Indie Wrestling General

[MT 917]

Basically for just about anything not covered by a current topic.

 

A certain someone makes a surprise return

[Vic Boss 612]

Just like a ninja

[MT 917]

Word is he's done this a few times over the years.

[Vic Boss 612]

Now every indie is going to have a guy come out in a mask and do the Go To Sleep and pretend like they just had CM Punk show up

[Vic Boss 612]

Impact had a pretty badass PPV last night

 

Pretty sure I just saw Fenix straight up die in the main event

[MT 917]

5 minutes ago, DeJaPon said:

Pretty sure I just saw Fenix straight up die in the main event

Par for the course, then.

[MT 917]

Surprise guests at Southern Honor Wrestling. (Turn the audio down, it gets quite loud)

[Vic Boss 612]

Cool as fuck move

[MT 917]

 

 

[MT 917]

Just gonna put this here to be safe

 

 

[Vic Boss 612]

Impact has somehow made me hyped for an intergender match

 

 

[MT 917]

I'd never seen this before

 

Yikes...

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

I was not watching regularly during that time.  I didn't even know this existed!

 

I was really hoping it would end with a horse of the people just getting up and leaving.  Fucking Dixie.

[Vic Boss 612]

Figured I should catch up on the 3 PWG shows I'm behind on (and the one that hasn't been released yet) before BOLA gets in their production pipeline.

 

Just watched Hand of Doom and it was weird watching something from January and seeing most of the guys on the card are signed elsewhere or in bigger places already. I think only Puma King and Rey Horus don't have home promotions out of everyone on it (and Rey Horus might depend on LUG's existence and/or what he's doing in MLW). The indie talent drain is real.

[MT 917]

12 minutes ago, Death Rider Mox said:

Figured I should catch up on the 3 PWG shows I'm behind on (and the one that hasn't been released yet) before BOLA gets in their production pipeline.

BOLA's not until late September, so you have time.

[MT 917]

Speaking of BOLA, I got a ticket for all three nights

[Vic Boss 612]

Jelly that you get to see Daisuke Sekimoto live

[MT 917]

Never heard of him, but I will make sure to pay extra close attention now.

[Vic Boss 612]

He's an Ishii type but with a goofier body (apparently the type of steroid he probably uses makes your body look puffy and pillowy)

[MT 917]

Not something I pictured together, but it's kind of interesting to hear their interpretations.

 

 

[MT 917]

Melissa Santos is even sexier in person. Just got back from Bar Wrestling, where Jungle Boy, Rick Knox, Peter Avalon, Scorpio Sky and someone else I can't remember had their final indie matches for that promotion. I left before the main event because it was a four way tag match that would've been a bunch of chaos I couldn't really see. That, and my back was kinda killing me. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and will definitely go back at some point.

 

Jungle Boy fought someone named Chris Bey. The match was a great way to start off the show. Gentleman Jervis had a match with someone called the Man Scout (basically an adult in a Boy Scout uniform, complete with Boy Scout handbook). That match was super entertaining. At one point a tent was thrown into the ring fully assembled. Some point after that, a bear entered the ring and attacked everyone. They went to hide in the tent, but the bear went after them, and it was a pretty hilarious exchange, very cartoony. Probably my favorite match of the night. During intermission, Jarvis came ringside to talk, pose for photos, and hug everyone. 

 

Joey Ryan was up in a four way match with three people I hadn't heard of, and I can't remember their names at this point, sadly. As you'd expect from a Joey Ryan match, there was a lot of dick touching, close calls with crotch lollipops, and all around sleaziness. At one point he threw one of the lollipops into the crowd, and it landed probably two seats away from where I was standing. Way too close for comfort. There was a tag match between two teams I hadn't seen before, one was a lucha style team whose name escapes me, the other team was (I believe) called the Rock Ness Monsters? All I know for sure is one dude looked like 80s comedian Gallagher. Was pretty good, lot of good lucha things, for sure. 

 

The other match I somewhat saw was between someone named Jack Atlas (I think), and Darin Corbin (I think...it's hard to hear names), I say somewhat because it was the first match post-intermission, and more tall people had gotten in my way. There were a couple high flying moves to the outside done real close to where I was, which was a cool sight to see. 

 

For 20 bucks, I sure got my money's worth, even if I did skip out on the main event. Next time I know to either stand up close to the ring, or get a few rows back in the seats so I can see everything.

 

Edit: I fucked up some of the names, here's the card (with results in case anyone knows of a way to watch Bar Wrestling shows after the fact)

 

Chris Bey over Jungle Boy.

RockNES Monsters (Yuma & BHK) over Los Luchas (Zokre & Phoenix Star).

Gentleman Jervis over Man Scout Jake Manning.

Heather Monroe over Darin Corbin, Joey Ryan, and Arik Cannon.

Jake Atlas over Dom Kubrick.

[Vic Boss 612]

I recognize Gentleman Jervis (if that's Jervis Cottonbelly) and I remember seeing Arik Cannon in some Chikara back in the day.

 

Indies about to hit some tough times with all these TV start-ups. I think Joey Ryan signed with Impact recently (again) too

[MT 917]

I just saw on Chris Bey's Twitter account (the guy that went up against Jungle Boy) and he said its been 5 years since he started going to wrestling school. If he's as good as he looked last night in 5 years time, the indie scene will be alright. 

 

There's going to be a lot of people at BOLA this week that I won't recognize, so i'm interested in checking them out for the first time.

[Vic Boss 612]

I'm not familiar with about 6 guys in this year's BOLA.

[MT 917]

BOLA Night One Notes

 

 

A-Kid vs. Lucky Kid
Great match to start off the night. I may be on camera after a leap to the outside. Lots of hard hitting chest shots. Hadn’t heard of either of these guys, but definitely interested in seeing more. 

Brody King vs. Caveman Ugg
Two big dudes beating the shit out of each other, what's not to like? Some surprising athletics too, from both men. Ugg looks like “Not Quite As Big As Damo” Damo. Kind of funny to see Brody King before the first match when he was selling merch, looked like a super happy, nice dude. But get him in the ring and he’s a monster.

Dragon Lee vs. Rey Horus
One hell of a lucha match. I took a chair to the left leg after a leap to the outside, shit hurts. They even broke one of the chairs in the first row in the landing.

"The Bad Boy" Joey Janela & Alex Zayne vs. Blake Christian & Tony Deppen
Best match of the first half, for sure. These dudes may not have long careers, but they'll definitely have exciting ones. Alex Zayne was a standout for me.

Darby Allin vs. Black Taurus
This match was fucking intense. If Darby doesn't end up dying in the ring, I'd be shocked. Black Taurus came out to Slipknot, so I was immediately a fan. Some sick moves done to a part of the outside I couldn’t really see.

Jonathan Gresham vs. Artemis Spencer
Somewhat of a lackluster match, especially after the last one. The last 5 minutes or so were great though.

Jeff Cobb vs. Daisuke Sekimoto
Holy shit, Sakamoto is fucking HUGE. A better big man match than the last. Super impressed by Sakamoto. He and Cobb had a pec dance off to start the match. I think Cobb won once he made his glutes dance too.

Lucha Brothers (PENTA EL ZERO M & REY FENIX) vs. MexaBlood (Bandido & Flamita)
I just witnessed something special. This match was everything I could have wanted and more. Even got a good picture of a dead Fenix at one point. Such a great way to end the night, I don’t think any match could’ve followed that.

 

All in all a fantastic night, and it was only the first one!

[MT 917]

I will definitely be on camera for this night. Sitting directly opposite of commentary.

 

 

"The Bad Boy" Joey Janela vs. Mick Moretti
Another great opener. A dive to the outside a few minutes into the first match. That fire spot was genius, carrying over Joey's issues with fire to the eyes from Being The Elite.

Jake Atlas vs. Jungle Boy
Fucking hell, what a match. I see what AEW sees in Jungle Boy, and if Jake Atlas isn't signed soon, someone is fucking up. Match of the night for me,  hands down.

Aramis vs. REY FENIX
Great match, shame it had to follow the last one. You could tell the audience was tired. Some sick moves. Aramis launched himself full speed like a fucking missile to the outside at one point, he must’ve cleared four rows. Felt like neither man was pulling their punches/kicks.

The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier - Champions) vs.  A-Kid & Kyle Fletcher - (Challengers)
Before the first match of the night, Excalibur mentioned that Mark Davis wasn’t going to be able to compete, so they got A-Kid as a replacement. I don’t remember if they said what exactly happened to him. Not a bad match, but after the first three it was underwhelming. Started off really slow but turns into a bit of a clusterfuck with regards to who was legal.

Bandido vs. Puma King
Awesome first match back from the break. Lots of hard hitting lucha action. I think I moved out of the way more for this one match than the rest of the two nights combined.

Tony Deppen vs. PENTA EL ZERO M
Another real hard hitting match. Deppen really held his own better than I thought he would. Still not entirely sure what his gimmick is.

Orange Cassidy vs. David Starr
Super entertaining match, but I have to wonder how long the Orange Cassidy gimmick can go before it gets stale.

Jonathan Gresham & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Jeff Cobb & Brody King
Doesn't hold a candle to the main event last night, but it was still a super fun match. Brody kept forgetting the rest of Villain Enterprises weren't with him, and kept calling out for the rest.

 

You could tell they were setting up for Jeff Cobb/Brody King for a match on Sunday, which I am 100% ok with.

 

[MT 917]

Gonna put my notes for BOLA Night 3 in spoilers, in case anyone wants to be surprised.

 

 

Jake Atlas vs Dragon Lee
What. A. Match. And this is only the first of the night! Wish the result had been different but the match itself makes up for any disappointment.

Brody King vs Dragon Lee
A few botches on Brody's part, but one hell of a hard hitting match. I'm surprised a superplex didn't break the damn ring, it moved so much.

Jonathan Gresham vs A-Kid
This wasn't a match, it was a fight. Good back and forth, had no idea who would come out on top, but I was on the edge of my seat.

Joey Janela vs Fenix
My section got a Knox chant going which got a smile out of him, so I was happy with that. Different match than I expected it to be, but entertaining. Fenix's head was about 6 inches from the balcony on a leap to the outside, that was close.

Darby Allin vs Penta El Zero M
Just as crazy as you'd expect. Wonderful match.
 

Jeff Cobb vs David Starr
Bullshit finish, but then again I am a bit biased. I'm more upset about the way it happened than who won.

 Aramis/Rey Horus vs The Dark Order
I haven't been happy with the majority of the finishes tonight and this is no exception. The only reason I understand it is because The Dark Order is signed to AEW. Stu Greyson I get to a degree, but Evil Uno does absolutely nothing for me.

Gresham vs Joey Janela
Another real good one, action on all sides of the ring.

Dragon Lee vs Bandido
Match of the night so far. What a fucking amazing match. I swear Bandido was an inch or two away from hitting his feet on the balcony after a moonsault to the outside. I'm shocked he didn't hit it. (Edit: I found out later from someone else in the theater that he did actually hit the balcony.)

David Starr vs Darby Allin
David is an amazing heel, I can't fucking stand him. There was a confrontation between him and Aubrey at one point. The finish was pretty brutal too.

10 Man Tag (Jungle Boy, Caveman Ugg, Artemis Spencer, Paris De Silva & Orange Cassidy defeats Tony Deppen, Mick Moretti, Black Taurus, Lucky Kid & Kyle Fletcher)
Exactly what you'd expect. Super fun match from beginning to end. Real good spots for everyone involved, and Jungle Boy gave a farewell message afterwards.

 

 

David Starr vs Gresham vs Bandido
If not match of the night, it's damned close. Fantastic from beginning to end. The right person won, IMO.

 

 

Overall, the show was fucking fantastic from beginning to end. Even if I was upset with the results of some matches, the matches themselves were all great to watch for one reason or another. I'm so glad I got to go to all three nights this time, and I made a new friend or two so that's great too. I can't wait for BOLA 2020.

[Vic Boss 612]

(Avoiding responding/looking at MT's posts for now, will respond whenever I get around to seeing BOLA)

 

Speaking of PWG, Cobb vs Jonathan Gresham at Mystery Vortex VI was effing awesome, loved the shit out of that (and was kinda surprised, Cobb sells a bit too much for smaller guys ime and even though Gresham can make it work, he's still is one of the tiniest guys in a major promotion)

 

Think I'ma try out MLW this week. Heard enough Cornette rants and saw some of those guys on Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 2 to think that mebs I should check it out.

[MT 917]

3 hours ago, Death Rider Mox said:

(Avoiding responding/looking at MT's posts for now, will respond whenever I get around to seeing BOLA)

Spoilered them all for you, just so you don't have to worry.

[MT 917]

Here's the Bar Wrestling show I was at

[MT 917]

Meltzer ratings for BOLA are out.

 

Night 1

- A-Kid vs. Lucky Kid - 3,5;

- Brody King vs. Caveman Ugg - 3,25

- Dragon Lee vs. Rey Horus - 3,75

- Joey Janela & Alex Zayne vs. Blake Christian & Tony Deppen - 4,25

- Darby Allin vs.Black Taurus - 4

- Jonathan Gresham vs. Artemis Spencer - 2

- Jeff Cobb vs. Daisuke Sekimoto - 4,25

- Penta 0M & Rey Fenix vs. Flamita & Bandido- 4,5

 

 

Night 2

- Joey Janela vs. Mick Moretti - 3,5

- Jake Atlas vs. Jungle Boy - 4,5

- Rey Fenix vs. Aramis - 4,5

- Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Kyle Fletcher & A-Kid - 3,25

- Bandido vs. Puma King - 3,5

- Penta OM vs. Tony Deppen - 3,5

- David Starr vs. Orange Cassidy - 1,75 (I believe this is the match I saw Dave nodding off during, which may account for the low score)

- Daisuke Sekimoto & Jonathan Gresham vs. Jeff Cobb & Brody King - 4,25

 

Night 3

- Dragon Lee vs.Jake Atlas - 4,5

- Bandido vs. Brody King - 3,5

- Jonathan Gresham vs. A-Kid - 4,25

- Joey Janela vs. Rey Fenix - 4

- Darby Allin vs. Penta 0M - 4

- David Starr vs. Jeff Cobb - 3,5

- The Dark Order, Stu Grayson & Evil Uno, vs. Aramis & Rey Horus - 3,75

- Jonathan Gresham vs. Joey Janela - 3,5

- Bandido vs. Dragon Lee - 5

- David Starr vs. Darby Allin - 2,5

- Orange Cassidy & Artemis Spencer & Caveman Ugg & Paris DaSilva & Jungle Boy vs. Tony Deppen & Lucky Kid & Black Taurus & Kyle Fletcher & Mick Moretti - 4,25

- BOLA Final: Bandido vs. David Starr vs. Jonathan Gresham - 3,75

[Vic Boss 612]

I watched the first few episodes of MLW Fusion. This is what I wish ROH was

[Vic Boss 612]

Rush and Dragon Lee were fired by CMLL last night after CMLL held their biggest show of the year (though Rush had already quit like an hour beforehand)

 

Rush just won the RoH World Title and CMLL is one of their partner promotions. Dragon Lee was announced for the NJPW Jr Tag Tournament later in the year. Both promotions are CMLL partners. CMLL also seems to own at least the Mexican rights to "Rush" and "Dragon Lee."

 

God damn. Rip, Los Ingobernables ;_;

[MT 917]

They were mad at Dragon Lee for going to BOLA after he was asked not to. Something about not wanting them on the same show as AAA wrestlers.

[Vic Boss 612]

Yeah, that's crazy. I just listened to a podcast that mentioned that, and how the owner dying led to a bean-counter being put in charge and they've lowered the pay of CMLL guys. Some of them have said "fuck it" because they can make more money being independent.

 

Apparently that was why Cavernario had to pull out of BOLA too, they would've had to have Penta and Fenix on one night and him on a separate night and PWG wasn't gonna go for that.

 

Holding out a bit of hope that Konnan can finally put L.A. Park and Rush together in AAA, but even that's fraught with wrestling politics

[MT 917]

I love wrestling

 

 

[MT 917]

 

You can see me in the intro bit, off slightly right of center, wearing two shirts (bought a Jeff Cobb shirt that night).

[MT 917]

 

[MT 917]

Linking to this one, as the video itself spoils who's in the later matches, but here's the preview for night 3 of BOLA 2019

[Vic Boss 612]

 

Funny as FUCK, holy shit

[MT 917]

"Your name is Dee Lorean?"

 

[Vic Boss 612]

With everyone else shut down, finally catching up on Ring of Honor and BOLA 2019

[MT 917]

Stardom wrestler Hana Kimura died, she was only 22.

 

From what I understand, she was part of some Japanese reality show (kind of like Big Brother). At some point she washed her gear, along with someone else who lived in that house, and their clothes got shrunk, and she got a lot of shit for it, both in the show and online. She had posted some upsetting things on Twitter, others from Stardom checked on her and said she was alright. A few hours later, the news broke that she had passed away. I believe she committed suicide, but as far as I know there hasn't been official word yet.

[Nick 38]

Jesus... Just... what the fuck.  Absolutely awful.

[MT 917]

I got it backward. She had her ring gear in the wash, another roommate put his in before taking hers out, hers shrunk and she got pissed, and for some reason everyone made her out to be the villain.

[Vic Boss 612]

BOLA 2019 Night 1

 

This was a really good show, lot of different match styles represented so even the worst parts of it didn't feel like it dragged too much

 

A-Kid vs Lucky Kid was probably the best match of the night, if you mix in Daniel Bryan Danielson bullshit I basically love you

Caveman Ugg impressed me, Brodie King is okay (I'm familiar with him from RoH) but annoys me because he's doing lucha shit and he's way too big for anyone to really base all that well for him when he does lucha shit

Dragon Lee vs Rey Horus and Mexablood vs Lucha Bros was good lucha shit and you more or less knew what to expect there

Blake Christian/Tony Deppen vs Joey Janela/Alex Zayne was a bad wrestling match that had some cool spots in it

Darby Allin vs Black Taurus was a weird match on paper but fun

Gresham vs Artemis Spencer was shaping up to be a bad match but they got it back by the end. Spencer looked pretty green or maybe nervous

Jeff Cobb vs Daisuke Sekimoto was a good wrestling match without many cool spots in it. I love Big Japan slugfests but I think they play better in front of Japanese crowds

[Vic Boss 612]

Eric Young, Drake Maverick, EC3, Guns n Gallows, Mike and Maria and Rusev via a Bulgarian Flag were all promoted on Impact's Slammiversary video with the idea that it'll be the first show after that big wave of releases that they're all available and at least some of them should be there

[Vic Boss 612]

PWG BOLA 2019 Night 2 was probably a better wrestled show, but not as much variety. I liked what I saw of Mick Moretti, mourning the loss of Jake Atlas from the indies (especially to WWE, RIP his career, long live his wallet) and I think I hate Tony Deppen. Orange Cassidy vs David Starr is easily the best OC match I've seen and probably the best way to do OC matches realistically

[Vic Boss 612]

PWG BOLA Night 3 2nd Round Matches

 

 

 

- Jake Atlas vs Dragon Lee was good as fuck

- Bandido vs Brodie King could've been better. I like when King does a little lucha in his matches just to show that he can do it, but when he focuses too much on it, it becomes a bit silly, he's too big to be needing to do shit like that

- Loved A-Kid vs Jonathan Gresham, I'm already sad we lost A-Kid to NXT UK/WWE because I barely watch it

- Darby and Penta could've had a better match but I guess this probably happened around the time AEW was a thing so they needed to give Penta an excuse for losing because he was bigger than Darby at the time

- I never really dug David Starr but he's really won me over with the two BOLA matches I've seen so far.
 

 

 

I'm pretty sure I had the tourney winner spoiled way back when it happened but I don't know who made the finals, so the third round will still be partially interesting

 

3rd Round and Final

 

- I was happy Joey Janela lost to Gresham. Janela can do some cool and creative high spots but I don't think he's a particularly good pro wrestler. He's fine on an indie card but I was starting to get tired of seeing him

- Bandido vs Dragon Lee was high spots as expected. I'm generally on a similar wavelength to Dave on NJPW but his PWG 5-star ratings mystify me. This was a good match but not one I'd put as a potential MOTY like 5-stars are supposed to be

- Darby vs David Starr was a nice "one of us has to wrestle again later" matches

- I was surprised Starr lost first in the finals since it would've probably been a more dramatic ending to have him as a heel in the final, but it was also cool as fuck for Gresham to be the second-to-last guy. He was a guy I was hoping would go far in the tournament but didn't expect him to

[MT 917]

5 hours ago, Vic Boss said:

PWG BOLA Night 3 2nd Round Matches

 

  Hide contents

- Jake Atlas vs Dragon Lee was good as fuck