Arriving at Club M in Coventry for this show, we were treated to something a bit different before the wrestling started...stand-up comedy. After an opening set I arrived midway through (which was fun, though I didn't catch the name of the guy doing it), we got regular Triple X ring announcer Omer Ibrahim recounting stories of his wrestling days, the highlight of which involved a rather horrible training drill involving a rear waistlock... With the crowd suitably warmed up, the action began.
Keiron Young vs Dave Mercy
So we kicked off with two guys I've not seen before. Young bills himself as the "Indy Guy", whilst Dave Mercy is the delightfully named "Sleazy Bastard". And what a sleazy bastard he was, grinding his way to the ring to the sound of "Bump & Grind". With his posh voice, pervy moustache and yellow singlet hanging down to his waist, Mercy was perversely entertaining. He used a lot of sexual spots, going for the pinfall with his crotch over Young's face and choking him with the straps of the singlet, as if to pull it down. Young looked decent, if a touch inexperienced, and he hit a few nice kick combos to Mercy. The ringwork here maybe wasn't perfect, but this was a lot of goofy fun. Mercy won with a roll-up, which meant he qualified for the Clusterfuck match later.
Devilman vs Wild Boar
This title match was a bit of a slow burner, with the opening moments based around DM grounding the Boar with a headlock. Things started to heat up however, with Boar looking good on offence. What I love about Wild Boar is how everything he does looks designed to inflict pain, especially how he clawed at DM's face during holds. He also seems happy to hurl himself with reckless abandon towards his opponents, with a dive from the ring being particularly choice. Devilman looked good in his comebacks, and looked set to make the Boar tap with a crossface. Boar got a couple of nearfalls towards the end, but Devilman was able to pick up the win to retain the title.
Clusterfuck III - Damian Dunne vs Chris Brookes vs Tyler Bate vs Terry Seddon vs Big Grizzly vs Local Jobber #2 vs Scott Grimm vs Scotty Essex vs Dave Mercy vs Eddie Dennis
The Clusterfuck match follows the same format as the Royal Rumble, except that, upon reaching the final four, it becomes a fatal fourway match, with the winner here becoming the no. 1 contender for the Triple X title.
This was a whole heap of fun. I wont try and recap everything that happened as, frankly, my memory isn't that good, but there were plenty of highlights. Tyler Bate has adapted his gimmick, fully embracing the "tiny Gotch" chants to portray himself as a throwback to the black-trunked grapplers of the early 20th century. With a dapper moustache and a smattering of aeroplane spins throughout the match, he made this new character work. His semi-reunion with former Slapdash Tagteam partner Chris Brookes ("he's a bit of a cunt") was one of the fun running themes throughout the match. Also impressing here was Big Grizzly. The first time I saw him back in July he was a competent, but green, big man. Here, he looked great, levelling opponents with Samoan drops, a proper good spinebuster and two massive cannonballs in the corner, which put cult hero Local Jobber #2 out of action (of which more later). Damian Dunne, who was the first entry, provided a good base for the match, as he's able to work well with everyone on the roster, and his elimination of Grizzly was a nice bit of payback for his loss to the big man back in August.
Dave Mercy returned, having qualified for entry with his earlier win, and got thrown out straight away. The other newcomer in the match was "Mr Reem" Scotty Essex, who riled up the crowd as soon as he came out. He didn't really get a chance to show much, but did take a big bump for a Bate deadlift German suplex which was impressive, so hopefully he'll get a chance to impress in the future. We got down to a final four of Dunne, Dennis, Bate and Brookes, but before a winning pinfall could take place, it was revealed that Local Jobber #2 had never been eliminated. Dunne hit him with a quick springboard codebreaker, but Dennis swiftly threw Dunne over the top rope and pinned Jobber to win the match and a title shot at Devilman next show. There was never a dull moment here, and it felt better laid out than last years match.
"Flash" Morgan Webster vs Mark Andrews
The stipulation here was that Webster would get a contract with Triple X if he beat Andrews. Webster has been running rampant in the past 12 month, interferring in matches and specifically targetting Andrews, but this was his first actual match since Clusterfuck 2 last year. The result of this build is that the crowd absolutely HATED Webster, who kept the heat up with his antics throughout the match. This also meant that we saw a slightly more aggressive side to Andrews, but without him shortchanging the crowd on his ever impressive aerial skills. Webster looked more impressive here than he did 12 months earlier (in a reasonable match against Eddie Dennis), and was clearly revelling in the heat from the crowd. A good, if slightly short, match ended with Webster taking advantage of a distracted ref to crack Andrews in the head with his scooter helmet for the win.
The Henchmen vs The Hunter Brothers
This was a tables match, and ended up being a pretty fantastic brawl around Club M. The Henchmen pretty much destroyed the Hunters to start, but the Hunters' gameplan of surviving and then isolating one Henchman was pretty smart. The first fall went to the Hunters on Jim Diehard, as a top rope superplex attempt was cut off and the brothers hit a double powerbomb from the second rope through a table. This put Diehard out of commission for a while, and let the Hunters concentrate on Benton Destruction. I loved Benton pulling down the straps of his singlet before trying to ward off both Hunters. The Hunters set up a table near the bar area, but by this time Diehard had recovered, and a resurgent Henchmen powerbombed one Hunter off the stairs through a table in an insane bump to even things up. Back in the ring, there was a ref bump before the remaining Hunter got thrown through a table, but his brother returned and levelled both Henchmen with chairshots, leaving Destruction lying in the broken remains of the table. A recovering ref called for the bell to give the Hunters the cheap win. Really fun brawl here, with the Hunters bumping and stooging magnificently, and all four men putting in a good effort.
Zack Sabre Jr vs Pete Dunne
Going into this match, I had high hopes. ZSJ was part of two of the best matches I saw live last year (vs Mark Andrews for Triple X, and vs Tommy End for Southside), whilst Dunne has been a constant highpoint of the Triple X shows I've been to over the past year. Yet somehow, this match still surpassed expectations. All the matwork here was excellent, and it always felt like it was leading somewhere, instead of being matwork for the sake of matwork. There were nice little touches throughout, like Sabre simply letting go of Dunne's leg when he could tell Pete was about to try and counter a hold, or the way he tried to keep his legs moving when sat in a prone position to try and stop Dunne grabbing one of them. As is often his gameplan, Zack went on the attack on Pete's left arm to soften him up for an armbar, and both his attack plan and Dunne's selling of the injury were terrific. I loved the fact Dunne kept protecting his arm, even whilst on offence. Whilst the result was never really in doubt, it was kept competitive, with a few moments where it looked like Dunne might win. In the end, ZSJ picked up the win with a Dragon suplex, but it's fair to say this was a stormer. Possibly the best match I've seen in person.
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