Empire State Wrestling Presents All I Do Is Win as they will kick off 2023 in a “big time” way at its first show of the new year. The main event match boasts a pair of longtime roster members in a match that is a “remix” of their previous encounters.
In the marquee matchup of ESW’s All I Do is Win at the Frontier Fire Hall in Niagara Falls, N.Y. this Friday, ESW Heavyweight Champion and 2022 Ilio DiPaolo Memorial Cup winner “The Remix” Kevin Bennett will defend the championship against “Big Time” Bill Collier. Although these two are familiar foes, this will be the first time Bennett and Collier squared off with this title on the line.
Empire State Wrestling Presents All I Do Is Win
As the last person standing, he secured the final spot in the Ilio DiPaolo Memorial Cup match. Valor never made it to the ring for the DiPaolo Cup match, thanks to Bennett and his crew jumping him in the entranceway and shooting a fireball in Valor’s face, leaving him incapacitated. Bennett assumed Valor’s spot and was victorious, becoming the first person to hold the DiPaolo Cup and Heavyweight Championship concurrently.
Collier earned the title shot after defeating Andrew Palace in November. The match was originally scheduled to be Collier versus ex-Ring of Honor star Dan Maff. However, Maff missed his flight the day of the event leading Collier to face Palace instead. Collier broke the news to Bennett that he was his next challenger by interrupting a Bennett and Frank Feathers’s championship photo shoot.
Check out the video of the confrontation below:
The other title match at All I Do Is Win will feature Interstate Champion “The Prize” Alec Price against “The Gift” Jason Kincaid. Price was unable to make ESW’s November event to defend the belt against “Silver Teeth Satan” Atticus Cogar. However, Price did successfully retain the title against Tre’ LaMar soon after at Northern Federation of Wrestling’s event in Ridgefield Park, N.J.
You can watch the match below
This will be Kincaid’s return to ESW after debuting in the promotion in 2017. The ex-EVOLVE star’s previous match was in a DiPaolo Cup qualifier bout against Bennett.
“Hybrid” Sean Carr will also come back at All I Do Is Win. The Binghamton, N.Y. product’s last match in ESW was in July 2021 against Valor. He will face Valor’s former tag team partner, “The Holy Hand Grenade” James Sayga, who played a strong role in helping his friend survive the Last Chance Battle Royal.
You can see what Sayga had to say about his upcoming match with Carr below.
Valor will look to right the ship after several volatile experiences over the last few ESW events when he squares off against the debuting JaXon Argos. This will be the first time they ever faced each other one-on-one. Argos is a former student of Lance Storm and is well-known for his matches with International Wrestling Cartel in Pittsburgh, Penn.
“I’ve been through a lot lately,” Valor said. “I’ve been betrayed by my brothers and hurt by anyone I felt close to. But I can’t let that keep me down. I keep pushing ahead and looking to challenge myself against the best competition out there. ESW has provided me with that in JaXon Argos. Whatever I’m going through, I can’t lose focus and allow Argos to knock me down even further. All I do is win, and that’s exactly how 2023 is going to start for Vince Valor.”
In another first ever matchup, CXR (Chael Connors and T.J. Epixx) will face the Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller and Kylon King) in tag team action. CXR failed to capture the ESW Tag Team Championships in November in a triple threat match versus the reigning champs High Seas and Edge of Hope. The Miracle Generation made their ESW debuts in October facing The Sin & The Sentence.
“This match is a great opportunity to prove that we can hang with one of the best tag teams on the indies today,” Connors said.
All three members of Edge of Hope (Cerin Rahne, Mattick, and Jeremiah Richter) will be in action together in a three-on-three bout. They will face the team of The Sin & The Sentence (“Rockstar” Robby Vegas and Delsin Alekzander) and “Filthy” Maxx Cannon.
Edge of Hope called out their All I Do Is Win opponents below.
Vegas, Alekzander, and Cannon responded to Edge of Hope in this clip:
“Blue Thunder” Jay Freddie will be in action. After coming close to winning the DiPaolo Cup in November, Freddie will look to regain his winning ways against the debuting BEEF. A staple of the Midwestern U.S. indie wrestling scene, BEEF is also known under the name “Gnarls Garvin” and wrestled for Major League Wrestling.
“2022 was indeed a comeback story for me not just in ESW but other promotions, as well, and coming up just short of the ESW title has made me more hungrier to chase the top spot in ESW,” Freddie said. “While my eyes are on Kevin Bennett, I need to take one match at a time and BEEF is a human wrecking machine. He is a man beast and has been tearing it up all over the indies. But everyone knows my track record and I love to fight and I will do what I do best: impose my will to win!”
A 5-way scramble match is set for All I Do Is Win. The bout features one half of the ESW Tag Team Champions “Your Captain” Nick Ando, Vinnie Moon, “The Big Bang” Jerk Cockins, plus the debuting Chase Oliver and Aaron West. In November, Moon was involved in an impromptu match versus Cogar who searched for his own opponent to face that night. Cockins will return to ESW after losing to “Courageous” Christina Marie in October. Oliver fights out of Cleveland, Ohio and is a mainstay of Absolute Intense Wrestling. West is a regular within the West Virginia independent wrestling scene.
Christina Marie will also return to ESW at All I Do Is Win. After posting a slew of impressive victories in 2022, she will look to bring her successful ways into the new year.
Rounding out the scheduled card, Feathers will lock horns with Buffalo Wrestling Academy student Darren Crowe. This will be Feathers’s first ESW match since smashing Valor in the head with a bottle in October and joining Bennett’s crew. Meanwhile, Crowe will come to ESW after wrestling a slew of matches across Western New York over the last year.
“Going into this match, I will not back down from a challenge,” Crowe said. “All of my training has prepared me for this. Frank Feathers, it’s on!”
First and second-row tickets are sold out. General Admission tickets are available for $20 at ESWTIX.com. Ticket prices rise to $25 on event day. Doors open at 6 p.m. with a bell-time set for 7 p.m. All I Do Is Win’s afterparty will be held at Mooney’s on Main in Tonawanda, N.Y.
