Always Bloody

Yet again, the fans find those strange WEN RADBOT? cards left on their seats, but more importantly tonight sees the start of the tournaments to crown the inaugural sets of champions! And those are kicking off right now as Shoot To Thrill hits the speakers and Shooter Load emerge for their GEW debut!

1. The Natural Ones (Anson Orlandelli & Russ Lehman) def. Shooter Load (Phil Hunter & Shaun Irvine) to advance in the GEW Global Tag Team Championship tournament
Shaun returns to GEW for the first time in 12 years, and there's not a vending machine in sight. Instead he brings his longtime tag team partner, Philadelphia McHuntertonston, and the former ICWF Tag Team Champions come out swinging against the Game Knights, soon cutting off the ring and isolating Anson. They don't do themselves any favours with the live crowd though, arrogantly taunting their opponents and the fans, getting angry at the fact the Natural Ones are fighting back, and generally acting like big jerks. That means there's actually a huge cheer when Anson manages to land a low blow on Shaun and hot tag Russ, who runs wild. Things go back and forth but Shooter Load never fully take back control after that, and ultimately Shaun gets caught with the Super Dragon Boom Infinity to end things.

Backstage, it's Leanne Evangelista, her cousin Ligaya Fontaine, and Ligaya's 420 B.C. tag team partner Serenity. The cousins are clearly excited to be teaming together tonight, not only their first time doing so in a few years but their first time ever doing so in GEW. They have their arms around each other's shoulders, and big grins. Serenity, on the hand, looks like she might be a little jealous, standing off to one side slightly. On the next show, Evangelista will be competing in the Phoenix Championship tournament while 420 B.C. will be in the Tag Team Championship tournament. But tonight they're taking on Troy Gafgen, Lyra Keston, Revvy King and Snow Queen VN alongside Zanatos. They're not sure how they'll get along with Zanatos - especially as Leanne was part of The Asylum, while he was part of the Empire of Blood. But to be fair, chimes in Ligaya, they don't know how well Troy will get along with the Wildfire girls either. He is undefeated so far though. Evangelista acknowledges that, by contrast, she's the only vet of the original GEW who hasn't yet been able to win across multiple matches. Ligaya reminds her that she did make Lance Murphy tap out at Extreme Extravaganza - and he's a former world champion, adds Serenity. Leanne visibly doesn't care for that particular addendum at all, but all she says is that Lance still came back and pinned her to win that same match. She admits she's not sure whether she really belongs here anymore; ever since coming back to wrestling after having her son, she's felt like she's been struggling. After every step in the right direction, it's felt like just a matter of time before there's a slide back down the mountainside again, and at this point she's truthfully not sure she'll ever get back to where she was, let alone reach the summit. Ligaya just hugs her and whispers that she believes in her, and after a moment Serenity joins in, though she embraces Ligaya more than Leanne. Evangelista says all she can do is keep fighting, keep trying to be better, and she thanks her cousin for being there for her.

2. Isabella Thorn def. Tony Harrison
Isabella starts this one off trying to use her grapples to drag the superheavyweight down into a submission, which... doesn't go great for her, to be honest, and ends with her getting slammed hard into the canvas. Tony even gets a very close pin off a Kuranchi splash, while her first attempt at a Fall From Grace gets caught and swung into a powerslam. Isabella refuses to stay down, though, and starts fighting back with strikes and flying moves, drawing on her years and years of training to think her way through this challenge. It pays off when she catches Tony with a Sweet Dreams and follows up with another Fall From Grace, this time hitting it perfectly, to get the win.

3. Nikki Song def. Kai O'Hara to advance in the GEW Phoenix Championship tournament
This is a loud affair from the off - fan favorite Nikki receives a huge pop, but it's eclipsed by the one Philadelphia native Kai gets. The match starts with some quick grappling exchanges, with Nikki struggling to get a hold of the larger O'Hara. Control shifts when Kai cracks Nikki with a big right hand, and commences to pick the Song Bird apart. He spends much of the mid period in control, but unable to put away Nikki definitively. Song surges back in the late period, digging deep and hitting a series of rapid paced springboards. She gets greedy though, and O'Hara manages to catch her out of the air in to a guillotine choke. She struggles momentarily, before flipping out and into her own bridging arm-trap choke. Kai struggles, but ultimately taps. After her hand is raised, Nikki approaches Kai and extends a hand of respect to the hometown boy after a hard fought match. The two faces shake, then milk the crowd before heading back.

4. Lyra Keston, Revvy King, Snow Queen VN & Troy Gafgen def. Evangelista, Ligaya Fontaine, Serenity & Zanatos
The first of our two big tournament entrant showcase matches tonight is 75% teams with a connection; Lyra, Revvy and Snow all train together, and - as mentioned before, unless you skipped that segment - Evangelista is the cousin of 420 B.C.'s Ligaya. That leaves Troy and Zanatos as the odd men out, literally. The latter seems really displeased to be teaming with an Asylum member in Evangelista, which compounds the occasional miscommunications between the Lilac Thorn and Little Miss Phreakish - meaning it's Ligaya who finds herself in the unusual position of having to take the lead and keep order. The other team mesh better together, with the three Wildfire graduates operating smoothly and Troy... not really working with them at all, but also not working against them, either. At the climax of the match, their superior teamwork has won out and depsite a strong run where she's landed big moves against the whole squad, Evangelista is literally on the ropes. Snow rushes her, but the vet sends the rookie over them with a back body drop. Snow lands awkwardly, rolling her ankle! Evangelista's horrified when she hears Snow's scream. Revvy and Lyra too, at the sight of their friend buckling the moment she attempts to put any weight on it. However one person who isn't concerned at all is Troy, who rushes Evangelista and catches her with Welcome To Your Nightmare - somehow she manages to reverse it and roll him into a cradle! But she's definitely distracted after injuring Snow, and falls just a couple of minutes later to The Sickness. Zanatos tries to break the pin up, but is intercepted by Lyra, who still has enough presence of mind for that despite her friend being stretchered away at that precise moment.

5. Phreak def. Alex Chambers to advance in the GEW Chaos Championship tournament
Almost none of this match happens in the ring. After barely a minute they're on the outside, fighting all over ringside, suplexing one another into the guardrails and coming off the apron with chair shots. Alex busts Phreak spine-first into the ring steps with a spinebuster, but Phreak returns the favour minutes later with a stomp against the lip of a step to bust Alex open badly. Once they finally get back in the ring, things start revolving around a box of light tubes Alex dragged from under the apron. Between whacking each other with them and driving each other into them, all of the tubes get smashed, leaving a carpet of shards coating the canvas. It's into this mess that Phreak hits the Phreakish Intents on Alex to pick up the win.

While the ring crew clear the canvas of glass shards, we go backstage to find Casey Black pacing in agitation, and Tony Harrison doing his best to shake him out of it. Casey's muttering "I can't do it, I can't" to himself, over and over, while Tony insists that he can. Eventually Casey nods, looks Uncle Tone in the eyes, and says he'll try his best. Tony, pleased as punch, says he knows Scott Simmonds is his idol, but it won't be that bad facing him. He's done it before, even. Confused headtilt from Casey who replies that he was talking about teaming with Sah'ta Thor! He wasn't even talking about facing Scott... "OH GOD AND I HAVE TO FACE SCOTT TOO!" and he runs out of the room sobbing. Tony takes a moment to sigh and roll his eyes before chasing after him.

6. Napoleon Collins III & Zeke Colton Spence def. Asher & Coby to advance in the GEW Global Tag Team Championship tournament
The young brothers Asher and Coby are still sporting a few bruises from their beatings at the hands of Scott Simmonds and Serena Raine last time, but they're backyarders and not they're going to let some boo-boos stop them. But there's no doubt they're not fighting at 100%, and though they put in a gutsy performance, they fall to the relative experience advantage of Zeke and Napoleon. But to show there's no hard feelings between the Wildfire grads, all four men shake hands and raise their arms in a line after the match.

7. Cole McGrath def. Ivan Grant
It's big boy battle time as two of GEW's stronger wrestlers pick up where they left off in the fourway tag match at Extreme Extravaganza. The much taller Ivan overpowers Cole, though the latter does get some impressive lifts in on the heavyweight. Ivan impresses too, taking firm control eventually and suplexing Cole all over the place. However, experience wins out here just like it did in the last couple of matches, as Cole manages to reverse a stalling brainbuster into a neckbreaker, and then catches Ivan in a prawn hold.

Between matches, the entrance stage's video screen flashes with static for a moment. Just about discernable within in the noise, for those who pause the stream, is the glitchy question:




8. Velvet Grey def. Myles Taylor to advance in the GEW Phoenix Championship tournament
You'd be forgiven for not realising this is a pure rules match at first, given the intensity they come at each other with with big strikes and takedowns - at least until they start climbing the ropes, and counts gets issued. But they both prove masters at using them only as much as necessary to add pepper to their shots. In the end it's Velvet connecting with a Shooting Star to both advance in the tournament and extend her undefeated streak.

9. Kameron Chase def. Matt Kail to advance in the GEW Chaos Championship tournament
Kail and McGrath both come out of the gates hot, with the GEW Hall of Famer taking the lead despite a brutal start that sees Matt immediately dropkick a chair into Kam's face. Kameron shrugs that attack off and proceeds to use Matt as a human pinball, bouncing him around the barricades, and then into a barbed wire board Matt had set up to try and mount a comeback! The two battle through the crowd, using chairs, kendo sticks, and a fully operating lightsaber which Kail introduces - and again gets smashed with. Throughout the chaos the veteran Chase outpaces Kail. With Matt's back and body a mess, he finally manages to hit a springboard lungblower inside the ring, and begins hitting the ropes, peppering McGrath with strikes. starting to build the big comeback...

And then the lights drop low. A low, droning hum takes over the air. The lights all go bright around the stage for a moment and then die. A mist washes in, and there is a flash in the entrance way of bright red, illuminating a figure in a ragged cloak for just a moment. And then everything returns to normal.

Matt's caught staring at the stage, perplexed, and then suddenly a chain is wrapped around his throat! Kam works him into position and hits a modified Force 10 with the chain. He then dumps out a bag of glass, and it's a crunchy Mental Maelstrom for the win.

Before the main event, Mick Crellin fills us in on Snow Queen VN. She still needs more thorough tests but the medics believe she's suffered a grade 2 ankle sprain, and will be out of action for a couple of shows. What this means for her place in the Phoenix Championship tournament isn't clear yet.

10. BlakJak, Scott Simmonds, Serena Raine & Spades def. Casey Black, Lance Murphy, Sah'ta Thor & Takeo Shima
The Mad Cunts and the Jokers start this off, with Lance and Casey determined to get some revenge for their loss last show, and Spades and Jak perfectly happy to keep tormenting their old rivals. Scott, standing on the apron, looks to be in a truly foul mood at having to team with three Asylum members tonight. Serena doesn't look much happier, but to be fair, she hasn't looked happy in weeks. They have a fair amount of space between them, presumably less to cover as much hot tagging space as possible and more to avoid having to interact any more than necessary. Takeo and Thor, on the other hand, are doing better, the Japanese rookie seemingly quite pumped to learn from the EHWF World Champion. In fact it's Casey who seems to have the most trouble on their side; when he and Lance need a breather, he thinks about tagging Thor, but struggles to actually make contact, so slaps Takeo's hand instead. Unfortunately for the young man, BJ opts to bring Serena in at that point, and she relishes the chance to destroy another of Mark Chapman's trainees. Takeo does do a much better job of holding her off and fighting back than Coby did, but after a few minutes she's in firm control. Takeo manages to leap for Thor's hand while Scott, having had enough of all this, blind tags Serena as she runs the ropes! At last, the two former GEW World Champions are both in this, and they go straight at each other like it was still 2011! They batter each other to a degree befitting veteran main eventers, but when they're both weary, Thor opts to let Takeo in, whereas Scott clearly refuses to tag out to his temporary Asylum "allies". Takeo actually gets one up on the weary Simmonds, peppering him with strikes and stretching him out on the canvas, until Serena blind tags herself in just as Scott had previously done to her.

Takeo manages to escape to Thor soon, and now the Demon King finds himself face to face with an Asylum member for the first time in this match. He quickly overpowers Serena (to her severe ire) and the Jokers come back in, taking turns with rapid tags and slick double teams to chop Thor down... but his anger at the faction that helped kill GEW carries him to an incredible fight back against both at once! He clearly wants to murder them both and Serena too, but is just about able to control himself and tags out, slapping Casey's hand hard. Casey frowns and rubs his palm off on his tights, prompting Thor to roll his eyes. Across the ring, Serena is about to enter for her side, only to get pushed off the apron by Scott who steals her place! But that means Scott and Casey are paired up now. Casey backs off from his hero with his hands raised, and quickly tags in Lance. Scott is most definitely not Lance's hero and they pick up their blood feud from ICWF, smashing each other in the face with wild fists. It's so intense that whenever anyone else tries to get involved they both instinctively deck them so they can go back to fighting... even when it turns out to be Casey! Lance is shocked to have accidentally struck his own partner. Scott doesn't care much and takes advantage of the moment to boot Lance in the gut and yank him into the Lights Out Driver! Pin, and that has to be... no, Thor dives in to break it up! Scott and Thor come face to face angrily, but before their fight resumes Serena's back and she shoves Scott into Thor, making their heads crack together. Takeo rushes her for that, and it leads directly to a huge breakdown brawl with everyone pretty much fighting everyone.

When the figurative smoke clears, Casey's left alone in the ring with both of the Jokers, clearly terrified, but Thor's soon back in and he decks both of the clowns before sending them over the ropes! After that Thor turns to Casey and bluntly tells him he doesn't want to be tagging with him any more than Casey does, and Casey actually seems shocked and offended by that. However, Thor is a grown-up who can put feelings like that aside, and Casey apparently isn't, and Casey seems even more shocked and offended by that. Even so, Casey says he's sorry and thanks Thor for saving him from those clowns, and asks Thor to show him how it's done... Thor asks what he's talking about. Casey says "the cock lightning?" and, to demonstrate, thrusts his crotch out proudly. Thor just rolls his eyes again and shakes his head - and doesn't intervene as Serena appears behind Casey and slams him with a low blow! But he does then immediately boot Serena in the face and start unloading furious punches onto her. She snakes a heel into his ribs and claws his eyes, and the two roll over and over throwing hands, and they even bite one another's faces in their rage. Thor gets the better of the fight and starts bashing Serena's head against the canvas over and over, until she manages to boot him in the crotch as hard as she can with the last of her strength. Raine rolls Thor over and it seems like she's about to thumb his eye sockets, but Lance makes the save with a drive-by knee strike to her head.

With their team back in control, Lance slaps Casey upside the head and tells him to stop being a prick - they have a match to win. Casey, to his credit, actually does his best, and from this point the quartet form a relatively unified front. Working together, MC Inc, Thor and Takeo take the firm advantage over their opponents, helped by the fact that the rift between Scott and the three Asylum members is even bigger now than when the match started. With the dreadlocked Georgian barely contributing anything, it's only a matter of time, surely... but Serena and the Jokers have a trump card! With Spades isolated and on the wrong end of an MC Inc beatdown, Jak and Serena distract the ref while Raine's Daughters of Darkness tag team partner, Cassie Crowe, emerges from the crowd and swings a chair into Thor and Lance's legs, dropping them from the apron! Takeo leaps after her on instinct, and that leaves Casey with nobody to tag to! In his distraction Spades rolls him up, and wouldn't you know it, that's when BlakJak and Serena release the ref's attention. One, two, three, and for the second consecutive show the Jokers Wild pin MC Inc!

Scott had just watched all this happen impassively, but as soon as he hears the bell he storms the ring to go after Spades. BJ and Serena fall on him, but he finds a couple of unlikely allies: Sah'ta Thor and Lance Murphy! Together with Casey and Takeo, they get into a huge brawl with the Asylum force of Serena, Spades, BlakJak and Cassie, and with a five-on-four advantage, manage to drive them back up the entrance way. The show closes with our losing team along with Scott standing in the ring, all staring at one another warily - Scott and Thor especially, who don't like this apparent alliance one bit, but both like The Asylum even less.