The long, long road to NGW’s Team Warfare match finally has an end in sight, as the build continued with their latest TV show this past weekend.
As ever, we start with an outdated Alex Shane voiceover from the premier episode (seriously guys, 12 episodes in and that’s the attention to detail?!), and shock of shocks, we’re actually starting with live action!
Robbie X vs. JD Boom
This is apparently a number one contender’s match for the Gen-X League Championship that Matt Myers won last week. I’ll leave any snide references about these guys names, but JD Boom doesn’t even have an entrance video, which kinda tells you where he lies in the pecking order.
Well, not so fast. Bubblegum comes out during Boom’s entrance and pokes Boom in the eye, before he beats up Boom. Bubblegum is angry at losing his title, and he claims that the time limit had expired. So we’ve got a change of match here.
Robbie X vs. Bubblegum
Still a number one contender’s match then, and Bubblegum starts by trying for an O’Connor roll, before chopping X in the back as he went for a handspring off the ropes. Robbie sends Bubblegum to the outside with an enziguri, then follows with a tope and a dropkick into the corner. A suplex gets Robbie X a two-count, but his waistlock attempt gets countered with an overhead kick and a dropkick from Bubblegum, who goes airborne with a double stomp to X’s back.
Robbie comes back with clotheslines to Bubblegum, then takes him down with a dropkick, and in here they slip in that Myers has joined team NGW in the Team Warfare match. Bubblegum drops X with a Sugar Rush (Daniel Bryan/Hideo Itami’s running knee), then tries for the Ice Cream Headache (Pedigree), only for it to be reversed. X deadliftts Bubblegum up into a German suplex, then lands a superkick and a running shooting star press for a near-fall.
Bubblegum crotches Robbie X on the top rope, and the commentary team again slip in that the Team Warfare match will take place next week. Robbie X fights free of a superplex, then drops Bubblegum to the mat, apparently tweaking his ankle on landing. The referee keeps Robbie X away from Bubblegum, even losing his glasses as he makes Robbie keep his distance, but of course… it was all a ruse.
Fresh from playing possum, Bubblegum invites Robbie to charge at him, and with the referee unsighted, he hits a low blow, the a sit-out tombstone piledriver for the win. Bubblegum sells the ankle again after the referee found his glasses, but this was a decent match for it’s five minutes. ***
It’s always been odd seeing a referee wearing glasses in wrestling – for the obvious reasons. Finally they used that to play into a finish that made sense. Shame the announcers didn’t pick up on it, but what can you do?
Back from the break, we see footage from 18 months ago where El Ligero was about to beat Rampage Brown, only for Dara Diablo to arise from a fake neck injury and cost Ligero the match. We then see Diablo shaving his head bald when Matt Myers had apparently lost a hair match. Another clip of Ligero having Diablo beat, only for the referee to be out of position, but Diablo rips off Ligero’s mask and pins him. A further match between the two is highlighted with a C4L turned into a Death Valley Driver, then a Blue Thunder Bomb from Diablo, only to fall to a roll-up. We end with Diablo hitting Ligero low last month, and then taking him out with a brainbuster to build up this match.
As someone fairly new to this product, this video package was confusing as hell. There was absolutely no context given here – how was Diablo injured? Why was he in the ring for that Ligero/Rampage match? Why did he shave his own head? Given that this product is meant to be targeting new fans – by NGW’s own admission – this came across like a confusing mess of a clip show that just about hinted at what had happened.
Last Man Standing: Dara Diablo vs. El Ligero
This is “unsanctioned”, and thankfully during commentary Alex Shane explains what happened with that Ligero/Rampage match from the clip. It was a title unification match, with Diablo costing Ligero… why couldn’t they have said that at the time?!
Ligero is out in jeans and a leather jacket, and we’re underway… Diablo gives Ligero a chair, but Ligero tosses it down and they start unloading on each other with fists. Diablo grabs the chair, but Ligero stands on it, before they go to forearms, as a clothesline decks Diablo.
They go to the outside and trade shots, with Ligero crotching Diablo across the guard railings. A clothesline sends Diablo to the floor, but he recovers and tries to post Ligero, and then dumps him on the apron with a back suplex. Ligero replies by catching a running kick off the apron and sweeping Diablo’s leg, and we’re off to a commercial break.
We return as Ligero sends Diablo back into the ring, but he gets crotched on the top rope as Diablo then grabs a chair and sets it up in the opposite corner, before Diablo grabs a second chair and sets it up opposite. Diablo picks up Ligero off the top rope, but Ligero fights free, before taking a pop-up knee to the midsection and then gets suplexed through the two chairs.
Ligero beats the ten count, but gets put down and moves away from a top rope moonsault. Diablo urges Ligero to use a chair after one was picked up, but instead Ligero drops it and hits a superkick. Diablo fights back as he catches Ligero on the top rope and lands a superplex, with both men rolling to the outside to break the ten-count.
Diablo hiptosses Ligero into the stage steps as the two of them fight up the entrance way. They continue to trade punches and chops, before they switch it up into headbutts as Diablo gets knocked backstage. Ligero gets kicked low but he replies by tossing Diablo into the wall, and we see a live shot of the crowd who don’t have a clue what’s going on.
They finally return to the entranceway, but Diablo take a swipe at a stagehand, as Ligero appears behind him and launches into him with a running somersault dive in the aisle. Diablo beats the ten count though, and takes Ligero into the ringpost, which gave him time to pull out a chunky wooden table from under the ring. The table gets set up in the ring, and Diablo hauls Ligero to the top rope as he tries to superplex him through it.
Ligero clings on, and punches himself free, almost sending Diablo back through the table. Diablo regains his balance, but then gets punched back and breaks the table in half as he takes a bump. Another commercial break, and we’re back as Diablo gets to his feet, only to be caught with an Ace crusher through the ropes by Ligero.
Ligero stomps away at Diablo on the mat, and then pulls him towards the corner, setting up for a big splash off the top, but Diablo rolled away. Diablo picks up the fallen Ligero and drops him with the Diablo Driver – this time being a jackhammer, as opposed to a death valley driver.
Diablo goes back under the ring for more plunder, and he throws in a dustbin, and throws Ligero through it with a Blue Thunder bomb. Ligero stands up though, and fights back with a forearm strike, only for Diablo to return the favour as he tried to go after the mask of Ligero again. A mule kick sends Diablo to the mat, and Ligero goes up top, this time connecting with the Mexican Wave (big splash), but Diablo barely beats the ten count. The C4L follows, and Ligero again waits for the count, but Diablo beats the count again and grabs a chair.
Ligero takes away the chair, but again Diablo taunts him to use it… Diablo spat in Ligero’s face, and that was enough as Diablo barely got his hand up to take a chairshot… and that was it! A single chairshot from El Ligero is enough to win the match, and that was quite entertaining, as they’d strayed well away from using plunder for throwaway spots. ***½
After the match, Joseph Conners comes to the ring to mockingly clap Ligero. Lillith is out with Conners too, but Liam Slater runs out to make a save. The lights go out, and when the power returns, a mystery man dressed in the Road Warriors old spiked shoulder pads is standing in the corner. He spits mist at Slater, then boots Ligero in the midriff, before Conners hands him a chain which gets wrapped around Ligero as the pair try and tear him in half.
The show ends with Ligero and Slater being carried away, as half of the NGW team seems to be out of action ahead of next week’s Team Warfare.
Well, that was a much better show than the last few weeks – we didn’t have any studio segments or cut-aways… but unfortunately in doing so, they managed to undersell quite a few major storylines. That’s always going to be the issue when you do the “record a live event, slice it up into TV shows” format; for instance, the Matt Myers storyline with “will he join the NGW team next week?” was paid off with a throwaway line in commentary. Similarly, the NGW/Control Team Warfare match – which has been built up for so long in this series – finally gets a date, but if you weren’t paying close enough attention, you’d completely have missed that it was happening next week.
In spite of the claims that “they’re signing the contracts now”, none of this was shown on TV. We’ve had sit-down interviews and the like to pad out the show, but we couldn’t get an inset video of this? I know it’ll come across like I’m criticising NGW for the sake of it, but it’s little things like this that help sell the importance of a storyline.
And don’t get me started on the clip show video packages that offer no background and confuse all but the most ardent of NGW fans!
Next week is what this season has all built to… hopefully this elimination “Team Warfare” match isn’t as rushed as a similar effort from another promotion in Northern England turned out to be!