Csonka Reviews This Week’s Free Grab Bag Matches With The ELITE, Seth Rollins, & More

Csonka Reviews This Week’s Free Grab Bag Matches With The ELITE, Seth Rollins, & More

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Kelly Klein defeated Brandi Rhodes @ 6:01 via pin [*]
– From FIP: Unstoppable 2008: Tyler Black defeated FIP Champion Go Shiozaki @ 21:20 via pin [**½]
– From ROH: Winner Takes All 2016 (14th Anniversary Show): Champions The ELITE defeated ACH, Matt Sydal & KUSHIDA @ 17:00 via pin [****¼]

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Kelly Klein vs. Brandi Rhodes: Klein cuts a promo, claiming that she’s the gatekeeper and the pretty badass. Whoever gets in the ring, she will destroy. Klein shoves Brandi away repeatedly, and is completely dismissive of Brandi. Brandi aback elbow and kicks, covering for 2. Klein cuts her off, slamming her to the buckles. The code breaker follows, and Klein covers for 2. Klein lays in forearms, slams Brandi to the buckles repeatedly. Kicks follow, Klein toys with her and then lays in knee strikes. The suplex follows, Brandi fights back, hitting a neck breaker. Chops follow, and then a clothesline. Brandi follows with a rough looking second rope dropkick for 2. She then hits an x-factor for 2. Klein cuts her off, hits a sack of shit slam and then slaps her around and talks trash to her. Klein hits a snap suplex, but Brandi makes the ropes escaping the guillotine. Klein hits a DDT and knee strike, and picks up the win. Kelly Klein defeated Brandi Rhodes @ 6:01 via pin [*] I know that Brandi Rhodes is very inexperienced, working under 20-matches total I believe, and I am sure she tries really hard but she is just not a good wrestler. They worked a relatively basic match, but her timing, positioning and overall work is just poor. She needs a lot of work, Klein tried to lead her through and worked well as the cocky heel, but Brandi’s poor selling elicited no real sympathy at any point. This was not good in any way, in fact, it was simply bad.

Tyler Black vs. FIP Champion Go Shiozaki: Shiozaki has a manager and a stooge at ringside with him. Black hits a dropkick and sends Shiozaki to the floor. He takes a powder, stalling a bit before returning. Black fires up with strikes when Shiozaki returns, Shiozaki then rolls to the floor to avoid Black, but Black hits a slingshot plancha. Shiozaki cuts him off, but back in Black hits the springboard lariat for 2. Black maintains control, hits a Henning neck snap off the ropes, covering for 2. The knee drop follows, and then a dropkick sends Shiozaki to the floor. Shiozaki slides back in and dropkicks the knee of Black, finally slowing him down. Shiozaki then stomps the hell out of Black’s knee, and then slams it off the apron. He now posts the knee, before working over the knee in the ropes. Shiozaki now lays in chops, and then goes back to work on the knee. Every time Black looks to fire up, Shiozaki immediately cuts him off, attacking the knee as he keeps great focus. More chops by Shiozaki follow, and then right back to the knee. Shiozaki works a kneeling knee bar, and then hits a dropkick to the knee. They trade some ground and pound, and again, Shiozaki right back to the knee as Shiozaki’s muscle and manager get in some cheap shots. Black fires up with rights, but Shiozaki hits a superkick and covers for 2. Shiozaki then locks in the figure four, continuing his assault. Black fights for the ropes, manages to escape and hits a basement dropkick. Chops follow by Black, and a DDT hits but both men are down. Black charges and hits forearms, gets distracted and that allows Shiozaki to attack. Black catches Shiozaki out of the air and hits a flapjack, covering for 2. Black up top, and we get a DQ due to Shiozaki’s manager interfering. But wait, Larry Zbyszko arrives and will have none of this bullshit and restarts the match. He also tosses Shiozaki’s stooges from ringside.. Shiozaki goes right back to attacking the leg, beating down Black on the floor. Back in they go, and Shiozaki works an Indian death lock with a butterfly lock on top of that. Black escapes, counters out of the Go flasher and hits a knee strike. Shiozaki attacks the knee and locks in a Boston crab. Black escapes into a cradle for 2. They trade pin attempts, knee strike by Shiozaki but Black dumps him on his head with a Saito suplex. REF BUMP. They work into a double down, Shiozaki’s stooges are back but the FIP tag champs make the save. Black and Shiozaki trade strikes, Shiozaki lights him up with chops but Black counters and hits the buckle bomb. Shiozaki hits the Go flasher, but Black survives. Shiozaki up top now but the moonsault eats knees. Superkick by Black, he heads up top and hits a phoenix splash on Shiozaki’s face (OUCH) for the win. Tyler Black defeated FIP Champion Go Shiozaki @ 21:20 via pin [**½] What could have been a very good match was completely derailed by the general bullshit of overbooking, the restart, interference and all of the things that generally destroyed any momentum they were building. This was disappointing.

NEVER Openweight Six Man Title Match: Champions The ELITE (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) vs. ACH, Matt Sydal & KUSHIDA: The Elite got an insane reaction, and the crowd was into everyone, which was a great sign considering the reactions from earlier in the show. This was a fast paced match, with a ton of fun and athletic stuff as you would expect. Omega caught Sydal on the floor at one point and hit a German suplex onto the ramp and then the Bucks hit dives. The Bucks then did the terminator drums for Omega, as he rose and then hit a dive onto all of his opponents. The ELITE then got the heat on Sydal, who I thought was dead, but he’s apparently just mostly dead. Sydal had a lot of fight, and finally got the hot tag to KUSHIDA. KUSHIDA ran wild, there was some miscommunication with the ELITE, and KUSHIDA then hit a dive off the top onto the Bucks. KUSHIDA running wild on Omega, and hit a moonsault for a near fall and then got the hover board lock. Omega then Herc’d him up and buckle bombed him. A gut wrench into a sitout powerbomb got the near fall for Omega. Really good back and forth between KUSHIDA and Omega here. ACH finally got back in and he got some time to run wild, avoided a superkick and got the stunner on Matt for a near fall. It broke down from there, leading to dives and the crowd getting into everything they did. The faces then took control back in the ring, and after a series of team moves, they got a near fall on Matt. We then got superkicks and superkick counters, and that led to the ELITE working over Sydal with a series on constant offense. Sydal survived a triple superkick, fought off the tiger Hatori special, and the faces then made the big comeback. Omega then hit KUSHIDA with the tombstone on the floor, and then they hit the Meltzer Driver and one winged angle on Sydal for the murder death kill finish. Champions The ELITE defeated ACH, Matt Sydal & KUSHIDA @ 17:00 via pin [****¼] This was a great athletic spectacle, and exactly what I wanted it to be and what it needed to be on this show as they got the crowd to come alive. It was a fun and well-done exercise in chaos and athleticism. All six-men played their part perfectly (Sydal was REALLY great though), and you really could not ask for anything more.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”