Friday the 13th: In The Beginning on July 13th, 2012
FIGHT is a new promotion based out of Robinson, Illinois. This is a review of their first show that featured a one-night tournament to introduce everyone to the kind of action and caliber of competitors that FIGHT will showcase.
Opening Match: First Round: Perry Winkle vs. Christian Rose
Winkle does not endear himself to the crowd before the match. Rose lays in a few chops and applies a surfboard. He them slams Winkle to the canvas out of the surfboard submission. Winkle takes advantage of an opportunity to sneak in a cheap shot and hits a rope-assisted neckbreaker. Rose forearms him to the floor and comes off the apron with an elbow strike. In the ring, Winkle hits a neckbreaker and takes control after a series of kicks. Rose comes back with a double stomp out of the corner. He hits a gutbuster but falls victim to a tornado DDT. Rose connects with a roaring elbow and hits a falcon arrow for the win at 6:41. The crowd had no problem hating Winkle and getting behind Rose, the hometown boy. At seven minutes, these two were able to display some nice back and forth exchanges as this was the kind of match that FIGHT needed to kick off their debut show. The duration of matches are always in question with one-night tournaments, so we’ll see how the show progresses. **½
Match #2: First Round: Doomsday vs. Tony G
Doomsday showcases his power advantage to start. Tony picks his spots and is able to connect with some strikes. Doomsday lifts him into a powerslam. Tony connects with a baseball slide but Doomsday immediately answers with a hard forearm smash. Doomsday takes over until Tony avoids a leg drop. He never gets much time to breathe, as Doomsday just charges at him and hits a powerslam for the victory at 5:19. This was your standard David vs. Goliath type encounter and not a particularly inspired one at that. However, I’m glad that they didn’t choose the predictable route of Tony overcoming Doomsday. *½
Match #3: First Round: Zakk Sawyers vs. Alex Castle
Sawyers’ entrance theme is just some guy repeatedly saying “Diabetes.” Awesome. Castle receives the best reaction of the night thus far. Castle rams Sawyers’ head into the top turnbuckle about ten times and stretches him out on the mat. Sawyers keeps thinking of creative ways to yell “Diabetes” during the match. Castle makes the referee inadvertently help him during an exchange. Sawyers creates an opening after a slingshot spear. Castle blocks a charge and hits a chinbreaker. He connects with a yakuza kick. Sawyers attempts a second slingshot spear but eats a knee. Castle hits total anarchy for a nearfall. Sawyers fires back with a corner yakuza kick and a roaring elbow. Castle elbows out of an F5 but Sawyers low blows him behind the referee’s back. Sawyers sneaks in a quick rollup while holding the ropes for the win at 7:35. Sawyers is someone who I haven’t seem a lot from, but he was entertaining in this contest. Castle worked well with him and they were able to generate some believable nearfalls down the stretch. The finish left room for a (longer) rematch and hopefully that happens on one of the next FIGHT shows. **¾
Match #4: First Round: Kyle Sykes vs. Matt Cage
I’m older than Sykes, which kind of scares me. Cage connects with a leg lariat and curb stomps Sykes into the canvas. Cage hits a delayed vertical suplex. Sykes trips him and connects with a basement dropkick. Sykes hits a fisherman suplex and takes control. Cage blocks a charge and hits a DDT into the bottom turnbuckle. He follows with a series of strikes and a leaping russian leg sweep. Sykes falls victim to an STO and gets caught by a running knee strike. He recovers with a gutbuster and hits a nice pumphandle backbreaker for a nearfall. Sykes spikes Cage with a snapmare driver and goes up top. Cage avoids a top rope moonsault, connects with a superkick, and hits a tiger driver for the victory at 9:25. Much like the last match, this was the case of two wrestlers meshing well together and delivering a solid contest that could probably be topped in a longer rematch. Sykes was impressive when I first saw him at a CPW show earlier this year and he looked well-rounded in the ring once again. **¾
Match #5: Semifinal Round: Christian Rose vs. Zakk Sawyers
Sawyers attacks Rose during his entrance. Rose throws him into the wall of the venue and hits him across the face with a DVD from the merchandise table. Sawyers takes a seat and Rose charges at him with a yakuza kick. In the ring, Rose hits a backbreaker. Sawyers yanks him off the middle rope. They battle on the apron where Sawyers hits an STO. This makes Rose incredibly angry, as he takes Sawyers down to the canvas and just stomps on his hand. They exchange forearms. Rose connects with a flash kick followed by a stiff elbow strike. They simultaneously connect with boots. Rose blocks a low blow and lays in a backfist for a nearfall. Sawyers hits a neckbreaker out of the corner along with a 2k1 bomb for a two count. Rose crotches him on the top rope and drops him back-first across the top turnbuckle. Rose locks in a boston crab while stomping on Sawyers’ hand for the win at 11:50. What a fun, hard-hitting match. Sawyers’ strategy was to make Rose angry and hopefully capitalize on his reckless aggression. Well, Sawyers took a lot of punishment but Rose was able to overwhelm him in the end. The strike exchanges will be hit or miss for some people, but I absolutely loved the finish. Rose applying the boston crab WHILE stomping on Sawyers’ hand was an excellent payoff for a crowd that wanted to see Sawyers get destroyed. Just excellent work from both men and I hope Sawyers is a regular on FIGHT shows. ***¼
Match #6: Semifinal Round: Doomsday vs. Matt Cage
Cage attacks before the opening bell. Doomsday shoves him away and retreats to the apron. Cage knocks him to the floor. Back in, Doomsday connects with a boot and takes over. Cage fights back with a series of springboard double axe handles but runs into a back elbow. Cage comes off the middle rope with double knees and follows with a top rope elbow drop. Doomsday shrugs off a leaping russian leg sweep and hits a torture rack backbreaker for a nearfall. Cage exposes the top turnbuckle in one of the corners. Doomsday misses a charge and collides with the exposed turnbuckle. Cage rolls him up for the victory at 8:18. If anything, it was interesting to see how Cage approached his much larger opponent. When Doomsday looked insurmountable down the stretch, Cage resorted to cheating and squeaked out the win. The crowd seemed to enjoy the action and they did a fine job telling their story. **¼
Match #7: 10-Man Rumble
I’m assuming that the standard over-the-top rules apply. Also, I’m only going to touch upon the highlights of this match. Tony G and Perry Winkle start the match. Zakk Sawyers enters soon after to his awesome entrance theme. There aren’t any eliminations early on but Tony comes close to being eliminated on multiple occasions. Doomsday reveals himself as the final entrant and quickly begins tossing people over the top rope. He eliminates everyone in the match except for Alex Castle. After some time, Castle takes advantage of an opening and is able to eliminate Doomsday for the win at 17:00. This was pretty harmless by battle royal standards. However, the match did accomplish a few things, such as successfully highlighting Doomsday and Castle. I was surprised that Castle got eliminated in the first round of the tournament, so this was a nice way for him to pick up some momentum moving forward.
After the match, Doomsday challenges Castle to a six-man tag team match on the next show. Castle happily accepts the challenge.
Match #8: Final Round: Christian Rose vs. Matt Cage
They have a nice sequence out of a test of strength and trade armdrags. Rose begins to target Cage’s left arm. Cage connects with a leg lariat and a mule kick. Rose blocks a second mule kick and fires back with a flash kick. He hits a senton and back drops Cage across the apron. Rose takes control until Cage comes back with a twisting neckbreaker. Cage connects with a flying elbow drop and hits a shoulder-capture suplex. Rose traps him in a boston crab but he’s able to reach the bottom rope. Cage lands a dive to the floor and hits a neckbreaker back in the ring. He takes over until Rose finds life after a springboard dropkick. Rose hits a gutbuster and lays in an elbow strike. Cage turns a boston crab attempt into a quick rollup for a nearfall. They exchange superkicks and Cage hits a tiger driver. Rose answers with his double stomp out of the corner. He hits a falcon arrow from the middle rope for a two count. Cage hits a tiger driver into the turnbuckles! Jesus. Cage follows with another tiger driver for the victory at 16:56. The final match of the tournament was fittingly the match of the night. Cage and Rose immediately established themselves as two of the main players in FIGHT by really delivering in the main event of the promotion’s first show. I’ve seen Rose in DREAMWAVE and IWA Unlimited, where he was positioned in the heel role. However, Rose showed how versatile he can be on this show by garnering some major crowd support throughout the tournament. This was a satisfying end to the tournament and ended FIGHT’s first show on a high note. ***½
Cage and Rose shake hands after the match. Cage thanks the crowd and offers Rose a rematch at some point.
Overall: Friday the 13th: In The Beginning began FIGHT’s history with a one-night tournament to showcase the roster. While I always think that one-night tournaments are tricky due to time constraints on the matches, there was still some quality wrestling to be found on this show. A majority of the first round matches were decent, Rose/Sawyers was a lot of fun in the semifinals, and Rose/Cage delivered a great main event to end the show. While I don’t believe the wrestling quality was high enough to warrant a clear recommendation, the tournament did accomplish its goal of introducing FIGHT’s audience to the roster. Cage and Rose have been established as the faces of the promotion, Sawyers is the wrestler that everyone loves to hate, Doomsday is the monstrous big man, and Castle is the wildcard that could make an impact at any time. FIGHT has a second show planned for August (see below), so we’ll see where they go from here.
For more information on FIGHT, check out their Facebook and Twitter. FIGHT’s next show, Summertime Blues, will take place on August 31st in Robinson, Illinois:
