Roy's Review: Top 10 Shows of 2015 I Attended

Well the final show count for 2015 is 51. Here is the list of my top 10 shows for 2015.
Honorable Mentions:

World Women's Wrestling
Beverly, Massachusetts
November 22, 2015
Cove Community Center
My first all women's show. There was some really good talent that I had never seen before. But there was also some not so good talent too. Davienne vs. Ariel was an awesome match, by far the match of the night.
Notable Matches: Davienne vs. Ariel

WWE
Lewiston, Maine
December 12, 2015
Anderscoggin Bank Colisee
One of the best WWE House Shows in Maine in a long time.
Notable Matches: The New Day vs. The Lucha Dragons vs. The Usos for the Tag Team Titles … Charlotte and Becky Lynch vs. Naomi and Sasha Banks
I was at this show and I also really like Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger

IWE at Bangor Comic Con
April 25, 2015
Bangor, Maine
Cross Insurance Center Ballroom
It seems that the talent turned it up for this one. The crowd was huge and into the show the entire night. Ace vs. Mack was awesome. Also Tomahawk got the best Kenny Roberts match ever.
Notable Matches: Tomahawk vs. Kenny Roberts … Ace Romero vs. Tommy Mack for IWE Title

#10
Limitless Wrestling Stage One
September 12, 2015
Brewer, Maine
Cityside Restaurant
Good show and big breath of fresh air in the state of Maine. Good action the entire night. O'Neil vs. Lee was crazy. The best show in about 6 months in Maine and the best show I have ever seen at Cityside Restaurant.
Notable Matches: Alexander Lee vs. Chuck O'Neil … Ace Romero vs. Alex Mason

#9
Chaotic Wrestling Presents Pandemonium
Woburn, Massachusetts
December 11, 2015
Woburn Elks #908
My first time going to a Chaotic show and I was very impressed. The main event was great. It was filled with talent and it was a cool concept.
Notable Matches: Scotty Slade vs. Anthony Greene … Mark Shurman vs. Elias Markopoulous vs. Warbeard Hanson vs. Donovan Dijak vs. Brian Milonas vs. Brian Fury vs. Brick Mastone in a Pandemonium Match

#8
Beyond Wrestling Presents Powder Keg
September 26, 2015
Somerville, Massachusetts
National Guard Armory
This was a good show, I just expected more from it considering the talent on the card.
Notable Matches: Donovan Dijak vs. Andrew Everett … Death by Elbow vs. The Kingdom … Ricochet vs. Shynron

#7
Limitless Wrestling
November 14, 2015
Orono, Maine
American Legion Post #84
Great show. Another great performance from Alex Mason. I was very surprised by the Women's match and Ace and Wild put on a very hard hitting main event. This was the best show in Maine for 2015.
Notable Matches: Jeremy Leary vs. Shane Marvel in a No DQ Match … Tim Donst vs. Alex Mason … Sonya Strong vs. Maximum Mecca … Ace Romero vs. Scott Wild
I agree I can't say enough good about this show, best show in Maine since the 2012 Robbie Ellis Tournament.

#6
Boston Pro Wrestling Marathon Show #1
March 6, 2015
Abington, Massachusetts
Emerald Hall
Great show. Got to see some great new talent. The main event was excellent just a really good match with a ton of talent.
Notable Matches: Alexxis Neveah vs. Tessa Blanchard … Alex Chamberlain vs. Julian Starr … The Addiction vs. The Kingdom vs. The Spirit Squad vs. Team Friendship vs. Biff and Ted's Excellent Podcast Adventure in a Gautlet Match
Show #2 featuring Biff Busick vs. Mike Mondo was the best pure wrestling match of the weekend
 
#5
WWE TLC
Boston, Massachusetts
December 13, 2015
TD Bank Garden
A solid PPV by WWE. The tag team ladder match was insane and the main event was very good. There were some stinkers but the good vastly out weighted the bad.
Notable Matches: New Day vs. Lucha Dragons vs. The Usos in a Ladder Match for the Tag Team Titles … Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns in a TLC Match for the WWE Championship

#4
Beyond Wrestling Presents Americanrana 2015
July 26, 2015
Providence, Rhode Island
Fete Music
This was a great show but not the best overall Americanrana in its 3 year history. Donovan Dijak vs. Brian Fury should be a match of the year candidate. It was incredible. Tremont vs. Stockade was very violent and the Atomicos match was a crazy brawl
Notable Matches: Matt Tremont vs. Stockade in a Casket Match … Donovan Dijak vs. Brian Fury … Team Pazuzo vs. Da Hit Squad, Nick Gage, Shynron and Eddie Kingston in an Atomicos Match … Death by Elbow vs. The Young Bucks

#3
NECW 2015 Iron 8 Championship
May 9, 2015
Beverly, Massachusetts
Cove Community Center
This show was awesome. Just great wrestling all night. The Iron 8 Finals was a crazy battle that saw Mike McCarthy prove just how good he really is.
Notable Matches: Mike McCarthy vs. Anthony Greene … Slyck Wagner Brown vs. Brad Hollister for NECW Championship … Mike McCarthy vs. Brandon Thurston vs. Chris Escobar vs. Genesis in the Iron 8 Finals

#2
XWA Rumble
January 17, 2015
Warwick, Rhode Island
West Warwick Civic Center
I'm a huge mark for Royal Rumble styles matches and this was the best one of have seen live. The undercard match between Biff Busick and Trevor Lee was oustanding.
Notable Matches: Biff Busick vs. Trevor Lee … The XWA Rumble Featuring: Biff Busick, Trevor Lee, Brian Fury, Carlito, Snitsky, Donovan Dijak, Warbeard Hanson, David Starr, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett and Team Tremendous

#1
Beyond Wrestling Presents Greatest Rivals Round Robin
September 26, 2015
Providence, Rhode Island
Fete Music
This is the best wrestling show I have ever seen. The atmosphere was indescribable. This show needs to be seen by anyone who loves wrestling. Eddie Edwards vs. Drew Gulak was probably the best wrestling match of the night but the main event of Eddie Edwards vs. Biff Busick was just incredible. The atmosphere for this match made it the best of the night.
Notable Matches: Brian Fury vs. AR Fox … Eddie Edwards vs. Drew Gulak … Ricochet vs. JT Dunn … Biff Busick vs. Eddie Edwards

Roy

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Random Wrestling July 17, 2015

It's time for another round of Random Wrestling that I've been watching, this is all off of You Tube and there is no particular theme.  

The 100 Chop Challenge

From Smash Wrestling Trevor takes the challenge to withstand 100 chops, let’s just say it gets nasty.  Uploaded Fed 11, 2015

And then shit got real…..

From PWG Card Subject to Change II Willie Mack vs. Roderick Strong, and what a friggin chop!!

Uploaded June 2, 2011

Lou Thesz vs. Buddy Rogers 1/26/1951

This match from the Chicago International Amphitheatre is a 2 out of 3 falls match for the National Wrestling Alliance World’s Heavyweight Championship.  I can appreciate this match for the history that it represents however, some 64 years later this style would never work today.

The FBI vs. Bobby Roode & Eric Young

German Commentary

Taped August 19, 2003 in Detroit, MI for Velocity this was one of a dozen matched that Bobby Roode had for WWE that year,  Young appeared 4 times.   It thought this would be a squash match with Chuck Palumbo & Johnny Stamboli would walk over them, but they actually had a competitive 6 minute match.

AJ Styles vs. Rico Constantino

I found this match to be odd because it’s a house show match and features no commentary.  It was one of two matches that AJ Styles had in the WWE, the first the much talked about match on Jakked with The Hurricane, this one though took place the next night in North Charleson, SC January 22, 2002.  I’d like to know how this user got this footage, it’s not a fan cam footage.

Apparently this person has a You Tube channel with nothing but Dark Matches, again not sure where they go them, but I’m glad they do.  Some cool stuff in here, you should check it out!

Biff Busick vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey

C*4 “Crossing the Line Se7ev” June 21, 2014 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

I’d like to start with how does Bailey fly to the floor like his does, from great heights, land on his bare feet and not break bones?  I loved this match, twice I thought Biff killed him…twice.

That's all for now, please leave a comment and like my blogs page on facebook

Later Readers!

Boston Pro Wrestling Marathon

The weekend of March 6 - 8th was the Boston Pro Wrestling Marathon in Abington, Massachusetts.  It was a great weekend of wrestling even though the last day was cancelled abruptly Saturday night, more on that later.

Friday Josh, Jesse, Mikey, & Roy arrived at the house before noon for our journey south for a fantastic weekend of professional wrestling.  After I made them look at all my stuff, I don't get to show off my wrestling collection, we headed out.  Roy made up this game where you pick a championship title, for instance the European championship, and we take turns guessing who held the championship and are awarded point based on title reigns.  In this case Shawn Michaels is worth 5 points for his single title run where as D'Lo Brown is worth 20 points for his 4 title reigns.  It was a pretty awesome game and it made the 3 hour drive fly by.

Jay was already at the hotel when we got there.  We got checked in and spent couple hours kicking back and in our room Jay, Mikey, and I watched some PWG.  As we had Bodyslam Packages we got in two hours before show time.  It took us 45 minutes to drive the 7.4 miles from the hotel to the venue because of rush hour traffic.

Doors opened 15 minutes late and it was cold outside but it's independent wrestling so that's expected.  Once we got in we picked out our seats and I sat in the same seat through-out the weekend.  The first thing that I noticed was how low the ceiling was.  I was very surprised as to me this was not a good venue for wrestling, you can't come of the top rope so high flying was right out the door straight away.  In the second match of the night Friday Devin Blaze did a corkscrew plancha from the ring to the floor and kicked a chandelier breaking the glass which cut a fan on the face.  However, other than this instance and a few times some feet hit the ceiling tiles the wrestlers did a great job working around this major obstacle and presented some great wrestling matches.

We all got autographs and photos with different wrestlers this evening before bell time.  Myself I got photos with Tessa Blanchard, Colt Cabana, Biff Busick, & Frankie Kazarian.  I also got one with Chris Hero but retook it Saturday as the focus was off.  I also got a few cards signed, and Colt signed my Wrestling Road Diaries Too DVD insert.

It was a great night of professional wrestling.  I was super happy to see Tessa Blanchard wrestle live as she just maybe the greatest woman wrestling on the American independent scene.  She and Alexxis Neveah had a great contest where unfortunately Tessa lost.  I'm sure she won't last long on the indy's before WWE signs her to a developmental deal, but I hope to see her again in the future.

I was also very pleased to see veteran Maverick Wild in action one more time even though it was a loss to upstart Anthony Greene.  Greene is excellent in the ring and his star is only going to rise as the years go on.

The Main Event was the Boston Classic Tag Team Gauntlet featuring The Kingdom, Team Friendship, Spirit Squad, Biff & Ted's Excellent Podcast Adventure, and The Addiction.  It was a great tag match with the Addiction getting the win last eliminating Biff & Ted.  During the scrum with Biff & Ted vs. The Kingdom they wrestled all around the ring, Ted was whipped into the guardrail in front of me and it smashed into my knee and that hurt a lot!  My knee bruised and swelled causing me discomfort the rest of the weekend.  It's not the first time something like this has happened to me at a show and it won't be the last. 

The show got out late and by the time we got back to the hotel not even domino's would deliver as they were short staffed and too busy.  After the stunning revelation that Mikey wanted pepperoni and cheese on his pie I drove to guys over to pick the garbage up.  We finished the night watching some more PWG.

Friday Night results:

Pre-Show

“The Dynasty” Beau Douglas & Tim Lennox defeated “Boston Bad Boy” Jason Rumble & Dan Terry when Lennox pinned Rumble

Matt Magnum pinned Devin Blaze with a powerbomb

Main Show

“All Good” Anthony Greene pinned Maverick Wild

Alexxis Neveah pinned Tessa Blanchard

Michael Sain defeated Jason Blade

Alex Chamberlain pinned Julian Starr

Vinny Marseglia defeated Sean Burke

Bob Evans pinned Nick Westgate

The Boston Classic Tag Team Gauntlet

The Kingdom: Mike Bennet & Matt Taven w/ Maria defeated Team Friendship: Mark Shurman & Scott Slade

Biff & Ted’s Excellent Podcast Aventure defeated The Kingdom

Biff & Ted defeated The Spirit Squad: Kenny & Mikey

The Addiction: Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian defeated Biff & Ted to win the match.

Saturday I was up and ready to go early as I was anxious for our second day of wrestling.  The intercontinental breakfast was quite good and had a nice variety.  I made sure to fill my belly as I knew it was going to be a long day.

We were able to get into the Venue at 11am for the afternoon matches.  Today I got several cards signed and my photo with Kevin Sullivan, Ted (Gregory) Edwards, and we got a group shot with Biff Busick, Biff is the man!  The FBI signed a TNA card that neither had ever seen and Tony Mamaluke was really excited about it.  I referred him to Huskerhav's to get one.  The FBI and Joel Gertner were so cool to talk with, as was everyone.  I found no one to be unapproachable at all, all weekend.  

The opening match was Biff Busick vs. Mike Mondo in a phenomenal match up that went to a time limit draw and in overtime Biff got the pin for the win.  This was the match of the weekend with out a doubt.  The guys and I are all really into Biff Busick so we were very vocal for Biff and I feel that our energy was spread through the rest of the crowd as they were so loud and lively that afternoon.  

The main event saw The FBI: Little Guido Maritano & Tony Mamaluke drop a tag team match to Justin Credible and The Masshole Mike McCarthy.  It was cool ECW style match and Credible got the pin on Guido.  

Saturday Afternoon results

Biff Busick pinned Mike Mondo

JB Elf defeated Romona Ramano w/ “Pimp Daddy” Mike Paiva

Joel Gertner promo

"Real Deal" Brandon Lock w/ Adam Barisano defeated Alex Chamberlain

Happy Birthday Rap by Oscar of Men on a Mission

"Kingpin" Brian Milonas pinned Nick Westgate

Handicapped Match: Michael Sain defeated The Heavy Hitters: Shady Shay & Frank Champion

Justin Credible & Mike McCarthy defeated The FBI: Little Guido Maritano & Tony Mamaluke

We had 45 minutes before the Art of Wrestling live podcast taping began and this was something that I was not going to miss, other than Chris Hero and the Rock N Roll Express the podcast was one of the things I was most excited about.  

We left the hall to find something to eat and stopped at the first place we came it.  It was quite unimpressive on the outside with a sign that read Roast Beef and Pizza.  Inside though was a different matter.  It was clean, smelled great, and had large and reasonably priced menu.  I got a large bacon italian with pickles, extra tomatoes, cheese, and mayo.  Talk about good, damn!  And it was packed with tomatoes!  So good!  Everyone liked was they got in fact.  I was anxious to get back so I only ate half before heading back into the venue to get seats, we manged front row, excellent!

The podcast recording was everything I though and hoped it would be.  I was tasked with being the official photographer to tweet him photos of the recording and Mikey was asked to give his impersonation of Tony Atlas' laugh.  We didn't know who the guest were and was surprised as he called each on up.  Justin Credible, Mike Mondo, Oscar, Biff Busick, and Chris Hero as the closer.  The podcast ran just over 90 minutes which I was pleasantly surprised about.  I wonder how long the final podcast he releases will be. 

The end of the podcast basically coincided with the time the doors would open for the Bodyslam Package VIP's so we just stayed in the building.  I got a my image captured with Chris Hero and I got a couple cards signed.  At the end of the weekend I got 12 cards signed to add to my collection.  Josh was my official photographer as he was able to properly take photos to my liking.

Their were a couple vendors with various wrestling collectibles for sale.  I bough the new Candice and Joey Highspots DVD special that just came out last month for $5, and it was an original copy and not a bootleg.  I'm not 100% sure how many DVD's Roy bought, but I'm guessing 8 - 10, which is pretty low for him.  Both Mikey and Josh bought both of Colt Cabana's Wrestling Road Diaries documentaries which were wise purchases as I have them both and they are fantastic.

The Saturday night matches was a great night of wrestling.  Colt Cabana and Chris Hero had a great match that started with some comedy and then got into a serious wrestling match and ended with Colt getting a quick pin on Hero.  It really showed what two seasoned ring veterans can do and make it look so effortless while they do it.  We got to see Biff wrestle for a 3rd time this weekend which was just awesome.  Main event was a falls count anywhere match that saw "Real Deal" Brandon Locke get the upset victory over the "Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan.  It was cool to see Sullivan wrestle live but at 65 years old it was what it was.  

Saturday Night results

Showcase

Antonio Atama defeated TK O’Ryan

Main Show

Keanu The Flying Hawaiian pinned Kenny Dykstra

Michael Sain pinned Steven Verano

Kongo pinned Mikaze

Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana pinned “Knockout Artist” Chris Hero

Biff & Ted’s Excellent Podcast Adventure defeated Dave Cole & Billy King w/ Marshall McNiel

Tatanka pinned Brian Milonas

Falls Count Anywhere: “Real Deal” Brandon Locke w/ Adam Barisano pinned “Taskmaster” Kevin Sullivan

When we got back to the hotel I messaged Spencer to see what time the Q&A Luncheon was Sunday as I hadn't seen what time it was scheduled only that the last set of matches started at 4pm.  I was quite surprised when Spencer replied that he was cancelling all of Sunday's events.  Sunday morning I read on Facebook that basically they didn't make enough money on Friday and Saturday to pay for Sunday.  

We were all pretty pissed off because we paid for a full weekend of shows, essentially 6 events with the 4 wrestling shows, the podcast, and the luncheon Q&A and a third of those events were cancelled at the last minute.  I don't promote wrestling shows because I can't take that risk of losing money, but to me if you are planning an event like this for a year I would think that it would be paid for, or at least the majority of it, before tickets went on sale and not rely on ticket sales and monies received the first two days of a 3 day event to pay for day three. 

I will admit that Friday and Saturday were fantastic, and Saturday was one of if not the best day of wrestling I have ever experienced.  However besides the podcast the big selling point of the weekend for me was being able to see the Rock n' Roll Express wrestle live and that didn't happen.  It probably will never happen now.  

Jay won the 50/50 raffle on both Friday night and Saturday afternoon shows, which is just absurd.  It was also nice to see JD, Ceej, Scott King, Mad Dog, and others, also nice to meet Tanya of TC Tapes as I used to buy tapes from her back in the day. 

On the ride home more fallout from the abrupt cancelling came out on twitter and Facebook and I'll let you find those for yourself.  Needless to say the rumors of what did or didn't happened spread fast. 

On the ride home we had to stopped in Boston to get Kate an Italian Night Club sub from Jimmy John's as she had been craving it since January and there was no way I was going to not get my pregnant wife this.  I didn't take into consideration that PAX East was literally right around the corner from the Jimmy John's I went to so parking was difficult.  

I was also shocked out terrible Massachusetts was at plowing and removing snow, they are a New England state, but they have no concept of snow removal or pushing back the snowbanks. 

We stopped at Kowloon for a bite to eat that added to the mystique of the wrestling weekend as this is and was a hot spot for WWE wrestlers to eat at when they are in the area.  Their are signed photos and posters all over the entrance way of wrestlers and other celebrities.

It was a great weekend of wrestling that will sadly, mostly be overshadowed by the fact the last day was cancelled so abruptly.