AWE’s MuscleMania show headlined the festival of the same name, to much acclaim yesterday. (full story here https://wp.me/p6Tbil-4K)
Here’s the rundown of the top two matches:
8 Main Event #1 AWE Championship- Chris Cruz beat Koji Takada (C) and Ryan Sherlock
The first headline match was for the AWE Championship. Champions Koji Takada, who had beaten Sherlock for the title with Cruz’s help, was now defending his belt against both men at the same time. 
Cruz had gotten his opportunity by winning the Smashmouth Scrumble match in March.
The match was an intriguing encounter, as Sherlock has a beef with both men, whilst the infighting in the Suplex N’ Chill camp, brought on by Cruz helping Koji for the win and Koji stating that he didn’t need the help and that he was the MVP of the group. Cruz has never pinned Sherlock in a one-on-one bout.
A back-and-forth encounter between the three supreme athletes featured an exhibition, almost an encyclopedia of wrestling moves and counters. In particular, there were some downright evil looking suplexex by all three participants. Sherlock got three very, very near falls but got interrupted at the last split-second. Koji also was close several times.
The conclusion to the bout came when Sherlock had just superplexed Takada. Cruz, quickly rolled Takada out of the ring and applied the Cruz Control facebuster for the decisive count. Cruz took Takada’s belt and the bragginf rights for his stable. Will Koji Takada be happy to play second fiddle again? What does this mean for Ryan Sherlock? This story looks like it still has a lot of legs to it.
9 Main Event #2 DOC DONNELLY beat MAYAS SHAKONA (RiOT! Rules Match)
In the second main event of the show, the AWE legend Doc Donnelly returned against the veteran headliner from the Southern Atlantic island of Réisha- Mayas Shakona. It was announced that this match was to be contested under the old ‘RiOT! Rules’ of the RiOT! TV show from 2004-2007 (basically- no dq, no count out.).
The two stared down one another at the start, following up with an old fashioned approach of some test-of strength challenges. Both men matched each other, until Donnelly broke out of a hold and started laetting his fists do his talking. Both men rallied against each other with punches, kicks, stops and chops – much to the delight of the fans. They rolled out to the floor and also then in amongst the fans, with Donnelly reversing a piledriver attempt into a back drop. This bout had emotion, with the fans clearly, very vocally siding with Donnelly. Shakona was incensed by this and played up to the crowd every opportunity that he got. This didn’t help the Réishan though, as twice this led to Doc making a comeback.
After both had gone close with near falls, the action spilled once more to the floor, where Shakona hit Donnelly with the timekeeper’s bell and a couple of chair shots to the back. Donnelly squirmed around on the floor as Shakona set up the announcer’s table. Doc managed to reverse a powerbomb attempt into a ‘Doc Dropper’ (a DDP style cutter) through the table. The crowd loved it.
Eventually, the two made it back to the ring, with Shakona holding a chair. Shakona had a swing and a miss as Donnelly ducked and turned his foe round to walk in another Doc Dropper for the pinfall victory. A loud crowd clearly enjoyed the evening’s finale.
USN ~ The Ultimate Sports Network 