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Happy Father’s Day

To every father out there including my father, I’m wishing you a Happy Father’s Day!

ICW Fight Club

Our first stop is the GPWA in Glasgow, Scotland in the United Kingdom for an episode of ICW Fight Club.

The buildup to ICW Shug’s Hoose Party 7 rolled on this week. This time, another match has been made for that event.

On the last episode of Fight Club, we saw Saqib Ali take on Theo Doros with DCT—as “Jackie Polo”—working as the special guest referee; the match of course ended in a disqualification after Doros coerced Chris Toal to put his hands on him. This week, “Polo”—who hosted an episode of “The Polo Lounge”—made a match for SHP7, which will be him taking on Ali.

Speaking of SHP7, that’s not the only thing that took place on “The Polo Lounge”; his special guest was ICW World Heavyweight Champion Kez Evans, who is currently livid over ICW disrespecting him for two years and claiming to make both the World Heavyweight and Zero-G Championships relevant despite how he won both of those titles. (Last year, he cashed in his Square Go! briefcase twice; the first time was on Craig Anthony minutes after Anthony won a tournament for the then-vacant Zero-G title, and the second time was on Jaxn one night after Jaxn defeated Evans for the then-vacant World Heavyweight title as well as a minute or so after DCT appeared as Jaxn’s alter-ego and attacked him.) After Evans tore up a poster that was highlighting future matches for episodes of Fight Club (including the Young Team fighting the Kings of the North for the ICW Tag Team Championship that was shown this week), “Polo” suggested that Evans would take a holiday (or vacation as we call it in the United States) until Jack Jester—Evans’ SHP7 opponent—came in. Jester mocked Evans for having the championship belt and pressure getting to him, and then ticked off by revealing who “Polo” really is, leading to “Polo” attempting to hit Jester with his polo mallet before missing and hitting Evans. This is definitely a good buildup for the upcoming championship match between Jester and Evans, especially having Evans’ heel character play victim when it comes to how he is managed in ICW.

Besides the buildup for SHP7, there were also three matches that took place; all three matches were pretty good. Interestingly, just like picking two out of three matches that I enjoyed in past episodes of NXT: LVL UP, I picked two out of three matches that I enjoyed on this week’s episode of Fight Club. One match was Theo Doros taking on LJ Cleary; it was a pretty good matchup between the two, with Doros being a hypocritical heel by breaking rules despite adding rules to ICW going back to night #1 of Fear & Loathing XIII, as well as Cleary surprising him at times regardless of which one of his four limbs was worked on in that bout.

The other match that I enjoyed was Angel Hayze taking on Moxie Malone. Even though Moxie is a tough-as-nails competitor, Angel was still able to defeat her in this match; this win definitely helps out Angel work on her comeback trail in ICW, even after losing the ICW Women’s Championship to Molly Spartan at Barred II and then losing to Lana Austin in last week’s episode of Fight Club.

Here are the match results from Glasgow…

Match #1: LJ Cleary defeated Theo Doros

Doros worked on Cleary’s left leg during the match. Doros went for the Figure Four until Cleary countered with a leg-assisted rollup for the win. Post-match, Doros attacked Cleary and went after the leg again until Cleary fought him out of the ring. My score: 3/5

Match #2: Angel Hayze defeated Moxie Malone

Moxie blindsided Angel before the match until—nanoseconds after the bell rang—Angel fought back. Angel won after making Moxie submit to a guillotine. My score: 3/5

Main event: The Kings of the North defeated the Young Team (w/ the Wee Man) to retain the ICW Tag Team Championship

Before the match started, the Wee Man praised Logan Smith and Jimmy Pierce for having fighting spirit until he ran into the crowd as the champions came into the ring. The Wee Man would then interrupt Simon Cassidy’s intro to the Kings of the North and gave the champions an intro of his own by calling them “Damien Corvin and Damien Corvin’s dad”, leading to Smith and Pierce blindsiding them. Near the end, the Wee Man distracted Corvin and Bonesaw on the apron until the two went after him before the Young Team dove at them. Corvin and Bonesaw would then win after hitting Smith with the Magic Killer (ala the Good Brothers). My score: 2.75/5

NXT

Now, we head to Orlando, Florida in the United States for an episode of NXT.

This episode was taped one day after last week’s episode aired live. Just like last week’s episode, this episode also had a buildup to the Great American Bash.

There was one match made for that event and it’s for the NXT Championship; Bron Breakker will defend the title against Cameron Grimes who may be turning heel while closing in on that event. After Grimes refused to take anybody’s advance and sympathy after losing the NXT North American Championship to Carmelo Hayes at In Your House, Grimes would approach Breakker—who also felt sorry for him backstage—in the ring and said that he was done with catchphrases and other gimmicks and wanted a shot at the title; Grimes compared himself to Breakker, saying that Breakker’s father Rick Steiner saw him win the title in attendance while Grimes’ father wasn’t in attendance at Stand & Deliver but in the heavens, as well as noting that Breakker wouldn’t have been champion if it weren’t for his last name. In my opinion, it has been a long time coming for one of the last of the black-and-gold originals Grimes to go for the NXT Championship; it would be great to see him go toe-to-toe with Breakker, who has been having a great run ever since the multicolored era began, for that belt come July 5.

To quote Mauro Ranallo, there was “malfunction in the junction” in the D’Angelo Family. Last week, things didn’t go so well after Santos Escobar was preoccupied with eyeing on Tony D’Angelo while refusing help—even in the form of a crowbar—from Stacks and Two Dimes during his match with Nathan Frazer. This week, D’Angelo made himself the new leader and told Joaquin Wilde and Cruz del Toro to follow his lead and not Escobar’s ever since all members Legado del Fantasma joined the Family. Things didn’t go almost an hour later, as they failed to help Stacks and Two Dimes in tag team action—against Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams—as you’ll see in the results; that match was made because D’Angelo is also focusing on the same thing that Solo Sikoa has been wanting to win even before Hayes won it back, and that’s the NXT North American Championship. Regardless of whether or not you’re a fan of heel stables, seeing so many miscommunications between that many heel competitors—including a team that has been absorbed into another team as we saw at IYH—can be amusing to watch, even if there might be dire consequences announced by “The Don of NXT” D’Angelo in the near future; I love it when I see heels that argue several times create dysfunctional teams that may or may not work like a well-oiled machine in the near future.

I enjoyed two matches that took place on NXT this week; the rest of the matches were short lived, including one title match, and lasted for a couple minutes or so for some reason (I know, I sound like a crybaby when it comes to short matches, please forgive me…); those two matches were the opener and main event.

The opening match I enjoyed was for the NXT Tag Team Championship between the Creed Brothers and up-and-comers Edris Enofé & Malik Blade. Both teams have been impressive as of late; Julius & Brutus Creed are on a roll and have proved it in their first championship defense, and Enofé & Blade are still a great rising team to watch whether it’s on NXT or NXT: LVL UP. In the end, it was the Creed Brothers that retained the gold. Aside from the champions, I’m sure that Enofé & Blade will be getting more title opportunities in the future after seeing the two wrestlers in a great opener like this.

The other match that I enjoyed was the six-woman tag team main event between Toxic Attraction and the trio of Indi Hartwell, Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade. The team of Mandy Rose, Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne continue to dominate NXT’s women’s division even while carrying gold in the form of—respectively—the NXT Women’s Championship and the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship. Plus, even though it was a six-woman tag team match per se, it shows Indi doing very well while eyeing on the NXT Women’s Championship and starting off her singles run after being in teams for a while such as the Way, together with Persia Pirotta, and together with Dexter Lumis (who is now fighting by his real name Samuel Shaw outside WWE). The same goes for Cora and Roxanne who prove that they are more than just best friends by being an impressive tag team, even while eyeing on gold just like Indi is.

Here are the NXT match results from Orlando…

Match #1: The Creed Brothers defeated Malik Blade & Edris Enofé to retain the NXT Tag Team Championship

Roderick Strong, Damon Kemp and Ivy Nile watched the match backstage. The team of Brutus and Julius won after a rolling slam—by Julius—to blade, followed by a basement clothesline from Brutus. Both teams shook hands afterwards. My score: 3.75/5

Match #2: Fallon Henley (w/ Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen) defeated Tiffany Stratton in three minutes

Towards the end, Wendy Choo appeared while bouncing on a space hopper and threw a cup full of confetti at Tiffany, leading to Fallon rolling her up for the win. No score.

Match #3: Wes Lee defeated Xyon Quinn in almost three minutes with a corkscrew senton

My score: 1/5

Match #4: The Dyad (w/ Joe Gacy) defeated Dante Chen & Javier Bernal in almost four minutes

The Dyad competed in their hooded cloaks and masks; they won with an assisted DDT to Bernal. My score: 1/5

Match #5: Bron Breakker defeated Duke Hudson to retain the NXT Championship in 45 seconds

Hudson blindsided Breakker before the bell rang; Breakker came back with a spear and a powerslam for the win. Post-match, Grimes came into the ring and—as mentioned moments ago—challenged Breakker for the title at the Great American Bash; Breakker accepted the match by saying “You got it” before shaking hands with him. No score.

Match #6: Giovanni Vinci defeated Guru Raaj in almost three minutes

Vinci is not new to NXT; he’s actually Fabian Aichner going by that name. Also, he was getting pictures taken during his entrance. Vinci won with a powerbomb. No score.

Match #7: Trick Williams & Carmelo Hayes defeated Stacks & Two Dimes (w/ Tony D’Angelo, Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde and Cruz del Toro) in four minutes

Near the end, Wilde distracted the referee, and Cruz dove at Williams before missing and hitting Two Dimes. Then, Hayes won after hitting Two Dimes with a diving leg drop. Post-match, D’Angelo berated Wilde and Cruz for their mishap while Escobar was happy as a clam. My score: 1/5

Main event: Indi Hartwell, Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade defeated Toxic Attraction

Cora hit Gigi with a top rope senton before having Roxanne take the winning pin. My score: 3.75/5

NXT UK

We return to the United Kingdom, but this time, we head to the BT Sports Studios in London, England for an episode of NXT UK.

We’re going to see more Worlds Collide matches in the near future, and this time, we got more NXT competitors—in action next week—coming to the UK; those competitors are Sarray, Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen, and Fallon Henley. Sarray will take on Nina Samuels, and Briggs & Jensen will fight Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter for the NXT UK Tag Team Championship. If those matches don’t have you excited for seeing those two brands collide, I don’t know what would. (P.S.: I’m pretty sure that Fallon Henley will be in NXT UK action as well even though we didn’t see any announcements on it yet.)

From grinning ear to ear to being shocked, we saw a tag team break up. This week’s episode of NXT UK concluded with Trent Seven addressing the audience as well as bringing Tyler Bate to the ring. Seven talked about being together with Bate—as well as Butch (back when he competed as Pete Dunne)—for years, and announced that he was retiring; as soon as he thanked Bate and everyone, the two hugged…until Seven hit him with a low blow! Seven would then grab Bate by the facial hair and said “I never needed you”, then hit him with the Birminghammer, draped the British Strong Style towel on him, and stood on him. I knew that Seven was going to turn heel sooner or later, but now I’m curious to see how his heel run will go after seeing that betrayal that reminded me of Mark Henry feigning retirement and attacking John Cena approximately a decade ago on an episode of Raw.

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Three matches took place this week, and my favorite of the three would go to the tag team main event between Sha Samuels & Noam Dar and Wolfgang & Damon Kemp. Not only did it show Samuels and Dar as a devious duo (minus making bets on who would win, lose, etc.), but also showed how Wolfgang and Kemp performed as a team after seeing them in Gallus and Diamond Mind respectively.

Here are the match results from London…

Match #1: Tiger Turan defeated Josh Morrell in three minutes by referee stoppage

Morrell was unable to continue after Turan hit him with a crossbody. My score: 0.5/5

Match #2: Lash Legend defeated Myla Grace in four and a half minutes with a bicycle kick

My score: 1/5

Main event: Wolfgang & Damon Kemp defeated Sha Samuels & Noam Dar

During the match, Wolfgang and Kemp took down their opponents before performing a “Gallus Boys On Top” pose in the middle of the ring. Near the end, Samuels thumbed Kemp in the eye after Dar was dragged into the ring while clinging onto his tag team partner. Then, Wolfgang—behind the referee’s back—tripped Samuels with a scarf (similar to how Dar did the same thing to Kemp not too long ago) before Kemp won with a powerslam. Afterwards, Samuels ran back in while Dar tried to settle him down, and Wolfgang hit him with a spear. My score: 3.25/5

NXT: LVL UP

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

All three matches that were shown this week were okay. However, just like I did for this week’s episode of ICW Fight Club, I chose two out of three matches that I liked. One match was the opener between Thea Hail and Arianna Grace, and it showed Thea having a good run as a new member of Chase University including seeing her pick up her career first win. The other match I liked was the main event between two competitors that have already—pun intended—levelled up, and that’s Elektra Lopez and Ivy Nile; both Elektra and Ivy did very well in their match, even with storylines—Elektra trying to focus while as a member of the D’Angelo Family, and Ivy overshadowing her loss to Meiko Satomura easily (even though her undefeated streak on NXT is still running strong per se)—coming into play.

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

Match #1: Thea Hail (w/ Andre Chase and Bodhi Hayward) defeated Arianna Grace

Arianna worked on Thea’s left arm most of the match until Thea won with an octopus-like rollup. My score: 2/5

Match #2: Guru Raaj defeated Myles Borne

This was Borne’s debut. Raaj won with a top rope bulldog. Raaj helped up Borne and hugged him afterwards. My score: 1.75/5

Main event: Ivy Nile defeated Elektra Lopez (w/ Joaquin Wilde and Cruz del Toro)

Before the match, Stacks and Two Dimes appeared and sent Wilde and Cruz to the back before accompanying Elektra to the ring. Ivy won with a standing dragon sleeper. My score: 2/5

Next time…

Even though night #1 of Progress’ Super Strong 16 is coming to Peacock (and WWE Network) as well as wXw We Love Wrestling 31, I’m planning on having the next issue focus on the four usual shows once again mainly because I’ll be away from the internet for over a week to relax. You might see my recap of—unless my prediction of network schedules is incorrect—nights #1 and #2 of Progress’ Super Strong Style 16, as well as the episode of wXw We Love Wrestling in a following issue or two. (Plus, I promise to add more than one pic in the next issues.)

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 Father’s Day!

(Photo shown in the newsletter is from WWE.)