Opening match was good. I dig the Bristow & Barnes characters as a team and though I can appreciate how this sets them apart from other "lackey" types, part of me wishes we'd seen some bigger names in the opening of the show as well-- maybe Bond and Valero as it is. But it's not necessary, just typical. This put B&B over as a dominant force and adds intrigue to the tag division. Cool to see an actual match opening Vertigo. Having the commentary team run down the show
after makes it look like B&B are really something to be paid attention to, so good for them.
James Edwards again. It was brought to my attention that I worked with the handler in the past so I'm excited. But after that promo at OTSS and then no appearance, I feel teased!
Susan Kent with a 5 star promo. Damn.
This Dom Harter promo pissed me off. Take a shit on an opponent, sure, that's fine with me, but don't take a shit on the championship. When has any legitimate wrestling promotion ever referred to one of their active titles as "third tier" canonically? Idk if "canonically" is a word, but meh. Page came out and I can dig him being mad about how things went at the GRR. I'm upset he didn't pull an Apollo Crews and join HARTER-BRAND. We'll see where this goes.
NEON vs Kent was a well-written match. Glad that the win was achieved here without shenanigans-- every heel, no matter how slimy, has to get a legit win every now and again. Cool to see the 3GW folks gaining their footing.
We go to Dom in the back where I get vibes of both Miz and Mick Foley. Oddly. I dig the formal introduction of Jae Ramsey (and I think she took a shot at Susan Kent in this, but not sure). I'm not a big fan of people including personal thoughts in promos on the show. Subtle things as a nod to the "audience" that's OOC reading the show are one thing, but I can't necessarily tell that "the thought of blazing her own trail" intrigues Jae, y'know? Overall, decent seg, good intro.
Jaelynn got out of the locker-room quick. Apparently discussing strategy didn't go as well as she'd hoped as Moss gets the win. No one looked bad here, but Lowri Moss definitely gets the solid rub.
Straight-to-the-point and well-done promo by Karma. It reads well over a joint, wouldn't you know it! Johnny Karma is an excellent babyface and is believable sitting comfortably at the top.
Pedro Gonzales delivers the kind of wall-breaking I was referencing earlier, and that I enjoy. This segment broke up the pace of the show and gave us a reason to tune into Flashpoint. Curious to see the debut of Flashpoint against Pedro and Maritza. With all of these soon-to-be-debuting names, it does raise the question of whether Flashpoint and Vertigo may become brand-exclusive.
JAMES EDWARDS DOES NOT DISAPPOINT, WHO IS THIS BEACON OF HOPE?! Conspicuous by his absence is Daniel Widdel, but his wife Aimee comes out to the ring as a distraction, perhaps? Weird, and another foil in this story that I'm determined to learn more about. Tough break for Stunray but HOORAY FOR THIS MYSTERIOUS MAN OF MY DREAMS JAMES EDWARDS.
Ah! Aimee is a star of Cougar Hunters! Crossover appeal, she has! I loved the interaction between these two. Awesome dynamic. STILL more questions than answers but idec. These 2 and Stunray should just have a show to themselves with backstory and whatnot. You'd all bitch but you'd all fucking love it.
Macy Dover with a solid debut and maybe more importantly, a shocking upset over John Blade, who I'm pretty sure is gonna brutalize her and take her 15 Championship as revenge before turning it into the 20 Championship bc 15 is not enough for Big John Match.
Blake Rogers is still salty about the MAL title. Nice continuity. He also seems like the early (VERY early...) Chris Benoit in his demeanor. Does seem like he's ready to end the feud with Tijerina though, so I expect to see him turn up the aggression p soon.
AMIRA with what I envision to be the coolest championship belt in existence. Shame we won't be seeing a Champion v Champion match above her private volcano. I dig that Lowri came out to stop the old belt from being (literally) trashed... but does this mean she's in possession of the real championship?
Chris Madison cuts the obligatory post-win promo AND ENDS IT WITH A BRILLIANT PICK FOR EVAN ENVI AS HIS NEXT CONTENDDAAAAHHH. But really, cool to see that Madison doesn't necessarily *need* Frankie as a mouthpiece at this point. He comes off well enough on his own, but Frankie's presence somehow makes Chris seem like more of a legitimate fighter... if that makes sense.
Tillman v Rogers is next-- and I didn't realize Tillman was the only full-time roster member from the Lion's Den. The match itself was straightforward and full of technical wrestling. Kind of wish there had been more commentary in some spots but that's a nitpick. Dover coming down to the ring and making the slight distraction was logical if not predictable. Doesn't take away from the match though. In the end, Rogers looks strong moving forward but Tillman comes off as a sympathetic face. No one really loses.
The PCLAS make it known that they're not done with the Keisters and, understandably, are we ever done with keisters. Never. Never ever.
Page v Widdel's next. Commentary does a good job at pointing out the skepticism toward Harter's new leaf and the role Page plays in all that as a skeptic. Widdel doesn't necessarily look bad here but Jimmy Page looked fairly dominant at most of the key points of this match. Eager to see what both men do on the next couple of shows tbh.
Pretty by-the-books promo by Reid. It was a perfectly fine interview but doesn't give us an idea of where Molly's going-- which the character acknowledges in fairness. It does confirm that she's been taken out of Pride Title contention, which is a head-scratcher. I expect Molly will either move up the card or there's a major heel-swerve coming on. Probably the former.
Sadie v Noelle was written well. The characters and dynamic of all involved came off brilliantly and it does seem to leave the Sadie and Noelle personal rivalry in question. It seems that Noelle has pretty much definitively been the winner each time, but one must wonder when NEON's finally going to explode/flip a switch, etc. *le gasp*
Another refreshing segments to break up the pace, this time from the Elysians. I can't decide if I want to ridicule Elon Elysian or console him, but I enjoy the family drama. It's realistic and being explored on a
realistic level, so how it plays into the Tag Team Championship scene is anyone's guess, but it's obv gonna be a factor.
UP.Heather v Dom was written like a true main event, of course. I'm always a fan of a ton of near-falls. I'm a fan of one-off matches having this much build behind them, and characters having this much history. Part of me expected to see Dom snap as the match went on, but it didn't happen. We didn't get to see much of him post-match so it's unclear how he was feeling in the immediate post-result. Good win here by Heather.
THE CHAMP IS HERE. WHY IS EVERYONE TRYING TO HURT THESE POOR BELTS. JESUS.
Izzy (as most people did this show-- on their game) cut a solid promo, but this one stuck out. It felt real and in the moment, which isn't the easiest thing to achieve through writing. I smirked at the "SSTC" chants bc that's such a wrestling-fan thing to do. DID ANYONE PUT THAT FIRE OUT, BTW? Johnny Karma makes another appearance and made me smile w/ his BABYFACESHIT but Cordelia stole the show, even though idk if she's a face or a heel or w/e anymore. This promo made me not care. She tore into Izzy for wanting to burn FGA down and then not having the balls to do it when she could. Izzy makes sure that she's not forgotten about and takes the seg back at the end before deciding that Cordy and Karma can decide among themselves who gets the shot. While I'm a fan of a triple threat, I'm also a fan of seeing Cordy v Karma with stakes like this. Izzy leaves this segment looking a lot smarter than some people will give her credit for, and comes off looking like a champion.
Overall, good post-OTSS Vertigo. Not much I'd change up.
