After running the last few shows at the Coventry Sq Club, the latest offering ran from the newly revamped Club M, a venue that has seen a slick £500,000 facelift. As a venue, it looked really swank, and with the ring in the middle of the dancefloor, it felt like a really exciting step forward for the promotion. With a line-up including my second Sabu match of the weekend, I was greatly looking forward to the show
Damian Dunne vs Big Grizzly
We have an open challenge to kick off the show, with Gabriel Grey challenging anyone to take on the latest member of the Damned Nation. Dunne answered the challenge, and we ended up with a decent big-vs-small match as opener. Dunne took the fight to the big Welshman early, using his speed and strikes to wear him down. Grizzly's size soon became too much and he took control with power moves, looking pretty impressive whilst doing so. This was a much better showcase for him than the tag match last month, as fighting a smaller opponent allowed him to look more dominant, and he played the big monster role well. Damian managed to regain control, using Grizzly's weight against him to hit a backcracker, but Grey grabbed the ropes as he went for a springboard codebreaker, and Grizzly used the distraction to hit a sitout powerbomb for the win.
The Hunter Brothers vs Ho Ho Lun & Jason New
Ho Ho Lun made quite an impression on the last show in a four way match, and this time he returned with another Zero-One Hong Kong star in Jason New. The Hunters are a curious case, being one of the premier teams in the UK, but one I've never seen win live. This was a fast-paced tag match, with the Hong Kong team clearly the crowd favourites. They struggled with the low ceiling in Club M though, playing up to it with an attempted double team suplex on a Hunter, who they couldn't get all the way over due to the ceiling, then Lun became face-in-peril after leaping from the top rope into a lighting rig. The Hunters ran a nice heat section on Lun, preventing New from getting in, until a hot tag was made. Despite this, the Hunters were still able to pick up the win following a roll-up with pulled tights, a point the Zero-One guys amusingly tried to point out the ref in vain after the match. Fun match.
Tyler Bate vs Mark Andrews
Bate is swiftly becoming one of my favourite guys in Triple X to watch, looking more and more impressive with each show. He's got a nice blend of decent looking strikes, freakish strength spots, an inate charisma and the ability to keep pace with the quicker guys too. The latter is lucky here, as Mandrews is one of the better high fliers in British wrestling, with everything in the match looking crisp in execution. The two of them paired up well here, with both guys being pretty evenly matched in the initial stages. Bate started to wear down Andrews, and got in his traditional scary strength spot, this time hitting a slow, deadlift German suplex for a two count. Andrews, unlike the Zero-One HK boys, was comfortable with the low ceiling and actually used it to his advantage, hanging off the rigging to get into position for a Code Red for the win. Really fun match, which I could happily have seen go on for longer.
Money In The Wank Bank Match - Stefan Hard vs Zombie Chris Stone vs Scott Grimm vs Local Jobber #2 vs Andy Krae vs Terry Seddon vs Zombie Stefan Hard
The reason this is the "Money in the Wank Bank" match is because the winner gets a date with adult entertainment star Michelle Thorne. This is largely played for laughs, but succeeds in being entertaining throughout. First out is Stefan Hard, defending the honour of his wife, against zombie Chris Stone. Hard is in control, until he gets distracted by Henchman Benton Destruction trying to get some porn signed by Thorne, and he falls prey to a zombie bite to be eliminated. Scott Grimm is in next, and he powers through Stone, Local Jobber #2 (complete with awesome "jobber" themed video and a massive pop from the crowd) and Krae, before Triple X's resident zombie slayer Terry Seddon pins him with a crucifix. To bring things full circle, Stefan Hard returns, having turned zombie from the Chris Stone bite, only to eat a Diamond Cutter from Seddon for the win. Seddon also plants Professor Lex with a cutter to end a ludicrous, but fun, segment.
The Henchmen vs Grado & Adam Shame
A battle of the cult heroes here, with the magnificent "80's legends" the Henchmen taking on a team including slightly camp, chubby Scottish grappler Grado. The odd man out here felt like former Triple X champion Adam Shame, who didn't meet with the same positive reaction as his opponents, having been a long time heel. That said, he more than played his part here, showing immense strength to lift up the massive Benton Destruction for a Shellshock, complete with Ryback-esque march around the ring. This one soon broke down, with all four guys brawling outside the ring. In fact, they got a little too into the brawl, with Grado beating on Shame and the Henchmen punching each other, until a moment of realistation took hold of all four guys. An entertaining brawl ended with Shame reaching for what seemed to be a bag of tacks, but was infact a bag of Skittles, which saw all four guys hitting moves onto the tasty fruit sweets. In the end, the Five Moves of Doom on Grado saw a win for the Henchmen.
Sabu vs Wild Boar
This was my second Sabu match of the weekend, following the Jimmy Havoc match in Nottingham, and I have to say I enjoyed this one more. Despite the fact that the tables here were flimsy, and seemed to take away from what Sabu hoped to do it the match, this was a more competitive affair, and I think Boar came out of this looking better than Havoc did on the Friday. Although the outcome was never in doubt (due to the storyline having Triple X bringing in Sabu to take out Wild Boar to stop him interferring in stablemate Majik's title match), Boar (appropriately) looked like a beast here, keeping up with Sabu and keeping him from being able to wrestle a formula Sabu match. I loved Boar using a chair to hit a leaping headbutt into the midsection of Sabu and by the end, when Sabu won with an Arabian facebuster, it felt like Sabu had been forced to put in a real effort to keep the Boar down. Sabu was really over here, and deserves credit for letting Boar look like a real force.
Devilman vs Majik
This one seemed a bit muted at first, despite the long-term rivalry between the two. I think they suffered from having to follow a huge star in Sabu, which had slightly worn out the audience. It also took them a little while to find their rhythm, with the opening stages seeming a little slow for a hate-filled blood fued. Things picked up throughout the match though, and they slowly, but surely swung the crowd round, with a sick Majik Death Valley Driver on the ring apron near the end getting a huge "Holy Shit" chant. We get a big, all-action ending with ref bumps, interference from Big Grizzly and Damian Dunne, and finally Omer Ibrahim getting into the ring to count the victorious Devilman pinfall, after he wiped Majik out with a blow from Gabriel Grey's cane. Through all this, plus Majik working the crowd like a heat magnet, they turned an initially apathetic crowd into a really strong reaction, and put on a satisfying main event.
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