At Defining Moment, the Allegiance Tag Team Tournament began with yet another match of the year contender. On this night, there were five tournament matches. When looking at the schedule and noticing AAW had a Bourbon Street show the night before a Ring of Honor PPV, you can see why AAW had to book this tournament the way they did with first and quarterfinal matches happening on the same night. I’m not a proponent of having shows back-to-back weeks, and I think Hostile Intentions is proof why.
I’m sad I haven’t gotten a chance to see more of Mark Andrews and Pete Dunne. I’ve seen both of their AAW matches and now their first round contest against the AAW tag team champions, Marion Fontaine and Louis Lyndon. This was a solid enough opener. Andrews and Dunne got a chance to showcase themselves a bit, but given Fontaine and Lyndon had to wrestle again, I understand why the match couldn’t be the type of balls to the walls affair one might expect. Fontaine pinned Dunne with a springboard moonsault.
Later on, Fontaine and Lyndon had their second match with the Monster Mafia of Josh Alexander and Ethan Page. I talked in my last review about matches before intermission completely stealing the show. On this night, these four wrestled in the match AFTER intermission. On a show that was noticeably shorter than previous ones, Fontaine and Lyndon saw their undefeated streak go by the wayside. This was a purposeful loss that helped MM advance and earn a title match even if they don’t go on to win the tournament. This was a very good showcase for these men. At this stage in their independent careers, tag teaming really suits all four men. Both teams have good chemistry with each other and compensate for certain weaknesses. Fontaine definitely brings the personality while Lyndon can deliver in the ring. Alexander is the bruiser while Page is the mouth. Not exactly a clean finish as Alexander hit a low blow to get his team the win, but I can see building heat for a rematch. MM has already had two must see matches in the tournament, and I can see this being the springboard for even greater things. If they’re not champions some time in 2014, then AAW is crazy.
Eddie Kingston and his little buddy Alex Colon wrestled Heidi Lovelace and Ryan Boz in the second match of the night. Boz and Lovelace were a bit of an odd duo. All of the emphasis was on lovelace as she had a ton of interaction with Kingston. She held her own before getting hit with the Backfist to the Future. Not much of a match as it barely got five minutes. Three of these people had to wrestle again, so it’s clear why this went so short. Right team absolutely won in this case. Kingston and Colon’s opponents would turn out to be Jimmy Jacobs and Silas Young. What a coincidence that they would be put in the same bracket. Young and Jacobs wrestled Matt Cage and ACH. It was good to see Cage hanging around with the big boys of AAW and looking competitive. This was the best match of the first half of the show. The idea is that even though neither team particularly likes each other that Young and Jacobs have a greater purpose within the tournament.
Those previous two matches led to a huge quarterfinal as Silas Young and Jimmy Jacobs conquered Eddie Kingston and Alex Colon. Young had a visual tap-out on Kingston, but the referee missed it. Colon’s role was to play an annoying pissant who wouldn’t let Young touch Kingston. This was the story of the match, and naturally he got to play job boy. He tapped to Young’s Stock Lock officially. Lots of crowd brawling as is a Berwyn tradition. Fairly intense match that felt important. Kingston and Young did have a good series which led to some confidence within me that they will eventually have an epic one-on-one match. I liked the booking of the tournament overall, and the two quarterfinal matches delivered in the ring.
While Arik Cannon had to deal with a ton of interference in his September match with Shane Hollister, there was none to deal with at Hostile Intentions. Finishers were attempted early. The first move of the match was an Arik Cannon back drop driver. This was a more intense match. Instead of Cannon bleeding, it was Hollister. This was one of the strongest efforts I’ve seen in quite some time out of Cannon. I’m glad Hollister won clean since main events in AAW when the champion is a heel get awfully repetitive. The idea is that Hollister has proven himself to be a worthy champion and can still win clean if given the chance, and he really just chooses to use Markus Crane and Scarlett as crutches.
In rematch of their July no-contest, Marek Brave and Christian Rose wrestled… to another no-contest. Brave wore out Rose with a kendo stick. There was some minor brawling. Brave snapped and destroyed everyone with the stick, including breaking the damn thing off one of the referee’s heads. Brave got a measure of revenge even without the finish. I like this feud as it immediately gets Rose over and allows him to showcase what kind of character he has. I’m also glad we didn’t get an extended 20 minute brawl and then a non-finish again. Very into what these guys are doing. Worth nothing some of the crowd was on Rose’s side so I’m wondering (like in Dreamwave) if Rose will get turned babyface by the crowd.
Knight Wagner won a jobber Battle Royal to get the managerial services of Truth Martini. I think this is a great pairing. Martini has a lot of credibility as a wrestler and manager with all the men he’s managed to success. Wagner has gotten a million times better this year and really worked his way past just being an X-Pac and potentially a solid member of the AAW roster. There were some lower end pre-show roster members and poor Alex Castle. Tony Rican had the match won, but the referees were distracted. Martini hit Rican with a book of truth, playing off a pre-match promo, leading to Wagner getting the win. Totally unnecessary if you ask me. I would have preferred Wagner ending the feud with Rican with Martini scouting. The battle royal felt like a giant waste of time with a bad finish to boot.
Heidi Lovelace actually pulled double duty as she also wrestled in the Shimmer showcase six woman tag with MsChif and Christina Von Eerie. The heel team was Jessica Havok, Saraya Knight, and Heather Patera. I understand why Lovelace took another beating, but man was this a boring match. Having Von Eerie and MsChif not hardly do anything was a poor choice. Even worse was Von Eerie’s sloppiness. To compound the awfulness of the match, Patera won with a hold of the tights. This is like the third time this happened. Given how beaten up Lovelace was and the fact she took a top star’s finisher, Patera should have finished her off in convincing fashion since the excuse is “Oh, Lovelace was injured going in.” Bad match plus bad finish equals awful.
In the next review, I’ll discuss why having back-to-back shows isn’t a great idea. This show didn’t see as affected as I would have thought given some missing talent. I’m glad this show wasn’t five hours long. This was overall much more manageable to watch. There were a couple poor segments on the show, but a must see quarterfinal match and the main event make this a worthwhile purchase. A good, not great show this time around.
Grade: B-
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-Taped from Berwyn, Illinois
-Commentators: Phil Colvin and Derek St. Holmes
-Allegiance Tag Team Tournament-First Round: Kung Fu Manchu (Louis Lyndon and Marion Fontaine) defend Team Defend UK (Pete and Mark Andrews). Fontaine pins Dunne after a springboard moonsault/8:23/**3/4
-Allegiance Tag Team Tournament-First Round: Eddie Kingston and Alex Colon defeat Heidi Lovelace and Ryan Boz by pinfall. Kingston pinned Lovelace after a Backfist to the Future/5:12/*1/2
-Allegiance Tag Team Tournament-First Round: Silas Young and Jimmy Jacobs defeat ACH (AAW Heritage Champion) and Matt Cage by submission. Jacobs tapped out Cage with End Time/14:47/***1/4
-Falls Count Anywhere: Christian Rose and Marek Brave battle to a no-contest/7:23/N/R
-Knight Wagner wins the Truth Martini Invitational Battle Royal/N/R/N/R
-Saraya Knight, Heather Patera, and Jessica Havok defeat MsChif, Christina Von Eerie, and Heidi Lovelace. Patera holds the tights and pins Lovelace /9:08/*
-Allegiance Tag Team Tournament-Quarterfinal: Monster Mafia (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) defeat Kung Fu Manchu (Marion Fontaine and Louis Lyndon)(AAW Tag Team Champions) by pinfall/18:59/****
–Allegiance Tag Team Tournament-Quarterfinal: Jimmy Jacobs and Silas Young defeat Eddie Kingston and Alex Colon by submission. Young taps out Colon to the Stock Lock/10:53/***1/4
-Shane Hollister defends the AAW heavyweight championship over Arik Cannon by pinfall/14:45/***1/2
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