Proving Grounds on May 12th, 2012
Opening Match: CZW World Junior Heavyweight Title: Drake Younger © vs. Sabian
Sabian snaps off a headscissors and connects with a dropkick. Younger avoids a dropkick through the ropes and sends Sabian into the guardrail. Younger lands a cannonball dive from the top rope to the floor. In the ring, Younger hits a delayed vertical suplex and a bulldog. Sabian uses the referee to land a questionable kick and hits a slingshot senton. He takes control until Younger comes back with a half nelson suplex. Younger follows with a tiger driver for a nearfall. Sabian snaps off a hurricanrana and connects with a missile dropkick. He lands a dive over the ringpost. Back in, Sabian lands a frog splash. Younger fights off an STF but falls victim to a german suplex. They battle on the middle rope and Younger hits the Drake n’ Bake for a nearfall. Sabian escapes Drake’s Landing and hits a leaping flatliner. He adds a cradle piledriver for a two count. Sabian misses Jesus Walks but hits a tornado DDT. Younger immediately responds with a lariat and hits Drake’s Landing to retain his title at 11:00. Younger is seriously becoming someone to watch out for on the independent scene. He looked great in the ring and had a highly enjoyable opener with Sabian. I’ve had my qualms about Sabian in the past, but he’s been doing fine in Philly’s Most Wanted with Joker and he looked solid here. They worked well together and delivered exactly what you’d want out of an opener. ***¼
Match #2: Lucky tHURTeen vs. Ruckus
Lucky attacks before the opening bell but gets caught by a back suplex. Lucky kind of hurricanranas Ruckus to the floor and follows out with a fosbury flop. Ruckus powerbombs Lucky onto the apron and then lands a shooting star press off the apron. Lucky sends him into the ring steps. Ruckus hits a scoop slam onto the floor and lands a standing moonsault. In the ring, Lucky blocks the Razzle Dazzle and comes off the middle rope with a backcracker. Ruckus responds with a fisherman buster into the turnbuckles. He misses a moonsault. They battle on the middle rope and Ruckus slams Lucky across the top turnbuckle. They trade reversals and Lucky hits the Irish Car Bomb for the victory at 5:44. This match was pretty ridiculous. They threw out every big move that they knew and the crowd response was mediocre at best. I understand what they were going for, but the timing and execution wasn’t there. **
Match #3: Alexander James vs. Shane Strickland vs. Latin Dragon
Everyone exchanges armdrags. Strickland headscissors Dragon, who answers with a hurricanrana. James applies a double Gu-Lock to pay tribute to his mentor. Strickland dives onto James and Dragon follows with a springboard corkscrew dive. Back in, James hits a uranagi on Dragon and adds a senton. Strickland superkicks James and hits an electric chair slam on Dragon. James fallaway slams Strickland into the turnbuckles. Dragon hits a standing sliced bread on James but falls victim to a gutbuster from Strickland. Mr. Tofiga headbutts Strickland, allowing James to hit a shoulder-capture suplex for the win at 4:22. Strickland was impressive at times but this contest had even less structure than the previous match. Throwing out moves for four minutes isn’t going to help anyone’s cause, plain and simple. *½
DJ Hyde makes his way to the ring. He runs down the fans but informs them that he has some news regarding Tournament of Death. In round one, in an Ultraviolent Drunken Scaffold match, it will be Devon Moore vs. Danny Havoc vs. Lucky tHURTeen. In an Ultraviolent Ladders match, it will be Drake Younger vs. Rory Mondo. In a Panes of Glass match, it will be MASADA vs. Scott Summers. Lastly, Matt Tremont will take on Abdullah Kobayashi. Tremont comes to the ring and the referee holds him back. Hyde tells Tremont that his match will be “lighttube bundles and bats.” He reminds Tremont that he must win Tournament of Death in order for them to have a match. Hyde begrudgingly introduces Greg Excellent and says that he’ll be watching this match…
Match #4: Ultraviolent Rules: Matt Tremont vs. Greg Excellent
Tremont brings out his skewer while Excellent tries to match him with a plastic fork. Tremont breaks Excellent’s fork, so he jokingly offers to be pinned. Tremont hits a suplex but Excellent responds with a corner cannonball. Commentary playfully hints at Border Wars’ stream problems, saying that Adam Cole causes the internet to crash. Excellent hits a spinebuster but runs into a boot. A distraction by Hyde allows Excellent to hit a samoan drop. Excellent punches Hyde off the apron. Tremont hits a side slam and connects with a diving headbutt. Hyde enters the ring and hits Tremont and Excellent with a chair. Excellent falls on top of Tremont for the victory at 7:31. This match was completely about the storyline. Tremont and Excellent were apprehensive because they didn’t want to play into Hyde’s game, so Hyde took matters into his own hands. I hope Tremont’s journey will pay off at Tournament of Death and that fortunately seems to be where the storyline is going. *½
Match #5: CZW Wired Television Title: Dave Crist © vs. Jake Crist
Dave defeated Jake for the title at Best of the Best last month. Jake attacks before the opening bell and hits a powerslam. He kicks Dave to the floor and follows out with a dive. Dave innovatively lands a moonsault on the apron and takes over in the ring with an ace crusher. Jake avoids a springboard elbow drop and connects with a superkick. He hits a tiger suplex followed by a DDT onto the apron. They battle on the middle rope and Dave gets sent to the floor. Jake attempts a dive but Dave blocks it with a ladder, drawing a disqualification at 7:10. In both of their recent singles matches, these two haven’t received much time and they’ve also had to deal with lame finishes. I’m confident that once they’re able to have the match that they are capable of having, it will be something special. The prospect of it being a ladder match is exciting as well. **
After the match, Dave hits a sliced bread onto the ladder and stands tall.
Match #6: CZW World Tag Team Titles: Azrieal and Bandido, Jr. © vs. Joe Gacy and Ryan Slater
Azrieal connects with an enzuigiri on Gacy and follows with a missile dropkick. Bandido snaps off a headscissors on Gacy and hits a sit-out slam on Slater. The champions flapjack Slater and Azrieal connects with a running dropkick. Azrieal finds himself in the wrong corner and the Runaways isolate him. He hits a blockbuster on Slater and makes the tag. Bandido dropkicks Gacy off the apron and connects with a springboard back elbow on Slater. He plants Slater with a slingshot DDT and lands a dive to the floor onto Gacy. Slater hits a fisherman buster on Azrieal and connects with a roaring elbow. Gacy bucklebombs Bandido, who responds with a lungblower. Bandido lands a dive to the floor onto Gacy. Meanwhile, Alex Colon runs into the ring and attacks Slater. Azrieal and Bandido hit a double stomp-DDT combination on Slater to retain their titles at 10:42. I think the CZW crowds are growing tired of the tag team division revolving around Azrieal and Bandido, the Runaways, and BLK OUT. Both teams were working hard in this match but the crowd didn’t seem to care. The action was moving along nicely until the finish, which was used to setup the post-match angle. **½
After the match, Colon cuts a promo against America. Azrieal, Bandido, Colon, and Chrissy Rivera are now a unit called “Four Loco.” After they leave, Gacy and Slater start brawling with each other. Gacy powerbombs Slater and lands a top rope splash. Gacy says that the Runaways are no more. Well, that’s the shake-up in the tag team division that I wanted. I just don’t know if there’s any tag teams left.
MASADA makes his way to the ring. He says that he doesn’t need the CZW Ultraviolent Underground Title anymore – he’s going to focus on never losing the CZW World Heavyweight Title. He name-drops Davey Richards and Low Ki. Neither of them answer his open challenge. Rather, Devon Moore comes out…
Match #7: CZW World Heavyweight Title: MASADA © vs. Devon Moore
They brawl around ringside. Moore misses a moonsault to the floor but lands on his feet. He sends MASADA into the ringpost. In the ring, MASADA rolls through a crossbody attempt but gets caught by a basement dropkick. Moore starts working over the left leg. He hits a nice slingshot neckbreaker out of the corner. MASADA fights back with a death valley driver from the middle rope to retain his title at 6:35. That was the most out of nowhere finish I’ve seen in awhile. MASADA was able to put Moore away without much problem, which makes Moore’s long reign with the title look silly as a result. This show really needed a strong title match to pump some life into the card but unfortunately that didn’t happen. **
Match #8: No Ropes Barbed Wire: Danny Havoc vs. Drew Gulak
Gulak sends Mr. Tofiga and Alexander James to the back. Gulak does a good job of avoiding the barbed wire early on and controls on the mat. Havoc is more than willing to trade holds with him. Gulak anticipates a charge and sends Havoc into the barbed wire. Gulak synchs in an STF and an abdominal stretch. He scrapes Havoc’s forehead with the barbed wire during the abdominal stretch. Havoc starts getting fired up but Gulak rushes him into the barbed wire. Havoc finds an opening after hitting a DDT. James reappears at ringside. Havoc whips Gulak through the barbed wire and he falls onto James. Gulak hits a back suplex after a distraction from James and Tofiga. He holds Havoc in place while James slaps him. Devon Moore and Lucky tHURTeen come out to chase James and Tofiga away. Gulak gets dropkicked into the barbed wire. Havoc then whips him into more barbed wire. Havoc grinds Gulak’s forehead across the barbed wire. Gulak is a bloody mess. He finds the strength to slam Havoc into the barbed wire. Gulak hits a backbreaker and a dragon screw leg whip. He applies the Gu-Lock but Havoc rolls him into the barbed wire. Gulak slams Havoc into the barbed wire again and then whips him with some loose barbed wire. Gulak wraps barbed wire around Havoc’s abdomen and reapplies the Gu-Lock. Havoc powers out of the hold and hits the General Order. Both men are down. Havoc shrugs off a few slaps and hits a dragon suplex for a nearfall. Gulak attempts a quick small package for a two count. Havoc hits a brainbuster and follows with the General Order into loose barbed wire for the win at 25:59. Did this match legitimize Gulak as much as it could have? Probably not. However, this match did go a long way into making Gulak a more believable threat in CZW. The contest started off perfectly, with Gulak using his technical skills to put Havoc at a disadvantage. I hated the interference from James and Tofiga, as Gulak insisted before this match that he wasn’t going to rely on them. Once Gulak went into the barbed wire, the crowd became more invested and they had a nice finishing stretch. This match won’t be for everyone but Gulak was able to take the fight to Havoc and that’s what matters. I hope CZW uses the momentum that Gulak has right now to their advantage on future shows. As a result of this deathmatch being sufficiently built up and the ascension of Gulak during it, I thought this was one of the better deathmatches I’ve seen from CZW in awhile. ***¼
Overall: Proving Grounds started and ended with matches that accomplished their goals and delivered in the ring. However, the middle of the card was severely lacking. Some of the matches that I expected to come through just weren’t given the chance. The Wired Television Title and World Tag Team Title matches were more about getting a storyline over and MASADA’s title defense against Devon Moore was too short and featured a very sudden finish. While I thought the show ended on a high note with Drew Gulak’s performance, that match won’t even be for everyone and Proving Grounds just doesn’t have enough quality to earn a recommendation.
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