Anil Marik’s search for his first win continues, but it’s going to be a tough ask against 16 Carat Gold winner Cara Noir.
Once more, Dään and Nico are joined by Hektor Invictus for the expert’s panel. They run down how both men are coming into today’s match on the back of a loss, but Hektor picks Cara Noir to win. “Anil won’t stand a chance,” was the call…
Andy Jackson’s with Anil Marik trying to find positives before the match… and asked Marik whether Avalanche had passed any tips on how to beat Cara Noir. In fact, he did! Avoid the rear naked choke!
Then we see Norman Harras meeting Metehan, and he’s not exactly chipper. The Metehan/Gunns match is drawing closer, and Norman wants some kind of promise that Metehan won’t challenge Bobby for the title if he wins the Catch Grand Prix. Metehan gives Norman his word… but I have a feeling someone might have just planted a seed where one wasn’t there before.
Catch Grand Prix 2020 – Block A: Cara Noir vs. Anil Marik
Round 1: Marik ducks as Cara Noir tried to charge for a dropkick at the bell, and ends up landing the first few shots… before a diving crossbody missed. Not to worry, Marik’s right back with a bulldog out of the corner as he surpassed his time from last week. Noir hooks onto the ropes to avoid an Irish whip, and ends up taking an uppercut to the arm – which earned Anil a €20 fine… Noir comes back with leapfrogs and baseball slides in for a dropkick, then with chops as he forced down Marik for a two-count. An armbar attempt followed, but Noir holds on before pulling him back down to the mat. Noir torques the wrist some more as Marik ends up reversing the hold… and finds himself right back in it as he’s grounded with a hammerlock. Marik counters that, but can’t do much more as time runs out.
Round 2: Marik teases charging at Cara, but instead he goes for a lock-up… and has his hand stood on as Cara worked his way into a standing surfboard stretch. An attempt to escape goes nowhere, before Marik slipped under and went for a waistlock. Noir escapes that and switches around, before Marik elbows and kicked his way free. His momentum’s quickly snuffed out with a rebound German suplex and a thrust kick, but it sent the rookie into the ropes to avoid being pinned. Cara bowed to him for that, but came back with a rear spin kick… then a PK to the back for a two-count, before Anil escaped a neckbreaker and came back with a Slingblade. A lungblower flips Noir over, but he too rolls away, and to the outside, to delay a pin… then dead weights himself to make sure time ran out.
Round 3: Cara Noir expects Marik to come out all guns blazing… and used that against the rookie, catching him with a clothesline, a neckbreaker and a package piledriver in quick succession to get the win. It took a little longer than you’d expect, but when Noir got into a groove, he was able to swiftly put away his opponent.
Result: Cara Noir pinned Anil Marik at 0:23 of Round 3 (**½)
After the match, Noir raised Marik’s hand… of course, there’s no ringside promo, as we instead get a despondent Anil Marik backstage, who revealed he was hoping to at least get a draw. Andy Jackson tries to talk Anil into keeping on, but it seems like Anil’s maybe thinking of those short-cuts he was looking at earlier in the year?
Block A
Bobby Gunns (3-0; 6pts)
Avalanche (2-0-1; 5pts)
Cara Noir (2-1; 4pts)
Hektor Invictus (1-1-1; 3pts)
Metehan (1-1; 2pts)
Fast Time Moodo (1-3; 2pts)
Anil Marik (0-4; 0pts)
Block B
Senza Volto (3-0; 6pts)
Marius al-Ani (2-0; 4pts)
Tristan Archer (2-1; 4pts)
Prince Ahura (1-1; 2pts)
Vincent Heisenberg (1-2; 2pts)
Emil Sitoci (0-2; 0pts)
Norman Harras (0-3; 0pts)
Disciplinary: €1875 of fines; thirteen yellow cards and one red card.
Tomorrow, block A wraps up for the week as we get a rematch from the Shotgun title tournament, with Avalanche taking on Metehan.