FIST Combat held their first show of 2018 and their first show in a new venue on February 9, and it was their best show to date. At least their best show since moving to San Diego.
I think FIST was a great addition to the Southern California scene last year. While their shows aren’t for every wrestling fan for sure, they are completely unique from anything else and have been a lot of fun. The crowds for the shows have been somewhat inconsistent however, so it was great to see a line already forming outside well before the doors opened. In the end the chairs were completely filled and it was standing-room only. Because of the people standing around and constantly moving, it’s hard to give a good estimate of the attendance, but I’d guess around 150 or so.
Matt Vandagriff over Max McManus [9’40]
Maximus is a wrestler from the UK and just moved to San Diego four days before the show. He really played up being British, and worked a more European style. He looked really solid. When Matt Vandagriff came out some people in the crowd were yelling “Jeff Hardy” at him. Later on when he ended the match with a senton bomb, these guys lost it. This was a really good opener and really got the crowd into the show.
Sho Nuff over The Millennial (Azrael) [6’52]
Azrael’s gimmick as The Millennial is really funny. For this he came out in a gi and talked about how he took 3 semesters of karate at a community college. The match itself was fairly sloppy and they never seemed to get on the same page (or the same book). Fortunately it was short. Sho Nuff hit a big boot for the pin.
After the match Randy Order came out and demanded Vegan Superman relinquish his title. Vegan Superman agreed on the condition that he can put any member of L.O.V.E in any title match he wants. He then put Biagio Crescenzo in the match between Eli Everfly and Teddy Hart later that night.
Next Ruby Raze came out and was upset Randy Order screwed her out of the title, so she wanted a match with him.
Ruby Raze over Randy Order [8’03]
Ruby Raze dominated most of the match, though Randy Order managed to get in some offense throughout. Other than a snapmare and a running blockbuster, Order’s offense was limited to just brawling. The purpose of the match seemed to be to advance Raze’s story and make her look strong, which it did a really good job of both. Raze hit her rope hung neckbreaker for the win.
True Grit (Jesse James & Hoss Hogg) vs. Pulp Fistin’ (Jules Winfield (Michael Hopkins) & Vincent Vega (KC Douglas)) goes to a draw [11’00]
All tag-team championships in FIST are two-out-of-three falls now. The match started a little shaky, but I thought overall this was good. They did the standard quickness versus power matchup. Jules Winfield did a tope con giro that got the loudest pop of the night so far. Grit hit their finisher at 6:12 for the first fall, then Fistin’ got the second fall at 7:54. The finish saw Vincent Vega submit Hoss Hogg at the same time Jesse James pinned Jules Winfield after a lariat, resulting in a draw. True Grit retains the titles.
Biggie Biggz over A Shark in a Kaiju MMA match [6’52]
Prior to the match they setup cardboard building all over the ring and passed out poppers to everyone in the crowd with the instructions to pop them when anyone hit a building. They were going off the rest of the show, if anyone hit a building or not. So, this was Gotch in a shark costume wrestling Biggie Biggz wearing Daisy Dukes. If you’ve ever seen Kaiju Big Battel, that is pretty much this was.
Dirty Ron McDonald over B-Boy in a Fans Bring Weapons match to retain the FIST Combat Death Match title [18’38]
This was a rare hardcore match for B-Boy. This was a fans bring weapons match and so there were things like a tiki torch, a hammer, a condom, and a half eaten burrito thrown in the ring. The match itself was pretty crazy but a lot of fun. Dirty Ron took the majority of the punishment in this. He got hit with thumbtack bats, suplexed on Legos, and had shish kabob sticks stuck in his head. He also had the half eaten burrito stuffed in his mouth. Dirty Ron ended winning with a roll up in the end. It’s always hard to translate this type of match to video, but live it was wild.
I think someone tried to legitimately start a fight with Dirty Ron after the match and was escorted out by security.
Eli Everfly over Teddy Hart and Biagio Crescenzo to win the vacant FIST Combat championship [10’58]
This was a really fun spotfest with all three wrestlers getting a chance to showcase what they can do. The match started with Everfly and Crescenzo matching up while Teddy Hart looked on. After awhile Crescenzo was taken out and Everfly and Hart went at it. There was lots of crazy high risk offense here. Everfly won when he put Crescenzo through a row of chairs from the tope rope. This was a lot of fun.
Outside of one match, everything else was good, or at least interesting. Normally their shows have been run in a bar and have been for adults only, so it was going to be interesting to see how it was different than their normal shows. It really wasn’t. It was still the same ol’ FIST, and that’s a good thing. The atmosphere was still as wild but the new venue with the higher roof really helped the match quality.
FIST has already announced Teddy hart will be returning in the future and Douglas James will be making his debut in the promotion soon. Their next show is on April 13.
