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 6/24/16

1. Ruby Raze vs. Kahmora (2/19/16)

They've added a "ref cam" for a couple parts of this match, which is wholly unnecessary. I don't think a ref cam has ever looked good. Modern ref cams come off looking almost exactly the same as when they first toyed with this gimmick 25 years ago. The benchmark is still early 2000s AAA ref cam which would have an ear piercing BEEP sound every couple of seconds while we were in ref cam view. Anyway, I had seen these two on the opposite side of a Premier tag match last year, with Raze and Kikyo opposite Kahmora and Savoy. I really liked that tag, but this fell a little short. A lot of strikes whiffed, there was some miscommunication moments, Raze had some awkward moments backing into position for moves and sandbagging Kahmora on a German. It went pretty early into big move epic feel, with a DDT on the apron, big neckbreaker with Kahmora draped over the top (which the hilariously inept Hank Renner Jr. calls "out of nowhere!" even though she carefully set it up for several seconds, and the only other move she can do from there would have been a high angle DDT), and then planting Kahmora with a nice back suplex for the win. I could see them having a better match, as several moments seemed a step off. They do each seem better in a tag setting though.

2. Jack Madison vs. Tyler Bateman (5/13/16)

Bateman is a guy I really like, who often seems to match up against opponents who aren't really used to his style. I did see an awesome match with Thatcher once and loved it, but typically he's working nasty wrist locks on vanilla babyfaces. Here he is working nasty wristlocks against a vanilla babyface with a Top Gun gimmick! Disappointed that Bateman cut off his long locks, I really liked his jerk ponytail. Now he just looks like a skinnier modern Anthony Kiedis. But the arm and wrist work is still nasty. This match was real fun with Bateman wrenching on Madison's arm, bending his wrist at some seriously sick angles, bending and biting at his fingers, while leaving plenty of room for Madison to make comebacks. Bateman would always come back to the arm and Madison was game for selling it. At one point Bateman had Madison's arm over the top rope and was pulling hard on it back through the middle rope, really rough stuff. Finish was pretty standard 80s babyface stuff, selling for 85% of the match and then hitting a couple moves to win, but the moves looked nice and Bateman got nice height taking a rydeen bomb. Madison really needs to figure out how to do a legsweep though, as it looked far more like Bateman dropped him with a DDT. Madison is pretty new though, so hopefully he grows out of the phase where he looks like he does moves to himself. Bateman is a real fun talent and I hope he pops up on TV more. I always dig seeing him.

Hank Renner Jr. is just the worst though, officially one of my all time least. Everybody is a "student of the game" or some shit, and whatever his phony ass Gorilla Monsoon catchphrase gimmick is, it's failing badly.  His vocal and verbal presence on TV is a net negative.

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