Weekend Wrap-Up: Happy Labor Day!

Mugshot via TMZ

- Happy Labor Day! Hope you guys enjoy your day off (if you do indeed have off) with barbecue, beer and other fun things. Also, RAW tonight!

- CLASH Wrestling presented All-Out War Saturday, which featured the recently-fired Wreckingball getting the win in a 20-man (and woman) battle royale over such wrestlers as Mena Libra, Jimmy Jacobs and Tommy Treznik. Wreckingball will get a title shot at "GQ" Gavin Quinn at a later date, the latter defending his CLASH Championship successfully over former WWE wrestler and one-legged superstar Zach Gowen. Also on the card, "Caveman" Tyler Elkins defeated Cameron Skyy in a cage match via escape.

- Another Impact Wrestling superstar got popped for DWI last night. This time, it was the Champion. Kurt Angle got arrested for the fourth time in four years, third time for something alcohol related (and second time this year!) for DWI on I-66 in Virginia. Yeah, if there's one place you don't want to try any funny business on the road - drunk or sober - it's Virginia. Predictably, Angle wasn't fired within hours of the arrest, because he's not some annoying Internet maven like Matt Hardy, but with three legit arrests for alcohol (the fourth one was for "stalking" Trenesha "Rhaka Khan" Biggers, something that was overblown because it was she who was found out to be the stalker-type), he should probably at least be sent to rehab forcibly. Somehow? I doubt that'll happen.

Weekend Wrap-Up: Hurricane Tadasuke

Your Young Lions Cup IX Champion

- Not really a whole lot to report on this weekend in terms of shows, but what did happen was a good one. Then again, Chikara weekends are always fun, even if this one was truncated by Hurricane Irene. The Young Lions Cup tournament saw Tadasuke surprisingly take the trophy back with him to Osaka Pro after defeating Green Ant in the final. Greenie rode a wave of momentum into the final, eliminating all three of his opponents in his first round match and then taking out Jakob Hammermeir in the semifinal. After the match, Tursas squished him, which I'm sure figured into the final. Tadasuke dispatched Archibald Peck in his semifinal.

In 12 Large Summit action, Claudio Castagnoli gave perhaps the biggest proof yet that he's heading elsewhere other than the indies by dropping a match to... Icarus. Yep, I think losing to Icarus prevents you from winning your block or something like that. With two points and only one match left to go, it's safe to say he's not going to be challenging for the Grand Championship. Sara del Rey was tripped up by Hallowicked, losing via La Majistral cradle. Fire Ant summarily dispatched Vin Gerard in the only Block B match during the weekend.

Other matches included the Young Bucks pulling double duty. Nick wrestled in one of the eliminators, and Matt beat Johnny Gargano in a singles match. Later on in the night, the Bucks teamed up to give the Batiri More Bang for Their Buck. It's unknown whether they shook hands during the event, but my guess is, no one would have cared if they did or not. Finally, UltraMantis Black defeated Pinkie Sanchez and then summarily continued his calling out of Ares. Grizzly Redwood was backstage, but apparently he spent his time whittling, via his Twitter, that is. Not sure why I listed that, except I think it's a total Grizzly Redwood thing for the guy to be doing.

- Goldberg is apparently going to be wrestling for charity in Africa. Regardless about what you think of the guy, that's pretty cool if it materializes. Read more about it at my home slice Dave McKinney's blog, South Atlanta Wrestling.

- Ayumi Kurihara joins KANA, Ayako Hamada, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Yuki Ohka and SHIMMER Tag Team Champion Tomaka Nakagawa as a joshi guest star for the next run of tapings. This isn't really surprising news, but it's welcome, as Kurihara has become ingrained in the fabric of the promotion. Just in case you didn't know, Hailey Hatred will be appearing too, which is pretty huge since she apparently went to Japan and powered up to max level. The tapings will take place October 1 and 2 at the Berwyn Eagles Club. Tickets still available through the SHIMMER website.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Weekend Wrap-Up: ¡OLÈ!

Winner of BOLA '11

- El Generico took home this year's Battle of Los Angeles tournament title. The Generic Luchador bested PWG World Champion and bitter rival Kevin Steen in the finals of the SoCal indie's big single elimination fray. Finlay as advertised made his appearance, losing to Steen in the first round. Willie Mack scored the upset of the tournament, besting Chris Hero in the first round. Also on the card, the the Dynasty of Joey Ryan and Scorpio Sky defeated the RockNES Monsters to earn a Tag Team Championship shot at the Young Bucks at a later date.

- AAW also ran a show Saturday night, and the highlight was a hard-hitting match between Arik Cannon and Steve Corino. Cannon won with his Glimmering Warlock (think the move that Alberto del Rio used to beat CM Punk for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam). Also on the card, Silas Young retained his AAW Championship over Gregory Iron, and MsChif made her return to wrestling, defeating Sassy Stephanie.

- ACW had a show last night, attended by With Leather's Brandon Stroud (who, hopefully, will be writing a detailed report, wink wink nudge nudge please write one PLEASE). It saw the ACW return of Jerry Lynn, who found some time to make it somewhere else besides Orlando and did something else besides costing RVD matches. He was defeated in the four-way main event for the Televised Championship by Shawn Vexx. Former Champion Rachel Summerlyn was eliminated first, oddly enough. Also on the card, Lillie Mae defeated Portia Perez, pouring a slop bucket on her head in the process. Ah, Texas.

- Finally, it's not Wednesday, but I'm linking you to some stories chronicling WWE being a soulless corporate entity. First up, Cageside Seats raises an awfully good point in how the fuck do you let a guy with torn ligaments wrestle two straight days and claim to have a "Wellness" Policy? Secondly, Harry Smith isn't exactly thrilled with his former employers after they treated personal effects that belonged to his father and his uncle Owen with very little regard for their integrity. Finally, Lisa Wright, a member of the Council of Unity, wrote a scathing letter to the Be A Star alliance, asking them to remove WWE from their site in response to the constant fat-shaming of a totally-not-fat Vickie Guerrero. In response, she got "intelligent feedback" from WWE fans and has rescinded that complaint, even though her complaint was completely valid. Hm, no, it was definitely the fans who pressured her and not corporate interests. Remember those stories the next time WWE asks you to stand up for it or some other pedantic bullshit request.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Weekend Wrap-Up: Mad at Oz

I'm sure he's not too happy with Vinnie Vegas either.

- SummerSlam was last night, and yes, a longer review is forthcoming. Really shorthand results though are these. CM Punk defeated John Cena and was then cashed in upon by Alberto del Rio after Kevin Nash ran in and blindsided Punk afterwards, causing what you see in the picture. Randy Orton defeated Christian to regain the World Heavyweight Championship. Wade Barrett, Mark Henry and Kelly Kelly all won their matches. SURPRISE! six-man to start the show saw Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio and John Morrison defeat del Rio, R-Truth and The Miz. There were also commercials... YES COMMERCIALS ON A PPV FFFFFUUUUUUUU...

- ROH TV tapings were Saturday, and Nigel McGuinness made his return to the company as the color commentator, alongside Kevin Kelly. He teased a return to the ring, saving Eddie Edwards from The House of Truth. Also on the taping slate, El Generico dropped the Television Championship to Jay Lethal.

- NWA Hollywood taped yesterday, and again, I really don't have taping results to post. So why post a bit about it? Err, well... HEY LOOK OVER THERE, IT'S EVE TORRES UNRHYTHMICLY SHAKING HER ASS!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Iron Women, Hardly Hardcore and Hollywood Ouster

New Champion, New Heel?
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

- So, is an event really hardcore if there's only one hardcore spot in the whole thing? I'm not sure people would have cared if Impact Wrestling gave them a good show in Hardcore Justice, but the consensus seems to be that they failed to deliver. Two new Champions were crowned last night, Kurt Angle the new World Champion (after, in many people's view, pointlessly turning heel) and Winter dethroned Mickie James to become the Knockouts Champion. I can get behind the latter because Winter, nee Katie Lea Burchill, is pretty awesome, but the former just sounds more like bad Russo writing. Also on the card, Crimson defeated Rob Van Dam in a Bound for Glory Series match to continue his undefeated streak. Anyone else get the feeling that he's going to main event their signature PPV, only to lose via shenanigans? After the match, Jerry Lynn appeared again and got in RVD's grill, meaning more RVD/Lynn rematches in the future.

- Rey Mysterio apparently hurt his knee at a house show this past weekend, with it being so severe that they ran an injury angle the next night to shorten his match against Alberto del Rio. Some reports are calling it a "tweak", but with his knees, a tweak can still be serious business. He's expected to work around the injury and appear at SummerSlam, which afterwards, hopefully he'll get a fucking vacation. The man needs to just go home, sip margaritas with his wife and relax for a bit so he can come back before the end of the year, refreshed, recharged and ready for the Internet to find new ways to slur him because they don't like his finishing move.

- Speaking of injuries, Daizee Haze has been listed as "out indefinitely" on the official Chikara message board. Circumstantially, it's because of the injuries suffered at the hands of Mima Shimoda and Claudio Castagnoli at Chikarasaurus Rex, Night 2. It leads me to believe it's all kayfabe, but at the same time, if it is legit, here's to a speedy recovery.

- In better news, Sunday's best show arguably took place in Cleveland, OH, with PWO putting on Wrestlelution 4. I really want to give you some results here, but for the life of me, I can't find them on the Internet anywhere. Bummer. However, what I can say is that according to TWB superfan and friend of the blog Jarret Aubry, the Josh Prohibition vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Matt Cross match was SUPER AWESOME. The man knows good wrestling, so take his word for it.

- JSCW's kickoff event was Saturday night free of charge on the Seaside Heights boardwalk. Judging from the picture posted in the results post, they did alright for themselves. The main crux of the show was the Tag Team Championship tournament, which had four first round matches headlined by a tilt between the SAT and All Money Is Legal, won by the latter team. Also on the card, Dan Maff defeated Apollo Star,

- Mercedes Martinez and Lexus set a modern women's wrestling record by going 73 minutes at the WSU tapings Saturday night. Martinez, who already has one superlative in the longest current Championship tenure under her belt (and may be the longest continuously defended women's title reign ever, given that Fabulous Moolah's 27 year reign was very much sparsely defended), now has another big record under her belt. The match was stopped as a 60 minute time limit draw, but the match was demanded restarted, and 13 minutes later, Martinez won with a fisherman's buster. Also at the tapings, Roxie Cotton made her redebut as Gabby Gilbert, taking two matches. The second taping ended with a WarGames match announced for the next iPPV between the newly formed Midwest Militia of Sassy Stephanie, Jessica Havok and Allison Kay and Team WSU, comprising of Martinez, Alicia and Brittney Savage.

- NWA Hollywood got a big shakeup as Joey Ryan was ousted as the head booker AND a contracted talent. I don't know what's going on that caused the coup, but it's a shocker to me. It's also very disappointing as Ryan has been embroiled in a pretty decent feud with Colt Cabana over the last couple of months. It especially sucks given that now, the only place you can find Ryan is on PWG, and that's only once a month. Granted, one show of Ryan a month is better than none, but at the same time, I can't help but feel that Hollywood is dropping the ball here by at least not keeping him on as a wrestler, even if they want to go a different direction behind the scenes.

- Ending on a happy note, according to the PWG message boards (a lot of message board news today, eh?), not only is Finlay scheduled to appear at Battle of Los Angeles this year in the tournament itself, but TJ Perkins and the Super Smash Bros. will appear at their next card after Battle of Los Angeles. Super psyched to see the SSB get some dates outside of the East Coast and Quebec, because they're a really fun tag team. Not surprising to see them touch down in SoCal though, as PWG has been really good about importing guys from Quebec, as seen with their thrusting of El Generico and Kevin Steen into the mainstream. Looking VERY much forward to this.

Weekend Wrap-Up: Meet the New Champ, Same as the Old Champ

The Queen of the Weekend

- It was a Chikara weekend, and I went to both shows. A full report will be up soon, but for the impatient, here's a very concise run-down. Night one saw Fire Ant and Mike Quackenbush earn points towards their goal in the 12 Large Summit with wins over Jigsaw and Claudio Castagnoli respectively. Johnny Kidd beat Johnny Saint in what may have been the best match of the year. UltraMantis Black spiked Jakob Hammermeir on his head and told Ares that he would do the same to the rest of the BDK until the co-founder of the group stopped being so chicken and wrestled him. Finally, the Flex Express was derailed as Tursas defeated US Ant (Green Ant), but only after crooked officiating, a Jim Cornette-esque tennis racket shot by Jakob and a top rope splash from Tursas himself.

Night two saw a surprise appearance from luchadors Rey Bucanero and Atlantis, only to be disqualified in their match against Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano thanks to a low blow that didn't happen. Kidd and Saint tore the house down again, only this time in a tag match where Kidd teamed with Colt Cabana and Saint with Quack. Saint got the receipt on Kidd in this one. Both 12 Large Summit matches were PHENOMENAL, as Eddie Kingston took out Jigsaw in one, and Sara del Rey shocked the world and became the biggest babyface in Chikara in the process, rolling up Claudio in the main event. For her troubles, both she and Daizee Haze got attacked after the match by the big Swiss sore loser.

- AIW ran their fourth Girls Night Out even Friday, and they crowned a new Women's Champion in Mickie Knuckles. She defeated Jessica Havok in a match after the announced main event of Havok retaining over Angel Dust. This seems to be a trend with indie feds lately, with this being the third time in the last couple of months, second time in AIW. Also on the card, Portia Perez retired Roxie Cotton, although Cotton after the match jumped her. Something tells me she's not staying retired for long. Also, Sara del Rey defeated Sassy Stephie.

- Adam Pearce is once again NWA World Champion, in essence negating the entire fiasco that evolved from him losing the title anyway. For those not in the know, he dropped the belt to Colt Cabana in NWA Hollywood, who then dropped it to The Sheik a month or so later in the latter's home fed of NWA Fusion in Jacksonville. This sparked rumors that Cabana was an intermediary between the two because of politics, although again, they were just rumors and were not confirmed by anyone so they are not to be taken as fact. Anyway, Sheik then pulled out of a title defense against Pearce in Milwaukee, which caused the NWA to strip him of his title, necessitating a match in Columbus where Pearce regained the Championship in a four way dance against Chance Prophet, Jimmy Rave and Shawn Tempers. Got it? Good. Anyway, the good news is that the World Championship will again most likely be featured on TV in Hollywood again, and maybe if they do the right thing and strap Cabana again, it'll stick a little longer. Anyway, this is Pearce's fourth reign with the title, and it could be his last as he's on a "One Last Ride" tour, a farewell tour of sorts where he does his thing for a little while longer before his neck injuries become too bad for him to wrestle.

- Finally, in sad blogger news, Josh "PUNTE" Zerkle is leaving Kissing Suzy Kolber. Why should you care about one of six guys leaving a football-related blog? Because if it weren't for PUNTE, there'd probably be no Wrestling Podcast right now. I was a guest on Episode 43 of his House of PUNTE podcast, and thusly, I was bitten by the podcast bug. I had him on Episode 8 of TWP as well. I'm not sure what he'll be doing in his spare time now, although hopefully he'll continue doing the podcast. Either way, best of luck in your future endeavors...

...wait, that didn't come out right.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Weekend Wrap-Up: Gregory Iron, Household Name

- On a weekend where arguably the best indie promotion not on television had its anniversary event with a big title change, the biggest news of the weekend came not from Southern California but from Berwyn, IL and AAW. As I noted on here, CM Punk came to their show Saturday and cut a promo putting over one Gregory Iron (not on WWE as was originally reported). Here's the video:

Iron, man!
Photo Credit: Lyle C. Williams

That is some classy, classy stuff right there. I had no idea that Iron suffered from cerebral palsy. That's awesome that he's wrestling at all given his condition. It's also awesome that Punk did that promo for Iron. As for the show, the big promo came after Iron and Colt Cabana lost a tag match to the Awesome Threesome. Also on the card, Michael Elgin took out Brent B, Arik Cannon defeated Jimmy Jacobs, and Silas Young regained the AAW Heavyweight Championship with a 2 falls to 1 win over Dan Lawrence.

- Speaking of new Champions, PWG has a new World Titleholder, and it's not Chris Hero either. Kevin Steen won the title, defeating Champ Claudio Castagnoli to regain the strap, this after having wrestled two other matches that evening. Talking about being an iron man. This is a great move, I think, as PWG has always struck when the iron is hot, this being yet another example of that. IT was also Claudio's second match of the evening, as he had defeated Hero one-on-one in the match before his loss. Steen defeated PAC in the opener and teamed with CIMA to defeat the Young Bucks in a grudge tag match. Also on the card saw Roderick Strong and Alex Shelley defeat Ricochet and El Generico, and the RockNES Monsters taking out Joey Ryan and Scorpio Sky.

- El Hijo del Bamboo is your Burger King of the Ring, crowned Saturday in Danbury at the latest Interspecies Wrestling Show. He defeated Frankie Arion in the final. The tournament also featured Pinkie Sanchez, Player Uno and a guy named Lloyd Cthulowitz. Oddly enough, Llody Cthulowitz is my new favorite name in all of wrestling. Also on the card, Twiggy defeated Eddie Kingston in a No DQ match.

- Finally, it seems the Osirian Portal cannot catch a break as Ophidian dropped a blog today stating that his jaw has been wired shut and he'll be out for a month or so. Damn, given Amasis' recent retirement, I guess that's a fleshwound comparatively speaking, but it still sucks. The Egyptian time travelers can't catch a break, can they? Someone wrap Hieracon in cellophane! In all seriousness, here's hoping for a speedy recovery for the Venomous and Vile Serpent from the Nile.

Weekend Wrap-Up: It's Punk's World

Sorry everyone, but to me, the only thing that happened this weekend was Money in the Bank, and I already wrote the review last night. In other news, CM Punk found a good home for the Spinner Belt:

Photo Credit: CM Punk

Weekend Wrap-Up: Destination Success

I wonder if A Double demanded So Cal Val as part of his terms before signing his contract
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

- For once, Impact Wrestling was the buzz of the grappling world for a GOOD reason. Destination X was a critical success, a harkening back to the days when TNA was fun and before it was ruined by Vince Russo's vision for what sports entertainment should be. For the first time, an Impact PPV was talked about for the action rather than how bad it was or how fucked up one of its main eventers was coming out for a match. Brian Kendrick ended our long national nightmare of Abyss as X-Division Champion by upending him last night. Austin Aries won the Impact contract, and hopefully, third time's the charm for A Double. He really deserves a chance to make serious coin and be a national star. Shark Boy appeared and apparently won a match, which is a cool throwback. Alex Shelley won the Ultimate X match. In the main event, AJ Styles defeated Christopher Daniels. Lots of positive feedback for this one. Here's hoping that everyone who watched bought it and that a lot of people bought so as to send a message to Dixie and her cronies.

- NWA Hollywood tapings were yesterday, and as with other tapings, well, it's hard to find results online. However, two notes. One, Tom Ford attended and will most likely have a recap later on today or tomorrow. Two, the Tribe upended Natural Selection for the NWA Heritage Tag Team Championships.

- ROH toured the Mid-Atlantic Friday and Saturday. The Richmond show had somewhat of a skeleton crew working for it, as several talents (the Bravados, Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly, Mike Bennett) working two matches. Apparently, Chris Hero got stranded via weather, but it still seems like a light show for the country's top indie. On the Richmond card, Cole and O'Reilly defeated the Bravados (who scored a surprise, TWGTT-assisted win over the Briscoes earlier in the night) for a shot at Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas at a later date. Speaking of the Champs, they retained their titles against El Generico and Colt Cabana. In the main event, the American Wolves defeated Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong. They're really pushing the House of Truth as a major faction. Saturday in Charlotte saw the weather cooperate with Hero enough for him to be able to make the trip. He took out Cabana in his match. There were two non-title matches to headline the card, as Haas and Benjamin defeated the Bravados, and in the main event, Generico bested Strong in a steel cage.

- Site announcement! This week will be Punk Week on the blog. Why? Because this might be the last week CM Punk is in professional wrestling for a good long time. We must celebrate him! Expect some blogs to be dropped with him as the subject and for Punk to be the subject of a few of the features this week. All will culminate in a review of Money in the Bank, the show which may very well be known mostly for the Straight Edge Savior. Enjoy!

Weekend Wrap-Up: RIP Ryze

WWWYKI
Screen Grab Credit: LongIslandIceZ Youtube Page

Not really a whole lot to report for wrestling this weekend. No PPVs, no indie shows that I can really find that would be of interest to you guys, I think. So, here's what I've got:

- Ryze Woo, a Florida indie worker whose real name was Justin Honeycutt, died in a freak accident over the weekend. He was working at his day job, at an amusement park in Orlando, working 90 feet in the air and fell six feet, hanging by his safety harnesses. Usually those things should be able to save your life by absorbing the shock of falling. I'm not sure what the issue was, but regardless, a young man is dead, which is terrible. My sincerest condolences go out to his family, friends and colleagues.

- Zack Ryder was announced as the WWE Internet Champion and successfully defended his title against Primo at a house show in Melbourne. I honestly don't know if this is a house show rib or whether it's a test run for the big shows, but hey, at least they're doing something for him with a live crowd.

- Today is International Talk Like Randy Savage Day. It was created by Trey Irby of Wrestling Theory and Bill Baconhill, and it's gained a lot of steam. Now, why have it on Independence Day? Well, Savage is an American hero. DIG IT. Anyway, you can participate by talking like Macho. If you want to film yourself doing it, then put it on Youtube or post it directly on the event's wall. OOOH YEAH.

Weekend Wrap-Up: Holy Balls, What a Busy Weekend

FUCK YEAH GREEN ANT

- Chikara's tripleshot over the weekend was greeted with great critical acclaim, as always, and some big things went down. For one, the Colony got the win over the BDK in the main event Saturday in Taylor. It was supposed to be a battle of the last two King of Trios-winning teams, but Ares had to drop out because of a family emergency. In his place was Sara del Rey. That's not the biggest news. For me, it was the Colony won via Green Ant tapping Claudio Castagnoli with the cloverleaf. I don't know about you, but I think that's awesome. So happy for Green Ant getting the big moment in the sun. Hell, it wasn't a very good weekend for the BDK at all, as they were getting their comeuppance like whoa. Friday night's main event saw Da Soul Touchaz finally get a measure of revenge on the devious Germans with a massive splash on Jakob Hammermeir by BlackDust himself, Willie Richardson. The Throwbacks got a win Saturday against Tim Donst and Hammermeir, and the Spectral Envoy of UltraMantis Black and Hallowicked took out the Donst/Hammermeir teaming on Sunday.

In other matches of interest, Eddie Kingston defeated Colt Cabana on Friday, but as the weekend progressed, he started getting harassed by one Vin Gerard. Gerard attacked Kingston after his 12 Large Summit match on Saturday against Mantis, and then again interfered on Sunday in his match against Hieracon. That could be interesting going forward. In Sunday's main event, the team of the Colony and Mike Quackenbush defeated FIST and Gerard in an atomicos match, via an Ant Hill splash on Johnny Gargano. Also, Frightmare retained his Young Lions Cup against Kodama.

As for the 12 Large Summit, here's a recap of those matches:

FRIDAY - Sara del Rey d. Icarus, Claudio d. Hallowicked, Mantis d. Fire Ant
SATURDAY - Quackenbush d. Ophidian, Kingston d. Mantis

Those results have a logjam at the top of Group A, with Quack, SDR, Claudio and Hallowicked all with two points. Group B has a similar jam, although with one fewer wrestler in the mix. Gerard, Kingston and Mantis all having two points. I have a feeling this one's going to be interesting to the wire, folks.

- Chikara's Sunday afternoon festivities weren't the only thing going on in Cleveland. Yes, AIW's Absolution 6 took place, and my my, it wasn't a very good day for Gargano at all. After eating the pinfall in the Chikara main event, he went and lost his Absolute Championship as well. Now, was it to Tim Donst, the guy he was scheduled to defend against, or was it against someone different who happened to work for Flexor Industries? At this point, I'm not sure as I can't find ANY results for the main event anywhere on the Internet. I wonder if this is intentional. I'll report as soon as I find out, but if Donst is the new Absolute Champion? Get ready to buy earplugs, because we won't hear the end of it. Also on the card, Kingston and a newly rejuvenated BJ Whitmer had one of the best matches of the weekend by observers. Whitmer got the duke. Also, Chest Flexor of the aforementioned Flexor industries got squishified by Tursas, in what I can only describe is perhaps the faciest thing Tursas has ever done.

EDIT: Good news, Donst isn't the new Absolute Champion. It's Shiima Xion, who cashed in his shot at the title via winning the Todd Pettingil Invitational Tournament. So, big month for Xion, who made his Impact debut last week, and is now the top guy in his home fed.

- Arguably the biggest event of the weekend was ROH's Best in the World, which saw two new Champions crowned. In the main event, Davey Richards defeated Eddie Edwards in a reportedly epic match that TWB superfan Billy Dunlevy claimed that "you'd have no soul" if you didn't enjoy. I'd say that was high praise. Also on the card, Christopher Daniels dropped the Television Championship to El Generico. Side note, if you bitch because they defended the title on something that wasn't on TV, then please reconsider your priorities and perhaps why you're a wrestling fan. Same deal goes if you bitched that Kevin Steen didn't honor his stipulation to leave town for good. I for one am thrilled as fuck to see Steen back in ROH, and even more thrilled that he turned on Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs, partially because he's one of the few guys that the smark maxim of "everyone's better heel" works for, but mostly because Steen vs. Corino most likely be the greatest brawl in the history of professional wrestling. I am not exaggerating. Okay, maybe I am, but it'll be damn close and damn cool. Also on the card, the World's Greatest Tag Team kept their titles, which makes sense, because the All-Nite Express isn't ready, the Briscoes are old hat and the Kings of Wrestling? Well, the scuttlebutt is that they have contracts on the table to go to WWE. VERY EXCITING SCUTTLEBUTT.

- Anarchy Championship Wrestling in Austin had their Queen of the Joshis Tournament yesterday, and I have results courtesy of With Leather managing editor and ACW superfan Brandon Stroud. Anyway, Rachel Summerlyn won the tourney, defeating Athena in the finals. Also participating were Portia Perez, Mia Yim, Christina von Eerie, Angel Blue, Serena Deeb and Amanda Fox. Outside of Summerlyn taking the tournament, the biggest thing to happen on the card was Perez's manager, Super Electro, unmasking to reveal himself as Robert Evans. He ended up costing Perez her semifinal match against the aforementioned Summerlyn. That's a feud that I'd move to Austin to see. Yes, I am dead serious. Here's a complete rundown of the tournament, because B-Stroud was kind enough to send it over to me:

ROUND 1:
Perez d. Yim, Summerlyn d. von Eerie, Athena d. Blue, Fox d. Deeb

SEMIFINALS:
Summerlyn d. Perez, Athena d. Fox

FINAL:
Summerlyn d. Athena

Also on the card, Davey Vega defended his ACW Championship against Darin Childs.

- Women's Superstars Uncensored held their Uncensored Rumble Saturday, which was won by Lexus over 22 other women. She'll get a crack at Mercedes Martinez, whose reign as Champion has now stretched over 44 defenses and 30 months, making her maybe the longest reigning Champion, male or female, around right now? I don't know, maybe some arcane NWA title that gets defended once every solar eclipse is longer held, but holy shit, for a fed that operates as regularly as WSU seems to, that's impressive. And remember, she defended the title like three or four times on EVOLVE cards too. Also on the card, Jillian Hall made her wrestling return, putting over Kristin Astara in her first match since leaving WWE. Cindy Rogers retired by defeating Allison Danger and both Sassy Stephie and the Boston Shore retained their respective Spirit and Tag Team Championships.

- And just in case you couldn't get enough indie wrestling news, CZW held its annual Tournament of Death Saturday, won by MASADA (who hopped on a plane and landed in Austin the next day to appear in ACW). He defeated Dysfunction, Matt Tremont and then Masashei Takeda for the win. He'll get a shot at Danny Havoc's Ultraviolent Underground Title, and the winner of that will go onto a garbage match Champion vs. Champion affair against Ryuji Ito, Big Japan's Deathmatch Champion. Doesn't sound like my cup of tea, but it's certainly a big deal. Also on the card, Sami Callihan, whose star is ascending exponentially in the indies, earned a chance at DJ Hyde's CZW World Championship by defeating Greg Excellent.

- And in one bit of Impact Wrestling news, Hulk Hogan dropped on his Twitter that the former TNA would be going on the road every other week to tape Impact starting in August. Good move for the company. Now if they can only stop booking shit shows...

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Weekend Wrap-Up: There Was a Payoff to the Obama Dream Sequences

Jesus Christ, no
Photo Credit: WWE.com

- Capitol Punishment was last night, and it was actually a pretty eventful PPV. Both secondary titles changed hands (Ziggler and Zeke, your new US and IC Champions respectively!), CM Punk beat Rey Mysterio cleanly(-ish) and Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger had a PPV match. None of that was enough to make the consensus positive for the show though. Both John Cena and Randy Orton retained their titles, which for some reason shocked and appalled some of the more hardcore smarks on the web. For one, Cena winning should have been a foregone conclusion, and really, Truf shouldn't be Champ just yet (although when he does win, I expect theatrics and histrionics the level we haven't seen since... errr, King Joffrey's reign of terror in the last four episodes of Game of Thrones this season... seriously, go back and watch this before HBO takes it off On Demand... expect a review of the season for TWIOT).

Orton winning though? Well, I'm ambivalent to it anymore, mainly because I didn't watch the event. However, the way it played out sounded a bit cheap to me. That being said, I don't think Christian is really going anywhere, so settle your tea kettles₁. If you really want to get up in arms about something, do it over the Obama impersonator. That shit wasn't funny when it was Clinton, or for the millisecond that it was Bush. It's so cheap and cheesy. It's the kind of thing... hell, it's one of the ONLY things that makes me ashamed to be a wrestling fan. Ugh.

- Alex Riley got his DUI charges dismissed. Good news for him, I suppose, but hopefully, he doesn't see this as license to continue to drive intoxicated.

- There was an indie show this weekend, out in Berwyn, IL at the Eagles Club. AAW ran Day of Defiance. In the main event, Rhino defeated Silas Young. Also on the card, Jimmy Jacobs tapped Christian Hayme to win a multi-man scramble match that also included Sami Callihan, Samuray del Sol and Alex Colon, and the Awesome Threesome became new AAW Tag Champs by defeating Zero Gravity.

1 - Nattie Neidhart's greatest non-in-ring contribution to the wrestling tapestry.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Happy Slammiversary, Impact

New Champion
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

- Impact Wrestling's Slammiversary PPV was last night, and the big winners were Ken Anderson and Kurt Angle. Anderson defeated Sting for the Impact World Championship, while Angle made Jeff Jarrett tap out to presumably end their feud (or at least one would hope, since it's dragged on for so goddamn long it's not even funny). Bully Ray defeated AJ Styles in a last man standing match, and Alex Shelley and James Storm retained the Tag Team Championships, again, teasing dissension because EVERY TEAM NEEDS TO TEASE DISSENSION GAWD.

- CZW Prelude to Violence took place at The Arena on Saturday. The show was a prelude to their Tournament of Death to take place in Delaware later on this month. The main event saw Scotty Vortekz defeat Drake Younger in a TLC match to qualify for the tournament. Other winners included AR Fox, who defeated Drew Gulak for the Wired TV Title, Adam Cole, who retained his Light Heavyweight Championship against Jonathan "Hieracon" Gresham and Philly's Most Wanted (BLK JEEZ and Joker), who retained their Tag Titles against Azrael and Bandido.

- Frank Iadevaia of JAPW announced this weekend he was starting a new brand under the company's umbrella. Jersey Shore Championship Wrestling will open for business later this year. You can find the pertinent FAQ here. Basically, JAPW will become a sort of PWG-dream match promotion for the East Coast, while JSCW will feature more of the unknown talent from the area, be it select, lower-card talent from JAPW or other local indie guys. Iadevaia plans on running JSCW as the full-time promotion while JAPW will be the special occasion fed. Also, guest shows with NJPW and Impact will still be promoted under the JAPW banner. This is pretty interesting news. I'll be keeping up with it.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Enter the Dragon

Still the Champ

- Dragon Gate USA had a triple-shot of shows this weekend, culminating in an iPPV last night that had feed problems. Feed problems suck, but Gabe Sapolsky is making good on the customer dissatisfaction by throwing in a free viewing of their Open the Southern Gate show along with any purchase of last night's show on demand. This is how companies should operate. Anyway, the first night of action in Revere, MA, on Frriday was headlined by an Open the United Gate Championship defense by PAC and Masato Yoshino over YAMATO and Akira Tozawa. Saturday night's show on Long Island didn't have any title matches, but saw Ricochet defeating PAC and Rich Swann in what probably was a breathtaking spotfest of the main event. Last night's show looked pretty loaded. The Dirty Ugly Fucks of Sami Callihan and Arik Cannon took out Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Yokosuka, and the Ronin stable defeated the Blood Warriors group in an elimination match, with Johnny Gargano getting the final elimination on Austin Aries (giving him a receipt from Friday night's singles match where Aries was victorious). In the main event, PAC was unsuccessful in his attempt to corner the market in American DG gold, as YAMATO retained his Open the Freedom Gate Championship.

- Apparently, Mick Foley's exit from TNA on Thursday's show was more shoot than they let on at the time. According to several news outlets, and according to Foley's Twitter itself, he's out of TNA after "trying to change the creative process" and all that other jazz. While the fact that all the usual suspects are reporting this as news lends credence to it being real news, I am still suspect at the timing of it, ESPECIALLY given that Vince Russo has never met a worked shoot he didn't like. That being said, if Foley shows up on RAW in three months, then I'll readily admit that I was wrong, but I can't shake the nagging feeling that this is some elaborate work. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to your discretion, I suppose.

- Betty George, the first wife of wrestling icon and WWE Hall of Famer Gorgeous George, passed away Friday at the age of 98. Wow, 98, that's a hell of a run. Regardless though, I wish my sincerest condolences to her family and friends.

- Finally, this isn't so much wrestling news as it's site news, but I'm rebooting all the features on the blog. The Six Packs, the Best Move Ever, Know Your Indie Wrestlers... they're all going to start over again. What does that mean? Eh, just that I'll be repeating topics and such. But yeah, so if you see a repeat for any feature, you know now why, so at least I can point you to a warning rather than you going "BLOGGER Y U NO HAVE ORIGINAL TOPICS FOR FEATURES?"

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Hey Now, You're an All-Star... Weekend

Chuck Taylor, shown upside down here, injured this weekend

- The big story from this weekend obviously is PWG All-Star Weekend. The two day event was marked by major shuffles to the card on both days. I noted the first day shuffling, but the second day had to be rearranged as well due to Chuck Taylor suffering an injury in his match against Kenny King. Other than him missing Night Two, I don't know how serious it is, but obviously, I wish a very speedy recovery to the Kentucky Gentleman. I own his tee-shirt, for crying out loud.

Anyway, both Championship entities made it out of the weekend unscathed. Claudio Castagnoli successfully defended against Chris Hero on Night One thanks to a broken top rope into a European uppercut. Night Two, he defeated Low Ki. The Young Bucks defeated both the RockNES Monsters and the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong on consecutive nights. Night one was interesting for the tag teams as after their match with the Cutlers, Generation Next got sneak-attacked by the Bucks, eliciting Alex Shelley for the save. Shelley called out the Bucks and challenged them to a six-man tag with a partner of their choosing, completing the GenNext reunion as far as it'll go without bringing Jack Evans back into the American consciousness (and seriously, who wants that?) Shelley wasn't done challenging yet, as after jobbing to Eddie Edwards, he proposed a dream tag match between the American Wolves and the MCMGs. Alex Shelley, man of the people.

Night Two's other matches were rearranged by Taylor's aforementioned injury. Willie Mack went from wrestling Hero to Ricochet (Ricochet won), which freed Hero up to wrestle Akira Tozawa (!!) in what was said to be the match of the weekend. I can dig that. Also reported to be amazing was Edwards going over Generico. Sounds like PWG really delivered, but is that a surprise to anyone? Hopefully, TWB and PWG superfan Tom Ford was able to go to both shows so we can do a proper podcast with him about the weekend this week.

- In the "news item that isn't news at all" department, apparently Jay Leno not knowing about the connection between the Graziano family and Hulk Hogan is news enough to make the F4W site's daily update:

Again, it's rough when you have to rag on the best news site for wrestling out there, but at the same time, Alvarez deserves it. This, much like reporting that Evan Bourne was looking for UFC tickets, is NOT NEWS, GAWD.

- Apparently, some douchenozzle out there didn't like that John Cena wished all the troops out there a happy Memorial Day. It all started with this innocuous tweet from Cena:

CeNation. I know most have a long weekend this week. While you're having fun remember those who have kept this country free.

It got a profanity-laced response from a guy whose handle is @shmikemike. I'm not going to relay it on here, but I fully endorse replying to this waste of sperm and telling him what a dick he is. I mean, yeah, you don't have to like John Cena, and you also don't have to agree with everything our military has been used to do. Lord knows a huge chunk of I've disagreed with both George W. Bush and Barack Obama over the last 10 years has stemmed from use of the military. However, that's what politicians are doing. Unfortunately, the soldiers who signed up for this gig don't decide where we go and stick our noses in, and thus they go into conflicts, whether justified (Afghanistan) or personally unjustified (Iraq), and risk their lives for whatever reason. To me, they deserve our respect and our support with very little condition attached....

...sorry, I'll step off the soapbox. I just really have no patience for people with misdirected angst regarding the wars our country fights.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!