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12/2 WRESTLING REVOLVER SEASON FINALE REPORT

By David Houston on 2023-12-06 08:48:00

Coming from the Horizon Event Center in Clive, Iowa, The Wrestling REVOLVER held their "Season Finale" show to close out the year. Had to make some substitutions in their main matches but still had a quality event.

The Wrestling REVOLVER champion "Firestarter" Jake Crist defeated Gringo Loco, who was a substitute for an injured REVOLVER Remix champion Alex Shelley, retaining his championship in the opener.

I always find REVOLVER having their top title defended so early on their cards interesting but this time I get it since this was a substitution and not the big storyline ending match originally scheduled.

Loco was coming in from the House of Glory "Darkness..." show the night before in New York City but looked great.  I wasn't a big fan of already bringing out the chairs and doors for the first match, particularly guys with no animosity going in but it's REVOLVER and how they do things.  Good, high energy back and forth match.  Odd finish were both guys kicked up from huge finishers at 1 just for Crist to win with a backslide. Fine.

Making their REVOLVER debut, Zack Gibson and James Drake (the Grizzled Young Veterans) got a measure of revenge on an old foe, being victorious over old NXT rival Zachary Wentz (from his MSK days) and Myron Reed (the Rascalz).  Great tag match that got a "This is Awesome!" chant.

In her first REVOLVER match since co-founding the RED group with Steve Maclin, Alex Colon and Rickey Shane Page, Killer Kelly defeated Emi Sakura in a spirited, physical match up.  Clever finish of Kelly taking the glasses off the referee's face so she couldn't see Page grab Sakura and throw her back into the ring (not that that would have gotten her disqualified). Kelly with a rear naked choke victory.

Japanese legend, Masaaki Mochizuki, beat "Speedball" Mike Bailey in a great, hard hitting match in his REVOLVER debut.  Bailey's been on a run of good to great matches that can stand up with anyone today. This was a great one, as was the main event match he had the night before with Swerve Strickland for House of Glory in Queens.

One half of the Impact Wrestling World tag champs ABC (Ace and Bey Club with Chris Bey) "The Inevitable" Ace Austin won a 7 man Golden Scramble match over Jake Something, Alan Angels, "Monster Hunter" Matthew Palmer, and all three members of Alpha Sigma Sigma (Brent Oakley, KC Jacobs and the Pledge), earning a title shot at any REVOLVER title of his choice.  Multi person matches can often be a mess but this wasn't one.

Alpha Sigma Sigma worked much of the match as a team trying to get Oakley the win (he's the leader, for the most part) which gave the match some rhythm other than wresters doing stuff to do stuff.  I'm not the biggest fan of the commentary of Blake Torkelson and Veda Scott, who worked with "Drama King" Matthew Rehwoldt but Bortles got off a good line when Rehwoldt suggested Palmer's use of his "secret potions" was using PEDs and Bortles asked if he meant "personal electronic devices". Not bad.  Austin pinned Palmer with the Fold neckbreaker.  Palmer then attacks Austin after the bell, beating him down and looking to be a heel turn from the normally very popular Monster Hunter.

"The Funky Monkey" Ortiz (who I think should go back to "Angel Ortiz" now that he's a singles full time) beat "The Bounty Hunter" Bryan Keith in a good match.
Ortiz came out to Sade's "Smooth Operator" and I was confused.  Ortiz won with a tight Fisherman Buster after raking Keith's eyes.

Originally scheduled to be the finale of a long running, heated feud, Sami Callihan and JesSICKa were going to face JT Dunn and Allie Katch of the Unit (with Phil Stamper) but Katch had transportation issues (which Dunn did not appreciate) so Katch was replaced by Damian Chambers, bringing him into the Unit.
Since Chambers was replacing Katch, Callihan also replaced JesSICKa with Havok (her much more violent alter ego) for the No Disqualification tag match. Well done.  Wild brawl as expected with lots of chairs and doors as well as some staple gun spots to Havok's...chest and Dunn's...nether regions with some Legos we can't call Legos thrown in.  Callihan pins Dunn with a Cactus Driver 97 for the win.  An irate Dunn then kicks Chambers out of the Unit (that's shorter than Sting being in the Horsemen) and fires Stamper, who still had the skewers in his head jammed there by Callihan.  Good post match segment. Wonder where it goes.

In the main event for the Wrestling REVOLVER tag team titles, RED (Riches Equal Death)--Steve Maclin, Alex Colon and Rickey Shane Page (also the Major League Wrestling National Openweight champion)--defeated former champions Second Gear Crew--the 1 Called Manders, Mance Warner and Matthew Justice, successfully retaining their titles.   REVOLVER takes the "Freebird Rule" to the extreme, often having the tag titles defended in six man matches and this was one of those.  While this had a lot of good brawling with the plunder you would expect (chairs, doors, a guard rail, etc), at this point, it's the third "wild brawl" on the show and the second in a row.  Being the Season Finale, they threw in Justice leaping off the scaffolding onto nearly everbody.  That left Manders alone to be distracted by Killer Kelly (easy mistake to make but bruh, you're in a main event match with some killers), allowing Maclin to hit him with a low blow and the KIA DDT for the win. A pretty tame, flat ending all things considered. 

Overall, a very good show to end the year for them, even with them falling into some old patterns and tropes throughout.

The Real Uncle Dave grade: B (92 out of 100)

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