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I just got home from the Blizzard Brawl show, I really enjoyed most of the show. I got to meet Tommy Dreamer for the first time because every time ECW came to Milwaukee I could not go. So I was very happy about that. He is such a friendly, personable guy and we actually chatted for several minutes. I told him I'm very happy he's on Floports so I can watch his match with Matt Hardy, he was genuinely appreciative of that and thanked me for my support. Every time I get the chance to see a HOH show I will go just from my interaction with the Innovator of Violence.
The microphone was sometimes hard to hear, and there were some of the lower card guys I didn't recognize, so there are names I can't remember, so I apologize for that. Also I will try to put the matches in order, but I may get some mixed up.
There was a dark match with two guys I didn't recognize at all. It was nothing special.
Then we went live on iPPV. The first match was Bull James vs. Kevin Thorn. Decent match, some comedy bits with Bull wearing a cheesehead, he did the same thing when I went to an NXT show last year. Bull won with a Pedigree on the cheesehead.
The next match was Matt Striker vs. Conor Braxto, who came out on a hoverboard. Both men were accompanied by some special ladies, if you know what I mean. Striker had two with him, and before the match he did his "I'm Matt Striker and I'm Your Teacher" bit, telling us people in Wisconsin don't know how to count and telling them to sit quietly and watch greatness. A lot of comedy stuff with the segway getting involved, which was funny and then part way through the match Striker stopping to show us his dance moves. Which led to the "lady" that came out with the other guy getting in the ring and dancing, then one of Striker's "ladies" got in and they had a dance off. One of the girl had LED lights on her underwear, I can't make this stuff up, it was funny. During the confusion Striker won with a school boy, thankfully ending the segment.
Colt Cabana beat some other guy whose nickname was Hot Shot. He had a modified Roddy Piper looking shirt. Typical Cabana match here, he got in most of his spots and I can't remember the finish, but Cabana got the win. I may have been checking on the Big Ten Championship Game (which unfortunately my Badgers lost).
Next out was Ken Anderson against yet another guy whose name I couldn't hear and I didn't recognize. There was a funny spot at the beginning of the match where Anderson tried to do his mic bit, but there was no mic. So he went out, got a chair and made the lady who was ring announcing stand on the chair, so when he reached for it, she would hand the mic down to him. But before he could speak, his opponent attacked him. Decent match, Anderson got the win and announced himself the winner.
Next match was Tony Nese vs. Matt Cross, which was by far the best wrestling match of the night. I don't get the channel that has Lucha Underground, so this is my first time seeing Cross, but this was one hell of a wrestling match. There was some really good stuff, some near finishes here and a bunch of awesome spots. The crowd was super into this match, it was awesome. Cross actually went over with a great shooting star press. They both got a standing ovation, and they deserved it.
Next was the intergender tag match between Tommy Dreamer and Mickie James vs. Angelina Love and a mystery partner that turned out to be Aiden O'Shea. They had a large enforcer that they introduced as Mustafa at ringside. The guys wrestled the girl and it was an all-out, anything goes brawl. The match was super fun, I think people will chant ECdub at Tommy until the day he dies. Lots of interaction with the fans here. At one point Mustafa interfered and the ref sent him to the back. Dreamer brought in one of the guard rails, but he ended up getting slammed onto it. The finish was actually Tommy Dreamer piledriving Angelina and both he and Mickie pinning her, which the crowd went nuts for. After the match Mustafa came back out, laid out Tommy, put Mickie in a bear hug which brought out Ryback for the save, which the building exploded over. He laid out Mustafa, did all the Ryback stuff, so everyone was happy.
After Tommy gave a great speech about everyone in the match and his history with them, he even got Ryback to do his old Skip Sheffield yup yup what it do line. Then he talked about how he wanted this company to be all about the wrestling and not the politics. This is another reason I am going to come back every time they come here, he has such a passion for wrestling and I'm glad he gets to run a company his way.
The last match before the intermission to set up the steel cage was announced as the House of Hardcore main event, which was Sami Callihan against Bob Holly. Pretty good match, Callihan was a great heel in this match and they had a decent brawl all around the ring. Bob can still go, but Callihan got him to tap out to the Stuff Muffler. The people in front of me stood up and I didn't get a good view of it. Afterwards Holly got on the mic and congratulated Sami for getting him, went to shake his hand, but that didn't happy. Bob beat him up, Alabama Slammer, everyone was happy. Then he told Callihan's manager to get in and fight him, and Bob beat him up too.
Then we had the intermission while they set up the cage, which was like a little bonus entertainment, because it did not appear to be an easy time for the ring crew. I visited some friends who were sitting in the balcony and we had a good laugh while watching that.
Then we got to the non-sanctioned main event, the last GLCW cage match with Abyss and Damien Nelson from Pro Wrestling Report vs. Al Snow and Dave Herro (the GLCW promoter and also from Pro Wrestling Report). This was my least favorite match of the night with one bright spot, which I will get to in a bit. Abyss did not have the greatest match but Snow looked pretty good as the face. Dave Herro didn't look too bad, but Damien Nelson had no business getting into the ring, in my opinion. It was clear that Abyss was nervous wrestling against Herro and the same was true for Snow. This match should have just been a cage match between Abyss and Snow.
At one point the ref gets knocked out, Nelson goes outside and gets a bag of thumbtacks which get dumped out, but no one gets slammed into it right away. Then Nelson goes back out under the ring and gets Janice and brings that in. Abyss tries to use it on Herro, but misses and Herro low blows Abyss. So then two of the jobbers from earlier in the night come out (the ref is still down this entire time) and start to beat down Snow and Herro.
This is the point when it went from awful to awesome, as the heels were beating down the faces, Enter Sandman hits. The place went BALLISTIC. But in classic Sandman style, he did not come to the ring, he appeared in the balcony with a cane and a 12 pack of beer and did his thing. He dumped a can of beer down the throat and onto one of my friends I spent talking to during the intermission, it was awesome. He came down from the balcony and went around the three sides of the ring I wasn't sitting on (oh, well) and finally came into the ring. The entire time this was going on no one cared what was going on in the ring. Abyss, Snow and Hero were down from earlier, and the ref was STILL down. Sandman came in, had cane shots for the jobbers and got them out of the cage. For some reason, they started to fight each other and Sandman chased them to the back. Then people started to stir (except the ref still) and a kid came out with Head, Al took out Abyss with head, then Snow and Herro double choke slammed Abyss onto the thumbtacks, then Snow dragged Abyss out of the cage, the entire time Nelson cowered in the far corner of the cage. Snow locked the door so that only Nelson and Herro were left in the cage. Nelson begged, Herro beat him down and the ref finally came to and counted the three.
So a very good show overall (I don't think I forgot anything), I can't wait for House of Hardcore to come back. The cage match was the only thing I didn't enjoy until Sandman saved the whole match. If you can, watch this event it was well worth it.
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