Mania Week Insanity 2019

[NotJayTabb]

8 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

Dasher Hatfield vs. Mr. Touchown ladder match was pretty good. 

Dasher/Touchdown is my match of the weekend so far. Apparently only the third ladder match in Chikara history, which is pretty impressive for a 17yr old promotion. They built to the big payoff spot nicely, and everything made sense. Really good. The whole Chikara show was really good TBH, really enjoyed it. 

The Orange Cassidy show was a hoot. I'm not a huge fan of comedy wrestling, but in this case I went in knowing it was going to be goofy, and if you're going to be goofy, at least be entertaining with it (a lesson Joey Ryan could stand to learn), and this was really fun. The scramble match was a legit good spotfest tho, and the UMB/Gage Christmas death match was really fun. 

 

[Mad Dog]

2 hours ago, NotJayTabb said:

Dasher/Touchdown is my match of the weekend so far. Apparently only the third ladder match in Chikara history, which is pretty impressive for a 17yr old promotion. They built to the big payoff spot nicely, and everything made sense. Really good. The whole Chikara show was really good TBH, really enjoyed it. 

The Orange Cassidy show was a hoot. I'm not a huge fan of comedy wrestling, but in this case I went in knowing it was going to be goofy, and if you're going to be goofy, at least be entertaining with it (a lesson Joey Ryan could stand to learn), and this was really fun. The scramble match was a legit good spotfest tho, and the UMB/Gage Christmas death match was really fun. 

 

I liked how they circumvented the usually stupidity of ladder matches with the leg injury to Touchdown and Dasher being more interested in inflicting pain. The end spot was absolutely brutal as well. Where that match really shined is my wife watched it and had no idea of the storyline but came out of it wanting to see more of their feud. She actually came out of that as a big Dasher fan. 

[sek69]

So Ricky Morton did a Canadian Destroyer last night, and I don't know how any wrestling anywhere can top that now.

[El-P]

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

So Ricky Morton did a Canadian Destroyer last night, and I don't know how any wrestling anywhere can top that now.

Da fuck ? Which card ? I have everything somewhere on a hard drive for the next month to watch.

[Mad Dog]

Part 2 of Spring Break I believe.

[El-P]

Just now, Mad Dog said:

Part 2 of Spring Break I believe.

Well, where else, of course...

[Mad Dog]

It kind of really pisses me off that had WWE released the Revival that we could have had The Revival vs. Rock N Roll Express on Spring Break. 

[Migs]

On 4/5/2019 at 1:35 PM, King of Debt said:

The IDTV Reunion Jay v Parnell was the first match of that feud I've seen and now I want to binge through the whole damn thing. Brutal in the best way.

Gary Jay seems like he has a friend from high school that posts "lol you're still doing that fake shit" on his Facebook wall once a month and Jay wrestles every match trying to prove him wrong.

[hammerva]

Because I was pretty terrible with negotiating the transit system of New York and New Jersey so a number of shows I didn't see all of.  But some of the great things I did see:

1.  Everything that has been said about Gary Jay and Warhorse Parnell has said.  Extremely physical.  Great way to start my weekend

2.  Bloodsport was easily the best overall show I saw that weekend including Wrestlemania.  A completely different show than last year.  Loved most of the matches except Mir vs Severn and Phil Baroni's complete maybe coked up insanity.   The 1st minute of Andy Williams vs Dirty Daddy Chris Dickinson was just incredible and insane.  Barnett vs Suzuki was great even though everyone knew it would be a draw early

3.  While I was in the minority in this opinion, the idea of using Jushin Liger final US matches in a 6 man with Xpac and Shane Helms seemed like a wasted opportunity.  But the going opinion is that it was a greatest hits kind of show so it makes sense.   As for the matches I did see, loved Dragon Lee vs Cavenario (misspelled badly) and Shane Strickland vs ZSJ. 

4.  First half of AIW show (you know the show that apparently had no business working this weekend ), were really good.  Dominic Garini vs Joshua Bishop was easily the 2nd most violent match this weekend.   Steiner vs Swoggle was hilarious listening to Scott coming out to Short People and doing everything possible to insult him without calling a midget

5.  In the trilogy of the Ohtani matches this weekend, I would say his AIW match against Kingston was the best.  although his match against Gresham at the Orange Cassidy show was damn good too

6.  Yeah the USA vs the World show wasn't that special although I did enjoy the Rascalz 6 man match and David Starr vs Daga

7.   Only saw 1st half of Rev Pro show so I at least got to see a great Suzuki-Gun vs Ospreay/Tanahashi match.

8.   Night 1 of Janela Spring Break was just awesome.   Janela vs Marko Stunt was very good,  we got the debut of Dustin Thomas showing that a no legged man can do great things as well against Tony Deppen,  and a disgusting awesome death with Jimmy Lloyd vs Masahi Takeda.   Also I will be stunned if Shane Mercer isn't signed to NXT in the next couple years. I would say a faster version of Brian Cage and is incredible working with flippy guys

9.  LAX vs Rock N Roll Express has to be considered a sleeper match of the weekend.  Anybody that doesn't think Ricky and Robert can't go anymore isn't paying attention

10.  The Orange Cassidy show was a ton of fun.  Lots of goofiness but that is what you would expect.  The Nate Webb vs Session Moth Martina drunken match was great, Teddy Hart stole the show being Teddy Hart reading a children book and talking about this weekend, and other really funny stuff.  Plus it has Gresham vs Ohtani

Probably missing a ton but watched too much 

[Migs]

14 hours ago, hammerva said:

 

7.   Only saw 1st half of Rev Pro show so I at least got to see a great Suzuki-Gun vs Ospreay/Tanahashi match.

 

The second half was enjoyable but not necessary. That match was by far the highlight.

[peachchaos]

Finally caught up on pretty much everything except for Chikara and the Orange Cassidy show which I'll probably get to tonight.

1. NXT

2. GCW Spring Break Night 1

3. GCW Bloodsport

4. AIW Slumber Party Massacre

5. GCW Spring Break Night 2

Found both WrestleMania 35 and G1 Supercard extremely disappointing in their own ways. Mania was just too darn long with a lot of filler and the MSG show was hit and miss.

Match of the week was clearly Gargano-Cole, followed by the NXT tag team opening banger, with both the Okada and Kofi wins safely on the next tier. The Jr. three way from MSG was really great too. Dominic Garini and Joshua Bishop is up there with my favorite 'I Quit' finishes attached to one of the most brutal non-death matches ever worked. Bryce Remsberg deserves a HOF nod for the Invisibles match, which is tough to put a rating on, but maybe the most fun I've ever had watching wrestling on a computer screen. Overall, a great wknd of wrestling, with maybe a little less hype coming off of it than last year which had the Riddle and Walter performances with the PCO comeback. I can't think of anyone who's stock rose immensely this year, but there are some good stories like No Legs and Janela's return so there is plenty to chew on I guess.

[Robert S]

So how long until there will be a "WWE signed the wrong no-legged man" headline?

[El-P]

The highlight of Wrestlecon US vs the World show, which had tons of good matches but nothing special (Cage vs Tanaka was very good though) was easily Ethan Page trolling MJF by singing "You are my sunshine" and having the crowd actually sing instead of clapping when he was in a hold. "Don't clap ! Sing for me !". Terrific stuff. 

[Outsider]

My highlight...was "A Hunka, Hunka, Honky Love" baby!

[RazorbladeKiss87]

So far the only full show I've watched has been Takeover but I've skimmed most of the shows that aired over the weekend. Takeover was insane. The low-point was the Women's Championship, and even that was a pretty great match. I'll save my thoughts on that show for the Takeover thread and use this post to talk about the indie stuff I've watched.

One big takeaway for me so far is that I really do not like or get Orange Cassidy.  Everything about his gimmick turns me off. It comes off as a bit "try-hard" which is ironic given the whole point of his gimmick. Maybe I'm being an old man shouting at the clouds but he really exposes the business in a manner that I actively hate. If he was relegated to Chikara or some other promotion I won't be watching, that'd be fine, but he's in a bunch of promotions that I otherwise would be interested in watching. 

Speaking of Chikara, that ladder match may be the sleeper hit of the weekend for me. I need to watch it again as I was very tired the other night when I sat down to watch it. I didn't check out the rest of the card yet but I wouldn't mind if Chikara were to come back and be a promotion I want to see again.

ROH/NJPW...this show was pretty bad for the first half. Cobb/Ospreay was good but never seemed to hit its full potential. I'm guessing there will be some sort of rematch and hopefully they will get enough time to show something. Rush/Castle wasn't even a match. I'm hoping Castle goes away to heal whatever injuries he has lingering. He can come back with a heel edge and it'll be good. WOH match wasn't anything to write home about. Kline's wrestling gear wasn't flattering. Her wrestling skills don't seem to match her gimmick of being "the gatekeeper." Bringing in TNA castoffs isn't a great look either, especially when Madison Rayne just left to go back to Impact. Street fight wasn't much, especially coming so quickly after the tag team war at the 17th Anniversary PPV. The Jr. 3way was the last thing I watched and it seemed like the show was gaining momentum from there. 

I'm hoping by the middle of next week to have had some time to sit down and digest most, if not all, of the indie shows from this past week/weekend.

[Bix]

Orange Cassidy had been having better and much more varied matches lately. I dunno how much was the different opponent's or figuring he'd be wrestling in front of unfamiliar fans or what, but be basically wrestled the same match over and over and it brought his stock down a lot for me, at least in that gimmick. 

If you wanna see what got people more into him recently, check out the David Starr and Tracy Williams matches from Beyond.

[El-P]

3 hours ago, Bix said:

I dunno how much was the different opponent's or figuring he'd be wrestling in front of unfamiliar fans or what, but be basically wrestled the same match over and over and it brought his stock down a lot for me, at least in that gimmick. 

Agreed. First match I saw of him with the hands in pocket, hilarious. By the third time of him doing the exact same spots... well, it kinda got old.

Joey Janela's second night of Spring Break had a very good Tanaka vs Park brawl and that incredible (all things considered) LAX vs Rock'n Roll Express (Ricky Morton doing a Canadian Destroyer was something else). The Clusterfuck was way too long though, and way too much indie guys I did not know to really be amused for long stretches. The ending was cool though. Janela truly is a mad scientist.

Thus far, and I doubt it is gonna change much, MJF has clearly been the star of the week-end as far as character goes. Ethan Page also really grew on me. Nothing like Riddle or Ospreay's amazing week-ends last year though.

[El-P]

Man, that Tracy Smothers vs Su Young match at Joey Ryan's Penis Party had me dying laughing. It's sad Tracy is in poor shape, but that mofo was hilarious. Hell, I think he managed to legit pissed off some of the audience. Well, even if that wasn't really the case, it was a masterpiece of old-ooooold school cheap heeling and taking shit on the mic. Tracy is gold.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

I watched the main event of Spring Break 3 Part 1 and the insanity of taking a scissor board to the chest/neck....wow. I don't even know what to say. I'm considering going to the Tournament of Survival but that has me questioning if I really want to contribute to that type of insanity. I had the same thought when I watched the main event of the ROH 17th Anniversary PPV as well.

 

Watching Spring Break 3 Part 2 right now. I'm in the middle of the Clusterfuck. This is just pure insanity. I never thought of Cryme Tyme as "big guys" but they make all of these indie guys look TINY. Love Teddy Hart breaking into the commentary and walking out with "Poor Slim J. Nobody caught his ass." The match is too long, I'll agree with that, but the fun sequences do help me forget how long it's been going. I love that after all these years Facade is still dedicated to looking like the epitome of 2000s indie guys. 

[King of Debt]

6 hours ago, RazorbladeKiss87 said:

I'm considering going to the Tournament of Survival but that has me questioning if I really want to contribute to that type of insanity.

 

Stop asking silly questions.

[El-P]

Don Callis always came off smart and funny anyway, but hearing him call the Penis Party show without any leach on, he's really, really, really funny.

[El-P]

Ok, so I have seen the most amazing entrance ever. Priscilla Kelly at the Penis Party (yeah, again, I had to split that one up in parts). With guys dressed up as giant bloody tampons. To the sound of the awesome "How Soon in Now" by the Smiths. OK, that's it, don't even try, this is the greatest pro-wrestling entrance ever. And really, that whole show, as ridiculous as it was at points (that DDT match was.... uncomfortable to watch at times ?), is easily in my TOP 2 of the week-end, the other one being Bloodsport, obviously.

[King of Debt]

It took a week but MurderMania Nights 1 & 2 are on Title Match Network. I don't know if it's clipped to high hell or not but if it isn't and you all made your Best of the Weekend lists before considering Casanova Valentine and the new Leatherface in a no-ring deathmatch, shame on you. Tut tut.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

9 hours ago, King of Debt said:

 

Stop asking silly questions.

Well, damn. As long as I can still get a ticket when I get paid next week, this is a no-brainer. 

[Stiva]

I’m only 2 matches into the AIW Slumber Party Show but man, Dominic Garrini takes one of the nuttiest bumps this side of the 90s ECW Arena in his match. Between that and Bloodsport, he had quite the Saturday.