Taking a look at Millennium Pro Wrestling’s CarnEvil from February 22nd, 2019 in Moorpark, CA. Featuring The Carnies (Nick Iggy, Kerry Awful, and Tripp Cassidy) vs. The Millennials (Daniel Moon & The Brothers Divine [Brendan & Danny Divine]).
Opening Segment
After a video recap of the last show, we see Charlie Mercer enter the ring. He welcomed the fans to the show and talked about wanting to face Brendan Divine for the MPW title. Ray Rosas interrupted him and they did an angle with them both wanting to face Brendan in a title match. After a few moments, Max X came out saying he wanted a title shot. Then Bulletproof came out wanting the same thing. It looked like everyone was about to fight before MPW owner Triple X came out.
Triple X got on the mic and booked a mini-tournament between the four men. The winners of the matches on this show would go on to face each other next week, with the winner getting a title shot.
Following this angle, we’re introduced to Piranacanrana. Piranacanrana, who is a guy doing a fish gimmick, cut a promo with subtitles under it because he spoke fish. Yeah.
Caleb Perez & The Great Zumba vs. The Christened (Malkor The Destroyer & Auntie Hydie) w/ dudes in Halloween costumes
In the video recap of last week’s show, Hydie and Malkor had a hardcore match. Now they’re teaming up. Yeah. They were accompanied to the ring by dudes in cheap Halloween costumes. Hydie said she’s his master now and told him to listen to what she says. Malkor was wearing a mask again. He kept grunting, which got him some heckles from someone in the crowd. This was my first time seeing Zumba and Perez. Zumba is pretty, well, interesting.
During the match, Hydie kept yelling at Malkor. It was really annoying. Malkor thankfully did 90% of the ring work for his team in this match. He and Perez worked well with each other. Perez was the face-in-peril, and Zumba got a hot tag. One of the guys in Halloween costumes interfered in the match, and then Malkor destroyed the opposing team. He tagged out to Hydie who hit her only spot of the match, a leg drop, for the win. This was the best in-ring performance of Hydie’s career. This was an okay match for the most part.
After the match, Malkor grabbed Hydie by the throat before she hit him. She proceeded to emasculate him for a few moments. Two ladies in the front row were on their phones as this was happening in front of them. A commercial for a karate school played after this.
Max X vs. Chuck Mercer
This was the first time I’ve seen Mercer since the 2018 MPW Gauntlet match. He showed potential at the time, so I was interested in seeing if he’s improved. He seems to have stolen Sami Zayn’s gimmick and style during that time.
The match started out with Max X making fun of Mercer for being Irish that led to a back-and-forth opening sequence between them. Mercer gained some control before Max X mounted a comeback, and Max worked over Mercer for heat. Mercer would make a comeback and things became evenly matched. Max X attempted a Kimura on Mercer in the final moments, but Mercer was able to fight him off and got the win after a fireman’s carry slam. He now goes on to face the winner of Ray Rosas vs. Bulletproof. This was another okay match.
After the match, there was a commercial for a pizza place. I have to give MPW credit. They might not be making many waves in SoCal, but they’re doing better than most promotions when it comes to getting local sponsors for their show.
Ray Rosas vs. Bulletproof
I was very disappointed in Ray for using a Fall Out Boy song as his entrance music. That guy has really been letting me down lately for so many reasons. He was also wearing kneepads with the logo of that goth clothing company that ran a show without a ring because they didn’t measure the venue properly and couldn’t fit a ring in it. They’re like the Condom Depot of SoCal wrestling now. Hey workers, do you get paid to wear their or any other company’s logo? If not, you should start charging at least $100 per-match on a show like this to wear their logos. Don’t devalue yourself and be smart.
So, Bulletproof still looks ridiculous. He had a so-so in-ring performance in this match though. At times, he looked decent. Other times, he just looked stupid when he was doing too much unnecessary shit before doing something basic. While the crowd wasn’t very hot for the other matches, they were into this. They came alive when Ray was in a submission and cheered him on. Ray also did a good job selling Bulletproof’s leg work. He really had a good performance and got a decent match out of Bulletproof despite Bulletproof’s goofiness.
During the final moments of the match, Max X walked out and tried to interrupted things. He was then superkicked off the ring apron by Ray for his troubles. Bulletproof tried to capitalize by trying to pin Ray, leading to a back-and-forth sequence in the closing moments of the match before Ray got the win. This was solid. Ray will now face Chuck Mercer.
After the match, Ray and Bulletproof shook hands. Ray then threw Max into the ring where Roman Reignscito hit him with a Superman Punch before we went to another karate school commercial.
MPW National Championship Match: B-Minus (c) vs. Piranacanrana
This was my first time seeing Piranacanrana. He’s a wrestling piranha or something. I’ve seen B-Minus before and he seemed like he had potential, so I was interested in seeing how he does here.
Piranacanrana was pretty over with the audience. He was charismatic and played to the crowd well. They were really into his comedy work. I honestly liked him more than I do the Feelyons. When it came to his actual in-ring work, he wasn’t very polished. B-Minus was solid in this. He wasn’t spectacular, but he’s got so much potential to be really good someday. My favorite moment of the match came when Piranacanrana sold a delayed suplex by flopping like a fish out of water. The fans loved it and chanted for him. B-Minus kicked him in the head during this for the win. As soon as B-Minus won, the crowd instantly died.
After the match, both guys embraced each other. A trailer for the new version of The Lion King played for some reason. I’m not into Disney shit or anything (if you’re over the age of 8 and still obsess over it, you need therapy) but this movie does look badass. Still, I’m very confused as to why MPW had this on here.
The Carnies (Nick Iggy, Kerry Awful, and Tripp Cassidy) vs. The Millennials (Daniel Moon & The Brothers Divine [Brendan & Danny Divine])
Before the match, there were a bunch of shenanigans going on. As The Millennials posed on the ring, The Carnies stole their title belts. Daniel Moon got on the mic and demanded The Carnies give them back their belts. The Carnies then made fun of The Millennials and started to mess with the referee before the match started.
The antics would carry over into the match, as The Carnies kept utilizing tricks and shenanigans to play mind games with The Millennials. Even though character work in wrestling sucks and bores 95% of the time, The Carnies blended their character work well here along with their ring work. As the match progressed, The Millennials began to work over Nick Iggy with a combination of moves before Iggy made a hot tag. This would lead to a sequence of moves between everyone.
The closing moments of the match saw both teams exchanging strikes before things broke down. At one point, The Carnies had Danny Divine give Daniel Moon an assisted Canadian Destroyer. The finish would see Kerry Awful try to make a final stand before he was taken out with a superkick/tandem flatliner combo to give The Millennials the win.
After the match, the fans gave The Carnies a “please come back” chant and a nice ovation.
Final Thoughts
The opening match was decent for what it was. I think Malkor has the potential to be a solid heavyweight someday. He just needs to get a better look and put on some muscle. I’m not saying he should be all jacked and load up on dbols, but if he toned up like Samoa Joe, it would help him out a lot. Hydie only did a leg drop in that match, which was perfect because she’s awful at everything. Mercer/Max X was pretty solid, but nothing spectacular.
Ray Rosas vs. Bulletproof was another solid match. Mostly because Ray carried Bulletproof. Piranacanrana vs. B-Minus was better than I expected it to be, but it wasn’t something you should go out of your way to see. I will say that Piranacanrana did a good job getting over with the crowd, and B-Minus shows a lot of potential to be really good someday.
The main event was a pretty good match and a solid showing for The Millennials. Both teams seemed to play off each other really well and had good chemistry. The match flowed pretty well, and the fans were really into it. While it probably might not get much love from people in the monthly rankings voting, I thought this was really good. I also thought it was a good move on MPW’s part to bring in a more well-known and experienced act to work their homegrown talent. It does a good job at spotlighting and getting them over.
Overall, MPW didn’t produce a great show in terms of in-ring work, but this was a solid show. There wasn’t anything that would match the quality of the higher-end shows in SoCal, but this was a simple and painless show to watch. Nothing went too long, and nothing was overly bad (except for Ray Rosas’ entrance music). If you were in the Moorpark area and MPW had a show on, I’d say check it out.
