This'll be my thoughts on Halloween Hijinx 2024. It's my third time or so coming to this specific venue and it's pretty nice. They call it an arena but it's just a all-purpose court with plastic chairs.
During the queue a kid who's obviously intellectually disabled nudges me. I'm a bit put off. Only later do I realise he's doing the Bloodline hand sign to me. I feel bad.
A few staff members are in costume, including one in Fiend getup. That pops me.
The music playlist between parts is fairly standard Halloween Playlist. I'm not going to be the one to tell them that Ghost Town is about inner city decay.
Pre-show match: Halloween Brawl, which means No DQ with goofy Halloween weapons. Judas Grey is heel and wears skirts but still has a beard. Inspirational levels of genderfuck. I like him. His interactions with the crowd are great and he's good in-ring. Evan Young is a mostly generic babyface who's still hanging around with heel Chris Archer for reasons unexplained. He uses a skull to bite Judas' cock. A lot of offence comes off the detached hand of a plastic ornamental corpse. Finish has Oliver Green (Young's real friend) holding Judas back so Young can hit a Buckshot but You Know This Spot. Judas wins with an Air Raid Crash on chairs. Young, Green and Archer argue after.
It's a fairly long wait between the pre-show and main card.
Match 1 is meant to be a six-man tag. Foundation of the Future is your fairly typical "we're the best and we rule" heel team and they're currently managed by Richard R. Russell who is the company's closest thing to a regular heel manager. Their opponents... Scotty Swift has red spiky hair and he legit owns the company. Damien's a punk rock gimmick, and Umar Mohammed's claim to fame is that he was on Millionaire once. One of FOF's members (Zach Dynamite) is absent because Swift injured him at a previous show so RRR demands Swift drop out. So it's just Damien and Umar against the other two, Brad Evans and Ryan Riley. They do well together and Umar wins off a roll-up. The Foundation attack the faces post-match for a looong time and William Sterling (veteran of the company) makes the save. Swift's reluctant to align with Sterling because of old drama from the past but they eventually hug it out.
Next up is Lost Boy Aspen vs. Rhys Dawkins. It's Aspen's first match back after losing the Undisputed Title. He's a major face but he doesn't seem to take matches seriously sometimes. Dawkins is this wannabe thespian with ruffled sleeves. He brings a green skull to the ring. Aspen's another guy who knows how to interact with the crowd, feeding off a little boy who does a clap. You expect Aspen to win and he has a strong match but Dawkins wins by jackknife pin. Aspen looks pretty despondent, surely this isn't building to anything.
Third match is for the Tag Team Titles. Champs are the Outfit (Murphy and Ted O'Keefe), a pair of big bruisers. Opponents Flippy 'n Drippy (Connor Molloy and Ronan King) are douchey pink-wearing heels who do movez. It's a Halloween Switcheroo match which means you dress as your opponents. King portrays the much heavier-set Murphy with a pillow down his shirt. At one point he uses the pillow to smother O'Keefe. Murphy for his part wears a muscle shirt which he tears Hogan-style. The Outfit stealing Molloy's ginger wig gets a big pop. Finish has King faking an arm injury to distract the ref. Judas Grey comes out in a hood to blast Murphy with the belt, the Flippys do a double frog splash and that's it, new champs. MotN so far.
There's an interval to get drinks and it's chill. They don't do tap water sadly. Also some of the faces come out to give photo opportunities to the kiddies.
After the break is Eugene's match! It's a comedy match against the company's main comedy guy Captain Alan Sterling. He thinks he's a sailor and is very attached to his hat. There's very little wrestling for most of this, it's mainly crowd work, but really fun. Eugene does the Hogan finish sequence for two. Ref bump leads to both guys getting visual pins. Captain Alan gets powder but Evan Young shows up and throws the powder back in Alan's face. Eugene wins with an RKO in a real crowd pleaser of a match, somehow the first so far with a clear-cut face win.
Next is a tournament final for the Tri-Counties Title (secondary singles). Previous champ Caleb Valhalla won the Undisputed title and vacated. It's down to Bryan Tucker, whose gimmick is that he's a wally and you shout "wally" at him, and Tommy Raiden, who with his slender build and lightning theming reminds me of early Sean Waltman. Raiden's gotten edgier recently thanks to heavy metal guy Mikkey Vago. He's not here, but Rhys Dawkins is. Until he gets sent to the back. But then he comes back to "throw in the towel". Raiden throws it right back, then tries to sunset flip a larger man and eats a sitout rana pin. The wally is champ and also Grand Slam Champion.
Main event is for the Undisputed Title. Caleb Valhalla is like what Sheamus would be if he got really into the Viking lifestyle. This is my first time watching Monstrum wrestle. He's a big guy with small arms. Wears a mask and prison uniform so he looks like if Nailz joined Slipknot. This is basically Monstrum playing the monster heel, not selling most of the time. Valhalla recovers but the match goes to double count-out after they brawl on the outside. Monstrum beats up Valhalla and the locker room pours out to hold him off. This feud will continue.
Good show, I'm getting more of a sense of story from these shows recently than previous. There's actual feuds which is big for a fed with no TV running a show in the City every couple of months or so.
