By Chris Vetter, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@chrisvetter73)
We are looking for reports on all WWE, AEW, NXT, Impact Wrestling, MLW, GCW, and other notable live events. If you attend a show, you are encouraged to send a report or even basic results to dotnetjason@gmail.com
Pro Wrestling Revolver “Cage of Horrors”
Streamed on FITE TV
July 9, 2022 in Clive, Iowa at Horizon Events Center
This venue is a large fieldhouse that was packed with 800 to 1,000 fans. Veda Scott and Bork Torleson were on commentary.
1. Mike Bailey defeated 1 Called Manders to retain the Impact Wrestling X Division title at 9:48. Manders unloaded some chops to early, and Bailey hit a dropkick. The crowd is HOT. They brawled on the floor, and Manders rammed Bailey shoulder-first into the ring post. In the ring, Manders hit a Bulldog powerslam for a nearfall at 2:30, and he was in charge. Bailey hit some roundhouse kicks in the corner, then his speedball kicks to the ribs. Bailey hit his corner moonsault to the floor and a moonsault kneedrop to Manders’ chest as Manders was lying on the ring apron. Manders fired back with a second-rope Bulldog powerslam for a believable nearfall at 7:30.
This crowd is just insanely hot, with alternating chants for both men. They traded more chops, and Manders nailed a decapitating clothesline for a nearfall. Bailey hit his moonsault double kneedrop and a spin kick to the head, but Manders kicked out at 1. Bailey avoided a spear and hit his tornado kick in the corner, then the second-rope 450 kneedrop for the pin. Fantastic opener.
* A video aired showing Josh Alexander making an open challenge when PWR returns to Clive on Sept. 17.
* Gail Kim was introduced. She said PWR has “kick-ass women’s wrestling,” and she introduced the competitors for the next match
2. Allie Katch (w/JT Dunn) defeated Jessika Havok at 5:34. Katch is full heel mode, stalling on the floor and refusing to tie up. After a Dunn distraction, Katch hit some stomps and basic offense and she rode cowboy-style on Havok’s back, earning boos. Katch hit the Eat D’Feet for a nearfall at 4:30. Havok fired back with a Death Valley Driver for a nearfall, but Dunn pulled the ref from the ring. Gail Kim jumped on the ring apron and punched Dunn, earning a massive pop. However, with this distraction, Katch got a glass bottle and slammed it over Havok’s head. The referee turned around and made the three-count for the tainted win.
3. Blake Christian defeated Zachary Wentz, Gringo Loco and Crash Jaxon in a four-way at 10:08. Again, Jaxon is thick, on par with Beer City Bruiser, and much bigger than his more well-known opponents. A loud “welcome back!” chant for Wentz. Blake and Wentz traded quick reversals to open. Loco couldn’t move Jaxon with flying forearm shots to the chest. Jaxon nailed the Monty Brown Pounce on Loco. Blake hit some spin kicks on Wentz and a huracanrana on Loco. Wentz hit a German Suplex on Blake at 3:30. This is fast and furious.
Jaxon hit a belly-to-back suplex on Wentz. Blake hit a headscissors takedown on Jaxon as Jaxon was tied in the ropes. Loco hit a Cloud Cutter in the ring, then the Fosbury Flop to the floor. Blake hit a flip dive to the floor and turned it into double DDTs on Loco and Wentz. Jaxon then dove through the ropes on all three opponents at 6:00, and the crowd went nuts. They brawled over the guardrail and into the crowd, with Blake diving over the guardrail onto his opponents. Wentz climbed the scaffolding used for the entrance, and he did a forward roll dive onto his opponents at 8:00.
Blake and Wentz returned to the ring, with Blake hitting a Pele Kick. Loco nailed a Styles Clash for a nearfall. Wentz hit a stunner on Loco. Jaxon nailed a pop-up sit-out powerbomb on Wentz. Blake hit his Rollins-style stomp on Loco to score the pin. That was a sprint and was just fun.
4. “OGK” Matt Taven and Mike Bennett defeated “The Prisoners of Society” of Steve Maclin and Westin Blake to win the PWR Tag Titles at 10:33. This appears to be a heel-heel matchup. POS hit simultaneous clotheslines, then they dove through the ropes on their opponents. However, OGK started working over Maclin in the ring with double-team moves. Bennett applied a keylock at 5:30, then he nailed a spinebuster. Maclin fired back with a high belly-to-back suplex on Bennett, and he made the hot tag.
Blake entered and unloaded punches on both opponents and a powerslam on Bennett, and the crowd is behind POS. Bennett hit a superkck on Maclin. Taven nailed a dive over the top rope onto POS at 9:00. Maclin tied Taven in the Tree of Woe and hit a rolling cannonball. Blake then hit a Van Terminator dropkick from one corner onto Taven in another corner. Impressive move! Taven hit a low blow on Maclin. Bennett hit a backpack stunner for the pin. The announcers and crowd were shocked at the title change.
5. Jake Crist defeated Mance Warner in a Bunkhouse Brawl at 12:45. They each hit a Mafia kick in the opening seconds, and then mid-ring forearm shots and chops. Mance threw multiple chairs in the ring at 2:00, and a couple wooden doors. In the ring, Warner hit a chokeslam onto the pile of chairs for a nearfall at 3:30. Warner set up a double-decker door across four chairs. (This is just absurd because Crist is lying in the corner for so incredibly long.) Mance nailed a top-rope superplex, slamming Crist through the double-decker tables at 5:30.
Crist tossed chairs at Mance’s head and he jabbed the chair across Mance’s throat. Crist hit a Tornado DDT onto the pile of chairs, then a piledriver off the ring apron through a table set up at ringside, and they were both down at 8:30. Mance hit a suplex back into the ring. Mance hit a piledriver onto the pile of chairs for a nearfall at 10:30. Mance hit a shot to the head with a metal speed limit sign. However, Crist fired back with a powerbomb for a nearfall, then he slammed Mance through a door set up in the corner. They slammed pieces of the door over each other’s head. Crist jumped on Mance to get the pin out of nowhere.
* Intermission. PWR always airs a recent match, and they opted to air the Jon Moxley-Mike Bailey main event from their last show. That is a big bonus match! (Moxley won.) I am an advocate that every promotion that airs a live show and takes an intermission do this. It doesn’t have to be a stellar main event like this, but anything is better than a blank screen for 15 minutes.
6. Dan the Dad defeated “Manscout” Jake Manning at 7:32. Dan recently wrestled on AEW Elevation. Manning hit a double-arm DDT. They do a lot of comedy early. Dan hit a top-rope crossbody block for a nearfall. Jake hit a Russian leg sweep and a sunset flip powerbomb into the corner for a nearfall at 3:00. Manning went to the back and brought out a tent and dropped it in the ring. He tossed Dan into the tent and zipped it shut. The crowd was eating up this silliness.
Dan unzipped the tent and dragged Dan into it, and they brawled in the tent; we can’t see what is happening in there. They finally re-emerged at 5:30, but they are wearing each other’s shorts. Manning hit a backbreaker and Flatliner combo, and he again pushed Dan into the tent. Dan rolled out but Manning wasn’t aware; Manning hit a moonsault onto the tent. Dan came up from behind and they traded full nelsons. The traded rollups and the ref counted to three. I thought we had a double pin, but the referee said Dan the Dad was the winner.
* Damian Chambers attacked both men from behind, earning massive boos! The ring announcer hit a clothesline on Chambers and did a one-finger cover on Chambers for a visual pinfall. The crowd ate up this silliness, too. Chambers is a great heat magnet, and hopefully he starts getting actual matches.
* Ruby Soho came to the ring, and she is wearing a heavy black brace on her right arm, and she said she can’t wrestle tonight. (So, I guess that attack on AEW TV must be because of a legit injury.) Billie Starkz hit the ring. Billie got on the mic and said Ruby is a “big TV superstar,” turning heel, asking Ruby if she is going to get fired by another TV company. This made Ruby angry, and she called for the bell.
7. Ruby Soho defeated Billie Starkz at 8:33. Soho hit a Pele Kick for a nearfall just seconds into the match. Ruby slammed Billie’s head into the second turnbuckle for a nearfall. Ruby hit a knee strike to the forehead. Billie fired back with a German release suplex at 3:30, then a Gory Bomb for a nearfall. Billie hit a top-rope double stomp onto Ruby’s arm, and Ruby sold the pain. Starkz hit a Full Nelson suplex for a believable nearfall.
They fought on the ring apron and Billie tried to suplex her to the floor. However, Ruby hit a modified Death Valley Driver onto the ring apron, and she got a nearfall in the ring at 6:30. Starkz began stomping repeatedly on the damaged arm, then she hit a tombstone piledriver for a believable nearfall. Ruby hit her Eat D’Feet move for a believable nearfall. Ruby hit a roraring forearm and a Kazarian-style swinging DDT for the pin. Really good match for the time given.
8. Sami Callihan and Jon Moxley defeated “The Wolves” Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards at 13:30. Massive pop for Moxley and Callihan, who are tagging together for the first time in more than 10 years. Sami and Eddie started and the Wolves hit some quick team moves. The fans started chanting “F— the Wolves!” Moxley entered at 2:00 and traded shoulder tackles with Richards, with neither man going down. All four brawled in the ring, then to the floor, with Sami paired with Eddie while Richards and Moxley brawled.
Back in the ring at 6:00, the Wolves hit a dragon screw leg whip on Callihan, who collapsed in pain, as the announcers reminded us of Callihan’s leg injury that kept him sidelined for a year. Richards tied up Callihan in a leg lock on the mat. Callihan hit a clothesline and finally made the hot tag at 10:00. Moxley hit a German release suplex on Richards, then punches in the corner and a clothesline for a nearfall. Moxley set up for the elbow strikes to the head, but Edwards kicked him in the head to break that up.
Edwards nailed a dive through the ropes onto Moxley at 11:30. Richards hit a German Suplex with a bridge, and Edwards jumped in for a jackknife cover for a believable nearfall. Cool spot. Moxley and Callihan hit simultaneous piledrivers for nearfalls, then they both did the elbow strikes to the head. Moxley applied a sleeper on Richards, who tapped out. That was really good, and no one would have minded if it had gone longer.
* A second intermission, this time to set up the cage. They aired Alex Shelley vs. Trey Miguel, also from the last PWR show, “Stranger Thangs.”
9. JT Dunn, Tyler Matrix, and Logan James (w/Doug Stamper) defeated Swerve Strickland, Rich Swann, and Matthew Palmer in a “Cage of Horrors” match at 27:46. There is scaffolding at ringside and weapons, but only one side of the ring has a cage wall set up. Dunn and Swann came out first, so this match is set up like “War Games.” They brawled a ringside. At 2:00, Logan James hit the ring and brawled with Swann. The heels began beating up Swann. Palmer joined at 4:00. Palmer hit a Lionsault Press.
Matrix hit the ring at 6:30 to give the heels the advantage again, and he hit a DDT on Swann onto a table. In the ring, the heels worked over Palmer. Pretty basic beatdown of the babyfaces. Swerve came to the ring at 9:00, but he was in no hurry to run in and help out. All six brawled mid-ring. Swerve hit a backbreaker over his knee on one opponent, then a delayed vertical suplex on another.
Everyone brawled on the floor. In an insane spot, Palmer hit a suplex off the second rope through a table set up on the floor at 13:30. One of the heels slammed Swerve onto a pile of open chairs. Palmer and one of the heels brawled on the top rope before leaping onto the floor on everyone, with the crowd chanting “holy shit!” In the ring, Swann and Dunn brawled on the top rope, and Dunn hit a second-rope leaping tombstone piledriver onto a barbed-wire-covered board set up on a table at 19:00. Swerve made the save before the pinfall.
Veda Scott said Tyler Matrix is “hemmoraging right now.” Swerve climbed to the top of the scaffolding. There has been a lot of downtime here with nothing happening. Swerve leapt off the scaffolding and hit the Meteora onto two opponents who were sitting on a chair in the ring for a believable nearfall at 23:00. Allie Katch got in the ring to save Dunn. Palmer grabbed her and nailed a Death Valley Driver through a door set up in the corner. Stamper choked Palmer with barbed wire.
Swann and Dunn climbed to the top of the scaffolding, and Swerve joined them. Suddenly, Swerve hit a low blow kick on Swann at 27:00, and Swann was stunned at the heel turn! Swerve kissed Swann on the forehead, then threw him off the scaffolding, with Swann doing a mid-air flip before crashing through a table in the ring. One of the heels jumped on Swann to cover him for the pin. Swerve stood on the scaffolding and soaked in the boos.
* A video aired saying that Killer Kross will return to PWR on Sept. 17.
Final Thoughts: I assume that fans in the arena liked the main event a lot more than I did. There often was too much standing around and the match lost steam in the final 10 minutes, before the big heel turn and finish. But I’m also not interested in this type of brawling and bloodshed, either. I immediately assumed a Swerve heel turn by the way he took his time getting to the ring.
So, I’ll give best match to Moxley & Callihan vs. the Wolves, with second-best to the Manders-Bailey opener, with the four-way scramble getting my third best, and the main event is honorable mention. I am sure many fans will place that main event higher.
While I’m not a fan of garbage hardcore matches, the Crist-Warner brawl was solid because it didn’t have as many unprotected shots to the head as a usual Mance Warner match. Dan the Dad vs. Jake Manning was a perfect ‘popcorn match’ coming out of intermission. Fun silliness that the crowd enjoyed, but it didn’t overstay its welcome. I can only presume that Ruby is dealing with a legit injury based on the look and size of that brace, but she was able to work around the injury.
The show clocked in at 3-and-a-quarter hours.
THANK you for being one of the few reviewers to say, “I don’t like hardcore and bloody wrestling”, but also adding, “but I know some people enjoy it.” Finally, someone who realizes everyone has different tastes and opinions and doesn’t ignore or bash ’em.