Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 4/25/15

More matches from their most recent show, the 2/28/15 San Francisco show.

1. Kianna Rivera vs. Savanah Riley

Who wants some ref shenanigans!? Not anybody! But as we all know, PWR is a big time fan of referees being the primary focus of a match. Yeah, sometimes is riles the fans up. But I bet if you asked every single fan in attendance if they'd rather see these two work a normal 7 minute match, or a 7 minute match with heel ref schtick, I would be shocked if anybody would request the latter. It's never something that makes a match better. It robs us of actual match time and replaces it with Rivera (who works more commonly as Nicole Savoy) having to argue with ref Sparky Ballard, complain about unfair treatment and slow counts. It also forces Savanah Riley to work like a total putz as due to all of the slow counts to put the ref over, she appears to have had 5 visual losses in just 7 minutes. Both wrestlers are okay workers, but hamstrung having to play second fiddle to the ref. Rivera hits a nice dive (that falls a little short) and keeps going for a KO kick, which eventually lands and must have been one hell of a kick as it keeps Riley down for an 11 second 3 count. I'm just thankful we didn't get Sparky pulling up with a bad shoulder. So in that respect, they fooled me.

2. Vaquero Fantasma vs. Gallo Tapado Jr.

This match is instantly notable as they completely edit out the ring entrances and start with both men in the ring. The main problem with this show is normally how poorly edited it is, with full entrances and unintelligible mic work and "which side of the crowd is louder" being shown in their entirety. This is one of the only times they edit out those things, which have never added one bit to the actual shown matches (that stuff is obviously only shown because the fed does not have enough material for a weekly show, so therefore must streeeeeetch every single match out for content). This shows they actually know how to properly edit a match for maximum impact, and they just choose to not ever do that.

Match itself was weird as we start with some serviceable armdrags and a crossbody exchange, but Tapado appears to get his bell rung taking a crossbody and things seem disjointed and odd the rest of the way out. Tapado is slow getting up, and Fantasma tries picking him up but Tapado clearly does not want to be picked up. But Tapado keeps bumping and going through spots, just much slower and clunkier. A couple of times Fantasma has to put himself into pins. There was supposed to be a pin reversal that ending up seeing Gallo not move a single muscle, so Fantasma had to wiggle himself into position to make it look like his shoulders were down. Then we just cut immediately to Gallo locking on a submission for the end. So....something happened here, not sure what it was. But it looked weird.

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Pro Wrestling Revolution Workrate Report 12/20/14

The matches from this episode were from the 6/8/14 show in Watsonville, CA which actually looked kind of stacked. Pirata Morgan was in the main event (against Blue Demon) and I'm very interested in seeing 2014 Morgan in a podunk CA town so hopefully that gets aired at some point. Show also had a mask vs. hair match and some other interesting sounding stuff. They've been good about showing new things so hopefully we get to see the complete show over the next few weeks.



1. Timothy Thatcher vs. El Pistolero

Well shoot, I can't complain too much about a fed who's putting a Thatcher match on Saturday morning television for all to see. Maybe it's possible that some young child will be skipping through TV channels, come across Thatcher stomping the life out of someone's arm and think, "Hey, wrestling is cool!" But that won't happen because ugh kids these days am I right? With their tablet devices and Nintendo Power Gloves. This match was mostly a Thatcher showcase, with a short fun comeback burst from Pistolero. So you got to see a bunch of cool Thatcher stuff that you love to watch in Thatcher matches. He doesn't always do things the same way, and he doesn't do things in a similar order, so they're always a treat. You know you're getting some nasty uppercuts, you know you're getting some arm work, and you know you're going to enjoy it. His arm stuff is always cool and I never get tired of seeing him bend somebody's wrist in different directions, hold down somebody's arm with his boot while he twists their ankle, stomp on somebody's hand if they are on the mat for too long. He does some awesome stuff here on the mat that's unique and logical. He crawls all around Pistolero while always keeping some sort of pressure on some tender area. Working on the arm he digs his knees into Pistolero's back as he transitions to another limb. It's stuff I haven't seen somebody else do, and I loved seeing it used here. Pistoleror's comeback is fun as he gets to blast Thatcher with some forearms and a leaping elbow, but Thatcher catches him quickly and puts him down with a Fujiwara. Note: Probably a bad idea to go into a Thatcher match with your arm already wrapped. It's like showing up to an orgy already naked. It's something that's going to happen anyway, but we prefer that it happens organically.

2. Kikyo Nakamura vs. "La Diamante Negra" Kianna Rivera

These were two women I've never seen before, who I'd like to see again some time. Match was short but both showed promise. Nakamura is a large woman who tries to work like Aja Kong, and I will never criticize a gal for that. She doesn't have the stiffness or bulldozer mentality of Aja, but she has size and attitude and is willing to take some shots. She could be one to watch. Rivera had some cool running kicks and was an easy face to get behind, so while this was probably a standard touring match or practice match for them it was still plenty fun for a 5 minute match.

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