By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
Hoodslam “Vivisection”
February 10, 2024 in Oakland, California at the Continental Club
Replay available via Triller.TV +
Venue Notes: Hoodslam has mostly settled at the Continental Club in Oakland. It’s a nice nightclub venue with good views of the matches from the balcony. The only downside is the venue size does limit the amount of people that fit to watch the show. Last month, for Mansoor’s first in-ring match after leaving WWE, the place was extremely packed to the point where it was tougher for the wrestlers to do spots to ringside because the crowd had to squeeze like sardines to get out of the way.
Initial Thoughts: I haven’t been to Hoodslam in a while due to work conflicts. Thankfully, my scheduled filled out and I was able to attend the last two shows. I’ll close out this report with one MUST SEE match from the January show. That match is my second favorite match in wrestling for 2024 right behind Will Ospreay vs. Josh Alexander in TNA (yes, I know it’s only February, but this match does have a good shot to hold out in my EOTY top 20 if there aren’t too many matches that surpass it). As for the February show, it was solid. As I always mention, I like the good mix of wrestling fans and non-wrestling-fans-who-become wrestling fans.
Commentary Team Notes: Hoodslam regular Anton Vorhees was the MC and play-by-play commentator for the night. I’m assuming that because this was on a different day of the week, or he just couldn’t make it, AJ Kirsch (as his “Broseph Joe Brody” persona) wasn’t able to make it. Vorhees was a step down from AJ, but that’s no shot against Vorhees. The guy is great in the ring and a solid talker (Not to mention, it looks like he’s a Legend of Zelda fan based off his presentation, and I love Legend of Zelda). That’s just a testament to how good and versatile AJ is (as most MLW viewers were witness to when he was in his straight laced real life persona). Anton did get better as the show went on and did a good job filling in and keeping the crowd hyped. Dark Sheik filled in on commentary later in the show. Sheik is the real-life founding mama of Hoodslam.
Event Recap
Opening Hype Segment: Anton Vorhees made his entrance to rally up the crowd. No customary Jack Daniels pouring due to that being a Joe Brody thing.
1. Juice Lee defeated “Harley Quinn” via pinfall: According to Cagematch dot net, it says Dark Sheik was in the Harley Quinn cosplay. If so, good work, because I couldn’t tell it was her. As usual with Juice, nice high spots from him. Juice also gets bonuse weeb points from me for coming out to Death Note’s 2nd opening theme (the theme that sounds like the cookie monster is saying “Pornnnnnn” really loudly). I think he might be leaning heel because the story here is he “killed” El Chupacabra, one of Hoodslam’s top babyfaces. The gimmick “Harley” was doing was variations of low blows to Juice Lee. Juice wins.
2. James C defeated Emo Rob Hands via pinfall: Really fun match! I’ve gone on record in saying that I think the best bell-to-bell worker in all of Hoodslam and a hidden gem in wrestling is this James C guy. He’s playing a 1920s mobster gimmick and wearing a three piece zoot suit. Not sure how great his mic work is in a serious promo, but he’s really good at drawing heat by doing a purposefully mundane heel promo before the match. In all seriousness, I think if this guy wasn’t north of 40 (according to Cagematch.net) he definitely deserves to be in a big company somewhere. I’m not being hyperbolic either. And hey, we have older rookies like Damien Priest and LA Knight sniffing the main event of WWE so 40+ year olds can still be pushed.
James C performed a really good tightrope Old School into a cutter as well as some other good power moves like an arm trap pile driver. Emo Rob Hands is a fun gimmick that old and new Hoodslam fans come to like. He’s very lanky, but he kayfabes that he’s 300 lbs and can perform a chokeslam. Fans love to suspend their disbelief. I give Emo Rob props to coming out to one of my personal mandatory karaoke songs as his entrance theme (Papa Roach’s “Last Resort”). Another thing the crowd really likes from him is him pausing the match to do a poetry monologue. This was actually a well worked match in terms of workrate and I usually say that for most James C matches recently. Good juxtaposition too with the good in-ring meshing well with Rob’s comedy. James C won after a innovative looking single underhook pile driver.
Promo Segment: Hoodslam had two “therapist” characters come on stage to do a “therapy session”. I didn’t catch her name at first, but they announced the female therapist as “Ms. Von Eerie”. I had to look it up, and I was right, it was former TNA wrestler Christina Von Eerie. I haven’t seen her in a while and was kinda shocked that she’s only 34 (meaning she was around 20 or 21 back in her TNA run with Ink Inc.). Last month they tried this therapy promo and it dragged a little bit because the crowd wasn’t even sure how to react. A huge improvement this month as they were quick to get to the point here. It was a therapy session for the Hoodslam heel stable “The Boom Gang” where the Stoner Brothers hugged and made up. Everyone likes a good wholesome hug.
3. Kenny K defeated Matt Carlos and D-Torch via pinfall in a triple threat match: From an in-ring standpoint, this was probably the best match. Kenny K and Matt Carlos in particular are two of the best bell-to-bell wrestlers and sellers in Northern California. I’m pretty sure Carlos has filled in on Raw or Smackdown as enhancement before (not 100% sure). I’ve seen a lot of Carlos’s work in the local APW promotion in Daly City where he’s really good there as well. Not to sell D-Torch short either, because he was good in this match. Kenny K was the highlight here as he was bumping all over the place while also pulling out the cool looking spots, notably some variations on the Project Ciampa backbreaker. Kenny won after a Marc Mero style Spiral Tap.
Promo Segment: Another “therapy” segment. Where the first one was fun, this one dragged a little bit. Not to much though and definitely better than last month. The gimmick here is conflict resolution between Vipress and Dark Sheik who have been frenemies for the last few months. Brooke Havok interrupted to lead to the next match.
4. Brooke Havok and Vipress ended in a no contest: Havoc and Vipress are two very TV worthy wrestlers in the Hoodslam promotion. I’m not only saying that because both women have done some work in other promotions. Havok was trained by WWE’s top babyface Cody Rhodes, and if I remember correctly, Cody even made the rare appearance on one of their Dark shows to endorse her. She’s done good work alongside Alan Angels, who I’m also very high on. Vipress has a really good gothic look and has been working a few matches in AAA Mexico recently as I’ve witnessed. The in ring here was solid. The no contest happened due to both women brawling to the outside. Good heat on the heel referee “Wiggles”. There’s never a good indie show without a good heel ref, and wiggles is good at drawing heat by being Wiggles.
5. Mylo and Myra defeated “The Lost Treasures” Laura Frazier and Joe DeSoul. Mylo was the reigning Champion “Ship” Champion (where the gimmick is you have to act like a pirate if you have the title). Mylo defeated Joey Janela last month in the same venue for the championship by pinning him at the end of his gauntlet match. Frazier and DeSoul were playing the reluctant partners gimmick. Better in-ring than I expected as they didn’t go too overboard with the comedy. Mylo picked up the win.
Promo Segment: Former Maximum Male Model Mansoor came out for a promo. This is his 2nd month back to his home promotion. Mansoor used to be known as “Manny Faberino” where his gimmick was that he was a teenager. He was trained in real life to wrestle by The Stoner Brothers, Rickscott and Scottrick. The Stoner Brothers also trained Shotzi Blackheart, who wrestles on Smackdown. Mansoor has been coming out the last couple of months to try to recruit Hoodlslam OGs to join his OG stable. He got turned down by Dark Sheik last month. This month he got turned down by his trainers, The Stoners. Who did come to his aid was “The Evil Librarian” Richard ShhhhNary (who used to team up with “The Berkeley Brawler” back in the day. Where is that guy?).
6. Rickscott Stoner and Scottrick Stoner defeated Mansoor and Richard ShhhhNary via pinfall. Great match with all four men really showing how talented and experienced they are. Manny has been on fire since returning to Hoodslam (more on that in my bonus thoughts). WWE really missed the boat on him. The guy can bump, the guy can talk, and the guy can wrestle at an NXT “Black and Gold” level. It’s also a bit surreal because the guy did look like a skinny teen during his Faberino days, and now he’s on that jackked WWE Performance Center glow up. Here, he had a chance to bump around for his teachers, with his teachers also returning the favor by selling his cool suplexes. Even though I’m tired of it due to seeing it all over the place, the crowd really gasped for Shinary’s paper cut spots. The Stoners defeated Manny after an assisted neckbreaker.
After the match, Richard Shhhnary turned on Mansoor to leave him lying on the ground. This was to set up some sort of “I Quit” ish match next month which I’m really looking forward to.
Final Thoughts: It’s been really fun coming back to Hoodslam the last few months. As I said in the past, Hoodslam is the perfect mixture of ha-ha sports entertainment and in ring effort. Hoodslam dials both the entertainment and in-ring to 11 leaving new and hardcore wrestling fans captivated and wanting more. It’s the entertainment that draws you into the match, but the workrate is what keeps you captivated and wanting more. It was very cool to see Mansoor never forgetting where he came from, and coming back to the promotion that launched him into pro wrestling. The Stoner Brothers also deserve a lot of credit for being solid trainers (I heard that they even worked with Amy “Lita” Dumas to get her ready for her recent in-ring return to WWE around a year ago).
Bonus Thoughts: Since I wasn’t able to post it last month, so I’ll recommend it here. DEFINITELY go out of you way to seek out the Mansoor vs. Dark Sheik match from last month’s “I know what you did last Hoodslam” show. I’m not being hyperbolic, it was the best match I’ve seen both Mansoor and Dark Sheik work ever as they worked a 20+ minute NXT Black and Gold style match with amazing false finishes. Again, why didn’t Paul Levesque get more out of Manny? The guy can go out there and give you that Adam Cole type of main event when called upon. He would have been perfect for the 2.0 era of NXT. I’ll post the highlights below via a video that Brennan Williams (f/k/a Mace) and Mansoor posted on YouTube. Last month’s Hoodslam match was Manny’s first wrestling match after his 90 day non-compete ran out. I really hope Manny can find a way to bring Brennan here because Brennan’s otakuness would fit well in a promotion that consists of a ton of Otakus. Why not bring over “The Great Black Otaku” (Brennan’s ROW gimmick).
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