When Beyond expanded to Rhode Island in late 2013, some of bigger names in the world of independent wrestling were brought in to collide with the Beyond homegrown talent and regulars. One of those names, who came about in 2014 for a short spell, was Jimmy Jacobs. With Jacobs recently released from his creative role in the WWE, Beyond welcomed him back to an event titled after Jacobs’ adopted moniker and the supposed reason he was released from the company.
The Tournament for Tomorrow has been a staple of Beyond since 2011. This year’s tournament would take place over several events, with the quarter-finals (first round) taking place tonight. The first match pitted Wheeler YUTA, who has been making waves both on his own and in a tag team in Beyond, against the debuting Damien Smith, a trainee of Brian Kendrick. YUTA had a rare size advantage in this match and attempted to keep Smith grounded. Smith rarely stood still, using his agility and the element of surprise to get YUTA into advantageous situations. YUTA adapted as the match went on and was able to catch Smith’s crossbody and hook him in his standing Kondo Clutch variant. Smith reminds me a lot of Pelle Primeau is his stature, movement, and arsenal. He’s somebody I could see becoming a favorite of the crowd over time. I also appreciate Beyond debuting an unknown in the tournament. It’s risky, but fits the theme of what Beyond tries to achieve with the TFT. While I never doubted YUTA would move on, I appreciated the showcase for both competitors.
The New England Pro Wrestling Academy lost to the Secret City Soldiers last month thanks to Cam Zagami’s issues with Mikey Webb, causing Zagami to superkick Webb in the latter part of the match, despite Zagami not being a participant in the contest. Tonight, the team of Webb, Anthony Greene, and Brick Mastone would challenge the Carnies triumvirate of Nick Iggy, Kerry Awful, and Tripp Cassidy. Awful and Iggy were last seen at “Go With The Flow” with a show stealing performance against EYFBO, and Cassidy not since some of the St. Louis Sleeper Cell tapings. The NEPWA students had no trouble besting the Carnies when faced one-on-one, but as soon as both teams were on the floor, Cassidy found his chance to trip Greene on the top turnbuckle, leaving him susceptible to a beatdown in the Carnies corner while Mastone and Webb were left to lick their wounds. Greene slipped away and brought in the larger Mastone, who pulled out some really impressive tandem offense on Iggy. The Carnies got their bearings and pulled off a Force Destroyer, but only for a two count. They tried Death Comes Calling but were thwarted. Webb pulled them all outside so Greene could land a dive onto all Carnies at once. Awful and Cassidy were then kept at bay so Greene could land a 450 splash onto Iggy and pick up a win for his team. What we learned here was the NEPWA team was in fact better off without Zagami’s participation. Zagami was at commentary for this match and decided to dismiss them afterwards, even summoning Brian Milonas to come and attack the three of his fellow classmates from behind. This match accomplished its goal of serving the NEPWA crew a win over a well renowned trio, and the NEPWA crew held up their end of the bargain in producing their best performance yet.
The second TFT match saw Jay Freddie take on Amityville Project member Mike Verna (with Dan Barry, Ryan Galeone, and Rex Lawless in his corner). Last month, the Amityville Project defeated Freddie and his partner Rory Gulak thanks to interference from Lawless, and Freddie unleashed his anger from that cheap victory on Verna in the early going. Despite his tenacity, Vera got Freddie outside and slammed him onto the ring apron to turn the match in his favor. Freddie fought back and cracked Verna with a Shining Wizard. Instead of going for a pin, Freddie wiped out Galeone with a suicide dive before continuing his attack on Verna. Freddie had Verna down with a modified Acid Drop when Ryan Galeone and Dan Barry jumped on the apron. Freddie knew he had to take care of them before pinning Verna, but the distraction allowed Verna enough time to recover and hit the F-10 on Freddie for the win. The match was put together well but had a weird moment of incoherence in the middle that threw both guys for a loop. To their credit, they recovered, but the crowd seemingly didn’t. These are two guys I really enjoy watching wrestle who just didn’t have the right puzzle pieces in the right place on this night.
Fallout from the previous match led to Jay Freddie’s partner Rory Gulak taking on Mike Verna’s partner Ryan Galeone. Rory would not back down from Galeone’s size advantage, striking him relentlessly and admirably keeping on offense longer than one may expect. Galeone was able to muscle up Gulak for a powerbomb, but unfortunately for Galeone, Rory turned that into a sunset flip to eek out a win over Galeone, much to the Amityville Project’s horror. It was a fun, short contest to even the odds between the two teams and give the Project a reason to want to face the American Gaijin again.
Last month, PAWG defeated Blonde Ambition in a surprisingly competitive bout. This month, Jordynne Grace decided she would instead team with Penelope Ford and Maria Manic to face the Pull-It Club of Massage NV and Johnny Cockstrong. Commentary says coaching Blonde Ambition is a side project of Jordynne’s, illustrated by Blonde Ambition wearing Jordynne’s singlets. Manic started off the match, showing both VSK and Johnny Cockstrong that she was not planning to succumb to their BS. VSK and Dorian Graves had better success distracting Penelope Ford with a massage, causing her to lose her guard and allow the Club to beat her down for awhile, with Manic saving her from multiple pin attempts. Ford was able to catch Graves with a back handspring Ace Crusher and tag in Jordynne Grace who cleaned house on Cockstrong and VSK. Grace was taken out with a spinwheel kick from Graves, and the Pull-It Club managed to make a recovery and get Ford isolated again. A double In the Pants piledriver led to a pin, but Grace sprang into action to save her partner. They also saved her from Massage NV’s oil slide headbutt. Manic powerbombed Ford onto Cockstrong and Graves on the floor, leaving VSK in the hands of Grace. She made VSK verbally submit to an abdominal stretch while also repeatedly striking VSK in the ribs. At a glance, this seems like a match designed for perverts, but it honestly was orchestrated really well. When it was over, I wanted to see more of both teams, especially Ambition and Grace. While there was your signature moments of Pull-It Club weirdness, it wasn’t over the top, and they took their opponents seriously when necessary. This is not what you would expect from these two teams facing one another, and I mean that in the best way possible. I liked this quite a bit.
After an altercation during the “Apocalypse Dudes” pre-game show, the two biggest competitors in the Tournament for Tomorrow, Josh Briggs and Ace Romero, were put together in the opening round for a certified hoss battle. The story here was Romero was too flashy for his own good and it ultimately cost him the match. While I like that idea, the rest of the match was just OK. They had a pretty good strike exchange, but otherwise it was just guys trading offense while occasionally not looking too hot. Briggs is clearly on the rise and was the right guy to win here. Hopefully the second round of the tournament is a marked improvement, because so far it’s just been OK.
Just one night after winning the CZW World Championship, Rickey Shane Page put the title on the line against John Silver, who especially given his Beyond track record is most certainly deserving of the opportunity. This would be the second time the title was defended in Beyond, with then champion Biff Busick successfully defending against Matt Tremont back in June of 2014. Silver had Page’s number for the majority of the match, outmaneuvering the larger opponent and keeping on top of him. Page took a really gnarly hip toss into the ring steps too. While Silver had the crowd behind him and landed all his signature offense, he knew that if Page was able to catch him with a Chokebreaker, the match was over. After Silver’s bicycle kick to the back of the head as Page lay on the middle ropes, he went to whip Page across the ring, but Page wove underneath and snuck in a Chokebreaker for the win. The match really found its footing in the second half and peaked at the end, making it a successful first defense for Page. Page is a guy who doesn’t get the love he deserves but I always get excited to see him back in Beyond given he was a staple in the formative days.
JT Dunn teased that the Juicy Product would reunite tonight against Martin Stone and a partner of his choosing. Unfortunately, Dunn got hurt at CZW the night before, so David Starr and Martin Stone would instead face off in a singles contest. Stone controlled the match on the mat, working over Starr’s hand and generally one-upping Starr in their exchanges. Starr combated with a lot of rapid clotheslines to Stone’s chest and neck. For Starr, this would help later in the match when he was able to maneuver Stone into the Cherry Mint DDT, Product Recall, and a piledriver. While Stone was busy going for the crossface, Starr’s neck work seemingly was to lead to the Product Placement. Stone resisted, and Starr settled for an onslaught that ended with a hard running “Look At It!” to the face for a surprise win. It isn’t so much a surprise Starr won, but the manner in which he did so was. I appreciate Starr relenting on the Product Placement and going for broke on something else and it paying off.
The final match-up in the first round of the Tournament for Tomorrow pitted two competitors who both claim to be the face of Beyond’s “New Crop” movement against each other: Brandon Watts and MJF. A parcel from Zenshi sat in the corner with Watts from the start of the match, which would come into play later in the bout. While Watts got the better of MJF at the start, MJF sending Watts shoulder first into the corner changed the dynamic of the match. Of course, MJF damaging his arm would set up Watts for his cross armbreaker finisher, but also potentially neutralize Watts’ frog splash elbow. This paid off when Watts later on would hit the frog splash elbow, but couldn’t hook MJF’s leg or pull him away from the ropes, allowing MJF to get the bottom rope and break the pin. Out of desperation, Watts went to Zenshi’s parcel in the corner to discover Zenshi had given him one of his Shynron masks. Feeling it may help harness some power, or throw MJF a curveball, Watts decided to put the mask on. MJF took advantage of this by blinding Watts with his own mask and rolling him up for the pin. This was the best of the first round matches, easily. Watts has really come into his own with 2017 and the crowd has gotten into him because of it. The Zenshi story has some life to it and I’m interested to see where it goes, but it’s hard to look past how much of a dope Watts looked like when putting on that mask and costing himself advancement in the tournament. That aside, it was a smartly wrestled bout and helps MJF look like a gobshite.
There’s been some miscommunication between the Team Pazuzu quartet as of late. To prove they are still on the same page and stronger than ever, the quartet accepted a challenge from Michael Elgin for an elimination match against a group of independent wrestling all-stars that includes Elgin, Sami Callihan, AR Fox, and the returning Jimmy Jacobs. This match masterly crafted a story that led to Team Pazuzu imploding. At first, Pazuzu was doing tremendous, working as a team to best the All-Stars. Mike Draztik found himself trapped in their corner, and when it looked like he was going to finally be able to make a tag, Sami Callihan knocked his partners off the apron. As Chris Dickinson was recovering, Draztik went to tag out, and found himself receiving an arrant punch from Dickinson that led directly to his elimination. Draztik’s tag team partner Angel Ortiz confronted Dickinson, but that led to Sami being able to sneak a pin on Ortiz, bringing the match to 2 versus 4. One could argue too that Dickinson was responsible for EYFBO being eliminated. Against all odds, Jaka and Dickinson’s teamwork led them to victory, chopping down the All-Stars one by one, lastly pinning AR Fox with the Death Trap. The fans got behind Dickinson and Jaka with each victory, rooting on the Beyond originals to do what seemed impossible.
After the match, EYFBO returned to seemingly make amends with Dickinson and Jaka, only to attack them from behind and end Team Pazuzu for good. This was a homerun angle from Beyond. There’s been a lot of talk as to which of two teams within Team Pazuzu is the better unit and now both sides can make strong cases for themselves. The wrestling itself was top notch, which is to be expected with this eight names, and the half hour flew by. This was a very strong main event and an awesome way to end the night.
Overall: This is essentially a one match show, but it’s a very good match. The opening round for the Tournament for Tomorrow was a miss. The two trios matches and Starr vs. Stone were hits. It’s hard to recommend such an uneven show, but the main event is worth watching if you have a Powerbomb subscription.
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Quick Results/Match Times/Star Ratings
1. Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match: Wheeler YUTA submitted Damien Smith to a standing Kondo Clutch in 8:01. **
2. Team NEPWA (Mikey Webb, Anthony Greene & Brick Mastone) defeated The Carnies (Nick Iggy, Kerry Awful & Tripp Cassidy) with a 450 splash from Greene to Iggy in 13:33. ***
3. Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match: Mike Verna pinned Jay Freddie with an F-10. **
4. Rory Gulak pinned Ryan Galeone with a sunset flip in 4:05. *
5. Jordynne Grave & Blonde Ambition (Maria Manic & Penelope Ford) defeated The Pull-It Club (Johnny Cockstrong & Massage NV (VSK & Dorian Graves)) in 12:20 when Grace submitted VSK to an abdominal stretch with added strikes to the mid-section. ***
6. Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match: Josh Briggs pinned Ace Romero after an Iconoclasm in 11:05. *¾
7. Rickey Shane Page retained the CZW World Championship against John Silver in 9:38 with a chokebreaker. ***
8. David Starr defeated Martin Stone in 13:44 with a running crotch attack to the face. ***¼
9. Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match: MJF pinned Brandon Watts in a schoolboy at 15:19. **¾
10. Elimination Match: Team Pazuzu (Chris Dickinson, Jaka, Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik) defeated The Independent Wrestling All-Stars (AR Fox, Jimmy Jacobs, Michael Elgin & Sami Callihan) in 28:35, with Dickinson and Jaka last defeating Fox. ****
– Draztik is eliminated by Callihan at 18:34 after Dickinson struck Draztik by accident from the apron and Callihan schoolboyed him.
– Ortiz is eliminated by Callihan at 18:48 via O’Connor Roll. Ortiz was arguing with Dickinson about striking Draztik when Callihan took advantage.
– Callihan is eliminated by Jaka at 20:25 with the Jumanji Bomb.
– Elgin is eliminated by Dickinson and Jaka with a lariat/chop-block combo at 23:43.
– Jacobs is eliminated by Dickinson at 27:33 with a Pazuzu Bomb.
– Fox is eliminated by Dickinson and Jaka at 28:35 with the Death Trap.