Here are some of the stories coming out of last night's show:
Youth is Served
The mission of GEAR is to provide the young wrestlers with a chance to face the veteran talent. At First Gear, the veterans took care of the younger talent.
Tonight, the veterans were the ones who were looking at the lights or were the ones who were outsmarted. Some of them did not take their losses too well as Roderick Strong and Jay Briscoe attacked Chris Jones and Nooie Lee after their loss; and Austin Aries attacked Kenny King and Austin Andretti after his victory was overturned when the referee found a chain in Aries' trunks.
While he did not resort to attacking his opponent, Erick Stevens lost to Kory Chavis; and the team of Chasyn Rance and Sal Rinauro lost to Aaron Epic and Seth Delay.
Kenny Shows Aries that he is The King
At the end of First Gear, the match between Austin Aries and Kenny King was made as a result of King's post-match attack on Aries. Tonight, King tried to get into the head of his veteran opponent early in the show by trying to make a peace offering only to see it turn out to be an attempt to double team Aries with the help of Austin Amadeus. This led to Aries being very aggressive at the start of the match and saw King demand that Aries be checked for any weapons since King called Aries a cheater earlier in the night.
After Aries appeared to have won the match against King despite King's and Amadeus's best attempts to cheat; King made the referee check Aries's trunks for foreign objects. The search led to the discovery of a chain that King tried to use earlier in the match. The referee reversed the decision and awarded the victory to King. What is next in the feud between Aries and King?
A New Group Emerges
In what could be considered a major upset, Chris Jones and Nooie Lee defeated Jay Briscoe and Roderick Strong, who was an injury replacement for Mark Briscoe. Since Strong has teamed with the Briscoes in the past this loss could not be attributed to being a makeshift team.
After it appeared that Strong and Briscoe had things under control, Lee and Jones got the victory with a rollup after stopping a Doomsday Device attempt. Even though Strong and Briscoe battered Jones and Lee during the course of the match, the wrath of Strong and Briscoe was not unleashed until after the match.
Seth Delay came to the ring with a chair to help Jones and Lee. Delay suggested that the younger wrestlers were sick and tired of being beaten up and taken advantage of by the "giants" of the sport. Lee, Delay, and Jones are ready to fight back. What will emerge between these two groups and what will happen when Mark Briscoe returns?
Here are the results from Overdrive:
Match Number One: Seth Delay and Aaron Epic defeat Chasyn Rance and Sal Rinauro
Despite not tagging together as often as Rance and Rinauro, the team of Delay and Epic worked well at the start of the match and worked over Rance and Rinauro with a series of double team moves. A knee to the back from the apron by Rinauro changed the momentum of the match and allowed Rance and Rinauro to take control. They work over Epic and taunt him as he tries to make the tag, only to see Delay knocked off the apron. Rinauro and Rance work on Epic’s back until Delay is able to tag in and he pins Rinauro after a flurry of offense with a Breakdown.
Match Number Two: Austin Amadeus defeats Kyle Matthews
Amadeus attacks Matthews before the bell rings and he continued to overpower Matthews. Matthews is able to fight back but he misses a frog splash and Amadeus finishes him off after a Northern Lariat.
After the match, Kenny King comes out to congratulate his tag team partner on his victory. Kenny gets on the mic and he calls the fans disrespectful for booing Amadeus. He is out here to set the record straight about what happened last month at First Gear. He says that they should have beaten Aries and Delirious last month and it got to him after the match, so that is why he attacked Aries. It was done out of anger. King wants Aries to come out to the ring.
Aries comes out and King says that he is a man of his words and felt bad about what happened last month. He says that he did not mean to attack Aries from behind and he should have done it face to face. King wants to apologize and he asks Aries to accept it for what he did behind Austin’s back because he is going to do it to his face later.
Austin Amadeus comes into the ring and he attacks Aries and King joins in. Aries gets Amadeus set up for a brainbuster but Amadeus gets out of the hold.
Aries gets on the mic and he says that Kenny showed everyone that he is a lying coward. He tells King to keep his boyfriend in the back and he wants to see if King is ‘tough enough.’
Match Number Three: Jon Davis defeated Jigsaw
Davis uses his size advantage to overpower Jigsaw at the start of the match but Jigsaw is able to take Davis down with a series of arm drags. Davis returns with more power moves but he gets a little overconfident and Jigsaw gets a near fall. Jigsaw tries to take Davis down with clotheslines but Davis stays up. Jigsaw finally takes Davis down with a flying clothesline. Davis hits a spinebuster and he tries for a torture rack but Jigsaw escapes and gets a near fall. Davis stops a super kick and hits Three Seconds Around the World for the three count.
Match Number Four: Chris Jones and Nooie Lee defeat Roderick Strong and Jay Briscoe
After an early flurry by Jones and Lee, Strong and Briscoe take control of the match as they work over Jones and Lee. Strong and Briscoe use the referee to their advantage while they work over Lee. The action goes to the floor and the momentum changes when Lee and Jones hit high impact moves onto Briscoe and Strong. The action returns to the ring and Jones and Lee continue to control the match. Strong and Briscoe are able to use their experience to regain control, but Jones reverses an Irish whip and Briscoe accidentally gives his tag team partner a running boot. Strong and Briscoe recover and set up for the Doomsday Device but Lee grabs Strong’s leg and Jones gets the three count with a rollup on Briscoe.
After the match, Strong and Briscoe attack Lee and Jones. All four men battle in the ring until Seth Delay comes out with a chair as Briscoe and Strong leave the ring. Delay gets on the mic and he says that he is sick and tired of seeing guys like Strong and Briscoe take advantage of the younger guys. He does not think that they should be able to do what they want because they think they are the giants in the sport. They will make Strong and Briscoe respect them.
It was time for intermission.
Match Number Five: Kory Chavis defeats Erick Stevens
Stevens takes control of the match with some power moves after they exchange chops at the start of the match. They fight outside and Chavis sends Stevens into the guardrails. They return to the ring and because of the work that Chavis did to Stevens’ back, it is hard for Stevens to get Chavis up. Stevens hits two rolling German suplexes into a pump handle power bomb, but he cannot finish off Chavis. Chavis hits a Piggy Back Stunner for the three count.
Match Number Six: The Lifeguards of Wade Koverly and Daron Smythe defeat Jason Blade and Moonshine McCoy
The Lifeguards use their experience over the makeshift team of McCoy and Blade to double team McCoy. Blade works over Wade and Daron and then he tags McCoy back in but McCoy channels the spirit of Kamala and he makes the cover while the Lifeguard is on his chest. The Lifeguards use this lapse in judgment to double team McCoy. McCoy does fight back and he tries to tag in Blade, but Blade refuses the tag and leaves the ring. McCoy sets for a DDT on Koverly but Smythe with a super kick and then they finish off McCoy with a belly-to-back suplex and power bomb combination.
Match Number Seven: Austin Aries defeats Kenny King but the decision was reversed post-match
Aries shows his aggression at the start of the match, but King goes to the floor and he gets on the mic and says that he was not ready and he calls Aries a cheater. King wants the referee to check Aries for anything that could cause any harm to him. King attacks Aries while the referee checks him. King continues to avoid contact with Aries and he continues to anger Aries. The match moves to the floor and King works on Aries’s ribs. Aries is able to fight back and he sends King to the floor where he hits a tope. Aries sets for the brainbuster but Austin Amadeus comes out and he distracts Aries. Aries hits the brainbuster and then he puts King in the Horn of Aries but he releases the hold when Amadeus brings a chair into the ring. Aries is able to get the three count with an inside cradle after King hits Aries with a foreign object.
After the match, King claims that Aries cheated and it is revealed that Aries had a chain in his wrestling gear. The referee reverses the decision and declares King the winner. Aries figures that since he did not have the chain during the match, he might as well use it on King while King argues with fans in the crowd.
Overdrive Thoughts
This was a good second show for GEAR and built upon the first show. The crowd was slightly smaller than the first show.
The theme of this show appeared to be that the younger wrestlers were getting the advantage over their veteran opponents. It looks like this is going to happen with Seth Delay’s promo after the Strong/Briscoe versus Jones/Lee match.
I thought Kenny King’s promo this show was better than the one he did at the first show. It really adds to the feud between Aries and King. I thought it was great that he was portraying Aries as the heel despite everything that King did on the two shows.
I thought the Davis/Jigsaw match was okay and Davis has definitely shown a lot in the ring over the last few months. It was good to see Davis show what he can do against wrestlers who are not based in Florida. Jigsaw is someone with national recognition through his work in Ring of Honor so it was good to see that Davis can hold his own with that level of talent.
The biggest shock of the night for me was that Roderick Strong and Jay Briscoe lost to Nooie Lee and Chris Jones. The more important part of this match was the post-match altercation because it is starting the feud between Seth Delay and the likes of Strong and Briscoe.
With the recent matches that I have seen from Erick Stevens and Kory Chavis, I expected a little better match. While it was a good match, I know that both of them can have a better match. What surprised me about this match is that Chavis won it relatively easily over Stevens.
GEAR returns to action in July. Check out their website and my Land of Sunshine columns on the site for more information.