Category: wrestling

Review the Kraken: Fan Appreciation Night

Review the Kraken: Fan Appreciation Night

I wrote about this when I got to experience a live Kraken Pro Wrestling event, but the fans at Kraken are their own unique entity. They don’t act like a standard pro wrestling crowd. They don’t do chants. They’re not in on the act. I came away from Tifton with the observation that Kraken fans were fans of Kraken specifically, rather than pro wrestling as a whole.

So the concept of Kraken doing a Fan Appreciation Night, where fans legitimately got to draw the matchups at random to determine the entire card, was intriguing.

Or, it might lead to a total trainwreck.

The end results? A little bit of both, honestly.

Here are the four episodes covered in this review.

Episode 61

This is the first Kraken event at Chino & Letty’s, which remains the venue for Kraken until now. It looks great on camera and the lighting gives vibes of an old-school studio wrestling show. I wrote about how nice the venue is, especially by standards of independent wrestling, after my live experience.

This episode opens with Kwame the Conqueror taking on Rob Killjoy. Kwame is formerly known as Cassius King (not to be confused with Kassius King, who also is on the Kraken roster). The name change makes Kwame both a known quantity and a new addition in Kraken according to the announcers. The crowd is into quacking for Killjoy. The match? Not so much. Killjoy wins with an O’Connor Roll to end a match that felt long even though it had a 10-minute time limit.

We get a backstage interview with Kay Casiano and new Cash In Hand Champion Kevin Kantrell. Kay does consistent good work with this. Kantrell’s words are fine but forgettable. The CIH title belt looks great, though.

Up next, the first of several mixed-up tags on this Fan Appreciation taping: Sam Hanson and Mr. Wright against Jayy Wells and Jaz Jones in a Tides of War series match. I was wondering who in the world would get the points given the jumbled teams, and bless Donnie for explaining it. Mr. Wright really plays up the schtick of tagging with someone he dislikes (to be fair, he did help give Hanson an unwanted haircut a couple of months before) but Hanson and Wright work together well enough to hit Wells with a modified Hart Attack and, after a blind tag, have Hanson score the pin — and the points for All Star Special.

The headliner of this episode pits Jak Myles against Charlie Kills. It’s the first Kraken appearance for Sweeper since he lost the Cash In Hand Title. Charlie does a lot of little things I enjoy: the joint manipulation and, here, joint stomps. He changes it up here with a double stomp of Jak’s hands into a Meteora and pin attempt. Overall, Charlie pretty much gobbles up Jak Myles here and scores the win. Poor Sweeper can’t catch a break.

Episode 62

An interesting segment to start this episode, as we get our first look at Jay 2 Strong since he was booted from The Business at the last taping. Jay ends up in the locker room with Charlie Kills, of all people, and Charlie speaks for the first time! Charlie offers to lend Jay an ear, a shoulder, or some other implied body part. Pretty good stuff.

More Tides of War action, with the Saturday Night Temptations taking on Lamar Diggs from The Business and Will Huckaby from All Star Special. The odd couple pairing of Diggs and Huckaby, combined with the Temptations, means a ton of comedy and shenanigans take place in this one. Huckaby joins right in with Karl Hager and CJ Shine. Diggs looks close to breaking on a couple of occasions. Diggs takes a rare pinfall loss on an assisted backslide in a silly, fun match.

The Diamond Den makes its return, with Mr. Wright the guest. Mrs. Wright, who’s been absent as of late, is pregnant and Mr. Wright is taking a leave of absence. With the year-long round robin Tides of War tournament already under way. That’s what we writers call a plot point.

Headlining this episode, Kevin Kantrell defends the Cash In Hand Title. The challengers? Brother Azriel, Dominic Stuckey, Jay 2 Strong, Travis Ray, and Tsu Nami. This scramble is stacked and the result is one of the best matches of its type that Kraken has done. I was surprised Jay didn’t jump Stuckey right off the bat after getting booted from The Business. Instead, Stuckey talks trash to everyone else in the match and they all gang up on him. Travis Ray had a good run of offense here and looked impactful without playing for laughs. Kantrell becomes the first Cash In Hand Champion to retain, hooking Tsu Nami in the cross face.

Episode 63

Speed vs. power in the opening match, as ERC takes on Hitta J. This is ostensibly heel vs. heel, but the crowd (after being stone silent at the beginning) starts to get behind ERC as the match progresses. Duke mentions a slow count on commentary because of course he does. Hitta J hits his chokeslam, which looks better with each passing taping, but ERC kicks out and score the win with a quick pinning predicament. I enjoyed the way ERC won, and his crafty style stands out in Kraken, but I felt the chokeslam should have finished the match.

The headliner on this episode is, not the best match of this set of tapings, but one I probably enjoyed the most: Quick Drip (the duo of Nick Quick and Dante Dripp) against the odd couple randomly drawn pair of Don Haylo and Ehren Black. More shenanigans here, with a Quick Drip dance party that ensnares Haylo and seems like it will never end, until Black blasts Travis Ray, the third member of Quick Drip, with double chops across the back. Ehren Black was the star of this match: the monster who gets fed up with the comedy. There’s a nifty spot where Haylo hoists Quick for a fallaway slam, and tosses him to Black. Haylo puts Dripp in a Boston Crab for the submission win. Quick tries to help and Black catches him, lifts Quick for a back suplex, and spins him into a sit-out pile-driver that sends Quick into the astral plane. Black then, as soon as the match is over, punches Haylo in the face. I cackled in an empty room at that one.

Episode 64

The centerpiece of this episode, and the taping, is another Kraken Pro Title defense. This time, Trever Aeon takes on Joey Hyder.

Kay has the talent to hit another level when she’s doing the introductions for a big match, and she does it again here. She particularly brings this sizzle when announcing Aeon, and it gives these title matches a big-fight feel, every time.

The match itself was a very good, back-and-forth match that (mostly) gets wrestled on the up and up. They combine for a pin attempt on a knuckle lock in the early going — not something you see every day in the 2020s. Hyder gets the upper hand on the technical wrestling, so the champ goes high impact, exploding off the mat with a single-leg takedown, then a double stomp on Hyder before chucking him to the floor. Aeon’s advantage does not last; Hyder throws nearly everything in his arsenal at the champion but pin attempts get a one count, at best. Duke is calling the Kraken fans humanoids and peons during this match. I approve of both; that’s better heel commentary work than constantly complaining about referee counts and double teams. Hyder busts out a standing Spanish fly, then summons John Cena by hitting Aeon with both the Five Knuckle Shuffle and the Attitude Adjustment. Then Hyder goes for his Razzle Dazzle finisher, but Aeon gets his knees and an elbow up to break it. One snap back suplex later, and a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from Aeon ends one of the better wrestling matches in Kraken history.

Check out the full index of our Kraken content at In Moorehouse Wrestling.

From the Crow’s Nest: Enter The Piper

From the Crow’s Nest: Enter The Piper

Our journey through the archives of the Portland wrestling territory jumps ahead by more than a full calendar year… from March 4, 1978, to March 31, 1979.

What changed during the year-plus gap in available footage? The big news is that Roddy Piper is now part of the roster. Yes, that Roddy Piper. Before he chewed bubble gum and kicked ass in “They Live”, before he headlined the first WrestleMania, Piper spent a significant amount of time in the Portland territory, starting in the fall of 1978. At the time of the March 31 episode of Portland TV, he holds both the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title and one half of the tag titles with Killer Tim Brooks. Piper and Brooks are on the rulebreaker side of the locker room, and insist they’re on very good terms with the two long-established villains in Portland: Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski.

Really! They get along great!

You see where this is going, right?

I’ve compiled a YouTube playlist with all the footage reviewed in this installment.

Let’s dive in …

3/31/79

Footage from this episode consists of two interview segments from the crow’s nest (catchy phrase, right?) broadcast position, both involving Rose and Wiskowski.

During this one, longtime Portland announcer Frank Bonnema refers to Rose and Wiskowski as world tag team champions, a title with a nebulous legacy at best. Apparently, it stems from the NWA San Francisco territory, which is interesting since in an earlier installment of this series, Dutch Savage craps all over San Francisco even though several Portland regulars worked frequently there. It also seems very on brand to Rose and Wiskowski to just conjure their own NWA World Tag Team Title belts, then bring them to Portland to defend them in a territory they think they can dominate … well, mostly because Rose and Wiskowski dominated in 1977 and 1978.

As per usual, Rose and Wiskowski have a variety of grievances and they’re not shy about sharing them. For one, they feel Piper and Brooks are discriminated against by PNW promoter Don Owen. They’re also unhappy that women’s wrestlers are coming into the territory. Rose proclaims wrestling “a man’s sport”, while Wiskowski, in probably the line of this set of footage, ponders, “Why do they need to bring women in when they have someone as beautiful as me?”

The second interview segment is from the end of the episode. Piper and Brooks, who just wrestled, join Wiskowski. Rowdy Roddy is sweating buckets and I regret we don’t have available footage from the match, which records show had Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr as the opposing duo. The schtick is heavy here. Rose brings a wheelbarrow to the elevated broadcast position to carry all the belts the quartet currently holds.

This is the oldest footage we have with Rose and Piper together in Portland. It’s striking that Piper, who has never been confused for a titan in the ring, has a good couple inches’ height advantage over Rose. Piper is only 24 years old here, and Rose leads him through the interview to some degree, circling him back a couple of times to hype his tag title match on the upcoming Tuesday. Rose also hands out a challenge for an eight-man elimination tag on next week’s program: Rose, Wiskowski, Piper, and Brooks (or “Brooksie” as Piper calls him, which is adorable) against “the four best Don Owen can find.”

4/7/79

We get a real treat here with the full elimination tag match set up on the prior episode. But first, an interview with the heels, who call themselves “the Fearsome Foursome.” They’re taking on Adonis, Starr, George Wells, and Hector Guerrero.

That wheelbarrow for the bad guys’ belts got a lot lighter in the past week. Adonis and Starr dethroned Piper and Brooks as tag champs the previous Tuesday, and have the belts. Meanwhile, Frank Bonnema mentions that Rose and Wiskowski lost their world titles the previous Monday night in Dallas. If you say so …

The match itself is a precursor to the elimination tags that the WWF made well-known with the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The first few Survivor Series consisted entirely of matches with this structure: multiple falls, and the loser of the fall has to go to the locker room. This isn’t the first match of its type in American wrestling history, but there’s a good chance it’s the oldest footage of a match of its kind. It’s certainly the oldest complete footage of a four on four elimination tag. We’re also treated to Adonis and Piper on opposite sides; they famously link up again about eight years later for Piper’s first retirement, at WrestleMania III.

The ensuing match lasts about 30 minutes, and it’s an “all killer, no filler” type of wrestling match. Having so many people involved and the ability to tag in and out means the eight wrestlers maintain a fast pace for the entirety.

Piper’s star shines brightly here, especially early. During introductions, he insists on playing his bagpipes — and Rose appeases the wrestling gods by clapping his hands and stomping his feet like he’s at a hootenanny and not a wrestling show in the Pacific Northwest. Piper starts out against Guerrero, who looks incredibly young, small, and thin here, but none of that matters when the bell rings, as Piper does a fabulous job throwing himself around the ring to make Hector look good. Once Piper does get in a little offense, he promptly whiffs on a dropkick to the delight of the Portland Sports Arena regulars. Guerrero and Wells take turns working on Piper’s arm. The actual holds don’t look like much but Piper’s facial expressions as he sells those holds? They’re everything.

Piper finally makes the tag to Rose, which leads to Wiskowski. Neither is in the match long but what ensues is an effective snapshot of what makes those two so effective in their role in the territory. They win most of their matches that really matter, few of which so far actually have made tape; those get saved more for the non-televised Tuesday shows in Portland. They’re vicious and use those tactics to put various opponents out of action. They’re also willing to lose more on TV than probably most headliners would in that era — definitely in this era — and they’re pretty generous overall in making themselves look foolish to delight the fans and get support behind their foes. There’s a great example of that here. Rose charges headlong into taking a series of bumps from Starr. Addled, he quickly tags out to Wiskowski, who trades strikes with Starr until the fan favorite gets the upper hand, sending Wiskowski sprawling with a blow that sends him flying backward and landing on his face. It’s an exaggerated sell that both defies the laws of physics and makes perfect sense in the context of the match, and Portland.

For all the schtick and the discombobulation on the heel side, Rose and company gain and keep the advantage throughout. Wells gets eliminated first, splashing Rose and going for the pin only to have Wiskowski deliver his diving headbutt — an established sure-fire finisher in the territory by now, leaving Wells easy prey to get pinned by the Playboy. Then Guerrero gets the gate after taking a series of double-team moves from Piper and Brooks, who show good continuity as a pair. The odds are against Adonis and Starr but the newly crowned tag champs come out full of fire in the third fall. After just a couple of minutes of action, Starr hits Brooks with a Russian legsweep. Wiskowski launches with another diving headbutt… why not? it worked in the first fall. This time, Wiskowski mistakenly hits Brooks, who gets pinned.

Piper and Brooks are none too pleased with that outcome, and the friendly collaboration between the two heel tag teams disintegrates. They start brawling with one another, and after Piper gets tossed to the floor, Rose and Wiskowski double team Brooks with a maneuver that looks like an ancestor to Demolition’s tag finisher:

You can see Piper re-entering the ring at the end of that gif, and his reaction upon seeing his partner waylayed is practically Shakespearean. Rose and Wiskowski, meanwhile, celebrate their deed in an interview with Bonnema between falls. “I broke his neck, I heard it snap!” is said with glee. As if they weren’t established enough as villains in the territory, Rose and Wiskowski refuse to go back out for any other falls — with Piper ostensibly tending to the injured Brooks, a fair two-on-two fight loses its luster.

Final word: This is a fantastic match and the best thing yet in this journey of watching Portland footage. Piper is fantastic, Rose is his usual highly entertaining self, and there’s historic value as well given it’s a complete four-on-four elimination tag from 1979. Take 40 minutes out of your day and watch it.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on the footage from 1979, so I’m excited to watch the feud between Piper and Rose develop.

Next Week: More from April of 1979. Until then, we’ll keep watching, From the Crow’s Nest.

Miss an entry? Check out the full index of Portland Wrestling reviews.

Live Review of AEW Dynamite (5/13/26, Asheville NC)

Live Review of AEW Dynamite (5/13/26, Asheville NC)

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound as it hits the ground?

If you fly in a wrestler for a television show, and he or she appears on the show as a background characters, or window dressing, does it count as a booking?

This was the question my brain pondered as I left Asheville on Wednesday night, following a very entertaining live episode of Dynamite. This was my second live AEW event — the first was a Dynamite in Knoxville in January of 2025. The show in Asheville was much more entertaining. The main event was a legitimate match of the year contender and the opening match was fantastic.

Still, the number of people who appeared on the show but did not wrestle was glaring. The list included:

  • All the Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, PAC, Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, and Marina Shafir)
  • All of The Demand (Ricochet, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun)
  • Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly, Willow Nightingale, and Mark Briscoe of The Conglomeration
  • The Opps (Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, and Anthony Bowens)
  • Mark Davis, Andrade, Rocky Romero, Clon, and Trent from The Don Callis Family (there are a lot of groups in AEW…)
  • Thunder Rosa
  • Mina Shirikawa

That’s 23 people. Granted, the Death Riders did a video segment with Will Ospreay before his match — and came out after his match when The Opps confronted Ospreay. Willow, Thunder Rosa, Mina, and Clon all made run ins. Still, to fly in that many people? For interviews or just to stand silently in the background? In this economy?

You can also count MJF in the “appearing but not wrestling” category, but he was part of the major show-closing contract signing segment, rarely wrestles on TV, and has his highest value for AEW as a talker and personality.

This event was a step up in almost every aspect. Parking was right outside the venue, and when doors opened, the line to get in moved at a brisk pace. That can’t be said of the Knoxville event, where the line moved slow … on a cold January night, no less. There were multiple concession stands available, and they took cash as well as cards. Lines for the merchandise table were massive both before and after the event, but when we checked it out following the broadcast, that moved rather quickly as well.

Once the cameras went off, Tony Khan came out and addressed the crowd and said that AEW would return to Asheville. Based on my overall experience and the quality of this show, I would come back.

Let’s get into this entire event from top to bottom.

DARK MATCHES

Satnam Singh vs. Warden: Warden, who works the North Carolina independent circuit regularly, got a nice reaction from the Asheville crowd who cheered him and booed Singh throughout the match. This was short, and an almost total squash. Singh, who is gigantic, got booed vigorously after finishing Warden with a chokeslam.

Steven Borden & Kiran Grey vs. Elijah Drago and Tyler Shoop: Borden is one of Sting’s sons. Shoop was trained just down the road from me in Knoxville by Tom Prichard. This was also his 250th match, according to his social media:

I’d never seen Grey, Borden’s tag partner before. He was very active — maybe a little too active — with hops and jumps. Drago is ridiculously built and athletic as well. These four combined to put on a solid little tag match. The entire match built around giving the hot tag to Borden, and they did a good job teasing it. I especially liked one moment where Drago used a bear hug to cut off Grey when he was mere feet away from making the tag. Borden has a lot of presence and good execution for someone who’s had so few matches. He stacked both goes in their corner for a Stinger Splash, to the crowd’s delight — and mine. Nifty finisher ended it: a variation on Total Elimination with Borden hitting a standing dropkick as Grey delivered a legsweep kick.

DYNAMITE

Young Bucks, Adam Copeland, Christian Cage & Orange Cassidy vs. FTR, The Dogs & Tommaso Ciampa

I knew from the moment Rick Knox came to the ring to referee what was coming. The Bucks specialize in this type of wild multi-man match and this was a great one. It was a fantastic experience live and I look forward to watching what made TV to see how it compared. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler both live in the area so they got the hometown reaction during introductions, then leaned hard into their position as heel champions once the action started. Copeland, another Asheville guy, got a monstrous reaction from the fans. He’s such a better fit in the tag division, or in matches like this, than he was when he first came to AEW as a singles main eventer. Remember the feud with Moxley that seemed to never end? Dark times for the Rebellion, dark times …

This match started with a brawl involving all 10 men — Matt Jackson and Clark Connors fought their way into the section next to us — and kept up a non-stop pace until the finish. The final stretch was rapid-fire and flowed differently than the usual cascade of moves in a multi-man match, where one wrestler hits a move, then gets taken out by the second, who gets wiped out by the third. All of that happened here but it happened so fast as to make it more memorable. The hometown guy Copeland finished Connors with a spear and the Asheville crowd rejoiced. I enjoy how Christian is still the same miserable grump he’s been in AEW for years; he just wrestles with fan favorites as his allies now.

Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Westbrook

A very quick squash. Westbrook is BK Westbrook, a regular on the Southeast independent scene. He had a funny spot where he got tangled up in the ropes that looked designed rather than accidental — in a good way. Speedball’s partner Kevin Knight, the current TNT Champion, was ringside, which led to…

TNT Title Open Challenge

Knight’s challenger was Brian Cage, part of the Callis Family, and wrestling his first AEW match since March of 2025 after tearing his quad and undergoing multiple knee surgeries. I was not expecting that. This was a pretty good match but it never hit that next gear. There was a wonky spot leading to the finish. Still, AEW has got something in Knight as a high-flying good guy.

After the match, both men got some microphone time and Bailey challenged Darby Allin for the World Title next week. Bailey has a smarmy quality to him that I think would make him a fantastic heel.

Will Ospreay vs. Ace Austin

Before this match we got a Death Riders training video from what looked like the top of a parking garage in Asheville. The scenery was nice. I’m still not really understanding the story; Ospreay was out for blood on Moxley just a month ago and now they’re training partners?

I’m the outlier on this match, which I saw getting high praise online. In terms of technique, it was very good — maybe great — but it went too long. Ospreay started out doing some gnarly arm work on Austin, then drifted away from it so both of them could hit all their greatest hits, before finishing Ace with an armbar. I liked the start and the finish; they just took the very scenic route to get there, seemingly so both guys could get in all their signature moves. The fact this match got the “This Is Awesome” chant, overdone as it might be, and the opening 10-man tag did not, is slightly bonkers. I much preferred the tag match.

After the match, The Opps — led by Samoa Joe, who faces Ospreay at Double or Nothing next week in the first round of the Owen Hart Cup — came out to confront Ospreay but the Death Riders made the save. I wasn’t expecting to see Shibata in person, but it would have been nice to see him do something besides menacingly stand there.

Hikaru Shida & the Brawling Birds vs. Triangle of Madness

I’m into the heels trio of Thekla, Julia Hart, and Skye Blue. They’ve got some good team maneuvers and use the frequent tags, bending the rules, and breaking them when needed — Thekla got disqualified for smashing one of her opponents in the head with her title belt. This was my first time seeing Thekla live, and while she didn’t do a ton given the nature of the match, she stood out in this match to me. Skye Blue is also much improved.

Main Event

Darby Allin defends the AEW World Title against Konosuke Takeshita

The best match that I’ve ever seen in person took place 20 (!) years ago at the first Supercard of Honor: the Blood Generation vs. Do Fixer six-man tag that set the standard for that style, on this continent at least.

It’s also the only match I’ve seen in person that was better than this one. Darby and Takeshita destroyed one another in one of my favorite matches of 2024 at a Dynamite and, with higher stakes, they topped themselves here. Darby has been the epitome of a fighting champion since he dethroned MJF last month. The build has centered on a rematch with MJF at Double or Nothing — only if MJF agrees to put his hair on the line — but Darby has been defending the title every chance he gets. Allin’s been a favorite of mine since AEW first started. He’s a tremendous underdog and takes a beating like no other. He’s incredibly small but makes his lack of stature work for him. Rather than throw bigger opponents with power moves that defy the laws of physics, he uses his speed and willingness to turn his own body into a projectile. … Not to mention a high pain tolerance and seemingly zero regard for his own safety. The way he just hurls himself at his opponent on a suicide dive? That’s Darby’s style in a nutshell. The champ launched himself at Takeshita in this one, time and time again. Coffin Drop after Coffin Drop, until finally it was enough to put down Takeshita. These two also combined for one of the damnedest moves I’ve seen in more than 40 years of watching wrestling:

I can’t remember ever seeing a German suplex like this from the top, where the one delivering the move hangs on all the way to the mat. What else should we have expected, given Darby’s willingness to push the envelope and Takeshita’s past academic study on it, considering he actually wrote his college dissertation on the German suplex. At first, Darby was slated to defend against Kazuchika Okada on this card. I was disappointed I didn’t get the chance to see Okada wrestle in person, but I don’t think there’s any way that hypothetical match could have completed with the sheer spectacle of this one. The end result was fantastic, aside from a spot where Callis slipped Takeshita a foreign object while Clon had the referee distracted; this had an element of theatrics that felt unnecessary.

After the match, MJF came out for a contract signing with Allin to officially put his hair on the line for next week’s pay-per-view.

Final Thoughts

AEW is not a perfect wrestling product, if such a thing even can exist. There’s still much of everything. Too many titles. Too many people on the roster. Matches that would be more effective if they were shorter. That said, watching AEW is a breath of fresh air compared to WWE for me. I had a very good time watching this show, and it stoked my interest to stay caught up with their shows. That’s not something I could have said after my first live experience with AEW, last January in Knoxville.

Brother Azriel Interview

Brother Azriel Interview

Brother Azriel had felt sick for more than a week. When he started throwing up black liquid in the locker room at a show, he knew it was time to go to the hospital.

It was January of 2025 and Azriel ultimately received a diagnosis of diabetic ketoacidosis. Scary, but manageable. Still, he chose to take a couple of months off from the ring.

Recently, Azriel — the current Kraken Pro champion at Kraken Pro Wrestling — discussed his health scare, his background, working for Kraken, and more.

“I didn’t have that thought, about not ever coming back,” Azriel said. “I knew I was taking a break. As soon as I got from the hospital and the doc they said he can go back to regular activities. But with my wrestling mind, I thought, ‘It’ll be a cool pop if they know I’m OK but don’t know when I’m gonna come back and I show up outta nowhere.’

“I kept it low key. On my Instagram story, I had a little video of Goku in the hyperbolic chamber and put different songs to it. Until I came back at Pro South.

Azriel made his return last spring, more than a year ago. Since then, he’s won the top singles titles for Pro South Wrestling in Alabama and, as of March, the Kraken Pro Title in Kraken Pro Wrestling.

“A promotion that puts any title on you, thats a stamp of approval,” he said. “It’s, ‘This is our guy. He’s gonna have the workrate to put on good matches and tell good stories.’ “

Azriel turned heel at the event where he won the title, aligning himself with Justin Kayse and The Business. Standing alongside Kayse, who is without question the man that Kraken fans love to hate, immediately makes Azriel one of the top villains in the promotion. He’s good with it.

“Everyone wants to see him get punched in the face,” Azriel said of Kayse. “You don’t have that many guys around who are ready and willing to do that type of work.”

After playing football — offensive line, which will surprise no one given his build — Azriel has been involved in wrestling for about a decade. He bounced around with a few different trainers at first but credits Spinebuster Championship Wrestling for giving him his true start: “I honed in on my skills after that. After that I went out and did different seminars to get a lot better.”

The Azriel character manifested after he learned how Finn Balor drew his name in WWE from Irish legend and mythology. Azriel wanted a similar character, derived from African folklore. The only problem: most of the names he found, he felt, would be too difficult to pronounce. Then he found “Azrael”, the African spirit of death, or angel of death, depending on what source you find.

Azriel, the fifth Kraken Pro champion in the near two-year history of the promotion, has been part of the Kraken roster since its first show. He’s seen the audiences and the support grow as Kraken has moved from one venue to another to accommodate its crowds. Actually, he’s been part of Kraken since before it officially debuted; Kraken promoter Sam Hanson was an early training partner.

“He kinda told me the idea of Kraken actually before it was even a thing: the logo, everything, before he started it. I was in the know before it was even formed.

“Being there at the beginning, seeing it get as big as it is, it’s very grassroots,” he added. “All of us are out there promoting. We work on the social media. Somebody works on editing the videos, doing the graphics for the videos, the motion videos, the SmackDown vs Raw type stuff. Guys are sharing the posts, making their own promos to share as well or just helping out any way that they can. It’s us. Doing as much as we can. Make it as big as we can make it.”

Azriel’s story continues Sunday at the Kraken Classic, when he defends the Kraken Pro Title for the first time against Dominic Stuckey, the man he defeated for it. The execution of that title change was a double turn that hearkened back to the days of classic territorial wrestling. Stuckey ran afoul of Justin Kayse, and Azriel, who had a championship match any time he wanted after successfully defending Kraken’s Cash In Hand Title three times, came in, waylaid Stuckey, and quickly beat him to claim the title and join The Business.

“That was one of my favorites,” Azriel said of the angle surrounding him becoming champion. “I was in the [earlier] match, the Cash In Hand Scramble, and I was down getting stomped and the fans were chanting my name. I thought, ‘This is gonna be a good one tonight.’ “

After his health scare, becoming Kraken champion and headlining the promotion’s biggest show of the year, means a little bit more.

“It’s like a second opportunity. It just makes me more concentrated to put in more work and have the best performance I can.”

Editor’s Note: Hope you enjoyed the first of what will, hopefully, be many interviews here on the site. If you like the content here, or you’re here for the first time to read, please follow us on social media. If you have a WordPress, you can also join our subscriber list and every new article will be sent directly to you via email.

Review the Kraken: Teams and Alliances

Review the Kraken: Teams and Alliances

Context matters.

Last month I got the chance to attend a Kraken Pro Wrestling event in person, which also happened to be the go-home show for the Kraken Classic, also the second anniversary show for the promotion. Meanwhile, in this review series, it feels like the first anniversary show just happened. Knowing where things end up provides a whole different perspective as I continue these reviews.

My goal is to be caught up this summer, so let’s get to it.

Here’s all the episodes that came out of this taping:

Episode 57

Donnie Harris and Diamond Duke do the opening in Gray Ghost Comics, a local business that sponsors Kraken. Duke is wearing a “Spaceballs” shirt, which earns him a grace period for complaining about slow counts and double teaming for, um, at least this episode. They hype up the Tides of War tag team tournament, which is set to play out over the next eight months. That’s an insane amount of time for a tournament, but not only did they pull it off, but they did it without any replacement teams brought in from outside, which is a huge achievement for an independent promotion.

The structure is round robin, with teams getting 1 point for a win, 2 for a submission, and three for a DQ victory. A pinfall loss costs a point, with a submission loss -2 points, and a DQ loss -3 points. This comes into play during this taping.

Kraken episodes are usually quick and short on talking segments, but the in-ring promo with The Business is the tentpole of this episode, as Josh Breezzyy gets added to the group and Jay 2 Strong gets added, Clever staging on the entrance, with Jay opening the ropes for everyone else in the faction. Breezzyy seems like an odd fit in The Business — and, after watching live, still does — but we should have known he was a heel at heart with the extra letters in his name. Justin Kayse does a roll call and Jay is conspicuous by admission. That sparks a beatdown initiated by Dom Stuckey because, as Kayse said, “We only have room for winners.” To me this made Breezzyy an even more curious choice since he hasn’t won really anything of note to date in Kraken. Nevertheless, this was a good bit of wrestling TV. Kayse carried this. He’s improved so much as a talker since Kraken first began.

First match on the card is for the Cash In Hand Title, with Joey Hyder defending against Kevin Kantrell, ERC, and JP Harlow. There’s a solid backstage interview with Harlow leading into the match that made me want to see more of him but I’m not sure if he ever comes back. This is probably the best scramble Kraken has done aside from the Ultimate scramble back at the Kraken Classic. Harlow followed up an entertaining introductory promo by being entertaining in the ring. ERC stays his sneaky self, and there’s some excellent camera work on his running hip attacks. Hyder eats a forearm while in the middle of a standing moonsault in a wild bit of timing. Kantrell and Harlow have a slick exchange before Kantrell taps him.

Last match on this episode (does it classify as a main event if it’s last?) puts Joe Black against Kassius King. This fell in the “Fun Squash” category for me. This is just the second appearance in Kraken for Joe, but he already feels like a big deal because of his general presence, his ability as a talker, and the excellent match with Kantrell back at the Kraken Classic. King gets a little offense in but mostly sells for Black — and sells well, especially on a lariat that wraps things up.

Episode 58

A pretty skippable episode. The highlight for me was the amusing backstage interview that kicked off this installment with Kay talking to Quick Drip: Nick Quick and Dante Dripp. They go on to lose to All Star Special in the first match of Tides of War that also felt like a foregone conclusion. Dante gets knocked out cold during this contest.

We also get the first match for Jaz Jones since she joined The Business against Alicia Love. Alicia has the upper hand and starts talking trash to Justin Kayse at ringside for some reason that eludes me and gets rolled up and pinned. Speaking of “Spaceballs” …

At least she didn’t get distracted in the middle of the match by someone’s music playing. That drives me crazy.

Episode 59

More Tides of War action, as The Business, represented by Breezyy and Stuckey, take on the Saturday Night Temptations. This is a decent little tag match. Duke uses up his mulligan with me by complaining about the double team. The Business win after Karl Hager takes a low blow and Dom hits his finisher on CJ Shine. We also get a rock-solid promo by Joe Black, which just adds to what I was saying about his strong presentation.

Charlie Kills faces Travis Ray in the episode main event. Charlie has his red mask and singlet again, continuing to give Spoiler vibes. The regular disclaimers by the announcers about Kraken being anti-murder in Charlie Kills matches consistently amuse me. Charlie gets the win with a reversal in a match that didn’t connect with me, or the crowd, as I would have hoped.

Episode 60

The two best matches of this set of episodes happen here. First up, Noir face Don Haylo and Jayy Wells in the Tides of War. Noir have really grown on me since they debuted in the early days of Kraken, and I’m still curious to see the journey from hated rulebreakers here to really strong fan favorites by this year’s Kraken Classic. Meanwhile, I’ve sung the praises of Haylo and Wells consistently in these pieces, so making them a regular tag team gets a big thumbs up from this corner. Vice Cream have a good energy, and a pleasant dynamic in interviews that makes them easy to like. Mrs. Wright is conspicuous by her absence. Mr. Wright has really sharpened his game in recent outings and that continues here. He even busts out a swank Bret Hart-style running clothesline. There’s a good battle between Haylo and Ehren Black, where Haylo even levels the much bigger Black with a running shoulder tackle. Haylo and Wright have a somewhat awkward exchange down the home stretch, but they make lemonade from lemons, as the result just made Haylo look like more of a powerhouse. Clever finish; Will Huckaby and Sam Hansin interfere and attack… Haylo and Wells? This disqualifies Noir, putting them in a three-point hole early in the Tides of War after the heels shaved Hanson’s head at the last taping. Clever.

In the main event of the episode and the taping, Trever Aeon defends the Kraken Pro title against Lamar Diggs of The Business. Diggs got a guaranteed title shot by winning the Kraken Classic a couple of months ago. I’ve written before about big-fight feel adding to the ambiance of matches, and some very good introductions by Kay go a long way to creating that aura. Kayse continues to show how far he’s come, fanning Diggs with his loaded briefcase early in the match when The Business’ big man powders out to the floor. Aeon has some slick moments here; see how he lured Diggs into a triangle choke while seeming to reel from previous offense. Still, this was the Diggs show for me for much of the match. He busts out a standing dropkick that’s impressive for a guy his size but my favorite was when he hits a fallaway slam that chucks Aeon to the floor, turns to the ringside fans, and bellows “He’s all yours!” Love it. Love everything about it. Aeon puts together quite the comeback, hoisting Diggs for three back drop suplexes. Chaos reigns at the finish. Kayse pulls Referee Clark out of the ring and whacks him with the briefcase before Clark can call for the DQ or eject Kayse from ringside. That brings the rest of The Business to the ring, but wait! Aeon, who teases he’s got reinforcements on Episode 58, gets that help when Eric Silva and Austin Towers, a/k/a the Left Hand head for the ring. The Path clean house, during which Towers, who’s enormous, Sparta kicks Jaz halfway to Alabama. Aeon hits his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang finisher on Diggs, which was an impressive sight, and the champ retains.

One complaint on commentary in this episode: Donnie refers to both Ehren Black and Diggs as “a wrecking ball in wrestling boots.” That was a phrase Donnie previously used just for Brother Azriel, who’s absent from this taping. I preferred it that way; referring to any big man on the roster by the same phrase, even if it’s clever, diminishes the impact of the phrase.

Miss any installments? Check out the index of Review the Kraken entries.

Kraken Pro Wrestling Live Report: April 12

Kraken Pro Wrestling Live Report: April 12

The wife and I found ourselves in Atlanta this past weekend, and Kraken Pro Wrestling just so happened to have a show scheduled for Tifton, on Sunday.

Not only that, this was the go-home show heading into the second anniversary event, the Kraken Classic.

We had to check it out, and we did. So after a three-hour drive from Atlanta that somehow felt longer than the five-hour drive from East Tennessee to Atlanta the night before, we found ourselves at Chino & Letty’s Place, the current home of Kraken.

I’m still way behind the present day on my review series of Kraken and now that I know where things are headed, it will be interesting to watch those episodes from that perspective.

I’ve been to dozens of wrestling shows in my life — some as a fan, some as part of the show. Kraken live is a very different experience from all of them. It’s like the shows happen in their own little self-contained reality. The crowd is not what I would describe as a typical wrestling crowd. They don’t start chants. They don’t heckle wrestlers. They don’t react to big spots or moves, although they sure do enjoy a nasty chop, and they got several of them on this card. It’s also not a dead crowd, by any means. The fan interaction during the entrances, between matches, and at intermission shows that.

Unique.

This was also the go-home show before the Kraken Classic, the second anniversary show for the promotion. Last year’s Kraken Classic was the culmination of most of the main storylines in the first year, and the upcoming anniversary show looks to be the same.

Let’s dive into the results. Thanks to my wife, Sandi Moorehouse, for taking the pictures.

Match 1: Nick Quick vs. CT Entertainment

I got to the show early and stayed late and got to chat with several members of the roster, including Nick. I told him before the show that it was highly entertaining to watch him get annihilated every week, and it’s true. He sells well, and it’s helped him carve out a niche. His entrance is incredibly over with the Kraken fans, and likely benefits from the fact the promotion runs regularly out of the same venue.

The match was a basic but solid opener. CT delivered a nice release German suplex that might have made Nick even shorter. After CT confronted Referee Clark about a slow count on a spinebuster, Nick caught him in a backslide basically out of nowhere. CT pursued Clark to the back still complaining. Nick Quick has one of the eight coins going into the Kraken Classic, by the way. He’s a very effective underdog and the fans enjoy to root for him.

Match 2: Johnny Faith vs. Nathaniel Vanderbilt vs. Brandon Whatley

This is for a Kraken coin, and I’m not sure who had the coin coming in, but it’s also the first match back in Kraken for Whatley, who missed about a year of action with a ruptured Achilles. I’d written before about how Vanderbilt’s rich guy persona lended itself more to him being a heel, and it’s happened. He comes out to opera music, wearing a long coat, an obnoxious hat, and exudes a pompous, obsequious attitude that makes you want to see him get punched. Mission accomplished. This was my first look at Johnny Faith, and he showed some good fire. At one point Whatley had him in a hold and when the referee checked for a submission, Johnny screamed out “I never quit!” Vanderbilt spent most of this match on the floor and got walloped by Whatley every time he tried to get back into the ring. When he did get back in, he had a rough-looking landing on a standing shooting star press on Faith. The finish came when Johnny had Vanderbilt pinned, and Whatley smashed Faith in the head with his nunchucks over the referee’s shoulder. That was fine, but then Whatley hit him again right in front of the referee. I get triple threats are usually no DQ, but this was egregious and buried the poor referee.

Match 3: Jak Myles vs. Julian Balderas vs. Hitta J

Another triple threats for a Kraken coin. Man, the kids in Tifton really dig the Sweeper, and he plays up to them in a way that is almost perfect. Balderas is new to me and has a rugged vibe — and a spear — that all reminded me of Rhino. Hitta J is a singles wrestler now after his brother moved, and his dad is his manager. His presence adds a lot to J’s act, as he’s an imposing dude with presence who carries a big stick (literally). Balderas and Hitta J spent a good bit of time trading endless strikes like Peter Griffin and The Chicken. Hitta J showcased a decent arsenal of power moves. Finally, J got taken down on a combo with Sweeper hitting a Russian legsweep and Balderas a spear. Balderas also busted out what I can describe best as a Vader bomb after jumping from rope to rope in the corner like a Best Moonsault Ever. I dig it, and it’s a nice bit of agility from a big dude. J’s manager, Dr. Kenneth Jones, broke up the pin by pulling his son’s foot into the ropes. Hitta J came back with a chokeslam on Balderas to claim the coin. This finish was fine in a vacuum and should play well enough in a separate episode of TV, but live, it fell flat coming immediately after the nunchuck use in the previous match.

Match 4: All Star Special vs. Noir

Noir are fan favorites now. I repeat, Ehren Black and Mr. Wright, the often reviled duo in Kraken, are fan favorites. No one prepared me for this. They really seemed to be savoring the crowd support, and I like Mr. Wright’s new haircut. Kraken fans don’t chant, except for a “Let’s go Noir” chant that broke out. What is happening?!? Huckaby and Hanson basically worked this one as heels. Hanson caught Wright with the ole knee in the back as he bounces off the ropes to help All Star Special take advantage. Black is even bigger than he looks on TV. Seeing him make a hot tag is a weather event. Things broke down, Huckaby scaled the ropes for a moonsault, and Black cut him off and delivered a choke bomb with a gnarly landing that legit rattled Huck. Noir won the match to advance to the Tides of War finals. The crowd loved it, and I remained thrown by the reaction.

Match 5: Angel del la Muerte vs. Kassius King

The masked luchador got the submission here with a pretty slick hold. I missed most of this one because my Wilford Brimley Spidey sense started tingling, and your favorite wrestling writer with an insulin issue needed to eat. Concession selection for something with protein was sparse. The only real offerings in that vein were boiled peanuts and jerky. Apparently the battle for a food license limits what they can have available, but a little wider selection would be appreciated.

Intermission 

This was an event all in itself, with several members of the roster working the room and hawking their merchandise. A giant group dance broke out with kids and wrestlers and ring announcer Kay Casiano. Sweeper was part of this and selling his hip while he danced, thus making a very fine offering to the wrestling gods.

Match 5: Josh Breezzyy vs. Travis Ray

Most Kraken matches are short by design. Every match on the card except the main event had a 10-minute time limit. Despite the relatively short time limit, nothing really felt rushed… except this match. I’ve already got some thoughts on Breezzyy in The Business coming in my next review on the Kraken archive, but this didn’t work for me.

Match 6: Saturday Night Temptations vs. The Business 

The other Tides of War semifinal. The match was just OK and got overshadowed by the simmering tension in The Business between manager Justin Kayse and Lamar Diggs and Jaz Jones. Diggs and Jones were none too pleased with the way the last event ended, with Kayse turning on Dominic Stuckey and aligning with Brother Azriel, who called his shot as Cash In Hand champion and challenged Stuckey on the spot right after he had won the Kraken Pro Title from Trever Aeon, who looks to be done in Kraken at least for the immediate future. Diggs and Kayse started bickering loudly from the minute they came through the curtain. Add the Temptations to the list of Kraken acts who have a very over ring entrance. CJ Shine and Karl Hager did some good crowd work with Hager’s hat, but The Business jumped them to cut off the shenanigans. Shine spent the majority of this match getting clobbered by The Business. When he did finally tag Hager, Diggs cut off the hot tag with a nice fallaway slam. More dissension between Diggs and Kayse. The ref took a tumble. Breezzyy ran out to interfere, and his superkick clocked Jaz in the face by mistake. The Temptations scored the tandem pin on Diggs, and also ended up with Kayse’s Georgia Wrestling History trophy, a beat that begged for a follow-up but Kayse had it right back for his appearance at the end of the night. I enjoyed the building discord in The Business, which is begging for an eventual climax with Diggs getting his hands on the manager. There’s a Faustian deal that has been made here, but is the devil in this case Kayse, the archvillain of Kraken? Or is Kayse Faust, who made moves and deals for power and influence and championships and now faces potentially brutal consequences for his choices?

Kraken GM Alex Chase is out with the tag titles and a faceoff between Noir and the Temptations. Black was very intense for this, and the crowd loved it.

Match 7: Vice Cream (Don Haylo & Jayy Wells) vs. Red Door (Charlie Kills & Jay 2 Strong)

Match of the night for me. Haylo and Wells have been personal favorites for a while, Jay is arguably the most reliable in-ring wrestler on the roster, and Charlie stands out with his character and tactics like joint manipulation and fish hooking that would warm the cockles of the heart of a World of Sport fan from the 1970s. They started hot with Vice Cream getting jumped. Haylo and Wells turn the tables and engage in an extended double team. I figure Diamond Duke was losing his mind on commentary during this. The crowd loves chops, and they got the nastiest one of the night from Wells, an incredibly nasty-sounding shot that both echoed and thudded, even with Jay wearing a shirt. Red Door end up working over Wells, who fired back but refused to tag out. “I got this!” he said to Haylo, but did he? He did not. A Strong Valley Driver by Jay 2 Strong finished it, and Haylo walked out without his partner.

Match 8: Xander King vs. ERC in Match 4 of their Best of 5

The main event, and the only match that had a longer time limit. ERC came in trailing 2-1 in the Best of 5, which telegraphed the result a good bit. Still a very solid back-and-forth match. King was on the very first few episodes of Kraken and did not impress. He was much better here, and I told him so after the show concluded. ERC stands out in Kraken as a sneaky, crafty wrestler. I’ll have more to say on this one when I’ve watched the rest of the series. ERC delivered a modified gut buster to tie the Best of 5 going into the Kraken Classic.

Kraken Classic ceremony

The final announced thing on the card was a ceremony where the eight wrestlers in the Kraken Classic offered their coins as “admission” to the tournament. Just like weddings and contract signings in pro wrestling, this segment was destined for chaos. The Kraken Classic field includes Haylo, Whatley, Nick Quick, Breezzyy, Hitta J, Charlie Kills, Huck, and Joe Black. As expected, the wrestlers started to brawl. Huckaby and Breezzyy are the final two left standing when Justin Kayse and the rest of The Business came out, and Kayse asked Huckaby to leave. Huck did, which potentially could make him look weak, but much less so after he floored Breezzyy with a punch.

Kayse started ranting and raving about Breezzyy being a weak link, then wiped the paint off of his face using Breezzyy’s own shirt. He introduced his newest client, and the new Kraken Pro champ, Brother Azriel. Once Kayse described him as the new ace of The Business, Stuckey’s music hit to a huge reaction. This double turn from the last event definitely worked. The whole story feels like it’s been lifted from Memphis or Mid-South in their heyday as territories. Kayse ordered Diggs to take out Stuckey, but Diggs and Jaz walked out instead. The crowd loved this.

A quick aside to recognize how valuable Kay Casiano is as a host for Kraken. I consider her one of the five individuals that are the most valuable to the promotion. I’ve done ring announcing, and hosting on wrestling TV, and I’m not very good at either one. Kay has a consistent presence even when chaos is breaking out and brings a credible anchorwoman type presence. During this segment, there was a great beat where, as Kayse started to leave the ring, Kay snatched the microphone he left laying on the apron and handed it to Dom with a big smile.

Stuckey got his turn to talk and made the most of it. Kraken needed a big moment to put butts in seats for the Kraken Classic and Stuckey’s promo really sold it. He challenged Azriel for the title and there’s your the main event at the Kraken Classic.

The stage is set for a strong card to celebrate Kraken’s second anniversary:

Brother Azriel defending the Kraken Pro Title against Dominic Stuckey
Noir vs. Saturday Night Temptations in the Tides of War finals to crown the first Kraken Tag Champions
Xander King vs. ERC in the final match of the Best of 5
Two Kraken Classic four-way semifinals, and the one-on-one Kraken Classic final
The return of the Ultimate Cash in Hand Scramble

Solid.

This was a fun evening of wrestling that moved briskly. Nothing overstayed its welcome and there was only one match that really missed the mark, although I maintain the two back-to-back finishes in the triple threats fell flat because of their sequence, and the unnecessary second shot with the nunchucks. I was also a little disappointed that the one event that worked for our calendar didn’t have Azriel, Stuckey, or Kevin Kantrell in action.

Kraken is very lucky to have this building, which is, hands down, one of the nicest venues for an independent wrestling promotion that I have ever experienced, either as a fan or working as a commentator, announcer, or otherwise behind the scenes. The talent has a very nice backstage dressing room area, and there’s even a catering spread for them.

The venue provides abundant square footage. There’s air conditioning.

And the bathrooms.

I say again, with the full endorsement of my better half … the bathrooms, y’all!

This was probably my wife’s favorite feature of the venue. Independent wrestling leads you to pee in some pretty gross places, at times.

Thanks to Kraken Pro Wrestling for the hospitality.

And look for the next installment of Review the Kraken soon.

Review the Kraken: Setting up the Season

Review the Kraken: Setting up the Season

For a small independent wrestling company that runs all its events in the same town in South Georgia, Kraken Pro Wrestling does some ambitious long-term storytelling. Frankly, it’s a shame this promotion doesn’t have more of a following than it does, especially at a time where building a narrative over time is becoming somewhat of a lost art, especially at the independent level.

We pick up here in June of 2025. Kraken just closed out its first “season” at the Kraken Classic, also the one-year anniversary show. Trever Aeon unseated Justin Kayse to become Kraken Pro Champion. The fact it’s a new season gets mentioned several times during this set of episodes and, like a good season premiere should, there’s a good bet of set-up for the twists and turns to come.

Here’s all the episodes included in this review:

Episode 53

Women’s action kicks things off as Jaz Jones takes on Alexandra Quinn. First thing that jumps out is the crowd size; it’s another big house, coming off the Kraken Classic, where it also was packed. The latter is making her Kraken debut and she’s an AR Fox trainee. Quinn is green but there’s something there; that ripcord spine buster of hers looks especially good. This match gets a little wonky down the stretch — again, green — but Jasmine wins clean. More heels should.

The major plot point from this episode is Donnie Harris, the lead broadcaster, stepping down as general manager. He’s replaced by Alex Chase, who used to be involved with something called Georgia Independent Professional Wrestling, which is an incredibly generic name and I say that as someone who used to help out with the Pro Wrestling Federation in East Tenessee. Of course, Justin Kayse and The Business have to come out and immediately confront the new guy in charge, just as they have done with the two previous GMs in Kraken. Kayse is sporting a neck brace after taking his first major bumps, and lumps, at Trever Aeon’s hands at the Kraken Classic (see the photographic evidence below).

Justin Kayse lies unconscious on the mat at the Kraken Classic,
Just running back this picture to make Justin Kayse mad … but look how peaceful he was sleeping at the Kraken Classic!

Kayse gets great heat here; he is a much better talker than he was when Kraken first began. Chase also is comfortable on the mic. But if you’ve been watching American televised wrestling at all in the past 30 years, you’ve seen this story before. Seriously, this has been a plot device for three decades now. Surely we can figure out something new.

Kayse is getting ready to position Dominic Stuckey to challenge Aeon for the title when Jay 2 Strong grabs the microphone and puts himself in the match. Apparently Kayse’s legal acumen is no match for the overarching social doctrine of dibs. With that apparently settled, The Business starts to leave, but wait! Stuckey has a match Right Now against…

Brother Azriel. These are two of my favorites on the roster and the match is as good as I expected. Azriel brings a rugged hoss energy that is really unique in this promotion. Stuckey, meanwhile, stands out not just with his technical ability or the moves he does; it’s those beats in between, like when he trash talks his opponent or the fans or says something to Kayse. After Dom and Kayse get crossed up and the attorney takes a spill, Azriel plants Stuckey with the Woodgrain which finishes the match — and should in every match where he hits it barring some serious shenanigans. This felt like a big win for Azriel to propel him to a greater role in Kraken. Works for me!

Episode 54

Kay Casiano, who serves as ring announcer and backstage interviewer, stays pretty busy on this set of episodes and that’s a good thing. She is very smooth and polished in the hosting type role. She gets some words with the new GM Chase, and Noir interrupts. They have history in Georgia Independe… let’s just call it GIPW.

It’s scramble time! Jak Myles puts the freshly minted Cash In Hand Title on the line, and $225 also is at stake! That’s almost half of a PS5 at current prices! The Cash In Hand Title is a fusion of CHIKARA’s Campeonato de Los Parejas contender rules and Money In The Bank. Defend three times, and the champion gets a title match with the Kraken Pro Champion he or she can “cash in” at any time. Like on screen authority figures, this cash-in gimmick has been around wrestling a long time, so I hope the Kraken brain trust has some unique twist cooked up for it.

Joey Hyder, Nathaniel Vamderbilt, and Dante Dripp are the opponents in the scramble. Vanderbilt leans into the dark side of the force, mocking Sweeper with the broom. Let’s see more of that; nobody wants to root for the spoiled rich kid. Dripp has a very punchable face, which makes him an ideal wrestler to put over others. Hyder wins the match, which I didn’t expect after Myles’ win in the big scramble at the Kraken Classic, which felt like a big deal.

Will Huckaby, who’s still the perpetual grump of Kraken, is the guest on the Diamond Den and shuts down the segment without answering a question. He’s probably tired of Duke complaining about referees’ counts being too fast or slow, or me complaining to him about Duke’s complaining, or a combination of the two.

All Star Special face Quick Drip in the episode headliner. The latter team is made up of Nick Quick and Travis Ray, who apparently join Dante Dripp to make this a three-man faction. They don’t explain this until the next taping, but I felt compelled to do so here for some reason. I like Travis a lot; he hits hard and has an explosive energy, but I think that gets lost with some of the silliness he does. The match is window dressing for a pretty strong angle involving Noir, who jump All Star Special. Huck gets put through a door that gets propped up in one corner. Why is a door under a wrestling ring, anyway? Duke points this out and for once I agree with him. The heels tie up Sam Hanson in the ropes and Mrs. Wright hits the ring with scissors and electric clippers. The crowd reacts right away before a single lock of Hanson’s hair is cut, and they give him a quick and dirty reverse mohawk. Donnie squalling, “she’s not a licensed cosmetologist!” was a line that was so ridiculous and also delivered with such conviction that I horse laughed in an empty room. This was the best thing Noir has done in Kraken, by a wide margin.

Episode 55

My favorite of these four episodes, and the entire story here centers on elevating talent in defeat.

It starts in the tag match, with Don Haylo and Jayy Wells teaming for the first time and taking on the H-Town Hittas. I’ve been a Don Haylo guy really since he first started showing up in Kraken, and I’ve always been a sucker for a “strong guy / fast guy” tag team dynamic. Jayy has leveled up gear-wise with the custom basketball jersey. I’ve written before about how the ascent of Wells in Kraken reminds me of the growth and development of young lions in New Japan Pro Wrestling and that progression continues here. Wells is delivering strikes to the Hittas with a delightful mix of intent and impact. The Hittas give much more here than they usually do but eventually assert themselves and win. Still, the team of Haylo and Wells was established here in defeat.

Kevin Kantrell faces ERC in the main event and Kantrell elevates his opponent here. ERC stands out in Kraken thanks to a sneaky opportunist style. He doesn’t try to look cool or do flashy moves; he takes shortcuts and the openings available to him. At one point, ERC suckers Kantrell with a straight punch, and Kantrell’s reeling sell into the ropes makes it seem like he got zapped with a stun gun. ERC kicks out of the Styles Clash (which the commentators weirdly dance around but never fully identify) before Kantrell finishes him with the crossface.

Come for the matches; stay for a rather entertaining segment filmed outside the building where Noir celebrate with Hanson’s newly shorn hair.

The Diamond Den on this episode with Alex Chase is a total mess. Alex spends half the time talking covering his mouth as he plays with his beard, and I say that as a habitual whisker fiddler. Alex is here to explain the Tides of War, the ongoing round robin tournament that is going to eventually crown the first Kraken tag champs (belts pictured above) and play out over the next eight months (!), which also seems an insane length for an independent promotion. Problem is, his verbal spiel contradicts the graphic that plays during the segment. No one comes away from this looking prepared or knowledgeable. Swing and a miss here but at least the new belts look snazzy.

Episode 56

This episode opens with a Strap Match between Rose Gold and Tsu Nami, which was scheduled for the Kraken Classic but had to get moved. The strap snaps in the first few seconds of the match and they have to improve everything that ensues. This is not a good match but I give them credit for trying to make it work on the fly. Rose wins by making Tsu Nami pass out to a choke just before the time limit expires. Duke thinks their issue is not settled. Of all the dastardly things he has said as the heel broadcaster, this is the most unforgivable yet.

After Donnie summons his best Don West to hawk some Kraken merch, we proceed directly without passing Go to the main event.

As for the main event, which headlines both this episode and the taping … There’s a lovely beat in the introductions when Kayse starts trying to go at Kay Casiano for referring to him as the “former” champion. It’s lost somewhat by bad audio that makes it sound as if Kay is announcing the participants while stuck at the bottom of a well. Donnie referring to “the Harris administration” made me laugh.

Trever and Jay have had multiple matches in Kraken by this point — some singles and some in tags. This is probably their best. I didn’t care for the commentators trying to say Jay has owned Trever in past matches, when Aeon beat Jay clean in their last meeting and in fact that’s how he earned the match with Stuckey at the Kraken Classic. Jay has established himself as one of the best wrestlers in Kraken. He’s so good at the little things. Case in point, he uses the tiniest bit of heel sleight of hand to take control, which leads to Kayse trying to slide his briefcase in the match and Referee Clark ejecting Kayse from ringside.

This is the first title defense for Trever and the first legitimate title match in Kraken history, and both wrestlers raise the stakes appropriately. Jay counters the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with a modified ushigaroshi. Later there’s a gnarly vertical suplex into the corner. Jay shows a ton of fight now that he’s on his own, which of course is the entire point of what’s building. Eventually, Clark gets bumped in the midst of an F5 that is lamely referred to as a a “finishing maneuver” on commentary. Jaz Jones shows up with Kayse’s briefcase and delivers one of the most gentle foreign object shots ever. I suppose she’s joined The Business now. Trever ultimately hits Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and wins it clean in center ring to a big reaction from the crowd.

I didn’t care for the shoehorning of Alex Chase into this match. He holds up the belt during introductions. He presents it to and straps it around Trever after the final bell. That’s all referee duty. We get it; he’s the new authority figure.

Want to catch up? Check out the full index of “Review the Kraken” content.

From the Crow’s Nest: 1978

From the Crow’s Nest: 1978

Our journey through the Portland Wrestling territory turns the calendar from 1977 to 1978.

Unfortunately, footage from this year is pretty sparse. We’ve got two partial episodes from the first quarter of the year, one interview with Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski, and … that’s it. Luckily, all of that footage is available for general consumption on YouTube.

2/18/78

Another partial episode, and once again, the dastardly duo of Rose and Wiskowski take center stage. Jesse Ventura is the hero du jour going against the duo. Most of these Saturday night episodes of TV serve as a vehicle to promote the upcoming Tuesday card happening in Portland, and that’s the case again here. Wins come by pin, submission, or both feet hitting the floor. The hook this time? Ventura is going to take on Rose, and has put up $5,000 against $1,000 for Rose to make the match happen. And Wiskowski is going to be the special referee. I’m not sure how this is fair for Ventura, but …

Our existing footage includes the main event of the episode, with Rose and Wiskowski defending their tag titles against Skip Young and Jerry Oates. It’s been about two and a half months since our last available episode, and there are notable physical changes for the two villains; Rose has leaned up and Wiskowski. Oates, meanwhile, comes out in a drabby sweatshirt that makes him look like a middle school gym teacher.

This marks the last footage of Young in Portland for the next while, and it’s his best yet. I maintain he would have been a great fit in modern wrestling. There’s a great exchange with Rose where they trade slams, then leap frogs, ending with a gorgeous dropkick but Young. Rose looks sharp in this match as well, and he’s back to taking those cartoonish slipping-on-a-banana-peel bumps on his punches.

One quality that stands out in Portland matches, and Rose matches in particular, is that he makes opponents pay for repeating the same move or tactic on him multiple times. There’s a fine instance of that here. Oates spends nearly the entire first fall working in or around a headlock, usually on Rose. On Oates’ third attempt to catch Rose in a headlock takeover, the Playboy blocks it and counters with a back suplex. A kneedrop straight to the face makes for a believable end to the fall, and puts the rulebreakers up 1-0.

In between falls, Frank Bonnema interviews Ventura from the crow’s nest. This is pretty standard fare but it feels like a treasured hysterical artifact, where we get a look at Ventura as a fan favorite in a territory.

In Portland, the wrestlers involved in the previous fall automatically start the next one, and that doesn’t play out well for Oates. Rose quickly seizes the upper hand and Oates spends the majority of the fall getting roughed up by the champs. There’s a fantastic moment in this fall, after Skip tags in, when he hits Rose with a jumping headbutt. Rose instinctively goes to keep over, but Young grabs him to prevent the collapse so he can exact more punishment. Oates ends up back in, avoids a flying knee drop from Wiskowski and then ensnares him in a spinning toe hold to get the submission. The crowd loves it, and Wiskowski sells the toehold like he’s having his lower body fed into a wood chipper. Verily, the Wrestling Gods are appeased …

Time for the third fall. Skip hits a swanky bit of offense when, while standing, he leaps and puts both knees in Rose’s head at once. There’s a move available to bring back for any current wrestlers reading this, who also have the hops to do it. You can feel the war of attrition in this fall. The challengers focus on Wiskowski’s knee, vulnerable after the submission in the second fall. The champions target Skip’s shoulder after he misses on a corner shoulder tackle and collides with the turnbuckles. The fans chant “We want Skip!” with gusto but the combined assault on Young’s arm is too much and referee Sandy Barr stops the match for injury, as Young becomes the latest arm injury casualty at the hands of Rose.

This was a very good match, and one of the better in-ring offerings yet in this journey through the Portland footage.

2/25/78

Next, we get another crow’s nest interview from the following week, with Rose and Wiskowski. The villains are reveling in recent results. Rose got the win over Ventura in that singles match and crows about the result. Later, Rose and Wiskowski come back to the broadcast position, gloating about Skip Young and his dislocated shoulder at their hands. These two are really the engine that propels the territory at this point. Other wrestlers cycle in and out to try and stop them, and ultimately, everyone has come up short to this point. At the same time, Rose and Wiskowski stumble and bumble and, in Rose’s case, bleed to make the protagonists look strong. The three-fall format for TV main events also helps, as the two rulebreakers can eat a pin or submit to drop an individual fall, but without losing the overall match, maintaining their status in the hierarchy while also providing hope that this time, their challengers definitely have what it takes to dethrone them.

3/4/78

Another week of Portland TV and another Tuesday card to hype, this time headlined by Rose and Wiskowski defending the tag titles against Jimmy Snuka and Ventura. There’s a tandem where I really would like to see some footage of that duo in action. Oh well. Ed Wiskowski is still gloating about he and Rose taking out Skip Young. This and the two interview segments from the week before are all fine but they are also rather similar. They’ve had better promos previously on other episodes.

It’s not the main event of this episode, but the other surviving footage puts Rose against Snuka. You had me at hello. This is very much a TV match, in that they’re saving much of the actual fight between them for the crowd at the non-televised event on Tuesday in Portland. The match itself is pretty forgettable, but if you’re a current wrestler, watching what Rose does is highly recommended because he puts on a master class in how to stall and work a crowd. Rose is interacting directly with many of the old timers in the front row, a lot of whom were season ticket holders at these Portland TV tapings. Rose eventually asks the ringside fans to be quiet, so naturally they go louder.

This crowd work lasts about three minutes before Roae finally engages Snuka in the ring, nearly gets caught in a flash in, and then bails out and goes back into a stall. Delicious.

Snuka is still on an ascent at this point and I find it hard to accurately describe how explosive his movements are unless you can watch the matches for yourself. He hits a gorgeous armdrag on Rose, transitions into a hold, and then lifts Rose up off the mat while still having him in the hold and slams him down to the mat. Once the initial gaga subsided, everything was 95% Snuka until Rose cut him off as he ascended to the top rope and slams him off the corner. Any control Rose has is short lived. He tries to come off the top as well and gets caught by Snuka, In the rally, Snuka delivers a jumping headbutt that Rose sells with a wild leaping bump that both makes no sense and is highly entertaining. It’s a peak example of how suspension of disbelief can be a vital component to full enjoyment of this weird, wacky medium.

One factor that makes Rose so effective as a headlining villain is that he has the skills to back up his boasts. He scouts and anticipates repeat attacks, and he has a maddening level of ring awareness. Exhibit A: Snuka delivers a pretty awkward-looking piledriver, but Rose gets a foot in the ropes on the pin attempt. Exhibit B: Snuka applies his full nelson, which submitted Rose back in December, and he immediately scrambles to the ropes, then does so again on a second attempt by Snuka on the hold, barely reaching the bottom rope with his foot.

Time expires in a draw result that let a bit telegraphed, and each man’s partner comes out for a staredown. Rose and Wiskowski against Snuka and Ventura feels like the fever dream of a wrestling game simulator. Frank Bonnema gleefully proclaims “we’re going behind the barn!” as they face off. Not sure what that means, but I like it.

Unfortunately, this is all the footage available in 1978. Rose and Wiskowski drop the tag titles to Ventura and Oates a few weeks later. Rose loses a stretcher match to Ventura and cycles in and out of Portland for the rest of the year. What time he does spend back in Portland later in 1978 is often under a hood, as either The Masked Marvel or The Avenger. Wiskowski remains more of a constant for Don Owen. He loses the territory’s singles title to Oates in May, wins it back, then loses it to Jonathan Boyd in August. Boyd remains the champ as we roll into 1979, when a certain Rowdy Scot is already well-established in the territory.

Check out the full index of entries in the From the Crow’s Nest series.

From the Crow’s Nest: December, 1977

From the Crow’s Nest: December, 1977

Back in the saddle with more Portland action. In this installment, we close the book on 1977 with this footage from December that also serves as a refresh of the roster.

I’ve included what is available on YouTube from the December, 1977 footage. However, if you want to make sure you’ve got access to everything I am watching as part of this project, I highly recommend supporting this Patreon account, which has a veritable treasure trove of old wrestling available.

December 3, 1977

Just a heads up that, depending on where you look online, footage from this episode is mis-listed as from November 26. Also, the video quality from this episode tends to range from “not great” to “piss poor.”

Frank Bonnema interviews returning fan favorite Johnny Eagles from England, dubbing Eagles as the man of a thousand moves. Eagles is one wrestler I have very little familiarity with, and while he came in and out of Portland with some regularity, there is not a lot of surviving footage of him in action — although he will be included on the next installment. Eagles brags on how strong the wrestling is in Portland, which is a recurring theme on commentary and in interviews with mainstays like Dutch Savage. A wrestling company that uses good wrestling as a cornerstone of its marketing approach … bananas!

The other existing footage from this episode catches the tail end of the main event: a two out of three falls match pitting Lonnie Mayne and Sam Oliver Bass (that’s Ron Bass, for those of you who haven’t been following along [and if not, there’s a handy dandy index!]) against Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski. The tag titles, which have been vacated since the last episode when Mayne agreed to team with Bass to defend them, are on the line and there are two referees: Savage inside the ring, and Sandy Barr at ringside.

This is also the final available Portland footage we have of Mayne, who dies the following August in a single-vehicle car accident. His manic, reckless-looking style is on display here, both in the ring and later on the mic. Wiskowski Irish whips Lonnie into a neutral corner, and Mayne takes a wild-looking bump to the floor, then comes up bloody. Back into the ring, and Wiskowski unloads on Mayne with a series of diving headbutts (I counted six of them). Rose and Wiskowski aren’t through and start swinging on everyone, including both referees. A melee ensues, during which Mayne opens up an absolute gusher of a cut on Rose. By the time the fight breaks up, Mayne and Bass (and Savage, for some reason) are standing tall while Rose looks like a murder victim.

Frank interviews both teams from his crow’s nest, and we get some of the best promos yet of this time period. Promoter Don Owen sets a rematch for the tag titles on Tuesday, and raises the stakes to make it losers leave town. Rose is absolutely covered in blood for this interview, and it really adds to the interview as Rose and Wiskowski rant and rave at this latest outrage perpetrated against them by management. Frank Bonnema then has an all-timer of a segue to the commercial between interviews, observing the blood that thoroughly coats the floor and then noting “You can clean up if you’re looking for a used car.”

Mayne and Bass are next, and Maybe spends the whole interview chewing on and swallowing broken glass. We’ve seen other wrestlers do this and apparently it’s an established part of Mayne’s schtick because it’s treated with a sense of impending doom, as if to say … “Lonnie’s not screwing around, he’s got the glass out again!”

Mayne and Bass go on to lose the non-televised rematch and cycle out of the territory.

There’s not much meat here as far as the wrestling action, but the blood and chaos and good interviews make for a highly enjoyable watch.

December 10, 1977

All we have from this episode is the second and third falls of the main event. Rose and Wiskowski, tag champs once more, take on Skip Young and Jimmy Snuka in a non-title match. Snuka is another guy who came into Portland several times in the 1970s and, as mentioned on a previous episode, now is going by his “Superfly” moniker. A review of results from 1977 show that Snuka has been in the territory for almost a month on this current run, but this is the first in-ring footage we have.

Snuka spends most of this on the apron while Skip does the bulk of the work and the selling for Rose and Wiskowski. When Snuka does tag in, the heels make him look like a million bucks. Wiskowski takes some big bumps from Snuka when he makes the tag in the second fall, which ends shortly thereafter to tie the match on a slick quick pin by Skip. In the third fall, another hot tag to Snuka sees him put away Rose in fairly short order with the “Fiji Island Full Nelson.”

Rose’s selling is consistently great but he sells beautifully in this match and the following interview. He projects an air of grievance that permeates his words, facial expressions, and physical reactions. It’s as if the world is against him in Portland wrestling, and Rose has to suffer for it almost weekly as a result. A couple of moments I particularly liked… A brief beat between falls where, on his way to the locker room, Snuka pops Rose as he leaves the ringside area and Rose sells it as if he’s just been seared in the face with a hot iron. Then after the match, an anguished Rose seeks out comfort from Wiskowski. Sporting a large bandage on his forehead that is likely the consequence of his artery tapper last week, Rose proclaims “They’d have had to kill me to make me give up” had the titles been on the line. The heels then engage in some casual racism — mostly from Wiskowski, sheesh — before a title match gets set for next week’s TV program. Sadly, footage of that one appears lost to the sands of time.

So 1977 is in the books, and there’s little debate that Buddy Rose is the MVP of the territory. If you are not familiar with Rose, I highly recommend seeking out some of the footage in this and prior installments to get a feel for his matches, his persona and the general atmosphere of Portland wrestling.

Up Next: We tackle what little footage that exists from 1978 in one single review.

Miss an entry? Check out the full list of From the Crow’s Nest series on our Portland Wrestling page.

Review the Kraken: I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Review the Kraken: I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Telling a long-term story in pro wrestling is not easy, especially at the independent level. Injuries, politics or flaky talent can disrupt even a rather simple plan.

Kudos to Kraken Pro Wrestling. then, for pulling it off.

Kraken’s one-year anniversary from May of 2025, the Kraken Classic, also represented the culmination of a one-year storyline. At the first Kraken Classic, Jay 2 Strong won the tournament to become the first-ever Kraken Champion, then bequeathed the championship to his manager, Justin Kayse, the leader of The Business. Kayse held the title for a year and never defended it. Instead, he used members of The Business as proxies against any aspiring challenger. Win against one of The Business — first Jay, then Dominic Stuckey – and earn a three-minute match against Kayse for the title. Except actually reaching Kayse was a hurdle that no one could clear. Kayse went a full year and never had to actually defend the title, mostly due to trickery and shenanigans by him and the members of The Business.

In this review, we tackle the culmination of that storyline, which came with an incredibly satisfying payoff.

It took a long time for me to fully digest this review to the point where it coalesced as a written piece for me. Part of that is that I’ve been busy writing about other things, both here and elsewhere. I’ve also been busy on the family front. And the work front. I also wanted to make sure I did justice to all the work that went into building what I consider the “season 1 finale” of Kraken. Not just the traditional concept of work as it pertains to wrestling and what happens in the ring. Work in interviews and backstage segments and commentary to develop characters and drive the story. Hopefully, this end result reflects and honors the amount of work that went into this climactic chapter.

With all that said, let’s dive right into the review.

Episode 50

The final match of the Kraken Classic puts Charlie Kills against Lamar Diggs after each won a four-way match earlier in the taping. Charlie has shaken up his usual look, and I’m getting Spoiler vibes — in a good way — from the red mask. Charlie has leaned increasingly into his “friendly neighborhood maybe-a-serial-killer” persona in Kraken. I greatly enjoyed the little touches here: the fish hooking, the joint manipulation, pulling on Diggs’ nose, and even an ankle stomp.

Diggs is also a favorite of mine on the Kraken roster. He’s the most physically imposing wrestler on the entire roster and he sells well. Diggs busts out some great facial expressions in this one. Meanwhile, he goes deep into the ol’ moveset. He uses some open-handed palm strikes to break a submission hold by Charlie, and later, I certainly didn’t expect a cross face out of the heavy hitter of The Business. Diggs wins out of nowhere with a flash pin, flipping forward out of a double leg bridge (the big guy is nimble!) and perfectly planting his feet on the bottom rope for the extra leverage. I cracked up after the match when Diggs is holding up the Kraken Classic trophy with one hand and a screaming child with the other. This was a very good match that was well worth seeing, and having Diggs win the tournament — and the guaranteed shot at the Kraken Title — scoops some extra drama onto the Aeom-Stuckey match, and the prospect of The Business having total control of the championship scene if Aeon falls short.

This is a very good match that is worth seeing, and also an important plot point if you’ve been following Kraken from week to week like I have. There is untapped potential for both Diggs and Charlie coming out of this tournament. I still look forward to the potential day when Diggs and Kayse split, and Diggs is able to get his hands on the manager.

A few other notes… The camera work here in this match shows how full the crowd is, and it’s a pretty packed house. The commentary could have been better. Diamond Duke goes back to complaining about the speed of the referee’s count, because it’s anytime. Meanwhile, the “Make a name for yourself!” line by Donnie Harris before a near-fall pin by Charlie. Note to self, guys and girls… not every wrestler is Jeff Hardy in a ladder match with The Undertaker from 2001.

Episode 51

This might be my favorite episode yet of Kraken TV. in the entire run. Kevin Kantrell is one of the MVPs of the promotion and he takes center stage in this episode. He has a good interview with Kay Casiano. We then get a “hidden camera” segment backstage involving ERC and Brandon Whatley, where, maybe for the first time in televised wrestling, the hidden camera actually makes logical sense.

Those were the appetizers. Let’s dig into the main course, the one-on-one match between Kantrell and Joe Black. I’ve known Joe for more than a decade and seen him evolve, grow, and change as a wrestler but more importantly as a character and a presence. He’s a guy I always felt warranted an opportunity on a larger stage. Maybe one day …

There’s a big fight feel for this match. It’s Joe’s debut in Kraken but previous episodes have done a good job establishing him and he already feels like a rather well-known quantity even before the bell rings. Some people reading this are going to roll their eyes at the comparison I’m about to make, but the way Joe carries himself during this match reminded me of Samoa Joe during his run as ROH Champion, which I mean as quite a high compliment. Joe is here for a match and a payoff; he’s also here to test the mettle of Kantrell and see how good he truly is. The actual wrestling here is quite good, and though these holds and exchanges are things a longtime wrestling fan like me has seen a thousand times, they crackle with intensity. Meanwhile, audible trash talk by Joe during the match is the fuel that propels the narrative. The announcers diminish their presence so these words can be heard clearly on the footage.

After an initial hold-for-hold exchange, Joe dismisses Kantrell as “light work.” Later, when they transition from mat wrestling to striking, Joe taunts Kantrell as a “big fish in a small pond”, goading Kantrell to administer a forearm but instead poking Kantrell in the eye — a bait and switch that I enjoyed immensely — before the blow can be delivered. When Joe follows up with some wicked-sounding chops in the corner, Kantrell piefaces Joe in response in a tremendous distillation of his defiance and resolve.

This feels like more of a back and forth match than the traditional structure with heat and shine. At one point, and I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, Joe busts out a bridging variation of the Mutalock — the same old Kantrell used to tap Will Huckaby (Joe’s longtime friend turned nemesis) at the end of 2024. A spinning forearm is delivered with a healthy amount of strong style. Kantrell unleashes an Avalanche Samoan Drop. Later, Kantrell strings together an Alabama Slam into a Styles Clash, leading to a convincing near-fall where both men’s shoulders are down — a detail I wish was made more of on commentary. The payoff comes when Kantrell delivers a brain buster, then rolls into his cross face hold to force Joe to tap. In the aftermath, Joe offers a handshake to Kantrell — the same gesture Kantrell offered and Joe refused in a backstage interview from earlier in this taping.

Tremendous.

Episode 52

This episode, the finale from the Kraken Classic event, is all about Justin Kayse and his ill-begotten Kraken Title reign. With Diggs winning the tournament earlier, it’s positioned — and rightfully so — as a last-chance, all-or-nothing scenario if there is to be any integrity at all in the championship scene. The episode begins with the contract signing between Aeon and Stuckey from earlier that day, which I mention only to note the moment where Donnie — who doubles as GM and lead commentator — mentions he wouldn’t mind seeing Dom as champion one day and Stuckey flashes a brief but very purposeful glance at his manager and the title slung over one shoulder.

Kay Casiano brings it up a notch on her introductions for this one, and once again a big-fight feel is established right off the bat. Once again, the rules here are that, if Aeon beats Stuckey, he gets a three-minute title match with Justin Kayse. The Aeon-Stuckey match is also no disqualification. The two combatants lean right into the stipulation, starting out hot with back-and-forth blows and then spilling to the floor. Kraken doesn’t do brawls outside the ring very often (Huckaby and Diggs had a memorable one way back) so it stands out when it does happen. Aeon pursuing Stuckey around the ring on all fours is a nice, novel touch.

I don’t think it’s possible for me to pick just one favorite wrestler on the Kraken roster, but both these guys are in the conversation. Stuckey really shines in this match with his facial expressions and trash talk. The no-DQ stipulation flows in both ways. Aeon takes Kayse’s loaded briefcase across the back, then spills to the floor to really get the heat of the match boiling. Then, when Stuckey puts Aeon in a modified cross face looking for the submission, Aeon pulls Kayse into Dom to break up the hold. Justin Kayse oversells this fairly modest impact like he’s been hit with a tranquilizer dart, to my profound amusement.

Dom follows up with a package piledriver (I added a couple of exclamation points to this in my live notes), but Aeon kicks out strong. Dom doesn’t like it, confronts Referee Clark, and decks him. Aeon hits his finisher, and here comes Referee Pee Wee, only to have Kayse wallop him with the briefcase. We’re out of referees… and that means the chaos begins.

This taping had The Business referring to a “Plan B” for this match throughout, and Jay 2 Strong looks to be the cornerstone of that plan, running in and blasting Aeon with a superkick. What proceeds is a long-running series of run-ins involving every wrestler on the card. Sometimes they come out one at a time, sometimes two at a time. On each occasion, the new entrant to the chaos drops whomever came in right before, a quick-hitting, lengthy series of interference spots that I won’t dare to attempt to recap in full here. The sequence does get a little wonky at times and reflects the overall population imbalance between fan favorites and rulebreakers on the roster, as there are a few instances of babyface-on-babyface-violence during the series of run-ins. The crowd, however, loves every bit of it.

The run-in parade eventually circles all the way back around to Jay, who goes to superkick Aeon and hits his stablemate Dom by mistake. This single moment escalates everything. The crowd goes wild. Babyface wrestlers surround the ring and are banging on the apron as Jak Myles dispatches Jay with a Russian legsweep (because he’s the Sweeper, you see), and then, Superman-style, sheds his coveralls to reveal referee gear underneath, calling back to the very first Kraken tapings where a down on his luck Sweeper had to referee matches as well for extra money. Aeon hits his finisher again on Stuckey and Sweeper counts the pin, to an absolutely insane crowd reaction. For a minute there, I thought I was watching mid-1980s Jim Crockett Promotions. (Tip of the hat to Diggs, who timed it so he was oh so close to breaking up the pin).

The focus immediately shifts to Justin Kayse, who goes running out of the building. He’s pursued, and there’s a fantastic visual where several of the fan favorite wrestlers carry a protesting Kayse back into the arena and dump him into the ring. Now the ring is entirely circled, with wrestlers and fans pounding on the apron. In another nice touch, Diggs and Jay are being held back on the floor so they cannot interfere. Kayse offers Aeon a literal fist full of dollars to try and avoid what’s coming. Diamond Duke, who roots endlessly for The Business on commentary, is apoplectic throughout all of this.

Aeon answers Kayse’s bribery offer with controlled violence. He destroys Kayse with two moves and is quite safe with him in the process, especially considering Kayse is a non-wrestler. Sweeper counts the pin, and there’s another eruption from crowd and commentary alike as the Justin Kayse reign (of terror?) comes to a definitive end.

Final Thoughts

I can’t count the number of times I see or hear someone explain that a wrestling outcome is “predictable.” Some of the best stories ever told, in various mediums, have a predictable conclusion. Even if you see the final destination coming from miles away, the joy comes in the journey, and the precise route taken to reach the end point.

These three episodes represent Kraken at its greatest heights to date. The final two episodes, featuring Kantrell vs. Black and the Aeon-Stuckey-Kayse drama, stand head and shoulders above anything the promotion has done. Which one is better? I would say that the Kantrell-Black episode has more of a standalone element of quality; you can enjoy it thoroughly without having any significant context or prior knowledge or viewing of Kraken. The final episode from this taping, however, feels like the last chapter of a long, compelling book you’ve spent quite some time reading through. If you’ve been following along this whole time like I have, there’s a satisfaction in the conclusion that can’t be reached without knowing all the players, twists, and turns that led to that moment.

Check out all three episodes, embedded below: