Wrestling Review // Pro Wrestling GRIND Celebration Day October 28th, 2022 Pulaski Club, Easthampton, MA

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I still remember the first time I saw the GRIND logo on Twitter and thought "Well, this looks like a fun, hard-hitting style promotion I can get behind".   The first show lured me in with wrestlers I love like Davienne and Alec Price and wrestlers I'd never seen live before like Cabana Man Dan.    Here we are, a year later, for the tenth show and I've been to nine of them with either Quentin, Jess, Tim or some combination of the three.   

This show had that intensity of staying up all night binging a show and when you're about to go to sleep you see there's only one episode left and you go for it.   You go for it because this is the culmination of all which came before it and you want to know how it ends.  Though this isn't the end of Pro Wrestling GRIND as a promotion, it is the end of the first year so it feels like a season ending for a television series, if you will.

Things started off with a bang between Rip Byson, Perry Von Vicious, O'Shay Edwards and Logan Black, all fighting for that first title shot before the first GRIND Grand Champion was even crowned.  This match went beyond feeling like a car crash as it felt like several car crashes happening at once, at different points inside and outside of the ring.  This was a big man's match and the wreckage did not disappoint.

Up next, Mike Skyros came out with Travis Huckabee.  Skyros had his hair down and lighter so he was somewhat unrecognizable until I realized he was with Huckabee and then the dots connected.  Skyros had yet to secure a victory in GRIND and he was facing a first timer in Covey Christ.  Covey Christ is holding together a portion of wrestling in Canada and between the speed and power behind those strikes you can see why.   Seeing Covey Christ back in GRIND to face Ryan Mooney, Perry Von Vicious or Logan Black would be most welcome.

Trish Adora made her GRIND debut against Delmi Exo and having someone with such a name as Trish Adora debut seems crazy because it's just like, how hasn't she been here already.  One of my only actual criticisms of GRIND is that they often times only have one women's match and I wish there were more, but when you look at the promotions which influence GRIND it makes sense why they don't.  I'd also rather they book one really solid women's match then have multiple ones just to say that they did and have some of those be less than (which other promotions do)  Hell, some promotions don't even book women at all, so take that with a grain of salt.

In 2021, Trish Adora was my Wrestler of the Year, competing in matches against Willow Nightingale, Holidead, Masha Slamovich, Darius Carter, Jordan Blade and Shockwave The Robot, many of which I was there live to see.  A fan seated next to me asked me if I had seen Trish Adora before and he then informed me it was his first time seeing her live.   It's cool that there is still that room to grow new fans in that sense.

Trish Adora put up such a fight and give it up for Delmi Exo who spent maybe half the span of GRIND in the ring and has still managed to have some of the best matches of her career.   I know, I know, I'm a huge Trish Adora fan, but this was my favorite Delmi Exo match ever and this match itself has to be up there for Match of the Year contention because they both just wrestled so hard against each other and left it all out there.

There is an art to booking a professional wrestling show that not many understand and when it comes to match placement, few seem to get it right.  GRIND has been one of the few promotions who understand that even though this match might be the fourth on the card overall, it's before intermission so it best be good.  Alec Price vs Anthony Henry was that damn good and you need that sort of breather after that type of match.   Everything in GRIND- those little details such as that- just work, they all just click.

Anthony Henry is truly having not only the best year of his career but the best year of perhaps any other wrestler out there today.   At the same time, Alec Price has been on an absolute tear and this just felt like two of the best colliding.   It felt like everything Alec Price did though, Anthony Henry had a counter for it.  A funny moment during this match was when I pointed to Anthony Henry and said "That's my Wrestler of the Year" and Tim said, "Yeah!" and pointed to Alec Price.

After intermission we came back to BEEF facing off against ZPB.  Now, this match was supposed to be BEEF vs Andy Brown but Andy Brown got Covid (heal up soon) and so we didn't know who BEEF was facing until he came out to wrestle.  A few weeks back, I had seen ZPB in full makeup and wig wrestle in Rhode Island and this was... not that type of match.  ZPB is a big dude- he's got size to him and reminds me of that Scott Norton type of wrestler where you wouldn't want to fight him in real life.

For taking this match on such short notice, against one of the best in the ring today in BEEF and having most of the fans not really know who you are, ZPB held his own and then some inside of that ring.   To have ZPB back in there one day would be quite fun, especially up against someone such as O'Shay Edwards, Alec Price or Travis Huckabee.  Also, shout out to the section near the bar that had four signs up with one letter written on each to spell out "BEEF".   I know BEEF goes to AIW and OVW, but GRIND just feels like his home away from home.  

The next match was interesting because I feel like in many ways it stole the show.  Joseph Alexander and Nolo Kitano are both relatively young and don't have as many matches in GRIND as other wrestlers do.  This certainly makes it feel like this was a match that fans might have been overlooking and underestimating.   This started off a little bit slow, with a feeling out process, but then Nolo Kitano went into that speed with those strikes and Joseph Alexander found those submission holds.   When this kicked in, it was one of the hardest hitting matches inside of that ring.

As GRIND grows, I can only imagine that the number of wrestlers who get booed grows as well.  Right now there are only about four wrestlers being booed in GRIND but now we're going to have to add Shook Crew to that list as they did that one thing that you are never supposed to do in lucha libre.   Yes, Bobby Orlando pulled off the mask of Jay Lyon.  This lead to a double team, which allowed the Shook Crew to pin Ringleader Midas and now The Mane Event is no longer undefeated as a tag team in GRIND.   This will be interesting to see develop because you just know payback is coming but in what form?

When it came time for the main event, I still didn't know who would win or how.  I had said that if Travis Huckabee had won fairly then he should be shown respect as Champion, but that went right out the window as soon as I saw Skyros come out with him.   Jay Freddie has been the heart and soul of GRIND.  With the ref down, with the door broken, Jay Freddie fought back against all odds and against Travis Huckabee to become the first ever GRIND Grand Champion.   This couldn't have been a better end to this story.  

One of the things which I have consistently said through the past year of GRIND is that every card feels like their best card and that there is no way to possibly top it, but then somehow they have another show and they outdo themselves once again.    Celebration Day had that feeling of every match wanting to be the main event, every match wanting to steal the show and this show just completely outdid itself.  

As a wrestling fan, you seems to always be looking to the next big thing.   When you watch two wrestlers face off in a standard singles match but then they have a feud and you see them fight inside of a steel cage, it kind of takes away from that earlier match where seeing them fight not inside of a cage doesn't feel as special.   Even though every GRIND show is just getting better and better, that doesn't take away from the shows before it.  Travis Huckabee might've been in the biggest match of his career here but that doesn't mean you can't still enjoy Huckabee vs Perry Von Vicious from earlier this year in GRIND.

Having that momentum, being able to get better with every show but not even really needing the shows to be improved upon, is part of what makes GRIND special.   That, and the fans.  People are here to invest in a story or just see two people beat the absolute hell out of each other.   Either way, that is the ring that is going to take the very best from you every time you step into it and it is unlike any other out there right now.