Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
House of Glory is starting off 2025 hot, with their second show in a week and third in roughly a month (Watch The Throne in Chicago on 1/17, Live For the Moment 12/20/24 in NYC), again back in their home venue of the NYC Arena in New York City.
They open with The Mane Event (Midas Black, Jay Lyons) trying to regain the HoG Tag titles from the CBK (Cold Blooded Killers--Raheem Royal, Jay Armani). They started hot and never let up.
The ref never got control of this and paid for it, taking an errant chair shot from Black. TME hit their Grand Finale finish on Armani with another referee making the count. New champs! Hold on! Dusty Finish!! Someone's been watching some old school wrestling lately. The original ref says he's disqualifying TME for striking him with the chair. Credit to CBK. They sold this like they really lost so they celebrated big.
Commissioner Jason Solomon comes out and announces TME will get another shot at the next event in a 2 out of 3 Falls match. CBK leader, Charles Mason, comes out and demands TME put up their tag team for the shot. Lyon quickly accepts, to the ire of his tag partner, who at least wanted to talk it out. Very good start to the show and leading directly into the next.
Solomon joins commentary at this point. TNA star "Blessed" KC Navarro of First Class cuts a promo on the live crowd, wanting to know who they brought him in to face. His opponent is the undefeated in MMA (8-0) and pro wrestling (2-0) Cage Fury Flyweight champion "Turbo" Phumi Nkuta. Navarro is unimpressed, stalling and avoiding contact for a couple minutes before walking into a savage right hand, knocking him cold. The ref stops the match, giving Nkuta the win by decision (should be KO), taking him to 3-0. This was more about fun than work like Nkuta's previous wins over Matt Riddle and Joe Alonzo.
The self proclaimed "New King of the Underground" Daron Richardson retained his Cruiserweight title, beating former champion Mantequilla in a good match. This was Mante's second match back after a year plus off due to a knee injury and he looked good, especially considering how long they went (over 13 min). Richardson with the clean win, hitting a chop block and then a single leg Boston Crab for the submission win.
Amazing Red, who Richardson cost a match at Watch The Throne against Charles Mason, chasing Richardson to the back.
Securing his spot as the number one contender to the Cruiserweight title, J. Boujii won a 6 Way match over Dante Griffith, Jodi Aura, Joey Silver, Jarret Diaz and the debuting JJ Doze. Car crash match and the cars were crashing. Boujii hit Griffith with a NASTY Curb Stomp late. Jeez. He puts Griffith down with a springboard cutter for the win. Great performance out of Diaz in a losing effort. Boujii has been looking great to start 2025.
The scheduled Crown Jewel title match had to be changed as champion Zilla Fatu is still unable to wrestle so "The Dark Star" Idris Jackson filled in and faced former ECW and NWA World champion Rhino, making his HoG return after 10 yrs. Solid bout with some good work. With a little assist from Wisdom and a ref bump, Jackson got the biggest win of his career, pinning Rhino after hitting him with a foreign object. Jackson and Wisdom tried to celebrate but Rhino took out Wisdom with a Gore and Jackson's most heated rival, "La Sombra" Carlos Ramirez cuts through the crowd, attacking Jackson, sending him running to the back.
"Absolute" Ricky Starks got a measure of revenge on "The Root of All Evil" Charles Mason for interfering in his House of Glory Heavyweight title match last week in Chicago, beating HoG's top heel in a pretty good and evenly fought bout. So even, if I was an old school territory commentator, I would say Mason was ahead on points late in the match. They had another ref bump (third of the show, which is 2 too many) but this time, it worked against the heel as Mason had Starks covered after a twisting tombstone piledriver. Mason then went for a steel chair but was stopped by HoG champion Mike Santana.
That gave Starks the opening to his his Rochambeau slam finish for the win.
In the main event Mike Santana defeated Japanese legend KENTA to retain his House of Glory Heavyweight title in a 30 min slugfest. Between Prestige (1/11), HoG (1/17, 1/25), and TNA (1/19, 1/24), this is Santana's 5 match in two weeks. That's practically a Ric Flair 85 schedule in 2025 and every match has been a high quality display. This was two top guys wailing on each other for a half hour but it only took Santana one Spin the Block lariat to win the match, which puts that finish over big. Excellent match. Show of respect from both guys after the match.
This was a great show but they leaned way too hard on ref bumps and I hate how they cut from live action for their replays. They did a lot of strong episodic booking despite not having tv. It makes me want to see the next show.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: A (93 out of 100)
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
