Impact Wrestling: Genesis (Review)

Welcome back Pro Wrestling fans and loyal readers of Rest Hold Party, I am your Local Hero, your Review Guy, Cameron Crash and this time, we are going back to the Impact Zone for this week's edition of Impact Wrestling, titled Genesis. We have 3 huge matches, including a Monster's Ball match involving the Knockouts and a 30 Minute Ironman match for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, so without any further ado, let's get straight to the action!

The show begins with a promo from The Broken Hardys, talking about the green briefcase Brother Nero has in his hands and how is going to use it next week on Open Fight Night, when they were interrupted by the DCC, who issue them a challenge for their tag team championships. Decay then interrupt DCC, stating their desire to also fight the "Greatest Tag Team In All Space and Time". What seems to be just a promo turns into a skirmish, and now we have a Triple Threat Tag Team match for the TNA Tag Team Championships.

The match was a very fun one, quite the fast-paced endeavor as I did not find myself looking at my phone for a second during this match. In the end, the BROKEN BRILLIANCE of Matt Hardy and the nefarious Brother Nero are enough for them to obtain the victory and kickoff Genesis with a bang. While it was far from the best match on the card and definitely not a show-stealer, I can say that it was highly enjoyable from start to finish.
Rating: 3.5/5 

Preceding that incredibly fun match, we get the usual segment that once again turns the show from fun and exciting to outright cringe-worthy. If you guessed that it had something to do with either Maria Kanellis, Braxton Sutter, Allie or Laurel Van Ness, you guessed it right and should get a gold star. Basically the gist of these branching segments that we saw throughout the night (Yeah, it went THAT long) , was that Braxton and Laurel were on a dinner date and the woman in this situation was being obnoxious and so full of herself that Sutter was tired of it and left. It probably would've been quick and painless if it just lasted 5 minutes at the very least, but MOST OF THE EPISODE?! God, if I wasn't tired of this storyline a few months ago, I am surely tired of it now. Please for the love of all that's holy, JUST END IT!!!
Rating: 0.9/5 

Thankfully we switch gears from that awful segment, as Drew Galloway makes his way to the ring for a promo. He makes it short and sweet, and just declares an open challenge for his Impact Grand Championship. Moose answers it, and it doesn't even bother him at all.

Now this match was a really good one, as it was competitive throughout and did its job of furthering storylines while displaying a well-balanced exertion of physicality for most of the two rounds that it lasted for. My favorite part of the match was the powerbomb on the apron executed by Moose with a destructive amount of velocity directed at the lower back of the champion. The aggressiveness of the challenger in round 1 was not enough to regain the title, as Galloway came back with a vengeance in the second round, doing whatever it took to hold onto that silver belt, including but not limited to raking the eyes and two shots to the lower extremities. It all worked out at the conclusion of the match however, as "The Chosen One" was once again victorious.
Rating: 4/5

Following what has been a very solid feud and a series of matches with a level of storytelling and match-quality that is unusual for the Knockouts division, it culminates here in a violent and brutality-filled Monster's Ball between the "Death Dealer" Rosemary and Jade. Normally you would see men take part in matches with a deathmatch type of style like this, but these two women are tough as nails, and the match that they were about to give you was something you weren't prepared for as a fan of women's wrestling.

These two used everything that was at their disposal in what was simply a war. Kendo Sticks, Trash Cans, Steel Chairs, Thumbtacks and a barbed-wire board were all extensively taken advantage of in a display of what amazing storytelling and logical booking can lead to. There were spots that made me cringe for all the right reasons as well, including a lionsault off the middle rope onto a prone Rosemary who was lying under a barbed-wire board. Gail Kim rushed to the ring in order to check on her friend Jade, but got an array of mist in her face, proving that no good deed goes unpunished.

Although I enjoyed that match, I hope both competitors are okay and are able to continue competing, at a high level or otherwise.
Rating: 4.5/5

After what has mostly been a pleasant night of solid wrestling and fun television, we have reached our destination, the sole reason why most fans of Impact Wrestling tuned into the program on that night. Indeed, it is time for the main event of the evening. A 30 Minute Match for the top prize in this show. The TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

As you can imagine, this was a very engaging 30 minutes, as there was time not only devoted to the story at hand, but also given to what you were seeing in the ring and beyond. With Davey Richards not in the picture due to the Wolves' conversation in the backstage area, Bobby Lashley was dominating Eddie Edwards with everything that he had for most of this contest. Those first 10 minutes were not short on physicality however, as Lashley did three major moves to the champion during this time period. A Belly To Belly Suplex over the top rope to the outside of the ring, a nasty powerbomb neck-first on the steel ramp and a spear that looked like he ripped his smaller opponent in two.

Despite being ahead for most of this match. "The Destroyer" was hellbent on tearing him apart limb from limb. However it didn't quite work out that way, as in the bitter end of this contest, it looked like Edwards was gonna slay this beast once again. That also didn't happen either, because Lashley held on to his adversary's guillotine choke for the time remaining until the announcement of the victor was made. Simply put, Bobby Freakin' Lashley is once again champion.
Rating: 4.5/5

Overall rating: 3.45/5 

It was a really fun show for most of my time watching it. However, I sincerely hope that this storyline with Laurel Van Ness, Maria Kanellis, Braxton Sutter and Allie ends soon. I am sick and tired of it and it just drags the show down immensely. On a high note, it was fun to watch and there were a lot of notable moments that were pretty cool to see. All in all it was very watchable.
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Well I guess that's it for this review, I am and forever will be your Local Hero and your Review Guy Cameron McDonley. I'll hopefully see you soon with another blog!

NWA Smoky Mountain Review (1/28/17)

Welcome Professional Wrestling fans and loyal readers of Rest Hold Party, I am the Local Hero, the Review Guy himself, Cameron McDonley. Today, I hop back on the saddle for a new review!!! This time, I am reviewing a show that has history, that has tradition, and dates all the way back to the territory era. That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am reviewing the newest edition of NWA Smoky Mountain television!

The program kicks off with an announcement regarding the main event at Encore on February 12th. It will be a No Time Limit, No Holds Barred, anything goes contest between Jason Kincaid and Chase Owens for the NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship! After that brief announcement and a quick preview of tonight's card, we go straight to the action!

Our first match of the night was a sight to behold, as the NWA Smoky Mountain TV champion Axton Ray defended his title against Timmy Lou Retton. Personally I thought the match was an excellent way to start off the show, as these two had a very fast-paced, highly competitive match. You didn't see either man on the ground too often, as these two wrestlers took flight numerous times throughout this struggle for that prize. Given the size of Timmy Lou Retton, that was most likely not an easy feat to be leaping with grace as if he was a 1990's WCW Cruiserweight. At the end of it all, Axton Ray was victorious and still your reigning and defending Television Champion.
Rating: 3.5/5 

After a quick commercial break, we are treated to a 6-Man Tag Team Match already in progress, as The Hardliners & Travis Lee compete against Robbie Cassidy and the G-Squad. This match was another competitive one, and it stayed that way until The Hardliners and Travis Lee tried to use their numbers game take advantage of a situation that would only benefit them and their victory. Out comes Wild Bill, and immediately they clear the ring. It seems like the playing field is now even, but as soon as Wild Bill went to the top rope, a shocked buzz fills the arena as he hit Cassidy with a diving headbutt off the top, ensuring a victory and possibly a new addition to the stable of The Hardliners and Lee. Pretty fun match with a nice turn at the end. Very enjoyable.
Rating: 3.5/5 

Following the last two matches and another announcement regarding Encore, we have your main event of the evening. The NWA United States Tag Team Championships are on the line as The Heatseekers defend against the Ugly Ducklings. I'm just gonna say this right now. If there's any one match you need to see from the card this week, it's this tag team tile match. It was a hard-fought match between two of the best teams in NWA Smoky Mountain, and four of the best wrestlers in the tag team division. What I loved the most about this match is Sigmon's performance throughout the 20+ minutes that this match was taking place. He was no- nonsense, didn't show off too much. Just went in there and made everything he did look like it killed the guy. His move-set also reminds me of a few well-established technical wrestlers from wrestling's past, especially with his suplexes and the Flying Headbutt. Everybody else performed very well also, and left it all out in the ring. The champions may have left with their belts after controversially using a ladder to their advantage while the referee was not keeping his eye on the action, but at the end of it all, neither team has anything to be ashamed of, as they put on one heck of a clinic!
Rating: 4.45/5 

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Well, that is it for this week's review, I am once again the Local Hero and the Review Guy, Cameron McDonley and I hope to see you all again soon with either another review, or a news article!

BREAKING NEWS: New WWN Partnership Leads EVOLVE to the Midwest!

WWN is known as the World Wrestling Network. They already have a large chain of promotions that includes SHINE, FIP, ACW. EVOLVE, and Style Battle. EVOLVE is the most known promotion of that group, and is the one that actually benefited from this new deal. Recently, you may have seen my blog on Freelance Wrestling. They are airing in Japan! I said that they needed some more exposure, and this is it!

Freelance Wrestling is partnering with WWN to bring EVOLVE to the Chicago area on May 20th. There will be a Freelance event in the afternoon, and EVOLVE at 8PM from Summit Park District! This is not the end of the good news for EVOLVE. The next night, EVOLVE will head to the Detroit area!

All of this is thanks to the new Midwest Promoter for EVOLVE, Chris T. Bonjour. EVOLVE will be coming to the Monaghan Knights of Colombus Hall on May 21st. This is huge news for EVOLVE fans of the Midwest. Tickets are going on sale next week! Be ready Chicago and Detroit.

EVOLVE likes to go to the same places over and over. La Boom in New York, The Orpheum in Orlando, and they really like the Joppa MD arena as well. Good for them for going to their loyal fans, but this is definitely going to be for the better for EVOLVE coming up in 2017. If you really want to get a new fan base, or just expand your horizons, this is the way to do it. Hopefully with these new Midwest locations, we will also see them in other states like Wisconsin and Minnesota!

BREAKING NEWS: Freelance Wrestling Airing in Japan

Already some of you may be not familiar with the promotion "Freelance Wrestling". This is big time though. Freelance Wrestling is a pro wrestling promotion based out of Chicago Illinois. Many of you may be getting familiar with Mustafa Ali in WWE's cruiserweight division. Freelance Wrestling literally made that guy. He was a former champ and defended it non-stop against all comers! You can check them out more at freelancewrestling.com

Now, onto the good stuff. Yesterday Freelance retweeted something from "Nico Pro Wrestling". That though is not a promotion. It's more of a channel for Japanese wrestling fans to check out wrestling. Think of it like the WWE Network or any of your favorite Indy promotions subscription services, only this one is free from what I understand.

I'm not sure if you can download the app here in the US. Freelance though is trying to expand their horizons, and this is amazing. There are just some promotions that can't get their word out there, but really deserve it. Freelance is one of those. Each of their shows you can watch on their website for just $5. They used to be free, actually. The quality isn't the best, but they save that for their DVDs.

One of the things that makes Freelance so amazing is the Chicago crowd. The atompsphere at every show always delivers. Mustafa Ali's farewell show will be one he definitely remembers forever. The crowd adds to the amazing matches, and another great show is planned for February. You can check out their Twitter for even more details, but as a nice send off, check out this stacked card for "The Hammer of Dawn" on Feb. 11th.

BREAKING NEWS: Pentagon Jr. Leaves AAA, Name Change

Pentagon Jr. may have been one of your favorites in Lucha Underground and on the independents, but  that may no longer be the case. It just so happens that Pentagon Jr. has left AAA in Mexico. This is the major promotion along with CMLL. If you ask me, don't bother with AAA. It's just not that great of a promotion and it was a genius idea for Pentagon to leave and tour the indpendants.

This is not the only name that left AAA recently. Daga and Darza Jr. have both left with Pentagon. The other well known Luchador to leave was actually Pentagon's brother, Fènix. Both Fènix and Pentagon will now begin to tour around the world, but not as the names we once knew them. AAA owns  the names "Fènix" and "Pentagon Jr." Lucky for both men, only minor changes have been made to their names.

You may have been noticing already that Fènix has been going by the name of "Rey Fènix" in promotions like AAW. Pentagon will be next to follow. His name will be changed to "Penta El Cero Miedo". The name is a bit of a change, but nothing that we haven't seen from Pentagon in the past. His signature taunt is "Cero Miedo", but it just doesn't seem like a right fit in his name. Who knows. We'll see where this goes. 

Fènix and Pentagon have been in the US before. We've seen them in promotions like AAW and PWG, but they may show up even more often now after this decision. Right now, it definitely seems like it's for the better. Pentagon and Fènix can now go around and surely get more opportunities than when they were signed to AAA. Who knows. Maybe a TNA or ROH signing could be on the way (even though I would hate to see both in TNA).

BREAKING NEWS! New Title Designs for Minor Championships?

It was first reported by the reddit user, "Dvizzle", back in November that there was speculation of a new title design for WWE's Intercontinental Championship. Now there have even been more talks of changing the design, but also plans going forward are to change the look of the United States Championship as well. 

This user has been reliable for the latest scoops on title designs in the past. In August he reported that the new Universal Championship would look the same as the WWE Championship, except in the color red to represent the RAW brand. 

The Intercontinental Championship is currently held by Dean Ambrose, and is exclusive to the Smackdown brand. On the other brand. RAW holds the United States Championship, and that is currently held by Chris Jericho. Looking at the talent that holds WWE's minor championships, it wouldn't shock me if we see these designs change sooner rather than later. 

To spice things up, this is a good idea. It'd be pulled off better if moving into WrestleMania (maybe after the Rumble), a new design was revealed. Then say the RAW after Mania we get the second new design. That way both don't get thrown at us at once. Overall though, the new designs aren't a must have, but will be a nice change. I personally love the IC Title design since it has such a rich history, and don't believe it needs a change. As for the US Title, it is relatively generic and could use a change. 

Now I ask, do you believe the belts should have a new look? It is a nice way to change things up moving into Mania, or after, but is it really needed? Guess it's a way for WWE to make more money, like they need it. 

BREAKING NEWS! HUGE Tag Match Set For Upcoming ROH Show in Ohio!

Credit: ROH Wrestling

Hey guys, it's Bowen from the Rest Hold Party back with some ROH news.

ROH has recently posted a photo on their Twitter confirming a HUGE match for the ROH tag team titles at ROH: The Experience as Hanson and Rowe, otherwise known as WarMachine, take on the current Ring of Honor tag team champions The Young Bucks when ROH shows up in Ohio on the twelfth of February. This is also the first time these two teams have gone one on one and all I have to say is ... The Young Bucks are done fucked.

What are your thoughts on ROH booking this match? Do you think the Young Bucks have any chance of breaking the protective beards of the two giants put in front of them, or will the Buck stop here?

BREAKING NEWS: Triple H confirms Women's Wrestling Tournament

Ladies and gentlemen, this women's wrestling revolution continues! It has been confirmed that this summer on the WWE Network, World Wrestling Entertainment will orchestrate a women's wrestling tournament! Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and current head of NXT himself Triple H confirmed this on the FOX Sports Wrestling Compadres Slamcast. Thanks to Wrestling Inc, here's the excerpt where The Game verified this news:

DALE RUTLEDGE: Last time on the show, [Stephanie McMahon] mentioned an idea for the women's talent that you were working on. Has there been any further development on that?

TRIPLE H: So, that's another one of my big, big kind of passions, is to go do that, a women's tournament. And we're down the road a bit of — the harder thing now, in a changing landscape, I feel like sometimes in WWE, like, you know, Tuesday, I'm like, "Okay, so this is where we're going, right? No changing it? Yes!" On Wednesday morning, you have to call, it's like, "We're not doing that anymore."

So you look at the landscape and how much it's changed in the last year. NXT Takeovers now are attached to our "Big Four" pay-per-views. Raw and SmackDown have split brands and have pay-per-views of their own, but there's more pay-per-views. When you look at the big calendar of where do you stick an event, that's changed. And you have to look for the space where you go like, "Do it here! … no, that's not good, you have a holiday." Right?

So it's really just been a process with the women of us finding the right time and space. This one worked out great with the little gap before Rumble here, to fit this tournament in and doing it in a shorter time frame, doing it live.

The women, we're probably going to do this summer, is what I'm hoping, and a lot of women performers just [reacted] when I said that, but that's the plan anyway. And you know, again, much like cruisers, it's to go scour the globe and maybe find the girls that are out there doing this that no one's heard of, that no one has seen, that are like these diamonds waiting, and bring them up. And let's see what they can do, and entertain people with the tournament, and let them be exposed to this new talent. And at the same time, just massively increase the opportunity and the talent pool for us, and for everyone, really. 

So, there you have it. Be on the lookout for a WWE Women's Tournament sometime in the summer of 2017! Rest Hold Party will have more on this breaking story as it develops...

BREAKING NEWS: Kurt Angle to be inducted in the 2017 WWE Hall Of Fame!

Oh, It's True, It's True! The Olympic Gold Medalist himself is being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame class of 2017! It was announced earlier this afternoon by WWE themselves on their website. Angle is a former WCW, TNA, WWE and IWGP Heavyweight Champion as well as one of the most accomplished amateur wrestlers in the entire world. His work is revered in the sport of professional wrestling, with critically acclaimed matches with the likes of Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles, Sting, Samoa Joe and Chris Benoit just to name a few. His Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards also speak for themselves, as he has claimed awards in a multitude of categories.

When reached for comment by wwe.com , this is what Triple H had to say about this induction:

"Kurt Angle’s accomplishments both in the Olympics and WWE were extraordinary. He was one of the most gifted athletes to ever enter the ring, and we are honored to welcome him into the WWE Hall of Fame." 

This historic induction will also mark the first time Angle has been involved with WWE since his subsequent release in 2006, but there is still no word on if he will have a match for the promotion at any time in the near future, or even an appearance in this year's Royal Rumble match.

Congratulations to Kurt Angle on being the next inductee into the WWE Hall Of Fame Class of 2017 from all of us here at Rest Hold Party.

[SOURCE HERE: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-hall-fame/wwe-hall-of-fame-2017/article/kurt-angle-wwe-hall-of-fame-class-2017]