Last rites — Blackout’s final predictions for AWF Overdrive XIII
The talking is over. The threats have been made. On AWF’s biggest night of the year, championships, grudges and careers collide — and Blackout has made its final calls.
There is nothing left to preview.
No more staredowns. No more promises. No more wondering what happens when the doors open and AWF Overdrive XIII begins.
Some wrestlers will leave Phoenix with championships. Others will leave with excuses. A few may not leave as the same people who walked in.
Blackout has watched the paths that brought them here.
These are our last rites.
Gabe Roka survives — but JC Westerfield won’t forget how
Prediction: Gabe Roka retains the AWF Heavyweight Championship
Cash Cartier can steal a match in seconds. JC Westerfield can dismantle one. Gabe Roka has built his reign by surviving both kinds of danger.
Blackout sees Roka leaving with the championship — but JC Westerfield does not get pinned.
Somebody else takes the fall, leaving Westerfield to watch another man carry away the title he believes belongs to him without ever actually beating him.
That isn’t closure.
That’s gasoline.
Roka retains, Westerfield leaves pissed and the championship story gets darker.
Chubby Depp climbs out of the wreckage with gold
Prediction: Chubby Depp and Juicy Finau win the AWF Tag Team Championships
Tables. Ladders. Chairs.
Aerospace. Lights, Camera, Faction. Juicy Finau.
And Chubby Depp standing somewhere inside the wreckage looking completely comfortable.
A traditional match might favor the champions. Overdrive XIII isn’t giving them one.
Chaos has always suited Chubby, and now he has one of the most imposing partners imaginable beside him in a match where nobody needs to be pinned to lose.
Blackout sees bodies everywhere, ladders broken and tables collapsed.
When the smoke clears, Chubby Depp has the belts.
However he has to get them.
The filthy dog finally gets his championship
Prediction: Da Goosh defeats King Khan for the AWF Unleashed Championship
Some wrestlers endure stipulations.
Others discover themselves inside them.
Da Goosh belongs attached to a chain.
He already knows the violence of a dog collar match. This time, the AWF Unleashed Championship waits at the end of it.
King Khan won’t go quietly, and this match shouldn’t look pretty. It should look miserable. It should hurt to watch.
Somewhere inside the chain marks, blood and exhaustion, Blackout believes Goosh becomes exactly what we’ve always suspected he was:
A filthy dog with a championship around his waist.
Alex Salyers’ comeback becomes a streak
Prediction: Alex Salyers defeats Marty Snow for the AWF State Championship
Marty Snow made this personal before the championship ever entered the conversation.
He attacked Alissa Jade. SOS intervened. Then Alex Salyers appeared.
Suddenly, Snow wasn’t just holding the AWF State Championship. He was standing in the path of somebody rebuilding himself.
Salyers has already started the comeback. At Overdrive XIII, it becomes a streak.
Not the old Alex Salyers. Not somebody chasing yesterday.
Something new.
Salyers takes the championship, and his comeback becomes everybody else’s problem.
Hudson Envy brings the fight. SOS brings too much.
Prediction: SOS defeats Hudson Envy
Hudson Envy isn’t entering Overdrive XIII to play victim.
She’ll fight SOS, make him earn it and probably create moments when this prediction looks completely wrong.
Then SOS takes over.
Sometimes courage closes the gap. Other times, the obstacle across from you is simply too much.
Hudson gives SOS everything she has.
SOS wins anyway.
Taylor Kingsley learns the lesson — and steals the biggest win of his career
Prediction: Taylor Kingsley defeats Charles Cassus with a flash pin
JC Westerfield already taught Taylor Kingsley what happens when one mistake becomes an opening.
Now Kingsley faces an even bigger problem in Charles Cassus.
He can’t overpower Cassus, and he won’t last long trading punishment with him. So he shouldn’t try.
Blackout sees Cassus controlling the fight while Kingsley waits for the smallest opening.
Then it comes.
One flash pin. One. Two. Three.
Kingsley steals the biggest victory of his career and escapes before the giant fully understands what happened.
Picture Perfect doesn’t slay Goliath.
He outsmarts him.
Lorenzo’s quiet climb becomes harder to ignore
Prediction: Lorenzo defeats Damian Desire
Not every rise announces itself.
Lorenzo has quietly found his confidence and momentum without telling everybody he has arrived.
Overdrive XIII feels like the night that progress becomes impossible to ignore.
Damian Desire will make him prove it.
Blackout believes he does.
Lorenzo wins — and people start paying closer attention.
Blackout wants the angry Rudy Rodgers
Prediction: Rudy Rodgers defeats Mathias
Something has been off.
Maybe it’s frustration. Maybe it’s anger. Maybe Rudy Rodgers simply hasn’t looked like himself lately.
Blackout isn’t predicting calm. We want Rudy to remember what kind of wrestler he becomes when he’s pissed off.
Unfortunately for Mathias, he’s standing directly in front of him.
If that switch flips, this stops being about Rudy finding himself and becomes Mathias absorbing everything Rudy has been carrying.
Rudy Rodgers gets angry — and gets the win.
Alissa Jade enters a fight she was never supposed to join
Prediction: Watch Alissa Jade in the Anniversary Battle Royal
Marty Snow destroyed Alissa Jade.
Getting destroyed can convince someone to avoid danger — or completely change their relationship with it.
Apparently, Jade chose the second option.
She’s entering a battle royal filled with larger wrestlers, mystery entrants and men trying to throw one another over the top rope. Almost every logical reason exists for her not to do this.
She’s doing it anyway.
Maybe Snow didn’t scare her. Maybe he triggered something.
Blackout isn’t guaranteeing that Alissa Jade wins.
We’re saying something simpler:
Watch out, fellas.
The woman entering this battle royal isn’t the same one Marty Snow left lying.
Somebody may learn that the hard way.
Then the lights go out
Roka survives. Chubby climbs. Goosh becomes champion. Salyers starts his streak. SOS overwhelms. Kingsley shocks a giant. Lorenzo takes another step. Rudy finds his anger. Alissa Jade walks willingly into chaos.
Those are Blackout’s final calls.
By tomorrow night, we’ll know which ones were right — and who AWF becomes after its biggest night of the year.
The last rites have been read.
Now ring the bell.
When the sun goes down, it’s Blackout time.