Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
AAW Pro Wrestling Redefined made its return to the Berwyn Eagles Club for “Bound by Hate” with both familiar faces and new unknowns making their mark in Chicagoland.
Before the first match, we heard from the “Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander who was challenging Michael Elgin in a singles match later in the evening. Alexander had been a part of the Monster Mafia with Ethan Page prior to Alexander’s injury, which led to Page aligning with Elgin to become the AAW Tag Team Champions. Alexander sought to punish Elgin for taking advantage of his injury to take the titles.
1.) Speaking of tag teams, the opening contest featured former AAW Tag Team Champions in Zero Gravity going up against The Batiri. The demonic duo, most well known for their time in CHIKARA, made their presence felt in Berwyn for the first time in an AAW ring. However, for all of their successes elsewhere, Obariyon and Kodama were unable to repeat them in Berwyn. The duo of Brett Gakiya and CJ Esparza utilized their speed and high-flying maneuvers to their advantage, eventually finishing off The Batiri with their Flippy Cup combination finisher.
2.) The next match provided an opportunity for 4 men to fight for the top prize in AAW: a chance to face AAW Heavyweight Champion Shane Hollister later in the evening. All four men have either held or currently hold titles in AAW: former AAW Heavyweight Champion Marek Brave, former AAW Heritage Champion ACH, former AAW Tag Team Champion Louis Lyndon, and one half of the current AAW Tag Team Champions, “All Ego” Ethan Page.
The experience of defending a title for a long period of time is a great attribute for a wrestler. The man with the longest title reign, ACH, benefited the most from this attribute. ACH withstood the risk-taking moves by Lyndon, the guile of Brave, and the hungry, current titleholder in Page, and came out of the match victorious by pinning “All Ego” to earn a shot to fight for the AAW Heavyweight Title.
Following the match, the AAW Heritage Champion “Money” Matt Cage revealed that he would have an open challenge for his match later in the evening to see if anyone could unseat the reigning champ.
3.) The “We Are Here” group came out, sans their mouthpiece Kevin Harvey. Harvey has been sidelined due to injuries sustained at previous AAW events. Instead, Tweek Phoenix, along with Nikki Mayday and Keith Walker, spoke out to the crowd. Phoenix accepted the challenge for a street fight against Ryan Boz and Tony Rican at next month’s “Scars and Stripes” event.
As for Walker, he delivered punishment to another poor soul. On this night, it would be Shane Sabre. Although Sabre tried his best, he took his lumps. Walker made his dent into Sabre with 20 chops to chest before eventually ending the match with a lariat.
Afterwards, we see Colt Cabana talking backstage about his newborn feud with a former friend in Gregory Iron and his Iron Curtain. Cabana didn’t know why Iron turned on him and had his men beat him down, but he’d face one of them later: Christian Faith.
Back in the ring, announcer Daryck St. Holmes introduced House of Truth members Knight Wagner, Justice Jones, and Alex Bernadino. Wagner complained about not getting enough respect in spite of his tenure in AAW and the close group of fellow Iowans that have made it big elsewhere and in AAW, including Marek Brave. Because of that, Wagner challenged Brave to a tag team match at “Scars and Stripes” to face he and Jones against Brave and a partner of his choosing.
St. Holmes spoke up about Wagner’s complaints and suggested Wagner do something to earn the respect that he’s seeking. That irked Wagner and his boys, and they physically harmed St. Holmes. After a couple security guards went in and got beat down by Jones, Marek Brave raced to the ring with a chair in hand to clear house.
4.) Back to in-ring action as another wrestler made their debut in AAW, as John Silver looked to impress the Berwyn faithful. But, he would be opposed by the face of AAW in the form of Silas Young. Silver powered through the veteran grappler, but Silas forced him to tap out to the Stock Lock.
After the match, Silas Young made it a point to offer his thoughts on Silver to the crowd, saying that there ought to be a spot on the AAW roster for Silver. Considering what Silver did in the 12-minute match, it’s difficult to argue otherwise.
Then, we see a fatigued ACH happy about his victory earlier in the night. However, he was interrupted by the AAW Heavyweight Champion Shane Hollister and Scarlett Bordeaux, as the pair delivered some psychological warfare to the highly-motivated athlete.
5.) Initially, the next match was supposed to be a singles match between Colt Cabana and Christian Faith of The Iron Curtain. However, Gregory Iron and the entire Curtain (Joey Martini and Benjamin Boone) also joined Faith at ringside. Cabana was not thrilled by this, got on the mic and got backup in the form of Marion Fontaine and Juntai Miller. Their arrival at the ring precipitated a change to match: instead of a singles match, it would be a 6-man tag pitting Cabana, Fontaine, and Miller against The Iron Curtain with Gregory Iron at ringside.
Iron’s presence would be key to his team’s eventual success. After Cabana hit the GTS on Boone, Iron ran into the ring to distract him. Iron led a chase, provoking Cabana follow him all the way backstage. In the ring, Christian Faith surrounded Marion Fontaine and delivered a roaring elbow to get the pinfall victory.
After the match, we see AAW Matchmaker Tony Rican interrupt AAW’s owner Jim Lynam backstage as he was filming a message for the crowd. Rican persuaded Lynam to allow the challenge laid down earlier by Tweek Phoenix to be approved. Lynam allowed the street fight to take place next month, but only if it was unsactioned. Also, Rican assured Lynam that it would be his last match and that he would return to his matchmaker duties full-time.
6.) The next match was a battle of “All Ego” Ethan Page’s tag team partners: his former one, “Walking Weapon” Josh Alexander, and his current one, Michael Elgin. Elgin was without his trademark mullet hairdo for the first time in Berwyn, sending quite a shock to the Berwyn crowd.
Elgin and Alexander took their fight all around ringside, using the guardrails to deliver punishment. Later in the match, Elgin whipped Alexander into the ropes, which knocked down AAW referee PJ Drummond. With the ref down, Alexander hit a low blow on Elgin to give him time to take Elgin’s tag team title belt into the ring. As Alexander readied to hit Elgin with the belt, out came Page to the rescue. However, after Page grabbed the belt from Alexander, he used it to hit Elgin with it, stunning the crowd. The Monster Mafia reunited, and they picked up Elgin once more to hit their Double Dominator move, making it easy for Alexander to get the pinfall victory.
To add insult to injury, Page walked out wearing Elgin ring jacket. Once Elgin got back up, he went on the mic and voiced his anger, demanding that he will seek retribution on Page for turning on him, as the two still hold the AAW Tag Team Championship.
7.) After intermission, Eddie Kingston hit the ring in an unpleasant mood. He went on the mic, demanding to know why his girl Jordynne Grace was not in his corner at “Day of Defiance” back in May, when Kingston had to face Silas Young in a cage match. Kingston was so irate that he ended his relationship with the young woman.
Kingston took out the rest of his anger on his opponent, Jimmy Jacobs. Kingston had his gangster tested by Jacobs, but the beast from Yonkers, New York walked out of Berwyn victorious on this night.
8.) In a tag match, the always entertaining duo of Markus Crane and Dan Lawrence, who went by the name of the Wet Bandits for their match, faced the L.O.S.E.R.S., Sea-Man and Moondog Bernard. Crane and Lawrence defeated their opponents, after the duo both hit simultaneous moves from the top rope onto a downed Moondog Bernard.
After the match, and in all the ecstasy of winning, Crane called out Ryan Boz. Boz made his way down to the ring with some beer in hand. Crane slapped Boz, which forced Boz to spit out the beer, which landed in Lawrence’s face. Boz then took it further by throwing a chair right at Lawrence’s head, and then set up two chairs in the ring where he would hit a Boz Driver on Crane from off the top rope onto the chairs.
The “We Are Here” group hit the ring, and with Nikki Mayday distracting Boz, Tweek Phoenix tossed a chain to Keith Walker. Walker then balled up the chain with his fist and decked Boz.Tony Rican raced to the ring, but it was too late, as Walker put him through a chair. They left the ring with downed bodies and carnage in the ring.
9.) AAW Heritage Champion “Money” Matt Cage went to the ring to see who would accept his open challenge for a title match. The surprise respondent would be Heidi Lovelace. Cage found this to be amusing, thinking that Lovelace was the valet for his real opponent and that she “know her place.” Lovelace was serious and delivered a powerful slap to Cage’s face. Lovelace proved to be a very challenging opponent for Cage, getting several near-falls. However, Cage got an opening, and hit his Money Clip on Lovelace, securing the victory and retaining his title.
After the loss, Lovelace arose to find Jordynne Grace disparaging her on the mic to the crowd. Grace wanted to prove that she was the future of the women’s wrestling division in AAW, demanding a match against Lovelace right now. Instead of a referee, Silas Young went to the ring. Young berated Grace for her immaturity, saying that the match Lovelace had against Cage was better than any match Grace had had. Silas told her to leave the ring, but Grace refused despite repeated requests, so Silas hit the Killer Combo on Grace.
10.) It was time for the main event of the night. AAW Heavyweight Champion Shane Hollister (with Scarlett Bordeaux) faced ACH for the title. Despite earning his shot in a hard-fought 4-way match earlier in the night, ACH brought his “A-game” against the champion. However, Hollister has held the belt this long by using a variety of tactics. On this night, Hollister reversed a roll-up pin attempt by ACH, by pulling the tights to hold on for the 3-count and retaining his title.
AAW Pro Wrestling Redefined makes its return to 115 Bourbon Street in Merionette Park, Illinois on Friday, July 18th for the 10th edition of “Scars and Stripes”. Already announced for the event is the return of Chris Sabin, as well as two tag matches. The first tag match will feature Knight Wagner and Justice Jones taking on Marek Brave and a partner of his choice. And, in an unsanctioned street fight, Keith Walker and Tweek Phoenix will face Ryan Boz and Tony Rican. Also scheduled to appear are AAW Heavyweight Champion Shane Hollister, AAW Heritage Champion “Money” Matt Cage, Eddie Kingston, Arik Cannon, Flip Kendrick, and more. Tickets for this event, as well as any additional updates, can be found at aawrestling.com
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
