Wrestling Review // Test Of Strength Lone Survivor 3 3/5/22 Waterbury, CT

It had been since October since we were at a TOS show and oddly enough we were back in The Elks in Waterbury right where we left off.  There was a lot going on with this show and it really felt like a lot of highs and lows, but looking back it comes down to whether or not the highs outweigh the lows.   The show said on Facebook it ran from 6pm to 8:30 pm, so we got there around 5:30 figuring that'd be time to go in.  We didn't go in until a little bit after 6:30 and waiting outside in the cold for that long was just not fun.

Look, I don't know what was going on inside- someone said one of the ring ropes broke and they were trying to fix it- but they should have really thought long and hard about whether or not it was something they could've dealt with while people were inside.  Fixing a ring rope seems like something that could've been done while we were inside, warm in our seats.   Both Jess and Quentin threatened to leave because of the cold and that was the start to a strange night, during which I will not even begin to go into detail about how absolutely weird the bar staff was.

The first match was a trios gauntlet and once we got under way I was hoping for the best: put everything that had happened up until that point behind us and remember the show in a positive way, for the wrestling aspect of it.  The trios gauntlet was interesting because they started with Waves & Curls and Bobby Orlando vs Ryan Fraust and The Stepdads, which could've been the final two trios.   There were six trios in total in this match and SWB / Matias De Napoli / Love, Doug were the last trios and also the winners.  I had no idea Vita VonStarr was going to be in this match but that was a pleasant surprise for sure.

Somehow this took us into the TOS Championship Fourway match, which should've possibly been later on in the card.   Magnificent Marcos really has some kind of information on someone in TOS that they don't want to get out because otherwise there was no reason for Marcos to win this match.  Would it have been so bad for Marcos to lose the title without taking the pinfall?  Would it have really been so bad for Mike Skyros to become the new TOS Champion?  But instead, Marcos does the bare minimum in the match, gets his special introduction from the GM and manages to remain a Champion when he feels nowhere near ready to be in that position.

Next up was a tag team match between The Mission and The Firm.   Apparently part of TOS booking is like throwing darts at a wall because while this feud has been going on in our absence it seems a bit odd to put two heel factions against each other.  You just end up wanting to boo everyone involved, except I love Brother Greatness so that's where my mind was I suppose.  This took us into a last minute addition to the show, a match which quite frankly should have never happened.

In a triple threat match, we got to see Isys Ephex vs Ting Shi vs Corey Jackson and I only know their names because I looked them up on the Facebook event page.  First off, before we get into *the incident* let me just say that Corey Jackson was the only wrestler in that ring who should've been in that ring.  At the time, I didn't know the back story of the other two wrestlers but wow were they bad and had really no place being in there.  I felt like they had been training for weeks, months at most.  Then we unfortunately looked up Isys Ephex afterwards and found out he's been wrestling for twenty some odd years so perhaps this match was his way of putting himself into retirement.

Before the match could even start, Isys Ephex went on a blatantly racist rant, insulting both of his opponents more than once and with words that just don't belong in wrestling.  I think everyone in the crowd (and the wrestlers themselves) were shocked more than anything and were just trying to go through with the match.  Isys Ephex then decided he was going to sit the match out in the crowd, which made it even weirder because this type of behavior made it seem like he wasn't in his right mind and everything just felt incredibly awkward.

All I can say is: Do not book Isys Ephex.  If you've never heard that name before, be glad that you haven't.  And I certainly hope he is not welcomed back in TOS or anywhere else for that matter.  Why book racist wrestlers who hit finishers that look like they're actually injuring their opponents when so many capable wrestlers not filled with hate are out there?

Sumie Sakai vs Evie De La Rosa was up next and I look at Evie De La Rosa the same way I look at Marcos: What did she do to get in the spot that she's in?  Who does she have the files on?  This was a match where I really wanted to see Evie De La Rosa step up and impress me but she wrestles like someone is playing a wrestling video game and they've never played a video game before.   You know what she did after a hip toss?  Another hip toss!  We went to this show primarily to see Sumie Sakai and as such Evie De La Rosa was just completely outclassed during this match.

Didn't TOS at one point have Karen Bam Bam as their champion?  Was she not available to vs Sumie Sakai?  Because that, right there, would've been a match worth seeing.  That would've felt special.  

With seven matches on the show, TOS decided to take intermission before the last two matches and I wonder why.  Do an even split or four matches then intermission then the other three if you're total number of matches is odd.  But when you only have two matches left, what's the point of intermission then?

Ichiban was out first as K1 Classic Champion.  Ichiban was scheduled to take on Davey Richards, but Davey Richards canceled at the last minute.  I know that seems characteristic for Davey Richards in some ways, but to be fair he claimed to have a fever and if that is true it is better for him to stay away because the rule is if you're sick stay home.  So you can't fault anyone for that really- it's just one of those things.

What was odd was that Red Sawyer stepped up to face Ichiban and what he did to deserve a title shot was unknown.  Personally, I would've moved Bobby Ocean out of the fourway and put him vs Ichiban instead, but what can you do?  Red Sawyer, despite his inexperience, still put up a fighting chance and even in defeat somehow managed to look better than Marcos.  Win or lose, the champion should never look as bad as Marcos does in there and Ichiban is truly just the definition of being completely and totally over with the crowd.

The show ended with Miracle Generation winning the tag team titles from The Firm and it just felt like time so at least that was a positive note to go out on.   I can't fault TOS for Davey Richards not showing up.  I also can't fault TOS for that guy going on a racist rant because a promotion shouldn't be judged by the talent because I highly doubt that anyone in TOS gave that guy the approval to go out there and say what he did.  What I do fault TOS for though is that as I type this on a Tuesday, I have yet to see them post any kind of apology or address the situation in any way to let their fans know that was unacceptable and that's not who they are.

But I suppose that doesn't really matter now as my time supporting TOS seems to be through.  Apologizing and saying that the racist guy wouldn't return would be a nice touch, but at the same time, it doesn't address the fact that Marcos is given special treatment for reasons I just can't seem to see.  It really feels like ever since they robbed Karen Bam Bam of the title, the whole promotion has just gone downhill and I don't know why and I don't know how to get it back on track, but I know it's going to take a lot for us to go back to another TOS show.   A lot.