After a Death House finale on night one, how the hell do you top that? Well, night two of the Project Mayhem VI weekender tries to find out…
I forgot to mention this on night one’s report, but Fight Club: Pro’s changed their layout again. No video screen this weekend for us!
Like night one, we’re interrupted by #CCK at the start, and once again Chris Brookes isn’t booked. He complains about having to defend his title in a four-way the prior night, but he wants a match tonight “because vet’s bills are really expensive”. Zing! So we have an open challenge for the title…
Fight Club: Pro Championship: Chris Brookes (c) vs. Eita
Or Eita Kobayashi as the graphic read. He’s got a gift for the wolf too… THE CONE OF SHAME! Well, he deserved it – tripping Eita in the opening moments as he went for a dive, before chasing the wolf, which led to this visual.
After that, Eita gets the wet willie into his cauliflowered ear, before he snuck in a cheeky baseball slide dropkick to the tortured wolf. Hasn’t he suffered enough?! Topes from Eita follow, ending with a head first tope suicida that almost ended in an accidental DDT!
The Starworks played count-along-with Eita, as Brookes seemed to have no clue how to escape Irish whips into the corners – a series that got a good response as Brookes ended up going all Lloyd Katt with his pace. After all that, Eita nearly won it with a bridging back suplex, but that was the cue for Brookes to fire back with a slingshot cutter, only to fall to a wheelbarrow driver off the top rope.
Except Lykos got involved again, holding Shay back. It backfired as a baking tray shot to the head by Eita nearly gets the win, but again Lykos interferes… and gets one too. Hey, being a fan doesn’t excuse you for being a dick! In the midst of that, Brookes gets Death By Roll-Up, retaining the title and leaving his wolfen friend with a sore head. A fun match, but one I’m sure I’d have enjoyed more with more familiarity with Dragon Gate. Check one off Brooke’s bucket list… ***½
Callous Hearts (Clint Margera & Jimmy Havoc) vs. Scarlet And Graves (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz)
Perhaps by habit, people were looking at the side when “I Hope You Suffer” hit… but this time, there was no secret ring. Just the introduction of two battle-scarred wrestlers who got a monstrous ovation for walking to the ring.
Erm, Dezmond. Is it wise to come to the ring dressed in a coat to mock a guy who shrugged off nearly losing his pinkie the prior night?! Is it Opposite’s Day?!
Unwisely, Scarlet and Graves wanted to do things CZW-style. Did you not see what these guys did less than 24 hours earlier? We start with the corny “swing, hit the ropes, then yourself” chairshots from the Callous Hearts, before a flip tope from Wentz – using a chair to propel himself – almost saw him crash into the guard rails as we had an insane opening stretch, which involved the return of the mobile camera as they brawled throughout the Starworks Warehouse. You know the drill – “something’s happening over there”, but at least Wentz climbed up (and dove off) a supporting column so we had a chance to see something.
Eventually they wandered back towards the ring, but not before Jimmy found some light tubes that Wentz became familiar with. That wacky violent self promotion follows as Havoc’s 8×10’s used to inflict paper cuts to Zachary’s hands, mouth and tongue. You sick bastard. Xavier gets something a little more tame, in the form of a death valley driver from Margera, as somehow a ladder comes into play.
Yes, Clint gets thrown into it, whilst Wentz leapt onto it before Xavier’s flippy thing caught out Clint. Who then had the ladder thrown onto him. Ouch. A 3D trolls Bubba for a near-fall, before Xavier tries to re-enact that famous ECW Arena spot by filling the ring up with chairs. Poor buggers, all those fans sitting on the floor from now on!
Xavier uses those chairs to suplex Havoc onto, before crashing and burning with a Spiral Tap. Wentz gets thrown onto Xavier with a death valley driver, and all that’s left is for Havoc to hit a double stomp and an Acid Rainmaker for the win. A fun match with a lot of plunder, but if FCP were in the business of regularly doing storylines, I’d have to call a split between the Callous Hearts down the line. The seeds are there people! ***
Omari vs. Shane Strickland
Well, this was fun! Starting with handstands out of headscissors, this began as a fast-paced encounter that showed a different side of Omari’s arsenal.
A diving dropkick through the ropes from Omari misses its target, and he ends up sliding back into the ring… right as Strickland was going for a springboard. Hey, he still landed on the Big O (not Zack Ryder’s friend), so what’s the big deal? Strickland quickly started to get frustrated when he couldn’t put Omari down, especially as the relative rookie was gamely fighting through anything and everything.
An aborted 450 splash from Strickland ends with him running into a superkick, and Omari keeps up from there, landing a top rope rana and a moonsault to nearly snatch the match, before rolling through suplexes into an O-Zone! Still, that’s not enough to put away a triple champ, so Omari’s forced to keep on fighting… except Strickland hits back, kicking away the arm, which set up for a cross armbreaker as Omari unwisely tried for another O-Zone.
In the end, a modified version of the Killshot/JML Driver – a half nelson driver – gets the win as Omari came up short, but still looked like a million dollars out there. Omari’s time will come, and believe me, unless something catastrophic happens, his is a name who is going to be high up on all the shows in the not too distant future. ***¾
Travis Banks vs. Masaaki Mochizuki
The former Fight Club: Pro champ against the current Open the Dream Gate champion – so there’s quite the pedigree here, and quite a split crowd too.
Speaking of split, I think Masaaki was trying to split Travis’ skin with some chops early, before he tried in vain to keep the Kiwi Buzzsaw grounded. When that didn’t work, the ringpost came into play as both men were thrown into it, before they continued to take odd shots at each other in the ring. Kicks, boots, chops, you name it, they threw it.
A cannonball in the corner gets Banks a near-fall, before Mochizuki throws a big boot into him in the corner as the two began trading kicks, culminating in Mochizuki hitting Banks with his own Slice of Heaven out of the corner for the rather abrupt win! This was good, but way too short for my liking – it just about got going when the end came. Enjoyable stuff, within the vacuum of this particular weekender. ***½
After what I assume was intermission, Chief Deputy Dunne heads out with his megaphone siren to the displeasure of everyone. He’s fed up with everyone socialising, and demands that they close the bar – so he can get Martina away from there and in the ring. She runs to the ring, after having a help up over the guard railings, and is put under arrest. This gets very weird very quickly, before Dunne stomps down on her, only for his hand to get caught in her. Crotch.
Yep, she’s learned something from Joey Ryan!
After the tables turn, Shay makes the save, only to get laid out too. Hey, here’s Jack Sexsmith! Big Double Stompy Move! Dunne blocks Mr Cocko though, only for Shay and Martina to have the same idea… and a three-way Cocko (that’s gonna get this site put on a watchlist) to lead to the head of the Anti-Fun Police’s downfall. A fun segment to ease everyone into the second half…
Mark Davis vs. Millie McKenzie vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Jordan Devlin vs. David Starr vs. Mark Haskins vs. CIMA
According to Matt Richards, this was a “Multi House Scramble”. Isn’t a multi-house just a block of flats? Mark Haskins has some wacky new music, which is neither Crobot nor his newer song… it so doesn’t fit him. It’s not angry, nor miserable.
Just as I was about to put over Matt Richards for announcing in order, he blanked Kyle Fletcher, which led to a not-at-all-awkward spot where Kyle awaited cheers… then had to hear Jordan Devlin get an introduction instead. Whoops!
So we get going with Haskins and CIMA, in a throwback to Mark’s days with Dragon Gate (in Japan and the UK offshoot), and it’s a good job Fight Club: Pro don’t have commentary. Too fast to call! Haskins heads out and in comes Millie, who’s undaunted by her opposition, only to get instantly put in a wacky over-the-knee submission.
Disingenuous CIMA is disingenuous.
Millie eventually responds with headscissors, but we’re under Dragon Gate rules as CIMA heads to the outside, prompting Jordan Devlin to attack her from behind. He uses his ol’ big head against the Aussies, who reply with the Fidget Spinner, before turning their sights on each other. Although Dunkzilla won out, he quickly had to look at it as the revolving door continues, taking us to Mark Haskins’ cavalcade of topes! Millie looks set for Dunkzilla’s pull-up piledriver, but she turns it into some headscissors before getting German suplexed onto the pile outside!
She returns with suplexes of her own, giving Devlin, Haskins, Fletcher and Starr German suplexes… hell, CIMA gets one too! C’mon Mark, finish the set…. Nah, he elbows free, then takes a release German instead! In one brief spell, I think the Starworks found their own Brock Lesnar…
Things degenerate into a typical multi-way scramble affair, leading to CIMA finishing a Tower of Doom, before Millie’s top rope ‘rana on Devlin’s turned into a powerbomb. A package piledriver from Devlin puts paid to her, and gets him an instant receipt from Dunkzilla’s pull-up piledriver as our favourite Parade of Moves breaks out, featuring a wacky top rope Destroyer from Fletcher… death valley driver from Haskins into an armbar… Sharpshooter.. Blackheart Buster… a Fisherman’s driver from CIMA, before a diving double knee strike from CIMA gets the pin over Haskins. Gotta love a multi-man scramble – and since we hadn’t OD’d on them tonight, this felt extra special. ***¾
Kay Lee Ray vs. Jessicka Havok
Borne out of the ashes of last night’s three-way, we’ve got the sorta-fresh-from-Japan Kay Lee Ray against a Havok who wants her dead.
Ray uses her speed to catch out Havok early, sidestepping a charge before throwing herself at the Havok Death Machine, but hat size difference quickly came into play when a crossbody was caught and turned into a backbreaker. Kay Lee tried to come back with a guillotine choke, but she’s charged into the corner to break it up, then dragged into a Tree of Woe which she’s elbowed out of.
File that particular one under “looked like it sucked”.
Kay Lee tries to mount another comeback, but the Gory Bomb was always going to be a struggle, as Havok shrugged it off and bulldozed past the Scotswoman with ease. Some headscissors were turned into a bucklebomb, but Ray wouldn’t stay down, and ended up rolling Jessicka into another guillotine… agonisingly close to the ropes.
Again though, Havok escaped and turned it into a tombstone… which Kay Lee escapes with another set of headscissors, before finally getting up Havok for the Gory Bomb… but it’s not enough! Recovering quickly, Havok catches Ray up top, and pulls her down into an Air Raid Crash for a near-fall, before the pair went back up top, leading to a tombstone off the middle rope that put away Ray for the pin. This was fine; much like on night one, it was a David vs. Goliath story, but you got the sense that the crowd weren’t happy at seeing a regular going down like this. **¾
Still, after the match they kissed and made up, even if Jessicka didn’t make good on her promise of murder.
Team Wrestling Revolver (Sami Callihan, Jake Crist & Dave Crist) vs. British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven)
We wrap up the Project Mayhem weekender with another British Strong Style trios match, featuring a throwback to the first Project Mayhem show, which featured Trent Seven against Sami Callihan. Sami demanded this be a tornado rules match, so let’s bring on the mayhem!
The Revolver team jump British Strong Style as they posed, before the Crists wiped out Trent and Tyler with dives. Yep, we’re starting with Pete and Sami, but as they ran the ropes we were treated to picture-in-picture footage of the aftermath of Dave Crist meeting the guard railings. That was a bit of a feature, unfortunately, with the inset showing the aftermath of something that we’d missed, and bizarrely, this dual-angle shot of Tyler Bate.
Sami kisses his way out of bop and bang as he wiped out Tyler instead, clotheslining him to the outside ahead of some missed dives, which then gave way to some dives that hit, culminating with Dunne’s moonsault to the floor. It feels weird, but the Starworks really wants to cheer Pete Dunne…
Things lead to a Tower of Doom spot, with Jake Crist waiting to turn the aftermath of the superplex into a powerbomb for a near-fall, before his attempts to forearm Dunne went badly wrong for him. Dunne stacked up the Crists into some single leg crabs that Callihan tried to kick away, before planting one on the lips did the trick.
After a Gotch tombstone couldn’t get the job tone, Sami fell to a backflip into a German suplex from Bate as things got a little wild, with the Crists superkicking Trent ahead of a Doomsday Cutter! He replies with dualling Exploders, before a Zangief piledriver dropped Sami for a near-fall, and then its back to the wackiness with a trio of tombstones! Everyone ends up in the aisle, throwing hands and each other, before Dave Crist found a way to dive through the entry way onto British Strong Style. Not bad for someone with a wrecked back…
In the ring, a spike tombstone gets a two-count on Dunne, despite all of the Wrestling Revolver team piling on him… and it seems a babyface Bruiserweight has emerged!
Callihan lifted Dunne into an Electric Chair, but the Crists couldn’t capitalise as Trent and Tyler crotched them up top before a Bitter End gets Dunne a near-fall. More insanity from a flying cutter from Jake Crist gets a two-count, before low blow city led to a pair of German suplexes on the apron and a top rope piledriver from Trent to Jake… and that was the end! Suitably manic stuff to wrap up the show, and the entire weekend as British Strong Style went 1-1 for their weekend’s trios fun. ****
For me, night two of Project Mayhem VI felt like a better, more consistent show. Sure, it didn’t have the memorable moments of Friday night’s death match, but this show didn’t have the relative peaks and valleys either.
They’re back at the end of October for Day of the Dead – and with Fight Club: Pro’s next flagship being the Infinity tournament at the start of December, perhaps now we’ll be settling away from the stream of “dream match” shows? It’s a stick I’ve used a fair bit on Fight Club: Pro – the lack of storylines and abundance of “dream match booking”, but it’s a formula that has a ceiling. Then again, who am I to talk?
Project Mayhem 6’s weekender was the promotion’s biggest crowds to date, and things like lack of (obvious) stories is a minor niggle, especially when you consider that the promotion will be the latest British group to have a part over WrestleMania weekend next year is just a sign of how much they’ve expanded this year.