It’s rumble season as the Underground roster scraps for medallions…
Quick Results
Spartan Medal: Leon Cage pinned Adam Bolt in 8:40 (**½)
Cerberus Medal: Oscar Prospero won a rumble in 22:40 (**½)
Once again we’re back in Digbeth at the Kamikaze Pro dojo with commentary from Conor Bailey, Lucy Simons and Jetta. Has that fella in the stitched up balaclava always been in the opening packages?
Adam Bolt vs. Leon Cage
Both men are coming off of losses – but in Bolt’s case, his tag team loss sent him back to square one.
A tentative start sees Bolt try to get under Cage’s skin, before a spot of tit-for-tat ended with Bolt backing off into the corner. Going again, Cage scores with a tijeras, then following up with a blisting double-handed chop in the corner before Bolt kicked away a floatover attempt.
Bolt’s attempt to rile up Cage works as he’s blasted with a forearm before Cage blocked a hiptoss and countered with an abdominal stretch. The hold goes both ways, but it’s a hiptoss and a stomp that got Cage ahead momentarily as back-and-forth chops threatened to reset things.
Cage runs into a bearhug from Bolt, but was able to fight free… only to get caught with an enziguiri. Returning with a sleeper suplex, Cage kept it tight as he added a cartwheel enziguiri in the corner as he finally looked to be chaining together some offence. Jackie T pops up on the apron to cause a distraction, which works as Bolt capitalised with a gift-wrapped back cracker for a near-fall.
In return, Cage hangs up Bolt for a Stomp into the Future… but Bolt avoids it, only to Shelton Benjamin his way into a superkick. Jackie T again intervenes, hitting the ring… he’s ejected, but it’s all a ploy for Adam Bolt to hit a low blow, then follow up with a springboard stunner… except it’s not enough.
Bolt heads up top, but has to roll through a 450 splash as Cage returned with a springboard cutter… and finished off with the Stomp into the Future for the win. This felt like they’d done two matches and stitched them together, such was the sudden switch from a largely strike-based match before the bearhug signalled the start of them just going for their moves. Had this been a time-limited match that’d have perhaps worked better, but this just felt like it was lacking something in the middle. **½
They recap Tyler Owens’ victory over Oscar Prospero last week… which segued to a distraught Prospero who was unhappy at his loss, while also pondering Owens’ offer of help.
Another recap, this time covering the Nina Samuels/Hollie Barlow/Claudia Bradstone trio – and their attack on Hollie after last week’s tag team loss. That led to Tilly Rose consoling Hollie, which is leading to a tag match. Hang on, I thought Tilly wasn’t cleared?
Next week: The Duchess vs. Chantal Jordan, and Riley Nova vs. Sha Samuels.
Sha Samuels is out next to join commentary… as it’s time for the Rumble main event.
Rumble
Hang on, does that mean everyone in this loses a medal unless they win, or is there another exemption here? Harry Milligan and Marti Ubach start us off – Ubach’s from Andorra, and has been plugging away on the Spanish scene as of late.
Milligan looks for an early elimination, but has to settle with slamming the barefoot Andorran before we were interrupted by Oscar Prospero coming in at number three. Prospero makes a beeline for Harry with a dropkick, before he tried to chuck out Ubach as well. Harry saves Ubach for some reason, then lifted out Prospero… who doesn’t land on the floor, and instead made it back inside so he could sing his name.
Johhny Wildman is next – the balaclava’d fella from the opening package – and after he messes with my autocorrect he headed for Ubach and connected with a diving kick. Ubach tries to eliminate Wildman, but to no avail as Sha Samuel’s music hit… but it’s Joey Slade who’s out doing his best impression of Sha.
Slade’s got Sha’s scarf and his spinebuster as well… but his bid to impress Sha ended quickly as Harry just tossed Joey out at 5:31. After getting chewed out by Sha, Slade headed to the back as the rumble rolled on. The Duchess was next in, targeting Milligan from the off as she wanted revenge from her loss in week one.
Ubach tries to break it up, but he’s knocked down as the Duchess kept going. David Atlas joined at number 7, dumping Wildman with a Blue Thunder bomb as commentary quizzed the status of his knee. Atlas’ wheel seemed fine as we almost got our second elimination with the Duchess low-bridging Millian onto the apron, before a backfist knocked him to the floor at 10:02.
Jackie T joins next, but his attempt to chuck out Ubach backfired on him… we’ve no more eliminations as Sheikh el Sham joined to add some experience to things. Sheikh clears the ring, only to get jumped by Wildman… who gets eliminated at 12:44 after his choke was easily thrown aside. Jackie T tries to get him some Sheikh, but he meets the floor at 12:57, before Oscar Prospero’s opera stylings earned him a beating.
Brad Matthews is in at number 10, and went right for David Atlas, picking up where they left off a few weeks ago. Atlas is chucked out at 14:37, with a dropkick to the knee finishing him off. Sheikh el Sham targets Matthews in the corner as Billy John Langers joined. From the look of it, it’s either his debut or one of his first matches, but he does the usual “clear the ring” stuff before a froggy falling headbutt came up short on Matthews. Sha’s nearly pissing himself laughing at that, but Langers is able to land a spear seconds later to make up for that.
Ubach’s chucked out at 16:52 by Sheikh, while Matthews dropped Langers with a clothesline. The Duchess tries her luck with some headbutts to the Sheikh in the corner as we look to have had all our entrants… Langers and the Duchess pull Sheik out of the corner before Prospero low bridged Langers and knocked him down to the floor at 18:56.
Prospero, Matthews, Sheikh and Duchess are our final four… Duchess’ low blow stopped Prospero mid-celebration, before her chops at Matthews just proved ineffective. She tries another low bridge, but Matthews puts on the brakes and just throws her out at 20:13. Matthews tries to recruit Prospero by promising to make him “untouchable” if he helped him… but Sheikh stops them from audibly plotting any more.
Not that it worked because Matthews and Prospero paired up and worked together anyway. Of course, Matthews turns and despite Prospero’s best efforts, he’s clotheslined over the top rope and onto the apron. A low blow from Matthews allows him to chuck out Sheikh at 22:25 for what Matthews thought was the win. Except it wasn’t – Prospero’s feet never hit the floor, and he’s able to make it back in to throw out Matthews for the win.
Well then… for an 11-person rumble, this had its moments – Prospero’s upset win being one of them, but not every story they were looking to tell stuck their landing. **½