This Saturday in Sydney, at Max Watt’s, Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA) celebrates their 11th anniversary with Call to Arms 2018. Headlined by two rematches from last year’s Call to Arms, PWA is looking to capitalize on the internationally known names featured on the show like Will Ospreay, Bea Priestley, Madison Eagles, Jonah Rock, and Shazza McKenzie. Overall, the show looks to be excellent. Their previous show, We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Robbie, which is one of my favorite event names ever, received rave reviews, and no doubt they’ll look to top themselves.
Let’s run down what they have planned:
Adam Hoffman vs. Jax Jordan vs. Michael Spencer vs. Unsocial Jordan
Hoffman and Jax are coming off losses at the last event, while Spencer and Unsocial Jordan were victorious there. This match is here to give the crowd a hot, action-filled opener. Expect this four way to be filled with high spots and some creativity, but none of these guys are in the main event mix, so look for this to get over on the moves performed instead of the personalities participating. This match should accomplish all of its goals, and be an exciting opener. These kinds of matches are notoriously difficult to predict, but look for Michael Spencer to pick up the victory, who, fresh off winning his feud with Ricky South, is best positioned to benefit from a win here. He also won a battle royal earlier in the year, is perhaps just a couple wins away from moving on up in PWA.
Prediction: Michael Spencer
Conco and The Fudge (Big Fudge & Concrete Davidson) vs. LuchiKai (Kai Drake & Tree Hugger Luchi)
The bad news for Kai Drake, is that he has only one win in 2018. The good news is that one win came when teaming with Tree Hugger Luchi. This duo has worked together sporadically over the last couple years, and have performed for PWA as singles competitors, but now bring their tag talents to PWA for the first time, where they’re going against two PWA regulars. Davidson is the only veteran in the match, having debuted in 2007, while the other three are all in their low twenties. Since this is LuchiKai’s debut as a team for PWA, look for them to pick up the victory, but PWA has lots of tag teams, so expect them to have to pick up a few more wins before being in the tag title mix.
Prediction: LuchiKai
Mat Diamond vs. Mikey Broderick
In June, Diamond won a four way match which included Mikey Broderick. Broderick hasn’t been terribly active over the last couple years, but is working more frequently in 2018. However, he has yet to pick up a win in PWA this year. This one on one showing is the perfect place to do so. Diamond was protected by picking up his win in the four way, so there’s no reason why Broderick can’t get the win here to elevate his status within the company. This one will be very competitive, but Broderick should come out on top in the end.
Prediction: Mikey Broderick
PWA Tag Team Title Match: The Four Nations (Jack Bonza & Mick Moretti) (c) vs. The Velo-Cities (Jude London & Paris De Silva)
This is a rematch of their June contest where Bonza and Moretti won the vacant titles. Bonza and Moretti are staples of the Australian wrestling scene, and while London and Silva are able performers, the titles should and will stay with the Four Nations. The stable has always been positioned at least somewhat strongly in PWA, and retaining the tag belts after so many different champions this year, and somewhat stable reign with Bonza and Moretti would do the belts good. There are plenty of teams for them to defend against, even within the Four Nations group if you wanted. This will be a very good rematch, but expect the heels to go over.
Prediction: The Four Nations
Bel Pierce vs. Jessica Troy
Pierce is coming off a debut loss last show, where she teamed with Shazza McKenzie against Four Nations stablemates Jessica Troy and Madison Eagles. This time, in a one on one contest, Troy will have her work cut out for her, working with someone as green as Pierce. But Troy is a solid performer and should be able to pull it off, despite only being in the business a few years herself. This match will be a little on the conservative side, considering Pierce’s inexperience, but should be fine, and Pierce will get the victory here, since she was on the losing side last time, and needs a victory early in her run here to keep her relevant.
Prediction: Bel Pierce
Robbie Eagles vs. Will Ospreay
In a rematch of the main event from Call to Arms 2017, Eagles and Ospreay will do everything in their power to tear the frickin’ roof off the place and give Rock/Ugg an impossible standard to meet in the main event this year. Ospeay has been very vocal about his desire to elevate Aussie/New Zealander wrestling, and this match will be no exception. Last year, Ospreay won the PWA Heavyweight title off of Eagles, while this year it’s for pride. Typically, in these situations, the New Japan talent goes over, but honestly, I expect Eagles to win this one. After winning last year, and his passion to raise Aussie wrestlers, I think Ospreay will want to give Eagles the rub here. This will be incredibly high flying, and very creative. These guys will want this to be the best match in Australia all year.
Prediction: Robbie Eagles
Bea Priestley vs. Ricky South
This will be interesting. South is known for his comedy wrestling, but to varying degrees, so it will be fascinating to which how much light-heartedness he and Priestley bring to it. Following the Eagles/Ospreay match, the crowd might be looking for something not so intense, so this could be exactly what the doctor ordered. Priestly, who also competed at last year’s Call to Arms, will mostly likely be making more and more appearances on the Aussie indy scene, and so I expect her to go over in this one, to establish her as a threat in her coming matches.
Prediction: Bea Priestly
Pro Wrestling EVE SHE-1 Qualifying Match: Madison Eagles vs. Shazza McKenzie
This contest is between probably Australia’s best known female wrestlers, and is for a spot at Pro Wrestling EVE’s (an all women’s promotion based in the UK) SHE-1 Tournament. Eagles, who as both a performer and a trainer, has had more influence on Australia’s current women’s wrestling scene than any other person, beat McKenzie last show in a tag match, teaming with Jessica Troy. McKenzie, who has appeared on NXT TV, will be looking to cancel out that loss, but with another promotion’s tournament at stake, obviously more than that is going into the booking decision. With that said, McKenzie will come out the victor and be in Pro Wrestling EVE’s SHE-1 this year, in what is sure to be a tremendous bout.
Prediction: Shazza McKenzie
Steel Cage Match for the PWA Heavyweight Title: Jonah Rock (c) vs. Caveman Ugg
These two clashed at last year’s Call to Arms, which Caveman Ugg won. This year, with the title on the line, and taking place inside of a cage, the stakes are much higher. Last year’s match had rave reviews, and this one will no doubt try to top it. Ugg is very underrated as a performer, and hopefully will get the recognition he deserves soon. Rock just won the title at the show in June from Eagles, and while typically it’s not a good idea to hot potato a title so quickly, I anticipate Ugg taking the gold from Rock. Rock has lots of international commitments, and while Ugg deserves more foreign bookings, he performs mostly in Australia, and will be more available to defend the title.
Prediction: Caveman Ugg
