Austin Aries’ Defiant title was on the line as we found out who the wildcard was for the Magnificent Seven match later this month!
Last week on Defiant, Travis Banks won the Internet Championship – surrender your search histories, folks! Also, the IPW team fell apart, with Austin Aries only being left with No Fun Dunne as he was ordered to defend the title this week against Martin Kirby, while GM Stu Bennett announced that WALTER was coming to Defiant. They played clips of WALTER in this recap… fortunately leaving out his Cagematch rating, which was front and centre of the hype video they released during the week.
Also, Sammii Jayne debuted in Defiant, while the Magnificent Seven match was also announced for Lights Out later this month. Yep. That’s a lot going on!
Zack Gibson vs. Primate
This was a Magnificent Seven qualifier, and of course we have the Gibson promo beforehand. He reckons he should have a title shot because he beat Rampage… who was the last man standing in that IPW/Defiant match. Gibson eventually runs his mouth so much Primate spears him twice, and that’s the win! SPLAT!
So, Zack Gibson runs his mouth too much and is made to pay. Manchester popped for this, as you’d expect.
A montage airs of Stu Bennett looking at names for his wildcard. Among there we see him scrunch up a piece of paper with “Papa Shango” written on it, writing “what is Skip Sheffield’s availability?” (I shudder), another bit of paper with “Cody” crossed out (I’ll bite my tongue…), “did they re-hire Drew Galloway?”, “Cena”, “Undertaker”, “Michael Tarver” (all crossed out), and finally “Hogan – Cost” and “Am I retired?”. Yes, I watched it back at slow-speed…
The montage ends with him revealing the wildcard: “Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels!
The Prestige (Joe Hendry & El Ligero) vs. BT Gunn & Joe Coffey
Another Magnificent Seven qualifier, with the winning team both making it into the match.
We start with Gunn and Hendry comparing t-shirts, before Gunn almost gives us two short wins in succession with a roll-up. Joe Coffey keeps the pressure up with a wheelbarrow swing for a near-fall on Ligero, who quickly begs off as Hendry gets in a blind tag and a DDT to turn things around.
A Hendry Lock attempt ends with Coffey shoving Hendry into a tag, prompting Ligero to tease a Giant Swing. Yeah, that’s not happening. Hendry helps out when he crotches Gunn up top, and now Hendry’s joining commentary for… reasons. Did nobody hear him on 5*, let alone watch?
The crowd started to get behind Gunn as Hendry held him in place for a double-team… it’s avoided as BT tags in Coffey to clear house, and of course, we get the Giant Swing from the Iron Man before Hendry breaks up a Boston crab. Gunn’s back with kicks and a springboard cutter to Ligero, before the Parade of Moves continues with Freak of Nature fallaway slams. After a Ligero low blow to Coffey, which the ref misses, Hendry tries to capitalise with another ankle lock… and that’s enough for the submission. This felt a little flat, but the Prestige has never really caught my eye. I do like Joe Hendry protecting his Commonwealth Games t-shirt like it was made of gold though. **¾
They air a promo video for WALTER’s debut at Light’s Out. Yes, it’s the one with the Cagematch rating brag… then we’re backstage with not-as-new Adam and Millie McKenzie. She walks away from him. Smart move.
Sammii Jayne vs. Kay Lee Ray
Winner gets a title shot at Millie at Lights Out – which means at least we’re not getting the “title shot for a debutant” deal straight away.
Sammii works the wrist early on as the pair kept it grounded, with Sammii looking to be a step ahead as stopped herself in the ropes before we finally got a nice indy’riffic pinning series, once the referee figured out he was needed to count a pin. It led to a stalemate, but Kay Lee starts to take the upper hand, chopping Jayne around the ring, before nailing a tornado DDT for a near-fall.
A leaping enziguiri from Jayne puts Kay Lee’s momentum to a brief end, but Kay Lee finally trips her in the ropes before dragging Sammii outside… and that’s where Sammii turned it back around with a low dropkick on the apron as she gets another two-count. Another enziguiri, this time from KLR, looked to get her back in charge, but she’s quickly caught with a baseball slide German suplex after being shoved into the ropes… only to quickly lock in a Koji Clutch after she kicked out, as offence turned to defence in a heartbeat.
Sammii’s back on the offence pretty soon after, taking Kay Lee into the ropes, before heading outside with a tope. KLR returned the favour, before we move to boo/yay forearms as KLR edged further ahead, nailing a gourdbuster front suplex for a near-fall. Jayne nearly nicked it with a Samoan driver, while a Gory Bomb gets Kay Lee another two-count, before KLR went back to the Koji clutch, which almost led to her getting pinned.
Another Gory Bomb’s countered into a buckle bomb by Jayne, who then countered a springboard into a German suplex… and now Sammii’s mocking Millie McKenzie with the pony tail and the Germans. Millie heads out for some reason, and drills the ref with a forearm before decking Jayne with Germans of her own… and of course, the match is waved off as a no-contest. Well, I’m happy they didn’t just insert a debutant into a title match, but the fact that the match took ages to get going perhaps should have been a hint that this was going to be a screwy finish? **¾
We’re backstage next with Primate and Jimmy Havoc… why do they bother asking Primate questions when growling is his only reaction? Jimmy points out the obvious, as well as that he always gets the pin in their tag matches. A nice seed to sow there… especially as they face Aussie Open next week!
Defiant Championship: Martin Kirby vs. Austin Aries (c)
We’ve got stalling to start with as Aries sought to keep away from his challenger, but that led to something of a sucker punch as Aries backed his way into the corner.
Kirby quickly reverses things, but Aries powders again as a shoulder charge looked to be coming his way, and this match is looking to be rather fragmented as we got bursts of offence. Back inside, Kirby misses a splash into the corner, and that gives Aries a chance to break ahead, dropping a series of knees onto Kirby’s back and front, before a springboard elbow to the outside knocked the challenger to the floor too.
A Kirby fightback’s stopped with a knee to the gut, as Aries looked to take a count-out victory… but Kirby makes it back in as he’s dragged into a sleeperhold as Aries takes the match back down to the mat. Kirby escapes and applies his own, but Aries counters with a shinbreaker, a back suplex and a power elbow for a nonchalant two-count as the pace remained relatively slow for these two.
More forearms from Kirby take Aries into the corner for some shoulder charges, as he keeps up the pressure with a Slingblade for a near-fall, but Aries again knocks him outside as they cut-off each others dive attempts. There’s an awkward landing as Kirby crashes and burns with a back body drop to the floor as Aries connected with his dive, before trapping Kirby in the ropes with a neckbreaker.
A backslide almost gets the win for Aries, but he floats over into the Last Chancery as Kirby teases tapping before he scooted back into the ropes instead. Frustrated, Aries grabs his title belt, playing keep-away with it, but it almost leads to the end as Kirby rolled him up for a near-fall out of nowhere. More forearms follow, before Kirby catches Aries in his own finish – a callback to what happened at Chain Reaction – but then the bell rings.
No, Aries didn’t tap, we’re getting a screwjob. Kirby thinks he won, but nobody in the crowd is falling for it. The bell keeps ringing, and it’s shown to be No Fun Dunne who’s hijacked it, and with Kirby distracted Aries nails the rolling elbow before Kirby slides out of an apron death valley driver and takes down the last remnants of Team IPW with a tope.
Kirby calls for the Zoidberg Elbow, another callback, but Aries gets the knees up before waffling Kirby in the head with another rolling elbow before chaining together a dropkick, a brainbuster and the Last Chancery as submission quickly followed. Well, I wasn’t crazy over the finish, but this settled into a nice and slow-paced title match. ***½
Aries celebrates alone – shooing Dunne away, notably – as the end credits played.
After the copyright bug, we get a shot of Millie McKenzie in headmaster Stu Bennett’s office. He’s disappointed in her interference earlier tonight, and dishes out punishment: a three-way match for the women’s title. At least it’s not lines…
Next week: No Fun Dunne vs. Prince Ameen (huh?), Drake vs. Amir Jordan and Aussie Open taking on Jimmy Havoc and Primate for the Defiant tag team titles.
This was a pretty eh show in my mind. Your mileage will likely vary, but the Prestige tag match didn’t do much to hold my attention – and truth be told, the whole Prestige thing needs to be buried sharp-ish. It’s one of the last hangers on from the old WCPW days, and it wasn’t really something that took with the fans.
Still, next week’s show looks to be interesting, if only to see if the seed they planted this week grows quickly… a quick programming note – our review of Defiant next week will be delayed since we’ll be in Germany (and then travelling). Keep an eye on our Twitter feed to find out more!