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ASE Wrestling was back after a short hiatus, live in the Blume Studios in the shadow of uptown Charlotte with a big show with all three titles defended and a special appearance from WWE Hall of Famer, Mark Henry.
Christopher Lea and Big Swole on commentary. Nadiah Hunter worked as ring announcer. Go79Man was the host and in ring interviewer.
"So Fly" Manny Lo (with Ameera Roze) beat St. Julious (with the Deacon) in a pre-show match. Good match. Lo showed why he's on so many radars lately and Julious showed why if he's not, he will be shortly. Very talented young stars.
The main show opens with a relatively long in ring promo segment that was meant to be ASE Wrestling Commissioner Caprice Coleman and ASE Board of Director member Mark Henry celebrating the year plus long reign of ASE Men's champion "The All Father" Darius Carter, who came with Ryan Rembrandt, but ended up with Carter offering THE Dontay Khalifah a spot at his side (which he refused) and Carter's long list of challengers all planting their flag starting with Darius Lockhart, "The Gifted One" Yahya. "Fast As Hell" Ian Maxwell had something to say but the mic did a heel turn on him.
"The Intergalactic Soul" Darius Lockhart got a huge win over former Major League Wrestling World Heavyweight champion "The Suplex Assassin" Alex Kane, a guy who fits in ASE like a black glove. Very good match, strong opener with a lot of high-level technical wrestling. My first time noticing how much of his legs Lockhart uses in his offense.
With this win, Lockhart is back in the top contender spot for the Men's title. BRING BACK KANE!!
"The Business" Billy Dixon, another contender, also affirmed his position, defeated the always-entertaining Ashton Starr. A good match with Starr holding his own, despite giving up a lot of size to Dixon and being bundle-less.
Suge D begrudgingly teamed with the "Big Flexer" Alexis Littlefoot (he was looking for literally anyone else up until show time) to get a win over "The Problem" Isaiah Broner and "The Gold Standard" Joseline Navarro. Good action with a healthy dose of ASE Wrestling shenanigans, starting even before the bell as referee Yolanda wanted to get the ropes for Broner but not necessarily his lady. Every night Joseline got to fight to prove her love. Fans affectionately named the new team "SugarFoot". After, Suge again offered Broner an alliance to fight Pan Afrikan Diaspora champion Kaun, who has linked back up with Moses and was absent at this event (unlimited PTO, according to Suge). This time, Broner considered it. We'll see.
Great video package on the long running issue between the Audacity (brother team of Treehouse Lee, Saieve Al Sabah) and the Uglee Gang (Reyhen Inteus, Jordan Holt, Zay Vega with Chayce Coleman, son of Caprice).
In a grudge match, the Gang (Inteus, Holt) beat the Audacity in a very good and wild tag match. I would imagine this locked the Uglees back in a top contender spot for the Men's tag titles. Celebrating in the ring, Chayce finds his father's missing crown in his backpack, automatically knowing he's been set up by the Audacity. Inteus grabs him to get him to calm down, a recurring issue with Coleman. That brings out Caprice, acting as a protective father rather than Commissioner. He ends up punching Inteus. Mark Henry comes back out and has Caprice leave the ring. Uh oh. To be continued...
TME (Duke Davis, Ganon Jones Jr) successfully retained the ASE Wrestling Men's Tag titles against the aggressive young team of the Top Shootas (Maurice Moss, Trey De'Rula with Andrew Diggs). The Shootas gave up a lot of size and a lot of experience but showed little fear of the gigantic champions. Neither team would be considered "babyfaces" so it was a modern day battle of the bullies with TME having too much power, putting down De'Rula with that nasty double team suplex finish that really has to be seen to be believed.
"The Kick Demon" Janai Kai, former MLW World Featherweight champion, gave defending ASE Wrestling Women's champion "The Powerhouse" Charity King hell but came up just short in a battle of power vs strikes. King even seemed to be throwing subtle shots at "The Cannibal" Savannah Evans, using one of her signature moves during the match, as pointed out by commentary. Strong promo from King after the match.
"The All Father" Darius Carter (with "Remarkable" Ryan Rembrandt) retained the ASE Wrestling Men's championship over TNA star "Pryme" Cedric Alexander of the System (accompanied by THE Dontay Khalifah), winning by disqualification. Good main event. The pacing suggested they were going long but they had another trick up their sleeves. Like the tag title match, neither side had any interest in playing by the rules, keeping referee Nick Shin busy. Khalifah helped Alexander fight off Rembrandt's interference but not quickly. That boy is grimy. Finally, Labron Kozone, who recently signed with Major League Wrestling, made a surprise return, popping both Rembrandt and Khalifah (who cost him his title opportunity at the previous show), striking Carter, forcing a disqualification. Kozone gets into a fight with a rightly furious Alexander with Carter trying to slide on back but Darius Lockhart cuts him off, tossing him back into the ring. Khalifah does join in with Carter and Rembrandt in beating down Lockhart with Alexander, a mentor to Lockhart, not helping him at all. Yahya and Ian Maxwell make the save. Commissioner Coleman, knowing he's in the hot seat, gets his Teddy Long on, booking an impromptu 8man tag match. Good thing Rembrandt and Kozone were in their gear (wink, wink).
Team Carter (Carter, Alexander, Khalifah, Rembrandt) found a way to escape with the win over Team Lockhart (Lockhart, Kozone, Yahya, Maxwell) with Rembrandt picking up the win, pinning Maxwell after he shoved "Fast as Hell" into Billy Dixon, who was trying to prevent Carter from cheating. They close with Lockhart, who had wanted Dixon in his corner for his upcoming title shot, to not even show up for the next event, saying he was too close and too invested in his long running feud with Carter. Dixon was beside himself, still trying to apologize and copping pleas to deaf ears.
Wild show with the opening and finale all meant to build to future shows--which you need without weekly tv--and a ton of good to great wrestling from start to finish.
Great way to debut in a new venue.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: A (93 out of 100).
Follow me @therealuncdave.bsky.social and DDTDivas.com.
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