So this weekend, I took in two wrestling shows, both featuring Sabu on his UK tour. The first one, in Nottingham, was on the Friday, and featured the following action...
El Ligero vs Pete Dunne vs MK McKinnan
If you want to know the definition of loneliness, then I felt it here: being the one person in the venue who wanted Pete Dunne to win this match. The other two guys are far better known in the area, so Dunne met with silence with a sprinkle of boos, despite this being three faces in action. Aside from the opening minutes, they avoided the usual pitfalls of the triple threat match, that being taking it in turns to have one guy on the outside selling whilst the other two fight. Here, all three guys were involved in the action, either through double teams or one guy taking out both of his opponents at once. This got a great reaction from the crowd, with even Dunne (because he's awesome) winning the crowd round with a double crab on both guys. Ligero hitting a top rope stomp with both guys in a tree of woe was also pretty swank. With Dunne being hardly known and Ligero embroiled in a feud with Martin Kirby, MK was the obvious choice to win and he did with a shining wizard to Pete. Good opener.
RJ Singh & the Hunter Brothers vs Martin Kirby & the Predators
There is some long standing dissention betwen Singh and the Hunters, so they were a far less smooth unit than the heel team, who delighted in singling out first Singh, then one of the Hunters. The brothers Hunter showed no interest in tagging in Singh, focusing their early quick tags between each other, leaving Singh frustrated on the apron. This allowed the Hunters to show a more heelish side, which I think is their strength. Paul Malen was fantastic in this match, like a rabid cheerleader on the apron every time his partners were in control. Eventually, Singh did get tagged in on the hot tag, and looked to have the match won with a Swanton bomb, but he took exception to a Hunter trying to make the pinfall and broke it up, allowing the heels to regroup and the Predators hit the Trophy Kill on Singh for the win.
Mark Haskins vs Darrell Allen
This match will be forever known to those in the crowd as the "hotdog" match. Basically, as Haskins came to the ring, slapping hands with the ringside fans, he knocked a hotdog from the hands of what appeared to be a handicapped fan at ringside, whose mother went ballistic at Haskins. Despite Haskins leaving the ring to talk to the fan, this didn't appease the mother, who took the son from the venue. Haskins looked ever-so guilty, and the fans didn't help him, woth chants of "sausage slapper" and "Hotdog Haskins" ringing out throughout the match.
AS for the match itself, it was solid, with Haskins working over the left arm of Allen for the bulk of the match. Though the match started off evenly, once Haskins had started to work over the arm, it gave him an easy way back into the match whenever Allen tried making his comebacks: just hit him in the arm. Haskins is one of the more pushed guys in the promotion, so it made sense that he dominated most of the match, with Allen's selling of the arm putting over the lingering damage. The armwork also played into the finish, with Haskins holding onto the arm during a missed Allen kick, and hitting a pumphandle driver for the win.
Stixx vs Super Crazy
The match started off with Stixx claiming he was a big fan of Crazy, and would be wrestling a fair fight throughout; this of course lasted until the first move of the match, where he hit a sneaky low kick. Crazy was massively over here, and you could tell he was delighted by the reception he received. These two guys combined well here, with Stixx bringing his power game and Crazy making his comebacks using some high risk maneuvers. I loved him cracking out a plancha over the referee, who was looking at Stixx on the outside, especially as he could have gotten away with doing far less in front of this partisan crowd. Stixx picked up the win in a good match by hanging onto the ropes after sitting down on a sunset flip.
Robbie X vs Jay Lethal
Robbie here was challenging for the Speed King title which he lost at the show of that name in May. I've been impressed every time I've seen Robbie previously, but this felt like a real career match for him. Lethal looked considerably bigger than Robbie, which meant that every blow he landed looked like it broke him in half. There was a strike exchange in the middle, which is something I've never been a fan of, but here it felt warranted, like Robbie was trying to show Lethal that he could keep up with him. Lethal even gave Robbie a number of nearfalls, to the extent that you felt like Robbie was going to regain his title, but Lethal finished him off with the Lethal Combination followed by a top rope elbow for the three. This got a standing ovation from the crowd, which it deserved.
Zack Sabre Jr vs Tommy End
This was my pick for match of the night. What I loved here was how the strikes were used. Whilst both guys exchanged strikes during the match, you felt like they were actively trying to break each other down with their blows, and it was a battle of whose body could hold up the longest. I like the way that they couldn't even afford to rest for a moment, shown by ZSJ pausing to catch breath after landing another blow on End, only to be quickly grabbed for a belly-to-back suplex. Sabre had a plan of attack, which involved going for an armbar on End at every opportunity. However, this led to his downfall, as his final attempt saw End counter it into a choke, which he held onto until the referee stopped the match. I loved this, it felt like a real battle and both guys came out of it looking kingsized.
Sabu vs Jimmy Havoc
This match got pretty hard to see at times, primarily when they fought on the outside and pretty much the whole crowd flocked around them. This was a total crowd pleaser of a match, as Sabu knew exactly what the crowd wanted to see from him, and they got it. This didn't bode so well for Havoc, who took a shedload of offence. Havoc got thrown through chairs, took chairs to the head, was on the receiving end of a chair-assisted springboard dive to the floor and finally took an Arabian facebuster through a table for the Sabu win. There wasn't much Havoc offence, unless he got in a load I couldn't see on the floor, but that isn't what the fans were there to see, and Havoc got a standing ovation afterwards for the abuse he'd gone through. Fine main event
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