SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
WARRIOR WRESTLING
DECEMBER 13, 2019
CHICAGO HEIGHTS, ILL.
REPORT BY ERIC KROL, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT
Warrior Wrestling put on its 7th show tonight in Chicago Heights, Ill., about 30 miles south of downtown Chicago. The event was held at Marian Catholic High School in a mostly full gym. This was the first time for the promotion on Fite TV and it was one of the biggest independent events of the year in the U.S. Guessing the live stream was dark because the gym was dimly lit.
(1) Pre-show match: Danhausen defeated Reilly Maguire. Danhausen prevailed over a student of Michael Elgin’s. A comedy match.
(2) Templario beat Jake Lander. A bonus match that went about 15 minutes. Templario, who was great, won with a face first reverse duplex off the second rope. Crowd was into this. Lander also trains at Elgin’s school in St. Louis.
(3) Savanna Stone beat Holidead. Basic women’s match. Stone won in about nine minutes with a spear.
(4) Ace Austin beat Blake Christian and Carlos Romo to retain the Impact X Division Title. Austin did a promo before the match poking fun at Walter for getting the NXT UK belt stolen in Chicago to explain why he did not have his belt with him. Crowd chanted “You forgot it!” In response. Romo is from White Wolf Wrestling in Spain. They took turns resting on the outside at the start before Romo won a slap battle. Christian hit a 619 then did not catch Romo on a dive outside. Austin hit a Fosbury flop. At the end, each got to hit a finisher off the top, and bottom the third guy broke up a pin attempt. Austin retained over Christian in about 11 minutes.
(5) The Ego Robert Anthony (w/Frank the Clown) defeated Jake Atlas. Atlas is about to head to NXT. Frank the Clown did a pre-match promo, telling the crowd it was the holiday season and he had a gift for the crowd – himself. His gift to Jake Atlas was his best friend, Robert “Ego” Anthony, who came out to Queen’s “Can’t Stop Me Now.” Early on, Anthony stalled, the crowd chanted “You’re a baby!” and Atlas got in the fetal position in the corner. Nice touch. Atlas called for quiet before chopping Anthony loudly a couple times. He missed a third and Anthony took over. Atlas hit a flipping top rope DDT but the clown put Anthony’s foot on the rope. In the end, the clown grabbed Atlas’ leg while the ref was tending to Anthony, who rolled up Atlas for the win. It went about 11 minutes.
(6) Michael Elgin beat Sam Adonis. Sam told the crowd to shut up about his brother (WWE announcer Corey Graves). Elgin won a chop battle. He turned 33 today, and the crowd wished him a happy one. Elgin told the ringside fans he “really liked chops” before pasting Adonis, who soon after hit a tope. Elgin barely beat the 10-count back in. Adonis with a Samoan drop for two. He got caught up top and spit at Elgin, who chopped him into next week and then hit a superplex for a near fall. Then a falcon arrow for two. Elgin with a sit down power bomb for two. Elgin with a Samoan drop on the apron. Adonis missed a flip dive off the top, Elgin hit a lariat and last ride sit down power bomb for two. A double lariat and the bell rang. A 20-minute draw. Fans booed that. Match felt a little long. Afterward, Elgin said his relationship with Chicago has been a little rocky, but tonight was his birthday, and he’ll be damned if he’s gonna go to a draw. He called for five more minutes and the crowd chanted for it. Adonis declined and said they could do a no-time-limit rematch in Feb. 15 at Warrior Wrestling 8. Elgin brought in a little kid and told him a secret. He didn’t want to lose on his birthday. Elgin rolled up the ref and the kid counted three.
(7) Black Taurus defeated Drago and Aerostar and Rey Horus and El Gringo Loco. Billed as a “five-way Lucha scramble.” Loco, who appears on MLW, is also a local. Non-stop action as you would expect. Horus dove over the top rope and hit a rana outside. Taurus hit the pop up Samoan drop on Horus like Jacob Fatu does. Loco dove over the top onto everyone but Horus as they made the local guy look good. Taurus and Aerostar spit at each other. Taurus and Loco notched a spot near the finish, which was Taurus hitting a spinning slam on Loco for the win in nine minutes. They bumped fists and posed for pictures after the well-received match. A few fans threw money in the ring.
Kurt Angle made an appearance and was greeted with the “You suck” chant. He noted John Cena’s first match was against him in Chicago. He mentioned he took on Randy Orton (and Rey Mysterio) at WrestleMania 22 here as well. This was short.
Intermission time. Ospreay and El Phantasmo had the longest picture lines. Announcer mentioned Elgin, Pillman and others would be at an after party at a nearby Buffalo Wild Wings.
(8) Lance Archer defeated Brian Pillman Jr. New Japan’s U.S. Champ had a tune-up match before he takes on AEW’s Jon Moxley at Wrestle Kingdom on Jan. 4. Archer took a lot of the match and no-sold Pillman’s chops. Archer hit the EBD claw to win in about 12 minutes. Fans really into it when they went to the near falls.
(9) Minoru Suzuki beat “Filthy” Tom Lawlor. Lawlor came out wearing a yellow vest to a New Kids on the Block song doing waving his arm. Suzuki got the biggest pop so far, with a good portion of the crowd here to scream “Kaze ni Nare.” Mat wrestling at first, followed by outside brawling and chop/strike battle. Suzuki got the better of the exchange. They tried to choke each other out and reversed each other. Suzuki hit the Gotch piledriver about 14 minutes in for the win. Afterward, he left all the fans attempting high-fives hanging. On his way out, he teased putting a move on the kid who counted Elgin’s pin on the ref earlier in the evening.
(10) Brian Cage defeated El Phantasmo to retain the Warrior Wrestling Championship. Phantasmo is one half of the New Japan junior tag champs. El-P took a couple hats off of fans who tried to too sweet him and tossed the hats into the crowd. He grabbed the mic from the ring announcer and said “I’ve been waiting a long, long time to say this: C.M. Punk sucks.” He also said Colt Cabana sucked, Chicago deep dish pizza sucked and the Cubs sucked. The last one got cheers because the event was in White Sox territory. Cage clotheslined him for his troubles. They brawled in the crowd. Cage kicked El-P, who had a plastic trash can over his head. El-P took over with a dive through the ropes onto Cage. El-P did his rope walk spot. A speed vs. power match. El-P got a handful of tights for two and somehow got Cage up for the airplane spin. Cage hit a buckle bomb and back breaker and ref counted to three, but it wasn’t the finish. Oops. Cage suplexed El-P back into the ring from the second rope. El-P hit a destroyer that Cage no sold, hit him with a big lariat for a spin bump, then hit his finisher for the win in about 17 minutes.
(11) Chaos (Will Ospreay & Rocky Romero & Amazing Red) defeated The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel). The main event of the evening pitted the New Japan faction against The Impact team. Rocky and Wentz started off with some comedy. Red and Xavier were next. They were super fast. Ospreay really into the match on the apron. He got the tag amid soccer chants of his name. Most sustained heat of the night was in this match, and we’re four hours in. Miguel got tied to the tree of woe and Chaos each slide kicked him. The Rascalz got heat on Rocky, who hit a double rana and hot tagged Red. Ospreay hit a standing twisting moonsault for two, then Pip Pip Cheerio. Ospreay went for an Os cutter but was pushed over the top rope instead. A series of dives to the outside, topped by a Red monkey flip of a guy off the top to the outside, landing on the group. Ospreay got the Storm Breaker on Xavier for the win in 24 minutes. Both teams got on their knees and hugged after the match. Ospreay did the show-ending speech, singing “Sweet Home Chicago.”
They announced a Feb. 15 return date.
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