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| Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Sheamus (c) vs. Daniel Bryan, 2 out of 3 Falls World Heavyweight Championship Match, Extreme Rules, 4/29
This is my WWE Match of the Year. There’s no disguising it. Daniel Bryan was unleashed for everyone to see. Sheamus, who has been WWE’s most valuable in-ring performer, may have had his best performance in his entire career with the company to date. There were so many levels to why this match ruled, and to think that this was probably an extreme reaction to the 18-second WrestleMania debacle. When you let two ring masters go at it for three falls and almost 30 minutes, you’re going to get something really, really special in return.
The match started with WWE scaring the shit out of the fans they trolled at Mania, Sheamus going for a Brogue Kick early just to recall the horrors of that opening match. Bryan went right to work trying to get a quick submission, but there was no way they were getting a fall this early in the proceedings. In fact, the first fall lasted the bulk of the match, and built towards a crescendo duo of paired falls showing the absolute genius of pre-Dr. Shelby Daniel Bryan. Between the bells of that first fall though, we got a lot of savory nuggets, including the return of Bryan saying “I HAVE TIL FIVE,” Sheamus breaking out a sweet fallaway slam, a drop toe hold into the corner on Sheamus and Bryan kicking the rope to jar his Irish brain into alertness, and of course, Bryan working that arm after ramming it into the ringpost. I am just a sucker for ringpost bumps, I am.
But where the match was made for me was the sequence between the the first fall and the beginning of the third. Bryan intentionally getting disqualified into the big dropkick in the corner into the YES! Lock into Bryan cheerleading the YES chants as doctors checked on Sheamus into Sheamus’ half-sleepy Brogue Kick was one of the best sequences in wrestling history. You do not get any better than that. Everything else after was just gravy. Just savory, delicious, Daniel Bryan-just-kicked-your-goddamn-head-in gravy.
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| Photo Credit: WWE.com |
This wasn’t your typical WWE main event. A typical WWE main event doesn’t see a mammoth Viking of a man crash into John Cena and bust him open with an elbow within the first thirty seconds. A typical WWE main event doesn’t feel like it was ripped from the ‘90s shoot-style wrestling promotion headed up by Volk Han that transitioned into a cartoonish, late ‘90s ECW-influenced garbage match. It was a match that opened up doors of possibility for WWE that they didn’t even attempt to walk through with later matches, but given the roster they’ve had, that might have been a good idea.
Lesnar, despite being away from worked-pro wrestling for years, not only settled into his old roles and tropes with surprising ease, but he was able to work some of that visceral, MMA-style attack into it. Cena, for all his faults, was a natural at looking like he was getting his ass kicked like one of Lesnar’s fallen UFC opponents, y’know, the ones who didn’t beat him soundly. All those times WWE announcers told us the odds were stacked against Cena were bullshit, but here, he and Lesnar showed a display of the odds being stacked against him, and surprise, surprise, it fucking worked.
Once Lesnar tied up Cena’s legs with the chain and Tree-of-Woe’d him over the apron is when it transitioned from RINGS to ECW, but it felt almost seamless in a way. Lesnar’s role in the match was stoic as that of a comic book supervillain, so why should he have limited himself? The Jack Shephard-from-the-LOST-finale punch to Cena on the apron was another visually stunning spot, and Lesnar parading around the ring like he was Superman after shrugging off his own knee damage was spot on, especially because it led to Cena punching him in the mouth with the chain and Attitudinally Adjusting him onto the steel ring steps for the victory. Say what you want about Cena’s next 11 months or so and how he had an “awful year.” In this match, he reached his ultimate potential as a professional wrestler, and it was goddamn excellent.
Tim Donst vs. Brian Kendrick, JT Lightning Tournament First Round Match, AIW JT Lightning Tournament Night 1, 5/11
Donst made a big deal before the match about watching Kendrick wrestle Bryan Danielson in the first independent match he’d ever seen, and then he proceeded to spend the entirety of the match trying to put his idol away in the most Tim Donst way possible. Even as a good guy, Donst is brusque, cocky, and a little ornery, and he reminded the former Spanky throughout the match that he was there to replace his idol. There were plenty of times in the match where the intensity behind Donst’s moves and strikes matched the vigor behind his words. Hell, at one point, he dumped Spanky out of the ring off a move counter in the corner. The finish put Donst over as much as it did Kendrick. The wily old veteran, unable to put the new guy away with his offensive prowess, rolled through a powerslam attempt to get some sneaky leverage to advance him into round 2.
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| Photo Credit: Texas Anarchy |
On night one, ACH wrestled the way we are used to him wrestling. In the quarterfinals against Willie Mack, he wrestled as the David to Willie Mack’s freakishly athletic Goliath. Here, he wrestled yet another different style of match, working from underneath for three-quarters of an ass-kicking laid on him by Colin Delaney, who Pearl Harbored him from before his ring entrance and barely looked back until ACH was able to claw out a comeback. Delaney deserves a ton of credit here for how well he was able to keep the intensity up on his attack. He played such a great dick heel, from spitting beer in ACH’s face to turning the Last Dragon inside out with a sick lariat. ACH didn’t need a whole lot of offense to be effective here. All he had to do was make a small comeback in the stretch run, and then be able to capitalize on a missed elbow drop from the top into his cradle DDT finisher. No matter who won the tournament, ACH was the MVP of the weekend, and the only other name I’ll hear an argument for would be Brian Kendrick.
Brian Kendrick vs. BJ Whitmer, JT Lightning Tournament Semifinal, AIW JT Lightning Tournament Night 2, 5/12
I take copious notes for every match that I watch. I didn’t write a whole lot for the beginning of this match, but it was because they really didn’t do a whole lot of specific things of note. I can’t really write down “punch, punch, kick, kick,” because I’d waste ink. But that doesn’t mean what they were doing was boring. It was far from it. Whitmer and Kendrick, two of the most decorated innovators and forefathers of the “indietastic” style that people have come to either love or hate, came out brawling like it was the main event of a WWE pay-per-view. That’s not a knock either. It’s a credit to both guys. When people curse guys for doing MOVEZ without psychology, they curse the names of Whitmer and especially Spanky, even if they fail to realize that neither guy was a mindless spot monkey at most points of their career. Here, it’s almost like they knew people were expecting one kind of match, so they gave them a completely different style instead.
Towards the middle and end portions of the match, they were able to break out some great, specifically memorable spots. Whitmer countered a Spanky Superfly Splash by getting his knees up at the last second. Kendrick contorted his body to spin around at the height of a power bomb to hit a reverse rana, which led into Sliced Bread #2. Whitmer, in another brilliant bit of ring savvy, rolled out of the ring to avoid getting pinned. I admit I could have done without a kickout of the second Sliced Bread #2, but it went right into a magnificent finishing sequence, a back superplex followed up by a bullet-intensity yakuza kick from Whitmer that Spanky sold like getting shot in the face. It’s not surprising that these two old pros had the best match of the weekend, but it was a pleasant shock the manner in which they played it out.
Dasher Hatfield and Mark Angelosetti vs. Trey and Jon Williams, Beyond Wrestling Burst the Bubble Studio Session, 5/13
Watch it here!
There were two distinct threads running through this match. The first was a display of the innovative and exciting tandem offense from the Washington Bullets, a team from the South that is part of the vanguard of offensive firepower in the indies. They showed impeccable timing and a great sense of what makes for effective tag wrestling. The more interesting thread to me though was the tension shown between the Throwbacks, with Angelosetti’s ego taking center stage as it has all year across many different companies. At one point, his abrasiveness and unwillingness to tag in his partner caused Hatfield to join the other team and give Mr. Touchdown the what-for until he learned that he should trust his partner. The way they stole the victory with the low bridge on the casadora Fame Asser attempt into a wheelbarrow stunner was slick as well.
Obariyon, Kodama, Kobold, Tim Donst and Jakob Hammermeier vs. Jolly Roger, Lance Steel, Crossbones, Shayne Storm and Rorschach, Chikara Aniversario: Horse of Another Color, 5/19
Originally published in my Aniversario: Horse of Another Color review
This match was more than just nostalgia vs. the present day. It was a juxtaposition of the old and the new to show that while the players and the techniques have changed, the spirit of Chikara has remained the same since day one, that it's still one of the places in wrestling where the spirit of fun is alive and well. There was the signature mix of great wrestling and superb comedy. Seriously, even if I wasn't around when Roger and Steel were doing their thing for the first time, I still felt like I was watching something that was innately familiar when they teamed up to go jousting for rudos.
All of it has to do with the performers. Everyone, from Crossbones and Storm down to Donst and the Batiri, knew how to pull the strings of the crowd and get people lost in the performance. It's more than how tight the chinlock is or how closely the limb is sold. It's about facial expressions, giving into the other guys' gimmicks, enthusiasm. This match had all that personified and more.
In the end, they did end up telling a great story with great psychology. Sure, it centered around a vinyl chestplate that was sold to be like steel, but if it works, it works. Chikara for ten years has been the place for people who embrace the absurd alongside the intense, and no match on this card emphasized that more than this one.
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| Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Chikara just keeps finding more and more great joshi action to import over to America. This time, it was on behalf of the Sendai Girls promotion, featuring the sisterly tag team of Sendai Sachiko and Dash Chisako against Kagetsu and all-world Meiko Satomura. This wasn't a traditional match by any means, but since when has joshi been about what we consider traditional? Chisako spent a good bit of the match taunting, while her sister spent a good bit of it getting stretched and stricken. Satomura is just so agile and fluid that it's hard to believe she's not unique in her talents. They really do grow them better in Japan, don't they? Also, Kagetsu may have the most violent dropkicks I've ever seen.
Player Uno and Stupefied vs. Matt and Nick Jackson, No Disqualification PWG World Tag Team Championship Match, PWG Death to All But Metal, 5/25
Originally published in my review for Death to All But Metal
As much as I love technical contests, flippy shit spotfests, and mainstream main event-style contests, a batshit crazy brawl is almost like my wrestling kryptonite. Shhh, don't tell the hoss fight. NEVER TELL THE HOSS FIGHT OF MY OTHER LOVE. It's great when it's just two guys brawling against each other, but when you have tag teams? Oh yeah, the more crazy, the better.El Generico vs. Ricochet, PWG Death to All But Metal, 5/25
The match started out in the ring, but it didn't stay there for more than a couple of seconds. The teams split up and sort of went to different corners of the building to brawl, which made it hard to keep everything in a neat little box. Then again, that's not the point; it's volatility added to its allure, if you will. Chairs were flying, Jackson brothers landed hard on aprons, chairs got wrapped around peoples' heads. It was great. The fact that Stupefied was able to make the "flip to the outside" paradigm work on an innovative level in 2012 by FLYING over the announce table was enough to make this match.
But then they got back into the ring, and if you can believe it, they amped up the crazy. Nick Jackson threw a chair right at Stupefied's head with PINPOINT accuracy across the ring... twice! There was a spike tombstone on the apron, which is insane even by PWG's lofty standards of apron spots. Even the end, which had referee trickery, worked, because I can buy Matt Jackson being cock enough to yank a ref out and kick him in the face. It helped that the Bucks had heat with Rick Knox from the past. Who says PWG doesn't do long term angles?
Tell me a story. That’s all I want in a wrestling match. Tell me a story. It doesn’t have to be all that intricate, but it helps if it does. Generico and Ricochet often have the reputation of not knowing how to do psychology laid at their doorsteps. In Generico’s case, that’s bullshit, and everyone should know it. He proved it here in a young lion vs. established alpha predator match that used repetition to perfection and featured a Ricochet who was way game to be the cockiest, fullest-of-himself cock-faced prick in the building (that also happened to house the Young Bucks that night). Just when it seemed that Generico missing his fourth yakuza kick was getting into overkill territory, he uncorked a successful one, releasing some major catharsis. That’s how you do storytelling in a match.
Frankie Tucker vs. Derrick King, Last Man Standing Match, ???, 5/25
The joy of finding wrestling matches on YouTube is that you discover wrestlers like Frankie Tucker and Derrick King who blow you away when before you didn't know the first thing about them. The annoying thing about finding matches on YT is that a lot of times, they're poorly annotated. I don't know which promotion this match came from, but then again, this would be a great match regardless of trapping. Tucker is an epic in-match shit talker, which may or may not be because he could be a legitimate old Southern white guy wrestling against a black dude. Draw your own conclusions. The match finish seemed to indicate a crooked ref angle, which was a bit confusing. Still, this would have been a good match to look up if the uploader hadn't closed his or her account. I guess you're going to have to take my word for it.
Gran Akuma vs. Icarus, Ladder Match for Akuma's Career, Chikarasaurus Rex: How to Hatch a Dinosaur, 6/2
Originally published in my review of Chikarasaurus Rex
Gran Akuma and Icarus had almost two years of mostly dormant into about six months of a revenge tale. It culminated here, and holy poop, did both guys deliver big time. Even if it still might feel weird for people who remember Akuma as the most dickish of the original FIST trio as a hero here, he played his part well. WE all knew that Icarus would throw the crowd into a froth just by breathing (and he did), but Akuma proved here that he was able of scooping up the good will and making it into a story.Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander vs. Kyle Matthews and Jimmy Rave, Rampage Cup First Round Match, Rampage TV, 6/10
The mark of a great match is that it tells a great story even if it's a foregone conclusion who is going to win. I thought that Icarus winning would've taken an act of God, but there I was, sitting with my butthole clenched every time he got close to the contract. When Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano came out, I thought that every preconceived notion about how the match would turn out was wrong. But when Akuma pancaked Icarus through that table and grabbed the contract, the catharsis was still as full and rich as it would've been had this been a result up in the air.
Further reinforcing the match was the use of the ladder. There were two ladders in play, one smaller and one larger, and both were used several times to brutal effects. Icarus putting Akuma through the smaller one with the Blu-Ray was just brutal. Hell, even when Icarus was using the ladder as a bad landing for Akuma on a ring-in senton, it still looked impressive. Perhaps it was Icarus selling the fact that it hurt him too that drove the point home. Either way, everything came together, even Gregory Iron's involvement, and coalesced into one of the finest ladder matches of all-time.
Watch part 1!Part 2!
This is very much a template match, but it’s a template I probably enjoy the most. It started out with mat stuff and guys establishing their personalities. Well, it was mostly Rave establishing the personality of being a indecisive and possibly lazy prick. But yeah, the mat stuff was top notch as was expected with the guys in the match. There was a really slick sequence with the Greco-Roman knuckle lock where Matthews had Alexander pinned down, trying to get his shoulders down by hopping on top of him knees first. Once Rave planted Alexander with a lariat to the back of the head, the faster portion of the match started. The action got a little hard to keep up with at times, but sometimes, a little insanity is needed in a tag match. There was even a bit of PWG action in it with Matthews planting Alexander with the STO on the apron. The match remained taut through the finish, a corner dropkick (Matthews’ Slurpee Kick) into an inside cradle by Rave for the win.
El Hijo del Bamboo (c) vs. Sexxxy Eddy, ISW Other Championship, ISW Grand Theft Ottawa, 6/15
Originally published in my review of Grand Theft Ottawa
I can't ever remember laughing so hard in a good way at a wrestling match in 2012, and to top it off, the actual wrestling itself was done so well. A lot of times, in comedy matches, the psychology is so good because the tropes are so in your face. Eddy is a pervert with a big dick, so of course that's going to be the basis of his offense. Conversely, Bamboo is a fucking bear, so obviously he's going to use that weight to his advantage. It's funny to say that a comedic match was wrestled smartly, but hey, these guys were not only comedians, but they were scholars too.Mason and Devin Cutter vs. Alex Castle and Matt Cage vs. Davey Vega and Eric Ryan, Beyond Wrestling/St. Louis Anarchy Double Trouble, 6/16
What impressed me most in this match was how well Bamboo got around with all that extra baggage in his ring attire. Here's a guy in a bulky panda suit doing discus gamengiris and flying off the top rope like it's nothing. That takes a lot of dexterity, and it actually is more impressive than when, say, Low Ki does it. It just goes to show that their environment has that much more of a degree of difficulty.
The other degree comes from the fact that great comedy is way, way harder to do because it's way, way more subjective. For me, the raunchy nature of this match was pitch perfect. Here's a guy with a bulge that screams for you to look at, so of course I'm expecting him to use it to his advantage and have it used against him. As much as I loved the trading of sodomy, my absolute favorite part of the night was when Bamboo started working Eddy's scrotum like a speedbag. It was absurd and blue and pretty much represented everything that ISW is all about.
I need to tell you about the Hooligans if you don't already know. They're stocky brothers with shaved heads and ginger beards who do quebradas and all kinds of other high-flying moves. They rule. So do the Kentucky Buffet, Davey Vega and Eric Ryan, but the Hooligans ruled hardest. I mean, everyone was awesome in this match, but I just can't get over how awesome they were. Sure, Vega and Ryan won, but you catch my drift.
Mark Angel vs. Drew Gulak, Beyond Wrestling/St. Louis Anarchy Double Trouble, 6/16
Originally published in my review for Double Trouble
This was one of the finest matches in Beyond Wrestling's history, even if it ended unsatisfactorily. Gulak and Angel proved that they are two of the best wrestlers going right now. The story was that Gulak was the mat guy who was on a revenge tour, taking out everyone who beat him to date. Angel, the athletic points leader, was next on his list. The narrative said that Gulak should have outclassed Angel on the mat early on, but I'm not sure I bought that completely. Angel acquitted himself well, almost belying his story of a talented guy whose heart maybe wasn't completely in being a wrestler.
(I also really dug the jabs at Angel and Mr. Touchdown being two different guys but not really by Denver Colorado and Johnny Mangue in the announce booth here. Subtly amusing.)
As the match progressed, there was more and more from both guys that impressed the hell out of me. As Gulak "snapped," he started breaking out bigger and bigger moves, including his "Diamond clothesline," a lariat from the top rope. Angel did the accordion sell on it, which skipped him up like ten spots in my book. Gulak also busted out an exploder on Angel from the floor with Angel on the apron. My eyes bugged out of my head for that.
Onto the finish, in a vacuum, I probably would've been pissed off. That was a great match that I thought deserved an actual, cathartic finish, preferably with Gulak redeeming his prior loss. However, in the context of it being an actual story and its placement on the card, it was more than adequate. Gulak flipping out at the end and establishing his character in the promotion. It also accidentally foreshadowed both the NFL's replacement official fiasco and WWE's hamhanded parodying of it, even if Jake Clemons is a regular AIW official. Then again, there was no AIW branding on this event, so draw your own conclusions...
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| Photo Credit: Texas Anarchy |
The advance hype on this match was that it was amazing. Given the principals in it, I believed that it would live up to the billing. But good lord, Summerlyn and Jazz went out in front of the crowd at Hooligans and had one of the most unique matches of the year. It was back and forth without gratuitous rest holds. The ease in which both wrestlers were able to cycle in and out of holds and into counters was amazing. Hell, the fact that there was so much submission grappling going on was almost surprising.
Here we had two of the best reputed strikers in the game right now, and they went hold for hold for three-quarters of the match. It wasn’t just namby-pamby wrestling school feeling out either. At one point, Jazz went from being corralled by Summerlyn on the mat in a waistlock into slapping on a cross-legged Boston crab in a second flat. Then she segued from that hold into a butterfly Muta Lock. It was like Jazz focused all the energy she put into her strikes normally and converted it effortlessly into submission prowess. The thing was that the strikes DID manifest themselves, only they were integrated into the grappling. Knees went into kidneys. Boots met faces. It was almost like what the actual art of what we know as professional wrestling would look like as a shoot.
In the end, it would be Summerlyn, who fought the uphill battle most of the match against the lean, mean, Diva-crushing machine known as Jazz, pulling out the win with her Gory Bomb that came almost out of nowhere. Through taking an ass kicking and doling out an impressive array of offense herself, Summerlyn proved yet again why she was Queen of Texas in 2012. This match needs to be seen by everyone. EVERYONE.
Jessicka Havok vs. Athena, Queen of Queens Tournament Final, ACW Queen of Queens ’12, 6/24
Athena’s final piece to her tournament win was an epic brawl against probably the most fearsome and imposing presence in independent wrestling. Havok began this match the way she did her other two, attacking the opponent from behind and without relent. While Rachel Summerlyn, who had her own mat classic with Jazz AND a sneak attack from Lady Poison to recover from, fell a little easier than anyone expected, Athena, battle-hardened herself, wasn’t about to let some hussy, even a zombie-killing dynamo of one, take her title. Every dismissive boot stomp, face slap, or chairshot Havok threw at Athena, the Wrestling Goddess gave back and then some. The chairplay at the end really drove home the brutality for me. Havok piled chairs on top of each other, only to get the business end of it, her back crashing against them under the weight of Athena’s crossbody. To add further insult to injury, it was an O-Face delivered from the apron to the upright portion of a set-up folding chair that finally killed the zombie killer and gave Athena the victory and the tournament. It was Athena’s second world-class brawl this year, and if she hasn’t put the wrestling world on notice with this one, then the wrestling world is blind and dumb.
Fred Yehi vs. Najasism, PCW House Show, 7/7
Watch it here!
Najasism is quite the spark plug here. The in-house announcers were playing up that he wanted to show Yehi that he too was in his league, and the match did take a personal tone to it early on. Najasism got all up in Yehi’s grill and ended up taking the strong-style counterwrestler out of his jovial mood and into an ornery disposition. Najasism wasn’t going to let Yehi, who has become PCW’s sort of big match wrestler, push him around though. He had answers for Yehi’s questions, even if at several points in the match Yehi showed he was still one step ahead.
This was my first exposure to Najasism, and he proved himself to be an able high flyer with big strikes and even a submission game of his own. Obviously, it wasn’t up to task with Yehi, who could trade submission holds with anyone, but he busted out a crossface that was just as good as anyone else’s. I also really dug his kneeling neckbreaker hold. That was innovative as all get out. But yeah, he was best in the air, especially delivering things like sliding kicks from the apron to a draped-over-the-second-rope Yehi or dropping cross-bodies.
Yehi was obviously on point here too. He’s one of my favorite 2012 finds on YouTube for a reason. He goes hard to the mat, has great counters and transitions, and he’s got a great sense of how to pace a match. This may have been his best match that I’ve seen to date, and given the company, that’s saying something.
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| Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com |
This match wasn't a match for people who liked moves. This match wasn't a match for people who wanted cool high spots. It wasn't a match for people who wanted riveting back and forth interplay. Hell, it wasn't even a match for people who wanted to see a fair fight. What it was, though, was a great story. Again, the story is Park is just a lawyer, he's not a fighter. But he was goaded into a fight, and he just ended up taking a beating most of the match. The hardcore stuff was done really well, and Bully carried his end of the match superbly, which is what he had to do with Park playing up the wrestling dunce character. That being said, the match was MADE with Park's body language and facial expressions. I especially loved him trying to handle the chair. Awesome television.
Honorable Mentions:
- Kane vs. Daniel Bryan, Falls Count Anywhere, Extreme Rules, 4/29
- CM Punk (c) vs. Chris Jericho, WWE Championship Chicago Street Fight, Extreme Rules, 4/29
- Chris Jericho vs. The Big Show, RAW, 4/30
- Sheamus (c) vs. Daniel Bryan, World Championship Match, Smackdown, 5/4 (airdate)
- ACH vs. Davey Vega, JT Lightning Tournament First Round Match, AIW JT Lightning Tournament Night 1, 5/11
- ACH vs. Willie Mack, JT Lightning Tournament Quarterfinal, AIW JT Lightning Tournament Night 2, 5/12
- Ophidian vs. Dasher Hatfield, Chikara Aniversario: Horse of Another Color, 5/19
- Portia Perez and Rachel Summerlyn vs. Lady Poison and Angel Blue, Evening Gown Match, ACW Nothing Is As Real As a Dream, 5/20
- Sheamus and John Cena vs. Jack Swagger, Tensai, and Dolph Ziggler, Lumberjack Match, RAW, 5/21
- Sheamus vs. Jack Swagger, Smackdown, 5/25 (airdate)
- Famous B vs. B-Boy, PWG Death to All but Metal, 5/25
- CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan, RAW, 5/28 (airdate)
- Robert Roode vs. Sting, Impact, 5/31 (airdate)
- AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels, Impact, 5/31 (airdate)
- Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler, Smackdown, 6/1 (airdate)
- Fred Yehi vs. Corey Hollis, PCW Show, 6/1
- Eddie Kingston, Mike Quackenbush, Green Ant, Soldier Ant, and Jigsaw vs. 17, The Shard, combatANT, assailANT, and deviANT, Chikarasaurus Rex: How to Hatch a Dinosaur, 6/2
- Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus, RAW, 6/4
- Colt Cabana (c) vs. Adam Pearce, NWA World Championship First Blood Match, NWA Hollywood, 6/10 (airdate)
- Addy Starr vs. Michael von Payton, ISW Grand Theft Ottawa, 6/15
- ACH vs. Johnny Gargano, Beyond/St. Louis Anarchy Double Trouble, 6/16
- Jack Swagger vs. Dolph Ziggler, RAW, 6/18
- Chrisitan vs. Alberto del Rio, Smackdown, 6/22 (airdate)
- Sheamus (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler, World Championship Match, Smackdown, 6/22 (airdate)
- Kyle Matthews vs. CTD, DSCW Show, 6/23
- Sam Shaw (c) vs. Vordell Walker, USWA Heavyweight Championship Match, USWA Red, White, and Bruised 4 the Troops, 6/23
- Jessicka Havok vs. Lady Poison, Queen of Queens First Round Match, ACW Queen of Queens '12, 6/24
- Kyle Matthews vs. Corey Hollis, NWA Anarchy TV, 7/8 (airdate)