For a wrestling show atmosphere you got to respect a bar with no wrestling ring where they use the stage and a semi-circle in front of of it to wrestle deathmatches. Once the pandemic ends I'm definitely heading to Orlando to watch one of their shows. Sometimes wrestlers don't really know how to utilize this space without a ring, which isn't surprising considering its not a normal way to wrestle, but its fun to see who can adapt to it and how fast they can do it. I have seen some awkward matches because of that, but this show doesn't really have any matches like that. Watching the show live can be kind of a bummer as they take a good amount of time between matches cleaning out the broken weapons and setting up new stuff, but that's pretty standard for deathmatch stuff.
Parrow vs. MV Young
Brawling on the stage starts the match off until MV kicks Parrow down to the floor. MV leaps off the stage with a crossbody, but Parrow catches him and hits a fall away slam into the guardrail. Parrow accidentally knocks the camera feed out for a bit with a chair before circling MV and hitting a chair shot to his back. Parrow sets up two chairs facing each other and MV smokes him with a chair to the knee then hits a double stomp off the stage to the back of Parrow leaning on the chairs. MV sets up a guardrail over some chairs and Parrow escapes to the stage. Parrow fights back and picks MV up for a powerbomb and slams him into some lighttubes that are setup on the wall. Commentary from Janela and Drennan tell us about how Parrow's husband was mad about him going through lighttubes at the last show. Parrow then sets up lighttubes on the guardrail table and MV fights out of the powerbomb attempt then sends Parrow through the tubes with a backbody drop for a two count. MV sets up the door over the guardrail, but Parrow fights back and powerbombs MV through the table. Parrow stands up after the pin attempt and his back is a bloody mess. Parrow hits an inverted piledriver and gets the three count.
This is a great way to start the show with a hard hitting match with some nice weapon usage, but it doesn't go too hard with that and leaves lots of room for the later matches to go really hard with it. Parrow really displays his power against MV and the piledriver finisher of this match looks really brutal.
6/10
Beastly vs. Otis Cogar
They start by exchanging forearms strikes before Cogar grabs the lighttubes and just nails Beastly over the head. They brawl onto the stage and Beastly takes advantage and hits Cogar with some lighttubes in revenge. Cogar gets the advantage again and sends Beastly to the floor and comes off with a suicide dive. Beastly is leaned against a table, but moves out of the way and Cogar sends himself through it. Beastly puts the door on top of Cogar and wails on him with a chair. Cogar turns the tables and wallops Beastly with the chair. Beastly sets up a door over two chairs and hits Cogar with some more chair shots. Beastly looks in Cogar's bag and gets scared and Cogar chokeslams him through the door to get the three count.
A brawl between two brawler dudes. Not a whole lot to be excited for in this match. It's fine, they don't mess anything up, but its not that exciting either.
4/10
Lindsay Snow vs. Neil Diamond Cutter
Snow wins the strike exchange to start the match then breaks a lighttube over his head. NDC isn't phased and tells her to break more over him and she kicks two of them into his chest. NDC hits her leg to stun her then headbutts a lighttube over her head then rubs the broken end into her forehead. Then he grabs a gusset plate and headbutts that into her head. Snow hits a nice snap suplex on the floor. They brawl back and forth before Snow sits NDC on a chair and locks in a sleeper. NDC trips Snow into the chair then puts it around her neck and throws her into the stage then drop toeholds her and Snow breaks the chair with her impact. NDC sets up a door with lighttubes and because he tries to pump up the fans Snow hooks him from behind and essentially hits a pump handle slam through it. After getting a two count Snow grabs a lighttube and sets it off on NDC's finger a couple of times. Snow sets up a bunch of chairs facing each other and NDC fights onto the stage and picks her up to hit a running air raid crash through the chairs for a two count. NDC sets up a ladder as the Orlando Death Squad brings out a barbed wire spider net over the top of a door with some mousetraps on it. Then the crew brings out a lighttube structure to put on top of that. NDC climbs the ladder to go for a tornado DDT, but Snow low blows him then press slams him off the ladder through the glass and barbed wire and gets the three count.
I love this match. Can not tell that its Snow's first deathmatch as she seems right at home with all of the weapons they use and both of them are bloody messes at the end of this match. They do a great job of escalating the violence building up to the end and the action is a fun watch. NDC is a guy I started watching last year and he's quickly become one of my favorite wrestlers to watch. And its capped off with a great spectacle of a bump that I could watch over and over again. You have to check this match out.
9/10
John Wayne Murdoch vs. Matthew Justice
Murdoch loses the chair duel and gets a stiff shot to the back. Murdoch gets a few chair shots in then Justice throws him against the guardrail and clotheslines him over and they brawl to the outside. Murdoch suplexes Justice on the street outside as a car is directed around them wrestling. Back inside the building they exchange heavy chops before Justice charges and gets backbody dropped over the guardrail back into the pit area. Justice hits a stinger splash to Murdoch on a ladder, but Murdoch holds onto him and hits an exploder onto the ladder. Both men grab metal buckets and start wailing on each other. Then they both sit down and start smacking each other with cheese graters. Justice picks Murdoch up and hits a DVD onto a chair and the guardrails.Justice gets a staple gun and starts stapling tips onto Murdoch. Justice goes onto the stage and leaps off and goes through a chair and door to the floor and it looks brutal. Murdoch gets on the stage and misses his own dive and smashes through the other door with a bunch of lighttubes on his back. Justice and Murdoch grab the remains of doors and smack each other in the head with them. Murdoch wants to go for a Canadian Destroyer, but Fonzie smashes a lighttube bazooka over his head and Justice spears him through the guardrail for a two count. Justice sets up a door and a ladder on the floor then he and Murdoch brawl on the stage. Murdoch hits a Canadian Destroyer off the stage through the ladder and gets a two count. All the debris gets stacked up on the floor and Murdoch hits another Canadian Destroyer off the stage to the floor. Neither man gets up by ten and the match is a draw.
This match is too long of a brawl for my tastes and the ending doesn't really help anything. I've seen good matches from both of these guys, but this definitely felt like one of those matches where people wanted to make it an epic match and it just had too much stuff and wasn't concerned with being a good match to start with before it becomes epic. There's also a lot more sloppiness than I'm used to from these two guys.
5/10
Bam Sullivan vs. Alex Ocean
They start with the traditional deathmatch greeting of breaking lighttubes over each others heads. They dodge each other to avoid the door before Sullivan catches Ocean and hits a side Russian leg sweep through the door. Ocean breaks some U shaped lighttubes over Sullivan's back then grinds the remains on his forehead. Oh no the bucket of syringes and Sullivan stabes two into Ocean's arms. Ocean dodges a lighttube attack and returns the favor of syringes to the arm and then stabs a bunch to his forehead. Sullivan sets up a door on the stage then dumbs the syringes on the door. As Sullivan checks the syringes Ocean pops up and hits a diamond cutter through the door. Ocean spends a bunch of time setting up some contraptions and Sullivan recovers and hits an enziguri twice but fails to break the lighttube either time before he just hits a running kick to break the tube. Sullivan drop toe holds Ocean onto the lighttubes set across the bottom run of the ladder, but they don't break. Sullivan jumps off the stage with lighttubes across his back and smashes through Ocean and the door he was leaning against. Bam Sullivan sets up another door and hits a sitout DVD through the door to get a two count. The Orlando Death Squad comes out with another contraption starting with a door over some chairs then a couple pallets for walls with a pane of glass with some Christmas lights on it and then a second pan of glass above that. Sullivan removes Ocean's shirt and smashes him with a lighttube as the squad lights the glass pane on fire. Sullivan goes for a suplex, but Ocean counters and hits a falcon arrow through the contraption and gets the three count.
This match was a little too slowly paced and felt pretty long with a bunch of door spots that got repetitve after a while. These two do some crazy shit in between this stuff, but it felt a little too much like wait for each other to do a spot, now I'll take control and do a cool spot. The finish is fucking awesome though and buys a lot of forgiveness in the match for me, but they could have cut like five minutes from this and made it an awesome match. There was a bit where Ocean setup two different contraptions and then didn't use either and it was bad. Still the bright spots of this match were bright and the my god the finish was cool.
6/10
Masada vs. Conor Claxton
Some brawling to start before Masada grabs some records and smashes them over Claxton's head. They brawl to the bar and Masada lays Claxton on the bar and tries to waterboard him with the soda gun. Masada pummels Claxton to the ground with a cinder block then rests it on his back and smashes it with another cinder block. Claxton fights back with a lighttube shot then grabs a mini field goal post with lighttubes and smashes it over Masada's head. Masada grabs the dummy head with skewers on it and smashes it into Claxton's midsection then stabs him in the mouth with the skewers. Masada sets some lighttubes on the stage then lifts Claxton up with a belly to back suplex on the floor and drops him onto the lighttubes. Masada chokes Claxton, but Claxton counters with an eye gouge. He goes to whip Masada into the guardrail, but Masada counters sending Claxton hard into the rails. Masada hits a couple of European uppercuts, but Claxton blocks the third one and hits a brainbuster through a chair for a two count. Claxton sets up a bunch of cinder blocks and sets Masada on top then goes for a moonsault off the stage. Masada rolls out of the way and Claxton misses the blocks and hits the chair on the ground. Masada sets a door up over the cinder blocks and chokes Claxton with a chair before going up to the stage. Claxton chucks the chair into Masada's face then climbs up onto the stage with him. They exchange forearm shots and Masada counters a suplex attempt off the stage with a kick to the dick. Masada grabs some skewers and pounds them into Claxton's head and gets all of them to stick in there. Masada does a standing snapmare through the door then replants the skewers into Claxton's forehead. Masada grabs even more because he's mean then kicks a chair into Claxton's skewered head for the three count.
This was a pretty one sided beat down by Masada which isn't ideal, but Claxton shows a lot of fire making his comebacks and Masada is just really good at laying out matches like this. Masada is a good wrestler and he knows how to build a normal match and then add in the deathmatch stuff. The pace is really good in this match and they keep things going really well. They don't go super big with any spots, but everything they do is well done and makes sense with the flow of the match. Plus this match had a lot of weapons that nobody else on the show was using which made it seem more special as well.
7/10
Overall: I recommend watching this show. As long as you skip the interstitial clips between matches its under two hours and features a lot of exciting matches and gives you a good range of talent to check out. There's only one match on here I don't like at all and even that ones not bad. And I think my opinion about the Justice vs. Murdoch match isn't widely shared so it might have more stuff to enjoy than I think. I like that the show uses the same lighting that the venue does for the bands that play which give it a really unique vibe from other wrestling shows.
