By Josh Nason
On a warm July night inside the Yarmouth, Maine, AmVets, the road to August’s Vacationland Cup continued with Limitless Wrestling’s Crunch Time this past Saturday — a show that saw three wrestlers qualify for the annual tournament.
Additionally, the next challenger for the Limitless World title was made.
In three separate matches, B3CCA, Dezmond Cole and Aaron Rourke joined the tourney field with the full slate of participants to be announced over the next few weeks leading into the Saturday, August 26th event at the AmVets. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, August 3rd at 7 PM Eastern.
In a match that opened the show, B3CCA defeated Ava Everett to nab her spot. “The International Pop Star” survived several attacks by Everett’s ARTE stablemates until referee Eric Greenleaf finally had enough and threw Rourke and Ricky Smokes out. With the odds evened, B3CCA rallied and eventually pinned Everett after a 450 splash.
Rourke’s entry was a bit of a surprise as he and Smokes later entered the ring to stump on ARTE’s behalf for a spot in the tournament, delaying the main event in doing so. Limitless head honcho Randy Carver had enough and suggested that since one spot remained in the VLC, he had an idea: Smokes and Rourke could fight for it.
And fight they did. Rourke eventually picked up the win to enter the VLC after a spirited encounter where both men didn’t hold back, potentially destroying the ARTE faction in the process.
Finally, Cole survived a wild four-way that included Andy Brown and two debutantes in Adam Priest and Juni Underwood. Cole got the pin and win on Priest, somewhat avenging his loss to Channing Thomas at May’s Winds of Change VLC qualifier.
So, the current field is Cole, Rourke, B3CCA, Thomas and Ichiban with the full tournament bracket yet to come.
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But more is planned for next month’s VLC event which includes a Limitless World Championship match between titleholder Beef and the new no. 1 contender: Rip Byson.
Byson defeated Mac Daniels at Crunch Time after the match was restarted following Daniels getting the pin with his feet on the ropes and referee Nate Speckman informing Greenleaf what happened. Byson capitalized and was able to get the pin shortly after to get the victory, calling out Beef afterward.
The reason he was able to do that is because Beef successfully defended his title against three-company champion Lucky Ali earlier in the evening. After Ali gave Beef all he could handle, the champion closed like, well, a champion and pinned Ali for his second successful title defense.
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Here’s the rest of the quick results from Saturday’s show which will be up for IWTV subscribers in short order:
Alec Price defeated Joey Janela: The former Limitless Wrestling World Champion remained undefeated since returning to LW action in December with a hard-fought win over Janela, who made his return to Limitless for the first time in six years. This was a physical bout that saw both men empty out the tanks.
Let’s Wrestle Champion BRG defeated Brian Milonas to retain the title: BRG survived the physical onslaught from “The Kingpin” to pick up another successful title defense. He now moves on to defend against another big man in Jason Maverick at the August 12th Let’s Wrestle event.
Above The Rest defeated Le Tabarnak de Team: Despite a dislocated shoulder suffered by Gabriel Skye, ATR continued their impressive Limitless run with a win over the hard-hitting Canadians. What’s next for ATR will depend on when Skye can get back to action.
Channing Thomas (w/ Sidney Bakabella) defeated Jordan Oliver: Thomas continued his momentum going into next month’s VLC with a tainted win over the returning Oliver. Bakabella grabbed Oliver’s leg while he was going up top, giving Thomas an open to attack and eventually finish Oliver off after a competitive bout.
Limitless Wrestling World Champion Beef defeated Lucky Ali to retain the title
Dezmond Cole defeated Andy Brown, Adam Priest and Juni Underwood in a four-way VLC qualifier
B3CCA defeated Ava Everett in a VLC qualifier
Aaron Rourke defeated Ricky Smokes in a VLC qualifier
Rip Byson defeated Mac Daniels in a Limitless Wrestling World title no. 1 contender’s match
Nason Notes:
A happy birthday chant broke out because, well, it was someone’s birthday.
Ring announcer Rich Palladino will NOT be in the house for VLC due to going to, wait for it, a Bruce Springsteen concert. Instead, rising star Ethan Scott will take the microphone for the evening, the announcement of which drew an “E-than!” chant from the Yarmouth faithful. Sadly, it was not his birthday.
Kevin Blackwood will make his return to Limitless at the VLC.
Andy Brown was a guest bell ringer as Randy was away from the table for a minute. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN LIMITLESS.
Sidney Bakabella was sporting the classic Steve Austin/Telly Savalas/Kurt Angle bald look, eschewing his variety of wigs. This writer saw several ladies pass out in hysteria as a result.