Big Time Wrestling TV 9/9/16

1. Sage Sin vs. Womankind (7/15/16)

Well this was a travesty in many ways. I have to wonder why BTW even wanted to air this match. Some things are better left being unseen by as many eyes as possible, and this match was one of them. Sage Sin is a worker I'd never seen before, with a cool goth jack-o-lantern look. Womankind is...sigh...a woman working a Mick Foley-as-Mankind gimmick. She wore the same outfit as Mankind, did the same moves, and even tried to mimic Foley-as-Mankind's movements. As far as I can tell it was her first match, and it looked like she had about 5 minutes of training right before having this match. Almost everybody involved should be embarrassed and ashamed that this match happened. Whomever is playing Womankind is clearly not ready to be wrestling in front of any sort of crowd. She couldn't do a single thing right: couldn't fall properly, couldn't get into position for anything, couldn't time anything, couldn't do a single move that looked good. And obviously, blatantly, the gimmick is shameful and pathetic. This is as worse as any non-trained nobody working a bad Doink the clown gimmick across the country. I mean who is the gimmick even for? At best it seems like it would get polite applause because people felt bad, maybe a few "I feel so sorry for you" eyerolls. It's the kind of thing that just makes an entire promotion look bad, completely undercuts everything they may have been trying to accomplish that night. Here we have a one night tournament showcasing all women talent, showing that the Bay Area women's wrestling talent pool is getting deep enough to hold up an entire card...and the match in front of the main event they have to throw out a poor girl who looks like she's never been trained to wrestle, and give her the lamest rip-off of a 20 year old gimmick. It's so bad. I felt really bad for Sage Sin, who wasn't able to do anything at all with Womankind falling all over the place. I would dread having to call something like this on commentary. This was a real low right here. I honestly cannot believe they made the decision to air this match.

2. Beatrice Domino vs. Raze (7/15/16)

Not a bad match to crown the first woman's champ, but this whole episode was really distracting as the audio was about 10 seconds ahead of the video the whole time. I had to mute the sound after the first match, seeing that the audio wasn't going to get fixed at any point, and that took away some potential drama from the main. The fact they threw in a cute, disputed finish didn't help things. The finish was Domino locking in a rear naked choke and the ref counting her shoulders down just as Raze was tapping. I get that it was to set up a future, third Domino/Raze match, I just don't think it looks good to have your first champ win the belt by means of disputed finish. Yeah, she's a heel, but she's also a heel who already beat Domino clean in May, and was bragging about that on the mic after this match. It makes it seem like Domino doesn't deserve another shot. The finish kind of betrayed the rest of the match, which was understandably worked as a "end of show main event, already worked two other matches tonight and I'm tired" war.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 9/2/16

Here are the the semi-finals of the Damsels in Distress 2 show, which is awesome of them to show.

1. Katie Lea vs. Beatrice Domino (7/15/16)

Katie Lea is the former Katie Burchill, and she still looks exactly the same as she did 5 years ago, which would have been the last time I saw her wrestle. The match itself didn't accomplish a whole lot in the 8 minute run time. Lea was the heel, and worked over Domino with various chokes. I don't mind an entire match based around chokes, but this really didn't have the playfulness of the best hide the chain matches or other cheating heel matches. In fact it was never really played up as cheating, more just Katie Lea choking Domino, breaking before 5, and then resetting before doing it again. There wasn't a ton of playing to the crowd, not a lot of build to the chokes, just ended up feeling like a heel occupying time before the comeback. Domino's comeback is very brief but looked great, with Kaite coming off the ropes and going for a rana, but Domino catches her, holds her, and plants her with a great sit out powerbomb. Finish looked great, both looked fine throughout, just never went anywhere too compelling. Plus Renner and Dave always leer and drool over the women which just comes off badly.

2. Raze vs. Dementia D'Rose (7/15/16)

D'Rose has that ever tough wrestling gimmick of "crazy", which never seems to come off very well. Dragon Dave suggests she may eat the title if she wins it. You know, because she's crazy. You would think the suggestion of eating a belt would lead to some crazy ring antics, but we mostly just get some teased hair. I like Raze and the parts with her controlling were good, really liked her hard knees in the corner and in the ropes, and she really plants her Saito suplex finisher. D'Rose is pretty new I think, and she ends up out of place a couple times, but I like her bombs away and I'm sure she'll continue to improve.

3. Sara Del Rey & Davina Rose vs. Amber O'Neal & Sassy Stephanie (5/21/11)

Aw man I miss seeing Sara Del Rey wrestling. I'm absolutely positive her current gig is much better, but she had grown into a real favorite of mine. So, it was fun to see this, and it went exactly as you likely guessed: Rey controls early, heels cut off the ring with Rose as FIP, leading to Rey eventually coming in and going monster on everyone. Rose was a good FIP at this point (and she's obviously only gotten better) and Del Rey knew how to work like a real brute. Never seen Stephanie before and I don't think I'll be rushing out to see more, but O'Neal is currently married to Luke Gallows and she runs most of the heel team. She was good with the taunts and doing great annoying things like lock Rose's arms behind her and doing sit-ups with Rose trapped. The eventual hot tag to Del Rey is fun, especially dug her rolling kappo kick in the corner, really making sure that leg swung accurate. So an overall fun match, but they already featured Rose/Bayley in their throwback match segment, just a few weeks ago. They have over a decade of shows to pull from, I wish they'd choose to show what they thought were the best matches in the promotion's history, instead of a Nasty Boys match. Show me the best BTW has to offer!

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Big Time Wrestling 7/15/16 TV

Looks like more matches from their recent student show they did at their training facility.

1. "Zen Master" Zach Muir vs. Chico Navarro

Boy Navarro is really not good. He's easily the weakest guy that shows up on TV, really has some of the most non-committal offense I've ever seen. He stops short on everything, as if he had super strength and didn't want to risk hurting his opponent. Everything that requires him to run through a move sees him just stopping at the point of impact. Stops on shoulderblocks, makes clotheslines look awful, whiffs on stomach kicks, threw an elbow drop where he straightened his arm past his opponent, just stopping short on every one of his moves. Muir has an amusing Zen Master gimmick which is present when he locks on holds. His stand up wrestling doesn't seem any different, but when he locks on holds while doing yoga poses, that's an amusing heel gimmick. Doing a sun salutation while doing an abdominal stretch? I laughed. Still, Chico Navarro, man. Not only is he the worst guy in the fed, but naturally he's a guy who seems to be pushed in his matches. It's a problem.

2. Shotzi Blackheart & El Guerrero vs. Beatrice Domino & Shane Kody

Shortish, formula match with Guerrero and Shotzi cutting the ring off by picking on Domino, while announcers Hank Renner Jr. and Dragon Dave just act incessantly shocked that the heel Guerrero is choking Domino in a pro wrestling match. It was terrible. "I've never seen anything like this!" A wrestler being choked in a pro wrestling match very much seems like something you would see in a pro wrestling match. Domino seems tough. It did not seem shocking to see her fighting Guerrero, especially now that we're at the point where practically every indy in the country runs an intergender match on many of their cards. This was okay for what it was, though I wish that Shotzi and Guerrero had done more with Domino while they were keeping her from tagging in Kody. Kody at least for his part threw nice chops. But then couldn't have been more awkward taking a bump on a roll up that ended the match. Really the best part of the match was before it started, with Guerrero talking trash to the crowd and doing a big build up to removing his shirt. Shotzi and Guerrero had funny mannerisms while removing their respective shirt and jacket. Shotzi may be green (har har) but her heel mannerisms are developing nicely and she brings great energy.

3. Dylan Bostic vs. Kenny K

Fun 4 minute WorldWide match between a couple of guys who I don't believe are BTW regulars. Bostic does nice heel things that need to be done more, like palming faces during pins. Love stuff like that. Both guys did a lot of modern indy stuff. We got our share of backcrackers and face washes. But the pace was hot as they worked a short match so wanted to fit stuff in, and the early match face wash did lead to a fun spot down the stretch where Bostic kept luring K into missing running kicks into turnbuckles to gain an advantage. So yeah, Bostic did some nice heeling, big dropkick, nice kick to the back, K threw a nice corner dropkick, and this was short and to the point.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 7/8/16

All the matches on this episode are from the BTW Academy, which isn't ideal as the sound is terrible, and the fans are all on one side of the ring (off camera), so wrestlers have to work to one side of the ring, which is the side away from the announcers. So that lead to a couple moments where the announcers were talking about what a wrestler was doing, but you knew they couldn't physically see that from where they sat. So there were problems, the audio especially.

1. Pitbull Wellman vs. Jack Madison

Short match, under 4 minutes. Both guys are fairly green, especially Pitbull. Madison had a nice powerslam and big scoop Michinoku Driver, Pitbull did an amusing pinfall where he pressed across Madison's chest and lifted his leg, but this felt like a 3 minute student match.

2. Shotzi Blackheart vs. Beatrice Domino

Shotzi comes out to talk about the upcoming Dangerous Damsels tournament, and mentions they might as well just give her the belt and save her from having to go through 3 women who are "crap". Beatrice Domino comes out to a huge reaction, and says that they might as well just give her the belt, because she worked hard. It's weird to run this match a week before the Damsels event, since these two are in the tournament and could face off, but as someone who likely can't attend the show, I don't mind a bit. It looks like they got lost down the home stretch as there were some awkward moments and some time stand still moments, but Shotzi is new and they handled things fine enough. I really liked Domino here as she kept things moving, and recovered a couple of the awkward spots. In one Shotzi stood still while Domino came off the ropes, and to cover things up Domino muscled her up with minimal help and delivered a cool rydeen bomb. She also leans into a nice Shotzi high kick. Shotzi throws low on a missed clothesline, which I always like, and leans into Domino's hard clothesline. Shotzi also hits a sweet cannonball and ends the match with a killer senton off the top. I had no idea what she was doing up there, and se looked a little unsure on the top rope, but the senton landed great. I can't wait to see a match between them in a year, as they've both improved every time I've seen them. Also cool job by the promotion filming the senton from a totally different angle, higher up and looking down across the ring. Made the finish look cooler.

3. Kikyo Nakamura vs. Christina Von Eerie (2/19/16)

I don't really think Eerie ever got good, as she seems to be about the same level as the first time I saw her wrestle 6 years ago. But Kikyo is a good match up for what Von Eerie can bring skillwise. Kikyo looked really good throughout, she bumped big for Eerie's stuff, caught her on a dive, hit a great northern lights, went up for a back suplex, nice shoulderblocks, big German. Eerie really didn't look good. Her offense is either to convoluted for her to pull off clean, or she just awkwardly gets up for stuff. But again, really great Kikyo performance. Oh, and at one point in the match the camera panned slowly away from the action and moved to a long crowd shot, before slowly panning back. The whole time Kikyo had a Fujiwara armbar locked on and you could hear Von Eerie's screams. I'm sure they didn't intentionally mean to make me think about Michael Madsen cutting a guy's ear off in Reservoir Dogs, but man was I dying. I mean, Kikyo starts working the arm, we slowly pan away, hear screams, and slowly pan back. They really should have been playing Stealer's Wheel, but oh well.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 7/1/16

1. Victor Sterling vs. Tony Vargas (5/13/16)

Really good match, probably the best match they've shown on their TV. Sterling is a guy I like and Vargas I'm less familiar with, but both guys worked stiff and surprised me a couple times with the direction they took things. Sterling works better as a heel so I was happy a minute in when they were working some genial standing grappling and Sterling went to strikes. He started throwing out Garvin stomps to Vargas' arm, and ankle and knee (in a knee brace!), slammed his arm into the mat a couple times, twisted him with a cravate, hit some nice 12 to 6 elbows over Vargas' shoulder, really solid stuff. He also hit a nice knee drop I don't remember seeing him use before. Brawl on the floor was fun with Sterling hitting his nice through the ropes dropkick, then yelling at fans to move so Vargas can get tossed through the chairs. It was satisfying seeing a teen in the front row get displaced from her seat while texting. These kids today, just texting away at their internet telephones while men in their underwear fight literally two feet away from them. The tide shift is really good as Vargas has several big suplexes and Sterling took them all; some nasty release Germans, a huge over the top belly to belly where I was afraid Sterling was going to bounce right on the top of his head, and my favorite was a fight on the top rope that ended quickly with Vargas launching him with a fallaway slam. The struggle up top was believable and they didn't spend forever getting into position to hit their spot, it was nicely handled. I expected a long forearm exchange that looked more like two guys trying to keep their balance, but instead it ended quickly with Vargas kinda deadlifting him into the slam, while Sterling struggled to stop it by grabbing the ropes. Awesome spot.  I wish we could have gotten a decisive finish as it ends in a 15 minute draw, but at least they didn't telegraph the draw by doing "minutes remaining" announcements or scrambling for sudden 2 counts. The 15 minutes was an honest count and that's refreshing, just wish we got an actual finish. Still, really good match. These two have worked each other several times over the years and the comfort and familiarity showed.

2. Ruby Raze vs. Beatrice Domino (5/13/16)

Another good match, and again the best match I've seen from both. Raze seemed to gas a bit by the end so there were a couple of clumsy moments but overall this was good. Both worked stiffer than I've seen them work, with Domino throwing these cool downward strikes to Raze's nose and Raze blasting her with elbows. I don't remember Domino having strikes this good, but the whole match she was throwing really tight punches, and I don't recall Raze ever working this mean, so this was just good all around. Raze hits a nice neckbreaker over the middle rope , Domino breaks out some new offense I hadn't seen like a killer diving clothesline and an impressive spear. At one point they basically lock legs and fight at close range, throwing punches and elbows with Domino knocking Raze hard to her back with a nasty elbow, but Raze fired back with a hard kick right to Domino's chest. Domino sold it great, possibly because she just got kicked real hard in the chest. Real good match that might have gone a bit too long with kickouts, but these two are getting better and better, and I'm especially excited to see where Domino keeps going.

This was a really wonderful half hour of pro wrestling TV, with two of the absolute best matches the promotion has shown, with next to no filler (except for the painfully unfunny Hank Renner Jr. bumpers and the awkward as hell Bret Hart commercial for their wrestling school that airs every week). Even in other weeks when the wrestling isn't great, they at least always make the most of their time. It really puts the old Pro Wrestling Revolution show to shame, when they would regularly air matches with full, long, unedited ring intros, oftentimes not even starting a match until past the 10 minute mark of a 30 minute PAID show.  BTW definitely makes the most of their time, which you think would be a natural thing for a fed paying to air their wrestling show. Good for them for doing the obvious thing.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 6/17/16

1. Beatrice Domino vs. Lisa Lace (12/4/15)

Love Domino wearing a "Black Friday" shirt. Her gimmick is tough to pull off, as being a black crusader is a noble thing, but she acts like a heel, meaning it comes off like people are booing black lives matter, which is sticky. But this was a decent enough match, though the crack announce team was muddying the waters over who was the heel and who was the face, making things come off flat. Domino is kind of a complicated character to call anyway, and they always flop by having one of the commentators call her like comedy, which is just really annoying. But Lisa Lace was billed as being from another promotion, so part of the time they were treating her like an outsider, other times they were treating her like an underdog. They can be real bad. Lace is still inexperienced but working a lot, and her stiff disjointed nature kinda adds to matches. She has a good intensity and brings a little something extra than some other girls. Domino has some cool stuff, I liked her blocking a Lace roll up by stomping on her chest, and I'd really like to see more from both.

2. Zach Muir & Pitbull Wellman vs. Andre LeVeaux & Chico Navarro (5/13/16)

This is LeVeaux's first match, and kind of a tough call teaming him with Navarro, who has worked for years and often comes off untrained. Muir has an amusing heel gimmick as a zen master, so he has a bunch of fun holier than though ways to get out of moves, like an ultra cocky yoga teacher who specializes in hands-on guiding women students into tough poses. LeVeaux seemed fine, and Navarro looked better than normal at points, but I also don't think I've seen any wrestler throw worse stomps than Chico. They are impossibly embarrassing. Pitbull didn't do a whole lot and it was up to Muir to hold this short match together and he gamely tried, even taking a headscissors from a female valet. Short, not that good, but mostly inoffensive. They should really pick a different guy to feature every week than Chico Navarro, though, especially if they want to constantly talk about how they have the #1 training academy in the country.

3. Will Cuevas vs. Will Roberts (12/4/15)

Seeing guys like Navarro really makes you appreciate the polish that somebody like Will Cuevas brings to Bay Area wrestling. He feels like a guy who can get gigs around the country, has a good look and a nice moveset. Roberts is pretty new but looks good, although they looked best here when they weren't doing obviously planned sequences. All of the reversal stuff looked overly rehearsed and it was better when they kept things simple. Cuevas at one point hits a neat knee to the face, but it hardly gets sold by Roberts because it came in the middle of a planned reversal sequence. I hate that kind of stuff. But Cuevas hits simple things well, like nice forearms, a real good vertical suplex, nie headlocks, nice basics. But that temptation to do more complicated stuff is always there...

Kind of a nothing show this week with three short matches. Three 6 minute matches isn't very satisfying as nobody in the fed has the skills to work a real expert 6 minute WorldWide match, so you're just kind of left with short unsatisfying work. Plus Hank Ranner Jr. is just really bad. His announce schtick appears to be a guy in his 30s working as if he were a 65 year old sports pro. The pork pie hat, plaid sports coats and faux exasperation just scream hack.

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Big Time Wrestling TV 5/13/16

1. Nicole Savoy vs. Beatrice Domino (2/19/16)

I've been interested in seeing Domino, as she's working a fairly edgy and unique gimmick for wrestling. Now, she paints her face like the Marvel character Domino (not sure how long she'll be able to work this gimmick) but has a BlackLivesMatter slant to her character. Her shirt for this match said "Trayvon - Don't Shoot" and walks slowly around the ring with her hands up in an I Surrender pose. The fans seem really receptive to it and didn't respond to it as a heel gimmick like I assumed.  I'm not sure how far you can really take the message within a wrestling context, but keeping the awareness there is worth something. The announcer instantly shits the bed with a "Shades of the Nation of Domination". Ugh. Early on she at least does her part to fight black stereotypes in wrestling, as she delivers a headbutt and staggers herself. Savoy is really good, easily one of the best bay area ladies. Domino hasn't been around nearly as long so show some awkwardness in spots. Savoy broke out some cool Indian deathlock subs, had some big chops and kicks to the chest, hit a big dive; Domino was a little tentative and clunky, but overall the match worked. Finish was a little sloppy though with Domino turning a snapmare into a small package for the win, but Savoy's shoulder could not have been farther off the mat.

2. Victor Sterling vs. JR Kratos (1/22/16)

They started the show by saying this episode was going to be all lady matches, but I guess that promise only lasted 10 minutes. Still, Sterling is my boy and I was interested in this match when I saw it happened. It didn't quite live up to expectations but it wasn't bad. Kratos worked heel and Sterling worked face, and I think they're each better as the opposite. There were a couple awkward moments where either Sterling got into position too quick, or Kratos wasn't in position early enough, so you had some time stand still action. There was a long weird top rope struggle where a lot of stuff missed but was sold, and it ended with Kratos suplexing Sterling off the top and dumping himself on his head. I think both guys would have matched up much better if the roles were reversed. Kratos doing his power offense as a babyface would have been more effective, and I've seen Sterling's heel stuff and know it's good. Him sneaking in offense against Kratos would have been better than him valiantly fighting back. Kratos hits a decent piledriver that I wasn't expecting, and takes a good bump into the ringpost, Sterling hits a really cool dropkick across the ring corners under the bottom rope after the post shot. I liked the finishing powerbomb-turned-Sterling sunset flip. Sterling whipped over on it real nice and held a high cradle which looked believable.

Well, I really liked Savoy on this episode, I like how current the matches are, and I like how packed the half hour is with wrestling. There's one commercial in the middle, only the necessary parts of matches are shown (meaning most of the entrances and long ring announcements are trimmed) and there are only a couple of cutaway bumpers to the announce crew. It's nicely edited for content, and that's a plus for a self-produced indy wrestling show.

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