August

Blimey, what a month this was, Live I saw RevPro, ROH/NJPW/CMLL, TIDAL, RISE and WCPW all in the space of about 10 days. It was incredible. Plus there was the second half of the G1. It’s been hard to marrow it down, but I reckon the 5 I enjoyed most were (to narrow it down I tried to limit it to 1 match per wrestler/promotion):

5: Asuka vs Ember Moon – NXTTAKEOVER 

This was an incredible march on a truly fantastic show. Each match on the card was immense and I think in the end this was my favourite.

4: Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar vs Samoa Joe vs Braun Strowman – Summerslam

Another decent card for August, but this match was the best by a mile. It was truly perfect for what it was.

3: David Graves vs Liam Slater – 2 out of 3 falls – RISE Summer sesh

Two incredible young local.talents putting on a technical wrestling match as good as any you’ll see. In a tiny ding in a tiny room. Amazing.

2: Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll – WCPW Stacked 17

Marty vs Will is a match for the ages and this one was incredible. On a stacked card that also featured Rey vs Ricochet, Mike Bailey vs Takahashi and Travis Banks vs Kushida it still somehow managed to shine brightest.

1: Kenny Omega vs Kazichuka Okada – G1 Climax 

The third instalment in an incredible feud was again perfection. And a great pay off. I’m intrigued to see when they will meet again. These have to be the two best wrestlers working today.

• Ibushi vs Tanahashi – G1 Climax 
• Evil vs Omega – G1 Climax 
• Tanahashi vs Makabe – G1 Climax 
• ZSJ vs Naito – G1 Climax 
• Sanada vs Kojima – G1 Climax 
• Juice vs Omega – G1 Climax 
• Evil vs Okada – G1 Climax 
• Ibushi vs Yoshi Hashi – G1 Climax 
• Naito vs Makabe – G1 Climax 
• Tanahashi vs Ishii – G1 Climax 
• Elgin vs EVIL – G1 Climax 
• Omega vs Sanada – G1 Climax 
• Okada – Suzuki – G1 Climax 
• Goto vs Ibushi – G1 Climax 
• Tanahashi vs Naito – G1 Climax 
• Ishii vs ZSJ – G1 Climax 
• Elgin vs Juice – G1 Climax
• Okada vs Omega – G1 Climax 
• Bucks vs Ricochet and Tagushi – G1 Climax 
• Warmachine vs Cody/Page – G1 Climax 
• Bubblegum vs DJZ vs El Ligero – TCW LEEDS 
• Sexsmith vs Trivet – TCW LEEDS 
• Brookes vs ZSJ – Summer Sizzler 
• Gibson vs Castle – Summer Sizzler 
• Rey vs Marty – Summer Sizzler 
• Jay White vs Travis Banks – Summer Sizzler 
• Jushin thunder liger vs Josh Bodom – Summer Sizzler 
• Briscoes vs All Day Swerve – Summer Sizzler 
• Mark Briscoe vs Ryan Smile – WOTW London 
• Kushida vs Titan – WOTW London 
• LIJ vs Bullet Club – WOTW London
• Hideo Itami vs Aleister Black – NXT Takeover 
• Asuka vs Ember – NXT TAKEOVER 
• Roode vs McIntyre – NXT TAKEOVER 
• Ambrose/Rollins vs Shemus/Cesaro – Summerslam
• AJ vs KO – Summerslam 
• Brock vs Joe vs Reigns vs Braun – Summerslam 
• Kushida vs Travis Banks – WCPW
• Ricochet vs Rey Mysterio – WCPW
• Marty Scurll vs Will Ospreay – WCPW
• Liam Slater vs David Graves – RISE
• El Ligero vs Saxon Huxley vs Pastor Bill Eaver vs Joe Conners – RISE
• Sean Only vs Boris Kozlov – RISE 
• Kairi Saine vs Tessa Blanchard – MYC 
• Grizzled young vets vs FSU- PROGRESS 54
• Doug Williams vs Tim Thatcher – PROGRESS 54
• Gallagher vs Gibson – PROGRESS NYC 
• SPPT vs BSS – PROGRESS NYC 
• Walter vs Riddle – PROGRESS NYC 
• Travis Banks vs Jack Gallagher – PROGRESS Boston
• Ringkampf vs BSS – PROGRESS Boston 

 

WRW Podcast – Chapter 2

This week @Chimerarouge and I sat down and recorded the second chapter of our podcast. It had been 6 weeks so we had an lot to talk about.

You can listen on soundcloud here and castbox here.

Topics:

WWE (From start)

• WWE UK Championship
• NXT Takeover: San Antony
• Royal Rumble
• Elimination Chamber

New Japan (30 mins)

• Wrestle Kingdom 11
• Fantastic Mania
• New Beginnings

PROGRESS (45 mins)

• Chapter 41 – Unboxing Live 
• Chapter 42 – Life, the universe and wrestling
• Chapter 43 – Tropic Thunderbastard

RevPro (1 hour)

• Live at the cockpit 12
• High Stakes
• Live at the Cockpit 13

RISE at the Brude (1 hour 20 mins)

wXw, CZW, WoS, WCPW, Dominant 5* (1 hour 30 mins)

Other wrestling podcasts, listener questions – who are our favourite Yorkshire wrestlers? Will be be over in other local promotions? And top 3 moments and matches. (1 hour 45 mins)

We enjoyed this one, if you did too we’d love you to get I touch.

WCPW Kirbymania

First half hour was talking and a two minute match between HT Drake and Joe Hendry which was interrupted by Joe Conners to set up a match later. Nice swerve by WCPW who announced the WWE UK stars had left. Rumour has the contracts say they can no longer compete in WCPW – but I did read they started on 14th Jan. So either the whole thing is a massive swerve by WCPW for publicity or they announced they’d left early for this pay off.

Marty Scurll vs Gabriel Kidd.

This match had Marty Scurll in it, so it was never going to be bad, but it felt far too short. I felt the match finished just as I was becoming invested with it. Some good work from Scurll and Gabe Kidd looks better every time I see him.

Lana Austin vs Ivelisse

Decent match from two great wrestlers. Too short again and the commentary team spent too much time talking about Bea Priestley and Nixon Newell rather than calling the action.

Apparently Bea is holding the belt currently but Nixon is the champion.  Who knows where this will go as I belive Nixon is at the performance centre.

At this point we were hit with technical issues.

Travis Banks vs Joe Coffey

Decent match, again it was too short and the ending felt a tad week. Also. Doug Williams coming out watching from ringside then leaving seemed bizarre.

Prospect vs Kirkby and El Ligero

Decent match but not as good as it should have been given the calibre of the 4 wrestlers involved. More time given to Kirby doing GM stuff mid match than actually wrestling.

ZSJ vs Cody Rhodes

Great match from.w great talents. Crowd seemed flat but that may have been down to the sound quality as there were some this is awesome chants. I feel the match would have felt better had the crowd been pulled through in the sound. Still an enjoyable match especially considering Cody had just got off a plane from Tokyo!

Bully Ray + Swords of Essex vs Drew Galloway, Johnny Moss and Liam Slater

Decent match from 6 great wrestlers. Some decent spots and tag moves and some great tag psychology on show.

Joe Hendry vs Joseph Conners

Good match from two great wrestlers. Both have a bright future, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Conners were to win the UK title.

General thoughts:

I did enjoy this show, but it certainly didn’t blow me away and u won’t be rushing out to buy What Culture Extra to see Lights Out. A lot of the matches felt like the wrestlers were holding back, which may be they were, given this was a free show.

WCPW is starting to feel like TNA. Great wrestlers who are not allowed to show their full potential, stuck in a rut of bad booking and often short matches. Which is ironic given the way What Culture made its name.

They haven’t got the look or the show right yet, and it feels a bit shoddy, the arena set up, the poor quality cameras and sound. The back stage segments were far quieter than the commentary and I felt I had to turn it up and down constantly.

Tag team revolution?

Over the last few years we have seen an explosion of amazing tag team wrestling. The Briscoes,  The Young Bucks, Wentz and Xavier, Warmachine, Gallows and Anderson, The Revival, American Alpha, London Riots, Team Single, FSU, DIY the list goes on.Everywhere you look tag team wrestling is being done well and given proper time and and proper push.

Almost everywhere. 

All the indies Andrew getting it right, New Japan, RoH, hell even TNA in the midst of falling apart had the tag title match  steal the show at Bound for Glory. On NXT tag matches have stolen the show at every takeover this year. There seems to be only one place that tag teams are not being taken seriously and that place is the WWE main roster.

On raw the New Day have been worthy champions and have put on some good matches, but Tey haven’t been given adequate time for matches on Pay Per Views. The division has two cracking teams in Enzo and Cass, and Gallows and Anderson, but it’s a hastily thrown together team of Sheamus and Cesaro who have been given the most recent chances.

Over on Smackdown,  the division includes American Alpha, The Vaudvillians and The Ascension who all showed on NXT that they are capable of amazing matches, and the Usos who carried the division previously. However the titles were given in the first instance to a hastily thrown together team of Heath Slater and Rhyno, and it looks like they might go next to Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton. Even they hype brothers have had more chances than American Alpha.

When the rest of the world are getting it so right, why is it that the biggest company in the world are getting it so wrong?

WCPW Stacked

WCPW is a fairly new British promotion which is growing rapidly, thanks in part to its weekly YouTube show loaded which has featured some superb matches. Not least this instant classic from Will Ospreay and Martin Kirby. 

As well as their weekly show they have bigger events and Stacked is one of them. The event had a “stacked” card and was held in WCPW’s home territory Newcastle, England. Stacked took place on 24th August and was streamed on YouTube on September 3rd. Being made available on YouTube video a few hours after the stream (click the links below to find the matches).

As well as the stacked card, this show included my all time favourite on the mic – Alex Shane – on commentary, and this for me added a whole new level to the event. Shane is extremely knowledgeable about pro wrestling and as such adds great insight to each match, as well as being genuinely funny and excellent at being a heel commentator. He made an excellent team with Dave Bradshaw.

It was also great to see Steve Linsky refereeing, he’s been a favourite of mine since he took the best ref bump ever by coming off the balcony at the Coventry skydome during an Alex Shane match year and years ago.

The show started with “guest General Manager” Eric Bischoff, the segment was funny and I feel it added star power to the event early.

Joe Coffey vs Moose

This was fantasticmatch to kick us off, big guys collided in a very watchable way.Some great spots. I thought the ending could have had more though, Moose tool a lot of big hits but Coffey went down a little easily. Still a great match and Joe Coffey seems to get better every time I see him.

El Ligero vs Pete Dunne vs EC3

What a great match. Pete Dunne is fast becoming one of my favourite wrestlers. EC3 is a solid worker and El Ligero is always entertaining. I really enjoyed the whole thing. Good spots and a great story told.

Doug Williams vs Drew Galloway 

It was testament to the strength of the card that these two faced off in the third match, and boy was it a great match. Doug Williams was, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler ever. And while he may not be as amazing as he was in his prime, he’s still a phenomenal in ring performer and I thought he really turned back the clock with his work in this match. Drew has been great his entire career, since the days he and sheamus fought all over Europe pre WWE.  For whatever reason wwe didn’t work.out but he has reinvigorated himself leaving since and this was a great match. Two skilled performers telling a great story.
This match in particular was lifted further by Alex Shane’s phenomenal commentary. He built heat for Doug with Brexit talk and even set everyone straigh on the Montreal screw job – “was it a work? Of course it was.”

Ospreay vs Scurll

Arguably the best two cruiserweight in the world today. Arguably the best two British wrestlers in the world today. Arguably the best two wrestlers in the world today. I would certainly say they are my two favourite wrestlers active today, and they are wrestling each other in a match where my favourite talker is commentating and my favourite referee, Steve Linsky, is calling the shots. This was always going to be the match of the night,  and again is testament to the strength of the card that it was on so early, it could easily have headlined, as I have seen these two do elsewhere. 

These two have fought in Progress and Rev Pro already this year, but this is a match up I will never get tired of seeing. They raised the bar again with a match that prompted Alex Shane to exclaim “the best match we’ve ever seen in this promotion”, and it would be hard to argue with him.
Marty showed his technical brilliance and Will showed off his aerial ability, we saw all the trademarks we expect from each of them and much, much more. When Marty was building heat from the crowd Dave Bradshaw exclaimed “he won’t gain many fans that way”, to which Shane responded with “when you are that cool Dave you don’t need fans!” A great way to sum up the villain. 

Martin Kirby and Travis Banks vs Liam Slater and Gabriel Kidd.

This tag match was well worked. All 4 wrestlers got over well. I’ve seen a lot of Kirkby over the years and he’s always solid. As is Travis who I’ve seen a bit of in Progress recently. Slater I’ve seen once before with RISE at the Brudenell and I was impressed, he impressed me again and Gabriel Kidd, who I had never seen, was also impressive. Not a patch on the previous match, but great all the same.

Bea Priestley vs Nixon Newell

Last women standing match. Some really good stuff which showcased the quality that there is in the women’s division here in WCPW. It was a great way to introduce a women’s title. Both women wrestled really well and came up with some incredibly innovative ways to use steel chairs. My only slight criticism is that it was a tad in the short side.

Grado vs Primate 

I saw Primate in the flesh recently have a falls count anywhere match in RISE against the muscle cat at a social club. It was an incredible match so I had high hopes for this match against a TNA star. The match didn’t disappoint on quality, putting both wrestlers over and being very entertaining, however I was left feeling a little short changed by the match length in this match too.

Main Event – Big Damo vs Rampage Brown vs Joe Hendry vs Joseph Connors.

This was a great fatal 4 way. Damo and Rampage looked strong as ever and put some great work into the match. A match that had some superb spots and told two great stories, one of Damo and Rampage continuing a long running feud, and the other showing the development of friendship into something else between Hendry and Connors. This was a really well booked and worked match made even better by the commentary gold from Alex Shane.

I was very impressed by the event and I look forward to many more WCPW showings in the future.