DEFY Can’t Deny It (4.4.24) review 

 

April 4, 2024 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #7 

 

Source: Triller TV+ (£7.99 per month – 7-day free trial for noobs) 

 

We’re in Philly at Penns Landing Caterers, which is another different venue. They’ve only named six matches for this card and, by god, I hope they stick to it so we can get out of here by 6pm. This is the Collective building.  

 

The commentary team looks professional, and the graphics look good, and we start on time. What happened to the Indies? They were a perfect shambles yesterday. Jack Farmer and Rich Boccini on the call. This feels like the first ‘proper’ show of the weekend. There’s a lot of people in here and it’s the kind of show people ‘get noticed’ on. 

 

Defy Tag Team Championship  

Bollywood Boyz (c) vs. Leon Slater & Man Like Dereiss 

Dereiss raps his way out here repping the 0121. I never knew the prestigious Birmingham area code would get over at WrestleMania weekend.  

Dereiss has bad news. Leon Slater isn’t here due to “travel issues” and he’s been replaced by Michael Oku.  

 

Defy Tag Team Championship  

Bollywood Boyz (c) vs. Michael Oku & Man Like Dereiss 

Oku had a rough time of it in wXw recently, but he seems a) more fluid here and b) better received for his spots. He does the same ‘can’t get it’ Fosbury Flop spot that he did at wXw though. Oku’s selling and bumping is clean and on point. The Bollywood Boyz are generally solid but miscue somewhat on a double team. They then do a weird thing where they throw Oku out, he has no idea what’s happening, and then after a while they roll him back in. Nothing happened.  

 

Dereiss is still pretty raw, and he has a habit of planting himself and not being able to adjust. Generally, the match is solid but doesn’t hit the higher gear you’d expect from a weekend kick-starter. When Oku hits the Fosbury Flop, it’s noticeable because it’s the first real high spot. We dispense with tags and do stereo half crabs, followed by stereo Sharpshooters. Bollywood Blast puts Dereiss away. This was ok for ages but then fell apart completely.  

 

Moonlight Express (Mike Bailey & MAO) vs. CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) 

Chris Brookes’ tag team partners do battle.  

On paper, this could bang. Brookes is great at planning and obviously has good relationships with the participants.  

They quickly establish CCK as the underdogs, even though Brookes has that big height advantage. It’s pleasing to see so many regular spots these guys have used for so many years. Double moonsault, spit finger, “BRAINBUSTAAAAH” etc. There are little aggravations. Lykos is a little keen on the thigh slaps and is clearly a half step off the others. He has to try hard to stay on that same level. That’s not to say the other lads don’t thigh slap, but it’s less obvious.  

 

Lykos does take some nice clean bumps to get over the standard Bailey kicky offence. The pre-planned stuff doesn’t quite land perfectly, although there are clever ideas at play. MAO steals the show somewhat with a diving cutter over the referee. CCK end up winning in a cracking display of cool shit. Lots of people have tried to do ‘cool shit’ matches this weekend but it’s not landed. This, mostly, did with guys doing their signature stuff and clicking well. ***¾  

 

DEFY Women’s World Championship  

Vert Vixen (c) vs. Jazmin Allure vs. Trish Adora  

Sawyer Wreck got injured and is missing her Mania weekend matches. I’m sad for her, she’s looked decent on previous Mania weekend shots. Jazmin Allure takes her spot. Trish does some nice grappling but generally these three-ways can go wrong, very quickly. This one falls apart just before the dives kick in. They have one girl outside most of the time, doing nothing and there’s a lack of chemistry. Jazmin having to move Vert into position for something looks bad. Vert herself makes an error on a clothesline.  

 

Vert then does some weird selling where she’s going to break up a pin and doesn’t get there and then keeps crawling afterwards. What is she doing? There’s a double missed forearm spot after that, which doesn’t make any sense. We pick things up with a vicious German suplex. Jazmin takes that in brutal fashion. They replay it because it fucking rules. Maybe Jazmin should stick to bumping. It worked for Jerry Lawler, he only had two moves (punch, piledriver).  

 

She takes another cracking bump from a wind up backbreaker. Vert continues her less than stellar defence by slipping off the ropes on a springboard. You see her afterwards, head in hands. She knows this isn’t her best work and she’s not picked a good show to do it. Vert gets the pin with a brainbuster (taken brilliantly by Allure), but she won’t be happy. I legitimately feel that Jazmin had the best match, taking the three best bumps on the entire show.  

 

Pacific Northwest Championship 

BMF Battle Royal 

BIG MEATY FUCKERS match up. It’s under battle royal rules? Jacobs vs. Galeno del Mal to start. Why didn’t wXw run this match? #3 is Charles Crowley. Oh, we’ve immediately abandoned the big meaty fuckers gimmick huh? #4 is LJ Cleary. I guess we’re completely giving up on the meaty fuckers thing? Oh well. #5 is Shota. #6 is Gene Munny. I’m happy for Gene. This is his first match outside of Europe. He immediately blows everyone else away. Brilliant work.  

 

#7 is RKJ. How many guys from this are European? #8 is Schaff, who’s the champ. Gene, who’s the only man who’s stood out here, is first eliminated. Just bizarre booking. I assume we only have eight guys. They clear out all the crap and leave us with Schaff, Jacobs and GdM. Hey, it might end up good. Should have just had a four-way with those three and Munny. Schaff retains after dumping GdM with a DVD on the apron. Most battle royals suck. This was no different.  

 

C4XKC (Cody Chhun, Guillermo Rosas & KC Navarro) vs. Sovereign (Evan Rivers, Judas Icarus & Travis Williams) vs. Team Dragon Gate (Kzy, Ho Ho Lun & Shun Skywalker) 

There are too many guys to get personalities over so let’s just hit a bunch of high spots. This is no longer my kind of match, but I was hoping the DG guys could fix that. They don’t do enough dives and/or lariats. I mean, there are some dives and lariats, but it could use more. As the match nears the conclusion, it does get better. The numbers and letters team win. Lots of stuff happened.  

 

^ Apologies for this being so short but I was eating my dinner.  

 

DEFY World Championship 

KENTA (c) vs. Gringo Loco 

It’s been a long time since KENTA was a big name star. He’s living on past glories and using shortcuts and jerkish behaviour to put together his matches. Gringo Loco is probably a better wrestler because he still has the mobility and bump clock isn’t on empty. In all honesty, all I want from KENTA in 2024 is duelling strikes and him being a dick.  

He looks in pain. It makes me sad. The crowd feel equally detached. We get a close up after the apron DDT and you can see the state of KENTA’s left shoulder. It’s scarred all to hell. As if the match can’t get any worse, with KENTA gingerly falling around, they work in dog shit ref bump. They do some other bad stuff and GTS finishes. Oh, good lord, this fucking STANK. Awful match. Gringo Loco tried really hard, but there’s no getting anything out of KENTA in 2024. He’s done.  

 

The 411: 

The first outright bad show of the weekend. Expectations were higher, which made the constant stream of failures even more palpable. If you take the CCK-Moonlight Express match of this show, it would be the worst show of the weekend. Hands down. And I’ve watch EVERYTHING.