DPW FIRE
DECEMBER 23 2021 (TAPED DEC 11.)
JACKSONVILLE, NC.
AIRED ON YOUTUBE
REPORT BY JRH, PARTS UNKNOWN PRESS
Here it is, another review of the up and coming Deadlock Pro Wrestling, with DPW Fire Episode 2. If you missed last week’s review, be sure to check it out to see my thoughts on the show. As always, if you want to watch DPW for yourself you can catch them on their YouTube channel.
A Quick Note
The main thing promoted for this episode prior to airing was the debut of Chris Danger in DPW. While I could understand some hesitance on behalf of nerdy wrestling purists, you have to understand a few things. This is a wrestling show running on YouTube. The Chris Danger character and Chris Denker himself are very popular in the professional wrestling YouTube space. While I like most of the people on the DPW roster and think they are talented, the reality is that Denk is a big draw on YouTube. So using Denk as a tool to grow the potential audience is a smart move, regardless of how they use him. In the end though, as you’ll soon see, they are using him in the best possible way.
Anyway, onto the actual review! The show starts with a recap of everything we saw the previous week and the show intro before we head to the ring for our first math.
KZT vs Angélica Risk
A quick start up to the match, with KZT jumping right on Angélica and trying submissions. On commentary, James puts over KZT’s 15 years of martial arts training, in a variety of different martial arts… fuck yeah! The story of most of the match was KZT trying to find different ways to make Angélica tap out, while Angélica keeps just escaping by the skin of her teeth. After a few escapes, Angélica calls KZT XYZ and sends her to the floor.
On the floor, they exchange forearms before Angélica posts her and starts the heat spot. Commentary continued to put both over. They told us that Angélica has wrestled Jade Cargill and Riho. They also told us that KZT was trained by Josh Barnett and put over her working Bloodsport. Back in the ring, Angélica does one of the most violent corner ass-tackles I’ve ever seen. Good shit! The commentators put over her possibly breaking KZT’s nose, and how hard it is to wrestle when you can’t breath through the nose. She puts her in the middle, runs off the ropes and shakes her ass, but gets caught before just managing to transition into a defensive pinfall.
Angélica then tries for a submission of her own on KZT, who countered the hold before Angélica broke it. Angélica then went hard on the offence again, planting her head into the mat and going for a choke, before being tossed over. KZT locks her up, before being punched in the nose for an escape. The escape doesn’t last though, as KZT transitioned into an armbar tapping Angélica out at 6:45.
Overall, this was a very competently wrestled match with a fun story that got the job done.
Rating- ***
We then get some promotion for DPW You Already Know, where Yuu will be wrestling Ryo Mizunami. That should be a fun match. They also run down their sponsors for this weeks episode.
Delinquents (Josh Fuller & Mikey Banker) vs ???
The Delinquents come out, for the second time on the taping. Josh cuts a pre-taped promo saying he was lied to by YouTube, who told him Johnny liked the Overdrive and that he thought he could do it to please the booker man. For those not in the know, Johnny is commentator John Blud who also helps book the shows with his fellow commentators. He is known for his streams with newLEGACYinc and has a famous hatred for the overdrive… AS HE SHOULD, BECAUSE THAT MOVE FUCKING SUCKS~! Mikey basically says he’s gonna fuck people up.
Out comes Chris Danger, who gets a big pop as he comes out to a cover of his WWE 2K theme. He says he is sorry for interrupting the show, especially, speaking of Mikey and Josh, whoever they are. He says everybody in the crowd knows who he is, but they don’t know why his here, as they chant his name no less. He said that for seven years he’s been the most influential, inspirational and looked at fictional superstar. For those unaware, the Chris Danger character is a CAW created by the man in the ring Chris Denker for his WWE 2K My Career content since WWE 2K15.
He said that he did it outside the business and now he is gonna use his money and influence within the business. He teased working with the Delinquents, who marked out for him as he suggested he was building the best faction in DPW. He then said he meant that they were the first victims of his NDA. He introduces his tag team of Patrick Scott and Chance Rizer, The Reality. A strong promo by Chris who very much understands his role well and seems prepared to help get some of the lesser known talent over with his skills.
Delinquents (Josh Fuller & Mikey Banker) vs The Reality (Patrick Scott & Chance Rizer) (w/ Chris Danger)
As the match starts out, the commentary clears up a few things that weren’t made entirley clear by the promo. NDA is the name of the Chris Danger lead group and The Reality is the name of the Scott/Rizer tag team, which is a part of the presumably bigger NDA group. The commentators also put over how The Reality weren’t as dickish before the affiliation with Chris Danger. Some fun back and forth at the start, with Banker using his size as a weapon against Rizer. Scott comes into the ring, and is fucking huge.
Chris tried to start a “Patty Daddy” chant. Chris is such a dick, but in the good way. Scott got worked over for a bit with tandem offence and blind tags, before Fuller comes in and The Reality return the favour for a bit. Fuller took a bit of a rough landing on a suplex, while Danger continued to heel it up on the floor, getting the crowd to understand he isn’t here for the popular YouTuber pop. Fuller takes Scott down and tries for the hot tag, but Rizer posts Banker, preventing the tag.
A nice big boot by Scott, followed by a version of American Alpha’s old Grand Amplitude finish for two. The move didn’t connect as well as it could’ve, so I’m glad it only got the two. The match kind of stalled a little bit here, but not for long enough for the match to completely die. Fuller finally gets the hot tag to Banker who HOOFS both his opponents around the ring. He takes the straps down and then puts them back up. He goozles Rizer and choke-tosses him out of the ring.
Fuller comes in and hits a jaw-breaker that looked a bit too much like him taking a Boss Man Slam for my liking. Maybe if the positioning was slightly adjusted, it’d work better as a unique move. Eventually we come to the finish where Banker ends up outside and gets hit by a big dive. Fuller tries for the Overdrive in a repeat from last week’s episode and gets stopped. The Reality then hit a beautiful diving bulldog and facebuster for the fall at 8:33, as Scott takes Banker out with another dive.
Overall, a very fun match that did feel like it got a little bit stuck at points towards the end. Nothing overtly offensive about the action, but by no means a five star instant classic (not that the match needed to be that).
Rating – ** 1/2
DPW World Title Eliminator 1st Round:Calvin Tankman vs Donnie Ray
Our main event for this week is another DPW World’s Title Eliminator 1st round affair, this time between Calvin Tankman (who I fucking love) and Donnie Ray, The Melt Man. During his entrance, we get shown a promo from Donnie Ray, who was doing some drugs (allegedly). He says he is gonna be at DPW Fire and be in the World Title Eliminator. He said that he doesn’t know about Husslin’ or Fire, but he knows about melting. A strange promo, but one that gets his gimmick over strong enough. In the ring, Tankman questions whether he passed the drug test… well, if we go by ECW drug test rules than yes.
The match started strong, with Ray throwing chops that did nothing before teasing another and instead electing to boop Tankman, leading to big “holy shit” chants. Tankman is not amused, and fights back before smashing with the POUNCE~!!! Tankman then throws some mean chops in the corner, doing the boop gimmick that Ray did to him earlier in the match. He then tosses him with one fucking hand! The commentators did a great job putting over just how painful Tankman’s offence is. Tankman hit a mean fallaway slam and some crossfaces. This match so far is doing a great job at displaying Tankman’s strongest abilities. Tankman get’s distracted by the kind of surprising “Melt Man” chants as Ray starts lighting him up with strikes before being caught with a massive bodyslam!
Ray gets in an up kick sending him away, followed by hitting some big boots out of the corner. Ray continued to work Tankman over with his momentum in attempts to get him down, before Tankman caught him with a violent Samoan drop. On one hand, I loved how fucking rough it looked. On the other hand, it did seem a bit slippery… Blame it on the sweat these two are breaking I guess. Tankman leaves to the outside and gets hit with a big dive on the rental chairs. Back in the ring, Ray hits an amazing jumping-twisting springboard gimmick for two. Donnie then lays in some more kicks and attempts some moves. He gets thrown into the ropes and hit with a massive pop up elbow and powerbomb for two! Then the match comes to a close as Tankman hits the most mean of elbows to the back of Ray’s head for three at 9:01.
Overall, this main event very much delivered. It wasn’t as strong as the Rosemary/Everett match from last week, but once again the main event very much stole the show here in DPW.
Rating – *** 1/2
Final Thoughts
Overall, this weeks DPW was a fun and strongly booked show. Compared to the previous week, there was definitely a lot more inside jokes that you’d only get if you were a fan of the podcast, but nothing that should overly effect your viewing experience. The matches on this show were sound, but outside of the main event weren’t as blow away as the previous week. The strongest part of the show was the building of stories, both the tournament and the seemingly impending Chris Danger heel stable. This show, unlike the other indy company I watched in recent days with TV, the Deadlock team know how to use their minutes well. Definitely check this episode out if you watched the first.
