DEADLOCK Pro Wrestling
Tag Festival 2025
July 13, 2025
Durham Convention Center
Durham, NC
Watch: DPW On Demand
DPW World Tag Team Title – DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round Match
Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) (c) def. Bang And Matthews (August Matthews & Davey Bang)
GYV opened the show by immediately raising the stakes, announcing that they were putting the tag titles on the line in this tournament. This opener isn’t going to take up much room in my mind in the future, but it did its job setting up the story for the rest of the show. Bang and Matthews were solid in their debut, they may have even gotten too much offense. The Bang and Matthews offense did lead to my spot of the night though, as Bang launched Matthews from a wheelbarrow directly into a throat chop from Gibson. GYV moves on to the finals. ***
DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round Match
Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller & Kylon King) def. Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku)
Violence is Forever have been the faces of DPW’s tag division for years and enter this tournament looking to repeat last year’s victory and snap their four match losing streak in the process. Miracle Generation have surged in 2025, winning their first two matches before taking the champions to the brink at Limit Break. Miracle Generation are no strangers to Violence is Forever. VIF eliminated them in the semifinals of the 2023 Tag Festival and once again in the finals of the 2024 edition.
This match was good for the situation with two face teams meeting in the opening round of a tournament, but it was missing a little bit of heat. I feel like there is a better match in these guys if there is a program, preferably in the form of a VIF turn. I loved the finish. As Violence is Forever went for a second Chasing the Dragon, Waller held Garrini’s leg as King rolled up Ku for the win. The losing streak continues and VIF, Ku specifically, appear to be nearing their breaking point. ***¼
DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round Match
Jake Something & The Beast Mortos def. Adam Priest & Trevor Lee
This is the first time the DPW World Champion has entered the Tag Festival, and unfortunately for Adam Priest, it backfired nearly immediately. With Jake Something hot on his heels, Adam Priest swiftly avoided defending his title by entering the Tag Festival with fellow malcontent Trevor Lee. It turns out that Priest was a bit too quick on the draw, as the remaining open spot in the tournament was filled by The Beast Mortos and Jake Something.
These Priest and Lee tags may not be the type of match that lands in your top 10 at the end of the year, but I always enjoy how they’re worked with the heel team being timid until they’re able to pounce on an advantage. Interactions between Something and Priest were kept to a minimum. Something and Mortos move on to the final after Something pins Lee with Into the Void. ***¼
DPW Tag Festival 2025 First Round Match
The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) def. Cowboy Way (1 Called Manders & Thomas Shire)
After The WorkHorsemen’s injuries opened up a spot for Cowboy Way in the 2024 Tag Festival, they meet in the first round of the 2025 tournament. The WorkHorsemen’s last DPW match was in February of 2024 against the formidable duo of Tyler Breeze and Chris Danger.
This was the most exciting match of the first round on paper and it delivered, ending the first round with a bang. Hard hitting work with an edge. This is the intensity that I was looking for in VIF vs Miracle Generation. WorkHorsemen advance to the final. *** ½
Battle Of The Best 2025 First Round Match
Queen Aminata def. Jada Stone
What Aminata has done over the past few months is refreshing to see in the current wrestling climate. She has cultivated this aura of unpredictability, pardon the overused word. Her offense is so nasty that it had people convinced she was shooting. She feels authentic and dangerous, which is sadly a unique distinction in 2025. She was great in this one. Jada Stone wasn’t coming out to go 50/50 in this one, but she looked pretty good bar some handsprings that looked a little slow. Aminata moves on, and I hope that she wins the whole thing. ***¼
DPW National Title Match
LaBron Kozone (c) vs. Cedric Alexander
This was a little underwhelming. After watching Cedric’s first couple matches in DPW, I was intrigued how this match would look. Cedric had been working a powerhouse style against some smaller opponents. I was interested to see how that would play out against Kozone when he wouldn’t be the stronger man, but it was the same story. Cedric worked the back, which was the smartest thing to do to build to the Lumbar Check, but the build felt a little too long and was undermined when Kozone’s comeback was all power moves. They traded finisher kickouts and Kozone picked up the win after two Ballgame Lariats. ***½
DPW World Tag Team Title DPW Tag Festival 2025 Final Match
Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller & Kylon King) def. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) (c), Jake Something & The Beast Mortos, and The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake)
After being very critical of Grizzled Young Veterans early in the year, I’m going to take some time to praise them. When they won the titles, I thought it was clearly a quick transitional reign and that I would be seeing another title change in Vegas, but what I saw instead was a match that turned me back around on GYV. In a handful of matches, they were able to redeem a title change that I hated at the time, get themselves over as an obstacle to be overcome, legitimize Miracle Generation as the next team up, and drop the title to them.
The Tag Festival final is an elimination match, and they got the order of elimination right. It was obvious there was going to be some interference from either Priest or Lee, and they got it out of the way early so it didn’t factor into the finish of the match. To my chagrin, the WorkHorsemen were the next to be eliminated. They hit the Widowmaker on Dustin Waller, only for Henry to be rolled up and eliminated by James Drake. Hats off to WorkHorsemen, they were the best team in the tournament. This left Miracle Generation against GYV in a repeat of Limit Break where Miracle Generation nearly won the titles. The last section of this match was good, if not a little melodramatic. King was dispatched with a spike Tombstone on the outside, and Waller kicked out of a couple GYV finishers. Miracle Generation win the tournament and the titles. ***½
Final Thoughts
While there weren’t any matches you need to go out of your way to seek out, DPW’s Tag Festival tournament was a fun watch and marks the start of a new chapter of DPW’s tag division.
