Wrestling Revolver x HOG Philadelphia (4.5.24) review 

 

April 5, 2024 

 

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK REVIEW #19  

 

Source: Triller TV+ (£7.99 per month) 

 

We’re in Philly at the Trinity Center for Urban Life. How am I getting yet another different venue suddenly? Hosts are Jason Solomon, JD from NY and Veda Scott. I’m pretty sure this venue only housed one show. They booked so many shows this weekend, they couldn’t fit them all into the same building on the Collective.  

 

 

The bad news is that the building is incredibly echoey and I have no idea what the ring announcer is saying.  

 

Mike Santana vs. Alex Shelley 

This is champion versus champion. Santana is the HOG champion. Shelley the Revolver champion. Santana feels strange on his own. I’m so used to seeing him in tags with EYFBO/LAX. He’s the favourite here as the local boy against the evil visiting jerkward champion in Shelley.  

Wait, the building is a church? No wonder it’s echoing around in here. It feels odd to do graps in a church because Shelley tells someone to go fuck themselves and that’s not very Christian. The match doesn’t do much for me. It’s very pedestrian. As I type that they start to do shit at pace. I have summoned the goodness! 

 

Alex Shelley continues to run the risk of not making heaven as he hits a ball shot. Ref bump. Oh, get fucked. Santana picks up the win, but the original referee disagrees with it in a display of Dusty Rhodes bullshit. This sucked and can eat my entire dick. The whole thing. How dare they do this in front of JEEEEESUS.  

 

HOG Tag Team Title Four Way Match 

Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black) (c) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) vs. Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) vs. RED (Alex Colon & Rickey Shane Page) 

This is not a big ring. The Progress lads would look at this ring and think it was on the small side and its jam packed with guys who make poor decisions. To say that the Grizzled Young Vets have completely lost their specialness would be an understatement. They barely have anything going on here.  

 

They’re still the best team in this. I don’t like this type of match. It’s just a bunch of spots. Tag rules are not followed at all but with no continuity either. They go to the dives gimmick though and RSP hits an excellent tope. While almost everyone is lying around on the floor, broken, the Mane Event hit the 3D to retain. I didn’t like this, but I’ve seen worse scrambles this weekend and RSP’s dive was sick. 

 

HOG Crown Jewel Championship 

Carlos Ramirez (c) vs. One Called Manders  

I have never seen Ramirez before, so I’ve included a screenshot of him so I can remember what he looks like. We have a beef overload. For a match where they basically just hit each other, it has some issues. Ramirez is a ‘cut off comebacks’ kinda guy. The match would benefit from them both just laying it in for 10:00. Carlos works the arm for a bit, switching arms after realising he’d got the wrong one initially.  

 

When they just slap meat it’s great. The arm work doesn’t go anywhere. Manders still hits the lariat. Twice in fact. Both times with no ill effects. The finish is stupid unfortunately as Carlos picks the ref up to disguise a punt to the groin of Manders. It is fairly innovative, but there’s a reason you don’t see that finish. Despite the limb work failure, this was a good, hard-hitting match. *** 

 

Mike Bailey vs. Masha Slamovich 

Speedball dropkicks Masha during the introductions, so it’s that kind of match. Normally IG has issues because the woman is usually smaller. This is an even match up. Also, Masha is not scared to lay the kicks in. So, they fuck each other up here. I often think Bailey wrestles too many matches and would be better if he had less matches but went all-out in them.  

The match has a lot of tasty strikes in it but also nasty stretches. They’re just beating each other up! They do a sequence where Masha misses taking Speedball’s head off with a roundhouse and he just front kicks her in the face. Mike apologies ahead of a killshot thrust kick and boy, it looked like it sucked to take. Masha responds by kicking out and returning the kick to the jaw.  

 

Not content with this, they hit the near fall sequence, throwing in some cool technical shit. She goes for a choke, but Mike rolls her up out of it and that’s awesome. Proper Bret-Piper stuff. Masha finishes with a piledriver on the apron and I’m almost sad one of the big kicks didn’t finish but who cares, it fucking ruled. One of the finest matches of the weekend. **** 

 

Philly Street Fight 

Charles Mason vs. Steve Maclin 

Killer Kelly is out here! Mason is still playing the dickhead role. He should be a prime example to wrestlers. He stands out because he doesn’t do all the normal shit and he’s memorable.  

They brawl out into the actual street and stop traffic. You can hear the horns in the background. This match has oodles of palpable hatred. Something Mason is good at, but he draws it out of Maclin too. Mason and Killer Kelly exchanging a kinky choke holds is not something I expected. Apparently, they’re both into the autoasfixiation thing. Mason does a couple of incredible things. Biting Maclin when he gets too close and throwing a chair at his face. Taking the obvious shortcut, which feels like it deviates from wrestling tropes. 

 

They do a plastic bag spot, which seems stupid because surely you can just rip it. Maclin does exactly that and proceeds to wrestle with the remains of a bag over his head until the end of the match. This was surprisingly violent and well put together. *** 

 

PWR Remix Championship 

Gringo Loco (c) vs. Ace Austin vs. KC Navarro vs. Nolo Kitano vs. Raheem Royal vs. Aigle Blanc vs. Myron Reed  

Kitano has a sword! That can’t be considered safe. Gia Miller accompanies Ace Austin and she’s not attired in church gear. The perverts are getting worked up. Yet another scramble match with too many people in it. Immediately everyone starts lying around outside the ring. Amidst a sea of spots, Aigle Blanc manages to steal the attention.  

 

There are so many scramble matches on Mania weekend that it’s very hard to stand out. I’m burned out on spots and it’s clear the crowd are too because the reactions drop off sharply here. They don’t even break up pins, they just kick out. Nothing makes sense. Gringo takes out Aigle Blanc for the pin. Just a load of spots here. Nothing I’ll remember in five minutes time. 

 

TNA X-Division Championship  

Mustafa Ali (c) vs. Amazing Red 

It amazes me that Red still works. He was basically finished over a decade ago and he still pops up every now and again, usually for HOG. The whole TNA present vs past is a cool match up.  

Red has a nice, grounded style. To the point where, when he does a tope, it feels like a big deal. It’s a sweet looking tope too. Ali feels like he’s not matching the energy. He’s working at half speed for most of the match and looks like he’s aware he’s slumming it now. After all, he was in the WWE and he’s a great wrestler and everyone knows that, so why carry on proving it?  

 

He does enough ‘whoa’ spots to cover for the rest of it, but it is palpable that’s not out here trying to blow people away. They do a big superbomb spot and Red lands on Ali’s knees. That was not the plan. They go home soon after with a low blow setting up the 450 Splash. This didn’t work for me. Not the match they would have wanted to send people home on.  

 

The 411: 

A decent show, highlighted by the obvious intensity of Slamovich-Bailey. They gave everyone the variety performance too. The acrobatics of the scramble, the hard-hitting of Manders, the brawling from Maclin and the main event was supposed to be the apex of that, but it came up short for whatever reason. Overall, it wasn’t a disappointment because I was expecting nothing from this show and the Slamovich-Bailey match was enough to surpass that with ease.