Southside Wrestling: X-Factor

So Southside Wrestling decided to hold another stacked card 5 minutes from my house. It would have been churlish to refuse.

Stixx vs Pete Dunne

So, if you asked me to name the 5 best wrestlers in the UK (in my humble opinion, of course), I'd name these two guys among the five. Thus, I was very much looking forward to this match, and it didn't disappoint. This was designed to further the "Stixx vs Speed King Division" angle that Southside has been working, and the opening stages saw some nice chain wrestling, as Stixx decided to show he could wrestle just as well as Dunne. However, after getting out-wrestled, plus fooled when Pete decided to hang out in the ropes from two Irish whips, Stixx resorted to his dirtier tactics to gain control. It was nice to see how much more over Pete was here from last time I saw him wrestle for Southside in the same venue last August, and the "On your head, son" enzuigiri got a nice pop. Both guys looked like they could have won it (and the nearfall Stixx got from a TKO really fooled me) before Stixx hit the Black Hole Slam for the win. Great opener.

Young Wolves vs the Hunter Brothers

The Young Wolves consist of Tyler Bate and Dan Maloney. Regular readers will know how much I've rated Bate's performances for Triple X Wrestling, but I'd never seen Maloney before. Like Bate, he's only a teenager, and he was very impressive here, showing some impressive strength when he and Bate swapped switched place whilst holding a delayed suplex on one Hunter. Meanwhile, the Hunters have slowly become a favourite team of mine to watch. The first time I saw them, I thought they were good, but a touch bland, but they've really impressed me since then and now show far more character than in that first match. This was a fast paced tag match, with both teams showing some nice double teams and all the nearfalls being believably fought. Bate got to show off his uncanny strength by hitting his ever-impressive deadlift German on a Hunter for a very close fall, before falling prey to a superplex/splash combo for the win. The Wolves came in a relative unknowns and left to a standing ovation, which shows how impressive they were here, whilst the Hunters, with this match and the excellent Henchmen series in TXW, are having an awesome 2014. Really loved this match.

Paul Malen vs Joseph Connors

The battle of the Predators. This was a nice change of pace from the two opening matches, as these two guys tore into each other before they could even get into the ring. I was curious to see what kind of reaction Malen would get, as he's only just turned face, and at first he didn't get too much of a pop. However, a combination of Conners being a real dick on the mic and the fire Malen showed in this match soon won the crowd over. The opening moments saw Conners suplex Malen into a wall, before Malen returned the favour by back-bodydropping Conners onto a pile of chairs on the arena floor. They both battled for the use of Conners' now-trademark strap, before getting back into the ring, where Conners took the advantage. There was a nice bit where Conners took to the mic again to taunt Malen, who in response bellowed over the mic that he was going to kill his former partner. Eventually, the ring wasn't able to hold the two of them, leading to a double-countout and a host of wrestler coming to the ring to separate them. Slightly disappointing ending, but it was too soon for either to lose a match, and this keeps the feud hot.

El Ligero vs Tommy End

Despite Ligero being a long time fan favourite, the impressive nature of End's recent wins saw him picking up a few cheers of his own, which the anti-hero did nothing to encourage. This was a pretty even match, but the recent win streak of End coupled with the recent losing streak of Ligero meant that it felt like Tommy was always one nasty blow away from victory. Ligero was quicker and managed to nail a few decent kicks of his own, but End's kicks have a bit more oomph and End picked up the win following a kick to the head from a Ligero springboard.

Flex Buffington vs Mad Man Manson

This was a comedy match, as you'd come to expect from Manson. Buffington, meanwhile, is also known as Mat Pedin from the couple of House of Pain shows I've reviewed. His character seems to be workout obsessed, yet slightly pudgy, and he brought some gym equipment to the ring with him which Manson used for comedy purposes, including causing it to ping viciously into Flex's crotch. Things were progressing nicely until T-Bone interrupted to berate them for being comedy wrestlers and destroyed both men, until....

T-Bone vs Mark Haskins

....Mark Haskins came out to challenge the former Southside champion to take him on, with Haskins putting the title on the line. T-Bone got great heat from the crowd chanting "former" at him, and he played up to it by allowing it to distract him at points during the match. T-Bone is another guy who seems to have rapidly improved over the past year, as I'd not seen him in action since 2012 and, although good there, he seemed just smoother and more comfortable here. He hit a massive lariat which looked to have taken the champs head off a one point. Haskins isn't as big as Bone, so he wisely tried to avoid brawling and instead locked T-Bone in a few triangle chokes during the match to try and get the tap. When Bone was in control , the continued chants really seemed to get to him (he really played up to a deliberately childish "T-spoon" chant) and this allowed Haskins to lock in a final choke for the win. Good bout.

Robbie X & X-Pac vs Project Ego

This was quite the main event. The face team met with chants of "Robbie X Pac", and X-Pac looked pretty enthused to be here. Project Ego were the perfect choice of opponents, as aside from being respected as one of the UK's best tandems, they're also more than happy to stooge it up and make fools of themselves, proven by Kris Travis' yelp as he got taken over by an armdrag. This was, in my opinion, Robbie's best showing in Southside for a while. When facing bigger names like Jay Lethal and Johnny Gargano, there's been this sense of trying to prove himself that leads to pointless strike exchanges (or in the case of the Gargano match, the horrible "exchange superkicks" sequence that I hated). Here, he looked smooth, crisp and like a main tier talent. The end saw Robbie take out Martin Kirby and Adam Curtis with a swank springboard moonsault outside the ring, and X-Pac nail Travis with the X Factor to pick up the win. Really fun main event, and it was great to see an import as enthused as X-Pac was.