On August 22nd, Black Label Pro (BLP) presented two live wrestling events that are currently available on the Independent Wrestling TV streaming service.
The first of which was entitled Erick Stevens Presents Professional Wrestling named after the BLP Heavyweight Champion. However, going into the event BLP and Erick Stevens found controversy after a Twitter angle regarding women professional wrestlers in the United States received backlash.
Both Stevens and the Owner/Promoter of BLP Mikey Blanton apologized for the angle, which was an odd angle choice considering Stevens wasn’t participating in an intergender match during the show and instead has been in a months-long spat with Independent Wrestling Champion (promoted by Independent Wrestling TV and their affiliates) WARHORSE, that has also been supplemented by content on Twitter.
The first contest saw Blake Christian and Alex Zayne team together against the Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini/Kevin Ku). Two weeks ago Christian and Zayne appeared on opposite teams during New Japan Strong, which oddly wasn’t mentioned on commentary by name.
The match itself was in the vein of the modern post-2005 tag-team format, with spots leading to additional spots. However, Garrini mixed in several moments of slick submission-based wrestling.
It’s clear why New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) have an interest in Christian (who made his debut for the company on the August 14th New Japan Strong episode) and Zayne. Both could add depth to their junior heavyweight division and have high ceilings.
The Violence Is Forever team meshes well and showed creative offense before capturing the victory when Ku pinned Zayne at the 12-minute mark.
The first portion of the event also featured Independent Wrestling Champion WARHORSE defend the championship for the 39th time against A Very Good Professional Wrestler (AVGPW) [formerly known as Dasher Hatfield].
In what was one of the best matches of the event, WARHORSE and AVGPW had a fantastic match, where AVGPW showed a high level of skill and understanding of the finer aspects of professional wrestling, while WARHORSE played his Pure Face role extremely well, and is one of the best independent wrestlers within the United States.
WARHORSE would retain the Independent Wrestling Championship at the 12:19 mark with a Top Rope Elbow Drop.
However, his celebration didn’t last long as BLP Champion Erick Stevens attacked WARHORSE after the match. WARHORSE was able to fight Stevens off before walking away proudly with the title belt, likely setting up another match between the two in the future.
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