EPW Wrestling 4/18/2026 Episode #238

EPW Wrestling 4/18/2026 Episode #238

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2026/04/epw-wrestling-4112026-episode-237.html

Joey Gross and Gene Jackson are on commentary.

Mike Anthony vs Ben Bishop

Ben looks absolutely gigantic here. Mike piefaces him. Mike hits shots to the gut and is thrown into the corner. Mike hits chops. Ben fires up and is hit. Mike stalls outside and Ben grabs him. Mike stunners Ben over the top rope. Ben throws him in from the apron. Ben corner splashes Mike then double chops him. Ben hits wasteland on him then then elbow drops him. 

Ben misses a facekick and is clipped. Mike dropkicks him off the buckles. We go to break and return. Mike hits him while he's down then knee drops Ben's knee. Mike boots Ben's knee and yanks on his leg. Ben headbutts him down. Mike clips him. 

Mike ddt's him. Mike comes off the top and runs into a boot. Mike hits punches then Ben side slams him. Mike kicks him in the knee then shining wizard's him for the win.

Thoughts: I was surprised to see Mike win here. It made sense though. Mike grounded him with shots to the knee and was able to hit his moves and wins.

Mike mocks Ben after. Ben sees it then chokeslams him twice.

Hardcore Match - Special Ref: Amazing Maria - Raven Black vs Makkari Kandy

MK runs to the ring. She hits a thesz press and they trade mounted shots. Rav goes out and MK pounds on her. They hockey fight outside. MK's face is banged off the apron and she is sent into the post. Rav puts a chair between the buckles. MK hits a big forearm then Rav hits her with a kendo stick. Rav russian legsweeps her with the kendo stick. Rav then chokes her with it. MK triangles her and pounds on her. MK pushes the stick in her head.  

MK hits her with the kendo stick. Rav blocks a chair shot, headbutts her then chairs her. Rav gets a 2 count on her. MK superkicks a chair into her face for 2. MK is sent into a chair between the ropes. Rav goes to drink beer and gets chaired in the back. MK hits her with the beer bottle and breaks it. MK then pins her on the floor.

Thoughts: It worked. These two have been fueding and Rav hit MK with a beer bottle. MK got her revenge here by hitting her with the beer bottle and winning the match. MK was a lot more serious than usual and they did this one right. 

EPW Tag Titles - The Order (Izzy Rotten and Ethan Ross) vs The Blacklist (Chris Styles and Cody James)

Chris side headlocks and armbreakers Ross. Ross hits forearms then Chris enzugiri's him. Izzy is hit in the gut. Izzy eye rakes Cody. Cody gets hit by Ross on the apron then Izzy lariats Cody. Izzy pounds on Cody. Cody and Ross double lariat each other down. Izzy gets in and prevents a tag. Izzy then boots Cody's leg and legdrops it. Izzy leglock Cody.

Izzy corner splashes Cody. Cody goes for a splash and Izzy pulls the ref in the way. The ref gets splashed. Chris comes in and cleans house. He then Ross outside. Eli Knox comes down to help The Order. Cody pushes Izzy into Eli. Cody grabs Eli's title and nails Izzy with it. Cody has the pin and a second referee comes out to count out. Cody picks up the pin.

The first ref comes back in and reverses the decision. The Order retain the tag belts via DQ.

Thoughts: It was a shorter match with a dusty finish. I kind of figured it was happening when the second ref came down. They did what they could with this. 

Isiah Cone vs Zay Washington

Zay has Cone's skateboard with him that he stole last week.

Cone dropkicks him through the ropes. They fight in the aisle. Cone hits him with the skateboard. Zay eye rake him and sends him into the post twice. Zay chokes him with a jacket. Zay hits him with clamp. Zay sets up chairs in the aisle and bridges a skateboard between them. Zay grabs a chainsaw and tries to cut the skateboard in half. 

Zay beats up Cone more and does his exploder slam in the ring. Zay stands on Cone's chest. Zay then takes the chainsaw and skateboard and leaves.

Thoughts: This was a wild one with Zay trying to chainsaw Cone's skateboard. It was all brawling and they did a good job here. 

EPW Women's Title - Lil' Bit (c) vs Madi the American Badi vs Diana Taylor

Madi rolls up Bit for 2. DT chops both opponents. DT corner splashes both opponents. DT pushes Bit's face into the mat and leg lariats her. Madi trips DT and lariats Bit over the top. Madi euros her in the back against the ropes. Madi backdrops her. 

Bit hits a soul foot on Madi. They forearm each other and hockey fight. DT lariats both over then facekicks Bit. DT ddt's Madi then Bit facebusters DT onto Madi. DT side slams Bit. Madi double germans both oppoennts. 

Madi takes a snapmare driver for 2. DT snapmare drivers Bit. Madi boots DT out of the ring and pins Bit to win.

Thoughts: They acknowledged it here but Bit has kind of taken a backseat to a lot of other girls storyline wise. I'm not sure why but they fixed the problem here as now Madi is champ. It was your usual 3-way with a lot of action and it was a bit tough to keep track of things. Madi won, so the title should be featured a bit more. It was a shorter bout and was just average.

EPW World Title - Dorian Vain (c) vs Brock Anderson

DV has Izzy Rotten, Eli Knox and Ethan Ross with him. Brock has Arn with him. The ref immediately ejects DV's buddies.

DV and Brock lock up. Brock hits corner spears. Brock boots him in the corner. Brock boots him in the back, leg and arm. We go to break and return. Brock continues the stomping. 

DV's head is banged off the buckles. DV shoves him then flair flops. Brock has the ropes kicked into his crotch. DV hits shots on him in the corner. DV short arm lariats him. 

Brock hits him from behind then Arn cheapshot DV. Brock hits a ddt and The Order come down. Brock knocks The Order off the apron. The Order then pull the ref out on the pin count and DV is DQ'd.

Thoughts: We only had about 6 minutes left for this one so I figured something could go down. Similar to last week, I didn't feel that the faces were justified in cheating here and I felt like the heels kind of got the raw deal. The heels got kicked out for doing nothing then only interfered again when Arn cheated. But I also feel like once a wrestler is ejected, they can't be brought back into the fold and if they are, they need to be suspended or something for doing it. I don't know what will happen to The Order, but they should be gone for a while for evading the ref's ejection. Brock had a better showing than usual and his offense is looking better, just he's a very generic guy with a bad look and a famous name.

The Order beat down Brock after. Arn comes in with a chair and The Order leave. 

Overall thoughts: I liked the first two matches. The Order vs The Blacklist ended via DQ. Cone/Zay was wild. The women's match had a surprise title change but it was a three-way and those formats are tough. The main ended on DQ but I felt the heels were justified. A lot happened on this show and some of it was good and some wasn't. I'd give it a 5 out of 10 and an average rating as there were some DQ's, shorter matches and a questionable main event.