Venue: Wells Fargo Arena (at Arizona State University).
Location: Tempe, Arizona.
Theme Songs: “Stronger” -- The Score, “NCAA” -- 2 Chainz, and “S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)” -- The Glorious Sons.
Attendance: 14,100
Belltime: 5:00 PM MST on Thursday, April 18, 2019.
Pre-Show Panel: Jasmine Peyton, Jason Skilled, Mark Stephens, and Jun Nobunaga.
Commentators: Evita Verano and Pierre McGuire.
Ring Announcer: Niara Price.
Backstage Correspondent: London Morris.
Officials: Ichiro Yagata, Otis Burch, Amanda Aspen, and Tiana Royce.
Notable Main Roster Talent in Attendance: CM Nas, Aria Jaxon, Scott Oasis, Nate Cage, Natalie Cage, Azumi Goto, Carlos Rosso, Nathan Fiora, Stephanie Matsuda, Keelan Callihan, Christopher Sabertooth, Jeff X, Kenny Drake, Dulce Torres, Layne Kurobane.
Pre-Show Match #1: The Violent Storm (MAELSTROM & Allen Song) vs. Tokyo Riot (Ryuji & Takaaki Asano)
The pre-show festivities kicked off with a tag team bout showcasing four of OWT’s newer talents. The camera pans over to noted guest talent April Song having a front row seat to watch her younger brother and former SSW coworker to take on an exciting tandem in the form of Tokyo Riot. The arrogant young guns known as the Asano brothers show early on that they’re not above playing dirty, dishing out eye rakes and pokes in between dazzling displays of aerial ability and unbelievable agility. Allen takes the brunt of their treachery, doing his best to stay alive while Tokyo Riot makes frequent tags and cuts off the ring. Song showcases his perseverance, fighting his way back into the contest and tagging in his powerhouse of a partner. Though Takaaki would attempt to run in and save his brother from being rag-dolled by MAELSTROM, Allen would intercept the other Asano sibling, allowing the former Phantom Troupe member to pin Ryuji and pick up the win for his team.
Result: The Violent Storm defeats Tokyo Riot via pinfall.
Pre-Show Match #2: Ferdinand Gianni vs. Chance Rashid.
The flashy Chance Rashid is used to being the center of attention wherever he goes. With this being the case, he was less than enthused when Ferdinand Gianni burst onto the scene. The two men constantly jockeying for the crown of “most extra in OWT” exchanged words over the course of several weeks. Rashid would be the one to take things to the next level, costing Gianni his match against Johnny Valor and preventing him from qualifying for Ascension to the Heavens. Their Uprising match proved to be an even one, with both of the enigmatic superstars perhaps trading more verbal barbs and dazzling attempts at playing mind games than actually wrestling. After wriggling out of position for Rashid’s fisherman driver, Ferdinand leveled the Canadian with a big boot. With his opponent floored, Gianni took to the top rope, driving a diving elbow drop right through Chance’s sternum to put him away for the three-count.
Result: Ferdinand Gianni defeats Chance Rashid via pinfall.
Pre-Show Match #3: Chantal LeBeau & Sarita Cervantes vs. Yasmeen Namir & Leilani Steel.
Since coming to OWT, cousins-by-marriage Chantal LeBeau and Sarita Cervantes hadn’t necessarily been on the same page. With Chantal having been a perennial fan favorite and Sarita on the bad girl side of the dichotomy, they weren’t exactly running in the same circles. Flying solo wasn’t much of an issue for Chantal until she found herself the target of the mean girl duo of Yasmeen Namir and Leilani Steel. The two tormented her for weeks, culminating in a post-match attack one week after Chantal defeated Ruby Auriel at an OWT taping. To the shock of many, Sarita ran out and evened the odds, saving Chantal from a two-on-one beatdown. With the two seeing eye-to-eye and the match set for Uprising, the four women were ready to square off. To the surprise of no one, Namir and Steel played unfairly from the get-go, utilizing rope chokes and referee distractions to their advantage. More often than not, Chantal found herself absorbing most of the blows. A well-placed enzugiri enabled her to tag Sarita, who was on the verge of using the Curse of Curves straightjacket crossface to make Yasmeen tap out when Leilani broke it up. After a brawl, Leilani and Chantal emerged as the legal women, and Steel fell victim to the Southern Hospitality sliding reverse STO, leaving LeBeau able to snag the win for her team. After the bell, Aria Jaxon and Gia Cervantes could be seen in the front row cheering and applauding.
Result: Chantal LeBeau & Sarita Cervantes defeat Yasmeen Namir & Leilani Steel via pinfall.
Match #1: Miller Jones vs. Aengus O’Leary.
On the main card, Miller Jones and Aengus O’Leary looked to settle a rivalry that had reached a fever pitch. After Jones’ unsuccessful bid for the OWT Championship at Uprising: Chicago, O’Leary wasted no time letting his feelings be known. He felt it should’ve been him getting a crack at OWT’s grandest prize. General Manager Valentina Collins decided to entertain the claims of both men one week on OWT. If the two of them could defeat current champion Travis Montana and Clash of the Titans winner Cyrus Raine in a tag team match, she’d turn the main event of Uprising: Phoenix into a Fatal Four-Way. Jones and O’Leary lost, unable to coexist for the length of the match. The loss led to a post-match blow-up, with both men brawling and having to be separated by security. The singles meeting between the two proved to be a brutal affair, with both men clobbering each other with heavy-handed fists, stiff clotheslines, and vicious throws. Aengus saw the end in sight when he went for a Top of the Morning running bicycle knee. Though he was worse for the wear, Miller somehow managed to side-step it, doubling O’Leary over with a kick to the ribs and heaving him up for a muscle buster that would end the match.
Result: Miller Jones defeats Aengus O’Leary via pinfall.
Match #2: Taj Navid vs. Johnny Valor vs. David X Fierce vs. Ash Buoyer vs. Bethany Sharpe vs. Rebecca Sawyer vs. Kat Ricci vs. BIANCA in the OWT Ascension to the Heavens Briefcase match.
The crowd had no chance to recover from the show’s knock-down, drag-out opening match as the broadcast moved right into the first-ever OWT Ascension to the Heavens match. In the weeks leading up to the show, the field of four men and four women earned their way into the bout by virtue of winning qualifying matches. The match proved to be nothing short of a demolition derby right from the opening bell, with the eight wrestlers throwing caution to the wind all for the sake of winning. When it looked like BIANCA was about to win it all, Bethany Sharpe showed she had no qualms about tipping the ladder over. Ash Bouyer kept his chances of winning alive by using a ladder as a battering ram to lay out both Taj Navid and Rebecca Sawyer. BIANCA powerbombing Kat Ricci onto a folded up ladder kept the smaller woman out of the fray for a short while. Johnny Valor’s 450 splash from the top of the ladder to a fallen David X Fierce dazzled the audience. Cousins Valor and Ricci traded punches just short of the briefcase, ending with Kat leveling both of them with a diving cutter from those heights. Bouyer kicked a ladder out of the way just as Sharpe was reaching for the briefcase, leaving the Australian dangling from the case hooked to the rafters; unable to unhook it, she fell to the mat. With much of the field sprawled out on the mat, Fierce seized his chance to climb perhaps the only ladder that wasn’t damaged, yanking down the Ascension to the Heavens briefcase and bringing the historic inaugural incarnation of the match to an end.
Result: David X Fierce defeats Taj Navid, Johnny Valor, Ash Bouyer, Bethany Sharpe, Rebecca Sawyer, Kat Ricci, and BIANCA to win the OWT Ascension to the Heavens briefcase.
Match #3: The Blade Brothers (Aaron & Malcolm Blade) (c) vs. The Boston Air Raid (Gage & Gavin Braddock) for the OWT Tag Team Championships.
The two sets of brothers vying for the OWT Tag Team Championships were no strangers to each other, clashing time and again from the time the belts came into existence. After unseating Valhalla Death Squad at Uprising: Chicago, The Blade Brothers took on all comers on various episodes of OWT, defeating the likes of Tokyo Riot, David X Fierce and Craig Black, and Jesse Cooper and Joe Holly. The Boston Air Raid, however, was quick to remind them that they hadn’t yet defeated the only other team in OWT that could match them in terms of longevity and cohesiveness. The two teams of familiar foes found it difficult to stay one step ahead of each other in a match full of near-falls and close calls. At one point, before Aaron could be properly set up for the Boston Massacre, Malcolm was able to rescue his brother. Ultimately, Gavin would be flattened with a spinning side slam backbreaker/diving double foot stomp combo. Gage attempted to slide into the ring to break up the pin but wasn’t quite fast enough, leaving Aaron to pin Gavin and retain the titles for The Blade Brothers.
Result: The Blade Brothers (c) defeat The Boston Air Raid via pinfall to retain the OWT Tag Team Championships.
Match #4: Vanessa Santiago (c) vs. Sakuya Hirose vs. Tiffany Santana for the OWT Spirit Championship.
It was no secret that Vanessa Santiago had felt somewhat invincible after suddenly and shockingly winning the OWT Spirit Championship at Uprising: Chicago. When the number one contender’s match between Sakuya Hirose and Tiffany Santana ended in a no contest, General Manager Valentina Collins made the Uprising: Phoenix a Triple Threat. Hirose spent much of the contest being double-teamed by Santiago and Santana. However, when Santana broke up one of Santiago’s pins on Hirose, the alliance fell apart and it became every woman for herself. Never to be counted out, Hirose kept her head above water, leveling Santana with a Setouchi Curve springboard forearm and scoring a near-fall on the champion. Santana had Santiago right where she wanted her after drilling the defending titleholder with a Seeing Stars pumphandle reverse STO -- only to have the pin broken up by an Avast diving elbow from Hirose. With all three women laid out for a time, Sakuya was the first one to stir. She peeled Vanessa from the canvas, only to have Santiago launch her shoulder-first into the nearest steel ring post. This left Vanessa and Tiffany to duke it out. Santiago countered Santana’s attempt at the Santanacide sitout double-underhook powerbomb with a back body drop, going on to tap Tiffany out with The Takeover omoplata to end the match before Sakuya could intervene.
Result: Vanessa Santiago (c) defeats Tiffany Santana & Sakuya Hirose via submission to retain the OWT Spirit Championship.
Match #5: Miles Maverick (c) vs. Sebastian Fuego for the OWT Commonwealth Championship.
By hook or by crook, the unapologetically crafty and cocky Miles Maverick had extended his reign as the inaugural Commonwealth Champion up to this point, surviving a Six-Man Ladder match at Uprising: New York to win the title and defeating Taj Navid at Uprising: Chicago to retain it. Sebastian Fuego was unfazed by the idea that Maverick would try whatever he could to keep the championship. At many junctures, Miles was surprised to see that Sebastian was not as thrown by his antics as other opponents. A superkick to Miles from Sebastian knocked the champion into the official. Fuego went to lock in a high-angle cloverleaf, and while Maverick tapped out, there was no referee to call for the bell. The challenger released the hold to try and help the official to his feet just as a replacement referee charged down the ramp. In a last-ditch effort to retain his title, Maverick nailed the challenger with a low blow before laying him out with a jumping cutter to a cacophony of boos, cementing his place as the longest-reigning champion in OWT so far.
Result: Miles Maverick (c) defeats Sebastian Fuego via pinfall to retain the OWT Commonwealth Championship.
Match #6: Dani Woods (c) vs. Belle Kingsley for the OWT Women’s Championship.
After defeating Bethany Sharpe to become the inaugural OWT Women’s Champion at Uprising: New York and retaining against a very game BIANCA at Uprising: Chicago, Dani Woods’ next challenger would be Clash of the Goddesses winner Belle Kingsley. Though there was a strong sense of mutual respect between the two fan favorites, Woods did not shy away from the fact that Kingsley was looked at as the underdog here, a fact that Belle herself never shied away from. The championship match proved to be a clash of styles, with the taller and stronger Dani grounding Belle with powerslams and an Alabama slam; Kingsley, on the other hand, kept Woods off-kilter with front missile dropkicks and hurricanranas. Dani found herself going for the Gory neckbreaker she called Lost in the Woods to end the match when Belle wriggled free. The Welsh native would go on to use the Kingsley’s Crowning imploding 450 splash to flatten Woods for the three-count and become the second OWT Women’s Champion. After the final bell, the two women shook hands.
Result: Belle Kingsley defeats Dani Woods (c) via pinfall to become the NEW OWT Women’s Champion.
Match #7: Travis Montana (c) vs. Cyrus Raine for the OWT Championship.
Travis Montana’s reign as the inaugural OWT Champion could be described as nothing other than a reign of terror. In addition to toppling Jonah Masirewa to win the belt in the first place at Uprising: New York and retaining against Miller Jones at Uprising: Chicago, Montana defeated the likes of Haas Blackwell, ERUFUJI, and Mirco Djordjević on weekly broadcasts. Clash of the Titans winner Cyrus Raine had his sights firmly set on Montana from the moment his guaranteed title shot was secured. The two big men ensured that while their match would be the furthest thing from pretty, it would certainly keep the audience on the edge of their seats from the sheer amount of punishment they inflicted on one another. Raine’s body was littered with welts from being whipped into the steel steps by Montana, and the champion felt the lingering effects of being powerbombed onto the ring apron by the challenger. A spinebuster on the outside from Cyrus momentarily took the wind out of Travis’ sails, and at another point in the match, a trifecta of spinning side slam backbreakers had Raine on the defensive. The challenger’s back appeared to be on the ropes, as he used up a considerable amount of energy kicking out of two of the champion’s patented discus big boots. Preparing to end the match once and for all, Montana rushed in for a discus clothesline. Narrowly avoiding being decapitated, Raine ducked the move altogether, laying Montana out with the Raining Death sitout powerbomb to end the match and claim the OWT Championship for himself. An elated Phoenix crowd cheered and threw streamers into the ring as a triumphant Raine raised the championship overhead as the broadcast came to its end.
Result: Cyrus Raine defeats Travis Montana (c) via pinfall to become the NEW OWT Champion.