House of Pain: Tag Team Warfare 2010

A year or so back, I reviewed a show by the Nottingham based promotion House of Pain, an academy/promotion who put on shows of homegrown talent, with BritWres mainstay Stixx as head trainer. Here is another show which I picked up on DVD at around the same time. As I stated in my initial review, I'm not going to judge these matches as harshly as I would others, knowing that these guys are learning their craft and, given that the shows are kept at a low price, it's a fair and ideal way for them to improve. On the other hand, this is still a product that the public has to pay for, so if I've spent money on something terrible I will say so. Thankfully, that is not the case for the vast majority of this show...

Lucas Black vs Matt Pedin
This is a rematch from the previous HOP show, which saw Pedin pick up the win. We get a few pre-match hijinx from Pedin goofing around on Black before the match gets underway. Some of Pedin's flash roll-ups early on look really smooth. Black looks a little hesitant in places, but he's crucially got the character and his mannerisms down pat. You can just tell that he'll get better with experience. He does little things like a nice cocky pin that really suits the role. Pedin shows good fire on his comeback, and Black catching him on a springboard crossbody into a cradle neckbreaker looks really good. I loved Black's selling of a codebreaker before interference from Black's manager leads to a low blow and Lucas putting a bucket on Pedin's head before hitting a Neutraliser for the Black win. Reasonable opener.

Adil Khan vs Callum Piper
I get the impression these two guys are a bit more experienced, as they seem more polished than the guys in the opener. They both seem more natural in the ring, and there is a nice snap to Piper's offence. They maybe spend a bit too much time with a Khan Camel Clutch, and Piper seems to dip into Ken Anderson's offence list a bit, but this is pretty good. The end sees Khan grabbing his title belt, and nailing Piper's tag partner Jimmy Crash when he tries to stop him using it, only for Piper to hit him with a scissor kick for the win.

Jewel vs Sammy Hope
Apparently, this is the first 1-on-1 ladies match in the House of Pain. There is a notable size difference between the two, which is played up as the story of the match, with Hope having to hit-and-run on the larger Jewel. To be honest, this isn't terribly good, as neither girl seems too experienced in the ring, but they keep it simple with an easy to follow story. Hope appears to be the better of the two, as Jewel's offence seems particularly weak and hesitant, but they stuck to what they knew and, given that nothing was blown and everything made sense, you have to call this a success.

Kaleb Hughes, Joseph Conners, Brian Wright & Zero Tolerance vs Danny Chase, Paul Malen, Dropkick James & Marc Scott
This is an elimination tag team match. The initial story arc sees Conners trying his best to avoid Malen, and it's nice to see that Conners was an effective shit-talking heel even in 2010. It may seem obvious in hindsight, but the four guys who impress most here are the one's who are still working regularly to this day (namely Hughes, Conners, Chase and Malen), with Hughes and Conners looking particularly vicious in ring. By way of contrast, Dropkick James seems to be struggling with keeping his trousers up. Scott is a well-built guy who seems to have good energy and he swiftly pins Tolerance with a sitout powerbomb. However, Hughes superkicks Scott whilst he holds Wright in a press slam, and Wright lands on top for the pin. I'm not a fan of rapid eliminations, as it takes away the advantage element of the match. Sadly, we get two more in rapid succession, as Wright is DQd for choking Dropkick on the ropes, leading to Conners swiftly pinning him to leave both sides down to two men. This leaves us with the four best performers in the match, and we switch to a formula tag team match, with Malen working as FIP. Chase shows some nice fire and energy on the hot tag, but accidentally nails Malen with a missile dropkick. Brilliantly, Conners gets the mic and uses his poison tongue to try and convince Malen, who is on the apron, to abandon Chase. Even better, it works, as Malen rejects the hot tag and leaves Chase to get hit with a running DVD for the elimination. Conners and Hughes win via countout, as Malen walks to the back. Fun match, and really hot angle to close it.

Tony Asbo vs Nate Colt
The match is being refereed by Asbo's son Burberry, who showed some concern about the tactics used by Asbo in a match on the previous show. A pre-match pat down reveals Asbo hiding a baseball bat and pair of wrenches on his person. Asbo takes some quick offence from Colt early, so slows things down with a baseball dropkick to the leg and a half crab. I loved the wicked punts to the ribs Asbo added, as he shows a real viciousness on offence. Colt does a good job selling the beating, even when he gets back on offence. They work the size difference well, with Colt getting a few flashes of spirited offence, only for the larger Asbo to cut him off each time. Burberry puts Colt's foot on the ropes during a pin attempt to mark his official face turn, though this draws a few boos (including from myself, Asbo is fucking awesome here). Asbo tries to get his turncoat son to nail Colt with a wrench and proceeds to argue with Burberry, only to get hit by a snap RKO from Colt for the win. To compound matters, Burberry hits him with a wrench post-match. Really enjoyed this match, thought Colt looked good and Asbo was tremendous.

Stixx, Shane Spyral & LJ Heron vs SC Supreme, Dave Andrews & "Textbook" Dave Breaks
This is another elimination match, and ties together the three feuds of Stixx/Supreme, Spyral/Andrews and Heron/Breaks. "Textbook" is the champion of the promotion. Some heel stalling starts us off. There is a palpable aura of anticipation for a possible Stixx/Supreme confrontation, the idea of these two big bulls squaring off. Breaks heels it up a storm here, loved him coming in, spitting at Heron, then fleeing to tag in a reluctant looking Andrews. Breaks doesn't enter the match until Spyral is in, and in trouble, at which point Breaks becomes a proper magnificent knob heel, all chokes, stomps and vicious looking kneedrops. Between him and Asbo, there has been some great heel work on this show. Andrews draws heat in a different way, as he's got this odd walk that makes him look like a prize twat, and really makes me want to see him get battered. The heels work a lengthy heat segment on Spyral before Stixx gets in and man alive it looks like he'd break Andrews in half. Real size and physique difference between the two. It all breaks down before Stixx hits a Black Hole Slam on Andrews, leading to a Swanton by Spyral for the first elimination. I really like the logic of Spryal not being fully recovered from the earlier heat section, and thus falling prey to a Supreme powerbomb for an elimination (I know this contrasts with my earlier disapproval of quick eliminations, but this one at least makes sense). The Stixx/Supreme section is suitably meaty, with Supreme hitting two lovely overhead belly-to-bellys. Stixx is smarter though, and avoids a corner charge and rolls up Supreme for the pin. ANOTHER quick elimination happens as Supreme nails Stixx with his own chain to gift Breaks the equalising fall. LOVE Breaks' over the top celebration for this. The final fall between Heron and Breaks is pretty good, as they fight in the crowd, including Breaks getting hurled into some chairs. The end sees Breaks locking Heron in a chicken wing, but LJ adjusts his body positioning to counter into a pinning position to win the final fall. Really fun match here, the fact these guys are the more experienced guys in the promotion was obvious with the character work being better and the move execution being crisper.

Southside Wrestling Supershow

This Supershow saw Southside Wrestling leave the confines of the Rushcliffe Arena to put on a show at the Brittannia Hotel in Nottingham city centre. With a mix of UK indy names, US indy stars and ex TNA and WWE stars, this was a show that didn't disappoint.
Kay Lee Ray vs Awesome Kong
This was a fun choice of opener. Kong, though looking leaner than in her TNA and WWE days, still had a substantial size and power advantage over Lee Ray. KLR's game plan here was to play hit-and-run with Kong, trying to nail her with increasingly harder moves as Kong got more dazed. When Kong was on offence, it was a case of KLR surviving what was thrown at her. She survived an implant buster and a spinning backfist, kicking out of both at two. A rally of offence gave Lee Ray an opening, but Kong got knees up on a Swanton, and hit a huge implant buster for the win. Good opener.

Mark Haskins vs Uhaa Nation
First time I've seen Nation, and he's pretty impressive, with great size and loads of natural charisma. Haskins is one of the best wrestlers in the country though, and he controls the early stages by working the arm of Nation. The size difference does come into play with Haskins unable to hit a snapmare on Nation, and this size difference allows Nation to take control. As well as his size, Nation seems to be very agile and nails some impressive aerial moves. Haskins is able to keep in the match, making comebacks by attacking the arm. At the end, Nation nails a standing moonsault, but misses a second and Haskins locks in a Fujiwara armbar for the tapout win. Well-worked match.

Kris Travis vs Martin Kirby
Both members of Project Ego are without opponents after both Shannon Moore and MK McKinnan no-showed. Kirby launches a marvellous promo on both guys, referring to Moore as a drug addict in rehab and McKinnan as a fat blond lesbian. However, his attempt to get out of wrestling Travis backfires when, after they agree not to wrestle, he claims that he'd have won the match anyway. Travis takes exception to this and attacks off the bell with a superkick and a uranage for two. Travis is wrestling with injured knees, which Kirby referred to in his pre-match promo, and after he misses a double-knee in the corner, Kirby goes to work on his partners leg. The match is really well worked, with Travis making well-timed comebacks using his good leg. Before things can really heat up though, commentator Adam Curtis gets on the mic and encourages the two to stop fighting, comparing the work they're having to go through with the work of the US imports. Both guys leave the ring for a double-countout, which is a disappointing ending, but understandable given that this was a last-minute booking in difficult circumstances.

The Predators vs Robbie X & Mark Haskins
The development of Robbie X in Southside has been great to follow, starting as a talented lowercard flier, then progressing to the Speed King title and now being considered one of the better guys on the Southside roster at the age of 18. Robbie has taken on the Predators several times in the past, finally picking up the first win when teaming with Jonny Storm in a non-title match. Here, he teams with Haskins, who has been a thorn in the side of the House of Pain stable for the past few month. This was a great match, loved Robbie and Haskins fast-tagging and working the arm of Joseph Conners early on, as it showed not only tag-team continuity, but was also consistent with Haskins' normal MO of attacking the arm. Both faces take it in turns to be face-in-peril, with Conners and Paul Malen looking typically rabid in attack. What I like about the Predators is how they live up to their name, with a viciousness in their offence that justifies the billing. Robbie kicks out of the Predators' Trophy Kill finisher, which has been a surefire death finisher until now, making the kickout more effective. Haskins interjects to stop a top rope version, and Robbie hits a Phoenix Splash for the win. Nicely worked tag match.

The Hunter Brothers, Hardcore Holly & Dale Mills vs SC Supreme, Nathan Cruz, Max Angelus & Harvey Dale
This was an elimination tag match, with the losing captains (Mills or Dale) having to leave Southside for good. Surprisingly, the Hunters are both eliminated early here, leaving Holly to have to carry the load for his team. The crowd reacted really well to Holly, and he looked great here, seemingly not having aged in ten years. A slight disappointment is that I was looking forward to a battle of chops between Holly and Supreme which never happened, but the promise of one did amusingly lead to Supreme's elimination as Holly outsmarted him by ducking a chop and rolling him up for the three. Cruz is in next, and cowers off from Holly, but only to allow a distraction to give him control over Holly. A fun little section ends with Holly hitting the Alabama Slam to eliminate Cruz. Holly and Angelus square off, again having a fun little segment before Harvey stops an Alabama Slam attempt, the distraction of which allows Max to hit a discus clothesline for three.

The match to this point had been plenty of fun, and wisely, with two of the remaining three being non-wrestlers, the booking took over to keep it entertaining. First Angelus, fed up with Harvey Dale's guidance, slapped the ref to get himself disqualified, leaving the two non-wrestlers in the ring. At this point, SC Supreme reappeared, luring the ref backstage and allowing heel commentator Adam Curtis to enter the ring with a referee shirt. However, to the shock of all, he belted Harvey with a mic, allowing Mills to cover for the win and to ultimately keep his job. Really well booked match from start to finish, and the in-ring action was a lot of fun.

Chris Masters vs El Ligero
Ligero came out with his mask still ripped and broken from his cage match with Martin Kirby last month. Ligero seems to have lost heart since losing to his mortal enemy, which certainly wasn't the right frame of mind to be in when facing Masters. Masters was great heeling it up here, taunting the smaller, demoralised Ligero, who looked close to walking out at points. Ligero did get in some nice hope spots, but an attempt at a springboard armdrag was reversed into the Masterlock, to give Masters the easy win. Be interesting to see where Ligero goes from here.

Stixx vs Kevin Steen
This was the main event and, with the Predators losing their tag belts and Harvey Dale losing his job, Stixx has "nothing to lose" so challenged Steen to a falls-count anywhere match. To cut a long story short, this was an excellent match. with two heavyweights throwing bombs at each other. What I loved is how they built up the level of the spots throughout the match, with both dishing out heavy blows, but neither kicking out of moves that should finish the match (and I differentiate here between moves that COULD win a match and SHOULD win a match). Even the humourous moments were in keeping with a violent brawl, with Steen ramming Stixx into the walls culminating in him throwing Stixx headfirst into the crotch of a poster of Davey Richards. Stixx moves so well for a guy of his size, moving smoothly, but not bouncing around in a way that diminishes his aura as a hard man. The end came from a suitable move too, with Steen flapjacking Stixx through a chair, then hitting the package piledriver to win. Really fantastic brawl that was a joy to watch

HoP Shockwave 2010

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.

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

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.