On Sunday, October 6th, Vanguard Wrestling All-Star Alliance (VWAA) put on “Last Stop.” The dominant theme of the show was to see who would advance to the semi-finals of the tournament held to crown a VWAA Champion. Reed Bentley had already advanced, and this show would see the following matches to determine who would join him:
Prince Mustafa Ali vs Joe Firoz
“The Cleric” Matthias Kelevra vs “Born to Wrestle” Thomas Sinclair
“The Money” Matt Cage vs “The Definition” Isaias Velazquez
In addition, it was announced that “The League” of Reed Bentley and VWAA Circuit Champion, Tripp Cassidy, would face off against “The Sex Bob-ombs” Mat Fitchett and Davey Vega. Otherwise I wasn’t sure what else was on the card but I’d heard good things about the promotion so I was eager to see what was presented.
Match results:
1) Prince Mustafa Ali made Joe Firoz tap out to advance to the semi-finals.
2) “Never Say Die” Josh Crane issued an open challenge that was accepted by the debuting Jordynne Grace. Grace pinned Crane.
3) Gary Jay rolled up Vic Capri with a handful of tights for the pin.
4) “The League” (Reed Bentley & Tripp Cassidy) defeated “The Sex Bob-ombs” (Mat Fitchett & Davey Vega).
5) “Two Star Heroes” (Matt Knicks & Chris Castro) beat Mallaki Matthews & Jeff O’Shea.
6) “Born to Wrestle” Thomas Sinclair beat “The Cleric” Matthias Kelevra via count out to advance to the semi-finals.
7) “Too Sweet” (Joey Marx & Bryce Benjamin) beat “Team Defend UK” (Pete Dunne & Mark Andrews).
8) Main event: Matt Cage pinned Isaias Velazquez to advance to the semi-finals.
First off, I had heard that VWAA crowds were small. This show seemed to have around twenty or so people, so it was a step up from last month’s. Fans were slow to get into things but after encouragement and heckling from the fans they eventually became louder and more involved. The set up was good, there was a small screen to the side of the ring that showed promos and entrance videos, and the lighting was decent. What struck me was that, despite the low attendance, no one phoned it in. Everyone who went into the ring gave it 100%, which was very cool to see. All the wrestlers looked like they were having fun as well.
There honestly wasn’t a bad match on the card. Some were obviously better than others, but there weren’t any huge mistakes and any “bumps in the road” were smoothed over quickly. Match of the night honors went to the main event between Cage and Velazquez, but an honorable mention easily goes to Too Sweet vs Team Defend UK who got a standing ovation after their match. Tons of near falls, lots of high flying maneuvers, and all four men worked the crowd. Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews have been in the states for several weeks now, and soon will be going back to the United Kingdom. I cannot stress enough that if you have the opportunity to see them live, by all means make the effort. These two are simply amazing to watch, easily on par with any of America’s high flyers, and have a charisma all their own. They have their own website where you can buy “Defend Indy Wrestling” merchandise and also keep up with their adventures in the states. That website is here: http://www.defendindywrestling.com/ . I hadn’t seen Marx or Benjamin before but they were also impressive. A fun match, great work by all four.
As I said before, however, match of the night went to Matt Cage versus Isaias Velazquez. Prior to the match, Cage made Isaias an offer: to beat the hell out of each other, let the best man win, and shake hands after the match. Velazquez agreed and they proceeded to do just that. Neither one held anything back, and it was a shame to see the match end because it was so good. They did shake hands afterwards. Cage advanced to the semi-finals for the VWAA Championship.
Elsewhere on the card, two more semi-finalists won the right to advance. Prince Mustafa Ali made Joe Firoz tap out, while Thomas Sinclair defeated Matthias Kelevra via count out. Ali and Firoz was great; and despite the fact it took awhile for me to get into Sinclair v Kelevra, I did wind up enjoying it. Kelevra is a very imposing, massive mountain of a man who portrays a neigh invulnerable force. The end came about as a result of what happened after O’Shea/Matthews vs Knicks/Castro, in that O’Shea was still in the ring when Matthias came out and laid him low. Mallaki didn’t take this well – when Kelevra was on the outside of the ring, he ran out and wacked The Cleric on the back with a chair that didn’t phase him. He picked up the chair Matthews had dropped and turned around into a dropkick from Sinclair that hit the chair against his chest. Thomas rolled back into the ring, earning the count out victory.
Speaking of the aforementioned tag match, that was a lot of fun to watch. I had seen Matt Knicks and Chris Castro in Dreamwave Wrestling, where the latter is the protege of Matt Cage, and the former is part of a tag team that just lost the tag belts. “Two Star Heroes” have a great chemistry and work very well as a team. Mallaki Matthews and Jeff O’Shea are still learning and growing, but both have tremendous potential and are worth keeping an eye on. There was a lot of comedy in this match (at one point early in the match, Castro shook hands with Matthews, but when Mallaki went to turn away, Chris pulled him into a bear hug and said, “I’m sorry. I love you.” and suplexed him into the corner – I laughed so hard!), lots of cool spots and you could tell all four were having fun. O’Shea seemed to be having problems concentrating at various points, and later I learned this was due to the fact at a previous VWAA show he had been hypnotized by Ophidian. Still suffering from the side effects, he missed several chances to tag in, but when he finally did tag in he cleared house. It wasn’t enough as the more experienced team of the Two Star Heroes got the victory, however. Really good match, all four are worth watching. On a side note, Chris Castro has lost a lot of weight within the past few months and is starting to get into shape. Kudos to him, he looks great!
Gary Jay vs Vic Capri was solid, lots of hard chops from Jay who is infamous for how brutal they are. Unable to put Capri away cleanly, he rolled Vic up and held onto the tights to get the pin after taking advantage of Capri’s manager, Dr. Louis Pinder, arguing with Josh Crane. Speaking of Crane, he made his return to Vanguard after being absent since his debut at July’s show, “Paving the Path.” He got on the mic and said he was issuing an open challenge since he was out to make a name for himself. An unlikely person answered the challenge: Jordynne Grace, making her own debut, made her way to the ring saying that she was also out to make a name and wanted to face Josh. Crane was understandably hesitate to strike a woman, but after she took advantage of this once or twice, he didn’t hold back. The two had a short but good match, Grace getting what could be considered an upset win. She offered her hand to Crane, who accepted it. This was the first time I had seen Jordynne, and she has a lot of potential. The crowd was warm towards her as she showed her toughness. “Never Say Die” Josh Crane was trained by Drake Younger, and it shows in his stiff strikes. His kicks especially are growing more lethal. He has a determination to grow and evolve, he’s driven by the desire to become better, and given time he will become something special I believe. His piercing “wolf eyes” are always intense. Definitely another one to keep eyes on.
Probably the most fun match was the tag team bout between The League of Reed Bentley and VWAA Circuit Champion Tripp Cassidy, and The Sex Bob-ombs Mat Fitchett and
Davey Vega. Tripp was more brooding and silent, but Reed Bentley was out-going, brash, and completely hilarious. They came out wearing each other’s trunks, and Bentley was sporting a wedding garter on one of his thighs. He’s great on the mic as it is, but he was constantly throwing out one liners throughout. Before they locked up, Reed did some sort of shuffle dance as well. Davey and Mat gave as good as they got, however, which made for a tremendous combination. Once Tripp hit a stiff kick and Reed nailed Mat with the “Reed Awakening” pop up forearm, it was all over. Post match shenanigans saw The League tossing chairs and Bentley cutting a promo up on a ladder.
Overall, Vanguard has a lot of promise since their return earlier this year. If they were to stay in one place/area (such as Addison), and the promoter were to do a bunch of local advertisement, it’s not a stretch to say it could grow into another solid promotion in Northern Illinois. True, there is already AAW and Dreamwave, but you see some names in Vanguard you don’t see in the other two places. This was a very solid, fun show and I’m glad I was able to attend. Already the semi-final matches for their next show, “Manifest Destiny VI” have been announced. It will be Matt Cage taking on Prince Mustafa Ali, and Reed Bentley wrestling Thomas Sinclair. Also, Tripp Cassidy will be defending his Circuit title against an unknown as of yet opponent.
“Manifest Destiny VI” takes place on November 24th in the Addison Community Center in Addison, IL. Bell time is at 4 p.m. Central time. If you are in the area, make plans to be there as both semi-final matches are sure to be good. In the mean time, check out “Last Stop” when it is released on SmartMarkVideo.com. Follow them on Twitter at twitter.com/VWAA as well.