VWAA Manifest Destiny VI 2013 Review Crowning a New Champion & more

VWAA’s last show of 2013 was their biggest of the year and it did not disappoint. A larger crowd, a ton of action, and an ending that you probably wouldn’t have seen coming. The show started off a bit disappointing as Reed Bentley was announced to not be there and that Thomas Sinclair may have gotten a bye into the finals, but like a true man he decided to give a younger talent a chance. The crowd cheered this at the moment but they would later turn on Sinclair in the evening for his actions. With VWAA Resolution 7 coming up on Jan 26th (details HERE) and a mini preview of it forthcoming in this review, I think I should end the suspense and let you know that Thomas Sinclair and Matt Cage both advanced to the finals of the night early on and had a helluva match to crown a new VWAA Champion. While that may sound like I’m spoiling the whole mp4/DVD for you, trust me, it’s not.

The evening started as I said with Sinclair not having an opponent, but he chose to do the “honorable” thing and gave Josh Crane a shot at being in the main event. Sinclair and Crane had a decent match, nothing to spectacular but it did a lot more for me than Crane losing the Jordynne Grace did last month. Sinclair picked up the win with a rather wonky German suplex after what appeared to be an attempt at a Chaos Theory with the ref counting a near pin on the first rotation. Not great but it lent credibility to Sinclair being fully changed after being a less than honorable wrestler in 2012.

The next match was probably the best of the night as Prince Mustafa Ali and Matt Cage had a barn burner. This is definitely worth going out of you way to view, especially given that our senior editor Jerome Cusson wrote so highly about Cage and his expectations of him in 2014 (which you can read here “8 Wrestlers Who Deserve Contracts in 2014“). The action here was great and I expected nothing less from them including an innovative hand spring into a cross face from Ali. Cage would utilize two Money Clips here to defeat his year long adversary.

The next two matches were necessary but I can tell you to probably skip over them. The Cleric Mathais Kelevra came out to face the YBBO of Malaki Matthews and Jeff O’Shea but it turned into us finally seeing O’Shea turn on Malaki and beat him up. This leads us into 2014 wondering how Kelevra got into O’Shea’s head and we will hopefully get answers at Resolution 7 (Jan 26th in Addison, IL cheap plug). The short match after was nothing more than a squash as Dr. Louis Pinder announced Benjamin Boone as Joe Firoz’s opponent which lead to Boone destroying Firoz for an easy win. I’ve never been that impressed with Boone but it worked here. The feud between Pinder and Firoz continues.

Tables. Ladders. And… Doors? Yes, the signature match of VWAA returned here in a five way for the VWAA Circuit Championship. This was also a standout match of the night for me as Tripp Cassidy defended against Kelevra, Isaias Velaquez, Joey Marx, and Gary Jay who was the MVP of the match. There were several times during this match that I thought Jay was probably injured and had no chance of winning. That including taking a double assisted German suplex from Kelevra/Velazquez/Marx onto a ladder in the corner, a double stomp through a door from Velazquez, and several other spots in the match. Lots of action in this match with also the first crimson mask as Tripp Cassidy was truly a fighting champion here. There were two signature spots here that I felt were homages to Briscoes versus Steenerico and Jeff Hardy. At one point Isaias dove through an open ladder outside of the ring through the ropes onto Cassidy while Marx and Jay fought on top which Marx shortly after hitting a swanton from the top of the ladder onto Jay for a near fall. As with most of my predictions of what would happen on this card, Gary Jay surprised me and stole the pinfall to win the Circuit Championship. Isaias had hit Cassidy with a double underhook piledriver/Jay Driller on a chair but was too weak to fend off Jay shoving him away and stealing the pin. Probably one of the better TLC matches I’ve seen from VWAA, if not the best.

Next up was Derek St. Holmes (who you can hear on the School’s In Podcast) versus the “debuting” Darin Corbin. Rumors persist he may have been Captain Canada though nothing can be confirmed. This was a fun CHIKARA style match as Corbin took it to St. Holmes and used his old school style against him. I was entertain though the match was nothing to special.

Up next was a segment that was just filler as a Throwback match of Atlas J Horn & John E. Kash took on the Manson Nomads of Mad Dog and Junior along with their manager, Redneck. Yeah, it’s that kinda bad. But it didn’t last long as a version of the Submission Squad (Even Gelistico & Alex Rudolph) came out and took over for Atlas and Kash. It wasn’t a great tag match but the Nomads got the win here and we’re supposed to see more of them in 2014 so it achieved some credibility for them at least.

We finally come to the finals of the VWAA Title Tournament. Thomas Sinclair versus Money Matt Cage. This was a good match, second to Cage/Ali but still, a standout with it being the main event. Both men worked hard here and if not for the weird ending, I’d say was probably one of the best main events in VWAA for 2013. The ending saw Corbin interfere and pull the ref out just when Cage had hit a Money Clip on Sinclair for the pin and then allow Sinclair to win the VWAA Title which should have been a crowning moment. After the match Cage would question Sinclair who denied knowing anything about Corbin. But Sinclair showed his true colors as he elbowed Cage in the back of the head which lead to Corbin joining him in beating up Cage. Ali would come out and tease hitting Cage with a chair but helped his long time rival against Corbin and Sinclair in a fruitless attempt as both men wound up beaten up and laying on the mat to end the final show of 2013. Thomas Sinclair is your new VWAA Champion and Darin Corbin seems to be at his side.

Overall: If you’ve never picked up a single show of VWAA, this is the one I’d say to try out. Lots of great action from the TLC match and the VWAA Title Tournament gave us good matches with some solid story telling throughout the year. You’ll be checking out some talent who are making names for themselves around the indie scene so I’d say it’s worth the $9.99.

You can buy it from Smart Mark Video for only $9.99 HERE

Stand out matches:
Matt Cage versus Prince Mustafa Ali
VWAA Circuit Championship: Gary Jay vs. Isaias Velazquez vs. Joey Marx vs. Kelevra vs. Tripp Cassidy
Darin Corbin vs. Daryck St. Holmes
VWAA Championship: Matt Cage vs. Thomas Sinclair

Where we go from here is VWAA Resolution 7 where we will see Sinclair take on Crane again, this time with the VWAA Title on the line. We’re also getting the return of Christian Rose and the Hooligans as 2014 will see a lot of tag action. I hope you all check them out as I was happy to see more people in the crowd which made Manifest Destiny feel really special.