WrestlePro Results - September 9, 2017

Pretty big night of wrestling at this months WrestlePro show in Rahway, NJ!  Two big title changes, and a great card top to bottom.  The Rahway Rec Center was jam packed for this great show...

• Preshow: Chris Payne won a four way with Joey Keys, Delroy, and Talon

• Mario Bokara/Fallah Bahh def. The Heavenly Bodies

• Tommy Dreamer def. Joey Janela

• Shawn Donovan issues an open challenge for the biggest and baddest guy in the locker room.  Out comes Swoggle!

• Swoggle def. Shawn Donavan

• Apple Corps def. Habib/CPA to become WrestlePro Tag Champs

• Kevin Matthews (KM) def. Johnny Clash

• Bobby Wayward comes out and thanks everyone for coming out to Bobby Wayward Appreciation night.  He invites Hush down to the ring for a match.  Wayward easily defeats Hush.  Wayward then opens a challenge to anyone he hasn't yet beaten.  

• Anthony Bowens comes out to a huge response from the crowd.  Wayward says that Bowens has already been beaten so he is not eligible. Bowens says that he is just here to present the challenger. He brings out a trainee and asks Wayward, "Are you up for facing someone who hates you even more than I do?" Wayward laughs it off and says yes.  Bowens sends the trainee to get the real opponent...CHRIS AVERY QUELING!!

• Chris Avery Queling def. Bobby Wayward to become WrestlePro Champion

• Colt Cabana def. Bobby Lashley. After the match, we find out that Colt had bribed Bobby to give him the win.

• Ryback def. AR Fox in the match of the night

• Dan Maff def. Pat Buck in a steel cage match by handcuffing Buck to the top of the cage.  They are now 1-1 in singles matches.  

• Buck (while still handcuffed to top of the cage) cuts a promo for one last match to decide the winner.  Barbed Wire match at Oct 13 show...and if Maff wins, Pat Buck will never wrestle in WrestlePro again.  

So much I want to talk about here, but let’s start with Chris Avery Queling!  I have been saying forever now that Chris Avery Queling would be the next WrestlePro champion.  Way back in March I posted, “I am thinking Chris Avery Queling deserves a shot at that WrestlePro title.  He looked pretty good with it last night before turning it over to Bobby Wayward.”  The crowd went pretty crazy when CAQ won.  I think that was basically a combination of CAQ definitely being a worthy champion and everyone hoping that this will quiet Wayward down for a while.  The build-up for this match was perfect and it was great to see Bowens involved, since CAQ was responsible for him losing the title in the first place exactly a year ago.

I also loved seeing Apple Corps win the Tag Titles, but I have admitted more than once that I have a huge bias towards Matt Macintosh.  Valerio LaMorte and Matt make a hell of a team, and this was a real solid match.  This match also showed that CPA and Habib can wrestle a more serious match and still put on a great show. During the match, the Apple Corps’ Kasey Catal took a hell of a shot in the face that seems to have broken her nose.  She is a total warrior!

Match of the night was definitely Ryback Vs AR Fox.  In the indys, Ryback has shown that his arsenal is far beyond what he was allowed to showcase in the WWE. This was one of his first matches after some time off dealing with injury, and you certainly couldn’t tell.  Both men put on a hell of a show.  Even the audience members who seemed inclined to hate Ryback when the match started were completely engaged in the match.  Didn’t even have any idiots chanting CM Punk or Goldberg.  Instead, it got “This was awesome” chants, and this was the only match in the show to get those chants. We got to see Ryback do some high flying, and AR Fox even throw some power moves in.  It was just a great match that had plenty of time to tell the story.  I really hope we get to see more AR Fox in WrestlePro very soon.

Colt Cabana and Bobby Lashley had a very entertaining match too.  As predicted, Colt managed to slip a lot of humor into the match, while Lashley was on a whole other level.  The ending was a great surprise, with even Colt seeming surprised that Lashley tapped out.  When it was revealed that Colt paid him to throw the match, it just felt like the perfect punchline to the match.  

I got to meet Tommy Dreamer for the first time at the show.   I have been fortunate to have a lot of great experiences with wrestlers, but Tommy ended up being just about the coolest guy in wrestling.  He noticed that one of my group was wearing a shirt with koala bears...so he grabs his phone and starts flipping through pictures of his recent HoH tour in Australia to show us a great picture of himself hugging a koala.  My girls had no idea who Tommy Dreamer was, but that small interaction immediately made them huge fans.  They almost screamed themselves raw during his brutal match with Joey Janela.  AND HE ACTUALLY WON THE MATCH!  This match was one of the best ECW-style matches I had seen in a very long time…

Speaking of brutal, Danny Maff and Pat Buck once more tried to kill each other, this time in a steel cage.  Buck brought a chair wrapped in barbed wire down to the ring, and the match pretty much started with a chair shot to the head that busted Maff wide open.  Maff actually looked desperate during this match a few times, realizing that Pat Buck had gone to a real dark place.  You don’t expect to see a Maff match end with him handcuffing his opponent and running out of the cage, but it was pretty much the only way he could guarantee his own survival.  This match really showed how much this feud has changed both of these men over the last year or so. And it looks like they will be going at it one more time next month, in a Barbed Wire Match.  

I was disappointed that Johnny Clash couldn’t pull off his first victory, but I thought him and Kevin Matthews had a great match anyway.  A few times, it looked like KM had put Clash away, but Clash kept fighting on.  Despite his less than stellar win-loss record at WrestlePro, I think Johnny Clash is going to have a huge future in the wrestling business.  

I liked the four-way match to start off the show.  Chris Payne, Joey Keys, Delroy, and Talon managed to get the crowd started off hot.  Chris Payne pulled off another big win here.  I really hope this leads to bigger and better things for him.  And Delroy has STAR written all over him.  I have wanted to meet him for a while, and was finally able to at this show.  Only for us to get photo bombed by rabbit ears.  LOL!  Can’t win!

That Tag team match between Fallah Bahh and Mario Bokara vs The Heavenly Bodies is a match that could pretty much headline any indy show.  These four guys are all incredible workers.  That this match opened the show says a lot about how good this card really was.  

Rounding out the card, I really enjoyed Shawn Donavan’s match with Swoggle too.  Donavan always plays his role so well. You really want to see him get his ass kicked every time he gets in that ring.  I also like that Donavan swapped to trunks.  He just has such an old school feel when he gets in the ring, and this look suits him real well.

The next WrestlePro show in Rahway is scheduled for Friday, October 13.  Al Snow, the Million Dollar Man, Sonjay Dutt, and the Spirit Squad will be there, along with all the terrific WrestlePro talent.  You can get your tickets at WrestlePro’s website.  

AND also a shout-out to WrestlePro's coolest fan, Kathy Hummer!  She made these terrific "Hi Eddie" signs to show our...love?... for WrestlePro's own Shining Edward Jackson.  Eddie was thrilled (he's the one in the hat).