Pro Wrestling Chaos - Everyone Must Stand Alone

Mr Bananas vs Bison Brody

 Squash for Brody, who looks impressive in victory. Massive gutwrench suplex looks terrific, before Brody hits a press-slam into a World’s Strongest Slam to win.

Ian Williams vs Grado

Williams is playing the role of snivelling cowardly heel, so it’s fun to watch Grado messing with him. The weedy loudmouth vs the lovable everyman is a perfect dynamic. Williams blocks off Grado’s bionic elbow twice before taking control, so it gets a nice reaction when Grado eventually hits it during his comeback. Williams is fine of offence, if not especially exciting, but he left Grado get sympathy. Williams tries to escape after taking a trio of bionic elbows, but gets blocked off by Gideon. Williams re-enters the ring and Grado nails a F5 to win.

Gideon vs Big Grizzly

Fun big man bout here. Williams has stayed at ringside to assist Grizzly, and is a constant presence during the bout. Grizz has some nice offence in his repertoire, with a big legdrop and Samoan drop both looking impressive. I liked the German suplex Gideon hit during his comeback – it wasn’t based around him improbably picking up the big man, but instead he allowed Grizz to rebound back from the ropes, and took him over using momentum. Still looks impressive without diminishing Grizzly’s size. Dug the finishing stretch too – Williams’ interference allowed Grizz to remove a turnbuckle pad whilst the ref was distracted, but a kendo shot from Williams accidentally hit Grizz, Gideon got into position and flatlinered Grizzly into the exposed buckle and finally hit a GTS to win. Made Gideon look smart to get into position for the turnbuckle flatliner, and helps keep Grizzly’s aura – it took three big shots to the head to keep him down. Good stuff.

Massive Party (Chuck Cyrus & Robbie Caine) vs Steele Dragons (Alex Steele & Eddie Dennis)

Decent enough match, which although maybe not technically perfect, is carried along by the fun nature of the stooging, goofy heels, the popularity and amiability of the Dragons and sticking to standard tag formula. Massive Party are working a meathead partying gimmick, and I dug them having a celebratory dance when a Dennis clothesline doesn’t faze them, only to receive two double eyepokes. Dennis plays FIP, and I dug Steele as the hot tag, using his speed advantage to outsmart Massive Party. Dennis hits his ever-impressive fallaway slam/Samoan Drop combo on the heels, and the stereo dives by the faces looked good. Massive Party get to blitz Steele with a few nice moves in a good finishing sequence, but a Steele superkick into a Next Stop Driver gets the win.

Mike Bird vs Trevor Lee

This was really good. Just felt like these two worked well together, both in character work and in the ring. Bird’s increasing frustration at Lee’s pre-match dancing led to an early strike exchange, with Bird nailing a nasty looking headbutt. Bird lures Lee into charging at him and nails a hot shot to take control, before wearing him down with some basic, but well executed offence. Bird takes too long threatening a clothesline however, and eats a uranage for two. Loved how Lee kept hold of Bird’s arm on the pin attempt and rolled through into a Fujiwara armbar, nice fluid sequence. Also a big fan of Lee’s penalty kick on the apron, he gets a full exaggerated extension on the leg to really emphasise the move. Lee gets the sudden win with a moonsault slam, which feels effective as a flash move to get the pin from nowhere. Could easily have watched another 5 minutes.

Panda Cub vs Flash Morgan Webster

Webster attacks Cub from behind to start, as this one kicks off with some real intensity. Webster in particular just lays in the headbutts to Cub. Hadn’t seen much of Panda Cub before, but I dug him here, nice flip senton and a reverse rana for a really nearfall. Webster is really good at being unlikable, so much so that you wonder how he ever gets booked as (a really likable) face. Cub misses a top rope splash and Webster locks in the Strangler to win. Webster is higher up in the hierarchy than Cub, but he really made him look good in defeat.

Pete Dunne vs Johnny Kidd

This is being fought under Mountevan’s Rules, which means that once a wrestler loses control of a hold, they have to yield and let their opponent back up, with best 2/3 falls rules. Really excellent bout to watch, with the matwork being really crisp. Because punches aren’t allowed, both guys have to be really clever with reversals, and most times a hold is countered it’s due to a shift in body weight or leverage creating space to escape. Have to give credit to the commentary too, really puts across how clever both wrestlers have to be, highlighting how Dunne escapes a bodyscissors by putting his legs over Kidd’s ankles, forcing Kidd’s knees down and giving Dunne room to drive his elbows into Kidd’s knees to escape. Just beautiful stuff, and the pinfalls almost feel irrelevant to the enjoyment of the match (Pete wins the final fall by luring Kidd into the ropes and quickly schoolboying him for the win), as it’s a real treat to watch. I’ve got the Chaos show where Kidd takes on Jack Gallagher under the same rules, and I’m very excited to watch that now. Top stuff.

Wild Boar vs Jeckel

This is for Boar’s King of Chaos title. Jeckel is accompanied by Pariah Khan, kayfabe owner of Chaos, giving him a huge advantage. Thus, even though Boar is on it to start, controlling Jeckel after a suicide dive early on, Khan’s interference allows Jeckel to dominate for the most part, with the ref unable to stop it. Jeckel’s pumphandle slam and 2^nd rope legdrop both looked good, before Boar changes the momentum by rolling into Jeckel’s legs when he’s running the ropes. Really crafty counter, and it’s followed by a big senton from Boar. Jeckel is really condescending to Boar, knowing his advantage with Khan, and seems to be toying with him, which ends up backfiring as a recovered Boar is able to avoid a chairshot and instead hit a big senton which drives Jeckel into the chair face first. Sadly, we get a bullshit ending, as Khan pulls the ref out of the ring, and Jeckel tries a chair sneak attack, only succeeding in hitting the chair into his own head. The ref sees an unconscious Jeckel and Boar holding a chair and disqualifies Boar. Disappointing ending to a decent match.

Pro Wrestling Chaos 6: To Crown A King

Pro Wrestling Chaos are a company who run shows down in the Bristol area, and have a roster that features quite a few of my favourite British wrestlers. Seeing as how I live a good 2 hours+ from Bristol, I decided the easiest way to check them out would be by DVD instead. This show is based around a four-man tournament to crown the King of Chaos champion, and is a really fun show from start to finish.

 

JD Knight vs Dave Mercy

This is the first semi-final tournament match. Given that I've only seen him before as an amusingly perverted heel, the one thing I wasn’t expecting is to see Dave Mercy as a fired-up, white-meat babyface. It really suits him too, he looked really good at working over Knight in the early going. Knight takes over after snapping Mercy’s neck over the top rope and starts grounding Mercy. His covers looks pretty nonchalant, which allows Mercy to make a comeback with a flurry of blows and a swank looking Northern Lights suplex. Knight hits a chokebomb, which only gets two, and he seems frustrated at this, going outside to grab the ringbell. The ref stops him, but it turns out to be a distraction, as Knight instead nailed Mercy with a wrench from his tights to get the win. Or so it seemed, as the ref raises his hand before he has a chance to hide the wrench, which leads to it’s discovery. The ref restarts the match, and Mercy hits a quick RKO to win. Fun opener.

 

Mike Bird vs Wild Boar

I really like both guys, so I had high expectations for this one. Boar is working face here, and it’s nice to see that he’s still plenty vicious on the mat in this role, working the fingers of Bird. I liked Boar’s punches in the corner, pummelling Bird to the ground, then picking him up to deliver more punches. There was a lovely little sequence to change the momentum, as Bird avoids a charge, and rolls Boar up with a schoolboy, then hits a double-stomp right away. Bird starts slapping Boar around the head, which seems a foolish thing to do to rile up his opponent, but then he brilliantly follows it up by running the ropes at the same time as Boar to hit a big clothesline from the side, which looked great. Boar’s corner senton looks great as ever, but Bird picks up the win with another big clothesline and a cradle piledriver. Really great match.

Dick Morgan, Alex Steele & Eddie Dennis vs The Doomsday Killers (Gideon, KillBane & Ian Williams)

This starts off as a singles match between Gideon and Morgan, before Williams attacks Morgan from behind. This leads to Steele and Dennis making the save and proposing this six-man tag. I quite like the initial structure of this match where, despite an initial flurry of offence by the faces, the Doomsday Killers are able to take over following a big Gideon kick to Morgan, capitalising on his still being groggy from the pre-match assault. I thought Gideon looked terrific in this match, with just nasty, vicious looking blows that looked convincingly painful. I also dug his offence on Steele following a hot tag, with him holding Steele in a standing chokehold which he then turned into an overhead butterfly suplex, which looked ace. Things break down after another hot tag to Dennis, and things get a little sloppy until they head to a hot end sequence. A big series of dives by Steele, Williams and Gideon culminates in a big flip dive by Dennis. The action returns to the ring with a series of moves, before Morgan finishes Williams off with a Northern Lights suplex, which he rolls through with into a brainbuster. Decent match, really made me want to see more of Gideon.

Big Grizzly vs Rampage Brown

The box has this match down as “Steve Griffiths vs Rampage Brown”, but it wasn’t until I got to the menu screen that I realised “Steve Griffith” is blog favourite Big Grizzly, and this became a match I was super excited to see. This was a really good big man bout, with a fun story. Rampage Brown is a big bruiser of a man, but for once he’s out-sized by his opponent. Rampage tries a couple of shoulderblocks without shifting Grizzly, and Grizzly meets him with a running knee as he hits the ropes for the third try. They trade some big blows on the outside of the ring, and back inside Rampage tries to pick up Grizzly onto his shoulders with no joy. This is teased a few times in the match, and I like that, strong as Rampage is, he isn’t able to just lift Grizzly on the first try. Grizzly can move for a guy his size, and I really like the way that he uses this size as a weapon, smashing into Rampage like a demolition ball with a running shoulderblock. Grizzly gets a two count off a big sideslam, before Rampage hits a big lariat and finally hoists Griz onto his shoulders for a running Samoan drop, which gives him the victory. Loved this.

Chris Masters vs Jeckel

Masters is quite a regular on these shores nowadays, and it’s fun to see how he matches up with different opponents, and if he works a heel or face. Here, he was working as a face, which involved him overpowering Jeckel, until receiving a poke to the eye. He managed to catch Jeckel on a pescado attempt, but ended up getting rammed into the ring post. Jeckel looks to be a decent size, just not as big as Masters, so it made sense for him to use these little shortcuts. Jeckel heeled it up a storm when in control, with chokes and boot scrapes to wear down Masters. Jeckel gets a bit too over confident and spends ages going for a top rope legdrop, which he somewhat inevitably misses, and Masters gets him with a lovely Sky High powerbomb. Masters locks in the Masterlock, but Jeckel pulls the ref to him to hide him giving Masters a low blow, which allows Jeckel to pick up the cheap roll up victory. This was fun.

Mike Bird vs Dave Mercy

This is the final of the King of Chaos title tournament, and the other wrestlers comes out onto the stage to watch the match, which is a nice touch. I liked Bird pre-bell trying to wind up Mercy and get under his skin, which leads to Mercy attacking him with a flourish at the bell. They brawl outside  the ring and through the crowd to the stage, before getting back to the ring, where Mercy misses a top rope splash. Bird takes over, and hits a really cool looking running legdrop in the corner. Mercy tries firing back with some really great looking punches, but telegraphs one which gives Bird time to block it. Bird misses a top rope moonsault, giving Mercy enough time to get his second wind, hitting a Northern Lights suplex and a Michinoku Driver for two. Bird is able to hit a fucking Dragon suplex on Mercy, which sends him from the ring, and Bird follows him out with two suicide dives onto the dazed Mercy. Bird is fully in the ascendancy here, but is caught diving into the ring by a RKO from Mercy, and only getting his foot on the ropes prevents Bird getting pinned. They battle on the top rope, and Bird tries for a top rope cradle piledriver (which it really looked like he was going to hit) before Mercy breaks free. This does lead to a really great end sequence. They fight on the ring apron, and Bird DOES get to hit the cradle piledriver on the ring apron. Mercy is pretty much out, but does just about get back into the ring before the 10 count…only for Bird to immediately hit another cradle piledriver for the clean victory. Really loved this,  both guys managed to look stronger coming out than going in, which is surely the aim of matches like this.