Riot City Wrestling – Ultimatum 2011 (June 11)

Houseshows, Reviews, Shows

 Packed full house, with some punters turned away. Not bad for a bloody cold night.

Interrupting the introduction of the show, the Rude Ones comes out to gloat about Del Taurino being champion and, boy!, is the crowd ever pissed.

Match 1: Voodoo def Matt Silva
Clash of styles a little. Voodoo looked like he was forced to slow down here. Some moves were a little loose as well. However, they pulled it off okay. Some nice power moves and Voodoo is always a master of ring positioning and pulling something out of nowhere. Ending came when Adam Brooks tried to interfere for Silva, but it backfired and Silva fell to Voodoo’s stalling elbow.

Afterwards Silva and Brooks have words. Silva abuses Brooks verbally and physically until Brooks snaps and does a face turn that is somewhat underwhelming. Surely this would have been better done at home in Victoria? Silva does a good job of riling the crowd up, especially one weird loud-mouth, but it’s not a pro-Brooks sentiment that is created.

Match 2: GD Grimm def BeBop
Strange match. It was like they were going for a comedy match, but some loose moves and Grimm violence made it seem disjointed. Once it got past the dancing stuff, it did improve. It became one long Grimm beat-down with a few hope spots. As it should have been. The finish comes when Grimm hits the mother of all border tosses, then a vicious curb stomp for the win. And, really, for such a hated heel, he very rarely cheats. He just intimidates and out-strengths. I like that. You don’t need to cheat to be a heel.

Match 3: Miami def Melody Summers
Interestingly, no Savannah or Sway accompanying them. This is also Melody’s first official singles match. Little slow, but Miami’s power moves and flexibility are very impressive, and when she combines them – ouch. Some nice heel tactics by Melody to take over. Kept simple, but effective. Miami’s shots are nice and stiff looking. Miami misses a top rope back senton, so Melody takes the turnbuckle pad off while the ref was tending to her. However, Miami quickly reverses Melody into the exposed buckle, then hit a huge Samoan drop for the pin. Good match up.

Match 4: The Rude Ones (Del Taurino & Marvel with El Presidente) def Jacko Lantern & Mimic
The Rude Ones start with annoyance tactics before Jacko explodes and then it’s a real back and forth tag match for a while, until, after some El Presidente interference, finally Mimic gets to be the face in peril. Long beat down ensues, but damn if it hasn’t got the crowd on the edge of their seats. Finally Mimic gets the hot tag and Jacko is a proverbial house of fire. This leads to some more good back and forth action until an El Presidente distraction allows a vicious double team (Del Taurino hit a leg drop on Mimic while Marvel had him in a sort of rocking horse submission hold… sort of… look, it looked cool and that’s all I can say!) to give Marvel the pin on Mimic. Great match!

Match 5: Adam Brooks def Brad Smyth
Brad starts by spitting the dummy about not winning the title last month. Smyth then tries to talk to Brooks about the fans being fickle, so Brooks shoves him down and it’s on. (Question: Why do wrestlers suddenly undergo a complete change in all their habits the moment they become a face?) Stall-a-go-go to start. Brooks’ moves are connecting much better this month. Smyth looks damn impressive. His strikes, kicks and moves are all as clean as. Add 10kg to his frame (upper body and arms) and he’ll be right up there. Crowd are apathetic towards Brooks, but he’s doing better this match than I have ever seen him before. Back and forth match. Some obvious set ups, but still pretty good. Brooks eventually hits a senton for the pin.

Afterwards Silva comes out to stare Brooks down, but that’s all.

Match 6: Lumberjack match: Rocky Menero def Elliot Sexton
As a rule, I generally find Lumberjack Matches a bit convoluted and annoying. I think I’ve enjoyed two in more than 25 years of watching wrestling (and one of them was a clusterf**k in WCW with the tag titles on the line) so I am apprehensive and we’ll see how this one goes. The lumberjacks come out – six heels, six faces. And they take positions on opposite sides of the ring and stare and make a lot of noises.
            Huge stalling from Sexton to start until he is forced into the ring. Rocky dominates the early going and refuses to go for a two count. Finally Rocky is thrown out and the lumberjacks come into play. Sexton takes over. Slow and deliberate, really playing to the crowd. Christ, are they into this! I can’t hear myself think! The lumberjacks help Sexton, so Rocky topes onto all of them. Grimm then helps Sexton take control. (Why? Heels don’t like other people just because they are also heels! Especially Grimm!) We get some loud Yay-Boo punching. The crowd is hot!
            Rocky back in control. Then Sexton again. Some referee shenanigans. Then Brad jumps in the ring, Mimic chases him out and now all 12 lumberjacks are brawling on the outside. Rocky throws Sexton onto all of them, then drags him back in, hits a roll of the dice and gets the three count.
            Maybe 5 minutes too long. But this was something that is rarely done in RCW – a pure sports entertainment match as the main event. As such, it felt different and refreshing. It’s not what I would like to see from RCW every month, but for a change of pace it certainly hit the mark and the crowd exploded and they left feeling good.

Match of the night: The Tag Match
Biggest pops: Mimic, Jacko Lantern, Miami, Rocky, Voodoo… yeah nearly all the faces were received well by the crowd
Biggest heat: Rude Ones, Elliot Sexton

Overall: A good show, to be sure. Not their best, but also not their worst. A good show.

Australian. Father. Perpetual student. Started watching wrestling before Wrestlemania 1. Has delusions of grandeur and was known to regularly get the snot beaten out of him in a wrestling ring. Also writes occasionally in other Pulse sections.Thinks Iron Mike Sharpe is underrated. http://stevengepp.wordpress.com