GOOD’s ninth show was a spectacle – one that started with Gene Munny in a Tinkerbell outfit… and ended with El Phantasmo winning the unlikeliest of prizes.
The thread that’s run through GOOD since it’s revival has been one man: Gene Munny. Sure, he’s had a rotating cast of characters around him in the past twelve months, but he’s settled down into being his own man… or on this show at least, his own Tinkerbell. Don’t ask.
Gene Munny Certificate of Excellence: Gene Munny (c) vs. Owen Charles
After vanquishing Big Grizzly on the prior GOOD show, Gene Munny’s next opponent was someone he thought rather less of, in the form of referee-turned-wrestler Owen Charles. Vowing to drop down to Owen’s level – and work the opener – Munny turned up in a ridiculous Tinkerbell costume to further mock his opponent.
Gene put his title on the line for the fun of it, while simultaneously “berating his man servant” Graham, who was back for… reasons. It just led to the pair of them being dived into, as Charles tried to end things early. Unfortunately though, he’s quickly squashed with a spinebuster, then a moonsault as Munny looked to put him away. A suplex and an imploding senton – the Gammon-ball – gives Gene enough time to berate the crowd, then to pick Owen’s nose… only for Owen to willingly eat it. Gross. Still, it starts a comeback as Charles flew around Munny, building up into an armbar attempt, which Gene escaped before dropkicking his challenger back down to the mat. A fireman’s carry spinebuster’s next, but Owen “kicked out”… and that cockiness nearly backfires as Charles had another comeback, only for Gene to snuff it out with the Ainsley Lariat for the win. A by-the-numbers opener really, but one for Gene to pick up an easy win as he awaited his next major challenge. ***
Jayde & Nina Samuels vs. M&M (Connor Mills & Maverick Mayhew)
GOOD aren’t exactly one to shy away from intergender matches, and this tag match was no different. Sure, it was a little odd seeing Jayde and Nina tagging together, especially since Jayde has had some help from another outside force in recent times…
It was a GOOD debut for M&M, coming on the back of some spirited showings in PROGRESS – but the lower ceiling in the Craufurd Arms may well preclude them from some, erm, “flippy shit.” Mayhew figured that out early, as a lot of their stuff came off the middle rope… at least it was when he was kept isolated by Jayde and Nina. Nina didn’t take too kindly to her name being sounded out like a siren, which just meant there was more aggression coming Mayhew’s way, to the point where he was virtually pleading for his partner to save him. Yeah, that just extended his time in there as Mills’ attempt at making the save just gets the referee distracted.
Eventually Mayhew got free and dove into the corner to tag in Mills, who was the proverbial house on fire, blasting into Nina with boots and elbows, picking up a near-fall from those, before things turned around as Jayde almost took the win with a push-down stomp out of the corner. All four participants ended in the ring, trading blows, but that leads to Nina accidentally buzzsaw-kicking Jayde as M&M’s brief resurgence was halted by way of a Destroyer from Jayde.
In the end though, it was Jayde who got her way to victory, as she just about got her foot on the ropes from a Burning Hammer – with her masked hoodlum appearing in the nick of time. M&M tried to keep up the pressure, with an assisted Code Red nearly putting Nina away, but more distraction allowed her to finish off Mayhew with a GTS for the win. This was okay, but the dreaded interferer arrived a little too late and seemed to throw off the finish. **¾
Scramble: Charli Evans vs. Chris Ridgeway vs. Johnny Idol vs. Veda Scott
The obligatory GOOD scramble was entirely announced in advance, with a couple of debuts to boot… unfortunately, an illness ruled Kid Lykos out of the show, which meant there was a substitution. Step forward another debutant, in one of his first UK matches, Johnny Idol (who’s since rebranded himself as NIWA).
Veda Scott thought she could trust the cameraman with her glasses… except Chris Ridgeway instantly grabbed them. Well, I wouldn’t put up any fight… Veda struggled early with Idol, who just sandbagged himself until Charli Evans gave a hand. Quite literally, as her chops seemed to be more effective, and audible than Veda’s. In response, there’s a neckbreaker from Veda to Charli, before the pair traded off with kicks and forearms… until Chris Ridgeway trips and pulls Veda to the outside. Idol boots Ridgeway off the apron to keep him on the outside, before Idol (who on first glance, could be confused for a better-cut Bo Dallas) found himself in a spot of bother with Charli.
The rotating door takes effect as Veda and Ridgeway hit the ring, and it’s Veda who’s actually looking to make a dent with kicks. Perhaps not the best thing to try against Ridgeway, who knocked her down with a big boot, only to get surprised with a back suplex and some stomps as Veda tried for a Muta lock… complete with a German suplex to Idol for a near-fall! Before long though, we had our first fall as Charli blocked a cutter and rolled up Veda for the elimination. She turns around into a shotgun dropkick from Idol, who looked to capitalise… but Charli fought back with forearms and chops, before rolling up the New Zealander into a kick, as another schoolboy put away Idol.
We’re left with Charli and Chris as the final two, and it seemed like it was going to be rather elementary as Ridgeway measured the Aussie for a series of kicks, going for pins after each of them, before an attempted rear naked choke was quickly flipped out of as Evans almost stole the pin. She’s got to hold firm after an ankle lock to get back up with some more kicks to the head, then some trapped-arm lariats before a Flatliner got her the win. A clean sweep for Charli Evans – in one of the more dominant Scramble performances in GOOD history! ***¼
Chief Deputy Dunne vs. Millie McKenzie
Our final slice of intergender here, and it’s a battle of the spears as the chief of the Anti-Fun Police took on Coventry’s suplex machine.
Millie took Dunne into the corner early on, but her early offence was put to an end with a snapmare and a kick to the back… which she quickly returned the favour on. An enziguiri from Dunne turns it back around, with the crowd getting behind Millie… only for her to run into a knee to the gut. A backbreaker nearly puts her away as Dunne controlled the pace of the match… but not for long, as Millie caught him unawares with a cutter. Some rope running led to a huge tiltawhirl spike DDT for a near-fall from Millie, before Dunne retaliated with a slingshot lungblower for a near-fall. German suplexes are traded next as Millie looked to edge ahead, ducking another enziguiri before running into a spear from Dunne. She retaliates with a spear of her own as Dunne looked for another springboard lungblower as the match remained finely balanced.. Ending with a Million Dollar Dream that forced Dunne to tap. Enjoyable stuff in and of itself, but it felt very much in a vacuum – unless I’m going to get proven in later shows! ***¼
Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs. Young Legends (Anthony Mafia & Warren Banks)
Originally advertised as a battle between Fletcher and Davis, this quickly descended into a farce, with the Aussies deciding to bring the outside in, since they were banned from the now-customary “fight in the pub car park.”
So, after bringing some stuff in, they were interrupted by a pairing whose absence on this card was conspicuous to say the least: Anthony Mafia and Warren Banks… and this turned into an impromptu tag match. Some of the pub garden plunder came into use, with Banks getting jousted with a parasol, while Mafia suffered a similar fate. GOOD using just the one cameraman made this a little tricky to follow at times, especially when the cameraman was playing catch up while everyone fought around ringside… including that tim where Dunkzilla used a traffic cone and charged at someone as if he were a rhino.
There’s even a spot of Mary Poppins from Fletcher, who found out that real world isn’t quite the same as movies…
When things settled down, it was Mafia and Fletcher in the ring trading shots, before Warren Banks came in and flattened Fletcher with a Shibata-ish dropkick into the corner. Mafia looks to keep on top of things, but his happy slapping ends up backfiring as the Young Legends get, erm, happy chopped by Mark Davis. Mafia manages to catch Davis with a dropkick for a near-fall, before a redirected kick from Fletcher took Dunkzilla to the outside. Undeterred, he looked to continue on, spiking Banks with a Michinoku Driver for a near-fall. Banks tries to hit back with a guillotine choke for a submission… but Mafia’s bid to restrain Davis with the same move ends with Mafia just getting suplexed onto the pile.
Mafia manages to recover and hit a nice step-up tope con giro to the outside, before he leapt into the clutches of Davis as a double-team Go to Sleep nearly ends things… but we still keep going as Davis gets posted and narrowly makes the save after a low dropkick/pump kick combo almost put away Fletcher, but there wasn’t long left for the Aussies as a fireman’s carry gutbuster and a spear finally left Kyle down for the count. A good win for the Young Legends, who are quickly finding their feet in GOOD – it’s just a case of where do you go next in a promotion with no belts? ***½
Two Out Of Three Falls: Ashley Dunn vs. El Phantasmo
Talk about the ridiculous – our main event was a match that, on paper, at least, had no stakes… until El Phantasmo rolled up for the three-second win! Embarrassed by the Worst Main Event in History™ (well, since January 1999’s Fingerpoke of Doom), Dunn offered a rematch… under best-of-three-falls rules, with his wage AND his mum’s phone number on the line.
Suddenly, GOOD has a secondary title!
The second fall starts with Dunn desperately going for the pin, as an indy’riffic pinning series broke out for a bunch of two-counts, with Phantasmo declaring that he’s not giving up because “I want your mom”… but he did get himself DQ’d after hitting Dunn low. Two quick falls, so everything to play for! Fall three starts with back-and-forth superkicks before ELP wound up for a punch… and we’re into slo-mo graps! Dunn played along with it, as did the crowd (and the AV tech), as we got strobe accompanying their strikes. Phantasmo goes into his rope-walking, remembering to duck, before he found himself crotched, before Dunn took to the skies, launching into the Canadian with a tope.
From there, it’s WWE time as ELP escapes a Pedigree only to fall to a Stunner, before a superplex is shoved off, with Phantasmo instead hitting a slow-mo senton bomb instead. We’ve a ref bump as Dunn’s sent into the corner… and that broke the time-space continuum as Dunn kicks Phantasmo low, hits an ushigoroshi… but the ref’s still in slow-mo, so it’s only good for a LONG two-count!
After kicking-out, Phantasmo reverses a crossface and grabs Dunn’s spare hand to “make him tap”… and the referee counts it as the submission! Screwy finishes, and a touch of the Russo shooting at the end, complete with a real name as Dunn wandered off in disgust. This sort-of worked on the VOD, but live I recalled a few people perhaps getting fed up with the slo-mo graps… it works as a party piece, but not as the entire match. Still, everyone’s mileage will vary! ***
Marking their first year “back”, GOOD is firmly in its groove of putting on fun shows with plenty of show-to-show development. Purists may not be a fan of how there’s not much in the way of long-term storylines or even the classic “everyone’s chasing a title” mechanic… but as a standalone show, GOOD’s cards are, erm, good for a couple of hours of solid action and a lot of fun. Well worth the VOD… or the trip to (near) Milton Keynes!