Category: Indies

Submitted by Pat Hamilton

Chaotic Wrestling Champion Chase DelMonte vs. Mike Webb

These guys pretty much had an “Indy match” as you would say. Chaotic Wrestling is a small indy promotion out of Lowell, but many regulars were in the crowd, so Chase was over enough for the crowd to enjoy it. Mike Webb was ROH’s top prospect tournament last year. Webb is usually solid, and Chase can put on a good match when its needed. Nothing too memorable, some chain wrestling, and a few dives. There was a botched spot where Chase went to leapfrog Webb with Webb coming off of the ropes behind him but he ended up landing on him. They recovered smoothly though and Chase went for a pin without hesitating. Webb went for a cross body, but chase caught him with an “RKO outta no where” (cutter is one of his finishers) that was well executed, and got the win off of it. Good finish, short match, and was a decent opener that did what it needed to do.

Stamos Syndicate and Jake Manning vs Team Frendship and The Cam-An Connection

This was a match geared towards the kids, and it was successful in that. The Stamos Syndicate is a 3 man heel stable from Northeast Wrestling with two large Samoan looking men, and some short guy. Jake Manning played a cub scout leader who would refer to his guidebook before executing a move, only to have the baby face foil his plans. Imagine Sargent slaughter as a cub scout. Team friendship is a hilarious team with Mark Shurman who is a muscular handsome baby face, but is a little dumb and over excited, and his short partner, who tries to calm him down and gets frustrated when his partners mental capacity comes up short. The Cam-An connection are an ambiguously gay babyface team who come out to the backstreet boys, and wrestle solid matches considering how young they are.

The babyfaces controlled the early going. At one point, both members of the Can-Am Connection go for dives outside of the ring, and each of them miss and land on their backs  A fun spot where Shurman hip tosses one of the heels then jumps up and down in excitement, then the next one steps in line and the process repeats. Then, caught up in his excitement, goes to hip toss the ref, but the distraction is enough for the heels to gain some heat and take control. Although this didn’t last long as the baby faces shineed, and team friendship got the pin in a finish. Nothing special, the match was a little sloppy, but the characters got the kids involved, and that’s all this was really intended to do.

Brian Anthony v  Caleb Konley

This was basically a Smackdown match. Nothing memorable, but by no means sloppy or bad. It was fine, but the crowd was kin of stale for this one (not that it was a hot crowd really anyways) Brian Anthony is a heel who goes in through the crowd? I’m not sure what purpose is served, but he carries with him what I think is a mini hockey stick with black and green electrical tape on like half of it to match his ring gear. Also he came out to Disturbed in a trench coat. He would be “Generic heel #3” in a wrestling video game. Caleb was the babyface. They had “a match”, the ref took a bump and Anthony hit Konley with a Hockey stick or something for the win, because nobody in Northeast Wrestling could find any baseball bats on a minor league baseball tour.

Alexxis vs. Mickie James

From a “wrestling” perspective, this was ok, but from an entertainment perspective, this was awesome! Mickie came out (to her wwe music which was weird to hear) and got a decent pop, and then just sat there while Alexxis came out and played awesome heel for about 10 minutes. She was arguing with kids in the front row, which the crowd really reacted to. After every move she would brag about how great she was, but she did it in a way that wasn’t generic, and generated a lot of heat. Crowd loved this. Alexxis maintained the upper hand, keeping Mickie out of the ring until she snuck under the ring and popped out to get her first offense of the match. This caused Alexxis to pout loudly, much to the enjoyment of the kids at ringside. The match went back and fourth, with Mickie teasing Stratusfaction, but ultimately settling on a chick kick for the win. This match may have been the most over.

Next up is Mick Foley to thank the crowd for supporting the show and the wrestlers. Warbeard Hanson (half of War Machine in ROH) with a manager to interrupt and talk about how he’s old and washed up and has a grey beard. Foley “My beard may be grey, but when I wake up in the morning, and put in some just for men, I’ll look good as new (something like that), but when you wake up in the morning, you’ll still absolutely suck.” Foley would love to kick Hanson’s ass, but his ass kicking days are over. However he has someone to do it for him, so out comes Samoa Joe.

Samoa Joe vs Warbeard Hanson

Joe is the most over performer so far. Very loud Joe’s gonna kill you chants. This match was fine. Warbeard came out of the previously mentioned Chaotic wrestling, so most people knew him, and the place went nuts for Joe. They basically wrestled a solidhitting big guy vs big guy match with the you cant knock me down standing in the ring spot. The each did their spots, Joe did the kick to Warbead when he was in the corner and the running senton, warbeard did the cartwheel and the kick. Joe locked in the sleeper hold, then locked in the hooks for the rear naked choke and the victory.

Donavan Dijak vs Flip Gordon

This was suppose to be Dijak vs Jimmy Preston, another local guy. Flip Gordon is a local guy who just started wrestling a few months ago, but boy does he live up to his name. Dijak is a monster compared to him as flip is about average person height. Flip is basically A.J. Styles during his X division days of 10 years ago, but with more flips. This match was fun. Flip does the Paul London entrance right into a stare down with Dijak. They Lock up, and Dijak tries to shove him across the ring, but he does a backwards roll into a backflip to land on his feet. Dijak whips him into the corner, but he does a backflip off of the turnbuckle over Dijak to land behind him. (imagine what Daniel Bryan does during his comeback, but set up to Christopher Daniels BME.). Right off of this, Dijak mimics him and does a backflip of his own.

Dijak charges but Flip pulls the rope down and Dijak spills to the outside. Flip hits a perfect flip dive. Back inside and Flip is hitting Dijak with some brutal stiff kicks in the corner. the ref backs him up, and then Flip charges right into a big boot. Dijak hits some stiff kicks of his own as they trade offense. The crowd is into this by now. Dijak goes for his finisher (It’s like a fireman’s carry into a nickbreaker, but the opponent is facing up instead, and the landing is more like a gts than a regular neck or backbreaker) but flip lands on his feet and kicks Dijak down. Flip goes for a shooting star press, but Dijak rolls out of the way and hits his finish for the win. Great match. It was short enough for Dijak to still look strong, but Flip got in enough offense to benefit equally from the match.

The Young Bucks vs The Kingdom

I’m sorry in advance, but I cannot tell the Bucks apart in the ring, never mind remember from a live show. Matt Taven is from a town about 15 min from Lowell, so he’s treated as the hometown hero returning home after reaching success. The Bucks were I think suppose to be the heels, but its hard to tell from the language they wrestle in. (I cant remember if that’s Bryan or Vinnie’s term) The bucks come out with their normal entrance. The Kingdom come out and are in full Babyface mode. Bennett and Taven each go on top of a dugout and run across it high fiving and pumping up the crowd. this was awesome, and the crowd was way into this. The Bucks and The Kingdom trade trade many-a-kicks and crotch chops, with the Bucks yelling it high pitched voices during each move. The Bucks get thrown out of the ring, and say screw this and start to walk to the back. The kingdom come to stop them, only to have the bucks turn around and nail two perfectly timed beautiful super kicks, as well as some crotch chops.

The best moment of the night came when the bucks have Taven outside the ring and Bennett down in the ring. the ring is on home plate with the infield clear of any crowd. So one of the bucks grabs a mic, and starts insulting the Red Sox. He say’s he’ll show us how to hit a home run. So one of them pretends to throw a pitch, and the other pretends to swing a bat. Then the one who swings the bat proceeds to leave the ring, hop the guardrail, and run the bases, celebrating as if he hit a home run. he nears home plate, and dives over the guardrail into Taven. So then they proceed to switch places and do the exact spot AGAIN. This is SO awesome. As he runs down the third base line, Taven hops the guard rail, and superkicks this particular Buck, and leaves both men down on the third base line. The place went nuts for this.

At the end of the match, the Bucks to a million spots and kicks that make them so good at what they do, but the kingdom fights back, and cuts the ring off to one buck.  Then the kingdom tease a Meltzer Driver, but instead hit a similar looking spike piledriver  for the clean win over the Bucks. Post match, Taven cuts a promo thanking the fans, and northeast wrestling, and says he’s happy to show everyone where he’s started what he’s been able to accomplish with The Kingdom.

Rey Mysterio vs Alberto El Patron vs Matt Hardy

Everyone comes out, with Hardy getting booed as most of us expected him to work as a heel, and Patron got a loud reaction from most of the older demographic. Rey comes out to a sea of cheers and kids in Mysterio masks, who were really the focus of this match. Patron grabs a mic and asks the crowd to cheer for Hardy, then him, and then Rey. He says he’s sick of everyone cheering for Rey over him, because he’s a 4 time world champ, and should be treated as such. He says he’s gonna kick Rey’s ass, and says that Hardy should be equally mad over all of these Americas rooting for a foreigner over him. The match starts, and Hardy acts indecisive at first, but eventually turns on Rey.

This match wasn’t about being a 5-star match as this wasn’t really the place for that. This was a family show at a baseball park, and the match was built around Rey overcoming the odds to win, despite his size. To us this is a little overplayed, but given that this is an indy show in a ball park, and not ROH final battle 2015, this was the perfect main event. Eventually Rey hits the double 619, and the frog splash on Hardy for the win.

The following is from a third party:

BRIAN CAGE Interview Transcript

Donald Wood: The big news from Lucha Underground is that Ultima Lucha will now be two weeks long. It was announced that you would be taking on The Mack in a falls count anywhere match. What are your expectations for Ultima Lucha overall and what can the fans expect from your battle against The Mack?

Brian Cage: I think the reason they made it two weeks long is because my match is going to be so epic and will be an episode in its own right. Ultima Lucha itself will be awesome and I feel every week of Lucha Underground is amazing. I don’t want to sound boring or cookie cutter and say expect more of the same, but really the wrestling is awesome and the matches are so great. It’s going to be the culmination of everything up to this point and what you would expect from a season finale. Mack and I are going to tear the roof off of the place. We have had a couple of good ones though they were short and sweet. This time we will get to put it all out there and have a great match and I don’t think it is going to disappoint.

Mike Chiari: I think some fans were somewhat surprised to see you sign with Lucha Underground initially because they were expecting more traditional Luchadores, but you’ve really seemed to gel with the rest of the roster. Why do you think you’ve been such a good fit for Lucha Underground, and how have you enjoyed your time with the company so far?

Brian Cage: You know like Striker says, “I am the total package of everything that is lucha”.  While I think it’s good to have those opposites here and there, but I think my styles fit really well here.  At first they think I don’t belong here, but then they see my styles and my ability and it meshes well them and their style altogether.  It gives them something new and brings almost a hybrid style of a so called big-man.  I love it here.  I was a little unsure myself jumping on board and seeing how it would work out.  I was worried it wasn’t going to work out or turn out to be a flop.  It’s been phenomenal and the best company I have ever worked for.  I am glad and couldn’t be happier that I signed on board.  I am looking forward for everything down the road and think it will be a big success.

Brandon Galvin: Your match with Prince Puma for the Lucha Underground Championship back in March was one of the best matches of the year for us, but it seemed that you were quickly pushed aside for other wrestlers. Given how much Lucha Underground was marketing you at the time, do you think they missed a chance to capitalize on your momentum?

Brian Cage: Yes and no.  I mean it was amazing I got such a huge opportunity out the gate.  That really elevated me and Puma too who was already doing such a great job.  I don’t think it’s a missed opportunity because it is still there.  They bumped me down to mid-card status to help elevate other people and to lead the way for other people to work with Puma since it can’t be the Brian Cage/Puma story the whole time, you know what I mean?  So a missed opportunity I don’t think so.  The plans moving ahead I am sure I will be in the title scenario again at some point.  I wish it would have gone a little longer but no love lost or hurt feelings.

Donald Wood: While your popularity is rising in the mainstream thanks to Lucha Underground, Indy wrestling fans have known you for years thanks to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. Do you think the freedom to show your athleticism at PWG has helped give you the chance to shine anywhere?

Brian Cage: Oh undoubtedly, absolutely.  Going back to not wrestling how people thought I would wrestle is my niche.  That’s what sets me apart from everybody else.  Besides the BLANK nation were the only guys with that type of appeal or ability in the ring.  PWG really launched me and helped me get out there and show on a national scale what I can do.

Mike Chiari: In addition to your great work with Lucha Underground you’ve been involved in a long-running feud with Alberto El Patron in AAA, and it’s going to culminate in hair vs. hair match at TripleMania August 9. What does it mean to you to be in a featured match on such a huge card, and what are your expectations for the match?

Brian Cage: It’s really awesome to be down there this year and feud with him; it’s helped me out a lot internationally.  To be part of TripleMania, which is their WrestleMania down there, it’s just so awesome.  Being listed as one of the headliners along with Rey Mysterio and Myzteziz and to be on their first full international PPV its just such a huge deal, I marked out a little myself.  When I saw my name next to Alberto on the PPV synopsis I was like, “Ohhhhhhh this is amazing, I’m going to be on real PPV!”  I think it’s going to be an awesome opportunity and my matches down there with him I have been really enjoying.  I think this will be the best match we have over the past 6 months and I am eager to see what the future has in store for me after.

Brandon Galvin: We’ve been major supporters of Lucha Underground since Day 1. We recently had Vampiro and he was confident a second season would happen. First, what are your thoughts on the structure of Lucha Underground with it being a season and finally, what are your expectations for a second season?

Brian Cage: The season thing I was shaky going back and forth with at first. I know originally they wanted a shorter time lapse but I’m not so worried now.  Its shot more like a TV show, and I think that will help to keep people wanting more.  Like when we took that winter break last year.  Everyone thinks it won’t work because you will lose momentum, but this has never been done before.  There are a lot of things Lucha is doing that no one has before like shooting in a whole different angle.  The only way to see how it works is to try it.  I am getting more and more confident that it will be fine and not too long of a break.  We will see how it goes moving forward shooting the seasons.  I think season 2 will be everything season 1 was and just so much more.  You know what to expect, people will want to be a part of it, and wrestlers will even want to sign on.  Everyone is going to more excited for season 2 and deliver more than season 1 did.

Donald Wood: You spent time in WWE’s developmental territory, FCW. Despite having the ideal bodybuilder look the company is going for and being a great athlete, why do you think you never got the chance to show your skill on the main roster and would you be open to a return to WWE?

Brian Cage: I’ll be straight and blunt with it, because they are idiots.  They want something to hang their hat on and if you are not their guy they will let you go.  Not going to pull any punches, but I would be totally open to going back to them.  With many things permitting.  I am not opposed to going back, but I don’t care if I ever go back.  If I ever work for them cool, if I don’t my life is super happy and I am living the dream right now.  I did love my time down there and things did go great.

Mike Chiari: There are quite a few nicknames that you go by, but one that’s started to pick up steam recently is Lucha Lesnar in reference to your similarities to Brock Lesnar. How do you think you compare to Brock, and what would your interest level be in terms of having a match with him one day?

Brian Cage: That one was promoted by some fan and my mom thought it was totally hilarious.  I like the name and I would love a match with Brock.  He is my favorite guy to watch in WWE though I don’t get to watch much of it nowadays.  I think it’s funny because he is a better wrestler now than when he left the ring the first time.  His style now is more of a shoot, just the way he literally throws people around the ring for real.  I would love to work him but I don’t know how similar our styles would match up.  We both are huge beasts like individuals who are more athletic than we should be for our sizes.  I don’t think there are many similarities in our styles.  I think a match together would be amazing and I would love the opportunity. 

Brandon Galvin: I mentioned your match with Prince Puma earlier, but is there a match or performance you would choose to show somebody who has never seen you work as a way to define the wrestler you’ve become?

Brian Cage: Wow that’s a good question; I’ve never been asked that.  If I had to pick one match for everything, man that would be hard to do.  There are plenty to choose from and it’s hard to pick one.  My matches with Puma, my matches with Roderick Strong in PWG, my debut with them, I mean those matches are older.  My matches with Tyson Kidd those were amazing.  Maybe my match with Roddy or Prince Puma match from the past year cause it gives a better view of who I am and what I do is what I would say off the top of my head.

By Chris Lozano

There was a meet and greet before the show. Fans that purchased a signed guitar got a private meet and greet with Jeff Jarrett after the show.

Here are the results for the show.

PJ Black defeated Sanada in a NEX*GEN title tournament match. Black got some mic time.

Bobby Roode did an in ring segment and cut a heel promo on the crowd. Fans chanted “TNA sucks” but he turned on them and said that the crowd in Vegas sucks. Roode said that he would win the tournament and would take the GFW title back to TNA. Nick Aldis came out and then he was attacked by Kongo Kong. Kong and Roode attacked Aldis. Roode locked Aldis in the crippler crossface.

Lucha action is next… Phoenix Star, Zokre, and MIsterio, Jr. beat Steve Pain, Bestia 666, and Blood Eagle. The crowd was into this and there was a bunch of Lucha Libre fans in the crowd.

The Bollywood Boys beat The Akbars.

Kushida beat Virgil Flynn.

Karen Jarrett came out and talked about the women of GFW. Lei’D Tapa came out with her manager. I didn’t catch his name. This led to the women’s match. Christina Von Eerie beat Micke James and Lei’D Tapa in a Triple Threat Match. This was a women’s title tournament match.

Jigsaw beat Sonjay Dutt. Good fast paced action here. This was a NEX*GEN title tournament match.

Chael Sonnen did a heel promo in the ring. He was great. He spotted  Phil Baroni in the crowd and had some words with him. Sonnen announced taht Firgil Flynn will get a chance to wrestle in the NEX*GEN tournament. PJ Black was not happy about this and he came out and superkicked Flynn.

Brian Myers defeated Chris Mordetzky. This was a Global Championship tournament match. Both guys worked really hard. Mordetzky has improved a ton since he left WWE.

Reno SCUM defeated Los Luchas. Another really good match. There were fans that popped for Reno SCUM since they are from Vegas.

Bobby Roode defeated Kevin Kross. Good match but it looked like Kross might have been injured in the match. Not sure.

Jeff Jarrett came out to the ring and thanked the fans. Bobby Roode came out and cut a promo on Jarrett. Jarrett took off his jacked and looked like he was ready to fight Roode.

Main event time: Nick Aldis defeated Kongo Kong. This was a Global title tournament match. Kong is really agile and was doing some cool moves for a guy his size. 

Good night. Mostly wrestling and the show breezed by. It ran about 3 and a half hours. Great turnout. Hopefully this is the start of something good.

By Devin Dindyall

Two minutes before bell time. The announcer came out to hype us up. He got a GLOBAL FORCE chant going. Then there was some merchandise shilling. All the merch here is GFW branded stuff, from t-shirts to backpacks; no wrestler merch, unfortunately. He name dropped Bullet Club, even though they are not here. 

90% of the crowd was on the TV side, so arena was half empty. Stage set up was a giant black curtain with some lights around the entrance tunnel. Nothing spectacular. 

First match is PJ Black v. Sanada. Next-Gen tourney match. Great opener. Lots of flippy spots. Got the crowd hyped. Black won with a springboard 450.

Bobby Roode is out next. Came out to a huge ovation. He is using his TNA theme. Hyped us up and said he’s not a GFW guy, he’s a TNA guy. This warranted a DIXIE SUCKS chants so I guess Roode is working as a heel. Said he’s the longest reigning TNA champ ever, holding the title longer than Sting, Kurt Angle, and Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jarrett. He said he’s mad because JJ came back to TNA, which is Roode’s house, and took the KOTM title from him. So now, Roode has come to Vegas for Global Force Wrestling to take the GFW world title in the tournament.

Nick Aldis interrupts. He says this isn’t TNA and this is GFW and he has joined the force along with the rest of the fans here at the Orleans. He’s yelling at Roode and then Kongo Kong comes from behind to give Aldis a modified Samoan Drop looking move. Gets major heat from the crowd and then Roode comes back in the ring and locks Aldis in a cross face. Refs come to force him to break it.

The GFW intermission is some kind of dubstep music. Reminds me Blake & Murphy’s theme. 

Lucha 6 man tag is next Misterioso, Zokre and Phoenix Star vs. Blood Eagle, Steve Pain, and Bestia 666. Heels wore black and red masks and faces (Zokre’s team( wore all bright colored artire. Faces all looked like Sin Cara. Lots of LUCHA chants before and during the match. Crowd was red hot for a spot where all of the men in the match did consecutive outside dives. Bunch of cool high flying spots in this match. Team Sin Cara won. Everyone was happy.

This guy named Henry Maxwell comes out next. Lots of who are you chants. Comes out & sings the Star Spangled Banner, major heat. These two Arab wrestlers, reminding me of Muhammad Hassan, faces covered and veiled, come out and beat down Maxwell. Suddenly after the crowd booed the Star Spangled Banner we got USA chants. They say they are called The Akbars and they are here for the GFW Tag titles.

Bollywood Boyz come out with two dancers and a decent pop. I guess they’re just good looking Indian men who dance. That’s their gimmick. So this inevitably leads to a tag team match. Tag Championship Tourney match. Arabs vs. Indians.

Match was okay to below average. Bollywood chants. Akbars did a lot of prototypical heel tag team spots, double teams with ref wasn’t looking, made sure ref wasn’t looking when the hot tag was made so it didn’t count. Finish was one Bollywood Boy hitting a top rope elbow on a standing Akbar and then another one hitting an elbow on the same dude once he fell. Good pop.

Kushida vs. Virgil Flynn is next. I can’t tell if Flynn is really small or Kushida is really big. Kushida has the IWGP junior heavyweight championship belt with him.

My favorite match of the night. I’ve never seen Kushida in singles action but it wasn’t much different than his stuff with the Time Splitters. Virgil Flynn was excellent as well. You know that Trevor Lee spot where two wrestlers run from two different sides of the ring off the ropes and he does that flip cross body thing in the middle of the ring? Flynn did that. That was amazing to see in person. Flynn hits a 450. Kushida kicks out. More back and forth. Kushida eventually won via submission.

Karen Jarrett comes out. Thanks the crowd for coming out and then she says she’s wants to make sure the ladies weren’t slighted tonight. This promo was somewhat reminiscent of Stephanie coming out on RAW two weeks ago without the UFC Soccer and Tennis name dropping. They would have a tournament match for the GFW Women’s Title in the main event. Someone screams “we love puppies.” 

Lei’D Tapa comes out. Her manager comes out and says something about business and how Mickie James is in all the advertisements for GFW but Tapa is not. Karen calls out Tapa and says unlike her, she doesn’t need her husband to speak for her. So we learn her manager is her husband. 

Triple threat match with Tapa and Christina Von Eerie and Mickie James. Women’s Title tourney match. Eerie got the biggest pop as she is from Reno, even though that is a 6 hour car drive away. Both girls double teamed Tapa and then wrestled each other. Tapa came back, attacked both, they came back, took her out, made it 1v1, repeat. Tapa did not look that good. Ending was Eerie pinning Tapa with Dead Raising from the middle rope. 

Intermission. Announcer plugs merch again. Says they have Bullet Club shirts. I go check. They do not. 

2nd episode

Jigsaw v Sonjay Dutt. Next Gen tourney match More flippy shit and cool spots but not as much as the Kushida or Black match. Match was alright. Both men got mild receptions, Jigsaw was hotter, who won with Jig N’ Tonic. 

Chael Sonnen out next. Tells everyone to shut up. Boos. Tells everyone to shut up some more. Introduces Virgil Flynn. Says Flynn will be in the Nextgen Championship Tourney. PJ Black comes out and congratulates Flynn for taking Kushida to the limit and shakes his hand and raises his arm up. Then superkicks him. He leaves and Sonnin follows, stepped over a downed Flynn.

I looked up Virgil Flynn and he is not well known at all; only has about 300 Twitter followers so with the opportunities he was given, with the MOTN with Kushida and this segment with Chael and Gabriel, he looks to be key building block for the NexGen Division.

Chris Mordetzky v Brian Myers next. World title tourney match. Mordetzky is working heel. Decent match. Myers hit a wicked spear but Mordetzky immediately rolled to the outside. Mordetzky won with the Masterlock. Myers got a nice ovation post-match.

Reno Scum vs. Los Luchas is next. Tag title tourney match. Big ovation for Reno Scum. They were super impressive in this match. They also won. I do not know what their finishing sequence is called but it is awesome.

Roode beat Kevin Kross, a local guy. World title tourney match. Roode got major heat from most of the crowd. There was a LET’S GO BOBBY/BOBBY SUCKS chant. At one point he screamed THIS IS THE BEST YOU GOT? at the crowd, in reference to Kross. Roode won with the crossface. Match was okay, Kross wasn’t that good.

Double J came out to a big ovation. He called someone in the crowd slapnuts which got a big pop. Loud THANK YOU JEFF chant. Thanked the Orleans for their partnership with GFW. Thanked the wrestlers in the back and thanked the fans. Says we are just getting started; at the next taping we will see Shelton Benjamin, the Killer Elite Squad, and Bullet Club (Gallows and Anderson). BC for the biggest ovation out of the three. Booby Roode then comes out. He buries the entire roster and called GFW a “two-cent company”. Says no one gives a crap about Benjamin or the KES and certainly no one gives a crap about the Bullet Club. Big SHIT FACTOR chant. Jarrett says look, the crowd knows Roode’s real name! That got a pop. JJ says here at GFW they’re looking for talent willing to take things to the next level. So to continue the tournament at the next taping, Roode will face “Showtime” Eric Young!

Maxwell came out again. He seems like a major heel so I don’t know why they had the Akbars beat him up in the last episode. He says he’s here to introduce a sophisticated man who is also his best friend, Kongo Kong.

Kong v Aldis is the main event. Maxwell stole the show here, at some points taking the crowd’s attention away from the match and placed it on himself. At one point he took off his blazer and got on the guardrail and started swinging it around and yelling. Kong hit a clothesline to Aldis at the turnbuckle at one point and Maxwell yelled BOOM SHAKA LAKA. Inevitably, we got a HENRY MAXWELL chant.

Match was solid though. Kong really impressed me; for a big guy who looks out of shape he’s incredibly athletic with expected strength for a big man. Aldis came back and dropped the elbow and got a 2. Maxwell got on the apron and Aldis punched him. Kong attacked him in the corner and hit a cannonball. Close 2 count. He went to the top rope and missed a moonsault. Aldis then won with a spinning out powerbomb. The one that Cena hits before he sets up the 5 Knuckle Shuffle.

Overall it was a good show. I went in expecting a TNA show and got something better than that. Announcing Eric Young was a surprise to me. It seems like all the big TNA names are going to jump ship from TNA if the company indeed sinks.

Great show last night.  Every match was hard hitting and got great reactions  Pretty much an awesome crowd.

Among those in attendance with William Regal, Canyon Ceman, Seth Rollins and Konnan.

*Team Tremendous (Bill Carr & Dan Berry) b Joey Ryan & Candice LaRae with what I’d call a combination doomsday device and a reverse blockbuster on Ryan.  Fun opener.  Carr looks like a Big Bubba Rogers type from the 80s but with more modern moves. 

*Brian Cage b Johnny Gargano with the discus clothesline.

*Andrew Everett b Rich Swann with a shooting star press.

*Trevor Lee b Tommaso Ciampa.  This match was excellent leading into intermission.

*Speedball Mike Bailey b Chris Hero.  In many ways this was the match of the night, particularly when it comes to every single move meaning something, perfect pacing for the type of match they were doing and the crowd going nuts at peaking perfectly at the end.  It hard the hard hitting fight feel, more like Japanese match.  The result also seemed like something that most didn’t expect. 

*Ricochet b Akira Tozawa.  This was an authentic Dragon Gate match, so crisp acrobatics and a lot of comedy.  Still very good peaking well.  Lots of crazy moves as well.

After the match came the only angle of the show with Super Dragon and The Young Bucks, wearnig Super Dragon masks, laying out Tozawa.  A lot of the faces underneath like Ryan, LaRae, Bailey, Lee and Gargano came out and were all destroyed including a scary tease of a Meltzer driver on the floor.  Jack Evans & Angelico came to as well.  This led to the main event.

*Young Bucks b Jack Evans & Angelico.  Excellent match.  Pretty much a top end Young Bucks match with a million superkicks.  Angelico did the running dive over the post.  No balconies in Reseda as compared to Boyle Heights.  There ended up being a spike piledriver on the floor by the Bucks near the finish coming off the teased spot during the brawl.  The Bucks won when Matt pinned  Evans with More Bang for Your Buck.

The following is a transcript from a Jeff Jarrett interview with Ring Rust Radio:

Donald Wood: The biggest news from Global Force Wrestling recently has been the announcement that the television program will be called Amped. The first taping will be Friday, July 24 at the Orleans Arena. Can you give us any more information on how many episodes you will be taping and what channel, dates and times will wrestling fans be able to watch the finished product?

Jeff Jarrett: You’re digging for the good stuff and I appreciate that.  We just named it Amped, and we are in the discussion of how many episodes so I can’t tell you how many right now.  We are going to be shooting on content next Friday, then August 21st, and October 23rd.  One thing is for sure, we are starting four tournaments starting next Friday:  The Global Championship, the Tag-Team Championship, the Women’s Championship, and the Nex-Gen Championship.  We do have Bobby Rude appearing and in my opinion he personifies what GFW in some shape, form, or fashion is all about.  He is a wrestler under a contract for another promotion who will be appearing on our program.  The number of episodes is a moving target at this point.  We are going to go shoot the tournament then we get back who knows?  It could be ten episodes, twelve, fourteen, who knows?  It’s a work in progress.  When you are trying to line up domestic and international, it’s a real challenge to try and please everybody.  We are going to do our very best to expose the product to as many wrestling fans as we can.

Mike Chiari: There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the various GFW championship tournaments that were recently announced, but the one that really caught my eye was the Nex-Gen Championship. Explain the Nex-Gen division, what type of performers we’ll see taking part in it and why you think it’s going to be an asset to GFW.

Jeff Jarrett: Nex-Gen is a term we really thought about and studied.  When you look at pro-wrestling in 2015, there are certain guys that are going to wrestle like the next generation and they are going to take it to the next level.  Whether it be the speed of the Young Bucks or the innovation of the Bullet Club, there are so many different talents that will take it to the next generation.  Then you see a guy who is a rookie, brand new in the business, and isn’t a household name today.  But in the next generation of household names he will be.  It’s a little bit of both, no weight limit, it’s a division of guys who want to get in there and wrestle.  They may never have won a title before or it may be their style of wrestling that will give them that first opportunity to wrestle for that Nex-Gen title.  It’s not a traditional type of division by any means.

Brandon Galvin: Hacksaw Jim Duggan recently stated GFW will be a PG, family-friendly product. With WWE also promoting a family-friendly product, what will GFW do, or what would you like to see GFW do, to separate itself from WWE within the PG environment?

Jeff Jarrett: It goes without saying that WWE is sports entertainment.  They invented the term and they do it better than anybody else.  It’s a very lucrative business for them and my hats off to them on how they have created their genre.  We are professional wrestling, there are a lot of similarities but we are going to be more docu-style.  Are we going to have story lines?  Yes.  It’s like how you have story lines in a sporting event like a baseball or football game.  We are not going to write stories per say, but more along the lines of documenting them.  There is a story behind every GFW athlete.  Questions like:  Why, why did you get into the business, why did you want to be a professional wrestler, why GFW, why do you want to be a Champion, why do you do this in your persona, what makes you tick, what’s going on in your family life?  That all affects the business and how you climb the ladder of success.  That’s a big difference between writing story lines and documenting story lines.

Brandon Galvin: When we had you on last, you had mentioned you were following WWE’s product and watching the network.  Recently they were promoting their Beast in the East show.  On there they had a documentary style program on Finn Balor and his climb in the business is that the style you are getting at?

Jeff Jarrett: If you watch the GFW YouTube channel it will give you a sample.  Back at Wrestle Kingdom 9 we documented our journey leading up to it.  We also have videos coming out to give you a feel for it with guys like PJ Black, the Bollywood Boys, the Akbars, and Mordetzky.  The videos dive into the talent and the wrestler’s lives and what’s really going on in their world.  Just recently, we took a real life situation, I went back into TNA with a lot of raw emotion and I don’t want to get to long winded on this, but a non-TNA talent left the promotion with the King of the Mountain title.  Eric Young was pretty vocal about it backstage and went on a Twitter rant about it.  He said it didn’t have anything to do with it but if you connect the dots you can see it.  My hats off to him for being vocal about it.  Eric and I have a personal relationship that goes back over ten years.  He has been at every 4th of July party at my house except maybe one he missed.  We have a real close relationship and I respect him because he didn’t go behind my back about his frustrations.  He just made it vocal he didn’t like it.  I told him he should come up on the tour and we can talk about it.  He took me up on it and came and had a match against Johnny Gargano, local independent superstar, from the AIW.  You don’t see that kind of stuff in any other promotion.

Donald Wood: One person who has been giving GFW trouble already is Eric Young. Do you think the confrontations with Young could lead to tension between the GFW wrestlers and TNA wrestlers, possibly resulting in an invasion angle as mentioned before?

Jeff Jarrett: The word invasion is kind of been there and done that in my opinion.  Certainly you can already see that Bobby Rude is coming to Vegas next Friday for the first ever set of Amped tapings and he is under contract with TNA.  Eric Young was just with us this weekend.  We are in discussions of the next steps of this business agreement.  Global Force Wrestling and TNA wrestling, whether it’s a co-branded show, a co-promoted show, a collaboration, that’s all in discussion right now and I am reporting it in real time as much as I can.  As a wrestling fan myself, this kind of stuff excites me because you just don’t see this nowadays.  Years ago you had hand shake agreements between promoters, you had Ric Flair as a traveling champion, and Dory Funk working for multiple promotions.  Once the territory system went away, you were left with the big two of WWE and WCW.  Then you were down to the big one, just being WWE.  Then you had had TNA and Ring of Honor come around with every promotion acting like an island.  WWE can do that since they have north of 90% of the market share.  You have all the smaller promotions fighting and clawing for that brand identity.  I believe with GFW and our mission statement, we want to have a working relationship with any and all promotions because rising tides raise all ships.  I went out and formed the relationships that I have had over the years and made them more formal with New Japan and Triple A and around the globe with the independent promotions in Europe, South Africa, and Australia.

Mike Chiari: There’s obviously been a ton of speculation regarding some type of working relationship between GFW and TNA since you competed at Slammiversary and won the King of the Mountain title. I’m not saying it will, but if an arrangement was to be reached at some point, how do you think both sides would benefit from something like that?

Jeff Jarrett: End of the day and this may sound cliché, if the wrestling fans benefits, than 9 times out of 10 the promotion will benefit.  There was chatter about Karen and I coming back to that promotion, and that created positive chatter for TNA.  That fed into the positive chatter for GFW including Bobby and Eric and all of that helps the promotion.  As we move along, it helps create brand awareness and creating a little bit of that mystique.  End of the day, people want to see fantastic professional wrestling and that should be everyone’s common goal.  That’s what we are headed for and that is fantastic professional wrestling.

Brandon Galvin: As one of the founders of TNA, is there any key philosophy or business strategy that you took away from your time there as you continue to develop and push the GFW brand?

Jeff Jarrett: We all are a sum total of all of our decisions and life experiences.  This is my 29th year in this business as an active wrestler, growing up in it, I’m a third generation, and there are just certain things you learn.  That sort of looking in the rear-view mirror on one hand and on the other you need to be looking forward.  Where do you want to be in one year, two year, three years, five years, and even ten years from now?  Technology has turned the cable business upside down and it’s gone in lightning speeds in the last few years.  Now you have everything like Hulu, Netflix, and all the streaming services including the WWE network.  It’s all a game changer for our business.  It wasn’t too long ago where fans were expected to pay for twelve to thirteen pay-per-views a year.  Now it’s down to $9.99 for the network for everything included.  Now we have the technology to watch lucha libre, strong style, or wrestling from any country in the world all at the click of a button.  The technology has changed the wrestling world so you have to try to stay ahead of the curve.  I have taken a lot of my life experiences to help my team in GFW to help us evolve and put out a very compelling product.

Donald Wood: GFW has already been putting on live events across the country on the Grand Slam tour. How have the fans embraced the new wrestling promotion thus far and do you consider the tour to be a success?

Jeff Jarrett: Success, absolutely.  One of the barometers is black ink and red ink, you want that black ink, and we got it.  On the flip side of that is when you are at the shows it’s one thing to get the electricity and vibe from the people on the way out talking about how much fun they had.  Then at the end of it you had the owners and GM come up to you and you know at the end of the day that really is the true barometer.  This is a grass roots initiative and its year one of this initiative and now we’re on to step one of building the brand of live events.  We have done this and now we have had all seven teams come up to us and tell us how much they love it, they want us on the schedule, and they all want us back.  From their perspective, professional wrestling in their ballpark is unique.  They have about a 140 day season and only 70 games so half the time their park is empty.  They want to fill it with more concerts and events because it’s beneficial to them since the venue is there and not in use.  It’s really a win won when we come to town, we put the ring up on home plate, have the event, and we are dialed into the ticket base and media contacts with their promotions.  It’s a different concept and we are using it as a building block to get out there and now the brand awareness in each of these markets is experientially bigger then what it was when we do these shows. 

Mike Chiari: You have a full plate when it comes to running GFW, but after wrestling at Slammiversary many are wondering about your future as an in-ring performer. What are your plans for the King of the Mountain title, and also, what are the odds that we’ll see you competing in the ring at some point as part of the GFW roster?

Jeff Jarrett: Slim and none on the GFW roster.  If you caught Impact when I made the surprise appearance, I told them that I don’t know where the disconnect is.  You are calling me to come wrestle but I don’t even wrestle for my own promotion.  Then we talked through things and it was the King of the Mountain match and Slammiversary.  I like to keep myself in shape but I wasn’t anywhere close to in my age and career the shape I wanted to be in.  I was happy with the match but I have no plans to be an active wrestler on the GFW roster.  As far as the King of the Mountain title we have a call this Friday.  We are going to figure out what our next best step is.  We have a title, that is not GFW property, it’s in our possession, I could vacate it, have a one night tournament, block A vs. block B, there is just so many ways to go about this and we have to figure that out.  It’s pretty exciting just to have the opportunity but what we are going to do with it I am not sure just yet.

Brandon Galvin: You’ve always been one of the most well-rounded performers in wrestling, but has there ever been somebody that you were nervous to against?

Jeff Jarrett: Well, it goes without saying that I have been blessed to wrestle some of the very, very best.  In my early days Jerry Lawler, he had this aura and ability in the ring.  Certainly not the Jerry today but the active weekly wrestler that had a presence about him that would put you on edge.  I also had a series of matches against Shawn Michaels later on who could be called the best in-ring performer ever.  I had another series with Ric Flair and it goes without saying his pedigree.  Just a couple of years ago I had multiple, high-profile matches against Kurt Angle.  Kurt has so much tenacity, athletic ability, strength, and drive.  Still to this day, before I went through the curtain at Slammiversary, I had butterflies and was nervous.  That same feeling should never go away and if it does you should get out of the business.  I felt it that night and I sure felt it the next day after that.

By Jordan Breen for WrestlingObserver.com

They announced it was the biggest HOH crowd to date, It was a “sell out” but naturally, the seats at the far far end of the venue were unoccupied. It was at Ted Reeve Arena, where ROH runs when they do the city. The location isn’t great out in the Upper Beaches, but honestly, it probably helps mobilize more of the population from Scarborough, it’s right on a major subway line and the rent on the building is infinitely cheaper than anything in the downtown area. Rest in peace, Maple Leaf Gardens.

The place is a minor minor league hockey arena with nightmare logistics. Literally the only way in and out of the venue and to the floor is through the penalty box, meaning it’s a constant tight line of people going in either direction through the tiny penalty box door. It’s hell. It was a special kind of hell in this case because it was insufferably hot in the arena on an insufferably hot day. Most folks were sweating through their clothes. It was gnarly.

Dreamer booked himself to open against Chris Hero. It was essentially a self-depricating comedy match plus a Dusty tribute. Dreamer wore pants that were half Dreamer logo, half Dusty polka dots and did the Dusty boxing, elbows and wrist rolls. Dreamer did an arm wringer, Hero kipped up and reversed, leading to Dreamer trying to do a kip-up and failing. Eventually, Hero and the ref both helped Dreamer do a pathetic middle-aged man kip-up and the crowd went ballistic, complete with a “HO-LY SHIT!” chant. This was legitimately one of the biggest pops on the night.

They brawled. Dreamer did the bionic elbow and a double DDT. Hero got up and smashed his head in with roaring elbows, got the pin, then some local Toronto workers, Pepper Parks (with valet Cherry Bomb) came out to get heat by trashing the defeated Dreamer. Cherry Bomb was legit on the mic. Dreamer said Cherry Bomb had a “disgusting vagina” twice, got in a WWE dig and said he hated pro-wrestling with too much talking on the mic, and refused to wrassle ’em. Instead, SWERVE! We got a surprise appearance by Bobby Roode.

I’ve seen like six TNA events ever and most of them have been horrifically bad PPVs, so I’m not especially familiar with Roode’s work, but he was over as hell playing babyface. Boilerplate match to make the face look good, with Roode getting in quality offense on Parks, but Cherry Bomb interfering. Eventually, Roode ducked a Parks clothesline while Cherry Bomb was on the ropes, leading to the valet bump from the apron. Credit to Ms. Bomb, Parks actually cuffed her in the back of the head, and she did a dramatic face-first bump off the apron despite the fact she’s not even fitness model-sized. Roode hit the fisherman’s suplex for the win, which must have been very over with this crowd, as I saw four or five gives in the Mr. Man “Mr. Perfect” t-shirts with Hennig’s hair added to the beloved children’s character.

There was an eight-man tag with Ben Ortiz, Vik Dalishus, R.J. City and Ethan Page against Matt Striker, “Hacker” Scotty O’Shea and Team Tremendous. This actually ended up being an embarrassment of riches, as it was clear they’d booked a ton of talent and had no idea where to put all of them, so we end up with this.

Firstly, upon ring entry, Striker (who plays an awful face) reveals that the ref is colluding with the heel team, so they kick him out, Striker goes to the back and returns with TORONTO’S OWN JIMMY KORDERAS, BABY. Jim Korderas receives literally the biggest pop of the night. Ladies and gentlemen, indie wrestling in 2015, where the ref is more over than EIGHT OTHER GUYS IN THE RING.

This match is a classic “get your shit in” proposition, with everyone simply tagging in and out to get big offense in. They even keep Korderas hot by having him kick out Vik Dalishus’ voluptuous valets. This match is notable for two other reasons:

1) Team Tremendous are, well, tremendous. Bill Carr is a little sloppy, but I will accept this, since he’s a 265-plus-pound man doing Rey Mysterio’s move set. I was very, very, very disappointed they didn’t do the spot where they trap a guy in the corner and yell “WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE GIRL?!” Also, it seems like a big missed opportunity, considering this match started with a shady ref spot. They’re detectives, that’s the gimmick! Why do they not interrogate the heels as to the details of the ref collusion?

2) The classic indie ringdive massacre spot. This is notable for a variety of reasons. One, Bill Carr’s somersault cannonball ring dive was outstanding. Two, Scotty O’Shea’s moonsault from the top of the ropes to the floor was superb. Three, Dan Barry’s shooting star press from the top rope to the floor was probably the best spot of the night, and the 971 workers on the floor caught him well. Finally, with all eight workers cleared out, Jim Korderas teased a top rope spot, before climbing down the other side humorously.

Team Tremendous got the pin when Bill Carr hit the Canadian Destroyer, which got a big pop as well as partial laughter. To his credit, he did actually nail the move in spite of looking like Amish Roadkill.

Kaitlyn Moore got tough after the match with Korderas. Havok came out of nowhere and chokeslammed her.

John Morrison and Tony Nese wrestled more of a classic 1980’s throwback match, good offense both ways. Nese missed a 450 and Morrison hit Starship Pain for the win. This match wasn’t bad, but after the theatrics of the match prior it kinda bombed. Also, the fact that your nephews The Young Bucks (and other vendors) were selling merch throughout the show didn’t help matters, either, as a decent portion of the crowd designated this match for extra browsing/buying time.

The Kingdom and the Addiction wrestled in the part of the evening brought to you by ROH. It was… a pretty standard ROH tag match, apart from a bunch of ring dive spots. Kingdom easily got over as faces because the crowd loved Maria Kanelis, which was actually a problem at ROH Global Wars 2014, when they were heel in the same venue and the crowd marked for Maria. There was an amusing moment where one of the road agent type dudes (some guy with a mullet and moustache, I think I remember him from the ECW days?) tried to tag the ROH tag titles off the apron mid-match and Daniels had to chew him out, obviously because the belts were going to be involved in the finish.

Lo and behold, we get a big multi-superkick spot that results in the ref getting clipped. Maria tries to pitch the title belts to Kingdom so they can use them, but Traci Brooks shows up, spears her to death, Addiction recover and get the win. Kazarian then gets on the mic and they ran a tribute on the big (well, biggish) screen to her career, gave her the retirement bouquet and all the rest. Kazarian gave her a very convincing motivational smack on the ass, leading me to think that him and Daniels could get over as a team of well-intended-but-meatheaded bros just called “The Husbands.”

Tommaso Ciampa and Eddie Kingston beat the shit out of each other. Ciampa was over from the first guitar lick of “Psycho Killer” and him and Kingston just brawled inside and outside and hit some power spots. Not that it matters and not to sound markish, but since you love body analysis, I was surprised how small (or, not massive) Ciampa was in person after seeing him in PWG for so long. Perhaps it is a testament to how potent his offense looks that he physically seems larger.

They were brawling on the apron and broke the bottom rope, which became a fun running gag for a few minutes subsequent. Crowd chanted “Made in China!” for a good 20 seconds at the bottom rope. Ciampa eventually took the kneepad down and landed a quality-looking running knee for the dubya.

At this point, a whole bunch of crew tried to fix the ring while ring announcer Justin Roberts cracked wise about the bottom rope not vein hardcore enough. Roberts actually killed it on the mic on the evening with a jokes about how disgustingly hot it was and how House of Hardcore 9 had set a Ted Reeve Community Arena temperature record at 51 degrees celsius. He’s got the right kind of disposition to yuk it up with the audience without seeming like he’s brutally pandering.

The ring rope resuscitation was also weird because there was a couple local Toronto workers who appeared (not sure if they were on crew, or in the front row or what) and actually got popped for, including Tomer Shalom, who works the locals here as a beefy Israeli heel. Some of the front row crowd, obviously hardcore fans and the sort of folks that hit the local indies, actually chanted for him and some of the other Toronto workers who weren’t even on the card. With the strong crowd, plus the insane amount of merch and autographs they were moving, I imagine this card made money, but they could’ve probably actually saved a decent amount of coin by booking a little less freelance talent and some more locals.

Sidenote: you know the major star of one of the big Toronto indies here, Victory Commonwealth Wrestling, is a big white guy with bleached blonde hair and a beard who does the PN News gimmick? I’m talking the exact gimmick. He calls himself “Chunk E. Fresh,” has the exact same electric pink and green tights and punctuates everything with “Yo baby, yo baby, yo!” You’ll be happy to know that he is over as fuck.

Rhyno (Rhino? Rhyeno? The War Machine Rino?) had previously issued an open challenge for anyone hard enough to challenge him. This led to Canadian reality show darling Spencer Rice, of Showcase and Comedy Central’s “Kenny vs. Spenny,” to come out in a bandana and cut a heel promo on the company. Since Spenny is a natural social punching bag, as demonstrated in his TV show, the crowd booed while he talked about how “Tommy Reamer” owed him $10,000 for showing up, despite his doctor not allowing him to wrestle Rhyno. Rhyno came out and clotheslined him, which was incredible, because I got to watch an esoteric reality TV star get clotheslined. However, I would’ve much preferred to see him get gored.

Fortunately, we were then graced with the presence of Thea Trinidad, who cut a decent promo on Rhyno and questioned his sexual prowess. Naturally, Austin Aries was Rhyno’s real opponent and since he was unadvertised, got a pop so big you’d almost think he was Jimmy Korderas. 

Aries-Rhyno was solid if unspectacular with some good stiff striking. Rhyno hit an airplane spin into a falling ace crusher, but Trinidad hopped up and interfered. She entered the ring and took an absolutely fantastic Gore. She almost did a full backflip. I can’t say enough about how awesome this looked. Despite obviously varying levels of wrestling experience, all the women who bumped on this show took excellent bumps, but Trinidad’s was bump of the night for either gender, I think. Anyway, Aries recovers, waylays Rhyno, hits the 450 splash for the win. 

Main event time. The Dudleys’ music didn’t play for the ring walk, which was an obvious fuck-up. The Young Bucks did synchro suicide dives to start the match and from there, it was basically a 10-minute montage of their recent matches. The match was rushed and was basically just spot after spot after spot, crammed into a tight window, but the crowd honestly didn’t seem to care. Your ponytailed nephews are so over on these indie shows now that they could probably get “This is awesome!” chants just standing in a ring masturbating. Plus, they was a very obvious if small contingent of casual wrestling fans — guys who were definitely not part of the indie wrestling fraternity and who had very little if any idea who the Young Bucks were — who were clearly there just for the Dudleys, and were just spent all night smashing beers to prepare for yelling “GET THE TABLES!!!!111”

Eventually, a table was got and it dramatically hung out in the ring for a few minutes. One major gripe: the ring was too damn small and while it presented a problem earlier cause of so many tag matches, your nephews actually had to modify your namesake maneuver, as the ring didn’t allow much room for the 450 flip, so it was basically just a springboard tombstone on D-Von. Eventually, everyone gets superkicked, Bucks included, and the Dudleys do the top rope powerbomb on Nick Jackson and get the fall. 

Postmatch, the Dudleys (mostly Buh Buh. Bubba? Bully? Bully Ray Traylor Dudley?) got on the house mic and put the Bucks over huge, repeatedly calling them the best tag team in wrestling. Buh Buh compared the Bucks to them, saying that pundits (surely he’s not talking about you) said they’d never get over doing what they wanted to do and that by flipping the bird to the establishment and striking out on their own, they found greatness. At this point, realizing the subtext of the promo, the crowd broke into a “Fuck TNA!” chant, which Buh Buh actually quelled with your standard “if you’re a wrestling fan, you want all promotions to succeed” trope.

D-Von did the Dudley Commandments, changing the third to “Thou shalt not mess with… … … The Young Bucks” to raucous applause, and that was the end of the evening.

In a way, the Dudleys highlighted one of the only real “negatives” of the card, inferno heat aside. It’s not even that they worked poorly, because they didn’t. It may seem minor, but it’s notable that D-Von didn’t get to say “Thou shalt not fuck with…”, since we all know that’s how the Commandments really go. It’s not like this was live on TV, it was taped, so it could have been edited. I’m not saying that profanity is always necessary, but spiritually, “House of Hardcore” presents itself as some kind of distant grandchild of ECW, but a lot of the “hardcore” aspects are missing.

In fact, apart from a rote powerbomb table spot to end the night, nothing I would describe as “hardcore” in the pro-wrestling sense happened. This card markedly less “hardcore” than a PWG card and really, the card’s construction is far more akin to the usual indie blueprint laid out by ROH. That’s fine by me, but there was an insane amount of “EC F’N W” shirts in the crowd, some choice moments of misogynistic chanting and even an instantaneous, vicious “YOU FUCKED UP!” chant when a guy slipped on the apron getting into the ring. The crowd was into the vast majority of the show, but it still felt like part of this audience wanted strippers, kendo sticks and New Jack flying from the balcony.

Minor note: they used the Cool Beer Brewing Company as a vendor and I would describe this as a major success. Only $5.5 for a beer, and three decent beer options at that, as opposed to the insipid $8-per-Bud you get at other shows. Beer prices that cheap, no wonder some people wanted to see New Jack.

I’m a cold-weather dude and normally sweating profusely ruins my enjoyment of whatever I’m doing. Despite being forced to constantly wipe my face like a sweaty Robert Fuller, this was still a damn good wrestling show and having been to ROH’s and some other local shows here in Toronto, I think it did a surprising job and mobilizing fans (i.e. WWE-era Dudleys fans) that wouldn’t have bought a ticket otherwise. Even better: compared to most indie shows, there wasn’t an obvious booking necessity for all the talent to show all their offense and get to flex for the crowd. You didn’t have a bunch of relative novices trying to win over diehards with 20-minute matches. Apart from the main event, none of the matches felt rushed, but you didn’t feel like you were going to have to sit through another five minutes of spotfests to see a pinfall that should’ve happened five minutes ago.

I’d give it a solid 7, 7.5 Tommy Dreamer kendo sticks (or Beulah nudes) out of 10. Would go again.

Global Force Wrestling announced today that they will have four different championships and that tournaments for all four titles will begin at the 7/24 tapings in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena.

The main singles title will be the GFW Global championship, where TNA’s Bobby Roode has been announced as one of the competitors.

A secondary singles title will be caleld the NEX GEN title, which will be a title for younger wrestlers on the way up.  It’s takeoff on the X Division title which his father named for TNA, but without copying the terminology.

There will also be a tag team title and a women’s title tournament.

The release indicated the tournaments would begin at the first tapings, but didn’t announce when they would conclude, past announcing follow-up dates on 8/21 and 10/23 in the same arena for TV tapings.

At this point, there has been no announcement of a television deal or where these tapings wouild land.

Submitted By David Francisco

The show opens with the MC talking about the history of Mexico and of the Royal Albert Hall. He introduced a masked wrestler that I didn’t get the name that rang the first bell of the show from his stall. MC explains the rules. He used the term “rudos” and “tecnicos” during his announcements. The MC screwed up who were the “rudos” and “tecnicos” in the minis match and the intergender match. For example, he announced Sexy Star as a rudo, practically describing her a bad person, but she worked the match as a babyface. The same thing happened with the refs: Steve Lynskey was announced as a heel ref but worked as a babyface and Pierro was announced as “as straight as the stripes on his shirt” but worked as a heel from the get-go.

Octagonzito & Blue Demonzito Jr. beat Mini Abismo Negro & Mini Histeria (11:29)

Mini Abismo Negro spent a lot of time messing up with the man dressed as nuns. The tecnicos seemed lost at first, but they got into it at the end. Lots of great spots and pleasing the crowd. Blue Demonzito Jr. won with a tilt-a-whirl Black Widow like submission over Mini Abismo Negro.

Fenix beat Pentagon Jr. (13:48)

Looks like Fenix is healed, he worked a normal match with dives and all the great stuff he can do. Pierro, the ref, was announced as a face here but immediately started pushing the crowd, especially the two men dressed like nuns.

They tried to call for “Fenix” and “Zero Miedo” chants in the beginning, but this crowd wasn’t buying it. Started with submissions traded, then traded kicks and clotheslines. Fenix did a great flip dive. Pentagon work the leg with amazing kicks outside the ring that had the crowd gasping. The ref (Pierro, that was announced as a good guy) stomped Fenix at one point and held him for a kick by Pentagon. Fenix cameback and did a twisting dive to the outside from the corner. Pentagon Piledriver Drop is even better live. Fenix won with a Reverse Hurricanrana and a fast count by the ref, that thought that Pentagon was on top.

This was a great, well paced, well worked match. The storytelling was great, and the technical aspect of it was top notch. Didn’t expect different. In the end, there was some coins in the ring, planted so that they could get the crowd to throw some more. They saw it wasn’t working and waited. Pentagon threw the coins up in the air to try again. The crowd was just way too confused by these coins. No chants whatsoever in the matches, it really is a casual fan crowd. Lots of Mexicans, though, that will start a “culejo” chant from time to time. The rest of the crowd won’t join, as they don’t understand what that chant is. In the minis tag, they tried a “tecnicos” chant and the response was a “Mexico” chant. Weird.

20 min intermission. Band playing.

Drago & Sexy Star beat Bengala & Faby Apache (14:58)

Bengala and Drago started with some chain. So did the ladies. Drago dominated Bengala and Apache at the same time and did a flip to the outside over Bengala. Drago is great. The rudos (that were announced as tecnicos) did double teams on Sexy and Drago. Bengala did a Rolling Surfboard on Sexy, and also a Superplex. Sick.

Sexy botched a double team on Bengala but followed with an amazing Crossbody to the outside, so it’s OK. Drago followed with his Twisting Dive on Bengala and Apache. The crowd did the wave at a certain point. I wasn’t sure if it was boredom or just a joke by a small group that got out of hand. Still, for a minute, they totally lost the crowd, but had them back after the crowd stopped joking around. Lots of near falls in the end. Sexy locked Apache on a Bow and Arrow-like hold and Drago did his rolling cover for the win.

Psycho Clown & La Parka vs. Blue Demon Jr. Beat Hijo del Fantasma & El Texano Jr. & Villano IV  (24:31)

MC asked the crowd to stand up for Blue Demon Jr.. They said it was his 30th year career anniversary (why don’t I believe this?). Blue Demon Jr. got a different entrance than everyone else. Different music and lights, different entrance place and a traditional Mexican peacock-like head gear.

Tecnicos started all right but didn’t do much. Rudos did all kinds of cheating and got the advantage. Texano rope was used a lot. There were two refs in this match and both were distracted. The crowd did the wave again when all the rudos were attacking all the tecnicos at the same time.

The faces did a comeback. There was a weird spanking spot: Texano was laying down with his cheeks out. Fantasma covered him and the tecnicos get his ckeeks out and spank him once with the rope and that Psycho Clown gimmick. At a certain point, Psycho was hitting everybody with his gimmick, even Blue Demon Jr. and the refs. La Parka just went in the middle of the crowd when this happened, he just didn’t care. Psycho did all the dives in this match, with a plancha and a crossbody from the corner to the outside. La Parka worked with the heels a long time and did a lot of comedy, dominating all three.

The crowd became tired in the last few minutes, and maybe they felt it because they went home when this happened. Blue Demon Jr. won with his Leg and Arm submission over Villano IV. Dana Brooke has been studying her lucha libre, it seems.

All six were in the ring greeting each other as soon as the match ended. All the luchadores were called to the ring. They took a picture and greeted the fans. Pentagon Jr. played some tuba, to the delight of the crowd. In the end, Pentagon Jr, Fenix, Hijo del Fantasma, Psycho Clown, Sexy Star and Octagonzito stood around the ring taking pictures, signing autographs and greeting fans.

It was a really fun show for a great crowd. Even though sometimes they didn’t act like a Mexican or a Lucha Underground crowd due to the difference in the demographics and in the experience they have with live wrestling, this crowd was alive, noisy and fun. The show was fun and worth it, especially that Pentagon Jr. vs. Fenix match that was the best of the night, in my opinion.

Submitted by Ed Battes

From Eastlake, OH

– Jon Bolen pinned Jamin Olivencia

– Sonjay Dutt pinned Chuck Taylor after a top rope missile splash.

– Eric Young came to the ring with the TNA Legends/King of the Mountain Title and loud boos. Karen Angle then confronted him saying that is not his title and Eric threatened Karen. Scott D’Amore comes in the ring from the ringside table and yells at Eric, mentioning his history of getting picked out of the indies by Jeff and Scott. Scott then says he is booked by someone who deserves a try, Cleveland’s own Johnny Gargano, for the main event.

– Allysin Kay pinned Sumie Saki.

– Magnus pinned Kongo Kong after a top rope elbow.

– Bullet Club (Gallows & Anderson) defeat Sanada and Watanabe with the Magic Killer.

– Johnny Gargano defeated Eric Young after interference from Scott Steiner & Jeff Jarrett.