Monday, June 29, 2015

Wrestling is Fun!: Young Lion's Cup XI: Night 2 Review

Who will go on to face Missile Assault Ant in the Finals?!


Wrestling is Fun!: Young Lions Cup XI: Night 2
Norristown, Pennsylvania 11/1/14

So this show has the second half of Young Lions Cup XI. I guess you can call it “Bracket B”. Basically, the way both brackets work is that you have six qualifying matches, and the winners of those matches face off in a Six-Way Elimination Match, where the winner advances to the Young Lions Cup XI Finals at CHIKARA’s Season Finale, Tomorrow Never Dies. Missile Assault Ant won “Bracket A” at a Wrestling is Fun! Show in Massachusetts a month prior, and his opponent will be determined on this show!

1.) Young Lions Cup XI - First Round Match - JT Dunn vs. Princess KimberLee: ***½

This is a very interesting match, if you know the history between the two. Not surprisingly, this was very good. Easily one of the best matches on the show. Really good action from both competitors. Princess KimberLee would eventually catch JT Dunn with an Alligator Clutch for the victory! She advances to the Semi-Finals!

2.) Young Lions Cup XI - First Round Match - Arctic Rescue Ant vs. Cheeseburger: **½

Cheeseburger is the first of a number of ROH talent on this show. Here he’s taking on Arctic Rescue Ant. A fine match between these two. I’m actually surprised that Cheeseburger hasn’t been booked more often in a place like CHIKARA, because he could fit right in that universe. In the end, however, Arctic Rescue Ant would get the win, advancing to the Semi-Finals.

3.) Young Lions Cup XI - First Round Match - Malice vs. Will Ferrara: **¾

Will Ferrara is the 2nd ROH Talent to be featured on this show. The last time he was in Wrestling is Fun!, he was teaming with “The Benchmark” Bill Daly as Team Benchmark. This is my first time seeing Malice, who is from Fighting Spirit Wrestling. Another fine match. A little better than the previous match. Solid action from both guys here. I got what I expected from Ferrara, and Malice looked good as well. Ferrara would end up getting the victory, advancing to the Semi-Finals.

4.) Young Lions Cup XI - First Round Match - Adam Page vs. The Proletariat Boar of Moldova: **¾

Adam Page is the 3rd ROH Talent to appear in the tournament, and it’s interesting to note that Page was placing his babyface character, and there were no signs of his affiliation with The Decade in ROH. Page is attacked during his entrance by The Proletariat Boar of Moldova attacked him. They brawled on the outside for a bit, and Page launches The Proletariat Boar of Moldova into one of the basketball hoops! The match itself was solid. About as good as the previous match. Prakash Sabar attempts to interfere, and this distracts Page for long enough, allowing The Proletariat Boar of Moldova to hit the BOAR! for the win, advancing to the Semi-Finals. He celebrates with his Bloc Party stablemates, Prakash Sabar & Mr. Azerbaijan (who’s wearing a straw hat,jeans & cowboy boots).

5.) Young Lions Cup XI - First Round Match - Joe Black vs. Tripp Cassidy: **¾

Joe Black has wrestled in various independent promotions, while his opponent, Tripp Cassidy, has made some appearances for other “Wrestling is…” Promotions in the past. Continuing with the trend of some of the previous matches, this was pretty solid. I wasn’t really familiar with either guys, but both looked good. Joe Black would get the win, advancing to the Semi-Finals.

6.) Young Lions Cup XI - First Round Match - Eddie Smooth vs. Heidi Lovelace: ***¼

Eddie Smooth is another unknown, though Heidi Lovelace is someone I’m pretty sure most people know off. The story of this one early was that Eddie Smooth didn’t take Lovelace seriously. Lovelace got an early flurry before Smooth took control. Lovelace was eventually able to fight back, and picked up the win, completely the field for the Semi-Finals! This was a good match. Probably the second best of the opening round. There were one or two sloppy moments, but on the whole, it was still good.

7.) Eight Man Tag - The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & “Mr. Touchdown” Mark Angelosetti) & N_R_G (Hype Rockwell & Race Jaxon) vs. WiF! Banana Champion Juan Francisco de Coronado, El Hijo del Ice Cream & The Bloc Party (Mr. Azerbaijan & Prakash Sabar): ***¼

So on one side, we have The Throwbacks teaming up with N_R_G (who look like a more colorful replacement for 3.0), while on the other side, we have Juan Francisco de Coronado, who is the current WiF! Banana Champion, one half of Los Ice Creams (just seeing one of them is really weird) and the rest of The Bloc Party. One of the stories in this match was that Juan Francisco de Coronado just got a fresh haircut, and didn’t want anyone to mess it up. Of course, the technico team had their fun messing with his hair. The match was entertaining for what it was. It went pretty how you would think, as we saw a good amount of comedy as well as good, solid wrestling. In the end, The Throwbacks & N_R_G would get the victory.

8.) Young Lions Cup XI - Semi-Finals - Six-Way Elimination Match - Princess KimberLee vs. Arctic Rescue Ant vs. Will Ferrara vs. The Proletariat Boar of Moldova vs. Joe Black vs. Heidi Lovelace: ***½

As mentioned before, all six of these competitors won their First Round Matches earlier in the night, and whoever wins this will go on to face Missile Assault Ant at CHIKARA’s Tomorrow Never Dies in the FInals of Young Lion’s Cup XI. Joe Black would be eliminated first by Will Ferrara. Arctic Rescue Ant would then be eliminated by The Proletariat Boar of Moldova, who would then subsequently be eliminated a few minutes later by Heidi Lovelace. Will Ferrara would then be eliminated via an Alligator Clutch by Princess KimberLee. It then came down to Heidi Lovelace vs. Princess KimberLee, and eventually, Lovelace locks in the CHIKARA Special, and gets Princess KimberLee to tap out for the victory! She moves on to the Finals of Young Lions Cup XI to face Missile Assault Ant at CHIKARA’s Tomorrow Never Dies! The two competitors have a staredown to close the show.

Overall: 6.25/10

Of course you’re really never going to get anything amazing on a show like this, but for what it was, it was fine. All of the tournament matches ranged from fine to good, with JT Dunn vs. Princess KimberLee being the standout. You had a nice break from the tournament with a CHIKARA-esque Eight Man Tag Team Match that had its fair share of solid wrestling & comedy. We then had the Six-Way Elimination Match, which was pretty entertaining for the time give. The fact that this show was just under two hours also makes it a really easy show to watch.

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