Paradigm Pro: Fighting Spirit Heavyweight Grand Prix Recap

"The General" John Mosley recaps all of the UWFI Rules action from Paradigm Pro Wrestling's Fighting Spirit Heavyweight Grand Prix last Friday night.

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For the first time in 25 years, UWFI rules returned to the USA with a bang. Actually, the rules returned with all the bangs…as in this show, from start to finish, was full of beatdown, black-and-blue kinds of bangers. With a total of eleven bouts, including two under traditional wrestling rules, the show was packed but it never felt like too much. It was an absolute home run, y’all. Now, let’s talk about these matches a little. I’m not gonna go into incredible detail mainly because I feel like y’all really should go out of your way to see this show. I also didn’t take notes as well as usual since I was completely enthralled by these matchups. 

Myron Reed vs. Lexus Montez: The opening contest was one of the two that would be under traditional wrestling matches. This one was hot hot hot but it took the crowd a couple of minutes to get into it. I feel like the audience thought this was gonna be under UWFI rules, so once they realized they were being blessed with a real heater from these two, they got into it. Lexus is solid and brings a style totally his own. He brought the fight to Myron but it wasn’t meant to be as Reed would snag the win, though Lexus nearly snagged that dub on a couple of occasions. I just need to say this: Myron is soooooo got damn good. Every match I’ve seen of his the last few months I’ve left saying “he’s the fucking guy.” After this showing, I stand by that thought. 

HW Grand Prix Round 1: Erick Stevens vs. Derek Neal – Hell of a matchup to welcome UWFI rules back. When Derek Neal hit the first suplex of the night and the crowd went crazy, you just felt it. Neal used his size and power to build up a big lead on points until he was caught by the experienced Stevens with some wicked submission work. Stevens to the second round via submission. 

HW Grand Prix Round 1: JD Drake vs. Dominic Garrini – This was my match of the weekend and will without a doubt be in my ‘match of the year’ discussion. An incredible fight from start to finish. On paper, there was no doubt Dom was the favorite with his background. Drake doesn’t give a fuck about any of that, though. JD absolutely beat the hell out of Dominic for a hot minute. I found myself thinking “MY GOD” on multiple occasions. Then when it seemed that Drake was just about to hammer the nail in the Dom coffin, we see the fight intelligence of Garrini shine. He catches Drake in a submission out of nowhere leading to the victory. Incredible stuff here. 

HW Grand Prix Round 1: Lee Moriarty vs. Calvin Tankman – There is some history with these two at Paradigm so even though this style of match felt very favorable to Tankman, I knew not to count Lee out. A little bit of this match was just Moriarty trying to keep out of Calvin’s reach. Lee took some damage, but stayed alive until he saw the opportunity to strike. After some nasty offense, Lee hits an axe kick that would make any executioner proud. In a stunner (for some), Moriarty by knockout. 

HW Grand Prix Round 1: Anthony Henry vs. Brett Ison – This was a matchup that had everyone fired up. What transpired was a real clinic for Anthony Henry. Don’t get me wrong – Ison took the fight to one of the most well rounded guys in this tournament. Henry fought smart and violently efficient. The difference ended up being the leg kicks being hurled by Henry. Brett attempted to check a few, but it didn’t really matter against those tree cutters. Anthony Henry via TKO. This match felt as real as it gets. 

UWFI Rules Superfight: [Paradigm Champion] AJ Gray vs. [Paradigm Tag Champion] Bobby Beverly – The majority of this match was AJ throwing a beating. Bev is as tough as they come and that showed as he took an unbelievable amount of damage with the highlight being a nasty spinning kick that AJ landed clean. I thought it was over. Not only was it not over, but Bev got back to his feet and caught Gray with a guillotine on a takedown attempt. Bobby Beverly wins in an absolute shocker. Big time shout out to Bev for this performance. 

Bradley Prescott IV vs. Blake Christian: This was absolutely wild. I’m a big, big fan of both these dudes and this was one I’ve been after for a while now. Didn’t expect to get it on this show, which has me saying again that wrestling in 2019 is absolutely loco in every great way possible. They flew all over the place, which had my brain freaking out after seeing so many fights in a row. BPIV proves once again that he is the Ace of Paradigm Pro with a huge win. Really hope this one doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of this jam packed weekend. 

HW Grand Prix Semi: Erick Stevens vs. Dominic Garrini – Maybe my second favorite match of the tournament as both men (to absolutely no one’s surprise) brought the goddamn fight. Very rarely is a match both tough AND tuff but this was exactly that. Two badasses that match up in so many ways just taking it to one another. Garrini once again shows the toughness and intelligence needed to succeed in this style of tournament, leading to our first referee stoppage of the night. This finish ruled. 

HW Grand Prix Semi: Lee Moriarty vs. Anthony Henry – Two long fighters that tried to use that at different times in the fight. I mean both guys look straight out of street fighter, especially once they are in their stance. Henry had to be the favorite going in, but as he always does, Lee showed that he’s got plenty of fight in him. Henry gets the win via submission leaving us with a hell of a finals to look forward to. 

UWFI Superfight: Stephan Bonnar vs. Matthew Justice – Good fucking lord. That’s really all I’ve got on this one because all of the shit hit the fan in this fight. The two were fighting so wild-like that they ended up on the outside..as in they fell through the ropes because they were so focused on hitting the other person in the face. Legends. Once Bonnar got in a flow, it was all over. A nasty spinning kick landed on the button by Bonnar was the highlight, along with him taking everything Justice threw along the way. The guy is a terminator. Post-match, Bonnar said he respected Justice for fighting by his rules, so he’d love to come back and fight by Justice’s rules aka hardcore as fuck. Super cool shit. Both these guys. 

Fighting Spirit Heavyweight Grand Prix Finals: Dominic Garrini vs. Anthony Henry – This tourney was packed with guys you thought could win the whole thing, but this felt like the perfect finals matchup. The striking of Anthony Henry vs. the jiu jitsu and sheer violence of Dominic Garrini. This felt like a main event fight because it WAS a main event fight. The two attempted to push their brand of violence on the other. One of my favorite moments was Dom on the ground trying to get Anthony to come to his world. You could see Henry think about it hard for a split second until better judgement took over. With Henry having a big lead on points, Garrini once again took  a small opening that led him to taking over with his submission work for the win. The first ever Fighting Spirit Heavyweight Grand Prix champion is “The Bone Collector” Dominic Garrini. 

The Paradigm crew should be very proud of the show they put on. They had the right idea and the right talent to put on one of the best shows of the year. Every match delivered in one way or another, so I just want to shout out everyone featured once again. I always ask the car load what everyone’s favorite match was and this was the first time maybe all year that everyone had a different MOTN. A complete home run folks. PPW will be back in action this Friday (11/22) with Regulate, a traditional show featuring Dominic Garrini vs. Myron Reed, Calvin Tankman vs. Matthew Justice, AJ Gray putting the Paradigm Championship on the line against Cole Radrick, and much more! 

John Mosley is “The General” of the SoBros Network – covering independent wrestling, college football, sports, and a myriad of topics. He graduated from ETSU with a degree in Radio, TV and Film along with a minor in Film Studies. Since graduating he’s done pretty much nothing but watch, film, edit or commentate for local wrestling promotions and is the current color commentator for Resolute Wrestling. #Preds #Titans #DefendOrVacateConor Follow on Twitter: @SoBroMose.

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