Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Beyond Wrestling: Tournament For Tomorrow 3 Review

Two tournament winners are decided in one night!


Beyond Wrestling: Tournament For Tomorrow 3
Providence, Rhode Island 11/30/14

1.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3 – Quarterfinals – Da Hoodz (Davey Cash & Kris Pyro) vs. The Young Bucks: ***

I believe it was Da Hoodz who called for the 2014 Tournament For Tomorrow to be a tag team tournament. Well, they certain jumped into the deep end right from the start, as they took on The Young Bucks in this first round encounter. For the most part, I thought this match was pretty solid. It wasn’t the type of match quality we’re used to seeing from The Young Bucks, but still, it was a fun way to kick things off. The match only went about six minutes or so, and in the end, The Young Bucks put away Da Hoodz with the Indytaker to advance to the next round.

2.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3 – Quarterfinals – The Gentleman’s Club (Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy with The Swamp Monster) vs. Team Tremendous: ***1/4

I thought that this was a very entertaining match. When you have The Gentleman’s Club involved, you know you’re going to get some comedy (mainly involving people like Orange Cassidy & The Swamp Monster), but the comedy managed to mix well with the actual wrestling we saw here. Both teams looked good, and it was just a ton of fun to watch from start to finish. Team Tremendous picked up the win to advance to the next round.

3.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3 – Quarterfinals – The Juicy Product (David Starr & JT Dunn) vs. The Osirian Portal (Amasis & Ophidian): ***1/2

On paper, this had the potential to the best match of the Quarterfinals, and it turned out to be just that. This was a really good match, in my opinion. It was actually very similar to the match that came before it, in the sense that it featured a little bit of everything. The match featured more action, including a legdrop from the ring to a nearby stage, and a Canadian Destroyer on the ring apron (talk about overkill), but there was also a fair amount of comedy in this one, which included The Osirian Portal hypnotizing The Juicy Product and the referee into a dance off, and later on, Amasis & David Starr unintentionally giving each other low blows. In my view, this was definitely the best of the four quarterfinal matches. The Juicy Product eventually won the match to advance to the next round.

4.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3 – Quarterfinals – Da Hit Squad (Mafia & Monsta Mack) vs. The Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson & Jaka): ***1/4

For those of you who might not know, Da Hit Squad were a tag team from the early days of ROH, and at one point, Mafia (also known as Dan Maff) actually held the ROH Tag Team Titles with BJ Whitmer (Dan Maff’s exit from ROH in 2005 indirectly led to the formation of the BJ Whitmer/Jimmy Jacobs tag team). I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from this from this match, because I really hadn’t seen Da Hit Squad before. This match turned out a lot better than I was expecting. It was actually quite entertaining, as these two teams just beat the crap out of each other. In other words, it was a very manly match. While it certainly had a few rough points, this was still relatively good, and again, I had no real expectations going into it. The Doom Patrol managed to pick up the victory, meaning that they advance to the next round.

5.) Eddie Edwards vs. Silver Ant: ***1/2

This was a match that took place at the show, but it’s not on the actual DVD. The only way to watch the match is if you subscribe to Beyond Wrestling’s streaming service on YouTube, called BeyonDemand. I was actually very excited to see this match, since it involved two guys who I really like. This was a very good match. It wasn’t spectacular by any means, but if you’re into the technical style (similar to what we see now in Evolve), you’ll enjoy this one. The match did start off a little slow, but it kept building up bit by bit until it climaxed in the final few minutes. Solid stuff from both guys here. Eddie Edwards eventually got the submission victory over Silver Ant, and after the match, they shook hands.

6.) Brian Cage vs. Pinkie Sanchez: ***1/4

Now this was a size mismatch if there ever was one. Brian Cage was part of Team West Coast the night before at Alive And Kicking, but on this show, he’s taking on Pinkie Sanchez. This turned out to a pretty entertaining match. It had a lot of fun action, as you might have guessed (considering who was involved), but they also managed to tell a good story, with Pinkie Sanchez constantly getting manhandling by Brian Cage, but never giving up. There were actually some very cool spots here, such as Cage picking up Pinkie for a suplex and then just walking around ringside while holding him up in the air. This was a fun David vs. Goliath type of match, but in the end, Goliath won, as Brian Cage scored the victory after hitting Weapon X.

7.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3 – Semi-Finals – The Young Bucks vs. The Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson & Jaka): ***1/4

The winners of this Semi-Final match will be the first team to advance to the Finals of Tournament For Tomorrow 3. This was another very solid match in this tournament. The Young Bucks, once again, were involved in a match that went under ten minutes, but they still managed to a pack a fair amount of stuff into this one. There was some nice back & forth between these two teams, and as a whole, it was a fun match to watch (I feel like I’ve been using the words “fun” and “entertaining” a lot in this review, but it’s true). The Young Bucks got the win here to advance to the Finals of Tournament For Tomorrow 3.

8.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3 – Semi-Finals – Team Tremendous vs. The Juicy Product (David Starr & JT Dunn): **3/4

The winners of this Semi-Final match will join The Young Bucks in the Finals of Tournament For Tomorrow 3. This was probably the worst match of the entire tournament, but with that being said, this was still a pretty decent match. The action during the match was fine, but there were a few rough spots here and there. I just felt like it was missing a little something, compared to the other tournament matches. Dan Barry eventually caught David Starr on a rollup to score the victory, meaning that Team Tremendous would face The Young Bucks in the Finals of Tournament For Tomorrow 3!

After the match, David Starr looked very distraught. I think the story was that The Juicy Product really wanted a rematch with The Young Bucks, who beat them in the Main Event of Americanrana 2014 a few months prior, and they would’ve gotten it had they beaten Team Tremendous. JT Dunn was pissed at David Starr for losing the match. Kimber Lee tries to calm him down, but he just leaves. This leaves David Starr and Kimber Lee in the ring together, and the Starr blames Kimber Lee for not only this loss, but other issues that the team had been having as well.

9.) Texas Bull Rope Match – Matt Tremont vs. Stockade: ***

The only way to win this match is for one of the participants to touch all four corners in a row, uninterrupted. I thought this was an enjoyable hardcore brawl. It was actually nice to see this match on the card, because it was something completely different than everything else on the show. What I liked about this match in particular is that both guys were more focus on beating each other up, and the actual task of touching all four corners didn’t really come into play until the very end (the overemphasis on touching the corners is usually the downfall of these kinds of matches). A bunch of chairs, the bull rope, and the cowbell on the bull rope all came into play, and Matt Tremont got busted open. In the end, Stockade was able to touch all four corners in a row to get the win.

After the match, Matt Tremont cut a promo saying that this feud between him and Stockade wasn’t over. Tremont then challenges Stockade to a Fans Brings The Weapons Match for the next show, and Stockade accepted.

10.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3:16 – Finals  – Four-Way Elimination Match – Biff Busick & Drew Gulak vs. The Garden State Gods (Eric Corvis & Myke Quest) vs. Milk Chocolate (Brandon Watts & Randy Summers) vs. Ninjas With Altitude (Kitsune & Shynron): ***3/4

This match was the culmination of Tournament For Tomorrow 3:16, a second tag team tournament that took place on smaller shows that were held before the two main shows on this weekend. The tournament was mainly made up of all of the teams in Beyond Wrestling that didn’t make the cut for the main tournament. I had a feeling that this would be good, but it exceeded my expectations. The opening stint with all four teams was pretty fun, and the first elimination came when The Garden State Gods took out Milk Chocolate. Then came a segment that occurred during the match that took it down a little bit. The Garden State Gods were on a role, but then The Crusade For Change (Darius Carter & TJ Marconi) hopped up on the apron, they directed their attention to the two men standing behind Corvis & Quest, who were wearing hoodies and the mask from V For Vendetta (the symbol of The Crusade For Change). These two men reveals themselves to be The M1nute Men of Devin Blaze & Tommy Trainwreck. Corvis went after them, but this distraction allowed Shynron to take advantage and pin Myke Quest, eliminating The Garden State Gods.

From there, the match just took. The final part of the match was Biff Busick & Drew Gulak vs. The Ninjas With Altitude, and boy did they put on a show. This last stretch of the match was awesome! Both teams worked so well together, and produced a ton of cool stuff, including a Coast To Coast dropkick by Shynron that was done across the ring diagonally, which was absolutely insane!! Despite the best efforts of Kitsune & Shynron, they ultimately fell to Biff Busick & Drew Gulak, who scored the victory to win Tournament For Tomorrow 3:16!

11.) Tournament For Tomorrow 3 – Finals – Team Tremendous vs. The Young Bucks: ***3/4

It’s actually fitting that these two teams faced off in the Finals, as Dan Barry was the last one standing against The Young Bucks in the Main Event of Alive And Kicking. I thought this was a very good Main Event. I would say it was about on-par with the Four-Way Elimination Match that came before it, though if I had to pick between the two, I would go with that match over this one. These two teams went at each other right from the opening bell. From start to finish, this was pretty entertaining. There was a flurry of referee bumps towards the end, as The Young Bucks took out two referees, but I believe it did help the match a little bit (normally that wouldn’t be the case). In the end, Team Tremendous were able to fight back, and they ended up getting the win over The Young Bucks, winning Tournament For Tomorrow 3 in the process!!

After the match, The Young Bucks cut a promo putting over Team Tremendous, and actually shook their hands as the show came to close.


Overall: 7.5/10

This was a very interesting show. While there wasn’t a truly great match on this show, the majority of it was pretty good. No match reached the **** mark, but only one match fell below ***. The majority of the matches fell in the ***-***1/2 range for me, with the two tournament finals being the standout matches on this show (both of which I gave ***3/4). It felt like a long show to get through (especially if you watch the Eddie Edwards vs. Silver Ant match), but again, everything on the card was at least good. I feel like it’s a little easier to get through these shows when the match quality is both good and consistent, and that was the case here. I would recommend the two tournament finals, and if you’re someone who’s into tournaments, then I would give the show a look. As a whole, this was a pretty solid outing from Beyond Wrestling.



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