Saturday, May 27, 2017

WrestleCon SuperShow 2016 Review

WrestleCon puts on an eclectic card in Dallas, Texas for their annual SuperShow!


WrestleCon SuperShow 2016
Dallas, Texas 4/2/16

The show kicked off with Sami Callihan coming out. He issued a challenge to a certain someone in the back for a "dream match", and the person who answered the call was Pentagon Jr.!

1.) Sami Callihan vs. Pentagon Jr.: ***1/2

This was a really fun opening contest. It wasn't a very long match (going about six minutes or so), but they packed a lot of action in the time they were given. Pentagon Jr. is always entertaining to watch, and Sami Callihan always excels in sprints. Pentagon Jr. ultimately got the win after his infamous armbreaker followed by a package piledriver.

Before the next match began, we got a special in-ring segment with Glen Joseph, who is one of the owners of PROGRESS Wrestling. He talks briefly about the promotion, saying that he's grateful for all the success they've had. Joseph then said that the winner of this next match would be declared the first PROGRESS World Champion (as this was the first time the PROGRESS Title had been defended outside of the UK).

2.) PROGRESS Title - “The Villain” Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay: ****1/4

These two had a couple of critically acclaimed matches in the first few months of 2016 (those matches taking place in PROGRESS & RevPro), and now they were bringing their rivalry to North America. While this was far from the best match in their rivalry, it was still the Match Of The Night by a pretty wide margin. There was incredible action from start to finish, and it was a ton of fun to watch. Scurry & Ospreay have such amazing chemistry together. Watching them work together in a wrestling ring is simply magical. There's no other way to describe it. Marty Scurll would eventually score the victory when he counter an OsCutter attempt from Ospreay into the Crossface Chicken Wing. Again, this is far from their best match in their storied rivalry, but it's still worth checking out.

3.) Colt Cabana & Chuck Taylor vs. “The Manscout” Jake Manning & Zane Riley: **3/4

After seeing two bouts that were pretty serious in nature, we've now getting a comedy match. This was pretty decent for what it is. Colt Cabana & Chuck Taylor are two of the best when it comes to comedy wrestling, and they were great here. Meanwhile, I thought Jake Manning & Zane Riley were solid foils for them. They could've shaved a couple of minutes off this, but that's my only complaint. As a whole, this was an entertaining tag team contest, which was exactly what I was expect. Colt Cabana & Chuck Taylor would end up getting the win here.

4.) Tessa Blanchard (with Tully Blanchard) vs. “Crazy” Mary Dobson: **1/4

Tully Blanchard accompanied her daughter to ringside for this contest. In the end, this was probably one of the weakest matches on the show. It was by no means terrible, but it wasn't good either. At best, this was average. There really isn't much else to say about this one. Tessa Blanchard would end up picking up the victory.

5.) Six-Man Tag - Aero Star, Drago, & Octagon Jr. vs. Bestia 666, Jack Evans, & Tigre Uno: ****

So this is an interesting matchup. It consists of a bunch of guys from AAA, though only some of them had made their way onto Lucha Underground. It was kind of/sort of a Lucha Underground showcase (we even had Melissa Santos as the special guest ring announcer), but it wasn't at the same time. Also, for those who might not know, Octagon Jr. is better known as Flamita, of Dragon Gate fame. Anyway, this match was pretty great. From what I recall, it was initially slow to get going, but once it did, there was so much exciting action. Everyone was doing crazy spot after crazy spot (I think Aero Star did a dive to the outside that propelled him into the crowd), while Jack Evans was....well....being Jack Evans. This was so much fun to watch. Aero Star, Drago, and Octagon Jr. got the win here, and the fans responded by throwing money into the ring (apparently a Lucha tradition). All six guys were awesome here, and the fans were the real winners.

6.) Ten-Man Tag - Team Jarrett (Jeff Jarrett, Brian Myers, Jessicka Havok, Luke Hawx, & GFW NEX*GEN Champion Sonjay Dutt with Karen Jarrett) vs. (Joey Ryan, Candice LeRae, Shane Strickland, Tommy Dreamer, & Matt Striker): *1/2

This multi-person tag consisted of two teams that saw the team captains on each side pick their partners. I mentioned earlier that Tessa Blanchard vs. "Crazy" Mary Dobson was one of the weakest matches on the show. Well, what we saw here made that bout look like a legitimate Match Of The Year Contender. Before the match even began, Jeff Jarrett took the mic and cut a promo on Joey Ryan. He called the fans degenerates and said they were all disgusting. Karen Jarrett spared verbally with a female fan at ringside, and later spat on her, causing a big ruckus at ringside. A luchador named Sinesto was originally the fifth member of the team, but he later revealed himself to be Matt Striker after an early exchange with Brian Myers. We did get to see some action in the ring, but when Jarret got in there, he took the mic and cut another promo. Tommy Dreamer then called Jeff Jarrett out on his shitty promos, while Karen Jarrett spit on another fan. Then Team Jarrett won, for some reason. There were one or two redeeming qualities here, but as a whole, this was one of the worst matches I've even seen. The pre-match bullshit was nearly twenty minutes, and the match itself was over twenty minutes, meaning that this took up forty-five minutes to almost an hour of the show. This could've been decent if The Jarrett's weren't in there, but alas, they were, and they were BAAAAD. They completely overshadowed what could've been a fine mid-card bout, turning it into an abomination in the process. Avoid this match like the plague. It's fucking dreadful.

7.) OMEGA Heavyweight Title - Matt Hardy (with Reby Sky) vs. Lance Storm (with Missy Hyatt): ***

It's so weird going back in time to see this version of Matt Hardy, just before he would become "Broken". Hardy's OMEGA Title is on the line here, as he's defending against Lance Storm, who is technically retired, but comes out for the occasional match here and there. Storm is actually accompanied to the ring by Missy Hyatt, who was a valet in the late 1980's and in the first half of the 1990's. This was a relatively solid match. It was far from the best match on the card, but it was by no means the worst. It was perfectly acceptable. Hardy played his role as a heel well, while Storm showed that he can still put on a good match whenever he makes these rare appearances. We did get interference from Reby Sky, Matt Hardy's wife, but realistically, I don't think it affected things that much, as the match (realistically) wasn't going to be better than it ended up being. The finish came when Hardy took off one of his boots and used it as a weapon against Storm to retain his title.

After the match, Matt Hardy shoved down Missy Hyatt. Hardy and Reby Sky go to inflict more damage on Hyatt, and Storm tries to make the save, but he superkicks Hyatt by accident. After she recovers, they then did an amnesia angle where Hyatt forgot where she was.

8.) Six-Man Tag - Rey Mysterio & IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs. Brian Cage, Chris Hero, & Zack Sabre Jr.: ****

Now this was truly the definition of all-star teams. On one side, you had a fun pairing of high-flyers, as Rey Mysterio teamed up with Ricochet & Matt Sydal, who were the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions at the time. On the other end, you had Zack Sabre Jr. teaming up with two larger dudes who are known for beating people up (Brian Cage & Chris Hero). When I saw the card, this was the match that I was looking forward to the most. It didn't end up being quite as fantastic as Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay from earlier in the night, but this was still an incredible contest. There was great action from start to finish, and everyone involved got a chance to shine. What's so cool about this match was that we got to see people who rarely interact face off with one another. Seeing Rey Mysterio lock up with the likes of Chris Hero & Zack Sabre Jr. was super cool. You're not going to see a six-man tag like this anywhere else, and that made it special. After a hard-fought battle, the team of Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, and Matt Sydal eventually emerged victorious. This match was simply awesome.

9.) Monster’s Ball Match - Abyss vs. Andrew Everett vs. AR Fox vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Pentagon Jr. vs. TNA X-Division Champion Trevor Lee (with Shane Helms): ***3/4

I believe "Speedball" Mike Bailey was originally scheduled to be in this match, but he had issues with getting into the United States from Canada (we've heard that story before surrounding other Canadian competitors) that prevented him from being here. This was a pretty crazy hardcore brawl, which should come as no surprise, considering who was involved. There were a number of insane moments throughout, and all sorts of weapons were utilized, such as Tables, Ladders, Chairs, Kendo Sticks, and Trash Cans. I should point out that this was Pentagon Jr.'s second match on this card, as he had wrestled in the opener. It wasn't the best match on the show, but it was incredibly entertaining from start to finish. Putting this as the final contest on the show might be a little questionable, but it was still fun to watch regardless. Everyone involved in this one worked out, and they ended up producing a very enjoyable main event. Jeff Hardy would score the win after hitting a Swanton Bomb off a Ladder onto Pentagon Jr. to close out the show.

Overall: 8.0/10

This was a very interesting show. There was certainly a massive disparity in the match quality up and down the card. You had a number of truly awesome matches (Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay, the two Six-Man Tags, and the Monster's Ball) scattered throughout the show, and they're all matches that are worth checking out. However, there were also a number of matches that were either average/decent or, in the case of the Ten-Man Tag, downright awful. They really dragged down this card in my eyes, especially that aforementioned Ten-Man Tag with Team Jeff Jarrett vs. Team Joey Ryan. That was pure garbage, mainly because of The Jarrett's, who were simply awful. Aside from that, the majority of this show was actually very good. Nothing really set the world on fire, but it was mostly entertaining. WrestleCon's SuperShow has become known for producing some incredibly cool and unique matches, and aside from one or two dark spots, this show definitely delivered on that promise.

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