BRM Reviews Style Battle S1 E4

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews Style Battle S1 E4

Post by Big Red Machine » Jun 2nd, '17, 14:02

Style Battle S1 E4 (5/27/2017)- Tampa, FL

Yeah, yeah, I know I said that I probably wouldn’t watch any more Style Battle, but whatever it is that Gabe is doing with Jason Kincaid definitely has me intrigued and the previous shows have done a good enough job at making me REALLY want to see Fred Yehi win one of these things, so I’m back once again.

FIRST ROUND MATCH: Jason Cade vs. Socorro- 5.75/10
Socorro is billed as being from Angel Grove, California, so my expectations for his fighting skill are pretty high. He was fine, but I saw nothing to justify his chosen fictional hometown. Cade was more impressive, and he got the win. He then cut a promo noting that he made it all the way to the finals last time, so this time he is determined to win the whole thing. He also said he would be debuting in PWG soon.

FIRST ROUND MATCH: Fred Yehi vs. Odinson- 6/10
Odinson is obviously a Thor rip-off but he’s too lazy to even dye his hair blond. How do you think the Estonian Thunderfrog feels about having his gimmick stolen? Also, the internet tells me that Mr. Odinson’s finish is an F-5 where he spins around a few times first, which he calls the F-10, so I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that he’s not a particularly creative guy.
Odinson was big and strong so Fred had to use his unique offense to cut him down to size before he could apply the Koji Clutch for the win. Fred then cut a great promo about all of his accomplishments in the WWN- including today marking one full year as FIP World Heavyweight Champion- and said that it was his destiny to win Style Battle as well.

FIRST ROUND MATCH: Jason Kincaid vs. Sean Maluta- 6.75/10
Maluta dickishly slapped Kincaid’s hand away when Kincaid politely offered him a handshake. Maluta was serviceable but bland. Kincaid was his usual non-angry self but he did one or two little things that seemed very un-Kincaid-like, like sitting in the crowd to start a chant. Kincaid won and cut a promo in which he passionately declared himself to be “the most creative wrestler ever,” because I guess that’s something worth bragging about. He did also include some of his usual spiritual mumbo-jumbo so he still feels like the same guy I watch in EVOLVE and FIP.

FIRST ROUND MATCH: Ethan Case vs. James Drake- 6.25/10
The match was fine, but I really wish they wouldn’t have tried to go to the air as much as they did because basically everything they did that involved one guy jumping without and assistance from the other pulling him up looked… well… it looked like big guys trying to do small guy stuff and while they did physically succeed and doing what they meant to do, it looked a lot worse than when the small guys do it because the small guys get higher and looks more impressive. The only exception to this was Case’s Ace Crusher. When they were hitting each other or doing powers stuff they looked good, though. Towards the end of the match the camera kept zooming on one particular fan who was standing up and shouting something. He also congratulated Drake after his win, but the announcers didn’t even acknowledge his presence so it didn’t feel like he was supposed to be part of the storyline, but at the same time I can’t imagine that he wasn’t.

JAMES DRAKE PROMO- meh.

SEMIFINAL MATCH: Fred Yehi vs. Jason Cade- 6/10
Cade starts us off fast with a sucker-superkick the moment the introductions are finished. They had a short but athletic match in which Yehi managed to pull out the win to finally make it to the final of a Style Battle.

FRED YEHI PROMO- decent.

SEMIFINAL MATCH: Jason Kincaid vs. James Drake- no rating, good segment.
Kincaid won fairly quickly, choking Drake out with the Compassionate Release. The way this was pushed was that Drake had wrestled so recently and had a long match so Kincaid strategized that choke-out would be the best way to go. Kincaid joined the referee in checking on Drake after the match and helped the groggy Drake up. Drake, probably not realizing that the match was over, took a swing at Kincaid but Kincaid calmly avoided it. The referee informed Drake that the match was over because he was choked out.

JASON KINCAID PROMO- I couldn’t hear most of it because not only were there some VERY loud fans talking (all directed at Drake) but we could also hear the referee explaining to Drake why he had to end the match. It felt like there were two segments going on at once and we were only seeing one of them but hearing both. What I did hear from Kincaid was that he doesn’t want to let his friends, family, and fans down, and that wherever his journey takes him, he is sure that it is the right journey for him.

FRAY: Anthony Henry vs. A.R. Fox vs. David Ali vs. Buku Dao vs. Austin Theory vs. Danny Flamingo vs. Schaff vs. J. Spade vs. Matt Lancie- 6.75/10
Theory was actually supposed to be in tonight’s tournament but was kept out of it by a stomach illness (Yehi substituted for him). He did, however, insist on competing tonight and so he was placed in this match. He didn’t actually seem very sick, doing stuff like moonsaults that are probably quite bad for an upset stomach. The announcers theorized that maybe he just wanted to get his hands on A.R. Fox as soon as possible (Fox had attacked Theory last night at FIP Accelerate 2017) so he made up the illness to get out of the tournament so he could be in this match with Fox instead.
Fox and Theory were the two getting most of the eliminations. Fox eventually eliminated Theory by roll-up with a handful of tights. It eventually came down to Fox and Henry, who had a good little mini-match at the end. Henry got the win but announcers made sure to put Fox over for going from the beginning all the way to the end.

ANTHONY HENRY PROMO- good
Henry was in the first three Style Battle tournaments and so he wasn’t booked in this one (they actually worked an angle on Twitter where he complained to Gabe about not being booked for tonight’s tournament and Gabe explained that he has had his chances and other people need to be given a shot). He said that his win tonight proves that he deserves another shot and Trevin Adams came out and announced that WWN officials have decided to give Henry one last chance to win a Style Battle in season one, which will happen at next months’ show. Henry ups the ante by vowing that if he doesn’t win the next Style Battle that he is in, he will never be seen on any Style Battle show ever again.



STYLE BATTLE SEASON 1, EPISODE 4 TOURNAMENT FINALS: Jason Kincaid vs. Fred Yehi- 8/10
Both guys cut good promos before the match. The match was slow and methodical and built very well. Yehi seemed to let his frustration get the better of him at times, occasionally resorting to tactics like hair pulling that he normally wouldn’t. His frustration caused him to make one mistake at the end by trying to follow Kincaid when Kincaid went to the outside which put Fred in a vulnerable position which Kincaid capitalized on hit a series of moves that culminated in the Philosopher’s Stomp for the win. This win felt like something Kincaid has sorely needed, as he is clearly going to be an important player in the WWN but hasn’t had anything that can really be pointed at to make him feel like a kayfabe success (one of the announcers even said during the first round that Kincaid “comes up short more often than he’s victorious”). This win gives him that.


A pretty good show from Style Battle, which really started to set up some possible scenarios for down the line. Not only do we have Henry in a must-win situation next time, but they have also done a good job over the first four shows of building up the journeys of Yehi, Cade, and Drake all to the point where I am definitely invested in seeing them win. Okay, maybe just Yehi and Cade at this point, but they’ve clearly started to build in that direction with Drake as well. They’ve got my attention for at least one more show.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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cero2k
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Re: BRM Reviews Style Battle S1 E4

Post by cero2k » Jun 2nd, '17, 14:59

Big Red Machine wrote: Jun 2nd, '17, 14:02 Style Battle S1 E4 (5/27/2017)- Tampa, FL

Yeah, yeah, I know I said that I probably wouldn’t watch any more Style Battle, but whatever it is that Gabe is doing with Jason Kincaid definitely has me intrigued and the previous shows have done a good enough job at making me REALLY want to see Fred Yehi win one of these things, so I’m back once again.
i told myself the same thing about the WCPW world cup, but each bracket has at least someone that I wanna watch and they're not coming out all that close to each other. I'm still working on the Canadian bracket
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