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ASE Wrestling was live on Youtube for "This Is It", emanating from the Blume Studios in Charlotte. All titles will be defended and "The Business" Billy Dixon gets to close out his career and his years-long blood feud with Darius Carter in Dixon's final match.
GO79Man is continues being a good host for the pre-show. Savannah Kane was back for ring announcing for the pre-show. I like her.
Emmy winner Chris Lea and Big Swole on commentary, having too much fun.
"The Gold Standard" Joseline Navarro beat Ameera Roze in a nice match for the pre-show. Kept simple. Straight forward match with both women looking good.
Newly crowned ASE Men's champion "The Gifted One" Yahya wanted to celebrate with an in ring "cookout", catered by Keith Mack. Calvin Tankman joins, wondering where his invitation was, to this and the 3 Way ASE Men's title match, considering he and Yahya have been selling wolf tickets for months. Tankman shows he's serious, nailing Mack and putting Yahya through the table. He's in the match, making it a Fatal 4 Way with Yahya, Bojack, and Willie Mack, making his ASE Charlotte debut. That's a lot of beef.
Kicking off the main show with Nadiah Hunter handling ring announcing, Uglee Gang (Jordan Holt, Zay Vega) defended the ASE Men's Tag title against the aggressive Top Shootas (Maurice Moss, Trey DeRula) of Andrew Diggs' Drop a Fella Records. Diggs demands it be a 2 out of 3 falls match, the champs grant his wish. They regret it as the Shootas get the first fall rather quickly but rally to win the next two in a fast-moving tag match. Hot opener to the main show between 4 very promising young stars.
"Lil Blue Dragon" Tootie Lyn (aka WOW tag champion Tara Strike) faced "Kick Demon" Janai Kai, accompanied by one time opponent-now-ally Jordan Blade. Commentary was cooking, pointing out Lynn's last ASE match in 2024 was against Blade. Lyn tried to rally from a strong attack from Kai but a sidekick to counter a top rope crossbody took her out. Kai for the win. Kai and Blade offer Lyn their friendship, which she accepts. Now that's an interesting trio. Cedric Alexander is a tough mentor, as THE Dontay Khalifah is finding out.
In one of the matches spawned from personal issues, "The Ageless One" Caprice Coleman got a win over Reyhen Inteus of Uglee Gang in a good, smart match. Inteus was the younger, bigger man but it was Coleman's experience that got him the win. Excellent finish. Coleman tries to make peace with Inteus after the match but eats a punch for his trouble. Holt and Vega get between the two with Coleman thinking they're attacking him and laying out the younger guys before Inteus takes him down again untile Chayce Coleman, UG affliate and Caprice's son, makes a save. The younger Coleman and UG end their association and then Inteus accepts a title challenge from Caprice and Chayce, not necessarily something Jordan and Zay were wanting to do.
"The Problem" Isaiah Broner (with Joseline Navarro) finally got another one-on-one shot at the Pan Afrikan Disapora championship (his first in a year), held once again by Suge D (with Alexis Littlefoot), his sometimes rival/one time partner. Suge fought hard but this was a dominant win by Broner. He locked in a deep choke on Suge, forcing Littlefoot to throw in the towel and stop the match. Interesting post-match moment as Broner was upset with Navarro for checking on Suge with Littlefoot.
Treehouse Lee interrupts the whole show to call out his brother and former tag partner in the Audacity, Saieve al Sabah. al Sabah has no real interest in facing his brother again, having him beaten him already at the previous show.
But he will return for the 3rd anniversary show. We'll see. He was breaking out a "Hmmm" gimmick. The more he did it, the more I laughed. That's going to work well for him.
Former TNA X Division champion "Pryme" Cedric Alexander (with THE Dontay Khalifah) found a way to defeat rival MLW standout "The Ring Warrior" Labron Kozone (with Manny Lo). Strong match of great veterans. "Fast as Hell" Ian Maxwell chose to stand ringside, being a protege of Alexander who has fallen out of favor with his mentor and in the middle of heated issue with Khalifah. With all those hotheaded young guys ringside, chaos was bound to ensue and it did. Kozone had a pin cover but Khalifah pulled the ref on the count. I still don't like that tactic unless it leads to a DQ. Ref Silas Rains must have gotten his bell rung when Khalifah pulled him to the floor because he missed a lot of fighting involved the young guys and another cover by Kozone. When Kozone turns his attention to get Rains back into the match, Alexander hits a low blow and his Lumbar Check backbreaker for the win. Old school sneaky. Alexander, like any classic heel, talked like he did it all on his own and then challenged Khalifah to prove his worth. Khalifah challenged Maxwell to settle their issues at the 3rd anniversary show.
"The Gifted One" Yahya successfully retained his ASE Men's title in a super heavyweight Fatal 4 Way over Bojack, Calvin Tankman, and the debuting Willie Mack. Scary second early when Mack didn't quite clear Bojack on a leapfrog, but he was okay. Tankman seemed very focused on making him vs Yahya. Didn't go like he thought as Yahya pinned him with a swanton bomb to end the match. All three guys showed respect to Mack, a pioneer for big guys like them. Mack is so humble, he looked like "Well, if you want to".
In a rematch from their bout at the previous show, ASE Women's champion "Powerhouse" Charity King got a win former TNA star "The Cannibal" Savannah Evans in a Falls Count Anywhere match, the first ever stipulation match in the ASE Women's division. They went all over Bloom Studios before getting back in the ring. Evans went for a rear naked choke but King broke her grip, curled over and held Evans down for the pin.
Good stuff. They have very good chemistry. Evans is not a good sport, attacking King after the bell, hitting 3 full nelson slams before walking off. King pulls herself up and challenges Evans to a Last Woman Standing match at the 3rd anniversary show. They've been subtly building this feud since King won the title and it's delivering.
Gerard Bonner did a great job of introducing the first ever cage match in ASE Wrestling history with some background on the first ever cage match (1937 Atlanta). Fantastic video package on the history of the Billy Dixon-Darius Carter feud, that's spanned 6 yrs and multiple promotions. Closing his career beating his most hated rival, "The Business" Billy Dixon defeated "The All Father" Darius Carter (with "Remarkable" Ryan Rembrandt, who didn't get beat up this time) in the first ever ASE Wrestling Steel Cage match. Physical match with a deliberate pace, like two guys wanting to settle a blood feud decisively. First time I can remember blood in an ASE match, but I haven't seen all of them so I could be wrong. Felt familiar with Carter controlling the match and pace with Dixon fighting from underneath except this time, Dixon was too determined to lose, beating Carter with a top rope Thesz Press (when you're close to 3 bills, that's a finish). The locker room clears to celebrate and congratulate Dixon (I loved Carter not being in this and heading to the back).
There is a terrific video package on Dixon that should be seen. There have been a lot of high profile retirements lately but none will match the emotion of Billy Dixon.
Every match served a purpose and did what they needed to do to be good to great in their own right with more well executed progression to build to the next show. Nothing felt repetitive or overdone and that's quite refreshing on modern regional shows.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: A (94 out of 100).
Follow me @therealuncdave.bsky.social, DDTDivas.com, and the Real Uncle Dave's Rasslin Business on Facebook.
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