Tag: Lamar Diggs

Review the Kraken: Episodes 19-22

Review the Kraken: Episodes 19-22

As WWE heads into WrestleMania weekend, the question is, is it possible for a casual fan to remain engaged? The biggest wrestling event of the year has swollen to become a two-night show with 14 to 15 matches, spanning seven to eight hours for the matches (and entrances) themselves, and several more hours for the pre-show gab-fest and post-show press conferences. The two-night concept is growing; SummerSlam will be split over two days this year as well and the Royal Rumble might be next in 2027.

My point is this. Casual fans can carve out one night every few months to get together and watch a three- or four-hour wrestling show. Two nights in the same weekend is a much bigger ask.

Meanwhile, I can fire up an episode of Kraken Pro Wrestling with my morning coffee and protein bar and be done by the time it’s time to walk my incredibly needy Shepherd mix.

Just saying.

I’m shaking up the format this time and looking at each episode individually. Kraken definitely appeared to turn a corner with the previous set of episodes — this set of matches is filmed in a former venue but with a significantly larger and more engaged crowd. Good growth but with higher quality come higher expectations.

Episode 19

Kody Madden and Donnie Harris return on commentary and they jell much better in this set of episodes. Harris is also now the interim general manager, as Robert Vien apparently returned to his home planet. There’s a short segment backstage where Harris establishes that aspiring challengers for the Kraken Title now have to beat Dominic Stuckey, the newest member of The Business, to earn a three-minute match with Business manager and current champion Justin Kayse. Stuckey appears to have jumped right to the top of the pecking order in The Business.

With Harris now the on-screen authority figure but still on commentary, I immediately wondered how this would work with rule breaking right in front of the boss, having been in a similar storyline conundrum myself many years ago for a promotion here in East Tennessee. Harris covers this beautifully after the very first match when ERC scores a crooked victory over Josh Breezyy by explaining that, while he is the general manager, the assigned referee has total and final authority inside the ropes during any match. Meanwhile, I liked the throwback structure that focused ERC’s attack on the knee of Breezyy, who also deserves an atta boy for some very fine selling. An extra tip of the cap to Donnie for using the word “fulcrum” on commentary.

Brother Azriel and Kevin Kantrell headline this episode and produce one of my favorite Kraken matches to this point. Kantrell actually isn’t undefeated — he lost in the second episode of Kraken TV in a forgettable match — but he is on a solid winning streak that continues against the super heavyweight Azriel, who has yet to score that breakthrough victory in a Kraken ring. Kantrell’s offense works well against opponents of any size — especially the leaping double stomp to the shoulder of a seated opponent — and he finishes yet another foe with his cross face hold.

Moving on!

Episode 20

The Cash In Cash Out Scramble returns and no winner in the past few scrambles means the pot continues to grow. The participants include Jak Myles, who has been a fixture in these matches since the concept was first introduced and has yet to win the pot; and Lamar Diggs and Jay 2 Strong from The Business. The match itself is pretty skippable but the finish and post-match are a fine piece of wrestling storytelling. Jak finally scores a win in the scramble, but The Business attacks him after the bell and steals the envelope of cash. The bait and switch reminded me, in a good way, of an angle they did in the Memphis territory way back in 1980 when a very young Koko Ware, a bottom-of-the-card wrestler at the time, won a battle royal to win a TV set and Jimmy Valiant smashed it.

After losing to Stuckey in the last taping in what stands as the best match I’ve seen yet in Kraken, Trever Aeon picks up a win against the debuting (on TV, at least) Brandon Whatley. I’ve seen Whatley before a few times and I like his martial-arts based style and how he uses it in a unique way in his matches. This is a good back-and-forth contest until Whatley, for some reason, grabs his nunchuks out of the corner right in front of the referee and eats Aeon’s finisher.

Episode 21

Rose Gold gets a second straight win. Her opponent this time is CT Entertainment and I especiallyed enjoy him yanking on her long hair as the turning point to take control. Rose is an interesting case because she’s equal to or even bigger than some of the male wrestlers on the roster. I definitely see her becoming a potential draw as time passes.

The main event is a tag match pitting All Star Special against Noir in their second head-to-head match in Kraken. The match goes to a time-limit draw, which is fine in concept but really telegraphed here. Time limits have barely been discussed previously in the entire Kraken history.; then the commentary team keeps talking about the time limit throughout the match.

Episode 22

Let me call your attention to the best episode yet of Kraken’s YouTube TV program.

The H-Town Hittas are back and win yet another squash match but this one has some extra spice courtesy of one of the opponents, Travis Ray, who shows some significant fight and knocks one of the Hittas down — something thus far unprecedented in Kraken. The Hittas proceed to win the match fairly quickly after that but I liked this twist to their usual match formula.

The main events of Kraken tapings have been consistent highlights and this bout between Dominic Stuckey and Trey Shaw continues the trend. This is just Stuckey’s second match in Kraken but he impresses me greatly and might be my favorite guy to watch on the entire roster. He’s definitely in the running for that. I especially like how much of what he does has a feeling of authenticity to it. We’ve all seen matches with early chain wrestling that feels more like cooperation than competition, with wrestlers standing there and waiting to have their opponent make a reversal and grab a hold. Stuckey’s first two Kraken matches have none of that. Little moments like when he scrubs his elbow across Shaw’s ear to escape then reverse a hold just enhance what’s happening inside the ropes. Stuckey knows how to work as a heel as well, stalling early and at one point ordering his manager Kayse to silence the crowd. It helps that the Kraken audience appears fully bought in and minimally jaded. The fans go dead silent when Stuckey counters Shaw and hits an Ushigaroshi and there’s a fantastic near-finish at the end when Stuckey’s hand grabs the bottom rope at the very last millisecond, and only after a distraction by Kayse — who is evolving as a troublesome mouthpiece — delayed the pin count by Shaw.

Let’s not diminish the contributions of Shaw in this match either. He’s probably one of the more popular wrestlers in Kraken at this juncture and brings his own convincing, authentic style to matches. His finisher is established as one of the most definitive in Kraken — status helped along greatly by the commentators on this match — and he has a couple of fantastic transitions in this match: catching Stuckey coming off the corner ropes and flattening him with a power slam, then getting his knees up on an attempted top-rope elbow by Stuckey that looked altogether gruesome for both competitors.

The match itself breaks down when Aeon, seeking revenge for what happened in his match with Stuckey, storms the ring and attacks. The locker room eventually empties for a brawl involving the entire roster of wrestlers on the taping, a trope that is always good for some entertaining chaos as long as it isn’t overdone, and this is the first time it happens in Kraken. We also get our first clffhangar finish, as Harris suspends both Aeon (for ruining the end of the match) and Myles (for attacking The Business with his janitor broom) for their actions during the brawl.

You’ll get more out of it with the context from prior episodes, but this 22nd installment of Kraken TV is 30-minute chunk of wrestling TV that is well worth your time. It’s also a fine introduction to the Kraken promotion if you’ve not been watching along with me so far.

f you would like to check in other entries in the Review The Kraken series, here is a master index.

Looking for something more retro? I’m also working on Mat Quest, a chronological viewing guide to the WWE archive on Peacock.

You can watch all four episodes here:

Review the Kraken: Episodes 12-14

Review the Kraken: Episodes 12-14

Before diving into this installment, I want to take a moment to praise the camera shot in the featured image. The close-up of Lamar Diggs putting a hold on Will Huckaby is fine, but framing the shot to include the boy and his reactions from ringside takes it to the next level.

With that, let’s take a look at Episodes 12-14 of Kraken TV, which comprise the third taping by Kraken Pro Wrestling, an independent promotion in South Georgia.

Lamar Diggs was absent from the last set of episodes and he returns in a big way here. He shines as the MVP of the taping. He is the very first wrestler you see in Episode 12, laying waste to a couple of poor unfortunate souls who make the mistake of being in his path on the way into the building. In the next episode, he and his cohort Jay 2 Strong enthusiastically clubber all four participants in the Cash In, Cash Out Scramble (much more on this match and this attack later…)

And then Diggs headlines Episode 14, and the taping, going against Will Huckaby in a very good match. It might be the best match yet in all of the Kraken I have watched, and one of the longest as well. The Youtube description for the episode tabs this as a “hoss fight” and it definitely delivers on that end. Diggs and Huckaby brawl all around the ringside area as well, something else that has been otherwise unseen on Kraken. Back in the ring, there are some fine false finishes — a pleasant habit in Kraken main events — before Diggs heads to the top and attempts a swanton. The leap is impressive, although it ends in a nasty-looking landing. Things break down, culminating in interference by manager Justin Kayse and Jay, then Huck’s partner Hold My Beer Hanson to counter, before the H-Town Hittas get involved as well. It all adds up to a tasty dish of pro wrestling.

The positioning of Kayse is unusual. Here we have a manager who also is the Kraken Champion. Kayse has yet to take a punch or a bump, and the tension is building for that to happen. Hanson gets his hands on Kayse during the shenanigans at the end of the main event, only for Jay to make the save. When Kayse finally does get hit, the live crowd is going to love it. And, that moment can be separate for his inevitable comeuppance where he eventually loses the title. It’s a level of effective slow burn that is hard to pull off, but it’s working.

The Cash In, Cash Out Scramble continues to develop as a fun concept. Participating wrestlers put in their pay for the night in a six-minute winner-takes-all match. If there is no winner, that money rolls over to the next scramble. The matches have been better since they whittled down from six wrestlers to four. Production has improved, too. The six-minute countdown clock is easier to read and now includes the dollar total on the line. They’re building a solid story around Jak Myles who has been in every scramble so far and yet to win one. This scramble breaks down when The Business interfere and wipe out all four competitors. It’s a good bit of bad-guy business — no pun intended — but when Diggs and Jay begin their attack, Justin Kayse gets the attention of the referee while the beatdown happens behind the official’s back. Then, the referee turns around, sees what is happening and does nothing to stop it because… scramble rules don’t end matches on a DQ or countout? The extended distraction just makes the referee look clueless — not to mention hearing impaired.

A few other observations from these three episodes:

  • Myles was the referee for the main event for Episode 14, continuing a trend from the Jay 2 Strong vs. Brother Azriel match on Episode 11. After Myles falls short in the scramble, he picks up a refereeing assignment to replace the lost extra cash. He’s doing the wrestling ancestors proud as he comes out to officiate Diggs vs. Huckaby, still favoring his ribs after the attack at the end of the scramble.
  • There’s a new commentary team for these episodes. Donnie Harris, Jr., joins Diamond Duke at the table. Harris also handles the ring announcer duties. They work well for the most part but actually detracted, for me, from the Brother Azriel vs. CJ Shine match on Episode 13. Azriel and CJ have a solid if unspectacular match and Azriel gets a win back after nearly defeating Jay 2 Strong. However, the commentators — Diamond Duke in particular — keeps babbling about how great the match is. Having done that work, I understand hype is part of the deal when you’re on commentary, but there’s a difference between building up what’s happening on the ring and going so over the top that it contradicts what you can see with your eyes.
  • Mr. Wright and his wife — you guessed it, she is Mrs. Wright — is featured in two of the three episodes. He has a forgettable match with Eddie Honcho in Episode 12 but the interview segment with Diamond Duke on Episode 13 is much more effective in establishing him as a heel character.
  • The H-Town Hittas work fast and win another squash that, if you blink, you might miss it. What’s interesting here is that the opposing team includes ERC, who had a competitive match at the last taping but gets completely obliterated here.

The big takeaway is that Kraken is growing. Each taping has taken place in front of a crowd that is bigger than the last one, and more responsive as well. It’s been a fun ride so far.

If you would like to check in other entries in the Review The Kraken series, here is a master index.

Looking for something more retro? I’m also working on Mat Quest, a chronological viewing guide to the WWE archive on Peacock.

You can watch all three episodes here:

Review the Kraken: The Kraken Classic

Review the Kraken: The Kraken Classic

Pro wrestling is more accessible than ever. Between streaming services, in-house online broadcasts, and good old-fashioned TV deals (a few still exist), fans have more ways to watch more wrestling from around the world than at any point. 

Imagine telling the you from two decades ago – even the you from 10 years ago – “some day there will be so much wrestling available to watch that you will never be able to keep up with it all.” And yet, today, WWE puts out six hours of content per week – and that doesn’t count the feeder shows like Main Event and Level Up. AEW cranks out five hours of TV wrestling each week — and that does not include the weekly Ring of Honor episodes. If there is a pay-per-view / premium live event that week, tack on another three hours. Full shows are available from a host of international promotions, especially in Japan, but those are usually three hours or more, requiring a real investment of time if you intend to watch the whole thing. 

And so, the approach that Kraken Pro Wrestling has chosen feels fresh in its convenience. This neophyte promotion located in southern Georgia breaks down its live events into snack-sized installments of TV for its YouTube channel. Each episode lasts 30 minutes, at most. A couple of episodes clock in closer to the 10-minute mark. 

But, with so many wrestling promotions out there, is Kraken worth watching? I think it is. And hence, welcome to my efforts to Review The Kraken! We kick off this endeavor by looking at the first eight episodes of TV, where the first Kraken champion was crowned in an eight-man tournament called the Kraken Classic. 

These shows happened back over the summer and so given that fact, I won’t attempt to bore you with a match-by-match or segment-by-segment breakdown. Instead, I wanted to take a look at some of the standout wrestlers on these early Kraken shows. They all have one commonality – each left me wanting to see more of them, whether it be here or elsewhere.

Big Business – This three-man faction comprises the top heel act in Kraken. The manager, Justin Kayse, actually came out of the tournament holding the title, as Jay 2 Strong won the Kraken Classic only to see Kayse declare himself as the champion. Jay was incredibly solid in his three tournament matches and the final against Michael Walker is the best match of the tournament. Lamar Diggs is the enforcer of the group and has the physical presence and requisite menace to fill that role. You could plug him right into the middle of the Mid-South territory in its heyday and he would fit right in with those sluggers. I like the concept of a heel manager holding the title everyone is chasing but, through these first eight episodes, I found Kayse somewhat lacking both as a talker and during interference spots sometimes self-sabotaged by poor timing. We will see how Kayse rises to the occasion in future installments.

Michael Walker – Probably the purest babyface on the roster through these first eight episodes. He acquitted himself well in all three tournament matches, all against opponents of different styles, including both wrestlers in Big Business. His match with Diggs was a fine example of one of my favorite tropes, pitting a smaller, speedy wrestler against a powerhouse. Even with the loss in the finals, Walker emerged from the Classic portrayed as a fine never-say-die underdog who you wanted to root for.

Trever Aeon – I have seen Aeon in person a couple of times and followed his work online in recent years. He is one of the more underrated wrestlers on the Southeast scene to me and stands out through his look, his versatility, and the explosion he demonstrates in some of his offense. 

Trey Shaw – I knew nothing about Shaw before his first-round match in the Classic (found in episode 4 of Kraken), but immediately was impressed. Again, these are short episodes, but in the span of about 15 minutes, he stood out with his combination of look, size, promo ability, and snug offense. 

All Star Special – Will Huckaby and Hold My Beer Hanson are one of the more popular teams in Georgia and probably the merch champions of the independent scene in that state. Hanson is also the promoter of Kraken, something that is readily acknowledged on commentary. While this is hard to deny when Hanson is doing local TV spots to promote Kraken using his real name, I emerged from these eight episodes unsure if this was a little too much “behind the curtain” for me. A tip of the cap to Hanson and Huckaby (who is the booker) and not following in the footsteps of so many of their predecessors and making themselves the focal point of the shows.

Kevin Kantrell – Kantrell is not part of the Kraken Classic but he stands out with a rugged, intense style. In his one match in the first eight episodes, he carries a green opponent to a solid effort and then, after the result does not go his way, beats down the referee like the official handed him a light envelope at the end of the night. I came away wanting to see more of him, for sure.

Kody Madden – Having done wrestling commentary in the past, I know how difficult the job is. Kody is the lead broadcaster for Kraken and does a good job with the juggling act of calling the action, telling a greater story, and directing traffic in a three-man booth – although the other two members of that booth are both heels and have similar-sounding voices.

One of the most common, widespread — and often deserved — criticisms of professional wrestling as we sit almost halfway through the 2020s is the sameness of it all. Matches up and down the card, regardless of whether the promotion is located on the globe, see everyone working a similar style. Hanson and Huckaby have done a solid job assembling a roster of different characters with different styles. I will keep watching through their archive of episodes and came away from these first eight shows wanting to see what happens next, and really, isn’t that the first goal for any wrestling promotion?