Calum Black, Mike Bailey & Trent Seven vs Cara Noir, Omari & The OJMO
Damn. I’ve been tempted to watch Cara Noir’s matches in progress because of how well hyped they are but his entrance alone made me want to seek that out. Let alone his work. His strikes looked good, he was pretty smooth and he had some unique mannerisms. His exchanges with Mike Bailey were the high point of the match. I didn’t much care for the comedy though. And as a big aficionado of comedy wrestling, I don’t say it lightly. It just didn’t work within the flow of the match. It was brief at least. The action was good and fast paced. Entertaining opener. ***
Eddie Kingston vs Terry Thatcher
I may have watched the Terry Thatcher vs Timothy Thatcher match but I don’t remember it but from the video package, I get the feeling that he is a scrappy under dog that gets by on sheer will. So him against Kingston was an interesting match. Kingston light Thatcher’s chest up with chops, and why wouldn’t he when Thatcher literally has a bullseye on his chest (it’s drawn on). To match with the character, Thatcher has great scrappy offence where he looks like he is throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. A dropkick here, a dive there. There isn’t much rhyme to it but it works for the mach. Kingston really puts him over by bumping around and selling for him too. Kingston got his shots in but this was all about Thatcher mostly and I liked that. A really fun match. ***1/4
OTT No Limits Title Ladder Match: Scotty Davis (c) vs LJ Cleary
I know a few people who were in attendance of this show said that this was their pick for the Match of the Night so I had some expectations, even if I’m not mostly familiar with either guy. The early use of the ladder was good with both guys trying to avoid the attempted attacks by the other until Scotty Davis got caught with a John Woo by Cleary. Loved the creative way Davis used the ladder to lock Cleary up in a hammerlock before unloading shots. Just as you think there is nothing more you can do with a ladder, he does that. And the finish to the match was sick. Davis his “Gator Roll” (basically a neckbreaker) off the top of the ladder where Celary landed on his hip and it looked brutal. There was quite a few times where they 50/50 strike and exchanges and it was pretty bad. It felt out of place in the match they were doing. Even though the commenter tried to put over how both men are 50/50, it didn’t work. The match was mostly good though and was one of the better Ladder matches that didn’t fit into the Hardy/Dudleys/E&C mould of ladder matches like most do. ***1/2
OTT Women's Title Match: Valkyrie (c) vs Katey Harvey
Katey Harvey was one of the revolutionists of the Irish women scene apparently and tried Valkyrie who has taken over that mantel. So with the student vs mentor story, you also have the fact that Katey Harvey is returning from shattering her arm which makes this a high stakes match. I like Valkyrie in this match. She plays up all the love Harvey got and made it work for her as well as the bad guy in the match. Loved her going for the arm straight away and she pretended that CT Flexor hit her with the belt was pretty great. Katey Harvey didn’t have to do much to get the crowd react but I wanted a bit more than a very slaps from her which is basically as she did. It did its job though and her winning at the end got a MASSIVE reaction. **1/2
B. Cool vs Orange Cassidy
B. Cool is apparently making a “documentary” and he comes out asking for a big reaction for it. It’s hilarious. Especially asking to be cheered like Hogan was before he was a racist. If you’ve seen an Orange Cassidy match, you know exactly how this goes. B. Cool has some antics of his own which is pretty to see, like him trying to hit an elbow off the top rope with Cassidy in a position where he clearly is never going to reach him and inevitably missing. B. Cool doesn’t play into Cassidy’s routine at all either. He seems annoyed at times, because this is a serious documentary, and it works just as well as when you play into the gimmick. A fun match. Seen better Cassidy matches but this was quite fun too. ***1/4
Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) vs Kings Of The North (Bonesaw & Damien Corvin)
Looks like another return match with Damien Corvin returning from an arm injury which was caused by an over shot dive. It played into the match later when Corvin hit a dive to the outside to the relief of the commentator. Guerrillas Of Destiny have really stepped up for months now and have turned from a team that was decent occasionally to someone that are almost consistently very good. This was one of their weaker matches of the year though. It was very chaotic with everyone just in the ring and fighting There was some good tag work but it went a bit longer than it needed to. Kings Of The North got their stuff in well and GOD was the same. **3/4
OTT Tag Team Title #1 Contendership Match: Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) vs More Than Hype (Darren Kearney & Nathan Martin)
A little different from the match prior with there being more tags but this wasn’t very interesting. The team work by More Than Hype early on was good but the match lost me after that. No interest in James Drake and Zack Gibson by proxy so yeah, I was wishing for this to be over as soon as it started. **
OTT World Title Match: Jordan Devlin (c) vs David Starr
Well the culmination of David Starr vs WWE told through Jordan Devlin as the NXT UK Wrestler was extremely well done. The energy of the crowd was fire. They played right into the match by being a pro-David Starr crowd. There was tons of great moments in this like the punch exchange that they had. I love a good punch exchange and they did it so well. Starr even cut Devlin up with one of them too. How both guys constantly winded in and out of the face and heel dynamics was good. It can normally come across as contrivated but it worked. Also I loved the tempo they went at - it very fast and interest with no down time. Some of Starr’s selling was excellent towards the end as well. Devlin’s facial expressions were very good as well. The nearfalls were well done as well. The final lariat by Starr was a beauty. There were a few bits I didn’t like though. There was a bit where they teased hitting each other with the OTT title belt that was done twice and both times took WAY too long to pull off. It disrupted the flow a bit. The rest is a bit nit-picky. But this was a great match overall. Well worth paying the 6.something I did for the service. ****1/2
This was a fun show. Got to see tons of matches by people I was unfamiliar by which is always fun. The main event was obviously excellent. The Ladder match was very good as well. The opener, B. Cool vs Orang Cassidy and Kingston vs Thatcher all offered something different to the show. The tag matches and Valkyrie vs Katey Harvey were alright. Jordan Devlin vs David Starr - [****1/2]. Scotty Davis vs LJ Cleary - [***1/2]. Eddie Kingston vs Terry Thatcher - [***1/4]. B. Cool vs Orange Cassidy - [***1/4]. Calum Black, Mike Bailey & Trent Seven vs Cara Noir, Omari & The OJMO - [***]. Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) vs Kings Of The North (Bonesaw & Damien Corvin) - [**3/4]. Valkyrie vs Katey Harvey - [**1/2]. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) vs More Than Hype (Darren Kearney & Nathan Martin) - [**].
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