July 6th, 2018
Opening Match: David Starr vs Jordynne Grace
Grace was coming into this match having just recently won the first ever Women’s Commonwealth Cup. The action became interesting from pretty much the opening bell, as Starr immediately learned the extent to which Grace had the power advantage in this matchup. Once Starr took control, his offense was impactful enough to get the crowd solidly behind Grace. There wasn’t a wasted moment in this fourteen-minute opener and you couldn’t ask for much more from them. This was very much more of a professional wrestling match between two skilled wrestlers than it was an intergender match. Grace won in 14:21 with a bearhug. ***½
Match #2: Bad Behavior (Brittany Blake and Penelope Ford) vs. Team Blue Nation (Charli Evans and Jessica Troy)
Both teams were incredibly focused on delivering visually impressive sequences but it didn’t really work out. Ford’s offense in particular was incredibly sloppy. No one seemed on the same page in this contest. The one bright spot was Blake bringing some energy to the finishing stretch. Bad Behavior won in 7:16 with a double team flatliner on Blake. *
Match #3: Knockout or Tap Out Only: Sage Philips vs. Dominic Garrini
They told a good story and NOVA Pro’s willingness to go with the unintuitive result paid off. Given the stipulation, there was no way that Philips was going to feel at home. This was Garrini’s type of match, plain and simple. Philips was never going to quit or stay down for the ten count, so Garrini had to repeatedly clubber him with hammer fists to the face until he became unconscious. The shorter duration and high-impact offense worked well. Additionally, while Philips doesn’t seem too natural in these brawls, it played into the idea that he had to travel out of his element to vanquish Garrini. Garrini won in 9:44 via knockout. ***
Match #4: Shazza McKenzie vs. Harlow O’Hara
This was fine but felt disjointed at times. I don’t think McKenzie nor O’Hara are established in NOVA Pro to the point where the crowd will get invested without being won over. The action felt at home when they were trading strikes, but the transitions and trading of moves was rough. McKenzie won in 7:26 with a stunner. *½
Match #5: The Carnies (Nick Iggy and Kerry Awful) vs. The Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude and Rob Killjoy) vs. The Hooligans (Devin and Mason Cutter)
The action was fairly pedestrian until Lude made the hot tag. Killjoy proceeded to wake everyone up with an excellent segment where he ran wild. The second half of the match was ultimately a mixed bag, with some exchanges eliciting a huge reaction from the crowd and others not going as planned. They probably would have benefitted from shaving five minutes or so from this contest and perhaps treated the entire match as a sprint. It’s interesting that having these three teams at the forefront of the division really creates space for a more lighthearted team with a contrasting personality (think Cutie and the Beast from early NOVA Pro). The Hooligans won in 18:15 after hitting the Hooligan Driver on Lude. **¾
Match #6: “Safety First” Tim Donst vs. Jaxon Stone
This was largely just a showcase for Donst. His character seems to be at a point where he starts matches as jovial, “Safety First” Donst but will show a darker side if need be. Still, Donst’s crew tends to overshadow the action, especially in a seven-minute outing like this one. In fact, one member of Donst’s crew started hitting offense on Stone’s lackey. I’m curious to see how Donst’s feud with Nick Gage changes him, as this might be a reasonable time to abort the Safety First character. This was decent when the action was taken seriously but ultimately too short to mean much. Donst won in 6:35 with Safety Last. **¼
Match #7: Deonna Purrazzo vs. Faye Jackson
These two had solid chemistry together, but Purrazzo can have a decent match with pretty much anyone. Purrazzo is so good at targeting the arm and continually finds ways to do so despite advertising herself as an armbar specialist. I think these two have a better, longer match in them, but this was a fun goodbye to Purrazzo as she sets her sights on NXT. Jackson won in 6:40 with Drop It Like It’s Hot. **½
Match #8: Logan Easton LaRoux (w/ Stokely Hathaway) vs. Jonathan Gresham
Hathaway and LaRoux have officially joined forces and that should be a fun mix of personalities. Gresham spent most of the match frustrating LaRoux with technical wrestling and eating away at LaRoux’s pride. LaRoux had to put the referee in harm’s way and get an assist from Hathaway to turn things around. That culminated in Hathaway delivering a low blow to setup LaRoux’s ace crusher to defeat Gresham. This was positioned to be a solid match to establish Hathaway’s alliance with LaRoux and that’s exactly what this accomplished. Happily, LaRoux and the 1% are the only roster members relying on cheating on a somewhat regular basis, so shows are not overpopulated with screwy finishes. LaRoux won in 14:34 with an ace crusher. ***
Match #9: Allie Kat vs. Kimber Lee
This ended up being a really smart pairing as these two worked well together. Kat has stepped up her game recently in these high-profile singles matches. They gradually raised the intensity of the action with their strike exchanges and the match quickly became about being a battle of attrition. Seriously, the strike exchanges these two put together were something to behold. Kat eventually winning by presumably knockout Lee out with a ripchord headbutt was perfect in the context of the match. Kat’s scrappiness is fun to watch play out and I imagine her eventual rematch against Grace will be tremendous. Kat won in 9:26 with a ripchord headbutt. ***¼
Match #10: Powerbomb TV Independent Wrestling Title: Tracy Williams © vs. Arik Royal
These two had a very good match together on a NOVA Pro show in 2016. In that match, Williams worked over Royal’s left leg but here, Williams targeted the left arm. Commentary questioned why Royal was so willing to play Williams’ technical wrestling game and Royal swiftly turned things around after hitting a spinning backbreaker. However, the work done to Royal’s left arm meant that his power game couldn’t be maintained. They were also able to showcase some clever counters, such as Williams countering Space Jam into a crossface trapping the bad arm. If this wasn’t the tenth match on a card that was going pretty long, I think the crowd would have been pretty vocal. As things stood, this match was missing a certain energy to truly take advantage of the sensible story they were telling in the ring. We are transitioning into a period of NOVA Pro history where Royal losing is not considered a huge deal like it once was and that’s perfectly fine. Williams retained his title in 14:35 after hitting a piledriver. **¾
Match #11: No Disqualification: Wheeler YUTA vs. Homicide
YUTA came into this match looking for revenge and Homicide took advantage of that demeanor. YUTA setup a pile of chairs at ringside, for instance, and Homicide found an opening to hit a suplex into the chairs. Homicide wrestled the smarter, more sensible match and it paid dividends for him. Again, I think the crowd was somewhat tired given the length of the show, but they stayed vocal for this brawl. I also liked that there was a moment where the referee seemingly helped YUTA, as the referee kicked Homicide’s hands away from holding the ropes during a pin attempt allowing YUTA to sneak in a rollup. I didn’t expect YUTA to defeat Homicide this early on in their feud, and the finish left open plenty of possibilities moving forward. Homicide won in 13:29 with a small package after a low blow. ***
-Show Grade: B
–You Need to See:
–You’d Enjoy Watching: Starr/Grace, Kat/Lee, Garrini/Philips, YUTA/Homicide, LaRoux/Gresham
–You Should Avoid: