Spectra Wins TV Title From Larry Goodman: Without question, last night's HYPE TV taping was eventful evening at Landmark Arena. ...
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| Spectra Wins TV Title |
Without question, last night's HYPE TV taping was eventful evening at Landmark Arena. Whether or not all the hub bub has a positive result is an entirely different question.
Anarchy has been in a major transitional/rebuiliding phase since their first iPPV, Hostile Environment on July 28. Booker Dan Wilson is winding down his career and has less input. Logan Creed, their newly crowned heavyweight champion and most popular babyface promptly turned heel. Creed has been destroying everyone in his path, scoring clean wins over other premier babyfaces -- the returning Stryknyn and former Heritage Champion Ike Cross. The top heel faction in the company, Team TAG turned the other direction. A new crew of villians, imaginatively named The New Threat arrived on the scene led by Matthews Hankins. The overall talent depth has not been what it was due to departures of Gunner Miller (injury), Kyle Matthews (retirement) and The Appproved.
The lone holdover storyline -- Cash of Cult vs. Jacob Ashworth hasn't exactly been magical, largely due to issues resulting in a less than formidable Cult. That feud has gotten long in the tooth and cooled off Ashworth in the process.
A new TV champion and new tag team champions were crowned last night. Kenji Brea captured the Heritage Champion at the September 2 NCW event. On paper, all three titles are now in weaker hands.
Anarchy has their work cut out for them on October 13, theirr final TV taping prior to the 20th annual Fright Night iPPV on October 27. Only one match has been announced - Creed vs. Mikael Judas for the heavyweight title. Cash vs. Ashworth is "pending" due to Ashworth's injury at Southern Fried.
Bright spots that come to mind from last night -- Brea's match with Sal Rinauro, the action in the Championship Cash In match won by Ike Cross, the shock and awe of Chris Spectra winning the TV title out of nowhere and a surprise appearance by Mikael Judas as Creed's replacement for four minutes of hell with Stryknyn.
Attendance at Landmark was a lowly 75. Attendance has been trending in the wrong direction of late (120 was the norm prior to Hostile Environment). Hopefully, last night was a one off due to the date being moved from the traditional 4th Saturday of the month.
Neither Rick Michaels or Wilson were at the show. Bill Behrens was in charge assisted by Todd Sexton and Triston Michaels. Bret Wolverton pinch hit as John Johnson's broadast partner for the FITE TV taping.
(1) Cody Vance defeated Michael Stevens in 5:59. Frustration with being dominated by his less-experience and much better looking opponent led Stevens to a sneaky hotshot and rabbit lariat to take control. Vance’s comeback looked strong. His spinebuster slam got a pop. Vance picked up the win with a modified Attitude Adjustment. Vance has upside and Stevens was the right guy to help the process along.
(2) Kenji Brea defeated Sal Rinauro to retain the Landmark Heritage Championship in 8:55. Crowd chanting for Sal before the bell. Brea bailed as usual and got a “bearded lady” chant. Sal followed suit on the mind games by taking a ringside seat. Brea sent Rinauro’s face into the turnbuckle and worked the arm. A smack to the face pissed Sal off and sent him into full-fledged comeback mode. They traded big near falls – Brea with a cutthroat knee to the back of the head, Rinauro with a torture rack transitioned to a Tiger Driver. Brea then pinned Sal after a pair of running knee strikes to the head. Good chemistry.
Jason Boyd explained the rules of the Championship Cash In match -- a series of 5 minutes matches decided by pinfall, submission or count out with both eliminated if the match ended in a draw. Winner advances to the next match. Winner of the final no time limit match earns a title shot of his choosing (after Fright Night).
(3) Ike Cross won Championship Cash In to earn a title shot of his choosing (after Fright Night). Will Kaution vs. Josey Quinn was a draw so both men were eliminated. A highly competitive match with lots of good near falls. They were on their knees trading blows when the time limited expired.. Quinn clocked Kaution after the match. Brian Blaze (with Matthew Hankins) eliminated Kevin Blue in 3:52. Best heat so far tonight. Blue was beating Blaze pillar to post until Blaze cooled his jets with a draping DDT. Hankins interfered after Blue hit a swinging neckbreaker. Blaze hit Blue with Hankins’ man purse for the 1-2-3. Behrens ejected Hankins for a big pop. Billy Buck eliminated Blaze in 1:01 with a Buckshot. The TEAM Tag turn has taken. Fans loving Buck once again. Griff Garrison eliminated Billy Buck via DQ in 1:48. Buck hit a Buckshot out of nowhere. GB1C (Wolverton & Rivera) hit the ring and touched Garrison to cause the DQ. Slim J vs. Garrison was a draw. Solid action. Crowd was firmly behind Slim, who was hitting all his signature moves. Garrison used a crossface, made more effective by his size advantage. Cross was introduced as the final competitor and said he didn’t want to win like that so let’s make it a triple threat. Cross defeated Slim and Garrison in 6:57. Good match with all three having their shining moments. Slim applied a double inverted STF. Garrison used the move AJ Styles formerly called the Cliffhanger. Cross gave Slim a wicked hiptoss backbreaker into a german suplex. Garrison dodged Cross’ spear and hit his finisher on Slim. Cross broke up the pin, smoked Slim with a snake eyes and pinned Garrison with a brainbuster. The layout of this match ccomplished good things for a lot of people and multiple stories.
Slim offered handshakes to both men. Both accepted.
(4) Josey Quinn defeated Will Kaution in 6:40. Tempers quickly boiled over with the action spilling outside. Kaution was posted and chopped. Quinn tossed into the guardrail. Back inside, they went back and forth with big moves. Kaution hit the top rope elbow, Quinn, however, got a foot over the ropes. Quinn clipped Kaution’s knee from behind, curbstomped him and finished him off with an inverted DDT. Nothing wrong with action, but for the most part, the crowd wasn’t feeling it.
(5) GB1C (Wolverton & Tyler Rivera) defeated Seth Delay & Marcus Kross to win the Anarchy tag titles in 11:37. The champions quickly had the challengers in trouble to where they had to pull each other out of the ring to avoid being pinned. A cheat by Wolverton set up a lengthy heat on Delay. Wolverton got a “you can’t wrestle” chant. Rivera did a horrible frogsplash. At one point, Kross had to make a save. That should not have happened. Kross cleaned house on Rivera. I wish it was that simple, but it wasn’t and it wasn’t a good thing. Wolverton grabbed the title. Rinauro rushed to ringside to sound the alarm but ended up distracting referee David Weakley. Garrison hit the ring and tried to take title away from Wolverton. A tug of war ensued. Garrison appeared to inadvertently hit Kross with the title as a result and Wolverton pinned Kross. Let the booing begin.
Rinauro said he was trying to help his best friend only to see Garrison hit his best friend in the head with the title. “I’m done with your games.” Rinauro said he would see Garrison in the ring and expose who was really behind all this. Rinauro tended to Kross and Delay as a perplexed Garrison looked on.
I hated the above match with a passion. So GB1C become fluke champions and the real villain shall be revealed. I like a good mystery and if that’s the story, fine. Do a short match with GB1C getting no offense. A long match only overexposed GB1C and cheapened the tag titles.
(6) AC Mack (with Matthew Hankins) defeated Xander Ramon to retain the Anarchy TV Championship in 4:00. Hankins is a great talker in his own right, but the only person I ever want to hear introduce AC Mack is AC Mack. The champ was feeling the power of Ramon. He made a move for Hankins and was posted from behind from Mack. Ramon capped off a big rally with an Angle Slam for a near fall. Referee Darryl Hall got knocked own. Mack raked the eyes, bonked Ramon with Hankins’ man purse and hit the Mack 10.
Ramon slugged Mack and turned his attention to Hankins but was clubbed from behind by Blaze. Team TAG made the save. Blue said Mack was hiding behind a man with a purse. Said he beat him 1-2-3 and challenged Mack to put the title up right now. Hankins said they had fulfilled their obligation. Mack said, “screw that”. He was going to put the title up against “the fat one”.
(7) Chris Spectra (with Blue & Buck) defeated AC Mack (with Hankins & Blaze) to win the Anarchy TV Championship in 3:02. Specra was on fire early. A classic Mack attack couldn’t get the job done. Mack hit a flatliner and put his feet on the ropes. Blue got on apron to protest and was pulled down by Hankins. All hell broke loose at ringsie. Hankins tossed the purse into the ring. It landed in the hands of Spectra. He blasted Mack with the purse to win the title for a huge pop.
Crowd chanted “you deserve it” for Spectra, who was clearly elated about winning his first Anarchy singles title. It was a great moment.
Behrens said Creed wasn’t there because he had nothing to prove. His message to Stryk was this -- he had left him laying every time and he already had an opponent (Mikael Judas) for Fright Night. If Stryk wanted him at Fright Night he had to go through Judas.
(8) Stryknyn vs. Mikael Judas was ruled a double DQ at 4:40. Quite the slugfest here. They were beating the tar out of each other. Referee Dee Byers got tossed aside, first by Stryk, then by Judas then got thrown out of the ring by both for the DQ.
Fans immediately started chanting “let them fight”. GB1C were the first to hit the ring. Stryk and Judas wasted the new tag champs like they were nothing. The entire roster came out to pull them apart.
The show ended with nothing further announced.
