VWAA Make Yourselves was the beginning of the Title tournament to crown a new Champion while VWAA rebooted itself in 2013. They had already crowned a Circuit Champion in Tripp Cassidy and it appeared as if the The League was going to run roughshod over the promotion as Reed Bentley scored another win at this event against Josh Crane and Vic Capri and Tripp Cassidy successfully retained his title against Thomas Sinclair who had been victimized by both men throughout the year.
Make Yourselves had four VWAA Title Tournament matches that included some of the best up-n-comers on the independent scene. The opening match of Gary Jay versus Matt Cage was a good, with a few minor timing mishaps, but paved the way for Cage to advance in the tournament and show the VWAA faithful what he can do. Prince Mustafa Ali would face a former VWAA champion in Machine in a match that was okay but furthered the feud between Ali and Cage. Ali would attempt throughout the match to beat Machine with underhanded tactics including a chair and holding onto the ropes while Cage would do his best to thwart those attempts. Cage would affect the conclusion of the match in a way he probably didn’t intend when he, unintentionally headbutted Machine in the corner which allowed Ali to hit his 450 splash for the win. Cage and Ali’s feud began the previous month when Ali pinned Cage after pretending to be hurt and I’m looking forward to where these two men go from here in 2014. The third tournament match was probably the match of the night from a technical standpoint as Isaias Velazquez faced the well traveled Arik Cannon. In a perfect world, I think this match should have been the semi-main event but it was probably the match before intermission and closed off a not-so-hot first half well. I think it’s easy to say Cannon has a ton of experience and showcased his unique style against Isaias very well as both men are known for their striking ability. Isaias has had some good matches in VWAA against men like Johnny Gargano and Ricochet and he pulled off another win here with a top rope DazeZhaVoo face plant. The striking and technical wrestling in this match more than redeemed the first half of this show which probably is not the best example of what VWAA generally showcases. The final tournament match was Joe Firoz defeating Daryck St. Holmes in a strange manner. Firoz is the beloved high flier and generally the underdog given his small stature. Facing off against St. Holmes was no easy task and for most of the match Joe was losing to St. Holmes’s technical ability. The finish of the match saw Vic Capri come out and beat on Firoz, thus giving him a DQ win over the old school technician. St. Holmes was clearly not happy with this, and rightfully so as he had Firoz in a figure four and possibly near winning. I’m not entirely sure where this was going but it seemed an odd way to finish off what not only was a tournament match but also the second to last match of the night. Not a very good feel good win for Firoz and as I said before, I think should have been replaced with Cannon/Velaquez.
There were several non tournament matches on this event. Gary Jay’s early loss would later be avenged by his Submission Squad cohorts in a tag match against the YBBO of Mallaki Mathews and Jeff O’Shea. This match did nothing for me and it is probably not worth checking out. The only merit out of the match was it set up O’Shea versus Mathews somewhere down the line as O’Shea cost his team the match by being “out of it” at key moments and leaving Mathews to do most of the work against Abernathy and Gelistico. I’ve seen O’Shea and Mathews look a lot better and the match only was more of a formality than anything else. There was also a triple threat match that saw Reed Bentley, partner of the VWAA Circuit Champion Tripp Cassidy, get a win over Josh Crane and Vic Capri. This triple threat saw Reed and Capri team up early against Crane until the eventual turn from Bentley on Capri for the win. This was a good match that had the best I’ve seen Crane look to this point and also foreshadowed some of Capri’s purpose later on in the night. During the final moments of the match Dr. Louis Pinder, the manager of Capri, took a phone call and told Capri that he had a new contract. This caused the distraction which allowed Bentley to get the pinfall but also furthered the storyline of Pinder costing Capri matches. It seems that we’ll probably see Capri fire Pinder somewhere in the future as these hitman-style contracts are costing him wins and that doesn’t seem to be Capri’s agenda. As mentioned above, Capri interfered in the St. Holmes/Firoz match and it was speculated on commentary that this was the contract set during this match. Capri is making a great return to the mid-west scene and I like the continuity of his character in VWAA so far.
The main event of the night was my favorite match. The VWAA Circuit Championship was defended by Tripp Cassidy against Thomas Sinclair who I think is an underrated talent who should be booked in other promotions. It started off hot and heavy and the hatred Sinclair has for the League (Cassidy and Reed Bentley) really showed throughout the match. It was a great fight with dives and some good wrestling from two of the top talents in VWAA right now. Cassidy won his title in a Tables, Ladders, and Doors match and proved he’s a tough champion, but his win also came with the help from Reed Bentley who punched Sinclair with some brass knuckles. Not the way I would want to see the match end, but that’s the point. I want to see these two men fight again down the line and hopefully Sinclair can get some revenge on Bentley as well. This was the second best match of the night and it was a great main event.
Overall: While not the strongest VWAA show I’ve seen, it had two matches that stood out and two others (the triple threat & Daryck St. Holmes vs Joe Firoz) that rounded out a decent card. All the matches served a purpose and/or furthered a storyline so there wasn’t much fat on this card though that unfortunately didn’t affect the quality to a great degree. I can give this event a small recommendation if you’re a stickler to collecting and want to see the beginning of the VWAA Title Tournament.
Stand out matches:
VWAA Championship tournament qualifier: Arik Cannon vs. Isaias Velazquez
VWAA Circuit Championship: Thomas Sinclair vs. Tripp Cassidy
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Here was the corresponding video preview featuring the free match of Thomas Sinclair vs Chuck Taylor