Wrestling Review // Lucky Pro Wrestling “Reignited” 7/9/21 Hudson-Concord Elks # 959 Hudson, MA

http://www.luckyprowrestling.com/ 

There are many reasons why I might go to a wrestling show but when it comes to Lucky Pro Wrestling and "Reignited" I just feel like there were too many people on this card who I enjoy and really wanted to see so it became an event I couldn't possibly miss.  As we made our way to and arrived at the Hudson-Concord Elks, I realized this was the building in which Quentin experienced his first ever live pro wrestling show (a Chaotic event) and we had been here several times before.   One thing I love about pro wrestling is how I never recognize venues by name or location but rather when I show up.

Things started off on this show a little bit bumpy- with everyone coming in- but I think there was a good reason for that.   The deal was that you could either buy tickets in advance or at the door and they were only $15 each (or a four pack for $50!) so people really showed up!  As someone who bought tickets in advance though, I would have preferred having reserved seats (put my name on the chairs!) because it would have saved so much trouble which would come from trying to find a place to sit once inside.

I cannot say anything for certain because I do not know but this show felt like they sold x amount of tickets online in advance and so that was how many chairs they put out.  However, it seemed as if they had twice as many people buy tickets at the door which made quite the struggle to find somewhere to sit.  The staff was constantly putting out more chairs so the fans had a place to sit.  Again, this could have been easily avoided (for me at least) by giving those who paid ahead of time reserved seats, but it ended up not being as important in the long run and is just one of my personal gripes.

By paying your way into this show you were also given a photo opportunity / autograph with Impact Wrestling star Hernandez.   The line going into the building to take tickets fed into the line for Hernandez, so as we were waiting to meet Hernandez the seats filled up around us and it became frustrating.   Truth be told though, there isn't really a bad seat in the house at this Elks Lodge and the staff of LPW made it work.   If anything, the difficulty fans had finding seats as chairs were literally being brought out and set up should just go to show you how hugely popular LPW is.  This would have been a much different situation (and worse one) if they had, say, 50 chairs set up and a smaller number of that filled with fans.   This might have felt like a problem to *me*, but for LPW it was a good problem to have.

Going into this show I felt like I knew at least half of the people on the card- one in each match- and whether it was someone I had seen before or not, there were also a number of wrestlers on here I was looking forward to seeing for the first time.  The first match saw Elia Markopoulous defeat Swilly O'Brien.   Here is my MA-based wrestling knowledge in effect: Quentin and I saw Swilly O'Brien at a [redacted] show vs Darley Desamot (who will appear on the show later) while Jess and I saw Elia Markopoulous at Top Rope Pro.  I actually really enjoy the character of Elia Markopoulous because he plays a good heel but I also just like yelling "OPA!"

This felt like a hot opener and got the crowd going, which was what it was meant to do.  This then took us into an in ring segment which I felt kind of killed any of the momentum they had just tried to create.   This was my first LPW show and I'm not really involved with them the same way other people might be but someone named Vern Vicallo came out and I had no clue whether to cheer or boo him but he said "COME ON!" in that way wrestlers do to try and pump up a crowd so I assumed he was a face.   He cut an in ring promo saying he was injured but would be back soon and as someone who had never been to an LPW show before I just didn't care.  

The second match of the evening saw Darley Desamot defeat Ricky Smokes and I'm actually familiar with both of these wrestlers.  I saw Darley Desamot face Swilly in [redacted] as previously stated and I remember when Ricky Smokes was Ricky Archer.  I haven't seen him in quite some time- since either a Chaotic or Blitzkrieg show- but it truly is wonderful to see the way in which his character has grown from Ricky Archer to now being The Smoke Show and having a heel character which I just think couldn't possibly be better.   He is just doing his job so perfectly.

In a short-lived match, LPW Hard Knox Champion Sweat Boy defeated Ricky Mederios to retain the title.  There was supposed to be a different opponent challenging for the title but I heard he was scared so he didn't show up.   Jess and I previously saw Sweat Boy in Top Rope Pro and the crowd was fully behind him during this match.   It's crazy to me how wrestlers in the specific area (MA being this case) can just go around to different promotions to get their names out there, so you see them a few times and then they catch on and it just turns into Sweatmania.  I fully expect and would like to see Sweat Boy on every show I attend in MA going forward.

At this point a mixed tag team match was announced and I was a little bit surprised because I thought that if this wasn't the main event it would at least be closer to the end of the show.   Still, it was the main event of the first half of the show and I suppose that was a good place to end the first half on.   Alisha Edwards came out first and was standing slightly in front of me.  Quentin and I were booing her, she turned around, saw us and got into our faces about how we were booing her and I told her Becca was going to beat her.   This was one of the reasons why I ended up not being so upset about the seating thing because Alisha Edwards got in my face and told me to go cry.

What was curious about the mixed tag match was that Alisha Edwards seemed to play the heel, which she does extremely well, and Becca seemed to play the face, which she can also do really well.   Their partners though... Hernandez got a lot of cheers and I think it was because he was that big attraction.   If you didn't know anyone else on this show, odds were you came because you knew Hernandez.   But then you had Jason Blade on the opposite side- who we recently saw at [redacted] as well- and I just feel like he was almost booed or didn't quite get a reaction because of Hernandez.

I love the fact that we live in a time when matches don't have to be "good guy vs bad guy" any more, but the fact that this tag match also blurred those lines between who was cheered and who was booed and within each of the four competitors (not just the teams) was even better.   This match delivered something unique and as much as fans cheered Becca and booed Alisha, it felt like when Alisha and Hernandez won the crowd was cheering because they were just so much behind Hernandez and nothing was about to change that.

During intermission the first wrestlers I saw was The Higher Society so I told them to go outside because no one wanted to meet them.   Quentin and I then found Isana (who I saw come out with merch but didn't know where she went at first) and went over to buy her merch and take a picture with her.   I will touch upon it more later, but seeing Isana wrestle live and in person was one of the larger factors playing into us going to this show.

After meeting Isana Quentin and I joined a line to see Alisha Edwards and let me tell you, dear reader, that when we joined that line there were probably about ten fans in front of us.   As we were waiting, at least double that many people joined the line behind us.  The fun thing about waiting in line though was that we could see Isana across the ring still and I kept looking over and seeing her moving around to take photos and sell merch.   Meeting Alisha Edwards was great and if nothing else from this review you should take the fact that you can be an amazing heel to the point where you're practically booed out of the building but also sell a ton of merch.   Yes, we boo her but that's part of the job so we also support her by buying merch because she is just so damn good at what she does.

Back from intermission and we started off hot.  There were seven announced matches for this show and we had three of them before intermission so I kind of knew what was still to come but not the order.   The first match was a triple threat with Marcos "The Pitbull" Santiago (who wore a mask like a luchador) taking on Shay Cash (who I feel like I've seen around online before in name only) and Armani Kayos, who is one half of The Highers.   Armani Kayos scored the win and it was odd for me to see him not in tag team action but still a win is a win and this could help him become a singles star in LPW and challenge for some gold (which would look good on him)

With two matches to go, The Highers were right back out as Paris Van Dale teamed with Jessie Nolan to take on Isana and Sarah Teller.   Going back to the mixed tag team match as an example, this match also felt a bit off in terms of balance of good vs bad.   Isana and Sarah Teller were the clear team to cheer here, but I also like Jessie Nolan and feel like she was getting some cheers even though Paris Van Dale stood as the only clear heel in the match.  I thought about this match a lot and couldn't come up with a better way to book it though (I thought about putting The Highers together and then put Jessie Nolan in the match before this one in place of Armani Kayos but then you have two mixed tag matches and that felt like too much)

This tag match came to an end when PVD peaced out and Jessie Nolan couldn't overcome the two-on-one advantage.   This actually left a lot of unanswered questions- which is great for matches going forward.  I would now like to see Jessie Nolan vs Paris Van Dale one on one as a bit of retribution.  I would also like to see Jessie Nolan vs Isana one on one because I think it is a match which would just be unlike anything else that you could see inside of a wrestling ring right now (I put it on my dream match list)  But also, since PVD walked out of the match it leaves the door open for her to vs either Isana or Sarah Teller one on one.    This really was my favorite match of the show with the way it played out but there also wasn't a bad match on this show overall.

In the main event we saw "R.I.O.T." Kellan Thomas defend the LPW Championship against Brad Cashew.  Recently, Brad Cashew has made this name for himself in Chaotic and Limitless, for example.  Quentin and I saw him quite a bit pre-pandemic (and he had a different first name) but it was so great to see him live again because between the time we last saw him and now I feel like he has just grown so much and become so much of the star I saw in him back then.  He also came out, kind of looked over the crowd and they didn't know how to react at first I think so I yelled "LET'S GET NUTS!" and he have me the fist bump.

I didn't know anything about Kellan Thomas going into this show but he put up a hell of a fight and just showed why he is the champion.   This was a great way to close out the show as there were many points in the match where it felt like Brad Cashew was going to win and if he did, that Elks Lodge would have just exploded because of the energy in that building on that night.   I'd say it was a sold out capacity crowd but I really feel like it even went above and beyond that somehow.   

This was such a great show overall- match for match- and the level of how much the crowd was into it all night just made it all so perfect.   Definitely a show where I was just happy to send a handful of the wrestlers. I would have felt justified in paying the $15 ticket charge and driving the two hours just to see Jessie Nolan and Isana, but the whole show was well worth it and really impressed me in a way which I didn't know I could be impressed.  If you have the chance to see this one stream or you can go see LPW live I fully recommend it.