As of late, Beyond Wrestling’s events had been running (almost) exclusively in the state of Massachusetts, expanding into Connecticut and Philadelphia as well. In March, Beyond returned “Home” to Rhode Island and played to a crowd in East Greenwich for the first time since September of 2012.
The big debate for years now in Beyond Wrestling has been who the “ace” of the company is. Lately, the title being bandied about is the best team in the company. For my money, two of the teams who have the strongest argument are Janelope (Joey Janela and Penelope Ford), and LAX. The opening match of this event saw the two teams square off for the first time. This was on par with the Janelope/Doom Patrol match from the month before, with them tooling with the typical tag formula and keeping a quick pace because of it. Ortiz not wanting to hit Ford drives me NUTS, especially in a promotion where intergender wrestling is commonplace. That aside, I liked these two teams having each other scouted and using teamwork throughout to best one another. Dan Barry interfered after LAX wiped out Janela with their Street Sweeper double team, pulling Ortiz out of the ring so he couldn’t pin Janela. This allowed Ford to roll-up the distracted Santana for the pin, the same way Janelope defeated Dickinson and Jaka, LAX’s former partners. I don’t love the interference, but I also think this match was presented without a strong backstory, so if they revisit this match later on, I think I can give it a pass for the story they’re telling. It was a good opener despite a couple personal issues.
Josh Briggs’ looked to continue his momentum from defeating DJ Z last month by challenging the self-proclaimed Ace of Beyond Wrestling, David Starr. After Starr put down Briggs during his intro, Briggs greeting him with a hefty big boot to the face. Starr was able to get Briggs to the floor, and after three suicide dives, in a moment of desperation threw Briggs out of the venue in the hopes of earning a countout victory. It wouldn’t be that easy as Briggs made it back just before the referee’s ten count. Starr kept the offense coming until he was thrown off the top turnbuckle with a chokeslam. Starr avoid Briggs’ M-5 (chokeslam backbreaker), missed the running groin attack, then turned right into Briggs M-5. Briggs had a three count, but Starr’s foot was on the rope. Briggs got into an argument with the referee about this, which allowed for Starr to come in from behind and pin him with the Product Placement. Starr has done a good job getting the Beyond audience to turn against him with his arrogance and demeanour during his matches. Briggs being a rising star and popular with the fans made him a perfect opponent to help with this character change. Briggs losing his matches to genuine inexperience is a good story to tell with him given he has so many other strong attributes. It makes him more human, and thus more relatable, and thus less susceptible to fans turning on him. Basically, these two did a really good in their roles and put together a good match.
A triumvirate from Dayton, OH made their Beyond Wrestling debuts against The Amityville Project. Trey Miguel, Ace Austin, and Myron Reed all had a good chance to showcase some of their impressive offense, but I don’t think they had the best opponents to do their absolute best work with. In the end, Dan Barry ended the match with a moonsault to Miguel after Ryan Galeone and Rex Lawless gave him some power moves. This is really the type of match you’d expect from these two teams; not bad, but not super memorable.
It was last month when Shockwave the Robot malfunctioned when Orange Cassidy accidentally spit orange juice on him. This month, Shockwave had a chance for revenge against Cassidy in a one-on-one bout. Shockwave was hell bent on choking Orange. When he almost had Orange by his throat, a call brought three different Swamp Monsters to the ring. With their aid, Orange went to spit orange juice on Shockwave, but he avoided it an wiped out all three Monsters. He choked Orange and wouldn’t release by the five count, resulting in a DQ and the match being awarded to Orange. This feud MUST continue, and nobody is happier about that than I.
The Beaver Boys had a tough February, losing to Janelope and Team PAWG on back-to-back evenings. Their March wasn’t looking much better as they were pitted against the duo of Nick Gage and Matt Tremont. Tremont wanted to turn the match into a No Disqualification rules bout, which Reynolds and Silver wisely turned down. A few minutes later, however, Reynolds used a chair in the match and claimed they were changing the rules to No DQ at that moment when it was convenient for them. Silver even utilized a thumbtack covered kick pad in the proceedings. You just knew though that the rules were going to work in Tremont and Gage’s favor even with the Beaver Boys’ ambush. Reynolds was wiped out with a tackle through a table in the corner, leaving Silver to take the Chokebreaker from Gage and Tremont added an exclamation point with a Death Valley Driver onto chairs to give this terrifying twosome a win. Gage and Tremont are an awesome team and offer something no other tandem in Beyond can. It was a lot of fun watching them demolish the Beaver Boys in the latter stage of the contest, and seeing Reynolds and Silver go full tilt into jerk territory.
The two members of the Dream Team squared off with the two Tournament for Tomorrow winners in back-to-back singles matches. First was MJF who battled women’s Tournament for Tomorrow winner Jordynne Grace. It was also at the end of the last Beyond show where MJF called Jonathan Gresham the weak link of the Dream Team and wanted Stokely to kick him out of the group, so we come into this event not knowing where they stand. This match saw Jordynne’s power advantage stimed by MJF working over her arm, both to try to temper her offense, but also wear her down for an armbar. MJF’s worked paid off as after seven and a half minutes of back and forth wrestling, he caught her in an armbar and made Grace tap out. MJF wouldn’t release the hold after the bell until Gresham, who is also romantically connected to Grace, came out to stop him. MJF had some more harsh words for Gresham before heading to the back. This bled right into Gresham taking on the Men’s Tournament for Tomorrow winner, Wheeler YUTA. Gresham dominated YUTA with his technical wrestling acumen for a good chunk of the contest. YUTA would be able to get some strikes from a distance, but in close quarters, Gresham would have him locked down. A light bulb went off in YUTA’s head when he took out one of Gresham’s knees. His face lit up and he immediately changed his course of action and targeted his leg. Gresham meanwhile had worn down YUTA’s left arm and kept with that. The two engaged in a strike exchange, which lead to a battle of cradles and nearfalls, which ultimately got YUTA into position to lock Gresham in the STF. Gresham not only tapped out, but did so in front of Stokely Hathaway. These two matches together told a great story for the Dream Team, with MJF succeeding and Gresham failing. It’s a compelling story on its own and even better when it’s told between two very good matches, especially Gresham vs. YUTA. Stokely said it is his job to help Gresham, and as long as he’s breathing, Gresham will always be signed to the Dream Team. Gresham’s countenance told a complicated tale of how he felt about that, but a hearty “fuck MJF” let us know exactly where he stands in that respect.
It had been 11 months since Dave and Jake Crist had been in Beyond Wrestling, where they teamed with Scarlet & Graves in an unsuccessful eight man tag against Team Pazuzu. This time, Dave and Jake would take on Doom Patrol in a two-on-two match. Things got kind of crazy right at the bell and the two teams fought on the floor. Back in the ring, Dave and Jake maintained control but failed to pin Dickinson after a Doomsday Cutter. Jaka helped Dickinson take the match back over, and with Jake now on the floor, the Doom Patrol put away Dave with the Death Trap for the win. There was no doubt Doom Patrol were winning this and the action was as good as it could’ve been with just a little under seven minutes. The real story took place after the match, as the Amityville Project attacked Doom Patrol and LAX made the save. Jaka and Dickinson made a peace offering with their Team Pazuzu kneepads. The four men embraced and shared beers to formally reunite the quartet. While the split was short lived, I was still happy to see them back together.
With “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams representing Independent Wrestling as the Powerbomb TV champion, who better for him to defend the title against then a man who arguably stands for the DIY spirit and attitude of independent wrestling better than anybody else in Colt Cabana? This was a side of Cabana rarely seen. Typically in Beyond he’s having fun with wrestlers who share Cabana’s sense of humor, but he was all business tonight. He used some of his unique technical wrestling to start before going out for blood and going blow for blow with Williams. His size allowed him to best Williams for a good portion of the match. It was only when Williams would catch him with something like a tiger feint kick where he was able to get some semblance of advantage. Williams outlasted both the Chicago Skyline and the Billy Goat’s Curse. He put Cabana in a crossface after a piledriver. When Cabana escaped, he gave Cabana a second piledriver to retain the title in a really fun, hard fought battle. This is the type of Cabana I love most – no nonsense, hard hitting, with a unique technical wrestling acumen. If you’ve missed seeing this type of Cabana, I cannot recommend this match enough. There was no more perfect way for Williams to kick off his title reign.
Overall: The last few Beyond events have been good but missing that one key match to really put it over the top. The main event of this show is that one key match. I don’t know why it’s gone so overlooked this year, but I highly recommend seeking out Hot Sauce vs. Cabana. Even with a WrestleMania weekend show just a few weeks away, there was no filler or wasted time on the card. As a long time Beyond fan, it was fun for me seeing them back in this environment and think re-visiting an older venue on occasion is a great way to keep things fresh. This was a good, easy to watch show, with the last two matches specifically being ones to seek out.
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Quick Results/Match Times/Star Ratings
1. Janelope (Joey Janela & Penelope Ford) defeated LAX (Santana & Ortiz) in 10:29 with a bridging roll-up from Ford to Santana. **¾
2. David Starr pins Josh Briggs with the Product Placement in 8:01. ***
3. The Amityville Project (Dan Barry, Ryan Galeone & Rex Lawless) defeated Ace Austin, Myron Reed & Trey Miguel in 12:17 when Barry pinned Miguel with a moonsault. **½
4. Orange Cassidy defeated Shockwave the Robot via disqualification in 2:31 when he failed to release a choke at the count of five.
5. Nick Gage & Matt Tremont defeated The Beaver Boys in 14:33 when Tremont pinned Silver after a Death Valley Driver in 14:33. ***
6. Maxwell Jacob Friedman (w/Stokely Hathaway) submits Jordynne Grace to an armbar in 7:30. **¾
7. Wheeler YUTA submits Jonathan Gresham (w/Stokely Hathaway) with an STF in 21:17. ***½
8. Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson & Jaka) defeated oVe (Dave Crist & Jake Crist) with the Death Trap on Dave in 6:50. **¼
9. Powerbomb TV Independent Wrestling Championship: “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams retained the title against Colt Cabana, pinning him with a piledriver in 13:22. ***¾