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Pro Wrestling REVOLVER held their biggest show of the year, Cage of Horrors 4, live on TrillerTV, emanating from one of their core cities and venues, the Horizon Events Center in Clive, Iowa. This is their second show in roughly 2 weeks. I love the accelerated pace. Gets more wrestlers more opportunities. A pair of title matches, a qualifier for the new Jerry Lynn Tournament and the final battle between former friends/tag partners Rich Swann and Matthew Palmer.
Bork Torkelson and Veda Scott on commentary. They do alright but I already miss Joe Dombrowski who was lead commentator the last couple shows.
WR favorite, "Firestarter" Jake Crist faced the challenge of TNA star "The Phenomenal" AJ Francis of First Class for the Remix title, a shot Francis earned back at the March event.
Good David vs Goliath match up. Crist was all speed and smarts vs Francis' size and power. Francis hit 2 of his Down Payment chokeslams for the win. New champ!
Two time former NXT Women's tag champion Priscilla Kelly made her WR debut in her first post-WWE bout, facing her real life fiancé, Zachary Wentz of the Rascalz. Some nice action with a mix of shenanigans but they had to stop the match when Kelly went down from injury. She later said on social media, it's a recurring issue and not an actual injury. Good to hear.
Ninja Mack won his first ever match in REVOLVER, qualifying for the Jerry Lynn Invitational tournament, beating Damien Chambers and Crash (formerly Crash Jaxon) in a 3 Way match. Good solid action with Mack pinning Crash. I'm not sure how since my feed froze up just as he leapt off the top rope. What are the chances?
Alpha Sig (Brent Oakley, KC Jacobs, "Big" Dick Meyers) defended the WR Tag titles in a 6 man match against former champs the Macabre ("The Atrocity" Krule, Kishin, Dreadknot) in a No Disqualification Frat House Rules match, where they have to chug a beer every time someone goes for a pinfall. Macabre leader Gia Miller and fellow member Jessicka Havok have been banned from ringside. Oddly silly for a match featuring the Macabre but it was supposed to give Alpha Sig the advantage. A lot of shenanigans and it seemed to entertain Torkelson and Clive to no end. It wasn't enough to keep the monsters from regaining the title as Kishin (the former Alan Angels), Krule (Mads Krugger from MLW) and Dreadknot (the former Madman Fulton) hit a combination powerbomb/double chokeslam off the top through a table covered in beer filled red cups for the win.
They follow intermission with video package on the unraveling of Matthew Palmer, who is in the main event but that's barely mentioned. It would be great for a background video for a new or returning talent but not for a longtime WR guy like Palmer and having his wife, ROH Women's champ Athena, speak made me concerned for her safety. I doubt that was the purpose.
Dante Leon settled his feud with JJ Garrett, beating him in a Ladder Warfare match. With the Frat House match and Cage of Horrors, this might have been excessive but "excessive" is Wrestling REVOLVER's creed. What you would expect from two young guys trying to make a name for themselves and with months of animosity built up over since this started in March. A little long but not bad at all. Leon wins with a suplex off the top of a very tall ladder through a door propped between two chairs.
Youtube host and wrestling rookie BDE won his first ever match, winning a 7 Way Scramble match over Jeffrey Johns, Bigg Pound, Juni Underwood, former NWA Jr Heavyweight champion Joe Alonzo (who did some great heel mic work on his ringwalk) and both members of the team Tye or Die--Ryan Matthias, KJ Reynolds. What you would expect from a Scramble match with a lot of big spots and bumps with some temporary unions. BDE not only won his first match but won the Golden Ticket, which guarantees him a title match at any time. He announces he's got his eyes on the new Remix champion and his old rival, AJ Francis. BDE is a nice kid and you can see the commitment but they are putting a lot on him very fast.
Making their WR tag team debut, REVOLVER champion "The Young GOAT" Myron Reed and Killer Kelly (who has hit the ground running since returning to action in TNA last weekm this being her second match in a week) were scheduled to face TNA International champion "Bulletproof" Steve Maclin and AEW star "The Virtuosa" Deonna Purrazzo but Maclin and Purrazzo were unable to appear. KillerGOAT, as they wanted to be called, wanted a default victory but WR exec Phil Stamper found them a last minute substitute: Jake Crist and Crash.
Solid match with 4 high level pros. KillerGOAT picks up the win after Reed smashes Crash in the face with the title belt while Kelly had the referee looking the other way and then they both pin Crash, which has always struck me as an illegal pin. I was a little surprised by the outcome but it was nice match considering the last minute change.
One more package on Palmer, this one had a little bit more on the Cage of Horrors match but not much. Well done clips, just odd in their placement. There is a horror movie inspired vignette with Palmer and a kidnapped Rich Swann where Swann gets free because...Palmer lets him out but in his old "Monster Hunter" persona. They definitely found the shark to jump they were looking for in an effort to kill time to set up the Cage.
In the main event, Rich Swann defeated Matthew Palmer in the Cage of Horrors, ending a feud between former teammates in The Crew that goes back to Dec 2024 when Palmer attacked Swann after they defeated "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Veda Scott in a tag match. These two were even teammates in the first Cage of Horrors with Swerve Strickland in 2022.
Cage of Horrors is a REVOLVER specialty with a normal pro wrestling cage fencing on one side as well as a full scaffold set up and countless wooden doors, tables, barbed wire, chairs and chains scattered around the ring. They clearly understood they needed to up the ante from what was already done on this show and even previous CoHs and threw in some very unique spots that worked in Swann's incomparable athleticism (a pendulum superplex off the scaffold was impressive). Swann survived Palmer tossing him off the scaffolding through a door to the floor but only because Palmer decided to attack everybody ringside instead going for a second cover or maneuver after Swann kicked up from his pin attempt.
Swann put his old partner down with a cutter off the scaffold through 2 tables in a brutal finish. They go to black with both men getting assistance and lying motionless in the ring, the exact right visual for this match. A nice show but with a wild main event. No bad matches.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: B (90 out of 100)
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