The Wrestling Revolver
WrestleCon Pancakes & Piledrivers
April 1, 2017
12:00 p.m.
Orlando Wyndham Resort

Prior to be aligned with WrestleCon and getting a featured showed during WrestleMania weekend in Orlando, I’ll admit to having never even heard of The Wrestling Revolver. The promotion is based in Iowa, has had only two shows prior and released them on the High Spots network—three things that add up to an obsessive wrestling fan chronically behind in just about everything not having the promotion on their radar.

The tagline for the promotion “every show a different roster” means keeping up on storylines seems to be of little matter. The promotion is another in a recent explosion of “super-indies” that features a lot of the same names we see in the midwest. Both of their shows thus far (and the highlight videos found on YouTube) definitely pique my interest, but the show they are presenting here genuinely looks really fun.

Plus there is a free pancake breakfast. Imagine your pancakes being served by Sami Callahan. Imagine.

Eddie Kingston Vs. Krugar

Look, I feel kind of bad for TAFKA Adam Rose, but to be honest, I hope Eddie Kingston beats the shit out of him. Prediction: Eddie Kingston

AR Fox Open Invite Ladder Match
Lio Rush vs. Matt Cross vs. Trevor Lee vs. Serpentico vs. AR Fox vs. Jason Cade vs. Joey Janela vs. Caleb Konley vs. Zachary Wentz vs. Arik Cannon

This is apparently for the “Open Invite Scramble” Championship, which is an insane idea. AR Fox won the last big scramble on a Revolver show and his name is in the title, so I gotta think he will be the winner here, but that might be too easy.

Joey Janela might be dead at the hands of Marty Jannetty or hungover from his show on Thursday, Lio Rush might be moving at the speed of slug since he seems to be working every single show that isn’t the WWE this weekend, Trevor Lee is Trevor Lee and we know he can wrestle for 200 minutes straight. Then we got a who’s who of solid (mostly) regional indie talent. I’ve been a fan of Konley recently up here in Portland, have enjoyed Cannon and Cade on the few times I’ve seen them and think Zachary Wentz might actually wind up becoming a big time star somewhere.

I’m going for MDogg winning after hitting every person in the ring with consecutive moonsaults, and some insane jumping spot to grab the belt off the ladder. Prediction: Matt Cross

Michael Elgin vs. ACH vs. Dezmond Xavier vs. Palmer

After the Elgin/Naito match from New Japan (my match of the year so far), I can’t root against the Big Mike. ACH and Xavier are insane athletes, but I can’t really imagine Elgin, being a pretty monster name during the weekend and overall internationally losing here. Really really looking forward to watching this one. Prediction: Michael Elgin

Jake Manning vs. Su Yung

I don’t particularly care about either of these people in the ring, but they do have two of the best gimmicks on the indies. “The Manscout” and “The Blood Red Bride” are both nuts for different reasons. Google them and find out.

Manning has a tendency to read a scout book when his opponent is down, Yung scares me in a way that I love. From a match quality standpoint, this looks like the weakest match on the card, but I have little doubt that it’ll be super entertaining. Expect Su Yung to do weird shit that will frighten Manning, expect Manning to come out with some weird scout-based defenses (or passages for dealing with witches or something from his book). Yung has a shot at the SHINE title and LuFisto later in the day, so I’m going for her. Prediction: Su Yung

Dave & Jake Crist vs. Jack Evans & Angelico

This is advertised as a “Fans bring the presents – it’s Jack’s birthday!” match. This match should be a big time comedy match of super-ego Jack Evans getting his ass kicked by the Crist brothers and coming back again and again. I love Jack when he’s being a dick that won’t go down, and that’s exactly what we’ll get here. Expect huge spots, lots of foreign objects, probably a rendition of “Happy Birthday” interrupted by a chair and Angelico diving into nothingness. Throw technical wrestling out the window, this could be insane. Prediction: Dave & Jake Crist

David Starr vs. Jeff Cobb

Folks, I fuckin’ love Jeff Cobb. In WWE 2k17, I have a babyface team of Jeff Cobb and Big E that just run through everybody and suplex the world. He’s not the fastest, not the flashiest, and not the most consistent, but he’s what I wish more pro wrestlers were: believable and fuckin’ huge. I’m a fan of David Starr as well, a undersized dude with charisma out the wazoo. Starr had a really solid 2016 and while he recently lost the wXw Shotgun Title, I’m hoping that opens him up for even bigger bookings in 2017. This should just be a solid match, through a through, elbows, suplexes, big bumps, nothing that will probably set the world on fire, but something super fun nonetheless. Prediction: Jeff Cobb

Brian Cage & Sami Callihan vs. Rey Fenix & Pentagon OM

Listen, I love the team of brothers Fenix and Penta. I love Fenix in the ring, period. I love Penta’s intensity, his charisma, his otherness – even if his matches often leave me a bit empty inside. I’ll always be a fan of his because he is one of the most original, committed and thoroughly unique characters in a long time.

Sami Callahan is one of the most divisive wrestlers in America, and I tend to fall on the “meh” side more often than not. He definitely has matches I really like, but I can only take so much hair (and mask) dragging to the guardrail and spitting. Cage? Well, he’s gonna get his shit in just like the Create-A-Wrestler that he is. I love the dude. This will probably barely be a match, but feature a lot of Penta and Sami chopping each other in the crowd, Cage throwing Fenix on his head, and Fenix coming back off the top rope. Expect HUGE spots, chairs and probably a table or two. Should be a hoot. Or a trainwreck. Prediction: Brian Cage & Sami Callihan

Ricochet vs. Shane Strickland

It seems sort of absurd that by 2017, two dudes that have worked tremendous matches against almost everyone in the world, are both major players in Lucha Underground and do the flippy-do as well as anyone that can haven’t faced each other 1-on-1. But they haven’t. On any given day, and depending on how I feel, Ricochet is my favorite wrestler on the planet. When I came back to the independent wrestling scene in 2013, Ricochet was the one that made me delve into all sorts of companies. I’d never seen someone move the way he did. Shane Strickland is someone I’ve become a big time recent fan of and am super excited to see the week after this up in Seattle. Strickland exudes cool, from his entrance, to his swagger, when he’s in the ring, he’s not manic like some high flyers, doesn’t try so hard to flip an absurd amount, but I’d be lying if I said he was super consistent. I would LOVE for this to be the match that people are talking about at the end of the weekend, I’m hoping for it, in fact. As far as indie stars go – you don’t get a whole lot bigger than Ricochet. I want Swerve to be at that level, don’t let me down, men. Prediction: Ricochet