WWE Main Event 21/04/2014

Proper good episode of Main Event. Four matches, all worth a watch. Good use of an hour.

Big E vs Alberto Del Rio

Pretty decent little sprint here. Both move pretty quickly to start, with Del Rio showing a vicious side as he tries to wear down the bigger man. Loved Del Rio headbutting his way out of a belly-to-belly attempt, followed by a vicious kick to the head. Also loved a really nice sequence where Alberto escaped the Big Ending, shoved Big E into the corner and immediately followed with an enzuigiri. Big E makes a comeback and, in a rather slick sequence, catches Del Rio on a tornado DDT attempt and hoists him onto his shoulder for the Big Ending. Dug this.

El Torito vs Hornswoggle

The commentary team only play this for comedy, which is a shame, as the match is pretty fun. El Torito in particular is pretty good on the mat, tying Hornwoggle up in a leglock. Torito looked great with a nice top rope crossbody, but Hornwoggle had some surprisingly nice bits too. Loved his vicious running kick to the skull. Torito goes for a moonsault, but is distracted by Heath Slater, causing him to miss and letting Hornswoggle hit the Tadpole Splash to win. Fun stuff.

Sheamus vs Titus O’Neill

This was pretty boss. Considering their respective place on the card at the time, Sheamus was especially giving to make Titus look like a beast. Right away, Sheamus takes a big pinball bump out of the ring to put over O’Neill’s strength. Loved how these two guys were both happy to lay in the blows, with the body shots from both making a lovely thwacking sound. Sheamus takes a big bump, as he tries to hit the slingshot shoulderblock into the ring, but meets a big forearm and tumbles to the floor. Really nice show of strength as Titus catches a top rope crossbody to hit a fallaway slam, which looked great. Even the end helped keep Titus strong, as he spends too long shit-talking Sheamus, holding him by the face, only to meet a quick headbutt and a Brogue Kick for the win. This basically ruled.

Ryback vs Jimmy Uso

Ryback and Jimmy also seem happy to lay in the blows on this match, so we’ve got quite a fun episode of Main Event this week. Really enjoyed Uso going for a big out of control dive early, knowing he’s got to take it to the Big Guy early. It’s slightly disappointing that we go to a break with Ryback out on the floor, and return to find Uso in the same position, takes away from the match a bit. Ryback’s control is pretty standard, punctuated with some really nice bits. Loved his massive spinebuster and the meathook clothesline always looks devastating. Uso kickstarting his comeback by powering out of a Ryback powerbomb attempt feels unlikely. The end sees Ryback hit the Shellshock after Curtis Axel distracts Uso, and this was a perfectly fine match.

WAR 2nd Anniversary Show 07/07/1994

Ashura Hara, Jinsei Shinzaki & John Tenta vs Jado, Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki

This was pretty fun. The Jado/Gedo/Fuyuki team attack at the bell and isolate Hara, with a nice triple team seeing Jado and Gedo elevating him for a top rope seated senton by Fuyuki. This is followed by a triple team powerbomb before we clip. We return to Tenta doing some awesome wobbling selling as the opposition try to down him, before he catches Gedo on a crossbody and hits the splash for 3.

Koji Ishinriki, Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa vs Akio Kobayashi, Koji Kitao & Masaaki Mochizuki

This is pretty much all clipped out. Kitao looks slow and lumbering on offence, which contrasts with Mochizuki, who blitzes Ishinriki with a flurry of kicks before Kitahara rolls him up for the win.

Arashi, Kendo Nagasaki & Masashi Aoyagi vs Animal Hamaguchi, Nobukazu Hirai & Shoichi Funaki

Bit of a mess this one. I did enjoy Nagasaki tying Funaki up in knots on the mat, and I liked how fired up Hamaguchi was when he finally tagged in, but this dragged even with clipping. Hirai gets a nearfall by German suplexing Aoyagi, but eats a kick to the head to be eliminated.

Atushi Onita, Bam Bam Bigelow & Genichiro Tenryu vs The Warlord, Chris Jericho & Vampiro

Really enjoyed this. There were some nice little touches, like Jericho controlling Tenryu, only to get felled by one vicious chop. Also loved the Warlord posing, only for Bigelow to interrupt it with an enzuigiri to the head. Vampiro is isolated and beaten before we clip, returning with Warlord catching an apron dive by Tenryu, slamming him onto a table. Jericho goes too short on a Lionsault, hitting Onita in the face with his knee. Tenryu and Onita hit a botched double team powerbomb on him, and as it all breaks down , Onita nails another powerbomb on Jericho for the win

Jinsei Shinzaki, John Tenta & Ashura Hara vs Koji Ishinriki, Koki Kitahara & Takashi Ishikawa

Matches are all full from this point on. Loved the Hara/Ishikawa section at the start, just two stocky bulls going at each other. The Ishinriki/Kitahara/Ishikawa squad looked more impressive here than in the first round, with Kitahara planting Shinzaki with a massive German suplex. He also punishes Shinzaki with kicks, which seem to bust him open from the mouth. The end sees Hara and Ishikawa resume hostilities, with Ishikawa levelling Hara with a big clothesline, only for Hara to hit one of his own for the win.

Bam Bam Bigelow, Genichiro Tenryu & Atushi Onita vs Arashi, Kendo Nagasaki & Masahi Aoyagi

This one breaks down early, with Onita leading a big fight on the outside in the crowd. He ends up on the losing side of his fight with Nagasaki, who belts him with the ring bell and absolutely buries him with chairs. It’s a really fun scene. Back inside, Tenryu gets punished and isolated, loved him selling Aoyagi’s kicks to the chest with big bursts of spit. His team mates lure all the opposing team into the ring for a fight, which buys Tenryu some time to recover. By the time the ref has settled things down, Tenryu is sufficiently healthy to hit an enzuigiri on Arashi and tag Bam Bam. Bigelow blitzes Arashi and moonsaults him for the win. Really good bout.

Ultimo Dragon vs The Great Sasuke

This is for Dragon’s UWA middleweight title. This is a whole heap of fun, really felt like two guys going all out. They work a decent acrobatic series to start, but things heat up some more when Sasuke sends Dragon outside and nails a big Asai moonsault, landing in the crowd. Love the spot back inside where Dragon can’t superplex Sasuke, so instead dropkick’s him to the outside and nails his own massive Asai moonsault. Beautiful Tiger suplex by Dragon gets two. High spot of the night sees Sasuke send Dragon to the outside, and nail this nutty dive from the top turnbuckle to the floor, landing precisely between two guard rails. There’s an odd transition back to Dragon offence, as he gets fired into the ropes, and just runs at Sasuke and clubs his back. Bit out of nowhere. Ultimo nails a dropkick as Sasuke attempts a quebrada, and hits a corkscrew moonsault for the victory. Great match.

Bam Bam Bigelow, Genichiro Tenryu & Atushi Onita vs Jinsei Shinzaki, John Tenta & Ashura Hara

Loved the start of this, where Bigelow and Earthquake squared off. Fun big man stuff, with Bigelow failing to slam Quake, but somehow succeeding with a suplex, weakening him enough for a second slam to work. Really liked Tenryu and Hara facing off, just two stodgy guys exchanging blows. There’s fun little bits scattered throughout, like Onita failing with a DDT on Quake, who is too big to send down. Also loved the massive belly-to-belly suplex Tenta hits. Hara gets back in, and just gets worn down by Tenryu, who hacks away with some chops. A nasty pair to the throat see Hara in real trouble, and he gets isolated and worn down for the rest of the bout. He eats finishers from Bigelow and Onita, and only survives because of team-mates making the save. He kicks out of an Onita powerbomb, but foolishly doesn’t tag out when he has the chance. Bigelow interferes, drawing the partners into the ring, but this means Hara now has no-one to save him. A Tenryu powerbomb only gets 2, but an enzuigiri and another powerbomb win the match for Tenryu’s team. Probably the best match of the tournament.

ECW Hardcore TV #1 06/04/1993

Given that I love undertaking watching projects that I don't keep up with very quickly, I thought I'd start watching the ECW footage on the WWE Network. Never been a big ECW fan, so didn't know where a good starting point would be - why not the beginning? Why not start with a show where commentator Terry Funk essentially says "We know this isn't very good, but we'll try and get better" to close the show out?

The Super Destroyers vs The Hell Raisers

The Destroyers are the ECW tag champs, two big guys in masks. The Hell Raisers aren’t as fearsome as their name might suggest, as they get squashed here, despite jumping the Destroyers to start. This is some slow, low-impact brawling which the Destroyers win with a flip senton on EZ Ryder.

Tommy Cairo vs Salvatore Bellomo

This is part of the TV title tournament. Two matches in, and the early ECW isn’t feeling like an exciting hot product. Giving a featured role to long-time WWF jobber Bellomo isn’t necessarily a bad thing if he was able to bring something to the table to mark him as underrated, but he’s very uninteresting here. Sal isn’t afraid of a rest hold, put it that way. Cairo makes a comeback out of the blue with no build, before Johnny Hotbody tries to interfere. This backfires and Sal is counted out. Very not good.

Tony Stetson vs the Rockin’ Rebel

This is better match, and it’s amusing to see my favourite guilty pleasure CZW wrestler the Rebel here with long mullet and actual wrestling tights. He’s the #1 contender to the ECW title, which feels so wrong. Stetson is nicknamed “Hitman”, which feels pretty misplaced given the best wrestler on US soil at the time also used that nickname. Probably best not to share a nickname with one of the biggest stars in the business, you’ll only suffer in comparison. Rebel’s control is very basic, albeit with nothing wrong with it per se. Just not very exciting. I actually dug Stetson’s comeback, enjoyed his top rope legdrop. Rebel takes Stetson down in the corner and pins him with his feet on the ropes.

Jimmy Snuka vs Larry Winters

Snuka is working heel here, with Eddie Gilbert his cheapshotting manager. Snuka looks muscular, but isn’t in great shape ringwise, as proven by his falling over whilst giving a back bodydrop. Winters seems pretty dreadful, taking an over-the-top leap in the air from a Snuka chop and hitting a crossbody where his feet barely leave the floor. Another quick bout, with Gilbert tripping Winters from the floor, and Snuka nailing the Superfly splash. Real nice impact too, best thing about the match.

Salvatore Bellomo vs Ernesto Benefico

Oh great, another Bellomo match. Benefico isn’t announced, as Bellomo just barges in and slams him for the three count. Just a simple powerslam. Poor Ernesto.

CHIKARA Kids Eat Free On Tuesday 2004

Phantasmo & Darkness Crabtree vs Private Eye & Shane Storm

Basic comedy match, worked very simply due to the inexperience of the guys involved. Private Eye’s mask seems to be a big papier mache eyeball, and as such he seems very hesitant of damaging it, not taking any bumps. The highlight of the bout is probably Crabtree using his cardigan to hit a pedigree, otherwise very forgettable. Storm wins with a sunset flip.

Joker vs Sabian

Imported CZW match here, and a really fun one. You can tell these guys have spent a lot of time training together as this was a really smooth match. Loved the opening battle of wristlocks, especially as both made a concerted effort to prevent the other guy getting to the ropes. Joker gets a backbreaker early and focuses his attack on the back, locking in a surfboard and hitting a nasty looking Shock Treatment. This is a bit more vicious than previous matches I’ve seen in CHIKARA, some real intensity on their slaps and running kicks in the corner, especially the Sabian dropkick to the head that sends Joker to the floor. There’s a really nice nearfall as Sabian reverses a Joker Driver attempt to a victory roll, but Joker then hits the Joker Driver for real to win. Really dug this.

Gauntlet Match:

Mr ZERO vs John Brooks

The winner of this gauntlet will challenge Mike Quackenbush for four titles he holds at the end show, which Quack kinda arrogantly shows off before the match. I dug Brooks here, he’s a stocky looking power guy, and he looks decent working over ZERO’s leg after a nice dragon screw. It’s not the most exciting match, but it’s logical and I loved the fluidity of Brooks going from a drop toehold to a Texas Cloverleaf. ZERO ends up winning with something that doesn’t look too good.

Mr ZERO vs Ultramantis

Though ostensibly partners, Ultramantis attacks ZERO’s leg from behind to start and continues this assault. Ultramantis locks on a figure four and holds the ropes to earn the submission

Ultramantis vs Fumar Dos

Dos has the most bush-league look, plain black mask, black t-shirt, terrible binbag trousers. He’s also not very good, with his brief run of offence looking sloppy. Ultramantis takes him out on the floor, suplexes him and rolls him inside for a DVD to win

Ultramantis vs DJ Skittlez

Very brief, though Skittlez finds time to hit a very shitty flying headscissors before a facebuster slam gets 3

DJ Skittlez vs Jigsaw

Ultramantis attacks Skittlez before Jigsaw even gets to the ring, pushing him off the ringpost to the floor. Skittlez responds to this by not selling his disadvantage during the match, and they just have a long bout instead. Even when Skittlez hits his head on the ringpost early on due to a missed corner splash, it doesn’t affect how the match proceeds. Really odd. Jigsaw looked really good here, and I loved his leaping knee to the face in the corner. In contract, Skittlez offence looks really weak – his sitdown slam where he gently places Jigsaw on the match is particularly poor. At one point, he catches Jigsaw on a suicide dive, which is pretty impressive, then just places him back in the ring. It’s like he has no idea how to structure a bout. Obviously, these guys are rookies, but Skittlez is several levels below Jigsaw here. Jigsaw seems to get how to build a match, spending time yelling at the fans before missing a high risk move, giving Skittlez realistic time to recover. The end sees Jigsaw nails an enzuigiri and the Jig’N’Tonic to win.

Jolly Roger vs Rorschach

Honestly, this bout seems like it lasts forever. The initial stages see some terrible work by Roger, slipping on a springboard armdrag and barely bridging on a deathlock attempt. I appreciate that Rorschach at least tries to keep up his heel role, mainly choking and clubbing on Roger, but it devolves to the point of just guys hitting moves that don’t seem to end the bout. Not even well executed moves, with this terrible wheelbarrow slam looking rubbish on the part of both men. They’ve simply been given too long for guys of their experience and they just fill it with move after move with no sense of structure. A running Tomikaze only gets 2 for Roger, but he wins with a rubbish looking flipping cradle from the second rope, despite Rorschach having his shoulder up when the ref started counting. This was wretched.

Hallowicked & the Wildcards vs Mike Quackenbush, Gran Akuma & Icarus

6 man elimination match here, but rather bizarrely there are no eliminations for nearly 30 minutes then they all come at once in a 5 minute spell. The opening stages are really fun, worked primarily on the mat. There’s a really fun section with Quack and Hallowicked battling over a groin hold, and Eddie Kingston’s trash talking is really on point. Also loved the big convoluted submission with 5 guys locking on holds, then Kingston not joining in (in favour of just booting Quack in the face). Crucially, unlike the previous match, it doesn’t feel like moves just for the sake of killing time and it remains entertaining. The turning point of the mat comes when Icarus hits a suicide dive on a Wildcard, and they go flying into a small child at ringside. Though Quack keeps working in ring, you can see Icarus talking to the child who ultimately ends up leaving with his mum. It seems to take the wind out of the crowd, and even Kingston helpfully yelling “Fucking kid will be fine” doesn’t make things better. It also seems to distract the guys in the ring, as things get lost for a little bit. Ultimately, after some compelling heat on Icarus and Akuma (with the rudos trying to unmask Akuma), the crowd get back into it. And then….the eliminations. Quack takes Blackjack Marciano out with a crucifix for 3. Quack gets pinned following an enzuigiri by an interfering Jigsaw. A terrible Kingston moonsault takes out Icarus. A roll up by Akuma on Hallowicked takes him out, leaving it 1-on-1. Kingston then removes Akuma’s mask to get disqualified, ending a rather odd 5 minute spell. I liked this for the most part, though it was pointless making it elimination, as the numbers difference was never exploited or part of the story. They also did well to recover both the crowd and the match after the child injury.

WCW Clash of the Champions XIX

Been a while since I worked on the WCW 92 project, thought it best to get back on board. All the matches here are part of the first round of the NWA tag titles tournament.

Ricky Steamboat & Nikita Koloff vs Joe & Dean Malenko

Decent opener, albeit with a little sloppiness. Nikita is really positioned as the game-changer here, with the Malenko’s not able to counter his strength advantage. He impressively catches Dean on a crossbody and, though knocked down by a Joe dropkick, he press slams Dean out of the ring on the cover, turning defence to offence. Joe is responsible for the sloppiest moments in the match, awkwardly dropping Steamboat to give his team the advantage and going down too quickly on a Steamer facebuster which leads to the hot tag. Dean was more impressive, really liked the way he held onto Steamboat’s wrists and feet when slamming him to the mat, transitioning straight away into a submission hold. Koloff is a beast on the hot tag and lays out Joe with the sickle to win.

Rick Rude & Steve Austin vs Tom Zenk & Marcus Bagwell

I thought this was a better laid out match than the opener, as they worked it exactly how an upper card heel vs midcard face team should be. There are moments of hope for the faces, but the Dangerous Alliance team are too overpowering and too experienced to be in danger for long. Loved Austin’s vicious blows to Bagwell in the corner early on, and Rude no selling Bagwell’s blows to the abs was perfect character work. The Alliance work heat on Zenk, maintaining control by cutting the ring in half. Bagwell gets a brief run off the hot tag, but misses a dropkick and quickly gets dispatched with the Rude Awakening. Good hierarchy establishing bout.

Steve Williams & Terry Gordy vs Larry & Jeff O’Day

Infamous squash, and one that hasn’t become any less entertaining with time. Amusingly, it’s not the younger Jeff O’Day who gets destroyed, but his oddly-skeletal father who gets folded up with a Gordy back-suplex, hilariously has a double-clothesline attempt no-sold and instead gets double-tackled to the mat and then gets decimated with an Oklahoma Stampede for the win.

Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes vs Arn Anderson & Bobby Eaton

Windham and Rhodes were my favourite tag team as a kid, and it’s nice to be reminded why here. Loved Windham’s beautiful right hand to Anderson early on here, and Arn sells it with the perfect mix of pain and bewilderment. Lots of lovely little touches in this match to make this match stand out in a card of tag matches. Dug Eaton stopping short on a Dustin leapfrog to punch Rhodes in the stomach, and the sequence of Dustin grabbing the ropes to block an Arn DDT, only to be in the right position for Eaton to level him with a right hand. Dustin takes a big spill from the ring on a missed crossbody, which looks as good here as when he still does it 24 years later(!) There’s a great nearfall off an Anderson spinebuster as Rhodes is face in peril. Love the twist on traditional tag formula, as Rhodes never makes the hot tag, instead taking advantage of an Eaton mistake to hit a quick bulldog for the win. This was pretty great.

The Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Jimmy Garvin) vs The Silver Kings (El Texano and Silver King)

This, however, is very much not great. The Kings are only referred to here as Silver Kings #1 and #2. An absolute clash of styles here, and Hayes especially doesn’t seem to be up for selling anything. This is typified by the Kings hitting Total Elimination on him, which Hayes awkwardly bumps for, then goes right back on offence. A Silver King drop toehold somehow ends up with Hayes on top, and this is such a mess. The end sees the crowd begging for the DDT from the Freebirds, but Hayes instead gets a small package for the win. Rubbish.

Jushin Liger & Brian Pillman vs Chris Benoit & Beef Wellington

Interesting match here, feels a bit ahead of its time. This is a very back-and-forth lightheavyweight tag match, with neither side really taking a prolonged period of control. WCW’s top rope ban was relaxed for the tournament, and it feels like these guys are taking full advantage of being unleashed, as they come off the top and to the outside on a regular basis (with Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura constantly bringing up the lack of outside padding). Wellington heels it up slightly by hurling Pillman over the top behind the refs back, but misses a plancha. Benoit and Pillman share the best exchanges of the match, first with Pillman hitting an insane back suplex from the top rope, then with both guys exchanging nasty sounding chops on the floor. Wellington is the weakest link here, as it does feel like he’s sandbagging Liger on occasion, with the ending seeing an awkward looking Liger slam, before a beautiful moonsault for the win.

The Headhunters vs Hiroshi Hase & Akira Nogami

Apparently, this was supposed to be the massive fat guy Headhunters, but they couldn’t make it, so we get Arn Anderson and Bob Cook in masks. You’d think this would be a squash, but this is actually worked pretty evenly, albeit with the Japanese team getting the flashier moves. With name guys in disguise, it’s always fun to see if you can spot any noticeable mannerism, and yes, Bob Cook still has a great punch here. This is pretty heatless, but I loved Akira’s leaping enzuigiri, the swank thrust kick by Hase and the winning pinfall coming from stereo suplexes, Nogami with a German and Hase with a Northern Lights.

Steve Williams & Terry Gordy vs the Steiner Brothers

The Steiners were due to face a Puerto Rican team before facing Doc and Gordy in the next round, but the Puerto Rican’s are apparently injured (which Doc and Gordy unsubtly take credit for), so the Steiners get a bye and we get this second round match up early. The initial stages probably aren’t what the crowd as expecting, as all four go to the mat, jockeying for position and takedowns. Rick hits a huge overhead suplex on Doc out of nowhere to a big pop. Williams slaps Steiner, who responds with a barrage of punches to another, bigger, pop. Things move on a big quicker from here, with Doc and Gordy controlling Scott. Love the double team of Gordy dropping Scott from his shoulders onto Doc’s knee. They initially focus on Scott’s back before moving to his leg. Scott makes what we assume is the hot tag to Rick, who has a great brawl in the ring with Gordy. Rick tries a cover, but is informed by the ref that he’d not seen the tag, and Scott is still legal. A worn out Scott is outside the ring, and Doc clips his leg from behind. Lovely bit of misdirection. Back in, Scott tries a belly-to-belly on Williams, but Gordy clips his leg out again, and Doc lands on top for the win. Big shock victory, but I love how logical this all was. Williams and Gordy outsmarted the Steiners and simply had the better gameplan.

WWF Raw 03/04/1994

Earthquake vs Adam Bomb

This is a WrestleMania X rematch, though this one goes a little longer. Quake controls with ease to start, no-selling shoulderblocks and ducking a Bomb clothesline in order to hit his own. Bomb takes over with a nice flying clothesline. There’s an underlying story of Bomb being over-presumptuous during the bout, missing an elbow because Quake isn’t hurt enough then not getting the pin off a top rope clothesline by conferring with Harvey Wippleman before pinning. This builds to the ending, where he rushes into a boot from a corner charge, before eating a massive belly-to-belly suplex, a legdrop and the seated splash for the Quake win.

Razor Ramon vs Austin Steele

Basic squash, with Razor casually going through his moveset. Ramon acts quite heeling, slapping Steele about and contemptuously kicking him in the head. Steele lands viciously on the Razor’s Edge and that gets the win.

IRS, Rick Martel, Jeff Jarrett & the Headshrinkers vs 1-2-3 Kid, Sparky Plugg, Tatanka & the Smoking Gunns

This is the delayed match from Wrestlemania, but it’s still curious to see the Headshrinkers on the heel team directly after showing a video of their face turn. They lay the match out to give everyone a brief chance to shine, and it’s interesting to see how people use it. The opening segment between Billy Gunn and Samu is really good, ending with Gunn taking a big 360 bump off a clothesline. The terrible flying headscissors Billy hits on Jarrett is less impressive. Plugg uses his chance to shine to hold an armbar on Martel, which isn’t very interesting, but 1-2-3 Kid decides to hit as many moves as possible in his 2 minutes, looking crisp throughout. It all breaks down and, in the hubbub, Kid misses a corner charge and gets rolled up by IRS for the clean win. This was pretty fun.

Yokozuna vs Scott Powers

Really quick squash here. Yoko’s back suplex is really nice looking, gets really snap on it. Legdrop and Banzai Drop get the swift win.

H2O Wrestling - It Was All A Dream 10/06/2016

Jeff Cannonball vs Tony Deppen

Cannonball is a big fat bald guy who looks a lot like King Kong Bundy. Deppen is considerably smaller, so uses his speed advantage to control at first, including a nice suicide dive and a nifty senton from the apron. Cannonball, for his part, had really fun fat guy offence, like a great diving legdrop with Deppen in the ropes. He also sold appropriately, brickwall no-selling an attempted crossbody and doing great wobble-legged selling to tease going over for Deppen’s strikes. The end sees a ref bump and Cannonball nailing Deppen with a roll of coins to win. Fun opener.

Jigsaw vs Sonny Kiss vs Archadia vs Blackwater

Four way bout, with Jigsaw defending his HOPE King of Flight title. Kinda awesome to see a belt from my local promotion on a random US indy. Kiss has an exotico gimmick, and is really good in the role. His mannerisms are spot on and his offense plays into the character. He seems incredibly flexible, as proven by Jigsaw stretching him with a standing submission. Archadia is also pretty good, nothing spectacular, but nicely solid. Really liked his succession of legdrops from a sat down position. The weak link does appear to be Blackwater, who has a hokey “deranged oddball” gimmick and does nothing of any note in the bout. Jigsaw plays the role of defending champ well, going for quick roll ups and pins in the knowledge that his champions advantage goes out of the window in a four way, and he hits a great flip dive. After it breaks down to all four guys in the ring, Jigsaw pins Blackwater in a top rope stomp.

Amber O’Neal Gallows vs Penelope Ford

Lots of shenanigans within this one. Amy Lee is the guest referee and Ford is accompanied by Sozio (the former Niles Young), who insults Lee before the bout, which seems kind of dumb. Ford is pretty cocky to begin with, making it fun to see the more experienced Gallows ground her and work her over on the mat. Sozio cheats from the outside, and I dug how much Gallows sold being choked in the corner – really put over the disadvantage she was now in. Ford’s offence was pretty weak in comparison, so you can’t really begrudge Gallows no selling a chop to hit one of her own that is far more effective. The end was quite nifty, as Sozio passed Ford some tape to choke Gallows with, which she concealed in a sleeper hold. Lee counted Gallows’ arm down twice, before realising the tape was there, forcing Ford to break the hold. The resulting argument let Gallows recover and nails a facebuster to win. Nice little twist on the usual bit of cheating, but the parts of the match with Ford in charge were average.

Matt Tremont vs Kevin Sullivan

Really great performance by Tremont here. Sullivan is 66yrs old and not as mobile as he used to be – at one point nearly tripping up. What Tremont does here is keep things simple, selling for Sullivan’s punches, including falling for the old master’s cheapshots and doesn’t try and make Sullivan fit into a match type that he’s not going to be able to keep up with. They do a bit of walking brawling, including trips into the kitchen and the toilets, and they manage to build a fun match based around mainly punching. They both pull out their respective weapons – fork vs spike – before Jeff Cannonball comes out to draw the DQ win for Tremont. Stockade makes the save to build up a tag bout for the next show. This kinda made me curious about a Tremont/Jerry Lawler match now.

Jimmy Lloyd & Yuta vs Frankie Pickard & Curt Robinson vs Sozio & Preacher vs Storm of Entrails

Just soak in that team name for a second – Storm of Entrails. How glorious is that? Anyway, this is a 4 team four way, featuring 7 guys I’ve never seen before and one (Sozio) I’ve not seen in over 10 years, so this was really a case of having to pick out bits that I enjoyed from various guys. On that score, I really dug Robinson working basic WoS spots early on, and Pickard impressed as, despite being a short stocky guy, he nicely landed on his feet on a back body drop and let rip with a stiff elbow to the face. All these guys seem to work well together, but the elephant in the room is Storm of Entrails, two muscly, unhinged looking dudes. They’re kept out of the ring until the end, and when they come in, they’re immediately gamechangers. Yuta and Lloyd get taken out with powerbombs, as do Pickard and Robinson. An Alabama Slam and a top rope elbow gets the win for the Entrails.

Shane Douglas vs Eddie Kingston

This is another case of a younger guy trying to make a semi-retired veteran look good. In this case, Kingston fares less well than Tremont, and I think it’s because Douglas is more able and mobile than Sullivan – it means they try more stuff which doesn’t always come off. There are good moments here, Kingston stooges around nicely and buys Douglas time to catch breath on occasion, by jawing at the crowd. But it says a lot about a match when both guys put on nerve holds as a rest spot. That said, Douglas does sell it really well. They work an armdrop spot around it, with Douglas selling it as having lost all feeling in the arm, desperately trying to slap some life back into it. The end is a bit hokey, Douglas catching a flash belly-to-belly whilst Kingston argues with the ref, but this was fine.

Nation of Intoxication (Danny Havoc & Connor Claxton) vs Notorious Inc (Devon Moore & Drew Blood)

This is for the first H2O tag titles, and is no DQ. This breaks down pretty early, with guys fighting on the outside prompting Blood to go for a suicide dive that hits more fans than wrestlers. The camera work is a little off, as we get told by the commentators about fighting happening on the other side of the ring by a pairing, whilst we’re looking at something less interesting on the other side. Things improve as we get back in the ring, with Notorious Inc doing some nice double teams. Fun spot as Havoc has blood on his shoulders in an electric chair position and drops him towards Claxton, who boots him in the balls as he lands. Havoc superplexes Moore through a table, and though Blood tries to fight back, he’s soon wiped out with a running DVD and a top rope leg for the victory. Fun stuff.