BRM Reviews AAW Homecoming 2017 (AWESOME!)

[Big Red Machine]

AAW Homecoming 2017 (3/17/2017)- Berwyn, IL

BEST FRIENDS PROMO- fine

AAW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALS: (Chuck Taylor & Trent) vs. OI4K (Jake Crist & Dave Crist) (w/JT Davidson)- 6.75/10
Some good solid wrestling early, plus some comedic cheating Chuck Taylor. Things continued to build and had heated up quite nicely by the end.

ZEMA ION PROMO- decent babyface promo.

MARTY DEROSA INTERVIEWS ACH- good (including an amusing shot at ROH. The wrestlers want to be allowed to cut promos. Who could have seen this coming? Well… anyone without a lizard brain, obviously.)

NO DISQUALIFICATIONS MATCH: Homicide vs. Abyss (w/JT Davidson)- 6.25/10
Well… they didn’t say it was a No DQs match, but I assume it must have been because the referee made no effort to stop them from using weapons, to punish them for strikes to the groin, or to count them out, and the announcers didn’t seem surprised by any of this either, so it was either No DQs or one of the worst refereeing jobs of all time.
This was a fine weapons match. Homicide stabbed Abyss in the genitals with his fork. There was more fork-stabbing, as well as thumbtacks and chairs and guardrails, and yet it somehow managed to feel like they didn’t do too much for their place on the card.

SHANE STRICKLAND PROMO- He is making his AAW debut tonight against A.R Fox, so he makes a veiled reference to Lucha Underground. The promo was meh.

DREW GALLOWAY vs. ZEMA ION- 6.75/10
Drew dumps Ion on his head a lot and gets the win. Ion was a decent babyface, and there was an utterly SICK set-up for a piledriver in here. They probably should have been counted out early on, though. I’m pretty sure AAW has count-outs? Does anyone know?

DREW GALLOWAY PROMO- he puts over Zema Ion and AAW.
PENTA EL 0M PROMO- good (subtitles!)

SHANE STRICKLAND vs. A.R. FOX- 5.25/10
I can see some people loving this, but this got WAY too spotty for me. I was expecting a spotfest going in, but they took it to that extra level where they tried to work things in that seemed like maybe they might be some part of a specific story but then those spots went nowhere, which just drew even more attention to the lack of coherent story rather than working to hide it by just doing fast-paced spots. Then it started to overstay its welcome, too.

BESTIES IN THE WORLD PROMO- meh

AAW HERITAGE TITLE MATCH: ACH(c) vs. Penta el 0M- 6/10
ACH doesn’t get DQed for blatantly punching his opponent right in the scrotum?
Aside from the above bit I was really liking this and thought it was building pretty well until they jumped from second gear right up to eighteenth gear when Penta el 0M kicked out after eating two straight Canadian Destroyers. From then on out it was basically finisher overkill mode, although they did keep it short so I guess you could say it wasn’t “overkill” although the sudden extreme gear-change really hurt it for me.
Penta el 0M won the title, and even got some revenge for ACH’s ball-shot with an equally un-penalized low blow of his own. This, plus the fact that ACH bad been a huge jerk the whole match indicated to me that Penta el 0M was the babyface and he was certainly celebrating with his title like a babyface would… but then he went and tried to break ACH’s arm for no reason (he already got revenge for the ball-shot with one of this own). ACH managed to escape and then taunted Penta el 0M while retreating like a heel would instead of continuing to fight like a babyface. It was all very confusing.

TREVOR LEE PROMO- AWESOME!

AAW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALS: Scarlet & Graves (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) vs. Besties in the World (Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett)- 6/10
Good babyfaces vs. heels tag match with Xavier playing the babyface in peril.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- JT Davidson comes out and challenges Scarlet & Graves to have the tournament finals right now. They accept, even though they just wrestled. Then OI4K jump them from behind and hit them with some high-impact moves, but the bell has rung so we get
AAW WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT FINALS: Scarlet & Graves (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) vs. OI4K (Jake Crist & Dave Crist) (w/JT Davidson)- no rating, fine segment.
OI4K win in about thirty seconds, taking advantage of the damage they had already done. I’m not crazy about the babyfaces accepting a big title match in which they would be at a clear disadvantage for no real reason other than the fact JT Davidson said they were cowards or whatever, but having them get jumped from behind did mitigate that a bit.

MARTY DEROSA INTERVIEWS SAMI CALLIHAN- awesome promo by Sami!

TREVOR LEE vs. REY FENIX- 7.75/10
They started off hot and heavy and did not let up until the craziness peaked at the finish.

LOW KI PROMO- awesome! And he’s wearing a freakin’ suit?!

ZACK SABRE JR. vs. KYLE O’REILLY- 8.75/10
This was Kyle’s first high-profile match in the US this year (and his first high profile match anywhere since losing the ROH World Title and parting ways with ROH on January 4th) and holy sh*t did he sure deliver. This was a technical masterpiece of pure professional wrestling.

REY FENIX PROMO- good promo to build up his match John Morrison as well as his quest for Sami Callihan’s AAW Heavyweight Title. Speaking of which, it’s now time for the…

AAW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Sami Callihan(c) (w/OI4K & JT Davidson) vs. Low Ki- 9/10
LOW KI wrestled this match in a SUIT AND TIE. The story going in was that Low Ki had knocked Sami out six years ago at a Jersey All Pro Wrestling show with a big right and Sami is still angry about it, so this was quite the grudge match. It was also apparently a No DQs match as the referee let Sami tie Low Ki to the ropes with wrist tape and hit him with a chair multiple times.
These two guys just beat the sh*t out of each other for over twenty minutes. During the aforementioned rope-typing segment, after the also aforementioned chairshots, Sami got up in Ki’s face and taunted him to “HIT ME, BITCH!” so Ki did, once again knocking Sami out (temporarily) with a big right handed haymaker, but he couldn’t capitalize on it because he had extricate himself from his rope-taped predicament, and by the time he was able to do so, Sami had recovered.
Because Sami had tried to choke Low Ki to death with his tie earlier, Low Ki REACHED INTO SAMI’S MOUTH AND DISLOCATED HIS JAW. Sami went all Sabu and ripped off Davidson’s sleeve and used it to hold his jaw in place and went to finish the match with a renewed determination. We got some excellent exchanges from that point until the end, including some excellent false finishes, but then Abyss had to show up and ruin everything by helping Sami cheat to retain the title.

PENTA EL 0M PROMO- he will make his first title defense at the next show against A.R. Fox.

ACH PROMO- good

JT DAVIDSON (& HIS STABLE) PROMO- good. Then Abyss relocated Sami Callihan’s jaw and Sami cut another awesome promo.

This was an AWESOME show from AAW. The undercard quite exceeded my expectations and the top two matches were everything I could have hoped they would be. WATCH THIS SHOW. It might well end up as the Show of the Year.

[cero2k]

LOW KI PROMO- awesome! And he’s wearing a freakin’ suit?!

AAW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Sami Callihan(c) (w/OI4K & JT Davidson) vs. Low Ki- 9/10
LOW KI wrestled this match in a SUIT AND TIE. The story going in was that Low Ki had knocked Sami out six years ago at a Jersey All Pro Wrestling show with a big right and Sami is still angry about it, so this was quite the grudge match. It was also apparently a No DQs match as the referee let Sami tie Low Ki to the ropes with wrist tape and hit him with a chair multiple times.
These two guys just beat the sh*t out of each other for over twenty minutes. During the aforementioned rope-typing segment, after the also aforementioned chairshots, Sami got up in Ki’s face and taunted him to “HIT ME, BITCH!” so Ki did, once again knocking Sami out (temporarily) with a big right handed haymaker, but he couldn’t capitalize on it because he had extricate himself from his rope-taped predicament, and by the time he was able to do so, Sami had recovered.
Because Sami had tried to choke Low Ki to death with his tie earlier, Low Ki REACHED INTO SAMI’S MOUTH AND DISLOCATED HIS JAW. Sami went all Sabu and ripped off Davidson’s sleeve and used it to hold his jaw in place and went to finish the match with a renewed determination. We got some excellent exchanges from that point until the end, including some excellent false finishes, but then Abyss had to show up and ruin everything by helping Sami cheat to retain the title.

you didn't watch the Wrestle Kingdom when Low Ki started wrestling in a suit?

[Big Red Machine]

LOW KI PROMO- awesome! And he’s wearing a freakin’ suit?!

AAW HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Sami Callihan(c) (w/OI4K & JT Davidson) vs. Low Ki- 9/10
LOW KI wrestled this match in a SUIT AND TIE. The story going in was that Low Ki had knocked Sami out six years ago at a Jersey All Pro Wrestling show with a big right and Sami is still angry about it, so this was quite the grudge match. It was also apparently a No DQs match as the referee let Sami tie Low Ki to the ropes with wrist tape and hit him with a chair multiple times.
These two guys just beat the sh*t out of each other for over twenty minutes. During the aforementioned rope-typing segment, after the also aforementioned chairshots, Sami got up in Ki’s face and taunted him to “HIT ME, BITCH!” so Ki did, once again knocking Sami out (temporarily) with a big right handed haymaker, but he couldn’t capitalize on it because he had extricate himself from his rope-taped predicament, and by the time he was able to do so, Sami had recovered.
Because Sami had tried to choke Low Ki to death with his tie earlier, Low Ki REACHED INTO SAMI’S MOUTH AND DISLOCATED HIS JAW. Sami went all Sabu and ripped off Davidson’s sleeve and used it to hold his jaw in place and went to finish the match with a renewed determination. We got some excellent exchanges from that point until the end, including some excellent false finishes, but then Abyss had to show up and ruin everything by helping Sami cheat to retain the title.

you didn't watch the Wrestle Kingdom when Low Ki started wrestling in a suit?

Now that you mention it it does ring a bell, but that was years ago.