Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Apr 22, 2016 10:33:07 GMT -6
www.f4wonline.com/other-wrestling/week-british-wrestling-summer-sabre-jr-wwe-gcs-qualifiers-announced-211401
THE WEEK IN BRITISH WRESTLING: SUMMER OF SABRE JR; WWE GCS QUALIFIERS ANNOUNCED
BY ALAN BOON | @indysleaze | APR 22, 2016 8:44 AM
1) RevPro had an EPIC weekend.
Although the late withdrawal through injury of Will Ospreay (who was hurt wrestling Juventud Guerrera at Lucha Britannia on Friday night) lessened the star power a little, Revolution Pro-Wrestling's weekend double-shot in Reading and Sittingbourne was a huge success, with big names from New Japan & Ring of Honor - as well as RevPro's own, home-grown talent - bringing the crowds in in large numbers. With Ospreay out, the Epic Encounter card for Reading was juggled around and Ricochet pulled double-duty, losing to Michael Elgin in the opener and then teaming with Matt Sydal against the reformed LDRS Of The New School, Marty Scurll & Zack Sabre Jr, in the main event.
The LDRS won that bout, but only after Scurll couldn't help but cheat to help Sabre Jr pin Sydal, much to his partner's annoyance. Whether these two - an unholy alliance of villain and blue-eye - can stick together for long is anyone's guess. Elsewhere on the Reading card, Donovan Dijak and Josh Bodom reprised their standout contest from February's Cockpit show and put on another arena-wide brawl, with Bodom coming out on top again, and Big Damo pinned Roderick Strong to reinforce his position as a top contender in RevPro.
Cruiserweight champion Pete Dunne defeated ACH, Gideon Grey earned a surprise victory over Dalton Castle, and tag-team champions Sha Samuels & James Castle lost to Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm, but by DQ so the belts never changed hands.
The next day, the Sittingbourne Spectacular kicked off with an appearance from Ospreay, mimicking the announcing style of RevPro owner Andy Quildan and announcing his intention to go after Dunne's cruiserweight title, and the champion might have been unnerved enough by this to effect a non-title loss to Matt Sydal in the opening bout. In the show's main event, Zack Sabre Jr put his Undisputed British Heavyweight title on the line against Michael Elgin, and emerged victorious to go into a summer of huge defenses, beginning with Kurt Angle in June.
Also on the show, Big Damo beat Dalton Castle, Ricochet defeated ACH, and Donovan Dijak got a win back against the Revolutionists by pinning James Castle. Next up for RevPro are a couple of low key shows on the south coast, before they return to tape TV at the Cockpit on May 1st. Epic Encounter is already up on RevPro On Demand, and will soon be joined by Sittingbourne Spectacular .
2) WWE's Global Cruiserweight Series kicks off in the UK.
This week saw the bizarre occurrence of WWE breaking the news of a pair of matches on a PROGRESS show before PROGRESS themselves had chance to. The matches, part of the qualifying rounds for this year's Global Cruiserweight Series (which is taped in Orlando in late June and broadcast on the WWE Network through the summer), will take place at PROGRESS chapter 29: *Practically PROGRESS In Every Way*, this Sunday at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London.
The first of the qualifiers pits Zack Sabre Jr against "Flash" Morgan Webster, which came as a surprise to some because Sabre Jr had already announced as being seeded into the tournament (alongside fellow Brit Noam Dar), and that will be followed by Pete Dunne against Jack Gallagher. That was also something of a surprise, given Dunne is hardly a PROGRESS regular and is, in fact, RevPro's Cruiserweight champion - RevPro, of course, staging their own qualifier at a time to be announced.
The RevPro qualifier may answer the question on everyone's lips: where are Marty Scurll & Mark Haskins? Most pundits had these two down as certain qualifiers but it appears that if they are in the tournament at all, it will be one or the other who makes it through to Orlando in June. The only other qualifiers announced so far - to join the seeded Tomasso Ciampa, Rich Swann, Johnny Gargano, Akira Tozawa, Lince Dorado, Dar & Ho Ho Lunn - are at EVOLVE 61, and feature Fred Yehi versus TJ Perkins, and Drew Gulak versus Tracy Williams.
3) Fight Club:PRO say goodbye to The Planet with a BANG!
Having carved out a satisfyingly extreme niche as "that promotion that does the fights in the cage in that night club", it was a huge surprise when Fight Club:PRO announced at their latest show that they'll be leaving their Planet nightclub home effective immediately. While their next move - beyond next month's nationwide tour with Chikara - hasn't been revealed, there's sure to be no let up in the action.
Friday's show, Planet Terror, volume 2, was main-evented by a Death Match which should see - for now, at least - the culmination of the feud between Pete Dunne and Clint Margera, with Margera taking the win after a match which included all manner of hardcore elements. As a show-closer, it had some way to go, following on the heels of a superb Zack Sabre Jr win over Trent Seven, but the fans left the Planet with broad smiles on their faces.
Earlier in the night, Nixon Newell, who was meant to face Fight Club:PRO champion MK McKinnan, instead got his KYS tag-mate Damian Dunne. She dispatched him, leaving her still eager to get her hands on the champion. Also on the show, Mike Bird beat Ethan Silver, Tyler Bate downed Travis Banks, and the Facesmashers (Wild Boar & Dan Moloney) went to a no-contest with the Hunter Brothers. The show should be available soon on DVD from the FCP store.
4) A new promotion Absolutely made an impact.
Launching something new in the north east after a quiet couple of shows either side of the new year, Absolute Wrestling planned a three-day tour of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its immediate environs, kicking off a tournament to crown its first champion, and booking a plethora of the north's top talent. Although the second date, at the non-more-British Spennymoor Working Men's Club, was postponed, the other two events on the *Absolute Fight Club* tour went off as planned, and delivered 6 names into the second round of the championship tournament.
In Gateshead, at the Pelaw Social Club on Friday night, "Mr Muscles" Chuck Cyrus beat Mihai and Martin Kirby beat Prince Ameen, on a card that was main-evented by Rampage Brown beating Wolfgang. Earlier in the night, Liam Lazarus beat Chris Ridgeway, Bubblegum downed HT Drake, and the New Nation (Jason Prime & Alexander Henry) defeated Joe & Mark Coffey.
At Newcastle's NE6 Suite on Sunday, Zack Gibson beat James Drake, Micky the Dragon beat CJ Banks, Bubblegum beat Chris Ridgeway, and Liam Lazarus lost to HT Drake, after Gibson distracted him. The Newcastle show also featured The New Nation (Prime & Henry) over The 198 ("Flash" Morgan Webster & Wild Boar), and a three-way between Chuck Cyrus, Ricky J McKenzie & Iain Robinson, which was won by "Mr Muscles". Absolute are back with the tournament quarter-finals on June 11th.
5) There were some interesting shows nationwide.
After leaving the umbrella of the National Wrestling Alliance after their last event, Fight!Nation returned to the Weymouth Pavilion on Friday night with a banner main event - Fight!Nation British Heavyweight champion Marty Scurll against challenger Mark Haskins. These two have been butting heads all over the UK for the best part of a decade, and their latest contest did not disappoint the sell-out crowd.
It was Haskins who came out of a match described as "emotional" by one reporter with the belt, and there will be no shortage of challengers for his belt, including Doug Williams (who beat Psycho Phillips on the show), Big Grizzly (who downed three unnamed area wrestlers) and Ryan Smile (who defeated Josh Bodom in a two out of three falls match). Also on the show were Andy Simmonz, Jonny Storm, Charlie Garrett & Juventud Guerrera. Fight!Nation return on May 21st in Eastbourne.
Up in Scotland, at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, British Championship Wrestling presented their latest family-friendly offering, headlined by a four-way match featuring all the company's champions. The gimmick was that whoever got pinned would give up his title to the man who pinned him, and it was BCW Heavyweight champion Kid Fite who stared at the lights for BCW Tag-Team champion BT Gunn, while BCW Openweight champ Kenny Williams and the other half of the tag champs, Stevie Xavier, looked on.
Earlier in the show, the TNA World Heavyweight championship was defended as Drew Galloway saw off the challenge of old friend Jack Jester, and there were also appearances from Noam Dar, Gail Kim, Grado & Big Damo. This show should be available on DVD soon from the BCW store, and BCW return on July 1st in East Kilbride.
Although Just Do Wrestling champion Chris Ridgeway refused to appear and defend his title, JDW's latest show - the puntastically-named Do-rassic Park at Windle Labour Club in St Helens - was an incident-packed night of grappling action, main-evented by a clash of styles as T-Bone defeated Jack Gallagher. The night was full of shenanigans and surprises as CJ Banks, who was supposed to face Ridgeway, challenged Sam Bailey instead, and lost, and Seth Skyline, who had earned the right to choose his own opponent, chose photographer Tony Knox, with predictable results.
Also on the show, which will be available to buy on DVD soon, Xia Brookside beat Lana Austin, and Toni Storm beat Drew Parker (after which, Parker's regular partner Ethan Silver attacked him). The show also featured Ashton Smith & Zack Gibson, and Just Do return to St Helens on June 11th for Match Of The Do.
THE WEEK IN BRITISH WRESTLING: SUMMER OF SABRE JR; WWE GCS QUALIFIERS ANNOUNCED
BY ALAN BOON | @indysleaze | APR 22, 2016 8:44 AM
1) RevPro had an EPIC weekend.
Although the late withdrawal through injury of Will Ospreay (who was hurt wrestling Juventud Guerrera at Lucha Britannia on Friday night) lessened the star power a little, Revolution Pro-Wrestling's weekend double-shot in Reading and Sittingbourne was a huge success, with big names from New Japan & Ring of Honor - as well as RevPro's own, home-grown talent - bringing the crowds in in large numbers. With Ospreay out, the Epic Encounter card for Reading was juggled around and Ricochet pulled double-duty, losing to Michael Elgin in the opener and then teaming with Matt Sydal against the reformed LDRS Of The New School, Marty Scurll & Zack Sabre Jr, in the main event.
The LDRS won that bout, but only after Scurll couldn't help but cheat to help Sabre Jr pin Sydal, much to his partner's annoyance. Whether these two - an unholy alliance of villain and blue-eye - can stick together for long is anyone's guess. Elsewhere on the Reading card, Donovan Dijak and Josh Bodom reprised their standout contest from February's Cockpit show and put on another arena-wide brawl, with Bodom coming out on top again, and Big Damo pinned Roderick Strong to reinforce his position as a top contender in RevPro.
Cruiserweight champion Pete Dunne defeated ACH, Gideon Grey earned a surprise victory over Dalton Castle, and tag-team champions Sha Samuels & James Castle lost to Jody Fleisch & Jonny Storm, but by DQ so the belts never changed hands.
The next day, the Sittingbourne Spectacular kicked off with an appearance from Ospreay, mimicking the announcing style of RevPro owner Andy Quildan and announcing his intention to go after Dunne's cruiserweight title, and the champion might have been unnerved enough by this to effect a non-title loss to Matt Sydal in the opening bout. In the show's main event, Zack Sabre Jr put his Undisputed British Heavyweight title on the line against Michael Elgin, and emerged victorious to go into a summer of huge defenses, beginning with Kurt Angle in June.
Also on the show, Big Damo beat Dalton Castle, Ricochet defeated ACH, and Donovan Dijak got a win back against the Revolutionists by pinning James Castle. Next up for RevPro are a couple of low key shows on the south coast, before they return to tape TV at the Cockpit on May 1st. Epic Encounter is already up on RevPro On Demand, and will soon be joined by Sittingbourne Spectacular .
2) WWE's Global Cruiserweight Series kicks off in the UK.
This week saw the bizarre occurrence of WWE breaking the news of a pair of matches on a PROGRESS show before PROGRESS themselves had chance to. The matches, part of the qualifying rounds for this year's Global Cruiserweight Series (which is taped in Orlando in late June and broadcast on the WWE Network through the summer), will take place at PROGRESS chapter 29: *Practically PROGRESS In Every Way*, this Sunday at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London.
The first of the qualifiers pits Zack Sabre Jr against "Flash" Morgan Webster, which came as a surprise to some because Sabre Jr had already announced as being seeded into the tournament (alongside fellow Brit Noam Dar), and that will be followed by Pete Dunne against Jack Gallagher. That was also something of a surprise, given Dunne is hardly a PROGRESS regular and is, in fact, RevPro's Cruiserweight champion - RevPro, of course, staging their own qualifier at a time to be announced.
The RevPro qualifier may answer the question on everyone's lips: where are Marty Scurll & Mark Haskins? Most pundits had these two down as certain qualifiers but it appears that if they are in the tournament at all, it will be one or the other who makes it through to Orlando in June. The only other qualifiers announced so far - to join the seeded Tomasso Ciampa, Rich Swann, Johnny Gargano, Akira Tozawa, Lince Dorado, Dar & Ho Ho Lunn - are at EVOLVE 61, and feature Fred Yehi versus TJ Perkins, and Drew Gulak versus Tracy Williams.
3) Fight Club:PRO say goodbye to The Planet with a BANG!
Having carved out a satisfyingly extreme niche as "that promotion that does the fights in the cage in that night club", it was a huge surprise when Fight Club:PRO announced at their latest show that they'll be leaving their Planet nightclub home effective immediately. While their next move - beyond next month's nationwide tour with Chikara - hasn't been revealed, there's sure to be no let up in the action.
Friday's show, Planet Terror, volume 2, was main-evented by a Death Match which should see - for now, at least - the culmination of the feud between Pete Dunne and Clint Margera, with Margera taking the win after a match which included all manner of hardcore elements. As a show-closer, it had some way to go, following on the heels of a superb Zack Sabre Jr win over Trent Seven, but the fans left the Planet with broad smiles on their faces.
Earlier in the night, Nixon Newell, who was meant to face Fight Club:PRO champion MK McKinnan, instead got his KYS tag-mate Damian Dunne. She dispatched him, leaving her still eager to get her hands on the champion. Also on the show, Mike Bird beat Ethan Silver, Tyler Bate downed Travis Banks, and the Facesmashers (Wild Boar & Dan Moloney) went to a no-contest with the Hunter Brothers. The show should be available soon on DVD from the FCP store.
4) A new promotion Absolutely made an impact.
Launching something new in the north east after a quiet couple of shows either side of the new year, Absolute Wrestling planned a three-day tour of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its immediate environs, kicking off a tournament to crown its first champion, and booking a plethora of the north's top talent. Although the second date, at the non-more-British Spennymoor Working Men's Club, was postponed, the other two events on the *Absolute Fight Club* tour went off as planned, and delivered 6 names into the second round of the championship tournament.
In Gateshead, at the Pelaw Social Club on Friday night, "Mr Muscles" Chuck Cyrus beat Mihai and Martin Kirby beat Prince Ameen, on a card that was main-evented by Rampage Brown beating Wolfgang. Earlier in the night, Liam Lazarus beat Chris Ridgeway, Bubblegum downed HT Drake, and the New Nation (Jason Prime & Alexander Henry) defeated Joe & Mark Coffey.
At Newcastle's NE6 Suite on Sunday, Zack Gibson beat James Drake, Micky the Dragon beat CJ Banks, Bubblegum beat Chris Ridgeway, and Liam Lazarus lost to HT Drake, after Gibson distracted him. The Newcastle show also featured The New Nation (Prime & Henry) over The 198 ("Flash" Morgan Webster & Wild Boar), and a three-way between Chuck Cyrus, Ricky J McKenzie & Iain Robinson, which was won by "Mr Muscles". Absolute are back with the tournament quarter-finals on June 11th.
5) There were some interesting shows nationwide.
After leaving the umbrella of the National Wrestling Alliance after their last event, Fight!Nation returned to the Weymouth Pavilion on Friday night with a banner main event - Fight!Nation British Heavyweight champion Marty Scurll against challenger Mark Haskins. These two have been butting heads all over the UK for the best part of a decade, and their latest contest did not disappoint the sell-out crowd.
It was Haskins who came out of a match described as "emotional" by one reporter with the belt, and there will be no shortage of challengers for his belt, including Doug Williams (who beat Psycho Phillips on the show), Big Grizzly (who downed three unnamed area wrestlers) and Ryan Smile (who defeated Josh Bodom in a two out of three falls match). Also on the show were Andy Simmonz, Jonny Storm, Charlie Garrett & Juventud Guerrera. Fight!Nation return on May 21st in Eastbourne.
Up in Scotland, at the Grand Hall in Kilmarnock, British Championship Wrestling presented their latest family-friendly offering, headlined by a four-way match featuring all the company's champions. The gimmick was that whoever got pinned would give up his title to the man who pinned him, and it was BCW Heavyweight champion Kid Fite who stared at the lights for BCW Tag-Team champion BT Gunn, while BCW Openweight champ Kenny Williams and the other half of the tag champs, Stevie Xavier, looked on.
Earlier in the show, the TNA World Heavyweight championship was defended as Drew Galloway saw off the challenge of old friend Jack Jester, and there were also appearances from Noam Dar, Gail Kim, Grado & Big Damo. This show should be available on DVD soon from the BCW store, and BCW return on July 1st in East Kilbride.
Although Just Do Wrestling champion Chris Ridgeway refused to appear and defend his title, JDW's latest show - the puntastically-named Do-rassic Park at Windle Labour Club in St Helens - was an incident-packed night of grappling action, main-evented by a clash of styles as T-Bone defeated Jack Gallagher. The night was full of shenanigans and surprises as CJ Banks, who was supposed to face Ridgeway, challenged Sam Bailey instead, and lost, and Seth Skyline, who had earned the right to choose his own opponent, chose photographer Tony Knox, with predictable results.
Also on the show, which will be available to buy on DVD soon, Xia Brookside beat Lana Austin, and Toni Storm beat Drew Parker (after which, Parker's regular partner Ethan Silver attacked him). The show also featured Ashton Smith & Zack Gibson, and Just Do return to St Helens on June 11th for Match Of The Do.