The main event was the 14th annual Gauntlet for the Gold match in which 30 wrestlers participate and the winner is the last man standing after the 29 competitors are thrown over the top rope.
- Tre LaMar pinned Façade after hitting a headlock driver to win a six-pack scramble match also involving Lee Moriarty, Zach Thomas, Louis Lyndon and Wheeler Yuta
- MJF (Maxwell Jacob Friedman) beat Shane Douglas (with Francine) when Big Twan Tucker hit Douglas with a chair while referee Dave Dawson was down.
- AIW Tag Team Champions To Infinity and Beyond (Colin Delaney and Cheech) defeated La Familia De Tijuana (Damian 666 and Bestia 666) when Delaney pinned Damian 666 with a rollup.
- DJZ (final AIW appearance) pinned Deranged after hitting a diving DDT in a fatal four-way match also involving Flip Kendrick and Gringo Loko.
Afterward, DJZ thanked the crowd and described how much he loved wrestling for AIW since 2005. Several wrestlers came to the ring from the locker room to salute DJZ who will soon be wrestling exclusively for WWE.
INTERMISSION
- Joshua Bishop (with Wes Barkley) pinned AIW Intense Champion Matthew Justice to win the title after Barkley hit Justice with several chair shots and Bishop hit the crucifix bomb onto a chair for the win.
AIW Intense Champions
1 Starless 03/26/2006 This Is Now 2 Dios Salvador 04/30/2006 Set It Off 3 Jay Violence 07/16/2006 Die Hard 4 Starless 10/07/2006 #HOE2 5 Tyler Black 05/20/2007 #ABSO2 6 Johnny Gargano 05/25/2008 Absolution 3: Guerrilla Warfare 7 Jimmy DeMarco 12/15/2008 Night of Intensity: Intense Title Tournament 8 Johnny Gargano 02/28/2009 Gauntlet for the Gold 4 9 Josh Prohibition 05/15/2009 #GNO1 10 Façade 08/28/2009 Honor and Vengeance 11 Chris Dickinson 12/19/2009 Nightmare Before X-Mas 3: 50th Show Celebration 12 Shiima Xion 06/27/2010 #ABSO5 13 Marion Fontaine 11/26/2010 #HOE6 14 Bobby Beverly 10/02/2011 They Live 15 B.J. Whitmer 07/01/2012 #ABSO7 16 Louis Lyndon 08/30/2013 Gleaming the Cube 17 Davey Vega 06/29/2014 #ABSO9 18 Gregory Iron 09/11/2015 Faith No More 19 Jerry 12/18/2015 Keep The Change, You Filthy Animal 20 Alex Daniels 04/08/2016 Forgot About Dre 21 Joey Janela 07/17/2017 #ABSO12 22 Tim Donst 07/27/2018 #ABSO13 23 Matthew Justice 11/23/2018 #HOE14 23 Joshua Bishop 4/26/2019 #GFTG14
- Mance Warner (with The Duke, substituting for Nick Gage) beat Eddie Kingston after hitting a clothesline.
- Josh Prohibition pinned M-Dogg Matt Cross after hitting the Drunken Driver on a table.
- Eddie Kingston won the 30 Man "Gauntlet For The Gold 14" Main Event and securing a title shot against the AIW Absolute Champion in the main event of Absolution 14. Kingston was the 28th entrant in the match last eliminating Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
Afterward, Kingston told a story how he contemplated retirement in 2019 but he will continue to wrestle until he wins the AIW Absolute title. He proceeded to challenge the champion Filthy Tom Lawlor at the Absolution XIV event in July.
Order of Appearance:
- Mance Warner (with The Duke) at 0:00
- Joey Janela at 0:00
- Eric Ryan at 1:43
- Eddy Only at 3:23
- T-Money at 5:02
- Zach Thomas at 6:49
- Marino Tenaglia at 8:29
- Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham (with Parker Pierce) at 10:10
- Razor Sharpe at 12:23
- Ryder Reid at 15:57
- Dominic Garrini at 17:06
- PB Smooth at 18:41
- Philly Collins at 19:21
- Marion Fontaine at 22:00 - Fontaine has participated in all 14 Gauntlet for the Gold matches
- Matthew Justice at 23:30
- Wes Barkley at 24:46
- Derek Director at 26:48
- Joshua Bishop at 28:45
- Louis Lyndon at 29:42
- Jerry at 31:15
- "Weird Body" Evan Adams at 32:43
- "World Wide" Alex Kellar at 33:50
- MJF at 35:10
- Nasty Russ Myers at 37:17
- Tim Donst at 38:42
- Bobby Beverly at 40:08
- Spyder Nate Webb at 41:33
- Eddie Kingston at 45:05
- Big Twan Tucker at 47:00
- Kaplan at 48:44
Order of Elimination:- Eric Ryan by Warner
- Eddy Only by Janela
- Marino Tenaglia by T-Money
- Façade by DCR with help from Pierce
- Zach Thomas by Smooth
- T-Money by Smooth
- Ryder Reid by DCR with help from Pierce
- Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham by Fontaine
- Wes Barkley by Justice
- Philly Collins by Smooth
- Joshua Bishop & Matthew Justice eliminated each other
- Joshua Bishop & Matthew Justice eliminated each other
- Derek Director by Janela
- PB Smooth by Weird World
- Both members of Weird World by MJF
- Both members of Weird World by MJF
- Dominic Garrini by Donst
- Marion Fontaine
- Jerry by MJF
- Nasty Russ Myers
- Louis Lyndon
- Bobby Beverly by Kaplan
- Tim Donst by Kaplan
- SpyderNate Webb by Tucker
- Kaplan by Warner & Tucker
- Big Twan Tucker by Warner
- Joey Janela by Warner
- Mance Warner by Kingston
- MJF by Kingston
- Mance Warner (with The Duke) at 0:00
AIW Gauntlet for the Gold History
- 12/11/2005 Michael Hutter aka Ethan Carter III
- 12/17/2006 Raymond Rowe
- 2/24/2008 Sterling James Keenan aka Corey Graves
- 2/28/2009 Jimmy DeMarco
- 2/19/2010 Facade, Johnny Gargano, Sterling James Keenan, and Tommy Mercer
- 2/18/2011 Tim Donst
- 3/02/2012 Johnny Gargano
- 3/29/2013 Colin Delaney
- 3/14/2014 Tim Donst
- 3/20/2015 Rickey Shane Page
- 3/18/2016 Josh Prohibition
- 3/24/2017 Louis Lyndon
- 3/23/2018 "Hot Sauce" Tracy Williams
- 4/26/2019 Eddie Kingston
 |
| The six competitors in the opening match. |
 |
| Josh Prohibition and M-Dogg 20 Matt Cross |
 |
| Eddie Kingston challenges AIW Absolute Champion Filthy Tom Lawlor after winning the Gauntlet for the Gold 14 main event. |
HITS
Shane Douglas and Francine Great to see the Franchise again. Francine still looks great and both of them appeared to have a good time. The match with MJF was OK. I like the back and forth mic work between the two. I didn't know Big Twan Tucker and MJF were in cahoots so I'm curious to see what's next with those two. Douglas talked a lot about the old ECW days and paid tribute to the deceased Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Candido.
DJZ The match with DJZ, Deranged, Flip Kendrick and Gringo Loko was OK. This hit is for the celebration afterward. Like Johnny Gargano and Raymond Rowe, AIW makes a point of celebrating when one of their regulars signs a contract with WWE. It's a nice tradition that hopefully continues many more times.
Josh Prohibition vs. M-Dogg Matt Cross It was 20 years ago almost to the day when these two made their pro wrestling debuts against each other. We have seen this match many times in the past but it's still special when these guys work together. They did the same finish at Absolution IX but that's OK - a piledriver on a table is still a cool bump.
Gauntlet for the Gold match AIW has done a great job booking this Royal Rumble style match over the years and this was no exception. It's a challenge designing a hour long match to make things interesting and promoter John Thorne managed to do it again.
First off was the surprise return of Joey Janela and the showdown with Mance Warner (including the theme music from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). Then it was the AIW debut of Razor Sharpe. Then Marion Fontaine's obligatory appearance. Then it was Matthew Justice getting revenge on Wes Barkley and Joshua Bishop. Then AIW Superstar Jerry made a surprise appearance (he previously announced his retirement at Absolution XI). Spyder Nate Webb made an appearance and proceeded to walk around the gym with Joey Janela interacting with the fans until MJF grabbed the microphone and demand the theme music stop. Finally, Kaplan entered the match at number 30 with his safety first gear and had a confrontation with Tim Donst.
I liked it when ring announcer Steve Guy announced the final four competitors of Janela, Warner, MJF and Eddie Kingston. Yes, there was a lot of clowning around in the match but with the announcement, it allowed the match to reset and now things are serious. Identifying who the final four wrestlers are also tells the fans which guys are big deal and a preview of who is going to get pushed in the coming months.
Eddie Kingston wins Before the show, I thought Kingston vs. Filthy Tom Lawlor would be a cool Absolution XIV main event. However, I thought of the four remaining wrestlers, Kingston was the least likely to win. After Kingston eliminated Warner, it looked like MJF was going to steal the win but Kingston reversed the momentum and threw MJF over the top rope - so the finish was a big surprise.
Kingston has been an AIW regular for a number of years and has main evented some shows but has been mostly a mid-carder. A nostalgic main event run for Kingston seems pretty fresh.
MISSES
Joshua Bishop wins AIW Intense Championship I know I'm supposed to feel angry when a heel uses underhanded tactics to win but this sucked. Wes Barkley was in Bishop's corner and interjected himself so many times it was joke and just plain dumb.
The other real annoying part of this match is the duplicate booking: (1) referee Dave "The Potato" Dawson takes a ref bump (2) outside interference with a chair (3) referee counts to three. All of this happened earlier in the night when MJF wrestled Shane Douglas. In addition, Matthew Justice gave Bishop a Death Valley Driver from the ramp to a table that didn't break so they did the spot again. By that time, I lost interest.
Six-pack scramble This type of match has been a regular at AIW shows for several years now and usually get a "Hit" when I write reviews due to the high spots and story telling. This one was just there. Nothing special. I'd like to think winning one of these types of matches means something down the road but it usually doesn't. Tre LaMar was probably chosen to win because it was his turn.
I have a college degree.pic.twitter.com/mgHpRwywk6— Son Of Havoc (@MDoggMattCross) April 27, 2019
Happy Birthday @RealBrittBaker https://t.co/MlPPoZYdep— Eric Girod (@EricHGirod) April 26, 2019
— MKUltra (@DeathRow3883) April 27, 2019
AIW: The Slumber Party Massacre
4/4/2019 Jersey City, NJ results courtesy of sobrosnetwork.com; review
- La Familia De Tijuana (Damian 666 and Bestia 666) defeated The Young Studs (Eric Ryan and Bobby Beverly) in a Mexican Death Match when Bestia pinned Ryan after hitting the Death Valley Driver through a fork door.
- Joshua Bishop beat "The Bone Collector" Dominic Garrini in a Submit or Surrender match when Bishop threatened to set Garrini on fire and leading to surrender.
- AIW Tag Team Champions To Infinity and Beyond (Colin Delaney and Cheech) defeated The Philly Marino Experience (Philly Collins and Marino Tenaglia), The Production (Eddie Only and Derek Director) and The Jollyville Fuck-Its (T-Money and Nasty Russ Myers).
- Shinjiro Otani beat Eddie Kingston
Up next was a scheduled match between Scott Steiner and Swoggle. Steiner announced that he had brought his own little person to fight Swoggle and out came Cabana Man Dan. While Swoggle had Cabana Man Dan in the Steiner Recliner, Scott Steiner got involved which led to ....
- Scott Steiner defeated Swoggle via Steiner Recliner submission.
- Colt Cabana & Space Monkey (substituting for Grado) defeated Ethan Page & MJF when Cabana pinned MJF. The start of the match was delayed because MJF was grounded by his father, Cabana. Page asked Cabana for permission to wrestle but only if MJF came to Cabana's music.
- Nick Gage pinned Mance Warner (with The Duke) after hitting a couple of piledrivers.
- Filthy Tom Lawlor defeated AIW Absolute Champion PB Smooth via rear naked choke submission to win the title in a fatal four-way also involving Tim Donst and AIW Intense Champion Matthew Justice.
AIW: Wrestle Rave
3/28/2019 Lakewood, Ohio results courtesy of @WrestlingCheers
- Ryder Reid beat Victor Benjamin (with Lady Frost) after hitting a piledriver.
- Parker Pierce beat Rex Brody after assistance from Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham
- The Philly Marino Experience (Philly Collins and Marino Tenaglia) defeated Ethan Page & Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham after hitting the Sunset Dreams
- Allie Kat pinned Kylie Rae (AIW debut) after reversing a piledriver attempt.
- Zach Thomas pinned Michael Austin Wardlow after hitting a powerbomb.
- Session Moth and Weird World ("Weird Body" Evan Adams and "World Wide" Alex Kellar) beat The Production (Derek Director, Danhausen and Eddy Only) after a triple team piledriver on a chair.
- "The Bone Collector" Dominic Garrini defeated Wes Barkley via knockout
- AIW Intense Champion Matthew Justice pinned G-Raver after hitting a Death Valley Driver from the top rope through a table set on fire.
Tonight @collins__philly and @MindsofMarino are forced to come back to reality. #DCR #RuleNumber1 #KeysToSuccess #TrustTheProcess @OfficialEGO @aiwrestling pic.twitter.com/txflj9oBkG— Dr. Dan (@DrDanDCR) March 28, 2019
Less than 24 hours @aiwrestling & @ryder_reid. ⏳@RealSavageGent and I show you exactly what you’ve been missing, all this time. 🕰 pic.twitter.com/ie4KPamOKT— Lady Frost (@RealLadyFrost) March 28, 2019
Aiw is the best end of discussion. @aiwrestling @ThrashJustice @StaySickGRAVER pic.twitter.com/qnJ12r46Kw— Russell Williams JR (@HalGrayson) March 29, 2019
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