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House of Glory held their final event on December 20 in their home venue, the NYC Arena, "HoG Live For the Moment", closing out some major feuds while extending others.
They were sold out and I mean "sold tf out". They must have bribed a fire marshall to get this crowd in the building.
For some reason, they opened with a steel cage match with "The Dark Star" Idris Jackson (with Hillary Wisdom) beating his months-long hated rival "La Sombra" Carlos Ramirez. Ramirez hits Jackson in the face with a bottle as Jackson entered the cage, busting Jackson open. He was gushing blood the rest of the match. Good, violent match, but ut I hated the finish. Wisdom interfered and helped drag Jackson out of the cage, helping him win. They didn't announce the "escape the cage" stip at the start and it's the worst way to end cage matches but it gave Jackson a big win to probably close out their feud. The audio was synced terribly here but it got better later.
They have a very long interlude here as they take down the cage and clean out the glass. That's why you don't have cages with a bunch of stuff involved early like this. Threw off the momentum of the show that had just got started. During this they did run a very hot angle where Jay Armani and Raheem Royal (two very impressive rookies)--HoG Tag champions the Cold Blooded Killlers--interrupted whatever Commissioner Solomon was talking about, demanding to know why it was Mane Event chosen to face Matt and Jeff Hardy in the main event and not them.
Solomon declared The Mane Event as the "heart and soul" of HoG and thought they deserved it. Armani is already a fantastic young heel,. They attacked Solomon which leads to one of the most awkward moments of the show.
AEW World tag champions and HoG alum Private Party make their return but not in a save. They come out to their music and do all their signature goofy dances. No sense of urgency at all. They brought AEW booking with them. CBK just politely leave the ring, allowing the Party to give a nice rah rah speech.
While receiving medical care before going to the emergency room, Solomon says he has 2 guys who will take his place and surprise CBK. Credit to Solomon, he took some good shots and sold it better than a lot of wrestlers I see on national tv.
Darron Richardson won his first HoG title, winning the Cruiserweight title, in a Six Way title bout over Gringo Loco (c), Joey Silver, J. Boujji, the debuting Dante Griffith (a student at the House of Glory school and the New Japan dojo) and the returning Mantequilla, coming back from a 9/23 knee injury. Big pop for Mantequilla's surprise return. This was fine. The quality of HoG Six Ways is generally very high so it's okay to have one that's just "pretty solid". Boujji looked very good in this.
Mantequilla looked to be on the verge of winning when a masked person interfered, hitting him with a crutch. It was Legacy Pro (HoG's sister developmental company) Women's champion Diamond Virago Her interference allowed Richardson to pin Mantequilla with a Code Red. A furious J. Boujji attacks Silver and Mantequilla with the crutch Virago left behind. Heels are eating early on this show.
Women's champion "The Megasus" Megan Bayne successfully defended her title against the challenge of Allie Katch. This started a little awkward but got good in the second half Bayne looks like a star but might be trying to work in a more athletic style than she can credibly pull off. Katch looked good. Wisdom compared Bayne to Barry Windham and I immediately wanted to fight him.
Zilla Fatu retained the Crown Jewel title from TNA star Jake Something. Something is a veteran of these Hoss Fights and this was a solid one where you could see him guiding the young powerhouse Samoan. I still hate the Samoan Spike as a finish but Fatu, who should relax with his Bloodlining all the time, tries to add his own twist, winning with a running version. I hate that too but he's trying.
Undefeated (8-0) Peak Fighting and Cage Fury Fighting Flyweight champion Phumi "Turbo" Nkuta made his pro wrestling debut in an upset win over Matt Riddle. This was really good. This was a match were Riddle, a former MMA fighter, was working more like a pro wrestler while Nkuta was a MMA fighter and it worked (good job, Matt). Despite being a legit fighter, they never had the noticeably smaller Nkuta outstriking Riddle, though strikes is not Riddle's strength. I appreciated that since tiny dudes punching out much bigger dudes has become a thing lately on TV. Nkuta countered a Twister submission attempt with a roll up, beating the pro wrestler with a pro wrestling move. Beautiful. Code of Honor adhered to...until Riddle introduced him to pro wrestling proper with a cutter after the match. HA! If Nkuta wants to do this more, he's more than welcome.
HoG Heavyweight champion Mike Santana threw out an open challenge and was greeted by "The Root of All Evil" Charles Mason, leader of the Cold Blooded Killers, accompanied by Armani and Royal, who blindside the champion. He wanted to cash in his title shot but that brings the shock save by the Bookers--Amazing Red and Brian XL, HoG founders and themselves former tag champs. These were Solomon's backup plan. They instead book a six man, the first match for the Bookers as a team since they lost the tag titles to The Mane Event back in Aug of 2023 and, I think, XL was injure The CBK pull off a HUGE win beating Santana, Red and XL in a very good match. You could see XL had a little rust on him but he looked good in his return. Some miscommunication at the end by Red and Santana allowed Mason to pin XL after a double chairshot from Royal and Armani. Santana hates how it turned out and they have some nice speechifying, celebrating the packed house and big year of HoG.
XL tells him they have him an opponent for their Jan. 25 show: KENTA! That should be good.
TNA World tag champions--and themselves former HoG Tag champions--Matt and Jeff Hardy made their return to House of Glory for the first time since 2016 (in a match that included Private Party and Mike Santana), in a victory over 2 time former HoG Tag champions The Mane Event (Midas Black and Jay Lyons) in the...main event Good match with the Hardys we've seen in TNA showing up and not trying to do too much. A couple awkward moments with this being their first ever encounter but they clicked well. TME missed on double team cutter due to some deft Matt Hardy maneuvering with Jeff pinning Black with a very heavy Swanton Bomb. Both teams and Private Party had a nice love fest after the match which they could have just let the live crowd enjoy and cut the feed. This is where PP should have been introduced, not earlier.
This was a good show. Not as good as the Puerto Rican Day show but that's a high bar to leap. I absolutely hate them doing Picture in Picture instand replays during matches.
For one night, House of Glory was the tag team Mecca.
The Real Uncle Dave grade:A (93 out of 100)
Follow me at @therealuncdave.bsky.social
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