No one has complained about AAW’s undercard besides me over the last year or so. Look, when you watch a show from the summer of 2009 and then watch one from 2012, so many things have gotten better. The production is literally a million times better, especially with Smart Mark Video now fully in charge. The main events are must see as AAW makes better use of contracted wrestlers than the promotions the guys work for. Thanks to the Heritage championship tournament, life on the undercard has gotten just a little bit better the last couple months. December and January featured eight first round matches. Durty Deeds, which was the first show ever filmed at Palatine’s Durty Nellie’s bar and grill, was the place for four quarterfinal matches as eight of the brightest stars on the scene injected the midcard with good to great matches.
The clear standout match was ACH and Mat Fitchett. These two have met in countless ways in other promotions, but this was Fitchett’s chance to regain the position he had in AAW before his unfortunate injury. Thankfully, these two excelled in a near four star match that was as exciting and athletic as many match you’ll see this year. Even though this was in the third position on the card, they wrestled as if it were the main event or before intermission. Something ACH doesn’t get enough credit for is his ability to mat wrestle and to constantly moves to his repertoire. He broke out the orange crush implant DDT as a finisher. This will fit him well moving forward. I’d certainly love to see a rematch for the title down the road, but this was a special match.
The show actually opened with Junthai Miller and Lamar Titan, two of the lesser known wrestlers in the whole tournament but also two men who have every right to be considered as good as the other six individuals. What impresses me so much about Titan is his poise and ability to not just be a typical indy wrestler. Titan is deceptively big and really just waiting for that one match where he goes from just another roster member to one of the best in AAW. Because this was an eight minute match, it was nice of them to get things off to a hot start and dropping bombs on each other. I’d love to see Titan eventually stand on his own and shifted away from the rest of Kevin Harvey’s group. At least he’s not being overexposed in this position and can grow into being a better wrestler.
Another quarterfinal was a chance for Davey vega to finally get a chance to show off everything he can instead of either being squashed or being slotted against someone who wasn’t a great match for him. Louis Lyndon and Davey Vega have met in wrestling rings before, but this was a one-on-one match of some significance. I loved this match because there was psychology. Lyndon worked over Vega’s left leg and eventually won with a rana turned into a cross armbreaker. Simple things like this get over with me and make a huge difference in my perception of these wrestlers. Being able to do moves is great but for them to mean something is even better. Lyndon controlled much of the match and won in a logical fashion.
Honestly, the most disappointing match of the night had to be Kyle O’Reilly against Samuray Del Sol. Playing the expectations game can be dangerous depending on the people involved in the match. O’Reilly and Del Sol are two of the fastest rising stars in the business. Del Sol could easily be one of Triple A’s top stars while O’Reilly has already won the Ring of Honor world tag team titles since this show took place. There wasn’t anything wrong with what they did, but it felt a bit slower-paced than one would think. I was also disappointed in the ending since it came out of nowhere. Del Sol hit Rising Sun, and that’s about it. I could see the styles clash being too significant for these two to overcome or injuries being the reasons for the disappointment I felt.
In addition to the Heritage championship tournament, the two other AAW titles were defended as well. Irish Airborne and Zero Gravity had yet another match. Thankfully, IA won definitively and cleanly to establish themselves as the top team in the company. I’m not sure I want to see these two teams ever wrestle again, but this was another solid effort given its place on the card. Between the match with Davey Richards and O’Reilly and this one, I feel like this is already a better title reign than the first one for Dave and Jake Crist. The match quality and character development are there. There has been no interference. I’m happy about their performance. Biggest thing for AAW is to bring in some teams for them to actually wrestle. ZG had their chance. Finding teams can be tough, but it needs to happen for everyone to take these titles seriously. The value of both singles titles seems to be so much higher than even two years ago, but the tag team division is clearly missing quality teams competing for the belts.
Speaking of the heavyweight championship, Michael Elgin and Silas Young wrestled one more time in a really great match. I’d say this was closer to their Ring of Honor matches than the epic 60 minute and “I Quit” contests they had last year. Absolutely nothing wrong with this at all except the bar is set too high. Young worked his heel style quite well as always, and Elgin conquered Young one more time to retain his title. The reasoning for the match happening is logical given Young never got his rematch, but a little bit more separation probably would have helped out the feud. With the new venue and Elgin’s schedule, I can see why AAW booked the match in this position.
The other big match on Durty Deeds was Davey Richards and Sami Callihan battling a third time in the last year, second in AAW. Richards had to win, but since he’s a heel, he wasn’t allowed to win cleanly. Shane Hollister made his presence felt by kicking Callihan in the face and continuing their feud. I wasn’t a fan of the ending, both because of the interference and Richards just winning with a series of kicks. It always bothers me whenever Richards wins after an indeterminate amount of kicks instead of with another move. This is where bringing back the DR driver, especially with his now being a heel, might make some semblance of sense. This was a bit toned down from their previous work as Richards worked over Callihan’s knee for a good portion of the match. Things were only nuts at the beginning a Callihan dive that almost took both men to the bar. Fans at least ate this action up.
Shane Hollister won a match to earn a future title match in a four way that involved Arik Cannon, Jimmy Jacobs, and Mason Beck. The match didn’t do much for me either way, but Cannon giving up and letting Jacobs get pinned by Hollister made zero sense. This is for a future title shot. Why would Cannon simply allow Hollister, someone who he has feuded with before too, get the victory. I strongly disagreed with the booking here and really wish this Jacobs/Cannon feud could be put to bed once and for all.
In more silly booking, MsChif defeated Marcus Crane in the rematch no one wanted to see. This only served to dump more cold water on whatever momentum MsChif had after her feud with Danny Daniels. The random Mason Beck attacks also make no sense without some sort of promo or explanation. Chandler McClure’s presence was also odd given he suffered the same fate as MsChif. Everything I’ve mentioned in this paragraph came in the second half of the show. The first half, containing three of the four tournament matches, the tag title match, and Richards/Callihan, came across much better than everything that happened beginning with the cage match.
The cage AAW uses is not in great shape, and I think the effectiveness of a tag team match is neutralized by the poor conditioning. What wrestler in their right mind would want to take a bump into the steel? If I were Darin Corbin, Marion Fontaine, Tweek Phoenix, or Keith Walker, I sure as hell wouldn’t. Fontaine and Corbin won in a move that I thought made no sense at the time. Given the feud has continued, it isn’t as bad, but I’m of the belief this should have been a stepping stone for Kevin Harvey’s group before moving into bigger rivalries. I will say that DVDs cannot convey how great Harvey and Nikki Mayday are at ringside. As uneven as things have been for the group, Harvey not interfering has been a great twist. I also like his promos. The one he cut at the end of this DVD? Chilling. The cage match was merely okay, and before AAW considers running another one of them again, I hope they invest in a better cage.
This felt like an important show meant to blow off some issues and continue others. Michael Elgin and Irish Airborne can move onto other things. We’ve got the semifinal and finals of the Heritage title tournament set for Path of Redemption. There were a lot of good matches on this show and a minimal amount of crap. A borderline must buy show.
Grade: B+
Announcers: Phil Colvin and Derek St. Holmes
-Heritage Championship Quarterfinal: Junthai Miller defeats Lamar Titan by pinfall after double knees off the top rope/7:47/**3/4
-Heritage Championship Quarterfinal: Louis Lyndon defeats Davey Vega by submission with a cross armbreaker off the top rope/8:21/***
-Heritage Championship Quarterfinal: ACH defeats Mat Fitchett by pinfall with the double pumphandle cradle orange crush implant DDT/10:40/***3/4
-AAW Tag Team Championship: Irish Airborne (Jake and Dave Crist) defeat Zero Gravity (Bret Gakiya and CJ Esparza) by pinfall after the double team spike piledriver/11:41/***1/4
-Davey Richards defeats Sami Callihan by pinfall after Shane Hollister interferes and Richards hits a series of knock-out kicks/17:02/***1/2
-Steel Cage Match: Northstache Express ( Darin Corbin and Marion Fontaine) defeat We Are Here (Tweek Phoenix and Keith Walker) by pinfall after they splash Phoenix//**1/2
-MsChif defeats Marcus Crane with the Desecrator/4:28/*
Knight Wagner wants a real opportunity, not again Ryan Boz or Keith Walker
-Heritage Championship Quarterfinal: Samuray Del Sol defeats Kyle O’Reilly by pinfall with Rising Sun/12:37/***
-Shane Hollister earns a future championship match by pinning Jimmy Jacobs after Suge’s Last Gift. Arik Cannon and Mason Beck were also involved in the match/11:14/***
Hollister won’t let Jacobs and Cannon battle. They continue their battle. Why would Cannon just give up on the match.
-AAW Heavyweight Championship: Michael Elgin successefully defends over Silas Young by pinfall after the 360 powerbomb/16:48/***1/2
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