H20 Hustle Cup 4 (4.2.24) review 

 

April 2, 2024 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #3 

 

Source: Independent Wrestling.TV ($10 per month) 

 

We’re in Willamstown, New Jersey, USA for the second show from H20 this week. The first night was hit and miss with a strong finish from the Monday Night Death show. Tonight we have ourselves a tournament plus matches for Matt Makowski and Colby Corino. Hopefully this doesn’t run over 3h like last night but I’m not holding my breath on that. Indies love to run long and too many people don’t care if they do. Especially in the USA.  

 

 

Brian Neil vs. TJ Reno vs. Brayden Toon vs. Zaz (?) Ravix vs. GG Everson 

Ravix looks like he lives the gimmick, if you catch my drift. Face paint and tattoos. Brian Neil is a “heel”, although he’s one of the more exciting and vibrant workers in this. Everyone else’s gimmick is eating too many cheeseburgers. This is a way better scramble than yesterday’s opener. Even if it’s more convoluted and they do the “WCW take it in turn to do dives” spot.  

 

GG Everson is even worse here than yesterday and he’s easily the worst worker in this thing. Any time he works with Ravix, it looks like two blind people trying to fuck a squirrel. Neil steals the pin to advance. He was the standout here, followed by TJ Reno. This was much better than yesterday’s opener but that’s a low fucking bar.  

 

President Hawkins vs. Kody Manhorn vs. Duncan Aleem vs. Shaun Smith vs. Marcus Mathers 

Manhorn is teeny, tiny. I hated Mathers yesterday but a scramble match with five dudes in it feels like an ideal setting for his bullshit. Smith and Mathers do a parity familiarity sequence, which is a bit obvious but works. Mathers soon resorts to his thigh slapping business. Aleem does power moves on all the flippy lads. As a match its far more awkward than the last one. They can’t get on the same page. Mathers must legitimately have a sore thigh from the amount of times he belts it during a match. Smith attempts some handspring flip or something and botches it completely (29m Maffew). Hawkins was totally to blame for not doing his spot. Manhorn wins with a roll up. This was much worse than the first match. Way too many mistakes and everything was a mess.  

 

Leroy Robinson vs. Donny Luv vs. Jaden Newman vs. Frank Bonetti vs. Kennedi Hardcastle 

Donny’s jeans look like they’ve seen better days. We get the ‘dives’ spot again but with a wrinkle. Bonetti just stops and does a double axe handle but why would you stand there and let him do it? Kennedi is supposed to do a baseball slide but misses both guys (just before 40 mins Maffew). Kennedi then botches a crossbody. She’s having a nightmare match here. Luv does a 450 and lands on Leroy’s ribs with his feet. I don’t know what the fuck that was supposed to be but I don’t think it was that. They botch something else and Bonetti just falls over. This is a disaster. Just go home, lads. GO HOME, I’m begging you! Kennedi wins. HAHAHAHA. She had the worst match of her life here. It’ll never get this bad again. -***½  

 

Matt Makowski vs. Cecilio Vega 

Makowski was over in Germany for 16 Carat, and I quite liked him. His mat work is a pleasing improvement over the last three clusterfuckery matches. It’s mostly solid work but Vega does occasionally forget what he’s going. The waistlock into the armbar is delayed because he just forgets where he is. Makowski unloads with kicks and they look great. Body shots too. You can’t kick people in the head all match. It’s totally unrealistic. Vega lets himself down with his inability to hang. He leaves Makowski waiting multiple times. Makowski drives everything good about the match. Makowski almost does the Cutthroat Driver, a move that someone needs to use as a finisher STAT, but instead he segues into an armbar and wins via submission. This was ok, but Vega couldn’t keep up.  

 

Ryan Redfield vs. Colby Corino 

Corino, annoyed he sold no merch last night, says he’s only doing headlocks tonight. Call your shots, baby.  

Yes mate! Lock that head! That head is locked in. Redfield does some other spots, which are ok but not headlocks. He also slaps his thigh. You know what doesn’t require a slap of the thigh? A headlock. Colby does a tope into a headlock and “that’s working, baby”. Sensational. I’m a little sad Colby feels the need to hit a move before headlocking Redfield down for three. *** because it’s nice to see a guy build an entire match around one hold, even a headlock, and it be good. Redfield wasn’t on his level but hit some good spots.  

 

Danny Havoc Hardcore Championship  

Neil Diamond Cutter (c) vs. Lou Nixon 

Nixon, the Geordie former MMA fighter, turned death match guy, is a surprise challenger. He feels like a character in the Gentlemen. I liked Cutter’s match from last night and he has a big “fuck it” mentality that I appreciate.  

They do some tremendously daft stuff like a GTS onto a set up step ladder. The whole ‘devil may care’ attitude is fun to watch. I’m dreading someone accidentally back bumping onto a random cinder block. Nixon spends too long setting up the finish and NDC hits the DVD on some cinder blocks to retain. This wasn’t the same level of lunacy of last night but was fun regardless. **¾  

 

Death Match 

Joel Bateman & Vic Craig vs. Anthraxx & Stretch 

We have assorted plunder and gimmicks out here including a barbwire table. Stretch is immediately left in two weird positions by the Kiwis as they’re too slow hitting a move and he has to do something. It ends up looking goofy as shit. In the first few minutes there’s so much standing around waiting. Lady Blakely then interjects to headbutt Bateman and busts him open hardway. The crowd chant “CTE”. Good lord.  

 

One of the plunder items is a board with knives in it. Thankfully they’re not sticking upwards but even so, that’s pretty horrific. Everyone is bleeding. Stretch looks like he’s completely lost control of his body. Stretch gets trapped in barbwire and Vic pours salt all over his cuts. Oh, oh, no. Stretch can’t even move because he’s wrapped in that barbwire. They have to cut him out of it.  

Then he goes through the table too. Fuuuuuuck. Bad day to be Stretch. “That was incredibly violent” says comms. Yes, yes, it was. It didn’t have the same storyline beats of the superior main event from yesterday, but it was carnage. Stretch is a lunatic. *** 

 

Post Match: they do shoeies from Lady Blakely’s trainers and dance to some Abba because “that shit fucks”. Wrestling, at its purest, ladies and gentlemen. This shit fucked.  

 

H20 Championship 

Austin Luke (c) vs. Tank  

The graphic again reads that this is a “mystery opponent” but Tank challenged Austin Luke yesterday. Why is Tank in a normal match? All he’s good for is bleeding and getting hit in head with plunder. It’s like booking Sandman in a submission match. Tank is older than dirt and his legs are gone. For Austin, it’s a chance to work with someone who has limited mobility. It’s a different kind of match than what most Indie guys are used to. Jaden Newman does a run in where he accidentally puts Tank through a table in a convoluted spot. Tank ends up getting choked out. This was fine, apart from the run in, but Tank is extremely limited nowadays. Better than his garbage match yesterday.  

 

Hustle Cup 4 Final  

Brian Neil vs. Kody Manhorn vs. Kennedi Hardcastle 

Kennedi and Kody attempt the mat reversals thing and it is dreadful. Scrambling around to get into position for a pin. Kennedi isn’t in control of her movements all the time. The Mutalock set up is a prime example. She dangerously falls backwards in the middle of it instead of bridging it. If you lose control of where your body is moving, you risk injuring yourself or someone else. Manhorn is ok on the mat but the stand-up stuff he does looks bad.  

 

Neil Pedigrees Kennedi and she doesn’t kick her legs out. She just drops down onto her knees and that’s dangerous too. By not committing to the bump, you run the risk of jamming your neck on the landing. Duncan Aleem gets rid of Kody Manhorn and it’s no DQ because it’s a three-way.  

Kennedi can’t get a tap out but finishes Neil with the running knee. At least the finish looked good, I guess. Not a good match though.  

 

The 411: 

We had a few moments here. The tag death match was suitably sick, and I loved Colby Corino’s headlock match. However, there were moments on this show (almost exclusively in the R1 matches) where the wrestling was awful. Botch after botch. Clearly noticeable mistakes where someone was badly out of position or simply missed what they were going for. Sub-standard for Mania weekend where the eyes of the world are on you. The Jaden Newman 5-way (although Newman himself was relatively blame free) was god damn terrible. I’m sure Maffew will be on that next week.