MINORU'S MUSINGS [Conviction XXIII]

Hello wrestling fans, welcome to the 2nd edition of Minoru’s Match Musings, with the one and only Black Lion, your mothers favorite wrestler, Japan’s least favorite son, Minoru Takahashi. I know what you’re thinking, how is he possibly going to improve on the first Minoru’s Match Musings, but I assure you, there will be no sophomore slump. We are again going to focus on OATH pro wrestling and Conviction, delving into the 23rd edition of the show, the “go home” show right before Rapture. As you know, my involvement in the #NOWCup2020 has me in Japan and unable to participate at Conviction or Rapture, but I will be back for Conviction 24, and I plan on making a big splash when I return. Will I be gunning for the Tabula Rasa title, the Intrepid title, or do I make my bid to run through the roster and go straight for the World title? Well you will just have to tune in to Conviction 24 to find out, and make sure to watch Rapture to see who will be holding those titles when I return. Now though, we move on to the show.

Conviction 23 Pre Show Matches

Only two matches and as expected, the douchebag duo won their tag match and Ben Macbeth got back on track with a nice win. Not gonna rank this as it’s the pre show and I don’t want to rank the douchebag duo anyway. Moving on to the main show

Astaroth Vs. Marshal Musings

This was another impressive performance from Qiyanna Marshal and a great way to bounce back after just falling short in her bid for the Tabula Rasa title. Astaroth showed some flashes where it looked like he might get something going, but Marshal countered him at every turn. I’m not sure if he actually managed to connect with a single move in this match and Marshal comes away with a nice win. Her performance is probably 3 or maybe 3.5 stars worthy, but her opponent was really lacking, so this one is getting 2 stars.

Aguero Vs. Wales Musings

Wales was aggressive right from the start and I think that’s what’s been missing from her before she got started on this little run. Wales controlled the majority of this match and part of that was the miscommunication and seeming rift between Aguero and her partner. Wales was smart in capitalizing on that and taking advantage of a distracted opponent. It seemed like everytime it could swing in the favor of Aguero, her partner hurt her. I was thinking that those two need to find a way to get out that aggression, and they get it at Rapture with a fight, but back to the match. Wales showed some impressive striking, intelligence and counter wrestling in this one. Aguero got in her shots and almost won it with a massive powerbomb, but a missed moonsault and Josie’s aggressive attitude secured her her third win in a row and the confidence to demand a Tabula Rasa title shot, which was of course accepted. I’m going to give this one 2.5 stars, could have been 3 or maybe 3.5 had Aguero not been distracted by her partner for so much of the match.

Jacobi Vs. Young (Tabula Rasa Title Match) Musings

So it’s no secret that I like FM Young, consider her a friend and definitely want another match with her. I want to get that out of the way before I say that she was once again part of my MOTN. I think the 2 out of 3 Falls stipulation really makes the matches bigger. I hate competing in them, but I do enjoy watching them. When this match started, I was not expecting it to end up being my favorite match. Jacobi looked like he was walking out and I just rolled my eyes, but the dirty hobo bastard had a good plan and baited Young in. The Tiger fought back though and the fight was on. Some great back and forth action in the first fall and the way these two were throwing out big moves, you would have thought it was one fall for the finish. Jacobi managed to bust Young’s forehead open, but the blood only seemed to fuel her and after an impressive counter and show of athleticism, Young took fall number one.

This is where Jacobi’s less than scrupulous tactics and his bastard manager really came into play though. A distraction lead to a big strike and Jacobi took control with some big moves and stiff strikes that opened up that cut even more. Young tried a comeback, but Jacobi countered and got the second fall in pretty quick fashion. Tied up once again, Young’s back against the wall, basically sudden death time, and since I am a betting man, I beat on Young to take it in the 3rd fall and the tiger did not let me down. Jacobi showed a startling lack of comprehension as he thought that pin earned him the title and he paid for it big time, as did his bastard manager. Young took control back and looked on her way to winning it, but Shortcut couldn’t stay away even after being tossed 78 feet up the ramp. The tiger did let him get to her and Jacobi again took advantage. He looked close to costing me 10 grand a few times, but in the end Young showed off her strength and great counter wrestling, hit two of her big moves and is STILL Tabula Rasa champion. This one is getting 4 stars, even with all the interference.

Mason Vs. Monstruo Musings

Okay, so first things first, are we even sure that this Monstruo this is human? It looks like the Hell realm found a yeti, shaved him and put an ugly mask on him. I’m not even sure that you can call this a match. It was a pretty one sided beat down and clearly the plan was just to hurt Terra Mason before the tag title match, as they had presumably taken out her tag partner just before what was meant to be a handicapped match. Mason technically got the win, but it was by DQ and she certainly didn’t look like a winner when the bell rang. Giving this one a single star.

Midnight Special Vs. Edwards & Whelan Musings

This was definitely an interesting match. Edwards and Whelan obviously aren’t friends and were doing the whole future opponents forced to team up thing for this match, and while some might not have expected it, I wasn;t at all surprised to see Whelan completely hang back in this match. He already had his title shot, and Eddwards being beat up would benefit him. Whelan did one thing as the legal man, then tagged out and never tagged back in. This match was essentially a handicapped match and while Edwards fought his ass off and showed some damn good striking and suplexes, but against a full time tag team with a partner who wanted no part of the match, he had a difficult task ahead of him. Midnight Special showed some great team work in this and really had Edwards in bad shape. Had they just let Whelan walk off, they probably would have one, but Carbine took Whelan’s actions as disrespectful to tag team wrestling, got into it with him and at that point it was basically a one on one match between a singles champion and a tag team specialist. The unlikely duo ended up with the win, all thanks to James Edwards. I’m going with 3 stars for this one.

Final Grades

Astaroth Vs. Marshal - **

Aguero Vs. Wales - **½

Jacobi Vs. Young - ****

Mason Vs. Monstruo - *

Midnight Special Vs. Edwards/Whelan - ***