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10/8 Wrestling Revolver Double Header in Dayton, Ohio:
AFTERNOON EVENT - WOMEN'S GRAND PRIX
Kicking off a double event, Wrestling REVOLVER held their inaugural Revolver Women's Grand Prix one day tournament at the Calumet Center in Dayton, Ohio on Oct 8.
Veda Scott was joined by Renee Paquette and Gia Miller on commentary.
"The Problem" Marina Shafir of AEW, who is undefeated in REVOLVER, beat Janai Kai in a slugfest to advance to the second round. Great match up with Shafir's judo-based ground attack and Kai's kickboxing. This was a hard hitting way to start a tournament.
Not allowing themselves to be outshines, "The Afro Punk" Trish Adora beat AEW's Emi Sakura in another hard hitting good match. I think this is was a debut for both and both got standing ovations from the Dayton crowd for their entrances. Dayton knows their rasslin'. This tournament is starting off strong.
Also making debuts were Vert Vixen and former Impact Wrestling Knockouts World champion and NWA Women's World champion Allysin Kaye, who met in the first round. Another good match with Vixen getting a huge upset win, pinning Kaye with a brainbuster.
In the final match of the first round, ROH star Billie Starkz defeated Rachel Armstrong, who's star has been rising pretty fast lately. This was solid. Two talented, up and comers.
Could have lived without the protracted Spanish Fly spot that took too long to get into but otherwise, fine match.
In a non-tournament match, Zoey Skye beat Jamie Senegal.n My second time seeing Senegal (first was an Impact KO special event) and she's gotten noticeably better. First time seeing Skye and she's pretty good. Nice match.
Second round/semifinals saw Adora fall to Starkz in a very competitive match up and Shafir topple Vixen. My only issue with either match was Vixen hit Shafir with her brainbuster finish in the first 30 seconds of the match, got a 2 count but then Shafir dominated and won the match in just over 2 mins. It wasn't even a no-sell as much as "Okay. Cool. Now to get my sh**" kind of moment.
In the second non-tournament match, "The Juggernaut" Jordynne Grace and Killer Kelly, one half of Knockouts World tag champions MK Ultra with Masha Slamovich, defeated the reunited (kinda) Killer Death Machines--Nevaeh and JesSICKa. A lot of comedy and shenanigans with JesSICKa, who is in Impact with Grace and Kelly, not being too keen on getting in the ring with the sexy--I mean sinister--Kelly. Kelly proves her right by chewing some gum Jes spit at her that landed on the mat. Ugh. Ugh. Some nice wrestling but not a blow away match. More of a nice cool down before the main event.
In the finals, Starkz defeated Shafir, ending Shafir's undefeated win streak in REVOLVER, in a quality, physical fight. This was really good and the proper intensity and action for such a great tournament and event.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: A (93 out of 100)
***
REVOLVER REDEMPTION
The second half of the Wrestling REVOLVER double header from the Calumet Center in Dayton, Ohio was REVOLVER Redemption on FITE+. This show featured some big debuts, returns and a hot angle.
Jon Moxley was still not cleared after suffering a concussion recently in AEW, again having to put off his Lucha Street Fight with Gringo Loco, who has been publicly saying Moxley is afraid of him. Rich Swann replaces Moxley, who moves to doing some guest commentary with Blake Torkelson, Veda Scott, and "Drama King" Matthew Rehswoldt. At least he was supposed to as they had horrible audio issues all night. Mox was barely audible and even later when it was just the normal three, it was Torkelson who had the bad headset or something.
Loco picked up an impressive win over the former Impact World and X Division champion in a good opener. Swann was working barefoot. That's an interesting look. I think working in boots looks better for him but it's up to him. Loco then calls out Moxley and even holds up the show, wanting to fight Moxley. Owner Sami Callihan comes out and demands he leave the ring. Intense after the match segment. They've found a way to make something out of Moxley's not being able to work the last couple of scheduled appearances. Well done.
Alan Angels won a 4 Way match over Damien Chambers (with John E. Bravo), Rachel Armstrong (filling in for Billie Starkz, which would have been her fourth match that day) and the debuting Yoya. Good match. I liked Armstrong being the underdog, as she should have been. Angels and Chambers were the heels in this and working together...until they weren't.
Solid finish with Armstrong hitting a 450 splash on Chambers but Angels grabbing her and hitting the Angel's Wings facebuster for the win. Ordinarily, these end with someone hitting their finish and a third party throwing them out and stealing the pin. Glad Angels won by hitting someone with his finish.
"The Problem" Marina Shafir, fresh off her first ever REVOLVER loss earlier in the day (Grand Prix finals to Starkz) filled in for Acey Romero, who was medically cleared for the event, and took all her frustration out on Zoey Stark. Independent Shafir >>> AEW Shafir.
The 1 Called Manders and Matthew Justice of Second Gear Crew defended their REVOLVER Tag team titles against Rickey Shane Page (bringing his Major League Wrestling tag and National Openweight title belts) and Alex Colon. Despite the reps of all four men and REVOLVER tag title matches are all no disqualification (for some reason), they started off with a good, basic tag match Then...the brawling started and the doors and chairs came out. Good brawling but if you've seen one SCG match in REVOLVER, you've seen them all.
It was going well with SCG closing in on the win when out came a group clad in red hoodies. Commentary said they've been hearing about this group for months but I must have missed it. The red hoods circle the ring and the wrestlers with Page and Colon then turning on SCG, aligning with the group. They gang up on SCG, pinning them and taking the tag team titles (no dq, folks). Two of the hoodies climb in the ring and reveal themselves to be Impact Wrestling stars Steve Maclin and Killer Kelly (half of the Knockouts World tag champions).
They unfold a flag with the name RED, Riches Equal Death. Hm. Interesting. RSP on his belt collector shxt.
We were supposed to get the Death Dollz (Courtney Rush and JesSICKa) and "The Juggernaut" Jordynne Grace facing the Rascalz (Impact World tag champs Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz with Myron Reed) and we did for a while. Nice action. Nothing too heavy. Then the shenanigans kicked in with the Grace trying to keep both sides focused on the match as they bickered over a vape pen or something and the Dollz forcing her to eat an edible (is that a #SpeakingOut violation) and the entire match going in slow motion as if WE all were smacked and not Grace. Then the shenanigans doubled down further with Alpha Sigma Sigma (Brent Oakley, KC Jacobs, and The Pledge) interrupting (blowing everybody's high) and a game of beer pong broke out. Anyway, it ended with Grace powerbombing the Pledge through a door or something...GTFOH. Do this for the live crowd but never on tv. Forget FIRE RUSSO, BAN RUSSO FROM OHIO!! You know better than this, Sami.
Making his return to a very positive response, "The Wrestling God" Moose faced "The Main Event Monster" Fulton (with "Drama King" Matthew Rehwoldt). Good Hoss Fight this one.
This is the first time they've had a one on one match up and I liked it. Two big strong, uber athletes throwing hard strikes and big slams. Clever bit of booking here as Fulton tried the old Lie, Cheat, Steal gimmick of slapping a steel chair hard after the ref got waylaid and pretending Moose hit him to get a DQ win. but the ref was still laid out so Moose took the chair and actually hit him with it. Well done. Rehwoldt tried to interfere further but was cut off by the surprise appearance of Shark Boy (that guy's been getting booked a lot lately). Fulton turns his attention away and get taken out by a Moose spear. "The Wrestling God" with the win.
Pro Wrestling NOAH superstar Naito Kiyomiya made his REVOLVER debut, defeating JT Dunn of the Unit. Good, competitive match but not a stand out, blowaway match. Nothing bad but the problem of having undercards full of all manners of madness is if you then have your top matches just be "good wrestling matches", they might struggle to resonate with the live audience.
The main event saw REVOLVER champion "Firestarter" Jake Crist successfully defended his title against AEW star Ortiz (who I think should go back to "Angel Ortiz"). This was scheduled as a normal match but the champion decides in the moment to make it a Dayton Street Fight and the challenger agreed. Entertaining enough. These two have a lot of history in companies like CZW and Impact but nothing in recent years. They had some quality wrestling and a lot of brawling throughout the arena. Both guys looked really good but there was a disconnect for me similar with the other top match. We've had 2 hours of insanity and while this was a "street fight", we had seen all this before on the card. This match went over 15 min so they had the time to have a big time, high quality main event Kiyomiya-Dunn did not and doing a "street fight" probably took away from it. Guys like this don't need a lot of bells and whistles to have a special match. Not one thing bad but nothing that would make me want to see it again.
Overall a good show but really, some of this should have been left in Sami's mind on READ. I am interested to see what they do with Riches Equal Death. How long before they're after Crist? We'll see.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: B (85 out of 100)
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