On Saturday, November 27th I took in the final Edmonton PWA card in 2010, Regeneration. There’s not a lot of set-up I need to talk about, so away we go!
T-BONE JACK SLOAN vs. ECLIPSE
I was a bit surprised that T-Bone was in the first match, since he main-evented the last two Edmonton shows, and at least one of the last two Calgary shows with Chris Steele. He’s wrestling Eclipse, who is making his PWA debut. Eclipse is a masked luchador whose elbow pads last about thirty-five seconds. T-Bone cuts a promo about being a former heavyweight champion who is now relegated to being Eclipse’s welcoming committee to the PWA, and that he’s going to take out that frustration on Eclipse’s hide. The match itself is an adequate opener hampered by some awkward timing problems. Some notable spots include Eclipse hitting a plancha to the floor and a rolling thunder-esque tumbling move (which was a victim of the aforementioned timing problems). Somewhere between the five and ten minute mark T-Bone countered an attempt at a hurricanrana by Eclipse into a powerbomb, then rolled into a jack-knife cover for the victory.
BRANDON VAN DANIELSON vs. ANDREW HAWKES
Brandon Van Danielson’s character confuses me. He wears a Confederate flag bandana, rocks a pedophile ‘stache, and is nicknamed “the Rising Outlaw” (which by itself leads to many questions). These factors lead me to believe he drives around the deep south in a windowless van attempting to convince children he’s an ice cream man or something. Befuddling gimmick aside, he and Hawkes have a pretty good match. Hawkes has the crowd firmly behind him and both guys are pretty quick. There are a few striking exchanges that fall flat, but other than that the pace is fairly quick and the bout entertaining. BVD hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker to cap off a frenzy of action, then holds on, dragging Hawkes back up into a tombstone position before dropping him with a reverse DDT. He goes for the cover and the referee counts three, but Hawkes foot on the rope breaks up the fall. BVD is incensed and starts to chew out the ref, but a weary Hawkes rolls him up from behind for the three count.
Afterward, Hawkes lives up to his Newfie heritage by failing to discern where the exit is. First he heads to the door which the wrestlers usually use before being directed to the curtain on the other side of the room, at which point he attempts to go through the wrong part of the curtain and is met with the wall. And my laughter.
STRIFE w/ Dr. Kyoto vs. GAMA SINGH Jr.
Dr. Kyoto has always seemed somewhat purposeless to me, as he rarely did much other than wave a paper fan about. Tonight, though, he takes exception to the introduction given to Strife by the ring announcer and snatches the microphone away. He proceeds to introduce Strife in Japanese, which is hilarious and immediately makes him my favourite promo of the night. Strife and Gama Singh Jr. have a fairly good, though unspectacular, contest. The best move of the match (and possibly the night) is easily a spot where Singh ties Strife to the tree of woe, then charges in like he’s going for a basement dropkick, only to suddenly stop… and casually backhand Strife in the balls to huge applause and chants of “one more time!” Singh takes the decision by submission after locking Strife in a combination cobra and camel clutch.
KING DUSTY ADONIS vs. NIGHTMARE #2
King Dusty Adonis makes his way to the ring to the tune of “God Save the Queen,” to the amusement of everyone around me (his previous gimmick was a metrosexual “Hollywood” deal). Nightmare #2, now without his tag team partner Nightmare #4, is popular with the crowd as always. This is a relatively lengthy match-up, with both men exchanging offence. At one point I thought Dusty might have been seriously injured after missing a bronco buster, as his collision with the turnbuckle resulted in a very loud metal-on-metal clang and he didn’t move for a few moments. The match continued for a few more minutes, though, so he seemed to be okay. As Nightmare #2 attempted to climb back into the ring after being thrown out onto the floor, Dusty grabbed him as he ducked through the ropes and dragged him in with an ace crusher for the pinfall victory.
PWA CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH – TITLE vs. MASK
ALEX PLEXIS (c) vs. CAM-IKAZE
If Cam-ikaze loses, he must unmask. The bout begins with Cruiserweight championship belt absent, presumably because Kurt Sorochan was in possession of it after having taken it away from Cam-ikaze, who had stolen it in retaliation for Plexis stealing Cam-ikaze’s mask a few months ago. Things start a off a bit slow, but quickly speed up, resulting in Plexis being sent out to the floor. They brawl for a while before things get back into the ring. Despite enjoying this match a great deal, I can’t remember very many specifics, which is a bit odd and more than a little bit of a hindrance in attempting to review the thing. At the end of the match, Cam-ikaze seemingly has Plexis beat when Dr. Kyoto rushes out to the ring to yell at the referee about something. A fake Cam-ikaze (likely Strife, based on Kyoto’s involvement) sneaks out with a steel chair and thumps the real Cam-ikaze in the back , then dumps him out of the ring. The fake Cam-ikaze proceeds to lay down on the mat and then drag a dazed Plexis on top of him. At this point the referee finally turns around and counts the fall, despite the Cam-ikaze in the ring being very obviously fake (the real Cam wore orange gear, the fake one black). Chants of “bullshit” erupt, but the decision is upheld. Cam-ikaze cuts a promo about being a man of his word, even though he was cheated, then unmasks. CAM-IKAZE IS REALLY… some guy. I’ve never really gotten the appeal of a wrestler unmasking, since they’re just, y’know, a person. A rematch is booked for the next show.
TENILLE vs. KC SPINELLI
The first match back from intermission is… not very good. Tenille (thank you, commenter that knew this. I didn’t hear her name when she was announced) was in one of her first matches ever, and didn’t look all that comfortable attempting to play a heel. KC Spinelli had a Jersey Shore gimmick which was kind of awful, although that’s not really her fault, it’s a terrible gimmick no matter who’s trying to work it. Somewhere between the five and ten minute mark KC scored the three count with a surprise pinning move. Tenille vigorously protested the decision, claiming that she got one of her shoulders up. After appeals to the crowd to support her failed, she stomped off in a huff. Her post-match shenanigans were actually the best part of the bout.
PWA CANADIAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
SCOTLEY CRUE & BOBBY SHARP (c) w/ Dr. Kyoto vs. CHUCKY BLAZE & M
Dr. Kyoto once again handles the introductions for his charges, which is awesome. Chucky Blaze comes out and announces that M is not medically cleared to wrestle, then challenges either one of the tag champs to meet him one on one for the belts, which doesn’t really make any sense. Eventually a handicap match is settled on, and the ensuing contest is actually pretty good. Chucky manages to keep the champions off-balance enough to stay in the match. He hits a nice moonsault early, despite the springboard being more of an awkward climb. He also hits a brilliant superkick late in the contest. Despite having Dr. Kyoto in their corner, the champs don’t do much to press their numerical advantage, allowing Chucky to hang on. Scotley Crue’s dropkicks deserve special note, because they’re awesome in a way I haven’t seen much of before. Most guys with great dropkicks, like Bob Holly or AJ Styles, get pretty good air and a good rotation after impact. Scotley doesn’t get remarkable height, but he gets a VERY solid impact that makes his dropkick seem more dangerous than most. It also plays into the finish, where Scotley dropkicks Chucky into a fallaway slam/fisherman suplex sort of thing. I’m not really sure what it was, but Sharp killed Chucky with it and got the three count. This was one of the better matches of the night, attempted murder aside.
PWA HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
CHRIS STEELE (c) vs. APOC
Apoc’s Mayhem Title loss at Fright Night somehow earned him a championship match, which involved a whole lot of Chris Steele and Apoc bludgeoning each other with arm strikes. As I’ve mentioned a few times before, Apoc’s striking is pretty impressive. Naturally, a significant portion of his offence involves battering his opponents into a meat-tenderized mess, which he does his best to do to Steele. The champ retaliates in kind with clotheslines and punches. There are also some holds involved. At one point Apoc locks Steele in a figure four head scissors, which Steele counters by standing up and falling back into a modified electric chair, to the awe of everybody. Apoc puts up a hard, entertaining fight, but is eventually defeated when Steele hits a move I can’t remember, then follows it up with a spear for the three count.
Spot of the Night: Either the tilt-a-whirl backbreaker/reverse DDT combination that Brandon Van Danielson hit on Andrew Hawkes or Gama Singh Jr.’s running ball smack. I’m leaning towards the ball smack because it made me laugh pretty hard.
Match of the Night: Crue & Sharp vs. Blaze. This was a tough show to pick a match of the night for, since the quality was fairly consistent. The handicap match featured quite a few interesting spots and kept me engaged throughout the entire affair.
Overall: Good, but not fantastic. The quality of the matches was fairly consistent, with only a few dipping below the bar, but that was also a bit of a negative in that none of the bouts really stood out from the crowd. I had a good time and it got me interested in taking a trip down to Calgary to take in the PWA and Storm Wrestling school double-card in a few weeks, though, so mission accomplished.
