Finally it came to our main event of the evening, the third and final grudge match of the show. Both men received good reactions from the crowd as they made their way to the ring. The determination to win etched on both men’s faces. This match had become all the more important with the announcement that the winner is guaranteed to be named top seed in GFC Invitational while the loser is set to be disqualified from tournament!
Alex starts as he backs Hardaway into the corner, Hardaway does it back to him and backs off with a grin. Jones wins a brief mat wrestling exchange and starts to go after the arm. This lead to an impressive chain wrestling sequence where Hardaway blocked a kick to the arm. Jones counters an armdrag into a headscissors and then avoids a headstand dropkick. A slap exchange leads to an attempted surfboard by Alex but Hardaway gets an arm free and slams back an elbow to escape.
Strikes from both men, Hardaway avoids an enzugiri and does a victory celebration. He follows that up with a elbow and MORE celebrating. He’s trying to rile up his opponent here tonight and I think it’s starting to work! We’re seeing a different side to K-Hard here tonight.
Hardaway rakes Alex’s eyes across the rope. Alex responds with punches to the gut, snapmares Hardaway and kicks the back. Hardaway responds with one of his own, which Alex laughs off before hitting another one. Hardaway looks to respond in kind once more but hits a mule kick. Alex responds with several kicks and wheel kicks Hardaway right out of the air. They start brawling outside the ring and Alex kicks Hardaway over the rail.
Backdrop suplex gets 2. Hardaway knocks Alex to the floor when he goes up top and then hits a double axehandle to the floor. Hardaway then starts to take over with a slingshot axehandle to Alex on the apron. A back elbow sets up the spinebuster for 2!
Hardaway cuts off a comeback with a slam. Lots of strikes sets up an STO but Alex escapes with headbutts, and Hardaway tries to trade kicks. Bad idea. He switches to a gutbuster instead. Alex avoids an elbow and they start slugging it out until Hardaway runs into a roundhouse kick. Hardaway survives a diving headbutt, so Alex grabs a cross armbreaker, the AJ Lock!
Hardaway escapes and sets up the double arm DDT, Alex counters with a forearm. Alex counters the German suplex into a roll-up for 2 and gets an enzugiri.
They fight to get a big move off the top for a bit, Hardaway gets it with a Decapitation Lariat for 2!
Jones fights back into it as he puts Hardaway in a Tombstone position before falling into a powerslam. Alex goes up top, headbutts Hardaway when he tries to block him, but takes too long and misses a Shooting Star Press. Alex grabs his knee so Hardaway dropkicks it and applies a half crab. A trio of shinbreakers sets up a suplex to the floor.
Hardaway sets up Alex’s leg in the corner of the guardrails, KTFO! SICK! Alex makes it back into the ring so Hardaway rolls into the half crab again. The crowd really getting into this, the fans are split too. While K-Hard is usually the crowd favourite his actions tonight are fueled by rage and some of the fans aren’t so keen!
Hardaway tries to knock AJ out with elbows, tries the Brainbuster but settles for a gourdbuster that hurts Alex’s knee. Jones tries for the AJ-Guri but Hardaway ducks out of it. LIONSTOMP TO THE LEG! FIGURE-FOUR! That was nice. Brutal but sticking to his game plan to ground Jones!
Alex fights out and Hardaway tries to slam the legs into the post, but Alex pulls Hardaway headfirst into the post! Hardaway snaps Alex’s throat off the top rope, but Alex ducks a charging Hardaway and sends him to the floor, then just SOARS into him with a suicide dive! AWESOME!
Jones hits a missile dropkick, more kicks, sets Hardaway up top and pulls him down into a hurricanrana. Only 2! Crowd LOVES Alex right now. German Suplex connects, Alex catches a kick to the head and hits the AJ-Guri, corner forearms, BACK RAKE by Hardaway, ROUNDHOUSE KICK! JUST 2!
Hardaway drives Alex into the corner to avoid the Time to Burn, pushing him up onto the top turnbuckle.GERMAN SUPERPLEX! AGAIN ONLY 2! I admit, by this point I was joining in the “holy shit” chants that were filling the Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
Jones eventually back up tries the Time to Burn but just awkwardly drops Hardaway, Hardaway attacks the knee again, KTFO! DECAPITATION LARIAT! WILLIAMS DRIVER! CLOSEST OF 2 COUNTS!
Jones is somehow still in this and looks pumped. Hardaway tries to escape, they trade strikes on the apron, APRON BRAINBUSTER! SICK! Hardaway dumps Alex in the crowd but he JUST beats the 20 count! KNEES TO THE HEAD! KAWADA KICKS BY ALEX! KNEES! KICKS! KNEES! Brainbuster attempt but INSIDE CRADLE GETS 2! Hardaway almost had him again!
Huge strike exchange culminates in a flying lariat from Hardaway but that only gets 2. Hardaway starts slapping Jones but Alex keeps telling him to bring it, so he does with the WILLIAMS DRIVER! KICK TO THE HEAD! LIONSTOMP! ONLY 2!
AJ is really fired up and kips back up to his feet, albeit a little unsteady on his injured knee. He screams at Hardaway who goes for another Decapitation Lariat. AJ grabs him… XTREME COMBO! TIME TO BURN!! AJ LOCK!!!
K-Hard struggles, AJ pulls back even harder! And Hardaway taps!
Your winner, Alex Jones!
Unbelievable match. Could have gone either way, Hardaway gave out some punishment to Jones but he came back out of nowhere and won the match, winning himself the number one seed spot in the GFC Invitational in the process!
Hardaway looked pissed after the match and was about to leave when Alan Galpin made another appearance. He congratulated Jones on becoming the number one seed, but said he was mainly here to speak to Hardaway.
Galpin said that Rock ‘n Roll God has been released and with the earlier departure of Ole McDonald FRONTIER was a little light on competitors for the GFC Invitational. He told the Wolverhampton fans that it had been decided, before this match even started, that whoever lost would no longer be thrown out of the tournament! He stated that Hardaway’s name was back in the hat, but that he could not be seeded. This leaves the possibility that Jones and Hardaway could meet again in the opening round next month!
Jones was not happy, he was shouting across the ring at Hardaway and at Galpin. He felt this was just another example of FRONTIER kissing the ass of Kevin Hardaway. He yelled that had he lost this wouldn’t be happening.
The three men were left in the ring arguing as the show drew to a close. Wow, what a night. Firings, seedings decided, rules changed! I for one cannot wait to see who gets the seeding slots for the GFC Invitational. And then the draw itself will be made on Tuesday night, live on this website… make sure you check that out!