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Powerslam TV continues to add more great wrestling each week, and I will be taking a look at a past show in the streaming service’s catalog every Friday. First up is Bar Wrestling 36, which is titled “Pickle Jar Hero.” The event originally aired May 30, 2019. It’s my first time checking out the California-based indie promotion, but I’m familiar with quite a few names on the card including Joey Ryan, Luchasaurus, Taya Valkyrie and Darby Allin.
Bar Wrestling 36 Pickle Jar Hero | PPRay vs. Los Luchas
I’m not familiar with either of the tag teams here but the fast-paced start of the match grabbed my attention regardless. It was apparently a tornado tag match as all four men brawled throughout the match without tagging in and out. Los Luchas really impressed with their technical wrestling ability, although there were a few sloppy break-ups and spots that show there is room for improvement.
The luchadores wound up being victorious and due to the fast pace of the action, this was a smart way to kick off the card.
Bar Wrestling 36 Pickle Jar Hero | Taya Valkyrie vs. Shazza McKenzie
This match really demonstrated what a great heel Taya Valkyrie is. She had the whole crowd rooting for McKenzie and played her role perfectly. She’s a real pro inside the ring and spent much of the bout working on McKenzie’s arm. It was quite one-sided with Valkyrie eventually hitting the “Roads to Valhalla” for the pinfall. It wasn’t the most exciting match, but it certainly did its job of making Taya look great.
Bar Wrestling 36 Pickle Jar Hero | The Bomb Baes vs. Doomfly
I hadn’t seen either of these mixed tag teams wrestle before. Unlike the opener, this was a traditional mixed tag match like we’d see inside the WWE. This was probably the weakest match on the card as the action wasn’t particularly thrilling at first and I wasn’t invested in the wrestlers. There were some brief spats of intergender action, but it was mostly the two men going against each other or the two women going at it until the final minutes. The Bomb Baes eventually picked up the win after doing a really sweet looking DDT. While slow to start, this wound up being fun the more it went on.
Bar Wrestling 36 Pickle Jar Hero | Tyler Bateman vs. Darby Allin
Watching Darby Allin is always a treat and I really enjoyed what I’ve seen of him in EVOLVE. This was the first time both men had faced off and the crowd was really into every lock-up and grappling exchange. This wound up being the best match of the night, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, and it’s easy to see why All Elite Wrestling sees a potential star in Allin. He’s a fantastic performer that is immediately likable and can get new fans to care about his match by the end of it. This isn’t to discredit Bateman, who definitely held his own inside the ring and is really coming into his own as a performer although his upside is limited at 37.
Bateman wound up winning the match. My only complaint would be that his finishing move looked really underwhelming as he just punched an already damaged Allin in the back to get the pin. It was an anticlimatic finish to a really good bout.
Bar Wrestling 36 Pickle Jar Hero | RockNES Monsters, Eric Watts & Ryan Taylor vs. Jungle Boy, Andy Brown, Brandon Cutler & Luchasaurus
Haven’t seen a ton of these wrestlers aside from Brandon Cutler, Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, who have become bigger names lately thanks to AEW. Despite not knowing everyone, I really enjoyed the eight-man tag thanks to all of the very different gimmicks on display. From a wrestling dinosaur to the hulking Eric Watts and the athletic Andy Brown, this was entertaining from beginning to end. Watts and Jungle Boy had some particularly entertaining exchanges and it was a great battle of big men when Watts faced off against Luchasaurus.
The brand’s unique sense of humor came into play later on as Jervis Cottonbelly came in with a pickle jar. The wrestlers then tried to complete the ultimate test of strength, opening a pickle jar. This was a hilarious moment and ultimately it was the ring announcer that got it opened. This underlined that this match was more about characters than anything else, and it was really fun because of it.
It did wind up going just a bit too long and it was by far the longest match on the card, but Ryan Taylor was able to get the win for his team by tapping Andy Brown with a slick submission.
Bar Wrestling 36 Pickle Jar Hero | Priscilla Kelly vs. Joey Ryan
The main event featured a pairing that previously drew some controversy and a lot of attention due to both Kelly and Ryan not being afraid to up the ante during matches. Ryan is a total star with the audience and he definitely deserved the main event slot as the crowd came to see him. It started off quite humorously as Kelly agreed to touch Ryan’s dick, which wound up scaring him. “Wait. Why do you want to? ” questioned Ryan. “Nobody wants to! What do you know that I don’t know? Stop!” It was a great role-reversal and it’s not often that Joey Ryan becomes uncomfortable during a match.
Afterward, the two had a regular wrestling match exchanging holds and strikes. Ryan has proven himself to be great at working intergender matches as he knows how to use his power and overconfidence to deliver an entertaining performance. Both wrestlers are quite familiar to each other having worked together in the past and this led to the match being technically sound throughout. In the end, Kelly continued reverse the roles as she stole one of Ryan’s lollipops and then put it in her trunks. After hitting a suplex, she stuck it in Ryan’s mouth and then was able to pin him for the three count after hitting a kick on the distracted wrestler.
This was a great performance because of how it really played off expectations and gave the fans a surprising and memorable experience. After the match, Ryan cut a promo discussing how he was the “hottest free agent in wrestling,” but had to be true to himself. That’s when he declared that he’s staying on the indies. A nice ending to a fun-filled evening of wrestling.
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