Indy Minute - Your weekly source for independent wrestling news

NXT

NXT TV, 10/9

  Tyler Breeze opens NXT TV this week. Jason Albert, Rich Brennan and Renee Young are on commentary (Albert says Breeze would call Rich an uggo but that he himself is a beautiful one). Breeze takes on Mojo Rawley, stemming from Breeze attacking Mojo after his match with Bull two weeks ago.

  Breeze pulling some good heel tactics, ducking Mojo, punching him in the face then backing up to the ropes and posing on the buckle until Mojo throws him to the corner and batters him. Looks like Mojo’s shoulder is still hurt after the attack two weeks ago. The ref calls for the bell after Breeze puts Mojo in a Fujiwara armbar. (Rich mentions he doesn’t think Mojo tapped but that the ref called for the bell)

  Enzo Amore talks to William Regal (Cass filming it on his phone). Enzo is asking Regal to give Carmella a tryout and Regal asks “why would I want to help you get a date?” They head out to the training area where Drake is working as a ref in the ring where Carmella makes some chick in giant headgear tap out to some weird leg choke and Regal looks impressed and says she can have a tryout next week.

  Next, a video package about the current feud between the Ascension and Hideo Itami which leads into Viktor against Itami. Don’t see Konnor but I’m sure he’s there somewhere. Both guys come out firing punches and kicks, backing each other up into the ropes and still going at it. Viktor takes control with lots of uppercuts, forearms to the face on the ground and keeping Itami grounded. Itami hits a springboard dropkick into a basement dropkick and sets up for the top rope doublestomp but Konnor hits the stage and appears to be swinging around a lifeless Funaki.

  Itami hits a big kick off the ropes for the win but Konnor rushes the ring and the Ascension both attack Itami, tie him up in the ropes and Funaki hits the ring to try and help Itami and make Itami watch as they hit Funaki with the Fall of Man, reminiscent of the Dudley Boyz hitting the Dudley Death Drop on Beulah as Tommy Dreamer was handcuffed. They are really laying it on strong with the fact that Itami has no friends in America other than Funaki, who is clearly helpless to stop the Ascension. They take Funaki out on a stretcher.

  The Vaudevillains are up to take on Enzo and Cass. Renee putting over the Vaudevillains on commentary but uh...they’re supposed to be heels. Why else would they have “villain” in their name?! Plus, they got nothing on Enzo and Cass in terms of being over with the crowd. Enzo is “Smacktalker Skywalker with a microphone light saber for a hater.” It’s amazing how many catch phrases they already have. Sawft, bada boom realest guys in the room, how you doin, bonafide stud-certafied G and you can’t teach that – each could be T-shirt of their own and the crowd loves mimicking them with Enzo and Cass.

  Enzo starts the match but Gotch and English quickly take the advantage. Cass nearly gets the win with a big boot but English breaks up the pin. Cass front suplex to Enzo on Gotch. Cass gets taken out and Gotch hits him with the airplane spin/barrell roll to English senton for the win. I like the Vaudevillains despite them not heeling it up more. English ought to start singing again.

  Sami Zayn talking smack on Titus, saying he should be a monster but can’t get the better of a bunny. Says he wants to stand up for NXT and stand up for his friend Adrian Neville.

  Becky Lynch with her hair metal-ish theme music and rocking out in the ring, throwing up devil horns - she takes on “The Boss” Sasha Banks. Becky is looking jacked. Sasha taking control early, keeping Becky grounded with a submission. Sasha Banks hits the lungblower into crossface combo apparently called the Banks Statement. Sasha pretty much controlled the whole match. Whenever Becky tried to gain some momentum, Sasha quickly put a stop to it and slowed down the pace, working her offense.

  Titus O’Neil versus Sami Zayn in the main event. Sami trying to stay on the move, hitting and avoiding since Titus has such a power advantage. Titus keeping Zayn in the corners, choking him out and hammering him with punches and forearms. Titus has Zayn locked in a bear hug and Zayn fighting to break free. Ref asking Sami if he can continue and Zayn insists he is ok. Titus just keep hammering away on Zayn.

  Sami low bridges Titus over the top and Zayn hits a big tope con hilo which is pretty much his first advantage in this match. Zayn going to the top and hits a cross body but only gets a two. Zayn going for the Helluva kick but Titus gets his boot up first to counter. Titus lifts up Zayn and Zayn locks in a sleeper on the back of Titus. Zayn going for the step up top rope tornado DDT but Titus sweeps the leg and crotches Zayn then hits a Sky High sit out powerbomb for the win. Titus leaves but comes back to continue the assault, pointing at the crowd and saying “this is on you.” He drapes Zayn’s head over the apron and starts heading upstairs but Adrian Neville comes out and pulls Zayn off the apron and onto the entrance ramp.

  PWInsider is reporting that WWE has released Willie Mack. Was about to start with NXT and hadn’t even reported to developmental yet apparently but he’s already been released. Maybe this is why that farewell speech wasn’t on the BOLA DVD.

  Same thing happened to Claudio back in ‘06-‘07, though. Was signed and released before reporting to developmental. Claudio had an impressive ‘10-‘11 (ROH and BDK stuff as well as PWG champ, def 6 times for 287 days, 7^th longest) before getting signed again. MetsFan4Ever on reddit has also confirmed.

 Ring of Honor
  Ring of Honor “Unauthorized” presented Michael Bennett’s Bachelor Party last week, hosted by Adam Cole before Bennett and Maria Kanellis tie the knot last Friday. This wasn’t your traditional ROH show and included a lot more whackiness and offbeat stuff than the usual ROH seriousness.

  Adam Cole brings out BJ Whitmer as the “bodyguard” for the party and also introduces Steve Corino for commentary. Cole and the newest member of the Kingdom Matt Taven introduce Michael Bennett to the ring and they all start drinking from a bottle of whiskey.

1. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) defeat Truth Martini and Jay Lethal

2. Veda Scott, Heather Patera and Leah von Dutch defeat Taeler Hendrix, Scarlett and Mary Dobson. Romantic Touch was at ringside during this match making eyes at the ladies while Matt Taven throws singles at them to keep things classy and put himself over as a heel.

3. Roderick Strong defeats Mark Briscoe. Strong celebrates with a beer but Briscoe apparently isn’t allowed to drink because he lost.

- Adam Cole brought out Mad Man Pondo who is Bennett’s second favorite wrestler (his first being Edge). He then calls out Cheeseburger to have a match with…Tommaso Ciampa.

4. Tommaso Ciampa defeated Cheeseburger in about a minute. Pondo tried to get involved but accidentally hits Cheeseburger with the stop sign. Ciampa stays in the ring for another match…against Delirious!

5. Tommaso Ciampa defeated Delirious

6. Cedric Alexander defeated ACH. During an intermission the Kingdom asks Jimmy Jacobs who are the biggest buzzkills in the locker room and he answers ACH and Alexander.

- The Kingdom is back in the ring and Cole says it’s lap dance time for Bennett. One lady comes out to dance for him, followed by a dude who dances behind Bennett who turns around, horrified when he realized. A third woman comes out but not long after, Maria comes out in a gold bikini to dance for Bennett. He asks Whitmer to take the others away and wants Maria to dance for the Kingdom, who refuses to dance for all of them and leaves.

7. Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe and Rhino defeat Matt Taven, Adam Cole and Michael Bennett. This match was supposed to be Jay vs Rhino but Adam Cole wants Rhino to hit Jay with a chair, who refuses. They fight and the Kingdom attacks Rhino, leading to the Briscoes making the save.

Two days later on Saturday, ROH hosted “Champions vs All Stars.”

Attendance between 400-500 which is great for ROH since they’ve never run in Kalamazoo, Michigan before. It’s a TV market for them which I’m sure helped the draw.

1. BJ Whitmer defeated Will Ferrara (Ferrara is a student, hopefully a continuation of the Decade teaching the younger kids some respect).

2. TaDarius Thomas defeated Owen Travers (Not sure who Travers is but the match was said to be great).

3. Christopher Daniels defeated Cedric Alexander (Daniels put Alexander over as the future of wrestling. Many said this was match of the night.)

4. Jimmy Jacobs defeated Frankie Kazarian

5. Matt Taven defeated Romantic Touch.

6. Jay Briscoe, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish and Jay Lethal defeated Adam Cole, Tommaso Ciampa, ACH and Roderick Strong. (Match was said to be nearly an hour but really good overall. Apparently Mark Briscoe got poison ivy while hunting and Ciampa begged McGuinness to be put into the match. ACH eliminated Lethal very early in the match. Ciampa was eliminated via DQ when O’Reilly threw the tag belt to him and pretended Ciampa hit him. Roderick Strong eliminated O’Reilly followed by Fish eliminating Strong. Jay Briscoe eliminated Adam Cole. ACH got pushed from the top through a table and Cole went to grab a chair but Mark Briscoe made the save and the Briscoes hit him with a Doomsday Device. Finally, Jay eliminated ACH to win the match for the champions. Was said Lethal and Truth Martini attacked Jay after the match so it seems like Lethal may have the World title in his sights after losing the TV title.)

  Mexican lucha libre promotion AAA is bringing its stars to American TV with Lucha Underground, set to begin airing on October 29 on the El Rey Network.

  The series will feature several AAA stars like Blue Demon Jr., Fenix and Sexy Star as well as several American independent wrestlers Ricochet (as Prince Puma), John Morrison (as John Mundo), Matt Cross (as Son of Havoc), Ricky Reyes (as Castro Cortez), B-Boy (as Bael) and Chavo Guerrero Jr as well as featuring Vampiro and Matt Striker on commentary.   

  Watching this hype video on ThePostGame, - http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/gusto/201410/lucha-underground-aaa-wrestling-los-angeles-el-rey-mark-burnett - Konnan is apparently going to be Prince Puma’s trainer (and also in a wheelchair with a cane and looks about a million years old.

New Japan Pro Wrestling “King of Pro Wrestling” results:

1. 8 Man Tag Match: Togi Makabe, Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma and Kota Ibushi defeated Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga

2. NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Chase Owens NWA (c) defeated BUSHI.

Bruce Tharpe is on the microphone after the match. He says Bushi isn’t enough of a challenge. They want Jushin Liger. Liger comes out in a suit and tells Tharpe to shut up. He says Owens is strong but he is stronger, so it looks like Liger will challenge in the future.

3. NWA World Tag Team Title: Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima (c) (11:22)

4. Special Tag Match: Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka

5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley (c) defeated The Young Bucks and The Forever Hooligans

6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Ryusuke Taguchi (c) defeated El Desperado

7. NEVER Openweight Title: Tomohiro Ishii defeated Yujiro Takahashi (c)

8. Special Tag Match: Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata defeated Shinsuke Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI

9. Kazuchika Okada defeated Tetsuya Naito to retain his #1 contendership to the IWGP Heavyweight title

10. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat AJ Styles (c) to become the 61st champion.

  This is Tanahashi’s 7^th title reign, the most in NJPW history. Jarrett, who is apparently the Bullet Club chairman now (as the Bullet Club uses a rocket powered car to jump the shark) tried to hit Tanahashi with a guitar but Naofumi Yamamoto (aka Yoshi Tatsu in WWE) runs from the back to chase off Jarrett. Looks like a Tanahashi will resume his feud with Okada when the Rainmaker challenges for the title at WrestleKingdom in January.

  This was a bad night for Bullet Club. They lost the 8-man opener, the Bucks lost in their bid to regain the NJPW Jr tag titles, Yujiro lost the NEVER title, and Styles lost the IWGP Heavyweight title. Seems like the Bullet Club are on their way out.

  I like New Japan a lot. They have an incredible roster who put on amazing matches. The one thing I don’t quite get about New Japan, though, is how many titles they have and defend in the promotion. There were 6 title matches on this card alone and overall there are 9 championships that could be defended on any given show. (NWA- tag, Jr, Hwt; IWGP – Jr tag, tag, IC, Jr, Hwt; NEVER openweight) That’s just too many. I get that they have a big roster and have less qualms about using outside talent than the WWE does but having more belts kinda makes them seem less important. Granted, the weight classes do kinda restrict how much of the roster can compete for certain titles, 3 tag titles and 6 singles titles seems like a bit too many for one promotion.

  It seems like Global Force Wrestling isn’t going to necessarily be a traditional professional wrestling promotion but rather a platform in America for wrestling promotions from all around the world. Jeff Jarrett has apparently made agreements with promotions from all over the world and the first major GFW event has been announced.

  Last week, it was announced that the first show being promoted under the GFW banner will be New Japan’s WrestleKingdom, which will broadcast live on Pay-Per-View this January 4. WrestleKingdom is the biggest NJPW event of the year and will also feature stars from Ring of Honor.  Not sure about what the card would be yet, though I do know that because Kazuchika Okada won the G1 Climax, he has a guaranteed shot at the IWGP Heavyweight championship, which is now held by Hiroshi Tanahashi after beating AJ Styles at “King of Pro Wrestling” last weekend.

  Evolve going on tour in China from Nov 10-16. Will be a four event tour in the Hebei and Sichuan Province. Been working on this tour for about three years now, said WWN President Sal Hamaoi. Great Wall International Sports Media is bringing the WWN Family to China (Evolve, DG USA, Full Impact Pro [FIP], Shine and others) that will feature Evolve brand.

  Announced on 10/3 (via PWInsider) that DG USA Open the Freedom Gate champ Ricochet, FIP champion Trent Baretta, Open the United Gate champion Caleb Konley (no mention of Tony Nese though), Su Yung, SHINE champ Ivelisse, Johnny Gargano, Rich Swann, AR Fox, Timothy Thatcher, Biff Busick, Harlem and Lancelot Bravado, The Colony (Silver and Fire Ant), Chuck Taylor, Mia Yim, Allysin Kay, Earl Kooter, former WWE developmental talent Jody Kristofferson (Kris Kristofferson’s son), Lacey, Larry Dallas, and referees Jamie Tucker and Jon Barber.

  Tour will be:

11/10 in Yicheng City, Hebei Province at Golden Sport Hall (set up for 2,000 fans)

11/12 in Emei City, Sichuan Province at Emei Sports Hall (set up for 2,000 fans)

11/14 in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province at Wen Jiang Sport Center (seat at least 4,000 fans)

11/16 final date in Beijing at Wan Shi Da Stadium (which can seat over 20,000 fans)

Upcoming independent shows

CZW - Tangled Web 7

Flyers Skate Zone, October 18

Tangled Web match

Matt Tremont vs Devon Moore

CZW World Heavyweight title match

Biff Busick (c) vs Chris Dickinson

CZW tag title match

OI4K (c) vs Team Tremendous

CZW Wired title match

Shane Strickland (c) vs “Speedball” Mike Bailey

Joey Gacy vs Papadon

Caleb Konley vs Trevor Lee

Smash Wrestling - This is Smash 

October 26, 2nd anniversary show

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Smash Wrestling championship

Matt Cross (c) vs Gregory Iron

Michael Elgin vs Johnny Gargano

Rhino vs. Tyson Dux

Juicy Product vs Super Smash Brothers

World’s Cutest Tag Team vs Pepper Parks and Cherry Bomb

Vanessa Kraven vs Portia Perez vs Heidi Lovelace vs Kimber Lee

InterSpecies Wrestling - Slamtasia 5

Danbury, CT is hosting on October 25

Fans Bring The Lego Deathmatch

Inter Species Championship 

Izzie Deadyet (c) vs. Buxx Belmar

Inter Species Wrestling Tag Team Championship 

The Food Fighters (Pasquale and Bastian Snow) (c) vs. Tremendous Investigations, Inc. (Officer Dan Barry and Detective Bill Carr)

Undisputed King of Crazy Championship 

Chris Dickinson (c) vs. Matt Tremont

House of Glory - Fight or Flight

November 1, Jamaica, NY

House of Glory Championship

Ricochet (c) vs Low-Ki

House of Glory tag team championship

Amazing Red and Crimson vs Safari Zone

Brian XL vs Anthony Gangone

Wildkat Sports
November 8, Metairie, Louisiana

Booker T is scheduled to appear

House of Hardcore VII

Philadelphia, PA, November 15

The Hardyz vs The Young Bucks

Ethan Carter III vs Tommy Dreamer (Old School Extreme Rules match, Beulah McGuillicutty is making her final appearance in pro wrestling with Dreamer)

Austin Aries issues an open challenge

The Wolves vs Killer Elite Squad (Harry Smith/Davey Boy Smith Jr and Lance Archer)

Christian York vs Brian Myers

Eddie Kingston vs Jigsaw

Plus CW Anderson, Velvet Sky and more

2CW - Nightmare Before Christmas

November 21, Cicero, NY

Young Bucks vs Dudley Boys

Empire State Wrestling - WrestleBash

Lockport, NY, November 22

ESW title

“Big Time” Bill Collier vs Chris Cooper (c)

ESW tag titles

Double Down (James Santel, Salvatore Morocco) vs Hurricane Helms and “Inferno” Johnny Adams

Rhino vs TBA

Worlds Cutest Tag Team vs Pepper Parks and Cherry Bomb

Johnny Gargano scheduled for a six-man scramble