AAW A Monster’s Rage
Merrionette Park, Illinois 11/7/14
1.) AAW Tag Team Titles - Three-Way Elimination Match - The Wet Bandits (Dan Lawrence & Markus Crane) vs. Zero Gravity vs. The Hooligans (with Bucky Collins): **¾
For those of you who missed the previous show, Jawbreaker, Dan Lawrence & Markus Crane won the vacant AAW Tag Team Titles in a one night tournament. They’re defending their titles in a three-way match against The Hooligans & Zero Gravity, who actually met in the Semi-Finals of the tournament, but their matches ended in a Double DQ, which was very controversial, since AAW is a company which promotes that all of their matches have No DQ’s and No Count Outs. It’s explained beforehand by Joey Eastman (now part of AAW management), that AAW stands with the referee’s call in that match, saying that those two teams violated the referee’s discretion.
The match itself was fine. Zero Gravity & The Hooligans did solid work, but I just couldn’t get into The Wet Bandits. Zero Gravity get eliminated first when Bucky Collins hits one of the members of Zero Gravity with a chair, and Dan Lawrence rolls that members of Zero Gravity. The Hooligans are then beaten by The Wet Bandits when Crane rolls up one of The Hooligans. Fine for what it was, but an overall weak opener.
After the match, Markus Crane calls out any tag team to face The Wet Bandits. Ryan Boz comes out. He attacks them, but the 2-on-1 advantage is seemingly too much, until Boz shrugs it off. Dan Lawrence & Markus Crane retreat.
2.) Davey Vega vs. Dick Justice (with Gregory Iron): **
Recently, Davey Vega made a promise that he would leave AAW if he lost before the end of 2014. Here, he’s taking on Dick Justice. The match was pretty short. Dick Justice did some of his lucha, and took some “contraband” from Vega, but then Veda throws the American Flag in Dick Justice’s face. Vega hit Dick Justice with some kind of stick behind the referee’s back.
After the match, Gregory Iron cuts a promo. He doesn’t get why he’s associated with Dick Justice. They have nothing in common. He calls him a smelly, overweight, dumb son of a bitch. Iron says that he’ll show Dick Justice how to get the job done, and commands him to sit aside and watch the next match, which Gregory Iron vs. Marek Brave. After Brave came out, Iron basically says that he doesn’t feel like doing a one-on-one match tonight, and calls out his Iron Curtain (Benjamin Boone & Joey Vincent Martini) to the ring to make it a 3-on-1 match, but Arik Cannon comes out! He says that both he & Marek Brave are tired of Gregory Iron’s sh*t. They go after The Iron Curtain, and it looks like we have a match.
3.) Three-on-Two Handicap Match - The Iron Curtain (Gregory Iron, Benjamin Boone & Joey Vincent Martini) vs. Arik Cannon & Marek Brave: **1/2
These two teams went at each other right from the opening bell. They brawled through the crowd & all over the building. At one point, Brave & Iron are brawling on top of the bar, and Brave suplexes Iron off the bar and onto The Iron Curtain!! That was pretty cool. They end up back in the ring, and towards the end of the match, The Iron Curtain wants Dick Justice to hit Brave with a chair, but Brave ducks, and Dick Justice hits Joey Vincent Martini by accident! This leads to a shoving match between Dick Justice & Benjamin Boone, which allows Brave & Cannon to capitalize. Cannon tosses a chair at Boone, and Brave superkicks the chair into Boone’s face, leading to Brave & Cannon getting the win.
Gregory Iron takes the mic after the match. He yells at a fan by the bar who apparently touched him during the match. He then yells at Justice, saying he’s out of The Iron Curtain, and slaps him. Dick Justice goes to retaliate, but he’s attacked by the rest of The Iron Curtain. They beat the crap out of Dick Justice before eventually leaving.
4.) AAW Heritage Title - Heidi Lovelace vs. Christian Faith: ***¼
This is arguably the biggest challenge yet for Heidi Lovelace, as Christian Faith has a definite size advantage. This was a pretty good title match. There was a lot of good action in this match, including one spot where Lovelace reverses a top rope powerbomb attempt by Faith into a hurricanrana off the top rope!! That looked really cool. Towards the end of the match, Gregory Iron came out to interfere, but he was taken out by Lovelace. This allowed Christian Faith to take advantage, and he pins Lovelace (to a very timid reaction, plus the commentators didn’t seem to sell the title change all that much) to capture the AAW Heritage Title. A good match that I think could have been better had Gregory Iron not interfered.
5.) The American Wolves vs. Chris Sabin & “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin: ****
Before the match, Davey Richards cuts a promo. He says he never thought he’d be back in an AAW ring, but he was glad to be wrong. He mentions that their original opponents, The Monster Mafia of Ethan Page & Josh Alexander, weren’t able to make it to the show (apparently they had car troubles), so they call out any tag team, or any singles competitors, to come out & face them. Michael Elgin comes out and takes the mic. He says that he wouldn’t be where he is today if it wasn’t for Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards. Elgin says that Chris Sabin & himself (who were originally supposed to face each other in a singles match) will step up and take on The American Wolves.
I was very intrigued to see how the team of Elgin & Sabin would work out. The match, as you would expect, was pretty great! It was easily the best match on the show. Richards & Edwards looked as great as they always do, and even though they were a makeshift team, Elgin & Sabin did really well. Lots of really good tag team action in this one. The American Wolves would eventually get the win with a tombstone piledriver/head kick combo.
After the match, Richards & Edwards try to shake hands with Sabin, but he shoves them, and flips them off as he exits. Elgin then takes the mic, and puts over AAW. He also thanks Richards & Edwards, and agrees with the fans in wanting them to come back soon.
6.) Keith Walker (with Nikki Mayday) vs. Rhino: ***1/4
I assume that this is the match that this show was named after. Before the match started, Rhino takes the mic, and says that when he’s done beating up Keith Walker, he’s going to “gore his little whore” (referring to Nikki Mayday). The match itself was pretty solid. It was what you would expect for a match between two bigger guys. Fine action in this one. At one point, Rhino hit the GORE, but Walker kicked out. In the end, Walker would end up getting the impressive win over Rhino.
7.) AAW Heavyweight Title - Eddie Kingston vs. Shane Hollister: ***1/2
Shane Hollister was supposed to get his title rematch at Jawbreaker, but he was unable to make the show. Not only that, but Hollister without Scarlett Bordeaux tonight (which he explains in a backstage promo). Hollister takes the mic before the match, and says that he & Kingston don’t need an introduction, and he immediately goes after Kingston! This was a pretty good match. I thought their first title match back at Defining Moment 2014 was slightly better, but it was still very enjoyable to watch. Hollister spent a lot of the match working over Kingston’s hand, which Kingston did a good job of selling throughout the match. Really good back & forth action from these two. Towards the end of the match, Markus Crane comes out and tries to give Hollister a chain, but Hollister refuses his help, flipping him off. Kingston would then take advantage of the chain, using it to hit a Backfist To The Future with the chain to get the win, retaining his AAW Heavyweight Title.
Markus Crane tries to talk to Hollister after the match, but Hollister shoves him down.
Overall: 7.0/10
Looking back on it, this was really a one match show. The American Wolves vs. Chris Sabin & Michael Elgin is the only match that’s worth going out of your way to see. The rest of the show had a few matches that were pretty good (Kingston vs. Hollister, Walker vs. Rhino, & Lovelace vs. Christian Faith), but the first half of the show was pretty dull. The only real item of note was that they finally advanced the angle between Dick Justice & Gregory Iron. It has its moments, but it was hardly AAW’s best outing of 2014.
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