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Sorry I’m Late!

Like I mentioned in the last newsletter, I took time away for a week to relax. In this newsletter, I’m talking about my usual four shows; bear with me since all four of those shows will have brief recaps. I will recap shows that made it to Peacock—Progress, wXw, etc.—in later issues.

ICW Fight Club

First, we go to the United Kingdom, heading to the GPWA in Glasgow, Scotland for an episode of ICW Fight Club.

Even though the episode mostly consisted of competitors being interviewed or conducting promos heading into their matches for this week’s or next week’s episodes (P.S.: I’m curious to see how Andy Wild and Jason Reed, even with Coach Trip in tow, will do as a tag team when they take on the returning K.O.E. on next week’s episode), I still enjoyed it. This week’s episode also had three matches that were pretty damn good.

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The best of the three matches would have to go to a match that made two competitors taking a page out of the playbook of Christopher Lloyd’s alter-ego Emmett “Doc” Brown which was going “back to the future”; this match renewed the rivalry between Leyton Buzzard and BT Gunn, but this time, Buzzard is the babyface while Gunn is coming close to cementing his heel status. It was a great match that was worth the 20 minutes to watch as we saw both Buzzard and Gunn in the hard fought back-and-forth bout, even though it ended up like Andy Wild vs. Big Damo at night #2 of Fear & Loathing XIII (courtesy of Theo Doros who added time limits to the matches as noted in the past); it ended in a time limit draw. We will see those two clash again at Shug’s Hoose Party 7 come late July as you’ll see in the results shortly.

Speaking of results, here are those match results!

Match #1: Xero defeated Grant McIvor (w/ ADM, Eddie Castle and Dylan Thorn) in a chain match

As soon as the bell rang, the rest of the Manifesto got on the apron and stared daggers at the “inhuman” Xero until the referee ejected them to the back. During the match, McIvor grabbed a steel chair that had the Manifesto logo on it and both he and Xero used it as a weapon; it included Xero hitting McIvor with an emerald frosion onto the chair before McIvor put his foot on the bottom rope to stop the pin count. Xero would then use his worked on right arm and the chain to create a chain-assisted sleeper hold, making McIvor submit to it. My score: 3/5

Match #2: Leyton Buzzard vs. BT Gunn ended in a time limit draw

After Buzzard hit Gunn with the Buzzkiller for a near fall as did Gunn with the Technodrome, Gunn stole a chair from a fan and then another chair from a crewman at ringside; Buzzard hit Gunn with a Death Valley driver onto one of the chairs before putting him in a Scorpion Death Lock until Gunn grabbed the bottom rope prior to putting him in an arm-trapped crossface. Towards the end, both wrestlers hit each other with knockout punches, and Buzzard pinned Gunn for two before time ran out. Afterwards, Buzzard pinned Gunn until the referee told him that the time limit expired, and then offered Gunn a handshake until Gunn refused it by getting into a brawl with him. Referees, the Young Team, LJ Cleary and Scott Reed ran in and separated the two, and both wrestlers asked for five more minutes, including Buzzard—who shouted out a challenge to an iron man match at first before Gunn had the microphone—who challenged him to a match at Shug’s Hoose Party 7; Gunn upped the ante by making it a King of Insanity match, and Buzzard accepted it. Afterwards, Gunn chased Buzzard out of the ring and to the backstage area while referees, wrestlers and Reed were trying to intervene. My score: 4.25/5

Main event: Molly Spartan defeated Lana Austin to retain the ICW Women’s Championship

After Molly hit Lana with a spear for two, Lana hit her with a headbutt until her comeback came to a screeching halt when Molly hit her with two more spears for the win. My score: 3.5/5

NXT

Our next stop is Orlando, Florida in the United States for NXT.

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Like last week’s episode, this week’s episode was another NXT taping that took place not too long ago. Not only did we have seven matches take place, but also Wes Lee getting himself focused and continuing his solo run (ever since MSK disbanded due to Nash Carter’s release) as well as the buildup of title matches—NXT Championship, NXT Women’s Championship, and NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship most notably—for the Great American Bash.

Out of the seven matches that took place, the opening contest between Waller and Sikoa was my favorite. It was a great bout between two competitors that are proving to be top names on NXT’s current roster, and it didn’t disappoint me one bit; not only did we see Waller being his cocky self in the storyline, but also Sikoa being on a roll despite ending up with a loss instead of a win.

Here are the NXT match results from Orlando…

Match #1: Grayson Waller defeated Solo Sikoa

Before the match started, Waller bragged about being the best of the current generation of NXT until Sikoa blindsided him at the entryway. Near the end, Sikoa crashed into an exposed turnbuckle (the padding was removed by Waller earlier in the match), leading to Waller picking up the win with a through-the-ropes cutter. My score: 3.75/5

Match #2: Kayden Carter & Katana Chance defeated Valentina Feroz & Yulisa Leon

…after hitting Valentina with a 450 splash/reverse DDT combo. My score: 2.5/5

Match #3: Roderick Strong & Damon Kemp defeated Joaquin Wilde & Cruz del Toro (w/ Stacks and Two Dimes)

Near the end, Two Dimes grabbed a crowbar and got under Cruz’s skin by tripping him with the crowbar, leading to Strong winning with a running leg lariat. My score: 1.5/5

Match #4: Cameron Grimes defeated Edris Enofé (w/ Malik Blade)

This match was made last week after Grimes berated Enofé and Malik Blade for choosing to do something else such as going to a club and not being serious about their pro wrestling careers. Grimes won after hitting Enofé with the Cave In. Afterwards, Grimes looked as if he was either going to attack or berate Enofé, but then shook hands with him instead. My score: 2.5/5

Match #5: Von Wagner defeated Brooks Jensen

Their managers—Mr. Stone and Sofia Cromwell for Wagner, and Josh Briggs and Fallon Henley for Jensen—were banned from ringside for this match. Wagner won with a Death Valley Driver. My score: 1.5/5

Match #6: Alba Fyre defeated Lash Legend by disqualification in three and a half minutes

…after Lash grabbed Alba’s baseball bat and hit her in the throat with it. My score: 1/5

Main event: Carmelo Hayes (w/ Trick Williams) defeated Tony D’Angelo (w/ Stacks, Two Dimes, Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde and Cruz del Toro)

…to retain the NXT North American Championship. Near the end, D’Angelo asked for the brass knuckles, and Escobar appeared to slide in the knuckles for him until the knuckles went to Hayes; Hayes used the knuckles as a weapon and won. Escobar, Wilde and Cruz walked away from D’Angelo—who was shouting at the three—Stacks and Two Dimes afterwards. My score: 3.5/5

(NOTE: This was Two Dimes’ last appearance on NXT because he was released from WWE, for violating the company’s wellness policy, days after the tapings of both this week’s and last week’s episodes took place.)

NXT UK

Now, 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.

The episode started off with a shocking announcement from Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter. I was definitely looking forward to seeing the two wrestlers defend the NXT UK Tag Team Championship ever since winning the belts weeks ago. Unfortunately, their reign ended up being short-lived because Smith—who was wearing a knee brace on this week’s episode—announced that he and Carter were relinquishing the championship due to injury; they were originally scheduled to defend the titles against NXT’s Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen this week. Get well wishes go out to Ashton Smith…we hope to see you again real soon!

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To quote an educational Saturday morning cartoon segment from before my time known as “Schoolhouse Rock!”, three was indeed the magic number; out of the three matches that took place, the third match—involving the NXT UK Tag Team Championship of course—was my favorite. Unless you count Moustache Mountain defeating Undisputed Era members Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong for the NXT Tag Team Championship in their home country of the United Kingdom months before NXT UK was born (and please forgive me if this is too soon to reference due to the recent breakup of the team I’m mentioning), this is the first time we’ve seen a team from a different NXT brand (NXT of course!) winning NXT UK gold. Unless you have trouble following four-way dances such as the four-way tag team elimination match, this one was fun to watch even with the championship belts on the line.

Here are the match results from London…

Match #1: Isla Dawn defeated Myla Grace with a half-and-half suplex

My score: 2/5

Match #2: Sarray defeated Nina Samuels after hitting her with the Sunray followed by an exploder suplex

My score: 2/5

Main event: Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen (w/ Fallon Henley) defeated Mark Andrews & Wild Boar, Dave Mastiff & Jack Starz and Teoman & Rohan Raja (w/ Charlie Dempsey)

…in a four-way tag team elimination match to become the new NXT UK Tag Team Champions. Nine minutes into the match, Andrews and Wild Boar were eliminated after Starz rolled up Andrews seconds after Mastiff broke up Andrews’ pin (that was made after Andrews’ Fall To Pieces shooting star press to Starz). Three minutes later, Mastiff and Starz were eliminated after Raja hit Mastiff with the Seek and Destroy while Dempsey beat down Starz at ringside. Finally, Briggs and Jensen won after Jensen knocked Teoman and Dempsey off the apron before he and Briggs hit Raja with a clothesline/chop block combo. Fallon Henley came into the ring and celebrated with Briggs and Jensen afterwards. My score: 3/5

NXT: LVL UP

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

Even though I was expecting more from the three matches, two out of the three were fairly better. Not only was it good to see Quincy Elliott pick up his first win, but also see Ikemen Jiro continue to work on his singles run.

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

Match #1: Quincy Elliott defeated Bryson Montana after splashing his opponent in a corner

My score: 2/5

Match #2: Kiana James defeated Brooklyn Barlow with a modified GTS

My score: 1/5

Main event: Ikemen Jiro defeated Ru Feng with the Ikemen Slash

My score: 2/5

Next time…

Once again, my usual four shows. Also, as promised, recaps of Progress’ Super Strong 16 and wXw We Love Wrestling 31 will be in later issues. Yes, I do have catching up to do…

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!

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