WrestleMania weekend’s set of indy shows came to a climax on the Saturday evening, with a near-four hour long supershow called “Mercury Rising”. Featuring mostly talent from the earlier EVOLVE shows, there was also involvement from the SHINE and FIP promotions in a bid to make this the WWN’s version of WrestleMania.
Sadly, they’ve kept the hard-to-read graphics, stylised on the EVOLVE captions, but at least they get us off to a flying start, with a match that had been built up on the last two EVOLVE shows:
Chris Hero vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
This was set up after ZSJ’s challenge for a “tie-breaker” following the 2-2 draw in the Europe vs. USA series in the afternoon’s EVOLVE show. It’s also promoted as the last in ZSJ’s “Best in the World Challenge Series”. Is that enough series for you?!
ZSJ is giving up over 50lbs to Chris Hero, but this shouldn’t be as plodding as Hero’s match against Fred Yehi earlier in the day. There’s a lot of stalling, but they get going eventually, as Hero changes course when he sees ZSJ slipping out of the ring to avoid a Yazuka kick – so Hero dives feet-first out of the bottom rope instead to go to the floor. ZSJ catches Hero in an Octopus hold on the floor whilst tweaking back on the wrist – and Hero gets his body parts tweaked some more after heading back into the “safety” of the ring.
After a near stalemate inside, Hero sends ZSJ to the floor, where the Brit gets elbowed into the guard rails. Hero taunts ZSJ back inside, where he no-sells a slap and a European uppercut, before squashing ZSJ with a senton… just for a one count. Hero gets a little confident as ZSJ catches him in another wrist lock, but that quickly ends up with Hero on the upper hand and on the floor. Hero grabs a fan’s bottle of water for a drink, before peppering ZSJ with more shots inside and out.
A tornado DDT turns the tide towards ZSJ again, and a soccer kick gets a near fall before going back to the wrist hold. Back outside, ZSJ Pillmanises Hero’s arm, but Hero shrugs it off and drills ZSJ with a series of big boots on the apron that rocks the Brit, but he holds on and is able to dart back into the ring to roll up Hero for a near fall… which Hero retaliates with by kicking ZSJ’s head off in the corner.
Hero finds an attempt at a suplex blocked, but a Kimura by ZSJ is quickly released when Hero hoists him up for a Crash Landing suplex for a near fall. Another cross armbreaker from ZSJ traps Hero in the middle of the ring, but he ends up rolling into the ropes as he went for more torque. ZSJ grabs a near fall after blocking a ripcord elbow into a backslide, before Hero’s snap piledriver earns him another count of two.
ZSJ flips the bird at Hero, which earns him a stiff kick to the face, and a hard right hand, but that doesn’t faze the Brit too long, as he gets up from a Saito suplex to deliver a kick to Hero, who responds with an elbow as they resume the trading of strikes. Hero struggles to deliver another piledriver as ZSJ is sandbagging him, so Hero switches to the Gotch Piledriver, only for ZSJ to flip out and take Hero down into another armbar, following by a bridging pinfall for a count of two. More pinfall attempts follow, but Hero drills ZSJ off the turnbuckles with a bicycle kick, then a Cyclone Kill (discus big boot) . Hero peels off the elbow pad and peppers ZSJ with elbows to the back of the head, with a diving corkscrew elbow to the back of a seated Sabre Jr earning him the win.
A fun opening match, which didn’t drag despite being almost half an hour long. Good effort – and good luck to the rest of the guys following up on this!
Fred Yehi vs. Drew Gulak
I’m hoping that Yehi’s match is a lot better than his earlier one from today. Gulak’s accompanied by the rest of his Catch Point stable mates, meaning that Yehi’s potentially outnumbered four-to-one.
They work a technical match, with Yehi pulling out some rather unusual moves, including Doink’s old Stump Puller, before Gulak flattened him with a Regalplex. That move’s gotten used a lot on the WWN shows since its namesake started monitoring talent… Yehi and Gulak slap each other a fair bit, before Yehi locked in a Dragon Sleeper and a Koji Clutch, with a reverse suplex punctuating those. Yehi’s knee started to give way, which turned him into the proverbial one-legged man in an ass kicking contest (that could still throw suplexes), and it led to Gulak being able to trap Yehi in a scissored Dragon sleeper for the tap-out win.
Not a bad match, but it suffered with a lack of crowd reactions… with Yehi’s inauguration into Catch Point after the match seemingly attracting more of a response than the match itself.
Tracy Williams vs. Matt Riddle
This is a battle of the Catch Point guys, and I fear it’ll be Riddle’s second reaction-less match of the weekend, in spite of the commentary pushing how they’re just driving each other to be better. Well, at least once the chants have died down.
An ankle lock from Williams forces Riddle into the ropes, but some Kevin Dunn-like production work almost misses Riddle going over the top rope to the outside, where he’s caught by a cross body off the top from Williams. Riddle teases a similar high-flying move, but he instead baseball slides to the floor and slaps Williams.
They keep trading suplexes and strikes, with Riddle coming close to a win after a knee strike and a Fisherman Buster, before Williams scored a near fall with a lariat. Riddle floored Williams with a sit-out fly swatter, before immediately locking in a heel hook… but Williams’ free boot was enough to kick himself out of it. Riddle no-sells a series of chops as he’s caught in the ropes Andre the Giant-style, but once he gets freed he manages to catch Williams with a cross-armbreaker in the ropes.
A super DDT off the top rope got Williams a two-count, before he sinks in a facelock for the quick tap-out win. This wasn’t a bad match, but it highlighted a problem that was consistent throughout the entire weekend – without a clearly defined babyface and heel, the fans’ responses were only for moves and for Riddle’s Zack Ryder-like “bro” chops, Technically good, but in terms of connecting with the crowd, not great.
Ethan Page vs. Anthony Nese
This is under anything goes rules, so we should be in for a wild brawl, and sure enough they start trading blows early on before Page back body drops Nese into the middle of the ring. Page grabs a chair, and throws it at Nese (seconds after he’d had it kicked into his head), before ripping a page out of the New Japan playbook, and wrapping the chair around Nese’s head and throwing him into the ring post.
Back in the ring, Nese hits a draping DDT onto an opened chair, before following up with a Quebrada which seemed to damage Nese more than Page. Nese goes under the ring for more chairs, and slams Page onto the pile. Page does mount some offence, but simply tossing a chair at him put paid to that!
Nese grabs a ladder now, and chokes him with it, then sandwiches some chairs into the corners like he were playing WWE 2K16! Except the first chair Nese goes for drops to the mat before he can get Page’s head anywhere near it… Botchamania! Nese actually makes contact when he’s slingshotted into the ladder, before Page does his Terry Funk tribute ladder spot.
Nese blocks a package piledriver attempt on the chairs, but takes an opened-up chair face first when Page hits reverse suplex with a crash landing. More plunder-assisted spots, with Nese getting a two-count from a Death Valley Driver onto the opened-up chairs, before Page retaliated with a chairshot that turned Nese inside out.
Page goes to set a ladder up across two chairs, but Nese blocks a suplex through them, only to take a top rope powerbomb through the ladder, followed by a package piledriver as Ethan Page grabs the win. A fun brawl, made more enjoyable by this being the only match of it’s kind across the EVOLVE/WWN trio of shows.
Terry Funk Appreciation Ceremony
They then go to their selling point for this year’s supershow – a tribute to Terry Funk! Featuring his old FMW music and all! Sadly they didn’t have any ring steps for the 71 year old who’s had replaced knees… they introduce Sabu (and Stereotypical American Playing An Arabic Woman) who throws a chair into the ring. Sabu gets another chair and acts as if he’s going to hit Funk with it, but instead they hug.
Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild” plays, and as a surprise, Mick Foley comes through the crowd – much to the delight of the fans and Terry Funk (who had not been told about his appearance). Foley came out with a golden plaque for Funk, and noted that he’d been given the night off by Vince McMahon (which got boos…). After they’d made their speeches, Earl Cooter and Larry Dallas (out of Florida promotion Full Impact Pro), and you can guess how this ends up. Cooter and Dallas try to cheapshot Funk, Sabu and Foley, and they end up flat on their asses… before Foley pulls a sock off his foot, and rams the newly fresh Mr Socko down the throats of Dallas and Cooter.
Following an intermission (I believe the first one of the entire weekend. They show the highlight package that aired prior the WWN shows going live, rather than editing it out of the on-demand version of this show, because… reasons), we return to in-ring action.
SHINE Title: Taylor Made (c) vs. Nicole Matthews
Taylor Made’s original opponent, Ivelisse, was ruled out with injury, so they’re looking for a new opponent. I’m not sure that the “Valifornia” gimmick works quite as well when they’re representing a women’s wrestler; particularly when one of them (Andrea) looks more imposing… then again, I had the same feeling earlier in the EVOLVE weekend when they cornered Anthony Nese and Caleb Konley.
They wheel out Luscious Latasha as she tries to take the vacant title shot… unfortunately, most of the Dallas crowd didn’t appear to know who the 5ft-er was, but Andrea did, and she wiped out Latasha with a dropkick. Andrea is the same person as Rosie Lottalove in TNA – the same one who injured Daffney years ago during a TNA dark match – and looks nothing like the person you’d remember.
Nicole Matthews is then announced as Taylor Made’s challenger, and Taylor attacks Matthews at the bell, but Matthews gets the upper hand, snapmaring the champion and kicking her in the back. Out on the floor, Taylor whips Matthews into the guard rails, but that matters little as Matthews connects with a tope suicida onto Taylor and Andrea. Once Taylor got onto offence, the crowd started booing – and this was the first real match of the show that didn’t seem to get anyone in the crowd going. It just felt like the crowd were booing because it was their role.
Matthews scored a near fall from a bridging German suplex, and then had the match won when she made Taylor tap to a Liontamer, but So Cal Val got up on the apron to distract the referee, allowing Andrea to take down Matthews with a boot, setting up Taylor Made to score the win with a cutter.
FIP World Heavyweight Title: Jason Cade vs. Gary Jay vs. Maxwell Chicago vs. Caleb Konley (c)
… and So Cal Val and Andrea returned immediately to corner (or in the case of Andrea, overshadow) Caleb Konley for this FIP title match – sorry, the FIP WORLD championship – as Trevin Adams (filling in on commentary) is at pains to announce. To the point where I’m wanting to watch this one on mute.
Gary Jay seems to be wearing a rip-off CM Punk shirt – remember, the one with the ribcage on it – whilst Maxwell Chicago has a very unusual outfit: a bodysuit styled like a tuxedo. They announce that this is a WWE-style four-way (so no elimination rules). Chicago’s more of a comedy act, billed as a “limousine luchadore” who has a fear of heights and can barely climb the bottom turnbuckle… and I guess we’ve found the crowd that will eat up anything, as Chicago slowly climbs to the top, then to the apron, before sliding to the floor and leaning into everyone. Well, it worked to get a response, I guess.
Jason Cade flattened Gary Jay with a lungblower, before superkicking Chicago’s head off, and Cade looked impressive throughout, nailing dives on all three guys and a variety of high impact moves, including a 450 plancha off the top rope onto Jay on the floor.
Jay hits a German suplex into the turnbuckles on Konley, before sending Cade and Chicago into the pile, before scoring near falls on all three of them. Chicago scored a near fall after a Trouble in Paradise and a Tiger bomb on Cade, forcing Konley to save his title by breaking up the pin.
The finish came when Andrea shoved Cade off the top rope, allowing Konley to catch Jay with a Michinoku driver off the second rope to retain his title. Good match, but I could have done without similar interference finishes (from the same person!) in back to back matches!
EVOLVE Title: Sami Callihan vs. Timothy Thatcher (c)
Thatcher is still selling the elbow injury that sustained against Matt Riddle the prior evening, and the first thing he does is smash Callihan with a running elbow. And doesn’t sell it – clearly it’s healed since his match with Marty Scurll earlier!
Saying that, Callihan worked the elbow as much as he could, with the match starting off on the ground, before Callihan hit a “low-pe” (tope between the bottom two ropes) to knock Thatcher to the floor. Thatcher had to use the ropes to get enough purchase for a belly-to-belly suplex, but the storyline injury seemed to kill the crowd somewhat, with even a whip of Callihan into the rails not awakening them.
Stereo elbows to the face saw Thatcher come off worst (don’t use the bad arm!), before dualling bicycle kicks took both men to the mat. Thatcher battled back and drilled Callihan with a high-angle back suplex, before Callihan responded with a delayed version of the same move. Callihan then pulls a move out of the Nigel McGuinness playbook, with the old London Dungeon armbar that forces Thatcher to gut it out and make it to the ropes.
A modified tombstone piledriver got Callihan a near fall, before sending a big boot at Thatcher. That seemed to enrage him, and as Callihan spat into Thatcher’s face, the champion responded with a stiff headbutt that was enough to get the pin. That was… odd. A decent enough match, but the crowd just didn’t seem to care for much of it.
Post-match, the entire Catch Point group came out. Drew Gulak trash-talks Thatcher, and he responds by saying that he’ll challenge every one of them for the belt, before leaving the belt in the ring and making his way to the back. Gulak picks up the belt for himself as Catch Point leaves with the stolen gold.
I know that Timothy Thatcher is highly rated, but I just don’t get him. Perhaps this was just a dud of a weekend for him. The kayfabe elbow injury was not the best story to tell across four shows (2 x EVOLVE and the WWN show), particularly when the same story was being played to largely the same audience three times.
Marty Scurll, Tommy End & Will Ospreay vs. Johnny Gargano, Kota Ibushi & TJP
Billed as Team Europe vs. Team EVOLVE 1 (since Gargano, Ibush and TJP all appeared on the first EVOLVE show six years ago), this was WWN’s effort to recreate the magic of the six-man tags that set WrestleMania weekend on fire a decade ago. Nevermind that Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr eclipsed the Dragon Gate matches with their showing on Friday night…
Okay, we’re nowhere near “save the show” territory, but this should wake the crowd from their second half slumber! At the bell, the Dallas crowd started off a “Kris Travis, woah” and “Thank you Travis” chant, and we got underway with Scurll and Gargano exchanging holds, before getting in an early chicken wing and an eye poke on Gargano, before we finally got to see Will Ospreay in the same ring as Kota Ibushi, and finally the place goes wild!
Ospreay confounds Ibushi with his repeated kip-ups to escape a wristlock, before Ibushi outlasts a load of flips and leapfrogs to dropkick Ospreay to the mat. Scurll added a surfboard with added fish-hooking into the mix on Gargano, who found himself slowly getting cut off from his partners.
TJP just about connected with a springboard forearm on Tommy End, but the Dutchman ended up as part of a six-man forearm exchange program, with the Euros hitting a trio of Scurll’s “just kidding” superkicks to the hamstrings of their opponents, before the EVOLVE team returned the favour, adding topes to the mix. Gargano’s superman spear got caught, and that led him to take a load of punishment as the match started to break down a little.
End and Scurll elevated TJP in a gorilla press slam, allowing Ospreay to jump into the corner and drill the former Manik with a springboard cutter that got the crowd on their feet, and another near fall for the Euros. Kota Ibushi fought back with double Pele kicks onto End and Ospreay, before Gargano wiped out Ospreay and Scurll with a Superman Spear.
Other highlights towards the end saw Ospreay turn a crash landing suplex attempt from Gargano into an Ace crusher, before Ibushi obliterated Ospreay with a clothesline. Gargano wiped out most of the European team with a rolling cannonball off the apron onto the floor; whilst Tommy End upstaged him with a moonsault off the top. Scurll and Ibushi end up in the crowd, and Ospreay takes a back body drop, flipping himself into the crowd.
Ibushi and Ospreay climb onto a balcony and start slugging it out, before the pair hit duelling moonsaults onto the crowd below, before everyone makes their way back to the ring. Another Ospreay/Ibushi face-off follows, as Tommy End needed to dive in at the last minute to break a pin after a bridging German suplex on Ospreay, before Ibushi’s stalling sitout powerbomb on Ospreay was enough to get the win for the EVOLVE team.
Whilst nowhere near as fast paced or frenetic as the initial Dragon Gate six men matches, this easily lived up to the hype, and a sure-fire match of the night. As a closer to the WWN weekend, this was a great show from top to bottom, save for one match in particular, but as usual with this crew, well worth the $15 for the On-Demand show!
- We’re almost done with the WrestleMania Reviews – tomorrow, we’ll post our final review: the PROGRESS Wrestling title match between Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay from WrestleCon. And then we can all breathe!