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concrete1992

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After initially not being able to go, I've bought tickets for this weekends HOPE Wrestling double-bill, running shows on Friday and Saturday night. They're my most local regular indy, and they've been on a real hot-streak of shows this year. They've got some really interesting matches lined up this weekend, either due to the promise of being really great (Damian O'Connor vs Chris Masters, Jack Jester vs Rampage Brown, Lionheart vs Bubblegum) or being a lot of fun (an intergender match featuring Viper against arguably the most entertaining guy in the UK, Martin Kirby (in drag)). Plus a rumble. Everyone loves a rumble.

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A bunch of cool indie finds this week on YouTube including a great Andrew Everett v Ethan Case match from CWF MidAtlantic built all around Everett selling the leg like the anti-Kushida, a great Fry Daddy v Kyle Matthews match from NWA Atlanta, the complete AJ Styles v Sonjay Dutt match from AML which is AJ adapting to yet another kind of opponent brilliantly, and a very good Jimmy Rave v Sal Rinauro match from NWA Atlanta. I'll post links if people express interest.

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Awesome. Appreciate the updates, Dylan.

I was wondering about AML, as I stumbled across their YouTube channel for the first time a couple of weeks ago when I went searching for some recent Vordell Walker work. I definitely wanted to see what some of their other matches looked like, and an AJ Styles match in 2015 is as good a place as any I suppose.

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Sonjay Dutt v. AJ Styles

 

A fun feeling out process. AJ might be the best in the world in setting the table for a match. I didn't like Dutt's delayed bump off AJ's dropkick. The match seems to be finding its voice. I like Style's back work. I mark out for the pop up rana. Styles snappining off the neckbreaker 3 1/2* Styles is so good at elevating his opponents..Styles is the best in the world at making people look in his leaguu-

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Everett v. Case

 

 

This is a really good match. Case clips the leg to set up the heat. Everett's selling here is about as good as it gets. Case stays on the leg. I liked some of the hope spots. I even liked it better when the hope spots fail. I like how Everett had to resort to a punch based offense. The super punch by Case looked so stiff. A couple of minor complaints. I would have liked to have seen a nice opening shine segment for Everett. The leg work was so focused and Everett had sold his leg as good as anyone could have. He smoked Ibushi and Kushida in that regard. It felt a submission should have been the finish or his leg collapsed under his weight. Still this was good stuff. 3 3/4*

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A little bit of talk about TJ Perkins recently sprung up over in the Timothy Thatcher microscope thread, but I wanted to move it here to avoid from derailing that topic too much. Perkins is a guy that doesn't get as discussed as much as I wish he would sometimes, and so I hoped maybe a few people would chime in with their thoughts about his work, his potential, etc.

 

Here's the little bit that kicked it off...

 

Originally posted by Blehschmidt:
Perkins is a guy who just seems to be missing something that I have never been able to put my finger on. His work is fantastic, he has a good look, I've never heard him talk but like I said, there is just some connection that doesn't seem to be there that has stopped him from reaching that next level.

 

And my response...

Regarding Perkins, I always thought the same thing about Matt Sydal - and he still got a shot in the E. For my money, Perkins runs circles around a guy like that or just about anyone else of his size, to be honest. He's not necessarily a high-flyer by design, but that doesn't mean he can't do the stuff extremely well in his own right. Plus his actual grappling is outstanding, as noted.
I realize that he's undersized, but that's hardly a strike against guys anymore these days. Plus I'd think that would allow him to slide into a Tyson Kidd (circa the babyface SD push) or Evan Bourne style role rather seamlessly if they gave him the chance.
Perkins is still young enough. I'd legitimately like to see him get a shot in NXT at the very least, although I think the misstep with TNA might take awhile to recover from first. I sure hope not, especially now that there's the supposed connection with WWNLive as a feeder system. Hopefully it opens up an opportunity for him to get a look.

 

I'd probably add that Perkins had a sneaky fun match with Bobby Fish in the BOLA opener last year. He was a last minute sub for Brian Cage, but he really stepped up to the plate and gave Fish the kind of performance that Cage couldn't have given him on ANY night. And I'm a Cage fan. It was just so uniquely different from what the Fish/Cage pairing would've produced though, and I think the finished product was absolutely better off for it.

 

Couple that with his recent stuff in Evolve - and even his in-ring TNA work under the hood is some of the better work left on display in the X Division these days. I realize that isn't saying much, but the guy's putting out quality with quantity lately. That's normally what leads to people taking notice, and so I think Perkins is slowly becoming a timely & topical guy to talk about.

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Before his current post WWE run where I think he is showing more personality than ever before, I would have agreed with you about Sydal. However, I think the thing that sets Sydal apart from Perkins is quite simply the Shooting Star Press.

 

Perkins does everything really, really well but he doesn't have that one "Holy Fucking Shit" move that makes him stand out.

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As stated originally, I like Perkins a lot. He's able to wrestle a blended style where he can mesh really well with other high flyers and more grapple heavy guys. Not sure how he is on the stick, or if he has any sport of personality. But, in between the ropes he's a really talented guy who is overlooked more often than not.

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PWG has started announcing matches for Battle of Los Angeles:

 

Night 1:

 

Tommy End/Marty Scuril/Zack Sabre Jr. vs Roderick Strong/The Young Bucks

Ricochet/Rich Swann vs Jack Evans/Angelico

 

-Round 1-

 

Aero Star vs Brian Cage

Andrew Everett vs Biff Busick

Will O'Spreay vs Mark Andrews

Trevor Lee vs Trent Barreta

Drago vs Pentagon Jr.

Matt Sydal vs Fenix

 

Night 2:

 

Andrew Everett/Trevor Lee/Biff Busick vs Super Dragon/The Young Bucks - Guerrilla Warfare

Fenix/Aero Star vs Pentagon Jr./Drago

 

-Round 1-

 

Rich Swann vs Marty Scuril

Chris Hero vs Timothy Thatcher

Drew Gulak vs Tommy End

Angelico vs Jack Evans

Mike Bailey vs Drew Galloway

Ricochet vs Zack Sabre Jr.

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BOLA has good matches on it. I think for almost any fan of modern indie wrestling you'll find at least a couple matches that you'd be hyped for.

 

GRAPPLEFRICK:

-Chris Hero vs. Timothy Thatcher: They've had good matches before and I don't see that stopping.

-Drew Gulak vs. Tommy End: Could be reminiscent of End vs. Thatcher which was real good. Gulak might be able to bring some even more rugged offense.

 

AAA LUCHA-SPOTFESTS

-Jack Evans vs. Angelico: Partners probably going to go ballz to the wall.

-Pentagon Jr. vs. Drago: This will probably be real good. Assume they'll work a super spotty match but this might be one of the more grounded matches of the ilk in this thing.

-Matt Sydal vs. Fenix: Is this a DG spotfest? A AAA spotfest? Doesn't really matter. Looks like a highlight to me.

 

YOUR INDIE MATCHES

-Ricochet vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: Two indie darlings going at it in front of a hot crowd.

-Andrew Everett vs. Biff Busick: I dig both of them and if this was another setting(NOT BOLA) I'd be a bit more hyped.

 

Then there's other stuff like Mike Bailey vs. Drew Galloway. Drew just looks like a wildcard being different than so many of these people. Agree with Bill that the booking seems lazy. AAA against AAA, EVOLVE against EVOLVE, and no real big styles clashes outside of the Bailey vs. Galloway match maybe. So much talent with opportunities to put together matches we might not see until years down the line when stars align. Sadly we have to wait until R2 to see if we get anything like that.

 

EDIT: In the end it feels like a compilation show over "YOU CAN ONLY SEE IT HERE" sorta card.

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Might it just be a case of easing guys in so they can make the best possible impression in the first round, before the style clashes in the second round? If you've got guys making their debut, it makes sense for them to face guys they work well with and are comfortable with, then the next night they can be tested a little more without worrying about the crowd turning on them.

 

The line-up looks like a lot of fun to me anyway. End/LDRS vs Strong/Bucks could be sensational.

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Might it just be a case of easing guys in so they can make the best possible impression in the first round, before the style clashes in the second round? If you've got guys making their debut, it makes sense for them to face guys they work well with and are comfortable with, then the next night they can be tested a little more without worrying about the crowd turning on them.

 

The line-up looks like a lot of fun to me anyway. End/LDRS vs Strong/Bucks could be sensational.

This+Politics are most likely the case. Which I get. No problem with that I guess. I could be dead wrong but I'm guessing if we don't get the styles clashes in round one then we might not see many of them at all. After the G1 pumping out a rather SAFE line-up I was hoping that these matches would blow me outta the god damn water. They didn't. Now after round one a lot of dreams are off the table. This tournament had potential for more dream matches than you can shake a stick at from the INDIE DREAM MATCH PROMOTION! Instead we got matches that have or could happen in the near future in other promotions. Start playing for the guys who will be there later on in the semis and finals, something that I could see happening, but doesn't give a lot of room for truly intriguing matches.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Headed to an Inspire Pro Show tonight . Dirty Andy Dalton is headlining . He's such a good heel.

 

Love Dalton and love Starks. Haven't been able to go to Inspire in about 6 months or so due to work, and this is the first match i'm gutted about missing. How was it? As good as Dalton is, his ceiling is clearly as an indie guy with his size/look, but I think Starks will eventually end up in NXT if he sticks with it.

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I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the NWA and Inspire seperating. Biss cut a promo on Bruce Tharpe, and at the last show they bring back Sammy G. A 15 second main event seemed weird.

 

Sammy G didn't have anything to do with the NWA, he had nuclear (and I mean NUCLEAR) heat for saying he was glad a River City Wrestling fan was dead (it was a mentally disabled guy too, to make things worse), all over some beef he had with the promotion, so basically every promotion in Texas, even ones like Inspire that have heat with RCW, pretty much blacklisted him. Sammy is a tremendous talent who is wildly immature.

 

Dalton isn't an NWA guy, either.

 

Inspire pulling out of the NWA was only a matter of time once Tharpe & Ronquillo split. Biss always dealt with Ronquillo. Inspire really only was part of the NWA because they wanted to book the women's title out of their office, which they were controlilng for a short time. They weren't interested in booking the other champions. Anyway, NWA BOW out of San Antonio is running a show in Austin next month, and that was the last straw for Inspire, because neither Tharpe nor Jax Dane (who runs BOW) asked Inspire if it was cool to run Austin. Inspire felt that as affiliates, it would have been the right thing to do if they wanted to run their city.

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