Have some time while my huge-ass Photoshop batch process churns away, so I thought I'd tell y'all about the show I went to Sun. night...
Anarchy Championship Wrestling Presents "Beyond Good and Evil" at the Mohawk, Austin, TX.
This was a good show, with some moments being downright great, and one being in my live-and-in-person MOTY candidates list.
First off, as is the case with certain events that ACW puts on, this one had crowd participation, with fans being encouraged to wear Halloween costumes. There were some good ones from both the fans and the wrestlers, including some that would drive GAF wild with delight, but I'll get back to that later.
Drew Lucid v. Miss Maulie - Miss Maulie is a female member of the heel stable The Takeover w/ Jaykus Pliskin, "Cowboy" James Claxton, and Carson. She also is a very classy lady, sporting the kind of naked lady silhouettes you see on the mud flaps of 18-wheelers tattooed on her lower back in the classic "tramp stamp" position.. I'm being perfectly serious. Those are the tattoos she went with. I think she's an ex-tittie dancer. Nothing wrong with that though, and even though she's not really up to the extremely high-quality, (world-class, really) standards of the rest of the ACW Joshi division, she works hard, she has improved since I've been watching, and she holds her own in a good heel stable. She deserves better than this though, because Drew Lucid is one of the worst indyrific pro-wrestlers you've ever seen, with even worse gear than you can possibly imagine. Thankfully, Maulie squashed him dead in short order. Then Plisken picked his skinny ass up with one hand, literally like a piece of luggage, and killed him deader. Twice. Fuck this match.
Carson v. Ricky Starks for the ACW U-30 Title - Never seen this guy Starks before, I don't think. He came out in a Brazzers logo T-shirt. So now it's gonna be all awkward to talk about both guys' physiques. Thanks, Ricky. Carson is a big guy with a good body for the biz and a pretty fun heel persona that works. He can work. The guy I attend the shows with is a huge mark for him for some reason, so that's fun. He's sorta the "young gun" of the Takeover stable, and is a bit of comedic relief. Ricky is a thinner guy, but still with a good build who looks pretty good moving around in there and doing stuff. Shortish, good-enough match, with Carson retaining the belt.
Sean Vexx vs. Davy Vega - The storyline here is that Vexx is a creep and he's stalking "The Goddess" Athena, who is with Davy Vega. If you haven't seen Vega, he's awesome. I mean really awesome. Like, "wow...I remember seeing Chris Hero and Brian Danielson and Claudio back in the day, and could tell that they were awesome..." and Davy Vega is that awesome. His match with Barrett Brown, a young guy kinda in the AJ Styles mode who's really going places around Texas, was a revelation a couple shows ago, and it was in large part due to Vega, though Brown was no slouch. He's probably the second-most over guy as a straight-up worker in Anarchy--second only to A.C.H. so that should tell you something. He needs a little work on his body, but he's all there as a worker. Again, shades of a young Chris Hero. This match was basically just there to move the Vexx/Athena/Vega "Love Triangle" storyline apparently, as it was fairly short and ended in Athena (accidentally?) hitting Vega with his ACW Televised Championship belt, and Vexx getting the win.
Jojo Bravo and Angel Blue vs. Ricky Romida and Jack Jameson vs. Killah Kash and Jeff Gant vs. Darren Shires and Lil' Tony for the Tag Titles - This was the first match that made me and all the geeks in the audience scream like wee little girls.
JoJo Bravo, a guy that's probably 5'4" but is GREAT as a ridiculous heel who thinks he's a massive Japanese strongstyle wrestler/sumo/monster comes to the ring led by his manager Chris Trew, who is also dressed in full kimono. He does the complete Yokozuna entrance from back in the day, and opens his robe to reveal he is dressed exactly him. Crowd goes nuts. Trew explains that he got rid of the old, shabby ACW tag belts and has replaced them with new ones (a big improvement) and says he has replaced JoJo's tag partner with a new, better partner too. (JoJo's partner was legit banned from ACW after some backstage thing.) Angel Blue comes out dressed in a "sexy" Red Devil outfit. I went crazy with delight until I remembered that I hate Angel Blue with every fiber of my being and got on with the proper booing she deserves.
Jack Jameson comes out to "The Final Countdown" in one of those D-Bry looking jackets, and does the whole entrance just like Brian Danielson, your ROH Champion and the BEST IN THE WORLD. Then the Godzilla Music that Samoa Joe used to come out to hits, and Ricky Romida (who's actually a bit thicker than Joe) comes out in the full Joe gear. "Joe's Gonna Kill You" chants from the crowd and everything.
Killah Kash and Jeff Gant came out pretending to be Shawn Michaels and Diesel.
Shires has been getting a lot of shit from the crowd since he first appeared a few months ago for resembling Jack Swagger. In true heel fashion, he refuses to acknowledge this and claims he's coming out as "Mr. Perfect" while the crowd protests. Lil' Tony, who gets shit every show for being an indyrific Tommy Dreamer impersonator, comes out and the production crew hits Dreamers' theme song, which Lil' Tony doesn't like at all, saying "WTF??? This is BULLSHIT!!!" all the way to the ring while the crowd has a good laugh.
Funny moment during the announcement of the participants...Jack Jameson (dressed as Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan) corrects the announcer, who then tells us Jack Jameson is now known as James Jack.
Match was fun though a little short, ending with some cool tag work from the new team of Angel and JoJo, punctuated by JoJo hitting the Banzai Drop like he weighs every bit of the 500 lbs. he thinks he does for the win.
Awesome.
Evan Gelistico vs Pierre Abernathy vs. Athena vs. JC Bravo vs. "Cowboy" James Claxton vs. Bolt Brady Scramble Match
More Halloween fun.
Evan Gelistico comes out as a huge penis. (meaning he came out dressed as Evan Gelistico)
Pierre Abernathy did his usual "Hulkster" gimmick.
Athena came out dressed as "The Centerfold" Matt Palmer, doing all his over-the-top entrance and sexy poses and everything, which was awesome.
JC Bravo came out as a perfect Heihachi Mishima from Tekken. It was awesome.
"Cowboy" came dressed as himself.
Bolt Brady came out in the most awesome costume of the night though...dude came dressed as the Freakazoid. This immediately prompted a "Kids WB!!! Kids WB!!! Kids WB!!! Kids WB!!!" chant from the crowd, in one of the most surreal moments I've ever had as a wrestling fan.
I don't remember too much from this match because I was marking out so hard, especially after Bravo, dressed as Heihachi Mishima opened his offense with THE FUCKING ELECTRIC NOOGIE, but I was highly entertained. I do remember none of the heels wanting to work with Bolt, because as the Freakazoid, his blue facepaint was rubbing off on everyone. "Cowboy" did finally win the match though.
Robert Evans vs. JT Lamotta - Lamotta came out dressed as Ric Flair, with the robe, which he borrowed from Angel Blue, who used to wear said robe to the ring. Many "Wooo!s" were had. Good enough match, but nothing compared to Lamotta vs. Angel Blue from the last show, which was insane. I'm not a Robert Evans fan though, so I'm not the best audience for this match. Evans wins.
"The Dream Warriors" (Darin Childs and Khris Wolfe) vs. "The Lost Boys" (Sky de Lacrimosa and Jason Silver) Double Dog Collar Match - This was perfect for Halloween. The Dream Warriors do a NoES gimmick, complete with Freddie-style sweaters and Childs' owning a glove with shoot finger blades. The Lost Boys are freakin' Vampires.
Before the match started, Machiko, Rachel Summerlyn's disciple, came out to host the fan costume contest, but The Lost Boys came out and interrupted her. Jason Silver was drinking blood out of a beer bottle and soon was pouring the blood all over poor Machiko, who seemed to forget that she came out dressed in a hockey mask with a real machete that she could have perhaps defended herself with.
The Dream Warriors came out to make the save, with dog collars in hand, and we're off brawling immediately. Wolfe was chained to Sky; Childs was chained to Silver.
This match was all kinds of crazy and bloody and brutal. My favorite spots: Wolfe throws great elbows, so in this match, at one point he wrapped about six feet of chain from the dog collar around his elbow and just PASTED Sky in the fucking face with it. At another point, Childs and Silver brawl to the balcony, and Childs throws Silver off the balcony, hanging him by the neck from the top. Silver doesn't like this one bit, but being a freaking VAMPIRE, realizes that this won't kill him, so he then CLIMBS BACK UP THE WALL using the chain to get some more of Childs. The match finally ended with Silver taking a crazy-dangerous top-rope bomb and Childs and Wolfe win. Nuts. Just nuts.
It was so awesome that even Darin Childs cutting a way-too-long, way-too-repetitive worked-shoot promo on Machiko while threatening her with the Freddie Krueger glove wasn't enough to kill it. Basically, Childs sat Machiko down and said it was time she learned to fend for herself, time for her to become a real joshi, and time for Anarchy to get back to being Anarchy. That woulda been great if that's how it went down, but sadly, it went on and on and on. The promo was just bad, and kinda uncomfortable for the fans as Childs sorta mixed in the implication that there was some interoffice romance-gone-wrong here.
As someone who has only been watching the product for about a year, I've been on the fence about Childs. His work in recent matches like the ladder match, the fun "birthday brawl" with Plisken last show, and this match were really winning me over to him. This one promo made him take two steps back in my eyes as a fan.
A.C.H. vs. "The Centerfold" Matt Palmer in a Special Challenge Match for the Hardcore Championship - One of my live and in-person MOTY candidates right here. Palmer and A.C.H. are great workers. They fought each other months ago in a no-contest. Tonight, A.C.H. wanted to finish what they started.
This match was so great. Both guys are so awesome.
I know that some indy fans are finally catching on to A.C.H. being great since his appearances in Chikara and ROH, but "The Centerfold" has been just as good, if not better in ACW lately. A.C.H. might just edge Palmer out though because he's doing a TEXAS CLOVERLEAF GIANT SWING now.
At one point during some brawling to the outside, Palmer gets the advantage and sets up the damnedest multi-level steel chair pyramid I've ever seen. Before he could use it though, A.C.H. makes a comeback and the action goes back inside the ring. All throughout that match, that crazy construction is just LOOMING there. The tension is super-high. But suddenly, boom, there's a German Suplex! 1-2-3 the ref counts. Both men's shoulders were on the ground...this match is another no-contest.
The crowd immediately goes apeshit and starts screaming for a restart. They finally grant it, and it's on. Eventually, A.C.H. gets a fraction of a second of an advantage, and throws himself and Palmer into the chairs...which don't budge at all. OUCH! Both dudes look dead. Especially A.C.H. who is carried to the back. Another no-contest. Palmer finally regains consciousness and says he wants to finish this, challenging A.C.H. to one more match in January, at Guilty by Association, which is basically Anarchy's Wrestlemania.
So, the match ends in a no-contest, and I still think it's one of the best live matches I've seen all year? Yep. Crazy as it sounds. Yep.
Gary Jay vs. Jerry Lynn - Jerry Lynn came out to "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot and was dressed like Randy The Ram from the Wrestler. He fucking shoulda won right there, but they actually had a match. Gary Jay is a bastard, and won the match because Evan Gelistico is an even bigger dick than he is.
Barbi Hayden vs. Portia Perez for the American Joshi Championship Portia didn't dress up, so that was kinda a disappointment, even though she probably has the best ring gear of any American worker today anyway. Barbi Hayden is the champ, and came dressed as a sexy kitty. That's what I'm talkin' about. They had a good match. I used to hate on Barbi really bad because the first time I saw her she was 1,000 kinds of botches wrapped up in a botch like a botch burrito, but every time I've seen her since she's delivered the goods. ANd didn't I mention she was dressed as a sexy kitty?
Anyway, this one ended in a disappointing no-contest when Robert Evans hit the ring attempting to turn Portia heel AGAIN, which Portia rebuffed by kicking the shit out of him all the way to the back, which resulted in Portia failing to win a match AGAIN. The guy I go to these events with has been coming with me since the Queen of Queens tournament in June remarked that he has never seen Portia win a match. Incredible how old-school slow these builds are in ACW. I think it's awesome in a way when it works, but this was just one too many no-contests in a night for me.
Jessica James vs. Rachel Summerlyn - This was the match I paid to see and was terribly disappointed. It was just over way too quick, and never had the time to build the molten dramatic tension that the previous match had. That previous match was another of my favorite live matches this year. Jessica (who has been in this strange-but-awesome "transformation" into some sort of hybrid between the all-dark character of Lady Poison, and the goofy, all-light character of Jessica James) gave Rachel the Poison Kiss to win the match and to show Summerlyn that she's still got the poison inside of her, as Rachel had suspected.
The match did it's job in pushing the story forward, I guess. But without all the tension and drama that should have been built with a longer match, it makes you care less, even though the narrative is advanced.
I still want to see where this goes, since the Jessica James/Lady Poison thing is such a cool angle when it has that drama. Jessica James is a shockingly good wrestler for such a small woman. Her strikes are next-level, and even in this short match she showed a couple things that make you go "WOW!" And Rachel Summerlyn has been on a streak of greatness, the Queen of Queens match with Jazz and her last match with Lady Poison being the latest. In comic book terms, her fighting Jessica is like Power-Man fighting Iron-Fist, which should be awesome every time.
Jaykus Plisken vs. Showtime Scot Summers for the ACW Championship - Jaykus cut a kinda long, strange worked-shoot promo about "real wrestlers" and being screwed by guys like Matt Striker in WWE or something and saying that Scot Summers and him will always be bros. I normally like Plisken as a heel, (even when he's being completely racist, or telling skinny guys to get on the juice, or telling the joshis that he'll hit his wife/girlfriend so he's got no problem hitting them, ect.) but this just sucked. Plus, it was the second too-long worked-shoot of the night.
As expected from these two men, the match was hard-hitting Texas-style wrestling. Good match. Summers set a chair into the corner and accidentally ran his head it trying to spear Plisken, who won with a choke while Summers was staggered.
The only disappointment for me was that Miss Maulie, who accompanied Plisken to ringside with the rest of the Takeover dressed in a perfect, skin-tight Molotov Cocktease-from-the-Venture-Bros. costume, left ringside during the match. I suppose it was for the best, because she looked so hot in that outfit that it was impossible to pry ones eyes away otherwise. I didn't even recognize her as Miss Maulie at first. Did I mention she looked super-hot? Wow.
Oh, and in a final note for GAF: Brandon Stroud, the guy who writes the Raw Best/Worst column that somebody always posts on here, won the fan costume contest dressing as Chris Trew, manager of the tag champs of ACW.
Anyway, even though it was a mixed-bag, it was still an enjoyable show with two great matches some good matches, and some moments of sheer fanboy joy. ACW puts on a great product, and even when every moment isn't spectacular, it's still better than 99.9% of indies out there. Which means it's better than WWE and TNA 99.9% of the time too.