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Happy Mother’s Day!

For those of you readers that are mothers, Happy Mother’s Day! Happy Mother’s Day to my mom as well!

Progress Chapter 132: By the Beard of Zeus!

The chapter title comes from the movie “Anchorman”, said by Will Ferrell’s character Ron Burgundy.

This Progress chapter took place at the Dome in London, England on April 18, 2022 and served as night #1 of the Atlas Tournament weekend. The winner of this tournament would win the revived Progress Atlas Championship.

This championship is reserved for wrestlers that weigh over 205 pounds. Its first champion—on September 25, 2016—was current NXT UK competitor Rampage Brown; other wrestlers that held that title until 2019—when it was replaced with the short-lived Progress Proteus Championship—were Matt Riddle, Walter (before we ever heard of a wrestler simply named “Gunther”), Doug Williams (nowadays in the National Wrestling Alliance), and Trent Seven.

This year, the Atlas title was revived and the tournament where the winner would win the belt began on April 18, 2022. Nine competitors took part of the tournament; one of the quarterfinal matches was in the form of a triple threat elimination match, and another quarterfinal match took place at Defy Wrestling. (At Defy Wrestling, Jonah defeated Schaff to advance to the semi-final round of the tournament.) The rest of the competitors that entered were Big Damo (whom we’ve seen on ICW lately), Joe Hendry, Axel Tischer (whom we’ve seen on wXw lately), Warren Banks, Rickey Shane Page (whom I’ve seen in Combat Zone Wrestling and his select AEW appearances), Luke Jacobs, and Will Kroos.

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The quarterfinal matches that took place on Progress Chapter 132 were pretty good, as well as fun to watch. My favorite of the quarterfinal matches—as well as my favorite of this chapter—would go to the opener which was Warren Banks taking on Axel Tischer. It was a very good back-and-forth battle between the two including having moments where Tischer was teasing some heelish antics like we’ve seen lately on wXw ever since the new year began. Plus, it showed that Banks didn’t show any signs of concern ever since he lost to Jonathan Gresham—courtesy of Lykos Gym—one chapter ago, and was able to overshadow it by advancing to the next round of the Atlas Tournament. I admit, Banks is an absolute badass, and—even though this tournament took place a few weeks ago per se—he’s definitely one competitor to keep an eye on.

Besides the three Atlas Tournament-related matches, we were also treated with three matches involving Progress’ women’s division; the first was Laura Di Matteo fighting Rhio (my favorite match of the three by the way), the second was a rematch from “Who Run the World?” between Jetta & Charlie Morgan (now known together as Royal Aces) and Mercedez Blaze & Taonga, and the third was Alexxis Falcon fighting Skye Smitson.

There were also one title match, which was for the Progress Tag Team Championship between the 0121—current champions—and the Sunshine Machine. It was supposed to be two title matches, but Gresham—the Progress World Champion—was out with an injury, and was replaced by Kid Lykos who took on Chris Ridgeway that night.

Here are the match results from London…

Match #1: Warren Banks defeated Axel Tischer in the quarterfinal round of the Atlas Tournament.

Near the end, Banks went for the Bullet Vehicle until Tischer kneed him away; Tischer then went for a rollup, but Banks sat down on him and pinned him for the win. Post-match, Banks declined a handshake from Tischer (like Tischer did earlier as soon as the match began), and decided to hug him instead. My score: 4/5

Match #2: Laura Di Matteo defeated Rhio;

after Rhio avoided Laura’s Veni Vidi Vici, Laura came back and won with a piledriver. My score: 3.5/5

Match #3: Royal Aces defeated Mercedez Blaze & Taonga.

Taonga slapped the Progress cap off of Simon Miller’s head before the match began. Near the end, Mercedez attempted to hit one of her opponents with a dropkick, but missed and hit Taonga; this led to Jetta hitting Mercedez with a backcracker, and Charlie winning with a Swanton Bomb. My score: 1.5/5

Match #4: Rickey Shane Page defeated Will Kroos and Joe Hendry in a triple threat elimination match that was part of the quarterfinal round of the Atlas Tournament.

Santos Jr. served as the special enforcer for this match. Before the match began, Hendry cancelled a special “parody” entrance that he was going to perform and decided to come to the ring with his theme song being played in his headphones. Kroos eliminated Hendry, and Hendry got mad at the referee until Santos Jr. attempted to restore order including pretending to shoot him; Hendry ended up disrespecting Santos Jr. including bullying him until Santos Jr. hit him with a Stone Cold Stunner. The match would then continue, and then end with Page picking up the win after hitting Kroos with—as soon as he saw Kroos attempting to roll away—a tightrope frog splash. My score: 2.5/5

Match #5: Chris Ridgeway defeated Kid Lykos (w/ Kid Lykos II).

Near the end, Kid Lykos II attempted to interfere until Ridgeway—who was working one of Kid Lykos’ legs during the match—suplexed him onto his opponent. Then, Ridgeway put Kid Lykos in a grapevine/ankle lock combo (ala Kurt Angle) and won by submission. Post-match, Ridgeway took Kid Lykos’ boot (that supposedly came off as soon as the match ended) and dropped it at the entryway before Lykos Gym picked it up while exiting. My score: 3/5

Match #6: Alexxis Falcon vs. Skye Smitson ended in a double count out.

As soon as the referee called for the bell, both women fought at the merchandise table; Skye choked Alexxis with one of the shirts from the table until Alexxis took a page out of Randy Orton’s playbook by hitting her with a back suplex onto the table before referees came and separated the two. My score: 2.5/5

Match #7: Luke Jacobs defeated Big Damo in the quarterfinal round of the Atlas Tournament.

Big Damo’s theme song is the same as Molly Spartan’s theme song from ICW, but—kind of like Pearl Jam having two versions of “Brother”, one that’s an instrumental and the other having vocals—Damo’s theme song has vocals in it. In this David and Goliath-like battle, Jacobs—after attempting to take down his opponent several times—won with a running clothesline. Afterwards, Damo looked like he was going to attack Jacobs after grabbing him, but decided to shake hands with him instead. My score: 2.5/5

Main event: The 0121 defeated the Sunshine Machine to retain the Progress Tag Team Championship.

Before Miller announced the introductions for both teams, the 0121 and the Sunshine Machine were 1upping each other during the ongoing dueling chants from the fans including showing off their merchandise (an 0121 t-shirt, and what looked like either a Sunshine Machine towel or banner) as well as nearly getting into shoving matches. As soon as the bell rang, both teams brawled out of the ring including—just like in the last chapter where the teams were part of the tag team gauntlet—fighting in the venue’s bar area.

Dan Moloney got injured during the match after getting hit by a shooting star press from TK Cooper who broke up Man Like Dereiss’ pin; he went to the back afterwards, but would be back in action minutes later. Towards the end, Chuck Mambo shouldered Moloney in the corner, and Cooper ran up the two—like Shelton Benjamin running up a ladder in a Money In the Bank ladder match—and hit Dereiss with a Spanish fly; Cooper pinned Dereiss until Moloney broke it up by hitting Mambo with the Drilla on top of Cooper, leading to Dereiss pinning Cooper for the win. My score: 3/5

ICW Fight Club

We stay in the United Kingdom, but this time, we head to the GPWA in Glasgow, Scotland for an episode of ICW Fight Club.

One of the storylines heading into ICW Barred II was the Manifesto looking to take down Daz Black’s team one peg after another before both teams headed into the event; it started off with Dylan Thorn attacking Black backstage at a family friendly pro wrestling event, prior to ICW Fight Club starting off a best-of-three series of sorts with Leyton Buzzard taking on Grant McIvor.

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After seeing Buzzard defeating McIvor last week, we would see Luke Kyro take on Eddie Castle in the main event—which was my favorite match of the episode by the way—to see if Black’s team would enter Barred II with an advantage over the Manifesto. Castle, even with only moral support instead of interference from the rest of the Manifesto, proved Black’s team wrong by making Kyro submit and evening the odds before ADM fights Jack Jester in an Insane Rules match on the next episode of Fight Club. This rivalry that took place before Barred II is pretty damn good if I say so myself, even with the Manifesto being—besides a mysterious team—a force to be reckoned with ever since forming last year in a then-empty GPWA. I’m curious to see how Jester vs. ADM would go prior to Barred II (which will be aired on Peacock and WWE Network on May 17).

Speaking of matches, even though we had a great main event as well as a good opener, the rest of the matches weren’t really that good since three of the four matches that were shown between the opener and closer were squash matches—two squashes by Jason Reed—that were filler; the only match in the middle that wasn’t a squash was a tag team match that had a debuting tag team as well as a returning manager whose name reminds me of a member of the “Jackass” franchise that we saw at WrestleMania not too long ago.

Going back to Jason Reed, after winning in two consecutive squashes, he wanted to find out the stipulation for his match against Chris Bungard at Barred II; Rudo Lightning and Bungard came and confronted Reed and told him that the stipulation would be in the form of five three-minute rounds that could be won by pinfall, submission, knockout, or escaping the cage, and Rudo would then up the ante by adding one more stipulation to Reed vs. Bungard before coercing him to say “yes” to it.

Here are the match results from Glasgow…

Match #1: Martin Kirby defeated Vaughn Vertigo after making him submit to a front chancery.

Both men shook hands afterwards, just like they did as soon as the match began. My score: 3/5

Match #2: Taonga defeated Daisy Jenkins in three minutes with the I’m Prettier (or as Christian Cage calls it the “Unprettier”).

No score.

Match #3: Logan Smith & Jimmy Pierce (w/ the Wee Man) defeated Reece & Rogan in five minutes.

Not only was this Reece & Rogan’s ICW debut, but also the return of the Wee Man; prior to the match, the Wee Man said that he has been observing ICW while he was away, and then decided to manage a future generation tag team in the form of Smith and Pierce on their road to the ICW Tag Team Championship. Near the end, Reece picked up Pierce on his shoulders until Pierce rolled him up with a crucifix and picked up the win. My score: 0.5/5

Match #4: Jason Reed defeated Robbie Balford in approximately 90 seconds after incapacitating him with a sleeper;

Coach Trip was not in the arena because he was training outside the GPWA according to Billy Kirkwood on commentary. Post-match, Reed challenged anyone “stupid enough” to fight him; out came Robbie Cardwell—who looks like to me a cross between comedian Carrot Top and snowboarder Shaun White but with a flannel jacket and black clothes—who accepted the challenge by slapping Reed who poked fun of him for celebrating Halloween early. No score.

Match #5: Jason Reed defeated Robbie Cardwell in less than a minute after making him submit to a cross armbreaker.

Post-match, Reed called out Rudo Lightning to find out the stipulation for his match against Chris Bungard at Barred II, and Rudo and Bungard—who came from the crowd—came into the ring and cornered him. Rudo said that the match will be in the form of five three-minute rounds, and then said that if Reed lost, he and Trip would disband; Rudo and Bungard closed in on the cornered Reed until Reed said yes. No score.

Main event: Eddie Castle (w/ ADM, Grant McIvor and Dylan Thorn) defeated Luke Kyro after making him submit to an inverted cloverleaf with a grapevine added to it; Castle beat down Kyro afterwards, including working on his left leg (like he did during the match).

My score: 4/5

wXw Inner Circle

We stay in Europe, but this time we head to Essen, Germany for wXw Inner Circle.

This event took place at the wXw Wrestling Academy in Essen on March 3, 2022, one night before the wXw 16 Carat Gold occurred. It was also the last time that Inner Circle took place in Essen because, in August, the Academy will move to Gelsenkirchen.

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Three of the six matches that took place at Inner Circle served as warmup matches for the participants of the 16 Carat Gold tournament; other matches included a tag team match that went awry half of the time, a women’s match, and—for the main event—a four-on-four tag team elimination match between four wrestlers representing the wXw Wrestling Academy and four wrestlers representing the HCW Dojo from Hungary.

My favorite match of Inner Circle goes to one of the warmup matches that took place, which was Ender Kara taking on 16 Carat Gold participant Fuminori Abe. Eight minutes of back-and-forth fast paced action between the two competitors occurred in this bout, even before the match ended with Abe coming out victorious. If you want to look back at Inner Circle, I would recommend checking this match out, pending on whether or not you like fast-paced action in wrestling matches.

Here are the match results from Essen…

Match #1: Shigehiro Irie defeated Gulyás Junior. Irie was a participant for the 16 Carat Gold tournament.

Gulyás’ theme song is the same theme song used by Lykos Gym, replacing the theme song used by the Hunt (and nowadays Wild Boar) on NXT UK. Irie won with the Beast Mode clothesline. Both men shook hands afterwards. My score: 3.5/5

Match #2: Sebastian Suave & Norman Harras defeated Goldenboy Santos & Vaughn Vertigo.

Suave and Vertigo, whom we’ve also seen on ICW as of late, are from Smash Wrestling in Canada. Towards the end, Harras—who was legal—hit Santos with a back suplex onto the apron while Vertigo—who was also legal—hit Suave in the spine with a Swanton Bomb before Harras ran back in, rolled up Vertigo, and—with a handful of tights—pinned him for the win. My score: 1.25/5

Match #3: Ava Everett defeated Orsi in five minutes.

This was Orsi’s wXw debut. Ava coerced the referee to open the ropes for her before the match. Ava won after hitting Orsi with the Tunnel Vision (Nikki A.S.H. neckbreaker). Post-match, Ava vowed to defeat Iva Kolasky for the wXw Women’s Championship and defend it everywhere until Iva came from the crowd and chased her out of the ring and to the back. My score: 1.5/5

Match #4: Fuminori Abe defeated Ender Kara after making him submit to an octopus stretch.

Both men shook hands afterwards. My score: 4/5

Match #5: Ace Romero defeated Dennis “Ca$h” Dullnig.

Romero, whom I first remember seeing in Combat Zone Wrestling before he went to Impact Wrestling, was a participant for the 16 Carat Gold tournament. Romero unnerved Dullnig by dancing to his opponent’s theme song (including posing like Brodus Clay, or Tyrus as he’s known as nowadays), and also did a Spinaroonie (ala Booker T); it even included Romero and Dullnig having the referee doing a Spinaroonie of his own until the referee ended up rolling like a log.

Also, a minute before the bell rang, Dullnig threw his shirt at Romero until Romero jokingly only got his head and right arm into the shirt. Romero received a bloody nose during the match after Dullnig gave him a fishhook to one of the nostrils. Towards the end, after Romero kicked out of Dullnig’s pin which sent his opponent into the referee, Dullnig got out of the ring and grabbed a steel chair and hit Romero in the head with it; as the referee was waking up, Dullnig acted as if he was hit by the chair until Romero was also down and out before pinning the former Impact wrestler for two. Romero came back and won with a package piledriver. My score: 2/5

Main event: Peter Tihanyi, Maverick & Arrows of Hungary defeated the Rotation, James Runyan, Oskar & Robert Dreissker in a four-man tag team elimination match;

Icarus and Dover were the sole survivors of this match. Runyan’s theme song is the same song that has been used recently to promote the WWE Hall of Fame. Anil Marik was scheduled to take part of this match, but was taken out by Dreissker due to a shoulder injury; Dreissker ended up replacing Marik with Oskar whom he argued with throughout the entire match ever since We Love Wrestling 27 where Oskar blew a gasket after losing in a tag team match. Dreissker eliminated Maverick with a spear, Icarus eliminated the Rotation by making him submit to the Heart of Europe crossface, Dover eliminated Runyan with an air raid crash, Tihanyi eliminated Dreissker (who argued with Oskar) with sliced bread, Oskar eliminated Tihanyi with a Michinoku driver, and the Arrows of Hungary eliminated Oskar with the Crossfire. My score: 3.5/5

NXT 2.0 Spring Breakin’

Now, we head to the United States; not only do we jump from March 3 to May 3 of 2022, but also to Orlando, Florida for a special episode of NXT entitled “Spring Breakin’.”

All five matches that took place were pretty good, including two matches that saw titles on the line. Those matches either wrapped up or continued storylines as this event occurred.

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One storyline that wasn’t related to the matches that took place at Spring Breakin’ was Wendy Choo and Roxanne Perez getting back of Toxic Attraction for humiliating them as of late; all three members—Mandy Rose, Cora Jade, and Jacy Jayne—were taking time away until Wendy and Roxanne wreaked havoc with Wendy making Mandy look as red as a lobster in a tanning salon, and then she and Roxanne stealing shoes and car keys from Cora and Jacy who were at the beach before chasing Wendy and Roxanne on the hot sand, concrete, and asphalt.

Wendy and Roxanne are now scheduled to fight Cora and Jacy in a non-title match next week, and I got a feeling that this new pairing of Wendy and Roxanne are going after the gold that Toxic Attraction is holding, whether it’s the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship or the NXT Women’s Championship; I’m curious to see how Wendy and Roxanne will function as a team once they compete next week. Besides, it’s not the first time we’ve seen Roxanne win a championship belt; remember when she was the Ring of Honor Women’s Champion?

Speaking of Roxanne, we finally learned the rest of the participants taking part of the inaugural NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament. Last week, we learned that Arianna Grace, Kiana James, Sloane Jacobs, and Lash Legend are taking part of the tournament; this week, the last four participants of the tournament have been announced, and they are Tatum Paxley, Fallon Henley, Roxanne Perez (who noted it while she and Wendy Choo were sabotaging Toxic Attraction’s week off from competition), and Nikkita Lyons (announced on WWE’s YouTube channel). I was expecting new additions that we haven’t seen on any show that has “NXT” in its name, but I’m perfectly fine with those that we’ve seen not just on NXT but NXT: LVL UP as well.

Storylines and upcoming tournaments aside, all five matches were pretty good including two title matches that occurred that night. My best of the five matches definitely belonged to both title matches. One was the triple threat match for the NXT North American Championship between Cameron Grimes, Solo Sikoa, and Carmelo Hayes; and the other was for the NXT Championship between Bron Breakker and Joe Gacy.

Before I continue, I was wrong about the sit-down meeting between Tony D’Angelo and Santos Escobar. It didn’t convert into a match as I predicted, even though it ended—after D’Angelo and his goombas Troy Donovan and Channing Lorenzo left—with Legado Del Fantasma attacking and kidnapping AJ Galante who also accompanied D’Angelo. Here are the NXT match results from Orlando…

Match #1: Cameron Grimes defeated Solo Sikoa and Carmelo Hayes (w/ Trick Williams) in a triple threat match to retain the NXT North American Championship.

Near the end, Sikoa attempted to hit Hayes with a Samoan drop until Grimes hit the two with a top rope Cave In before pinning Sikoa for the win. My score: 4/5

Match #2: Nathan Frazer defeated Grayson Waller. Mark Long, from “Road Rules:

USA – The First Adventure” among other reality TV shows, was in attendance for this match. Also watching this match in the audience were Andre Chase and Bodhi Hayward, together with fans wearing Chase U shirts. During the match, Waller mocked Seth Rollins—who trained Frazer before his opponent’s WWE tenure began—and attempted to hit Frazer with a curbstomp, but missed. Towards the end, both Frazer and Waller were on the top rope until Waller shoved him off and to the floor; then, Chase came to the first row of the audience and surprised Waller with an airhorn causing him to stagger off the top rope. This led to Frazer coming back in the ring and winning with a corkscrew 450. My score: 3.75/5

Match #3: Nikkita Lyons & Cora Jade defeated Natalya & Lash Legend.

Near the end, Natalya ran in and accidentally booted Lash while breaking up Cora’s pin; then, after Natalya was thrown out of the ring, Nikkita hit Lash with a leg split leg drop, and Cora hit Lash with a senton bomb for the win. My score: 2.25/5

Match #4: The Creed Brothers defeated the Viking Raiders.

Towards the end, while Brutus fought Ivar at ringside, Roderick Strong came from the crowd and kneed Erik in the face from ringside before Julius picked up the win with a basement clothesline. Afterwards, the Creed Brothers saw how they won on the replay and argued with Strong about it. My score: 3.75/5

(NOTE: Malcolm Bivens is no longer part of Diamond Mine because he was released from WWE last week.)

Main event: Bron Breakker defeated Joe Gacy to retain the NXT Championship.

Breakker’s entrance showed him in black and white before he turned on a power switch to turn from black and white to color. Also, he wore an outfit similar that paid homage to his father Rick Steiner’s Raw debut in 1993. Two of Gacy’s cloaked men watched in the audience during the match. Gacy went for a handspring clothesline, but Breakker countered with a spear for the win. Afterwards, two more of Gacy’s cloaked men appeared on the apron while Breakker was celebrating, then—as shown on WWE’s YouTube channel after the show went off the air—attacked the champion with a steel chair before carrying him away on a stretcher with barbed wire on the sides. My score: 4/5

NXT UK

It’s still the first week of May 2022 and we return to London, England; this time, we head to the BT Sports Studios for an episode of NXT UK.

Seeing the worlds of NXT and NXT UK collide would continue in London. It started off with Lash Legend not only having Emilia McKenzie rudely take her briefcase to the locker room, but also being a guest on Noam Dar’s SPRNVA Sessions (or “Supernova Sessions 2.0” as he calls it nowadays). Not only did it have Dar and Samuels having the hots for Lash as well as giving her flowers (wilted flowers from Dar, and a much better bouquet from Samuels) as well as Samuels asking people to place bets on wrestlers from NXT in action, but also Lash vowing to go through NXT UK’s women’s division until there “won’t be much left.” I got a feeling that Lash’s first opponent will be Emilia McKenzie since the beginning of the episode on how the two women encountered appears to be a dead giveaway.

More matches involving NXT wrestlers have been made for future episodes including next week with Ivy Nile taking on Nina Samuels, as well as a possible match between Sam Gradwell and Von Wagner after Gradwell accused Wagner of making the NXT UK roster—including Sid Scala—look back by putting them in “Von Wagner’s World.”

We learned last week that Damon Kemp—whom we have seen on NXT and NXT: LVL UP—is now a member of the NXT UK roster, and he had a pretty good NXT UK debut this week against Progress/ICW competitor Danny Jones. This isn’t the first time that we have seen American competitors be a part of the NXT UK roster; we have seen Chris Hero, back when he was Kassius Ohno, compete on the roster for a few months before he was given the “future endeavors” treatment. I definitely look forward to seeing what else Kemp has in store for the NXT UK roster after getting his feet wet in British pro wrestling.

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All three matches—including Kemp’s NXT UK debut—were good, but the main event was my favorite for this week’s episode. I was expecting the World of Darkness match to be like the theatrical matches that we’ve seen a couple years ago like the Boneyard match between AJ Styles and the Undertaker at WrestleMania, the Money In the Bank ladder match that took place at WWE’s headquarters in Connecticut, and so forth.

It was actually a street fight but with dark lighting, smoke, and other things that made it look like Meiko Satomura was in Isla Dawn’s—pun intended—dark world. I was expecting more from this match—for the NXT Women’s Championship—such as who would appear, what crazy spells would occur, and other things, but regardless of what I saw, it still received a good above-average rating from me. It’s good to see both Meiko retain the championship especially in a street fight-like environment such as the World of Darkness, and of course a good build for Isla’s dark and disturbing character regardless of the outcome she received in that bout.

Here are the NXT UK match results from London…

Match #1: Tiger Turan defeated Tate Mayfairs with a Swanton Bomb.

This was Turan’s NXT UK debut. Post-match, Kenny Williams was disturbed after seeing Turan celebrate with other members of the NXT UK roster, believing that Turan was the one who distracted him during his match with Sam Gradwell not too long ago. My score: 2/5

Match #2: Damon Kemp defeated Danny Jones in four minutes after a spear followed by a running powerslam.

Afterwards, Sha Samuels ran in and attacked Kemp for mocking him before the match. (Kemp jokingly said that there were bets on how tacky Samuels’ all plaid outfit was.) My score: 2/5

Main event: Meiko Satomura defeated Isla Dawn in the World of Darkness to retain the NXT Women’s Championship.

Dark blue lighting (similar to the Undertaker’s lighting), screens showing dark blue clouds, flickering lights, and smoke—that emerged from under the ring—were used for the scenery of this match. Steel chairs, a broom, Isla’s box containing some of her belongings (including a lock of Dani Luna’s hair), a rope, a cable, and a kendo stick were used in this match. During the match, Isla attempted to blind Meiko by stretching a lock of Dani’s hair across her face including her eyes. Also, Isla tied up Meiko in a post with the cable before whipping her with a rope until Meiko kicked her away and freed herself. Near the end, after Isla hit Meiko with a Meteora onto a pile of chairs for two, Isla set up two chairs facing each other and attempted to slam Meiko onto them until Meiko came back with a Death Valley Driver onto one of the chairs before defeating her with—using a chair as a springboard—Scorpio Rising. My score: 3/5

NXT: LVL UP

Lastly, we return to Orlando for an episode of NXT: LVL UP.

Not only did we have NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament competitors in action in the first and second matches, but also a tag team main event involving a group that Tony D’Angelo formed recently.

For the women’s matches, they were fairly good, especially the first match; the first match involved the storyline of Tatum Paxley wanting to work with Diamond Mine, especially with Ivy Nile. I wasn’t sure if things would go awry between Tatum and Ivy during or after the match like when they competed in this year’s Dusty Rhodes Women’s Tag Team Classic, but I was proven wrong after seeing both women work like a well-oiled machine in this bout. It may be unlikely that we’ll see Tatum as a new addition to Diamond Mine, but she still earned Ivy’s respect after they picked up the win even if it’s—as we often hear at times—“for now.”

Sloane Jacobs vs. Thea Hail was also good, and—interestingly especially to me—I didn’t know that those two wrestlers came from my home state of Pennsylvania until Sudu Shah mentioned it on commentary. If I remember correctly, Shah mentioned that Sloane is from my hometown of Philadelphia (even though she’s technically from West Chester regardless of whether or not it’s considered part of the Philadelphia area), and Thea is from Pittsburgh.

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The main event tag team match between Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo & Troy “Two Dimes” Donovan and Dante Chen & Javier Bernal was definitely my favorite of the three matches that were shown. It’s good to see the fairly new team of Lorenzo and Donovan pick up a win—especially on LVL UP—now that they are getting a push ever since they are now aligned with Tony D’Angelo; not only that, but I also see it as a good build for the rivalry that D’Angelo and his goombas have with Legado Del Fantasma.

Here are the NXT: LVL UP match results from Orlando…

Match #1: Tatum Paxley & Ivy Nile (w/ Roderick Strong) defeated Erica Yan & Sarray after Ivy made Erica submit to a standing dragon sleeper;

Ivy refused to have her arm raised by Tatum afterwards. My score: 2/5

Match #2: Sloane Jacobs defeated Thea Hail with a fireman’s carry converted into a flapjack.

My score: 2/5

Main event: Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo & Troy “Two Dimes” Donovan (w/ Tony D’Angelo) defeated Dante Chen & Javier Bernal.

D’Angelo joined Sudu Shah and Nigel McGuinness on commentary. Lorenzo and Donovan won after a double boot to Chen. D’Angelo bribed the referee afterwards before celebrating with his goombas. My score: 2.5/5

Next time…

There are three big events I’m talking about.

One is a look back at Progress Chapter 133… One is a look back at wXw Ambition 11… And one is a recap of WrestleMania Backlash. All of this, plus the four usual shows that I also recap. For my newsletters as well as any articles that are on the Wrestling With Johners website, the website is wrestlingwithjohners.com/articles For just my newsletters along on the WWJ website, it is wrestlingwithjohners.com/authors/pro-darin/ Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment! I’ll see you next time! Also, once again, Happy Mother’s Day!

(Photos shown in the newsletter are from WWE, Progress and ICW.)