Beyond’s Signature Series continued as Matt Makowski looked to move to 2-0 in the Greatest Rivals Round Robin – and close out Tony Deppen’s chances of winning the tournament.
Quick Results:
Jody Threat pinned Atticus Cogar in 8:00 (***)
Randy Summers & Brandon Watts pinned Vincent Nothing & Rickey Shane Page in 7:53 (**¾)
Matt Makowski submitted Tony Deppen in 12:05 (***¾)
We’re back in the H20 Wrestling Center for another week. Denver Colorado back on green screen running down today’s card. He’s also got news: Beyond is back with fans on April Fools’ Day after the Signature Series finale… but it’s already sold out. We then get last week’s recap. Paul Crockett and Sidney Bakabella are running on commentary…
Atticus Cogar vs. Jody Threat
Thanks to Rich Palladino, I kinda wanna see a skate park in a lake…
Cogar – who my autocorrect REALLY wants to call “Cigar” – boots Threat at the bell, but gets taken into the corner with elbows and shoulder charges. A missed charge just gets Cogar kicked in the ropes, before he tried for a rebound German suplex. Threat switched around, but gets pushed away before a clothesline took Atticus down for a two-count.
Threat’s caught with a Flatliner into the buckles, before she’s choked into the ropes. That single move turned things around for Cogar, who followed with a nice floatover suplex for a two-count, as Cogar then took Threat into the corner for some more choking. A suplex hangs Threat up in the ropes for just a one count, before Jody came back in with a jaw breaker. Elbows keep Cogar away in the ropes, with a drop toe hold taking him there only for a Bossman-style charge to miss. Instead, Threat gets hung up in the ropes as Cogar’s springboard moonsault crashed into her for a two-count.
Threat manages to dig deep to catch Cogar with a Michinoku driver, then finally lands the double knees in the ropes before a German suplex drew a near-fall. Cogar rolls onto the apron and bites Threat’s hand in the ropes ahead of a slingshot back in… which he uses to spike Threat with a DDT off the ropes for a near-fall. From there, Cogar pulls Threat up for an Air Raid Crash onto the knee, but Threat doesn’t stay down, so Cogar heads outside for some plunder. He brings some skewers into the ring as he goes to his deathmatch norms, but the referee disarms him before Threat hit back with a spear and a F5 for a two-count.
Threat tries to finish Cogar with a Burning Hammer, but he slips out with a roll-up before Threat caught a kick and turned it into a powerbomb. That doesn’t get the win, so she goes back to the Burning Hammer, spinning Cogar out for Three Seconds Around The World… and that Blue Thunder Bomb gets the win. A good little story with Cogar dominating, but his attempt to make this all blood and guts cost him as he lost focus. A nice win for Threat, who looked good here. ***
Tournament For Tomorrow 2021 First Round: Milk Chocolate (Brandon Watts & Randy Summers) vs. Faith in Nothing (Rickey Shane Page & Vincent Nothing)
Save for an IWS:MS outing, this was Faith in Nothing’s first time out in almost ten years – and their first time in Beyond since October 2009, when they beat Sean Maluta and Jonny Mangue. Wonder whatever happened to that guy… yeow…
Summers and Page start us off, but Watts slapped Page’s head from behind. That just irks him as he proceeds to boot Summers off the ropes, before hitting a flying Watts in the midsection. Vincent Nothing tags in against Watts, and catches a leapfrog before throwing him down into a knee strike. Summers is back, but he just gets thrown outside as he stormed in like an overexcited puppy. Watts and Summers try to play hit and run on RSP, but Page just boots Summers down into the ropes. He’s brought back in and tossed with a no-bump suplex by Page, before Nothing returned and whaled away on Summers with chops. Page is back with boots, before a slam and an elbow drop nearly puts Summers away.
Page and Nothing combine with a double-team Japanese armdrag, rolling into a double-team pop-up knee. That gets them a two-count, before Watts pulls Summers out of the corner as Nothing’s charge hits the buckles. Watts tags in and goes right for Nothing’s knee, leaving him grounded for some ground and pound. Page runs in to break it up, holding the disconnected tag rope to “make it legal.”
Summers is back in with an armbar on Nothing as Milk Chocolate looked to keep Page out of the ring… but a missed charge from Watts opens the door as Summers tags in and eats an Exploder. Page tags back in and lands a senton onto Watts, before countersign a suplex into an enziguiri on Summers. A snap slam almost gets RSP the win, before Nothing tagged in to trap Summers in the corner with a series of face-washing boots with RSP.
Watts returns and chucks powder in Nothing’s eyes to break up a double-team… the referee misses it as Summers – still legal – recovers to roll up Nothing with a handful of tights for the win. This was a little too short, but they told the story of Milk Chocolate having to cut corners to get anywhere. **¾
Joseph Montecillo’s back with another video – this time recapping the history of past tag-team Tournament for Tomorrows. Another tidy piece of work from Joseph, which took us through a wacky era of tag team names through future Dark Order and Inner Circle members, Warhorses, and Mattel-lawsuit-baiting! It leads to the news that the Bird and the Bee are the only all-female team in this year’s tournament… and with the announcement of Mike Verna & Rex Lawless also being in the field, I think that’s an announcement for next week’s tournament match using jigsaw identification.
Greatest Rivals Round Robin: Tony Deppen vs. Matt Makowski
We’ve got some Beyond history between these two – as Joseph Montecillo’s video last week showed us, going back to the Discovery Gauntlet during Uncharted Territory. Makowski goes in on the back of a win last week, while Deppen needs to win here to keep his chances alive.
We start with a handshake as Makowski tells us how Deppen screwed him over on Uncharted Territory. Deppen tries to claim he has a cousin who did that… and Makowski’s far from impressed, so he’s going to help Tony teach his newborn a lesson. Makowski takes Deppen down in a waistlock to start, but Deppen switches around as he goes in for headscissors, then countered out into a front chancery on Makowski. Makowski rolls Deppen to the mat in a knee bar, but it’s sort-of blocked as Deppen gets back to his feet… and rolls Makowski down for another waistlock as Deppen looks for a rear naked choke. The hold’s broken as Makowski stands up and quickly goes into a North-South on Deppen, looking to keep him on the mat for a pin.
A neat roll through sees Makowski take out Deppen’s legs for a rear naked choke, but Makowski looks to transition into a cross armbar as Deppen swivelled towards the rope. Shoulder tackles have Deppen down, before his leapfrog’s caught and turned into a bearhug. Deppen escapes, and quickly ties up Makowski with an Octopus stretch, but Makowski just uses a Hipe to hiptoss his way free. Deppen keeps pushing on, sweeping out the legs ahead of a running knee strike that dropped Makowski for a near-fall. Clubbering forearms to the back of the head keep Makowski down, before Deppen upped the game with forearms to the front before he hung up Makowski in the ropes.
More stomps from Deppen focuses on Makowski’s back, before Deppen countered out of a back suplex and landed a big headbutt. Makowski rolls away from a stomp, which jars Deppen’s knee, and allows Makowski to find a way back in. An overhead belly-to-belly chucks Deppen across the ring, as did a double underhook suplex, but Deppen’s up at two form the pin.
From there, Makowski ties up Deppen’s legs in a wacky deathlock, grabbing Deppen’s ankles for extra torque as the pile rolled into the ropes to force a break. Makowski tries for a Sharpshooter, but Deppen fights free for a roll-up, before teasing a Sharpshooter of his own, only to go for what seemed like a Muta lock that turned into another pinning attempt.
The pair trade right hands, but Deppen looked to be fading away as Makowski went to kick his leg out of his leg… only for Deppen to drop down and roll Makowski to the mat for another stomp to the back. A brainbuster followed, but Makowski kicks out at two, only to get rolled into a guillotine… Makowski stands up and breaks it up in the corner, then cradled Deppen into an X-Plex for a near-fall!
A back kick from Makowski clips Deppen, before a Border Toss dropped Deppen into a knee bar for the submission. Makowski’s MMA-focused background caused Deppen problems from the off, and that flash finish means that Deppen can no longer win the tournament, with Wheeler Yuta being his remaining opponent as we build to a Dickinson/Makowski finale. ***¾
Next week: Solo Darling & Willow Nightingale vs. Rex Lawless & Mike Verna in our final first-round Tournament for Tomorrow outing… Megabyte Ronnie takes on Richard Holliday… and the Greatest Rivals Round Robin continues with Chris Dickinson (1-0) vs. Wheeler Yuta (0-1).
Signature Series #3 gives you another hattrick of good matches that aren’t outlasting their welcome – and it’s the Greatest Rivals Round Robin series that’s buoying these shows along, with Matt Makowski so far really being the stand-out. Without tempting fate, it sure looks like the rematch of one of Beyond’s stand-out matches of 2020 is where this is all headed as the promotion continues their never-ending rebuilding job.