Marquez’s son was interviewed about the PP3 cup. He mentioned that the best and brightest have won the cup in the past, and went into something metaphysical about Percy watching all of us, or the event or something. Maybe it’s just me, but it just felt strange. Anyways, on to the action!
Ricky Mandel vs. Royce Isaacs
The announcers mentioned that they’d usually give Ricky the advantage due to his experience, but he was wrestling Royce, which changes the equation quite a bit. Isaacs looked solid, and so did Mandel. The ref’s called these guys a mirror image of each other, marveling at both of the wrestler’s physiques.
This match started off with a slow burn. Isaacs displayed his really strong, really deliberate offense with a nice looking belly to back suplex on Ricky early. Both guys went for the tights early, and Isaacs got Ricky with a tights pull so far that you could see nearly a full moon for the 3 count. You could clearly see Ricky saying “WTF?” right afterwards. He was pissed!
It was a quick match and really didn’t develop much momentum until the constant tight grabbing war to finish it. The ending sort of came out of nowhere, just like Ricky’s tan line.
Spirit and the Stars vs. Los Rancheros
Howdy Price and Los Rancheros came out and Howdy gave out some puns and then mentioned his Rancheros are going to pick the bones clean of the luchadores.
Spirit and the Stars come out blazing after the Rancheros with some double team moves and hard hitting offense. Espiritu almost got his mask pulled off and Howdy Price was egging his team on to do it. A nice looking flying shoulder tackle was executed by Rogelio. Raul tried to get Astro’s mask off as well with a beautiful looking northern lights by Raul, followed by another mask attempt. Astro came back with a nearly cosmic Around-the-World DDT. Espiritu came in on fire and got a nice headscissor and a heavy DDT. Espiritu hit his ECD, but Astro got caught by Howdy Price when he went to the top rope, disqualifying the Rancheros. The Rancheros then started beating on the Stars, and took both of their masks. The announcers were appalled and speechless. Then we went to commercial.
Howdy Price went on a promo and got in a creepy southern laugh, and I mean creepy, like end boss of the video game strange.
Julius Coleman vs. Kevin Condron
Kevin vaped on entry and kept vaping the whole way in. Julius came in with one of the bigger white boomboxes I’ve ever seen. The Vape Muta? The match started off with some standing switches and some hammerlocks. Condron started choking in the corner and Coleman then went on the offensive. He really looked athletic as he nailed a devastating flatliner.
Condron, though, managed to catch Coleman on the ropes, and then threw him into the turnbuckle. After eating a boot coming down from the top, Coleman caught him in a nice combo and Base for your Face, which gave him a two count. A huge spinebuster by Condron was followed by an attempt of his finisher, but Coleman nailed him with his Boom Back Finisher for 3 to move on.
This was a quick match, it really showed what Coleman could do. Condron tried every trick in the book he could to win the match, but couldn’t take it home.
Karl Fredericks vs. Tito Escondido (non title match)
Karl Fredericks came out first and the announcers mentioned his match last week, but also stated their congratulations to Nick Aldis as the NWA champion. Tito then came out to a pretty loud pop. I was excited for this match, as they are both really talented wrestlers. The announcers talked up Fredericks as a possible new star and about Tito being a fighting champion. The match was pretty evenly matched until TIto trapped Fredericks in the corner and nailed an exploder suplex that was impressive. Tito was taking it to Fredericks early with chops, forearms, and a brutal spinebuster. Fredericks got in a nice spinning neckbreaker in, a Pele kick, and a great looking mid rope moonsault. Tito then answered all of this with a superplex attempt, but Fredericks fought him off into a sky high Swanton Bomb. Tito blocked a Pele kick and then nailed Fade to Black for 3.
This was a good match with Tito dominating most of it except for a few bursts by Fredericks. Tito and he both looked good and convincing. Hopefully both of these guys will wrestle for the title in the future. Although Fredericks hasn’t had much success in matches, he has shown what he can do in the ring.
Spirit and the Stars do an interview with their backs turned and towels on their heads. They mentioned they don’t give up, and the Rancheros should watch out.
Dicky Mayer vs. Watts Vs Ray Rosas
Mayer came out first, but Watts came out alone. Apparently, Matthews is doing a retreat. Ray came out last, wearing his king of beards shirt. The announcers said he’s probably not 100%, but his beard looks like it. Both guys sized up Watts, but Watts big booted Rosas and then missed on Dicky. Watts and Dicky were trading shots, looking really good, until Ray interrupted, the action then popped back to Dicky as he interfered and got Watts in an ankle lock. Watts broke it up by throwing Dicky into Ray. Watts then charged and misses them both. Watts got double teamed by both guys and pretty much stood toe to toe with it. A double clothesline put all them all on the mat and we went to commercial.
Ray did a twisting moonsault to cross body on Watts when we came back. Dicky apparently hurt his knee on an attempt of something that I didn’t see since it happened during the commercial break. Dicky got Ray into a submission, but Ray countered with a fisherman’s suplex. Watts all of a sudden climbed the top rope and clotheslined Ray. He tried to get Ray into a chokeslam and finally got it after some fisticuffs and got a near 3 count. Dicky nailed a nice looking one-legged drop kick. Ray tried to take advantage, but Dicky nailed a sweet looking German for 2. Watts took advantage of the injury and then climbed up to do something to Dicky from the second rope, but Rosas broke it up. Watts then got Ray into a fireman’s carry and got Dicky into a double DNR. This didn’t work so Dicky slipped free and Germans them both. Dicky’s went for his diving headbutt, but launched off one leg and missed. Ray took advantage and got in an elbow right after Dicky went for the cover.
They showed the injury to Dicky on the replays, which made sense afterwards. Ray was the #1 contender for the title. Watts showed Ray a sign of respect and then helped Dicky and left. Dicky and Ray shook hands and the episode ended.
Final Thoughts:
The first half of the show started off slow, but the last three matches really brought the pace up. I am sort of shocked they managed to fit in 5 matches on the show, and they even managed to squeeze in some pretty good interview segments in between. The second match with the masks was good and had the announcers fuming, which was nice. Since everything was squeezed in, most of these matches left me wanting more time for each match. I hope they continue with these storylines, as most of it has been entertaining and I hope they don’t just drop some of them.
Don’t take my word for it; watch this episode on the FITE TV app. They are easy to digest, one hour shows, and are free to stream. New episodes air on FITE TV at 4:00 p.m. Pacific time on Sundays. You can also catch CWFH on KDOC in the Los Angeles/Orange County Area on Saturdays at 4:00 p.m.
I don’t know how you made it past the Howdy Price stuff. That garbage is so terrible. It makes some of the stuff in late 90s WCW look great.