Pro Wrestling Eclipse: “Kings & Queens”
Sunday February 19th, 2017
From the Royal Canadian Legion (Branch 43) in Oshawa, Ontario
Dark Match
Mystifier vs. Liam Worldwide
This match wasn’t too bad. They got less than five minutes so they really didn’t get a chance to do anything.
Winner: Liam Worldwide
The promoter Doctor Mask welcomed the crowd to the show and reminded us what was at stake this afternoon: due to Pro Wrestling Eclipse Flame Champion Stacy Thibault not defending her title for five months she has been stripped of the title and they are holding a round robin tournament to crown a new Flame Champion today. He brings out the competitors but Stacy Thibault interrupts complaining that she was unrightfully stripped of her title. Leah Vaughan took the mic and said if Stacy wants in the tournament she’ll take her in the first round.
[Side note: There is an eighth woman in the poster named Miss Danyah but she had to cancel at the last minute]
Round 1 Match in the Tournament to determine the new PWE Flame Champion
Leah Vaughan vs. Stacy Thibault
Stacy Thibault plays a decent psycho, angry heel. And she can hold her own in the ring. But Leah Vaughn was terrible. Really sloppy. And from what I gather she was one of the larger names on the bill and has been wrestling for a while. This was okay.
Winner: Leah Vaughan (advances to the next round)
Round 1 Match in the Tournament to determine the new PWE Flame Champion
The Black Widow Eve vs. Jesse Mack
Leah Vaughan wasn’t the worst wrestler today though. That dubious honor goes to Jesse Mack. But I think it was one of her first matches. The Black Widow Eve was better but couldn’t carry her. This match was terrible.
Winner: the Black Widow Eve (advances to the next round)
Round 1 Match in the Tournament to determine the new PWE Flame Champion
Ingrid Isley vs. Arya “Wild” Sapphire
Ingrid Isley was like a smaller version of the Black Widow Eve. Putting one after the other was a bad idea. This match wasn’t very good either.
Winner: Arya “Wild” Sapphire (advances to the next round)
Round 1 Match in the Tournament to determine the new PWE Flame Champion
“the Mountain” Vanessa Kraven vs. Xandra Bale
I gathered that these were two of the better wrestlers before the show even started. Vanessa impressed me. This was the third match in a row with one female oversizing the other by a lot but she seemed a lot more legit that then other two (the Black Widow Eve and Ingrid Isley). Xandra held her own too but she got smashed a lot in this match.
Winner: “the Mountain” Vanessa Kraven (advances to the next round)
Semi-Final Match in the Tournament to determine the new PWE Flame Champion
The Black Widow Eve vs. Leah Vaughan
This match was okay. Eve is decent enough and just manhandled Leah around. Stacy Thibault came out and tried to distract Leah but it backfired.
Winner: Leah Vaughan (advances to the finals)
Semi-Final Match in the Tournament to determine the new PWE Flame Champion
“the Mountain” Vanessa Kraven vs. Arya Wild Sapphire
Again, Vanessa dominated this match. It wasn’t very good but of everyone tonight she’s impressed me the most.
Winner: “the Mountain” Vanessa Kraven (advances to the final round)
[Intermission]
Five Women Tornado Tag Team Match to determine the number one contender for the PWE Flame Championship)
Arya “Wild” Sapphire vs. Stacy Thibault vs. Jesse Mack vs. the Black Widow Eve vs. Xandra Bale
According to Facebook Ingrid Isley left to go back to the States as soon as her match was over, she was so distraught over her loss. This match was the best “non-Vanessa Kraven” match of the night. Stacy Thibault did well, as did Xandra Bale. Even the little bit that Jesse Mack was in the ring would garner a quarter start from Dave Meltzer. It was the heels (Thibault and Eve) verses the faces (the other three) and ended with the heels fucking up and costing themselves the match in the end. They ended up fighting too.
Winner: Xandra Bale (new number one contender for the PWE Flame Championship)
To determine the new PWE Flame Champion
“the Mountain” Vanessa Kraven vs. Leah Vaughan
This was a pretty good match that Kraven pretty much carried. Like her other two matches she dominated but Vaughan at least did get a bit of offence in. The Black Widow Eve and Stacy Thibault did come out and intervene but it led to nothing but more fighting between the two in the end.
Winner: “the Mountain” Vanessa Kraven (new PWE Flame Champion)
For the PWE Heavyweight Championship
Jake O'Reily (champion) vs. Cody Deaner
This was the best match of the night. The crowd was pretty good the whole show but they came alive for this one. O’Reily played the “chicken-shit heel” and Deaner the “local hero”. It was your basic back-and-forth match and never really went anywhere. It ended with O’Reily getting disqualified for hitting a low blow. It was just a lot more fun than the prior matches.
Winner: Cody Deaner via disqualification
After the match O’Reily continued to beat Deaner, the ref and then another ref. He beat Deaner with his own belt and then left. As he was leaving Deaner called Doctor Mack into the ring and demanded a rematch: a no disqualifications, no holds barred, strap match, to be held at the next show on March 12th, 2017.
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Despite being more negative in my review than I have been for almost anything else before (and the card looking like hot garbage on paper) I had A GREAT time. I could tell looking at the poster that Jesse Mack, Ingrid Isley and Arya “Wild” Sapphire looked like ones who had no shot whatsoever. I figured it would come down to Vanessa Kraven, Leah Vaughan and Xandra Bale. As the matches unfolded it was painfully obvious who was going to win each one. Even when Xandra Bale won the number one contenders match it was pretty obvious that the heel (Kraven) was going to win the title over the baby face (Vaughan). It was cookie-cutter booking but I didn’t expect anything more for a small Indy in Oshawa. The wrestling was really sloppy and amateur and not a single match other than the Tornado Tag Team match went longer than seven minutes but I don’t think any should have. Things moved nice and quickly and the two and a half hours flew by (intermission was fucking long).
I was surprised that the venue was pretty much full. Maybe a hundred to one hundred and fifty people? Considering a womens tournament is a pretty hard sell on ANY level in any promotion I think that’s pretty good. It was also the most mutated crowd I’ve ever been a part of.
I’ve been meaning to go to an Indy show for a while now. I never have been to one; I’ve just seen Ring of Honor, TNA and WWE. I was waiting for the right show because I wanted to take my boys. Thing is their bedtimes are at 7:30, so since wrestling shows usually start at 7pm and run until 10pm it’s not good for us. We tried once and they fell asleep during the second to last match. So I needed a matinee show. This one started at 2pm so it was perfect. Sadly it was all womens matches (nothing against womens matches but I knew these girls would not be Sasha Banks or Lita) but I decided to give it a go anyway. In the end my boys both said they had a lot of fun and I really hope to hit more Indy shows with them. The price was a little steep all things considered (twenty dollars each, sixty dollars total) but that’s still not even a third of what I’d probably pay to take the three of us to see the WWE.
new Pro Wrestling Eclipse Flame Champion Vanessa Kraven with her belt:
A picture from twitter that was taken from behind me. That's my dad bod in the grey t-shirt on the left:
Do you like old people porn? Because I just put enough to fill an old folks home in the wrestling section!