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skelltan · 2 years

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Indie Promotion Round Up - Edition 1 Part 2 - MLW Fusion

This is a continuation from my last post. Check it out here!

Let’s change the channel. Over on MLW, we’re picking up from the fallout of Battle Riot IV. The Battle Riot is a battle royale with 40 men that operates by elimination via pinfall, submission or over the top rope rules. Whoever wins gets a future title shot at the MLW World Heavyweight Championship. Jacob Fatu won this, so he gets a shot at Alexander Hammerstone some time. From what I understand these two are the faces of the company, the two main guys they build the company around and are in long conracts for MLW. Fatu was the champion prior to Hammerstone from 2019 and held it til 2021. So, without further ado, let’s get to MLW Fusion episode 154.

We start with a recap of Battle Riot. After that, he SATs arrive. These guys were a tag team in early TNA and ROH, I haven’t really seen them before. They try to enter a building, but a guy with a luchador mask is guarding it. He gets hit in the balls by a mini luchador, so the SATs enter.

MLW’s theme song is better than NWA’s. It’s a sort of hip hop instrumental, but it sounds slightly less generic, hence why I think its better. Still generic, just a bit less than NWA’s theme. We’re introduced to the show by the commentary team, Joe Dombrowski and Rich Bocchini.

Ring announcer Tim Barr prepares us for a 4 way title match for the World Middleweight Championship. Lince Dorado makes his way to the ring. He had a stint in Chikara, but was more well known for his stint in Lucha House Party in WWE. He didn’t really win anything major, and I always got him mixed up with his stable mates, so let’s hope he stands out here. Under his name graphic, it says his style is Lucha Libre – so I’m guessing every competitor has their style in their name graphic?

Next up is La Estrella. He’s from Dragon Gate, which I haven’t seen a lot of, but I’ve heard of Estrella. I hope he impresses. Next is Arez. Arez I’ve efinitely heard of, and may have seen, but not enough to remember him. He’s from AAA. Apparently he’s also in a faction with Gangrel. Finally, the champ, Myron Reed. He’s managed by Mr Thomas, who apparently was known as Blaster McMassive in Chikara. Myron himself has been all over the place, but mostly made his name here in MLW as a three time middleweight champ. So I haven’t seen a lot of these guys, so I hope they all impress.

It’s a four way cruiserweight match, so forgive me if my coverage isn’t great. Lince charges Myron, but is dumped outside. Arez and Myron focus on Estrella, landing some nice chops. Estrella jumps off the ropes onto them, though, and hits a nice tope con hiro on the two.

Lince is back in the ring and takes it to Estrella. They have an athletic back and forth that Lince gets the upper hand on. Arez then charges in, bringing the attack to Lince. He lands a powerbomb for a 2 count.

Myron comes back, breaking it up, though. Reed goes for a cover on Lince, but only gets a one count. Arez and Myron stand off, but Lince gets back up to dropkick them both and hits a handspring stunner to Myron. Estrella comes back for a dive, but misses. Arez with a senton and misses. Lince with a splash and misses. Myron with a 360 splash and misses. Lince locks on an armbar while Estrella gets an ankle lock, but Arez is back to break it up.

Arez and Lince square off, ending in Arez going for a submission. Estrella goes to break it up, but gets hit. Myron breaks it up with a slingshot legdrop. Arez and Lince try to figh Myron, but Myron has the upper hand – at least momentarily, bu they hit him with a buckle bomb. Lince and Estrella fight some, Lince hitting a suicide dive to Arez and Myron on the outside respectively. Lince splashes but gets rolled up by Estrella for a 2. Myron with a double cutter for the win.

Jesus. Christ. I’ll give NWA more of a shot, but this just blew that one episode of Powerrr out of the fucking water. I had more fun with this than I did most other matches I’ve seen on weekly tv wrestling lately. All 4 of these men were amazing and I’d love to see more of. Also worth noting is it felt as if commentary felt a lot more engaged and better at calling action than the NWA team, and while the arena is smaller than one WWE or AEW might run, it’s bigger than the one the NWA ran and looks better – not that the NWA one looked terrible. But one match in and I can actually see me watching this show weekly if it keeps this up, unlike the NWA.

Myron has an interview. He claims to be the greatest of all time and calls on all challengers. He also says fuck, which is a plus of being on youtube, I suppose.

We get a recap on the one other match from Battle Riot a week prior, where Hammerstone beats up two luchadores but gets beat down.

We then get a segment with Cesar Duran. Alright. Cesar Duran was known as Dario Cueto in Lucha Underground and was the authority figure who loved violence. He recently showed up in MLW, but because he was only in Lucha Underground as Dario, he didn’t own the rights to the name, so he’s now Cesar. For all intents and purposes, he is the same character, though, and is an authority figure here too. MLW also has Azteca Underground which is their take on a continuation on Lucha Underground. I think it’s a separate show from Fusion, but I’m not sure.

Anyways, Cesar is mid phone call, but hangs up. The luchador from earlier holds a platter with drinks on it but jumscares Cesar, who tells him that he’s creeping him out and to stop that. Richard Holliday and a woman associate of his ask for an apology. Holliday is also one of the main MLW guys from what I can tell. Cesar tells them he’s trying to chill and to fuck off, but they say he owes them gratitude for saving him from Hammerstone. He demands the world title, so Cesar gives him a falls count anywhere match in 2 weeks. Cesar than sings New York, New York. He then tells Holliday that he better not fail. Cesar then instructs the luchador to take out Microman, giving him a chain to do it with.

Ok, let’s unpack this. The camera quality is good, but something about it still feels amateur – the framing or something, I guess? But still, not bad. Cesar flubs his lines a few times, so it gives off the impression they filmed one take, which is not as good. He’s still entertaining, though, so it’s not the end of the world. Holliday looks like a fuckboy and a better Ethan Page, so I hope he lives up to it in the ring.

We get a video package on EJ Nduka. He’s apparently undefeated (not counting Battle Riot) and is one of the tag champs and wants a world title match. That information is relayed to us in mere seconds, which was a bit messy and ideally they give us more time to parse new information like this in the future.

We then cut to the ring, where KC Navarro is mid entrance, which is also a bit awkward. He’s a more recent export from CZW and in 2021 had 8 matches on AEW Dark. Mini Abismo Negro is here, and I thought he would be a mini from that name, but he’s just as big as KC. Apparently the original Abismo Negro was a notable Rudo (heel) in AAA and CMLL.

The match starts with KC taking the action to Abismo, ending with a tope before rolling him back into the ring. He goes to the top rope, but Abismo knocks him and hits a huricanrana for a two count. Abismo has the lead and hits a suplex for a two count. KC then hits a tiltawhirl DDT for another two count. They then exchange strikes. KC gets the lead and wins with a move he calls the Jesus Piece. That felt really sudden. I don’t mind matches ending suddenly, but I feel it works better when theres more impact or it’s a bit longer. It was an alright match, both men got to show off their stuff. Not as impressive as the opener, but more entertaining than any of the NWA matches. It could’ve stood to go a little longer, but like NWA, we have time limit constrictions.

Speaking of said constrictions, the second the match ends, we quickly go to an injury update on Hammerstone after he got attacked at Battle Riot. Apparently he suffered a rib fracture and will impede his movement and power for 2 months, giving us some stakes going into his match with Holliday. I’m sure it has happened before, but I don’t recall the last time I saw kayfabe injuries be used to stack the odds against someone, especially the champ, like this – I like it!

Again, with breakneck speed, we move on to an interview with Mance Warner, who returned recently. Mance made his name in MLW, but also GCW as a part of the Second Gear Crew, and had a match on Rampage against then AEW Champion Jon Moxley. I liked his brawler style, so I look forward to seeing more of him.

Apparently Mance had been gone from MLW for 2 years. He rambles a bit about where he’s been and calls out Mads Krugger. He’s another MLW mainstay and is a huge masked monster in the vein of Kane, no rhyme intended. I’m bad at describing how he’s specifically different from other southern characters, but Mance is a down to Earth southern babyface. I thought his promo package in AEW was good, but he further showed off how entertaining he is here – better than Aron Stevens!

We then again cut to footage from Battle Riot with no warning. Real 1 (I’ll get to him later) attemps to eliminate Kross, but fails. Alright. Elephant in the room. Unlike the NWA, or any promotion, really, MLW tapes their shows MONTHS in advance. This, and all upcoming shows, were all taped back in June. So, here we see Killer Kross. At the time, he had been released from the WWE. Now he’s back there, despite us seeing him from 6 months in the past here. Funny, that.

Anyways, Fatu eliminates Kross and then Real 1 to win. Well, the refs are busy, so they can’t see it, so then Real 1 comes back and try to get the ref to think he won, but before he can get the ref’s attention, Real 1 is eliminated.

We then see a promo from Real 1. Alright, so Real 1 was known as Enzo Amore in WWE and was super over, part of a tag team with a guy now known as W Morrissey who recently had an IMPACT stint, but is now in AEW. They were even more over and people saw more potential in them than the aforementioned Damien Sandow. However, Enzo was released due to attitude problems and made a bit of an ass of himself, but since has been clean as far as I can tell and here in MLW.

This promo was filmed on a phone, which is a bit awkward, but eh, MLW is basically an indie and the camera quality is fine, so I’ll take it. He rapid fires a promo on Jacob Fatu – some of it is entertaining, some of it is cringeworthy – he just keeps rambling, and sometimes he stumbles upon something good, but then he keeps going and trips a bit. He needs to learn a bit of self control, but other than his pitfalls, he was engaging enough. If this is something to judge him off of, I don’t think he’s as amazing as others thought he may have been, but he’s better than most.

Backstage, Lince Dorado is walking wih Savio Vega. They encounter someone (Bud Heavy?) who was found collapsed in a closet with a card with odd symbols on it on top. We have a mystery.

Jacob Fatu talks to Microman, who’s eating some mcnuggets. The luchador from earlier attempts to attack Microman as Jacob walks off, but Jacob comes back and spots him, causing him to run.

Now another match. Here’s Clara Carreras, who is apparently making her debut. She has a sort of Carnivalle thing going on. Now Scarlett Bordeaux, who went back to WWE with Kross. She looks very different than what I’m used to in WWE. Scarlett attacks Clara before the bell rings. Clara gets the upper hand, attacking her back. She looks quite athletic. She gets a headlock, but Scarlett breaks out, whipping her to the corner and hitting her with a splash. She then taunts with her ass and uses ass based offense on Clara.

Scarlett hits “the Scarlett Letter” (it’s like Hangman Adam Page’s Deadeye) for the win. She then licks Clara after the match. C’mon, are these two really a ripoff of Mil Muertes? Anyways, the Featherweight (Women’s) Champ comes down for an interview. Taya says Scarlett is the kind of woman they need in the women’s division. Oops. Brittany Blake attacks Taya, however. She’s got a cool scene look going on. She’s also a former CZW alumni, but has mostly worked Shimmer in recent years, as well as a couple of AEW Dark matches.

The refs break them up. From the way it was shot it felt as if it was right after the last match, but they talk about Scarlett as if she wasn’t there and Scarlet doesn’t do anything so I assume it was filmed at some other point?

Anyways, more Battle Riot recap. Davey Richards got attacked by the Bomaye Fight Squad (Myron Reed’s group). Bomaye Fight Squad then cu a promo on Davey. Alex Kane calls him out for a submission match. Alex is the Openweight champ. Also next week, Killer Kross faces Matt Cross.

We see another promo, this time Jacob firing back on Real 1. Now time for the main event, those two go at it. Jacob makes his entrance, but Real 1 ambushes Fatu from behind with a steel pipe. Real 1 gets a mic and says if Fatu doesn’t face him, he’s soft. So here comes Fatu.

Real 1 charges him in the corner and despite a bit of fight back, Real 1 keeps control, working Fatu’s previously injured leg. Real 1 goes for a dropkick, but Fatu counters with a dropkick of his own. Real 1 hits a low blow for the DQ.

That was a bit of a wet fart, but much like the Powerrr main event, it serves to further a story, and this one feels like the build is a bit better. That’s the end of the show.

Alright, I’ve got mixed feelings. That opening match was genuinely great and I’d love to see more of that, but much like NWA, due to the limited time, MLW doesn’t have a lot of time to show off its full roster. I don’t know how to alleviate this – adding more time is probably costly, and I’m not sure how big their roster is/who they want to focus on.

The only reasonable suggestion I have is to cut back on the backstage segments. I understand they want to balance it with the matches and I enjoyed the little running story with Microman vs the luchador, but other than being vaguely entertaining and letting us know this is a feud that is happening, it didn’t add a lot. Same for the constant replays of footage from Battle Riot. I’d stick to just mentioning relevant info from previous shows on commentary during a match. I’d probably create recap packages for relevant moments and have all those extra interviews and upload them separate to episodes of Fusion. That would then allow you time for 3 decent sized matches per show.

Another issue that came from time management was how much they tried to squeeze into it. Like I said, most, if not every time we finished one segment, the next one just instantly started, giving us little time to process what we just saw or what we’re about to see.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the first match and the promos had me engaged and interested to see how the stories unfolded, so even if I wasn’t doing this series, I’d definitely want to watch more MLW.

Want to read more? Continue here!

#mlw #mlw fusion #mlw battle riot #mlw battle riot iv #nwa #nwa powerrr #wrestling #pro wrestling #indie wrestling #my reviews

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wrestlingmgc · 4 years

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MLW World Tag Team Champions Lucha Brothers

#MLW #World Tag Team Champions #Rey Fénix #Penta el 0M #Lucha Brothers #MLW World Tag Team Championship #Major League Wrestling #Independent Wrestling #Tag Team Title #Indy Wrestling #Pentagón Jr.#Fénix #The Lucha Brothers #Penta el Zero M #The Lucha Bros #10s #Pro Wrestling

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buddhausen · 6 years

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#lucha brothers #fenix #pentagon jr #mlw world tag team championship #major league wrestling #wrestlingchampions #rey fenix #penta el zero m #penta el 0m #pentagon dark #lucha libre #wrestling

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wrestlingisfake · 3 years

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Best in the World preview

After getting confused about MLW Battle Riot, now I feel like I have to check to make sure all these shows are actually available to watch live!

Best in the World is $29.99 on Fite.tv, or $14.99 for Honor Club members, or free for Honor Club VIP members. (HonorClub is really only worth signing up for if you're already going hard for ROH.) The pre-show starts at 7pm EDT, and the main show begins at 8pm EDT.

Rush vs. Bandido - Bandido won the Survival of the Fittest tournament for the right to challenge Rush here for the ROH world title. Rush won the belt for the second time in February 2020 and, thanks to the pandemic, has only defended it three times since then. But this show kicks of Ring of Honor's return to live crowds, so maybe now we can get back to normal. This is the company's big chance to get the Rush era back on track, or to turn the page and start a new era with Bandido.

There really isn't anyone else like Rush in ROH. He just clobbers dudes, wins all the time, and looks like a star. He's not exactly Brock Lesnar, but he has an aura that makes him feel like he should be in a bigger company, and no one on this roster can carry his jock. I would figure the plan is to set up a rising young star to finally figure out how to beat this guy. Bandido would make sense in that role, but it's anyone's guess if that's the plan for him.

AEW wanted very badly to sign Bandido in early 2019, but he went with ROH instead because at the time no one knew if AEW was actually going to work. That gave ROH a huge opportunity to build their future around a top prospect AEW wanted but couldn't get. Instead Bandido spent the past few years lost in the shuffle with Lifeblood and the Mexisquad. I really feel like ROH dropped the ball with this guy. The fact he's suddenly on top now doesn't totally make up for that.

It's tough to pick a winner here. Rush is the logical favorite, but ROH might want to shake things up as they go back to doing shows in front of live crowds. An upset win for Bandido would create a lot of options for fresh title matches at upcoming shows. But if Rush retains, ROH will have the same problem Smackdown is having with Roman Reigns--how do you convince the audience that anyone is left that can beat this guy?

Jonathan Gresham vs. Mike Bennett - Bennett won a seven-man gauntlet to earn this match for Gresham's ROH pure championship. This title is contested under "pure wrestling rules," which basically limit rope breaks and add tighter restrictions on punches to the face and outside interference. Gresham is an expert at this type of match, whereas Bennett is new to the format.

Bennett (along with his wife Maria Kanellis) was a mainstay in ROH, and then had a decent little run in Impact before going to WWE as "Mike Kanellis." Everything went wrong with that WWE run, but at least that's led to Bennett receiving a lot of sympathy from fans as he picks himself up and keeps going. Since returning to ROH, Bennett has mainly been supporting Matt Taven in his feud. So this is an interesting way to get him spun off into his own thing.

The pure rules stuff doesn't do a lot for me, but I like the idea of a styles clash where one guy is completely out of his element. Gresham should wrestle rings around Bennett, but Bennett should be so tenacious that Gresham can't quite put him away. It wouldn't hurt Bennett to lose, although a Bennett title win would probably be such an insult to Gresham's pride that it could set up an intense long-term rivalry.

Honestly my main interest in this match is that I recently listened to a WARHORSE interview where he said he almost quit wrestling but Mike Bennett talked him out of it. So Bennett seems like a cool guy and I'm pulling for him.

Jay Lethal vs. Brody King - Back in March, King disrupted the feud between The Foundation and Los Faccion Ingobernable by introducing his own stable called Violence Unlimited. That's pretty much all there is to this match--it's just a Foundation guy and a VU guy facing off in the latest round of a three-way war.

It stands to reason that the winner of this match would move on to start something with LFI's leader, Rush. So unofficially this feels like a match to decide the next contender for the world title. However, Rush already defended the title against King in December and Lethal in February. So I don't know, maybe these two will just clobber each other and it won't matter who wins. That's how a lot of ROH matches feel to me, honestly.

Tracy Williams & Rhett Titus vs. Homicide & Chris Dickinson - Williams and Titus (of the Foundation) are defending the ROH tag team title. The challengers are representing Violence Unlimited. Dickinson came to ROH by way of teaming with Brody King on NJPW Strong, so he made good sense in King's ROH faction. Homicide was at the very first ROH show in 2002; before aligning with VU, it had been seven years since he appeared in the promotion.

This is another match where I can't get a feel for where things are headed, and I'm not sure it makes much difference. I guess my gut says they should put the title on the new team to get them over.

Tony Deppen vs. Dragon Lee - An injury forced Lee to vacate the ROH television title, which Tracy Williams won for the Foundation, who lost it to Violence Unlimited's Deppen, and now Lee wants to get it back for Los Faccion Ingobernable. Once again, I'm not sure it matters which guy ends up with the belt, but I'll go with Lee to win since the injury situation probably messed up their plans.

Shane Taylor & Moses & Kaun vs. Dalton Castle & Dak Draper & Eli Isom - Shane Taylor Promotions is defending the ROH trios title. Castle has been doing this weird passive-aggressive thing with Draper and Isom, so his latest move is to arrange this title shot behind their backs. It might be interesting to put the title on three guys who want championships but not with each other. But I'm fairly confident this just ends with Castle's team falling apart because he's a dick.

EC3 vs. Flip Gordon - When EC3 started here as a heel, he recruited Flip to help him fight Jay and Mark Briscoe; later as EC3 went babyface, he took exception to Gordon's cheating tactics. So now Flip is the target of all the weird cryptic multimedia presentations that EC3 likes to do for his opponents.

Flip used to be a beloved babyface, and it was just mildly amusing that he was a flat-earther in real life. Then he turned heel, and then he caught heat for complaining about face masks during the pandemic. So I'm pretty sure any goodwill Gordon had with the fans is gone by now. I don't see much upside in giving him the win now; pushing EC3 is the better bet for ROH.

Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. PJ Black & Brian Johnson - I guess the Briscoes were having some issues but they've worked them out, so they're back in the hunt for the tag team title. Meanwhile Johnson seems to be getting frustrated under the mentorship of Black, and they're regrouping by making their own tag title run. Presumably the story of the match is that both teams want to be back on the same page, but only one of them really is. Pretty sure the Briscoes win this one.

Josh Woods vs. Silas Young - This is a "last man standing" match, so the match can only end when one participant is on the ground and cannot stand up again before the referee's ten-count.

Woods became Young's protege all the way back in September 2019, forming a tag team called, uh, "2 Guys 1 Tag." Right from the start I didn't expect that to last very long. But as it happened, what with the pandemic and all, Young didn't turn on Woods until March 2021.

You'd assume the point of all this would be to have Young put Woods over and establish Woods as a rising star for ROH's future. But it feels like every time ROH sets up something like this, they have the bitter old bully win to get heat. By the time they set up a rematch for the face to finally get vindication, I've usually given up and lost interest, which defeats the purpose of dragging the story out so long.

Demonic Flamita vs. Rey Horus - This is scheduled for the pre-show. Flamita, Horus, and Bandido were all in a trio called Mexisquad up until Flamita snapped and turned on the other two. Now he's "Demonic Flamita." I'm guessing the idea here is to give Flamita an impressive victory here to build up Bandido vs. Flamita to be a bigger deal.

PCO & Danhausen vs. The Beer City Bruiser & Brawler Milonas - This is also scheduled for the pre-show. PCO is basically a wrestling Frankenstein monster, but he's also Qubecer Pierre from the WWF in 1993, which still blows my mind. Danhausen is sort of like if Conan O'Brien played a character on What We Do In The Shadows. I like the idea of these two teaming up, and I hope it goes somewhere beyond prelim matches. I think the Bouncers (Bruiser and Milonas) turned heel when I wasn't paying attention, but that wouldn't be hard since I never pay attention to them. They should be easy pickings for PCOhausen.

#roh #ring of honor #best in the world #rush #bandido

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bioglovdiber-blog · 5 years

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Sport Event Altitude NBC Sports MLW Saturday Night SuperFight: Cicero, Illinois, USA

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IW YVU I IIY MLW Saturday Night SuperFight: Cicero, LHS 785 665 799 Z 216 498 887 Whitesboro, New York, 664 734 783 11/22/19 1:02:09 +03:00 708 Friday, 04 October 2019 04:02:09 248 2c illinois 2c usa 70 50 769 89 46 Head 445 489 49 2019-12-24T21:02:09.5632627+01:00 0 725 60 48 51 45 628 UK mlw saturday night superfight 1 308 47 2c Sunday, 24 November 2019 usa status ALOR 657 81 23 97 49 USA 98 71 82 Wed, 06 Nov 2019 01:02:09 GMT PQW 880 416 74 25 672 64 951 75 54 Sat, 12 Oct 2019 13:02:09 GMT 564 159 888 ZX R 22 241 UWZL 71 61 619 80 53 67 506 133 30 39 88 399 822 198 Championships GAFM 14 635 797 21 506 31 772 977 615 OSP L 971 535 841 84 York,

Wrestling World Championships.

MLW Saturday Night SuperFight: Cicero, Illinois

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December 04 2c illinois 2c usa DIDN TV cicero illinois O 93 467 892 46 65 SSR 63 66 mlw saturday night superfight World Championships MLW 681 858 KPU 348 548 527 43 43 cicero 104 UCMC KRYL 253 58 Mon, 28 Oct 2019 23:02:09 GMT 97 EDZV 29 937 508 686 84 850 369 XC 97 10/31/2019 07:02 AM 46 Saturday Night SuperFight: Cicero, 966 66 2 340 711 87 map mlw 901 65 96 Thursday, 05 December 2019 20:02:09 739 89 26 95 HSZ 430 0 Tuesday, 15 October 2019 212 58 84 489 62 November 08 40 865 486 TZJP 864 PPW Heavyweight Grand 32 91 7 86 570 night superfight 34 830 747 57 HFO 826 89 411 61 Cicero, 68 78 512 CWBL 660 2019-10-12T22:02:09 32 712 33 600 93 78 2c usa 971 796 717

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hazyheel · 5 years

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NXT Breakout Tournament Competitors

If you are just a WWE fan, then you probably don’t know too many of the guys in the NXT Breakout Tournament that was announced on Wednesday. These are some people from all around the Indy world, and even a couple big companies. Most of them are great in the ring, and have impressive resumes to boot, so here is some quick background on each of them.

Dexter Lumis was formerly known as Samuel Shaw, and is an alumni of Impact Wrestling. He was a psychopathic character who had an obsession with a ring announcer there, having a feud with Mr. Anderson. He left the company in 2015, and has been touring the independent scene since then. He has won various championships on the independent scene, but only won the Gut Check tournament while in Impact. While I have never seen him myself, he is described as a good wrestler, although not great. I think that he will have a similar psychopath gimmick in NXT, given that he is using Dexter as a first name.

Bronson Reed was known as Jonah Rock on the indie scene, and spent some time in Pro Wrestling Noah in Japan, RevPro and PROGRESS in Britain, WXW in Germany, and PWG in the US. I don’t know much about his character, but I do know that he was a good worker when I saw him in PWG. He wrestles as a powerhouse, and is known for being on the smaller side, but built like a truck. He did not win any titles in those bigger companies, but he has won several in indie promotions in Australia.

Isaiah “Swerve” Scott was known as Shane Strickland on the indies, as well as Killshot in Lucha Underground. He has been all over the independent scene, wrestling in Evolve, WXW, CZW and PCW, as well as some larger companies such as Lucha Underground, Triple A and MLW. Scott has played several different characters across his many companies, so it is difficult to say what he will be using in NXT. Scott is a talented high flier and a striker, wrestling a very exciting style, but is also known for competing in deathmatches. He has tons of championships during his career, such as the world championship and the Wired Championship in CZW, the world championship in Evolve, the Trios Championship twice in Lucha Underground, the World Heavyweight Championship in MLW, the Ultra Heavyweight and Ultra Lightweight Championship in PCW, and the Tag Team Championships in WxW. He also won the World Tag Team League 2016 in WxW alongside David Starr, and tagged with Dante Fox (AR Fox), The Mack (Willie Mack) and Son of Havoc (Matt Cross) in Lucha Underground. Strickland is a great wrestler, and one of the ones that I know more about in this batch, and I cannot wait to see him in the tournament.

Cameron Grimes was known as Trevor Lee in Impact and on the independent scene. He was one of the more prominent stars in the Impact in recent years, as well as competing in PWG and several other independent companies. Grimes was an awesome heel in his runs, presenting himself as an entitled star of a larger company while on the Indies, as well as a generally nasty and slimy heel while in Impact. Grimes has an interesting style that blends hard hitting strikes with some flying moves making him a great fit for NXT. He has won the Impact X-Division Championship 3 times and the Impact Tag Team Championship with Brian Myers once, and won the PWG Tag Team Championships and the DDT4 tournament in 2016 with Andrew Everett, and plenty of other belts on the Indies. Lee is another great wrestler, and it’ll be awesome to see how much heat he can get with the NXT crowd.

Angel Garza was known as Humberto Garza Jr or simply Garza Jr on the independent scene and in Triple A. Garza has competed in a lot of independent companies, (mainly ones that were in Mexico or Lucha Libre themed) as well as in both Triple A and Impact. He was formerly known under a mask, but unmasked himself on a dating show of all things. Garza is a high flying wrestler, known for both that and his tag team prowess alongside Laredo Kid. While he has not won many championships in the larger companies he has been a part of, he did win the Turkey Bowl 2017 in Impact, alongside Eddie Edwards, Allie, Richard Justice and Fallah Bahh. I haven’t seen Garza compete before, so I am very excited for another luchadore to enter NXT.

Joaquin Wild was known as either DJZ or Zema Ion on the indies. He has competed in a whole load of companies, including Ring of Honor, Impact, PROGRESS, Triple A, Evolve, PWG, and so many others that I can’t possibly list them all here. Wild is another high flier, being a mainstay of the X-Division in Impact for a number of years. Most of his championship reigns came in Impact, where he won the X-Division Championship twice, and the Tag Team Championships once with Andrew Everett. Also in impact, he won the X-Division briefcase in the 2013 Feast or Fired Match. I have not seen much from DJZ, but from my limited experience with him in PWG I can say that I am excited to see him work in the WWE.

Jordan Myles was known as ACH on the indie scene and in several larger companies. He was known for wrestling in PWG, New Japan, Ring of Honor, Triple A, MLW, Pro Wrestling NOAH, RevPro and the NWA, while also wrestling in independent promotions like CZW, PROGRESS and WxW. Myles was also a high flier, much like many of his compatriots in the tournament, and while I only ever saw him in PWG and the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament in New Japan, he had an interesting character in PWG, where he would impersonate Stone Cold Steve Austin. I doubt that will be his character in NXT, but it may pop up a bit here and there. He has won lots of titles on the Indie scene, such as the tag team championships in Evolve with Ethan Page, as well as winning the NTV G+ Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League in Pro Wrestling NOAH with Taiji Ishimori. Myles is another great wrestler in this bunch, and I am thrilled to see him in the WWE. Even if he goes to 205 live, which of the wrestlers in this tournament he is probably most likely to, he will bring so much talent to that roster.

And lastly, we have Boa, who oddly enough is not a new signee from the Indie scene. I had never heard of him, so when I looked him up online, I realized that he only ever competed in the WWE performance center, and on the house show circuit. While he is not a veteran wrestler from the indies, he did used to do Brazilian Ju jitsu. I have aboslutely no idea who he is or how good he is, so I guess positive thoughts.

So these are the participants in the NXT Breakout Tournament. Lots of really good wrestlers here, should be a fun tournament. Keep your eye on the Grimes vs. Scott match in the first round, that looks really great on paper. As for a winner, I’ll throw a prediction out there. I think that Jordan Myles will win the tournament, really just a guess as I have no idea who they like and who they don’t. But I guess we will see. I hope all of you will enjoy the tournament, and I will be reviewing it each week.

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pwchronicle · 6 years

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Major League Wrestling “SuperFight” and “Fusion” TV Taping Report February 2nd in Philadelphia, PA

MLW came to the 2300 Arena tonight for the first time since their 2017 relaunch that has led to running events across the country, a weekly TV show, and a fruitful relationship with their cable home beIN Sports that has led to live shows airing on nights like this. They ended up drawing a large crowd, and I was impressed by the clean, slick-looking ring, the entrance setup, and the different kind of pre-show playlist (Tyler the Creator, Ghostface Killah, etc.). Before matches got underway, ring announcer Timothy Barr (also of EVOLVE and WWN) and correspondent Kacey Lennox threw shirts out to the crowd. Rich Bocchini and Matt Striker handled commentary from ringside. Two matches were taped starting at 7:30 PM prior to SuperFight going live on TV.

1. Rich Swann beat Lance Anoa’i when Anoa’i missed a 450 splash and Swann rolled him up afterward. Swann very gradually played more of the heel here, and he just barely used the bottom rope for leverage for his pin. Anoa’i, who had a tribute for Roman Reigns on his shorts, impressed the crowd with his agility.

2. Alexander Hammerstone beat Ariel Dominguez with a sit-out side slam from a vertical suplex position. Hammerstone, a newcomer to MLW from Phoenix, AZ who has wrestled out west a lot, looked like a taller Tyler Durden and towered over Dominguez, who I believe is mainly used in positions like this. Hammerstone dominated him, from a massive release German suplex, to a delayed pump handle exploder suplex, to quickly killing Dominguez’s comeback with a forearm strike. Hammerstone truly has shoulders like boulders.

After this came the live TV airing of SuperFight, with perhaps the three most heavily advertised matches on the card. Teddy Hart and Davey Boy Smith Jr. (with Brian Pillman Jr.) won the MLW World Tag Team Titles from Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix in a predictably crazy opener. Cool to see Smith come out with a bulldog, in addition to Hart with his cat. Despite some slight miscommunication and loose rules, the crowd was very much into this. Both teams came off as beloved, though the new Hart Foundation used plenty of dirty tactics: Pillman pulling the ref out during a pin count, Smith unmasking Pentagon, and Hart giving Fenix a low blow prior to the spectacular finish. Hart Foundation dripping in gold. Kotto Brazil and Ricky Martinez received a big spotlight for their grudge match, and I thought they worked pretty hard, but I didn’t think this match didn’t have the same level of star power to draw in the crowd more, and I thought the finish (Selina De La Renta spraying something in Brazil’s good eye) was fairly silly. Low Ki, De La Renta’s other client and the man “undefeated in MLW for 15 years” defending his MLW World Heavyweight Title against Tom Lawlor went by quicker than I anticipated, but I thought these two made the most of their time. Big fight feel, Low Ki punching through a door, and Lawlor getting the victory and the title via choke out. With a lot of his other MMA-to-pro wrestling contemporaries signed with WWE, Lawlor really seems to be making a name for himself outside of the corporate behemoth. Following these three bouts (matches 3-5), they put on several more matches for later editions of MLW Fusion.

6. Mance Warner beat Jimmy Yuta with a lariat. I think Wheeler Yuta has been here, as Jimmy, since the relaunch, whereas Warner was making his much-promoted MLW debut, dressed up like Bunkhouse Buck. More of a showcase match for Warner, as he took the action to the floor and made it into a bit of a brawl. He pulled out his patented eye poke and delivered a running knee lift prior to the finish. Afterward, Kacey Lennox interviewed Warner on the stage, and he cut a promo into the camera that the crowd couldn’t hear.

7. Jacob Fatu & The Almighty Sheik beat two enhancement wrestlers after Fatu pinned one of them after a big moonsault. Fatu is another member of the Anoa’i family, new to MLW, and borrowing a lot of his look from Umaga. This Sheik would be the same Sheik who held the NWA World Heavyweight Title under auspicious means. These two were announced as representing a new unit called Contra, and they decimated their opponents, with Sheik using a spike during the match. They appeared to be a throwback to the likes of the the original Sheik, Bruiser Brody, and the like, as they just kept causing chaos after the match. The opponent who wasn’t pinned was the recipient of a fireball from Sheik, Fatu did a moonsault on the other guy again as he was being stretchered out of the ring, and then this poor guy was slammed on the floor, all while the timekeeper kept ringing the bell in his failed attempts to control the action.

- They aired the backstage confrontation between The Hart Foundation and Maxwell Jacob Friedman, that I understand aired during the live airing. Good reception from the crowd.

8. Myron Reed beat DJZ with a rollup reversal with a handful of tights. To be fair, DJZ had a hold of Reed’s tights on his initial rollup attempt, but Reed was subtly acting heel in the match. Very slick and athletic action from both of these guys.

9. Ace Romero beat Simon Gotch by disqualification. Gotch has changed up his hairstyle and did away with his old mustache, and he was also announced as representing Contra. Romero was more popular here, though I’m not sure how well the crowd received these two odd bodies. Gotcha and Romero both fought hard like it was a grudge match, leading to Romero bleeding from the nose, but it all ended with Jacob Fatu and Almighty Sheik coming back out to attack Romero. Sheik spiked Romero’s head, drawing even more blood, as Gotch took the mic and directed his two colleagues. He said the three of them are the new global merchants of violence, demanding the crowd to carve this moment in their flesh so as to remember it (no thanks, we have phones). Gotch promised that they would burn professional wrestling to the ground and remake it in their image. He proclaimed themselves Contra, and that the hostile takeover has begun.

- Barr announced that MLW would return to the 2300 Arena on June 1st. This led into a very brief intermission, during which Teddy Hart made himself available to fans.

10. Ace Austin beat Rich Swann after a backwards top rope splash. Solid action that won the crowd over, though I thought they dueling dropkicks and dueling kip ups were really silly, trying for the type of stuff Ricochet and Will Ospreay did to much greater effect. The finish was hampered by a really awkward three-count, as if the ref forgot this was the finish. Afterward, Rich Bocchini got into the ring to speak with Swann, who slapped the ref to the mat. Bocchini tried asking Swann about his change in attitude, but Swann just shoved him down and proceeded to jaw with fans at ringside.

11. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Brian Pillman Jr. beat Tommy Dreamer & The Sandman after Smith powerbombed Dreamer onto two chairs. Smith and Sandman were the respective mystery partners for the feuding Pillman and Dreamer. Pillman cut a promo before introducing Smith, saying he wasn’t going to bring out an old ECW junkie. He channeled his father’s first promo in ECW (which I happened to rematch recently), calling the crowd smart marks and saying he was exercising his constitutional rights to pick an appropriate partner, in the city where the Constitution was written. Good delivery from him despite not having as hoarse a voice. Sandman did his full entrance (a lot of MLW entrance music is actual songs with the lyrics removed), and for some reason Teddy Hart came through the crowd with his cat, walking right past me and walking around the front row of fans while still behind the barricade. Sandman acted like he hurt his hand from chopping Pillman, and I felt he really showed his age here, even more so than in his recent ROH appearances. Dreamer was more of the workhorse for his team, including taking a delayed vertical suplex from Smith. Sandman even complimented Smith’s strength. Sandman eventually started chasing Pillman around the ring as Pillman retrieved various plunder from under the ring, ending with him pulling the Blue Meanie out from under the ring; he ultimately just punched Pillman after being used as a shield from Sandman. After the finish, there was a standing ovation for Dreamer, partially encouraged by the announce team.

12. Gringo Loco beat Puma King after a Spanish Fly off the top turnbuckle. It sounded like Barr mixed up the order of his ring announcements for these two heavyset luchadors. I thought they worked quite well together and came off well, up until the finish when Puma King kept slipping off the top and had to get back up for it.

- Barr announced that Teddy Hart would defend the MLW World Middleweight Championship against Maxwell Jacob Friedman in the main event. Hart came off as the crowd favorite as Barr gauged who they predict would win.

13. Rey Horus beat Aerostar with a victory roll bomb off the top turnbuckle. I thought this had the slickest, cleanest wrestling out of any match on the card. Very strong stuff from both guys. Aerostar wrestled with lights on his mask and gear, which was different. Both luchadors showed respect to each other afterward, may they find solace outside of the Temple.

- Barr announced that tonight set a new box office record for MLW, and he thanked the crowd on behalf of the everyone.

14. Teddy Hart beat Maxwell Jacob Friedman to retain the MLW World Middleweight Title with a springboard twisting senton. MJF cut a promo before Hart came out, claiming that if you like ECW, you’re white trash. He called Hart a jailbird, claimed he never officially lost his title, and challenged Hart to come out on his own without Smith and Pillman. Hart did so, but he still came out with his cat, who he placed on the top turnbuckle during in-ring introductions. Much like in the tag title match earlier in the night, these two loved their piledrivers. MJF countered Hart’s big moves by grounding him with headlocks. The ref went down when MJF collided with him (barely, from the looks of it) after Hart had hit him with a Canadian Destroyer. With the ref down, MLF attempted to use a chair, but Hart kicked him in the groin and used the chair himself. He then gave MJF an electric chair lung blower prior to the finish. Good main event with good character work that ended the night on a high note.

By all accounts, this was a pretty successful excursion to Philadelphia, especially given the purported business and the return date. For a company that bills itself as Major League and has such slick production, there were lots of moments in matches that felt off or awkward, including two botched finishes. They ultimately shouldn’t matter as much if they don’t repeat too often, and they likely don’t leave that big an impression on the majority of the live crowd and television audience. The title changes during the live airing say a lot about who the top stars are, and possibly what the future may hold for Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix. This card still made a good impression on me that will keep me focused on Fusion and the return date in June.

#wrestling #MLW #major league wrestling #mlw fusion #MLW SuperFight #superfight #fusion

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biggoldbelt · 2 years

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Fusion Preview: Taya Valkyrie vs. Holidead, Hustle & Power vs. 5150 vs. Von Erichs

Major League Wrestling FUSION tonight at 8pm ET features the crowning of the inaugural Women’s World Featherweight Champion, streaming worldwide for free on MLW’s YouTube channel and Saturday nationwide on cable and dish on beIN SPORTS. Inaugural Women’s World Featherweight Championship: Taya Valkyrie vs. Holidead World Tag Team Championship: Hustle & Power vs. The Von Erichs vs. 5150 Gangrel…

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#Crown Jewel #features #gold #Hustle #Interview #Major League Wrestling #MLW #MLW Fusion #Power #Queen #Wrestling #YouTube

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wweallresultspage · 1 year

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MLW Never Say Never PPV Results - July 8, 2023

1. Jacob Fatu def. Calvin Tankman in 9:51 to retain the MLW National Openweight Championship

2. Delmi Exo def. Ava Everett in 6:44 to retain the MLW World Featherweight Championship and to win the wXw Women's Championship

3. Tracy Williams def. Timothy Thatcher in 8:25

4. Mance Warner def. Sam Adonis in a Country Whipping Match in 12:36

5. AKIRA & Rickey Shane Page def. Juicy Finau & Lance Anoa'i in a Fans Bring The Weapons Hardcore Match in 11:17 to win the MLW World Tag Team Championships

6. Alex Kane def. Alex Hammerstone in 22:27 to win the MLW World Heavyweight Championship

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justanotherprowrestlingblog · 6 years

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Slammiversary XVI Review: Sunday July 22nd, from the Rebel Complex in Toronto,CA

Petey Williams vs Fenix vs Taiji Ishimori vs Johnny Impact:[****1/4]

Originally Rich Swann was scheduled for this match but he got injuried during the MLW event from NY so he got replaced by Petey (wishing Swann a speedy recovery). It made the match a little worse because Swann is a better high flyer then Petey but my god what a match it was! Crazy fast from the start, everyone had his time to shine, big cool spots like that stunning springboard double footstomp from Fenix who stole the Show with Impact. He was going for the, i believe, a muscle buster on petey but he got caught by a superkick from Johnny that lead him the win with his starpship pain on his return to Impact. Great win, super awesome match you should check out. Great start to the PPV and great return for Johnny Impact.

Winner: Johnny Impact

Tessa Blanchard vs Allie:[***1/4]

Surprisingly a really good match even tho i wasn't expecting it to be this good. Probably also one of Allie's best matches on Impact as she and Tessa had really good chemistry as the match went on. They took some nasty spots too like Tessa's frankensteiner or even the Allie Valley Driver on the Floor. The canadian showed a new side of her since she went Demon Bunny but this time got short as she got nailed by tessa's hammerlock DDT that got her the win and her first on PPV. Probably it won't go on this feud as i smell Tessa being the next challenger for the Impact Knockouts title

Winner: Tessa Blanchard

House of Hardcore Match: Eddie Edwards vs Tommy Dreamer:[***]

Solid hardcore match who personally was good and it wasn't as bad as i originally thought. The new eddie edwards is pure gold as he went fully psycho and change completely himself. They put on a good hardcore match, not really exciting tho but it had a good mix of wrestling and storytelling too, like the moment when Eddie asked Dreamer to hit him in the head with the kendo stick...as dreamer wanted to set a table on fire he got caught by a low blow and a ddt by eddie..boston knee party with the help a chair and game set and match...post match Eddie had a breakdown where he kinda wanted to hit Dreamer but helped him stand up and Alisha came to the ring to get Eddie to shake Dreamer's hand but it turned out that Dreamer gave him the kendo stick and left the ring...interesting...very interesting...

Winner:Eddie Edwards

X Division Championship: Brian Cage vs Matt Sydal:[***1/4]

Another solid match thus far as this time we had a slow start with Sydal gaining momentum by working on Cage's knees so he could keep him on the ground and have an advantage over him, but as the match went on, both guys picked up the pace and the match got much better. Sydal went all out with some crazy counters like the drill claw into a hurricanrana or even when he powerbombed cage who went for a checky hurricanrana...then we had the finish: Sydal went for the shooting star press, caught the ropes, bad landing, drill claw and Cage won the title. For the result, Cage win is good but i believe he won't be X Division champ for long as it would be interesting to use his title reign like in the past TNA did with Option C. On the finish, i believe it was a botch as Cage raised his foot but Sydal missed him as he hit the ropes with his feet, unless it was planned to end like this First title match of the night and first title change. Will we have more?

Winner AND NEW X Division Champion: Brian Cage

Knockouts Championship: Madison Rayne vs Su Yung:[**3/4]

It was an enjoyable match but not as good as the other Knockouts match. They used some shenaningans to elevate Su's character and all the brides maid at ringside. Rayne looked great and was a good babyface challanger but at the end of the day she felt short after Yung applied her disgusting mandible choke. Post match was great as Su layed Madison in the coffin she used for her entrance sending a big message. The way they are booking Su Yung's character is great, not much during matches, but all her angles and the backstage stuff is cool. Will we finally get the undead bride vs the Hive queen soon?

Winner AND STILL Knockouts Champion: Su Yung

5150 Street Fight for the Impact Tag Team Championship: LAX vs OGZ:[****]

This match was actually really really good: it was what a street fight is supposed to be: violent, not much wrestling, carnage and lots of fun. They used the stipulation really well and also the various weapons: the table spots, the ladder could have been used better but still the double team spot was nice. I thought that the OGZ would win so the feud would go longer but the champs picked up the win thanks to a Konnan interference who distracted Homicide who got hit later on the thumbtacks with a bodyslam followed by a frog splash from Santana. The finish was ok as it really set nicely the post match with King had enough and assault Konnan and his young pops and took the belts with them after he marked them with the OGZ. This feud is not over and i believe it might lead to a rematch in some kind of pre-taped Final deletion style match. Hopefully because this feud, which has been great so far, need a memorable ending.

Winner AND STILL Impact Tag Team Champions: LAX

Mask vs Hair: Sami Callihan vs Pentagon Jr:[****1/2]

I was really hyped for this match, because Callihan is a fucking badass heel and Pentagon is one of my favourite wrestlers coming out of LU, but this match was even better than my expactiations. Jesus what a great match! They started fast and then the match got brutal with the Spikes spot who problably won't make me sleep tonight, the chairshots, the super zero factor on the chair and callihan even kicked out! Maybe the refbump wasn't really necessary but it kinda added something more to the match...finish was really great as Callihan made Pentagon snap and he replied by snapping his arm and hitting the zero factor for the second time. Post match Callihan tried to sneak out from the headshave but Fenix caught him with his brother and now Callihan will be bold. This match is probably Impact's MOTY at the moment and it's a match you should check out as soon as you can. Some of you might not enjoy the violence in this match, like all the spikes stuff, but it made so much sense to the storytelling and heated things up. Kudos to both of them for a crazy good match.

Winner: Pentagon Jr

Impact World Championship: Moose vs Austin Aries:[****]

While watching this match i had the feeling they would screw up everything, because sometimes it happens with Impacts main events but thank god they didn't because we had a really great main event to close the show. It was easily the best singles match Moose ever had and he and Aries had a really great chemistry and what it made the match good is that they start fast and kept picking up the pace. Moose went ballsy with some spots like the dive on the ramp and shined big time, proving that he is a really good big men, while Aries proved once again that he is a really great wrestler and that WWE made a big mistake by not giving him a chance outside 205. Result came outta nowhere as i wasn't expecting Aries to keep the title cause i felt it was Moose's time to win the gold after they have done a solid buildup around him and also the way the match was heading made me think about a title change, but for once,a heel won in a smart way. Unless they have something big in mind for the title at Bound For Glory (BFG series please), i think we will have Cage vs Aries for the title. Great main event for a great Slammiversary.

Winner AND STILL Impact World Heavyweight Champion: Austin Aries

Overall: I loved Slammiversary: it was the kind of shows i like: less talking, less BS, no stupid surprises, no stupid angles but just matches that are good and make sense with the storylines. Nothing was bad in this show, nothing suprisingly because even the bad matches on paper were ok. 3 hours of great wrestling and great matches with the roster coming out really strong from this event. Loving the Callis-D'amore era so far. Kudos to everyone involed, best Impact PPV in a long time. Hopefully BFG can be as good as this one or as good as Redemption [8.75]

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wrestlingmgc · 4 years

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MLW World Tag Team Champions The Hart Foundation

#MLW #World Tag Team Champions #Teddy Hart #Davey Boy Smith Jr.#The Hart Foundation #MLW World Tag Team Championship #Major League Wrestling #Independent Wrestling #Tag Team Title #Indy Wrestling #10s #Pro Wrestling

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nmgpodcastnetwork · 3 years

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AEW Dynamite On TBS Results 1/5/2022 * AEW World Championship Match: "Hangman" Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson - and STILL AEW World Champion: “Hangman” Adam Page * MJF vs. “Captain” Shawn Dean - Winner via Disqualification: “Captain” Shawn Dean * Wardlow vs. Antonio Zambrano - Winner: Wardlow * AEW Tag Team Championship Match: Lucha Bros vs. Jurassic Express - Winners and NEW AEW World Tag-Team Champions: Jurassic Express * TBS Championship Tournament Final: Ruby Soho vs. Jade Cargill - Winner and first-ever TBS Women’s Champion: Jade Cargill * Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Malakai Black - Winner: Malakai Black #hottakewrestlingpodcast #wrestling #nxtuk #podcast #wwe #nxt #roh #nwa #mlw #impactwrestling #tna #aew #allelitewrestling #news #interviews #reviews #recaps #videogames #ppv #wrestlingnews #nmgpodcastnetwork #chicago #anchorfm #soundcloud #itunes #explorepage #stitcherradio #results #explore (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYainZQNGfu/?utm_medium=tumblr

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fenixbrown-blog · 6 years

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An Objective All In Review

AN OBJECTIVE ALL IN REVIEW by Fenix Brown

This past Saturday we were all treated to what was being called the “Wrestlemania of Independent Wrestling” in a show filled with fun moments for the fans. Many people had high expectations heading into this show and thought that this was a way to show that there is a better product then the WWE. There is a lot of deserving praise being put out about this show, but the show was not without its flaws. Overall I thought the show was solid, but nowhere near being show of the year. Before I get accused of being a “WWE fanboy” in this review I want to explain a couple things. I grew up watching NWA and early WCW in the heyday of the Horseman, Ricky Steamboat, the Rock n Roll Express, Steiners, etc. I love old school wrestling and have evolved into watching just about every product out today. Every week I watch everything from WWE to Impact to Lucha Underground to MLW to NJPW and they all are great and they all have their flaws. Since WWE is the standard that everyone likes to compare things to I am going to review this show with the same standard we expect from that product.

PRE SHOW MATCHES

Unlike most WWE shows the place was packed and the crowd was hot or the preshow. Most preshows feature throw away matches, but at All In had one match considered a throw away and a battle royal to determine who would get a shot at Jay Lethals ROH World Championship. The preshow was a good setup for the main card overall and had a lot of crowd pleasing moments.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS BRISCOE BROTHERS VS SCU

SCU was the team of Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky and they were over. The crowd obviously followed the Being the Elite series which for most of the show was the set up for many of the matches. This has nothing to do with any of that though. Briscoes who are one of the greatest tag teams of all time on the independent scene probably did not get the heroes welcome they deserved and were the heels in this match. Kazarian picked up the pin fall when he reversed a Doomsday Device into a powerslam for the pin fall. The match was solid but I have a huge problem in one regard. I know this is not an ROH show per say, but ROH financed this show behind the scenes which is well documented, but overlooked. Time after time we see WWE put the tag titles on a pre show and talk about how they don’t care about the tag division. Not only were the tag champs on the pre show, they lost clean in the middle of the ring in a non title match. We would excoriate the WWE for doing the same thing so this hit a nerve. Hopefully this will lead to a championship opportunity for SCU, but even then I don’t think they are winning the belts. While this match was fun and enjoyable I could have done without the tag champs losing clean on a pre show match. Plenty of other teams could have filled this role and lost to SCU.

BATTLE ROYAL FOR A SHOT AT ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Whoever booked his battle royal deserves a ton of credit. Everyone got their moment to shine, and it had a ton of crowd popping moments. The match started with Bully Ray putting the luchador known as Chico on Being the Elite through a table outside the ring. The match then turned into fun moment after fun moment. A slew of dives followed up by a great fake out by Billy Gunn and Tommy Dreamer. Moose then did his “Moose jabs” leading to everyone ganging up him and being the first one eliminated by Marco Stunt, who had a few brief but great moments in the match. Best friends Chuck Taylor and Trent Barretta had their hug broken up by Ethan Page, who in the early going was the dominant heel in the match. Brandon Cutler, who was by far the least impressive in this match then got some offense in, only to be eliminated by Page moments later. Page then almost eliminated both of the Best Friends, who were saved by Rocky Romero, then got some tandem offense and a hug in, which led to them being eliminated by Punishment Martinez. Romero then clotheslined everything in site until Brian Cage took his head off with a clothesline and threw him out. Cheeseburger then hit a Liger palm strikes, and Cage eliminated him as well. Cage and Martinez then had a headscissor exchange which lead to the Hurricane chokeslamming both men in one of the most fun moments of the match. Hurricane and Page then ended up on the apron where Page eliminated Hurricane and hometown boy Colt Cabana took out back. Then it was time for Tommy Dreamer to bring in the plunder hit everyone, until Bully Ray hit him with a trash can and threw him over the top. Then Billy Gunn and Austin Gunn had some exchanges with Martinez and Jimmy Jacobs, where Jacobs hit a five knuckle shuffle and went for a pedigree on Austin, which was broken up by Billy. Jacobs then kissed Billy (Chuck Palumbo must be jealous) which lead to his elimination, followed by Martinez being eliminated by Billy’s son Austin, who by the way looks like a smaller version of his father and sells like him as well. Another hug was broken up, but this time by Bully Ray who eliminated Austin. Billy hit Bully with a Famasser, and then was press slammed by Cage for another elimination. Marco Stunt then hit an insane tilt a whirl, flipping codebreaker on Cage followed up by Bully Ray throwing him over the top. Double clotheslines by Bully Ray and Colt Cabana set the stage for a showdown between the only female in the match, Jordynne Grace and the monstrous Brain Cage. In an impressive feat of strength Grace got Cage on her shoulders, Cage reversed, over head slammed and hit a sick buckle bomb. Cage charged the corner, but missed which led to a power bomb from Grace and then her eliminating The Machine. Grace then had an exchange with Bully Ray and after pushing him off the top rope hit a Whassup headbutt with the aid of Cabana. She then went to toss out the big Bully only to have him reverse the Irish whip and eliminate her. That left just Cabana and Ray in the ring and after a quick exchange, Ray eliminated Cabana. Ray celebrated like he had won, but Chico the luchador he put through the table at the start enter the ring, super kicked him, and pulled of the mask to reveal himself a s Flip Gordon. Gordon threw Ray over the top for the win and the shot at the title later in the night.

I am not going to do play by play for every match, but I felt this was one of the better battle royals I have ever seen and packed so much in and highlighted so many performers in the right way. If I had to nitpick the one thing that stuck out was the end. I love Flip Gordon and have seen him grow a lot this year. It did bug me at the end though just because he super kicked Bully Ray and Bully has to stand there and sell while Flip took the mask off. Timing wise it would have been a lot cleaner if he would have eliminated Ray and then took the mask off. The pop would have been just as big if not a little bigger. Otherwise though it accomplished everything it should have. You had classic moments, like the Hurricane choke slamming people. You had new stars like Jordynne Grace (who I was hoping would win because she was fantastic) and Marcus Stunt be exposed to a new audience and shine in their time. The hometown hero Colt Cabana had his moments. The right guy ended up winning in the end, and the crowd was hot the whole time for. If your a fan of battle royals I would say this is a must watch and checked all the boxes you would want. And Dalton Castle was great on commentary.

THE MAIN SHOW

As we get into the main show the crowd was definitely hot of a great pre show, and probably were a little spent after the battle royal and the show open. That being said the show was solid and the crowd was into most everything. One thing is that I think the crowd was not mic'd up very well, but you could tell they were hot and match the reactions of any WWE show. Some stars were definitely made and some peoples stock increased quite a bit by the end of the night. Now let’s get into the show.

MJF VS MATT CROSS

Most people found it odd that this unannounced match opened the show. Neither guy is one of the bigger names on the indy scene right now. Cross mainly has been seen on Lucha Underground as Son of Havoc, and MJF has been making some noise as CZW Champion and MLW Middleweight champion, but I wouldn’t call him a star. When you take a couple things into consideration though you can understand why this might have opened. It’s the first time Cody and the Bucks were in charge of putting a show like this together so instead of opening with a marquee match they probably wanted to do a “test run” in case there were any problems with the stream, and from what I hear there was some. Many people had trouble streaming on their T.V. and had to smart cast from their phone instead. I think this was a smart move and gave people time to adapt without missing any key points to the show.

That being said this was a pretty by the numbers match. MJF is an entitled heel with a ground game and a big mouth. Cross is your typical babyface high flyer. Nothing great or terrible about this match and it only went about ten minutes and did what it was supposed to do. Cross won with a shooting star press. I just wish they would have used someone with a little more star power in this role. Cross and MJF are okay but neither is considered a big name. I like both MLW and Lucha but neither has really caught on with this Indy crowd even though I think MLW will i they keep improving. MJF is also the nephew of Rob Feinstein which may be a reason he got this spot. If we are going to hold this show to WWE standards then instead of giving the spot to someone in the good old boys club on the biggest indy ppv of all time maybe there was plenty of other people who were in town for the weekend that could have gotten some exposure without the family connections, just saying.

CHRISTOPHER DANIELS VS STEPHEN AMELL

Another match with strange placement, at least to me. Before I critique any of this match I want to say that I have a ton of respect for Amell doing this. The guy obviously has a ton of respect and love for the wrestling business and him lending his name to this event definitely brought star power. He is very active on social media and promoted this in a way most celebrities would not. He also is the focus of not just a show, but the center of the DC Universe on the CW network and risked serious injury with some risks he did not have to take. He is also in tremendous shape and you could tell he took time out a very busy schedule to train for this match. So all props to him for that.

With that being said, while this match had some moments it was not a classic by any means. This match was very sloppy, even on Daniels end. Daniels in his prime was a top performer on the indy scene and TNA in its prime, but he is far from that these days. I understand storyline wise why he was in this match, but I am not sure he was the right guy for the job in this particular spot. For a long time Daniels has been either in tag matches or facing very experienced competition that style he wrestles. Amell hit a Van Terminator, and went from the top rope through a table outside the ring so he was willing to bump. Amell also seemed to blow up about halfway through the match and there is no shame in that being that this is not his full time job. Daniels got the win after his second sloppy BME and they shook hands after.

I think there was a couple things that could have been done differently if you are going to bring Amell in like this. First as much as I have been a fan of Daniels over the years he should not have been in this spot. Amell is much larger than him so the babyface-heel dynamic for this particular scenario is way off.If your going to have a smaller heel against a non wrestler he at least has to look mean and intimidating and Daniels is none of those. Secondly Amell was obviously willing to do a little high risk spots so why not just go the whole way and make it a no disqualification match. Even if Daniels was still in the spot at least he could use some foreign objects and such to compensate for the obvious size difference. The match was around ten minutes and that’s about where it should have been, but to me there was not enough near falls on Amell’s side to bring any drama to the match. The only one I can think of is when he reversed Angel’s Wings into a pinning predicament. He also teased hitting Crossroads, but Daniels reversed it, when I think it would have been a great near fall for him to hit it and the crowd would have popped more than they did for the Van Terminator or the table spot. The goal of the match should have been to highlight Daniels strengths and mask Amells weaknesses and I don’t think this match accomplished either. I think the no dq stipulation could have bought more time for Amell to sell and recover, and also lead to some great near falls. There are ways to do these things and Amell would have been receptive to most ideas I believe. Also this was built up as a fight more than a match so just make it a fight. Like I said though, much respect for him even being involved.

BRITT BAKER VS TESSA BLANCHARD VS MADISON RAYNE VS CHELSEA GREEN

A lot of people are saying that the Aldis and Cody match is where the night picked up, but to me the ladies match is where the tone of the night really started to change. Two women really stuck out in this match to me. Tessa Blanchard and Chelsea Green really carried the match. Madison Rayne and Britt Baker were good, but a little sloppy at times. Green had a great gimmick going with the split personality she was sharing with her former personality of Laurel Van Ness. Green had an impressive walk out the top rope, she went back and forth between showboat and psycho. The match started out with a lot of dives to the outside and then there was a constant shift in the ring of action between all the ladies.

The match was really a steady stream of action with high spot after, after high spot, sprinkled in with some high impact moves. Madison Rayne is a veteran with a lot of experience and probably hasn’t gotten her proper due for being a part of a Knockouts division that really set the stage for today's women's revolution in the WWE. I am very happy for her being put in this spot as well as being a part of the Mae Young Classic. She did some great underrated work in TNA over the years and has constantly improved. Her look is great now as well. If WWE ends up picking her up I think she will be a great babyface. She may never win a title there but I think she would be a great addition to Smackdown, Raw, or NXT.

Britt Baker was the least experienced or it seemed that way. She had some solid spots with some great superkicks and a vicious TKO. She has a great look and a great backstory being a former doctor. She has good size and with some seasoning I could see her being added to NXT soon. I am not sure if she is part of the May Young Classic, but I would not be surprised. She is a name to keep an eye on for the next few years to see how she develops.

The two stars of the match definitely had to be Blanchard and Green though. Green is tall and athletic a all get out. Couple that with the gimmick she had in this match and her ring psychology and selling, she has star written all over her. I hope that the woman's scene continues to improve on the independent circuit because I am pretty sure the WWE would have no idea what to do with her. After her showing here any company would be smart to focus on her more. Tessa Blanchard is just plain awesome. Wherever she ends up she is going to be a star. She has a strong build and is smooth with her movements. Great body control, quick movements, explosive offense, the complete package. The ending of the match was a little confusing where it seemed like Rayne and Baker broke up the pin and the announcers even seemed confused about it. Tenille Dashwood (Emma) was on commentary and she is fantastic as well. The future of women's wrestling is bright with these girls and the likes of Jordynne Grace as well. And if you don’t think this is where the main show picked up, they got the first “this is awesome” chant since the pre show.

NWA CHAMPION NICK ALDIS VS CODY RHODES

I am going to catch a lot of slack for some of the things I am going to say about this match because I realize Cody is the Golden Boy of the moment, and it’s well deserved. Cody has a hardcore fan following and is very talented and I am a fan of what he has done in his career and like many thought the WWE didn’t utilize him like they could have. Cody brought a lot of hype into this match for the NWA belt elevating the status of the recently resurrected company, due to his family legacy connected to the belt. He will make a great champion and ambassador for the brand. With hype though comes expectations and while this match had some moments, to me it didn’t live up to the hype.

The match had a lot of awkwardness to it from the entrance, to the ref intro, and plenty of botches and mismanaged spots in the match. Maybe it’s because I didn’t watch the Ten Pounds of Gold series on Youtube (mainly because Aldis have never been entertaining enough for me to entertain watching weekly 10 to 20 minute videos focusing on him),but I didn’t get what the connections were to the teams accompanying each competitor to ringside. Jeff Jarrett was instrumental in building NWA TNA so I kind of get that, but I would keep him as far away from my product as possible considering the history between him and Billy Corgan with TNA. Tommy Dreamer has some connections with being close to Dusty, and DDP at least was kind of a fringe NWA guy in his early days. I didn’t get Glacier, Davari, Samuel Shaw and the others. I get that they wanted to give it a big fight feel, I just don’t get what some of the connections were. Do I even have to say anything about Earl Hebner’s speech, it was terrible. Another connection to NWA I don’t get. Wouldn’t Charles Robinson or Nick Patrick made more sense. I get what they were going for but it came across a little awkward to me though.

The awkwardness did not stop there though. A few minutes in could “hit” Aldis with a superkick that clearly came nowhere close to connecting with a good foot distance wise away from hitting, and Aldis sold it. Later on in the match Cody went for an Alabama Slam where he clearly couldn’t get Aldis over and dropped him like a sack of potatoes. The awkward moments continued when Cody tried a springboard crossbody to the outside where Aldis caught him in the jaw. Hebner made his way to check on Cody and they had a short conversation which lead to Hebner throwing up the dreaded X signal. DDP runs back out, no idea why he wasn’t still at ringside when they accompanied him to the ring to begin with. DDP then hit Davari with a Diamond Cutter cause why not and eventually Cody made his way back into the ring bleeding from the top of the head after clearly getting hit in the jaw. Later in the match Cody applied the Figure Four to Aldis and the announcers were saying it was reminiscent of his old man, but when have Dusty ever been associated with the Figure Four Leglock. It’s Ric Flair not Dusty Rhodes people associate that move with.

Aldis hit another awkward looking move in the form of a piledriver and then ascended to the top rope. Brandi then got into the ring to plead with Aldis not to drop the elbow on him. Aldis delivered the elbow and Brandi shielded her husband which lead to Aldis delivering a brutal elbow drop to her spine. Rhodes recovered and hit a Disaster Kick followed by a Crossroads which probably should have been the finish, but we all know finishers don’t matter anymore so the match continues. After some brief exchanges Cody goes for a backdrop, Aldis counters with a sunset flip where Cody sits out and gets the pin fall in a nod to the Bret Hart-Davey Boy Smith finish from Summerslam years ago.

I know I was very critical of this match and I understand that fans were into this match and that the moment of Cody becoming NWA champion is a big deal. Still in all fairness this match had the same problem many of the matches wrestling overall has. It created moments that will look great 5 second clips instead of worrying more about solid execution throughout the match. I understand Cody was obviously very busy putting this show together and could not practice some of the things that probably needed to be practiced but details matter. Being the face of something brings pressure and expectations and while it’s very nice in the end things ended up how they were supposed to the path to get there was very bumpy. This was Aldis’s most high profile match, but really did nothing for him. If one of WWE’s top star was in this match it would have been excoriated. For all the Roman Reigns hate that is out there and shots taken by the Bullet Club, there is no way a performance like that would have been acceptable on any level.

CHICAGO STREET FIGHT- JOEY JANELA VS HANGMAN PAGE

The Hangman and the Bad Boy put on the most brutal and entertaining match overall of the night. I know Cody and the Bucks said that the Bullet Club will all make their next move together, but I think Page is a fool if he doesn’t give the WWE a shot. Standing 6 feet 5 inches with a great look and solid in the ring the sky could be the limit for him. If he could work out a deal to skip NXT and head to the main roster he could be a main event player in a short amount of time. Also seeing Janela in only limited exposure until now, I was impressed with his showing. Janela has a willingness to do some crazy bumps and it stared of the bat with a pump handle fallaway slam into a chair in the ring. Janela has great facial expressions and looked like a mad man when he played to the crowd after a flying senton into the crowd. Janela had his status as one of indy wrestling top draws rise after this and his spring break outings should see an increase in exposure after this.

Penelope Ford who seconded Janela to the ring also had some moments in the match where she got involved to aid the smaller Janela and help him gain momentum back. The match was silly in some spots, in a good way, with the involvement of an actual Cracker Barrel from one of the sponsors. The barrel was used to prop a ladder between the guardrail and the ring for an insane burning hammer delivered by Page. This was one of the points Ford got involved and escaped strikes by Page with backflips a matrix, then delivered a stunner where Page sold it like the Rock sold Stone Cold’s version. The match fell outside the ring again involving tables and dives, until it made it to rampway that led to a scary looking bump for Janela of the stage missing one of the two tables set up and barely hitting one.

The match finally made its way back to the ring where Page hit his finish only to have Ford break it up. This is the start of a little more silliness began, but I had no problem with this part. If you watched Being the Elite, which was the theme of the night, you know that Hangman “killed” Joey Ryan in a storyline. Ford brought a bag in the ring that contained Page’s talking boots (yes, talking boots) and Page superkicked Ford, picked up the boots which he sold as talking to him, and walked right into a Janela superkick for a near fall. At this point Janela brought a ladder and a table in the ring which all led to Page hitting Janela with the phone he killed Ryan with and delivering an insane Right of Passage of the ladder through a table for the win. If this wasn’t match of the night it was damn close. It really topped everything before it and hit all the spots you want in a hardcore match both storytelling wise and spot wise, so kudos to both for a great performance.

Then came the most controversial point of the evening, Joey Ryan’s resurrection. A video appeared on the screen of Ryan laying dead in his bed only to pan down and show him getting fully erect under the sheets. Then in Undertaker fashion a slew of men dressed as penises came to the ramp and Joey Ryan appeared to a huge reaction. Ryan made his way to the ring in typical form, lathered himself up, put a lollipop in his pants only to take it back out, put it in Page’s mouth and superkick him. The “penis druids” then carried Page to the back.

The match itself was great. I am going to sound like a curmudgeony old man, but I hated what happened after. I get that wrestling has its silliness and goofiness sometimes and I can suspend disbelief to a certain degree, but I fall on the Jim Cornette side of the Joey Ryan thing. In the same night, on the same show, where we are supposed to be elevating an old school belt like the NWA title back to prominence you put this on the show. You can’t have it both ways. You either want to be taken serious as a professional wrestling product or you want to be a silly carnival sideshow. I have no problem with having some fun in wrestling and I can point out many times I had enjoyed certain things that has been done over the years by many companies that were silly, but still treated the line a little where you could suspend disbelief to a degree and buy in. This is not one of those times. Cornette is right when he says things like this hurt the business because it does. Wrestling falls into this crowd reaction trap where they believe if the crowd reacts it’s okay. I can point out many times in not just wrestling, but sports and entertainment of crowds reacting just for the sake, yet no one would agree that the behavior is acceptable. The problem with the Joey Ryan penis stuff is this. I remember when it started trending on Youtube when he first started doing it. Shortly after Youtube demonetized wrestling content for being to vulgar and it was no coincidence that it came after the Joey Ryan penisplex. I am not saying he was the total reason, but it was a big reason. Many companies were doing well of making money off their Youtube views and that single handedly killed many smaller companies, due to the large amount of lost revenue. The worst part is that Joey could still do a similar gimmick of having this indestructible penis where people try to low blow him only to hurt themselves and just that little change would make it okay.

Anyone saying this is no big deal is wrong and let me explain to you exactly why. Cody and the Bucks did a terrific job of getting major sponsors for the event. Cracker Barrel and TGIFriday’s are no doubt major corporations who could be involved in future events if they believe this is a product that can eventually be sold to the general public as something the whole family can watch because they market themselves as family friendly companies. Another thing we know is that in corporations the higher executives usually have no idea who or what they are actually sponsoring so when one of the higher ups get a whiff of their product being involved in basically softcore porn of on man grabbing another’s penis in middle of the ring and getting suplexed by it and then follow it up by men dressed in penis costumes how likely do you think they will be willing to sponsor something like this again. I am not just talking about the Bullet Club stuff either, I am talking independent wrestling overall. There is a reason Sinclair Broadcasting does not put Ryan’s gimmick on television. It is very hard for wrestling to get advertiser revenue and stuff like this is one of the major reasons why. For all of you that enjoyed it good for you, glad you enjoyed. Joey Ryan will continue to make a lot for money for himself of this gimmick as well until it eventually grows tired and the well runs dry. For every defender of Joey in this gimmick though I hope you understand that the more you cheer this and get it over, the more you hurt the chances of anyone truly being able to set up to any form of long term competition for the WWE not just here but worldwide. And yes it is a big deal when you put it on a show that has been labeled “Indy Wrestlemania”. WWE would have not only lost sponsors, but would have had a huge public backlash for the same type of behavior.

ROH WORLD CHAMPION JAY LETHAL VS FLIP GORDON

In another match that is getting a lot of online love is the match between Flip Gordon and “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal. Lethal was accompanied to the ring by “The Genius” Lanny Poffo and somehow Brandi Rhodes miraculously recovered from the devastating elbow delivered by Nick Aldis earlier and even had time for a costume change. This match did have it’s fun moments and again if you followed Being the Elite somethings made more sense then if you never watched it. In the series, Brandi has been rooting for Flip to get on the All In show despite Cody’s objections and Lethal has been going in and out of his Black Machismo character when you hit him on a certain point of the shoulder. I can see why the fan base enjoyed this match. Flip Gordon is a great underdog babyface and I was also a fan of Lethals Black Machismo character and Flair impressions from his TNA days.

Some of the highlights centered more around callbacks to classic WWE moments then actual in ring action. It started with Lethal giving the Mega Powers handshake to Poffo and Flip. Lethal then went outside the ring to bring Brandi to his corner thinking she was Miss Elizabeth. Then later in the ring he hoisted Brandi on his shoulder in another callback to a classic moment. This lead to Brandi hitting the spot on the shoulder that reverted Lethal to being normal Lethal. This meant the match switched gears to more of the typical indy style match with the two trading moves back and forth for two counts.

Later in the match Poffo chopped Lethal on the shoulder leading to the reemergence of Black Machismo who dropped 3 top rope elbow drops on Gordon. Gordon kicked out at 2 and “Hulked Up” delivering a big boot and began a flurry of offense by Flip. Eventually Lethal hit a top rope cutter followed by his Lethal Injection for the win. The match was fun and enjoyable in some parts, but overall was a comedy match for the most part. I can see why it’s getting all the online love, but I do have some problems with it overall.

I am a fan of both men, but to me this match didn’t make sense in a couple of ways. I am a fan of Jay Lethal, but he should not be ROH Champion right now. I thought Cody was going to have the belt leading into this and thought if you really wanted to bring more prestige to the NWA title a champion vs champion match would have added a little more. Lethal has no where near the momentum when he was the leading heel in the House of Truth, and with Flip being such a lovable underdog babyface if he was going to face someone for the ROH title it should have been either against a larger heel, or a heel whose skill set is a little dirty and based on getting heat from the crowd. Much like the NWA title match there will be moments that translate well to a video package, but on television to a casual viewer would have fell a little flat. Couple that with the fact that this is by far ROH’s biggest stage today and you presented your champion as a comedy character and both guys are very diminutive in size. That is what your presenting as the top tier talent in your company. Add to that the preshow loss of your tag team champions in the middle of the ring clean and to me ROH came across really weak on this card to a casual viewer watching ROH product for the first time. Do I even have to bring up the fact that the one prominent black talent on the card had a moment where a white man who impersonated Hulk Hogan beat him up. I know that’s a little nit picky, but the lack of black talent on the show when you have guys like Shane Strickland, AR Fox, and Dezmond Xavier on the scene and you have the one black talent on the main show getting beat up by a guy impersonating the most notorious wrestler as far as racism goes right now was not very smart. Just saying.

IWGP CHAMPION KENNY OMEGA VS PENTAGON JR

The next match was what many pegged as the dream of the night. The action began fast and furious after some initial taunting. Pentagon has built a reputation on a brutal style and here is showed right from the start with a vicious kick to Omega’s abdomen. Pentagon dominated the early past of the match with a mix kicks, chops and dives. Pentagon may have the best chops in the business. He has a great look and a vicious style that fits his persona. Every move he makes has evil intentions behind it whether it’s a kick to the hamstring, chop to the chest, or his variety of backbreakers and piledrivers.

Again and again Omega would try to regain momentum with Pentagon having as answer most of the time. Kenny hit a V-trigger to the back of Pentagons head and setup for a superplex. Pentagon countered with led to a double foot stomp. Omega regained momentum shortly after and hit a couple V-triggers to try and set up the One Winged Angel. Pentagon slipped out and hit a high impact pumphandle driver for a near fall. Eventually both men ended up on the ring apron where Pentagon hit a package piledriver on the apron, which is the hardest part of the ring if you haven’t heard Pentagon got a near fall and after a few more exchanges Omega hit Pentagon with a package piledriver of his own for a near fall. Kenny again went for his finish and Pentagon slipped out and “broke his arm”. Yet another package piledriver by Pentagon lead to a near fall due to a lackadaisical cover. Kenny eventually hits a V- trigger which led to him taking control and hitting the One Winged Angel for the win. After the match the lights went out and Chris Jericho appeared dressed as Pentagon and attacked Omega with a Codebreker and told Kenny he would see him on the Jericho cruise.

While the match was great, fast paced, and had lots of high impact maneuvers, I did feel it was a little rushed going about 15 minutes. Also, the underselling of Pentagons finisher was a little bothersome to me. The One Winged Angel seems to be about the only move left in wrestling that people stay down for and it’s a little ridiculous. Jericho’s appearance was good, I stopped being surprised by Jericho showing up years ago. Still I don’t mind the promo for the cruise because if your going to sell tickets to it, it’s going to be to this crowd. Good match and nowhere near some of the classics Kenny had in the past, it was what it was. A non title dream match where the champion still went over. I think you could’ve probably added 5 more minutes to this match, but at this point I think time restraints definitely played a part in this match.

KAZUCHIKA OKADA VS MARTY SCURLL

Another match that seems to have gotten a lot of praise is the match between the Rainmaker and the Villain. The story being told is that there was no way Scurll could beat Okada because Okada is a heavyweight and Scurll is in the NJPW junior heavyweight division. The match went about 20 minutes and the early part told the story of Marty trying to do some power moves, yet not being able to pull them off due to his lack of size. Scurll actually had control of the match in the early part despite his lack of size. Honestly though the first half of the match kind of dragged on, mostly because Scurll would do a move and pose, again and again. Obviously Scurll was the underdog and trying to feed off the crowd for energy, but the crowd was solidly behind him regardless and I think a little less posing and a little more urgency would have helped in the first half of the match.

That being said this was the typical Okada match with a slow build to a furious, hard hitting pace near the end. The match was very good overall despite the slow start. Scurll would have control for a few moments and Scurll would counter and regain momentum time and time again. Cyrus made a great comparison on commentary saying that Okada much like Bret Hart had a moveset you know was coming but was so good there was nothing you could do about it.

The match started to slowly gain momentum when Scurll reversed a suplex into a brainbuster and then went for a piledriver, yet again posing for way too long, which caused it to be reversed into an Irish Curse neckbreaker variation by Okada for a near fall. Okada climber the top rope and Scurll hit a superplex. There was an exchange of rollups for some near falls which lead to Scurll hitting a monsterous powerbomb for a near fall. Okada was able to regain control with a running shotgun dropkick and op rope shotgun dropkick. Okada tried to put things away with a Tombstone piledriver which Scurll countered into a swinging DDT. Scurll then tried a Tombstone of his own and couldn’t hold up Okada which led to him finally landing the Tombstone.

The final 5 minutes is where this match really shined. In my favorite spot of the match Okada followed up the Tombstone by setting up for the Rainmaker lariat. In the setup up while Scurll was in the straightjacket position Okada made the hand gesture of 205 which in the Being the Elite series he kept telling Marty that’s where he should be. While he was holding his fingers in the five position Scurll grabbed his middle finger to set up for his famous finger break spot. Okada’s facial reaction to this was priceless and meme worthy. Scurll hit the finger break and then after taking time to recover came off the ropes running into a dropkick by Okada who throws one of the best in the business. Again Okada went for the Rainmaker and Scurll countered into the crossface chickenwing which sent the crowd into a frenzy. Okada got to his feet and fell back onto Scurll momentarily breaking the hold only to have Scurll lock it in again. Okada escaped and went for a Tombstone again. Marty slipped out the back door and pushed Okada into the referee.

As soon as this happened Scurl went to his corner and grabbed his umbrella. Okada ducked the swing and set up for a Rainmaker and when he spun Scurll into position, Scurll countered by opening the umbrella. He then stuck Okada in the head very hard with it and hit a very stiff Rainmaker of his own in which was probably the best false finish of the night as I thought that would be it. Posing again cost Scurll as he setup for the crossface chickenwing and Okada reversed into a Rainmaker giving him time to recover.Okada got to his feet and hit Scurll with a couple forearms which lead to Marty firing up and spitting in Okada face and slapping him. Okada grabbed Scurll by the throat and Scurll went for another finger break spot but this time Okada reversed it into a discus Rainmaker and followed up with another for the pin.

Regardless of what I said about the slow start and posing this match was great in the end. Everytime I watch Okada he impresses me, and Scurll had a great outing regardless of the constant posing. The match was in contention for match of the night with Page/Janela and Omega/Pentagon depending on your taste. One thing that is overlooked when talking about Okada is his facial reactions and body language in the ring. It’s something that’s really hard to teach and Okada is great at knowing how to act in certain key moments in a match to give it that little something extra to put it over. As for Scurll though great this will probably be the biggest match he ever has in his career. I like Scurll sometimes and other times he comes across silly and as a comedy act. He had some great matches with Will Offspray in the past and I am not saying he never will again, but when it comes to the Bullet Club I feel like eventually he will be the odd man out. Also, if you’re going to call yourself the Villain I feel like maybe the gimmick should be a little more vicious and conniving as opposed to silly tactics. That being said great showing by both men.

YOUNG BUCKS AND KOTA IBUSHI VS REY MYSTERIO, BANDIDO, AND FENIX

Finally we reach the main event of the evening with a 6 man tag “dream match”. Bandido was the only participant I was not really familiar with, but everyone else has been pretty well established over the past few years. Some might have not been familiar with Fenix and if you’re not he is the brother of Pentagon Jr. and he is tremendous. My review for this match will be pretty short because it was definitely in fast forward as time restraints only gave the 6 men about 10 minutes to work with. It actually kind of fit the lucha style though because if you have ever watched the trios matches in Mexico they are super fast paced with everyone getting their stuff in at an insane pace.

That’s pretty much what this match ended up being. Play by play and a match breakdown is not really necessary as it’s one of those matches you just have to watch to keep up with all that happens. Not that it was one of the greatest matches of all time, or even the night, but it was short and fun. Some highlights included the first time seeing Kota Ibushi and Mysterio together in the ring for the first time. Mysterio had a really cool Wolverine costume on. Also Rey looked fantastic. I know there is a lot of talk of him going back to WWE full time, but I think at this point of his career I would rather see him on a lighter schedule in big spots. Rey has a well documented injury history and a full time schedule anywhere might not be the best idea. He looked fantastic here and more akin to his prime then the end of his WWE run. He is a special attraction and should be treated and paid as such.

The match was fun but unfortunately didn't get the time it needed for guys like Fenix and Bandido to show a whole lot. I personally haven’t seen to much on Bandido and he had some impressive spots. The time crunch really hurt Fenix though. The WWE has been looking for a successor to Mysterio for a long time and I believe Fenix may be the closest thing we get. In the end though the Bucks and Ibushi get the win with a Meltzer Driver with 3 seconds left to end the show

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I guess a lot of what people thought of the show depended on your expectations going in and how you felt it was presented. If you took it as a one off indy show with no real meaning and purpose then you probably thought it was a great show. If you thought it was a love letter to the pro wrestling indy scene, you probably thought it was a great show. If you are a obsessive Bullet Club fan and follow the Being the Elite series you probably thought this was a great show as well. On the other hand, if you felt like this show was promoted as the alternative for WWE but better matches, booking and quality of storytelling you were probably a little disappointed.

I am not saying this was a bad show by any means. It was a solid show with some fun parts that gave some exposure to some new stars. In the short time overall on the show the women were given I thought Jordynne Grace, Tessa Blanchard and Chelsea Green all had great showing. The pre show battle royal was great and the right guy won. In fact in most of the matches the right guy won. Okada/Scurll, Omega/Pentagon, Page/Janela and the 6 man tag were all good matches that either told a great story or were action packed. It was overall a solid show with some fun moments stacked in between.

On the downside though there left a lot to be desired. In the end it was an average show at best. It was sold to me to have lots of surprises and should have been everything a WWE pay per view was not, but there was some glaringly similar faults in the show. First was the match placements. If this was your first time watching anything like this and the first 2 matches you see on the pay per view are MJF vs Matt Cross and Stephen Amell vs Christopher Daniels you might have tuned out right away. I think opening with the 6 man tag would have been better closing the show with it. New viewers to the product would have been familiar with Rey Mysterio and the action provided would have set the tone for what should have been for the rest of the night. MJF and Matt Cross could have been cut from the show, but I guess when your a family member of someone in the business you get a spot over someone more deserving. Does that sound familiar.

Also for a show that was supposed to be the alternative to WWE there was more reference to WWE moments than anything else. With the NWA title being elevated tonight it would have been nice to see more nods to that then a Road Warrior Animal appearance, a figure four leglock, and Cody having his hair blond and bleeding. Aldis/Cody and Amell/Daniels were both very sloppy matches that could have been much better. ROH who had a piece in financing this show did themselves no favors with their tag champs losing clean on the preshow, and their world champion being promoted as a joke match. Jericho and Flip Gordon were supposed to be the big surprises of the night, but if you followed anything over the last few months you were not surprised at all, and the Joey Ryan stuff is just bad for business.

For everything good I can find to say I can find 2 or 3 flaws. The product didn’t really feel all that different from a WWE show. The quality should have been at least that of an NXT show with a very similar fan and talent base. In the end outside of Cody winning the NWA title the matches meant nothing and though there were some solid matches none of them come close to a match of the year candidate. I have to point out a few more things as well. Sami Callihan though controversial was definitely one of the bigger indie names to rise to prominence this year and should have maybe been included on the card. I also would have enjoyed if there was more of an African American presence on the main card. There are plenty of black wrestlers who could have had a spot. Tama Tonga and the firing squad could’ve made a surprise appearance that would have been more shocking than another Jericho appearance. And disappointingly, even though I am not his biggest fan a CM Punk appearance in Chicago would have been huge yet he was nowhere to be found.

In the end All In was an average show at the highest level with some good moments that will look great in a video package, but a lot of flaws that will prevent it from coming anywhere close to one of the top WWE or NJPW shows this year. To be honest I expected a lot more because it was promoted as a lot more. In the end wrestling is wrestling and the more things change the more they stay the same.

#All In

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