Featured image by Hal Grayson
This review was commissioned by Hippoboy281 over on my Ko-fi account.
A little more narrative driven than Takeda’s opening round bout against Eric Ryan. Once again, Takeda has to go through a 440H! member to not only make it to the finals but also retain his Ultraviolent Championship. As a piece of booking, it’s smart to put Atticus in front of him, have the threat of a scumbag heel spoiling our hero before the chance to make it all the way through the tournament. To that end, Cogar approaches this with much more of a heel mindset than Ryan did earlier in the match. He attacks Takeda during his entrance, he’s able to work a genuine heat segment that goes a decent length without being overbearing, and then at the end, the goons finally do spill out of the woodwork to try and secure the win for him.
The fact that there’s more of a traditional face/heel dynamic here means that there’s a little more to latch onto than in the opening round. It also means there’s a little more space for Takeda to shine, not only by making some super sick comebacks that emphasize his charisma, but also by unleashing some righteous punishment on Cogar in the finishing stretch. Uraken through the lighttubes, punching out the skewers in Cogar’s mouth, and the finish through the bundle all work quite well.
This threatens to go off the rails during the interference bit though. Jordan Oliver comes out sporting some kind of knee injury that he sustained the night before only for the knee injury to actually be fake. Perhaps there’s some lore here I’m missing, but it all seemed goofy and contrived.
Takeda endures to get to the finals and deliver the match we all want to see.
Rating: ***1/4
