Southside Wrestling Menace II Society III

So this weekend, I took in two wrestling shows, both featuring Sabu on his UK tour. The first one, in Nottingham, was on the Friday, and featured the following action...

El Ligero vs Pete Dunne vs MK McKinnan
If you want to know the definition of loneliness, then I felt it here: being the one person in the venue who wanted Pete Dunne to win this match. The other two guys are far better known in the area, so Dunne met with silence with a sprinkle of boos, despite this being three faces in action. Aside from the opening minutes, they avoided the usual pitfalls of the triple threat match, that being taking it in turns to have one guy on the outside selling whilst the other two fight. Here, all three guys were involved in the action, either through double teams or one guy taking out both of his opponents at once. This got a great reaction from the crowd, with even Dunne (because he's awesome) winning the crowd round with a double crab on both guys. Ligero hitting a top rope stomp with both guys in a tree of woe was also pretty swank. With Dunne being hardly known and Ligero embroiled in a feud with Martin Kirby, MK was the obvious choice to win and he did with a shining wizard to Pete. Good opener.

RJ Singh & the Hunter Brothers vs Martin Kirby & the Predators
There is some long standing dissention betwen Singh and the Hunters, so they were a far less smooth unit than the heel team, who delighted in singling out first Singh, then one of the Hunters. The brothers Hunter showed no interest in tagging in Singh, focusing their early quick tags between each other, leaving Singh frustrated on the apron. This allowed the Hunters to show a more heelish side, which I think is their strength. Paul Malen was fantastic in this match, like a rabid cheerleader on the apron every time his partners were in control. Eventually, Singh did get tagged in on the hot tag, and looked to have the match won with a Swanton bomb, but he took exception to a Hunter trying to make the pinfall and broke it up, allowing the heels to regroup and the Predators hit the Trophy Kill on Singh for the win.

Mark Haskins vs Darrell Allen
This match will be forever known to those in the crowd as the "hotdog" match. Basically, as Haskins came to the ring, slapping hands with the ringside fans, he knocked a hotdog from the hands of what appeared to be a handicapped fan at ringside, whose mother went ballistic at Haskins. Despite Haskins leaving the ring to talk to the fan, this didn't appease the mother, who took the son from the venue. Haskins looked ever-so guilty, and the fans didn't help him, woth chants of "sausage slapper" and "Hotdog Haskins" ringing out throughout the match.

AS for the match itself, it was solid, with Haskins working over the left arm of Allen for the bulk of the match. Though the match started off evenly, once Haskins had started to work over the arm, it gave him an easy way back into the match whenever Allen tried making his comebacks: just hit him in the arm. Haskins is one of the more pushed guys in the promotion, so it made sense that he dominated most of the match, with Allen's selling of the arm putting over the lingering damage. The armwork also played into the finish, with Haskins holding onto the arm during a missed Allen kick, and hitting a pumphandle driver for the win.

Stixx vs Super Crazy
The match started off with Stixx claiming he was a big fan of Crazy, and would be wrestling a fair fight throughout; this of course lasted until the first move of the match, where he hit a sneaky low kick. Crazy was massively over here, and you could tell he was delighted by the reception he received. These two guys combined well here, with Stixx bringing his power game and Crazy making his comebacks using some high risk maneuvers. I loved him cracking out a plancha over the referee, who was looking at Stixx on the outside, especially as he could have gotten away with doing far less in front of this partisan crowd. Stixx picked up the win in a good match by hanging onto the ropes after sitting down on a sunset flip.

Robbie X vs Jay Lethal
Robbie here was challenging for the Speed King title which he lost at the show of that name in May. I've been impressed every time I've seen Robbie previously, but this felt like a real career match for him. Lethal looked considerably bigger than Robbie, which meant that every blow he landed looked like it broke him in half. There was a strike exchange in the middle, which is something I've never been a fan of, but here it felt warranted, like Robbie was trying to show Lethal that he could keep up with him. Lethal even gave Robbie a number of nearfalls, to the extent that you felt like Robbie was going to regain his title, but Lethal finished him off with the Lethal Combination followed by a top rope elbow for the three. This got a standing ovation from the crowd, which it deserved.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tommy End
This was my pick for match of the night. What I loved here was how the strikes were used. Whilst both guys exchanged strikes during the match, you felt like they were actively trying to break each other down with their blows, and it was a battle of whose body could hold up the longest. I like the way that they couldn't even afford to rest for a moment, shown by ZSJ pausing to catch breath after landing another blow on End, only to be quickly grabbed for a belly-to-back suplex. Sabre had a plan of attack, which involved going for an armbar on End at every opportunity. However, this led to his downfall, as his final attempt saw End counter it into a choke, which he held onto until the referee stopped the match. I loved this, it felt like a real battle and both guys came out of it looking kingsized.

Sabu vs Jimmy Havoc
This match got pretty hard to see at times, primarily when they fought on the outside and pretty much the whole crowd flocked around them. This was a total crowd pleaser of a match, as Sabu knew exactly what the crowd wanted to see from him, and they got it. This didn't bode so well for Havoc, who took a shedload of offence. Havoc got thrown through chairs, took chairs to the head, was on the receiving end of a chair-assisted springboard dive to the floor and finally took an Arabian facebuster through a table for the Sabu win. There wasn't much Havoc offence, unless he got in a load I couldn't see on the floor, but that isn't what the fans were there to see, and Havoc got a standing ovation afterwards for the abuse he'd gone through. Fine main event

Southside Wrestling Menace II Society II live report

Robbie X vs Nathan Cruz

Robbie really impressed at the Speed King show, so I was looking forward to seeing him again. Solid opener, as Robbie is a great high-flyer, nailing a running SSP and a great-looking Code Red on Cruz. Cruz was pretty good himself, and they packed a lot into this match. So much so, that I can’t remember all of it, but I do recall Cruz caught Robbie coming off the ropes with a sitout driver for the win.

The Predators (Joseph Conners & Paul Malen) vs Project Ego (Kris Travis & Martin Kirby)

Despite what sounds like a heel name, Project Ego were very much the faces here. Kirby and Travis were really good at the Speed King show, and they worked well as a dynamic team here. The Predators were a good foil for them, as they didn’t attempt anything too flashy, but worked over Kirby (the face-in-peril for a large part of the match) with some nice double teams and really built up heat on him. What was really good here is that both teams have worked the UK as units for a while, so they both worked as cohesive teams. Despite two really good matches later in the night, I think this was a sleeper contender for match of the night.

Stixx vs Max Angelus

Interesting storyline here. Stixx is the head trainer and owner of the local House of Pain Wrestling promotion, and Angelus is one of his trainees. The story goes that Stixx thinks Max has gone too soft and has been rejecting Stixx’s interference in matches. There is a stip here that, if Stixx wins he’ll own Angelus’ contract. Angelus is also the reigning SWE Money In The Bank suitcase holder. Fun little match here, as Stixx bumped well for his trainee, which is more impressive considering Stixx is a mountain of a man. His offence was good too, including a nice reversal of a stomachbreaker into a half crab attempt. Angelus, I’ve said before, could really be a big star in UK wrestling, he’s got the right mix of skills, looks and presence in the ring. The ending was some great pro-wrestling as Max hit Stixx with a piledriver, only for Stixx to stop moving. The ref called officials from the back to check on him whilst Max looked on with concern. Just as they were about to carry Stixx from the ring, he popped up and took Max to the floor, locking in a half-crab for the tapout win, and also backing up his theory about Max going soft. So now Stixx controls the contract of the MITB winner. An intriguing situation and a good match to boot.

T-Bone vs SC Supreme

Supreme is a guy I saw wrestling for HOP in April and he was one of the better performers that night. He’s got that Jim Neidhart-esque physique that isn’t chiselled, but makes him look like a tank. T-Bone, I saw wrestling in the same arena last June, and he’s a really charismatic performer. These two just beat the crap out of each other. We got a few comedy spots (Supreme dedicating a chop to a woman at ringside before missing T-Bone and chopping the post; T-Bone then grabbing the injured hand at getting audience members to hit it), but for the main part this was just two big tanks pummelling each other, and it was great. At one point, Supreme hit an awesome overhead suplex on T-Bone, sending him all the way across the ring. The Predators came out to cause the distraction when it looked like T-Bone was going to win, but they had little effect as T-Bone hit a top rope splash to pick up the win. Good match

The post-match angle was even better though: following the match, Stixx came out to join the Predators and Supreme, guys who he’d trained, as they beat the shit out of T-Bone, crushing his mid-section with Stixx’s chain. Project Ego and Robbie X tried to make the save, but were beaten down every time they tried to get in the ring. Eventually, with the help of a returning Max Angelus, the faces cleared the ring and helped T-Bone to the back. Angelus brought T-Bone back to the ring for some more applause, only to hit him in the back with a chair before looking conflicted. Hot angle to head into the break.

 Marty Scurll vs MK McKinnan

Marty was defending the Speed King title he won last Nottingham show against the debuting McKinnan. It was a face vs face match, with the crowd pretty split between the two. Scurll is a really great wrestler, and can flip between funny man and brutal very easily. It’s all in the way he cheekily says “Hello” before kicking you in the head. This was a lot of fun as they seemed to gel really well with some nice chain wrestling. McKinnan made people take note pretty early with a great tope through the ropes. He also spiked Marty with a reserve rana, but ultimately Scurll’s striking got the better of him. Scurll picked up the win with the torture rack back-breaker. I could have watched another ten minutes of this happily.

Mad Man Manson vs “Textbook” Dave Breaks

This was a comedy match in-between two of the big matches on the card. Good match placement by SWE. Manson is a lot of fun and Breaks played the role of stooge really well. At one point, he even brought out an actual textbook to work out some tactics against the Mad Man. Not that it worked, as Manson pulled Breaks trunks down on a sunset flip attempt, leaving Breaks to wrestle half the match with his arse hanging out. In the end, Breaks got into a row with the ref, who pushed him over a crouched Manson, leading to a Manson roll-up for the win.

Ego Dragon vs El Ligero

This was fought under street fight rules and, after some of the chaos we’d seen at that point, it had a Hell of a job to compete. It did so, and more besides, being arguably match of the night. The two guys really brought the hate, brawling all around ringside, hurling each other through chairs and each realistically doing their best to win. Dragon hurled Ligero through 3 or 4 rows of chairs on the outside to draw a big SWE chant. At one point, it looked like Ligero had it in the bag, having stacked a load of chairs on Dragon in the corner, before diving onto them himself. However, Dragon had a plan in mind and, having taken the advantage, started dismantling the ring. With Ligero down, Dragon choked him out using the top rope, with the referee checking the arms of Ligero three times before calling for the bell. An insane main event, and a great show from start to finish.