Xcite Fight Club 12/30/2017

Written by: Bob Colling

Xcite Wrestling presents Fight Club
Date: 12/30/2017
From: Binghamton, NY

Alright, so last night on December 30th, 2017 I attended my third Xcite Wrestling show. My prior two experiences were pretty good. I enjoyed the July and September shows. They had good wrestling and they kept the bad stuff short. This show had a big lineup. Austin Aries, Jimmy Jacobs, Joey Ryan, and Ethan Page are all some big name independent wrestlers and scheduled to compete.

Aries got hurt the weekend before this show and was forced to withdraw. That disappointed me. He was replaced by Braxton Sutter of Impact Wrestling fame. He’ll now challenge Xcite Wrestling Heavyweight Champion Sean Carr.

The show is available on Twitch, which appears to be the case moving forward for Xcite, as well. Lets get to the review.

Opening Contest: Slyck Wagner Brown vs. LSG: Brown starts the match with a middle rope leg lariat, which is usually a finisher, but LSG kicks out at two. Brown slams LSG’s face onto the canvas to keep the advantage early on. LSG gets out of a scoop slam and soon nails Brown with a dropkick. Brown goes to the floor but is kicked by LSG. LSG somersaults off the apron to take Brown out with a dive. LSG shoulder rams Brown on the apron but Brown stops him and catapults LSG throat first into the middle rope. It looked incredibly dangerous as LSG didn’t exactly protect himself. Brown keeps control by slamming LSG’s chest over the apron followed by a kick to the head. Brown drops LSG chest first over the guard railing. LSG slaps Brown to show he still has some fight left. Brown forearms LSG to stop his momentum. Brown grabs a fans viking helmet and wears it before delivering a dropkick to LSG on the apron. Brown goes for the cover but LSG kicks out at two. Brown stomps on LSG to keep the young wrestler on the mat. LSG lands on his feet on a back suplex attempt and kicks Brown. LSG avoids Brown in the corner and nails Brown with a slingshot, somersault clothesline. LSG hits a springboard forearm shot but Brown kicks out on the cover at two. Brown avoids a suplex with a forearm shot. Brown ducks a clothesline and takes LSG down with a dragon screw leg whip. Brown continues with a quick DDT causing LSG to roll to the apron. Brown goes to the apron as well and they trade strikes. Brown kicks LSG off the apron and takes LSG out with a suicide dive to the floor! Brown covers LSG but can’t get a three count. Brown puts LSG on the top turnbuckle and looks for a superplex. LSG holds onto the ropes and fights Brown off. LSG kicks Brown and soon hits a neck breaker. LSG heads to the top rope looking for a 450 splash but Brown got his knees up. Brown pulls LSG up and hits a quick power bomb for the win. (**1/4. It’s a decent match to start the show. LSG didn’t hit anything for his high flying stuff and that was a disappointment. I feel like they could have don’t a lot more here.) After the match, Slyck raises LSG’s arm to show some respect before walking out of the ring.

Backstage, Brute Van Slyke cut a promo with Kevin Kelly about his match against Alexander James for the Xcite International Championship. Brute talks about opportunity being taken away from him when he hurt his leg back in September. He cut a biblical promo and it was just weird.

Second Contest: Cloudy & Isys Ephex vs. Boots & Lariats (Ray Ross & Pat Sawyer) vs. Killer Instinct (Michael Skyro & Jacoby Riddick): The team of TJ Marconi and Anthony Gagnone were also supposed to be in this match, but for reasons that announced they weren’t at the show. Back in September, Sawyer was part of the Crusade for Change and was in the War Games match. The same group that wanted to end Xcite Wrestling. Now, he has randomly formed a team with Ray Ross. No reason or storyline leading into that. That stuff bugs me. Sawyer is also dressed very similar to Kevin Nash and uses a lot of his moves. This match live was not very good and I’m going to give it a short recap treatment, as I will with several matches. I’m fairly certain that Ephex and Cloudy are the only guys in the match that have been wrestling for more than 3 years. The match felt like teachers helping students get through a match as it was kept rather simple. At one point, Sawyer and Ross didn’t seem interested in getting in the match. They couldn’t agree on who should go in. Sawyer got more in-ring time and Ross appeared to be not so a happy with it. Sawyer is considered to be the future of Xcite Wrestling. He’s a tall kid but they don’t exactly protect his size when a smaller guy can easily put him on his shoulders and slam him. Even watching it on Twitch it feels like the match is never ending. Late in the match, Ross and Sawyer hit a dangerous vertical suplex/power bomb combo on Skyros that made me think that Skyros broke his neck. It was incredibly dangerous and not well thought out. Towards the end of the match, everyone starts to hit their speciality moves. Cloudy hits a reverse hurricanrana on Riddick and Ephex delivered a running knee strike for the win. (*. This went on for far too long and the crowd was not into it. Xcite should probably get tag titles soon because then there’d be a reason to care about the tag division.)

Third Contest: Axel Lennox vs. Rob Cook vs. Simon Queen vs. Nick Ando: I feel like Xcite continues to waste someone like Nick Ando in these kind of matches. Ando was a great asset to 2CW and was a believable main event guy for an independent promotion. He’s just being wasted in these kind of matches. Queen isn’t good at all and shouldn’t be on wrestling shows. Axel has a new look as he cut his hair and looks better. Rob Cook appears to have drank a beer during his entrance. I hope I’m wrong on that one, but if he did then that’s just messed up, too. This was billed as a Tough Man tournament match. Queen chases after Cook on the floor but runs into the ring post, which was awkwardly funny as it happened in front of me. For some reason, Queen was selling the back of his head and not his forehead. It was kind of funny that at one point they mistimed a spot on the floor where Cook was going to fall off the middle rope to the floor. It looked rather awkward. Lennox won the match after hitting Ando with a neck breaker. (1/2*. It’s just not good wrestling and there were some timing issues that didn’t help matters.) After the match, Rob Cook, who was a good guy at the last show, stays in the ring and gives them the finger. No explanation for that apparent heel turn.

Fourth Contest: Xcite International Champion Alexander James vs. Brute Van Slyke: Kevin Kelly has joined commentary for this match. He’s really putting over Xcite. Kelly does an excellent job putting over James with his past victorious in WXW. That’s what you need to do to put over local or lesser known names. Brute starts the match with a scoop slam and a backdrop. Brute misses a lariat but blocks a boot and forearms James. James runs the ropes but gets met with a Pounce. Brute goes to the floor and prevents James from leaving the match. Brute rams James face first onto the apron. Brute continues to work over James with a chop. Brute delivers a palm strike against the railing. Brute tries to get back into the ring and James begins to focus his attack on the previously injured calf of Brute. This is where the match really slows down and the flow of it just suffers. James keeps control of the leg for several minutes, but Brute eventually makes a comeback with various suplexs, which kind of diminishes the leg work that James focused on throughout the match. Late in the match, Brute hits a TKO while hobbling on his left leg but can’t make the cover. Brute has a chair but the referee takes that away. James gets a rollup and has a handful of tights to steal the victory. (*1/4. It wasn’t a good match and it was a bummer since I really enjoy Alexander James. I’m thinking these two just don’t mesh well in the ring. Brute normally does very well with wrestlers smaller than him to put over his size. By the way, Brute’s manager has a book with Jim Cornette’s face on it. I don’t think many people realized that.)

Fifth Contest: Joey Ryan vs. Dick Justice: Well, this was a heavily promoted match by Xcite. Personally, I had very little interest in it. I’m not a big comedy wrestling fan, so understand that for this review. There were moments that made me laugh, but the overall segment and match just went too long. For the first time to my knowledge, fans tossed Blow Pops into the ring during Joey Ryan’s entrance. They proceeded to “wrestle” with the Blow Pops in the ring. I put that in quotes because they didn’t exactly do much in the ring. This was a glorified comedy match. Joey tried to get Justice to touch his penis and as usual, Justice would do the penis flip spot. In fact, Justice had actually managed to block the spot, which is another thing I don’t recall seeing. Prior to taking the bump, Justice used his “gun” and shot Ryan in the groin, but the bullet came back and hit him in the eye. So, there were some humorous spots in the match. Ryan won the match following a super kick. (*. If you enjoy wrestling matches, then you won’t enjoy this like many others did. If you enjoy comedy wrestling, then this is going to be a match you’d wanna to watch. Don’t get me wrong, Joey is a really good wrestler, but his current act doesn’t necessarily mean he has to showcase that. It works for him and for many fans, so good for him.) After the match, a man enters the ring and brings his girlfriend in as well. He proposes. She says yes.

At this point, there is a 15 minute intermission, and they show a match between Nick Ando and Anthony Gaines from the last Xcite show. They also showed a Ray Ross/Simon Queen match from the same show.

Ethan Page comes out and cuts a promo about having a lame video for his entrance, which is what he did last time he was in Xcite. He complains about being cold and notes that he has pointy nipples because of it. The fans chant pointy nipples towards him. This leads to Greg Xcellent coming out in winter clothing.

Sixth Contest: Ethan Page vs. Greg Xcellent: So, we just had a comedy match and a 15-minute intermission and then we come back with a comedy match. I don’t know why these two couldn’t have just wrestled a match. Xcellent is involved in a feud with the top champion and a good showing in a singles match would raise interest in the eventual rematch. I know Xcellent is a “goofy” character, but come on. Page is a really good wrestler and has yet to really show his ability in Binghamton with the trend to be funny instead of good wrestling matches. Page tried to get Greg’s winter hat off and deliver chops, but Greg couldn’t feel them since he’s wearing winter clothing. Eventually, Page gets some offense going and is able to take Greg’s winter clothing off. Page puts on Greg’s first pair of tights to get warm, but Greg’s wearing three layers of clothing. Greg’s offense is more comedy as he bites the nipples of Page and twists his nipples. Page nearly wins with an ace crusher from the apron back into the ring. Page strips Xcellent down to his superman underwear. Page attempts a sunset flip, but Xcellent blocks it and tells Page “I’m sorry, I love you.” and proceeds to sit down in his underwear to pin Page. (*. Again, if you prefer comedy wrestling then you’d enjoy this. I don’t understand why you’d do two comedy matches after each other. The format for this show is a little confusing to me. This match was going to be a tough one to be successful considering the previous comedy match was better and involved bigger names.)

Backstage, Xcite Champion Sean Carr cuts a promo about his match with Braxton Sutter. Carr says that it does card subject to change. He looked up to Braxton Sutter. The card may be subject to change, but the result is going to be the same. He’s walking out as Xcite Heavyweight Champion.

Seventh Contest: Jimmy Jacobs vs. Joe Gacy: Apparently, Jacobs had a bad limp arriving to the arena so he was injured beforehand. Considering Aries had to pull out from injury, Jacobs insisted he compete because it wouldn’t be fair to the fans to have two bigger names not appear on the show. It’s noticeable that he’s not bending his left leg very much, so it’s likely a knee injury. Jacobs throws his jacket at Gacy and Gacy puts the jacket on to play to the crowd. Gacy gets back in the ring and wipes his butt with the jacket. Jacobs gets it back and smells the jacket. Gacy punches Jacobs and he bails to the floor still not bending his leg at all. Jacobs gets a microphone and says he’s a princess and he gets what he wants. He wants Gacy to apologize. Gacy apologizes for what he’s about to do and punches Jacobs. They brawl on the floor trading chops. Jacobs misses a chop and hits the ring post. Gacy gets on the apron but Jacobs trips Gacy to slam Gacy on the apron back first. Jacobs spears Gacy out of the corner to regain some control of the match. Gacy drops Jacobs with a big boot. Jacobs has to keep his left leg straight in the air. Gacy heads to the top rope and connects with a big splash for a two count. Jacobs surprises Gacy with an ace crusher for a two count. Gacy somersaults out of the corner to deliver a neck breaker and nearly wins the match. Gacy puts in the Rings of Saturn and Jacobs has to submit. (*1/4. I have to give credit to Jacobs for working injured. I think if Jacobs was healthy these two would be able to put on a really good match. Hopefully Jacobs can return to Xcite in 2018 and have a proper match with Gacy.)

Kevin Kelly is back on commentary to call the main event.

Main Event: Xcite Heavyweight Champion Sean Carr vs. Braxton Sutter: Sutter attacks carr before the bell and stomps away on Carr in the corner. Sutter taunts the fans essentially turning himself heel within ten-seconds of the match. Sutter misses a clothesline and Carr connects with a heel kick. Carr kicks Sutter in the midsection and delivers a kick to the chest. Carr hits a standing moonsault and pummels Sutter with right hands. Carr springboards off the middle rope to clothesline Sutter off the apron. Carr hops to the floor and continues to work over Sutter with chops. Carr goes for a chop but he hits the ring post, just like the previous match. Sutter suplexs Carr onto the apron and taunts the crowd again. Sutter runs around ringside but gets stopped with a kick on the chin. Carr runs around ringside and nails Sutter with a kick to the head against the railing. Carr nails Sutter with a second running boot against the railing. Carr drives Sutter onto the apron with a back suplex. Carr heads to the top rope but Sutter ducks on the leaping attempt and spikes Carr down with a DDT. Sutter doesn’t go for a cover. Sutter drops Carr with a short arm clothesline. Sutter delivers another short arm clothesline. Sutter continues to work over Carr with a chop and drops Carr with a back elbow strike. Sutter controls Carr with an abdominal stretch and fish hooks the champ. Sutter puts his right hands on the ribs of Carr. Sutter connects with a pump handle backbreaker for a two count. Sutter tries to get a submission with a headlock. Sutter plants Carr with a snap power slam for a two count.

Carr elbows Sutter in the corner and delivers a boot in the corner. Carr comes off the middle rope with a Codebreaker. They begin to trade forearms in the middle of the ring. Carr nails Sutter with a boot to the face but is met with a forearm. Carr comes off the ropes with a couple of clotheslines and a heel kick. Carr runs into an elbow in the corner but still hits a fireman’s carry and moonsault off the middle rope for a near fall. Carr gets ready for a super kick but Sutter is able to block it. Carr delivers a neck breaker over his knee for a two count. Carr heads to the top rope but misses a moonsault. Sutter plants Carr with a power bomb but Carr kicks out at two. Sutter works over Carr against the ropes but Carr nails Sutter with a super kick. Anthony Gaines comes out to ringside and gets on the apron. Gaines drops Carr across the top rope and Sutter hits the Pepper Shaker but Carr kicks out! Jonathan Ashe is also at ringside and was distracting the referee. Carr kicks Sutter on the head and has to deal with Gaines. Sutter almost runs into Gaines, but Carr super kicks Gaines. Ashe gets knocked off the apron after Sutter runs into him on accident. Carr gets a rollup and wins the match. (***. A solid match and a good main event. It was easily the best match on the show and was at least a good way to end a rather disappointing show, in my opinion.)

After the match, several men enter the ring and attack Carr. They are apparently Buffalo Brothers and were carrying Sutter’s bags into the arena. Two smaller wrestlers deliver running elbows to Carr in the corner while a bigger guy hits a splash and a power slam. They are known as the Buffalo Club, apparently. Sutter goes for a piledriver but Joe Gacy and Greg Xcellent run in and make the save. This leads to Carr and Xcellent having a showdown with the championship and Carr accidentally super kicking Gacy. All three men start to brawl in the ring even as officials try to break them up. Eventually, it’s announced that on March 2nd it will be a four way match for the Xcite Heavyweight Championship. It will be Carr vs. Sutter vs. Gacy vs. Xcellent.

Final Thoughts:
I was disappointed by this show as it had a strong lineup, but it failed to deliver the quality action I was use to seeing from the previous two shows in July and September. They had to work around some injuries, which was a bummer and out of their control. I’m not giving up on Xcite, but I think the next few shows I’ll check out on Twitch before I return to the American Legion.

2018:

As we head into 2018 I thought I’d take a look at a few things for Xcite Wrestling. Xcite is a fun wrestling company and they have some good young talent. I don’t want this review to detract from the company, but I have to be honest with my own personal tastes. Xcite being on Twitch is a great move and like I said, I’ll continue to watch them on there at least for the next few shows. As for my predictions or thoughts on 2018 for Xcite…

Sean Carr/Greg Xcellent: They had a really good ladder match back in July and there has been a slow build to their eventual rematch. If I recall correctly, Carr won the title in June, beat Xcellent in July, and they are booking this to a third and final showdown. Their interactions at the end of the last shows have been intense and interesting. I think we see these guys end it in a cage match and I’d like to an old school bloodbath match. It fits with the feud and seems a proper way to end the feud.

Mike Skyros: He’s one half of Killer Instinct and stands out as being the better of the two workers. However, at the show it really hit me that he needs to change his character. I was telling my friends that he should be like Shawn Michaels in 1992. That self obsessed pretty boy. I think it would just work for him very well.

LSG: I’m not sure if Xcite is aware, but LSG could possibly be their next Sean Carr in terms of popularity. He wasn’t given a chance to shine this time around, but he’s a lot of fun and can be a great underdog. Look out for this guy in 2018 for Xcite and probably ROH, too.

Slyck Wagner Brown: Slyck is really underrated and has gotten himself in better shape since his knee injury a few years ago. He’s another guy that Xcite has on their roster that is main event caliber and can work with anyone.

Storytelling: Xcite really needs to develop continuity and pacing of a show. This show struggled with pacing as the two comedy matches right after each other hurt the viewing experience. I think if you switch the Page/Xcellent match where LSG/Slyck was at, then there is better pacing. Ryan/Justice could have gone on right before the main event and not killed the crowd. There’s also character heel/face turns that aren’t explained. My brain is always craving creativity and I hope Xcite focuses on that in 2018.

Xcite returns to Binghamton and Twitch on March 2nd. I’ll be covering that show. So, be on the lookout for that review. You can learn more about Xcite at http://www.xcitewrestling.com

Thanks for reading.