House of Pain Wrestling is a small Nottingham-based promotion run by BritWres standout Stixx, who also trained the majority of the roster. Both their shows and DVD's are nicely-priced, and the roster contains plenty of guys who are on the cusp of breaking out on the UK scene. Quite a few, in fact, have wrestled for SWE or NGW over the past year or so. Whilst the fact that a lot of these guys are still learning means I wont be over-critical of these matches, there would also be no point in me commenting on them if I just whitewashed everything. On the whole though, this is a fun card...
Shane Spyral vs "Diamond" Dave Andrews
Andrews goes for the cheap shot slap before running from the ring, but Spyral dons Andrews' jacket to lure him back in. They work a nice opening segment, pretty high paced and really smooth, which leads to Spyral nailing a plancha. Also Andrews is more than happy to make a fool of himself in comedy spots. He also has some nice looking forearm blows. Some of Spyral's strikes are a bit milky, but on the whole he looks good here. Andrews looks really decent on offence and worked a nice little combo of moves leading to a leaping neckbreaker. Spyral comes back, but a 450 only hits mat. Spyral makes another comeback, but a distraction at ringside by SC Supreme allows Bam Bam Barton to crotch Spyral on the top and Andrews nails a leaping DDT to win. Solid opener
Lucas Black vs Matt Pedin
Pre-match, Black cuts a lengthy promo, which Pedin interrupts by bringing a sleeping bag and pillow into the ring for a nap, before telling Black he's boring. Pedin plays things for comedy, taking into account the ass-punch as one of his early moves. However, Black gets a cheapshot in, allowing him a brief spell of offence. Black's offence is basic, yet effective, and I liked him threatening a legdrop, only to stand on Pedin's head instead. The middle rope falls down mid-match and, to their credit, neither guy seems put off because of it. Some of Pedin's offence is a little hesitant in places, but then some of it has a really nice zip to it, so you have to attribute a bit to his inexperience. Pedin hits a nice looking Shining Enzuigiri for two. Black starts getting a bit cocky, and uses a very arrogant cover for two. Black sets up a bucket, wedged in the corner, but Pedin reverses leading to Black getting the bucket stuck on his head, and Pedin nails a Codebreaker to win.
The Asbos vs Nate Colt & Mike Wyld
The Asbos are working a chav gimmick, which they play really well. They consist of the larger Tony Asbo and a smaller lad whose name I didn't catch. It sounded like they called him Burberry and, seeing as how he is wearing a burberry shirt, that is what I'll call him. Regular readers might remember Nate Colt from the Awesome Wrestling show reviewed in June last year. He was pretty much just stooging for Mad Man Manson there, so this should be a better showcase for him. Nate starts off with Burberry and, though they blow a leapfrog spot, they bring some good energy to the early stages. They shake hands, which doesn't impress Tony much and provides the storyline for the rest of the match. Tony tags in only to get plowed down by the larger Wyld. Tony wisely goes for the legs of Wyld, and both Asbos focus on that, which is good strategy. With Wyld as face-in-peril, they work a formula tag match until Colt gets the hot tag. Colt looks really good as a fired-up face, until falling prey to a Tony swinging Rock Bottom. Wyld tries to get involved, but gets tangled in the ropes. Burberry tries to broker some peace between Tony and Colt, but Tony shoves Burberry into Colt from behind, and rolls Colt up with a hand of tights for the win.
Bam Bam Barton vs LJ Heron
Heron sneaks in from the backside of the ring to nail Barton on the outset. These are two of the better guys in HOP, so this should be real good. We get some brawling outside the ring from the get go, with Barton taking control after spitting water in Heron's eyes. Heron fires back, but Barton avoids a corner charge to retain control. Heron's hope spots are pretty good, with a sudden crossbody coming out of nowhere. The heel faction of SC Supreme, Jewel and Dave Andrews come out to support Barton, which draws out a face trio of Shane Spyral, Stixx and Max Angelus to counteract them. They must provide good motivation, as Heron manages to fire back with a powerslam. The camera does spend a bit too long focusing on the guys outside the ring to the detriment of the action inside. Heron avoids a running kick and hits a Sky High, but as he prepares to finish Barton, Supreme comes in for the DQ finish. We soon get a big melee, ending with the faces standing tall.
SC Supreme, Brian Wright & Jewel vs Sammy Hope & Punk Jock
The Punk Jock team consists of Callum Piper and Jimmy Crash. Crash is a punk and Piper is Scottish, you see. The two women competitors start off the match, and they keep it simple with the larger Jewel using her size advantage to control, whilst Hope is quicker and uses this to take Jewel to the mat. The section with the male competitors is a bit more advanced. Admittedly, Crash hits a poor looking diving headbutt from the second rope, but him and Piper combine nicely to hit a top rope stomp/powerslam combination on Wright for two. Piper looks really good here, with some nice explosive energy and he looks pretty slick on offence. My admiration of Supreme has been expressed on the blog before, and he's just a tank on offence here, nailing his swank overhead belly-to-belly on Piper. We don't really get to see much of Wright on offence before the hot-tag to Crash, and he and Supreme get down to business in a battle of the big men. Crash has some fun looking "high energy fat man" offence that makes me forgive him the terrible headbutt earlier, as he nails Supreme with an STO. It breaks down and Piper nails a cannonball from the apron on the other men to leave Hope and Jewel in the ring. However, the camera focuses on the men fighting, so we only just catch Hope rolling up Jewel for the win. This was fun.
Danny Chase vs Kaleb Hughes
This is for Chase's Cruiserweight title, and this should be good stuff. I like how evenly they work it to start, with both hitting strikes at the same time to send each other down. Hughes takes control on the outside, then brilliantly trolls the small kids at ringside, by getting them to move as if to throw Chase into their chairs, only for him to throw him into the ring cackling instead. Despite their similarities, they keep the face/heel divide clear, with Hughes trying to wear Chase down with strikes, whilst Chase makes high-flying comebacks. Chase makes one comeback with a springboard crossbody, but when he tries a second Hughes is prepared, and kicks his legs out to retain control. Hughes hits two top-rope ax-handles on Chase, but spends too much time taunting the crowd, and gets caught with a top-rope rana as he attempts a third. Chase sends Hughes to the floor and hits a swank moonsault to follow him down. They brawl outside the ring, which suits Hughes' style more, but his attempt to send Chase into the wall fails, as Chase runs up the wall and hits a moonsault in an awesome spot. Back in, Chase gets a super-close 2 count on a springboard kick. The ref gets bumped, leading to a Hughes low blow, but his attempt to nail Chase with a chair fails, as he manages to kill the ref instead. This comes back to haunt Hughes, as he nails Chase with a Death Valley Driver, but by the time Stixx comes in to replace the ref, Chase has recovered and kicks out at two. Chase is dead weight on the mat, but it turns out he's playing possum, reversing another Driver attempt into a rana for the three count. Deserved main event, both guys put in a great showing.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
TNA Knocked Out
This is a DVD from 2008 focused on what was, at the time, the best thing going in TNA in the Knockout's division. In many ways, watching this DVD was kinda depressing, as you realised that, despite TNA currently being on top form, the Knockout's division is currently a pale imitation of what it used to be. That said, the DVD isn't without flaws. You can't skip straight to a match, you have to sit through interview with the various knockouts first and trust me, there is only so many times you can hear "We're not wrestling barbies/We wrestle like the men/All the girls here enjoy the competition" without wanting to kill yourself. Luckily, the matches are pretty great.
10 Knockout Gauntlet For The Gold
Ms Brooks and Jackie Moore kick this off. There is only 60 seconds per new entrant, so things stay pretty high paced. Jackie has barely planted Brooks with a huge German suplex before Shelly Martinez comes in. Tenay hypes up her "lucha libre moves". This doesn't happen. Awesome Kong enters and Traci and Martinez look rightly terrified. Kong took so long getting to the ring that ODB's music starts before anyone has a chance to attack her. However Kong swiftly backfists Martinez from the top rope to the floor and Jackie eliminates Brooks. Kong swiftly destroys and eliminates Jackie. ODB isn't faring much better until Angel Williams enters. The future Angelina Love tries a sleeper on Kong, which doesn't end well before Kong suplexes her and ODB at once. Christy Hemme comes to the ring, and Kong decimates her, torture racking her and Awesome Bombing her to eliminate her through injury. They really made Kong look like a monster here. Gail Kim rushes to the ring and assaults Kong. Kim gets a headscissors on Kong over the top rope, and Williams and ODB help to eliminate Kong. Talia Madison (Velvet Sky) enters and works a weak looking segment with Williams, before ODB and Kim eliminate Williams. Roxxi Laveaux is the last entrant, and Talia and ODB are eliminated in quick order to leave Kim and Roxxi in a 1-on-1 match. Roxxi hits a swank looking fallaway slam, but Kim comes back with an octopus stretch. Roxxi manages to keep on top with her power advantage, hitting a powerbomb with a (weak) bridge for two. Gail avoids a blow and nails a Kryptonite Krunch to win. The battle royale was fun, especially with the Kong monster push, but the final match was a bit too your-move-my-move.
Roxxi Laveaux vs Angel Williams vs ODB vs Gail Kim
All three challengers focus on Gail right away, but Kim manages to overcome all three. The Voodoo Kin Mafia, who accompanied Roxxi, get thrown out for interfering. Roxxi puts a spell on the ref for this, which means he doesn't count when OBD rolls her up. Christ. Williams botches a flip into the corner, and the camera takes a lingering view of her backside as ODB spanks her. Roxxi and ODB then have a "mental face face-off" in the middle of the ring. ODB hits a 2nd rope Thesz press on ODB for two before Kim makes the save. Feels like ODB is concentrating here on getting her character over which, considering how popular she became, is no bad thing. Gail hits a top-rope crossbody to the outside on Roxxi. Williams flips out of a backslide attempt to DDT ODB in a nice move. All four end up in the ring, and Gail nails a nice diving legdrop on Roxxi for two. Roxxi accidentally spits some mist in ODB's face before getting blitzed with a Gail Kim spear. Kim then hits the Happy Ending on the blinded ODB to win. Fun match.
Angelina Love & Velvet Sky vs ODB & Roxxi Laveaux
With Angelina Love renamed, we are in Beautiful People territory here. Curiously, the BP wrestle like faces in the early going, with Love avoiding a Roxxi attack and controlling the early going. We end up in odd comedy territory as Velvet rides ODB like a horse and wedgies her, before ODB wedgies the ref. Roxxi nails Sky from the outside, so yeah, the BP are faces here as we get the heat section on Velvet. Nice spinebuster from Roxxi gets two. Velvet brekas out of the Dirty Dozen and makes the hot tag to Love. Probably makes sense to Love to be the hot-tag partner, as shes a better wrestler than Velvet, and thus more able to pop a crowd with her moves. The BP throw ODB out and hit a Yakuza kick/Russian legsweep combo on Roxxi to win. Solid, if unspectacular, tag match, but switching the face/heel dynamic for these two teams would soon be one of the smartest things TNA did with the knockouts.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
Kong nails Gail before she even enters the ring, leading to the two brawling outside. Kong naturally has the advantage here, but Gail manages to avoid a clothesline, leading to Kong hitting the post. Gail wisely goes right after the arm, but gets too close to Kong, who grabs her in a sleeper and hurls her across the ring. They both manage to look good in this match: Kim gets to look resiliant, firing away on Kong any chance she gets, whilst Kong gets to look like a monster, as one of her shots in enough to send Gail to the mat. Everything Kong does looks so impactful, and Gail sells every shot like death. When Gail does get on offence, it takes a lot to knock Kong off her feet, so it really means something when she does so. Kong loses control and keeps choking Gail in the corner and shoving the referee to the floor, which earns her a DQ. Kong goes on a rampage afterwards, attacking the ref and both Beautiful People. Great match and, whilst the ending was cheap, it did lead up to a no-DQ match, so makes sense booking wise.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
THIS no-DQ match in fact. Gail gets attacked on the ring apron AGAIN. Kong threatens to Awesome Bomb Gail through the announce table, but Kim bends over far enough to kick Kong in the head with a mule kick. In the ring, Kong is now able to choke Gail with no problems, playing off the last match. Kong sends Gail off the top rope with the spinning backfist. Kong swings Kim into the guard rail, which looks insane. They brawl into the crowd, which I normally hate, but they used it wisely in this match. Gail uses the elevation of the stairs to kick Kong directly in the head, then is able to find a bottle to beat Kong in the head with. The brawling looks really good here, like they're actually having a fight. The no-DQ stip also allows Kim to be able to cause serious pain to Kong, whilst keeping Kong looking like a monster: Kong misses a chairshot and instead gets it kicked into her face to kickstart a spell of offence for Kim. Gail gets caught on a top rope crossbody to the floor and dumped by Kong, which is really impressive. The referee gets powerbombed by Kong for only counting two after a facebuster. Kong loses control again and levels the ref with chairshots, but Gail grabs the chair and waffles Kong with it. What I love with these matches is that, even when Kim is in control, Kong feels like she's only one move from victory so Kim has to stay on top whilst she can. Kong gets two from a chokeslam after a new ref comes in, which sends her furious again. She tries to Awesome Bomb the new ref, but Gail rolls her up, with the ref landing on top of Kong, for the win. Great match, and they used the No-DQ stip effectively.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
This is the first appearance of Raisha Saaed. This time Gail is prepared for Kong's early attack and moves out of the way, which shows she's learnt from the previous matches. They brawl outside where Gail takes a nasty bump into a wall, but avoids a charging Kong who breaks through the stage. In the ring, Gail takes over with a tornado DDT and a top rope senton for two. Saeed distracts Gail, who gets caught off the top by Kong with a chokeslam for two. Kong remains on offence, but they really show the resiliance of Kim as Kong hits her with an implant buster, which only gets two. Gail leaps off the top with a Frankensteiner attempt, but Kong holds her and nails two powerbombs, holding on and nailing the 3rd as an Awesome Bomb for the title. For a sub-ten minute TV match, this was really good stuff, putting Kong over strongly, but also making Kim look tough as nails, with Kong needing to hit 3 powerbombs to be sure of putting her away.
Angelina Love vs Velvet Sky vs Rhaka Khan vs Salinas vs Christy Hemme vs ODB vs Roxxi Laveaux vs Jacqueline vs Traci Brooks vs Gail Kim
I need to highlight how awful Rhaka Khan's ring music is. This is a battle royal with the last two entering a ladder match to become the number one contender to the Knockout title. However, the loser in the ladder match will get her head shaved....unless it's Gail Kim, who won an immunity match, so it would be Angelina taking her place. Already a bit of overbooking, you'll notice. The battle royal part is pretty uneventful, though Jackie and ODB teaming up on Rhaka Khan is quite fun. The final two are Roxxi and Gail, so we'll either see Roxxi or Angelina Love shaved bald. The referees demand Angelina stays at ringside in case she needs to be shaved, but it does also clearly allow her to be at ringside to massively interfere. The booking here is so arse-backwards, as the fans don't want to see Roxxi shaved, so they cheer for her over the number one face in the division. Good plan TNA. It's a shame, as Roxxi and Gail really go for it in this match. Gail takes a proper battering, getting sandwiched at speed between Roxxi and the ladder. Roxxi too takes some lumps, getting monkey-flipped onto a ladder and getting split open on a ladder on the scalp. Roxxi spinebusters Kim onto a ladder in another sick bump, but the BP stop Roxxi from being able to climb and essentially gift victory to Gail, which doesn't really help Gail. Roxxi is then shaved as the BP gloat to a chorus of "Fire Russo" from the crowd. This might have been acceptable if Roxxi got her revenge on Angelina and Velvet, but I'm pretty sure she never did.
Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs Gail Kim & ODB
This is a cage match and should be pretty good. ODB starts with Kong, but gets hurled into her own corner to tag in Kim. Gail demands Saeed gets in, which sorta makes her look scared of Kong. Saeed is, of course, Cheerleader Melissa, and is a rather great wrestler. Her initial exchanges with Gail, working over Kim's left arm is pretty sweet. The problem with the Saeed character is that she soon became the person people would beat in build-up for title matches with Kong, making her little more than a glorified jobber. Kong gives Saeed the advantage by ramming Kim's face into the cage. Saeed uses so many cool little touches while in control, like climbing to the top rope with Gail and ramming her head into the cage over and over with her foot. Kim makes the hot-tag to ODB, but Saeed can't make it to Kong in time, so ODB flattens her. All Hell breaks look, leading to Gail hitting an insane Hurracanrana from the top rope on a standing Saeed, using the cage for assistance. The crowd goes rightly nuts for that. Kong accidentally hits the backfist on Saeed and ODB nails a top rope splash on Saeed for the win. Super-enjoyable tag match.
Taylor Wilde vs Awesome Kong
This was after Taylor had been the most successful challenger from the crowd in the $25,000 Kong challenge and had beaten Raisha Saeed to earn this match (see, told you). Kong blitzes her to start. Like Gail, Taylor isn't afraid to bring the fight to Kong, but uses a few more cat-and-mouse tactics to play the underdog card more clearly. Kong misses a second rope splash, and Taylor gets a 2 count from a missile dropkick. The match is structured differently to the Kim matches, as Taylor is less experienced than Gail so has less spells of dominance. Kong's tendancy for attacking refs comes back into play as she swats one away as he tries to stop her choking Wilde in the corner. This distraction allows Taylor to hit a crossbody, with Kong tumbling over the downed ref for a nearfall. Taylor's inexperience shows again as she tries to German suplex Kong, but instead gets caught in an implant buster for two. Kong goes for the backfist, but Taylor ducks and rolls her up for the win and the title. Not as good as the Kim series, but it told the story it needed to really well.
10 Knockout Gauntlet For The Gold
Ms Brooks and Jackie Moore kick this off. There is only 60 seconds per new entrant, so things stay pretty high paced. Jackie has barely planted Brooks with a huge German suplex before Shelly Martinez comes in. Tenay hypes up her "lucha libre moves". This doesn't happen. Awesome Kong enters and Traci and Martinez look rightly terrified. Kong took so long getting to the ring that ODB's music starts before anyone has a chance to attack her. However Kong swiftly backfists Martinez from the top rope to the floor and Jackie eliminates Brooks. Kong swiftly destroys and eliminates Jackie. ODB isn't faring much better until Angel Williams enters. The future Angelina Love tries a sleeper on Kong, which doesn't end well before Kong suplexes her and ODB at once. Christy Hemme comes to the ring, and Kong decimates her, torture racking her and Awesome Bombing her to eliminate her through injury. They really made Kong look like a monster here. Gail Kim rushes to the ring and assaults Kong. Kim gets a headscissors on Kong over the top rope, and Williams and ODB help to eliminate Kong. Talia Madison (Velvet Sky) enters and works a weak looking segment with Williams, before ODB and Kim eliminate Williams. Roxxi Laveaux is the last entrant, and Talia and ODB are eliminated in quick order to leave Kim and Roxxi in a 1-on-1 match. Roxxi hits a swank looking fallaway slam, but Kim comes back with an octopus stretch. Roxxi manages to keep on top with her power advantage, hitting a powerbomb with a (weak) bridge for two. Gail avoids a blow and nails a Kryptonite Krunch to win. The battle royale was fun, especially with the Kong monster push, but the final match was a bit too your-move-my-move.
Roxxi Laveaux vs Angel Williams vs ODB vs Gail Kim
All three challengers focus on Gail right away, but Kim manages to overcome all three. The Voodoo Kin Mafia, who accompanied Roxxi, get thrown out for interfering. Roxxi puts a spell on the ref for this, which means he doesn't count when OBD rolls her up. Christ. Williams botches a flip into the corner, and the camera takes a lingering view of her backside as ODB spanks her. Roxxi and ODB then have a "mental face face-off" in the middle of the ring. ODB hits a 2nd rope Thesz press on ODB for two before Kim makes the save. Feels like ODB is concentrating here on getting her character over which, considering how popular she became, is no bad thing. Gail hits a top-rope crossbody to the outside on Roxxi. Williams flips out of a backslide attempt to DDT ODB in a nice move. All four end up in the ring, and Gail nails a nice diving legdrop on Roxxi for two. Roxxi accidentally spits some mist in ODB's face before getting blitzed with a Gail Kim spear. Kim then hits the Happy Ending on the blinded ODB to win. Fun match.
Angelina Love & Velvet Sky vs ODB & Roxxi Laveaux
With Angelina Love renamed, we are in Beautiful People territory here. Curiously, the BP wrestle like faces in the early going, with Love avoiding a Roxxi attack and controlling the early going. We end up in odd comedy territory as Velvet rides ODB like a horse and wedgies her, before ODB wedgies the ref. Roxxi nails Sky from the outside, so yeah, the BP are faces here as we get the heat section on Velvet. Nice spinebuster from Roxxi gets two. Velvet brekas out of the Dirty Dozen and makes the hot tag to Love. Probably makes sense to Love to be the hot-tag partner, as shes a better wrestler than Velvet, and thus more able to pop a crowd with her moves. The BP throw ODB out and hit a Yakuza kick/Russian legsweep combo on Roxxi to win. Solid, if unspectacular, tag match, but switching the face/heel dynamic for these two teams would soon be one of the smartest things TNA did with the knockouts.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
Kong nails Gail before she even enters the ring, leading to the two brawling outside. Kong naturally has the advantage here, but Gail manages to avoid a clothesline, leading to Kong hitting the post. Gail wisely goes right after the arm, but gets too close to Kong, who grabs her in a sleeper and hurls her across the ring. They both manage to look good in this match: Kim gets to look resiliant, firing away on Kong any chance she gets, whilst Kong gets to look like a monster, as one of her shots in enough to send Gail to the mat. Everything Kong does looks so impactful, and Gail sells every shot like death. When Gail does get on offence, it takes a lot to knock Kong off her feet, so it really means something when she does so. Kong loses control and keeps choking Gail in the corner and shoving the referee to the floor, which earns her a DQ. Kong goes on a rampage afterwards, attacking the ref and both Beautiful People. Great match and, whilst the ending was cheap, it did lead up to a no-DQ match, so makes sense booking wise.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
THIS no-DQ match in fact. Gail gets attacked on the ring apron AGAIN. Kong threatens to Awesome Bomb Gail through the announce table, but Kim bends over far enough to kick Kong in the head with a mule kick. In the ring, Kong is now able to choke Gail with no problems, playing off the last match. Kong sends Gail off the top rope with the spinning backfist. Kong swings Kim into the guard rail, which looks insane. They brawl into the crowd, which I normally hate, but they used it wisely in this match. Gail uses the elevation of the stairs to kick Kong directly in the head, then is able to find a bottle to beat Kong in the head with. The brawling looks really good here, like they're actually having a fight. The no-DQ stip also allows Kim to be able to cause serious pain to Kong, whilst keeping Kong looking like a monster: Kong misses a chairshot and instead gets it kicked into her face to kickstart a spell of offence for Kim. Gail gets caught on a top rope crossbody to the floor and dumped by Kong, which is really impressive. The referee gets powerbombed by Kong for only counting two after a facebuster. Kong loses control again and levels the ref with chairshots, but Gail grabs the chair and waffles Kong with it. What I love with these matches is that, even when Kim is in control, Kong feels like she's only one move from victory so Kim has to stay on top whilst she can. Kong gets two from a chokeslam after a new ref comes in, which sends her furious again. She tries to Awesome Bomb the new ref, but Gail rolls her up, with the ref landing on top of Kong, for the win. Great match, and they used the No-DQ stip effectively.
Awesome Kong vs Gail Kim
This is the first appearance of Raisha Saaed. This time Gail is prepared for Kong's early attack and moves out of the way, which shows she's learnt from the previous matches. They brawl outside where Gail takes a nasty bump into a wall, but avoids a charging Kong who breaks through the stage. In the ring, Gail takes over with a tornado DDT and a top rope senton for two. Saeed distracts Gail, who gets caught off the top by Kong with a chokeslam for two. Kong remains on offence, but they really show the resiliance of Kim as Kong hits her with an implant buster, which only gets two. Gail leaps off the top with a Frankensteiner attempt, but Kong holds her and nails two powerbombs, holding on and nailing the 3rd as an Awesome Bomb for the title. For a sub-ten minute TV match, this was really good stuff, putting Kong over strongly, but also making Kim look tough as nails, with Kong needing to hit 3 powerbombs to be sure of putting her away.
Angelina Love vs Velvet Sky vs Rhaka Khan vs Salinas vs Christy Hemme vs ODB vs Roxxi Laveaux vs Jacqueline vs Traci Brooks vs Gail Kim
I need to highlight how awful Rhaka Khan's ring music is. This is a battle royal with the last two entering a ladder match to become the number one contender to the Knockout title. However, the loser in the ladder match will get her head shaved....unless it's Gail Kim, who won an immunity match, so it would be Angelina taking her place. Already a bit of overbooking, you'll notice. The battle royal part is pretty uneventful, though Jackie and ODB teaming up on Rhaka Khan is quite fun. The final two are Roxxi and Gail, so we'll either see Roxxi or Angelina Love shaved bald. The referees demand Angelina stays at ringside in case she needs to be shaved, but it does also clearly allow her to be at ringside to massively interfere. The booking here is so arse-backwards, as the fans don't want to see Roxxi shaved, so they cheer for her over the number one face in the division. Good plan TNA. It's a shame, as Roxxi and Gail really go for it in this match. Gail takes a proper battering, getting sandwiched at speed between Roxxi and the ladder. Roxxi too takes some lumps, getting monkey-flipped onto a ladder and getting split open on a ladder on the scalp. Roxxi spinebusters Kim onto a ladder in another sick bump, but the BP stop Roxxi from being able to climb and essentially gift victory to Gail, which doesn't really help Gail. Roxxi is then shaved as the BP gloat to a chorus of "Fire Russo" from the crowd. This might have been acceptable if Roxxi got her revenge on Angelina and Velvet, but I'm pretty sure she never did.
Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed vs Gail Kim & ODB
This is a cage match and should be pretty good. ODB starts with Kong, but gets hurled into her own corner to tag in Kim. Gail demands Saeed gets in, which sorta makes her look scared of Kong. Saeed is, of course, Cheerleader Melissa, and is a rather great wrestler. Her initial exchanges with Gail, working over Kim's left arm is pretty sweet. The problem with the Saeed character is that she soon became the person people would beat in build-up for title matches with Kong, making her little more than a glorified jobber. Kong gives Saeed the advantage by ramming Kim's face into the cage. Saeed uses so many cool little touches while in control, like climbing to the top rope with Gail and ramming her head into the cage over and over with her foot. Kim makes the hot-tag to ODB, but Saeed can't make it to Kong in time, so ODB flattens her. All Hell breaks look, leading to Gail hitting an insane Hurracanrana from the top rope on a standing Saeed, using the cage for assistance. The crowd goes rightly nuts for that. Kong accidentally hits the backfist on Saeed and ODB nails a top rope splash on Saeed for the win. Super-enjoyable tag match.
Taylor Wilde vs Awesome Kong
This was after Taylor had been the most successful challenger from the crowd in the $25,000 Kong challenge and had beaten Raisha Saeed to earn this match (see, told you). Kong blitzes her to start. Like Gail, Taylor isn't afraid to bring the fight to Kong, but uses a few more cat-and-mouse tactics to play the underdog card more clearly. Kong misses a second rope splash, and Taylor gets a 2 count from a missile dropkick. The match is structured differently to the Kim matches, as Taylor is less experienced than Gail so has less spells of dominance. Kong's tendancy for attacking refs comes back into play as she swats one away as he tries to stop her choking Wilde in the corner. This distraction allows Taylor to hit a crossbody, with Kong tumbling over the downed ref for a nearfall. Taylor's inexperience shows again as she tries to German suplex Kong, but instead gets caught in an implant buster for two. Kong goes for the backfist, but Taylor ducks and rolls her up for the win and the title. Not as good as the Kim series, but it told the story it needed to really well.
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Southside Wrestling: SWE vs HoP Ill Manors
Having been out of touch with the British wrestling scene until I started going to Southside shows earlier this year, it really is heartening to see how much great talent there wrestling all over the UK (a fact verified by how much Brit talent is currently under contract to the WWE and to TNA). SWE constantly deliver a great product, and getting to see such great shows just a stones throw from my house is terrific. House of Pain Wrestling, who are feuding with SWE as the theme for this show, is also a darn fine promotion. Considering they are a training school/promotion based primarily in Nottingham using local talent, they've got a very good roster who are improving all the time: aside from the guys on this show, the likes of Danny Chase, Nate Colt and "Textbook" Dave Breaks are all top wrestlers.
I should mention first off the set-up for the show, which really enhanced the inter-promotion war aspect. Each promotion had their own entrance way and their own ring announcer (HoP providing Harvey Dale, who also operated as manager for most of the HoP guys, and was tremendous as an obnoxious loudmouth throughout), plus the HoP fans were congregated on one side of the ring, giving a real us vs them atmosphere.
El Ligero (SWE) vs Bam Bam Barton (HoP)
A fun battle of power vs speed to kick things off, and the split in the crowd provided an interesting atmosphere from the start. Ligero is a very likable face wrestler, but the HoP fans gave him no slack, cheering the naturally heelish Barton. Ligero used his quickness to take the advantage with a series of kicks, but found himself in trouble as Barton was able to catch him on a pescado. Barton is larger than Ligero, big enough that his power offence looked effective, but not so big that he couldn't keep up with the masked man and he looked decent throughout. The end saw Ligero miss a frog splash, but Barton then missed a spinkick to allow a Ligero rollup for the win, putting SWE 1-0 up. Good opener.
Max Angelus (HoP) vs T-Bone (SWE)
I've been pretty high on Angelus since I first saw him, and matches like this only serve to prove me right. This was a heated grudge brawl after the chairshot Angelus levelled T-Bone with at the June show I wrote up. I've seen Angelus work as an underdog face before, but here he had to wrestle differently, not only having to take some nasty licks from T-Bone (including a tough looking back suplex directly onto the ring apron), he also had to show he could realistically dish out some stiff offence too, which he did. This felt quite short, but there was no lack of effort from both guys and crucially there was little resting too: It felt like two guys wanting to hurt each other. Max ultimately won after nailing a stomach buster on T-Bone (harking back to the rib injuries caused by HoP in June) and a Roaring Clothesline for the win. 1-1
The Predators (HoP) vs the Hunter Brothers (SWE)
Right now, the Predators are one of the best teams in the UK. Not only is their ring work spot on, they have mastered the art of being detestable. Joseph Conners in particular is a shit-talking heel you really want to see get a kicking. This was the Hunters' debut for SWE, so at first there was a bit less heat in the early going. Thankfully, the match was a well-structured tag affair and the pure dickishness of Conners got the fans riled up, including a yell of "You don't even care about the Hunter Brothers". Conners rules. They worked an extended heat sequence on one brother before the hot tag, and the finishing stretch was a really exciting collection of nearfalls. The Hunters slipped up once or twice, but managed to cover nicely, and seemed to have won the fans over by the end. They recovered from a nice looking spike flapjack from the Predators and got a visual pinfall following a top rope Frankensteiner/splash combo, but Harvey Dale distracted the ref and it was the Predators who managed to pick up the win. Realistically, the Predators were always going to win from a logical booking perspective, but there were several moments when I believed the Hunters would win, which shows how much they drew me into the match. Really good match, and now it's 2-1 to HoP.
Robbie X (SWE) vs Alex Gracie (HoP)
This was a battle of the SWE Speed King champion (X) vs the HoP Full Throttle champion. I missed the intro to this on a toilet dash, but there was a 10 minute time limit for this match. Robbie's new haircut was kinda odd, but he carried himself like a champion here and Gracie, who I'd not seen before, held up his end of the match too. The time limit worked against them in a way, as Gracie only got to work a brief heat section on Robbie before they had to go to the finish. Robbie locked a Last Chancery on Gracie as the seconds ran out, and switched to a Dragon Sleeper, but Gracie held on for the draw. I can see why they had to book a draw (protecting both champions), but I could have happily watched another 5 minutes at least of this. Still, leave the customer wanting more...
This was followed by a brief angle where Harvey Dale wanted Max Angelus to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Robbie, with threats of firing if he refused, but Max quit instead.
Michael Elgin vs Prince Devitt
This is the only non-HoP/SWE match on the card, so initially didn't have the heat that the other matches had. However, when you've got guys this talented, you can soon win the crowd back around. Devitt here played underdog for a lot of the match, as he had to cope with the size and freakish strength of Elgin. They built the match up nicely, with an initial feeling out process before Elgin took control. Elgin managed a deadlift German suplex with Devitt lying on the mat, which was super impressive. Devitt managed to come back into it with an insane tope to the floor and just generally looked slick throughout. Elgin held up his end terrifically too, with a deadlift superplex when Devitt was stood on the apron. Devitt thought he'd won it with a top rope stomp, but it took the Bloody Sunday DDT to finish Elgin off. Tremendous match which earned a standing ovation to take us to intermission.
LJ Heron vs Nathan Cruz (SWE) vs "Diamond" Dave Andrews (HoP)
The booking for this match was Cruz representing SWE, Andrews representing HoP and Heron could choose who he was representing if he won. The only time I'd seen Andrews wrestle previously was jobbing in a comedy match in April. Given that Cruz is a pretty big name on the UK scene and Heron is reigning HoP champion, I fully expected Andrews to be there solely to eat the pin to protect the third man. Well, I was half right, as this actually felt like a breakthrough match for Andrews. His ringwork was crisp, and his character work was outstanding. Cruz and Heron are two top workers and Andrews really didn't look out of place. They worked a fun variation on the old Tower of Doom spot, with Cruz German suplexing Andrews from a tree of woe position, whilst Andrews superplexed Heron. Cruz had to play face here, which felt a bit odd (he doesn't cockily yell "Showstealer" anywhere near enough as face), but he played his part nicely. Here the "Showstealer" turned pin-stealer (sorry), nicking the victory after Heron speared Andrews. 2-2
Mad Man Manson (SWE) vs SC Supreme (HoP)
I really like Supreme. He's just a big, nasty chap who likes to beat up his opponents. Plus you've got to love a guy who can cause a child to cower in their father's arms with just one cold look. You may think that putting him in there with Manson might be a clash of styles, but they somehow managed to pull off a comedy match whilst still enabling Supreme to look like a badass. Part of this comes from the nasty chop exchange in the early part of the match, which saw Manson having to give as well as he can take. Supreme is also the only guy who can still look scary doing a "nipple twister" comedy spot with the referee. Supreme dominated once he got in control, and even lifted Manson's shoulders up during a pinfall, to dish out more pain to the man who had made a fool of him earlier on. It backfired though, as Manson pulled out a rollup to pick up the win and put Southside 3-2 up
Stixx (HoP) vs Mark Haskins (SWE)
This was a last man standing match for Stixx's SWE title, and it was a war. Stixx is a lot bigger than Haskins, so I was interested to see how Haskins would be able to put Stixx down for a 10 count. At first Haskins did a good job of going toe-to-toe with Stixx and using his speed and an assortment of kicks to keep in the battle, but soon found himself overpowered. Stixx is one of my favourite guys in SWE to watch. He can wrestle the power game well, but is also able to sell for smaller guys without seeming weak. Haskins really started getting into the match when Harvey Dale tried to interfere with a chair, which Haskins took for himself and used on Stixx. Wisely, he went to the legs of the big man, which gave some realism to the ten counts as Stixx struggled to stand. At this point, the booking came into play which made the last section really exciting. First the ref got bumped with a massive chairshot, leading to a second ref coming to the ring. Earlier on, I'd recognised this ref as HoP wrestler Danger Russ, but I'd given it no more thought, until Haskins had Stixx down for a cert 10 count, only for the new ref to stop counting and give Haskins the fingers. He then tried to fast count Haskins down for ten following a Stixx revival , but Haskins got up in time. At around this point, the ring seemed to fill with SWE/HoP wrestlers following failed interference from Alex Gracie, as the Predators, the Hunter Brothers, Ligero, Barton and Robbie X all piled out, leading to an insane top rope moonsault to the floor from Robbie. A table came into play, which ended up with Stixx getting put through it, but as the referee was counting to ten, Dale clocked Haskins with the SWE title before he fully got to his feet, while Stixx rolled out to the floor, landing on his feet, which meant that only Stixx beat the ten count to win the match.
This put the series at 3-3 and the HoP crowd were celebrating victory, when Max Angelus returned to the ring to cash in his MitB briefcase...
Max Angelus vs Stixx
One Roaring Lariat later, and Max was the SWE champion
Personally, I though the booking on this show was tremendous. Bear in mind SWE uses top wrestlers from around the UK, whereas HoP relies mainly on local talent from their training school, yet HoP were realistically portrayed as a threat throughout the show. The series ended as a draw, the Predators still hold the SWE tag titles, and the new champion is a HoP guy who has defected to SWE. It sets up the feud to continue, plus it should lead to at least one more Stixx/Angelus match, which has delivered both times I've seen it previously. Overall, a cracking night of entertainment
I should mention first off the set-up for the show, which really enhanced the inter-promotion war aspect. Each promotion had their own entrance way and their own ring announcer (HoP providing Harvey Dale, who also operated as manager for most of the HoP guys, and was tremendous as an obnoxious loudmouth throughout), plus the HoP fans were congregated on one side of the ring, giving a real us vs them atmosphere.
El Ligero (SWE) vs Bam Bam Barton (HoP)
A fun battle of power vs speed to kick things off, and the split in the crowd provided an interesting atmosphere from the start. Ligero is a very likable face wrestler, but the HoP fans gave him no slack, cheering the naturally heelish Barton. Ligero used his quickness to take the advantage with a series of kicks, but found himself in trouble as Barton was able to catch him on a pescado. Barton is larger than Ligero, big enough that his power offence looked effective, but not so big that he couldn't keep up with the masked man and he looked decent throughout. The end saw Ligero miss a frog splash, but Barton then missed a spinkick to allow a Ligero rollup for the win, putting SWE 1-0 up. Good opener.
Max Angelus (HoP) vs T-Bone (SWE)
I've been pretty high on Angelus since I first saw him, and matches like this only serve to prove me right. This was a heated grudge brawl after the chairshot Angelus levelled T-Bone with at the June show I wrote up. I've seen Angelus work as an underdog face before, but here he had to wrestle differently, not only having to take some nasty licks from T-Bone (including a tough looking back suplex directly onto the ring apron), he also had to show he could realistically dish out some stiff offence too, which he did. This felt quite short, but there was no lack of effort from both guys and crucially there was little resting too: It felt like two guys wanting to hurt each other. Max ultimately won after nailing a stomach buster on T-Bone (harking back to the rib injuries caused by HoP in June) and a Roaring Clothesline for the win. 1-1
The Predators (HoP) vs the Hunter Brothers (SWE)
Right now, the Predators are one of the best teams in the UK. Not only is their ring work spot on, they have mastered the art of being detestable. Joseph Conners in particular is a shit-talking heel you really want to see get a kicking. This was the Hunters' debut for SWE, so at first there was a bit less heat in the early going. Thankfully, the match was a well-structured tag affair and the pure dickishness of Conners got the fans riled up, including a yell of "You don't even care about the Hunter Brothers". Conners rules. They worked an extended heat sequence on one brother before the hot tag, and the finishing stretch was a really exciting collection of nearfalls. The Hunters slipped up once or twice, but managed to cover nicely, and seemed to have won the fans over by the end. They recovered from a nice looking spike flapjack from the Predators and got a visual pinfall following a top rope Frankensteiner/splash combo, but Harvey Dale distracted the ref and it was the Predators who managed to pick up the win. Realistically, the Predators were always going to win from a logical booking perspective, but there were several moments when I believed the Hunters would win, which shows how much they drew me into the match. Really good match, and now it's 2-1 to HoP.
Robbie X (SWE) vs Alex Gracie (HoP)
This was a battle of the SWE Speed King champion (X) vs the HoP Full Throttle champion. I missed the intro to this on a toilet dash, but there was a 10 minute time limit for this match. Robbie's new haircut was kinda odd, but he carried himself like a champion here and Gracie, who I'd not seen before, held up his end of the match too. The time limit worked against them in a way, as Gracie only got to work a brief heat section on Robbie before they had to go to the finish. Robbie locked a Last Chancery on Gracie as the seconds ran out, and switched to a Dragon Sleeper, but Gracie held on for the draw. I can see why they had to book a draw (protecting both champions), but I could have happily watched another 5 minutes at least of this. Still, leave the customer wanting more...
This was followed by a brief angle where Harvey Dale wanted Max Angelus to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Robbie, with threats of firing if he refused, but Max quit instead.
Michael Elgin vs Prince Devitt
This is the only non-HoP/SWE match on the card, so initially didn't have the heat that the other matches had. However, when you've got guys this talented, you can soon win the crowd back around. Devitt here played underdog for a lot of the match, as he had to cope with the size and freakish strength of Elgin. They built the match up nicely, with an initial feeling out process before Elgin took control. Elgin managed a deadlift German suplex with Devitt lying on the mat, which was super impressive. Devitt managed to come back into it with an insane tope to the floor and just generally looked slick throughout. Elgin held up his end terrifically too, with a deadlift superplex when Devitt was stood on the apron. Devitt thought he'd won it with a top rope stomp, but it took the Bloody Sunday DDT to finish Elgin off. Tremendous match which earned a standing ovation to take us to intermission.
LJ Heron vs Nathan Cruz (SWE) vs "Diamond" Dave Andrews (HoP)
The booking for this match was Cruz representing SWE, Andrews representing HoP and Heron could choose who he was representing if he won. The only time I'd seen Andrews wrestle previously was jobbing in a comedy match in April. Given that Cruz is a pretty big name on the UK scene and Heron is reigning HoP champion, I fully expected Andrews to be there solely to eat the pin to protect the third man. Well, I was half right, as this actually felt like a breakthrough match for Andrews. His ringwork was crisp, and his character work was outstanding. Cruz and Heron are two top workers and Andrews really didn't look out of place. They worked a fun variation on the old Tower of Doom spot, with Cruz German suplexing Andrews from a tree of woe position, whilst Andrews superplexed Heron. Cruz had to play face here, which felt a bit odd (he doesn't cockily yell "Showstealer" anywhere near enough as face), but he played his part nicely. Here the "Showstealer" turned pin-stealer (sorry), nicking the victory after Heron speared Andrews. 2-2
Mad Man Manson (SWE) vs SC Supreme (HoP)
I really like Supreme. He's just a big, nasty chap who likes to beat up his opponents. Plus you've got to love a guy who can cause a child to cower in their father's arms with just one cold look. You may think that putting him in there with Manson might be a clash of styles, but they somehow managed to pull off a comedy match whilst still enabling Supreme to look like a badass. Part of this comes from the nasty chop exchange in the early part of the match, which saw Manson having to give as well as he can take. Supreme is also the only guy who can still look scary doing a "nipple twister" comedy spot with the referee. Supreme dominated once he got in control, and even lifted Manson's shoulders up during a pinfall, to dish out more pain to the man who had made a fool of him earlier on. It backfired though, as Manson pulled out a rollup to pick up the win and put Southside 3-2 up
Stixx (HoP) vs Mark Haskins (SWE)
This was a last man standing match for Stixx's SWE title, and it was a war. Stixx is a lot bigger than Haskins, so I was interested to see how Haskins would be able to put Stixx down for a 10 count. At first Haskins did a good job of going toe-to-toe with Stixx and using his speed and an assortment of kicks to keep in the battle, but soon found himself overpowered. Stixx is one of my favourite guys in SWE to watch. He can wrestle the power game well, but is also able to sell for smaller guys without seeming weak. Haskins really started getting into the match when Harvey Dale tried to interfere with a chair, which Haskins took for himself and used on Stixx. Wisely, he went to the legs of the big man, which gave some realism to the ten counts as Stixx struggled to stand. At this point, the booking came into play which made the last section really exciting. First the ref got bumped with a massive chairshot, leading to a second ref coming to the ring. Earlier on, I'd recognised this ref as HoP wrestler Danger Russ, but I'd given it no more thought, until Haskins had Stixx down for a cert 10 count, only for the new ref to stop counting and give Haskins the fingers. He then tried to fast count Haskins down for ten following a Stixx revival , but Haskins got up in time. At around this point, the ring seemed to fill with SWE/HoP wrestlers following failed interference from Alex Gracie, as the Predators, the Hunter Brothers, Ligero, Barton and Robbie X all piled out, leading to an insane top rope moonsault to the floor from Robbie. A table came into play, which ended up with Stixx getting put through it, but as the referee was counting to ten, Dale clocked Haskins with the SWE title before he fully got to his feet, while Stixx rolled out to the floor, landing on his feet, which meant that only Stixx beat the ten count to win the match.
This put the series at 3-3 and the HoP crowd were celebrating victory, when Max Angelus returned to the ring to cash in his MitB briefcase...
Max Angelus vs Stixx
One Roaring Lariat later, and Max was the SWE champion
Personally, I though the booking on this show was tremendous. Bear in mind SWE uses top wrestlers from around the UK, whereas HoP relies mainly on local talent from their training school, yet HoP were realistically portrayed as a threat throughout the show. The series ended as a draw, the Predators still hold the SWE tag titles, and the new champion is a HoP guy who has defected to SWE. It sets up the feud to continue, plus it should lead to at least one more Stixx/Angelus match, which has delivered both times I've seen it previously. Overall, a cracking night of entertainment
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