World of Sport Wrestling #3 11/08/2018

Grado vs Sha Samuels

Interesting how quickly Grado has fallen from the champion to being a comedy character. It’s arguably a role he’s better suited to, but it’s still a stark fall in just two weeks. Here’s he’s wearing a suit to show Stu Bennett that he can be a corporate champion. Samuels controls from the start, hurling Grado into the barricades. Grado finally gets a comeback by reversing a piledriver attempt on the ramp. Grado fires up, taking of his suit, and nailing Sha with the Dusty elbows. Corner splash and a cannonball both look good, and Grado catches Samuels with a diving cutter for the win. Pretty short, and the “corporate Grado” storyline was barely explored, but this was fine.

Martin Kirby vs Joe Hendry

This is a result of Kirby walking out on a tag team tournament match, leaving Hendry to take a beating. Bennett helpfully points out that Hendry should be much angrier, as he comes to the ring singing and smiling. Kirby bumps about early, stooging about by challenging (and losing to) Commonwealth games wrestler Hendry to a mat battle, before taking over with a dropkick. Kirby is lovely to watch in the ring, hitting a nice running backbreaker and a big spinebuster. Kirby misses the crabwalk elbow, and Hendry rolls through a crossbody with a fallaway slam in a really nice sequence. Kirby lands on his feet on a second attempt and nails a nice enzuigiri. Kirby feigns an injury after a Hendry ankle lock and gets the sneaky win with his foot on the ropes. This was good stuff.

BT Gunn & Stevie Boy vs Brad Slayer & CJ Banks

Nice to see the team of Gunn and Stevie wearing matching gear and facepaint to look more like a unit. Slightly odd to see Banks, who’s been firmly aligned with Rampage and Sha Samuels, here teaming with a guy we’ve not seen before. You’d think Banks and Samuels would be the more obvious team. The face team function really well here, lots of quick fluid tags and nice double-teaming. We get a brief heat worked on Stevie Boy, with Slayer looking a little basic on offence. He seems far more comfortable taking moves, as the faces quickly fire back. Gunn and Stevie nail a diving elbow Doomsday Device on Slayer for the win. Mainly a showcase for the faces, who looked terrific.

Gabriel Kidd vs Crater

This is Kidd’s “big opportunity” for winning the ladder match the previous week – 36 stone of Crater. Love Bennett’s big grin as the match is announced. This is one of those stupid angles where we’re supposed to feel outraged that the heel GM has forced a wrestler to face another wrestler, which is basically his job. I mean, Kidd won the ladder match the previous week, he’s not some feckless jobber, he’s already proven himself to be at least a competent wrestler. Alex Shane describing this as “the most disgusting act he’s ever seen from a wrestling executive” just rings hollow. Plus, Kidd does get a little offence – he nails some elbows to start and gets to break free of a Crater bear hug. He’s not getting destroyed, he’s just not as good as Crater. Crater nails an avalanche, a chokeslam and a splash to win.

Rampage vs Justin Sysum

This was pretty good stuff, felt like a big deal. Sysum is a big boy, but he’s also pretty agile, which gives him some openings here. Rampage hits him with some meaty blows, but Sysum backflips out of the corner and nails a nice high backdrop and a side slam. Rampage takes control after CJ Banks pushes Sysum off the top rope, and Rampage plants him with a big uranage. He continues the back offence, with some blows to the small of the back and a spinebuster. Sysum looks good on his comeback, nailing a big overhead suplex, before sending them both to the floor with a clothesline. However, CJ Banks is under the ring and he holds onto Sysum’s leg, causing him to get counted out. You knew that Sysum wouldn’t dethrone the champion so early, so the ending gives the story a reason to continue whilst keeping Sysum strong. Enjoyed this

World of Sport Wrestling #1 28/07/2018

So, with the return of wrestling to terrestrial UK TV, I thought it might be worth following the show on a weekly basis. They've got a really good looking roster, and it'll be interesting to see if some of these guys start getting better bookings because of it. First show? Bit of a mixed bag, but overall a promising first impression.

Rampage vs Adam Maxted vs Crater vs Sha Samuels vs Justin Sysum

First match to kick off a new generation of British wrestling on network TV, and it’s a poorly booked mess that doesn’t do justice to the talents of the wrestlers involved. First of all, it’s an elimination match with three cheap eliminations and then the end sees a screwy finish where the winner isn’t entirely clear. To a first time viewer, this would be a confusing, convoluted mess. The first elimination sees Crater disqualified for not breaking while choking Maxted on the ropes, and the second sees Sysum rolling up Samuels after Rampage, who had been teaming with Sha, accidentally hits him with a clothesline. The final elimination sees Maxted counted out, with Sysum being declared the winner after beating the count…even though it’s then pointed out that Rampage had beaten the count too. This was the first impression that a lot of viewers will have got for the modern UK scene, and it was too short to let anyone really shine. Sysum got the most shine, getting impressive height on some flying clotheslines and Stinger Splashes, though he nearly crashes and burns on a dive.

Will Ospreay vs British Bulldog Jr

This feels like it would have been a better choice of opener, it told a much simpler story and contained enough action to impress a new audience. They told a basic speed vs power story, before going for an ending run full of nearfalls. The spot where Bulldog tried to throw Ospreay out of the ring, only for Ospreay to springboard into the ropes and rebound with a kick looked great, and deserved the sometimes intrusive mid-match replays. Bulldog tried a little legwork, not extensive focus, but enough that whenever Ospreay landed on his feet, it slowed him enough to give Bulldog an opening. Both hit some big moves in the final minutes which looked like finishers, a midring Spanish Fly by Ospreay and a huge sitout powerbomb by Bulldog. In the end, a top rope powerslam gave Bulldog the win, and I bet more fans were talking about this afterwards than the opener.

Martin Kirby & Joe Hendry vs Iestyn Rees & Kip Sabian

This is an opening round match in the tag team tournament. Really like the team of Sabian and Rees, they complement each other well in the ring and had the look of a proper team. They also came out to the ring together, unlike their opponents, which made them feel more like a unit. Their double teams looked well rehearsed, loved Kip hitting a droptoehold on Hendry, then posing whilst holding him in place for a big Rees elbow. Hendry accidentally knocks Kirby off the apron at one point, preventing him from tagging out, and letting the heel team hit a string of moves on him. Kip misses a missile dropkick, to give Hendry the opening for the hot tag…only for Kirby to jump off the apron and walk out. Hendry is still given a little shine, hitting an impressive double fallaway slam, but the numbers add up, and a top rope neckbreaker/powerbomb give Rees and Sabian the win. Good solid stuff here.

Grado vs Rampage vs Justin Sysum

So after the clusterfuck that was the opener, we get a triple threat main event, based on the fact that Rampage didn’t actually get eliminated in the opener. This highlighted Rampage and Sysum far more than the opener. Liked Grado and Sysum, the faces, repeatedly throwing Rampage out so they could have a straight up match, and Grado hitting a cannonball from the apron was a neat highspot. There’s a little bit of comedy, with Grado side stepping and outsmarting Sysum, causing him to fall on his face, before Rampage hurls Grado around the ring. The bits with all three in look really good and well timed, with Grado hitting a Wee Boot on Sysum, who was about to hit a discus lariat, looking great. Sysum looks to have the match won with a 450 on Grado, but Rampage swiftly throws him from the ring and plants Grado with a DDT to win the WoS title. Makes sense to go forward with a heel champion at this point, and all three looked really good here. Given that Grado maybe works best as a special attraction, it may work best with Sysum chasing Rampage, but it opens up some interesting options either way.

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.

House of Pain: Evolution 9 - Our Lawyers Made Us Change The Title Of This Show To Avoid Getting Sued

House of Pain: Evolution (or HoP:E) are an off-shoot of the Nottingham academy promotion House of Pain, this time using more experienced BritWres workers with a sprinkling of their own guys. They've been running for nearly a year now, but this is the first show I've been to since the debut last July. The reason is that I wasn't too impressed with the debut show. There were too many lengthy promo sessions, and too many odd booking decisions that I didn't get. For example, the second match saw Battle Squad: Awesome beating Project Ego in a tag bout. Now, whilst putting your own guys over the established team makes total sense, Kris Travis of Ego still had to compete in a main event against three other big names, so having him on the losing side of a comedy tag match seemed misguided. Despite some good matches, the show seemed to go on forever, and by the end I was feeling pretty bored and burned out.  However, based on some of the recent show results, I wanted to give them another go. Honestly? I'm really glad I did, as this was a fantastic show - based on this, it wont be another year before I return.

Jurgen Heimlich vs Danny Chase
Two local House of Pain guys here, and a pretty fun opener. I first saw Heimlich two years ago, and whilst decent then, he's certainly improved since in that time. Despite the fact I suspect he's no more German than I, there is something convincingly Teutonic about his ring work, with some crisp efficient execution of his matwork. Chase spent a lot of this match on the defensive, with a few hope spots peppered in here and there, but he ultimately picked up the win with a springboard splash.

Danny Hope vs LJ Heron
Heron is a guy I've always liked from HoP, a good face worker who always puts on a good showing. Here, however, he was working heel and, hey, it turns out he's even better as a heel. This the first time I'd seen Hope and though I confess I didn't really get his gimmick (lots of tassles, garish pink tights, strutting), I did enjoy him in the match. The match started with a lengthy comedy bit, as Hope has this "strut across the ring" bit he does which he was attempting to get Heron to imitate. This went on forever, to the point where I was starting to wish Heron would just hit him instead....and then he did. An aggressive side really suits Heron and you can tell he's having a good time with it. The two of them worked well together, including a great spot where they kept reversing go-behinds until Hope suddenly nailed Heron with a perfectly timed superkick for two. The end was slightly off, with Heron reversing a rollup into one of his own for the win not looking too crisp, but this was a fun match.

Ashton Smith vs Bam Bam Barton
Smith was pretty much unknown by the crowd and Barton, despite being a heel, is a local guy, so Barton was getting some good reactions from the audience. This is the point where the show went from good to great. This was a pretty short match, but it went over brilliantly with the crowd. What we had was two guys hapy to lay it into each other with some nice blows and some crisp strikes. Smith totally won over the crowd with his performance here, winning with a lovely superkick that caught Barton great. This was short and sweet, and ended with a standing ovation for Smith.

Dave Mastiff vs Joseph Conners
This was the main match that had convinced me to come to this show. I love Dave Mastiff, he's the perfect example of a big guy who can move, look dangerous, but also make his opponent look good and their offence look credible. Conners meanwhile, is one of the more underrated guys in the UK, and you can tell the next year is going to be huge for him. Despite being possibly the best heel in Britain, Conners worked face here, and this was a perfectly executed dominant-heel-vs-popular-face match. They built this slowly, with Conners trying to find an opening and Mastiff not rushing in and giving it to him. Mastiff dominated the early going, wearing down Conners with the air and confidence of a man who knew he was going to win. Conners got a few hope spots, but it was mainly Mastiff shutting him off and taking over again. The trick with this sort of match is how to effectively and credibly give the face his real comeback, and this was done by a vicious offensive flurry by Conners in the corner. He'd hit a combo of short clotheslines and elbows to the head, get separated by the ref, then go back in with another flurry. I loved that, as no matter how much bigger Mastiff is, repeated blows to the head are still going to take you out meaning a diving shoulderblock from Conners was able to take Mastiff off his feet. They also teased a slam spot, which got paid off by Conners hitting a sitout slam for a nearfall. Both guys got really credible nearfalls (love the Mastiff crossbody as always), before a missed cannonball left Mastiff prone to a chickenwing DDT for the Conners win. Absolutely fantastic match, and it's neck-and-neck with ZSJ/Pete Dunne for my match of the year so far.

T-Bone vs Barricade
I'd only ever seen one Barricade match before, and I hadn't been that impressed to be honest, so I wasn't sure how good this would be. The answer is that this was tremendous and both guys deserve a lot of credit for the abuse they were taking from each other. Essentially, they just beat the tar out of each other, levelling their opponent with stiff weapon shots. I had a brief warning to grab my hoodie and leave my chair before a flying T-Bone was hurled into the spot where me and a large chunk of the audience had been sitting. The match looked to be won by T-Bone, before a distraction by Bam Bam Barton allowed LJ Heron to sneak in and pummel T-Bone with a series of chairshot to gift Barricade the win.

Grado vs Flex Buffington
Good pacing here, as this was a fun comedy match before the main event. Both guys were very popular with the crowd, who ate up everything here. We got a repeat of the "gym equipment fired into Flex's crotch" spot from last months Flex/Manson match in Southside, some "Flex is scared to pull off top rope moves" comedy and Grado riding him round the ring like a pony. The nice thing is that Flex's character is such a goofball that it gave us the rare sight of Grado outsmarting somebody. Grado picked up the win with an F5, but the audience were the real winners here. In the last two months, Flex has worked arguably the two premier comedy wrestlers in the UK, and kept up with both, which bodes well for him (Oh shit! I've just realised that Flex vs Dave Mercy is a match I now need to see happen. Promoters of the UK, get on this!!)

Jack Jester vs Kris Travis
This was our main event, fought under no-DQ rules. I'd never seen Jester wrestler before, and the only thing I knew about him was from his appearance on Insane Fight Club, where he came across really well. In person though, he's a proper scary guy, and came across as convincingly unhinged during this match. This was another insane brawl, and they upped the ante from the T-Bone/Barricade bout, leaving the ring, then the room, leading to a Pied Piper-like string of wrestling fans following them outside to watch them fight on the stairs down to the football pitch near the venue. I've watched enough bad hardcore matches over the years to know that crowd brawling is often a lazy way to fill time in matches unless the hate is convincing, and that was certainly the case here. Things didn't calm down in the ring, with some nasty chairshots before Jester picked up a win with a tombstone onto a chair.

Triple X Wrestling: The Nov 24th Show

Regular readers, in the unlikely event there is such a thing, will be aware by now of my love of Coventry's Triple X Wrestling, who put on a constantly entertaining show every time. Having been to every show this year, you could imagine my horror as the M69 leading from Nottingham to Cov was shut as I headed to the imaginatively titled "November 24th Show". Diverted through random parts of Warwickshire, I was genuinely concerned that I was going to miss this show, but thankfully I got there just in the nick of time. Which is lucky, as I think this was the best top-to-bottom show they put on this year. Ending old stories, continuing and starting new ones, the pieces are in place to make January's upcoming "Clusterfuck III" show an absolute belter.

Pete Dunne vs Chris Brookes
Brookes' new intro video proclaims him to be be "a bit of a cunt", which earned him a few choice chants during the match. Real nice back-and-forth match here, with everything looking crisp in execution. Brookes had impressed smaller roles in previous matches, but it was nice to see him get a longer chance to show what he could do. His Dragon suplex on Dunne was really good. Dunne is always good value, and the "On your head, son" enzuigiri never gets old. Dunne picks up the win with a swank pumphandle into a DDT.

We got a bit of an angle here, as cult hero (and my girlfriends favourite wrestler) Local Jobber #2 came to the ring, only for Flash Morgan Webster to come out and destroy him, asking again for a match with Mark Andrews. This was eventually agreed to, so hopefully this will happen at the next show. It's been building nicely for month, and it should be a great match when it happens.

The Hunter Brothers vs The Henchmen
Though not advertised as such, this was a battle of Coventry vs Birmingham, so the Henchmen were the clear hometown favourites. The Hunters are great at stooging for their opponents, raising a laugh when a blindside attack failed and claiming "it was the ref". The Henchmen dominated early, but a cheapshot to the leg of Jim Diehard gave the Hunters control. This was a classically worked tag match, with a lengthy heat section on Diehard coupled with the Hunters cutting off a hot tag attempt by attacking Benton Destruction. I loved Benton's combined shock and horror at his tag partner hitting a shining wizard ("Have you been watching those skinny boy tapes?"), before Diehard managed to motor through both Hunters to make the tag. The Henchmen had nearly completed the Five Moves of Doom for the win, before Diehard got nailed with a chair before he could hit the senton to get the DQ win. Destruction also got levelled with a pair of chairshots after, so I assume this leads to a rematch at the next show.

Tyler Bate vs Joe Coffey
Bate has been more and more impressive on the past few shows, but this felt like a real breakthrough match for him. Coffey was a guy I'd not seen before, but he came with a good reputation, and he was a really good opponent for Bate here. Coffey was a really unlikable heel here, and that also helped rally the crowd behind Tyler. I liked the mat exchanges throughout the match, especially as both guys actively worked the holds they were applying, with little touches to make them look more painful. I loved Coffey pulling out his chewing gum and rubbing it in Bate's face during a hold, which only made him seem more of a dick. Though smaller, Bate still got to use a few of his impressive strength spots, with the deadlift German suplex getting two. In the end, however, Coffey picked up the win with a giant swing, which he chained to a Boston crab. Tyler tried to power out, but when that failed, tapped right away. Really great match, debuting Coffey with a good win, but Bate also came out better than when he went in.

Adam Shame & Grado vs The Wrestling Dead
After leaving the last show with "Zombie Slayer" Terry Seddon, Michelle Thorne is now out managing the zombie team. Something to do with them always being stiff... Anyway, this was as absurd and ridiculous as you'd expect. Grado is always entertaining, especially his puzzlement at the idea of having to wrestle some zombies and Shame seems to fit well with him. I love Chris Stone's out-of-control commitment to the character, as he acts more zombie than wrestler, with Steffan Hard carrying the wrestling side of things. Grado gets distracted by Thorne flashing her wares at him to give the zombies the advantage and it doesn't help when his partner also gets enticed by Thorne when Grado reaches for the hot tag. Eventually, Shame does get tagged in, and a combination big boot\faceplant combo give them the pin on Hard. Really fun.

Eddie Dennis, Damian Dunne, Devilman & Omer Ibrahim vs Big Grizzly, Wild Boar, Scott Grimm & Gabriel Grey
This is an elimination tag match, with Gabriel Grey promising to disband the Damned Nation if they lose. This was pretty chaotic, but never less than entertaining, and managed to include some great storyline strands as well. Omer finally got his revenge on Grey after a year of abuse, nailing a huge spear to eliminate him, before Grimm nails a Black Hole Slam on Omer right away to even the score. Everyone here got a chance to shine, with even Grimm looking good dominating the champion Devilman. Dennis shows some impressive strength to suplex Grimm over for a pin, while a fun sequence of offence ends with Boar nailing a package piledriver on Dunne to even up the sides again. In the end, the Damned Nation is forced to split, as Devilman and Dennis take out Grizzly and Boar and hit simultaneous pins to be the two survivors (and I'd be remiss not to mention Dennis showing sick strength again by hitting a crucifix bomb on the enormous Grizzly). After the match, Dennis went from Good Wales! to Bad Wales! by nailing Devilman with the title belt, almost certainly setting up a match between the two in the future.

Triple X: Club M In Your Face

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.