AAW
One Twisted Christmas 2014
Berwyn,
Illinois 12/27/14
1.)
Six-Man Tag - Davey Vega, Justice Jones, & Tony Kozina vs. Marion Fontaine
& Zero Gravity (Brett Gakiya & CJ Esparza): ***1/4
For
those who might have missed it, Davey Vega, at this point, had recently made a
heel turn in AAW. In another note, Knight Wagner isn’t out with Justice Jones
here. I thought this was a pretty solid opening match. There was some good
action throughout, and it was exactly the kind of opening match you would want.
At one point, Vega tried to bring in a wrench, but he never got a chance to use
it. A screw-up by Tony Kozina leads to the Marion Fontaine & Zero Gravity
getting the win.
After
the match, Justice Jones attacks Zero Gravity until Paco Gonzalez makes the
save, and the three send Justice Jones packing.
Up
next, Shane Hollister comes out on crutches with his right foot in a walking
boot. He talks about how much his life has changed in the last few months,
including becoming a father and suffering his injury. He says he doesn’t just
do this for the money…..he does it because he loves wrestling. Hollister says
that he’s nowhere close to finished, and then calls out Louis Lyndon. He says
Lyndon is one of the best, and thinks he’s going to be a champion someday.
Hollister wants to shake his hand, and says he’s looking forward to their
eventual 2/3 Falls Match. Scarlett Bordeaux then comes out. She basically reads
Hollister the riot act, putting him down for losing the AAW Heavyweight Title
and says his recent failures were because he didn’t listen to her. Hollister
says he’s been wrestling for ten years, and was wrestling the likes of Tyler
Black & Austin Aries back wheb she was just a fan sitting in the front row.
Bordeaux retorts by saying he’ll always be second to Tyler Black. Hollister
makes fun of her breasts, and Bordeaux slaps him. She then leaves out of fear
of retaliation. Hollister then makes his exit, as we get set for our next
match.
2.)
“Money” Matt Cage vs. Louis Lyndon: ***1/2
As
I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, Louis Lyndon is someone who needs to get
more bookings outside of places like AAW & AIW, because he’s really good.
Meanwhile, Matt Cage had a pretty strong 2014, which included a reign as the
AAW Heritage Champion. I figured this was going to be good, but it ended up
being a little bit better than I was expecting. I really enjoyed this match.
Both guys worked pretty hard, and we got a good amount of back & forth
action. Unfortunately, the match ended on a 15 Minute Time Limit Draw. I don’t
mind the idea of doing a short time limit draw like this, but I don’t think a
time limit was ever announced. The crowd wanted five more minutes, but Cage
didn’t want any of it, and left. This was definitely one of the better matches
on the entire show.
3.)
Colt Cabana & Dick Justice vs. The Iron Curtain (Gregory Iron &
Benjamin Boone with Mr. Bernard): **1/2
This
match was set up back at Windy City
Classic X. For what it was, this was a fine tag team affair. Of course, we
did get some comedy, but the match did feature some solid action at points. In
the end, the team of Colt Cabana & Dick Justice were able to get the win.
After
the match, The Iron Curtain attacks Colt Cabana & Dick Justice. Iron hit
Cabana with a chair, and then used a ton pepper spray on Dick Justice, blinding
him.
4.)
Davey Richards vs. Uhaa Nation: ****
I
mentioned in my review of AIW Charge It
To The Underhills how Josh Alexander vs. Uhaa Nation was in a match that I
never knew I wanted. Well, on this show, we have another match involving Uhaa
Nation that I never knew I wanted, as he took on Davey Richards. I thought this
was a great match! In my opinion, it was easily the Match of the Night. Both
guys worked pretty well together, and we saw a ton of really good action in
this one from start to finish. It was definitely a hard-fought contest, and the
fans were definitely into it. Eventually, Davey Richards was able to put away
Uhaa Nation for the victory.
Following
the match, Richards cuts a promo where he puts over Uhaa Nation, and says that
he’s coming for Eddie Kingston’s AAW Heavyweight Title.
5.)
Non-Title Fans Brings The Weapons Handicap Match - AAW Tag Team Champions The
Wet Bandits (Dan Lawrence & Markus Crane) vs. Ryan Boz: *
If
Ryan Boz is able to win this match, then he gets a shot at the AAW Tag Team
Titles. Speaking of Boz, he was hiding under the ring, and jumped The Wet
Bandits to start off the match. This match was textbook definition of a garbage
brawl. Weapons filled the ring (I think it was a little overdone), and match
just wasn’t that good. Crane got busted open about a minute or two into the
match, while Boz and Lawrence got busted open later on in the match. A variety
of weapons were used here, including bowling pins, a Christmas Tree, crutches,
hockey sticks, laptops, and shovels. The match had its moments, but it went
waaaaay too long. When you think of hardcore matches, this was a perfect
example of a bad hardcore match.
Before
the next match, we got an in-ring promo from an emotional Keith Walker, who
announced his retirement. It was a really cool promo, and a nice end to his
career after the fantastic match he had with Eddie Kingston the month prior at Windy City Classic X. If you’re someone
who regularly follows AAW, definitely check it out.
6.)
AAW Heritage Title - Christian Faith (with Gregory Iron) vs. ACH: ***1/4
ACH
is a former AAW Heritage Champion, and he was looking to win the title for the
second time here against Christian Faith. I thought this was a pretty good match,
but considering who was involved, I was expecting a little bit better. The
match was a little slow at points, as the much-larger Christian Faith was in
control, but ACH was able to put up a good fight, and their were some good
moments in this once. Again, the match was solid, but I was expecting more.
Christian Faith eventually got the win to retain his AAW Heritage Title.
7.)
Chris Sabin vs. Heidi Lovelace: ***1/4
One
of the bigger stories of AAW in 2014 involved Heidi Lovelace. She’s had a
number of inter-gender matches in 2014, and even held the AAW Heritage Title
for a few months. Even after losing the title, she’s still going up against
some of the men in AAW, as she took on Chris Sabin here. This match was about
what I was expecting. It featured some pretty solid action throughout, along
with good babyface/heel storytelling, as Sabin didn’t take Lovelace seriously.
The match also featured a pretty cool reverse-rana reversal spot. Towards the
end of the match, Sabin pretends that Lovelace gave him a low blow, and he used
the ensuing distraction from the referee to pick up the win.
8.)
The Monster Mafia (“All Ego” Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) vs. AAW
Heavyweight Champion Eddie Kingston & Jimmy Jacobs: ***1/4
This
match had a very odd setup, as Jacobs was pissed that The Monster Mafia woke
him up from his nap. Seriously, I’m not joking, that’s how this match was
setup. Once again, The Monster Mafia were involved in another good, yet
disappointing, Main Event. Granted, I wasn’t expecting this match to be as
good, compared to what I was expecting from the American Wolves/Monster Mafia
match from a month prior at Windy City
Classic X, but still, for a Main Event, this definitely underperformed.
They played into the aforementioned promo earlier in the night that set up the
match, which was very weird and took away from the match, in my view. There
were a number of good moments in this match, and it was still relatively good,
but again, given who was involved, I was expecting better. Fortunately, we did
get a pretty significant moment at the end, as Josh Alexander pinned Eddie
Kingston clean with his Spinning Tombstone Piledriver, which certainly meant
that he would be getting a future shot at the AAW Heavyweight Title. The
Monster Mafia celebrated as the show came to a close.
Overall: 7.0/10
AAW
closed out 2014 with a relatively lackluster show. While the majority of the
show was pretty solid, it would’ve been a pretty worthless show without Davey
Richards vs. Uhaa Nation, which was easily the Match of the Night. The other
major highlight was actually Matt Cage vs. Louis Lyndon, who managed to have a
really good match that went to a time limit draw. Aside from those two matches,
the rest of the card was mostly solid, though the Fans Bring The Weapons Match
was horrible. Looking back at it, the show was really all over the place, in
terms of match quality. Josh Alexander pinning Eddie Kingston was a significant
moment, but again, Davey Richards vs. Uhaa Nation is really the only match from
this show that’s worth seeing.
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