BRM Reviews Warrior Wrestling 19

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews Warrior Wrestling 19

Post by Big Red Machine » Feb 20th, '22, 12:43

Warrior Wrestling 19 (2/12/2022)- Cicero, IL


WARRIOR WRESTLING LUCHA TITLE MATCH: Sam Adonis(c) vs. Lincé Dorado- 6.75/10
Apparently in Warrior Wrestling, a “Lucha” match means “no DQs.” That’s weird. So is the fact that while there are no DQS, there are count-outs, and at ten no less, instead of the usual Lucha twenty. Also weird is how much the dude calling the show with Veda Scott sounds like a very young Kevin Kelly. I did some checking around, and holy sh*t it's the former Rich Brennan!

This was a fun opener, with a count-out finish that I’m sure will lead to a rematch.

WARHORSE vs. DALTON CASTLE (w/the Boys)- 6/10
The story of the match was that Dalton did not want to engage in any antics with Warhorse, and just overpowered him with both his strength and technical skill. I will admit that I enjoyed Warhorse a lot more than I was expecting to.

MIRANDA ALIZE vs. SKYE BLUE- 4.5/10

FRANK THE CLOWN INTRUDES ON THE FEED AND CUTS A PROMO- Weird. He’s clearly crazy. I don’t like this gimmick.

GRINGO LOCO vs. MYRON REED vs. BLAKE CHRISTIAN vs. ALEX ZAYNE- 6.5/10
This was a fun spotfest, although they started getting way too cute towards the end.

BLAKE CHRISTIAN PROMO- great!
He wants to win the Warrior Wrestling Title from Will Ospreay, not just to get the belt, but to force people to accept him as one of the best in the world.

THE ACCLAIMED vs. BRIAN CAGE & KC NAVARRO- 8/10
In his pre-match rap, Max Caster made fun of Brian Cage for being about to no longer having an AEW contract, and made fun of KC Navarro for having a contract with Court Bauer. Brian Cage tried to respond, and made it clear that he had absolutely no sense of meter. Then he said that despite not being on TV, he still makes more money than the Acclaimed.
This was awesome. Great tag team action and great twists and turns throughout, including a miscue between Cage and Navarro that will almost certainly lead to something down the line. For me, though, the real significance of this match is that this was the first time I’ve been able to see the Acclaimed get a chance to really go in the ring, and they can definitely bring it. Tony Khan should have no qualms about strapping a rocket to them when the time eventually comes to do so.

THUNDER ROSA INTERVIEW- fine build for her match tonight

SANTANA vs. “SPEEDBALL” MIKE BAILEY- 6.25/10
Oh yeah. Now I remember why I usually didn’t care for Speedball matches. There is just something about them that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes them feel a little too performative, even if they are paced well and there is a competent story being told. This one had that problem, as well as feeling like it dragged on too long. It wasn’t bad or anything, but it certainly wasn’t good for a high-profile match that went eighteen minutes.
Santana was fine for his part, but not much more than that, either. This didn’t really do much to make me feel like I should rethink my puzzled response to him being announced as Jonatha Gresham’s opponent for the second Terminus show later this month. Santana showed Speedball respect after the match, whereas he had refused to do so before it.


DANTE MARTIN vs. BANDIDO- 7.5/10
This was a great “athletic guys competing athletically” match, with the expected flippiness, but in a way that told a story. Bandido did a clean job for Dante here, which was shocking considering that he’s the ROH World Champion and ROH would presumably like their title unification match between Bandido and Gresham to actually mean something.

ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Briscoes(c) vs. the WorkHorsemen- 8.25/10
For reasons known only to whichever idiot is directing this show, they cut away from J.D. Drake swinging a chair at Jay Briscoe right as Drake was in mid-swing. What could Mark and Henry have possibly been about to do that would have been more impactful than a freakin’ chairshot (especially with the referee right there with them)?
Once they went to the outside, the referee completely gave up on trying to enforce the rules. The first thig they did back in the ring was Anthony Henry throw a chair at Jay’s head. If you want to have a no DQs match, just announce it as no DQs, and if the booker doesn’t want that, then don’t do spots that should result in a DQ! Is this really such a hard concept for people?
That aside, this was exactly what you’d expect from these two teams: Two teams beating the sh*t out of each other and doing big moves, with an excellent pace. It was awesome… but it was definitely hurt by how inevitable the outcome felt.

ATHENA INTERVIEW- This was decent, but I probably would have enjoyed it a little more if the audio hadn’t been so bad.

WARRIOR WRESTLING WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Thunder Rosa(c) vs. Athena- 7.75/10
They did some nice, respectful stuff for a while until Athea faked a knee injury to get an advantage. This got the crowd more behind Thunder Rosa, but they didn’t really capitalize on it in terms of the story of the match. Athena would cheat here and there a little, but it was little things like hair-pulling rather than really playing up the babyface vs. heel dynamic that they established with that spot.
Thunder Rosa worked the midsection while Athena worked the head. This got great towards the end, but there were some spots in the middle where you could tell that they were slowing it down to a drag specifically for the sake of going long, which is never a good thing. As an example of the sort of thing I think you should do in that situation, I loved the way they set up the finish, where Athena was so exhausted that it took her a long time to climb the turnbuckle, and as a result, time expired right after she hit Thunder Rosa with the O-Face (though, if I could pick a nit there, I think that point would have bee driven home a little better if Thunder Rosa hadn’t rolled out of the ring after being hit with the move, just to really emphasize that the time limit and exhaustion were what stopped her from getting the pin, rather than Thunder Rosa’s instincts). Something that uses the length or idea of exhaustion as part of the story, rather than the in-vogue indy “oh, we’re so exhausted and we’re hitting each other so hard and our fighting spirit has run out that we’ll both collapse here after this exchange of strikes.”

POST-MATCH STUFF- Didn’t like it
Someone in the crowd must have said something bad, because there were “F*CK THAT GUY!” chants during the match, and Thunder Rosa cut a scathing promo after the match on fans who show up to a show to be disrespectful.
She then transitioned to talking about Athena and putting her over, and that’s where I started to not like things. She tried to take advantage of your sympathy for an injured colleague to screw your out of your championship! You should not be talking about how much you respect her!
Then Athena cut her promo and was a total babyface, talking about how great the crowd was. Then they hugged. NO! You can’t turn heel during the match, and then just be a babyface again after it! If you’re not going to commit to being a heel, don’t do a spot where you fake an injury to lure your opponent in and attack them to gain an advantage! It’s not that f*cking hard!

This was a fun show from Warrior, to the point where I might start looking at their back catalogue. It’s always nice to find a new, enjoyable promotion, but the real test will be the immediate future and past shows, so I can get a feeling on if their storylines make them worth investing my time in.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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