Sermon on the Mat (Nov. 16, 2017): CMLL, HOH, Chikara, CWF, SCI, wXw, & ICW cards

Welcome back to the Sermon on the Mat, your weekly one-stop shop for news from the wider world of wrestling beyond the big cable TV monoliths that get all the coverage.

Coming soon...

CMLL Super Viernes (November 17, 9:30PM Eastern)

1. El Gallego, Mr. Condor, & Ricky Santana vs. Super Muneco, Super Pinocho, & Super Raton
2. Blue Panther, Jr., Guerrero Maya, Jr., & the Panther vs. Hechicero, Misterioso, Jr., & Sagrado
3. Black Terry & Virus vs. Solar & Super Astro
4. Blue Panther, Mano Negra, & Octagon vs. El Satanico, Fuerza Guerrero, & Negro Casas
5. Dragon Lee, Rush, & Volador, Jr. vs. Los Guerreros Laguneros (Euforia, Gran Guerrero, & Ultimo Guerrero)
6. Canek & Los Dinamitas (Cien Caras & Mascara Ano 2000) vs. Dos Caras, Rayo de Jalisco, Jr., & Villano IV

CMLL are back with your weekly dose of Friday night lucha libre from Arena Mexico and this week is special, folks! It's legends' night at CMLL, and that means you take the good with the bad. The good? That Terry/Virus vs. Solar/Astro tag should be phenomenal old guy action, as should the trios after, although Mano Negra and Octagon are, well... Blue Panther might have to do some heavy lifting for his team.

Plus that hot co-main with Rush continuing to convince Volador to join Los Ingobernables and that's a hell of a show... except for that main event. Villano, of course, was part of the legendarily bad TripleMania trios match a few years ago, and the other five main evented LAST year's legends' show here in CMLL and that wasn't much better. So, y'know, absolutely tune in, it should be a really fun show... just maybe make plans to go to bed early.

Check it out, as always, free for nothin' on ClaroSports or CMLL's Facebook page.

House of Hardcore 34 / 35 (November 17-18)

—House of Hardcore 34 (November 17, 8PM Eastern)—

1. Billy Gunn vs. MVP
2. Matt Cross vs. Petey Williams vs. ???
3. Joey Mercury, Nick "Magnus" Aldis, & Spirit Squad (Kenny & Mikey) vs. Little Guido, Shane Douglas, Super Crazy, & Tommy Dreamer (Elimination Match)

—House of Hardcore 35 (November 18, 8PM Eastern)—

1. Matt Cross vs. Petey Williams
2. Little Guido & Super Crazy vs. Spirit Squad (Kenny & Mikey)
3. Billy Gunn vs. Nick "Magnus" Aldis
4. Joey Mercury vs. Tommy Dreamer (First Blood Match)

House of Hardcore are making their debut on Twitch this weekend, but that's only House of Hardcore 35, so you'll excuse me for giving 34 (in St. James, New York) short shrift here, folks. Anyway, HOH are returning to the ECW Arena and while they're keeping their cards close to the vest as always, what they've announced has plenty going for it. Austin Aries will be on hand with a live microphone, you've got the Spirit Squad against some ECW legends, and Joey Mercury against Tommy Dreamer in a First Blood Match playing off the match that they recently had stopped by the New York State Athletic Commission.

Get your tickets here or check HOH 35 out live on Twitch, folks.

Chikara Silence in the Library / Dark Water / Kill the Moon (November 17-19)

—Silence in the Library (November 17, 7:30PM Eastern)—

1. Jeremy Leary & Osirian Portal ("Amasis" & Ophidian) vs. Maine State Posse (Aiden Aggro, Alexander Lee, & Danger Kid)
2. Hermit Crab vs. Oleg the Usurper
3. Icarus vs. Rory Gulak
4. "Mr. Touchdown" Mark Angelosetti vs. Missile Assault Man
5. Dez Peloton (Donald Kluger & Jasper Tippins) vs. Rumblebees (Solo Darling & Travis Huckabee)
6. Cornelius Crummels & Sonny Defarge vs. Xyberhawx 2000 (Razerhawk & Sylverhawk)

—Dark Water (November 18, 3PM Eastern)—

1. Jeremy Leary vs. Oleg the Usurper
2. Icarus vs. Missile Assault Man
3. Hallowicked vs. "Mr. Touchdown" Mark Angelosetti
4. Ophidian vs. Officer Warren Barksdale
5. Cornelius Crummels, Juan Francisco de Coronado, & Sonny Defarge vs. Dasher Hatfield & Rumblebees (Solo Darling & Travis Huckabee)
6. Max Smashmaster vs. Mike Quackenbush

—Kill the Moon (November 19, 2PM Eastern)—

1. Hallowicked vs. Missile Assault Man
2. Jeremy Learly, Rory Gulak, & Sloan Caprice vs. the Furies
3. Dez Peloton (Donald Kluger & Jasper Tippins) vs. "the Osirian Portal" ("Amasis" & Ophidian)
4. Cajun Crawdad, Hermit Crab, & Merlok vs. Xyberhawx 2000 (Nytehawk, Razerhawk, & Sylverhawk)
5. Dasher Hatfield vs. Keith Lee
6. Juan Francisco de Coronado (c) vs. Proletariat Boar of Moldova (Chikara Grand Championship)

Chikara are swinging through New England for one last weekend of fun before the season finale next month, and they have some doozies lined up. Keith Lee makes his debut! The Boar gets his title shot! And, biggest of them all, Mike Quackenbush laces up the boots one more time to take on Max Smashmaster, but there's a twist-- Smashmaster's manager Sidney Bakabella will be special guest referee, and if Max loses, his in-ring career is over!

Get your tickets here or check 'em out when they hit Chikaratopia, folks.

CWF Mid-Atlantic Ultimate Survivor 2017 (November 18, 7:30PM Eastern)

1. Dirty Daddy, Jesse Adkins, ???, & ??? vs. Dream Team (Cain Justice, ???, ???, & ???) (Torneo Cibernetico)
2. Team CL Party (Aaron Biggs, CL Party, Faye Jackson, Mecha Mercenary, & Snooty Fox) vs. Team Jarry Caray (Arik Royal, Jarry Caray, Mace Li, Otto Schwanz, & Roy Wilkins) (Elimination Match)
3. Team CW Anderson (CW Anderson, ???, & ???) vs. Team Trevor Lee (Trevor Lee, ???, & ???) (Triathlon Survivor Match)

Team lineups are a bit thin on the ground, but the idea is clear as CWF Mid-Atlantic return to the Mid-Atlantic Sportatorium for a night of survival! The five-on-five eliminator has big stakes as well, because the winner earns the right for their captain to be the permanent host of CWF Worldwide!

Get your tickets here or wait for the show to get released as episodes of CWF Worldwide, folks.

Scenic City Trios (November 18, 7:30PM Eastern)

1. Team Glory Pro (Curt Stallion, Gary Jay, & Myron Reed) vs. Team Southern Underground Pro (AJ Gray, Jaden Newman, & Kevin Ku) (Scenic City Trios First Round Match)
2. A Case of Ducklings (Ethan Case, Lance Lude, & Rob Killjoy) vs. Southern Motors (Cousin Cletus, Cousin Shaggy, & Torque) (Scenic City Trios First Round Match)
3. Nightmare Boys (Joey Lynch, Kyle Matthews, & Matt Lynch) vs. Rat Pack (Mallaki Matthews, Timmy Lou Retton, & White Mike) (Scenic City Trios First Round Match)
4. Carnies (Kerry Awful, Nick Iggy, & Tripp Cassidy) vs. Viking War Party (Alexander Rudolph, Frank Wyatt, & Jake Parnell) (Scenic City Trios First Round Match)
5. Cyrus the Destroyer vs. Gunner Miller
6. Scenic City Trios Semifinals & Finals

Yes, it's Scenic City time again and that means indie wrestling's finest are converging on Tennessee (this time the town of Hixson) for some of the finest action in the United States. And this one is special, because I don't know about you folks, but I'm a sucker for trios tournaments on the indies, it's a great way to gain a whole bunch of new favorites all at once. Indeed, that's how I first saw the Carnies, when they took part in (and won) the trios tournament at FIP Fallout 2015.

So get your tickets at the door, or you can watch it on VOD through Powerbomb.tv, folks.

wXw Broken Rules XVII (November 18, 7PM CET)

1. Next Step Wrestling wXw Shotgun Championship #1 Contender's Battle Royal
2. Alexander James vs. Jurn Simmons
3. Dirty Dragan & Emil Sitoci vs. Jay-FK (Francis Kaspin & Jay Skillet) vs. Monster Consulting (Avalanche & Julian Nero) (wXw World Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's Match)
4. Jinny vs. Session Moth Martina (wXw Women's Championship Tournament)
5. Da Mack vs. Ilja Dragunov
6. Ivan Kiev (c) vs. Battle Royal Winner (wXw Shotgun Championship)
7. Bobby Gunns & Jaxon Stone vs. Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) (c) (wXw World Tag Team Championship Tornado Elimination Match)
8. Chris Colen vs. John "Bad Bones" Klinger (c) (wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship Ladder Match)

wXw are in Dresden, Germany, and there will be hell to pay as Thatcher and WALTER defend their tag titles in a match against the men that held Tim down and blinded him with a lit cigarette. Isn't wrestling great sometimes? Otherwise, the Unbesiegbar Dragunov looks for his pound of flesh against Da Mack, and Alexander James might just find out that stirring the pot isn't worth it when it gets you on the wrong side of a guy like "Massive" Jurn Simmons.

Get your tickets here or check it out when it goes up on wXwNOW!, folks.

ICW Fear & Loathing X (November 19, 6PM GMT)

1. Kings of Catch (Aspen Faith & Lewis Girvan) vs. Kinky Party (Jack Jester & Sha Samuels)
2. Chris Renfrew vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Mikey Whiplash vs. Stevie Boy (King of Insanity Match)
3. Lionheart vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Zack Gibson
4. Aaron Echo vs. Bram vs. DCT vs. Jody Fleisch vs. Joe Hendry vs. Kid Fite (ICW Unified Zero-G World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender's Ladder Match)
5. Marauders (Mike Bird & Wild Boar) (c) vs. Polo Promotions (Jackie Polo & Mark Coffey) (ICW Tag Team Championship)
6. Kasey vs. Kay Lee Ray (c) vs. Viper (ICW Women's Championship Steel Cage Match)
7. Kenny Williams vs. Rey Mysterio
8. BT Gunn (Zero-G) vs. Joe Coffey (World Heavyweight) (ICW World Heavyweight / Zero-G Championships Unification Match)

ICW are back in the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland and that means only one thing-- it's time for the biggest indie show of the year, UK edition! As always, they've pulled out all the stops with the guests, with Kevin Nash as commissioner, Rob Van Dam in a... let's go with unique three-way, and none other than Rey Mysterio himself to test Kenny Williams' mettle as a high flyer. Plus a title unification main event and the absolute bloodbath that King of Insanity match is going to be?

Get your tickets here or check it out on ICW on Demand, folks.

Free matches here!

David Starr vs. Tessa Blanchard

From the fine folks at Beyond Wrestling we have some intergender grappling. The King of Taunts takes on the daughter of a Horseman, check it out!

Joe Coffey vs. Keith Lee

Big lads wrestling! From the fine folks at ICW, why not whet your appetite in for Fear & Loathing with a big matchup featuring their champion? It's the Limitless One vs. the Iron Man, don't miss it!

Brody King vs. Willie Mack

From the good people over at Santino Bros. Wrestling, we have some more big man action for y'all! Chocolate Thunder takes on up-and-comer Brody King, enjoy!

Results

NJPW / RPW Global Wars UK 2017 (November 9-10)

—Night One (November 9)—

1. Ryan Smile over BUSHI and Josh Bodom (c) to win the RPW British Cruiserweight Championship
2. Chaos (Gedo & Toru Yano) over Legion of Lords (Gideon Grey & No Fun Dunne)
3. Matt Riddle over El Desperado
4. Tetsuya Naito over Marty Scurll
5. Yuji Nagata over Zack Gibson
6. #CCK (Chris Brookes & Travis Banks) over Chaos (Rocky Romero & YOSHI-HASHI)
7. Tomohiro Ishii over Keith Lee
8. Chaos (Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay) over Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre, Jr.)

—Night Two (November 10)—

1. #CCK (Chris Brookes, Kid Lykos, & Travis Banks) over Chaos (Gedo, Hirooki Goto, & YOSHI-HASHI)
2. Toru Yano over Zack Gibson
3. Josh Bodom over Rocky Romero
4. Tomohiro Ishii over Dave Mastiff
5. Ryan Smile (c) over El Desperado to retain the RPW British Cruiserweight Championship
6. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) over Keith Lee & Yuji Nagata
7. Minoru Suzuki over Matt Riddle
8. Zack Sabre, Jr. (c) over Will Ospreay to retain the RPW British Heavyweight Championship

So I'm eschewing recaps for these two shows this time but I don't want to give them short shrift-- these are two of the absolute best shows featuring New Japan talent you can watch this year. Night one is a little stronger, with no less than four matches I'd give the full five must-watch rating on my NJPW match recommendation scale, but night two does well in that regard itself with three.

So, Riddle/Desperado, Naito/Scurll, Lee/Ishii (every bit as good as you’d hoped it would be), and the tag team main event (which, frankly, is the best two-on-two tag match NJ have had all year and really exposes how shallow the heavyweight tags are in particular if two relatively thrown together faction teams can outperform them that hard) from night one, and Yano/Gibson (comedy wrestling at its finest, had me dying laughing throughout), Suzuki/Riddle, and Sabre/Ospreay (which is an excellent execution of that "your best just isn't quite good enough" style of title defense) from night two, all worth getting your eyeballs on even if you only have time for the best of the best.

Check 'em out on RPW On Demand, folks, you will not regret it.

APW Clash at the Cow Palace (November 10)

1. Chicano Flame wins the 20 Man Battle Royal
2. Douglas James (c) over Matt Cross to retain the PCW Ultra Light Heavyweight Championship
3. Lion Power (Marcus Lewis & Will Hobbs) over Bad Boys Personified (Boyce LeGrande & Rik Luxury), Black Armada (Papo Esco & Synn) (c), and Classic Connection (Buddy Royal & Levi Shapiro) to win the APW Tag Team Championship
4. JR Kratos over Will Cuevas (Boot Camp Match)
5. Reno SCUM (Adam Thornstowe & Luster the Legend) over Unbreakable F'n Machines (Brian Cage & Michael Elgin)
6. Jacob Fatu over Karl Fredericks to win the APW Worldwide Internet Championship
7. World's Cutest Tag Team (Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan) over Colt Cabana & Tessa Blanchard
8. Jeff Cobb (c) over Jack Swagger to retain the APW Universal Championship
9. Juventud Guerrera & Rey Mysterio over Lucha Brothers (Penta el Zero M & Rey Fenix)

Age and wisdom over youthful vigor in the end, eh? An eventful night for APW for sure with two title changes and a lot of checks in the "L" column for the national stars.

Keep your eyes on APW's YouTube channel for the show to be released as episodes of APW Weekly, folks.

CZW Night of Infamy 2017 (November 11)

1. JT Dunn over Ace Romero
2. David Starr over Tim Donst
3. "All Ego" Ethan Page (c) over Space Monkey to retain the SWE Heavyweight Championship
4. Jimmy Jacobs over Sami Callihan
5. Maxwell Jacob Friedman over Dezmond Xavier
6. The REP (Dave McCall & Nate Carter) over Beaver Boys (Alex Reynolds & John Silver)
7. "Chainsaw" Joe Gacy over Shane Strickland (c) to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship (CZW Rules Match)
8. Rickey Shane Page over "Chainsaw" Joe Gacy (c) to win the CZW World Heavyweight Championship
9. Jimmy Lloyd over Brandon Kirk (Squared Circle of Sacrifice)

We're closing in on Cage of Death and a major theme of Night of Infamy is that the ultraviolence isn't going anywhere as long as men like Dan O'Hare and Jimmy Lloyd are still with CZW. Indeed, O'Hare opened the show responding to Mr. Claxton trying to get Dojo Wars regular Mitch Vallen to join his crusade against deathmatch wrestling by putting Vallen through two doors!

David Starr snapped his losing streak, MJF made clear that Joey Janela has a limited time to return the Wired Championship to his possession, and your eyes don't deceive you, the title changed hands twice in one night. Gacy and his army of masked men stole the title out from under Strickland's nose, but RSP decided he'd actually rather not wait until Cage of Death to cash in his Ultimate Opportunity!

Check it out when it hits CZW Studios, folks.

Beyond Unprofessional (November 12)

1. Wheeler YUTA over Damien Smith (Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match)
2. Team NEPWA (Anthony Greene, Brick Mastone, & Mikey Webb) over Carnies (Kerry Awful, Nick Iggy, & Tripp Cassidy)
3. Mike Verna over Jay Freddie (Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match)
4. Rory Gulak over Ryan Galeone
5. Jordynne Grace, Maria Manic, & Penelope Ford over Pull It Club (Dorian Graves, Johnny Cockstrong, & VSK)
6. Josh Briggs over Ace Romero (Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match)
7. Rickey Shane Page (c) over John Silver to retain the CZW World Heavyweight Championship
8. David Starr over Martin Stone
9. Maxwell Jacob Friedman over Brandon Watts (Tournament For Tomorrow 2017 First Round Match)
10. Team Pazuzu (Angel Ortiz, Chris Dickinson, Jaka, & Mike Draztik) over AR Fox, Jimmy Jacobs, Michael Elgin, & Sami Callihan (Elimination Match)

With JT Dunn's hamstring injury, unfortunately Juicy Product's reunion will have to wait, but Beyond did a fine job compensating with Starr and Stone in singles action and Silver getting the first title show against newly crowned CZW World Heavyweight Champion Rickey Shane Page, eh? The second round of the Tournament For Today is set, and the main event saw Team Pazuzu victory despite what may be the final wedge being driven between EYFBO and the Doom Patrol.

Check it out... well, we're not sure exactly where just yet, since YouTube are shutting down paid channels at the end of the year and Beyondemand isn't accepting new subscribers as a result. If you're an existing subscriber, the footage is already up, however. The rest of us, alas, will just have to wait and see what Beyond announce as far as VOD plans going forward look like.

Progress Chapter 57: Enter Smiling (November 12)

1. Jimmy Havoc & Mark Haskins over Jack Sexsmith & Matt Riddle
2. Joe Coffey over Doug Williams
3. Alex Windsor over Candyfloss, Dahlia Black, and Jinny
4. British Strong Style (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) went to a no contest
5. British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, & Tyler Bate) over Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) & Joseph Conners by disqualification
6. #CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) (c) over Ringkampf (Timothy Thatcher & WALTER) to retain the Progress Tag Team Championship
7. Keith Lee over "Flash" Morgan Webster
8. Travis Banks (c) over Mark Andrews to retain the Progress World Championship

As always with a promotion I recap on the regular I'll keep it short here, but you can see that Pete Dunne's Raw debut isn't taking him away from Progress just yet, as in the aftermath of the DQ he asked for a match against Conners. And speaking of aftermaths, Eddie Dennis made himself known again following the world title match, taking both men out with Next Stop Drivers and posing with the title to lay claim to a shot at it.

Check it out on Demand Progress, folks, and while I don't have results here for the Live at the Dome show that happened yesterday (and it turns out it won’t be on Demand Progress at all), you can check out Progress on Facebook to watch Damon Moser vs. Roy Johnson and Laura Di Matteo vs. Millie McKenzie from that.

As always...

Remember folks, no matter what type of wrestling you like, no matter how down you feel about the state of WWE, Impact, ROH, or any other "big-time" pro wrestling, there's something out there for you. There's a pro wrestling product that can hit you in the right spot and make you love wrestling like you thought you'd never be able to love it again. It's there, I promise. You just gotta reach out and find it, and that, my friends, is what the Sermon on the Mat is all about.