The Resurrection 3/18/2017 – review

Ruben’s second show “The Resurrection” in Whittier was held in the afternoon at the Church Gymnasium.  I arrived at just before 5 and they were still setting up. This location was large, was held on the main floor (basement under a gym?).  This made for some interesting sensations when both wrestlers hit the mat after a high impact move off the top rope or a hard slam. I’ve never felt the room move more during a match like this, so it took a few times feeling it to get used to it. There was also a large amount of families and also children with disabilities that attended this show. Very family friendly setting. Seven Matches on the card, let’s take a look.

Steve Andrews vs Lotus Nelumbo

The first match started off with Lotus Nelumbo vs Steve Andrews, neither of whom I have seen before live. Lotus looked like a luchador, but had a calm, zen, meditative far east mystical approach. At first I didn’t know what to think of it, and apparently neither did Andrews. Lotus caught him with a few arm drags and then went immediately went into his meditation pose and proceeded to mess with Andrews from it. After a few minutes this match settled in and had some nice spots in it.  Andrews nails a 450 to finish off Lotus.

Pinky vs Seabass for the Grindhouse Championship

Sean Black had a family emergency, so Pinky was looking for an easy win by default. Pretty simple right? Wrong. Some music plays, and out comes Seabass swinging a chain around his head, barefoot, and making as much noise as possible. Seabass (Dirty Ron McDonald in F.I.S.T) comes in and challenges for the championship. The match is made, and then we start!

This match is a closer contest than you would originally think, Pinky shows his power game and Seabass is using every trick he can to get the big man off his feet. Half the time, it worked. There was even an impressive spot of Seabass doing a full German suplex on the near 300 pound Pinky. Another great move by Pinky was a pop up released German Suplex. Seabass then had a top rope elbow drop, but interference by his H.A.T.E teammate stopped the three count. Pinky ends up taking this one with Choke to Sleep (chokeslam transitioned to a GTS type finish).

Rikki De LA Paz vs Mathias Starkey 

This was a solid match, both Rikki and Mathias started off slowly, but it picked up about a third of the way in. The match turned with outside interference from Mathias’ valet.  Rikki overcomes it then finishes Mathias with a unique butterfly suplex into a lung blower.

Tyler Bateman and Ruby Raze vs Shannon Ballard and Buggy

This was a fun match, although the announcer put in a rule that women aren’t supposed to fight men. I was confused, is this because it’s in a church or is this just WWE rules for some reason? Ballard and Buggy came out first, immediately trashing the US with a Canadian flag wrapped around his shoulders. There was a good amount of action to start in the match, hip tosses, throws and slams. This fight did not stay in the ring, as all four competitors were battling on the outside. The buildup was you wanted to see Ruby spear Ballard for well, being himself. This ends with Ruby giving Ballard the spear, and then Bateman setting Buggy up for a spear from Ruby as well.

Hector Canales vs Peter Avalon 

Hector and Peter had a good start off on their match, they tried a dance off, but the DJ wasn’t paying any attention or wasn’t at his station I’m not sure which, but one of those. Hector looked shredded in this match. PPA wasn’t intimidated though and this turned out to be a solid match. There was some chain wrestling into a stalemate double dropkick to start. The DJ then finally catches on and they had a dance off. There was not a clear winner at dancing at all. Hector dominates for a while, and then PPA turns it around with some loud sharp chops. A whirling neckbreaker by PPA gets him to the top rope but Hector bumps the ref to knock PPA down onto his family jewels on the turnbuckle. Hector then begins to “Hulk Up” and then takes care of PPA with his strength.  Hector wins with a vicious spinebuster that made the floor shake.

Andy Brown vs Jarek 1:20 vs Ruben Iglesias in a Triple Threat match. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect in this match, all three competitors have experience on TV and also all around the area. It turned out better than expected. Jarek and Andy fought first and then when Andy clears out Jarek, Ruben tries to steal the victory with a rollup. This fails. Andy and Ruben trade hip tosses and arm drags, but then Andy takes over with toss into a cartwheel basement dropkick, and then a sky high knee drop. Jarek and Ruben then team up and take it to Andy for a few minutes, culminating in a double team suplex off the top rope, which shook the floor like a small earthquake. The partnership ended immediately after that and Jarek and Ruben start smacking each other. Andy jumps back in and all three go at it, ending in a pretty humorous triple hook kick where they end up kicking each other all at the same time. Andy goes on a run and starts beating on both guys in the corners. He ends up doing an overhead belly to belly suplex on Ruben, throwing him into a slumped Jarek in the corner. Another highlight of the match was where Andy had Ruben in a rope hung DDT, Jarek leaps over and hits Andy with a Smashing double knees to the face, completing the move. Jarek also had a rope hung cutter that was also impressive. Ruben looked better than I expected, he even threw a sharpshooter near the end that was broken up by a handful of handcuffs by Jarek. Andy finishes this off with a package piledriver and Ruben can’t get there in time. Andy celebrates with a group of fans on the outside.

True Grit (Jesse James & Hoss Hogg) and Jorel Diez vs H.A.T.E (Tito Escondido, Che Cabrera, and Rico Dynamite) 

This match was a slobber knocker. All of these guys really brought their A game to it. Jorel Diez looked great, H.A.T.E looked crisp. Jorel starts the match with Che and they fight to an early stalemate. Tito did a Hurricanrana on Jesse that had to be seen to be believed. Jesse had a nice running senton and also a great looking catch into a overhead belly to belly suplex on Tito. Che had a smooth looking slingshot elbow drop on Jorel. Nice double team sky high drop on Jorel by Che and Rico. Tornado DDT by Jorel. Hoss hogg getting tagged in, throwing big boots on Rico, Jesse beating up on Rico until a tag is made. Lots of double teams by all H.A.T.E members on Jesse in the corner, all taking chops on him. Rico then works on Jesse’s knee for a while, then Che works on Jesse for a few. Tito is tagged in and Jesse finally works free. Hoss is tagged and he cleans house with charges, lariats until a triple kick by H.A.T.E stops his momentum. The match went completely nuts at the end where everyone was nailing each other with big moves. Jorel with a great spinebuster, Tito with a flourish, hitting a mid kick to enziguri combo followed by a release german on Jorel. Jesse hits a half n half to chokeslam to backbreaker combo.  The ending happened when H.A.T.E had two members of the other team up in a double doomsday device, but somehow they ducked and rolled up their opponents. Mongol counted them both to three to finish the match.

Mongol ends up clearing the whole ring of all H.A.T.E members after the match. He said something to the effect of “I’ve taken care of this for you”. Man Mongol is tough. I wish I could have seen him live at some point, but this was also cool to see.

Notes:

Matches I thought were best on the card.

1. A.T.E vs True Grit and Jorez Diez – six man tag match.
2. Ruben Vs Jarek 1:20 Vs Andy Brown – triple threat match
3. Bateman & Raze over Shannon Ballard and Buggy Nova – mixed gender (sort of ) tag match.

The H.A.T.E vs True Grit and the Vegan Superman was really great. I think it should be one considered for match of the month in my opinion. It offered some of the best heavyweight action with six talented guys going at it in a unique setting. Top notch.

The triple threat match was good, better than I first expected. Ruben brought his “A” game for this matchup and the pace and action was good throughout. Andy and Jarek looked really good as well.

The tag match was also good, a lot of experience and talent in the ring. There were a lot of fun spots and also serious action. There wasn’t much intergender wrestling in it, but of what there was it was worth the payoff, with Ballard getting some decent boos in this one, playing the bad guy well, along with Buggy. Solid match overall.

The ring is like a lady. Put a freaking dress or skirt on it. Nobody wants to see that.

Good fun matches, worth the 15 dollar admission. The replacement, Seabass came in last minute and did pretty well with Pinky with a good match, especially for an opener. If Ruben’s running a show in the future, I’d say you’ll get a good mix of solid wrestling, a friendly atmosphere, and a concession stand better than average with a decent variety of food. Definitely worth checking out for any of those things.