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Into the Indies 11.15.10: Beyond Bosses and Busters (Part 2)

November 16, 2010 | Posted by Ryan Byers

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Into the Indies, the column that cuts the baby in half.

Last week, we took a look at the first half of “Of Bosses and Busters,” the initial DVD release from our friends at Ohio’s Beyond Wrestling. This week, we’re wrapping things up by taking a look at the second half of the same DVD. You can click the preceding link to check out last week’s column for all of the information that you need on Beyond, as well backgrounds on the wrestlers that will be featured in the matches reviewed today.

Also, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to check out Beyond Wrestling on their YouTube page, where they post several matches for free, on Facebook, where you can get all of the latest updates on the promotion, and on Smart Mark Video, where you can purchase the official Beyond Wrestling DVD releases.

In a completely unrelated note, I was pleasantly surprised to see Beyond Wrestling plug Girl Talk in one of its Facebook status updates yesterday. For those not familiar with Girl Talk, it’s been one of my favorite musical acts for the past couple of years and well worth a listen, so I figured that I would slip in an uncharacteristic off-topic shill for them given the out of nowhere tangential connection to today’s topic.

With all of the plugs out of the way, let’s take a look at the last half of the “Of Bosses and Busters” release and find out whether it’s worth the purchase price . . .


Match Numero Seis: Corvis Fear vs. Zane Silver

Zane Silver is one of two Beyond Wrestlers who is featured in this week’s review that wasn’t also in a match that we looked at last week. According to the announcers, he is very early in his career during this taping, though more recently he’s formed a regular tag team with fellow Beyonder Chase Burnett, and they’ve got at least one look from our friends at EVOLVE.

It’s an armbar by Silver early on, but Fear slips out and hits the floor to regroup. Zane catches him in a headlock when he reenters the ring, but Fear is easily able to regain a vertical base and apply a front chancre. Silver reverses into a hammerlock, but Corvis picks a leg and puts him in a variation of the Trailer Hitch. Eventually the hold is relinquished, and, when it is, Fear starts to work the arm. Zane changes things up with an armbar and an armdrag of his own, but Fear is out of it with a pull of the hair. Now the offense gets a little more high impact, with Silver hitting a wheelbarrow bulldog and a lucha style armdrag off of the ropes. A Zane Silver shotei connects for two, and then Corvis Fear is sent to the floor to eat a tope suicida. After some generic brawling on the floor, Silver takes a pair of INSANE bumps on the ring apron, the first of which involves him kicking Fear in the face but landing on his back and the second of which involves Corvis blocking a baseball slide and giving Zane Silver a WHEELBARROW SUPLEX ONTO THE CORNER OF THE APRON. Holy ouch.

The wrestlers remain on the outside for a bit after that big move, and Silver is posted by the Jersey boy. Back on the inside, Silver tries to fire back with some chops but gets poked in the eye and placed in the camel clutch. Fear places his man in a fireman’s carry afterwards, but Silver slips out and kicks him in the face before connecting with a dropkick and a senton for nearfalls. A running kneedrop and a series of forearms also connect from Zane, but, as he attempts to run the ropes, Fear takes over by grabbing Silver’s belt and pulling him into a big headbutt. Fear follows up with one of my favorite regular spots of his, a diving cross body to the back of his seated opponent. A senton from Fear to Silver’s back also connects. Zane gets shot into the corner but manages to roll Fear up thereafter. It gets two, and Silver performs a satellite headscissors into a side Russian leg sweep and applies a variation on the royal octopus hold. Fear starts to slip out, so Silver pops him in the back of the head with an enzuguiri. As he is down, Fear does what can best be described as a reverse somersault up and over his kneeling opponent’s shoulders, pulling him through with a German suplex as the two make contact. I have to admit it, that was pretty damn slick.

The move only gets two as Silver grabs the ropes, so Fear gets nasty and just starts biting Silver. A hesitation dropkick from Corvis sends Silver back out to the floor, where the Garden State God bounces his opponent’s head off of the ring apron. Back on the inside, Fear chokes away and looks for a suplex, which Silver tries to reverse into the royal octopus. He can’t quite get it as Fear tries to block and looks for his Joker Driver, but Silver blocks THAT and hits a variation on the backdrop suplex. Now it’s a forearm battle between both men in the center of the ring, and they both look for superkicks but neither really connects. Then, as Silver falls to a kneeling position, Fear swoops in and hits him with a diamond cutter for another nearfall. Corvis misses another charge into the corner after that, with Silver moving out of the way and hitting him with a lungblower. Silver tries some flippy offense that I can’t even really begin to describe, but Fear blocks and hits a spinebuster variation. He then tries to slingshot the smaller wrestler out of the ring, but Zane adjusts his position in midair and lands on the apron, kicking Fear in the head from that position and then climbing up to the top rope to connect with a missile dropkick on a seated Corvis.

That move only gets two, leading into a brainbuster from Silver. Both men are down for a bit, and, when they return to their feet, Fear goes to the eyes and hits a variation on the black tornado slam. It gets two, and Fear shows some frustration with being unable to put Silver away before placing his man on the top turnbuckle. Fear looks for a variation of the Joker Driver from the ropes, but Zane shoves him off and hits a big senton from the second. He covers, but Fear grabs the bottom rope before the three count can be logged. Silver applies a full nelson, but Fear low blows him out of sight of the referee and SPIKES the little guy with a piledriver variation for another nearfall. Now all of a sudden we’ve got a chair in the ring courtesy of Corvis Fear. Fear sits the chair down at mid-ring and spends a lot of time stalling, which turns out to be a mistake. Corvis looks for a suplex onto the chair, but Zane blocks it and kicks him in the head before connecting with the Sliding D. The two men jockey for position, and it culminates with Corvis Fear hitting a Joker Driver that whips Silver back-first into the turnbuckles. He doesn’t release the hold, though, instead turning around and hitting a SECOND Joker Driver, this one splattering poor Silver over the upright chair. Naturally, that’s it for the match, as fear gets a three count.

Match Thoughts: This is one of those matches where there’s a lot of cool stuff to look at in terms of moves, but it doesn’t necessarily have that much of a logical progression or build. If you’re somebody who can just watch moves and shut off the part of your brain that wants a bit more of a story from the match, you’re probably going to love this one. If you need a little bit more substance with your flash, you’ll land somewhere between being able to tolerate this match and being absolutely infuriated with it. Personally, I dug all of the innovation and would absolutely be stealing moves from Corvis Fear if I were an indy wrestler. (Fortunately, I am not.) However, I thought that it also suffered from the common indy problem of “peaking too soon,” that is to say that there was a huge spot that left me thinking “Holy shit!” only to have the match continue on for quite some time after the big maneuver. In this particular case, it was the wheelbarrow suplex onto the apron, which in my mind looked like something that absolutely should have been a finish or at least set up a finish. Though I was able to appreciate the cool looking stuff that I’d never seen before which came after that move, I was left a bit numb after seeing it.


Match Numero Siete: Jefferson Saint vs. Chris Dickinson

Dickinson immediately gets a cradle for two as Saint rolls out to the arena floor. It’s garden variety mat wrestling when we get back in between the ropes, capped off by Saint grabbing an armbar and headbutting his opponent’s arm as it’s in the hold. That’s one of my favorite basic spots. Eventually things break down in to a war of Saint’s chops gainst Dickinson’s forearms, which Saint wins when he breaks form and hits a back elbow. C-Dick blocks a hiptoss and hits a nice snap suplex and a clothesline, followed up by throwing Saint out to ringside. TOPE CON HILO~! by Dickinson. There’s more striking on the floor and another snap suplex by Chris Dickinson, but Saint is able to respond by sending his man into the ring steps. When the match returns to the squared circle, Saint catches Dickinson with a stun gun for a two count and a couple of boot rakes. Saint stays on his man with some big chops and a Ted DiBiase fistdrop, followed by the Curt Hennig flying neck snap. Dickinson avoids a clothesline, though, coming back with a diving lariat for two. Saint responds with an “accidental” low blow and a kneelift, and now the match spills out to the floor once again. Saint tries to follow Dickinson to the outside, but C-Dick kicks him in the head and gets back to the ring for a series of big kicks and chops to the spine before applying the chinlock. Saint eventually gets out of it, at which point the wrestlers collide with simultaneously clotheslines. They both go down and get up at roughly the same time, once again exchanging chops and forearms. Dickinson hits the ropes, but Saint blocks and double legs him, applying a figure four variation in which he also grabs his opponent’s arm to lower his odds of escaping. C-Dick slips one of his arms free, though, and punches Saint RIGHT IN THE FACE. Yowza.

The big right hand sets up a falcon arrow, but, instead of going for the cover, Dickinson tries for a slingshot elbowdrop. It misses, and Saint hits a spinebuster variation for a nearfall. A big lariat from Jefferson also hits, and he looks for the figure four again but gets kick in the face. Dickinson nips up into an enzuguiri for two, but he’s caught with a jawbreaker before he can do anything else. A series of standing switches are exchanged between the wrestlers, and, somewhere in the confusion, an international object slips out of Saint’s tights and falls on the mat. He quickly picks it up, clocks Dickinson in the head with it, and picks up the three count.

Match Thoughts: I enjoyed this match, mainly due to the fact that it was something different than a lot of what I have seen elsewhere in Beyond Wrestling, and the difference made it a breath of fresh air. There wasn’t a ton of offense here where the guys were going out of their way to be innovative. There wasn’t that much high flying. I’m not trying to say that I dislike either of those things, but Saint and Dickinson manage to stand out by setting them off to the side and instead focusing on a more hard hitting, more technical professional wrestling match. They did a good job with that concept, with Dickinson in particular looking like a guy who would fit in on a higher level of indy. After watching this, I would say that he deserves the shots that he’s recently gotten in groups like Jersey All Pro and EVOLVE, and he could probably get even farther than that if he developed a little bit more character to go along with his wrestling.


Match Numero Ocho: Davey Vega vs. Steve West

This match picks up where a match from disc one left off, as West and Vega were previously tag team partners who had a bit of difficulty getting along in their bout against the team of Faith in Nothing, even though they ultimately won. Vega is out first and does a lengthy yet un-mic’ed monologue, though we really can’t make it out because the announcers are talking over it. Then, out of nowhere, West appears behind Vega and CLOCKS him with a roundhouse kick. That was a pretty cool moment, because they gave no indication West would be sneaking in and there isn’t even an entrance on the side of the building him came in from, meaning he most likely had to hide under the ring. West follows with a lariat and a diving European uppercut to the back of the head, then landing his big Stinger splash into a DDT. Davey rolls out to the arena floor, but West follows him. They fight over an Irish whip, which ends with Vega being shot towards the ring. However, instead of his back connecting with the apron, he jumps up so that he hits the ropes, bounces forward off of them, and connects with a big strike on West. Steve goes tumbling backwards onto a couch straight out of 1985 that a few audience members had been sitting on, and Vega flies in with a HUGE cannonball onto West as he leans against the couch. There’s a sentence I never thought that I would type. Vega headbutts West a couple of times but misses the third in the series, which is a problem because Steve was propped up against the ringpost as Vega went for it. That means Davey connects skull-first with the iron, which West takes advantage of by bealing his former tag team partner into the venue’s wall and that aged couch once more. When things finally make their way back into the ring, West applies a chinlock, though Vega quickly slips out of it and kicks his opponent in the face.

Vega follows up with an elbowdrop and a basement dropkick, but West is able to quickly regain a vertical base and fire back with some chops. It’s not long before Steve runs into an enzuguiri, however, and Vega follows up with a good, old fashioned fishhook. The hook is used to position West in the corner for a high kick and then a big facewash. The cameraman does a good job getting a shot of West’s facial reaction after that, and West does a fine job of selling it. Vega looks for a vertical suplex, but his former partner reverses it and hits a cobra clutch throw for another two count. Now Steve West heads to the high rent district, but Vega somersaults into the corner and hits him with a shotei, following it up with a DVD attempt. West escapes and looks for his version of the chaos theory, but Vega slips through, clotheslines him in the back of the head, and then immediately following up with a discus lariat to earn the three count.

Match Thoughts: As with Dickinson/Saint, I liked this match in large part because it stuck out and tried to do something a little bit different than a lot of other Beyond matches. I wasn’t a huge fan of how the tag match featuring the West/Vega split was booked, but I will say that their breaking up was worthwhile, because here they were able to put on a fun match that actually felt like a grudge match, as opposed to a lot of supposedly “heated” wrestling matches these days which feature guys doing top wristlocks and handspring elbows when they’re supposed to hate each other’s guts. Instead of having that match, West and Vega actually went at each other with brutal, take no prisoners offense that made it look like they hated each other’s guts. Kudos to both guys for that.


Match Numero Neuve: Davey Vega vs. Chris Dickinson

. . . aaaand it’s another Davey Vega match. It’s actually a little bit odd. Even though the Beyond wrestlers are generally logging two or more appearances per DVD with no real explanation as to why, it’s particularly jarring to have the same guy wrestle back to back matches with no kayfabe explanation, especially when he’s wrestling the second match like the first one never happened.

One of the wrestlers in the audience yells, “Our gay audience just went up thirty percent!” in response to Dickinson’s remarkably small, remarkably tight trunks. C-Dick (a nickname that the tiny tights are giving a whole new meaning to) starts off with an armbar and works a version of the ankle lock after a drop to hold. He blocks Vega’s attempt to counter and comes out on top with a rollup, which gets two. A front facelock sees Dickinson go back to the armbar and eventually a variation on the Rings of Saturn, which he makes more awesome by occasionally pausing to slam Vega’s face into the mat. Now it’s a version of a keylock from Dickinson, which Vega is briefly able to counter with a headscissors before Dickinson nips out and kicks him in the head. Davey responds with a version of the Oklahoma roll for a nearfall and slaps on a facelock of his own, and I’m actually having a good time with this mat wrestling. The mat wrestling becomes a bit more high impact when Dickinson turns the front facelock into a northern lights suplex for another nearfall. The suplex doesn’t have that much effect on Vega, who is quickly thereafter able to get into a mount position and throw some forearms. Dickinson rolls to the ropes to regain a vertical base and starts to work the armbar once more. Vega escapes by going to the eyes but gets caught in a Skayde-style rollup from Dickinson, who gets two and then the same result with a cradle and a legsweep. A schoolboy continues the series of nearfalls, followed by Dickinson landing a powerdrive elbow.

Now Dickinson goes to the air, hitting Davey Vega with a guillotine legdrop as Vega is doubled over across the middle rope. It gets two as Vega grabs the bottom strand before the referee can finish his count. Davey briefly takes advantage after that, choking his man in the corner for an extended period of time and also lays in some rudimentary strikes. Dickinson eventually charges out of the corner to grab a backslide, but Vega lands a dropkick to the mush as soon as he kicks out. C-Dick finds himself tied to the Tree of Joey Lawrence, and Vega sets up for a cannonball before stopping in mid-move and flicking Dickinson where the son don’t shine. It’s not a disqualification, so Vega keeps wrestling and goes to the chinlock. Dickinson starts to do the stereotypical babyface comeback, which Vega initially cuts off until Chris comes back with a jawbreaker and a spinning heel kick. It looks like he’s finally ready to get his momentum back, but Vega cuts things off once more with a single-legged dropkick before going to the chinlock once more.

Dickinson begins a traditional comeback after a bit, kicking his man in the back and connecting with his diving lariat before hitting a full body slam to set up some sort of springboard offense. It looked really goofy, because as Dickinson was flying through the air, it was impossible to tell what sort of move he was going for. Eventually he landed in a triangle choke by Vega, and landing in a triangle choke is about the only thing that he could have been doing the way he was flying. Dickinson is able to herc his man up out of the triangle choke position, though, turning it into a short powerbomb. Both wrestlers are down for a bit, and then they start a strike war. Dickinson ducks under a lariat attempt in the midst of the war to hit a German suplex for two, and now we’ve got some kicks from the EVOLVEr to set up a trip to the top rope. C-Dick attempts a rana from the top, which Vega initially blocks. The two jockey for position, with Vega eventually being the victor with a Finlay roll off of the second rope. It only gets two, though, as Dickinson has the presence of mind to drape his foot over the bottom rope to avoid a three count. Seconds later, the men are both countering big suplexes from one another, and the sequence culminates in a nice lariat for Davey Vega, which gets him the three count over Chris Dickinson.

Match Thoughts: After watching this match and particularly the result, I don’t know why Chris Dickinson can’t seem to catch a break and get a win on these shows. This match was essentially a showcase for him, and, though he and Vega may not have worked together to put on the best match of “Of Bosses and Busters,” I felt like Dickinson in this match had the best individual performance of anybody featured on “Of Bosses and Buster.” Though I don’t think he’s quite a world class wrestler, I will say that, for an indy guy on his level he is surprisingly versatile, as he’s strong regardless of whether he’s flying, striking, or taking it to the mat in either a traditional pro wrestling sense or a faux MMA sense. Note to indy wrestling promoters: BOOK MORE CHRIS DICKINSON. You won’t regret it. As far as the match of the whole is concerned, Vega did help to hold up his end of the bargain, but, by and large, this was the Chris Dickinson show.


Match Numero Deis: Jefferson Saint vs. Corvis Fear vs. Zack Novak vs. Robert Paulson

The action is hot and heavy as soon as the bell rings with Paulson initially dominating before Fear hits both he and Novak with the same Japanese armdrag. Saint runs in to pick the bones, but he’s thrown over the top rope and tries to climb the turnbuckles. That fails, as Novak and Fear beal him into Paulson. Now Novak and Fear team up, kicking Paulson and snap maring him down into another kick. Things fall apart between the two of them, though, with Corvis getting a series of knees to the back of young Mr. Novak before turning his attention to Robert Paulson. He shouldn’t have done that, as Novak quickly comes back on Fear with a clothesline for two. Corvis rakes the eyes before Zack’s offense can go much further and hits a brainbuster for two of his own. Fear stays on the youngster with some right hands but eats a dropkick off of the ropes. Then, in a great spot that I’ve never seen before, as soon as Fear kicks out of the pin attempt, he quickly grabs Novak’s head from a seated position and slams it into the mat, almost giving him a short version of the flatliner. Now Paulson and Saint try to make their presence felt again, running in and attacking the other two wrestlers. Fear actually feeds Novak up into Jefferson’s slingshot suplex finisher, but Saint can’t go for the pin because he has to hit Paulson with a spinebuster. Saint looks for a suplex but Novak escapes, only to be hit with a neckbreaker from Paulson. Robert is taken out with a running kneelift by Saint, and now he’s chopping away.

Eventually Paulson gets ticked off and gets a measure of revenge with a backdrop suplex. Saint tries to avoid further offense from Robert by sliding out of the ring under the bottom rope, but he doesn’t avoid Novak, who immediately swoops in out of nowhere and wipes him out with a big dive. Now Paulson comes off the top as well, giving a high cross to all three of his opponents before rolling Saint back into the ring. Jefferson blocks a vertical suplex and hits a Ki Crusher for a nearfall as Novak saves. (Why would you ever do that in an elimination match?) Zack then takes Fear out with a flying back elbow, but Saint lariats him before he can execute any follow-up offense. Eventually Fear and Saint find themselves whipped into each other, and Paulson and Novak then try to leap on their opponents for stereo ranas. In an unexpected spot, both Saint and Fear block the ranas and essentially powerbomb Paulson and Novak into one another’s backs. When we come back from a replay, Jefferson Saint is bringing the ring bell into the squared circle. Fear ducks a shot with it, but the end result is Corvis being taken down and placed in a figure four leglock. Corvis is able to reverse the hold, and, in another clever spot, Saint manages to reach over to the bell and ring it, getting Fear to release the hold because he incorrectly thought that Saint submitted.

Jefferson rolls out of the ring as Novak and Paulson roll back in, with the two of them engaging in a three-way chop and forearm battle with Fear. Corvis ducks a double clothesline from the two and tricks Novak into high kicking Paulson, though it’s not long before Robert gives him a black tornado slam. Novak, for the second time in the match, breaks up a pinfall and gives Paulson a facebuster onto his knees. Fear breaks up THAT pinfall for god knows what reason, giving Novak the Joker Driver for a two count. Paulson gives Fear a death valley driver, and, before he can get up from delivering the move, Novak comes off the top and hits Paulson with a frog splash to get the three count on him, scoring the first elimination in the match. Now it’s Fear and Novak in the ring, with Corvis hitting an inverted atomic drop and a spinebomb for two. Novak responds with an enzuguiri that doubles Fear over and leaps off of his opponent’s own back to deliver a senton. Zack heads up to the top rope for frog splash number two, but Corvis avoids it and hits an inverted version of the Joker Driver, which drops Novak onto the BACK of his head in a brutal manner. That gets the three count and the elimination for Corvis Fear. Immediately after that, Jefferson Saint jumps back into the ring and kicks Fear in the back of the leg. Saint reaches into his boot and tosses some metal object out of it, which makes a loud clanking noise as it hits the floor. Jefferson then locks on his figure four variation, also locking the arms, and Corvis Fear submits to give Saint the victory.

Match Thoughts: I know from reading their Facebook posts that Beyond Wrestling takes a lot of pride in their four way matches. Unless there was one on the phantom “pilot taping” that is referenced from time to time on commentary, this would have been the first of those four ways. Frankly, this is the kind of match that I would also be proud of if I were booking an indy promotion. The two standouts were really Corvis Fear and Jefferson Saint. Fear, as usual, was busting out offensive maneuver after offensive maneuver that you don’t see in a run of the mill professional wrestling match. I have a sneaking suspicion that, in addition to busting out his own cool offense, he was also instrumental in laying out some of the eye popping spots that other talent, especially Novak, were involved in. Saint was a standout in a more subtle way, as I got the feeling watching this that he was really the glue that held the whole match together. He was the less flashy wrestler who was always in the right place and the right time to set up whatever sequence he was involved in, and he was innovative enough in his own high risk style that the match remained interesting even when there weren’t seventy crazy highspots going on at once. Thanks primarily to the efforts of those two, this was a really fun match which is worth the fifteen or twenty minutes it will take to get through it on YouTube.

Now it’s angle time, as Steve West runs out. West indicates that Saint and his former tag team partner Davey Vega have both been using dirty tactics to win their matches in Beyond Wrestling. West challenges Saint to an impromptu match . . . but then immediately lays down, allowing Jefferson Saint to pin him with one foot. The announcers point out that West was most likely doing this so that Jefferson Saint would have one more victory on the weekend than West’s rival Davey Vega, which would make Saint the first Beyond Wrestling Champion. However, before that little screwjob can come to an end, Vega runs out and jaw jacks with West, leading to ANOTHER impromptu match. West grabs a chair and wallops Vega with it seconds in, giving Davey the victory by disqualification . . . so now Vega and Saint are tied once more, meaning that there is no Beyond Wrestling Champion. Okay then.



Match Numero Once: Faith in Nothing (Christian Faith & Vincent Nothing) vs. Chase Burnett & Zane Silver

Nothing and Silver kick it off, with the larger Nothing dominating some early mat work, with a surfboard style submission and a Fujiwara armbar variation looking particularly impressive. Eventually Silver is able to do a headstand out of a headscissors, using it as a position from which to kick Vince in the head. Nothing is quick to go back on the offensive, though, putting his opponent into a sick hold which is essentially a bridging version of Jinsei Shinzaki’s Heavenly Lock. After that the men start running the ropes, with Silver getting a couple of armdrags before the wrestlers begin an extended sequence in which they avoid one another’s kicks. Nobody (not to be confused with Nothing) gets the advantage after about fifteen seconds, so Chase Burnett and Christian Faith tag in together, which is quite the size mismatch. Burnett tries to go to the eyes and to low blow his man, but Faith no-sells it all. Chase calls for a test of strength, which Christian easily wins at first until Burnett rolls through and slaps the masked man across the back of the head. Faith wants to do it again, so this time Chase stomps on his foot. Test of strength number three sees Christian Faith stomp on Chase Burnett’s foot, with Burnett selling it like he’s unable to run away with Faith standing on his boot. Christian takes advantage of that and chops his opponent in that position, eventually shooting Chase off of the ropes. Chase leaps up and attempts a satellite headscissors, but Faith shoves him off and kicks him in the back as Burnett comes crashing down to the mat.

Here’s a tag to Vince Nothing, and the Faith/Nothing team works together for a double Japanese armdrag on Burnett, followed by a lift into a double kick to the back. Nothing stays on the little guy with a series of forearms and looks for a cross armbreaker, but Burnett is able to block it. What he doesn’t block is a tag to Christian Faith, who hits a fistdrop before tagging back out. Faith in Nothing execute their maneuver in which Nothing throws the opposition up for a kick to the back by Faith, and it’s not long before we have Christian back in the ring. Faith winds up eating a shin to the face and a slingshot dropkick, giving us a long-awaited tag to Zane Silver. Silver and Burnett work together to kick and punch away at Christian Faith, eventually hitting stereo basement dropkicks before Silver drops a knee for two. Burnett checks back in as the legal man for some fairly basic offense, at which point Silver comes in and the smaller men team up for a clothesline/flipping senton combo. Zane stays on Faith with some kicks to the back, but Christian responds with a backbreaker. He fails on a charge into the corner, though, giving Zane an opportunity to hit a variation on the Vader bomb which he finishes with a palm strike instead of a splash. Then, in perhaps the spot of the night, Christian Faith rolls out under the bottom rope and Silver tries to wipe him out with a tope suicidia. Faith blocks the move, however, pulling his man out of midair and hoisting him up into a vertical suplex position. He carries him up to the ring in that position and drapes him over the top rope, where Vincent Nothing also grabs a portion of Silver. Nothing helps Faith maneuver Zane into mid-ring, where he eventually hits the suplex and tags out to Vince. Nothing gets a bridging snap suplex and a Benoit-esque back elbow to set up the Full Nelson Mandela. Eventually Vince tires of the hold and slams Zane before Faith in Nothing begin tagging in and out rapidly, with each man body slamming Silver when he’s in the ring.

The series of bodyslams comes to an end when Christian Faith decides instead to come off the second rope with a moonsault press, which gets two. Silver ducks a big kick from Faith and gets one of his own, and he tries to make two dives to tag Chase Burnett. They both fail, and the second one is actually changed into a back body drop. Now we’ve got Vincent Nothing in the ring once more, and he tosses Silver out onto the ring apron and drapes him across the second rope only to slam him back down with a version of the curb stomp. Faith and Nothing now team up for a more traditional curb stomp, which gets two for Faith. Faith in Nothing attempt more double teaming, but Silver is able to evade them, and he throws Nothing face-first into Faith’s crotch before giving Christian an enzuguiri. Silver looks for the tag to Burnett, but Chase actually drops off the apron and refuses to take it. This lets Faith snatch Silver up into a SICK German suplex by Nothing. Another double team move is reversed into a rana by Silver on Faith, and Zane blind tags Burnett by slapping him in the back of the head. In one of the more unusual professional wrestling comebacks that I’ve ever seen, Burnett and Silver sell things like they’re arguing with one another but that their arguments and fighting with each other always lead to them inadvertently scoring offensive maneuvers against their opponents.
Eventually both members of Faith in Nothing are cleared out of the ring, with Chase hitting an Asai-style cannonball off of the second rope and down onto them. Silver follows it with a tornillo plancha, and Burnett sends Nothing back into the ring. A springboard ace crusher by Burnett takes out Nothing, which is followed by a Gory bomb variation on Chase by Faith. Nothing and Silver are in at this point, and they wipe each other out as well, setting up a rare quadruple KO spot. When people recover, it’s Burnett going up against Faith, with the wrestlers taking each other out one at a time until we get the combination of Nothing and Burnett fighting. Vince actually winds up giving Burnett a death valley driver down on to Silver’s back, and, in an even more insane spot, Nothing simultaneously lifts BOTH Burnett and Silver up and gives them a DOUBLE T-BONE SUPLEX. Things get even crazier, as Silver is placed in a tree of woe variation where he is facing towards the outside of the ring instead of the inside. Faith in Nothing grab Burnett and beal him BACK-FIRST INTO SILVER. Chase did not lnad well on the floor as a result of that one. All four men wind up piled up in the ropes as Faith in Nothing sets up some other devious double team, but Burnett manages to block this one to set up a missile dropkick on Faith for a two count.

Silver goes after Nothing at the same point, getting him draped over the second rope for a senton as Burnett buries his knees into Faith’s gut after doing a backflip. Burnett and Silver go for a double pin, but both Faith in Nothing members kick out. Now Burnett is dispatched by a big forearm from Faith, allowing Christian to hoist Silver into a vertebreaker position. While he is being held there, Vince Nothing hooks Silver’s head and leg as though he were going to hit a northern lights bomb of his own. Faith and Nothing drop at the same time, teaming up for one of the sickest double team finishers I’ve seen in a while, and that’s what brings the match to a close.

Match Thoughts: This match is sort of like a bookend for the Zane Silver/Corvis Fear match that opened up this week’s review. First of all, there was a TON of original stuff in here that I would absolutely be stealing if I had anything approaching the level of athletic talent necessary to set foot into a professional wrestling ring. (Shockingly, I don’t.) That alone made me glad I watched the match, just because there were numerous individual “Holy shit!” moments. I will say that there was one thing, however, that kept this from being a great match and resulted in it simply being a series of very cool spots. What is it? Simply put, I felt like the guys were actually trying to do a little bit too much. Sometimes less is more, and, even though everything I was seeing was pretty amazing athletically, there was a point towards the end where things started to drag for me and I felt like there could have been about five minutes shaved off of this. Specifically, I thought that the deal with Silver and Burnett arguing back and forth was overkill, because you already had a damn fun little match going on and didn’t need that to make it any more special or memorable. As it stands, this was still a very strong main event for an independent group that’s on the level of Beyond Wrestling.

Overall

I gave Beyond Wrestling’s “We Did It for the Hits” very high marks in a prior column, and I will have to say that, if you liked “We Did It for the Hits,” then “Of Bosses and Busters” offers a similar quality of product. Is it the best independent wrestling in the world? No, probably not. However, what you do have here is an obviously dedicated troupe of fairly young wrestlers who are going out there and putting in every last ounce of effort that they have in their bodies. Sometimes, the results are matches that get too over the top for my taste. However, those matches are the minority, and, most of the time, you wind up with what is a really fun professional wrestling product, especially when you take into consideration the true level of experience of the wrestlers that you’re watching. If you’re somebody who likes to see the future of professional wrestling develop and you don’t necessarily need guys with name value on a wrestling show in order to enjoy it, there’s no reason you SHOULDN’T watch at least a little bit of Beyond Wrestling, especially given the fact that the vast majority of their library is free on their YouTube page. However, if you watch a few of those matches and dig them, you should absolutely consider buying one or more of the DVD’s to get things in a bit better video quality and to provide some financial support to some folks who legitimately have their heads and their hearts in the right places in terms of giving young, athletic wrestlers an opportunity to develop, just like an IWA Mid-South or a Gateway Championship Wrestling used to do eight to ten years ago.


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See you all next week!

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Ryan Byers

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