By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Radican’s Beyond Wrestling's "Americanrana" show report
July 21, 2013
Providence, R.I.
Report by Sean Radican, PWTorch columnist

Beyond Wrestling promoter Drew Cordeiro took a big risk running “Americanrana.” Rhode Island isn’t known as a hotbed for independent wrestling unless you count ROH, which has had success running in Rhode Island last year and is close to selling out their TV tapings in Providence this coming weekend.

Beyond Wrestling started by doing studio tapings with the only audience being the wrestlers. Eventually, they began running live events, but they didn’t draw well. The company stopped running live shows in November last year, but continued to do studio tapings with the matches being put on YouTube for people to watch and help the wrestlers build a portfolio of work online for promoters to see as well.

Cordeiro brought in several top independent wrestling names to match up with members of his core roster. There were no guarantees that things would turn out well for the company, but the show was amazing for the most part from start to finish. Matching up the top core members of the Beyond Wrestling roster with some of the top independent names turned out to be a good strategy and resulted in some fantastic matches to round out the show.

The show shattered Beyond Wrestling’s previous attendance record by drawing between 250-300 fans to Fete Music, which is an expensive building to run in that holds 400 people at most. I was impressed when I arrived at the venue and saw a long line of people waiting to get into the venue. The thing that will set this show apart from other is how passionate the fans were throughout the night.

Cordeiro’s strategy is to run Beyond Wrestling events every other month in Providence at Fete Music and become the PWG of the northeast where they become a known company in the area with a reputation of putting on fantastic wrestling matches with hot crowd. If the company can put on shows like “Americanrana” on a consistent basis and get people in the northeast talking, Cordeiro could have something very special on his hands.

Pre-Show match: Latin Dragon beat Shane Strickland and David Starr and Sozio in a Four-Way match. I didn’t get to see this match because it took a long time for me to actually get into the venue. I did see the finish, which saw Dragon hit a falcon arrow on Strickland for the pin.

(1) Drew Gulak beat Chris Dickinson with a roaring elbow. This was a really good opening match that should come across well on DVD. The match featured a lot of back and forth hard-hitting action. It was apparent right away that this was going to be a great crowd for independent wrestling, as they really got into the action down the stretch.

(2) Team TREMENDOUS beat Da Hoodz and M1nute Men and EYFBO in a four-team tag match. Team Tremendous won the with a wheelbarrow/double stomp on Ortiz of EFBYO. Team TREMENDOUS features Bill Carr and Dan Barry playing Detectives. The match started out with some comedy with Carr and Barry interrogating Ortiz. The action picked up and the crowd really got into the match after some great exchanges between all four teams. They did an amazing sequence of dives at one point. One of the highlights was Carr, who is a very large man hitting a flip dive to the outside on everybody. The spot of the night came when Barry had Devin up on the top rope for a Razor’s edge to the outside, but at the last second Devin countered it into a hurricanrana into a pile of bodies on the floor. I was somewhat familiar with Carr & Barry before the match, but everyone was impressive in this match.

(3) Team De Tabernake beat Aaron Epic & David Cole, who subbed for Sugar Dunkerton. I missed this most of this match. Epic came out alone before the match, but was eventually joined by Cole, who subbed for Dunkerton. Team De Tabernake has a French Canadian gimmick, so the fans began singing patriotic songs at them like the National Anthem and God Bless America. It was really funny when the fans began singing Hulk Hogan’s WWF theme music at one point during the match.

(4) Colt Cabana beat Jaka with the GTS. This was a fun match. Most of the fans had seen Cabana’s Worst Promo Ever segment last week, which was based on his appearance on this show. Cabana used some awkward verbiage in the promo about making the fans come if they came to the show. This resulted in some very lewd, but funny chants at Cabana. This match was more physical than some of Cabana’s matches I’ve seen recently and these two had good chemistry in the ring.

(5) Darius Carter & Jessie Brooks beat Johnny Miyagi & Addy Starr in a random match. Carter is doing a storyline where he’s not booked and he keeps showing up at Beyond Wrestling shows. Carter ran down the fans and demanded a tag match during intermission. Addy Starr and Johnny Miyagi ended up facing them in the tag match. The match was fine, but the fans weren’t into it. After the match, Marconi came to the ring and teased turning on Carter, but ended up turning on Starr.

(6) Kevin Steen beat Masada via submission to the Sharpshooter. I give a lot of credit to Masada, who is working with an injured knee that needs surgery. They based the match around Steen working over Masada’s injured leg. The crowd was into the match and Steen got the fans riled up by saying Masada should do a Kickstarter for his knee. Masada ended up mounting a comeback and he stabbed Steen in the head with a bunch of skewers, which looked extremely unpleasant. Steen ended up hitting a rolling senton in the corner on Masada’s knee. Masada then tapped out to the sharpshooter. After the match, Steen said he didn’t want to shake hands with Masada because he made him bleed. Steen says this isn't ROH. But, Steen said he will shake Masada's hand for wrestling him with a bad knee.

(7) Johnny Gargano beat J.T. Dunn via submission with the Gargano Escape. This was a really good match that Dunn can be proud of. I was really impressed with Dunn in this match. He showed a lot of fire and the crowd really got behind his comeback attempts. Gargano went slight heel during this match, which helped the fans get behind the Dunn, who is a local talent. Gargano tried throughout the match to hit the hurts don’t it on Dunn, but Dunn was able to continually counter it. Gargano finally hit hurts don’t it down the stretch and won with the Gargano escape as the fans chanted for Dunn not to tap. They had some really slick exchanges during the match and working with Gargano can only help Dunn in the future.

(8) Anthony Stone beat A.R. Fox by sitting on top of him with a pinning combination for the win. Stone is another local guy that was chosen by Cordeiro to match up with a top independent name on this show. This was another very good match. Fox played a similar role to Gargano during this match and went heel on Stone and told him he wasn’t on his level. Fox stayed a step ahead of Stone, but Stone made a nice comeback and they had a great sequence of counters near the apron at one point that ended with Stone hitting a moonsault on Fox for a big pop from the crowd. Stone ended up winning the match by countering Fox and leaning forward on him for a leverage pin to get the win. The crowd popped huge for Stone winning the match.

(9) Eddie Edwards beat Biff Busick via submission with the single-leg crab with head stomps in the main event. This was a brutally stiff main event that went for over 20 minutes. The fans were hot all night, but they were red hot for this match and really got behind Busick. The match featured a lot of technical wrestling and hard-hitting exchanges. The crowd really got into the match once the action spilled to the outside. At one point, Edwards went for a chop on the outside, but connected with a big poll that was stationed right next to the ring. The sound from Edwards’s chop connecting with the poll was cringe worthy. Edwards had the upper hand down the stretch, but Busick fired back and connected with a big dive to the outside that set the crowd on fire. As they did after the Dunn-Gargano match, the crowd began chanting “This show is awesome.” Edwards eventually caught Busick in the single leg crab. Busick tried to turn over several times and kick Edwards off, but the ref stopped the match after Edwards got the single leg crab again and began kicking Busick in the head.

The crowd chanted for another match after four hours after the match. Edwards then thanked the crowd and said they made this show awesome before putting over Busick. The crowd popped huge for Edwards’s promo.

Overall thoughts: This was a great show live. It should translate really well to DVD once it goes on sale. I’ve been a part of a lot of hot crowds. This wasn’t the biggest independent wrestling crowd, but the matches had a ton of heat throughout the night, especially during the main event. The setup for the show was great, as there were no chairs and the fans surrounded the ring, along with several of the wrestlers, who came out to watch and cheer for the matches. The energy carried the show throughout the night.

It was clear that matching up Dunn, Stone, and Busick with Gargano, Fox, and Edwards was a good strategy by Cordeiro. The local guys are going to have to get over with the local Beyond Wrestling crowd for Cordeiro’s strategy to work. Michael Elgin, Chuck Taylor, and ACH have been announced for the next show on Sept. 15, so it’s going to be interesting to see who they’re matched up with.

The highlights of the show were the Four-Way tag match and the main event. The Four-Way tag featured a lot of innovative double team maneuvers and the sequence of dives to the outside had the fans going insane. The main event was excellent live and will be a big selling point for the “Americanrana” DVD. I’ve seen Busick several times on other independent shows and he’s always impressed. After facing Eddie Edwards, it was clear that Busick had had his signature match and hopefully that match can catch the attention from the promoters of bigger independent companies so that Busick can get some higher profile bookings.

Beyond Wrestling took a big risk running this show, but they were rewarded with an awesome independent wrestling show with a red hot crowd, which is no easy feat these days, especially for a smaller company like Beyond Wrestling that is trying to establish themselves in the northeast by basing their shows out of Providence.

One of the top name wrestlers I spoke to was very impressed with Beyond Wrestling’s Providence debut and Edwards’s post-match promo about the crowd likely summed up the feelings of everyone that the show was special because of the crowd heat. I highly recommend picking up this show when it is released on DVD. It felt special live and that should translate into a great viewing experience on DVD.

“Americanrana” will be released on DVD at LookMaNoFans.com in the near future.

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