DeadEffect
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Posts posted by DeadEffect
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The Australian and New Zealand indy scenes have been getting closer to back to business as usual the last few months so I thought I'd post some matches from this year. Most shows have been running to about 50-75% venue capacity and enthusiasm has been pretty high from audiences and wrestlers alike.
Charli Evans vs Jessica Troy from PWA in Sydney last week. Violent, hate and weapon filled brawl.
Marcus Kool vs NIWA from SPW in Invercargill, New Zealand. Fun and aggressive match.
Riot City Wrestling in Adelaide, South Australia put up all their shows online for free and put out a really fun product. This is a show that's produced with Adelaide's Fringe Festival and is basically wrestling moving into a lot more mainstream circles here. The show is fun and the main event tag is great, very character and story driven.
Melbourne City Wrestling having their return show after 12 months in February with Slex vs Adam Brooks headlining. I figure this is a match that some might either love or hate, this is an over the top epic.
Last one. One of the better matches of our scene revival in 2021, a death match fed but the undercards have matches of heavyweights just beating the shit out of each other in straight wrestling matches. Tommy Knight is probably going to be the next big thing to come out of Australia, 300lb guy with a fighting background and an adoration of old school violence.
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On 12/30/2020 at 3:38 PM, Jiji said:
Aleister Black commented on Twitter Brodie asked to borrow a bunch of his shirts so he wouldn't be outdone by Rowan.
I remember seeing a quote that he was trying to find something he could relate to as he wasn't in to most of the bands that Rowan wore shirts of, so he eventually decided to start wearing the Snapcase shirt as he related to them being from Buffalo and him from Rochester.
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4 hours ago, zendragon said:
And I wonder of this whole thing turns the Dark Order babyface? Reynolds and Silver are already tweeners with Page. Anna Jay and Tay are always going to be over with a segment of the audience (young guys) cause they are attractive. And Stu 5 and 10 are kinda non factors so them switching wouldn't make to much of a difference. The only one I'm not sure about is Evil Uno
Uno I think would make a great babyface based solely on him being entertaining and self deprecating, he's a funny guy and he just leaned into the absurdity of the Dark Order skits on BTE so I could see people cheering him as a slightly dorky mid card babyface.
10 seems like a long term project for the company, he looks the part and he's already well on his way. They seem to be progressing him slowly though.
Of the entire group, I think Stu could be a massive star. From seeing his stuff in other companies for years, he's a phenomenal in ring talent, he looks the part and BTE has shown that he's got a very quirky charisma to him.-
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Gutted. Beyond anything wrestling related, he just seemed like a really good and genuine guy who cared about his family and enjoyed his life.
One of my fave stories about him was on an old episode of The Butcher and The Blade's podcast where they talked about how he had a day off from WWE and turned up at the local wrestling school in Buffalo and just offered advice and helped out because he wanted to help guys get better.
41 is waaaaaaay too fucking young. Fuck.-
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42 minutes ago, paintedbynumbers said:
I'd heard that Ophidian left Chikara in January. Quack stating that one of his trainers who was abusive left months ago. I am praying it wasn't Ophidian he was talking about. I know Ophidian had a hand at the training school. Not sure who else he could have been talking about.
There was a post about a few days back about how there was a student in one of the 101 intro courses at the Wrestlefactory who said they had previous neck injuries and Travis Huckabee who was running the class made this student do high neck bridges and was putting all of his weight on this students body while they did so. But Huckabee was still with the company.
Ophidian last wrestled for Chikara back in late Feb, but he'd been all over their weekly show on IWTV and the main story arc of the last year of Chikara was the Crucible stable being made up on students that basically haze and beat up newcomers under Ophidian's command. -
Danielson has been one of my fave wrestlers since my interest was piqued by an article in one of the Apter mags on the 2001 Super 8 and I got a very average quality dubbed copy of that show, been a fan of his show ever since. That show was also my introduction to tape trading as well.
One of my fave matches of his was on a show that hardly anyone saw, there's a touring company that runs in Australia called World Series Wrestling, that have bought many indy names to Australia over the last 15 years. On the 2007 tour, they had Danielson, Nigel and Aries at the peak of their powers, plus some randoms like Kidman and Kid Kash, the Friday night in Sydney had the Danielson vs Nigel match that was every bit as good as you'd expect. But on the Sunday night in Newcastle, about 110 miles out of Sydney they did Danielson vs Kidman where they just went at an absurd pace for half an hour and had one of my fave live matches ever in front of maybe 200 people. Not sure if it would still hold up as well, as I haven't seen it back since, but I remember it being a masterclass from Danielson, basically doing his arrogant dickhead ROH champion character to the absolute max. -
If anyone is interested in checking out Australian indies, one of the best companies in Australia EPW are releasing their entire video library for free until the live events ban in Australia is lifted.
Add in promo code EPWSupport to take a look. Varied wrestling, good production and mostly logical storylines.
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Slex pretty much made his farewell from Australia last night, so i'm assuming his ROH debut is imminent. Will be very interesting to see how he goes, he's not the greatest talker, but "The Business" character works for him, he's not the tallest guy but he's built like a brick shithouse and looks the part and he can go.
It's a weird situation, two of the major indies in Australia in MCW and PWA have New Japan connections through Fale, Robbie and Gino and they've been expanding into the Australia/NZ market, but ROH seems to be a target for some Australian talent and would probably help ROH out with new blood in return. Adam Brooks was mentioning having signed a contract late last year, but I don't see him in NXT or AEW, but MLW or ROH would be a fit. -
On 12/28/2019 at 6:30 PM, clintthecrippler said:
Not as amusing but theres also the fact that Peter Kaasa's wrestling career ended due to injury after the ring broke during an Evolve show a couple years back in Texas during Royal Rumble weekend.
I'd forgotten about that too, the ropes broke when he was doing a springboard right?
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I did find it amusing that he listed Evolve as an example of an indy company "doing things right" in light of the things that have come to light about Evolve's business practices.
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13 hours ago, DEAN said:
The Australian Armstrong brothers beat the crap out of each other again.
Whole show is up now, the main event is a lot of fun too.
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My hometown's best indy are doing their biggest show this weekend and they've released this video individually featuring 4 of the 8 participants in the two night tournament, am genuinely curious to get the opinion of those outside the Australian wrestling bubble. I'm flying back home for the shows, am really keen to see how the weekend progresses, PWA is a really fun fed with almost a production line of very talented guys and girls. -
1 hour ago, matwarz said:
Ultimately another half assed house show with some trappings but nothing that was unexpected. I stand by my opinion that had they built that show around a rematch between Slex and Okada they could have sold the place out.
Was nice they brought ring skirts, refs and an announcer this time but only Will and Robbie treated their match as anything important. But hey, I paid $35 and that match was a killer. Will never gives less than 100% and he also handled the crowd like an old pro. They had a hell of a match but I also subscribe to the theory that you don’t have to do 30+ just because you can.
I still feel NJPW is missing a golden opp with Melbourne, but that’s expansion with little planning for you.
I agree with the golden opportunity bit, I wouldn't be surprised that the next tour the roles are reversed and Sydney gets the major show and Melbourne the house show.
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From being there live it was a smaller crowd than last time, as they'd closed off more of the bleachers and tried to put more of the crowd on the floor section.
Bury getting the shot was great, he's a mainstay in the Melbourne indy scene and is a good dude.
Ospreay vs Eagles should've gone on last, they just match up insanely well. The main event tag was fine, mostly the charisma of it's participants carried it but during the match a relatively big portion of the crowd started leaving.
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12 hours ago, Archibald said:
I think I have written somewhere that it feels like Ospreay and Omega are going into opposite directions despite both looking relatively similar one or two years ago. He did say in one of his recent podcasts that he tries to mix up Omega's and Tanahashi's styles so I guess it all makes sense. As for the video, I liked what he said, but I didn't like how it was delivered and I wasn't very fond of him running around in his gear during the video. It felt a bit like something I'd see on super-hero show. Which is funny, since I'm huge fan of superheroes genre, but I guess I'm a bit of a purist and I don't like those things mixing up too much. Anyway, Eagles also did promo video and I liked it better:
To sum it up, I'm sold on Ospreay/Eagles thing, and I want them to get a good tag team run, despite both guys not really being my favourite wrestlers in NJPW.
In other news, guy from Australia whose name I forgot rolled up Tama and now Juice/Guy from Australia vs GoD on Showdown show are for tag titles. I think he did better here than what we saw of him in singles action. And Rocky/ELP is now for RevPro's title as well because why not.
Mikey Nicholls is the man in question. Always thought he was a better fit for Japan than he ever was in NXT.
I'm really keen to see Robbie vs Ospreay again, the two have great chemistry. Their match they had for PWA in Sydney last August is still the best match I have ever seen live, when they've faced off previously, they've always done something different stylistically each time, one match being just crazy moves, the other aforementioned PWA match being a lot less big moves and a lot more striking and submission based. I'm really keen to see how the match goes.
Also, a lot of the guys who have been in the Fale Dojo in New Zealand who have graduated to NJPW Young Boy status are appearing on this show with Andrew Villalobos, Mark Tui and Michael Richards debuting on the Melbourne card while on Sydney the Filip Brothers make their debuts as well. Also, a lot of speculation that Slex who wrestled Okada for MCW and Switchblade on last years tour may be going full time for NJPW in the near future.Hopefully they get a decent sized live crowd, they have reduced the price on some of the remaining tickets in the last week to try and fill the venue, Festival Hall holds around 4000 at a guess. It's very cool that a venue with major wrestling history dating back to Jim Barnett's WCW in the 60's and 70's.
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12 hours ago, DEAN said:
Hey, the Australians are wrestling again! This is a good Giant man versus Normal Sized man match- as Zak Sabbath is a good little worker. Kurt Baron is very tall and his offense is very tall.
Sabbath is really underrated, even by Aussie standards, just been doing smaller indy shows in front of kids and families for years, only really starting to break out on the national level in the last year or so for RCW. Baron is a guy who'll probably be better known in a year or two, he's still really new and hasn't really found his schtick yet. RCW as a company is very traditional in terms of characters and storytelling so it's probably the best place for a newish big guy to get better in Australia.
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Just got back from watching it about an hour ago, honestly I thought it was perfect. If there was another screening on nearby now i'd go and watch it again, I enjoyed it that much.
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On 2/12/2019 at 6:28 AM, The Z said:
Quick update since three more names have been announced since then:
- Lucky Kid
- Ilja Dragunov
- David Starr
So only one more name left to be announced. Hoping they saved one last major announcement to finish it off, but might as well be a wXw regular.
Amongst German fan-circles the opinions about this line-up seem to be mostly negative, which I don't get at all. Just give me Sekimoto vs. Penta, WALTER vs. Penta, Fenix vs. WALTER, just to name a few. There's an endless amount of potentially great match-ups in there.
They also finished the line-up for Ambition as of today:
- Shigehiro Irie
- Rico Bushido
- Laurance Roman
- Punch-Drunk Istria
- Veit Müller
- Chris Ridgeway
- Danny Jones
- A-Kid
The usual problems with Ambition notwithstanding, I'm really excited about this line-up as well. Was really hoping Chris Ridgeway would be in this year, so I'm extatic about that. Danny Jones and A-Kid are nice additions as well. Admittedly I've never heard of Istria, since I don't follow the Australian scene, but judging by a few clips I've seen online, he seems to be perfect for this.
Most recent match of Istria, I rate his work very highly.
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On 2/12/2019 at 6:28 AM, The Z said:
Quick update since three more names have been announced since then:
- Lucky Kid
- Ilja Dragunov
- David Starr
So only one more name left to be announced. Hoping they saved one last major announcement to finish it off, but might as well be a wXw regular.
Amongst German fan-circles the opinions about this line-up seem to be mostly negative, which I don't get at all. Just give me Sekimoto vs. Penta, WALTER vs. Penta, Fenix vs. WALTER, just to name a few. There's an endless amount of potentially great match-ups in there.
They also finished the line-up for Ambition as of today:
- Shigehiro Irie
- Rico Bushido
- Laurance Roman
- Punch-Drunk Istria
- Veit Müller
- Chris Ridgeway
- Danny Jones
- A-Kid
The usual problems with Ambition notwithstanding, I'm really excited about this line-up as well. Was really hoping Chris Ridgeway would be in this year, so I'm extatic about that. Danny Jones and A-Kid are nice additions as well. Admittedly I've never heard of Istria, since I don't follow the Australian scene, but judging by a few clips I've seen online, he seems to be perfect for this.
Istria is the goods, he's a guy who's flown under the radar for years, even here in Australia.
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PWA's most recent show from a little over a week ago. They had some issues with the hard cam so decided to release the show in full for free. PWA was my local indy of choice when I lived in Sydney and even now, i'd say they're the best indy fed in Australia. I'd be curious to hear what people think of this show.
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14 hours ago, Big Rob said:
Two British rounds matches from the end of 2018 - both very different, both worth your time.
Big fan of Cara Noir, his work has always been great, even when he was Blackbelt Tom Dawkins. He's now found the character work to go along with it.
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Some more stuff from the Australian indy scene of late.
One of Robbie's most recent matches and his first back in Sydney after his New Japan tour. For a guy who's mostly been a career underdog babyface, Robbie has really gotten into the Bullet Club attitude, a lot of his matches since his return has him being more aggressive, kicking opponents in the face and such. Tyler Payne is a really talented younger guy, he had spent some time in the Fale Dojo in New Zealand and is apparently off to be a New Japan Young Lion soon, this was one of his first matches after dropping his Chikara-esque masked gimmick. Fun match.
Also, PWA have a 1 month free trial on their streaming service at www.pwaplay.com using the code #PWSLEIGH which is a good intro to what's currently happening in the Australian scene.
From Kyle Fletcher's brief return back to Australia from the UK. Tommy Knight has been wrestling just over a year I believe and is the understudy of Jonah Rock. He's a bigger dude, just over 6' and probably close to 300lbs and has a pretty extensive shoot background. Fun match with Fletcher being the more experienced guy out smarting his opponent and using his height advantage, while Knight just keeps moving forward.
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One of my local indies had Ken Shamrock on a show last night. He didn't do much, but he was super over and took a nice bump into the guard rail in his match. I'm trying to think when the last time he was on a pro wrestling show, early TNA maybe? Now I want to see against PCO or Nick Gage haha
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On 11/24/2018 at 1:55 PM, Oyaji said:
Y'all need to see Brody King vs. PCO from night one of BOLA. Might be one of the best worst matches I've ever seen. Brody hit ~15% of his offense smoothly and PCO almost died doing a moonsault off the top to the apron. The former may be the worst pushed wrestler in 2018. He seems like a really nice guy and people who know him love him but fuck do I think Brody King is not a very good pro wrestler yet. And I can't stand the pretend tough guy presence. At least drop the halfassed, done at half speed poorly agility spots. It's embarrassing.
I don't mind when Brody does some agile stuff, but when he does it all the time it comes off as really forced. On the flip side though, seeing him wrestle live in Melbourne for WSW's Australia tour, he totally lived up to the hype. Being Marty Scurll's tag partner, he cut down on the flippy stuff and just concentrated on chops, clubbing blows, kicks to the face and lariats, made him look like a monster. I wonder if being on a tour with Walter and Jonah Rock might've inspired him to start wrestling like his size more? Speaking of which, hopefully WSW will finally get their online distribution going better as Jonah vs Walter on night 2 in Melbourne was awesome and Robbie Eagles vs Aries in Sydney apparently tore the house down.
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Posted · Edited by DeadEffect