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MANCE WARNER VS. JAKE CRIST, ACE AUSTIN, MADMAN FULTON, HAKIM ZANE & MORE: 10/1 AAW ALIVE! iPPV REPORT

AAW ALIVE iPPV - FITE.TV

Hakim Zane (Impact’s Rohit Raju) defeated Travis Titan in the opener to retain the AAW Heritage Champion. Titan is a student of the Black & Brave School and has a ton of upside. Zane’s character work in AAW continues to be tremendous. 

Jake Something answered the open challenge laid out by Karam, Zane’s manager. Karam is a menacing presence but doesn’t have it all together in the ring, which led to a slightly below average match with Something. 

Elayna Black defeated Skye Blue in a sub-five minute squash match. Black has really sharp looking offense. She could be a valuable asset as AAW looks to rebuild their women’s division. 

Matthew Justice and Manders had an incredible brawl that ended with Justice hitting a Death Valley Driver off of a scissor lift through a plastic table. This is one of the wildest spots of not only this year, but any year. Justice is as charismatic of a brawler as the indie scene has had in quite some time. He continues to deliver every time AAW books him. 

Gringo Loco, Air Wolf, & Angel Dorado won a six-man tag match over Ace Perry, Stephen Wolf, and Trey Miguel in the clear match of the night. Miguel was announced as Wolf’s mystery partner, but Wolf turned on him and went to the back before the finish. Gringo Loco remains one of the brightest uncovered gems on the indie scene. This didn’t have the polish of a top tier Dragongate six-man tag, but it had a ton of big spots that gave everyone a chance to shine. Well worth watching to check out some younger talent. 

Hyan defeated Christi Jaynes to continue Hyan’s dominance in AAW. Jaynes did a great looking moonsault to the floor that wiped out by Hyan and Stephen Wolf, but failed to capitalize on it. Hyan is another really strong talent that AAW has brought into the fold recently. 

Ace Austin & Madman Fulton WON the AAW Tag Team Championships from Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett to end their 400 day reign. Austin wrestled in a face mask the entire time. A lot of this match revolved around Davey Vega selling an injured knee. As a whole, the match wasn’t the most exciting, but the work of Austin & Fulton as a team was really strong. They are somehow an even sleazier version fo HBK & Diesel. 

Mance Warner retained the AAW World Title in the main event over Jake Crist. This brawl lacked the spark that Justice and Manders had earlier in the show but the effort of the two must be applauded. Warner got busted open early and bled the entire match. Both guys went through doors - Crist on a middle rope choke slam but he kicked out, then Warner on a middle rope tombstone but he kicked out. The finish was odd as after all of that plunder and all of those big moves, Warner DDT’ed Crist on part of a broken table and pinned him. 

Hakim Zane and Karam came out to confront Mance Warner. Zane said that he should be Warner’s #1 contender. Warner attempted to fight them off, but the two-on-one was too much for him to handle. Jake Something came out and made the save to even the odds. Zane and Karam hightailed it into the crowd. Warner went to grab his belt from Something, but Something struggled to let go. It would appear we’re looking towards a future Warner vs. Something AAW World Title match. 

ACH & Fred Yehi return to AAW on 10/29. AAW did some awesome video packages to hype up these returns. 

All-in-all the most professional outing an indie wrestling company has had since the pandemic. The six-man tag match is especially worth checking out. 

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