back to let him know it’s time for a DDT” DDT. With Del Rio being the only heel, he controls a good part of this match, working over Ziggler and keeping Sheamus on the outside (I appreciated ADR going back to make sure Sheamus couldn’t get back in, rather than Sheamus mysteriously vanishing for ages as in most triple threats). Sheamus’s comeback is great, he’s a terrific offensive wrestler and I love how he builds up momentum, hitting more and more moves from the ropes so he’s like a big block of muscle crashing into his opponents. The end sees a really hot sequence between ADR and Sheamus, before Sheamus misses a Brogue Kick and ends up stranded on the ropes. ADR hits the backstabber, but Ziggler comes in to hit the Zig Zag on him at the same time. Even though Del Rio landed in exactly the same way that he was going to, this earns the win for Ziggler. Dolph really was a subtraction by addition to this match.

Natalya, Naomi, Cameron, Emma & Eva Marie vs Layla, Alicia Fox, Tamina, Summer Rae & Aksana

AJ Lee is on commentary, as this is just a brief bout to showcase the entrants in the “AJ Lee vs the world” match at Mania. Being so short, no-one really gets the chance to stand out, bar Layla looking awesome as a stooging heel. She’s not afraid to look daft to put her opponent over, even doing a goofy version of the Robot to counter Emma’s terrible dance. Eva Marie becomes face-in-peril, and surprisingly working heat on the least popular and least sympathetic member of the face team doesn’t generate much reaction from the crowd. Naomi gets the hot tag and immediately hits a terrible rana on Tamina. She improved SO much on her heel turn. It all breaks down, leaving Tamina to nail a superkick on Naomi for the win.

Big E vs Dolph Ziggler

This match really doesn’t work, as both guys seem to have trouble clicking. They’re in a strange boat where the bigger face IC champ is taking on a smaller guy who wrestled a ten minute match earlier in the hour, so they need to find a way to make sure Big E doesn’t look like a bully. Seemingly the solution they choose is for Ziggler to sell zero exhaustion from his earlier match, which has the unfortunate side effect of making Big E look weak as he ends up selling more than Dolph in this match. There’s too many odd moments here that don’t work: Big E jams his shoulder on the ring post on a corner charge, but this doesn’t get worked over or sold again in the bout. Ziggler’s offence is reduced to just dropkicks, whilst Big E keeps on hitting clotheslines. It’s just not a very good match, though I liked the ending: Big E throws Ziggler up in the air, causing him to splat on the mat and grabs him as he bounces upwards to hit the Big Ending for the win.

NYWC Going The Distance 2015

The NYWC is the New York Wrestling Connection, a US indy that gave the world the likes of Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins and Trent Baretta, and they've just launched an online streaming service. Seeing as how it worked out as about £2 per month, I decided to sign up and check out what was on offer, and settled upon this show.

Dan Barry vs Jesse Neal

This was a perfectly ok match. Hadn’t seen anything of Neal since his TNA days, and he had some good moments here, nice little heel touches like scraping his boot on Barry’s face and little stomps and kicks. Barry is someone I’ve seen people talk highly about, but he didn’t really shine here. I did like the superplex he hit, especially as both guys really fought over it, but the sloppy flatliner/DDT he hit looked really poor. Barry misses a shooting star press and Neal spears him for the win.

Tony Mamaluke vs Tyler Murphy

Getting older has allowed Mamaluke to fill out some more, he’s not as rake thin as he used to be, and it kind of suits him to be working as a grizzled veteran. Really liked his opening wristlock stuff, and the way Mamaluke cut off Murphy’s first shot at building momentum with a nasty clothesline. Mamaluke also takes a few nutty bumps to help put over Murphy. It was harder to get a read on Murphy, but he looked fine here, really good looking suicide dive. Murphy gets a single leg crab, and Mamaluke does this great sell job, frantically grabbing the ropes then clawing at the ref in an attempt to alleviate the pain. He escapes, but the leg injury causes him to lose his balance on the top rope, and Murphy locks in another crab. Mamaluke sells the shit out of it, and just about hangs on for the time limit draw. Dug this.

The Beaver Boys (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) vs The Premiere Gods (Tony Nese & Papadon)

I really enjoyed Papadon last time I watched him, and he was still really fun here. He’s great at playing a loudmouth braggart, yelling at the ref when things go wrong and stooging magnificently when the faces take him down, which is the case here. The Premiere Gods take over on Reynolds after ambushing Silver when all four guys are in the ring, leaving Reynolds isolated. I like the fact that Silver is so beaten down he can’t even get to the apron and, when it looks like he might make it, Papadon hurls Reynolds from the ring, sending him crashing into Silver and the railings, and preventing the tag from being made. Silver looked good when the hot tag was made, with a great looking sitout powerbomb on Nese. All four guys end up in the ring, and things break down a bit, leading to a nice finishing run when Papadon hits a Canadian Destroyer on Reynolds, followed by Nese hitting a Jig-N-Tonic for the win.

Angelo Andrews vs Drew Gulak

This was face vs face, with Gulak spending the majority of the bout in control. According to Cagematch, Andrews is very much a rookie at this point, and Gulak controls him quite easily on the mat. Gulak is always portrayed as dominant, but it never feels like he’s taking advantage of Andrews in the ring, just that he’s better. Andrews gets a few nice spots, loved him catching Gulak’s head as he goes for a second headbutt, and hitting a neckbreaker, but some of his offence looked light. There was a lot of air shown on his atomic drop and knee to the face. Loved Gulak’s wristwork, especially when he contorts Andrews’ wrist in such a way that it’s held down under Gulak’s bodyweight, leaving his hands free to simultaneously wrench at his head. In the end, Gulak locks in a Cattle Mutilation, and quickly transitions to a wristlock for the tap.

Joe Gacy vs JT Kasin

This is for Gacy’s Fusion championship. These are two big lads, though there’s something odd about the way Kasin looks. He doesn’t have the movements of a wrestler, he just looks like the local hard lad who’s been put into the ring for a scrap. Gacy works over the arm of Kasin, amplifying this after Kasin rams his shoulder into the post. Gacy actually looks pretty decent throughout, with his armwork looking great, before he gets the tapout with the Rings of Saturn

Stockade vs David Starr

Stockade is the NYWC champion and this is for his belt. Stockade is a big, big lad, so it’s an odd game plan for Starr to try and take him down with shoulder blocks. From then on though, this is a fun match, and it’s even a bit All Star-ish in places, with simple logical work the order of the day. For example, after Starr chops the ring post, both guys act like they should: Stockade grabs the hand and rams it into the railings, whilst Starr quickly tries to put as much distance as possible between him and the monster. I liked the little touches they put into the match, like Starr yelling with exertion when he breaks free from a chinlock. Stockade misses a big top rope senton, but though Starr fires back, Stockade ends his challenge with a big clothesline for the win. Good match

Matt Tremont, Blake Morris & Rex Lawless vs DJ Hyde, Brandon Watts & Randy Summers

Summers and Watts make up the team of Milk Chocolate, so named because of their mixed ethnicity. This is a street fight, and really is a match of two halves. The first half, where all 6 guys brawl all around the building, inside and out, is hard to follow, with the lighting limited. The second half sees them return to the ring, where things get good. The heels isolate Morris alone in the ring, and methodically beat him up, knocking Tremont and Lawless down when they try to save him. It’s well worked, to the point that Morris grabbing a kendo stick and hitting Watts before getting beaten down is an effective hope spot. The heels are really cocky, and are able to casually set up a table in the corner, which they coat in thumbtacks. At this point, they’ve been threatening the tacks all match, so the crowd has been looking forward to seeing them come into play for a while. They set up Morris for a top rope superplex, but Tremont and Lawless have recovered by now, and their attack leaves Watts perched on the top rope, prone for Morris to powerbomb him onto the non-breaking tack-covered table. Sick spot, and Watts sells the fuck out of it. Morris decides to give him another one, again failing to break the table, which earns the three. The big spot really paid off, and the second half of this was enough to pay off the first half.

Stardom 18/01/2015

Right, I've had this show sat around for a while waiting to be watched, but hadn't gotten round to it. As I've stated before, I've very little experience of Joshi, and despite enjoying some of the bits I'd seen, I'm not totally sure where to begin. However, given that I've bought tickets to the BEW/Stardom show in London this weekend, I figured that watching this would at least give me a headstart on what to look forward to.

Hatsuhinode Kamen vs Momo Watanabe

This is basically clipped to the finish, with the only Watanabe offence we see being a roll up. Kamen hits a suplex and cradle pin for the win

Hudson Envy, Kris Wolf & Kyoko Kimura vs Act Yasukawa, Dragonita & Heidi Lovelace

There seems to be some ongoing issue between Kimura and Yauskawa, and despite her teammates trying to hold her back, Act rushes the opposing corner to start, predictably getting beaten up and some beer poured over her. I don’t recall seeing much of Dragonita in this match, with Lovelace working the vast majority of it for her team, and she looks terrific throughout. I loved how the animosity between Yasukawa and Kimura meant that Kimura let her attention slip from Lovelace in the ring to have a strike exchange with Act on the ring apron, which allowed Lovelace to take control by attacking from behind. Lovelace hits a great looking STO. Wolf I found a bit irritating, but I loved her selling of a Rings of Saturn by Lovelace as, after Kimura rescues her, she continues to favour her left arm, even when clapping along with a delayed suplex. Lovelace gets worked over from that point on, and Envy hits a Celtic Cross for the win. After the bout, the 6 women seem to put their differences aside and look to be joining together.

Koguma & Reo Hazuki vs Risa Sera & Takumi Iroha

The team of Sera and Iroha have a bit of height on their opponents which they use to their advantage in this match, with both using their longer legs for a lot of leg-based offence. Dug the opening cat-and-mouse work between Koguma and Iroha, especially as Iroha cuts it off viciously with a nasty looking foot stomp. When Koguma is on offence, she’s pretty fun, following every bit of offence with this kind of excited hop, like she didn’t think she could pull the move off. Sera has a load of knee based offence that looks really good, loved her vicious running kneedrops to the back. Unfortunately, the ref is really poor here and hurts the match a bit, with his delayed count between 2 and 3 telegraphing the kickouts. There’s a lot of nearfalls you don’t buy because of it. Koguma reverses a suplex by Iroha into a reverse naked choke and, even though Iroha doesn’t tap, she’s so out of it that Koguma and Hazuki are able to control her for a good portion of time. When Sera does get the tag, they also double team her for a long period, until Sera fights back with more nice knee based offence. Sera hits a big top rope knee drop on Hazuki for the win.

Io Shirai vs Kaori Yoneyama

Yoneyama is quite squat and stocky compared to Shirai, so I was a bit surprised at how fluidly she moved throughout this match, especially at the start when they exchanged a really quick series of pin attempts. Shirai hits a pair of lovely topes just before a quick clip. When we come back, Shirai looks to be about to hit a one-person Spanish Fly, but Yoneyama wisely drops down, causing Shirai to fly to the mat in place for Yoneyama to hit a massive top rope senton for two. What I loved was the real sense of fight in this match – Yoneyama really feels like she’s trying everything to win here, and there’s a lovely battle for a top rope powerbomb, Shirai holding onto the turnbuckles for all she’s worth before viciously kneeing Yoneyama in the head to escape. Shirai is just that little to quick for Yoneyama, who gets caught climbing the ropes as Shirai hits the Spanish Fly to win. Really dug this.

Act Yasukawa vs Mayu Iwatani

This is for Iwatani’s Wonder of Stardom title. Yasukawa is accompanied by her new friends, which Iwatani also has an entourage on the outside, and this comes into play during the match. At first, Iwatani is in total control, wearing Yasukawa down with a series of stiff kicks. However, she tries to dropkick a down Yasukawa, who moves, causing Iwatani to get hung up on the bottom rope in a nasty looking bump. From this point, every time Iwatani tries to get back in control, Yasukawa’s entourage interfere to help her maintain control. At one point, it ends up 1 on 5 outside the ring. Yasukawa gets a Stretch Muffler inside the ring, before everything spills outside again and we get utter chaos as all parties get involved in a big brawl. Loved the dives by Iwatani from the top rope and again from the stage to take everyone out. Back inside, there’s a lovely moment where Iwatani kicks out of a rollup and Yasukawa transitions straight into another Stretch Muffler. Just when it looks like Iwatani is going to win, Kimura pelts her with a steel box, allowing Yasukawa to steal the win. Quite fun, albeit with a big case of smoke and mirrors to fill in the cracks. Yasukawa is a real charismatic presence, but doesn’t seem to be quite good enough in the ring yet.

Yoshiko vs Nanae Takahashi

This is for Yoshiko’s World of Stardom title. As soon as I saw Yoshiko, I knew I recognised her from somewhere, then remembered it was from a news story last year, where she’d assaulted another wrestler during a match, which had led to that wrestler needing surgery for fractured bones. Taking a look on t’internet, it turned out that the opponent was Yasukawa, who ended up retiring in December, so that was a slightly depressing thing to uncover going into this match.

Partly due to this, partly due to the full-body jumpsuit she wore and partly due to the vacant-but-dangerous look in her eye, this made Yoshiko remind me a bit of Nailz (albeit a vastly better wrestler). There was a lack of emotion on her face that gave off an aura of danger, and her size makes her look brutish. Takahashi’s plan therefore seems to be to outwrestle her, working over the arm of Yoshiko. Yoshiko’s raw power means that she’s able to turn the tide with one blow, but unlike someone like Brock Lesnar, she’s not portrayed as the smartest of wrestlers meaning her power advantage can be nullified. Here, it’s shown by her repeatedly clotheslining Takahashi with the bad arm, which she then sells the pain of, giving Takahashi time to recover. Both get nearfalls, with a hammerlock spinebuster and some sentons all getting two for Yoshiko, whilst Takahashi also gets some close two counts with a series of slams and suplexes. In the end, the overwhelming power of Yoshiko is too much, as she blasts Takahashi with a clothesline to pick up the win.

CHIKARA International Invasion of the International Invaders

Melvin Snodgrass vs Darkness Crabtree vs Ultramantis vs Jigsaw vs Sumie Sukai vs Jon Thornhill vs American Gigolo vs Mr ZERO vs Blind Rage

Opening match rumble to kill some time basically, with the winner facing Hallowicked for the Young Lions Cup later in the night. It opened with some old man comedy between Snodgrass and Crabtree, before Ultramantis hurled both guys out with gusto. There wasn’t much drama in this rumble, as most elimination attempts consisted of people hugging other wrestlers stood near the ropes, though Jigsaw took a dumb looking bump from a Sukai dropkick to be eliminated. Blind Rage, who has been the most impressive guy in early CHIKARA, gets binned almost right away, before ZERO eliminates Gigolo and Ultramantis at the same time to win. Some tension is teased between Ultramantis and ZERO at the end.

Rorschach vs Jolly Roger

Roger is basically working a party pirate gimmick and I kinda hate him. This is a pretty bland match, just passable rookie wrestling, with a few fun touches. I like Rorschach chopping Roger in the back, like a cat o’ nine tails, and you could see the Quackenbush training as he locks in a fun looking submission. There’s a terrible spot where Roger waits awkwardly on the turnbuckles, just waiting to be powerbombed, but on the whole, this was ok. Roger wins with a running unprettier, called Walk The Plank

American Gigolo vs Ultramantis

Gigolo is more experienced and there’s a noticeable upgrade in crispness from the previous match. Gigolo heels it up nicely, cheating to retain control, and I loved his seated Cattle Mutilation. Ultramantis makes a comeback and gets a two off a Skull Crushing Finale. Gigolo is still ahead and is able to regain control easily, locking in a beautiful takeover pin for the nearfall, only for Ultramantis to get a crucifix pin for the win. Short match, but fine.

Hallowicked vs Mr ZERO

This was actually pretty good. Loved the early matwork, with nice little touches like ZERO punching Hallowicked in the knee to break a body scissors. Both guys have their partners on the outside, and Hallowicked keeps provoking Ultramantis which allows Blind Rage to interfere on his behalf. Hallowicked concentrates his attack on ZERO’s head and neck, hitting a DDT and two neckbreakers, as well as teeing off with punches and kicks. ZERO gets to make a comeback after Hallowicked takes a needless chance, missing a cartwheel splash in the corner. Two uranage’s get two. Hallowicked hits a non-too-pretty looking sunset flip, before Rage drops ZERO neckfirst on the rope. This allows Hallowicked to hit a Michinoku Driver for the win. Pretty fun.

Jigsaw vs Sumie Sakai

I’m not a big intergender fan, but this was pretty well worked. Here, it actually made sense for Sakai to be able to control at the start of the match, given that she’s more experienced than a relative rookie in Jigsaw, and Jigsaw is so rail thin here that you buy her being able to knock him over without too much hassle. Jigsaw really bumps and stooges throughout the match to put over her offence too. When he does get control, Jigsaw does real asshole stuff, like standing on her face in the corner. He gets a really close two count off a Death Valley Driver after doing squats with her on his shoulders. Sukai’s comebacks come after Jigsaw gets too cocky, missing an elbow after dicking around, though he also gets screwed by the ref delaying him going to the top rope for a missed corkscrew splash. Jigsaw takes a few more massive bumps to put over Sukai’s missile dropkicks, but her moonsault only gets knees and a superkick gives Jigsaw the win. Again, not my favourite type of match, but this was ok.

The Wildcards vs Gran Akuma & Icarus

This was built up earlier after the Wildcards accepted a challenge for a match by attacking from behind, and severely working over Akuma’s leg. The result of this is that Icarus comes out alone and, though he runs wild at first, the Wildcards number advantage gives us a handicap match. Marciano hits a lovely flying knee to the head to down Icarus and the Wildcards are in total control Kingston is so confident he just hangs about in the crowd, while Marciano dominates. Eventually, Akuma comes to the ring on crutches to help out his partner, but even when Icarus gets a few hope spots (like a nice crossbody for 2), he refuses to tag in Akuma. Akuma eventually blind tags in, and gets in a few bits of offence that don’t involve his knee, causing the Wildcards to collide into each other and hitting a nice one-legged dropkick on Kingston. Eventually though, Marciano hits him with a chop block and Kingston locks in the Kondo Clutch. Just to rub it in, Marciano handcuffs Icarus to the ropes to leave Akuma no choice but to tap. More angle than match, but the Wildcards were great as heels here.

Skayde vs Mike Quackenbush

This is for Skayde’s AULL Mexican Middleweight title and is 2/3 falls. With this in mind, it’s a very brief match, with the second and third falls being particularly short. The match kicked off with some lovely matwork, with some impressive holds and counters being used, most of which I don’t know the names off.Things start to heat up as both find their way into the match. It’s Quack who hits a suicide dive to really push things along, and inside Skayde seems to be driven by this, hitting a legdrop to Quacks head and tying him up to earn the tap out. The second fall also kicks off with matwork, but takes less time to get heated as Skayde starts slamming Quackenbush to the match, seemingly to get a quick win, but Quack hits the Quackendriver for the equalising fall. The final fall sees a big dive by Skayde early on, and Quack take a nasty looking bump as American Gigolo pushes Skayde out of the way of a suicide dive. The smack as Quack hits the floor is nasty. Quack just beats the count and hits a victory roll for the title. Odd match, what we got was really good, but it seemed to be over before it really got going.

WWE Main Event 18/03/2014

Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs The Real Americans

Really fun tag match, with all four guys adding little touches to make this more than just a run-of-the-mill tag match. Liked Cesaro at least trying to stop Cody hitting the Disaster Kick by making for the ropes as he hits it. Goldust was looking terrific at this point, leaping gracefully into the Code Red. A double dive to the floor by the Rhodes Brothers is as fun as it is unexpected. Cesaro’s strength allows him to easily correct spots that nearly go awry, using raw power to catch Goldust and hit a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Loved Swagger’s cocky bullying of Goldust, just shoving him across the mat to get him into place for the Swagger Bomb. The Real Americans work a fun heat section on Goldust, including a great near tag where Cesaro shoves Cody off the apron at the last second. Cody was hot fire on the eventual tag, loved his moonsault press to Swagger. The end was great as Swagger locked in the Patriot Lock on Cody, who tried to break the hold frantically with boots to the feet before escaping and hitting the CrossRhodes for the win. Great stuff.

The Funkadactyls vs Layla & Alicia Fox

Naomi still has her eyepatch on here, so of course Fox aims some early elbows to that eye. My notes state that Cameron hit a “wheelbarrow something”, which tells you how good that move looked. Layla looks great here, loved her fluid takeover into a pin, and she stooges about really well. As per usual, Fox’s Northern Lights suplex looks great. Naomi comes in on the hot tag, and though full of energy, she looks a little sloppy. Her heel turn has really helped her slow down and crispen up her moves. Cameron botches a move where she’s supposed to leap off Fox’s back, before Naomi hits the Rear View and a split-legged moonsault for the win. The heel team looked a lot more capable here.

The Big Show vs Titus O’Neill   

Pretty brief, but there was stuff to enjoy here. Titus shows Big Show no respect early on, earning himself an hilarious tour of chops by Show, who really milks the impact of each one. A chop block by Titus looks great, and is a realistic way for him to take over. Clash of the Titus gets two, despite looking super impressive but Show catches him on a corner splash with the KO punch for the win.

WWE Main Event 11/03/2014

Los Matadores vs Rybaxel

Really fun opener here, I’ve been really enjoying Los Matadores on these C-shows. Loved them totally outsmarting Ryback to start here, and Ryback sells the confusion well as the matadors tag quickly and zip around him. Ryback yelling “stupid” at a matador trying to sunset flip him, before missing a sitdown splash, cracked me up. Axel takes control after a clothesline to the back of Fernando’s head, and I really dug Axel’s control here. Everything looked to have purpose behind it, especially a cracking knee to the head. Ryback preventing a hot tag by just punching Diego in the head on the apron was the perfect move for him. Even better, when Diego does get tagged in and runs wild on the hot tag, he makes sure to dropkick Ryback off the apron as a receipt. Axel gets distracted by El Torito, and that’s enough to get him rolled up for the Los Matadores win.

AJ Lee vs Natalya

Divas title match. The problem I had when AJ Lee fought Natalya is that I never bought Lee being able to control Nattie as easily as she would. Against other women, it didn’t feel unlikely that AJ could match them for power, or be able to outsmart or outwrestle them, but I never bought it against Natalya. Natalya is stronger, is at least as capable on the mat and is probably no slower than AJ. Even in the early going here, Nattie is no-nonsense, dominating AJ on the mat with a headlock and resisting all efforts to break it. We cut to a break with Natalya dominant, and we return to AJ in control, though they at least show a replay to highlight this was due to Tamina’s interference. I liked AJ’s plan of trying to put Nattie out with two guillotine chokes, one coming from a great reversal of a slam. Still doesn’t justify the unlikely sight of AJ powering Nattie over with a clothesline (especially as Natalya decides to bump huge for it). Both ladies gets their signature submission holds on, before Natalya badly telegraphs an AJ flying knee by looking over at AJ when supposedly distracted by Tamina, and the Black Widow gets the tap for Lee.

Dean Ambrose vs Mark Henry

Another title match, this time for the US title. There’s a lovely moment before the bell when Henry stares down all three Shield members, and looks like the hardest man on earth in doing so. It is a Shield distraction that allows Ambrose to take over after an early Henry flourish, and I dug the diving knee drop from the apron to Henry’s back from Ambrose. Ambrose works over the left leg of Henry, and it looks really vicious. Kinda surprising, as Ambrose’s execution is a lot more lacking nowadays. Henry’s selling is terrific throughout, really selling the difficulty he was having returning to his feet, as Ambrose hits a beautiful diving punch to the back of the knee. I like Ambrose’s tactic here, as he uses the hurt leg as a vehicle to keep Henry down and then punish him with punches, chokes etc. Henry’s comeback is great stuff too, as Ambrose takes too long getting up to the top rope, so Henry uses a quick blast of speed to get up and throw him off. Sometimes forge just how athletic Henry is. The end sees Henry try a Vader bomb, but gets distracted by Roman Reigns, allowing Ambrose to sweep him off the ropes and hit Dirty Deeds for the win. Loved this.