Retro Review // TNA Lockdown 2006

April 2006, Gnarls Barkley's Crazy was blasting out, everyone was about to die of bird flu and TNA were hosting Lockdown 2006. Gosh golly, it was a mad time to be about. The second ever all steel cage event was still a pretty novel concept at the time, with the show being headlined by Abyss challenging for Christian Cage's NWA World Heavyweight title and a Lethal Lockdown match with Sting being joined by AJ Styles, Rhino & Ron “The Truth” Killings to battle a Jeff Jarrett-led team that included America's Most Wanted (James Storm & Chris Harris) & Scott Steiner. But how was Lockdown 2006? Here's our review.

“Brutality meets Hardcore”, the opening package throws up random words, focusing on Christian Cage vs. Abyss for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, Samoa Joe defending his X Division title against Sabu and the Lethal Lockdown match pitting a Jeff Jarrett-led team against a group headed up by Sting. This promo is too much, man.

“Screw McMahonism, I'm a TNAthiest” reads a sign in the crowd, as Mike Tenay and Don West welcome us to the Impact Zone in Orlando, Florida.

Six Man Tag Team World X Cup Preview Steel Cage Match - Team Japan (Minoru, Hirooki Goto & Black Tiger) vs. Team USA (Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley & Jay Lethal)

A sweet opener here with six talented young performers combining well to present an exciting preview to that year's World X Cup. Whilst the steel cage was barely used and the match would probably have been much better without, the six lads worked well within the confines, working a number of tight sequences and bringing in a number of sick fucking tag moves that hyped the crowd up well. Team USA worked particularly well together with the majority of their offence coming in short bursts of double and triple team offence, highlighted early on with a wheelbarrow gutbuster combination from Jay Lethal & Alex Shelley that was followed up with a lionsault from Sonjay Dutt. Whilst Team Japan would get the win with a tasty bridging Tiger suplex from Black Tiger (better known as Rocky Romero in New Japan Pro Wrestling) on Jay Lethal, I feel like Team Japan still could've been better presented in the main body of the match, often coming across as a little generic whilst Team USA got the majority of the exciting offence in. Lethal showed signs of the world-class performer he'd develop into in Ring of Honor, pulling out a good variety of action with his three opponents and looking the smoothest and most reliable performer on Team USA, whilst also doing a great job of selling his arm following a sequence that concluded with him getting caught in Minoru's signature submission, the Minoru Special (flying cross armbreaker).

Next PPV – On 14^th May at Sacrifice, all six men would compete in the World X Cup Final Gauntlet match that also featured Eric Young, Incognito, Johnny Devine, Jushin Thunder Liger, Magno, Puma, Shocker, Tyson Dux and eventual winner Petey Williams. This would be the final TNA PPV appearances for both Hirooki Goto & Black Tiger.

Mike Tenay and Don West chatted a bit and showed us some of the matches that were still to come, whilst pushing the idea that Lockdown was a unique show because of the all steel cage gimmick

Jeremy Borash pushed the new TNA action figure set, before interviewing a Team 3D who all very intense with Brother Ray proclaiming he'd rather work for “that company in Conneticut” than hear the Canadian national anthem...also Latte Zbssskfko to ask Borash something, it was unclear what was going on.

Steel Cage Match - “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels vs. “Formerly Known as Low-Ki” Senshi

Considering the pedigree of the talent involved, this match comes out feeling surprisingly throwaway and whilst it's still a pretty good outing, it doesn't come close to reaching the potential that a match between Christopher Daniels and Senshi had at this time when looked at on paper. This is partly down to a relatively basic match structure and a couple of teases of big highspots that ultimately came to nothing. Neither man seemed completely into the bout, perhaps feeling pissed at being chucked into the second match on the card with no build and this leads to a middle section with little direction and a surprising lack of high-quality sequences. There was however some strong psychology at work in the opening with Senshi taking the action to Daniels with the commentary team pushing that Daniels had been caught off guard by his former Triple X stablemate answering his open challenge with the former and future Low Ki unloading some stiff strikes on the Fallen Angel, including a brutal looking double foot stomp. The highlight of the match was a strong near fall for Daniels off a Best Moonsault Ever, but the finish ended up falling flat for this reviewer as Senshi escaped an Angel's Wings attempt into a pinning combination picking up the win with his feet on the middle turnbuckle. I've probably been a bit hard on this match and I'd still say it would be worth checking out, but if you're pushed for time and want an example of a singles match between the two then you'd probably be better served by watching their encounter from earlier in 2006 at Ring of Honor's Tag Wars event.

Next PPV – At Sacrifice, Christopher Daniels would tag with AJ Styles in a losing effort against America's Most Wanted for the NWA World Tag Team titles. On the other hand, Senshi missed Sacrfice but would return for Slammiversary in June, winning a six way elimination bout that also included Alex Shelley, Jay Lethal, Petey Williams, Shark Boy and Sonjay Dutt.

Jeremy Borash had a chat with “Bullet” Bob Armstrong and the James Gang ahead of Armstrong's arm wrestling match with Konnan...there's a lot of weird cliches that I'm sure sounded good when they came up with them...

The promo package for the Arm Wrestling match is an absolute dumpster fire, acting more as a promo video for whatever mad song is being played in the background than telling me what has actually happened in this feud.

Konnan cut a promo on Orlando, the crowd didn't react because the show is in a theme park, so the crowd is mostly tourists. Brilliant work Konnan, you cunt.

Steel Cage Arm Wrestling Match – Konnan (with The Latin American Xchange (Homicide & Hernandez)) vs. “Bullet” Bob Armstrong (with The James Gang (BG James & Kip James))

63 year old Bob Armstrong got the win in an overly theatric arm wrestling match, despite repeated attempt at cheating from Konnan. What else can I say?

As per the pre-match stipulation the James Gang got to administer ten whips with belts to LAX...this was a bit of a shambles, but did included an unintentionally funny moment when BG accidentally called Kip “Billy”, leading to Mike Tenay quipping on commentary that Kip had “jumped the Gun(n)”.

Next PPV – Whilst this was Konnan's final PPV match, Bob Armstrong would return for February 2008's Against All Odds event, tagging with BG James for an unsuccessful shot at AJ Styles & Tomko's TNA World Tag Team Championships.

Latte told Jeff Jarrett that his team had won the coin toss for Lethal Lockdown, as the rest of Team Jarrett chatted to Jeremy Borash about the upcoming Lethal Lockdown match, including Scott Steiner absolutely murdering the English language and a surpringsly competent performance from America's Most Wanted's Chris Harris.

X-Division X-Scape Match – “Primetime” Elix Skipper (w/ Simon Diamond) vs. Petey Williams (w/ Coach D'Amore) vs. Puma vs. Chase Stevens vs. Shark Boy vs. “The Captain of Team USA” Chris Sabin

Despite a convoluted gimmick, the X-Scape match featured the best action of the show so far with strong performances from the likes of eventual winner Chris Sabin and Petey Williams. If you're unfamiliar with the gimmick, it's basically an elimination match with pinfalls or submissions until the final two competitors have to attempt to “X-scape” the cage (seriously, Tenay really hammered home that they would be “X-scaping”) to earn the victory. The earlier part of the match is hampered by the competitors having to tag in and out for some illogical reason, but once Shark Boy gets eliminated and everyone begins flying around the ring at the same time it became an exciting spot-heavy clash, featuring a number of intricate fast-paced sequences. The match peaked with a ridiculous shooting star press off the top of the cage from Chase Stevens, where everyone failed to catch the Hoosier. The spot could've ended up much worse for Stevens and it's damn good job he performed the move perfectly. Wrestling-wise the best action resulted in Puma's elimination as the man now known as TJP had a brilliant exchange with Petey Williams with the pair going back and forth repeatedly before Williams catapulted Puma straight into a Cradle Shock from Sabin. I'm not sure how much the X-scape gimmick helped the finale between Sabin and Williams as the wrestling stopped and both men simply tried to jump over the top, which would have been cool if there was something on the line, but without anything to fight for it was hard to buy into the drama of those moments. The finish itself came across as a little hokey with Williams ending up falling on his manager Coach D'Amore's shoulders when trying to escape, allowing Sabin to pick up the win and the momentum heading into the World X Cup. With a few tweaks to the gimmick and perhaps a better performance from a lacklustre Elix Skipper, this match would've been brilliant, however it's still a very fun watch that doesn't outstay it's welcome.

Next PPV – At Sacrifice, Petey Williams would lose to Jushin Thunder Liger in the World X Cup, before going on to win the final Gauntlet match that also included Puma and Chris Sabin. Shark Boy had to wait another month for PPV action, taking part in the aforementioned six way elimination match that was won by Senshi, whilst Chase Stevens & Elix Skipper returned at July's Victory Road show as Steven's teamed with Andy Douglas at The Naturals to defeat Skipper and his partner David Young, known collectively as The Diamonds in the Rough (which is an awful tag team name)

Jeremy Borash had tracked down Abyss & Father James Mitchell backstage and Mitchell cut a mad promo about Christian Cage not being a real champion and promising that Cage's head will roll later tonight. Odd stuff, but oddly compelling also.

The promo for Samoa Joe vs. Sabu, showing us lots of mad things that have happened, but it appears there's not much of a feud here.

Mikey Tenay gave us the “X Factors” for the Samoa Joe vs. Sabu match, which included that Joe was yet to be defeated in TNA, that both men were the epitome of the X-Division's “no limits” ethos and that Latte had chosen to bring in someone from outside TNA in order to push Joe further than before.

X Division Championship – Sabu vs. “The Undefeated Samoan Submission Machine” Samoa Joe ©

This is neither man's best effort, but it does the job of putting Samoa Joe over strong as a dominant force capable of tackling an opponent with a unique style as Joe beats the shit out of the former ECW Champion. The match is probably 80% Joe as he lobs his opponent around the cage with Sabu being busted open pretty early, which really helps towards the aura TNA were trying to build around Joe at this time. I'm not a massive fan of Sabu, but he actually manages to hit most of his offence effectively here, including a number of old favourites, even if he called every move ridiculously loudly. There's some weird stuff with Sabu having a cast on a supposedly broken arm, which I don't think achieved anything as despite Joe repeatedly going after the cast, Sabu couldn't sell because he had a cast on and even if he didn't I'm not sure he'd have sold it anyway, because he's Sabu. Could the two have had a better match? Probably, under different circumstances, but considering Sabu would be challenging John Cena and Rey Mysterio for titles in WWE a few months later, this was a massive victory for Samoa Joe at the time.

Next PPV – At Sacrifice, Samoa Joe continued to build momentum as he teamed with Sting to defeat Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner. Sabu would jump ship to WWE, appearing on the ECW One Night Stand show just two month's later in June, going to a no contest with Rey Mysterio over the World Heavyweight title, before returning to TNA PPV in August 2010, losing to Rob Van Dam at Hardcore Justice – The Last Stand.

Team Canada (Coach D'Amore, Bobby Roode, Eric Young & A1) sang “O Canada” and Coach D'Amore explained that most of the issues between them and Team 3D come from Team 3D being fat or something. Latte was back as he continued to try to find out what the big announcement is going to be, but received no help from Team Canada.

Hype promo time in which we learn that Team 3D are furious for being covered in a Canadian flag at some point by Team Canada and some more weird nationalistic weird shit. The backbone of this was a ridiculously cringey promo from Brother Ray.

Six Man Tag Team Steel Cage Anthem Match - Team Canada (A1, “The Canadian Enforcer” Bobby Roode & “Showtime” Eric Young) (with Coach D'Amore) vs. Team 3D (Brother Ray, Brother Devon & Brother Runt)

Whilst there was a handful of great spots and nice creativity here, this match becomes a painful watch thanks to the awful gimmick and some horrible booking. Firstly, lets discuss the idea of the Anthem match. The aim of the match is to retrieve your country's flag from the top of the cage, which will then result in your country's national anthem being played and victory. Why? Team Canada had already came out to their usual entrance theme...”O Canada”...and also sang the anthem in the backstage segment earlier. Lads. Onto the booking which is very poor indeed. After a ref bump, Team 3D grabbed the Stars and Stripes, which, of course, didn't result in the end of the match because the referee was down. Team Canada managed to put the flag back and after Coach D'Amore nailed the “gatekeeper” with a steel chair, he got a table in the cage, which eventually Eric Young ended up going through with a diving elbow drop attempt on Brother Runt, before A1 took an Acid Drop from Runt and Roode a 3D from Ray & Devon, leading to Team 3D getting the flag down for the second time and winning the match. This made Team Canada look like an absolute bunch of chumps. They lost the match twice, despite underhanded tactics and spent a long time in control without even attempting to get their flag. Despite all this shit, there were a couple of great moments, including Roode taking an Avalanche Bubba Bomb early on and a lovely spot with A1 blocking an Acid Drop and setting up Roode for a wicked sitout powerbomb.

After the match, a terrible version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” played and Brother Ray and Brother Devon gave Coach D'Amore a 3D.

Next PPV – At Sacrifice, Brother's Ray and Devon came out on the losing side of a match with The James Gang (BJ James & Kip James), whilst it was a mixed night for Team Canada as despite Bobby Roode's victory over Rhino, A1 put over Raven and Eric Young was unsuccessful in the World X Cup Final Gauntlet match. Brother Runt's next PPV match would be for the HUSTLE promotion in June as he tagged with his storyline brother's Kinetaro Kinemura, Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda at House Vol. 16 – The Road to HUSTLE Aid, before returning to TNA in July at Victory Road for another six man tag, this time seeing Team 3D losing to Abyss & The James Gang.

Mike Tenay and Don West attempted to talk about the two matches left on the card, but the crowd obviously wanted to actually sing the US National anthem still, because the version TNA played was impossible to join in with. Team 3D recognised this and ended up leading a sing-a-long at the top of the babyface ramp in what was actually a pretty cute moment.

After being heavily pushed in every backstage segment on the show, it turned out that TNA's major announcement was that they were going through a corporate restructuring. Come on guys, that's not going to get anyone excited about anything. What this boiled down to was that there was a new “face of TNA management”, who would be revealed at a later date. Latte was put on probation as the “Head of the Championship Committee” and former ECW World Heavyweight Champion Raven returned to the company, chasing Latte around the ring for reason's that I'm sure were clear if you were watch iMPACT at the time. Oh, Christy Hemme also made her TNA debut in this segment, delivering an envelope to the commentary bois.

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage refused to be interviewed by Jeremy Borash

Good golly, it was all going on in the Abyss vs. Christian Cage feud in '06. Abyss and Father James Mitchell had stalked Cage's wife and beaten Cage up in his home and attempted to drown him, whilst Cage had looked to use a tyre iron on Abyss. Why are we having a wrestling match and not a day in court?

Mike Tenay ran down the tale of the tape for the NWA World title match, with some shit puns and stuff.

Steel Cage match for NWA World Heavyweight Championship - “The Monster” Abyss vs. Christian Cage ©

Whilst at times over-booked, Abyss vs. Christian Cage is a fun World title cage match, that has good variety and remained entertaining for over 20 minutes. The match is packed with strong near falls with Abyss kicking out of an Unprettier, whilst Cage survives a Blackhole Slam, as well as featuring a number of big highspots with the highlight being a Frog Splash from the top of the six sides of steel from the champion. The double ref bump was gratuitous, but both bumps were creatively done and allowed for a little added drama down the stretch, whilst the second showed signs of desperation from The Monster as he threw the ref into the cage to prevent Cage diving off the top, which in turn added a little depth to the storytelling in the later stages. I think at times the match lost sight of how serious the feud had been between the two, as after the opening brawl there's a slight lack of intensity from either man and things almost settle into a typical power vs. technique type contest. Whilst the thumbtack spots are brutal, they have more of an air of trying anything possible to win the top prize in the NWA than anything else. The finish, however, is done very well, with Cage countering a chokeslam and nailing the second Unprettier of the match, this time onto a massive pile of thumbtacks, whilst Tenay and West sold the moment on commentary. This is probably a Top Five singles match for Abyss in TNA, whilst also being the strongest match on the card.

After the match, Christian Cage attempted to gain some revenge on Father James Mitchell, but was instead low-blowed by Abyss, before being bloodied and hung by a chain using the steel cage in what was an unnecessary angle. Mitchell handed Abyss the NWA World Heavyweight title belt before the pair left.

Next PPV – The two would collide again at Sacrfice, with Christian Cage retaining once more in a Full Metal Mayhem match, which main evented the show.

Ron Killings, AJ Styles and Rhino were all interviewed by Jeremy Borash with Rhino giving the best account of himself on the mic, pulling out an intense promo, ending with his “Gore, Gore, Gore” catchphrase. Sting showed up at the end to say “It's showtime, folks”.

The hype package for the main event focused on the issues between Jeff Jarrett and Sting, whilst never actually explaining what those issues were, whilst also pushing Lethal Lockdown as the most

Lethal Lockdown – Team Jarrett (NWA World Tag Team Champion “Wildcat” Chris Harris, NWA World Tag Team Champion “Cowboy” James Storm, Jeff Jarrett & “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner) (with Gail Kim & Jackie) vs. Sting's Warriors (“The Phenomenal” AJ Styles, Rhino, Ron “The Truth” Killings & Sting)

Lethal Lockdown produced an entertaining main event, that whilst at times lacking in substance, used the gimmick to keep the momentum building, whilst two massive spots make this a more than worthwhile watch. One of the spots is probably one of the most memorable moments in Lethal Lockdown history as AJ Styles and James Storm battled on top of the cage, concluding with Styles scaling a tall ladder and using some trussing to splash Storm through a table. Whilst this isn't shot particularly well by TNA, it still looks incredible and is a testament to what Styles was willing to do for the company at this time. This is also seen in the other spot as Styles is at the top of a ridiculous tower of doom spot that sees him fall from the top of the cage. Had their been more of an issue between anyone other than Jeff Jarrett and Sting, I think the latter stages could've been a much more compelling watch, as things essentially boil down to a sequence where everyone hits their signature moves, before an awkward sequence where Sting reversed a Sharpshooter from Chris Harris into a Scorpion Deathlock, which struggled following the massive spot from Styles and Storm on top of the cage. The undisputed lowlight was Jackie removing Gail Kim's skirt as she attempted to scale the cage, something which makes it seem like 2006 was a world away from the modern day.

Performance wise, there's no doubt that Styles is the MVP of this bout as he works his arse off throughout, helping others look like a million bucks, especially when starting the match with Harris, whilst taking part in the matches two biggest spots of the evening. Everyone else almost fades into the background, mainly appearing during their entrances to hit a number of big moves before coming back into the action for the finishing sequence. Everyone manages to look pretty good when first out the gate, with Rhino and Steiner's entrances in particularly lifting the contest at the right time, when they unleash a series of power moves, whilst Ron Killings also pulls out a greatest hits of his funky offence. For me, the two captains of the team put in disappointing efforts, as aside from a melodramatic stand-off with their guitar and baseball bat respectively, it's hard to point out anything particularly impressive or memorable from either man.

2006's incarnation of Lethal Lockdown is certainly worth a watch and has a case for being the best version of the contest, that has never quite fufilled its potential as TNA's version of WarGames. Although I'd put the Team Angle vs. Team Cage bout from the next Lockdown show as slightly ahead.

Next PPV – The feud between Sting and Jeff Jarrett continued at Sacrifice with Sting picking up another victory as he teamed with Samoa Joe to take on Jarrett & Scott Steiner. America's Most Wanted succesfully defended their NWA World Tag Team Championships against AJ Styles and his partner Christopher Daniels at the same event, whilst Rhino ended up putting over Bobby Roode. Ron Killings wouldn't be back on PPV til July at Slammiversary, taking part in a King of the Mountain match for Christian Cage's NWA World Heavyweight title, in a match that also included Abyss and Sting and saw Jeff Jarrett walk out with the ten pounds of gold.

Lockdown 2006 was a really solid PPV that, despite some issues with the booking, featured a number of entertaining matches. The opening stretch of X Division action (albeit broken up by a lame arm wrestling match) is an inspired way to do the first half, that also displays the sheer amount of talent that TNA had in that area at the time as we see appearances from Samoa Joe, Alex Shelley, Low Ki, Christopher Daniels, Chris Sabin, TJP and Jay Lethal. There's a definite lull in the middle with the Joe vs. Sabu match not setting the world alight, whilst the Anthem match has it's moments but features six men fighting against a poorly conceived gimmick, whilst the constant interruptions from Latte resulted in a disappointing “major announcement” (something that would become a running theme for TNA in later years). The prevalence of multi-man matches gets a little much by the end of the show as TNA seems dead set on trying to get as many men inside the steel cage as possible, but that does also mean that when it comes time for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship match the match gains more of a big match feel than it perhaps would have got following a series of particularly good singles matches. Indeed, for me, the Abyss vs. Christian Cage match is the best on the show, going heavy on the drama that is at times missing from the Lethal Lockdown main event, whilst also showcasing what was a perhaps surprising chemistry between The Monster and Captain Charisma. For the first time on Retro Review, I'd recommend this PPV as a complete watch, as despite it's flaws it is a good show that is mostly carried well across the three hours. You can check it out on the Global Wrestling Network. 

Next time - NWA Starrcade 1985 feat. Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA vs. Tully Blanchard in an I Quit Steel Cage match and The Rock N' Roll Express vs. The Russians in a Cage match.

Written by James Marston 

Bound for Glory 2017 Review // Johnny Impact vs. Eli Drake

On 5th November 2017, Impact Wrestling broadcast Bound for Glory 2017 live on PPV from Aberdeen Pavilion in Ottawa, Ontario. Johnny Impact [John Morrison] challenged Eli Drake [Shaun Ricker] for the Global Championship, James Storm, Ethan Carter III and Eddie Edwards tagged up as Team Impact to take on El Hijo del Fantasma, El Texano Jr. and Pagano representing AAA, as well as appearances from Alberto el Patron [Alberto Del Rio], Matt Sydal, Bobby Lashley, Abyss and Gail Kim. But was it any good? Lets take a look!  

Global Championship Match: Eli Drake def. Johnny Impact (19:30) 

McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Eli Drake and Chris Adonis with some terrible audio, but Drake continuing to grow into his role as Global Champion. The bad audio continued later as Johnny Impact cut a rather dull and slow promo in an interview with McKenzie Mitchell that was nowhere near the energy level you'd expect for someone competing in the main event of a companies biggest show.

Before the finish, I found myself surprisingly into the main event between Eli Drake and Johnny Impact, even if the same couldn't be said for the Aberdeen Pavilion crowd. Despite the uninspired build-up and lack of heat, the two worked well together to put on a series of impressive moment, with Impact's cat-like agility front and centre on a number of occasions. The former Lucha Underground Champion, produced plenty of gif-friendly action, like getting whipped towards the barricade only to slide underneath it, an avalanche Samoan drop rolled through into a standing corkscrew shooting star press and a Spanish fly, whilst Drake upped his game, mostly matching Impact's smoothness, hitting a tasty springboard moonsault and one of the best jumping superplexes that you ever did see. The pair battled against an apathetic crowd, who had been given very little reason to care, with Impact having only debuted at the end of August (on the same episode that Drake won the title) and with the duo having already had a match on TV just over a month ago. The booking let them down, but Impact and Drake did the best they could with the very little that they had to work with.   

Lets talk about that finish. In a baffling moment, Alberto El Patron would cost Impact the win, pulling the referee out of the ring, before nailing Impact with a pair of nasty looking chair-shots, hitting Drake with the title belt and then dropping champion on top of challenger for the pinfall. On which planet was this a good finish? Maybe, it would be acceptable on an episode of Impact, maybe it would be ok on B PPV (which the company doesn't run), but on your main show of the year? We didn't even get the surprise factor from an AEP return because he'd turned up to rant earlier in the night. The supposed biggest night of the year ended up feeling like any other night because they pulled a TV angle in the main event. (The unprotected chairshot from AEP to Impact was atrocious and really has no place in 2017)

Team Impact (Eddie Edwards, Ethan Carter III & James Storm) def. Team AAA (Pagano, El Hijo del Fantasma & El Texano Jr.) (15:27)

McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Team Impact (Ethan Carter III, Eddie Edwards & James Storm) with horrible audio problems and EC3 mostly staring into the middle distance.

I've never really got these inter-promotional rivalries, to be honest. They only really ever work when a high percentage of the audience has a strong feeling about one or both of the promotions involved and that couldn't be said for Impact or AAA here. How is it possible for anyone to currently get strongly behind a company like Impact that doesn't seem to know what it's own identity is? Beyond some heely cheating from Team AAA and ETJ pulling out his bullrope, the dislike between the two teams that had been pushed on Impact wasn't there. The story kept the focus on Team Impact and at times Pagano, ETJ and EHDF felt like bodies to facilitate that story. Not neccesarily a bad thing, but on the big stage I'd expect a little more substance. Also, anything involving Pagano tended to be clunky, with the standout moment being him just chilling on the apron whilst ETJ and EHDF bumped and fed for the EC3 hot tag.

What did work about the match however, was the relationship between Ethan Carter III and his team mates, which whilst being a little played out, came across well, especially at the beginning and towards the end. The match built nicely towards EC3's hot tag, showing him initially reluctant to help, before roaring into the bout when needed. The finish also played into this well, with EC3 on fire, escaping a double suplex from Pagano & ETJ, before nailing a pair of low blows and One Percenters and tagging in Storm to get the victory with a Last Call to Pagano. Carter screaming "Kick his fucking head off" as he tagged in the Cowboy seemed to put to be their problems and end EC3's short heel run, tying off the story well. It's just a shame it didn't come five minutes earlier. Special shoutout to the Package tombstone that EHDF gave Edwards on the apron as well, because that was clearly the highlight of the bout.

Monster's Ball: Abyss def. Grado (10:35)

Abyss and Grado had a confrontation backstage, with a fire-up Grado cutting a pretty good promo on their upcoming match and how much it meant to him. Moments before their match, Abyss berated Grado, asking him to dance, with Grado complying only to kick Abyss in his Monster's balls.

Good goly, where to start with this? This was not a good showcase for either man. The action was a times passable, with credit needing to be given for the bump that Grado took off the top rope through a barbed wire board, but quickly devolved into something else entirely. The spots with the board later on were poorly done, with the bout not only struggling to match the earlier highspot, but also not doing a good job of performing the following moments. Clunky spots like Abyss taking a shoulder block onto the board, before having to hold another one on top of him, so that Grado could deliver a top rope splash were poorly conceived in the first place, but weren't helped by how they were performed. Laurel Van Ness and then Rosemary getting involved saw the match devolve further, even if Rosemary got a good pop for turning up to nullify LVN's "threat". Then the bell went when the referee had clearly counted two, dragging an already poor match towards shambles territory. Close off with perhaps one of the worst Blackhole Slam's that Abyss has ever hit, that ended up looking like too drunk lads falling over on a Saturday night and you have a contender for the worst worked match in Impact (and perhaps beyond) for the year.

X Division Championship Match - Trevor Lee (C) def. Matt Sydal, Sonjay Dutt, Petey Williams, Dezmond Xavier and Garza Jr. (12:26)

Six good wrestlers, a decent amount of time and you've got yourself a strong opener, that ended up being one of the best matches on the show. It wasn't always as crisp as it could've been, mostly down to how fast the action was, but we did also get a number of brilliant one on one sequences thrown into the mix. Sydal and Dutt began with a great back and forth sequence, Sydal and Xavier were smooth as silk together, concluding with Sydal nailing a standing moonsault and a brilliant stretch between Lee and Dutt ended in a wonderful Orange Crush near fall for Lee. The champion being the bouts only heel worked well, whilst the crowd backing native Williams was used well, with the two elements driving the match and helping it to fill it's time, remaining interesting without becoming an out and out spot-fest. The build to Williams hitting the Canadian Destroyer produced some excitement in the closing stages, with multiple attempts getting good reaction from the Pavilion. I feel the finish was a little bit of a misstep, with a wonderful moment being teased as Sydal missed a Shooting Star Press and ended up in Williams' path, only to escape the Destroyer. Had that spot been completed and resulted in Williams winning the belt then you would have had a great moment that would've got people talking and elevated the match as a whole. Instead Williams hit the move on Xavier and Lee stole the pin to retain and we ended up with a cliche conclusion instead.

Six Sides of Steel Match: Bobby Lashley & King Mo def. Moose & Stephan Bonnar (10:39)

Dan Lambert psyched up Bobby Lashley, King Mo and the rest of American Top Team backstage, despite saying they didn't actually need it. Later on, Moose and Stephen Bonnar touched each other quite a bit and said "in the cage" a lot. 

There were moments were I felt like this match was leading to a really good pay off. Those moments were when Moose was just ploughing through American Top Team lads, hitting daft Go to Hell's (Double chokebomb) off the top rope and looking like a real beast of a man. Looking like a star and someone the company could potentially strap the rocket on. The rest of the match wasn't for me. With very little knowledge of or care for MMA, Bonnar and Mo scrapping meant nothing to me, so having he majority of the match centre around the potential of them fighting turned me off almost instantly. The fact that the fight amounted to the pair rolling around on the floor for a little bit, whilst the crowd sat in silence or chanting "GSP" for some reason turned me off even more. All of American Top Team's representatives would eventually get in the cage, in another shitty TNA cliche and even after Moose had crawled back inside the cage (he got locked outside after following Mo out there like a silly Moose), he ended up losing to a Lashley spear. What does American Top Team winning achieve? No one wants this story to continue and a Moose win could have potentially marked him out as a future star for the company. But that would've made too much sense.

World Tag Team Champion 5150 Street Fight: oVe (Dave Crist & Jake Crist) (C) def. LAX (Ortiz [Angel Ortiz] & Santana [Mike Draztik]) (10:21)

Backstage, we see a body laid out on the floor, drapped in a Mexican flag, with a figure standing over it, before offering us a thumbs down. Could it be?

This was match of the night, but wasn't above being fucked by the terrible creative that blighted the evening. Dave, Jake, Ortiz & Santana put on a thrilling spot-fest from the very beginning. Highlights included Ortiz nailing Jake with a sitout powerbomb off the ramp through a table, Santana climbing some scaffolding and diving onto Dave on a table below, Jake hitting a superplex on Ortiz through a bunch of seated chairs and a Street Sweeper from LAX to Jake onto a stack of chairs. Then came the matches main problem, the debut of Sami Callihan. Whilst we were told that 5150 Street Fight was like nothing we'd ever seen, there was no mistaking that the gimmick was a normal street fight, with no other members of LAX present with Low Ki having left the company, Diamante nowhere to be seen and Homicide "laid out". Had we seen Jake & Dave in unbelievable peril, battling against the whole group, before Callihan came out and cleaned house, it would have felt special, it would've been a moment. Instead, Callihan seemed to randomly walk out, to no reaction, throw something in 53 year od Konnan's eyes, before destroying Ortiz and Santana in two spectacular spots. As good as those spots looked, the right notes hadn't been hit and the crowd didn't know how to react to Callihan or a group in oVe that is yet to get over with this audience. The finish was flat. I was so excited to see Sami Callihan debut in Impact and they botched it. 

oVe laid the boots into Ortiz & Santana, with a quick soundbite promo from Callihan. 

Alberto El Patron Returns (10:08)

Fuck sake. Seriously? Who thought this was a good idea? This was ten minutes of AEP complaining about being suspended after being part of an alleged domestic violence incident earlier in the year. Ten minutes of him just droning on about it, aimlessly. He also kept randomly jumping on the middle rope for reasons known only to him. "They didn't care about my family. They didn't care about my three little babies" is one of the most bizarre arguments anyone could have in this situation. However, the weirdest part was AEP threatening commentator Jeremy Borash and then not actually doing anything. At best, this was uncomfortable viewing, at worst it was an embarrassment to professional wrestling.

Knockout's Championship Match: Gail Kim def. Sienna [Allysin Kay] (C) and Allie [Cherry Bomb] (9:43)

Terrible crackly audio as McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Gail Kim ahead of Knockout's Championship match. 

This match did very little for me, with the three often looking awkward and stunted together. The big moments of the contest were more often than not detracted from by sloppiness, with Sienna taking a nasty looking double back suplex onto the barricade, that had very little height on it. Sienna's avalanche fallaway slam on Allie, followed up with a spinebuster to Kim stood out as the opposite however, being well-timed, if not for the referee fannying around on the count. Story-wise, the match focused around Sienna's dominance and Kim and Allie's teamwork, but nothing stayed around long enough to create a coherent flowing narrative, with the bout seemingly looking to coast on a feel-good finish as Kim won in her final match. Personally, I think Allie taking the belt and Kim passing the proverbial torch would have been a more effective conclusion, with the right story, but I'm not majorly against what is in essense a nice gesture from the company for one of their hall of famers. Although, I think replaying match with Awesome Kong from Final Resolution 2008 would have done her career more justice! 

Taiji Ishimori def. Tyson Dux (4:47)

Extended squash match here as Dux made his first Impact appearance since Victory Road 2008. The bout was pretty much also Ishimori for the five minutes, who picked up the win with 450 splash, in a match the crowd couldn't have cared less about.

Jimmy Jacobs made a surprise appearance, briefly chatting to the commentary team and indicating that he now worked at Impact.

I didn't hate Bound for Glory 2017. I hated the booking, the creative and the lack of anything feeling remotely special, surprising or fresh. Whatever is going on with Alberto El Patron is trash. Grado vs. Abyss was really poor all on it's own, as well. But I thought the X-Division six man showcased some real talent, whilst the 5150 Street Fight featured some spectacular spots and would have unarguably been match of the night, had it not been for the flat finish. There was so much talent and potential on this show. But they were all to greater or less extent let down by terrible creative decisions and direction that dragged the show as a whole down.

Review by James Marston 

Re-Making an iMPACT - #8 - Jeff Jarrett v Shark Boy

TNA Xplosion #87 Results (17th July 2004) - Total Nonstop Action Wrestling #107 (21st July 2004)

Let's be honest, the first seven episodes of iMPACT have hardly been a tour de force of wrestling. There's been some good matches here and there, but on the whole things haven't been great, especially when looking at Jeff Jarrett's NWA World Heavyweight title reigns' coverage on the show. So with even more enhancement matches this week and Jarrett in action in the main event...this was going to great, yeah? 

What an utter treat on 23rd July 2004's iMPACT as Jeff Jarrett defeated Shark Boy [The Stroke] in the NWA World Heavyweight Champion's debut on the show. This was actual a much more entertaining bout than I was expecting with Boy getting in a surprising amount of offence in against the top heel in the company, pulling out a couple of missile dropkicks. Boy also works as a perfect whipping boy for Jarrett earlier on, willingly bumping around the iMPACT Zone, as they brawl in the audience. A nasty slam on the steps and a couple of chairs shots, whilst the commentators are putting it over as Jarrett sending a message to potential challengers Monty Brown and Jeff Hardy, made for a entertaining brawl. It was a shame however that the referee had actually called for the bell before all this, because of course, everything Jarrett was doing should have resulted in disqualification. The show would conclude with Hardy making the save for Boy, only for Brown to deliver a Pounce and stare down with Jarrett as the episode went off the air. 

In tag team action, "The Monster" Abyss and "The Baby Bear" Alex Shelley would overcome Team Mexico's Abismo Negro and Mr. Aguila [Double Stomp to back of the head, Shelley to Aguila] in a fun match with a shoddy ending. The finish was a real shambles, as Abyss would get pissed off with Shelley for pinning Aguila, because "The Monster" had been about to pin Negro, clearly forgetting that only the legal man should be able to get the pin and that the legal man was Shelley. Either Abyss was supposed to look stupid or the booker decided that this rule that the audience was stupid and wouldn't recognise. It was a real shame that the match would end this way, as after a bit of a shit start, things began to turn the corner with Shelley pulling out a sweet head-scissor takedown on Aguila using Negro's shoulders, Negro hitting a dropkick to knock Shelley off the top and too the outside and Aguila would handspring off the rope and straight into a Shock Treatment backbreaker from Abyss. 

Team Canada's Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Johnny Devine & Petey Williams conquered a make-shift X Division team including Chris Sabin, Mikey Batts, Sonjay Dutt and The Amazing Red in a pleasing but brief eight man tag bout. As seems to be the way with these multi-man X Division style bouts, there were a couple of guys that shone brighter than others. For me that was Bobby Roode in Team Canada and Chris Sabin on the babyface side. Both men looked extremely crisp on the offence pulling out some nifty moves, including a butterfly suplex from Roode, whilst Sabin hit brilliant three person version of his enziguiri/DDT combo, before nailing stereo tope conhilo's with Red. The finish would nicely build throughout the match, with everyone but Batts on the outside, before he'd be corner by Roode and Williams for a spectacular, yet heely finish. These guys deserved more time to fully showcase what the four could do together, as what they did in five minutes was easily the best match on the show.

X Division Champion AJ Styles collected a quick win over Jerrelle Clark with a lovely double underhook transition into the Styles Clash, he'd have a stare down with Kazarian and Michael Shane after the match. Raven dominated (Kid) Romeo, slamming him into barricade with three Russian leg sweeps and finishing him off with a Raven Effect DDT, before having a brief pull-apart brawl with Sabu. Another squash match for "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown this week as well, as he destroyed Antonio Banks (Montel Vontavious Porter) in minutes with the Pounce! 

Results 

Singles Match: X Division Champion "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles def. Jerrelle Clark

Tag Team Match: "The Monster" Abyss & "The Baby Bear" Alex Shelley (with Goldylocks) def. Team Mexico - Abismo Negro & Mr. Aguila 

Singles Match: "The Alpha Male" def. Antonio Banks

Eight Man Tag Team Match: Team Canada - Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Johnny Devine & Petey Williams (with Scott D'Amore) def. Chris Sabin, Mikey Batts, Sonjay Dutt & The Amazing Red

Singles Match: Raven def. Romeo

Singles Match: NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Jarrett (with The Elite Guard - Collyer, Hernandez & Onyx) def. Shark Boy

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.67/10

Whilst the amount of squash matches is worrying, this was the strongest episode of iMPACT since the original, thanks to three solid matches. Nothing particularly spectacular, with the eight man tag being the strongest bout of the show, but unlike previous episodes there hasn't been anything to majorly drag things down. The booking of the main event scene has begun to improve and this has definitely been a big problem for the company thus far. With Jeff Hardy being positioned as a challenger for Jeff Jarrett and whilst Monty Brown is hardly a favourite of ours, he's at least been built up very well by the company for a similar role. 

As we move closer towards the end of the weekly PPV's, I've a feeling we'll see the quality of these shows begin to increase. At least that's what I'm hoping!

Written content by James Marston. Additional content by David Marston. 

Re-Making an iMPACT #4 - Styles & Brown v Abyss & Dallas (James & David Marston)

TNA Xplosion #83 Results (19th June 2004) - NWA Total Nonstop Action #103 Results (23rd June 2004)

As iMPACT rounded off it's first month on the air, you'd be expecting TNA to be finding the correct formula for it's hour of television each week running alongside a weekly PPV. Coming out of last week's PPV that celebrated two years of the company by having both the NWA World Heavyweight and X Division Championship matches end in No Contests, how would TNA look to explain the results? With D'Lo Brown teaming with AJ Styles to face "The Monster" Abyss and Dallas in a big tag team main event, would this be the episode where TNA would finally crack the code?

Larry Zybszko replaced Dusty Rhodes as the shows judge, "in case" a match went to a time-limit draw.

After X Division Champion AJ Styles had niftily turned Dallas' chokebomb attempt in a hurricarana and scored the pinfall, the June 25th 2004 show concluded with  Monty Brown attacking D'Lo Brown, being aided by "The Monster" Abyss' chain, whilst Kid Kash nailed Styles with a Money Maker and continued the beatdown with Dallas. A fairly straightforward way to build to the Brown v Brown PPV match, although weirdly Kash and Styles wouldn't face off again for sometime. Before this, the tag main event had been a strong television clash, following a simple storyline where Goldylocks would give the heels the advantage on the outside, which built into a wonderful hot tag sequence from Styles. Whilst Dallas & Abyss aren't the smoothest wrestlers and Brown's timing was off on a couple of the points, the closing stages of the match feature some fast-paced and exciting action, with a few twist and turns and a devastating looking suicide dive from Brown, before Styles secured the victory.

In more tag team action, Team Canada's Bobby Roode and Petey Williams picked up a big victory over America's Most Wanted, after The Natural's had interfered and nailed Chris Harris with a nasty chair shot. The match follows your regular tag structure, with James Storm in the face in peril role, before Harris cleaned house on a hot tag, but did seem to be going in a different direction in the last few minutes. All four men were involved in a back and fourth melee, which included a superb Tower of Doom that got a big reaction out of the iMPACT zone. It seemed like the ten minute time limit was about to hamper the action, as I'm sure the two teams could have launched into a blistering final stretch with more time, so in a way I was happy to see the screwy finish over having the match go to a judges decision. 

Another tag team match saw The Amazing Red, Chris Sabin & Primetime overcome Kazarian, [Kazushi] Miyamoto and NOSAWA [Rongai] in a decent X-Division affair. The standout competitor of the bout was Sabin, whose offence always looked polished and seemed to be the most creative competitor of the match, pulling out a lovely enziguri and DDT combo on Kazarian and NOSAWA at one point, as well as a stunning dive over the top rope. If everyone in the match had been as composed as Sabin, I think this would have been a much better contest as a lot of the action felt rushed and therefore became botchy. The biggest culprit of this is The Amazing Red, who has two major slips whilst trying perform slingshot moves, which stop the match from having the usual free-flowing feel that we've come to expect from the X-Division

If you've read the previous editions of Re-Making an iMPACT, you'll know we aren't the biggest fans of the non-wrestling segments and despite it's absurdity this week was no different. Basically, on the recent PPV, Jeff Jarrett's NWA World Heavyweight title bout with Ron Killings had ended in a no-contest after Killings had used Jarrett's guitar, a move that Director of Authority, Vince Russo had decried would lead to an automatic disqualification and therefore title change. For unexplained reasons a quartet of trumpets played Jarrett to the ring, before Larry Zybszko came out to tell Jarrett he'd have to wait until the next PPV to find out who Russo had decided to give the belt to, despite the decision being surely what this show was made for! We did pop pretty hard when Jarrett nailed Zbyszko with his guitar, for rambling with phrasing like "I just left the big room, Jeffrey". The segment ended in a disappointing scrap between 3 Live Kru and Jarrett's Elite Guard (Collyer & Hernandez)

"The Alpha Male" Monty Brown would continue his undefeated streak with a victory over "Irish" Pat Kenney (Simon Diamond) in a dull as dishwater contest. To say that we're big fans of "The Alpha Male" would be like saying we're big fans gouging our own eyes out. The match was full of wear down holds as the duo struggled to fill their three minute bout with anything remotely interesting. To be fair to Kenney, he did pull out a sweet float over in a superkick, but his character came across a just a generic bloke. I've no idea why he has "Irish" in front of his name either. Is their another Pat Kenney running around, so we need to distinguish between the two? The finish is an awkward set-up into the piss-poor Pounce. 

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.05/10

The most-action packed episode to date, there's some top quality wrestling on display here with the main event and semi main event tag bouts both delivering. However, there's also a segment with Jeff Jarrett and Larry Zbyszko which answer none of the questions that the previous PPV asked and kind of paints the companies top heel as a babyface (He takes out an annoying authority figure and then gets attacked by three men) whilst Monty Brown appeared for much longer than I'd have liked. There's a core group of guys that are beginning to become the highlight of the show each week, like AJ Styles and Team Canada, whilst others are proving a drag on our enjoyment of the show, *cough* Monty Brown *cough*. 

Next Time - Team Canada v 3 Live Kru

Kamikaze Pro Monster Live Review

In front of their biggest Bournville crowd to date, Kamikaze Pro presented Monster at Cadbury Club. Headlined by an appearance former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Abyss, the show also featured a number of established and up and coming British names including Relentless Division Champion Marshall X, Chris Brookes, Clint Margera, Damian Dunne, Dan Maloney, Ethan Silver, Project Lucha, Ryan Smile, The Hunter Brothers and more in action.

Kamikaze Pro Ring Announcer/General Manager Lawrie Neal opened the show with his usual energetic opening, in front of a congregation that featured a nice mixture of familes and adult males who were very receptive from the beginning.

A Monday Night RAW-esque opening segment followed, with current Kamikaze Pro Champion Robbie X accompanied by his cohorts from So Scandalous. It was a simple but effective segment, with the group running down their achievements in the promotion and seemingly now going by the name The Bigger Picture, before Neal snapped and placed Robbie X's title match with Kay Lee Ray as the opening bout of the show. Whilst the three Bigger Picture teammates all put in competent efforts on the microphone with maybe a little too much shouting, it was Neal that put in the star performance here for me, being both believable in his role of down-trodden boss man and getting the crowd hyped for the upcoming clash.

One Fall Match for the Kamikaze Pro Championship

Robbie X (C) 

vs. 

Kay Lee Ray

This match worked like a charm, for one simple reason, it's easy to hate Robbie X and it's easy to cheer for Kay Lee Ray. The two performers took advantage of a crowd that was completely into everything that was going on to put together an enjoyable encounter. Kay Lee especially put in a strong performance, with some superb facial expressions getting over her frustration and pain when unable to put Robbie X away with a series of nice near falls. Whilst the wrestling was solid throughout, it was the big highspots that stand out amongst the crowd, with both wrestlers taking big bumps during with Kay Lee getting sent into the ringside chairs standing out as particular highlight of the bout, for sheer visuals alone. Unfortunately the finish didn't quite work for me, as Kay Lee seemed to have the contest finished with a Gori-Bomb, only for Ryan Smile to jump up on the apron as the referee was about to count to three. It's about points like this when it becomes difficult to suspend disbelief, as I couldn't get my head around the referee not just counting to three at this point. Things would have been just fine had Smile pulled the referee out of the ring instead, surely? With Robbie X retaining his title thanks to a school boy roll up, it was a shame to see a match that was entertaining, end with the unsatisfactory finish.

Winner - Robbie X via pinfall

One Fall Tag Team Match 

Omari & Liam Doyle 

vs. 

"The Polish Punisher" Mika & "The Wolf of Wall Street" Elliot Jordan

This is a difficult one to review, because it features four competitors from Kamikaze Pro's training school, all of whom have had limited experience in front of a live crowd. However, due to this encounter being featured on a main show, and not on separate academy match or as a pre-show, it would unfair of me to review it in a fashion different from how I would approach any other contest on the card. To their credit, all four of these men were nicely over with the Cadbury Club, with Omari especially seeming to have special connection with the crowd. All four also looked very comfortable in front of a crowd, with Mika and Elliot Jordan looking strong and confident in their character during a smattering of interactions with those at ringside. 

The match was a basic tag team contest structure, with Doyle taking the majority of the beatings from the heel duo. It was a shame to see Doyle's gimmick (that of a drunken Irishman) never really play apart in the bout, in which anyone else could have been playing Doyle's role. Also, after taking a rather long beating, for Doyle to seem perfectly fine after the hot tag was a real shame, essentially rendering the previous sequence redundant. Not having Doyle take a swig from his whisky bottle to fire himself up again seemed like a missed opportunity. A handful of the bumps weren't as crisp as they should have been, with the finish seeing Omari hit an awkward Modified lifting reverse STO (think NXT's Baron Corbin's End of Days) standing out. Whilst Doyle, Omari, Jordan and Mika all showed some potential here, there's still a long road ahead for these four trainees.

Winners - Omari & Doyle via pinfall

Six Way Elimination Match for the Kamikaze Pro Relentless Division Championship

"Bad Man" Marshall X

vs.

"All Day Star" Ryan Smile

vs.

"Number 1" Damian Dunne

vs.

Ethan Silver

vs.

Dan Maloney

vs.

Chris Brookes

Almost as if Kamikaze took notes from our Fight Club: Pro review last week, this match was made an elimination matchup and given plenty of time. There was strong performance from all involved, but Ethan Silver's outing in the early section of the contest jumps to mind straight away. Silver took an extended beating from the likes of Damian Dunne, Ryan Smile and their untrusting ally for the bout, Dan Maloney. Silver's stature made him the perfect guy to have this spot, bringing to mind TNA's Mark Andrews in his ability to garner support from the crowd from taking a beating. His sequence with Dan Maloney a little further into the clash showed an ability to mix it up with the bigger man, and create an exciting back and forth sequence. 

The match kept a great pace throughout, with things ebbing and flowing nicely, with some exhilarating dive sequences that one would expect of a division entitled "Relentless", with Smile's conhilo over the ringpost being the cream of the crop (even if the pop didn't further his cause as a top heel in the company). Alongside those highspots, there was a lot of storyline and character development, with the continuing efforts of Smile, Dunne and Maloney to dominate Silver and Brookes, whilst Marshall X did his best to stay out of everyone's way, with the bout sharing similarities with a tag team elimination encounter at times. 

Marshall X would go on to retain his title for the second time, after things had been whittled down to just he and Brookes. Marshall's performance throughout the whole match, in term of character, made this finish extremely satisfying to watch, whilst also getting a great reaction from the crowd. From staying out of the ring for as long as he could, to stealing a pinfall on Silver after a disqualified Maloney had attacked Silver with a TKO, to getting Smile disqualified by throwing Smile a steel chair with the referee's back turn (Marshall had already hit Brookes with the chair), it was difficult not to be frustrated to see Marshall not get his comeuppance at the end of the contest, in all of the right ways. 

Order of Elimination

1st - Maloney via disqualification
2nd - Silver via pinfall (from Marshall X)
3rd - Dunne via submission (from Brookes)

4th - Smile via disqualification
5th - Brookes via pinfall (from Marshall X)

Winner - Marshall X

After, the match, Lawrie Neal announced that Marshall would defend the title at Brute Force in Great Barr on August 29th, against a returning Pete Dunne. With Neal referencing that Dunne was still in China, Dynamite coming out and battering Marshall X got a great reaction from the crowd. With the two both hot with the crowd in their respective roles, their bout on August 29th may very well steal the show.

The interval was a length half an hour, that did seem to go on for an age. Lawrie Neal welcomed us back to the show, in a shortened version of his opening for the first half, which was much needed after that lengthy interval.

One Fall Tag Team Match for the Kamikaze Pro Tag Team Championship

The Hunter Brothers (C)

vs.

Project Lucha

It would be almost impossible for these four men to have a bad encounter, wouldn't it? One of the most established tag teams in the country and two of top singles stars in the country, this was a smooth, quick paced tag team match that worked well as the opener for the second half of the show. A back and forth affair that saw both teams trading tags, and seemingly just having a great time inside the ring working with each other (as their Twitter accounts would stand testament to). A highlight for me was a spot that saw Martin Kirby through Jim into the bar area (almost the whole width of the building), allowing Lucha to dominate and get a very nice near fall because of it.

When the contest finished following the Hunter's swing into low dropkick signature double team move on Kirby (even this was a call back to an attempt at the move earlier on in the match) I'd have to say I was a tad disappointed. I wasn't entirely ready for things to end and was expecting both teams to really push things into the next gear for another three or four minutes before the close of the bout. That's more of a statement on my sky high expectations of all four men, than it does for the actual match itself. It would be great to see these two teams go at it again in a different slot on the card, or even without the lengthy interval before hand which, alongside both teams working babyface, took a little out of the crowd. A good tag team contest, that could have been better.

Winners - The Hunter Brothers by pinfall

One Fall Match

Sebastian Radclaw Ruby Summers

vs.

"The Chavette" Chardonnay

With Sebastian Radclaw off the show, this match took a bit of turn becoming a "Fighting Females" division matchup with Ruby Summer stepping in to replace Radclaw. A rather basic match would follow, with three errors that stand out in particular hurting my enjoyment of proceedings. Firstly, Chardonnay kicking out of a well-done Fisherman's suplex bang on the count of two felt like a huge waste of a big move that could have worked as a nice false finish, and secondly, the referee counting a pinfall on Ruby when her shoulders were clearly off the mat, and finally, the finish of the contest that saw Chardonnay lock in a crossface with Ruby's legs way past the ropes, and instead of Ruby calling for the ref to break the hold with Chardonnay moving her to middle of the ring and getting more heat doing so, Ruby moved her legs inside the ring and held them up in the air away from the ropes, before tapping out. 

Winner - Chardonnay by submission 

A wild raffle appeared, much to the wonderment of all in attendance.

Monster's Ball 

"The Monster" Abyss

vs.

Clint Margera

If you came to this show to see Abyss then you wouldn't have been disappointed by this one, as it worked almost as "Best of Abyss" situation with The Monster running through a series of his best-known spots and moves, including ending up with chair to the nads, chokeslam, black hole slam and an appearance of his favourite weapon Janice, the only thing that was really missing here was a Shock Treatment. That isn't to say that Clint Margera was merely there to make up the numbers and take Abyss' offence, the Wolverhampton fellow look impressive in there also, bringing out a number of weapons that suited the match-type. The start of the bout with Margera standing face to face with Abyss was a great moment, that was well-performed by both men.

Exactly what you would have expected if you were aware of either man, a brutal hardcore clash that spilled across the Cadbury Club, including a spot that saw Abyss go through a table on the outside. Steel chairs, baking trays, tables, thumb tacks and Janice all sent the crowd into a wild frenzy, as everyone in attendance lapped every moment of this match up with "Holy Shit" chants a plenty, especially when Margera took a chokeslam onto the tacks for a near fall. The finish came soon after as Abyss hit a Blackhole Slam to pick up the victory, much to the delight of the Bournville crowd. It was an occasion where having the import go over the regular was the right thing to, with Abyss putting Margera over after the contest, and putting him over strong. It would seem Margera has turned babyface in Kamikaze Pro, a role that he excels in for Fight Club: Pro up the road in the Wolverhampton, so it will interesting to see how his character progresses in the promotion over the next few months.

Finally...

In front of an animated Bournville crowd, Kamikaze Pro provided an enjoyable show, that had a little bit of something for everyone. The three title matches all provided plenty of entertainment with the Six-Man Elimination bout narrowly claiming the Match of the Night from me. Abyss came across as a hard working import, who seemed out to help the promotion and Clint Margera, rather than just take an easy paycheck. The other two matches weren't close to being able to compete with the rest of the card, but at least the four trainees continued to show promise in their on-going development.

The record crowd (just under 300 people) inside the Cadbury Club shows that Kamikaze is doing something right in Bournville and I'm pretty certain the majority of those in attendance will be back on 27th September when the company rolls into the venue again, and on the strength of this show, they may bring even more with them. 

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.42