Paragon Pro Wrestling in 2016: See the TNA Lower Midcard of 2013...TODAY!

[King Kamala]

Watched last weekend's show last night. Caleb Konley and his new partner Drew Donovan (who looks like Ryback dressing like 2003-04 era Cena) squashed The Whirlwind Gentlemen to become PPW Tag Team Champs. Very jarring moment. Glad Konley's finally getting a push even if it's in the tag team division (and as second fiddle to a guy ripping off heel bully era Ryback!)

Wes Brisco-Chamberlain Iron Man match had an unexpectedly BS finish. They were tied at one fall a piece and they both crashed off the top turnbuckle through a table set in the ring and were KTFO. This drew an unnecessary "Holy shit!" chant from the crowd. More I thought about it though, PPW is a very old school promotion so a table bump (as common as it is in every other promotion) did seem kind of out of place here! Referee immediately stopped the match and declared it a 1-1-1 draw and Chamberlain retained. We did get D Lo Brown and Matt Striker cameos at the end when they were part of the crew that dragged the two wrestlers' lifeless bodies away from ringside. There's a funny image of a grouchy D Lo dragging a limp Chamberlain up the entrance ramp.

Funny, stoned Wes Brisco moment of the moment; him stoned working out with resistance bands and yelling at Pat Kelly that THE TIME FOR TALK IS OVER!

No Darin Corbin this week (but they did have time to work in Greg Romero Vs Anthony Greene II for some reason) so this show was BULLSHIT!

 

[King Kamala]

Baby Shoes and Detective Ventriloquist, WE HAVE TO GET THESE!

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I would love one of those!

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I friended Darin Corbin on Facebook a couple weeks back. Just got home and saw that he wished me Happy Birthday today on my page. I'm marking out!

 

[King Kamala]

Red Hair Does Care (About Birthdays)!

Just watched this week's show. Super weird episode. They squeezed in five matches (which seems like slightly more than average) and three of them featured debuts. First was Rude Boy Riley, who beat Greg Romero. His gimmick was that he really loves ska music. $$$ Second was some guy with a football gimmick who lost to Mikey O'Shea, who's name I already forgot (Crash Cordova or something?). He might just be cannon fodder they brought in. Then in the main event, some guy named Royce Issacs debuted against Jessy Sorenson and lost by DQ. It seemed like they were trying to shoohorn in a lot to try and build up the mid card and show just felt really forgettable. Not terrible but it just had a "OK. Here's some guys and they're gonna wrestle" quality.

Other two matches were a random Hammerstone-Jack Manley from Whirlwind Gentlemen match and a Caleb Konley & Drew Donovan Vs Eric Right & Anthony Greene. It just felt like they were biding time before Wes Brisco/Chamberlain III for the World Title next week (which will be a tables match).

At least, there was another sweet, sad Darin Corbin video package. PPW knows where its bread was better. Liked how it ended with a weird vocal effect on the clip from last week of Old Man Pat Kelly asking Darin Corbin if he'd let him buy a cheeseburger.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Since MSG screwed up a couple weeks ago and didn't air the show, I'm not a week behind. I got the Iron Man match episode today.

 

[King Kamala]

Both PPW and Darin Corbin retweeted my Happy Valentine's Day message to Darin Corbin. Only an hour in but this is already best Valentine's Day of my life.

 

[King Kamala]

Watching RAW right now and everyone's least favorite PPW roster member Mikey O'Shea shows up in the background at the end of that crappy R-Truth/Goldust comedy sketch (ejaculation jokes don't seem very PG).

Amazed and depressed that I noticed him.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Matt Striker did a Reddit AMA. When asked who the next big thing in the business is, he said everyone he is thinking of already is but then cited specifically The Whirlwind Gentlemen.

 

[King Kamala]

Of all the weird quirks that PPW has, their insistence that Whirlwind Gentlemen are stars of the future is one of the oddest. They're not terrible. They won't drag down a show but I'm not sure I see what PPW sees in them other than they're local guys who get a decent pop from the live crowd.

They're a perfectly fine undercard team. And I'd be perfectly happy if they were the modern day Vegas version of Too Cool but PPW (even more so in its early episodes than now)'s insistence on portraying them as serious asskickers is bizarre.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

We all know the correct answer to that question is Darin Corbin.

 

[King Kamala]

Just watched this week's show. No Darin Corbin for three episodes in a row. :'( :'( :'(

He was referenced though. In the cold open, the ring announcer (can't remember his name) and Old Man Pat Kelly say he went missing as a truck takes away the dumpster that he was living in and another "homeless person" uses Darrin's werewolf mask as a pillow. NO DARRIN NO PEACE! KNOW DARIN KNOW PEACE!

Speaking of Darin, Hammerstone won the PPW Television Title from Gangrel. Kind of weird that PPW has all heel champions now. Hammerstone & Chamberlain have been very, very slowly growing on me. Chamberlain cut a promo where he insisted that he be called "The Paragon" Chamberlain then showed a graphic of his face on a computer animated flag, that looked like a video graphic from WrestleMania IX. Which I guess is appropriate considering promotion's based in Vegas.

Caleb Konley & Mike Donovan went over the makeshift team of Jessy Sorenson & Rude Boy Riley in fairly dominant fashion. I feel like this will lead to a new team debuting to topple the dominant heel champs. Since it's PPW and Vegas, I'm guessing Godfather will return and team with D Lo to take the PPW Tag Team Titles!

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I hope we don't have another Joey Ryan situation with Corbin not showing up for a long time. Although if it led to him showing up on Lucha or another show, I might be OK with that.

I'm still a week behind thanks to MSG, so I'm getting that shoot next week. This week was the tables match for the Championship.

 

[King Kamala]

Them directly referencing Darin and starting a "Where's Darin?" angle makes me assume that he'll actually show up again at some point.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Seems like Darin has had a lot of other bookings and they have guys who do disappear for a stretch like Caleb Konley was barely there the whole time I watched and seems to be getting pushed again now that the networks aren't as easy for me to access.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Big Money Tyshaun Prince just followed me on Twitter. I'm stoked.

 

[King Kamala]

No Darin Corbin for 4th week in a row. I'm getting concerned.

Co-main events of Wes Brisco-Hammerstone for the North American Title and Chamberlain Vs Gangrel for World Title. Wes Brisco cut a wacky but not wacky enough promo where he promised to take Hammerstone's title and his girl. Gangrel did a really obvious blade job and pretended to be Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13. Meh episode overall.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

April 8th is the next Television taping. Appears something is going to happen with the American Title between now and then because of their flyer for the show.

Darin is there, and he's already said that he will be in the tournament, so it seems like something is building up to his return.

 

[King Kamala]

Darin Corbin returned this week! Pat Kelly and some of his "wacky, eccentric homeless friends" (rasslin is best/worst) had a candlelight vigil for him and Darin Corbin just wandered over and said he'd been hanging out at the convenience store across the street for the past month. I asked DC on Twitter what he was doing at a convenience store for a month and he responded!

Darin Corbin ‏@DarinCorbin

Well I just kinda started wandering around...then a plastic bag blew by...I followed that...and then slept a bit.

Then he had a match with Wes Brisco based around Wes not wanting to wrestle him because Darin Corbin smells bad. Our boy Wes got the crowd to chant "Shower! Shower! Shower!" at DC. Corbin had most competitive match he's had in a while (since he rubbed his stinky clothes in Wes' face) but eventually, fell to the Brisco Bomb.

Other stuff. Lisa Marie Varon returned and now she's randomly Alex Chamberlain's girlfriend. I guess cause he's World Champion now? I think she's switched who her boyfriend is three times in PPW without any explanation from anybody. This episode was Alex Chamberlain Day.

They hyped a HUGE SURPRISE APPEARANCE and it ended up being Tyeshaun Prince's return. I forgot he was even gone! He squashed Eric Right & Anthony Greene in a handicap match. There was a Matt Striker cameo during this segment. Christian Cole stole his director's headset and Matt Striker walked off and yelled "I QUIT!"

The boring, way too drawn out Christian Cole is disappointed in Ethan HD storyline ended with Christian Cole giving Ethan HD his future endeavors and Ethan HD getting squashed by Mikey O'Shea. Kind of anti climatic ending I expected from this storyline.

Oh speaking of Mikey O'Shea. Everyone's (well everyone here's) least favorite PPW star is getting a World Title shot next week!

 

[Baby Shoes]

Maybe the Brisco-Corbin angle will be leading to Wes showing Darin his sense of style and get him wearing one of those blzer and no shirt combos!

Also, they like Mikey so much I strangely worry they are going to hotshot the belt to him now too...

 

[King Kamala]

You know Mikey O'Shea, in ring, is not terrible. I mean there's a bunch of better athletic big men but not terrible but combination of his awful ring gear and goofy, way too over the top promos...he just looks like a guy who should be fighting The Barbarian on an episode of Thunder in 1999.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

I got last week's episode again this week. And it wasn't even last week's. MSG was already a week behind because they didn't air an episode, but last week they listed Paid Programming even though the show aired. I guess they figured people missed the show because of that so they aired the same episode, where Gangrel loses his title.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Geez - I am not even getting one of the networks with the shows these days and it seems like I am getting them as consistently as MSG is getting them to you!

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

They've always been that way. All the way back to when they would air ECW. It would be on at 3am one week, 1am the next, then not air them for a month.

 

[King Kamala]

YouToo America is similar in terms of repeating episodes or not showing them at all although they seem more consistent than MSG (I feel like it's been two months or so since we've not gotten a new episode). Heck, I feel like PPW showed repeats or get preempted by informercials during the PopTV era.

 

[RedJed]

Yeah I really wish MSG would get their shit together with this....its a perfect lead-in to TNA on Tuesdays as I normally wait to watch it then most weeks. But with a few weeks of nothing recorded from MSG, it seems out of sequence in episodes. Cmon, this is paid programming and its not consistent?!

BTW, I was at Sam's Town a few weeks ago for the ROH shows and that arena is small as all fuck. And the godawfullest nachos known to mankind.

I also (on the Sunday of that week) went to a Future Stars of Wrestling show in Vegas which had a bunch of PPW guys on there. Crash Test Cody with a more gothic gimmick, the Bonus Boyz having an insanely dangerous disaster of a ladder match with two jobronis, Hammerstone lumbering through a match, etc.

 

[King Kamala]

Don't want to brag but since RedJed brought up seeing some PPW mid-carders live, I should point out that I'm going to see "All Good" Anthony Greene main event a local indy show this weekend. He's teaming with Dijak and a good local hoss named Ace Romero against Team Pazuzu in a six man street fight. Curt Hawkins is gonna be there too.

Seeing PPW midcarders and '00s Smackdown mid-carders on the same show...I bet Baby Shoes is mad jealous.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I am but I am not.

I emotionally can't process Curt Hawkins - I can't tell if I like him, am annoyed or feel sad most of the times when I see him now... :-\

I was thinking today again about finding my way to Vegas to go to a PPW taping.

 

[RedJed]

FWIW, Sam's Town is a nice cheap place to stay for a weekend in Vegas. Its WAY off the strip but everything is cheap at Sam's for food options (they got a Fridays in there, etc), they have a big movie theater right next to the arena, and the slots pay out decent. Enjoyed the time spent there for sure.

 

[King Kamala]

Show this week was so so at best. There was a very, very long Whirlwind Gentlemen "Behind The Scenes" exclusive, which would've been an effective worked shoot interview (along the lines of the "behind the scenes" interviews WWF did during the Attitude era) except they FUCKIN BLASTED The Who's "Eminence Front" and drowned out most of what they were saying for first half of the segment.

It did make me like those guys a bit more. Who knew they trained with Nakamura at the NJPW Dojo!? And they had photographic proof. Didn't think Nakamura would make a cameo (even the slightest kind we saw here) in PPW!

Chamberlain beat Mikey O'Shea semi-cleanly. Lisa Marie Varon did guest commentary and sounded like Molly Shannon in the "Delicious Dish" recurring sketches on SNL BUT...

What's most important is we got another "Sad Darrin Corbin" video package, this time set to Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide". *****!