9/12 WSU Excellence iPPV Results: Voorhees, New Jersey
* Show started nearly an hour later than the scheduled start time of 4PM ET due to internet issues with the iPPV feed and camera issues to film the show. Greg Excellent & Dan Barry came out at one point to entertain the crowd and stall for time while the issues were being addressed in the building.
1. Hania def. Tessa Blanchard by pinfall with a running flying knee strike. Solid opener, Blanchard continues to get more seasoning each and every time out there, she already does well at interacting with the crowd and being very expressive on her selling and comebacks. Story of the show, though, was that due to the late start, while there were many instances were the crowd was into things, the overall ebb and flow was hurt due to the late start. No one’s fault on that, stuff happens sometimes.
2. Solo Darling & Brittany Blake def. Veda Scott & Angeldust by pinfall when Solo pinned Angeldust with a Springboard Stunner. Very fun match, especially with the pre-match antics where there was almost a near “8 Mile” Battle Rap going on with Veda & Solo. Veda’s tease of doing the rap was hysterical, putting Angeldust’s hat on backwards, felt very much like the classic Christian-Tomko-Cena interaction from Royal Rumble 2005.
3. Athena def. Sumie Sakai by DQ when Hania interfered and attacked Athena. Good match, but the post-match was the story with Hania & Athena getting into a pull-apart brawl until WSU Owner DJ Hyde came out and made an impromptu main event of Hania vs. Athena to blow-off their rivalry in an Uncensored Rules Match.
4. WSU Spirit Champion Leva Bates def. Penelope Ford to retain the title by submission with a Dragon Clutch. This was decent, but it was plain as day during this that while Penelope, a student at the CZW Academy, has gotten a good amount of seasoning under her belt over the past 6 months to a year, the stage was a little too big for her so early into her career. Crowd was very much into Leva, so it allowed for the match to have good reaction behind it, but it just didn’t click for Penelope on this night. Definite learning experience for her that she can take things from and improve upon to be even better when given another opportunity, because the potential is definitely there with her. Also liked Leva busting out a new finisher with the Dragon Clutch, brings a different dynamic now to her matches where just at a drop of a hat, she can tap someone out with that hold. Overall, this was fine for what it was.
5. WSU Tag Team Champions Chicks Using Nasty Tactics (Annie Social & Kimber Lee) (c’s) def. The Dollhouse (Marti Bell & Jade) to retain the titles by pinfall when Kimber pinned Jade after Social laid out Jade with a rolling elbow. Very good match, better than their first match at the last WSU show in July. All 4 worked very hard and beat the snot outta each other with a barrage of strikes at different points. Social & Marti both really shined here as well, lots of good character stuff from Marti and very fun comebacks worked by Social. Good stuff.
6. WSU Champion Cherry Bomb def. Candice LeRae to retain the title with the BSE (Best Superkick Ever). Good match until we got to Cherry’s unfortunate injury at the end of the match. Candice had hit Cherry with a 2nd Rope Twisting Flatliner and Cherry immediately clutched at her shoulder. They went right to the finish after that and even with what was to come in the post-match, both of them vanished, so it seemed like the post-match angle had to be improvised a bit due to Cherry’s injury. It has since been revealed through Cherry on Twitter that she broke her collarbone and will be out for a number of months. Injury couldn’t have at a worse time for Cherry as up to this point, over the last year, she has been on the best run of her career, with holding the WSU Title and both sets of tag team titles in SHIMMER & SHINE with Kimber Lee, Cherry had really come into her own as a complete performer, on both sides of the coin, over this last year, so its a real shame this injury occurred when it did. This was a total freak accident and no one or no thing should be blamed for it. Wrestling is a dangerous business and these guys and gals put their bodies on the line each and every time out to entertain us fans, so these kinda freak injuries occur from time to time. Definitely wish Cherry a speedy recovery from this broken collarbone, but a good match overall with Candice until the injury occurred.
Now to the post-match, lights go out and when they come back on, Jessicka Havok is in the ring holding up the WSU World Title belt, returning to WSU after a year-plus absence. Havok says she is back to reclaim the title she never lost and there is no one, including DJ Hyde, that can do anything about it. A really great surprise that makes a lot of sense. Havok had been WSU Champion from April 2012 to April 2014 when she was stripped of the title due to issues with WSU management at that time. She returned in July 2014 for a match with Mia Yim, but had not been back since due to a controversial incident on that show involving DJ Hyde. So, we get Havok coming back to reclaim the title she never lost and continue on the rivalry that was started back last year with DJ Hyde, makes all the sense in the world from a logical standpoint. Good to see Havok back in WSU, as the case can be made that this company is where the wheels started spinning in Havok’s movement up the ranks to being one of the premier performers in independent women’s wrestling. Good angle and a very fun surprise.
7. Main Event: Hania def. Athena by DQ after the referee, after being knocked out earlier, came to and saw Athena holding a chair after Hania slammed the chair down and threw it into Athena’s hands, then fell down to act like she was hit with it, little lie, cheat and steal action. Solid main event, although this was supposed to be an Uncensored Rules Match, but before the match, Hania cut a promo, saying she refused to wrestle in that kind of match and wanted to end things with Athena, fair & square. A lot of fans were upset by the finish, but with no one disputing Hania changing the rules of the match, the DQ and her stealing a win from Athena in their blow-off to put that one last knife in Athena’s back and twisting it like what a “bad guy” is supposed to do, then the finish actually makes sense.
Afterwards, Athena laid out the ref with a Pop-Up Powerbomb, then got on the mic and called down the roster to the ring for her farewell speech. Athena then cut a phenomenal, emotional and passionate farewell speech, putting over the fans and all her contemporaries, including Mia Yim, Marti Belle, Leva Bates, Veda Scott, Solo Darling, Annie Social, Kimber Lee, Jessicka Havok and finally WSU Owner DJ Hyde, who were all around ringside. Was a very cool farewell for Athena, as she heads onto NXT and the Performance Center. The roster came in after her speech and they all embraced before they raised Athena onto her shoulders to close the show.
Overall, WSU Excellence was a good, solid show, that was unfortunately hurt by a loss of ebb & flow due to the delayed start time. But, I would still recommend watching the replay of the show on StreamCZW.com specifically for the Athena farewell speech, the return of Jessicka Havok and the Tag Title match. WSU returns on November 21 for another doubleheader with CZW.