Battle Club Pro “ICONS 3: Women Crush Wednesday”
Wednesday, April 3
7:30 PM
Brooklyn Stuy Dome
Brooklyn, New York
Battle Club Pro is a Northeast US independent promotion that runs primarily out of the Bronx but has also run shows in Connecticut, New Jersey & other New York cities since inception about three years ago. As of writing this, I’ve never seen a full Battle Club Pro show, similar to most people who would probably attend this event on WrestleMania weekend, but there is enough strong women’s talent on the card to pique my interest.
For what it’s worth, BCP isn’t exclusively a women’s promotion, but their “ICONS” series of shows is and based on looking at semi-recent cards, they do seem to be trending that way more and more—which is honestly cool to me. Some of the bigger female names have worked for them in the last year—people like Mia Yim, Jordynne Grace & Tessa Blanchard. This show is an opportunity for the next way of hopeful women wrestlers to reach a wider audience.
Leva Bates will be Special Guest Commissioner
I remember seeing this announced along with the card and immediately thinking “well at least she isn’t wrestling” — I still feel that and won’t be burying the rest of the card.
Gauntlet Match
Leyla Hirsch vs Sahara 7 vs Steph de Lander vs Christina Marie vs Dani J vs Vipress vs Rachel Bostic vs Ruby Raze
This is a hard one to predict for two reasons: it is a gauntlet match AND I’m barely familiar with the talent involved. Similar to a lot of independent shows, this seems to be the match to be a showcase for a lot of young, less-known talent to potentially get a handful of big spots in and turn some heads. Leyla Hirsch is the one I’m most interested in—working primarily the CZW DOJO shows in the last year or so, having transitioned from legit amateur wrestling, I’ve seen gifs of her kicking ass on Twitter. She’s green, but fills a certain badass niche and has unreal athleticism that means she could be a big-time star on the scene in the coming years. Steph de Lander used to be known as FaceBrooke, I believe, Rachel Bostic I’ve seen on a handful of cards here and there and has tapped into her character pretty well. Anyway, looking at this card hoping to come away impressed, but don’t have a strong opinion on anyone.
Thunder Rosa vs. Aerial Monroe vs. Davienne
This match could be interesting. Davienne is known as “Not America’s Sweetheart” and fulfills the “hardcore hoss” role pretty well when she pops up, Aerial Monroe was in the last Mae Young Classic, has an amazing look and is very solid in the ring and Thunder Rosa wrestles everywhere, gets over everywhere and will be playing the undersized babyface here. Don’t know how the match will be laid out, but expect Monroe to show her impressive power, Davienne and potentially cheat, Thunder Rosa to talk shit and likely, ultimately pull out a surprise victory. Should be fun enough.
Allie Kat & Veda Scott vs. Shazza McKenzie & Indi Hartwell
I don’t actually think these four women are bad wrestlers, as some of my colleagues and mutuals think about most involved, BUT I’m not super stoked to see this match. I’d love to be impressed here, but I sort of expect this to be the “fun” match of the evening. Allie Kat and Veda both leave a lot to be desired in the “workrate” category, but I’d be crazy if I told you I haven’t seen legit improvement in the last year or so. Indi has had some decent matches recently as well. I don’t know, this one doesn’t do it for me, but all four women have some pretty big time fans—so I’m happy for them.
The Sea Stars (Ashley Vox & Delmi Exo) vs. Solo Darling & ????
Willow Nightingale suffered a terrible neck injury earlier this year that required emergency surgery, which is obviously sad and tragic—and I wish her all the best in her recovery. Her tag team with Solo Darling is probably my favorite women’s tag team in independent wrestling, a team that I would have 100% picked to win this match when it was announced. The Sea Stars work all over the East and are improving each month. Solo, for her part, is truly one of the most improved wrestlers in the last year or so—going for someone who never caught my attention to truly one of my favorite acts when she pops up on cards in 2019. I have no idea who will be her partner here early, as I haven’t memorized cards and locations and what not—but I’d love to see someone like Kris Stadtlander come through and have her and Solo wreck house. Regardless, Solo and her mystery partner will pick up the win here and it should be a fun match.
Maria Manic vs. Su Yung
Hope you like wacky shit! Maria Manic is a giant, scary badass that carries that gimmick and looks very well. Su Yung is known by everyone at this point and still to this day, has one most intense gimmicks in wrestling. Neither of these women pushes the needle for me as when it comes to traditional 4-star matches or anything, but I expect to the two of them to really beat the shit out of each other here. Yung is great at taking scary bumps and Manic is great at delivering them. Expect Manic to throw Su from the ring, Su to choke Manic, and don’t be surprised if weapons get involved. This is the “dumpster” match of the card in hopefully the best way possible. Just hoping they don’t hold back and really give each other all they can here—because that could be super fun. If nothing else, it will likely have at least one spot people will be talking about on social media.
Tasha Steelz vs. Diamante
Yo, this match has too much fuckin’ sauce. Diamante was poised to break out a year or so back when she became part of the reformed LAX on Impact, before getting injured—and while her character and managerial work showed to be very promising, I’ve only seen a couple of matches since she came back from injury—she’s solid and someone who could likely put it all together before too long. Tasha is someone I’ve seen in WWR and various indie promotions and am always drawn to. She has a great look, is super fiery and while she isn’t a world beater in the ring, she is definitely someone who would be high on my draft board if I were to be creating a women’s division in any promotion. This should be hard hitting—the women have worked together before. No idea who will win, however.
Battle Club Icons Championship
Harlow O’Hara (c) vs. Kylie Rae
Full stop, this is one of my favorite main events of the entire weekend. Harlow O’Hara has really made a name for herself over the last year working basically every promotion that will have her, up and down the west coast. She has an awesome look, throws MEAN forearms and occasionally busts out pretty insane indie-riffic moves that surprise. She’s truly one of my favorites on the independents right now and working as the champion of this promotion serves her well. Kylie Rae is on the cusp of being a wrestling nerd demi-god, has been featured prominently as one of the major signings to AEW and is perhaps the best babyface working the Midwest and East Coast right now. I expect about a 20-minute match, with Kylie trying valiantly to give Harlow everything, getting close to putting her away, but Harlow ultimately coming out on top with something vicious. For people who like women’s wrestling, this is sure to be a highlight of the weekend.
All in all, this should be a fun card and an easy watch. There are some other Wednesday shows I’d probably put ahead of it, but I will for sure be watching this once the footage is released.
