Indy Minute - Weekly independent wrestling news round up

  Welcome back to the Delco Elbow Drop for another installment of NXT and Indy Wrestling Minute, your favorite segment on Ring Rust Radio. Lots of news to cover this week including upcoming shows like NXT Takeover, Ring of Honor’s All Star Extravaganza 6 and results from PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles so let’s get right into it!

  NXT TV, 8/28

  The Ascension squashed some jobbers that don’t get a ring announcement or named by the announcers, since they spent most of the match talking about WWE SuperCard. Alex Riley compares the Ascension to the Shield in dominance which is his opinion I guess (they aren’t near as badass as The Shield, is what I’m saying). While The Ascension seem to be very over with the Full Sail crowd, the other team did get a “Let’s go jobbers” chant, though it might’ve been sarcastic, since that crowd is so smarky. Ascension hit the Fall of Man for the win and cut a brief promo about “Will the winners of the tournament be contenders or just more victims?”

  New general manager is revealed to be William Regal. His first act as GM announces NXT Takeover main event for the NXT Title (and at this point, Adrian Neville asks Regal “Who’s next” and draws a “Gold-berg” chant) but before he can name an opponent, Tyson Kidd comes out and accepts the title match before Regal announces anyone. But he’s interrupted by Breeze who says everyone deserves a title shot before Kidd, including his wife, and he’s interrupted by Sami Zayn. Neville steps in and says everyone has an opinion and here’s his - he wants to face Tyson Kidd. And Tyler Breeze. And Sami Zayn in a fatal fourway for the title at NXT Takeover.  Regal accepts that and makes the main event for tonight, which is Tyson Kidd and Tyler Breeze versus Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville.

   Sasha Banks versus Bayley. (There’s only four ladies left in NXT it seems - Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch) Sasha opens the match by slapping the crap out of Bayley. Sasha seems to have a really Shinsuke Nakamura inspired offense, uses a lot of knees (backstabber, that corner thing where Bayley is resting on the second turnbuckle and Sasha drops her knees in the midsection). Belly to Bayley out of nowhere and Bayley picks up the win. Charlotte comes out after as Renee interviews Bayley to trash talk Bayley. The only thing I took away from this was that they’re calling it the “NXT Divas championship” now. It’s not Women’s championship anymore?

  Bull Dempsey versus Angelo Dawkins who has some weird...I don’t know hipster gimmick? Or like a hip hop hipster gimmick? I dunno, it’s not very clearly defined (has a sideways hat, Beatz headphones around his neck, plaid shirt, goofy glasses and a backpack). But none of his accessories matter as Bull hits the Bulldozer for the win.

  Sylvester LaFort and Marcus Louis talk to Devin about how Enzo is a greaseball and an American slob. They speak a bunch of French to each other and then leave.

  Tyson Kidd and Tyler Breeze vs Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville in a great match in the main event. Tyson Kidd pins Adrian Neville after Sami Zayn went for the Helluva Kick on Tyler Breeze but hit Neville by accident. He hits Breeze with the Blue Thunder Bomb and Kidd pushes Zayn out of the ring and pins Neville. Afterward, Zayn hits Tyson with the Helluva Kick and picks up the NXT Title and looks at it in the ring as everyone else is down. I really hope this means that Zayn will be winning the title at Takeover. Tyson Kidd is great and could win too but NXT is about building new stars and Kidd is really there to just enhance that talent. And as great as Tyler Breeze is, I don’t think he’s championship material. He’s a great heel, but I don’t see him being champ.

  Ring of Honor’s All Star Extravaganza 6 is this weekend in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ROH Champion Michael Elgin defends his title against Jay Briscoe, the man who still feels he should be rightful champion. I think it’s a good idea to move Jay and Mark Briscoe back to singles competition until War Machine is back in action. Put Jay in the World title scene for now, give Elgin another competent foe (along with Cole) and have Mark feud with Hanson until Rowe is healed up.

  reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) will defend the ROH tag team championships against the Young Bucks in a 2 out of 3 falls match. This could easily be “Match of the Night.” Both teams are two of the most impressive teams in pro wrestling today and both are more than worthy of being ROH tag team champs.

  Jay Lethal defends the ROH TV Title against ACH in a no time limit match. Their match on ROH TV last week that went to a 30-minute time limit draw, which I saw live and was even better on a rewatch. With Matt Taven seemingly out of the TV Title picture after losing in the cage match at Field of Honor, it seems like ACH is poised to win the title from Lethal. He’s easily one of the most impressive athletes in ROH and his high-flying offense really gets the crowd behind him. I think he and Lethal have a lot of great chemistry together and while I hope ACH wins the title, I also hope this is only the beginning of a long feud between the two.

  “The Phenomenal One” AJ Styles will be taking on Adam Cole. I haven’t seen much of AJ Styles in his current run but, I guess he’s not a heel in ROH? Because Cole is one of the most hated heels in wrestling right now so I guess Styles really can’t play up his Bullet Club heel heat in ROH. Regardless of that, this match should be great. I don’t know if these guys have faced off against each other before but even without a stipulation or a title on the line, this match could easily steal the show.

  Bad Influence, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, will take on Roderick Strong and Jimmy Jacobs of the Decade in a grudge match. The Decade screwed Bad Influence out of winning the tag belts at Field of Honor and now Kaz and Daniels are looking for revenge. The Decade are looking to get into the tag team title picture and it’s about time, honestly. The tag title scene hasn’t had a top heel team in a while, since the Briscoes, Bucks and Bad Influence are so beloved and reDRagon are basically tweeners (they act like arrogant but are too good in the ring to hate).

  Silas Young will take on Cedric Alexander in a match tagged as “Battle of the Breakout Stars.” Young is one of the best up-and-coming heels in ROH right now and Cedric Alexander is only been getting more and more impressive in the ring. This match should be great.

  Mark Briscoe will take on Hanson to try and keep the Briscoes/War Machine feud going while Rowe is on the shelf. I talked about this feud earlier but I hope ROH can manage to keep the heat going between these two teams until Rowe can get back in action.

  And finally, a four-corner survival tag team match - The Decade’s Adam Page and BJ Whitmer, Ethan Gabriel Owen (known as Ethan Page elsewhere on the indies) and Josh Alexander (whose team is also known as Monster Mafia) vs. Caprice Coleman and Watanabe vs. RD Evans and Moose. It’s great to see Monster Mafia getting more work in ROH because they’re one of the better teams on the indies. Caprice Coleman and Watanabe will most likely continue their feud with the Decade, which is probably why BJ Whitmer is tagging with Page instead of Tadarius Thomas, so he can continue to try and recruit Watanabe. But in the end, RD Evans and Moose are going to pick up the win because I don’t see the New Streak ending any time soon.

  ROH All Star Extravaganza 6 will be available on iPPV and Ringside Members will receive a 25% off all iPPVS.

  There are rumors that New Japan Pro Wrestling may be offering its biggest show of the year, WrestleKingdom, on Pay-Per-View in the United States. The Meltz and the Observer report that NJPW is “seriously” looking into offering the January 4^th show from the Tokyo Dome on InDemand PPV and iPPV as well as trying to book an English-speaking announce team for the show.

  Pro Wrestling Guerrilla hosted Battle of Los Angeles this past weekend in Reseda, California over three nights of amazing action. The 24-man tournament was one of the most stacked tournaments to be booked in a long time. Ricochet won the tournament, defeating Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong in the finals. This means that Ricochet will now be vying for Kyle O’Reilly’s PWG World title along with Roderick Strong, who defeated Adam Cole at “Eleven” in a match to decide the number one contender. I mean, I guess Ricochet could use the BOLA win to challenge World’s Cutest Tag Team for the PWG tag titles again but…that’d make no sense. Onto the results:

  Night One

  Turns out Brian Cage is still recovering from an injury and was replaced by TJ Perkins. Hopefully when he gets healthy, the Unbreakable F’n Machines get a shot at the tag titles cause watching them throw around Candice would be pretty awesome. Also, Brad Maddox was at BOLA, though I heard he wouldn’t take pictures with anyone because he wanted to keep a low profile…as he proceeded to sit front row opposite the hard cam.

  TJP def. Bobby Fish

  Roderick Strong def. Biff Busick

  Trevor Lee def. Cedric Alexander

  World’s Cutest Tag Team (Joey Ryan and Candice LeRae) retained the PWG Tag Team titles against Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) and the Inner City Machine Guns (Ricochet and Rich Swann)

  Michael Elgin def. Tommaso Ciampa

  AJ Styles def.Brian Myers (formerly Curt Hawkins)

  Kyle O’Reilly def. Drew Gulak

  In the main event, the Acquaintances of Low Moral Fiber (Chuck Taylor, Kenny Omega and Zack Sabre Jr) def. Mount Rushmore (Adam Cole and the Young Bucks) when Taylor pinned Cole after hitting the Awful Waffle

  Biff Busick was said to be super over to I’d expect to see him back again. Unfortunately, Drew Gulak didn’t seem to be getting the same reception so I wouldn’t be as hopeful to see him back.

 

  Night Two

  Candice LeRae def. Rich Swann

  Johnny Gargano def. Chuck Taylor

  Ricochet def. Chris Sabin

  reDRagon def. Drew Gulak and Biff Busick

  Matt Sydal def. Chris Hero

  Zack Sabre Jr. def. Adam Cole

  Kenny Omega def. ACH

  The Young Bucks def. Bad Influence

  I was really surprised to hear that Adam Cole lost another singles match, especially since most of the other guys they brought in (beside Sabre) lost in the first round, and also because before Cole lost the World title and to Roddy last show, Cole hadn’t lost a singles match in a long, long time.

  Night Three

  Johnny Gargano def. Candice LeRae

  Ricochet def. TJP

  Trevor Lee def. Michael Elgin

  (They’re really putting Lee over like crazy. He beat Kevin Steen in his final PWG match and this week beats the ROH Champ and a perennial tag team contender in the Unbreakable F’n Machines. Can’t wait to see what he does next.)

  Kenny Omega def. Matt Sydal

  Roderick Strong def. AJ Styles (by DQ allegedly, couldn’t find any details though)
  Kyle O’Reilly def. Zack Sabre Jr. (In what many said was match of the tournament. Afterward, Roderick Strong attack O’Reilly, putting him through chairs with an Orange Crush Backbreaker, hit Excalibur with a chair and held O’Reilly in the Stronghold until Bobby Fish made the save.)

Roderick Strong attacking Kyle O'Reilly following O'Reilly's quarterfinal match against Zack Sabre Jr.

  Cole and the Young Bucks def. ACH, Sabin and Myers

  O’Reilly is out of the tournament after the attack by Roddy, who was, coincidentally, his opponent in the semifinals. Roddy gets a bye into the finals.

Johnny Gargano def. Trevor Lee to advance to the finals

Ricochet def. Kenny Omega to advance to the finals.

  In a huge 10-man tag match, Chris Hero, Chuck Taylor, Rich Swann, Joey Ryan and the returning Willie Mack def. Drew Gulak, Biff Busick, Bobby Fish, Cedric (the) Alexander, and Tomato Camper (Tommaso Ciampa). Willie Mack also announced he will be joining WWE (read more after the results).

  In the finals, Ricochet pinned Johnny Gargano to win the Battle of Los Angeles but after the match, was attacked by Roderick Strong and the BOLA trophy was destroyed.

  It will be interesting to see the direction of PWG after BOLA. There are two contenders for the PWG championship and numerous contenders to the tag belts as well. On top of that, there’s a lot of new faces coming up in the company (like Trevor Lee and Biff Busick) who could shake things up. I’m still hoping that one day Gargano either wins a BOLA or wins the World title because he’s one of my favorite wrestlers on the scene today. Additionally, after Hero’s loss to O’Reilly last month and going out of BOLA in the first round, I kinda feel like he should take a Roderick heel turn and just start destroying everyone. Maybe even join Mount Rushmore, taking Steen’s place as the new bruiser?

  More on Mack joining WWE - Willie Mack officially announced that he will be heading to WWE Developmental following a 10-man tag team match on Night 3. He was rumored to have been signed several months ago but now the news is official. Willie Mack was a fan in the crowd during the first Battle of Los Angeles in 2005 and it’s great that he could announce being signed to WWE during this year’s tournament. Mack has primarily worked for West Coast promotions and is very charismatic and very agile for a bigger guy.

  Also, coming up this weekend, Absolute Intense Wrestling in Cleveland, Ohio is hosting “Wrestle Rager” on Sept. 5-7. Several big stars are slated to appear, such as TNA’s Abyss, Colt Cabana, ROH Champion Michael Elgin, PWG tag team champion Candice LeRae and more. The more I hear about AIW the more it makes me wish I lived closer to Cleveland or that they would do some shows closer to Philly because they always seem to put on great shows with some of the top indy talent in the country.