Tag: Referee Clark

Review the Kraken: Counting Down to the Kraken Classic

Review the Kraken: Counting Down to the Kraken Classic

My journey through the Kraken Pro Wrestling TV timeline has reached the second Kraken Classic, which also marked the one-year anniversary of Kraken opening. If you’ve been following along throughout this run, you’ve joined me in seeing what I would consider a rare degree of long-term storytelling for an independent wrestling company. You’ve also seen this narrative grow, coalesce, and adapt to the always unpredictable twists and turns that happen with trying to maintain a roster.

This review covers the “go-home” taping for Kraken before the Kraken Classic and finalizes the eight-man field for the tournament. The central story of the taping, however, involves Will Huckaby and Kevin Kantrell as GM Donnie Harris does his best to deus ex machina Kantrell’s predicament. There’s no single match in these four episodes that rises above the level of “good” but some solid build throughout just the same.

I tend to focus in on the commentary on these reviews, since I’ve been in that role previously for other promotions. I try nitpick too much, really I do, but the commentary was pretty rough on this taping at times, between Donnie misidentifying some moves and trying to make several awkward verbal segues. Meanwhile, Diamond Duke’s heel commentator schtick has devolved to either complaining about the referee’s count being too fast or slow, or babyface tag teams double teaming illegally. I’m not sure how either of these is supposed to generate heat, unless being annoying through repetition counts as heat.

Enough blabbin’! On with the review!

Episode 44

One of Kraken’s biggest positives is that the promotion has a very diverse roster without being overt about it or pausing to praise themselves for how diverse they are. Edward Draven, who wrestles Joey Hyder in the main event of this episode, is an excellent example. It’s pretty obvious that Draven exists somewhere on the LGBT spectrum but that’s not his entire identity within the Kraken realm. He can be who he is, without it being made a major issue in and of itself.

Draven had a Kraken coin, then lost it to Jak Myles, who lost it to Hyder, and now tries to win back said coin. Draven’s early antics against Hyder are an homage to Adrian Street and Goldust matches: kissing Hyder’s hand and spanking him among, er, other things. Hyder gets frustrated but refrains from really pummeling Draven, eventually winning clean with his “Razzle Dazzler” finisher — a Finlay roll into a standing moonsault. This is pretty good, and easily the best match in Kraken for Draven, whose selling after the fact with an aggrieved series of “Ow” exclamations got me. I like Hyder quite a bit but he needs some sort of hook to really reach the next level.

This episode also includes a forgettable Tsu Nami vs. Alicia Love match that sets up an in-ring talking segment with Donnie to schedule a strap match showdown with Rose Gold at the Kraken Classic, which didn’t even end up happening on that card. To get the match with Tsu, Rose had to relinquish her Kraken coin. Moving on…

Episode 45

Donnie’s back in the ring and brings out Huckaby, who beat up a referee at the last taping after a bad call by the official cost Huck and Hanson in a tag match against the H-Town Hittas. Again, Donnie makes Huck go stand in the corner, after he did this with Tsu Nami on the previous episode. I realize I’m seven months behind real time on my Kraken viewing, but I really hope this doesn’t become a recurring bit for in-ring talking segments involving Donnie … unless the goal is to make Donnie look like a petty and childish authority figure, in which case, mission accomplished. Anyhow Donnie then brings out Kantrell, who was fired and had to receive 10 lashes from The Business at the last taping in an excellent piece of work. Donnie, who was absent at that taping, makes a tag gauntlet and forces Huckaby and Kantrell to team together. Win the gauntlet and they keep their jobs. This is a nice callback to the singles match between these two where Huckaby’s current grumpy grizzled character shift first manifested after Kantrell tapped. I like the long-term storytelling and the continuity, but not so much the segment that gets us here.

Jayy Wells was the standout of the episode for me. His slow progression in Kraken reminds me of the way New Japan brings along its young lion trainees. Throughout his time as a Kraken regular, Wells gets stronger and hits harder with every outing. Seeing Wells get his first win in this scramble, and earn a Kraken coin in the process, was clearly by design and nicely done from a booking perspective. The scramble also includes Don Haylo, an economy-sized hoss who I’d like to see more of in Kraken.

Speaking of hosses, I had high hopes for this episode’s main event between Lamar Diggs and Brother Azriel both ranked among my top candidates for Kraken MVP from 2024 but they didn’t get to turn loose as I would have liked. I did appreciate how the match was structured, with neither man leaving their feet much, until Diggs uncorks a standing dropkick (!) to take control. Azriel busts out a fallaway slam later in a nice feat of strength. Business manager Justin Kayse pulls Diggs’ foot into the ropes to break up a pin, gets caught by the referee, and ejected. Diggs proceeds to win the match cleanly anyway, strongly suggesting that Diggs doesn’t even need Kayse in his corner in the first place. They’ve been teasing dissension with Jay 2 Strong being on the outs in The Business but I’ll go on record now that Kayse eventually getting wrecked by Diggs needs to happen.

Episode 46

Three matches on this episode, which is a rarity when most have one or two bouts.

The Hittas win again and this week’s victims are Josh Breezzyy and Kassius King. It’s more of an even match than I expected, but the Hittas prevail. One of them has a Kraken coin, but no one knows which because identical twins. Donnie relishes the way he hits the inflection on “Hittas” throughout.

Aeon wrestles Jay 2 Strong in the episode main event. Kraken could use a continuity editor because the commentators call this a rematch, although this is the first time they’ve wrestled here in singles. Jay is also solo for the match, after a backstage segment in The Business locker room straight out of an old Three Stooges short in which Diggs gives Jay a chop (for good luck?) and Jay drops Justin Kayse’s briefcase on Diggs’ foot. Aeon and Jay are two of the top hands on the Kraken roster, and combine for just a good, solid match that feels effortless. Jay busts out the big-match offense (a Spanish Fly!) but Aeon won’t be denied and comes back for the victory. Afterward, Donnie awards Aeon a match against Dominic Stuckey, the “ace” of The Business who is absent from this taping, at the Kraken Classic. If Aeon wins, he gets a three-minute match with Kayse for the Kraken Title.

Next, Charlie Kills returns to face Nathaniel Vanderbilt for the final Kraken coin. This is a good solid match and easily the best Kraken work yet from Vanderbilt, who appears to be a wrestling footage nerd like me. He nearly wins the match with his version of the cross-legged Michinoku Driver — or, as he calls it, the Tax Exemption. Because he’s a rich guy, get it? Vanderbilt kicks out of a piledriver along the way before an avalanche choke bomb finishes it for Kills to the crowd’s delight. It still amuses me greatly that there’s a small independent wrestling promotion running in the buckle of the Bible Belt in southern Georgia and arguably its two most popular wrestlers are a serial killer gimmick (Kills) and pretty much Satan himself (Aeon). Speaking of gimmicks, Vanderbilt’s rich-kid persona seems better suited for the heel side of things.

Episode 47

The main focus of this episode is the tag gauntlet, with Huckaby and Kantrell’s jobs on the line. As such, they’re the first team in and have to run the entire gamut. There’s a lot of “can they coexist?” talk surrounding this, which would mean more if three of the four teams Huck and Kantrell face weren’t also teaming together for the first time. Travis Ray and Nick Quick are up first, and this doesn’t last long. I know every wrestler aspires to be a headliner these days, but Quick does some good work as an enhancement guy in Kraken and that continues here. Brandon Whatley and ERC are next and last a little bit longer before Huck smashes ERC with a spinebuster. This segment of the gauntlet did make me hanker for a Kantrell-Whatley singles match, though.

Noir is the third team up in what represents the bulk of the match and the best part of this gauntlet. I found Noir pretty bland in their first several matches in Kraken, but they’ve really found their groove as vicious rule breakers. Noir goes right for the heat with Mrs. Wright spraying Huck in the eyes upon Noir’s entrance. Referee Clark struggles to take control of things as Kantrell gets put through a door propped up in the corner. Donnie points out, relentlessly, that the bell never rang so all this is legal. Fair point, but it makes me wonder why everyone in Kraken doesn’t just bushwhack their opponent with every weapon they can? After several minutes of beat down on Kantrell, a half-blinded, punch-drunk Huck staggers to his feet in the corner with fists clenched. He didn’t hear no bell! Mr. Wright dips deep into the heel playbook of dastardly tactics, and I’m here for all of it. Huck does his part, selling like he’s being tortured in an Inquisition dungeon. When Ehren Black tags in and eventually goes for a cover, Huck screams as he kicks out — in pain? Frustration? Maybe both? Noir get a little too confident, and a flash pin by Huck sends them packing, and provokes another beat down after the bell.

Sam Hanson and Jak Myles are out as the final foes. Hanson and Huck of course team together in All-Star Special. In character, Donnie is kind of a jerk by forcing these two partners to face off. Then again, that never happens, as Kantrell scores a pin on The Sweeper in seconds. That’s… it? Huck and Kantrell win the gauntlet and keep their jobs, but the muted response from the crowd tells me they don’t know how to take the sudden result. Join the club.

After a smiley happy good guy interview from Jayy Wells about making the Kraken Classic, Donnie gets in the ring for yet another talking segment — his fourth of the taping if you’re keeping score. Donnie brings out the entire field for the Kraken Classic: Hyder, Wells, Diggs, Charlie, Hanson, Ehren Black, Whatley, and one of the Hittas although both comes out. Once everyone is in the ring, a brawl breaks out within seconds and that ends up pretty enjoyable and culminates with Hanson the last man standing.

I’ll be driving into the Kraken Classic next week, and already knowing some of what happens there, I think multiple reviews will be in order to give everything due diligence.

For other entries in the Review The Kraken series, here is a master index.

Check out all four of these episodes, in the below playlist:

Review the Kraken: Whipping Post

Review the Kraken: Whipping Post

Welcome back to my continuing series of reviews of Kraken Pro Wrestling’s TV show on YouTube.

This piece technically covers the entire taping that generated Episodes 39-43. However, I’m deviating from the usual format for these reviews to focus entirely on the story that plays out in the final two episodes between The Business and Kevin Kantrell here, because the tag match and ensuing post-match stand out as the best thing Kraken has done yet. And I’ve seen it all to this point.

A simmering story with Kantrell and his son, Referee Clark, going against Justin Kayse and his faction reaches a boiling point here. Clark had established himself as a quality referee in Kraken even before getting involved in this angle, which all started with the young official flooring Kayse with a punch when he tried to interfere in a match. This was also the first time anyone on Kraken had inflicted any sort of violence on Kayse, who remains Kraken champion but never defends the title.

A couple of noteworthy firsts for Kraken emerge as part of this story. Episode 42 is “headlined” by an extended interview segment with all parties involved, something that is rare for Kraken and also the first time a promo has taken such a prominent spot on one of the relatively short, fast-paced YouTube episodes. Kayse has threatened all sorts of litigious consequences on Kraken after what Kantrell did at the last taping. And with GM Donnie Harris absent from these episodes, Kayse is running amok and makes a match where Kantrell and a partner of his choice face The Business’ Dominic Stuckey and Lamar Diggs. If The Business win, Kantrell is fired and Clark must take 10 lashes. Oh, and the match is happening right away.

Trever Aeon comes out to team with Kantrell — a solid but pretty obvious choice, considering Aeon’s ongoing issues with The Business and the fact he had yet to wrestle on this taping. There’s a weird cut where Episode 42 ends in the middle of the match introductions, but that’s a minor quibble. With all the pieces in place, Episode 43 tells a compelling self-contained narrative, while also priming the pump for several future matches and setting up a fine cliff-hangar. The whole thing came off to me as a love letter to the days of territory wrestling in TV studios.

Let’s start with the match itself, which flips the traditional American tag team structure with very little heat on the fan favorites and an extended opening period where Stuckey gets knocked around by Aeon and Kantrell. Stuckey takes a fantastic beating here and solidifies his status as one of the best bell-to-bell wrestlers on the roster. He sells like he’s being bludgeoned, murdered, and tortured all at once. Kantrell and Aeon appear to take special relish in their chance to really bring the thunder in their beat down of Stuckey, and it’s one of the few occasions yet where The Business truly seems to be on their heels. The pummeling continues until Stuckey blatantly rakes Aeon’s eyes to change the momentum of the match.

With the eye rake, Diggs takes center stage. There are several big men who wrestle in Kraken but none of them come off more intimidating or hard-hitting than Diggs. Everything Diggs does in the ring has an intentional malevolent brutality to it. This isn’t just mindless smashing by a monster heel, either; Diggs shows fine ring awareness when he counters Aeon’s attempt at his finisher with a gnarly looking Samoan Drop. Even when Aeon counters Diggs with a DDT, Diggs sells mostly to his knees, since it’s the only significant offense he’s taken the entire match. As an aside to this portion, Kody Madden, who’s back on commentary for this set of episodes, refers to Diggs as “The Big Decision” while he’s walloping Aeon. That’s a new one to me, but I like it.

As happens often in Business matches, the numbers game proves overwhelming. Jay 2 Strong, who’s been ringside with Kayse, smashes Aeon with Kayse’s briefcase while the lawyer/manager/leader has Referee Clark distracted. Aeon shows his mettle by not succumbing right away, countering Diggs’ first attempt at his sit-out powerbomb with a back drop. Diggs holds on, rolls through, and drops the boom on Aeon to win the match and Trever’s “Pieces of 8” coin. The coin changing hands gets lost in the shuffle, and rightfully so, during a brutal — in a complimentary way! — post match.

With a four-on-two advantage, The Business grab hold of Clark and Kantrell to set up for the lashes. There’s a fantastic moment where Kantrell, restrained in the corner, screams out “Let me take them!” repeatedly until Kayse and his cronies agree. Once more, the father steps up to protect his son, but with direct consequences on Kantrell. This is an incredibly relatable event, with Clark pleading with his father as Kantrell grabs hold of the top rope and turns his back to his enemies as the lashes begin.

Everyone plays their part perfectly in this. You have Kantrell, stoic and defiant throughout. He completely shrugs off the initial lashes by Kayse (more on him later), and fights through the ensuing whipping by Diggs, defiantly screaming his “Kantrell Rules!” catch phrase even when Diggs starts laying in some much nastier shots with the belt. As the last few lashes drive Kantrell to his knees, he stands each time and resists crying out. Only when it’s over, and Aeon places a hand of comfort on the shoulder of his partner, does Kantrell scream in pain.

Then you’ve got Clark, forced to stand by and watch his father make this sacrifice for him. Once the lashing is complete, seeing Clark tearfully repeat “I’m sorry” to his dad provides a palpable emotional twist of the knife that punctuates the entire affair. Aeon also sells the unfairness of the beating well. At times, he’s physically restraining — or maybe shielding? — Clark in the corner. Trever also goes nose to nose with Diggs (a singles match that Kraken has yet to do at this point, but would be high on my list) and Stuckey as the emotions of all come to a boil and even threatens to put hands on Kayse, a brief moment but one that delights the Tifton crowd.

Then you’ve got the various members of The Business. Seeing Diggs flog Kantrell with the leather strap only adds to his aura as the dominant heavy hitter of The Business. Jay is on the periphery of all this, but his heckling of Kantrell during the lashes (captured in the image that accompanies this piece) underscores the dastardly deed happening in the ring. It’s also worth noting that Jay, who’s increasingly coming off as the “weak link” of this group and loses his own “Pieces of 8” coin earlier in the taping, is the individual responsible for Diggs and Stuckey winning the match and setting all of this into motion. Stuckey alternates between physically restraining Clark and verbally sparring with Aeon.

And then there’s Justin Kayse, who is relishing being the ringleader of all this chaos and misery. Kayse has improved by leaps and bounds since first appearing as a manager in the very first few episodes of Kraken TV. He’s more confident on the microphone and just with his general presence in front of the crowd. He’s also found ways to compound his status as the undeserving champion; the lashes he delivers to Kantrell have no effect, once again underscoring how poorly Kayse will fare if someone on the roster is able to get him in a straight-up match for the title.

The final image (which, in hindsight, should have been allowed to stand on its own with the commentators laying out) is of a fired, beaten but unbowed Kantrell getting helped out of the ring by Aeon and Clark. His fate, and awaiting the long-overdue comeuppance for The Business, provide fuel leading into whatever comes next in Kraken.

I feel like this piece is already too long, but when looking at this entire set of episodes, I did want to point out one more thing. I’ve been writing these reviews for more than a year now. Maybe you’ve been following along this whole time (which, if so, you’re a very patient person), or you’re reading one of these Kraken articles for the first time. If you fall into the latter category, I strongly recommend that you check out the five episodes covered in this review, because they represent a perfect “jumping on” point to follow this small but growing promotion in South Georgia.

You can check out all of these episodes below:

For other entries in the Review The Kraken series, here is a master index.

Review the Kraken: Episodes 35-38

Review the Kraken: Episodes 35-38

Kraken Pro Wrestling keeps rolling on and so do we, looking at the second Kraken taping of 2025. Once more, the Pieces of 8 take center stage, as the final open coins are won and a previously allocated coin changes hands.

The anchor of these four episodes, however, is an angle involving Kevin Kantrell and The Business. The last taping concluded with Justin Kayse, the manager of The Business and reigning Kraken Champion, taking a punch, and a bump, for the first time at the hands (literally) of an unlikely source… Referee Clark. Episode 35 kicks off with The Business demanding retribution on the young official, only to have Kantrell enter the discussion and reveal that Clark is his son. Kayse proposes a match between Kantrell and Business “ace” Dominic Stuckey. If Kantrell wins, he gets five minutes — not the standard three — against Kayse with the title on the line. If Stuckey wins, Referee Clark has to take two punches to the face. I know that old Memphis wrestling is a major influence on Will Huckaby, who books Kraken, and this entire stipulation would fit in great in the heyday of that territory. All that was missing was Lance Russell and Dave Brown.

The Kantrell-Stuckey match headlines the final episode from the taping, and it’s a good one. With most episodes of Kraken TV lasting 20 to 30 minutes, matches range to be on the short side. These two set a methodical pace that fits the mat-based skills of both. The grappling exhibitions are good but the real flavor comes from little moments where Stuckey begs off or shows cowardice. These enhance the match greatly, not to mention his own heel persona.

And then the finish comes. Kantrell has Stuckey ensnared in the cross face, and Kayse climbs through the ropes and grabs Stuckey’s hand, right in front of the ref, to prevent his ace from tapping. I included a screenshot of this in the featured image of this review.

I have a few pet peeves when it comes to wrestling, and cheating right in front of the referee is one of them. How in the world was this not a DQ? The actual finish occurs when Jay 2 Strong drags Clark through the curtain, leaving a distracted Kantrell ripe to get pinned by Stuckey. It feels like there’s lots of meat left on the bone between Kantrell and Stuckey, and I have to assume there was some kind of cross-up on the interference by Kayse.

The post-match, to be fair, is pretty strong. Kantrell apologizes repeatedly to his son, who steps through the ropes ready to take the punches. Kayse’s first blow, hilariously, doesn’t even faze Clark. We get an extra layer here to the story of Kayse being an unjust and unworthy champion, as he can’t even do damage to a non-wrestler. Kayse then opts for Stuckey to deliver the second punch, and Kantrell pulls his son out of the ring instead. I’ve already been watching the next set of episodes, and this story is just getting started …

Some other notes from this set of episodes ensue.

Episode 35

Jay 2 Strong, who won one of the Pieces of 8 at the last taping, puts the coin on the line against ERC. Jay is a consistent, steady hand for Kraken. ERC has shown some flashes as a sneaky heel, but he’s positioned as a fan favorite here and shows plenty of fight. He kicks out of Jay’s Strong Valley Driver, and The Business member needs a distraction and the help of the ropes to get the pin. There’s a spectacular sell by ERC earlier, when he appears to enter the astral plane after taking a superkick.

The episode is headlined by a tag match pitting All Star Special against Jayy Wells and Gabe Norton and sees Huckaby progress from recently being a grumpy veteran wrestler to a nasty, grumpy vet. The crowd doesn’t really buy into the two youngsters here, even during a solid offensive display early in the match, but they become more engaged when Huck starts wrecking the both of them. There’s a good story to be told here, with Huckaby wanting to push the aggression at all points and his partner, Sam Hanson, frequently trying to be the brakes. The finish comes with Huck applying a deep submission hold, while Hanson is outside the ring telling their young foe, “It’s OK to tap.” Good stuff.

Kay Casiano, who’s been a nice addition to the product as a ring announcer and backstage interviewer, gets a few pre-recorded words from Trever Aeon in advance of him facing Joey Hyder later on this set of episodes. Kraken has done a good job positioning Aeon as its top hero, which I also find endlessly amusing given Kraken runs shows in south Georgia, smack-dab in the Bible Belt.

Trever: I’m the Devil …

Kraken fans: Yaaaay!

Episode 36

One of the weaker episodes of Kraken TV, especially compared to recent installments.

Jak Myles pins Edward Draven in the latest edition of the Cash In, Cash Out Scramble to claim Draven’s Kraken coin. The scramble itself advances a story or two but is mighty disjointed. Tsu Nami makes a tepid run-in to take Rose Gold out of the match, the latest miss in a rivalry between the two that got off to a promising start but since has floundered. Participants include Chad Skywalker, who receives another “special assignment” to win Draven’s coin and keep Myles from seizing it. Skywalker fails on both fronts and doesn’t interact enough with Myles to drive home that plot point.

In the main event, Brandon Whatley beats Nathaniel Vanderbilt to capture a Kraken coin in a match that failed to connect for me.

Episode 37

Aeon vs. Hyder opens the episode? Hot damn! These two are among the top talents in Kraken and put on a good TV match, making the most of their time. Aeon gives Hyder, a relative newcomer, plenty of time to shine before executing a believable flash pin to get the win and the final unclaimed Kraken coin. During this match, Kraken lead broadcaster and general manager Donnie Harris says he wants to promote good, clean, sportsmanlike wrestling. Sounds boring.

Noir faces the Saturday Night Temptations in the main event, a rematch of a bout from a previous taping. I’ve been pretty cool on Noir as a team so far but this is their best Kraken match yet. Mr. Wright in particular shows more fire and intensity. The other half of Noir, Ehren Black, is a force of nature in Kraken. He’s huge, and knows it, and wrestles accordingly as it usually takes something extra to knock him off his feet. The Temptations score the win, so I guess we need a rubber match now.

Episode 38

The Kantrell-Stuckey match takes center stage on this episode. Elsewhere, the H-Town Hittas record another very one-sided victory,. Meanwhile “The Diamond Den” brings in Aeon as his guest. The tone is weird as Diamond Duke engages in a friendly chat with Trever, which doesn’t really ring true after Duke spent the past months slagging Aeon on commentary at almost every opportunity.

That’s all for now, folks!

For other entries in the Review The Kraken series, here is a master index.

You can watch all four episodes here: