Big Time Wrestling 8/5/16 TV

"The most anticipated episode of BTW TV so far!" Okay, that's a lot of hype to open the episode with. The will be showing a US Title match between Victor Sterling and Tony Vargas, but they also act like the match has been hyped for months, which it hasn't been. It wouldn't be too hard to hype up TV matches week to week (which they haven't really done, instead wisely using their TV time to focus on promoting live events), but I guess it depends on if they'd rather have more TV viewers or draw some more bodies to live shows. If anything their TV should probably be geared ENTIRELY to promoting upcoming live cards, explaining feuds, showing why the matches matter. We'll see what direction they take things.

1. Kimo vs. Will Roberts

Fun match that wasn't worked the way I was expecting. I've never seen Roberts as a heel and now I never want to see him as anything but. Cocky, undersized heel is one of my favorite wrestling roles and Roberts takes to it real well, and it makes him a nice foil for Kimo's offense. Roberts was great stooging around for Kimo, but hit some real cool stuff of his own (that low crossbody in the corner, annoying little mocking kicks and stomps, that boot scrape from the apron). Kimo played into it nicely, really liked his weird roll up that reversed Robert's momentum off the ropes, and he admirably sold his mouth and jaw after a few Roberts' kicks. Finish was one of the more satisfying "feet on ropes" finishes as it was all about Roberts' attitude while doing it. Afterwards he hilariously leaps into the crowd to celebrate his victory, acting the man of the people. Funny gag to cap a fun match.

2. Victor Sterling vs. Tony Vargas

Nice match continuing their feud, hopefully building to a violent No DQ match (as this ended up getting thrown out when both men kept shoving the ref as they brawled on the floor). Vargas was playing bully here and tossed Sterling with a couple big suplexes. The overhead belly to belly was crazy, looked like Sterling was *this* close to being planted right on top of his head. Sterling doesn't really do underdog, nor should he, so it's fun seeing a bully try to pick on someone who is just as tough. Sterling throws a couple of great leaping knees and I really loved a moment where he rushed Vargas with a forearm and Vargas sold it by spinning and getting knocked into position for a knee. Too many times guys fall into the comeback trap of forearm-back bump-forearm-back bump and I thought that's what was happening, but they too it a welcome, different way. Eventually we brawl to the floor and I loved this, because they haven't had anybody brawl to the floor yet in their small training facility space, and I'm glad they saved the moment for a title match. It's a good sized room, but much less so when you have a large ring and a backstage area. So the area with fans isn't that big, but it's filled with fans. So brawling in and around them looks nice and chaotic. Guys come from the back to break them up, Sterling breaks free and jumps off the apron over the timekeeper, really made me interested in these two having a No DQ match. We shall see.

3. Kimo vs. Shannon Ballard (10/22/11)

Okay, now this was strange. Owner Kirk White does a nice intro talking about how their 20 year anniversary is coming up in October, so over the next several weeks we'll be seeing some classic matches highlighting some of the stars that have come through BTW. Makes sense. Last week they showed a Davina Rose/Bayley match, and she's currently one of the more popular ladies in wrestling. Made tons of sense to show. So now we get Kimo vs. Shannon Ballard?? No offense to either guy, but BTW has had actual big names come through, plenty of ex WWE guys, several other bigger indy names. This match was around the 15th Anniversary show, in the shows all around this one there were some nice sounding matches with "names". Paul London came in several times (reallllly would like to see the London/Kendrick vs. Young Bucks match from 2010),  X-Pac, Matt Hardy, Chris Masters, show their matches! Kimo and Shannon Ballard are fine, but sheesh we already got a Kimo match on this same episode. Spread it out a bit. Just seems like a really "drawn at random" old match to show.

Now this is nothing against the match itself, which turns out to be the best match on the show! At some point Shannon Ballard became a really engaging singles worker, and him as the cheapshotting heel hiding behind a National Anthem singer was gold. He throws a mean right hand, which is not something I remember being a thing. He makes a real competent southern heel and there are some spots that would kill in the south, like Ballard crotching Kimo on the top rope, but then getting crotched himself when he went up top, then punching Kimo off the top and losing his own balance in the process. They do a couple nice callback spots, Kimo gets in some nice suplexes, but damn I might have to do a little digging for 2008-2012 singles match Shannon Ballard. After this he felt like a guy who would have been one of my favorite IWA-MS undercarders, and I have TONS of favorite IWA-MS undercarders!

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Big Time Wrestling 7/29/16 TV

1. Christopher Black vs. Andre LeVeaux

Hosts Dragon Dave and Hank Renner Jr. keep telling us that the debuting (?) Christopher Black has a "worldwide reputation for violence" which, well...seems like a dubious claim. But I liked him, so that counts for something. Match was only 5 minutes but they accomplished enough to make the short time worthwhile. I've never seen Black before and only seen a little LeVeaux. They start with some amusing twisting wristlock reversals, silly but I liked the outcome. Black gains advantage by yanking LeVeaux to the mat by his dreads, which seems like an appropriate thing for a mean bald dude to do to gain an advantage over a guy with dreads. We get a couple of moments where Black transitions away from LeVeaux by yanking the dreadlocks, which is a great thing for a heel to do, but rarely has an opportunity to do so. I really liked LeVeaux's big comeback down the stretch, hitting a nice lariat and a really hard back elbow, then spiking Black with a dropkick in the corner. Black hits a big boot with nice follow through to end it in satisfying fashion, with LeVeaux going limp on contact, making me buy it. I'd really like to see more of these two, or shoot just know more about where they came from, how long they've been working, etc. (**Apparently they just debuted in April, which is really impressive**)

2. Victor Sterling & Jack Madison vs. Rik Luxury & Will Roberts

Man Hank Renner Jr. sure does say the word "kisser" a lot. Nobody can be punched in the face, it's always gotta be his "kisser". "Take a look at Rik Luxury's kisser." There's no way he just naturally talks like this. His shtick is...tiresome. You can also count on hearing "well-oiled machine" many times during every tag match. And this tag match was really good. Really, really good. But woefully short. They go 7, and I easily could have been down for 17. What we got was really good, but so cruel to have it taken away so quickly. Roberts and Luxury are a fun team (I dig teams with size differences) who kind of do a reverse Ricky Morton, with Roberts being in the ring more often but as a heel. It never went full heel-in-peril but it was an interesting layout. Sterling and Madison have some polished double teams and Sterling in particular had some of his best move execution all throughout. A simple Madison drop toe hold into a seated Sterling dropkick looks real great when executed so well and timed so nicely. Sterling throws some nice knees and Roberts makes offense look even better, I dug Luxury doing a sort of fisherman's suplex on Roberts to flip him onto Sterling, and the finish stretch was real good and excellently timed. But again, so cruel to keep this so short. Easily could have gone twice as long.

3. Christina Von Eerie vs. Davina Rose (6/26/09)

Davina Rose is obviously now Bayley, and this is a smart move by BTW to unearth a couple of her matches and showcase them. Eerie ambushes Rose to start and I don't know how Renner thinks it's ok to keep saying "Pearl Harbor job" over and over to describe what happened. When a really large wrestler gets knocked over does he call it "a realll 9/11"? He has an extreme problem just calling objects what they actually are, always has to have some quaint colloquialism for every damn thing. Von Eerie's boots are called "stompers". Good grief. yet he doesn't seem to know what any actual moves are called. "Guy who likes Gorilla Monsoon commentary and adds shitty changes to it" is never going to sound good. This is really early into Bayley's career, she probably had less than 10 matches at this point, and it shows. She's decent at selling and can get over vulnerability, but she doesn't know how to land when doing offense and doesn't really know how to take moves. She gets confused a couple times one time falling out of a bodyslam in a way I've never seen anybody fall out of a bodyslam before. Eerie looked better here than I think she presently looks, seemed like someone who got to a certain level and stopped trying as hard. Announcer Dragon Dave is a creep in this as he keeps bringing up Eerie's ass crack and complimenting the camera man on his nice work. We also cut to the crowd to see someone with a Quagmire sign saying "Alright Ladies". Yuck. Good move to show this match and let a new audience see Bayley's beginnings, and a terrible idea to not redo the commentary.

This was another good, tight episode. I know I keep saying they're good at filling their time, but it really is important when you only have 30 minutes to work with every week. Both new matches they showed were good, and while the final match was not good it's totally understandable and smart that they would show a Bayley match.

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Phoenix Pro Wrestling 6/7/16

Phoenix Pro Wrestling is a local indy that my pal Tim Livingston and I do commentary for. They've been running shows for over a year now, and sadly THIS show was the first one I had to miss (I was on a cruise to the Caribbean with my family, a trip that combined all of the nightmares of being trapped on a large floating island with Florida strangers, with all of the nightmares of being trapped on a large floating island with your constantly arguing parents; But, also, 24 hour wood fire pizza and a ship full of people whose job it is to essentially be your slave), but they were quick to upload most of the matches, so I took it upon myself to watch those matches (so I won't be completely lost while doing commentary on the next show, and because they all looked like matches I wanted to see). So check them out if they interest you, and enjoy the sometimes-in-the-red commentary stylings of Tim Livingston, sans Eric Ritz.

4. Boyce LeGrande vs. Victor Sterling

Boyce is always one of the guys I look forward to on PPW shows. Boyce was in one of the first matches on the very first indy wrestling show I attended some 17 years ago, so I love seeing still working and still actually having good matches. I love heel champ Boyce, love that he can usually win but doesn't want to risk losing so he has no problem cheating. The good wrestler who also has no problem resorting to cheating is a favorite of mine. Sterling is a guy who always does a thing or two that surprise me in a match, here I really dug his fisherman suplex (with Boyce adding a nice touch by grabbing Sterling's wrist to attempt to stop the suplex) and powerslam, Boyce tossed out a nice northern lights, nice yakuza kicks, and dealt stealthily with a fan who tried to grab his leg while climbing the turnbuckles. These two have worked before and have a nice 10 minutes down. I think they have a really good match in them. Their PPW matches so far have ended non-decisively, but they seem to be progressing well. I do miss seeing Boyce's big lariat, which he uses as his finisher in PPW.

5. Kikyo vs. Brittany Wonder

This ended up being my favorite match on the card, which was not what I was expecting. Not due to lack of talent, but because I liked the look of all 4 matches on paper, and I had never seen Wonder work before. So I was looking forward to it, but wasn't expecting it to be my favorite of the evening. It was tightly paced and both looked real good. Wonder starts with a couple of hug based moves. I guess one cute former Bay Area worker got signed to be a hugger, lightning could strike twice. I loved her hug into a headbutt, where she pounced on Kikyo in a full legs-wrapped-around hug, Kikyo tried to shake her by dropping to her butt, so Wonder leaned in for a peck, and a headbutt. Wonder has a bunch of fun offense, and it's suited nicely to her abilities. She mixed in some fun stuff like a flatliner type moved using Kikyo's own momentum off the ropes. Plus, she has a butt, so might as well do hip and butt attacks and a bombs away! Makes sense to me! Work to your strengths! Kikyo is really great setting up Wonder's offense flourishes, and chooses her own moments wisely. She had a killer lariat, nice STO and a picture perfect yakuza kick right to the side of Wonder's head. We brawl into the crowd and Wonder muscles Kikyo over the guardrail with a clothesline. The Kikyo moonsault is a fitting end, and again this was just a fun, tightly worked 10 minutes. Well worth going out of your way to watch.

6. JR Kratos vs. Sir Samurai

Samurai isn't usually a guy to be put in a position to have a workrate type of long singles match, so he must have been excited to get the opportunity to show off his gas tank. He's got a nice round belly but he certainly doesn't look tired after a 20 minute match. I liked the early one-up stuff leading to Samurai hitting some back elbows, but I really loved things when it spilled to the floor. Kratos hits a nice leaping knee while Samurai is draped over the apron, but soon Samurai ups things with a rolling senton off the apron and into the crowd. The crowd brawl portion was real fun as both guys roll around on the dirty floor, Samurai throws stiff shots, gets a gross in-use trash can dumped on his head (we can get some kind of scuzzy attendees at our shows, so no telling what kind of things could have been in there) leading to Kratos hitting a nice sliding kick to the canned Samurai. Back inside and there's an accidental DQ leading to a fun restart, and Samurai takes all sorts of big slams which...man those did not look fun. Fun match and while crowd brawling can seem like almost a rest spot to extend a match in a lot of cases, here it was my favorite part.

7. Drake Frost vs. Marcus Lewis

Lewis has missed a lot of time with a concussion so it was good to finally see him back (with arguably the furriest ring gear in wrestling), although seeing him bump a huge lariat onto the back of his head really made me cringe. Frost is a guy who has really started to come into his own since the first PPW show. He's got a simple moveset and bumps appropriately for his size, and while there was a couple off moments on dropkicks, but we got plenty of fun stuff for a big title match. Lewis hits a crazy moonsault to the floor on the narrowest side of the ring, and later hits his 450 flush. Frost hits a big fat guy leg drop, huge lariat and finishes it off with a crazy twisting superplex. Good to have Lewis back, excited for more Frost title matches.

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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 6/10/16

1. Victor Sterling vs. Ricky Mandel (3/25/16)

It got time, but didn't do a whole lot for me. Mandel really isn't that good, still have no clue how he got the LU gig. Although him being good may have been what lead to his eventual LU murder. He comes off real clumsy, so when he does standard cruiser stuff it always looks stumbly. He falls on his head doing that silly little backflip with his leg over Sterling's neck, falls short on superkicks, hits spin kicks in slow motion, just rarely looks good. Sterling had some nice stuff but didn't have a whole lot to work with here. Sterling's best stuff is always on the mat, as he's really good at grinding things out, pressing forearms into jaws, not showing tons of light on exchanges. But Mandel was really bad at taking some of his slightly more complicated offense. Some of the layout was there, this could have been much better with not-Mandel in there.

2. Rik Luxury vs. El Guerrero vs. Shane Kody (3/25/16)

When you get a Shane Kody match, you know what you're in for. Kody is the owner of the fed, the champion of the fed, the guy who never loses in the fed, the guy who rarely bumps in the fed, the guy who can't even let a heel get a visual pin, the guy who throws mostly chops. There are plenty of immobile workers in their 50s that I dig, but they all tend to be guys I loved or would have loved in their 30s. Kody works like a guy who was never actually a good worker at any age. The match goes far too long, and really only survives because it had a guy like Rik Luxury in there to glue things together. Guerrero is a real zero, a guy who looks athletic but never does a single athletic thing, and genuinely looks untrained. He hardly does anything you could even call offense. So Luxury had to have his boots on in this one, and luckily for me he did. He ably stooged around for Kody, at one point hilariously going up for a Flair turnbuckle flip but stopping half way through and delaying the upside down portion of the bump, before belly flopping back in the ring. He takes all of the bumps to the floor, makes a good point of falling into a bunch of front row fans as he's getting chopped around the ring, adds whatever ebbs and flows the match has (Kody essentially stands around the entire match, outside of one nice bump he takes after taking a shot with his cowbell), setting up the other two for their moments. Rik even breaks out a gorgeous asai moonsault. Did think Rik had it in him. So yeah, you knew this was going to be a Kody match. When the ref gets bumped after Kody takes a cowbell shot, he even kicks out of a fake pinfall counted by Luxury. The guy shows absolutely zero ass at any point. He's like HHH, but if HHH wrestled like five-years-from-now Jim Duggan. It's really a bummer. Still, Rik Luxury. Class all the way.

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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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