If you read the descriptions for Blading Your Colors Podcast #2, you would have seen me reference my attendance at an event called Americanrana put on by a company called Beyond Wrestling. If you actually listened to the podcast (which you can here if you didn't) you wouldn't have heard a second on the company. That is what we like to call "getting sidetracked." It seems our discussions about the title pedigrees of the Million Dollar Man and Mr. Perfect took precedent.
Don't take this omission as a knock on the company. To the contrary, Beyond Wrestling put on one of the best experiences, never mind wrestling shows, I've ever been a part of. It is hard to distinguish oneself on the independent wrestling scene but I feel that this organization does just that. And it is hard to fathom but I almost didn't get in.
The promoters and wrestlers involved with Americanrana flooded their Twitter feeds with a hashtag #SellOutFete in an attempt to sell out the show's venue, Fete Music Hall in Providence, RI. Well, they were successful in their mission and I was left out in the rain hoping that there would be space left once all the ticketholders were allowed into the building. I lucked out and got in just as the opening match was coming to a conclusion. From what I could gather from fellow fans the opener, a tag team battle royal, was a fitting start to a stacked card. They weren't wrong.
The lineup covered the full spectrum of what a wrestling fan could ask for. I'll go through it without spoiling the results for you. Comedy wrestling your thing? Sex & Candy (Sugar Dunkerton & Pinkie Sanchez) vs. Fear and Loathing in New England (Aaron Epic & Dave Cole) would have made your evening. Tag team turmoil? Team TREMENDOUS (Dan Barry and Bill Carr) vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent?) and The Juicy Product (JT Dunn & David Starr) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) were spectacles of the artform, even if the nearside top rope caused both matches a bit of stress. Get well Trent. Fans of the more technical side got a European Rounds Match from Tomasso Ciampa and Drew Gulak as well as an intergender match between Silver Ant (in full USAnt garb) and Kimber Lee. There were bloody battles between Nicholas Kaye and Anthony Stone (Loser Must Retire) as well as Eric Corvis and Jimmy Jacobs (First Blood). Brian Myers (known to most as WWE's Curt Hawkins) put on a hell of a show with one of his trainees, Ryan Rush. There was even a surprise appearance by TNA World Tag Champion Eddie Edwards as he and Biff Busick tore the house down.
Image Credit: Beyond Wrestling logo (pwponderings.com)