Thelone reviews OVW Saturday Night Special : Retribution 2021

[Thelone]

We start with the announcers hyping up the matches, but the audio is all over the place and you can barely hear them.

The Box Office Blonds (Adam Swayze and Rex) vs. The Tate Twins (Brendon and Brent) - *1/2
It was a match that happened. The Twins won after using twin magic to trick one of the Blonds, so they are turning heel at some point.

More technical issues, then we're with "Final Boss" Bruce Wayans. He ranted about suckers in OVW and how he's there to beat them up, then stole a line from Darkwing Duck's theme song ("when there's trouble, you call B-W"). Oh he's next, so...

Bruce Wayans vs. Tony Gunn - **
Wayans is from "New Gotham", really? Well that was a fairly quick win for Gunn.

Post-match, Godderz and Shannon the Dude come out and they don't say much of note frankly. Also more vague tensions between Godderz and Gunn.

Backstage with Shera who yells that he's going to beat Coffey and show him how a lion fights, and so...

Tom Coffey vs. Mahabali Shera - *1/2
That was a bit dull and clunky, but eh. Shera won.

Post-match, Coffey tries to hit Shera with a chair, but he ducks and beats up Coffey a couple of times with the chair before leaving.

We see Haley J quoting Shakespeare in front of a green screen during her audition. OK then... Anyway, the announcers banter a bit, then introduce...

"The Good Word" with Reverend Ronnie Roberts - Eh
His guests tonight are Cash Flo and Josh Ashcraft. They celebrate and talk about how Amir has been suspended for 60 days after he got unmasked, and he will have to vacate his belt. They all trash Amir and... yeah. This wasn't bad, but felt pointless.

More of Haley J and she's now quoting Forrest Gump.

Backstage with Drew Hernandez and Tony Bizo. Drew says that he'll beat his former partner Dustin Jackson because he can't get the job done when it counts.

Ryan Howe & Dustin Jackson vs. Tony Bizo & Drew Hernandez - **
Apparently, we have another team teasing tensions with Bizo and Hernandez, and the announcers are pushing the idea that Hernandez is using Bizo to do his bidding. That's more or less the story of the match with Hernandez ducking Jackson and only tagging in when he has the advantage. Hernandez ends up getting the win with a handful of tights on Jackson.

Even more Haley J who's getting mad because the casting guy is telling her to be funny. At least this one was kinda entertaining, but the sound is SO DAMN LOW!!!

Backstage with Shannon the Dude who's being a dick to the backstage girl and will give Alexander the opportunity to back out of their match because it's a man's world. Dude also makes fun of a bunch of women on his way to the ring for...

Shannon the Dude vs. Arie Alexander - DUD
Of course they put a female referee for this match so Shannon can be an ass to her as well. We have a rather long pre-match promo that keeps going on and on. Anyway, Alexander tells him that she's not leaving and here comes the other women from earlier as well. One of them is a photographer and blinds Dude with the (weak built-in) flash, then Alexander rolls him up for the "win". This was ten minutes of my life I'll never get back...

Backstage with Gustavo. He cuts a fiery promo and says he'll win the Rush title tonight. Also in this segment was a big larsen and part of a Windows program.

Atiba vs. Gustavo vs. Star Rider vs. Hy-Zaya (c) (w/ Josh Ashcraft) - **1/2
Well that was quick to say the least at only 4:30. They did spots, but it was still the usual "two guys are fighting while the other two are taking a (ridiculously quick) nap on the outside". They kinda botched the finish with Zaya hitting his swanton on Atiba and going for a pin that was supposed to be broken up by Star Rider, except he was slightly too late and the referee could have counted three. Maybe that was by design, but we'll see. Anyway, Rider stole the pin and is now the Rush champion.

Post-match, Gustavo is kinda bummed out, but still hugs Rider for his win.

Backstage with Luscious Lawrence. Wait, Winamp still exists? In all seriousness, most Twitch streamers know how to show only the relevant window while streaming and not random shit, SO WHY AM I SEEING YOUR FILE EXPLORER WINDOW AND WHY ARE YOU USING OLD ASS WINAMP IN 2021?

ahem...

Luscious says that he's been working for this moment all his life and he will bring the gold home. Also this video was out of sync, I WONDER WHY!

Still backstage with Godderz this time. The interviewer asks him how he'll do without Shannon at ringside, and Godderz gives her his belts and asks her to follow him, and she wonders why he's treating her like Tony Gunn.

Luscious Lawrence vs. Jessie Godderz (c) - ***
Match was going fine, then Gunn comes out to save Godderz from a pin by putting one of his legs on the rope. Gunn tries to interfere and it doesn't work, but that distracts the referee who doesn't count a 3-count after Luscious hit Godderz with his finisher. Godderz hits Lawrence with a spear for the win. A good little match here, and I feel like it won't be the last between them.

The announcers are wondering what's going to happen with the main event, and here's Ashcraft and Flo. But before that...

Backstage with Amir. He says that he's been working hard to be here, but he made mistakes and now he's gotta pay for them. He's gonna have to handle the belt to Cash Flo and that's the last thing he wanna do, but he will come back and regain the title.

Amir comes out to hand the belt to Flo (well, the ref really). He ponders for a while, then finally let go with the belt, but Snow's music starts and here he comes. Basically, he says that the suspension started on a saturday and Flo was a day late since Amir wasn't suspended anymore when he got unmasked. So he's still the champion and defending now...

Cash Flo (w/ Josh Ashcraft) vs. Omar Amir (c) - ***
Flo is targeting Amir's left knee and keeps going at it. We have a ref bump and Cash does a frogsplash on Amir for the 50-count, but no one is there to count it. Finally another referee comes out and Amir kicks out. Now Amir hits his finisher on Flo and Ashcraft is distracting the referee who doesn't count the three. Amir goes to Josh and grabs him, but he throws a chain at Flo who puts in around his hand, but Amir ducks and they fight on the outside for a few moments. Amir suplexes Flo back in the ring and both referees count the three. The limb work and selling were good, but they went a bit overboard with the distractions and the finish came out of nowhere.

Oh, both guys think they won and apparently, each ref counted a pin. Amir and Flo fight to the back (don't show that to Corny) and the announcers are stunned and don't know what this means, and we're off!!!

Or not, because here's Haley yet again and the casting guy is mad at her because she didn't see the Scary Movies, then says "Jessie" doesn't pay him enough for this. Haley gets mad as well and realizes what's happening, and now we're off!!!

Let's start with the elephant in the room : the technical issues. Yeah, I get that this isn't WWE or AEW and they actually were live on Youtube (and I assume on TV as well), but I've seen better "live editing" from streamers on Twitch, so I find it hard to give them a pass because "OVW is a small promotion" or whatever.

The show itself was mostly fine, but came off more like a big mid-cycle television episode than a PPV-level event. There was quite a bit of filler (Gunn's match, The Good Word, Shannon's... whatever that was, even the Tate Twins to a lesser extent) and the only blowoff was Shera-Coffey.

I'll keep watching for now, at least until the next special, whenever this will be.