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FIGHTT PRO - ENTER THE FIGHTT - A SEASON ONE RETROSPECTIVE

FIGHTT PRO - ENTER THE FIGHTT - A SEASON ONE RETROSPECTIVE

“Hey Adam, any interest in covering FIGHTT PRO? It’s Prince Nana’s baby.”

I have my constant coverage promotions pretty well established but with Mike asking, I said I’ll give it a look.

What followed was a pretty good next three or so months of mid 2023 Tuesday Nights.  

With FIGHTT PRO about to starts taping their second season in a couple weeks, I figured this was a good time to look back on Season 1. 

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Truth be told, this may have been the third iteration of FIGHTT PRO but this was my first exposure to the promotion. I’d seen several “rules-focused” promotions spin up over the last few years - mostly notably to my personal coverage was Paradigm Pro’s UFWI Rules matches and Terminus, which unfortunately became my metric for bad execution on this kind of thing. Ultimately, promotions that run with non-standard wrestling rules live or die by the embracing of the environment by the wrestlers, refs, commentators and fans. If any of those people forget about the rules then why are we making such a big deal out of them? I’m glad to say that not only did FIGHTT PRO embrace them but also wasn’t shy about breaking them when the story (or certain characters) called for it. 

You had Rhett Titus, who explicitly wanted to go the entire season without breaking the rules, proving that you could be a winner and not a cheater (and even then, he managed to pick up a few violations his final match of the season.

Contrast that with Logan Easton Laroux, who maxed out his violations in nearly every contest, showing just how far you could walk up to the line without crossing it….while still disrespectfully spitting in the face of the promotion’s foundations.

You had points awards based on specific finishes, which led to seeing wrestlers trying to go for that ONE BIG SHOT instead squeaking out a W in name only.

You had different types of finishes allowed in different divisions, leading to wanting to see a mix of these divisions in every episode, which kept the viewing experience fresh as hell from match to match. 

You also had wrestlers who DID lose because of their non-adherence to the rule set. This was suuuuuper important to show that it COULD happen. Same as having time limits, no sense in setting a boundary if you can’t show that it IS effective.

Even the pre-match “showdown” where each wrestler got a chance to cut a small promo on the other to their face was an interesting wrinkle. You could see the story of the match dropped front and center, and even see the story evolves from match to match in this way. I’m sure this also helped the live crowd stay invested and knowing what was going on show to show, since they upgraded their venue every few shows.

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The People I knew made me want to see this initially. I’ve been a fan of Logan’s for a long time so it was awesome to see him really embrace the top heel spot here, forming a faction and just showing what a dirtbag he can truly be. Rhett being used in that top spot on the other side was a lot more front and center with it’s intent - to give Titus the chance to BE top guy and prove that he has been overlooked as a main event player for years. Cheeseburger has been around forever. The promise of Tony Deppen, Delirious, Victor Benjamin, Janai Kai, Trish Adora all made me want to keep an eye on how this show shaped up week over week.

But it wasn’t even many of these folks that STOOD OUT during the season. You had Ryan Mooney, who came out of the background of the Shinobi Shadow Squad and really stepped up into an intense fan favorite. You had a wild card player in LSG, just trying to prove his worth and ultimately trying to destroy an evil bigger than his own ego. You had the season long saga of the Tony’s, with Bennett going from hybrid division punching bag to the hottest tag team in that squad, even showing a jerk like Leyenda how cool it can be when the fans like you. You had Moses, who just exuded final boss energy through the entire season, despite having so few matches. You had the Goons….who were, well…the Goons and yet….willfully persistent. Even Ernie Osiris, hanging in the background, being shoved onto the stage to deal with the mess that Nana left him every week was an entertaining wrinkle as well. 

FIGHTT did a good job of mixing slick graphic presentation with in-ring action with plenty of backstage footage and promos. You knew who was who. You knew was coming. The commentators did that really good mix of being excited for the action while keeping the viewing audience tied into the rules at play and what little things mattered from moment to moment. Jason Heat was a good constant voice. Pelle Primeau grew on me over time but I really loved those episodes with Avery Good in the second spot.

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A lot of this is praise on praise, I know. So what didn’t work? A couple main things stand out to me: 

The overall stability of the roster. It seemed like every episode there was someone new debuting and trying to earn a spot on the roster because someone had to drop and relinquish their spot. No division was gutted on this more than the Grappler’s division, who lost most of their marquee talent as the weeks went on and it was clear poor Damaris Dawkins kept getting sacrificed to the wolves in place of other people. Even Prince Nana himself felt pretty scarce through the season and his physical absense in the season finale was very noticeable.

The quality of the live footage. Now, this improved every few episodes as they started to find their groove and as they upgraded their taping venue as the season went on. The Monster Factory shows looks great but I can’t expect they’ll be there all the time. Some things they can do to improve here is upgrading the camera feeds (especially their white balance between cameras) and ensuring the announcer’s mic feed right into the audio mix (this is ESPECIALLY true for the face-off promo segments which need to be clearly heard)

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When FIGHTT picked up on the fact that I was writing up the shows week by week, they asked if I wanted to pick their match of the show each week. Sure, why not? And 10 weeks, we got 10 FOTN’s - You can see them all here:

Eli Isom vs Cheeseburger - This was just a fantastic student/teacher clash that really set the tone for some of the more “workmate” matches in future episodes. 

Mecca vs Matt Quay - This just made me laugh as Mecca had a complete disregard for the rules….but not in a Logan way. 

Victor Benjamin vs Tim Spriggs - This was a complete blast of a work/shoot mama style contest. 

Delirious vs Rhett Titus - There was no way this wasn’t FOTN that week. I could have put any of Delirious’ matches from previous weeks into the spot but I could only pick one…and I think I did pick the best one. 

The 10 Point Gauntlet - This was like 5 matches and a long form story to be told but it really highlighted a lot of the hybrid division talent who weren’t in the CLEAR running to be top guy. Well….maybe one…

Rhett Titus vs Breaux Keller - This is where “The Privileged” story line realllllllllly kicked off so just super important to the longer form arc of the season as a whole. 

Rhett Titus vs Moses - I think that week I went “I’m gonna pick the Titus match again, aren’t I?” But also it was very good. Moses had very few showings in this season but he absolutely made the most of every performance, looking like a true FORCE.

Victor Benjamin vs Bread Keller vs LSG - This was the wild Round Robin match where the match continued until someone got a fall on BOTH their opponents. I’m a fan of novel fun stipulations and this hit the spot. 

Gia Scott vs Harleen Lopez - I walked into the Grappler’s Division thinking it was going to be dominated by the likes of Janai Kai and Trish Adora….and maybe it could have been had they not been called away…but Lopez and Scott absolutely went to war here and put themselves on the map at FIGHTT PRO. 

Rhett Titus vs Logan Easton Laroux - The final match of the season was the match you knew was going to happen eventually and it was for the highest stakes possible. Titus showed what he was willing to do to take home the gold while Logan really found himself in a true “put up or shut up” scenario with no easy way out. 

Most weeks this was a REALLY hard pick. It was very easy to give it to the Rhett Match each week….or the Victor Benjamin match….or every Trish Adora match….but I wanted to spread it out and highlight as much of the show’s roster and offerings as possible. Sometimes it was a match of pure workrate, or comedy, or just a really good story beat(down). I had a good time making these picks and kinda hope I get to do it again. 

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Obviously, we can expect to see our inaugural champions but the following folks have been officially announced as being part of season 2:

Logan Laroux

Matt Quay

The Tony’s

Savannah Evans

Rebeca J Scott

Ryan Mooney

Golden Era

Shinobi Shadow Squad

Ruthless Lala

Tim Spriggs

Harleen Lopez

Saul Esparza

Myles Hawkins

Busky Brawlers

Devantes

Primal Fear

Skid Row

Miles Penn

The Goons

Ashley Buchanan

Lost Boys

Zakar Shah

FIGHTT PRO kicks off tapings for their second second on 9/24. Be there if you can or check it out when it starts to hit IWTV!

 

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