Vogan defeated TJ Rave
The action began with a chain wrestling exchange which initially Vogan had the upper hand until Rave managed to escape by pushing Vogan into the ropes and launching him with an back body drop. The chain wrestling exchange would continue after some more taunting and circling by both men only for Vogan to oddly release TJ Rave from a side headlock before taking Rave to the ground to lock in another headlock. They would then begin to trade strikes, Rave’s forearms versus Vogan’s chops and punches until Vogan would hit a superkick staggering Rave and follow that up with a suplex for a two count off an arrogant pin.
The match would spill to the outside with Vogan delivering a devastating release suplex onto the wood floor before racing back into the ring. After recovering and re-entering the ring Rave would catch a taunting Vogan with german suplex throwing his off the middle rope forcing him to land quite awkwardly on his shoulder. He followed that with a pair of running corner body splashes and an exploder suplex followed by a pin attempt for a two count. Rave would deliver a few strikes to Vogan into the corner including a brutal running haymaker and would attempt a springboard enziguri only to be caught by Vogan with a gutwrench suplex. Once again the action would spill to the outside and once again Vogan would use the environment to brutalize Rave delivering a devastating powerbomb onto the steel barricade. Rave would enter the ring and another striking exchange would ensue and out of nowhere Rave would hit his patented party punch only for Vogan kick out at two. Rave’s frustration began to show and he would hastily rush to the top rope but in a lapse of logic taunt Vogan giving him just enough time to recover throw him off the top rope.
The finishing moments of this match would see Vogan begin to wear down Rave with the intent of weakening him for his Chicken Wing. Rave would try to lock in an armbar to weaken Vogan so he couldn’t lock in the Chicken Wing however this had little effect as Vogan would quickly recover deliver a superkick followed by a german suplex and almost immediately followed that sequence up with a Chicken Wing forcing Rave to tap out.
The reviewers here at TIC rated the match **(½). The monotonous and unexceptional nature of the match lent itself to a more average score, both men are very capable however this was neither of their best showings. By no means was the match bad it was just an average match that did its job in re-exposing the audience to both men. The match did have its impressive moments one of which was the impressive Gutwrench Suplex off of the Handspring Enziguri, however even that edit could have been cleaner but nonetheless it was still quite a creative spot. Issues with pauses in action due to poorly timed maneuvers or taunts really did hamper this match but as I said before it wasn’t a bad match just an average one to get the episode started.
Ryan Ricci Backstage Interview
This interview caused quite the stir here at the TIC office as half of the office were just baffled by its mundaneness while the other half perplexed by Ricci’s lack of geographical knowledge. In what we assume was an attempt to exclusively upset our resident English member staff Bryan Mathews, Ricci stated that Manchester is only good for one thing and that's losing to Croatia in the world cup despite Manchester not participating in the world cup as it is merely a city in England and thus would not be eligible to compete alongside the countries in the world cup. In all seriousness the promo was quite average in both delivery and content, it did its job of allowing Ricci to address his opponents for his upcoming fatal four way at Battle of Miami as well as lay out his championship aspirations.
O'Ryan James & Noah Daye defeated Ryan Ricci & Chris Franchise
Almost immediately the sadistic Ricci began to play mind games with James taunting him only to tag before James could get his hands on him. Once the match did begin however it was an action packed affair as one would expect when you place four high quality Junior Heavyweights in a ring together. Early on James and Daye would display their ability to effectively work together with an impressive DDT German Suplex double team maneuver onto Franchise. Daye would display in mat wrestling ability with a grounded side headlock only for Franchise to escape and display his rule bending bravado with a blatant poke to the eyes. Ricci and Franchise would display some good tag tactics of their own with a double team leg lock diving stomp taking out the legs of Daye early in the match. Ricci would continue to play mind games with James cutting Daye before he could tag in his partner and then taunting James he was being forced to watch his partner be beaten down. Daye would not go down without a fight and would try his hardest to get some offense in on Ricci but to little avail as Ricci with a kick to the head and a poke to the eyes would cut off Daye’s momentum. Ricci would turn his attention to James punching him off the apron before sending Daye into his corner and delivering a clothesline Russian leg sweep combination with Franchise.
Daye would take advantage of Franchise turning his attention to James and deliver a high knee. Daye would finally manage to get Franchise into his corner and along with James return a favor from earlier in the match with double team leg lock diving stomp of their own to a prone Franchise. Continuing this theme of retribution James would turn his attention briefly to Rucci and deliver a punch knocking off the apron. James would continue to target the leg of Franchise with elevated heel locks, leg snaps and a modified figure four leg lock. Franchise would however escape the hold and once again demonstrate a reliance on underhanded tactics with the use of another eye poke to retake control of the match.
As the match progressed Franchise would continue to dissect James and isolate him to their side of the ring. Using vicious striked to keep James grounded, however Franchise would make the mistake of taking his focus away from James to gloat and taunt allowing for the tag to Daye whilst ignoring the request for a tag by his partner. Daye would begin to pick back up the pace of the match with a pair of clotheslines followed by a running high knee. The closing sequence of this match saw Franchise finally crawl to his corner for the tag only for a spiteful Ricci to jump off the apron allowing for day to hit the lumbar check and tag James back in so he could hit the Storm Breaker for the win.
This match was rated ***(½) by the reviewers here at TIC, as stated before it was an action packed and enjoyable affair that effectively built excitement for fatal four way at Battle of Miami. It wasn’t anything truly groundbreaking but it didn’t have to be, it settled for being a wonderful tag team match that fulfilled its purpose.
JC Pullins defeated Harry Agace (Champion vs. Champion)
In champion versus champion match JC Pullins the Jr Heavyweight Champion takes on Harry Agace the World Heavyweight Champion. They began with a grappling contest. As the pace quickened Agace attempted a hip toss which Pullins reversed into a hip toss of his own. After another short exchange of holds, Pullins took down Agace after an irish whip with a drop toe hold which he then transitioned into an stepover toehold facelock. Agace would respond with his very own cobra clutch only for Pullins to escape and respond with a face rake. Pullins would then use a salvo of kicks and a forearm to keep Agace down following it up with a pin for a one count. Pullins then sent Agace into the corner following it up with a running dropkick in the corner merely staggering Agace. Both men then seemed to have the same trend of thought as they both went for dropkicks creating a wonderful colliding dropkick spot.
As the match continued Agace would attempt a dive over the top rope only to be sidestepped by Pullins, however as Pullins would attempt the powerbomb Agace would escape and push him to the floor. Agace would then throw Pullins back into the rope and climb the top turnbuckle but as he jumped off he was caught by Pullins and buckle bombed but that would still only result in a two count for Pullins. From that point the action remained hard hitting and fast paced with both men throwing everything they had in their arsenals at one another delivering a PPV caliber match on a regular episode of FUTURE as we would expected these two champions would.
The finish of this match saw a distraction from Desean Garcia cost Agace as he would hesitate with the rainmaker allowing Pullins to recover and reverse the hit a curb stomp.
The reviewers here at TIC gave the match ***(¾), it was competitive, it was a action packed and it impressed with a relentless pace right up until the end. There were a few mistakes for instance the biggest one being a botched edit that saw Agace teleport to the top turnbuckle then back only to climb the turnbuckle a few second later. The distraction whilst it did play into a fued seemed like a cheap way to keep either champion from looking weak in defeat.
Overall Episode Rating
We rated the episode ***(½), it was aided by two enjoyable matches especially the main event and it was a very effective go home episode before Battle of Miami. The episode’s audio and visual quality was good and consistent throughout and so were the graphics as they always are for FUTURE. We’re excited to what Battle of Miami and FUTURE have in store for us in the future.
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