The Delco Elbow Drop


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Indy Minute - Weekly independet wrestling news round up



  Welcome back to the Delco Elbow Drop for another round of the extended Indy Minute, all the indy news from Ring Rust Radio’s “NXT and Indy Minute” segment plus a whole lot more. There’s a ton of news on the slate for this week so let’s get right into it!

NXT TV, 8/21
  Former Total Diva Jojo is on NXT ring announcer duty for this show. She did an OK job, but could do with being a little less shrieky. Eden is still the superior NXT ring announcer right now.
  Enzo and Big Cass versus The Vaudevillains opened the show. Enzo is one of the best on the mics in the entire company, not just NXT. Even Big Cass ain’t bad on the mic either. Vaudevillains take out Enzo and Cass pretty quickly to advance to tournament finals. After the match, the Legionnaires (Sylvester LaFort and Marcus Louis) attack Enzo and Cass and LaFort shaves Enzo’s beard! Could a “Lucha de Apeustas” be in the future?
  Triple H is on hand to make some big announcement - officially announcing NXT Takeover on Sept 11, a live, two-hour special. All titles will be on the line - Neville’s NXT title, Charlotte’s Women’s title and the winners of the tag tournament will face The Ascension. Also, NXT Takeover will be overseen by a NEW NXT General Manager, who will be announced next week. Can’t wait to see who it is. After JBL replaced Dusty Rhodes, they really did nothing with the position so it’s great to see that they’re bringing that “authority” figure back in action.
  Devin talked to Tyler Breeze backstage before Breeze took on Tyson Kidd. Tyler Breeze walked out of the match, yelling at Tyson Kidd that he doesn’t need this and gets counted out. Tyson Kidd celebrates like he earned a big win and starts wearing Breeze’s vest around, posing in the corner like Breeze would.
  Charlotte faced Becky Lynch who seems to have a hard rock, head banger gimmick (even though her Twitter persona is just making puns about literally everything that happens on Raw or Smackdown). Lynch’s new gimmick is much better than the faux Irish music and step dancing, though. It almost reminds me a lot of Paige’s anti-Diva gimmick. Becky puts up a good fight against Charlotte, looks like she had her on the ropes but Charlotte gets the win. Becky seems to be surprisingly over with the crowd (there were some Becky chants) but Charlotte gets her share of cheers and WOOs too.
  Enzo comes out and challenges Sylvester LaFort to a hair vs hair match at NXT Takeover, which was alluded to earlier in the show.
  Mojo Rawley versus some dude named Steve Cutler. Drake Younger is the ref. Basically a squash for Rawley. Dude really needs a new signature/finisher than his ass based offense. Rawley using Naomi’s “Rear View” finisher as a signature and jumping on people with his butt makes him look like a clown more than a powerhouse, which is what I’m sure he is supposed to be. Rawley cuts a pretty serious promo after the match, basically about how he’s not smiling anymore and Bull will find out what staying hype is all about.
  This has nothing to do with NXT but they showed a trailer for the “Leprechaun” movie and it looks like the Leprechaun is just another slasher movie monster, which is not at all in keeping with the tone and feeling of the original series. Hopefully that’s just the way the trailer is making the movie seem, but all the dark humor and tricking people into killing or maiming themselves, like the Warwick Davis Leprechaun would’ve is totally gone.
  Kalisto and Sin Cara faced Sami Zayn and Adam Rose in the main event. Cara and Kalisto are a pretty good team - great look, great vibe and seem to be on the same page with a lot of unique offense. They could even work well on the main roster together. Kalisto’s Sliced Bread is called “Selina Del Sol” (a callback to his “Samuray Del Sol” character on the indies) and hits it on Rose, Cara hits a senton on Rose for the win. Now the Vaudevillains will face Kalisto and Sin Cara for the chance to take on The Ascension at NXT Takeover. I really hope that the winner of the tournament unseats The Ascension because A) The Ascension really bore me and B) what’s the point of having a whole big tournament to push the tag division, just to have the winners lose to The Ascension? Overall, though, I’m just really glad that Sami Zayn isn’t stuck with Adam Rose anymore and can focus on getting back in the NXT Title scene.

  I also read on the internet that Kalisto and Solomon Crowe were in tag team action against Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy at an NXT Live event. As much as I want to see Crowe on NXT TV, I also really like the pairing of Kalisto and Sin Cara. I don’t think Cara and Kalisto are winning the NXT tag team tournament so it may be their team is ending soon, though. In the end, though, whatever gets Solomon Crowe on my TV I’ll be OK with.

  War Machine’s Raymond Rowe was in a serious motorcycle accident and suffered a broken arm which will require surgery and no date is known for his return. This is unfortunate for War Machine, who seemed to be starting a feud with the Briscoes.

  Ring of Honor held “Death Before Dishonor” over two nights this past weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois.
 
  Results from Night One in Milwaukee:
  Word is the show drew 600 and was a turn-away, standing-room-only sellout.
  Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) defeated The Kingdom (Adam Cole and Michael Bennett with Maria Kanellis). Kaz picked up the pin of Bennett.
  “Scrap Iron” Adam Pearce was on hand at the request of The Decade to beat some sense into their “young boys” Tadarius Thomas and Adam Page. Pearce defeated Thomas with a piledriver and it’s said that Thomas had words with The Decade after the match, but it seems like he’s still under their control.
  Tommaso Ciampa defeated Jimmy Jacobs with the Sicilian Stretch (the Rings of Saturn).
  AJ Styles picked up a win over ROH tag team champion Kyle O’Reilly
  ACH won a six-man scramble (one fall, non-title) over ROH TV Champ Jay Lethal that also included Bobby Fish, Cedric Alexander, Adam Page and BJ Whitmer. Hopefully this leads to another TV Title shot for ACH since he had a great title match against Lethal, which you can check out on this week’s edition of ROH TV.
  Hanson defeated Roderick Strong and afterward Whitmer and Strong argued after Page tried to give Strong a chair to use on Hanson, setting up Hanson’s victory. I guess it sorta works that Hanson is working against The Decade now, since he’s a newer talent in the company. But if Raymond Rowe didn’t get hurt, their feud with the Briscoes could be insane and hopefully still happens someday.
  The Briscoes defeated the Young Bucks in what was probably an incredible match between two of the best teams in the world. The Briscoes picked up a win with a Doomsday Device.
  I wanted to also add that this was the semi-main event, which was Michael Elgin versus Silas Young for the ROH World Title. After the Bucks/Briscoes, the crowd chanted “You can’t top that,” which almost seems like it was directed at Elgin, who ROH fans have turned on faster than anyone could’ve imagined. The ROH tag division has a lot more talent than the World title scene right now, sorry to say. Other than Cole, Elgin has no real competitors or believable contenders to the title, especially since they’re just booking him against people like Tommaso Ciampa and Silas Young in title matches. And that’s not a slight against either, I’m a big fan of both Ciampa and Young, but ROH hasn’t built them up to be World title contenders yet.
  In the main event, Michael Elgin retained the ROH World title against Silas Young with a Buckle Bomb and Elgin.

  Night Two of Death Before Dishonor in Chicago Ridge, IL, drew just short of 900.
  In a dark match, Cheeseburger, Will Ferrara and Louis Lyndon defeated Psycho Mike, Matt Sells, and Stokely Hathaway (Ramon) after Ferrara gave Psycho Mike the Code Red
  Roderick Strong and Jimmy Jacobs w/ TD Thomas and Adam Page defeated Monster Mafia (Josh Alexander and Ethan Gabriel Owens/Ethan Page) after Jacobs pins Alexander following a spear.
  Jay Lethal defended the Ring of Honor TV Title against Caprice Coleman and picked up the win after three superkicks and a Lethal Injection.
  ACH defeated Silas Young, BJ Whitmer and Michael Bennett in a four corner survival match, picking up the win after a botched interference by Tadarius Thomas.
  Adam Cole defeated Hanson with a small package. Hopefully Cole starts hounding Michael Elgin for the World title soon because as much as I like Elgin, Cole needs to be in the World title picture at all times.
  Michael Elgin defeated Tommaso Ciampa to retain the ROH World title after a referee stoppage. According to ROHWrestling.com, Ciampa has been suspended indefinitely for attacking various ring crew as well as ring announcer Bobby Cruise.
  Adam Page defeated Adam Pearce with a jackknife roll through (a powerbomb into a prawn hold or something?)
  AJ Styles defeated Cedric Alexander
  In the main event, The Young Bucks and reDRagon faced Bad Influence and the Briscoes in a tag team, 8-man elimination match. reDRagon was eliminated first, followed by Bad Influence. The Bucks picked up the win when they hit More Bang For Your Buck on Mark Briscoe.

  House of Hardcore, a promotion run by Tommy Dreamer, will return to Philadelphia on November 15 but not to the National Guard Armory where it has previously run shows – but to the former ECW Arena in South Philadelphia! Dreamer also sent out a tweet on Monday night including both Matt and Jeff Hardy so it seems like the Hardy Boys will be at the Arena on November 15. I think Jeff has worked the Arena before (now the 2300 Arena) when TNA ran some shows there a few years ago but this may be the first time that Matt and Jeff work the historic arena as a team.


  TNA Knockout ODB hasn’t renewed her contract with the company so I wouldn’t be surprised to see her show up on independent shows going forward.


Upcoming Indy shows:
  PWG’s “Battle of Los Angeles” is August 29-31 in Reseda, CA. The tournament is massive this year with 24 participants over three huge nights of matches. Trent? and AR Fox will miss the tournament will injuries but will be replaced by Rich Swann and Candice LeRae. Zack Sabre Jr. will replaced Trent? with Chuck Taylor and Kenny Omega (as the Best Friends of Low Moral Fiber) in the six-man tag on Night 1 against Mount Rushmore (Adam Cole and the Young Bucks).  

  Beyond Wrestling is hosting the “Battle of New England” on August 31 in Providence, Rhode Island. Lots of big matches are signed so far such as Doom Patrol (Jaka and Chris Dickinson) versus Team Tremendous (Dan Barry and Bill Carr), Timothy Thatcher versus Johnathan Gresham, and Juicy Product (JT Dunn and David Starr) taking on The Throwbacks (Mr. Touchdown and Dasher Hatfield). Check out the company’s Facebook page at thislink for more info

  Absolute Intense Wrestling is hosting “Wrestle Rager” over three big shows from Sept. 5-7 at Turners Hall in Cleveland, Ohio.  Scheduled are Colt Cabana, Michael Elgin, Eddie Kingston, Tracy Smothers and Cliff Compton. I also saw a couple tweets from one half of the PWG tag team champions Candice LeRae that she will be in attendance as well, taking on Johnny Gargano on Night Two and Veda Scott on Night Three.

  2CW is hosting a show in Rome, NY on Sept 12. Matt Hardy challenges Capt. Nick Ando for 2CW Heavyweight Championship and the Young Bucks will take on Dave and Jake Crist (OI4K).

 Evolve 34 and 35 will be on Sept 13-14. At 34, Harlem and Lancelot Bravado will face The Colony (Fire Ant and Silver Ant [formerly Green Ant]) for the Open the United Gate Championship and Zack Sabre Jr. will face Timothy Thatcher. Also scheduled to appear are Evolve champion Drew Galloway, DG USA Open the Freedom Gate champion Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, Premier Brand Athletes Anthony Nese and Caleb Conley, Uhaa Nation, Rich Swann, and Roderick Strong.
  At Evolve 35, Ricochet defends the Open the Freedom Gate championship against Uhaa Nation and Zack Sabre Jr. takes on Biff Busick. Others scheduled to appear are same as above but includes Drew Gulak as well.

  On Sept. 19-21 in Easton, PA, Chikara is hosting the King of Trios tournament! Now that Chikara is resurrected, the King of Trios is back in action and a number of teams have been announced so far. The first announced team was a huge surprise – Kenny, Mikey and Johnny of the Spirit Squad! The next teams announced for the annual tournament are The Spectral Envoy (Ultramantis Black, Hallowicked, and Frightmare), Team UK (Pete and Damien Dunne and Mark Andrews), The Colony (Fire Ant, Silver Ant and Worker Ant), The Wrecking Crew/Devastation Corportation (Max Smashmaster, Blaster McMassive and Flex Rumblecrunch) and 3Peck0 (Shane Matthews, Scott “Jagged” Parker, and Archibald Peck).

  
 Smash Wrestling is hosting the “CANUSA Classic,” an all-women’s show on Sept 21 pitting the best female Canadian and American talents against each other. Canada’s team captain LuFisto has, so far, assembled the team of “The Mountain” Vanessa Kraven, Courtney Rush, Xandra Bale and Jewells Malone. The American team captain has not been named yet but the other members of Team USA are Cherry Bomb, Veda Scott, Kimber Lee and Allysin Kay.

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Thursday, August 21, 2014

Indy Minute - Weekly independent wrestling news round up



 Welcome back to the Delco Elbow Drop for another round of the extended Indy Minute, all the indy news from Ring Rust Radio’s “NXT and Indy Minute” segment plus a whole lot more. There’s a ton of news on the slate for this week so let’s get right into it!

  On NXT TV, the Vaudevillains defeated the team of Bully Dempsey and Mojo Rawley in the NXT tag title number one contender’s tournament and after the loss, Dempsey attacked Rawley. The smarks in the NXT live crowd were actually cheering Bull while he beat down Mojo, making Triple H hate them even more, no doubt.
  Bayley defeated Sasha Banks to become the number one contender for the NXT Women’s title. After the match, Charlotte met Bayley on the stage and offered a handshake, which Bayley was tentative to accept. She raised Bayley’s hand in victory, though it seemed more a gesture to get into Sasha’s head than to congratulate Bayley.
  Sin Cara and Kalisto defeated Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy to advance in the tag tournament. In the next round, the Vaudevillains will face Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady while Sin Cara and Kalisto will face Sami Zayn and Adam Rose. Even if this tournament doesn’t result in new tag team champions (though I hope it does), it’s at least helped build a number of credible tag teams in NXT. Not sure why The Mechanics, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder, or the Legionnaires, Sylvester LaFort and Marcus Louis, weren’t a part of the tournament, though.
  In the main event, Tyler Breeze challenged Adrian Neville for the NXT championship but Tyson Kidd interfered, pushing Neville from the top rope. He then attacked Neville, but Breeze attacked Kidd for ruining his title match, leading to a brawl between all three me and it seems like they’re setting up for a triple threat title match at NXT Takeover 2 on September 11.

ACH posted this pic of Steve Corino in full
baseball gear to his Instagram before Field of Honor
  Ring of Honor “Field of Honor” results
  Jay Lethal retained TV title in a cage match against Matt Taven after Truth Martini slammed the cage door on Taven’s head.
  Mark Briscoe defeated Watanabe
  Moose and RD Evans defeated Brutal Burgers (Bob Evans and Cheeseburger)
  Michael Bennett defeated Rocky Romero
  The Decade defeated 3 ROH students (Will Ferrara, Ken Phoenix and John Knockout). Afterward, Hanson attacked the Decade.
  Silas Young defeated Tommaso Ciampa with a foreign object. Afterward, Ciampa slapped the ref and then acted sorry about it, only to hit him with Project Ciampa/
  Cedric Alexander defeated ACH. Reportedly, ACH took a nasty looking neck bump which went right into the finish of the match. ACH was able to leave under his own power and people were worried he was more injured than he let on but he allegedly wrestled the following night so it seems like he’s OK.
  The Ring of Honor tag team champions reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) retained against Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian). The Decade interfered to break up a sure win for Bad Influence.
  There was also said to be a full blown baseball game between ROH staff before the show, since the event was held at MCU Park in Brooklyn.

  Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor weekend is this Friday and Saturday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago Ridge, Illinois. Michael Elgin defends the World title against Silas Young on Night One and Tommaso Ciampa on Night Two. AJ Styles and the Young Bucks will also be in action on both nights.

Death Before Dishonor XII, Milwaukee, WI (8/22)
ROH World title match
Micahel Elgin vs Silas Young
AJ Styles vs Kyle O’Reilly
The Young Bucks vs The Briscoes
Jimmy Jacobs vs Tommaso Ciampa
Bad Influence vs The Kingdom (Adam Cole/Michael Bennett)
Also, Adam Pearce makes his ROH return

Death Before Dishonor XII, Chicaco Ridge, IL (8/23)
ROH World title match
Michael Elgin vs Tommaso Ciampa
4 team elimination match
The Briscoes vs Bad Influence vs The Young Bucks vs reDRagon
Adam Cole vs Hanson
AJ Styles vs Cedric Alexander
Jay Lethal vs Caprice Coleman
Adam Pearce is also scheduled to appear on this show as well

  The Meltz is reporting (so you know it’s true) that New Japan Pro Wrestling is very pleased with their relationship with Ring of Honor so far and are considering having the ROH title defended at their biggest show of the year, WrestleKingdom, in January. This story will be interesting to watch since word is New Japan passed on using current ROH champ Michael Elgin for the final show of the G1 Climax. ROH’s Final Battle is December 7, a few weeks before WrestleKingdom, which might mean a title change is in store if Elgin is still the champion.

  Ring of Honor’s Raymond Rowe suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident last week and will be out of action for the foreseeable future. In addition to bruises and lacerations, Rowe suffered a broken arm that will require surgery and rehab to heal. No date is known for his return.
  This is bad news for War Machine (Rowe’s tag team with Hanson), who seemed to be entering into a feud with the Briscoes. The two teams had a crazy brawl at the TV tapings I went to recently and it looks like that will need to be put on hold for now. In the meantime, it looks like ROH is setting up Hanson to feud with The Decade.

  Alberto Del Rio was at AAA’s “Triplemania” on Sunday and even came out to his WWE theme music because apparently Mexico doesn’t care about copyright laws (Lance Storm tweeted about this too, surprised ADR used his WWE theme and that La Parka entered to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”). ADR, who will now be known as El Patron, or Alberto Patron or something along those lines, cut a promo on the racism he encountered while working in America and how he is too proud of his country and heritage to look past it. It looks like AAA will be his home for the foreseeable future, though I’ve read that WWE is trying to extend his no compete clause from 90 days to one full year.

  Some more recent indy results:
  Ricochet defeated Drew Gulak to become the first House of Glory champion. Next show, “The Movement” is Sept 19.
  HOG is a promotion and wrestling school in Ridgewood, NY run by Amazing Red, Brian XL and Quiet Storm.
  Brian XL defeated JT Dunn
  Ricochet defeated Marq Quen
  Drew Gulak defeated Shane Strickland
  Anthony Gangone defeated Dan Maff
  Drew Gulak defeated Brian XL
  Ricochet defeated Anthony Gangone
  Smiley won an over the top elimination rumble to become #1 contender
  Ricochet defeated Drew Gulak become the first House of Glory champion

  At Chikara’s “Permis De Tuer” in Quebec City, Quebec on 8/16:
  The Osirian Portal defeated The Spectral Envoy, Jaka and Qefka and The Belliveau Brothers in a four-way tag team match
  “Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington defeated Kodama
  Silver Ant defeated Proletriat Boar of Moldova
  The Shard defeated Eddie Kingston by DQ
  After this match, Decualion, The Flood’s monster heel, killed Proud Oak with a Chokebreaker and the Flood took away the Snow Troll in chains.
  Juan Francisco de Coronado defeated Archibald Peck
  3.0. defeated The Colony: Xtreme Force
  Chikara Grand Champion Icarus, Chikara Camponetos de Parejas The Throwbacks (Mr. Touchdown and Dasher Hatfield) and The Colony defeated The Flood (Jimmy Jacobs, Axe Smashmaster, Flex Rumblecrunch, Nokken and 17) in the main event

  Just wanted to note – several Chikara characters have been “killed” so far this season, which is a big departure from the light-hearted fare that Chikara usually presents. The first to be killed off by Deucalion was the demon Kobald but since then DeviANT, Estonian Thunderfrog and Latvian Proud Oak have also been killed off by Deucalion’s Chokebreaker. Additionally, the BDK’s Tursas was also killed off by Estonian Thunderfrog’s magic hammer. Hopefully some of these guys make their return at some point and being that this is Chikara, anything is possible. Out of all those lost, Thunderfrog was one of my favorites and I really hope they bring him back somehow.

The Flood's monster heel/leader Deucalion stands over the broken body of Kobald
  At Chikara’s “Vivre Et Laisser Mourir” in Montreal, Quebec on 8/17:
  The Colony defeated Los Ice Creams, the McGoths and the Osirian Portal in a four-way, elimination tag match
  Nokken defeated Kodama
  Chuck Taylor defeated “Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington
  3Peck0 (3.0 and Archibald Peck) defeated The Wrecking Crew (Axe Smashmaster, Blaster McMassive and Flex Rumblecrunch. New name I guess, I thought they were the Devastation Corporation)
  Jimmy Jacobs defeated Silver Ant via DQ, when Eddie Kingston attacked Jacobs
  Gekido and Colony Xtreme Force defeated The Throwbacks (Mr. Touchdown and Dasher Hatfield)  and the Spectral Envoy (Ultramantis and Hallowicked)
Icarus defeated Juan Francisco de Coronado to retain the Grand Championship

  Several independent promotions have shows coming up:
  Mike Chiari’s favorite promotion Empire State Wrestling is hosting “Meltdown” on August 23 in North Tonawanda, New York. Johnny Gargano, Sonjay Dutt and a “mystery former WWE Superstar” are scheduled for the show.

  Also on August 23, Combat Zone Wrestling is hosting “Heat” in Voorhees, New Jersey and live on iPPV where Biff Busick will defend the CZW title against the returning Joker.

  Johnny Gargano tweeted he’s wrestling Candice LeRae at Absolute Intense Wrestling on Sept 6 (Wrestle Rager Sept. 5-7, Turners Hall, Cleveland, Ohio). Also scheduled are Colt Cabana, Michael Elgin, Eddie Kingston, Tracy Smothers, and Cliff Compton

  2CW in Rome, NY on Sept 12
Matt Hardy challenges Capt. Nick Ando for 2CW Heavyweight Championship
Young Bucks vs Dave and Jake Crist (OI4K)

  Quintessential Pro Wrestling has a show in Las Vegas on September 13
 
  Evolve 34 and 35 will be on Sept 13-14

  PWS “All Fired Up” on Sept 20
Rahway, NJ
Ricky “Dragon” Steamboat to be special guest commissioner

  C4 in Ottowa, Ontario, Canada Season 8 starts Sept 27

  FWE “ReFueled” on October 3-4, also on iPPV, Brookyln, NY
Scheduled for October 3 is:
Young Bucks vs Bad Influence
Trent? vs Drew Galloway (If Trent is recovered from knee surgery)
Adrenaline Express vs Tony Nese and Jigsaw
FWE Women’s Champion Maria Kanellis special guest on commentary

Scheduled for October 4 is:
FWE tag team championship, TLC match
Bucks vs Bad Influence vs Adrenaline Express (c) vs Tony Nese and Jigsaw
Drew Galloway vs Tommy Dreamer
FWE women’s championship
Maria Kanellis vs Ivelisse Velez
Trent? vs Rich Swann (Again, if Trent is recovered from knee surgery)

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An avid gamer and long-time pro wrestling fan, stay tuned to Grizzly Gaming and the Delco Elbow Drop for game reviews and pro wrestling news.

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