Indy Minute - Weekly independent wrestling new round up

Indy Minute is back again with more independent wrestling news than you can handle. Also, make sure to vote for me in the Ring Rust Radio Current Era Fantasy Draft because if you’re an indy smark, you’ll love my card. I’ll make sure to link it when the vote is up, but for now – let’s get onto the news!

WWE.com officially announced the signing of Kevin Steen on Tuesday.
Along with Fergal Devitt and Kenta, as well as the former independent stars like Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville, the future is looking bright for NXT and the WWE in general.

On NXT TV, Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady defeated Jason Jordan and Tye Dillinger in the first round of a tournament to decide a #1 contender for the NXT tag team titles. Enzo and Big Cass will face the winner of Bull Dempsey and Mojo Rawley vs The Vaudvillains. CJ Parker picked up a win against Xavier Woods followed by Bayley defeating Eva Marie, who got booed from bell to bell and even drew a “Worse than Batista” chant. In the main event, Sami Zayn and Adam Rose defeated Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel to advance in the tag team tournament. Zayn and Rose will now face the winner of Sin Cara and Kalisto vs Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy.

Also, Jason Albert (formerly Tensai) now considers himself retired from in ring competition and will focus solely on working with the developmental side of the company and NXT

Ring of Honor’s Field of Honor event at MCU Park in Brooklyn, New York is this Friday.

Lineup for Field of Honor:

ROH Champion Michael Elgin vs. AJ Styles vs Adam Cole vs Jay Briscoe

ROH TV Champion Jay Lethal vs Matt Taven in a steel cage match

ROH Tag Team Champions reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) vs Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian)

Cedric Alexander vs ACH

Mark Briscoe vs Takaaki Watanabe

Silas Young vs Tommaso Ciampa

Rockey Romero vs Michael Bennett with Maria Kanellis

ROH also recently announced All Star Extravaganza on September 6 in Toronto which will be the company’s first iPPV in some time.

In other Ring of Honor news, I attended the Philadelphia Summer Heat tour at the Armory over the weekend and posted results here. This show constituted three TV tapings so these results should be considered spoilers.

In the final event of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Climax 24, Adam Cole and Michael Bennett defeated Jushin Thunder Liger and Captain New Japan. ROH tag team champions Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, faced Alex Shelley and Kushida for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team championships but were not victorious. Also, Jeff Jarrett has apparently joined Bullet Club. He came to the ring to protect Tanahashi from Bullet Club after his match with AJ Styles but smashed him with a guitar instead, revealing a Bullet Club shirt under his suit. Jarrett was on hand to finalize a partnership between Global Force Wrestling and New Japan.

And now the smarks complain that Bullet Club jumped the shark

Results from the recent Evolve 31-33 shows from this past weekend in Florida:

Evolve 31

Style Battle tournament: Drew Gulak defeated Timothy Thatcher

Style Battle tournament: Biff Busick defeated James Raideen

Lince Dorado, Cruz and Rios defeated Jesus De Leon, JT Dunn and David Starr (Juicy Product)

Matt Sydal defeated Johnny Gargano

Anthony Nese and Caleb Conley (Premier Athlete Brand) defeated Ricochet and Rich Swann (The Inner City Machine Guns)

Drew Galloway defeated Chris Hero to win the Evolve championship

Evolve 32

Drew Galloway defeated Anthony Nese to retain the Evolve championship

Style Battle tournament: James Raideen defeated Drew Gulak

Style Battle tournament: Timothy Thatcher defeated Biff Busick

Caleb Conley defeated Johnny Gargano

Rich Swann defeated Chris Hero to become the #1 contender for the Evolve championship

Ricochet defeated Matt Sydal to retain the Dragon Gate USA Open the Freedom Gate championship

Evolve 33

Trevor Lee and Zane Riley defeated Jason Cade and Aaron Epic

Juicy Product defeated Dos Ben Dejos

Anthony Nese defeated Lince Dorado

Chris Hero defeated Caleb Conley

Style Battle tournament: Timothy Thatcher defeated James Raideen

Style Battle tournament: Biff Busick defeated Drew Gulak

Thatcher is declared the winner of the Style Battle tournament as he and Busick held the same record and Thatcher defeated Busick at Evolve 32. Hero also came out after the match and attacked Thatcher and Gulak.

Rich Swann defeated Johnny Gargano

Evolve champ vs Open the Freedom Gate champ: Ricochet defeated Drew Galloway

The Queen of Extreme Francine will be making a few appearances coming up. For a long time she's distanced herself from the business so if you want to meet her, these might be your only shots. Monster Mania Cherry Hill NJ 8/15-17, Legends of the Ring, Monroe NJ Sept 20 11am-2pm and Chiller Theater 10/24-26 in Parsippany, NJ

Injuries to AR Fox and Trent have forced several changes to PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament on August 29-31. Bobby Fish will replace AR Fox and take on Brian Cage on Night One and Zach Sabre Jr. will take Trent’s place in the six man tag match, joining Chuck Taylor and Kenny Omega against The Young Bucks and Adam Cole. Candice LeRae will replace Trent in the tournament itself and will take on Rich Swann on Night Two.

House of Glory in Ridgewood, New York is hosting a one night tournament this August 16 to crown their first world champion as well as a battle royal to decide a #1 contender. The tournament will be:

Ricochet vs Marq Quen

Jay Lethal vs Anthony Gangone

Drew Gulak vs Shane Strickland

Brian XL vs JT Dunn

Chikara is hosting Permis De Tuer this weekend in Quebec, Montreal, Canada, August 16. The lineup is:

Icarus, The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield Mr. Touchdown), The Colony (Fire Ant and Worker Ant) vs The Flood

Archibald Peck vs Juan Francisco de Coronado

3.0 (Shane Matthews and Scott Parker) vs The Colony XTreme Force (Missile Assault Ant and Orbit Adventure Ant)

Kodama vs Ashley Remington

Silver Ant vs Proletariat Boar of Moldova

Smash Wrestling’s Super Showdown II, August 17. Scheduled is:

Super Smash Brothers vs The Young Bucks

Chris Hero vs Matt Cross for the Smash Wrestling Championship

Kimber Bomb (Cherry Bomb and Kimber Lee) vs LuFisto and Vanessa Kraven

Johnny Gargano vs Tyson Dux

Jay Lethal vs Brent Banks