As I noted in my earlier ALL IN Review, which you can find HERE, I didn't get a chance to see Zero Hour as it was on WGN America. But thanks to the wonder that is YouTube, I am able to watch Zero Hour now and provide my own review of what happened during the pre-show. So, without further ado, here is my review of ALL IN: ZERO HOUR.
We see the set and the crowd. The Being The Elite theme kicks in and the crowd is singing along with it!
They thank the crowd for being there. Matt suggests blowing the whole budget on pyro in 90 seconds. He counts down the pyro, and nothing goes off. Cody asks if he paid the pyro guy. 1-2-3 again. Pyro goes off. Nick says on every wrestling show, you should have a random wrestling legend run-in. Matt gives the hint of "OH WHAT A RUSH!" And here comes Road Warrior Animal on a motorcycle to pop the crowd! Matt asks if the crowd likes free merch. He calls out Hot Topic and Pro Wrestling Tees to shoot free t-shirts out into the crowd!!!
We get a Pro Wrestling Tees commercial with Joey Ryan. It's so old school that it is awesome.
We're back in the arena, and here comes SCU!!!!
1) Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky vs. The Briscoes
Scorpio Sky is dressed like Apollo Creed while it looks like Kazarian is doing his best Rocky Balboa.
Scorpio craps on the town. Kazarian says they are part of history and a revolution. And he says they are ALL IN. He gets the crowd to cheer "SCU!!!" The Briscoes come out and get heavily booed! The bell rings.
ALL IN chant from the audience is deafening. The Briscoes immediately double-team Kazarian and knock Scorpio off the apron. Double shoulder tackle by The Briscoes to Kaz. Kaz gets help after fighting off The Briscoes in the corner with a flying headscissors by Sky. Shotgun Dropkick by Kaz in the corner. Kaz throws Mark into the corner and hits a running side Russian legsweep for a 2. Sky tagged in and hits a double sledgehammer on the shoulder of Mark Briscoe.
Sky gets caught with a double team by Jay and Mark. Mark with a slingshot stomp. Chop in the corner and a tag to Jay. Jay assaulting Sky in the corner. Mark chokes Sky while Jay has Kaz distracted. Mark tags in and hits a twisting vertical suplex for a 2. Chops in the corner by Mark. Sky is fighting out of the corner, but Mark drags him back in and tags his brother. Jay kicks Sky right in the face.
Mark is back in now. Frequent tags by The Briscoes, bringing Jay back in just seconds later. Old school ring division here by The Briscoes. Jay gets caught with a running hurricanrana by Sky. He tags in Kaz. Fast offense by Kaz. Rollup and a Northern Lights Suplex on BOTH Briscoes only get a 2. But it was still impressive. Sky runs in and German Suplexes Mark onto Jay to the outside of the ring. Kaz follows that up with a slingshot hurricanrana to the floor on Jay. Sky follows that up with a dive over the top to The Briscoes.
Kaz and Sky dive on both Briscoes in the ring and nail in submission moves. The Briscoes pull both men in and rake the eyes of the other men. Kaz is left in the ring with Jay. Uppercuts exchanged and punches now. Briscoes doubleteam Kaz. Sky kicked down to the floor, and Mark hits his running apron blockbuster on Sky!
Jay working on Kaz now. Tag to Mark. Double teaming happening now. Clotheslines into the corner on Kaz. REDNECK BOOGIE only gets 2 (Razor's Edge with a cutter). Sky continues to be kicked down to the floor. Kaz is put on the top rope. Sky gets Jay and rams him hard into the guard rail on the other side of ringside. He runs back in and nails a top rope leaping hurricanrana on Mark! Wow!
Jay is back in. Assisted Tornado DDT by SCU followed by a Urinage/Lungblower combination for 2. They go for another move, but Jay smacks Sky with a big boot. Jay Driller followed by the Froggy Bow by The Briscoes, but Sky breaks it up at 2! Great match so far. Sky is sent back out. Doomsday Device is COUNTERED INTO A POWERSLAM BY KAZ. Sky runs in to keep Jay away. 1-2-3!!!!
Winners: SCU! (SCU!!!)
Match Grade: B+. That was an awesome match to open up the entire show. Old school wrestling by The Briscoes met with the aerial abilities of SCU made for an electric way to kick off this show. I wish this had kicked off the actual PPV.
Excalibur, Don Callis, and Ian Riccaboni run down the battle royal coming up later.
We're with Kenny Omega after the break. Kenny is on his tippy toes. Lol. He discusses his match with Pentagon Jr. Kenny says he wants to make sure this is a day that we all remember.
We get a rundown of the Cody vs. Aldis World Championship match for later.
2) Over Budget Battle Royal for the ROH World Championship Match at ALL IN
Wrestlers are surrounding the ring and Bully Ray gets booed mercilessly as he walks down the ramp. Dalton Castle is on commentary. Dalton Castle gets a chant from the crowd. The bell rings.
Chaos ensues. Bully clears off a table and puts a masked man through the table!!! He pulls out Chuckie T and throws him into the rail. Baretta runs through the ropes to dive on Bully. A woman dives through and dives on Baretta. Ethan Page runs in and boots her down. Seconds later, Colt Cabana does an Asai Moonsault to the floor on a bunch of people. Wow. Billy Gunn and Tommy Dreamer fake a dive, but walk through the ropes and start brawling instead! Lol. Moose boots Gunn down in the ring. Moose punching a bunch of the wrestlers down in the ring. Group attacks Moose.
Moose fights off the crowd. Moose tries to crossbody the crowd, but they catch him, put him on the apron, and gets knocked off by some toothpick looking guy. He does a hip shake, and thankfully Punishment Martinez is there to boot this guy back to the 70s on the floor. (I found out his name is Marco?) Best Friends Hug blocked by Ethan Page who takes down both men. Chuck Taylor tries to suplex Page over, but he blocks it. Both Best Friends get suplexed back in the ring. Brian Cage superplexes Tommy Dreamer. That goofball from earlier runs back in and gets knocked down. Cage gets knocked down by a moonsault by Cutler. Cutler gets elminated off camera as Bully pulls the goofball (Marco) back up after nearly eliminating him.
Rocky Romero saves The Best Friends from elimination. Best Friends do some moves and hug, but Punishment Martinez eliminates both men at the same time. Rocky nails a springboard hurricanrana on Martinez. Rocky starts hitting his corner clothesline on everyone. He gets too cute with it, and Cage hits a discus clothesline to him and eliminates Rocky. Cage catches Cheeseburger during his dive onto him, but Cheeseburger gets out and nails the Liger Shotei on Cage! Shoteis going around now!!!! Cage catches on, pops up Cheeseburger, and F5's him over the top to the floor!!! Martinez and Cage now fighting at it!!! HURRICANRANA BY CAGE ON MARTINEZ! (That dude is a musclebound 275lb monster doing that move!) MARTINEZ DOES ONE TOO! WOW! SPINNING HEEL KICK BY MARTINEZ! Chokeslams avoided by both men. But Martinez gets thrown into THE HURRICANE who CHOKESLAMS MARTINEZ!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!
CAGE GETS CHOKESLAMMED TOO!!!! He tries to get Ethan Page, but he gets out. Dreamer gets Page on the apron. Hurricane goes out to fight Page, but Page boots him off to eliminate him. As he does that, he turns into the Flying Butt move of Cabana that eliminates him! Wow! Trashcan is thrown in the ring. Dreamer is going to work on the others with the Trashcan and pans. Martinez goes to chokeslam Dreamer, but Dreamer (dressed in POLKA DOTS, IF YOU WILL) does the Dusty punches and elbow to Martinez! SPICCOLI DRIVER on MARTINEZ! Bully hits Dreamer with the trash can and eliminates him!!!
Marco gets back in the ring with Bully. He tries to attack Bully, but Bully no sells the whole thing. He tries to eliminate him, but Billy catches him allowing Marco to dropkick Bully in the face. While he's doing that, Billy's son Austin Gunn (dressed exactly like his father) clotheslines Bully. He then hip tosses Jimmy Jacobs and gives him a "Suck It" taunt. Jimmy Jacobs grabs him downstairs to break up that offense. Jimmy Jacobs does the YOU CAN'T SEE ME/Five Knuckle Shuffle on Austin Gunn (there's some irony there, I'm sure). Jimmy goes for the Pedigree, but Billy stops him from doing that. But for his trouble, Jimmy Jacobs (The Zombie Princess?) kisses Billy Gunn. Wow. Billy then throws Jimmy violently over the top rope to eliminate him.
Punishment Martinez and Billy Gunn go at it. Spinning Kick to Gunn. But while he taunts the audience, Austin Gunn runs over and ELIMINATES PUNISHMENT MARTINEZ! The Gunns hug. Bully Ray runs in and beats up both Gunns. He eliminates Austin, but he gets the Famouser by Billy. Cage and Billy start going at it. Cage GORILLA PRESSES GUNN over the top to eliminate him! MARCO catches Cage with a TILT-A-WHIRL LUNGBLOWER. For his trouble, Bully eliminates him from the match!
Jordan Grace (the woman from earlier) and Brian Cage go at it. Grace picks up Cage, but she can't keep him up. Cage tosses her around and into the corner. She gets Cage up for a powerbomb and connects. SHE ELIMINATES BRIAN CAGE!!! WOW! She turns around and faces off with Bully. Bully rakes her eyes instead of fighting her. He puts her on the top turnbuckle, but she throws him off. Cabana grabs the legs. THEY DO THE WHAT'S UP SPOT TO BULLY!!! HAHAHA!!!! Jordan goes to throw Bully out, but Bully reverses it and gets her over the top to eliminate her.
We're down to Cabana and Bully. Bully clotheslines Cabana down. Bully dives off the top with a Senton, but Colt moves out of the way. Cabana uses a chair to smack Bully with. Bully throws Cabana over the top to win. Or DOES HE?! The masked man that Bully put through the table earlier is back in the ring. He hasn't been eliminated yet. Superkick! He unmasks! IT'S FLIP GORDON! He tosses Bully over the top rope!!! FLIP IS BOOKED!
Winner: Flip Gordon
Match Grade: A. I agree with the critics. This may be the best battle royal in recent history (I don't count the Rumble as a battle royal) if not ever. Everyone in this match had their moment to shine. Even though I didn't know a lot of these wrestlers going in, I have a better liking and understanding for them in general now. Extremely well done and well booked.
Show Grade: A+. The mission of this hour was to get you to pay the money to see the actual event when it started. Mission Accomplished. When your worst match in the hour is a great tag team match, you've done a great job.
For the ALL IN show review, click HERE.
For the more detailed ALL IN Post Show Thoughts, click HERE.
This is it for ALL IN coverage now, unless Being The Elite comes out today with some cool backstage stuff. Until next time, take care of yourselves. And spread some awesomeness.
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