Live Wrestling: What are you watching, what are you going to watch?

[Jimmy Redman]

I'm going to the NXT show tonight and I am super excited.

[cpst]

I'm going to the NXT show tonight and I am super excited.

Asuka vs. Ember Moon on a house show and DIY vs. TM61 to a hometownish audience sound pretty fun.

[Jimmy Redman]

NXT Live Road Report - Sydney, Australia 13th December 2016

 

I have never been more excited to go to a show since I first started watching, I don't think. Ever since Takeover Brooklyn when the tickets came out I've been giddy as a giddy schoolgirl dreaming of singing and chanting and screaming and dancing like the absolute worst kind of Full Sailer. On the other hand, I was going with my mate who is a casual WWE fan and has never seen or heard of NXT in her life, so she was going into this absolutely blind. We were the odd couple of cliche.

 

You can see the difference in the crowd, even in Australia. Normal WWE shows are chockers full of little kiddies in Cena outfits and adults wooing all over the place and talking about Stone Cold. This was a very adult crowd and just seemed...nerdier. Smarkier, in other words.

 

Tozawa vs Almas was on first. I Need To Catch Up On NXT #1: I haven't seen Almas work heel yet. My mate couldn't believe how short Tozawa was, even for a cruiserweight. Tozawa's screaming stuff got over, and he did a couple of dives. He did slip off the top rope at one point, which lost them the crowd for the rest of the match really. This was fine. The most over thing in the match was people doing the 10 chant. That shit is massively over.

 

I Need To Catch Up On NXT #2: I didn't know that Billie Kay and Peyton are now a mean girls tag team. They came out as huge faces being from Sydney, and said heartfelt thank yous to the crowd, before heeling and saying they'd like to be announced from Orlando instead. Our response was to sing the National Anthem at them. I mean I know they have to reflect the TV and work their gimmicks and all, but all this really did was kill the match for the crowd because they largely stopped the cheers for themselves but nobody gave a single shit about the babyface girls (Liv and Aaliyah) either, because they were facing the Aussies.

 

The first minute of this with Liv and the heels was like the ugliest, greenest minute of wrestling I've ever seen live. It's the kind of "worst possible timing" stuff when you're sitting there with a casual fan and hoping to convince them that women's wrestling is different now and worth their attention. It picked up, but it didn't amount to much and again, the horrible crowd dynamics just killed it dead. But having said that, I can see that the Aussie Mean Girls have potential as an act, and I'm sure it comes off a lot better in America. Billie Kay in particular was good heeling it up, they could TOTALLY slot her in for a throwaway Asuka title defense if they wanted. Aaliyah will be pretty good like 9 months from now.

 

Wesley Blake is a lot fatter than I remember. The crowd chanted "Fat Dolph Ziggler" at him. Sorry Grim. Never seen his streamers gimmick before either. There have been some shitty ass names out of development, but swear to fuck Oney Lorcan is the worst fucking made up name I have ever fucking heard. I don't see how he'll ever be taken seriously. This was a whole bunch of nothing, so much so that this garnered the first ever fully ironic "THIS IS AWESOME" chant I've ever heard (I've seen it done on the indies for supposed-to-be-bad comedy stuff, but never when a match was just outright bad and the crowd used it to shit all over them). Biff didn't do anything particularly interesting or Biff-like. Blake is a warm body.

 

But this was all just a set up anyway, as Lorcan won and then sold his knee afterwards, so Patrick Clark could come out and challenge him to another match. I Need To Catch Up On NXT #3: I don't think I've yet seen Patrick Clark on TV but he was pretty great heeling on the crowd like a douche. With the caveat that this was mostly house show stuff that would never fly on TV, like grabbing his dick and challenging the crowd to fights, he riled everyone up more than everyone else so far combined and clearly has a big future as a heel. After all the nonsense Lorcan rolled him up and pinned him for the lulz. Fun house show stuff in the end.

 

As soon as the announcer bird said "..is a tag team match. And this match is f-" people went bezerk. This sure was a smark crowd because the people were so ready for a God damn NXT Tag Title match. Revival were hugely over, maybe even a little moreso than DIY. This was a 20+ minute Revival vs DIY house show match, so you can just imagine how fucking good this shit was. So, so, so good. This didn't have the pace, the highspots or sick stiffness of the Takeover matches, but it had everything else - tag team moves, great ref work, super teases and cutoffs, comedy, crowd interaction, a super drawn out hot tag, and a perfectly built long extended finishing run. Again, the finish wasn't as crazy as they are on TV, but they DID get me to bite on a nearfall off some cheating and had me believing for half a second that they'd change the tag titles back on an untelevised house show with a rollup.

 

It was everything you could want their house show match to be, and I'm so glad I got to see it. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much with the Revival, I'd have been happy to see them get a good match out of TM61 or whatever, but as it turned out I hit the fucking jackpot.

 

Speaking of TM61, they were first up after intermission vs Moss and Sabbatelli. I've never seen Riddick Moss before and with a name like that I always assumed he was black. So that was a surprise. Never seen Tino either. They actually seem pretty OK for young green lugs. That one TM61 guy, the good looking one with short hair, there is just something about him that is so...off putting. The way he moves and gestures and works, it's just...I don't even know, like he's trying too hard. He's got that exaggerated movement going on that guys from like the 80s had. He's like some babyface jobber from WWF 1985 has been teleported to 2016. Anyway TM61 are fun enough, and obviously they had the crowd behind them (even though they were announced from Western Australia which got them booed. I don't think WWE has fully cottoned onto the rivalries that we have with other states).

 

Once again, you could feel the crowd pick up when the women's title match was announced because that meant ASUKA. What a star she is. To Ember Moon's credit she was pretty over too. So guys, public service announcement: Asuka vs Ember at Takeover Mania Weekend is going to be fucking BONKERS. You heard it here first. This was a great match, right up there with the tag title match for MOTN to be honest. Asuka was house show Asuka and not TV Asuka, so she was less murderous psychopath and more normal champ defending the belt. She didn't even go heelish, in fact she was full face and Ember actually got the heat on Asuka, if you can imagine such a thing. But yeah this ruled, they did a lot of high paced RVD-Lynn "these two are equally athletic" stuff to open (in a good way!) and man Ember can do some stuff. Asuka killing her when she could was fun. Ember does a great tope. They built this REALLY well and they had the crowd totally along for the ride on all the nearfalls. Finally Asuka kicked her out of the sky and whacked on the Asuka Lock, so the only downside was that I didn't get to see Ember's finish live. This ruled, I love women, I love everything.

 

And yet! I had promised my mate a night of embarrassing singing and carrying on, but with how the card was they basically squished all of the singing and carrying on into the main event - Nak/Ty/Buddy vs Joe/Roode/Drifter. What was funny is that apparently the advertised main event was a fatal four way for the title, so the change pissed off a LOT of the crowd and they spent the main chanting "FOUR! FOUR! FOUR!" at the Drifter, who claimed to take credit for the six man to get more heat (and then there I am thinking "Really guys? We're getting a WWE 6-man tag and you'd prefer a clusterfuck?? Are you insane? 6-mans are awesome!"). I Need To Catch Up On NXT #4: Since when has the fucking Drifter been back? I will admit he's about 37 thousand times better than he was the last time I saw him, and he can actually play his guitar so well done there. He did a singing bit before the match and it was some fun heeling.

 

"GLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIOUS!"

 

Singing "GLORIOUS" was my #2 reason for going to this damn show and let me tell you, it is just as fun as it looks. Soooo fucking great. Roode is such a...Roode, but it doesn't matter because that song is solid fucking gold. Joe was SO fucking over. Aussie Buddy Murphy the Australian wrestler, however, was not. Again, being billed from Melbourne didn't help, and he looked pretty out of place here, but whatever. Like Roode, Ty is not really over by himself but the 10 stuff is PHENOMENALLY popular and will give him a career for years.

 

"OOH WA-OH OOH OOH..."

 

I have no idea how to properly transcribe Shinsuke's song, but that's fine because I have no idea how to properly transcribe the feeling of singing Shinsuke's song in a crowd. Like fuck, I remember in April when he first came out to it at Takeover and I lost my shit. I got it off Youtube and drove around in my car for weeks doing nothing but singing along to Sasha's and his theme songs. Then I remember the next Takeover when he came out and the whole crowd was singing his song just like I did and I lost my shit again. Seeing Shinsuke live and singing this song was my #1 reason for going to this show, and it lived up to all my hopes and dreams. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. I didn't even need to see the match at this point, I was happy.

 

But I did see the match and it was a super fun house show main event, to put it that way. Nobody did much of anything spectacular, and Nak and Joe in particular largely stayed out of it. But it was a good fun romp nonetheless, with lots of comedy and cute stuff, lots of basic tag stuff that always works, and a LOT of crowd chants. NXT indeed. The heel team were great house show heels. And Nak is fucking Nak. He and Roode had a little run there full of great, hilarious shit, so I'd be happy for them to mix it up on telly.

 

BUT I swear, the best thing about this match was the post-match. Ty cut the thank you promo, and then Nak did the most amazing, garbled "G'day mate!" Aussie accent through heavily broken English you ever heard. Then he and Ty both did the Nak pose on the ropes, while Buddy just looked on. So the other two try desperately to convince Buddy to do it with them, and he's having NONE of it. They argue and argue, and Buddy is unmoved but he sticks his hand on the rope to lean on as he's making his point and BAM! Nak kicks his leg out from under his leg and he magically falls down into the pose against his will! Hoorah! This was just excellent and I hope there's a GIF somewhere of it soon.

 

MVP of the show: CFO$.

 

I was going to make a new thread for this, but I may as well say it here since it is so closely linked to my enjoyment of this show. But can we all stop and take a moment to appreciate that CFO$ is the Lord and Master of not only this show, but all of NXT and in fact all of WWE? Is there anyone more valuable to the company right now?

 

NXT themes are outstanding. Even the nondescript ones like a random instrumental riff for TM61 or whatever, they all sound so fucking great. Like, Spotify will occasionally slip a random WWE theme into the playlists it curates for me, and honestly unless I stop and look at the artist, I would never know the difference between the wrestling songs and the other metal instrumentals or pop-rap joints that are on there. They're so good they sound like actual songs.

 

Especially the women's songs. We know Sasha's rules. Asuka's rules. Billie Kay's song is fucking excellent. Even Peyton's too. Ember Moon's. Emma's heel remix of her original babyface tune is outstanding and I'm going to be soooooooo sad if her repackage includes a new theme song. And oh my God Holy Shit right, WWE just released a piano instrumental version of Sasha's song and it is the GREATEST THING YOU EVER HEARD. I can't even deal.

 

I love DIY's metal groove. I mean I literally had never seen Tino whatshisname before in my life, but I swear I already know ALL the words to his theme song because Spotify played it for me and I was like yeah boy.

 

And I mean, I cannot emphasise this enough, I just paid like $150 for a house show ticket and my #1 and #2 biggest draws were theme songs. Songs. That's how amazing they are.

 

So yes, NXT is great, CFO$ is great, wrestling is great.

[kbenn123]

Is powerbomb.tv really a thing? I don't know much about the background, but they seemed to be out of nowhere around the time floslam was announced. Then they made a bunch of announcements, and then I haven't seen anything in almost 2 weeks.

 

Other than people hyping them, does any one really know who is behind the service? Have the founders done any interviews? It just seems like a twitter account and a Web page promising that it is coming soon.

 

In this day and age, would it be that hard to promise something on twitter and then vanish? I hope that isn't the case, but wondering if any one has heard any concrete news lately?

[cpst]

Is powerbomb.tv really a thing? I don't know much about the background, but they seemed to be out of nowhere around the time floslam was announced. Then they made a bunch of announcements, and then I haven't seen anything in almost 2 weeks.

 

Other than people hyping them, does any one really know who is behind the service? Have the founders done any interviews? It just seems like a twitter account and a Web page promising that it is coming soon.

 

In this day and age, would it be that hard to promise something on twitter and then vanish? I hope that isn't the case, but wondering if any one has heard any concrete news lately?

It sounds like Dylan Hales is going to be shilling for them on podcasts soon, so we'll probably find out more then: https://twitter.com/DylanWaco/status/804421432872550400

[Parties]

Battle Club Pro (01/21/17, Bronx, NY)

On their excellent Exile on Badstreet episode about current indies, Kris and Dylan talked about NYC as a potential scene of some note for indie wrestling. This is a company that calls their show "Fight Forever", but at times feels like Lucha Vavoom minus the dancers and with aspirational dashes of ECW. In assessing its unique qualities, I'd point to other NY comedy, music, and performing arts, in which the crowd heckles and can even rile some workers, but also create an amped environment for workers to utilize. It can be both a tough crowd and an enthused one, and when you’re over, you’re really over. This show took place at “The Point”, a CDC in the South Bronx. Kind of a cool venue: the empanadas for sale were solid, and the relatively small room and low ceiling seemed to raise the crowd’s volume.

 

Wrestler's Laboratory “All Outta Bubblegum” Pre-Show:

AJ Evers vs. Trey Miguel: Unmemorable stuff with Evers as a trash-talking heel and Miguel as some guy. They were trying, and had kind of a decent, simple strike-heavy juniors approach, but neither guy impressed. Probably the worst match of the night, if only for being bland.

 

Fatal 4-Way // Isaiah Wolf vs. Ari Alvarado vs. Moonshine McCready vs. A Gentleman with a Fro and Short Purple Short Shorts Whose Name I Did Not Catch: Crowd popped for Moonshine's airplane spins and brown jug that he woozily brings to the ring. Otherwise it was lots of multi-man spots, chop exchanges, and comedy that wasn’t particularly funny.

 

“The Vagabond” Ryan Rogan vs. Trevor Aeon: Rogan, a Canadian worker who asked the crowd to throw their change at him, draws “Hobo Jesus” and “Chris Zero” chants. He’s a better version of Elias Sampson and kinda looks like someone you’d see in the ROH midcard two years from now. I cannot recall a thing about Aeon other than him making some cyborg-looking gyrations during his entrance.

 

Joseph A'gau vs. Ace Austin: Austin is capable if generic: I need to check out his match on CZW Awakening to see if he’s much better. Comes out to “Ace of Spades”, kinda looks like Mandrews, and works a modern NJ-wannabe style of leaping kicks. Like, this was really kind of weird all night long to see guys who seemed clearly influenced by Wrestle Kingdom. A'gau was actually very cool as a Memphis heel not in terms of shtick, but in his offense, a la Koko Ware or Bill Dundee: small tank who hits hard and can stare down the smark crowd.

 

Battle Club Pro:

Facade the Neon Ninja vs. Myron Reed vs. Zachary Wentz: Façade’s name is really just Façade, but because his billed nickname is “the Neon Ninja”, I insist on combining the two a la Crash the Terminator or Nord the Barbarian or Toad the Wet Sprocket or some other old-school late 80s/early 90s handle. He has a unique look: Mad Max: Fury Road crossed with the Dynamic Dudes. Myron Reed was absolutely insane on his bumps, botching a top and then hitting a tope con Hilo into the guardrail. I get the feeling he’s pretty young and could be someone to watch if he doesn’t wreck himself. Wentz is a pretty complete performer in terms of look, character, bumps, and offense. I could see Façade being brought somewhere just for looking so much like a 1991 WCW character with his fitness-stripper valet Danni in tow. Surprisingly wild and well-worked: I hate triple threats and this rightly got a standing ovation as a hell of an opener with three unique talents.

 

Caveman vs. “The Abominable” CPA: Ring announcer David Adams (also of House of Glory and other Tri-State area shows) is damn good and has his own Cesaro Section. Caveman's "Ooga Booga" chant is amusing. CPA is an IRS imitation, with the variation that he's terribly afraid to be in the ring, as if an actual accountant has been suddenly thrust into the match. All comedy, but funny and well sold by both with each move: they got a ton of reaction, and it was actually quite believable in its portrayal of how a CPA and a Caveman really would fight one another, if that makes sense. Logan Black interfered to smash both guys and cut a decent promo about how he's so violent that the commission won't even let him fight, due to having prior matches stopped for violence.

 

The Crist Brothers vs. Massage NV (Dorian Graves/VSK): Dual male masseuses (including one in a lucha mask) is a great gimmick. Massage NV apparently work all over (AIW, Tier 1, Beyond, etc.), but this was my first look. Really good stuff, with quick tags and heel control from the Crists, and clever spots from NV using various massages and oil-based offense (complete with Dudleyesque "Get the Oil!" late-match battle cry). In some ways this was MOTN if you value match structure and crowd control over spots, but all of the fun weirdness of these first three matches on the main card represented the peak of the night.

 

Matt Macintosh vs. Rude Boy Riley: Macintosh (w/ “Apple Corps” written on his tights) berates the crowd and praises his native Jersey as superior. This was the most NXT/ROH of the matches thus far, and I kinda mean that as a negative. Macintosh is a solid heel who can at least trash the audience and get a reaction, but Riley strikes me as a lame local hero just doing a bunch of faux-Alpha cursing on the mic. Finish sets up a rematch, but this felt more like a cluster than the latest chapter of a feud. Unlike the tedium of Evers-Miguel, this could be called the worst match of the night by being overblown and dumb.

 

7-Man Gauntlet: Craven Varro looks like a homeless Edge. Marc Hauss has great homemade entrance music playing off "Run's House". Matthew Jacob Feinstein's a good gimmick, and J. George is New York's current guy who can't work much, but who everyone still likes 'cause his theme is “Never Gonna Give You Up” and he wears Rick James gear. Chris Payne is drably indie, like a smaller, less talented Baron Corbin. Mario Bokara is working a Euro strongman vibe and gave everyone a bunch of German suplexes, for which Feinstein took an epic bump. Some of the eliminations were kind of lazy, but I can cut them a break if they’re seven falls in like ten minutes.

 

Darius Carter vs. Jordynne Grace [Tier 1 Wrestling World Title]: “Urkel” chants for Carter. Crowd seemed either fatigued from the Gauntlet shenanigans or not into the intergender stuff, but in a sense they told the story well as Carter was willing to play a creep who you wanted to see get his comeuppance, while Grace looked like a credible contender. Nice suplex from Grace, and Yakuza kick from Carter. This was hurt by a badly executed Dusty Finish that the crowd didn’t even respond to as big as they could have. A match where the booking got in the way of two good performers.

 

Dan Maff vs. Brute Van Slyke: Maff seemingly wearing a small pillow as a pad on his left elbow. Brute (also known as Punisher Van Slyke) feels like a JAPW trainee who Maff brought for the ride, as he was gigantic but not very good, but evidently he’s a champion in Grand Slam Wrestling who’s been around since 2010. Kind of akin to the higher side of a present-day Tenzan match: aging heavyweight hitting heavy chops and throws against a younger opponent, but Maff is still a lot of fun and his dives into the corners were massive. I believe Brute hit more Rainmakers here than Okada did at the Dome. Crists came out after the match to jump both guys and challenge Da Hit Squad to a future tag.

 

Desmond Xavier vs. Shane Strickland: "Killshot" chants for Strickland, who pulled a Sandman and danced his way around the ring for almost the entirety of Rufus and Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody". So many workers pounding the mat to get crowd claps going throughout this show. I swear it may have happened in all but the final match of the night. First half of this was some sub-Ricochet imitation weakness with two nerds Cirque de Soleiling around. Once they started slapping each other in the face and hitting Brainbusters, the crowd started chanting "This is Awesome" and it became a spectacle. If I was the booker I’d have to recognize this as the most over match of the night.

 

Drew Galloway vs. Anthony Bowens (WhatCulture Title): So this night had 34 total workers over 13 matches, on a show that went 4 hours if you include the pre-game. There was an 11:00 curfew in place, or at least that was their excuse for this being so short. Galloway seemed shoot pissed to be going on after what he later called "3 hours and 19 matches", and mocked the ref for starting to count only as the two of them were getting back into the ring after they'd been on the outside for several minutes. They'd been behind the curtain having a brawl backstage, which Adams told us to check out on social media. This went for a minute or two and seemed weird live, until I in fact saw the brawl later that night on Galloway's Twitter, which is actually pretty effective use of a wrestler's phone in 2017. Vicious chops and piledrivers from Galloway. Galloway asks the ref and/or crowd what time it is at 10:58, audibly says "Fuck", then quickly rushes to a finish of a superplex followed by his DDT finisher. Bowens really didn’t get to show much here as it almost felt like they had to skip his shine due to time constraints. Galloway was pretty good natured in his post-match promo, saying he’d wrestle Bowens again, would be back to BCP, and was heading to get shit-faced in New York City. Even with abbreviated time, Galloway came off like a killer and affable star. I’ve seen him live several times over the last couple years and he never fails to bring it: dude's already had two of my favorite performances of 2017 in this and the Bully Ray match from WCPW.

[Grimmas]

Got tickets for Lucha TO in Toronto on the day of the Royal Rumble, but Musgrave cancelled on me... so either going solo or figuring something else out.

[Infinit]

I got 2nd row tickets for the ROH show in Toronto. Super excited...but it's so far away lol

[Migs]

Seeing ROH in March at Hammerstein. Given Cole's contract status, I would think all of his title defenses should be interesting...

[WingedEagle]

Definitely going to the March MSG house show. As noted previously I had a blast last month and with the return also a Smackdown show (plus Lesnar) it was an easy call. Only question is if I force the wife to join this time.

[cheapshot]

Going to watch the PCW vs. IPW:UK trainee show tomorrow in Preston.

 

It's a free show, and has a T-Bone & Bubblegum tag match, so should be a fun time.

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Have just booked up some tickets for the Rev Pro Cockpit show in March and excited that Matt Riddle is named as appearing, as I've not seen him live before. I've also not been to one of the Cockpit shows before, but after Rev Pro rather inconveniently scheduled their last York Hall show last week for a Saturday afternoon meaning a clash with going to the football, and then announced their next York Hall show - which looks to have a great line up already - for a day when I'm at a weeding in Wales I needed to make sure I'm getting my fix!

[Cap]

I am not going, but White Mike Jordan (of CWF fame) is up against New Jack tonight in Greensboro and I know I will never forgive myself for missing this. Something tells me that is going to be a blast.

[shoe]

I'm going to the Evolve show tonight. Hero vs Keith Lee sounds outstanding.

[goodhelmet]

I'm at the Evolve show but I don't have a front row ticket like Pete does.

[goodhelmet]

EVOLVE San Antonio

 

Opener was Jaka vs. Peter Kaasa. Match was really heating up when Kaasa attempted a middle rope moonsault, the turnbuckle broke and he nearly crippled himself in an ugly fall. He was able to continue and they ended the match quickly with Jaka pinning him with a sit down powerbomb.

 

Darby Allin defeated Chris Dickinson. Dickinson was going for a Razors Edge move when Allina rolled him up in a cool reversal. Short but really fun match.

 

Justin Kincaid defeated DUSTIN with some submission move I've never seen. Dustin is Chuck Taylor. This match was really fun as Kincaid feels like a flippy flip guy but he has a way of making every flip move seem like the logical choice. Dustin was a pretty good heel.

 

Zach sabre Jr beat Ethan Page in a grudge match. I don't care about Page at all. I have a tendency to ignore his matches.

 

Matt Riddle pinned ACH with a fisherman suplex brain buster pin thing in the match of the night so far.

 

Fred Yehi and Tracy Williams defeated Jeff Cobb and Timothy Thatcher. Yehi made Thatcher tap in another great match. I prefer the ACH-Riddle match but this was worth watching.

 

Chris Hero beat Keith Lee with a piledriver. First the top rope snapped and then the 2nd rope collapsed and they still had a good match. Fuck, if I was Hero, I wouldn't wrestle tomorrow's show with this faulty ring.

 

Overall, really fun show but those fucking ropes. It was bad enough that the top rope busted but the 2ne rope busted twice. Someone should be fired.

[shoe]

Going to Evolve today, and then NXT. Evolve looks like a damn good show today .

[goodhelmet]

Evolve San Antonio: Hero's Exit

 

Opening match was Ethan Page and his bodyguards vs. Sabre, Darby Allin and some other dude. Big spot fest with the highlight being a Darby leap of faith after climbing a steel beam halfway to the gym ceiling. Big fun spot fest.

 

Tracy Williams defeated Laredo Kid.

 

Chris Dickinson and Jaka defeated Jason Kincaid and Sammy Guevara.

 

ACH defeated Fred Yehi with a brain buster. Nothing else so far has come close to this match. Both guys were on point and I loved the finish. No trading finishers. No excessive 2.9s. ACH hit the brain buster and that was that.

 

Matt Riddle pinned DUSTIN in a No DQ fight. Tons of chairs and a table spot. Lots of spots outside the ring. Highly entertaining live but I have no idea how it will come across on tape. Crowd was losing their shit.

 

Timothy Thatcher pinned Jeff Cobb in a good match. This was grappler vs. powerhouse and if you enjoy the grapplefuck style, you'll enjoy this.

 

Zach Sabre Jr defeated Chris Hero with the coolest submission move ever. Hero hit a pedigree to a huge pop but it only got a 1 count which made the place come unglued. Super fun match that felt like a special moment.

[TonyPulis'Cap]

Last Saturday a mate and I went along to the Rev Pro British J Cup show and wanted to share some thoughts before watching it back on demand as I think that can often be a very different experience from seeing something live. Case in point, in the building I really enjoyed it, even if I think the first round matches might not be ones people rave about when they see them on tape - but I thought all were enjoyable and they all showcased a lot of variety. You had some comedy in the Scurll/Tiger Mask match, a storyline quick pin in the Bodom/Liger match which played into events later in the night and built a match for the next big show, high flying in the Ospreay match and then technical grappling in the Kushida/O'Reilly one. What's more, none of the matches had 'too much' in them, saving that for the final.

 

The final - which was a four way, rather than there be semi finals - was a huge amount of fun, with Liger getting continually knocked out of the match by Scurll. There were some great moments and it was tons of fun with good storylines and narratives running throughout it. Scurll managed to get two sneaky eliminations on Ospreay and Kushida and then pinned them with the same roll up combination. That meant that when he got it on Liger, and he kicked out, it got a massive pop. In the end, Liger managed to roll back the years and win the tournament. I heard someone moaning after that it should've been won by a 'young guy', and while there is of course some logic in that, the story they told with a veteran Liger throughout the tournament was really good and paid off beautifully. Even with Scurll being incredibly popular over here and being in an age where so often people want to cheer the heels, it was so refreshing to see a match where a clear babyface was getting massively cheered rather than booed and where people were so happy that the babyface won. That seems rare in wrestling these days. Plus, if this is something they want to do every year - and the suggestion is that they do - then you now have Liger in the record books as the first winner which adds prestige straight away.

 

In my opinion Rev Pro gets unfairly labelled as a company that doesn't do storylines and just puts on big matches, and while it's true that they focus on putting on indy dream matches and they don't have convoluted stories with lots of soap opera elements, booker/promoter Andy Quildan books really simply and effectively with in-ring stories and from show to show. If you've watched the cockipt shows they put on there is plenty of simple storyline development, and if you go back through their On Demand service and watch older shows, you can see how things progress without having to have lots of backstage segments and ridiculous beatdowns that never have any long term consequence.

 

The British J Cup show was another great example - a show that had the Liger trying to win one last tournament running through it and then peaked with the show stealer matches at the end. On that note, the semi main event of Matt Riddle vs Tomohiro Ishii was brutal (in a good way) and having watched him against Hero live last year, Ishii has an aura to him when you watch him in the flesh that makes every match an event.

 

A really enjoyable show and a pretty fun venue of the Walthamstow Assembly Hall, which has the entrance on the stage at one end and then also has a balcony (where we were) opposite that gave a great view. It's a building that has been in use for around for decades so lots of history. Was a bit bizarre given I used to work in the Town Hall opposite and had been to council meetings there, but a unique looking venue is part of the live experience for me. In saying that it was a roasting hot day though and as a Brit, definitely not used to that!

 

It very much whets the appetite for the next big Rev Pro show in August at the York Hall I'm going to, with Liger's win also setting him up for a shot at Josh Bodom's Cruiserweight Tile. Again, this is the strength of the booking - Liger beat Bodom in the first round and then Bodom attacked him when he was being presented with the trophy which puts a lot of heat on that match. A heel everyone hates facing a hero everyone cheers for - will be great to see. Oh yeah and Rey Mysterio is on the show so cross that off the bucket list. Plenty to look forward to!

[TonyPulis'Cap]

In what should be a great few days of wrestling, the day after the Rev Pro Summer Sizzler, also have tickets to the ROH London show in the same building. Given it's a tour in conjunction with Rev Pro, CMLL and NJPW, hoping for some unique matches. The ROH show in London last year was a great show and so really excited for this as well.

[Cap]

In what should be a great few days of wrestling, the day after the Rev Pro Summer Sizzler, also have tickets to the ROH London show in the same building. Given it's a tour in conjunction with Rev Pro, CMLL and NJPW, hoping for some unique matches. The ROH show in London last year was a great show and so really excited for this as well.

Nice. Summer SIzzler is always awesome.

 

 

I have had a pretty good summer of indy wrestling so far: Modern Vintange/CWF Summer Heat, AIW JLIT, Evolve 88. I will likely hit up a few more CWF shows this summer and I have tickets to the SCI. Moving from Utah to NC last year has been great for my attendance to wrestling shows.

[Blehschmidt]

I'm ring announcing my first show in almost two years on August 5th with Manny Fernandez, The Patriot, The Cuban Assassin, Lord Zoltan, possibly King Kaluha, and former WWE Diva B.B.

[Shrike02]

Just saw my first NXT show tonight as they came to Vancouver for the first time. I give it a thumbs up, although the Asuka match was sadly a bit too short for my liking. Bobby Roode's entrance in the main event tag match was pretty great, and he was very over, even after he did the heel promo at the start of the match trashing Vancouver after setting it up by saying he was thrilled to be wrestling back home in Canada.

 

Roode and Asuka both have tons of charisma.

 

I didn't get a match card - maybe a certain podcaster extraordinaire who was also at the show can fill in some gaps.

[rzombie1988]

None.

 

I've seen more wrestling than 99.9% of the population and I have no desire to really go to any shows. The only thing I could maybe see myself going to is an NXT show.

 

The shows are expensive. They conflict with my schedule and I can watch just about anything I want for free anyway.

[Mad Dog]

I'll probably get a ticket to Global Wars in Columbus,