Csonka’s Tier1 Wrestling March to Victory Review 3.20.16

Csonka’s Tier1 Wrestling March to Victory Review 3.20.16

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– The Darius Carter Brass Ring Open Invitational: Darius Carter defeated Fred Yehi @ 8:37 via pin [***]
– Six Way Elimination Fray: Black Baron won @ 11:20 via pin [*¾]
– Street Fight: Logan Black defeated Mike Orlando @ 9:30 via pin [DUD]
– VALKYRIE Womens Showcase: Aja ‘Super’ Perera defeated ‘The Clockwork Angel’ Katred @ 4:55 via pin [½*]
– Non-Title Match: Evolve Champion Timothy Thatcher defeated Tommaso Ciampa @ 20:15 via pin [***¾]
– Monkey Flip defeated Booty & the Beast, Spring Street Suicide Squad and Milk Chocolate @ 6:38 via pin [**½]
– Last Person Standing Match: JGeorge defeated Jessie Brooks @ 16:00 [DUD]
– VsK defeated Ethan Page @ 5:44 via pin [*]
– Tier 1 Championship Match: Champion Rude Boy Riley defeated Anthony Nese @ 13:15 via pin [***]

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– I am going into this blind on a lot of the Tier1 talents, so this review will mainly be match quality based as I don’t have a lot of background on them or their current storylines. But considering they are using some familiar names and it only cost $5, I had to give them a look.

– The show was scheduled for a 4PM ET start, the show actually kicked off at 4:24PM ET.

The Darius Carter Brass Ring Open Invitational: Darius Carter vs. Fred Yehi: Yehi is coming off of a really good performance at Evolve 56 against Drew Gulak. Carter stalled a lot early, and when we got to action Yehi repeatedly out grappled him. These two guys worked effortlessly together, really smooth work here and Carter had to take a powder again. This allowed him to post Yehi and take control of the match for a bit. Yehi does some smart stuff, finger manipulation, foot stomps and such, allowing him to escape and then hit impact moves like suplexes. They worked an interesting finish, as Yehi went for a rolling forearm, but they did an “accidental head butt spot” like you’d see in an MMA fight. Carter dropped the kneepad and hit a codebreaker for the win. That was a good match to open the show, Fred Yehi is a name to keep an eye on as the guy keeps impressing. The match was all about his work.

– Darius Carter cut a promo about being the best, and JT Dunn arrived. Some of these people in the crowd are a bit over the top, yelling, “WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU AGAIN?” Carter was a dick and interrupted, so Dunn delivered the death by elbow.

Six Way Elimination Fray: Gran Akuma vs. Black Baron vs. Joey Ace vs. Mike Law vs. Nutrious X vs. JustNph: This is part of a series of Fray matches, that will lead to one final Fray to crown a #1 contender for the Tier1 title. The only person here I am really familiar with is Gran Akuma. I appreciate commentary trying to give new fans information on guys, but they did an information dump in 30-seconds that was next to impossible to follow. Slow it down kids. This is one on one, with tags or a roll to the floor to allow another person in (similar to CHIKARA tags). Lots of in an out early, with them then working a wacky six-person submission spot at about three minutes in. The chairs are so close to ring that there is no real room to work on the floor or for regular dives. They had to awkwardly work over to the entrance side of the ring so that they could work in a series of dives. JustNph and Law were both eliminated at around the six-minute mark, and then Baron eliminated Nutrious X seconds later. Ace, Baron and Akuma were then left. Akuma made Ace tap @ 7:30, and the final two were Akuma and Baron. They had some good back and forth here, with Akuma getting a near fall off of a rolling DVD. Baron then dropped the straps, and hit a deadlift powerbomb, but Akuma survived. They did some counters of pinning combos, and Baron then got a slow and sloppy roll up to counter the cloverleaf and picked up the win. It was really rough early, just because you’re going to do a fast paces spot filled match early doesn’t mean that it has to be sloppy and poorly executed. It got better, but I also despise the “lets do four eliminations in 90-seconds” deal, because it feels as if they had no real planning process to lay this out. This felt like an early 2000s ROH scramble, but in all of the bad ways.

– Mike Orlando and Miss New York beat up Joey Ace, apparently in return for Ace turning on them. He had a hockey stick, but a hooded man attacked him and failed as he got his ass beat with the hockey stick Logan Black made the save,

Street Fight: Mike Orlando vs. Logan Black: Commentary again giving way too much information and talking way too fast. I do appreciate them trying to educate new fans (myself included) but pick the important points and slow the pacing down. This felt like a 3PW match trying to be an ECW match, walk and brawl and walk and brawl and walk and brawl. They eventually got back into the ring, they did the wedge the chair in the corner spot Orlando got a near fall off of a sky high powerbomb. Commentary noted that William Regal just arrived, of all the matches to arrive during Regal arrives during this. Black tried to use knux, Miss New York took them and Orlando looked to have the win, but a security guy got involved. The security guard got involved, and Black used knux to KO Orlando and win. THE HEAD OF SECURITY HAS TURNED HEEL! This was not good in any way, I suppose if I was invested in the angle it may help, but this was a horribly performed brawl. Post match Joey Ace returned and they beat down Orlando and taped him to the corner. They then were going to beat up Miss New York and then the security guy could BARELY get this woman up for the teased press slam. He was huge and she was a little women, and he struggled to an unsafe degree. Booty & the Beast made the save. Apparently this security dude has a strongman gimmick, amazing. This was horrible. Imagine Regal’s reaction to this.

VALKYRIE Womens Showcase: Aja ‘Super’ Perera w/Nina Monet vs. ‘The Clockwork Angel’ Katred w/Dementia DeRose: As the ref was checking Aja, Katred attacked and we were off. Aja fought back immediately, as the seconds screeched at ringside so loudly that I could barely hear the crowd. Katred got the heat, it was slow and awkward at times. Aja fought back, hit a neck breaker in the ropes and then slowly ran into a boot to the head. Aja takes like 10 steps to run across the ring. Aja hit a sloppy fisherman’s buster, which got a near fall. She then rolled into Katred’s legs for a trip, and looked as if she blew out Katred’s knees. Aja hit an axe kick for the win. I hope that wasn’t a true representation of VALKYRIE, because that was not good at all.

Non-Title Match: Evolve Champion Timothy Thatcher vs. Tommaso Ciampa: If Tommaso Ciampa wins in this non-tile match, he will receive a future Evolve World Title match. This match couldn’t have come at a better time after those last two matches. Thatcher went right to the breakdown/grapple game early, which allowed Thatcher to control the first five or so minutes of the match. Ciampa finally escaped the grapple attack, sent him to the floor and that is where he was able to brawl a bit and gain his advantage. Ciampa then put on Thatcher’s scarf and walked around and mocked him. Ciampa started to takeover with several knee strikes, Thatcher would eventually pull a knee bar to slow Ciampa down. Ciampa did some really smart things here, as in-between moves he’d stomp on and attack the hands to try and stop Thatcher’s grappling advantage. Thatcher then fired up and they went into a big striking exchange, but Ciampa was able to take back control. Ciampa smartly kept beating Thatcher down, but kept going back to the arm and hands, which Thatcher was selling well. Every time Thatcher went for an arm bar, he couldn’t hold on and Ciampa kept countering, including once into Project Ciampa for a near fall. They did some really nice submission reversals down the stretch, arm bars and ankle locks, but Thatcher got lazy on the selling when he used the ankle lock after having his issues with the arm. This broke down into a big striking battle again, and Thatcher managed to hit a head butt and picked up the win. This was a good match with largely smart work, that slowly grew in intensity and delivered a great final minute.

Booty & the Beast vs. Monkey Flip vs. Spring Street Suicide Squad vs. Milk Chocolate: My God they did some bad mic work before the match, which was not needed since they started over 20-minutes late. The mic levels were poor and I could barely hear what they were saying. STOP TALKING. Fuck they stopped talking, and the Chocolate dude wanted to do a twerk off with Sonny Kiss. We then got random dancing, a pushup contest, the Space Monkey eating a banana while hanging upside down; it was not entertaining at all. This was “lucha rules,” so no tags needed, meaning that we’re going to have everyone in a lot and do a bunch of shit. We had shenanigans with the Space Monkey, a couple minutes of everyone doing dives to that one spot by the entrance where there is actually room to dive. The pre-match stuff was horrendous, but thankfully the match (which was admittedly a cluster) was at least a FUN cluster. Monkey Flip picked up the win, this was fun overall (the match, NOT the pre-match); Sonny Kiss and Space Monkey are tremendously fun characters.

LAST PERSON STANDING: ‘The Unpredictable’ JGeorge vs. ‘Bonesaw’ Jessie Brooks: This is man (JGeorge) vs. Woman (Brooks); commentary says they have been feuding for some time. JGeorge bought his gear from a 1997 Jeff Jarrett yard sale. It’s 2016, who would willingly model their gear after that? They did some back and forth, Brooks took control, JGeorge ran a lot and then he took control. JGeorge used parts of his gear to choke out Brooks, Brooks kept fighting back and hitting suplexes. JGeorge worked his heat segment, which just didn’t connect. I’m not a big anti-intergender guy, I think you can do it right (Del Rey in CHIKARA was a great example) but this did nothing for me. I suppose being invested in the angle could help, but the work is just very flat to me. They took turns doing rolling suplexes (the amigos) seemingly forever, Brooks worked an arm bar and tapped, but that’s not a viable finish here. From what I can tell here, JGeorge is not a very good pro wrestler. Commentary is scolding us on perceived gender roles in wrestling, fuck off. JGeorge got chairs and an ironing board, this thing is feeling as if it is lasting forever. JGeorge made a bridge with the chairs and ironing board. JGeorge then pulled Broos’ face reputedly into his groin, which led to her tossing him back and through the ironing board. And now a bunch of goofs are out during this to help JGeorge. Ace Romero got involved and hit the Bossman slam on Brooks. JGeorge then hit a running knee strike. That was bad intergender wrestling and overall poor booking. As a new fan, that did nothing to make me want to watch this company again.

– JGeorge gets on the mic and complains that Tier1 didn’t want to promote the match. He has joined Romero and VsK in FEDERATED. Ethan Page hits the ring with a sumo dude to clear the ring.

VsK w/Romero vs. Ethan Page w/: They started off brawling, with Page being the fiery babyface. Page got some run, but this came off as super rushed since the show was running long. Katred got involved and punched Page with a weapon and that was that. Katred was wearing a FEDERATED shirt. This was a big old pile of MEH.

Tier 1 Championship: Champion Rude Boy Riley vs. Anthony Nese: Good stuff form both early, as they worked a smooth and clean back and forth. This felt levels above the recent stuff we had to sit through. They spent a lot of time on the floor, a bit too much but it never turned into a garbage brawl. Back in the ring, Nese got the heat. Much like the PAB tag matches, Nese’s heat comes across as lackadaisical with no sense of urgency. Riley made his comeback, the crowd was decently involved in his comeback which was nice as Riley hit a wacky spinning neck beaker for a near fall. Nese countered a German, hit a double stomp and then a deadlift German for a near fall. Riley missed a cannonball in the corner, but fired back with a knee strike that turned Nese inside out for a near fall. The is feeling too long, and after the show that had been presented, they really should have called the audible and ran a 9-10 minute sprint. This went over 13 and felt like it was worked at a regular pace. Nese missed the 450, Riley hit a GTS and that was that. It was good, but not nearly enough to save the show.

– Post match, Gran Akuma attacked Riley, hitting a powerbomb and Rubix cube. Akuma stood tall over the champion as the show ended.

* You can order the show on iPPV or VOD at this link.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

3.0

The final score: review Bad

The 411

Tier1 made their move to iPPV, and while I am sure that they tired, this was a swing and a miss. This was a nine match show, and I’d say that only three of them are worth your time. The commentary was rough, the show felt over booked, and at times there was some woefully poor wrestling on the show. I appreciate the price point, as it gave new fans a chance to find the product and give it a low risk look, but as someone that was new to the product they did next to nothing to make me want to buy another show.