Reckless is an indie blind spot for me. I’ve seen some of his work, but I know him more by reputation than by matches I’ve seen. He’s out first with the cheapest of cheap heat, running down ECW and Philadelphia before telling the crowd they should respect someone from Memphis, Tennessee. Blade and Berk I’ve seen a little more of but Blade especially I know more from the big clips of him jumping from high places than full matches. Berk is the defending light heavyweight champion in this match.

It’s an interesting start to the match as all three guys trade moves before moving into a three leg sweep into a dropkick standoff (with Blade doing the kip up to be fancy) and the crowd reacts well to this. All three guys trade high fives until Reckless & Blade hit a double clothesline on Berk. Reckless is great being loud and overbearing in this match as he takes a break while yelling at Blade to “kick him again.” He follows this up with a nice arm drag on Berk but Blade gets the advantage with a neck breaker.

Blade tries hitting a flipping stunner on Berk, but Berk catches him with an inverted suplex. He manages to fight Berk off only to get caught with a DDT on the apron by Reckless. Blade’s manager for some reason ends up diving on Blade, then takes a flip dive from Berk before both of them get wiped out by a tope from Reckless. Blade springboards to the top, jumps with a spin back into the ring and then flips over the top rope to complete the dive pile.

Blade flips out of a backdrop attempt from Berk and hits him with a neck breaker. He follows up by hitting a handspring into a kick on Berk before taking a pop up facebuster. Reckless drops Berk on top of Blade before hitting a springboard moonsault and a reverse DDT. He attacks Blade in the corner with shotgun knees but Blade hits a leg lariat. Reckless hits the powerbomb as Berk suplexes Blade.

Berk hits another suplex on Blade and then Reckless suplexes Berk directly onto Blade’s head which had to suck. Blade retreats up the top rope and Reckless hits a second rope cutter for another two count.

Berk sets up Reckless and Blade hits a dropkick before squashing Berk with a 450. Blade seems out of things as Reckless tries getting involved. Berk breaks up a pin but Reckless hits a tornado DDT and a double jump moonsault for another two. Berk hits a choke bomb and goes for a table. Unfortunately, the table doesn’t cooperate in closing so he goes for chairs instead. Reckless counters a TKO to brainbuster Berk through the chairs. He goes back to Blade who is still super out of things. A shove off the ropes and a tornillo gets Blade the win and the title and Blade immediately goes back to holding his head.

Final Thoughts: This was really a product of its times. The three-way moments early looked good and each guy had a moment of shine. Reckless was the most polished and he gave Berk and Blade good chances to play off his personality. He also provided a good base for the flips and Blade looked good getting tossed around by Berk. Unfortunately, after Blade got knocked out on the 450 things kind of fell apart. It felt like a fluke accident but I would have liked to see what else they had planned. **- Some good three-way spots early before this fell into a flurry of moments without much impact. This injury hurts it too and I’m looking forward to what these guys can do on another night.

This match can be found at https://independentwrestling.tv/promotion/japw

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