As WWE heads into WrestleMania weekend, the question is, is it possible for a casual fan to remain engaged? The biggest wrestling event of the year has swollen to become a two-night show with 14 to 15 matches, spanning seven to eight hours for the matches (and entrances) themselves, and several more hours for the pre-show gab-fest and post-show press conferences. The two-night concept is growing; SummerSlam will be split over two days this year as well and the Royal Rumble might be next in 2027.
My point is this. Casual fans can carve out one night every few months to get together and watch a three- or four-hour wrestling show. Two nights in the same weekend is a much bigger ask.
Meanwhile, I can fire up an episode of Kraken Pro Wrestling with my morning coffee and protein bar and be done by the time it’s time to walk my incredibly needy Shepherd mix.
Just saying.
I’m shaking up the format this time and looking at each episode individually. Kraken definitely appeared to turn a corner with the previous set of episodes — this set of matches is filmed in a former venue but with a significantly larger and more engaged crowd. Good growth but with higher quality come higher expectations.
Kody Madden and Donnie Harris return on commentary and they jell much better in this set of episodes. Harris is also now the interim general manager, as Robert Vien apparently returned to his home planet. There’s a short segment backstage where Harris establishes that aspiring challengers for the Kraken Title now have to beat Dominic Stuckey, the newest member of The Business, to earn a three-minute match with Business manager and current champion Justin Kayse. Stuckey appears to have jumped right to the top of the pecking order in The Business.
With Harris now the on-screen authority figure but still on commentary, I immediately wondered how this would work with rule breaking right in front of the boss, having been in a similar storyline conundrum myself many years ago for a promotion here in East Tennessee. Harris covers this beautifully after the very first match when ERC scores a crooked victory over Josh Breezyy by explaining that, while he is the general manager, the assigned referee has total and final authority inside the ropes during any match. Meanwhile, I liked the throwback structure that focused ERC’s attack on the knee of Breezyy, who also deserves an atta boy for some very fine selling. An extra tip of the cap to Donnie for using the word “fulcrum” on commentary.
Brother Azriel and Kevin Kantrell headline this episode and produce one of my favorite Kraken matches to this point. Kantrell actually isn’t undefeated — he lost in the second episode of Kraken TV in a forgettable match — but he is on a solid winning streak that continues against the super heavyweight Azriel, who has yet to score that breakthrough victory in a Kraken ring. Kantrell’s offense works well against opponents of any size — especially the leaping double stomp to the shoulder of a seated opponent — and he finishes yet another foe with his cross face hold.
Moving on!
The Cash In Cash Out Scramble returns and no winner in the past few scrambles means the pot continues to grow. The participants include Jak Myles, who has been a fixture in these matches since the concept was first introduced and has yet to win the pot; and Lamar Diggs and Jay 2 Strong from The Business. The match itself is pretty skippable but the finish and post-match are a fine piece of wrestling storytelling. Jak finally scores a win in the scramble, but The Business attacks him after the bell and steals the envelope of cash. The bait and switch reminded me, in a good way, of an angle they did in the Memphis territory way back in 1980 when a very young Koko Ware, a bottom-of-the-card wrestler at the time, won a battle royal to win a TV set and Jimmy Valiant smashed it.
After losing to Stuckey in the last taping in what stands as the best match I’ve seen yet in Kraken, Trever Aeon picks up a win against the debuting (on TV, at least) Brandon Whatley. I’ve seen Whatley before a few times and I like his martial-arts based style and how he uses it in a unique way in his matches. This is a good back-and-forth contest until Whatley, for some reason, grabs his nunchuks out of the corner right in front of the referee and eats Aeon’s finisher.
Rose Gold gets a second straight win. Her opponent this time is CT Entertainment and I especiallyed enjoy him yanking on her long hair as the turning point to take control. Rose is an interesting case because she’s equal to or even bigger than some of the male wrestlers on the roster. I definitely see her becoming a potential draw as time passes.
The main event is a tag match pitting All Star Special against Noir in their second head-to-head match in Kraken. The match goes to a time-limit draw, which is fine in concept but really telegraphed here. Time limits have barely been discussed previously in the entire Kraken history.; then the commentary team keeps talking about the time limit throughout the match.
Let me call your attention to the best episode yet of Kraken’s YouTube TV program.
The H-Town Hittas are back and win yet another squash match but this one has some extra spice courtesy of one of the opponents, Travis Ray, who shows some significant fight and knocks one of the Hittas down — something thus far unprecedented in Kraken. The Hittas proceed to win the match fairly quickly after that but I liked this twist to their usual match formula.
The main events of Kraken tapings have been consistent highlights and this bout between Dominic Stuckey and Trey Shaw continues the trend. This is just Stuckey’s second match in Kraken but he impresses me greatly and might be my favorite guy to watch on the entire roster. He’s definitely in the running for that. I especially like how much of what he does has a feeling of authenticity to it. We’ve all seen matches with early chain wrestling that feels more like cooperation than competition, with wrestlers standing there and waiting to have their opponent make a reversal and grab a hold. Stuckey’s first two Kraken matches have none of that. Little moments like when he scrubs his elbow across Shaw’s ear to escape then reverse a hold just enhance what’s happening inside the ropes. Stuckey knows how to work as a heel as well, stalling early and at one point ordering his manager Kayse to silence the crowd. It helps that the Kraken audience appears fully bought in and minimally jaded. The fans go dead silent when Stuckey counters Shaw and hits an Ushigaroshi and there’s a fantastic near-finish at the end when Stuckey’s hand grabs the bottom rope at the very last millisecond, and only after a distraction by Kayse — who is evolving as a troublesome mouthpiece — delayed the pin count by Shaw.
Let’s not diminish the contributions of Shaw in this match either. He’s probably one of the more popular wrestlers in Kraken at this juncture and brings his own convincing, authentic style to matches. His finisher is established as one of the most definitive in Kraken — status helped along greatly by the commentators on this match — and he has a couple of fantastic transitions in this match: catching Stuckey coming off the corner ropes and flattening him with a power slam, then getting his knees up on an attempted top-rope elbow by Stuckey that looked altogether gruesome for both competitors.
The match itself breaks down when Aeon, seeking revenge for what happened in his match with Stuckey, storms the ring and attacks. The locker room eventually empties for a brawl involving the entire roster of wrestlers on the taping, a trope that is always good for some entertaining chaos as long as it isn’t overdone, and this is the first time it happens in Kraken. We also get our first clffhangar finish, as Harris suspends both Aeon (for ruining the end of the match) and Myles (for attacking The Business with his janitor broom) for their actions during the brawl.
You’ll get more out of it with the context from prior episodes, but this 22nd installment of Kraken TV is 30-minute chunk of wrestling TV that is well worth your time. It’s also a fine introduction to the Kraken promotion if you’ve not been watching along with me so far.
f you would like to check in other entries in the Review The Kraken series, here is a master index.
Looking for something more retro? I’m also working on Mat Quest, a chronological viewing guide to the WWE archive on Peacock.
You can watch all four episodes here:
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