J Rose is excited to see Alex Shelley take on Darian Bengston.
At NAP’s Luchini event, Darian Bengston will get the opportunity to face Alex Shelley in a singles contest. The match could be huge for the promotion, as it might be one of Shelley’s final singles matches on the independent scene.
While speaking to Fightful Overbooked’s Indied podcast for a new interview, J Rose talked about how big matches keep falling into his lap for NAP.
“It’s the payoff one, it’s the payoff to a months long story that we’ve been building and building and building and it’s also potentially the last independent singles appearance by a man who calls himself the king of the independents. I don’t know how we keep having these matches of this importance fall into our laps, but I’m not complaining. It keeps happening. We got the last match of AC Mack. These things happen to us, I’m not complaining because it’s real funny, the wrestling gods smile upon us in this one area and everything else it’s like, okay, figure it out your own self.”
Rose then dove deep into the upcoming match between Shelley and Bengston and talked about how it could elevate Bengston to that next level.
“Alex Shelley and Darian Bengston. Not even close. I am also looking forward to Chase Holliday and Isiah Broner, I’m also looking forward to my little sister Billie Starkz coming back. Calling myself a historian feels egotistical, but I know ball when it comes to independent wrestling, I’ve seen a lot of independent wrestling. There’s a through line of the sort of world traveler grappler, but it’s also someone who is very involved in an artistic vision. Very specific. That through line I believe starts with reckless youth, and I’m not sure if they ever had a one on one meeting, but I believe that through line goes through to Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin together because they’re kind of inseparable and they have the same sort of general vibe, the same philosophy on wrestling. The next step in this evolution is Darian Bengston. I’m very biased, that’s someone I consider a very close friend of mine. But, there are friends of mine who aren’t booked on NAP and not because I think they’re bad, but they didn’t fit the vision or I want them to get a certain level before I bring them in. Darian Bengston has exceeded all expectations for every single match that I’ve ever put him in in NAP. At the last possible moment I may add, having these two wrestling artists be able to apply their craft — I can’t even put it into words because I also don’t know what style of match they’re going to have. You could have a technical masterpiece when they go hold for hold, catch as catch can, do all of that weird fanatical British grappling stuff. You could also have a match that evokes the sort of pace of the X-Division in its prime where they try and see which one can finish the sprint faster. You could also have a sort of a match where it’s them throwing bombs because both of their bags are incredibly deep and it’s move for move for move. No idea what sort of match they’re going to have and that’s what really excites me as a booker, to figure out, yes I know this is going to be good, but in what way is it going to be good. I know the occasion isn’t lost on Bengston at all seeing where — I’m not going to speak on any of the rumors, I’m too close to the sun, Imma see that brother on Sunday. At minimum, he’s not going to be as prevalent on the independent circuit moving forward. If that’s the case, this may be the one and only chance we have to get someone to pass the torch and I think there’s no one better than Darian Bengston. That’s just me though, I’m biased.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rose predicted the result of the match between Sean Ross Sapp and Effy. Check if the prediction was correct by clicking here.
Also, check out Indied's full interview with J Rose in the video linked at the top of this article.
