Going to do this slightly different from usual!
MATCHES:
The Masked Salaryman vs. Black Jones - Rather enjoyed this, as I thought it showed both guys' strengths pretty well and served as a good opener to the show. Loved the finish - Salaryman living and dying by his top rope splash when he goes for it makes it a ton of sense. Also happy for Allen that he no longer has to go through EXODUS life having not beaten me. xD The best is yet to come, though...
Shinji Uchikawa vs. Anastasia Starling - Basic and to the point. It's a bad night for top rope moves so far, isn't it? Uchikawa wins, which should really have been the obvious ending to the tournament all along. Props to Nick for actually making me totally forget about him as a likely winner until the semis. Post-match is also good, but that'll get revisited later too.
Devan Whitmore vs. Angela Jameson - LIGHTSABER FIIIIIGHT. Arguably the best finish of the night, too - because it reveals so much into Devan's personality. If she's going down, she's taking you with her, consequences be damned. This probably isn't over for good, either, meaning we can come back to Devan/Angela whenever we want and people will remember the end of this match and want more. Good stuff.
TROUBLE -c- vs. UNCENSORED. BRAWL. I don't know what it is about the EXODUS tag division, but we've had some damned good fights in it, and this enters that pantheon. Tornado Rules, in theory, takes away some of the more conventional tag advantage of TROUBLE, and with the REVOLUTION able to keep the champs apart, their strategy pays huge dividends. Some Kind of Hate on the steps is NASTY. Big changing of the guard type finish, too, establishing that UNCENSORED are the new champs and not to be screwed with. Boy, I'd hate to be the next suckers stuck fighting THOSE two guys...
Aw, Hell.
Chandler Scott -c- vs. Shozo Arino - Good match - but I think Chandler's going to do exactly what Savannah did with the San Diego Bay Championship. Felt like this could be a big statement win for the leader of REVOLUTION, but the veteran pulled it out in the clutch. Seeing where Scott goes with this title reign is going to be interesting.
Christian Kane -c- vs. Lexy Chapel vs. Justin Brooks - Short, but packs a bunch into it. Kane's finally moved past Chapel, and can look to make his own legacy with the International belt now. Brooks, of course, is unhappy - but hey, that's what rematches are for!
Johnny Cannon vs. Andreas Lasiewicz - If this is Cannon's last EXODUS bout, he went out in a Goddamned war. My match of the night just for how stiff and brutal this was, while still being a wrestling match - honestly, what I liked most about the top three matches of the evening is just how different they were. This was two guys who disliked one another throwing down with stiff shots until one of them couldn't get up.
Fiona Collins vs. mara - Oh, look, it's ultraviolence! Bloody, brutal spectacle from the word go, but in a totally different way from Cannon/Lasie. Finish is probably the only way to really go, as this is Far From Over. Also long enough to do what it needs to do, and short enough that it feels more realistic, too.
Adrien Cochrane vs. Zack Lifer - A big win for Lifer in terms of his sanity, and what has to be a hard loss for Adrien. Suitably brutal finish - but really, this is all about the post match, with Wulf going apeshit and finally giving Lifer the satisfying beatdown receipt that he hasn't gotten yet.
Chris Strike -c- vs. Abby Park - I had a blast writing this, and am happy to see the good feedback from people.
Once I got the winner from Jon, I put the Maw Maw Song on repeat while writing the finish with tears in my eyes because I'm a giant sap for stories like the one Norton's told with Abby on EXODUS TV over the past 2+ years, and they're far rarer than they should be in actual pro wrestling. I wanted the big fight "what's it going to take?" sort of feel, and I hope I got that across. As it turned out, it was also a very different match from both mara/Fiona and Cannon/Lasie, which made me happy and I think makes the show flow better.
SEGMENTS:
- Ginny's opening segment was fun, though really at this point I want to see the Ginny vs. Aries Reed match which isn't actually going to happen and thus makes me sad.
- The Mysterious Stranger at this point is already one of the more intriguing characters in the company, without even stepping in the ring. Mara's family is very well constructed thus far, in that each of the family members have their own personalities that mara compliments, rather than mara being the entire story.
- Aries Reed + Index Cards = Magic.
- Johnny Cannon has quietly (not so quietly on cards) become the best character in EXODUS, simply by being the best heel in the company and making you want to see him get the shit kicked out of him. Hell, he finally made me want to root for Lasie in a match, which happens somewhere in the vicinity of "never." Cannon's segs on this show are a master class in pro wrestling heeldom.
- I apologize for the 12-14 page SEGMENT OF DEATH, but after reading the whole thing, I'm glad it all came together, and as well as it did, which I owe entirely to the quality of everyone working on it. So many little things that made me smile, and Shinji Uchikawa making his stand was amazing, even if it's detrimental to Shozo's mental health state.
- Ruby Tyler is here. We still probably need to do the Ruby/Cthulhu feud and/or tag team at some point.
- Good pre-match Fiona segment - I think Fiona's best work comes in her blood feud rivalries, with Magnus/Christum, and here again with Mara.
- Liked Heather/Wulf as well - did a great job of leading into Erikssen finally going off the deep end after Lifer/Cochrane.
- The Birdman seg explaining why we're idiots was excellent. Back to the RIMAC we go, which really fits the feel of EXODUS much better than big silly arenas, honestly.