So, today is the 10yr anniversary of the demise of the GWF, a British indy that ran one show (which you're about to read below) and had their second cancelled on the day by the ring never turning up on 02/02/03. This infamous episode in British Wrestling is captured nicely in Greg Lambert's excellent book "Holy Grail", but I felt like today was the perfect day to revisit their only show. The focus of it is an 8 man title tournament, with four Brit wrestlers (Jonny Storm, Jody Fleisch, Paul Sloane and James Tighe) and four international talents (Little Guido, Trent Acid, Justin Richards and Michael Kovac) battling for the GWF title.
Graham Hughes vs Mark Sloan
Christ, these two rattle through a meaningless selections of highspots like there is no tomorrow. Hughes takes a rana and busts out a moonsault in the first 30 seconds. Within two minutes Sloan has nailed him with a sunset flip powerbomb for two. Sloan then hits Angels Wings for two. We do get a nice jumping kick by Sloan, but this is totally lacking in storytelling. The match is interrupted by heel manager Ross "The Boss" Gordon dancing at ringside, and all the international talent booked for the show jumps in for a double DQ. Not a great loss to have this cut short.
Justin Richards vs James Tighe
This is the first match of the tournament. They run through a nice little series of holds and counters to start. Richards soon starts heeling it up by yelling at the ref before grinding Tighe's eyes on the top rope. Richards maintains control by cutting off Tighe's offence with an eyepoke. They keep the moves simple compared to the first match, but tell a straightforward story where the face/heel divide is easy to follow. Tighe gets two on a roll-up, which I suspect was supposed to end it as he follows win a small package for 3 right away.
Little Guido vs Jody Fleisch
We get a nice little opening sequence, which sees both men try to out-do one another. Jody is more of a risktaker than Guido, so despite a successful flurry of high-risk offence, he crashes and burns on a springboard dropkick to give Guido the advantage. Guido keeps it to the mat, playing a safer game. Guido shoves Fleisch to the floor on an attempted springboard, sending him flying into the railings. Jody manages to get two from a bridged pin, which obviously worries Guido's manager Jake Roberts enough to throw Guido a foreign object for the cheap win. Too short, and lacking decent structure. Twice Guido locked in a cross-armbreaker, with no build up or aftermath.
Robbie Brookside vs Jack Xavier vs the Zebra Kid
One of the things I like in the opening sections is that the wrestlers would tactically just stop and let the other two fight, rather than have a load of convoluted 3-way spots. Zebra dives off the top to the outside, but the camera is static and thus totally misses it. This is followed by Zebra hitting a cannonball from the apron on the opposite side of the ring to the camera, so not a good day for his highspots. Zebra and Brookside both seem to be focusing their assault on Xavier, taking each other out so they can concentrate on Jack. Zebra nails a sick looking piledriver on Xavier, before yet ANOTHER Zebra dive is missed, so all you see is him leaping off the screen. The ringwork is mostly crisp, though they aren't helped by the ref telegraphing a false finish by dramatically slowing his count before Zebra makes the save. A top rope elbow on Xavier gets the win for Zebra Kid. This wasn't bad, but I hoped for a bit more structure, rather than just guys taking it in turn to hit moves.
Michael Kovac vs Paul Sloane
Kovac, I believe, is a German wrestler. Sloane is the guy I know least about in this tournament, but his first in ring act is to hit a spear followed by some of the worst forearms this side of the Divas division. Kovac seems to be the more experienced of the two, as he carries himself nicely in the ring and busts out some nice offence including a swank torture rack dropped into a facefirst slam. This gets three, total squash. I'm looking forward to seeing more Kovac in this tournament.
Trent Acid vs Jonny Storm
CZW was pretty popular in the UK in 2002, so Trent gets a decent reaction here. Ross Gordon returns and cuts a promo that I can't hear very well. Acid stalls like Hell to start. The highlight of an overly-flippy opening segment is Acid smoothly reversing a hiptoss into an abdominal stretch. Acid really has his character work nailed on here, waiting until Jonny turns around before hiding behind him, then following him in a hilarious, OTT manner. They brawl into the unlit crowd, with something impossible to see earning a "Holy Shit" chant. Acid feigns a leg injury in the corner, then suddenly strikes to attack Storm in a classic heel spot. Acid's mannerisms are great in his control spot, and I like the way that, for a guy who often did too many choreographed looking moves in his matches, he works simply here, drapping a leg over Storm's throat whilst posing to soak up the boos. I also like him following up a backbreaker with a full Nelson camel clutch to focus on Storm's back. Storm's offence at this point was mainly high-risk and flashy, so he was perfect for comebacks that pop the crowd, with a top rope leg-lariat looking great. A triple jump rana gets two for Storm. They work a pin reversals sequence before an Acid Yakuza kick gets two. A second attempt misses and Storm hits a rana for the win. It broke down in places, but overall this was damn good.
Little Guido vs James Tighe
We're now in semi-final territory in the tournament. Tighe is slightly bigger than Guido, so I liked him using a few shoulderblocks to establish his strength advantage. Tighe hits a poor looking bridging German suplex, but makes up for it with a swank looking 2nd rope moonsault. However a distraction from Jake Roberts allows Gordon to come back and nail Tighe with a weapon, gifting the win to Guido. Short match, but it puts more heat on Guido getting an easy route to the final.
Michael Kovac vs Jonny Storm
Storm is still selling his injuries from the Acid match, and Kovac is much larger, so the story should write itself here. Storm goes for broke early, nailing a dive on Kovac (which the camera caught!) but as soon as Kovac takes control, he slows the pace down to his comfort zone and starts to tie Storm up to work over the back. Kovac uses a camel clutch here, which plays back to the Acid match in a nice touch. Storm gets a few hope spots, but Kovac is great at turning them to his advantage, reversing a sunset flip into a belly-to-back piledriver. He hits the torture rack facebuster, but Storm turns his cocky pin into a crucifix to win. Normally I hate that finish, but it worked here as Kovac had essentially killed Storm, so it shows Storm's desire to win, whilst keeping Kovac looking like a monster. Kovac is really someone I'd like to see more of.
Shak Khan vs Lee Butler
This is a hardcore match to kill time before the final. It's probably fair to say these two are a bit bulkier than the contestants in the tournament, so this should be a change of pace if nothing else. Brilliantly, within 2 minutes they're brawling in the unlit crowd away from the hard camera. No idea what is happening. This is probably for the best, because this is total shit when it gets in the ring. No weapons get involved, just some slow, plodding action as neither guy looks particularly bothered. Butler misses a moonsault and Khan rolls him up in the ropes, which the ref somehow counts for 3. Seriously, Butler's shoulders were pretty much on the ring apron when he was pinned, with the refs hand hitting the bottom rope everytime he lifted his arm to count. Nonsense.
Little Guido vs Jonny Storm
Storm is still selling his battering in the two previous matches. They start off, making as if to run through a quick exchange of moves, but Guido abruptly drops a low elbow on Storm to give himself an advantage. Guido dominates, but does allow Storm a few hope spots, with Storm getting two from a moonsault. Guido holds Storm to allow Ross Gordon to attack him, but Jonny ducks and Guido gets nailed instead. Storm rolls him up and...wins? Christ, that was abrupt. Really feel like all of Guido's matches were way too short, though at least Storm gave a great accounting of himself throughout the event. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the entire output of the GWF
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