Post by Shatter Machine on Jan 15, 2017 13:03:37 GMT -5
2016.01.14 Pro Wrestling Rampage New Year’s Evil
So, I went to our local Indy last night with my friend Kimm. I have literally been meaning to go to a show for like a year and a half, but EVERY SINGLE TIME there’s a show scheduled, something comes up. This time, I had plans before the show was scheduled, but something came up that cancelled THOSE plans, so this was the time that I was able to go. Kimm has been a time or two, and she knows a few of the guys, so she was able to explain to me who was who if I didn’t know. There were a couple of guys near us who were fun to watch with, and they kept the humor up, which is important. The locals are into the show, and there are a lot of regulars. (I don’t want to call them “marks” because it’s derogatory, but they are dedicated to the face/heel dynamic.) The best part for me is that there were a TON of kids there. It was emphasized that this is a family friendly event, so don’t swear and be mindful of the kids. The food was crazy affordable (I bought two sodas, a bag of popcorn, and a soft pretzel, and it was less than $10). PWR is a promotion that is based in Erie, PA and runs all its shows out of the Saga Club. The ring looks great, and from my experience with Indy rings, that’s really important. The biggest problem is that the ceiling is just too damn low. A couple of times, performers went to the top and couldn’t do their move because they might have hit the tiles.
The show starts with the ring announcer, whose name I didn’t catch (sadly) comes out to get the crowd pumped up, but he’s interrupted by the recently heel-turned Vince Valor, who tries to explain his actions, but before he can get too far into it, Bill Collier comes out to attack. A gaggle of referees and PWR Commissioner (and I think owner or promoter) John McChesney, who’s been in the commissioner role due to a leg injury, comes out and makes the match between the two for the next show in February. He also inserts Collier into tonight’s 4-way elimination match main event.
JJ Rumham
Vs
Payton Graham
Graham is a large, bald guy, Rumham is a skinnier type. They do some good stuff, with some fun comedy mixed in. There’s no real heat segment or anything, just some back and forth. Rumham looks to finish, but when he tries to come off the second rope, he twists his knee and they have to improvise a finish. Rumham gets the pin, then gets destroyed with a Death Valley driver after the fall. Decent enough opener. * ½
The Riot Squad (PWR Wild Card & Heavyweight Champion Aaron Draven, PB Smooth, Colby Redd, & Bennett Cole) come out, and Draven pulls out a sticker, declaring that the PWR Wild Card title is now the Riot Squad Championship, and he can do what he wants with it, so he says that he’s going to have Redd defend it tonight. McChesney makes his appearance and says that Redd will be defending it later. He also says that Cole has a match right now, and it’s with his former partner, Rocky Reynolds.
Rocky Reynolds
Vs
Bennett Cole
The ref ejects the rest of the Riot Squad from ringside, and the match is just Reynolds bumping all over for Cole, who is passable as a worker, but nowhere near the level of Reynolds, who, if he was a few inches taller, or had come along a few years later, might have gone on too much bigger and better things. Reynolds has a major-league physique, having won a few bodybuilding competitions, and he’s got great technique in the ring. Cole is great as a dickweed/underneath/henchman type heel, and he just decides that he doesn’t want the match anymore, so he hits the ref with a urinage and announces that he’s been disqualified. They continue to scream at each other until they agree to a match next month, where they’ll put up Reynolds’ HOF banner (that Cole somehow has possession of and wears like a cape) against Reynolds bodybuilding trophy. This was about 30% match and about 70% angle. *** for the whole thing.
Shawn Blaze comes out claiming to be co-holder of the Lake Erie title, along with his frog-like manager, and he talks to the crowd a bit, makes some lewd gestures at fans, and then the rest of the participants come out, with Anthony Gaines saying that his partner in the Homewreckers got hairspray in his eyes and got “thirty-second degree burns” and can’t wrestle tonight. They fill in with a crazy skinny “Japanese” masked guy called Kai Sei.
Six-Man Tag:
Shawn Blaze, Anthony Gaines, and Kai Sei
Vs
Aces High (Andre Kanan Alexander & Marcus Knight) and Lumberjack LeRoux
This is pretty good, except for the parts where LeRoux is in. He’s older, not especially mobile, and is going to hurt either himself or his opponent before too long. You can tell that Aces High watches (or has watched) a ton of old Midnight Express matches, as I saw a veg-o-matic and a double flapjack. The match ends when everyone leaves except LeRoux and Kai Sei, and LeRoux gets the pin. This was not great. It wasn’t actively bad, but it wasn’t Misawa & Co. Vs Tsuruta & Co. either. *, mostly for the sweet double team work from Aces High.
PWR Wild Card Championship:
Colby Redd (champion, with PB Smooth)
Vs
Andrew Palace
Colby is excellent in the ring and on the mic. I feel like he could really make a name for himself if he had a bigger venue. He’s a heat magnet with the local crowd, and he goes out and backs it up in the ring. Smooth is awesome as a heater for him, and he can go, too. Palace came out and ran around the ring like the Ultimate Warrior. At some point, Redd hits him in the mouth and he either loses or breaks a tooth. Ow. Redd gets the pin with a sit-out powerbomb, then the heel beat-down continues until McChesney makes his third or fourth appearance of the night. He accepts Redd’s challenge for next month with a superkick. Excellent match to end the first half of the card. McChesney is way, way over with the crowd. ** ½.
They had an intermission here, and everyone made for the gimmick tables, except me, I got my grub on.
Metahuman (something) Davis
Vs
The Sex Gun (Something Something)
Totally missed both guys’ names because I was eating and checking hockey scores. Davis is a well-built black guy with dreadlocks. This is a quick squash for Davis, who was making his PWR debut. No Rating.
PWR Championship:
Aaron Draven (Champion)
Vs
War Child
War Child is a jacked-up face-painted monster, and one-half of the PWR tag team champions. Draven is like 5’3”, but he’s excellent. This is a cat-and-mouse deal, with Draven running from War Child, and War Child trying to smash him flat. The action is fast-paced, but as soon as it looks like War Child might be getting the advantage, Bennett Cole comes out to the ring with a chair and hits DRAVEN with it, drawing the DQ on War Child. That’s some pretty hilarious booking. Match was too short to be anything special. * ¾
PWR Women’s Championship
Angel Dust (Champion)
Vs
Honey Badger
Honey Badger attacked Angel Dust after a match last month to set this up. Angel is super-toned and has a great look. Badger looks like my friend Mo, if she gained a few pounds. This match is the drizzling shits. They do a horrible ref-bump DQ, DUD, bordering on negative stars. The only thing that kept it from going there was the great pop for Angel Dust. She’s a really nice girl, I didn’t have a chance to talk to her after the show, but I watched her interaction with the fans. She’s probably 5’ and maybe 100 pounds, so I don’t think that she’ll ever make it big, which is a shame, because I think she’s got a great look. (They should ask for a refund on that women’s belt, though. Ugh.)
PWR Briefcase Match:
PB Smooth
Vs
Bill Collier
Vs
Kevin Bennett
Vs
Braxton Sutter
This is, by far, the best match of the night, and it’s under elimination rules. Sutter is about the biggest name in the promotion, and a pretty excellent worker. All four guys start in the ring, but Smooth bails out and sits by the entrance as the other three work some two-on-one stuff. The big problem is that there aren’t enough heels, so there’s nobody to draw heat except Smooth, who does it by sneaking in (not easy to do for a guy who’s called “the seven-foot savage”) taking his shot, then bailing out. He finally gets involved as they do the “two guys on the floor while two guys work in the ring” stuff, and Smooth gets the crowd-killing shock pin on Collier following a blue thunder bomb. Smooth gets eliminated a few minutes later when both guys hold him down with a roll-up. Bennett and Sutter go for about another 12 minutes or so, with some great back and forth action. They do some fast-paced near-falls, then Sutter gets the pin with a swinging fisherman’s suplex. That was one of the best indy matches I’ve seen in a long time. All four guys were great, and the story was awesome. *** ¾
The Bottom Line: This is the first time I’ve been to an Indy show in a long time, and I had a blast. The match quality was great, the wrestlers and crew did a great job, and everything was top notch. Even the concession prices were great. The place was packed, to the tune of probably 200 people, and about 50% of them were kids who were way into it, so I’d call that a major success. Thumbs way, way, way up for this show. I’ll definitely be going back.
So, I went to our local Indy last night with my friend Kimm. I have literally been meaning to go to a show for like a year and a half, but EVERY SINGLE TIME there’s a show scheduled, something comes up. This time, I had plans before the show was scheduled, but something came up that cancelled THOSE plans, so this was the time that I was able to go. Kimm has been a time or two, and she knows a few of the guys, so she was able to explain to me who was who if I didn’t know. There were a couple of guys near us who were fun to watch with, and they kept the humor up, which is important. The locals are into the show, and there are a lot of regulars. (I don’t want to call them “marks” because it’s derogatory, but they are dedicated to the face/heel dynamic.) The best part for me is that there were a TON of kids there. It was emphasized that this is a family friendly event, so don’t swear and be mindful of the kids. The food was crazy affordable (I bought two sodas, a bag of popcorn, and a soft pretzel, and it was less than $10). PWR is a promotion that is based in Erie, PA and runs all its shows out of the Saga Club. The ring looks great, and from my experience with Indy rings, that’s really important. The biggest problem is that the ceiling is just too damn low. A couple of times, performers went to the top and couldn’t do their move because they might have hit the tiles.
The show starts with the ring announcer, whose name I didn’t catch (sadly) comes out to get the crowd pumped up, but he’s interrupted by the recently heel-turned Vince Valor, who tries to explain his actions, but before he can get too far into it, Bill Collier comes out to attack. A gaggle of referees and PWR Commissioner (and I think owner or promoter) John McChesney, who’s been in the commissioner role due to a leg injury, comes out and makes the match between the two for the next show in February. He also inserts Collier into tonight’s 4-way elimination match main event.
JJ Rumham
Vs
Payton Graham
Graham is a large, bald guy, Rumham is a skinnier type. They do some good stuff, with some fun comedy mixed in. There’s no real heat segment or anything, just some back and forth. Rumham looks to finish, but when he tries to come off the second rope, he twists his knee and they have to improvise a finish. Rumham gets the pin, then gets destroyed with a Death Valley driver after the fall. Decent enough opener. * ½
The Riot Squad (PWR Wild Card & Heavyweight Champion Aaron Draven, PB Smooth, Colby Redd, & Bennett Cole) come out, and Draven pulls out a sticker, declaring that the PWR Wild Card title is now the Riot Squad Championship, and he can do what he wants with it, so he says that he’s going to have Redd defend it tonight. McChesney makes his appearance and says that Redd will be defending it later. He also says that Cole has a match right now, and it’s with his former partner, Rocky Reynolds.
Rocky Reynolds
Vs
Bennett Cole
The ref ejects the rest of the Riot Squad from ringside, and the match is just Reynolds bumping all over for Cole, who is passable as a worker, but nowhere near the level of Reynolds, who, if he was a few inches taller, or had come along a few years later, might have gone on too much bigger and better things. Reynolds has a major-league physique, having won a few bodybuilding competitions, and he’s got great technique in the ring. Cole is great as a dickweed/underneath/henchman type heel, and he just decides that he doesn’t want the match anymore, so he hits the ref with a urinage and announces that he’s been disqualified. They continue to scream at each other until they agree to a match next month, where they’ll put up Reynolds’ HOF banner (that Cole somehow has possession of and wears like a cape) against Reynolds bodybuilding trophy. This was about 30% match and about 70% angle. *** for the whole thing.
Shawn Blaze comes out claiming to be co-holder of the Lake Erie title, along with his frog-like manager, and he talks to the crowd a bit, makes some lewd gestures at fans, and then the rest of the participants come out, with Anthony Gaines saying that his partner in the Homewreckers got hairspray in his eyes and got “thirty-second degree burns” and can’t wrestle tonight. They fill in with a crazy skinny “Japanese” masked guy called Kai Sei.
Six-Man Tag:
Shawn Blaze, Anthony Gaines, and Kai Sei
Vs
Aces High (Andre Kanan Alexander & Marcus Knight) and Lumberjack LeRoux
This is pretty good, except for the parts where LeRoux is in. He’s older, not especially mobile, and is going to hurt either himself or his opponent before too long. You can tell that Aces High watches (or has watched) a ton of old Midnight Express matches, as I saw a veg-o-matic and a double flapjack. The match ends when everyone leaves except LeRoux and Kai Sei, and LeRoux gets the pin. This was not great. It wasn’t actively bad, but it wasn’t Misawa & Co. Vs Tsuruta & Co. either. *, mostly for the sweet double team work from Aces High.
PWR Wild Card Championship:
Colby Redd (champion, with PB Smooth)
Vs
Andrew Palace
Colby is excellent in the ring and on the mic. I feel like he could really make a name for himself if he had a bigger venue. He’s a heat magnet with the local crowd, and he goes out and backs it up in the ring. Smooth is awesome as a heater for him, and he can go, too. Palace came out and ran around the ring like the Ultimate Warrior. At some point, Redd hits him in the mouth and he either loses or breaks a tooth. Ow. Redd gets the pin with a sit-out powerbomb, then the heel beat-down continues until McChesney makes his third or fourth appearance of the night. He accepts Redd’s challenge for next month with a superkick. Excellent match to end the first half of the card. McChesney is way, way over with the crowd. ** ½.
They had an intermission here, and everyone made for the gimmick tables, except me, I got my grub on.
Metahuman (something) Davis
Vs
The Sex Gun (Something Something)
Totally missed both guys’ names because I was eating and checking hockey scores. Davis is a well-built black guy with dreadlocks. This is a quick squash for Davis, who was making his PWR debut. No Rating.
PWR Championship:
Aaron Draven (Champion)
Vs
War Child
War Child is a jacked-up face-painted monster, and one-half of the PWR tag team champions. Draven is like 5’3”, but he’s excellent. This is a cat-and-mouse deal, with Draven running from War Child, and War Child trying to smash him flat. The action is fast-paced, but as soon as it looks like War Child might be getting the advantage, Bennett Cole comes out to the ring with a chair and hits DRAVEN with it, drawing the DQ on War Child. That’s some pretty hilarious booking. Match was too short to be anything special. * ¾
PWR Women’s Championship
Angel Dust (Champion)
Vs
Honey Badger
Honey Badger attacked Angel Dust after a match last month to set this up. Angel is super-toned and has a great look. Badger looks like my friend Mo, if she gained a few pounds. This match is the drizzling shits. They do a horrible ref-bump DQ, DUD, bordering on negative stars. The only thing that kept it from going there was the great pop for Angel Dust. She’s a really nice girl, I didn’t have a chance to talk to her after the show, but I watched her interaction with the fans. She’s probably 5’ and maybe 100 pounds, so I don’t think that she’ll ever make it big, which is a shame, because I think she’s got a great look. (They should ask for a refund on that women’s belt, though. Ugh.)
PWR Briefcase Match:
PB Smooth
Vs
Bill Collier
Vs
Kevin Bennett
Vs
Braxton Sutter
This is, by far, the best match of the night, and it’s under elimination rules. Sutter is about the biggest name in the promotion, and a pretty excellent worker. All four guys start in the ring, but Smooth bails out and sits by the entrance as the other three work some two-on-one stuff. The big problem is that there aren’t enough heels, so there’s nobody to draw heat except Smooth, who does it by sneaking in (not easy to do for a guy who’s called “the seven-foot savage”) taking his shot, then bailing out. He finally gets involved as they do the “two guys on the floor while two guys work in the ring” stuff, and Smooth gets the crowd-killing shock pin on Collier following a blue thunder bomb. Smooth gets eliminated a few minutes later when both guys hold him down with a roll-up. Bennett and Sutter go for about another 12 minutes or so, with some great back and forth action. They do some fast-paced near-falls, then Sutter gets the pin with a swinging fisherman’s suplex. That was one of the best indy matches I’ve seen in a long time. All four guys were great, and the story was awesome. *** ¾
The Bottom Line: This is the first time I’ve been to an Indy show in a long time, and I had a blast. The match quality was great, the wrestlers and crew did a great job, and everything was top notch. Even the concession prices were great. The place was packed, to the tune of probably 200 people, and about 50% of them were kids who were way into it, so I’d call that a major success. Thumbs way, way, way up for this show. I’ll definitely be going back.