Sermon on the Mat (Feb. 2, 2017): CMLL, AAW, ACW, Chikara, NJPW, & RPW cards, Evolve, wXw, Beyond, & Progress results, plus all the usual free match action

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 (February 3, 9:30PM Eastern)

1. Eléctrico & Shockercito vs. Pequeño Nitro & Pequeño Olímpico
2. Disturbio, Okumura, & Virus vs. Fuego, Pegasso, & Soberano, Jr.
3. Drone, Guerrero Maya, Jr., & Rey Cometa vs. Los Revolucionarios del Terror (Bobby Z, Dragón Rojo, Jr., & Pólvora)
4. Bárbaro Cavernario vs. Titán (Match Relampago)
5. Ángel de Oro & El Bufete del Amor (Marco Corleone & Máximo Sexy) vs. Cuatrero, Mascara Año 2000, & Sanson
6. Atlantis, Diamante Azul, & Volador, Jr. vs. Los Ingobernables (La Máscara, Pierroth, & Rush)

CMLL are in Arena Mexico for their Friday night flagship show as always, and it's a pretty good card this week. Headlined by a trios match that's largely an excuse for Atlantis and Rush to continue to beat the hell out of each other, Mascara Año 2000 is back again for some reason but thankfully still in a trios match with his nephews where he can't do too much harm, and you got a pretty exciting Match Relampago between Titán and Cavernario.

Check it out, as always unless there's a technical issue, on ClaroSports, free for nothin'.

AAW The End of Innocence (February 4, 7PM Central)

1. Arik Cannon vs. David Starr vs. Marion Fontaine vs. Stephen Wolf
2. Allysin Kay & Jessicka Havok vs. Candice LeRae & Samantha Heights
3. OI4K (Dave & Jake Crist) vs. Scarlet & Graves (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz)
4. ACH vs. Trevor Lee
5. AR Fox vs Penta El Zero M
6. Kongo Kong vs. Sami Callihan (c) (AAW Heavyweight Championship)

AAW are back in LaSalle, Illinois again and it is a scorcher. The recently renamed Pentagon, Jr. takes on AR Fox, ACH wrestles Trevor Lee, Kongo Kong gets his shot at knocking Sami Callihan off the top of the mountain, and more!

Pick up your tickets here, or just wait for this bad boy to go up on Highspots or Smart Mark. (As an additional note, the wait time for shows on Highspots Wrestling Network and AAW On Demand seems to be declining— they now have shows up to November's Windy City Classic live for your viewing pleasure.)

ACW My Bloody Valentine (February 4, 7PM Eastern)

1. Deimos vs. Rhett Giddens
2. Snoop Strikes vs. Troy Hollywood
3. Jayson Falcone vs. Johann Ramzes (c) (ACW Cruiserweight Championship)
4. Avery Muccio vs. Jenna (c) (ACW Women's Championship)
5. CJ O'Doyle vs. Sideshow (Steel Cage "I Quit" Match)

ACW are in their home base of Port Richey, Florida on Saturday bringing you another dose of local Florida indie action. The Steel Cage "I Quit" Match between CJ O'Doyle and Sideshow is an obvious attraction, but Deimos/Giddens ought to be a quite enjoyable HOSS WAR as well. Plus more unannounced matchups featuring Jason Cade, Drennen, Parrow, Richard Delicious, and more!

Get your tickets here or watch it live or in the archive on FloSlam.

Chikara National Pro Wrestling Day (February 4, 2PM Eastern)

1. Cajun Crawdad vs. Cornelius Crummels vs. Everett Connors vs. Travis Huckabee (Young Lions Cup XIII First Round Match)
2. Emperador Azteca vs. Sonny Defarge vs. Sylverhawk vs. Travis "Flip" Gordon (Young Lions Cup XIII First Round Match)
3. The Colony (Fire, Silver, & Worker Ants) vs. Legion of Rot
4. Missile Assault Man vs. Race Jaxon
5. The Closers (Rick Roland & Sloan Caprice) vs. The Force (Officers Bruno Meloni & Warren Barksdale)
6. Dasher Hatfield vs. Juan Francisco de Coronado

Chikara are kicking off their season with the 5th annual National Pro Wrestling Day, coming at you from the Wrestle Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This year's event is centered around the Young Lions Cup tournament, with two of the four first round eliminator matches currently announced. But of course, there's a host of other matches, including a trios match that continues the struggle between the Colony and the erstwhile heXed Men. Plus... UltraMantis Black speaks!

Best of all, admission is free, so walk right up to the arena and give it a go if you're within shouting distance or willing to get yourself there. Or, if not, you can always catch it on Chikaratopia or keep an eye on Chikara's social media, as past years have occasionally been streamed live.

NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo (February 5, 1AM Eastern)

1. Hirai Kawato & KUSHIDA vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
2. Henare, Tomoyuki Oka, & YOSHITATSU vs. TenCozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) & Yuji Nagata
3. Chaos (Gedo, Jado, & Will Ospreay) vs. Jushin Liger, Katsuyori Shibata, & Tiger Mask IV
4. Takashi Iizuka vs. YOSHI-HASHI
5. Dragon Lee, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi, Michael Elgin, & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, & Tetsuya Naito)
6. Roppongi Vice (Beretta & Rocky Romero) (c) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & TAKA Michinoku) (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship)
7. Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Juice Robinson (NEVER Openweight Championship)
8. Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) (c) vs. Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith, Jr. & Lance Archer) (IWGP Tag Team Championship)
9. Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki (IWGP Heavyweight Championship)

Yes, it's New Beginning time again, and Suzuki-gun is back in a big way! The first of two New Beginning shows this year (the second will be in Osaka on 2/11), this one features Suzuki-gun gunning for both sets of tag titles, but that's not all.

Juice Robinson earned himself a shot at Hirooki Goto's NEVER Openweight Championship, YOSHI-HASHI gets a rare singles bout against Takashi Iizuka, but the main event, the centerpiece of the card, is Minoru Suzuki gunning for Okada's crown. He's made it clear in interviews that he doesn't care for the way Okada carries himself, and he's coming to claim the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. It's gonna be a hoot.

Check it out live on NJPW World (at an almost-reasonable start time of 1AM Eastern for once!) or wait for it to go up in the archive shortly after.

RPW Live at the Cockpit 13 (February 5, 5:30PM GMT)

1. Josh Bodom (c) vs. Oliver Carter (RPW Interim British Cruiserweight Championship)
2. Gideon Grey vs. Timothy Thatcher
3. Josh Wall & Kurtis Chapman vs. London Riots (James Davis & Rob Lynch)
4. Ryan Smile vs. Travis Banks
5. Dave Mastiff vs. Eddie Dennis
6. "Speedball" Mike Bailey vs. Zack Sabre, Jr.

RevPro are back in the Cockpit in London and they've got quite a show lined up. 2 more matches are promised as I'm writing this, but what we have looks pretty darn good all the same. Evolve World Champion Timothy Thatcher is in action as he makes his yearly February excursion to the UK and Europe, the up and coming Ryan Smile takes on Travis Banks, plus Dave Mastiff and Eddie Dennis may literally tear the ring apart as they do HOSS BATTLE.

But most excitingly, "Speedball" Mike Bailey takes on Zack Sabre, Jr. in a match that literally could not happen in the United States.

Tickets are sold out (the graps are hot in the UK right now, folks!), but as always, the show will be up with reasonable celerity over at RPW On Demand.

Free matches here!

Ace Romero vs. Sami Callihan

From the good folks over at Pro Wrestling Magic, we have northeastern HOSS standout Ace Romero making his debut for their promotion in a big way. He issued an open challenge to anyone in the back, and got the Space Cat himself! Check it out.

Colt Cabana vs. Zack Sabre, Jr.

From the kind folks over at AAW, their match of the week last week was the first round Jim Lynam Memorial Cup clash between two technical wrestlers of excellence. That's right, Colt "Boom Boom" Cabana and Zack Sabre, Jr. did battle and you can check it out right here.

Jessicka Havok vs. Veda Scott

Our women's action for this week comes courtesy of Women's Wrestling Revolution. From the first round of their bracket at Tournament for Today, it's David and Goliath by way of Veda Scott and Jessicka Havok. Enjoy!

Results

Evolve 76-77 (January 27-28)

—Evolve 76 (January 27)—

1. Jaka over Peter Kaasa
2. Darby Allin over Chris Dickinson
3. Jason Kincaid over DUSTIN
4. Zack Sabre, Jr. over "All Ego" Ethan Page
5. "All Ego" Ethan Page over Zack Sabre, Jr. by disqualification
6. Matt Riddle over ACH
7. Catch Point (Fred Yehi & "Hot Sauce" Tracy Williams) (c) over Jeff Cobb & Timothy Thatcher to retain the Evolve Tag Team Championship
8. Chris Hero over Keith Lee

—Evolve 77—

1. Barrett Brown, Darby Allin, & Zack Sabre, Jr. over "All Ego" Ethan Page & the Gatekeepers (Blaster McMassive & Flex Rumblecrunch)
2. "Hot Sauce" Tracy Williams over Laredo Kid
3. Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson & Jaka) over Jason Kincaid & Sammy Guevara
4. ACH over Fred Yehi
5. Matt Riddle over DUSTIN (No Disqualification Match)
6. Timothy Thatcher (c) over Jeff Cobb to retain the Evolve World Championship
7. Zack Sabre, Jr. over Chris Hero

As always, I have recaps (Evolve 76, 77), so I'm not going to spend a lot of time making words here other than to tell you that these are two of the finest shows Evolve has produced since their hot streak last summer.

Check 'em out on FloSlam, and even if you don't have a subscription, you can check out Chris Hero's farewell speech right here!

wXw London Calling (January 28)

1. A4 (Absolute Andy & Marius Al-Ani) (c) over London Riots (James Davis & Rob Lynch) to retain the wXw World Tag Team Championship
2. Travis Banks over Jody Fleisch
3. Robert Dreissker over Bad Bones John Klinger
4. Jurn Simmons over WALTER to become #1 contender to the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship
5. Da Mack over Chris Brookes
6. Melanie Gray & Toni Storm over Alpha Female & Jinny
7. Axel Dieter, Jr. (c) over Marty Scurll to retain the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship

No huge surprises from wXw as they came to London, but it seems a fine show was had all the same. To be perfectly honest, folks, I'm not putting a huge effort into finding details for this one because it's going to be "live" on FloSlam tonight, when I intend to watch it.

But if you're feeling really impatient, you can fork your 10 Euros over and watch it right now on wXwNOW!

Beyond Robbing Peter / Paying Paul (January 28-29)

—Robbing Peter (January 28)—

1. Ace Romero, Brandon Bell, & Sully Banger over Secret City Soldiers (Anthony Stone, Davey Cash, & Kris Pyro)
2. OI4K (Dave & Jake Crist) & Scarlet and Graves (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) over Team NEPWA (Christian Casanova, Elia Markopoulos, Mikey Webb, & Scotty Slade)
3. Jordynne Grace & LuFisto over Black and Blue (Davienne & Mistress Belmont)
4. Ryan Galeone over Hanson
5. JT Dunn over Brian Milonas
6. EYFBO (Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik) over Pretty Boy Killers (Keith Lee & Shane Taylor)
7. Massage NV (Dorian Graves & VSK) over Alpha Sigma Sigma (Anthony Greene & Brick Mastone)
8. Joey Janela over David Starr, John Silver, and Jonathan Gresham
9. American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) over Da Hit Squad (Dan Maff & Monsta Mack)
10. Brian Cage over Donovan Dijak

—Paying Paul (January 29)—

1. Brian Milonas over Ace Romero
2. Scotty Slade over Chuck O'Neil by disqualification
3. Team New England (Anthony Greene, Brick Mastone, Donovan Dijak, & Mikey Webb) over Team Ohio (Dave Crist, Dezmond Xavier, Jake Crist, & Zachary Wentz)
4. JT Dunn over Dave Cole
5. Jonathan Gresham over Jay Freddie
6. Veda Scott over Karen Q
7. Hanson over Rex Lawless
8. Jordynne Grace & LuFisto over Alexxis & Taeler Hendrix
9. David Starr over Joey Janela (Anything Goes Match)
10. John Silver over Chris Dickinson
11. Pretty Boy Killers (Keith Lee & Shane Taylor) over Da Hit Squad (Dan Maff & Monsta Mack)
12. Matt Riddle over Brian Cage
13. American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) over EYFBO (Angel Ortiz & Mike Draztik)

That's a lot of matches, folks. (Although do note that the first four on Paying Paul are actually for New England Mania, Beyond's regular pre-show card meant to get students some exposure and generate free matches.) Interesting to me here is Da Hit Squad having a bad weekend, the only tag of the four in the marquee tag matches here to not pick up a single win.

But also Brian Cage picking up a win over the Ace of Beyond, Donovan Dijak, only to fall the next night to your Bro and mine, Matt Riddle, which creates an interesting dynamic going forward in that Dijak and Riddle will be meeting at Caffeine on WrestleMania weekend. Could Riddle dethrone the Ace?

If you'd like to watch some or all of this giant pile of matches, you can head on over to Beyondemand and do so. And if you need a bit of enticing, well, check out this sweet literally off-the-wall version of the Magdalene that Dave Crist hit on Donovan Dijak!

Progress Chapter 43: Tropic Thunderbastard (January 29)

1. London Riots (James Davis & Rob Lynch) over Kings of the North (Bonesaw & Damien Corvin)
2. Laura Di Matteo over Chakara (Natural Progression Series IV First Round Tournament Match)
3. Jurn Simmons over Roy Johnson
4. South Pacific Power Trip (TK Cooper & Travis Banks) over Ringkampf (Axel Dieter, Jr. & WALTER)
5. Mark Andrews over Dave Mastiff, Jack Sexsmith, Marty Scurll, Nathan Cruz, Sebastian, Trent Seven, & Zack Gibson (Thunderbastard Match)
6. Jimmy Havoc over Pete Dunne (c) by disqualification (Progress Championship)

Progress presented their fourth-ever Thunderbastard match on Sunday, and between that match and the card surrounding, the gears are in motion. As always when I'm planning a recap I'll keep things breezy, but events after the main event had a pair of returns that, well...

MARK HASKINS AND FLASH MORGAN WEBSTER ARE BACK AND CLEARED TO WRESTLE!

Yessir! They're allied with Jimmy Havoc against not just British Strong Style, but also the Swords of Essex. We got faction warfare!

Check it out when it goes up this weekend on Demand Progress, folks.

As always...

Remember folks, no matter what type of wrestling you like, no matter how down you feel about the state of WWE, TNA, 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.