Three Count this week features build for GWF Legacy – and a promising main event between El Phantasmo and Lucky Kid!
We open with a recap from prior weeks, including Dover’s scuffle with Grup Anarsi, Ben Aslan slipping a mickey in Cash Money Erkan’s drink, and Pascal Spalter being all ominous with Lucky Kid.
Ahmed Chaer’s office is the opening place this week, with Pascal Spalter in a rather Arabic GWF t-shirt coming in and asking why he had to wrestle against Bad Bones, Lucky Kid and Chris Colen in a TLC match at Revenge (on October 6). Chaer reminds him he doesn’t make the matches, but Spalter doesn’t seem to buy that… given how much Ahmed talked it up. Chaer reckoned Spalter should shut up and maybe the success will return… but not before he demanded a match with Lucky Kid at the GWF Legacy show next month.
Tarkan Aslan and Cash Money Erkan are in the training school… man, they’re really pushing that new shirt. Erkan took what happened in last week’s match between them to heart, saying that he’s perhaps under trained, and so he needs to find the “real Cash Money Erkan” again. Tarkan flat out tells him what happened, but laughs it off as the camera stays on Erkan for a little too long.
Ali Aslan’s next in his own office, geeing up Grup Anarsi ahead of their match with the New Wave. Georges Khoukaz comes in, still wanting to have some form of acknowledgement from Ali… but Aslan’s not impressed that he beat Martin Guerrero at Revenge, since pretty much everyone has. They’re building to an eventual rebellion from within, especially since Ali’s putting all his eggs in the Cem Kaplan basket.
Tarkan and Ben Aslan are backstage eating… and we’re already into the titles after just seven minutes of “backstage segments”. That feels like a record. This week though, we’ve got a heck of a main event on paper: El Phantasmo vs. Lucky Kid!
Dark Society Vol. 2.0 (Just Rambo & Crazy Sexy Mike) vs. New Wave (Kris Jokic & Oliver Carter)
After having failed to beat Kati Libra and Wesna last week, will we get the customary women’s match this week? We did on GWF Revenge at least…
There’s something about Olaf Heyden’s accent that makes it sound like he’s introducing “The Falcon” Kris Jokic as a rather more crude nickname. The Dark Society jump their foes at the bell, cornering Jokic with the doe-see-doe of forearms as the crowd mocked Mike with “Loserweight” chants. Chalk that up to this being taped out of sequence! Rambo and Mike double-team Jokic with almost a reverse Fidget Spinner and a pair of elbow drops for a near-fall, before a uranage from Mike and a frog splash from Rambo led to another two-count.
Jokic fought back with some boots before flipping over his opponents en route to tagging in Oliver Carter, who scored with some headscissors to Rambo… and brought Jokic back in. Was something cut?! The New Wave tandem are full of fire here, as they exchanged quick tags before they just about scored with a ‘rana onto Carter’s knees. There’s a lot of innovation, but it doesn’t always come off crisply. A rolling death valley driver and a Quebrada comes off well for another near-fall as Rambo looked to be in trouble, but Crazy Sexy Mike saves Rambo from a Doomsday Device… allowing Rambo to backflip out and land a cutter for another two-count.
Carter’s back with an Exploder for a near-fall, but the ring fills as Mike dumps him with a powerbomb, before he’s sent into Rambo courtesy of a back body drop. The Doomsday Cutter’s next on Rambo, and that’s another loss for the Dark Society! This was enjoyable, if not a little rough in places, but worth the watch overall. ***
El Phantasmo vs. Lucky Kid
It’s main event time with over 20 minutes left, so this is going long!
Commentary tells us that Phantasmo won a shot at the Berlin title (or the Berlin tile, as the on-screen graphic tells us) courtesy of his win at GWF Revenge… so he’s getting his title shot next month… in a three-way with Mike Bailey? That seems screwy…
When the bell goes, ELP plays Lucky Kid at his own (mind) games, before the pair ended up going into the ropes ahead of some weirdness. Lucky scores with a low dropkick that sent Phantasmo outside, but he doesn’t dive as instead he… BLAAAHs! It lures Phantasmo back inside, as he took Lucky outside with a dropkick before mocking Lucky as well, which led to them… touching tongues. Yeah, this has gone right down a really weird street.
Lucky clings onto ELP’s leg as the intimacy continues, but Lucky’s able to turn things back into a match as he catches Phantasmo in some headscissors. ELP escapes, but ends up in the turnbuckles… before he found a second wind, springing off the ropes with a Quebrada for a near-fall.
Phantasmo looks for the whirlibird neckbreaker, but Lucky flips out and hits the ropes for an eventual tornado into an Asai DDT for a near-fall. We’re shown Bad Bones is in the crowd, but he’s just an observer for now as Lucky chops back against Phantasmo, before a powerbomb is punched away by ELP… who then dropkicks away a handspring attempt. The whirlibird neckbreaker follows as ELP gets a near-fall, as Pascal Spalter appears at ringside. This is going to overshadow the match, isn’t it? Lucky notices his extra fans, as Spalter and Klinger slowly inch towards the ring… but not before he tried to Ligerbomb Phantasmo, who hit back with a tornado DDT instead for a near-fall.
ELP looks for a Praying Mantis Bomb, but Lucky flips out and jack-knifes him for a near-fall, before a Ligerbomb picked up another two-count. We’ve duelling “let’s go Lucky” chants, but he ends up having to kick out of a roll-up before a Next Stop Driver almost put ELP down for the count.
Lucky teases a Dragon superplex, but Phantasmo elbows free and instead takes down Lucky with a senton/moonsault combo… and that’s enough for the win! This was alright, but the presence of Pascal Spalter and Bad Bones at ringside seemed to kill some of the steam (at least on the video) just as it was getting started. Without the storyline stuff on the outside, this could have gotten into gear, but it was what it was. ***¼
After the match, Phantasmo leaves while Spalter and Klinger hung around at ringside. They eventually came face-to-face for a shoving match, trading blows as Lucky Kid got back to his feet… which of course was the perfect time for him to dive into the pair of them (and the hi-vis catchers too) as the show came to an end.
We jump backstage as Chris Colen approached Ahmed Chaer and Crazy Sexy Mike. He tried to “keep the team together” as champion, saying that Chaer and Mike’s arguments are splitting the promotion. It led to Chaer and Mike arguing again, and then we cut to credits as Vincenzo Coccotti tries to play psychologist to Pascal Spalter, who runs through his nicknames to get us going. Coccotti tries to poke the proverbial bear, asking Spalter what it’s like to not be a champion, or whether he feared being forgotten or overshadowed. It eventually worked as Spalter broke down over a fear of rejection before the show just abruptly ends.
This week’s episode wasn’t quite as strong on the whole “duel universe” stuff with the GWF, as it seemed like we were finally caught up as the promotion began their build for November’s Legacy show.