December 29th, 2017
Opening Match: Louis Lyndon vs. Tom Lawlor
They trade submission attempts before exchanging chops. Lyndon connects with a kick to the head and a flurry of palm strikes. Lawlor responds with hard right hands. Lyndon hurricanranas him to the floor and teases a dive. In the ring, Lawlor finds a rhythm and takes control on the mat. Lyndon looks to fight back but Lawlor cuts him off with a vicious northern lariat. Lyndon hits a northern lights suplex followed by a german suplex. Lawlor traps him in an armbar but he’s able to reach the ropes. Lawlor hits an exploder but falls victim to a reverse hurricanrana. Lyndon goes for a cross armbreaker and transitions into a dragon sleeper. Lawlor powers out of the hold and hits a styles clash for the win at 12:37. Lawlor’s persistence with the arm work and an engaging finishing stretch turned this one into a worthwhile opener. Matches like this show how well-rounded Lyndon is as a professional wrestler. ***
Match #2: The Young Studs (Eric Ryan and Bobby Beverly) vs. Mance Warner and Shawn Shultz (w/ The Duke)
Warner and Shultz attack before the opening bell. Ryan lands a dive onto them to create some space. Both teams brawl around ringside. Warner ends up in the third row, so Ryan dives onto him from the top of the guardrail. Shultz and Warner slingshot Ryan into the guardrail and isolate him back in the ring. He causes some communication and makes the tag. Beverly cleans house with a series of strikes. He hits a saito suplex on Warner and Ryan adds a german suplex. Beverly spikes Shultz with a brainbuster. Ryan connects with a coast-to-coast dropkick on Warner for a nearfall. Some interference from the Duke allows Warner to roll up Ryan for the victory at 10:10. This match was focused on establishing the new team of Warner and Shultz. The screwy finish reflected that, which was fine in the grand scheme of things. The action didn’t stand out aside from a few fun exchanges around ringside. **
Match #3: Brian Carson, Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham, and Gregory Iron vs. Dick Justice, Ethan Carter III, and Matthew Justice
This match was designed to poke fun at Sid Vicious cancelling his booking tonight, citing Trump’s travel ban. Everyone starts brawling to begin. Team Justice starts unloading with a lot of Sid Vicious-esque offense. Carter powerbombs Iron for the win at 2:48. This was fun for the crowd, but I can imagine someone being incredibly confused watching this one five years from now.
Match #4: AIW Tag Team Titles: To Infinity and Beyond (Cheech and Colin Delaney) © vs. PB Smooth and Swoggle
The champions are eager to start the match with Swoggle, but get taken down by a double clothesline by Smooth. To Infinity and Beyond quickly find an opening to work over Swoggle. He catches Delaney with a powerbomb and makes the tag. Smooth catches Cheech with a boot and connects with a double springboard back elbow. Smooth strings together a pretty nice hot tag here. Cheech flips out of a chokeslam from Smooth and low blows him. A quick rollup only gets a two count. Swoggle hits an air raid crash on Delaney. Smooth hits a chokebomb on Cheech. Swoggle and Smooth become the NEW AIW Tag Team Champions at 8:02. The crowd was shocked by the result, but it makes sense. Swoggle is incredibly difficult to dislike and Smooth is becoming quite the proficient big man. It seems as though taking a chance on them to freshen up the tag team division is low-risk. The action was entertaining for what it was and the shorter duration helped. **½
Match #5: Ethan Page vs. Dominic Garrini
Garrini won their last match together back at Hell on Earth 13. Garrini wins a few opening exchanges on the mat. Page starts laying in strikes and hitting suplexes. That seems to work out better for him. Garrini anticipates a bicycle kick and hits a german suplex. He follows with a belly-to-belly suplex and targets Page’s left arm. Page creates some space after catapulting Garrini’s head into the middle turnbuckle. Both men are down. They trade strikes and Page hits an elevated powerbomb. Garrini anticipates the slingshot ace crusher and applies a triangle choke for the victory at 8:25. These two have really great chemistry together. You could tell from the action that both men learned from their last outing together, but Garrini once again had Page’s number. Five more minutes to build to a finish would have helped this one out. I wonder where Page goes from here. **¾
Match #6: No Consequences (AJ Gray, Garrison King, Joshua Bishop, and Tre Lamar) vs. The Production (Colby Redd, Derek Director, Frankie Flynn, and Magnum CK)
No Consequences punish Magnum with a series of atomic drops. Magnum blocks a slingshot flatliner from Lamar and snaps his neck across the top rope. Director sunset bombs Lamar into the turnbuckles and connects with double knees. The Production work over Lamar until he catches Director with a slingshot flatliner and makes the tag. The action breaks down from here, with everyone in the ring trading offense. Director lands a beautiful double-jump moonsault onto King. Gray catches Director with a huge leg lariat. Lamar and King land stereo dives to the floor. Bishop prevents Magnum from diving and then lands a plancha. Bishop suplexes Flynn onto the entrance ramp. Magnum finds an opening to land a dive from the top rope to the floor. Gray finishes the proceedings with a corkscrew plancha from the top rope. In the ring, Eddy Only comes out to distract Gray. Flynn quickly rolls up Gray to give the Production the win at 15:24. Until the deflating finish, this was a fun spotfest that certainly didn’t feel like fifteen minutes. No Consequences is an extremely talented unit and they received a chance to let loose here. Eddy Only joining the Production probably means more to most AIW fans than it does to me, so you’ll have to make up your own mind if the finish was worth it. **½
Match #7: AIW Intense Title: Joey Janela © vs. Jimmy Jacobs
Jacobs uses a mixture of kissing and eye pokes to gain an early advantage. He places Janela into the front row and lands a dive into the crowd. They brawl throughout the crowd. Janela uses a chair to land a somersault senton. Jacobs crotches him on the guardrail and clotheslines him to the concrete floor. Janela hits a scoop slam onto a table. He throws a series of chairs into the ring. They battle on the top rope. Jacobs comes off the middle rope and catches Janela with a snap suplex onto the pile of chairs. They send each other into propped chairs in the corner. Janela lands a top-rope moonsault for a nearfall. Jacobs fights back with a springboard ace crusher and transitions into sliced bread for a two count. They battle on top of four chairs and Janela hits a package piledriver through the chairs to retain his title at 13:03. Given the participants, if they wrestled a non-weapons-based match, the crowd likely would have chanted for weapons anyway. So it was smart of them to give the crowd what they wanted. Unsurprisingly, this was an entertaining weapons-based brawl and they worked well together. Being different than everything else on the card thus far certainly helped as well. ***¼
Match #8: Eddie Kingston vs. Tracy Williams
They exchange strikes and Williams hits a russian leg sweep. They go back to trading strikes and I can tell that this is going to be a charming Eddie Kingston match. Kingston creates some space with a DDT and takes control. Williams fights back with an olympic slam and both men are down. Williams connects with a shotgun dropkick from the middle rope and hits a brainbuster. Kingston fires back with a lariat for a two count. He follows with a liger bomb but Williams refuses to stay down. Williams connects with a discus lariat and synchs in a sleeper. Kingston is able to reach the bottom rope. They exchange strikes and Kingston hits an ace crusher variant from the middle rope for a nearfall. They trade suplexes. Kingston connects with the Backfist to the Future and hits a half nelson suplex. Another backfist gets Kingston a two count. Williams hits a piledriver but Kingston won’t stay down. Williams spikes Kingston with a headlock driver and applies a crossface for the victory at 17:54. This was an incredibly hard-hitting match which captivated the crowd due to the sheer amount of effort being put in by both men. Given their styles, it made sense for the action to break down into a battle of attrition and these two know how to deliver that type of contest. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the no-selling down the stretch, this was quite the war. ***½
Match #9: Candice LeRae vs. Gringo Loco vs. Laredo Kid vs. Matt Cross
Kid and Loco immediately get into each other’s face. Kid runs up the ropes and snaps off a hurricanrana. They exchange armdrags and wrestle to a stalemate. Cross and LeRae land stereo dives to the floor. Loco lands a flying leg drop onto Cross. LeRae starts taking over with a hurricanrana and satellite headscissors. She walks the ropes and hurricanranas Loco off the apron onto Kid. Cross takes them all out with a dive. Back in, Loco hits a pedigree off the middle rope on Kid. Cross lands a shooting star press onto Loco for a nearfall. LeRae dives onto Cross and hits a tornado DDT onto the floor. LeRae hurricanranas Loco off the middle rope onto Kid for the win at 9:17. This was a lot of fun while it lasted and they made the right call by not having the action overstay its welcome. Everyone received a chance to stand out and the crowd was amped for LeRae. ***
Match #10: AIW Absolute Title: Nick Gage © vs. Tim Donst
Gage actually humors Donst with some good, clean wrestling to start. Gage attempts a facewash kick but Donst rolls to the floor. Donst crotches Gage on the ringpost and starts working over his right leg. Gage eventually gets fed up and challenges Donst to come into the crowd. Donst tries some wrestling holds in the crowd and they begin chain wrestling. Donst applies an indian deathlock but Gage crawls up the bleachers to escape. Gage suplexes Donst onto the bleachers. He then back suplexes Donst across the guardrail. In the ring, Donst finds an opening to attack the injured right leg. They battle on the apron and Donst russian leg sweeps Gage through the ringside table. Back in, Gage connects with a flying elbow drop for a nearfall. Donst hits a gator roll DDT and a piledriver for a two count. Gage responds with a suplex into the turnbuckles followed by a chokebreaker. Both men are down. Gage hits a backcracker and a falcon arrow for a nearfall. Gage follows with another chokebreaker to retain his title at 22:37. This was quite a long main event to cap off a ten-match card. It seemed like they were trying to keep the action more wrestling-based than weapons-based, which made the bleacher and table spots seem out of place. If there was some kind of larger, grander story at play, I certainly missed it. Donst’s leg work never stopped Gage from hitting chokebreakers, so that part of the match felt inconsequential as well. I was not a fan of this main event and twenty-three minutes was certainly too long. *½
-Show Grade: B-
–You Need to See:
–You’d Enjoy Watching: Kingston/Williams, Janela/Jacobs, Lyndon/Lawlor, four-way
–You Should Avoid:
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