Wrestlecon Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow 2026 (4.16.26) review 

 

April 16, 2026 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #6 

 

We’re at the Horseshoe in Las Vegas, Nevada. Not many venues this year. Or perhaps that’s because everything I’ve seen so far is on Triller for the Collective. First beer has been cracked open to watch this show. I’ve been sat in the same chair for about 14 hours at this point. Is this a healthy way to start Mania weekend? No. But, honestly, I feel bizarrely fired up and invigorated. Like I have a purpose. Emil Jay welcomes us here, and the audio is miles out. Hosts are Joe Dombrowski & Veda Scott.  

 

Before we get underway Thaddeus Long is out here to have words. Thuggin’ and buggin’ playa!  

 

Rhino & Heath Slater vs. The Headbangers 

Mosh has torn his bicep, so we have a replacement and it’s Hornswoggle in a kilt. Swoggle sells the steps as lethal, having seen the Alec Price spot. If I’m being polite here, the pacing is….uh….not exhiliarating. Heath has to show a lot of ass, bumping around.  

The audio finally gets synced up, 20 minutes in. For some reason we get heat on Swoggle. Rhino hits a Gore on Swoggle, which seems harsh as it hits him in the face, and Thrasher rolls Rhino up for the win. This was long and the actual work was shite. DUD. Should have done the nostalgia pops and gone home. 

 

Danny Black & Joe Lando vs. Ben-K & Hyo vs. Latigo & Toxin vs. Starboy Charlie & Starman 

Emil Jay points out this is set for THREE falls. As it’s elimination rules.  

Starman is a mysterious masked man who’s in a video game. The controller gets stuck and he’s walking into the corner. There’s a lot of talent in this but we’re scramblin’ man. LORD I WAS BORN A SCRAMBLIN’ MAN! The whole Starman concept is getting over nicely. Everyone else is just poppin’ off spots.  

Starman freezes so they just move him out of the way, and he stands in the corner in the same position. It’s a good bit. Shooting Star Elbow dumps Starman. BOO! Now we’re fully into spotfest territory. The luchadores are dumped by a Hyo senton. Why are Black & Lando there at the end? Ben K spears Lando for the win anyway. This really didn’t need to be elimination rules. **½.  

 

Sgt Slaughter comes out here and, sadly, doesn’t tell us he supports Iran in the war with the United States. Coward. He also fails to use the 24-hour clock when telling us when he’ll be at his table at Wrestlecon.  

 

Masato Tanaka vs. Mark Davis 

Oh no, a hobo has got in here. Hopefully Masato Tanaka will give him some spare change, and we can move on with the show. This is the kind of match I’ve probably already seen in a warehouse in Wolverhampton. There were more people there than at Wrestlecon too. Davis is a solid worker. He’s strong, has good fluidity in the ring, and understands the structure of pro wrestling. He dominates the match, showcasing his range of spots and how scary he can be as a big dude.  

 

Tanaka does a fine job of getting the shit kicked out of him while Dunkzilla plays Mike Awesome. Not enough powerbombs for my liking but good effort. Davis starts to look tired. It’s almost as if he’s punched himself out. He does a lot of wild eyed, Australian outback screaming. He sounds like a maniac. CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO FUCK! Dunky puts Tanaka down! Fuck…this was actually pretty great. ***¾  

 

Blake Christian & Lee Johnson vs. Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster 

Comms call Subculture “punk rock through and through”. Pop punk and mods, I think you’ll find. Subculture do a lot of the same stuff they did in the Progress match. It does seem a bit sharper here. Presumably because they’ve already done all the same spots a few hours ago. Webster is quite awful at playing Welshman in peril. There are some decent Andrews-Johnson interactions due to Lee being very good. I mostly find the match boring and overlong though. Christian does a load of convoluted crap. Why kick someone when you can handspring kick someone? It doesn’t make it any more impactful?  

 

When I think I can’t dislike the match any more they start lifting Young Bucks spots and Flash gets pinned. Two of the wrestlers in this match are actively bad. I’ll leave you to figure out who that is. I genuinely hate the dancy, tags don’t matter, nonsense, try hard spotfest tags that riddle the business. You might like this; I hated it. *¾ 

 

Team Mancer vs. Team Beast 

Ol’ Mancer and Mortos has assembled some people for a tag. Some very odd choices. Gravity, a luchadore on Mancer’s team, is dangerously close to a gimmick I’d love. Just needs to lean into it more. Emil Jay almost forgets Danny Jones’ name. I can understand why, brrrrother. FORGETTABLE, THAT’S WHAT YOU AAAARRRREEEE.  

 

This is one of those matches where there’s twenty people and every one of them has to get their shit in. It’s quite funny that everyone gets in there and showcases their styles and the Brits/Irish do comedy. The lucha stuff is great with Gravity vs Mortos. De Lander has been out injured, and it shows. Her timing is way off here. The ring rust is real.  

 

The gravity gimmick kicks in nicely as Gravity makes everyone move in slow motion. There are a lot of spots in this. Some come off better than others. Vaughn Vertigo is very good here. In a match filled with spots, his come across as slick. Piledriver for Mortos finishes off LJ Cleary. This was an interesting mix of shticks. It was way too long for what it was though, and some of the shtick could have been trimmed down. **¼ 

 

I did watch to this point live, but I was tired, so I went to bed. No heroics this week, lads.  

 

Galeno del Mal vs. Bandido 

Bandido is certainly very gifted in the ring and I’m fond of Galeno del Mal due to his sheer size but combine that with his style and we’re laughing. This starts out sluggishly given it’s deep into this show. Read the room, guys. Galeno launches Bandido into the chairs. Ah, there we go! The chairs look quite comfortable, to be fair. I wouldn’t mind bumping into those. Bandido is a cool flier, and he knows when to go to that well. Working towards the big spots. The sluggish start now making sense.  

 

Bandido’s freak strength, at catching GDM as he comes off the ropes, is unreal. That’s John Cena territory. They do a good job of escalating and making me feel like near falls are actual finishes. Bandido unfortunately makes a hash of his finish, getting beached on the big man’s spine, before hitting the German suplex for the pin. ***. A very solid match. Good work from both guys. Crowd entertained. No major complaints.  

 

Progress World Championship 

Man Like Dereiss (c) vs. Ethan Allen  

I’m glad I went to bed. No offence to these lads, but this adds 20-30 minutes to the show. Comms call Allen “basic”. The good thing about being good at wrestling and keeping it basic is that you don’t fuck a bunch of stuff up. Personally, I’d like to see him bit a shade more intense about it. While he doesn’t feel special, he does have all the tools to get there. Dereiss is selling the back here, which we could have used in the stretch of his Oku match. Not sure you can sell the back and then go straight into a nip up though. Cool Runnings finishes right afterwards. This was decent. **½  

 

Ricochet & his mates vs. Mike Bailey, Kevin Knight & Michael Oku 

Ricochet explains that Toa and Bishop only just got here, which is probably the reason why the run time is broken. The crowd chant “Fuck TNA”. There’s a bunch of spots here and unfortunately they try and pounce Oku out of the ring and fuck that up. Wouldn’t you know, it’s Toa Liona. My word, he stinks. The Bailey team is better and when one of them is in charge it’s so superior to watching Ricochet’s mates do formula.  

 

Ricochet vs. Oku is very nice. They have crazy good chemistry. Ricochet’s mates continue to drag the match down with poor timing and lacklustre execution. Whenever Ricochet is in there, this is great. Ricochet picks up the win after the ref misses him tapping. **¼. There was some very good stuff in here, but jarring differences in ability caused an uneven match to occur.  

 

The 411: 

The best show of Mania weekend so far. I know, low bar. The Davis-Tanaka match was hands down the best match I’ve seen so far. Some other good stuff in between. Minor thumbs up. Fair play lads.  

 

 

Show Ranking:  

Wrestlecon Supershow 6.3  

Dragon Gate USA: Gate of Sin City 5.8  

Progress 5.6  

Hybrid x PWU Midnight Xpress 4.1  

Podermania~! 3.7  

CCW High Rollers 3.4  

 

Best Matches:  

Mark Davis vs. Masato Tanaka (Wrestlecon Supershow) ***¾  

Man Like Dereiss vs. Michael Oku (Progress) ***½  

Manders vs. Thomas Shire (Hybrid/PWU) ***¼  

Bandido vs. Galeno del Mal (Wrestlecon Supershow) *** 

Ben K & Hyo vs. Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr vs. Jordan Oliver & Alec Price (DGUSA) *** 

 

Number of coffees drunk; 3