Another Friday, another 365 Pro Wrestling throwdown. Apparently there's been a round robin tournament for the 365 Cup that a bunch of us were unaware was happening. Luckily we got some clarifying announcements and the round robin is nearly done. The winner will win the 365 Cup and get a title shot, I believe? I could be wrong on this. I have a hard time hearing a lot of the mic work from years of working at and covering concerts. Protect your fucking ears, kids.

DJ Kash vs Sawyer Stein
Very stoked for this one as I'm always a big fan of a Face vs Face opener and these two are both big time good guys. Starting out with some solid grappling – haven't seen headlock-trading look so good in a minute. Kash hits a shockingly large shoulder block on the much thicker Stein. Stein responds with a thunderous clothesline but misses a splash right after. Kash comes off the ropes while Stein is down and hits a very strange low blockbuster. Around this point an incredibly mean fan in the crowd yelled at Stein, “You can't lose to a child!” After a huge vertical suplex from Stein sends Kash crashing into the mat, the two trade some pretty hard-hitting forearms to each other. Single-knee Codebreaker from Stein (I'm sure this move has a proper name, but damned if I know it!) shows Kash whose knee is the boss. Kash eventually gets his momentum back and goes up to the second rope to finish Stein off but is met with Sawyer's lovely and devastating superkick. 1-2-3. Stein wins! (365 Cup Match win = 2 points)

Eddie Osbourne (c) vs Becky Beech – 365 Pro Wrestling Championship
Becky isn't allowed to challenge for the 365 Women's Championship as long as it sits with Dash Dauntless, so she's set her eyes on all the other belts in the company and she's starting against the Don, the 365 Pro Wrestling Champion, big Eddie Osbourne. Obsourne comes out to many boos after last week's brutal attack on Beech and Dauntless. It's 100% heel hours when Osbourne is out. Once in the ring, Osbourne declares that it's the fans' fault if he kills Becky. Classic gaslighting abuser stuff. Becky comes out hot, smashing Eddie, but he puts the brakes on Becky's assault and takes control with big slams and big splash. Eddie goes up onto the ropes for some reason (Forgive me if I'm doubtful of Osbourne's aerial abilities) and gets caught by Beech who pulls him down with a ginormous Samoan drop. Then she hits him with that lovely low Meteora I love so much, but Eddie is once again having none of it as he kicks out and smashes Beech with a driver for the win. Deciding he hasn't been brutal enough, he goes for a second driver as a chorus of boos raining down on him but Beech hits some elbows to Eddie's dome and breaks free and hits him with a low blow. HE DE-SERVED IT! HE DE-SERVED IT!

Josh Cadwell vs Lak Siddartha (w. Ramone Carlton)
This is a round robin match and we were informed before the match that Josh Cadwell was coming in with a big goose egg on the tournament scoreboard. 0 points for the former 365 Global Champion is insane. Cadwell gets attacked mid-disrobe by the monstrous Lak, his silky robe flying around, ruining everyone's vision. Wrestling in the robe looks cool as fuck, but is understandably not a particularly safe thing to do. This is pretty much all Lak for the first part of the match, with Cadwell getting absolutely battered. But things change when Cadwell STEALS THE AMULET from Ramone. Hell yes. This is the kind of shit I was missing when I was complaining about the amulet last week. Give us some Amulet Lore®! Cadwell is straight up dominant while in possession of the amulet. Unfortunately, for some reason, he throws the amulet back at Ramone and immediately loses his momentum. Lak hits a huge chokeslam and only gets a two-count. But the Lord's Warrior follows that up right away with a huge F5 on Cadwell and gets the win. Not only does Cadwell finish the tournament with zero points, he gets hammered with two more F5s after the bell! Booooooo Lak. Bad snap. (365 Cup Match win = 2 points)

Johnny DeLuca vs Rad Dad
This match was challenging to take notes during. It's been too long since Victoria has had the pleasure of watching Johnny DeLuca wrestle. He is an absolute specimen of wrestling, whipping the audience back and forth with his fantastic in-ring work and his genuinely hilarious, over-the-top heel antics. (He wrestled the next night for NEW in Vancouver and during that show a friend messaged me to tell me that he'd never seen someone turn a crowd as fast as DeLuca did. This tracks.) DeLuca comes out like lightning, kicking and smashing Rad Dad into the turnbuckle and taking him down to Big Chop City. DeLuca misses a leg drop on the ring apron as the action spills out of the ring. He has “injured” his leg on the miss. DeLuca is such a good wrestler and he is so fucking funny while doing it. “Don't chase me!” “I'm hurt! I can't walk!” He called our city VANCOUVER and then angrily yelled “Don't correct me on geography!” upon being corrected by the crowd. Help, I can't breathe. As they move the action back into the ring, DeLuca hits a picturesque dropkick on Rad Dad and then follows it up with a angry flip /kip-up thing. Just too smooth with it. Homie so fast and moves with so much force. CRISP, that's the word. Despite all this space I've used to praise DeLuca, he cannot overcome the mighty Rad Dad, who wins with his Buckshot Lariat and Lionsault. (Does Rad Dad have dad-specific names for these moves? I don't know!) Please, come back soon, Mr Johnny DeLuca.

Haviko & Zack Andrews vs Good Thelonious & ???
Thelonious declares that he is here to take on the former Fallen Circus teammates all by his lonesome. This will be a handicap match, apparently! Thelonious starts out making Haviko clap against his will. Genuinely funny shit. Thelonious is full of hilarious offence, including a great 10-spot smashing his opponent's head into the turnbuckle. Then the Mitten Train takes off as Thelonious runs from corner to corner only to lay out his enemy with a...double axehandle smash. Haviko and Andrews weather the early Thelonious storm and take control with quick tags and hard offence. Haviko gets Thelonious in the always-devastating abdominal stretch and as Thelonious struggles against the pain, he calls for...STEIN TIME! Out comes the plant and carpet, the set pieces that help bring Stein Time to life and all of a sudden, 365's #1 talk show is happening in the middle of this match! Questions are asked of all participants, including, and especially, those in abdominal stretches. Sawyer ends Stein Time by announcing that he will join Thelonious and turn this handicap match into a proper tag match, quoting the legend Teddy Long in the process. Sawyer gets the hot tag and after battering the once-Fallen Circus, he kisses Petunia! Zack furiously throws Sawyer out of the ring after the kiss and then he and Haviko proceed to get DQed almost immediately as they smash Thelonious into the trunk that is also the gateway to the Fifth Dimension. The win isn't important to Andrews. He's trying to soften up Thelonious for Mitten Mayhem tomorrow...

Inferno (c) vs Steven Bradley – 365 Combat Championship
Steven Bradley is back and he's fighting for gold! We start with lots of excellent face vs face antics. We got a muscle pose-off, which Bradley definitely wins. Sorry, Inferno. We got a test of strength. We get some excellent collar and elbow lock ups. We get Inferno cheekily tying together the tassels on the boots of Bradley, causing him to fall hilariously. At one point Inferno ends up in the arms of big Steven Bradley and we get a kiss! A KISS! Yesssss. In amongst all the fun, there's still a great wrestling match happening, as Inferno hits a springboard European uppercut. Bradley retaliates with a pop up lariat. Honestly, this was another match that I was just so engrossed in that my note-taking kinda failed. These guys just both rule so hard. Bradley hit a big lariat that turned Inferno inside out. Inferno hit a beautiful suicide dive to the outside and a brutal running double stomp on Bradley once they were back in the ring. A ref bump! Oh no! Bradley looks like he's won with a huge powerslam but there is no ref to count! An evil wild Haviko appears and hits his enemy Inferno with a Killswitch. (Big fan of Haviko yelling “Killswitch!” before hitting the Killswitch.) By the time the ref comes to, Steven Bradley is laying on top of the decimated Inferno and the count is made. 1-2-3! Steven Bradley is the new Combat Champion! A person sitting next to me says “Not like this.” And I am quick to say it doesn't matter, because 365 gold belongs to STEVEN F'n BRADLEY! What a way to end a great night of wrestling.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for WRESTLING.

Random Notes
- The 365 Cup tournament ends with a three-way tie between Sawyer Stein, Lak Siddartha and DJ Kash. There will be a triple threat match to determine the winner.

- Steven Bradley lost the Combat Championship to Sawyer Stein the very next night, but Steven Bradley Nation will always have those sweet 22.5 hours to cherish.