PCW Road To Glory 2018 - Show 1

Dean Allmark vs Adam Brooks

Really fun opener. Allmark is a really fun guy to watch – he’s deeply uncool, with his long “Deano” emblazoned shorts and his dad bod, but he’s so polished and precise with his movements that you don’t even notice. Brooks heels it up a bit here, slapping Allmark after escaping a headscissors. Brooks takes control after getting his knees up on an Allmark standing moonsault and is pretty good in control. I liked the backpack stunner he hits from the corner. I like that the Allmark comeback comes from Brooks’ own decision to mock Allmark’s trademark dabbing, as it gives Allmark time to avoid a running knee. Allmark nails a combo of kicks and nails the Smiles Clash, a sitout powerbomb from the Styles Clash position, for the win. Good start to the show.

Big T Justice & Tel Banham vs Danny Hope & Joey Hayes

Hard not to find Banham the kind of character you love to hate. He’s an angry little Scrappy Doo character, small of stature and large of mouth, especially given that he has a huge backup in the form of Big T Justice. Given how irritating Banham is, it’s fun watching Hope work him on the mat, grabbing him by the ear to force him into a headscissors, before Hayes just clowns about to make him look foolish. Justice is a big lad, but he needs to lay in some of his moves more – his standing leg lariat and missed corner charge look soft, although his match winning ax kick looked vicious. Banham making the cover after Big T’s big move is a perfect bit of character work.

Polo Promotions (Jackie Polo & Mark Coffey) vs Team Single (Rampage Brown & T-Bone)

Not a long match, but it didn’t need to be. Rampage is the surprise partner for T-Bone, and the reunited Team Single batter Polo to start. With four big lads in there, it’s a hard hitting match with some really big blows. Polo Promotions manage to isolate T-Bone briefly, until a Polo standing armbar is broken by T-Bone hitting an electric chair. Rampage looks great whenever he’s in there, catching Coffey mid-leapfrog with a huge slam looks great. T-Bone plasters Polo with a spear before Rampage hits a sudden-looking piledriver on Coffey for three. Short sharp shock of a match.

Apollo Crews vs Iestyn Rees

I had sort of considered that Crews might take it easy, making his cameo from WWE, but this was a really good match. This was probably better than any of the matches I saw with Rees as champion. Rees jumps Crews from behind, only for Crews to avoid a charge and take a big backflip almost as a taunt. Crews seems legit happy to be in Preston, and that helps make this more fun. Rees looks good in his control, his elbow drops had great height on them. However, Rees allows his frustration to get the best of him and his complaining to the referee allows Crews time to recover. Rees hits a great looking spinebuster, and I like that everything he does here look crisp. Nothing fancy, but nicely executed. Crew is able to make his full recovery and hits the press slam/moonsault to win.

Interracial Love (Charlie Sterling & Ashton Smith) vs Kings of Leon (Sha Samuels & Lionheart)

This is played out with an angle in the background, as both teams seem to have a bit of tension. Curiously though, Sterling and Smith seem to have their issues at the start of the match, but operate as a team throughout, whilst in contrast Samuels and Lionheart let their issues affect their performance. Lionheart blind tags himself into the ring when he want to be in, but then refuses tags from Samuels when he doesn’t. Smith is isolated, but you can tell that the heels tension, instigated by Lionheart, will cost them in the end. Lionheart manages to knock Samuels off the apron, with the collision allowing Smith to tag out, and Samuels seems to have a back injury. Despite this, Lionheart tags him and shoves him into the ring, where Sterling’s offence seems to focus primarily on the back. Lionheart refuses to tag in after Sterling misses a top rope move, and the faces blast Samuels with a double-superkick for the win.

The Henchmen (Jim Diehard & Benton Destruction) vs Dunkamania (Matthew Brooks & Sugar Dunkerton)

Long-time readers of the blog will know how much I love the Henchmen, and they were on really good form here. Brooks is working an opera singer gimmick, and sang a version of “I Believe I Can Fly” on the way to the ring, with lyrics changed to big up his team before this match. This kicks off with a comedy bit, where Benton and Dunkerton go for a basketball tip-off, and Dunkerton low blows him whilst the ref is throwing the ball up. Nicely, Dunkerton tries this again with Diehard and takes a huge punch to the face. The Henchmen were great brick walls here, using their size to dominate large parts of the bout, like catching Brooks mid-flying headscissors to drop him with a backbreaker. Brooks moves really nicely, hitting his “Singer’s Splash” beautifully and selling the Henchmen’s offence nicely. Loved Benton standing on Brooks’s stomach and dropping down with a big splash. Dunkerton does a bit too much comedy shit, but he’s insanely over. The end sees Dunkamania hit a double slam on Diehard from the top rope (huge bump!) and a double pin gives them the victory. Enjoyed this, nice to see the Henchmen still on form.

Moose vs Sheikh El Sham

It’s a sign of the overall quality of the show that this is probably the weakest actual match, and even this is pretty decent They start this nicely, Sham failing to take Moose down on two shoulder blocks, so going for an eyerake and then knocking him down, only for Moose to kip up and nail him with a big boot. Sheikh takes control after Moose hits the ringpost on a charge, and Sheikh has some nice basics. Loved the height on his dropkick and his punches. His control is only brief, as Moose starts pumping himself up, getting the crowd to chant along, before finishing Sham with a big spear.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Matt Riddle

Yeah, this was unsurprisingly terrific. They really work the mat to start, and there were some nice little touches like ZSJ accepting a test of strength, and instantly switching to a leglock because it favoured his style more. There’s a great moment where Riddle almost seems to flick a switch, suddenly hitting Sabre with two rolling gutwrench suplexes. Riddle shows some really great core strength, able to catch ZSJ in midair to throw him. Riddle hits three sentons, but takes a little too long to pose and Zack catches a fourth attempt into an armbar. These guys are so closely matched, you can see either guy trying to take advantage on any small opening knowing it may be the difference, with Sabre maybe slightly better at spotting those moments where Riddle is momentarily distracted. What I love is how a reversal in this match won’t necessarily lead to an escape, as at times a reversal just puts the escapee into position for another move which can be locked on instead. Riddle beautifully escapes a ZSJ submission by using his only available option, biting the ropes. In the end though, it’s not enough, as Sabre escapes a tombstone and cradles him for the win. Just absolutely lovely stuff.

AAW Windy City Classic XII 26/11/2016

ACH vs Mustafa Ali

This was a solid opener, though not the blowaway showstealer the commentary team were portraying it as. I’d never seen ACH before, and I liked some of the little touches he did, like stopping on a slid reversal of an Irish whip to sucker Ali in, then hit a sneaky kick. He’s got some heft behind him too, so his springboard splash looked painful. Ali is really fluid, loved the rolling ring entry that flows into a neckbreaker. There is one moment where ACH really obviously sets up a dive following an Ali baseball slide: ACH awkwardly clambers over the safety rail, then unsubtly pushes the rail away to make space for the landing. It’s actually all for naught, as Ali manages to hit mainly chairs on his flip dive. That aside, I dug this, and I really liked the feel of the ending sequence. ACH hit a succession of moves and got two counts on each, but rather than getting frustrated or selling shock, he swiftly hit another move, not giving Ali time to recover, and eventually being rewarded with the match winning 450 splash.

The Hooligans, Buck Nasty & Connor Braxton vs The Wet Bandits (Markus Crane & Dan Lawrence), Kongo Kong & Colt Cabana

With big indy 8 man matches, it gives you a chance to check out a load of guys you’ve not seen before and to remember names to look for/avoid on future indy cards, and I got guys for both lists here. Hard to get a grip on the Hooligan’s gimmick, they’re wearing overalls and no shoes like your typical hillbilly wrestler, but those overalls are covered in punk rock patches. The first half of this match is filled with some insufferable cutesy comedy nonsense, led mainly by the Wet Bandits. It’s not until the heel team finally get to work some heat on Crane that things pick up. Loved the nasty looking body shots by the Hooligans and the long flurry of chops and punches they inflict on him in the corner. They also hit a nice 2^nd rope legdrop/standing moonsault combo, which was impressive from such stocky guys. Kong I’d heard a lot about, and I loved him picking up Lawrence, his own partner, as a weapon to hit a rolling senton on three opponents in the corner. Braxton and Kong hit opposing simultaneous fallaway slams/Samoan drops, whilst both holding two wrestler, which is impressive, albeit a little too cutesy. Cabana and Kong hit top rope splashes on the Hooligans to win. Final scorecard: Hooligans and Kong – like to see more of, Braxton and Nasty – seemed fine, Wet Bandits – insufferable. Not too bad.

Kimber Lee vs Mercedes Martinez

This is for Martinez’s Shimmer title. Pretty decent match on the whole, though not without a few stumbles from both. Both played their roles well, with Kimber as face running through a nice, crisp offensive flurry to start, contrasting with Martinez heeling it up with chokes, at one point doing a double bicep pose with her leg draped over Lee’s throat. Mercedes definitely wins the battle of stiffer looking chops too. Lee’s comeback run is pretty nice, getting two off a decent swanton, but Martinez looks to have been playing possum, kneeing Lee when she tries to pick her off the mat, and hitting a Fisherman’s buster for the victory.

Alex Daniels vs Chuck Taylor vs Jake Crist

Daniels has a Ben Affleck-themed gimmick, which seems to involve him yelling Ben Affleck film titles before his moves. He seems like quite easily the best guy in this match, bumping like a maniac and hitting some lovely offence – great kneestrike to the face, loved his running slam into the corner and his strikes looked sharp. Crist’s offence was a bit shitter, he hit this really indy-tastic facebreaker that I didn’t like, but his character work was fun, doing this arsehole over-the-top mocking of Daniels’ agony after giving him a belly-to-back suplex on the ring apron. I realised this match that, though I intensely dislike Taylor, his execution of offence is actually fine, it’s just his irritating facials when selling and stupid noises he makes that puts me off. That said, his finishing Awful Waffle looked arse here. Want to see more of Daniels though.

Heidi Lovelace vs Jessicka Havok

This is an I Quit match. Like Lovelace’s gameplan here, attacking the larger Havok with a dive to the floor before the bell. Havok’s size and power advantage means she’s going to control the bulk of the bout, but Lovelace absorbs the punishment and waits until Havok makes a mistake to try and capitalise. The only thing is, she has to eat a load of punishment, getting hurled into the ringside barriers and getting folded in half with a single-leg crab. But then Havok will miss a charge into the corner, and Lovelace pounces, rolling through a crucifix in a lovely movement into a Rings of Saturn. Havok’s kicks are a bit soft, but this kinda helps explain how Lovelace is able to recover despite taking big shots like a Stretch Muffler tangled in the ropes. Havok sets up a load of chairs in the ring to hit a top rope Air Raid Crash, but again this gives Heidi time to recover, escaping to hit a sunset powerbomb through the chairs and then choking Havok out with a chair on a Camel Clutch to win. Really well laid out match, enjoyed this a lot.

Eddie Kingston, Homicide & Low Ki vs Brian Cage, Drago & Pentagon Jr

This has the feel of a dream match, but takes an interesting twist early on due to what seems to be a legit injury suffered by Low Ki. Ki ends up on the floor outside with Homicide checking on him, putting Kingston at a 3-on-1 disadvantage (during which time he suffers the indignity of Pentagon hitting a top rope stomp to his nuts). With Ki still hurt, Homicide and Kingston manage to isolate Drago, the smallest of their opponents, and look utterly badass in the process, taunting Cage and Pentagon and battling against the odds. Low Ki recovers enough to get into the matched, and one-legged Low Ki, with Homicide’s bandana tied around his leg to offset the pain, headbutting Drago manages to look even more of a hardcase than his team-mates. Kingston’s character work here is excellent, selling every minor outrage as a personal insult. Ki gets isolated, but everything breaks down when Homicide and Kingston come to the aid of their injured comrade. After a big finisher train, Ki hits Drago with a shotgun dropkick and a top rope stomp to win. Lots of fun here.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Trent Baretta

Interesting bout here. Liked the early stages, where Baretta is ever so hesitant to lock up with Zack, so pokes him in the eye to take control. There’s a bit where ZSJ has to lie on the mat for ages after a back elbow so Baretta can hit some terrible comedy move, but then this leads to angry ZSJ just working the shit out of Trent’s neck. Baretta then misses a charge in the corner, jarring his elbow, and he’s really in the ring with the worst possible man for that. Zack does some lovely arm work, including kicking the arm when tied up in the railings, and I love the way he ground his elbow into Trent’s spine to force him to the mat to take more punishment. Baretta’s selling of the arm is inconsistent, and Zack actually sells a neck injury more, suffering a Jig’N’Tonic and a cradle piledriver, both for two counts. In the end, ZSJ ties Baretta up on the mat and gets the submission. Baretta didn’t feel in the same ballpark as Zack offensively, which made it harder to accept 50/50 strike exchanges toward the end, but this was still fine.

Trevor Lee & Andrew Everett vs The Besties In The World (Davey Vega & Mat Fitchett)

This is for the AAW tag titles, held by Fitchett and Vega. Probably the weakest match on the card, unfortunately, just a bit too unstructured and sloppy. It starts with a dance-off, which is never a good sign, and features too much comedy nonsense. A plethora of those double team moves where through some convoluted machinations a wrestler ends up hitting a big move on his partner that never look good. Lee is very much the standout here, loved him running the ropes and suddenly switching direction to hit a baseball slide dropkick at a different angle. He even makes a double rana look decent. Everett hits a big insane dive over the ring post which also looks good. Ultimately, this isn’t very interesting and the end sees Fitchett unrealistically reposition himself to take Everett’s match-winning shooting star press.

Sami Callihan vs Chris Hero

Callihan is the defending AAW champion here. Loved Hero hitting a senton right off the bat here, giving him an early advantage over the winded Sami. Really like how Sami isn’t able to get any sustained offence in the match unless he cheats, only for his sudden cockiness to back fire – he fakes an injury to sneak attack Hero, only to celebrate and get punched in the chops. He takes advantage with an eyepoke, but again takes his time attacking and again Hero takes control. Any time Sami takes over, Hero is only one strike from recovering. It’s not until Sami takes out Hero’s leg that he’s able to get sustained control. A vicious chair shot to Hero’s leg looks nasty, and Hero’s size means that a leg injury is the best way to keep him down. Hero keeps firing back with elbows and kicks, but his leg gives out on another elbow attempt, and Sami has him in trouble. Hero hits a big piledriver, but isn’t able to cover, and Sami is actually in the perfect position to grab Hero’s leg and lock in a Stretch Muffler for the victory. Really good stuff.

The Best of Mark Andrews: Fly Or Die Trying

So, this little gem I picked up last year from Mark Andrews' Big Cartel page, a collection of 5 of his best matches against 5 different opponents. I've always liked Andrews since the first time I saw him live (as mentioned later) and it's no surprise he's gone on to win British Bootcamp II- he combines really crisp, fluid high-flying with an innate charisma and likability, and this collection is a really fun watch.

Mark Andrews vs Pete Dunne

The first bout on the disc is from AIW in the US, where the crowd don’t know either guy. Thus, the match is almost like a sampler of what both guys can do. This means it also works well as an opening match on this comp, giving a flavour of what to expect from the following matches. Pete heels it up, giving the crowd the finger early on, and as the bigger guy he bullies Andrews a bit, hitting some nice suplexes and grounding Andrews by working over the arm. I liked the way he did some nasty joint manipulation, showcasing his nastier side. Andrews pops the crowd with a lovely standing 630 senton. Dunne hits his pumphandle DDT for two, before Andrews busts out a lovely flip dive and a springboard rana for two. A reverse rana is followed by a shooting star press for the win. The crowd is totally won over by the end, giving both guys a standing ovation. Really fun match.

Mark Andrews vs Zack Sabre Jr

From Triple X Wrestling. Regular readers (ha!) might remember this was top of the leaderboard in my "Top 10 Matches of 2013" list. However, there is always a disconnect of watching a match in person and watching it on DVD, so I was curious to see how it would hold up. In all honesty, I actually like it more on second viewing. At the time, I’d never seen Andrews wrestle before, but now, having seen him plenty of times, I can really appreciate the little things that he changed up specifically for this match. It starts with Sabre Jr totally schooling Andrews on the mat, viciously working over the arm and even hanging onto the arm from an Andrews armdrag to retain control. Zack throws in some nasty little touches, such as grinding his elbow into Andrews’ eye during a chinlock. Andrews is a great underdog and, after Sabre kicks his legs out during a brief offensive flurry, he realises he has to react as quickly as possible to any opening. Thus when he gets Zack outside the ring, he immediately follows with a big flip dive.  Normally, Andrews plays to the crowd before hitting a standing moonsault, but here he just doesn’t have the time, so hits it straight away and follows it with a swift double stomp. Sabre viciously kicks out Andrews legs on a springboard attempt and hits a vicious kick to the chest. Andrews tries a few kicks of his own, but this just seems to rile Sabre, who decks him with some nasty slaps to the face. 2 Dragon suplexes only get a two count on Andrews. Andrews downs Sabre and tries to put him away quickly with a 450, but Sabre is able to move and ties up both of Andrews’ arm to get the tapout victory. Absolutely love this match. Sabre, as the former champ and longtime ace of the promotion, dominated, but Andrews made the most of his openings and looked tough as nails in surviving the onslaught.

Mark Andrews vs Will Ospreay

This is a first round match from the Progress Natural Progression Series. Both guys are really crisp high-flyers, and pretty evenly match. I dug the initial matwork, before they start to speed things up. Ospreay hits a great dive, sliding under the ropes to barrel Andrews into the crowd. He hits a standing shooting star, before going back to the mat, trying to wear Andrews down. I loved the insane backflip into a tornado DDT by Andrews, really looked like a move that would catch the opponent totally by surprise. Both of them hits nice sequences of moves which flow nicely together, meaning they hit a few big moves in succession for more realistic pinfalls. Ospreay gets a really close fall off a top rope reverse rana, but, even though he lands on his feet on a missed 450, he gets caught by a beautiful springboard rana for the win.  

Mark Andrews vs Jonathan Gresham

Another Triple X bout. I’ve never seen Gresham before, so I was looking forward to this. Though shorter than Andrews, he’s stockier and here plays subtle heel. This lets Andrews work as underdog, which is where he really excels. Gresham takes an early powder from the ring after an Andrews onslaught, and has a noticeably more vicious streak when he comes back in. He whips Andrews into the turnbuckles with real velocity, hits a nasty elbow to Andrews’ face and really snaps him to the mat with a back suplex. Andrews buys himself a little time with a Bubba Bomb, and hits a really cool looking forward roll enzuigiri. They exchange pinfalls, which Gresham ends with a “Fuck you” and a big kick to the head. Andrews fires back with a tornado DDT, which he hits from a totally different angle to the Ospreay match, which gives it a real “from out of nowhere” vibe. Andrews nails the 450 splash, but is too hurt to cover straight away, only getting a two. Gresham plants Andrews with two German suplexes, then hits a deadlift straightjacket version for the pin. Really nicely worked  match, really enjoyed Gresham’s vicious streak.

Mark Andrews vs Paul Robinson

This is the final of the Progress Natural Progression Series. I really liked the fun matwork at the start, as they rolls through a series of armbar reversals. Robinson hit a great spinning headscissors with two full rotations. The commentary mentions Robinson has a kickboxing background to go with his highflying, and he’s got some really nice looking kicks. Robinson shows a more vicious side, clawing at Andrews’ face and hitting an elbow to the spine immediately as Andrews forces a submission break by grabbing the ropes. Nice dive to the outside by Andrews. I really love the fact Andrews has a few moves he hits standing variations of, as it creates a sense of mystery as he builds up to it- in earlier matches we’ve seen a 630 senton, but here he hits a great corkscrew moonsault from the same position. Robinson misses a top rope legdrop, which he gets insane elevation on, but he hits a great twisting top rope rana and spinning kick to the kidneys. Robinson misses a shooting star press, and Andrews hits this awesome top rope moonsault belly-to-belly suplex for the win.

Triple X Wrestling: Clusterfuck III

Arriving at Club M in Coventry for this show, we were treated to something a bit different before the wrestling started...stand-up comedy. After an opening set I arrived midway through (which was fun, though I didn't catch the name of the guy doing it), we got regular Triple X ring announcer Omer Ibrahim recounting stories of his wrestling days, the highlight of which involved a rather horrible training drill involving a rear waistlock... With the crowd suitably warmed up, the action began.

Keiron Young vs Dave Mercy
So we kicked off with two guys I've not seen before. Young bills himself as the "Indy Guy", whilst Dave Mercy is the delightfully named "Sleazy Bastard". And what a sleazy bastard he was, grinding his way to the ring to the sound of "Bump & Grind". With his posh voice, pervy moustache and yellow singlet hanging down to his waist, Mercy was perversely entertaining. He used a lot of sexual spots, going for the pinfall with his crotch over Young's face and choking him with the straps of the singlet, as if to pull it down. Young looked decent, if a touch inexperienced, and he hit a few nice kick combos to Mercy. The ringwork here maybe wasn't perfect, but this was a lot of goofy fun. Mercy won with a roll-up, which meant he qualified for the Clusterfuck match later.

Devilman vs Wild Boar
This title match was a bit of a slow burner, with the opening moments based around DM grounding the Boar with a headlock. Things started to heat up however, with Boar looking good on offence. What I love about Wild Boar is how everything he does looks designed to inflict pain, especially how he clawed at DM's face during holds. He also seems happy to hurl himself with reckless abandon towards his opponents, with a dive from the ring being particularly choice. Devilman looked good in his comebacks, and looked set to make the Boar tap with a crossface. Boar got a couple of nearfalls towards the end, but Devilman was able to pick up the win to retain the title.

Clusterfuck III - Damian Dunne vs Chris Brookes vs Tyler Bate vs Terry Seddon vs Big Grizzly vs Local Jobber #2 vs Scott Grimm vs Scotty Essex vs Dave Mercy vs Eddie Dennis
The Clusterfuck match follows the same format as the Royal Rumble, except that, upon reaching the final four, it becomes a fatal fourway match, with the winner here becoming the no. 1 contender for the Triple X title.

This was a whole heap of fun. I wont try and recap everything that happened as, frankly, my memory isn't that good, but there were plenty of highlights. Tyler Bate has adapted his gimmick, fully embracing the "tiny Gotch" chants to portray himself as a throwback to the black-trunked grapplers of the early 20th century. With a dapper moustache and a smattering of aeroplane spins throughout the match, he made this new character work. His semi-reunion with former Slapdash Tagteam partner Chris Brookes ("he's a bit of a cunt") was one of the fun running themes throughout the match. Also impressing here was Big Grizzly. The first time I saw him back in July he was a competent, but green, big man. Here, he looked great, levelling opponents with Samoan drops, a proper good spinebuster and two massive cannonballs in the corner, which put cult hero Local Jobber #2 out of action (of which more later). Damian Dunne, who was the first entry, provided a good base for the match, as he's able to work well with everyone on the roster, and his elimination of Grizzly was a nice bit of payback for his loss to the big man back in August.

Dave Mercy returned, having qualified for entry with his earlier win, and got thrown out straight away. The other newcomer in the match was "Mr Reem" Scotty Essex, who riled up the crowd as soon as he came out. He didn't really get a chance to show much, but did take a big bump for a Bate deadlift German suplex which was impressive, so hopefully he'll get a chance to impress in the future. We got down to a final four of Dunne, Dennis, Bate and Brookes, but before a winning pinfall could take place, it was revealed that Local Jobber #2 had never been eliminated. Dunne hit him with a quick springboard codebreaker, but Dennis swiftly threw Dunne over the top rope and pinned Jobber to win the match and a title shot at Devilman next show. There was never a dull moment here, and it felt better laid out than last years match.

"Flash" Morgan Webster vs Mark Andrews
The stipulation here was that Webster would get a contract with Triple X if he beat Andrews. Webster has been running rampant in the past 12 month, interferring in matches and specifically targetting Andrews, but this was his first actual match since Clusterfuck 2 last year. The result of this build is that the crowd absolutely HATED Webster, who kept the heat up with his antics throughout the match. This also meant that we saw a slightly more aggressive side to Andrews, but without him shortchanging the crowd on his ever impressive aerial skills. Webster looked more impressive here than he did 12 months earlier (in a reasonable match against Eddie Dennis), and was clearly revelling in the heat from the crowd. A good, if slightly short, match ended with Webster taking advantage of a distracted ref to crack Andrews in the head with his scooter helmet for the win.
　

The Henchmen vs The Hunter Brothers
This was a tables match, and ended up being a pretty fantastic brawl around Club M. The Henchmen pretty much destroyed the Hunters to start, but the Hunters' gameplan of surviving and then isolating one Henchman was pretty smart. The first fall went to the Hunters on Jim Diehard, as a top rope superplex attempt was cut off and the brothers hit a double powerbomb from the second rope through a table. This put Diehard out of commission for a while, and let the Hunters concentrate on Benton Destruction. I loved Benton pulling down the straps of his singlet before trying to ward off both Hunters. The Hunters set up a table near the bar area, but by this time Diehard had recovered, and a resurgent Henchmen powerbombed one Hunter off the stairs through a table in an insane bump to even things up. Back in the ring, there was a ref bump before the remaining Hunter got thrown through a table, but his brother returned and levelled both Henchmen with chairshots, leaving Destruction lying in the broken remains of the table. A recovering ref called for the bell to give the Hunters the cheap win. Really fun brawl here, with the Hunters bumping and stooging magnificently, and all four men putting in a good effort.

Zack Sabre Jr vs Pete Dunne
Going into this match, I had high hopes. ZSJ was part of two of the best matches I saw live last year (vs Mark Andrews for Triple X, and vs Tommy End for Southside), whilst Dunne has been a constant highpoint of the Triple X shows I've been to over the past year. Yet somehow, this match still surpassed expectations. All the matwork here was excellent, and it always felt like it was leading somewhere, instead of being matwork for the sake of matwork. There were nice little touches throughout, like Sabre simply letting go of Dunne's leg when he could tell Pete was about to try and counter a hold, or the way he tried to keep his legs moving when sat in a prone position to try and stop Dunne grabbing one of them. As is often his gameplan, Zack went on the attack on Pete's left arm to soften him up for an armbar, and both his attack plan and Dunne's selling of the injury were terrific. I loved the fact Dunne kept protecting his arm, even whilst on offence. Whilst the result was never really in doubt, it was kept competitive, with a few moments where it looked like Dunne might win. In the end, ZSJ picked up the win with a Dragon suplex, but it's fair to say this was a stormer. Possibly the best match I've seen in person.

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

Triple X Wrestling XXXtravaganza

Despite living in Nottingham, I'm a Coventrian and it warms the very cockles of my heart that there is a promotion putting on shows regularly there. Triple X isn't your average wrestling company, putting on a product that doesn't take itself too seriously (wrestling zombies!) but does put on some great matches. The last show, Clusterfuck 2, was great, so I decided to go to this pre-Wrestlemania show. With the ever excellent Omer Ibrahim as host, this was a really enjoyable show

Scott Grimm vs Local Jobber 2

At Clusterfuck II, Grimm took on Local Jobber and pretty much destroyed him in minutes. Local Jobber#2 tries to learn from this and attacks Grimm from the bell and gets caught in a Black Hole Slam. A quick splash finishes it for Grimm. Not a good night for the local lad

 

Scott Grimm vs Dave Mastiff

Mastiff was due to face Wild Boar on the show, but injury put paid to that.  Instead, Mastiff decides he wants a piece of Grimm. This match is just two massive dudes whaling away on each other, with a few choice power moves for good measure. Loved Mastiff getting Grimm up for a rolling fireman’s carry, whilst Grimm’s belly-to-belly suplex on Mastiff was also impressive. After trading nearfalls, they managed to both get disqualified as the referee lost control. The pair had to be separated at the end (including the help of Local Jobber #2, still selling injuries)

 

Terry Seddon vs Sebastian Radclaw

Seddon is Triple X’s resident zombie slayer, primarily due to his physical resemblance to Simon Pegg. Here, he took a break from the undead to take on Radclaw, an interesting character who seemed to be talking to voices in his head. Radclaw looked good, I’d never seen him before, but he was a lot of fun and should fit in well in the Triple X universe. He even managed to get a chant going for his late Uncle Eggbert (who apparently told him to never lose a fight to a ginger man). Midway through, Professot Lex emerged with a zombie for Seddon to fight with, before Radclaw flew over the top rope to take out all three men. Back inside, Seddon finished Radclaw with a big boot and legdrop. Goofy fun

 

Zack Sabre Jr vs Mark Andrews

This match was awesome. ZSJ was positioned as the more experienced, dominant wrestler here, totally schooling Mandrews on the mat and kicking the shit out of him to prevent any kind of comeback. Andrews was great in the underdog role, and used his speed and ariel skills to get some nearfalls on Zack. Everything ZSJ looked great, with his matwork looking like it was killing Andrews, tying him up in knots. I also liked the focus on wanting Andrews to tap-out, following a killer looking cradle Tombstone with another submission focused on the neck. Eventually, Sabre does get the tapout after Andrews misses a 450 splash, but both guys looked immense here.

 

The Henchmen (Benton Destruction & Jim Diehard) vs Slap Dash Tag Team (Chris Brookes & Tyler Bate)

The Henchmen are fucking brilliant. The “80’s legends” are massive, massive men and totally outweighed the Slap Dash Tag Team. Bate in particular was tiny compared to the man mountains. This was a well-worked tag match, where the in-ring action was as successful as the comedy. Brookes and Bate used their speed to initially worked over Destruction, but Bate was soon isolated and worked over as face-in-peril. The Henchmen cut off the ring nicely, and a hot tag was denied by the ref, who didn’t see it following a distraction by Destruction (who literally stood on the apron yelling “I’m causing a distraction”).The Henchmen can move for big guys and looked awesome in domination. The hot tag saw Brookes on fire, until he got caught outside by Destruction, who threw powder into his eyes. In the ring, a recovered Bate hit an amazing deadlift German suplex on Diehard, but was soon outmanned and nailed with the Five Moves of Doom for the Hench win. A victory that was soon to turn sour when Diehard found out about the powder in the eyes, which was the “payoff from Tijuana”. Really fun tag match.

 

Damian Dunne vs Lee Hunter

Clusterfuck saw the Hunters lose to Damian and his brother Pete. With Pete in Japan, we got this singles encounter this month. The main story of the match saw the Hunters constantly swapping place in the ring, swapping a hoodie to indicate to the referee which Hunter should be in the match. The Hunters played up to this brilliantly, highlighted by one Hunter stalking around the ring, hoodie on inside out, crowing “This is too easy”. Though good faces, the Hunters are way better as heels. The match itself was really good, with Damian timing his comebacks nicely. Eventually, Damian got hold of the hoodie and put it on outside the ring, prompting the unsuspecting in-ring Hunter to to try an enlist his help, only to get a pummelling instead. Dunne eventually won a fine match with a springboard Codebreaker

 

Eddie Dennis vs Majik

This was for Majik’s XXX title. Dennis really impressed in an nXXXt match (you cna guess what this is) at the last show and he looked good again here. He’s blessed with a quick wit which allows him to keep up with the comments from the crowd, which was useful to win them over in only his second match in front of this audience. In particular, I liked him joining forces with the crowd to highlight that Majik can’t spell his own name (with Majik stooging magnificently by covering the name on his tights). This was a good main event, with both guys brawling all over the SQ Club and into the crowd. Majik gave Dennis a lot here, only surviving a powerbomb when manager Gabriel Grey stuck his foot on the rope. At one point, Majik threw Dennis into his rival Devilman, who was selling merch outside the ring. The end saw Dennis try another powerbomb, but get distracted by Grey, leading to a Majik lowblow and a roll up to maintain. A Majik post-match assault was thwarted by Devilman making the save. All in all, a terrific night of wrestling