Indy Minute - Your weekly source for independent wrestling news

  With a debut this week on NXT and a live show coming in a few weeks, the WWE developmental product is really hitting its stride. It’s almost a shame that guys like The Ascension, Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn are going up to the main roster (most likely) in the next few months because the current NXT product is really great.

  Also this week lots of Ring of Honor news about upcoming shows and the ROH tag team champions proving why the talent in ROH is the best in the world. Not only that but I’ve got lots of info about great independent wrestling shows happening over the next few weeks.

  NXT TV, 10/30

  NXT TV opens with Sami Zayn backstage, being asked about Adrian Neville’s comments on how he can’t win the big one. Sami says it’s not so much that he’s lost a few big ones but that he’s admitted it but that he’s on the road to redemption. Titus O’Neill comes in and says that road goes through him. Sami asks him if that’s a challenge and Titus says it’s an open invitation. After he leaves, Sami says it’s just another roadblock but he’s going to run right through it.

  A battle royal for a shot at the NXT tag team titles followed the Zayn backstage segments with five teams competing. The Vaudevillains and the Ascension get real entrance while Jason Jordan and Tye Dillinger, Team Thick (Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake) and Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady are already in the ring. If one man gets thrown out, the whole team is eliminated. Jason Albert, Renee Young and Rich Brennan are on commentary.

  Konnor tries to throw out Aiden English and Jordan works on Simon Gotch. Cass saves Enzo from Dillinger. After stomping down the Vaudevillains in the corner, Konnor and Viktor eliminate both Team Thick and Jordan and Dillinger. As Buddy Murphy was trying to throw out Tye Dillinger and Jason Jordon trying to toss over Wesley Blake, Konnor tosses Murphy and Dillinger, Viktor tosses Jordan and Blake.

  The Ascension start trading shots with Enzo and Cass. The Vaudevillains are nowhere to be seen and it seems like they slide under the bottom rope and are hiding on the outside. The Ascension team up on Big Cass and Enzo jumps on Vitkor but gets thrown off. Viktor hits a big STO to Enzo. Cass is thrown to the apron and the Ascension throw Enzo into him to knock him off. Just then, Hideo Itami hits the stage to distract the Ascension and Vaudevillains slide back in to throw Ascension over the ropes and become the new number one contenders. After Vaudevillains split, Itami rushes the ring and gets quickly overwhelmed again. Pick him up on both sides, toss him up and slam him down. As Itami is lying on the mat, they tell him to go home or they will send him home to Japan in a box.

  Emma returns to NXT to take on Carmella, the Princess of Staten Island. Carmella still has the worst theme music ever. Also, I’m realizing how unlikeable she is compared to Enzo and Cass. She’s acting really heelish against Emma – showboating, trash talking and pulling her hair. Carmella avoids a submission and locks in the figure four choke for the win. As she was leaving, Jason Albert was straight up staring at Carmella (the camera switched to the announcers as she walked up the ramp and backstage and Albert is just staring).

  Video segment of the 10 minute WWE performance center tryout they posted to YouTube recently (which I posted last week). Apparently one of the guys was the editor of Muscle and Fitness magazine who was “undercover” at the tryout. I put that in quotes because WWE cameras were filming him the whole time and asking him questions.

  Justin Gabriel up to take on Bull Dempsey (who we haven’t seen in a while). Don’t call Bull a man’s man, Renee. He’s no Stephen Regal.  Bull overpowering Gabriel who uses his power to keep Gabriel grounded and on the mat. Gabriel escapes a choke and hits a moonsault but gets a 2. Kicks Bull in the back (the most unnecessary move in pro wrestling) numerous times, heads up to the top rope tries to leap into tornado DDT, but Bull catches him and backdrops him. Hits the ropes and big standing splash. Bull to the top for the headbutt and the win.

  Bayley is in the locker room. Says she never expected Becky Lynch to do what she did and that Sasha Banks brainwashed her. But if Sasha wants to bring a friend she will too - Charlotte.

  Baron Corbin out now to squash another jobber. Announcers say he shows up, squashes people and leaves. No one can talk to him at all. Tony Briggs making his debut against Corbin? Yeah this will go well. NXT crowd starts counting as the match starts and it was less than 20 seconds to squash Briggs.

  Marcus Louis finally gets his hands on Sylvester LaFort tonight. LaFort comes out first to his awesome theme music and Louis charges after him, doesn’t even wait for music or announcer. Renee says that Sylvester says that he never actually accepted the hair vs hair match and that Marcus did and he lost his hair because of it. Louis goes crazy on LaFort. Sylvester trying to run away, holding onto the apron and Marcus pulling him back. Keeps yelling “You did this to me!” as he pins LaFort with a standing uranage. Now that he’s dealt with LaFort I’m not sure what Louis will do next but I hope he just keeps getting crazier and crazier.

  In the locker room, Itami says he’s tired of the Ascension’s 2-on-1. He’s not leaving. And next week, he’s bringing a friend. Spoiler alert – it’s Finn Balor (aka Prince Devitt).

  Main event, Sami Zayn takes on Titus O’Neill again. (Just noticed a Dasher Hatfield shirt in the crowd.) Titus takes advantage early with his power but Zayn keeps coming back. Zayn keeps trying to get offense going but Titus throws him around, catching his crossbody and hitting several backbreakers before tossing him like a ragdoll.  

  This match is very reminiscent of their last match and the match last week against Neville. Titus jaw jacking with fans too much, yelling at Zayn after he throws him from the ring. Keeps saying “Don’t send a child to do a man’s job.” Zayn gets turned inside out with a big clothesline after hitting a top rope cross body and gets some momentum. Zayn hits a big exploder into the corner out of nowhere followed by a Helluva kick for the win.

  During Zayn’s celebration, Tyler Breeze interrupts and asks Sami, “Do you really think you can get a title shot by beating a bunch of uggos?” And says if he wants a title shot, he has to beat Prince Pretty and that his road to redemption is taking a detour into Cuteville and next week, it will be Zayn vs Breeze.

Ricardo Rodriguez, RF shoot video on NXT

  This shoot video came out a couple months back but I just found a clip online of where he talks about NXT and the WWE Developmental system. I’ve heard mixed reactions to the Ricardo shoot. Some say it’s informative and interesting to hear how things are being run at the Performance Center while others think that Ricardo is just looking for attention, embellishing stories and generally sounds bitter about being let go.

  I feel like he sounds pretty honest and genuine as he recounts his experiences with NXT and the developmental system, though. He sounds like a guy who worked hard to get where he is in the sport but WWE just couldn’t find anything for him to do outside of a managerial role – basically the old “creative has nothing for you.”

  I’ve recounted pretty much everything he said in the clip I saw, but you can also find it on YouTube here:

–Says in 2010, FCW was more fun than NXT now, also saying it wasn’t a “Nazi camp” referring to the current state of NXT. Everyone has to walk on eggshells all the time, everyone’s tired from the schedule they have them on - that “They’re building machines right now.” Says that everyone has insane cardio and stamina these days, but no one is having fun and that everyone is getting hurt.

–Says that he loves Bill DeMott on a personal level but doesn’t agree with some of the drills he does. That around 2010 they had a trainer named Rob McIntyre, who was John Cena’s trainer and that when DeMott took over the developmental program, a lot of guys started getting hurt. Rob went to DeMott and said a lot of wrestlers are getting hurt and they can’t train/exercise and after that, DeMott went to the office and complained about Rob, saying it was his fault people were getting hut and Rob got fired.

–States again he likes DeMott as a person and on a personal level but that he doesn’t necessarily agree with him “when it comes to wrestling.” Talks about when Bill was an agent for the Divas and an instance with Alicia Fox and Kelly Kelly, that he was telling them how to do a head scissors and Ricardo saw them and didn’t say anything, but was just like “No, that’s not how you do that. I know lucha and that’s not how you do that” and other things along those lines where DeMott would tell people how to do something that would usually lead to people getting hurt.

–Went on to say that when guys come up from NXT and FCW, the way that agents would put them on dark matches and stuff would be to see them work together in the ring before the shows so that the agents could see who works well together. But now, the kids coming up are just so tired and exhausted from the training regimen that they can’t do that.

Ring of Honor

  The biggest piece of ROH news this week is that the tag team champions reDRagon, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, won the New Japan Best of Super Juniors tag team tournament over the weekend, defeating The Young Bucks in the finals, who were the winners of the tournament in 2013. In the semifinals, reDRagon defeated the Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero and  Alex Kozlov, who are former ROH tag champions) and in the first round, defeated Bushi and Mascara Dorada.

  The unique ROH tournament “Survival of the Fittest” is this weekend in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio. All the qualifying matches for the tournament have been announced. In Survival of the Fittest, there are six qualifying matches and the winners of those matches move onto a 6-man elimination match the next night and the winner of that match gets a shot at the ROH World title.

Survival of the Fittest

Nov 7 and 8, Columbus and Toledo, OH

The Briscoes Brothers vs Matt Taven and Michael Bennett in a no DQ match

The Addiction vs The Decade (Jacobs and Whitmer)

Survival of the Fittest qualifying matches:

ACH vs Matt Sydal

Adam Page vs Cedric Alexander

Jay Lethal vs Hanson

Tommaso Ciampa vs Caprice Coleman

Roderick Strong vs Tadarius Thomas

Adam Cole vs Delirious

Glory by Honor XIII

Nov. 15, San Antonio, TX

Jay Briscoe vs ACH - ROH World title match (ACH in hometown of San Antonio)

Jay Lethal vs RD Evans – ROH TV title vs #TheNewStreak

reDRagon vs. The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett)

Adam Cole vs Christopher Daniels

Roderick Strong vs Frankie Kazarian

Road to Final Battle: Tag Wars

Nov. 22, Baltimore, MD

One night, tag team title tourney, 6 teams entered. The winning teams enter a four way elimination match with ROH tag champions reDRagon with the titles on the line.

The Briscoe Brothers vs The Addiction

Young Bucks also entered

Also:

Adam Cole vs Brian Kendrick

  PWInsider expects that GFW will announce first talent signings as well as the market for its first show in the next 3-4 week. Also more word on other international PPVs in America as well. It seems GFW may in fact be a traditional promotion and not just a platform for international companies to showcase their work in America.

CZW Cerebral results

Nov 1, Deer Park, NY

John Silver defeated Tony Nese

Joe Gacy defeated Matt Tremont

Wired Champion Shane Strickland’s promo got interrupted by Devon Moore

Devon Moore defeated Flawless & Lawless

BLK Jeez defeated Papadon

Falls Count Anywhere: Chris Dickinson defeated Matt Tremont

Wired Championship

Shane Strickland defeated David Starr to retain

Drew Gulak defeated DJ Hyde via submiossion

Milk Chocolate defeated Team Tremendous after Bill Carr ran after John Silver and Dan Barry was rolled up from behind

No Rope, Barbed Wire match for the CZW Championship

Sozio defeated Biff Busick to retain

Upcoming shows

Women Superstars Uncensored and CZW have a doubleheader Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Flyer’s Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey

Women Superstars Uncensored, “Breaking Barriers”

WSU World championship

Lufisto (c) vs Jenny Rose

WSU Spirit championship

Niya Barela (c) vs Tessa Blanchard

JT Dunn vs Kimber Lee

David Starr vs Annie Social

(If Lee and Social win their matches they get a shot at Dunn and Starr’s WSU tag team titles)

Hania ‘The Howling Huntress’ vs Athena

Brittany Blake vs Leva Bates

D’Arcy Dixon vs Mickie Knuckles

Cherry Bomb vs Solo Darling

Nevaeh vs Jewells Malone

Combat Zone Wrestling, “Night of Infamy 8”

CZW World Heavyweight championship

Sozio (c) vs Blk Jeez

CZW tag team championship

OI4K vs Buxx Belmar and “Speedball” Mike Bailey

CZW Wired championship

Panes of Glass match

Shane Strickland (c) vs Devon Moore

Beaver Boys vs Papadon and Pepper Parks

Chris Dickinson vs Mr Tofiga

6-man scramble for Wired number one contendership

Latin Dragon vs Joe Gacy vs ? vs ? vs ? vs ?

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)

Austin Aries open challenge accepted by Drew Galloway

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

Christian York vs Brian Myers

Eddie Kingston vs Jigsaw

2CW, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”

Nov. 21 in Cicero, New York

2CW tag team championship

Dudley Boyz (c) vs Young Bucks

2CW Heavyweight championship

Nick Ando (c) vs Jugger Dawg

World’s Cutest Tag Team vs Brute Vanslyke and Kevin Graham

Colin Delany vs AR Fox

Johnny Gargano vs Dalton Castle

Empire State Wrestling, “WrestleBash”

Nov 22, Lockport, New York

Four Corners of Carnage

Abyss vs Rhino

ESW heavyweight title

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

ESW tag titles

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

ESW Interstate title match

Kevin Bennett (c) vs Sonjay Dutt

Worlds Cutest Tag Team vs Pepper Parks and Cherry Bomb

Ilio DiPaolo Memorial Cup 6-man scramble

            Johnny Gargano vs Brandon Thurston vs Colin Delaney vs Will Calrissian vs ? vs ?

Absolute Intense Wrestling, “Hell on Earth X”

Nov. 28, Turners Hall in Cleveland, OH

EC3 vs Johnny Gargano

Rockstar Spud vs Marion Fontaine

Alex Shelley vs Josh Prohibition

Beyond Wrestling, “Alive and Kicking”

Nov. 29, Providence, RI

West Coast vs East Coast elimination match
Young Bucks, Best Friends and Brian Cage vs Juicy Product, Doom Patrol and Dan Barry

Drew Gulak and Kimber Lee vs Pepper Parks and Cherry Bomb

Silver Ant vs Matt Tremont

Brian Fury vs Jay Freddie

Beyond Wrestling, “Tournament for Tomorrow 3”

Nov. 30, Providence, RI

Young Bucks vs Da Hoodz (Davey Cash and Kris Pyro)

Best Friends vs Team Tremendous

Osirian Portal vs Juicy Product

Da Hit Squad (Monsta Mack and Dan Maff) vs Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson and Jaka)

Eddie Edwards vs Silver Ant