Wrestling Review //
ICW No Holds Barred
Volume 3 Deathmatch Drive-In
(IWTV)



What can commonly be referred to as NBH3 has the distinction of being one week after NHB2 and also on the 4th of July.   Many of the wrestlers from the first two volumes made their return while others made their debut.   This show kicked off right with Big Twan Tucker taking on Dominic Garrini and this lead to perhaps the line of the night when the fans got on the case of Tucker chanting "You fucked up" and BTT responded with "I didn't fuck up shit".  

Much like everyone else, Eddie Kingston struggled to get into the chains but he finally made it to NHB and after his match with Brett Ison he cut promos on several wrestlers, including Cody Rhodes, which has since become this sort of promo of legend.    Watching this match and then the promo which followed now is quite fun because Eddie Kingston went on this tear through AEW.   Kingston also called out ZSJ and I don't think that match has happened yet either but I'm really looking forward to it when it does.

Tim Donst made his way into the chains against Eddy Only and I always enjoy seeing Tim Donst.   He has some personal memories for me which I hold dear and he can still just get in there and go with the best of them.    This match was every bit as great as you could hope for it to be and at the end, The Sandman (yes, the same Sandman I was marking out to take a picture with after an ECW show when I was only 16) came out and beat down Eddy Only.   That was not only a nice surprise but rather patriotic since he was in those red, white and blue pants.

Eric Ryan and Alex Ocean had a match that further cements Eric Ryan as being one of the core members of this roster and then Matthew Justice took on Casanova Valentine in a match where I feel like Manders robbed Valentine of a victory.  While I haven't watched all of the volumes of No Holds Barred, I've been following along with the cards on Twitter and Instagram and I don't believe we've had that Valentine-Manders match yet but maybe it is in there and I'm about to be pleasantly surprised in a few volumes.

In what was the match of the night to me and many others, AKIRA scored a pin over Matt Tremont and then Tremont cut a promo afterwards really complimenting AKIRA.   While people will talk about that promo and how this was one of Matt Tremont's final matches before retiring, I couldn't help but think of this as the match when AKIRA got the hole in his chest/stomach and all too often he kept kind of looking at it like "Should I be concerned by how much blood I am losing?"  It was really another career defining moment for AKIRA in that sense.

The main event saw John Wayne Murdoch defeat Jeff King but then also Nick Gage came out which turned into a match.   This was a fitting way to end this great show as I enjoyed seeing JWM vs. Jeff King but having Nick Gage come out just made it all end a little bit better.   I'm looking at the CageMatch cards for ICW NHB and the next show is 3.75 because we go into The Pit so this is when things are really going to start to heat up.  


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