Maverick Pro “Stop Running the Same Day As Us” 4/22/17 – review

Maverick Pro ran their first show at their new location in Highland Park, just south of Pasadena. Ricky Mandel retained his title against Jason Cade and Kevin Kross choked out Sammy Guevara. Click for the full review.

Koto Hiro vs. Dylan Levi 

This match opened up the card and it was a pretty good start to the show, I’d never seen Dylan Levi wrestle so this was a good introduction with someone else around the same size as him. Koto had a nice pendulum dropkick about halfway through the match that was really smooth, followed by a springboard cross body that was impressive as well. Dylan had a good looking fireman’s carry to a drop of the face to the knee.  The match ended with Koto hitting a standing sitout shiranui to take the victory.

Suede Thompson vs. Jacob Austin Young vs. Amazing Jr

This match had a quicker pace than the previous one. Suede and Jacob went at it right away, trading holds and strikes. Amazing Jr, who came in with his manager Sebastian Dix, decided to pull up a chair right next to me and wait it out a bit as they are in no hurry to get into the ring. They then moved their chair over to the landing zone in front of the entrance. Suede and Jacob went at it for a while and Jr took advantage of their attention and took out both wrestlers. Jr took control until Suede did a smooth smashing double knees from the top turnbuckle and also a springboard facebuster that was impressive. Suede and Jacob started fighting on the apron, and Jr sneaked in for a roll up while grabbing the tights, pinning Jacob Austin Young.

Amazing Jr. Pins Jacob Austin Young

Laura James vs. Zaida

This match was fairly quick.  Laura James controlled most of the match, working over Zaida with a combination of suplexes, a fishermans suplex, and a nice looking northern lights. A failed leg drop gave Zaida a chance and she had a flurry of offense, ending with a monkey flip. Laura then managed to hit her YouPorn Plex for two. Zaida got in one last attempt at a rear naked choke and was successful.

Zaida wins by submission.

Biagio Crescenzo and Ruben Iglesias vs. The FeeLyons

Biagio and Ruben came out and then the FeeLyons came out. They had one of the bigger pops of the night. The action started even before the bell rang, as the FeeLyons were attacked on their way out to the ring. The action finally settled inside with Biagio and Osiris to start. Osiris got Biagio into a Windsor knot, which Senior Buttons worked out of with a lunging headbutt. Ruben got tagged in and immediately ate two arm drags and a snapmare. A double team attack by the FeeLyons got a two count. Ruben tagged back out and Biagio took control of Osiris for a while with a hangman’s neckbreaker. Ruben got tagged in and they hit suplex to kneckbreaker combo on Osiris. Ruben hit a nice vertical suplex for two. Senior Buttons got tagged in hot for a bit, but Biagio and Ruben hit a CodeBreaker-to-Lungblower-to-cutter sequence that had to hurt. Ruben hit a few suplexes on Senior Buttons and then got him locked in the Sharpshooter. Biagio then gave Ruben a face buster and took the pin for himself.

Winner Biagio Crescenzo and Ruben iglesias Over the FeeLyons

Sammy Guevera vs. Kevin “Killer” Kross

The co-main event starts early. I’m not complaining at all. Sammy came out and tears up a girls’ Kross sign. She looks extremely pissed.  The action was pretty fierce at first; Sammy tried using his speed and agility to out-maneuver Kross. This worked for a while until Sammy was caught spring-boarding off the turnbuckle and got over-head suplexed. He then got ragdolled across the ring and took a couple shoot kicks. Kross also had a giant swing for ten full revolutions. Sammy got in a lungblower, missed a springboard moonsault to a backflip, then nailed the standing shooting star press for two. Kross broke this up with a DDT and a finger bend that looked painful. Sammy got another burst of offense in, but got caught again launching off the ropes into a vicious belly to back slam. Kross mounted with some forearms and then locked him into a rear naked choke/ coquina clutch like move. Kross told him “don’t be stupid, tap!” Sammy flipped him off. Kross rolled to his back, cranked the hold and Sammy was knocked out

Winner by Submission Kevin Kross over Sammy Guevara

 

Human Tornado vs. Kikutaro

I wasn’t sure what to expect from these guys as they have been known to be great comedic wrestlers, but also highly skilled workers. This match was a classic in the making. My camera, of course, overheated during this match so I don’t have anything to go off of other than memory and people’s accounts at the show. This match started off slowly, but turned into a great match. There were some truly memorable moments that made this match special. There were three tope suicidas by Tornado, a couple of trust falls off the apron that were “the bomb” (overheard in the audience), and some pretty stiff shots thrown throughout. There’s times when you watch a match and about halfway through it, you feel like it’s something special. This was one of those matches. If you can find this on DVD or youtube, I’d suggest looking it up.

Brittany Blake vs. Winter (Katarina Leigh)

Winter dominated from the onset for the first few minutes with an assortment of takedowns, a drop toe hold, a head scissor and a head lock. Brittany managed a nice step up Inziguri, and an array of dropkicks, a nice springboard cross body and arm drags. She transitioned that into a nice cloverleaf with the arm-trapped-type submission that was broken by the ropes. Winter then took control again until a failed superplex turned into a tornado DDT by Blake.  Blake then hit a couple corner moves and then hit a Jericho-style bulldog. Winter rolled out of the ring and the ref got distracted. Biagio then knocked Blake off the turnbuckle, spun her into a backbreaker and then gave her a facebuster. Winter then got back into the ring to take the win on a prone Blake.

Joshua Shibata then cut a Promise Land promo, telling everyone he told them they were coming last show but felt ignored so they are taking it up a notch.  He explained Winter will be going by her real name Katarina Leigh, which means purity. Winter mentioned she was lost before the promise land but now she is found. Promise land left the ring triumphant and standing tall.

 

Dicky Maier vs. Tito Escondido

This was a good match and an anticipated one. Dicky has been one of the hotter acts in the area and Tito has been working consistently everywhere in the area, on TV and also a host of promotions in the around SoCal. It’s really great when you see two wrestlers that are doing some of their best wrestling recently clash. Tito started off with a “you’re prettier if you are from Whittier” with some ladies in the audience but then confirmed that they obviously weren’t from Whittier.

The contest started off with some technical wrestling going back and forth. Tito used his power to break up some of the holds, displaying his nearly 70 lb weight advantage. Tito exclaimed “I can wrestle too, you know” and then proceeded to show off his technical acumen.

A few minutes in, Dicky set in a Boston Crab but Tito ended up grabbing his tights to break the hold and turn it into a pinning position. This turned into a battle of holds until Tito started striking hard shots. Dicky hit two armdrags and a pretty drop kick before doing a suicide dive onto the floor. Tito hit a powerslam to turn it back around to his advantage. Dicky had a shoryuken type uppercut on TIto. Deep six by Tito on Dicky, deep german suplex by Dicky as well.  This match kept going back and forth, each guy trying to outdo the other and also apparently hurt the other guy too, as the moves end up being more dangerous and higher impact. Tito nailed a  Nodowa Otoshi or Japanese Chokeslam. The fight ended, however, when Tito went to the top rope, nailed the cross body from the top, and got Dicky into a fireman’s carry that got reversed into a schoolboy.

Dicky Pins Tito with a roll up.

 

Ricky Mandel (C) vs. Jason Cade

This was a pretty fun match. The hyper athleticism of Jason Cade vs. the physique and technique of Ricky made for an interesting matchup. Jason immediately started doing an endless kip up. This transitioned into a hurricanrana, a drop kick and then a tope over the top onto the floor into a set of chairs. Ricky caught him coming on the way back in, with a picture perfect drop kick to the rising Cade. This went on for a while and Cade somehow tweaked his ankle during the match. Other than a few limps, you couldn’t really tell that he was hurt. There were several near falls from Cade on Ricky that had the crowd on the edge of their seat. A Demon stomp, a springboard cutter, shoot kicks, backflips, Cade was on his game. Ricky stopped his momentum for a minute with a super kick, and Cade ended up tweaking the ankle again, but still managed to get another near fall with another stomp and jumping neck breaker. Ricky with a top rope hanging DDT for two, who then pulled him up and nailed his finisher.

Ricky Mandel Pins Jason Cade to Retain the MPW Heavyweight Championship

Final Thoughts

I had a good time at this show. The parking situation was a little better as they had a school area that was usable down the street, which made it way easier than trying to find a spot at the Clela arena.

The venue had an electrical issue that was only partially fixed at the time of the show, which led to some darker scenes in the facility. I’m expecting the lights to be better at the next show. Even with the issues they had there, the facility was still a step up from the arena. The crowd was announced at 65+, but the crowd was hot and loud and ready for wrestling. Maverick Pro is bringing in faces from the East Coast and is really trying to utilize talent that hasn’t been over exposed in the area, which is a nice touch.

The next show is on May 13th at the American Legion Post #206 called “Remember The Name”

Some stars to appear:

Marty the Moth

Super Crazy

Sienna

Scorpio Sky makes his Maverick Pro debut

Douglas James Makes his Maverick Pro debut

Also for the first time on this earth, Kevin Kross vs. Jeff Cobb (which is worth admission for that alone)

The American Legion Post #206 is located at 227 N. Ave 55 Los Angeles, CA, 90042.

Bell time to be announced.

Tickets can be bought via PayPal here https://www.paypal.me/moviecitywrestling