Monday, November 14, 2011

Weekend Wrap-Up: Ninja Title Win

ACW World Champ, just for an hour
Photo Credit: Gilda Pasquil
- While Eddie Kingston's title win at High Noon last night might have gotten the most play and was probably the most emotional in indie wrestling all weekend, it was probably only the second most important title win of the weekend. Portia Perez defeated Darin Childs and Rachel Summerlyn in the opening round of Anarchy Championship Wrestling's Lone Star Classic tournament Saturday to claim Childs' World Championship. Her reign was short-lived, as the bane of her existence, one RD Evans, came back and cost her the second round match against JT LaMotta. The title would change hands one more time in the finals, as the incomparably athletic and talented ACH took the tournament and the title. Also appearing at the show? The Nasty Boys. Somewhere in South Carolina, Dylan Hales got an inexplicable erection.

- High Noon was Chikara's main event of the weekend (READ MY REVIEW DAMMIT), but the appetizer was Cibernetico: The Animated Series Saturday, headlined by the titular multi-man ordered tag team elimination match. It was won by Sara del Rey, with her eliminating Donst after nearly an hour of grueling action and elimination. It also saw the beginnings of unraveling within the BDK, as Delirious came to and attacked Ares, while other members bickered amongst each other. Also on the show, 3.0 bested the Bravados in what was most likely a hilarious match, Chuck Taylor made it back from DGUSA in Philly (READ THAT REVIEW TOO DAMMIT) to threaten a young girl and lose to Fire Ant. Gregory Iron couldn't make it for his match with Darkness Crabtree, so Steve "The Turtle" Weiner filled in, only to show that Crabtree was just Icarus in disguise. Joke was on him, because Gran Akuma made his return to get him some revenge on the winged warrior. Finally, Ophidian and El Generico had one of the best matches of the weekend in the opener.

- DGUSA had two other shows this weekend other than the Saturday Philly show. Massachusetts' Friday card was headlined with a no-ropes, no-DQ match between the gothy BxB Hulk and the freshly-shaven YAMATO, won by the now-former Open the Freedom Gate Champion. Ricochet won the multi-man FRAY! match over Sabu with the final elimination, CIMA and Brodie Lee defeated Johnny Gargano and Taylor and Akira Tozawa defeated Masato Yoshino. In last night's New York show, the now-former tag on YAMATO was revealed as Johnny Gargano became the first non-Japanese holder of the Open the Freedom Gate Championship. Big win for the Whole Shebang, but it also makes things very interesting between him and Taylor, who stole the actual hardware Saturday night after his win-turned-loss against YAMATO. In the actual main event, the Dirty, Ugly Fucks of Sami Callihan, Arik Cannon and Pinkie Sanchez defeated AR Fox, Jon Davis and Sabu in Extreme Warfare. Taylor and Rich Swann defeated Hulk and Tozawa, while Ricochet finished out his highly successful weekend with a win over PAC.

ETA: Alex Torres went to the NYC show and said that Gargano made a heartfelt speech to Taylor afterwards which caused him to hand over the title belt. Ronin is peachy keen!

- Oh yeah, Impact Wrestling had a PPV last night, and from the sounds of it, it was a clear mistake to have spent money on that over High Noon. Bobby Roode defeated AJ Styles in the main event to retain his World Championship. In the other marquee match, Jeff Hardy defeated Jeff Jarrett three times in a match that was restarted twice. Hopefully, that's the end we see of that feud. Two titles changed hands as Robbie E is the new Television Champion, and Gail Kim bested Velvet Sky for the Knockouts Championship. Austin Aries and Mexican America retained their X-Division and Tag Team Championships respectively, and Crimson's undefeated streak is intact after going to a draw with Matt Morgan, via double disqualification.

- Finally, CZW, which ran in the ECW Arena right after DGUSA on Saturday, held Night of Infamy, where Sami Callihan defeated Adam Cole in the main event to become the promotion's new Light Heavyweight Champion. The World Title match between Champ Devon Moore and challenger MASADA went to a draw after Robert Anthony returned and attacked both men. Those three, plus Scotty Vortekz, will wrestle in a four way match for the title at Cage of Death. Also on the card, AR Fox became the number one contender to the Light Heavyweight Championship by beating Ryan McBride, and CZW is hopping on the progressive train with intergender wrestling, as Greg Excellent defeated Mia Yim in the opener.