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WrestlePro presented a special "WrestlePro vs. Global Force Wrestling" show in the gym of Saint Joseph in Keyport, NJ on Saturday 6/11.
The venue is quite advantageous for those who purchased GA tickets as there is a balcony which overlooks the gym floor. The balcony seats are naturally elevated, so your line of site is perfect.
Pre-show: Doors opened up and there were a myriad of wrestlers signing autographs, many of them were holdovers from the Legends of the Ring Convention in Monroe, NJ earlier in the day. Appearing were: Booker T, Stevie Ray, Tatanka, Eddie Edwards, Rob Conway, Amber O'Neal (Luke Gallows' wife), "The Natural" Butch Reed, and later on Kevin Sullivan and "The Franchise" Shane Douglas. There were a few others I didn't recognize. Damien Sandow, Jeff & Karen Jarrett, Colt Cabana, Sonjay Dutt, Brian Myers, Swoggle, and numerous GWF and WrestlePro performers were also signing autographs and selling merch.
Match #1: Bull James vs. Danny Maff -- This was your classic big man match with each man trading power moves. Bull hit his signature flying splash but Maff powered out. Bull goes for the classic "10 count" punch in the corner, but Maff surprisingly yells "Keep hitting me!" Right after he slides underneath Bull and hits an awesome Burning Hammer. Winner: Dan Maff
Match #2: Johnny Clash vs. Chris Avery Queling -- Short match with Queling being crazy in the ring and leveling Clash with a lariat to the back to the head. Winner: Chris Avery Queling
Match #3: WrestlePro Tag Title Match -- Gino & JJ Blake w/Booker T, Team Espana (Jose Fernandez and Jos "B" Fernandez) vs. Aesthetic Males (Damian Gibbs and Mike Bell) w/Buff Bgawell, Dylan Stiffwood & Jay Enterprise vs. The Taboo Crew (Sand E. Man, Craig Steele) - the tag team champions: This was a lot of young guys trying really, really hard in the ring -- some spots connected wonderfully, others not so much. Still a fun match to get into. Booker T's guys, with seasoning could be good. In the end, Taboo Crew took the win when Craig Steele cleans house, and the duo hit their spike Greetings from Asbury Park (not their name obviously). Winner: The Taboo Crew -- retaining their titles
Match #4: "World Warrior" Chris Dickinson vs. "2 Cocky" Kevin Matthews: Pretty fun match with both men knocking each other around. Dickinson is on the verge of breaking out to be a big star. Matthews, the hometown favorite, ends up scoring the victory with his impressive Ego Driver finisher. Winner: Kevin Matthews
Post-Match: Monsters Island (Leatherface and Twisty the Clown) came out to the American Horror Story theme song. They began to attack Kevin Matthews until Craven Varro returned to WrestlePro to a huge pop. The two ward off the Monsters, who leave dejected.
Interview: Zeb Colter came out, still walking gingerly from his injured leg. He cut a promo on the importance of voting, and then asked if the crowd was supporting Trump or Clinton. Despite being in the largely Democratic state of New Jersey, this was a decided pro-Trump. Zeb joked that Trump stole his gimmick. Before he could leave Team Global Force Wrestling (Brian Myers, New Heavenly Bodies, Chris Payne), came out to confront and threatened Zeb. That is until Team WrestlePro (Fallah Bahn, CPA, Swoggle, The Merry Men) came (brandishing plastic swords) and chased them out of the ring allowing Zeb to leave.
Match #5: Elimination Match -- Team GFW vs. Team WrestlePro. This was a fairly entertaining Survivor Series-style match. Swoggle was the most impressive in this match as he really had his work boots on. There was plenty of comedy from CPA, probably one of the better gimmicks in WrestlePro. The only weird part came when Myers was spiked by a hooded man, who was hiding in the crowd. The live audience didn't seem to connect with the spot.
Here's the order of elimination:
Brian Myers
Chris Payne
Flash Bahn
Adam Merryman
Steve Merryman
Desirable Dustin
Third Member of NHB - I apologize for not getting his name
Gigolo Justin
Survivors: Swoggle, CPA
Set-Up: A six-way match for Sonjay Dutt's GFW Next Gen Title is announced. Five competitors have been announced, but there will be a gauntlet to determine the 6th entrant. The four WrestlePro participants - Mario Bokara, Nikos Rikos, Habib from the Car Wash, and Bobby Wayward - stand around the ring.
Match #6: Gauntlet for the 6th spot in the Next Gen Title Match. Participants: Ronald Kingsley, Delroy Alexander, Kyle Reynolds, Caleb Konley, Beefcake Charlie, Adam Brooks.
Order of Elimination:
Kingsley by Alexander
Reynolds by Alexander
Alexander by Konley
Conley by Beefcake
Brooks by Beefcake
Thoughts: This was fun. Delroy Alexander has a really bright future ahead of him. Caleb Konley is great, and hopefully TNA will use him properly. Beefcake Charlie got over pretty well, and he was pretty impressive for a big man.
Match #7: Global Force Wrestling Next Gen Title 6 Way Match: Sonjay Dutt (C) vs. Habib vs. Beefcake Charlie vs. Mario Bokara vs. Bobby Wayward vs. Nikos Rikos -- This was a pretty short and chaotic match, that was too fast for the audience to get into. It did feature a cool multi-man German suplex spot. Sonjay rolled up Charlie for a quick (and illegal) win with a hand full of tights. Winner: Sonjay Dutt
Match #8: WrestlePro Title Match Anthony Bowens (C) vs. Matt MacIntosh -- Easily the best wrestling match of the night. MacIntosh and Bowens are impressive as hell, and it'll only be a matter of time before some bigger promotions start looking at both of them. There was some great catch-as-catch-can counters throughout the match, some impressive high spots, and a great chemistry between both men. Winner: Anthony Bowens, retaining his title.
Match #9: Colt Cabana vs. Damien Sandow -- The hype for this match was off the charts. Surprisingly Cabana was the heel for most of this match, as Sandow could really do no wrong. Both Cabana and Sandow did the "Mizdow" mirror-ing of each other's movements, in fact that was the majority of the match. Cabana was still able to hit the "Flying Apple" and a double jump splash. Meanwhile, Sandow hit his Elbow of Disdain, and a roll-up out of nowhere for the winner. Winner: Damien Sandow
Thoughts: It's sad that most of the audience didn't know what Sandow's finisher was. Seriously, when was the last time he used it? While the match was good, and had some good chuckles, the hype was too high, and the time for the match was shorter than it should've been.
Post-Match: Sandow got on the mic and asked Cabana not to leave. Sandow recounts their friendship, and then asks Colt to cartwheel with him. They did to the enjoyment of the audience. Sandow thanks everyone in the audience and admits that he might not be wrestling for too much longer so he wanted to thank everyone in attendance for supporting him.
Main Event: Jeff Jarrett vs. Pat Buck -- This was a fun cage match. The crowd energy had been waning throughout the show due to the humidity in the venue (despite having AC), but they were hot for the main event. Buck, the owner of WrestlePro, came out in his "Cactus Pat" persona. Jarrett got hot early on when the crowd broke out in a "Slapnuts" chant. Buck had the match won, but the referee stopped, and revealed himself as a GFW ref. This allowed Jarrett to score a quick pin for the win.
A WrestlePro ref came out, and said since this is a WrestlePro show, only a WrestlePro ref could count the pinball. He leveled the GFW ref. Buck gained control, but Team GFW (Myers, Heavenly Bodies, Sonjay, Payne) came out to attack Buck. The WrestlePro lockerroom (Maff, Fallah, Matthews, etc.) come to help Buck. Buck ascends the top of the cage, and leaps onto everyone. Buck pins Jarrett shortly after for the win. Winner: Pat Buck
Thoughts: Pat Buck is a man's man. He did not have much room for error with that jump off the top of the cage, but he went for it. This was a very Memphis plunderiffic match. Fun for sure.
Overall Thoughts: This was a fun independent show all-around. Not every match clicked, but at the end of the day this was just a fun night out for the entire family. The promotion's ability to mix big name talent like Sandow and Jarrett with the homegrown guys is one of their biggest strengths. Performers like Bowens and MacIntosh definitely have a bright future for themselves.
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