Welcome, one and all, to my latest OVW TV review. This week’s episode comes with the tagline ‘From Bros to Blood’. Sounds interesting. Let’s see what happens.
OVW Episode 1023
On commentary this week is Gilbert Corsey, Josh Ashcraft, and Ted McNaler.
The show opens with a warning about the episode containing graphic content that may not be suitable for children, then segues into the end of last week’s episode, when Colton Cage lost his OVW TV Title to Hermano Tatios/Dustin Jackson. After that, we learn that Tony Gunn and Justin Smooth will be teaming up against Entourage 2.0, Sam Thompson will make an appearance, and we have another TV Title Gauntlet.
The commentary team is interrupted by Dani, who has promised to expose Dustin Jackson. The crowd chants over the top of her, and Dustin Jackson’s music cuts her off. Lily comes out and says that Dani may claim to have secrets about Dustin, but she was Colton Cage’s wife, so she has some dirt on him. Dani compares Lily to a used restaurant napkin that’s been in everyone’s lap, and Lily fires back by calling her the village bicycle that every guy’s had a ride on. The women start shoving each other and Dustin runs in to break it up. Colton Cage comes out from under the ring with a chair and lays into Dustin, both in the ring and in the backstage. He drags Dustin back out, and he’s bleeding heavily from the head. The crowd drop into a shocked silence and the kids at ringside look pretty scared. The segment ends with Colton DDT’ing a prone Dustin on the floor. Despite a few verbal slip-ups – “You used to be his ex-wife”, would mean Lily’s not Colton’s ex-wife anymore, Dani – this was a really good angle to continue the feud. It had some real impact and makes the eventual match that much more personal feeling. It also leaves Dustin at a disadvantage for his TV Title defense later.
After the break, Justin Smooth comes out and cuts a promo about how much he hates his tag partner for the evening, Tony Gunn. This was interesting because Justin’s insults could be seen as heelish, but he was also playing to the crowd and getting them behind him. The fans are pretty divided, I think, with both men being popular. Tony comes out next and he takes the mic to respond. His words are a lot more typical for a face for the most part. Of the two, I would say that Gunn is more assured o the mic, but this was a good effort from Smooth this week.
Entourage 2.0 come out. Shiloh Jonze and DL3 are out next and rap a little about how they should be the number one contenders. Big D jumps in the ring and immediately gets thrown out, and we finally start ‘The Trinidad Titan’ Justin Smooth & ‘Shotgun’ Tony Gunn vs. Entourage 2.0 [Shiloh Jonze & DL3]. The match started with Tony and Justin mirroring each other as they take out the heels, but a stare down gives Shiloh and DL3 a chance to take control. Tony takes a beating but doesn’t go for a tag. First chance he gets, Smooth tags himself in. After setting up for Street Justice, Tony Gunn appears to go for a Kill Shot on his partner, but Shiloh gets hit instead. The faces argue and Smooth hits DL3 with Street Justice, pinning him with one leg. This ran to about four minutes, but it told a great story. We saw the champion and challenger on equal footing, we saw Tony showing his never say die attitude, and we saw Justin coming out looking like a strong challenger. ***
Backstage, Dustin is being examined by Ted McNaler. They can’t control the bleeding so will be taking him to the hospital. Meanwhile, back in the ring Ca$h Flo calls out Sam Thompson to pay his fee for last week’s Chop Shop Challenge loss. We get a recap of this while we wait, and eventually, Sam Thompson comes out with his Xbox (original gen, for the record). Ca$h is initially amused, but Sam’s stubbornness soon leads to him declaring that he wants his money, and destroying the console. Sam flies onto Ca$h and gets thrown around the ringside for his troubles. Ca$h leaves, but not before telling Sam that he either brings the money next week or he’ll take something from Sam that he can’t get back. I’m still enjoying this angle, but I do hope Sam gets his win soon.
Backstage, Entourage 2.0 are showering, and Thunder Kitty appears. She takes one look at their lower regions and says there’s not much need for gun control in this State. That was pretty funny.
After a recap of the earlier incident with Dustin Jackson and Colton Cage, Nigel Winters comes out for the OVW TV Title Gauntlet. His opponent is Dimes. Before they start, we learn that Dustin will not be competing, so a new champion is guaranteed. The commentary team hype Dimes’ win over Sinn Bodhi at Clash at the Bluegrass while the two trade holds. They also make a point of stating that nobody has so far gone from start to finish and won, which makes me think it could be Dimes’ night. Good pace throughout, and sure enough, Dimes with his Change Maker finisher. Matt Vine runs in next and immediately uses his size advantage to bully Dimes. Vine is clearly looking for a quick win, which is great. His stuff looks good to be fair, though he did manage to do one of my pet peeves when he did an Irish Whip with both his hands on Dimes’ wrist. Bit of a sloppy set of pin reversals ends up with Dimes catching the win with a backslide.
Adam Revolver, an OVW Triple Crown Champion, is in next and starts working over Dimes. Lots of good work here from Revolver as he seeks to slow Dimes down by taking out his legs. After a lot of good selling, Dimes wins with the Wrestlemania VIII Piper/Hart finish by reversing a sleeper hold in a pin. Interestingly, Revolver is wearing the same ring gear as Roddy Piper here. Drew Hernandez comes out and asserts his power advantage with a powerbomb. Again, the commentary team reiterates that nobody has gone from start to finish in the gauntlet, and they do a good job of hyping up that he can’t have much left in the tank. He reverses a second powerbomb attempt into a hurricanrana for the win. Hernandez hits it after the bell, leaving Dimes prone for the final entrant, Amon.
The crowd is definitely behind Dimes here. Gilbert Corsey has been fantastic on commentary tonight, and that continues here. He does a great job of showing emotion through tone, which not everyone manages. It’s all Amon for the brunt of the match, and he cuts off Dimes’ attempts to rally quickly. Dimes manages to slip out of a Straight To Hell though and hits a Change Maker out of nowhere to win the match, and the title in around 17 minutes. *** ½
Finally, outside the arena, we see Dustin Jackson being stretchered out in an ambulance, ending the episode with a somber moment.
This was definitely a show of two halves. The first half was all about setting up the Saturday Night Special for the weekend after next. The opening angle was really well done and worked wonders for continuing to build the personal nature of the cage match between Jackson and Cage. Meanwhile, Justin Smooth and Tony Gunn are on a collision course for what should be a very good, intense match. The second half of the show was all about Dimes though. The 24-year old came out of the gauntlet match looking great, and not just because he ran through all the other entrants. His work was smooth, he never forgot to sell – which was particularly important after Revolver damaged his leg – and he showed a lot of heart throughout.
Meanwhile, the intermittent sound issues weren’t present this week, which was definitely a good thing. Like I said, Gilbert Corsey was superb on commentary tonight too. In all, OVW becoming a feeder for Impact seems to have spurred them on to tidy the shows up. This was a fine example of that. So, well done to all involved.
Matt Doyle Media 