Chicago Power Hour (01/02/16)

[steve]

TV Taping: 17/01/16

Date Aired: 01/02/16

Staff roles;
Daryck St Holmes (Commentator)
Jerry Lawler (Commentator)
Scarlett Bordeaux (Backstage Interviews)
Jimmy D (Ring Announcer)

The Chicago Power Hour kicks off with an opening montage giving a vintage feel to the promotion, and much like last week, we begin with a recap of last week's episode.

Luke Harper and Cody Hall battled Colt Cabana & Louis Lyndon in tag team action as this feud gets hotter. Harper got the win over Lyndon but the good guys got their revenge after the match as Cabana and Lyndon rallied ending up on top. Tonight we will see Cody Hall take on Louis Lyndon and in the Chicago Power Hour co-main-event Luke Harper will defend his cyber TV title against Chicago wrestling legend Colt Cabana!

The Irish Airbourne are shown defeating The Cenation in a huge upset for the tag team titles, with heavyweight champion Adam Cole playing a big part in this attacking John Cena with a chair and a Corono Crash on the outside to send a message to Cena that he is the man around here. Tonight, Adam Cole and John Cena will come face-to-face and be interviewed in-ring by wrestling legend Jerry "The King" Lawler!

Finally, the ZG Cup finalists Trevor Lee and Andrew Everett are highlighted and shown getting the wins in their semi-final matches. Tonight's main-event will be the final. Who will suceed Adrian Neville, and become the 2016 ZG Cup winner?!

*Cue, the commentators as Daryck St Holmes and guest commentator, the masters champion Jerry "The King" Lawler do the opening pitches and hype*

1. Louis Lyndon def. Cody Hall with a victory roll in 2:14 in an upset win from out of nowhere after Hall dominated; Hall was enraged after the match with this loss, especially after Lyndon and Cabana embarrassed him and Harper last week; Lyndon escaped the ring as soon as he got the 3-count to leave Hall steaming.

*Commercials*

Devon Storm and Ace Darling are backstage with the lovely Scarlett Bordeaux.

Scarlet says to both men that there has been alot of speculation online that they both have a big announcement tonight for us about the future of their careers, and asked them if they have any comments on this?

Darling talks a bit downhearted about how before the age of the internet, any wrestling fan worth their salt knew who Devon Storm and Ace Darling was. You read about them and their matches on the Indy's in Pro Wrestling Illustrated

"If you read those Apter magazines, you might not have seen us in the flesh, but you'd definately heard about us, everybody knew who Devon Storm and Ace Darling was".

Darling goes on to say they where real prospects but they never got their proper shot in the big show. Now, they are just cannon fodder to tomorrows superstars. Darling says they take the bookings do because at least they're getting paid. "It happened in NWA Maximum, and it's happening here, being treat as cannon fodder".

Devon Storm takes over and says they are always these days booked against young, talented workers who have the advantage of age and hype over them and have come up short, and it's not fair.

"In Golf you have the Masters where older competitors, who can still go, can compete on an even-keel. In Windy City we have the masters championship, a place where older wrestlers can still shine bright, so we are officially announcing our entrance into the masters division!"

This peeked the interest of the reigning masters champion Jerry Lawler on the commentary desk. Lawler is booked to face the winner of Billy Gunn and Raven for the masters title.

Lawler stood up with a mic and told Darling and Storm that they was worthless pieces of indy trash in 1995, and today they are one step away from having their bones melted down in the knackers yard! BUT, he needs a tune-up match for his title defence so he will give both men that shot that they supposedly never got. On the next episode of the Chicago Power Hour, Lawler challenged Ace Darling to face off against his old foe Devon Storm! The winner would face The King in a non-title match!

Storm and Darling readily accepted this challenge! Then both men looked at each other, as they knew that once more they would need to face each other.

[Segment length: 3:01]

2. Shane Hollister def. CJ Parker with a devastating DDT in 1:49 in a glorified squash match; Many expected this to be at least semi-competitive but Hollister just beat the shit out of Parker going to work in a very stiff manner. So stiff that this was sometimes uncomfortable to watch as Hollister beat down Parker with a nasty looking lariat to the thorat, followed by hard knee's to the ribs and very painful looking nasty kicks and stomps to his downed opponent. Hollister lifted up Parker and planted him with a not very safe looking DDT. Hollister covered cockily with one knee on the chest of Parker and slapped Parker in the face a couple of times as the ref counted to three; This treatment of Parker irked St Holmes on commentary as he urged someone from the back to help Parker as Hollister got him set for a 2nd DDT which would surely put Parker out of action for a long-time. Out came a running Tomasso Ciampa to a good reaction who tackled Hollister to the ground. The two rolled around scrapping, until security finally broke up this fight, at least for now.

*Commercials*

3. Non-title Match
Irish Airborn [c] def. Sugar Dunkerton & ACH in 7:51 after a terrific competitive bout for the time it was given; ACH went down to the Irish Air Raid but regardless of the result, Dunkerton and ACH who was a throwaway team on paper looked like they really started to gel in this match and almost shocked the new tag team champions with an upset win on several occasions. The Irish Airboune in these parts, or OI4K or whatever you want to call them, was victorious in their first TV appearance after winning the tag team championships.

4. Co-Main: Cyber TV title
Colt Cabana def. Luke Harper [c] with the Chicago Crab in 11:04; the win in over-time wasn't enough to win the cyber TV title with the old 10 minute rule in effect. Cabana celebrated the win, but not as much as he would have done if he had done it in under ten minutes; Harper back to his feet took Cabana's head-off with a discus-lariat to end the segment standing over him and holding the Cyber TV Title high above his head.

*Commercials*

Jerry Lawler is out of commentary and in the ring. Adam Cole, the heavyweight champ is out first. Followed by the former tag team champion and current NWA north american champion John Cena, who is out alone, and looking super-intense with the Cenation nowhere to be found.

The King asks Cena where the Cenation is? Cena responds by saying forcefully that when it comes down to it, and as he has proven time-and-time-again in over a year as NWA north american champion - he needs the help of no-man. Adam Cole took it upon himself to attack him with a steel chair on his own last week, and Cena will exact his revenge on his own like the man he is - and that will happen whether the Chicago fans like it or not!

Jerry asks Cole why did he attack John Cena to cause him to lose the tag team titles? Was it out of jealousy? Or was it to line-himself up for a shot at the NWA north american title?

Cole responds by saying this is Chicago! This promotion has nothing to do with the NWA! This is a outlaw promotion and the NWA belts mean diggly-squat-shit around these parts so it certainly wasn't for that pot of tin around his waist. What the attack was though, was a reminder. It was a reminder to John Cena, that Adam Cole is the man around these parts. If he wants to waltz in and out here and take all the prime spots like he does in all the other NWA promotions half-arsed defending his belt against cherry-picked opponents and acting like he runs the whole f'n show, well that isn't going to happen in Chicago!

Cena responds by saying that he is just mad because John Cena is a huge star in the NWA, and well... Cole is not.

This seemed to piss off Adam Cole no end and he went to smack Cena around the head hard with his belt, but Cena ducked the big swing and hit Cole with an FU and mocked the downed Cole with a 'You Can't See Me' hand gesture as the crowd booed the shit out of him as Lawler backed away to the safety of the commentary booth.

[Segment length: 5:06]

*Commercials*

Main-event time, baby!

5. MAIN-EVENT: 2016 ZG Cup tournament final match

Trevor Lee def. Andrew Everett with a sensational standing moonsault fallaway slam in 12:08 to win the 2016 ZG Cup; This was a tremendous match and both men where pretty much equal throughout but Lee caught Everett coming off the ropes and that was it as he scored the pinfall to become the 2016 ZG Cup Winner!

Cue a huge surprise as the 2015 ZG Cup Winner Adrian Neville came down to the ring unannounced with the ZG Cup Trophy. After a tease, and perhaps a hint of a match between the two in the future - Neville presented Lee with the trophy and gave him the congrats as streamers entered the ring as Lee held the Cup up high as the show came to a close.

[jp1985]

Yup. Pretty much who I figured would win the ZG Cup. Best choice IMO, and would have been a pretty hot final with Everett. Liked the bit at the end and not going for cheap heat or anything with an attack or something like that. I think it works under the right circumstances, but Neville is not that guy right now in only the second tournament. He established that winning it means something, and I think a lot of promoters here are pretty strong on Lee so he should follow with a good 2016. Looking forward to seeing what you have planned and how many times Salyers can namedrop that Lee's on his roster if he leaves feedback to this lol.

Hall and Lyndon was a surprise. It's clear here you're starting to tell a story with them, so I won't sit here and say beating Hall in 2 minutes was bad or anything when it looks like it's going somewhere. For guys at that level, just getting a storyline attached to them is helpful and will make a rematch mean a lot more than this match does.

Nice segment with Darling and Storm. Admittedly I haven't seen an Ace Darling match in a long long time, at least if I did, it wasn't that memorable. Sticking them into your "Masters" division is a good route with them as I can't see them offering much value beyond that in 2016. I think they can play the veteran role on your average roster, but none of the rosters here are what I'd call average in the sense even if used as vets, there are bigger name guys at around the same experience level that they become meaningless. Maybe cdw could believably make them work on his. Using them this way should avoid them falling into the pit as becoming basically overpaid enhancement talent.

Hollister continues to look good in these squashes as he builds to something with Ciampa now.

OI4K are also looking good as the cornerstone of your tag team division. Good stylistic match here but I think going forward you'll need to start building an actual challenger for them, which is probably going to happen without that being said since they are the champions. I'll be interested to see what you have planned as teams like reDRagon or The Wolves might seem like logical choices but it feels like a step down to put them into a program for your Tag Titles right now. Enough talent on the indies that isn't being used here that you can pull something out. I could even see Darling & Storm working here as it actually uses them and on the surface would be a good match, but that's also based on them 15-20 years ago, not 2016.

Cabana submitting Harper seems a bit awkward when trying to visualize, but finish aside (and even that's a maybe as I'm not saying it doesn't work, just that it's questionable), it's been a good addition to these shows as a feud. Cabana comes close but misses out thanks to the 10 minutes. It was a little hokey when WCW always did that, but I think it was in large part because they came up with the idea and then did it over and over and over in a short period. Used sparingly, it works to extend the feud and gives fans a small taste without giving the whole thing away. Plus Harper immediately got his heat back a minute later with the post mat attack.

Segment with Cena and Cole was great. Really builds interest up in seeing the match and puts over Windy City itself at the same time. This is not an NWA member promotion so it makes sense the belt would be downplayed here. Cole's comments went a long way in developing a character for him that was there, but a bit reliant on just what we see on ROH. This segment feels like it branched him out a bit and added to that. Cena's responses were good. I do feel like the roles seem a bit backwards. Cena coming out here alone, ditching the help, while Cole goes to jump him, and then Cena gets booed by fans in the end. I know that's their official roles, it just feels like Cena was portrayed more like a face and WWE Cena or something where he's not being booed because he's a heel but because it's cool to boo him or something. Either way though, you've done a good job building them up and Cena vs Cole feels as big to Windy City as an eventual Kevin Owens vs Samoa Joe match does for the league.

[steve]

I have something in mind for the Cena/Cole alignment roles. At the moment, it feels like both men are touching around centre.

Cole acts essentially heel and all jealous but gets cheered for the anti-cena hate. Cena comes in from previous heel work to a bit more middle-road, and get's booed by most but still cheers from some. One or both men, should bounce off a clear direction soon.

Although I didn't really write that, I envisage the Cabana sub win, as more of a win due to a momentary lack of awareness or showboating from Harper allowing Colt to get the hold on in an upset win.

I have some teams in mind for the tag division. Won't be ReDragon or the Wolves though but I have my eyes on a couple of teams I like.

Thanks very much for the great feedback!