Post by Ross Report on Jan 13, 2020 23:35:18 GMT
The E-Wrestling Alliance kicked off 2020 with a bang last night, as SLAM! returned to the world famous E-Arena in sunny San Diego! With so much upheaval coming off the heels of Super Brawl XIX, it's fair to say this show felt like a reset of sorts, as things started falling into place for the new year ahead!
We kicked off with "The Dynasty" heading down to ringside, where Maxwell Jacob Friedman made sure to brag about his over-all victory in the Free-For-All Match. To be fair to "MJF," he's got every reason to be pleased with himself. Even though he didn't walk out with a championship, he did defeat the new World Heavyweight Champion along the way, earning a future shot at the gold in the process! And don't forget the power to either hire or fire a wrestler of his choosing currently sitting in his back pocket as well! Still, as "MJF" continued to gloat over his success, one man who'd heard enough was our former World Champion, Marty Scurll! "The Villain" was eager to get his hands on Friedman in a one-on-one situation, yet "MJF" turned down the offer, feeling he has nothing to prove to Marty or anyone else for that matter. Instead, "The Salt of the Earth" suggested a tag team encounter for next week's SLAM!, pitting Alex Hammerstone and Richard Holliday against Scurll and a partner of his choosing! After driving away all of his followers in "The Horde" over the past year, who will stand by Scurll's side in this battle against "MJF's" goon squad? I guess we'll have to wait until next week to find out!
Color me shocked that Pete Dunne has been suspended by EWA management for his actions at SuperBrawl! Sure, there's no excusing the vicious assault on Cara Noir which denied the mysterious superstar a spot in the biggest match of the year...but as Dunne himself pointed out, was it really any different to the assault the "Bruiserweight" suffered at the hands of Gabriel several weeks before? I can only speculate that Gabriel's recent King of the Ring victory and impending World Title opportunity has stopped him from suffering a similar fate, but in the meantime, it looks as if Pete Dunne will be stuck on the sidelines for the foreseeable.
Next up was our first match of the night, and indeed the year itself, as Rory Coyle made his debut against "Desperado" Joe Gomez. The veteran was on the backfoot right from the start in this one, with "The Video Nasty" showing an aggressive streak that seemed to catch his opponent unawares. As a result, Coyle quickly put the ol' "Gunslinger" away with a Dip In The Lake before being interviewed by Todd Grisham post-match, making it crystal clear that no one's safe now that he's around!
Santino Marella and Braun Strowman joined the likes of Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Al Snow and Richard Blood by winning back-to-back Super Brawls, and the former Tag Team Champs met up for the first time in almost a year last night, with Santino complimenting Strowman and vice versa. It sounds as if "The Monster Among Men" has plans to defend the newly re-instated Television Title as often as possible until someone can beat him for it (or perhaps that should be "if" someone can). As for Marella though, he's got his own championship concerns now that he's holding the Tag Titles with "The Honky Tonk Man," something we'll expand on in a short while.
Back to the action, and I was extremely excited to see Jeff Cobb in the flesh! This powerhouse grappler has been on the EWA radar for some time now, and with Mark Henry taking him under his wing, it's great to see Cobb finally get his shot at the big time! Of course, debuts aren't always as easy as Rory Coyle made them look, especially not when you're in there against a competitor like Jon Moxley! "The Lunatic Fringe" has made a career out of being one of the most dangerous men in professional wrestling, and when you factor in Tommaso Ciampa playing corner man as well, that made things all the more difficult for Cobb. Despite a fantastic showing from the former Olympian, "Mox" was able to utilize every tool at his disposal to sneak out the victory, namely by removing the turnbuckle pad and driving his opponent face-first into the exposed steel! As proven time and time again in the past, Moxley is no stranger to controversy, and he'll gladly take every win where he can get them too! I guess you can't argue with the results either, as it sounds as if that's put him in line for a shot at Braun Strowman's Television Championship next week! As for Jeff Cobb though, I fully expect him to learn and grow from this loss rather than let it knock him off track. With his formidable reputation, it's only a matter of time before the Hawaii native starts climbing the ranks!
Sasha Banks had a tough night at Super Brawl XIX, having to dig extra deep to defeat Becky Lynch before then suffering a brutal assault at the hands of "The Dominion." It's little surprise then that "The Boss" is still far away from being at 100% after the way her knee was smashed with the steel stairs while Charlotte Flair had her trapped in a figure four around the ring post. Still, the Women's Champion isn't backing down even in spite of her injuries, letting the world know that she's coming for "The Queen" sooner rather than later! While I've had my issues with some of the choices Sasha has made in recent months, I can't help but hope she gives herself proper time to heal from her injuries rather than rushing back to action too quickly. The last thing she wants to do is return to the ring before she's physically ready and then do even more damage to herself, no matter how tempting it might be to jump the gun.
It's been a long time since we've seen Cesaro, ever since some miscommunication with "UltraMantis Black" accidentally cost "The Swiss Superman" the opportunity to advance in the 2019 King of the Ring tournament! Well, Cesaro was back this week, fed up with sitting on the sidelines and blaming "The Angry Insect Overlord" for missing the past couple of months! That brought out "Mantis" to dispute those claims, as the masked man declared his disappointment in Cesaro before declaring their partnership dissolved and trying to catch him by surprise. Alas, things didn't exactly go to plan as Cesaro instead caught "UltraMantis" with a huge pop-up European followed by the Neutralizer, well and truly severing ties with his former associate! And did my ears deceive me or did it sound like the EWA Universe were actually getting behind "The Swiss Cyborg" during all of this as well? Considering how talented a competitor Cesaro is, I suspect our amazing fans have been waiting a long time for a reason to get behind him, and now they might finally have one!
I'm not sure anyone had quite as an eventful night at Super Brawl as Chad Gable, who found himself swapped out of his scheduled match with "PCO" at the last minute and then inserted in the Free-For-All, where he'd score the first elimination of the match to earn a future National Championship match while also briefly becoming the first man to be crowned EWA Television Champion in over a decade as well! It's also worth noting that Gable spent much of the night either fighting alongside or fighting against Jack Gallagher, who just so happened to capture the National Title over the course of the event in a fun case of happenstance. Well, it seems as if their interactions have garnered a bit of mutual respect between the two, as Gallagher interrupted Gable's interview with Renee Young to propose the two of them team up on next week's show, where their open challenge has apparently been answered by the debuting "Tokyo Vice." Will champion and future challenger continue to co-exist? Or might they be pushing their luck against two of the top stars in Japan looking to make a splash? We'll have to wait until next week's SLAM! to find out!
It was soon time for some women's division action, and boy, did this one live up to the hype! Kay Lee Ray certainly turned a lot of heads with the announcement of her impending arrival during the Super Brawl broadcast, leading to her in-ring debut this past week. Talk about a tough way to kick off her EWA career as well, facing off against a highly-motivated Toni Storm! The Gold Coast native has struggled to live up to the reputation that preceded her since showing up last summer, mostly because of her rivalry with Kelly Klein (and "relationship" with Dean Malenko, if that's even the right word to describe whatever it was going on there). Still, this was Storm's chance to start afresh, but one that "KLR" did her damnedest to spoil. Honestly, I thought the match was over within minutes after Kay Lee Ray dropped her opponent with a brainbuster on the apron edge. Yet credit where it's due, Storm battled back into the match, even surviving several minutes in a vicious Koji Clutch that would have beaten lesser opposition. It all led to an exciting crescendo, with the two of them going for their trademark moves before exchanging a series of back-and-forth pins that finally saw Toni Storm secure the three count, albeit just barely! Still, this was an incredible showcase for both superstars and a hell of an advert for the EWA's women division to boot! I can't wait to see both in action again soon!
I mentioned earlier that Santino has his problems with "The Honky Tonk Man," and that quickly became apparent as "Mr. Shake, Rattle And Roll" tried to give my old pal Jerry "The King" Lawler a newly-pimped out crown in an effort to raise his spirits again after losing his half of the Tag Titles. However, when Santino showed up and innocently tried to get a look at the bejeweled crown, it led to the coronet being inadvertently knocked out of his hands where a passing forklift drove over it before anyone could react, destroying "The King's" favorite piece of headwear! Needless to say, that has NOT gone down well with the Memphis legends, least of all Jerry Lawler! But for the time being at least, they don't seem to have much choice but to put up with Santino...at least until they can come up with a way to return the championship gold to Lawler! That is, if Santino and "Honky" could even find a way past Brady Pierce and Cody Hall first!
Before we'd find out though, the broadcast was interrupted with a breaking news bulletin from new arrival Stu Barrett, who only had bad news to give to the EWA roster, its fans, and apparently even yours truly. Walter Kronkite must be rolling over in his grave. I kid, obviously, but the truth is, "Bad News Barrett" sounds as if he's got a bone to pick with just about everyone right now. Don't expect to see him winning any popularity contests any time soon!
By the time we finally got around to our main event, tensions were pretty damn frayed between the Tag Champions. So much so that "The Honky Tonk Man" tried to handle all the heavy lifting himself, only to run right into trouble almost as soon as the match started! The challengers might have been a make-shift team thrown together because of Tom Lawlor deeming himself unworthy of a title match so soon after Super Brawl, but they looked pretty well-oiled to begin with. Unfortunately for Brady Pierce and Cody Hall though, things would eventually take a turn for the worse. I can understand where Cody Hall was coming from, looking to take advantage of this spotlight and ensure his was the name on everyone's lips...but at the same time, the key to being a successful tag team is having trust in your partner. And for whatever reason, that trust was virtually non-existent between Hall and Pierce, with the second generation superstar refusing to tag in "Dr Fresh" on a couple of occasions, much to the latter's frustration. As such, and despite their dominance, the train soon came flying off the tracks when Pierce finally had to take matters into his own hands and tag himself in, which led to a heated exchange between him and his partner, one exacerbated when "Honky Tonk Man" deliberately sent Brady Pierce crashing right into Cody Hall just as he was about to leave the ring. That caused a brawl to break out between the two of them, one which "The Honky Tonk Man" managed to capitalize on thanks to the inadvertent distraction of his tag partner, securing the three count and retaining the titles! Still, it's fair to say that this tandem of "Honky" and Marella aren't exactly gelling quite yet, something they'll have to turn around if they want to hold onto those championships for much longer! And as for Brady Pierce and Cody Hall? Well, whether it was a genuine misunderstanding, the heat of the moment, or egos clashing, their alliance looks to be short-lived. Could we see these two lock horns somewhere down the road? I wouldn't be too surprised.
With the in-ring action over though, it was finally time for the advertised interview with our new World Heavyweight Champion, Harper. "The Goatsman" explained why he ultimately went against Gabriel's orders to keep the gold on Marty Scurll, not to mention why he chose to tap out to the Friedman Armbar Special in the closing moments of the match in order to protect his newly won championship, yet that would soon draw the attention of Gabriel himself. "The Archangel" didn't even say anything either, instead applauding Harper before raising his arm in a seeming sign of respect. However, given the bitterness Gabriel's been exuding ever since winning King of the Ring and ridding himself of "The Reaper," something tells me that show was less than genuine. Still, Gabriel has his guaranteed title opportunity against the champ coming up so I'm sure we won't have to wait long before he makes his real feelings known towards Harper! The question is though, will "The Goatsman" be up for the challenge?
It's that time once again, as we now look at my top three movers and shakers of the week:
1. Kay Lee Ray/Toni Storm
2. "The Honky Tonk Man"/Santino Marella
3. Jon Moxley
Top spot is shared this week by "KLR" and Toni Storm for that incredible back-and-forth contest which did a great job of putting both ladies on the EWA map! Coming in at number two, "The Honky Tonk Man" and Santino Marella took a good ol' fashioned country whoopin' last night yet somehow still walked out with the Tag Team Championships around their waists! And last but by no means least, Jon Moxley secured a big time win over a game Jeff Cobb to line himself up for a shot at the TV Title, albeit under controversial circumstances!
So with all that said and done then, we now turn our attention to next week's show as the EWA heads to "The Pelican State!" There's already some blockbuster matches lined up, with "The Dynasty" duo of Hammerstone and Holliday taking on Marty Scurll and a yet-to-be-revealed partner! Jack Gallagher and Chad Gable will show us what they can do together before they eventually face-off over the National Championship, as this unlikely duo goes up against "Tokyo Vice!" Braun Strowman makes his first defense of the Television Title when he steps in the ring against the wildly unpredictable Jon Moxley! And don't sleep on Rory Coyle against Brady Pierce either, with the latter no doubt aiming to get back to winning ways while the former is eyeing up a big scalp as he looks to establish himself! All in all then, there's plenty to look forwards to, so I'm sure we'll see you again this coming Sunday, live from the Cajundome! Until then,
BOOMER SOONER!
