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There’s an old adage that goes “Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it” I used these words last week “Hearing the ringside announcers would probably help the product.” I got my wish for the 2/24 and 3/2 episode of Pro Wrestling Ohio and the results will be on full display during this review.
Michael Cash, the backstage interviewer, starts the show with Jimmy DeMarco who is making his debut in the P.W.O. DeMarco then verbally runs down Ohio sports teams. The referee comes wandering into the interview and tells DeMarco that he’ll keep an eye on him because he’s known as a cheater. The first match starts next and it’s Jimmy DeMarco versus Matthew Justice. The announcer, who remains nameless through out the course of the show, apologizes for the show not having commentary on the previous show. He says that his colleague, Jamie Scott, has been censored by the network and will be off TV for at least a couple of weeks for being too controversial. The match has been going on during this talk but not much has happened. The announcer then starts filling in more of DeMarco’s back story by saying that he’s from Pittsburgh and he’s fighting the Cleveland born Justice. He really hams up the “rivalry” between the two cities during the entire match. He also goes on to say that DeMarco’s reputation “superceded” him to the P.W.O. DeMarco constantly is pulling off cheating maneuvers or breaking choke holds at the four count. The match comes to a conclusion when DeMarco hit’s a TKO on Justice but then he immediately slides out of the ring and grabs a chair. As the ref pulls it out of his hands, Justice rolls him up from behind for the win at the nine minute mark. I’ve got more than a couple of problems with this match. If someone is making their debut, they should win even if they’re a heel from “evil” Pittsburgh. Second, why would anyone go to get a chair when they have victory at hand? I could maybe understand if they were in a long standing feud but again, he’s making his debut. Even painting him as a complete lunatic doesn’t quite cut it because no league would want someone that constantly got disqualified.
Mike Tolar is the second interview which starts with Michael Cash informing us that he was an All American wrestler at Kent State. He cuts a very green, goofy heel promo. He is also making his debut after the commercial break. He is wrestling Cronus, who looks a bit like Charlie Haas. Cronus is accompanied at ring side by his agent Aaron MacGuire. The announcer decides not to talk about the match but does fill us in about “Bloody” Morty Rackem and his swords. He was descended from real life pirates and the swords are heirlooms. The Viruses initially stole the swords when they put Morty’s partner in the Cut Throat Crew out of wrestling for good. The announcer then starts talking about Gregory Iron’s concussion problems but then realizes he hasn’t called the match about four minutes into it. He apologizes for not focusing on it but feels he needed to catch everyone up on last week’s happenings. The announcer then mentions that Cronus is undefeated and mentions that Kent State “is right near by here.” It’s a forty five minute drive at most from Cleveland and everyone in the broadcast area knows about the university. Tolar goes on the offensive for a couple of minutes to save this match from being a complete squash. Cronus wins with an F5 in an eight minute match. MacGuire is evidently all about the money which means he wants Cronus to continue his winning streak. He announces that “they’re not done yet tonight” before they head to the back. Again, how do you have someone debuting lose especially against someone who is undefeated and being pushed as a monster. At least the announcer apologized for not focusing on the match. A segment airs from backstage last week. The same ref that wandered into the interview earlier talks to Gregory Iron about his symptoms from his concussion. Iron does a fairly poor job of acting dizzy.
After the commercial break, the third match gets underway with the Olsen Twins taking on Johnny Gargano and Josh Prohibition. Lexi Lane isn’t at ringside with Gargano and Prohibition but Sassy Steph is in the Olsen twins’ corner. The twins get the crowd into the match from the ring of the bell. Jimmy and Colin execute nice over the top rope cross body blocks on to the floor. After throwing the heels into the ring, Colin hit’s a nice standing moonsault. The announcer then mentions that Colin ‘Delaney’ Olsen is indeed on PWO and “He’s not in the land of monsters and giants. It’s about athletic wrestling competition (here).” Don’t pick on the WWE when you can’t get TNA to worry. Prohibition and Gargano do a good job of isolating Jimmy Olsen, which was a lacking aspect to the tag team matches last week. Colin eventually gets the hot tag and cleans house. Gargano and Prohibition double team him to swing moment back into their favor. Jimmy gets caught in the ropes after he tries to help Colin which allows the heels to hit an “assisted drunk driver” which is basically a stuff double underhook driver. It’s a nice finisher for a tag team. The match went about eleven minutes. Colin hasn’t gotten in much offense in the WWE but he executes quite well. Before the commercial break, Micahel Cash interviews Jason Bane who looks like a generic version of Albert/A-Train. I notice that he has z Black Flag and what appears to be an Alice in Chains sun tattoos on his right arm. He talks about how he’s been the dominant singles wrestler and he isn’t going to worry about taking on Vincent Nothing since he was only been a tag team wrestler until now. Cash’s facial reactions during this promo are laughably expressive.
Bane is the only person to get a ring introduction this week and he’s billed at 6’-8” and 280 lbs. which even the announcer calls too low. This match is a no disqualification match because these two have been costing each other their matches recently. Nothing is trying to prove that he belongs in the upper echelon of singles wrestlers and attacks Bane as soon as he slides into the ring. Bane quickly takes to the offense. After going to the outside and using a cookie sheet several times on Nothing, Bane goes for a clothesline but misses and hit’s the ring post. Vincent does a good job of working over the injured arm. After he makes one mistake though, Jason Bane forgets to sell the arm injury and gives him a pump handle DVD for the victory at the nine minute mark. Three guys were trying to prove themselves tonight and they all lost. This match was the only one that made sense because no one was clearly biting off more than he could chew and needed to build up to wrestling Bane. I haven’t seen a title belt in the two shows and Bane is being billed as the top of the mountain. My suspicions are confirmed when Aaron MacGuire and Cronus come out to challenge Bane who as the baby face obviously wants to take Cronus on right away. Like any good heel, they say it will happen at their time as the show comes to an end. They had five minutes left according to my DVR so they really could have show Nothing’s introduction or even a short promo by him before the match earlier in the broadcast to help hype the main event.
As I’ve mainly noted, the announcer focused on pushing the feuds and was trying to play catch up because of their technical problems from the previous broadcast so that hampered the announcing as a whole. It did help to fill in a lot of blanks that maybe I didn’t want filled. Playing up an existing football “rivalry“ is no way to promote two wrestlers. Two debuts were both ruined by having those guys, DeMarco and Tolar, lose. There is what I can only imagine is the jobber on their roster who is named Hobo Joe who could have taken one of the loses. “Bloody” Morty is basically playing Paul Birchill’s gimmick taken to the hilt so it will be interesting to see where this goes even if it’s likely a train wreck. The Olsen twins lost but were being billed as hired guns by Sassy Steph and Colin Delaney’s full time job in the WWE confirms their good booking for that match. The last match was also well booked and helped to set up the next big feud between Bane and Cronus. Back to the announcer to wrap things up though. He was a solid announcer when not focusing on the storylines. He was definitely better than listening to Don West, Mike Tenay, Jonathon Coachman or Michael Cole. It would really have helped to have his name but overall I was happy with his performance even if some of the booking is a bit questionable.
Kevin DiFrango is the leech that sustains himself off the greatness of the DEJ Audio Experience. Keep an eye out for their blogs on the free site along with additional VIP member only material that comes out of our creative minds. If you feel like you have some ideas to stir into our pot, email me at difrango11@gmail.com Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
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