WWE 205 Live 10/01/2017

Noam Dar vs Cedric Alexander

Their last match on 205 Live was really good, but this, whilst still decent, wasn’t on the same level. I liked Alexander’s initial aggression, owing to all the aggro Dar has caused for him and Alicia Fox, even to the level that he chased Dar to the floor when he tried to catch a breather. Like last time, Dar decides to focus on an arm, this time kicking out Cedric’s arm on the springboard kick. Dar does hit a nasty uppercut, but his armwork isn’t as vicious as last time and he also switches which arm he’s working on. This does seem to be in part due to him working the left arm, but having to grab Alexander by the right arm to counter a flying clothesline with a Fujiwara armbar. To this extent, I liked Dar grabbing Cedric in a straitjacket in order to work on both arms. Alicia Fox stops Noam from crushing Alexander’s arm between the ring steps, which would have been a nice Finlay-esque touch, and this gives Cedric time to recover. The end is interesting, with Fox pulling Dar out of the way of an Alexander moonsault (and not being sure why herself) before Dar finishes with a running kick. Like last time, it’s a shame the armwork wasn’t paid off in the finish, and the fact it was less intense and alternated focus on the two arms means I preferred the earlier bout.

Brian Kendrick vs Sean Maluta

Kendrick cuts a fun promo before the match, complaining about his misting at the hands of Tajiri last week, and saying that, if Tajiri beat Maluta last week, then it would only take him 30 seconds. In a nice touch, it takes him nearly twice as long as Tajiri and with Maluta controlling most of the match. Maluta very nearly wins 30 seconds in with a crafty roll up, and is able to maintain control, looking decent in the process. Dug his cannonball off the apron. A frog splash, however, sees him only eat canvas, and allows Kendrick to lock on the Captain’s Hook to win. This was fun.

Rich Swann vs Tony Nese

Nice booking here, as Nese is the closest you’re going to get to Neville on 205 Live, bar the man himself. Liked Nese’s game plan here, getting Swann out of the ring, hurling him into the barricades, then throwing him back inside in the hope of getting a quick pin. Nese’s focus on the previously injured ribs of Swann was nice, with him draping Swann over the turnbuckle, punting him off them with a kick to the ribs, then catching Swann straight into a gutbuster. Looked really great. Nese misses a swank springboard moonsault to give Swann an opening and, after some back and forth, Swann nails a back kick to pick up the win. Ending felt a bit sudden, but I enjoyed this.

WWE 205 Live 03/01/2017

Tajiri vs Sean Maluta

Not much to this, just a quick squash to get Tajiri over. I did like Maluta’s headbutts, which he briefly used, but Tajiri soon finishes him off with a handspring elbow and the buzzsaw kick.

Jack Gallagher vs Tony Nese

Depressingly short, as we get a brief fun mat section of Gallagher escaping Nese’s holds before Ariya Daivari attacks Gallagher to draw a DQ.

Noam Dar vs Mustafa Ali

This is more like it, good little match here. Dar has really taken to being the cruiserweight shithead, yelling in the corner like a Scottish Iron Mike Sharpe. Loved his opportunism at kicking Ali’s arm as he re-enters the ring, and from that point on uses the arm as his focus. Dar is getting great at the little touches, grinding his wrist-tape across Ali’s face whilst holding him in an armbar. Ali’s offence run is neat, taking advantage of Dar complaining to the ref about a slow count to recover and evade a corner charge, instead hitting a tornado DDT. Ali sells the arm damage really well, not hooking the leg on a pin and having to readjust his bodyweight. Loved him trying a second tornado DDT and instead getting caught in a Fujiwara armbar, looked great. Dar charges the corner, meets a boot to the face and Ali finishes with an inverted 450. Great stuff here.

Neville vs TJ Perkins

Interestingly, Perkins came across as a far greater threat to Neville than Rich Swann did the previous week. Perkins is able to use his speed to evade Neville at first and send him to the floor with a rana. I liked how they played up both guys being equally quick, but if one of them got in a blow, they’d be able to get a small flurry as the impact of each blow would delay the opponent reacting to the next one. Perkins especially takes advantage of this, and it makes his offensive run look good. Loved Neville perching on the top rope with malicious intent when he’s in control, just waiting to hit a top rope dropkick. Loved Perkins’ springboard rana, but not as much as I loved Neville catching the wheelbarrow that normally leads to a kneebar and instead deadlifting Perkins into a German suplex. Looked terrific. The end sees Perkins on the top rope, and he desperately tries to fight Neville off as he goes for a superplex. In the end, however, Neville hits an enzuigiri and absolutely plants the superplex to win. This was great from both guys.

WWE 205 Live 06/12/2016

Noam Dar vs Cedric Alexander

Interesting match structure here, as Dar really dominates for the most part. Love the way that Dar seems to have a gameplan from the offset, working the left arm of Alexander from a headlock reversal right from the get go. From there, Dar seems to use the arm as a focal point, stopping every Alexander comeback with a quick kick to the arm, or locking on an armbar. That’s not to say Cedric doesn’t get a few choice spots to shine here. Loved him going for a tope, Dar ducking to avoid, and Cedric instead waiting to hit a slingshot dropkick through the ropes. The armwork is the main crux of the match, and Dar does some neat things as part of his control. Loved him pulling down Alexander’s elbow pad to grind his knuckles into the arm and his wrapping the ropes to inflict more punishment. Alexander puts over the pain too, including having to adjust his bodyweight during a pin attempt due to leaning on the arm, making it easier for Dar to escape. The end sees Cedric missing a corner charge, ramming the bad arm into the ringpost, and Dar has the opening to hit a running kick for the win. Really fun match, really put Dar over strongly.

Jack Gallagher vs Ariya Daivari

Third time these two have fought, and Gallagher is still selling the leg that Daivari had injured on Raw. Love Gallagher thinking about his usual leap into the ring to enter, but thinking better of it. The focal point of Daivari’s attack, unsurprisingly, was the leg, but Gallagher still managed to be his peer on the mat despite this. Loved them throwing in a few references to previous matches. Gallagher again did his handstand in the corner schtick, but this time Daivari decided to grab a leg, only for Gallagher to use it to push him away. Daivari got to show a vicious side by focusing on Gallagher’s leg, but his offence on it wasn’t particularly interesting. Mainly just him hitting it into things. Loved Gallagher trying flash pins to get the win, aware that he needed to get out of the match as quickly as possible. He also had a moment where he looked to be considering the corner dropkick, but decided against it. This gives Daivari time to take the leg out again and hit a frog splash to win. Not as good as last weeks match, Daivari isn’t a particularly compelling offensive wrestler.

Rich Swann vs The Brian Kendrick

Last weeks match was really good, and whilst this week was fun, it was still the lesser match. Loved Kendrick hitting Sliced Bread on the floor early to damage the neck of Swann, the neck he’d damaged the previous week. Kendrick’s offence concentrates on the head and neck from this point, which looks really good. Nice crossfaces to the head, and I loved the way he hit a big Dragon suplex and went straight into the Captain’s Hook. Shows the desperation he has to win the belt early. Swann makes a comeback, including a nice tumbleweed to the floor, but his neck injury prevents him being able to really follow up on moves. Kendrick gets the Hook again, and I love how he works it, adjusting his body position to prevent Swann making the ropes as well as cranking on the pressure of the move. Kendrick essentially flatliners Swann into the ringpost, which looked nasty. The end is sadly a bit hooky, as in escaping a Dragon sleeper, Swann throws Kendrick into TJ Perkins, who is commentating. This distracts Kendrick, who goes face to face with Perkins, leaving him prone to a roundhouse kick for the Swann ring. Not a fan of the finish, as Kendrick has been shown as obsessed with the Cruiserweight title, so him letting Perkins distract him didn’t ring true. Still, this was fun.

PCW/GFW Global Conflict 2016

This is a co-promoted Preston City Wrestling/Global Force Wrestling show, though only 3 Global Force guys wrestle on the show. Still, it's quite a fun line-up and a pretty decent show all in all...

Lionheart vs Kenny Williams

Williams is quite a gangly looking guy, and his offence doesn’t look like it could cause too much damage. I enjoyed Lionheart’s control here, as he’s prepared to use his size advantage to outman Williams. Loved him putting Williams on the top rope only to punch him in the face. Williams further disappoints me by taking a superkick flush in the face, only to hit a rebound lariat. Still, Lionheart looked good, with the end seeing him superkick Williams in the head on the top rope then absolutely plant him with a Rock Bottom for 3.

Joe Hendry vs Dave Rayne

There’s more time spent here on angle than match, but it served to get a debuting Hendry over, so it served a purpose. Hendry’s schtick sees him singing a lot (including coming out to his own version of “In The Air Tonight”, with lyrics referencing his own name) and promising to sing in lieu of his match with an injured Joey Hayes. This prompts Rayne out to face him, but first lead the crowd through a singalong of “Sweet Caroline”. Being a true heel, Hendry attacks Rayne from behind before he even gets to the chorus. This was brief, but Hendry was pretty solid. Loved his fallaway slam before he hits a dominator for the win.

Sonjay Dutt vs Bubblegum

This is for Dutt’s GFW Next Gen title, which is a huge belt. Some really nice matwork to start, with Bubblegum maybe a little ahead on points. The pace picks up, and Dutt nails a massive baseball slide dropkick. Dutt’s octopus stretch looks nasty. Bubblegum is good at fighting from underneath, but he doesn’t get a whole load of offence here, mainly limited to hitting some swank kicks on his comebacks. They botch a backslide, but that aside everything looked good here. Dutt picks up the win following a tornado DDT and a top rope splash, before attacking Gum after the bell to cement himself as heel. Maybe a little too one sided, but this was fun.

Johnny Moss vs Chris Dickinson

Two big muscle-bound lads here. Their similar looks (bald heads, black trunks, ripped torsos) see the crowd yell Mitchell brothers references, which must have baffled Dickinson. Enjoyed the opening matwork and roll ups, as both guys strength made it look like they could power the other one down for a win and hold them there. Moss looks great here, nasty elbow drop and a lovely capture suplex. Dickinson for his part has some great footwork, with his standing kicks to the torso thudding like logs into Moss. They trade rolling German suplexes at one point, which is the kind of thing I normally hate, but it works here, as both guys show the effects of being worn down, getting up slower and slower each time. The end sees Dickinson maybe getting up a bit too quickly from a tombstone (though Moss takes his time getting to the top rope)and hitting a top rope falcon arrow to win. Really good big man match.

Jeff Jarrett vs Noam Dar

The commentary points out that Jarrett is 48 to Dar’s 22, so it’s probably no surprise that Jarrett brings out a whole heap of schtick. Loads of stalling at the start with Karen Jarrett getting into arguments with fans. Jarrett hits a pair of armdrags, both followed by a strut, so predictably Dar follows with one of his own after his first piece of offence. Jarrett actually keeps up with Dar pretty well – normally in matches like this the younger wrestler has to noticeably hold back to not show up the veteran, but Jarrett still moves well. Plus, he’s also wise enough to fall back on a load of cheap moves, poking the eyes and choking behind the ref’s back to maintain control. Dar’s comeback offence is a little flurry of quick, crisp offence that looks nice, before they pay off the continued Karen interference by having her accidentally slap Jarrett instead of Dar. Dar locks in the Champagne Superkneebar, but more Karen distraction allows Sonjay Dutt to sneak in and nail Dar with his oversized belt for the Jarrett win. A masterclass in cheap heat and stalling by Jarrett.

Team Single vs Jack Baron & Jack Garvin

Team Single are supposed to be fighting the Hooligans, but an injury to Roy Knight means that they instead offer an open challenge, answered by two rookies from the PCW academy. There’s a big size difference, and I’ve seen plenty of matches where the big veterans just guzzle up the rookies, but Team Single give a surprising amount to the two Jacks. Baron and Garvin seem green but have the fundamentals down. They logically focus on T-Bone’s arm and use their speed to try and avoid Rampage, but Brown catches Baron in midair on a Poetry in Motion attempt, dropping him on Garvin. Despite a decent period of control on Baron, Team Single still let the rookies back in, as Baron hits a nice tilt-a-whirl DDT to tag out. It’s played up that Team Single have underestimed the rookies, but it still lets Baron and Garvin look good. The end sees T-Bone German suplex Baron into the corner, crotching a climbing Garvin on top. Brown hits a superplex on Baron, with T-Bone following with a top rope splash for three.

Sha Samuels vs Dave Mastiff

For Samuels’ PCW title. Love the start with Samuels getting into Mastiff’s face, and getting grabbed with two overhead suplexes. They fight in the crowd, including some stiff headbutts from Mastiff. The camera does lose them a bit as they brawl in the audience, before Samuels suddenly reappears, thrown through a load of chairs from the back of the room. Samuels takes control by ramming Mastiff into the ringpost 3 times, before locking on a sleeper in the ring. He makes the mistake of jawing with the crowd though, which lets Mastiff break free and hit two big German suplexes. He looks set to hit the cannonball, before 3 masked men come out, causing a distraction for Samuels to hit the match-winning low blow. This was good, but felt too short and we missed a chunk of the crowd fighting due to the camera losing them, but what we did see was fun.

Southside Wrestling Speed King @ Rushcliffe Arena, Nottingham 22/04/12

Southside Wrestling is a fairly local promotion that seems to run a lot in the East Midlands/Cambridgeshire area, but I've never gotten round to going to one of their shows before. That is, until last Sunday when they ran a show 5 minutes from my house, a one-night tournament to crown the first Speed King champion. After enjoying last years Awesome Wrestling show at the same arena, I went along hoping it would be as good as that show had been. It ended up being far better...

Mark Haskins vs Ego Dragon
Haskins is billed as a TNA star, so it’s nice to see him making the most of his few TNA appearances. Ego Dragon wore a mask that looked near identical to Super Dragons. Haskins got the crowd into the match early, popping them with the Tiger Mask feint followed by a tope suicida. The crowd remained hot for the rest of the night, so that was a good idea. Dragon looked pretty good, but Haskins really impressed, showing some brute strength by picking Dragon up from the mat straight into a powerbomb. The end saw Haskins hit a top rope rana, but Dragon rolled through with it for the win

Max Angelus vs Danny Chase vs Bubblegum
Angelus and Chase are both local, whilst Bubblegum is a slightly bigger name on the circuit with a fun chav gimmick. Angelus impressed me a lot last June, and he was great here, he’s really got the look, talent and charisma to go places. Chase also seemed pretty good, being slighter but pretty crisp in the air. This was an elimination match and Max was first to go after Stixx came to ringside with a chair and, following a tussle between Max and Stixx, Chase accidentally got hit in the ribs, whilst Bubblegum fell to the floor to get Angelus DQ’d. This left Bubblegum with an injured Chase and, whilst he got a few comeback hope spots, Bubblegum picked up the win with a top rope stomp.

Marty Scurll vs Robbie X
Robbie reminded me of Lionel Messi – totally average looking with floppy hair who is actually able to do some incredible things. Some of the high-flying he did in this match was terrific, like hitting a flawless Code Red on Scurll. As well as being absolutely loaded with charisma, Scurll is bigger than Robbie, so used strikes to wear down the smaller man, including an insane lariat that turned X inside out. Scurll followed this with a torture rack into a backbreaker to pick up the win.

Rockstar Spud vs Noam Dar
My friends and I were huge Spud fans back in the day. Nowadays, he seems to do less high-flying (probably wise with his tiny frame) and instead used more character-based stuff to get over. His entrance, him standing on the ring apron, horns aloft, not moving to Living On A Prayer was great. Dar is also pretty small, but had a vicious selection of kicks, and really dished it out to Spud here. There was a nice little bit of storytelling where early in the match Spud hammered Dar against the ringpost, but when he tried again later on in the match, Dar moved which left Spud crotched on the post. Dar stomped on Spud’s leg from the top rope, then got the tapout via an ankle hook.

El Ligero vs Martin Kirby
This was also the opening match of the Awesome Wrestling show I watched in the same arena last year. However, whilst that was a fun opener, this far outshone it, being a tremendous wrestling match. Kirby especially has improved markedly in the last 10 months, during which he worked a match against Finlay that was supposed to be very good. He looked really crisp here, including a delayed suplex that he held for ages. You get the impression these two have worked together a number of times, as the chain wrestling section between the two was very well worked and there were a number of convincing false finishes before Ligero won with a backslide. Really good.

Pac vs Kris Travis
Pac is the big star of the show, and was noticeably much physically bigger than the other guys on the show. Travis attacked Pac pre-bell to start and, while this match started slow, it soon began to pick up pace. A standing shooting star by Pac woke up the crowd, before a twisting corkscrew moonsault to the floor which sent them into raptures. Travis held up his end of the match well, and looked comfortable against a guy who is an international star. In fact, this match was really even throughout, as Pac let Travis get in a load of offence, the highlight of which was a swank Northern Light suplex, which Travis rolled through with before kicking Pac in the head. Indeed, Travis picked up the clean win, as Pac hit knees on a shooting star press, before Travis nailed a double-underhook piledriver for the victory. Fine match, and a total star-making performace by Travis.

Shanna vs Holly Rocamora
Both girls were out there to represent all-female promotion Pro Wrestling: EVE. The match was pretty short and forgetable, but broke things up a little bit before the tournament final. Shanna was the more polished of the two and won quickly with a reverse DDT

Ego Dragon vs Bubblegum vs Marty Scurll vs Noam Dar vs El Ligero vs Kris Travis
This was an elimination match for the Speed King title. One of my favourite indy matches ever is a 6-man elimination from IWA-MS back in 2005, so I was very much looking forward to this. The match started with Bubblegum on the mic, demanding not to get hit in the face and threatening to blow El Ligero’s lucha gimmick. However, before he could do so, Ligero rolled him up for a flash elimination. Following a fun five man in-ring section, that saw the three faces suplexing Travis and Dragon together, the two masked men, Dragon and Ligero soon squared off and went through a strike exchange before Dragon decided to simply kick Ligero in the groin getting disqualified. This left the face/heel split very uneven, so Travis quickly pinned the downed Ligero. Travis, Scurll and Dar worked a fun triple threat sequence from this point, including a 3-way kick exchange that ended with all hitting simultaneous kicks to the head. Dar locked a leglock onto Travis, who tapped out quickly. This left Scurll and Dar, and the ending section for these two was really good, with some convincing strikes from both on the ring apron. Dar started to slightly heel it up, viciously working over Scurll’s leg for the leglock. He locked it in, but Scurll refused to tap. He started to pass out, but gots his arm up when the referee tested his arm for the third time. After a bit more action, Scurll managed to hit the backbreaker to pick up the win. Really fun main event, which managed to revive a crowd that had started to flag a little. Scurll put over Dar after the match and, considering Dar is only supposed to be 18, he looked like a major prospect. Satisfying end to a really good show.