Jack Evans vs. Rey Horus
Evans stops the match before it starts to showcase his breakdancing and as soon as he gets to his feet Horus dropkicks him. Rey Horus hits a nice somersault dive over the turnbuckle onto Evans. Horus hits a standing Spanish fly on Evans for two. Evans is against the ropes and dropkicks Horus as he charges in to flip backwards onto the apron then hits a springboard spinning kick then follows up with a Sasuke special to the floor. Evans misses a 450 for Horus to turn the tides and he hits the spinning body scissors off the top for a two count before Evans grabs the ropes. Evans trips Horus off the ropes then goes for a 630 and Horus rolls out of the way. They fight back and forth over a backslide and Evans hits a donkey kick to the dick and slides Horus over and flips over to cover for a three count.
6/10 A fine opening match with a good pace and a bunch of nice dives from both men. Good to see Evans back in form after not doing much in the singles scene in AEW. Nothing amazing, but solid work from both guys.
Ethan HD vs. Scotty 2 Hotty
There's like a solid five minutes of pre-match shenanigans between the two of them, mostly on Scotty's part. Scotty controls early with some fun goofy face offense before Ethan puts a stop to the shenanigans with a stiff left. Ethan goes for the Worm, but Scotty gets up and stops him short and starts his comeback. Scotty goes for a worm, but Ethan trips him down. Scotty makes another comeback, but Ethan blocks a punch and gets a backslide then gets his feet on the ropes for the three count.
4/10 This was a standard Scotty 2 Hotty match from the attitude era. Neither man really brought anything special to the match
Midnight Heat (Ricky Gibson & Eddie Pearl) vs. Jaiden and Derek Shaw
I feel like Derek Shaw isn't big enough or impressive looking enough for Ricky to sell his getting tagged into the match that much, but okay. The heels use a bunch of heel tactics to get the advantage and start wearing Jaiden down. Derek gets a hot tag and cleans house before Eddie cuts him off and gets the win.
4/10 A pretty standard indie tag match. Not a whole lot of anything special happened here, but it was competent.
Willow Nightingale vs. Taya Valkyrie
Willow quickly goes for a lucha rolling pinning combination, but only gets one, although it is the first minute of the match so I don't know why she would win that quickly. Big fan of Willow's crossbody to a seated opponent. Taya does some fancy rope running and takes Willow down with a crossbody of her own. Taya hits the sliding german suplex to Willow off the bottom rope and they go to the outside to brawl. Willow moves out of the way of a chop and Taya smashes her hand against the ring post. Back in the ring and Willow gets the advantage in a chop battle then hits Willow with a spinebuster as Taya comes off the ropes. The middle rope breaks here, that's important for later. Willow hits an enziguri and runs the ropes and the top rope snaps dropping her to the floor. Taya rolls Willow into the ring and gets a two count. Taya does a double knees into the broke corner and then Taya catches Willow going for a handstand move and curbstomps her and then puts her into a modified STF for the submission.
6/10 A good match between these two with some hard hitting shots and Willow falls out of the ring with the broken ropes and surviving and being fine. Both of these women are good at what they do and they do their thing in this match.
Drexl vs. Akira vs. Sonico vs. MV Young
MV Young comes out as they try to fix the rings and tells them they don't need ropes for this match and calls it a Poly Am street fight. This one is a wild brawl since it's a four way and they just pair off and wrestle. Akira picks up a fan and uses him to ram MV. Young turns the tables and does a somersault to knock Akira down and also fucks up the camera connection while doing it. Drexl and Sonico brawl to the merch tables and Drexl grabs an 8x10 and gives Sonico some papercuts. Sonico turns the tables and staples the 8x10 to Drexl. Akira fakes throwing Sonico into the cameraman then hits a short arm clothesline. Sonico staples Akira's arm, so Akira pulls the staple out then spits it back into Sonico's face. MV suplexes Akira onto the chairs then everybody else hits a suplex on the outside. Akira nd Sonico fight onto an elevated platform and Akira hits a brainbuster up there then Akira moonsaults onto everybody who just stood there watching him. MV hits a nice brainbuster on Akira and then a disgusting one on Drexl. Akira then hits a bunch of dragon suplexes and dodges an attack from Sonico to double stomp him and hit a deadlift german suplex. MV levels Sonico with a half and half suplex then a big running knee to the face. Sonico counters the next suplex then sets up a chair and hits an elevated DDT onto the chair for the three count.
7/10 The outside camera breaking during this match hurts it as there is a lot of chaos we miss out on as they brawl on the floor, but this was a surprisingly good match from what I thought was going to be just fine. These guys really capitalize on the broken ring situation and just do a bunch of memorable shit in this fight. A nice use of weapons without going too hard on them and a lot of great wrestling from these four. This match just had a fun sense of anarchy and people would just pop out of nowhere to hit somebody else with a weapon and it was awesome.
Masha Slamovich vs. Miyu Yamashita
There's some chain wrestling to start, but it quickly devolves into them snapmaring each other and kicking each other in the back. They exchange a bunch of hard strikes that ends with Miyu hitting a big german suplex, but Masha stands right up and hits a roundhouse on Miyu. Miyu staggers to her feet and catches Masha's next big kick and bites her foot then hits a spinning back kick for the three count.
5/10 I liked this match, but it didn't really connect as much as I hoped it would. Both women looked very good and kick hard as hell.
C4 (Guillermo Rosas & Cody Chun) vs. Violence is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku)
C4 take control of Ku early and hit a spot where Rosas lifts Ku up for a suplex and Chun hits a dropkick to knock him down. Ku turns the table and Ku knocks Chun off the apron and Violence is Forever takes control and starts beating the hell out of Rosas. Chun comes in with a nice hot tag and hits big corner splashes on both guys. Rosas hits a codebreaker on Ku, but he flips out of the backdrop attempt from Chun and Garrini runs in and breaks things up with a big lariat. Chun runs up the ropes for a cutter and Garrini catches him in a rear naked choke. Ku grabs Rosas with a kimura as well and Rosas lifts him up and drops him onto Garrini to break up the choke. Ku and Rosas have a back and forth forearm exchange before Rosas takes the advantage and trips Ku into Chun's knee. Garrini comes in to turn things around and they hit a total elimination for a close two count. ViF go for a double team move, but Chun flips out of it and hits a double superkick on Garrini with Rosas then nail Ku with a superkick, flying knee, and then hit a high-low double team for the three count.
6/10 A solid tag team match here between these two teams and Violence is Forever brings some really hard hitting offense to the match. Some good double team work from both teams through out and just a solid match.
Tom Lawlor vs. Alex Shelley
A lot of grappling exchanges to start before Shelley rolls to the outside to clear his head. Shelley gets the grappling advantage and getting cocky nearly lets Lawlor get back in control with some strikes, but he catches a kick and takes him back down. Lawlor takes some more punishment before fighting out with strikes and beating Shelley down in the corner. Lawlor goes for a suplex and Shelley slaps the shit out of Lawlor's midsection and hits a spinning suplex. Both men struggle to their feet and start exchanging forearm shots. Shelley takes a shortcut and grabs Lawlor by the dick so Lawlor grabs him by the dick so they just hold onto each others dicks and exchange forearms before Lawlor gets the advantage and connects with an enziguri. Lawlor hits a tombstone and gets a two count. The two men start exchanging bombs and reversals of each others finishers. Shelley hits a big knee and a superkick to a kneeling Lawlor before hitting a shellshock to get the three count.
8/10 A really good back and forth match between these two men with a lot of nice grappling and stiff striking exchanges. I always forget Shelley is a heel because he's one of my favorite wrestlers, but he does a lot of nice heel work in here and Lawlor provides a lot of baby face fire when fighting back into the match and trying to get the win.
Maki Itoh vs. Mia Yim
Itoh gets streams and Yim grabs one and throws it at Itoh, love little touches like that. Itoh gains the first advantage after some back and forth and whips Mia into the corner and hits a running back elbow. Mia drops down and takes a kokeshi and the crowd goes wild. Itoh goes for a crossbody, but Mia catches her and hits a fall away slam then follows up with some kicks. Mia takes control using the power advantage and wears Itoh down. Mia tries running Itoh's head into the turnbuckles, but it doesn't work and Mia gets headbutted and knocked to the ground. Itoh hits a nice tornado DDT for a two count. Itoh goes to the top for something, but Yim cuts her off and they start exchanging strikes on the apron. Itoh drapes Mia's feet on the corner and ddts her to the apron for a two count before Mia grabs the rope. Itoh hits another tornado ddt, but Mia gets up and hits a german suplex. Both women are down and slowly fight their way to their feet exchanging forearms before Itoh grabs a headlock gets to the corner and hits another tornado ddt. Itoh goes up for a top rope kokeshi, but Mia rolls out of the way and hits a backdrop driver for two. Mia goes for a package piledriver, but Itoh fights out and gets shotgun dropkicked into the corner. Mia takes her up to the top rope and Mia flips her off. Itoh biters he middle fingers then throws her off the top rope and hits the top rope headbutt for three.
8/10 A really good match between these two with Mia trying to dominate with her power and Itoh fighting back with a combination of stubbornness and cleverness. A fun match where both women showcase what makes them great performers.
Overall: 6/10
A pretty uneven show with a lot of stuff just being normal and honestly the biggest problem is the show just started off poorly and that really killed the momentum of the show. The opener had too much shenanigans to really kick the show off fast and the second match was all shenanigans and just was too long and the energy just wasn't there for how excited I was for the card to start with. The matches that hit are really good and I would definitely watch the two main events and the four way match. But as a show it just didn't bring the energy I wanted from it.
