Mercury Rising WWN Supershow 4/1/17 Review

Not sure how this is gonna go as I feel this is the weakest card of the main WWN shows but hopefully it is good.

Drew Galloway interrupted Lenny Leonard to start the show for the second time this weekend. He said that he is no longer trying to save EVOLVE from itself but WWN as a whole. He brought up Riddle who then came out and attacked him. They brawled on the outside but Galloway ended up getting Riddle back in the ring and hitting a brutal piledriver on him. The rest of Catch Point ran to the ring but Galloway got to the outside. They helped Riddle as Galloway made his way up the ramp, still talking. He turned around and Keith Lee was standing there. He turned his attention on the mic to Lee while Lee walked towards Galloway and got him back in the ring. Galloway asked him to join him but Lee turned him down. Galloway headbutted him and Lee ended up hitting him with a pop-up powerbomb and a moonsault. This was a fun segment that continued the build to the match to crown the first WWN Champion while making Keith Lee look like a beast. 

Keith Lee vs Jason Kincaid vs Austin Theory vs Gatekeeper #1

Stokely Hathaway came out and said that Thatcher would not be involved in this match as scheduled and would be in the WWN Championship match main event. A girl in the crowd right behind Stoke looked deeply disappointed by this announcement. Darby Allin came out and said he is not medically cleared to compete but would join this match anyway. Ethan Page came out and attacked him from behind and sent one of the Gatekeepers in. So we went from two separate singles match to a four way with Thatcher to a four way with Allin to a four way with a Gatekeeper. Okay. This ended up being a very short match sadly that pretty much only helped Keith Lee. I don’t actually remember Jason Kincaid doing one move. I’m all for Keith Lee getting a push as he’s one of my favorites and had amazing matches on the two EVOLVE shows of the weekend but this was very disappointing considering all the time it took to get the match finally started. The first match didn’t begin until 34 minutes after the scheduled start time and then is only around 6 minutes? *1/2

SHINE Championship

Lufisto (c) vs Toni Storm

The women’s showcase matches on the Supershow were disappointing the last two years so I was hoping this would break the curse. This was scheduled to be Lufisto vs Su Yung but that obviously isn’t happening for whatever reason. Poor Papa Hales came with his Su shirt for a match that didn’t happen. I like Lufisto a lot and have heard good things about Toni. Both girls did well and had another pretty short match but I’d say it was definitely better than the first one. Lets not change any more scheduled matches though. **1/4

Ethan Page vs Jimmy Havoc

Wasn’t sure what to think about this going in as both are hit or miss in ring for me (Ethan had an amazing performance at EVOLVE 81) but are great characters. Havoc was extremely over and this ended up being a very good match until the finish. I understand wanting to continue pushing Ethan as a top heel but unless Havoc continues to play a role in the Page vs Darby feud (which I doubt he will) this finish is annoying. Really enjoyable match hurt quite a bit by the finish. ***

Chris Dickinson and Jaka vs TK Cooper and Travis Banks

I missed about a minute of this match early on due to FloSlam problems (ugh) but this ended up being a pretty good match that I would’ve liked to see go a few more minutes. Will probably rewatch at some point so I can see the whole thing uninterrupted but it was nice to see a match happen without a change to the card or a screwy finish. Everyone looked good here and it was impressive that they were able to get the crowd back into the show after the booking of the first three matches. **3/4

Oh my god. Drew Galloway “has an injury to his ribs” and will no longer be participating in the main event. If this is real I hope he is okay but if it’s a storyline you have got to be kidding me. Update: WWE pulling Drew Galloway, who has been advertised for this show and match for months, just to have him appear in the crowd at NXT is extremely wrong. Especially with the other changes to the show. Messed up. 

PROGRESS Championship

Pete Dunne (c) vs ACH 

This was a fantastic match, one of my favorites of the weekend. Dunne was so brutal to ACH throughout the early goings in the match and I loved seeing ACH get his revenge with his fake-out low blow (I dislike when he does that in face vs face matches like I believe he did at one point at 16 Carat but it worked here) and biting Dunne’s fingers after he had his bit. It was good all the way through and remained interesting the whole time while elevating into something truly special. One of the best matches of the weekend and another great performance from ACH. ***1/2

EVOLVE Championship

Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs Mark Haskins

Zack Sabre Jr has been one of my favorite wrestlers for almost 3 years now and Mark Haskins has been my favorite PROGRESS guy since I started watching the promotion in early 2016. But sadly I was not into this match very much at all. I’m sure there were people who loved this but I just wasn’t one of those people. *3/4

WWN Championship

Matt Riddle vs Parrow vs Fred Yehi vs Tracy Williams vs Jon Davis vs Timothy Thatcher

Even though Riddle was the obvious choice going in I was hoping they’d have a surprise and have Yehi or Tracy came out on top. I’m not sure how I felt about this match. I was disappointed with Parrow being eliminated very early as him and Davis being there added a unique aspect to the match. The Catch Point guys being the final 3 was also kind of predictable and the match in general was. Even though there was a lot of predictability, I was not expecting Tracy to screw Yehi as quickly as he did so that was nice. I’m happy for Riddle and it was a nice moment followed by some very good interactions with Tracy but their interactions towards the end got repetitive. There ended up being too many nearfalls and submissions to the point where I just wanted them to hurry up and just have Riddle win. Predictability and some flaws aside it was a nice feel good moment to end a decent show that needed one. **1/2

Overall Review: As I expected, this was not as good as EVOLVE 80 or 81 wrestling wise and the booking for the early portion of the show was atrocious. There were way too many changes and having the screwy finish when people were still upset about the card changes was annoying. There was some very good wrestling on the show with the best matches of the night being Ethan Page vs Jimmy Havoc which was surprisingly very good if you ignore the finish and ACH vs Pete Dunne which was as great as you’d expect. 

Overall Rating: 5.5/10.